19 Months To Go

Hey everyone! Hope you are doing awesome.....19 months of the mission down, and I still stink at sending weekly emails woooooo!

Anyways, these last 8 weeks here in Auburn have been so fantastic! We are teaching quite a bit and many of the people we are teaching are doing very well. Ernie is a total stud I have to say. He is 82, runs 3 businesses and will be getting baptized on June 22nd! This last week we met this lady named Terena who had talked with the missionaries previously and wondered why they stopped visiting her....but she still expressed her sincere desire to grow closer to Christ and be baptized! Another very insane story to share with y'all: 2 weeks ago we had transfers and my new companion is Elder Fahrni and he's so awesome. He's been out for 20 months and so it's been very nice to have a companion who is just as experienced as myself(not to say I'm a expert by any means at doing the Lord's work haha!) We were meeting with Bishop Hatch and his family to introduce Elder Fahrni and Sister Hatch and her daughter's were making Churros and out of no where.....BOOM! One of the churros exploded and hot oil got everywhere and burned Sister Hatch and her daughter quite badly We found out the next day they ended up going to the emergency room with 2nd degree burns.....so I now learned I never want to make churros in my life! Anyways I love and miss all of you dearly. It's so crazy to think how fast these 19 months have gone by. I wouldn't trade them for anything. I hope and am determined to give all that I have these last 5 months! Have a great week. I'd love to hear from you so please feel free to send a personal email and hopefully I will respond haha!

Well, to explain the picture in the dress....I completed my sister mission and so to commemorate that accomplishment...I got a sister picture lol Also, Elder Sollis in that selfie below graduated from Alta High so some of you may or may not know him!

January 28, 2019

Hey Everyone! I just want to let you know first off that I love you all and appreciate all the prayers and support! I'm loving my time out here serving the Lord and helping bring people unto Christ. Seriously, it is the greatest decision I have made in my life thus far! For those who may question whether or not to serve a mission....just do it! You will never regret it! Anyways here's a little update on the past few weeks for you!

3 weeks ago was transfers and I got transferred to the Santa Juanita ward here in Folsom/Orangevale. What is super awesome is Elder (Taylor) Ludlow is a Zone Leader here in the stake just boarding our area so hopefully one of these days we will bump into each other at the mission boarder haha! My companion is Elder Allen from West Haven, Utah. All I can say is that he has been such an incredible blessing! He just completed his training and he is a very hard worker with a strong desire to be obedient and just go out and serve. We have been working very hard talking with as many people as we can and we are starting to see some amazing blessings! Elder Allen has really helped me to step it up and be better. I know I will forever be grateful for him and he will be a true lifelong friend.

We've been teaching a couple really amazing people. One of them is named Cody Gerton. He's 19 and he is a total stud. He is committed to be baptized on February 16th and he is such an incredible example of faith and diligence. I'm so excited for him and I know his life is about to be forever changed. He's so excited to not only be baptized, but to be able to go to the Temple because that is how he first met the missionaries was he went to the temple grounds everyday for 2 weeks and then requested to meet with missionaries. Total legend. Another man we are teaching is Chris Gerber. Chris has 2 daughters who are members and so he decided he has wanted to learn more. We have had 2 amazing lessons with him and in our most recent lesson he was very touched by the Spirit as we were discussing the Plan of Salvation. And he made it out to church this Sunday! Seriously he's so amazing and so sincere. 

The ward here is incredible. The members are so supportive and love being involved so it has really helped us out. We are really working on helping the members get more energized in going out and doing their own missionary work so they can help to find people who are ready to hear our message. I'm hopeful that we will start seeing some results in the near future! All in all, these first 3 weeks here have been incredible and I've really seen a change within myself. I've really felt the Atonement of Christ change me and help me become the missionary the Lord needs me to be over the past few weeks. I'm really looking forward to these next few weeks and I have great faith great things are in store. I love you all so much and I miss you and seriously it would mean so much to hear from each and everyone of you! Have a great week and I promise to actually send out a weekly next week!😂 

Elder Riley Schneiter
California Roseville Mission
8583 Watt Avenue
Antelope, CA 95843

Jan 7, 2019

Hey Everyone! Happy New year! Hope you are all having a stellar 2019 so far. Anyways not a lot to talk about this week but we had some really great things happen!

For New Year's Eve we had the fun chance of deep cleaning out apartment....yahhh! Haha we threw out a ton of junk so it was good getting the place all cleaned up. This Wednesday I went on an exchange with Elder Henderson and it was fantastic. He's a really great Elder and I was able to learn a lot from him. We had an awesome lesson with a lady named Phaedra and she later texted and said she's all in for baptism! Thursday we had a great lesson with our favorite man Gerardo. He always has some great questions and he is progressing well, but he is just struggling with getting Sundays off work and making it to church, but I have faith that he will make it to church real soon! Friday we had Zone Conference and it was so stinking incredible. We learned so much about planning and some other things that I really need to improve in so it was exactly what I needed. Also it was great seeing all my buddies from around the mission! Saturday we had our 1st lesson with a man named Joe Snook. He is the friend of a recent convert in the ward and he's come to church 4 times in the last 6 weeks! He loved the lesson and believes everything we have taught it true! He has some much potential and I have a strong feeling he will enter the waters of baptism in the near future! 

All in all it was a great week.  This Tuesday we have transfers and I have found out that I am being transferred to Citrus Heights. It's sad leaving Rocklin but I'm very much looking forward to be able to serve the people in Citrus Heights and to serve with Elder Allen. I don't know much about him but I know he just got finished being trained. I'm sure things will be great! Anyways, I love you all and miss you dearly. Hope you have a fantastic week and I'll talk to y'all soon! 

Elder Riley Schneiter
California Roseville Mission
8583 Watt Avenue
Antelope, CA 95843

 

Dec 17, 2018

Hello there everyone! I hope y'all are having a very merry holiday and are spreading the joy of this time of year by Lighting the World! This time of year has really made me appreciate every single one of you and the great examples you are to me! I love you and miss all of you and would really love to hear from all of you, but that's not the point of this email, the point is to hear how things are going hear in California so let me tell you about it!

A couple weeks ago we had an amazing visit with Heidi. We only meet with her like once a month with her crazy schedule but she's still so amazing! It really stinks that her husband isn't a fan of the church so that keeps her from progressing but hopefully his heart will soften one day and will allow her to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness! We had a great lesson discussing the true meaning of Christmas and tying that into the Light the World initiative. It was super awesome because one of the fellowshippers we brought, Sister Crutchfield, totally jumped in and planned out with her to Participate with her family in Light the World! It was so amazing😀

The following day we had interviews with President Ward and it was just totally amazing and exactly what I needed. President Ward is just amazing and I have so much love for him! He just knows exactly what you need to hear!

That same week we had a super awesome lesson with Gerardo where we were able to discuss some of the commandments such as the Law Of Chastity and he was totally all for it! We also invited him to be baptized and he said Yes! He told us that he knows that he has a need to be baptized so he's all for it!😲

Saturday that week we went to a baptism for Mya Salvatierra who is an 8 year old we have been teaching in the ward and it was so awesome! Always an amazing Spirit at baptisms!

This Monday we went to a Pig Roast for Elder Molipeli, who went home this last Thursday and it was a ton of fun! I tried Pig Brain and it is so gross. Just imagine meat flavored Pudding and there you go, Pig brain😷 Nasty! We as well had our first lesson with another 8 year old in the ward named Mia Leonard and it was so awesome! We taught the Restoration and she really loved it!

Tuesday we helped out Elly with raking her leaves and I seriously don't think I've ever seen so many leaves in my life! We also followed up with some families in the ward with who they are they have invited to church on the 23rd!

Wednesday we had our first lesson with a man named Larry. He is a retired judge and has previously met with missionaries. He loves meeting with us and has a strong faith in Christ. We had a great discussion about the true meaning of Christmas and also talked a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. We left him a Plan of Salvation Pamphlet to study but unfortunately he can't meet for another month!😑 But hopefully after that with the holidays being over he will be able to meet more regularly. We also helped out a member with moving some couches in their house. The Radovich family who we have been trying to meet with and teach unfortunately had to cancel because Tarah the mother got strep throat so that's a little understandable. Later that evening I had my first baptismal interview with a lady named Christie and she did so awesome! She has such a strong testimony already and I'm so excited for her. 

Thursday I had an exchange with Elder Williams and it was a really solid day! We had an amazing lesson with Gerardo on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Gerardo just loved it! He still has some questions about modern day Prophets and Apostles but besides that he is totally ready! He just needs to be able to find a way to get Sundays off of work!

Saturday we had the Rocklin 1st ward Christmas Party and it was so awesome! They had a few non member families there and they all really enjoyed and should hopefully be at church this next Sunday! 

Anyways, I'm loving it out here in California! I love serving the Lord and this truly is the best time of the year. I've really been able to recognize just how much Christ has blessed my life. I'm so grateful for the chance I've been given to represent him. I just hope that this next year I can do all I can to help bring others unto him. I love and miss all of you and hope you have a very merry week! Talk to you next week!❤💚🎄☃

Elder Riley Schneiter
California Roseville Mission
8583 Watt Avenue
Antelope, CA 95843

Dec 3, 2018

Hello Everyone! I guess I probably should apologize once again for promising that I am going to improve at emailing and then of course not doing so...but unfortunately you are all probably used to it at this point! Anyway, here is what the past couple weeks have looked like.

A few weeks back we had the awesome opportunity to go to the temple and all I can say was it was amazing! I really miss the temple and I really regret not taking advantage of it when I was home but I'm making a promise to myself that after my mission I will make sure to go to the temple as much as I can!

We have been able to have a couple great lessons with Gerardo these last couple weeks. He has some great questions that are always fun to answer. He's progressing for sure, not as quickly as we would hope he would but we are hoping that we will be able to help him out this next lesson with progessing a bit quicker.

Two Mondays ago we had the incredible opportunity to have Elder Weatherford Clayton of the Seventy come and tour our mission and conduct our Zone Conference! He and Sister Clayton gave us some incredible Council that I know will really help our mission to take it to the next level! Such an amazing Spiritual experience for sure. The day after that we had an awesome Zone Preparation Day activity at Golfland Sunsplash (Basically the equivalent of Boondocks)

Thanksgiving here in Rocklin was truly stuffed full of good stuff. We had 4 appointments that day so I can definitely say that I put on some weight haha! We also had the chance to share the #LightTheWorld initiative with most of those families so that also made it a really awesome day.

Last Monday we spent a majority of our Preparation Day helping set up a Stake Nativity Exhibit in Granite Bay which was still tons of fun! And the finished Product was even greater! We had the chance for 2 of the 3 days the Exhibit was going on to be hosts and to invite people to church on the 23rd Of December! Also I saw many people from Roseville 1st ward so that was also so so amazing!

Tuesday was transfers and both Elder Nettleton and I are staying together. I can't say I was too thrilled about that happening since I struggled a bit with Elder Nettleton but I know there is a reason for it. I just hope we can continue to see growth and progression in the area. But on the bright side, Elder Johnson, who took me out tracting on my 1st day in the mission field, is in my district so I was really excited about that!

Wednesday the Young Men in the Rocklin 1st ward had a really cool missionary activity where the leaders invited non member friends and neighbors to come be taught the missionary lessons by the young men. It was a really awesome activity and many of the non members who were a part of it really enjoyed it and some even were interested in meeting with us! It was so sweet and to top it all off, Elder Molipeli was on an exchange with us and he shared his conversion story and it was so so incredible!

Anyways, even though Thanksgiving has passed, I just want to let you all know how grateful I am for each of you. I'm grateful for you all supporting me over these last 13 months. I love you all and I'd really love to hear from you! Hopefully I'll be able to improve at emailing in the near future! Have a great week and I'll talk to you next week!💙

Elder Riley Schneiter

California Roseville Mission
8583 Watt Avenue
Antelope, CA 95843

 

Nov 14, 2018

Hey everyone! I just want you all to know that I love you and miss you so much! Thank you for all your support and I'm especially grateful for all the birthday wishes from a couple weeks back! It really has meant a lot! Anyways, here's a summary of the past few weeks.

The members here in Rocklin are so amazing and they seriously helped so much in making my birthday just an amazing day! We also met this awesome lady named Becca who was interested in us coming back but not for another month until her new puppy is done with its training! The following day was both the ward Trunk-R-Treats and they were so successful in getting a ton of non members there! And then the day after that we were in a Trio with Elder Comans (One of our Zone Leaders) and we helped out Gerardo with a fundraiser event for his Humanitarian Project he leads so that was so much fun and we were able to meet so many awesome people and introduce them to the church!

Halloween we had to be in early so we stayed in and watched some classic church movies such as Johnny Lingo and The Phone Call. If you haven't seen either of those movies, they are definitely recommend!

Last Wednesday we had interviews with President Ward and it was just what was needed. I seriously love President Ward so much and I really couldn't have asked for a better mission President! He really just wants us as missionaries to be the very best we can and to give the Lord our best and have all we do focused on his work! Thursday we had exchanges and I went with our District Leader, Elder Schreiner! We had such a great time and we were blessed to find 2 new people to teach in our area! One of them is named Alex Schneider so it was a pretty interested conversation between the 3 of us who all have similar last names😂 That was also the day we learned about the devastating fire up in Paradise which really hurt Elder Schreiner because he served up there for 3 transfers! Please please please pray for all those who lost everything in the fire, they really need the help!

This weekend it was Rocklin's Stake Conference and it was so great! All the speakers did such a fabulous job and really brought the Spirit to all who had the opportunity to listen!

So that's basically it folks! I love you all and I really will try my best to be better at emailing! I'd love to be able to receive a personal email from y'all so please if you get the chance, it would mean so much! And I promise I'll do my best to reply!😂 Love y'all have a great rest of your week and tune in next week to learn more!

 

Oct 22, 2018

Weekly...about time (haha)

Hey Everybody! So here's a recap of the past few weeks!

So Keith who we were teaching, unfortunately his father is not in good health and lives in Chicago so he left to go be with him until he passes away so it stinks that we aren't able to teach him anymore. We are hoping to send the missionaries in Chicago out there so he is still able to learn!

About 3 Sundays ago, Elder Batchelor and I had a really neat opportunity to sing a musical number in Sacrament Meeting. I was sort of nervous seeing as though I'm not the most gifted when it comes to musical ability, but it went so great! I also got to speak in Sacrament so it was a really awesome sacrament meeting!

A few weeks ago we actually lost the car so we have been on bike, so it's been really nice because I think I really need to watch my figure😂 I'm just kidding but it has actually been really nice to be back on a bike...but also sort of painful.

One day when Elder Batchelor and I were walking we met this lady from Massachusetts who started talking to us about Mitt Romney and one thing led to another and she accepted to have the missionaries back in Massachusetts to come and teach her! It was so awesome. Also that same day while my bike was getting fixed up, we went into this burger joint and got some food. Our server, Gerardo as we were paying the bill starting asking us questions about what we believe and then we ended up getting his info and he told us that he was super excited to learn about what we believe! He is so awesome! I'll get to him in a sec.

We had Zone Conference that next day and it was great as usual! So much Revelation that is very much needed. It was also really great to see my brothers Elder Hannemann and Elder Semeatu!

Now Holy Cow! General Conference was so stinking amazing! So crazy that church will now be 2 hours! But I think that it is super beneficial because it means that we as individuals and families need to learn and teach the Gospel more in the Home! Also, YUBA CITY TEMPLE!!! That came as such a surprise for all of us in the mission, but we are all so very excited! And I can't wait for the day that I can come back and go see the temple there! Man, General Conference as a missionary is just as good as Christmas!😄

A couple Monday’s ago for Preparation Day we went to Sunsplash, which is basically the California equivalent of Boondocks/7 Peaks, and had a ton of fun there! And since it is owned by a member of our Mission Presidency, it was free! And they also had Iceberg Shakes there so it was seriously like Utah in a cup! So awesome!

I got to go on Exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Comans and Elder Ellsworth. We had such a blast on the exchange! Costa Vida for lunch is always amazing! We were supposed to have a lesson with Darlene Belton, but Darlene flaked which was super sad since I haven't seen her since her baptism😢 But we still had a great time! Also as we were talking to this Lady at the park, this random guy came up to us and did some weird thing where he almost grabbed the lady we were talking to so after that we ended up walking away from the park and the lady told us that we were her "Guardian Angels"! Interesting encounter, but it happens as a missionary haha!

Well this last week was transfers, and unfortunately Elder Batchelor is being transferred back north up to Cottonwood to be a District Leader! My new companion is Elder Nettleton. He is from Payson, Utah and he's been out for 18 months. Elder Nettleton is very quiet and he doesn't seem to have the greatest desire to work and serve, but I'm going to give him my very best and I'm going to just love him and help him! 

But going back to Gerardo! On Wednesday we had our first lesson with him and we thought it would be a really great idea to give him a chapel tour...and holy cow it was seriously so amazing! He just kept telling us how desperately he wanted to learn about our beliefs and the Book of Mormon! He said he felt so much peace as we walked around the chapel! He also said that he always wanted to come to our church and always found the corner the church is on to be a very peaceful place! He is seriously so Golden and so amazing! I love him so much already and I can't wait to move forward with him!

So this week I hit my 1 Year mark and my 20th Birthday. It's really crazy to think that my mission is half way over. It has been the most challenging year of my life, so many ups and downs. But it has also been the happiest year of my life! I love my mission. There is seriously no where else in the world I'd want to be then right here in California representing the Lord Jesus Christ and sharing his Gospel! I've made so many wonderful friendships and memories! My hope and prayer is that over this next year I can give the Lord all I have to give him! This Gospel is true. The Book of Mormon is the Word of God. Jesus Christ is our Savior and it is only because of his great Love and Sacrifice that we are able to return to Live with Our Father in Heaven as we obey the Laws and Ordinances of the Gospel! I love all of you and I'm grateful for all your love and Support! I hope you have a great week and I hope to hear from you soon!❤💙❤💙 

Elder Riley Schneiter
California Roseville Mission
8583 Watt Avenue
Antelope, CA 95843