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 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

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

July 1, 2013

Hey there everybody,

So another good week here in france. I'm getting used to being in a bigger ville with a bunch of missionaries again. Toulouse isn't as big as marseille but there are more missionaries and members here. There are 2 wards here and 7 equipes of missionaries here plus a senior couple. Because there are 2 wards and so many missionaries the sector is divided by the river that cuts toulouse in half. I'm not used to being kept out of half of the ville. Actually on second thought Marseille had so many "red zones" that i kind of am used to it ;)

So i got to meet a few new missionaries this past week. Elder Tulleys bleu is Elder Hunt. Hes going to be a good missionary and it is cool sharing an appartment with their equipe. Also there is now a sister swenson in our mission. Elder wilson was excited about that when he saw her name tag for the first time. On sunday all of the new missionaries in the ward bore their testimonies. 6 of the 8 of us in our ward are new to the are so there were plenty of missionariy testimonies. We have 2 blues in the ward (elder Hunt and soeur Bailey) seeing them trying to understand and speak french reminds me of how hard that was at first and helps me see how far ive come in that regard. I'm glad that i can understand people now.

We have a cool ami here who we engaged to baptism for the end of the july last week. She is from tahiti and she grew up in a part member family but was never baptised but we are working on that now :) Any way she is super cool and super upbeat and were lucky to be working with her.

Well i hope all is going well back in the states. I love you all,

Elder Swenson

June 24, 2013

Hello again dear family,

So as usual I have a new companion this transfer and am in a new ville. This transfer I am in Toulouse and am serving with Elder Wilson. I know Elder Wilson really well because he was in Marseille with me the first 2 transfers and am really excited to be serving with him. Also Elder Tulley will be training a bleu  and they will be staying in the same appartment with us. Also here are 3 other elders (Wolfenstein, Ashton, and Truman)  that have been in my districts in the past. Basically Toulouse is the new Marseille. We're excited. This is going to be a great transfer.

Last week was a great week as well with alot accomplished. We visited quite a few members and as a result of our commitments to invite members we had 11 amis at church on sunday. We found and taught some cool new people as well and Elder Wheat should have a good amount of rdvs with his new comp (he is staying there and elder Connault got transfered to gap). We also finally got  all of the stuff set up in the new appartment that we had to set up for the sisters who are coming to St Etienne this transfer.

Yesterday was awesome. We had the baptisimal service of the kids after church. It was really spiritual and even resulted in some spirit induced tears of some of the non members who were there. We had a good  time saying goodbye to all of the members and had a really good sunday.

Any way as usual on transfer days i dont have alot of time today because i spent 6 hours on the train today. I will write more and send photos next week. 

Love ya,

Elder Swenson

June 17, 2013

Bonjour ma famille,

Another good week. Earlier in the week we had our conference with Elder Richards and it was really good. He talked about teaching doctrine simply and working through members.  We set some lofty goals as a mission for next month and will all be working hard to accomplish them. It was fun getting to see all of the missionaries at the conference. We had 5 for 8 of my mtc group there so that was cool. Also i got to see all of the swiss missionaries finally. 

This is the last week of the transfer and it has gone by super fast just like all of the others. I will find out where i am  going this friday. All sorts of patterns will be broken if i stay here with the same comps and stay in the same ville for more than 2 transfers. We'll see.

As far as the ward news goes here we had a home comming of a sister who had been serving in rome. She is still in missionary mode and asked us for a big stack of pass along cards as soon as we met her. Next week if all goes well should be the baptism of the 3 kids we've been working with. It's awesome to see how excited everyone is that they are finally getting baptised. 

This past week we had some good FHEs with members. We shared 1 Ne 8:11-12 which talkes about Lehi tasting the fruit and wanting to share it with his family. We asked about their experiences of "tasting the fruit" and invited them to share it with others. I love being able to help members share the gospel with their friends. It was so awesome getting to hear all sorts of gospel miracles and conversion stories. This gospel is so great that when we talk about all of the good things it has brought us we are filled with the spirit and desire to share it with others. Think often about all of the many blessings that this gospel has brought you and i promise you that you will be filled with such a spirit of happiness that you will want to go out and share it with everyone. I love you all.

Elder Swenson

June 10, 2013

Hey everybody,

So this past week was good. Especially since it was sunny for the majority of the week. We had some cool rdvs this week. We contcted a university student and we went to the campus to teach her. We were in this little courtyard area so it was pretty peaceful. She also invited a couple of her friends and we got to teach a nice lesson to some pretty open people. Also this week we had another rdv with a really nice couple. We met them porting and it turns out that they had met with elders before like 10 years ago. They are super nice and we were able to give them a new book of mormon because they had lost their old copy. 

This week was stake conference. This was the first time that they were going to try to transmit it to the other chappels so that we could just watch it on a screen. But of course the wifi at the church is horrible so it didn't work perfectly. The wifi didn't reach to well in the chappel so we all ended up moving chairs into they foyer so that the signal would be stronger. By the time we did that we had missed like the first 15 minutes. It worked well until the last 10 minutes then it cut out again. But the middle talks were good.

Tomorrow we have a general athority visiting the mission so we have a big conference. There will be three of them in different parts of the mission so that all of the missionaries dont have to travel too far. so that means that i will get to see a third of the missionaries which will be cool. I think all of the swiss elders are coming to our conference so i will get to see all of them who i don't often get to see because americans cant get swiss legality so it's pretty much like they're in a different mission. 

I'm now adjusted to having 2 companions. It helped having the extra set of hands because we did quite a bit of service this week. Other than that there isn't anything to facinating that i have to say. I love you all and hope all is going well,

Elder Swenson

June 3, 2013

Hey everyone,

So this week we got an unexpected surprise. Last week we got this text from the assistants that said, should we call saint etienne about the new elder? We sent back a ? in reply to their accidental text. Anyway long story short we now have a third elder in our equipe. His name is Elder Conault. He is french and he is waiting on a visa so that he can go serve in madagascar. He hasn't even been to the mtc yet. But he is awesome and will be serving here for about 9 weeks. Since he doesn't speak a ton of english, he will be a big help with my french because we don't speak a lot of english now. 

So I had my first question about kolob in a rdv this week. I just thought that that was interesting.

So we have been trying to work a lot through members and this week with the help of a new french elder in the ward we set up a good amount of rdvs with members and their friends. This upcoming week should be a good one. This past week we have been putting alot of focus on endearing the members. We wrote little personal notes with a scripture refference on the back and put them in the members mailboxes. They all enjoyed it and it's true that we can easily brighten someones day by just doing little things for them. 

So when we walk back to our appartment at night we pass by this bar/nightclub thing. The other night as we were walking home there was a group of people outside waiting for it to open. When we walked past we were met with a chant of "Hey mormons come join us! hey mormons come join us!"  It made me laugh. Every day in this world we are bombarded with temptations and this was just a funny example of that. We should learn from their example and invite everyone we see by saying "Hey world come join us!" This gospel is happiness and everyone who isn't a part of it is missing out on all of the joy and blessings. We should all be missionaries and invite those that we see to come join us. Just like Lehi and the tree of life, after we have tasted the fruit the next thing we want to do is invite others to come and partake.

I love you all

Elder Swenson

May 27, 2013

Bonjour toute le monde,

 

This week was full of miracles. So earlier in the week we decided that we were going to try to stop by each of the members houses and try to endear and serve them. One evening we decide to stop by a young family and share a little message and offer service. We go to the door and they open and say "look who it is!" We look in and see that there are also two of the JAs from the ward who are preparing to go on missions there in the house getting ready to have dinner. They invite us in and insist on feeding us dinner. We have a good night and spend some good time with them all and at the end we shared our message and offered service. They said that the best way that we could serve them would be to go and see their friends and share the gospel with them. No joke. We come to offer them service, but they serve us by feeding us, giving us a chance to talk with some future missionaries, and then just give us this coordinee like that.

 

But it doesn't end there. later in the week we have a big day planned with a couple of rdvs. We decide that we are going to pray every hour that day because we needed all the help we could get. That day we taught the wife of a recent convert who has just moved to France, passed and gave a blessing to a less active brother, and decided to go try to pass the friends of the family from earlier. This is the best part. It's getting kindof late so we are rushing to their house with cookies. We are getting soaked by the rain because we forgot our umbrellas in the rush. We get to their place and they invite us in. We give them cookies and talk offer them service. We then start talking about their religious background and they tell us that they are just left with all these questions. Then we tell them that that is why we are here as missionaries is to help answer peoples questions. "Oh really, Do you have a few minutes then?" they ask. We go in and have this awesome talk with them about famlies and the book of mormon. They are the coolest family ever and they said they would read the book of mormon and come to church.

 

I have been waiting my whole mission to be able to teach a family like this. They are such a strong and awsome young family with a good religious background. Plus they have one of the best member families in the ward as friends and neighbors to help fellowship them. Please keep them in your prayers so that things go well with them.

 

More good news is that we have refixed the baptismal date of the kids I have talked about before. And now their other sister has decided to be baptised too. They are all really strong and ready for their baptism in 4 weeks.

 

I love this work and being able to share the gospel with everyone. I love being able to teach families and working with members to find the strongest people. I know that this message is true and have seen what a huge impact it has on improving peoples lives. I am so grateful for this gospel and the impact that it has had on my own family. I hope that everyone is doing well and will keep you all in my prayers. Until next week,

 

Love Elder Swenson

May 20, 2013

Hey everybody,

 

Another good week in the city with nonstop rain. Luckily today happened to be one of the rare days that it is sunny. My umbrella is officially out of commission. I need to another one up soon because we dont have any spares in the apt. Other than the weather i really like saint etienne. The members here are all great. Yesterday at church we had 2 members show up with friends that we have now set rdvs with. Member work is definately the best way to do missionary work.

 

Since Elder Wheat is new we got bombarded with dinner appointments this week. I love going over and sharing spiritual thoughts with families in the ward. Everybody over here is like a big family. After church in Utah every body is out of the building the second they say the closing prayer but here everybody is still at the church talking and eating and playing for hours after.

 

There is a recent convert here and his wife and kids just moved here from africa. It was really awsome getting to meet the family and see how happy they were to be together again. My favorite part was when he was introducing his family and he rubbed his 2 yr old sons head and said that he was going to be his little missionary. Awesome. We're hoping to start teaching his wife the lessons starting this week.

 

This past week went well. We started teaching a new ami named Camara and we met him in a park for out first rdv. We ended up teaching under umbrellas but it still went really well. My favorite part was when we had him read moroni 10 and asked him what he thought. Usually you just get a response where they just kinda repeat what you said but he started testifying about each point and breaking it down bit by bit. He was super excited about it. It was awesome. It was even more awesome when we called him 2 days later and he was already 14 chapters into the book of mormon. I hope that things keep going the way they do.

 

Anyway I love you all and hope that all is going well for everyone.

 

Elder Swenson

May 13, 2013

Hey everybody,

This might be a little short. Pdays always get shot on transfer day. For those who don't know already I am staying in Saint Etienne and my new comp is Elder Wheat. He is an awesome missionary and i know that we will work great together this transfer. Elder Jackson is moving to Nimes. He was a great Elder and i'm glad i got to work with him.

It was great getting to talk to you on mothers day. The boys are getting so big. I hope that all is well for you and I hope that all the moms had a great mothers day. This past week was a good one as usual. We found a couple of new amis that we are teaching and they seem awesome. Last week we did service for this family in the ward. The service involved chopping down a bunch of weeds with homemade machetes. It was awesome. It was pretty crazy though because even the little kids were swinging those things around. I got some pictures that i will have to send you next week when I have a little more time. I'll also try to do better at answering all of your questions. Any way i have to prepare a lesson for family home evening tonight so i'm going to have to cut this letter a little short. I will write more next time. I love you all,

Elder Swenson

May 6, 2013

Bonjour à tous,

Another good week here in Saint Etienne. This transfer has flown by. Calls are this Friday so i will let you know details next week. We'll see if I continue the pattern of having a new companion each transfer. So there are like 20 sisters coming in this transfer. At conference president told us about how there are only about 12 sister trainers in the mission right now. Basically every sister in the mission right now is going to be training. Crazy. Speaking of calls, I am looking forward to being able to talk to you on mothers day. Should be great.

Last monday in France was labor day so there was no public transportation. That morning also happened to be the craziest rainstorm yet. The streets were like rivers. The raindrops were huge, and the it was pretty windy. We decided to go out and contact. It was crazy but there were actually some people on the streets and we had some good contacts. Unfortunately my umbrella sustained some battle wounds from the storm. After lunch it was a really sunny, beautiful, not a cloud in the sky type of day. I think we got rewarded for our diligence earlier that morning.

So yesterday was the first fast sunday I had in St Etienne. It was awesome hearing all of the testimonies. There were super powerful testimonies given and the spirit was super strong. The other morning I read D&C 27 about taking on the armor of God. I'm sure you're all familiar with it. It's in the scriptures a couple of times. Anyway it talks about taking upon us certain attributes that will protect us like a spiritual suit of armor. Breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, etc.. Any way if you notice in there all of the things are defensive like shields and helmets. We have things like faith and righteousness that will protect us from the wicked things of this world. However we have also been given one offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit.

The spirit pricks the hearts and pierces the souls of others each time that we bear testimony. As members of this church we are members of Gods army. We have each been given armor to protect us, but more is expected of us then to just protect ourselves and bide our time until the end. We need to fight off wickedness with our sword of the spirit. Only by using this powerful weapon that we have been given we will be victorious in the great battle between good and evil. We need to use this tool we've been given. Bear testimony every chance you get. A simple heartfelt testimony can make all the difference in the world. I challenge you all to look for those occasions to bear testimony to others.

I love you all and testify to you that i know that this church is true. I know that sharing the gospel with others brings us more happiness than we can even understand, and I am so lucky to have a part in such a great work.

Elder Swenson

April 29, 2013

Dear family,

I hope all is going well for everybody back in the States. It's still going well here. Mom said that she prayed for nice weather for me but i think it backfired because it snowed here this week. But it's all good. We went to Lyon this week for zone conference and it was really great. I love zone conferences. President and Sister Roney always have great things to say. This time they talked about improving ourselves and acquiring Christ like attributes. It was really uplifting and i've been working on this in my studies this past week.

So this past week has been filled with fallen through appointments, cancelled baptisms, and difficulties in the work, but i know that we just gotta keep working hard and plow through times like these. That's just missionary life. One thing that i've seen alot on my mission is the importance of keeping a positive attitude during hard times and trials. Life isn't easy but when we are given every reason to be discouraged and frustrated it is important to keep a positive out look. We can always find reasons to be happy, and we can always be assured that there will be better things to come. Because God loves us, He will always bless us with the things that we need, including moments of happiness in times of trials. We can always find reasons to smile, if we just look for the little things and live in thanksgiving daily.

Men are that they might have joy. The reason that we are here on earth is to be happy. The other day me and elder Jackson contacted a man on the streets. We asked him what gives him happiness in life. He just looked at us and said, "nothing". We testified to him that we have many reasons to be happy in this life and that through the gospel of Jesus Christ we can find true happiness. We have a Father in heaven who loves us and has provided us with a plan called the plan of happiness.

The sad truth is that many of our brothers and sisters here on earth don't have the same knowledge that we do, and when asked what gives them happiness they give us the sad reply of nothing. Don't take for granted how lucky you are to have the comforting knowledge that you have a loving Heavenly Father who has provided you with a plan of happiness. Don't forget why we are here. Look for those moments of joy. They are always there. Recognize and cherish these moments. Don't get so caught up in the difficulties of life that you neglect your purpose in life. Smile everyday, be happy, look for moments of joy, and do everything that you can to spread that joy to everyone you meet.

If asked the question what gives me happiness in life, I would be able to say with certainty, "My family, friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and sharing this great message with everyone." I love you all.

Elder Swenson