Changes Are Coming

A Ward member did this picture of us.....

Daaaaannng Pops, lookin freshhh!!!  (see below for photo that this comment refers to....)

Hello Everyone! 

It's sounds like everyone has a had a nice and busy week back home. You got to watch Priesthood session at home?!?!  Welp, there goes our family tradition, but it was fun while it lasted.  So I guess I better start with the big news.... We got transfer calls this morning and I found out that I'm getting transferred out of Planalto to be a district leader and a trainer and open a new area!  I just went from little responsibility to A LOT of responsibility.  It was a little overwhelming for me to take in at first, but I know that the promise in 1 Nephi 3:7 ( Link to Chapter ) is true, that the Lord gives no commandment without first providing a way for it to be accomplished.  So I will go and do!  I don't know what area I'm getting transferred to or who I'm going to train, but I do know that I'm going to another area that's in my zone, so it will be cool to have the same zone leaders, and I will get to see everyone I know at our zone meetings.  Elder Steil is staying here in Planalto and he is also going to be training so that will be really cool.

Other than transfers, our week went by really well. We spent a lot of time trying to get our investigators pumped about General Conference and the opportunity we have to hear a living prophet of God speak to us. We also decided this past week to begin focusing more on the less-active members in our ward and help them get reactivated.  It turned out to work out really well for us, because we found two less active families with children who are over eight years old who aren't baptized yet, so Elder Steil and his trainee will be working a lot with them in the next few weeks.  We had a good lesson this week with a few families where we showed the video "Together Forever" (I think that's what it's called in English because the Portuguese is: Juntos Para Sempre) and in one of the lessons, the mom of a recent convert started crying.  We talked with them afterwards about the blessings that this restored gospel brings to us such as how our families have the ability to be together not just in this life, but forever.  I'm grateful for this blessing and the knowledge that this gospel gives me that our families truly can be together forever :)

 

That brings us to conference weekend.  Let me tell you guys how we watched conference here.  We had conference set up to view in the chapel for us, but there weren't a lot of people there, because most of our members watched it at home.  However, some of our investigators were able to go and they loved it!  Unfortunately for me, I had to watch the sessions in Portuguese because there was nobody at our chapel to watch it in English with me.  Actually, it was good for me.  I understood the majority of what was said and I know that whatever it was that I needed to hear, I understood. Overall, they were all really great sessions.  I loved the focus that was brought on the importance of the missionaries and the members working together, because if this work were to be done only by the missionaries, we would have very little success.  I guess my favorite quote from conference was from Elder Ballard  (I think)  Link to Talk .  It was when he said to the full time missionaries:  If you want more people to teach, you need to talk with more people.  That might have been the most blunt and direct instruction for me.  I feel like we haven't been teaching as much, so with this new big change coming up, I plan on talking to as many people as possible about the gospel. 

Well, I hope that all of you are doing well and all enjoying life like I am right now.  There's no place I'd rather be than right here in Brazil, doing the Lord's work.  I know that this work truly is His work. I know that our Heavenly Father is PERFECT, and he has a plan for each and every one of us.  I love you all, and I can't wait to hear from you guys again next week!

With love,

Elder Schwartz

More pics....

Pic from pops' mission days that was found posted on Facebook...brought about the comment at the start of post

Elder McKeen, Elder Woodruff, Me, Elder Correia