Almond joy at 7:30am and Pictures!

Hello every one!

What a spectacular week it has been! So we had sister conference this week! It was where ALL the sisters in the mission got together for an all day training. Sister Brunson and I instructed and it was a BLAST! So at the end of all the instruction we did a craft and ate chocolate and had a clothes exchange. talk about a sister missionary's dream come true! it was the funnest day EVER! i love all of the sisters in this mission. there's around 65 of us now. so that was wednesday then the next day was leadership training which was a big bore compared to the sister conference but hey nothing can compare to that. i love all of the training and teaching opportunities that i get as a missionary. it has taught me sooooo stinkin' much! we saw a ton of miracles this week. i loved this week. i am sooo happy. oh and it could be the fact that i found out that i am gluten intolerant and i havent been eating gluten and feel a TON better now! this morning there was an almond joy sitting on the table and i was searching the ingredients to see if it had gluten because it sounded sooo good. so this elder in our zone is also gluten free so i texted his phone and asked him if almond joys have gluten in them. i didnt realize that it was just 7:30 am still and he was like for reals? hahahaaha i love chocolate, what can i say? safe to say that all of the missionaries in the mission know what a dork sister swisher is. so on sunday we had an amazing miracle! there was a fireside sunday night about family history. we invited two of our less-actives who love love love family history. they havent been to church in a VERY long time. YEARS! so they didnt really give us a concrete answer if they were going. we show up to the chapel..... turn the corner.... and BAM! they are both standing right there!!!! First time in  a church building in a century. it was amazing! then one of them saw the poster about the ward halloween party and asked us if we were going to decorate our trunk and we said yup! so she said well let me give you candy to pass out and all the decorations i have. SWEET!! thats not the end. i told her that my great, great, great grandpa was born in a nearby city and she said she knows a lot of swishers back here so she wants to do family history with me! she is sooo awesome and is on fire right now! i love it! i love miracles! i love the Gospel and i love being a missionary! Life is still great! I hope you are all doing well. :) MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!

 

Love,

Sister Swisher

sister cigar, sister swifter, sister.....

HEY!!!

Alrighty so life has finally seemed to calm down a little bit. key word being little. haha this week was absolutely amazing. we saw soo many miracles in our area. so we started out the week on tuesday by instructing at our zone training. sis brunson and i instructed on companionship unity and we tried to not make it boring because i think zone trainings are one of the top 3 most boring experiences of my life. so we had them build towers out of toothpicks and marshmallows and we related that to the topic we were teaching on. it was a blast! then we went on an exchange with the sisters in cumberland maryland. i stayed in the area and sister struhs ( a sister i was in the MTC with) came here with me! it was sooo much fun! we saw many miracles during those two days together! we met less-actives that we have been trying to meet for quite some time and became their best friends! i have realized that one of my favorite parts of being a missionary is being everybody's best friend. :) Heavenly Father has greatly blessed me with a glimpse of how he sees all of us. how else could i just love all of these strangers so quickly! so we went to see this recent convert who is 16 and is such a good example to all of the other young women. she told us she had been trying to get another less-active young woman we have been working with to go to seminary. so i was like psh! we will get on that train with you. so we bribed her to go to seminary with muffins and she came! it was great and it was a miracle in its self. then we went over to her house the next night and she went to seminary AGAIN with out us and she is going to keep going from now on! this is a big deal! she has come to church twice now and is on her way to being a leader in the young women group. she is amazing. our sarcastic senses of humor get along really well! we also saw miracles with our members doing missionary work! every single day we have a member tell us they are getting a friend ready for us to teach or they want us to meet someone! it is sooo great! General conference really has made every one get their minds in the missionary mind set. it is cool to see every one looking for opportunities and preparing themselves to be ready when they arise. So church on sunday..... our relief society president named it sister swisher sunday. (tongue twister much?) i gave a talk, my comp signed me up to sing while she played the piano, and i was asked last minute to speak in relief society. if this ward wasnt tired of my face before sunday, they are now! it was a missionary work sunday! sooo cool! every one is on fire to share the Gospel! I feel the Spirit so much stronger in chruch and the members homes as they share the Gospel and look for opportunities to serve! as we serve others we are truly blessed in ways we cant even imagine. i am sure that all of you have seen this in your lives as you go about doing good in the world. not only are we happier, but the world seems like a much better place. I really like what my mom said in her letter to me this week, " We can be the example!" It doesnt take much to make a difference, just be your best self and people will notice. every single person can make a difference no matter how old you are! I love love love being a missionary and being out here serving these people with all of my heart. LIFE IS SO GREAT! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher AKA : sister cigar, sister swifter, sister nothing but net, sister turkey kill and sister blondie

P.S. my ward has a lot of nicknames for me here. i just respond to every thing and anything theses days haha 

FAKE TEETH?!?! and finally pictures!

Hey everyone!!!

ok so i am back in West Virginia with my companion! woo hoo! and i finally have some time to send some pictures so you can all see that i am alive and still a weirdo. So let me entertain you all with some humorous stories from my crazy week. We were visiting a 94 year old lady in a nursing home. i was bending down talking to her while she was sitting and eating in her wheel chair. i was in mid-sentence and she puts her hand up to stop me from talking and says " you have beautiful teeth. Are they real?" Taken by surprise by this question i tapped my teeth and said " yup these are real." and then out of the corner of my eye i see her friend up to something. i looked over at her friend next to her at the dinner table and say her holding her dentures and licking them clean of the lasagna she just had and then shove them back into her mouth. Me being the sly person i am just stared with my mouth open for a good minute. her question made so much more sense about my teeth all of a sudden. haha. i have basically told this story to every one in west virginia already so apparently i really like to tell it. well the work is going really well here. we are seeing miracles in our less-active work. it was transfers on wednesday so finally the hardest transfer ever is over! i will never pray for a hard transfer or trials ever again..... but having said that i have never seen the Lord's hand so clearly in my life. I see His love for me in EVERYTHING! I have learned some patience.... definitely lots and lots of patience. thats the hardest thing for me to learn. i have been able to sit back and see the bigger picture. how much easier would life be if we always had an eternal perspective? probably loads! well we had stake conference here and S. Gifford Nielson came and talked to us. he spoke in general conference last weekend so that was really cool. Our stake is on fire with missionary work. all the members are trying their hardest to share the Gospel. what an exciting time! life is sooo great!!! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!

Love, 

Sister Swisher real teeth and all

Familiar face!!

Hey every one! so this has been a crazy week yet again. I have been in LaVale Maryland for the past week due to some interesting circumstances. but dont worry transfers are this week but i am staying in martinsburg with sister brunson!!! woo hoo!!! oh so funny story about transfers. we found out last night about who is going where and since i am not in my area with my comp i had to find out after her. she sends me this text on the phone that says "you are getting transferred :(" i was super mad haha then my district leader calls me and i  yelled "why am i getting transferred?!?" he was like you arent sister swisher your companion is messing with you. i was like "oh my gosh i am going to kill her! i was pooping my pants!" then my poor district leader was like of course you were sister swisher. hahaha i am going to beat sister brunson up when i get back to my area! what a jokester! so i am really excited to be in martinsburg again. it is going to be an absolute blast. somethings that i have learned this week are 1. you have to be bold with people sometimes. it may be scary but as long as you love em to death and want the best for them, everything will work out and be great! 2. apparently i have a very farmiliar face and every where i go i get comments like "you look like my daughter" or "you are my cousins twin i swear!" i know i know i look like every other blond girl i guess haha 3. i like to surprise attack other missionaries with my camera and get terrible picutres of everyone. i am my father's daughter. Well there was a baptism here in LaVale yesterday and it was such a sweet experience. The man who was baptized has 2 daughters who were baptized previously and they were just ecstatic that their dad was joing the church. it  was so sweet to see the Gospel bring so much joy into this family. i love being a missionary no matter what area i am in! i love all of the people i get to meet and help. They all teach me soo much! I have tripped about 13 times this week so my knees are pretty beat up right now. haha General conference was amazing and its a great time to be a missionary! the members are really getting into the work and its great to see the work just take off!!! Love you all! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

 

Love,

Sister Swisher