Sister Swapp

Monday, March 24, 2014

Lots of Updates

Feb 3rd

Hello everyone!!

This week has been wonderful!! We set another baptismal date with one of our investigators. She's an older Indian lady and she is so prepared! She lives right next door to some other sister missionaries (but in our boundaries) and that's how she was found. They just talked to her one day and missionaries have been working with her ever since. She reads the Book of Mormon every day and has seen how when she read it, everything gets better. The power of the Book of Mormon is so amazing! And if you're not reading it regularly, I would strongly suggest you start. It has such an amazing spirit about it. I know it's true because of all the things it's been able to do for me. Not to mention that I've prayed about it too...

Well, yesterday was the superbowl... and it was miserable! Nobody answered their doors!

This week, we tried really hard to get our service hours in. My mission is really unique in the sense that we focus on service. We strive to do 5 acts of service for 10 hours every week. This area has been struggling a lot with reaching that goal, so Saturday morning, we went out and picked up trash around our neighborhood and nearby parks for 2 hours. It was so much fun! And it opened up lots of conversations with the people walking by. We then went to an appointment in the afternoon and afterwards, picked up trash for another 2 hours! Haha and we still didn't even reach our goal for hours! This week, we've planned better though. But if you're looking for something to do in your community, I would suggest just going on a walk and picking up trash around town. It's fun! But take gloves...

Well, that's all for this week! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Swapp

Feb 10th

This week was so wonderful!! We got to listen to an Apostle of the Lord speak to us and leave our mission with an amazing apostolic blessing. Elder Cook came to speak to us on Saturday. It was so good! The whole mission gathered to hear him and after he left, we had a giant mission-wide zone conference. I love meetings where all of the missionaries get together! The spirit is so strong! Especially when we all sing missionary songs. There really is nothing else like it. It makes me so grateful to have this opportunity to dedicate myself to the Lord and His work in this moment of my life.

Well, other than that amazing meeting, we had such a great week!! We set another baptismal date. Now we have a baptism every week for 3 straight weeks starting at the end of February. It should be good! The new baptismal date is with a 9 year old girl. Her name is Mikayla and she comes from a less-active family. Although, it will take a huge miracle to make this family active, I don't foresee this little girl's baptism being that miracle, unfortunately. BUT anything is possible with the Lord! So I'm not throwing that out the window just yet! It could happen.

We also met with one of our other baptismal dates, Amy, the Vietnamese one, and she brought her husband to the lesson too. The ward had a Chinese New Year celebration that night, so we were just going to meet with her after that. We found out earlier in the day that she was going to bring her husband and kids, but we got there late because we had a dinner appointment in one of our other wards. So we walk in and see her and go and say hi. It turns out only her husband could make it, so she pointed us out to him (he wasn't standing with her) and he's one of the guys that's helping cleaning up!!! We all thought that he was just another member that we didn't know when we walked right passed him going into the gym... That's just a glimpse of how awesome he is! So we finally get done cleaning up and go to a room to have a lesson and we teach them about the Plan of Salvation. (This is our 2nd meeting with her, but 1st with him). They both loved it so much! At the end, we asked them what they thought of the plan and he was telling us that he's been trying to get his questions about where we go after we die for a while and reading several books to try and get the answer, but this is the first time he's ever really got it answered. And then he talked about the celestial kingdom and how he wants so badly to go there with his family. We talked about how we can go there, but there are a few things that we need to do first. Then invited him to be baptized. He said yes without any hesitation and Amy's face was just glowing! But they mentioned that he will need a little bit more time than her and we explained that we are here to help them understand. We asked if they had any questions and Amy asked about how she can share this with her family and how she can help them get to the celestial kingdom as well, so we talked about temple work. It was just such a great lesson over all! This family is GOLDEN! She's the one that found the church online and just walked into church one day... And she brought her husband and one of her sons to church yesterday! She's amazing!!!!

It has been such a great week here! Oh and! I don't remember if I told you about the state-wide fast for rain this past fast Sunday, but it has been such a miracle to be here! Our area authority spoke to us as well on Saturday and he was telling us about the drought we've been having a little bit. He said that there has been a high pressure area over California for 63 days, which means no rain, and this time of year usually is very very rain, supposed to be. So the first presidency announced a state-wide fast for rain. The day that we were scheduled to fast, first off, it was raining when we left our apartment, but he was also telling us that that day, the high pressure area completely disappeared. How miraculous is that?! Well, it's been raining off and on ever since... On the way driving here, we were driving on the highway and it was so bi-polar! I had the windshield wipers on the lowest setting, then I had to turn them on the highest setting 5 seconds later, then turn them down a little, then turn them completely off a few seconds later, then back to the lowest setting. It was all over! Haha

Well, that's about all I have to report for this week! Things are going so well! And the work is progressing forward! I love you all! Stay warm!

Sister Swapp

Feb 24th

This week was the best week ever! It was just packed full with miracle after miracle! So we had a baptism on Saturday. It was so good! It wasn't the best prepared baptism I've ever been to, mostly because it was combined with another 8 yr old girl from the ward and her mom only planned for 25 people... Well our investigator is from a Samoan family. And if you know anything about Polynesian families, you know that they are not small. So that was interesting, but it worked out fine.

We also picked up 2 new investigators this week! One of them is the daughter of a very less active lady. (we like to teach and baptize children here... They need the gospel too!) The other new investigator is so awesome! (not that the other one isn't...) But her name is Christina. She just moved here a few months ago, but where she lived before, she would go to church with her son, who is also an investigator. But all the time that she was there, she never got taught by the missionaries because the lady she lived with didn't allow them to come to her house. I don;t know why the missionaries there didn't offer to teach her somewhere else, but they didn't. So she moved in here with her daughter and the bishop got word of her and sent us over. We went there, got to know her and started teaching her the first visit! We taught her the first lesson and she loved it! She soaked it all up! So, we invited her to be baptized. Her response was, "Of course!" And we set a date! She loves this church so much. She was talking to us about the 3 hr block on Sunday and she said, "I don't understand why people complain that it's so long. By the time the 3rd hour is over, I'm going 'it's time to go home already?'" She's soooo prepared! So she's getting baptized on March 29th.

So at the beginning of the week, people were cancelling lessons left and right and we were a little worried we would have a hard time reaching our goal for lessons. Well, by the end of the week, we exceeded it! Our goal is 21, we got 25. Also, our zone leaders had a little competition for street contacting this week... Well, being who I am, I took it seriously. So did my companions. Our goal was to beat just them, and if we beat them, we'd be fine, because in our zone covers SJSU and there are 2 sets of sisters that go contacting there. Well, that just happens to be the hot spot for contacting in the entire mission. So we figured there was no way we were going to beat them. We didn't even try. But, we get emails every week from the mission with charts attached showing the numbers for each zone. I just got done looking at them and we blew every one in our zone out of the water with our contacts!! We got 500 this week. I was so shocked! It was a lot of fun too! I love talking to random people! Haha

Actually, last night, we were contacting and we ran into an Anti... That was fun. I gave him a card for mormon.org and he started walking away, but turned around and said, "oh no thank you" and handed it back. He started walking away again, but turned around again and said, "You know, there is one thing I agree with about mormons. They teach a good work ethic." and he paused for a second and went on in a very stern voice and said, "Other than that, your religion is a demonic religion." My companion, Sister Li, said, "Sir, I'm sorry that you think that, but..."And tried to go on, but he cut her off and went in to say how the "founder" of our religion was a sick man who worshiped the devil and that we needed to do more research into our own religion. He also told us that we needed to read the bible and find out who Jesus Christ REALLY is. Sister Li, being from temple square, is trained to deal with these kinds of people. She handled it very well. She tried testifying, but when he kept cutting her off and yelling over her, she said, "Sir, we're not trying to argue with you. Have a nice day. And started walking away." The whole time with him yelling and screaming at her. I was so worried he was going to lay his hands on her. It was intense.

Well, this coming week should be pretty awesome too! We're meeting with a referral that the elders gave us and she seems pretty solid already. We talked to her on the phone right after the elders contacted into her. They called us and said, "We have someone that wanted to talk to you." and handed her their phone and we set up an appointment with her for this week.

Well, I love you all and hope you are having a wonderful time! I miss you all very much!

March 3rd

his week was great! I attended 2 different baptisms in 2 different languages. That was pretty cool! One was in Samoan and one was in Vietnamese. Both very different, but both very spiritual.

For our zone activity last week, we played Jurassic Park. haha it was lots of fun! Some of the sisters in our zone made it up. Basically, we had to find objects hidden throughout the church building that would help us get off the island. We worked in companionships and if we got tagged by the "raptors" (one companionship of missionaries playing as raptors throwing balls at people) we had to go and take back all of our items and start over again. If we obtained all of the items, we had to get back to the "helicopter pad" (the stage) without getting caught. It was so much fun!

Well, this was the last week of the transfer and we are loosing Sister Tuala. :( I don't know what we are going to do without her in this area! She started this area up for sisters 8 months ago and has been here learning the area ever since! She has all of this knowledge about all the people in her head! We spent a long time during weekly planning this last week updating/creating teaching records for almost everybody we work with. It was lots of fun. NOT! I have a firm testimony in updating the area book regularly, not putting it off and putting it off until you have a billion things to update or worse, not even doing it at all so the past missionaries won't have any idea where these people are at and what they've already been taught.

We went to the temple visitor's center last week with a less active/part member family. The wife has been less active since her youth and the husband is not a member. We had FHE with them every Monday night. The deal is, we teach the lesson and they provide the treats. So last week, we went to the temple for the lesson. It was so great to be there! I love going to the temple!

One of our investigators is scheduled to move into our apartment complex this weekend! Right next to us actually! It will be so good because right now, they are living with her mom, who is VERY Buddhist... and they can't all go to church because then she will get suspicious, so when they move, they will all be able to go to church with the mom finding out. We haven't even met their 2 sons yet. So, we are very excited for them to be so close to us. Pretty soon, our whole complex will be members. The managers are members (that's how we got our investigator connected with this place), there's another member family that lives there, then there's both us and the elders that live there. Haha so much fun! We were talking with the managers a couple nights ago and they were joking around and saying that we should just make the pool that's in the middle of all the apartments into a baptismal font. Just put a gate on each side and line them up to go in on one side and out the other! Haha Then, we'll convert the whole complex next door, then the one across the street, and pretty soon, we'll have a chapel right there!

Well, I need to get going. Not much time left on the computer. But, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Swapp

March 10th

This week has been pretty good. Lots of changes have taken place. We no longer cover 3 wards. :( they took one away from us. And of course, it was the ward that we had the most work in... I think president is just trying to even out the load. Some of the other sisters in our zone now cover that ward, so we know it's in good hands. It's just sad because that's the ward that we had the best connection with and knew more of the people. It was really hard saying goodbye to the people that we met with regularly this week and passing them off to the other sisters. But now, we can focus more on the other 2 wards and do the work there that needs to be done. It's actually been amazing seeing how when we put our efforts into it, the Lord will guide us to the people that are prepared. We received 3 referrals this week and gotten several people's information while contacting that seem legitimately interested. It's been amazing!

One night, we were contacting, and we were rushing back to our car to go to dinner because we were going to be late (rush hour here is miserable.), and Sister Li quickly contacted a lady with a Mormon.org card; the typical "Can we share this card with you? It's for a website we're inviting people to check out that talks about Jesus Christ." The lady took the card and as Sister Li was saying "Have a good night." the lady stops her and says, "What's your name?" and she told her, and the lady goes, "Can I have your number?" Meanwhile, I was way up ahead and thought she was right behind me until I hear her say her name and realize she was definitely not right behind me. So I turn around and head back and we start talking to this lady and it turns out she's been doing a lot of research about different religions. She said her mom was Baptist and she went to church with her growing up, but since she's turned 18, she's been looking for her own church. It was so awesome! So we got her info and went on our way. Her name was Kristian.

Oh and we have a new companion! Her name is Sister Savila. She's from Samoa as well! She actually knew our last companion back home. They went to the same high school. She is so funny! I love her!

We had Zone Training Meeting this week and it was great. We talked a lot about post-mission plans. That was weird... We talked about education and marriage and families. I felt like I was at a YSA fireside or something. Especially since it was at the institute... But that's what our mission president is stressing a lot right now. I think he's getting trunky. Haha He goes home in July. :(

They asked our companionship to talk about how we can have fun and still be obedient to the mission rules in our daily lives. It was actually lots of fun. They asked the right companionship to talk about it, because we are always having fun! We do random things all the time (that are obedient) that make us laugh. We shared some of those things and asked for other ideas. It was great!

Well, that's all for this week. I hope all of you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Swapp

March 18th

(and easier) than any other hike I've been on since I've been here. God's creations are so amazing!!

So the biggest thing to be excited about is that Amy & Thanh Duong are getting baptized this week! We've been finalizing the plans for it now and it realy is happening. They are both so cute about it too. Amy is super nervous and it's cute because her husband, Thanh is just like, "It's okay, just relax and everything will be fine." Haha like Sunday, we were discussing how things were going to happen and Amy was getting really worried that she wouldn't be able to plug her nose and Thanh kept telling her, "It will only be 5 seconds under the water. Just hold your breath." We ended up showing her how it was going to be done and that she could plug her nose. My favorite is when we taught the Law of Chastity to them. We explained it and everything and invited them to keep it and they just looked at each other and smiled and he held out his hand and she took it and they said, "There won't be any problem there." It was adorable! This couple is just so ready to accept the gospel in their life. They have seriously been being prepared for forever! I'm so excited for them to finally be able to enter into covenants with the Lord this weekend, and then in a year as well when they can go to the temple and be sealed for eternity!! This morning, we went over to see her and she was telling us that last night, they had their very first family prayer. They've been living with her mom who doesn't even know about any of this whole church thing, so they couldn't ever gather their kids to pray as a family the way we pray. And I don't think her kids know that they have been investigating the church either. But she was telling us that last night, she brought her two boys into the family room and she said a prayer with them and afterwards, they were asking her questions like, "Who's Heavenly Father?" and "Whose Jesus Christ?" Because previously, they would pray to Buddha. And she said she even prayed long sentences in English. (Vietnamese is her first language and she's been trying to learn English only for a little bit). She said that ever since she's been meeting with us, she's been getting better at speaking English. We told her we are so excited for her to be baptized and she was like, "I am more excited than you!" Haha She's so cute. Pics will come next week.

Another great story of the week is that I witnessed my companion and one of the elders eat balute. Bleh! If you don't know what balute is, it's half developed duck egg. They get a fertilized duck egg that has a baby duckling growing inside of it, and they boil it just like a hard boiled egg. Then, they eat it. It's a Filipino dish. They eat all of it! Feathers, bones, and all! I was gagging just watching them eat it. My companion couldn't even finish it. Haha

Anyways, I don't have much time left. But I just wanted to say that I love this gospel so much! I know it's true. It has blessed my life so much! I don't know where I would be without it and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than right here sharing it with all of the people here in the San Jose Mission boundaries.

Love,

Sister Swapp

March 24th

Well, this week was fantastic! Let me rephrase that, Saturday was the best day of my mission thus far!!! I got to witness 3 baptisms of people that I love dearly.

The first one was Monica. She is amazing! This girl has been planning on being baptized for 14 months! Her parents wouldn't give her permission though. So she had to wait till she turned 18, which was this past week! I got had the privileged of getting to work with her when I was in Pleasanton. My companion, Sister Craig and I got to the area and the elders said, "You have a baptismal date!" We said, "Awesome! Who and when is it?" And they said, "Monica Hernandez. She's getting baptized in March of 2014." And we were like, "Say what? That's so far away" it only being June of 2013. But, we made it! And she is now officially a member of the restored church of Jesus Christ.

The second and third baptisms I was able to be a part of was Amy and Thanh's baptism! They are so wonderful!!! I just love them so much! The baptism was a sweet and spiritual experience. And they got confirmed in sacrament by the Vietnamese elders so that it could be in their own language ad they could understand it better. It was kind of funny. After being confirmed, the person conducting got up and said, "If you didn't understand that, it was Vietnamese." I'm sure the half of the congregation that isn't Chinese thought it was Chinese. haha And the Chinese half was all sorts of confused. So when he said that, we heard everyone go, "Ohhh" quietly.

These were the highlights of my week! It was so wonderful to see these wonderful children of our Heavenly Father be able to enter into the waters of baptism and take upon themselves His name. Oh how blessed they will be.

I was also able to see some of my favorite people in the whole world up in Pleasanton! I was reunited with my old companion, Sister Craig, and we went to lunch with the best people ever! The Millers. With President's permission, obviously. They were giving us rides back to our areas after the baptism and President was there, so they asked if they could take us to lunch. It was so much fun!

Well, I can't think of anything else to report on for the week. We are going to play Jurassic Park again today as a zone, so that should be fun. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Swapp

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

January Letters

January 13th

Happy Monday!

It's been a great week! Weird, but great! I got a letter in the mail from the mission informing me of my release date... It was super weird. FYI, it will be August 20th.

My companion and I sang a duet in church yesterday... It was scary. It was the hymn "O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown" to the tune of "If You Could Hie to Kolob." We sang the first verse together, the second verse was just me, the third was just my companion, and the last was both of us. I've never sang by myself in front of big crowds like that ever before! We were both so nervous. We were doing everything we could to clear our throats that morning and the night before. It went well though. The last verse was the best because we were done being stressed about our solos. Haha But people kept telling us that they couldn't even tell that was our first time, we looked like pros. I think that was definitely the Spirit helping them see that. Hahaha

But it was a really cool experience that strengthened my testimony a lot! I had been praying that we could deliver the song, and no matter what, that the spirit would be there, because I've learned that if the spirit is there, then what comes out of our mouth doesn't matter. And I know that the spirit was definitely there while we were singing. It reminded me of when I gave my farewell talk. I was so so nervous! I had never ever given a 15 minute talk before and was so scared! But I prepared, and the whole morning, I had been praying that I could deliver my talk and say the things that needed to be heard. And that my nervousness wouldn't show too much. It was the first time that I had given a talk without stuttering or my muscles uncontrollably twitching and I was actually able to speak up and out, whereas, before I had just always read my talks and mumbled it out to get it over with as fast as I could. I've definitely learned through these experiences and sooo many others that the Lord will help us with anything, even speaking, but we have to ask for the help first.

We also wore matching outfits! Haha So here's the story. We were at a members house last week for dinner, right after we were asked to sing, and they were watching "Cheetah Girls" before we got there. So we were joking around and saying we should sing the song from that that goes, "We are sisters, we stick together," when we sing. Haha so the mom was like, "Oh my goodness, if you don't sing that song, you MUST at least wear cheetah print or something, and we'll be the only ones that know what you actually wanted to sing." So

Not only did we wear cheetah print, but we also coordinated colors. :)

We had interviews with president this week and it was so nice. He helped me a lot with figuring out what to do after my mission. He also basically told me that I was getting transferred this time around, which happens to be next Tuesday... He said it's not set in stone, but I'm pretty sure it is and he's just saying that. I don't know where I'm going, but since next Monday is a holiday, I will have to email on Tuesday, and by then I'll be in my new area. So I'll inform you then! :)

I went on exchanges this week with our STL (sister training leader) and her companion. I went down to their area with her companion and she came here with my companion. It was so good! We both learned a lot! One of the things that impressed me was how easily Sister Voyles (the sister I was with) made it look to contact people without any materials. Contacting is definitely NOT my strong point, as you can imagine, but every time I see it done like the way I saw this sister do it, it gives me confidence. Then I go to actually do it... and the confidence leaves when I get shut down... It's a vicious cycle. The area I'm in right now is sooo hard on missionaries trying to street contact! Nobody is interested, if there even is anyone out on the streets to talk to. We'll go a whole night contacting about 30 people and only really share the gospel with like 3 people... Everybody else just passes by and doesn't even acknowledge you. It's rough. That's why we have to rely on the members to give us referrals to find people to teach.

Which, we just started this week with really laying it heavy on the members that we need their help and can't do it by ourselves. We've gotten more referrals this week than ever since I've been in this area! We got 2 referrals! Haha unfortunately, neither of them were interested, but statistics show that 1 out of 3 referrals are interested, so our next referral will be golden! *crossing our fingers*

Well, that's how my week has been pretty much. This is my last full week in this area. :(

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Swapp

January 21st

Wow! What a crazy and amazing week!! This past week has seriously been one of the best so far in my entire mission!

So my companion and I decided we were going to have more meaningful contacts, which is what we struggled with a lot. It's scary to talk to people. Even for missionaries! So, we decided to go contacting in parks, because people aren't rushing usually. So our first night, Tuesday, we went to a park right before dinner and we ran into a guy named Rafi. We only had about 5 minutes till dinner and were actually debating on whether or not we had time to go talk to him. I'm glad we decided to! Because he was not having a very good day. :( We talked to him for a little bit and we shared Matthew 11: 28-30 with him and gave him a Book of Mormon and got his information and prayed with him. He told us that he knows we were a sign from God telling him that He is still there and appreciated us coming and talking to him.

A few nights later, same situation, only a few minutes left till dinner, we saw a girl sitting on a table eating food and debated again whether we had time to talk to her. We do and it turns out she's been looking for a church. We gave her a Book of Mormon and gave her our info and prayed with her.

These experiences have taught me so much about how Heavenly Father tries our faith and loyalty. It seems like it's always in the last 5 minutes before we have to go that he places someone that is prepared. It's taught me to be diligent and just go and talk to them no matter how much time you have left!

We also picked up a new investigator who is soooo prepared!! Some awesome members brought him to church a couple weeks ago and we met him and gave him a Book of Mormon after our Sunday School lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We got a call from the members that brought him (the guy is the wife's cousin) and they told us that he had read some of the Book of Mormon and was going to church with them the next day and wanted a lesson from us when we came for dinner Sunday night (they had signed up to feed us). Well, the funny part is, is that we were planning on cancelling on them because we had planned to go to the temple with Rhanya, our recent convert, and wouldn't have time to make it for dinner. But we promised the member that we would have missionaries there to teach him and that we would figure something out. Well, it turns out that Rhanya woke up with a fever Sunday morning, so she cancelled our temple trip. Which we were super sad about, but it meant that we could go and teach Matt that night! So we get to dinner and after we eat, we start teaching him the restoration. It was such a good lesson! The Spirit was sooooo strong! And he had so many good questions. We also had another member family come over and the husband was a convert to the church as well, so we had him share how he came to know the Book of Mormon was true and it was so powerful and perfect!

This week, also, we exceeded our goal for lessons! WHich NEVER haas happened since I've been in Pleasanton! Our weekly goal is 20, and we had 24 by the end of the week! The Lord is just hastening His work so much in the Pleasanton area! We are finally starting to see the fruits of our labors and it is so great! Just in time for me to leave too...

The last bit of news I have is..... I got transferred and am now in a new area! It's going to be a lot of fun. We cover 3 family wards (I thought 2 was bad...) and I'm in a tri-panionship! And I'm the only one in our trio that's from America!!! Hahaha The sister that's been in the area the longest is Sister Tuala. She's from Samoa. She's been out 1 transfer longer than I have. The other sister is Sister Li. She's from Hong Kong. They are both so wonderful! Because Sister Li speaks Chinese, we have a Chinese investigator and we just came from a lesson with her. It was amazing! The church is true even in other languages!! Hahaha It was really interesting though because the investigator can understand english, she just learns better in her native tongue, which makes sense. So Sister Li would talk with her about who knows what (well the gospel, obviously) and then she would turn to one of us and say, "Sister Swapp, do you want to explain how Adam and Eve's decision to partake of the fruit affects us?" And I would explain, then she would go back into speaking Chinese and turn to one of us again, "Sister Tuala, do you want to talk about what the spirit world is?" Haha it was really interesting. But, I know I am going to love it here! I already sort of know the area. 2 of the wards we cover are wards that I covered when I was in the YSA branch. So I know all the ward member's YSA aged kids!! Hahaha I'm really excited though. A little overwhelmed maybe... but I know that I have so many wonderful things to learn and grow from in this area, otherwise the Lord wouldn't put me here.

I love you all so much! And I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Swapp

January 27th

Hello!

This week has been so great! I love it here! It's a little crazy with the 3 wards, but I think I'm getting it down. I think I had a harder time getting 2 wards down when I was in Pleasanton. It's amazing how the Lord strengthens your ability to serve in a certain area. Both of my companions will be leaving soon and I think that has something to do with it. Sister Li will be going back to Temple Square in April, she's a temple square sister on her outbound assignment right now. And Sister Tuala will be getting transferred at the end of this transfer most likely, she's been here ever since they opened this area 7 months ago. So I really am relying on the Lord to help me learn everything I can from them before they leave.

It's been so fun though! Usually you think a trio would be really hard, but things are so great in this trio! We all get along so well! And we teach really well together too. It's the best trio ever. We're always laughing together too, which is important. :)

So we set a baptismal date this week! My very first full day here, we met with a Vietnamese woman named Amy. She's been so prepared! She found the church on her won and came to church one Sunday, but the sisters (this was before I came) weren't there because they were attending the other 2 wards we cover, so a member fellowshipped her, got her number and gave it to the sisters. The sisters then called her and set up a time to meet with her. When I met her, it was only their second meeting with her and we taught her the restoration. It was perfect! We had a member there and she had some really good questions. So, I have a box that I keep my scriptures in and I have pictures from the ensign all over it and so when we were talking about Christ's earthly ministry, the member grabbed my scripture case and showed her the picture of Jesus Christ being baptized by John the Baptist and it opened up a huge discussion about baptism. That's when I knew we were going to be inviting her to be baptized sometime throughout the lesson. Well, we went on and after we had finished teaching about the Book of Mormon, I invited her to pray about it. She said yes and I said, "As you pray and come to know that this is true for yourself, will you prepared yourself to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone that holds the authority of God?" She said, "Yes!" without skipping a beat! She kind of said it in a "duh I'll be baptized" kind of way. Haha The Spirit was so strong! She's so amazing!

I have fallen in love with the people here! They are all so amazing and sweet! I love all of the people I've met. My heart is just bursting with love for them!

Also this week, I started a gratitude journal. It's been really fun to write every night about a couple things I'm grateful for. I don't have enough time to write about every single thing I'm grateful for in one night, so I decided to do a couple things each night. I love writing down the things I'm grateful for and why I'm grateful for them because I end up recognizing why I really am thankful for the things I have. Sometimes even deeper than I thought. It's amazing. The Lord has given me so many blessings! I'm excited to fill up this journal with them!

Well, that's my week for you! It's been amazing!

Here's my new address for those of you wondering...

46703 Crawford St. #20

Fremont, CA 94539

Love you all,

Sister Swapp

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Update

December 23rd

Merry Christmas!!!

This week was so great!! Every day was just so amazing! There was really no reason, it's just the holiday season! Isn't it great!?

We went street contacting last night and ran into some born again christians... That was fun. they kept telling us that we didn't believe in the same God as the God in the bible and that the God in the Book of Mormon is a different God. To that I told them that it says over and over again in the Book of Mormon that the God we believe in is the same God that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed in from the BIBLE. And they told us that we won't be saved until we come to know God, and we can't do that without His son, Jesus Christ. And we were like, yes. And they were like, well you don't believe that! You believe that God and Jesus Christ are different people, but Jesus IS God. And we were like,yes, we believe they are 2 separate beings. the whole time they were talking, they were confusing the heck out of me with what they believe in... They kept saying that Jesus was God, but then 2 seconds later, they would mention that Jesus is the son of God. And i was like, that doesn't make sense! you're telling me that Jesus is his own son?? Tell me how that works???? Well, I didn't say that to them, because I quickly realized that nothing we could say would change their minds, so we might as well not waste our time trying, because we had an appointment soon. But i love running into born agains because the very last part of their lecture to us, they always say something along the lines of, "Well, I'll pray for you that you come to a realization and they you can get to know God like I have." Haha It's just funny to me. we were telling our appointment right after that about this and he served a mission and LOVES stories like this and right when we said they were born agains, he was like, "ohhhh did they tell you the exact time and day they were 'saved' and came to know Jesus?" And we were like, "Yes! they totally did!" haha apparently, they are really good at that and you can't talk to them without them mentioning that exact time and day! Haha it was funny.

Well, we had really good Christmas programs yesterday at church in both our wards. it was really good! In 1st ward, we had so many less actives and non-members there! It was amazing! We didn't know who to talk to first after sacrament meeting! There was even a less active in the choir that we've stopped by a couple times and she doesn't even let us share short messages with her... But she sings in the choir at Christmas!!! What? Well, I guess going to church on Christmas is better than not going to church at all... but the program was really good. The song selection were chosen very well, and the Spirit was really strong the whole meeting. And they had the hand bells! Which is always awesome!

We almost didn't have a place to go for Christmas this week too... the people that signed up had a family emergency and told the Relief Society President that they probably wouldn't be able to host us for Christmas, but they announced it in sunday school and someone signed up again! And we're really excited! It's a new move in family and they are the aunt and uncle of one of the sisters that served here not too long ago. She's still in the mission. In fact, I replaced her when I got moved here, that's how recently. But we're really excited to get to know them better! And we're really excited to talk to our families!!!

Well, that's about it for this week! I'm just looking forward to the holidays! It's going to be a great year! One I will never forget! I love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Sister Swapp

December 30th

Merry Christmas!!!

This week was so great!! Every day was just so amazing! There was really no reason, it's just the holiday season! Isn't it great!?

Well, that's about it for this week! I'm just looking forward to the holidays! It's going to be a great year! One I will never forget! I love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Sister Swapp

January 6th

Happy Monday!! Guess what everyone!? Today is my 11 month mark... *gulp* Yep. You read that right. It's crazy to think that! I feel like I just got here!

So this week has been so awesome! I'm officially a certified Preach My Gospel Missionary too! (Which I should've been 8 months ago, but due to the fact of getting changed around a lot and having 2 different trainers... I wasn't). Here's the story:

So our mission president has required of us that we get re-certified as PMG (Preach My Gospel) missionaries. So, I don't know what other missions are like, but here, they include getting certified in the 12 week training program you do in your first 12 weeks in the field. So because soooo many new missionaries have been exploding up our mission, there has been a lack of technical competence, because they come, train for 6 weeks, then their off training someone else when they don't even have the whole idea of what their doing. So he's been stressing that a lot. Well, at the beginning of the month, our dear zone leaders gave us all a new certification packet and said, "President wants you all to be re-certified by the end of the year." And we all thought, "Ahhh you want us to do 12 weeks worth of certification in a less than 4 weeks?? How is that possible?" Or at least, that's what I thought. And I actually didn't get certified the first time around. Shhh Probably because I had two different trainers... So I got SUPER stressed about it and that night, I took it to the Lord. I told Him that I wanted to be a certified missionary, but that it was not possible for me to do it by myself. And that if He helped me (which I knew He would), that I would do my best to be a better servant to Him at all costs. Well, the first experience I had with this is that I did finish before the end of the year. With half an hour till bed time to go! :) We worked on it ALL week. We've been working on it as a district the whole month little by little, but this past week, we met together Monday and Tuesday morning and just booked through it. Oh I forgot to tell you what all the things were that we had to do. There were 3 parts. The first one was we had to memorize all the PMG chapters and subheadings, the 2nd was we had to teach all of the fundamentals of conversion, and the 3rd was that we had to teach all of the 5 lessons in PMG without skipping any points in any of the lessons. And we could pass all these off little by little, it wasn't a do-it-all-at-once type of thing, thank goodness.

So the second experience I had with that was we were working on it Tuesday morning and it was kind of hectic in the room. Lots of talking and stuff, you know. And I was working on the first lesson, The Restoration, and I went to pass it off (talking one-on-one with my zone leader, but still in the same room as everyone else) and I got to the part where we recite the first vision and I started and the whole room went dead silent and the Spirit was there so strongly! It was really cool to see how the Spirit can be there in rooms that are on the verge of chaos and how strong talking about the first vision can bring it even in just reciting it! I wasn't even teaching anyone! After I recited it, there was a way more spiritual and reverent mood in the room the rest of the time. Super cool! I've had several experiences with the first vision that just strengthen my testimony so much more about what really happened to Joseph Smith in that grove since I've been here. It's amazing! And I love it so much!

Oh and I mentioned last week that we got a new WML and.... He is the BOMB!!!!! He's seriously so awesome!! We had a meeting yesterday and words can't even describe how excited I am for the work that will finally be moving forward with him as the WML. This ward is practically perfect now as far as leadership! One day, we're going to go to ward council and nobody will be there because they'll all be translated. Haha In ward council yesterday, at the end, bishop turned to us and asked what they can be doing better to help us, and I literally could not think of anything! We finally had to come up with something so the one thing we could think of was helping us get more involved with the youth so they can know what to expect when it comes time to go on their missions. That was it. They then proceeded to come up with a plan to do just that. I just love his ward so much! It's sad to think that I'll probably be leaving in a couple weeks. :(

Well, we have lotsl to do this week! Our president is coming to inspect our apartments this week, so lots of preparing will commence as soon as we leave the library...

I hope all of you are having a wonderful new year!

Love,

Sister Swapp

Monday, December 16, 2013

Update

Dec 16th

This week has been great! I love the holidays so much! And it's so fun to be able to teach people about Jesus Christ during the time of year that we celebrate his birth!

This week, Rhanya and her mom invited us over for dinner and it was so good! We taught her about temples and looked up a bunch of pictures of different temples on her ipad. And we decided that we can't wait till our mission has ipads! But we set up a time to go to the temple with her this coming week so she can see it in person and see the Christmas lights. Although she can't go in yet, we can still help her develop a love for it. I'm excited!

We've also learned a lot about a few of the people we're trying to work with in the past couple of days. It's really been a miracle. We caught one of our investigators home by herself (her husband is a member and whenever he's there, he kind of blocks us from getting any info about her concerns. He's just overprotective and wants her to make the decision by herself) but she told us a lot that we have been wondering. We found out her main concern and it was truly a blessing. We have been praying and fasting to know how we can best help her, and now we have an idea. We talked to a member in one of the other wards about another guy we've been trying to get in contact with and found out A LOT about why he's doing what he's doing. it explained a lot. We also found out a lot about why a less active that we're working with doesn't go to church. Stinkin' football games! His wife was teasing him that he starts to become more active after the football season and riiiiight as he's about to be fully active, football season starts up again... It's a viscous cycle. But we had a really good lesson about keeping the commandments so that we can receive eternal life.

Last night, the stake youth put on a bell and choir performance. It was amazing! The bells were my favorite part. It was so fun to listen to and even watch! There was so many non-members there and the spirit was so strong during several parts of it. This is a tradition that the stake does every year. I think it's very effective at introducing people who are not members of this church to the building and a little bit of our beliefs as well.

Well, that's about it. But i just wanted to express how much I love this time of the year! We've been teaching people about the real meaning of the season and it's just amazing how many stories we hear about people serving one another. And it's so fun to be able to serve other people! I just wish more people had the spirit of Christmas during the rest of the year. I love President Monson's words when he says, "To have the true Spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ."

Happy holidays to all of you!

Love,

Sister Swapp

Dec 9th

This week was the best week ever!! For a few reasons...

I'm not getting transferred!!! I'll be in this area for another transfer, making it 6 months! I made it! Haha Words cannot describe how happy and accomplished I feel. I was a little worried about being transferred at the beginning of this transfer, but for about the past week, I've felt like I'm staying. It was really a toss up. Could've gone either way. But, I know that there is more work for me to do here and my companion and I are pretty sure we know of at least a couple people that we are both still here for.

Our investigator, Rhanya, was baptized on Saturday. It was the best birthday present ever! the baptismal service was so beautiful. Her mom bore her testimony, which the ward council was iffy about, but we knew it would be really good. And it was. It was the most beautiful testimony I've ever heard. Rhanya brought a really good friend of her's and we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon the next day at church with our testimonies written in it. She doesn't live in our area, but we gave her family as a referral to the sisters where they do live. But the spirit at the baptism was SO strong! And some of the primary kids in her class and another one sang "I Am a Child of God." The best word I can use is "beautiful" for the whole thing, but that doesn't even come close to describing it. And this little girl is changing so many lives! Her mom is becoming way more active and she's bringing her brother back to the fold. :)

The wards found out it was my birthday somehow and made it the best birthday ever! We had cake almost ever night this week. Haha and I got sung to at BOTH the Christmas parties Friday and Saturday. Funny story from the one on Saturday... So my comp and I were standing up to go and check if the font had finished draining when the announcer goes, "Okay, now we're going to sing another song. It goes something like this..." and starts humming the birthday song and says, "And when you get to the part where you have to add a name, say 'Sister Swapp'". Right then, I decided to sit down because I hate the spotlight on me... Who doesn't? So I go to sit down, and my chair slips out from under me and I land on the ground just as he's searching the crowd saying, "Where are you Sister Swapp?" It was sooooo embarrassing!!! Haha the family behind me was laughing so hard afterwards haha but, I played it cool. I told them I was just trying to hide under the table. Hahahaha they didn't buy it and started laughing harder... Hahaha looking back, it was HILARIOUS! In the moment, it was miserable. I'm pretty sure my face turned as red as Santa's suit.

Sunday night, we got to go to the outgoing fireside for the missionaries going home. One of our zone leaders is going home and it was a really special night for him. he got permission for his parents to come and see him because his dad isn't a member and his mom was even invited to go up and bear her testimony. It was so awesome! And, I got to see a bunch of people from the Washington Square branch there! that was way fun! I love seeing them! I miss that area so much! I always feel like I'm going home when I go to my old area in San Jose. Probably because that's where I was "born". I just love the people there so much!

Well, that's all folks! Hope all is well with you!

Love,

Sister Swapp

Dec 2nd

We had a great Thanksgiving! We ate with a part member family and they had lots of non-members there and we got to share a message with all of them. It was so wonderful! But thank goodness we only had one dinner! We were both so full afterwards! Some of the missionaries in our mission had 3 dinners already scheduled by the end of October... I'm very grateful we didn't... Haha

This past Sunday was wonderful. In 1st ward, out of all the people that got up to bear their testimony, probably about 80% of them were youth! It was amazing to hear all the wonderful, simple, yet sincere testimonies of our youth. I just hope they keep nourishing them so they can continue to grow into their adult years!

Our investigator, Rhanya is still on for her baptism this Saturday!! And a miracle happened in ward council yesterday... The ward council is finally showing the support for this baptism that Rhanya deserves!!! The whole time we've been teaching her, the ward council has been talking about how she isn't ready to be baptized and how she's just going to go less active after her baptism because her mom is less active and how we shouldn't go on with this. Our amazing stake presidency had a meeting before ward council with most of them and talked some sense into them! (We have the best stake leadership ever in this stake!). They were basically told that if someone has a desire to be baptized and enter into the fold, who are we to deny them those blessings? And it was mentioned that they would much rather have a name and address on the directory 20 years down the road so missionaries can find them then instead of having absolutely no information if she DOES go less active, which I have faith that she's not going to. This is EXACTLY what we've been trying to tell the whole ward council ever since we started teaching Rhanya! It's been a super frustrating thing trying to get them to listen to us.

Well, no Monterey this week, but we are having a flour fight!! My companion and I are in charge of our P-day zone activity today and we wanted to have a California style snow ball fight! So we spent part of our morning before coming to email cutting, tying and filling old nylons with flour! haha I'm really excited for it! I'll send some pics next week.

I hope everything is going fine and dandy with all of you!

Love,

Sister Swapp

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Nov 18th & 26th

Nov 18th

Hello!

Today is such a crazy p-day! So, if you did email me this week, I appreciate it, but I won't be reading it till later today when I'm done emailing, just to save time... I'll respond next week. :) And, unfortunately, I don't have time to write individual emails, so this is going to everyone that I usually email on P-day. Sorry Mom and Dad... Lol

But, this week has been phenomenal! We had zone conference Friday, which is always good! There was a lot of good things that we taught about. President Watkins showed us some stats and,long story short, our missions stats are consistently going up. Which he commended us for.

Saturday, we had the best day ever! We got to go to a baptism in my companion's last area and we got one of our recent converts to take us (because we aren't allowed to drive ourselves, so we have to find a ride.) It was so much fun! We got to spend some much needed quality time with her. She just got her patriarchal blessing last Sunday, and the adversary has been working on her really hard. So we were able to help with that. And she's from the tribe of Asher! How cool is that?! I've never even heard of that tribe until she told us. She's been asking us to help her do some research on that tribe, so it's been pretty interesting learning about the tribe of Asher.

Saturday night, we ate dinner with some of the best member missionaries ever! They signed up to feed us a couple weeks ago and they were super excited and so were we. Then, we call to confirm the time and... She tells us that there were going to be about 20 people there... So, just a tip, if you invite the missionaries for dinner, NEVER invite them to a party unless you handle it like this family did. Missionaries hate parties! It doesn't allow them to get to know the family better or even share a message most of the time. And it's just really awkward... BUT this family was awesome! They had us over and started the party by introducing us to all the less-active and non-member people they invited and said that we were the reason they started this whole party, so if it weren't for us, none of them would be there. Haha then we ate and mingled and got to know people. Then, for dessert, they just put all the desserts on one table and we all sat cozy around the table and played a little get to know you game. But that wasn't the end... After that, the family told everyone a little about what we do as missionaries and invited us to give our message. It went so well!!! I wish everybody could see how easy it was for them to have some non-member friends over and us at the same time and it NOT be awkward for everybody! That was probably the highlight of my week.

And, like always, there have been so many miracles this week! I just love writing them down at the end of each day and seeing how many there really were throughout the whole day. Sometimes, it's hard to pinpoint them, but other days are just so chalk full of them! It's perfect to be able to recognize them at this time of the year as Thanksgiving is approaching us quickly (too quickly).

My companion and I are pretty sure that this is going to be my last transfer in this area. We've kind of had the feeling since the beginning of the transfer, but it was pretty much confirmed yesterday. We both got blessings and in her's, she was told to learn as much about the area from me as she could as quickly as possible and to not be shy in making connections with ward members. It wasn't in those exact words, but it was pretty close. So... yep. I'm out of here in about 3 weeks. :( I've loved this area so much! Probably because I've been here long enough to fall in love with it! Ha

Well, I don't have much time left... A member offered to take us on an adventure today in Fremont (one of the cities nearby). We're going to see a mission. Not a mission like what we do mission. It's supposedly like an old church and they're called missions. Apparently, they're all over this area and pretty cool to go and see. I'm excited!

So, that's about it for the week! I hope all of you are having a wonderful time with whatever you are up to!

Love, Sister Swapp

November 26th

Hello all!

This weekend has been so eventful. It has probably been one of the best weeks on my mission so far! Let me explain...

Thursday:

I got to see one of my converts from the other ward I was in 5 months ago. You may remember the name. Her name is Shirley. We call her Grandma Shirley. :) It was so great to see her! She actually lives in the boundaries of one of the wards I am over now (4th ward), but was baptized into the 2nd ward. She lived in 2nd ward but a few weeks after her baptism, the ward boundaries changed and she now lives in 4th ward. But we didn't feel like it was a good time to move her over to a completely new ward where she didn't know anyone, so we kept her in 2nd. So we decided to drop by this week to see how she was (mostly because I miss her dearly). She was still fantastic and still can't understand why more people aren't lining up at the church to be baptized! Haha she's a hoot.

That same night... We finally were able to set up an appointment to meet with a potential (who has been a potential for almost 6 months). It was amazing!! Let me just tell you the miraculous story. So the sisters right before I came into the area street contacted into him and got his number. He seemed really interested, so they tried calling and tried calling and tried calling. No answers. Ever. So they kind of gave up. When I got to the area, his name was on our white board under potentials. I asked who he was, my companion told me the story and decided he was a lost cause, so erased his name. About 2 days later, TWO days! We were out contacting and ran into him! He recognized my companion and we talked to him for a while. We gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read a chapter. We also gave him our number because he said that the reason he doesn't answer calls is because he doesn't know the number. Now he would know we were calling. After that, we called and he answered a few times but was always busy. As time went on, we would try calling and... no answer and no answer and no answer... His name remained on our board once again and when my amazing current companion came, she asked who he was. I told her the story and she said we should try calling him right then! I was less than enthused, thinking he wouldn't answer, just like all the other times we tried... but! He did answer!!! It was totally unexpected on my part! So we tried setting up an appointment and it wasn't 2 weeks after that till we actual set up a firm time to meet. We ended up going to a coffee shop to teach him and had the best lesson ever! The whole time, all I was thinking about was how the Lord has been completely preparing him for this message that we have. Not only has the Lord been preparing him, but his 13 year old daughter has already been attending church. She went to girl's camp, has gone to church very regularly, and even spoke in sacrament meeting a few weeks ago about her experience at girl's camp! The only problem is that this is all in 2nd ward... They are very fellow-shipped by members already, just in the wrong ward.... So we're going to try and work something out there. Oh and his daughter has been invited to be baptized already by those missionaries and declined. I firmly believe that it is because she was worried about bringing it up with her dad, but now that we're teaching him! Hopefully it won't be a problem! :) I am so excited to continue working with Robert and his Daughter!

Sunday:

We had appointments with both of our investigators and they both cancelled... So we had a lot of free time and decided to go and see one of our other investigators, Bill, that is also really hard to set up a time with (that seems to be a theme... Hmmm). So we drove by his house and it appeared no one was home, but we decided to try anyways. Knocked on the door and... nothing. So we went back to our car and as we're sitting there trying to figure out where to go next and... he pulls up and into his garage! What perfect timing! My companion and I both felt prompted that we should go and see him, but were disappointed when no one was home. But, we are constantly being reminded that everything is on the Lord's time! So we chatted with him for a few minutes and talked about the nature of God with him. i just wish we could find a time to meet with him so that we can have a formal lesson, not just one standing on his porch or on his driveway... But, at least we can meet with him briefly every once in a while.

Also that night, we got invited to go to Monterey for P-day by our sister training leader (STL) and had planned to drive down to San Jose and stay at her apartment for the night and leave for Monterey in the morning. So we get done with our appointments for the night, pick up some other sisters in our zone that were going too and headed down there. We get about 10 minutes away From their place and get stopped on the highway. There was a car in flames about a hundred cars in front of us! We could see the flames and everything! It was crazy! We had no idea what to do because we were literally stuck there. they weren't letting anyone through. It was so chaotic! We called up our STL and she said to try and turn around and go back to Pleasanton if we could, but that was not an option. She then said to call them if it got to 10:15 and we were still stuck there. I don't know what they were planning on doing if it got to that, but it was about 9:45 when she told us that. Firetrucks and cops were coming past on one side and cars barely had room to move out of the way because we were on an overpass with nowhere to go. Well, eventually, at about 10:08, they had put the fire out and were squeezing cars past the accident. We got to the sisters apartment at 10:25 and were in bed by 10:30. That's right... Obedience is crucial in this mission! But it was a crazy night.

Monday:

The best P-day ever! We woke up, got ready, did our studies and went to the mission office to prepare for Monterey! I just want to preface this by saying that we really do have the best mission president EVER here in San Jose. Hands down. We found out that it was his idea to invite us to Monterey and he had given us money for food AND one of his personal cars to drive down there. Who else can say that they have driven their mission presidents car? Yes, I was the designated driver. We drove his Ford Explorer down. We met him at the mission office and he gave us the run through of where to go and what to do and to be safe and sent us on our way. We got down there and had a blast! It was me and my companion, and my MTC companion, Sister Goodman and her companion. It really was the perfect group to go with. All the sisters in our zone were invited, but the other 2 companionships were being party-poopers, but I think it ended up being more fun with just us. We went to the wharf and watched sea lions and saw a BUNCH of jelly-fish in the water and went into a few shops and spent the rest of the time on the beach! As we were getting ready to leave, like we were all in the car, I had it in drive with my blinker on to enter traffic, one of the sisters was like, "Is that President?" haha it was! He was just walking around by himself on the other side of the road in street close! it was so weird to see him in street close! But we yelled at him and he ran through traffic to come and talk to us and see if we had fun. Hahaha it was the funniest sight I have ever seen watching president dodge cars coming at him as he jaywalks through traffic! But we got home and went to dinner and did a few other things and the day was over. That's the reason I'm emailing on Tuesday rather than Monday. :) Here's some pictures from our trip:

Well, that's it for this week! I hope everything is going well with all of you!

Love,

Sister Swapp

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

nov 5th & 13th

In two days... I will have been on my mission for 9 months... That's so weird to me. I remember when I first got here and saw other sisters that had been here for 9 months and thinking "They're so experienced and awesome at missionary work!" But now that I'm here, I definitely don't feel like that... I still feel like I barely know what's going on! And now all the missionaries that had SOOO long to go till they went home are going home... it's crazy how time flies.

Anyways, this week has been grand! I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Palmer. She's from Sandy Utah. She's been out for 9 months too. We were actually in the same zone in the MTC, but only knew of each other back then. Neither of us thought that we would become companions eventually! But she is so great! I love her already! This is pretty much only her second area. She stayed in the same area (kind of) for the entire first 9 months of her mission. How crazy is that!? But I can see how she is going to make a huge impact on this area. I don't think she sees it yet, but she will. :) We've already see so many miracles since she's been here! And we have many more to come this transfer, I'm sure.

We started a thing called the 21-day plan. It's where we pick out 10 people that we want to see changes happen with, whether that be baptism or coming back to church or something like that. We start off our 21 days with a fast and then pray morning and night for each and every one of these people for 21 days straight, without missing a single prayer. We started yesterday with fast Sunday. And we've kind of added something else to it... Each night, we're writing down the miracles that we see that day. The promise is that at least one of these people will experience a dramatic change in their life. And our zone leader pointed out that in the scriptures, it is always the faith of the missionaries that help the people be converted. And my companion and I have full faith that we will see a miracle in each of the 10 people's lives that we've chosen.

Our area has officially been split. We are now primarily just over the Pleasanton 1st ward. We went to ward council in the 4th ward yesterday and some of them were a little surprised that we were there... They've been anxious to get rid of us and get elders apparently... But we are still backing the elders up in 4th ward and still have an investigator we're working with, so we'll still be attending regularly. But my companion definitely noticed that the bishop favors elders. I don't even know why! I've been trying to figure it out since I got here. It's really frustrating sometimes. It's also been frustrating because the entire time we were over 4th ward we were always asking "what can we do to help?" to the bishop. Constantly! And he always told us, "Oh nothing." Well, he brought up in ward council that the elders stopped by to see him this week and asked what they could do to help.... he gave them a giant list........ Yep. So, I'm trying to look at it as a good thing that the elders have taken over, but the natural man in me sometimes comes out... I think I have pretty much come to terms that we have done everything that we know how to do to help that ward and nothing is working, obviously. So this change will be a good thing. The elders even asked us when they knew the change was going to happen what they could do to best help the 4th ward. I tried really hard to think of something... But we told them that we honestly have no idea and that we've tried everything.

So that's a little bit of stress off my shoulders. It's been a little crazy trying to help 3 missionaries learn the area when I feel like I'm still trying to learn it myself. It was super difficult the first day. I was feeling a lot overwhelmed, but i decided to get a priesthood blessing and that has definitely helped me in keeping calm. I love blessings! Every time I get one, it just increases my appreciation for the priesthood.

Well, that's pretty much it for this week. I am so very grateful for all of you and your support! I love hearing from everyone about how they're doing! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Stay safe!

Love,
Sister Swapp

Nov 12

This week was so great! I love serving here at a time when the work in this area is finally starting to pick up! As I told you a couple weeks ago, my companion and I have started the 21 day plan. Every night, we write down the miracles we have seen that day. It has definitely opened my eyes to sooo many miracles that we would otherwise look over. And we probably aren't seeing ALL of them either!

Wednesday was probably the biggest day for miracles this week. We made cookies for a few people in our wards and we were delivering them and stopped by one lady's house and she wasn't home (which she is pretty much always home...). So we left them with her son and went on our way. Well, as we were turning off of her street, we see a guy riding his bike. It was one of our investigators that we have been having a hard time getting in contact with who we've been worried is dropping us slowly!!! So we stopped the car, got out, and talked to him for a while. We caught up with him and then we asked where his reading was and he said he's been reading and finished 2 Nephi (he was in the middle of 2 Nephi the last time we saw him.). So we told him to read Alma 32 and let us know what he thought of it. Fast forward to the next morning and he texted us with lots of insights!!! He never texts us out of the blue! We always have to initiate the conversation!

Okay, so rewind back to Wednesday night. After we ran into him, we went by one of our potential investigators that we've also been having a hard time reaching and he wasn't home... So we decided to deliver some cookies to a family on the same street as him that just had a baby. It was a part member family and the non-member husband was very nice to us. We got to know them a little bit better and shared a scripture with them even! We were there for about 30 minutes and when we got back in our car we decided we would drive by Bill's again (the potential investigator) even though it hadn't been that long. So we drove by and.... There was a light on in the garage! So we pray really fast and get out and as we're walking to the door... A light inside turns on! I got so excited! So we knocked and he answered. He said he had just gotten home from work not even 2 minutes ago! Perfect timing! We stood on his porch and talked to him for a while and taught him a lesson too. It was so great!

But that's not the end of the night... After we saw Bill, we decided to stop by another part member family who we've been working with that is barely ever home/awake... So we stop by and... They answer!!! So we go in and teach them too! By the end of that, it was time to go back to our apartment for them night. But it was such a good day! And it was our 9 month mark. The Lord was definitely helping us have a good day! Which then helped us have a good week!

Well, that's how my week has been! I hope all of you are having wonderful weeks as well!

Love,
Sister Swapp

Monday, October 28, 2013

october 28th

Well, this week, I'm going to run into a first time thing in my entire 9 months here.... My companion is getting transferred. I've never been the one that has been in an area longer! It will be interesting. I'm not really sure if I'll be able to manage without my current companion's knowledge of the area. She knows it so well. And I...don't. But, it's a new adventure.

We stopped by a part member family last night so Sister Wheeler could say goodbye to them and the husband (the member) shared a great analogy he heard. He said that the gospel was like salt and we (missionaries) are the salt shakers. And the person controlling the salt shaker is the Lord. And on our missions, the Lord knows what areas need salt, so He moves us around so that we can spread salt here and there. I took it even deeper when he was explaining and thought about how each person we talk to is a grain of salt. We're not going to hit every single person, but the people we do bring closer to Christ matter. Not everyone is meant to be "sprinkled" by OUR salt shaker. It might be someone else's salt shaker that touches them. That's why we get moved around. It was a cool way to look at my mission, especially because of all the places I've served...

This is the family who's wife is not a member that we are working with. Last Sunday, we went and had dinner with them and watched the restoration video and invited her to pray to know if it was true. She had so so many questions that we were able to answer and agreed to pray about it. We went over Thursday to see how it was going and we asked her if she had prayed yet and she said, "Yes, sisters. I prayed Sunday night after you left. And I have not received a sign, but have prayed every day since you last came. So hopefully I get a sign soon." We didn't have time to teach her about the Holy Ghost that time, because she had to go upstairs right after that, but when we went over Sunday night, they asked us to sing for them before Sister Wheeler left, so we sang "I know that My Redeemer Lives" for them and I saw her wipe a tear from her face. So, things are moving right along with her. She's basically a dry mormon, minus the coffee drinking thing...

So this week, we had a lesson with our favorite less actives, the Moffats! I wasn't able to go to the lesson :( but I told my companion to remember and tell me every single detail afterwards! She came home and told me what happened and I was bursting with joy! This is what happened: The first counselor in the bishopric called us last weekend to see if he could come to our lesson with the Moffats. We told him yes and Sunday when we saw him, he told us that he was going to invite them to give a talk because he had gotten a prompting when he went to the temple earlier that week. So we said yes! That would be great to ask Brother Moffat to give a talk! (not knowing that he actually meant both of them... Keep in mind that Brother Moffat is the one that is getting so close to coming back. Sister Moffat still wants nothing to do with stepping foot in the building.) So they all got there and were talking and Brother Bean, the first counselor, just jumps right in because he can't stay very long. he starts off by saying something along the lines of, "I've never really known you or given much thought to you. To be honest, you've basically just been a name on the sister's progress record that is occasionally brought up in ward council." But then he goes on to tell them that he went to the temple the past week and he was sitting in the celestial room, not even thinking about them at all, and all of the sudden he received the prompting that Lynn and Jennifer Moffat were going to speak in sacrament meeting on November 10th. he told them that it just came out of the blue and that he KNEW it was from God. He then went on to say that this is what God wants for them, not himself. As soon as he told them that, Sister Moffat flipped out! She was throwing her arms everywhere and laughing hysterically and saying, "You want US to speak in sacrament!?" I think she was a bit shocked and taken off guard. The whole time this was going on, Brother Moffat was sitting on the other side of the room silent, with a deep-in-thought look on his face. Sister Moffat finally turned to him and asked if he was going to do it. He said that he was seriously considering it. She said that she would go and WATCH him if he spoke, which is still A LOT of progress!!! Then, Brother Bean left and they started talking about it more and Sister Moffat asked him again, "You're not seriously thinking about this, are you?" He said, "Yes. I am." She asked why and he said, "He touched me."

How amazing is that!! Oh man! If Brother Moffat speaks in church... Oh I will be so happy!!!! In case you don;t remember, this is the guy that hasn't been to church since before I was born and listened to conference and thought the Pres. Uchtdorf was speaking directly to him. I will be so blown away! Even if she just comes to watch him! Holy moly! I want to tell Brother Bean that I'll speak in place of her is she goes to watch him speak at least. Haha

Yesterday, Rhanya, our 9 year old investigator getting baptized, came to church! It was so great! A couple of the ward members are so great and came up to her mom (less active) and introduced themselves. It was so good for her! And she participated a lot in Sunday School! That's about the only news with them. She's still amazing!

Well, that's about it for my week! I hope things are going well for each and every one of you! I love you all and thanks for the support!

Love,
Sister Swapp