pictures from bleus conference and the hike with our ami Alain

February 25, 2013

Bonjour ma famille,

This week has been another great one. I love working with elder workman. He is such a stud. Weve been working hard and meeting a bunch of new people. I know this transfer is going to be great. So our ami Alain is getting baptised this week. He is an awesome guy. We even went on a hike with him for pday this week. He has a strong testimony and its awesome to see him make this descision. Its been awesome to see him grow these past few weeks. I love being able to be here teaching all these amazing people. Earlier this week we were eating dinner with a family and i just remember thinking how lucky i am to be able to meet all these people and feel of the spirit with them and their familes. All of the hyper and happy little kids remind me of our family.

Last friday was bleus conference so we got to go up to lyon and see all the missionaries i came in with. It was great to see all of them again and hear how theyre doing. I also got to see a few of the sisters from the group behind me when i was helping them with bags at the train station. Sisters have so much stuff in their bags! i dont understand how they didnt have to pay fees at the airport for the weight. But it was nice getting to see familliar faces. Its better knowing more elders now because it makes conferences alot more fun.

This past week has been so cold. There was even a little snow in marseille and that never happens. It didnt stick but the constant wind here makes it so much colder. But im glad that im here and not someplace like utah where its even colder. I hope all is going well for everyone back home. know that i pray for you all and think about you alot. Im greatful for all the things that youve done for me and for the examples you have set for me. Until next week,

Elder Swenson

February 18, 2013

Hey all,

So this past week was good. We got our transfer calls and I'm staying in Marseille for another transfer. Elder Tulley got transfered to Nice so my new companion is Elder Workman. He has already served here for 4 transfers and then left for about 3 and now he is back. It should be a good change going from white washing to now having alot more experience with the ville. I've only known him for about an hour up to now but I already know that he is going to be an awesome companion. So the zones got changed around and some new ones were added this transfer. Our zone got split into 2 and Elder Tulley is one of the new zls of the other half. I'm looking forward to this new transfer and hope that all continues to go well.

This past week was great. We picked up some new amis and had some great rdvs. This past wednesday the mission had a finding day. We spent the whole day contacting and port à porting. Also everyone prayed every hour for everybody in the mission. It really strengthened my testimony of how important prayer is. It may seem like a little thing but it really brings about miracles. We saw many that day and it was always right after we would get done praying. We are so lucky to be able to talk with our Heavenly Father at any time and have His spirit with us to guide us. Sometimes the best and simplest way to help others is just to pray for them. I know that prayer is such a great blessing in our lives and that it really does make a difference.

I hope that all is going well back at home. I hope mom had a great birthday and everyone had a great valentines day. I'm glad valentines day is over because all of the ads all over the city have become abit more family friendly. I love you all and hope you stay happy and healthy. I'm sorry that this email is short but i spent all day at the train station for all the arrivals and departures so time got cut a little short. Love ya.

Elder Swenson

Last Week of My First Transfer (plus pictures)

Salut!

So this is the last week of transfer number one. We get our calls on Friday so i'll find out then if i'm staying in marseille or not. I hope that I get to stay but i'll be happy with where ever i get sent. Me and Elder Tulley are finally getting out of our white washing slump. Now that we finally know the members and area a little more we have been having a little easier time. This week we taught alot more and received some new amis. All of them are awesome and i love being able to share the gospel with them and just be able to serve them how ever they need it. We gave 3 blessings this week and so that was my first experience doing that in french. When ever there are a few companionship's at a members house or at a lesson they always choose me to give the prayer without fail. I think i'm 100% in giving either opening prayer or dinner prayer this week. Also they always choose me to anoint the oil for the blessings. It's good for me to practice though and i love being able to help out. But now i just expect that it's going to be me when we ask who they would like to say the prayer.

My appetite has been growing on my mission because of all the giant meals that we eat. Here in France they have appetizers, then a dish, then another dish, then bread and cheese, then dessert. The food is great but i always feel like i'm going to die when i come out of mangez-vous. But slowly my stomache is becoming accustomed to being so full. I love it out here in france and the people and culture are great. Ashley asked me if i've had any people come on to metros and give speaches or play music for money yet, and i've seen alot more of that this week. The other day a guy jumped on the metro and started playing his guitar and singing crazy. It made me laugh. I love all the experiences and people that you meet while you are out on the streets.

So there is this awesome member in our ward named David who is an amazing member missionary. This sunday he showed up with 5 people who he had invited to attend church with him. They were all awesome to and we have some rdv's set up for this upcoming week. Members are really where the majority of our amis come from and the members in our ward are all great missionaries. It's awesome being able to help members to do missionary work and help them find ways to invite their friends and family to learn more about the gospel. Growing up in Pleasant Grove where the majority of the people you know are members and we never really had ward missionaries, I never realised how much of an impact the members have on missionary work.

I love you all and hope that you are enjoying all of the snow back in Utah. I hope that all are happy, healthy and well.  Here are some pictures from our hike last P-day.

Elder Swenson

More Pictures

These are from last p day when we went to notre dame du mont. It's this giant cathedral up above marseille. It has this giant gold mary that is like 20 meters tall. Also if you look at the little island in the back of the landscape picture that is chateau d'iff (sp?) (from all the books and movies) We will probably go there next week. This week i think we're going on a hike so i'll try to get some good pictures of that for you.

Let the Holy Spirit Guide

Hey all, 

Another week has come and gone so fast. It seems like this transfer is speeding by. It's only a 5 week transfer because the schedule got messed up from the change with all the new missionaries. I was up in Aix en Provence for 2 days this week because we had an exchange with the zone leaders and then a zone conference the next day. When we slept over at the zone leaders appartment we thought it would just be the 4 of us but then another group called and needed a place to stay and then the assistants called needing a place to sleep. So there were 8 of us in the tiny appartment. It was a grand time of sleeping on the floor and ice cold showers. The conference the next day was good though and president Roney talked about having faith and being consecrated missionaries. 

Aix is still a pretty big city but not as big as Marseille. I'm finally begining to know where i'm going now. I sure do miss the nice easy to find addresses in utah though. We still get lost but not a often and not as far off. We had more lessons with Alain. He is such an awesome guy and i'm 90% positive he will be getting baptized on march 2. Keep him in your prayers. We also had this lesson with a part member family this week. It was crazy. About 5 minutes in it got completely derailed because of some concerns of the wife. So pretty much for the next 30 minutes we just listened to her vent. After that though she started calming down and me and Elder Tulley just started testifying of simple truths and sharing personal experiences. With us only talking for about 10% of the lesson she completely had a 180 and was testifying herself at the end. The spirit was super strong and definately did all the work. At the end she invited us to come back and told us that we are the first set of missionaries that she hasn't yelled out of the house. She is actually a really spiritual person and said that she feels that our church is right and that she thinks she might want to be baptized soon. They are really an awesome family and we're lucky to be able to go and teach them.

My testimony of letting the spirit teach was really strengthened from that lesson. We taught in english so i was excited to be able to say and understand a little more in the lesson because our french lessons pretty much consist of me just sharing little things here and there and mostly testifying of the things Elder Tulley says. But then in the end it turned out that the only things that we could share to help in this certain lesson were simple testimonies. The spirit truly is the teacher that is going to help members come unto Christ. It doesn't matter how well we speak the language or how much we know as long as we can invite the spirit. Being able to look someone in the eye and testify to them of the things that you hold sacred and know to be true is so much more of an impact then going in and trying to wow them with your gospel knowlege. The power that a simple testimony can have is increadible.

I love you all and just want to let you know how much I love this gospel and feel so lucky to be able to share it with everyone. I love seeing how much it can impact peoples lives for the better. I love being a missionary.

L'amour Elder Swenson