HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY ALIVIA!!! We LOVE you!!!

There are more pictures from her birthday on our family blog. She loves being 5!!!

He will be missed!

I just wanted to add this picture because I think it is really sweet. Jared's parents gave it to us. I am grateful for all of the many things that Pres. Hinckley taught me. He was a great man who truly loved others.

Thank You President Hinckley

Having on the Armor of God

We had a branch FHE lesson the other night about putting on the whole
armor of God including the scripture reading and a Church video about
not having our armor on. Then afterward they brought in a huge stack of
newspapers and we spent the activities time making and dressing up in
our armor, with a shield and sword made of newspaper. One of these
pictures is of me (on the left) with the armor mom made for me standing
next to one of our branch members, Mike Fleming. The other picture is of
our branch president. He spent his whole time working on making his shield
and has a much better shield, but didn't get any body armor made. But he has
enthusiasm and is ready to go to battle. When we finished with the armor
we had a battle with our swords and shields to see who was the last one standing.
Mike won the contest. It was a lot of fun. You might try it for a FHE. Dad

New Semester Going Well

We started the new semester three weeks ago and things are going well. We are especially enjoying our adult religion class which we teach for older members of the Kalamazoo Stake on Wednesday mornings. We are teaching them about the doctrinal teachings of the Church, and have great discussions. It is so different from the young adult classes we have the rest of the time, in that the adults are able to express themselves much better and have a lot of life experiences to share as examples of various principles and how they have tried to live them. We have thirteen adults who attend the class, and time just flies for them and for us. We had an interesting experience on Tuesday night, when we tried to open the door to the church when it was snowing and very cold outside, and found that the lock was frozen and the key wouldn't turn. There was no way for us to get into the building. A few minutes later two of our students arrived from South Haven, about forty miles to the west. We didn't think they would come because of the weather, but they came and since they drove all that way we started class in our car. They simply sat in the back seat and we turned on the motor, the heater and the interior lights and got out our scriptures. We had a great discussion and later two local students came, but since there was no room for them in the car, they want home. We had class for about an hour in the car and then had a closing prayer and they were on their way back home. The only thing we really missed is that we weren't able to have our usual cup of hot chocolate which we always have ready for the students when they arrive. Michigan is a really snowy place with much more frequent snow storms and more snow than we get in Orem. People say it is a normal January winter and we have snow coming almost every day. They plow the roads well and we have been able to get around OK. We really never know how many young adults we are going to have in class, since attendance goes in sperts. One day we have only one or two and another day we have six or seven. You never know what to expect. Today, Jan 23, we had lots of students combined together with four missionaries, so mom had to stretch the food a lot to go around. It wasn't easy, since we were having chicken pillows, but we made it. On Monday we had an investigator come to our class named Lindsey Hale. She has been investigating for several months and is on and off, primarily because her dad is a protestant minister and is giving her a hard time. We had a lesson on revelation and gaining a personal testimony which was the normal lesson in the manual, but fit in very well with where the elders were teaching her. We hope that she comes out to church. We have had quite a few new investigators join our teaching pool during the past two weeks, and they are all very strong. As expected, most are young women and they are all doing well with the lessons. It is fun to meet with the young elders each week to discuss their progress. Also, there are two less actives that the elders are working with to try to bring them back. The problem is getting them to not see so much of their new friends on campus who are a bad influence on them. We are about to reach the half way point on our missions and finally I am actually getting used to wearing a white shirt and tie and suit each day. It has taken me six months to get used to that each day, but I finally feel dressed down too much when I am in casual clothes. Putting on my missionary clothes each day and spending the day dressed up is actually feeling normal now and I look forward to it. At activities night the branch is going ice skating outside! We are unsure that we want to go since we don't want to risk injury or anything broken, especially since hearing about Steve's skiing accident and broken arm. We are also not too excited about spending an hour or so outside in the cold weather trying to learn to skate. It may be one of the first activities which we miss and where we don't get pictures. The branch presidency has asked mom to make a DVD of all the pictures that she has taken of the institute and branch activities since we have been here, about 400 or so, the ones she put into a photo album for the branch. They are going to put them on the branch website and make them available so that the branch can download and get personal copies of them. Also they are going to try to use them to show the rest of the YSA's in the stake what a great time we have at the branch so they will want to leave their home wards and join in with us. So mom's photos are going to play missionary role to try to recruit new students for the branch and the institute. It is really quite marvelous to see all of the fun things that we have done as a branch, since there are fun activities of a wide variety going on two sometimes three times per week. Well, that's our report for this week and we hope all of you enjoy the blog and our news.

Nineteen Sixty When?

More pictures

Mom puts a plastic bag over her head to go out of
the branch in the rain. It was raining really hard
and we forgot our umbrellas.

Other December and Early January Events

We attended a Wizard of Oz production by the Kalamazoo community
players featuring our branch member, AnnaLaura as the kind and good
witch. Christmas tree at our apartment. Christmas eve dinner at the
branch president's house. Br. member Leo leaves to move to Idaho
and we help him move out of his house and he treats us to lunch.
Our deck in the snow storm. Family home evening activity where
we had four blenders going in the kitchen and made gourmet milk
shakes for everyone.

Our Zone Nativity Scene

Clay Figures of Elder and Sister Schill
(Use your imagination!)

Visit to Shipshewana, IN during the break.

Branch President Johnson and wife, Lynn.

Zone Conference and Baptism

Sister Reyes and Elder Hefner
Snow scenes in Kalamazoo
Visit with BP and wife to Amish village of
Shipwhewana in Indiana.
Branch break the fast dinner

December Zone Conference and Flat Stanley

The Christmas Zone Conference was tremendous. After inspiring talks by the President and Sister Edwards we dismissed to the primary room where we were divided into twos and given a large clump of modeling clay. Our assignment was to make a nativity scene from the clay. You can see a picture of the one that mom and I made. Some of the ones the elders made were really quite good. They were then put on display all together out in the foyer and at the end of the conference we left them there for the wards to look at when they came on Sunday. The last hour of the zone conference consisted of skits done by districts. Each district was to do a skit on whatever them they wanted involving entertainment. You can see some of the ones that were our favorites--Hans and Franz, rock and roll singers and one where they dressed as sisters. It has really gotten to be snowy here and we are including a picture taken from our deck and also one including Oscar and Louie out enjoying the snow together. Things continue to go well for our mission. We had one baptism in December, and it was a surprise. Sister Marcia Reyes was baptized by one of the elders in our branch, Elder Hefner. It is quite a story. Sister Reyes' son, Miguel, was a member of the branch and a convert of a couple of years. Sister Reyes started coming to branch functions once in awhile to check out where her son was going. She especially liked to come to our Break the Fast dinners after the three hour block on Sunday. Well, her son left on a mission a few months ago and is serving as a missionary in the California Riverside mission. Sister Reyes kept coming to the branch every once in awhile and finally started taking missionary discussions. She decided to get baptized around the first part of December and was actually baptized on Dec 30, something that brought great joy to the member of the branch and, we know, especially to her son. The made for a great finish of the year 2007. We received a letter from Anne Schill earlier which contained a white cut out man called Flat Stanley. Our assignment from Anne was to have him attend what we were doing with our lives and then write a story about it. We took Flat Stanley to the branch and introduced him to all of the things we do there. He went to class with us, he played games, he had some pizza and he met the branch members. You can see, mom made Flat Stanley into a missionary and dressed him up with crayons to fit right in with us. Dad and Mom.

Steve's Adventures in Indonesia

To learn more about me and my uncle Steve's visit to my island, please go to http://steve.schill.com/leakey

New Year Fun!