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