¡hola everyone!
   This week we saw a lot of success. We found investigators that are
so prepared to receive the gospel, and a lot of our knew investigators
are actually references from the members or references from people we
talk to on the street.
   One these references was golden. We were at church on Sunday,
talking with the members after sacrament meeting, and one member came
up to us and asked if he could talk to my companion and I for a
second. He is a normal faithful member who does his home teaching and
saw the needs of the people he was teaching and asked for our help. He
is home teaching  a lady who was less active for a while, but has been
coming to church for the past six months with her 14 year-old daughter
who isn't a member. He told us that the daughter wants to get
baptized, but just needs to have the lessons. We set up a visit for
the next day, and the home teacher was able to come as well. The
lesson went perfectly and the girl is planning on being baptized on
the 3rd of July.
   I played my cello again with all of the primary children for
sacrament meeting. We had some little children playing their violins
and flute as well. Next Sunday I get to play again! We usually have a
meeting after church and then we go home, but this week we were
invited to a members house for lunch, so I carried the cello all the
way to the members house. As we were walking home, my companion looked
to the side of the road and saw a dead rat. She screamed, jumped, and
clung onto my arm so tight. I wanted to die laughing because of he
face that she made.
    We get to go to English classes now because we have three
investigators who go. One of our investigator speaks perfect English
almost and he has only been learning it for three months. He said he
can teach us the language of the Incas, but when he said that there
were three different dialects and I couldn't tell the difference
between the three I decided that I shouldn't even try.
   I was reading in Alma chapter 50 today and I remembered an object
lesson that my dad gave for a family home evening whenever I was about
14. It's talking about Moroni and how he fortifies the cities so that
Lamanites cannot overcome them. My dad related this to how we can
fortify our homes so that the temptations of the world cannot overcome
our families. I think it's amazing that I can still remember that
family home evening from so long ago. I'm so grateful for parents who
taught me the gospel and made our home a Christ centered home, a place
of refuge from the world.
     This area is growing so much! I'm so grateful to be here in
Barcelona and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone. I would
invite you all to Invite your friends to hear this message. I know
it's true and that Heavenly Father will bless us in our efforts.
  Love you!
Hermana Schmidt

Hola everyone!
    Sorry for not writing the week before! But, this week so many
things happened!!! Our Korean investigator, Shim, was baptized! We had
to go to the church early and start filling up the font at the church,
and while we were waiting we ate bread and chocolate and did the
programs for the baptism. Then, Shim ended up coming to the church an
hour and a half early because he got confused on the time. A ton of
members showed up to the baptism and everything went perfectly. When
Shim was being baptized he sat so low down in the water that he pretty
much dunked himself, and we only waited about three minutes for him to
change clothes. Everyone was super surprised by how fast he was about
everything. That's Shim though.
   I had the opportunity to play cello at the baptism, and of course I
made a face when I messed up a part, but I learned from that
experience and didn't make a face on Sunday when I had to play in
sacrament meeting. I loved it on Sunday, though, because whenever I
was practicing with the relief society president before the meeting
started, all of the primary kids came up to the stage to watch me
play.The primary kids are my favorite! Now that I have the cello the
members are always having me play. My companion now has the music for
"somewhere over the rainbow" to play on her ukulele, and we are going
to be having a Karaoke night at the church and singing that.
   We had a family home evening with some less active members and the
son was playing a song that I recognized and so I just started singing
right along with it. I'm without shame here haha. The mission is
definitely helping me to become less quiet.
   After church, on Sunday, we went to Shim's house to eat paella. It
was paella from Catalunya and had tons for seafood. I've never eaten
shrimp where I had to peel off the shell. That was interesting, and
then when I did get the shell off I noticed that there was some brown
pebbles on the shrimp. I made the mistake of asking what those pebbles
were. I ate it anyways, and kept a cool face about it.
   We are receiving a ton of references from the members now. I'm not
sure what my companion and I did, but the members are always wanting
us to visit their friends and have family home evenings with them and
their friends. I think that ever since our perspective changed about
the way to do missionary work changed, the ward members have changed
as well. As soon as we gave more attention to helping the members feel
the importance of missionary work in their life, they have been more
willing to help and share the gospel with their friends. I love how we
are seeing the members working right alongside the missionaries.
    I was studying this morning in the Book of Mormon and Liahona and
came across a phrase that I liked in a talk given by Linda K. Burton.
It is a proverb that says "Thee lift me and I´ll lift thee, and we´ll
ascend together." I know that as we lift each other up and encourage
each other and our friends to stay on the path that leads to eternal
life, we will all be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father
and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Isn´t that what we all want? That´s
what I want. I know that it is possible as we keep the commandments of
God and fill our lives in the service of others. I know that as we are
serving others we are serving our God.
   Love you all!
Hermana Schmidt

Hey everyone!
  This week was really great! A member in the ward is letting me
borrow her cello and I get to play next Sunday during sacrament
meeting! I actually am playing with the primary as well and with the
missionaries as we do a special musical number. It will be so great to
play again.
   We had transfers on Tuesday last week, and my companion and I were
made companions with the new sister missionaries for one night. As we
brought the girls to the apartment we smelt something really bad and
realized at the bottom of the stairs was dog poop. That was a great
way to introduce the girls to Barcelona.
   Our Korean investigator had to move apartment buildings and we were
scared he was moving into the Elder´s area, but luckily he stayed in
our area. There was no elevator in his new apartment building, so we
had to carry everything up the stairs. It wasn´t too many things, and
Shim, our investigator, got us breakfast afterwards and told us that
he would get baptised on the 13th of June. We are going to eat lunch
with him and the family that helped him move. I told him I could make
cinnamon rolls, and he told me he wanted a tray for himself. I love
seeing how the members are helping us with our investigators.
    We had a dinner appointment with some member, but had no idea
where their house was. When we exited the metro we were saved by
meeting up with some other members. The wife took us to our dinner
appointment. We were so greatful that Heavenly Father placed them in
our path. It was pretty late by the time we got to our dinner
appointment and I don´t think that I have eaten so much food in so
little time. There were other members at this house who were watching
the soccer game, and so it was just my companion and I eating at the
table with a member. That was weird, but we laughed pretty hard about
it later.
    We have received Ipads in the mission. It´s pretty cool, but I
just think it´s funny that I´m one of the most technologically
challenged people and yet here I am using an Ipad. It will be cool to
see the work hasten as we use this technology.
   Lots of things are happening here in Barcelona! Thanks for your
prayers and support. I love you all!
   Hermana Schmidt

Hey everyone!

  So remember the metro mix-up from last week? Well, the little girl got baptised on Saturday! It was so cool to see the blessing of always remembering our purpose as missionaries. Even it is preparation day and we get off on the wrong metro stop. God places people in our paths who are prepared to receive the Restored Gospel. 

   I was on exchanges again this week and we decided to knock on the door of the very top floor of our building where we had given our neighbor a Book of Mormon. A young lady opened the door and let us into the apartment. Her boyfriend, who was the one we had given the Book of Mormon, was asleep on the couch and his girlfriend let us out onto the Balcony. She is from Chile and is so sweet. She treated us as if we had been friends forever and was completly opened to learning about the Gospel. The view on the balcony was absolutely gorgeous as well. 

   My companion and I woke up 5:30 on Monday to run to the beach. We got to see the sunrise and worked out there. There is almost no one out during that time in the morning, so we brought out music with us and danced. :)

   Our Korean friend, Shim, loves coming to church and even says he wants to pay tithing. He is so golden. He is moving apartments, but luckily lives in our area still. He called us to see if anyone in the ward could help him. I love that he has gained a trust in the ward members. He is so stinkin funny. I made him cinnamon rolls once and he absolutly loved them. Eversince then he has been asking me for more "American Pan." When people ask him how he met the missionaries he always says "Schmidt found me. Schmidt talked to me." I´m glad that I will be staying here in Barcelona for another transfer to see him get baptised. He is always talking about his baptism and is excited to be baptised on the 6th of June. 

   We have been heart-attacking some of the members with little notes on their doors. We have to get pretty creative and sneaky so that they don´t know we are doing it. We are doing a lot to strengthen the members right now, and whenever we are not with the members we are with our investigators or knocking doors and contacting people on the street. It´s been really fun to just serve and loose myself in the work. 

    Sorry this letter is so short! Love you all so much!

  Hermana Schmidt

Hola Everyone!
   This week was so full of miracles! My companion and I have a goal to
reach at least three standards of excellence everyweek, and so far we have
been able to do it, but this past week on Saturday we still had a ton
that we needed to do.
   We had had a lot of visits set up and members to help us, but sadly
almost all of the members that said they would help us ended up
canceling last minute. But, we had really good lessons with our
investigators anyways.
   I was on an exhange on Friday and as the other sister missionary
and I were coming out of the metro we contacted a man and his wife who
were just sitting on a bench. They were really nice and we ended up
getting there information, and even invited them to come to english
classes the next day. They were interested and even wrote down our
names. The Elders teach english classes on Saturday so we weren´t
going to be able to see them. But, there was a baptism a couple of
hours later and we went to that. To our surprise, the man and his wife
were there as well with their daughter and mother! That was so great!
They had a lot of really good questions as well, and came to church
the next day. We are going to eat lunch with them tomorrow.
    Saturday night I started a fast and my companion joined me
because, even though we had a lot of things we needed to do still, we
knew that we could reach our goals if we had faith.
    We need six people at church in order to reach one of the standard
of excellence and we were blessed to have seven people come. One of
the people that came was actually a man whom we had never met before
and who had met the missionaries on the street two years prior. He had
never had the opportunity to come to church before because of work,
but his work schedule changed and now he was able to come. He is so
golden and he even stayed for all three hours of church.
   Gospel Principles was a bit embarrassing because I was called to
read from the book and of course my reading is even worse than my
talking and I stumbled over my words a ton, and when I thought I was
finished, I was asked to keep going. Luckily I can laugh at myself.
   After church we still needed to have 8 more member present lessons
or 1 more person with a baptismal date in order to reach our goals. We
called all the members we could think of to see if any could help us,
but of course people have their life and so they couldn´t. We finally
called a lady who is always helping the missionaries, and she said
that she could help. We had visits, but most of them cancelled. So, we
contacted with this member. She has no problem contacting and we were
able to talk with and pray with eight people. Our last lesson was with
our Korean investigator. He has a problem with the word of wisdom, but
it was really funny because I just told him that he shouldn´t drink
and he was like "okay, I won´t." He´s the kind of person that actually
keeps his promises though.
   We found two other girls while walking home and we invited them to
be baptised and they accepted. We ended up reaching 4 of the 5
standards of excellence. That was way cool. It just shows me that with
faith and dilligence all things are possible.
   I need to get going. I love you all!

Hermana Schmidt

Hola Family and Friends!
  Happy Mother's day to all Mothers! Yesterday, my companion and I
made cinnamon rolls and went to visit the members and gave a cinnamon
roll to all of the moms. They loved it! We also gave one cinnamon roll
to our Korean investigator, Shim. We wanted to ask him to get baptised
since he had already been coming to church ever since we met. He
really loved the cinnamon roll and wanted more, but sadly I didn't
have enough to give him another. I also had a baptismal calender in my
hand and he asked me what it was. I was pretty blunt and told him it
was a calender to help him prepare for his baptism. He was a little
shocked at first, but eventually accepted to be baptized on the 6th of
June. I'm so excited for him!
   Our other investigator that comes to church is also doing really
well and is still planning to get baptised on the 23rd of May. I
really think that she will get baptized, and her son as well. We are
doing a lot more with the ward members inorder so that we help them to
feel the spirit of missionary work. We even received a reference.
Heavenly Father is blessing us so much in our area.
   We had a mission wide conference to talk about receiving Ipads in
our mission. It's never been done before, and a member of the area 70
came to talk to us as well as other leaders of the church. I really
liked how they emphasized that the Lord is saving our generation. They
were talking about how Ipads or other digital devices are just a tool,
and that we shouldn't let them control us. They then emphasized that
after our missions we should remember how we used these devices on the
mission so that we don't waste our time on them or start doing things
on them that we shouldn't.
    We then had another conference with our zone, and as we split up
into sections to do roleplays, President Pace came into the room I was
practicing in and that just made me super nervous and made my spanish
even worse. He then used me as an example later of being someone who
can't talk very good in the language but has the spirit with them. You
can imagine how red my face was while he was talking about me in front
of the whole zone. I really try to go unnoticed, but seems impossible
to do haha.
   Sorry that this week's letter is so short. I love you all!
  Hermana Schmidt

Hey Everyone!

   We ended up eating out with our Korean investigator this week and at a Korean restaurant too. It was really good and he was nice enough to not buy the super spicy food. It was still spicy though, but so good. He loves talking with Americans, but doesn´t speak any english and He doesn´t understand spanish much either. My companion has to do a lot of translating. He came to church this Sunday, and a baptism. That was awesome! Especially since he told us that he wasn´t going to come to church this week.

     I was on exchanges this week with Hermana Wiseman. We knocked a buiding where one of our investigators lives, and found four other investigators to teach in the same building. At one door we knocked, a Peruvian lady opened the door. She was really nice and we set up a return visit with her. Then before we left we asked if we could pray with her. She then invited us into her house! Never had that happen before. Now she has a baptismal date for the 23rd of this month and has already come to church this week. 

    We also met a lady from the Phillipines who speaks English and lives in that same building. She wasn´t very interested when we were talking with her at the door, but she said that we could pass by any time. We left her with a prayer and then went. The next day we were by that building and she was coming home with her three sons. She invited us in so of course we followed. Her sons have autism, but are the sweetest boys ever! She told us that after we had said a prayer with her the day before she had just felt a sense of calm the rest of the day. Power of prayer is amazing! We are now teaching her and her sons. 

   We also have another family that we teach that live in the same building. We call this building "the Building of Miracles" because of how many people we have found. We even figured out that a les active member works at there as well. We visit him as well. I love the relationship that I have with my investigators. It´s as if I´ve known them forever! 

   We still talk to almost everyone on the street. Lots say no, but some say yes! I love being able to share my testimony with everyone on the street. It´s cool to see the change in people. At first many people say no, but as we are a little persistent and share our testimony, they start to listen and then some accept it. 

   I found a cool quote this week while reading a talk called "The

Fourth Missionary" by Lawrence E. Corbridge-

  "The purpose and central blessing of life is change. It is to be changed to become more like Jesus Christ. It is to incorporate into your character, the qualities of His character. It is to move from one degree of intelligence and capacity to the next, and from there to the next, until you see God face to face adn know Him as He knows you."

   I love that we have the ability to become more like our Saviour, Jesus Christ, everyday. We are here to progress in this life. I can´t force my investigators to progress against there will, but I can be progressing and putting my will in line with the will of our Heavenly Father. 

   The mission is so great!

Hermana Schmidt