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