End of Sept Mission Report

Elder and Sister Schill

Our mission is going well. We were able to get permission from our mission president to go outside of our mission in order to go with the members of our branch to the Chicago temple. It was a wonderful trip and a spiritual experience for many young people to go and do baptisms. Afterward we all went out for pizza.

We are moving forward with baptisms. We have had one baptism per month in our branch for the past several months. We enjoyed attending the baptism of a young man a couple of weeks ago and then, last Sunday, to watch him as he prepared the sacrament. We have another young man scheduled for baptism in October, and a young lady who is attending one of our institute classes who is also preparing for baptism.

Elder Schill has been called to serve as the branch mission leader and such works with the young elders who are assigned to the university campus to teach the 30,000 students who attend there. Working with him are five branch missionaries who have been called from the branch to share the gospel with their friends and to bring people for them and the full time missionaries to teach. Elder Schill is able to work with them to keep them motivated, active and assist with the teaching pool of investigators.

We are teaching three classes on Family Relations and Eternal Marriage and one class on the Doctrine and Covenants. We teach two classes in the daytime and two on different evenings. We have arranged table in one of the classrooms in the institute and Sister Schill always fixes a nice lunch for the students coming to the noon class. When we have finished lunch we sing a hymn and then have our class discussion. It is very cozy around the table together, like a family gathering. The students take the lead on Monday evenings with teaching the Family Home Evening lesson and we have very outstanding lessons, after which we play various games in the cultural hall of the institute. We have a family in the stake who each week tapes the BYU devotional and on Fridays at noon we have a nice luncheon and show the DVD of the devotional. It was great to have President Hinckley address the students two weeks ago. Since we have new members at the institute, several had never seen him before. We are looking forward to General Conference at our Stake center and for the opportunity for the students to hear the talks of the General Authorities. Many are very excited for their first opportunity to do so. We are having a branch luncheon at the home of the branch president between sessions.

We are getting very close to many of the members of the branch and enjoying their loving spirit and fellowship. The institute is really a haven for them as they spend so much of their time on the campus of a very secular university. They always look forward to the spirit of the institute and of uniting together for a few minutes each day. We love and support each one of them.

Squirrels

We have three different colored squirrels in Michigan. The missionaries call the gray ones, Jaredites, the dark brown ones, Lamanites and the light brown ones the Nephites. For weeks I have been trying to get a photo of one of these squirrels. They are so fast that by the time I get my camera up to my eye, they have disappeared into the tops of the trees. But yesterday I spotted a Nephite in the tree by our apartment and he stayed there scolding me and waving his tail back and forth. He had something in his mouth that made him look even more ferocious. I finally got some photos of him.
We are excited to go to our first zone conference tomorrow. We have canceled our noon class so we can attend. It will be held at the Kalamazoo Stake Center from 9 AM until 3:30 PM. We love all of you.

Happy Birthday Rexbo!

Rex turned 3 years old today. He was pretty excited to turn big as he calls it. We had a fun day. I made him a Super Why cake. It is a new TV show on PBS kids. Rex enjoyed his birthday! We love that boy!

KUB PHOTOS

Photos of KUB activities

Hi, everyone. Here are some of the activities we have been doing. The first photo is of Dad teaching one of the institute classes at noon. One day I went to the branch building and met a service missionary that was dressed just like me so I had to take a photo. She teaches the 12 step program an hour before our class. She has been attending our marriage class with her daughter on Thursdays. She makes good comments and seems to be getting a lot out of the class that is helping her in her marriage. The branch played the balloon tied on the ankle game that is a favorite at our parties. Leo from India was the winner! There is a photo of our FHE and some of the fun games we play at KUB=Kalamazoo University Branch (Fooseball. four Square and Cowboy Golf) While a group was playing four square, they asked Elder Schill to clap his hands under his leg.
Friday we had 12 come to the devotional to hear Pres. Hinckley speak. A member in another ward records the BYU devotionals so we can watch them on Fridays. We had stew, rolls, green jello(most of the students here have never had jello but they were good sports to try it) and ice cream pie. It was a great experience to listen to the prophet speak. He is in his 98h year and still able to inspire so many people. We are very blessed to have him as our prophet.

Rob Rice's babtism

On the 15th of September, Rob Rice was baptized. It was a spiritual experience to be there as the missionaries gave talks on the importance of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost and then to watch Rob be baptized. While he was getting dressed, the person in charge of the meeting gave everyone an opportunity to bear their testimony. My heart was pounding so I knew I needed to bare my testimony so I stood up and bore a simple testimony. It makes you feel so good when you have the courage to bare your testimony. By studying the scriptures more, I have a stronger testimony of Christ and the great love he has for all of us. Rob wasn't confirmed a member until today. It seemed strange that the confirmation was delayed for such a long time. I don't know the reason. He comes to institute classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. He is anxious to learn about the gospel. It is neat to be around someone who has just joined the church. There is a girl named JoLene who has been coming to church and is an investigator. The missionaries are teaching Brian who will probably get baptized the middle of Oct. Today in Sacrament meeting, five branch members were called to be missionaries to help find the less active of our branch. Also in church, Elder Schill gave a talk on encouraging the members to come to institute classes. We enjoy being around the branch members and feeling of their strong testimonies of the gospel. Love, Elder and Sister Schill (Dad/Grandpa and Mom/Grandma)

Temple Trip September 8, 2007

Here are the photos that we took when we went to the Chicago Temple. I hate to post them because then I'll bump all those terrific photos that were just posted to the bottom of the page. If you haven't seen them yet be sure and look at the get together photo for Jen's birthday, the Ft. Bridger photos and Mick and Lynnie at BYU. We had a wonderful time going to the temple. We car pooled up to Chicago. It took us about 4 hours because of an accident but we still made it in time to do baptisms for the dead. The KUB (Kalamazoo University Branch) go to the temple four times a year to do baptisms. Pres. Johnson really thinks it is important for the new members to have this experience. Pres. Johnson called our mission president to asked if we could go with them. The rule is that we can't go out of our mission area. Pres. Edwards called Salt Lake and got permission from Elder Tingy so we were able to go to the temple. It was a great experience seeing the members being baptized and confirmed for the dead. They really seemed to appreciate this opportunity. Dad was one of the witnesses for the baptisms. After we went to eat at a pizza place and didn't get back to Kalamazoo until 1:30 AM!

Happy Birthday Jen!

Ft Bridger Rendezvous 2007

Special thanks to Ryan and Ang for the wonderful accomodations at Ft. Bridger this year. Hope we can get more family out next year!

The Beginning of a New Era

FHE 9/3/07

Our FHE this past Monday was held at the McCullough home. Bro. McCullough is the first counselor in the branch presidency. The students enjoy going to their home. This photo is of me operating one of their remote controlled boats. Lillian is testing my skills by seeing if I can keep her boat from touching my boat. It was fun. I'm sure you are starting to think we party all the time!

Kalamazoo University Branch and Institute Building

Here are some photos of our second home. It was owned by several churches before our church bought it two years ago. I wished we could take some photos of the chapel but we can't because it has been dedicated.

Break the Fast Dinner

Every fast Sunday, the branch has a dinner about a half hour after our meetings are over. The branch presidency fixes the main course which was turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and stuffing for the 9/2/07 dinner. The students sign up to bring salad, drink or dessert. It was a delicious meal.

Institute Classes and Lunch

This is our first week of Institute classes. Read dad's post about this first week.

FHE 8/27/07

Here is a photo of the branch playing Apples to Appl;es. They love this game.

Addendum to First Week at Institute

I forgot to mention our activities on Friday. We have a sister in the Stake who tapes the BYU devotionals each Tuesday for us. We then pick up a DVD from her on Friday mornings and take it to the institute for our Friday Luncheon and Devotional. That was yesterday. Mom served a great meal with her Chicken Parmesan, great jello salad--which several had not eaten before--and home made rolls. We watched a devotional given by Elder Packer. We noticed that Elder Packer looked a lot younger when he spoke and then at the end it said that it was recorded in 1992, not last week. Evidently they didn't have a devotional during the first week of BYU, and we didn't know that until we saw the DVD and noticed how old it was. Next week, we hope to get the real current devotional. The two missionaries who are serving at the Western Michigan University--they are assigned there full time to work with students--come to our institute classes once in awhile and also attend the devotionals. One of the missionaries, Elder Sweat, is from Heber and we discovered that we are related. His great, grandfather is also John Wesley Witt of Heber. Small world. Dad

First week of Institute Work

Well, we made it through our first week at the institute. We are teaching three classes on preparing for and building family relationships and eternal marriages and two classes on the Doctrine and Covenants. Classes are held each day at noon, M-Th and we usually have about three students in each of these classes. We meet in a cozy little classroom down in the basement of the institute building where we are all around a table. We start by serving lunch, which Mom brings from home. We have a serving table near the door and people as they come in can take what they want. The couple of days we had taco salads and then on other days we had Mom's famous Minestrone soup along with hoagies. The students really like the lunches. After the blessing and opening prayer we have an opening song. Then we get down to some serious eating. We eat and talk about things around the table for about 20 minutes, and then when everyone is finished or about finished we start our lesson. The lesson is informal. We have a chalk board behind us and we put items we are to discuss on the board. Last week we talked about what eternal marriage about and the process of progression and becoming better each day. We also talked about the process of finding an eternal companion and becoming a better person to be a good companion for someone else. We are using the family proclamation as our starting point and we went over some of the promises and teachings of the proclamation. In the D&C class we are starting at the beginning and discussed where the D&C came from, when it was first published, and what the things that needed to be restored were--the first restoration steps after we got the Book of Mormon and the revelations and doctrines that had to be restored to earth. We have a D&C class for the institute on Tuesday evenings, and then we teach a D&C class for the Kalamazoo Stake adults on Wednesday evening. On Thursday evening we have a Marriage class. We had about ten out to the evening D&C class and about eight to the Marriage class. On Monday evenings we have Branch FHE and there are usually about ten there. We have a lesson and then play games. We usually have a refreshment and the Branch really likes ice cream. We also had pizza. On Friday evening is Branch activity night, which is similar to FHE without a lesson. It is just an informal chat where we get together to talk and play games. FHE and Activity night are held in the basement activity room of the institute. Today, Saturday, we are going to the Chicago temple. We are all meeting at the church at 1 PM and then car pooling for the 200 miles or so that it is to the Chicago temple. We plan to get there at about 4 PM and then spend two hours doing baptisms. After the temple activity we are all going out for pizza. Yes, the branch likes pizza. Then we drive home, getting back at about 11:30. This is supposed to be out P day, but since it is Branch temple day, we are devoting it to that. As you can see that keeps us busy seven days per week. The time has just flown by. We are having a great time. Our branch has several married students in it who have been called from the regular wards to come and participate with the branch. They are all young marrieds without children so they fit in really well. Several of these young marrieds attend our institute classes and add their comments to our discussion. The weather is cooling off in Michigan and the humidity is gone, so we are settling into a beautiful fall with mostly blue skies, except for the occasional rain, and weather in the low 80's with low humidity, we are are quite comfortable outside when we get there. We we are sure getting to know our institute building, spending several hours there each day. It is starting to feel like home to us. It takes awhile to make the transition to missionary life where every day is like Sunday and you are doing Church service all the time. We don't have time for much else, since we are either spending time preparing a lesson, discussing the lesson material between the two of us and what we are going to say and what learning activities/games we are going to play or actually giving the lesson and being at the institute. Some of the students we see every day. There are several who are taking two institute classes and they come twice per week. Well, that is our news for this week. We will attach some pictures of our activities. Love, Dad and Mom.

Happy Birthday ASHLEY!!

We hope you have a great birthday! We love you! Love, J,J, A,R, & L