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

Waving flags on overpass!

hey!

ok so the first part of this week.... hmmm... well i am not going to sugar coat it folks. it was terrible! EVERY single appointment we had from monday to wednesday cancelled and it seemed like the world was working against us. we were pretty down in the dumps on wednesday night then we talked about what we could be learning from this. we decided that we needed to show Heavenly Father that we are exactly obedient and diligent even when things are not going our way. so we decided to keep on trucking and being happy :) well what do you know thursday rolls around and a miracles happens that made the whole bad few days worth it! here is the story:

a few days earlier:

we were walking the streets and talking to every one. we stopped these two ladies to talk to them and one of the ladies was sooo excited to see us! she said she used to live in Arizona and was taking the lessons before she moved to virginia. she said we were the first mormons she has seen since she moved from airzona... 3 years ago! so we got her info and told her we would stop by!

Thursday:

we go by the hotel she works at and the power in the hotel was out due to a bad storm we had. so she was outside taking a break waiting for the power to come back on. so we got to talk to her and she explained with tears in her eyes that she was going through a really rough time and had been praying for help. she said that it was an answer to her prayers when she saw us the other night. she said this is exactly what she needs to be doing and so she is our newest investigator and will likely be baptized within the next few months!

if that is not a miracle i dont know what is! it was amazing and strengthened our faith sooo much :) 

4th of july! 

we had the best 4th of july ever! we went and party hopped from members homes. we ate sooo much :) then we were invited to the a family bbq with the elders but first we waved flags on an overpass in town. Check out why at http://jasonfwright.com/column/would-you-die-for-the-american-flag.html It was soo much fun! well funny story of me being a dork and a half. so at the end of the bbq the elders and my comp were like oh we need to go tell sis wright thanks for everything. but none of them wanted to climb the steps to the front porch to get her to come out. so i was like oh i will do it you lazy bums! so i was climbing up the stairs while every one was watching me... and bam! tripped up the stairs hard core... every one asked me if i was ok.... not! they all turned and laughed haha we all almost peed our pants it was so funny. no worries i just scraped my legs and smashed the brownie i had in my hands. its not a holiday until something weird happens right? well then we went to the church and passed out free popcorn and water to every one that came to watch the fireworks from the parking lot. it was great! we got to talk to a lot of people and were even invited to come and share a message by some. well then we ended the night by wathcing fireworks. amazing last holiday on my mission. well MAKE GOOD CHOICES! 

Love,

Sister Swisher

We found two $100 dollar bills outside of our apartment.

We turned it in to the police. If no one claims it President Wright is going to donate it to the missionary fund!

FHE with a family