The Final Countdown

(Thanks Mom for the subject title idea.)

I'm on my last week at the MTC and I'm so excited! The next time I email you I'll be in Kiribati! It's weird thinking that I'll be about a day ahead of you all. Depending on whether I get assigned to an outer island, it might be a while before I can email again.

We're supposed to do the majority of our packing today, so I'll try to be quick with the time I have.

We had an in-field devotional yesterday which I though was really good and interesting. For those who might have done this before in the MTC, they've changed it recently to make it a lot more engaging and less boring. It was for all the missionaries leaving this The elder who joined us this past week said it was his third time doing it, so he wasn't excited at all. We learned a lot about planning and making goals, our expectations, as well as working with the members in our missions. 

At one point, my companion and I were asked very last minute to participate in a play as part of the in-field orientation. It was obviously part of the plan to ask two helpless missionaries last minute to act for the play. We only had a few lines, so it was very easy, despite only having like five minutes to prepare. They had me play the part of a very dry and monotone elders quorum president.

We had Stephen B. Allen speak for the Sunday devotional, and he was really funny and casual with it, mainly discussing distractions from our pre-mission life. The Tuesday devotional was Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy, talking about teaching others commandments and what they mean.

Not much else to say other than I'm really excited to head out to Kiribati! Thank you for all your love and support!

I ataia bwa te Ekeretia koaua. I ataia bwa a maiu Tamara are i Karawa ao Iesu Kristo. I atai bwa a tangirira ngaiia. I ataia bwa rinanon te Tamnei ao Raoiroi, ti kona ni karekea te korakora ao ti kona n namakin te rau.

I know that this Church is true. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. I know that they love us. I know that through the Holy Ghost, we can receive strength and we can feel peace.

Kam rabwa! I tangiringkami ngai! Thank you all! I love you all!

Elder Schoeny

A picture of our entire district, including the new elder, in front of the temple

 Our new Kiribati sign drawn by one of the elders in my district

MTC Week 5

This week was probably the fast week so far. We get so absorbed in the work and our studies that time just seems to fly by!

We had a new Elder, Elder Dales, join our district this week. He was in a Kiribati district before us, but because of a double hernia and surgery. He served as a missionary in the Provo mission until he was well enough to go to Kiribati. We're now the 2nd largest Kiribati district this year with 13 missionaries, the 1st being 14. The previous district only had 6.

No Apostles from the Quorum of the Twelve this week for devotionals, but they were still pretty good. On Sunday we had President Mehr, a district president of the MTC, who spoke about the healing power of the Atonement. On Tuesday we had L. Whitney Clayton in the Presidency of the Seventy talk about the truthfulness of the church, and how it either is true, or it isn't - there's no middle ground.

I do have some news about singing in General Conference. They're having the missionaries sing in the Saturday Afternoon session. I wasn't selected to sing, but four others in my district were, which is pretty cool. There is still a small chance I could get in, though. If a missionary misses even one practice, they aren't allowed to sing anymore and an alternate takes his/her place. Practice this morning was at 7:15am, so I feel like they might be trying to weed out anyone that isn't as committed to singing. Here's hoping I'm one of the alternates.

We also had our first Skype TRC yesterday. It was an awesome experience. We got to Skype call a real member from Kiribati and teach her a 30-minute lesson. We had a really hard time understanding her, though, considering this was our first time hearing the language from a native. She also had trouble understanding us at times, but it was awesome nonetheless.

Kam rabwa! I tangiringkami ngai! Thank you all! I love you all!

Elder Schoeny

 I drew a picture on the whiteboard of Baymax saying 

'Does it hurt when I touch it?' in Kiribati

 Some elders in my district printed out some pictures of Brother Farley, one of my teachers, and put several memes of him throughout the room. He's a very outdoorsy guy. Brother Farley laughed so hard he had to walk out of the room.

A picture of the Provo Temple from the back, which looks a lot better than the front

MTC Week 4

Mauri!

The MTC is still going great! We kind of do the same thing every week, so not a whole lot to report.

This past Sunday for our devotional, we had M. Russell Ballard speak about committing ourselves to being representatives of Jesus Christ. We also had Quentin L. Cook speak for the Tuesday devotional about our calling to teach the gospel, as well as remembering to love our companions, the people, our mission presidents, and the Lord. I'm only halfway through the MTC and we've already had three apostles speak in devotionals. Everyone says most missionaries only get to hear from three apostles during their entire MTC stay, so we might get lucky!

Still no word on singing in General Conference. I feel like they'd try to keep that quiet so they don't have the entire MTC trying to get in it. They did give the choir a survey though, which I think is a pretty good sign they might have us sing.

The language is still coming along well. The pronunciation is at least really easy, because unlike English where one letter can have multiple different sounds, the letters in Kiribati always make the same sound. We've been improving with each practice lesson with our pretend investigators. I can so far at least bear my testimony and pray in Kiribati from memory.

We also had an incredible experience together as a district. One of the Elders had surgery some time before coming out. He was told that if it didn't heal properly, he would have to go home, which would have been really sad. He had a doctor's appointment a few days ago to find out whether he would have to go home, so we fasted and prayed for him as a district. He knew the Lord had a plan for him, and whatever that plan was, he would continue to trust the Lord. Our prayers were answered, and he was told with certainty that he would be able to stay on his mission. Our district really grew in unity because of that. I know Heavenly Father is watching over us, no matter the significance.

Kam rabwa! I tangiringkami ngai! Thank you all! I love you all!

Elder Schoeny

picture of the missionary field

picture of the volleyball court

me wearing an awesome T-Shirt Oma and Opa sent me

MTC Week 3

Mauri!

Another great week here at the MTC! We've been doing a lot of the same stuff around here, but we've improved a lot since our arrival.

For any of you BYU fans, Chad Lewis spoke at our Sunday Devotional. He talked about missionary experiences throughout his mission and football career. We also had to opportunity to hear from Elder Christofferson for our Tuesday Evening Devotional, which was broadcast across all the MTCs. He talked mainly about repentance, and also about being trusted by the Lord as well as our companions, investigators, members, and mission president. I also got to sing in the choir for the Tuesday Devotional with Sweet Hour of Prayer. (Elder Davis, you might have been able to see me) I haven't heard anything yet about the missionaries singing in General Conference this October, but I'll let you know if I'll be in the choir so you can look for me!

Our teachers have also told us some more interesting things about their missions in Kiribati. Apparently they eat pretty much anything that washes up on the shores, including whales! They also apparently like eating sea turtles.

We also got to host on Wednesday, which was pretty cool. Hosting involves picking up missionaries (for me, Elders) from the car drop off, helping with their luggage, and getting them to their residence and class. Apparently most people don't get to host that soon into their MTC stay, so I guess we got lucky.

I'd also like to say how much of a blessing it is that I can still run after all the trouble I had with my leg injury and the surgery for it. I had stopped running for a while before my mission to see how my leg would react. It held up just fine, but it was hard getting back into the habit of running. I just started again, and I've been reminded just how much I enjoyed running. It's helped a lot with clearing my mind and having more energy to last the whole day. I feel so blessed to have been able to recover from that injury and continue running without problems. I know the Lord's hand was in the recovery process after my surgery.

I also forgot to put my MTC mailing address in my previous emails, so here it is:

Elder Jared Paul Schoeny
OCT04 MRI-MAJ
2005 N 900 E Unit 136
Provo UT 84602

Thank you so much!

I tangiringkami ngai! I love you all!

Elder Schoeny

 Elders in our district, in front of the Provo Temple.

 The first pic is all of us at our favorite study spot.

The guy sticking his head through the door is one of our teachers. Just a fun pic.

First Full Week Going Great!

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Mauri! Kam uara? I marurung!

Hello! How are you all? I'm healthy (I'm doing well!)

It's been an amazing first full week at the MTC! It's incredible how the Spirit is just constantly there. The other missionaries were right, the days are long, but the weeks fly by. That probably doesn't make much sense haha.

Every Sunday and Tuesday evening we have a devotional. Every week there's a rumor that Jeffrey R. Holland will come, but so far he hasn't since we've been here. They have really great speakers come. On Sunday Tracy W. Wattson, who's in charge of putting together Preach My Gospel and the District 3 video series, spoke on our purpose as missionaries. He also had two sister missionaries from District 3 come along with one of their investigators who bore his testimony. It was really powerful. Tuesday we had Richard J. Maynes of the Seventy come, and he focused on the impact one missionary can have. Sunday night we also got to watch a video of Elder Bednar's devotional, "Character of Christ." It was incredible and extremely eye-opening. If you can find it, I highly recommend watching it!

The MTC is still going great! Really enjoying my time here. We've been having lots of practice teaching lessons, so I've been learning a lot. We've also come a long way with the language, even if we're still not that great haha. Turns out the investigator we taught in Kiribati was actually just a pretend-investigator helping us practice teaching in our language. Half the time we had no idea what he was saying haha. He gave us some really good advice with teaching and the language after our last time teaching him.

There are eleven elders and one sister in my district, which consists of those speaking Kiribati. Most of them are from Utah, but there are some from Hawaii, Idaho, and North Carolina.

One of my teachers, Brother Packer, told us something really interesting as to why 'ti' makes the 's' sound in Kiribati. Hyrum Bingam is the person who made Kiribati a written language. When writing down the language, the 's' key on his typewriter was broken, so he would type 'ti' in place of it. Eventually, when he got a new typewriter, he decided that Iesu Kirsto (Jesus Christ) would be the only thing in Kiribati to have the letter 's'. I just thought that was really cool.

Thank you for all your kind words and support!

I tangiringkami ngai! I love you all!

Elder Schoeny

The picture with all of us and one guy with glasses in the front is us with a teacher who pretended to be our investigator, Bateriki. He had to stop working because of classes at BYU.