Hermana Schmidt Week 35 Letter 05/25/15

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 05/25/2015 11:35 AM
Subject: Can Missionaries Go Egging? (asking for a friend)

Hola a todos! :) 

First I am so sad to hear about Uncle Bob's passing. He was such an amazing man, and his support for me was exceptional. I am so grateful that he was there for me for really important moments of my life. I know he is doing stellar work on the other side :) 

On a happy note, I am so happy for my little sister danni who got BAPTIZED on Saturday!!! Congrats baby girl. I'm so proud of you! 

Happy birthdays to my second cousin Matthew, and my cousin Michaela (who is turning 18!!) I hope they are great!! 

So we had Daniela's baptism this last Friday and it was just wonderful! It was the easiest baptism I've had for sure as far as stress levels go. Everyone showed up on time, we had the fount and clothes all ready to go, the talks were wonderful, and Daniela was just shining! Her mom even came who isn't a member but told everyone that she fully supported Daniela for her decision and... we are going to be teaching her now! What a blessing! The examples of youth/children really can make a huge difference in a family.

We also have a new 20 year old investigator named Jose Miguel (different from our investigator Jose Manuel in my last letter). He is super interested in the church and his lessons are just so wonderfully POWERFUL! He asks great questions and really listens to know. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he said ''I just can't wait to read it so I can know too!!'' And he came to church! ! ! ! ! He said that he loved it, and he participated a ton in our investigator class. How wonderful! We will be setting a baptismal date with him this week. 

Jose Manuel is progressing little  by little, and is still liking our lessons; However, he's still really attached to the catholic church. We haven't been able to find Diely or Noe but we will keep on trying! :) 

A spiritual high moment this week was a lesson we had with a less-active member named Lorlita. She is in her 80's and really struggling with having hope. She told us in our lesson ''I just don't know if god loves me anymore because I pray and pray and pray for the health to be able to go to church but I just can't escape this pain.'' We then were able to talk with her about the will of the Father, but how it is always out of love. We also talked about how one day, we have the promised blessing of perfect, resurrected bodies, and she will never have this pain again. I looked her in the eyes and really testified of that promised blessing, and I felt the spirit flood over me. In the mission, we are lucky that we can feel the spirit really all the time when we are obedient, but even then, there are still especially wonderful moments with the spirit. This was one of them. With tears running down her face, she said ''I finally have a little bit of hope. Thank you for coming and telling me this. I know God loves me.'' 

That was very special, and something I will never forget. 

Other than that, I was talking to my companion this week about birthday parties. For one of hers, her friends threw a bunch of eggs at her. I told her my mom would never let that happen to me at my house, and how lame it was (sorry mom, you're not lame. You're very intelligent, as I, a 19 year old girl, have come to know even more so now.) Well later on in the week,  I got a call on Wednesday from one of my best friends Sister Jenkins telling me she was going to go home to Utah and do wonderful things there! How awesome that the Lord has a new mission for her there. :) But after talking with her on the phone I left to join the other sisters in our front room and they were talking about something, and I said ''I'm going to go get ready for bed'' and I turned and SMACK. AN EGG WAS SMASHED ON MY HEAD. 

....And the war begun.

...........And

.............................I did not win. 

But then Hermana Flores and Hermana Cabos were washing their hair out after, and they broke the shower. It flooded the egg mess on the floor. 

Fun night. Worst. Cleanup. Ever. 

This is why we should follow our mom's brilliant minds everyone. 

We also were able to watch Meet the Mormon's FINALLY. I loved it!!! I definately cried during the missionary mom part. I am just so grateful for my mom and her sacrifices for me to be here. I am so so so lucky! And I was watching and just thinking, I am the luckiest girl in the planet to be here, preaching the gospel every day! And i just had a sense of awe wash over me, of having the gospel in my life, and of the family I have, and the calling I have now. I just know God is real and loves us and I never want to lose my sense of awe. It really is such a blessing to have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives! There is no doubt about it!! 

The church is true and the book is blue my friends.

Hurrah for Israel! :) 

Love Hermana Schmidt :) 

Daniela and Family and Missionaries

Daniela and Family

Daniela and Hermana Schmidt

Daniela and Missionaries

Daniela

Daniela before baptism

Daniela and her best ward friends

Egg Mess

Egg Mess

Roommates

Roommates

Hermana Schmidt Week 34 Letter 05/18/15

No photos this week, the internet location didn’t have a USB port.

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 05/18/2015 12:56 PM
Subject: 1 Year Ago and Humbling Experiences

Hola a todos!!

Happy Birthday to my Nephew Preston!! I love you!

Ah. This week was a HARD WORKING week! My companion and I decided last Monday that this week we were going to give ALL of our energy to the Lord's work (we normally try to do that, but sometimes we need breaks as missionaries!) But we made a goal to just give it all to Him. 100%. Holding back nothing. Which included as many contacts as possible, walking fast and teaching on the way to appointments, and just talking and teaching with everyone! And it was really hard! But really , really super rewarding. I decided that I would put all my focus into my area, into my investigators, into my companionship, as to celebrate my 1-year anniversary of receiving my call! And I am TIRED, but HAPPY. They weren't lying when they said hard work makes a happy missionary! :) I am just so so so so so grateful to be a missionary. It really is just the best, most wonderful work in the world.

One of our sweet contacts was a woman named Diely. She was brand new at her house and moving in when we contacted her. She happily welcomed us in and we began teaching her. We covered our purpose, and the basic beliefs of the church, and then invited her to learn more and come to church. She started tearing up and said ''Last night I was praying to God for strength with this change of house. I left all of my friends, my work, and everything to move here and I was scared. Last night I prayed for a sign that he was looking out for me and that everything would be okay. And you sisters are my very first visitors here in my house. You are my sign from God!'' That was SO cool! We will keep visiting her and praying for her and her progress in the gospel! Woohoo! :)

Another sweet contact was Noe. Noe is the boyfriend of a less-active in our ward. We contacted him at her house and he seemed half interested. But as soon as we started talking about the love of our Heavenly Father he started tearing up and told us a story from his life about losing his father, and later his nephew, and how he was really down and depressed when he felt a warm feeling from God that all is well. Well... he said he can feel that again with our visits! How wonderful!

Daniela, our 12 year old investigator is getting baptized this Friday! She is so ready and excited! She passed her interview with flying colors. It should be a wonderful baptismal service!

We also did some service at a less actives house by cleaning the house. Her house was all cement, with one lightbulb, lots of kids, and very very very little space. I've seen houses like this here, so it wasn't anything too new but I don't know. The look on her face as we cleaned her house was one of hope, and a hope she must not have had in a long time. I was really humbled to see someone with so little, be so grateful for the things she did have. It really put things into perspective. How often do we take what we have for granted, and only want more, more, more? I know that something I struggled with was satisfaction and gratitude before my mission, as if I didn't have enough. But really, I had the world. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to see people so poor, with so much joy and peace. However, how wonderful would it be for us to just be grateful without being compelled to be? I know there's so much joy in gratitude, seriously. We also contacted a girl named Rosanna at this house who had a ton of questions about before and after this life. We are stoked to teach her the plan of salvation this week!

We are teaching a man named Jose Manuel who is die-hard catholic. But, he is attending our church with his aunt. Slowly we've been seeing miracles with him and he is starting to accept our message more and more. Well, however, he missed church yesterday and after we had a lesson with him and his aunt yelled at him and said ''Do you know the first commandment Jose?? It's go to church!!'' well, thankfully, he didn't know that wasn't the first commandment and agreed with her. Well, although it technically wasn't true he is definitely more committed to come to church again!

Other than that there's nothing new to report. I love you all. The work is good. I was reading about the stripling warriors, and one of their keys to success was the provisions from their family. I take that as my emails, letters, and anything I get from you guys. Thank you so much! It really keeps us going out here. I love you all.

The church is true friends. I testify of that with all my heart.

Hurrah for Israel! :)

-Hermana Schmidt

 

Hermana Schmidt Week 33 Letter 05/12/15

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 05/12/2015 11:41 AM
Subject: Mangos from Heaven

Hola a todos!! 

First off happy birthdays to Grandma Schmidt, Jerika, and Isaac. Love you all!! :) 

So this week was just WONDERFUL. Ah! Can not even explain it with words. Honestly, we saw some really awesome little miracles... literal miracles! I am so stoked to share them with you all. Some miracles were really fast responses to prayers

My first miracle was I am still going strong with my goal of finished the old testament by June 24th, and the book of mormon in spanish by the 24th. The first miracle is that I got through Isaiah in the bible and all of Alma this week. They were so great! Especially Isaiah. It was a little difficult, but I learned so much and it was cool to see so many prophecies of our time! I'm really gaining a love for the bible, especially because my companion joined the church 4 years ago and her whole life was super into the bible, she's been teaching me a ton of cool things and we are really coming to love using the book of mormon AND bible in our lessons. It's been sweet. 

2nd miracle is that a 12 year old we are teaching got permission from her mom to be baptized on the 22nd of May! She's so cute. Her name is Daniela. She has been attending church for 4 years and everyone thought she was a member up until 3 weeks ago, when she told everyone she still hadn't been baptized. We started teaching her, and she knows everything so it has been a super quick process. But her mom gave permission and we are on for a great baptism on the 22nd! (The day before my sister DANNI's baptism in UT. Daniela and Danielle. How cute. :) ) 

3rd miracle. On sunday, the man who offered the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting is around 80 years old and in his prayer commanded everyone to repent and then said ''If we repent Father, please send us rain. It's May 10th and we've seen no rain yet.'' (Rain is important here). Well, we walk out of church and it started raining for the first time in May! I guess we all repented at the same time! :') 

4th miracle. Skype wasn't working on Sunday, so we decided to say a kneeling prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help us work out the problems. Literally after the word Amen, the internet connected and we could skype! And skyping my family was just wonderful!!! I sure do love them!!! 

5th miracle. Yesterday we were contacting and we saw some people at a park getting ready to play volleyball. They asked if we could play with them and we said we would for a bit if we could share after. Well, they ended up running before playing volleyball, and my comp is super cool that she offered us to run with them. In our dresses. With our bags. With our bibles and triples. And run. And run. And run. Turns out they were all 7th day adventists and the miracle is that they actually let us share with them even though they were super strong about their beliefs! Exercise -- Working off all of these empanadas + sharing the gospel... 2 birds...1 stone. And we even got a return appointment with them! 

And perhaps the COOLEST miracle of the week were our celestial mangos. So yesterday we were working because we changed pday to today. So we were working and working and working our tails off before lunch, and then it dawned on us that because we changed pday we didn't have any food at home and didn't really have any more cash to be able to buy a meal. We started worrying because we were hunggrrrryyyyy. I said, ''Ah. How will we be able to work all afternoon without food?? What should we do?'' And my comp said, ''Father, please help us.'' Just like that and we kept walking, and 10 seconds later, a man walks out of nowhere (literally nowhere near where we had said we were hungry, he wouldn't have been able to hear us!) with two mangos and tells us ''Here, eat these''. And walks away. 

OH MY LANTA. 

It was just a little testimony builder that God really is mindful of his servants. My companion and I now refer to them as celestial mangos, and we had one yesterday and it was good! We were also able to find a little extra cash left over and bought some food. Hallelujah. Our Heavenly Father is just so wonderful! 

It's the simple miracles that mean a lot. 

Other than that I am just so happy. The mission really brings TRUE happiness. There is nothing like seeing people accept the gospel, change their lives, and become powerful instruments for good. This truly is the work of the Lord. And, as a quote from 17 miracles go (which is only fitting to quote that movie since we had lots of miracles this week) ''It'll all be worth it''. The hard and trying moments really make the good moments even more incredible. It's the coolest thing ever to be a missionary, to see God's hands, and to feel his love like never before. The spirit is so strong in this work and I can not deny that God is mindful of us and loves us SO much. 

May we all have the spiritual eyes to see our ''celestial mangos'' everyday. 

Hurrah for Israel!! :)

Love, Hermana Schmidt 

Celestial Mangos

Another trip to the Aquarium

Aquarium second trip

Hermana Schmidt and Fish

Hermana Schmidt and Sharks

Name Tag and Ocean

Another Name Tag and Cool Waves

Hermana Schmidt Week 32 Letter 05/04/15 (sorry no letter last week)

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 05/04/2015 10:20 AM
Subject: Words can not EXPRESS how much I love my Heavenly Father!!

Hola a todos!!

First of all, 

Happy 16th BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER CALLI THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!! :) Also happy birthdays to my cousins Jonathon, Kristy, Carrie, Karissa, and Christian! I hope they were and are awesome! Also, happy mothers day to everyone! I hope we all remember the importance of mothers. My comp. and I studied important woman in the scriptures today together like ruth, esther, and the mothers of the stripling warriors. I am just so grateful for these great women and mothers in the world that are truly making the world so much better! And especially, my dear wonderful mommy. I sure do love my mom! She's the best. All the rest of you ladies are 2nd... sorry. :) 

2nd, 

I sent my mission papers in one year ago on May 3rd!! I can't believe that. Words can't describe how grateful I am to be a missionary!!! I'm so grateful I still have plenty of time left out here. :) 

3rd, 

I am sorry for not writing last week. I did not die. Well, sort of... but we will get to that!! Last week, I just really needed to spend my hour writing my parents so i'm sorry for the lack of update. But I am here! Now, before I start I have to say that this email might have some details that might be a little sad, and I might add too much of my heart-breaking moments. As missionaries, we try to avoid writing such moments because really, the good moments outweigh the hard moments-- seriously. But I truly believe that sometimes we need to talk about the hard moments to prepare those who will serve missions, and those who don't really understand what the mission is or what we go through and yada yada yada. Now, that being said, I hope that none of what I say or describe comes off as dramatic. Simply put, i'm going to talk from my heart and tell everything as how it was and how I felt because I believe that's the only way to truly recognize the good that came out of it and truly recognize the glory of my God. 

So, it all started a week and a half ago with a root canal (yay). I started getting horrible pain in my jaw so we went and saw the dentist. We discovered that an old filling was done poorly and in order to fix it, we needed to do a root canal. So we were stuck with this horrible pain to fix. Thankfully, we fixed in on Saturday, but I was still in some pain. 

Saturday night, I started feeling horribly alone. Horribly, sickly alone. It's not because my companion or my housemates (because they are the BEST!) but it was because of the pain, going through a root canal without my parents to baby me, and etc.. it was the sick alone that you just feel completely empty. I started praying and praying for support. For something. I felt so alone, stuck on an island, far away from home, in a lot of pain, without someone to really really lean on. I will be honest. I have honestly never, in my entire life, felt that alone before. It was weird. I really feel like Satan must have been working extra hard on me in that moment as if to surround me in completely darkness. I started pouring out my soul to my Heavenly Father and telling him that I needed to feel Him close more than ever, sobbing and pleading for relief. I am not exaggerating this when I say this, but immediately the relief flooded over me and I COULD NOT cry any longer. I've never had a moment in my life when I could not continue crying because I felt so much comfort. It was the coolest, most serene moment ever. That is the goodness of our God everyone. I know He lives. I know He loves us! 

Well, things seemed to smooth over after that for sunday but then after working all day sunday I started feeling a little pain in my stomach and feeling extremely tired. After planning, I literally collapsed in my bed, just thinking it was from a long hard-working day, and an exhausting weekend. Well, over the next little bit I started getting really, really cold. My head started pounding, and my legs started to hurt. I realized that this wasn't normal. Soon, all the sisters were in the room helping me and singing to me and trying to help me to feel better. We called a member to give me a blessing, but after the blessing the vomit came (TMI i'm sorry). I went to the hospital early monday morning and It turns out I caught something from something I ate. Just an awful couple of day flu. 

Well, now i'm tired of talking about the bad and i'm reading to start talking about the miracles. Because the miracles ALWAYS follow the trials. 

On Tuesday, our zone was scheduled for a temple trip. I felt SO strongly I needed to go, even though I had been in the hospital the day before (crazy right?). I was worried because I could barely contain my insides and I didn't know how I could handle a whole temple session. But I just knew. I felt so strongly through prayer and personal feelings that I needed to be inside the temple on Tuesday, and God would help me while I was there. Well before I went inside the temple, I was dying. Seriously dying. but, as soon as I entered, it was if I never got sick. I was so happy, so healthy, and so ready to feel the spirit that the temple brings. In the celestial room I was reading D&C 58 (it's incredible) and I was thinking of something my father had emailed me the day before, and I felt so strongly that the mission was exactly where I needed to be and there were GREAT things up ahead. That God has great things planned for the people here, and he wants me to be his instrument. I am so incredibly grateful for my father and for the temple. 

After that, I healed miraculously fast. And we worked our tails off. We had a record number (for me) of investigators at church!! One of our investigators even bore their testimony yesterday!  And we had a ton lessons in just a couple of days that we could work. It was incredible. We wanted to reach all of our weekly goals we had set in just the 3 days we could work (so 7 days of goals, in 3 days of work) and we reached all of them and even beat a lot of them!!! Which is normally impossible. I even got attacked by red ants on my feet as well... and bit... and I was okay to still walk and have 9 more lessons yesterday!! What a miracle!! 

I absoultely LOVE my ward. They are incredible. They work with us, and they want to leave with us all the time!!! That makes the worlds difference in missionary work. Our area is progressing. We have a lot of people getting ready to get baptized soon, and I am just so excited for all of this!!! I was truly blessed to be transferred to such an amazing, progressing place!!! My companion is great! She is hardworking, funny, and super nice. The Lord is good. I truly do not deserve all of this, but I am very grateful. 

On a funny note, my comp Hna. Cabos had McDonalds for her first time this week and loved it for her birthday. I'm such a good influence. Thanks for showing me such a cool ward and area and progressing investigators Hermana Cabos, in return I will show you chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce. 

I love my Heavenly Father. I love His Work. 

Hurrah for Israel!!! :)

Hermana Schmidt :)

Hermana Schmidt and Hermana Cabos

Roommates

After Root Canal

Hermana Cabos Birthday

Happy Birthday Calli

Another Roommates