January emails

January 10th
Hey family!! WOW......I still cannot believe that I am here in
Corrientes Captial in an area called Laguna Seca......lots of things
happened this past week and my head is still spinning......

First off we went to the city of Resistencia about 5 days this past week to do
medical for my companion. Resistencia is where the Mission office in
for the Argentina Resistencia Mission. Our mission consists of about 4
or 5 different states in Northern Argentina......YEP....its THAT huge.


But yeah....so its been really hard with my companion and all the
medical tests that we are doing. Our personalities are VERY different
so that's really hard. Honestly she could be senior companion! She's
got the missionary part all figured out! She is also EXTREMLY
obedient and this I really really like because its really helping me
to be VERY obedient as well.

She is also very careful with money and not wasteful......soooooo as you can imagine I am going to learn a lot from her and she is learning many things from me like how to
laugh at silly things and enjoy all the small things in life. I'm
pretty proud of her because this past week this teenager tried to
steal her bag and she didn't let him!!!!!! She is a little person!!


In this area Laguna Seca the Sister missionaries are always getting
their stuff stolen. We were walking in an area when we heard a bike
coming up really fast behind us. My Companion is REALLY street smart
because she is from the Capital of Uruguay and she instantly tightened
her hand through the straps of her bag.

So when this teenager with like 18 yrs went past us he grabbed her bag and she held on with
all her might and said NO!!!!!!! The teenager actually almost fell
over with his bike which could have been much worse for us but he let
go and zoomed off really fast. I just started laughing........ because
first off I was totally shocked and it was 11 in the morning !! But
yeah I was proud of her....I did tell her beforehand that she needed
to use a MUCH smaller bag. She changed bags after-wards. But I was so
proud of her!!!

As for the other crazy stuff here......there are
Gypsies in almost every corner here!!!! The Missionaries are not
allowed to teach them.......its seriously like in the movies.....all
the Gypsies here wear flowing skirts and outfits with a silky fabric
tied around their hair. They all have car dealerships here but I think
only a crazy person would buy a car from them. Also in the nighttime I
can listen to the crazy noise from that crazy religion I talked to
ya'll about on the phone for Christmas......its so nuts because we
have neighbors on our street who are this religion sooo in the
nighttime we can hear them beating drums and chanting in the middle of
the night.

But I love our apartment and we are in the safest part
of Laguna Seca. Honestly......a lot of been happening but I am very
grateful to be here. We are talking to a ton of people and our church
is the Stake Center but we don't have a stake here but pretty
soon....we are going to become the first Stake in Corrientes.....which
is the only stake in Argentina to not have a Stake.....sooo its
honestly a huge opportunity to be here at this time.......but we have
been talking to a lot of really great people here in this area and I
actually taught a lesson yesterday and put a date with baptism in the
first lesson and she said YES!!!!

So I am very excited about that!!
God has been preparing this woman for a long time!!This woman is a
single Mom with lots of teenage sons so we are hoping to baptize them
as well and bring in some badly needed Priesthood authority. But still
the church is doing way better here than Ituzaingo. But anyways I am
learning a ton and am trying very hard not to be totally stressed out
because I am still learning this language but its getting better!!
Anyway I love you all!! Please pray for us here in Laguna Seca. I am
quite happy to be here and hoping to improve a lot now that I´m Senior
Companion. I love you all!! Love Hermana Schmidt

January 17
Hey family!!!! WOW.....halfway through January.......its horribly hot
but I'm actually doing okay with the heat. Sometimes its hard to
sleep at night though because its soooo hot. We sleep with our bedroom
windows open. We don't have any air conditioning in our apartment but we
have 2 fans, one for each person to sleep with!

It’s hard to believe that its cold where ya`ll are right now! I just have to survive another 6 weeks and then westart to cool down and prepare for autumn & winter!

Anyway I am thrilled to say that we had a really good week. We had an amazing day that
resulted in our District leader calling me late at night to congratulate
me...yep...I was pretty thrilled.

But right now its REALLY hard....this is a really hard change. I miss my other
Companion. I miss my bed in Itunzaingo.....I miss the members
there A TON......and the investigators.......Right now I don't feel very
accepted by the members here.

I feel a lot of pressure as Senior Companion and I feel like everyone is judging
me and thinks that I can't do this...I feel really disappointed
that everyone else has baptisms and I have almost nothing. Yep...when we were in
Walmart today...they were playing popular classic music from the 90's
that I listened to as a teenager and there were a ton of American things
in there and I just REALLY started to miss the United States & my
life soooo much.

I just have to endure and have faith that in the end everything will be okay and turn out. My
companion from the MTC is here in the Capital of Corrientes and she is
in a VERY difficult area.....how lucky am I to be in this area with
investigators in the church every Sunday. I was talking to her about
everything and she reminded me of a really great section in Preach my
Gospel about how every missionary has special talents and that they are
in their areas because the Lord knows exactly what the area
needs......she is right.....I know that I can do this......

I know that my mission President prayed and knew that I needed to be here with a new
missionary as Senior Companion........Pray for me......I love you all
and am always praying for my family!!! Love you all......hermana anna
Schmidt