Picture Links

Here are links to more of Elder Connualt's pictures.  These are from the last two weeks.  Hopefully now that Trent has been transferred he will send us pictures himself!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95778312@N08/sets/72157634174762564/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95778312@N08/sets/72157634295550077/

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

Pictures, Courtesy of Elder Connault

Elder Connault takes a photo of us every day.  Here are some links to the first 2 weeks of us.  You can go back each week to see new ones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95778312@N08/sets/72157633896674247/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95778312@N08/sets/72157634043448962/

In case the links don't work, or you just want to see some of the pictures now, here are Cort's (Elder Swenson's nephew) favorites.

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

Pics!

Here are some pictures of a service project we did: chopping weeds with machetes!

They have these pictures of dogs on the streets around here, I think they are funny.

My new companion Elder Wheat.

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

April 22, 2013

Hello everyone,

Another good week here. The weather changed again. It's been cold and rainy everyday. I think that it has rained more here these past 3 weeks more than the past year in Utah. I miss the hot weather because it feels nicer and there are people outside on the streets. The other day me and Elder Jackson were on a bus and we had to stop because there was this fire truck in the way. There was apparantly somebody who was stuck or injured or something in their apartment and the doors were locked so the fire men went up to their balcony in the lift thing on the truck and we got to watch as they smashed the glass door with an axe to get inside. There were a ton of people watching because there were like 3 or 4 buses lined up in the traffic jam plus all of the people walking by stopped to watch. Any way i thought it was pretty interesting.

This past little bit we have been teaching a 13 year old boy whose dad used to be a member and step mom isn't so the kids haven't been baptized. They still come to church though because they have an aunt and a grandma in the ward. Any way so the dad finally gave permission for him to be baptized and soon after his little sister got permission too. They are getting baptized this week and are super excited. We have been going through all of the lessons this past week and they are both super awesome kids. I know that they are making the right decision. There are 8 kids in the family and i know they are setting a good example for their siblings. The dad is even starting to put his life more in line with the gospel and from what we've heard might be working toward coming back to church. I love the family. They are are super nice and we have been put through food torture on more than one occasion at their grandmas house.

(Food torture is what we call it when you have huge portions of food and then you finally finish what you have on your plate and you are at the point of not being able to eat any more and then they say oh here elder have some more and pile a heinous amount of food on your plate. You are smiling and saying thank you on the outside but are crying and pleading for it to stop on the inside. By the time you finally finish and make it out of the house you feel like you're going to die the for the next few hours.) French people love food.

Anyway I hope that all is going well back at home, especially with the new baby. I hope that the weather over there is nicer than it is here. I love you all and pray for you.

Elder Swenson

Some Random Pictures

April 8, 2013

Bonjour ma famille,

Another great week here in France. I really like it here in St Etienne. The members here are all really nice. (and they feed us way to much!) It's smaller than Marseille and it is a lot less crowded. Also you don't here ambulances and police sirens every 2 minutes. I've only seen the sun once while i've been here because it's been cloudy and rainy every day. Elder Jackson is a great missionary and i'm glad i get to serve with him. We have a couple of amis that we are teaching and they are all awesome. One of our amis is named Jisun. She is from South Korea and we teach her in english because she is still learning french. It's the first time that I have taught someone who doesn't have a christian background and it is definitely a new experience for me. But she is awesome and i know that it will all go well.

General conference was good, or at least the things that i got from watching it in french. I definitely need to go back and listen in english. Because of the time difference we watched the saturday morning session on saturday night, and all but the last session on sunday. I still haven't seen the last session though. I don't know if its just because i am a missionary and thats what i picked out but i felt like there was a lot said about missionary work. I feel like i got some good stuff from the conference. I hope that you all did too. One thing that we engaged our amis to do was to come to conference with a question in mind and then we promised them that it would get answered if they listened carefully. I know that this is true. We are so blessed to be able to listen to the apostles and prophet who can give us guidence and counsel for our time. We are also lucky to have the gift of the Holy Ghost through whom we can receive personal revelation to help us with our day to day problems and concerns. There is a quote by Joseph Smith that says "The Holy Ghost is a revelator and nobody can recieve the Holy Ghost without receiving revelation". Never forget that you can always have your prayers and questions answered if you prayerfully seek direction from the Lord. He is always there and waiting to help us if we just ask and are willing to do our part. I love you all and hope that everything is well for you.

Elder Swenson

New Transfer, New Area

Hey everyone,

So yesterday was my last day in Marseille. I was kinda sad to leave my bleu ville, but i'm also excited to be in a new area. This transfer i will be serving in Saint Etienne with Elder Jackson. So far i really like it here in St Etienne. Its smaller and a little more french feeling. It will be a little different being the only missionaries in the ville but it should be great. Its less to take in than marseille because marseille is one of the biggest villes in the mission. I am excited to be serving here. Elder Jackson seems like a really great missionary and it will be great serving with him. Elder Workman is staying in Marseille and training a bleu there. This transfer there are only like 5 elders coming in but like 20 sisters and i think that next transfer there will be 27 more or something. Basically all of the sisters here are training.

This past week was great. Elder Workman and I taught Charles-Henri for the first time and it was awesome. He is a really great guy and I'm sad that i wont get to teach him any more. We gave him a dedicated book of mormon and asked him if he would read 3nephi 11 before next time and then he asked if we could just read it now. I know that he will be a golden ami for the Elders in marseille.

Yesterday at church was really awesome because of all the good easter testimonies and all the kind words given to those of us who were leaving. There was this family from Utah who visited because they were on vacation so we helped translate for them. They were really nice and it was good to be able to help them. The son who was there just got his mission call to russia. I'm sure that he will do great.

I hope that you all had a great easter and are looking forward to conference this week. I know that there will be something said there that is specifically for you if you listen and are attentive to the spirit. I love you all

Elder Swenson