July 14
This week was the longest, busiest, shortest, most fun week I have had in a really long time! Where to begin?!
Mon - we barely got a P-Day. There was way too much going on to do anything fun. 2 people in the apartment were packing and it was just crazy!
Tues - Transfer meeting! Sister Livingston went home :( but I got 2 new companions!!! It was the best transfer meeting I've been to! (And I've been to a lot...) So here's the story. President calls out the LIvermore zone. He starts listing off areas and then he says, "And covering Livermore 1st and 4th wards, Sister Swapp and Sister Harris..." And we're already sitting by each other because we were already living together and we jump up to hug each other and Sister Harris screams "Shut Up!" All excitedly and we start to sit back down and President goes ... "And Sister Gregerson" And we're like, "What?!!?" And run out into the isle to hug her too. Haha it was the best. So, we now cover 2 wards again, and Sister Harris and I totally called it! We were sitting in bed one night after we knew her comp was being transferred and I was like, "Sister Harris, they're going to combine our wards and we're going to be companions." And we both laughed and said, "Ha! Like they would ever put us together!" Then they did! With Sister Gregerson too! I served with Sister Gregerson in my last zone and she is the BEST!! She has so much faith and is so hardworking! She told us that her last week in her last area, they got 52 lessons without splits or anything! So, our goal is to blow that number out of the water. There is so much work here to do! And now that there is 3 of us, we will be able to go on splits so easily! Eventually, we want to find 3 women to split with us so we can do triple the work. It's going to be so fun!
What a way to end my mission. This is going to be the best last transfer anyone has EVER had in the history of missionary work! We went to teach our first lesson together on Tuesday after transfer meeting, with absolutely 0 preparation, and it was probably the best 1st lesson I've taught in my entire mission. Usually, in trios, we have to work on teaching in unity because it's so hard, but we haven't had any problems at all. It's great!
Wed - We met with our new investigator from last week, Dylan, and he is so cool. We asked him how he liked church and he said he liked it a lot. One of the things he liked is that we don't have a cross anywhere on our church. We told him why and he completely agreed and said "If I were Jesus, I wouldn't want to come back and see the thing that killed me everywhere I go. And what if he came to Earth later on and was killed in an electric chair? Would they hang an electric chair at the top of all the buildings?" Haha it was the funniest, most valid point I've ever heard about the cross. Dylan is solid.
Thurs - We had our first district meeting with our new district leader. During transfers, we changed districts. Still not sure exactly why, but it is what it is. Our "Miracle day" goal was to get 20 street lessons. (a lesson taught on the street while contacting that contains a principle taught, an invitation, and a prayer.) It went okay, but we didn't quite reach the goal all the way... We got super close though. Our companionship at least did our part. We also went to see Glen Morris. He is an older man that is staying in the Veteran's hospital in town. I would go visit him when I was in Livermore the first time and he was the funniest to go see. He was so talkative and always cracked jokes. Well, this time we went, it wasn't so great. He couldn't speak. He looked like he was asleep the whole time, but when his care giver would ask him a yes or no question, he would barely move his head. It looked like he was in a lot of pain doing that. It was the saddest sight ever. I don't think he has many days left.
Fri - We started out the morning with a huge service project that lasted for 4 hours! We were spreading woodchips across school playgrounds. We didn't even get it all done, so we had to go back on Saturday morning for 2 more hours!
The whole day, we kept remembering that Megan's baptism was that night. It was weird, I've never been so chill when I've had a baptism that night, but we figured we were all so chill because we had already had it all planned out for like a month already. But the baptism was so great! It was one of the best I've been to! Megan was wonderful. AND.... Her parents came!!!!!!!!!! It was so funny. We went up to meet them before and they seemed a little skeptical of us and then we went to talk to them afterwards and they had totally warmed up to us! Her dad even tried giving us hugs! Haha that was fun... And we've decided that I just look hug-able because when men go to hug us, it's me they go to hug first. That happened like 3 times this week... Awkward! But the baptism was great. The spirit was super strong! And Megan is now a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. How exciting! There were so many people that came. Probably because it was the first baptism in Livermore since March.
We also got 3 new investigators on Friday. We went to teach an investigator that lives in the same complex as us and some of his friends were hanging around and we taught all of them right there on the stairs to their apartment. Haha it was great!
Friday was just a great day all around. We had 4 hours of service, 6 lessons, 3 new investigators, and we even took a nap at lunch time. It was our Miracle Day. The best day ever!!
Sat - We woke up so sore and so not ready to go and do the same service as the day before... But we did anyways. We did some weekly planning and got the area way more organized, but not completely yet.
And we went to an Indian family's home for dinner. That was fun... SO we call them Friday night and tell them that one of us can't have sugar or gluten (Sister Gregerson is allergic) and right after I tell him this he kind of just chuckles, says, "Okay." and hangs up. We were like, "Do you think he knows what gluten is?" "Nope." "Well this will be fun." Haha it was... We actually did it really well. Haha so they made some sort of fried FLOUR torilla things with stuff inside, and Sister G can't have the flour... so they dish us up and quickly while they're not looking, she takes the filling out on her plate and passes the tortilla under the table to Sister Harris, sitting next to her. Then, they bring out plain fried tortillas and give Sister G some and she's trying to figure out how she's going to do that and puts it up to her mouth as if she's took a bite, puts it back down while she fake chews and passes it to Sister Harris under the table. Haha This went on throughout dinner and whatever Sister Harris couldn't eat, she passed under the table to me. Good thing we were all sitting on the same side of the table and that Indians don't sit with you while you eat. haha It was an adventure. Then we had to ride our bikes back to our apartment and we were all dying. Too much food plus something in it that wasn't settling well, plus peddling a bike equals major discomfort. We barely got the bikes up our stairs to put away and when Sister Harris got to the top, she looked at me with a pained expression and said, "Sister, I am legit having contractions right now. The baby is coming!" Haha
Sun - let's just say that Sunday, we were running around like chicken with our heads cut off trying to get to all our meetings without splitting up because we wanted everybody to see us all together the first Sunday so they knew there was 3 of us now. IT. WAS. CRAZY! But Megan got confirmed! That was good! Oh and the funniest part of the day was during our second sacrament meeting. The deacon passing the water comes to our row of 4 with only 3 cups left in the tray. Megan takes one, I take one, and Sister Gregerson takes on, takes a sip of it and hands it to Sister Harris... The deacon was like, "it's okay, I'll get more! I'll come back!" While Sister Harris is debating on doing it or not, then she does. Yep... It happened. They shared the water cup #ServeTogetherAtoneTogether Haha it was so hard not to burst into laughter during the sacrament. Good thing we took the sacrament twice, because we're still not sure if that was kosh or not. But it was dang funny!
Well, this week has been... great as you can tell. I love you all. Stay tuned for our book entitled #TrioProbs coming to a store near you.
Love,
Sister Swapp
July 7
Hello! Happy 4th of July! Did you get to watch fireworks? I did!! Yep, we have the coolest mission president ever!
We got to meet President Mella this week. It was so great! I love them so much! A few months ago, one of the missionaries going home told us that having a second missionary is like having a second child; you don't think it's possible to love the second one as much as you did the first, but then you do. :) That's so true! The Mellas are going to be so great for this mission. They have that Greenie fire too! And you can just tell how much they love and want to be here.
So funny story dealing with President Mella... We had the outgoing fireside for the missionaries going home (including my companion) last night and we were talking to one of our recent converts from the area we served together in at the beginning of our missions who is from India and we were telling him about how we do Zumba every week with the stake here and that there's a Bollywood dance that we do. Well, he insisted that we show him. So it's me, Sister Livingston, and another sister we live with, Sister Harris and we start doing the dance and all of the sudden President Mella walks up sort of behind the other sisters and I'm the only one that sees him. So I sort of half do the dance trying to get their attention to stop, but they don't notice. All of the sudden President Mella goes, "I want in on this!" And the other 2 sisters freak out and burst into uncontrollable laughter. It was the funniest thing ever! But President Mella was super chill about it. Haha that's why I love him.
Anyways, yes, the outgoing fireside was last night. And yes, sadly, my companion is going home. We sang at the meeting with a few other sisters. It was fun.
So we picked up 3 new investigators this week.
The first one is a young man that we met while we were walking to someone's house. He was sitting on his porch reading and we said hi and talked to him for a little bit and invited him to church. His name is Dylan. He said that he would definitely come because he likes trying different "flavors" of religion and this year, he is researching more about Christianity. Last year was Buddhism. But we told him the time and place for church and on Sunday, he showed up! It was fast and testimony meeting, of course, and if you've served a mission, you know how nerve racking that can be when an investigator comes for his first time on that day and how hard you pray that they don't hear or pay attention to some of the things said... Well, that was yesterday. More than ever, I hoped that Dylan's ears were shut during some of the people's "testimonies"... But, he stayed for 2 hours and we set up a time to meet with him this week and talk more about it. So I guess it didn't scare him away too bad. :) He's so cool though! And so prepared!
The other 2 new investigators is a couple, Effie and Nick. They are Greek Orthodox Catholic. Think "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Effie grew up in that church and Nick had to convert so that he could marry her. But they are they sweetest people on Earth! We taught them the first lesson and the whole time, Effie would interrupt us (a good thing) and say, "That's interesting you would say that. That's similar to..." and go on about something they believe. So it was fun to teach the restoration to them.
We taught Carmen and Raul this week! They are so prepared. The first question they asked was, "So what is the difference between your church and other churches?" We actually didn't get to answering the question, because we got side tracked, but promised we would answer it next time we went over. So I'm excited to teach them again.
Thursday, we set our daily zone goal for our "miracle day" as 8 received referrals for the whole zone, so an average of 1 per companionship. Us as a companionship hasn't received any referrals for a while, but we decided we could get at least one that day. Well, we went about our day, to a lesson, to dinner, and we left our bikes at dinner and just walked to our next appointment, but when we came back to get them, the husband was out front and he was talking to us about his neighbor across the street who was watering her lawn and talking about how God must be mad at us because He hasn't given us any water. So we said, "Well, we can go visit her if you want!" and he didn't really respond and he starts talking about all his other neighbors on both sides and another one across the street and my companion says, "So what are their names?" And he tells her and she says, "Okay, I'm going to write those down and we'll go try and see them sometime. Is that okay?" And he was like, "Yeah of course!" Bam! 4 referrals all at once! Miracle!!! By the end of the day, the zone had 12 referrals.
Well, our investigator, Megan, has been doing really well. Her sister tried making her move her date back again and Megan told her no, that that was the day she was getting baptized. So that's this coming Friday. I'm super excited! She's the best. And yesterday, we "made" her get up with us to bear her testimony in sacrament meeting. It was so good! She talked about how fasting helped soften her parents heart. Megan is just so cool! I love her!
We invited our other investigator, Rudy, to be baptized this week and his only reason not to get baptized is because he feels like he needs more time. But he's pretty much told us that it will be soon in a round about way. When we had our lesson with him, he told us that he will get baptized, and he'll just let us know when. Then at the 4th of July breakfast, he came up to us and asked us how much notice we would need to get a baptism set up. We told him probably about a days notice. And he said okay. So he's super close. I think it will happen at least before I leave. He's so ready. He just doesn't know it.
Well, that's all for this week. It's been so great! And it will be interesting to see who my next, and last, companion will be tomorrow! The zone leaders called on Saturday night (transfer call night) and I answered and they said, "Sister Swapp!" and paused "You are..... not getting transferred!" Oh goodness. They almost gave me a heart attack! If I would've gotten transferred my last transfer, I would have been SO mad! But no worries, I will die here in Livermore. Along with a bunch of other missionaries.
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week this week!!
Love,
Sister Swapp
July 1
We got a new mission president this week. I haven't met him yet, but I've heard nothing but good things. He should be great! It was sad to see President Watkins leave, but I'm excited to get to know President Mella for the few weeks that I have left.
We met with a young Vietnamese boy that we have been trying to this week. His name is Tien. He moved in with a member family this week, with our help. He would've been homeless otherwise. But we used that as an opportunity to set up a time and teach him! We invited the Vietnamese elders and had a lesson and it was one of the best lessons I've ever been in! The spirit was so strong! I just know that he is going to get baptized soon. So we passed him to the Vietnamese elders and they are going to take lead in teaching him. We will still go see him every once in a while, since the elders have to drive all the way from San Jose, so that will be good.
We went on exchanges this week with the STLs as well. It was a lot of fun! The sister I went with was so great and taught me lots!
On Thursday, we had district meeting and all 4 of the Assistant's to the President came to Livermore to join each companionship of elders for the day. It was fun. After district meeting, the whole zone got together, and under the direction of the APs, we set a zone goal for that day of finding 16 new investigators, that's an average of 2 per companionship. Well, by the end of the day, we had 19 as a zone! It was incredible!
Our investigator, Megan, is doing well. She moved her baptismal date back to July 11th, which is sad because Sister Livingston goes home 2 days before that, but it's a good thing because her mom is finally coming through! We fasted with Megan on Saturday for her family's heart to soften towards this decision she's made, and Saturday night, she texted us and said that her mom has made the decision to try and accept it. She's going to meet with a preacher at her Catholic church to help her, which we don't know how great that will end up, but at least she's making the effort!
Sunday, we had a missionary 5th Sunday lesson in 3rd hour that we helped with. It went great. We taught the members how easy it is to do missionary work. All they need to do is invite! It's as simple as that. And that the measure of your success is in the invitation, not whether or not they accepted the invitation.
We went to the beach yesterday! Surprise :) I'm trying to upload pics, but my computer isn't letting me... So sorry! I'll try next time!
Anyways, I wish you a great week this week!
Love,
Sister Swapp
June 23
This week was great! We met some wonderful children of God! I just love the people here so much!
This week, we have been focusing on cleaning out our potentials lists in the area book and organizing them into areas and stuff. It's been pretty interesting. We have records from back in 2010 when they used to go tracting in this mission. So we stopped by a lot of those and found that most of them had moved. In some cases, we picked up new potentials. Which is great!
Yesterday, we decided we should go and visit some less active people on our list because we didn't have any less active lessons to report for the week, which is unusual, because our mission is a hard core rescue mission. We went out and I kid you not, every single less active's door that we knocked on opened up! It was a miracle! Usually our days are filled with no answers, but it was amazing! We even stopped by a family that was marked as "DNC" (Do Not Contact) by some sisters before us and he opened up the door and was SUPER friendly! We couldn't understand why he was marked as DNC. But we figured that his heart has just been softening since last time the sisters stopped by. He told us that his grandfather had just passed away and kind of broke down in front of us. We didn't really teach anything, but it was a really good contact that we had with him. I shared my experience of similar trials I've had recently with him and it was really good.
Well, I don't have much time to email today because our zone is meeting earlier than usual so we have to get everything done. We're playing Hunger Games this week. Guess who has never read or seen Hunger Games? This sister! Who knew that I should've been reading that instead of PMG to prepare for my mission. Haha
June 17
This week, we are emailing on Tuesday because we went on a trip yesterday to Santa Cruz! It was so much fun! A member drove us there and we hung out at the beach and did fun things and we also went to a place called the Mystery Spot. If you haven't heard of it, you should look it up. It's incredible! It's basically a place in the middle of the woods where gravity is all messed up. It's hard to explain. But it was super trippy! Definitely a place I would recommend if you ever find yourself near Santa Cruz, CA.
So last week, I was sick for most of it. I had some weird stomach bug and was in bed all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Being sick is the worst. Being sick as a missionary is MISERABLE!
SO that's what most of our week contained... Oh and our investigator that was supposed to get baptized on Friday post-poned her date to July 5th. She wants to wait for a little bit so that she can help her family understand her decision better.
Sorry this letter is soo short and lame. We had some really good days. It was a miracle to see how successful our week actual was when we were doing numbers on Sunday night after me being out for 3 days. The Lord is so aware of the work that we are doing here and is blessing us so much! It's amazing to be able to point out the miracles He gives us every day. I feel like I notice them even more as a missionary. Not only in my life, but in the lives of those I have the opportunity to teach. I love this gospel so much! And I love all of you!
Love,
Sister Swapp
June 9
This week has been one of the best weeks of my mission!! So many things to write about! I hope I have time.
Wednesday: We got a new investigator. Her name is Rosa. We went to go visit a potential named Oscar, who we had an appointment with, but when we got there, Rosa answered the door and Oscar wasn't there. So we asked Rosa if we could come in and share a message about Jesus Christ with her (that's the closest I'll get to tracting haha). She accepted so we came in and taught half of the first lesson. She's so amazing! And the Lord has totally been preparing her. She kept telling us that she's been wanting a change in her life and she basically let go of all her friends because she knew it wasn't good to be hanging out with them and she didn't know what to do. Then we showed up. :) We're meeting with her again today. She went to Oakland for the weekend and we told her to go see the temple while she was there and she said, yeah okay! That would be fun! We don't know if she did or not though.
Thursday: Okay, before I go any further, I just want all of you to know that the California San Jose Mission has the BEST mission president in the entire world! Well, at least until the end of the month. :( BUT! On Thursday, he sent all of the sisters on a shopping trip to NY&Co. He shops there all the time for his wife and us, so he came across a bunch of $50 coupons, so he let us loose with them! Haha It was fun, but it was super weird to be shopping on a day other than P-day. Let alone being in a mall. President Watkins haws a thing for the sisters looking their best. And we are all okay with it. Haha
Friday: We went out on splits for practically the whole day with some sister from the ward. It was so great! We've been focusing on visiting all the less actives and just offering service. And we've also been working on reaching our goal of member present lessons. So it was the perfect opportunity. I have a huge testimony of members coming on splits with us! We get into SOOO many more doors with them than we would by ourselves. I can't tell you how many times that happened on Friday whereas, if we didn't have a member, they would just say "No thanks, we're not interested." and slam the door in our face. Needless to say, we are going to be doing that more often.
Saturday: We took a member with us in the morning to go visit less actives again and had little luck. But it was okay because Friday night made up for it. One of the less actives that we work with and do service for regularly asked if we could help her with her cows. She raises cows and takes them to fairs. So we were like. "Heck yes! We'll help you with the cows!" Well, I was. She offered to feed us dinner beforehand too cause we didn't have an appointment and it was so good! We met at her parents house, who aren't members. She's the only member in her family. So we go to share the message and we had decided that prayer is good to talk about with them and we're teaching and Annie, the less active, is totally bearing testimony to her parents and husband and telling them that they pray wrong and all these things. It was so awesome! And the spirit was super strong.
So then we change and go out to the cows. It turns out, we're helping her halter break the calves. Sounds easy, right? Haha it was so entertaining to watch my companion! My companion is so wonderful, but she is not a farm girl! So I'm yanking on the cows halters while she tries to get them to move by rubbing their muli (that means bum in Samoan for future reference). Every time they moved, they would kind of jump around all crazy like. So my companion, bless her heart, is trying to get close enough to rub the cows muli, but stay far enough away so she doesn't get jumped on. Haha And while we were walking around the cows, she would stay behind me and say, "I'm just going to stay back here and follow you." It was so much fun though! At first, I was a little skiddish too, because I haven't been around large animals in a really long time, but I warmed up after a little bit. And we were in the same corral as a big bull and didn't even know it until after we went out and closed the gate and Annie goes, "That's the bull." We look and he's staring straight at us and he's HUGE!!!!!! He's like twice the size of all the cows!! I don't now how we didn't notice him at first!! But we had lots of fun. It was, by far, the most fun service I've done on my entire mission!
Sunday: Sunday was such a great day! We were invited into bishopric meeting to talk about our high goals that we've set with them and I've never been in a meeting where the spirit was so strong. We presented our goals, and a few people were a little skeptical to go along with it. They supported us in the high goals, just not as high of goals as we set. But we talked it through and told them that we know it can happen and we need to have faith. After discussing it for a little bit, we asked if we could kneel in prayer with them. They of course agreed. So we did and wow the spirit was super strong! They decided they would continue to discuss and pray about it.
Then we go into sacrament meeting and we got a new bishop! And also figured out why they were hesitant to set these goals for the ward. But Sacrament meeting was really good! And our investigator, Megan, who is getting baptized this Friday came and showed us the journal that she started. My heart was so full of joy when she let us read it. It's a journal that she started so that she can share this journey with her children. She wrote about the things she's been learning and she wrote about her feelings about joining the church and bore a super powerful testimony. I started tearing up just reading it. The best feeling in the world is when the people that you are teaching actually get it and bear strong testimonies. It's seriously the best!
This morning, Megan texted us. She had planned last night to invite her family to her baptism over family dinner when her whole family would be there. Her family is all very active and devout Catholics. She already told them that she had made the decision to be baptized and they were pretty supportive, but they didn't know that it was this week that she'd be doing it. So she texted us this morning and told us that she was scared and didn't know what to do. She knows that Heavenly Father wants her to do this, but she doesn't want to do it without her family. So we've been texting and talking to her all morning trying to calm her fears. We even suggested a priesthood blessing. And I think she's getting one today. We told our ward mission leader, who is super awesome, to give her a call and see if they can set up a time for her to get one from him. And he's a convert too from a family that was very catholic as well.
Speaking of our ward mission leader, he's the best! Yesterday, he nonchalantly called us his "2 new daughters". We didn't even realize what he was saying until we got in the car and were driving away. Awww Anyways, back to Megan, I know that she is going to pull through. She is very strong spiritually. And she completely knows that this is the true church. It has been so amazing to be here and to watch her make this decision. It's really hard for us to watch, but it's also pretty miraculous.
Well, here's to another great week! The Livermore 4th ward is just booming with miracles!!!
It's wonderful to be a part of it!
Love,
Sister Swapp
June 2
Wow, what a week this has been. Well, first off, I want to apologize for my scatter brain today. If there are parts of this email that don't make sense, I'm sorry.
So, as you know from last week, I am back in one of my old areas, and I have been super impressed with how many people remember me! Mostly because I was only here for a short time over a year ago. It's been fun seeing all the people that I knew here before. And there have definitely been signs that have proven to me why Heavenly Father put me back here. Oh and before I forget, here's my new address for those of you wondering:
3819 East Ave. #64
Livermore, CA 94550
Well, we have seen sooo many miracles, it has been amazing! On Saturday, we did our weekly planning. And this was right after a get-together with the stake president to meet all the new missionaries in the area and he gave us an uplifting pep-talk. So we got home and my companion turns to me a goes, "Ya know sister, I'm kind of feeling like we should reset our monthly goals." We had already set them and sometimes, as missionaries, we kind of just get in the trance of setting mediocre goals. And that's what we had done. Our goals were not stretching us whatsoever. So, we got down on our knees and opened our weekly planning session with a prayer and asked for the inspiration to know what goals we needed to set. Well, long story short, after A LOT of prayers and discussion, we set our final goals. We are going to baptize 20 children of God this transfer, get 35 lessons a week (Standard is 20), and 100 baptismal invites. And we set 3 days that we are moving forward and planning baptisms on, we just need to find people to be baptized. The dates are June 21st, July 5th, and July 22nd. At first when we set these goals, I was a little hesitant. But, if the Lord can part the Red Sea and move mountains, He can help us find 20 people that are prepared and ready to make covenants with Him through the waters of baptism. Our zone leaders were a little skeptical too, but we explained to them that we have the faith and know that this is the Lord's work and if we want to see miracles happen, we need to bind Him. And that's what we are doing. To reach these goals, we have set smaller goals on how we are going to reach them. Goals on how we are going to be more obedient and Christ-like and goals on how we are going to visualize everyone we see in white. Already, since Saturday night, we have seen so many miracles and I know without a doubt that it is because Heavenly Father is showing us that we can do this.
It's amazing how aware I have been lately of the Lord in my life and in His work. I know that it is Him that has prompted us to set these goals. And I know that it is ONLY through Him that we can reach them. Alma 26:12. This transfer, I am putting ALL my trust in Him. Every single ounce that I have. We are going to see miracles.
That's really the only big news for this week, but I wanted to share with all of you how grateful I am for the Plan of Happiness. It is such a huge blessing to be able to have the knowledge of where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. This morning, my dad called me. (It surprised me to see his number calling on our phone) He informed me that my Granny had passed away over the weekend. Needless to say, I broke down right in Target when he told me. I will miss my Granny, but I know that I will see her again because I know that the Plan of Salvation is real. This plan was put in place by our Heavenly Father because He loves us so much! And He wants us to be happy and return to live with Him and to be with our families for eternity! How grateful I am that I can share that with the whole town of Livermore right now! There is nothing I would rather be doing. One of my favorite quotes goes something like this: "Missionaries leave their families for 1 1/2 to 2 years so that others can be with theirs for eternity." It's so completely worth it. I can testify of that! I invite all of you to study chapter 3 lesson 2 in Preach My Gospel and try and find/learn something you never knew before.
Love,
Sister Swapp
May 27
This week has been CRAZY! Guess what!? I got transferred again! Surprise!! We had transfer meeting today. And guess what? I'm back in Livermore! Remember that place that I spent 5 weeks at over a year ago? I can't believe it's been a year, but it's true. I'm in one of the same wards that I covered back then. It will be a nice change up to be only over one ward. Actually, thinking about it now, I don't think I've ever served in just one ward. Not counting the YSA branch, because technically, we covered 6 wards there.
I think the Lord has sent me back here so that I can have a chance to learn to love it. To be honest, my experience last time was not the greatest and I kind of felt like just a placement holder so that nobody was a single missionary, but I'm so grateful to be sent back here. I think I am going to LOVE it here! And my companion! Ready for this? She's my sister! We were trained by the same person, at the same time even! When I was "born", she was 6 weeks into her training and she got her own companion and we became an awkward quad-ship. So we've already served together before! And I just love her so much! Oh, her name is Sister Livingston. From Spanish Fork, Utah. This transfer is going to be so great! It's my companion's last. SO we'll be partying it up all transfer and doing fun this-is-my-last-transfer things! If that makes any sense. And! We're in a car share, which means... I'm back on bikes!! I'm so excited! I can loose all this weight that I've gained on my mission right before I go home! (I didn't pray for that at all... haha)
Right before we came to the library, we set a baptismal date! Her name is Megan. She's so awesome! She will be getting baptized on June 13th as of right now.
Well, last week... I honestly don't remember anything big that happened. I know I had a lot of things to tell you about last week, but it's been a crazy day, I don't remember, I forgot my planner, and did I mention it's been a crazy day? It's just been a crazy weekend really.
I was sad to leave my last area and my last companion, but it's good to get a fresh start. And at least I know that I will be finishing my mission here since I only have 2 transfers left. Let me rephrase that... I better finish my mission here because I only have 2 transfers left... We are getting a new mission president at the end of this transfer, and he could decided to continue to make a joke of my name too. I'm praying that he doesn't.
Well, I'm grateful for the opportunity to come back to Livermore and redeem my experiences here. I've sort of had a bad taste for Livermore, but things are changing and it's only been a day. :) I'm grateful to be able to be a missionary here. And just be a missionary period. I love it so much! There are no words to describe it. And I'm grateful for all of you, my family and friends, who have supported me in this journey of a lifetime. There is no where else I would rather be. Except in a pool on really hot days... Haha I'm just kidding. Not even that is worth it.
Thank you all! I love each and every one of you! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Swapp
May 13
We went to Polynesian P-day yesterday and were planning on emailing afterwards at 4. Well, we got here at 4:15 and didn't realize they closed at 4:30... So they told us to come back another day.
Anyways, this week has been so wonderful!!
Tuesday, we had Zone Training Meeting and our Mission President's wife came to speak to us. She covered everything under the sun from manners to driving to public speaking and so on. It was a really good meeting though. I am in the best zone ever.
Wednesday, we met with Angela and helped her move some TVs because she was getting new carpet. We took a member with us and after we helped her, we talked more about the Book of Mormon with her. The member we brought with us bore a super powerful testimony of the book and shared her amazing conversion story with Angela. It was amazing! I love having members at lessons!! (Most the time haha)
Thursday, I learned how to hula from my companion. She's an amazing dancer and makes it look WAYY easier than it is!
Friday night was insane! We had 2 dinner appointments... We had our scheduled one, who was the only person that signed up to feed us all week, so we felt bad cancelling. And our recent converts invited us over for a party for one of the elders that is going home soon, and they fed us so much food!! We went to them first and then our scheduled dinner. It was so bad. I've never been in that much pain from eating. My stomach was still in pain on Monday morning from it... Oh the sacrifices missionaries make so that people don't hate them.
Saturday was so amazing! We got a referral from mormon.org for a person that hasn't been to church in 10 yrs. That's what the note said. So we went by and knock on the door and they totally just welcome us in! We sat down and the lady that answered the door asked my companion if she was Tongan or Samoan. They were Polynesian as well and I was just hoping and praying that they were Samoan! Haha Well, my companion told them Samoan and they lit up and said, "So are we!" So, if you don't know anything about Polynesians, the whole family tries to stay in the same house. So the girl we got the referral for is the sister-in-law of the lady that answered the door and the parents live in the house and a few more kids and their spouses and kids. There are a lot of people in that house. And out of all of them, only 2 of them are members and neither of them are active. We walked into a miracle. And the best part of it all is that my companion speaks Samoan!!! She connected like that with them! And the dad is a Methodist minister. Haha She was apologizing to him for coming over and he was like, "Oh it is okay! Come whenever you want! We all believe in the same God, and we are all going to the same place, we are just on different boats. And I'm okay with that." He was so chill about us being there.
We also picked up another investigator on Saturday. Her name is Beatrice. We met her when we did that thing at the library and we got her info there and called her up a couple weeks ago and set up a time to meet with her. So we did that on Saturday and she kept asking really good questions like "what makes the Mormon church different than all the others?" Of course, we answered them as we taught the first lesson. She's so great though! She's so open to learning more. Unfortunately, she's going to school and finals are coming up and she's super busy, so we probably won't get anywhere until those are over at the end of May. I'm so excited to teach her more!
Sunday was Mother's day!! My companion and I gave talks in the Mission Peak ward and that went really well. After all the speakers, all the priesthood came up and sang a version of "As Sister's in Zion" with a few changes. It was so awesome!
Then we went to 2nd and 3rd hour in Milpitas ward and during 3rd hour, the men served lunch to all the sisters and took care of all their duties for them. It was so great!!
After church, I got to talk to my family! Which was the best! I miss them so much!
Then, yesterday, our zone hiked Mission Peak. We didn't go because we had Poly day and wanted to not be dead for that. And they went super early in the morning. But they got together for breakfast after the hike and we joined for that. All the elders prepared and served breakfast for all the sisters. It was so awesome! We have the best elders in the entire world! it was really painful to watch them cook, but we're still alive to tell about it. Haha They really are the greatest!
Then we went to Poly day! That was a lot of fun. President was teasing me about my pasty white legs. Haha We played lots of Volleyball, at food, and just hung out. I got to see some of my past companions and we talked about old times. It was fun!
Well, that was my week! It's been so great! I love being out here and I love serving the people in this area. They are all so great!
I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's day, and remember, you can still be a mother even if you don't have children of your own. :)
Love,
Sister Swapp
May 5
Happy Cinco De Mayo!
I don't know about where you're at, but here, the kids get today off school... I NEVER got Cinco De Mayo off!! It was just another day. I guess that's what happens when you live in a super duper diverse area... Haha
Anyways... My week was so good! Remember the goal that our zone had of passing out 21 boxes of The Book of Mormon by the end of April? Well, we did it!!!!! Woohoo! It was so much fun! We did 21+ boxes cause most of the companionships already had a box or two before we started and passed out those too.
This week has been sooo hot here! It got up to 100 degrees according to our car one day. Almost every night we would come home (our apartment is on the 2nd floor) and it would be WAYYY too hot in our apartment, so we would take our desk chairs out to our porch and do our planning outside. Haha (We caught the elders getting home late so many times! Lol) After about 3 days of super hot weather, we went to a member's house to help her and do some service and she found out we were dying of heat at home and she goes, "Oh I have an extra swamp cooler in my storage that I'm not using. You sisters can have it." Hallelujah! Ever since, we get home, turn on the A/C in our room, wait for a few minutes outside for it to cool off, then go into our room and plan. It's so nice! Such a huge blessing!
We picked up one of our former investigators again. We dropped her a few weeks ago because she kept giving us excuse after excuse after excuse of why she couldn't meet with us, So we decided to give her a little bit of time. But this week, we got done with an appointment early and we were trying to figured out what to do and a thought came to my mind, "Go see Christina." So we did. She was home and available for us to talk for a little bit! Turns out, she's been having a few health issues and been going back and forth to where she used to live going to doctors appointments and stuff and that's why she hasn't been able to meet. But she told us that she has been planing to give her friend a copy of the Book of Mormon! How much more solid can she get! She's already being a missionary! Haha She's so great.
We taught my favorite recent converts, Amy and Thanh, this week about eternal families. It went so well! We told them that they had to wait for a year after their baptism to go to the temple to be sealed as a family for all time and eternity and Amy goes, "Will it be like another wedding?" And we were like, "yeah kind of." And her face lit up and she said, "Does that mean I get to get another dress?" Haha Thanh looked at her like, "Seriously, that's what you're excited for?" Haha it was so cute. Then she turned to us and said, "Will you be there?" And I said, "Yes! I am coming back for it no matter what!" The best part of it is that their 2 boys are getting baptized in 2 weeks, so they'll be able to all be sealed together next March! This is what makes my mission so worth it! Seeing families enter into covenants that will help them be united for eternity is absolutely priceless!
Well, that's all for this week. This coming week will be another great Tutweek! I hope all of you are looking forward to Mother's Day as much as every single missionary out there and their families are. :)
Love,
Sister Swapp
April 28
My week was sooo great this week!! We worked so hard! And it showed.
Tuesday, we had exchanges with our STLs. We have some amazing STLs. They are in the Spanish program, so I got to go and be in their area for the day. It was so much fun! Minus the eating till we burst part... But I could understand way more than I thought I was going to be able to. Thank goodness I took 2 years of Spanish in High School. I could get what they were talking about, but not word for word. I twas so awesome being with the STL. She helped me a lot with things I've been struggling with.
Wednesday, we had another Boom of Mormon Blitz in downtown San Jose. I was still with the STL, so we went to the "Latino area". It was so fun! I love contacting downtown! After that, we switched back and I went back to my area. It was a crazy night. We went to see our investigators that live in the same house. We discussed before we went in that if Enrique was there, we were going to teach the Plan of Salvation, but if it was just Alex, we were going to teach the 10 commandments. So we went in and they were both there! So we started teaching the Plan of Salvation. Shortly after we started, Enrique had to leave. Well, Alex has already had the lesson, and we were at the part where we talked about Earth Life, so we switched into how we are on this Earth to be tested and tried and Heavenly father gives us commandments to follow that will make us happier. It was the most sly transition I've ever made. haha But we didn't even get to finish the lesson because right as we were turning to the scriptures about the 10 commandments and Alex's 2 year old brother was walking around and lost his balance and fell into a chair head first... They had to go to the ER. It was crazy. One second, there was a dent in his head, the next it was like a giant golf ball sticking out. But we went to see them last night and his head is okay. Just a bump.
Thursday, we went to my favorite service. We do service as a zone at a place called Lake Cunningham. It's so much fun! We spread mulch around the park, weed, and do random things to beautify the facilities.
Friday was weekly planning day! We went to a member's house to weekly plan to help her out. Long story, but basically, when she has people over, her landlords don't bother her and she needed to get work done. So she lives in the basement of a mansion in a nieghborhood full of other mansions. She calls it Babylon. haha So after we were done weekly planning and driving out of the neighborhood, my companion starts telling me about how when we were eating lunch and talking, she looked out the window and sees a tiger looking animal in the neighbor's back yard staring at her through the window... And she didn't even say anything or point it out or anything!!!!! Can you believe that?! These people possibly have a pet tiger and my companion said nothing! Haha We told the member about it and she had the same reaction, "You saw a tiger and you didn't say anything?!?!" Now she's keeping her eye out for it again.
Saturday, we stopped by the former investigator that I think I mentioned a few weeks back. Her name is Angela. We knocked on her door and she let us in this time. We asked if she was going to go to church and she said no. We were like, "What? Why not?" ANd she was like, "Okay, what time is it at?" We told her and she said, "Okay what time are you going to pick me up?" We told her that we couldn't, but that there were other people in the congregation that could. She didn't want a ride from somebody she didn't know though, so that's what we're working on this week. But while we were there, we talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We talked about the First Vision because she mentioned how confused she was with all the religions and we said, "You know, there was actually a boy in 1820 who was in your same position!" And recited the first vision. She loved it. We committed her to start reading the Book of Mormon and as we were leaving, she thanked us for stopping by and bugging her because she knows that God is telling her to go back to church and she knows He's sending us to push her! She said that she just loved how we recited the first vision and she could tell that we know that what we're talking about is true and that makes her want to believe it because we're so young. The spirit was so strong in her home. Even with the TV on in the background with some not so great show on. It's amazing how the spirit can testify to someone in any situation! I love it!
Sunday, we went to church and it was ward conference in one of our wards. The theme for it was, no surprise, Hastening the Work. It was really good! I love it when they talk about hastening the work because then we can use what our leaders say to get them pumped for it and it's not just the missionaries pressuring them to do it.
Well, that was my week. It was so good! This area is flourishing with people that are prepared and ready to receive this glad message! I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Swapp
April 21
This week was wonderful! It was so successful!
So Tuesday, we had a zone "book of Mormon Blitz" in Downtown San Jose. We all met at the institute and split into groups and scattered around downtown and shared the Book of Mormon with everybody! Our companionship alone handed out 13 copies and got 5 lessons out of it. The whole zone together handed out at least 71 (some of the companionships left early so didn't get to report their number). That's a lot! All in the space of 2 hours! It was so good! I've gotten so much more comfortable contacting with only books. Usually we use cards and pull out the books when there is somebody that is actually interested, but not this week! We're handing out the word of God like candy!!! :) My companion and I passed out a total of 33 this week. We're doing so much finding! The only thing is that all the people we meet, we end up giving their info to other missionaries. but hey, we're all on the same team, right!
The elders that we co-cover one of our wards with set up a thing at the local library so that we can go and set up a table for about 3 hours once a month. They invited us to come so Saturday was our first day doing that. The library gave us 2 rules: 1. We had to wait till the people came to us before we talked to them, and 2. We couldn't follow people around the library. So, the elders asked if we could make signs. One of them said, "If you could ask God one question, what would it be?" The other said, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" And at the bottom it said, "Come get your FREE copy of the Book of Mormon." So we were there for about 2.5 hours and only handed out 1 copy... Nobody was coming up to us. About that time, my companion and I left for a few minutes to use the bathroom. When we came back, the elders told us that they were there by themselves and nobody was coming up, so they decided to walk to the opposite side of the hallway that we were in. While they were away from the table, so many people came up to it to check it out! So when we got back, they decided to experiment and see if people would come up to the table if it was just us sisters that were there. They took a stroll around the library and came back after about 5 minutes. We had passed out 3 copies while they were gone. Haha so they kept leaving. In total, the whole 15 minutes that they were gone, we passed out 5 copies of the Book of Mormon. haha It was really actually kind of funny. So, needless to say, we are now in charge of this gig at the library and the elders won't be joining us... I feel kind of bad because they are the ones that set it all up. But, I guess that sisters are just less intimidating! The quote of the week comes from this experience. Quoting from one of the elders about 2 hours into this event, when nobody was stopping at our table: "I feel like the Terrestrial Kingdom is going to be way over-crowded." Haha
One of the biggest miracles that we saw this week happened yesterday at church! So we walk into church and set our bags down and go out to the lobby to greet people. Right as we get to the lobby, a girl walks in the doors dressed in jeans and a nice shirt. She walks right up to us and says, "Hi! I'm Jasmen. I'm not a member. My friend, Dave, who lives in Seattle told me to come to church today and look for the sister missionaries. So I googled the address and found this building. I live right down the street." Well, me and my companion are baffled at this point.! We welcome her and tell her how things work a little bit and invite her to sit by us. So we take her into the chapel and sit down with her and start talking with her. It turns out, she has been in the "mormon social group" for almost 5 years. She had all mormon roommates, all mormon neighbors, and a bunch of mormon friends because of that. She has been submersed into our culture. haha She's been to church with friends a few times where she used to live down in Southern California, but she recently moved here. So her friend told her to come to church yesterday! It was amazing! We were sitting there talking and families start walking in and she goes, "Oh this is a family ward?" Haha yep. It sure is. So we took her to all the classes and stuff and after church, we were just standing out in the hall talking to her and we told her that if we could get her number, we could give it to the sisters in the YSA branch here. She wasn't interested in taking the lessons right now, but we told her that they could just tell her about activities and stuff. She's so prepared and she doesn't even know it!!! We were standing there talking for about 30 minutes when we finally had to tell her we had to go. I was kind of getting the impression that she didn't want to leave.
Well, that's about it for this week! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! And if you haven't seen the Because of Him video, I STRONGLY suggest you look it up! You can find it at mormon.org/becauseofhim
Love,
Sister Swapp
