Church

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Flagstaff 24 June 2013

Week 22

 Yes I went to the mission president broad cast. Missionaries have been using internet for missionary work forever. That's what they do at temple square a lot. Now there just might be more missionaries doing it, and they said it would take like a year. I don't think our mission would use it that much, but maybe you never know. And of course member should be doing more work, they were suppose to be doing that much work this whole time.
     It stays in the 70's for the most part here. And I can see tons of stars at night.
 My comp. is Elder Hall he is from Jerome Idaho. It's different for people some just listen while other ask a lot of questions. There is not really a common difficulty with people here. Maybe just getting them to act. The typical day is exactly the same as it was before. The new mission president will come here some time later this week. We talked to this guy for like an hour ( about church stuff) on Friday, I got a cool knife from him. He's not interested at all, just friendly. Some days like Monday it can be 0 doors knocked while other days it can be in the 20's. Yes, we park are car and walk around a little bit. A lot of the houses are twice the distance apart as home and our neighbors. Well at least where we have been tracting recently. My comp has a tennis racket and so do the members we stay with so we are going to try to play some tennis today.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Still in Flagstaff

Week 21

Things are good, my new comp is good. We had I think 4 investigators at church. Both wards gave the fathers candy bars so I ended up getting 7 candy bars myself. We go to both wards every Sunday. On Monday we email, shop and play games. The website for the missions won't say what the new new boundaries will be until the first of July.   No I haven't seen any crime, all the people here are smart enough to do it when no one is looking.


Elder Caleb Swift

Monday, June 10, 2013

New Mission?

 Week 20

     My week has been good. I picked up my new comp on Tuesday. The grass is always greener on the other side of the door, or something of this sort.
      Lessons per week is different every week. We had 2 new investigators this last Tuesday. I have already heard a lot about the mission boundary change at home from RMs and missionaries parents. When we went to the Grand Canyon a member took us. I think 8 of us went.  I will never get any more rain since I going to be in a different mission come July first because I'm still in Flagstaff. I will be in the Phoenix (North?) mission. So I'm going to need a new shirt with my mission on the back as well as a new missionary plaque.
Nothing really interesting happened this week.
Elder Swift

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Baptisms

Caleb seems to be doing great on his Mission.

 They went to the Grand Canyon on one p-day.

Here's one baptism day.  Caleb's companion is in white so I guessing they were baptizing the man in the wheel chair and the other man is a ward member and was in white to help the new convert into the water.


At this baptism neither Caleb nor his companion were in white so I'm guessing the one in the white tie is a ward member and performed the ordnance and the other person in white is the one that got baptized.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

4 June 2013

Week 19

Things are good and it's sunny every day here.  I'm staying in Flagstaff this week, my companion is going to the reservation. Deon is progressing, but not Owen. They haven't had all the lessons, but they have had most of them. There are a standard 5 lessons - 3 main lessons, 1 lesson of commandments that is usually broken up into multiple lessons or parts put in with other lessons, and there is a lesson after baptism that we usually just put into the first three when reteaching them after baptism. We don't have to go in order as long as we cover the main point in the lessons, at any time, we can do it however we want. Investigators have to go to church 4 out of the 6 weeks before their baptismal date and 2 of the 4 have to be the two weeks right before the baptism. I haven't done any church tours yet, but I guess I could. We probably over all have more success with people in trailer homes just because there are more of them, but % would definitely be lower (in trailer homes) for the number of people we talk to and the number of people interested. You know funny thing about Fast Sunday meetings, like no one actually shares their testimony except the little kids. All the adults usually just say something they did or what the're thankful for, none of which is part of a testimony meeting. And this can really turn off investigators depending on what some of the more crazy people in the ward say.
Any way things are great.
From,
Elder Caleb Swift

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

28 May 2013


Week 18

The weather is good and it's not that hot here, but it's still hot. Things are going good, it hasn't rained in a while. I will find out about transfers on Saturday and the move, if any, would be on Monday or Tuesday.  They tell us the transfer information over the phone.
The baptism last Saturday was for Sierra and it went great.
I don't know what is easiest. I don't really have any preference on liking something the best. I still have my same companiion, Elder Dean from Vancouver, Washington. I don't really care if I go or stay in Flagstaff for this transfer. Favorite investigators are Deon and Owen, Owen is actually a different missionary's investigator, but he is always with Deon when we teach.
The wards are smaller here and just about everyone hunts. Also instead of like the few weird families in the ward, there are a few normal ones, and pretty much no-one wants to do missionary work. They are all friendly and nice but they mostly don't want to do anything.
They weather here is more like it is in Spokane but still less rain. Homes are pretty much the same as Washington, except there are a ton of trailer homes.  All Hispanic people go to the Spanish elders so we teach white and Navajo and that is pretty much it. I haven't seen any interesting rocks and I also haven't gotten sick from any food. I have no short or long term goals except the monthly and weekly goals we set every month and week for stuff like number of lessons, baptisms, and investigators.
Both Bishops are nice and so is the Mission President.
From,
Elder Swift

Thursday, May 9, 2013

MTC Pictures

Here are some pictures from when Elder Swift was at the MTC.  We didn't get to post them during that time because we did not have them until his SD card came in the mail.




 This one Elder had a suit made out of duct table which he used for pajamas.














They found this hidden stash in their room where previous MTC missionary students had hidden things so Caleb had us send him some things to leave there for future missionaries.

 They also found this in the room.

 They got to go on a trip to the Provo Temple.
 Walking distance.






At the end of his time at the MTC, Elder Swift was ready to go out and start missionary work at the New Mexico Farmington Mission.