always a funny story

Hey every body!!

I am especially excited to be out of the house today! Sister Hollis has been really sick all week and we were stuck inside. So this blog post will be kinda lame..... NOT! No such thing as a lame week when you are a missionary! So since Sister Hollis is on some meds that knock her out she sleeps the majority of the day. So I have been left to entertain myself. I still stick to the schedule and wake up by 6:30 and work out and get ready and study. but by that time it is only 9:30. So what have i been doing you are wondering? Well let me tell you. i have cleaned the apartment about 43 times, i have read every ensign that has come out since my birth, i have random solo dance parties to church music, i have been working out like a fool, and best of all i am almost done with the Book of Mormon. haha! so productive i know! So funny story of the week.... Sister Hollis had to give a talk in church. So she didnt take her loopy pills so she didnt get up and make a fool of herself haha. so before church i was just talking to everyone because i have been here in the Savage Mill ward for over 3 months. i feel like they are my ward family. so i was just chatting and a member of the bishopric came up to me and said hey sister swisher... since your companion is giving a talk would you like to say the closing prayer ( this is like the 3rd time i have said the prayer in sacrament meeting, they need to find a new backup haha) so i said sure Brother Maughn..... for a small price of 5 dollars. he must be used to me saying that cause he just laughed and walked off. So it was a missionary homecoming yesterday. so sister hollis gave her talk and a few youth bore testimony and then we were singing the intermediate hymn. at the end of the song i get up from my seat to start walking up to say the prayer. like 4 people stopped me and were like sister swisher sacrament meeting isnt over. great. the whole ward just saw me stand up and be tackled so i didnt go end sacrament meeting before the farewell talk! hahahaha! so i said the real closing prayer at the real time. i knew i was in for it when i said amen. EVERYONE and their mother's uncle came up to me to make fun of me. it was hilarious. the elders in the ward had a field day with it. they were even texting me during sacrament how embarassing i was. hahaha . well i thought the torment was over when church was over but as i went to get in the car the elders left a mormon.org card with a lovely note that read. remember when you almost ended sacrament meeting early? haha elders good one. well the work is still going well even though we have been cooped up all week. our investigator thelma is on date to be baptized on august 17th! woo hoo! well we are going to the doctor tomorrow to get my sick companion taken care of! have a great week everyone! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!

Love, Sister Swisher

much too fun for pictures

HEY everyone!! ok so i don't have a ton of time to email today because we have so many fun things to do today! we are going to play basketball with our zone and then we are baking and hanging out with Sister Strickland again! they should change the name from preparation day to party day! haha ok i am a nerdy missionary. So any ways... highlights from this week! It was super humid and hot this week! record breaking! we decided like a bunch of dummies to ride our bikes on the hottest day of the week! we died and lost 50 pounds. We went up a ton of hills too, worst idea ever. Then we found two new investigators! Their names are Ruth and Helen! They are 68 and 69 years old, they are sisters, and they are moving in together. They are mine and Sis Hollis' new best friends! They are a crack up! Then on saturday night we met this amazing family in the ward that we had never seen before but they are totally active. They are the Dashner family and they are so chill and fun! They reminded me of my Aunt Emily and Uncle Howie! It made me feel at home! When we left the Dashners' house there was the craziest, most intense lightning storm I have ever seen! It was like there was a giant strobe light outside. It was pretty fun to watch. Then on sunday Daniel received the Priesthood!!! And Bethanie and Daniel both received temple recommends! This week we will be working on family history work with Daniel and Beth and then when they get back from vacation we are going to do a temple trip! Sorry for the lack of pictures lately! I am still alive! Sister Hollis and I are just having so much fun, we forget to take pictures! Sorry this is a short post but I have little time to email! I hope every one is doing well and having a great summer! I love you all! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love, Sister Swisher

STAYING IN SAVAGE MILL

Hello everyone! I am soo happy to report that this week was way less crazy than last week. It rained a lot which was nice because it made it cooler. This week however is supposed to be 96 degrees with 90% humidity. We might just die. I have happy news to report on transfers! SISTER HOLLIS AND I ARE STAYING IN SAVAGE MILL WARD!!! WOO HOO!! I am sooo stinking happy. I was a nervous wreck waiting for the call to come. When they told us I danced around the apartment for about 12 minutes. I was happy to tell the ward and especially Daniel and Bethanie the news. It will be the saddest day ever when I have to leave those two (almost three.) Well we took our investigator Billy and his cute 6 year old son Riley to a baptism on Saturday. Our baptismal font is under construction at the moment so it was in a member's pool. It was the nicest house I have ever been too! Any who the baptism was really great! Two little kids and a guy named Ricky were baptized. The spirit was so strong. The bishopric called out all the sister missionaries that were there to come up and bare their testimonies during the service. They were all smiling like "haha we got those sisters" joke is on them I love speaking in front of people, ESPECIALLY to bare my testimony. Today we played volleyball with our zone for P-day. It was really fun and everyone stunk so bad I looked like a really good volleyball player comparatively. haha. Well this week was really great but I really just can't remember most of it! so much happens every day! Yesterday was a really good day at church and boring meetings. I am so happy that I will get to finish training Sister Hollis and that I will be in Savage Mill for at least 4 and a half months of my mission (hopefully more.) So this week I have been thinking A LOT about trials and hard times. I have never viewed trials like this but since I have been out on a mission I am saying "Bring it on!" Trials are when we get to show the Lord exactly what we are made of and that we will never abandon Him. Hard times will come, do not view them as tragedies. They are opportunities to learn and grow and serve. They show how much Heavenly Father trusts us that He would give us such a thing to handle because He knows we can do it! My mission is the hardest but best thing I have ever experienced. I know that I will get home a much better person and be more capable to handle life and the years to come. This is just some of what I was able to learn this week. Ok in the words of my father "enough with the mushy crap." I have a FUNNY story! Sister Hoillis and I found a name on the ward list that kind of lived near us so we went to find this lady that we have never met before. It was going to be our last stop of the night and the storm was rolling in. (just a side note: I LOVE the storms back here) So we put the address into our GPS and went out to find this sister in the ward. We were rolling into a part of Jessup that we had never seen before. We were like " huh this is interesting..." All of a sudden the thunder and lightening start picking up. We have no idea where we are but we were determined to find this sister and trust the good ol GPS. We see all these fences to our left with a lot of barbed wire. Sister Hollis was like " um that is a lot of barbed wire, where the heck are we?" I said " yup pretty sure this is a prison...." Next thing we know we see the sign for the women's prison. It was the address for the sister in the ward..... awkward. We didn't end up finding the sister in case you were wondering. We then texted our relief society president (who is super cool and our best friend, we are going to hang out with her and her daughter for the rest of P-day) to tell her the news. Turns out there are a lot of prisons in Jessup. Good to know. So now Sister Hollis and I tell people we went to prison on Thursday night. Well that is basically my week. Oh one more thing! I am finding out soo much about myself. First my love for vacuuming, now I have a passion for patato salad! Seriously I didn't really like it before my mission but now Sister Strickland (our relief society president/ best friend) introduced me to a world of patatoe salad! It is phenomenal! And I am officially the weirdest person ever who loves vacuuming and potato salad! haha Well LOVE YOU ALL! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher

Stolen Car!!!!

Ok everyone take a seat so I can tell you about my week. It has been a crazy one for sure! Ok so it has been absolutely insane and hilarious. I laughed the entire week so i have a lot of great stories to share. So first it starts off with Sister Hollis going to the doctor for posion ivy! she couldnt sleep like all week due to the discomfort it was causing her. So naturally everyone in the ward gave us a ton of treats all week because they felt bad. hahaha. so that was pretty funny because they put her on steroids to get rid of it and i was like look here doctor if she has some roid rage i am going to have to be the one to put up with it. so far so good no roid rage haha. So then Thursday was the 4th of July and our ward has a breakfast every year so we got to go and eat pancakes! then we invited ourselves to some parties in the ward and went to lunch with daniel and bethanie. We did not get to see any fireworks because it doesnt get dark until 9 and our curfew is 9:30. So we heard them from the apartment. This leads into my next story. Let me give you all some background. We have this little box in each missionary car called TIWI. It is really annoying because it makes us drive safely and tells us to slow down and such. We are always really mean to TIWI. When ever TIWI says "check your speed" we usually say something like "check your face" or something super clever like that. haha ok so any ways 4th of July night we were gathering all of our stuff from our car to go inside for the night. Sister Hollis and I both all of a sudden got the feeling that someone was watching us. So we hurry up, lock our car 56 times then go inside and lock every thing up. Didn't even think twice about it. The next morning we were groggily walking out of our apartment to go on our morning run. I walked through a parking spot and notice my Jolly Rancher wrappers all over the ground (i have been on a jolly rancher hype lately.) I was like that is so weird, i would never leave my trash all over the ground. i will pick that up after our run. Then sister Hollis looks at me and says "Sister Swisher...... Where is our car?" I look around and realize that I was standing in the spot where i had parked the car the previous night. We are frantically looking around and realize the rest of my jolly ranchers are strewn up the road. SOMEONE STOLE OUR CAR! We hurry and call Elder Jones the supervisor of the cars and then we call the police. We get everything filed and all and then Elder Jones calls the police and tells them that the car thief did not take out..... wait for it...... TIWI! So he had a location on our car! The police found it and did a stake out to see if they could catch the thief. Turns out it was parked to another stolen car and the thieves were letting the cars sit until they could come back and take them to a chop shop. So the police checked out our car and found out that the thief got into our car by a garage door opener. they caught our key signal the previous night and used it to get in. The thief stole my missionary debit card and used it to buy alcohol (ok kinda funny and ironic.) He took my GPS and weirdest of all he stole my sunglasses! hahaha he is rolling in style fasho. So we got our car back and it reaked of cigarette and we switched cars with elders in an area an hour away so we got a nicer car out of the deal. The missionaries in the office bought us lunch because they felt badly and we basically got a sweet deal. Sister Hollis and I were like man we should get our car stolen more often! hahaha also the cookies that the ward members had made us were in the car and the thief ate them all so the ward restocked our cookies supply. Honestly the most important part were the cookies. haha well i have an exciting story to tell my kids one day! This story just reminds me that Heavenly Father is truly watching out for all of us! Seriously miracles! So then sunday rolls around and we are at church and Daniel shows up in a new church outfit! He bought a tie and white shirt and slacks, the whole 9 yards! he looked like he had been a member for years. i almost started crying! This week has been so exciting and I dont think i have laughed this much in my whole life. Sister Hollis and I are going to be friends for the rest of our lives. She is such an amazing missionary! I love this area! Transfers are next week so i will find out in 1 week if i am staying or going. Sister Hollis and I are praying that we both stay!!!! Well I hope all is well with everyone! All is well here in Maryland, just hot and humid as poop. This is the best time of my life! We have another investigator named Thelma that is on date to be baptized July 27th and hopefully her son Nige will be on date to get baptized the same day soon. Miracles are happening all around us everyone! We just have to serve others and we will see the blessings pour into our lives. This week has been super humbling to me! I love the Gospel and I love all of you! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!

Love,
Sister Swisher

Week of Miracles

Hello!!! This week was a week of miracles! On Monday we were going to see a less-active man, on the way back to our car we saw this cute little family. So we gave them a card and the lady was like oh I work with a member! He gave me the Restoration DVD and the Book of Mormon. I have been reading the Book of Mormon! After I peed my pants (not really.... ok maybe a little :P) we set up a time to see her and her husband and her cute little girl! woo hoo!! Then we were looking for a lady named Tina so we went to the address we had and it was another family. Tina had moved. But she invited us in and we taught her and her two sons the Restoration and they invited us back! Oh if you think that is the end of the miracles... just you wait! Then our recent convert Cecelia Jimmy called us on the phone and told us she had been talking to her neighbor about the Gospel and she had agreed to meet with us. I called Themla (Cecelia's neighbor) and she said come over TODAY! so we went over and taught her and her son Nige the Restoration. Wait for it..... they then invited themselves to church! That is not the end of how cool Thelma and Nige are! On sunday morning Thelma called and said she was going to have Nige her son convince Evelyn Jimmy to come back to church since they have grown up together. Evelyn came to church!!!! Miracle!!! I am absolutely on cloud 9 right now! Heavenly Father has blessed us soooo stinking much this week and I couldn't be more thankful for this call that I have been given to share the Gospel with others and to witness how much happiness it brings into their lives. It is also amazing to see how much missionary work has changed just in the last week since the broadcast!!! The members are doing so much to help us out, find people for us to teach, and to fellowship those who need friends. They are so on board with missionary work! I am absolutely loving this area!! I cannot believe all the miracles we see all the time! Oh wait!! I just remembered another miracle we had this week! A less-active we have been working with came to church for the first time in a while!! It was great to see the ward welcome her back and help her with her kids and just show her that they love her. Daniel is still doing really well! Bethanie are coming to help us teach this week. They are already going strong in the Gospel together and it is so amazing to watch and be a part of. I am literally the happiest person in the world! Life could not get any better! I cannot believe I have almost been in Maryland for 3 months. I have no idea where the time has gone at all. I love my companion Sister Hollis! So the pictures from this week are from the big training meeting we had with the whole mission. It is for all the new missionaries and their trainers. It was a blast to see everyone! Being a missionary is hard work but it is the funnest thing in the world! We went laser tagging today yet again! Well thanks for the prayers! Love you all so much! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher