Joyeux Noel

Joyeux Noël everyone! I hope that every one has been having a nice Christmas so far. Last night we had a fireside thing where there was singing and a little pageant and such. Elder Gonzalez had to translate for a few Spanish speaking elders so we sat back with them and the row in front of us had a bunch of native french speakers so I was surrounded by different languages. It was pretty neat. After that we watched a Christmas carol. We decided that we would open our presents last night before bed because we didn't want to wait for morning. Thanks for all the stuff! Elder Gonzalez was super excited and told me to tell you thanks mom and dad. Today Elder Nelson and his family came and talked to us at the devotional. It was great. His wife talked about spiritual gifts and how it's like Christ has given us spiritual gift cards. He's already paid the price and it's up to us to cash them in. She talked about how she has received gift cards in the past and forgot about them and how alot of times we forget that we can pray for and seek after gifts of the spirit when we need them. Elder Nelson talked about the gift of Christs atonement and how as missionaries we are the link for people to receive this gift. After we had a turkey dinner (lunch), and had time to do different things like a temple walk and read the Christmas parts out of the scriptures. We also had a gift exchange thing as a district. All good things. We will be having more things tonight like a talent show and watching it's a wonderful life. It's been a good Christmas (even if I didn't get any Swedish pancakes).

This past week has been good. There were a ton of new elders and sisters that came in this week, including the first batch of younger ones (which they have been making a big deal about at every devotional/fireside). The lines and meetings have all been much more packed than they have been. But I get to see more people I know and meet all of the new french elders and sisters. We've been trying to PVL(speak only french) alot more this week. It's been going fairly well but it can be difficult at times. I like it here at the mtc but I can't wait to be out in France. Oh well it's just 3 more weeks. I might get a chance to send a quick email with some pictures in it tomorrow if I can. We'll see. Like I said last week, it can be hard to fill an email with alot of exciting stuff while i'm here at the mtc so if you have any questions or anything just let me know and I will try to answer and be more exciting. I love you all and hope all is going well. Thanks for all the letters and packages. Merry Christmas!

L'amour Elder Swenson.

Dec. 18, 2012

Hey all. I hope all is going well at home. It's getting harder and harder to come up with what to write in these. When you have the same schedule every day the whole week just kindof blurs together and it's hard to think of anything super exciting to write about. Since the temple was closed today we had alot more time to spend napping and that was great. I had plenty of time to sleep and write letters so it was a relaxing day. It's good to see all the snow. I hope it stays for christmas so that we can have a white christmas. Last night after class me and Elder Gonzalez hurried and made a little snowman before any security guys got mad at us. He was pretty excited because he had never played in the snow before. There were millions of elders having this big snowball fight and all of the sudden one of them yelled "Security!' and we looked and saw a guy coming towards us, and every one scattered super fast. It was pretty funny. Last night we were talking to Elder Sorg about France. He is going to Greece but is from Toulouse and so he was telling us about the mission and the culture over there. He taught us about what not to do in church and dinner apointments, so hopefully we wont offend to many people with our American ways. He's a great elder and i know he'll be great out in the field. I'm ready to head out. There were a bunch of elders who left for the field last week and this week. It was kindof sad but exciting to see them all go. We get 21 new elders and 7 new sisters this week though so it will be fun to meet all the new people. A few more random updates: tie trades have now been banned, J1 is an evil washing machine that locks your laundry inside for an extra 15 minutes, and Elder Gonzalez sleep talks in spanish. Since my next P-day is on Christmas i'm not exactly sure what is going on for email but we'll see. I don't get to call home from the mtc for Christmas so that's a bummer. I got a bunch of Christmas cards these past few days so thanks for that. It's nice to see pictures of everybody. I hope you all have a Great Christmas. Remember the real reason why we celebrate it. I've been reading Jesus The Christ these past few days and it's great reading about the life of the Savior and all of the things he did. I've also been studying the Atonement alot this past week. It really is the greatest gift that we could possibly recieve. Remember Christ and all he did for us as you celebrate His birth this week. I love you all. Joyeux Noel!

L'amour Elder Swenson

Pictures!!!

The sign on the temple lawn

Trent's District (Left to right: Elder Cox, Elder Christensen, Trent, Elder Gonzalez, Soeur Foster, Elder Williams)

In front of the temple

Golden Gate Bridge

Little Rascals

Dec. 10, 2012

Hey everyone, I hope everything is going great for all yall in the outside world. Things are still going good here. I learn more and more each week. I feel like I've been doing alot better in my lessons because I can understand and speak french a little past the memorised gospel phrases like "we are all children of God". So now I can actually say things that I didn't already plan on saying beforehand. There are a bunch of new elders and sisters coming into our branch next week. It will be weird being one of the older missionaries. When you first come to the mtc, you feel like the others have been there so long and know so much, then after a few weeks you realise that they actually aren't that far ahead of you. I think it will be funny having the new missionaries thinking that we know so much more than they do. Any way nothing all that eventful happened this past week. All the days just kind of blend together. On sunday, instead of having a speaker at the fireside, we had the BYU mens choir sing. It was pretty good but there were some really weird songs. Like this weird chanting one that sounded like something I would here on a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Christmas Special. But hey it's music so i'll take what I can get. Thanks for all of the letters and packages. My desk is now filled with a mountain of junk food, and a bunch of pictures. I sent mom and dad a letter with my memory card in it so you can update the blog with some pictures. It was fun seeing all the missionaries reactions to their first time seeing snow. Elder Gonzalez was like a kid on Christmas. Today when we were in the temple there was this odd girl who kept shooting me and Elder Williams all these strange looks throughout the session. We looked behid us to see if she was looking at someone else. But no, it was definately us. It creeped us out. Then after her and her husband came and ask us if we were missionaries and where we were going. It was pretty awkward. It was super weird getting the googly eyes in the temple. Anyway that was our last temple trip for december because it will be closed for the next few weeks. Which is sad because we missed last week to go to California. Any way I can't think of anything else exciting to tell you. I love you all and hope everything is going well. Till next week.

Elder Swenson

San Fran

Hey all. sorry this is so late. we flew to San Fran yesterday so i didn't get a chance to write. or do laundry. or get a haircut (which i really need at the moment). So it was 5 elders and 1 sister who all flew to the consulate on Tuesday. Only me and 2 others were from my district. the others fly out on Thursday. we had to wake bright and early at 4:30 to get to the travel office and get on the bus to the airport. it was weird for us because everyone else on the bus was leaving for the field and we were just leaving for the day. it was cool seeing what it is like being a missionary in public. everyone stares at you constantly until you look at them because they don't want you to talk to them so they avoid eye contact. even some dude wearing a skirt was staring at us. there was this one sweet lady though who walked past us and asked if we were Mormons  when we said yes she said "i like you guys!" that made us feel good. when we got to the consulate it only took like 20 minutes for all of us because all you do is hand them paperwork and scan your finger prints. after that we had more time so we drove around. we went to some pier. (41 or something like that). after that we went to china town. it was crazy there. if you think people stare at missionaries just add the fact that we were the only white english speaking people. some crazy dude cussed us out from the other side of the street. we went to this chinese restaraunt after the very enthusiastic lady on the street pressured us into coming inside. It was super awkward being there. we were so out of place. later we went to the golden gate bridge and took pictures and handed out pass along cards. when we got back to the airport and were in the terminal going back to salt lake we were treated like celebrities because half of the people there were members who wanted to know where we were going. when we drove back from the airport the shuttle guy took us to wendys if we promised not to tell the front desk. we stopped at the one in lehi and it felt really weird being there as a missionary. it was great being out of the mtc for a day though. anyway since this isn't technically my p day i need to end this a little early. I love you all and hope all is going well. 

L'amour 
Elder Swenson

Another Letter!

Bonjour ma famille!

Another week has come and gone. I still don't understand how it can feel like the days last forever but the weeks fly by. But here i am starting my third week. so i guess i'll start off by talking about thanksgiving  It was a super relaxing day because we didn't have class. Elder Holland came and spoke at the devotional. He brought his family and made some of his grandchildren do musical numbers and bear testimonies. I'm glad that my grandpa isn't an apostle who would make me speak in front of the whole mtc. Elder Holland gave a great talk on being thankful about the blessing of living at this time on the earth and how we have so much and that the gospel wont be taken away again. We had a big thanksgiving dinner (at lunch) and then we did a service project where we put together health and school kits for kids in Africa. Later that night we had a weird thanksgiving program thing. It was pretty bizarre  i'm not gonna lie. After that we ate popcorn and watched the movie 17 Miracles. On Sunday Stephen B. Allen (not a general authority  I think he helped put together preach my gospel or something) came and talked to us. He showed us a bunch of old Mormon commercials. We watched Andy's favorite one with the sad little kid eating cereal (ask ash or Andy and they will show/ explain it to you.)

We've been teaching alot more and I can finally pray, bear testimony, and teach basic principles in french without using notes. i feel like i've learned way more in these past 2 weeks than i did in 2 years of highschool french. I love how you learn so much and constanltly feel the spirit at the mtc. I still see more and more elders and sisters from PG. I think i've seen like 20-25 people i know. Crazy. We finally found the alarm clock that was hidden in the celing and going off at 3:00 every morning. I climbed up on the ironing board and looked around in the celing with a flashlight. Oh the joys of the mtc. They still haven't told us when we are glying out to the consulate but i think it should be sometime next week.

Anyway, I love you all and hope all is going well. Thanks for all of the letters. I was going to pick up some envelopes and stamps at the store but i decided to sleep instead. You're constantly tired here and it can be especially hard during the sunday meetings. Anyway, until next week.

L'amour, Elder Swenson

First Letter!!!

Bonjour!

Hey everyone. So FYI my P-day is Tuesday so that's when you'll get my emails. It's been a good week at the MTC. It's a lot to take in when you first get here but you catch on fairly quickly. There are a lot of elders that i know from school. I think I've seen between 15-20 people i know, and run into more every day. Any way there are 3 sets of elders and 1 set of sisters in my district  3 are going to Paris but the rest of us are going to Lyon  My companion is Elder Gonzalez. He is from Spain. He is an awesome guy. my favorite thing is hearing all of the american quotes and pop-culture references that he says in his accent. Pretty great. I've taken a few pictures but i don't know if i'll be able to send them on the MTC computers. Apparently you used to be able to send pictures on certain computers but i couldn't get that to work. I'll ask around to see if there is a way to do that. It's nice to have a P-day  because i feel like there is never time to relax here. This is mostly because we have to teach lessons to this investigator in french, and it's kind of hard and frustrating to teach in a language that you don't know. We've taught 3 lessons so far. Not only do i have a limited vocabulary but i have no idea what they are saying when they respond back. But i'm sure the language will come eventually. I thought there would be a lot more language classes here but instead they pretty much just turn you loose with a dictionary and some french gospel phrases and expect you to teach yourself. We only have a teacher for like 2 maybe 3 hours and the rest of the time we just sit there trying to prepare lessons and write talks and such. The food here is good but does strange things to your insides. especially the potatoes. Sunday we got to watch a video of a talk that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC on Christmas  It was so good. I love how blunt they can be when they are just talking to the missionaries. He does a pretty good cookie monster impression by the way. I'm pretty stoked that we get to hear an apostle on Thursday  Any way all is going well. I did get those shirts and a few letters so thanks for all those who wrote. I will try to write some letters but i need to pick up some envelopes and stamps from the books store first. Or maybe i can just mooch some off of one of the other elders. Any way the timer at the top just turned red and is scaring me so i'm going to end this letter. If you have any questions for me just ask.

L'amour, Elder Swenson

P.S. Costa Rica! That is awesome  Congrats Madison.  

It's Official!

Trent did a great job speaking in church on Sunday.  Afterwards we all went back to the house for some good food, and fun visits.  Thanks to the family and friends that came and supported our Elder.

Yesterday was the big day and Trent reported to the MTC!  We are proud of him and know he will be a fantastic missionary!  We are anxiously awaiting the first letters, and will keep you posted on all of the exciting and not so exciting ups and downs of Trent's mission!

I love to see the temple

Tuesday October 23, 2012 was a special night. Trent was able to go through the temple and take out his endowments.
Of course mom and dad were there, and all four of Trent's siblings were able to attend as well. Shayna accompanied Bryan, but Megan, Bret and Andy were each left home to look after their kids. It was a special moment to have our whole family together in the temple.
Afterwards we celebrated by eating ice cream from sub zero.

I Hope They Call Me On a Mission....

Bright and early on the morning of Wednesday, June 27, 2012 the phone rang.  It was the post office asking to please speak with "Trenton", they informed him that a special letter had come for him and asked if he would like to come pick it up, to which he answered, "sure".

After showering and getting ready for the day Trent drove to the post office to pick up his mission call.  Unfortunately mom and dad were both at work, so Trent had to wait to open it.  He did however compare his call to pictures of Ashley's to see if he could at least guess if it was foreign or state side.  The postage on his call was .40 cents more than Ashley's, so we were pretty sure it would be a foreign call.

Shortly after noon mom and dad came home so he could finally open the letter.  I skyped Ashley so that she could join in on the excitement.  After making our guesses where he would serve the letter was finally opened, and he learned that he would be serving in the........ France Lyon mission and would report to the MTC on Wednesday November 14.

No one had guessed France, but since he took French in school and has a love of cheese it seems very fitting!  We are so excited for Trent to be a missionary, and know he will do a great job!