Elder Swag

Hello!

Sadly mum, I'm "not allowed" to tell you the EXACT time I go to the temple. However, I will say that I attend a session at the provo temple EVERY tuesday...in the afternoon, and by the time I get out of a session it is sunset. So, you do the math :P. And you better believe I scope out the seiling rooms. I told hna spencer "this is where my parents got married, let's sneak around!" oh missionary humor. we enjoy our good clean fun.

stories. let's see.

So on sunday, we were doing our annual temple walk after church and meetings, and we ran into an elder from Mexico City, Mexico. He is going to Kentucky on his mission learning english, so we told him if he helped us with our spanish, we would help him with english. He taught us a few phrases...more like slang, because our teachers never tell us words for "awesome" or things like that. Well, obviously, we took it upon ourselves to give him a cultural experience. We taught him how to introduce himself to americans by saying "Hello, my name is elder Swag". And we said when he says goodbye, he needs to say "Teach me how to Dougie". After he mastered those two, we then told him some "kentucky specific" things he NEEDS to know. So we taught him "Where is the chicken?!" (chicken. Kentucky. aka kfc)

He caught onto that one, so he started saying "Where is the house of Colenel Sanders? Where is you Colenel? I want my chicken!" It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny. (that was necessary). I took a video of it, so I'll send it to you soon. I cannot wait to get into the field and just be surrounded by that.

mum, remind me to tell you the story of Hma Flirt. That needs to be saved for a letter.

On a more serious note. Did I tell you we got a new teacher? she's been out of town all of christmas break, so we finally got her back when the new semester started. Her name is Hermana Mullen and she is literally the answer to my prayers. I understand a gagillion times more spanish with her and she knows how to be stern in a sweet way. I actually look forward to doing language instruction when she teaches. (say what). anyways she was talking to us and bore testimony which really made us think why we are here, and that this is OUR MISSION...that even though we have a schedule, we have agency, and we choose what we do with it. It made me feel like I had a little more control over my mission which is nice. I can't really describe how incredible it was, but maybe I'll have you guys read my journal sometime and you can see everything she said. She ended by saying "what would you do to bring someone unto Christ? Anything?....But would you do Everything?"...I don't know it was way cool and exactly what I needed.

I also have a new investigator, named Georgina. She's 80 years old, from the dominican republic. She speaks absolutely NO english, and her husband died so she is living with her son and two granddaughters. She's really lonely, and doesn't have a ton of energy. She get's bored REALLY easily too. If she's bored she's play with her hair, she has even fallen asleep mid sentence with some other elders. It's ridiculous. I even asked someone if she has A.D.D because one day she was crouched up on a chair, (like how jared sits when he's typing) and had all her hair in her face and slurring all her words. Anyways, I just had to describe her so you understand the importance of our lesson last night. Well, in all our lessons, she's been bored. She just never paid any attention. Yesterday while we were preparing our lesson for the plan of salvation, I just sat back and stared at the wall thinking of Georgina and how on earth we were going to get this woman interested in a message from two 20 something year old girls. After a few minutes I turn to Hna Spencer and said "We need to bring in pictures of our family". We decided to only teach part of the lesson, about how we lived before we came to earth and how, despite sickness and death how we can be with them again. Basically the entire lesson was us showing pictures of our families (I even brought pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Davis and Grandma Chris....since she lives with her grandkids) and us bearing testimony of how much God has blessed us because we can be with them forever. And that we can be happy knowing we have a purpose here one earth, and in the life to come. And you know what? She LISTENED. the ENTIRE time. She talked to us, and opened up, and she asked if she could learn more about "this plan". We are going back on Thursday to teach her about the Atonement and life after Death. I think after that we'll really focus on temple work too, so she knows how her and her husband can be together forever. I think if she gets excited about the temple, she'll realize she does need to be baptized into our church (she has a problem with our baptism, because she was baptized into the catholic church...and says because she did it with Faith in Jesus Christ it's the same, and that her Pastor/Priest has authority) ANYWAYS. It was just way cool being able to recieve revelation like that. And it was so simple, but it made all the difference. I'm not saying it will work everytime, but advice I would give to missionaries, ALWAYS carry around a pic of your family, because people cannot disprove your family or your testimony. Also, revelation is the coolest thing ever on a mission. That's also a whole other topic in itself.

Well, I love you all! I hope Kelsey is posting these on my blog. I sent something special in the mail for you guys today, so hopefully you get it. It's the envelope with green pen on it.

love you. be good.

and mum could you get me Ron and Collette's address? I've been meaning to write them.

love,

Hna Kaitlyn Waters