We almost died twice! 6-5-2017

7:07 AM

¡Hola hola!

Wow. This was the shortest week ever, probably because last Pday was on Tuesday, but I swear time just gets faster each week. This last week was a great one, definitely a spiritual one as well.

Quick update on our investigators: Maria and Andres are doing great! Maria didn't come to church on Sunday :( she went to the flea market to make some big bucks instead, I guess we need to do a better job at teaching about the Sabbath day haha! So we moved her baptismal date back to the 18th of June with Andres. But here's a quick sad story for you- we took Maria to a baptism this week to show her what it is like. We were running a little late and showed up right after the actual baptism happened! We were so sad!! But it was still super good for her because she got to hear a talk and everyone's testimonies and after the baptism she talked to everybody about their choice of being baptized and I think it helped her a lot.

Andres is doing great. He came to church and he's still living the word of wisdom. It's so fun during the week we'll just see Andres roaming the streets and it's always the best part of the day to honk at him and say hello! We had a really good lesson yesterday and he is excited for his baptism. It breaks my heart he always talks about his wife who passed away and his big concern is that he doesn't want to get baptized without her. So we taught him about the temples and how he could get baptized for her and be sealed to her for eternity. I wish y'all could've seen how happy he was to hear that, I love God's Plan for us.

I don't know if I've told y'all about Alberto or not but he's doing really well too. His baptism is in July. We normally have lessons with him over Facebook because it's hard to find women to come with us at the times he can meet. When we had our second lesson with him he told us he had been reading in the Book of Mormon and he believed it was true and he prayed about Joseph Smith and he knew that he was a prophet of God. It was such a cool thing. We haven't gotten him to church yet but he's making some great progress.

We almost died twice. Not really but we could have. We got a new car this week and we were driving it home from Louisville (it had 12 miles on it). And as we were driving it home it stalled and just stopped working, right on a busy street too! I've never had so many cars honking at me before. Well it did it again so we took it to the Chevy shop and found out the battery was a bad one. So they fixed it. (Sorry to everyone who thought this was going to be a miracle story).

Friday night we had our weekly soccer game. I wasn't there because we were on exchanges but we had 20 people show up! It was a huge success!

I've started the Book of Mormon over and I am always amazed at the spirit I feel as I study that book. I took some time to study more about agency. I was reading in 1 Nephi 7 when Laman and Lemuel rebelled and wanted to go back to Jerusalem. Nephi told them, "ye have choice." In the institute manual there's a quote from President Monson that says, "Each of us has the responsibility to choose. You may ask, ‘Are decisions really that important?’ I say to you, decisions determine destiny. You can’t make eternal decisions without eternal consequences." I've seen that on my mission. I've been able to learn just how important our agency and our choices are by watching other people use their agency and make choices. As I've watched people make covenants with God it has been incredible to see the beginning of their positive eternal consequence. It's incredible to see the happiness that comes to those who choose to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and keep God's commandments compared to the sadness that comes to those who choose to reject it.

I know our decisions truly determine our destiny. I know by choosing to come closer to Christ every day, our destiny will become more than we ever imagined. I am so grateful for the choice I made to serve a mission and for the positive consequence it has already had on my life.

I love you all so very much. I'm glad Hunter had a happy Birthday and the rest of you had a good week. I hope this week is just as good. Be happy because life is too short to be anything else!

Con amor,

Hermana Swapp

PS: "And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit." -1 Nephi 8:12