Subject: I have a Green Card
Hola a todos!
Happy birthday to my cousin Michael! I hope it is wonderful!
:)
So this was my ''stay inside so you can get better'' week
and it went just swell!! Although I wasn't happy about it at first, the Lord
super helped me through it all with peace, comfort, and healing. Needless to
say, I am just SO pumped to be back in the vineyard of the Lord--- happy and
healthy! :) I have to tell you all thank you so much for your sweet emails of
concerns, and for the prayers. You have no idea how much I needed your sweet
words and encouragement! Thank you for showing me what it means to offer
selfless service. Love you all more than words can say!
So yes. I now hold a dominican republic GREEN CARD. They
switched us from our visas to GREEN CARDS. I don't know why. I just feel super
cool. Green Card. Green. Card. It's a green. Card. So no worries fam bam- I am
a legal person in this country now! Woot woot!
My companion worked super hard this week with the hermana
leaders doing exchanges, and i'm just so grateful for her! She is just so
sweet, and so hard working. It's definitely given me a boost. Along with the
STLs who have seriously sacrificed so much time and energy into helping us and
our area. They just rock. I am surrounded by GREAT individuals.
But I finally left the house Saturday afternoon. When I
left, walking into the fearce DR sun was like comin' right back home and the
only thing I could think to say or do was throw my hands in the air singing Let
it Go from Frozen because in Spanish it's ''Libre Soy'' Which means i'm free!
So I sang ''Libre Soy! Libre Soy!'' Too bad I don't have the long braid and
fancy dress, but at least 1/2 clean hair and a stained skirt would pass.
It was a fantastic night! We taught Bierka who is SUPER
interested in the church. She's a mom of 3 teenage girls, and her husband and
her are LEGALLY married (Sing and shout alelujah!) Her husband works for
JetBlue so is barely there, but we finally met him on Saturday. But Bierka
always says her whole life has changed from our lessons and she feels so good
in them! The only problem is getting her to church, but we taught a powerful
lesson about the plan of salvation and I talked to her about her potential, and
who she was before this life. I testified that really, truly, she lived with a
loving Father who had a perfect plan for HER personally. That it was quite
possible that part of that plan would be sending missionaries and the help she
would need, and promised blessings if she accepted the message they would share.
The spirit was so strong and she was tearing up saying ''I do want to accept
it, how can I?'' We shared about baptism and the importance of the church and
showing God our willingness to follow him by ACTING. She readily agreed and
wants to be baptized the end of August! What a blessing! :)
So we are just seeing miracles and I know such amazing
miracles are up ahead! I feel so blessed to be such an incredible ward and
area. It's much more than I could ever ask for and my heart just feels with joy
talking about it! There is nothin' better than being a missionary!! Well, maybe
being a mom. But you'd have to ask my mom to know that one.
A theme for my week was FRIENDS. We listened to some talks
on audio and they were just so powerful! One was ''I love my friends'' by Hank
Smith. I know that friends are super important and i'm including this part in
my email to encourage my family to listen to it-- especially cal and jess. I
loved this quote by Neil L. Maxwell in the talk : ''The finest of friends must
sometimes be stern sentinals- Who insist that we become what we
have the power to become.'' Loved that! I have been blessed with great friends
on my mission, and great friends in my life. As many of you are coming home
from your missions, I hope you know I love you all so much. And am truly
grateful for your example. Thank you for serving the Lord, and for doing it
worthily. Those who are coming home, I hope you know your example doesn't stop
when you lose the tag. Your influence has to keep going, Your family needs it.
And Friends. I know you can continue forward helping and serving those around
you as you've done for a year and a half or 2 years. You guys just rock! I love
you all so much!
To finish i've thought a lot about this quote: ''Don't pray
for easier lives- pray to be stronger men. Don't pray for tasks equal to your
powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall
be no miracle-- you shall be the miracle!''
Also: ''You can tell God how big your storm is, our your
STORM how big GOD is.''
Hurrah for Israel! :)
-Hermana Schmidt :)
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