One Year ! July 1st, 2016!

Hello Everyone,

My companion Sister Lake has been out for 9 months.  She is from North Ogden, Utah, and she is the oldest of 6 kids. We get along and my mission president told me that I will be a blessing to her and that he wants me to keep in touch with him. 

Sister Lake and Sister Schmidt

 Something interesting that happened this week ~ I got the stomach flu as well on Friday - Sunday. BEST TIME OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!! haha. NO!  My abs hurt so much from making the toilet my best friend ~ it hurt to laugh. I joked around with Sister McFaul that I want to be happy but it hurts to be happy! We laughed which then made us hurt! Ripple affect!

This week has been crazy but fun. I am definitely learning and growing.  We had a lesson with Crystal Anton and we talked about Joseph Smith and invited her to pray and ask Heavenly Father if he saw Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. So we went back a couple of days later to follow up and she told us the most heart wrenching news I have ever heard. She was praying about what we asked her to pray about and she tells us that within a few days she received an answer and that she has yet to get one. So she did some research and she ran into things that go against the church and she was telling us about them and I was crying inside. I don't like it when people tell me that Joseph Smith was not a prophet when they received their answer from man and not from God. Heavenly Father is the source of all truth, NOT MAN! We asked her some questions to see if she has real intent and she told us that she really doesn't want to be Mormon but if God tells her to be Mormon she will be Mormon. That is her problem right there. We testified and we invited her to continue to pray about it and she said she will. She wants us to come over and talk about Jesus as she put it. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. This church is true. Why? Because it is Christ's church on the earth and He is at the head of it.  I know that to be true!

 

So we had dinner with a older couple this week. The lady is active and her husband is not. He is hilarious and he and his wife joke around so much at the dinner table I almost peed my pants! I DIDN'T! Anyway, Brother Denning said about his wife, "She slapped the slobber out of me and then she would slap me for slobbering!" I died when I heard that. :)

We also did service for Kymm and her chicken coop is about done! I was there for the very beginning and I will be here for the very end product. She has cool looking chickens and one of the breeds looks like Big Bird from Sesame Street.

Kymm's chicken coop!

We also had a lesson with Missy Sanders and she was extremely exhausted and it seemed that she had no interest. We read the intro to the Book of Mormon with her and we invited her to read it and she said she will! :) I love hearing that response!

 

I LOVE BONNERS!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary even thought it is hard. But guess what such is life. We are here to learn and to grow and one of the things that we are here to learn is joy. We are to learn how to be happy during the hard times. We are here to learn to find joy in life and in the simple things. I love being happy!

Gorgeous View of Bonner's Ferry

I love you and miss you all! TOODALOO!

 

Sister Schmidt

Happy Father's Day!

Hello There,

 

So we just had our transfer calls and I am................drum roll please.............................STAYING!  Sister McFaul is being transferred away  :(   My new companion is Sister Lake and I have only heard good things about her. I am nervous and excited! The Lord knows what He is doing and that is what is keeping me above water!

 

I want to tell you about our investigators so if I repeat anything that I have already told you, sorry.

 

Kymm Mann:

She is 53 years old and has been Jewish for about 52 years until last September when she changed over to Christianity. We do service for her every week to help her with her cabin and her yard. She is originally from Hollywood, CA and somewhere in Northern California, I forget. She was a nurse for many years and she owned a bunch of businesses and she is just amazing!  Then she moved here and she has medical problems such as a tumor in her brain that is doing weird things to her body. We are reading the New Testament with her because she is still struggling to know who Christ is. Hopefully we can get her to start reading the Book of Mormon. I don't think she realizes that the Book of Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ. A Chinese sister missionary, Sister Huang, taught so MANY Chinese people who didn't know who Jesus Christ is. But because they read the Book of Mormon they do now and they were baptized. It is just a slow progression with Kymm but we need to get members more involved! She also loves tennis!

 

Crystal Chapmen:

Crystal is 24 years old and she moved up here with her 2 little girls, Jayda and Lily, to be with her grandpa who is a member. Crystal has a difficult past because of her poor choices and she knows that and tells us that. Her mom is in LA and her uncle is the new Bishop in our ward. We have brought her cousin, Calli Solomon, to lessons and they hit it off really well! We have learned that we have to be really bold with Crystal and tell her straight up. We just need to stay on top of her and help her keep her commitments. I love her and she amazing. It is just a neat opportunity to see someone at their lowest allow Heavenly Father to build them back up. I love this gospel!

 

Crystal Anton and her boys, Harley and Aiden:

Crystal is Amie's foster sister. She was the one who didn't want anything to do with Mormons. When the sisters came over before ~ Crystal pretended to be drinking wine when it was actually apple cider. But when she realized that we were normal human beings she was okay with us. It is slow progress with them as well. The boys want to learn a lot but their mom is hesitant because she doesn't want them to be lead astray which understandable. She is just all about the Bible and she is the one who has an Interlinear Bible that has the Hebrew and Greek translation. She wants Bible proof but she keeps talking about faith. So we are working on her. It is just hard to find a member to come since Crystal has a different personality. She is 31 but she has a 16 year olds personality.

 

The Dinning Family:

Sister Dinning was a convert to the church at age 19 and she feels that she was brain-washed into joining. Which she wasn't. But we are teaching her son and daughter, Jeremy and Ce'Nedra. They have been reading a little bit of the Book of Mormon and have been praying to know if what we teach is true. Sister Dinning does not believe in everything that we teach but she wants her kids to be baptized. The thing is ~ her husband is not a member and he is not fully supportive and Sister Dinning works of Sunday's and she doesn't want anyone to pick up her kids and take them to church. So we are working on that one. But there is potential with that family.

My testimony of the Prophet Joseph has GROWN so much! Every time that I share the Restoration and specifically the First Vision the spirit bares witness to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It just makes sense. When you are open the spirit will let you know that it is true. When people bash on Joseph Smith I get so irritated and sad that people feel that way about a very important individual in all of our lives. I love Joseph Smith and what he did for all of us members. He stayed strong even through adversity. I gained a testimony of Joseph Smith before I gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Every time that I talk about Joseph Smith I just feel good inside and that what I am talking about it true! 

 

We have other investigators but we don't really see them..... SO we might be dropping them soon.

A Better Week!

A reminder of Monty Python and the Holy Grail!
Elderberries!

Hello Everyone!

To answer some of Mom's questions ~ I currently live in a house alone with my companion. We are driving a 2016 Nissan Frontier. It is really nice but I still love Ford trucks. haha! :) I got your letter but I have yet to receive my package. I am writing you one back! Thank you for sending me a package.

 

I am doing a whole lot better compared to last Sunday. It is so crazy. I was talking to Sister McFaul about this yesterday about how it feels like it was a month ago when we helped that lady come back to life. But when in reality it was only a week ago. Normal missionary time is when the days are long but the weeks are fast. This past week was a complete opposite. The days went fast but the week went by SLOW! I am just glad that it is over and that I can move on. I was struggling with my emotions and feeling depressed and in my nightly prayer I handed it all over the Lord and the next morning was a lot better. When I was praying I just imagined that I was taking this ball of my emotions and handing it over to Jesus Christ and putting it into His hands. It worked! The Atonement is REAL!  With time I am healing and I am happy! :)

 

Because of the Atonement I am able to get over what I experienced and move on and learn from it. I am so grateful for my Savior. I have come closer to Him on my mission and I am excited when I come even closer. He is my best friend. He understands me even when I don't understand myself. That happens a lot... haha :)

 

Now to answer Dad's questions ~

 

Our investigators are doing well. We are struggling with them coming to church but we are trying to get the ward more involved. We just had a ward mission leader meeting yesterday with the stake presidency and with our mission presidency and our ward mission leader was out of town and we couldn't find anyone to go and neither could our new Bishop. (Oh, we got a new Bishopric last Sunday.) Then we finally found someone to go and it was our Relief Society President and it went well.  We have not added anyone into our teaching pool either. But we have faith!

I love Sister McFaul! We have too much fun together. We are planning on looking at the cute little shops in Downtown Bonners Ferry today. My district is crazy. There is only one member of my district from Utah. The others are from New York, Hawaii, Arizona and Texas. My district leader is Elder Martin and he came out with me. We went to the same area when we first came out too, Lewiston. My zone is small compared to my other zones. But I love it just the same. My zone leaders are Elder Rasumsson and Elder Davies. Elder Davies was one of my district leaders in Lewiston. He is awesome!!

I have not been able to ride my bike ~ but we should be soon since our driving miles have been cut back a lot.  Our house is big and it was creepy but we had it blessed and it is better now. 

Of course I am planning on coming home after my mission. I LOVE YOU DAD, ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

p.s. My next email will be all about our investigators and I will give you info about each and everyone! :)

We didn't do a whole lot but it was a good week.  I love you all and I miss you all!

 

Sister Schmidt

Being the Hands of the Lord!

So this week was okay.  I am not going to hide anything back right now but I am traumatized at the moment and I am literally depressed. Before I go into it, I want to say that I am SO grateful that yesterday was Fast Sunday. I don't even know what to say right now. It is extremely difficult to even have my eyes open but I don't want to close them because all I will do is relive yesterday.

On Sunday we texted a less active member and she responded back to us with some things that sounded like suicide to both Sister McFaul and I. So we called the Bishop and then the police but they can't do anything because they don't have enough info. Sister McFaul and I both felt that we needed to go and see her and make sure she was okay. When we got there she didn't answer the door so we got the landlord and she came with us to see if she was okay ~ and she was not. We miraculously woke her up and force fed her.  If we hadn't gotten there when we did she would have died. We asked her questions and she stated that she was trying to kill herself. She even had a suicide note! We were there for 2 and a half hours and I was with her the whole time. We called Sister Dymock and told her everything ~ she told us to not go out and to relax and decompress.  We had to take melatonin to fall asleep last night. So I am in shock right now and barely functioning. I apologize for telling you this but I felt like you deserved to know. I have to keep telling myself that I helped save a life.

I am doing okay. I am still in shock of what I witnessed yesterday. It was a first encounter for me with a suicide experience and I don't know how I am feeling. I don't even think I am feeling. I haven't laughed like I always do. I don't have an appetite, but then I am starving. I talked to Sister McFaul about this and she is experiencing the same things and she had depression and that is what I am feeling. Apparently, I have never been depressed, just sad. I don't like this. I am glad that we got to help save a life but some of my innocence has been taken away from me. It is hard to function with this and be a missionary at the same time. I just have to continually remember that Jesus Christ experienced what I experienced and He knows what I am feeling and how exposed and vulnerable I feel. I have to focus on that and use the Atonement to get through this. 

Sister Schmidt overlooking Bonners Ferry

I am grateful for the Holy Ghost and for this Gospel because it gives me peace and comfort in this life. I want others to feel this way as well and not feel like they are alone because they are not. WE ARE NOT ALONE! 

Love you all and miss you.  Toodaloo!!!

Sister Schmidt