Hermana Autumn Twitchell: 2 Baptism and a Wedding

January 1, 2015

Hola Mamacita!

Well we had transfers and Hna. Burke is now in the Del Norte branch in East Sac with Hna. Kaaa and I'm still here with Hna. Kaaa's trainer Hna. Bowen. She is super awesome and I am very excited for this transfer! I'm going to miss Hna. Burke a ton!!! But I know she will be in good hands because Hna. Kaaa is amazing. Well, to bring in the New Years, we played sports with our Elders... and that was about it Haha. Hna Bowen was very surprised to find that we are the only sisters in our zone :P In East Sac she said they have about 9 sisters. That is so weird! I wonder what it's like having other sisters in the zone... Haha

So yes! we had two baptisms and another wedding! It was such a great gift for the holidays. Our first baptism was with Samuel Godoy on 12/19 and he married Christina about 2 months ago. It was the neatest thing to see him finally be baptized, there has been such a change in him. I know the gospel has helped his life become better. Our next baptism was with Franco (Selfido Fajardo Franco) on 12/27 and he married Norma on 12/20. His baptism was super stressful and great at the same time. So our whole mission switched to AT&T and therefore we all had to get new phones. We gave our old phones back to the mission on the Tuesday before Christmas. We were doing daily planning on Friday night, the day before the baptism, when we get a text from the Spanish Elders asking us why we weren't having a baptism the next day. What!? So we talked with them and they said that our branch mission leader talked with the branch presidency on Wednesday and none of them could preside at the baptism, so they decided to cancel it. Our mission leader sent us a voicemail on Wednesday, but on our old phone! We called the mission leader, then we called Pres. Martinez in the mission presidency, and after a few more phone calls and a sleepless night, we get a call from the branch mission leader saying that he could preside over the baptism. Yes! So then we called everyone that was going to be in the program to make sure they knew it wasn't cancelled and one of the Hermanas in our ward was supposed to make the programs and give a talk and she couldn't do either one because she was on vacation. Oh no! So we called the Spanish Elders to see if one of them would give a talk because we were already giving a missionary moment. In a few short hours, we got the baptism together. It was very small and the only families that were there were a part of the baptismal program, so in total about two. Then we had 6 missionaries, 2 of which don't know Spanish. We had an Elder lead the music, our district leader play the piano, another to give a talk, and Hermana Burke and I did the missionary moment and the Bienvenida a la rama (Welcome to the Branch). Our zone leader was there with our district leader and he just sat as an Elder translated for him haha. It was great, super short, small, and simple, but great!

I don't have a pic of Franco's baptism, but Hna. Burke took some pics. There should be one of Samuel's baptism, one of Franco's wedding, one with me and Sis Twitchell at the temple conference, one with us and Hna. Islas (an awesome member) Well I love you the most! It was so great talking with you on skype! Don't worry too much because the Lord is on our side!

Para Siempre Dios este con Dios