This Area is Awesome

Hey folks!

Things are good here. We taught a bunch of lessons, had a bunch of dinners (the members here are legit), and all in all it was a great week. Plus it was Elder Lakko's birthday! That was fun.

We volunteered at the American Museum of Science and Energy as well, and I'll admit, it was hard to actually work and not wander around reading all the things. There was a bunch of stuff about the Manhattan project and Oak Ridge and random science stuff too. My inner geek totally came out.

And we have two baptismal dates! Pretty sure I already told y'all about Esther, she is still doing really well. Still reading the Book of Mormon, still wants to be baptized, still awesome. She texts us all the time with random questions. She is living the Word of Wisdom and everything. And we also taught a really cool guy named Jonas, he is a senior in high school and is friends with one of the laurels. He wants to be baptized and she told us secretly that he is talking about wanting to go on a mission! This guy is awesome. He's been coming to church since April and has been taught a little already, this was just my first time teaching him. Also we taught a lady we tracted into a couple weeks ago, Marjorie. She is also really cool and accepted a soft baptism invitation (meaning she wants to be baptized if she finds for herself this is true). She really wants her sons to have a relationship with God. Hopefully we can teach them soon too.

Also we had an epic zone conference. President Griffin gave a super powerful training on the purpose of the gospel. I'll include a little of it in my message. And we got two new pamphlets for teaching the fourth and fifth lessons, which is awesome.

Well that's about it for us. Quick message before I go: the whole point of the gospel is for us to become like Christ. If you feel stagnant in your conversion, examine yourself: how can you improve and be more like the Savior? We all have room to improve. Take it one step at a time.

Moroni gives us a pattern for living like Christ as he shares some of his father Mormon's words:

"And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.

"If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

"...Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." (Moroni 7:43-45, 48)

Moroni lists a lot of attributes of Christ as he talks about charity. Use this as a guide. How can you improve?

Gotta run. Had a crazy p day - we went to a trampoline park! I love you all!

Elder Alex Swindler

El Pictures:

1) Van Pelt, Van Pelt, Van Pelt...

2) Haha the stack on the left is Elder Lakko's letters this week and the stack on the right is mine (Thanks Meridith!). #13months!

3) #TractingintheSouth

4-6) Elder Lakko wearing his birthday pin in various embarrassing public places

7) Post-haircut selfie

Toilet Paper and Baptismal Dates

Hey folks!

This week has been great. Lots of adventures. On Tuesday we discovered that we had been toilet-papered! Hahaha we weren't sure who it was but we figured it was probably the other elders or a certain one of the priests in the ward. Turns out it was said priest, and also his mom, and also some visiting sister RM's. And it was his mom's idea hahaha. His mom felt bad later and made us cookies as a peace offering... But we're not gonna just let this lie. :) We're thinking of saran-wrapping their car later this week.

We had a lesson with a lady we found at the family history booth at the fair last week! It was pretty good. She isn't terribly interested in the gospel at this point but she is definitely interested in finding more of her family history, so we helped her with that. We also saw several less actives this week. I love working with less actives. Helping them rediscover their faith is really exciting. :)

We had a lesson with an eternigator named Zavian. He's really cool but he's hard to work with because he rambles like you wouldn't believe. And we saw an investigator named Esther! She's awesome! She was a referral from a Mormon.org chat that didn't seem very interested at first, but now she's reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it and enjoying it, and she accepted a baptism date of August 6, and she even came to church out of nowhere this week!!

This area is great. I love Elder Lakko, I love the members and they feed us a lot, and the work is moving forward. :) I hope you all are doing well!

My message for this week is about obedience. Something President Griffin talked about at our last zone meeting was 4 reasons for us to be obedient: fear, reward, duty, and love. When we obey out of fear, we will eventually overcome or outgrow our fears, and with them goes our motivation to obey. When we obey to get a reward, as soon as we have our reward, there is no more incentive - we already have our trophy, so why try? When we obey out of duty, we eventually just burn out - there is no real reason for us to keep going. But when we obey out of love, we can keep going forever. As Mormon said:

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." (Moroni 7:47)

The two greatest commandments are to "love the Lord thy God" and "love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt 22:37-39). If we will do these two things, all other things will fall into place in our lives, and we will obey His commandments and serve Him because we mean it.

So how do we shift our motivations from fear, reward, or duty to love? I don't think there is one answer. It is unique and personal to each of us and requires a lot of prayer (see Moroni 7:48). One idea though is that we can start by trying our best to be obedient to God's commandments, following the Spirit and serving Him as best we can with whatever motivations we can muster - because when we serve other people selflessly, we cannot help but eventually grow to love them, and likewise when we serve God selflessly, we eventually grow to love Him. And I do know that God will bless us and build us up and shape us and help us, if we will at least put forth an effort and try.

I've gotta run. I love you all! Make yourselves a great week!

Elder Alex Swindler

Da Pics:

1-3) We got roll'd.

4) One of the houses we tracted was SUPER nice. It even had lily pads in their pond! Actual lily pads!

5-6) An impressive sunset.

7) The peace offering.

Joyce's Baptism and The Most Amazing Backyard View, Ever

1) Joyce got baptized!! Elder Lambert baptized her and her husband Fred confirmed her. And on the right is Elder Lambert's greenie, apparently he came pre-trained. :) 

2) Found this on someone's door when we were out tracting tonight. 

3-4) Tracting in Appalachia. 

5) The view from someone's backyard. No picture could ever do it justice... Don't worry, we weren't being creepy. We tracted into the guy who owns the house this evening and he is SUPER nice. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon, gave him a copy, and prayed with him. And he showed us the view from inside his house, the back of his house is mostly windows and the view from his living room is absolutely astounding. Hopefully we can meet with him again and sit in his living room. :D 

6) The guy's house from the front. We promise we aren't stalkers.

 

The Secret City

Hey folks!

Like I mentioned, I got transferred! Now I'm in Oak Ridge, TN, in the Melton Lake ward. It's a really neat area. Lots of history. The government built the city to research and develop the atomic bombs that were dropped to end WWII. And the ward seems really great, and I love Elder Lakko, he's hardworking and easygoing and funny and we're getting along great so far.

My last couple days in Bristol were a blur of goodbyes and packing like crazy. I was a little sad to leave Bristol and all the people there. And I was sad to leave Elder Lambert. But I'm excited for change and for my new area.

So far Oak Ridge has been good. We tracted into a couple of legit people, one in particular seems promising. She talked about how God has blessed her and changed her and how He's made her a totally different and better person than she was before. She wants to have a stronger relationship with Him. We are going to meet with her again this week. :)

We also got to volunteer at Oak Ridge's "Secret City" festival on Friday and Saturday which was awesome! The two wards here hosted a booth about family history. People could come and find records of their family from the 1940's census. We actually had a lot of people come through and we even got a return appointment from it, so that was awesome. Plus the festival was fun and there was a cool WWII reenactment we got to go to.

Also - Joyce got baptized back in Bristol!! :) I will send pictures as soon as I get them from Elder Lambert.

My message for this week is pretty personally meaningful for me right now. Yesterday while we were out knocking on doors there was a guy who answered and was pretty rude to us. He tried to bible bash with us and told us that we are a disgrace to the name we wear. It's not the first time people have been pretty rude to me on a doorstep and it definitely won't be the last (especially in the heart of the Baptist South), but for some reason he really got to me. I was so angry with this dude. I couldn't stop thinking about him. All throughout my shower this morning I was itching to sit down to study the scriptures and find all the ways I could prove him wrong and prove just how much of an idiot and a jerk and a hypocrite he was... I knew it wasn't right and that I was overreacting and letting Satan get to me, but I didn't care. P And then when I got up from praying and started to study, I somehow ended up instead reading a talk from Elder Oaks that was exactly what I needed to hear, and all the anger just sort of drained from me. Here's two quotes from it:

'In the concluding days of His mortal ministry, Jesus gave His disciples what He called “a new commandment” (John 13:34). Repeated three times, that commandment was simple but difficult: “Love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12; see also verse 17). The teaching to love one another had been a central teaching of the Savior’s ministry. The second great commandment was “love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:39). Jesus even taught, “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). But the commandment to love others as He had loved His flock was to His disciples--and is to us--a challenge that was unique.'

'...The gospel has many teachings about keeping the commandments while living among people with different beliefs and practices. The teachings about contention are central. When the resurrected Christ found the Nephites disputing over the manner of baptism, He gave clear directions on how this ordinance should be performed. Then He taught this great principle:

“There shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been.

“For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.

“Behold, this is … my doctrine, that such things should be done away” (3 Nephi 11:28–30).'

My challenge to you is to join me in examining yourselves. Do you love others as the Savior loves each of us? Even those who may not love you in return? And are you allowing the spirit of contention into your life? Of course none of us will ever love or live as perfectly as the Savior did and does, but that's the idea. No matter where we are or how poorly or how well we are doing, we can always improve to be more like the Master. So do that. Evaluate your life and your heart, and prayerfully strive to improve. :)

I love you all! The Gospel's true!

Elder Alex Swindler

Pictures:

1) Goodbye pic with Bro & Sis Finch. He was the Bristol ward mission leader. They're awesome.

2) Goodbye pic with Bro Call, another awesome member we worked with a lot.

3) Goodbye pic with Bro & Sis Call (not related to the previous guy - confusing, right?). Also awesome.

4) Goodbye to Elder Lambert!

5) Elder Lakko and I found a minion at the Secret City festival!

6) At first we both thought this license plate said "Vol Satan" but then we realized it actually says "Vols 4 TN..." Hahaha

Video: You Are a Sad, Strange Little Man...

A video of some country singer performing a weird song about a chicken at the Secret City festival.

Transfers!

Hey folks!

So I'm getting transferred to Oak Ridge, TN! From the birthplace of country music to the birthplace of the atomic bomb. :) Said a lot of goodbyes this week. I'm sad to leave Bristol, mostly Anna and Elder Lambert. And I'm sad to be leaving this district, it's definitely my favorite district of my mission. I've made a lot of good friends here in the Bristol district. But I'm excited for new opportunities in my new area. Also - elder Lambert will be training here in Bristol, and taking over the entire ward. The other elders (Collins and Bateman) will be leaving.

I've gotta go. I love you guys! The Gospel's true!

Elder Alex Swindler

Pics:
1) The Bristol sign!

2) They seem welcoming...

3-5) District pics

More Pics:

1-2) I slayed a tree!

3-4) Me with Anna :)

5) Me with Joyce (who is getting baptized on Saturday!! WOOT WOOT!!), her husband Fred, and Fred's dad, Fred.

Bonus Pics:

1-2) We all made Harry Potter poses. I'm a pooping wizard. Can you tell?

3) Anna Rush was pinching me in one of the pictures haha

5) A selfie just for you

Which Way Do You Face?

Hey folks!

Surprise! Haha I'm short on time, again. Suffice it to say we had a really good week. Things keep getting better here in Bristol and the work is slowly but surely picking up. When I first got here we were teaching maybe 4-6 lessons per week, and now we're teaching probably 10-12 and we have some pretty awesome people. Joyce is still progressing well, she's going to be baptized a week from this Saturday! We did a bunch of finding (mostly tracting) this week too, and we found two new investigators. One of them, JoAnn, is especially cool. She invited us in and we sat on her back porch and talked for like 2 hours. I know I say this about a lot of the older ladies here but she's super spunky. Also she's had a really hard life but has become such a great and optimistic person because of it. And we saw a less active, Pat, who we've been trying to soften up for awhile. When we first went by she was really closed off but now she's slowly starting to open up and warm up to us. It's exciting. She's great and I like her a lot. :)

But yeah. I'm out of time and I've gotta run. I'm loving it here in Bristol. This is probably my last full week here in the good old birthplace of country music, and I'm sure gonna miss it when I leave. Please keep Fred, Kristen and David in your prayers, they're all really struggling to overcome addictions and they could use your prayers.

I've only got time for a quick message. In his October 2014 address, Elder Lynn G. Robbins asked the question, "Which way do you face?" Meaning, in other words, are we trying to please others before pleasing God, or are we trying to please God before pleasing others? Oftentimes fear of man holds us back from doing the right thing or causes us to make poor decisions. One observation he made that I really like: "Courage is not just one of the cardinal virtues, but as C. S. Lewis observed: 'Courage is … the form of every virtue at the testing point.'" A big part of courage is being righteous even when it is unpopular or hurts our pride or ego or even if it's just plain scary. Join me this week - let's take some time to examine ourselves and see where we are facing. In whatever ways we are facing the wrong way, let's choose to turn around and face God. We are His children, and He will support us in all things we do as we strive to serve Him and become like Him. (And for bonus points, you can even study the talk!)

Well, I've gotta run. I love you all! God lives, the Atonement heals, and the Gospel's true. :) Make yourselves a great week!

Elder Alex Swindler

Yes, I did take pictures this week:

1) Nice.

2) Sister Crawford, Elder Bateman, me, Sister Johnson, Elder Lambert, and Elder Collins sitting on/against an old jail thing in Meadowview, VA where they used to put the town drunks for a day for public humiliation. :)

3) Me and Elder Bateman at the Abingdon VA ward mission leader's farm (we spent Memorial Day there today, it was tons of fun)

4-5) View of the hills from the Abingdon WML's farm

Week 23 in the Land of Bristol

Heyy folks!

We had a pretty decent week here in Bristol. The highlight was definitely our zone conference. President Griffin gave an excellent training on the four pillars of missionary work - obedience, attitude, work, and gospel knowledge. He talked about how we can do more than we think we can do. It was great. I wish you could've been there. Although he did institute a new rule - no meal appointments with members unless there is an investigator, less active, or recent convert present. Not sure entirely how I feel about it... It will definitely decrease the number of our meal appointments. But I think it will also bring a lot of good opportunities and work. So we'll see. And after zone conference I went on an exchange with Elder Dyment, our district leader. He's awesome. Marion, VA (his area) has completely changed for the better since he's been there. And it was a good exchange too.

We saw Grover again and it was much better than last week. We just talked about our life here on earth and the purpose of our struggles. He had some good insights and seemed glad to see us. He seems like he just needs to learn everything from the beginning, he doesn't seem to remember much from when he was taught. We saw Brenda too, and talked about pretty much the same thing. We gave her a larger print Book of Mormon and she promised to start reading again.

Anna is doing well. Stubborn as ever. We talked about her identity as a daughter of God and gave her Elder Hallstrom's talk to read. We saw a crazy less active couple, Ed and Sandy, and talked with them about the importance of scripture study. We saw Joyce and Fred at a member's house again, which was wonderful! Joyce is great. She's progressing nicely towards baptism on June 11th. We taught her the word of wisdom and her only concern was coffee, but she's willing to give it up.

On Sunday, David and Kristen came to church. We finally talked them into staying for all three hours and they really enjoyed it. They're still struggling with some personal issues, they could really use your prayers (and while you're at it, Dusty and Amber could too!). And after church, we got a new investigator! His name is James. We found him tracting a couple weeks ago. We were finally able to meet with him this week, and when we taught him about the Book of Mormon, he asked us where he could buy one. Haha that was awesome, we never get that reaction. We gave him a copy and got a return appointment.

So yeah. All in all, a pretty great week. My message this week is short. It's a quote from the late President Boyd K. Packer:

"It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal. Teach our members that if they have a good, miserable day once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. Things will straighten out.  There is great purpose in our struggle in life."

I know this principle is true. I've seen it even just these past few weeks and transfers. As I have pressed on anyway through the hard days and weeks and even months, things have always straightened out and I've always come through better for it. We can't always see the purpose of our trials when we are in the midst of them, or the hope, or the silver lining, or how this could possibly help us to grow. But we learn from Nephi that "[God] doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him." I know that, as Elder Packer said, there is great purpose in our struggles. Be diligent, move forward with faith, and I promise things will get better and you will be better for it.

I love you all!

Elder Alex Swindler

Da Pics:

1) Classy car at a classy venue (yes, the Min Dynasty Buffet is actually open for business. I was surprised)

2) Bonus pic of the baptism a couple weeks ago because I don't have any more pics to send you

And We're Back On Air, Folks

Hey folks!

This week was much better than last week. We actually got to see people! We saw David and Kristen again and taught them the 15 step stop smoking program. David agreed to do it but Kristen was hesitant and decided to wait until next week and see how well it works for David. We did find out that there may be some more issues than we knew about before she can be baptized but she is still willing. They could use your prayers.

We saw Brenda again, the less active we saw last Saturday. She is awesome. She's this cute spunky little old lady and I love her. She feels like she's not very close to God anymore and she wants to change that, so we taught her that it all starts with prayer (which she already does every day) and scripture study. We got her a large print set of scriptures which will help her a lot. She wants to start coming back to church, she's just really sick. She could use prayers too.

We saw Debbie, Jon's wife, again. They're both pretty sick too (they could sure use your prayers too, haha). But we were able to share a little message with her. And we saw Fred the investigator with a member and invited him to ARP.

We saw Anna too, and had a really good lesson. We used the parable of the ten virgins and talked about testimony (like the lamps in the parable) vs conversion (like the oil) - what we know vs how we live because of what we know. The bridegroom - Christ - is coming soon, and exactly when we don't know. If we do not choose to live true to that which He has given us now, the day will come and we will not be ready. We will not have oil in our lamps. It seemed to hit home for her. Whether she admits it or not, we think she secretly believes what we teach is true. She feels the Spirit and sees the fruits. She's just procrastinating praying about it because she's afraid to act. She almost agreed to pray about it this time but then she backed out and just said she'd think about it. So close!

And we taught member Fred and his new (investigator) wife Joyce at a member's home and it was really good! She is progressing really well towards baptism. She still keeps asking us why other people have such a problem with what we believe - it's all simple and true and not that different from what they believe, just a little more. It's awesome haha

And I went on an exchange with Elder Bateman! It was weird but fun to be back with him for a little while.

Aaand I'm out of time. But my message for the week is simple. I promise you that if you will take your questions or concerns or needs or whatever to the Lord in prayer, then study the scriptures for answers, you'll find guidance and answers unique to you.

I love you all!

Elder Alex Swindler

Photos:

So I didn't have any pictures but then we had an awesome P day in Abingdon, VA and took a bunch of pictures so now you all have to deal with them. :)

1) Featuring Elder Bateman's tongue and my butt

2) Featuring Elder Bateman and me up a tree

3) Left to right, Elder Bateman, Sister Johnson, Elder Lambert, Elder Collins, Sister Crawford, and me.

4-5) Ehh... You can figure out who is who if you really want to haha

6-7) We were hanging out at a park in Abingdon and met a cool lady named Marilyn (pardon Sister Johnson's selfie face).

8-9) And then we met the really cool and nice police chief named Tony who gave us little badges.

10) A bonus pic of a lady attempting to ride a bike in Walmart while still trying to push her cart (#classy):

11) Also a picture of a sign at the ice cream shop we went to. Ashby's Ice Cream!!