Hi DALE!
Wow sorry, i just thought that since i am almost 20 i can just call you Dale... just kidding!
I am going to try the Walmart thingy in just a minute, and if it doesn't work,  will scream and punch everybody in here in the face. HARD. That's about 6 people.


Flippin cool man, Ben won! Ugh i wish i could have been there. Did Ben have any awesome plays? And was the game flippin intense? He looks kinda big and scary... good thing i am going to work out until i am massive!


As for the flat, we live right in Kalongo, RIGHT next to the primary school. We go to Kikoko like, once or twice a week, but yeah our flat is right there in the Kalongo market. Actually on a hill next to the market. Send a quadrant map and i will pinpoint it for you. 


I am going to try and upload those pictures now. Don't tell the fam, but i am sending my journal that has the first 6 months, with a short letter and my 4gb memory card in a protective envelope and it should be there in a few weeks. WOO! Pray that it is safe. I love you so much Daddio! Christmas 2013 is going to be the best dang Christmas of our lives, i know it. 


Love, Conrad

From Elder Arineitwe

Dad, yes Am so happy that Ben won the game, some day we some day will congratulate him for wining in the world championship. well like you say we all slow down some times. Me too, its not that am always in tune with the spirit of the Lord. And am working on a lot of weaknesses. Thank you for giving me such a good compliment. l  will admit that am not perfect and  there are a lot of things in the past l wish l never said and did. l will also admit that me alone can not stand. l have tried that before. lt never worked and l hate to say that there are some mistakes in my past that l have repeated in the present in my past that, l know that with out the Lord Jesus Christ in my life it will never work, l can not gain my full portentail with out him. I admit that at several times in my life thought my actions l have shown Him that l do nt need Him. Yet He has never shown me that He never needs me. I happens in twinkle of an eye and am in a mistake. However, I have a testimony of Him that I will never deny, that He lives so that we too can live.  I desire to send to you my picture but I have no camera. I will have to see if my companion can help me use his to take the picture. The any thing that I want the most Dad is to hear from you. I know that I need to hear of your advice and the words that you write to me are a great help. No one from Uganda really writes to me and my Muslim father does not care weather am on a mission or not. Emailing me helps me to feel loved and l feel that am not a lone. To be honest I know that this gospel is true but a also human, some times l pray hard that my faith can not fail me. It is hard to know that no one from Uganda will send a massage of confert at the end of the week. Right now all I ask you Dad is to maintain communicating to me. lt is more to me than any thing else.  LOVE YOU DAD.  

To Leah, June 26

MOMMY!

Ok i am going to be fairly brief so that i can send you some pictures. But as for my new area, i will have to tell you with time. Make sure you read Dad's email so you can get the basics about everything. In short, i love 3 things already:
1. My area.
2. My companion
3. These amazing mountain people.
4. The flats and conditions.
Ok i know that was more, but still i had to mention because i am in love with this place!!! It is simply incredible. I literally climb mountains every day. I am getting SO toned.

As for snakes, nope. Not in this area. too high in the mountains and the snaked are mostly in Chyulu, which is where Kagame was serving. And yes, still washing by hand! My fingers bleed haha! But not bad, don't worry. I am getting faster at doing wash so all is well. I may still wash my shirts by hand at home because it works so incredibly well.

That is awesome to hear about Ben! Except i have bad news... he is not faster than me. I am so toned from this climbing and walking that i can run and walk for extended periods now! AND, my upper body is getting big because of all the daily workouts i get to do. It is exciting, and i am looking forward to wrestling Benjamin when i get home. He better be ready >:) Tell him i said that too, ok? I'm comin for HIM!

And get Danny to email me!! Please because i need to hear from him! Is he doing well? Is he happy? Does he have anything he could need help with? I love him so much and i want him to be happy too :)

Well Momma, i have  cool story for you.
STORYTIME!!! There was a man named Alex that i met on my first day here in the Kilungu hills. He drinks and smokes, but we sat down with him (while he was drunk) and talked things over. And after we were bearing powerful testimony, he simply handed over the cigarette he had in his pocket without us asking. He met with us the next day, sober, and even came to church, sober. We should ave some few baptisms lined up here. I am pretty excited to work in these hills :)

I am learning to cook too, just fyi. I am going to send home my journal with a 4 gb memory card. It has alot of cool things on it that i think you will find nice. I wrote a song, by the way. 2 actually. well actually 3. One is an arrangement of "Called to Serve" and a song called "Zion's Hill". I wrote it at request of my Kitale zone leader and we sang it as a zone. I have the arrangement still, and when i get home i will organize a group to sing it in sacrament. The second is a little zone song that has a bunch of inside jokes with the other Elders. no big. The third is a song called African Sunrise. I wrote it when i saw the sunrise one morning, and it is cool. I may record it sometime and send it home ok? It is a cool song, and everybody that has heard it says that they love it and that i should get it recorded and everything. Haha, Elder Jensen says it can make millions of dollars and that i need to pursue the course of getting it seriously recorded. Worth a try, right? :)

Well Momma, I love you so much. I had a dream that a was hugging you all, and it was nice. Haha! But time will bring all things. "I am enjoying my mission" is a light term. Every day i wake up with greater determination, only to the grace of my Father. I have to devote all to Him, Mom. How is the family? And how is everybody in the ward there? Is there anybody i need to write a letter to in the ward? I did receive the letter from Linda Bodily, i will write back soon enough. Become friends with her ok? Cuz i am going to be friends with Tanner forever :)

Love you forever Momma. I'll be home for Christmas. But for now, i am here and happy. Stay happy, don't count the days.

Love you for eternity,
Elder Schneider

From Elder Arineitwe

Dear Dad,
Thank you for that love and care, I miss Elder Schneider, I will write to him a letter this week. Thank you for telling me that Mum says hi. There some parts of Kenya that are a little hotter. Well, Yesterday was my birth day, that was soo cool. Heavenly Father has allowed me to see 22 years. My new companion is called Elder Law, He is also from Idaho, from Nampa town. I know there must be a reason why God gives me two companions from the same place in the start of my mission. can you guess Dad? Well that was some thing that am thinking about lately. He is a very good man too. so happy to have him. I have not yet got the package, Elder Schneider told me that he wuold send to me what you sent.
love you dad.

From Elder Kagame, my other adopted son

Dad!!
Am so grateful for that wonderful mail you sent to me am very happy to
have you in my life and i promise i will always be a honest son to
you.Well i was transferred to Nairobi and my area is called Kasarani.
I was so happy to meet my brother in the APs flat it was a wonderful
time for me to meet Conrad again after six months he looks wonderful i
wish you can see him physically as i did indeed he is a grate
missionary. Thanks for being a grate father am sure everything Conrad
is doing here he learn t it from you. I will be happy to receive that
package and another thing i would love you to send me is an iPod full
of church music if possible because church music is one of the things
that makes me feel the spirit i will so grateful if you do that for me
dad. Wow for sure you have a wonderful family i wish one day i meet
each you and have fun together as a family? that will be so nice most
especially for me because it has been a long time since i had fun with
my family.
Anyway dad i wish you all the best and my God pour his blessings upon
you so that you will be able to take good care of us . Love you so
much and send my greetings to every one there .
OHHHH thanks very much for the pictures for sure i love you family
they are all awesome so how old is you daughter and your sons?
Well God be with you till we talk to each other next time
Elder Kagame.

Regarding the horse photo Conrad referred to that I emailed him....

Check out this photo.  I love this horse.  I think he deserves a great pasture in Heaven, probably already has it.  But look at his feet!  He's on the tips of his hooves.  To me, it's a photographic metaphor for struggles and challenges.  We don't give up.  We weigh in to our burdens, put our heads down, dig our toes in and pull.  The Lord will then make our burdens light, but we do all we can.  There will come more challenges, there always does.  But we expect it, and we do the same thing.  Bow our heads in prayer first, then against the challenge before us.  I love that horse.  He does his duty even though there is a tremendous load.  He's noble.  He submits to the master.  He trusts the master.  It's interesting to think the Master has to know what that horse is capable of, and won't load him with more than he can pull, but the horse doesn't argue with the master, he just goes to work.   I just wanted to share this picture with you because I love it.  It inspires me and makes me think of strength, duty, nobility, devotion.  It makes me think of the Savior and the burden he carried.  How he obediently walked right in to his challenge and won.  I love you Conrad.  Keep your head bowed, put your weight against the harness, and go.  The Lord will help.  I love you tons!
Dad

June 26

Daddio!!!!

I have been grrrrrreat!!

The new area is amazing! The Kilungu Hills, and the name is extremely fitting. Actually, the name is an underestimation. These are mountains! And we climb them all day. I thought i was sweating in my last area... ha... ha... We climb these mountains to every appointment. This area is by far the most rural area. We literally wake up in a cloud every morning. By evening, the cloud comes back too. And it gets COLD! I LOVE IT!!! Yes, our flat is only 2 small rooms, but we share with the other Elders next door. Yes, we don't have a real toilet, we use a hole. BUT! I never have to worry about clogged toilets, or flushing, or... cold toilet seats... Yes, i still have to shower by bucket and basin, but i think that the shower is being repaired soon... i hope. It is seriously a memorable area, and i love it alot. You would not believe the scenery. and the people are sooo humble and nice. I am learning the language, Kikamba, and i am aiming to actually learn it fluently. I am on my way! Needless to say, it is going to make for a ton of memories :)

My companion is Elder Mkhungo from South Africa. He is a great guy and he is super fun and relaxed. We get along well, and when we teach i can feel that the Holy Ghost is drawing us together to teach. I really love this work and the great blessing i have to serve.

Pictures - they are coming. I am going to send home everything soon, probably when i visit Nairobi sometime soon.

I am happy to hear about Benny and his games. You gotta gimme stats and details - I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT COOL PLAYS HE MAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And tell Jessica he wasn't the one. He sounds like a great man, but he wasn't the one. No worries! Hakuna matata! Give my consolation to Jessica ok? I love her so much. And tell Danny he needs to email me! i want to email him too, but he hasn't replied to any of mine! I wanna talk to him too cuz i FLIPPIN LOVE HIM.

Well Daddio, the picture you sent of the horse didn't pull up, and i don't know why. But can you add it again as an attachment and maybe it'll pull up? Because i want to see it really badly. Even print it off and get it laminated and hang it in our flat.

I love you dad. You never cease to be my best friend and support. Life is good here and time is flying! This is a precious gift to serve here. Just look at these pictures and imagine - I get to tread these beautiful hills daily and see all this amazing stuff. I get to serve the Lord and get blessings sent to these people and back to you all. Ahhh... Everything about this all is a blessing. Wanna hear a funny story? Ok!

STORYTIME!!!! I was using the hole in a shop, and as i was [thus engaged,] (*modification to original text by editor),  i saw a flash of white and something fell into the hole. I waited about 3 seconds and heard a *splat*, confirming that something had, indeed, fallen into the hole. Well, turned out to be my white handbook. Well no big deal right? WRONG! It had my mission ATM card, my Kenyan alien I.D. card, and about 1000 shilling. HAHAHAHA!!! Funny the kind of little trials we are allowed to suffer in life. Well, i wasn't worried. Everything can be replaced with time and all will be well :) Funny huh? When it fell and after it splatted, i just froze for like 10 seconds, ruminating on what had just occured. In my head, "...... yeah...... darnit.... that was important stuff...." We all got a good laugh out of it :)

Love you forever Dad. Life is great. Your son is working hard, and i am trying to do what i am supposed to do. Eh... It's not easy, but this will all be worth it. I know it with all my heart. We may have a few good baptisms lined up as well. Love you forever! With this training, i will be WAY ready for Long's Peak. It'll be a walk in the park, literally. Just wait for the pics :)

With eternal love from your first son,
Elder Schneider