Celestial Planalto

Drinking Chimarrão (pronounced: She-muh-how)

Hey all!

Another week here in Planalto aka the Celestial Kingdom!  It's great to hear that everyone is doing great and that everyone is having fun and staying busy.  Is it just me or is everyone getting married and having babies since I've been gone?

Elder Steil is doing well. He is a stud of a missionary. He only has three months on the mission and I only have four so we're both kind of new and teaching and learning from each other.  He actually speaks really good English which he said he learned just from watching a lot of movies and TV in English. He was pretty much raised in the church because his parents were converted when he was three, and he is also the first from his family to serve a mission, so that's pretty exciting.  

This past week has been good. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to keep in contact with all those people we met last week.  That's kind of the struggle here in Brazil.  It's really hard to find a day or time when you can catch people at home or when they're not busy.  Like for that family with a newborn baby for example, we passed by there pretty much every day this past week and we were only able to catch them once, and when we did catch them, they were really busy and told us to come back another day.  Or João Vitor, for another example.  We had those really awesome experiences teaching him and he loved church on Sunday, but he didn't show up for our appointment, and everytime we call him no one answers.  We're gonnna try to keep working with all of them because they are precious in the sight of God, and I know how much this gospel can bless their lives. 

However!  We did have another awesome experience this week with finding and teaching someone. During the last transfer, Elder Watt and I had a conversation with a 16 year old girl named Ruth who said that she had a male friend who is in our ward and she (Ruth) would love to hear our message, but her family belongs to another church, and her mom wouldn't allow it.  Well, this past week we met with that member, and he said that she (Ruth) left her old church, and she wanted to hear our message.  We gave him (ward member) a Book of Mormon and told him to give it to her and call us to set up a time to meet with her. The next day we passed by his house again to teach one of his neighbors.  When we stopped by his house to see if he wanted to go with us, we found him with Ruth, about to give her the Book of Mormon.  She said that she wanted to learn more about our church, so we had a lesson right then and there.  It was totally unplanned, but it was awesome.  The Lord truly does bless us as we work hard.  Even though we have been a little sad that our appointments keep falling through, the Lord always prepares something better.

I love you guys!  I just want you all to know that I know that this church is true!  God loves each and every one of us and he knows all of us personally.  I hope that everyone has a great week next week. I look foreward to hearing from you!

WIth Love,

Elder Schwartz

Making Chimarrão. Which is a drink that consists of an herb called erva which you see in the picture and hot water. It's really popular among Gaúchos.