Best thing ever!!! (lots of pics)

Some of the things Sister Missionaries learn on their missions:

-how to do your make-up in less than 5 minutes and still look semi-presentable

-how to make random food items left in a kitchen into a gourmet(?) meal

-how to have dance parties to church music. called to serve is my jam. 

-how to conceal your laughter as a bad cough in the middle of lessons. sometimes the people you teach or your companion say something hilarious and ya gotta keep it together. 

-how to clean your apartment in 10 min in order to provide ample preperation day time. i am now an ultimate sweeper. give me a dirty floor, i will sweep it in 2 min :p

-how to make wearing bulky boots, skirts, coats, hats, and scarves work. ok they probably still dont look good but i have convinced myself they do. 

-how to whip out your camera at any possible moment during the day. oh my gosh first snow shoveling experience! picture. oh my gosh we are wearing the same color! picture. 

-how to keep yourself hydrated even though you have very limited bathroom opportunities some days. your bladder gets a good work out let me tell ya. 

-how to use the "can i use your bathroom?" line to get into someone's home that won't let you in. yes i have used so many strangers' bathrooms i lost track. 

-how to make conversation with ANYONE about ANYTHING! 

-how to smell an opportunity for service from a mile away. 

-how to bike in a skirt... its not as easy as they make is seem on TV.... or as graceful

-how to make helmet hair look GOOD

-how to come up with an inspirational 5 minute talk on the fly

-how important letters and packages are! they are GOLD people... GOLD!

-how to keep 50084568 names and addresses straight and not call someone's baby Liam when his name is actually Dean... awko taco

-how to explain why you and you companion smell like cigarette smoke when going into a member's home after coming out of an investigator's home.

-how to go with the flow when your "perfectly" planned day goes less-than-perfectly

-how to take time out of crazy busy life and enjoy the small and simple things that make it all worth it

-how to how to laugh at scripture jokes

-how to laugh at your companion

-how to be laughed at by your companion

-how to stay awake when reading scriptures in the morning. not only keeping your eyelids open but LEARNING as you read

-how to truly love random strangers and want the best for them

-how to trust and rely on the Lord

-how to pray for others

-how to learn and grow from your mistakes

-how to find joy in the trials and hard times in life

-how the Gospel truly can help EVERYONE

My mission is the best thing that has happened to me. I learn every single day! I know that i was meant to be here at this specific time and place. this week has been one of those week's when you just realize how great life really is and how lucky you are to be where you are! I just wanted to share with you all things that those crazy sister missionaries learn when they are out working for the Lord for a year and a half. or as i had a big black preacher tell me in the gas station, "we are on the battlefield for Jesus!" haha its hard but its so fun! its worth it! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher

food poisoning

hello every body!

 so not a lot to report on for the week. just a piece of advice... don't eat expired chicken salad. now let me give you the story.... so once upon a time on Wednesday, we were at a mission meeting. they had ordered pizza for all the missionaries but I cant have pizza. me and another elder are gluten intolerant so they got us chicken salad. so my companion and I head to the kitchen to get my lunch. the elder that is also gluten free walks out of the kitchen and says don't eat that chicken salad, it smells bad! ( read that with a Mexican accent because he is from mexico) and me being who I am say to the nice elder "well you smell bad." he laughs and says fine and walks away. so my companion and I take a few bites of the chicken salad and realize that not only did it smell bad, it was bad. we looked at the expiration date and it had expired two weeks previous. we were like ew gross and tossed it. I got my emergency gluten free lunch from the car  and we went back to the meeting. in the meeting we were taking notes and learning how to be more effective teachers. then bam! my stomach starts hurting and making really loud noises. I was trying to make my stomach be quiet when I thought I heard the noises start to echo. nope it wasn't an echo. It was my companion's stomach. her stomach was making the same noises. at that point I was like oh geez rancid chicken salad! hahaha yup we both got food poisoning. we had to call off our exchanges and all of our appointments. it was a hilarious story that ended with us being inside for a while and staying close to our best friend, the toilet. well we did manage to make it to some of our appointments and we got really good at playing uno and phase 10. I learned how to do some fancy shuffling. hahaha we are feeling much better now and are ready to have a crazy week filled with make up appointments and double the exchanges. I hope every one got a chance to watch the Christmas devotional last night. if not it is on lds.org :) it really reminds us to slow down this Christmas season and appreciate our Savior and our family.  I love you all ! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,

Sister Swisher

P.s. that elder got a good "I told you so" moment when he heard about our food poisoning. hahaha

This is the Salad that made me sick!!!

Tasted my first squirrel!!!

HELLO!!!

What a great week! so first off i tried my first bite of squirrel... yes i have been in west virginia for almost 4 months and just now tried squirrel. i was so excited to try the dang squirrel that i didnt even realize it was breaded and i got a little sick that night but whatever, i ate squirrel. i mean i could have done that in my backyard since bradley shot them in the back yard and would cook them up... but it doesnt count unless you are in west virginia! it was absolutely FREEZING this week. but we bundled up sister missionary style and faced the cold. we had quite the list of miracles occur this week. then thursday was turkey day of course. we arent allowed to do the normal missionary work on holidays so us and the elders in our ward raked a bunch of peoples lawn. one of the yards had more dog poop than leaves. another yard had so many leaves that we raked into a huge pile and jumped in! it was fun.... good thing we didnt do that to the dog poop yard though.... haha then we had 3 different meals appointments. at two of them we played uno and i got a little into it and then another house i played legos with all the little kids. then me and sister bingham got the great idea to make the DC temple out of legos. it looked great. this little girl in the ward calls me sister squisher. its pretty funny. well then onto boring friday... we had leadership training. but we turned that from boring into fun real quick when all the sister training leaders got together afterwards to have a little meeting. we were so loud and out of control that an elder walked in to ask if we were ok. hahaha i love the sisters in this mission. then saturday we went on our first exchabges of the transfer and we had a blast! we have helped like 6 different families decorate their houses for christmas in the last week and we have 3 appoitnments set up this week  to decorate. we are painting martinsburg red... and green. i love CHRISTMAS!! its finally here! woo hoo! well i hope you all enjoy this season and remember the real meaning of christmas.

" perhaps Christmas doesn't come from a store,

prehaps Christmas means just a little bit more."

- the Grinch

Well to finish off my letter.... we played soccer as a zone of missionaries today and my companion and i are the only sisters in the zone and we showed up the elders today. i scored the winning goal... i may have partially tore off my big toenail but it was sooo worth it haha GO SISTERS! 

Love,

Sister Swisher

I hit a deer!?!?!

hey every one! so it was yet another exciting week. so we had a busy monday and tuesday of going back and forth between the two areas to get both the sisters packed. then wednesday was transfers. and guess who showed up to see sister hollis and i??? sister Strickland and sister Hagedorn and Ashley tipton from the savage mill ward! they brought gluten free products as well. haha it was so much fun to see them! it was like we never left. the musketeers were back in action.... for a little bit anyways. so then i got my new companion sister bingham! she is soo cool! she is from utah and she goes home in march! we have already had a crazy and exciting week together. its weird that i could be her last companion! so story of the week.... i was driving sister bingham to go meet members in the area. we were on the road and it was dark. sister bingham was looking at the ward list and i was just talking to her... my eyes were on the road though... and BAM! a deer darts in front of the car! i slam on my brakes to try to avoid it and that helped but no enough. we clipped the deers hip with the right front of the car. the deer ran off. i screamed at the top of my lungs the entire time of course. we pull into this little gravel parking lot and this van pulls in behind us. i was like oh a nice man is going to help us. but the van pulls right past us and the man gets out and gives us a dirty look and walks into the bar.... awkward.... we look at the car and the front right headlight was out and a little bit of the body of the car was damaged. but the worst part was the huuuuuge chunk of deer flesh on our car! we seriously skinned a deer with our car. i called my good pal elder jones in the office who is in charge of the cars and i was like elder jones i am a murderer! i dont even like animals very much but i was really concerned for the deer. my comp had to stop me from chasing it. haha but elder jones calmed me down and thanked me for tenderizing the meat for the mission christmas party haha. anyways our car is in the shop and we have a loaner one for now. its not nearly as nice as ours but still good... its a car :) so that was our big excitement of the week. we help at a funeral on friday and gave lots of hugs to all the sisters there who were struggling. i love being a missionary and just loving the people here to death. so on sunday i was sitting by one of my favorite little girls in the ward named shenora. she is 3 years old and she is blind. i helped her take the sacrament and when i handed her they water she chugged it down then said "im thirsty!" and snatched another cup from the tray before i could even react. her mom and i just started busting up laughing and her mom was like " and they say shes blind?" haha she knew exactly where that tray was haha she is too cute. well then earlier today sister bringham and i decorated our apartment for christmas! we found a 6 foot christmas tree in the closet and went to town. its like a winter wonderland in there. its sooo awesome! so something that i learned this week is how to be happy on the days that just plain stink. BE GRATEFUL! when i count my blessings i realize i have sooo much to be thankful for. it turns my frown upside down reeeeeal quick. as we are in this holiday season i want to pay special attention to everything that i am grateful for. i am grateful for each one of you! i am so grateful to be a missionary, especially in an area where the work is booming! we are seeing so many miracles with less-actives and with the members. :)  well happy holidays every one! remember to tell people you are thankful for them:) Have a good and safe thanksgiving. MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!!

Love,

Sister Swisher

Do you use Windex?

ok everyone another eventful week in West Virginia!

So the verdict on transfers....... i am staying and am getting a new companion named sister Bringham! she is a lot of fun. i am so excited to start another transfer. so you all will probably not be super surprised when i tell you that we had another emergency transfer with some of our sisters this week. One of my favorite sisters in the mission, sister morris, may have torn her ACL and had to go home on Thursday. it was sooo sad! we have had a trio going on with her comp sister boman. it has been a blast! so some highlights is that we have been covering two areas that are 40 min away from each other. lots of driving going on here... but it was fun to meet a lot of new people. so transfer meeting is on wednesday and we have a sister training leader meeting on thursday. it is going to be a busy crazy week yet again. i love it though! so another highlight is that Bethanie and Daniel had their baby Addie! they sent me pictures and she is sooo cute! i cant wait til the 3 of them are sealed and i will get to see :) they are awesome. i may or may not have teared up when i saw the pictures of baby addie. i cant wait to meet her! she is sooo pretty! i love being able to stay in touch with people from savage mill ward. so funny story of the week... we were in Hancock and we were eating with this sister at her huuuuge home. and all of the sudden we hear this huge BANG on one of the windows. we all jumped. we were like what the heck was that?!? and the sister was like ugh another bird ran into the window. and we went and looked and their was a huge bird knocked unconcious on the ground. then sister boman turned to the sister who owned the house and was like do you use windex? hahaha it was sooo funny. poor bird. well there are a lot of adventures ahead this week. i am ready to get it started! woo hoo! i love being a missionary!!! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

 

Love,

Sister Swisher

Like father like daughter.....

Hello hello!!!

So i know that it has only been six days since my last email but i can hardly remember most of the week.... shocker i know. well we had a busy week of exchanges and are going to have our last two exchanges of the transfer this week. i cannot believe that transfers are already next week! ok so i am usually wrong at predicting what is going to happen with transfers but i am still going to guess any way because it is fun. i think that i am staying here in martinsburg and that sister brunson is getting transferred. hmmmm we will see what happens. stay tuned for next week's email. so the funny story of the week. i was on an exchange with the sister that i was in LaVale for a week with at the end of last transfer so it was a fun reunion. we were sitting at the kitchen table before bedtime and i saw that the bananas were looking kinda brown and needed to be thrown away... so i picked them up by the stem and was bringing them to the trash can and one by one all 5 bananas splatted on the ground. and with my cat-like reflexes all i did was stand there and scream. haha dont worry i took pictures. well the scary story from the week.... so i had a different sister on exchanges with me on sunday. as we were walking down the hallway i was just saying hi to everyone and i had no idea but with like 6 different people in the ward, whenever we see eachother we pretend to punch each other. and sister Boman the sister that was with me turns to me and says wow sister swisher you just go around beating every one up. you may be wondering why this is a scary story.... it because in that moment i realized that i am exactly like my father!! AHHHH! haha well we had a why i believe fireside last night and we had a lot of people show up. it was great! we have been seeing so many miracles with the less-actives in the ward! it is soooo great:) well heres to the last week of the transfer! i am ready to work hard! i love you all! MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

 

Love,

Sister Swisher

Pumpkin carving and Pics!

Hellooooo! 

This week was the funnest week EVER! So we started it off on Tuesday by going on exchanges with the sisters in our zone. I went with sister Bybee and it was a blast but we realized we will never be companions because we are too dang loud together. we would scare everyone away! haha it was the funnest exchange i have been on. then on wednesday we went to our ward trunk or treat party and we decorated our trunk with one of our investigators and passed out candy to all of the cute kids in the ward. it was a lot of fun. then on Halloween we did work up til dinner. we didnt have a dinner appt so we ate dinner with the other sisters in our zone who we just went on exchanges with then all the elders showed up for the zone party. of course we planned it because if the elders planned it, it would have been super lame. so for the party we started off by playing volleyball, then we had a bonfire and made smores, then we played apples to apples. it was the funnest! then i really dont remember friday..... whoops. and then saturday i was asked to play the piano at a girl in the wards baptism. then later saturday night we helped out with a hollywood event for the young women. Sunday was miracle day on 32nd street. We had 5 less-actives and 2 investigators at church! it was a lot of real growth going on. on sunday night this awesome family named the Beckers fed us! and i was sitting down after dinner and their 5 year old comes up to me and sings, while shaking his hips and pointing at me. "you don't know youre beautiful! thats what makes you beautiful!" it was pretty dang funny and soo cute! haha then sunday night the sisters in our zone that we went on exchanges with earlier in the week slept over at our place because we had a really early meeting to get to on monday. it was fun! i cant remember the last time i had a slumber party! haha it was missionary style tho, lights out at 10:30 but it was still fun! Then yesterday we had an all day meeting. a general authority came to speak to us. we were told that he would pick 2 missionaries to give talks. i was chatting with him before the meeting and after he walked away i was like dang it hes going to pick me. so i gave a talk yesterday at the meeting! it was pretty fun! i talked on being a consecrated missionary. that means to fully set yourself apart from the world for the Lord while you are serving. then after my talk Elder Carlson was instructing and he asked me to come up AGAIN. he asked me to come up so everyone could look at me smile. it was pretty awkward not gonna lie ahhaha. last time i smile at a general authority.... JUST KIDDING! well it was an awesome week filled with miracles and fun! what more could you ask. for?? being a missionary is great! fully consecrating yourself is really hard and something that you have to work at every single day but it is sooo worth it because that is when you see lives change, especially your own life. MAKE GOOD CHOICES!!

Love,

sister Swisher!