Hermana Schmidt: Hermana Schmidt Week 25 Letter 03/16/15

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 03/16/2015 11:35 AM
To: Bunney Schmidt
Subject: We found Rootbeer. Repeat. Rootbeer. Root. Beer.

Hola a todos!!

First off, my sister crashed my dad's camaro. I just had to put that into this email because I don't know how many of my reckless friends have driven that thing and been fine... hehe... and calli was the first to crash it... I love you call and hope you are okay and not too distraught. However, I will always remind you that you were the first :)

This was the BEST WEEK EVER. I'm not kidding!! It was absolutely amazing!! I don't know how I ever got so lucky to be in the best place in the whole world, preaching the gospel to the best people on the face of the earth, with the best companion ever! I am so extremely happy, I can't quite explain it with words. So i'll just keep rambling about it, and you all pretend to act interested in my constant pouring my gratitude out into a keyboard.

And.

We found rootbeer.

That's how to start a companionship right there!! So Hna. Greenstreet and I are from the same group so we are already great friends, and this week we've become the best of friends!! It's the best working with a best friend every single day. I sure do love her! I am a lucky one. But yeah, SHE found the rootbeer her first day here!! I was told multiple times it was impossible to find rootbeer here that even the McDonalds and Wendy's didn't sell it! That it didn't exist here. So I am not kidding... I have missed Rootbeer a lot.... (bad) haha... And my new comp just shows up and points some out on a shelf her first day, in a store I've been to a ton of times. HALLELUJAH. Is it sad that half of my email will be about rootbeer? probably.

Okay so we saw some HUGE miracles this week!!! I'm sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors, and also if my excitement comes off as Hna. Schmidt is going crazy... but I kind of am of pure happiness.

The first big miracle was with a woman named Isa. We have been teaching her daughter, a recent convert in the ward named Lucenis. Well we have invited Isa to listen a good amount of times and she is always busy or uninterested. Well we passed by their house to teach Lucenis and Lucenis wasn’t there but Isa was. Well we took the opportunity to invite her to learn again and she accepted and let us in!! It must be Hermana Greenstreet. (Which doesn't surprise me she's great!) But we start teaching her and the Spirit was SO strong!! It was so cool!! We've taught her twice and she said she is open to the idea of getting baptized and will be baptized if she gets an answer that this is true!!! !!! !!! Miracles!

The second big miracle was Edgar and Miguelina. We have to help them get married and they have been really nervous about that part. So last night we were teaching them the law of chastity and we testified how much it will bless their lives to live it, and although they are still nervous about it they are way more excited and willing to pray for a marriage date. And they are praying to know if they should be married on March 28th!! AH!!! Marriage. My heart. So excited for them. If they get married then, they'll get baptized April 11th!

And the biggest miracle was Smith! SMITH. You all know Smith, I go on and on and on about him and Kevin. They are just so awesome how could I not!? However, Smith's excitement DIED this last transfer. It was really hard to teach him. Fallen appointments, or when we had the appointments he was disconnected and not really excited at all like he used to be. You can imagine it was hard after his grandma and dad refused to give baptismal permission. However, all of that changed with Hna. Greenstreet (How many times will I say that this email? It's just the truth!) And he started reading his BOM again and got super excited about our appointment. Well there is a really sweet story with his appointment this week here goes:

So Hna. Greenstreet and I am planning the night before the appointment what we are going to teach him and we couldn't think of ANYTHING. We tried and tried but nothing was coming to our minds to teach him. We even did an extra prayer for extra help and NOTHING. So we are like, we just need to sleep and then during companionship study we will think of something. So the next morning (morning of the appoint.) we do comp. study and NOTHING. We were completely blank!! That's never ever happened to me. Like maybe I haven't gotten strong promptings, but never nothing like that! Because every option we thought of felt wrong and we both felt it. So we decided we would ask the missionaries in our district their opinion during District meeting and nothing there either. Well we had weekly planning, and stillllll nothingggggggggggggg. We prayed and prayed and decided that something will come when we are actually at the appointment. Leap of faith? Yeah, it was terrifying but we had a strong feeling to wait and we followed it. And it was one of the best decisions I've made on the mission.

So we get to the appointment and Smith said he had a spiritual experience he had to share with us. So he had a dream that he kept forgetting something at his Grandma's house and needed to go back again and again to find it. Well in the morning his dream reminded him of 1 Nephi 3 when Nephi and his brothers had to go back and back for the plates and he chose to read it. Well, let me insert my own thoughts for a second, I believe that we would have gone over this part fairly quickly had we had a lesson plan, and not taken the time to ask him real deep questions. Well eventually he confessed excitedly, "I now believe that my father can change his mind. And I think he can change his mind before the end of this month. I just need to have the faith and miracles can happen." .................... Writing this brings me back to this moment and once again i'm speechless. I just can't believe that happened. I am so grateful for unanswered prayers, because they really are part of a grander plan! I know that now. How incredible. So we will be visiting smiths dad hopefully this week and we are praying and fasting he can get baptized the 28th!!! And kevin will baptize him!!

On an update note, Jeninson is doing great as well!! Still reading the BOM and progressing incredibley fast!

Okay on a funnier note. We saw a huge group of americans. I guess they were from a church in texas saying they were missionaries. Pretty weird to speak english and see a ton of americans!! Haven't seen that in a longggggg time! But they were just passing through for a day.

Also, in our lesson with smith a man passed by, trotting on a horse. Well on a horse that was trotting. I don't know if you are laughing, but it was an intense moment of the lesson interrupted by a man... on a horse.... maybe he was trying to sell cologne.

In church, I'm the ward pianist, and the ward chorister decided to change the hymn right before we were about to sing it, like I was sitting at the piano about to play and she yelled out to the ward the new number. Well someone in the crowd yelled so loud, WHAT HYMN!? ... church is just a tiny bit different here. haha.

We were caught in a huge rainstorm this week, hence the rain coat selfie. It was HUGE. Welcome to los frailes my new comp! haha. We almost died in the mud later, slipping and sliding and catching our selves. These are the moments I'll love looking back on.

I love you all so much!!!!! I know this church is true and I KNOW we have a Heavenly Father. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet!!! I know that this gospel, and in better words, obedience to the gospel, brings true and lasting joy!! I am so grateful to share that with others.

Hurrah for Israel!! :) (and rootbeer, and miracles, and Hna. Greenstreet)

Hna. Schmidt :)