25 October 2010 (part 2)

The first is that I gave my first talk in Spanish and it was so hard because it was in Spanish but every one was really nice about it and asked how long I had been on a mission. My anwser really suprises them. The second is that we watched a parade. The whole town here stops for the parade and we knew that the people that we had set up to teach were in the parade and we were right. It was one high schools homecoming and all of the middle schools and the elementary schools were in it too so there was going to be no one at their house.

Emergency information can be texted to xxxxxxxxx don't give this number out! this is the phone number of the cell that I carry with me. I cannot reply. Don't send me alerts about bad weather because we already get those. I was told that you should never have to use this number again so just get rid of it after you use it. It is the phone number for this area. I was at a dinner appiontment and the person wants to meet you. (mom) That got me thinking. are you still planning on coming down here to pick me up? (Dustin couldn't remember the pin for his debit card)

BTW regular chips with hotsauce is really good. Also cucumber with lime and a tiny bit of salt is really good. OK something that I learned last night at dinner. Thats when I do the most speaking. We learned the Spanish form of spanglish. Like we add an -o to the end of every word they add -eshon to the end of everyword. It was very hard to understand. There I had my first bad hispanic food. Monudo. It is so gross. It is cow stomach. Thankfully we didn't have to eat all of it, just until the fish was done cooking, so we talked a lot so we didn't eat very much. Also there was a really funny joke that even makes sense in English.

Don't be afraid to send more pis of the fam and the animals.

Have you studied not just read True to the Faith? It is really good. I love it. Reading about things that we teach about you get alot of insights that I never thought of before. One thing that we teach is that you pray before you study to understand that which you are studying and recieve revelation. This really works you should also try that. Then pray again but I forgot what to specifically ask for.

OK, so I am out of notes for right now. O I am getting a copy and green eggs and ham because there is a missionary copy that we like to glue into It but right now it is hard to find the book.

The SD card. Are you going to take the pics off and put them onto a flashdrive or something like that? I am printing pictures off here and putting them into a pic thing. Random thought. My companion looks like a deacon. and I look like I am like 22, lol that is whot the miembros dijieron.

25 October 2010

ok, That took a little time to read through (my email to Dustin) and yes we( all missionaries) love to get packages. We all gather around to see what the other got and just make a big deal out it. While I am on the subject of packages. I got a lot of packages really just one or two I really don't remember but I got 3 cards from people for Halloween. That kind of makes me nervous for Christmas.

I will try to get Alisha something here and send it. I will just send it to the house. For Christmas do you still want me to make a list? I can start that soon. There are a coulpe books that I want and perferable in English I willl send them to you later. One thing I know that I can never say no to is ties. As a missionsary you can never have to many ties. Just remember that my suits are blue and green. I gave my black one away to someone that needed it because it didn't fit me right anymore. It was too tight. I didn't know that because I didn't wear it much or for very long.

One thing that you can do that is really easy and you might like it is to watch the priesthood performance and grandma said that there was a time that it showed me that I was smiling. If you could take a picture of that and send that to me so I can have that in my memory book that I am making here.

Also because we are the missionaries people like to really use us a lot and one of the things that we are doing is singing in the choir that is about to be created. hispanic people as a general statment don't sing very well. this will be fun. I think that we are singing in spanish. Oh, BTW don't tell JR that I told you but he told me that he has a girlfriend now. lol.

About the music don't forget Christmas music. I know that we have a lot. Have you been using the music that G & G Wiberg have? for sure seeing that you brought it up. I would like some Mannheim. God bless ye merry Gentlemen is one of my favorites. I also really like the music (Christmas) from the celtic women. (Ding dong merrily on high) Oh please pass the word that when you write a letter to please date it.

Two things that were really awsome this week.

(Dustin left off here, but I got another email half an hour later)

19 Oct 2010

Hola, mi familia,

I have a part in my hair! It still looks very weird. My companion is going home in 11 weeks. If you're interested. That info was for Val. I have his home address.

Oh, G&G Wiberg sent a whole lot of candy. You know what I don't remember if/what I told you in the email. Right now is our hair cut day, sleep, shower from playin' v-ball. I sweat a lot more here. By the way, in this mission we give ourselves the haircuts. Scary!

They love my cooking here because none of them know how to cook! Oh, my turn for the hair cut. Thanks for the pics and tell Grandma & Grandpa for the package. Oh, it is beginning. Please send the red block blanket that you made. It will be warm enough with the other blanket I got here.

Con Amor,

E' Swanger

As a last thought, I had my first baptism, but didn't baptize. I left my baptismal cloths at the MTC and already sent for them. And I saw a live armadillo.

18 October 2010

The lessons or discussions that we teach every week are only around 15 minutes, but they run about 1 hour or longer because it is hard to leave and it is rude not to finish the conversation, also about the food I only eat one plate but they really fill it up. After you eat the food, all the food that they give you then you can say that you can't physically eat any more.

I like both snailmail and email but would still profer snail mail because I still only have a limited time on the computer it is only 45 min because I have to write the Mission President.

I have had my first real funny! I said for my companion, "Mi companero necisita espacia para su pie." The tranlation is "my companion needs room for your food." I ment to say pai or pie in ingles. O man the people are funny,. and there are so many different dialics of spanish. I will be able to talk in all of them like my companion can by the end of my mission. My companion has one more transfer left which is how the missionaries out here measure time. I am his first and only "son" or person that that he has trained. Everything has a nickame out here and we have to learn them because we would not be able to talk to the people and understand what they are saying and vis versa.

My companion, Elder Homes is from Utah and loves baseball. That is his biggest thing and he loves to laugh. It is hard sometimes to get through companionship study becasue we willl be laughing so hard. He likes music but doesn't care to play it. He does know one song on the piano.

Before I forge,t the rule about music was altered. The name is still the same songs of the restoration but that can include anything that you think could be found in a church store that is still not counrty,etc.; be played in a sacrament meeting; or is a soundtrack from a church movie. Still no classical. That makes me sad, I want water music so bad. O there is a song that we have been listening to that is to the song jupiter, the middle slower section and the first words are holy father it is driving me and companion nuts we can't find the name of the song and he swears it is in the himnario.

Don't forget the photos and I will frame the one with the family and if you want you can just send it framed. Other than that I don't really have that much to ask for that I am not going to buy here. I am getting sheet protectors so that I can save some things and make a scrape book here.

I love the spanish people, they are so kind and (the white people too) more than back home. We were tracking down this street that the english elders told us had alot of hispanics and found this hispanic BBQ and we got one return apiontment and as we were leaving the person that we didn't talk to, because he was running in and out of the house getting things becasue he was cooking, yelled at us and asked if we wanted to eat. So, of course, we did. He hates his church but knows that we are to go to church and said that he is going to try ours. He only lives a block from the church anyway. When his wife cameback from her work we found out that she is a past investigator that was lost when she moved. Then she got married which is something that hispanics for some reason don't like to do. She even had a date for baptism and my compaion has been trying to find her for like 2 transfers. One tranfer is 6 weeks.

Because a lot of people throughout the day offer us food or a pop. We cannot say no. We do sometimes if it is a member. Just for the pop. They don't drink water here, it is mainly jugo. The white people drink water though. I think I am becoming racist, my conpanion is and is doesn't care to hide it. Yesterday we got 6 people that we are going to try and see, but that takes awhile because our area s so big. It is the Stake and so far I have only been in 4 cities that are in the estaca. Today is the day that we try to work off all of the stuff that we ate. We are playing hard core v-ball for 2 hours no breakes or very small breaks. Last week was b-ball. The elder from the Islands is from Kiribiti and pronouned kitipis.

Tu hijo,

Elder Swanger

9 October 2010

Mi Familia,

The purpose of this letter is to let you know that we did eventually make it to the Mission Home. It is very beautiful here compared to home. It is the perfect mix of back home. There is a little brown and green grass, but it is mostly green. I already love the mission president and his wife. Today is "training" day in the mission home. We are really just being taught everything that we were taught in the MTC. The church is teaching us how to teach slightly different and we were not suppose to be instructed on it till we came here. But because we were in the MTC for nine weeks, our teachers ended up teaching us the new stuff. It is really just learning how to be a good missionary at the beginning of our mission, not just at the end.

Hey! Guess what!? They have trees and plants and flowers here, without a sprinkler system. And real food is amazing.

I have to start to part my hair because that is a mission rule and tradition. (Leah-oh, that's a good one). I am keeping a binder here that I am going to fill with the things here. (a scrap book of sorts), and first preparation day I will go out and buy paper protectors to make it.

¡Luego!

Elder Dustin Swanger

NEW ADDRESS

(posted on the side bar too)

325 E. Walnut St. #B

Rogers, AR 72756

Dustin was spotted!

How many times did you see Dustin? When we got to watch the P-session in between sessions on Sunday, we saw him 7 times. He told me when he got to call me, that he spotted himself 8 times. He also said that when he was trying not to smile is when he saw himself on the monitor. He said that he is not nervous at all about going out into the mission field, he could hardly wait to get there. He first went to the Mission Home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The next day he went to his first assigned area: Rogers, Arkansas.

10 Oct. 2010. Today during Fast and Testimony Meeting we learned that Brother Alfredo Chandia and Ben Chandia were in the audience at the Priesthood session of conference. The were in the front section of the Conference Center but on the opposite side, but they were able to get a couple glimpses of him and of course on the monitor.

We also had a surprise visitor, Sister Allred. She came with her family to Sacrament meeting. She was one of the Sister missionaries that taught JR the discussions in our home. So now I guess I should update you all on JR. He is still living with his grandparents in Montana and going to school there. He started going on splits with the Elders as soon as he arrived there and got involved with the young adult program. He helped teach a man in his 20's who got baptized within a month of JR's arrival. He is now helping to re-activate a family. We are very proud of JR, his testimony, and his determination to do what is right.

1 October 2010

Hola!

Today was the last time that I get to go to the temple. I liked it but They didn't let me do the service because my compainion is sick with a little cough but we may have said that he is really sick because we were speaking in spanish. LOL but all is good I just get to Email you earlier.

I am so excited tomarrow is the big day and for me and my companion it is an all day event. One of my teachers is going to be there and I am soooo EXCITED! Is Shay sill working with Mr. Henderson? I am only curious because I send that card through you to him. Thanks to whoever delivered it. I don't recall If i said but I would like to get the shin splint sox because we are to try and do somthing active everyday and I was told be someone that just returned from my mission that the spanish people play soccer a lot!!

Sorry but this letter is going to be alittle short because the internet is being funny on this end. OH Joe you are fired! the whole time that I have been here you have given me a spititual thought every day and yesterday was the first time that you repeated a thought. That is still amazing that you can do that but I was betting that you could not repeat a thought for the whole time that I am here.

You can put the pics that you wanted to on the ipod, I just didn't want to have a lot on there because I would like a variety of music on there. I don't think that I will ever give up on my music ever. It has aloud me to connect with alot of people here and other elders want to know when I play so they can come listen. I can play improve hymns now. my Poor wayfaring man of grief sounds so good.

For a warm up I play Finale and that usually draws a croud so I've stoped. LOL

Les amo! (love y'all) I love the letters that I get from cousins they are Awsome! Thanks for your support!

My time just went up.

We had a day in the field were we taught others all day long 7 lessons a day. It was very tiring and my compainion didn't likeit. But I loved it. I don't think he liked I because he has a sore throut and is lossing his voice and he wants to sing tomarrow at conference and the doctors said that he might have to lip sinc. I am sending pics in the mail and the music if you are making a scrap book. we are to keep small ones with pics of family pets companions and other things to help us connect with investigators. They have a new way of things that we will learn when we get out in the field. Our teachers heard that it is better! I had to get my suit drycleaned for the conference and have to buy a couple other things before I leave but I am getting the least expensive things I can find but Everything here is 40% off so I am getting things here. Chruch printed things are at cost to make.

Les amo!

E' Swanger