We had a great week this week.  We are starting to get to know our way around our part of São Paulo, and to find the best roads to get us where we want to go without spending a huge amount of time driving.

On Sunday, we went to Claudinho's house, who is part of the UBA Group that we help oversee.  We met his wife Adriana, and also their son Claudio and his wife Adriele.  They are wonderful and we gave Claudio and Adriele a Book of Mormon and taught them how to read and and study it. We also talked to Claudinho and Adriana about eternal marriage ans how their family could be sealed to be together forever.  We began plans to take them to the São Paulo Temple so they can experience the Visitors Center there (opened about a year ago) as well as the Spirit that is present there.  It will help them all begin to visualize how worldwide and amazing the Church is.  They were so kind during our visit and had us join them in a churrasco lunch they were having to celebrate Claudio's birthday.  We forgot to take photos-we'll have to do better!

Each Sunday we attend church and the Sáude Ward and the UBA Group.  Today was Fast Sunday and we both enjoyed both sets of meetings and especially hearing testimonies that were shared.  The youth just returned from their Specially For Youth encampment this past week.  They try to hold a special youth activity each year during Carnaval since the environment in that annual Brazilian celebration generally is not the best.  The youth  had a marvelous time and returned with stronger testimonies and desires to serve missions.

This week in the mission was a little different because it was Carnaval.  In São Paulo that generally means that small businesses are shut down from Monday until Wednesday.  The Grocery stores and Big Box stores are still open though.  Most of the people go out of town to the beach.  But unfortunately it was very rainy, so I don’t think their holiday was quite what they had hoped for.  Curt and I did a lot of planning and organizing.  

On Monday Curt and I went to our District Meeting here in the Sul/Saude Zone. There were two Elders there who had asked Sister Acosta for some shoes.  So I went to the “Bazar” Where we keep the used clothing donations, and found some shoes in pretty good shape.  But when I gave them to the Elders, they weren’t too happy with what I had to offer.  I think they were hoping for some real work shoes, and instead the shoes I gave them were more Sunday shoes. So I’ll have to figure out what Sister Acosta wants me to do.

After that meeting we go a call from The Financial Secretary Elder Mencl, asking us to deliver groceries to some Sister missionaries.  Apparently they didn’t receive any money on their mission debit card, and they couldn’t buy any groceries.  It was raining like crazy and when we found theIr apartment.  The Sisters came out to meet us - soaked from head to toe.  They were so grateful for the groceries but I told them before you do anything else, get out of those wet clothes and dry off. They were so cute.  After that we had to bring home an Elder to our apartment who had sprained his ankle.  He was going to spend the week with the Office Secretaries, but they had gone to to a service project in UBA with the Guarani Indians.  So we fed Elder Lundgreen some dinner, while he waited for his temporary companions to get home.

We celebrated this week because we got an oven and on Thursday a young man came to install it.  So I baked cookies of course.  We also had our first home cooked meal.  It was so great to be able to eat something besides sandwiches for dinner. I know we keep saying that we are mostly moved in, but now I think we can say we’re done shopping for Household items and are completely moved in and settled.

Curt and I were trying to figure out how we could contact the people that Bishop Sa wants us to reactivate.  We decided to send out some emails and some texts to make our first contact with the 4 family’s.  One of the lady’s sent us a text back that day, so we have a date to go meet their family next Wednesday night.  For the other family’s we wrapped up some cookies and made a note with our photo on it and some contact information and planned to take it to their homes.

We were able to visit two families and also set up visits for this next week with several of the families in the Sáude Ward and in the UBA Group.  We are excited to get to know these members and new friends better so that we can understand how we can better support and help them.

Friday afternoon we parked at the Church, and walked 1/2 a block to the first home.  (They always have these wrought iron security gates.). Curt clapped his hands really loud to see if anyone would come out to talk to us.  Nothing.  Tried again, nothing.  So I was reaching through the wrought Iron gate to set the cookies inside when I realized the the gate wasn’t locked.  I went through the carport and set the cookies by their front door.  We felt pretty good about that.  We walked back to the church and were getting in our car to go to the next house, when this man came running into the parking lot calling to us.  It was Eduardo, the man we had left cookies for.  He was very kind and appreciated us coming by.  We set a date to go see he and his wife next Thursday. YAY!

Next we drove to Julio’s house  The information we had didn’t mention his wife Tereza.  But when we arrived at their home Tereza was out hanging up laundry to dry in the yard.  It turns out that their family has many members of the church, and some of them are active.  We invited Julio and Tereza to go to church tomorrow, and Tereza seemed very sure she would go.  So we are hoping they will come and have a great experience.  We still have one more  plate of cookies to deliver today, but we feel like people are very kind and willing to talk to us.

Last night we went to the Fellowship Night at the UBA group.  It was so rainy that we didn’t know if anyone would show up, but we had 20 people there, and 4 were teenagers that are interested in the Church.  It was so dark and wet that I already have my rain boots and my flashlight set out to put in the car.  Tomorrow we are going back to UBA for Church and I am hoping that we can go visit some less active members there before the meeting and invite them to come join us.

We live across the street from a park, so this week Curt and I figured out where the entrance gates were, and we have been trying to go walking in the park each morning. 

 

This is a beautiful time of year.  There are Flowering trees everywhere.  The Jacaranda is called Ipe here, and we’ve seen yellow and purple Ipe trees.  The orange tree is called Flamboyant.  The pink flowering bush is the Brazilian Plume.

This is one of our favorite trees.  The Ficus Religiosa.  We see it a lot when we are out driving in the city.  It is planted in the median between the lanes of traffic and the roots are overflowing past the curb and into the pavement.

Curt and I are learning how to use WhatsApp.  It is a phone service that is very popular here for texting, and especially group texts, Cell calls, and for Video chats.  If you download the app, you can call us or text us for free.  Just use our US phone numbers it works great. Just remember we are 4-5 hours ahead of you.

I hope you all have a terrific week!

Weeks 3-4: February 9 - February 23

We’ve had 2 more very busy weeks! We have met all the missionaries in the mission now by accompanying Pres. and Sister Acosta to the Leadership Council and all of the Zone Conferences held in the mission the past week and a half. In all, the 12 zones came to 3 Zone Conferences. They were great and the Acosta’s asked both Val and I to share some training with the missionaries. It felt a lot like being back in the mission in Porto Alegre Sul, but I didn’t have to prepare all of it or be in charge. I liked it! 😊

We were able to go back out to the UBA Group on both Friday and Sunday. We already LOVE those wonderful Saints. They are humble, loving, and pioneers in every sense of the word. There are some strong families and individuals who faithfully come to everything. We are going to start working more with the Elders assigned there, Elder Christensen and Elder Florentino, to go visit both members who need a little move “carinho” (love and affection), as well as those to whom they are teaching the lessons. The picture below is our friend Claudinho. He has been a member for about a year and we are going to visit he and his wife and children (mostly grown) one of the upcoming Sundays to get to know their family better. We hope to make a difference in the Group and help to make it grow stronger and larger!  

We went to visit Bishop Sã of the Saúde Ward on Sunday afternoon and he provided us with a list of those members that he’d like us to go visit to help strengthen and, in some cases, reactivate them. We hope to get started on these visits in the next few days. The Sã's also invited us over for lunch on Saturday with the 2 Sisters in the ward, Sisters Risende and Az. It was fun to get to spend more time with them. 

Another fun thing happened while we were at church on Sunday in the Saúde Ward. We have been anticipating running into some of our returned missionaries from the Brasil Porto Alegre Sul Mission where we served 11 years ago. I was talking to a member at church before the meeting started, and heard, “Presidente, o que está fazendo aqui?!” (President, what are you doing here?!). I looked up and Elder David Godoy was standing in front of me! He was part of the first group of missionaries that completed their mission when we first arrived in 2009. It was fun to catch up with him. He will be in our ward staying with extended family for 6 months. We hope to run into others in the weeks/months to come!  

We returned to meet with the Riberão Pires Zone this week and enjoyed their District Council (formerly known as District Meeting) with them. The Zone Leaders, Elder Hunter and Elder Borge, are doing a great job and working hard to lead the zone. We had one of “those” days in the São Paulo traffic – it took us nearly 3 hours to get to the meeting, and normally should take 45-60 minutes. I’ve got to trade in this manual shift car and get an automatic – the shifting is wearing out my left foot! But we are finding better ways to get around the traffic on better roads, so we're learning! 😊

We did return to Riberão Pires on Sunday evening for the baptism of Rosilane and her daughter Gabriela. It was wonderful to see 2 more of Heavenly Father’s children come into the Church. They were from the Valentina Group that is part of the Riberão Pires Stake and the bishop, group leader, and Primary president did a terrific job of welcoming them to the group/ward. Elders M. Silva and John are doing a great work there! 

We’ve just about got our cute little apartment furnished now. So far we’ve purchased a kitchen table and 4 chairs, a 2-person recliner (for those days where a 15 minute nap would be good at lunchtime!), an oven/range, a microwave, a bed and linens, bedside stands, curtains, storage cabinets for the kitchen, bathroom, and storage room, and a bazillion other smaller items. We finally got the internet hooked up, and hopefully our fogão (oven) will be hooked up to gas on Thursday so that we can actually have a hot meal that’s not made in our only appliance that heats food at this point – a “sanduicheira” (small sandwich grill). Wish us luck!!

The weather in São Paulo is pretty consistent – clear skies in the morning and then by early afternoon, it clouds up and pours buckets! Since arriving in Brazil 3 weeks ago, we’ve only had 1 day that didn’t have rain. There doesn’t seem to be a lack of “moisture” in this part of the world!  But when the sun is shining, we have a beautiful view from our apartment. 😊

We went to Outback Steakhouse on Saturday (there are several in the São Paulo area) and had a nice meal with Élder and Sister Mencl, who serve in the office as financial secretaries, and with Pres. Fabian Gonçalvez (2nd Counselor in the mission presidency) and his wife Patrícia. It was fun to get to know them better - they're all terrific people and friends already! 

We’re loving serving together and hope to make a difference this week in the work the Lord has given to us to do. We wish for each of you an ótima semana!! (a great week!)

Our love and a grande abraço,

Élder and Síster Swenson

2/23/2020

I’m a week late in getting my email off to you all.  We are still in the middle of getting settled here in São Paulo.  Each day is different from the rest except for the fact that by the end of the day we are pretty darn tired.  Its good to be needed though and good to feel like you have something to offer in the work of the Lord.

We checked out of the Ibis Hotel on February 11th.  We thought the bed we bought would be delivered  that day - part of it was.  We have been sleeping on our mattress on the floor, but the rest of the bed should be delivered today.  We will feel so luxurious when we have a real bed to sleep on.  This is the apartment building we are living in.  We are on the 10th floor.

We have lots of people tying to help us with everything.  The apartment that we are living in was the apartment of the Office Secretaries. It is in the building right next to our Mission Office.  Sister Acosta bought all sorts of things for us, bedding, bath towels, plates, silverware, Iron and ironing board, blender, sandwich grill, etc.  It felt like Christmas.

They also asked the handyman Rodney, and Elizabet  his wife(who work for the mission) to come and get everything clean and beautiful.  They whitewashed all the walls and waxed and shined up the wood floors.  He also installed new kitchen cupboards, hot water faucet in the kitchen etc. We’ll take pictures when its all done.

Living in Brazil is a little different from the USA because you usually have to buy storage cupboards for your kitchen and bathroom, and sometimes bedroom. Our apartment has big built in closets in the bedrooms, but we brought some kits and Curt has been putting together more storage for the different rooms.  In the last week we have had  a washer/dryer (one machine), a stove, a recliner, a desk and chairs, Kitchen table and chairs, all delivered.  

These are the cool dining chairs we bought with rhinestones.

We were super duper excited to find the double recliner at Sam’s Club here and it got deliver yesterday.  Boy oh boy did it feel good after a long day.  Sam’s Club also had peanut butter which is a rare find here. So all in all we are feeling comfortable and getting a pretty good nights rest.  

This is the view from outside of our window.

One interesting thing about where we live is that we are very near Congonhas Airport which is in the center of São Paulo.  They have flight restrictions that there are no flights taking off or landing before 6:00am and after 10:30pm - which is very funny in a way because it forces us to live the missionary schedule, which means waking up at 6:00am and going to bed at 10:00am.  At first when we moved in, the roar of the airplane engines seemed super loud, but we were getting used to it now . . . . Or as the Brazilians would say “the Gente is adapting”. (They use 3rd person for themselves on a regular basis.)

This time of year, we wake up everyday and it is sunny then after lunch the clouds get heavy and at about 3:00pm the rain starts.  Sometimes there is some terrific thunder and lightning as well.  The people don’t even to mind though, they still keep up business as usual.  I don’t see very many people using umbrellas either.  They just dry off eventually.

As far as missionary work goes.  We think we have some good ideas of how we can serve. After we get our WiFi we will be able to access the addresses of the missionary apartments and go do some unscheduled inspections.  We are also hoping to bake some bread or some cookies and take them to some less active members of the Saude Ward and the Uba group, and invite them to come join us.  We are almost ready to bake as soon as our oven gets hooked up to gas.

The last two weeks our President has been holding Mission leader Councils and Zone Conferences.  I really loved one of the videos that the Assistants showed as an example of missionaries helping each other to succeed.

Check it out:

https://youtu.be/liCRrheKIOI

President and Sister Acosta invited Curt and I to say a few things during the training.  Sister Acosta’s topic was obedience, and specifically she wanted me to talk about getting along with your companion.  So I spoke to the missionaries about the Celestial Principles they are learning in the mission - learning to love and respect people in spite of your differences.  And that in fact it would prepare them for eternal marriage.  Curt related some stories from our first mission,  about missionaries who didn’t lower their expectations.  they set high goals for themselves.  They continued working in the rain and working until the end of the day, and since they were so faithful and diligent, Heavenly Father blessed them to be able to find and baptize a family.  

At one of the Zone Conferences we met Elder Finlinson, who is from our former Stake in Sandy.  

President Acosta told this story of God asking this man to push a rock.  Each day the man diligently  tried to push the rock up the hill.  He never made any progress.  Finally exhausted, he shared his frustrations with God.  “I’ve tried and tried everyday to do what you asked me, but I will never be able to punch that rock up the hill.”  Then God responded, “ I didn’t ask you to push the rock up the hill, I only asked you to push it.  Now you can see with all of your diligence, humility and effort you have become a strong instrument in the hands of the Lord.

We have also spent some sweet time with our group In Uba, getting to know the members.  We attend Sacrament Meeting with them, and will be going to their weekly fellowshipping meeting tomorrow night,  The group gathers in a Nature Reserve Area, and we get to ride over o a ferry.  It is very nice to get away from this huge city.

Curt is getting to be a really good Brazilian driver.  I don’t drive because our car is a standard transmission, and I never really learned to drive one.  We were surprised to see some antique cars in the garage of the Mission Home.

 

There are some fun names to pronounce around here.  We live in a part of the city called Jabaquara.  We saw a license plate with this city listed: Itquaquecetuba.  I’m guessing that they are Guarani Indian names.  There is a reservation on the Island were the Uba group meets.  The Elders really want to teach some of the indigenous people.  But there is a law that they cannot teach on the reservation, but they could teach if the meet Their investigator outside of the reservation. They asked President Acosta if he could find a Guarani Book of Mormon.

These are some of the young men from the Uba group:

Matheus, Elder Christensen, Renato, Robert, Curt and another Renato.  We spend Friday nights with them in a fellowship meeting, and we attend Sacrament Meeting and the second hour meetings on Sundays. We are also hoping to go visit some less active members this Sunday and invite them to church.

Talk to you next week!

It is Saturday February 8th, our first Preparation Day in the mission, and it’s time to report on the action filled week we have had.

Curt and I both feel very welcomed and loved here in the São Paulo Sul Mission.  When we left Salt Lake City, I was pondering a lot about how I might be of help to the Mission President, the missionaries, and most of all to the Lord.

I shouldn’t have been too concerned because the minute we stepped into the SLC Airport a young Elder and Sister direct from the MTC approached us to say that they had been delayed on their train from the MTC and had missed their flight to Japan and what should they do?  (We left on a very snowy morning.  As Danielle was driving us to the Airport there were at least 20 cars stuck on the side of the road.  After we asked the missionaries few questions we reassured then them that they were resolving the problem correctly with Church Travel and it would all work out.

There were two more missionaries on our flight.  When we had a layover in Atlanta we got to know Elder Oto from Japan and Elder Peterson from Arizona.  They had both been in the Provo MTC and were on their way to Brazil.  Elder Oto is serving in our mission. 

We learned to appreciate Elder Oto so much.  When he arrived in Provo he didn’t speak Portuguese or English.  So he had to learn English to be able to learn Portuguese.  While we were in the MTC we noticed several volunteers who accompanied missionaries from foreign countries and interpreted for them.  Curt and I both felt like Elder Oto needed us to befriend him as he went to Brazil.  He told us that his mother was very worried about him serving in a foreign country, because he was the first in his family to do so.

We helped Elder Peterson get to his flight to Rio de Janeiro, and as we waited for our flight to São Paulo another young man Elder Hicks approached us.  He had been waiting for his Visa while serving in Arizona.  Elder Hicks is also serving in our mission.  It was interesting to me to realize that the Lord was already using us to serve the young missionaries who were flying Internationally for the first time.

Our Mission President’s daughters Renata and Hannah welcomed us Tuesday morning at the Airport in São Paulo and gave us the address of the Chapel where we would meet President and Sister Acosta.  We rented our little Renault standard shift sedan and we were on our way.  After 1 1/2 hours of traffic we arrived at the Chapel, Bosque de Saude a beautiful historical Chapel built early in Brazil Church History.

After meeting President and Sister Acosta and their Assistants and Office Elders they surprised us with about 60 young missionaries lined down the aisles into the Chapel clapping and cheering for us.  WOW!!!!  What a welcome!

This week we have been learning what President and Sister Acosta want us to do to help them.  We have been riding the Metro into the city to buy furniture, meeting missionaries to find out how we can help them in their zone,  going to a Fellow-shipping meeting in a natural preserve area that feels like you are in the middle of the forest, Finding the Chapel where we are assigned to serve,  preparing to investigate the cleanliness of missionary apartments etc.

Right now we are living in the Ibis Hotel and are hoping to be able to move into our apartment next Tuesday.  Our apartment is right next door to the Mission Office so it will be very convenient.

I wanted to finish with an amazing story to tell you all about the wonderful man who is our Mission President.  I asked President Pedro Acosta to tell us the story of his conversion.  It is quite a long story but I will summarize to say that he and Sister Acosta joined the Church in 1990 when they were a young couple living in Manaus.  He was a Military Man for his career, and he told us that he worked in every part of the Jungle around Manaus and knew the area very well.  

In 1991 President and Sister Acosta sold most of their belongings and made their way to São Paulo to be sealed in the Temple.  While their family was at the Temple they saw lots and lots of people arriving in buses and he asked what was going on?  He was told that these were caravans of members coming from far away cities to have their families sealed. 

After he returned home and serving as the Stake Executive Secretary and he asked the Stake President if they could plan a caravan to take their members to the Temple in São Paulo.  The Stake President said it was impossible.  But President Acosta couldn’t get it out of his mind.  

So he started drawing up maps of how they could take a boat for three days down the Amazon, and then they could land where the roads were more developed in Brazil and travel on a bus for 3 more days.

He also started making up lists of how much food they would need to take so that all the people could be fed, and wrote up supply lists for everyone, and estimated the cost per person. When we acted astonished about all the plans he had made, he told us that the Lord prepared him to do this.  In his career in the military his responsibility was moving large groups of people and supplies.

A short time later Elder Joe J Christensen (The Brazil Area President) and Elder Claudio Costa came to Manaus to visit the Stake there.  While they were there they asked President Acosta to give them a tour of the area.  Since he had their undivided attention he brought up his proposition to take a Caravan to the Temple.  They asked him if it could be arranged and if the members would be safe.  So he showed him all of the maps and the plans he had organized and they promised him to ponder and pray about it.  The word came back to his Stake President that they could go to the Temple.  So the members sold everything they could and sacrificed greatly, and they were able to save up a lot of money. Elder Christensen’s family at home found out about what they were trying to do, and they sent thousands of dollars to help as well.

So in 1992 the members of Manaus made their first Caravan to the Temple.  President Acosta said that the Area Presidency had told Stakes and Wards along the way about the sacrifice the people were making. So the members guided them into their chapels in Porto Velho, Paraná, Cuiabá, and Goiânia, where they could get off the busses and rest and each lunch and use the restrooms.  He said in one city the bus didn’t get to the chapel until midnight because they had some mechanical issues, and still the Stake President and members were there waiting for them.  He told us that some of the members Paraná created a huge banner that read Sacrifice Brings Forth Blessings.

I was astounded to Janis that our Mission President was the man who the Lord inspired to create these caravans, because I had heard these stories, but never from the person Responsible for it all. These sacrifices by the members in Manaus blessed the people and the Church in Manaus grew quickly because of the faithfulness of the members.  And now they are blessed with a Temple of their own.

I have come to recognize that sacrifice brings forth great blessings. I am thankful for many people who sacrificed for me so that I can enjoy the blessings I do.  I have many Pilgrim ancestors, and Pioneer ancestors who went through such challenging trials to bring their families to America, and to help establish the Restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth.  My own mother and father sacrificed many things to raise me in a loving and Christ  centered home.  

And of course most of all Jesus Christ suffered and died for me.  I love Him so very much, and I hope I can serve Him and serve the people of São Paulo n the way the Savior has taught me.

Weeks 1-2: January 27 - February 8, 2020

----------------------------------------------------------

Hello All!

We're here in São Paulo and have had a great Weeks 1 and 2 of our mission! We spent Week 1 in the Provo MTC during the day and then we flew from Salt Lake City on Monday, 2/3 through Atlanta, and arrived in São Paulo on Tuesday morning. We then met with all of the other newly arriving missionaries from Brazil and the U.S. at the Bosque da Saúde chapel and had a standing ovation welcome from the 50 or so missionaries present - it was very amazing and made us feel immediately at home! They were very excited to receive a missionary couple to help them with the work. 

We've met with President and Sister Acosta several times and they are terrific and doing a wonderful work in leading the mission. They will finish their mission in June and are preparing for the arrival of Pres. and Sister Hirschi from Rexburg. We've met all the office missionaries and assistants and they are also great. Pres. Acosta has already given us several areas that he would like us to focus on:

• Attend church in the Saúde Ward (also the Acosta's ward) and help the bishop with reactivation of members of the ward. We'll attend church there on Sunday 2/9 for the first time to meet the bishop and get started.
• Work with the stake president of the Riberão Pires Stake and the zone serving in that stake to reactivate members and help those that are actively coming to provide additional help to the missionaries. We have already met with the zone leaders and will meet with the stake president on Sunday afternoon, 2/9 to begin to understand how we can support him and the members of the stake and accelerate the work forward.
• Help oversee a small group, called the UBA Group, to grow and be strengthened. This group meets in a remote part in the south part of the mission near a very large reservoir called "Represa Billings." To arrive at the group meetings, held at a members home, you need to travel south from São Paulo and take a small 40 car open ferry into an area that is very "jungly" (i.e. they have monkeys and say that there are jaguars in some of the areas). We visited there on Friday night with Pres. Acosta so that he could introduce us to the two Elders working in the area and attend a "Night of Integration/Seminary" that they hold each Friday evening with all members and friends that would like to come. We had a WONDERFUL time with these amazing Saints. There were 15 total in attendance and we are already growing to love these new friends. We're planning with the Elders on how we can help them find and bring home others who haven't been coming. We will attend their church services on Sundays in the afternoon and the Friday night integration/seminary meetings most weeks. I'll post some pictures in the coming weeks when we're their during the day - beautiful jungle forest all around. He was very shy until I put my nametag on him, and now we are best buds. Fun!!!

• Help in overseeing the "Bazar." That is what Sister Acosta calls the storeroom in which she stores clothes donated by the departing missionaries that can be used by missionaries still serving in the mission - shirts, ties, shoes, dresses, pants, etc. All donated by the missionaries to be used by the missionaries. Val had created the "Sister Swenson Store" in the mission office when we served in Porto Alegre, so she is excited to do a similar thing here in the São Paulo South Mission.
• Visit the houses/apartments of all the missionaries in the mornings from time to time to study with them and do an impromptu "inspection" of how they're doing in maintaining the apartment. This will be fun and we have our first "surprise" visit on Monday afternoon in Riberão Pires. :-)
• Val will help Sister Acosta with missionary health needs as needed from time to time. She has plenty of experience with that! We are having dinner with the Area Medical missionaries at the Acosta's on Friday 2/14 to meet them and get started on that.

This next week we will attend Zone Conferences throughout the week, as well as a Leadership Council and a District Council. It'll be a busy week meeting all the missionaries in the mission!

That about covers it! We're already very busy, driving around in the crazy traffic in São Paulo in our rented car (we're hoping to receive a Church-owned vehicle, but nothing on that yet), and having a great time. We are still staying in a hotel temporarily while they put the finishing touches (cleaning, painting, new furniture, etc.) on the apartment that the secretaries and assistants have been living in, and they have moved all of their furniture, etc., to a new rented house nearby. Our apartment is very nice and is immediately next door to the mission office. We hope to move in on Tuesday 2/11, and then somehow find some time to get it furnished, final cleaning, and arranged.. Wish us luck!

That's all for this week. We are already having many experiences that are strengthening our love of our Savior and His beautiful gospel that He has brought to us. We are grateful to be in His service.

Our love, 

Elder and Sister Swenson