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

3 Baptisms and a visa waiter

Hey Brentwood!! Well another great week here in Great Falls!! It was a tough week but it was fun! it was transfer week which is normally a crazy time but for some reason this one was the craziest!!we were driving all over the place!! oh wait elder Curtis and I got a third companion!! haha he is a visa waiter, He is from Chuuk....any one know where that is?? hahaha its a tiny island in Micronesia! hahah he is a funny dude!! Its great cuz we don't understand him and he doesn't understand us so we just wait till he says something and then he laughs, so we just laugh with him hahaha its great! hahah but yeah  it was a tough week dealing with peoples problems and missionaries problems BUT it will all be worth it on Saturday, we will have 3 baptisims and one of the boys asked me to baptize him so im pretty stoked for that! man it will feel good to see these 3 sibilings get baptized!!! baptisims are great! so you guys know I am here in Montana in the negative degree weather while my lovley family is in Disneyland......hope you guys are having fun in the sun!!!!!! hahahaha just klidding I love being here and being a missionary is the best so ill take this over that anyday!! hahaha well hope everyone has a great week!!! ill talk to you next week!!! love you!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy

-2 Hello Winter!!!

WINTER HAS HIT!!!!!! Holy smokes winter is here!! hahaha There is a lot of snow on the ground and it is freeeeezing!!! I think its 8 degrees right now!! Yeah so I realized that I spent the whole summer in Wyoming and that's why I love Wyoming and don't like montana, I havnt seen the green grass in montana yet and ive been on my mission for 14 months;) hahaha well it was another busy week, we are teaching a lot of lessons each week which is a lot of fun! But as missionaries when we teach people we ask them to do things, such as read the book of Mormon or pray or come to church! and when we ask them to do it we expect them to actually do it! haha and when they don't do these things then we have to stop going by and teaching them! So that happened a lot this week! we had a lot of people who arnt "progressing" so we have to drop them and go find people who want to progress! Its hard to do cuz its hard to find people! But it has to be done so this week we will be trying to find people who want to learn and progress! so it will be a fun week of finding and kocking doors in the snow!! hahaha but itll be good! it always pays off in the end!!! We got transfer calls yesterday and I will be staying here in great falls as a zone leader with elder curtis!!! We are so happy!! We have a lot of fun together and do a lot of good work! But this transfer is a 5 week transfer instead of 6 weeks cuz of Christmas!! weird to think Christmas is soooo close! hahaha but im excited for it! I will get to Skype home!!! Well ill try to stay warm here in montana hope its nice back in brentwood!!! Love you guys and miss you guys!!!! Be safe!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy

Halloween football game

HEY!!! Well pretty decent week!! We are having some struggles getting the investigators we have into the baptisimal font!! So we are trying to figure out what we can do to help them make the best decision of their life!!!! haha But all is well we will figure it out!!:) Lifes good, on Halloween we went and worked the concessions stand at the football game! It was the Cross Town Game so Great Falls High vs. CMR The two schools here in town play and its a big deal haha everybody in town goes and this year it was on Halloween so everybody was dressed up! it was fun even though everybody thought we were dressed up in a costume hahaha but it was cool, we got seen by everyone so it was a good place for us to be.... but I didn't even get to watch one play so that stunk!! it was tourture I could here the players hitting and I wanted to go watch so badly! hahaha so food updates, our food calendar kinda slowed down for a little bit so we didn't have a lot of people signing up to feed us but yesterday the relief society prez bore her testimony in sacrament meeting and told everybody that its their job to feed us and the ward isn't doing it very well! so after church we got our calendar and every day was filled! so we wont starve after all, thank goodness!!!!! its the little things in mission work that make the big difference;) food is one of them!! Today will be a fun p-day. Our entire zone is coming to town and we are all going to do something fun together. well I hope everybody has a good week!! I miss everyone and ill talk to ya next week!!!

Love elder Swishdaddy!

Exchanges Exchanges Exchanges

Hey!! Well another crazy week here in Great Falls!! I was gone out of my area for the whole week on exchanges with other missionaries! It was good i had a lot of fun with the missionaries and enjoyed trying to solve some of their problems that they are facing as a missionary right now! Its pretty stressfull cuz you find a lot of stuff out that is going on  in our zone and we have to find ways to fix it!! So yeah that was the week basically! hahah dealing But it was cool cuz when i was on exchanges i got to go with the great falls 5th ward elders which is my very first area!! so i got to sleep in my old bed and see siome people that i was teaching and some cool families, it was weird to think that a year ago i was living in that house haha it was trippy!! But yeah and then me and elder curtis were so happy to be back together in our area. Our Zone is doing really really good right now, we have 18 people on date for baptisim in november!!! Its the most in the mission right now so we are excited!!! Tomorrow is zone training so i have to give a 30 minute disscusion on "teaching simply" so thats gonna be fun. we had a lot of great food this week!! A lady gave us a gift card to Chillies!!!!! So that was like heaven!!! we spent half the gift card on our dinner and then the other half we got something to go and saved it for lunch after church.... smart plan! hahaha so yeah life is good!! we are still teaching a lot of people and helping them come closer to christ everyday and i love seeing the change in people when they makes steps towards our savior!!! hope its a good week in Brentwood!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

39 Lessons!

BRENTWOOD!! MAn this week flew by!!! We had a great week teaching 39 lessons and helping 9 people pick a date for their baptisims!!!!! It was a fun week full of exciting teaching apointments!! we were none stop all week trying to fit as much in as we could! We had a lot of fun doing it which makes the work even better!! Well lets see here, my diet is back on so elder Curtis(my companion) has limited me to one serving at dinner and one serving of dessert and then for lunches I have to eat veggies....... "who the heck eats veggies for lunch elder Curtis, what do I look like to you a vegetarian?!?!?!" elder Curtis responds "No you look fat" hahahahahaha well hes got a great point there so I have just accepted it and will be eating healthy again! hahaha so word on the street is that my sister comes home this week?!?!?! CRAZY STUFF!!! I feel like she just left yesterday!!! Holy smokes Its crazy scary how fast time flys out here when your focused on serving other people!!! well I hope everybody has a good week and gives brook a big fatty hug for me! I still got 9 more months till get to hug her!! love you and miss you guys!!!

Love,Elder Swishdaddy

Mission Leadership Council

BRENTWOOD!!!! Well just another great week here in Great Falls!!! we had an awesome week teaching over 30 lessons and finding 8 new investigators!!! It was a lot of fun teaching and helping people see how christ can make a difference in their lives!!! So what exciting happened this week? lets see, i had to go to Helena for MLC(Mission Leadership Council) where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders come togther as a council and disscus the needs of the mission! So its cool cuz you get to see some of the people you have served around and gotten close with! So we have had facebooks for ever but the rules on them have been super strict but just this last week we have been allowed now to do a lot more with facebook! So ill be posting more pictures and stuff so feel free to follow me and like the pictures but please no commenting thats still against the rules hahaha so yeah thats exciting itll be fun to work with facebook more now! Not a whole lot of food stories this week... besides i lost 15 pounds and then my mom sent me a box with candy in it....im convicned it was my dad trying to get me to gain more weight so he can win our bet but yeah so the diet has come to a hold while i eat the candy and then it'll be back on....hopefully hahahaha well i think thats all i got for ya this week!! Hope everybody has a good week love and miss you all!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Leadership council

3 inch steak the size of my plate!!

BRENTWOOD!!!! man it is good to be back in Great Falls!!! This week was transfers so its always pretty crazy!! but i love my new companion!! i feel like ive known him my whole life, we swear we are the same person hahaha its scary! We have way too much fun together! hahah we actually taught a lot of lessons considering it being a crazy week! It is offically "suit coat season" here in the MBM and that is NOT good news!!! number 1: means its about to get freezing cold in montana! and number 2: wearing a suit coat everyday is the most uncomfurtable thing on planet earth!!!! hahaha but oh well i guess we look good in them....right? man i love being a missionary i just feel so happy all the time!! OH WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the best part of the transfer...... WE HAVE A TRUCK!!! KISS MY BIKE DAYS GOODBYE!!!!!! Heck yeah i'm so happy to be off that dumb bike!!! haha but me and my comp have made a goal to eat healthy and work out! so today is the start and yes i actually worked out!!! eating healthy is gonna be the hard part hahaha but i will get er done!! hahaha general confrence this weekend was sooo good!! Its cool to know that god hasnt stop speaking to us but that he has a living prophet who recicves revelation for all of his children!! Its always nice to hear some direction and feel the spirit so strongly! we had a non member come to their friends house to watch it and she was in tears by the end of it and we taught her about the restoration of christs gospel and she accepted baptisim!! it was a very cool experience that im gratfeul for. SOO my food story happened last night when we went to this members home for dinner..... he brings out these huge steaks!!!! they were just huge thats all i can say hahaha so elder curtis wants to be nice and gives me the biggest steak on the plate..... it literally took up more than the plate and was 3 inches thick!!!!!!! it was ridiculously big..... the first bite i took... yuck, it was the worst steak i have ever eaten!!!! and i had this big ol monster on my plate!!!! hahaha and i was challenged so i couldnt back down!!!!! so i sufferd through it and an hour later i ate the whole thing and was ready to pop!!! hahaha ive never felt so fat in my life!!! it was awesome!!! hahah well i think thats all  i got for ya this week! i hope you have a safe week!! I love ya and miss everyone!!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy

Zone Leader in Great Falls

GOODBYE CODY:( Man I got the news that I'm being transferred!!! I'm headin back to where this whole journey started! hahaha Great Falls Montana here I come again!! But this time I'll be in the Two Rivers ward as a Zone Leader. But hopefully I'll get to see my old friends in the 5th ward!!! Yes thats right this is the place where the wind never stops and its gets colder than cold..... and I'm lucky enough to experience it twice in the winter!!!!;) brrrrrrr! I am sad to leave Cody but excited for a new adventure. It's been so good to be here I love it so much and the people here! I'll definitely be coming back!!!! Well this week was one of those weeks! hahaha everything bad that could have happened, happened!!! Some baptisms fell through and that was a bummer. Gotta take the good with the bad. Besides that I had the best dessert week of the mission! hahaha man so many brownies and so much ice cream! Its was great! I will get more ice cream tonight before I leave Cody. Tomorrow I start the long trek to Great Falls. Tomorrow I will drive to the mission home in Billings. Then on Wednesday we drive to Helena and then on to Great Falls. I have a great companion. His name is Elder Curtis and he is from Salem Utah. Well next time I write I'll be back in Great Falls so I'll talk to ya then!!! Have a great week!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy

How do you like my tie? 

Rocky Mountain Oyster!

hey Brentwood!!!! Well it was a great week here in Cody!!! Have i mentioned i love it here? Well i do! its the best!!!!! So we went on a hike last week and saw a moose and a lot of prints of other animals and it was a beautiful veiw! But after gettin home and looking at the pictures of myself..... i have some awesome tan lines!!!! Im sure my mom will post the pictures! hahaha man especially the neck tan from my white shirts everyday!! hahahaha it looks like i'm wearing sleeves... i'm proud of it! hahaha Well we taught a lot of lessons this week which kept us busy and that's always good! Our goal is to teach 20 lessons a week. This week we taught 30! And then my comp came down with a bad cold!!!:( we spent one day kept up in the house. i thought i was gonna go crazy!!! i hate working all day everyday and then all of a sudden come to a stop! i cant stop moving or ill go crazy!! so yeah that was a long day but the next day he was still really out of it but i made him go out and work but i told him not to talk cuz he would scare people away hahaha he sounds horrible right now!! haha but hes a good guy and had fun just walking around!! well my food story.... ROCKY MOUNTAIN OYSTERS!!!!! hahaha man i was a little sketched out not gonna lie but i tried it and it was actually really good!! i am a fan!!! We got fed dinner every night which is a big step up in this cody 1st ward! hahaha so i'm still just gettin fat waitin till i hit 18 months to start working out again hahaha gotta stalk up for this freezing winter!!;) Well i hope y'all have a good week!!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy

 

IT SNOWED!!!!

Howdy brentwood!!! Well just another awesome week as a missionary!! I am currently with the cody first ward. I am on another exchange with them and will be here for the rest of the week!! Its cool cuz they go to church in the mural building!! Its this church thats half a museum!!! Everybody needs to come to cody and check it out, its way cool!!! So yeah its been fun! Well this week.... IT SNOWED!!!!! It already snowed...like what the heck?!?! it just stopped snowing 3 months ago!!!!!!! hahaha so yeah we woke up to 5 inches of snow!!! A lot of the farmers took a huge loss, their beans were two weeks from being harvested and then the snow hit and wiped out most of them!! They went from being 240,00 dollars to barely 100,00 dollars if they are lucky. So yeah thanks snow!!!!!!:( hahaha so yesterday we got invited to go to a bbq with an investigator... we show up and there are 10 non members all drinking! hahaha reminded me of home with the swisher side of the family;) hahaha but yeah the bbq was kinda nasty so I was sketched out by the food, he said we were having shishkabobs and when he walked out of the house with them they were on dip sticks from old trucks!!!! hahahaha red red red red neck!!!!!!!!  hahaha they were pretty gross I won't lie but... I still ate like 5 of them hahaha cant help it;) well thats all I got this week!!! The pictures of the snow and my mission BFF that I got to see last week on temple day :) Love yall!!!

Love , Elder Swishdaddy

Year Mark!!

Howdy brentwood!!!!! Well it was another great but crazy week!!!! I HIT MY YEAR MARK!!!!!!! It's crazy how fast everything has been going by!!! Its scarin me a little bit to think how fast the first year went by and knowing the next year will go even faster!!! got lots of work and little time to do it!! I love being a missionary! yeah your not the most loved person walking around town but hey I love the people and I love helping them come closer to Christ!! We got to go to Billings this last week and go to the temple and I got to hang out with my two favorite missionaries!!! Me and Elder Evensen were re-united and Elder Johnson who is now Elder Evensen's companion!!! they are studs I love them both to death!! so yeah that was fun to do this week! I have been on exchanges with the first ward elders helping them find some people to teach!! it has been a lot of fun, the first ward boundries cover all the way out in the country, half way to Powell so they cover all the farms!!! man farms are pretty I love it!! so yeah that was fun and different this week otherwise just the usual missionary work that i love!! well i hope yall have a good week!! love and miss yall!!!:)

P.S- Best food of the week was homemade Peach syrup on my waffles!!

Love elder Swishdaddy

Pickled Eggs!

Hello Everyone! 

We put another girl on date for september 20th and we had 2 lessons with her and her family this week! That was Awesome! Then tonight we will hopefully put another girl on date for september as well!!! So the work here is going great!! It's a fun time to be a missionary in Cody!! It rained every day this past week so it has been super muddy! A member got stuck and I had to get in the mud and help move stuff around.....big sacrifice for me;) Craziest thing that happend to me this week hmmmm well last night I get a call from a member saying "are you in a car accident?!?!" I was like "I'm on my bike hahah so no!" and he said "oh well there's some missionaries in a bad accident at walmart!" So I hung up and we biked the 4 miles to walmart and the first ward elders had hit another car pretty bad! Nobody was hurt or anything but the mission car was messed up pretty good!! But this is their second crash in two weeks with two different drivers!! So what does this mean?!?!?! Most likely we will get the car!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha heck yeah!!!!! Swishdaddy is back in the drivers seat and ditching the bikes!!!:):):) Hopefully....so for my food portion of the email! hahaha I had some awesome pickled eggs!!! The thought and sight of them were gross but of course I was going to try it! And it was actually really really good!!!! They were died with beats so it was neon purple hahaha! My comp wasn't a big fan of them but I was a fan!! We get to go to the temple on Thursday as a mission!! I'm so pumped! I haven't been in 6 months!! And it'll be good to see all my buddies too!! My pants are still fitting like champs so no worries there!! I'm feeling really good and I'm happy!! Life is great! Well I love you guys and miss you guys a lot but I'll see y'all real soon!!!:)

Love Elder Swishdaddy

Killing Machine?!?

HOWDY!!!! Well Brentwood I got my new missionary and he is a good guy!!! He is  very clean and stylish.....soooo the opposite of me;) hahaha But we get along great and have fun together!! He is from Irvine California. His name is Elder Kimball. He is distant cousins with President Kimball! Transfer weeks are always crazy with a bunch of junk going on!! But we actually got some really good work done this week!!:) I am soooo happy to be staying here in cody for another 6 weeks its literally heavan on earth! Lets see first I have to update you on my food of course, we may have had the worst tasting food ever this week! haha My first week that I haven't had really good food:( and that"s hard for a fat person like me to go a whole week with out good food! well I take that back every night this week I had a great dessert! We go to this family's house every night at 8:45 to get a ride home and they always have a dessert for us.....its great!!!:) so I can't complain to much I guess! We did a lot of knocking on doors and our three investigators are progressing well. Knocking doors Doesn't  sound like fun?!?! Well seriously it is! hahaha no sarcasim it's the best! hahaha Well funny story of the week, first door we go kncok on so it's my new missionary's first door ever! There is a huge dog! So I was trying to set the example for my companion and not be afraid of this massive killing machine so I said I'll go in first and you just follow me. So I go in the gate and this dog takes off after me and I'm running around the yard trying to avoid my death while my new missionary closes the gate and is yelling trying to tell me where to go to get away from the dog..... thanks for the help buddy!! hahaha I probably looked ridiculous trying to run around with this new stomach I have formed! But I finally jumped over the fence and was safe. It was by far the funniest thing that has happened to me yet! gotta love the mission:) well I think thats all I got for yall!! hope it's a good week and be safe!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy

Emblem Wyoming, population...10!

HOWDY!!! Well transfer calls are in and I'm staying here in Cody!!! Thank goodness!!!! I love it here!!! Meanwhile me and elder Archie's terror together is over....almost 5 months strong together!! He is leaving tomorrow for Poplar Montana! poor guy.... hahahaha I'll be traning another new missionary fresh from the mtc in provo!! It'll be fun, training... I have a love hate relationship with training........This will be my third time doing it so hopefully I have it down by now! hahah so this week I got to go back on exchanges in lovely Burlington! Where the town is basically all members! hahaha but while I was there I got to meet some new people who were awesome and treated us missionaries really good!! There is one paved road in Burlington and all the rest are sweet dirt roads and every where you look is a beautiful field of corn,sugar beats,lettuce....and the list goes on! but it is really pretty I loved it! While I was there I got to eat dinner in Emblem wyoming! I'm sure y'all have heard of it! Theres barely any elbow room cuz the town has a whole population of.... 10! hahaha yep theres literally 10 people that live there! Why do they live there?! I have no idea! hahaha but it made for a cool picture next to the population sign!;) hahaha  Sadly there was no mouth watering food this week:( but my fatty senses tell me this week will be a good food week!:) hahaha have a great week!!!

Love Elder Swishdaddy

Baptism Week!!

HELLO Brentwood!!!!! Well this was a great week!!! We had a baptisim!!! Its like the best day as a missionary!!! All your hard work pays off and you get to see the happiness that comes with baptisim!!! It was AMAZING!!!!! So that was on saturday but the whole beginning of the week was just like any other week! We did a lot of knocking doors....my companion hates knocking on doors but it has weirdly grown on me and I always enjoy the rude people cuz they make for good stories. hahaha but yeah besides that there wasn't too much going on!Transfers are next week and I'm not sure if I'm moving or what! I hope if I do move I stay here in Cody but maybe just switch wards.... I love it here! I will keep you posted! Thats all i got for yall!! Hopefully i have some fun stories next week!!! have a good one!!! Oops forgot to add my food for the week for my mom and Sister Evensen. I broke the missionary record for eating the most sourdough waffles in a 20 minute period! I ate 9 waffles in 20 minutes. The man who feeds us the waffles keeps track of the missionaries and how many they eat. I broke the record. Pretty proud!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Baby Moose...RUN!!!

HEY!!! Soooo I just got back to Cody on Friday. Our work is moving forward. We will be having our baptism this Saturday. I am so excited. We have one for sure but crossing our fingers for two baptisms! So we had the best pday ever. The two best mountain men in cody took us hiking. We were gone all day so I only have a few minutes. It will be mostly pictures today. I am so sore but man was the hike gorgeous!!!! They took us to the spot where they will be hunting their bear and elk this year! It was so beautiful!!!! They both had their bear guns so don't worry mom;) hahaha they both were carrying 12 guages that they built themselves!!! It was so cool! We didn't see any bears:( but as we were walking back I thought I saw something move and I looked over and it was a calf moose!!!!!! And the two big tough burley mountain men started running away and told us to follow! hahahaha so we got a good distance away and they said there is nothing more dangerous than a momma moose protecting her calf! hahahaha but it was cool to see the calf even though we didn't see the momma!  I am going on another exchange after the baptism to Burlington. Burlington is a tiny town with 2 wards there.... the elders there have 1 investigator and the only less active family in the wards just moved so they have a perfect attendence record!!!! hahahaha isnt that crazy?!?!?!?! hahaha And do you believe I just hit my 11 month mark yesterday?!?!?! crazyness!!!! Well have a good week! 

Love Elder Swishdaddy

Mini roping toy

outside our window

baby moose

DOUGHNUT BURGER!

HELLO BRENTWOOD!!!! Well this week was..... AMAZING!!!! So county fairs here in wyoming are huge!!!! everybody goes to them and that means nobody is home for us to knock on their doors! So the begining of the week was normal week full of knocking on doors and teaching but then i get this call thurseday morning "Hey Elder Swisher we need somebody who likes livestock and isnt affraid to be in poop all day and the only person we could think of..... was you" hahahaha not sure if thats a compliment or and insult? hahaha imma take it as a compliment!;) So i show up to powell wyoming while my companion stayed in cody with the other missionaries and i got picked up and brought over here! With elder inman! HE is a stud! But yeah so on friday morning at 6 am we had to go over to the fair and i washed 8 dairy cows and got them all shiney and pretty to be shown!! And then the guy who is a member in the ward here in Powell who helps run his family farm wich covers about 7,500 acres and have 655 dairy cows being milked everyday asks me "do you want to show one?" i said "is the book of mormon true?" (the answer of course being YES) hahahaha so i got to show a big heffer!!! it was awesome!!! my points were horrible and i didnt win a prize but non the less it was SOOO MUCH FUN!!!!! Man  Brentwood i hate to break it to ya but im falling in love with little ole powell wyoming!!!:) hahaha its a great place!!!! So many beautiful farms and livestock!!! Im in heaven!!!!:) So yeah ill be here in powell till probably thurseday!! when This elder gets his companion back!!! and then ill head back to Cody with my companion!! But what else does the fair have? THE BEST FOOD EVER!!! hahah i had 2 foot long corn dogs a funel cake a pulled pork burito annnnnnnnd a DOUGHNUT BURGER!!!!!!!!!!!! dont juge it by the sound of it.... it was the best thing i have ever eaten!!!!!!!!! Man it was good times hahaha!!! deffintly one of the funnest weeks of the mission!!!!:):) but yes our investigators back in cody are progressing and are working towards their baptisims really well!!! It will be a fun month full of exciting baptisims!!! Man i love being a missionary!! hahaha well thats all i got for yall!! Hope its a great week ill talk to yall next monday!!!:)

Love, Elder Swishdaddy!!!

Best food week ever!!!

Howdy Brentwood!!! Well we had a great week!!! We found a new investigator!! She is another 13 year old girl who happens to be best friends with the other girl we have on date for baptisim!!! They want to get baptized on the same day!!! So that will be a great day!! We are shooting for august 9th!!! I am pumped for it!!! We are fixin to have 4 baptisims next month!! Those 2 and then these other 2 investigators we have been workin with that we think are ready for it!!!! So yeah its good to see the work paying off!!!! Well this week i had 2 flat tires....... we live 3 miles out of town.....like 8 miles from walmart...... and no bike!!!!!! so we had some sweet walks on the highway going to walmart to get tubes twice!!! hahahaha but no worries the silver bullet(name of my bike) is back and running like a champ!!!! But yeah so this week was the best food week of my mission!!! we had sour dough waffles which are now my new favorite thing in the entire world and we had some good steak twice and some good pork chops man it was just a great eating week!!!! hahaha we had an awesome hike last monday but i forgot to bring my camara with me today sooooo youll have to wait to see the pictures next week!! But yeah we had a great week and im doing great!!!! I hope yall are havin a great week!!! 

Love, Elder Swishdaddy

Baby Mice problem! Gross!!

HELLO brentwood!!!!! So another great week here in Cody!! it only rained a couple of times this week!!! but for the most part the weather has been great!!! So the fun stories for the week..... we have  had a mice problem but now it has turned into a baby mice problem!!!! they are too small to set off the traps so now i just always walk around in my shoes and when we hear one we find it and then i stomp on them hahaha but we make sure to move them to the hardwood so its an easier clean up;) hahaha but yeah thats been pretty dang fun! We have to move our baptisim from this saturday to the 26th!! She was out of town so she kinda fell behind but she is still set on being baptized so we are gonna make it happen this month!!! Im so excited to see it! All the hard work will pay off!! Being a missionary is great, you just never know whats gonna happen every single day!! I have never been so happy!! So cool thing happend to me this week!! I decided that i was gonna read some other books during my personal study to see if they would help me out in my teaching! And on thursday i just felt that i wasnt as happy as i normaly am or as ready to teach people! So i sat back and was thinking about it and it was cuz i wasnt reading the book of mormon everyday! I never really realized how happy and how it made me so ready to teach people! So yeah kinda just a little slap in the face for me!! But it was a great lesson to learn!! man this week is gonna be a great week though we are fixin to find a lot of people this week to teach!! That means a lot of doors slammed in the face and a lot of gettin cussed out but it will also mean finding people to teach so itll be worth it!!! Well i think thats all i got for yall!! have a great week i miss ya Brentwood!!!!!!

Love, Elder Swishdaddy