Letter #54 July 18th

Note from the editor: I dont know why this is posting strange....sorry. Hi family, This is going to be fun. I have news.... It seems to be that my mission call will be changing. this e-mail is not coming from Ukraine, I am in bulgaria..... STILL! Yeah I know. I was supposed to have returned to my mission on Thursday..... It is Monday and I am still here. So I am now serving in the Bulgaria Sofia mission! Wahoo!!!! I am kidding, sorta. I came to Bulgaria with 6 elders and sister carpentar. We had one day in Bulgaria and were supposed to head home. Well Wednesday I get a call from our mission telling us that Sister Carpenter Elder Lewis and I didn't have our visas and that we were not leaving with the rest of the group. So we thought that we would get them the next dat no big deal... False. We are still here and no news about our visas. We have been staying with the Sisters here that ar ina three some so there are 5 of us in a tiny apartment. The day we got here we went out and were seeing EVERYTHING and eating everything. They have Dr. Pepper here subway KFC, pizza hut and other American places. We were loving it Starbucks and all that good stuff. But then we got called

and told that we were stuck in the country and we wouldn't be leaving. So we stopped trying to eat at everyplace in one day and calmed down. So then we returned home and we found out that the sisters weren't feeling good. We then figured out what our purpose was here and why we were stuck here. The one sister had a fever from 102-104 and I stayed inside with her for the past few days. The first time I got out of the house yesterday was 8:45 PM because I stayed and took care of her. I wanted to just get out and walk really fast. I am on a day to day basis on when we will return to out mission. I am sorry this is short I wish I could right more. I am out of time! Love you all so much!

Sister Schmidt

Letter #53 July 11th

Well this week was one for history. I met our new mission President and he is amazing! i am serious! He is just what I need, I was nervous but it's all gone I am just so ready for whats next. Three words to describe him.... MAN OF GOD! He is so spiritual, so full of love, not messing around, here to change the mission and grow the church. I am ready I am pumped and I can't wait! His name is President klebingat. He is 42 runs marathons from Germany super blunt tall looks like uncle john V. and is convert served a mission and is a stud. His wife is in her 30s from Latvia is beautiful and intimidating. The family is adorable Katja 17 Daniel 15 and Alex 10. They are all fluent i German Englisher and Russian and are the perfect family. I sat in aw as they blew me away and reminded me of my nothingness. I want to be such a better more intelligent wise person. I have a long way to go but I can't wait.

So we have changed the way we work as missionaries. We do not go "tracting or finding" We are now focused on less and in active members. President is working at making a stake in L'viv. As of now we only have two branches with 11 members in each but only 30-40 active in both. So we have a lot of work. We need to activate all the members. We are reuniting the members and the missionaries in order to do it as well. We now are going over the lists prayerfully to see who is ready to come back to church and we are not just going to do "less active stop bys" we are bringing them back to church. We treat like investigators. Meet 2-3 times a week and work with all our might to bring them back. We are the rescue team. We will go on splits with members at some point everyday and have them be a part of the rescue. We will work and do all we canto help them come back. I am so excited. I know this is the best way to work here in Ukraine right now. I know that this is the beginning to new missionary work. We are seriously done with tracting and planning hours of finding activities. We talk to people as we go to and from less actives. We involve members in all parts of the work and we help all Heavenly Fathers children know we haven't forgotten about them. We love them and miss them and want them to come back.

It was such a privilege to sit in on a meeting when President talked to the branch Presidents and introduced what we are doing. I watched him work and was amazed. He has more faith than any man I have con in contact with I desire to sit by him and jut be around him to see him work and to absorb his spirit and knowledge and faith. He truly is a man of God! I know that my faith is going to grow and that my spirituality will as well. After that time with him he told us that it is all about the spirit. He wanted to tell us to throw out our notes and go by faith in all lessons. That was sorta what we did. Sister K and i went into a lesson with an idea of what we were wanting to accomplish. it was one of the most spiritual lessons on my mission. We watched two twin sisters truly talk out all concerns they had and really pour it all out. Sister K and I testified like never before. I was so bold and so strong on what I believe and that they have to learn it for themselves and just truly put all my heart and soul into it. It was amazing. The one that was struggling to accept the gospel the most wanted to pray to end and we all prayed on our knees and she cried and brought tears to all our eyes with her sincerity. After then lesson the member texted us that was on the lesson and said that it was the most powerful lesson He had ever been on and was sure that the spirit was there the whole time and his testimony was strengthened as well. That is why we are here. We are here to strengthen the members, none members and less actives. I love this work, it is the work of God and nothing is going to stop it. It is going faster and faster and the world will know that God has restored His Gospel and there is a prophet on the earth that daily receives revelation for every person. I love you all have a great week. remember who you are and what you stand for ;)
Sister Schmidt

Letter #52 July 4th

Hi family!!
Well this week is great. We are excited because we have a new mission President. He got in on Wednesday and will be coming next Wednesday to lviv in order to get to know the missionaries. I heard from our Zone leaders that he is incredible, very spiritual, all about faith and is ready to give the Kiev Ukraine mission a face lift. We are excited for what is to come. I again apologize for not having a great computer key board because it doesn't have the "e" key work all the time I will writ as my hart desires and it given time I will go back and fix the mistakes. W first on my mind was ystrday. A cut family from America is hr maybe adopting children maybe for a different purpose thy know thy ar supposed to be here and don't know why so thy ar on a quest. Well with such a quest they testfided to testify and after all the family members except the mom testified our branch president was tired of translating and kept looking to the elders to translate but non of them weren't paying attention so he looked at me and I felt bad so I went to translated and it was SOOOOOO hard. I about cried after. Sh used so many words I haven't learned yet and sh spoke so fast and I couldn't remember all that sh said and then she had me read some verse in Ukrainian and you all know it is hard for me to read in English let alone in Ukrainian so i started to stumble through four verses and she tells me I am reading the wrong chapter. Si I was so embarrassed and had to start Reading for the begining. Oi it was really hard for me but w made it through. It was the first hour of church and I was so brain tired but I still had 5 mor hours Left. I then went to Sundays school and to Young women's to translate for their younger daughter. Lets just say it was a long day after that BUT! Heavenly Father rewards those He loves and tries. So after that w actually had three investigators come to church and another camw after sacrament and stayed the other 2 hours. I know that Heavenly Father Loves us and is helping us grow and after our trials h bless us in so many othr ways.

So there is a lot of other things that I could spend my last 5 minuets writing about buy I just want to shar with you all my Love for this work for this Gospel and for the amazing people that are in this church. Have all watched the videos of Mormon.org there are so many amazing people in this church. You are all so amazing. You all could have them make movies about you too and others will watch your videos and be inspired. I am so inspired by other members of this church. I am so grateful to be in this church. I love you so much. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share this Gospel with others. Be strong, be careful in all your travels and don't forget about me while you are gone! Love you!
Sister Schmidt

Letter #51 June 27th

Hi Family!
Well Today is Sister K's Birthday!!!! She is 22 too. This morning at 1 i woke up and decrated our kitchen with streamers from left over Leis and I worte her a sign and then wrte all over the mirrors for her. Needless to say I am a little tired from my "sleepwalking". Well I have so much to say and such a little amount of time so I apologize fro this sloppy writing and spelling! Well This has been a good week It was transfer week but as you can tell We stayed together. We are excited about it but I kinda thought I was leaving but I am super glad to be here in L'viv still. Especially because we had the Luau.

The Luau... was outstanding! We worked SO hard and it paid off. I am serious. I was shocked at how well it went so many people came! We were really excited. The lace looked great. We had palm trees hanging in the air flowers on the walls and a beach sign by the window. We hada skit gret hawaiian food and great music (Mom marley may or may have not trunked 5 f the 7 missionaries out but it was all good) We had lots of members bring friends less actives came it was great. So funny story sister K and I went out with leis on contact and inviting peole so come and we totally got soaked. It rained and we couldn't hide so we got to the church and were sopping wet ha ha I thought is was awesome and hillarious. So They night before the Luau Sister K and I got stuck getting the food ready. We cut 32 chicken breast by ourselves. I had a terrible knife and by the end my joints were in so much pain I couldn't even move my hand then I couln't even write about it in my journal because it hurt so bad! ha ha makes a great story though. So the Luau was SO awesome I just can't tell you how great it was and most of all how excited that I am that it is done and over.

So then Sunday i am sitting in church and one of the youg girls in the middle of the sacrament runs up to the bBranch President and says something and then lucky for me after sacrament and he nnounces the rogram and to my surprise I was speaking. I freaked. So I prayed REALLY REALLY REALLY hard and opened my scriptues read the first verse I had colored and prayed again and stood u to speak. It was actually incredible. I felt the sorot spilling out from my mouth. I read Mosiah 3:6-8 and I truly felt like it was one of the best talks I had ever given. The spirit comforted be so I wasn't nervous and I could speak. My Ukarinian sounded better than it ever has and all the members were at full attention. It was so powerful. I never would have thought I could do that. After everyone came up and told me what a onderful talk I gave and the counselor was shocked that it was on the spot. I am just so grateful the spirit helped me feel calm and then spoke through me. I know that is how it should feel on every lesson. That is how we can truly help people come unto Christ. They need to feel that spirit coming threw my bareing witness that their Father in Heaven loves them and That Jesus Christ truly is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. That's where conversion happens.

I love this wrk. I know that I still have truly learned how to do it the very best and most effective way inorder to help these people get baptized by I am trying. I know that there is so much more I need to do and to learn in order to be a successful missionary and my time is running out but I just pray that I can be an instrument i the hands of the Lord to save at least one soul. That is where the true joy nd happiness comes from. open your mouths share the gopsel. and..... give a referral to the missionaries :) ha ha ha Love you all!!!
Sister Schmidt