December Already? - Email from December 3, 2012

Wow...this week it`s December!! Can you all believe it?? I was talking
just today with Elder Martinez, who`s also from my group. Just one
year ago, I arrived here in the mission! I can`t believe how quickly
time has really gone by.

This week went fairly well for us! We seemed to be a little swamped
with meetings and everything, but it went great! On Friday, we had a
Multi Zone conference with President and Sister Rowley. It was a
really great conference where we talked about the Plan of Salvation
and how important it is to teach that lesson. I guess about 50 percent
of our mission isn`t teaching it! Like I told President, and feel like
our job as missionaries is to really teach about Heavenly Father`s
plan! The lesson about the Restoration is about how Heavenly Father is
helping us to reach our full potential in His plan, as well as the
lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I really hope to be able to
apply some of the things I learned.

The other thing we talked about was the importance of working with
members. Honestly, that`s one area I really need to work on. In my
other areas, I think that I relied way too much on our own efforts,
and didn`t get the members as involved as they should be. Here in
Pampa Grande, I feel like I really need to do that because there are
great members that could really do a lot for the people here! Just
think about it, one simple invitation can really bring a whole family
into the gospel. I really hope that I can help others get involved in
what we`re doing.

On Saturday, we had a great ward activity! It`s the first ward
activity that we`ve been able to have in a month! We planned a night
full of games, and it really turned out great! We had about 40 or 50
people come, and a few of them were less actives. Even if just ward
members come, I know that it`s a great opportunity for them to gain
confidence in us as missionaries as well as being able to socialize a
bit. I hope that we can continue having activities like that and get
investigators there too.

Today we went to the beach in la Cruz!! It was pretty fun, but I`m
super tired right now! We played capture the flag, and I almost felt
like the 14 year old scout out there running around again. It was fun,
especially when one of the Hermanas pegged Elder De La Cruz in the
chest with a stick! It was pretty hilarious to see him fall to the
ground, faking that he was hurt! I`m gonna miss that Limeño.

Anyway...hope all is going well with you! Have a great cold December!
The sun here is pretty much burning me like toast! It`s getting hotter
every day...

Love you all!
Elder Schofield