¡Hola Familia! 

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week mom! I hope you have a very happy birthday and I hope the family spoils you. I'll be celebrating for you here in Kentucky this week. 

This week has been crazy. So much has happened and I don't even know what to share because I can't remember what happened this week. All the weeks are blending in together! But Tuesday we had interviews with President. Interviews are always my favorite and he always has the best advice. 

And after interviews we exchanged the Lexington Hermanas. Hermana Banks came to Shelbyville with me and it was so much fun. She is such an amazing missionary and I love going on exchanges with her, I always learn so much from her and she makes everyone feel so loved. She's such a good example of a Christlike missionary. 

We've had some amazing lessons with Kristy and Aniyah and they are making such good progress. They are still so excited to get baptized and they spend like every day studying he Book of Mormon and their gospel principles book. I am super excited for them and it has been fun watching them make some changes in their life. 

Raul, we found him! And then we injured him... let me explain. We found him this week and he was back to his dumb Korihor self. Oh I was so sad and frustrated, but we told him to read the Book of Mormon and he said he would. We went to his house Thursday and he had been reading! So we shared the restoration with him (finally) and he really understood it well and he even accepted a baptismal date. And in his prayer he said, "God please help me do all that I can so I can be baptized on May 27." It was awesome and so good to hear! So hear is where we injured him...

We thought it would be a good idea to get all of our investigators and less actives together for a soccer game. And that way they could invite all of their friends and we could meet more people. So we put the soccer game together and it had been raining a little bit that day. We were there with our investigators and less actives and the elders brought theirs and we shared a spiritual lesson and said a prayer and then we played some fútbol. The game hadn't even lasted for 30 seconds and Raul totally slipped on the grass and hurt his ankle. Oh I felt so bad for him. He hobbled off the field and decided to go home. We even said a prayer for safety... Hermana Heil and I were dying. He ended up going to the hospital and he has a huge brace and he's on crutches for 3 weeks. We thought for sure he was never going to meet with us again and that he hated us and Hermana Heil was doing everything in her power not to laugh and the whole thing was just crazy. But we visited him on Saturday morning and he wasn't mad at all. Phew. But the whole thing was actually really funny, but Raul would say differently. But we learned our lesson... fútbol is a good idea, just not when it's raining.  

So Friday we got a call from President Brough. One of the members fell in love with Hermana Parra so he had to get her out of the area so he asked us to do an emergency exchange for the weekend until he could do an ET. So I've actually been in Versailles/Frankfort Kentucky for the past couple of days with Sister Groesbeck and I will be here until tomorrow. 

Saturday night was thunder over Louisville, like the biggest firework show in the world to kick off Derby! President Brough told the missionaries to go who lived within 40 minutes and to talk with as many people as we could. So we got to go and it was so much fun. There was basically like 2 zones of missionaries there and a million people. So we grabbed some boxes of Book of Mormons and we had little competitions to see who could get their Book of Mormons passed out the fastest. Each companionship took some books and then when we got them passed out, we were to meet up at our meeting spot. Last ones back lost. It was a ton of fun, Hermana Spencer and I went together. We talked with some really nice people and talked with some really mean people. We got called devil worshippers and a bunch of other names that I can't write down haha! One guy hated the Mormons so bad I thought he was going to throw some punches. But it was a super fun night and the firework show was incredible! 

We found some other people to teach this week and that was good. One of them is named Faustino and he's awesome. We knocked on his door and he let us in, at first we thought he just wanted to Bible bash but we were able to teach him the restoration and he was super receptive and I'm excited to see him progress. 

Versailles/Frankfort has been fun. It's a tiger team (one Spanish sister and one English sister) so yesterday at church was fun. I got to translate all three hours and then we had a fireside last night and I translated that as well. I was tired of talking by the end of the day haha! It's weird not being in Shelbyville, but Frankfort is pretty cool. 

But that was our week, it was a crazy one but a good one. I hope you all have an amazing week and know that I love you! Be happy, because life is too short to be anything else. 

Con amor,

Hermana Swapp

PS: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." -Matthew 11:28-30

Our exchange with Hermana Espinoza and Hermana Banks. 

 Thunder over Louisville

Part of the MTC group last night at the fireside.