Watermelons in Chile...

THEY EAT SO MUCH WATERMELON HERE!

Here is Elder Nate's address.  He would love to hear from you!

Elder Nathaniel Schwartz

Chile Santiago EAST Mission

Cristobal Colón 6824

Las Condes, Casilla 27.144

Santiago, Región Metropolitana

Chile

And here is his latest email home:

Dear Family!

Well, the weeks are still flying!  Like I mentioned earlier, this change is a little weird because it's only three weeks long, so technically, this is the lasy P-Day of the change!  Maybe next week I'll be in another sector, but I doubt it......  We had our interviews with the President this past Thursday, and it sounds like what's going to happen is that Elder Garcia and I are both going to stay, but we will divide the sector and have different companions.  My bets are that Elder Garcia is going to be training because he only has two changes left.

It sounds like you all had a really successful week....always lots to do!  It's so weird to see the picture of Andrew and Cindy together because I feel like she was just here!  I was just talking to her the other day!  I absolutely love getting your pictures;  I feel like it helps to keep me updated on what's going on outside of the missionary world.  Mom passed her test!  Congratulations!  I'm sure that she's going to be one awesome termite inspector.  I absolutely love explaining to people what you two do for a living.  "Yeah, my dad is a dentist, and my mom...... well...... she crawls under houses and looks for corrosive insects...."  They all get a kick out of that.  Oh, and I still havent gotten the package yet....... I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with the address change.  I actually haven't gotten any mail since the address change....

This week went by well; it went by fast!  Faster than normal.  I was a little under the weather on Thursday and Friday, nothing too bad, but now I feel a lot better.  Recently, we have been spending a lot of our time with a less active family, the Rivera´s.  They are amazing people.  They are very humble people, and their house is probably the most humble that I have entered in all of my time here in Chile.  They live behind another house, in a shack, that's usually used for storage, but they've converted it into a little home.  They're having problems with their son David, who recently turned 19, and is kind of acting out, fighting with his parents, leaving until really really late, etc.  So we are trying our best we can to help him out, since his parents are really really worried for him.  So we had a really good Family home evening with them last night, where we watched the restoration video and then just talked afterwards.  The conversation started out being about the blessings the Restoration brings into our lives, but with time we were able to talk about family struggles, and how to overcome them.  I am very much looking forward to continuing to work with this family.  Eduardo is doing well.  He doesn't have his calling yet, but he has his interview later this week!  And probably the biggest news of the week is that Hno Hector Pino got called as our new ward mission leader!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, when I heard that announcement, I almost screamed!  Hector Pino is a stud and a half, and he is going to be an amazing mission leader (I went to his sealing in the temple).

Claudia and Familia Salgado are both doing great.  We have family home evenings planned with the both of them for later this week.  They haven't been able to make their way to church yet, but I'm confident that Elder Garcia and I will be able to help them to get there.

Another cool thing that Elder Garcia and I just started doing is a major remodel on the pension that we live in.  Earlier this week we had a nice visit by the senior missionary who is in charge of the pensions in the mission and he kindly requested for us to paint the pension.  So, we have been having some fun doing that in the mornings.  We finished up the front of the pension this morning, so I'll be sure to send you some pictures of it next week.

Whelp, I'd love to include some more, but my time is running short.  I love and am praying for you all!  Keep being amazing!  The Church is true! 

with love, your son/friend/brother/neighbor,

Elder Schwartz

This pic below is from a zone BBQ we had today.....