June 23, 2014

Hello again,

Another week has flown by. I feel like time speeds up the closer you get to the end of your mission. Any way things are still going well here in brive. It gets hotter everyday. I forgot how fun it was walking around in missionary clothes all day in the summer time. Other fun summertime things include waking up each morning with new mosquito bites, seeing tons of tourists, and having a higher frequency of loud drunk people on the street outside our appartment as they visit bars and clubs at 2:00 in the morning. This past week with the world cup going on as well a fair and a music festival has brought about a bit of a drought of interested people when we go contacting. The good news is that inspite of all of the beginning of summer craziness things have been going well.

The other day we had an empty schedule and I really felt like we needed to go to another ville in our sector called Tulle. When we have gone there in the past there have always been a ton of cool people to talk with. So we buy train tickets and head over and when we get there it is litterally like a ghost town. We've never seen the place so empty. so we started walking around trying to find people to talk to. After a while I began to wonder why I had felt so strongly like we needed to come here. Just then we stopped this lady and tried to start conversation. She quickly said that she didn't speak french very well and said something in portuguese. Well Elder Martinez could speak with her so he talked with her for a minute and was able to set up a rdv with her. It has been one of Elder Martinezs goals to find a spanish or portuguese ami and here we finally found one in the empty streets of tulle. I know that the Lord inspires and leads us in this work.

We have been seeing alot of cool miracles all throughout the mission and President Roney mentioned in the newsletter this week that we have been seeing a high boost in success these past few weeks. I am sure that this has to do with Elder Andersens visit to the mission as well as some lofty goals we have set as a mission. When Elder Andersen spoke he talked alot about faith. He mentioned how faith is believing in the impossible. When our faith is strong we see miracles. We see the Lord accomplish impossible things. As we set goals and strive to do things that are possible with faith and impossible without God and as we move forward with diligence and patience we will have our faith rewarded.

I can testify that I have seen miracles on my mission. I have seen faith trump logic. I have seen success when everything seemed to be going against us. I know that we can truly do all things in the Lords strength, even the impossible. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to learn principles like this on a daily basis as a missionary. 

Love ya,

Elder Swenson

June 16, 2014

Bonjour,

So sorry for not writing last week but I was traveling pretty much half the week. So because the conference was in Nice and everyone had to travel there, to save money instead of using trains we all met up and took busses. So on sunday after church we hopped on a train for about 2.5 hours and headed to bordeaux where we stayed the night. Monday morningwe woke up and headed to the church there to board the bus. We drove for about 8 or 9 hours before finnaly getting to nice. We stayed in a hotel because there are like 270 missionaries and there was no way we were going to all fit in the appartments there. Tuesday morningwe woke up and headed to a conference center and practiced a few songs before Elder Andersen got there.

The conference was amazing! President and sister Roney, Elder and sister Kearon and Elder and sister Andersen all spoke to us. They all had awesome talks and the spirit was super strong. I love Elder Andersen. It was extra cool because he served his mission here and later was mission president here as well so he has a huge love for the french missionaries. They shared stories and miracles of their experiences here and boosted everyones faith. We had a couple of musical numbers and at the end we sang a really cool version of the spirit of God. I don't think i've ever felt the spirit so strong in my life when we sang that. 

Afterwards we hopped on a bus and drove until we got to Montpellier where we stayed in another hotel. We continued on the next day and finally got back to Brive about 8:00 wednesday night. Even though it took many many long hours of travel and we weren't allowed to talk with any of the other missionaries in Nice in order to stay reverent, it was well worth it.

Things have been going great in Brive. We are working with some great amis who are doing awesome. I am loving being here. We should be having a baptism here in a few weeks and I'm sure I'll see more if I stay another transfer. Any way I love you all and wish I could have shared more but the internet place is closing early for some reason today and the guy is kicking us out now. Until next week!

Elder Swenson

June 2, 2014

Hello!

Things have been going well here in Brive. I really enjoy working here. Elder Martinez is an incredible missionary. I got to meet multiple members this week by doing multiple service projects and helping with multiple hometeaching visits. The members here are all super awesome.

We also have a good amount of awesome amis as well. As we worked with them throughout the week I saw alot of potential in them. If all goes well we should see baptism this transfer. Keep us in your prayers!

Next week the whole mission will be in Nice because Elder Andersen is visiting our mission. I am really excited for this even though it involves many hours of travel. As a result of this and the timing our Pday will get messed up so I have no idea when you will get my next email.

So just to give you an interesting story this week I will share with you one of the more unique experiences that I lived on my mission. So there we were walking down the street when we look up and see a cat on the sidewalk in front of us. It turns to face us and as we get closer to it, it got scared and darted out into the road. Well apparently it's mom never warned it to look both ways because just at that moment a car came speeding by. We watched in horror as the poor thing got mangled by the car. But it doesn't end there. Apparently the tire went right over its stomach and because we were just beside the whole incident we were splatterd with the insides of this poor cat. Yes you read that right. It litterally popped like the car had ran over a tube of toothpaste and we were right in the line of fire. As we walked down the street towards the appartment we had to hold our breath. No professional author could do justice in describing the stench that could be smelt within a 10 yard radius of us. I had to throw away the shirt that I was wearing. The rest of the evening i couldn't turn my mind off and the horrific scene played over and over in my head. I feel as though I might have suffered from the effects of PTSD the rest of the day. To this day i still shutter at the sight of a cat and refuse to approach one. The experience I have lived though still haunts me. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies. I hate cats.

Love ya,

Elder Swenson