Everything random you could ever want to know about Oeiras.

Dearest Family and Friends,

Danielle & Sister Hirschi

Alright people, get out your popcorn and settle in because I FINALLY have time to tell you all about Oeiras (aka, heaven on earth). I seriously don´t even know where to begin...

Let´s start with a little bit more of Matosinhos. To be honest, as amazing as Oeiras is, I definitely still miss my home up north! It really was an amazing 6 months that I spent there with lots of amazing people. In our last bit, we met Fatima, who I mentioned a little while ago. Last I heard from Sister Giberson she´s doing great and I think she got baptized last Saturday! Even though I wasn´t there it felt so great leaving an area with someone marked and knowing that I helped that area grow, even if it was just a litle bit in the grand scheme of life. Matosinhos changed and grew so much in the time that I was there! The ward is so much more united and the missionary work is so much more organized and unified as well. It was an amazing thing to see!

Familia Albino

Oeiras

But anyway, OEIRAS. Guys. It´s amazing. Fun Fact- most people in Portugal live in apartments, some live in townhouse type connected houses and a several live in teeny tiny houses. It is very rare to come across a HOUSE, like a normal, real house with a yard and everything, let alone a neighborhood. Well, that my friends is why Oeiras is AMERICA. There are houses EVERYWHERE. They´re HUGE! I´ve even seen like 2 car garages! Another thing, our area is enormous so we have lots of different areas. It´s amazing too because each one is different and all of them are pretty rich. We´ve started nicknaming them American cities because they really do remind us of America! So far we´re found Orlando, LA, New York, Denver, and a few others. AND, we still haven´t even seen half of our area. Crazy. 

Random things that have happened since being here...well one thing about this area is that there are a lot more immigrants that in the north. In one hour one day I think we met about 15 Africans. One of them got all up in Sister Hirschi´s face and just kept telling her that he knew everything about her life. So that was interesting! Another time, we met a less active lady from Angola and she just came up to us crying, drunk, talking about all sorts of stuff and before I knew it she kissed my foot and Sister Hirschi´s knee. Everyday is an adventure! I´ve been working a little more on my creole and man, I wish you could see the reaction on the people´s faces when I start talking to them in creole. Ya know, just your average tall, blonde american speaking an african language. They get so excited and start responding in creole really fast and then I get lost and go back to Portuguese haha.

We also met this one Chinese man the other day and he was HILARIOUS. He was really friendly and excited but he didn´t really speak Portuguese and so trying to explain any religious thing to him took a lot of creativity. We invited him to church and gave him our number and he wanted to take our picture for the contact in his phone... We had him take a picture of Jesus passing the sacrament instead. Then, we tried to explain the sacrament and he starting thinking we were inviting him over for dinner and that the church had a restaurant or something. Priceless.

Repentance Bridge

What else...oh yeah, we´re opening a new house here and it is AMAZING!!! It is literally twice as big as my...let´s call it humble house in Matosinhos. The funny thing is when we first got there there was practically nothing in the house. Little by little the couple missionaries in the office in Lisboa are bringing us stuff and it´s like Christmas every few days! We joke and call them Elder and Sister Ransom Claus. And yes, I know, I know, there are missionaries sleeping in huts and we´re spoiled European missionaries having to suffer through eating cereal out of cups and sleep on mats on the floor. I lead a rough life camping out in a huge apartment in Portugal, what can I say!

The whole pinkwash thing has just been a hilarious adventure! We still haven´t quite worked out the bus pass thing and so we´ve been doing a lot of walking. We´ve started working quite a bit in this one neighborhood on the other side of the train tracks and we have to go up this big bridge to get over there. Without fail, Sister Hirschi and I never miss a chance to yell random things from the very top, generally having to do with repenting and receiving a remission of your sins, accompanied by flashing to Book of Mormon to the world. Pretty funny.

View from Repentance Bridge

Yesterday at church we had a miracle. We had some 10-15 people that said they would come to church with us but when we got there we had 0. Here in Oeiras they start with Relief Society/Priesthood then Sunday School then Sacrament Meeting. In between all the classes we were calling EVERYONE and only one guy answered. He said he had to work. Then, in the middle of Sunday School he called back and said he was coming but he couldn´t stay long. He got there right as the sacrament meeting started and had to leave right after they passed it. BUT HE CAME. Heavenly Father never fails to let us know He knows that we´re working hard. We found so many amazing people this week and He put each and every one of them in our path and He let Paulo (a street contact from the day before at that) go to church just to take the sacrament. 

I feel like this email is just a list of random things but hey, that´s my life. The work is going great, we´re already teaching several awesome people and it feels like everything is building SO fast and it´s about to explode with success. I can´t even believe that I´ve been on my mission for 10 months already...I feel good though! I have learned and changed so much and I feel like I´ve made a difference, like I´ve left a mark on these people and this country. 8 more months to work some big miracles and to see what Heavenly Father has in store for me :) Whatever it may be I know it´s going to be something really, really great!!!!! I love you all, I´m thinking about you and praying for you always. Please, NEVER forget to pray for missionary opportunities and to then have the courage to follow through when Heavenly Father sends them to you. This week, whenever we prayed to find someone to let us into their house to teach them, we found someone and taught them in their house, when we prayed to find someone open to the gospel, we found someone open, when we prayed for families we found families. It really is that simple. Missionary work is all about prayers and willingness to really take the answers He gives us. Are we willing?

Com muito amor,

Sister Swasey

This one´s for you Mom. THEY SENT ME BACK TO AMERICA.

Dearest Loved Ones,

I do hope you all read that title and got very confused as to why you´re getting this message to Mom and what on earth I´m doing back in America. Okay...I´m not ACTUALLY back in America, nor is this email just for Mom. Let me explain. OEIRAS. This area...it is AMAZING!!!!!! Everything here is so different. The thing about Portugal is that all the different regions were conquered by different people and so Lisbon is like a different country in comparison to Porto. This area basically looks like Pride and Prejudice could be filmed here, seriously Mom, you would die if you could just see it, along with all the other Jane Austen fans out there. It has lots of old cool buildings and GORGEOUS gardens and parks everywhere! It gets better. There are palm trees on every street, the beach lines the whole bottom of our area and the flowers and everything just reminds me of Florida! So seriously Mom I just found your dream world. It´s amazing!

Pride & Prejudice Area - Picture doesn't do it justice

Anyway, this week was insane. We´re opening up a new house so we have like no furniture or anything so that´s been crazy. There´s SO much I want to tell you about but I just have like no time because we were doing house stuff and whatnot today so my email time is megashort yet again. Basically, our chapel is the biggest in Portugal and the ward is great too! We had lots of fun getting to know the area a little bit but we haven´t even seen like a 10th of it because this area is bigger than both of my last 2 areas put together!!!! I love Sister Hirschi though and I´m loving all the craziness. We´re getting it figured out. The Lord is really putting amazing receptive people in our path. Another thing, the culture down here is a lot more open so people are way more chill with giving us their number and letting us come back and talk to them which is really cool. It´s just a different world. I still miss Matosinhos like nobody´s business but if I can´t be there, there is no place other than Oeiras that I would rather be and I KNOW it´s going to be just as special and miraculous as Matosinhos to me. I LOVE YOU ALL, SORRY I HAVE NO TIME. I´ll catch you all up next week for sure. Just know I´m working super hard, I´m mega tired, my life is INSANE, and I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF IT.

Abraços e beijinhos,

Sister Swasey

Random Portugal Pic

Random Portugal Pic

HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME SO FREAKING MUCH

GUYS.

THAT TITLE IS BEYOND TRUE. 

So, basically a LOT has happened, sorry I wasn´t able to email sooner BUT.... I GOT TRANSFERRED. Its true! But before that, I have to say, our last week in Matosinhos was amazing. We did an awesome division with Sister Hickey and Sister Parker in Gaia too, which is just on the other side of the river from Porto. It was super fun, I went with Sister Hickey and she is amazinggg, it was so much fun! Gaia is a lot like Porto. I´d tell you about it if I had more time!

But anyway...Sunday came, dia de transferencias DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN. So basically I was a crazy person all day, I mean, FOUR transfers is like forever. So yeah, saying bye to all the members...rough. Matosinhos is like my home!!! We had lunch with the Rissi family, who are basically my family there, and Sister Giberson and I sang ´Deus Vos Guarde´ for them, aka, God be with you til we meet again- which, fun fact, is a lot less depressing in Portuguese and still really really good. Then, I cried a lot, they cried a lot, and we went to work. We ate dinner at Angela´s house with Fatima, this AMAZING lady we just marked for baptism and so that was sad all over again. But good. Angela was mega understanding and just kept telling me I had to go off and complete my mission! I cried some more. Even though I was SUPER excited for a change, it´s always crazy on transfer days...emotional I should say. So anyway, the last thing we did was teach Lidia that night, thing is transfers were delayed and so we didn´t get the call until while we were at her house! They called and told me I´d be getting transferred and when I told Lidia she burst into tears and grabbed me in a hug and we just sat and cried together. She is an amazing lady and in such short time we have had such incredible spiritual experiences!!! But I know that Heavenly Father knows what He´s doing and that Sister Giberson will take care of her.

I also know that Heavenly Father doesn´t need me in Matosinhos because He needs me in......OEIRAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For those (or all) of you that don´t know where that is, it´s basically LISBON!!!!!!!! DREAM COME TRUE. I told Sister Giberson all week that I would be going to Lisbon and here I am!!! AND I´M DOING A PINKWASH. That, my friends, is when they take out the elders and throw in 2 new sisters, like when I went to Matosinhos. So basically, it´s crazy. Right now, we don´t have a phone yet, nor an area book, nor a map so we have been adventuring and borrowing phones along the way. Oh yeah, I´m with Sister Hirschi, Sister Brundage´s old companion!!!!! Fun huh? THEY HAVE A WARD HERE AND A REAL CHAPEL. Real chapels are rare here in Portugal, usually they rent out rooms in buildings and stuff so this is a big deal and it´s my first one!!! The area is like FLORIDA. Flowers and palm trees everywhere and HOUSES. Another fun fact, Portugal has very few houses in places that aren´t like villages on the outskirts, everyone usually lives in an apartment. HOUSES!!!!! Okay, I have to go and I haven´t even told you all the half of it but I love you all and everything just feels SO right! Oeiras is amazing! Heavenly Father Loves me so much and just is blessing me with everything I need (minus a phone ;) and so many things I didn´t even know I wanted!!!

ABRAÇOS, BEIJOS, APERTOS DE MÂO,

Sister Swasey

CONFERENCEEEEE

Pessoas Lindas!

Zona de Porto Norte

WHAT A WEEK. As always. We spent the P-day in Porto which is always a blast then we took the alpha train down toooooo LISBON. I know, I lead a pretty chic little life. That train ride is always fun because it stops and picks up more and more missionaries along the way and it passes by really cool sites. We went to Lisbon for Mission Council, also always realllyyyy amazing. It´s basically all the mission leaders and best of the best, and then just like me being like, ´What am I doing here with all these amazing people?!` But hey, it´s fun for me and I learn like SOOOO much. I also recently learned a Cape Verde creole rap and sang it for a few elders from there. Pretty hilarious to hear a tall white american sister rapping in an African language, let me tell you!  

Porto

703 in Portugal with Sister Jackson (from Ashburn)

Basically this week was crazy and I only spent one full day there! We had mission council, a day of work, then I did a division in Porto, which was really cool. Their area is ENORMOUS and really made me grateful for an area that is about a 45 minute walk end to end, rather than a 45 minute bus ride end to end. Crazy. It was fun though! We ended the division by going to CONFERENCE WOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!! As a missionary, conference is pretty much as good as Christmas, don´t ask me why it wasn´t always like that in my life :P I obviously liked it but seriously here it´s like a celebration with a banquet after fasting or something. It was cool too this time because all us missionaries that went to the stake center to watch it (our chapel doesn´t have satellite) we got to watch in in English! I love watching it in Portuguese but it definitely takes way more effort and it´s SO nice to hear their actually voices. WHAT AN AMAZING CONFERENCE. So much about covenants and discipleship. That hit me. I can´t be a missionary like this forever, but really the BEST thing we can be is a disciple of Christ and that I get to be FOREVER. I also loved what Elder Uchtdorf said about how we don´t like endings because we are eternal beings. With transfers coming this next weekend, that stuck with me. I HATE ENDINGS.

Porto

This is a Francesina! It is basically a sandwich made of texas toast,
 3-4 types of meat, covered in cheese and sauce, served with french fries Aka, a heart attack!

Porto

Seriously. If you all knew how COMFORTABLE and HAPPY I am here in Matosinhos, it is like my home. I know all the members and they know me, they joke with me, don´t even ask before serving me tons of food, and I´ve had the chance to learn so much about their lives. 4 transfers is a LONG time somewhere and even though I sometimes want a change I think to my ward here and I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE. I love these people too much! They have my heart! I definitely don´t want to leave my recent converts either. It was SO cool to see Angela and Amandio yesterday after the conference, they loved it! They´re so firm in the church and they´re already making plans to go to the temple next year. When I look at them, everything is worth it. To know I played a SMALL part in their conversion is such a wonderful feeling of true joy. I can´t describe it..

We bought classic Portugal aprons. ALL the old ladies are wearing them these days.

Another reason I don´t want to leave Matosinhos is Lidia and her family. She´s the miracle we found last week. Well this week we had the chance to teach her again with her two teenage kids, Simon and Liliane. They are SO COOL. They all ask amazing questions and loved reading the Book of Mormon with us. At the end, we did what we call a convite suave- the invite to be baptized when they know that it´s true. They all accepted, happily too! As we kneeled to pray with them, Simon told us that he´s already starting to believe that it´s true and the other two agreed. I CAN´T LEAVE THIS AMAZING FAMILY. Lidia told us about how she really believes God led us to her house and we talked about how we really did feel impressed to come back and talk to her but God knew we weren´t planning on ringing her doorbell again so He sent her downstairs to meet us. We´re going to visit them again tonight and I´m super excited!!!! 

Awkward self timer table pic

English Room for Conference

I hope you´re all doing great and that you loved conference as much as I did. I hope you´re all happy. I´m happy :) I wish I could describe all the feelings that come with this call...but it´s impossible. I´ve never felt stronger and yet also never see so many of my own weaknesses haha. I love you all, be good!

Com muitas saudades,

Sister Swasey

More Cool Grafitti

Cool Grafitti

Sweet Museum

Sweet Museum 2

Sweet Museum 3

The Green Door

OLÁ PESSOAS LINDAS!!!!!

What a week of adventures! Heavenly Father was good to us this week, as He is, to be perfectly honest, EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Where do I even begin?! Let´s start with the division we did in BRAGA.

Beautiful Braga!

So Braga is even more north than we are and it´s about an hour train ride from Porto. Let me tell you, that place is BEAUTIFUL. It´s a whole different world. Portugal is amazing because even though it´s a small country, every city is so different and has a bit of its own culture and even accent. Even though it´s colder up there, it´s stunning. Super clean, amazing buildings, not to mention it´s up in the mountains (Portugal mountains people, still got nothing on Utah or Colorado) BUT STILL. It´s in kind of a valley with trees all around. I CAN´T DESCRIBE IT TO YOU IT´S JUST SO BEAUTIFUL TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. 

But anyway, I went with Sister Baird which was fun. She got here to Portugal a transfer after me and she´s a sweetheart. We got to talk to some of their recent converts which are incredible. Divisions are fun but also kind of sad because I get to meet really, really cool people and members just to say goodbye to that city in a few hours. It´s also weird because I´m probably getting transfered in a couple weeks since I´ve been up here so long...crazy.

Sister Baird & the Best Bolo Berlim

This week, the miracles kept coming. It´s started raining again....(that´s not the miracle yet) and when I say raining, I mean, RAINING. POURING. We stopped in the house yesterday really quickly and before we leave the house we always pray. Me, being tired of 5 months of rain, just asked Heavenly Father to stop the rain. And He did! Okay guys, I know this miracle is one of the ones that most of the world population would call a coincidence, but to me it meant a lot. The minute I asked Him to stop the rain He did! And it didn´t start up again until after we got home that night! It was a nice little message from Heavenly Father that He loves me enough to have mercy on His wet little sister missionaries. He´s so GREAT.

Okay, but now for an even better miracle. One night this week, ALL of our appointments and backup plans fell through. We were tired after travelling from Braga but still had an hour. We decided to go visit a contact we did last week and so off we went. Well, we accidentally turned a few streets too early but decided to just keep going and loop around the other way. On the way, we passed this green door, one that I know for a fact that I have passed DOZENS of times but this time I really looked at it. Before I knew it, Sister Giberson went over to ring the doorbells of this building. I told her I thought of this door too so we got excited. She rang the 5th floor. Nothing. I said a quick prayer and really felt the 2nd floor so I rang it. A lady answered! She didn´t want anything. We rang all the other floors. The 4th floor answered! She didn´t want anything either. So we left, and kept going to find that old contact. We got to their building and they let us in, but then didn´t answer the door when we got up to their floor! So there we were with no plans. Naturally, we decided to say a prayer. Sister Giberson said one but to be honest I have NO idea what she actually said because all I heard was `Go back to that door. Go BACK to that green door!` It was loud, it was pounding, it was a little strange to be honest! After she finished the prayer I just looked at her and said, Well, I think we should go back to the green door. Soooo off we went! We talked to just about every person we saw on our way there. One of the guys, Sister Giberson really felt like she needed to talk to him. And...NOTHING! So as we´re coming up on that green door, we´re like, Okay, we´ll go ring the doorbells again but not the 2nd or 4th because we already talked to them. We get a little closer and we see a lady in the doorway! We make our way over and turns out she got locked out on accident and she was waiting for her husband to get home. She was wearing a nice shirt with pajama pants and super nice! Her name is Lydia, she´s from Brazil, and she is AMAZING. We introduced ourselves and she apologized! She said that she answered when we rang but because it was late she was worried about letting up a robber or something. She also told us, however, that the minute she hung up, that she felt really bad rejecting missionaries of Christ. She let us up when her husband got home and we met her sister. We didn´t have much time but we left her with a Book of Mormon which she was really excited about. Since then we´ve started teaching her and her whole family and needless to say, I´M SUPER EXCITED. It was seriously one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Heavenly Father knew, timed it out perfectly, and led us directly to her door. Oh, did I mention that she lives on the 2nd floor? :)

I´ll leave you all with a spiritual thought. I´ve been studying last General Conference´s talks all week and LOVING them. Elder S. Gifford Nelson has a great one called Hastening the Lord´s Game Plan. Long story short, he talks about a missionary that sacrificed a lot to serve a mission but served faithfully. He then shares this scripture in Isaiah 52:7

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth  peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

My dear friends and family, I love you all and I love serving the Lord! I need you to know that I WILL return tired as anything, with a strong testimony, worn shoes, a love for the people and my Savior, and with lots of hugs for each and every one of you.  Remember, we have good tidings to share with the world!!!!! 

Com muitas saudades e amor,

Sister Swasey

Let Him Carry You

Olá queridos!

Another week come and gone like a flash...where is the time going?! We´re already halfway through the transfer meaning I probably only have 3 weeks left here in Matosinhos...crazy right??? I HIT MY HALFWAY MARK IN TWO DAYS STOP THE TIME, STOP IT SOMEONE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

But alas, here we are, halfway through my mission and I´ve learned so much it´s ridiculous. I´ve changed so much too, with a lot more changes still to go. It´s scary to think that my adventure here in Portugal is halfway over because that means we´re on the down slope back to normal life. GASP.

Anyway......another great week my friends! As they always are I must say. We had a really sweet conference with the Porto Zone (I´m in Porto Norte) and they asked me to give a talk about developing faith to find new investigators. I based my talk on Ether 12:6 and D&C 123:17. One thing that I´m realizing about faith and miracles is that it always comes when you´re least expecting it... I mean it´s true what ´they´ say- if you´re obedient, you´ll be blessed. If you pray really hard, you´ll be blessed. If you work your tail off all day every day, you´ll be blessed. That´s all true, but it turns out that there´s more. You do all of that stuff, and then you have to wait. You have to be patient. Anyone that knows me, knows I´m not patient by nature, but I sure am learning to be as I see these miracles flowing after periods of waiting. It´s quite splendid really. Basically, faith is a lot about perseverance.

Divisions with Amazing Sisters

I got to do yet another division this week, this time with Sister Silva in my own area. Funny story...she was MY sister training leader for THREE WHOLE TRANSFERS. So let´s be honest, I was kind of scared to do that division. Good news is, she´s like the greatest person you´ll ever meet and even though I am almost certain she taught me way more than I could have possibly ever taught her, it was a really great experience! Divisions are ALWAYS great experiences because we get to see how other missionaries work and we pick up new techniques and such along the way. Sister Silva has an amazing story. She´s from Cabo Verde, she´s 27 and she got batized just 2 short years ago. She helped the elders in her hometown find loads of people to teach until they created a branch in that city so that she didný have to walk an hour and a half or take a bus full of friends to church far away. If anything, the mission gives you a chance to meet the most INCREDIBLE people....

Divisions

Fun story from last week´s divisions that I forgot to tell you all! We went to visit this inactive family. Cool part is, one of the daughters is actually serving a mission right now in Portugal and I know her pretty well! So anyway, the mom is really nice but she just has some doubts and doesn´t really believe in the Book of Mormon. So we got to know them better and shared a nice message and invited them all to read the Book of Mormon and pray every day. All the kids happily agreed but the mom said that she would only read in the Bible. I asked her if we could just leave a short part in the Book of Mormon but she refused. So then I opted to leave one in the Bible. I went to the first scripture testifying of the Book of Mormon I could think of, John 10. As I was looking at the chapter in her well-worn Bible, this particular chapter just had 1 verse marked with a few words next to it. That verse just happened to be 16 `Other sheep I have which are not of this fold...´with the words, ´Livro de Mormon-Americas´ written next to it. Isn´t that neat? Concidences in this work just don´t exist. I don´t know what will happen with that family, but it was a very cool moment as a missionary.

Well folks, what more is there to say? Matosinhos got cold again this week but it´s still sunny and there are flowers EVERYWHERE. I swear, all the weeds are flowers and it´s a beautiful sight to see. 

Planning sessions when it´s cold....keeping it classy guys.

The mission is...the greatest. Even when the days are long and cold we sing hymns half in English half in Portuguese and the Lord carries us through. He´s there...so literally, so much more than I ever knew possible. He picks us up every day and He guides every step and I just know that He´s taking care of us. Please pray for the family of that elder in Sweden who passed away in a car accident...scary to think that could have been me and Sister Brundage just a few months ago. I´m grateful, so very grateful that my mission isn´t over yet, not here in Portugal nor in life. There´s so much more to do and every day I´m more resolved to do it. I love you all so much, every one of you reading this whether I know you or not. Let the Lord carry you this week, He´s there, He´s ready.

Portugal

Com abraços, beijinhos, e muito amor,

Sister Swasey

Porto and Porto North Zone

Stand Still

OLÁ TODOS,

Matosinhos, I have to say, is like another WORLD in the springtime!!! SO AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL. And there´s so many more people out and about and it´s cheery and wonderful. It´s just glorious. 

First news first... I did my first division this week! Yup, you read that right, Sister Swasey is all of official now in this Sister Training Leader stuff. Okay, to be honest it´s really not all that official nor strict, it´s just fun! This week we went to Porto which was awesome and I did a division with Sister Brundage´s MTC companion Sister Thornely! It was a bit of an adventure because their area is HUGE and she´s new there this transfer. Good news is we only got lost once! :) From conferences and whatnot I know the Porto metro system like the back of my hand which is nice. When it comes to buses however...hence the being lost once haha. But anyway, it was a really cool experience. Just like when I trained, it seems like I always seem to learn more from the people I´m supposed to be training, whether they know it or not. It´s really quite neat and I´m excited to do another division this week!

Oh yeah, happy St. Patrick´s day everybody! I don´t know if they celebrate this holiday here...but they do have Father´s day and it happens to be this week! Strange huh? Feliz Dia dos Pais Dad!!!

The miracles don´t end people, they just don´t. I am really REALLY learning that we just have to wait for them, we just have to stand still after all we can do and the miracles always come. We were having a slow week but were working WAY hard, and it came to Sunday night. We had no appointments but thought we´d try to pass by the wife of a contact I did about 4 weeks ago. We ended up talking to her mom and teaching her. Turns out, she´s the sister of a strong member in the ward and she almost got baptized but she got really sick and so she couldn´t even leave her bed for awhile. In one visit we taught (well retaught I´m sure) the restoration of the gospel and marked her to be baptized! When we went to invite her to be baptized, I felt the Spirit so strong I was fighting back tears. She still has some health problems but the Spirit spoke through me and I have so much hope for her and for her family! After the lesson her daughter got home with her two kids and we planned to teach them too. Turns out they all talked to the elders years ago and they LOVED them. I´m really hoping to develop a relationship with them like they had with the elders.

Guys, life is just great. The time is flying by and yet I see myself changing so much. Serving a mission is by far the greatest thing I have ever done and I love this country SO much! I love you all too!!!

Tchau, tchau for noW

Sister Swasey