This week has been great! I love the holidays so much! And it's so fun to be able to teach people about Jesus Christ during the time of year that we celebrate his birth!
This week, Rhanya and her mom invited us over for dinner and it was so good! We taught her about temples and looked up a bunch of pictures of different temples on her ipad. And we decided that we can't wait till our mission has ipads! But we set up a time to go to the temple with her this coming week so she can see it in person and see the Christmas lights. Although she can't go in yet, we can still help her develop a love for it. I'm excited!
We've also learned a lot about a few of the people we're trying to work with in the past couple of days. It's really been a miracle. We caught one of our investigators home by herself (her husband is a member and whenever he's there, he kind of blocks us from getting any info about her concerns. He's just overprotective and wants her to make the decision by herself) but she told us a lot that we have been wondering. We found out her main concern and it was truly a blessing. We have been praying and fasting to know how we can best help her, and now we have an idea. We talked to a member in one of the other wards about another guy we've been trying to get in contact with and found out A LOT about why he's doing what he's doing. it explained a lot. We also found out a lot about why a less active that we're working with doesn't go to church. Stinkin' football games! His wife was teasing him that he starts to become more active after the football season and riiiiight as he's about to be fully active, football season starts up again... It's a viscous cycle. But we had a really good lesson about keeping the commandments so that we can receive eternal life.
Last night, the stake youth put on a bell and choir performance. It was amazing! The bells were my favorite part. It was so fun to listen to and even watch! There was so many non-members there and the spirit was so strong during several parts of it. This is a tradition that the stake does every year. I think it's very effective at introducing people who are not members of this church to the building and a little bit of our beliefs as well.
Well, that's about it. But i just wanted to express how much I love this time of the year! We've been teaching people about the real meaning of the season and it's just amazing how many stories we hear about people serving one another. And it's so fun to be able to serve other people! I just wish more people had the spirit of Christmas during the rest of the year. I love President Monson's words when he says, "To have the true Spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ."
Happy holidays to all of you!
Love,
Sister Swapp
Dec 9th
This week was the best week ever!! For a few reasons...
I'm not getting transferred!!! I'll be in this area for another transfer, making it 6 months! I made it! Haha Words cannot describe how happy and accomplished I feel. I was a little worried about being transferred at the beginning of this transfer, but for about the past week, I've felt like I'm staying. It was really a toss up. Could've gone either way. But, I know that there is more work for me to do here and my companion and I are pretty sure we know of at least a couple people that we are both still here for.
Our investigator, Rhanya, was baptized on Saturday. It was the best birthday present ever! the baptismal service was so beautiful. Her mom bore her testimony, which the ward council was iffy about, but we knew it would be really good. And it was. It was the most beautiful testimony I've ever heard. Rhanya brought a really good friend of her's and we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon the next day at church with our testimonies written in it. She doesn't live in our area, but we gave her family as a referral to the sisters where they do live. But the spirit at the baptism was SO strong! And some of the primary kids in her class and another one sang "I Am a Child of God." The best word I can use is "beautiful" for the whole thing, but that doesn't even come close to describing it. And this little girl is changing so many lives! Her mom is becoming way more active and she's bringing her brother back to the fold. :)
The wards found out it was my birthday somehow and made it the best birthday ever! We had cake almost ever night this week. Haha and I got sung to at BOTH the Christmas parties Friday and Saturday. Funny story from the one on Saturday... So my comp and I were standing up to go and check if the font had finished draining when the announcer goes, "Okay, now we're going to sing another song. It goes something like this..." and starts humming the birthday song and says, "And when you get to the part where you have to add a name, say 'Sister Swapp'". Right then, I decided to sit down because I hate the spotlight on me... Who doesn't? So I go to sit down, and my chair slips out from under me and I land on the ground just as he's searching the crowd saying, "Where are you Sister Swapp?" It was sooooo embarrassing!!! Haha the family behind me was laughing so hard afterwards haha but, I played it cool. I told them I was just trying to hide under the table. Hahahaha they didn't buy it and started laughing harder... Hahaha looking back, it was HILARIOUS! In the moment, it was miserable. I'm pretty sure my face turned as red as Santa's suit.
Sunday night, we got to go to the outgoing fireside for the missionaries going home. One of our zone leaders is going home and it was a really special night for him. he got permission for his parents to come and see him because his dad isn't a member and his mom was even invited to go up and bear her testimony. It was so awesome! And, I got to see a bunch of people from the Washington Square branch there! that was way fun! I love seeing them! I miss that area so much! I always feel like I'm going home when I go to my old area in San Jose. Probably because that's where I was "born". I just love the people there so much!
Well, that's all folks! Hope all is well with you!
Love,
Sister Swapp
Dec 2nd
We had a great Thanksgiving! We ate with a part member family and they had lots of non-members there and we got to share a message with all of them. It was so wonderful! But thank goodness we only had one dinner! We were both so full afterwards! Some of the missionaries in our mission had 3 dinners already scheduled by the end of October... I'm very grateful we didn't... Haha
This past Sunday was wonderful. In 1st ward, out of all the people that got up to bear their testimony, probably about 80% of them were youth! It was amazing to hear all the wonderful, simple, yet sincere testimonies of our youth. I just hope they keep nourishing them so they can continue to grow into their adult years!
Our investigator, Rhanya is still on for her baptism this Saturday!! And a miracle happened in ward council yesterday... The ward council is finally showing the support for this baptism that Rhanya deserves!!! The whole time we've been teaching her, the ward council has been talking about how she isn't ready to be baptized and how she's just going to go less active after her baptism because her mom is less active and how we shouldn't go on with this. Our amazing stake presidency had a meeting before ward council with most of them and talked some sense into them! (We have the best stake leadership ever in this stake!). They were basically told that if someone has a desire to be baptized and enter into the fold, who are we to deny them those blessings? And it was mentioned that they would much rather have a name and address on the directory 20 years down the road so missionaries can find them then instead of having absolutely no information if she DOES go less active, which I have faith that she's not going to. This is EXACTLY what we've been trying to tell the whole ward council ever since we started teaching Rhanya! It's been a super frustrating thing trying to get them to listen to us.
Well, no Monterey this week, but we are having a flour fight!! My companion and I are in charge of our P-day zone activity today and we wanted to have a California style snow ball fight! So we spent part of our morning before coming to email cutting, tying and filling old nylons with flour! haha I'm really excited for it! I'll send some pics next week.
I hope everything is going fine and dandy with all of you!
Love,
Sister Swapp
