Doctor Brookie

Hey everybody! Sorry this is a late email! All the libraries were closed yesterday so we had to wait til today to email. I am a little sad because it is taking out of the time that we have to work and share the Gospel today. I almost decided to not email and just wait til next week but then I was told it is a rule to email every week.... then I thought about how sad my mom would be. Well the work is still going well. This week we worked really really hard. I went on two exchanges this week. I never thought I would be so homesick for my companion and my area in my life. (Exchanges are when you go 24 hours with a different sister missionary so you can learn from each other). It was so funny when Sister Schofield and I were reunited, you would have thought we hadn't seen each other for years instead of just 24 hours haha. Companionship unity right there! So this week was really great, we are teaching a man named Daniel who is married to an Australian woman who is a member. They are absolutely amazing. Well he is on date to be baptized June 15th! I cannot wait! Sadly transfers are next Wednesday so more than likely Sister Schofield and I will not be companions any more :( but I am excited to see who the Lord will pair me up with next. I love learning from other missionaries! We have 15 new sisters coming in next week and 15 new elders! The mission is growing so much! We met this cute old man named Peter and are teaching him. He is already talking about giving up drinking to be "one of them dang Mormons" hahaha he is absolutely hilarious. So I am really sorry that I can never remember more of the last week, it is just that we are always on the go and our schedules are jam packed. Yesterday for P-day we went on a little hike which I will upload pictures of. Oh yeah last week Sister Schofield went to the doctors because her throat was killing her. She had had swollen tonsils last transfer and they gave her some meds to fix it and she said it never fully went away and she is so tough she waited til a month and a half later to finally say something! So we went to the doctor and they told her she had tonsilitis. I was joking around with Sister Schofield telling her I was a doctor. When the doctor came back in she was going to prescribe her the same meds she already had before. I told the doctor " well that is what she was on last time and it didnt care of the problem so maybe she could be put on the something different" (obviously being a missionary has made me a mom haha) and the doctor looked at me and said that is a really good point. Me and Sister Schofield looked at each other and gave each other weird looks like "did she really just listen to me?" hahaha so yes everyone I am a doctor now and can prescribe medication for all your tonsil needs. Well I just want to leave you all with something I learned this week. I was reading in Mosiah in the Book of Mormon and it was when Alma and his people were captured by the Lamanites and put under the rule of King Amulon. Amulon worked them far beyond what they could physically do and treated them like slaves. He also didn't allow the people to say prayers. The people still prayed in their hearts and God told them to not worry because He knows what they were going through. He also said that He would not take away their burdens because these burdens were going to strengthen their faith. But He would strengthen the people so much that the tasks they had to perform would be easy for them and that they would be able to carry the burdens with ease. I LOVE THIS! When we pray in times of trials we are often expected a solution for the trial or for the trial to be done away with completely, but the Lord gives us trials to strengthen us and make us way better people than we were before. But because He loves us so much and never abandons us He will strengthen us so that we can make it through and learn from what we are going through. I want you all to keep this in mind this week and stay STRONG! I love you all and am praying for you all. MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love, 

Sister Swisher

P.S. I have lost 3 pounds because I am determined to not come home the size of Maryland! hahaha

Picture Overload

Brook was happy to Skype on Mother's Day! It was good to see her shining face!

The Jimmy Family that she talks about in her letters.

Brook and her companion Sister Schofield.

 

Brook and Evelyn Jimmy on the way to the Visitor's Center at the DC temple.

 

 

Sister Schofield, Evelyn Jimmy, and Sister Swisher in front of the DC temple.



One of the beautiful Maryland trails they ride their bikes on.

 



Brook's district in the MTC.



THE NAMETAG!!!!!

In front of the Provo Temple.

 



Lazer tag fun! Brook being Brook! haha



Arriving at the airport!



The new Sister's and the Mission President's wife.

Brook with her Mission President and his wife.

The new recruits! Quite a big group!

 



The "Swishers"

Ok everyone hello and happy Monday!! I hope every one is getting ready for the end of the school year! Woo hoo! So life as a sister missionary in Maryland is super amazing still :) It is very humid already and I feel sticky all the time! But it makes the scenery amazing. I still cannot get over how absolutely gorgeous it is here. Ok so this week... hmmm it is so hard to recall everything that happens because we are always on the go and so many amazing miracles happen every single day. Today we played basketball and volleyball with all the elders in our zone. It was so much fun! My team named themselves the Swishers. Haha every one really likes my last name. I was like seriously thats our name? And they were like yea its sooo sick the Swishers! And i was like oh thats whats on my family christmas cards. They like to tease me out here. Haha I don't know why? I would never tease any one :P So my companion and I Sister Schofield have had a great week! Every single day I learn soo much! I cannot believe that on Wednesday i will have been in Maryland for a month! What the heck? Where did the time go? I wonder if the time is flying by for everyone else. Well the Jimmys are doing amazing still. Sister Jimmy still wants to adopt me and Brother Jimmy just got the priesthood and has us come read scriptures with him about the priesthood all the time so he can learn more and more about it. I look up to the Jimmy family so much! They are so humble and are always wondering what they can do for everyone. We are still teaching Evelyn Jimmy but we had to push her baptism date back a week because she feels she is not ready yet. We are visiting this recent convert named Sister Jones who lives right next door to the Jimmy's! She is single with 8 children! Their family is so awesome! I love going over there, it is so comfortable to be in their home with them. I love all the people out here so much! I already get so sad thinking about being transferred to another area. I started to miss my family a lot this week but then I just dove in and started working even harder and it made me 10x happier. I love serving the Lord and can't wait to see you all again and tell you about all my adventures out here. I am praying for all of you! This week I went out and bought a new device that will help a tech challenged person like myself share pictures so it better work!!! Keep SMILING!!! :)

Love,

Sister Brookie Swisher

Best Night Ever

HELLO HELLO!!!

Sorry about the pictures everyone, I am and always will be technologically challenged! hehe My mom will be the first to tell you that! So this week was absolutely amazing! I got packages from my mom with shoes inside!! Woo Hoo! And Sister Schofield and I worked our butts off to spread the Gospel! So this whole week appointment after appointment kept falling through, luckily my companion and I are always laughing and making the best of everything or we would have just cried ahaha! So then Friday came rolling around and we had the prompting that we needed to take Evelyn Jimmy to the Visitor's center! So we texted her and asked her if she could go on Saturday but she said that she couldn't go because she was going to be with her sister. So we were about to just settle for next week. But the feeling came to me... TAKE HER TONIGHT!! So I told my companion that we had to make it happen. So we called up a member named Ashley Tipton and she was able to drive us with like no notice. Then we had to call President and get his permission since the DC temple is out of our mission. And we had a few other things to take care of but it all "magically" worked out! We took Evelyn to the visitors center and she loved the temple and how pretty it was. Then we took her to see the Joseph Smith movie. I prayed so hard the whole time that she would feel the spirit because she was still praying to know if the church was true. The next thing I know I look beside me and Evelyn was crying during the movie! After the movie we asked her how she was feeling and she said "I know the church is true and that I NEED to be baptized!" best night ever. What a miracle, Heavenly Father is AMAZING! He has this awesome plan for the Jimmy family that I get to be a small part of. I am so happy for this family that is all coming into the Gospel and will be sealed for all time and eternity next year! So I got to talk to my family on Mother's day yesterday and it was so sweet! My family right away started farting up a storm and I was like wow I love these people like crazy! They all looked at least a month older :P I cannot believe that I have been in the mission field for almost 3 weeks! This has gone by so fast and I have learned so much. Every day I love being a missionary more and more. Well keep writing me! I love you all and I miss you. I am always praying for ya! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!!

 Love,

Sister Brookie Swisher

Amazing things are happening!

Ok sorry I have been terrible at writing every one, but the life of a missionary is so so so busy and so much happens, I couldn't possibly even know where to start. So I will just tell all of you the highlights of my week. So the Jimmy's that just got baptized, their daughter Evelyn started taking the lessons from us and she is on date to be baptized on may 25th now!! Yay!!! I have met so many people. This is my calling in life! I get to talk to people all day long! Best thing ever! My companion is amazing and she supports me and teaches me a lot. She is so shocked because she never has to tell me to go talk to people, I just see them on the street and start booking it over to go talk to them. So I am still in shock about how stinkin beautiful it is over here! I feel like I am in a movie every single day!! My companion and I laugh way too hard way too much! We have so much fun. We work super hard too. President Richards and Sister Richards are so amazing. I am so lucky to be serving in their ward because I have already become so close to them because I see them all the time! Ok another highlight from this week, we were in gospel doctrines yesterday and I was sitting by one of our investigators and our new convert Brother Jimmy. We learned about the church leading up to the apostasy and how it crumbled and led into the apostasy. At the end of the lesson the teacher said, "And next week we will learn how it was restored!" and Brother Jimmy in his cool african accent turned to me and said, "Sister Swisher! I cannot wait for the next lesson because we get to talk more about Joseph Smith!" He is the coolest guy ever that Brother Jimmy. He is also really excited to receive the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday! Then we are taking him to do baptisms for the dead at the DC temple and he will be baptized for his son that was murdered in Africa like 10 years ago. Amazing things are happening for this family. It is so amazing to think about how in a year I will still be out here and get to see them be sealed for time and all eternity. Being a missionary is absolutely the best thing ever!! I feel everyone's prayers for me and would like to thank every one so much! Today our whole zone of missionaries went and played lazer tag! It was so fun and intense! We all got to pick out code names for the game and I was FLAVA FLAV and my comp Sister Schofield was P-Diddy! hahahaha We get fed by the members of the ward every single night and I get to become apart of a lot of different families. Every one here loves us and takes care of us. I miss you all. Know that I pray for all of you every day! I am going to finally attach some pictures just so all of you know that I am alive! :)

          Love,

          

          Sister Brookie Swisher