December 30, 2013

Hello all,

First off, sorry that this might be a little short. It was great getting to skype with you this past week. I hope that all of you had a great christmas. We spent alot of time with members this week and it was great. It's hard to feel homesick at this time of year when the everyone in the ward treats you like a part of their family. 

So we (the 8 missionaries in Montpellier) decided to make christmas cards and pass them out to members. We got to share the Saviors love with alot of people this past week as we visited their homes and hospital rooms. We felt love and the spirit and saw smiles and tears as we expressed our love and the Saviors to everyone that we could.

As this Christmas season comes to a close and you box up all of the christmas decorations and turn off the Christmas music, make sure that you don't pack away the spirit of Christmas. Instead keep the spirit going by sharing the Saviors love with everyone. Take every moment every day to serve help and uplift someone. As we constantly strive to serve those around us our love will grow and we will be truly happy. We can keep that spirit of joy with us all throughout the year. I love you all and know that I am truly blessed to be part of such an amazing family! Happy new year!

Elder Swenson

December 23, 2013

Merry Christmas everyone,

So it has been super hard for us to see some of our amis. The ami who we had been seeing regularly and had a baptisimal date had dropped off the face of the earth and another had been too busy to see us as well. Well hooray for christmas because both of them showed up to the christmas party we had on this week. It was great getting to see both of them after the long drought, and we were able to fix rdvs with them for this coming week.

Last tuesday we went to an amazing rdv. It was with a man who we had contacted weeks go who finally aggreed to see us. In all honesty we weren't too sure how he would accept the message but it turns out he was amazingly open. He had actually met the missionaries about 4 years ago in another ville and that is a part of why he saw us this time. We taught one of the most powerful first lessons i have ever taught and he told us that he would read and pray every night, prayed infront of us even though he was scared to do so, and accepted a soft baptisimal engagement. We set up a return appointment for after the holidays and we are excited to see him again.

So we had zone conference in Aix this week and it was great to see everyone and talk about the Savior. We were all nice and edified from the messages that were shared. The only downfall is that afterwards it was pouring rain as we walked to the trainstation and all of our packages that we had just recieved were soggy and falling appart. The good news is that there was no serious damage to the contents even though the boxes took such a beating. 

 

This week we are well taken care of for the holiday. We are lucky to be in a ward with great members. I hope that all of you have a great Christmas and that you remember the most important things about this great time of year. I love you all. Talk to you soon!

Elder Swenson

December 16, 2013

Hey everybody,

So last week was pretty crazy with millions of missionaries staying in montpellier getting to and from Lyon. There were a couple of days where we just had the other missionaries contact or sing in a big plaza while we delt with picking people up and taking luggage to appartments and getting sleeping bags and such set up. This cut into our proselyting time a bit but it all evened out because we recieved multiple coordinees from other missionaries like families who asked them to come back while porting and a girl who gave her info as well as the address of one of her friends who she also thought would be interested. Basically if we are out serving and doing our best to help others, even other missionaries, God will bless us by giving us more occasions to serve His children.

Yesterday during personal study I randomly felt like I should pull out an old conference liahona and read a talk. I flipped it open and started reading a talk by Elder Andersen about trials of faith. In it he shared the story of a mission president he knew whose daughter had gotten in an accident and even after much fasting and prayer had passed away. He went on to talk about how this trial which could have shaken their faith ended up strengthening it. Later that night we went to a members home and he explained to us how he had just found out that his brother had died. I was able to share elder Andersens story with the family and they were touched by it. 

I have come to realize that personal study often isn't for us personally, but rather we are inspired to study those things that our brothers and sisters need to hear. How lucky are we to be the means through which God can reach out to and strengthen His children. I love this work!

As we enjoy this Christmas season and the spirit that comes with it, let us look for ways that we can serve others. Let us strive to help God in reaching out to His children. In doing so we will be filled with a joy that is much more satisfying than any gift or present we might find under a tree. I love you all!

Elder Swenson

December 9, 2013

Hello everyone,

Records have been broken this transfer as i will be staying with a companion for more than one transfer and staying in the same ville for more than two. Crazy. I didn't even know that was possible. That's ok because i love working with elder Pedersen and am looking forward to spending another transfer with him.

So i have a story this week. Once upon a time about a transfer and a half ago i was on exchange with elder Taylor. It was about nine so we were working our way back to the appartment. As we are walking up the hill a girl jogs by and we say bonsoir because we are missionaries and that's what we do. As she jogs right past us she says "yay missionaries!" in very american english. We laughed and then after about 5 seconds we realised what had just happened and that she just spoke to us in english and that she didn't call us TJ's (Jehovahs Witnesses; our rivals who the french dislike very much and confuse us with all the time). We quickly turned around to talk to her but she had already run out of sight never to be seen again. Until last night...

So last night we were out contacting and we run into this same girl but this time she talks to us. It turns out that she has been here about three months for school and that she is a less active girl from nevada. She told us that she had stopped going to church some time ago, but that she felt guilty for it. She said that her sister had even told her to go to church here but she never really got around to it. Any way so we asked if we could help her in any way and offered to have a member pick her up next week, and she asked if we could call her sunday morning to help her get up. She didn't have her phone with her so she wrote down our number but then she instantly just said bye and left before we could get hers. Rats!

So later that night we get in and Elder Pedersen is saying the prayer to start planning. I kid you not, litterally less than a second after he prays that this girl will get in contact with us we get a text on the phone, right in the middle of the prayer. The phone was right next to me and so i took a sneeky peek to see who it was and it was an unregestered number. No it can't be! He finishes the prayer and we check the text and it was her! What!? It was basically the exact same as that scene on the movie the best two years. 

We asked if there was anything we could do to help and she asked if we could give her a blessing. She said that the only thing was that she wasn't sure how the family she was staying with would react to us so she asked if we could meet somewhere else. Long story short she is now going to be coming with us to a FHE at a members house tomorrow night. One that we had just felt inspired to set up earlier that day with an awesome english speaking family. Crazy right? Once again i feel as though i have been sent to montpellier to help all of the non french people who just happen to be here. 

Well i hope that everything is going well back home and that you are enjoying all of the snow. I am enjoying the sun down here by the coast ;) Until next week, Love ya,

Elder Swenson

December 2, 2013

Hello everybody,

I hope you all had a great thanksgiving. Mine was great as we got to spend it with some awesome members who made a ton of delicious food. I have to say that it was nice to be able to have all of the food on your plate at a time. I've gotten so used to millions of courses with just one food at a time as is the custom here in france. Being around a huge table with lots of food and people reminded me of home. I was definatly lucky to be here for thanksgiving. 

So this past week went well even though i feel like we set a record for number of fallen through rdvs. We are still chugging along and i feel like we are able to help people every day even if it is just in little ways. We have a streak going of teaching english speaking people from African countries who are just here for a week or so. We teach them about the restoration give them the book of mormon, and then pass their information on to the missionaries where they live. Now we just need to find people who are willing to learn more and are living here.

Another quick story about helping missionaries in other countries, we had a fallen through rdv and the member who we were with suggested we go to a place where they had just put up christmas lights to do some contacting. It is a place that was a little out of the way and where we don't generally go to for contacting. While we were there we bumped into a less active girl who is from california. In talking with her we found out that she was just in montpellier for the day and was just getting ready to leave. she told us that it was a real surprise for her to see missionaries and we got to have a nice little talk. It was definatly not just chance that we were there at that moment. God knew that one of His lost sheep was at that place and so He sent us there to talk with her. It was a testimony to us that God always knows where we are and will do His best to reach out to us.

Any way the ville is beginning to look more and more christmasy with all of the lights and booths and number of people shopping. I hope that the spirit of Christmas will help people to be more cheery and open to talking about Christ. This time of year is always nice because it just seems that every one is happier.

This is the last week of the transfer so next week I will let you know of any changes. Will elder Swenson finally stay in a ville for more than 2 transfers? Will he finally stay with a comp for more than 1? Tune in next week to find out. Love ya,

Elder Swenson

November 25, 2013

Hey everybody,

So this week was filled with different activites. Tuesday night we had the soirée musical put on by the music group elders. It was really good and we had a nice turn out. So how it works is they play a bunch of songs and have testimonies and spiritual thoughts inbetween. There were elders and sisters who sang, played piano, and violin. They are all really talented and one of the elders even has a degree in piano performance. They basically tour around the mission to all of the different wards to put on the show and then just work in that area for the rest of the day. Cool stuff. 

Wednesday we had zone conference. It is always good and uplifting to hear from President and his wife. He always has a bunch of cool insights and advice to give us. 

Friday we headed to Nimes so that I could start working on renewing my legality. So how it works is that certain cities are easier to get legality in so they try to send you to an easier one. They werent really sure about Nimes but it they thought it would be easier than Montpellier. So we went there and it turns out that you can't go without scheduling an appointment and you can only do that through email. So we headed back and did that but then found out that they dont have any openings for a couple of months. Legality is fun stuff let me tell ya. 

So this week for Thanksgiving we are all going over to eat at a members house. They are American and have got a whole bunch of good food ready for us. It is great that Elder Pedersen will be able to celebrate his first thanksgiving with real american food, even if it is in france.

Anyway things are going well here and the work is continuing to progress. I love you all and hope that you have a happy thanksgiving. Remember all of the many blessings that we have to be thankful for. I am thankful for the Savior, for His gospel, and for the chance that I have to share it with all of my brothers and sisters here in France. Love ya,

Elder Swenson

November 18, 2013

Hello again,

So things have been going well here in Montpellier. This week we had quite a few rdvs with new and old amis. One of the people that we saw this week was a young guy about 30. He actually referred himself through the church website. So we passed him a few times unsuccessfully and finally caught him home. When we got there he was really friendly and invited us in right off. He was curious about mormons and so he tried to find a book of mormon and that is what led him to the church website. He has a pretty strong faith. Both his parents are athiest but as he grew up he had questions about God and eventually converted to christianity. He is a really cool normal french dude who is an honest truth seeker open to religion. I can't tell you how rare this is. Any way hopefully we'll be able to see him more and help him to progress and find answers. He is a future bishop i tell you.

Other than him we have amis from all over including russia, maddigascar, reunion islands, mali, ivory coast, england, and of course a few from france. It is crazy to me to think about how even though we are called to one place we end up teaching people from all over the world. 

So it has been pretty cold here recently and we have been wearing scarves and coats all week. This means that we don't stick out now like we did in summer. In summer time everyone walks around half naked while we have on slacks and ties. But now everyone bundles up in dark coats and scarves. It is deffinately a different feeling not to have every one staring at you everywhere you go.

Well I have now been a missionary for over a year. It is crazy to think that is has been that long since i have been home. The mission has gone by both fast and slow at the same time. I love being a missionary though, and am lucky to be able to be out here. I love you all and hope all is going well for you. Take care,

Elder Swenson

A few pictures

Elder Crossman with a cat

Me with Elder Pielstick

Me and Elder Pedersen

November 11, 2013

Bonjour encore,

So this week we worked pretty hard. There was one particular day that was really hard. It was in the evening. We had some tombez-vous (fallen through appointments), after calling to confirm rdvs for the next day we had even more fall through, and we got insta-rejected by like 98% of the people we talked to. We still had about an hour left and while I honestly felt tempted to head back to the apartment and call it a night, we stuck it out. 

There is a scripture in alma that came to my head. It is talking about the sons of mosiah and goes something along the lines of, "When we felt discouraged and were about to turn back, the Lord comforted us and said, bear with patience thine afflictions and I will give unto you success." This comforted me and we finished out the night by getting rejected by alot more people. That evening after planning we reflected on the day and while we hadn't seen much fruit we felt confident that we had given it our all. The next day went about a million times smoother. We had awesome conversations, got multiple coordinees, gave out multiple BOMs, and set multiple rdvs. 

I have come to learn that at times the Lord decides to try our faith and our patience. Even when we are working diligently and obediently we will have those occasional hard days. But if we stick it out and continue giving it our all, He will give unto us success. We will see miracles. The Lord has promised us blessings if we do the things He has asked us to. While we wont always see these blessings immediately, I know that we will always see them. 

When hard times come and you face trials in spite of the fact that you have been doing all the Lord has asked, stay strong and continue on. Trust God. He has promised us blessings and He always keeps His promises. Those promised blessings will come soon enough. I know this because I have seen it over and over throughout this past year. In my life and in the lives of those I have been blessed to be around. I love this gospel. I love this work. I love you.

Elder Swenson

November 4, 2013

Bonjour,

So this past week was fun. We headed up to Lyon on tuesday to meet up with the bleus. All of the trainers had dinner and talked and such until the evening. The next morning we headed to the office to have a meeting about training and after lunch we headed to the church where we finnaly got to meet our comps. There were around 25 missionaries coming in this transfer so the chapel was pretty full. Of all of the new missionaries less than half were american which was pretty cool. There were missionaries from france, england, spain, brasil, germany, denmark, and finland. Anyway so they all went up one by one and read their calls to see where they were serving and who their trainer would be. We went through about 75% of them before someone finnaly read that his trainer would be Elder Swenson.

My new comp is Elder Pedersen. He is Danish. He is really cool and so far it has been really good working with him. His french is alot better than mine was when i got in. It always helps distinguish your companionship in big wards when your companion isn't the same old american elder that members are used to seeing. Unless your comp is Native american like Elder Tulley that is. We should be able to sneak ahead of the other elders and just behind the sisters in the dinner appointment department :)

So this past friday we saw a pretty cool little miracle. In studies that morning i was reading over my patriarchal blessing. There was a particular line that stood out to me that morning that said, If you strengthen your faith you will find that all things are possible. I repeated this phrase in my head throughout the day as we worked. When the evening came we had some free time that we had planned to go contacting in the park. The night before we had set the goal to either get a number or fix a rdv during this time. As we walked towards the park I remembered this goal as well as the line from the blessing. I said a prayer in which I asked for us to reach our goal, full of faith knowing that the only thing that could keep us from getting a number was God's will. I said amen. We then got a number from the first person that we contacted and set up a rdv for the next day. Miracle.

The rdv with him went well. We taught him how to pray and helped him say his first ever prayer. When we were explaining prayer he was like, "you mean you can just say what ever? And you can ask for blessings for you and your family? and that works? And its just like a conversation? Well that's easy!" It was really touching to be able to teach someone such a simple principle like that and litterally see the light go into them. It is just a big reminder of how blessed we really are to be in this church with a knowlege of the gosple. Prayer really is such a blessing and i can testify that i know from experience that it really does work. Sometimes we forget how true that fact really is. I love you all and wish you the best!

Elder Swenson

October 28, 2013

Hey everyone,

Due to transfer day this will be short. So first things first I'm staying in montpellier. Elder pielstick is actually now part of a musical group of four elders that will be touring the mission. (Yeah i'm not really sure what this means either, i'll let you know later.) I'm going to be training a bleu so i'm not sure what his name is yet because I pick him up in Lyon on wednesday. It should be a good transfer though so i'm excted.

Today I was one of the gare elders because montpellier is in the middle of the mission there are a lot of missionaries coming through and switching trains and such. This means I spent the morning running through the gare with all of the bags to help people catch trains. Sisters have so much stuff. There was a huge burst where we had to help about 20 missionaries switch trains in under 30 minutes. Crazy. The joy of being in a big city on transfer day.

Yesterday we had stake conference in Toulouse. This was cool because i got to go back and see all of the members that i never got to say goodbye to back when i was emergency transfered to Angouleme. They reorganized the stake presidency so it was pretty much all testimonies by them and thier wives. The new stake president looks exactly like Will Ferril byt the way. There were a couple members of the 70 there and they gave some good talks. Because there werent any trains to get us to toulouse in time on sunday morning a ton of us slept over saturday night. There were 13 elders in the appartment i stayed in. I slept on the floor in the kitchen with only a blanket and no pillow. Good times. Any way i love you all and promise to send pictures next week. I wish you all the best!

Avec amour,

Elder Swenson

October 21, 2013

Hey all,

So this past week was pretty good. We have a couple of cool new amis that we taught this week. Hopefully we can continue to see them and they can start progressing. We've been having a bit of trouble finding some solid amis here. Because of this we have been doing quite a bit of finding.

Earlier this week we were porting and we talked with this guy at the door for a good little bit. Anyway he had this really cool mustache so at the end of the contact I said excuse me I just wanted to let you know that you have a really cool mustache and i couldnt leave without telling you. It kind of caught him off gaurd. I think he was expecting me to try to continue the contact so when i said this he busted up laughing. It is always great to compliment people and help make them feel better so ive decided that if they arent receptive to the gospel then at least i can try to make them feel better somehow.

Also this week because of all of the contacting I had this cool conversation with a young guy for about a half hour. After testifying and sharing the book of mormon with him i couldn't help but smile. I was just filled with genuine happiness and couldn't feel bad the rest of the evening. I know that this message and this work is true. And that living it and sharing it bring us true joy. I love you all and invite you to look for ways that you can share this joy with others. If you do this you wont be able to keep yourself from smiling. Love ya,

Elder Swenson

October 14, 2013

Hello everyone,

So this past week was a little slower. We had quite a few appointments fall through and i also had a bit of a stomache bug. The good news is that it is a new week and I am feeling better. At the beginning of the week we had a conference in Aix. This is right by Marseille and we switched trains in the Marseille station with a little time inbetween so i got to go out and look at the city for a few minutes. It seems like just yesterday that i was just starting my mission and walking around those streets. Crazy how time flies. The conference was good and gave us all a spiritual boost.

On Wednesday we visited a few members and got them excited to do missionary work. We shared good spiritual messages and got them thinking about how they could invite their non member friends to come into contact with the church. We helped one couple who wanted to use their facebook to do that. By the way Dad wanted to know if we can use that yet and the answer is no. I don't think that our mission will get to use facebook until like the end of my mission if that. It is mostly in the states from what i have heard. Who knows. 

We also went to visit a less active lady in the ward. She told us to come by at a certain time and then wasn't there. We called and she told us she would be there in about an hour and a half so we went and ported around the neighborhood and came back. She still wasn't there but her non member daughter said we could come in and wait. Well she still never showed up so we asked the daughter if we could share a message with her. It went well and i feel like she was touched. We expected to have a less active visit but it turned out that we taught a lesson instead. It reminded me of back in Toulouse when we started teaching Pernel. Who knows what will happen here. All i know is that the best amis come through members. Speaking of that, i recently heard that the family that I started teaching back in St Etienne finally got baptized! It is awesome to hear good news like that. I know that they will be a super addition to the ward there.

Well i love you all and hope that you are staying happy, healthy, and well. Love ya lots, until next week,

Elder Swenson

October 7, 2011

Bonjour,

Conference was pretty awesome huh? There were alot of really good talks. Alot of holy boldness was used. I know that there were specific things in there for all of us and that if we take the time to study and go over the talks that we will recieve personal revelation. Luckily in montpellier there was a room where it was playing in english. It is so much easier to take things in when it is in your native laguage. Also when it is being translated the jokes just don't work so you hear everyone laughing at the conference center while everyone in the french chappel is trying to figure out whats so funny. Also president Uchedorfs voice sounds much more epic than the naisally french translater.

This past week was pretty good. We began teaching a few new amis. One is a girl who has seen missionaries in the past but due to opposition of friends and family she stopped. Any way she has decided to give it another go so we will do our best to help her strengthen her testimony. We also taught a cool young guy from Vietnam. He is studying here and speaks english and very little french. He seems really cool and even watched some of the saturday conference with us. Because he doesn't have any Christian background or knowlege coming from Asia, we really need to teach simply and slowly. Any way the work is coming along here nicely.

Sunday between conference sessions we decided to go do some contacting. Me and Elder Taylor went on a mini exchange and talked to everyone that we could find. We jogged next to people on bikes, jogged to catch up with people and after a lenghthy door contact with this older guy, ran back to the church for a good five minutes so that we wouldnt miss any of the talks. It was fun. Conference gives you alot of energy for that type of stuff. Elder Taylor is a stud. 

Anyway I hope that all is going well for you and that you enjoyed conference week end. I love you,

Elder Swenson

September 30, 2013

Hello again,

So we had a cool miracle filled day last week. First off we had a little bit of time before we needed to go to a rdv so we decided it would be cool to pass a member. Randomly this one family popped into our mind. We asked the zone leaders about them and they told us that they have never been home when they have passed and that they rarely answer phone calls. We decided to take the risk. When we got to the building we rang the sonnerie with no answer, but we tried the door and it was open. We went in and found their appartment and knocked on the door but didnt get a response. We decided knocking one more time wouldn't hurt so we did and this time the sister answered. She explained that her husband wasnt home so we just asked if we could share  quick scripture in the doorway. Luckily the spirit guided our words because at the end of the thought and prayer she had tears in her eyes and thanked us for coming. We left filled with a burning spirit.

Next we headed up to an outer ville to pass a guy who said we could come back while porting the night before. He ended up not being interested. We were walking back down the street to the bus stop and saw that we could catch a bus back in like 2 minutes. We had the decision of staying and porting or heading back into town for the evening. We decided to take the bus and then like 5 minutes later this young guy gets on, notices us and comes up to talk to us. He explained how he had seen us around montpellier and how he admired us for what we did. After talking for a few minutes on the bus we got to the stop where we needed to change to the tram and i got ready to get his number so we could see him later to continue talking. He asked where we were headed and after finding out it was the same place he said that we could continue to talk on the tram. 

We ended up teaching the first lesson on the tram and I had to deny the money he tried to offer me for a book of mormon. He was shocked that i would give it to him for free. Any way he is super cool and we wouldn't have met him if we hadn't gotten on that bus. Initially i was kind of mad that a guy said to come back while porting and then didn't accept us. I felt like he had wasted our time. Little did i know he was actually being a tool in the Lords hands to bring us in contact with this awesome person.

In a conference President Roney used the annalogy of how you can put flees in a jar with a lid and train them to jump to the top. After a while you can take the lid off and they will never jump out because they only jump as high as the lid used to be. ( I did a really bad job telling that but I hope you get the point). He then talked about how we can do more than we think we can. Anyway there is this wall that we drive past on a certain bus with graffiti on it. I had seen it multiple times before but never really read it. But this time I did. It says something along the lines of, "La seule limite c'est celle que tu t'imposes". Basically this translates to "the only limit is the one we set for ourselves". The message from the ugly and horribly painted graffiti stuck with me.

We each have such incredible potential. With the help of God we are able to accomplish huge things. However we often sell ourselves short because we create an imaginary limit to our capabilities. We can accomplish marvelous things if we just have faith in ourselves and in our Heavenly Father. Stop selling yourself short. Go forward with faith and accomplish the impossible. I love you all!

Elder Swenson

September 23, 2013

Bonjour,

Work in Montpellier is going well. We had some good times this week. Earlier on in the week we went to do some service for an older lady. Elder Pielstick tried to ward me beforehand that she was a cat lady and that it was going to be an experience to remember but nothing in my mind could have prepared me for this. When he said cat lady I pictured maybe 10 cats. This was an large underestimation on my part. When the door opened to this little appartment i saw about 20 pairs of eyes turn to look at me and had a few felines race past me at cheetah speed. This doesn't take into account the other room which was out of my vision. Clumps of fur and mysterious stains were every where. A famous author couldn't do the scene justice if he tried to describe it to you. Luckily after peeling off hair covered wall paper and cleaning out a hair covered closet, we got fed some canned vegitables in a fine dressing of hair filled mayo. The simple pleasures of missionary work.

This week we had a couple of lessons. We met with a universtiy student from england who came into contact with the church through her friend which happens to be the daughter of the bishop in Carcassone. She was taught the lessons there but didn't feel like she wanted to be baptized because she didn't feel like she had her own testimony. We will be wokrking with her these next few weeks to help her recognize and grow the testimony which she has. She is really a golden ami from what we see and i expect alot of progress with her. We also taught a cool guy who will be moving to Martinique. He seems cool and agreed to have us pass his coordinees to the missionaries there so that he could continue to be taught. 

The members here are really great and i really enjoyed meeting them all at church yesterday. The ward here has about 90 or so active members i think. Our DMP (ward mission leader) is really awesome and is a big help with the missionary work here. I'm excited to be working here with all of the awsome members.

The appartment is back down to the 4 of us now after having an upward of 8 missionaries passing by throughout the week. The address here is 

Les Missionaires

280 rue des sauges

Res. St Germain

34000 Montpellier

Anyway love ya. Until next week,

Elder Swenson

September 17, 2013

Hey all,

So new ville, new comp. This transfer I will be serving in Montpellier with Elder Pielstick. From what I've seen so far I think montpellier is going to be awesome. Last night we went to a family home evening at a members house with a bunch of amis and less actives. It went really well and I am excited to meet all of the members here. Montpellier is one of the bigger villes (still smaller than marseille and toulouse) so there are 4 equipes of missionaries here. Any way i know this will be a great transfer full of miracles.

Elder Crossman got transfered as well. We weren't really expecting to both leave but president Roney always does the unexpected with transfer calls. He is going to be serving in Perpignan. This is still in our zone so we will get to see each other at conferences. Any way, he is opening up an equipe there and so they have a new appartment. The keys to the appartment are in Lyon for the moment though because someone forgot to send them or take them or something. So for the next few days until they can get their keys they are staying in our apt. which already has 4 elders in it. Good times. I also found out this morning that it is better not to go last for taking a shower in an appartment with six elders if you want any hot water.

So last week in Angouleme we had an activity at the church. We had an american night where we played music, taught how to make chocolat chip cookies, and ate hamburgers. It went really well and we had a good turn out with a bunch of less actives and amis. For the beginning part we had a musical portion where me, elder Crossman, and two other members played guitar. Frere Temahouki, a really cool older Tahitian member played with us and it was great. He had this really old guitar that he's had since he was 19 (he's like 65 now) that was super beat up and had a big hole in the side of it. It was really funny and he won the crowd over. Because there were plenty of extra pre cooked hamburger patties left over at the end, we ended up eating hamburgers for the next couple of meals because they gave us all of the extras. I think i'm good not having a hamburger for a while.

Any way sorry for the late email. Yesterday was pretty busy so emails got pushed back to today. I love you all and hope you are all doing well. Happy birthday to all of those who had them recently. Until next week,

Elder Swenson

September 9, 2013

Bonjour ma famille,

This past week was good. We did a lot of porting and finding in the smaller villes around our sector. We went up to this little town called Cognac to do some finding and there was this arts festival going on so there were all of these performers and plays and such going on in the streets. It was intersesting. Yesterday we were porting and we actually met someone who set up a rdv with us. I can count on one hand the number of times that people have actually been receptive when we knock on their door. Then like 5 minutes later we were walking down the street and some guy in his car pulls over to the side of the road and starts going on about how french people dont like when people go door to door and that we are wasting our time. We told him about how we had just had a nice talk with a lady at the door and how she invited us to come back again. He then grumbled and drove off angrily.

Yesterday at church one of the members brought a non member to church. He is from St Martin and is here in france for a internship or something for 2 years. Any way he is staying with this member and his wife for about a week until he moves into an appartment. He is really spiritual and asked where he could go to church. The member explained a little about our church and invied him to come. During class we taught the restoration and he was really receptive and interested in the message. Any way we gave a book of mormon and he told us that he had lots of questions and hoped that he could see us again. Awesome. I love it when members bring people to chuch with them.

So we are going to try and find something interesting to do here today for my birthday but there really isn't all that much to do here. If nothing else exciting at least there is always good food here. Last week one of the senior couples came to do an appartment inspection and afterwards took us out to dinner because they found out that it was almost my birthday. They had some snails at the salad bar so finally got to try one. So there is one thing i can check off the to do list and never do again. They werent that bad but they also just werent that good either. Any way thanks for the birthday cards and messages I got. I love you all.

Oh yeah so this is the last week of the transfer. It feels like its been two transfers because ive been in 2 diferent places with 2 comps. We'll see what happens and I will let you know next week. (Probably in a usual rushed for time transferday email). Transfer number 7, probably comp number 9, and possibly ville number 5 here we come! Have a good week!

Elder Swenson

September 2, 2013

Hey everybody,

So things are going good here. Angouleme is a nice little ville. I am slowly catching after being here a week. It is a little easier to know the members when there are so few of them. Hopefully we'll be able to change that by finding all kinds of big cool families. We do have a couple cool amis that we are teaching at the moment and I am excited to get to know them better as we continue to see them more. There is a less active guy that the elders found before i got here who was baptised in Peru. He is really cool and has a nice little family but it can be a little hard teaching him as he mostly speaks spanish and neither of us really do. Elder Crossman bought a spanish grammar book so we will see what we can pick up from that.

So I did an exchange in Bordeaux last week. I have been there once for a conference but this was the first time that i got to work there. It is a really big ville with slow public transportation. Being there reminded me of Marseille because of how big it is. I like getting to do exchanges in other villes so that i can see more of France. I was looking at all of the villes where I have been on a map the other day and I can say that i am definately not one of those elders who seems to be stuck in one region of the the country their whole mission. President definately keeps me moving around.

Other news is that Pernel, our ami from Toulouse, got baptized yesterday. I'm sad that I missed it but am really proud of him for his progress. I'll see if i can steal some pictures of that from Elder Asay. It's crazy to think that in just over 2 months I will hit my year mark. The time has just flown by and its crazy to look back and see all of the things i've seen and done over here. I've been trying to do better with journal writting as i have been pretty bad with that. I have been going back over my pictures and planners and trying to fill in on any of the cool things i have neglected to write down and it has been really fun going over all of the good memories.

I love you all and wish you the best. 

Elder Swenson

August 26, 2013

Hey everyone,

This past week went well. We passed quite a few members in the ward this week, sang Love one another on the doorstep with a guitar, and gave them cookies and a little spiritual thought on the back of a picture of Christ. They LOVED it. It was a really simple quick way to serve and uplift a lot of members as well as get to know them better without spending a long time at a dinner appointment. We saw smiles, tears, and cameras, heard thankyous and encores and felt lots of love. I love the members in Toulouse.

So last week I talked about our ami Pernel and how cool he was. Well he is progressing really well and should be batized this week. The thing is that he is leaving Toulouse this weekend to go back to school in Nancy. So because it is cooler for everyone that his uncle baptizes him, his baptism is going to be on thursday before he heads up north. He is super cool and we are all excited that he is getting baptized this week. I'm sad that i'm going to miss it due to the fact that I am no longer in Toulouse. Yes you read that right. Yes it is still the middle of the transfer. Let me explain:

So Friday morning during studies Elder Tulley got a call from the assistants. (The office has our numbers mixed up apparently). He talks for a few seconds and then says "yeah here he is;" and passes me the phone. Wondering what this is going to be about I answer expecting to hear Elder Emal on the phone. The following conversation then took place:

Me: Hello this is Elder Swenson

President Roney: Hello Elder Swenson how are you doing?

Me (slightly confused): I'm good thanks. What can I do for you?

President: So we had a problem with a missionary going home early and you are the solution to this problem. You are going to be serving in Angouleme.

Me (slightly more confused): Uh...

President: You will be serving with Elder Crossman and you will head up to Angouleme tomorrow. Elder Asay will now be in a three some with
                Elder Tulley  and Elder Hunt. 

Me: Ok

President: Thanks. We love you. Can i talk to your companion now?

Me: yep. (hands the phone to Elder Asay)
Elder Tulley: What did Elder Emal want?

So yup. I'm now in Angouleme with Elder Crossman. It's a nice little ville with a small branch. This is the first area i've served in that doesn't have a ward. There are about 20 to 30 members at church each week which is a change comming from a big ward in Toulouse. Any way I like it up here and should work well with Elder Crossman. I'll miss Toulouse and Elder Asay and the members but I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be. I love you all!

Elder Swenson

August 19, 2013

Cher famille,

Yes things are going well as usual. We have been continuing to work hard to help everybody in toulouse. If you remember a few weeks back I talked about teaching an unexpected lesson to a members nephew. We have continued to work with him and things are going along great. Yesterday I sat by him in a particularly long and sleep inducing sacrament meeting. I noticed that he had his phone out and glanced over expecting to see him texting, only to see that he was taking notes about the talks. Even an extremely long one about being a daughter of God. What a stud! 

 

So there have been like 5 or 6 moves in and out of the ward these past few weeks. We helped with a 2 of them this week. Its sad to see some cool families move but we gained a couple of cool families as well. We visited one of the new families yesterday. They are awesome and the playing with the kids while dinner cooked reminded me of all of the family back home. I love and miss you guys! Any way because they are in a new ville they don't know many people and the kids were talking about how they weren't looking forward to starting in a new school here in a week with new teachers and kids that they don't know. We decided to share a story from Mark 5 with them. 

In the story there is a man who comes up to Christ telling Him that his daughter is sick and needs a blessing. While they are returning to the mans home, some men come and tell the man that his daughter had passed away and were giving him a hard time for wasting Christs time. Ignoring the other men Christ tells the man, "Fear not, only believe". Afterwards He goes with the man and raises his daughter from the dead. We shared this story with them and talked about how if we have faith and trust in the Lord that we have no reason to be scared of what is to come. With Christ all things are possible and He will always help us during difficult times.

In life there will always be hard times that are filled with opposition. Not only was this man stressed about the well being of his daughter but he was surrounded by the opposition and unbelief of those around him. But he didn't heed any of that. Instead he trusted in Christ and because of his faith his daughter was healed. We should follow this mans example. The next time that we are find ourselves in a frightening or stressful situation all we need to do is remember the words of the Savior. We have no reason to fear because we know that we are never alone. If we remember the fact that God is there for us and wont let anything happen to us save it be for our good, we have no reason to fear or be worried.

I love you all!

Elder Swenson

Pictures!!!!

This is a Ferris wheel from a few weeks ago

View from the Ferris wheel

Elder Asay on a bridge

Elder Asay and I

Visiting a castle in Foix for P-day

Castle in Foix

August 12, 2013

Hello family dearest,

This past week went well. I love working with Elder Asay. He is an excellent missionary and we work well together. So we started the week out by cleaning up the appartment and area book so that we could be nice and organized for the transfer. The areabook here in toulouse really needed to be cleaned up as we found progress records from 2001 which are different because they have the 6 discussions instead of the preach my gospel lessons. This made me realize how old Bryan and Dan are. Any way with that all cleaned up we have a much easier time being organized and getting work done with less actives and old amis. 

So I dont know if any of you guys did this in your missions but often we will go street boarding. This is where you set up a pannel with a question or scripture or picture and then contact around it to draw more people in and to give you a topic to talk about. Any way this week we did something like that but with a guitar. We basically use the guitar as a street board by taping a question to the guitar and then walk around playing and contacting. It works fairly well is more interesting for people to come and talk to us. Hopefully we can see some cool miracles come from this.

Now that people are getting back from vacation we are able to set up more rdvs. We had some cool lessons this week including one that we had in the back of a guys car. That was a first for me. Things are slowly starting to pick up for us here and we should see a bunch of miracles here in the upcoming weeks. I love being able to help people learn more about the gosple and seeing the impact that it has on their life.

Any way I love you all and hope you enjoy the last little bit of summer.

Elder Swenson

August 5, 2013

Hello dear family,

So new transfer, new comp, same ville, same all day train station duties. So Elder Wilson got shipped off and my new comp is Elder Asay. He's from texas ( I know that mom likes to know where my comps are from). He's an awesome elder and we should get alot of good work done this transfer. The good news is that vacation is comming to an end and so we will have an easier time fixing up rdvs. We met a bunch of cool people at the first of the transfer who ended going on vacation until august. Hopefully know we will get to see all of these cool people in the comming weeks.

So last week was good. We did plenty of service and did some good work with members. One cool thing that happened was we had planned to go see a member but when we got to his apt he wasn't there. His non member nephew was though and invited us up. He told us that his uncle was going to be late but said "You guys usually start with a prayer right? I'll say it." He then asked us about the church and we ended up teaching him about the restoration and setting up a return visit in a few days. It was a cool unexpected miracle that the Lord sent our way.

I'm excited for this new transfer and I know that we will continue seeing miracles all throughout. I love you all and hope that you are enjoying the last little bit of summer. I'm sorry that this letter is a little short and that I haven't sent pictures in a few weeks (I forgot my camera cord again). I'll do a better job next week when I have more time. Love ya,

Elder Swenson

July 29, 2013

Bonjour à tous

So yesterday we were out contacting. When i very first left the appartment I had this distinct impression that there was someone specific that we were supposed to find. Our goal for the day was to get 100 people contacted. Towards the evening we still needed about 40 more to reach that goal. "We got this no problem" is what we were thinking when all of the sudden out of nowhere it starts pouring rain. With no umberellas and very few people left on the street we continued on. People looked at us like we were crazy as we approached them dripping wet and asked them if they wanted to learn more about the Saviour. We had been rejected by literally everyone and en plus I had a contact where the people couldn't understand my french, one of the most frustrating things of my mission. We still had 20 people left to reach our goal and about 40 minutes left in the day. But i knew that there was still someone out there waiting for us so we decided to continue. I knew that the adversary was sending all of this opposition for a reason so i was determined to keep going until time was up. Then finnaly after about 89 rejections we found him. The guy who Christ had been directing us to that day. We talked with him for a good 30 minutes, testified of the Saviour, shared the first vision, and talked about finding strength in trials. At the end we gave him a dedicated book of mormon that a member had given us earlier at church. As we parted ways smiling and filled with the love of Christ I offered a prayer of thanks in my heart. 

I know that if we continue to work even when we are bombarded by opposition that we will see miracles. We easily could have given up and headed towards home but we stuck it out and were rewarded with a blessing after the trial of our faith. All of the bad weather and tired bodies and insults and mockings and abuse we see as servants of the Lord are worth it when we find that lost sheep :) I love this work!

In life we face all kinds of crazy opposition. Though it might seem difficult at times we can perservere. As children of the most powerful being in the universe we all have a divine potential within. We can always choose to do what we know is right, we can always continue to work when everything else is working against us. If we continue moving forward with faith in Christ and an eye single to the work we will see miracles. God has promised us angels round about us to strengthen us. And we should always take confidence in the fact that our saviour Jesus Christ had enough faith in us that he was willing to take upon himself all manner suffering that we might be able to overcome the world as He did.

I love you. Your Father in Heaven loves you. We have confidence in you. Continue to perservere through those difficult moments and you will be blessed. Never give up. Never forget why you are here and never forget the amazing potential that you have as a child of God to do good.

Elder Swenson

July 22, 2013

This week was a good one. On monday when we were out and about, I had just got done praying that i could just help someone feel better even if i couldn't set up a rdv with them. The first contact I had I ended up speaking with this man who had actually seen the missionaries in the past and had read the book of mormon but had felt frustrated with life and God. I ended up talking with him and testifying for the next 15 minutes. At the end of the contact he told me about how angry he had been lately especially when it comes to religion. He said that the last time he talked with us "preachers" he got really angry, yelled, and felt really upset the rest of the night. But this time it was the opposite. He told me that he felt really peaceful talking with me and that it was the first time in a really long time that he had felt good while talking about religion. At the end he thanked me for talking with him and told me that I had really helped him feel better that evening. As I was walking away I remembered my prayer literally seconds before talking with this man. While I hadn't managed to fix any thing with him, I knew for a fact that I had helped him.

The rest of the week was filled a lot of really good conversations on the street or at a door step. Some of which lead to numbers or fixed rdvs, many didn't, but I feel that with all of them I had left the person feeling better than I found them. I have really been putting focus on improving my ability to contact. I can testify that through dilligence and prayer we can see improvment in ourselves. In D&C there is a good scripture that tells us "All vitctory is brought to pass through our diligence, faithfulness, and prayer of faith."

I feel alot like Jeremiah. In chapter 1 the Lord calls him to the work. At first he feels scared and overwhelmed when it comes to talking with others. But God tells him not to be scared because He will be with him and will tell him what he needs to say. At the beginning of the mission i felt like saying as did Jeremiah "I am but a child and cannot speak," but I know that the Lord has strengthened and comforted me. At the beginning of my mission I stuggled with contacts in my native language and it was all the more difficult in a foreign one. I am still far from perfect but i have seen how far i have come thanks to the help of the Lord.

This gospel is a gospel of hope. It is a gospel of peace. It is a gospel of joy. How lucky are we to have a Father in Heaven who loves us enough to help us in aspects of our life? A Father who is willing to strengthen us, help us, and bear us up. Always remeber the divine potential that you have and be able to say with confidence "I can do all things through Him which strengtheneth me." 

I love you.

Elder Swenson

July 15, 2013

Bonjour à tous

How is summer treating you? It has been super hot here. I don't think i've ever sweat so much in my life. We sleep out on the balcony at night so we dont die in the hot appartment. This past week we did alot of work out in the smaller villes outside of toulouse. Last saturday we were up in this little ville visiting some less actives and contacting. While we were walking down the street this car going the opposite direction flips a u turn and nearly runs us over as it stops in front of us to cut us off. Expecting to be yelled at by some crazy person as us missionaries have become accustomed to, we looked up and this guy asks us  "Hey are you the missisonaries?" We found out that apparantly he had seen the missionaries once in the past and we asked him if he was interested in seeing us again. He said yes but that he didn't have time at the moment but asked for our number. It's always cool when people find us instead of the otherway around.

This past week we also did alot of finding. We had to pass our ami Kanel to the sisters because the zone leaders thought that it would be good for her to be taught by sisters. We were kinda bummed about that but she still has her baptisimal date set up and should be getting baptised soon so thats good. Any way we talked to alot of cool people this week. I like being able to have conversations with all sorts of different people and finding out about them as well as sharing our message. Even if we they aren't interested in our message or we cant set anything up with them we can always just be kind and show intrest in their lives. I always want to leave them feeling better then they did when we started talking and try to leave them a good impression of the church so that the next time they see the missionaries or have some sort of contact with the church they will be more receptive.

As members of this church and representitves of Christ we should always strive to do our best so that we set good examples for others. I remember hearing this peom before my mission that goes some thing along the lines of,

Others are watching and this is a fact.

Someone will notice the way that I act.

So make this your motto and put it to use,

Be someones example, not their excuse.

We always need to do our best and strive to be more and more like our Savior each day. We all know that actions speak louder than words and sometimes the best way that we can help others have the desire to learn more about the church is through our actions. I challenge you all to reflect on who you are and pick an area in your life where you can improve. As we develop Christlike attributes we grow happier. That is what the gospel does for us and that is the purpose of life, to improve ourselves and to find happiness. I love you all,

Elder Swenson

July 8, 2013

Hey everyone,

So this past week went well. I did an exchange with elder Tulley and that was cool. It felt like i was a bleu again (but this time i could understand everything that people were saying). It is cool to reflect back and see all of the progress that we've made. It was good getting to work with him again.

Me and elder Wilson did a lot of porting this week in a fairly nice neighborhood and because it is rediculously hot right now i saw way too many old guys in speedos. I'm looking forward to colder weather when people start putting their clothes back on.

Zone conference this week was on the fourth of July so we sang the star spangled banner, said the pledge, and ate some american cookies. Lucky for us we had the flag that elder Ashton bought from the africans at a street market. I hope you all set off some cool fire works.

Last saturday we had a cool activity for the ward and their friends about the restoration. There was a slideshow with a bucnh of cool pictures as we talked about different aspects of the gosple broken up by musical numbers. It was actually really cool and even though there wasnt a ton of people the ones there all enjoyed it. There is this one really nice recent convert who is the only member in her family who decided to invite her aunt to come with her to the activity. At the end we invited her to share her testimony and it was really powerful and touching for her aunt. It is really awesome when you get to see members share the gospel with there family and friends.

The work continues to progress. Even if a lot of the fruit that we see ends up getting passed to the missonaries in the other ward. I really like it here in Toulouse and I hope i get to stay here for a couple of transfers. I love being able to share this gospel with everyone even though they don't always accept it.

I love you and hope you are all enjoying your summer.

Elder Swenson