Her first email basically sums up everything from her first letter, so I'm going to skip transcribing it. The first week was pretty rough for her because she was thrown into learning Spanish, but we have since gotten a couple more letters where she seems to be adjusting more and more. Everyone should write her letters of encouragement because she could really use everyone's love and support at this time! In her first email she mentions being able to meet the first missionary from the middle east!
Here's her first email:
April 5,2010
Okay Dad, Mom and Laura, First off I'm alive & well!! I love you all and am
working very hard!!
Let me explain how this MTC works!!! I am only allowed to write once a week on my P day and I can only email on that day for 30 mins!!!! Right now as I'm typing the program is counting down my minutes!! It's actually VERY stressful!! I AM OKAY!!
Yes I have cried alot and have feel VERY overwhelmed but somehow at the end of every night I feel peace! I know this is a tender mercy from the Lord. Today on my p day we went to the Provo temple at 7 am!! It was AMAZING and so badly needed!! On the walk there I noticed a sign on the grass that said, "I'm trying hard to grow, so PLEASE don't walk on me" I started laughing and told my companions Hermanas Elwood AND Hall "THAT'S EXACTLY HOW I FEEL ABOUT SPANISH" We had a good laugh about that!!
Hopefully after reading my letters you know about quite a few things here at the MTC! am soo amazed everyday that I'm here! I've been very bold and talked to all the missionaries who come here from other countries to actually learn english to
preach in America OR some come here because the is no MTC like in Russia or
Korea!! I talked to an Elder who is sooo sweet and funny and he is from thre
country Jordan!!!!!!!!
I taught him the word AWESOME which he loves to say! His
english is really good actually! He is the first missionary from the Middle East called to preach the Gospel in America!! It blows my mind! He says there are actually 2 branches in Jordan!! He says he can see the River of Jordan from his home where Jesus was baptized!! So cool!!
There is a sister here from Cambodia who is learning english and she is the sweetest soul!! Anyway everyday I have 3 hrs of studying which include personal study, language study and companion study, we have usually 6 hrs of class study with my Teachers Hermana Clegg and Hermon Garcia.
They have both served missions and are amazing teachers! Hermana
Clegg is so kind to me and told me how my District is REALLY advanced and that I
have hope & faith that I will learn Spanish.
As of yesterday I'm made some pretty big decisions : First off I will no longer say....if I get through this...from now on it will be "WHEN I GET THROUGH THIS", I've also made the choice to be more obedient and only write letters on my p day as well as make sure I go to bed by 10:30! By the way I haven't gotten a letter from anyone
except Sharon Erland in the last 3 days....what the heck family???!! ; ) As of right now I have about 8 more weeks before I go into the field.
I wrote in my journel about meeting the Argentine Consel & signing my
Visa and I ripped it out and mailed to you all and put in pictures from my
mission so far!! You should be getting that in a day or 2!! Plus I am mailing
more pictures & letter today!! I'm sorry you worried Mom but I really no longer
have any time for myself except for 4 hrs to do laundry on thursday!! So yea
Ya'll should be getting an email from me every thursday and letter after that in
the weekends!!!
The Elders in our District are sooo jealous of us Sisters for getting more letters than them....ahem...except for the last 3 days but after reading frantic emails I can see that you WERE worried and I'm sorry for that!! I love you all!! Dad, Mom Laura and Johnny (who needs to write me!!!!!!!!) Please forward this email as I have no time to enter everyone's addresses today!! I LOVE YOU ALL and please contiune to pray for me....this is soooo very hard but I'm been reading songs & srciptures about faith to help me!! I am nothing without the Lord, he's the one who will make up the difference!! I will write letters now and tell you more!! LOVE YOU ALL!! p.s. I've already lost about 5 pds!!
Her second letter talks about meeting the consul from Argentina and what to expect while serving in Argentina. It also mentions her continuing progress in learning Spanish:
April 6, 2010
Hola Mi Familia!!!
So right now I'm sitting with all the missionaries waiting for the consul from Argentina to walk in. Usually in the past, the MTC has to fly out all the missionaries to L.A. so that they can sign their visas!
But now the consul from Argentina comes to the MTC!!!
He's not a member of the church, but when he walks in we will sing 'Called to Serve' in Spanish!
He said-it sounds better everytime!
He's giving us the bad about Argentina saying a trailor park is like a 5 star hotel to the people. He said we will have to be used to "changes". He also said we could be kicked out of the country at anytime.
"If you aren't used to changes, you will be after Argentina."
He also called out to us planning to serve in Resistencia saying we should get our yellow fever shots! Haha-he asked if we already had them and said they don't eat their meat raw like in the U.S.A.
He's warning us about conversions right now-saying we'll be invited in but that doesn't mean they'll want to join. He said we'll probably be offered coffee and alcohol and some kind of tea. He said practice our speech to decline politely and that we'll be asked about everything about our lives. He said most people are nonpracticing Catholics but they baptize their children. He said people aren't used to being asked about their beliefs. He said people feel guilty about us asking about their beliefs because they don't practice. He's said even more things but I'll try to keep this short.
I figured after my last depressing letter I should write to tell you that I'm doing better everyday here. I'm starting to get excited about the people I will teach in Argentina!
Today we watched a clip from this project called '6 Billion', where they interviewed all these people from all over the worls and asked questions about what they felt and believed.
After watching these clips-we were asked how the world viewed these people compared to how the Savior views them. The Spirit was so strong as my teacher Hermana Clegg talked about meeting a meth addict when she served in Spain and how initially she was kinda shocked she was teaching a meth addict but how he changed after learning that the Savior's atonement is real. It was amazing to hear how he changed as a person slowly and got help for meth addiction and began to give up tobacco and alcohol. It was amazing to hear!
After struggling the first week-I am relieved to feel peace in Monday in my language classes. I did feel overwhelmed and cried during our companion study but at the end of the day I felt peace once again.
Tomorrow on Wednesday I have my first TRC where our scenario is my companions and I will be walking through a "park" and we will be contacting in Spanish but teaching in English (thank goodness!)
Yesterday my teacher Hermono Garcia talked to us about how as we leave our comfort zone and enter into the learning zone-eventually our comfort zone grows into that learning zone!
Talking to people and preaching the Gospel won't be hard, but teaching in Spanish will be very, very hard in the beginning. My teacher Hermana Clegg said ultimately its not what you say to them but how they feel!
Bearing my testimony in Spanish will be more powerful then.
Overall, things are somehow settling down while getting more busy if that makes any sense?
Anyways, I forgot to tell you all that I was so stressed I slept-walked the first 2 nights in the MTC but my companions and room-mates just thought it was funny and were really sweet about it.
Luckily, since then I've stayed in bed but my room-mates say I wake up having conversations. Pretty funny! I'm sure there's a million more things I could say to all of you! I love you all!
I try not to think about life back home because eventually I'll get really sad!
Love, Hermana Schmidt
P.S. You can use dearelder.com instead of writing if it makes it easier!
Letter #3:
April 8, 2010 (Thursday)
Hola Mi Familia!
I just sent ya'll an email-here's an idea for ya'll-go to dearelder.com and write to me and I will get it right away!
The MTC prints our dear elders out and puts them in our mailbox the same day! So this way I have more time to type instead of reading and typing! I will of course still email you on my P-day with the "countdown" until it kicks me off!
I have written so much random stuff to you that I'm not sure exactly if I've told you everything I wanted to!
Maybe I'll start by telling you what I've actually learned here so far-I have learned how to pray in Spanish, bear my testimony in Spanish, how to contact in Spanish, and of course verbs and conjugating them (boo verbs stink!)
Last night we had our first TRC where we contact in Spanish and set an appointment. Lastly, we had to teach the first discussion in English to the last person we contacted. This was super scary! However, now that almost 24 hrs have passed I realize that I did understand what I was asked-they asked if I spoke Spanish-and later asked how many people were in my family. It was nerve-racking at the time but important to experience of course.
Luckily, from doing this I'm already learning what I can improve on!
P-day is kind of weird because I'm actually wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt. Right now I'm doing laundry. I actually can't even recognize the elders in my district who aren't wearing missionary clothes. WEIRD!
After these 4 hrs it's back to missionary clothes and companion study at 4pm and dinner at 5 tp 5:30 and then class at 5:45 to 9pm. 9-9:30 is when we plan out next day.
It's actually kinda nice that there's only 11% sisters at the MTC. We get spoiled and I like it!
Today after the session at the temple there is a cafeteria in the basement of the Provo temple, so we ate breakfast and this awesome member there with his son went and secretly paid for all us sister missionaries' breakfast!
It was supposed to be a secret but the cashier told us so of course we all went and thanked that awesome member!
General conference was really powerful last weekend and thank goodness for it because I was able to take a break from learning Spanish!!!
There were a lot of topics discussed that really applied to how I'm feeling now-adversity and teaching...sacrifice. No worries! I do A LOT of praying and I hope that by the end of my mission I'll be truly fluent.
Sometimes its hard having 2 companions instead of one. Hermana Hall's passport never came so she was delayed six weeks and is with Hermana Elwood and me. Luckily, they are really patient with me.
Right now there are six of us sharing a room!!! Some of them will be gone soon though. Two other sisters in here are going to the country Hungary and are really good at speaking their language!
They sound fluent although they claim they're not.
...
Right now I'm just trying to focus on my future investigators and being the best I can be! I love you all! Please pray for me a lot!
Love, Hermana Schmidt
So those are the letters we've received so far! Pictures will be up soon!
Thanks everyone for reading and please, please, please send Anna letters!
-Laura
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