Bautismo!!!

February 23, 2015

Hola Mamacita!

This week has probably been one of the best weeks I've ever had on mission. It was super awesome!  We had President Martinez give Odalis and Conchita interviews on Tuesday.  Conchita was in her interview for almost an hour and a half and I was so nervous that something went wrong!  But she came out all happy and smiley; she just likes to talk a lot :P  She said that she was inviting a ton of her 7th Day Adventist friends to her baptism and she wanted us to meet them and tell them more about the church.  We haven't even discussed missionary work and here Conchita is, inviting all of her former church friends. A few weeks ago we taught her the law of chastity and the next day she broke up with her boyfriend because he was a 7th day Adventist. She said, "If I get married, I want to marry someone that belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ!" She is so amazing!  The spirit has worked on her so much and I have seen such a change in her. When we first started teaching her, she would sometimes agree with the things we say, but not really agree in her heart, or she would say that our church was so similar to the 7th day Adventist church. Now she truly believes and understands the important differences that make it so important for her to be a part of this church. She has a desire to feast upon the scriptures and share the gospel with everyone that she can! She is such a great example to me!  Her baptism was so great! Hna. Burke and Hna. Bowen came. I had to give them such big hugs! It was so good to see them. I just needed Hna. Kaaa and Hna. Griffith there and I would've had all my companions with me! Then President and Sister Jardine came! It was such a wonderful surprise! They really are such wonderful people and I am so excited that we are doing mission president interviews this week.

Odalis and Francis were baptized as well on Thursday and they are the cutest, sweetest little girls! They got baptized on their little brothers birthday, so hopefully exactly a year from the 19th of February, their brother, Roberto, will be baptized. It was such a fun baptism! It was sad because their mom, wasn't there, but we helped them with everything and it was so fun. We helped them pick out their jumpsuits and tried to convince Francis that it was so beautiful because she didn't want to wear it :P, Hna. Clark braided Francis' hair, we went in the bathroom with them as they were going in to be baptized, and we wrapped them in towel hugs after they were baptized. It was such a sweet experience.

Right now we are working with a couple, Vicki Ramirez and Lalo. They are so ready for baptism, it is unbelievable! We got them as a referral from Salt Lake and it turns out that Vicki actually referred herself so that missionaries could come by. How cool is that! They are super awesome! The only problem is that they aren't married and they are both still married but to different people. They want to get married and baptized so bad! but they have to get divorced first. I've worked on getting people married, but divorce is a foreign language to me. It's going to be a long process and I probably won't see them be baptized, but I am going to do all that I can because they are just so fantastic!!

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

pics: the Claros family,

 All my comps and Conchita: 

Hna Clark - Odalis - Francis - Hna Twitchell
baptism Feb 19, 2015

Hermana Bowen and Autumn with the Claros family

Hna Burke, Hna Clark, Hna Bowen, Hna Twitchell
all of Autumn's companions except for Hna Kaaa and Hna Griffith

Hna Twitchell,  Hna Burke,  Conchita,  Hna Bowen,  Hna Clark

Baptism Feb 21, 2015

3 Baptism coming up this week

February 16, 2015

Hola Mamacita! 

Okay I'm going to try and answer all of your questions. :P  Hna Clark is super awesome! If no one told me she had went home and then came back from her mission, I would never have guessed. She is such a great missionary. She is from Alpine, UT. She went to BYU and we have some of the same t-shirts :P   I was getting nervous having Hna Bowen as my companion because she's a hardcore Ute fan.  Haha nah she was great!-   We technically pretty much have the same missionary age or at least I'm pretty sure we will go home together. Her Spanish is really good! Going home has set her back a little bit because sometimes she can't understand very well and she'll ask me, "What did they just say?", but she speaks really well. It's kind of fun being the companion that understands the most Spanish (and a little scary :P) Since I've been in the area longer I get to drive!! It's so much fun! I forgot how much I love driving :P   The drivers are crazy here, but they are California drivers.   haha not as bad as Utah drivers :P 

We are having two baptisms this week! One on Thursday night with Odalis (10) and Franceis (8) Claros and then we are having the one for Conchita Silva on Saturday. We are super excited for them! Odalis and Franceis are from a part member family where their father and their grandma are members, but their mom is not. Their dad gets to baptize them and we are super excited!!!! It will be so sweet. The other day we taught them the Law of Chastity and it was actually super fun! We taught them by doing the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" in Spanish and it was a ton of fun. I've decided that I love teaching the law of chastity to kids.   Conchita is doing so great. We had a lesson with her the other morning and she said "Oh, let me get you guys some of my coffee." What!? I panicked for a second, but then she gave us atole (not sure how to spell it :P) which was basically hot milk, oatmeal, sugar, and cinnamon. It was pretty good! She has come such a long way!  

 This week has been amazing and I know that next week will be even better. The Lord is on our side. I just know it!

Para Siempre Dios este Con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

Transfers

Feb 10, 2015

Hola Mamacita!

So I am staying in Sacramento for my 4th transfer!! It should be super awesome! Hna. Bowen got a call from President Jardine last Wednesday, calling her to be an STL, therefore she had to go to the Missionary Leadership Conference on Friday. Because We are the only sisters in our zone, I had to go with her and that's why I got to see a bunch of other missionaries and Sister Edmondson on Friday. It was funny because all the leaders in the mission were there and it was me and another Hermana that came because we had no choice :P It was fun! We had no idea where Hna. Bowen was going to serve, but we knew that we wouldn't be companions this transfer because President Jardine has been wanting to put the Spanish STLs together in the mission. Hna. Bowen gets to serve in Lodi with Hna. Moffett. She's sad to leave, but very excited to serve in Lodi. My new companion is Hna. Clark. The cool thing about her is that she was Hna. Bowen's MTC companion and that a few weeks after she finished her training, she went home. But after 4 months, she came back to the work today! We thought we would have to pick her up at the mission office tomorrow, but we got a call from Sister Jardine saying, "We have your companion, Sister Twitchell, when can you come get her?" So we picked her up from the mission office at 11am this morning, fresh from the airport! So now, Hna Bowen, Clark, and I are in a trio for the day and we are going to drop off Hna Bowen in the morning. FUN!

Our zone is changing a ton this transfer! Out of the 16 of us, 8 of us are leaving and only one companionship is staying together, crazy!

This week has been super awesome! So much progress with Conchita Silva! We had a powerful lesson with her yesterday with one of our members, Hno. Ramirez. She's been slowly but surely quitting coffee and Hno. Ramirez had a coffee problem before he became a member as well. He shared a story about how the missionaries took his coffee away and then Hna. Bowen asked her if we could take away her coffee. She said that we could and so of course we had to take a picture of the coffee that we took away from her :P She has progressed so much!!! She knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and believes that while Ellen G. White might have said some things that are true, she is not a prophet because she doesn't have the priesthood. Ahhh!!! She is so amazing! I love her so much! 

I know that the Lord doesn't need me, I need him. None of this work or the progress of the work is influenced by me, it is all through the spirit. Conchita Silva is such a testimony of that. All of her breakthroughs and changing have been through her studying and her praying and relying on the Lord. It is so amazing how the Lord works!

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

Hermana Sarah Clark Autumn's new companion with Pres & Sister Jardine 

P.S. The pics are (1) Hna. Bowen and I with the coffee we took from Silva and (2) our district at our transfer call party; the 2 Spanish Elders, Cambodian/District Leader/Portuguese Elders, us Hermanas, and the Zone Leaders. It's been a lot of fun working with these missionaries!

Hermana Twitchell and Hermana Bowen

The District before transfers

Happy Ground Hog Day

February 2, 2015

Hola Mamacita!!!

Happy Groundhog's day!!!! Haha aww that's too bad that the groundhog didn't really see his shadow. Oh well! This week has been pretty good, it got up to the 80s and we had to use the AC in our car, oh man, the summer's going to be fun. I'm pretty sure that P-day will be on Tuesday because of transfers, so watch out on Tuesday! I did get the package. I was pretty excited about the groundhog droppings and I also got Avram's letter!! I was super excited to hear from him! 

So this week has been really good as far as people having a desire to be baptized. We have 11 people on date for baptism and 4 of them are 8 year-olds. Just because we have them on date doesn't mean they're firm since we usually ask people to commit to baptism on the 1st or 2nd visit, but we're pretty hopeful for some baptisms this month :) We have started teaching a family that has 4 children, we haven't met the father yet, but the awesome thing is that they are all between the ages of 8 and 14. They are such a happy and excited family. We invited them to be baptized and the children jumped for joy. Then we looked to the mom and she said, "Well, I think we should all be baptized!" Hna. Bowen and I are SO happy for them and we are so excited to teach them more! 4 of our baptisms are coming from less active families who haven't gotten around to getting their children baptized, so we have really been working a lot with trying to activate families by preparing their children for baptism. It's been a lot of fun and we've really had to work on teaching the gospel as simply as we can so that the families and the 8 year-old kids and understand it. We've been doing games, object lessons, all that fun stuff!

Zone conference was super awesome!!! I was telling Hna. Bowen that I was so excited because as I'm becoming an older missionary, I'm starting to have friends outside of the zone. haha We got to eat with 6 other Hermanas and it was so much fun! With there only being 20 Hermanas in the mission, I'm betting some of them might become my future comps. We also had a musical number that was in 5 different languages that people in our mission use and we had an awesome training on how to use the scriptures better in our work. That's something I am definitely trying to work on, the scriptures really are powerful!

I love this work. Hna. Bowen and I have been trying to get to know the members better and to help them become more involved in the work and it is so great! At times, it can be really hard, but this work is pressing forward and the Lord is on our side! If we trust in him and make the Savior our rock, we cannot fall.

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell