Hermana Schmidt: Hermana Schmidt Week 62 Letter 11/30/15

From: Nicole Schmidt [mailto:nicole.schmidt@myldsmail.net]
Sent: 11/30/2015 1:10 PM
Subject: Cold... ??

Hola a todos!

Happy Birthdays to my brother in law Aaron, and my uncle gabe!!

First of all to those who are sending me countdowns of my time left : John 4:35. .. :)

So this week was... well... cold??? I forgot what that feels like, and i'm pretty sure it was still 70 degrees but I was freezing like 1/2 the time. The pics are of last night when I was wearing two huge pairs of socks, two sweat pants, a long sleeve shirt, and a hoodie and I STILL was cold!!!

This week was full of big leadership/mission meetings so we were going back and forth from our area and out, but we still managed to have some great lessons in the little spaces of time we had! And the meetings were really spiritual and powerful and i've definitely set more goals for myself to become a more consecrated missionary. As well as as a companionship and for the sisters we've set goals to accomplish that :) We are excited!

We taught the family a couple of more times from last week, their names are Rosa and Rafael. They are so prepared and have just LOVED learning about the restoration. They said, ''We can just feel this is SO true!'' Rafael has sight problems so he asked for a priesthood blessing so we will get on that in the next week. We set a baptismal date with them for the 27th of December and they accepted full heartedly!! They said, ''Do we have to stop smoking to be baptized??'' And we said, ''Yes.'' And Rosa said, ''Well than we will do it! We start right now.'' And they are cutting back SO much on their smoking it's truly a miracle!!

Also we have a family who will be baptized in December with them who finally came to church!!! If it all works out we will be having two FAMILY baptisms next month. That is seriously my dream to see families joining together!!! We really have faith that it can happen.

So probably the most powerful moment for my companion and I happened on Saturday. The whole day EVERYTHING fell through, and that day it was HOT. We were walking and walking and every person we wanted to see (or could see) wasn't home. We were contacting but no one wanted to listen to us. We had set to leave with members all day but only one showed up in the late afternoon, and by the time we were with her we were both completely exhausted and discouraged. We sat on a bench with our member for a second to think and we both looked at eachother with the face of ''I just wanna go home''. But in that moment, a surge of energy pulsed through me and I felt as clear as day that our work wasn't over and that God would provide the miracles if we took the steps. I can't really explain that moment, but I felt very, very close to my savior.

So we took the step. And another one. And even though every bone in our body was screaming at us to stop, we didn't, and step by step we felt more alive and more powerful. In only 2 hours we were able to teach 7 houses. And to finish off the night we taught a family from the states who said they feel that it's true and want to come to church. The daughter has been reading the pamphlets and filling out all the questions in the back. It was a miracle.

It taught us that discouragement, yeah it can be normal, but if we remember that night we will remember that perhaps the most important thing we can do to combat discouragement is step. And do it for the Lord and WITH the Lord and the miracles will come!!! They really will!!! I testify that God provides the way for us to accomplish what he commands and that that pathway is full of celestial moments and pure joy.

I've truly never been happier than I was than at the end of that night.

Hurrah for Israel!!

-Hermana Schmidt