Sister Swan's Trip

Makail's Travel Plans For Feb.9-10

Traveler Mr Makail Dawn SWAN Service Center CARLSON WAGONLIT ARGENTINA FLORIDA 826 PISO 1 Direct +54 11 4779-6500 Emergency Travel Service +08 00 122 2980 *Additional service fees may apply Fax +54 11 4779-6500 Email copijsud.bue.ar@contactcwt.com 

YOUR TRIP IS NOW FULLY CONFIRMED Air E-Ticket Issued 0441660515975 

Trip Summary Date City Service From/to Class 

Tue 09 Feb 2016 COR - AEP AR1501 11:05AM - 12:20P

Tuesday 09 February 2016 Delta Air Lines DL 110 Departure

 09 February 09:15 PM Buenos Aires, (Pistarini) (+) Terminal: C 

Arrival 10 February 05:37 AM Atlanta, (Hartsfield-Jackson Int) (+) Terminal: I Duration 10:22

 (Non stop) Booking status Confirmed Class Economy (U) Baggage allowance 2PC   Seat 43D confirmed for Makail Dawn Swan

Wednesday 10 February 2016 Delta Air Lines DL 1105 

Departure 10 February 08:10 AM Atlanta, (Hartsfield-Jackson Int) (+) Terminal: S 

Arrival 10 February 10:29 AM Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake City Intl) (+) Terminal: 2 Duration 04:19 (Non stop) Booking status Confirmed Class Economy (U) Baggage allowance 2PC Seat 41A confirmed for Makail Dawn Swan

Élder Pérez

     Secretario del Presidente

          Misión Argentina Córdoba

    

  Gay Lussac 5270, Villa Belgrano

   Apartado Postal 49-X5009ZAA

               C.C. 17 Suc. 9

          Córdoba - Argentina

     Mobile: +54 (0351) 276-8432

    Oficina: +54 (03543) 420-699

P-day with the zone

Hey everyone,

This was a good week, we found a lot of new people :) We also had Zone meeting, the Hermana Leaders came to visit for two days, and now we are having P-day of the zone. We basically played sports all day long. It was a great one!

So yesterday 5 investigators came to church. It was super cool! A 11 year old less active member invited four friends and her dad to church with her. The friends had a sleep over so that they could get up and go early. It was pretty much a huge miracle! The dad is awesome and he wants to turn his life around. His name is Marcelo and the only problem is that he has to get married first. That´s complicated. But hey, miracles still happen in the mission :)

I totally love my companion and all of the Hermanas in the pension! I´m just going to send some pictures :)

I know that the church is true and that we recieve millions of little blessings when we do the thing we should. I love that the Lord answers my prayers and I feel the strength of the gospel everyday when my feet hit the floor (and literally they hit the floor...I sleep on the top bunk and I have to jump to get down:).

Hope you´re all doing great, and I´ll see you next week. I got my 3 weeks to go letter today. Talk about depressing! But we´re going to work a ful anyways! :D

Love to all,

Hermana Swan

This is the house of one of our Recent converts Pablo. It´s a nautical campground on the side of a lake!!! Talk about paradise! Menos los mosquitos haha

my camera is dying, my watch broke today, my tennis shoes are starting to fall apart...what´s next? Oh well.

Hello everyone! Week two in paradise :)

Hey,

So I still can´t get over all the green that it is here. We´ve seen quite a few storms these past few days and it rained a TON. They closed some of the bridges because the river flowed over them (that´s more or less normal for this time of year). Everything is very green, and it´s a very nice contrast to the 

cement and asphalt of the city. We got to know our area a lot better, found a few new investigators, got to know some great members and worked with a few families of less-actives. It was a good week...even though we had some battles with health. 

I got to go on exchanges with Hermana Vazquez (la mini missionary from Jesus Maria) for almost three days because Hermana Fuentealba and Hermana Hernandez were sick. It was good that we could get out of the pension because I probably would have gone a little bit crazy. We did end up finding cool people with lots of potential, even though our poor companions didn´t feel so good.

You wouldn´t believe the wildlife here. We were walking down a road that´s looked a lot like Kotter´s road when a few horses just walked on past. They had halters on, but the people just let them wander around. The other thing is that the roadkill here is only frogs. At night there are SO MANY! Last night we found 5 sitting underneath the light of our neighbor´s porch...and we´re not talking about little frogs, these are palm-sized. On top of that, there are tons and tons of butterflies everywhere! There´s a migration of white butterflies and sometimes it´s crazy how many you can find flying around. The only downside about so much fauna are the mosquitos...they´re vicious. 

I had an english question today...

If I want to say how much it costs in the past tense, is it how much it costed? cost? Even Hermana Hernandez was confused. It´s going to be a struggle.

Well, the church is true. This week we strengthened our testimonies of the hymns a ton. We started singing because Hermana Hermandez also has an amazing voice, and every time the people feel the spirit. It´s such a blessing that we have so many in english, we found an english hymn book and we´re teaching the other Hermanas more hymns. I know that the Lord sends us where we´re needed, but also where we need to be to progress. I´m so thankful for my area and my companion, and that we live with the other two hermanas :) Life is good. We partied for Hermana Fuentealba´s birthday on Saturday :)

I hope you all have a fantastic week and know that I love you!

Sincerely,

Hermana Swan

One of the members owns a restaurant in a hotel...so he fed us lunch. It was pretty cool.

My froggy friends! There are also fireflies here at night...it´s seriously like camping :)

 Hahaha Me...with those wild horses ;)

Surprise Hermana Fuentealba! we made her a chocotorta and a sign :) it turned out to be a great day. All of the members made her something special to eat...we´re certainly going to gain weight if we keep that up!

Lunch with Hermana Cubilla and her family yesterday...she´s the Relief Society president. Their family is awesome!

A whole new....well, everything!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

It´s now 2016 and I have so much new news that I don´t know where to start!

I recieved my new companion Hermana Hernandez from Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday. She´s awesome and already speaks a ton of Spanish because her Dad is from Guatemala. That´s super awesome because it´d be much more stressful if she didn´t haha. She´s the oldest of 12 kids. She has a super strong testimony and is excited to be here in the MAC (mission Argentina Córdoba).

My new area is Santa Rosa de Calamuchita (if you look that up on Google, it should show up as "the most beautiful part of Cordoba". But seriously, it´s GORGEOUS here! We have another town that´s really famous in our area called Villa General Belgrano. It´s also beautiful, but the preaching is a little rough because it´s the beer capital of Cordoba haha. It´s a little German town and super touristy. Basically, all the shopping I could ever want to end my mission is right here in my area. It´s even better than Centro en Córdoba Capital!!! :D

We´re going to be four Hermanas here for at least this transfer. Hermana Fuentealba from Chile and Hermana Vazquez from Jesus Maria (mini missionary) are also here with us. Hermana Fuentealba is the only one that knows anything about the area. She whitewashed it two transfers ago with Hermana Nordfelt who took my spot in Ayacucho. Basically, we´re starting up with zero, but it´s a fantastic learning experience. I´m excited for the opportunity to learn and to grow and to have to rely even more on my Heavenly Father to do His work. Literally, I can´t do it alone. 

I hope that you all have a fantastic week, that you enjoy it and that you don´t get to jealous when you see the pictures of my area :P Love you all tons!

Sincerely,

Hermana Swan

 New Years with Familia Contrerras

The little house we live in makes it feel like we´re camping every day....it´s great! I haven´t see so much green in more than 6 months! This day I caught a huge wasp (probably a pompilid :) and was super happy haha. Good news: I´m still weird.

 We fixed the bikes that are here...and they make life so much fun! The only problem is the next day when you can hardly stand to sit down. We´re going to have to get adjusted to them! 

First Grido of Hermana Hernandez!!! :D 

more pics

Our humble abode...

The view from my window. It´s like a mix of Back east and oregon here. I love it :)

Our kitchen

 new years... we accidentally all matched!

don´t cry for me Argentina!

And a Happy New Year!!!!

Hey everyone!

Normally, after a Skype call, there´s not a whole lot more to say... but today I have some big news. 

So we had transfers and some surprising things have happened. I will be leaving Ayacucho, y Hermana Nordfelt will take my place to hold down the fort here. I´m being sent to Santa Rosa were Hermana Nordfelt was previously. Here´s the catch...instead of just making the switch, Hermana Fuentealba (the previous companion of Hermana Nordfelt) will have a mini missionera and I will be opening a new area there. Ready for the REALLY big news? On top of all that, I´m going to finish my mission training a newbie.

So that´ll be fun. I loved getting to talk to my family this last week. Obviously. It´s strange that I don´t actually have another call left before I get back. Huh, well. I love you all a ton and hope that you have a spectacular week. I´m looking forward to these new trials and experiences with a lot of hope and faith that it´ll be exactly what I need. More than that, that it´ll be exactly the perfect plan for my "hija" as well as the people we´ll find there. I love you all!

Hermana Swan

#hanacidounsalvador

Our flashmob choir in the plaza in General Paz...we gave this little girl a Book of Mormon in wrapping paper. She loved it! We heard her yell, "this is the best Christmas ever!!" it made me so happy we had to take a picture :) we were remarkably popular with all the little kids. And everyone honked at us as we walked down the street...i guess it´s not every day that you see 12 young men and women dressed to the nines and with Christmas hats. On top of that no one goes out to Christmas carol, so we were pretty strange haha, but it turned out so nice.

 Navidad con Flia Gonzalez

 Baptism of Samuel Scholz (ward baptism, but hey :)

Last p-day of soccer... maybe. My area is a little bit far away from the rest of our zone, so we won´t be able to play every week. But such is life :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :)

A great big Hola from Argentina!

Here we´re dying of heat and humidity and a little bit of sunburn...but somehow I manage to still feel the Christmas spirit. The hearts of the people are a little softer, they´re a little more worried about their families, they´re a little more open to the gospel. I love Christmas in the mission!

This last week has been a great opportunity to learn more about my Savior Jesus Christ. On Thursday we went to the Temple and I read several stories of His life while I was there. The more that I study His life and teachings, the more I understand just how personal His sacrifice is for me. If He hadn´t ever lived on the earth, I wouldn´t have the chance to fix my mistakes, to eventually live with my Father in Heaven again. What a marvelous blessing it is that centuries ago, He was born.

On Friday we had our ward "end of year party" and it turned out really well. We had to give the Spiritual thought to start things off, and it turned out really well because we sang :). I´m starting to get over my ridiculous fear of singing in front of people, which is good!

Saturday we had an activity of the Stake that the youth went on exchanges with us, the missionaries. There were three young women who came and only two of us, so I spent the whole day in a trio with Hermana Dinaso and Hermana Watrín. It was really fun! I completely sunburned the back of my neck, but Hermana Juarez (the missionary mom here in Ayacucho) fixed me up with some Aloe Vera :). It´s all better now.

Yesterday we went to a baptism of 7 people. It was for our entire stake and it turned out so well! There were people of all ages there and it was an amazing experience to see so many making covenants with our Heavenly Father. We participated in the choir (of course!). Tatin didn´t make it there, but we still have faith that he´ll keep progressing. 

I love you all and have a fantastic week! Enjoy the cold, the hot chocolate and the christmas lights :) Also, take a few minutes to think about the things the Savior did for you and be grateful for them.

Oh, and you have to see "A Christmas Story" in my honor!

Love to all,

Hermana Swan 

TEMPLE, TEMPLE!!

End of Year Dinner  our choir with David our ward mission leader

My companions for a day Herman Dinaso (14 years old) and Hermana Watrín (17 years old)

Well, that was a week!

Hey everyone,

So I know there were a lot of expectations for this last week...and as it turns out it was quite an adventure. Tatin canceled his appointments with us for his baptisimal interview, and he didn´t come to church this last week. So we´re hoping to talk to him, but his work schedule isn´t helping. However, he still wants to get baptized, his family is just making him confused.

We traveled to Las Varillas and went on exchanges with Hermana Norton and Hermana Salomon on Tuesday. Then we went to San Francisco on Wednesday with Hermana Solar and her mini misionera Hermana Tulián. on Sunday we had the Primary program and it made me cry. The little kids were so adorable, but what really made it special is that Yamila is the second counselor in the Primary. It was amazing to be able to see her and Malena singing and sharing their testimonies. Without the changes of the gospel that they´ve made in their lives they wouldn´t have been there. The gospel changes us. I am so thankful for the Atonement.

We left right after church to catch our bus to go on tour for choir. We traveled to Rio Cuarto, another city 3-4 hours to the south of Córdoba. Our bus broke down on the way and we waited on the side of the road for two hours before another bus came to take us. We practiced on the side of the road and watched a hailstorm from the inside in the meantime. We showed up to our performance two hours late, but the audience waited for us. The good news is that it turned out amazingly :) I wasn´t as nervous the second time with my song, and it went well.

Yesterday we had our Christmas conference. it was a blast! I had my game of Ulitmate frisbee and it went great until Elder Coombs hit his head on the wall after catching a fantastic throw. So we packed it up and came to Jesus Maria. We´re on exchanges today with Hermana Rounsville and Hermana Oviedo. 

Yeah, it was a busy week and we haven´t slept a whole lot, but I still love the mission! I am thankful for every moment that I have to be here in my beloved Argentina and to be around such a fantastic group of misionaries.

I love you all, and I hope that you can all find a way to draw nearer to Jesus Christ this week. Whether it be reading a little more in the scriptures, sharing a mormon message with a friend or listening to some good Christmas music and thinking about the true meaning of Christmas...it doesn´t matter, but give the Spirit a chance to testify to you again of the truthfulness of the gospel. Jesus Christ is our Savior and he loves each and every one of us. I love you too.

Have a fantastic week,

Hermana Swan

Camera problems again. Sorry about that! See ya!

Alabad al Señor (Praise the Lord :)

Hey,

So this was a fantastic week and I loved it!!!

We had our Musical Program last night and it was spectacular. Lots of nerves, but everything turned out well. I slurred a few words for how nervous I was in our quartet, but no one noticed but me. It was such a success we filled up the whole chapel (and it´s a stakecenter) and the stage in the back. It was lovely and everyone left feeling uplifted and accompanied by the Spirit.

Our investigator "Tatin" is progressing really well. He invited us to go get ice cream and a different day he brought us a bag of fruit. Basically, he´s so grateful for the changes he is seeing in his life that he feels like he has to treat us to stuff :) If all goes well, he will get baptized this weekend. Our schedule might get a little complicated because we might get invited to Rio Cuarto (in the southern part of Córdoba) to do a repeat of our choir, but we´ll see what happens haha.

I love my mission. Every day we´re seeing miracles. It´s amazing to see not only the changes in other people, but also the changes in who I am. The gospel makes us better people and I know without a doubt that it is true. When we decide to serve the Lord with all of our time and talents and all of our heart we allow Him to change us even more. I´m thankful for the impact of music in my life and I encourage all of you to listen to a ton of Christmas music for me! More than anything, prepare yourselves spiritually for this Christmas and think of the gift you can give to our Father in Heaven.

Love you all,

Hermana Swan

Us with Tatin our investigator

The wedding of Marcos y Noelia (no, those are not their kids and I don´t know why they´re in the photo)

Our Quartet E´George (pianist) E´Barret, E´Price, Hna McArthur, Hna Swan :P

Everyone who stayed in the pension last night after the performance :)

Well, here´s a foto of our zone activity :) We played futbol! Love, Hermana Swan

Hola todos!

Hey,

So this week has been great :) We´ve had lots of practices for the choir that will perform this Sunday in the afternoon. I am super excited because it will be an experience muy spiritual for the people that come. We´re inviting everyone and their neighbor to come so hopefully we´ll catch a few. I will be singing in a quartet "ding! dong! Merrily on high" but in español. So that should be fun :) AH!

We traveled to Leones last week and I went on exchanges with Hermana Barbosa from Sao Paolo Brazil. She´s pretty new, but she was doing great! She speaks Spanish really well and it turned out to be a rainy, but fun day. Our bus broke down and some other delays happened, so that made life a little fun.

Thursday we had interviews with President, and we got to eat roasted chicken with french fries! That´s probably the closest thing to Thanksgiving you can get these days here in Argentina :) I´m thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, my family, the Book of Mormon, and much, much more!

On Saturday we went to a wedding! Really it was just when they sign the papers and make it legal, but it was still fun! Marcos and Noelia Bravo are officially a family! :) We´re still trying to get them to church, but all things with diligence. 

Sunday I had to give a talk and in the class before that we gave a class on how to share a Book of Mormon with all the adult members. There weren´t investigators in church, so we did practices with everyone of how they´d give a Book of Mormon to their friends. It was cool to see the whole class working together like a Zone meeting with everyone doing practices :) Now everyone is excited to give away Book of Mormons, and they all had great ideas of how! 

Yesterday we had Council and it was fantastic. I love hearing from President and seeing so many talented and spiritual young men and women in one room talking about what we can do better as a mission and how are we going to do it. As usual, we finished off a great day with a few fantastic games of Soccer. I made about 8 goals. Needless to say our team was on a winning streak. I felt a little bit like Messi...oh it was fun!

So that was my week in a nutshell. My invitation for the month of December is to write your testimony in a Book of Mormon and give it to someone you care about. Maybe they won´t read all of it, and maybe they won´t understand exactly why we´re such fanatics about this book, but all of that doesn´t matter. What matters is that you loved them enough to share something so special and important with them. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it testifies of Christ, our savior and redeemer. I know that it helps us grow closer to the Lord and makes us better people. No matter what, reading it makes us better people, and applying it´s principles makes us happier. I am grateful for all of you and I know that you´ll recieve a stronger testimony as you share yours with others. Do you accept the challenge?

Love you all very much and enjoy the snow over there!

Hermana Swan

PS...sorry that I don´t have pictures this week, I´m having problems with my memory card. There´ll be lots next week!

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone,

I think that the thing I will miss the most this thursday is stuffing...and of course Turkey! They don´t even have turkey anything here, so I´ll miss out a little bit. But we have alfajores so it´s all good. Enjoy being with the family and eating a ton of food that argentines don´t like or haven´t heard of :)

So this last week was super great. We had tons of success finding people...and we had three people show up to church!!!! Everyone had to vote, so the attendance was a little low, but that didn´t affect our investigators! Their names are Nicacio, Tatin (that´s his nickname), and Analia. They are all super great! :)

Yesterday we had to be in our pension all day after 4 pm. It was kind of weird to have to stay inside. It was just a precaution and nothing happened in the end, but we made good use of the time doing projects for the other Hermanas that we visit. There was also a little bit of a tornado in the southern part of Córdoba. Thursday morning there was a lot of wind...but we were inside with weekly planning, so it was all good. We didn´t get more than a good windstorm where we´re at. All I can say is that it was a little bit interesting to have the class on "Signs of the Second Coming" this week in Gospel Principles haha. We´d better be prepared!

It was great and lots of stuff happened, but as always we´ve got stuff to do! The gospel is so true and changes lives. It helps us become better people and love deeper. I´m so thankful for my mission! Thanks to all of you who have supported me both financially, and spiritually so that I can serve. It is such a blessing in my life, and I guess you´ll all have to wait until I get back to see how 

serious I am, but it´s true. Y que va a hacer?

Love you all and have a great week!!!!

Sincerely,

Hermana Swan

However, we will be eating Watermelon on Thanksgiving...Mom, I always think of you and smile when I eat it haha :)

Melisa y Agostina Selfie

Hermana Mateo´s cabin-house

I get to stay here in Ayacucho!!!

Good day everyone!

I will be staying her in Ayacucho with Hermana Oliva for another transfer...which means that I´ll be here for CHRISTMAS!!! :D I´m super excited to get to stay!

We had a wonderful Sunday yesterday. No one showed up at church...not even the members that we´d committed to come, but the Spirit did. Everyone was very reverent, attentive to the speakers, and the talks were about consagration, perseverancia, sharing the gospel. All of the members left feeling edified and ready for a fresh week.

We went to our choir practice and it was fun, but challenging. I have to sing soprano...and we´re talking really high soprano. But hey, it´ll be fun :) I get to sing in a quartet a special number. I think that would have killed me with nerves before my mission, but I´m really looking forward to it. Turns out the mission forces us to face our fears and progress.

Well, Noelia started reading the scriptures and praying, and I´ll be here for her wedding, so I´m pretty thrilled. We found a really nice less-active with a son who is super smart and not baptized. We explained the Book of Mormon to him last night and he was really interested because he loves history. His name is Francisco and we´ve got an appointment to see them again today. We´re seeing lots of miracles as we start to leave behind even more of what we want to do and do what the Lord wants us to do.

I hope you all know that I love you and I hope you have a wonderful week. 

Love,

Hermana Swan

Most of these photos were from when I went to say goodbye to members...but now I have them haha

Our district...and the zone leaders

 Flia Dominguez

 Marcos and Noelia...and Nefi (he´s the cat named Nephi)

 Flia Verino...she´s the Primary President and he´s our Elder´s Quorum President

Hna Mateo...her house is a little like a cabin

I feel like I just talked to you all the other day!

Hey family,

So this week has been pretty calm. Not a lot happened, but we played soccer today with the Zone :) Also, transfers are coming up this week and I can´t believe it! I want to stay in Ayacucho at least for Christmas...if not forever! I love it here so much! but, we´ll see where the Lord needs me to be.

We had a lesson with Noelia and Marcos this week that was great! Noelia burst into tears because we finally found out what her problem is! She has lots of stomach problems and feels like Heavenly Father doesn´t hear her prayers because she suffers. I think that she´s going to start progressing a lot more now that we know what was really bothering her.

We had a lesson with Juan who came to church the last week. Sebastian Petre went with us and so that was cool :) The problem is that it´s been hard to find him and he didn´t make it to church this last week. Don´t worry, it´s not easy getting away from these missionaries!!! haha.

Well, we´re going to have a choir for Christmas Dec. 6th. We started practices, and it´s super fun to see so many of the missionaries that I´ve worked with before :)

I hope that you all have a spectacular week and know that I love you and more importantly, that your father in Heaven loves you. He hears and answers our prayers. He helps us find strength that we didn´t know we had...and at this point I´m starting to need it: I´m going to complete 15 months in my mission this week. I CAN´T BELIEVE IT! It flies by so fast!

Love you all,

Hermana Swan

Car repair shop named...Helaman???

 haha this is the bus driver that made us our own special bus stop when we almost missed the bus leaving San Francisco. Luckily he took pity on us and stopped, and then we had a funny conversation with him about why we were here in Córdoba, etc...why we don´t date while we´re here...it was pretty hilarious, but he was very nice :)

Graciela and Antonio (i´m standing a stair below everyone else so that I don´t look so out of proportion haha)

 Us with Hna Ascuña and Hna Wooley (Hna Wooley finishes her mission this week)