29 April 2013

Week 14

The week was good.  My last companion said he would send me some pictures of me and the person I baptized.

My new companion Elder Dean is from Vancouver Washington.  He has been out for 9 months.

Weather is OK here. It's been sunny about every day.

We got 4 new investigators.  Almost 2 of them have a baptismal date and we almost got a 5th investigator, 3rd with a baptismal date, but he wasn't at our lesson.  The zone leaders got a call from a mom saying her kids want to be baptized.  So they had the first lesson and set the date with her three sons.  They didn't know what area it was in, but once they found out they told us.  So when we went over, only two  had a lesson with us, so we count only two of the three as our investigators.

I will know what mission I will be in 100% for sure after the next transfer, whoever is in Flagstaff then will be in the Phoenix mission.

My companion is our designated driver, so I don't really get to drive.  There is really no point because most likely I will be leaving the area and he will be staying.  Also my previous companion had some crazy thing about driving and he wouldn't let me drive even when he was throwing-up up and feeling really sick.

That's every thing I can think of, it was just a normal week.

Tell every one I said "Hi".

Sincerely,
Elder Swift

April 22

Week 13

Things were good this week. We had three baptism. I took some pictures of it on my SD card.

 You can put sugar and cinnamon on fry bread and its really good that way with honey. It tastes a little different from elephant ears though. At one of the baptism on Saturday they had a lunch for all the family there and I got to eat some mutton and some Fry Bread and Dry Bread made with blue corn. The bread was really good, but the mutton was just OK.

Transfers are going to be this Tuesday and I will be staying in the same area, but I will get a new companion. I don't know anything about my new companion except his name is Elder Dean. Things are going good, I forgot my wallet today so it took a while to get on a computer at the library. I had to wait while they looked up information. I won't be able to go shopping either, but that's okay. I don't really need to get anything this week, it can all wait till next week. Hope you have a good week.

From,

Elder Caleb Swift

15 April 2013

Week 12

This is fry bread.

The weather this week has been nice. There hasn't been anyone new that we are teaching this week. The wards we serve in are great. I have never substituted in primary and I haven't heard of any other missionaries ever doing that either. I still have the same companion, there is a 2 transfer (3month) trainning program. So next Saturday we will find out what will happen and if I will stay in the area or not. My first transfer happened the time when we had to move housing. In 13 days will be the end of transfer number 2 and we will start on transfer number 3.  Often we call transfer the whole 6 weeks, and on the last day of the transfer or the first day of the next one, is when we actually move around.

The Boeing Everett plant sounds pretty cool. I would be open to working for Boeing in Washington someday. I like the weather in Washington.

It is starting to get hot here, but since it is after April General Conference we don't have to wear suits until next General Conference. Most of the days here are sunny now.

I have never been in a neighborhood that is dangerous. There is no part of town that we are not allowed to go, that I have heard of.  Some people are rude when we knock on their door, but other than that everyone is nice and no-one ever threatens. When writing this email some person walked by and said "good luck finding God."  I thought that was hilarious. There are 6 of us missionaries here e-mailing right now.

I have about 200 more cool pictures you might want to see. I took 100 of them today, but I'm not going to send the SD card I have until I have another one back, so I don't miss any cool pictures.

We haven't had any baptism yet, we dropped one date completely, but we have three solid dates coming up for this week.  One of them already went through the baptismal interview and passed. One will have their interview later today and the last one will have their interview on Wednesday. : )

Sincerely,

Elder Caleb Swift

P.S.  I went to the Grand Canyon today.

Pictures at Flagstaff of missionary apartment

8 April 2013

Week 11

The week has been good.  Yes, I watched all of conference, I'm a missionary after all.   I would be missing the Washington rain if it didn't start raining and hailing here today, so I'll be good for a week or two now.   So the area I'm serving does have a good amount of pine trees, but on the res. there are just about none.  Or that's what I hear.  The trees are more brown here, but they are starting to become more green.  There are a lot of rocky hills out near the edge of the reservation.  My area goes up to the border of the res.   All the snow has been gone for two or three weeks.  Yah, the first full day of not wearing a suit jacket it starts to rain, it's great.

 I still have the same companion for now, but I might be taking over our area soon.  We are have been going on splits with the ward members  about every Wednesday.  We are trying to start doing splits on Friday too.

I go on exchanges with every companionship in our district once a transfer and also once a transfer with the zone leaders.

On Saturday during conference I was eating some of that Easter candy I got, by the end of the day I had had so much sugar I could feel it in my throat.  It was awful.  After priesthood session the people we went with took us to D.Q.  That was a surprise, but they said that it was tradition.

 Well I got to go so I can learn how to make some fry bread.

Sincerely,

Elder Caleb Swift

Pictures at Flagstaff, Arizona

For Caleb's first area he was assigned to Flagstaff, Arizona.  Here's a few pictures.

The missionaries assigned to Flagstaff.

Antelope near the road.

These pictures were taken on the drive out to Flagstaff.

A few days after Caleb got to Flagstaff they started getting snow.

Beautiful night lights.

This is Caleb's first companion, who is his trainer, Elder Munns.

1 April 2013

Week 10

This week went great.  I got your package I think on Wednesday.  Thanks.

I didn't do anything special for Easter. The most Eastery thing was that our dinner appointment made a cake that looked like a bunny.

This week we only had 12 lessons total, but things are going good.  One of our baptism date's boyfriend's grandma died. So they went out to the res. (reservation) to take care of some things and she (the baptismal date) missed her class on how to get divorced so now we don't know when she will get baptized. The only thing that we have been waiting on is the divorce so she can get married, and the missionaries have been waiting for that even before I got here.

We haven't done anything interesting on P-day since the hike up a hill to some ruins. Haven't done any local sight seeing either.

We get to exercise every morning, but I'm usually tired, so it's not much of an exercise. I haven't started P-90X yet, I just got permission from the mission president to do it.  I haven't thought of any April fools tricks, I forgot.

We don't get a lot of service to do, but just two days ago on Saturday we got to help some people move. There were eight missionaries there and some people from out of the ward. We worked for over an hour and a half and made good progress. Last time this person moved it took the elders quorum  about 4 months to help this person move.

Hope you have a good week

Sincerly,

Elder Caleb Swift