The doctor told me I have cellulitis 6-26-2017

9:14 AM

¡Hola Hola!

La semana pasada fue increíble. Encontramos muchas personas para enseñar, Andrés fue bautizado, y no nos perdimos en Lexington! First things first, Happy Birthday this week Grandma Annette! I hope you have the best birthday and I hope you know how much I love you! I'll party for you here in Kentucky.

This last week was great, I've had so much fun and Versailles is definitely the prettiest area I've been in. Hermana Corona is a total blast, we've had so much fun and I'm so happy I get to serve with her. We live with a member so that's new, but I enjoy it. She has a piano so I've been able to practice the piano lots this week which is awesome because I haven't been able to play like that in a long time. Our area is huge. It tripled in size this transfer so we cover Frankfort, Versailles, Lawrenceburg, and part of Lexington. We go to both the Frankfort ward and the Spanish branch. Yesterday we just went to the Frankfort ward so my days of translating aren't quite over yet.

I don't even remember what we did on Tuesday but Wednesday we spent the day stressing haha. The maps we were given for our new area didn't make any sense so we spent the day on the phone with President Brough, the zone leaders, and the other Spanish missionaries. We were all trying to figure out what the areas are and where we should all be but nobody had any idea, not even President Brough haha he told us he was leaving it up to us! So I was major stressing. But I was super grateful for my studies that day because I was reading all about Nephi and the Liahona and there was a quote by Elder Bednar that said:

"Just as Lehi was blessed in ancient times, each of us in this day has been given a spiritual compass that can direct and instruct us during our mortal journey. The Holy Ghost was conferred upon you and me as we came out of the world and into the Savior’s Church through baptism and confirmation. As we each press forward along the pathway of life, we receive direction from the Holy Ghost just as Lehi was directed through the Liahona. The Holy Ghost operates in our lives precisely as the Liahona did for Lehi and his family, according to our faith and diligence and heed."

I realized I was lacking faith. We have the same power and guidance given to us that was given to Lehi and his family. And it works the exact same way through our faith, diligence, and heed. So I thought if Heavenly Father could guide Lehi and his family then he surely could guide us. So hermana Corona and I knelt down and prayed with as much faith as we had and we received the clearest answer. I think it was one of the clearest answers I have had on my mission, and it was very obvious what we needed to do. So we got to work.

We spent an entire day in Lexington and it was super fun. The area we are working in hasn't been worked in for a long time and we literally started from scratch. It was so cool though, we went to the street where we felt guided to go and the first four doors we knocked on became our investigators. We found 8 investigators and we set 4 baptismal dates. I was so grateful for the Holy Ghost and the guidance that was given to us.

So we had one day this week we didn't do any work. We were at the doctors like all day. Life lesson learned this week: every action has a consequence, and that mudslide we had last week definitely had a consequence. Let me explain... so Wednesday morning I woke up with a giant lump on my right arm right? Well I just figured it was a normal Hermana Swapp mosquito bite, but I took a picture just in case, put some cortizone on it and called it a day. Thursday morning I work up and my arm was en fuego and doubled in size. I thought I was dying, if dad were here he would probably tell me I have a case of wussitis, but I called the nurse anyway. Well a few hours after I called her the little lump got even bigger and I literally thought my arm was going to fall off it hurt so bad. So we went to the urgent care and the doctor told me I have cellulitis (close to wussitis dad). And I got that cellulitis from ticks... from the mudslide... there's my consequence. I must not have done a good enough job at checking for ticks. But I got 4 tick bites and they all got infected. And my right arm looked like it belonged to someone who weighs 600 lbs. I considered amputation like five times this weekend, but I thought I'd wait it out and I'm glad I did! I'm healing up great! For now I'm on some antibiotics and in 6 days I'll be good as new. But in all seriousness, I am so grateful to live in a time that's so advanced medically.

The highlight of my week was I got to go back to Shelbyville for Andres's baptism! I can't even begin to explain how happy I was. I always get so emotional at baptisms and being able to watch these people I love enter into a covenant that will bring them back to their Father. I can't imagine how our Father in Heaven feels. The one thing special about Andres is during the whole time we taught him he always said he didn't want to be baptized without his wife (who passed away 5 years ago) but I remember how excited he was when we taught him about temples and how he will be able to be baptized for his wife and be sealed to her. I was so happy at his baptism knowing that he was one step closer to being with his sweetheart for eternity.

But that was my week, it was super good and I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for it. I know this is His work and He really is guiding it.

I hope you all have a great week and I hope you know how much I love you! I'm sorry I always send home novels! Be happy this week because life is too short to be anything else.

Con amor,

Hermana Swapp

PS: "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in the ball, that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them." -1 Nephi 16:28