I made it to Barcelona! We are proselyting tonight, and get our trainers tomorrow afternoon. Mi español es muy mál pero I will get better as I work! I love our mission president and his wife. We got to tour some of Barcelona. It is beautiful here, but it smells weird. Where do you think I will be going? Oh, funny story! So on the way here we had to take the Ave, and there are some ramp escalators that we all had to go up, and the person in front of me got stuck, and that made the person behind her get stuck, and then I got stuck in between my luggage and fell. Now, not only is my foot swollen, but so is my hand... It´s all good though. I´m excited to go to work. Love you!

Hermana Schmidt

Hola Mi Familia y Amigos, 
This week has been interesting. I passed out
my first Book of Mormon at the park. It was to an old gentlemen who is
an atheist...kind of. My companion tried to give it to him twice, and
finally, at the very end of our conversation, I felt impressed to try
one more time. I bore my testiomy about the importance of the book in
my life and if he would just read it to know for himself if it is true
he would receive an answer. I could see a change in him after that. He
took the book, and said ¨For you, I will read this book.¨ It is
amazing how much power a simple testimony can have. I hope that he
does read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Then all the
missionaries sang in the park, and whenever we were singing ¨I am a
Child of God¨ all these little children came and listened. It was the
cutest thing ever! 
During soccer on Monday I rolled my foot, and
couldn´t walk on it afterwards. I tried to play it off like I was
fine, but eventually stopped playing soccer and just did some
crunches. It´s swollen pretty good now and a nasty green color on one
side, but it doesn´t hurt to walk on it anymore, so I consider that to
be a miracle. Some of the companionships, not mine, in my district
have been having a lot of tension, but it was cool to see whenever I
hurt my foot, how they turned outward and worked together to make sure
I was okay. It´s amazing what we can achieve when we turn outside of
ourselves.  I tried to take a picture of it but you couldn´t really
tell what it looked like in the picture.
Hermana Zimmerman-Lopez was in Spain and gave me some euros. Will you thank her for me! 
We went to the Real Madrid stadium for Pday. BEST PDAY EVER! 
Oh, so you know how I said that there was tension between companionships, and you know how
I hate drama. Well one night when I turned on my music a singles ward
song came on and I could not stop myself from dancing. It was like I
was two again. I literally danced to the whole song by myself and really
got into it while all the other girls laughed at me. I made them get
up and dance with me and restarted the song. I think that helped to
release some tension. Ugh... drama is the worst, but dancing is a
good cure sometime. 
Something I have been learning a lot about this
week is Repentance. I love repenting everday now. Ether 12:27 makes so
much more sense now. Whenever we come to God in prayer he will show us
our weaknesses and through repentance we can be made strong.  There is
a lot more to it, but that is the simplest way that I know how to
explain it right now. Repentance is something that everyone should
gain a strong testimony of.
 I love you all! I will be writing you
again on Monday before I leave to the mission field. I´m super
excited! -Hermana Schmidt

Hola Everyone! This week has been so amazing! My companion and I have
the best discussions, and also the best times. Every moment is fun in
the MTC. We had a dance party with the sister training leaders
listening to singles ward music. We ate less chocolate because we had
started to become addicted to it. We call it El Diablo because we are
starting to see the effects that it is having on us. :) The nutella is
so good though!
 Spain is beautiful, and also very crowded. My
companion and I were at the little German Grocery store called Lidl
and were checking out with some chocolate when an old man started
talking to us in Spanish and we had no idea what he was saying at
first. I understood the main concepts of the conversation, and then he
started to walk towards the temple with us. He was such a sweet old
man, and whenever I started to get used to his speech it was easier
for me to understand. Some Elders from Madrid were walking in our
direction and saw who we were talking to and said, ¨Pompin!¨and gave
the man a big hug. It was so sweet and the man looked so happy.
Apparently he lives in the same building as us. I think that he is a
temple worker. That experience gave me hope for my Spanish though
because I was actually able to understand a lot more than I thought I
could. 
One thing that I have really learned throughout this week is
the power of prayer. Especially the power that parents prayers for
their children have. I´m so grateful for my parents and for everything
that they have taught me, and for their prayers. I know that when we
pray we are being strengthened and can overcome trials. There is so
much I have learned and I will write it in my letter home to you.
How are all the primary children? I miss them. Will you send pictures of
Evert and Wyatt to me? 
Quote of the week: ¨The Lord calls us in our
weakness, but he qualifies us for his work.¨- Joseph Smith. We are all
missionaries and can become qualified for His work through our
obedience. Exact obedience brings miracles. 
Te amo mucho! -Hermana Schmidt

Hey so P-day was on Tuesday again this week because of the New Year.

This week was amazing. I have learned so much. As always, the

highlight of my week was the Parque de Retiro. I was paired up with

Hermana Merrill and thankfully she is not scared to go up to people

and start talking. We walked up to one young man who was sitting on a

bench, and he was very friendly and was from Barcelona, but knew

English very well, but he had to go pick up his girlfriend before we

could teach him anything about our church. He gave me his contact

information so that I could look him up when I get to Barcelona

though. I have a contact already! :) The whole time I was talking with

him I could just see him dressed in white. He doesn´t know it yet, but

he is going to be getting baptized. I´m excited to teach him the

Gospel when I get into the field. 

There was a lot of rejection in the park, but Hermana Merrill and I took that knife out of our heart and

pressed forward. We saw an old man sitting on a bench, and decided to

go and talk to him. At first he didn´t seem very interested, but as we

got to know him he started to open up more. I felt impressed to sit

next to him, so I did. That broke the ice, and he seemed a lot more

cheerful, and spoke openly about his feelings on religion. I felt such

a great love for this man whom I had only known for maybe 5 minutes,

and it was easy for me to bare my testimony and to be persistent. He

never took the Book of Mormon I offered him, but I believe that one

day he will be baptized. He´s the German I sent a picture of to you.

Every week I meet a German. The sad thing is that there are no German copies of The

Book of Mormon here. The Austrian gives me a new German word

everyday. So far he has taught me to say ¨shut your trap¨ ënough¨and

¨go away.¨ I think the Germans at the park will really want to listen

to me! 

Sometimes my companion and I just need to take a break and

relax, so we dance in the elavator, and we did the laughing game with

all of my roommates. We are planning on having a dance party with all

the girls one night. We are getting some more missionaries who are

going to Russia.

 More adventures to come! Love you all!

 -Hermana Schmidt

So much has happened this week! I will tell you more when we skype, but here is just an overview. Don´t forget that we skype at 9am your time. This week David Archuleta came to Madrid, and was kind enough to come to the MTC and do a fireside for us. He is SO tiny! His voice was amazing, and whenever he spoke I could hear all of the girls around me just giggling. Then we went to the Temple today, and he was in the same temple session. I don´t know why people go all crazy about him. He is a normal guy with an amazing voice. :) 

It turns out that my companion has cousins that live in the same neighborhood as us. Their last name is Judy. Do you know them? 

Oh, dad, what is that Scottish saying? 

So my companion and I probably have too much fun. One day we wanted to scare some of the girls in our district, so we went into our room and hid next to the wall. My comp went down onto her hands and knees, and we waited. Well... It wasn´t someone from our district that came in the door. Instead it was our Hermano Giorgino, our teacher. We totally scared him though, and his facial expression was so funny! 

Onto the more spiritual side of things, I have gained a closer relationship with my Heavenly Father through my personal prayers and study. This work is amazing. I love it. 

Can´t wait to skype with you all on Christmas! Feliz Navidad. 

Tell Cameron, Aunt Chris E and Uncle Kirk Happy Birthday for me.

 - Hermana Schmidt

This is my companion and I at the temple today

Oh my goodness so much is happening back home! I hope Lysje and Cody
get married haha. Send me a picture of Chandler if Sje hasn´t yet. A
lot has happened to me this week. I´m always tired, but I´m so happy!
I haven´t been hard on myself like I thought I would. My companion
helps a lot with that though. Her name is Hermana Judy, and she is
from Idaho Falls. She reminds me of Lysje´s personality, but more
innocent haha. In our afternoon class we learn a lot of the words that
we shouldn´t say. It´s very useful because at the park when we
proselyted one of the Elders in my district totally swore, but didn´t
realize it. OH! This is very important: On Christmas I will be skyping
you at 9am your time. Don´t forget. We only get 40 minutes max. Let me
know your skype account. I will be using the MTC´s. I have seen two
people that I know that are serving missions here in Madrid. One is
Elder Bigelow from our ward in Rigby. The MTC food is actually really
good! They are always giving us chocolate though, so I have to be
careful to not eat too much. We play soccer almost everyday for sport.
It´s really fun even though I´m not very good. I have had a lot of
¨She´s the Man¨moments when I try to kick the ball and fail just like
the brother does in the movie. I have learned so much about how to
study effectively for the investigators. Love you all so much! Talk to
you on Christmas! MacKinzee

Safely in Madrid

So I made it to Madrid safely without losing any luggage! Hermana
Moser and I were flirted with at Dunkin Donuts, we talked to a lady in
the airport about the gospel, and on the plane to Madrid I talked to a
lady from Spain. I slept a total of maybe three hours on the plane,
and the food made me want to throw up. That is probably because I
accidentally ate the vegetarian food that was meant for the lady next
to me. Oh well.  The MTC is so close to the temple! I have a picture
of the view from out the window, but I don´t know how this computer
works. When I figure that out I will send a picture. Everyone speaks
Spanish here, and I don´t understand a word. I can´t get worse than
that, so from here on out I should only get better. There won´t be a
Pday this Thursday, so the next time I will write you will be next
Thursday. Hopefully I will know how to use this computer by then. Wish
me luck!                        Love You! MacKinzee - p.s.- the enter
button isn´t working like it should so I can´t make paragraphs.