Brazil....Finally!

Dear everyone!

Finally, I made it to Brazil!!!  This week has been so crazy!!!  But I guess first you guys wanna know who my trainer is.  Well, remember how I said there was a family (from Pocatello) who had a son here in my mission, Elder Watt?  Well....he's my trainer!  HOW CRAZY IS THAT!!!  I BAPTIZED HIS SISTER IN LAW!!!  I PLANTED A TREE IN HIS FRONT YARD!!!  What are the odds that something like this would happen!  I think President Tanner was way inspired with this companionship, because we work so well together!  Elder Watt loves to go out and work hard, and so far this week it has been paying off. 

The flight from Detroit to Sao Paulo went well. It was long, but I was able to sleep a little.  When we landed, we met up with our travel coordinator and then we split into our different missions and left on a bus to the mission home. It was cool because Elder Despain (one of the elders from my district in the MTC) also got his visa so it we had a little reunion on the bus ride.  Apparently, he and I are the only two that got our visas and the rest are still waiting in the US.  I got to meet President and Sister Tanner in the mission home, and they are AWESOME!  I know I'm gonna learn so much from them.  Later, we had a luncheon and we met our trainers and that's when I found out Elder Watt was my trainer.  We took the metro to our place in Sao Bernardo do Campo which is the city where we serve. The area I'm in is called Planalto, and it is way bigger than my last area (in Idaho) which was pretty much one street. This week we did a lot of work, and a lot of miracles happened.  

I don't have much time to write, but I will try to give you guys a few highlights. This week we invited eleven people to baptism and six of them accepted dates!  The Sao Paulo South mission has a goal of a baptism per week per companionship so everytime we teach, we invite someone to be baptized.  One of the miracles that happend this week was on Saturday.  We met up with one of the few young men in the ward, Felipe, and he gave us referrals for six of his friends that he plays soccer with!  And not only that, he came with us the whole day, and we were able to meet our goal of member lessons.  He helped us so much with our lessons that later that night we treated him to pizza.  He was definitely an answer to our prayers!  Another miracle that happened was we were going to pick an older man named Joel up to go to church with us.  We had just contacted and started teaching him this past week.  We were on our way to see if he could go and it started to rain.  He initially wasn't going to go because he was going do something for the nearby soccer field (that's all I could understand since my Portuguese isn't that great), but since it was raining, he was able to go with us!  Also, on the way to church, a young man named Felipe (different Felipe) was walking in the same direction to go do something and we invited him to go to church with us and he accepted!  They both (Joel and Felipe) came to church and they loved it!  We have a lesson with Felipe this week and we're going to continue to teach Joel hopefully baptizing him on the 4th of August.  SO MANY MIRACLES.  This week has been such an example of how much hard work pays off.  We have worked like crazy this week and I know that as we continue to work hard we will have success.  

Right now, the language is a little hard. I can somewhat communicate with others but it's hard to understand what everyone is saying the majority of the time. I know that as I continue to work hard and do my best that the language will come.  I hope everything is going well for everyone back home!  I love you all!  I know that this work that Nate and I are doing is the Lord's work!  The church is true! 

Until next Monday!

Elder Schwartz