Life in La Reina

Elder Schwartz and Elder Sandoval

Email from Elder Nate Schwartz from August 26th....

Hey everyone!

Dad thank you so much for the weekly update, it is great to hear that everyone is doing so well and that you are doing visits with the sister missionaries!!! YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!  Keep it up!  And happy late aniversary too :D  

Anyways, again I am running out on time, and I forgot my journal, so this is again going to be a shorter email... sorry.  ALSO, sidenote, I have been keeping a journal of every day of my mission so far, and I am very thankful for doing so.  I am now starting to see the fruits of that labor.  Because now, what I like to do is every night before writing in the journal, is I read my journal entry from the same day the year before, and it has been way fun seeing the progression, and it has helped me remember a lot of things that I forgot.  SO, if you arent keeping a personal journal, KEEP ONE!

I think I am going to dedicate the majority of this email to answering the questions that you asked me....

 Yes, the work here in this sector moves at a little bit of a slower pace than in my last sector, and our relationships with the members and the leaders and everyone is a little more ´´professional´´ than in my last sector.  It's a lot more business-like here.  We are teaching a few investigators, including one is named Mercedez and she is from Peru, and we are helping her and her boyfriend to get married.  She is really excited to get baptized.  Another is named Simon, and he is from Haiti and is learning Spanish (like me), so we are getting him a French Book of Mormon to help teach him better.  We do teach a lot of lessons, but the vast majority of the lessons are to recent converts and to less active members.  We have a list of about 1000 members and only about 130 attend church regularly.  We had 1 really good lesson with a member family and his neighbors.   We have less lessons with members here, as it's harder to find time ones with free time.  In this mission, Zone Leaders have several responsibilities:  we have to teach a three hour class to the zone once a month; we do divisions (splits) with the AP's (assistants to the mission president) and the District Leaders every transfer; and we do take weekly stats;  and we do have a meeting with the Stake President and President Wright every month.  Then after that meeting, President Wright does visits with us, which is really awesome.  And that´s pretty much it.  Elder Sandoval likes explaining that we are the parents of twenty missionaries, which is pretty true, because we get lots of calls from lots of missionaries asking us for permission to do things, and we have to think and make educated decisions, and worry about their well being.  It's a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too.

Anyways, I am sorry that this email was short, and not too detailed, but I love my sector, and I love this work and I love my companion.  Thank you all so much for all of the love and support, and thank you so much for the spiritual thought too, dad.  I have definitely realized here in the mission, that a person can receive a lot of personal revelation through the scriptures, and also that the wars going on today are a war in the mind and in the heart, and I am so happy to be able to have this time to help these people in that war.  

Until next week,

With much love,

Elder Schwartz

In the cyber doing emails home

Elder Nate Schwartz's email home from September 2nd....

Dear Family!

Wow!  The weeks just seem to be going by faster and faster!  Its so weird!  Everything is going really well for Elder Sandoval and I.  We had a pretty busy week, but it looks like this week is going to be even busier with lots of meeting and ward conference and Chilean Independence day is right around the corner.  Sometimes I feel like my plate is a little too full.  But I am trying the best I can to stay as positive as I can, and not get too overwhelmed.  

Firstly, on Sunday, Mercedez came to church!  Which was amazing!  Simon is doing well, and this last week we found a couple new people that we are starting to teach, so we are really excited for that.  It's always great teaching new people.  Elder Sandoval and I did go on divisions this week.  I went to our neighboring ward called Consistorial with and elder named Elder Pagalo from Ecuador. He is my district leader, and we had a really good time.  He is doing a really good job with his area.  One thing that I love about the mission is meeting so many different people from so many different places.  They all have something special to bring to the table.

Elder Sandoval has been kind of sick over the past few days, so we went to the doctors this morning to get him some pills, and he seems to be doing lots better now.  That is good because he seemed to be really sad that he was sick.  Elder Sandoval is usally a really animated and outgoing person, but he was a lot quieter when he was sick.  

ALSO:  Just an FYI, Chile´s mail strike has officially ended, so feel free to send me mail now :)  

Anyways, sorry these last few emails have been so bland, i really draw a blank sometimes when I get to this computer screen.  Everything is going well here in Tobalaba.  I am getting well adjusted, and Elder Sandoval is teaching me a lot, but I still have a long long ways to go as a missionary.  I love you all so much.  Thank you for your love and support.  I know that this is the true church, and I know that we do have a Heavenly Father who loves us and that through obedience to His commandments, we can draw closer to him.  

Love you all!

till next week,

Elder Schwartz