Hermana Schmidt's Week 14 Letter 12/29/14

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 12/29/2014 12:32 PM
Subject: "I don't know if we all came from monkeys but I know one did!"

Hola a todos!!

So sorry I could not update last week!! But first off, thanks mom, brandy, and grandma for the packages! I absolutely loved them!! Got them all on Friday so it was a little late Christmas joy :)

So I hope everyone's christmas was wonderful! I thought we might get a white christmas here when it cooled ALL THE WAY DOWN to 88 degrees ;) But alas, no snow was seen. However, Christmas was just grand here! Here, Christmas eve or noche buena is wayyyy bigger than Christmas day. Especially the noche buena dinner... it's humonginormous!! I'm pretty sure i'm still full from the one we had at a member's house, and i'll probably still be full until the next christmas haha.

But, Christmas day was wonderful as well. We taught a lesson to Nayelin (She's 10, Sonia is her grandma, and her mom who was a member passed away) well in the lesson she said "When can I get baptized?! I'm getting desperate here!"She's so sweet and reminds me a lot of my little sister Danni. Well we gotta wait to give her a baptismal date until Sonia gets one which should be this week! :) But we taught her lesson 1 and wow.. teaching about how our savior, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith with our Heavenly Father... it was just incredible. I know Jesus lived and died for us, but even more so, he lives for us. He truly did appear and restore his church on the earth because of his infinite love for each of us. There was something really beautiful about testifying of that on Christmas.

Angel is also doing great! We are pushing his date back so that he feels more ready. He's really working on his Word of wisdom addictions which is just wonderful to see him changing. He comes to church, on time, every week! He is great and we are praying for a baptism for him before Hermana Fletcher finishes her mission. But, when we taught him the Word of Wisdom he was nervous but said really firmly "Can I just tell you something? I had a dream I was fighting with the devil and I pushed him down and I said I BEAT YOU!!"

Needless to say he's really hopeful and so are we to kick these addictions right out the door! :)

So Smith and Kevin. They are a hoot. Not only did they drop in on my Skype call to my family (they claim just to say hi to my family but they haven't stopped talking about Calli or Jessi since). In the middle of one of our lessons Smith asked, "Did we come from monkeys?" And so our lesson turned into a whole of 1 Nephi 13:22 and explaining we don't know how God works. They were satisfied and then Kevin said, "Well I don't know if we all came from monkeys, but I know one did" (pointing to Smith). These boys. But Kevin said he really wants to get baptized!! When they are younger than 18 they have to wait three months unless they get bishop permission, so we are helping him get that permission! yay!

Well I don't have much else to update on, so I'll share some of my thoughts from my first 3 months in the mission.

I don't know why but I feel really strongly I should share what has been my strength and comfort. Well first and foremost, being a missionary is wonderful. I love it!! However, there are really really really hard times. But, I have been reading in Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 7: "These forty years (3 months) the lord thy god hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing”.  I have truly had the hardest moments in my entire life. Sometimes I'm tempted to think of what I'm lacking (family, Harry potter movies, chick fil a..) but like this scripture says- The lord hath truly been with me', so I really haven't lacked anything!!

I've never needed him more and I've never felt him more. I've never felt more driven to my knees or a more fervent desire to pour out my whole soul to the Almighty being who not only created me but is creating me. But I have truly found strength from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I often think of this quote from Elder Holland:

"I am convinced missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. How could it be easy for us if it was never, ever easy for Him? If he could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on his face, bleed from every pore, and cry äbba, father (papa), if this cup pass, let it pass then Little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn't an easier way, you should remember you aren't the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn't an easier way. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you a spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived... The living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to eternity is through Him, the way, the truth and life".

My Friends and family,

This is so not easy.

But,

This is so worth it.

With love,

Hermana Schmidt

In their apartment

A YSA gave her this tie from her ward, she has the funniest frown

At least she is eating

I have not received an explanation on this photo

Injury from walking on her hands in the wrong place

Roomies

View at the Beach

with Hermana Fletcher

Name tags

with Hermana Fletcher

Cool editing feature

Pillowcase we sent her

Pj's I sent her

other gifts

Roommates

DR Skies

She wanted us to see all of the wires everywhere, I only noticed the clothes drying everywhere

How they get clean water

At a regional meeting

Ocean

Just her tag

Ocean

Ocean

Ocean

Packages received

Hermana Schmidt's Week 13 Letter 12/22/14

So, big time internet problems this week so we didn't get any photos are a letter.  Good thing we are skyping on Thursday!  We did get some photos from her companion's mom though so those are below also.  Here is the message she sent me:

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 12/22/2014 12:23 PM
To: Bunney L. Schmidt
Subject: Re:

Oh my goodness. The internet is SO SLOW. It just stopped and deleted the drafts with the pictures. There won´t be a family email this week but let everyone know that Sonia and Angel will be baptized really soon and progressing and happy christmas!!

Hermana Schmidt's Week 12 Letter 12/15/14

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 12/15/2014 1:16 PM
To: Bunney Schmidt
Subject: We are witnessing ANGELS :)

Hola a todos!!

I can´t believe it´s already Pday again! And even more the end to my first tranfer in the field! The results are in, both Hna Fletcher and I are staying in Los Frailes as comps! Which means I get to kill Hna Fletcher (Mission Slang because it´s her last transfer). But I´m stoked we get to stay!! Ah :)

So, we faced a lot of opposition this transfer. From being sick, robbed, and our area really slowing down. However, miracles really do come after the trials because we have seen the area start picking up again this week!! :)

I will start with Smith and Kevin, the 2 teenagers I talked about last week. They both are progressing and reading the Libro de Mormon. They haven’t come to church yet but they are really excited to learn. They are praying about our message and they said if they receive an answer they will both be baptized!!

We also started teaching Sonia. Sonia is the grandma of a menos activa. One of her daughters, who was a member, died recently. Sonia said she´s been seeing a lot of flaws in her own church and wants to learn about ours (her passed on daughter´s). Our lesson with her was so powerful and we invited her to baptism and she said yes!! We are hoping to set a date tonight. Ah. There really are people who are ready and we just need to be willing to share.

A man called us out form the street asking if we were from the states. We said yes and talked with him. turns out he lived in the US for a long time and talks in english! His name is Angel and we got an appointment with him. His name suits him because he was out little needed miracle this week! We taught him and he said "Iknow God lives. I always have, but recently I´ve felt like I just need to go to church. I know I need to go, I just feel it. Both my parents died, and since then I just have felt this so strong!" AH. And guess what!! HE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY. Hermana Hinrichsen and I played a special musical number with the violin and piano and he said he loved it and felt something! It was just the coolest ever. We are hoping to get a baptismal date this week with him as well.

Okay so in the DR they have a system with colmados, they are like little gas stations without the gas part. You just call them and they deliver whatever you need in seriously less than 5 minutes. They are on every corner, It´s making me lazy... haha but anyway. It´s a great system. Well we always call this colmado and the colmado boy comes and his name is Kennedy. Well, we aren´t supposed to contact people when they are working but we decided because he brings us stuff seriously every day, we became good enough friends to at least try and start up a conversation. So we got all of our mission courage up and prayed and when he came we were so pumped. We run down the stairs and the first thing he says is "So if one wants to come to your church how do they do that???" AHHHH. We were freaking out!!! That was such a crazy little tender mercy. So the other hermanas will hopefully start teaching him in the next couple of weeks because he lives in their area!

So the funnies.

In a prayer in a lesson, our member that came with us said (Keep in mind we had barely taught this investigator anything) "Please bless this woman. I don´t know her name but yeah. Bless her to be baptized and to believe in Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints" Yeah, you pick your favorite part that went haywire for your liking. haha

Also, I have these princess stickers from my mom (WHICH ARE AWESOME) And so now we have a crowd of little kids that attack us every day. Like... 20 kids hugging each of us at a time haha. It´s wonderful. They treat us like princesses, which is good unless we are hurrying to an appointment :)

We got woken up by a marching bandish party thing at 5 AM one morning because it´s almost christmas and the DR is going crazy. Someone help me sleep please, tips anyone?? haha.

Okay, this isn´t really funny but cool. A man in our ward is writing a hymn for the church and guess what?! I´m writing the piano part for it! So there could be future hymn with the piano part done by me! AH! That would be really cool if it all works out.

Anyway, I love you all. This church is true!!! I know God lives and loves us.

Hurrah for Israel!!

Hermana Schmidt :)

Another airport photo from last week

Photo with her ward friends Rafi and Diego

House Buddies, AKA Roommates

Goofing off with her ward friends Rafi and Diego

A ward friend Alex taped up her hand to protect her watch since her other one got broken in the mugging

Her and Sister Curtis, from Orem and went to Lakeridge

Hermana Schmidt's Week 11 Letter 12/8/14

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net] 

Sent: 12/08/2014 1:26 PM
Subject: We got mugged.

Hola a todos, 

So we got mugged last monday night. <we were walking to visit a contact and a moto got really close to us. One man jumped off and tried to take our backpacks, but they were too tight, so he just took our planners. But it wasn´t too bad and we are fine :) December is sketchy here because a lot of people are desperate for christmas money, so now we have a new rule for this month to have a man in the ward come with us every night from 6-9 to our appointments so we feel really safe :) And hey! >The lessons are in the planners, maybe the robbers will read them and get baptized one day!!

So this week was just wonderful and flew by! I finished the Pearl of Great Price and now I´m in the Old Testament and almost done with Genesis! In the story of Jacob and Rachel, when he works 14 years to have her be his wife, it says the years felt like days to him because of the love he had for Rachel. Well the weeks feel like seconds on the mission because I love being a missionary!! It is just the best!!

We started teaching two teenage boys named Smith and Kevin. They are really excited to learn. I told them how I know God loves us and that he lives. I had one of those "I don´t feel like I´m the one talking" moments. I told my 1st fluent story in spanish! I´m so excited because it´s hard for me to tell stories but it is finally coming. 

We taught Omar again and we met his 8 year old daughter. Omar is awesome and I think he knows it is true, but he said he likes having freedom and partying it up. So it will take time, but I really really feel that he and his daughter will be baptized. I challenged him to be baptized if he receives an answer to his prayer and he said YES. So he is really progressing. No date yet on the baptismal service, but he accepted the challenge to pray and act on his answer!! Miracles upon Miracles. 

And now I´m SO excited to tell you about Wilfo. Wilfo is the contact who said we always looked so happy. Well we taught him and he has a wife and 2 little baby boys. He was super excited about our message. We taught him how to pray and he just was so excited to do it! He´s always believed in God but hasn´t really done anything about it, so he is excited to start. He said he is going to invite his wife next time! I had my 1st I´m so happy I could cry moment. In the Pearl of Great Price it says that Enochs heart spread as wide as eternity, and that´s how mine felt!! I´m just so so so happy we found him!! 

So funny moments of the week:

1. Wilfo couldn´t read my nametag so he said Hermana Samantha. He couldn´t believe it was pronounced Sh-mit. He said no! Those are the letters for Samantha! So I said if he wants he can call me Hermana Samantha. He calls me both haha.  

2. Also with wilfo, we asked if him and his wife are legally married and he said "No, but we need to be because she´s Christian and fornicating.".... at least he said it 1st right? ;) But it was blunt and he said they´ll get married so woot woot!

3. I told a guy who was escorting us one night how I got mugged and he just suddenly whips out his machete!! So we had to explain to him it was unnecessary haha. 

4. Omar has a "theres a dog" sign and we saw the sign but not the dog last appointment but this one we saw the dog. The dog is like a poodle sized, least intimidating, unnecessary of a sign little yapper i´ve ever seen. We laughed about that for a while. Signs are a little different here for that :)

5. We had a district activity in the airport today!! Kinda funny, kinda interesting. Definitely the most unique activity ever. 

Well friends and family, you are all so wonderful! You have no idea how much your support means for me. 

I know this church is true, and this is the Lord´s work. 

Hurrah For Israel!!

Hermana Schmidt :)

A cool graffiti wall

Recent convert Alex's family

Another cool wall

Their district at the airport

at the candy stand of Marcellos

A new t-shirt we sent from Yellowstone

More graffiti

Hermana Schmidt's Week 10 Letter 12/1/14

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 12/01/2014 1:10 PM
Subject: "The more you eat the more handsome your husband will be"

Hello everyone!!

Good news. I am healthy once again! It is a miracle, because I did not want to be out of working anymore. And, the miracles always follow tribulation... and this week was not short of them that is for sure!!

So some really spiritual moments were that we found a new family to teach!! We have been working so hard to find one and we did. There are 3 sisters, all  the same ages as my younger sisters. They are just adorable! And super excited to learn more about the gospel. The girls names are Kiara Korina and Kiandra, and my heart just burst with joy after our first lesson because we found a family!! That is just the best feeling in the world. 

Also, we teach a recent convert named Antonio. He is older and is just so passionate about the gospel! Every time we schedule to teach him he has a whole lesson prepared for US. He is just such a great example, and it´s been great to get to know him and have him help us with our work! 

We taught a lesson to a disfellowshipped member about repentance and hope through the atonement. It was one of those lessons when the gift of tongues really kicked in and I could truly testify from my heart of the Atonement and the power to change!! And he keeps coming to church now!! I am so so so so so happy. 

We also started a new program this week, i´m sure youve all heard of it called He Is The Gift. We invite others to watch that mormon message and share it. Well we contacted a man named Wilfo and he said, "Okay. You two always look SO happy. I just want to know why! I want to hear about your church and come to it!!" i started tearing up because i´ve been praying for a good teaching opportunity while contacting. It was a miracle!! I´m very excited to teach him. 

The area is picking up a little more speed because we decided to really take time visiting members and motivating them to help with missionary work! We are getting more references and the ward seems more happy to give them which is just wonderful!!

Also, the other hermanas we live with had a baptism this weekend!! We got to attend and watch it. My heart just wanted to explode!! I am so happy for her and her decision to be baptized. I am so happy for the other sisters too!! I hope my first baptism is soon, because that was such a special experience. 

This week i´ve worked on being strictly obedient, and it´s been so special for me. Like, making sure I am really studying the whole study hour and ready when I need to be and do everything exactly the way it needs to be done. I have felt the spirit 100x more this week!! I can honestly say I have never been happier in my whole life. 

Also, I finished D&C for my first time in my life this week. My new mission goal is to finish my mission and have the Lord approve of it like in D&C 126. Also, I loved 136:28-29. It really taught me the importance of being joyful in the hard and good times! It showed me to rejoice in the good times, and ask for the lords help and he can make our hearts joyful once again! I know that is true, I have felt that so much this week because it was the best and worst of times. On the mission we face a lot of disappointment, fatigue, frustration... but we also face the happiest most wonderful moments in our entire lives!! Ah. It is so wonderful. 

Okay so some funnies from the week!! 

We taught the first lesson to a new investigator Omar. We showed him a picture from the ensign of the first presidency, quorum of 12, and the 70... he said... "Where are the women!!!" So shocked and surprised. We explained that to him and then he said... "But they are all american" and we explained that they weren´t and then he was a lot more comfortable. He was so pleased with the lesson and excited for the next he bought us coca cola. It was my first "I don´t like this but I will have it for my investigator" moment. haha. 

So thanksgiving was just the best! We took lots of thanksgiving selfies with a pumpkin and then went to the zone activity, where our thanksgiving feast was 98% cookies and brownies, but hey there were mashed potatoes so it was still good! Also, that day we started the program and the cards. we took one to our Colmado owner friend, Luis. He is so busy with the colmado so he can´t take our lessons but loves to talk about the gospel when we come in and when he sells the colmado he will meet with us. But we went in and he told his whole colmado "These girls are wonderful. Take their lessons and go to their church!" And then went on to tell everyone where and when our church is. He can´t even go or take the lessons, and he is already a missionary haha. I am hoping he sells the colmado soon! 

We also approaced another woman for the cards, and she said : "How wonderful. Everyone calls me crazy but really I just went to the other side, met Christ, and chose to come back! I don´t have faith because I know he lives!! I know it. I am here representing him because I am not crazy!" And went on and on about that experience. We just kept trying to give her the card and leave because she seemed mentally not all there, and finally we did. 

A freco (A flirty 50+ year old man who hits on girls on the streets all day by hissing at them) owns a beauty salon and asked to do my eyebrows SO creepily. So me, being the sass I am, said, "But they are perfect!" And he was just silent. So I handed him a card, invited him to church, and walked away. :)

We also got 2 other thanksgiving feasts, one was chimmys (DR Hamburgers by our area) and a family home evening meal after the baptism on Saturday. We went with our ward friend Diego on Saturday and I got scared of a car driving past and he said "WELCOME TO THE HOOD" in perfect english waving his arms around. I love it when they speak english here because it´s always unexpected and so funny! 

And then at the other meal they offered me more but I was SO full it was impossible. And one of them said but the more you eat the more handsome your future husband will be! So that was a new saying... haha. Hopefully it is true! :)

Anyway, over all this week was great!! I am so happy to be a missionary and bring this gospel to others. It is true!! I know it will all of my heart. 

Hurrah for Israel!! And happy official Christmas month. :)

Hna Schmidt

Thanksgiving Selfie and the Caribbean Sun is starting to show on her face

Thanksgiving Chimmies

Her and Hermana Fletcher

Another of her and Hermana Fletcher

Her Zone Leader Elder Tate from Orem

Roommates (Hermanas Fletcher, Hinrichsen, Jenkins and her)  photo credit: Hermana Hinrichsen

Thanksgiving Feast

Dress Swapping

Goofing Off