9/22/14
Dear Family!!!
It looks like the fiesta that you guys had went well too! That's cool that you guys visited with the Brazilian couple as well! Definitely take advantage of their offer for a real Brazilian bbq. It's the best.... we actually had ourselves a house bbq this week for lunch...SO GOOD! I love the bbq here.
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| It really is good! |
Everyone here is doing good. Elder Lago is doing great. We're working hard and having fun doing it. Our investigators are also doing really well. Jessica brought her mom, Fatima, to church this week and she absolutely loved it. Next week the whole family is going to go! Woohoo! We had a really good lesson with Johnson yesterday. He's a really good man. It's just some difficulties with the family that they are having that's impeding him from getting married but we are giving our counsel and support to him. I feel like this week things are going to change for the family. As for Milena. Pretty much the same thing. We talked to her yesterday and we marked a baptismal interview for this week. Seriously she is so ready. Even in the lesson yesterday, Johnson was asking her why she hasn't been baptized yet. She couldn't come up with an answer. So we are going to do the interview this week. The plan is to baptize her this Sunday if God gives us this miracle.
We are going to go to the temple tomorrow and we are going to have zone conference which is always exciting. Oh and other news is that here in a little bit, there's going to be a Mission P-day in the Botanical Garden of São Paulo which we're also really excited for.
But other than that the week has been pretty normal. I'm doing my best out here. I'm so happy for the opportunity I have to serve my brothers and sisters here in São Paulo. This next week is going to be amazing, I can feel it. Give my love to all the family and friends. I know that this is the Lord's church. I know that this is his work. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ truly blesses lives and that Heavenly Father has many blessings prepared to give us when we are obedient to him. I love you!
Until next week!
9/29/14
It's good to hear that you're going out visiting with the missionaries. Keep helping them! You will be greatly blessed and that ward will really grow! Keep up the good work!
So I guess a highlight of the week was I got surgery on my toe this past Friday. So the toenail was ingrown on both sides of the toe so they shot me up with some anestesia and they cut on both sides of the toenail and took out the sides. Then they put in some stitches to hold it together. It was weird because I was watching the whole time but I wasn't feeling the pain. It kind of freaked me out a little bit but it's all good now. The doctor said I have to stay in and recover for 4-5 days so this weekend I had to stay in while we did divisions with the other elders of the house so that our area wouldn't go unworked. But this week I'll be able to start working again.
So this week we also had zone conference, which is basically just a big conference with about 4 zones and that is directed by President. The zone leaders don't really have a special part in the zone conference, but there was a good amount of participation from the missionaries. Usually what has happened in the past is that President and the assistants would give trainings to the missionaries but this conference included a few missionaries giving talks on various subjects of the work. It was a good and uplifting experience and I learned a lot.
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| Our District |
As for our investigators, we had an interview for Milena this week and she passed and we set a firm date for the 11th of October. She's super excited and is already telling everyone.
This week we also went to the temple which was a huge blessing. I love going to the temple here! It's far away from where I'm serving right now but the trip is worth it. It's such a great opportunity to feel peace. So good. It's something that the people here of São Paulo here really need, because everyone here is always in such a rush. But that's why I'm here :) to help them out with that.
10/6/14
So how about General Conference!!! WOW!!! I was blown away. It was sosososssososososo GOOD! I absolutely loved it! All of the talks were so inspired and the spirit was so strong. Now it's just up to us to apply the things that we learned and move forward. I'm glad that you guys had a good conference experience as well -- sometimes, even from the comfort of your bed, hahaha. I watched conference in English with Elder Buenrostro in the ward secretary's office on the computer. It was just us two there. But I did, however, watch Elder Godoy (from Sao Paulo) when he spoke in Portugese because I wanted to hear him in his native toungue. I think that's an amazing feature to conference today, that the speakers are all speaking in their own language.
As for a favorite talk.... that's a really hard one. I loved Elder Bednar's because at that session we had investigators there which made it way better. But for me, I personally liked the talk Elder Robbins gave talking about where we are facing, and I also loved President Uchtdorf talking about the truth. A lot of the talks I feel spoke to me personally in some sort of way. As part of a preparation for conference I took a piece of paper, and divided it on two sides. One side titled, "what the lord expects of me for these last 6 months of my mission" and the other side titled "How I'm going to do it" and I'm happy to say that I got a lot of inspiration from the Lord that I know will help me as I'm on the final stretch of my time here in Brazil. It's going to be a great 6 months.
So as for the investigators. We are preparing for Milena's baptism this week which is going to be this Saturday. We're going to work out the details this week with her and follow up with her to make sure everything goes right and that the adversary doesn't mess this up for us. Jessica is doing good. This week we haven't gotten a good follow up with her because of various meetings, mission council, and some hospital appointments (I got my stitches out 
) so for that we weren't able to get her to conference :(. OH and I forgot to tell you guys that here in Brazil it's election season, and political system here in Brazil is kind of crazy. There's not only two main parties and candidates like we have in the US, but rather there are many politcal parties and many candidates, so everyone here is kind of revolted with that too, because they are forced to vote. So voting day was also the day of conference on Sunday. Even Elder Lago had to go to declare he couldn't vote because he wasn't home. But we did get a new investigator, Douglas, to go to conference and he absolutely loved it. I'll give you guys his story next week.
Anyways today actually isn't P-day, but we are doing emails because tomorrow is going to be a Mission wide P-day Activity in the Botanical Garden of São Paulo. So we're pretty stoked for that. Anyways I just want you guys to know that I love you all and that I'm praying for you all. Thanks so much for the love, support and prayers for me. I'm so grateful for the privelege I have to be a missionary here in São Paulo. I'm so grateful for the Prophets and Apostles and the fact that today we have the opportunity to listen to messages from God's living messengers. I hope you have a good week!
Love,
Elder Schwartz
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| With Elder Amon |
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