Mission Accomplished!

Return With Honor!

The mission has been amazing and difficult! 

But anything worth doing is not going to be easy. 

I have discovered more of myself here in the Washington Spokane Mission 

and I am excited to implement what I learned on this mission 

to the mission I am coming home to. 

I was an active member before I left but now I will be a pro-active member. 

Miracles happen all over and it is up to us to see them and recognize them. 

Life is difficult and hard and exhausting but through Christ anything is possible. 

Through Christ we can always smile and laugh even in times of difficulty. 

I love all of you and I am so grateful for your support and love. 

Sister Schmidt

This was a whirl~wind week for our family!  Monica returned home ~

Monday ~ January 16, 2017

She arrived in Sacramento at 1:34pm

Hello to Papa and Grandma Schmidt!

Becca and Monica's
Big/Little Sister Hug



We celebrated Monica's 21st birthday on Tuesday ~ January 17, 2017!
We took her clothes shopping for most of the day.
She was officially released as a full-time missionary at 6:30pm
then off to a family dinner at Red Robin and finally home for some cake and ice cream!

Thursday night she reported her mission to the Lincoln Stake High Council at 7pm.

And Sunday she gave her home coming talk in the Loomis 1st ward's sacrament meeting.

Monday ~ January 23, 2017 brought the start of a new semester at Sierra College!

She and her sister Becca are attending classes together for the spring semester!

Welcome home Monica!

My Last Week!

Missionary Leadership Training 1/3/2017

Hello Everyone!

The past 18 months have been a roller coaster! I am so grateful that I made the wise decision to come on a mission and to serve my loving Heavenly Father! So many thoughts and emotions are running through me at this moment and I have no idea what to write! 

I have loved every minute of my mission! I know I am biased ~ but I have served in the best mission in the world! The Washington Spokane Mission of Miracles is what we call it! I have had 10 companions, been in five areas, four zones and have been all over the mission. The gospel has changed me to be a better person than when I left. I am not perfect but I am on the right track. The best thing that I have witnessed on my mission is when people have opened their hearts to Christ and have changed their lives around! The gospel is so true and I am grateful to have been given the privilege and opportunity to share it for 18 months 24/7! 

I know who my Savior is now. I need Him everyday of my life and I am relieved that He wants to be. If it wasn't for Jesus Christ and His Atonement we wouldn't be happy. There would be no point to life. If we made one mistake and there goes our chance to live with our Father in Heaven again ~ BUT because of the suffering of our dear older brother, we can repent and get it right! Repentance, or another word for it is change, is the greatest gift that we have been given. We wouldn't be able to have the Holy Ghost with us or be able to live with God. Everything is possible because of Christ. I have discovered Christ's purpose in my life and I am glad that I found it out sooner than later. He changes people! He has changed me! I am sad to be leaving but I am excited for my new mission. I am going to be pro-active and move this wonderful work forward the best I can. I don't need a name tag to share this wonderful news! I need a testimony and I have that!  

I love you all and I miss you! See you in a week! Toodaloo!

Sister Schmidt 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I can't believe that it is a new year! I have been out for 18 months yesterday!!!!! I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ!

We had a lesson with Daron Geller on Monday and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. His neighbors ~ who are his member fellowshipers got him a large print Book of Mormon and large print Bible! He was so excited to have them because he can read it! He is already passed 1 Nephi 11 his first week. He is doing so well!!!!! His new year resolution is to no longer drink and smoke! He wants to be a better person! Continue to pray for him!

We had dinner with the Cazier's who live on the Air Force base! They got my number from the elders in their ward and they contacted me to have dinner with them! We had dinner with them on Wednesday! It was awesome to go back on the Air Force base and to see my past area and to see members that I love and miss! I am so grateful for all of the relationships that I have made on my mission! To think if I hadn't come out I would not have met them makes me sad. But luckily I don't have to think of it because here I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Cazier Family

We had a district meeting and then I went on exchanges with Sister Parker! She is awesome!!!!!!!!!! We had a dinner appointment that night in the boons and we called their home number and their cell multiple times and when we got there they opened the door with "deer in the headlights."  Yep, you guessed it. They forgot and we didn't get out of their until 8:30 and we got there at 6 and we couldn't go tracting in the boons because the people would pull their guns at us. 

On Saturday we went sledding at our Bishop's house with our ward and they have a really nice hill! We went down and biffed it and we both got a face full of snow! So that was a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to a member's home for a New Year's Eve party.  We walked 2 miles on the road there because we didn't have enough miles to get home if we drove there. It was quite an adventure!

We didn't really do much on Sunday because there a was a really bad wind storm so we organized our apartment and our area! It felt so nice! 

I love all of you!!!!!! Miss you so much!  Toodaloo!!!!!!!

Sister Schmidt

Three More Weeks!

Hello Family!

Christmas happened and that meant I was able to see you guys! It was awesome to see you! I remember when I skyped you on Mother's Day 6 months ago. I thought that it would be forever until I got to Skype home again. But here it is, a day after Christmas. Time goes by so fast! I am going to embrace these last 3 weeks that I have as a full-time missionary. Miracles have been happening here in the Silver Lake ward. We have been teaching a man named Daren Geller for three weeks now ~ so ever since I got here. I feel that I am here for him. He has come to church 3 times and he has accepted to be baptized. We invited him to be baptized on the 28th of January and he asked if he could change it to the 27th because his birthday is the 27th of February and he wants to remember when he gets baptized. When we checked on the date we found out that the 28th was full of youth activities and stake conference so the 27th was divine intervention. He is so genuine and humble and PREPARED!!!!!  When he comes to church he feels loved and accepted and he wants to continue to come. He has attended a lot of different churches throughout the years and he feels something good that he hasn't felt in those other churches! We are excited to continue to work with him. Pray for him that he will have the strength to overcome his Word of Wisdom addictions. He wants to quit and he has before.

Another investigator that we have been working with is Liz Osburn and she is awesome! She was first throwing Anti ~ Mormon information at the sisters and she is now thinking about joining church! Liz loves to read the Book of Mormon and she enjoys it. At first she was reading it like it was a piece of Literature but I am not sure what she thinks of it now?  Hopefully she thinks that it is the word of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is from God and that it benefits us tremendously!! She came to the Christmas party and she enjoyed herself. Even her daughter who is anti-religion came and she had a blast! Liz is excited that church is now going to be at 11 because it was hard for her to come to church at 9 with her health.  We are just working on getting members to her appointments.  Please pray for her and her daughter Chloe. 

Christmas was fantastic! We went caroling Christmas Eve as a zone! It was so much fun! After we had a snowball fight and there was no mercy! I was the main target for some reason ~ because I was holding a hymn book and I couldn't throw one. 

The Ritzville sisters came and spent the night with us and we enjoyed Christmas morning together opening up presents! This ward loves us! And I love them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Christmas Day we went to church and we had a wonderful Christmas program. We then went to the Flink's and we skyped home which was awesome!! I love the Flink home!!!!! After, we went caroling with a family in our ward in a nursing home and it was so much fun! A lady got up and she started to lead us in our singing. They enjoyed it very much! Christmas should be a day of service! I want to continue to do so for the rest of my life. Later in the day we had dinner with Bishop Harshberger and his family and it was a delicious meal!

Christmas Package 2016!

I love all of you and I hope all is well! Love you and miss you!! Toodaloo!!!!!!!

Sister Schmidt

Merry Christmas!

Hello Everyone,

On Monday we had a lesson with an older couple and their names are Dell and Claudette. When he was in the Air Force his general, who is a Bishop in this area, talked to him about the gospel and he wanted to join but didn't. So we are teaching them and he has read about 50 pages in the Book of Mormon.  He is doing well!!!

Ayla got baptized and it went well! About 60 people came to it! The best turn out I have ever seen ever for a baptism! When she was getting dressed, after she got baptized, we passed out sheets of paper to everyone and asked them to write down their testimony. We are going to put them into a book for her. After the baptism ~ while we were having refreshments ~ a lady who is pregnant passed out! The fire department came in and apparently she does not drink water so she was dehydrated! So that was very eventful. But she is doing better!

We had a district meeting and during lunch we talked about what super powers we would want and I want to fly and my super hero name is Sky Searcher! It was so much fun! We then had dinner with President McCombie and his family!

Friday we had specialized training with President Dymock and Sister Dymock. We were trained on councils and some major deep doctrine was shared!!!!! I will share with you later! We then had a Christmas activity of ginger bread house making. We did district against district. My district is the only district that has sisters in it and we won..... haha :) 

Specialized Training
AND
Gingerbread Houses!

On Friday we went on exchanges and I went to Ritzville with Sister Madsen. It was so cold there! When we were walking outside we asked someone how cold it was and they said it was -12 degrees outside! HOLY MOLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We tracted into a young mom who is interested in learning more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ritzville, WA

Sister Madsen and Schmidt on exchanges!

Something extremely awesome happened on Saturday!!! We were driving to our ward Christmas Party and while we were on the road we saw someone walking on the side of road and it was 6 degrees outside!!!!!!!!! We remembered that we had hand warmers in the back and so we pulled over and gave them to him. His name is Tyleek and he is 17 ~ but he looks like he is in his 20s. He had to walk about 3 miles home and we couldn't give him a ride.  So we drove to the party and the stake president and his daughter came with us and we picked him up.  He agreed to come to the party! He enjoyed it a lot! He had never seen anything like it before! The McCombie's then took him home and they got his number and they are going to invite him to go sledding with their family! We had hand warmers in the car because of the Christmas initiative. If it wasn't for the advent calendar then we wouldn't have had those hand warmers to give to Tyleek and he then wouldn't have come to the party or been invited to go sledding!!!!!!!! Miracles happen all over!!!!!!!!!!

Ayla got confirmed on Sunday and it was wonderful! We got picked on a lot yesterday! But it went well! We had a lesson at the stake president's home with a recent convert and it was pretty intimidating. There was a lot of return missionaries there ~ and the way that we were all sitting ~ it was scary! Sister McCombie came up to us after and apologized for the situation and said that we did good! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! This week was crazy but fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you all and miss you!!! Toodaloo!!!!

Sister Schmidt

Let it Snow!

Hello Everyone!

My new companion is Sister Reidhead and she is from Kanab, Utah. She has 6 siblings so with her they have 7 children.  She has only been out for 3 months so I am her "dad" in mission terms because I am her companion right out of training. She is awesome!!!!!!!! We have a lot of fun together! 

Sisters Reidhead and Schmidt

We live on a member's property in their farm house (no apartment number). It is so adorable. When I was in this stake about 8 months ago I went on exchanges and stayed in the farm house. SO it is fun to be somewhere familiar. 

So transfer day, last Tuesday, was super crazy!  Sister Andruski and I were going to be driving up to Spokane with 4 bad tires and it snowed all night. We both did not feel safe driving with bad tires ~ which we found out that we could change them out for new ones on Saturday of the week before. So we called the senior missionary to check if we could get our tires changed and he said yes but our car wouldn't get done until 4pm and we were supposed to be in Spokane by 1pm to meet our new companions.... that didn't happen. So during that time ~ when our car was getting fixed ~ we hung out with Sister Cook who I just adore! We played basketball with their family on Thanksgiving and they were bummed when they found that we were leaving ~ because they wanted to play on Christmas. We went shopping with her and it was weird not doing missionary work. I felt gross because it seemed like we were being disobedient. But we weren't because we had no place to go. The assistants called us later on and said that President Dymock would be driving down from Spokane with the two sisters that are taking our place and that he would be driving us back up to Spokane. The drive from Moscow to Spokane is 2 hours. So they didn't get to Moscow until 4:30pm and we didn't leave Moscow until 5ish. It was fun to ride with President. We talked to him about how he got called to being a mission president and how he and Sister Dymock met each other! It was a blast! We arrived in Spokane and then we had to wait for our ride to get to the stake center. My area is about 30 minutes away from Spokane where the temple, mission home and office are located.

I got to see sisters I've served with one last time before they left for home and before I leave. It was a tender mercy! God is good!!!!! Then we got our ride and we were off to Spokane West! I love this stake! I served here for 6 months and I was hoping to see members from these past areas at church and I did!!!!! Tears were shed and hugs were given! I love this area so much!!!!!!!!!! This is my favorite area ~ even though I love all of them! 

We have an investigator named Darin and the first time I met him he was drunk... :-( We shared a lesson with him and a member who lives with him was there. At the end of the lesson he gave us a handshake and kissed our hands. My first time having my hand kissed and it was by a drunk guy in his 50's. He kept asking us if we have twin sisters who are possibly 50. ???

We have a lot of snow here! About 6 inches and more is coming and colder weather is coming. It is supposed to be in the single digits this week.... YAY!!!!! NO! Our farm house's heater was not working until I came so I am glad it working now because we would be freezing otherwise. 

Snowy Wasteland

We have a baptism tomorrow at 6. Her name is Ayla Leyden and she is 16. Her family are members and she has come to church ever since she was little but her biological father said  she couldn't get baptized until she was 16 ~ so here she is!!!!! Tomorrow is her birthday and her mom is bringing cake as dessert and I was so happy to hear that!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also the ward here is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have extremes here, SUPER wealthy and not so wealthy and everyone acts as equals with each other!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I love you all and miss you all!!!!!!!!! Toodaloo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Schmidt

Last Transfer ~ 6 weeks left!

Hello Everyone!

It's the final countdown!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am LEAVING and so is Sister Andruski!

New address ~ 

                                                     Sister Monica Schmidt
                                                     9011 S Medifor Road
                                                      Cheney, WA 99004

Our area is being swept!  President Dymock said that it would be good to have a clean slate since a lot of his good missionaries have struggled here.  I am going to the Silver Lake Ward which is in the Spokane West Zone and I will still be the STL.  I served in the Sunset and West Terrace wards there for 6 months! I am excited to go back!  Silver Lake, Sunset, and West Terrace wards meet in the same building!!!!!!  I'll get to see the people I met there before I go home and I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!! 

My new companion is Sister Readhead and this is her 3rd transfer out!  She will most definitely keep me going!  Not that I am having problems!  I am going to miss this area!  But I am ready for change!  When we told the ward on Sunday they were not happy to hear that we are leaving!  They told us that they don't want Elders... good thing sisters are coming in!

Downtown Moscow!

We are having to say "see you later" to a lot of people today before we leave tomorrow.  Also, Sister Andruski and I will be going on a road trip tomorrow to Spokane to meet our new companions!  Pray that we make it there safely!

Good-bye Idaho!

Hello Washington!

On Tuesday I went to MLC (Missionary Leader Conference) and it was amazing like always!!!!!!!!!!! We were taught about Moses (Exodus 3-4) and  how he struggled with his calling and the excuses that he gave to the Lord and then we read the Lord's responses to him and they were full of love and encouragement and support! Sister Dymock gave a training all about commitments and how we need to be committed to the gospel and that we should NEVER fall away!  I gave this training in our zone training and it well really well apparently. Everyone said that I did a good job and that I got really intense when I committed everyone to make an oath with themselves to never fall away! I will NEVER  fall away from this Gospel because it is Christ's!  The final training was given by the assistants to the president and it was on using technology with members!  Since we don't have technology (Ipads or smart phones) we are encouraged to have members use theirs for hastening the work. The reason we have technology is to hasten the Lord's work! It is not for wasting time by playing bingo up until 3 am. So everyone reading this email should go onto their social media and share the #LIGHTtheWORLD video on your Face Book page!  DO IT!

Today has been crazy! We have been all over the place but I think I have gotten better at packing! haha :) I am going to miss Moscow but I am ready for a change of scenery! I will be close to the Fairchild Air Force base and the airport! I miss seeing planes! 

I love all of you and I miss you all! Toodaloo!

Sister Schmidt