So it snowed a lot this week! And yes I was walking in it. My companion was laughing at me because my feelings about the snow would change every 10 minutes. Sometimes I'm talking about how beautiful it is and then then 10 min later I'm complaining about why anybody would ever want to live here. If your wondering if i've fallen yet because of the ice, I have fallen once but it wasn't because of the ice, yesterday we were walking and I stepped on an uneven pile of snow and then fell into a big pile of snow. Ya, oh well I just got up and laughed it off. My companion did fall though on the stairs it was pretty funny. Something that I love about my companion is that we are laughing all the time! Even when the days are long and hard we always find something to laugh about.

This week we got a new investigator he is 9 and he is a very active kid, but he retains a lot of information. He also has a snake and yes I held the python. I was freaking out a bit and gave it up quickly. this week we also got closer to our goal of having a 10 lessons with a member present. Last week we got 6 and this week we got 7. So were moving up and I know that the Lord is going to bless us if we just keep working hard. We also had a lesson we Victor, (he has the wife who is recovering from brain cancer) It is going better, we are able to have discussions with him, but he doesn't even want to try to believe in what we are saying and even try it to see if this gospel is true. We like going there and visiting them and they like seeing us, but our purpose isn't to be visiting teachers our purpose it to teach and baptize. And this is when we need members that can do what we can't and that is to visit and build relationships. Here's miracle happened this week, yesterday we got a call from one of our ward mission leaders and he said that today a man came to church and went and found the bishop to ask him what he needed to do to become a member of this church. How cool is that? Now I just hope and pray that this man lives in our area.

Thursday we had many meetings we were running all over the place. We had a meeting with our zone for 2 hours, then we had to go to the mission office for a training meeting, then we had to come back here for our Christmas devotional with President Chambers. All were very good meetings. I think I learned the most in our zone meeting. We talked a lot about how to better have the spirit in our lessons, but the biggest thing that stood out to me was that in the beginning of the meeting they had 6 elders stand up the first represented the Lord, then the Prophet, then our mission president, then the district or zone leader then the missionary and the last was a member. And they had them all facing one way. Then they  turned the district leader against the mission president. And it looked like there was contention between the two and because of the contention between the two the missionary didn't get the message and the member didn't. (I hope this makes sense.) The question they asked while doing this activity is "what way do you face?" I thought about myself, am I doing all that the Lord has asked me? Am I listening to my leaders or do I think that I know better. All I know is that I want to face the same way the Savior is facing and I need to have faith that my leaders are facing that same way. 

I'm trying to stay warm, but I love you all! Thank you for your prayers.

And please help the missionaries! They have enough food, now they need people to teach!

Love,

Sister Swain