Manaus Brasil Mission Office Address

This is the best place to send packages/ letters - of course for letters, you can always email to landon.swalberg@myldsmail.net

ELDER  LANDON  SWALBERG 

Brazil Manaus Mission

Rua Loris Cordovil, 1066 

Alvorada 1

69042-010  Manaus - AM 

Brazil

Monday, September 1st, 2014 - New country, New language, New blessings

We finally heard from Elder Swalberg, now that he is in the Manaus Mission. I have compiled an email of our email conversation with him. He started by answering questions we had for him about his stay in the Brazil MTC.

 

Elder Swalberg:  Man it seems like its been forever since I have been able to email yall! I know yall gave me a lot of questions to answer so here i go! 

 

First off I am certainly in Manaus, Brazil! And this keyboard is a little different because im here in brazil, so please forgive my spelling and mistakes! 

 

So the Brazil MTC was great! I learned a lot! And I wish I had a few more weeks there actually! But I knew I needed to get into the field so I could get to work! But no, it was really great. I loved my district, and really fun to be there with elder Batemon and Hargrove! Love them both! We really did do a lot there! One of the things as you asked about was go out proselyting in Sao Paulo! Twice actually! The first time was pretty scary as we were sent out to hand out 4 copies of the BOM in 1 hour. but the second time we handed out 4 in like 30 minutes! People here, just want to know! Way different than New England! I know this is going to take some getting used to for sure! But it was way cool!

 

We surely did have the great honor of having Elder Holland address us at the MTC! It was amazing. All the missionaries and the teachers were able to attend! (oh and there were probably like 350-400 missionaries there in the MTC.) He gave a powerful talk, as usual, about the purpose of missionaries! It was amazing! We were all able to shake his hand while he was there too! It was such an honor to feel of his love in person as he shook each one of our hands! After the devotional (12:00) he ate lunch at the mtc too. As we were going down at our assigned time to eat our lunch we ran into Elder Holland coming down the stairs after lunch, and he walked the rest of the way to the cafeteria with us and talked with us! At first saw us and said, "oh hey there Elders! How are you!?" and continued "Well come on, keep walking with us." And he literally was talking with me. He said Elder Batemon and I looked like twins...I didn´t think so much HEY I do now because Elder Holland just said so! It was only for about a minute that we talked with him, but what a tender mercy it was to run into him like that! :) 

 

Oh and the temple! It was awesome! I LOVED it! It was the campinus brazil temple because the sao paulo temple was closed for some reason. they bussed us like an hour and a half to go to the temple! Pretty cool huh? And yeah it was all in Portuguese. but I also had earphones in english. I only used them a little bit, but they had someone to do the viel in English! That was nice. I loved being in the Celestial Room, everytime I am there I receive the answers I need! And here in Manaus (if you are in the city) we get to go to the temple once every 2 weeks! I think we get to go this week! I am so excited! 

 

Mom:  What was your transfer like from the MTC to the Manaus Mission?  Was it on Tuesday?

Elder Swalberg:  To answer your question about transfers here. I have been here since Tuesday and spent most of the day with the mission pres and his wife. They gave us lunch and they had lots to brief us on about the mission. I have my own money card now! haha no longer do i have to get it from my companion. we get R$ 160 every 15 days or half a month. which is like 70 dollars in us money. It seems like things arent really cheaper here. And we have to use the bus if we need to go out of our area so that adds cost to our monthly money too. But it works out. But back to transfers....we are in week 5 of the transfers. There were 3 of us coming to manaus and so they emergency tansfered some elders, and opened a new area to make receiving 3 elders work.

Mom: What area are you in?

Elder Swalberg:  We are in Manaus, but there a lot of little cities that make up manaus. We live in a city called Castanhera. But our area is called Cidade do Leste. This is our ward name too. But my comp says our stake is "Solimoes". 

 

Mom: Lds.org has Cidade do Leste as branch not a ward.  Has is recently become a ward?

 

Elder Swalberg: woops my bad. you are right, i keep forgeting that it is a branch. They have a really big branch, just not enough preisthood brethren for a ward. 

Mom: Will you be walking/biking?  I pulled up your area on satellite view on google maps.  There are a ton of houses.....  Hardly any cars on the roads.

Elder Swalberg:  There are lots of buses! Most people don´t have cars. Motors (like dirtbikes/motorcycles) are really common though, but most people walk everywhere or us the bus. We will always walk! I already got a blister on my foot the other day. I have baby feet after being in a states mission with a car for so long! haha

There are a loooootttt of hills though! Its a workout! Im so glad for the body I have to physically be able to do this! 

 

Mom: Who is your companion? Where is he from? 

Elder Swalberg: My companion is Elder Araoz. He is from Argentina, does´t speak English, only spanish and Portuguese. But he is trying to learn English now though. haha But he is a convert of 7 years. He found the church at 15 and is the only member of the church in his family. He has been out for a little over a year, and is a great missionary. He has trained a few times already so he is really patient with the fact that I can´t speak super well. We do pretty well at communicating though. Sometimes its like a game of trying to discribe or act out a word until he can tell me what it means. haha Its kind of funny, but it works! Its crazy how we can comunicate and do things together when I don´t really even speak either of his languages. He is a great companion and im blessed to have him. He knows the area really well because he has been here for 5 months now! Which means he will probably stay here with me for the remaining of the this transfer and then next and then we will leave.....which means I need to really get to know the area, the investigators, members, oh yeah...AND THE LANGUAGE! But as you can tell, Im not stressed at all.... ;p 

Mom: What is your address?  Is it best to send packages/mail to the Mission Office Address? 

Elder Swalberg:  it is much better to send it to the mission office address.  (WE WILL POST THIS ADDRESS ON HIS FACEBOOK PAGE AND BLOG)

Mom:  How is your apartment?

Elder Swalberg: Yeah, our apartment is okay. My comp says its probably the better of the 3 he has had. We have running water for washing dishes, hands and showering, but yeah we have big jugs of water (like the Mawhinneys have always had.) our building is its own place with a litte porch where we have rope strung to hang our clothes after drying. and a litte area ( I would say a small yard 10 by10  but its all dirt so not really a yard but we can use it for exercise or what not.) in front that is gated in with a door and then a cement wall. All houses here are either all cement (like ours), a rough and not super sturdy brick, or cheap wood. Our floors are different in each room. Either a smooth cement, brick. or tile. we have tile in the study room, bathroom, and bedroom. In the bedroom we have an air conditioning unit. It can’t cool the whole apartment, but when we sleep we can close the door and it actually gets really cold at night. last night i woke up freezing and had to trun it down! So that is such a blessing to have. so no, i don’t need to buy a fan. 

Mom:  How are you holding up in a new country – different language – different culture?  We are praying for you to be strengthened in your trials!

Elder Swalberg:  thank you for all yall wrote me about the family! I am glad taylor and zach are doing well. And it was great to hear of all the details about them! Thank you so much. I hope I helped yall get a better idea of what I am doing now. I want yall to know that this is very stressful, but I really am happy. Its hard sometimes, its really hard sometimes, but somehow each night when the day is over I am just fine! The Lord really takes care of me, he never fails. So yeah I want you to know that and you don´t have to worry. 

  

And yeah, that kind of explains how I’m doing with all these new things. I thought my mission was going to start leveling out in its difficulty right about this time into my mission, but the way things turned out this is the hardest thing I have done in my life! I am literally putting everything I have in the Lord’s hands because I simply couldn´t be holding up right now without him. I am so glad I have a strong relationship with him, because it’s the one thing that isn´t foreign to me! I am really trying to stay grateful...not for things..but in my circumstance. I read Elder Uchtdorf’s talk from this past conference another time this morning while we were on the bus....we had to go out of our area for something but hard to explain why....and it really was what i needed. I had already been trying to do this but this helped me see it all put together. I am in no shape or form comfortable, or relaxed. I really can´t understand anyone but a few people that speak clearly, and still have to ask them a lot of questions to be able to answer their questions they ask me. It is so frustrating I can not even explain it! What makes it worse for me is the fact that here, the missionary work is sped up  times 10. We have already had one baptism in the 6 days i have been here, and have 2 more this saturday. One of which we just met last wednesday! We dont even get to know them before they are baptised. I get that these people are ready, but I don´t think they really know what they are doing....like honestly the girl we baptised this last saturday I am almost certain that she won’t stay active. You might say that this is lack of faith...but it’s the truth! There are sooooo many inactive members because of missionaries baptizing people like crazy just because they said they will be baptized. Like my comp said one missionary a while back baptized 27 people in one day! At least my companion somewhat understands and makes sure they receive all the lessons but for some weird reason he has permission to do the interviews for our investigators. Weird right? So idk. I have a great zone leader from Collyville, Texas that called me the 3rd night in the mission and said in English "look man, I just want you to know I am here for you if you need anything. I remember when I was new to the mission. I didnt have anyone and it was really annoying that no one reached out to me, and I was really frustrated a lot with so much stuff. So if you ever need to just talk about something, if you just are freaking tired of speaking Portuguese, just call me,k?" His name is Elder Thomas and I cant tell you how much that meant to me! He said he would set up an exchange for us to do this week so we could talk more. So I will ask for his help on understanding how to do the work here and still help these people understand what they are doing when they get baptized. 

 

Sorry that was really long, but this has really been bothering me and is just another thing that I am struggling with here. But I am praying a lot and hopefully I will have a chance to go to the temple this week too and pray about all this there too! 

 

 I love you all so much and will talk to you more next week! 

Elder Swalberg

 

Monday - August 4th, 2014

Man oh man!

I only have 1 week left in the states! I can't believe it! Everyone who has guessed my emotions in letters or emails is just about right; excited, nervous eager, hesitant, anxious, and scared for the unknown! 

But until next Tuesday comes, I will continue to enjoy my week here in this mission! I am really excited to see the many last miracles of my mission here. I know there will be many, because I will be giving it all I have got! 

I had a wonderful experience at the temple on Friday. I am so grateful to have that great blessing to go down to Boston to partake of the blessing in the temple. It was incredible to be reminded, again, of the great promises I have been given that are associated with the covenants I made in God's house! I will include what I mentioned to my Mission president about my experience and the action I am now taking on my answers I got there at the temple and shortly after my time in the temple:

 I can't explain how wonderful it was to go to the temple! I was able to write down all of the wonderful inspiration I received there afterwards, and it was exactly what I needed! I am so thankful I could go! 

I have been doing your challenge about praying about what to change, and have even shared it with my family and a few others. And I truly have a testimony of it and that it works! Since the first 3 weeks I did it though, I have sort of slaked off, but this past week I studied and prayed to know how to truly manage and change some of my desires and personality. I asked this question to the Lord while in the temple and I received what I thought was my full answer, but I found that He wasn't done. I came across another challenge by another Mission President that was very similar to yours. It was to make a list of things that "poke" at my spirit and make a covenant to start a 40 day fast from all those things. They could include things that would help me qualify for the spirit as well. So it started with a regular fast yesterday to help me change my desires and make all the changes I wrote down on my list. And I am on day 2 of 40 days. I know if I stick with this, and lean on my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, I will be able to change by the power His Atonement. 

I am going to work really hard at this, and besides I will need something to keep me consistent with all these changes coming up! I know it is what the Lord needs me to do and I am so grateful for the temple where I can pray and plead with the Lord and he can answer me so clearly and personally! 

We are still meeting with Ann regularly. I believe I mentioned how, she has been really humbled by her family struggles and that is why she is so sensitive to these spiritual truths we are teaching her. Well we got a call Friday night at like 9:45 from her saying he daughter had called her earlier that evening and wanted to come over and talk with her! That was a huge step! Her daughter hasn't wanted to sit down and talk with her much at all since the divorce. So she enjoyed it very much and knew that Heavenly Father was answering our prayers. She said, "Every time you come by, you pray for me and my family and I know thats why my daughter came over!" Things aren't perfect for them yet, but she is getting to see her grandkids again, and so its better! She came to church yesterday and enjoyed it again! The ward loves her a lot and we will be seeing her 3 times a week, and the call every morning helps her! She is such a sweet lady, and I sure will miss her, but definitely will write her. She will be such a wonderful addition the church and the Sanford Ward. It was so cool to see her participate in Gospel Principles so much! We were in Chapter 42 about the gathering of Isreal and She was able to answer questions, and give insight into our discussion because of her upbringing as an Orthodox Jew. It was great! 

Well thats about all I have time for today, but thats the main things that have happened since Thursday! 

Love Yall! 

-Elder Swalberg 

Sanford News - A Step Back in Time

July 31, 2014 - (Thursday since going to the temple...)

(Elder Swalberg swapped p-day to Thursday so they could go to the temple with some members.  This is his email from  a few days ago.)

Hey, so on Monday I was not able to email yall, because we are going to the temple today, and we will be leaving in about 30 minutes. So I still don't have a whole lot of time today, but am really excited to be going down to the temple!

But a few quick updates on how the missionary work is going here in Sanford!

First off Ann is doing really well. She missed church last week though.....she is really struggling with her son in law and daughter right now, because she is not being allowed to be with her grandchildren since they both split up. So she had to do some of that legal stuff Sunday, but we are still meeting with her consistently, and she loves us coming! She has to brake her coffee as her crutch. She is recommitted this week to give it up. She is such a sweet lady, and I love how every time we bring a new member to teach her, they come out saying how sweet and fun she is! I love that. It makes me so much more comfortable leaving before her baptism, because I know the members will be such a support and encouragement to her!

Becky is doing well too! She is finally really reading the Book of Mormon. Last Thursday we decided to just ask if we could do a quick visit with her, and it turned into a great discussion of how the Book of Mormon can be our guide through life and that we can really apply it to us! We read 1 Nephi 2 with her, and helped her get the story line a little better. We just had a lesson with her last night and she has read a few more chapters finally! AND she said, "it is actually a really easy read! There was only one little part I couldn't make sense of, but then I read over it couple more times and I had just missed a word!" That was great to hear! She also came for sacrament meeting on Sunday which was her first time! She loved it! Our relief Society President gave a wonderful talk on the RS manual, "Daughters in My Kingdom" and it was very timely for Becky! She loved it and was very anxious to receive a copy of that book! So yeah, we hope she will continue to read from the Book of Mormon and start to gain her testimony of it!

We also had Zone Conference last week! I wish I could explain everything that we learned, but there is no way I could with the time I have. But the really cool thing was one of the Young Men in our ward Cale Thorton, who is 18 and about to leave for college to Southern Virginia University, came with us to the whole Zone Conference! He loved it and man way that great mission prep! I was thinking the whole time, why didn't I do that with the Elders back home?! Such a great experience to be around so many missionaries, and learn so much!

Step back in time was so great too! We spent a lot of our week helping with that though! We were there part of Thursday evening, Friday morning to late afternoon and practically all of Saturday when it actually took place. I know I sent a bunch of pictures that Sister Davie (the event coordinator from our ward) forwarded me onto you, mom and Dad. And I know there are more on the facebook event and her facebook page too! We even got in the newspaper! Elder Johnston and I are on the front page of the local paper, and another picture where it explains more about the event, and its a picture of us giving a ride to some kids in a handcart! Its pretty cool! I will be getting a copy to send home! haha

Well Its time to go now, so I will have to share more on Monday!

I sure love all yall!

-Elder Swalberg

(Here are a couple of great photos pulling a handcart in the Step Back in Time event)

Monday July 21, 2014

Well hello there! Sorry I wasn't able to get a real email out last week! it was kind of crazy to say the least! But this week has been really good.

To start off something I didn't get a chance to mention in my last email was last week our mission president put out a mission wide challenge. Of what district could get the most contacts. He challenged us to do at least 10 a day, and this challenge would go till the end of August. A contact was defined as talking to someone you didn't know before, and inviting them to learn. So it is a challenging task, but it has been really good! I would like to share one of my experiences while trying to achieve this goal of 10 contacts a day!

We had just finished up with a member meal, but we only had 30 minutes free until we had to go in for language study. And one thing I have noticed out here in New England is people really don't like you on their door step...so yeah, my whole mission so far, not one person I have tracted into has led to more than 1 follow up lesson. Street contacting on the other side, has seemed to be much more profitable! It is so great, because they are already outside, and it is so much easier to start up a conversation with someone like that. This step back in time even has been wonderful for that as well. So with this 30 minutes we had we decided to go to downtown Springvale (right next to Sanford) and walk down the street and invite people to this event, and try and talk more about the church. Well there was only one man we ended up talking to, and he is about 24 or 25 years old, and is named Colby. Our invitation worked, and were able to talk a little more about him and his family and our church when he explained that his father just passed away a few months ago. We had just taught the plan of Salvation to the member family we were just at, and I explained that same thing to him, and said I felt he needed to know this same message as well. I briefly explained the beautiful promises contained in the plan of Salvation, and he wanted to know more, but because of the lateness of the hour, he asked if we could talk more after our church service on Sunday. We readily agreed and gave him our number too. It was so inspired that we were where we were at for Colby at that time. I know the Lord placed him in our path. Sadly he did not make it to church, but I have full confidence that if he is still ready, the Lord will place him in our path again, or vise versa! As we plan for when and where we will be each day and ask the Lord to place someone in our path, I know he will follow through,...IF we are willing to speak up and talk with everyone. It would have been really easy to walk right passed Colby, but because we stopped him and opened our mouth, the Lord's will was able to come to pass.

We had a wonderful lesson with Ann this Saturday. She was gone all week, but saw here as soon as she came back, and she was able to come to church yesterday too! I was so happy to have her there finally! She loved it and she was greeted by a lot of members! We have brought like 6 men to her home to teach with us, and all of them went up to her and expressed how great it was to see her and how glad she was there! It was so wonderful! She is such a neat lady! Before church started, I got to talk with her about her jewish background a lot, and I know I have a lot more that I can still learn from her! She also speaks French fluently, because she grew up in Paris. She is awesome! I hope it works out that I will be able to see her baptized! I am so excited for her.

One last miracle that I will share regarding Ann. She has been friends with a less active family the Chadbournes for like 7 years! And as she has been taking the lessons and then committed to baptism, the Chadbournes have been so excited, and are starting to talk with the Bishop about a few things so they can get back into the right spiritual stance to come back to church and one of the members in the family, Chris, wants to get ready so that he can fulfill the request of Ann to have him baptize her! How awesome is that!?!?! It can't be said any better than Brother Bently who was teaching Ann and Sister Chadbourne on Saturday night, "That's the Gospel in action right there!" That's sure right! The gospel sure is in action, and its a beautiful thing to see!

I am so lucky to be here in the area at this time! I know my service in this mission was meant to be! I am pretty nervous about Brazil! There is a member, Brother Jones, who served in Sao Paulo 6 years ago, and we  were at his house last night for dinner, and he had me say the prayer over the food in Portuguese, and give the lesson in Portuguese! He said I did pretty good, but he helped me in the lesson multiple times. It will be hard, and he said the first few days will suck, but to just keep going! And until then, I am going to give this mission all I've got!

I sure love you all!

-Elder Swalberg

Monday, July 14th - Elder Swalberg got his VISA!!! Heading to Brazil!!!

Hello Friends and Family,

Elder Swalberg is going to Brazil!  We had a sweet email conversation with him today.  I have tried to sum up our conversation in this email below so you can have the details too.  Thank you, so much for your support and prayers for Elder Swalberg.

We love you all!
Tonia and Kevin Swalberg


ELDER SWALBERG:  HEY Y'ALL! IM GOING TO BRAZIL! I GOT MY VISA!!!!!!

E-mail me back!
-Elder Swalberg

Sent FROM  THE MISSIONARY TRAVEL DEPT
To: Brazil Manaus Mission; Brazil Manaus Mission President; New Hampshire Manchester Mission; New Hampshire Manchester Mission President
Subject: VISA RECEIVED - FINAL Travel Itinerary For SWALBERG/LANDON DEE - 12Aug - YCCOV2
Importance: High
Brazil Manaus Mission – FYI itinerary for arriving missionary

New Hampshire Manchester Mission – the below itinerary is for one of your visa waiters.  Please note they will be traveling in time for the next transfer date of the RECEIVING mission.  A FedEx package containing visa, passport and travel information will be sent out within 2 weeks before traveling.

TEMPORARY MISSION PRESIDENT: Please let the missionary know that they will be attending the Brazil MTC for two weeks per the request below.

At the request of the Brazil Area Presidency, missionaries who have been in a temporary assignment for more than two months will report to the Brazil MTC for a 2-week, intensive language immersion course before reporting to their mission in Brazil. Information will be provided about travel directly to the MTC in this missionary’s travel packet that will be mailed to the mission office.

**The Brazil MTC would also like to remind these missionaries that they will need to bring their Portuguese language training materials that they received at the Provo.

MOM: Oh My Gosh!!!!  I am screaming!!!!!  And Shaking!!!!!  And almost crying!!!!!  I am sooooo excited for you!  Another testimony of prayers and fasting.

DAD: ME TOO!!!
ELDER SWALBERG: I know, It has been a crazy week! I haven't known if yall knew or not all week! I found out like 1 hour after I got emails with yall!

MOM: From this email you sent it sounds like you knew last Monday, then?  Is that right, You have known all week?

ELDER SWALBERG: Yeah! I have. They told me I needed to wait till today to let yall know! And they wanted me to be able to do it instead of the office telling yall. So yeah, I’m just glad yall know now. I actually thought yall would have known by now because of the calls you were making to the travels office. But yeah I am writing up the story now in another email, but I think I am going to forgo the normal long email and just talk with you guys and yall can pick and choose what to put on the blog and email out.

Last Monday, after I got off emails, I got a phone call from President Stoker right before we went into a member meal! He told me that I would be leaving on Saturday (July 12)! I totally freaked out! If only I could describe the feelings that were rushing through me at that moment and the following days as I anxiously waited for President Stoker to call me back for travel plans.

DAD: I guess you are being sent there to comfort the Brazilians after their World Cup losses - their final match was against the Netherlands, which they lost 3-0 - definitely no comfort after losing to Germany 7-0!
But now they will be humble and ready to hear the gospel!!!
Love you –

MOM: So at first he told you July 12 instead of Aug. 12... Wow....I am sure you were freaking out.

Yes...we can pull an email together to send out from our emails today.

ELDER SWALBERG: Thanks for doing that!
I was on exchange that night too, out of my area, so I was with Elder Brown, just freaking out all night and the next day. But I couldn’t do anything about it and I knew it would work out, even though I knew I wouldn't be able to talk with yall until Saturday when I was at the airport, and I would have had to pack up everything, and send a bunch of stuff home all in like 2 days, and then head down to the mission home on Friday. But after district meeting on Wednesday, I got a call from President Stoker, and he let me know that the Travels Office changed it up and decided I should stay until transfers and leave on August 12th. So after that I felt so much better! In fact that morning I had prayed about why I needed to go so quickly, when I would be leaving so many things unfinished here in this mission. I felt very discouraged and confused to why this had to happen so crazily! I just wanted one, "normal" transfer after all the difficulties of the first several weeks in Sanford. After I finished my study, I didn't find an answer,...until I opened up to one last scripture. D&C 84: 116-119:

116 Let him trust in me and he shall not be confounded; and a hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed.
 117 And verily I say unto you, the rest of my servants, go ye forth as your circumstances shall permit, in your several callings, unto the great and notable cities and villages, reproving the world in righteousness of all their unrighteous and ungodly deeds, setting forth clearly and understandingly the desolation of abomination in the last days.
 118 For, with you saith the Lord Almighty, I will rend their kingdoms; I will not only shake the earth, but the starry heavens shall tremble.
 119 For I, the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little while and ye shall see it, and know that I am...

And I did not see it now, but in a little while I did see it that I was not to go so quickly....and I truly do know that He is! That He knows me and knew I really needed to hear that! Even though I didn't know I was not going to be staying longer yet. I was put at ease with this answer. I knew it was His will, and I would be able to see his will soon. I am so glad I have him near me always!

DAD: What a wonderful experience.
I remember that scripture from my mission, ... but it was only verse 116... by an Elder that was going bald (fast) on his mission.

So fun to send out notes to everyone about your visa & travel dates!   It appears that the travel department visit to the Houston consulate really made some progress.

BUT from your note - sounds like you will get to call us from the airport!  (You mentioned that you would have been calling us on Saturday from the airport)   Wahoo!   We will all be in Utah that evening - so we will block that time!

Love you -

ELDER SWALBERG: So after I found out, I was able to calm down. But all of the Elders and Sisters in my district and our Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders thought I was still leaving. But at least I was out of my area for those couple of days, because I would have started going to all of our investigators and members to say bye and have last lessons with them all. Because I wouldn't have even had one Sunday to say goodbye! But not being in my area for those 2 days where I was still thinking I was leaving, was such a tender mercy for me! Especially being with Elder Brown! I love him a lot! He is so great! He is an awesome listener, and a great leader. He and Elder Lund have been by far my favorite District Leaders. Funny that I had them both as Zone leaders too! haha Elder Lund and Elder Chapman even took the extra miles and canceled one of their exchanges to come to our district meeting and see me before last Saturday, when we still thought I was leaving on Saturday! Here is picture of me with them and Elder Brown!

For a going away district meeting, it really was good,...but little did I know a few hours later I would find out I would get to have a few more of district meetings here in this mission!

MOM: Wow! What a neat experience with your prayers and scripture study.  He does know you and is watching over you and is aware of your concerns....I have no doubt about that.  I am happy for you that you have a month to process all of this and work your area as hard as you possibly can for the next four weeks!  Make miracles happen!

ELDER SWALBERG:  You know I will, Mom! I hope I can live up to the expectations you and Dad have for me. And especially my Heavenly Father! I am really happy for the experiences I am having right now and soon will have. It is not at all easy nor will it be getting any easier, but I am still happy. I know these challenges will shape me...Sister Edwards included a quote in one of her past emails that really helped me this past week, by Orson F. Whitney:

"No trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God."

I know this growth that he speaks of here, will be mine as I patiently endure the things I will face as I get accustomed to a new area, mission, country, people, culture, language, food, and living circumstances. I KNOW it won't be easy, but I know it will be worth it, and it is God's will for me!

Thank you for all your prayers and fasting for me out here in this mission and for getting me ready for my other mission in Brazil! I love yall so much!

MOM: Great photos.  That will be fun to have another going away party in Aug.  I hope this last month will be a great on for you as you wrap up this first half of your mission.  I know you will go out strong....doing as much as you possibly can do so you have no regrets when you leave for Brazil.

ELDER SWALBERG: Thanks, Mom and Dad! I will do my best!
I sure love yall!

-Elder Swalberg