Hola Familia!

Como esta todo? Yo espero bien! This week has been another great week! Shelbyville is just amazing, I am so blessed to be able to serve here! We've had so many amazing experiences and lessons this week and I am so grateful! 

We were able to see Maribel every single day this week except for Saturday and she is doing great! She and her whole family came to church yesterday and it was so fun to see all of them! We've really been able to develop a good relationship with that family and I love them so very much. And guess what, I'm finally funny in Spanish! I can crack a joke or two in Spanish and I got their family rolling. We had a lot of fun with them this week. 

We had some very powerful lessons with them, the spirit is always so strong every time. We taught her the word of wisdom and we were a little scared to see her reaction but she said, "I'm never drinking coffee ever again! It's not worth it to me!" Haha she is amazing! We also had an amazing lesson about obedience and the spirit was seriously so strong. One day after her lesson she brought up her baptism and how excited she is (it's this Saturday!! The 28th!) and she looked at us and said, "You two are very special to me." (In Spanish of course). "I've never felt so close to two missionaries before and I've never allowed missionaries to come like I do with you two. You're very special to me." It made my whole entire week. Maribel is amazing and I cannot wait for her to enter the waters of baptism this week. Man, she's going to be the best Mormon. 

We had to drop a bunch of our investigators this week because they weren't keeping commitments or making the time to meet with us. But when we went over to Maria's house her granddaughter Natalie was there. We started teaching Natalie English and she asked us to teach her about the gospel as well. She's adorable and I'm excited to teach her more. 

Also, another day Hermana Heil and I were tracting in an apartment complex and we ran into Oscar and Adrian. We started talking to them and we set a return appointment with Adrian. When we went over a couple days later he was actually there! We were so impressed. We started teaching him and we explained how God is his loving Heavenly Father and we told him, "Adrian, your Father in Heaven loves you very much. He is so aware of you and He weeps when you weep and He is happy when you are." And Adrian looked up and said, "You really think so? He really cares for me that much?" And the spirit was so strong in that moment and nobody could deny the love that our Heavenly Father had for Adrian in that moment. That lesson was so special to me and I have been thinking about it a lot this week. I watched the Mormon message "Our True Identity" and realized how much divine worth we all truly have. We are all very loved and we have a potential that is so much greater than we could ever imagine. 

We had another lesson with Wilfred yesterday, we ran into him outside and he let us teach him. We taught him the restoration and he really liked it. He was super excited to learn more and even said he would prepare for baptism. So watch out for some more stories about Wilfred in the coming weeks. 

We had our first exchange this week. Hermana Parra came here to Shelbyville with me and Hermana Heil went to Frankfort with Hermana Milligan and let me tell you it was a blast! Hermana Parra is seriously such an amazing missionary and I learned so much from her, also she's Colombian and so I couldn't tell all the Hispanics that I'm Colombian that day because standing next to a real Colombian I couldn't pull it off. But we had a lot of fun. 

I had physical therapy twice this week and he said my shoulder is looking good and has made some great improvement. I go to the doctor on Tuesday but the physical therapist said he doesn't think I'll need an MRI. So that's great news! It was kinda cool though, because every time I go to PT I feel like everyone just stares at me like I'm a weirdo because of my name tag but while I was waiting for my turn I prayed to Heavenly Father and asked for an opportunity to share the gospel with them. When I went back four of the physical therapists asked me all of these questions and were super impressed with the church. I even taught them a little Spanish haha! It was such a cool experience though and I was so grateful that Heavenly Father had answered my prayer. Ask and ye shall receive. 

So there's this super cute lady in the ward named Sister Wagner and we went to her house this week to do service. I have never seen such an immaculate house in my life before but she told us it was dirty and needed cleaning. Oh she better not come see my bedroom.. (Just kidding my room is clean, I promise). So we scrubbed the floors clean and made the house that much more spotless and when we were all done Hermana Heil and I snuck some cookies. I grabbed two (I was hungry) and I thought I shoved them both in my mouth but right when I closed my mouth one of them fell to the ground and I saw my life flash before my eyes. Everything was in slow motion and I watched as the cookie fell to the ground and crumbs flew everywhere. I dropped to the ground to try to hide it but she walked in just in time to see it all and the three of us all just laughed together. I got it all cleaned up but it was super funny. 

We also were able to go to two different family's homes from the ward this week and they both own horses and we got to do lots of service for them. Oh it is the coolest thing in the world. One of these days I'm going to hop on one of them and run away with the horse. Not really but I want to really bad. I seriously want a horse so bad though. I'm going to live on a farm when I grow up I just decided. We also went to another family's home yesterday for dinner and they have a huge farm and their goats just had babies. I thought of Maddie, but of course I held them. I love Kentucky. 

This week has been so much fun and so amazing. I am finally seeing how perfectly tailored every mission is to each missionary and it is the coolest thing. My mission is the best decision I have ever made in my life and I am so very grateful for it, it has taught me so much and I learn something new every day. I have never been happier in my life. I invite all of you this week to pray for a missionary opportunity and to enjoy the happiness that comes from it. I promise it'll be in the top ten best decisions you make this week. 

I love you all so very much and I pray for you always. I hope you know how special you are to me and I hope that you are happy. Because life is too short to be anything else. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Swapp 

PS: "The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." -3 Nephi 13:22

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-04-20-our-true-identity?lang=eng

 

The first thing I'm going to do when I get off my mission is buy a horse.

Exchanges!