It's all gravy baby...

Why hello there Family!
This week has been one of the best weeks ever! Okay so the story of the Year happened on Saturday. We met this girl Rose while we were knocking out an apartment complex and she was walking her dogs so we stopped and talked to her for a jiff. She was telling us all about her medical condition about how she has a brain tumor and all that jazz. Well we taught her about the priesthood and the Blessings that are administered therein and we offered to give her a blessing on Saturday. She agreed and said that we could come over and do that for her. We when Saturday came around we went over to the house and her friend Dustin answered the door and was really standoffish to us but we sweet talked him into letting us in. We sat down with them and taught them the 1st part of the restoration of the Gospel and we got to the Great Apostasy and Dustin and his GF got up and left. Me and Elder Rigby we both really confused why they left but it was for a good purpose. This gave us an opportunity to give rose the blessing. She was fine with it and said we could do it. Rigby Anointed and I gave the blessing. It was the most incredible blessing I have givin on my mission. The spirit was so strong and after the blessing we asked her how she felt, she told us that during the blessing everything turned bright white and she couldn’t see anything. Then she proceeded to tell us about how her heart had been physically hurting for the last 3 weeks and after the blessing it completely stopped. She then went on to explain how her mom was into witchcraft and all the evil stuff and how she really wanted to find the Holy Ghost in Her life. She explained that she had felt the HG in the blessing and she told us how she wanted to have it with her at all times. We asked her if she would do anything to have it with her at “all” times and she said “yes”. We asked her if she would be baptized so that she could get the gift of the Holy Ghost and she said YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She wants to be baptized on the 22nd of August. I’m so stoked for her. That night the other elders were having a baptism and she went to that and watched someone get baptized. And then after that we taught her about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and she said she believed in them both and that she would read and pray about them both as well. She is such a sweet girl and she is only 18 years old. So pray for her so that she can be healed from her sickness and that she can hold this baptism date. Yesterday we had a Zone P-Day. It was so much fun but im feeling the after effects way bad this morning. I woke up with a head ache and my whole body is so sore. Ha ha we played basketball, Pakistani one ball, (dodge ball where you have to get everyone out by yourself) its buck-wild. Wiffle-ball, kickball, wall-ball, and then we played this game called cashflow. I really think ya’ll should invest in this game. Dad might know what it is. It is a business board game that deals with really situations with money, jobs, loans, financing, ect. It’s a 200$ game but it is the coolest game in the world. But other than that this week has been really good. I love ya’ll so much and im so glad that ya’ll are my family. I love ya’ll.

One Love Elder Schwendiman

What a week!

What a crazy flippin week!
I have never been so exhausted my whole mission. ha ha i love being this tired and i hope im this tired the rest of my mission. we have seen some of the greatest success this week. To start off monday he had a good day, we saw a couple less actives and got a couple of new investigators.  So on wednesday we had Zone conference where we raised a Title Of Liberty in honor of our Family, Friends, our God, and our Freedom as missionaries. I like to call it the Standard of Obedience. We came up with our own title of liberty just like Moroni. It was really intense but the Holy Spirit of Promise was there and witnessed to all that what was said needed to be said. We had the best numbers in the History of the mission this week.. Our mission Baptized 7, set 46 baptism dates, had 800 new investigators, taught 1461 lessons, 172 people at church, it was such a busy week and it was so much fun. We set a baptism date with Jenifer Gardner. She is such a sweet lady, she has 2 daughters Courtney and Karley, and we taught her about the Atonemnt of Her Savior, and she just started to cry, she has been going through a rough spell with life and she just needed to hear the message. She said she is slowly losing her faith in God but we are gonna do everything in the Spirit to help her find that faith once again. We had 21 total lessons, 17 new investigators, and we had 8 people come to church with us on Sunday. trust me when i say that me and Elder Rigby had nothing to do with it. The Lord is so merciful and so loving! We are gonna go down south on Friday and hopefully set 4 more baptism dates. Thats gonna be so fun. Oh and we had a little righteous competition to help us get moving and me and elder Rigby beat out 9 companionships(even the Zone Leaders) and now they are gonna come cook us breakfast. ha ha im so excited for it. other than that, this week has been alright. So i was reading in Alma 60:24 and i found a really funny southern phrase. "begin to be up and doing" and then in alma 33:25 he quotes, "ye all of you" which down here translates to "ya'll..." ha ha i think that part of the book of mormon came from down here in the good ol' south! ha ha i hope ya'll had a good safe week. and just know that i am as happy as can be!! oh and bytheway ronald mundy has expressed to stay Baptist til he dies! so thats not gonna go down. I love y'all with all my heart and i wish Gods blessings to be showered upon you!
One Love
Elder Schwendiman

Well I'll be a dirty shirt!

Sweet donkey huh!
ha ha the other day i had 3000 dollars in my pocket. Brother higdon took some money outta the bank. the guy is nuts. I love you mom

Hi there family
This week has gone incredibly slow but very well other than the stress of training. We are still keeping up with Ronald Mundy and he is on track for a week from this saturday so keep him in your prayers. We gotta go to the temple on Wednesday. It was so nice. It was one of the most spiritual experiences at the temple i have ever had. 
I had a couple of my own personal concerns and questions answered. It was really good. We got a new bishop last week and we had dinner at his house on Friday night. IT was so good. He fed us steak and salad and sweet potatoes. and then we sat down and talked with him about what we could do as missionaries to help the ward and we came to the conclusion that we needed to hit hard with the less active members. we have 180 less active families in my area. ITs gonna be a lot of fun but its gonna be nuts for the next couple of months here. Saturday we got taken out to Outback Steak house with a non-member and members as well. The bill was 230$. how ridiculous is that. they do this once a month. Sunday was really good. they whole day was focused on missionary work and Temple work. I gotta teach the gospel principles class. That was a lot of fun. Oh on Wednesday we gotta Teach the State Street Baptist church. We taught about the Great Apostacy and The Need for the Restoration of the Gospel. We talked for 25 minutes and believe it or not their were no objections. There was not even one question. The spirit was so strong there that it had the people speechless. We gave out 8 Books of Mormon and got a new person to teach. It was really cool. They gave me one of their Hymnals and i'll be sending that home real soon. Well other than that, thats about all that happened this week. I had a long chat with my boy about some stuff and we put all cards on the table and all the conflicts were resolved. Its gonna be a good week. I love ya'll so much and i pray for ya'll all the time. and yes i did get the package ya'll sent me and i loved every bit of it. Have a good week and God bless. 
One Love Elder schwendiman

Weekend Warriors!

Well hey there mom!
I don't really have a lot of time. My comp is getting antsy and pushy with me so i only have like 20 minutes. He is having a hard time having fun. Which is hard to imagine but he hasn't found that missionary work can be fun and you can still be obedient.. He is teaching me a lot of patience. We had a really good week. We set a baptism date with a guy named ronald mundy. He is a sweet black guy who lives by himself. we taught him about the Atonement and how it can heal him and then Elder Rigby Committed him to baptism on the 25th. I felt so proud. Something i taught him worked! Is that how you feel as a parent whenever your child does something you taught them. Like a sense of accomplishment. Thats how i felt with him. He came to church yesterday and he felt so welcomed and loved and we had a pot luck after church to break our fast and he enjoyed every second of it. Well for the fourth of July we really didn't do too much . We helped someone move for 3 hours and kinda just hung out all day. We played a new card game called fixin'. Way southern. Its sweet. Ill teach ya'll when i get home. We had to plan for our week on saturday night so we couldn't watch the fireworks and Rigby didn't wanna plan outside so we could. so im doing this new workout where after 3 weeks i'll be able to do 100 pushups in a single session. I did 180 this morning but not in one sitting. Next week we start getting into the 200's. ITs gonna be nuts. Im only doing it so i can prove it wrong. I don't think that i can do 100 pushups. but we will see. I getta see Elder Rasmussen Tomorrow. He is a traveling assistant now. How crazy is that. Im so stoked to see him more often. Other than that this week have been really boring but busy. Im just trying to keep my cool with rigby. I know he is trying his hardest and doing whats right Sorry this email isn't too long. Did ya'll get my pictures? i sent them a weebit ago. Mom i love you with all my heart and i will definately have sister hutchings call you after my appointment on Wednesday. I love you mom have an awesome week.
Love Your missionary

CSA Pride!

Saluting the Confederate Flag!