April 11- I love being a Missionary!

My Beloved Family! 

I hope you are all doing well I love you all and I hope you had a great week! I had a good week:) Things are just moving along out here in the Harvest of the Lord!

We were in a trio for two days this week with Hermana Muñoz she is awesome and from Aguascalientes:) She is the sister missionary who is the exact same age as me:) A funny experience we had while walking along the highway was that we heard this HUGE noise right beside us and we all thought it was a gun-shot. I still have the hardest time differentiating between gunshots and fireworks, so any load noise makes me jump, haha. So we heard this BOOM! And we all  got ready to hit the ground when we saw that it was just a comvie who blew a tire right beside us, haha. But what was funnier was that when I saw that the tire of the comvie had blown out, I still was looking for the person who I thought had shot the tire, haha. But they calmed the white girl down and it was just a blown tire;) 

I got a HUGE SURPRISE! When I received a package from my girl KAT!!! She is serving a mission in Colorado Springs, Colorado and out of the kindness of her heart sent me some beautiful Easter candy:) I was dying with the reeses and cadburry eggs!!

We call these hermanos our ''Papas Olguin'' Because Hermana and Hermano Olguin love us so much and they call us their daughters:) They love to spoil us and this week they took us out to eat at this fancy seafood restaurant. They were like ''You like seafood, right?!'' and we were like ''RIGHT!!!'' But inside I was like ''dang it.'' Haha, because here its not like the Mexico restaurants at home where you can just order Chicken fingers if you dont want Mexican food;) (Right, Dad?;)) But I am learning to like seafood, I had some really nice fish tacos and the next day another Hermana in our ward gave us shark filet, and that was pretty good:)

I have now learned another new skill here in the mission- how to clean a tank of water:) This is the water we use to wash the dishes and clean and stuff and we had to clean it out this week and now I know how to make suction-water pressure with just a tube and the power of gravity! If my physics teacher could see me now...:)

I broke down and finally bought some shoe-inserts with some extra birthday money I was hoarding and the world has become a more beautiful place:)

Sometimes I think my companion just gets stressed out but doesnt want to admit it.

 

She also cant figure out how to just walk away and leave the people who are hiding inside and pretending not to hear us in peace, haha. 

We have this one investigator who it is easier to catch if we wait for school to get out when she comes to get her kids, then we help them walk the mile to their house:) 

This is an awesome family- Familia Jaimez that are investigating the church:) They are progressing really well and know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God:) Eros (the younger brother) said that he knew the book of mormon was true because he said a prayer to ask God and then right after his Cat had her kittens- ''It was like a sign from God.'' Haha, as long as they know its true, I am good with that;) 

Hermana Rodriguez obviously wasnt as scarred as I was from the traumatic branch-breaking experience two weeks ago and she is still pushing her luck by picking flowers;)

We had a little friend in our house yesterday, actually it was a pretty big friend. A 7-inch friend. I have NEVER seen a centipede this big in my life, all of its legs were like a centimeter long and it came to attack us in the kitchen;) We screamed and ran for our Neighbor Hermano Max to kill it, haha. 

This week we had some pretty big-sad news. The ward boundaries for all the wards here in Iguala have changed- and Hermana Rodriguez and I lost about half of our area and a lot of our investigators, but we know that this is still the true church and the new wards and new missionaries will take care of our investigators- including the one who is going to get baptized this week. This is the Hermana Maripaz and her Daugher Soni they are amazing members of the ward but they will now be in the Balsas ward. 

The Familia Jaimez (as shown above;)) Will also be going to a new ward from now on, but we know that everything will be alright:) 

Hermana Elizama and her daughters:) Also, her niece who is investigating the church- they will now be going to the Tamarindos ward:)

Haha, so there is this one river that crosses our area and their is this large family of wild pigs that live there. It is so weird, I dont think anybody really knows how they got there but the baby piglets sure are cute:)

One of the members served us fruit cocktail yesterday- straight from the can! Just like home:) Haha, it was so weird eating it, but I took a picture to show my brothers and sisters that I got one of the precious cherries;)

Today is my companions birthday:) She is 24 years old and is having a good day! I was in the middle of curling her hair when the neighbors came to sing to her and give her presents:) 

Happy Birthday Girl!:)

Well, I love you all so much. I love being a missionary, I am finding so much joy and satisfaction knowing that I am where I need to be, doing what I need to be doing, and becoming who the Lord needs me to be. I know this church is true:) I hope you all can feel that joy as well:) 

Love, Hermana Swallow