Felipe's Baptism

Hey everyone!

Well it sounds like everyone is doing really well; everyone is staying busy.  Mom is doing work with the missionaries, how cool!  And I will be sure to send the Dolls your hello's.  Yes, I see them every week, and they are in my district, so technically I need to call them twice a week to see how things are going in their sector.  They also go to my district class every week, which is awesome because they have the best insights ever.  They are such great people!

Elder Packer and I are doing really well.  We are staying very busy, and lots of things are going on down here in Puente Alto.  We have been teaching lots of lessons to lots of investigators, and lots of less active members.   Really, this sector is full of people to teach, and I LOVE IT.  We are working really hard with this family, I dont know their last name, but the mother and the father are named Juana and Oscar, and Juanas life has changed 100% since the gospel has entered her life.  I am pretty sure that she has gone to church every Sunday since I have been here.  She understands the doctrine, she loves going to church, and she wants be be baptized.... but there is one thing holding her (and about 75% of our other investigators).... She is not married to Oscar, and this is something really common here in this part of Santiago.  The grand majority of the families that we are teaching are not married....... and it's not very easy for them to get married either.  They have to do it through the government, and there is like a waiting list backed up until mid 2014 for anyone to get married in Puente Alto.  That is the biggest challenge for us as missionaries down here in Puente Alto.  ANYWAYS, so this week we went with Juana and her family to do a temple tour and it was amazing!  They loved it, and I have a feeling that this whole marriage thing is going to work its way out soon.  Also, at the temple, I ran into Sister Jennings (from my ward at BYU), and I got to talk to her for a while, so that was pretty cool too.

The district is doing really well.  I am actually very proud of them, because the goal of the mission for each companionship is to get 1 baptism each month, and in my disctrict all of the companionships met that goal for the month of July!  How great is that!  I really do have the coolest district ever, and sadly this is the last week of the transfer so we might be seeing some changes next week... :(  (but as far as transfers goes... I am pretty darn sure that I am going to be here in Chiloe for a little while longer).

This Sunday was awesome because my main man Felipe got baptized!!!!!!!!  I'll be sure to send pictures, and it was such a cool service!  Elder Packer baptized him, but Felipe is the coolest 11 year old in the world and he knows the gospel so well and he is going to be an awesome missionary.  Filipe lives just with his mom and his older sister, and his mom is the only member in the family, but she is kind of really less active.  Filipe goes to church by himself every Sunday, and the ward has 100% fallen in love with him.  He is getting lots of love and support from all of the leaders which is exactly what the boy needs.  He turns twelve next month, and he is really excited to get the priesthood.

Today was a really nice P-Day.  We went to mall 14 in La Florida and went bowling... that brought back some very sweet memories, and we ran into Elder Sanchez and Elder Henderson, my old companion and roommate!  So we got lunch together, and talked for a really long time and it was wayyy cool to see them -- it sounds like Geronimo de Alderete is doing great, but i always knew that they would do an awesome job taking care of my first Chilean home.  

Bowling!!!!

With Elders Sanchez and Henderson

Anyways, I am about out of time.  I love you all -- keep the faith.  Keep being the amazing people that you are.  I love the support -- I really can feel it.  The church is true and i´ll be sure to fill you all in with all of the Chiloé updates next week!

with mcuh love,

Elder Schwartz

P.S. Yes i did buy new shoes.  I actually bought 2 pairs (it was buy one, get one 60% off, so I couldn't really help it..... I have that bargain shopper blood in me... thanks mom)  But my feet feel SO GOOD NOW, so thank you so much!

Shadow Elders...