Dear family,
Man all I can say is I miss the Valley more than ever right about now.
I remember how the nights get cooler and the days get shorter. The
leaves start to change and so does the atmosphere in that amazing
Cache Valley. The longer I am gone the more excited I get to drive
through that canyon and see the lights of the city. Anyways that is
about all I have been thinking about this week. hahah I am joking now
comes the part of the email were I break down the week.
Tuesday we headed down to the Mission home for our monthly zone
training. I am happy to say that my district is doing fine and we are
all pulling our weight in the Mission. The training's were good, right
now we are all preparing for the mission tour. That means all shirts
should be ironed and pants clean, shaved face, shined shoes. If you
know how we live you would know that its a lot to ask of a bunch of 20
year old Elders. But yeah after Elder Mudrow and I headed out and hit
the streets to teach this gospel to anyone who would listen. I am sad
to say that this area has all but stopped progressing. Not one house
we go to will let us in and almost all of the people we were teaching
have all but dumped us. But its all about putting in the hours on the
road.
Wednesday was Elder Mudrows birthday and he wanted to do some crazy
stuff. For all of us over here that means we all went out to lunch and
he bought a cake and ice-cream. It was nice to have some time for us
and then as soon as it started it was over. Back to the streets, our
focus kinda moved to strengthening the members. How can we get
baptisms if none of the members will help us. So long story short the
two of us for the next 3 days have turned into the Home Teachers.
Early Friday morning I knew that all that tracting was catching up to
me. We have been walking over 13 Km every day for the past 2 weeks and
it has finally caught up to me. I was barley able to get out of bed
but after popping some Advil it's back on the road and then when we got
back to the house the second time, I passed out for like 4 hours. It
felt good for my body to get some rest for once.
Saturday we went and did some service for one of our members. It was a
lot more than we were expecting, 4 hours later we walked out of a very
clean, weed free and perfect backyard. He was nice enough to feed us
some lunch, which over here means some rice and some soup like stuff.
It was good and then we got back to it. Elder Mudrow and I are leading
our Zone right now in lessons and also hours worked. The mentality is
really if we put in our time then the Lord will come through and help
us with this area.
The Mission life is all that I wanted and sometimes its more. I will
testify that nothing gives me more joy than sharing this glorious
Gospel to the ones who need it. It has been crazy hard for me
sometimes to understand why people past this by or don't want it in
their house. But that just comes with the job, all we can do is just
keep going back. Sorry this week did not have to much excitement but
it was more mental that physical for Elder Mudrow and I. Good news is
that I am still losing weight and for the most part my body has not
broken yet. I just want you all to know that the brown leather shoes I
am wearing were P50. Or about 1 US Dollar. So yeah anything is
possible in the Philippines.
I love you all,
Elder Swanton
Man all I can say is I miss the Valley more than ever right about now.
I remember how the nights get cooler and the days get shorter. The
leaves start to change and so does the atmosphere in that amazing
Cache Valley. The longer I am gone the more excited I get to drive
through that canyon and see the lights of the city. Anyways that is
about all I have been thinking about this week. hahah I am joking now
comes the part of the email were I break down the week.
Tuesday we headed down to the Mission home for our monthly zone
training. I am happy to say that my district is doing fine and we are
all pulling our weight in the Mission. The training's were good, right
now we are all preparing for the mission tour. That means all shirts
should be ironed and pants clean, shaved face, shined shoes. If you
know how we live you would know that its a lot to ask of a bunch of 20
year old Elders. But yeah after Elder Mudrow and I headed out and hit
the streets to teach this gospel to anyone who would listen. I am sad
to say that this area has all but stopped progressing. Not one house
we go to will let us in and almost all of the people we were teaching
have all but dumped us. But its all about putting in the hours on the
road.
Wednesday was Elder Mudrows birthday and he wanted to do some crazy
stuff. For all of us over here that means we all went out to lunch and
he bought a cake and ice-cream. It was nice to have some time for us
and then as soon as it started it was over. Back to the streets, our
focus kinda moved to strengthening the members. How can we get
baptisms if none of the members will help us. So long story short the
two of us for the next 3 days have turned into the Home Teachers.
Early Friday morning I knew that all that tracting was catching up to
me. We have been walking over 13 Km every day for the past 2 weeks and
it has finally caught up to me. I was barley able to get out of bed
but after popping some Advil it's back on the road and then when we got
back to the house the second time, I passed out for like 4 hours. It
felt good for my body to get some rest for once.
Saturday we went and did some service for one of our members. It was a
lot more than we were expecting, 4 hours later we walked out of a very
clean, weed free and perfect backyard. He was nice enough to feed us
some lunch, which over here means some rice and some soup like stuff.
It was good and then we got back to it. Elder Mudrow and I are leading
our Zone right now in lessons and also hours worked. The mentality is
really if we put in our time then the Lord will come through and help
us with this area.
The Mission life is all that I wanted and sometimes its more. I will
testify that nothing gives me more joy than sharing this glorious
Gospel to the ones who need it. It has been crazy hard for me
sometimes to understand why people past this by or don't want it in
their house. But that just comes with the job, all we can do is just
keep going back. Sorry this week did not have to much excitement but
it was more mental that physical for Elder Mudrow and I. Good news is
that I am still losing weight and for the most part my body has not
broken yet. I just want you all to know that the brown leather shoes I
am wearing were P50. Or about 1 US Dollar. So yeah anything is
possible in the Philippines.
I love you all,
Elder Swanton
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