Dog Sledding!

Hello Brentwood!!! well it was another great week being a missionary!! It snowed like crazy this week and was freeeeeeeezzzing cold!!! But thats Montana for ya! I love it! well not the freezing part but yeah I'll live! hahaha sooo this week we got to go on a dog sled ride!!!! it was waaaay sweet!!!! A member of our ward races in dog sled races and let us try it in his backyard. Check out how big his back yard is in the photos. Not quite like our backyards in California! Those dogs are more powerful than you would think!! we were going pretty fast! haha I felt cool cuz I was in charge of the brake!;) pretty special! haha but it was a blast! and the most exciting part of the week was that we put two new people on date for baptisim!!!!!! They are brothers and are rough around the edges but we will work with them and get them ready! haha then this weekend I went on exchanges with the 5th ward elders and got to go teach some of their people, I love going back to 5th ward and seeing some of the families that I started my mission with!! But 5th ward elders don't have a car most of the time so we were walking.....in the snow.....some parts we were walking in snow like half way up our shins!! It really stunk!! haha I just wore my dress shoes, I didn't break out the boots and my feet were soaked and freezing hahaha makes for good stories right?;) haha well on Wednesday we were at our apartment waiting for dinner to get dropped off and when the lady called we all ran downstairs and got the food and as we got to our door I realized non of us grabbed the keys....... soooo we were locked out!!!! AGAIN!!! we tried calling our land lord and they wouldn't answer so we ate our dinner in our hallway! haha we tried calling them again and they answerd and said they would be right over and for us not to leave..... it took them 3 hours to come.... we just sat there in the hall, it was such a waste of time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha so yeah that was my exciting story for the week!! I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to everybody next week!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy!

It was a Happy Birthday!

HELLO!!!!!! Well It was a great week here in Great Falls!!! Thank you so much for the packages and ties and candy for my birthday!! It definitely helped make it a great day! I can't believe I'm 20!! I feel so old!!! I'm pretty sure I got 2 or 3 new chest hairs!!;) haha and yesterday I hit my 16 month mark!! CRAZY!!!! Time just keeps flying by and I can't do anything about it!!! But I am having a blast here in Great Falls!! We are having a lot of fun and getting some good work in!! I love being a missionary! So for my birthday my comps after our ditrict meeting blind folded me and put me in the back seat of the truck and drove like mad men to confuse me and took me to Fudruckers for lunch! haha they are awesome!! and then for dinner we had pulled elk sandwhiches!! They have become my favorite food!!! And this awesome family that I love had a cake and some party hats for us to wear;) haha it was awesome! I am so grateful for the families here in the ward that take such good care of us!! Well just so you guys can rub it in my face, it is still FREEZING here and it won't stop snowing!!! hahaha I'm sure its pretty similar in Brentwood right??;) hahaha well I'll hang in there I guess:) I hope you have a great week I love and miss everybody!!!!! Talk to you next week!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

5LB Candy bar!!!

Hello Brentwood!!!!! Well what a great Christmas!!!! I loved being able to skype home and see my awesome family!!! I didnt get to see Brianna and Kellan and little Eli but I heard their voices so I guess thats okay!!! hahaha I hope everybody else had a great christmas!!! So I have been on a candy eating tear, its a little scary BUT skyping home and remembering that I bet my dad I would come home under 200lbs...... its time to get serious!!! well at least step one is to think that I'm gonna get serious!;) hahaha it probably won't happen but I need to trick myself into thinking it will!!! First I need to finish eating the 5LB Hershey ba my mom sent me for Christmas! Thats right 5LBS!!! haha well it is sooooooo cold!!! It hasn't stopped snowing for a couple of days! There's so much snow on the ground its crazy! I want to say its growing on me.... but lets be real, its not! hahahaha but for some reason it doesn't matter how cold it is, I still have a blast doing this great work!! I love being a missionary it is so much fun!!! This has been the fastest year of my life.. I can't believe the year is coming to an end and that on friday I will be turning 20!!!!!! 20!?!?! thats old!!!(FYI missionaries except birthday boxes example:ties;) ) hahaha just kidding!!! Well I gotta get going and make a run for the truck in this freezing Montana weather!!! I love you guys and hope evrything is going well!!! I finally sent pictures....

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Christmas Skype!!!

HELLO BRENTWOOD!!!!! Well its been a great and crazy week!! I got my new companions and they are both way sweet!!!! In the first week together we have gotten a lot of work done but have had a lot of fun at the same time!! We managed to lock ourselves out of our apartment 2 days in a row and had to call our land lord..... the first night he was okay with it but afther the second night..... he was a little bugged!! hahaha but oh well while we were locked out we decided to just tract some streets and we found 4 people to teach by doing this!!! All with He Is The Gift video. we knock on the door and testify of christ and show the short video and testify some more, these combined and there is no way in heck you can't feel the spirit. So yeah we did that and we are just so excited for this transfer, we are going to see so many miracles!!! CHRISTMAS!!!!!! I get to skype home and see my family this week!!!! I'm soooooo pumped!!!! Its gonna be SICK!!!!! I haven't seen their faces in like 8 months!!! its goona be great!!! man I miss them but hey only 8 months left baby and I gotta finish strong!!!! I am grateful this Christmas season for our Savior Jesus Christ, he was the first gift of Christmas and with him anything is possible! My heart if full of the Christmas spirit and I love trying to share it with anybody and everybody!!!! hahaha well I hope you all have a safe and a very merry Christmas!!!! I will talk to everybody next week!! I love you guys!!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy

60 BOM's in one night!!!!

HEY!!!!! Well another great week!!! We talked to SOOOO MANY PEOPLE!!!!! and we taught SOOOOO MANY PEOPLE!!!!!!! We had a great week of finding and teaching!! It's the best!!! I love being a missionary. Our week was crazy cuz we had to drive to helena for zone conference and then Thursday night was the 'parade of lights" and friday was the 'christmas stroll'. They shut downtown down and block off the streets and everybody goes there, so for those two nights a member in the east stake owns a vacent store right in the middle of it all and he let us set up a 'mormon store' in it!!! It was sick!! cuz the christmas stroll is just late night shopping basically! so all the stores stay open late and everybody walks around and shops!!! so we had Tvs set up in there playing "he is the Gift" and we had free hot chocolate and stuff. The results were 1300 people came into our store!!!!!!!!! just between me and Elder Curtis we taught 50 lessons!!!! It was crazy!!! Everybody loved the video and we had members donate their nice pictures of christ and temples and stuff so we had the walls lined with them! All together we gave out 60 Book of Mormons! and over 200 pass along cards and too many lessons!!! It was was way fun!!! So people back in Brentwood I want ALL of you to go and watch "HE is the gift". It's on youtube, its on lds.org or mormon.org!!! its a great video and I know what your thinking, if you watch it the missionaries will show up and try to baptize you..... but NOPE not with this video!! The whole purpose of this 2 minute video is to put Christ back into Christmas!!! It's an amzaing feeling to remember that Christ is the first gift of Christmas and that with out him, with out that gift our life would have no purpose. But we can have joy because we recieved that gift, so our lives have meaning! Its through Jesus Christ we find true happiness and peace in our lives. Its the best time of year to be grateful for our Savior. Spread the word!! Tell everybody you talk to to watch the video!! I know your Christmas season will have so much more meaning if we remember the savior Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!!!

LOVE Elder Swishdaddy

Happy Thanksgiving!!

HELLO!!!! well this was a great week!! Thanksgiving was AWESOME!!!!! well it was awesome in a very painful way... hahaha I ate way too much and was so full it hurt. It hurt to move, or laugh, or breath;) But hey it was totally worth it!!! So our first dinner was a traditional dinner with some good turkey and the works! So I went hard there and ate a ton!! But I was feeling good, but they have a long driveway so just in case I jogged behind the truck all the way down the drive way to make more room for our next dinner! (I felt like Rocky running in the snow...dream come true) but then we show up to our next dinner and I walked in and the first thing I saw... PRIME RIB!!!! Oh man thats where I gained all my weight!!! That poor prime rib had no idea what was coming his way! I destroyed it!!! but sadly thanksgiving came to an end and that will be my last one as a missionary! So last time I can try to get fat with out worrying about what girls think of me;) hahaha Friday I went on exchanges with some elders in our zone and it was a good exchange but on Saturday morning I started to not feel good but I made it through the day and came home that night and spent that night in the bathroom..... I weighed 195 before I got sick and I weighed myself this morning at 185, so the best weight loss program is to get sick and throw it all up? I like it! Just kidding it really stunk! I was down and out yesterday! But am feeling pretty good today! so I'll be back at it today!!  So the picture I attached is at the hospital. When we go to the hospital to give blessing we love to park in the special clergy parking spot! Its awesome. We are also still teaching two more siblings of the family we baptized last week. Hopefully they will get baptized soon. Well I think thats I got this week!! hope everyone has a great week!!! love you!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

3 BAPTISMS!!!

Hello Brentwood!!!!! Okay so as all of you know my most favorite holiday just past by this saturday... Turkey kill day! and i am pleased to anounce that it is the second turkey kill i have missed in my life and the LAST!!!! WHOOOOOO HOOOOO!!!!! Holy smokes it feels good to know that i will be back killing turkeys in 363 days from today!!!!!! #GodBlessTurkeyKill hahaha well this week was a great week! In missionary work we want to see the people teach get baptized!!! And we had 3 baptisims this weekend!!!! Its the best feeling in the world!!! We teach these people, we go to there houses, we help them through struggles and its hard but man you grow to love them and when you finally get to see them get baptized, theres no greater feeling in the world!!! We know that baptisim is the first step to returning to our heavenly father and man do i love helping people make that step forward!!!! its even worth missing turkey kill day;) and thats saying a lot!!! hahaha We are having a lot of fun right now though, its been a blast teaching and being with elder curtis and now that we have our third companion elder massaou its even better! haha hes tired of the cold and is ready to get his visa to australlia back to the warm weather like his home in micronesia!!! we love him but its weird cuz hes not used to american cultures....or electricity or toliets or showers or hahahaha the list goes on!!! So its a small world. The missionary that found him in the jungle back on his island lives in montana! he lives about an hour away!!!! crazy huh?? so he came to see him and brought him warm clothes and stuff and he was telling us how big of a deal elder masaou is on his island!!! hahaha He is known as the best fisher on the island! They fish with spear guns and he can free dive up to 90 feet with out oxygen tanks!!! crazy!!!! He is the "shark killer" on the island hahaha he has pictures of him killing 5 foot great white sharks hahaha with a spear gun!!! hahaha hes a boss!!! thanksgiving.... we have 4 dinners lined up, but now that i have gone through one thanksgiving and totally messed it up last year by going big at every meal, i now know this year i need to pace myself at every meal;) JUST KIDDING! i have a bet with some fellow missionaries on who can gain the most weight on thursday!! hahahah they dont know that i can eat pecan pie all day and not get tired of it;) i got this in the bag;) hahaha well i hope everybody has a great week with family and friends and remeber we all have so much to be grateful for!!!:):) love you guys!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy