Queridos Amigos y Familia,
       I realize that this is the last email I will write to you all
as Hermana Schmidt and that the next time something goes up onto the
blog it will be of my return home. So, I will try to make this a good
email about the great week my companion, Hermana Aguilar, and I have
had.
        After our excursion to San Juan on Monday, that included a lot
of hills and steps, we ran up another hill were we had a Family Home
Evening with a recent convert of the church, with her son our ward
mission leader. We taught the Ten Commandments and did it as a memory
game. Whoever made the match with the commandment and the number that
corresponded to it had to explain the commandment. I loved being able
to hear as everyone bore testimony of the commandments and why they
are important. We went home very happy and very tired. Then, we
received an phone call from our district leader saying that we would
have our district meeting Wednesday morning instead of Tuesday.
"Nooooooo" I thought. I had a companionship exchange to do and now I
would have to switch it around.
      So, Tuesday morning my companion left for San Sebastián while
Hermana Handy came to be with me in Bilbao. We went and talked with
people in a park nearby and had a lot of good conversations and ended
up finding a man from Colombia who was interested in learning more. On
our way back to the apartment to eat lunch, we were stopped by two
young men who were missionaries of a different church. We invited them
to come to a baptism that was on Saturday and quickly left. That same
day, we went and passed by some people and in one apartment we rung
the intercom and they allowed us in the building. Then all of a sudden
we heard a dog barking and running out of the door we were going to
knock. Hermana Handy screamed, but the dog was harmless. The lady we
were looking for was not at home, but we talked to her friend and she
seemed really interested.
      On Thursday we did another companionship exchange and I went to
Santander to be with Hermana Tamayo. We had a visit with a young girl
whom I taught when I was in Santander. When she first saw me she
didn't seem to recognize who I was, but when I asked if she remembered
me she stared at me for a second and then her eyes got big as she
realized who I was. She quickly gave me a hug and started to tell me
about all the things that had gone on in these past five months. She
is going to be baptized soon! She was so excited to announce it too.
After our visit with her, we went and visited Carolina, who was
baptized when I was in Santander. It was so good to see her again.
Seems as though life is changing a lot for them and they've decided to
move to London. I'm happy for them though and things seem to be
looking up.
      Hermana Tamayo and I decided to go running the next morning and
we were doing good until my foot hit a rut in the sidewalk and, not so
gracefully, I rolled and quickly got back up. It was more like I
rolled in slow motion, but I would say it was much better than just
landing flat on my face. Thankfully there were not many people around,
but I have a nice size bruise on my leg now and I think it might be
from that fall.
      On Saturday, the Elders in our ward had a baptism and when we
arrived we saw our "missionary friends," that we had met in the street
the other day, talking with the members. We were surprised that they
actually came. They stayed until just after the lady was baptized and
then had to leave. They want to meet with us again. We will see what
happens.
       Sunday morning we woke up to the sound of rain falling. That
morning we had to go to the far end of our area to pick up a friend to
bring him to church. We quickly ate breakfast and ran in order to
catch the subway. Our friend is a little old man named Albaro, and
when we arrived he was just looking out the window waiting for us. As
we walked slowly back to the subway with him and to the church, I held
an umbrella over the both of us so as not to get wet. We arrived just
in time to church but had to sit in the back and for some reason the
microphone wasn't working and on top of it all I needed to translate
the meeting into English for the Nigerian member sitting next to me.
That was an interesting meeting.
       In our ward there are very few members who are actually
Spaniards, and so receive a lot of help from our Latin American
friends, but this week it seemed that God wanted to show us just how
much the Spaniard members love us as well. One invited us to eat at
her house where we had a delicious Paella. After an activity at the
church all the Spanish women made sure that we were able to bring some
food home with us since we were fasting at the time and not able to
eat at the activity. We talked with some other members in the street
and they started to tell us about the Basque culture and history. I
loved seeing how excited they got while speaking about their culture.
And on Sunday we were able to visit some widows in our ward with their
home teacher. It was such a neat experience this week to be able to
get to know these people better. I love the so much and am so grateful
that I have the chance to serve them.
     I will end with just a short scripture that I read during my
personal studies this week. In Galatians 6:9 "And let us not be weary
in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." I
know that as we keep doing good unto all men, even during those times
when we may feel inadequate, we will see that there has been a change
within ourselves and that we have been able to touch the lives of many
others. I hope that we might all find ways to serve those around us
this week. I know that we will find joy by doing so because "when we
are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only on the service of
our God." I love you all!

¡Hasta la Vista!

Hermana Schmidt
Misión Barcelona España