Christmas coma!

I am in a Christmas Coma! I think I gained like 10 pounds yesterday on
food and candy!!

Well Christmas was awesome! I had a good time. So we went to church in
the morning and then we went to a family named the Fultz for some
lunch and to be able to Skype my family!! And then we went to the
Licon's and we had dinner and played games with their family. It was a
great Christmas and was great to be able to be on my mission for it.

So highlights of this week was we got a referral for an Egyptian
family. So we went over there to drop off a Bible like they requested
but when the dad answered the door he had no idea what we were talking
about! But when we asked if we could share a message about Jesus
Christ he opened the door and said come on in! Me and Elder Furniss
froze and we looked at each other and we both were trying to frighten
out if this was actually happening!! Both of us had never been let in
a house like that before. So he brought his family in the room and we
shared a Christmas message and the Book of Mormon and they were pretty
interested. So that was for sure a highlight of this week!

Next we had no appointments planned and so we were trying some
less-actives and we were walking down the street and I went to
demonstrate a squat and right as I did it I heard a loud rip!! I just
stopped and my face turned bright red and Elder Furniss just started
dying laughing! And so I stood up and looked and my pants weren't just
ripped a little bit it was a huge rip!! First time I ever ripped my
pants!

Well the last highlight was on Tuesday. We had another exchange with
the Lebanon Elders! So I went to Lebanon and got to walk around again!
Looks like I will never get fully away from a walk area. But I was
Elder Nelson and it was a fun time we taught one of their
investigators Modesto he is from Puerto Rico and he is hilarious! He
loves the gospel but his health is keeping him from attending church
but he was amazing to be able to teach!

Well I hope all of you had an amazing Christmas!! I love and miss you all!!
Elder Swisher

Christmas!

Another week in the life of Elder Swisher!

So this week was a good week!

I went back to walking! On Tuesday we had exchanges with the walk
elders and I went to their area so I got to go back to walking for a
day! And let me tell you I do not miss it! Hahaha but we had a good
time I was with Elder Madsen and he is a beast missionary he has only
been in the field for one transfer but he is such an awesome
missionary already!

So other news my investigator from Pittsburgh got baptized and Elder
Holley my trainee was the one that baptized him!! I was so happy to
hear that be able to see that picture! Martez is going to make an
outstanding missionary!

So on Tuesday we give service at a bike place that fixes bikes and
donates them so I got to use my awesome bike skills again and fix up
some bikes for kids that don't have a bike. We go into this garage and
they have so many awesome bike parts all over the place and they tell
us to grab a broken bike and start fixing it. It is a lot of fun. I
realize how much I like working with my hands!

Another awesome highlight is that we went to a nursing home with our
Ward and we went around caroling to all the elderly and disabled
people and it was such a cool experience so I guess you could say I
had a pretty awesome week!

Oh also the picture at the bottom is of me and the guy that wrote the
topical guide!!!!!

HBG!!

Harrisburg is awesome!!!
I love Harrisburg already! The ward is amazing and so missionary minded!

So highlights is:

We had a lesson with a part-member family named the Kings. They have 2
daughters one is 19 and one is 15. So during the lesson the mom comes
out and says I am going to embarrass my 15 year old daughter! She ends
up saying that her daughter has a huge crush on one of the
missionaries. But since I just met them I knew it wasn't me so Elder
Furniss was hoping it would be his old companion but nope the girl
looked right at him and said it's you! It was the funniest thing I
have ever seen! So ya we will have to make sure we have a good team up
for those lessons! Hahaha

Other highlight was our Mission Leader Conference we drove half way
across the mission for all the Zone leaders to get together and
discuss future ideas for the mission. It took all day but it was fun
to see how I can help this mission progress!

Another highlight was the ward Christmas party it was so amazing to be
able to meet the ward and get to know everyone they all treated me
like family and it was just a fun experience I can already tell I'm
going to love this Ward!

Other then that the rest of the week was just me trying to learn about
how to be a ZL and trying to learn a new area!

Is president feeling ok?

So this week was intense because it was the last week of the transfer.
And the dreaded leadership phone calls was coming up and I'm not sure
if president is feeling ok because I have just been called to be a
Zone Leader... yep that's right I'm leaving I'm heading to Harrisburg
to be the Harrisburg Zone Leader. I'm excited, nervous, scared, and
everything in between.

My new companion is actually going to be one of my good friends Elder
Furniss! He is a big goofball and can't wait to be his companion!

So highlights for this week:

Martez came to church!!!!! We got a text from Sora and Martez on
Thursday and Sora told us that Martez got work off on Sunday! And they
came!!! It was a great way to end my last Sunday in this ward. He is
getting so close to baptism it is fantastic! I will miss them so much!

Well the next highlight was on Thursday to go along with
#lighttheworld we did a day full of service! It was so cool to see how
because we wanted to dedicate this day to service the Lord provided
service for us it was great. So we started by getting with the other
Pittsburgh missionaries and cleaning our church building and then I
found out that a member was in dire need of help cleaning a
Presbyterian church so we went and helped them out and it just felt
great to be able to give service for the entire day!

The last highlight was on Monday. I was on exchanges with Elder Walker
and we were walking around trying to talk to people. And the first
lady I saw I went up too and asked her if she had heard of the Book of
Mormon before and she proceeded to tell us that she hadn't but was
very interested. So as I talked with her I came to find out that she
has been looking to change her life around and she has been praying
for some direction and then out of nowhere she said "you started
talking to me just now" "I don't think that is a coincidence" she
said! Greatest experience ever!!!!

Below is Sora and Martez at church!!

Soldier Down!

Hey so thanksgiving was very exciting!

So for me thanksgiving started out very interesting. We had a member
come get us so we could go play in the turkey bowl! So we started
playing in the turkey bowl but it wasn't to fun the old men took it
way to seriously... we were playing the 10 Pittsburgh missionaries
against the Elders quorum. We had some extra people so someone thought
it would be a good idea to have a D-line and an o-line of about 4 guys
on both sides always. So Elder Holley is not very athletic but he is a
strong guy so he is playing as a lineman and so is another elder,
Elder Rojas, who is brand new! And so one play we were on defense and
I was playing safety with another Elder and we see the QB throw this
deep pass towards us so me and Elder Walker go up and we intercept the
ball. And as we are celebrating I turn around and I see Elder Holley
laying flat on the ground... I freak out run over and see Elder Rojas
flat on his back bleeding out his mouth and his head! Elder Holley and
Rojas tried to sack the QB and they crashed heads hard! They both got
concussions Elder Holley's is pretty minor and no damage to him really
but Rojas has a big huge black eye and a pretty bad concussion! So
thanksgiving started out pretty scary!

We then gave Elder Holley time to rest and then went over to a family
named the Whites they had a mini feast for us and it was fantastic! We
then headed over to the Bellistons and they had a bunch of people over
and tons of food so we ate there hung out for a little bit and then
went back to the Whites to relax for the day with Elder Rojas and
Gray. And we played board games and ate some more. So overall a good
thanksgiving.

This week we worked hard. We went to forest hills one day and visited
about 5 less-actives all in one day! It was awesome to be able to
knock on their doors and have them answer and let us in to share a
message with them. We felt so good after that day because we felt like
we needed to be at each one of those houses that day!

We also were able to have a bomb lesson with Sora and Martez again. He
is so ready for baptism the only thing holding him back is that he is
having a hard time getting work off on Sundays to attend church. But
is just so great to see how much he has grown in the gospel so far.

So it was a great week for the SWISHVALE missionaries!! (Shout out to
Elder Hansen for the name)
the pictures below you will see the true side of the Swishtrict 2.0

Snow!

This was a pretty good week all around.

So we got to stop by and see Martez and Sora and we brought a team up
hoping that he would hit it off with Martez. And it worked we brought
Brother Cardiff and they got along great and are now like best
friends! But we set him with a baptism date of December 17. So it will
probably be after I'm gone but hey hopefully he continues to work hard
to make that date!

This week we stopped by sister Davis again and she had her friend
Charlie there with her. So we taught both of them and it was a great
spirit filled lesson. But when at the end I asked them to come to
church they just looked at me like I was crazy. We have never seen
sister Davis at church half the ward doesn't even know her. So I
thought it was a long shot but then I was sitting there in sacrament
meeting right before it started I felt a tap on my shoulder and I look
and it was Sister Davis and Charlie!!! They came! They actually came!
So they sat next to us and it was fantastic!

We also went on exchanges with the other elders in our Ward so I
stayed in my area and Elder Rojas came here. He is a funny little guy.
He is Mexican and speaks Spanish better then English so it's hard to
get him to talk to people but he started getting outside his shell a
little bit and started talking to people. We went downtown and took a
cool picture next to the steelers stadium! It was a fun time!

Well that was about it for a week! Nothing too spectacular but it was
a pretty good week. Except for the first snow fall for the year! Hope
you are all doing well.