Bowling in Chile

Love that pink bowling ball....

With Elder Sanchez

Dear Family and Everyone!

I love getting the photos from you guys on a weekly basis.  It looks like this week was especially great with a suprise visit from bearded Phil.  He rocks it.  I approve (if that really means anything).  It has to be so weird spending your final moments with Andrew, but he is going to be a great missionary.  These are exciting times for the Schwartz family!

Yeah, this week was a good one -- it had its downs of course, but it had its ups, too.  AND I am already running out of time, so this letter isn't going to be very long.  SORRY!.  The biggest up was that Rodrigo came to church on Sunday and LOVED IT.  He is progressing well and it is awesome to see.  Please keep him in your prayers.  We have a lesson with him on Wednesday that I am really looking forward to.  As far as our time in the street goes -- yeah, that's still happening a lot, and I am just trying really hard to not let it get me down.... but even that is hard sometimes.  We are kind of going through a dry spell here..... and it get more and more frustrating, the harder we work without finding "success".  

We had a really good family home evening this week with a family in the ward that is going through HUGE PROBLEMS.  I think in my last letter I expressed how a lot of times I don't feel qualified to talk to people about their problems.  Well, this family blew those situations out of the water.  The family is a very spiritually strong family and have been for years, and they kinda got blindsided by this trial that just entered their lives.  The mother pleaded with Elder Sanchez and me to just come to their house and pray with them and share with them, and bring a little bit of the Spirit into their broken home.  They are an amazing family, and Elder Sanchez and I had the opportunity to give the mother and daughter-in-law blessings, and that was a really, really powerful experience for me.

So I sent some pictures in an email a few minutes ago.  This past friday we had a meeting for all of the trainers and their companions, where I ran into Elder Miller (remember him?) and Elder Garcia (my trainer)!!!!!! And it was so great being able to see them.  They are both doing really well.  Elder Garcia came to my sector today to say goodbye to some families.  So after a round of basketball with Elder Henderson, we met up for probably what will be the last time I ever see him.  He was a really great trainer and companion, and above everything else, an excellent friend.  I learned a lot from Elder Garcia. 

Reunion with my trainer

Elder Garcia says good bye to families in Geronimo

Thanks for being a great trainer (and mission father), Elder Garcia

Sadly, I am going to have to cut the email here because my time is up and I still need to write the President.  Thank you all so much for everything, for your thoughts, prayers, letters, and everything.  I know that the work that I am doing right now is the Lord´s work.  I have seen the blessings of this true gospel not only bless my life, but the lives of many others as well.  Stay strong, stay positive, and I'm really looking forward to hearing from you again next week.

Love,

Elder Schwartz

P.S. Shoutout to Anthony Kirdwald and Frank for hooking me up with some sweet letters this week. 

The Beard's Surprise Visit

A few days before Andrew is to report for his mission, a surprise visitor flew in from far away to spend a bit of time and say "Good Bye."  Brother Phil, who is serving with Americorp and currently based in Perry Point, Maryland, arrived late Thursday night (or was it early Friday morning), and the brothers had some time together....

We hardly recognized him....

Momma said it was a bit scratchy....

A visit to the Oakland Temple was in order....

We met Grandma Schwartz for a great lunch and a visit.  The only way we knew that we were in the right parking lot, was when we saw this license plate frame and were sure we had found her...

Thanks for the BBQ and the great visit, Grandma.... 

Nice to spend time playing games with friends.....

Good bye, lil' brudda....see you in two years....

Andrew and Mitchell Heading Out Soon....

On March 31st, Andrew and Mitchell, soon to be Elder Schwartz and Elder Wilson, spoke at church on Easter Sunday.  Both shared great messages about the Savior, Jesus Christ.  There were inspiring to those who attended the meeting.  Mitchell will be departing this week to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, prior to going to San Antonio Texas.  Andrew will be departing the following week to  the MTC in Provo as well (as his visa to Brazil has not come through yet), and then hopefully soon after on to Sao Paolo Brazil.

This past Sunday (April 14th), Andrew and Mitchell had the opportunity to say goodbye to friends at an open house held in their honor.  We know that they are both hard workers and will be great missionaries as they serve the Lord for the next two years.

Their families are particularly proud of Mitchell and Andrew.  We will miss them, but are grateful for their desire and commitment to serve.

Feliz Cumpleanos......Elder Schwartz!!!!!!

Dear Everyone!

It's so great to hear that everyone is doing so well.  But it is kinda freaking me out how fast the time is going.  Andrew and Mitchell really just had their open house this sunday?!?!?!?!  They grow up so fast!  I honestly cannot believe how fast the time is flying by.  Yes, yes, I am still in Geronimo and still in very good spirits about it.  Elder Sanchez and I are really happy about it, but I am not looking forward to the upcoming changes next month, because I know what my fate will be.  It has been a really good time here in Geronimo, and I know that it's going to come to an end, but i am just trying my best not to think about it and stay focused.  Elder Sanchez is helping me with that; he is a good missionary.

To be dead honest, as far as the lessons go, it was a really rough week. Elder Sanchez and I spent the grand majority of our time in the streets trying to contact old investigators, and pretty much anyone else we could find.  We really didn't have too much success, but 'tis a new week and a new opportunity; things can change.  We met with Rodrigo, and he is doing great -- reading a lot, which is wonderful.  We were able to meet with some leaders this week too, which I think was key.  We really want to get a ward activity going this month, and at this point we are just looking for someone who will support us in the cause.  We have a meeting with Hno Jara tonight and I am really confident that he will help us.

Yes, it was my birthday this week, and that was AWESOME!  To be totally honest, I really was not looking forward to it.  I thought that I was just going to kind of be sad and homesick all day, and it was going to be kind of lame, but it was the OPPOSITE!  Much to my surprise, Elder Garcia and Sanchez and Henderson pulled a lot of strings and did some amazing stuff.  On the night of the 12th and the 13th and the 14th they set up family home evenings with some really close families in the ward and it was amazing! SO MUCH CAKE!  TOO MUCH CAKE!  But it was so, so, so, so good!  

Familia di Hma Paulina

With Familia Julia

Familia Julia

Familia Julia

Cake!

Saturday night, we had a lil' family night with the Gonzalez family and Eduardo, and they bought me this HUGE cake and then tricked me, and shoved my face into it....... I have it on video, but the file is too big to send over email..... Dad how can I make the file smaller, so i can send it to you guys? 

They all sang and it was a great time.  The same with Sunday night in Hna Julia's house, they ALSO sang, and gave me another cake, and it was equally as amazing.  The love here in Geronimo is really strong; it's going to be SO HARD to leave!!  Elder Schwartz had a very fun, very happy birthday, so no need to worry (Mom).

Familia Jara, Familia Gonzalez, Ivon, Eduardo and us

The highlights of the week have nothing to do with my birthday though...... there are just 2 this week.

I am not sure if I included last week the story of the man in our ward who is bedridden and dying of cancer, Hermano Rojas.  Last week, we went to his house with the deacons quorum presidency and they asked me to offer a kneeling prayer with his family around his bed, and it was amazingly spiritual.  Well, this week, we went to his house on Saturday, because it was the celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary.  Basically, what happenned was that a month ago he went to the hospital and they told him that there is nothing they can do to save him, and basically all we can do is wait.  So, he has been fighting over the past month to stay alive to spend his 60th wedding anniversary with his wife, which he was able to do.  On Saturday, his entire family came to their house and they invited Elder Sanchez and me to come also.  I remember walking into their house and just feeling a difference in the atmospehre, like you walked through the door and the love hit you like a brick wall.  We were the only people there that weren't immediate family, but they made us feel like we were.  We took pictures, and we talked, and one of the sons toasted Elder Sanchez and me and it was SO AMAZING!  I remember just sitting there on the couch and looking around and thinking of the life hereafter, and how amazing of an experience that's going to be.  Hno and Hna Rojas and the whole family just looked and seemed so genuinely happy together, and I KNOW that they reason why their family is so strong and united and full of love is because they let the gospel direct their lives.  It is likely that we are going to have to say goodbye to Hno Rojas sometime this month, but I, along with his family are well aware that it is in no way a "Goodbye", it's a "See you later."

The other highlight of the week was last night as we were visiting our High Priest Group Leader to talk to him about our wards home teaching system (but that's a completely different problem).  We stayed and talked with him and his wife for a while, and as we were preparing to leave, I asked the Hna if there was anything that Elder Sanchez and I could do to help her family, and then she broke down and started to cry, and then her husband started to tear up too.  They confessed to us that their family is going through some huge problems right now; their 16 year old daughter ran away from home after a fight that she had with her mother, and that it had been a week and a half since they had seen her.  She found her way to her sister's house on the other side of Santiago, and she is safe, but the separation was causing the mother and father a lot of pain.  And then it just kind of clicked for me.  I think that being a teenager, we really can't see the the perspective of the parents really well.  We argue and get upset about things, but I think that we fail to see that the reason why the parents do what they do is because they love us.  That love is the source of EVERYTHING that a parent does for their child.  The same with our Heavenly Father and us.  They asked us what they should do, and that was one of the MANY times so far in the mission where I felt, "How the HECK am I qualified to give any form of advice to these people?"  But, I assured them that their daughter is going to come back and that they should just try to help her see the reasons WHY they ask so much of her, and why they seem to be so strict with her, and protective of her.  Looking back on my childhood, I think I failed to recognize the reasons why my parents were asking so much of me, and were being so strict with me.  Being here in the mission, I can look back on it, and to be totally honest, im thankful for it.  And our relationship with our Heavenly Father is the EXACT SAME THING.

Whelp everyone, I am out of time, but I love you all and I miss you all.  Thank you so much for your birthday wishes, your thought, letters, prayers....everything.  I can feel your support here in Chile and i LOVE it.  Stay amazing, stay safe!  I love you all.  The church is true.

xoxo,

Elder Schwartz

Celebration in the pensione

Conference Weekend!

Here is Elder Schwartz's latest email home.  He does appreciate all your support.  Send him a short note if you get a chance.

Elder Nathaniel Schwartz

Chile Santiago EAST Mission

Cristobal Colón 6824

Las Condes, Casilla 27.144

Santiago, Región Metropolitana

Chile

Dear Family.

It's so great to hear that you all had such a fun weekend in Southern California.  And it's always great to hear that the Giants beat those dirty Dodgers (sorry mom...).  It's so hard to beleive that Andrew is leaving in just two and a half weeks!  How crazy is that!  Time flies so fast.  Well, I bet that you´re all just dying to hear about what happenned for changes........ drumroll............................. I´M STAYING!!!!!!  I have one change left here in Geronimo.  I am still training Elder Sanchez, which I am really thankful for, and Elder Garcia and Elder Henderson are staying too!  I am pleased as punch.  This is going to be my 8th change here in Geronimo.  I am now the only missionary in the mission who has been in a sector for this long, and I am SO thankful for the opportunity that I have to do so.  The mission is 16 changes long, so I will be spending half of my time in the field here in this sector. Crazy, huh?

GENERAL CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was able to watch all of the five sessions, in english!  It was sweet as all of us missionaries had a room to ourselves, and we all bought snacks and just watched and watched for hours and hours.  I think that my favorite talk had to have been the one by L. Tom Perry about obedience.  That obedience brings liberty into our lives, what a powerful message!  It was a great spiritual boost to have been able to pass the last two days listening to the voice of the Lord through his chosen prophets.  I know that what they shared with us this past weekend was exactly what Christ wanted us to hear.  And is it just me, or did they talk "A TON" about missionary work?  It was amazing!  Listen to Russel M. Nelson and ´´Catch the Wave´´!  (Links to videos of these talks are below.)

Elder Perry's Talk on Obedience

Elder Nelson's Catch The Wave Talk

This week went by really well, and really fast too!  We had a few realy golden lessons this week that were really fun.  The first was the pass-off of Fernando Cabello to Elder Garcia and Elder Henderson.  It was a really spiritual lesson, and I know that Elder Henderson and Elder Garcia are the right missionaries for him and his family.  I have faith that they are going to do big things with him.  Infact, Fernando Came to General Conference with us, so they are already doing big things with him!  Also, there is a returned sister missionary who just returned to our ward, and she is helping us out a TON!  Elder Sanchez and I were able to have a really good family home evening about prophets with her and her brothers and their girlfriends, and it went really well.  A few of them were able to make it to General Conference too.  

Family Home Evening with Lincos family

Also, I am not sure if you guys remember Rodrigo from a while back?  HE is the guy who found the church through the advertisement on Facebook.  Well, we had a SWEET lesson with him, too, on the plan of salvation.  It just kinda clicked, and he is reading and progressing, and I don't want to count the chickens before they hatch, but I can very well see him being baptized this change.  He´s amazing!  We had a few other lessons too, but Elder Sanchez and I have still been using a lot of our time with the area book, looking through the old investigators and converts and working with them.  We have been having some success, but we are spending as lot more time than usual out in the street.  I know it'll pay off, well, I think it will, at least.

Today Elder Henderson and I woke up bright and early and played some basketball with the missionaries in the zone, and even though I am the worst shooter by far, it was still a really good time.  And now we are here at the mall, and when I get finished here,  am going to send some cards :)  No, i did not get the package...... but my fingers are crossed for Wednesday.  I really cannot beleive that it's my birthday again!  It's just so weird to think that i am going to be 20 soon...... I really liked being a teenager, but oh well, life moves on, and you really cant do anything about it.  I love you all.  I am praying for you, and I can't wait to hear from you all again soon!  The Church is true!

with love,

Elder Schwartz

Whole Zone.  Elder Bahr is next to me 

Whole Zone minus one

Waffle Family Home Evening!!!

We had a fun Family Night making waffles.  Love those waffles!

Elder Schwartz's latest email below:


Dear Family, friends, everyone!

Wow the week flew!  I find out about changes THIS SATURDAY, so maybe my next letter will be from a different location........ I am thinknig that I am going to stay one more change here in Geronimo, but who knows, really anything can happen.  I am just trying my best not to think or worry about it.  TIME FLYS SO FAST!  I feel like I was JUST celebrating my birthday, and here it is again.... I'm getting so old.  Easter was great.  It is way bigger here because everyone is Catholic, so it was a week long event.  But Sunday was great, really peaceful.  Elder Garcia gave a really good talk on the Atonement.  Eduardo blessed the sacrament, but only about 80 people came to church, which is about a little more than half of the usual crowd.  I guess they all went elsewhere to celebrate Pasqua.  But it's all good; we have SO MUCH chocolate in our pension right now, so I am happy.

This week went by really well.  Sadly, I don't have my journal with me so I can't remember all of the details, but I think that the highlight of the week was when we did a temple tour with Eduardo and his girlfriend, and Paulina and her kids.  It was super cool.  The Sister Missionaries did a really good job leading the tour.  I hardly ever get to go to the temple, so it was just nice to walk around on the grounds fo a little while.  Even though I didnt get to go in, it just feels good being there.

A little over a week ago, we had a really cool meeting with President Wright and he talked about Easter a little  He shared this really cool scripture in D&C 138, verses 12-15.  (Here are the verses: 

12 And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality;

 13 And who had offered sacrifice in the similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and had suffered tribulation in their Redeemer’s name.

 14 All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

 15 I beheld that they were filled with joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand)     He explained that how a lot of times during the Easter season, people get caught up in all of the pain and the misery and the sadness that happenned during the last days of Christ's earthly ministry -- His suffering in Gethsemane and especially his abandonment and suffering on the cross.  But President Wright went on to explain that during this exact same time that all of this tragic stuff was happening in Jerusalem, something else important was happening in a different place.  Those verses in D&C go on to explain that during Christ´s suffering on the cross, the people in the Spirit world were rejoicing, that they were preparing themselves to be freed and to receive the blessings of the gospel and of eternal life.  It was just such an interesting thought for me, that in one perspective, such as the perspective of the people weeping at Christs feet, those last moments of Christs life were absolutly dreadful, unbearable, but the same action, in a different place was being celebrated.  I'm not sure why I included that, but it was just something really cool that I learned.

Well family, I am really really REALLY tired.  We woke up early today and spent the WHOLE DAY in the mountains hiking, and I am beat.  It was a lot of fun though, and I will be sure to include some pictures, but i am going to cut this letter here because i am drrrrrrrrrrrained!  I love you all so much.  Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.  The Church is true!  

Until next week,

with love,

Elder Schwartz

Waterfall

With Elder Garcia

With Elder Sanchez

Up in the mountains....