It's a Little Chile Down Here...But Kinda Warm in Brazil: President and Sister Tanner's Last Zone Conference

President and Sister Tanner will be released at the end of June. Elder Schwartz will miss them....

Dear Family!!!!!

Wow you guys are looking goood! I'm diggin the beard pops! The only one that's left is Nate -- hahaha! It's good to hear that you guys had a good Memorial day and had a nice little vespa adventure. That little scripture that you shared with me about the garner representing the temple was something that Elder Evans shared with us when we had a devotional with him. Inspired and sooo true that the more people that have been to the temple will be better safeguarded. We actually were trained this week at zone conference talking exactly about what I said last week. Since we didn't get a chance to hear from Elder Anderson, President Tanner did get a chance to hear from Elder Nelson, and he just passed on to us what Elder Nelson taught. It was really good stuff. There was a lot about working with members to strengthen and reinvigorate them. We're now authorized to do 50% proselyting and 50% re-activation. We also focused on how we can strengthen our new converts through helping them have a focus on the temple, that they need to "endure to the endowment." Lot's of good stuff! It's been a lot of the same stuff that we and the stake presidency have been trying to focus on here in our stake, and we're going to keep on doing it.

This week was actually a really good week for us because we found two really good part-member families who we are going to be strengthening, and helping to complete the family in the church. In one family, the daughter, Natialia, is active but the mom, Taís, is not and the step-dad, Roberto, isn't a member. They were really excited to see us and Taís was especially excited and wants to go back to church. In the other family also, there are two kids active, one that isn't a member, Fernanda, and the mom is inactive. Both are really good families and we are super excited to start working with them and inviting the members to participate. It will be good because this is an excellent opportunity to make miracles happen and experiences that I can share at stake conference. The work is going really good here. Antonio and his family are doing really good. Paulo went to church this week and is starting to share the gospel with his friends and neighbors like a boss. Regiane also came to church this last week and we are working with a member family to work on integrating her back into activity. We also have two more investigators that are going to church now that I've actually only taught once because of the divisions; Mirtes (I think that's how you spell her name) and Sonia. This week we're going to have to coordinate really well with all of these people to help them get to the stake center for conference, but it will all turn out ok.

Like I mentioned, this week I got to go on a few divisions. I went on one with Elder Camarena (who lives with me) and took him to work with me in our area. It was a really good division and I learned a lot from him. He's got about 8 months on the mission and 4 months here in the country but he's already doing super well. The other division I went on was with one of the assistants, Elder Myers. I got the chance to work with him in his area and do a few baptism interviews for them. He's a powerhouse missionary and I learned so so so much from that division. The kid truly follows the section in Preach My Gospel: "Talk with everyone," because we talked with so many people and taught a lot of lessons in the streets. It's something that I have been slacking on a bit lately, so this next week Elder Barreto and I are gonna work the crap out of this area. Transfers is this coming week, so if I get transferred, I want to say I held nothing back.

Today we spent the morning with a member, Richard (eu sei que você está lendo isso fubeca!), who is a member in our ward who just got off of his mission, and he took us around São Paulo and showed us some sites. We went up a skyscraper and got to see the whole city of São Paulo and we also went to Parque de Iberapuera which is this super big park in São Paulo. And that was pretty much my week, family. I'm stoked for this upcoming week. We have a lot of awesome people that we are going to visit and Heavenly Father is going to keep putting the elect in our path as we continue to do our best and work diligently. I know that He loves me and each and every one of his children. I know that His gospel changes lives!

Til next week!

Love,

Elder Schwartz