Sister Swindle in Jamaica

I literally cannot believe I hit 6 months this past week! I also couldn't believe I flooded the washer either, but that's another story. This week was a very exciting one, we had lots happen. We got transfer calls and Sister Clyde and I will be staying together for Christmas, woohoo!! We were very excited to keep working our area. I also found out that although I signed papers to serve in Cayman sometime in my mission, I probably will not because there are so few sisters (20 on the island) and they are whitewashing with elders right now. Something we have been starting in the mission is to challenge at least 10 people a day to baptism. We meet some pretty awesome people from doing that many street contacts daily, and there are so many people that are getting very close to baptism. One is named Julie, and when we met her she seemed super hard core and unwilling to talk, but said yes to baptism. She came to church on Sunday and is progressing well. We are excited for her!! We wen...

Man, the saying that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days has never been more real. We're working hard and time is flying! This week was wonderful. The people here are very religious and are set in their ways, but we do the best we can to turn cookie dough into brownie mix! Jamaica has the most churches per capita in the world, but we aren't letting that stop us(: We are working with Devonte still and preparing him to be baptized this next sunday and he is on fire! He is so solid and has turned his life around a lot- and is great at recognizing the blessings he receives from living the gospel.  LIFE IS GOOD. Funny story of the week, we got pulled over by cop (they're ruthless here) and he immediately asked to see Sister Clyde's license and papers. The second he looked at her license he said, "I hate Arizona." We were a little concerned after that for what was going to happen to us haha. We were lucky we got away without a ticket though (th...

Another exhausting/wonderful/hot/exciting week in Portmore! #missionlife Some exciting things or just totally random thoughts from this week: 1. I think it's important to note that I ate cow skin and chicken foot soup and survived. I also had pig tail and that was exciting. (It's true when they say your stomach gets set apart too) 2. We had a cute Jamaican sister stay with us for a couple days before we took her to the airport to go to the Provo MTC and then to her mission in Cape Verde! That was the closest I'll ever get to training probably haha. She was darling though and it was fun to trio. The more sisters the merrier! 3. There are butterflies everywhere here. It makes me happy :) 4. Just about everything we do here as missionaries is for the end goal of having a temple on the island someday. People have to sacrifice so much to fly to either Panama or the Dominican Republic and there are faithful members that have never been able to go to the temple. It absolutely brea...

GREETINGS FROM PORTMORE!! Portmore is: 1. incredible 2. the best 3. so so so so so hot 4. infested with mosquitoes 5. wonderful 6. my favorite place on the planet I can't even tell you what an incredible place this is and how excited I am to be here. Portmore is a city next to Kingston that is right by the ocean (we drive next to it every day and can see it from our apartment) and is kind of a nicer area than a lot of the island. It's hot hot hot but stacked back to back with darling, bright colored houses and good hardworking people. There's also a WARD here (I'm dying of excitement) and the people in it are some of my favorite people ever already. I know I'm going to love these next 6 months here in Portmore!! One of the things that makes Portmore so great is my darling companion Sister Clyde. She is a professional ballerina from Tucson Arizona and literally one of the kindest and most consecrated missionaries I've ever met. I've learned so much from her a...

1. cute sister meli(: 2. all the sisters that stayed in Mandeville (half of the sisters in the whole mission) 3. Kareen and melissa!!! 4. Cute Tiana 5. The chandlers, a wonderful senior couple(: 6. hey moses, can you part this red sea? 7. squad one 8. squad two 9. "hey fitzroy! I like your tie!" "whoops!" (fitzroy's tag line) ora et labora, Sister Swindle Oct 10, 2016, 11:35 AM

Everyone. I just want you to know that this has been the craziest week of my mission by far. Hands down. Uncontested. 100%. Let me tell you why: - Hurricane Matthew. It was supposed to hit us Sunday night at category 5 (category 3 can rip a roof off) so we were slightly concerned, but not as much as our mission president who had all the sisters go and stay with senior couples beginning on Saturday after conference. So we waited. And slept. And played card games. And sang 'Master the Tempest is Raging.' And ate. And slept. And talked. And read scriptures. And read 'Refuge from the Storm' from last conference. And slept. And we waited FOUR DAYS AND THE HURRICANE DIDN'T COME. Ha. I literally went insane hahahah. Jamaicans went crazy though telling everyone that we're a chosen people and God loves us more than everyone else (Matthew swerved and hit several other countries that will not be named hahaha) - Transfer calls. I have been here in Hopeton for one transfer ...

hello I got permission to send you a quick update! I am staying at a lovely welsh senior couple's home in Mandeville and they said we may potentially be here till Saturday.....HAHAHAHA I AM GOING INSANE. We literally have nothing to do and I am going crazy crazy crazy crazy. We get to watch conference when the wifi works, so so far we just have the last session left. I get to be with Sister Afemata and some other lovely sisters, so that is wonderful. Honestly I just hope we get hit by the hurricane and not Haiti because they've suffered way too much. Also \i just want to live through a hurricane hahahaha.I'm not worried though(: We also got transfers this week and \i may have gone into a coma when they told sister fawson that she will be staying in Hopeton and training (she'll have been there 9 months by the time she's done with training!!!) and I am going to Portmore to be an STL. I WAS IN SHOCK. There's 4 STLs in the mission and they cover all the sisters (th...