Buenas Tardes!!

Hola familia como estan?? Estoy muy feliz! Por que? Porque tenemos dos personas con fechas bautismales!! Okay English! One word. FIDENCIO!!!  Fidencio is incredible. Seriously so amazing. So he's the one who said he never got baptized because he didn't want to give up coffee. But anyway he's the nicest person I know and has the kindest heart. And he helps me so much with my Spanish! He makes me feel so much better about my Spanish and he has taught me a ton! He told me he thinks I'll have it down in just one more month... I'm not sure about that, but that would be perfectly fine with me! And he has the most amazing spirit about him! He told us this week about these amazing dreams he has! He said he's had a few dreams where the Savior has come to him and tells him to follow him. Seriously, Fidencio is incredible.

So Hermana Crowther and I have been really thinking what we could do to help him understand why he needs to give up coffee. It's that quote... "True doctrine understood changes behavior." We prayed so hard to figure out what the doctrine was that he didn't understand and so we decided on one thing and started planning his lesson. Well we had a lesson with him planned for Thursday night and when we woke up Thursday morning to finish his lesson I got the biggest prompting that the whole lesson was wrong. So I looked at Hermana Crowther and told her, "You're going to kill me, but I think he needs to understand the plan of salvation." So we scratched everything we had been working on and made a new lesson plan! So we went over to his house Thursday night and taught him the Plan of Salvation in a different way and the spirit was incredible!! It was so powerful. And Fidencio... well he's just incredible and you could tell he was feeling the spirit. So at the end we asked him what he needed to do and he said give up coffee! YES! So we asked him if he would and he said he needed to pray about it first and see if it is really a commandment from God. So I pulled out John 7:17 "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." And I told him that he wasn't going to know if it was from God unless he lived it first. So I said, "Fidencio just give me one week. Live the Word of Wisdom for one week and pray to God during the week asking him if this commandment is from him and I promise he will answer you." And Fidencio is just incredible and he was so humble and said he was willing to live it to know if it was true!! Well we went back on Sunday for another lesson and we planned a lesson on baptism and planned on extending the baptismal invitation. We got there and asked him if he's been living the word of wisdom and he said YES! And so we had our lesson on Baptism and again the spirit was so powerful and at the end of the lesson we asked him if he would get baptized on June 18. And he said he knows he will eventually get baptized and that it's what he needs to do so he might as well just do it now! So he has a baptismal date of June 18 and I'm so so excited for him! 

Next person... Beverly! She's the member in the ward. She is so amazing, she has been through so much but still puts Christ first. She's so strong, and I look up to her so much! I just love her. Well Hermana Crowther is amazing and totally felt that we needed to teach her the importance of planning, so we had a super good lesson with her about planning and asked her if we could make a plan with her to help her stop smoking so she could go to the temple and she was so receptive and so willing. So she's been praying all week asking God for a date she should work towards! So we'll be going back tonight to help her put a plan together! Also, she's painting her house, so we got to do some service!! We had so much fun. We went over Saturday night and painted some of her kitchen with her, she already had most of it done so we just painted for like an hour. But it was a blast, she and her family are amazing so it was good company and we just had fun painting with them. We're helping her paint her living room tonight so that'll be a party and the best part is we get to wear pants!!

Heriberto... oh Heriberto! What a good man! He's the less active member who just stopped going to church and he's been ignoring the missionaries, well he took us out to eat! Seriously the Hispanic people are so nice, they are willing to give us everything they have, it's incredible. They always put others first and I admire them and Heriberto so much for that. Well we had a lesson with him, and we're not sure if there's something wrong with his memory but it doesn't seem like he can remember a lot about his experience with the missionaries who baptized him or anything about the church. So we're trying to figure out what we can do for him. But we were just happy we got to teach him a lesson, he hasn't talked to missionaries in a long time, so we felt lucky that he would talk to us! 

Next, I wrote about Cesar a couple weeks back. He's the one that we ran into at Wal Mart and the last time the missionaries taught his family his sons were about to be baptized but then last second he said no and the missionaries weren't allowed back. Well we went to their house on Wednesday and they let us in for a lesson! They have the cutest family. There's Cesar and Juana and then they have three little kids, Elias (10), Luis (8), and Michelle (3). We first started talking to them and again I didn't understand what they said so Hermana Crowther had to help me and Elias yells, "WHAT?! You're not Mexican?? But you look Mexican! And you even sound like a Mexican!!" haha it cracked me up, I swear I hear that like 3 times a day! It's the biggest compliment to me, I love it! And I might not know a lot of Spanish but I guess I've got a killer accent haha! But they're such an amazing family, and I guess last time Cesar wouldn't come to any of the lessons and if he did he would just try to prove the missionaries wrong. But he sat at this lesson and his heart has been softened. The spirit was so strong and I know he felt it. He even accepted a Book of Mormon and said the closing prayer. We had another lesson with them later in the week with them. And the parents didn't want one, so we just taught Luis and Elias outside on their porch. We read the Book of Mormon with them and out of no where Luis says, "Hey, Jesus isn't a stranger." It sounds dumb over writing, but it was so powerful. These little kids know their Savior so well and they love Him and they are such an example to me! Also, Friday night we watched Meet the Mormons at the church and their family came!! So that made us super happy! 

Esmerelda... Hermana Crowther taught Esmerelda when she was here a year ago so we decided to go visit her. She is so sweet and had all of this food ready for us! So we visited with her and then had a lesson with her. We just read about some of the miracles Christ performed when he was on the earth, then read about the atonement, and then watched the Because of Him video. It was a really good lesson and Esmerelda is super amazing! She never got baptized because her husband didn't want to and she didn't want to get baptized without her husband. So we need to have a lesson with both her and her husband! Because she's so amazing and I know she knows she needs to get baptized. We just need to help them understand the true doctrine!! 

Lastly, Kristina. We found a woman named Carmela outside her house one day and she was busy then but asked us to come back. So we went back a couple days later and Carmela wasn't home, but Kristina was. Kristina was interested but was busy too so we set up an appointment with her. We went back for her appointment and it was incredible. I know I said it about the last ten people but Kristina is amazing! Seriously all of these people are incredible! We taught her the restoration and we know she didn't understand all of it, but we knew she could feel the spirit. Her and her husband just moved into the house 3 weeks ago and were looking for a church. She was catholic but she just felt like something was missing and so she's been trying out other churches but she feels like all of them are missing something. And so she really loved our message and asked for  a Book of Mormon and told us she would be at church on Sunday. We then asked her if she would get baptized on June 25 and it kinda freaked her out. But she said, "I will have June 25 as my goal and I will work towards finding out if your church is true. And if I find out that it is then I will be baptized on June 25." She's incredible. She was so humble and so receptive and you could tell how badly she wanted to know the truth. She's going to be amazing to work with! 

This week has been a lot of fun. There's been so much rain, and I mean rain. I've never seen so much rain in my whole entire life. It just pours all the time. We reached so many of our goals this week and it's incredible to watch Heavenly Father bless us. We also got to watch Meet the Mormons on Friday with some of our investigators and that was a lot of fun too. The spirit still comes even when the movie is in Spanish. I got to see Allie and Spence Tueller speak in Spanish. I had no idea they were so good (; So we had stake conference this week and we had Elder Parker from the Seventy come! It was amazing, I feel so lucky that I've been able to see so many general authorities! Read the Book of Mormon and go to the temple everyone! That's what it was all about! Also, our weed smoking neighbors got evicted so that rocked. We don't smell like weed smoking missionaries anymore. 

Way funny story... (you probably had to be there for this one too). But our neighbors were moving out on Friday and we thought they were all gone but we could still hear them (and smell them) down stairs so we went to our back porch to see if they were still moving or just taking a break. And nobody was out there so they were taking a break. And I was just dancing in the rain on the porch and I went to walk inside and had a heart attack. There was a dead bird right by the step and I have no idea how I missed it walking out. But it scared me to death haha! So Hermana Crowther gets a shoe and smacks the bird off our porch and it landed perfectly in the doorway of our weed smoking neighbors and we couldn't stop laughing. It seriously landed in the most perfect spot. I bet we could try hitting the bird off the porch 1,000 more times and couldn't have done it again. I don't think we could've even placed it more perfectly. So we ran inside the house and pretended like it wasn't us. And just laughed hysterically. We then heard them go outside and we froze and after they drove away we went back outside and the bird was gone. It was pretty good and I have a picture, I'll send it to you all. But yeah you probably had to be there for it to be funny. I tried telling the story at coordination on Saturday and I couldn't tell it because I was laughing so hard. But once I finally told it I was still the only one laughing, it was great. 

But this week has been good and it's been hard. I have had the worst anxiety being here and it's been scary. But I'm doing okay. Johny sent me an email telling me God didn't send me here to fail and Dad sends me emails all the time helping me with my thoughts and anxiety. Also, the church has some amazing resources. There's a book they give to every missionary and they give us coping mechanisms and just advice for every little thing a missionary might be going through. That book is inspired and it's helped me a ton. But I also know that everyone who has been praying for me has helped me a ton, so thank you. I really appreciate it. And I tell this to all of you not to worry or to think I'm not doing okay, but I just don't want to sugar coat everything and I want you to know how I'm really doing. The mission is amazing and the best decision I have ever made, but it's already the hardest thing I have ever done as well. But really thank you for all of the prayers, letters, love, and support.

I got Hunter's picture of him in the newspaper! How cool, I've been showing everyone. And I've loved getting all the other pictures from everyone too! Thanks mom for feeding the missionaries this week, I can tell you they love you for it and really appreciate it. I loved getting updates about all the boy's games and what's been going on at home! It's so fun to hear, and I promise it doesn't make me homesick! Also, I bought Hunter's birthday present today, so be looking for that this week (He can't open it until June 2 though). I love you all so so much. I know I say it every week, but I really do have the best family in the whole entire world! I think about you all and pray for you all every day! 

Don't ever forget how important you are. Don't ever forget that God loves you so much more than you could ever imagine. And don't ever forget that you are worth it. You were worth it to the Savior. 

Les amo mucho!!!! 

Hermana Swapp 

Well first of all thank you so much Mom for the package!! Hermana Crowther and I were freaking out when we saw we got Chick-Fil-A gift cards. We were super excited and she says thank you. Also, thank you for the dress it's super cute and comfy! The inside feels like a blanket! And thanks for all of the goodies and the picture. We have it up on our dresser, we love to look at it and to remember that Christ is walking with us every single day. So thank you. 

This week... let's just say things from here can only go up! We gained 6 new investigators and lost them all in one week. That's gotta be some kind of record or something ha! But we'll start with Monday. This will be just like one big journal entry for you all to read. Monday: We spent our Pday cleaning, grocery shopping, and then writing everyone. Then at 6 we had a dinner appointment with the Toadvines. They're the kindest people ever. We got there and they had their grandson B there, he's 5 years old and is the cutest kid. The second we walked in he turned around and said, "Alright, which one of you is the painter and golfer?" (I mentioned I like to paint and golf in my talk on Sunday). When he found out it was me we became instant best friends. He grabbed my hand and dragged me to a dresser and pulled out his art set. He flipped through his entire paint book and showed me everything he had painted and then we painted a star together. He even let me choose what colors we painted it. Then we had the most amazing meal ever. They had grilled pineapple! It was super good!! And Brother Toadvine has a super bad stomach too so we were able to tell each other all of the fun adventures we've had in our lives with our stomachs. And then after dinner B took me out to the backyard to show me his golf clubs. He had a 9 iron, wedge, and some wiffle (don't know how to spell that) balls. So we had a little competition in the back yard. It was so much fun, I can't even tell you how nice it was to hold a golf club! And just so everyone knows I got a hole in one every time. B thought I was a pro golfer haha it was so much fun. Then we went back inside and we taught them a little lesson about Christ like attributes. After we were done we went to our appointment with Heriberto and he didn't show up... oh Heriberto. We called him and there was no answer. So we decided to go look for Arturo. We drove to this neighborhood and walked to his house. We found Arturo and Andres. They were busy then but we set up an appointment with them for Sunday. So we walked around the neighborhood for the rest of the night and talked to everyone. Some people are super respectful and nice and some people just hate us and they have no problem telling us their feelings about it haha. We talked to like twenty people and then it started getting dark and we were in a sketchy area so we decided to leave. So by the time we got back to our car it was time to go home anyway. 

Tuesday: We did our studies and then we went to do our service! We do a weekly service at a little store called the Bargain Box. It's kinda like a little DI but different. It's run by like 5 older ladies who are all retired and they do it as volunteer and all of their profits go to charities. They are seriously the sweetest ladies in the whole entire world. We organized some of their clothes and swept. While we were sweeping we swept up a cockroach and I had a mini heart attack haha. I kept calm though and it was a miracle I didn't start screaming. But we had a ton of fun. Later that day we went to a trailer park to find Lupe. He wasn't home so we decided to walk around and find some other people and everyone in that neighborhood made it clear to us that they were not interested. Then Sister Elizabeth picked us up and we went to a dinner appointment in Carlisle (another city in our area, our area is huge). Sister Curran fed us. She's like a mom away from home. I love her and we seriously had a feast. We ate so much food and had way more cookies than we probably should have haha! Then we taught a little lesson to her and then left for an appointment we had in Carlisle with a lady named Sandra. We went to her house and.... she wasn't there. But it was a house with about 8 Hispanic men living there so they let us in and we taught them The Restoration. It didn't go super well. I think they were more interested in having girls in their house than hearing about the gospel haha! So... I don't think we'll be seeing them again. We drove home and it was pouring rain. I don't think I've ever seen so much rain in my whole entire life. And I guess there were a bunch of Tornado watches going on but don't worry Mom they were far away from us. Sister Elizabeth dropped us off at our house that night and we had littler 10 steps to our house and we were soaking wet when we got in haha! 

Wednesday: The most amazing day of my whole entire life. We drove to Lexington because we had a multi zone conference with Elder Kopischke of the Seventy. We had a training with him and it was amazing. It went from 10-4:30 and that sounds like a super long time but it wasn't because it was incredible! The theme was basically that it's not our calling or responsibility to prepare people to accept the gospel but to find the people who are prepared. We need to find the elect and we need to find the people who WANT to live a life that God lives. We need to find the Kingdom Builders. The people who once they are baptized help build up the kingdom and not just go straight into inactivity. It was incredible and the spirit was so strong. Also, another thing that was brought up that really hit me. Someone said if you don't like doing God's work here (your calling, the rules, temple work, scripture study, etc.) what makes you think you're going to want to live with Him forever one day? That hit me so hard. There have been so many days before my mission and on my mission that I complained about going to church, activities, reading my scriptures and so much more. But if I want to live with God forever I better love to do His work. Anyway, after the training we went on our exchange. I went with Sister Webb to Winchester and Sister Griffiths went with Hermana Crowther to Paris. It was a total blast and Hermana Webb and I are like the same person! She golfed all 4 years in High School so we had a lot to talk about in the golf world and she has a boyfriend on a mission too right now. So we had a ton of fun talking about everything. She's seriously so cute. When we got to Winchester we had a dinner appointment. I am so grateful for all of the members who are so willing to feed us, they have no idea how much it means to us missionaries! After the dinner appointment Sister Webb and I went to a neighborhood and talked to a million people. And we were actually looking for a lady named Rita but the address in the Area book was incorrect and the house didn't exist so we were super sad. So we just walked around and we ran into this lady outside and we started talking to her. And she was like, "I want to hear about your church. How about one time I take you girls out to lunch and you can tell me about it?" Of course we accepted and then as we were leaving we asked her for her name and it was Rita!! God really wanted us to meet her. So it'll be fun to hear how everything goes with her. 

Thursday: Sister Webb and I taught a few lessons and then went to downtown Winchester and talked to everyone. You would not believe how many people have been anti-ed out here! We say the church's name and people start bashing Joseph Smith. It always makes me so mad when people start talking bad about him, he was such an incredible man. But I just take Grandpa's advice and smile and bear my testimony of the church, The Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. It makes me so sad when people aren't even willing to listen or when their hearts are so hardened. I just have to keep reminding myself... "If they knew what I had to offer they would come running to me." The exchange ended at 4 and Hermana Crowther came and picked me up. I asked her how the lesson went with Gio (the one with the baptism date). Gio is a heart breaker. He didn't show up for the lesson and he wouldn't answer any of our calls or texts. But then we went and had a lesson with Carlos. He's doing great, he is a star student! After Carlos we went to see Miguel and Dionicio. Miguel made it clear he isn't interested and Dionicio wasn't home so we left him a note on a sticky note with our number. As we were walking out we saw someone moving in to a new apartment and he had a ton of things to move in and it was just him and his 13 year old brother. So we helped them move into his apartment. We had a lot of fun and it was pouring rain which made it funner. And no I'm not being sarcastic we really did have a good time!

Friday: Beverly(a member in our ward) had a family member pass away and today was the funeral and she really wanted us to be there for the meal at the church afterwards. So we got to the church and helped with what we could. Sister Denninghoff (Relief Society President) and Bishop Scalf had it all set up pretty much so Hermana Crowther and I basically greeted people. It was pretty hard watching everyone come in, funerals are not fun. We were there for a majority of the day. After everyone left Hermana Crowther and I ate dinner with the food that was left over and then we helped Bishop and Sister Denninghoff clean up and get everything put away. Then we went over to the Salas's house. They're awesome. Sister Salas is from Mexico and she served in the Kentucky Louisville Mission about 10 years ago!! This is where she met her husband so they got married after her mission and have lived there ever since. They're such a fun family. They have a 2 year old and I have never met someone who talks more in my entire life haha she is adorable! And her vocabulary is incredible! I have the cutest video of her, I'll send it home! After the Salas family we went to Hiram's for our appointment and... he wasn't home. But one of his roommates were and we tried sharing our message with him but he didn't want to hear it either. 

Saturday: We had coordination this morning and it was super fun. When it was over Brother Harney asked us what we had next and both us and the Elders just had our lunch hour so Brother Harney ordered a pizza for us. It was sooo funny. So the pizza guy gets here and Me and Brother Harney's son S go answer the door. S pays for the pizza and of course I do the missionary work. I ask the guy, "Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?" And he says, "No I'm Muslim." And so I say, "Well, do you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ?" And he looked at me like I was the biggest idiot. It was so funny and we all laughed about it while we ate our pizza. You probably had to be there for it to be funny, but it was super good. We had 4 appointments for this day and all four of them fell through. No. One. Is. Interested. So we just started visiting a bunch of less active members. Then we went to Susie's house. She's a member in the ward. We had a lot of fun visiting with her and getting to know her better. Then we went in for the night and made a bunch of phone calls and tried to figure out what in the world we were going to do to find the kingdom builders. 

Sunday: We had ward council in the morning and then church. After church we drove to Lexington to attend the Spanish branch. I thought my head was going to explode, I've never heard so much Spanish in my entire life and they talk so fast, I had no idea what was going on. And the best was in Sunday school the teacher kept asking me to read but I had no idea what he was saying so it took like 5 minutes every time just for me to read a small paragraph haha I felt bad! But it was so much fun, some people I can understand super well and some people it's almost impossible for me to understand what in the world they are saying. But it was awesome because in the third hour the entire branch went into the primary room for a fiesta! One of the people in the branch had a birthday so they had a big cake and chocolate milk so we all had a mini party. It was so much fun and it was nice to be around so much Spanish. That's the only way I'm going to learn. After church we had 4 appointments and every single one fell through again. We didn't have on lesson. So Hermana Crowther called Fidencio. He was an investigator here when she was here last year and he said we could come over. So we got there and visited them and then Hermana Crowther asked him why he never got baptized and he said because he didn't want to give up coffee. So I told Fidencio in the best Spanish I possibly could, "Fidencio what's more important to you the blessings that come from being a member of the church or coffee?" I told him all of the amazing blessings he would receive if he became a member and told him that coffee isn't worth it. He said he would pray about it and he wants us to keep teaching him. So hopefully he has a change of heart. Also, we looked for Gio every single day this week... nada. 

So not much has happened here in Paris when it comes to missionary work, but Hermana Crowther and I are working as hard as we can. We know there's kingdom builders here and we know there are people here who are waiting for the gospel! Kentucky is fun, it's super cold right now I feel like I should've brought my Winter gear, but we're having a lot of fun and Hermana Crowther and I are getting along great! Thank you for being the most amazing and the most supportive family in the whole entire world I love you!

Also, just a little spiritual thought for you (I'm already becoming that person Hunter thought I would become haha!) So many people here ask why do bad things happen to good people? Or why would God make me go through this? And so many other things but during my studies this morning I really feel like God gave me an answer to those questions. Here you go Hunter, here's your scripture 2 Nephi 2:11. As I read that scripture I realized how good the bad things are because without them we wouldn't know what happiness is. And to me that would be the saddest thing of all - being happy but never knowing it. God really knows best and he knows that we need the bad things and the bad times to appreciate the good. So just a little spiritual thought for you all.     

Sorry for the novel. But I love you all and I'm grateful for you all. I hope you have the most amazing week and thank you for all the emails. It was so fun to go home and read them every night. Good luck at state this week Hunter (at least I think it's this week?) and good luck Payts with all of your games, you're gonna kill it. I love you!

Hermana Swapp 

Oh and PS we called the landlord about the weed smoker and he kicked him out!! I celebrated by running around the house spraying febreze! I was so Excited!

(Hermana Spencer and me at the training (Sarah and Rachel Nance's Cousin)

Some of us who were in the MTC Together

Sister Webb, she's amazing.

Sister Griffiths, Hermana Crowther, Sister Webb, and me!

Hello Everybody!

How fun was this week? I got to call you at the airport and yesterday for Mother's Day! It was so nice to talk to everyone and see everyone! And it was super fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa and Kathy at the airport! It was so good! The bishop couldn't stop laughing yesterday. He said your family sounds like so much fun I could hear them all screaming the second they saw you! It really was so good to see all of you and to see Jasper!! I've missed you more than you know! Everything reminds me of you! Even Wal Mart! Who knew we had so many memories! I hope you had a Happy Mother's Day mom! It sounds like the family made you a yummy breakfast and dinner! I wish I could've been there today, but I'm glad I got to be there for a part of your day!

I hope you're ready for a long email because a lot happened this week!! I said goodbye to everyone at the MTC and it made me super sad. It made me super sad just to say goodbye to that place. The MTC was the most amazing experience I've had in my life so far. The Spirit was amazing and the happiness I felt there was incredible. I could've served my whole mission in the MTC, not really... but it was super amazing! I woke up at 2:45 Monday morning, got ready, and walked to the travel office. I met up with my other fellow Kentuckians there. We took a bus to the Front Runner, got on the train and then took tracks to the airport. Right when we got to the airport I saw grandma and grandpa and they gave me their phone to talk to all of you because my phone card wasn't working. While I was talking to you that's when I saw Kathy! So it was super fun to talk to and see everyone. After I hung up the phone I talked to grandma and grandpa for a minute and then I had to get on the plane. We first flew to Georgia and it was like a 4 hour flight. I slept the whole way and I guess I sleep with my mouth wide open so that's embarrassing. And then once we got to Georgia we got right onto our next plane to Kentucky. There was a bunch of turbulence but it was such a short flight so it was fine. We got off the plane and entered into good ole Louisville! There's horse pictures everywhere around the airport. It's great. We got a group picture and met the Mission president and his wife and his APs. They are all awesome and so kind. We went to the Mission home and had dinner, went over some information, and had a testimony meeting. It was really good. Also, we had interviews with the Mission President and he is such an amazing guy! I'm lucky! I was the only missionary that arrived today that he knew where I was going and who my companion was going to be. I was the only Spanish missionary who showed up so it was pretty easy to pick for me because I was the only one who needed a Spanish Trainer.

So the next day we got ready and headed over to a church to meet our trainers and get more instruction. My Trainer is Hermana Crowther. She's very nice and she's from Washington. And our Area is the Paris Area. It is beautiful, everyone told me I got the promised land for my first area. And I really feel that way. I've never seen so much green in my whole entire life. They don't even need sprinklers here!! But you just look out the window while you're driving and there's green hills that go on for forever and there's horses everywhere. And there's these beautiful huge houses and then they have tons of land, it really is just so beautiful!! We got to our house and it's the cutest little house in the world! And it's yellow... my favorite color! Someone must've told them! ;) It's really such a cute house and we're so lucky we probably have the nicest living arrangements in the whole mission. The only problem is it smells like weed all the time. We have people who live in our basement and it comes up through the vents... it's pretty bad! But don't worry we bought loads of febreze at walmart today!

Our area was "white washed" well "pink washed" because were hermanas. But that just means that the two hermanas serving here both left and they brought two knew hermanas in. So when we got to the house there were no notes from the other sisters and we couldn't get our area book until the next day. So it was super difficult. We just made a few phone calls to people in the ward to try to figure it all out and we didn't find much out. But the good thing is Hermana Crowther was in this area a year ago so she knows the ward members and where everything is, she just doesn't know who the investigators are because a lot changes in a year. So we drove around to some ward members and visited them. That night we talked to the Ward Mission Leader who is Brother Harney, he is awesome! And his family is amazing too! When we stopped by the Elders were there too, so we got to meet all of them.

Wednesday, we spent a lot of time at the library setting up my iPad and downloading the area book. We finally got it and then we went back to our house and Sister Elizabeth came over. She is a member in our ward (Oh yeah were in an English Ward) and she comes with the missionaries all the time. She is amazing, I love her! She updated us on a ton of people and told us what was going on in the area because the area book didn't have the best records so she was a ton of help! After we got caught up we visited the Turner family, they're also in our ward. They're so much fun. Then we went to the church because mutual was going on and we wanted to meet the ward members. We met the Bishop and the rest of the Bishopric. They're super nice. And he didn't ask us to speak on Sunday that night was a success! After the church Elizabeth drove us around town and we just knocked on doors.

Thursday, we had district meeting in Lexington. That's just barely outside of our area, but it was good. The best part is we went to Chick-Fil-A after. It was soooo good! We came back to the house finished our studies and then went to Beverly's. She's another member in the ward. We taught her a lesson about temples and invited her to work for her temple recommend. She's such an amazing person and she has the cutest family. She just needs to give up smoking to get to the temple so we want to help her get there! She's so close too!! After we visited Beverly we drove to Winchester (another city in our area) and met with an investigator Carlos. He was baptized the previous Sunday but is still considered an investigator until he is confirmed. But he is amazing. He told us his story and he is incredible! He changed his life around and you can see how much he has changed his life. He gave up so much to be a member and it's incredible to see the sacrifice he was willing to make. He can't read so we read to him from the Book of Mormon and we call him every day and read to him. He is amazing.

Friday, we studied in the morning. Then we looked in the area book and we had an appointment with Vladimir. We had no idea who he was and there was no information about him except for an address. So we thought we might as well go see who it was. We knocked on the door and we asked for Vladimir and the person who answered had no idea who that was, but then Hermana Crowther was like hey I know you, you're Hiram. Hiram was an investigator when Hermana Crowther was in the area, but when she left he moved and the new Hermanas had lost contact with him and had no idea how to find him! Milagro!! (Miracle) It was incredible that we found him. He told us he still reads his Book of Mormon every day and wants us to come back next Friday. (This was all in Spanish, and yes I understood it! I just can't really respond yet). So that was amazing that we found Hiram he's so ready for baptism too, he just works on Sundays so it's going to be hard to get him to church. After we found Hiram we went to the Relief Society President's house. She's incredible too. Seriously everyone in Kentucky is amazing. She helped us with telling us who was struggling and who is inactive so we have a list of people that we can hopefully help! After her Sister Elizabeth called us and she had a flat tire and the Elders weren't answering so we drove over to her as fast as we could. I grabbed the car manual and started figuring it out. Good thing we have those manuals... and it's a good thing Jeff got a flat tire last year on his car and I was able to learn how to read a manual haha! But really we didn't do much, her dad came and did most of it, we just went to the store and bought her eggs for her because she couldn't. After we went to her parent's house and helped them set things up. They're were having a ward BBQ. Lots of people showed up and it was super yummy!! Then we finally had some Latinos show up and they spoke Spanish!! And I understood them perfectly and I was actually able to speak to them too! Finally they said something I didn't understand so I looked over to Hermana Crowther for help and she translated for me and they were all so surprised. They were llike "What?! We thought you were Hispanic!! We thought you were a Native Speaker. You look Hispanic and you have a really good accent!" That made my entire day! They were so shocked too when I told them I didn't have any bit of Hispanic in me. And I really struggle speaking the language, but at least I know they think I have a good accent haha! That made my day. After the BBQ we decided to go to Wal Mart because it was 8:30 and our "curfew" is at 9. And we have a goal everyday of how many people we're going to talk to and we hadn't reached our goal yet so we thought we would go to Wal Mart. MILAGRO!!! (Miracle). The second we walked in we ran into a man named Cesar and he had his two kids. I guess Hermana Crowther taught them last year and they were about to be baptized but Cesar decided he didn't want his kids baptized and that the missionaries couldn't come by anymore. Right when he walked in he came up to us and told us how happy he was to see us. He told us to come over next Wednesday! Sounds like his heart has been softened! It was pretty incredible. Well right after we talked to him we ran into Miguel. He was baptized two years ago but he hasn't come to church for a while and basically ignored the missionaries because he felt bad for some of his decisions. He was so excited to see us too and he had his little family there! His girlfriend just had a baby and it is the cutest little baby I have ever seen! He gave us his phone number and asked us to come by sometime! He is the happiest person I have ever met, and it was so fun to run into him. Well right after we talked to Miguel we ran into Angel, Cheyeanna, and Shawna. They were three investigators and the missionaries lost contact of them right after Hermana Crowther left and we talked to them and they told us they wanted to feed us and have us come over! Seriously the most amazing trip to Wal Mart I have ever had!! (Oh and the bishop asked us to speak on Sunday tonight... so I guess tonight wasn't that much of a success haha!)

Saturday, we did our studies and then went to a street called Bradford Street. We knocked on some doors for a little while and two people asked us to come back, so that was super good! Then we went to Winchester and right when we got there we saw 5 men sitting outside of an apartment so we got out of our car and asked them if we could teach them a lesson and they said yes! Their names were Miguel, Manuel, Enrique, Dionicio, and Inmer. They are all from Honduras and only spoke Spanish so it was great! I got to use more Spanish!! We taught them the restoration and I could tell Inmer, Manuel, and Enrique weren't having it, but Dionicio and Miguel were very interested. Manuel is actually Carlos's brother, but they don't have a super good relationship. So after we taught them Dionicio asked for a Book of Mormon and him and Miguel gave us their addresses for us to visit and we'll head over there next Thursday! After that we talked to the Alvarez family. They're members in the Winchester ward, they're super awesome and fed us cookies! Which was amazing, I was starving!! They told us about everyone in Winchester and gave us an update so that was super nice! Their daughter, D goes teaching with missionaries all the time so she was very helpful. After we got done talking to them we met Carlos. He was just glowing, he was so ready for his confirmation. We taught him more about the Holy Ghost and he was so ready!

Sunday, we started the day at church and Hermana Crowther and I both spoke! It went okay, we didn't have a ton of time to prepare but it was fine! We went to church and then we drove over to Bishop Scalf's for dinner and to Skype everyone. We normally would go to a Spanish Branch after our ward but we couldn't today because we got to talk our mothers! It was so much fun! But anyway they fed us spaghetti which was so yummy and they had dessert for us too. They're so nice. Well after we drove back to town and stopped by Heriberto's. He was baptized but he hasn't come to church and he's been avoiding the missionaries. We knocked on his door and he came out and told us we could come back and visit! So that was amazing. After that we found another less active member and talked to him for a minute. So then we decided to drive to a street and just talk to people. We got out of the car and talked to everyone. There were so many people because everyone was with their families and the weather was nice. Some people were super nice, and some people were not so nice. Some people accepted a Book of Mormon. But the highlight of the night was this... We were about to leave but I saw someone at the bottom of the hill and I told Hermana Crowther that I felt like we should talk to him. So we did, his name is Gio. He's still in high school, but we got talking to him and asked him if he would be interested in hearing our message and he said yes and asked if he could hear it right then. So of course! We taught him the restoration and the spirit was so strong. We asked him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it and he accepted. Then we asked him if he would prepare himself to be baptized on June 11th and he accepted!! He is so amazing and so sincere! We asked him to say the closing prayer and he made me cry. He said, "God, thank you for sending me someone to remind me that you're still there and that somebody loves me and cares about me." Seriously the most amazing prayer. We'll meet with him again on Wednesday, so I hope he keeps progressing because he's incredible.

I have learned so much in this week. I learned that the southern accent is strong in Kentucky, I've learned that Nyquis or whatever won the Kentucky derby, and I've learned so much more about God and his Gospel. It's crazy how aware he is and much he loves each of his children. He really wants them all to know they are loved and to know the truth. I also feel like I've taken a little baby step in Christ's shoes this week. It's crazy at home I could go up and talk to anybody and they would be kind, but now that I have Christ's name on my chest I have people who will yell at me and call me a crazy Mormon, or tell me I'm stupid, or pretend they don't even see me. It breaks my heart that people treat Christ like that. He was the most perfect and loving person and people were horrible to Him, but He still died for them. He is the most incredible example of love. And I'm so grateful that I can take a short time out of my life to serve Him.  

I love you all so much, and I'm sorry I cried during out Skype call. I am super homesick, but I'm okay. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Thanks for all of your support and thank you for being the best family I could've ever asked for! I'll be able to see your faces again in a short 7 months and hopefully by then I'll have my emotions under control haha! I hope you all have a very good week, I love you!

Love,

Hermana Swapp

(From the Louisville Missionary Moms Page)

I made it through my last week in the MTC and it went out with a BANG... in the microwave. Wait till you hear this... seriously so funny! So every night my companions and I visit the girls in our zone and give them a little spiritual thought and pray together. So this week we went up there one night and right as we were about to start the fire alarms went off. We were all so confused so I grabbed my camera of course and started filming the whole thing like any normal person would. Girls were running everywhere, people were freaking out, and then we all went outside. I felt bad for all the girls who were showering...  As soon as we got outside I could smell it, the smoke was so bad! So like all missionaries would, we knelt down and said a prayer together. There were probably 400 of us outside at 10:15 at night. As soon as we were done praying we all split up into our zones to make sure we had everyone. You had three types of girls: 1) the ones freaking out and crying 2) the ones who thought the whole thing was a joke and 3) the ones who started singing, "The spirit of God like a fire is burning."

We had to wait outside for about 45 minutes. The fire department never showed up but the cops did and the MTC security was rolling in huge fans to the building to air it out because the windows don't open. Finally around 11 o'clock we were able to go back inside and everyone was able to get ready for bed. Well... nobody told us what had happened so my companions and I thought it would be a good idea to visit the other floors in the buildings and get some witnesses. (Don't worry, I filmed the whole thing). We asked everyone we saw what they knew and I think it is the funniest video ever. When we got to the third floor we found the microwave that had been responsible for it all. Either a Sister cooked her popcorn too long or the microwave blew up while she was cooking the popcorn, we weren't able to really get to the bottom of it, but all we know is it was either the microwave or popcorn that caused all of the smoke. And the best part of this story is you get the pleasure of watching it all when I send my SD card home! 

But anyway on a more spiritual side, my last week in the MTC was amazing! And to answer your question Maddie on Tuesday night I would guess he showed up at 6:30, but we didn't hear from him until 7, we had the privilege of listening to Elder Dallin H. Oaks. How cool, in my six weeks here at the MTC I was able to hear from two apostles. The MTC presidency told us they only have 3-4 apostles come talk to them a year and I was able to be here for two of them. I feel so lucky. Being in the same room as an apostle is the most incredible thing in the world and his message was amazing. 

Every Sunday we take a walk as a zone to the temple after all of our meetings. It's so nice to be able to walk around and just have a little break. This week we got there and we were walking around and guess who was there! Hermana Tracy!! It was so good to see her! I missed her so much! She's doing okay, I think she's getting her gall bladder out! Poor girl, she also has to eat radioactive eggs or something... gross. But we were able to talk to her for a little while and it was so nice. 

This week has been so crazy and it flew by. We mainly reviewed Spanish and other important things in Preach My Gospel. I just have to get down as much Spanish as I can before I leave on Monday! We've still been teaching our investigators Eric and Miranda and they have been going really well. And guess what else, we were able to Skype this week and we were able to teach a man from Mexico, how cool. Technology is amazing. I've been working really hard and I can't wait to teach everyone in Kentucky. We had In-Field Orientation this week which is just an entire day for the missionaries leaving to help them really prepare for the field. It was super cool and it made me a million more times excited to get out there! But that's about all that has happened, I feel bad, I don't have a ton to write about.

This week has been crazy with saying goodbye to everyone. We said goodbye to our teachers: Hermano Corbin, Hermana Litster, and Hermana Bradshaw. They were the most amazing teachers I could've ever asked for, and I'm so grateful that we got them. Also, Hermana Clausen left this morning for Mexico! I'm going to miss her so much but she is going to make the most incredible missionary ever! And in less than 48 hours I'll say goodbye to everyone else.

I'm really so incredibly grateful for the MTC. It has been the most amazing experience of my life this far. The spirit is amazing and the things you learn are incredible. God is so real and he is so aware and I'm so happy that he trusts me enough to preach His gospel. I love you all and I hope you all have a good week! Make sure Mom has a Happy Birthday today and the next time I write you I'll be in Kentucky! Wish me luck! 

I love you all!

Hermana Swapp

 Hermana Litster

 Hermano Corbin

Hermana Bradshaw

 KENTUCKY

 We've got the states and Mexico covered!

Saying goodbye to Hermana Clausen

All the girls going to Kentucky!

Our last time at the temple!