I'm really struggling knowing that this is my very last transfer 8-7-2017
8:01 PM¡Hola!
No tengo las ganas para escribir hoy. Happy Birthday this week Grandpa
Howard! I wish I were there to celebrate with you and even though I
can't see you I already know you don't look a day over 30(: also,
congrats to Steven with the mission call! I'm not going to lie though,
when I saw September 13 my heart broke a little. But that's okay, 3
1/2 years is nothing!
So it's transfers tomorrow and we got our transfer doctrine (I can't
believe how fast this transfer went). Hermana Corona is going to
Jasper, Indiana and I'll be staying here!My new companion is Hermana
Espinoza and I am so excited! I'm sad that Hermana Corona is leaving,
she has become one of my best friends, but she'll do great. And I
absolutely love Hermana Espinoza, we've worked a ton together and
we've gone on a bunch of exchanges together so I already know we're
going to get along great. I don't know if y'all remember but she's the
one from Guatemala and doesn't speak English! So my head will probably
be fried this next week as I get used to not speaking English.
It was actually a really cool experience for me and a testimony
builder, but as y'all know I really struggle with Spanish. It just has
not come easy to me. I honestly thought before I left on my mission
that I would pick it up super easily and be fluent after the MTC haha!
But as I now know, the Lord had other plans for me (which I'm super
grateful, I've really learned to rely on Him). But at the beginning of
my mission I received a priesthood blessing from President Brough and
he said, "At the end of your mission the people you work with will not
know you're not a native." I lost hope of that promise honestly and
didn't think it would come true. But this week that blessing came back
to my mind and I felt that I needed to ask for it. So I started my
fast Saturday morning, asking for that blessing to be fulfilled and
Saturday night I got a call and was told Hermana Espinoza will be my
companion. I couldn't believe it, Heavenly Father was sending me help
haha(: now I won't come home fluent, but I'd imagine that only
speaking Spanish for the next 6 weeks will help a lot.
But I'm really struggling knowing that this is my very last transfer.
I can't believe how fast time has gone out here, I really wish I could
be a missionary forever. It's funny though I think the whole world
knows I really struggled when I first came out to the field. And I
remember at the beginning of my mission studying the talk "Finding Joy
in the Journey" by Thomas S. Monson. Well this week I gave a short
training in district meeting and I decided to base it off of that talk
and I used a quote that helped me a lot at the beginning of my
mission. "Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey,
and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will
run out of tomorrows." Except for at the beginning of my mission I was
convinced I would never run out of tomorrows haha! But now I'm at the
end of my mission and I can now see that one day I'm going to run out
of tomorrows on my mission and I am so sad. But I have a plan. I'm
going to sprint to the end, serve with all my heart, might, mind and
strength, and I'm going to relish the last transfer of my mission,
find joy, and love all the people here in the great Kentucky
Louisville mission.
But this past week was a little tough with the work but it was great.
Like I said I don't have a lot of ganas to write right now so this is
going to be a short email. But Lorenzo gave us a hard drop this week.
We called him and he said he's done with everything and doesn't want
to meet with us anymore. He was our last investigator in Frankfort so
this next transfer we're going to spend most of our time in Lexington
and probably only go to the Spanish branch, so I think it'll be great!
Chrystian is doing great, we had a lesson with him and read Alma 32.
As we were reading it he applied the whole chapter to his own life. It
was great. Chrystian came to church on Sunday but pretty much had a
heart attack so he had to go home during Sunday school. But I think
he's okay. We were really excited to see him at church.
Vicente's doing good! He came to church as well and he's making some
great progress, he really wants to be baptized and it's been fun to
watch him progress.
Elizabeth isn't progressing much. I'm pretty sure I said something
that offended her a couple weeks ago but I don't really know. She's
still willing to meet with us but isn't really making any progress.
But we had a cool experience in Lexington. We've been working the same
area for a while now because there's so much work to do but we had a
prompting to go try a potential investigator on the other side of
Lexington so we just went. We got there and every house had a car in
the driveway except for the person we were looking for, we were so
sad. We drove forward to turn around and when we did the car behind us
pulled into the driveway of the house we were going to. We hurried and
hopped out and started talking to them. They were super busy and
didn't have time but we were able to set up another appointment with
them. It was incredible we found them when we did.
Everybody else is doing pretty good! We had another successful night
at fĂștbol and we had some great service opportunities this week. I'm
sorry for the lame email this week, but we're currently balling at the
church so I'm a little distracted. I love you all so very much and I
hope you have a great week!! Be happy because life is too short to be
anything else.
Con amor,
Hermana Swapp
PS: "For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s
sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as
brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth." -Isaiah
62:1
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