Dear
Family and Friends,
We can’t believe how fast time is
flying. In one week we will hit our halfway mission mark; nine months! Our
release date is September 10, 2015 (Nancy’s birthday and our anniversary).
Last week on November 26, we celebrated Elder
Schultz’s 70th birthday! What a huge milestone! He says even though
he looks old, he only feels about 50! This mission has kept us so busy; we
don’t have time to think about feeling old. It was pretty uneventful, because I
was sick with the stomach flu, so we didn’t go out to a restaurant. But he
received some really nice emails from our children about why they “were
thankful Harry Schultz was born”; and some very nice gifts too. He says we will
celebrate next year when we are home. If you all remember, it was also our son,
Harrison’s 24th birthday too. Happy Birthday, Harrison!
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My gift to dad. Our friend and co-missionary here Elder
Clement painted this.
I got it framed. We love it.
|
We also
had Thanksgiving the next day here as zones. Our mission is divided into 3
zones of about 5 districts; so we had about 40 missionaries there. Our zone had
dinner together in the Visitors’ Center Bistro, which is down in the basement.
We all brought the food, had a delicious meal, and played a fun get-to-know-you
game, too. It wasn’t quite the same as dinner with our families, but it still was
a memorable time.
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| Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thank you Buhrley Family! |
Our big Thanksgiving event for the mission, on
November 22nd turned out to be an incredible success! At the
beginning of that week we didn’t know how many would be coming, since only a
handful had RSVP’d. We had bought food, and were preparing for about 125
persons. Each member of our committee of 5, divided up the Stake and took 3
wards; we called the bishops, ward mission leaders, and really stirred things
up. By Thursday, we had about 140
positive responses; people who are newly baptized needing fellowshipping, less
actives, and nonmember investigators. We were so excited! We had planned so
many details. They were divided into 6 groups of about 25 persons each, and we
were their tour guides. We had wagon and carriage rides, then went down to
about 5 of the historical sites (each one doing a different route) as groups.
My group had a newly baptized family of 7: from Keokuk. Also we had a young new
member family of parents with 3 small children from Fort Madison, and two other
women from Galesburg. Even though they were very different from each other,
they all enjoyed each other’s company and bonded.
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| Here is a picture of my group I took around. The Keener Family from Fort Madison and Walls from Keokuk. |
After the activities, we went to the stake
center and had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.
Several missionary couples helped setup, serve and cleanup. The autumn
decorations of pumpkins and colored leaves looked wonderful! Elder Schultz and
I, and another missionary couple put on the program with singing, jokes and
playing instruments. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. We ended up
feeding over 150! We are so thankful to Heavenly Father for helping us make
this possible! We felt His hand in all the planning along the way. One of the
best blessings was that even though the whole week was cold in the 20’s, that
day it was in the high 50’s! It was perfect weather! We have a saying here that
there are “Nauvoo Miracles,” and this was one of them.
We are also in the thick of our “Miracle of
Christmas” concert. We only have 2 ½ weeks to get it polished. There are so
many aspects, i.e. rehearsing the choir, and bell choir, getting flyers,
posters, and tickets printed, getting a live Nativity together with costumes,
practicing with the 30 voice children’s chorus (which I am in charge of),
decorating the chapel with Christmas garlands and wreaths, and all the
technical stuff like risers, light trees, spotlights, media and video screens,
etc. Whew! We are getting nervous because a lot still has to be done, but also
excited, because there is such positive response! We are hoping to have about 700-800
each night! And we are hosting a VIP Reception the hour before it starts for
dignitaries from the cities surrounding here, i.e. mayors, ministers, chambers of
commerce and leaders. We are surely praying for a successful audience, and
praying for good weather. If there is a snowstorm, it could keep people from
coming, so please remember us out here in your prayers!
We continue to also serve in the Visitors’ Center
and historical sites. I was in the Family Living Center last week, and helped
decorate it for Christmas. Elder Schultz had an Administration Day to work on
the concert. The week before we both served in Carthage, and then each took a
couple of tours. Numbers of people are down, but they keep coming. We were busy
the week of Thanksgiving because of the holiday. We can’t express enough how
much we love this mission. We feel like we are contributing a lot to “hasten
the work” of the Lord before His second coming. There are many people out here
in the Midwest, Northern and the Eastern states that need the gospel, and the
wonderful blessings that come with living the Lord’s commandments. We are doing
all we can to attract visitors to come to this amazing place, and feel the spirit
of the early saints who built it. We will become the official site leaders of
the Visitors’ Center in 2 weeks, and also on the Public Affairs Committee. We
are planning to host a “Time Out for Women,” and several concert series events
in the coming months.
I would like to leave you with my testimony of
our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and loves me, and each one of
us. I know that this is His restored church on the earth today, and I am so
very grateful that we celebrate His birth this month. The church just launched
a month-long missionary push, to help invite people to learn about the Savior
in their promotion- “He Is The Gift”. We were just trained about it all. They
have spent a lot of money buying number one position on YouTube for Christmas Day,
and want all of us to go on the website “Christmas.mormon.org” and view the
short 2-½ minute video. PLEASE DO THIS, then share it on all your social media
that you can. Use the hashtag #sharethegift. Get this message out, please! It
is the one small thing you can do to be a missionary that will really make a
big impact! Their slogan is “Help others
to Discover the Gift, Help others to Embrace The Gift, Help others to Share the
Gift.” This is something you can do today! Please do it for the Lord, in
gratitude for all He has done for you.
We love you all and think of you every day. We
are grateful to have been called to this wonderful place and honored to wear
the Lord’s name on our badges.
Love Elder and Sister Schultz
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