May 28

Hello!

This week has been long. Mostly good though. Some not so good things. But what's a mission without trials, right? That would be too easy. So we started out the week with barely any lessons, so we decided to go through our phone and organize all the contacts and call all of the people that were listed as potential investigators to see if they were interested. Who knows how long some of those numbers were in the phone, but we deleted wrong numbers and not interested at all people. We went from 576 contacts to 514 in one day. And we still have a bunch in there that didn't answer that we just left. Oh man, it was so much fun getting yelled at by all those people and them wondering how we got their number...

Monday night, we had a lesson with one of our investigators. His name is James and the very first time I met him, I thought that it was going to be a long long time before he was to the point where he is now. He had all these questions that weren't really questions he wanted to know, but more like questions he was trying to stump us with. I was sure he was going to end up not being interested at some point. But our lesson with him on Monday was so awesome! We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost and enduring to the end) and he was very receptive to what we were telling him this time. We even read a scripture out of the Book of Mormon and he didn't question whether it was true or not. He just agreed with it! So we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!! He told us that he wants his family to come too so we set a date for June 22nd and he said if they can't make it then, they can probably make it at the beginning of July. But if they can't make it that time, he wants to just go ahead and do it because "there's no sense waiting". His words. How awesome is that?! I was so excited!! I never want that feeling go away when you invite someone to be baptized and they say yes. 

Also this week, we went to do some service at one of the community gardens here and we befriended a goose. Her name is Emily. She is so cute and funny. At first when we got there, she was very defensive over the lady we were working with that works there. And she tried "attacking" us as some people might say, but June, the lady we were working with, said that she is really just trying to get a feel for us and we need to stay calm because if we react, that's when she becomes aggressive. So we stayed calm and she just came up to all of us and was "pecking" (more like rubbing us with her beak) at our legs and feet. But she is so cute! June was telling us her story. Apparently, Emily used to have a husband and they would hang out at the farm quite often, but one day, her husband was dead. One of the workers had ran him over or something and ever since then, Emily has never left the farm and she just latches on to the workers there and follows them around and talks to them and they talk to her. She's basically like a dog in a goose body. Haha

I have lots of good stories this week! Sunday was such a good day! Me and the other 2 sisters (my companion got out of it) got to speak in sacrament meeting. Our topic was redeeming the dead with an emphasis on baptisms. We split it up into three different topics. The first sister spoke on baptism, the second one on family history and temple work, and I tied it all together and spoke on the spirit world. It was an interesting experience. One of the sisters challenged me to not take any notes up with me, just my scriptures. She said that if you pray and study the topic diligently, that when you get up there, the Holy Ghost will guide you to what you need to say. So I did. It was very interesting to see how some things I wasn't even planning on sharing had come into my mind. Just another testimony builder. 

Also on Sunday, one of the recent converts in the branch got his patriarchal blessing. We were meeting with him last Thursday and he told us he had his recommend for it and we asked if he was going to schedule a time to get it and he was like "I still don't know yet I'm scared" So we talked it through with him and even offered to schedule it for him and he said that the only way he was going to do it was if we could be there with him. So we said of course we would go with him and he gave us the paper and I called the patriarch and set up a time on Sunday to get it done. It was SUCH a good blessing. Even the patriarch was like "Wow, that was a powerful blessing" I mean, this blessing answered every single question he had on his mind plus some. He has been struggling with being ready to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and go on a mission and he received answers to both of those things. It was so cool!

I just love this gospel so much! I'm so glad that I am able to serve a mission at this time. I wouldn't have it any other way. My testimony has grown so much! I've learned so many more things about Jesus Christ and his teachings. It's going to be a sad day when I am no longer a missionary. 

Well, I love you all and hope you have a great week! Take care!

Love,

Sister Swapp