Heart Attacks!

Hello Everyone!

This week was filled with SAVING MILES!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, our mission has been losing missionaries and vehicles have been taken away and when vehicles are taken away so are... MILES! In my area we only get 850 miles for a whole month and our ward boundary is massive! (But not as massive as my first area.  When I was over YSA (young single adults) I covered the whole stake and my area was 1/5 of the mission! CRAZY!)  Anyway, so we get 850 miles. This week we have to travel to Sandpoint for a zone training and that is 60 miles total. The number of miles we have everyday for the next 7 days is....... 11.2... so if people didn't know that there were sister missionaries in Bonner's Ferry, they know now! We ride our bikes everywhere and we walk. But it is a blessing having our miles cut because we are talking to people on the street, people are seeing missionaries, we get MORE exercise and members get pumped when they see the missionaries. (I know I did when I was home. I always honked at them.) Before my mission I was only concerned about gas, NOT MILES. Now being on a mission, my brain has been wired to only be concerned about miles. It is going to be weird not worrying about miles anymore when I come home.

In the past few weeks here have been SO MANY thunder and lightning storms!!!!! I love it and I can't help but think that it is one way that God is showing me that He loves me. Oh, yesterday Bishop Solomon asked Sister Lake and I if we would give talks in sacrament meeting next week. We said of course! It could potentially be my last Sunday... Sad thought! Get thee hence sad thought! haha :) Transfers are this week!

Bonner's Ferry after a thunderstorm!

Tuesday we gave a heart attack to Kymm while she was gone. Don't freak out! We did not give her one literally. (For those of you who might not know ~ a heart attack is when you literally attack a door and put hearts all over it!) Kymm is always home but on Tuesday she was not because she was picking up her best friend's daughter, Caitlin, from the airport in Spokane which is 2 hours away! We decorated the hearts and made it look cute in the 15 minutes we had before we had to drive a good distance to our dinner appointment. We hoped Kymm would love it! She didn't just love it, she will not take it down!! So Kymm got another surprise on Tuesday, her best friend, Kelly, also came up from California.  We met them the next day because Kymm had us to come up! Haha, I just love Kymm! They are awesome and they love us! We have done a few bible studies with them. They are Catholic but not really practicing it. We have taught them a few things and have helped them understand the Godhead and who God really is. It makes so much sense to them! They were told to not ask questions in Catholic school and they are taking advantage of asking us questions because we encourage them! Caitlin is 18 and she is awesome. She has been through a rough life with people around her developing fatal illnesses and passing away. I hope that we can help her to have hope and live life and continue to love God.

Kymm's front door

We also heart attacked Missy Sanders door and she absolutely loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She took pictures of it and posted them on Facebook and one of her best friends Amie commented on it. Amie's husband is a pastor of the church of Nazarene and Amie said that she has never heard of missionaries doing that before. She was very surprised! I am so happy that we showed that we love Missy but that we also demonstrated to others that we love everyone and that we are considerate. It was a cool experience. 

Missy Sander's door

We then had a zone conference in Hayden, about an hour and a half from Bonner's southward. It was all about finding! I so needed to have this training. The thing that hit me the hardest was that I need to always be myself. The Lord knows who I am better than I know myself and He knows why He sent me to this mission. He needs who I am inside on His side. He didn't call a missionary robot of myself here. He called ME and He needs ME and I need to continue to be ME. We rode in the transfer van there and back and it was so much fun! Elders are hilarious! Never a dull moment ever!

Bonner's Ferry District

We also saw Skyler this week and her daughter Maya. They are doing well! They love having us over. The first time we went over they kept going off on tangents and the second time we had a little more structure. We invited them to read the Restoration pamphlet again and to write down their questions and we will go over it with them. We are actually going over it today! I am super excited!

 

We did some service for Kymm and later Friday night we had a fire and roasted marshmallows! I have such a wonderful time with Kymm, Kelly, and Caitlin. They are awesome and hilarious! One of my smores had a vanilla wafer, an oreo, an almond joy, and marshmallow and the graham cracker. It was interestingly delicious!

 

Then on Saturday we had a dinner appointment at the Bishop's house and we shared a message about having more meaningful prayers. We shared Enos 1:3-4 and I asked an inspired question and I can't remember how it went but it went along the lines of "Why do we pray to our Father in Heaven?" It made everyone think and we had a wonderful discussion about it. I love praying to my loving Heavenly Father!

 

On Sunday the topic in Gospel Principles was about sacrifice. What a perfect topic for Pioneer Sunday. As we were all discussing this I was thinking about how in the beginning of my mission I felt like my mission was a sacrifice. But now, it no longer feels that way. I love my mission and I love teaching people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has been restored! How amazing is that!?!? Christ's church is on the earth! I have taken that for granted but I am so grateful to not just be a member of a church but of Christ's church. I love it! 

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

 

Sister Schmidt

"Enjoying to the end!"

Hello Everyone,

I love being a missionary! I have thought about my mission so far and how blessed I am. I have met so many wonderful people and I have developed many strong relationships. The best part is that I have learned more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before my mission I thought the Gospel of Jesus Christ was everything that we believe, which it is but it simplifies to 5 steps. The first step is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  That is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is what my purpose is as a missionary.

I invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We recite that in the beginning of every meeting in the mission. I love it. It helps remind all of us missionaries why we are here.

When people have faith in Christ they are going to want to repent and align their life with the Savior's. In turn, when they are forgiven it will strengthen their faith in Christ. When their faith is strengthened they are going to want to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized with the proper priesthood authority and make sacred covenants. To make a baptism complete they will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  The Holy Ghost will help you remember your covenants and help you keep them. Enduring to the end should be changed to "enjoying to the end," -President Hinckley. It just means to continue to do the things that strengthened your faith, repent daily, partake of the sacrament weekly, be worthy of the Holy Ghost and heed his promptings. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We missionaries call this the ladder of progression to tell where our investigators are at. If they are stuck on faith, we teach them what they need to hear to increase their faith and leave them with commitments that will increase and strengthen their faith.

So last week our ward helped Skyler move into her new home. We met with her this past week and she has met with missionaries before and she told us that she felt they were just there to baptize them and not answer their questions. Skyler and her daughter, Maya, read a few pages in the Book of Mormon and the missionaries asked them to be baptized the next week. They didn't even believe in the Book of Mormon. Skyler told us that to her ~ we are genuine and real. We don't "stick to the script" as she put it. I am glad that she loves us and wants us around. She recognizes the spirit and she wants that around more. She grew up Mennonite and she informed us that they don't help people who are not Mennonite and she was very happy to see that the LDS members help anyone. That definitely softened her heart. So we are now going to be teaching Skyler and her daughter Maya! :) Happy day!

Kymm Mann is stuck on the Sabbath day is Saturday not Sunday. For her to accept that she needs to read the Book of Mormon and then she will believe in modern day revelation, D&C 59. But she does not want to read the Book of Mormon until she reads the entire New Testament and she has yet to finish Matthew. She wants to understand every little detail before she moves on. So it is a constant battle with Kymm but I love her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She loves the institute manual for the New Testament.

Last Monday, a member did a pre-treatment for lice. One of the steps was to put vinegar in my hair...... my hair absorbs any smell that I am around.... MY HAIR SMEL LIKE VINEGAR FOR A WHOLE WEEK! I washed it 5 times. NO LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But we are all good now! :)

Pre-Lice Treatment  ~ Yuck!

SO I might have almost died this past week...... We were biking in the mountains to save miles and we were about 4 miles in and we were going down a hill and I thought that I should look at the front of my bike and I saw that the rod that was holding my bike bars and wheel together was about 3/4 out. If I hadn't noticed ~ my wheel would have flown off and I would have crashed and burned on a hill face first.... I love the Holy Ghost! He gives us warnings. So we are going, hopefully today, to get a nut for my bike.

Two less actives came to church today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of them was Sister Humphreys and the other one was Sister Wiley. I love Sister Wiley!!!!!!!!! She is working on coming back to activity. It just warms my heart to see people come back to church. It is not easy to come back after you have been gone for SO long. Sister Humphreys was less active for 30+years. The Lord loves all of His children and the Atonement is for everyone.

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

Sister Schmidt

Sunday Sister Smores

Hello Everyone,

On Friday we had zone training and we talked a lot about faith. To be specific, we had a zone discussion on Elder Bednar's talk "Seek Learning by Faith" and it is SO good! Then we talked about the different ways people learn and how we can best help our investigators come unto Christ if we know how they learn. That goes for us as well. If we know if we learn better visually, or by reading, or by hands on things, etc. then we can better understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ and become MORE converted to the Gospel. After zone training was done we had lunch together as a zone and then we had exchanges and Sister LeBow came to Bonners Ferry with me and Sister Lake stayed in Sandpoint with the STL (sister trainer leader), Sister Rich.

 

None of the Relief Society ladies from the ward came because they were out of town or they had prior commitments. This past weekend Sister LeBow and I helped our investigator, Skyler, pack to move.  (None of the Relief Society ladies from the ward came because they were out of town or they had prior commitments.)  She has SO much stuff and she didn't realize it until she saw how many boxes we filled and that we were still filling up boxes. Thankfully Sister LeBow has moved a lot and is very quick at it. When we showed up ~ nothing was packed and we were moving her on Saturday with the men in the ward. Sister LeBow and I worked on the kitchen Friday and then we had to go. We decided to come over Saturday morning at 7:30 to help pack more so when the men came there were boxes ready to be put into trucks and trailers to be hauled to her new home. She has so much stuff. But understand, she used to live in a 5 bedroom 3 bath house before she moved into her apartment.  The men then showed up at 9:30 and we got stuff going. About 40 people came and we cleared that place out in 3 hours. During it, Sister LeBow and I asked Sister Lake and Sister Rich to come down because we needed help packing up boxes. They did and we got it done. We then went to Skyler's new home and we, as us sister missionaries, moved big pieces of furniture to the upstairs and we moved Skyler's washer and dryer to her basement. It was fun and quite a workout!   We helped her move from 7:30 am to 3 pm. I was wiped out. The Lord was keeping me awake!

 

Skyler grew up Mennonite and she told us that they only help their own and she thought it was amazing that SO many people came to help her out! She cried when we left her with a prayer! :) I love the spirit and Christ like service! We are going to see her again this week! :)

 

Kymm Mann, one of our investigators, was going to come to church on Sunday, but the adversary used one of her teammates to prevent her from coming. One of her friends, who is a member and who referred us to Kymm, called Kymm Sunday morning and said that she and others would be coming over to pick cherries at 12:30. That is when our ward starts. That did not make me happy but it just shows that the adversary does not want Kymm to come to church because it is the right thing to do. We will win! :) But the upside is that Kymm LOVES the institute manual!

 

Also, another investigator, Missy, she read the testimonies in the Book of Mormon and she liked them! We invited her to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon and we are going to visit her this week and talk about it and explain it to her and answer her questions!

 

You all should go to fairmormon.org and look at it. It is a cite that answers all of the concerns or things that people argue against the church. It is awesome! Our Mission President told us about it.

 

So on Wednesday we were going back to the church from having a lesson at Kymm's and a member was driving us back. I was in the passenger side and Sister Lake was sitting behind me. I got out of the vehicle and I shut the door with my left hand and my ring finger in is the slot wear the two doors meet and Sister Lake, not knowing my finger was there, SLAMS her door shut on my finger. I start freaking out once I felt the pain. Sister Lake froze and I told her multiple times to open her door and she eventually did. Sister Yount, the member with us, has medical background and she immediately took me to the bathroom to wash my wound out and I was in a 90 degree angle because of the pain. She then took me to sit on a couch and she got the first aid kit. While I was sitting I was breathing like I was about to give birth and a random young man comes up and asks if I am okay. Sister Lake later on told me that during this whole thing he had a look of concern on his face. I examined my finger and I have a deep cut on one side a  nice dent on the other side. My finger (where it was jammed) was the size of the tip of my pinky! The young man, who I came to know is Kyle. While I was in pain and tears were running down my face, I introduced myself and he as well and we just laughed. He then went and got some ice and came back and I had to move. So I got up and started walking in circles. Sister Yount then called our mission nurse and informed her about what happened. I over heard that I need to keep it elevated and I put my hand up while I was still walking.  They all laughed. I kept telling myself out loud to stop crying and it helped a little. Kyle then went to his car and got Tylenol for me to take. We then went home and Sister Yount addressed my wound and cleaned it out and it stung so much. She put on band aids in a creative way and I was sent to bed. It still hurts and it seems like EVERYTHING in the world is out to get my finger and hurt it!

Sunday Sister Smores

Love you all and miss you! Toodaloo!

 

Sister Schmidt

Happy 4th of July!

Hello Everyone!

This week was crazy! We haven't found any new investigators but that will change.

Not a whole lot to talk about for the week ~ SO I will just write whatever comes to my mind (which is like every week haha!!  :) ).

We did service at Kymm's again and we finally finished the chicken coop!!! It started the day that I got here and we finished it on the 4th of July! The chickens were in the coop but we had to finish the part where they go outside. Kymm said that it was Independence Day for sure for the chickens when they were allowed to get out of captivity.

Kymm!

Kymm's Chicken Coop

Chicken Sideburns!

We also do service for a thrift store/animal shelter every Wednesday now. Our first day was last week. It was fun. We don't play with the animals which is very sad :( But oh well! The Church is still true!

As we all know, Friday (JULY 1ST) was my year mark! I love being a missionary and serving the Lord and his children! It has opened my eyes for the better and I am a better person because of it. I have learned so much ~ I am afraid that I have forgotten a lot of it. The best part is that I learned it and the Holy Ghost can bring it back to my remembrance (John 14:26). We had our district meeting on my year mark and we talked about how to help our investigators make and keep commitments and we were asked to read the chapter in PMG (Preach My Gospel) beforehand to prepare. I have read it so many times but it just really hit me that day. I love learning and understanding so much! I was able to apply what I learned in a later lesson we had on Friday.

We met with one of our investigators, Missy Sanders. We followed up with her to see if she had read any of the Book of Mormon and she had not. So we talked about why we follow up and how we can follow up with her. We then reassigned her a more specific commitment. She liked that a lot better. So we will see how that goes.

For district lunch we had.... I dare you to guess.... PIZZA FACTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have one here! When we drove past on my first day I FLIPPED out in the truck! I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Their combination special is called the "Badger" special compared to ours which is called the "Golden Eagle" special. I love small towns!

I made our famous family tacos and I accidentally put a full cup of water in it... still tasted good! I miss tacos. But they still taste better at home. On Saturday we met with a less active, Sister Humphreys, and she is a very sweet lady. She is hardcore and she served a mission in Italy.  I learned something from her. Love yourself. I needed to hear it the way she said it. I still have a hard time with that but that is why we have the Atonement. Christ can help us with EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Sunday we had dinner with one of my favorite families in the ward! The McLeish family! They have a red-headed boy! Thought of you Dad! ;) They remind me of our family! I really love that part about being on a mission. I get the opportunity to go into members homes and to be a part of their family for an hour! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! They have two international students. One is from Germany, Daniel, and the other one is from Spain, Rahuel. I love Rahuel! He is so funny and he is leaving to go back to Spain tomorrow. :( Sad day. But I know that the Plan of Salvation is true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will see him again!

I got a wonderful surprise Sunday evening!!!!!!!! Crystal Anton had us come over and she told me to come over and to close my eyes and then she told me to open my eyes and there was AMIE standing in front of me and I freaked out and hugged her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love surprises!!!!!!!  :)  It was so good to see Amie!

The fourth was an awesome day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We helped Kymm finish her coop and we made a perch, a swing, a ladder and we put a tire in there for the finishing white trash look (that is what Kymm said).

We had lunch with her and we had PORK RIBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob!!! I about died! Then she had cake and you know how much I LOVE cake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She baked the ribs and then Sister Lake and I bbqued them and they were so DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we went over to Bishop Solomons house and we had hamburgers. To say that my stomach was full is an understatement. I was not FULL, I was OVERFLOWED!!!!!!!!!! We watched some fireworks with their family. They have a daughter named Calli and she graduated from BYU-I and she went on a mission and she is the one that sent the pic to you mom! I love her so much! She does not want me to leave this area and neither do I!

Calli Solomon and Sister Schmidt and Sister Lake

Then we got home and we watched fireworks on our porch at 10 pm. I love fireworks. But also, I never really understood this day completely  until Monday night when I was watching those lights flash in the sky. It is because of the freedom of our country that the Restoration of the Gospel was able to happen! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 4th of July!

I love you all and miss you all! Toodaloo!

Sister Schmidt