Merica!!!!

HELLO BRENTWOOD!!!!! well it was a great week here in Cody! We have a good amount of people we are teaching and we were able to find one more this week and we were able to put her on date for baptisim for july 19th!! It was so cool to see how happy she was when she attented church with her less active dad and partake of the sacrament! We have been working hard in our district. We have 15 people on date to be baptized in July! So exciting to see hard work and exact obedience pay off! Well this week is like bigger than Christmas in Cody!! Everybody here loves the 4th of july! They have parades and carnivals and concerts and all this stuff going on all week! People decorate their front yards just like at Christmas but with red white and blue....... I'm in HEAVEN!!!!! Merica!!! So we get have a lot of fun this week with members and fireworks and bbqs and all kinds of stuff so it'll be another great week hopefully with some awesome stories!! President Meecham lets us watch fireworks! Lets see so this week it literally rained everyday of the week and I'm not talking like a sprinkle I mean a butt load of rain!!!! Normally I wouldn't hate it but since I ride a bike all day everyday I hate it..... I seem to never dry off hahaha but its great to see the lightinging storms!! They are really pretty to sit back and watch!!! So we had the BEST steaks I've ever eaten in my whole life last night..... seriously so juicy and tasty holy smokes I'm drooling just thinking about it again!!! They just butchered a cow last week and we got to eat him last night! I love the circle of life!! Nobody really has pigs out here though:( They obvisouly don't know that pigs are the best to raise!! but I am excited to rasie some cows when I get home! Okay top story of the week, so I'm sitting at a red light on my sweet bike;) and this big ol truck pulls up next to me with plates from Alabama...... They were yelling stuff at me and my companion and being total jerks and when the light turned green they threw their drink at me..... so I am now coverd in Dr Pepper. They turned left when they were supposed to yield and they hit another truck and their light busted out and was all over the middle of the road.... I turned and told my companion "heck yeah suckers throw stuff at a missionary again and see what happens!!!" Right as I said that I turned around and looked forward and I hit a fat pot hole and was thrown off my bike... hahaha jokes on me now!!! so my companion was laughing at me and I was just laying their in the street thinking "okay I see your point I shouldn't have said that" hahahahaha so yeah we both got what we deserved!! But moral of the story is DONT THROW ANYTHING AT MISSIONARYS!!!! They are just young kids doing something they believe in!! hahaha well that's all I got for yall!!! hope this week is great!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Rancid milk and Corn dogs!

HELLO!!! well this week was good!! It flew by though!! I got to go on exchanges with another missionary in Cody! It was a good experience and fun to help out other missionaries and see the work that they are doing! Man this transfer is almost over I can't believe another one is almost done!!! Well funny story for ya so I get home from exchanges and I am starving! So I pour some cereal and I kinda thought it smelled funny before I ate it but I didn't care I was hungry!! So I ate it and drank the milk after and my stomach instantly hurt!!!! I looked at the milk and it had expired 15 days prior to me eating it! hahahaha It was so gross but funny at the same time hahaha I guess I learned my lesson!! But yeah it was a beautiful week here in cody!! Its so pretty here I love it!! So while I was on exchanges I went to the chapel for Cody 1st ward. It is an official church visitor center. When I was a kid my family and I drove through Cody on vacation and stopped and saw this chapel. I was too young to remember it. So I took a picture. Inside the foyer is a large dome. A non-member painted the entire history of the church around the dome. It is beautiful. The saints also helped settle Cody Wyoming. Really cool history here. I attached a picture of it. Also  The people have treated us so nice! Except this one punk kid, every day we see him as we pass the skate park and he sits in his car and loves to give us the finger.... its great hahaha gives me something to laugh about right??? but yeah besides him everybody else is great! Im pumped for the 4th!! Everybody says Cody has the best 4th!! So im excited for that and to see how good it really is!!! I hear they serve really good corndogs so you know I'm about to eat as many as I can to get my fix on corn dogs!!!! hahaha So the other day we were riding our bikes down the street and a truck goes my us really slow and does a u turn. I was worried a little at first until people started hanging out of it yelling Elder Swishdaddy! It was a bunch of young men from my old ward. They heard I was in Cody and came looking for me. They took us out for dinner and then they went on splits with us and helped us teach some lessons. It was so good to see them. We have two investigators that are making good progress. I know they will get baptized but hopefully it will be sooner than later. I hope everybody has a great week I love and miss everyone!!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

my zone

chapel/visitors center mural

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