11 hours of driving!!!

Brentwood!!! Well I'm here in Gillette Wyoming!! It's been crazy!! So it all started Wednesday morning. I drove from Great Falls to Helena one and a half hours. I was in Helena Montana at 11 am and I drove a truck to Billings for 4 hours, then once in Billings hopped in the transfer van to head down to Sheridan Wyoming, another 3 hour drive. Then from Sheridan I got in another truck and followed the van through a crazy crazy lightning and thunder storm to Gillette... another hour and half drive!!!! hahaha A total of 11 hours! It was a crazy long day of driving!! We call our mission the driving mission! It is so big. I was so sick of being in a car for that long!! But it was really cool to see all the new parts of the mission!! Sheridan was way cool I would love to serve there, it was really pretty!! Gillette has it own beauty.... hahaha lots of nothing!! haha very flat!! It is in the far north east corner of Wyoming. It is a mining town so many people are employed by the mines. But it has been a sweet place so far, the work exploded this week! There were some good people the missionaries were teaching and we were able to put them on a solid date for baptisim!! so we have 3 people to get baptized this transfer! It'll be a lot of fun tracting here in Gillette. Our area has a ton of appartment buildings and those are my favorite to tract!!! My companion was in another mission until six weeks ago when the mission boundaries changed which landed him in our mission. He is from Oakley Idaho. He is a rodeo cowboy. We will have lots to talk about. He goes home the same day I do. So I'm excited! It should be a good transfer! It'll be different, all the members and the missionaries are used to their old mission rules so sometimes I feel like the bad guy enforcing the new rules for them! But it has to be done I guess! It is such a small world. I was shopping in Walmart for groceries when I arrived in Gillette. I ran into a missionary that served with my sister Brook in Baltimore. I also found out that my great uncle is currently working in Gillette. And I am sure some of you remember Elder Stang. He served in Brentwood/Oakley for over a year. I am serving in his ward now. Crazy! I think he is feeding us this week. Well I'm doing good and I'm happy! I hope everybody has a good week and stays safe!! See everyone in 11 weeks!!! 

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Saying Goodbye!

Well Great Falls, its been a good 9 months!! Transfer calls are in and I'm off to Gillette Wyoming!!! It will be a new adventure, its the new mission boundries so it has only been a part of our mission for 6 weeks! BUT I'm headin back to the promised land WYOMING!!!! haha I love it there so I'm so stoked to go back!! It'll be fun! Well we had a good week, we were able to find 3 new investigators to start teaching which is always a good thing!! We went on a hike last week on pday. It was beautiful but we ran smack into three rattlesnakes!! I almost peed my pants a couple of times! oh man the weather has been awesome!! everybody is complaining cuz apparently 90 degrees is hot..... thats a normal summer I thought?!?! either way I'm loving it!! Man it's pretty tough knowing I'm leaving Great Falls though.... I started saying my goodbyes yesterday and its TOUGH!!!! The past 9 months I've really grown a lot here. And I've been able to make relationships that will last an eternity!! I love Great Falls with all my heart!! I've spent half of my mission here and this is truly where the Lord has shaped me into the man he needs me to be. I'm very grateful for the lessons I've learned here and the people who have treated me with so much love. The members here in Great Falls really know how to love missionaries and I owe them soooo much!! well I hope everybody has a great week, I'll email you from Wyoming next week!!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy 

Do not eat Asian food in Montana!

Hello!! Well another great week in good ole Great Falls Montana!! We had a pretty good week! We taught a good amount of lessons and saw a lot of people! We ended up having a Memorial day BBQ which was a lot of fun! It was just me and Elder Barney and two other missionaries here in Great Falls but it was sweet we were at a members house and we just relaxed and had fun! It was a good day!! So then a member took us out to dinner.... it was a janky asian food place.... and it DESTROYED ME!!!! I had food poisoning ALL NIGHT!!! I lost like 8 pounds from throwing up!! haha It was a loooong night!! Never again will I eat asian food in Montana....never!! haha But on the bright side I lost 8 pounds!!! haha That's always good news!! I just gotta keep it off now so my dad doesn't weigh less than me when I get home!! haha Well transfers are next week! I'll find out whats happening on sunday, so I will definitely report back on Monday on whats happening!! This is short today because we are going hiking. Looking forward to seeing the pretty views. Well I hope everybody has a good week!! Have fun at high school graduation Britton!!! 

Love Elder Swishdaddy

God Bless America!

Well another crazy week! We kept busy this week and were able to teach
a good amount of lessons! And they were all quality lessons which made
it really good! We did a lot of walking this week, thank goodness!!
Felt good to get out and get some sun! Haha but I feel like cuz I'm
walking I can eat more candy..... Haha so this week our mission
president came to Great Falls and I had my final interview with him,
he will be leaving early July to return home and we will be getting a
new president. It's weird, he's been such a huge part of my life the
last 21 months! He's helped me a lot and reminds me a lot of my
dad! Haha and then this week we helped a new member who is in a wheel
chair mow his lawn!! But we did it in our white shirts and ties and
our slacks Haha people were staring at us so funny! But hey they at
least know we are willing to give service it was pretty cool! Haha
well I love this weekend cuz we get to remember all the men and woman
who have died for this beautiful country. I love America and I am so
grateful for the many freedoms we have and the men and woman who
fight for us. God Bless America!!!
well I think that's all I have I hope everybody has a safe weekend!
Love and miss you guys!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Brentwood Cherries and Jack in the Box tacos!!

Well just another week in good ole Great Falls!! Members are starting to ask, "Elder Swisher how long have you been here?" haha a DECADE!!!! hahah It's been great though, I love it here! We had a good week, we were constantly busy either teaching or knocking on doors!! So exciting news of the week, we were able to find a new family to teach out in Choteau!!! So I guess that was the highlight of the week!! They will be fun to teach! Oh! Another highlight of the week, my parents sent up some Brentwood cherries...... it has been way to long since I've eaten a good cherry! haha When the package came and I saw what it was I thought I was gonna cry.... haha man I love Brentwood cherries!! Saturday we got a call from our mission president saying that there is going to be a Mid Transfer within our zone so we had to drive an Elder to Cut Bank and bring another Elder down to Fairfield, so that was a fun roadtrip in the rain! It rained for three days straight and all the farmers were so happy, I guess the ground was so dry they were all getting worried that thier crops weren't gonna make it, but the rain came just in time! Now it's California's turn for some more rain!!! Another great part of my week. A member was driving to a city that had a Jack in the Box. I begged him to bring me back some tacos. Oh how I miss Jack in the Box tacos!!! And guess what they even bought a special bag to keep them warm for us!! Cherries and Jack in the Box all in one week!!! Hope everybody has a great week!! Love and miss everyone!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Happy Mother's Day Skype!!!!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!! Well our week went okay, the work was pretty slow this week but that's okay cuz we were pretty excited about our baptism on Friday and our Mothers Day Skype!! The baptism was awesome. The sister wanted to move her baptism up but there was no one available to preside at it. The president looked up in the handbook and I was able to preside at the baptism. It was a really great experience! It was sooo good to skype home yesterday and see my family! I love them like crazy!! So through out the week we shared a Mother's Day message with people and asked them what they love and have learned from their moms. It got me thinking, something I love about my mom is her unconditional love!! I swear I always felt loved by my mom, even on the days I was sitting watching the A's game and she says "Brad, do you have any homework tonight?" Me "Uhhhh Nope don't think so" mom "then why do you have 20 missing assgniments in math?" hahaha oh man I can't even count how many times we had this conversation, but even through it all I really did feel my moms love. She is the reason I graduated from high school, she's the reason I got my eagle scout, she's the reason I'm on a mission today. With out my mom I would be lost in this crazy world. I'm very gratefull for her love and support through out my whole life. She's awesome, I love you mom!! Happy Mother's Day!!! Well I hope all the moms out there got taken care of yesterday!! Oh wait I totally forgot to say a Happy Mother's Day to my sister on skype last night.... I'm still not used to her being a mom!! hahah Happy Mother's Day Brianna!! Well hopefully this week our work picks up and we invite MANY people to come closer to Christ!! Being a missionary is the best! I love it so much, there's no greater joy!!! Have a good week everybody!!! love you and miss you!!! #LetsGoOakland

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Pitbull, bird poop, and Prune-Lax.....

Hello!! Well we had a sweet week! Let's see where to begin..... let's start with the Tracting story, so me and Elder Barney go out tracting early on in the week, we come up to this house with this big grey pitbull going crazy in the yard! We look at each other like "yeah this one can wait" so we start to just walk by minding our own buisness, when this freakin crazed dog put his front paws up ontop of the fence!!! ME and Elder Barney looked at each other like "heck no this is not happening!!!" then the dog jumps off his hind legs and pulls himself over the dang fence!!!! We froze.... it was like slow motion I can picture it in my head! So when the dog jumps my companions yells "OH CRAP!!!!" and then we hear the owner scream "NOOO!!! NOOO!!! STOP!!!!!!!" my heart was beating so fast!!! I literally thought I was going to die haha!! So the dog ran up to me and was growling and smelling my leg and I had this terrified look on my face and me and Elder Barney were just staring at each other not moving a muscle! It was intense so he stopped with me and starting smelling Elder Barney and then the owner came out and grabbed him...... I know lame ending, nobody got bit or anything but STILL it was crazy! hahaha It didn't help that at the begining of the week, we decided we are going on another diet (I know this is like the 40th time I've said that) but we decided to "clean" out our systems sooooo we took some "Prune-Lax" hahahaha! Sooo when that dog jumped the fence I was more scared that the the prune lax would kick in;) hahaha but it didn't, until that night! hahaha I woke up to Elder Barney at 3:00 AM running to the bathroom hahahahaha I was laughing in my bed so hard hahaha but then it attacked me, it was a miserable 2 and half days of prune lax, if ya know what I mean;) hahaha I also got pooped on by a bird. It was one exciting funny week! But other than that it was a good week!! We had a lot of fun and taught some good lessons!! One of our investigators wanted to move her baptism up to this Friday!!! WHOOOOO HOO!!! So we are having a baptism this Friday! We are so pumped for it!! It's gonna be a good day:) Well I won't talk to you guys till after Mother's Day so Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!!! You guys rock!!! Happy Mother's Day mom! I love you and I cant wait to skype you on sunday!!!:):) Have a good week!!:)

Love Elder Swishdaddy