News from Elder Schneider

Well I dont know what happened last week, but this week I got everyones emails. Just keep sending me emails at davidbschneider@myldsmail.netThats great about the trip down to LA. I received the pictures. Everyone looks like they are doing great. LA is a great city, and I loved celebrating thanksgiving there in 2003 and 2004 and Christmas there last year. The twins look l great, and thats crazy theyve started talking now. Maybe they can learn spanish before I get home in only 19 months now! I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. We had our zone class on thursday this week, and we all ate pizza from Dominos as a celebration for American Thanksgiving and also because the President is really pleased with what we are doing in the zone San Pablo. Chileans of course do nothing to recognize American Thanksgiving. And I dont know if I have cleared it up, but they didnt really seem to celebrate day of the dead here on Nov. 1, but they had halloween here like they do in the States. November 1 is All Saints Day here in Chile. Well I am here in Corona Sueca with Elder Wood, and the next change is Dec. 23, so we might be together for Christmas, so maybe it will be the first time a gringo will arrange the telephone call home. I dont think we will have transfers that week.Anyway the Christmas package, dont worry if you cant find the scripture mastery cards in Spanish, English will be fine. Thanks a ton also for the pictures, they have been a great help. I used some of those laminated ones you sent me for the first time to explain the Book of Mormon to a couple on Friday night. The couple isnt married and already have a six year old kid so that will be a problem if we are still teaching them for the next couple weeks. But this message is for everyone.Anyhow this last week we saw some miraculous blessings. On Friday we had a baptismal service for an eight year old, she isnt a convert, but we had to fill the baptismal font a couple hours before the baptism. Luckily the Elders Quorum President was there as well as a couple other members. We had the doors to the church open and some members inside the church, and we thought why dont we give people a quick little tour of the church? Have them meet some members and get some lessons with a member present. So we gave four people a tour of the church, showed them around, showed them the baptismal font, showed them the chapel, and set a return appointment. Its just so much easier to teach the gospel when we teach them inside the church. It was so great!Also this last sunday we had 7 investigators in the church. A new personal record for me, and hopefully a record that will be broken the next week. We had a great amount of help from the members. But 2 of the investigators that came to the church, couldnt find our chapel and were looking around for the church for 30 min. and one of them had a baby that she had to carry in her arms for that whole time, and they still made it to hear the last speaker in the sacrament meeting, it was amazing! We truly got lucky, or lucky meaning we truly had the Lord helping us. We really had a great past week, and I hope I can work harder this week and find more people to teach. Anyhow, I am greatful for everything that you have all done for me. This week we are going to have our mission conference with Elder Paul V. Johnson of the first quorum of the seventy and first counselor of the area of Chile. And if this mission conference is anything like the last one when we heard Elder Hollands farewell Chile talk, it will be a great uplifting experience.Well I hope everyone is doing great, hopefully I can try and send some more pictures. I got the news from Kevin, Budapest Hungary is pretty amazing. I remember my last couple weeks in the MTC we shared a floor with missionaries learning Hungarian, which was pretty odd, because for the whole rest of the time we shared it with missionaries going stateside, guess it was a sign.Well the Chilean culture fact tidbit for the week. There are many Chileanismos. One of the modifiers that Chileans use to indicate an abundance is "re" you can say for example, sería rebueno (it would be really good). He is realto (he is really tall). I dont know if that is how you spell it, but people use re as a modifier. Also in Chile, some people pronounce the "y" and the "ll" like the "j" in bonjour, or Jean in French. So the word key which is llave, some people pronounce with the "j" sound. Or help, ayuda, some people pronounce with the "j" like bonjour sound. People in Argentina and in Uruguay emphasize the "j" sound even more. Until it almost sounds like "sh." For example voy a ir a la playa cruzando la calle. The y in playa and the ll in calle are really emphasized for Aregtines and Uruguayos. For gringos the sound just dosent sound as beautiful, when we do it, maybe near the end of my mission ill get better using that sound.Anyway, love you all. Thanks for everything that you do.Elder Schneider

Doc, Happy, Dopey, Bashful, and Sleepy at Disneyland!

Hey everyone - Even thought the best part of LA is ALWAYS seeing what little Jule and Caleb are up to, one can't ignore another fab place with cute little characters - Disneyland! There was a bit of opposition to the idea- "isn't Disneyland for kids?" but after some fast talking Nan was able to persuade certain family members to join her in visiting her favorite happiest place in the world.
We started off with the Christmas parade, where we got to see a few dozen Disney characters and THEN Santa himself at the end of the parade, leading the entire crowd in singing Jingle Bells. After that it was a blur of rides and lights and music. Most of the younger Schneidz voted Space Mountain as their favorite ride - the same one where 6 year old Beej asked "Can I get off now?" Nan's fave was "It's a Small World" all decked out for the holidays. It was about midnight when things shut down and our new Disney hoodies were all wet from Splash Mountain. So we decided we better call it quits. Nan is so looking forward to the day when she can take Little Oliver, Julian and Caleb with her to her favorite spot. Maybe as soon as they can say 'Walt Diseny!' After all, isn't Disneyland for kids?
Such a happy way to start celebrating the holiday season!!

i love my job

so i really like working at gymboree. it's such a great place and the kids are so cute. we did a few different art projects today...

Surf, Sand, and Disneyland

The whole Thanksgiving weekend was of course, awesome. However, one definite highlight for me was surfing! As a beginner to the sport, I didn't know exactly what to expect. Unfortunately, the conditions were not ideal, but under Ian's careful guidance, I progressed from being pulled off and crushed under the wave to catching it and almost standing up! Maybe next time, I'll be able to get up all the way. Then I'll feel like I'm on top of the world.

Thanksgiving Hangover

So I had an idea for a killer sauce to baste the turkey with. It was equal parts maple syrup, melted butter and brown ale. Suffice it to say that it surpassed my expectations and was enjoyed by all. However, I really only needed one bottle of beer for the sauce, but had to buy a six-pack. So I have 5 bottles of beer sitting in my kitchen. Any ideas as to how a non-beer drinker could productively use them? I was thinking chili, but we already have about 10 gallons of turkey soup. Anyway, would really appreciate any insights (both serious and goofy).

Thanks!

hey!

well it was sure a blast this weekend. what a funny family we have. little Julian kept saying 'Daddo' and we were amazingly able to pull together for one complete family picture. how awesome. i will get those books off soon mom, i'll go to meliss' tomorrow to get the pic. love you guys!

p.s. Can't wait to see you all at Christmas! here is your sibling gift person and we were thinking the budget could be about $10. if you need inspiration at all the theme idea is 'celebrate!' otherwise just talk to your person and see what they like.

Meliss buys for Rach

Ian for Beej

Jord for Ian

Char for Linds

Linds for Jord

Beej for Meliss

Rach for Char

24 hour flu

Jord and I have just gotten over the flu. It was super lame but what brightened our dull, dark days was the first season of 24. Much like our flu symptoms the plot was relentless and we're actually almost finished the entire first season now. Nothing like revenge motivated assassination attempts, kidnappings and good old frantic Jack to spark in even the most despondent of sufferers, the will to live....long enough to see who's behind this sinister turn of events anyways. Gotta go...must find out where Victor Drazen is taking Jack......

Homesick for Home Ec

My school didn't offer a home economics course, and I had absolutely no interest in pursuing anything akin to it in university. I'm not sure if home ec wasn't an option because at that point (mid 90's) people felt that those classes were part of a greater conspiracy to keep women in the kitchen as much as it was just my school didn't have the size or funding to pull it off. I think the whole conspiracy thing may have been part of the reason I steered way clear of anything to do with home, kids, cooking, finances etc. when I was in college. I vaguely knew that Some Day I would do all that stuff, but I didn't want to study it. Why take home economics when you can learn about Ancient Greek Architecture, or navel-gaze in Beginning Acting or get 75% off lift tickets through the PE ski class, and, lest I forget, focus on my adored major which was my route for gainful employ the day after I received my diploma. No one suggested I learn anything that would have been beneficial for a stay-at-home mom, and if they had I would have laughed and then been mild to medium offended.
Fast forward a few years to the days I'm trying to get nutritious, fast and simple dinners on the table on at least a bi-weekly basis (come on people!) with enough leftovers for Ian to take to lunch on the days he needs a lunch and without busting the budget each month on groceries. Looking back I really wish that I maybe had given home ec some thought. I'm going on three years now since my working has been transferred from a windowless office to my house and it's been a little bit crazy to try to figure it all out. It definitely was not instaknowledge like I had vaguely assumed. The skills I learned in college serve little to no purpose in my new life, except as a topic of conversation. People tell me- "oh, you'll go back to it someday when your kids start school" or "think of all you learned while you were working." Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I studied what I studied and that I worked for awhile, and I don't know if I'd do anything different if I was to do it over again, to be honest. I guess I just wonder why colleges are dumping out hundreds of thousands of grads every year who can tell you precisely what painter did what when, but blink with wide-eyed wonder if you asked them to prepare a nutritious, economical meal for four each day of the week, or run a household with confident smoothness. I guess I feel like if I had prepared myself for being a mom even a micro faction as much as I prepared myself for my career- I think it would have come in reeaaalll handy right now.

Nana and Grandpa's House

We just got back from a big visit to Nana and Grandpa's House! Boys enjoyed crawling around in the kit- wait a minute, they aren't crawling anymore, they are walking EVeryWhere. They just started walking when we left LA and they got lots of opportunities to practice their newly developing skill in the long hallways and connecting rooms of their Seattle house. We enjoyed our time with our gracious hosts, it was wonderful to not have to worry about cooking meals and taking care of the household! The boys thrived with all the attention they were lavished with. Thanks for the great visit!