¡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 😄