Patience is taking 3 more steps.

HELLOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

This week was hard guys, I don´t really know what to say other than the truth. It was probably one of the hardest weeks of my mission, but I can honestly say that I have also grown the most spiritually in the last 7 days. So in that respect, it was SUCH a good week. I really got to know my Heavenly Father and my Savior.

This week I spent mostly in my bed unfortunately...Word came from the doctor and....the tests showed nothing out of the ordinary, no mono no nothing. SO...from here I go do more tests and such and we just see. I guess if nothing shows up even after that it could be something called chronic fatigue. It´s kind of a waiting game.

I´ve talked a lot with Heavenly Father this week and good news is He talked back. The only impressions that I really get are just to be patient. Patience has never been my strong point...but He´s sure teaching it to me now and I´m really determined to learn it this time around. So it´s good. :)

This week was just strange. The only day that was pretty normal in terms of work, we had to track down the reference Elder Teixeira gave us. Turns out they live in the middle of nowhere with no real bus there. So...we walked on the highway and asked a million people for directions. It was an adventure. She turned out to be nice but not really interested.

Then, as we were trying to find out way home, super lost, I said to Sister Galloway, ´Alright, I´m praying we see something I recognize here soon because we are super lost.´ I took about three steps and saw a street sign. ´Hey Sister Galloway I know this street!` To be honest it took me a second to make the connection to the last thing I had said 2 seconds earlier, but when I did we had a good laugh.

And that´s what I learned this week folks. Patience is just learning to take three more steps even when you feel like you´ve walked all of creation. I wish I had more time to tell you all about the things I´ve learned and how Heavenly Father has been taking me by the hand and helping me trust Him a little more with my gut, rather than just with my head. I included a link to the best talk about healing that I have ever read, maybe next week when I have more time I´ll tell you about the things I pulled out of it.

GOD HAS A PLAN. Don´t you ever forget it!!! He loves us. One thing this talk taught me is that He is more concerned with our growth than with our comfort. BAM. So dang true it´s amazing. That being said, I know that He counts our tears, that He cries there with us when we have to go through that necessary growth. 

Love you all, praying for you always!!!

Com muito carinho,

Sister Swasey

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=2162

Hold Your Peace

Wow.

Just...wow.

This week my world got a little turned upside down.

Well, P-day was an adventure doing fun hospital tests. Good news is, if you´re going to go to a hospital, Hospital Da Luz is the place to go! Like if hospitals could be fun, this one would be. I should write them a letter for their quality service.

ANYWAY...Tuesday was Mission Council! Basically one of the coolest mission things ever where all the zone leaders and STLs come in from all over the country and we do sweet trainings and stuff. It was really good and I got to see a ton of old friends. I asked to have a special interview with President to talk about my health. He gave me all of the counsel I was needing and then some. He then gave me one of the most amazing blessings I´ve ever received. He´s great.

Mission council fun! These are like my two older brothers on the mission, aka my first two Zone Leaders,
Elder Checketts and Elder Dastrup!

Elder Cordeiro - my old zone leader

Surprise! Reunited with Sister Prieto

All the STLs!!!

Then we went back to the doctor´s do some more tests. Yippee! 

Wednesday was interesting. We were about to go into the church when I thought I´d say hi to this old lady walking by. She stopped to talk to us and was about 94 years old. She wasn´t all that interested but as we were talking this girl calls out to us asking if we´re the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Why, yes! She tells us how she went inactive when she moved here to Oeiras and just never quite got herself to come back even though her dad and other family members are still really active in another part of Lisbon. We went into the church with her, sang a hymn, and she just cried. So I cried with her and Sister Hirschi cried with her and we all just sat feeling the spirit. Good old Tatiana was really needing to come back and she felt that, it was really amazing. We didn´t do anything other than just be in the right place at the right time. God is pretty incredible the way He leads His children to each other.

Thursday. Probably one of the hardest and most insane days of my life. We get up, tudo normal, and we all go off on our way to zone meeting. Before the meeting even starts, I see that someone´s calling us. 

It´s President Fluckiger.

We run to the bathroom to answer it and he conference calls us with the sisters in Olhão. What? And then it all just happened so dang fast. 

Sister Hirschi got emergency transferred to Olhão and Sister Galloway came here to Oeiras.

I cried. I sat on the bathroom floor and cried my eyes out until the Zone Leaders had to awkwardly knock on the door and ask what the heck was going on. Do any of you really understand just how much I love Sister Hirschi?!?! Do you understand how hard it is to have normal transfers let alone crazy surprise ones that I never saw coming?

So that was crazy.

On top of all that, she and I had to give a training at the meeting. It went surprisingly well... Then we ran out, hopped on a train to a bus to pack her bags. 

It was crazy. Just so crazy.

So she packed and I ran around the house like a crazy person half packing, yelling random things out of all of the confusing things I was feeling. We got into a crazy fight with a cockroach as well in which I killed it with a can of bug killer. When I say I killed it with the can of bug killer I mean that literally, those things are immune to the spray but not to me chucking the actual can at it.

The adventure Sister Hirschi and I had up until the last minute.

Then the secretaries picked us up, took us away, dropped her off and took me to go pick up Sister Galloway. 

I was pretty freaked out about the idea of a new companion but it´s funny how the Lord works. She got in the car and that was it, I knew that this really was His plan and that we´re meant to be together here in Oeiras.

So she has a foot injury and I have some sort of unknown illness. We make a funny team but we make a good team. Yeah, we don´t teach as much as we´d both like but the Lord has a plan.

We got to help paint this less active lady´s house this week and it was awesome. Oh Sonia...so humble and so grateful. We also got to kill about 30 different mini cockroaches so I´m just on a roll with bug stories this week! But really though, she was just so grateful for our help and the ward was amazing. They brought her all the paint she needed and even when she said it was good enough Bishop said, nope, we´re coming back next week and we´re going to finish and we´re going to do it right.

That my friends, is the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that was my week, it was crazy. I cried a lot and I yelled a lot and I laughed my face off. 

And I talked with God. I talked with Him a LOT.

He has a perfect plan for me and He´s showing me little by little. Today He showed me through D&C11-  

12 And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly,to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit.

 13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy;

 14 And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know, all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive.

 15 Behold, I command you that you need not suppose that you are called to preach until you are called.

 16 Wait a little longer, until you shall have my word, my rock, mychurch, and my gospel, that you may know of a surety my doctrine.

 17 And then, behold, according to your desires, yea, even according to your faith shall it be done unto you.

 18 Keep my commandments; hold your peace; appeal unto my Spirit;

So now we wait, with faith, and we keep the commandments until the Lord calls me to preach as I want to preach, until the Lord gives me my righteous desires at the right time for me and for the people here. 

Hold your peace and I´ll hold mine. I´ve had too many confirmations that all of this is the right thing for me to ever doubt the Lord and His plan for me. It will all work out and the miracles will happen :)

I love you all, be faithful, ever faithful and know that the Lord has a perfect plan. 

Com muito amor,

Sister Swasey

I love these girls . . .

with all my heart !!!!!

They are wonderful . . .

and they are insane!!!!!

My best friend . . .