Jan. 7th, 2013

Hey family! This has been such a good week! but before I get into that, Dad, how is your back? are you going to be able to go to your classes okay? Rachel, i love hearing about boston and maddie! Brilliant idea about the monster spray hahaha he used the whole bottle eh? I love that little boy. and I am sure Maddie and I will be best friends. I cant believe how grown up she sounds! So weird. Destin! How funny that freezing is not that cold for you in Russia haha. I have been in the jungle since march, and just found out i dont have a change! I am going to have 6 months here in Quillabamba!!! I love it here, and my companion is fantastic, and so is the other companionship of sisters we live with. They have all helped out tons this week because I couldnt do everything i normally am able to do. I think they are going to take the stitches out today, so thats good. 

Mom, how awesome that your students got whipped by a 75 year old woman. Grandma is so awesome. With a raquet in her hand, that woman is a MACHINE. I love our family hahaha. 

Alright, this week was a really good week. My companion and I are super excited to get to work this up coming week too because we thought i was going to have a transfer, but I am staying! there is a family we are working with that the dad is inactive, and he has two kids and lives with the mom but is not married. They want to get married and all get baptized! We are so excited because working with families  is so awesome because you feel like you are doing a good job as a missionary. And also, miranda is going to the temple to be baptized for her mom who passed away so we are really happy for her. Its so interesting because the happiness of investigators and members is our happiness, and their sadness is our sadness. 

This week, I have been studying a lot about sacrifices and the type of sacrifices we need to have. In the Liahona... i dont know if its in the ensign or not, but there was an article about a family that was doing a service project and their 3 year old son and 4 year old daughter were asked to give up a toy for a needy family. The mom went to check on the little girl wondering which toy she would give and found her daughter rocking her favorite doll singing to her and then tucked her in to the gift bag with a little blanket and said that she hoped someone would love her. the little girl didnt change her mind, or feel sad after about her decision. What an example! I was reading in Exodus 12 about sacrifice and how christ was the perfect sacrifice, with out defect. What type of sacrifice am i willing to give? Just something i wanted to share that I was studying this week. 

I love you all so much and i hope you all have an awesome week this week!

Romi! Feliz año nuevo! Todavia estoy aca en Quillabamba y es lo maximo. Estaba pensando en usted y quiero que sepa que le quiero mucho, y espero que este año sea lo mejor. 

Rogers- Thank you for the email! I really appreciate you taking the time to write.  Luz talks about you all the time, you have really impacted their family. Actually, all of Quillabamba still talks about you and all the good things that happened when you were here with your zone. It is obvious that you gave your very best as a missionary, you can tell what type of missionary a person was by what they leave behind. I hope everything is going well for you wherever you are, and that you know that there are a lot of people here who love and miss you. 

Hermana Swartz