Last mission blog letter!!

Hey everyone!!! 

what a wonderful week! literally the best week of my entire mission. every goal we set this week, we prayed about and achieved! it was amazing. we saw sooo many miracles and found a lot of new solid people to teach! I could not be happier with the week that my dear companion and I just had! for reals being a missionary is the best thing on the planet. I love it!

I sort of feel exactly how I did when I was about to leave the MTC for the mission field. I was nervous and didn't know what to expect. I knew a lot of new adventures were right before me but I had no idea how hard or how amazing they would be. I had no idea how much my life would change from the people I was about to meet or the companions I would work with or the experiences I would go through. I had no idea the amount of food that I could eat at members homes. I had no idea how fun walking in the pouring rain in a skirt would be. I didn't know that I could spend 18 months loving people unconditionally and wanting what is best for them even though I had just met them.

Just like leaving the MTC I am once again nervous and don't quite know what to expect from the future. BUT unlike the MTC I KNOW that with God I can do anything! If I have learned anything from the past 18 months its that I can do hard things. It just takes a lot of prayer and a lot of patience. I know that no matter where life takes me I will ALWAYS have the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I will always have my family! I am so nervous but being a sister missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been the most spectacular time of my life. The people I have come to love like family, the missionaries I have been able to work with, an amazing mission president and his wife, and all of the hard and great times that come along with being a missionary have made me who I am today! I am so grateful! 

I want to leave you all with my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ! I know He lives! I know He died for all of us and loves us more than we know. His church has been brought back to the earth through a prophet named Joseph Smith. I know we can be together with our families forever! This knowledge had made me the happiest person I can be! I know that God answers our prayers. If you feel like He isn't listening, keep praying and trust me that He is listening to you! I love you all!

If you have any questions for me, you can ask me! I love questions! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

See you on the flip side,

Sister Swisher

10 days......

hey every one!

hilarious week. seriously i have the funniest companion ever. i havent laughed so hard in a long time. she is the bomb.com! so we have just been working our bums off this week! literally last night i was sooo hyper and stoked to work that i was literally running from appt to appt to be able to see as many people as possible. its awesome! we are going to make this week the best stinking week of our whole missions :) im ready to hit it hard!

ok funny street contact we had this week: this man yells across the street to us....

man: are you jehovah's witnesses???

us: no we are from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints.

man: oh so jehovah witnesses?

us: no sir. we are mormons.

man: (as he is walking away from us) oh well by the way i am "George"!

us: ok bye George!

man: turns around and says what the heck i didn't say i was George i said i was Jewish! and he books it away from us

us: whoops awkward.....

another street contact experience:

i was talking to this woman while my comp was riding a rip stick ( a skate board that you have to wiggle back and forth) with the woman's daughter.

as i was inviting the woman to church i look over at my dear companion and she is flying off the rip stick.... lands on her butt....her legs fly in the air.... her skirt flies up.... me and the woman start cracking up! my poor companion was hurting pretty badly.... i almost peed my skirt!

ok another story from our missionary work! we walk up to this door looking for a less active woman. the neighbors are sitting on the porch so naturally we talk to them. they said i am just going to warn you now that guy you are about to knock on his door is not interested in anything you are selling. we told him we weren't selling anything. then the man whose porch we were on came out and we told him we are missionaries and before i could tell him who we were looking for he slammed the door in our faces. it was really surprising. then the guy on the porch next door said told ya! then we said ok thanks sir what was your name? and he yelled not interested! and sis Barrett said sir we aren't selling anything whats your name? he told us and she said thanks that's all we needed to know. then we left. we were really saddened by this experience. as missionaries we are used to rejection but it really got to us that day. so we decided to go to taco bell. because that is what you do when you are sad. and this lady at taco bell approaches us (that never happens) and wanted to learn more!!!

bottom line. miracles come when you feel like you are about to give up. no matter what keep trying and the Lord will show you miracles and show you His love for you. its amazing to be a missionary! life is good! i cant believe how fast time has flown by! well i love you all! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!!

Love,

Sister Swisher

Miracles never cease!

hey every one!

i surely hope you all had a great conference weekend! it was such a good general conference. i always get so sad when it all ends. well on saturday morning we got to the church to watch the first session and there was no projector set up. so we call the tech guy in the ward and he rushes over to set it up. he got it all set up about 10 minutes in to conference. when it was all set up it was the asl channel. that was the only channel we were getting in the church. so it was quite interesting to watch the people sign all the talks and the songs. one of the elders was copying them and trying to learn. hahah dork. it was really trippy when the one speaker was speaking cantonese, the guy on the screen was signing and the big booming english over voice. safe to say i didnt take very good notes during that talk. it was a one of a kind conference experience.

 

the next session on saturday all 3 sets of misisonaries were invited over to this awesome members home. we were all chowing down on candy when the one speaker called us all out for taking control of our physical well being. we were convinced he could see us through the TV so we all started stuffing our candy wrappers behind us. we all looked at each other like oh my gosh we are fat! ahahha it was sooo funny.

 

the first session on sunday we went over to the bishops house to watch. they had soooo many m&m's it was crazy. you think my comp and i would have learned from the previous session. but at some point during the session my comp and i look at eacht other and realize we both have huge bowls of m&m's by us and none of the bishops family is eating anything. safe to say... we gave each other a look.... set the bowls in the middle and shook our heads in shame. haha

 

for the next session we all headed to the church. we had a big lunch with every one. it was sooo fun. the fun part was one of the stands that hold the tables was empty in the middle of the gym and it had wheels. so naturally my comp and i started giving all of the kids rides on it. then we got bishops wife to join in. it was pretty fun. probably not the safest but definitely the funnest. then we watchted the last session and i loved it. i love general conference and the spirit you feel as you watch it. the only thing i would change is how much food i ate this weekend! hahaha

 

we had a wonderful week and found a cute little family to teach. miracles never cease in the field. the Lord is truly hastening His work people! you gotta get on board or you might get left behind! i love you all! have a wonderful week :) MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

 

Love,

Sister Swisher

Hugging is against the Rules!!

hey everyone!

the weeks are going by faster and faster! this week we had a lot of miracles. we had leadership meeting and an exchange which always makes for a busy fast week! this week we have another exchange and general conference is this weekend! i am sooo excited i could pee my skirt! whoop whoop!

 

so we had a really good lesson with our investigator that is on date for baptism. she is really uncomfortbale with praying in front of us so we showed her this page in the pamphlet that has a little outline of how to pray. so we told her she could follow the model. it gives instructions on how to pray. well we all folded our arms and she began to pray... by saying "address your heavenly father.. expresss things you are greatful for... " she read the entire part of the pamphlet that teaches you how to pray. sis barrett and i opened one eye during their to look at each other and smile. after the prayer she looks up and says that was great i feel a lot better! we told her it was awesome then explained that she doesnt need to read that word for word but can come up with things from her heart. she said she will next time. haha it was so awesome! i lover her! her little son just loves primary.

 

on saturday we were in baltimore helping a woman move then we went to this less actives house that we have been trying to get a hold of the wholetime i have been here. she was recently baptized and hasnt been to church in a while so we have been really worried about her. so we were going to try by her house for the millionth time. and as we drove by guess whose head was hanging out the window of her row house??? the less active! we finally got to talk to her! it was a huge miracle! she opened up about not feeling worthy to come to church and we were ableto comfort her and she is willing and ready to come back! :) while we were talking to her on her steps... btw we were on n curley street in baltimore... the sketchiest street in the city.... this big man walks out of his house a few doors down from us and starts walking towards us. he doesnt say a word but opens up his arms really wide and walks towards me to hug me... i got scared and backed up but the wall stopped me and before i could say anything this big man was hugging me! then the less active was like " you cant be hugging them sisters like that! thats against the rules!!! " haha then he got embarassed and walked away without saying a word. i was like " who was that man that just hugged me?" the less active told me it was her neighbor and he asked her earlier if he was allowed to hug the church girls and she said no. haha it turned out to be really funny but not going to lie... in the moment i was quite scared!

 

well it was an amazing week that ended with womens conference on saturday night and a few less active ladies came to the dinner we had before the broadcast! it was amazing! i love serving here and i love being a missionary! MAKE GOOD CHOICES and have  a great week!

Love Sister Swisher

Sleep over!

hey every one!

so this week was seriously amazing! we had a lot of fun and did a lot of work! why is being a missionary soooo great?? ok sometimes it is really hard but most of the time is outta this world amazing. :)

 

so this week we taught a lot of our investigators and invited some new ones to be baptized and they accepted! they are on fire and loving it! i feel like we are running so fast all the time to get to everything we need to get done!

 

well tuesday night all of us sisters from the baltimore zone got to sleep over at pres and sis richards house! it was sooo much fun to have a sleepover with all of our sisters :) we woke up and had breakfast with pres and sis richards then left for the sisters conference in harpers ferry west virginia! we all went on the famous maryland heights hike! it was the bomb! we all got to the top and sis richards gave a really good spiritual thought and then we hiked back down and had lunch and then all of us sister training leaders gave some more spiritual thoughts. it was such a fun and amazing day! i love all the sisters in our misison. seriously we have amazing sisters that amaze me every day.

 

after that we went to dinner with this less-active woman and her husband who is not a member and he agreed to have us start teaching him! whoop whoop! they are soo cool! they take us out to eat once a week:) well we also found another investigator this week and her and her little son came to church yesterday! they loved it!

 

ok so last night Pres jason wright came to our ward to give a fireside! it was sooo good to see the wright family again! well this woman named michelle showed up to the fireside and she isnt a member but she would like to learn more so we are going to start teaching her this week! how cool is that??? seriously miracle after miracle this week! we are starting up exchanges for the transfer so we will be busy for the next four weeks going on exchanges and all that good stuff. i love life and i love my companion! i cant believe how fast everything is going... well i hope you are all having an amazing week! love ya! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

 

Love,

Sister Swisher AKA swishy (this cute little kid started calling me that and now its catching on to the whole ward haha)

 

 

Wow! Only 5 weeks to go!

hey every one!

ok so another crazy weeks of transfers! it was a lot of fun to see every one at transfer meeting! i love being able to catch up with every one. this is going to be the best transfer ever! my new companion is sis barrett and she is 6 feet tall! she makes me feel just a tad short haha we are already having sooo much fun together and are getting a lot of work done.

 

i am in this awesome phase that i just want to work through the night and not even sleep so i can get even more work done! too bad sleep is necessary to survive.... i dont even have enough time in the day to do everything i want to get done here in the chesapeake ward! well i am enjoying getting to know the ward members better and talking with every one we see on the streets!

 

so this week we were walking around this neighborhood talking to every one! and we got a lot of appointments to come back and teach them! miracles were happening left and right. then we were on a porch talking to this family when all of a sudden a few doors down our investigator that we have not been able to get a hold of walks onto her porch to get her mail. we walk over to her and she says that she knew she didnt have any mail but something told her to go out and check the mail. it was so she could run into us! any ways we were able to sit down with her and she let us know that the reason she stopped talking to us is because she felt guilty due to the fact that she started smoking again. and we had a good talk about it all and she told us she needs us and wants to come back to church and be baptized! whoa! holy miracles on 34th street! can i get a whoop whoop??

 

this was such a great week! i cant believe how fast each day is going by. its freaky. but i am taking advantage of every second i have here! i want to help out with this work as much as i possibly can! i cant believe how great life is as a missionary! well every one, have a great week and MAKE GOOD CHOICES! love ya'll!

 

Love,

Sister Swisher

What in the espanol world was going on!

hellooo!!!!

 

so this week has been pretty stinking exciting and unexpected. one of the biggest things i have learned about life is that it never goes according to plan. most of life is  plan B or C..... or D. haha and in order to be happy we have to learn how to just roll with it. so we had our last two exchanges planned out this week then one call from president and all the exchanges changed! its funny how that works out. but i got to go on an exchanges with the spanish sisters. i went to their area and tried to listen and understand what in the espanol world was going on! lets just say i got really good at saying "soy Hermana Swisher" then just standing there and smiling. haha then i would say "mucho gusto" then they would try to speak spanish to me and i just looked at the hermana i was with and said "que?" hahaha but i seriously had a blast!!!!! it was great to see how different the work is in a different language and culture. i love the spanish culture but holy cow i would gain 406598 pounds if i served spanish speaking. they feed ya til ya cant eat no mo'! pretty sure i had to be rolled back to my apartment after the exchange was over.

 

we had an amazing week of seeing people who had not been to church in a really long time tell US that they want to come back and get on track again. it is amazing to see that when people go through the roughest times of their life and see no hope.... they know where to find that hope. that is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. i cannot tell you how many times on my mission i have seen eyes brightened and budens lightened (yup that rhymed) because people have come closer to their Savior. it makes me sooo HAPPY! seriously on my mission sometimes i am sooo happy i feel like exploding! i probably freak people out with how happy i am when they meet me on the street! haha oh well..... i am a swisher... that is what we do... freak people out ;)

 

ok so as i enter my last transfer.... i am realizing really how much this experience has changed my life! i know i say it all the time but this is the best decision i have ever made. i look back at the hardest times on my mission and i am so glad that i stuck with it. that saying "no pain, no gain" is fo reals people. when we go through trials we grow and learn to more fully rely on our Savior. i love that we get to rely on him in the happy times of our lives as well as the sad times. he is just always there. its as simple as that.

 

before coming out on my mission i was freaking out about getting all the Gospel and scripture knowledge possible. but what i have realized is that it doesnt matter how much you know it matters how much you love. love people and you will be happy and be able to help. my testimony is simple but i know it with all of my heart! i love to share it with the people i meet out here. :) i love you all and MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!!!

 

Peace out....

 

Love,

Sister Swisher 

Orioles Game!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I missed the update last week! All of our prep days are sooo stinking crazy! Well the past two weeks have gone by in a blur. i really cannot believe that i start my last transfer next week. i feel old... really old. 

well last week in church i gave a talk. i didnt know i was giving a talk until the morning of but it worked out just fine. i love giving talks! we had an amazing last couple of weeks! we have seeen sooo many miracles that i cant even tell you all of them. we have also had so many meetings that i dont even want to tell you about all of them. haha.

well here are the highlights:

-new amazing investigator

-talk in church

-orioles game

-an investigator came to church that we have been trying to get there for months!

-found a cool new family that we hope to start teaching soon. they were atheist but then found the love of Jesus Christ

-we met a cool less active lady from the phillipines and she is feeding us lumpia this week!! oh yeah score!

-we went on a lot of cool exchanges with amazing sister missionaries

ok so quick background on the cool new investigator. she is a members neighbor and at first she just wanted to bible bash with us and prove us wrong. but we remained calm and just said hey our purpose it to invite you to find out the truth for yourself. we dont want to convince you of anything. we want you to ask God what is right. she did. she knows its true. she completely changed from bible bashing to praying about it. it is soooo cool to see how that Lord softens people's hearts!

orioles game! i had sooo much fun. and of course i was sooo busy talking to everyone in the whole mission and the wright family :) that i forgot to eat dinner in the park! whoops. oh well i had a blast and i am in the best mission ever. well my opinion may or may not be a little bit bias haha :) the orioles won! whoop whoop

ok our investigator that finally came to church! we had a miracle lesson with her where the spirit was sooo strong then we took her on a church tour! she loved it and came out with her concern of why she hasnt been coming to church. she felt like she wasnt good enough and that every one else was perfect. we were able to help her resolve that concern and boom she came to church ! it was amazing to see her there! she loved it :)

well i learned a really big fat lesson this week. its a hard lesson to learn but it will stick with me for the rest of my life. as human beings we often think that when we are unhappy we need to take time to focus on ourselves and see what the problem is. although this is true... we cannot focus on ourselves for too long because then we just have a little pity party. true happiness comes from serving others and helping others who are in a worst circumstance than you. it is how we truly become like our savior and find the happiness that the Gospel is meant to bring us. i consider myself a pretty happy person but on my mission that happiness has been taken to a new level. i know that the reason for my extreme happiness (seriously sometimes i cannot contain it) it because i am serving others 24/7! it is amazing to me how the world has spun that around. happiness in todays world comes with being beautiful, having the nicest things, the nicest hair, blah blah blah. not true. happiness comes when you are just giving of yourself to help others out. that is what makes us happy! 

well on another note... for the first time in my entire life i was asked if i was from Spain. this guy looks at me and is liek "where are you from?" i said "california." he said "oh not spain?" i thought he was joking. nope he was serious as a heart attack. not going to lie i felt pretty darn cool after that. haha i am a dork and a half. well i love you all! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Spanish Swisher

How to make hiccups go away

helloooooooo

 

ok one of the craziest most stressful weeks of my life but of course sis davis and i had a blast! what else is new?

 

we started off the week by shopping in innerharbor baltimore. it was sooo much fun and i loved being by the water. well when we got back to our house i realized i no longer was in posession of my wallet. yes i lost my wallet people. after much searching it was time to give up. so my poor mom had to scramble to figure that situation out with the senior couple that serves with us. i was trying to look for the blessings and finally decided that maybe if i had my license and was able to drive, maybe i would have gotten in an accident or something? i know its a weak blessing but its the best i could come up with. the real miracle is that i got a passport before i left so i will still be able to get on the plane ride home.

 

well we had a lot of obstacles come up in the work this week. it was hard. sometimes life is just hard for all of us. but when we put our trust in the Lord and realize that our plans are not always what he has planned, then we can find peace and comfort. i know that prayer works people!

 

through all of the obstacles that came up.. we were able to see miracles that happen when you just talk to everyone you see and love them. while i was on exchanges with sisters we met sooo many amazing people as we just talked to others. when in doubt... talk it out. seriuosly when i have felt down on my mission, i just go out and talk to people and share my testimony of the gospel with them. it always turns my whole day around!

 

so my funny story...... so i got the hiccups and they werent going away while we were in the car. and they were painful. and sis davis was like holy cow does that hurt? and i started to tell her all about my history with hiccups and how i can never get them to go away and then mid sentence she just turns and screams her head off. and i have the reflexes of a dead cat so i turn to look at her and then like 5 seconds later let out this blood curdling scream. then sis davis just started laughing her face off. i was like what the heck was that for? and she said hey your hiccups are gone. she literally scared the hiccups out of me! that had never worked before. it was soo funny. we of course have told this story to every single member and missionary we have seen since. they all think its pretty good. we are weird. no i take that back.... my companion is weird not me... haha yeah right.

 

well im excited for this week we have a head of us. more miracles to come! MAKE GOOD CHOICES! :)

 

Love,

Sister Swisher 

Hot date to get some dentures!

hey hey!!!

ok so this week has been especially crazy and fast. so we got to go to the temple on wednesday and it was amazing! the temple is always amazing! so we have three of our investigators getting baptized within the next 3 weeks. so safe to say we are stinking busy. we went on exchanges with the baltimore YSA sisters. it was a blast. i had a lot of fun getting to go on exchanges with a sister that i have been on a lot of exchanges with. :) i lvoe the sisters in our mission. we have the best sisters in the world! i love how good of friends we all are and that we all are working towards the same cause.

so we had one of the most spritiual lessons of my whole mission this week. i cant even explain how strong the spirit was when we taught this woman about the plan of salvation and she got answers to many of the questions she had about life. seeing her eyes brighten as she learned made my whole week worth it. it was a lesson i will never forget.

i am always amazed when i get to a new area and dive into getting to know everyone. its crazy how fast you get to know and love people. i feel like i already have strong relationships here in the baltimore area.

so my companion is just hilarious. we are easily the silliest companionship in the whole mission. we are always laughing.i know that is shocking to you all that i laugh a lot. ok funny stories: so this morning we were studying and i hadnt looked up at my companion in a while because i was doing my personal study time. well i looked up at her as we were kneelling to pray and the woman is wearing a huge sweatshirt with a maxi skirt and 90-year-old grandma slippers. i started to laugh but then almost choked on my carrot i was eating. she was like what the heck are you laughing at? and i told her she looked like she was ready to go out on a hot date to get some dentures. we were busting up and had to try to contain ourselves so we could say a prayer..... we laughed through the whole prayer.

another story: we try to make the routine of studies more exciting by reading the materials in different accents. today we kept trying to do a west virginina accent but it kept ending up as a chinese accent...... we couldnt do it for the life of us. the struggles of companionship study.

well i have a million funny stories but i dont have time to tell ya'll all of them. i will give you more next week! im sure we have many more weird stories ahead of us.

ok something that i learned this week was that obedience is not meant to be easy. if it were always easy to be obedient, we wouldnt get the chance to show HEavenly FAther just how dedicated we are. its great to be obedient when times are easy and life is breezy. but its when life is hard and nothing seems to be working out but we still strive to be obedient, that is when the real growth comes. obedience is the most important. above all else, obey. it makes life so much better in the end. i can promise you that! so MAKE GOOD CHOICES! have a great week!

Love,

Sister Swisher

This picture is for Bishop Garrison

phenomenal hair!

hola every one!

so it has been a very great week! it went by wayy tooooo fast! but that is the story of my life as a missionary. haha i wish i could pause moments and enjoy them longer. but i guess that is why we take pictures? so i got to the chesapeake area and immediately realized i was in for a shock. there are sooo many people to talk to! it is awesome! this ward is huge and there is a lot of work going on. it has been a whirlwind of a week trying to get to know all of the members and investigators. i love the people here already. i honestly feel that each area of my mission has been exactly what i needed at that specific time. Heavenly Father definitely has a big plan. there is no doubting that.

 

so my companion sister davis is the bomb.com. we already have so much fun together. it helped that we already knew each other pretty well. there was no awkward get to know you stage. it was just friends and laughter from the get go. she has phenomenal hair.... like from the moment she wakes up. so i have been inspired to actually start doing my hair more. so that has been another plus.

 

ok crazy story. so i walk into the chespeake chapel on sunday and am walking behind sis davis. she turns and bam i get a full visual of the back row... who is sitting there!!!??? Bethanie from my first area! i liteterally gasped and put my hand over my mouth to keep myself from screaming in the chapel. then daniel and baby addie come up behind me:) they came to the ward that day to surprise me! it was a fantastic surprise! i loved it! i got to meet baby addie for the first time. she is the prettiest baby ever. it was a great day!

 

well this week we get to go to the temple with our zone of missionaries and i am sooo excited! we have been looking forward to this forever! well sorry i dont have very much to say today! i dont have a lot of time. hopefully next week i will have more time to fill ya'll in! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

 

Love,

Sister Swisher

Goodbye Boonies...Hello Ghetto!

Hey everyone!

ok so this week was amazing! we did a #socialmediasplit and it was amazing! I loved it. i love pictures, i love missionary work... what could go wrong?

well everyone.... transfers are on Wednesday. i am soooo sad to leave my Woodstock family. but its nice because i will come back to visit soon and they are all adding me on facebook so i can keep in touch. in church on sunday i was trying not to cry my eyes out the entire time. it worked for the most part. ok i am sure that you are all thinking " just tell us sister swisher!" ok so i am going to the Chesapeake ward in Baltimore! i am also going to be a sister training leader again. i thought i served my time.... guess not! i am going to be with sis david! she is amazing! we know each other really well and we are both sooo excited to work together.

i am sooo sad to leave my companion sis moore and Woodstock. i love these people soooo much! i am definitely leaving a big part of my heart in Woodstock Virginia. i also have the best companion in the world! the sister coming doesn't know how good she has it. sis moore is amazing. we have a blast together all the time.

i am sad to say goodbye to this chapter of my mission but i know that i am needed in Baltimore. its going to be a big change since i have been in the boonies of the country for the last year. city here i come! i am going to finish my mission out in the ghetto yo! haha wow that felt weird to even type that. i am definitely used to the country ya'll.

well we went on exchanges this week and i went to harpers ferry again. it was sooo fun! well on the way to harpers ferry, we heard a loud bang! and the car was broken. so we spent the whole exchange dealing with the broken car. it was still a blast because i was with an awesome sister. we get along really well.

today was the best prep day ever! we went to harpers ferry to do the famous hike with the wright family and we went to this phenomenal fro yo place called sweet frog. i love the wrights!

well i hope ya'll are having a great week! i will write more next week when i have more time! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher

We won the bet!!!

hello every one!

so as i am sure you all know (because of my mother) the woodstock missionaries were in the deseret news and local papers. it was such a fun and exciting experience! i have been cracking up because the elders have been telling EVERYONE that they are famous.... i was like " elders you know that we actually arent famous and when we walk down the streets in utah people will most likely not be asking for our autographs?" they were in shock. haha silly elders. well it is really cool still and we were excited to show people what the work of salvation is like here in little ol woodstock. :)

well this week we saw many more miracles! we met up with some super solid investigators who agreed to baptism. we got the most heart wrenching question this week. "Can someone like me, who has been through a lot and has made a lot of mistakes, even have a chance to be saved?" what a blessing it was to be able to tell her with the utmost assurance that God loves her and her Savior died so that she could be forgiven. i had never felt so passionate about giving an answer to someone's question. i love being a missionary and being able to see people's eyes light up and burdens lifted because of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Holy stinking cow people we are all sooo loved! i have never been so sure about anything in my whole life. Heavenly Father loves us and our Savior died for us to be able to be forgiven. I love being able to tell people that every single day!

on another note, next wednesday is transfer meeting. all of the sisters that came in a transfer before me are leaving next wednesday to be able to be home in time to start school again. so that means that me and the sisters i came in with will officially be the oldest sisters in the mission. do i feel weird about that? yes! i really dont feel like i have been out on my mission for 15 and a half months.... it doesnt seem real. but i wouldnt trade this time for anything! being a missionary for the Lord has been the most amazing experience in my life so far! 

ok so this past week.... sis moore and i teamed up with Pres wright to instruct at zone training. we talked about getting the elders pumped up for the work! it was sooo much fun! i love instructing at meetings :) it got us really pumped up for the work as well. whoop whoop! 

well last experience... this one is a funny one! so the elders and we decided to start a little friendly competition to see who could go the longest with out sweets. well we started this on wednesday people. and we kept checking in with each other to see how we were all doing. it was so hard to turn down desserts at members homes! but sis moore and i were doing sooo well. well then on saturday night we went to one of the ward dinner groups where they invite their non member friends to come. so we were in the process of turning down really good looking peanut butter bars and we told every one about the challenge. then one of the members said when did you start this competition? we said wednesday night why? and they said oh.... well the elders lost. our jaws dropped. we asked how she knew. and the member told us that she fed the elders on thursday night and she fed them dessert. she said that they even stayed a little late so that they could eat the dessert! they lasted less than 24 hours people! we were on day 3 and right then and there we had ourselves some peanut butter bars! then we told the elders the members sold them out and they knew they were doomed. well the deal was that the losers had to buy the winners the mennonite donuts. so they are buying us extra for lying to us. hahaha psshhh we passed up really good dessert and the elders ate dessert EVERY night of the competition! donuts here we come! 

well i am excited for this week. we have a ton of amazing things going on! i will let you know next week what is happening with transfers. i have a big feeling that i am leaving my beloved woodstock. but you never know! stay tuned! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher

Sarcasm? Brook?

hellooooooo!

ok this week went by in the blink of an eye for reals! seriously this week was pretty good... most of the time! so on Wednesday we had the new missionary and their trainers meeting on Wednesday. it was quite the drive at 5am! we serve in the boonies, its official. but on the way to the meeting i was thinking about how it could possibly be my last new missionary/trainer meeting i attend on my mission and i almost started crying.... so then i tried not to be so depressing and just enjoyed the day. it was amazing as usual. and i just want every one to know that i have the most amazing new missionary out there. she is the bomb.com. i really lucked out. it is really easy to be a trainer when the missionary you are training came out pre-trained. i really love my stinking mission president too! what other mission president can handle my teasing/ sarcasm? none. i just called him for clarification on a new rule and he answered the phone "what do you want sister swisher?" haha he cracks me up so much!

well another week of cancelling appointments. on Friday i was feeling pretty down about a few appointments cancelling. then i realized we met amazing people that we would not have met had the appointments worked out. so some lessons that i learned from this week:

1. God's plan is wayyyy better than sister Swisher's plan even if she thinks she knows what people need sometimes.

2. how amazing is it that a mission has taught me to love complete strangers unconditionally. i mean one woman, i met twice, didn't know her last name yet, but i love her to death and want the best for her family. i guess that is why i was so down hearted when she cancelled on us. i just want the best for her and her family. talk about talking a quick walk in the Savior's shoes. that must be how he feels about us when we turn our backs on him and make bad choices.

3. no matter what is going wrong, there are always things to be grateful for and something to laugh about! amongst all the cancellations sis moore and i continued to laugh our heads off. i know that as my mission comes to a close in the next few months, and i go back into the real world. trials will come and i will look back on these times and remember that its not our circumstances that make us happy, its our attitudes.

4.There is always a miracle around the corner.....

Speaking of the miracle around the corner. Friday when we were about to give up we set up an apt for Saturday with this less active lady who isn't even on the records of the church. she has been away from the church for years! well any way we got in touch with her and we met her at her house. so we go in and she just lays it out for us and says she is coming back for good and she wants to have her temple marriage! so we are starting to teach her husband and her son this Saturday. they are going to be baptized and they are going to be sealed in the temple as an eternal family! woo hoo! it was amazing and made every cancelled appointment on my mission worth it. i am not an emotional person but when she was sharing her testimony with us i started crying! one of the coolest experiences on my mission!!!

quote of the week: " man i just had the biggest zit... it was white and ready to harvest... " missionary jokes are the best!

MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister swisher