Email for 2-27-12 ONLY ONE WEEK UNTIL MARK IS HOME!!!!

oh man i am stoked!!!!! anyway i'm not going to report on anything today, you'll just have to wait a week!!! haha


if you could translate these hoosier words though. that might be fun

Couplethree --
Upere --
Downere --
The way you get to burger king is you go about 3 Farsees up the road, take a left and then go another two farsees and it will be on your left. --- what is a farsee?
Youns --

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

elder swanson

Email for 2-13-12

3 weeks to go - says Mom! Yipee!!!!!!

holy shiz...... is a guy in the book of mormon. this week was crazy! we found a NEW INVESTIGATOR!!! his name is MIke greene. and he has a testimony of the book of mormon. long story short. mikes wife died about a year ago. she was reading the book of mormon before she passed. so mike has been reading the book of mormon for the past year. we felt prompted to go to a certain area in connersville, and BAM!!! just like emeril, we found mike greene. he was working on his truck, and we asked if he has heard of the book of mormon before and he said he's been reading it for a long time and thinks its more clear than the bible.

"its like a living bible" says he.

"yargh, it is like a livin bible me hearty, tis better though" says I.

says he "now whats this whispering i hear about caqptain joe and his golden bible?" its the book of mArmon ye be holdin in your hand you scallywag" says i.

"well learn me about it then preacher boy" says he.

......... no he's not a pirate. but it sounds cooler if i describe it that way. he has commited to baptism. no date yet. says he prayed us there that morning we met him and, he's been asking god to show him the way!!!

EPIC!!!!! anywho lots of other things happened. edler walburger got diagosed with...... ASTHMA.... gasp..... this week.

but life is good. people are crazy. and thats all folks.

love you!

elder swanson

Email 2-6-12

Exactly one month until Mark is home. Yipee!

Letter from Mark...

this week went kind of slow but that is alright. I got a letter from Kj this week!! made my week a bajillion times better. so lots of things are happening here. as you might have noticed, the super bowl was in indy last night. but the work out here in connertucky didnt really change. most of the investigators we have are not into pro football. so we had a few appointments. it was a really good day. so before i dive into my week.

anywho, gators and snakes and floridians oh my!! sound like you had a blast!! no snakes around here. just birds, cardinals bluejays, ten foot tall woodpeckers, but thats about it for wildlife.

elder valbeirger and i are doing great together so far. time is flying far to quickly, it makes me sick, but such is life. we dont really have much to do today. only a few letters to write, and some apartment and car cleaning to do.

this week has been pretty darn good though. sweet appointments, awesome district meetings. not much is new!!

i hope you will all have a super week!!!

love
elder swanson

Email 1-30-12

Elder Walburger, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Connersville in the early morning.

Elder Long

Elder Cornwell
so this week has been wonderful. i got my new foreign companion and wednesday, and we went and ate at bubs..... for my last time. it was fun eh? but like i said this week has been pretty good. i had my temple recommend interview with president collins and i passed, so now i can go to the temple my first day back!!! woot woot! anywho, long story short my new companion is ELDER WALBURGER!!! and he is from..........................
CANADA!!!!!!!!!!

anyway he is from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Do you know how canada got its name?? well they puts a bunch of consonants in a bag and pulled them out one by one.....

C eh? N eh? D eh? and thus C a N a D a was born.

alrighty well i've learned to a greater extent this week that i need to set a better example. there are a lot of immature people, spiritually, mentally emotionally, etc. and i realized that i need to step up and be a leader. not for leaderships sake, but because im sick of people being immature. but

this week we found 2 sweet new investigators. they are amazing. angela wants a lot more peace in her life. and we are going to help her achieve that. nancy has a friend who is less active, but told her a little about the book of mormon and nancy IS LOVING THE CHURCH and its views on scripture study and seeking to know the deep things of the gospel.

IM LOVING CONNERSVILLE!!!! this has been one of the best areas of my entire mission!! the work here is booming. anywho. im not really in a writing mood right now but i do have a ton of pictures to make up for the lack of info. so ciao!!!!

elder swanson eh?


the pictures are of first me and elder cornwell
me and elder long
sunrise picks this very morning and then
elder walburger

oh on a side note i have my new phone already..... maybe... so elder cornwell found a motorola droid or android in his area, he turns it on to see whos it is. didnt turn on. it was water damaged so he dries it out and presto it turns on and it has a bajillion not so good things on it, so he formats the phone to get rid of all the crap, garbage, etc and then tries to find info in it about the owner..... well no info, he said it wouldnt even work anymore, it de programmed itself, so it needs a verizon store tech to re programm it or something. anyway, he brung it to transfer meeting and said since i was going home i could have it! so when i get back i'll have to take it to the verizon store to see if it can be traced to the owner. if so, lucky them they get their sweet phone back. if not then lucky elder swanson, i get to have a smart phone. yay! that would be sweet if president collins let me switch our brick phone over to it. but he defiently wont so it has to stay in my suitcase for a couple weeks. ah well.

alrighty then, im signing off for today. have a stellar week!!
love,
elder swanson

p.s. pray for the connersville ward please. we need all the prayers we can get! thank you!

marko

Email 1-23-12

mmm my week has been very...... emotional. i hate.... and i mean HATE that i am almost done with my mission. my feelings are being ripped to pieces right now. i want to be a missionary, but i also want to start life again. its so bleeping frustrating. its official as of this morning that i am staying in connertucky for the rest of my mission. i am stoked to stay here. we taught 79 lessons this transfer!!!! its crazy how much work is going on here. it will be good because in order to stay afloat emotionally here i'll need to keep myself busy. Elder Mortensen is going to be a trainer somewhere this coming transfer. he is pretty nervous. he'll do awesome though.

anyway I AM TICKED THAT I AM ALMOST DONE!!!! i wish i could extend or just be done tomorrow. i dont like the whole FINISH LINE IN SITE thing. It sucks. well enough of being negative.

this last transfer is going to be amazing. there are a few baptisms in the work for next months so that will be awesome and our ward is doing a soup competition this weekend!!! IM GOING TO WIN WITH BROCCOLI CHEESE WITH BACON, POTATOES AND CHICKEN!!!!!

yum. well im going to get going but have a wonderful day!

love,
elder swanson

The Best Christmas Present Ever!

Mark will be home on March 6th 2012! We can't wait.

email 12-25-11

so a lot has happened this week. we saw a car wreck, Vernon got the priesthood, i rebuked an apostasizing member couple (they tried to Anti us and we bore down in pure testimony against them so they kicked us out of their house, the bishopric commended us for defending the prophet and the church) i saw Brother Freeman yesterday at "why I Believe" its a fireside for RC's and Gators and members. but he is going to come down to connersville and spend Christmas with elder morty and I. so it should be fun. he also shared his conversion story @ why i believe and then because he mentioned me, president beamer, the old branch president from elwood and now member of the stake presidency asked me to bear my testimony too. Brother Freeman said he is going to pick me up in the morning on my last Preparation day and take me to Lebanon so i can see some people and then take me to the mission home. he also is going to be traveling to utah for his work a lot this comming year so we are going to kick it together sometime this year. Vernon shared his conversion story at Why I Believe too. it was awesome. VERNON LOVES THOSE SCRIPTURES BY THE WAY!!!! thanks for those cds too. anywho. christmas conference is this week so it should be fun. i guess i'll talk to you this sunday. i love you guys!!

elder swanson

have a englidh/portugese christmas poem from elder dearduff.


"The Noche Before Christmas"


Twas the noche before Christmas and all through the casa, Not a creature was stirring - Caramba! Que pasa?

Los ninos were tucked away in their camas, Some in long underwear, some in pajamas.

While hanging their stockings with mucho cuidado, In hope that old Santa would feel obligado To bring all children, both buenos and malos, A nice batch of dulces and other regalos.

Outside in the yard there arose such a grito That I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.

I ran to the window and looked out afuera, And who in the world do you think that it era?

Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero Came dashing along like a crazy bombero.

And pulling his sleigh instead of venados Were eight little burros approaching volados.

I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:

"Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Cuco, ay Beto,

Ay Chato, ay Chopo, Macuco, y Nieto!"

Then standing erect with his hands on his pecho He flew to the top of our own techo.

With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea, He struggled to squeeze down our old chiminea, Then huffing and puffing at last in our sala, With soot smeared all over his red suit de gala, He

filled all the stockings with lovely regalos

- For none of the ninos had been very malos.

Then chuckling aloud, seemed very contento, He turned in a flash and was gone like the viento.

And I heard him exclaim, and this is verdad, "Merry Christmas to all, and Feliz Navidad!"