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.