Homecoming/report of Mission Feb 28, 2016

Autumn gave her homecoming talk in the Fruit Heights 1st ward

February 28, 2016 at 9:00 am

Hermana Brianna Burke, Autumn, ? Hermana Bowen

Yummy Food!!

Haley, Anita, Natalie, Amber/Royce

Amber and Royce

Elaina, Austin, Bentley, Brielle (how does Brielle eat with that thing in her mouth)

Jenny, Jillyn, Ken, Kurt  McQuivey's 

Alison

Avram, Esther Johnson, Kyrsti, Alicia

This is how I play twister.  Elaina, Royce and Brielle

Today exhausted Royce

Return with HONOR

Autumn came home February 25, 2016 at 12:59 in the afternoon.  Her and her companions were the last to come down the steps.  We had her luggage before we saw her.  

We waited and waited and waited.'
Then she came

Nothing like the 1st HUG
Then hugs all around!!!

Grandma Johnson was in a rehab center from a fall we went and saw her before we went home.

Autumn putting on the last star!!

Autumn taking off her name tag!!

Last Letter

Feb 23, 2016  Last letter

Well Mamacita,

This is the last email you will receive from me as a missionary. It's been shortest long journey I have ever had. I have never worked so hard nor learned so much. It's scary to think that all of this is coming to an end, but of course it's just the beginning. So many things happened this week that it really was all just another blur, but of course it was a rather good one. The past couple days I've had to say good bye to a lot of family here in North Sacramento; the people who have helped me become the person I am now. I feel such a deep sense of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to serve a mission. I have come to realize that none of this is about me. If I weren't here in Sacramento, someone else would be and they would probably find similar success to the one that I have found. The people as a whole would not be as dramatically changed if there was someone else in my stead. But I am here and I have been changed. I have felt the love of God in so many different ways. I have seen his hand and it is glorious. I am forever changed and I must continue to do as I have been taught by the Holy Ghost. I love my mission, but it is not the end. I am sad to leave, but I am thoroughly excited for the future. I love you and I will see you in two.

Para Siempre Dios esté con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Autumn Breann Twitchell 

I'm feeling fine. The past couple days I've been in a trio with Hna Clark and Sis Lavea. They dissolved my area, so Hna Vergaray is now in south sac and I'm still here floating with the other sisters. We've been super busy, though. With saying good bye to people and packing. Yikes it's a mess! Chick fil a finally opened in our area on Thursday and since then I've been three times. It's the best!

 We went to the temple today and it was sooooo beautiful! We're going again tomorrow with the Jardine's!

Yes, we are all going home. Hna Clark and I are going to be fighting for who he's first down the escalator and Sis Lavea is going back home to New Zealand

Haha well, I could just call you instead :) I don't think I'll have any extra stuff, I pack pretty light. My companions on the other hand are a different story... :P

Cucarachas

Feb, 15, 2016 

Cucarachas!!

¡Hola Mamacita!

This week has been really great! It's getting so warm outside that I don't even need to wear sweaters anymore! It's been really nice. My interview with President went really well. We basically just talked about preparing for the next ordinance I will perform and my future career. Woohoo! I'm really excited because he says he's going to hug me at the airport! :P I know it's silly, but I'm excited for that hug. I'm planning on going to the temple next Tuesday and also hopefully going to chick fil a this week to get my free thing! Do you know what the mystery offer for the month is? Since my time is getting shorter, I'm starting to tell people that I'm leaving, it's a bit sad, but well it's life. All of us Hermanas had dinner at a English couple's home the other day. They truly are one of the most inspiring people I've met, Chelsey and Xander Marshall. Xander's a strong convert of about 7 months and Chelsey is a recently returned missionary. They said they are getting sealed in the Provo City temple on July 9th and they've invited Hna Clark and I to go! I am so excited! 

We still haven't been able to find any solid investigators yet, but that doesn't mean that they aren't out there, we just got to keep looking! 

So funny story, today we were at Walmart and a creepy guy came up to us and asked, "Are you models?" Well, sometimes Walmart is loud and I didn't hear him right. I thought he asked, "are you Mormons?" To which I smiled brightly and confidently said, "Yes! Yes, we are!" 

Haha oops, my bad! He started talking to us and I had to explain to him that we were Mormon missionaries for the church. He didn't really get it.

I love it when people recognize who we are; that we are different, that we are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ! We are witnesses of Him and we will continue to stand strong even when people don't believe us or try to belittle. I love being a missionary because in every opportunity we can bring up the gospel and how it has blessed our lives and how it can bless others as well. I love this gospel! It just brings so much joy and peace to my heart!

Para Siempre Dios esté con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

PS so I have to email one of the office missionaries whether you've paid the iPad fee and if I'm keeping it or not. I'd like to keep it, but if you don't want me to that's okay.

Hermana Ivarra's dog, Coco, had puppies! When I first got to this area, Coco was just a puppy! 

 Valentine's Day we had an amazing stake conference! Afterwards our members gave us Little Ceasars pizza (haha that they bought the day before) and gave us a bunch of chocolate! Speaking of which, thank you so much for the Valentine package! It was perfect!

In order: Elder Hoskin, Elder Radmall, Hermanas Clark, Thomson, Niemann, Vergaray, and ME

We found the elote cart guy! (Aka the corn guy) there are quite a few of them around here, but this time I felt like I needed to get some corn! Yum!

Cockroach extermination preparation for this week: we pulled all of our stuff out, away from the floorboards, and under sheets and blankets. And if you were wondering what our apartment looks like :P

Exchanges

February 08, 2016

¡Hola Mamacita!

This week has been pretty great, we had zone trading and exchanges with the sister training leaders, so that was a lot of fun. While the STLs were preparing for zone trading with the zone leaders, we got to have their trainee, Hermana Niemann with us for quite a while. It was a lot of fun, we had quite a few adventures. She likes to laugh a lot and she is very friendly, so we had a great time with lots of little miracles. Right now we are pretty much sifting with investigators. Out of the 3 companionships of missionaries in our ward, none of us have any solid investigators. It's a little sad, because area has been booming for a while, but we are still working hard and it is easy to see the hand of the Lord in this area, even if it might not be manifested by progressing investigators and baptism. 

The past couple weeks we have had a cockroach infestation so around our house we have a bunch of cups that have cockroaches in them. :P we don't want to squish them, so they just sit there haha. We had an exterminator come this week, so I basically had to pack everything! Then unpack of course, I have too much time left to start packing! We're thinking they might have to come back and exterminate again, though. Oh the beauty of California con cucarachas! I went to the apartment office to get my groundhog droppings! I got them on groundhog's day, how perfect! I haven't gotten my Valetine's day package, though... 

Well, I hope you have a great week mom and that everything goes well with the housing situation! 

Para Siempre Dios esté con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

Bike riding

February 01, 2016

Okay, here's my little tidbit for the week:

This week has been pretty awesome, I feel like my weeks are slow, yet super fast. It's just weird. Hna Vergaray and I attempted to bike this week, but it kind of failed :P we got a cool picture, though! My bike tire was flat, so we walked to the gas station to fill it. Turns out it actually is just flat with a hole somewhere and there wasn't enough time for me to attempt to patch it, so we just walked back home and got in our car. Haha it was definitely an adventure! So I got the pay it forward card with the $20 in it. How long did that take to get here?! It looks like you sent it mid December and I just got it a couple days ago! Our mail system has been super funky, I don't know if it's the mission office or our apartments. We found some new investigators, but it's a little early for us to see if they truly have potential, I sure hope so! Sorry I can't think of much more to say, this week really did just leave me and I am not sure what happened, well, really, too many things happened and if I tried to tell you all about it would take a while! But I can tell you that I know this gospel is true! I know that it is the only thing in this life that can bring us true peace and joy. It is what helps me to get up every morning and go to bed every night with the hope that something good will come out of the next day, because something always does. I love you tons, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Para Siempre Dios esté con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

If I get to live in foreign housing that would be so exciting! I would love so close to the temple!!

I think I got all the classes I want, I'm not taking too many so that I can work, but enough that I'm still a student. I'm signed up for a bunch of classes so that later I can make a final decision. I was registering with Hna Clark and we accidentally signed up for the same classes spring term :P Spanish and foundations of the gospel. Haha it's a good thing we like each other, we've already lived in the same apartment for 7 months! 

You could maybe try and call the woman, I'm not sure. If I go to foreign housing, do I get to go to church in Spanish? That would be my dream! Also I Just want to say, I'm sorry you were so stressed this week, but I love you so much! And if I could I would give you a big hug and tell you that you literally are the best mother in the world and you do so much for me. I don't deserve you. 

So, I've pondered and prayed about it, and I want to live in foreign housing spring and summer, I think that would be a lot of fun. I replied back to the lady on my housing account, I hope it gets to her.... 

Baptism of Alejandra

January 25, 2016

Hola Mamacita!

Thank you so much for helping me with BYU! You are the best! Last week Hna Clark and I kind of planned out what we want to sign up for with our classes, so hopefully we'll be able to get on next week, register, and call it good. Today Hna Clark was trying to sign up for housing. Oh no! I think foreign housing would be fun! I don't know much about it at all, but anything probably is good. I'm not too picky. I have no idea who I want to live with... so I guess it doesn't matter...? I'm not sure about March and April, I think I would be okay to stay home. I'm just not sure if I will be able to find a job or anything in those months, so I would either be lounging around at home or in Provo. I'm not sure that Provo would be better... Also I think it would be hard living so far away next to ShopKo. I don't know, maybe it's not that bad. I had to do "My Plan" today during Personal study and it made me sign up for an institute class as soon as I get home. :P That should be interesting, haha I'm pretty sure it's in the Davis High school seminary building where I went there for seminary.

That's so cool that you got to see Hermana Burke! I wrote her a letter and told her to give you a hug from me. she remembered! I miss her so much! I'll have to give her a big hug. Yikes, though, that snow storm! How am I supposed to drive in that kind of stuff!? I haven't seen snow in 2 years! California really has been spoiling me.

At the beginning of this week, we had a sad break up. We had to drop two of our investigators, Jeronimo and Faustina, who we thought were progressing, but it was a lie! Haha no they just don't have a very solid religious background, so we've been working with them to gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and strengthen their faith unto repentance. They read what we told them to read in the Book of Mormon and they were starting to pray, but we talked about the restoration again and they weren't willing to pray and find out if Joseph smith was a prophet. Aw man! There wasn't really anything more we could do.

In the middle of the week, we had the world wide missionary broadcast. It was awesome! All I want to do now is teach repentance and baptize converts! One of the general authorities said that we should always have Jesus Christ's name on our lips. Everything we do really all comes down to him.

On Saturday, we did service for a woman who is a hoarder. We were working in her garage for 3 hours straight and I thought I was going to die! The whole garage was just filled with rat poop and we found a freshly dead rat, too! I felt like I was on one of those hoarder shows, except I didn't have a mask to protect my breathing. :P Haha It was still a lot of fun though and the woman was really nice.

Later that day, we had the baptism!!! It was amazing! Alejandra was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen! (besides all my nieces and Francis and Odalis, of course!) She had so much excitement in her eyes, it was contagious! It was a wonderful baptism and I would be happy if it were my last one, but we're working hard to find others that will be baptized February 20th! We haven't found anyone yet, but we are still looking! Miracles happen! Especially when we are doing the work of the Lord!

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell    

 

 So this is a picture of all the rain we've been getting. Haha just

kidding! We did actually get a lot of rain this week, but today it is
so nice that I took off my sweater and I am wearing a short sleeve.
¡Hola California sun!

This was Alejandra's baptism!!! Isn't she so darling!!!!