Hermana Schmidt: Hermana Schmidt

My name will soon be "Hermana Schmidt" and I couldn't be more excited. This has been the biggest blessing of my entire life and I am so grateful Heavenly Father is sending me to the beautiful Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I can't wait to learn my Spanish and hit the ground running! I have the opportunity to go to the MTC in Santo Domingo which is a huge blessing considering that my mission will start in the land i'm serving, and I couldn't be more excited to go.

A couple of cool things that happened in this process:

I felt like I should take a Spanish class last semester, as well as buy Spanish scriptures. I didn't know why and I figured it would just be useful to learn, but I know that it was prompted from Heavenly Father now.

I felt prompted to take two bible classes this semester, and lo and behold I am going to an over 80% Roman Catholic populated mission! Which means I really have to study the bible and learn how to efficiently connect it with the Book of Mormon and modern day revelation. I am so grateful I felt that prompting for these classes because it's totally helped with that!

I was lead my entire life towards marine biology and have learned a lot of cool things about the ocean, and guess what!? There are many marine biologists in Santo Domingo, and I will have something to talk to them about! It's amazing how we never know why we are lead down certain paths until looking retrospectively. In one of my blog posts I talked about how God lead me down a whole road just to tell me to sacrifice it all for a different plan, but now I see it was always the same plan! He was always leading me towards this amazing opportunity to serve the Dominican Republic people!

My sister just got a job with JetBlue and can fly to the Dominican Republic for free! Which means we can go and visit together after my mission for free! I hope you understand how big I view this blessing... I am so excited that words can't describe.

I have always had an interest in history, specifically literary history. But, history intrigued me as I love viewing the context of any story because it adds depth and meaning. I am so fortunate to go to one of the most historical places in the Americas! The Dominican Republic was the very first settling place of the Americas done by Christopher Columbus's brother, and Santo Domingo was declared the capital of the American conquest.

I know that the Lord wants me in the Dominican Republic and that the call came from Him. I know that He will help me and guide me as I strive to do my very best as His missionary and representative. The Lord is the one calling every missionary, and every call is perfect for them, if they submit to His will.

I think of 1 Nephi 3:16 and replaced a couple of words (bolded)

"Wherefore, let us be faithful in answering the call of the Lord; therefore let us go down to the land of our call, for behold we will leave gold and silver, and all manner of riches (and facebook, twitter, iphones, instagram, family, friends, jobs, school) And all this hath we done because of the calling of the Lord"