Elder Schmidt's letter for April 8th. Curtis talks about playing "Temple Ball" in Manhattan. The temple in Manhattan is very unique, the temple is in the upper floors of the building with the lower floors being a church office building, a chapel, and a culture hall with a basketball court. When you go into the building there is an elevator that is just for taking you up to the temple. 

Hey,

        How are you all?   I'm in the middle of my first week.  Had some time, so I thought I would start an email to you guys. I'm doing good. We mostly knock doors.  It's funny, we call ourselves the blood hounds because all we do is find that we rarely teach in this area, but it is awesome,  We knocked like 200 doors today, literally.  I am so tired but it's a good tired.  Today we saw a precession for Easter where all these catholic people were walking down the street.  The companionship that we are roommates with saw one with like 250 people and at the end of it all, they had hung a fake Jesus doll on a cross,  They showed us pictures and it was crazy! hahah.  I am loving the Bronx.  There is so much to see. Tomorrow is General Conference and I will write more after that, so goodnight...... sorta kinda, not really.

 Saturday General Conference was awesome!   I got so much out of it, but there were so many talks on marriage and family, hahahah  Oh yeah, We watched General Conference at the church, but in like a small room because more people show up from the Spanish branch, so they get the chapel.  It was seriously just like just missionaries watching and that is probably what is going to happen today.  It was so funny whenever marriage was mentioned we would turn to a couple of the missionaries that are going home the next cycle.  

In between sessions we tracked because we seriously need to find someone to teach.  After we were done, we went to a bodega and got what I can only describe as the greatest sandwich of all time. Chipotle chicken with chipotle Gouda (or however you spell that cheese) with an egg.  It was so good! hahah. During the priesthood session we had root beer floats from the ward and that was fun.  It's Sunday morning and we are about to study,  I just wanted to write you some more,  I will continue later.

Hey it's Monday today in the morning.  My companion is in a meeting, so I'm just chilling.  hahah.  Today seems like it is going to be awesome. We aren't knocking any doors. 

It is now Wednesday.  Sorry if this email is super weird,  hahah 

I will get better at emailing some day, but anyways, Monday we ended up knocking on one door.  It was a family from the Dominican Republic and the only spoke Spanish so we are going to have to pass them off to the Spanish elders.  But Monday we met a man named Lewis and his wife Sydney and they are awesome.  They asked us if we were able to go to their house and we were just like yes of course!  hahah.  They did like half the work for us.

To answer some questions our apartment address is 2415 creston rd.  Our area is pretty ghetto, but I hear if you get below 154th street it gets really bad.   hahah.  Umm any mail.... goes to the mission office though.   If Kyle wants to send ties, there are no rules on ties, anything goes. We haven't taught too much.  It's mostly just knocking doors or going to parks to find people.  A lot of the people here don't speak English, so I'm the minority.  Everyone thinks that my companion is Dominican because he's black.  It's so funny.

Right now I am sitting on a subway train and we are going to the temple to play some temple ball (just basket ball in the temple). hahah.  We played yesterday at our building and I didn't get to use my half court shot.  hahaha.  So we will see how today goes. 

Another little fun fact.... I guess that I am eating like ten times healthier. hahah.  We eat salad and stuff all the time.  Unless we are going to a bodega, because there we get the best and the least healthy sandwiches ever.  hahah.  Chipotle chicken with pepper jack and an egg!  It's the greasiest, most delicious thing in the world! hahah

Oh yeah, and today we are going to buy what we call Bronx pants. hahah  They are the most ghetto thing ever!  The people here are awesome, but they sometimes just dress ridiculously. hahah

So yeah, that's what's been going on here sort of... You can ask questions if anything seems weird or if I didn't explain something well.  I am not allowed to talk to much back and forth but I am allowed to receive emails every day and write drafts through out the week.  So I will try to answer any questions and tell you everything as much as possible.

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Once we get a picture of the "Bronx pants" I will post them, for Curtis to call something ridiculous it has to be way our there. After all we are talking about the boy who would run up and down the street with his brother wearing morph suits!