a much needed update

Sorry to all those whom have been waiting for an update. Here is the passed few months. Pictures will be added another day.





October 14

Hello everyone!

This week was so great! We were planning on having 2 less active members we teach and one investigator to church this week and we were SO excited about it, but none of them showed up... :( But there's always next week! And besides, we saw many other miracles yesterday! A less active that I've only met once and never really talked to showed up at church! But not only did she show up... She bore her testimony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How amazing is that!!! Yep. Pretty wonderful. So that was good! And we got the opportunity to teach relief society in one of our wards. It went so well. We taught about the Savior's mission while he was on the earth. We used something that I was able to do when I was in the MTC. Our teacher asked us to answer 3 questions in our study journals. Those 3 questions are:
1. How have you seen the Savior in your life today?
2. What has the Savior done for you?
3. What are you willing to do for the Savior?
When I did this activity,it was such an eye-opener to how much the Savior really has done for just me. And it's done so much for all of us! Then, when I answered the 3rd question, I realized that there is nothing that I can do to repay my Savior for everything He has done for me. It's an amazing activity.

We were also able to go on another sunrise hike this morning as a zone and it was amazing! We had a testimony meeting at the top and sang hymns. It was the best morning ever! I was reflecting on the beauty of God's creations and realized that you can find beauty in EVERYTHING God has created. And it's not just nature that He's created. He created each one of us and I know that that same thing is true. That we can find beauty in each one of us. I've struggled with that for myself, like probably a lot of you have, but it's a wonderful thing to think about. We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father, and when we make fun of ourselves or think we're not good enough, I can just imagine tears coming to Heavenly Father's eyes, because that's telling Him that you think His creations aren't good enough or beautiful enough. That's what Satan wants us to think. But it's not true.

It was just a wonderful experience! I love nature! AND the stars when we went outside our house this morning were shining SOOO bright!!! The brightest I've ever seen them on my entire mission! And if you know me, I LOVE looking at the stars!! It was breathtaking!

Well, that's been my week. It went slow, but it flew by at the same time. That's pretty much the theme of my entire mission basically... I wish it would slow down!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Swapp


October 7

This week was soooo great!!!! We finally reached a lot of our goals that we've been struggling to reach since I got here! It was so great. The pace is finally picking up here regarding the work.

We had the funniest lesson I've had in my entire mission this past week. Hahaha I'm laughing just thinking about it. So we teach this one less active lady, she's about 80. We go over and read the Book of Mormon with her (actually we have it read to us by her). She's working on going to the temple. So we walk in and sit down where we usually sit and wait for her to come out and she comes with her husband right behind her. Well, her husband has dimensia... So we're just sitting there and he starts talking about us and how "we're always together and we love each other and then one of us leaves and another one comes, but we still love each other." (He's not a member) Then he comes over to my companion and stands over her behind the couch, puts his hands on her shoulder and starts kissing her on the forehead... over and over and over again... It was hilarious!! My companion was like "ahh what do I do?!" It's not like you can push an old guy off of you... So then their caretaker finally gets him to stop and go sit down. That's just the beginning though... Sister Ghofranian (the less active) started reading and she's going fine and we read a couple chapters in about 45 mins. Then we get to the next chapter and she asks if she should go on. My companion said sure! And as she was looking through the chapter, noticed it was forever long... Way more than 15 minutes worth of reading... But we go on. About 45 verses into the chapter, Sister Ghofranian starts to, what I thought was loose her place repeatedly. She would stop reading, kind of look up with a confused look, we would tell her where she left off, and we would start reading again. Then it happened again. And again. Finally one time, she stops reading, we look at her... and her eyes are closed....... It wasn't till then that we realized she was falling asleep. We didn't know what to do!!! Haha we both just sort of looked at each other and tried to silence our laughter. It was the funniest thing! Then she sort of wakes up,  we tell her where she left off, she read on and a few minutes later, she started talking crazy. She was reading the verse and all the sudden goes, "Oh yes. It's like jumping off a boat into the water." and "you're in a tube and it's a little tight, but you have just enough room and a liiiitte bit of air. Not much, but just the right amount." and "you have the two horses and one of them is white. and one is black." My companion and I were so lost! It was all we could do to not laugh hysterically! FINALLY she really woke up and admitted to us that she was falling asleep. Haha so we finished the chapter cause we only had a few more verses and at the end of one of those verses it said, "and their souls did delight in fatness" so she's reading that and says, "And their souls did delight in fitness, I mean fatness. Fatness.... Well, that's weird!" in the funniest voice! It was by FAR the funniest lesson I have ever been in!!!!!

Conference was sooooo amazing this weekend!!!! This past week, we met with the Moffats, a less active couple. The husband is so so so close to coming back! And the wife is a little further behind, but her heart is softening so much! So we invited them to watch conference and he said he really wanted to. We said great! And asked if he wanted us to give him a call Saturday morning to remind him. He said he would love that. So Saturday, we call him up and he says, "Okay! Let me go downstairs and turn the machine on!" So we gave him a call Saturday night to invite him to come to the church on Sunday and watch it with us and also to see what he thought of Saturday's sessions. So i was talking to him and I asked what he thought of Saturday's and he said, "It was really good! My favorite talk was the last one of the first session." And I was racking my brain trying to remember who it was... It was President Uchtdorf... I asked what he liked about his talk. He said, "He was very convincing. I felt like he was speaking directly to me." And without even thinking or missing a beat, the words, "Well maybe you should act on those promptings" came out of my mouth... I tried really hard to stop them when they started to come out, but they were already out. I was cringing preparing myself for his response and my companion was looking at me with the most worried look. But, obviously the words I said needed to be said because what he said after that needed a hallelujah chorus to accompany it. He said, "Well, I've been seriously considering it." My heart lept for joy! This is a guy who hasn't stepped foot in a church building for probably about 20 years! That's as long as I've been alive!!!!!!!! I was so happy!!! needless to say, he didn't show up the next day, but I still have hope for this coming week!!! He is so stinking close!!! I just love conference! I wish everybody in the entire world would watch it!

So we got to go to the temple this week too! I love the temple! We only get to go 2 times a year because the temple is out of our boundaries. It's only about 45 minutes away from me, but out of the mission boundary unfortunately. But I'm grateful we at least get to go twice! It's better than nothing. But really, if I could live there, I would. The Oakland temple is so beautiful! And the view is gorgeous!On a clear day, you can see the golden gate bridge.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! You're all in my prayers!

Love,
Sister Swapp


September 13

I'm so out of time right now.... So this is going to be kind of short. I apologize in advance!!

This week has been good. A little stressful, but what's a mission without stress? Haha But things are looking up. I got a priesthood blessing from the elders last night. I have never received more blessings than I have on my mission in my entire life. Haha It makes me regret not taking advantage of it before my mission. I look back and I remember times when I clearly needed a priesthood blessing and didn't get one. The priesthood is so underused in my opinion. This is our zone. Best zone ever! Really though! The stake president does a breakfast every transfer so he can meet all the new missionaries in the stake. And he wanted some pics of us this transfer.We had sister's retreat this week, that's where this picture came from... It was a blast!!! I wish we could have it every transfer! We went to San Jose at 8, the meeting started at 9:30 and went till 4, at which time, there was a clothing exchange, and we didn't get back for dinner till almost 7. It was a long day. But so spiritually uplifting! It was good. And with the Relief Society broadcast Saturday night, it was just a good week to be a woman. Hahaha

Friday night, we had dinner with a part member family. They're Indian (with the dot, not the feather). The husband is a member, convert for a few years, and very knowledgeable in the gospel. The wife isn't a member. And the husband's mother was there too who knows lots about the church, but isn't a member. It went really well! We taught about baptism and the authority of the priesthood. And the food... was DELICIOUS!! I've developed a love for Indian food on my mission. :)

Well, I'm REALLY out of time now... I love you all so much! Thanks for everything! Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Sister Swapp


September 23

Hello Family and Friends!

This week was fantastic! We had stake conference yesterday and it was great! My companion and I sang in the choir. So we got to sit on the stand. The speakers talked a lot about the For the Strength of Youth standards and how it has been given to us by a prophet and if we believe that he is really a prophet, than why question the things he tells us.

President Watkins (my mission president) and his wife talked about member missionary work (surprise) and how you can measure your success of being a member missionary just by the fact if you invited or not. Sister Watkins said, "If you invited someone, then you were successful. Plain and simple." I think that's how it is for full time missionaries too. We have to talk to every single person and INVITE them to come unto Christ. That's our purpose. If we don't invite, we've failed. And if we do invite and they don't accept, that's them using their free agency. That's on them, not us. We've done what we can do.

It was a good conference. And the songs we sang were some of my favorite! The first was "If the Savior Stood Before Me" and the last one was "Come Thou Fount" one of my all time favorites! It was a great meeting over all! AND we only had 2 hours of church instead of 6 so we got lots of work done yesterday when every single week, we can barely get two lessons on Sunday! It was so weird and great to have all of that time!

On Saturday, it rained SOO hard! It was wonderful!!! Made me feel like I was at home. haha And my companion was super excited to wear her rain coat. Hahaha
I felt so bad for the sisters that were on bikes that day. But they texted us later and said that they just went home once it started to get really bad and waited it out while they updated their area book and did some weekly planning. So that's good. Other than that one weird day, the weather has been really sunny! It's like the perfect weather all the time! I love it!

Other than all of that, nothing really exciting happened. Oh! And..... drumroll please... Sister Swapp has broken her record of staying in one place more than 7 weeks consecutively!!!! This is finally it! I made it!! (well, technically I have to make it through today, but I'm thinking I'm pretty safe.) It feels so good to finally not worry about learning new faces and names. Don't get me wrong, I have loved every single person I've met, but I don;t know if my brain can take anymore of this remembering thing.

Well, I'm out of time... Again... So I hope you all of a great week! And remember who you are! (A Child of God. How cool is that?! Just think about it. You are a child of a divine being!!! I love it!!) Talk to you all next week!

Love,
Sister Swapp



Hello!

This week was great! We have finally been picking up on our numbers. But that's not the important part. The important part is that we are growing and helping others come closer to Christ.

This week, we ran into a guy on the street that was not very open to us... He was basically saying that Joseph Smith was deceived by the devil and we have been too. He kept saying over and over that we'll be held accountable in front of Jesus Christ and God for the words that we say. All we could do was testify. He asked us if we would put our lives and our family's lives on the line for this gospel. We, of course, responded yes without needing to think about it. He paused for a little bit and said, "I believe you. And I'm sorry for that." He talked to us for almost an hour and called us several not so nice things in a round about way... It's amazing how you don't really realize how strong your faith and testimony is until it's tried and shot down. We found out towards the end of our conversation that he talked to the elders MINUTES before we ran into him. He was telling us that he's talked to 5 people already today about God. And said two names, as if we should know who they are. And we were so confused... Then we realized that he was talking about the elders, except used their first names. He tried to ask me my first name, but I just told him it was "Sister" and he gave up. So we called the elders afterwards and told them who we ran into and they were like, "Ohhhh no!" They told us that this guy REFUSED to call them elder. And we told them what he called us and said to us and they got super upset! They wanted to go back and find this guy. It's nice to know that the elders have our backs. It was an interesting conversation. It's funny how people try and tell you all these things like it's going to change your mind. They just don't understand.
I listened to some awesome talks in the car this week! Oh man, I love powerful talks... The first one is called "Prophets & Plates", by Brad Wilcox (it's 2 talks together), and the other two were by a girl, I can't remember what her name was, but the names of the talks were "Sleeping Through Gethsemane" and "Prayers that Reach Heaven". And I read an awesome poem in personal study. It's called "The Touch of the master's Hand". If you get a chance, look them up! They're so good!!

Well, transfers are this week.... I didn't get a transfer call, but I've come to realize that means nothing... But I'm hoping that this means I will finally be breaking my record of staying in an area longer than 7 weeks!! I'll let you know next week if I've reached it. Haha *crossing my fingers*

That's about it for this week. Nothing too exciting and fun. Just working hard, laughing lots (my companion is great) and teaching people. For those of you wondering, my elbow is almost completely healed. It's amazing how fast it went! I just have a tiny scab (that my companion won't let me pick...) and a little bit of a bruise that is definitely not as noticeable as it used to be. So, no worries!

In closing, I just wanted to thank all of you out there who have prayed for me, taught me things, and supported me on my mission. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here today. And I'm so grateful that I am. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I love being a missionary so much! If any of you are debating on going on missions or not, I would strongly suggest you do. It will be so worth it! I promise! You won't regret it at all. I love you all and have a great week!

Love,
Sister Swapp


September 3

Hello everyone!

This week was great! We did lots of work! My elbow tried to convert the road... It failed.
Haha here's what happened:

It was actually probably very funny to watch. My companion was bummed that she was in front of me rather than behind me when she found out everything was okay. Lol I was going down a hill, getting ready to turn right at the bottom of it and I was slowing down and all of the sudden, I was going over my handle bars. My brakes are just better than I thought they were. But this is the most serious injury I have. It could have been WAY worse. The tender mercy of it all is that the person driving behind me ended up being a member of our ward. Haha She got out and asked if I was okay and when I said yes, the very next question she asked was, "Where's your companion? I'll go find her!" (She had already turned the corner...) But it was cool. She said that if she were inches closer, she wouldn't have had time to stop, resulting in running me over (because I had fallen into the road). I definitely have a testimony that the Lord watches over His servants.

And last night, we went to see a less active and she told me to put cooking oil on the bruise and honey on the scrape. That will help both of them heal faster. So I did it and woke up with my bruise more yellow than purple, which means it's further into the healing process. So, that was cool to learn! Who woulda thunk?!

Other than this, everything is going great! One of our wards is getting ready to start a 40 day fast in a couple weeks, so I'm excited to see the blessings that will come from that. They said that last time they did it, they saw a family get baptized and a guy start to investigate the church. We still teach that guy. He totally knows everything is true, he's just waiting to get baptized so that his aunt can be there for it. Blood family is very important to him. He says that every time he goes to baptisms, he sees their families there and he just does't want to be that one person that has no family there for him. We keep telling him that the ward is his family. But we aren't blood related... We're praying for him.

Anyways, how are all of you? I hope things are going well. I'm just about out of time, but I hope you all have a great week!!! Stay safe!!
Love
Sister swapp

August 23

This week is going to be a super short one, sorry!

Nothing really super exciting happened. i was sick for a couple days and we had zone conference. Zone conference was really good, like always. Being sick, not so much, but I'm better now. As a result of both of these things, our work was very little. but this next week is going to be great! We're going to convert like crazy!

Sorry again for the short update... I'm out of time though. I hope you are all doing wonderful!

Love,
Sister Swapp




August 19


This week was so great! Okay, I have to tell you a funny story before I start into the week. So we were driving to the library this morning  and we're about to turn onto the road we needed to, but there was this boy walking his... PIG!! My companion and I were like, "Is that a pet pig?! No way!" So, despite all the excitement to go and email, we drove around the block, pulled over, and got out to talk to this boy. He was maybe about 12. He was telling us all about this breeder in Texas that breeds these pigs to be pets! Haha Not only did it have it's own, home-made looking leash, but it had little booties on it's feet!!!!!!!!! It was adorable!! The boy told us that the pig just walks around their house like a dog. It sleeps with him and everything. Haha And he let us feed him raisins.
In other news, I survived 2 days in a row on bikes without any accidents! I forgot if i told you or not, but we are in a car share with some other sisters from the zone. So we have bikes the days they have the car. The only problem I've had is this one giant hill... It's the overpass for the highway and half of one of our wards is over that hill. My first day, I had to walk the bike up it. But the second time, and every time since, I've been determined to ride all the way up. So I put it in the lowest gear possible and... MADE IT!!!! Barely... I was so proud of myself the first time I did it! I kept think in my head the whole way, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right." What my dad always tells me.

So about the rest of the week... Not too much out of the ordinary happened. We're teaching this one part member couple. They husband is very active and the wife is not a member. They are from India (there is a lot of those out here). She is so awesome! We went over there one night this weekend and spent waaaaaaaaay too long there... But we taught like 5 lessons in one. So because they are Indian, they don't let anyone leave their house without feeding them... So we had to wait for her to finish cooking dinner. Meanwhile, we were talking about things and my companion finally brought it back to the gospel, miraculously, by sharing a scripture. Then, that got the husband started on asking us to just keep sharing verses. So we would take turns sharing our favorites with them and then discussing them. Then, dinner was finally ready. So we ate and afterwards, we asked if she had been reading the Book of Mormon and she said no. So he suggested that we read right then with her... So we started reading Alma 40, because we had planned to teach her the Plan of Salvation but gave up, then we used this opportunity to go through with it. So we got through about 5 verses and then had a great discussion on the Plan of Salvation the rest of the time. We talked about the plan, temple sealings, the celestial kingdom AND baptisms for the dead. It was so great! She was joking around and was telling her husband that she was going to come down from the Celestial Kingdom to visit him in the Terrestial Kingdom. It was funny. So then, of course, he said, "Well, you have to do a few things to be able to qualify to make it to the Celestial Kingdom." So we talked about the need to be baptized and then we invited her. But he interrupted and said that she wasn't ready. He wants to make sure that she is doing it for the right reasons, not just so that she can be sealed to him. Which, is good, but if she believes in the plan of salvation, and that it's truth, she doesn't have that much farther to go. So we just invited her to pray about it to know for herself it was true. It was a good lesson, we were just there faaaar too long...

Well, I am out of time for the day... Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Swapp


August 12

Soo... Remember last week when I told you that I wasn't going to be transferred and that I was training? Yeah... Well... Neither of those happened. I got transferred and I'm not training anymore... Some last minute changes were made. My companion and I were sitting there Tuesday morning (transfer day) doing some personal study, getting ready to move into companionship study and our phone rings... It's our zone leaders. They told us that we needed to be at transfer meeting because one of us was being in-zone transferred. Transfer meeting was at 10. It was already 9 o'clock. And we had to drive down to San Jose... Yep, that's how much notice I got this time. 1 hour. So I got transferred to the other 2 wards in Pleasanton. I'm serving in Pleasanton 1st and 4th wards. And we are the only missionaries in both wards. I've decided that all of the moving I did growing up has prepared me for all the moving I do on my mission. Haha I'm very used to change now.


4th area. 6 months. Yep. That's me. Everybody keeps making jokes when they find out how many areas I've been in. And I was totally planning on breaking my 7 week record of staying in one area this transfer... But it didn't happen. The cool part is that the ward boundaries changed a couple weeks ago and a lot of the members from 2nd and 3rd wards (my last wards) were transferred to 4th ward. So I already know most of those people. Which has been a big help. And i'm still in the same zone, so that didn't change.


My new companion is Sister Wheeler. She's from Mesa, AZ. She's wonderful! She's been out for 3 months and it seems like she's been out for 15. She knows her stuff so well! And we get along really well too. The other day, we were weekly planning and we got on the subject of Daniel and the Lion's Den, which reminded me of VeggieTales because they have a pizza party in the den. So we sang VeggieTales songs for a good 20 mins. Hahaha It was great! You have to do something to keep you sane while you do weekly planning. I know that it is so necessary, but it's pretty much the most boring thing ever. I always just want to be out sharing the gospel with people.

And! This week I met someone who knows where Scappoose is!!! I was very excited. He knows it because his brother used to live there. Some of you might know him. Jared and Lily Lee. haha Yep, his brother is in my ward right now. They're getting ready to move though. But I was super excited to finally meet someone who knows where Scappoose is. And it was cool that I knew who he was talking about.

Well, that's about it for this week. Just working hard in this new area. I hope all of you have a wonderful week. Stay safe!

Love,
Sister Swapp


August 5


Well, I don't have much time  to update you this week, but it's been a great last week! It was the last week of the transfer and any missionaries know what that means... Transfer and training calls... And... I'm going to be a mom!!! That's right, I'm training. My companion and I are training together (at least we think so... We both got training calls and no transfer calls, so we think we're going into a trio). but I'm so excited!!!

We got to go to San Jose 3 times this week already and one time this coming week. We've already used 270 miles and it's only the 5th of the month... Good thing our mission isn't super duper strict on mileage...

Our mini missionary went great! I think I already told you that she was going to LA for her real mission in 3 weeks and she gets to go straight there. No MTC. And when she was with us, I found out why... She doesn't need it!! She's already prepared plenty for a mission. She was wonderful to spend 4 days with. I loved it.

Well, I was planning on adding pics to this email, but I have no time left... I will add them onto next weeks email. I love you all!! I hope you have a great week!!!

Love,
Sister Swapp

June 29th

Hello!

So today has been busy! This morning, our whole zone went on a sunrise hike! We woke up at 4am and hiked to the top of this very steep mountain and watched and took pictures as the sun came out of the clouds! It was beautiful! Then, after that, we drove down to San Jose and we picked up a mini missionary from the mission office. She's going to be with us this week! Her name is Sister Koroitanama. And actually, both my companion and I already knew her from our previous area!! She already has her call for her mission too. She leaves in 3 weeks to go to Las Angelos. So we went on a hike, drove to San Jose and back and it's not even noonyet! What a crazy morning!

This week was pretty great too. We also just got done having another mini missionary from our stake join us for the weekend. It's been one mini missionary to the next. It's fun! 

We took an active family on a church tour this week, which is basically taking people around the church with strategically placed pictures that are already in the building, just moved, and the pictures help us teach the first lesson as we go through the building. It's an awesome experience and the spirit is always so strong because the building has already been dedicated to have the spirit in it all the time. And active members love it too because it gives them a chance to recognize that spirit. Most Sundays, people don't realize the spirit in the building because they're mostly running around trying to get things done, but this church tour helps remind them of the powerful spirit that resides there. Well this particular time, we were giving it to an active family and we decided to experiment a little. The tours are still kind of a new thing so we're trying to perfect the art of it. So this time, we decided to add music to it. We have already been showing a video at the end of it, but we decided to add music in the background at one of the pictures. The picture we chose was the first vision. The song we chose for the background was a piano playing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". I didn't realize how strong the spirit was going to be there until we got to that picture, cued the music and started reciting the first vision. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I tried to choke it out. It was an amazing experience that definitely strengthened my testimony of what happened that day. Just like Joseph could not deny what he saw, I cannot deny what I know he saw. I cannot deny what I know to be truth. the video that we showed at the end was Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon. If you haven't seen that mormon message, I would strongly recommend it. Elder Holland puts it into perfect words that I never could. 

I love being a missionary and being able to feel the spirit so strongly all the time. Sometimes, I take it for granted, but there is always something that the Lord puts in my path to help me remember that wonderful feeling. 

This morning, as we were walking up a lot of giant hills, I was pondering about how it can relate so closely to our lives. We walk and walk, and sometimes there's flat areas, and things aren't very hard. But other times, the hill is so steep and you feel like you are never going to be able to make it to the top. But as you take it step by step, you will make it. it might not be as quickly as you'd like it to be, but you WILL make it. And then, when you do make it, you see the view from the top and wonder why you ever complained because the view just made everything worth it. We have to go through trials to help us grow and be able to appreciate the beauty that will come. I know that the beauty that will come from the trials that we all face will be SO worth it. We'll all look back and say, "Why did I even complain. I'm glad I went through all of that to see this." 

Anyways, that's been my week! Sorry if any parts of this email are hard to understand. I'm running on 2 hours of sleep currently. We had a sleepover with all of the sisters in our zone last night because it was one of their birthdays and she happens to be our Sister Training Leader (STL), so we got permission to do a sleepover and didn't get to sleep till 2. Then we woke up at 4... You do the math. So, my companion and I are going to go crash in the apartment right after this. But, i love you all and thank you for all of your prayers and support. 

Love,

Sister Swapp

Catch up

For those of you read Sister Swapp's blog I do apologize for not keeping up with it. Here are the last months letters. Enjoy and please leave her a comment she would love to hear from you.

June 10th

Greetings!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful past couple weeks! I sure did. 

We had a baptism on Saturday that went so well!! Our mission president was in attendance and took us aside afterwards and told us how amazing that baptism was. Then proceeded to give us money for lunch... That's President Watkins for you. He is so awesome! He has 5 daughters, so he has a special place in his heart for the sisters in this mission. He treats us all like Princesses. 

So this week, President Obama was in town. We went street contacting in downtown and walked past a hotel that was surrounded by security people and secret service. It was crazy. 

I really can't think of anything else spectacular that has happened in the past two weeks... How terrible is that? I'll send pics next week to make up for the shortness of the letter this week... Haha

Transfers are coming up too... We'll see what happens!! I'm excited. There are 28 new missionaries coming in this time. Most of them, if not all, are sisters. 

Well, I hope you are all doing well! I love you!

Love,

June 17th 

Hello! 

Today is such a great day!! We are so busy!! We're in charge of FHE tonight for the branch. It's going to be lots of fun! We're so excited! We're trying to get the YSAs excited about doing member missionary work, so we're having a "member MTC experience". When they come in, they will receive mission calls (called to the streets around the building) and a nametag. From there, they will meet their districts and receive companions based on the color of their nametag. Then, they will go to one of three places. My companion and I will be teaching a workshop, the other set of sisters serving here will teach one workshop, and we have a member helping us with another workshop that will basically be some sort of relay game. And throughout the whole night, there will be a points system so they can receive points and the district that has the most points at the end will receive a prize. And then, we have a guest speaker. Our mission president will be speaking to them after all of their workshops. It's going to be so much fun! I'm way excited! And hopefully it does what we're hoping it will in getting them all pumped up and excited to help us out and be member missionaries! 

That's about the only news for this week! Except for transfers coming up!! This is the end of my 3rd transfer! At the end of next transfer will be my 6 month mark! Where did the time go?!?! It needs to slow down!!! 

Well, things are going great here! We're just keeping busy all the time and working hard hard hard! I hope all of you have a great week this week!!! I love you all!!!!

Love,

Sister Swapp

 

 

June 24th

Hello everyone!!

Ready for the big news of the week? ...... I'm getting transferred again! For those of you that have lost count, that is 3 times for me now. Once for every transfer that I've been out... So usually what happens is you stay in an area for 6 months, which means that sisters would have 3 areas for the entire mission... Not this sister... Try 3 areas in lass than 5 months! But it's going to be good. I'm going where the Lord needs me. 

I will miss this area a lot though. I feel like I am at home here. I love all the people that I've worked with since I've been here. It's been a great transfer. But, it's time for me to move on. If I could stay in this area for the rest of my mission, I would, but then I wouldn't have the opportunity to grow any. 

Well, I don't have much time this P-day as I have to pack up all of my belongings... Sorry for the short letter this week. Not much news... But I love each and every one of you and I know at least two other people that do as well (Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ). If they didn't love you, you wouldn't be here on this Earth. I hope you all have a great week. Stay safe!

Love,

Sister Swapp

 

July 1st

Hello everyone!

So as I told you last week, I got transferred! Again! 4th transfer and fourth time being transferred... I've now been in 3 different areas in less than 5 months. I'm now at the very tippy-top of the mission. Livermore was pretty close when I was there, but this area is right on the boundary. I love it here! My companion and I are both new to this area. We have been white-washed in. Kind of. We are covering two wards; Pleasanton 2nd and 3rd, but each ward has their own set of elders as well. Neither ward has had sisters for a very long long time and everyone was very excited to hear that they finally had sisters. There is so much work for us here. We are basically just in charge of the single sisters and the sisters who's husbands are not around as often; basically the houses that the elders can't get into. But it has been so fun. It's been a challenge for our brains trying to remember who is in what ward and everything, I have never had to work so hard to remember something in my life, but it's a good workout for my brain everyday. Every night we get home and are just emotionally exhausted from all of the brain power we use throughout the day. Haha And there have been several moments where we can't remember where we're going or what we're doing. Lol It's been great. 

My companion is my "step-sister" in the mission. We were both half-trained by Sister Cannaday. And we were "born" in the same area. Right after transfer meeting, My old district leader came up to us and said "Oh no, it's the seed of Cannaday uniting together. This could be dangerous." Haha No, it's great! I love it here so much! Her name is Sister Craig. She's from Georgia. She's been out for 9 months this week. It's been so much fun already. People can't believe we've only known each other for a few days.

 We have a brand new car (only 13 miles on it when we got it), brand new phone (with no old contacts that we have to weed out), and a nice apartment. The wards are fantastic. 

So funny story from our first day here... We're at the mission office, just got our new car and phone and our zone leaders come up to us and tell us we're going to be moving into their old apartment. So we get everything loaded up and another elder who served here in the past gives us an address, but tells us this isn't our address, it will just get us to the right apartment complex. So on the way we text the zone leaders asking what apt number we are. They tell us 26. So we get there, go to door 26, and try to unlock it with the key they gave us. It's not turning, so we try and jiggle it into working. All the sudden, a lady opens the door... Whoops, she thought we were her cleaning service... Awkward! So we tell her what's going on and she tells us there's another 26 in the complex. How confusing is that??? So we go to the other 26 and we decide to knock on the door first... Good thing we did. A shirtless guy answers the door and we apologize and quickly walk away... So we're wandering around trying to figure out where it is that we live when a guy that works there asks if we're looking for the elder's apartment. We tell him yes and he guides us there. It was number 24... Thanks zone leaders! haha at least it made for a good laugh. 

So Wednesday, we decide to go around and visit the auxiliary leaders in each ward so we can get some names of people they want us to focus on. But we also needed to go to the store to get some things so we could get organized. So we go to a few people's houses and nobody's home. Then we decide to go to the store. (and this is just one example of how fried our brains are) We're following the GPS and my companion looks at me and says, "who's house are we going to right now?" I though she was joking and say, "Walmart...?" She gives me a blank stare for a few seconds and starts busting up laughing. It was probably a had-to-be-there kind of moment, but it was really funny. 

So Friday, we plan to get some maps of our area because there are none yet, so we go to the city hall and get some maps. Then we go home and piece our area together and it's really small, so we decided to go and get it enlarged and laminated. And UPs is where we had decided to go. So we get them enlarged and they start to laminate it and their laminator breaks... So they send us to another UPs location and give us terrible directions so we start to go, thinking I know where they're talking about, but no. So we type it into the GPS and it sends us to a UPs store nearby. We go in with all of our stuff and they have no idea what we're talking about (the first store called ahead and let them know we were coming). So she send us in another direction. And we start going to where I think she's talking about and we can't find anything. At this point, we've been driving around for almost an hour... So then, we get the genius idea to call the first store and get their number from our receipt. We call them and they give us better direction to the store they were talking about. It turns out it is an almost brand new store that isn't in the GPS and by the time we get there and get done, we spent and hour and a half getting maps for our area. They better last a really long time. 

Saturday, we got to go to a baptism in my last area for an awesome guy!! He's been investigating the church for 2 years and he just got baptized Saturday! It was such a great baptism and the Spirit was so strong! I love baptisms. There was also a baptism here in Pleasanton that we got to attend for one of our wards. It was for a 10 year old boy. Both were phenomenal baptisms. 

Well that's about it for this week. Lots of new and exciting things, lots of fried brains, and lots of people we still haven't met! So much to do!

I hope all of you have a fantastic week! Stay safe! I love you!

Love,

Sister Swapp

July 8th

I got welcomed to my new area with some very hot weather this past week (which apparently is abnormal... I sure hope so!) It was actually 117... It cooled off one degree while we were getting our cameras to take the picture.

 

 

 

This is how Sister Swapp and Sister Craig play dodgeball on P-day!

 

So that's been Pleasanton! It's great! I love it here! It's completely different than a single's ward... But it's fantastic! We're working with both the YW and the Relief Society in both wards and the people here are just so great! 

Well, that's about it for this week. I hope all of you are having a great week! I love you all so so so much! Thanks for all of the support and prayers! 

Love,

Sister Swapp

 

July 8th

 

Happy Monday everyone!

So... I have officially been away from home for 5 months as of Friday! Weird! I feel like I just left the MTC! I just wish time would slow down a little bit! 

Anyways, this week was great! It wasn't as crazy as last week, but it was still way busy! We visited lots and lots of people. I'm finally starting to feel like I know the area. 

I got to hold a kid this week!!

 

And last week, my companion and I got to see our trainer (a.k.a "mom"). We were both half trained by her, which makes us "step-sisters" in the mission. My trainer is the one in the middle; the one without the tag...

 

 

July 15th 

 

Hello Friends and Family!!

How are all of you doing this week?!

Well, this week has been such a great one for me and my companion, Sister Craig! We're finally starting to learn the area and people are finally answering their doors! What a great thing! Haha 

We got to go to the temple visitor's center on Thursday with an investigator. It was such a wonderful experience. We took Shirley. She is our 90 year old investigator and she is the cutest little thing EVER! The elders found her about a week before we got here (so about a month ago) and we took over teaching when we arrived. We've invited her to be baptized several times because she tells us that she knows it's all true and she loves all of it, but when we first asked her, she said she wasn't ready. At the beginning of this week, we asked again and she said, "Yes, but I want to set the date by myself. Don't push me. I want my daughter to be there and I need to get a perm." Then, Thursday, we asked at the temple again and she said, "I know I'm going to get baptized, and it's going to be soon. I just need to get a perm." Hahaha Well, I guess the experience she had at the temple motivated her to go and get a perm because she got one the next day! We then, went over and she told us she wants to be baptized this coming Saturday! Oh, and her hair looks great. Hahaha She is just the most adorable little thing ever! I love her so much! She calls us her granddaughters. 

This is all of us at the visitor's center. The elders wanted to come as well, so they got one of their investigators to go too. He got baptized just last Saturday. But they both loved it so much! (In order from left to right: Elder Kerby, Jeff, Elder Bingham, Shirley, Me, and Sister Craig) Shirley is just glowing! She went up to the statue when we first got there and raised her hands up in the air and screamed "I'm in Heaven!!" Meanwhile, my companion was behind her and she got hit in the face when Shirley raised her arms up. haha It was a little comical. 

Yesterday at church, we found out that the ward boundaries for all of the wards except one in this stake are changing... Sister Craig and I are so frustrated about that. We JUST got a giant map of both our areas figured out and stickers for every member in those boundaries put on the map, color coordinated and everything! And now, we're going to have to change it all up... The Lord is teaching us patience and flexibility. We won't know what the changes are until next Sunday and they don't take effect until Aug. 1st. 

Well, that's about it for this week. I hope all of you are having a good summer! You are all in my prayers! Stay safe!

Love,

Sister Sarah Swapp

 

 

July 22nd

 

Hello friends and family!

This week was a fantastic week! We got so much work done and saw so many miracles! 

Well, the ward boundary change happened and the effects were very minimal (thank goodness!). They barely changed. So, no stressing here over the maps that we have already created for our areas. We did, however, loose our recent convert that we just baptized this past weekend, but she will still be attending our ward as we work with the other missionaries to get her transitioned to that ward.

Speaking of her, she is so wonderful! I mentioned her last week. She's the 80 year old lady. Her name is Shirley. She's adopted us as her granddaughters, so we call her Grandma Shirley. Haha she is the best! Let me just tell you a few things that will help you get to know her. The night before Saturday (when she was to be baptized), we had dinner at a member's house with the elders and Shirley. As we were leaving, she looked at Elder Bingham (the one that was to baptize her) and said, "So you're the one that's dunkin' me tomorrow?!" hahah It was the funniest thing coming out of an 80 year old's mouth. I couldn't help but laugh. Then, Saturday comes and they're in the font, she goes under and comes back up and just looks out at all the people there, pauses and gives the BIGGEST grin you have ever seen! She was literally glowing!!!! It was the sweetest thing ever. But don't think that's the end... Sunday, when she gets confirmed, she goes up on the stand to sit in the chair and while all the men are standing around getting organized, she blows kisses to the entire congregation. Haha and afterwards, she's still sitting in the chair and she just says, "I'm so happy" out loud for everyone to hear. And when we all welcomed her as the newest member of the ward by the raising of our right hand, you could just tell that she felt like the most important person in the entire universe. I'm so happy for her! But I'm really sad that she won't be in our ward. :( 

We are also teaching another lady. Her name is Norma Shipp. She has 6 children, including a set of triplets. The triplets and another daughter are baptized already and the elders have been working with her for a while. A family in our ward has fellowshipped them so well and is helping the triplets, who just graduated, get to college. And we found out that the only reason she is meeting with us is out of obligation to this family for all their help. When they offered their help, she asked how to repay them and they told her that the only way she can repay them is by meeting with the missionaries every week. Not ideal, but it's a start. She's been through a lot in her life. She's spent almost all of her adult life struggling to make ends meet and support her 6 children as a single parent. The dads are no where to be seen in the picture, and that's probably a good thing, but it's been very hard for her. What we have decided to do is basically teach one single principle from the lessons each week. We started with the nature of God this past week and it went very well. We're trying to get her to recognize the Spirit. That's been more of a challenge. But, we're praying and praying that she will be able and willing to progress. And the member that has been her fellowshipper challenged us to get our families involved as well. So, moral of the story, I'm telling you all this so that you can get to know her like I have and inviting you to pray with me and my companion and so many others for her progression. She is a wonderful lady that has worked so hard to be where she is at right now and the gospel will just help her so much more! I wish she would see that! I wish everyone would see that!!!

Other than those two ladies, we are teaching a 17 year old girl who is currently out of town at a mini boot camp for the coast guard. Her name is Monica. She's great too! She is sooooo intelligent. She can recite ALL of the books in the bible (old and new testament) in less than 30 seconds. My companion and I are working on that. That's what comp study consists of. Haha She likes to play games that get you using your brain when we go over. The only reason that she isn't baptized already is because of her parents... Stinkin' parents! But we have a baptismal date for March 22, 2014. A few days after she turns 18. She is basically the one that teaches us when we go over. It's great! 

Those are our investigators. We're also working with lots of less active members. One of which, just had puppies!!!!!!! Needless to say, we offer our service to her all the time to help her with those little bundles of energy. She's older, so she enjoys our help. Before we got here (we found this out after the second time of us going over there) she hated the elders coming over. She would avoid them like the plague! The first time we went, she was a little hesitant, but she opened up a lot once we started talking about her puppies. They are so adorable! If we didn't have apartment or mission rules, we would totally take one home with us! It is so entertaining to watch them play with each other too. hahaha 

We might be going into a car share. Which means we will be on bikes part time. We're doing a trial run tomorrow to see how it goes. My companion is a little hesitant on that. She doesn't know how to ride a bike... Or so she says. We'll see! It will be an adventure! Haha 

Everything else is going wonderful! I love it out here so much!! I never want to leave! Not that I don't miss all of you, but I have just grown to love this area a lot and being a missionary here is the best thing I've ever done! For those of you trying to decide on if a mission is right for you, I highly recommend it! I promise it will be the best decision you will ever make! 

Well, have a great week! I love you all and you are all in my prayers! Stay safe and know that I love you!!

Love,

Sister Swapp

 

 

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

May 20

Hello friends and family!!

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

May 13

Hello friends and family!

This wee was such a great week!! We baptized the last of a part member family! The mom and oldest son got baptized a few months ago and the dad was kind of skeptical to get baptized cause he didn't have a testimony and he wasn't getting answers to his prayers and was just really frustrated about that. And the youngest son (8yrs old) was scared to get baptized. We're not really sure why... So, Thursday, the day of the baptism, comes and we're only planning (more like hoping) that the dad get baptized. We had not even thought about pushing the youngest son to get baptized cause we didn't want to push him into not getting baptized ever. So we were just letting him do it on his own time and hope that he came around soon so that they could get sealed in a year after the dad got baptized. So we get there and we're picking out a suit for the dad and the son is standing there with all of us and my companion jokingly says to the boy, "You could wear one of these too! Look!" As she pulls one out, "There's one in your size!" And she holds it up to him and he looks down and pauses and says "maybe" and takes the suit into the bathroom to hang it up with his dad's. We were all like "What?!?!?!?! What just happened!?!?!?!" And of course, his mom is like, "Wait, can we really do this? Like what do we need to do to get him baptized tonight?" So we call our zone leaders and they say that the bishop has to interview him because he's 8. So we call bishop and he's on his way. He gets his interview just a few minutes before he's baptized. How crazy is that!! Oh and the dad got baptized and he hasn't been able to stop smiling since. It was the best night EVER! If my mission goes bad the rest of the time that I will be here, I will still go home happy because of what happened that night. It was definitely a miracle. Words can't even describe how happy I am for that family. And the baptismal service was so great! The spirit was so strong! There wasn't a single dry eye in the audience. 

So I'm getting transferred again this week. Yes, I know. It's only been 5 weeks since I got transferred last time, but I've kind of seen this coming. They're just making me live up to my name (Sister Swapp. Get it?) I don't know where I am off to next, but I'll find out tomorrow morning when it happens. It's possible that I could be going back to my last area like President said I would be. but it's possible it could be somewhere else too. I really have no idea. I will let you know where I am next week when I email. 

I got to talk to my parents this week! It was so great being able to see them!! I miss my family. It was so weird when they would say my name. I am so not used to being called "Sarah". I remember when I got to the MTC, being called "Sister Swapp" was the weirdest thing ever! Now, it's completely changed. I'm sure that after I get home off my mission, I will be answering the phone "Hello, this is Sister Swapp" for a little bit. It's going to take me a while to break that habit. I can already tell. But I don't have to worry about that for another 15 months. So, all is well. 

Well, that was my week this week! A bunch of excitement. And it's going to continue for a while. I just can't stop smiling. It's so amazing to see the change in people as they come closer to Jesus Christ and make covenants with him. Definitely one of my favorite parts of being a missionary. 

I love you all! I am almost out of time for this week. And I have to go pack... but I hope all of you have a great week! 

Love,
Sister Swapp



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