December 29, 2014 - First and Last Christmas in Brazil!

Hey yall!

So this week sure has been great! We have been teaching some great families and also had some great times this week with our members. Especially with our ward mission leader. First off I will talk about 2 investigator families really quickly.

The family that is closest to baptism is Maria and Estefine. I dont know if I already talked about them but Estefine is 14 and lives with her grandmother Maria. They will most likely be baptized this Sunday. But the miracle for them this week was that Jois the mother of Estefine and daughter of Maria came to church this week! We only taught her once, and after that she wasnt able to make it to any of our appointments marked with her. But she went with her daughter and she said she really enjoyed it! They have a great family, and we already know more of their family, and it looks like they will be interested also! The only concern we have for them is that they will be moving to the other side of the city across the river, so it will make it a lot harder to come to church. So prayers that everything will go smoothly and that they can still come to church will really help them!

The other family that is progressing is a couple that arent married...yet...(Carmin and Hélio) and Carmin's daughter Lugiuas. Some of them are traveling right now, but should be back today, and so when we get back we will be able to visit them!

This past week we had a lot of fun with Irmão Neno, our ward mission leader. Tuesday we had the training with the recent converts, and he taught a lesson with us beforehand too. It was great! He is a really great teacher and helps us out a lot in our lessons!
Then after the training, we went with him to a Pizzaria! Here in Brazil they have a type of pizza buffet call Rodizio de Pizza. you pay like 10 dollars and they have guys just come out with different pizzas and they bring it around to every table and give you a slice, and you just keep eating until you cant eat anymore. They all kinds of pizzas, even desert pizzas. My favorite was banana and chocolate! We all ate more than one pizza each! I was so stuffed, but it was so good. It reminded me of CiCís after our backpacking trips as scouts. haha

And then we spent Christmas eve at the house of the president Fransico, the elders quorum president. But irmao neno was there too! They had a bunch of food, and meat. I will attach a photo of Fransico with my comp and their spears of meat. haha

Then for Christmas we had lunch a the branch presidents house, and it was soo good! Lots of food. And then we went to Irmão Neno's house to skype. It was so good to see all my family in the call. I miss yall so much!
But after our amazing call, we had lots of cake, and juice and a few games. It was really a great Christmas!

I am so happy to have had this week to talk with so many people about the gospel. I really learned this year that as a missionary I can really bring Chirst into the homes of everyone here! What a powerful thing that is! I am so greatful for my Savior, and the gift that he is in my life, and what a joy it is to help others receive this gift in its fulness, and reach their full potential!

BTW:  Right now I am actually in Manaus. We travels yesterday afternoon until this morning. We arrived at 7 in the morning and then slept a little. But I think we are going to end our p-day here with Pizza....yeah thats right...Rodizio de Pizza! haha Im excited! haha tomorrow will be Mission Leadership Council with President Castro, and then a happy surprised, we get to attend the temple after the meeting in the evening! I am way excited for that! I love the temple so much!

 Thank you so much for all your love and support.

Love,
-Elder Swalberg


P.S. while I was here I got some more letters from Grandpa L. THank you grandpa! and Savanna Llyod, which was so sweet. And Sister Khuyn's package arrived here too. Just wanted to be sure to thank everyone that has sent something, and to confirm that it got here!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - Christmas Conference in Rondonia

Hey everyone!

So this week sure was full of some great stuff! I dont have a whole lot of time today because the internet was really slow today! But I will try to do my best at sharing a little bit and will have pictures attached too!

Well the first thing that was really cool was working with our Ward Mission Leader. I think I commented about how great our leadership is here in this branch already, but really our WML is best of all. We planned a training night with him for 3 recent convert couples, because he had them all called as branch missionaries! EveryTuesday night we are having a trainging class to help them know how to teach the 5 missionary lessons. They will then help us teach our investigators before and after baptism. It was soooo cool to plan it with him, his name is Brother Neno, and then help him with the training. The sisters helped too! It went really well. I also sang with Brother Neno (Joesphs first prayer) as a musical arangement that we put together really quickly. It was really cool! He plays guitar too and sings really well! We will surelly be doing more of this! haha

The work here is going well. We are in the process of cleaning out our pool of investigators and finding a lot. Because they had a lot of investigators that showed a lot of interest, and are families too, but just arent keeping commitments, especially coming to church. So its sad, but at the same time, we know we did everything we could.

We have been preparing a song as a district for the chirstmas zone conference we had yesterday, and so Brother Neno let us use his guitar this week to practice and it was great to have to practice and more so when we have brought it to some of our lessons and members' homes. We have been able to play a christmas hymn in our lessons and to share as our messge at our meals! It really brings the spirit and has been really fun!

The Conference was yesterday, but we left here after lunch on sunday about 3:30 and go there about 10 at night. We had 12 Elders in one apartment that night with only 6 small beds and one hammock. There was really no way I was going to sleep well,...I ended up sleeping on the tile floor, my back didnt feel to well after that night but I did get about 4 hours of sleep. But the conference was really good. We had the training part yesterday morning, and then we had a great lunch at the house of Pres. Quiroz (1st counslor to President Castro) And then we had a gift exchange that we had prepared for. (the first pictures are of me with the gift I recieved from Elder Ryan the other American in our house here in our area, and I drew my own companions name, ahah, so I had made a case for a planner.)  Then we had a slideshow of pictures of the mission in the past year, and then did the talent show. We plan the first noel but Part in Portuguese, part in English and part in Spanish. It turned out really well, and everyone liked it.

While I was there I got to see Elder Bateman again, and Elder Gardner, my MTC Companion who arrived in the mission 1 transfer after I did. It was so good to see him again. I attached a picture of the lunch table after the meal, and then one of me with Bateman and Gardner (Same district, after 1 year and 6 months we were finally all together in the Manaus Mission! haha)

But we left after the talent show and then went to the bus station and waited until our bus arrived, at 10:30 pm. While we waited 6 of us Elders went around walking like last time and we bought Açai, I will send pictures of that in another email here really quick. But then we arrived back in our area today at like 4:30 in the morning, and after we slept for a little bit we had our p-day. But this email ends p-day for this week and now we have a lesson to get to, and then the training again for the recent convert missionaries! Should be another great week! :)

Thanks so much for all the support and prayers!

Love yall!

-Elder Swalberg

The first one is of our district after the talent show.

2. Our Zone, Ji-Paraná

3. Me and Elder Neyra, with our Açai (my last companion in Vilhena)

4. Us 6 Elders eating our Açia (left to right-Elder Chime, Machacca, Munhoz--my companion--, Elder Fericin, Neyra, and Me) 

Monday, Dec. 8, 2014 - Already my 3rd Area in Brazil!

Hey everyone!

Yeah, if you can't believe that I am already in my third area here in Brazil just think of what I am thinking! I was not expecting this at all! I will expain a little bit about our week and then about the transfer!

It was a really great week in Vilhena! We had the Zone Leaders from Jí Parraná come down to do exchanges with us. It was 6 hour trip for them....yeah exchanges are a little different here in the Manaus mission...haha. But it was really great! Elder Pablo and Elder Munhoz are our Zone Leaders who came down. I went with Elder Pablo. He is super super cool! They spent the whole day Tuesday with us and had 2 solid plans for both companionships in our area! It was awesome to get so much done in one day too! We found 3 new investigators, and got to teach almost all of our investigators, and some less actives. 

The next day I gave a training during district meeting with the Zone Leaders on chapter 8 of  PMG. It had to do a lot with what Elder Aidukaitis of the seventy spoke to us about. I think it went really well. I have really enjoyed serving as District Leader. It has given me a chance to use what I already know from my mission in the states and apply it here. I get to share a lot of my experiences that I have already had. It has really helped me see that I didnt really restart my mission...that my Heavenly Father really prepared me to be ready to serve and share what I know to help other missionaries and my areas. 

Cassia is doing really well. She has been working a ton this week so 2 appointments were canceled but she the members already are supporting her really well,  and are always asking about her! Thats when you know you did your job right as a missionary, when the first thing the members ask you is about how one of your investigators is doing! Its so great! One lesson we had with her was in the morning, and as we left she was like, "Im so sorry I didnt make some coffee or something for you, but I dont drink coffee so I dont have any in my house." Little did she know, this was just one more reason to explain how prepared she is for the gospel. This week she accepted all of the commandments and committed to live them. She can see her life changing and she knows its the right path. 

So about the transfer....Friday afternoon, we went to lunch at a memers home like normal, and was a perfectly normal lunch and we were heading out the door when we got a call from the Assistants, (transfer calls arent normally until Sunday here, but it was about transfers. I had my companion answer while I finished talking with the members, but Elder Neyra answered and they wanted to talk to me. Elder Meio answered the phone and said, "Hey Elder Swalberg, Im calling about transfers. Congrats, Elder, you will be transfered from your area to serve as Zone Leader in Jí Parraná. You will be companions with Elder Munhoz! And Elder Neyra will stay in Vilhena and receive a new companion to replace you as district leader." Once again, I couldn't believe it and thought there was a mistake. I only had 6 freaking weeks here! I was kind of pissed like last time too! ¨6 weeks is just too short! I was sure I was going to stay, because my comp already had more time than me and my last area was only 1 transfer too. But like I said last transfer, Transfer Pridictions are ALWAYS opposite of what you think they will be. And let me tell you, this was definately the opposite of what I was thinking would happen. But of course I still accepted, and was then intructed on my travel plans.

I left Saturday at 9 (the next day) in the evening. So at least I had time to go around and say goodbye to a lot of the people here and take pictures. I will share a few with yall. It was so sad, especially with a name like SWALBERG here in Brazil, no will remember me very well. But I just hope Cassia remembers me! I am so sad I will not be here for her Baptism. She will be baptized here really soon, but I wont be able to see it. But I got to pass by and see her and a few others saturday afternoon. 

It was really sad and everyone was so surprised, but it is what it is. I was all packed up and a member brought me to the bus station and I met up with Elder Carmargos who was also being transfered out of Vilhena to a area way in Manaus. I arrived in my new area at 3 in the morning, and got off the bus to switch places with my Zone Leader, Elder Pablo that i just was with 3 days prior. haha Their ride took me back to our house and we went to sleep. But we have 2 sets of elders here in the same house. Me and my companion, ZLs, and one other set of elders here, all in the same branch too. We also have a set of sisters in the branch. but live way on the other side of town. But our house is a lot bigger than the one I had in Manaus, so it will work a lot better. It is waaayyyy dirty, but I already made some good progress since I arrived. I am a little scard to attack the bathroom, but after I finish up in the kitchen, it is next. BLAH! 4 Elders in the same house makes for a dirty house really quick, and if they dont clean it just gets worse and worse. Its really a good house, its just been trashed by Elders who dont know how to keep up on cleaning! Story of my life for the past year and a half! haha But besides that and the ubundance of cockroachs, our house is pretty good. Still way better than my first house in Manaus! 

But our brach is way cool I had Sunday here already so it was way cool to know the branch and everything already! We have some great leaders here, and I am excited to work with them! There is a lot of potential here! 

But yeah, thats all I have for this week! I will be able to share more about the work here after experiencing the first week here. But here are a few photos from my last beloved area in Vilhena. 

Love you all! 

-Elder Swalberg

:) I sure love Vilhena. If I return anywhere here in Brazil I want to visit here! 

 

Wendy and her family....Wendy is in the middle in Blue, and her sister to the left is a member, Breyla. 

 We did service the morning that I left for this sister, Irmã Vera! She is really sweet. But if I look really red in the face in the other pictures it is because we were doing service and it was really sunny, and I got burnt! haha

 Cassia and us

 a young man, Lyncoln who is super cool. (14 years old)

and my companion Elder Neyra and me at the bus station as I left Saturday night. 

 

Monday, Dec 1, 2014

Oi, bom tarde!

Well this week has been really good! To start off I have to tell yall about an investigator that we started teaching this week that is so awesome! 

 

Her name is Cassia. We met Cassia about 4 weeks ago. We were just walking down the street and a younger lady stopped us after we passed by her and said, "hey wait! Are you mormons?" And we responded "Yeah, have you met with Elders before?" thinking it was a former investigator, but she responded saying no, but that a lot of members of her family are members of the church, and she just moved back up here from São Paulo. She promissed her brother that she would make a visit in the chapel her in Vilhena once she got settled down, but she couldnt find it. So obviously we explained that it was not far away at all. She was excited to know, and said she would make a visit in 2 weeks. FAST FORWARD 2 WEEKS.....She came to church! But because we have sacrament meeting last here, we didnt see her, because we were in Preisthood. She thought that church was only for 1 hour so she left after Relief Society before we could catch her! It was so depressing, But I called her later that day and asked if we could visit her and share with her a little more about the church. She graciously accepted and marked it for the next Saturday, as it was the only time she could meet with us. But come Saturday 30 minutes before our appointment we were trying to find her house. She didnt have a number of her house, just the road and the discription of where it was. But we could not find it. We tried calling like 100 times and she didnt answer her phone. We probably asked 15 people that live on that road if they knew a Cassia that live close by. No one knew her. After looking up and down this big street for almost an hour, we decided to call it quits.

 The next day she called us back...what had happened was she thought we were coming 7 oclock in the morning, and we thought at night! We felt so stupid but we marked it for Monday evening (One week ago) after our p-day. We told her we were having trouble finding her, she described it again to us but still had trouble finding her! But this time we invited a sister of the branch to join us that talked with her in Relief Society that day she came, and she is one of the Counselors in the presidency. Then without us knowing she invited the president of the relief society too. So with them we found Cassia's house and got to know her a little better. She is about 28 years old has a 7 year old daughter, and its just them that live together here. She is super sweet and again she explained to us about her family in São Paulo that are members.

Then we started to the lesson. It went so well, we were able to switch off teaching different principles and have both of these wonderful sisters testify and explain so clearly as they could speak the language and relate to her even better than we could. We got to the part about the Book of Mormon and challenged her to read it she accepted but really had a lot of questions of how she would receive her answer. Both my companion, and these 2 sisters gave thier stories of conversion and how they received their own answers. It was really powerful and it helped her realized that each one of us is different, and receive our answer different. She felt good about it and said she would read and pray, and this included praying about the date we set with her for Dec 7th. for baptism. She said if she receives her answer, she would be baptized. The spirit was really strong, and I know it was because we had members with us! What a powerful spirit they were able to bring to our lesson, and I don't think they even recognize that! But we had her give the closing prayer, she wasnt confortable with it, but because we followed the pattern of having a kneeling prayer, she did it. It wasnt perfect, but it was soooo good! It was sincere! 

But in this past week we have met with her 2 other times and she came to church yesterday for ALL 3 hours! Not just the first one! haha But she is doing so well. The second time we came over she said she had read, and that she had called her brother, who has 19 years, and asked how he recieved his answer about the book of Mormon and baptism. And then she asked him what she should do, and he replied, "Do what they asked, pray. But really, sincerely pray to know!" What a good brother right?!?! It was so cool she said she has been praying and that she feels good about everything, but that she wants to keep reading and praying. She did exactly that and read all of the introductions, testimonies, etc. by the next time we visited her. She said she had a hard day the day before we came. She also explained that she often feels really alone, and that its really hard for her sometimes. But she said that night she said a prayer asking for help and to know the right path, and she said she heard a little voice whisper to her saying, "My daughter, be calm. I am with you, and continue strong." (Thats the best translation I can give, its not exactly what she said) But she sarted to cry as she said it. Elder Neyra testified that Heavenly Father is reaching out to her and answering her prayers. That he is really there for each one of us, and testified that this is the right path that she is starting to walk. She then gave the closing prayer, kneeling again, and mentioned baptism for the first time in her prayer. She is really progressing well, and starting to know how the spirit can talk to her! 

Well I didnt know I was going to share that much about her, but you can just imagine how excited we are about her! We hope all will go well this week too to prepare her for baptism. Its not super firm for this week, but if not this week next week for sure! 

But in other news, President Casto came to Vilhena. It is a long trip down here and so it not very often that members here get visits from leaders of the church. Our 2 Branches here are not even part of a district. They are part of the Manaus Brazil Mission. So President Castro holds the keys to proside over our 2 branches here. So he came to train the leadership, preisthood brotheren, and hold a Branch Conference for both wards! It was really cool!

We also had interviews with President Castro. It was a lot faster than my interviews with President Stoker in my other mission. It was still good, but I still miss my very personal and spiritual interviews with President Stoker, starting with a kneeling prayer, and ending with a prayer by him pleading the Lord for success on my behalf, followed by one of the warmest, sincere hugs you could imagine! But even though we just ended with a handshake with President Castro I could still see the love and felt the sincere support and trust he has in me. It was really good! 

I wish I could explain more about what I learned with President here, but a lot of what he talked about will be applied to the missionary work here, and so I hope to talk about how things are will change in the right direction in my future letters! 

But I know that my Mission President is inspired by God, He as well as I put full trust in the Prophet and leadership of this church, Which really leads to trust in our savoir Jesus Christ! I know he lives and guides this church and especially this work, because it is HIS work! 

I love yall! 

-Elder Swalberg

PS Photos arent working this week again. I will try agian next week!

Monday, November 24, 2014

Hey y'all!

This week went by so fast! Probably because we only had half the week to work in our area! After P-day until mid-day Thursday, we were traveling! We had a special conference with Elder Aidukaitis (https://www.lds.org/church/leader/marcos-a-aidukaitis?lang=eng). He is currently serving as a counselor in the South America South Area Presidency.

So after our pday, we packed up and went to the other Elder's appartment to sleep there cause it is just down the street from the bus station. Our bus left at 7 Tuesday Morning, and we were traveling until 8:30 at night! These buses are good buses though. Like the 2 story buses, with the seats that can lean back, have a bathroom, and they stop every 2-3 hours to pick up other people, but also you can get off and stretch and buy food if you want as well. But nothing really settled well for me on the way there. I was a little travel sick on the way there. So I tried to study but after about 5 minutes of studying I always just fell asleep! Mom, you were exactly right on your prediction of what I would end up doing on my ride up there, sleep. But it was good, to nap because I havenet been getting a whole lot of sleep lately. But along the way the bus picked up like 10 other missionaries too. This zone is pretty spread out, and we are the farthest south. But after about 8 hours of the trip we had all the people in our zone on the bus. We all had seats next to each other so we just talked the rest of the way up, Another American (from Washington DC) sat next to me, Elder Bearden, and it was nice to talk in English for a little while, plus my area was his last area, so it was good to talk about the area too.

But yeah, the Zone Leaders there in Porto Velho, Elder Bateman and Robinson (or as everyone calls them Batman and Robin) had rides to pick us up and take us to their apartment. we only had 3 extra beds for 6 elders, but I shared a bed with Elder Chime from Equidor (one of the other Elders in Cacoal in my district) and I didnt sleep super well but got a little sleep. But the thing that was worse about it all was that we didnt eat well that day at all. haha Just snacking all day.

But Wednesday we woke up and had plenty of time to study, and prepare for the day, and then we went and bought lunch, and headed to the chapel for the conference. President Castro was there with his wife as well as Elder Aidukaitis with about 25 of us missionaries here in the state of Rondonia. It was such a good conference. The thing was that I understood it all. Last Zone Conference was good but I didnt really understand everything, but when Elder Aidukatis spoke I understood almost every word! He is very annimated but very bold. He is really funny and had a laugh like a clown. haha

He talked to us about some things that our mission can do better. I want to share everything he said but one of the things he said was in the first lesson have the host of the family say the closing prayer, kneeling. It was something that I had not really ever done, but he spoke so pasionately about it. He took about 30 to practice it with us too. After some Elders practiced extending this invitation to Him, as he acted as the investigator, we all gave feed back and learned from it all lot. But then he asked for 2 other Elders to come up front to be the investigators and he would be the missionary to show us how it can be done, I stood up when he asked for a volenteer and my companion came with me. We sat down in the 2 chairs next to him and then he began by explaining to not be really difficult but still be like any of your investigators would be, and then said, "But remember, I am a General Authority!" hahahaha It gave everyone a good laugh. But then he began the role play. He began by imediately going down on his knees, and pleaded us to join him in a pleasent but direct way. And then explained that I as the head of the house would say the closing prayer, and then asked how I normally start my prayers....I responded "Dear God, or Lord." He responded with encouragement that it was perfect, and simply asked what else I include in my prayers,...I said"like things I am thankful for" again gave encouragement and then said "and then just closed with AMEN. Perfect, you can lead us in prayer." He then closed his eyes and bowed his head and waited for me to start. It was so simple, but so sincere and full of confidence. He showed us this way, because so many investigators dont want to pray, especially the first time, but doing it this way it give them so much confidence, and they pray how they are comfortable. He then explained afterwards, that obviously this is not a perfect prayer, but that God will hear it. And that we are to teach line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. As they learn more we can help them pray with more exactness but always giving them what they can handle at that specific time. It was a great training. And it was so cool to sit in front of a General Authority and practice sharing the gospel with him as he looked me right in the eyes. He truely teaches with great power. It was really great.

 It sure has helped us too! We have already tried it twice and last night we did it with a family with a man that is way inactive and his family who arent members. He hant been to church or read from the book of mormon for a loongggg time. After reading in the BOM with him and his family. My companion invited him to say the prayer to close, and he refused, he said one of us would that he couldnt. But we just did what Elder Aidukaitis said to do. Imediately after he said that, I asked them to join us by kneeling, and then explained to this brother that he knows the needs of his family and he can ask for that help through prayer, and then asked him how he starts his prayers he said "Pai Celestial" and I said, "that is perfect, what do you say afterwards?" He described a few things he sometimes asks and then I concurred and explained it is really just speaking your thoughts and feelings to him and then just close with Amen, And then I invited him to pray again, and bowed my head and closed my eyes along with my companion, and just as we knew he would, he began to pray. He gave a beautiful prayer, asking for The Father to help his family be better at living his commandments, and studying the scirptures. It was so cool!

Elder Aidukaitis gave us many other cool stories from his mission and when we was serving as mission president as well. As of which was so great! My companion and I a few days ago made a list of all the comittments he had us make there and made plans to how we would complete them. I had a lot of other goals too from other things he said that I want to continue to impliment into my missionary work!

But yeah it ended about 5:00 so we went back to the zone leaders apartment and packed up and we all got rides to the bus station but it was pretty early. We had to wait there for like 4 and 1/2 hours. But I went with a few other elders and got ice cream and subway, we couldnt find the subway and it was raining a lot so everyone went back but I was determinded to find the subway so my comp was great and came with me and it was literally like just another 2 minutes walk from the ice cream station we all ate at. haha So yeah, I had been craving subway a lot and it had been quite some time since I had a sub sandwich! I will attach a picture! (pictures are working today!) The other 2 pictures are from walking to the ice cream place and I saw this grill resturant called "Texas Grill" and I was like, "I need a picture with that!" haha The other White boy with me and my companion is the other American I was talking to on the Bus, Elder Bearden.

Then we traveled all night from 10:30 pm until 10 am the next day, Thursday, then we walked back to our apartment on the other side of town and then showered and got ready for the day. And then we finally had a really meal for lunch! I love that we have lunch in the members homes every day! It is such a blessing! Especially when i hadnt really eaten much for the previous 3 days. haha But

So yeah, it was a great trip, but like I said it took a lot out of our week! We are still working with Nealton, but Satan doesnt want us to talk to his mom, we have been trying to talk to her all week and she is never there! But Nealton is still reading and praying and still wants to be baptized! So I am still excited for him. Wendy has been sick so we havent been able to follow up with her this week either, but its not looking good for her. She still lacks the desire to change. Its sad, but all we can do is keep trying and pray. But this week will be a good week of work for us.

President Castro is coming to our area to hold a conference for the members here in Vilhena. They are so far away that they dont get much attention for other leadership. But this will be really good for them. But yeah, we will also get to have our interviews with him while he is here. I am excited for that!

But yeah, thats all I have for yall today! But I am so grateful for the experiences I am having here, and the great oppertunity it is to be enstructed by so many leaders in this church! I know that we are truely led by a true prophet today that can literally talk with our Heavenly Father and his general authorities are called of God as well! Elder Aidukaitis's testimony of President Thomas S. Monson and this church was so powerful. I too know it is true, and am so blessed to be a part of it!


I sure love you all, and hope yall have a good week! :)

-Elder Swalberg

And 2 more pictures of the little b-day party we had for Elder Carmargos on his birthday in their apartment. haha 

They are fun Elders!

 These photos are of our chapel, and me trying a fruit native to brazil called Jackfruit, in english I think but everyone here calls it Jaka. I dont really like it, it has a really strong smell, and the texture is just really slimy. but there are different kinds of jaka, this one was the softer kind. But anyway a little taste of brazil! haha 

Monday, November 17th

Hey yall!

Another week, and we have had some great things happen, but at the same time I have been made more aware of how much Satan is working, especially on our investigators.

I cant remember if I talked about one of our investigators this last week, Wendy. But she is 14 years old, and has known the church for almost 5 years, and goes to church and seminary, except when she is lazy,...but really she has been taught a bunch by missionaries. And still hasnt been baptized. We have been teaching her with her older sister Breyla (17 years) who has been a member for more than 4 years. Before I got here, my comp said they really didnt teach her, only for the lesson. But there was something that was stopping her from being baptized I wanted to know what it was. So starting last week, we started meeting with her. I really didnt know where to start and neither did my companion. So I just started asking questions of what she already understood and thought of the things she learned from missionaries, church, seminary.....and I really focused on the Book of Mormon, because we all know it is the center of all conversion in this church. We found out that she is scared of baptism and in turn we think she is scared to REALLY pray, cause she knows she will get an answer. We had such a spiritual first lesson with her, and Elder Neyra shared his conversion story with her too. It was so powerful, And so was the second lesson! She hadn't gotten an answer yet, but the second lesson, after a series of questions she answered that she believed that the BOM is true, Joesph Smith was a prophet, and that this church has the proper authority to baptize and to perform all the saving ordenances that we need here in this life. But yet she said she is more "comfortable" in her other church. Thats it! Thats all thats freaking keeping her from wanting to be baptized in the true church of Christ! Yeah, you could say the Devil is working on this poor girl. The whole branch knows her, and knows of her good heart. She is so sweet and her 2 other sisters who are members are such good examples too. But other than our Heavenly Father, Satan knows of her good better than anyone! He knows how much of a strength she will be when she is  a member of this church and he is doing everything to stop it. During our lessons my companion and I have born out our heart of how sure we are that this is the true church and that Heavenly Father with answer her prayers. I started crying like 2 times during that second lesson. The spirt was so strong. And Breyla is always such a huge help, especially getting her to commit to things. But still she hasnt been to church in 2 weeks and we went back last night to bring by some brownies that I made for them, and tried to mark another day to meet and it seemed she didnt really want to. We arent giving up on her, but we will give her a little space. But she just needs a lot of prayers!

We have another investigator we are working with Nealton. He is 17 years old, and he is a cousin of 2 young men in the branch. And he has gone to church a few times already, and he really showed a lot of interest last week as we had lunch with him at Viviana and Eliezer's house. with all the youth. He has made good friends with another young man in the branch, Emerson. We got to teach him the fist lesson at Emerson's house. It was really good. And he came to church this sunday too. After church we talked with him some more at his house, and marked a day for baptism. But the mom might be some trouble. She goes to another church. We told him, we need her authorization for him to be baptized. So we had an appointment this morning to talk with her, but she wasnt  home when he said she would be. Sadly the next time we can meet with them both is Friday, becauase we are traveling tomorrow through Thursday, for a conference. (I will explain more about this next week...all of the missionaries in Rondonia will meet in Porta Velho for the conference....24 hours of traveling by bus in total for us here in Vilhena! ;p crazy right?! Just for a meeting!) So yeah that kind of sucks, but I still think he will be baptized. We are excited for him. He is a great young man!

This week we had our district meeting. We didnt reach our goal of 30 new investigators, but it was close, so I still made a little desert that I learned how to make last week, and we ate it after district meeting. But yeah, this week we talked of the power of the message of the restoration, and how strong the spirit can be when we teach this first lesson, and the great oppeertunity that we have to mark a baptismal date in the first lesson! So this week we are working on baptismal dates. We didnt have any at the begining of the week, but now we have 2!

We also had exchanges this week. I went to the other Elders area with Elder Fericim and it was a little rough, because they really didnt have anything planned. But we did a lot of finding, and ending finding a sweet family, with 3 older teen boys. The mother, was really really sweet, and I hope that it works for them to continue teaching them. But Elder Fericim really does teach well. They just lack the investigators that can really progress. they have a lot of families , but almost all of the parents arent married. That is such a huge problem here! I dont even know why! So many, I think, are just lazy. Its not even that expensive for them. Its really just another thing that Satan uses to keep so many people from joining this church. He is consistantly degrading the image and importance of marriage. But it was still really good to get to know the other Elders area to know how I can better help them.

In our branch we had 76 people at sacrament meeting! And I think we even had more during the first hour, because sacrament meeting is last in this branch! It was really cool! Part of it was because the son of our branch president, President Rui, returned home from his mission this week! He was serving in Salvador, Brazil. He is really cool. We had lunch at their house the day after he got home, and he was talking to us about how weird it is not to have a name tag, and stuff like that! haha. Its really going to be so weird to return home. Its really only 6 months away now! But I am hoping that if he stays around here, that he will be our branch mission leader, because right now we dont have one right now.

But yeah, this week will be way good, with zone conference, with a general authority of the seventy, and a bunch of appointments already set for the days we will be getting back. It should be a really exciting week. we will be sleeping at the other Elders house tonight and then get on our bus at 7 in the morning tomorrow.

I know when I see Satan at work around me, I am doing something right. I know these people are such special souls and I am so glad to be here, so far from my home, just to help them! What a privalege it is to be the Lords servent here.

Thank you so much for all your support.

I love yall so much!

-ELder Swalberg

Monday, November 10th, 2014

Well its already been another week, and I cant believe it! I don't really know what to say about this week. haha Like I said last week I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and really try to do everything I could to find more investigators and find some people that really would be able to progress. And I really had been studying a lot about this and really praying for help. I also gave a training on finding from chapter 9 of PMG for district meeting. We came up with methods of finding that have worked best for each of us. And we made a goal to find 30 new investigators, 15 in each area. we are a couple days away from our week long goal, and we still need to find 15 more as a district. But I have faith we can do it! We had some crazy miracles happen that same day we made that goal actually. 

We found a lady, Rosilleni, at the old lady, Allysi's house. She was way solid and said she would read and pray, and accepted a soft baptismal invitation too. Then we were just walking down the street and this lady comes out of a store and chased us down because it looked like she was hesitating to talk to us or not. But she chased us down saying, "Wait are yall with the mormon church?" (I dont really think they have the word "yall" in Portuguese but thats how Im choosing to remember what she said) And we were like "yeah!" She then discribed that practically all of her family is a member of the church but they are from São Paulo, and she moved into town pretty recently and she promissed her family she would visit the church to see what its like. She said she couldnt this sunday and that she was busy all week until next Sunday. So we werent able to set anything up, but we got her number and she said we could come by next week. So I am excited about that too. There were other mircale too that we received as we looked for more people to teach, and really put ourselves out there. 

The sad thing is we can't control everthing. A lot of our miracles had some sad endings already, most of which happened on Saturday. Rosilleni, we visited her again and we walked way to the end of our area, about a 40 minute walk to teach her. It was another great lesson, but we came at an hour when her husband would be home. But he didnt want to sit in. So at the end of the lesson we comitted her to be baptized in about 2 weeks. And she said she knows she wants to, but needs to feel worthy first and one is to get married first...WHAT?! She caught us by surprise because she referred to her husband in muitilpe instances like they were already married. So obviously that was fine, and we said that marrage is a great first step to baptism. Then still happy, yet a little disapointed at the new challenge ahead, the husband came out after we left and step out the gate and called out saying they know where our church is so we dont have to come back there. Yeah.....it wasnt in a rude way, but esentially he told us not to come back. Gah.....at that point I knew, even though she said she would, that Rosilleni would not be at church the next day. Which turned out to be true. 

Then another family we found and were really excited to get to know better werent home at the appointed time....luckily we found the 2 kids in the street getting ice cream later that day and talked to them really quick, but they said they could come to church either, And didn't know when we could come by again. So we will just have to try again this week. But this kind of thing happened all day Saturday, even our apointment with a member giving us dinner that night fell through when we showed up, she had forgot and was really busy. It was just a rough day, and it was followed up by Sacrament meeting with only 1 investigator and he had to leave the last hour too....and he only came because we went to his house and woke him up. We had made plans for 4 other investigators to come to church and the members that were to have taken them either forgot, woke up late and didnt have time, or the investigator wasn't ready in time. Yeah...and then it rained all day! hahaha It was rough on numbers and spirits. Its just really hard when you try so hard, put yourself out of your comfort zone talking with poeple that you can't even fully understand and still end up falling on your butt, and not seeing the results you wanted to see. 

But the important part is this...I still have 4 more weeks here. And I am not giving up, if anything, Im going to just try to do more until I start to see this area change. And always remembering that I can't control everything.

We still had fun things happen this week, even with these challenges. Elder Carmargos, one of the other Elders in Vilhena, had his 20th birthday and I made brownies and we went over there to their apt. during our dinner hour and had a good time. eating and playing Uno! I have pictures, but this computer is not allowing me to attach pictures. These computer houses here in Brazil often have weird restrictions that make it really hard to upload photos. But I will try next week. 

And Also Sunday I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting. Between district meeting and church I am getting a lot of practice at giving talks in Portuguese. Often times we teach the youth when the teacher is gone, and gospel principles. So yeah, that is good practice for me for sure. We also have a younger couple that are way cool Viviana and Eliezer. Eliezer is a recent convert of a little over a year, and she was inactive for a while until he was baptized. But they were married a few years ago, but this january will be sealed in the temple. They are pretty excited. They had us and all of the youth over for lunch after church yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and great to get to know the youth better. They like to have me say difficult words in Portuguese or tounge twisters in portuguese, like "sally sells sea shells by the sea shore". One of them was recording me try. It was pretty funny. But I only know it was funny because I had them try to say "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". And that was pretty funny! haha

But yeah, I know things are only rough because my father in heaven wants me to grow and learn something. And he still continually blesses me with many great things. I am so greatfull for his strength and comfort. 

Thank you all for you strength and comfort as well. 
Love yall! 

-Elder Swalberg