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