This Mission Has Changed My Life

Family,

Everything is goin really well! I am glad to hear that Bennet got baptized and you were able to get him some new church clothes. What do his parents think about the whole Mormon thing? Thanksgiving was good!! I am glad to hear that Tyler's homecoming went well and that you got to see Shane. That's awesome about the baby I can't wait to see that thing in 2 years. We will for sure have to take a trip back to San Diego after I get home. We can all go to the temple. I went to the temple this morning for the first time and it is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is so beautiful. I am glad to hear that you had fun in Salt Lake, maybe one day I will join you guys ;). I got to watch the Christmas devotional and thought it was really good. I have had no baptisims yet, it is really tough but we are doing what we can. On Christmas make sure you are all at the house so I can talk to everyone. I am also sending home a package. This mission has changed my life, the gospel is the best thing in the world. Because nothing else matters!! I am in National City and it's a little rough so I am so grateful for where I live. We are soo sooo blessed I can't even comprehend it sometimes. Thanks for having the gosepl apart our our home.

Anyways everything is going really good and if you have questions send me a letter! I wish I had more time to email, but we have to email my Mission President each week and others. Well Family keep on keepin on! I pray for all and hope all is well! I hope Parks is doing good because I miss that kid like crazy! Tell Laur & Grandma I love them and I am so thankful for you Mom! Are you going to the temple because if not you should be !!! Thanks for everything. Anyways I love you all so much!

Elder Swenson

Good Food & Good People

Dear Family,

I am so happy for Haley and Dallas, a baby girl huh!! What are they gonna name her? I miss you all soooooooooo Much! I hear Nate Binks had a really good homecoming, that's awesome. I always enjoyed going to homecoming's and feeling the spirit that the returned missionaries had. Life in San Diego is going really well. I am busy and loving every minute. Last night we went to the hospital to give this lady a blessing, but the information we had wasn't right I guess, so we were not able to give her the blessing. I was bummed about that. But we did give a blessing to another sick lady last night as well.

I have had a lot of Filipino food the past few days, it is really good. Maybe not as good as the Mexican food though, but close! On Sunday morning some missionaries are assigned to the MCRD. It's where boot camp is for all the marines. On Sunday morning they all go to church so we go up there and have church with them and teach them. It is pretty cool how humble they are when they are trying to become a Marine. I will talk to you more about what we do next week. We are teaching this guy name Christian and we committed him to be baptized yesterday. We are also teaching Robert, but had to push the date of his baptism back because he is not ready. We will hopefully have a few more people with a date this following week! The people here are awesome, I love serving and teaching them. Thank you for all the letters and support. I pray for you all! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Love,
Elder Swenson

Teaching & Serving

Dear Family,

Hi!! As far as my companion goes, his name is Elder Clay from Georgia and he has no accent. He has been serving for 14 months. The apartment is not to bad considering 4 boys live in it. The weather is perfect and it's beautiful here. There are many people ready to hear the gospel. I love sharing and the teaching is going good. This one guy that is in the Navy just started crying when we were teaching him, but he is moving so we can't teach him any more. I experience great things everyday and have been very blessed. It's not always easy, they days are long, always tire but I I love helping people out. We do a lot of service for people. Right now we are building a fence for some people. It changes the whole perspective on life when you get out into the world and see people so lost in Darkness.

It is great to hear that Tanner Raulston got his call! I am excited for him. I never got to be a greeter at the MTC! Cool news on the new Bishopric in the ward back home. I am glad to hear that Grandpa & Grandma's Halloween party was fun! I wish I was there, that's for sure. I am glad you had a great time in New York. That's pretty cool you saw the missionaries on the subway and that they knew Riley Stauffer.

I miss you guys so much. This is my favorite time of the year. I loved going to the cabin and having a fire. Mom remember when we went up to the cabin for your Halloween party and Whitney and Justin were there. Anyways we had so much fun. I wish I could come home for just a couple of months and spend the holidays with y'all. I am so very thankful for the gospel, I know that is is true. Tell Parks I love him and that I loved his last letter! yes it made my cry (haha). Tell everyone I am doing really good cause I am. I love getting every one's letters and don't send candy I don't need it. Tell Kate I love her to. I love you all!!

Elder Swenson

Real World

Hello Family,

First off, I sure did miss Halloween with my family! I spent my Halloween night laying on my bed reading a book, but I did enjoy it. On some holidays we are supposed to stay at the apartment for safety reasons or something like that. I have been eating some really good Mexican food down here. Almost every person in my area is Hispanic and good cooks. Everything is going really good. The people are wonderful and I love the opportunity of meeting new people. We gave 5 Priesthood blessings from Thursday to Sunday. Many people are going through some rough times and I am grateful that we get to help them and comfort them! It's always a neat opportunity to participate in the blessings! I can't even tell you how grateful I am for my loving family and being able to live in such a good place. I feel that I am in the real world now and it is rough for so many people. I am humbled each day and always thank my Heavenly Father for all that he has blessed me with.

On P-days we go shopping and then we have Zone sports. That is where the whole Zone meets up and just plays sports all day and we hang out together. Yes we have a car, about half the companionships have cars and the other half bike. I probably will never ride a bike.

I am not using my Tagalog that much right now because my companion is an English speaking Elder. Within the next couple of transfers I will be transferred and most likely be a full time Tagalog missionary and not speaking any English.

Mitt Romney is coming to San Diego for something and he is addressing the Filipino people. They were looking for a young Caucasian male to give a prayer in Tagalog and so some guy at church came up and asked me if I would? I said I would love to. I need to get some more information on that, but that would be pretty cool to meet the future President of the United States. I love serving the Lord, it brings so much happiness into my life. I miss you all and wish I could spend the holidays with you!!! Thanks for all the love and support!

Elder Swenson

1st Letter from San Diego

Hello,

I made it to San Diego, believe it or not! Well yesterday was quite the eventful day. I flew in to San Diego, where I met the Mission President and his wife. We went to lunch and I got a California Burrito and met a whole bunch of missionaries. In the evening we went to the mission home where the President lives and took a few pictures. We had a nice meal on the patio where the view is beautiful. I also learned a whole bunch of stuff about the mission and about San Diego! President and Sister Clayton are the sweetest people in the world. We got to know each other really well as we spent the evening together. Later that night my companion came over and picked me up and we headed to the apartment. When we got there I got my bed made and was ready for sleep. I had only got about 2 hours of sleep from the night before so I was dead tired.

When we woke up this morning we went and played some soccer at some field somewhere. After we came back we studied till 10 o clock and then cleaned, cause the apartment is disgusting!! Now I am here and then we are gonna go shopping for some supplies and food.

Tonight I have my first real investigator at 6:30, his name is Robert. We even have another one after that. Life is a lot different down here, so many Hispanics, Filipinos, Blacks and just about everyone. I am living in Bonita or National City, it's an OK place I guess...I am in for a different ball game down here. In the ward I am serving in, I guess there is a good number of Filipino's and some other kind of weird people haha(jk) I will be teaching in Tagalog sometimes and contacting as well. There is 4 elders living in the apartment and we have a washer and dryer. We don't have AC, we just have fans to keep us cool but at night it cools off and gets kinda cold. People here are ready to hear the gospel, the work is progressing and my focus is baptism. I am not really in the swing of things yet but it will come. I will take some pictures and then I will attach them and probably just send them through email.

It was so good to talk to you for a few minutes yesterday! Tell everyone I love them and everything is going good! My new companion is from Georgia and he is a NORMAL human being! So I am pretty excited about that haha. I can honestly say that I do miss the MTC..well actually not the MTC but my district and all the guys I met. We goofed off so much so I kinda miss that. Anyways let me know if you have any questions!! My P-day will be on Tuesday's. I love you all!!!! oh and all letter's and packages send to the mission home address. Welp until next time this is Elder Swenson! Paalam! Mahal ko lahat kayo! I love you all !!!!!!!!!!:)

Elder Swenson

Arriving in San Diego

Dear Brother and Sister Swenson,

We are so excited to have Elder Swenson serving with us in San Diego. He arrived in great shape, and we wanted you to get this photo as soon as possible. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns. We love your son already!


Sincerely,


President and Sister Clayton
California San Diego Mission

Finally MTC Pictures!!!

Elder Swenson has spent the last 8 1/2 weeks in the MTC. He was able to meet up with some old friends as well as meet many new ones.



Elder Josh Randolph & Elder Landon Swenson



Elder Kris Cook & Elder Landon Swenson



Elder Jared Banks & Elder Landon Swenson


Their are 12 Elder's in Landon's District. They are all learning Tagalog, but may not be serving in the Philippines. He has really grown to love these Elders.












Elder Halterman & Elder Swenson
Landon's Companion



Elder Andrus & Elder Swenson

New Call To Serve

We heard from our Stake President that Elder Swenson has now been called to serve in the San Diego, Tagalog speaking mission. He will leave as scheduled on Monday October 17th. We are excited for this new opportunity and know that the Lord will guide and bless him as he serves. We will be excited to hear from him on Monday as he awaits his flight. It will be fun to get his feelings about this great opportunity. Thanks to everyone again for all your support.

Lesa

Freezing My Butt Off!

Hello!

Well I am over here freezing my butt off! I didn't bring any warm clothes and it has been pretty cold the past few days! Things are going really good. I really just want to get out of this place and actually teach people! I feel pretty good about teaching people now, the language is still pretty hard but its getting a lot better. I can have a conversation with filipino's its hard to underatand everything they are saying because they speak so fast. We can teach all the lessons in Tagalog. We can pretty much teach everything we know but sometimes we don't know words or we say it wrong. They say seem to know what we are saying so it's all good!

Time has gone pretty fast, it feels like I just got to the MTC. I have met a lot of people and have grown really close to them, so it will be weird to just leave and meet a whole bunch of new people!

General Conference was soo good, I loved it and it really pumped me up! haha. I took a lot of notes and it just made me want to be the best missionary I can be! I really love doing what I am doing and I know that it will be even better once I get out into the real world.

I am getting sick of the MTC, especially the food. I pretty much just eat a bowl of Shredded Wheat for most meals. I really miss all my mom's home cooked meals! Today I went to the temple and we ate at the temple, it was really good. My relationship between Heavenly Father and I has grown so much! I have got a very strong testimony of this wonderful gospel! I know that without a doubt that this gosepl is true!! I miss all of you and hope all is going well! Thanks for all the love and support, I have the best family in the world :) I love you all and would love to hear from you all!!!!

Love,
Elder Swenson

No Word Yet

I talked to Landon again yesterday, we still won't know about a new call until the end of next week. I will post as soon as we find out.

Lesa

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

Some of you may know that Landon has had issues with his back for several years. Due to extreme stupidity on the Slopes, Basketball Court, Football Field or anytime he hung out with his great friends. He made teenage decisions, enough said!!! Due to this he has developed a bulged disc in his back. Now that he has been at the MTC studying for 10 hours a day, sitting on hard chairs it has become worse.

He has been seeing the Dr. at the MTC and also Dr. Richey in Payson. After much counsel, prayer, fasting and Priesthood blessings it has been decided that 2 years in the Philippines is probably not the best place to serve with back problems. The MTC Presidency has decided to send all of Landon's information to the Church office where someone in the First Presidency or Council of the 12 will review it and extend a new call to serve in the United States. He is hoping that he will know by Monday October 3rd. I will post as soon as we know.

I was able to talk to him on the phone yesterday and he sounds great!!! He loves serving the Lord and his testimony and excitement to share the gospel has grown so much over the past 7 weeks. He has had a great attitude toward the change even though he was looking forward to Manila. He did comment that the Lord does not care where you serve, just as long as you serve. Heavenly Father has a new plan for Landon and we are excited to see what that is. Rarely does one get 2 Missionary calls so we are anxiously awaiting round 2.

Thank You for all your love, support and prayers that have been offered to us as a family.

No Toilet Paper

Dear Family,

Thanks for all the letters, it was good to hear from you. Glad to hear you went to the cabin! I love going to the cabin. We are teaching fake investigators every day we have to teach and get them baptized, it is hard. I have gotten so many blessings already and will continue to get more. We have 10 people in our district. A district is who you are in class with and when we have district meetings we talk about a bunch of things. Everything we do, we do as a district, when we go to the temple we go as a district. Everyone in my district is going to the Philippines! People can be going to different missions as long as they are learning the same language. I have not got to be a greeter yet, maybe next week. One of our teachers served in the Manila Mission, he said they have no hot water anywhere and that people don't use toilet paper. He did say we will be able to get it, just the Filipinos don't use it. He also says you shower with a bucket of water and a ladle! So I guess I am in for a treat!!! I also have to take my own water bottle with a purifier in it.

I hope all is going well back home. It was pretty cool to talk to Dale Bowman, he is a funny feller. I hope Grandpa and Grandma are doing well, tell Grandma I miss her and think of her every day. Keep me updated on Parker and his football games. I am glad to hear they are starting the Payson Temple. Take care and I can't wait to see you all again.

Love Elder Swenson

Life in the MTC

The Missionary Maffia
Elder Stauffer, Elder Swenson, Elder Stauffer


Elder's from Spanish Fork and Salem all in
the MTC at the same time.

M.T.C. I am Still Here

Hello Family,

How is everybody doing? Things are going pretty good over here at the MTC. I went to the temple again this morning, it was awesome as always. No better way to start the day. The language is really hard. Everyday they just show us more rules and more ways to speak it. I pray for the gift of tounges like 10 times a day. I think it's helping! I would like to thank everyone for all the prayers. I can really feel them and all of your love. My companion is Elder Andrew Halterman and he is from Minnesota. There are 12 of us in our district. One left last week and one is leaving today so we will only have 10. I am excited to get out of the MTC, I have about 5 or 6 weeks left. I just know the Philippines will be awesome.

I have really changed since I got here. I have gained a few pounds, I don't drink any chocolate milk or anything. I just drink skim milk (3 glasses for each meal) and water for every meal. I am more spiritual that I thought I would be! You come to realize a lot of things while you are here. I have had lots of spiritual experiences some are just kinda hard to share. We have had some awesome devotional's this last week and we learn so much from them. One brother mentioned that the mission turns a boy into a man and a man into a celestial being. I believe that! It's very true.

Thanks for all the letters and packages they have been great. Grandpa thanks for sending me the article about Granpa Mel. I have heard many great things about him and I wish I could have met him. I will listen to his words and honor my name and make something good out of life. Laurie I like Elder Anderson's Conference talk you sent as well. I look forward to seeing you all again and spending time with you. Thanks for everything , I know I am very blessed to have a wonderful family. The gospel is amazing!!! Fill me in and update me with whatever may be going on. Tell Parks I love him and miss him. I am grateful to be a missionary!!!

Much Love,
Elder Swenson

Elder Swenson & Dale Bowman

Laurie answered the phone today at work and the caller said this is "Dale Bowman, you will never guess what happened yesterday. What happend? I was working at the MTC and went into a room I thought was empty and found 2 Elder's studying. One Elder said are you from Salem? and in the Tabernacle Choir? I met Elder Swenson and took a picture for Grandpa Vaud. He looks great, has a great spirit and loves serving the Lord" I can't believe he recognized me, Laurie told him he has been to Salem Days and that Dale is "famous." Thanks for sharing this Dale!!

Advice to the Little Brother

September 2, 2011
Parker,

Hey buddy, how are you doing? I sure do miss you. I hope that football is going good for you. Remember what I told you the last time I talked to you? I told you 2 words, that I don't want you to ever forget. Always listen to Mom. Tell her thanks for everything she does. Always do your homework, I promise if you can learn how to work hard when you are young you will be very happy when you get older! Remember to practice your baseball as well. I miss you lots.

Love Ya,
Elder Swenson

P.S.
Here's 3 letters
A- Attitude
D- Discipline
E- Effort

Week 3

September 2, 2011
Hello Family!

I am just sitting in the MTC on this beautiful Friday morning. I had the chance to go to the temple. That's always a good start to the day! I have lots to do and really busy but I love serving the Lord. Missionary work is amazing and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Last Tuesday Jeffery R. Holland came and spoke to all the Missionaries. It was the most spiritual experience I have ever had! I was crying the whole time and it was just incredible. I wish you all could have been here an experienced it. I took notes on it so I will send them home and you can get a feel for what was said. I have learned so much here, I know the Lord blesses the missionaries in so many ways. We are teaching people in Tagalog almost everyday. It's really hard but the spirit always takes over and it always goes well. I love you all and miss you all so much. I will send some pictures home and some things that I don't really need. Give me the scoop on things and let everyone know that I am doing really good! It's is not always easy but nothing is better in the world than this. It's a roller coaster every single day, but it's a good kind. Thanks for all the letters and support, it means so much that I have such a wonderful family and friends. I am so blessed. I am glad to hear you only have to buy 4 gallons of milk instead of 10, that is one plus of me being gone!!!! Tell everyone that I love them and I am thinking about them. You are all in my prayers, Thanks for everything. The gospel of Jesus Christ is Amazing and I love being a missionary. I can't wait to get to the Philippines. LOVE YOU ALLLLLL!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder Swenson

MTC Life

This is some hard work over here. The first 3 days of the MTC were the worst days ever, but it gets a lot better. It was hard to accept the fact that I have a companion 24-7. My companion is Elder Halterman from Minnesota. I am grateful to be here, I know that I shouldn't be anywhere else but here. God gives us struggles but helps us overcome them. The gospel is amazing, I wish the family could just experience the spirit here. We are so crazy busy over here. It is amazing how much you can learn in a week and half. The language is hard, its very challenging, but with the spirit (gift of tounges) we can do anything. My testimony has grown so much! I can already bear my testimony in the tagalog language and say a prayer. Alam ko po na any Aklat ni Mormon po any Diyos! Buhay po any ating Ama Sa langit Tagapaglitas po Si Jeso cristo!

I sure do miss you guys back home! It feels like I have been gone for a long time. Thanks for all you have done for me. I could not ask for a better family. I realize that it is much more important to be out here doing the lord's work. I am on the Lord's team now and I would not want to be anywhere else. I am so grateful to have such wonderful people supporting me!! I look forward to sharing some wonderful experiences with you all!!!! Grandpa & Grandma don't have to much fun while I am gone. Mahalikita (I love you.)

Love you All and God Bless
Elder Swenson

See Ya In 2

David, Elder Swenson and Lesa
"Harder than a Mom thought it would be".


Dallas, Elder Swenson, David & Parker



Dallas Pruitt, Elder Swenson, Katelyn Swenson
Haley Pruitt and Parker Swenson.




Ready to Serve with Mark Warner's
lucky Tie.

The day Landon had been waiting months for finally arrived. August 17th at 1:45 p.m. was the day and hour to get dropped off. He was excited and ready to serve. He kept telling us he was not nervous or worried. We are excited for this new adventure in his life. We have started this blog for friends and family to follow. We will post letters and pictures as he sends them. We hope you enjoy sharing this experience with us.