Answers to mom’s questions -- I’m getting up great in the morning!!!! I love the work here it’s so amazing!!! I promise I’ll stay humble!!!! Yea I ran out of grocery money. I only get 135 a month, but I didn’t budget so it ran out :( sorry it won’t happen again. Anyway me and Elder Ricks are having a blast out here. He is from Meridian Idaho!!! I don’t know what to tell you about him... maybe some specific ?s will help!!!! But we are getting along great!!!! Anyway TELL PRESIDENT FERGUSON HI FOR ME!!!!!! AND TELL HIM TO WRITE ME SOMETIME!!!!! AND THAT I WANT TO BE A MISSION PREP TEACHER WHEN I GET HOME!!!!!!! I’m thinking about being a seminary teacher.... or maybe working for the church somehow.... that would be awesome!!!
Anyway Kylie’s baptism was on Saturday and it was so amazing!!!! I’m sending home some pictures today so I hope you enjoy them!!! Alrighty I’m gonna go - LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Swanson
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Email sent 4-20-10
HEY EVERYONE!!!!!! HOW YA BE????? so anyway GREAT NEWS!!!! Kylee's baptism is this Saturday and we are so Excited for her!!! she is so awesome!!!! but BILL BLAKE HAS BEEN INVESTIGATING THE CHURCH FOR 2 WHOLE YEARS AND HE FINALLY DECIDED HE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED ON MAY 1ST!!!!!!!!! WWOOOOOHOOOO!!!!!! IM SO EXCITED FOR HIM!!!!! HE IS THE NICEST OLD MAN YOU'LL EVER MEET!!!!! PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM!!! HE'S GOING TO THE "MAYO CLINIC" FOR SOME BRAIN SCANS!!!! SCARY HUH!!! SOMETHING IS GOING ON INSIDE HIS HEAD AND HE DOESNT KNOW WHAT SO HE GOING TO MICHIGAN TO GET IT CHECKED OUT. SO PRAY THAT HE WILL BE ALRIGHT!!!! AND FINALLY TO THE BEST PART OF THE WEEK!!!!! SO 2 WEEKS AGO WE MET A GUY NAMED CLINTON, HE WAS IN LOTSA PAIN WHEN WE KNOCKED ON HIS DOOR (HE JUST HAD A 15 POUND TUMOR REMOVED FROM HIS STOMACH!!!!) SO HE TOLD US TO COME BACK!!! SINCE THAT DAY WE'VE TAUGHT HIM ABOUT THE RESTORATION, THE PLAN OF SALVATION AND THE WORD OF WISDOM!!!!! ALL OF WHICH HE AGREES WITH AND UNDERSTANDS!!!! WE ARE GOING TO HIS HOUSE LATER TONIGHT AND I'M GOING TO EXTEND A BAPTISMAL INVITATION TO HIM!!!! I KNOW HE'LL ACCEPT!!!!!! THE SPIRIT IS SO STRONG IN HIS HOME AND HE WANTS TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT!!!!! SO WE WENT TO A LADY NAMED KELLY'S HOUSE LAST NIGHT, AND WATCH THE RESTORATION DVD WITH HER!!!! SHE SAID SHE WANTS TO CONTINUE LEARNING ABOUT THE RESTORED GOSPEL AND SHE IS WAY EXCITED TO COME TO CHURCH!!!! HAHAHA WHEN WE ASKED TO SAY A PRAYER BEFORE WE LEFT HER HUSBAND PULLED A CROSS FROM THE WALL AND WE PRAYED ON A CROSS!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH BLASPHEMY!!!!!!!!! THATS DAMNABLE HERESY RIGHT THERE!!!!!! BUT ANYWAY I DIDNT PRAY TO THE CROSS I PRAYED TO HEAVENLY FATHER WHILE HOLDING ON A CROSS....... SO ITS KIND OF BETTER...... ANYWAY INDIANA IS SO FUN!!!!! I WISH YOU ALL COULD COME OUT AND BE MISSIONARIES WITH ME!!!!! WE LIVE IN ""THE GHETTO"" BUT THE PEOPLE HERE ARE SO HUMBLE AND NICE TO US!!!! SO ANYWAY QUESTION TIME!!! WHAT DO YOU GUYS WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE MISSION??? ANYTHING GOES JUST SEND ME A QUICK EMAIL AT mark.swanson@myldsmail.net AND I'LL TRY AND ANSWER YOU!!!!!! SO HOW IS GOOD OL OGDEN??? HOPE YOUR NOT TO COLD!!! ANYWAY I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO WRITE SO LOVE YOU GUYS LOTS!!!!!! HOPE YOU ARE ALL DOING GREAT!!!!! AND DONT HESITATE TO WRITE ME SOMETIME!!!!! I ANSWER EMAIL AND LETTER ON TUESDAYS!!!!! MAKE SURE YOU PRAY FOR KYLEE, BILL, CLINTON, AND KELLY!!!!!!!!
LOVE,
ELDER SWANSON
LOVE,
ELDER SWANSON
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Mark's Email from 4-13-10
Hi everyone!!! I'm sending home 30 something pictures today so you guys should get my letter in a few days!!! Anyway we have a lady named Kylee Wilkins who is getting baptized on the 24th of this month!!!!! YAY!!!! FIRST BAPTISM!!!!! Her husband is a member and will be baptizing her!! It's so cool!! Then we have a family home evening with Bill and Teresa Blake!!! We stopped by yesterday and Bill said he wants to be baptized!!!!! They have been meeting with the missionaries for 2 YEARS!!!!!!! I'm so honored to be the missionary that gets to help baptize them!!!! Anyway, LIFE IS GREAT!!!! TELL EVERYONE THAT I SAY HI!!!!!!! and tell everyone that I have a scripture for them!!!! It's 3rd Nephi Chapter 3 verses 7-8!!!! It's a nice little scripture that helps people grow there desire to be baptized!!!! HAHAHA look it up yourselves first!!! It's a good one!!! HAVE A GOOD WEEK AND I'LL WRITE THAT LETTER AS SOON AS I CAN!!!!!
Elder Swanson
Elder Swanson
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
email recieved 3-30-10
FLATLAND IS GREAT!!!!! My companion is Elder Ricks. He’s from Meridian Idaho!! My address is 1013 E 28th St., Marion, Indiana, 46953 LOOK ME UP!!!!!
P-day is Tuesday up here. It’s way awesome! We are going to go play basketball with some of the guys in "tha HOOD" later today, it should be fun.
Marion is really small, half of the homes are in bad shape or they are abandoned. All the huge companies around here closed. So there’s no more work. It’s really nice though the people are so humble. We stopped a guy last night around 8:45 p.m.when we were walking home. We gave him a pa(pass along) card for the movie Finding Faith in Christ. He then told us how proud of us he was, that the Lord will greatly bless us for having the TENACITY to get out in the street and preach the good word. That made this whole week of up and downs all worth it.
The ward is really small. We have more more priesthood members back home than they do in their entire ward. Sunday was nice we went and ate dinner at the Turner’s home. They are the most awesome people ever!!! Sheesh! Their daughter Afton is 16 or 17 and she is planning on getting a PHD in something or other. I couldn’t do that.
TELL EVERYONE IF THEY WANT TO HEAR FROM ME, THEY HAVE TO WRITE A LETTER OR EMAIL ME AT mark.swanson@myldsmail.net SO I CAN SEND A LETTER BACK TO THEM!!. We aren’t allowed to email friends, but I’m going to print off emails and write letters to you when I have some spare time.
The work is going well out here. We met with Bill Blake yesterday, he's pretty much already a member, his wife has accepted baptism, but hasn’t set a date yet because she wants to wait for him, and he wants to finish the Book of Mormon first, but he said he wanted to be baptized as well once he's done. We are having FHE with them tonight because they do that on Tuesday instead of Monday (his wife works/owns a coffee shop) then later we are going to go meet Kylee and Sean Wilkins. He is a member and has been for a long time. He’s 22 and she's 21. She isn’t a member, but Sean has been a good influence on her, so we’re going over tonight to get to know them and maybe set a baptismal date!!!! WELL I’M GLAD TO HEAR YOU GUYS ARE DOING WELL!!!!! INDIANA IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! I CANT WAIT FOR EVERYTHING TO GREEN UP!!!! Oh, on a side note Hehehe. So there is a church up here called the BETHEL AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH....... I thought Methodist and Episcopalians didn’t like each other???? Hahaha well anyway, I love you guys so much!! Thanks for helping me get out here. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!
OH HEY GUYS-- WHAT WE DRIVE UP HERE?? A 2010 FORD FUSION!!!! YEA BABY!!!! WE EITHER WALK OR DRIVE EVERYWHERE!!!
P-day is Tuesday up here. It’s way awesome! We are going to go play basketball with some of the guys in "tha HOOD" later today, it should be fun.
Marion is really small, half of the homes are in bad shape or they are abandoned. All the huge companies around here closed. So there’s no more work. It’s really nice though the people are so humble. We stopped a guy last night around 8:45 p.m.when we were walking home. We gave him a pa(pass along) card for the movie Finding Faith in Christ. He then told us how proud of us he was, that the Lord will greatly bless us for having the TENACITY to get out in the street and preach the good word. That made this whole week of up and downs all worth it.
The ward is really small. We have more more priesthood members back home than they do in their entire ward. Sunday was nice we went and ate dinner at the Turner’s home. They are the most awesome people ever!!! Sheesh! Their daughter Afton is 16 or 17 and she is planning on getting a PHD in something or other. I couldn’t do that.
TELL EVERYONE IF THEY WANT TO HEAR FROM ME, THEY HAVE TO WRITE A LETTER OR EMAIL ME AT mark.swanson@myldsmail.net SO I CAN SEND A LETTER BACK TO THEM!!. We aren’t allowed to email friends, but I’m going to print off emails and write letters to you when I have some spare time.
The work is going well out here. We met with Bill Blake yesterday, he's pretty much already a member, his wife has accepted baptism, but hasn’t set a date yet because she wants to wait for him, and he wants to finish the Book of Mormon first, but he said he wanted to be baptized as well once he's done. We are having FHE with them tonight because they do that on Tuesday instead of Monday (his wife works/owns a coffee shop) then later we are going to go meet Kylee and Sean Wilkins. He is a member and has been for a long time. He’s 22 and she's 21. She isn’t a member, but Sean has been a good influence on her, so we’re going over tonight to get to know them and maybe set a baptismal date!!!! WELL I’M GLAD TO HEAR YOU GUYS ARE DOING WELL!!!!! INDIANA IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! I CANT WAIT FOR EVERYTHING TO GREEN UP!!!! Oh, on a side note Hehehe. So there is a church up here called the BETHEL AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH....... I thought Methodist and Episcopalians didn’t like each other???? Hahaha well anyway, I love you guys so much!! Thanks for helping me get out here. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!
OH HEY GUYS-- WHAT WE DRIVE UP HERE?? A 2010 FORD FUSION!!!! YEA BABY!!!! WE EITHER WALK OR DRIVE EVERYWHERE!!!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Letter Recieved 3-29-10
Dear Family and Friends,
Hey Indiana is AWESOME. Today was cool. We went to Brother Blessings house. (He is a less active member) He’s a great guy, but the last missionaries tricked him into coming to church, so he likes me and Elder Ricks – but not the rest.
After that we went tracting!! Yay!! We talked to some people and then we knocked on the next door and a guy opened the door. We introduced ourselves, but then he cut us off and said, “Yeah, you’re Mormons? You church is an abomination!” (He’s a pentahostil – I mean Pentecostal) Then Elder Ricks asked what he thought was abominating about the church. He then proceeded to bash on the church for 3-5 minutes and finished by saying that Jesus Christ came to his house and told him his church was true. What a nice man.
We kept on tracting for a while after that with no success. Then we did weekly planning for 2 hours!! Phew – that’s a long time. After, we went to dinner with Bro. Wilson’s. He’s a pretty cool guy!! After dinner we went tracting some more (our contact fell through) but we met this guy Monty. He invited us in immediately and started asking ?s about us and what we do! It was a cool experience and we are going back next week!!
Well, we live in a house!! All by ourselves!! Awesome right?
Our address is:
Elder Mark Swanson. 1013 E 28th St. Marion, Indiana 46953
Love to all! Elder Swanson
Hey Indiana is AWESOME. Today was cool. We went to Brother Blessings house. (He is a less active member) He’s a great guy, but the last missionaries tricked him into coming to church, so he likes me and Elder Ricks – but not the rest.
After that we went tracting!! Yay!! We talked to some people and then we knocked on the next door and a guy opened the door. We introduced ourselves, but then he cut us off and said, “Yeah, you’re Mormons? You church is an abomination!” (He’s a pentahostil – I mean Pentecostal) Then Elder Ricks asked what he thought was abominating about the church. He then proceeded to bash on the church for 3-5 minutes and finished by saying that Jesus Christ came to his house and told him his church was true. What a nice man.
We kept on tracting for a while after that with no success. Then we did weekly planning for 2 hours!! Phew – that’s a long time. After, we went to dinner with Bro. Wilson’s. He’s a pretty cool guy!! After dinner we went tracting some more (our contact fell through) but we met this guy Monty. He invited us in immediately and started asking ?s about us and what we do! It was a cool experience and we are going back next week!!
Well, we live in a house!! All by ourselves!! Awesome right?
Our address is:
Elder Mark Swanson. 1013 E 28th St. Marion, Indiana 46953
Love to all! Elder Swanson
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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