How is everyone doing this week? I hope everything is going well for each one of you. Everything here is fine and dandy! As I wrote last week, I got transferred! And I am back in my old area in downtown San Jose! Here's my address again in case you lost it:
315 E. San Fernando St.
Apt # 22
San Jose, CA 95112
For those of you that don't remember, I'm serving in the Washington Square YSA branch here right off of SJSU campus. I LOVE it!! This transfer is going to be the best transfer thus far! There is so much work going on in this area right now, we can't even keep up with it! We have 2 baptismal dates and probably about 3 more on the way. We share the branch with two other sisters and they are seriously the best! One of them has been on her mission for 6 months and was serving in a YSA ward right next door. the other one is Brand new in the field! She doesn't seem like it though. It's amazing how all of these younger missionaries that are coming out seem like they are already trained and have done this many times before. I definitely didn't feel that way when I came out.
Anyways, I have to tell you about a few things that happened this week. We have seen SOO many miracles already and it's only been a week. I wish I could just copy and paste my journal into this email. So Friday, we started off our day with a lesson with one of our investigators. It went so well! We invited him to be baptized and he said that he knew he needed to be baptized, but he just didn't feel like he was ready. He was scared that once he gets baptized, he won't have the strength to overcome the temptations that he faces and that he won't be able to keep those promises that he will make at baptism. We talked it through with him and I shared Isaiah 41:10 with him. He liked it and then we went on and he told us that he felt like he didn't have the strength that he needed. We asked if he would say a prayer and ask for strength and to know if the date we suggested was the one for him. He did and we continued talking. The whole time he was talking, I kept feeling like I should share Ether 12:27 with him, but I was putting it off and putting it off (never do that. Never put off promptings you get). I eventually did share it with him and it turned out that that is exactly what he needed to hear. After he read it, he said, "That was so beautiful! I feel like that was the answer I was looking for! How do ou do that? How do you find answers that you need in the scriptures?" So we shared with him that the Book of Mormon was MEANT for us in these days. That we can find any answers we are looking for in the pages of this wonderful book. All we have to do is pray and ask Heavenly Father those questions. Then read. It was such an awesome experience. So he's getting baptized! Oh, and this all started because he was doing a research paper. The research paper is done and he's still here... Haha
Later that night, we met with another investigator and we had to go outside behind the institute because we didn't have another girl with us and we can't meet with them alone inside if it's a male. When we sat down in the back, he asked us if we had invited any of the people in the back (their backyards came right up to the fence) to come and learn more. We said mo, but that it was a great idea! Later, there was a guy that came out for a smoke break and we said hi to him and invited him to join us. He said no because he was just out taking a break. We went on and about 10 minutes later, he popped his head over the fence again and asked if it was still okay to join us. We said of course! And he told us that his english wasn't very good (He's Chinese) but we said that it was completely alright. He asked what the topic was and we told him Jesus Christ. So he came over and we taught both of them about the Plan of Salvation. It was so cool!! They were both getting into the discussion so much! At the end we asked Hao Ping (the chinese one) how he felt. He said that he felt good and that everything we had said made sense in a way. We asked if we could kneel and say a prayer and if he could say it. He said sure and as we knelt there before he said the prayer, he told us that in China, men do not kneel. They just don't. It shows that they are lower than they actually are. And we were like "Oh! You don't have to kneel if you don't want to! We had no idea!" And he said "It's okay, we can kneel if it is to God." So he knelt! And prayed! It was so awesome!! I feel like awesome doesn't even describe it! And this all came about because our INVESTIGATOR suggested we invite him! How cool is that?!
I am just so excited to see what
the rest of this transfer will bring! I'm glad that I got this chance
to come on a mission. I can definitely see how it's made a difference in
my life thus far and how it will change my life forever after I am done
here. I love it so much!
I hope all of you guys have a wonderful week! I love you!
Love,
Sister Swapp
