Aug 31, 2009 The Spirit Brings to Mind Things that You Really Do Know.

My Dearest Mother,

Thanks for telling me about Cameron’s call! That is so cool! And you know there is something awesome about being able to share the gospel in your native language among your own people. He’s going to be awesome. Tell him I said that he’s gonna tear it up!

Grandpa’s head sounds. . . . .nice. =) I’m glad he only had to have one slice. And that is weird that Grandma would be nice to him. ;) I got a letter from them on Friday when I got all my mail so tell them that I really really appreciated it. I am horrible at writing back, but I’m going to try. We don’t have a lot of time on P-days still since we’re out in the boonies and we have to go in to Tirana every week. But I will try to make time to write them back next week.

So you guys had Stake Conference and we had Mission Conference. That’s cool. I love that quote by Elder Packer. I had never heard that before. I had heard the principle and I think it is absolutely true. There are some things that you really don’t know you know until you just say what you believe without thinking. The spirit brings to mind things that you really do know that you didn’t know you knew. A ke para sysh? There’s your Albanian phrase for the week. It means like “do you understand?” And not like language wise, but like concept wise. It literally means “do you have it before your eyes?” But that would have been cool to see Cameron testify at Stake Conference. He has a powerful testimony and it’s going to be apparent to the people of Indianapolis.

The field is alright. I’m such a freakin’ baby. I’ve been missing home a lot and it’s been really hard this last week. I swear that no other missionary takes like 4 months to get over this, but I’ve always been a baby, right? =) Actually at Mission Conference Elder Causse of the Seventy came and spoke to us and while he was speaking, I remembered something from my early childhood and I saw a powerful connection to the Atonement that I hadn’t realized before. I would tell you the story, but I was almost bawling in Mission Conference and if I started to tell you, I’d bawl right here in this internet locale and I don’t really want to do that. So you’ll just have to wait until my homecoming or something.

The language is still pretty hard. I can understand a lot better, but to speak is a lot harder than to listen for me so I’ve got to just get out there and speak. I’m trying, but sometimes I just get frustrated and it’s hard to keep trying. But I’m doing it. We actually have a new baptismal date named Flori. He is a 14 year old boy and he is awesome. He hasn’t come to church yet though because his dad is only at home on Sundays and so that’s when they go spend time with him, but he said he would come this next Sunday. He always reads what we ask him to read and he even summarizes the chapters in the back of the Book of Mormon. And he looks up words that are weird or that he doesn’t know in the index which is really cool. I’ve never heard of anybody doing that before. I think he will be a good addition to the branch. Our branch members are all pretty young so he would have friends there too which would be cool. I forgot my camera yesterday cause I was gonna take a picture with all the members, but I’ve written it down in my planner for next week so I won’t forget! And I also forgot to get a jump drive for that Picasa thing so Elder Bullough can give me the software, but I have also written that down so I will have that next week and I will send you all my pictures. I know you probably want to kill me right now with the picture thing. Sorry!

Okay so things for the package if you can find them: Some simple cooking ideas would be great so I can have ideas for what to learn to cook. I still make a dang good omelette. ;) And now I can make crepes ha ha so basically I’m professional. But this is the week that my goal starts so it should be good. Okay and also as part of the music, if you could find some Michael Dowdle music that would be awesome. He’s a guitarist and he does beautiful hymns. Also those inside the shaver things. Dad knows what I’m talking about. I have the Remington MS2 250. If somebody could right down the Plyo X workout from the P90X things that would be cool since that would be a really good cardiovascular workout for the mornings. Other than that I think that’s it! And I was thinking about it and you really don’t have to send me the Children’s Hymnbook. That’s going to add a lot of weight and it would be really expensive so don’t worry about that one. Thank you so much!

I love you mom! I’ve got to go write Linds and Dad now! Talk to you next week!

-Elder Swenson