Testimony Meeting

Here is Elder Nate Schwartz's weekly email home.  Sorry, no pictures sent this week.  Thanks for all your support of our boys....

Dear Everyone!

Thank you so much for the pictures!  I love pictures.  It is so great to hear that everyone is doing well, Phil in NYC, Elder Andrew in the MTC, and Mom and Dad in MTZ.  Thank you for attaching Andrew's weekly email.  If you could do that for me every week, that would be great.  It's great to hear that everyone is staying busy with work and church and family events and everything.  

This week was a busy one, and it went by super, super fast!  We did two service assignments this week, and normally for service we almost always do yard work or painting, but this week we got to cut down some trees, so that was a lot of fun.  I thought about Phil a lot while doing it because the great majority of pictures that I have seen of him are of him cutting down trees.

We had a lot of visits this week, which was a nice change of pace.  Less time in the street, more time in houses.  We were able to do a couple visits with Seba Pizarro which was really nice.  We had a couple lessons with Mauricio and Patricia and Isidora, and we were able visit Fernando Cabello this week too which was a real treat for Elder Sanchez and I, as we were missing him a lot.

On Sunday, Rodrigo came to church again, which was really sweet.  He has been progressing a lot over the last few days, and he finally found a job!  He has been unemployed since we started visiting him way back in like my third change.

There was a ward baptism on Saturday that Elder Sanchez and I had to put together.  The water heater in our chapel is broken, and its starting to get cold here.  I felt so bad for that little eight year old boy who had to get baptized in that freezing water..... it was so cold that he started to cry...... BUT aside from the freezing cold water, it was a really good meeting, and once the boy warmed up and stopped crying, he was really happy.

Sunday was the highlight of the week.  I love fast and testimony meetings, and this one was really special.  Both Hna Edith and her son Daniel got up and bore their testimonies and it was amazing.  The room was absolutely silent.  They both thanked Elder Garcia and I for deciding to go on missions, and coming to this ward, and visiting them.  That was something really rewarding to hear.  Little Marco (Paulina´s son) got up and bore his testimony too, and said that he loves when the missionaries come over, ahaha.  Sunday night, Elder Sanchez and I decided to work with the ward list, and we actualy met three new inactive families that we are going to continue teaching.  That was a blessing.

The twelve week training program for new missionaries is coming to a close for Elder Sanchez.  We are in week eleven now, so for this next week, Elder Sanchez is going to be my senior companion, leading all of the planning sessions and lessons.  He is a little nervous, but i know he is going to do a great job at it.  He is a really smart kid.

Thank you for your thoughts and letters and prayers; i can feel them.  The church is true.  If we keep the Lord's commandments, He will bless us in ways that we cannot imagine.  Miracles continue to happen on the earth today; I know that's true because I have seen too many to count.

love you all,

until next week,

Elder Schwartz