¡Hola!

This week was a good one, I feel bad though I feel like my emails are
so boring because nothing super exciting has been happening. The work
is super slow right now and we spend so much time just looking for
people to teach and just praying for help. But I'll start with last
Monday. We went to the Scalf's for dinner and they invited Mario as
well. We were super excited, we got to their house and we got a call
from Bishop saying he's been at Mario's for 15 minutes but he won't
come out. (And Mario lives about 20 minutes from Bishop Scalf's.) so
we call Mario and he was in Lexington working and didn't feel the need
to tell us he couldn't come for dinner. I felt awful! So we called
Bishop and he drove back. I felt horrible. But they finally told me I
wasn't allowed to say the S word anymore (sorry). But the night was
good. The Scalfs are amazing, I love them so much. They fed us a yummy
dinner, we taught them a lesson, and then Bishop took us out back and
let us feed and pet his horses. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday just shouldn't have happened haha! Hermana Crowther and I were
so ornery and tired. We were super ornery all morning but then at 2 we
went to Sister Young's to do some service which was the best thing
ever. Our moods totally changed. She's this sweet older lady in the
ward and her husband has been having some really bad health problems
and they have like 50 acres of land she's been trying to take care of
on her own, so we went over to give her a hand. We had so much fun, we
planted her garden for her! We made rows (and mine were super
crooked... Oops!) and planted all kinds of seeds for her. And she
talked to us and told us all kinds of stories from her life, I
absolutely loved it. She's like a best friend to me now, we just
talked about everything! Later that night we had a lesson with
Esmeralda. We just shouldn't have gone. After service we got back into
our bad moods and I knew we didn't have the spirit with us going over
to Esmeralda's but we went anyway. It was the worst lesson. There was
no unity and I don't even think we knew what we were teaching. And
then afterwards baptism got brought up so I asked Esmeralda some more
questions about baptism and Hermana Crowther was not happy. Haha the
whole thing was a mess. After that lesson we were so frustrated with
each other but don't worry we repented! We both apologized and worked
everything out. And I don't think it went as bad as we felt it did.

Wednesday we looked for everyone everywhere. Then we went to an
appointment with Beverly. While we were waiting for her I got to play
some basketball with her sons. It was so much fun, I felt like I was
with Hunter and Payton. We played a little CTR (horse). Then Wednesday
night was the first night of our English class.... Oh boy. Nobody
came! Except for Esmeralda! It's so hard, all the Hispanics work on
farms so they don't get off work until 8 or 9 and so it's too late to
teach them lessons or anything. But it went super well with Esmeralda,
she learned a lot and I know she appreciated it. We helped her with
her English and she helped me with my Spanish. Also, there's been a
bike just sitting in our apartment forever but it's been broken so a
ward member came and fixed it for me so I have a bike now!

Thursday we woke up and went on a bike ride for our exercise, it was
so much fun (except my gears are broken on the bike, they're stuck on
the hardest ones so you can imagine how winded I was haha!) but y'all
are going to think I'm the biggest brat! It was so funny, we had a
lesson with Dustin that day and we decided to ride our bikes to his
house well my dress kept getting caught in the tires and I had to keep
ripping it out I was so frustrated. And then Hermana Crowther would go
way ahead and I would have to yell at her to stop while I tried to get
my dress out. It was a mess hahaha! But we got to Dustin's and I just
threw the bike on the ground and walked away. Hermana Crowther and I
just laugh when we think about it now but in the moment I was so mad.
You wouldn't believe how hard it is to bike in a dress! Anyway I
repented and said a little prayer to invite the spirit back and we
taught Dustin and it went amazing! He's probably close to 16 years
old. But we taught him the restoration and the spirit was so strong
and at the end we asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes!
And his mom was there for the whole lesson and was fine with it and
everything! It rocked, the only sad thing is we have to give him to
the Elders because he speaks English. We found Margarito that night
which was a miracle and taught him another lesson. He told us he has
some doubts but he wants to keep learning so hopefully we don't lose
him! Then we went to Fidencio's for a lesson. That one was a mess too.
Haha! He had his 6 year old daughter there and she jammed to Justin
Bieber the whole time, it was actually kinda funny. But he promised
again that he would come to church!

Friday we had a zone meeting in Lexington and it was amazing. I always
get so pumped after trainings and meetings, I feel like I can conquer
the world haha! But we went to Winchester to look for Ester and Luis
but we found Luis's mom. She was incredible. We got talking to her and
she was so interested! She told us she grew up Catholic but when she
was old enough to read the bible she said she knew it wasn't true
because she read the Ten Commandments. And it says you shouldn't have
any other Gods or worship anything else. And she said that in the
Catholic Church they worship other saints but in the bible it says
specifically not to do that so she knew it wasn't true and has been
looking for the truth ever since. Okay. She is so prepared. The only
sad thing is she's going back to Mexico in a couple weeks. Later that
night we went to a little neighborhood and knocked on every single
door asking if anyone spoke Spanish and after an hour everyone said
no. Just as we were about to leave we thought we heard someone talking
in Spanish so we ran up this little hill and found Ximena. We were so
excited, she's incredible. She's from Ecuador and has the coolest life
story. She's been in the US for a long time so her English is super
good. Anyway she's Catholic and is super devoted to it but she loved
hearing about our church and said she wanted to come to church one
week. She had so many questions so I really hope she comes to church
and that we'll be able to teach her. Anyway right as we were about to
leave she went inside and brought us both an apple, she was the
sweetest lady!

Saturday was the hottest day ever! We didn't have any appointments so
we went out tracting for a couple hours. We found two families that
spoke Spanish but they weren't interested. Then we went to Sister
Young's and did a couple more hours of service and then went to the
Prater's for dinner. Then after that all of our appointments fell
through so we went looking for more people. We found a guy named
Aaron, we gave him our information and told him about church the next
day and told him he better come but he just looked at me like I was
crazy haha!

Sunday, we were at church and Mario came again which was super good.
But Fidencio didn't :( But then all of the sudden Aaron walked in, I
was so pumped! I ran up to him and told him hi and I was so excited he
came but then again the Elders get him because he speaks English! But
church was super good and a little crazy! We got a new bishop! It's
now Bishop Pearce, and he's awesome too so it will be good! Then later
we went looking for Heriberto and we found him, but he was leaving to
go to a friend's which was dumb because we had an appointment with
him. But to make up for it he finally let us all take a picture and we
rescheduled a time to teach him. Then we went and taught Sister Reed
and then went looking again for people.

I'm sorry I don't have a lot of exciting things to write about this
week was just kinda a boring one! We're trying super hard to find
people to teach, I know there's people here in Paris, we just need to
keep looking! It's been cool though, I've been reading in Alma all
week and I've read about Ammon and Aaron and it's so fun to read all
about their mission experiences and how similar it really is to ours.
It's so cool! And there's a little small story about a sister
missionary in there that I've never noticed until now. But there's a
verse and it's talking about Ammon baptizing like a ton of people and
it said even though a lot were being baptized there were more people
who didn't listen than who did. So it made me feel better that even
the Ancients didn't always have people who would listen to them! I'm
not as bad of a missionary as I think haha!

But obviously from this email you have all learned that I definitely
have my weaknesses and I'm trying to be better every day haha! I have
many things I am working on and I know through the Atonement I will
eventually become the missionary I want to be and the missionary God
knows I can be.

A little invitation for everyone who is reading this:
"Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to
work together, to labor in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls unto
Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel in a
multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors if we will act
in faith to fulfill His work." -President Thomas S. Monson
It's almost impossible for us missionaries to get anything done
without the help of the members so I invite everyone to do some type
of missionary work this week. Do something to invite someone to come
unto Christ and I promise your joy will be great!

I love you all so much and I hope you have the best week ever! I'm
praying for you lots and remember to be happy! Life is too short to be
anything else!

Con Amor,
Hermana Swapp