¡Hola a todos!

    It's becoming really cold here in Santander. My poor companion
doesn't have a coat and so we will be buying her one today. It has
been raining like crazy these past two days and we have been soaked
through. On Saturday was when it started to become really cold and
rainy. We needed to go to a pueblo to visit a little girl who was
recently baptized. The walk from the bus station to her house was
about forty minutes in the wind and rain. Luckily it wasn't raining
hard at this point. My companion and I had a lot of fun though. Sunday
was about the same. All of the visits we had planned cancelled on us,
but the great thing about the weather being like this is that there
are more people in their houses. We called a widow in our ward to see
if we could visit her. We were already at her door when we called, but
we told her we would be there in five minutes so that she could get
ready if needed. I love visiting the older ladies in the ward. They
love to talk, but it's okay because I love to listen.
      Here in Spain there are a lot of people from South America and
they are so receptive to here about our message, but I have gotten in
a habit of only talking with only South American's and so I made a
goal to talk with more spaniards this week. We were blessed to find
three girls that are from Spain, and they are all really young. One of
them is only 16 and when we visited her it was the night of the
Barcelona vs. Madrid fútbol. We had our lesson on the doorway of an
apartment building. She was so good! She brought questions and
everything.
     One day we visited another widow in our ward who does not see
very well, and she had made a tortilla de patata for us. We were
fasting that day and so I had to explain why we were not able to eat,
but we gladly wrapped it up to eat it the next day. When we saw it the
next day we realized that it had not been cooked all of the way, so we
felt very blessed that we had not had eat it the day before. We cooked
it the rest of the way and ate it. I love tortilla de patata!
     It's amazing how, as a missionary, you can go from having a blank
day to having a day completely full of things to do. We had one day
where all we had to do was a list of pass-by plans. But, by the end of
the day we had done a service project, found an awesome new
investigator, saw some recent converts and members.
     The little girl of our recent converts can now say Hermana. That
was exciting.
   This week has been full of miracles! I love the mission! They still
call me Amish here haha, as well as Catniss.  Some things never
change.

¡Os quiero!

Hermana Schmidt
Misión Barcelona España

¡Buenos Días!

     We have a completely different district then whenever I first arrived in Santander. I have literally seen missionaries come and go, and I have stayed. I love it though! I am so blessed to see the beginning and baptism of my converts! Alba has committed to be baptized on December 5th. We are going to be helping her this week and next week to move her stuff into her new house. She is so excited to be baptized finally.

     My birthday was this week. I'm no longer a teenager! My companion made me breakfast and gave me a cup with cows on it. I love the milk here and have a fascination with cows and she finds that funny. The whole day members were calling me to sing happy birthday. I received an orange from one member when I had to pass by the church. Another member gave me mittens that she had made, Cesar and Carolina took my companion and I to Pizza Hut and we also had cake. My companion is pretty strong. The tradition in Spain is to take a bite of the cake before you cut it, and so that is what I did, but my companion pushed my head so that the frosting was covering my face and some of the cake went up my nose. Everyone had a good laugh.

       On Sunday, the elders (who have amazing musical talents) did a duet. One played the piano and one sang. The members were in awe afterwards. After the meeting, the bishop came up tours and said that since the elders sang this week the sister missionaries needed to do something the next week. What?! I'm not allowed to play the cello during sacrament meeting so I can't use the only musical talent which I have! This should be an interesting Sunday. 

        In English class this week we asked a simple question to all of the participants. The question we asked was, "What is your favorite food?" One man answered, "my favorite food is children..."

"Children! Niños?"

"Oh no, pollo!"

"Chicken.."

That made a lot more sense. We were a little worried for a second. 

     This week was full of funny/interesting things. We are finding more people to teach. The members are helping us more and we are having so much fun. There are so many things to be grateful for in life, but having the gospel in my life has probably been the greatest blessing of all. I was reading in Luke 17:11-19 and remembered that we should always be thanking God for all the blessings in our lives. It helps us to be more happy. The plan the God has for us is the Plan of Happiness. He has given us everything that we need to be able to be happy in this life. I know that he loves us and that he is always watching over us. 

I love you all!

Hermana Schmidt

Misión Barcelona España 

Hola Everyone!

   Transfers have come and gone, and I have the blessing of staying in Santander for another four weeks!!! I'm thinking I may only have three areas my whole mission. 1 for every 6 months. How cool would that be?

     It has been so warm these past couple days. I thought it was supposed to get cold up north. We've been walking around in short sleeves and I was loving it. Then all the sudden it decided to change on us and is now soooo cold! 

     They have the cutest little trains in the sidewalks that are actually where they roast the chestnuts. I didn't realize that was actually a real thing, but that it just made a nice Christmas song... Apparently they help to keep you warm. I will have to try them out.

     We are already starting to decorate for Christmas here in Spain seeing as there is no Thanksgiving. My companion and I have decided to be Americans still and celebrate the wonderful day of thanksgiving by making hand turkeys out of paper and giving them to the members with a list of reasons why we are grateful for them. 

      Our recent convert, Cesar had a birthday, and knowing that he loves to cook I bought him an oven mitt that looked like a platypus and gave and made a recipe book as well. He loved it! 

     On Saturday, we visited another recent convert, who is 10 years old, with her family. Her mom cooks amazing Peruvian food, and this time we had fried rice with some meat. She had put some ginger into the rice, but I didn't realize what it was and stuck the whole chunk in my mouth. That was the most awful feeling ever! My mouth was on fire and my tongue was tingling. I want so badly to spit it out, but didn't want to be disrespectful either. I eventually swallowed it all and drank a big glass of juice. I made sure to pick out the ginger chunks after that. 

    I would like to thank all who have been so good to my family this past week. I know that it has very much appreciated. 

      Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught about Christ and his atoning sacrifice. He said, “Having ‘descended below all things,’ He comprehends, perfectly and personally, the full range of human suffering.” We might even say that having descended beneath it all, He is perfectly positioned to lift us and give us the strength we need to endure our afflictions. We have only to ask."

  I know that our Savior knows exactly how we feel, and we can receive comfort through our trials as we ask. I love you all and hope you all have a great week.

Hermana Schmidt

Misión Barcelona España 

Hola Everyone!
     Well we are starting to see some success for our labors. We still
are having a hard time finding people to teach but are keeping a
positive attitude, and enjoying talking with many people and teaching
our investigators that have not disappeared on us. We also have grown
to have a love for the widows in our wards who do not receive many
visits. Our new ward mission leader is actually helping us with ideas
of how to help the ward members build their faith so that we can work
together on the work of the Lord.
     I love to scare my companions at least once while I am with them,
and this week I still had yet to scare Hermana Jorgensen. One night,
while we were sleeping, I heard her get up to go to the bathroom. That
gave me about 2 minutes to get in a good hiding position. At first I
got in her bed so that whenever she tried laying down there would be a
person there, but then I thought she might punch me. So, I crawled all
the way underneath her bed so that I could grab her ancle. That would
have really been scary and I'm not that cruel. I finally decided to
just crouch down beside her bed so that whenever she came around the
corner I could scare her. She screamed pretty loudly. I hope our
neighbors weren't woken up. I had a good laugh though.
         We arrived early to a lesson and we were just going to talk
with people in the street while waiting, but I told my companion that
we should see if our investigator was at home. It was a good thing we
did because our investigator was just on her way out when we rung the
doorbell. We were able to have a short lesson in her doorway and set
up a return visit. She started asking us questions and seemed really
interested. I'm excited to see her again this week.
   (By the way, transfer calls are this week and I might be going. Any
guesses to where I will be sent?)
        My companion had her 20th birthday this week and so I woke up
early to make her French toast, and had a whole day of visits set up
with members and investigators to wish her happy birthday.
         One of our investigators is a lady from here in Santander, but
because of bad experiences with other religions she has decided to not
talk about God. She won't let us teach her but she loves to teach us
how to cook. So we go over to house and she teaches us. Lately she has
been asking more questions about our religion, and we have been able
to teach her some basic principles. She is such an amazing woman, and
I love visiting her. I think that her heart is already softening.
        My friend, Alba, taught us a traditional dance of the area we
are in. We were going to do it for the talent night, but sadly there
was not enough time to practice. She also ended up bringing a flower
arrangement to the church. She works doing that kind of stuff, and
flowers during All Saints Day is very common. She also gave my
companion and I a bouquet of flowers for our apartment.
            We had a talent night with the ward, and so I was able to
play my cello! All for of us missionaries also did a skit of Alma the
Younger and the sons of Mosiah, but in modern day. The members loved
it. Not too many people participated. I think they were too timid to
get up in front of everyone. I guess as missionaries we just have to
get over that timidness. I normally don't sing in front of people, but
now I don't really care if my voice is bad, I still sing. 😋
  My Ponderize scripture for this week is in 1 Corinthians 10:13
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye
are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that
ye may be able to bear it."
     God is always willing to help us, but sometimes he stretches us
as well. We will always be able to do what he has asked of us as we
act with faith and are obedient to His commandments. By stretching us
he is helping us to progress, and helping our weaknesses become
strengths.

I love you all, and hope you have a fantastic week!

Hermana Schmidt
Misión Barcelona España

Hey everyone!

  So just about five minutes ago I saw a double rainbow! That was pretty sweet. I will send the picture so that you all can see it. We went to the castle again today because my companion has not seen it before and it her birthday week after all... Do you have any ideas of things I could do for her birthday to make it a memorable one? 

   Yesterday we were walking to a member's house who lives pretty far away, and close to a large field. Out of nowhere, we saw a horse come around the corner with a little boy on top. That was unexpected and I'm sure our faces showed our surprise. The little boy took the horse out running, and when we told the member about it she told us that the gypsies live on that part of Santander. I have always heard about the gypsies, but have seen very few. Now I know where there village is at, and guess what! It's right around where the new church building is going up. 

    We had exchanges again with the sister training leaders this week. This whole week has been a lot of talking with people on the street, but no one wanting to listen, but a blessing when we got to Carolina and Cesar's house. Their niece, who is 19, was there, and we were able to teach about the Plan of Salvation. She had a lot of good questions and has already been to church once. We have a lot of hope for her. 

   Alba, the girl that plays the cool instrument, brought me her cello to play. I just need to buy a string and I will be able to play it for church meetings! I don't know how I get so blessed.

   I was studying a talk by Quentin L. Cook this morning and he talked about being temple worthy in all times. A quote that I liked from it was: 

“self-control is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Avoiding something tempting once will help you develop the ability to resist other temptations in the future.”- Dr. Walter Mischel

     It's true what is said. As we work our self control and achieve our goals, or resist temptations we will have more confidence and be more happy and who doesn't want happiness.

Love you all!