Hermana Schmidt: Hermana Schmidt Week 61 Letter 11/23/15

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 11/23/2015 11:32 AM
Subject: A Week Full of Joy... and People from the states.

Hola a todos! :)

Happy Birthdays to my 2nd cousin Spencer, Cousin Tiancum, and Nephew Dean!! :) I hope they are great! (With lots of cake)

Okay this week was so great! One of the best of my missions by far. :) I am loving my calling, my area, and obviously being with my best friend Sister Greenie-street. :) Seriously, this week and this new transfer have already been huge, huge, blessings. And I am so grateful.

So I will start off with the funny and get to the spiritual/learning moments of the week.

To start off with the funny, I left early Tuesday morning to come to La Romana on a big bus alone (Which is allowed for transfers). The bus driver assured me that he knew ''exactly where I needed to go'' and so I thought, no need to really ask further questions. Well, my ''being by myself'' anxiety picked up half the drive through and I realized I should probably ask the worker on the bus if they were sure where I needed to be let off, and explained it how Sister Greenstreet explained it. They said, ''Well yeah, but that's not the name of the park you need to go to..'' And I thought Oh No. Well to no avail I tried to convince them that I knew what the name of the park was. So they basically forced me off the bus with all of my suitcases and stuff at a park that for sure, there were no companions to be found... haha. So I was alone, by the freeway and a park, with all of my suitcases. I started asking motorists for their cell phones to call my companion... about 20 min. later I was safe and sound with my comp. It was just funny that I was stranded and as the pobrecita missionary I am I didn't have my own phone... haha.

Another funny thing was that one of our investigators has CARPET. I bent down and started basically petting the carpet out of shock, and I think I kind of scared our investigators but... Some things are just too good to resist. I almost started crying. This was a big deal.

Hermana Greenstreet is basically my twin as she used cheerleading stunting to explain something to me this week. We speak the same language.(She knows Cheer lingo from our first companionship and she hasn't forgotten... haha) I also said, ''Hermana Greenstreet you ready?'' (to go) and she said, ''OKAY!'' *clap* (as in, ready.. okay!!) Oh my. She also is a wonderful companion to me as she has killed moths and bees for me this week also.

Something cool about my area is that it is very touristy. It's an adjustment to see a lot of Americans and a LOT of touristy stores and souvenir places. It's super pretty though, and we are really close to the ocean and a cool river with a lot of cabins. We taught some lessons in the cabins and that made me feel like I was up in the Utah mountains, or cour dálene, or Guernville or something! It was really cool.

So on a cool spiritual note. We taught this french exchange student this week and she is progressing a lot. She's going to be in the DR for 8 more months. Thankfully she has learned sufficient spanish to be able to teach her and she comes to church and everything. We had a really powerful lesson, because knowing about what's going on in France, we shared about the power of faith and the Love of God in times of trouble. She said she didn't have any relatives or friends hurt in the bombings but that she felt her touch really wrenched by the turmoil going on in her country. She felt so grateful for what we had to say and we saw a lot of hope in her after we left. :) It was really special.

We also found a new family and we contacted the wife who said, ''No it's okay, maybe another day you can come back'' (which is the dominican no). But then her husband came out of the house and said, ''No you girls can come in and teach us.'' So we were torn on who to follow but they then thankfully both let us in and we started teaching them the restoration. The man said, ''This is so weird. I have never really thought about this but the last two days I've had the same thoughts running through my head about why are there so many churches and which is right? Like over and over. And two days later you girls are here. I feel that this a sign from God.'' And know the couple is so interested!!! It was amazing.

So I just wanted to share some cool things I learned about leadership this week with my new calling. I learned

1. That it is NOT about us. It is 100% about the people we are called to help. If we have that attitude, the Lord will truly pour down revelation from heaven on how to help them.

2. We should be creative and different. Yes, there is order to things and things we have to do, but we can also be creative. We are trying to do our exchanges different and do them with ''themes'' that they can study and that we can discuss during our companionship. Mainly, our gifts that we develped and received in the preexistence, and how the world sees us vs. how god sees us. It's been fun to think of new ideas for time with the sisters. :)

3. We should ask inspired questions and give them opportunities to come up with their own solutions to their problems/concerns. If we give them all the answers and all our ideas, it might come off as ''know it all'' and such. If they can exercise their own leadership abilities, they can and will grow and trust us more!

4. PRAYER is key. We have to pray for every single one of them and how we can better serve them and what they need. The Lord will guide us and show us what steps to take.

We sent them a text this week with 3 questions 1. With the eye of faith, how will our companionship be in 5 weeks? (end of transfer) 2. With the eye of faith, how will our area be in 5 weeks? 3. What do we need to do to be able to enjoy these blessings in 5 weeks?

I loved the feedback from the sisters. One said, ''When we were discussing these questions I just pictured my companion and I in the stripling warrior army so we decided to study that. We decided to study that story every time we face our opposition these next 5 weeks to help us to keep going strong.'' Another said, ''Our new focus is to be stronger, more obedient, and more spiritual.'' One said, ''This practice really helped our companionship and was so inspired. It personally helped me get excited for a transfer I was not excited for.''

The Lord truly has helped Sister Greenstreet and I come up with ideas to meet the needs of these sisters. He is so good!! And he loves us and them SO much! I am so grateful for the opportunity to help them and for the opportunity to rely even more on the Lord for help.

Thanksgiving we will be having a thanksgiving feast (for lunch) as sisters after a meeting. I'm so excited!! I hope everyone has a great week and great thanksgiving. As President Uchtdorf basically said, Remember that gratitude is an attitude, not a list of possesions. :)

Hurrah for Israel! :)

-Hermana Schmidt