Buckle your seat belts!!!!

HOLY MOLY!!!

Buckle your seat belts folks because this week was sooo phenomenal! you know those times when your jaw literally drops because you are so in shock that something sooo amazing just happened? well that happened to me literally every single day this week.

ok so I was praying sooo hard for us to find people to teach. so first of all one of our investigators has not been progressing at all! and she is such a good person and needs it in her life sooo much! I have been praying and studying for her like crazy. so on Tuesday night we were on splits and I took a member with me to teach her. we had a break through amazing lesson and she agreed to pray and read to book of Mormon for reals! it was amazing! hopefully she will keep on progressing well.

then on Wednesday we dedicated the whole day to finding people to teach! we were walking around the neighborhoods and I felt impressed to knock on this door. so we did... and it was this cute young mom and we got talking and sharing some truth with her and now we are going back to teach her this week! later that same day we were talking to everyone and it started to pour down rain! so we were walking back to our car and this elderly couple invited us to come and chat on their porch to get out of the rain. so we did. turns out they used to take lessons from the missionaries years ago. well we are going back to teach them too!

the miracles don't stop there folks.... we literally found 4 more people we are going back to teach this week. our investigator pool almost tripled last week and if all of our appointments pull through this week it will double again! we found people in the most random ways and even one lady invited us to come teach her.... we didn't even have to ask!

on top of all of this we got a text from our bishop late one night. he told us how this guy who lives in Utah called him and told him he had been working on a friend here in Virginia and she is ready to be taught by the sister missionaries and is almost ready to be baptized!!! WHAT!!?!?!?!?

well I cant even put into words how grateful I am that heavenly father answers prayers and allows me to be a part of all these great miracles. my life changes every single day out here!!! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher

Good luck handling Sister Swisher!

hey everyone! 

well another transfers week has come and gone. transfer meeting was phenomenal as usual. we had to leave at the crack of dawn because we are in the boonies of the mission and i had to be at the trainer meeting early. so it was a busy busy day. 

i got my new companion! she is a brand new sister and she is hitting the ground running! its so nice to have a new enthusiastic missionary around! especially since i am an old timer now. i know its weird. but she is from texas and i have already told president that she will be ready to train a new missionary in less than 6 weeks. we are already having a blast and getting a ton of work done! we are still in need of new investigators. we are doing everything we can and being exactly obedient so now its just the game of patience. my least favorite lesson... hahaha well i know we will be lead to those people who are prepared to hear our message. our ward is being great and working with their friends so hopefully we will begin teaching some of them soon! :) 

well at transfer meeting they introduce the new missionaries to their trainers in front of all the missionaries. it feels a little like when simba is held up in front of the whole animal kingdom at the beginning of lion king. so they announced that sis moore will be getting trained by sis swisher. and as we hugged each other in front of the animals... i mean misisonaries. pres richards said " hey sis moore good luck handling sis swisher." hahaha poor girl didnt even know what was happening. now she says it makes sense :) 

we are having a blast and loving every minute of working our tails off. life is good over here in the stock of woods. yup that is what the cool kids in woodstock say.... ok maybe just me. well MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!

Love,

Sister Swisher

Minnionaries my mom sent me

Sister Moore my new Comp from Texas

Father's Day!

yelloooooo!

I hope every one is doing really well! I know this week flew by for me.... as usual. well every one I am starting my 11th transfer this week. yes I only have 3 transfers left and its weirding me out. you may be wondering what is happening to me at transfers on Wednesday..... well folks the wait is up. I am staying here in Woodstock and training another brand new missionary! I am so excited to stay here another transfer. I guess I am just bound to stay in areas for long periods of time. the ward is starting to think I am a member here. this cute older lady even introduced me to her daughter who was visiting as the newest member. and I said " I am a sister missionary remember?" she was said" oh... I forgot. you have been here long enough to be a member!" haha she is cute. well my companion is going to get transferred to downtown Baltimore Spanish speaking. this is the first time they have let sisters be there because its dangerous. we knew they were going to put her there. she says its because she is old.... haha I say its because she is the bomb.com and she is about to tear it up in Baltimore. even though she is only allowed in certain parts of the area at night. the Lord will keep her safe. she is going to send me ghetto pictures and I am going to send her farmer pictures. opposite worlds!

well I had a really cool experience this week. so I was feeling discouraged because we have had a hard time finding new investigators. so I just got on my knees and asked Heavenly Father to let us run into someone that we could be an answer to their prayers that day. so we set out and we were talking with everyone we saw. then we were about to turn down a street when we decided we needed to keep going straight. after walking for a while, we saw this lady walking towards us. she was glowing and so happy to see us. we started talking with her and she just had something about her. we are going to see her this Wednesday night and start teaching her! we also have a couple more appointments set up with other who we might start teaching. this new missionary I am getting better be ready to hit the ground running because holy cow we have work to do! I love that Heavenly Father answers our prayers! whenever I feel like giving up He gives me the strength to go a little further and then miracles happen! so amazing! I love being a missionary and I am going to work my buns off my last 3 transfers of my mission and go out with a bang!!!

well amigos I hope you are enjoying your summer and that you all had a great Father's Day and let your dads know how much you love them. I know I love mine! he is the best! he has taught me so much and always makes time for me and my siblings. I remember him signing up to be my 8th grade volleyball coach because we didn't have a coach and him being at every event in my life. he also is the biggest goofball you will ever meet. he is known for hanging kids upside down by their feet and taking them to primary. I realized yesterday that I take wayyyy too much after my dad when I was walking down the hallway of church and tapping all the kids on the top of the head with my papers and my companion walking behind me saying sorry she is crazy. hahaha in that moment I was like oh my gosh I am my father. well I guess that is a good thing.... most of the time. love my dad. don't know what I would do with out him. I am soo glad he decided to join the church when I was small. he is the greatest example of what it means to give service all the time. he is the bomb! love my dad to death. I am so proud of him!

MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisherrrrrrrrr

Another Car incident!

HEY!

So funny story. My and my comp met members at the church to go on splits. We both piled into cars and left. When I got back President Wright (a member of our stake presidency) was holding the keys to our car. I said how did you get those? He told me that I not only left them in my car but I left the car running!!!! Thank goodness he found it :) I guess I was excited to go teach the gospel :)

I attached a picture!

so this week was a blur as well. i cant believe we are on the last week of the transfer. this transfer just flew by me! i will find out sunday if i am getting transferred or not. i will keep ya'll posted. well this week i had a lot of cool experiences with prayer. i just have had my testimony increase so much this week that prayer really is a two way communication with our Heavenly Father. I know that he answers my own and every one's prayers. He loves us and has given us so many resources to succeed in life and return to live with Him. He has given us prayer, scriptures, prophets, the Atonement, our families, and so much more. if you ever feel unloved just look around you! 

It is really powerful to be so earnestly seeking an answer to your prayers and then receive one, whether it comes quickly or takes a loooooong time. Its powerful. But there is nothing quite as powerful and seeing someone else like an investigator receive an answer to their prayers and see how much it means to them. Its AMAZING!

well i know that this is a really short blog post but i really dont know how to put this week into words. i will do better next week! I love being a missionary even though time flies by way too fast! love ya'll! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher

Hobo in the food storage room?!?

so I really cannot believe it is june already! this week went by in a blur. I really cannot remember much of it. we walked 5 miles on the hottest day of the week to find people to talk to. it was fun but we melted. take note: if ever coming to the east coast for a summer do not wear make up or a shirt where you can see your sweat. yup its gross and sweaty out here. the humidity has made an appearance and it wont leave. well there were a lot of great things that happened this week. we went to the temple visitors center with susan and sue. two of the recent converts in the ward. they learned about the temple and family history and are both so excited to get started. its so cool to see how the Gospel changes everything about a persons life. their priorities change, they are happier, everything!

well we went hiking with other missionaries last Monday and today we are going bowling! woo hoo! we have a crazy busy couple of weeks ahead of us and then its transfer time. I cant believe its already coming up! well something that I learned this week is that as we put our faith in Heavenly Father and are obedient to what he asks, He will send blessings. Even if we don't see them immediately, they will come. we need to be patient and know that everything is in Heavenly Father's hands. that has been a huge comfort to me on my mission.

something else that I learned this week is that I cannot help but tell embarrassing stories about myself. this week in the sunday school lesson I told a story about how in high school I was convinced there was a hobo living in our food storage room in the garage and I made my dad go check to make sure there wasn't. every one was rolling and I got my point across that dads are there to protect their families but I also got a new thing across for the ward to make fun of me for. haha oh well I cant help it. well MAKE GOOD CHOICES have a great week. :)

Love,

Sister Swisher