Service Project

March 30, 2015

Hola Mamacita!

I'm not sure that I'll be able to write a long email, but I have tons of pictures! You'll love it! So first I have this picture with Elder Milner and Elder Kastigar giving me my package on Saturday haha thanks for all the candy, I'm making sure other people help me eat it :P There's me and Hna Flores, yes she is Philipino!

Elder Milner and Elder Kastigar took Autumn her package

Last Wednesday we went to the mission office to pick up Hna. Clark's trainee (Hna. Stevens) and for me to wait for Hna Flores and Kaaa.  I got to go to the new missionary ceremony to see them meet their trainers; it was so fun! I saw Hermana McCloud (one of my coworkers at the MTC)! It was so good to see hna Kaaa before she went down to Stockton! I also had to take a picture of our beloved car, Shaniqua, a ford fusion. It's so beautiful! I loved driving the Chevy cruze, but the Ford is amazing! We call it the AP car because only them, us, and our zone leaders have a ford fusion in the mission. :P  

So I know what my area is called and what my boundaries are after being here for a few days. We are the Del Norte Ward, East Sac Carmichael area. We don't even cover the East Sacramento stake, but we do cover pretty much the whole entire Carmichael stake. It's so weird! We went to Deseret book and the DI and we've driven past Mukuni's and have stopped by the mission office.  We border the Folsom stake. Oh my, it's crazy! I'm pretty sure also that the Folsom 2nd ward goes to church in my area. :) 

So far I am loving this area! We haven't done too much proselyting with all the service we did on Friday and Saturday, but it is such a nice area. We went outside for a walk for one of our morning workouts and it was so great! In Sacramento, we wouldn't have dared to go for a walk. But here oh yes we can!

There are 20 people in our zone, 8 of them are sisters! It's really weird working around sisters :P but it's fun! There are 2 sets of Elders and 2 sets of Hermanas in our ward for a total of 8 missionaries serving in the Del Norte ward.  A lot of missionaries! It is so much fun! Hna Burke is over the central East sac area with her trainee, Hna. Greenfield. I've seen her every single day since I've been here, it is SO much fun!!! A little too much fun. We've gone out to lunch and dinner, meetings, and service! It's so fun to be with her again!

On Friday night our zone went out to Leatherby's after service and Hna Burke and I shared a sundae. It was so good!

 

We had a huge service project with the CDA on Friday and Saturday form 1-7pm at the Cal Expo. It was basically to give dental services to those who can't afford it. Our job was to escort people around or take them to their car and make sure they knew what they were doing or where they were going. If we knew another language we wore yellow shirts so that people could just grab us to help translate. I don't know any dental terms! Haha it was great! There were a ton of Hispanics there so there was a lot of translating to be done, it was a lot of fun! I love being in the states, because there are so many translating service opportunities. Translating hurts my head, but it's great! It's cool to see how much I comprehend. There were so many missionaries there from about 6 different zones (almost half the mission). It was so great to see a bunch of missionaries that I have served with. The Sacramento zone came so I got to be with Hna. Clark!

 *pictures include a bunch of missionary friends, me and Hna. Clark, All the Hermanas in the East Sac zone: Hnas Burke, Greenfield, Flores, and I 

Hna Flores and I doing weekly planning!  Hna Flores is super awesome! she has been out almost a year, she is such a sweet person, I am very excited to be working with her! 

I had to take a picture with the woman that we are living with, Sister Scow! She is 84 years old and she is so cute! I love living in her home! We live in Carmichael but she attends a ward in the East Sacramento Stake.

I have to go, but I love you the most! Thanks so much for the package and for not trying too hard to find me :P 

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

We were in Sacramento for the weekend for Jacelyn's blessing we kept asking all the missionaries if they knew Autumn.  They had all seen her on Saturday at the service project.  We were also able to go to the temple it was so nice.  Beautiful area

Hermana Sanchez, me Hermana McCloud

Translados !!

March 14, 2015

Hola Mamacita!

Well now is the time that we have all been waiting for!!! Transfers! So the past few days, Hna Clark and I have been making guesses about where all the Hermanas are going (there's only 20 of us, how hard can it be?). Well we definitely did not get it right, we were thinking our area would split and we would both train or something :P Haha Then we thought, No, we'll get a trainee that has a last name that starts with an R and our initials would be CTR! That didn't happen either... It turns out that I AM BEING TRANSFERRED! Haha it's so unreal part of me was hoping I would just stay in Sacramento my whole mission I just love it too much! but alas, it was not meant to be :P Anyways, I have been called to serve in the Del Norte Ward in the East Sacramento zone!  Which means I will be taking Hna. Kaaa's place and her companion (my new comp is Hna. Flores and she is awesome!), I'll be working in the same ward as Hna Burke! and the mission office will be in my area! Oh no! haha bien cercita a Folsom. It's crazy!  but I am super excited! Hna. Clark is staying and she is going to be training!  Hna. Kaaa's going to Stockton, we totally called it haha.

Last week we had some pretty awesome meetings. I got a call from the district leader and he wanted me to give a 5 minute training on charity and love. So Hna Clark and I thought it would be fun to go all out as any Sister would.  So we made cupcakes and handouts and I made the Elders in our district make commitments to write their companions a letter before transfers. :P Haha it was a lot of fun, the Elders got a little taste of Relief Society. :) 

The next day all the sisters in the mission got together and had a meeting with the Jardines.  It was really great! I got to give a hug to all the Hermanas otra vez and I got a picture this time!

Yesterday, we did a bunch of things as a zone for man-up Monday (Monday that isn't a P-day). We did service in a member's yard. Then the sister said she was baking us a casserole, but it was going to take some time. So we started playing a bunch of games. It's funny being in an all-Elder zone because they really do forget that there are Sisters and we as Sisters cannot do a lot of things with the Elders. :P So Hna. Clark and I just watched :P Haha we could've just left, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to get fed, we haven't had American food in a while.  Even when we don't have dinner with the members, we tend to go out and eat at Taquerias :)  Then for dinner, we had a big waffle/stew/cake/cheesecake party with most of our zone before our transfer party and it was so fun! Hna. Clark got a phone call from President Jardine telling her that she was training,  then he told me that I was going to East Sac. Haha He asked me if I had been there before, well... I don't know :P 

Today we got to go to the temple and it was so much fun! We had to get a ride from Hna. Vasquez (our relief society president) and Hna. Sanchez because we're running out of miles on our car, but it was really great to just sit in the car with them and talk.  I love Spanish :) I've come to realize on the mission just how amazing the members of the church really are. They are so willing to sacrifice and help out the missionaries, it truly is amazing!  I love the Sacramento temple so much!  I got to see Sister Tullis again as well! Haha it's always so fun to see people I know :)

I have to tell you, I was reading in Moroni during one of my personal studies and I came across a scripture that made me think of you. Moroni 8:3  I know you are always praying for me mom and I love you so much for your example that you have set for our family.  It truly has blessed my life incredibly. 

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

Pictures: handouts and cupcakes, Hna Kaaa and Burke! My companions, A good breakfast for Man-up Monday, the temple!

PS. Sister Garvin is taking Hna Clark and I to the mission office tomorrow so I get to spend a car ride with her! It will be fun!

Hermana's Bowen - Burke - Twitchell - Kaaa - Clark

Shook hand with Elder Bednar

March 16, 2015

Hola Mamacita!

I received the St. Patrick's day package! thank you so much for the Jesus the Christ! I like it, it's a lot smaller than all the other Jesus the Christ books :) I also got the Santa Biblia and it is PERFECT! It's the exact same bible that I had in my head, but Burgundy and therefore it's even better! It's so great that I had to take a picture of it with my Spanish bible. It's quite a bit smaller :P

We had the conference on Friday with Elder Bednar and Elder Robins and it was AMAZING! It was so fun because the whole mission was there! all 240 of us, or however many of us there are. It was so great! The spirit was so strong and I learned so much from Elder Bednar. We are to be agents rather than objects and ACT! I'm starting to see a pattern with this and stake conference... I loved seeing all of my mission friends and I got to give hugs to all the Hermanas! Big ones to Hna Kaaa, Burke, and Bowen of course! Then I also got to give Sister Jardine a hug. I love her hugs, I don't know, they're just so special! Haha I don't give hugs to missionaries very often being in a zone with all Elders, so I get pretty excited about it :P We also had another stake conference with Elder Robins and the Jardines as well. Elder Bednar went to Folsom stake. Awww he should've come to Sacramento. Haha oh well, Folsom hasn't had an apostle since 1981! It was an amazing stake conference!

Fun stuff with the Zone: On P-day we played zombies with nerf gun. I had no idea so many Elders had so many nerf guns! haha it was super fun! On Saturday, one of the Marshallese Elders in our district had a birthday, so we all met at one of the church buildings and had a party with pie, because Saturday was Pi day! One of the companionships in our zone has been periodically stealing stuff throughout the transfer from the Marshallese apartment (they had a key to their apartment) and then at the party they wrapped everything and gave it back to them. It was a ton of stuff! it was super funny! For transfers we always get together as a zone and have a party and the Zone Leaders announce to everyone where we are going to be transferred. It's super fun! We just have to plan what to make for Monday... 

The past couple weeks, our district has had a competition to see which companionship can get the most members to come out with them. Well, I have to admit, the last few weeks we were failing... but this week we really made an effort and we had 6 members come out with us this week. It was great! We beat the Cambodians and the Marshallese this week and it was awesome! 

We've been teaching a woman that is 73 years old, named Carmen, and she has a hard time reading. So we brought a member that is 90 and never learned how to read or write. It was a pretty good lesson, they seemed to get along pretty well. At the end our member asked Carmen if she had medicine for some pain she was having, so Carmen goes in the bathroom and comes out with a big prescription bottle and hands her a few capsules... ummm I think I just witnessed a drug deal. :P 

A few days later we visited Carmen and brought Conchita. We told Conchita that we were trying to help Carmen to see why she needs to be baptized and that she needs to go to church to hear the word of God. She says, "Oh that's easy!" Haha Conchita has so much faith, it's incredible! During the lesson Conchita told Carmen, "I am a poor woman; I don't have a house and I don't have a car, but I will come by your apartment at 8:30am to take you to church." Then she also gave her her phone number. Wow! It was a great lesson!

This week we found a new investigator, named Cynthia!! She is 20 and she is super awesome. We had a lesson with her on Saturday where we watched the Restauration video and the spirit was so strong! I'm pretty sure she cried a little bit, I know I did!

It has been such a great week! Lots of fun, lots of members, lots of mission friends, general authorities, manifestations of the spirit, lots of BLESSINGS! I got to shake a prophet, seer, and

revelator's hand this week. It's not everyday you get to say that. I love the Lord! He is so misericordioso! and I see his tender mercies everyday. If we are just looking it's really not hard to see them.  

REMEMBER: my P-day is on Tuesday next week :)

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell






PS the other picture is when we went on exchanges with our STLs, Hna Webb and Hna Sanchez, the hermanas in Rancho. We had to stop at Dairy Queen to celebrate! 

SUPER Fantastic Week

March 9, 2015

Hola Mamacita!

This week has been SUPER fantastic!! (as it is every week!) I love that about what Halie said because it is so true! Hna. Clark and I have been having a real fun time working together because we have an excited and happy mindset. At the beginning of the transfer we said we were going to make a goal to be Productive and Persistent. How were we planning on doing that? Well, by being happy of course! The work can go on even when we are dreading it, but it is so much more productive when we are happy and are enjoying what we are doing! 

Last Friday, one of the Hermanas in our ward had a daughter that passed away. We went by her home to give her comfort last week and it was so amazing how strong she was! It was so sad to see her because she missed her daughter so much, but she was still praising the Lord and was so happy to know that she was at peace. She had a sing "The Lord is my Light" when we went to visit her. On Saturday, they had the funeral at a Catholic church (because her daughter and her daughter's family weren't members) and all the Hermanas in our branch went to our church that morning and prepared a bunch of food. It was a party! Hna. Clark and I went to help out as well and our beautiful relief society president turned on some church music and we all got to work in preparingthe food for the funeral. The amazing thing was that there were so many to help out and a lot of them were less actives that we have been trying to visit lately. What better way to become reactivated into the church then by trying to serve others? I loved it! We went to the other church so that we could help more and I lead the Hermanas in singing "Para Siempre Dios este con Vos" for the family. It was so great to see the love and support that the branch had for this Hermana and her family! 

This Friday we are having a mission wide conference in Elk Grove because Elder David A. Bednar is coming!!! We're all super excited!!! In preparation, Hna. Clark and I are going shopping for new outfits for the apostle today. It's going to be so much fun! I haven't shopped for anything but food in 6 months! Haha The perks of serving in the states is we got all the good stores, like Old Navy, Target, and Charming Charlie's! YES! I'm super excited! It's going to be great!

So I have the picture of my planning for today. As you can see, it is going to be a great day! Hna. Clark and I made sure we planned our day as well as best we could so that we can run around, have fun, and still make it to zone sports because Zone Sports are the best! Haha Then we are having back to back appointments and a Noche de Hogar with the familia Claros! It's going to be a great day!!!

Something funny this past week is that we had zone training. Haha we talked about how we could get more excited about planning and so we did an activity where we planned our perfect day, vacation, shopping spree, and shotgunning an area. Hna. Clark and I planned to go to Disneyland, Kneaders, boating on Folsom Lake, etc. All the Elders that volunteered to say what they were going to do said, "Oh, well first we're going to pick up our dates!" and do things with their dates. Oh Elders! Being the only Sisters in the Zone, I think they sometimes forget that there are even Sisters there! We don't even think about that stuff, as Sisters we just want to stuff our faces in with good food and have fun! Haha 

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

Love the Jardine's

March 2, 2015

Hola Mamacita!

That's so exciting that I have another niece!!! I was not expecting that, I thought we had at least another week or so! That's so fun! I actually got a letter from Aaron and his family yesterday, so that's really cool!

Interviews with the Jardines were so great! I am so thankful to have President Jardine as my mission president, he truly is an amazing man. He told me that he has been praying as to whether I should go down south or not because of the whole family-folsom situation, but we'll just have to see what happens come July! I was talking with Sister Jardine and she told me that you guys were friends on Facebook and she said that you were very cute and that you remind her a lot of me (or maybe it was the other way around) :P Awww I love Sister Jardine! Thank you for not bothering them, they are very busy, but they are very loving and considerate. If you want to know something just ask me and I can tell you. :P We also saw them on Saturday and Sunday because this weekend was Stake Conference. It was sooo good! We had Elder Johnson from the Quorum of the 70 come and it was SO powerful! He told everyone that they need to repent! He flat out said it, but he said it with a lot of love. Man! It was incredible! 

Some things that I really liked that he said was:

-The standard of trying to go to the temple once a month did not come from God, it must have come from the adversary. If we want to live in the presence of God for eternity, then we should want to go to the temple to be in the presence of God as often as we can! (Hna Clark and I both decided that we need to go to the temple our next transfer P-day :P)

-Alma 29:4 Whatever we do, it is ultimately up to us. If we make excuses for why we don't do something, we don't do it because we have obstacles, it is simply because we don't want to do it! If we really want to do something, we will make it happen and we won't make up excuses. I love that!

-sustaining a Bishop is just like sustaining the prophet. We agree to follow what the prophet says, we also agree to do what the Bishop says and we should not ask, "Who does this guy think he is?" when he says something that we might not particularly like.

They were simple, yet such powerful things! I loved it! President Jardine also gave a talk and it was so great! On Saturday at the adult session he said if anyone wanted to get in touch with him they could and he recited his phone number on the pulpit. As I said before, he's busy, but always willing to listen. 

We had a lesson the other day with an investigator and one of his friends. At first the friend seemed nice, but we tried to teach them the plan of Salvation and they just started bashing on us. They knew the Bible very well, but I knew how to dispute every question, the problem was that he wouldn't ever let me or Hna. Clark speak and I knew that it wouldn't be right to argue. So we sat there as he insulted us and the Book of Mormon. I don't think I have ever felt more defensive about the Book of Mormon than I did at that time. He wouldn't even let us say a prayer without arguing. But if we couldn't say a prayer, I at least wanted to testify. At the end I cut him off and bore my soul that the book of Mormon was true and then Hna Clark pretended like we had an urgent phone call and we swiftly left.  

Yesterday we got a call from Conchita that we sadly missed. We listened to her voicemail and she called us just to say, "Hermanitas! I finished the Book of Mormon! The Book!" She is so amazing!! I love her so much! She's been stuck on Ether for about 3 weeks and I was wondering if she had finished it or not. I know that she got baptized because of that Book. It is the most correct book that we will ever find on the earth. It has the power to change attitudes, change behavior, change lives, change human nature! The Book of Mormon has changed my life in the only way that it can: for the better. Everything that is good comes from God and I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. 

I love you so much! and I am so thankful that I was raised in a family that cherishes the Book of Mormon. It truly is a tender mercy from the Lord. 

Para Siempre Dios este Con Vos

Con Amor Hermana Twitchell

Jacelyn Twitchell

Jacelyn Twitchell

Born March 2, 2015 @ 11:30 am

10 lbs 11 oz   21 inches

She is 2 weeks early

She is welcomed into the family by her siblings

Thayne, Landon, Lena

Parents  Aaron & Joylyn