Letter #27 from Mary

Daddy, can you forward this to everyone please??? Thanks pops. I loved
your email haha with the 15 year olds... some times i feel the same way
with investigators, only instead of drinking redbull, theyre drinking hard
liquor. so fun. Mom, sounds like a blast in canada!!! oh my lanta, so fun.
sometimes a getaway with friends is exactly what we need. Hey did you guys
get my package, i sent a package with some music... I reallly hope you got
it! 

Rachel, i would love more of the physician formula concelear. the make up
is not so great here. I love love love hearing about my adorable nefews and
neice... i had a dream that you are going to have another baby in february,
just a heads up on that. that would be way cool if you guys go to london
for a few months!!! cool oportunity!!!

Destin, wow. Russia is tough, but fascinating. My key indicators are
normally contacts, 50 ish, with member 15, 12, 10 10, 12 new, less active
and converts 10. ish. Its a little tough with the members sometimes, but
the whole mission is now really focusing on getting the members to
participate in the ward and branch mtc. they have to get contacts, and give
away books of mormon, and at the end they graduate, but it teaches the
members how to share the gospel so we can work on a bigger scale! i am
soooo excited.

Yesterday we had district conference, we sang a special number and then
president called me up to sing a duet with him hahahaha oh man, so we sang
on the spot... it was really special ahaha. But i feel so grateful for all
of the blessings i have recieved and i can not imagen my life with out this
mission. I have truly been so blessed with incredible opportunities, its
incredible. my panion has a transfer, and i am staying here in the jungle.
i wont get to finish training her. President told me he is putting hermana
creek as my companion. She is an american sister that is struggling with
the language, and hasnt had much help from her companions. pres has never
put two american sisters together before... and we are from the same group,
we were together in the mtc! so that will be interseting, but i am really
sad to not be with hermana ayala. she is so christ like and really has
tought me so much about how to serve. i love her so so much. oh well, such
is the mission.

oh daddy you asked about how are my investigators... this month has been a
little rough. but we have three baptisms scheduled for the 28th. we have
been working really hard with isabel, she is around 60 yrs old and feels
she is too old to get baptized and feels embarrassed. we are really working
to help her feel that age does not matter to christ. Tambien we have 2
kids, 9 and eleven and they come from part member families. and want to be
baptized. so thats good. anyway, please pray for isaabel to have the
courage and the kids to have the support from their families to be
baptized.

Letter #26 from Mary

Hey family! I love the moab pictures!!!! Dad, you are so cool. The Elders
were all very impressed. I am not going to lie, i am a little jealous. Cant
wait to go when i get home!!!! It sounds like you two are playing more than
ever. Whats that like again? I cant remember.

Destin, what is it like being a missionary in Russia? Do you guys knock
tons of doors? How many contacts do you get a week? What do you guys do
all day? Do you focus on the same investigators for months and months? Its
got to be the same, but so different because we find people and teach them,
and if they dont progress, we drop in 3 weeks. I would love to know what
you guys do over there. Lots of activities, or what?

This week we helped a family move, the whole zone did a service. but it
wasnt your typical move job... here its a little different. We took apart
the whole house and carried all the materials to the new lot to rebuild the
house. We literally moved an entire house. So much work, and of course we
didnt completely finish, but the majority of the house we moved in about 4
hours. We were beyond tired, but its always a good feeling to serve others.

Welp family, love you so much! i love the mission, we are struggling a
little with the investigators right now, we havent had one baptism this
month, but we have 3 that can get baptized the 28th, so we are really going
to focus on what they need, and see if we can help them gain a testimony.
And if we dont reach our goal of 3 baptisms this month, its okay. the most
important thing is that the people we baptize really have a testimony of
the gospel. Baptize converts is the goal. Anyway, love you tons family and
friends! tell maddie happy birthday!!!!


Romanette!!!  Chica, yo le puedo llamar por su nombre ahora! <usted es la
presidenta de mujeres jovenes, eh? lo maximo. No lo puedo creer que usted
ya se fue para la casa, y esta viviendo normal!!! Que raro! Que bueno que
mi hermana le accepto por face, por fin! Usted va a subir todas las fotos
para que las pueda ver despues de la mision, ¿ya? No se olvide de su hija
aca en peru, en la mision! Le quiero mucho, y se que las chicas en su rama
le necesitan, y van a aprender tantas cosas de usted.  Hasta luega
mamita!!!

Hermana Swartz

Letter #25 from Mary

DAVID, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I didnt forget your birthday, I just forgot to TELL you happy birthday last pday, but I thought about you all day! all the elders in my district wore their american flag ties and put up flags all over, and we had soda to celebrate being americans, and the latinos celebrated with us. some of them even know the pledge of allegience haha. we are all very very patriotic hahahaha. man, the states. how i love being american.

yes the strap broke, I just took them to get them repaired on friday, and they are working great. its only about 24 soles, like 10 dollars to fix both pairs, so they should be good to go. Thanks for responding though :) holy cow, Mckenna looks incredible! i cant believe she is married. super wierd.

Okay here is the update with me. I got a call on saturday morning from president Calderon, the mission president that i was flying out to cusco at noon because there was another musical conference, and he wanted me to sing again. so i flew out from puerto to cusco, and stayed the night in the mission home, my comp stayed with the others sisters in puerto. Then I went to church in the morning, and right after church they put me on a combi to sicuani, its a 2 hour bus ride thats jam packed with people. so fun. so i get to sicuani around three, we have practice at 4 until 6 and then at 7 we performed. THere were about 700 or 800 people there. I sang sigueme again with hermana martinez, and this time I was the soloist for the song his hands, in spanish obviously. and i didnt forget the words this time!!! There are three of us that are going to be traveling all over the mission to do the musical presentation. Elder Galvez on piano, Hermana martinez is the choir director, and sings the duet with me, and I am going to be singing. We are going to Quillabamba, Valle sagrado, Puno, Abancay, puerto maldonado,  all over. Its really fun, but its not so fun traveling on bus for hours and hours, so it was cool to fly in, much easier. I just got back about an hour ago from cusco, and am back in puerto for pday. Its really a gorgeous presentation, there are tons of members, and investigators, and the missionaries are coming out of it with people with baptismal dates. its awesome.

I hope everything is going well back in utah! sounds like there have been a lot of fires... wow!   its strange how quickly life moves. especially when I am watching from the outside hahaha. Well family, I LOVE being a missionary, I have been so blessed to be here at this time. I feel like the Lord has just taken my hand and lead me to the places where I would grow the most, and where I would find the most joy. I love you guys so so much! miss you all tons, but I know i am exactly where i am supposed to be. 

Letter #24 From Mary

Hey family! it sounds like everything is going really well in utah these
days. I love hearing about how Boston is in tumbling! oh my gosh, i wish i
could see him running around. Man i have some cute nephews and a super cute
niece. So you guys had the driest summer ever huh? I have to say i miss
dry weather just a little. And Mckenna is getting married, and Jessica had
her baby!!! oh my gosh! that is awesome. What did she name the baby? That
is great that Kevin and Jill are grandparents! wow, thats weird that kenna
is getting married. so weird. I didnt get destin´s email this week, and
can you please PLEASE tell me about the shoes!? this is the 3rd week i have
asked, and nobody has told me what i need to do.  i need replacements!!!!
please look into that today! and let me know what i need to do. i am almost
positive there is a warranty, and both pairs went out after only 6 months.
nope. not acceptable. please let me know please let me know please let me
know. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

Okay, now the good stuff. We had a baptism on saturday, Klebert got
baptized! it was really awesome. Klebert has 4 daughters and all are
baptized and his wife is a member too. He gave his testimony and said that
he had listened to countless numbers of companionships of missionaries, and
never accepted. other times, he shut the door in their faces. He said he
was so grateful to me and hermana caicedo, he said that we were the only
ones who were able to touch his heart. Its so strange, because we had no
idea that he had been dificult in the past, he seemed to us like a golden
investigator because we didnt have a registro, a teaching record. wow, that
took me and an english elder about 3 minutes to remember how to say
registro in english haha so funny. anyway, anyway, its interesting because
i know that it will be the same with some of the people we had to drop,
that one day, some of them will accept the gospel, they just arent quite
ready yet, or are waiting for the right person to explain the gospel in a
way that they can understand.

Also we went to visit Jorge, who was our first baptism out here in puerto,
he has sort of been flailing lately with the gospel, skipping church, and
we just felt like he was different. So yesterday we went to go talk to him
to figure out what was going on with him. At first he was really closed
off, but then opened up about how whenever he does something good,
something bad follows. He said, i know if i pray today and read my
scriptures, tomorrow, bad things will happen. and it true, he told us all
of the bad things that happen right after he makes a good decision. He said
he is not happy at this time in his life because he knows he is making bad
decisions, and he knows the gospel is true, but whats the point in praying
or going to church if horrible things follow. We explained to him that yes,
there are times of trial. But that we are here to be tried, and tested and
the people that remain faithful in the times of trial are the people that
recieve the blessings. We have to stay strong. I told him he needed to
repent, and come back if he wanted to be happy. its not easy to be a member
of the church of Jesus Christ, but it is worth it.

The gospel is true. I am so grateful to all my friends and family who have
sent letters, i love hearing about all the things i am missing. Its
interesting looking in from the outside, and watching how quickly life
moves. I love the gospel, I am working hard to be exactly obedient, my
companion is so great! I love the mission, I love peru, I love the
people, I love the gospel.

Love Hermana Swartz.

Letter #23 from Mary plus pictures!

Hey family! Everything is really good here in puerto maldonado. My companion is wonderful, she is so great. we have a good number of people progressing, we had 5 investigators in church yesterday, so that was great.  Thats hard with destins companion, its hard to be a good leader. I feel the same way, that i dont deserve to be a leader. but if the lord wants me to train, i will do the best i can. I have had dark circles under my eyes this entire week and last week from the stress of everything, it had everyone asking me if i was eating okay, or if i was getting any sleep. but last night i finally felt like i was able to get a good 8 hours. its hard because we are always running, always stressing over what the investigators need, what do the members need, what do the leaders need, what does my companion need, and I forget about everthing else!

The mission is good, i wish i had good stories for you, but this week, we just worked hard and we should have a baptism this saturday, Klebert.

Rachel, holy cow! you almost died it sounds like! i am so so so glad your kids and house are okay. That would stress me out so much, i dont know what i would do or how i would feel, not knowing if the next time you see your house if it would be in ashes or not. scary. but awesome that it turned out okay!

Momma, you are home it sounds like! its good, i think daddy missed you :) I love you daddy, love you mom, and rachel and chris, david and amber and destin, and all my cousins and grandparents, and friends. i have been so blessed to have such a strong foundation of people who love me, i am so grateful for all of you, and the support i have recieved here.

can some PLEASE look into getting my shoes replaced asap??? i know there is a warrantee, and my two pairs i bought are broken. what do i need to do to get more??? i have a pair i am using, but its a cheap pair, and wont last long here in the jungle.

 

Love you all. Hermana Swartz.

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