Elder Holland

so yup, Elder Holland came and talked to us. Me and Esplin sat right by the door that he walked in so we were way close and then we all got to shake his hand. his and Gifford Nielson, the quarterback Giff. haha But Elder Hollands’s talk was so legit and awesome. He would be laughing and joking with us and then just like that he would be  yelling at us but in a spiritual way haha. one thing that he said was "well your adults and we expect you to act like adults so here is some grown-up doctrine, Every road to Salvation leads to Gethsemane" meaning everything we do on our mission with those we teach and work with isn’t going to be easy like we want it to be. his talk to us was legit and esplin recorded it on his ipod so we can hear it again.

A Special Letter From Julie

August 29, 2011

HEY There Kathy and Lani!!! WOW! What a wonderful surprise it was to see a note in my inbox from you.  Perhaps a better introduction is in order.  I'm Julie  and my son is James .  We have had the honor and privilege of meeting and visiting and learning from your son.  What an outstanding young man!  My son has been so inspired by both your son and the other Elders we have met.  We're originally from Louisiana and moved here to the Conroe area 2 years ago while my older sister was going through chemo.  After she passed away last year, we needed to move on and get our own thing going.  Fortunately, I met this "crazy" old man (although he's not as crazy as he would like people to think) who is heavy into food storage and he talked me into working at the cannery down in north Houston so we could buy some home food storage items.  Couple that with the brief discussion I had with a very good and longtime family friend about her faith and I was super interested.  I researched, I dug, I investigated, I asked questions, I didn't think there was a place for me.  Everywhere I looked, there was something that didn't feel right as far as a church home went.  So, while I was at the cannery, I asked a few questions and they got my phone number and I figured.. yeah... well.... I'll probably never hear from them.  WRONG!  Sure enough, your son called me and introduced himself as one of the missionaries and I agreed to meet with him and his companion, Elder Maughan, at the church.  What a turning point that was for me!  
You should be and VERY proud of your son!  It takes guts to get out there and meet strangers and seek out people like me who don't know where to look and are very skeptical of the whole "religion" thing.  It's great that I love doing research on any given topic so it was important for me to distinguish the facts from the rumors and find out the answers for myself. His answers were backed with scripture (something I was looking for) and his demeanor was kind, patient, and caring.  It wasn't something I expected in the least.  Believe me, I used to see these young men riding their bikes from time to time, wherever I lived, and thought.. That's CRAZY!  How wrong I was.  What I feel now is: How Inspiring! How motivating! How awesome is that!!!
How blessed I am to have met your son.  His courage is admirable!  What a role-model he is for the younger boys!  WOW!  
I cannot gush enough about how he has inspired me.  
As far as my son, he really does look up to them.  I know he has connected with your son, but he has also connected well with your son's companion, Elder Esplin.  He considers them his older brothers.  He said that the other day.  He said: Mom, they're like the big brothers I never had.  When they leave, will we ever hear from them again?"  I told him that they're our brothers forever and they'll always be welcome in our home!
Anyway, they took him fishing once already and asked if they could go have lunch with him at school.  Talk about an ego booster for a kid who has been dealing with some significant and serious bullying at school (and yes, they've only been in school for 1 week).  
Well, I commend you on raising such a fine young man and I wish and pray that his future is blessed with an abundance of all that is good! 
We will talk again sometime soon.  I'm sure of it! 
Many hugs and lots of love back to you!
Julie

You Know Enough

I love this comment from someone who watched this video--I've been doing a lot of soul searching as of late. I don't know that I can ever place faith beyond what I can see and touch. But I will say, I have nothing but absolute respect for the LDS church. What is it to truly be bold in your faith? I think it is more than just standing for what you believe in. I think it is also responding with patience, understanding, and forbearance to others when they seek to tear down your faith. If God spoke once, why not twice? Why not a thousand times?

True Happiness vs Worldly Happiness

so Julie and Garrettt  got baptized last night.  Julie and garrett are awesome. so after the the baptism, i thought about a letter curt wrote me a couple days before i left and he said something about how "nothing is sweeter than bringing someone into the waters of baptism" i read that the first time and thought, nah. i mean it will be cool but winning state and things like that are just awesome and i felt awesome. But after the baptism i re-read that letter and honestly, nothing is sweeter than that. after julie got baptized and we were standing there above the stairs, she turns and gives me a big hug. the rest of the night i felt so good and was so thankful that i had a chance to meet them and help them. Bishop evans gave julie an opportunity to bear her testimony and it was so cool. everyone there, (and there was lots of support) was so happy for her. im soo happy for her and garrett,  just think about someone bigger than all of us and how happy He is for her. she was talking about garretts mission in the future and everything. so one more thing i realized last night, i really havent experienced true Godly happiness until last night  and last week i think. i sure have seen a difference from worldly happiness and yeah i was happy during all my sports and High school stuff but i knew it wouldnt last but last night it was so different. so yeah, yesterday was a special day. 

thanks for everything. i love you all. i hope you got the pictures okay and you will hear from me next week. tell dad hi and for him to get feeling better. love ya'll

elder brian glenn schofield

Fantastic Week!

Hey Family :)

Okay, so why didnt you tell me dad had an accident? cause the week him and grandpa was gone i got a feeling something had happened and then your email after that nothing was said so i was just like, everything went great. so is he okay?? moving around? i hope so. you better take care of him, all of you! ;)

    so this week was awesome. we were able to do a lot of service around our area and also take garrett fishing on saturday morning before service. he loved it, he had never caught a fish before

So guess who is coming our way on friday to talk to us!  Elder Holland is coming to speak to the three missions in Houston friday night :) me and esplin were on our way to an appt and we got a text about it. its going to be legit and then 3 days later, (next monday) Elder Choi of the seventy is talking to us at college station. im so excited. so next monday wont be our pday. its going to be next tuesday. just so ya know and dont freak out cause you dont get an email.

    so everyone here is getting back to school. lots of buses going around. Tell bertrand hi for me!  in their ward they got a new elder, big big somoan and i went fishing with him this morning and he brought his ukalale (the little hawain guitar) and we jammed. thats one thing i have learned since ive been in conroe haha. he sang and i just played away while we fished.  bro martinez's son, diego has been teaching me how to play it and he is only ten. we are actually going out to his house today for a wild pig bar-b-q and its there we do all the fishing. lots of bass there haha. being here in conroe with Esplin is so much fun, i love it. you be sure to tell sis Sinclair that.

     

Real Life from Conroe Texas

Hey Family and Friends,

okay, im glad dad and grandpa got back home safe, i seriously prayed extra for those two this week. who knows what horses can do sometimes,. we actually had to catch some horse this week at a ranch we do service at. yes mom, im a cowboy now ;) jk. im still the same boy ;)

     so this week was so crazy and busy but good. we had to go and try to meet all the 1st wards friends and try to see where they are at. we had to go to this trailer park that they had 4 friends they have been teaching but while were walking around there, we see this mexican yard sale so we go and look and they have their DJ system set up so esplin and i are like " we need to liven this yard sale up" we crank their system up, find a mexican staion and their house is just bumping and people are all coming over and buying stuff. it was so funny. we actually got invited in by their daughter casue she speaks english and got her and her family set up with the spanish elders. that reminds me, a brand new spanish elder is here in conroe and he is from rupert idaho and he wrestles. tell micheal mcdonald and allen compton that Garth Crane lives like 5 minutes from me. they will know him he said.

 so yesterday we had to go to both sacrament meetings and it was long but in the second meeting, the ward im usually in we got a break. after sacramemnt bishop evans gets up and tells everyone to go home cause the bathrooms were all closed in the buildings, but we still taught julie and garrett after that. their baptism is planned next sunday adn 6:15. im going to call chad and taylor and invite them to it. its going to be awesome.  we went and hung out with garrett this saturday. sorry this email is so off the wall, thats kinda how are week went.

elder esplin is awesome. so glad he is here with me in conroe. legit. well all is well here and we're still progressing with the areas. im like 5 pages away from finishing jesus the christ. and im wanting to finish the book of mormon by my year mark. its coming up soon!! thanks for everything family and friends, and yes mom, id love the emails printed off and sent with my tie, i actually need that tie this week.  thanks. tell dad hi and give him a big hug. i miss that guy :) a lot. love you all.

Elder brian glenn schofield

Things Are Really Cookin' in Texas!

im glad dad and grandpa are going on the fifty miler together. as long as there is a schofield father and son duo on the hike haha. i hope they have lots of fun together.

  well this week was crazy. it was really busy and it flew by. first off we got transfer calls and they are combining the two conroe wards so one set of missionaries will be covering it. im the only one staying here and the other 3 are all leaving to different places. My new comp is elder Esplin and i meet him on tuesday. he is way cool. im excited but its going to be way crazy covering these two wards cause they are so big but oh well!

  We were able to meet a couple of new friends this week and teach them. we met a girl named Katie Ellis on tuesday and were able to teach her a couple of times throughout the week.

Julie and Garrett are still doing great. im going to invite chad and taylor to their baptism, its either going to be the 21st or the 20th, still have to figure out the best time but they are excited and doing great.

Elder Burton and i were actually able to see kenneth and amy this week. we biked up to Willis which is like 20 miles just one way and it the day we biked up there it hit 107. but it really wasn’t as bad as your thinking it was. we made some stops and it was all good. we even saw a really really big snake on the road while we were going up there haha

This week was good and all is well here still. its going to be pretty busy this week and with a ton of things to do and lots of people to visit. have dad send me an email when he gets back on saturday. tell everyone hi. i love you all! have a great week and keep praying for me. oh about the tie. can you just send it to the appt address. im staying there for at least another 6 weeks haha so you can just send it there. 

we are going to lake conroe today for pday and playing beach volleyball so that will be awesome. love you all and talk to you soon

Elder Brian Glenn Schofield  

The Work--A Nashville Tribute to The Missionaries

Lani and I were able to see this group perform in Twin Falls on August 5th.  What an amazing group of people!  This is only one of the missionary minded songs from their new CD.  It was a great night...enjoy this one and then buy their CDs!  Their first one was Joseph--A Nashville Tribute to the prophet.  Then they did The Trek--a Nashville Tribute to the Mormon Pioneers.  Good Stuff!  They have quite a story behind their music.  

And The Work Goes On.....

Wild Times and Wild Alligators!

this is your boy elder schofield :) this week was a good one. we did a lot of cool things but than there were a lot of cool experiences. so your camping and travel trip sounds way cool. it reminds me of when you, dad and i went up to sun valley for a couple of nights and went to the hot springs up there. those seriously were the best times and i loved doing that all with you two. but this trip you and dad seems way more legit and we also had a cool outdoors thing. Okay so there is a place called camp stake, a boy scouts camp, and we did service there on wednesday. they have like 4 natural ponds/ lakes in there so for lunch we went out on the dock and sat there and say like 6 alligators swimming around. soooo cool. a couple were right close to us. First time i had seen a wild alligator. so that was cool. :)

   Julie and Garrett are doing awesome. they loved church again yesterday and garrett is loving to come to young mens, he is coming this wednesday. we met with both of them last thursday and gave them a baptisimal date for the 14th of august. they were really exctied about that and willing to pray about it all. Montgomerys ward had a baptism saturday for a kid the same age as garrett and julie and garrett both came to that. they were talking to the montgomerys bishop and telling them how she was going to do the same thing in august.  they are both really solid and im really happy about them. On saturday we were also able to give blood for a kid in the ward that is diaognosed with cancer so we helped out with that and also gave blood. really cool an im glad we did that.

   sorry my emaill is just a bunch of rambling, hope it makes sense haha. so a cool story. on Friday all four of us went up to willis to help soemone move out of a pretty gehtto apartment complex. so we were in our service clothes, just some gym shorts and a shirt and so elder burton, another elder in conroe. we came out together at the same time but he is way cool and i hope i can serve with him some during my mission. se we moved a couch in the uhaul and say some cool cars and so we decided to go and look at them really quick. we take a different route and while we were walking we see a young guy sitting on his porch with his daughter and joe (elder burton) says man he would be awesome in the church. we keep walking for like 5 seconds and then we both look at each other and just turn around. we go up and intro duce ourselves and didn’t say anything about hte church at all. we went up and introduced ourselves as brian and joesph and just talked with him about things. then the church got brought up and we had the coolest lessons with him and his wife. their names are kenneth and amy. Amy asked me "so there are soo many churches out there for me and my family, how can i find out which one we need to go to"? it was soo cool to jsut talk with them and see how everything made sense for them. We were just Brian and Joseph during all of this too. it was soo cool. they have 3 kids. one a little baby, a 14 year old boy and a 13 year old girl. we are meeting with them on tuesday. me and joeseph haha.

 it was really cool and i jsut had fun doing it. yes mom, i am still writing in my journal everyday. i miss a bit a few months ago but since june 1st, its been everyday.

    can you send me my temple tie i sent back a while ago. jsut the tie please. we have the temple on thursday this week and then transfer calls this saturday. me and elder burton are going up to willis on tuesday to visit kenneth and amy :) im excited. all is well here. tell todd hi and good luck! tell camden hey. 

 may go and see the alligators again this wednesday ;)

 I love you all and thanks for everything. thanks for the updates :) have a great week. love you

elder schofield