Sunday, April 13, 2014

Temple Visit





From Last Week's Temple Visit

Dearest Family!

Well how about that General Conference! I think this might have been the first time where I absolutely loved each and every one of the talks given.  SO GOOD!  I got to watch it in English this time so I probably got a lot more out of it than I did at the last General Conference in October.  It was good, they set up a room for all the people that wanted to watch in English.  All of the English speaking missionaries in our zone were in the room as well as some members that speak English, including our Bishop (he served his mission in New York).  It was such an uplifting experience and I learned so much.  I think everyone picked up on the major themes from which the leaders of the church were teaching us.  I basically understood that as the world is becoming worse and worse, it's going to be a lot more challenging to be a strong member of the Church. We all need to live our faith to the fullest, be obedient, and defend our beliefs.  But we also need to show love, kindness and respect for all of our brothers and sisters. 

It's good to hear that you guys had a busy week and really enjoyed conference too.  We also had a full week here in Cidade Leonor.  I don't know if I told you last week, but it's obvious that we had a chance to go to the temple.  It was a really sweet experience, but it also made the day a little rushed.  We also had our mission leadership council which is always fun and exciting.  The efficiency in the mission is kind of down, so we discussed a lot about the quality of our finding and our teaching.  I learned a lot, and we passed that instruction along to our zone when we gave a zone training this week.  This week we also had a great meeting with President Tanner, our Stake President, and the Sister Leader Trainers of our zone to talk about the work in the stake.  It was a really great meeting and we were able to improve our relationship with the stake leadership and also carry out some new plans that the Stake President has to help this stake flourish.  This led to another meeting that we had with all the missionaries in our zone to meet with the stake president and the high councilor over missionary work.  President Piros layed out his vision for us to start having our lunches in the homes of less active members as a way of helping them return to activity.  He also wants us to start getting the members involved by asking them to have Family Home Evenings in their homes with our investigators.  I'm really happy with the leadership here and the willingness they have to work with us. 

Unfortunately, none of our investigators made it to General Conference, but thankfully we have the internet and we are going to be incorporating some of the talks into our lessons.  I really loved all of the talks, but I think that they started with the best.  Elder Holland's talk was soooooo gooood!  I wish everyone here in Brazil would watch that talk. He threw down on all the false doctrines and beliefs and testified straight truth. I also loved President Monson's talk about love being the essence of the gospel.  It made me reflect about my motivations.  I really want to develop the Christlike attribute to have charity and Christ-like love for everyone -- I want to show my love for others through how I treat them.  I KNOW that this Church is Christ's Church and that he is the head of it.  I am so thankful to have the privilege to receive Heavenly Father's direction every six months at conference and every day through personal revelation.  I love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

Until next week!
Elder Schwartz

Elder Baretto

Sushi and Pizza

Very Funny!

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