the view of new york

We have a better view of New York than New York has of New York!! Now we are starting to feel more comfortable in our little area. It is the complete opposite of where I was before! I used to be in the most forresty green, east coast, beautiful area in the mission. Now, I am sitting in a room full of hispanic people and I haven't seen anything green in weeks! It is so much fun here though because it feels like I am in another country. I can count on both hands the number of white people I have seen since I have been here. And one full hand is the other missionaries! Even the stores are in spanish.. It is awesome!

So last week I believe I talked about Veronica and her husband! She has been investigating the church since 2011! A miracle happened though, and she is now getting baptized on the 18th! We are so excited for her and so grateful that we can be here doing the Lords work. It's true though, that it is all his work. We couldn't do any of this on our own. He decided to place Sister Jane and I together in this crazy little city in the path of these investigators because he had a special challenge for us. The people in the ward are incredible. I don't know how many times this will happen again but we have more people that want to come out with us than we have time for! People in the ward actually come up to US and ask US if they can come. Unreal. I hope we are doing it justice here. There were some members this week that just sat us down and thanked us for what we are doing. They thanked us for the seeds we are planting and that we hardly have ANY idea of the effect that we have here. I just started to cry. A mission was not made to be easy and its so easy to measure your results in numbers. We were told many times this week that we only see a tiny fraction of the work that we do. These members are incredible!! 

We have been visiting with a couple less active recent converts that didn't click with the last missionaries so well. One of them being Eddy! Eddy is a hilarious 12 year old boy that was baptized a year ago. His parents aren't married because he is married to some other woman back in their country (thus is the story with everyone out here) BUT another miracle!! The papers have been started and hopefully soon he can be divorced, they can get married, and then they can be baptized and then go through the temple and then be sealed! Wala! They are an awesome family! 

Yesterday was a little bitter sweet moment. I saw president at a baptism in our ward yesterday and as he was leaving he said he was going to a baptism in Morristown. That baptism was of Diana and Kenny. The two kids of the less active grandma that we were working with, Sister Millward and I! It's a good thing we are all on the same team here.. because I would have loved to be there for the last step with them! I heard that Kenny started to swim in the baptisimal font!! This is the same kid that when given the sacrament for the first time said, "WOW!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BREAD SAMPLE!" My face just dropped and I started to laugh so hard when I heard that!! 

Well all is well here. Excuse me if my letters make no sense at all. I haven't been speaking english, even with my comp, (we're trying to go a week straight at least without english) and I've noticed that my sentence structures follow the hispanic pattern! BUT onward and upward!! Love you all!

Hermana Schwendiman 

Us at the end of english class! 

thats Eddy and his cousin doing the monkey face in honor of my dad!