Life's Good in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Hey folks!

I've got no time. We had a crazy day yesterday. I did get permission to send y'all a brief email a day late though. :)

Our week was great! We had stake conference. Randall, our investigator, came. He's doing well. He says he isn't ready to set a baptism date just yet but he wants to be baptized sometime in the next 6 weeks.

We haven't been able to get ahold of Karla. If you wouldn't mind praying for us that we can get in contact with her again, that would be really helpful.

I had a super powerful experience on exchanges this week! I was with Elder Hull, the district leader down in Blairseville, GA, and we got a call from someone asking if we could come to the hospital and give someone a blessing. We had a flexible evening so we were able to go. It turned out to be a man in his 20's. He's been married about 2 years, they have a 5 month old daughter, and he had been in a bad car accident. It involved someone else going 150mph in a 25mph zone and hitting his car. If he lives through it, he'll be paralyzed from the chest down. His poor wife was devastated.

The blessing honestly should have been way more nerve wracking than it was. There was a lot of pressure on us after all. And what if it isn't the Lord's will that he be healed? But we just felt this complete feeling of peace and calm and comfort, that it would be okay. And as we gave the blessing it just felt to me like the Lord was trying to tell us all that these things are according to His will for this young family. Things will be okay. That even if our lives don't go exactly as we might wish, they do go according to a plan that is far greater (and ultimately far more joyful) than any we could ever dream of. It was such a powerful experience, one that I'll not soon forget.

The gospel is true. I know it! I love the Savior Jesus Christ. He lives, He loves us, He is the Captain of our lives, and this is His Church. He will lead us to beautiful and joyful paths if we will allow Him to mold and shape us. Let's all try to be a little more like Him this week, and let's strive always to invite others to come unto Him.

Love,

Elder Alex Swindler
132 Springside Rd Apt D1
Asheville, NC 28803


Videos: From our drive back in to Asheville from Knoxville

Enjoy this video of me spanking Elder Stockinger as he was trying to spank Elder Creasey:

1) Asheville traffic

2-3) Pretty stuff

The rest) We visited the Biltmore Estates yesterday and it was awesome! I took about a million pictures. Here's a few of them.

To Asheville

Hey folks!

We had a bit of a crazy P day yesterday and in the midst of it all I didn't send y'all an email. But I got permission to send this a day late, so here we go.

We had a pretty good week this week! It was kind of crazy though. For one thing, I found out that I will be transferred this Wednesday to Asheville, North Carolina. I've actually wanted to go to Asheville for awhile. I've heard that it's a good area, and also that it's really pretty, so I'm excited to go. But I'm going to miss Lebanon a lot. There are a lot of people here that I have grown to really love. And it's hard to leave a place after putting a lot of hard work and love into it.

One super awesome thing that happened this week was that the Nagy family (part member family we have been working with) came to church, for the first time since I've been here in Lebanon!! It was awesome! We weren't expecting them to come at all, it was just out of the blue. We were actually waiting at the door expecting another person to come, a less active boy named Donny, and while we were waiting for him, up walked the Nagy's! We were so excited. And Donny did end up coming as well, which was awesome.

Another big thing this week is that we seem to finally be gaining the ward's trust. We were able to sit down and talk with the Bishop after church last week, and we had a good meeting. He even wants to come out with us tomorrow night to see Ronnie so that will be good. The Elders Quorum President also seems to be beginning to trust us a lot more too.

Ronnie is actually doing really well. We brought a member named Brother Reeves with us when we saw him his week and they seemed to click pretty well. And the lesson went great. We invited him to baptism, and he has concerns about it (mostly it's that he has already been baptized), but he also told us that he has prayed about meeting with us and about the Book of Mormon, and that the answer he has gotten is to continue to meet with us. He says he knows the Lord wants him to be studying with us. He agreed to pray about baptism and seek the Lord's direction.

I have been saying a lot of goodbyes the past couple of days. We said goodbye to the Hokanson family, the family that is related to me. It was bittersweet. They have really helped this ward to feel more like home. They fed us so much food that night that we thought we were going to die haha. We also said goodbye to the Nagy family on Sunday night. I love them a lot too. And then last night we said goodbyes to the Ward Mission Leader and his wife. I'll miss them a lot. I'll be back to visit them for sure. They are awesome. I'm sad to be leaving this district - I love these missionaries here a lot. And I'll be really sad to leave Elder Urry. He has been such a good companion and friend to me. But I know he'll do great things here in Lebanon, I know things will continue to move forward here, and I'm excited for what the future holds. This is the Lord's vineyard, after all. It is His work and He is in charge of it, and it will move forward under His direction.

Well, I better go. I trust that the Lord is leading me where he needs me to be. I know that as we move forward with faith in Jesus Christ, He truly does lead us and strengthen us to become all He knows we can become. I urge you to seek, listen to and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. There was a scripture Elder Urry shared this week, and I'll share it with you:

"Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea." (Jacob 4:6)

As we search the words of the prophets, both ancient and modern, and as we listen to and follow the revelations given us by the Holy Spirit, we obtain hope, and we begin to develop unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ, which faith we will need to move forward where He asks us to go, do what He asks us to do, and be who He asks us to be. He will help us strengthen our faith if we let Him, and love Him, and put forth the effort.

I love you all!

Elder Alex Swindler
11320 Station West Dr. Ste. 101
Farragut, TN 37934


1-2) We cleaned out our fridge this week and found this. Yum.

3) Goodbye to the Nagy's

4) Goodbye to the Hokanson's

5) The Westbrooks (ward mission leader) made us cake :)

Video 1: Waiting for an oil change on exchanges with Elder Vellinga. Mission life can be so hard sometimes.

Video 2: Some fun on the guitar with Elder Urry.

Adventures in Lebanon

Hey everyone!

I don't have time to send much this week but suffice it to say that we had a good one. Highlights were that Fabian is making good progress! We brought a member with us named Brother Keefe to see him, and he told his own conversion story, and it made such a difference for Fabian. He inadvertently ended up addressing, like, all of Fabian's major concerns. We are excited to see how far he has come.

Also this week, we had a worldwide Missionary Broadcast, and there were some major changes made by the Apostles in the missionary daily schedule! The new schedule they presented allows us much more flexibility to decide when and what we do during the day. They also taught us a lot about true repentance and how we can help people to make real changes in their lives.

And then a couple days later we had a wonderful zone conference with President Griffin. He talked about repentance a lot as well. We all carry heavy chains of sin that weigh us down, but because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, those chains can be dropped, and they need not be picked up again. Which means we don't need to keep beating ourselves up over past mistakes which we have repented of. We have changed, and now we move on. And while we cannot take the chains of others from them, we can help them bear the weight and help and encourage them to let them go themselves with the help of the Savior.

I have to go but I love you all and the gospel is true! I know that as we strive to serve God and keep His commandments, He pours out His Spirit more abundantly upon us, and our hearts begin to change. Let's all try to do that more this week.

Elder Alex Swindler
11320 Station West Dr. Ste. 101
Farragut, TN 37934


Here's some pictures from our week:

1) Oh look, a floating head. How nice.

2) We decorated the other Elders' toilet today.

Videos: We did apple cider vinegar shots, just for fun.

Short One

Hey folks!

I don't have time to say much of anything this week, but suffice it to say that we had an awesome week. We struggled a little at the beginning, but we started just leaving the apartment and hitting the pavement and trying to talk to people, and every time we got out and worked, we met someone that we were able to share the gospel with or who invited us to come back. I know that the Lord truly does bless us when we get up and try, especially when we are trying to do His work. He loves us. His work is our salvation, and He is best able to help us and those around us when we try and when we get out and work. He helps those who are willing to work. I love Him and I love being a part of His work. And I love you all! Let's all seek His help this week as we get up and work. And let's all seek for opportunities to selflessly serve and lift others along the way. Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever, after all.

Love,

Elder Alex Swindler
11320 Station West Dr. Ste. 101
Farragut, TN 37934


Pictures:
1-2) I had my first fried Oreos this week and they were AMAZING.

3) Elder Urry took a sneaky picture of our investigator, Alan. He's great. We just have to get him to church. By the way, if you wouldn't mind, would you pray that he will be able to make it to church this week? He really wants to come, but crazy things keep happening every week that prevent him from coming.

4) Some tasty cheese from the back of our fridge.

5) Is it a cat or a lion?

Fun with Vacuums:
It really sucked.

168 Hours

Hey folks!

This week was good. One highlight was finding a guy named Jack Presley! We saw he had a bunch of military stuff outside his house while we were tracting, so we mentioned it at his door and he let us right in and told us about all his family who have served in the military. A couple of his brothers even lost their lives serving our country. We talked with him about eternal families and he asked us to come back. It was pretty cool.

Another highlight was that we went on exchanges with the zone leaders, and one of our new zone leaders is Elder Constantino, an Elder I served around in my last area! I love that guy. He is so genuinely kind and selfless. We had a good time together talking about people and catching up. Also this week we had a whole bunch of our members come out with us. It was pretty great. This ward is awesome. Our members really want to support us and be engaged in the work of the Lord.

A not-so-highlight of our week was that a lot of our investigators cancelled on us. We weren't able to meet with James, or with Allen, or Fabian, or a few of our other investigators. But! James did tell us that he has been reading from the Book of Mormon. So that's good.

Elder Urry and I have been working hard and doing a lot of tracting. We have actually gotten pretty good at it. We found several people this week that could become really promising investigators. Also, I love my district. Elder Vellinga and Elder Hatch are super cool, especially Elder Vellinga. And I really like our Sisters, Sister Beare and Stevens. I'm gonna miss this district when transfers roll around again in a few weeks.

I wanted to share something that stood out to me in the Book of Mormon this week. In 1 Nephi 7:13, Nephi exhorts his brethren to be faithful to the Lord: "Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to His will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to Him." How often do we forget that? It struck me because I realized I had forgotten that this week. The Lord is able to do all things according to His will for us if we will exercise faith in Him.

One more thing stood out to me as well from this story. A few verses later, after being bound by his brothers, Nephi prays to the Lord and asks: "O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound." Nephi does not pray for his circumstances to be changed - for his bands to miraculously disappear or fall from his hands. Rather, he prays for the strength to change his circumstances - for the strength to burst his own bands. Then he went to work, trusting in God, diligently working at his bands to break them, and he was given strength from the Lord beyond his own. This is how he exercised faith in the Lord. When we find ourselves bound and trapped in our circumstances, we can learn from the example of Nephi. We can exercise our faith in the Savior, pray for the strength to change our circumstances according to His will, and then go to work, seeking to bring about His will and the desired change in our circumstances.

I testify that if we will exercise faith in Jesus Christ, He is able, according to His will, to do all things for us. And He is able to give us His enabling and strengthening power, to make us able to change our own circumstances. Let us excercise faith in Him! Let us seek His help as we go to work striving to change our own circumstances.

I love you all!

Elder Alex Swindler

1) Half mission conference pic, from a few weeks ago

2) Cool lookin' tree

3) We were dead after weekly planning this week

4) Nice

5) My jack-leg guitar. I broke my guitar string this week (again! I just barely got new strings after breaking the exact same string a few weeks ago), and I didn't want to buy another string, so I tried just tying it in a knot, and it worked! This guitar is basically being held together by wood glue, a knot, and prayers.

Video 1) I tried to dump ice cold water on Elder Urry but I missed by about an inch.

Video 2) We made a quartet!

Short One

Hey folks!

I don't have time for much of an email this week, but I'll send some pictures. Alan wasn't able to make it to church, and neither was Cory, but James read from the Book of Mormon this week! And we found a cool new guy named Brian. We taught him the Restoration out on his front porch in subfreezing weather. It was awesome.

This week I've been thinking a lot about submitting our will to the Lord's. In times when it is hard to trust and obey Him, or when exact obedience to gospel standards and the higher law is difficult and inconvenient, remember and be grateful for the choice our Savior made when He said in His agony in the garden of Gethsemane, "not my will, but Thine be done." He made that choice, so that now we will have access every day to His infinite Atonement! Where would we be if He had not chosen the difficult, but right, path that night? We can choose the harder right. We can obey the higher law. We can be exactly obedient. Because we love Him, and He loves us. He will help us.

I love you all!

Elder Alex Swindler
11320 Station West Dr. Ste. 101
Farragut, TN 37934


1-2) Elder Urry got pooped on by a bird

3) New Christmas sweater

4) Last District pic before transfers, plus the zone leaders

5) Whippoorwill Rd

6) It snowed this week!! :)

7) Shouldn't that read "road closed?"

Videos:
 Pranking the other Elders

Merry Christmas!

Hey folks!

It's only been a few days, but a lot has happened. We have been working hard and have seen some successes this week. For one thing, we were able to help that part member family move his week, the one I mentioned last week that we found at the ward dinner. We were also finally able to meet with Allen Chappell, one of our investigators who wants to be baptized. He's had some crazy medical stuff going on so we had to move his baptismal date to March.

We also said goodbye to Elder Cazier this week. President Griffin did a sort of half-transfer for all the people who would be going home just after Christmas, and that included Elder Cazier. We drove to Knoxville on Friday to drop him off, and he flew home on Saturday. We were sad to see him go. He's been a good companion. Also, it's been really weird adjusting to just having the two of us. Sometimes we pretend he is still there and talk for him in the car haha.

Oh! We also saw the Nagy family again on Sunday. We love them, they are always our last stop of the week and they are the best. We are usually there for like 2 hours because they are just so awesome. Well, they are a part-member family, and they asked us to start the missionary discussions over again with them, and this Sunday we taught them the Restoration. The Spirit was so powerful as we talked and it was amazing, especially when his step-kids bore testimony to him. Plus they had a friend there that night, just by coincidence, and she stayed for the message, and she really liked it. She asked for a Book of Mormon and said she would read and pray. And both Allen and their friend accepted an invitation to be baptized! We haven't set a date with them yet but we will soon. It was awesome!!

We have something incredible in this church. This is the only true and living church on the earth. That doesn't mean that other churches don't have truth, nor does it mean that this church is perfect. It means that we are led by a living prophet of God, that we have the authority from God to act in His name, and that we have the fullness of His gospel. We are not perfect, and neither is the Church. But we are Christ's, and we can see His enabling power made manifest in our imperfect lives and throughout the history of His church. While there may be things we don't understand - perhaps facets of doctrine or events in our history or actions of church leaders or something else - there is so much we do have and that we do know that the other things become important in perspective, and we can become willing to set them aside for the time being, trusting in God that He will help us understand in time and as we exercise faith in Him and continue onward. As Christ Himself taught us in Matthew 7, the way to know is to taste the fruit: "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. ...Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." The fruit of the Restoration is good, and it has blessed my life. I know it will bless the lives of others. That is why I am here sharing it. How has the restored gospel blessed your life? When was the last time you tasted its fruit?

I love you all! Merry Christmas, and make yourselves a great week!

Elder Alex Swindler

All About Them Pics:

1) Goodbye to Elder Cazier. Love that guy.

2) Our ward and primary are the greatest!! They gave us and the Sisters a whole bunch of stuff for Christmas!

3) One of the Sunday school classes attempted to make us gingerbread houses. ...hey, it's the thought that counts, right?

4) I got a haircut

5) Angel with a bazooka

Video: I (sort of) attempt the cinnamon challenge. I know it was only like half a teaspoon full, but hey, it was something.

Burdens

Hey everyone!

We had a half mission conference on Monday with Elder Nielsen of the 70, so our prep day got moved to today. Which is why I'm emailing a couple days late. And we had an extra crazy p day, which is why I'm emailing so late in the day and why this will probably be pretty short.

This week we worked really hard to find people to teach. And we actually had some good success! One of my favorite parts was finding a part member family at a church social (the Bishop introduced us) who are awesome, and want us to come and meet with them. We are helping them move tomorrow. Another favorite part was going tracting in Carthage, TN on Sunday. We had been fasting and praying for people to teach, and we knocked on one door, and the guy who answered was nice but uninterested. But he said we might want to try the people across the street. So we did, and a young newlywed couple popped right out. They watched the Light the World video and then stood in the freezing cold for like 5-10 minutes and talked to us. And they asked us to come back next week, and then told us they wanted to give us something for our church because of how impressed they were with us, and then before we realized what they were doing, they handed us a $100 bill and shut the door. So we went home with our mouths dragging on the ground. Haha that doesn't happen in real life. We'll give the money to the ward this weekend.

My message this week is something I learned at the half mission conference. There is so much I learned there, especially that God answers my prayers and the Holy Ghost is real, because I got a lot of answers there to things I've been struggling with. But one of my favorites is the concept that was shared by Elder Bednar a couple conferences ago: our burdens and loads are really blessings from our loving Heavenly Father. He used an analogy of a friend who got his truck stuck in snow, and it wasn't until he had filled the back with the wood he had come to chop down that he was able to get the traction he needed to get out. We are the same way. Happiness is not necessarily the absence of a burden. Oftentimes we pray for our burdens to be removed from us, but that is often counterproductive to our Heavenly Father's purposes. Much of the time, it would be more appropriate for us to pray for the strength to change our own circumstances. It is in changing our own circumstances and bearing our own burdens alongside the Savior that we are able to change and grow. He desires to help us and to bear our burdens with us, and He will give us strength beyond our own through the enabling power of His Atonement. We access that strength by accepting His will and becoming as a child (see Mosiah 3:19). I have been struggling lately because it can feel like our efforts have been getting us nowhere, especially our efforts to find people to teach who will progress. But this has got me thinking about how I can use this burden to get traction, so to speak, and what God wants me to learn from this experience. What burdens are you carrying that you could reexamine? How are you approaching the Lord about the burdens He has given you?

I love you all! Make yourselves a great week!

Elder Alex Swindler
#LIGHTtheWORLD

Some Pics for Youns and Some Videos:
1) Just chillin in my shades

2) New Christmas sweater

3) Huge burger

4-6) District pics. Elder Cazier is "dying" (going home) this weekend.

7) Crazy Christmas lights

8) Found Elder Milne at the half mission conference! I haven't seen him in ages!

9-10) A lot of the reason for the crazy p day. Elder Lambert got permission and came up from his home in Nashville to spend the day with us. It was awesome. :) I miss that guy.

Video) We tried to scare Elder Urry but it didn't work very well

Other video) I breathed fire!!