Hola todos!

    This week has been full of miracles that I don't even know which one to tell you. I will tell you just two and try to keep them brief. The first one was on Friday: we went to visit a girl named Maria for the first time. She is 17 and from Peru. As we got to know her she explained to us that she used to not really believe in God, but during this past year things have happened in her life that have helped her to have faith that there is a god. We explained who we were and our purpose and that sometimes we are known as "the Mormons." She then told us at she had met some elders on the street about a year ago who had given her a book. She retrieved it and showed it to us. It was the Book of Mormon. She had read a little and told us that she thinks that there is a reason why we are I her life again. We testified of God and the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted for October 17th!

      This week Cesar and Carolina were baptized!!! It was fantastic. The spirit was so powerful during the whole program, and when they shared their testimonies with everyone they were surprised to see that the whole chapel was full. They are so loved here by the people and we are all excited for next year when they will be able to go to the temple and be sealed together as a family for eternity. 

       My companion, Hermana Rica, has a talent to make people laugh even whenever they are going through a difficult time in their life. She loves the people here and always has a smile on her face. 

        Something that I learned this week is the importance of goals in our lives and especially in our mission. This Sunday we were so close to reaching all five pautas but finding new investigators was the most difficult, but we did it. We contacted until the very last moment, We did all we could to have members accompany us, and by having these goals it helped us to use our time more wisely and work more with faith. It was a testimony builder that miracles do happen as we do our part and have faith.

¡Os quiero!

Hermana Schmidt

¡Hola a todos!
      I hope that everyone has had a great week and have found
opportunities in your everyday lives to share the gospel with your
friends. His week has been wonderful for us and I have learned much on
how I can be a better disciple of our Savior Jesus Christ. It's the
week now before Carolina and Cesar's baptism and they are firm in
their decision. We had our stake conference and zone conference with
he mission president, President Dayton, and his wife. It made for a
week with a lot of traveling and very little time in our area. I
received many cards,from the primary children, that were like little
rays of sunshine in my week.
    Santander is becoming colder and is starting to rain more often. I
can't believe fall is already here! Time is flying by so fast.
Carolina and Cesar are surprised at how fast time is flying by as
well. They took us to a pueblo to get ice cream after a medical
appointment that my companion had. They had been talking to us about
how amazing this ice cream was and that we just had to try it. They
were right, the ice cream was super good! I loved looking out the
window at the landscape as we drove there. It's so green here and
there are hills and mountains everywhere with cows and sheep roaming
in the valleys. I am so stinkin' blessed to be here.
     On Friday for our reading of the Book of Mormon, as a ward, it
ended up being the four of us missionaries, the bishop, Carolina, and
four other men who come to every activity but are all just a little
crazy. The discussion on the Book of Mormon was somewhat controlled,
but at one time, the oldest of the four somewhat crazy men started
talking and wouldn't stop to take breath. His face started to turn
purple and he finally had to stop. The poor man ended up in he
hospital the next day because of his asthma.
    On Saturday, we and the adult session of stake conference and
three of our investigators came, as well as two of he crazy men.
During the talk before the intermediate hymn we started to here
someone snoring loudly. We turned to look to see who it was and
unsurprisingly it was one of those men, but the talk ended and we all
stood up to sing the hymn and the man woke up from the deep sleep in
which he had been.
     On Sunday we went to stake conference in Bilbao with Carolina.
She got to meet President and Hermana Dayton and later, in a talk
given by President Dayton, Carolina was mentioned as was who had
really come to the knowledge of he truthfulness of the gospel and made
the decision to be baptized the following week. He gave his talk on
the 17 points of what the true church of Jesus Christ should have.
Carolina had tears in her eyes at the end of his talk. Her heart was
filled with gratitude for the decision that she had made to join the
true church of Jesus Christ.
      We had to stay in Bilbao for the zone conference that we would
be having the next day. We met up with the missionaries from our
district after the conference and started walking towards the bus
stop. While walking, one of the members yelled. All of us stopped to
try and understand what they were saying. She yelled again and said
"run!" The bus was already there. And then all at once we started
running to the bus stop. Some of us, like me, had suitcases and
carried them down the stairs. At one point my suitcase started to
wobble and went sideways and ran into a pole nearby. We made it to the
bus stop just in time to be able to get on. I'm sure the bus driver
and the members had a good laugh and the scene of eight missionaries
running to catch a bus.
       In zone conference we learned a little about how we think as
human beings and how it can affect who we become. I liked a quote
shared that said, "our thoughts, more than our circumstances, affect
the course of our lives." In Mosiah 4:30 when King Benjamin is talking
to his people, we read, "But this much I can tell you, that if ye do
not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your
deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith
of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the
end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and
perish not." I know that as we think more positively about ourselves,
and of others, and of the circumstances that we are in, we will be
happier and have a more brightness of hope that God is always there to
help us and always is helping us. We just need eyes that see, ears
that hear, and a heart that feels the blessings of God in our everyday
lives.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week.

Hermana Schmidt
xoxoxoxo 😄

Hi everyone!

   Everything is going very well here in Santander. We are doing all that we can to help others come unto Christ and have fun as we do so. We have set baptismal dates for our investigators and have many other investigators who are so prepared but don't feel so right now. We know that as we give our all and as we are obedient that God is helping us all along the way.

 To make things fun this week, with Carolina and Cesar, we started
our fast after we had a flan eating contest. Basically the flan comes
in little pudding cups and keeps its form when you pour it out. Each
of us, on the count of three and without using our hands, had to eat
the flan in one slurp if possible. César and my companion were able to
do it, but me and Carolina had difficulties. Carolina lost and had to
walk around the house acting like a turkey.

    This week my testimony has been strengthened on the power of pure testimonies. Carolina and Cesar wanted to drive us to an appointment that we had in a little town about 20 minutes away. We asked if they would also like to help us with our visit, and they accepted the invitation. As we were in the visit, we explained the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Carolina and César bore powerful testimonies of it to our investigator. It helped our other investigator to see two people, who are still not members, to share such strong testimonies of the gospel and how it has blessed their lives and their desire to be baptized and make covenants with God.  What a miracle to have all these people in our life! César and Carolina will be baptized on the 20th of this month. What a wonderful day it will be!

     I went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leader, Sister Een, this week and learned a lot on about how I can become a more devoted missionary and be an instrument in the Lord's hands. We also had fun. Our apartment building has a door next to the elevator that leads to the basement, but there is not light so it just looks like a spooky dark whole leading to nowhere. Sister Een wanted so badly to go down, and if you know me you know that I do not do well with spooky things and scare myself. Well, she wanted to go so badly that I sad okay, but followed behind her. We used the light from our iPad, but couldn't see much. I had the desire to run back up the stairs, but knew I shouldn't leave my companion. It turned out that the cleaning supplies were what were stored down below. Nothing scary! 

      We also had a zone conference this week and I loved what I learned.  We were taught about the importance of prayer. If we really think about it, how amazing is it that we have the opportunity everyday to talk with the God and yet sometimes we repeat prayers or we hurry through a prayer because we are in a rush. I loved the testimonies that wee shared and I have put in to practice in my life to really talk with our Heavenly Father knowing that he is really there listening. I know that Heavenly Father knows us personally and he wants to hear from us and to help us. I have felt closer to God as I have prayed with real intent and used the Atonement in my life to do better each day.

       We had 5 investigators come to church. One of them was César. It was his first time being able to come and it was such a happy day for us. César fasted with us so that his boss's heart would be softened and he would let César have Sunday's off so that he could come to church every week. I know that God hears and answers our prayers and sees our efforts, and know that all things are possible with faith in Christ.

       In Mormon chapter 9 it says:

19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.
       

         I hope that you are all able to see the tender mercies and miracles in your everyday lives. Love you all!

Hermana Schmidt

Hey everyone!

      This week has been another week full of many wonderful experiences as well as sad ones. I will tell you sad the news first seeing as it pertains to our investigator, Edinson, who was going to be baptized on Saturday, but sadly did not reach his baptismal goal. On Tuesday, we went on splits because Hermana Rica was not feeling well. The member I was with was so great and stayed with me all day. We went to go visit Edinson and it was good because he knew the member whom I was with, but he seemed sad. I started to ask how he was doing, and he told me that he did not feel prepared to be baptized on Saturday. He said that he felt he needed to learn more, and even though the member, that was with me, and I tried to understand how he felt and help him feel that he really was prepared, he did not change his mind. We set up another visit with him on Thursday, but when Thursday came, he was not able to meet with us because of work. It was sad for us to see this, and maybe there is something that I could have done better to have helped Edinson, but we are not giving up on him. We will keep teaching him, and I know  that as he reads in the Book of Mormon and prays, he will be able to feel of he spirit testify of the truth and he will have a change of heart and feel prepared.

   Moving onto a lighter subject. My companion and I went to go visit a recent convert and his wife who is a member. He ended up not being there, but we stayed and visited with his wife for a little while. When we sat down on the couch, my companion yelped as she looked over to where the bird cage was. I looked over as well and saw that the poor bird was dead. The member hadn't even realized it. The poor bird probably died of loneliness. My companion got up and picked up the bird to really see if it was dead or not. It was dead. ¡Adiós pajarito! 

     My companion was also very sick and unfortunately we had to go to the hospital. We arrived in he emergency room at 3:45 and didn't get out until 9:15. The nurse had pushed the bed, that companion was laying on, into a hallway where we waited for two hours. My companion started to become hungry and wanted me to go buy a sandwich from the vending machine. So, I snuck out of the hallway and into the waiting room, quickly bought a tuna sandwich, and snuck back into the hallway with the sandwich smuggled into my purse. We had a pretty fun time as we were in the hospital.

      We had eight of our investigators come to church on Sunday. That was awesome. Two are from Africa and speak English, so I had to interpret the whole three hours of church. That was interesting because it was he first time I had ever done so. I need some practice, but the two of them really liked church and want to come again! 

     I love he fact that Heavenly Father is always watching over his children and that he knows each one of us personally and wants what is best for us. I know that he lives, and that he has created a perfect plan for us so that we can progress and become like him and receive all the blessings he has for us. I know that Christ is central in his plan and that it is through the Atonement of Christ that we are made clean. I know that as we apply the atonement into our daily lives, we will find more joy and peace in this life and in throughout eternity.

   I love you so much!

Hermana Schmidt