I had 3 people prepared for you 8-21-2017

3:12 PM

¡Hola Todos!

We had another great week here in the GKLM and it sounds like y'all had a pretty good week at home as well! I had my last zone Conference this week, I'm super sad it was my last one but it was a good one. I love the spirit we always feel at those meetings. We had an awesome fireside last night, we were able to do some service this past week, and we were blessed with lots of lessons.

Vicente is doing great! He is getting baptized next Sunday and he is getting excited. We've been meeting with him all week and he is so ready. We taught him the plan of Salvation and as we were talking about our life on earth he told us he was scared to be baptized. We had a member with us and he helped so much! He helped explain that feelings of fear come from Satan and feelings of peace and hope come from the Savior. We read a couple scriptures and said a prayer together and Vicente asked for help to overcome his fear, it was a really powerful moment. And ever since then he hasn't been scared for his baptism. He keeps coming to church and he came to the fireside last night. It's almost too good to be true.

We had our lesson with Adrian last Monday and we've had a couple more since. He's doing great and he really wants to work for his baptism as well. On Monday we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the word of wisdom. He was super nervous because he has some pretty bad habits that are against the word of wisdom but he said he would try his best. And he's been doing great, he has stopped everything but has drunken a cup of coffee or two but he's feeling a lot better! He's reading the Book of Mormon and really comprehending and applying the teachings, it's incredible! Unfortunately he didn't come to church yesterday but we will work even harder to get him there next week!

Elizabeth is still being as difficult as ever, we don't feel like we should drop her but we're not sure what else to do for her. We've been praying for her and loving her and we hope that she'll soften her heart and have the desire to follow the example of her family.

Wednesday was incredible. We started the day by praying and asking Heavenly Father to bless us with three new investigators and then we went out and worked. We worked all day and it was 8:00 and we still hadn't found anybody. So we said a prayer and went to a street we hadn't worked before and parked the car. It was an apartment complex and the second door we knocked on we met Angel and Keila. At first they weren't interested at all and wanted nothing to do with us so we opened the Book of Mormon to where the pictures are and started explaining the Book of Mormon using the pictures. And it was the craziest thing but they went silent and their countenances completely changed. After we finished explaining it Keila asked for a Book of Mormon and for us to come back another day. We finished the short lesson with a prayer and set up a return appointment. Heavenly Father blessed us with 2 new investigators.

At this point it was 8:40 and we had a 30 minute drive home so we figured 2 new investigators were good enough and we started to head back. As we were leaving the neighborhood I saw a man walking down the street but kept driving and I heard very distinctly, "I had 3 people prepared for you." So I whipped the car around and Hermana Espinoza was super confused what was going on haha! We pulled over and honestly he didn't even look like he spoke Spanish so I started speaking to him in English and he looked super confused and responded in Spanish. We were so excited. He wasn't excited to talk to us either and wanted nothing to do with us or our church but then Hermana Espinoza (I know she was inspired to ask) asked him where he was from and he said Guatemala. She got a big smile on her face and explained to him that she was from Guatemala as well and he changed right a way. He listened more closely and we shared a Mormon Message and he thought it was beautiful! He was our third new investigator and when we got in the car it was exactly 9:00.

I was super grateful for that experience and humbled. I know when we ask we will receive and Heavenly Father always does His part. All we needed to do was our part and work until the very last minute possible.

So we had another amazing experience Saturday morning! We met Martin a couple weeks ago but we haven't been able to have a lesson with him because he's been busy and the days he wasn't busy we were either in Frankfort or Lexington but we were finally able to meet with him on Saturday. He's a single dad with 4 boys, he only speaks Spanish and his boys only speak English. So Hermana Espinoza mostly taught Martin while I taught the boys. They were so cute and did such a good job at paying attention they were so excited to learn about Jesus and even asked if they could get baptized. Two of the boys are old enough to get baptized so Martin and two of his sons are preparing to be baptized. He couldn't come to church yesterday because he had work so he said he would talk to his boss and try to switch his day off. He is incredible!

It's been so amazing to see how many prepared people Heavenly Father has for us. It has also been incredible to see how Heavenly Father really does do all of the work and He allows us to be His instruments. I am so grateful for every day that I have to wake up and to be a missionary for my Heavenly Father.

I love you all so very much. Have the greatest week, good luck at your first day of school boys, and be happy. Because life is too short to be anything else.

Con amor,

Hermana Swapp

PS: "Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full." -Doctrine and Covenants 101:36

Zone Conference

Part of the MTC group. Those verticals though (;

Pocahontas

A little pick me up! I only ate like two bites and it still made me sick, we'll pick a better pick me up next time haha!

Mama Rhonda and Jacob took us out to eat!

Vicente

Mordida! The Latinos have a tradition that when you eat a cake you sing a little song and then you take a bite and someone shoves your head into the cake, it was my turn this week! At least it was yummy!