Elder Schwartz in La Florida area of Santiago

Here is a photo (sort of) sent by Elder Schwartz of the elders in his apartment taken at a member's casa.  We're not sure which is Elder Garcia and which are the other elders from the U.S.  We guess Elder Garcia is on the right, and Elders Mitchell and Clyde in the middle.

 Elder Schwartz' e-mail arrived late yesterday:

¡Hola Familia!  ¿Que pasa calabasas?

 

I honestly cannot believe that it been a whole week since I last emailed you all!  I feel like I JUST sent my last one, but I´m thinking that it's a good thing that the time is flying.  Like last week, this week was super busy; lots happened.  But first, let me tell you all a little more about my fantastic companion, Elder Garcia. He is from Lima Peru.  He´s a convert of 6 years(amazing), and he lives with his mom, little sister and little brother.  His sister is active and his little brother is too young to be baptized.  His mom is not yet a member but in her last email to him she told him that she wants to be baptized!!!!! This kid is a stud and a half.  He´s been out for a year today; today was his 1 year mark; he´s half way done.  He doesn´t speak a lot of english, and I don´t speak a lot of spanish but we make it work.  I´m learning a lot from him and he´s a ton of fun to be around, very funny and very easy to get along with.  I´m definitely blessed to have him as my "father" out here in the field.

 

A ton of stuff happenned this week.  This Wednesday I went on my first exchanges which was quite the experience.  I got to spend a day and a half in an apartment of only latino missionaries(2 from peru and 1 from argentina). It was a ton of fun.  They loved to talk and sing and dance, but when it was time to work they were working hard.  They live on 14th floor of a high rise with an amazing view of Santiago and the apartment is new and gorgeous.  There was just one problem... they didn´t have warm water!  I had to heat up water with a coffee pot, poor it in 3 liter coke bottles, and then take those into the shower and shower with that- I´m definitely not going to forget that experience anytime soon.  I was very blessed to grow up with a water heater.  The apartment of my exchange was amazing, but the sector was a little more on the flaite side of Santiago (flaite means ghetto).  That being said, the spanish of the people in that sector was way way way way harder to understand.  I could hardly catch anything.  That was kind of frustrating, but I tried not to let it get me down.  The ward in that sector was amazing though; very supportive and very warm.  I´m probably going to go back on exchanges there again this week so I´m excited for a second crack at talking to the people and trying to help them to the best of my ability.

 

This week we had a new missionaries meeting with President Wright and Sister Wright.  That man is amazing!  The meeting really wasn´t for us new missionaries, but more for our trainers and how important of a role they play in our missions.  You could just tell by the way he talked that that man already cares so much about his missionaries and their comfort and their potential and their success.  I know that he´s my mission president for a reason.  At the meeting I was able to reunite with the rest of the district from the MTC and talk to all of them about how amazing/crazy it has been so far living in Santiago; how great the food is, and how fast the people speak -- all of that stuff.  Elder Miller and I are very fortunate to be in the position that we are in right now; the rest of our district are in completely separate parts of the mission, but we have each other in the same barrio and apartment to help each other out.

 

Earlier this week Elder Garcia hurt his heel so we have been limping around for the past few days.  So we spent the day today traveling to the temple and the church office in Santiago, so the misison doctor could check it out.  And it turns out that the doctor is just as new as I am and couldn´t speak any spanish, so I got to help out translating a little bit.  The doctor and his wife were so sweet and we spent a while talking about our lives and our families and Chile and how different it was.  It was really nice to talk to some people in the same boat as me and they were really kind and supportive.  We had the opportunity to have lunch in the Chilean MTC with Elder Garcia´s teacher from the MTC and that was way cool.  He said that I was going to learn really well from a native companion and that Elder Garcia is one of the best (but i already knew that), aha.  Oh and the food from the Chilean MTC is about a million times better than the food from the MTC in Provo.

 

Yes, I use my sleeping bag every night.  Thank heavens that we bought it.  It is so cold here in the mornings with no central heating.  We do all of our studies in the same room huddled around a wall heater, but apparently its supposed to heat up here in Santiago soon.

 

The best moment that I had this week was when Elders Clyde, Miller, Garcia and I all went to the house of this member family where the mother of the family had suffered from a brain tumor, and because of that she is bedridden.  When she speaks, she can really only mumble random syllables, but you can tell what she is trying to say by her voice inflections and her facial expressions. Elder Clyde had the idea to go over to their house and sing hymns for her (in spanish of course).  So, that´s exactly what we did.  We all stood around her bed and sang hymns to her, and it was amazing to see how happy just doing that simple act made her; how excited she got, the light in her eyes.  There was a point where she even started crying, the spirit was so amazingly strong.  I realized two really awesome things through that experience: 1) That just by doing the smallest acts of kindness, people can make huge difference in the lives of others.  All we did was take 30 minutes out of our busy day to sing to this lady and it made her so so happy.  Her husband probably thanked us 12 times, and when we left the house we all felt so good; and 2) Heavenly Father has an amazing love for all of his children, no mattter what position they are in, no matter what they have been through and no matter how far away they are from his Gospel; we are all still his children and he loves us all so so much.

 

The massacre that happenned in Denver is all over the news.  When I first heard about it, it really started to hurt my stomach.  I hope that every one at home is okay. Its so sad that things like that happen.  I´m praying for the families of everyone invloved.

  

Thank you so much for all of your love and support! I miss you all and I´m praying for you all.  Keep being amazing! The church is true!

 

Love,

Elder Schwartz

Here is Elder Schwartz' mailing address:

Elder Nate Schwartz

Pedro De Valdivia 1423

Providencia

29 Santiago, Region Metropolitana

CHILE

Please send him a letter.  He loves mail from home!

Message from Santiago...

Elder Schwartz's first preparation day (or p-day) in Chile has arrived.  He sent the following e-mail:

Hey family!  It's great to hear that you all are keeping busy and staying safe in California!  I loved talking to you on the phone and getting the update on how everyone is doing.

The flight was fantastic.  I slept almost the entire 14 hours, loved it!  We had a short stop in Lima, Peru at about midnight and then we were off to Santiago.  The plane landed in Santiago at about 5:45 or 6:00am, and everyone else was super exhausted, but I was ready to go.  President Wright and Hermana Wright met us at the airport and then we went to the temple grounds to have breakfast, our interviews, and then meet our trainers!  The interview with President Wright was great.  I am really looking forward to getting to know him better.  He and his wife are such amazing people; very sweet, very genuine, and very down to earth.  They should be sending you a picture or an email or something soon so keep your eyes open for that (if you haven´t received it yet).

My trainer´s name is Elder Garcia and I love him.  He´s from Lima, Peru and doesn´t speak a whole lot of English (but before you start worrying, mom...I´M FINE).  I am learning so much from him so fast, and he has such an easy to get along with personality.  He´s very patient with me and supportive with me in helping me pick up the language.  On Thursday I got a DearElder from Dad from May that got sent to Chile for some reason and in the DearElder he talked about how I´m going to have companions from all over the world in the field and that I need to take advantage of those opportunities and learn as much as I can.  He said that some of his favorite times of his mission were when he was with elders from foreign places.  Was it a coincidence that I got that letter here, on my 3rd day in Chile with a foreign companion? ...I don´t think it was.  I am learning Spanish FAST; like super fast, and I am loving every second of it.  I feel like I am comprehending more and more each day.  

The people here are SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO supportive too.  They absolutely love hearing me speak, and helping me out, and making sure that i´m comfortable.  I love it, love it, love it, love it.  I´ve already made some new friends.  There is this kid in the ward named Walter and he is 14, and he´s gone teaching with us 3 days this past week and he loves talking to me.  He teaches me spanish, and I teach him english; it´s a good tradeoff.  Elder Garcia and I visited five less active families this past week and on Sunday, THEY ALL CAME TO CHURCH.  It was so cool walking into the chapel and being greated by so many familiar faces, and I had only been here for 6 days! Also, Elder Garcia and I brought an investigator (and her 5 year old son) to church too, and she loved it!  I got to go up in sacrament meeting and introduce myself to the ward in my broken gringo spanish.  A whole bunch of old ladies from the ward came up afterwards and told me that I did great.  I´m not sure if I actually did a really good job or if they were just being nice; either way it was nice to hear :)  

Oh! And another thing; we live in an apartment of four elders:  Elder Miller (a guy from my district at the MTC) and his trainer, Elder Clyde (an american), are living with me! So don´t worry about your poor little Nathaniel being all alone with someone who doesn´t speak any English.  I am in a REALLY good situation right now.  My area (La Florida) is a relatively wealthy/nice area and the ward is really strong.

I am going to get so fat here.  Chileans eat on a slightly different food schedule than we do in the states.  They typically have a small breakfast in the mornings, a gigantic lunch called ´´Al muerso´´ and by gigantic, I mean GIGANTIC.  Usually, we get a first couurse of salad and pan (bread).  Then we get soup for the second course.  Then we get our main course of rice and some sort of meat and potatoes, and then dessert.  We are fed "Al muerso" by members of the ward EVERY DAY, and they have soda with everything.  Cocacola is served with every meal.  I am going to get huge. The best thing that I have had so far are called ´´completos´´ which are chilean hotdogs, but the meat is way better and the bread is way softer, and they put guacamole on it.  So tasty!

Today is P-Day (Monday), so if you could, write me on Sunday nights :) .  Today we went to the Santiago Zoo as a zone, and, yes, I took a lot of pictures.  It was way way fun.  We actually ran into another zone from the mission there too, which was kind of cool.  Anyways, I don´t have much time left and I still need to wrtite out my letter to the mission president.  I know that Heavenly Father loves all of his children.  He has blessed us so much in every aspect of our lives.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and the gateway to revelation and that if we strive to learn from His word, that we will receive answers to our questions and we will be blessed.  I know that we are guided by a prophet of God, Thomas S. Monson, in these latter days, and that if we listen to his counsel and his words, we will be blessed.  I have so much to be thankful for.  Heavenly Father has given me an amazing life.  I am very happy and very comfotable here in Chile and I know that I am just going to get more and more attached with time.  I love you all and I pray for you nightly!  I can´t wait to hear from y'all next week!

Love,

Elder Schwartz

P.S.  I´m using a Spanish keyboard so if there are any huge typos, I´m sorry.

 

Pics of Elder Schwartz and his mission president and wife are in the previous post.  Here is a map of La Florida area on the east side of Santiago:

 

 

Departure from Utah and Arrival in Chile!

Elder Schwartz has arrived!  He is now in Chile.

Here is his address:

Elder Nate Schwartz

Pedro De Valdivia 1423

Providencia

29 Santiago, Region Metropolitana

CHILE

 

Please write him!

 

He departed Utah early Monday morning (July 9th), but someone (or two) were at the airport in espionnage mode several hours earlier...

 

 

As parents, we were glad to see the brothers have one last opportunity to say goodbye and hug -- in Phil's case for 22 months and for Andrew probably closer to three years.  We love this photo!

 

We were able to talk to Elder Schwartz for about a half an hour during his layover in LAX.  It was great to hear his voice.  He had a great stay in the MTC in Provo, but he is so excited to get to Chile and start his real service and work there.  The idea of a 14 hour flight didn't seem to bother him much. 

 

Anyway, all that was Monday.  We hoped to hear something Tuesday....or Wednesday, but nothing.  Finally, on Thursday...an email arrived from the mission with some photos and a pdf of a handwritten letter from our Elder.  Here are the photos of Elder Schwartz with Pres. and Sister Wright and the other with the group that arrived with him.

 

 

We don't yet know where Elder Schwartz's first area is or which elder was assigned to be his trainer.  We don't even know yet when his preparation day will be.  We'll update the blog when we first hear from him.  Thanks for all your love, friendship, and prayers.  You are all greatly appreciated.

Last Few Days in the MTC and some photos

The latest letter from Elder Schwartz and a link to the photos he sent:

 

Buenas Tardes!

 

This is going to be one of my shorter letters because I have so much stuff that I need to do before I depart of CHILE!!!!!!!!  I am so excited!

 

Yesterday I had this all day event called "In-field Orientation" which in all honesty I thought was going to be really boring and redundant, BUT to my pleasant suprise, it was actually really spiritually uplifting.  I learned a ton, and it got me WAY WAY excited to get out in the field.  It was a huge seminar for all of the missionaries leaving and then every so often we would break up into smaller "breakout sessions" and have a more interactive lesson taught by the missionaries from "The District 2" which was super super cool.  I talked with a guy who served in the Santiago West mission and he told my that my mission is the smallest proselyting mission in the world!  I don't know if that's 100% true or not but it's pretty dang small.  Also during In-field orientation a Sister missionary hunted me down and it turns out that her and I and Elder Jones were the 3 that went through the temple together in Oakland, so that was pretty cool.  Her name is sister Laporte and she's serving at Temple Square. 

 

 

  

The 4th of July in the MTC was AMAZING!  We had this special devotional/fireside thing with a bunch of songs and performances, we played games, had ice cream and they even extended our bed-time to 11:30 to watch the stadium of fire fireworks!  My district had an amazing spot in the parking lot where we could hear the Beach Boys singing and see the fireworks perfectly!  A bunch of guys from my district got cool fun party stuff sent to them so we had Martinellis and poppers and glo-sticks; very fun.  My first 4th of July on the mission way surpassed my expectations!  Which is great because i don't think I'll be celebrating it next year in Chile....

 

Flight plan: We leave from SLC at nine thirty to LAX, where we have a 3 hour layover.  From LAX we go straight to Chile Santiago, a 14 hour flight, YIKES!,  but I am so excited!   

I sent home a package yesterday with a memory card full of fun pictures.

 

Sorry that I have to cut this short, but I just have SO MUCH to do before Monday morning! (We leave the MTC at 6am).  I love you all, and I'm praying for you all.  Thank you so much for your love and support!  Please thank granma for the rocky-road, it was a HUGE hit on my floor!  I'm glad to hear that everyrthing is well in Martinez!  Keep on being amazing, the next letter you receive will be from CHILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

xoxox

Elder Schwartz

 

There are lots more photos from Elder Schwartz's second half of his MTC stay. Click here to see Elder Schwartz's fun pics from the MTC

Final weeks at MTC

 

Since everyone important is in Provo right now, once again a chance encounter occurred.  Everyone (Andrew and Elder Schwartz) look well.  P-Days are great!

The latest message from the Elder.......

 

Buenas Dias Familia!

  

I can't beleive that i only have a week left! The time is going TOO fast.  It's scary, but I am WAY excited!  I feel like I have grown so much in such a short amount of time!  I still have a ton to learn and I need to stay focused on this last week so the momentum can carry over to when I land in Chile!  Yes I get to call you from the airport!  I'm not sure how I am going to go about doing that, but I plan on calling the home phone, right?  I don't have my travel plans yet but I will probably get them later today so I'll give you more information about that in next week's email.  It's so weird that I'm getting ready to leave.  I honestly do feel like I just got here, but apparently that's what the whole mission is like.

 

This week I had the opportunity to meet my Mission President and, OH MY GOSH, he and his wife are AMAZING.  We only met for about an hour but I already feel like I've known them for a long time and I feel like we are going to be able to mesh really well!  We met with them last Saturday for about an hour and a half and they shared with us their backstory and shared a few scriptures and had a question and answer session.  It was very uplifting and very comfortable.  I know that I am in this mission for a reason and that he is my president for a reason and I am so excited to serve.  I know that president Wright and his wife are going to play a major role in my mission experience and I am so blessed to have them.  I am SO looking forward to building my relationship with them.  OH, and there are like 25 missionaries in the MTC right now going to my mission!  I had no idea there were that many!

 

This week's devotional was super special.  Elder L. Tom Perry gave is this really cool presentation of all of these statistics about the Church and members, and our programs, and how great of an influence that the church is on society.  It was a really different devotional, but it was super cool.  I think that you'll have the opprotunity to see the same presentation in the near future.  OH, and like 8 apostles were on the stand with him when he gave the presentation!  Sadly, we didn't have the opportunity to hear from any of them, but they were there, which was pretty dang cool.

 

Having the new missionaries as roomates has been way fun!  Their names are Elder Bryce and Elder van Neck, they're both from Arizona and they're a tornado of positive energy and are eager to learn and serve.  They have already grown so much and it has only been one week!  Their fresh excitement about the MTC has definitely rubbed off on Elder Matthews and I, which has been a definite plus.  They have a lot of questions and Elder Matthews and I try to help them out the best we can.  It's been a ton of fun helping them learn to to pray, and testify, and speak.  I'm loving it!

 

I'm grown a lot closer to both of my teachers this week, Hmo Brown and Hmo McAllister are studs, and I'm getting to know thwem both better on a more personal level which has been a ton of fun.  Hmo McAllister led this really cool activity yesterday about how we can better study our patriarchal blessings and I felt like I was opened to a whole new world of blessings from my patriarchal blessing that I hadn't noticed before.  It was really edifying.  I have 3 pages left in my reading of the Book of Mormon, so I'm probably going to finish it right after I finish my letters.  I've learned SO much from reading it through completely.  Yesterday I read through Ether 12, definitely one of my favorite chapters in the book.  I learned a ton.  Last night I had a one-on-one coaching session with Hmo. Brown and we talked about my growth since I've been here.  We talked about my strenghths and my struggles as a missionary and it was super helpful.  Hmo Brown is one of my best friends here at the MTC, so we're going to try to keep in touch after I leave.  That man is a superb teacher and example and a major factor in why I've had such a great MTC experience.

 

I wish you all the best with everything that you are doing.  I love hearing from you and I love getting your notes and packages.  I love all the support that you have given me.  I can feel the love and strength, and it is so helpful.  I know that this is the true Gospel, it has blessed my life in so many ways and I am just now starting to understand them.  I am thankful for all of the amazing examples that Heavenly Father has blessed me with, and I am thankful for the Perfect example, Christ, and his undying love for me.  I am thankful for the opprotunity that I have to share the message oft his Gospel that has blessed my life so much to the people of Chile.  I can't put into words how excited I am to get out there and share Heavenly Father's great plan of happiness with the world so they can feel the same blessings that I have in my life.  Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios.  Yo se que eso libro es la clave de nuestro religion.  Yo se que mediante la evengelio de Cristo, podemos volver a Dios dispues de este vida.  estoy tan agradecido por las muchas bendiciones que Dios da me diariamente.  Amo mi familia mucho.  Estoy muy agradecido por sus amor.  Estoy entusiasmado a escucho de ustedes en la proxima semana.  Hasta luego!

Les amo!

Elder Schwartz

Weeks Flying By.....

Que pasa Familia?

I am getting so stoked to go to Chile!  It's right around the corner!  It has been a really busy week (But what else is new, right?)  Yes my district is finally the oldest in the zone and it's been amazing!  Elder Matthews and I moved rooms, again, and now we are rooming with 2 brand new elders in our zone.  They've been at the MTC for 3 whole days!  It really does feel like I was in that situation yesterday.  They have a lot of questions and concerns and Elder Matthews and I are just doing the best that we can to make them as comfortable as they can be.  Early wednesday morning before they arrived, Elder Matthews and I decorated the room with sticky notes and candy and we made their beds and stuff and they really liked that we did that.  I know that having new elders as roommates is going to be an awesome experience.

Our devotionals this week were from Sister Sheri Dew and Elder Robbins of the Seventy, and they were both AWESOME.  Every devotional is awesome, but these two were fantastic.  Sister Dew talked about the blessings of the spirit and its role in our lives as missionaries, and Elder Robbins gave a killer devotional about receiving revelation and recognizing that revelation.  This week I had the opprotunity to watch a video of a talk that Elder Bednar gave here at the MTC about receiving revelation.  He told this story about being in the mission field and having to take Elder Packer to a train station and receiving revelation about that situation.  If you can, look it up.  Both President Packer and Elder Bednar have given talks about that same story and it's an amazing one. 

The espanol is coming along suprisingly well.  This was a big week of growth for me in the spanish language and a lot of things just clicked for some reason.  This week we learned about this tense called "subjunctive" and a lot of missionaries get stressed out about it, but for some reason it made a lot of sense to me right off that bat.  My pronunciation is getting a lot better, I've been reading out loud a lot more and that has been helping me out.  For the past week or so, when Elder Matthews and I go to teach our progressive investigators, I just take my scriptures in spanish, a little sheet of paper with scripture references on it, and thats it.  The language barrier is slowly but surely crumbling, and it's a great feeling.  The fact that I don't have to put so much of a focus on the spanish just gives me more time and opportunity to focus on the investigator, and his needs and how we can better invite him to come closer to Christ and that has really been showing in our lessons recently.  Hermano Brown, the best teacher in the world, has pulled Elder Matthews aside on multiple occations to thank us for our lessons and how much he enjoys them and  how he can see the spirit guiding us in them.  He told us that he loved being taught by us because he can feel the realness of our intentions and how much work we put into them.  That was amazing for Elder Matthews and I to hear and it really made our week.  It's hard to get feedback from our progressive investigators, so when we heard that we were ecstatic.  It's great to know and see that changes in our investigators and how much the gospel has blessed them in such a short period of time.  Hermano Brown's investigator, Rodrigo, is awesome and last night we set a date for him to be baptized.  The MTC is so cool!!! 

Our new teacher Hermano McAllister is a stud too.  He's way smart, way funny, and he and I just kinda clicked right from the beginning.  We've only had class with him twice, but he has been doing an awesome job and i've already learned a lot from him.  The MTC does an amazing job hiring teachers.  Every single teacher that I've had, I've been able to get along with really well and it's been a great experience for me.

For gym, they have a little track that I run on with a couple guys from the zone.  I try to run 2 miles then do the P90X ab workout thing with some of the guys and then with the spare time after that I play 4-square or volleyball (depending on how tired I am).  You're technically not supposed to keep score, but things get pretty dang competitive in that gym.  A bunch of guys in ym zone played rugby before their missions and they're trying to get me to play when I get home.  I might look into it!

The food here is great!  I was very suprised actually that its a very high quality cafeteria with all you can eat.  I'm loving it... maybe a little too much.

My entire district is going to Santiago East, all 8 of us.   Hma. McGuire said that we will be a "whole generation of that mission".  I'm not really sure what that means but I'm assuming that it means that we are the only eight going to Santiago in that transfer.

I get to meet my mission president TOMORROW! (He is here for the new mission presidents seminar.) I'm so excited, I'll take a ton of pictures and tell you all about it next week!

Sadly I am all of of time for this week, thank you all for your love and your support.  It's amazing to already be seeing the blessings of this mission.  I know that I am doing the Lord's work and he is helping me 100% of the way.  I know that this is the true gospel, and I know that it changes lives; it's changing mine every day.  I can't wait to land in Santiago and I can't wait to hear from y'all next week.  I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Schwartz

Some fun pics with Elder Schwartz (or his facsimile) from Andrew's grad party......

MTC Life -- Week Five

Elder Nate Schwartz is loving the MTC.  He appreciates all the support he feels from family and friends.  You can write him at:


Elder Nathaniel Lee Schwartz
MTC Mailbox # 181
CHI-SATE 0710
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793


Or through "DearElder.com".


Here is the latest from Elder Schwartz:

This week has been great, like always, a ton has happened!  Grandma sent me an email that I absolutely LOVED, and quickly responded to.  Tell her thanks and give her a hug for me please :)  Ah!  I can't believe that Andrew is graduated!  There is no way that it has been a whole year since i had my grad party.  Time needs to slow down!  I am confident that he'll find a job in Provo, He'll have a blast with Phil.    That's so awesome to hear about Matt Cain! (pitching the perfect game).  That's amazing! Go Giants!  Keep me posted.

 

So much has happenned this week!  One of my teachers (Hermana McGuire), has left to study abroad in Africa.  She was awesome and I'm gonna miss her. She really connected well with our district and I think we are going to have a tough time making that kind of connection with her replacement, but I wish her the best.  There haven't been very many sightings of new people, just the usual Elder Baer, Elder Rice, Smith Elder, Foster Elder (friends from BYU going to Hungary -- fun fact: in Hungarian the "elder" comes after the last name).  We are now officially the oldest district in our zone!  It's crazy!  Now we are the district that is helping the other districts with their spanish, not the other way around.....yikes!  It's okay though, I think that we know a lot more spanish than we think we do......if that makes any sense.  The teaching is going well.  We have set a baptismal date with one of our progressive investigators and the other is SO close.  We are also doing this thing in our class where we get the opprotunity of being progressive investigators for other missionaries so I've been doing that and it's been way fun receiving the lessons for a change.  Every Tuesday we do this thing called TRC (Training Recourse Center) where we teach members that volunteer to come to the MTC and receive lessons from missionaries.  It's been a ton of fun, this Tuesday Elder Matthews and I taught an elderly Mexican couple that were in town for their grandkid's baby blessing.  I have a lotttttttttt more spanish to learn, that's for sure.  The lesson went really well, but I really need to work on my pronunciation. I am starting to read the Book of Mormon in spanish out loud to work on that, and I feel like it's helping.

 

This week one of our devotionals were from Brother Allen, duke of missionaries or some crazy title like that, (We've had a devotional from him once before) and he talked abhout the importance of being yourself and having strong companionships.  He showed us a series of old LDS commercials that were really cool/well done/funny.  That man has an excellent skill of getting the audience's attention.  Our Tuesday devotional was from Elder Malm of the 70, He's from Sweden.  He stressed the importance of faith and acting on that faith in the mission field and in life.  He did a stellar job.  Devotionals are hands-down my favorite aspect of the MTC.  Apparently this next Tuesday we are supposed to have someone big here to talk to us (I have my fingers crossed for Elder Holland or Bednar, but anyone would be great) :)

 

Do you remember in my checklist of things to do before going to the MTC?  One of the thing I had to do was watch 3 episodes of "The District 2" online.  The District 2 is this series, almost reality TVesque, about missionary work.  It's a really well done series and if you get the chance to watch it, you should.  We watch clips from it in class every day.  Anyways, this probably isn't a big deal to you all but it is for people in the MTC,  one of the guys from The District 2 works here.  His name is Elder Christiansen, and he was in the cafeteria, so Elder Clawson (this stud from my zone) and I decided to go sit with him and talk with him.  (This is the MTC equivilant of sitting with Tom Hanks in the outside world). Everyone was really jealous and it was amazing.  My zone got a kick out of that and next time I see Elder Christiansen, I'll be sure to take a picture with him for you all.

 

Anyways!  I'm out of time and there's a long line for the computer so I need to log off.  I love you all so much and thank you for your prayers, your support and the example that you set for me!  I know this is the true Gospel, that it changes lives and that everyone needs to feel the blessings from it!  I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear from you next week!

 

Xoxo, Elder Schwartz

See collection of pics of Elder Schwartz in the MTC