Brethren, Adieu

Wow, its official, my last P-day, which means, my last email!

I have definitely learned a lot since September of 2015 and it's weird to look back and see how far I have come in my conversion to the Lord. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was getting out of the car, giving my family a hug, and walking away thinking "Well, here I go..", and now it's 2017 and I am getting ready to hug my family once again. I would say more than anything, I have learned that God knows each of us by name and has a perfect plan for all of His children. There have been so many experience where there is no way that all the events that led to meeting a special person and sharing the gospel with them was just a coincidence, or that the people that have built me up, and encouraged me to be better and come closer to Christ (whether they knew it or not) was an accident. God knows exactly what he is doing! He places specific people in our paths for a very specific purpose.

I also know that part of his plan is for us to go through trials. Trials does not mean that God has forgotten us, in fact the scriptures say "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." The mission has been the hardest thing I have ever done; there were days when I got yelled at, mocked/laughed at, or when no one would talk to us, or tell us we aren't Christians and are going to hell, or when people that knew the church was true chose to deny the gifts of the gospel, and these experiences made me feel soooo small!! It has been physically, mentally, and emotionally draining/challenging, but because of all that, I have learned how to cope with trials in life, and how to rely on the Savior for His help, comfort, and guidance. I also learned that being upset, sad, or mad is choice, and that I can choose happiness! Even though there were incredibly hard days, shoot, hard weeks and sometimes months, all the good and positive experiences that I have had completely outweigh all of the those bad times. Looking back on the past 2 years, I can honestly say that this has been the happiest I have ever been, and I know, without a doubt, that it is because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and always seeking to help those in need. I've learned that Service is the key to happiness, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

I never knew how hard it would be to leave the mission and go back to my family and friends, I have looked forward to embracing those that I love most in the airport, but I now understand that the people that I have met here have become family and friends! The culture of Florida and Alabama, and the people that I have met hold a special piece of my heart.  I know that I was sent to this mission for a very specific reason, and that there were so many people that were not only prepared for me to teach, but also for me to learn from (people in the ward, people I served around, companions, and people that I taught),  I love them all so much! 

I have been excited and nervous about going home, and trying to figure out how to fit the new Skip into the old world, but all those fears and concerns were washed away as I sat and listened to the inspired messages given at General Conference; I swear that all the talks were specifically for me! This church truly is lead by Jesus Christ and I am so thankful that God loves us enough to keep speaking to us today, and that we do have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. 

More than anything, I have learned the importance of families. I've seen many families out here who are torn apart, and have so many hardships in them, and it made me so sad, and yet thankful for my family. I have also seen amazing families who are so close together and are filled with light and happiness, and that gave me great hope for my future! Being away from my family for 2 years has been so incredibly hard, but it helped me realize that I have such a wonderful family, that I took for granted at some points, but they have never stopped loving me. I've learned that this gospel really is for families. This gospel not only helps families find joy and peace and love here on earth, but it allows us to have something much greater, because of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be joined together with our families for all time and eternity, and in my eyes that is worth more than all the money in the world!

Well, I've waited my whole life to give the Lord two years of service, and I have done my best to give the Lord all my time, talents, and energy, and now its over, and is time to turn in the physical name badge for one that will be written on my heart forever. It's is so weird to think that it is over and that I will be heading home this week, but I am so excited for the next chapter in my life, and more opportunities to grow and come closer to the Lord.  I am so thankful for the last two years that I have spent here in the south, and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

I love y'all so much, and am so thankful for all that you do and say, and all that you say you do!

I will see y'all soon!(:

Elder Schipaanboord

P.S.

If y'all want to hear my testimony of the restored gospel, and the Savior Jesus Christ, make sure to be at my homecoming on October the 15th (1187 East Draper Parkway @ 1:00)

"I'll tell you all about it when I see you again"

 

 

Signed Testimony

This week has been absolutely amazing!! The hard work that Elder Blamires, Elder Carlson, and I have been putting in has finally started to pay off! It's really crazy though, because it isn't us, but it is all from the Lord, he has just be throwing things into our lap, it's wild, this truly is his work! So get this, we got a call from our bishop telling us that a part member is ready to be baptized, we went to talk with her for a little. Super long story short, she is getting baptized today! Literally, we did nothing, I have taught her once and it was just a spiritual video (forever ago). We went through the interview questions with her and she is super solid and is so ready!

We also have been able to find a ton of new people to teach! We went tracting and found this guy, named John, who was so nice to us! He has a step daughter serving in Puerto Rico, so he totally wants to learn more! We then played some wiffle ball with him and his kids and he really like that we weren't just there to preach at him but we care about him and his family. He then said "Ya know, I really want to visit y'all at church." The ward is also getting really involved in missionary work and there are tons of youth that are sharing the gospel with their friends, so now they want to come to mutual, church, and even seminary! One of the friends came to mutual and loved it, he told the member that he hates the churches around here and just wants to find a good church that lives what they teach. He also said that he really likes what he saw at church and wants to learn and come to church. Also, we were able to get back in contact with Kelly Rose ( a less active we were working with a few months ago), and she is doing so good!! She has seen how the gospel has blessed her life and wants to keep changing. We taught her about the Sabbath Day, so she came to church and loved it!! gahh!! There are so many good things that have been happening, it is absolutely amazing! It has been such a blessing, because it is helping me stay focused and remember what my purpose is and truly love this work!

Last transfer I talked about how I felt like I needed to stay on my mission for the full 2 years, rather than go home early for school, I feel like I have found the reason why. There have been so many people that we have been able to come in contact with that are prepared to receive the gospel, it's crazy! As excited as I am to be home, I am so thankful that I decided to stay out until October 5th, because if not, we may never have met John, Leslie, and Bill (from an exchange in Dothan), and we may not have been able to help Kelly come back to church. I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to teach the gospel every day, it strengthens my testimony of God's love for all of his children and His perfect plan for each of us. I wouldn't trade this for the world!

This Sunday was my last Sunday at church. It was such a good one! It was the primary program and boy did they do a good job! There was one part that I really loved, in the ward here there is a girl that has some severe handicaps but is just a ball of light everywhere she goes, she can hardly talk, but when it was her part in the program her and her mom got up there and stole the show! Her mom talked, while she signed, and together they said "Jesus shows us how to pray,"  The spirit came so strongly into the room, it was amazing! This helped me realize how this gospel is for everyone!! It doesn't matter who you are, God loves you and has a perfect plan for you! I love this gospel and I am so thankful for how much it has changed my life and allowed me to have true and lasting joy!

I love y'all so much, thank you for everything!

Elder Schipaanboord

Irma and Leslie

Well, Irma rolled through.... and it did absolutely nothing to us.  I was literally so mad, I have always wanted to be a part of helping hands, so I was super hyped with this storm coming, but my hopes and dreams were crushed when only a few branches and leaves fell to the ground.  Thank goodness for no devastation though.  We did get to spend the night at a members home, during the storm, and we even got permission to watch "G" rated Disney moves.  We spent the whole day watching movies and playing board games with the coolest family in the ward, it was so much fun!!

This week brought a couple of "lasts." I had my last interview with President Smith, which was pretty sad. Rather than a normal 10 minute interview, an exit interviews last 30 minutes and we basically just talked about what I have thought about my mission and how I feel that it went. We then talked about goals that I have for being back home and how I am going to stay active and have the Spirit with me at all times. At the end of the interview he simply said "Sprint to the finish and stay focused."  It gave me so much motivation!

I also gave my last talk in sacrament meeting as a full time missionary and I was asked to speak on my mission experience. I basically gave a homecoming talk. It was surreal, also really cool because as I prepared for it, I was able to see how much the Lord has blessed me in these past two years and I remember some incredible spiritual experiences that have helped me realize how true this church really is! I honestly don't feel like I should be coming home, being out here has just become life, so I want to make sure that I end this in the right way. These next 2 1/2 weeks are going to be so awesome, I can't wait to finish strong!! Bottom of the 9th, here I come!

Cool story for the week. Elder carlson and I have been finding soo much but have had no success, so we decided that we were going to say a prayer to find someone prepared to find the gospel just by walking around and hoping the person would talk to us first. So we got out the car and walked for a good 45 minutes; nothing! No one was even outside! I thought that it was a bust but on our way back to our car, this lady was raking her leaves, and said "hi." So we went and talked with her (Leslie) and introduced the Book of Mormon to her. She was soooo excited!! She told us that we were God sent, and an answer to her prayer! Turns out she wanted to learn more about Christ's miracles but didn't know how. She then said "What do I have to do to get one of those books?"  We just handed her one and said "It's yours." She treated it like it was the most prized possession that she owned. This experience made me realize how amazing The Book of Mormon really is and that I take for granted that I have it in my life. There are people that want to come closer to Christ but don't know how to find it. Also, "ask and ye shall receive" is sooo true! Gosh, I love this work!

I love y'all so much and hope y'all have a great week!!

Elder Schipaanboord

Emergency P-Day

As most of you know, there is a massive hurricane (Irma) that is heading directly towards Florida, and is projected to be absolutely devastating to many people. As of right now, the path of the storm is heading for our mission, so our mission president has been giving us updates on what to do and how to prepare. As for us in Enterprise, we are in the path, but it shouldn't be too strong when it hits us, so as of now (Saturday) we will be staying here but will receive more direction as time goes on. So, because the storm will be here on Monday/Tuesday we have today as P-day so that we can be prepared for the hurricane and to let y'all know whats going on.

This week, I definitely almost died a couple times... I was on an exchange with Elder Child in Geneva and we were doing service for a non-member by helping him move. The thing is, he only had an open trailer and no straps, so every time we put stuff in the trailer to be moved, I had to stand on the trailer to make sure that nothing fell over. During one of the trips, there was a massive dresser that was being blown my the wind (we were driving 45mph). I had to use all of my strength to make sure to that it didn't blow out into the road, there were a few times where the wind picked up and almost took the dresser, and me with it!

Also, on this exchange, Elder Child and I were trying to find people for to teach, so we went to talk to this guy in his yard, after 2 minutes a this pitbull came running out of nowhere and jumped up and bit me right in the ribs!!! Then he proceeded to attack my leg! Crazy thing about this though is that God seriously protected me so much! I don't know how to explain it but the bite to the ribs hardly did anything and when he attacked my leg, he was only able to tear up my pants! After the dog reached the end of the chain, Elder Child still taught the guy and ended up giving out a Book of Mormon hahaha! But long story short, the dog is now in quarantine to see if it has rabies and I am on some antibiotics to make sure that i don't get any infection from the dog.

Anywho, I am alive and well, for now... hahahaha! Thanks for everything guys, I love you lots!

Elder Schipaanboord

PS:

GO UTES! #7InARow​

Tender Mercies

The stresses of going home are so real but God knows each of his children and their trials, so I was able to see sooo many tender mercies this week, it was so humbling and amazing!

On p-day we were shopping at Walmart and this younger guy came up to us and started asking a bunch of questions and just talking all about Christ, it was so cool! He was sharing a lot of really awesome truths with us, we kept trying to offer more but he wasn't interested because he is "going to ministerial school." But it was awesome how he had absolutely no fear in coming to talk with us. One thing that he said really stood out to me, "We are working FOR Christ, we are working WITH Christ."  Then he asked, "Do y'all actually know Christ, or just believe in him? Because he is very real!" It was so cool! Christ is real and his promises our sure, and if you just trust him, you will find out how real he is. As we were wrapping up the conversation I asked how old he was, he said he was 18! It blew me away!  He had so much knowledge for an 18 year old, then I thought "Wow, I wonder if that's what people think of us?" When I first started this amazing ride, I was 18 (now I'm 20, so not much of a difference). It was amazing how much of a light he was and I hope that I live my life so that I can do the same for those around me!

As we were out tracting, we were having no success and didn't really want to be out in the hot humid weather having people either not answer the door, or tell us to go away. Then this guy answered the door who changed everything! This guy is a pastor for his church but he loves the work that Mormon's do, so he gave us a lot of praise. He told us that it is really hard and there are not a lot of people that will listen but we have to realize that we are planting and sowing seeds along the way. We may not ever be able to see all of the fruit from our labors but we can know that God will allow the seeds that we planted to grow until they become an amazing testimony. What a tender mercy!! We aren't having the most numerical success right now but we are working,and as long as we do that, the Lord is going to support us. One day we will stand before God and see all of the wonderful things that happened just because we talked with someone or shared our simple testimony. To me that is worth it.

Do y'all remember Jonita from Chipley? With this new transfer, an elder just joined our district who was serving in Chipley, and he was telling me all about what is going on now and he had nothing but good things to say about Jonita! He told me that she is doing so much missionary work and is giving the missionaries a ton of referrals. He then told me she has been doing family history work and has been able to go to the temple two times to do baptisms for the dead for her ancestors!! He went on to tell me that she also just went through the temple for the first time to get her endowments!!!!!!! I cannot even express the joy that I felt hearing him talk about Jonita! D&C 18:15 is so true!! "If it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people and bring, save it be one should unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" 

Man, this week we had zone conference.. my last one.. it was bitter sweet but it was such an amazing spiritual upliftment! As missionaries, zone conference and district meetings are the way that we can be spiritually recharged and given the extra motivation that we need to "be in the world, but not of the world." I think they correlate with the the temple and church attendance. We go through a lot in life and if we aren't careful, we will end up falling further and further away from God, but if we make going to church and the temple a regular occurrence, then we are promised that our faith and testimony will always be strengthened. 

Again, my companion is so cool! It is pretty hard to adjust to training a new missionary after being used to having zone leader companions all the time but he is teaching me so much! Just a little bit about Elder Carlson, his junior year in high school, he broke his back and it has been messed up ever since. This week his back was hurting super bad and I kept trying to help and make things better but he kept saying "I cant do anything about it and its going to hurt anyways, so may as well do something good." What a profound truth!! There are many times in our life that we can curl over and do nothing, or we can say "well it's going to hurt no matter what I do, so may as well go out and do something good." I think that is what the Lord meant when he told the Prophet Joseph Smith, "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt the on high."

I love y'all so much and thank y'all for all that you do and say, and all that y'all say y'all do.

Elder Schipaanboord

ESCC

man, not too much happened this week. elder carlson and i are really trying our best to get out and find people that we can teach, but we arent having too much numerical success, which is pretty disappointing, but thats okay, cause our success should be measured by our commitment to invite, because that puts all the responsibility and agency upon ourselves. this week we went out and tried to find as much service opportunities as we could in the community, and also with members at their friends houses, because we have found that service is the best and fastest way to soften the hearts of the children of men, so we should be having lots of service opportunities coming up pretty soon!

weird story about enterprise, the reason that this place even exists is because of the farming community. but way back when, this bug known as the boll weevil came through and ate all of the cotton that people were growing, so everyone was freaking out with nothing to sell, and so this guy decided to start growing peanuts, and the community basically thrived off of peanuts and now is like the best place in america for growing peanuts. the reason i bring this up is because the people here made a freaking monument to this bug!! hahahaha it is the only monument in the world dedicated to an insect! hahahahaa its the craziest thing! but we went to go and see this thing, and its in the middle of mainstreet! there are so many pictures of this stupid bug, because it "shows how to overcome hard times" gosh i love the south!!

since president smith was baptized while he was in his youth, he has really been pushing working with, youth and young single adults, so this week we went to Enterprise State Community College and filled out some paperwork which allows us to proselyte on the campus (and yes their mascot is the boll weevil #fearnoweevil). even though it is a tiny campus, and we are only allowed on a certain part of it, we are pretty pumped about it! we go every monday and thursday, and it has already yielded some pretty promising potentials! its crazy how nice people are, and just how open young people are, they really have so many questions about life and religion, but they "are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it". i am so glad I had the gospel in my life during high school, life was hard enough, so i dont know what i would've done without it.

Elder Carlson is such an incredible missionary! He absolutely amazes me every single day! He has so much desire to improve and become what his Heavenly Father wants him to be. He is constantly reading his scriptures or watching faith building videos, and his testimony has definitely increased a ton since being out, it has been a joy to watch! I really do believe that he and I were meant to be companions; he helps me to keep working and endure to the end (joyfully of course), and I have been able to help him to understand the scriptures and the doctrine of the gospel, it's awesome! 

 

Something really cool that he did this past week was write off his girlfriend! He felt like he needed to focus more on his call to serve and his personal growth and testimony. Having a girlfriend was distracting him from his goal. Alma 13:13 talks about bringing forth fruit meet for repentance (or just evidence of repentance), and I think that is brought for when people sacrifice personal wants and desires for gods will by reading the scriptures, or praying, or standing up for what is right, or going to church each week, whatever it may be, if it brings you closer to God, it is a form of repentance, so make sure to go to church, study, and pray(;

The church has come out with this program called "my plan" for missionaries to go through their last 6 weeks to help them reflect on their mission , set goals for things they want to do when they get home, and also who they want to become. I started my plan this week, what a wonderful opportunity! It has been so amazing to look back over these past 2 years and actually see what the Lord has been able to do with me. Every day I realize more and more how weak I am (ye are less than the dust of the earth), but how great I can be with the Lord on my side. One of my buddies said "I bet I can do more with $9 than you can with $10 and accomplish more in 6 days than you can in 7 days because I am endorsed  by the Lord", how true that is! If you make the Lord central to your life, and go to Him when making decisions and need help, He will always support you and give you all that you need.

I love you all so much, thank you for all that you do and say, and all that you say you do!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

 

Trunky But Not

Tis week we had interview with President Smith and during the interview we were talking a little about me going home. He looked at me and said "You're a great missionary Elder Schipaanboord, I'm going to miss you when you leave." It totally broke my heart! To top it off, when I got home, we went to checked the mail, and my trunky papers (flight plans) came. It's so weird! I feel like I have been out forever but it is also surreal that this is happening. I sure am going to miss this so much but I am definitely excited! Wow, the start of my last transfer is here, I can't believe it! With the way that transfers have worked out, President would've allowed me to go home this transfer (August 24th) so that I could make it back home in time for school but I had thought about it and prayed about it and I realized that a Prophet of God called me to serve in the Florida Tallahassee mission for a period of 24 months, not 22 and a half. It's wild to think that I could be going home in just 3 days but I do believe that there is a reason that my release date is October 5th and not August 24th. It's super difficult knowing that the end is so close (even though it feels so far), but I need to find the reason why I feel that I needed to stay out here and I am going to work as hard as I can to find that reason! It's going to be hard but it's going to be so worth it, just like anything in life.

We have gotten super close with this family, their son is on the New Brockton football team (high school in our area), so they invited us to go to the scrimmage game this Friday, boy was it a blast! We were there helping this member hand out t-shirts that they had made for the families, so we had the opportunity to talk to a lot of cool people and just get our name and presence out there. It was super funny because all the cheerleaders are friends with the daughter, so all of them came to sat next to her, the mom leaned over to us and told us they were there for us hahahahaha! Come to find out, they all thought that we were super cute and wanted to come and talk with us... too bad they were all 15! But we actually had some really good conversations with them about us a missionaries and they ended up talking with the daughter about us and asking questions about the Book of Mormon, it was so cool! It's crazy how just being out and about and spending time with people and talking with them as normal people break down so many walls.

On Saturday, the member asked if we would be willing to come to service at the stadium. While there, lots of questions were asked again, it was so awesome! While doing service, we cleaned out the deep fryers and got nasty chicken grease all over us and we smelled sooo bad! When we got home, we went right to the shower (for the 2nd time in the day) and as I was cleaning off the nasty smell and chicken chunks, I thought "Man, it's kinda weird that we shower every day, sometimes multiple times a day just to clean our body, what a waist of water." Then I thought "Gosh, if we wash our body so often, why don't we wash our spirit that much too?"  Then I thought "And we also wash hands right when we get stuff on them, so why don't we wash our spirits right when we get stuff on it?" The Atonement of Jesus Christ is so amazing, it really does have the power to cleanse our very soul and bring us so much light and happiness into our lives. Think about how nice it feels getting out of the shower, all fresh and clean. It's pretty nice right? Well getting your spirit cleaned is pretty similar, only it feels soooooo much better, it is indescribable

I love y'all so much, and hope that you have an amazing week!!

Thanks for everything!

Elder Schipaanboord