05/25/09 The Lord is really blessing people here

Hey Everyone,Things are going great here in Nancy. The Lord is really blessing the people here, and I am just thankful that I have the opportunity to be apart of it all. Elder Leprêtre and I have fixed two more baptismal dates, that brings the total to five baptismal dates, and three of them are strong. One thing that I notice everyday, is that it is not at all me in this work. In fact if it was left up to me and my ability the work would not progress. I do know that when we recognize our weaknesses, it is then, that the lord can help us. We can do things we never thought we could do by ourselves. We want to accomplish the task, but we need to ask our Heavenly Father for help, and then we can see its not by our own power, then we can return the thanks to our Heavenly Father. I can’t tell you all how many times I have felt inadequate to do a task that is given to me. I cant tell you how many times I have been able to accomplish it with the help of Heavenly Father. I love this work. I can say that I have done anything so difficult and time demanding as this work; sun up to sun down your on the clock. The other day I compared missions to escalators in terms of progressing, by going on a mission you take that first step onto the escalator, and just doing that will help us to progress. Then we have a choice to make, are we going to use the same amount of energy as not taking the stairs, and start to walk up the escalator, if you do this you will progress twice as quick. I want to be the missionary that puts forth the effort, even though it is harder than just standing there and progressing at a steady pace. I know that by doing this I will become stronger! Hopefully you understood that, it made sense to me at the time. I love you all so very much. Love,Elder Schmidt

05/18/09 Darn Busy!!!

Hey Everyone,How are you doing? So let me tell you, we have been so darn busy. There is so much stuff to do as a zone leader. So far we have 3 baptismal dates; one is really strong and one will probably fall, but we are going to fix a couple more next week. I have contacted two or three people this last week cause we have nothing but rendezvous. I feel like I’m in Mexico. Yesterday Elder Leprêtre and I gave talks in the branch here and we also gave a fireside afterward. I was so darn tired at the end of the day. The good news is one of the members gave a book of Mormon to his friend, and he has been reading it. He says that he feels something different when he reads it, and he said he wants to be baptized. So we are going to go out and teach him. I think I came from desolation, to the land of promise ha…ha. Oh let me tell you, my companion was baptized two 3 years ago, and he really knows how to teach; I am learning a lot. Well everyone, I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week. LoveElder Schmidt

Nancy France

Here's where Nancy France is

05/11/09 Heading to Nancy France

Hey, it was great talking to you yesterday, it sounds like a lot is going on back home, and let me tell you, I miss it. Well, I guess I will just cut to the chase, I received my call from President today and it was pretty quick, he said that I will be going to Nancy; it’s in the north part of France. I will be serving with a Frenchy; his name is Elder Leprêtre, I hope that he is easy to get along with. The other thing is that I will be a zone leader, so that should be really interesting. I was just put as Sr. Companion and then he just bumped me up. So this should be a real challenge for me, and I need your prayers.

I will have the opportunity to do some exchanges in Luxembourg, so that should be really cool. I will have hit every country in the mission, maybe even Belgium; I hope so, that would be really cool.

So I leave this Wednesday. I’m not really too excited to go back to France, but what can you do. Anyway, today we are going to be going to Saleve, which is just a really high mountain---- laser tag------ and then to the United Nations. It should be really fun; don’t worry I will steal the pictures from Elder Assays’ camera, and put them on my card, so no need to worry.

Well, I love you all so very much, and I will work on becoming a better person so that you will all notice a difference in me. I don’t want to come back the same person as I was when I left. I love you, and sorry this is so short. I will try to write more next time.

Love
Elder Schmidt

05/04/09 Letter from Today + Pictures :)

Hey Everyone,
How is it going? This week went by really fast for me; I can’t even believe it. We had our interviews with our President and he basically told me I am going to be leaving Genève. So, that should be really interesting to see where I am going to go next. I really don’t even have a clue. Transfer calls are next Monday, and I have the opportunity to call you this Sunday; that should be really fun. We are planning on calling a round 18:00 or 6pm. I don’t know what time that is for you, I hope that is going to be ok. I will get back on the internet at the end of this week to confirm that with you.

This week we have been doing a lot of finding, Elder Laws and I have been trying to overcome our fears of contacting young adults. So we have been contacting in the park, and while we where there this passed week, I was looking around and we saw this girl with an accordion and another girl with a guitar. So I said, “ok elder laws lets go talk to them”, they where out in the grass. Elder Laws said, “ok but your flying solo”. I was like “ok”. So I went up to them and just starting talking to them about music, and how I used to play the guitar. The girl handed the guitar right over and said, play and so I played a little “Dust in the Wind” and pretty much the beginning of every song I could think of ha…ha ;since that’s all I know ha…ha. I even played La Bamba ha…ha. Then we turned that conversation into a contact, and although they weren’t all that interested, they sure talked to us more openly about what they believed; so that was really cool for me.

Other than that, we found a family while porting that I think is really interested. I said “I know that the family can be eternal", and then I asked him the question what is the most important thing in your life? He said, his family and I said me too. After we talked for a second, he said, “I don’t have time now, but if you can come back another day, that would be fine. Then we got his number. We knocked on least 150 doors and where rejected, at almost every one. But I know that since we did that, the Lord lead us to someone that was interested. Well, I can’t wait to talk to you on Sunday. I love you all, and here is a good quote “he is utterly incomparable in what he knows, what he is, and what he has accomplished, and what he has experienced, yet he calls us friends”. Neil A Maxwell."

Love

Elder Schmidt