Letter #22 from Mary

Hey Daddy! HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!  I hope
Fathers day rocked, even though your favorite child is serving in Peru. 
But I miss you and I thought about you all day! I hope it went well, one
more fathers day, and I come home right after! I am just sending this to
you, can you forward this to mom and rachel, and david and the family?

This week was a really busy week! I got a new companion, hermana Ayala,
and she is the best comp ever. I absolutely adore her. She is from El
Salvador, but lived in Costa Rica. We are in Cusco right now but just for
today! we go back to puerto maldonado tonight. This week, we had our 2
weddings, and the two couples got baptized saturday morning. The fifth
drank the night before, so we are going to keep working with him. It was
amazing to watch the two couples bear their testimonies, there is a joy
that comes from bringing others to the gospel that cant be explained. Right
after the baptisms saturday, we got on a bus to Cusco for the recital.
There were about 1000 people there, and it was amazing. There were three of
us that sang solos and sang together, and it went really well. Well, except
for the fact that I had to start the first song, and got lost for about 5
seconds, and it was the longest 5 seconds of my life. I was super
embarrassed, but I found my place and picked it back up.

Also, yesterday I had the chance to go to attend the ttio ward, my first
area. Jose, our investigator who only looked at the ground, and who had
made so much progress and then i left to puerto, he and his pareja got
married, and he blessed the sacrament yesterday. I could not help but cry
as i heard him pray. He has truly had a complete change of heart in his
life, i have never seen anything so drastic, and its all because of the
gospel. The lord truly blessed me to be able to see the fruits of my labors
yesterday, and i am so grateful. most missionaries do not get that chance.
What a blessing.

Life is good, I love you all, i´ll try to send a picture soon of the
mullet. It rocks. you will love it. The church is true.

Hermana Swartz.

Dear mom and daddy! 


Welp, tomorrow is change day! The big news is that
I am training again! I am staying here in puerto another 12 weeks.
Also, my companion is going to train. I am sooo proud of her, I am
going to be a grandma!  This means another 12 weeks of the 12 week
program, 9 months in total of the 12 week program. Thats half of my
mission!!!!! But its all good, I told my companion it must be because
I havent learned what i need to learn yet out of the program and so
the Lord is going to keep me in the program until I have learned
what it is I need to learn.
The double wedding is this Friday, and then Saturday morning we have 5
baptisms. I'll be here for the wedding, but then Saturday night I have
to go to cusco, and leave my poor new comp here to handle the 5
baptisms. Luckily the Zone leaders said they would take care of the
baptisms for us since she´ll be bran new and I'll be  MIA.
The recital is this Sunday, the 17th. I have not had anytime to
practice, because we finished up everything for the double wedding,
plus we had a baptism Saturday, and a mutual activity with the youth.
When I first got here, there was no branch council, and 40 attendance
to the sacrament meeting, and no programs for the youth. It has grown
so much, there is now Branch counsel every week, programs for the
youth, the attendance has gone up to 105 mas o menos, and we could not
be happier. There are over 600 members, and only 100 attendance so
obviously we have a lot of work to do.
A few funny things, Rach, My pencionista has a 3 yr old daughter and
she saw the pictures of Boston and was absolutely smitten. Her name is
Alexa, and I loooove her!! I laughed so hard, She was all, “mmmmm”
hahahahaha oh my gosh so funny. Also, next item of business, I went
to get my hair trimmed, and she gave me an interesting arrangement.
Its called a mullet, and there is a freakish resemblance to Joe
Dirt. David i trust you´ll inform mom who that is. But hey, thats
life. It´ll grow.
Also, my shoes from missionary mall are broken! I need to know if
they can replace them? I believe they have a warrantee, and I need to
know what to do to get more. Dad, can you go to missionary mall, they
keep a record of all the receipts I think so you should be able to go
with my information and ask them what you can do from there. Also
daddy, I love the picture of uncle darrel! I miss camping in montana.
Lets go when i get home, yeah? Have fun this week with mom being gone,
you dont have to check in with anyone!!!  Tell darrel  I love him, and
tell brent I love him, and his jeep. Cant wait to take it out when I
get back!!!! hahaha
Mom thats so awesome you are in spain! Please send me pictures! I want
to go to spain someday, even though they talk wierd. Rachel,  I love
hearing about boston and maddie, sounds like you two had a blast this
last week. I love you all, miss you all!
PS, what does shot gunning mean in missionary terms? Kassie sent me a
letter saying she is shot gunning on her mission, and im pretty sure
its not referring to weaponary. We dont have the same slang here in
Peru haha.  Love you all!!!

ps christy, i can definitely get emails from you! i just cant write
you back personally.

Mary's Latest email: #20

Hey Family, 

Hope all is well in the states and in russia! This week the trainers and District and Zone Leaders all traveled to cusco, myself included. It was really great, I love going to cusco. It was a little rough, becuase we have a lot of things we need to improve on, but there were some interesting things that were announced. First, background info, When President was here with the assistents, we were eating dinner with them and the Zone Leaders, and just making conversation I mentioned how Rachel was a traveling sister at the end of her mission. He also asked us to sing a song and told us he´d buy us ice cream if we sang, so of course i sang and thought nothing of it, and ate my icecream with as much joy as a 3 year old little girl. Here are the effects of a seemingly innocent dinner with President. president apparently loved the idea of traveling sisters and announced this conference that he is going to call two sister assistants to the president to travel and work with the sisters of the Mission. So Rachel, you have officially influenced the Mission of Peru Cusco. NIce work. He also had me sing the closing song to the conference as a solo and announced that i would be singing in a musical recital in cusco on the 17th. so... I have go back to cusco on the 15th, and we are going to get everything ready. Yep. I dont know how that happened, but it just did. Awesome.

I got your package for my birthday!!! Thanks for the peanut butter, and tissues. I cought a cold in cusco, and gave it to my comp, so it was perfect timing! I also got Mariela´s package. I got a letter from her saying she was sad i didnt get it, but I got it! i loved her package, we made the mashed potatoes in the pension, and it rocked. I love her. I also just got a letter from Meaghan Reese, and Mackenzie pedersen... I love them! I am soooo grateful for all of the letters from friends and family, a letter can turn your whole week around and put a smile on your face when everything else is going wrong. I love it out here, I love the mission. right now we are having a hard time because all of our investigators have to get married! We are trying to find others as well but its hard. Everybody smokes, or has their pareja, but that is what we are here for, right? The Gospel of Jesus Christ litterally changes the way people live their lives, and it is such a blessing to be able to help people change. its not easy, and takes time, and requires patience, which i completely lack by the way, but in the end i know it will be worth it if we can bring that family to the gospel, and the joy that comes with making eternal covenants.

I love you all, I miss you all my dear family, and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to serve here in Peru, in Puerto Maldonado.

Hermana Swartz

Mary's 19th letter

Hola familia!! I had a really great birthday on Saturday! Julio and
Keila surprised us with cake and they bought me a present too! They
are so great; hopefully we can wrap things up with their wedding and
get them baptized before next transfer. I also had cake with another
family of our converts. Then our pencionista surprised us with another
cake and a few members were there. It was a really really good day.
Man time is passing so quickly, crazy.
Yesterday we had 112 people come to sacrament meeting!!!! I am so so
so happy about that because that is a record here in Puerto Maldonado.
life is good here on the mission. We are a little sad because we
didn’t reach our goal of 2 baptisms this month, we only had one, but
we are working hard to get 4 couples married who want to get baptized.
It is ridiculous here, its so hard to get married! It takes like, 3
months. So dumb.  We are going to put a goal for 4 baptisms in june,
and I think we are going to be able to do it.I love this gospel so so
much, and bringing people to this gospel is the hardest most awesome
thing ever. unlike in Russia, everybody normally listens to us,  and
smile, and they know what to say to make you think they want to get
baptized, and then they don’t progress. Its hard because you can spend
3 weeks on someone because they had all the right answers, and they
know what you want to hear, but they had decided from the beginning
that they are catholic and will never change.  This week was hard
because we straight up had people tell us no. That never happens in
Puerto! And it happened to us all week. So now we are just trying to
find people that genuinely will listen to us and not put on a face to
make us happy.

Thank you all for your birthday wishes, I had a wonderful birthday
here in Peru, I miss and love you all so much! Please tell Jenna I
got her picture she drew for me for Christmas!! I love her, and all
of their family. I have been so blessed to have you guys for my
family, thank you thank you thank you.

Love, Hermana Swartz

Mary's 18th letter form Peru

My beloved family!!! It was sooo great to talk to you all yesterday!!! I definitely felt like I could have talked for 2 hours and it would not have been enough time. Mom, I realized after I hung up, that I forgot to tell you happy mother´s day!!! So happy mother´s day momma, thank you so much for all you have done for me. I gave a talk about how you raised us telling us you would rather have us dead and spiritually alive then live a long life, but reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to have the understanding of who i am and where i come from. Man it sounds like russia is a rough mission, that would be so hard to not have anyone interested. but how awesome that he gets to go to the temple!!! i would give my left hand to go to the temple in lima. We have so many people that are interested, that love christ here. The main thing we run into here is that they all are die hard catholics and worship los santos and the virgin guadalupe and maria, and have parades with the little doll and everybody is just worshiping this little doll... APOSTASY!!! yeah, but thats peru for ya. The people here are good, but getting a peruvian to church on time.. wow. so hard. fulfilling their promises so that they progress... difficult. President is coming into town this week and we have our interviews and a zone conference. so that will be great, President is the best with getting people to complete their promises. Also, im glad you liked the pictures! President chiang was sad not one of you responded to his email though, if you could send him a thank you email, that would be really cool. Also, family. sad news. I am probably going to come home from the mission a bit chunky... we aren't allowed to go running because its a little dangerous, and we have a pencionista that cooks for us all three meals, and they get offended if you dont eat all the food. if you ask for less, they give you more! so, thats the mission. The work is good, life is good, and i would not trade this experience for the world. Its crazy but i really do feel like a different person from the last time i talked to you all in december. anyway, the church is true, and i can not deny the truth of the gospel of jesus christ, and never will. Hermana Swartz

Mary's 17th letter from Peru

My Dear Family and Friends! This week has been a good week. Hermana Caicedo and I changed rooms, and so now we are not next to a night club. So thats been nice to be able to sleep with out reggeton blasting all night. Now the only issue is that we sleep on the third floor, and its sooooo hot!! Holy cow. But such is life. The good part is that we are only in our room in the morning and at night, so its not too bad. We are teaching a lot of people right now, a lot of couples that have to get married before they can get baptized! We do have one investigator with a baptismal date, bania who is going to baptized the 19th of this month! She is sooo funny I love her. There is not too much happening other than that. Just working hard, loving life. The jungle is great… but i cant lie, the heat is a little much for me. But its super pretty, so thats good. Mom and dad, I am going to call at 6:30 or 7 my time, 4:30 or 5 your time and i can not wait to talk to you! I love you guys, i hope everything is going well back in utah! Mom its way cool you are going to spain in june! We have a guy from spain in our rama, he´s cool. He talks funny, but he´s cool. Jajaja. Anyway, gotta run. I love you all! Mom and dad, happy anniversary yesterday! And Happy birthday to boston! I cant believe he is 3! Wow, time is passing quick. Anyway, love you all! Hermana Swartz

Mary's 16th letter from Peru

Hey mom! you know me so well. i keep forgetting to bring my license with me, but i will try to remember to bring it. What time should i call for mothers day? Life is good here in the jungle. most of my rashes and insect bites are clearing up as i have been wearing more insect repellent so that is good. I have become accustomed to eating and drinking ants... normal. protein. One elder just showed me pictures of him eating worms. there is a white, fat worm here people love. sick. Nobody tried to shoot me and i havent met anybody from the mafia, like some people on missions.... haha but it was a good week. we had 2 baptisms on saturday, oscar and jhoan. they are the cousins of Jorge who got baptized about 2 weeks ago, and all three of them received the priesthood yesterday!!! I am overjoyed with all three of them. yesterday in Gospel principles, jorge introduced himself and said he was grateful to have found the true church. He always bears his testimony and always wants to pray. This week, his mom told us that she walked into the cuarto (almost nobody has an actual house, just cuartos, or a room with a bathroom.) and she found him reading the book of mormom just crying. he is 16 years old. I love the gospel sooooo much! I have never seen people change so much, so fast than i am seeing right now on the mission. anyway, thats all for this week. I love you guys, like destin said hearing about the family dinner makes me excited to eat mashed potatoes and roast with everybody! I love you all! Hermana Swartz

Mary's 15th Letter from Peru

Hey family! wow Destin had a crazy week haha. people trying to shoot him and cut him and what not. Here, we had an interesting experience too- we were talking to a man on the street and he was offended that we couldnt hug him and give him a kiss. he then wraps his arms around me and is yelling JESUS LOVES YOU! TEAR DOWN YOUR WALLS AND FEEL THE LOVE OF JESUS!!! yeah, so that was interesting. my poor companion was hiding behind me until he got to her too hahaha. wow. yeah. I love teaching people about the gospel of jesus christ and watching the difference it makes in their lives. I am beyond prideful and i could just humble myself, it would be that much easier to teach people with the spirit!!! to answer questions from last week, no i have not recieved any packages. I did recieve the letter from elles momma, i love her so much! the water here swirls counter clockwise in the toilets, and my return date is 26 of june 2013. Love you all! peru rocks on ice! no time - love you all! Hermana swartz

Mary's 14th letter

Hey family! apparently the int connection is terrible out here because it took over an hour to get into my email!! Is Destin training too??? Mom, dont worry. There are no dinosaurs, and i am not going to die from bug bites, although sometimes i feel like i might lol. Its pretty safe where i am at, and i dont know all of the reasons for why they pulled the whole district out, but one sister had a bite from her last area that got infected, and everything swells out here, so they pulled her. and the other sister had been here 6 months, and president never keeps people missionaries in an area more than 6 months. We do not have a shack, we have a room with an awesome view overlooking pueblo viejo, and the jungle. this morning i woke up at about 5:30 because i couldnt sleep it was too hot, and watched the sunrise over the jungle- it was soooo awesome. We had a baptism this week, Jorge was baptized!!!! woot. and we have about 5 lined up for april, but we´ll see how it goes. Conference rocked, as always. I love love love Elder Holland, he always burns people in his talks and I love it sooo much!!! haha. super powerful. all the talks were fantastic really. I love my companion, and i am slowly adjusting to puerto maldonado. it is supposed to get up to 50 celcius here in the next month or so... i am not sure what that is in degrees F, but let me tell you it is soooo hot with a thousand percent humidity. Life is good, the gospel is true, I love it sooo much. I love the scriptures and the more time i spend being a missionary the more I feel like i know christ a little more. love you all!!!! Hermana Swartz

Hey Family! I am in Puerto Maldonado, aka Satans kitchen, and I am baking!!!! Its straight up jungle here, people eat monkey for dinner. Its a ten hour bus ride from Cusco to puerto, and on the bus looking out the window I kept thinking holy cow, they filmed Jurassic park here, that or RIO _;) My companion´s name is Hermana Caicedo from Ecuador. the best way to describe her is that if they made Whoopee Goldberg into a disney character, she would be my companion. I am training, it turns out it was not a joke after all, and we are opening the area together. SOOO much responsibility for someone who doesn't understand whats going on that well (me). They pulled the whole district out of Puerto and put in me and my comp, and my district leader, who is also training. the four of us make up a brand new district. It's a lot of responsibility and I had to repent because just a week ago, I remember thinking, oh my gosh can we please finish the area book and go to bed? and now here i am, being the responsible one that makes us finish all the things we have to do before we can go to bed. I miss Cusco, but puerto has its charms as well. I have always had a hard time with change, but hopefully that is something i can learn - how to adapt. I love hearing about Maddie and Boston!!! Rach, remember how I was always wanted a dog? yeah, the mission has changed my mind. I no longer feel any desire to have a dog, its funny how only 3 months can change something i have always wanted haha. Family, mom, dad, rachel chris, david, amber, destin, grandparents, cousins aunts uncles, everybody. I love you all so much, and I have never felt more blessed to have the family I do. I hope you all are doing well! love you, miss you all! love, Hermana Swartz