This week was kind of a blur

Hey Mom!

Sounds like everybody had a pretty eventful week! I guess it’s better that way than boring. That was a big surprise that we got a new bishopric. They’re all studs though so they’re going to do great. That’s sad to know that Bishop Pearson isn’t bishop anymore. He was really good. But there are other things to do in life. Tell him thanks from me for his help. I’m planning on writing him a letter next week, but let him know that I really appreciate everything he did for me and everybody else in the ward.

So this week was kind of a blur. We have been kinda sick and we haven’t had water almost at all in our house which is awesome. We’ve had to come to the church to shower and get ready almost every day this week. It’s pretty annoying. It also prevents us from doing the dishes/mopping/cleaning. Not the greatest situation ever. We thought it was just our old grandma neighbor stealing all our water, but we figured out it’s actually probably the pump so we’re looking into that right now.

We had Zone Conferences this week which were fun as always. The Missionary Department released something they call “Fundamentals from Preach My Gospel: Teaching More Effectively” which are eight basic teaching principles that will improve our teaching skills. They are really good and they released some DVD’s to go along with them that are very effective. So a lot of the Zone Conferences were introducing the principles and watching the DVD’s. I really enjoyed it, though. I think the principles are awesome. They’ve definitely helped me to become a better teacher so far. It’s funny cause they’re just simple things that you just forget sometimes. Some are harder than others, obviously, but for the most part they’re pretty simple. I really just want to become a better teacher. I think that is an awesome skill to have and I really look up to exceptional teachers. And it really helps in missionary work seeing as that’s basically all we do.

Really just another normal week. We taught Vasil and Azgan a lot and they’re still both progressing avash avash (slowly, slowly). We’ve moved Vasil’s baptismal date to the 19^th of September and we’re pretty confident that he can be ready for that. We still have to talk to him about the Law of Tithing, though, which is our biggest concern. They are not a wealthy family at all and it’s going to be hard for him to show his faith by paying his tithing. But if he has really received a testimony of the Book of Mormon then he knows what he should do. We’re also going to be starting the stop smoking program with Azgan this week so we should have a pretty groundbreaking week! We’re a little nervous, but excited as well. It’s always amazing to see people progress in the gospel.

Well it was awesome to hear from you! I hope you have an amazing week! I love you, mom!

-Elder Swenson