Hermana Schmidt Week 40 Letter 06/29/15

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 06/29/2015 10:29 AM
Subject: The Prince of Peace! My Lord and King!

Hola a Todos! 

First of all, Happy birthday to my good friend Briana Hopkins!! I hope it's a great 20th!! (p.s. you're old ;) ) 

I also failed to wish my daddy a happy father's day (worst daughter ever award!) but I hope you know dad that you are the BEST dad in the whole world!! (sorry to the rest of you dad's, you're all great, you're just not the Brad Schmidt). I'm sorry I just re-learned how to use cool font tools in email (mission probs) and thought it would only be fitting to use for my dad's name because well, he is the best. So I hope you don't feel too bad that I forgot dad, because your name is big. And bold. And Italicized. And I love you. :) 

Also. Happy USA day to all! My companion and I will be celebrating by painting our nails red white and blue (even though my comp is from peru, she is very supportive) and ordering KFC (yes, they have KFC by our area, and Yes, they do delivery-- hollah! 10 points for ''DR''yffndor. 

This week I finished the Old Testament for my first time and the Book of Mormon in Spanish!! They were both super great!! My testimony of the Book of Mormon grew a ton and reading it in spanish made it even better! It's helped my preaching of the book in spanish improve and my love for it as well. I just know it's true! The Old Testament, though hard at points, was also super intersting and I was able to develop my own testimony of the truthfulness of the stories therein.  I invite you all to study the book of the mormon and bible more! :) There is power in those books- especially when studied together! 

So this week we saw lots of RAIN. Finally! It has been a sauna here with basically no rain and we finally saw rain. But, it meant lots of knee-deep running adventures. Which is always fun. Lots of prayers for no crazy underwater creatures biting me. So far, so good. :) And, i've never felt cleaner. At least from the head, to the waist.  

So we saw HUGE miracles this week my friends! HUGE HUGE HUGE. And they all have to do with YSA investigators. Which is so rare, and so so so special! 

Jose Miguel is doing just fantasic and super set for his baptism on the 11th. The RM that has been on the reactivation cycle has been doing great too, and now they are BEST FRIENDS! And The RM will be baptizing Jose Miguel! The RM has those rights renewed to him so that was such a sweet blessing for the week. They do everything together. Visit our other investigators, play basketball, plan activities.... Golden Investigator/Member right there! So cool! 

We met with a 19 year old investigator Jesica this week and she said, ''You know what. I don't want you guys to come here and waste time. I'm going to start actually putting in my part to know this is true.'' She starting reading the BOM like crazy and praying and she told us, ''I know it's true!!'' And she wants to be baptized on the 11th as well!! How cool!!

We are still teaching Lizbet who is also 19 who is progressing like crazy, and her only set back is coffee but told us she has such a strong testimony of Joseph Smith that she is willing to do anything to be apart of the true church. She will be baptized in August. 

Lots of YSA investigators who will be baptized super soon!! How wonderful!! :) 

We also have a lot of kids who are progressing around the ages of 8-10 who's families are part-members or inactives who are reactivating or learning about the church. One family has two kids named Jorge and Pablo. We taught the family about the temples and said, ''Nothing unclean can be in the temple.''And Pablo, 11 years old said, ''But I haven't showered.'' We committed him to shower more, and to read the book of mormon. What a blessing. :) 

The members are just INCREDIBLE in this ward. They are working with us a ton! The area is picking up so much speed and I feel so lucky to be a part of it. The Lord is just so good!

To finish I just want to share a little bit of my study from this morning. I was reading about the story of Peter walking on water (like I am basically doing with all this rain! jokes, jokes). towards Jesus in Matthew chapter 14. Well, he looks around and sees the waves and starts to panic, and drown. We truly live in troubling times and it's tempting to look around and see the problems in the world and the immorality and the wickedness and be tempted to feel despair or discouragement. But the lord teaches us in this story that his hand is outstretched, ready to catch us in these moments and lift us. But, we need not fall in the first place. We can walk fearlessly through life with our eyes on the savior, trusting in our Prince of Peace. He is our Lord and King! If there's one thing i've felt stronger than anything this week it is that my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Lives and LOVES us! He will not leave us alone to drown in the troubles of life. He will come for us. He will strengthen us to be able to walk about the problems and have the strength to be an example for others. 

We can do it, 

We must do it! 

Keep your chin UP, work hard, and be obedient. 

Hurrah for Israel! :) 

-Hermana Schmidt 

Soaked to the bone

Cachangas a Peruvian Dish she cooked