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!!!!

Baptism next week

January 19, 2016

¡Hola Mamacita! 

This week has been crazy! It flew by so fast! I don't know what happened to it! So I discussed my future with Hna Clark because we can do those kind of things and I've decided that I can register for classes and President Jardine gave her and I permission to do so today. Hopefully I pick some good ones! Speaking of, what am I doing for housing? Because I have absolutely no idea. Oh well! 

So Hermana Clark and Hermana Thomson got their new trainee and her name is Hna Niemann! She's a cute little Hermana from Colorado near Denver. She's super nice and cute! The other Hermanas had to help some other sisters in their area (since they're sister training leaders) so we got to spend most of Saturday with Hna Niemann. She is so awesome! She knows about as much Spanish as any other new trainee I've seen (so not a lot) but she's learning quickly and she is very willing to learn and press forward. She's awesome! 

Alejandra is still getting baptized! It's going to be a lot of fun!

I had an epiphany earlier this week that I thought I would share! When someone gets mad, who wins? It's not the person that gets mad, it's not the person that made him angry. It's Satan! What! So therefore we shouldn't get mad because that's what Sagan wants! So I'm deciding to be happy! Sorry the emails kinda short, but I love you tons!!!

Para Siempre Dios esté con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

PS Hna Burke looks so cute!

Hermana Brianna Burke came home from her mission on January 14, 2016

13th last/final transfer

January 12, 2016

Well Mamacita,

The verdict for my 13th, last and final transfer of the mission IS.......... I'M STAYING HERE IN NORTH SACRAMENTO WITH HERMANA VERGARAY! Cool, huh? Haha it's going to be a great final transfer. The other Hermanas in our apartment, Hermanas Clark and Thomson, have been called to train! So now they aren't just going to be sister training leaders, they're going to be a sister training leader trio! With one of them being a trainee. It will be interesting and now we'll have 5 sisters in the apartment! Haha we are cracking down on only speaking Spanish so that when the trainee comes tomorrow, she'll think it's normal that we only speak Spanish. :P we'll trick her into thinking we are perfect language missionaries! It's going to be fun! We aren't very good at our vocabulary outside of religion :P 

I went to the temple today with Hna Clark and it was a lot of fun! Afterwards we went to Chick-fil-a and I used my free food card. It was so good! Thank You! That was the best Christmas present ever! I did my last family name, so I'm going to need two more because I'm going again next transfer and at the end we get to do a session with the Jardine's :) 

We also have some fun and exciting news! Alejandra Mora is getting baptized the 23rd of January! She was going to be baptized the 19th, but her mom realized it was on a weekday and she wanted to do it on a weekend. We just had her baptismal interview on Sunday and she is ready! I am so excited for her!! Another really cool thing is that she attends the Marble valley school in El Dorado and she is in PGY! She's doing her performances this weekend so she's super busy, but super excited! I think it's so cool that I did that program when I was young, and now I have an investigator that's doing it too! The craziness of serving near your home. :) 

I loved going to the temple today, it is definitely one of my very favorite things to do. I love to see how much love that God has for us as his children. I am reminded daily of that love as I go out and testify of it to those that aren't sure of it or don't know. I love being a missionary because I have never felt such a great desire to show love for people, to make sure they feel that love that God has whether it be through a testimony, a simple smile, a firm handshake, or a great big hug and a kiss on the cheek! I love being able to boldly testify of what I know to be true and it's not too weird, because I have Christ’s name on at all times! I love having the knowledge that if we have the desire and if we make righteous choices, we will live with our families forever and we will live with God again. I love to feel the presence of the Lord, because it is full of rich and abounding love, an infinite love that will never be taken away! 

I love you so much! I hope you have a great week!

Para Siempre Dios esté con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

Stop telling me how many days I have left or what our future plans are! (Although I am very excited to hear that we are going to the temple) but I like being surprised :) I'm working on my weekly email, so stay tuned in the next 20 or so minutes. Love you!

(I told her this week that we got ticket to the Provo temple open house, forwarded her information about her homecoming and told her she needs to register for BYU, she doesn’t want to talk about coming home at all, I think she would stay a missionary forever)

Happy New Year!!

January 4, 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR

¡Hola Mamacita!

Haha I don't know if I really have any funny stories this week although you have to admit I am pretty funny :P 

So it turns out that I was only sick for about 2 days, then I got better. My companion on the other hand got sick and has been consistently sick for the past week. ¡La pobre de mi compañera! So I've been giving her all the tissues that I bought that I actually didn't need :P 

Haha Hna Vergaray received a call from one of the APs (Assistants to the Mission President) today about her driving. He invited her to do better :P lately she's been getting a bunch of feedback from our tiwi in the car "check your speed!" and she got 2 "aggressive driving’s in 2 days. :P To the speeding, she just replies, "this is why I like GPS's, they always tell me the speed limit!" We don't have a GPS because I don't like GPS's and I know the area well enough that I don't need one. HAHA! 

For New Year's Eve, we had meetings starting at 6pm with other missionaries in our zone and we set some baptism goals. The APs were there to tell us that we need to repent and be better, so we had to read 35 pages in the missionary handbook and take notes and pray about what we could do better. Ya, Happy New Year!

To start the new year, I went on exchanges with Hna Clark. She's so funny, since we're going home together we occasionally engage in trunky talk because, ya know, we're in the same boat here. Last week we received a letter from President Jardine talking about how we need to keep going and working hard for our last transfer and today we received an email talking about our future plans. :P oh no! I don't want to think about future plans! Haha

During our exchange, Hna Clark said if we are still in the same area next transfer we need to go to the mall and buy new outfits for when we go home. :P I feel like lately everyone wants me to be trunky, it's weird. Sure, there might be trunky comments/moments, but believe me, I am not trunky!

I found a scripture the other day that I like a lot in D&C 128:22. It talks about temple work and doing service for the dead, but it can apply to other things too!

22 Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free.

That's what we do, we keep moving forward and not backward, we strive to help others to accept Jesus Christ and be freed from sin whether they are living or dead. "On to the Victory!" Yeah, it's been a good week :)

Para Siempre Dios esté con Vos

Con Amor, 

Hermana Twitchell

Hna Burke says she's excited to give you a big hug :)