Nov. 5th, 2012

Hey family. 
I dont mind hearing about how the elections go, i think its interesting, but it seems like destins not the biggest fan haha. just let me know who wins. i LOVE all the pictures you all have sent!!! mom, you win. your costume is the best costume i have ever seen. i love it. I would like to know who failed to take a picture of dad being grapes? and of david and amber and the stranger who is their son, because nobody sends me pictures of him! throw an apple in there and you could have been fruit of the loom ahahahahaha. oh my lanta. so funny. and i love that picture you took of me dad, how did you get that of me? i would like to point out that i am holding the bow and arrow correctly. 
The work here is... progressing? ish. We have some investigators, but they each have something stopping them from progressing. The other sisters who we live with literally have people come up to them and are like, "baptize me. tomorrow." what? who does that happen to? it happens to the sisters we share sector with like, every week. not sure how, but they are doing something right. But we are happy for them, we just have to keep working hard and have to figure out how to overcome the challenges, the road blocks that are stopping all the people we are teaching. 
We had an activity, there wasnt exactly a ton of support from the branch. but the good news was that people showed up, we did a reenactment of the dream of lehi and the iron rod, it was cool. lots of work, and most of the references we took by force hahaha, and are under aged and their parents are all catholic, and want nothing to do with us. but hey, you got to start somewhere. My companion was struggling a bit, had her bags packed and was ready to go home, but changed her mind this week and decided to stay so that was good. Its been interesting here in quillabamba, i am learning more about perserverence and really have to question myself why is it that nobody is progessing? what are we doing wrong? Why am i so tired? the truth is that its hard, but we will figure it out. I remember that rachel told me that if i needed to learn one thing, its how not to quit when things get hard, and she was right. That is something i have always struggled with, but i am grateful for this time of trial because if i have ever had to stick it out, its now. and the best part is i dont even want to quit, i just want to figure out how to be better. 
Welp, thats all the time i have for now. i love you all so so so much! thank you for sending all the awesome pictures, i am so blessed to have such a cool family.

Con amor, Hermana Swartz.