It's a Little Chile Down Here...But Kinda Warm in Brazil: Did Someone Say....Barbeque?

Did you say Barbecue?

Yum!

mmmmmmmm!

Dear Family, Friends, Everyone,

Its great to hear that you all had such an busy and excellent week, full of work and church callings and exercising and activities. It sounds like you're all starting off 2014 on the right foot. This past week was a really good one for Elder Sercovich and me as well. Firstly, we got the news about changes (transfers), and Elder Sercovich and I are staying together...WHICH MEANS, that I will be ending my mission HERE IN LA REINA!....Which I am very, very excited about because I love this sector. This is Elder Sercovich's last change, so I am going to do everything that I can as his comp to make it his best change too. Sadly, Elder Bunderson, one of my roomates is getting changed, which is lame because he was and is a good friend of mine; but the cool news is that he is going to Chiloé, my old sector, so that was pretty awesome news.

This is the 2nd year that they have done EFY in Chile. From what I have heard, it is basically the same exact program as EFY in the states, with the classes and services and dances and breakout sessions and morning devotionals and everything. Everyone is grouped into companies like at EFY in the states too, they have counselors, the whole shabang. But I think the biggest difference is that they don't do it on a college campus; they do it on a big church owned property outside of Santiago called "Casablanca" and all of the participants and leaders have to sleep in tents for a whole week, but from what I can tell, it has had the same fantastic, strengthening results here as it does there in the states.

This week we found a new family that we are starting to teach -- they are Peruvians, so they get along really well with Elder Sercovich already -- they have that special Peruvian connection, and we found a couple of other new investigators this week as well. I think that was probably the biggest blessing of the week. We had our usual district class on Wednesday -- Elder Cottrell, our district leader, always does a good job at those, and on Friday, we had our "deep cleaning" that we have to do every transfer, and on Saturday we did the inspections. All of the apartments in the zone la reina are squeaky clean -- they always do a good job.

Other than that, it was a normal week in the mission -- it's kind of really hot here, and we didn't spend too much time in the street, but THIS week that is starting today is going to be a really good one, I can feel it -- Elder Sercovich and I have lots of good stuff planned throughout the week.

I know that this church is true and that God loves us and knows all of us individually. Sorry that I didn't have too much to say this week. Thank you all for your love and support, and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Schwartz