Grizzly Bears!!!

Hello Brentwood!!! 

Well yesterday was fathers day so I gotta give my old man a shout out! just like we did on mothers day we went around to peoples homes and asked what they love about their dads. What I love about my dad well everybody knows that me and my dad have been inseparable! I always hear stories of how when I was little when somebody else besides my dad would try to hold me I would hold my breath until I turned blue in the face and passed out!  hahaha! He's just always been my best friend. He teaches me so many life lessons. He is a great example. One that I will always try my whole life to become like. I love my dad so much. Even though he is out on a 50 mile hike right now with Britt and the scouts I want him to know that I appreciate everything he does for me. I love you dad!!! :)  enough of that cheesy junk ;) well this week was a great week! We found a lot of people to teach!! We are teaching two new investigators and three less actives. So that is always exciting as a missionary!!!  I am also excited because as a district leader I go on exchanges for the first time this week. Exchanges are when the district leader travels and spends a day or two with other missionaries to help them with problems or issues and also to train them on how to improve their areas. My area is beautiful. My area ends at the entrance of Yellowstone National Park. So needless to say the members hear say that if you go hiking you will see a grizzly bear so be careful! I guess this area has a high grizzly population. I have been a mice killing machine this week!!! Some mice got into my fruity pebbles so that meant war.... I went and found a trap in the garage and set it up and everynight I get one....suckers!!! hahaha  I love and miss everybody!!!!!! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Bike Accident

Well Brentwood its been another great week in Cody! I love it here! I have too much Brentwood pride to ever move but IF I did..... it would be to Cody! It is so cool! The people are awesome and there is just so much to do here its crazy!! Well here's my funny story of the week, So we are riding our bikes and sometimes it gets boring between houses(there can be miles between houses).... So elder archie my comp likes to dare me to do things on my bike! So he said its cool if you press your front brake and make your back tire come up off the ground and not fall!! Sounds easy enough right? So I get going pretty fast and I hit my front breaks hard..... next thing I know I'm doing a front flip over my handle bars hahahaha a car stopped and asked " are you okay?" and I said "hahaha yeah, I bet you've never seen a missionary do that!" and the guy just laughed hahahaha it was great!!! But yeah it was just a good week overall! So it was raining again and I really didn't want to ride my bike and get soaked again! But I felt like we needed to for some reason so we were out in the rain getting soaked when a truck stopped and asked if we needed to get out of the rain so we said yes that would be awesome so we followed her and she turned out to be a pastor for a church! I'm not sure what church but she invited us into her church and she gave us cookies and we talked about missionary work till the rain stopped! it was a really cool experience! It's nice to see that even though we don't go to the same church she was still nice and respected us!! I was asked once again to give a talk in church so I wrote out this whole talk about our savior Jesus Christ! but I forgot it the morning of church at home..... so I stood up there and gave a 20 minute talk with out any notes hahaha it was nerve racking but it turned out pretty okay! Some members of the ward took us to the rodeo. I miss going to rodeos, it was nice to be there!! It was Elder Archies first rodeo and he was a little iffy on how he liked it. He is a city boy! hahaha but yeah that was our week for ya!! Hope all is well in Brentwood! I love and miss yall!!!! 

Love Elder Swishdaddy

Ice falling from the sky!!!

HELLO FROM CODY!!! Well I love Cody!! its an awesome place with some really awesome people!! I am the district leader. I have a big district! I am over 7 companionships, 14 missionaries. I have a lot of work to do. So I get here thinking im gonna have a car.... Well I was wrong... we bike EVERYWHERE we go!! hahaha I was so sore the first couple of days I couldn't even sleep my legs hurt so bad!!! hahaha But its all good now im used to the bike and I actually enjoy riding it around!!!! Maybe I can drop a few pounds;) hahaha So we are out riding our bikes this past week and we are enjoying the nice sun until the clouds came.... literally the weather changed within 5 minutes!! It was crazy so it started to rain so we went and found cover under a tree and I was thinking we could just wait it out there for a while.... yeah that was until the thunder started cracking! Im not used to thunder... ITS AWESOME but not when your a missionary on a bike!!! So we went and rode to the church through the rain and got pretty dang wet... so we waited and waited and waited but the rain never stopped so we decided we were too wet to get into anybodys house so we were gonna make the 3 mile trek home in the rain! Good idea right?....WRONG!!!! Its started hailing!! ICE WAS FALLING FROM THE SKY!!!! haha not used to that either!!! I thought it was so cool that I was getting nailed in the face by ice!!! im probably crazy though hahaha so yes we were DRENCHED I have never been more wet than that moment hahaha it was so funny!! But you gotta love those crazy times as a missionary!! haha people driving by probably thought we were crazy!! hahaha There are ponds here just outside of town that people just pull off the highway and fish at and it is awesome to ride your bike by and see this dude pull in this big ol fish!! im jealous but I know where im coming to fish after the mission!! hahha But there is so much to do here, This Saturday is opening night of the summer of rodeos here.... literally starting saturday there is a rodeo every single night till September 1st!!! Can you say Heaven?!?!?!?! Man I cant think of a better place to be serving!!! Its all my favorite things in one town!!! haha Tomorrow I get to go to Billings. We have a general authority visiting and we get to hear him speak and meet with him. I will fill you in next week. I hope everyone has a good safe week!!! I miss ya Brentwood!!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Going to Cody!

Hey everybody!!! So can you believe another 6 weeks is here and gone?!?! transfers are here and we got the call yesterday...... Me and elder archie are being transferd to Cody Wyoming!!! we will be serving in the 3rd ward and ill be finishing his training and will be the district leader. we are getting doubled into the area so we will both be brand new to the area and will be trying to meet everybody as fast as we can! It will be fun im really lookin forward to it!! But im extremly sad to leave Thermopolis:( i really love it here and the people here have a special place in my heart. It was short time being here but it was fun and i really will miss it!! But i know that there is work to be done in Cody and hopfully i will get to stay there for a while and not worry about gettin transferd around all the time!! haha but ill go wherever!! Hmmmm lets see we had a great week of teaching! The area is finially picking up! We found 2 new investagators and 6 less active members who want to be taught! So it was fun going and meeting new people and getting to teach a lot of lessons!!! man next week i hit my 9 month mark...... WEIRD!!!!!! Gettin close to that year mark its scarin me a little bit haha time is just flyin by!!! So last pday I pulled a Brian Swisher. we took the whole zone on a hike. We thought it was an easy hike but the sisters disagreed with us. So I said ok I will take you a shortcut back down. Well it ended being straight down the side of the hill. The sisters were not happy with me. Like father like son. If you know my dad and have been on hikes with him you know what i mean! haha Well i hate to have such a short letter but i have to get going!! I am leaving for Cody right now! ill email yall next week from Cody!!! have a great week!!!

love, Elder swishdaddy

 our hike

study time

Barn dance and Doughnuts!

Hello!!!!! So its been a sad week in the Thermopolis community:( The last day of school was last week and on that friday night a pair of sisters and their boyfriends(one of the sisters just finished high school that week) were drinking and driving. The two sisters were up front and the boys in the back when they got in a violent collison. The driver(older sister) died instantly and the younger sister died later. The two boys are both in the hospital with major injuries. They were all loved in this little town and everybody knew them wether they were 90 or 10 years old, everybody knows each other here. Its hard to see people so sad and so lost. I had only seen the girls, I never met them but it was still heartbreaking to hear. Im so happy to know that our Heavnly Father has a plan for all of us and he knows what is best for us. And that this life is just the beginning to a great eternity with our families and loved ones. My prayers go out to the families that have been effected. It really has been a sad week.

  Enough of the sad news though! On the plus side the weather is great and the best news of all.... I think i lost weight this week!!! I told myself last week i was gonna control how much food i ate and i did a good job, so on sunday i broke out the pants i came out with to see if they would fit..... And yes!!!!!!!!! They fit!!!! Its a miracle!!!! hahahaha so i celebrated by eating some dougnuts!!!!:) hahaha so they probably dont fit now but hey for that one day i felt skinny again!!!;) 

 People understand my love for pigs here, ITS GREAT!!!:)  So we had a ward Barndance this week!!! It was so fun!! A ranching family in the ward puts it on every year and they clear out one of their big barns and a live band comes and they call it a "ward activity" but their were more non members there than members! It was way sick!!! Line dancing and some other kind of country dance. It looked like a lot of fun!!!(us missionaries aren't allowed to dance) but i wont lie i wanted to get out there and dance hecka bad!! Everybody was in their cowboy hats and boots i was jealous hahaha! What a great missionary activity! We should do this in Brentwood. So fun! Hope its a good week in Brentwood!!!! Love and miss yall!!!!

LOVE elder Swishdaddy

Snowing in May! (lots of cool pics)

Hello Brentwood!!! So Happy late Mothers day to all the moms!!!! With out Moms this world would be one craaaazy place! They keep the world in order!!:) Thank you for all that you do Moms!!!!

  Well i got to skype home yesterday and see my awesome family!! I always love skyping home and seeing how everybody is doing!!! Man i'm lucky to have a great family! I love them and miss them so much! Yesterday i was especially thankful for my mom! We would go to houses yesterday of people in our ward and talk about moms, we would go around the room and share what we love about our moms it was so cool to hear everybody talk about their moms in all the houses! So This is my turn to share with all of you if i could pick out 1 thing that i love about my mom it would be the LOVING PATIENCE she has. I probably wasnt the easiest kid to raise but no matter what i did my mom was there to love me and had the patients to deal with all of my junk and help me learn and grow every day. Im so grateful she cares about me enough to love me through any situation i put myself/her through. She is an amazing example to me and to what i'm looking for in my future wife. My mom is a superstar i'm so lucky to have her in my life!! I LOVE YOU MOM!!!<3 

  So yeah Thermopolis is going great! i truly love it here. I love how beautiful it is and how nice everyone is!! We are teaching a good amount of people and are having a lot of fun!!! We are moving today! So its gonna be a long but pretty fun day!! We are moving like literally 3 seconds away hahaha but still got a lot of junk to move!! So this past week it of course SNOWED! its MAY WHY ON EARTH IS IT SNOWING?!?! This is not okay because i made a promise that i would put all my winter clothes away till next winter, makes sense right? well not in wyoming hahaha but hey i made a promise so i trucked around in my short sleeve white shirt;) hahaha no but it was fun!!:) Man i love being in the outdoors! i love this back country here its so pretty and has such beautiful wildlife! i cant wait to come fish and hunt up here after the mission!!!!:) OH.....so another thing that happened hahahaha.... driving home one late night this week i was driving from Basin to thermopolis so i had to go through Worland and it was late and we were tired and we just wanted to go home so i bumped up the speed and next thing you know those lights were flashing.... They busted Swishdaddy!! haha got a nice speeding ticket and the cop toatally laughed when she saw i was from california!!! i was so mad about that! hahaha but yeah that was a bummer of the week but i guess i can laugh about it now? hahahaha Well i think im out of stories!! I put captions on all my pictures this week. I hope everybody has a great week i love and miss everyone!!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

 dressed for our basketball tournament (yes we had permission)

 This is a hot spring in a members backyard. They pump this water into their swimming pool. They swim year round, even in the snow! 

 my bishop's snow cat

 sledding behind the snow cat

 this is Pete. He lives in Thermopolis. That is a pet raccoon he is carrying on his neck. It even wears a shock collar so it stays in the yard. Everyone here puts shock collars on their pets. Cats, dogs, and yes even raccoons! 

working hard tracting

 its beautiful here

This is what 90% of the roads look like here

3v3 Tourney!!!

Hello everyone,

                    The work here is going solid. So last week we decided to make a big goal. We decided to teach 30 lessons! We taught a solid 23 lessons this week falling short of my high goal of 30 but hey not to shabby! We will try again next week and see how many we can teach. 

                    So Thermopolis is a tiny town in Wyoming but one thing I have learned is this is a small world. In my ward I have made so many connections. Brother and Sister Snow's family live in Brentwood (B3), the McCarthy's, My sister's ward mission leader in Virginia has family here, and my mom says Sister Hanberg does too!! 

                So today for pday we are going to my bishop's cabin!!! Its gonna be a lot of fun! we can't drive into the cabin because there is too much snow so we have to snowshoe 2 miles to the cabin!! Its gonna be so fun! And then when we get there we get to go hike some more and go shedding. Shedding is where you find antlers that have been shed by deer. He's also gonna drive us in his snowcat. I'm pretty pumped for it! It should be a fun day! 

            Okay so here's my awesome week I had,  So we kept hearing about this 3 v 3 basketball tourney going to happen this last weekend and apparently it's a big deal and stuff. so me and my two comps went downtown and signed up for this 3v3 tourney!! This used to be the nations biggest 3 v 3 tounery!! They used to get up to 300 teams. They literally shut down all of downtown and some other streets in town and set up about 120 half courts!!!! Teams come in from Chicgago and Denver and a college from Texas! hahahaha So thank goodness we signed up for REC play not the competitve play. But still rec play had some really good ballers! So we played in our white shirts and tags with our shorts and basketball shoes! hahahahahaha we looked so funny! People were staring at us and laughing! hahahah It was awesome! so we go out there in our first game on saturday and we were thinking we were gonna get shut out but we some how pulled the worst team! haha So we whooped up on them! and being missionaries and looking like missionaries playing ball we attracted a crowd to our game so everybody was laughing cuz the "Mormons with ties could ball" hahaha! Anyway we go to play our next game and the crowd followed us and we show up to play and its a team from Denver! with all these big guys over like 6 foot 3! hahaha they looked at us and were like "ohhhh shoot boys were playin against Jesus's team ain't no way we got a chance against Jesus!" hahaha they were just super funny they were really cool guys but were really good ballers!! they beat us 16-10 but were not trying and were not sweating after the game hahaha then you look at elder swisher and I'm drenched in sweat! Then we played some other team who were good but were at the same level as us(we really weren't that bad!) so we had this battle and they ended up beatin us 16-14! So there ends "The Elders" team for 3 v 3 basketball hahahaha BUT so many people saw us it was crazy and everybody loved us after all was said and done hahaha it was a really cool experience! 

So that's about it. 30 lessons next week!!!!

Love and miss you all!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy