Gorilla!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!..... oh i mean HAPPY ST PATTYS DAY!

you may be wondering if it is snowing here in virginia.... the answer is a big yes. you may also be wondering if i will ever live in the snow after college... the answer is a heck no. hahaha but it is a good opportunity for service. we help a lot of people snow shovel when it snows. my poor companion is really sick today so we arent venturing too far today. so this week was a crazy awesome one! we had sister conference which is always amazing. my favorite part of sister conference is at the end when we all stand up and sing "called to serve" together. it gives me the chills! i look around at the 90 sisters we have in the mission and imagine all the lives they are touching through their service and how their future families will be blessed immensely! what a cool sight. there really is nothing quite like it. i mean elders are cool too and all but sisters dress way cuter and smell better. lets be real. then on saturday night i was given the opportunity to speak in front of 500 people and represent all the full-time missionaries in stake conference. i loved it! heavenly father seems to find every opportunity he can to have me speak in front of people. it sure is making me grow a lot. but an amazing thing about this time is that i was not even a tiny bit nervous. i always get a little nervous before speaking in front of large crowds but i was cool as a cumcumber. huuuge blessing! so a funny thing about my talk is that i was dared by two men in our ward to include the word gorilla in my talk. here is the line from my talk " we as missionaries are not here to bombard your dinner parties like a bunch of gorillas and scare your friends away. we are here to assisst you in sharing the Gospel with the people you love in ways the spirit directs you." pretty sly huh? every one was laughing and i got a stuffed animal monkey and gluten-free snacks for including it in my talk. it was pretty fun. this week i have learned a lot about giving heavenly father your all and truly sacrificing all you can to do what he asks of us. its blesses our lives in ways we cannot imagine. as we show our love for the gospel and our love for everyone around us, we will experience happiness like never before. a great way to reach out and share christs love with all is to compliment them. i usually am not one to over compliment because i feel cheesy. but this week i challenged myself to compliment people right in the moment. it has made so many people smile. including me. life is good! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher

"Nor shout, nor rush, but hush..... for God is here."

-unknown