It's a Little Chile Down Here...But Kinda Warm in Brazil: Hey, That's Where My Brother Is....

Tribute to Elder Nate....

Dear Family!

Well, it sounds like that everything is going good for you guys at home. It's good to hear that you guys are keeping busy, though, with work, callings, and other good stuff. That's good that the Super Bowl wasn't too exciting, so it sounds like I didn't miss out on anything :). Thanks for all the prayers and support. I can feel the love all the way down here in Brazil.

This past week for us was pretty good. It had a lot of up's and down's, but we're still fighting strong. So remember when I was talking about Luana and Kleber last week? Well, this past Monday we had a really sweet family night at the a member's house and Luana and Kleber joined us. The message was talking about the importance of having an organized church and It was wayyyy gooood! It was perfect for Luana and Kleber and they seemed to really like it. too. Well we passed by their house again later in the week and it things felt a little different when we walked in. We started talking, and it turns out that they had received some negative articles about the church. They started bringing up some of internet rumors they had read and then Elder Watt and I explained everything and helped them out with all of their doubts. They said that they got pretty turned off by all the negative stuff, but they said that they will keep studying the Book of Mormon and praying to get an answer. This little experience really showed me the reality of the influences that seem to pull people away from God. They are such an awesome family and they would be such powerhouse members if they were baptized. We are praying a lot for them and really hopeful to have an awesome lesson with them this week.

Even though that was a little bit of a downer this week, we had some really positive experiences too! This week we went on splits with the assistants (to the mission president). I got to go with Elder Arévelo (who has been assistant since I first got here in Brazil) and help him out in his area. We met a lot of really cool families and I learned so much. Elder Arévelo is a really, really, really good teacher and he explains things in such a clear way that the people completely understand him. The division really made me realize that I needed to repent a little bit and work a lot on my teaching skills. While I was there, Elder Watt was with Elder Bacca in our area. They found a lot of really good families that I'm excited to work with this week. We also did another division the next day, and I got to work with Elder Beers in my area. He is one of the office elders and it was a really good division. He is a really good missionary and we had a lot of really awesome lessons that day. Sunday was also an awesome day because Elder Watt and I did a division with two young brothers that are preparing to leave on missions here in a few months. We worked a lot on doing mini-lessons in the street and we found a lot of the Lord's elect. We have a really good teaching pool going now, and we're really excited for these upcoming weeks. We're feeling that February is going to be our month for baptisms in our zone. Thanks again for all of your love and support. I hope that everyone is doing great and I love you all!

Love,

Elder Schwartz