Swingset

Write a note to Elder Schwartz in Santiago! He is saying, "Please" (por favor in Spanish)!   Here is his address: 

Elder Nate Schwartz

Pedro De Valdivia 1423

Providencia

29 Santiago, Region Metropolitana

CHILE

The latest email from Elder Schwartz came today:

Dear Family,

Wow, another week has flown by! 

Lots of success this week.  Elder Garcia and I are both very thankful.  There is one familia here that Elder Garcia and I just kind of clicked with.  They are two older sisters that live in two different houses in our sector, but they live with all of their kids and their grandkids.  Their name is Familia Manriquez, and last Monday night (right after emails), we went over to one of the Manriquez houses and we had Onze with the whole family. (Onze is the small meal that chileans have at night, usually bread or little sandwiches or something). Anyways, we shared this article from the Area Authority Seventy called Permanaced with them, and we each took turns and passed the paper around the table reading paragraphs as Elder Garcia and I talked about it. The article is about the importance of the Holy Ghost as a companion in our lives nd that we can only have it if we are consistent, active members of the church.  It's a really good article.  Anyways, it was a stellar lesson and from sharing that lesson we got two new investigators. We are now teaching the "wife" of the member of the family, and her "husband" who is an inactive church member, and we are teaching both of them and it is awesome.  We have only had one lesson with them so far and it was really good.  The hard thing

about them is that they aren't legally married, but we are teaching them about

the law of chastity this week.   I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.  And then there is another girl in her 20's that isn't a member of the Manriquez family but lives in their house, and we just taught her the first discussion, and it was amazing.  She is super excited to learnmore, super excited to read.  Everything is just working out awesome with her, and she even came to stake conference with us this past Sunday.  Oh yeah, stake conference was this weekend.  Elder Garcia and I brought this inactive girl, Carolina, to the Saturday night session where President Wright spoke and it was awesome.  I understand his Spanish better than anyone else's for some reason. He told awesome stories about his childhood and the importance of family unity in this Gospel.  I agree with him 100% and I think that you guys did a pretty dang good job raising a united family.

This week was also a big week for service.  Elder Garcia and I did two service projects this week.  Firstly, we finished the swingset, see the pictures, and secondly we washed windows at this elderly couples house, WITH WATER AND NEWSPAPER. Only water and newspaper....... it's not the 1910`s...... It was super hard, but I guess that's how they do it here, and they actually ended up looking kind of clean.  The wife made this amazing pizza for us afterwards, but next time they call us to do that, I'm bringing windex.

English class is super good.  One of our investigators, Juan, who is 17 years old comes consistently. But the problem we had with Juan is that we have

only taught him outside of his house, and we dont know why; we don't know if his parents don't want him to or what.  BUT this week we had a lesson with him right before the english class and a church tour, and then about 30 minutes into the lesson, this older woman showed up.  Longstory short, it was HIS MOM and she loved the class and she loves us and now we are teaching both of them this week :)

Also, we were walking down the street on Wednesday and this old cop called me from across the street at the police station.  In all honesty I was frightened, but we crossed the street and I was bracing myself to get chewed out for doing whatever socially incorrect thing that we gringos do.  It turned out that he just really wanted to talk to me, and we had a really nice long conversation with him about the church, about families, about Mitt Romney, and he wants us to stop by sometime this week at the police station to talk to him more.  He's the Head Cop guy of La Florida, so its pretty cool.

Anyways, thats all that I have time for this week.  Keep being busy, keep being amazing, I love you all!  I know Heavenly Father iswatching over our family, and I know that He has a plan for all of us, andI know that I am doing His work. I'm thankful for the blessings that this Gospel has brought into my life, and I am thankful for the opportunity that I have to spread that love and those blessings with the people of this sector. I'm praying for you all and I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love, Elder Schwartz