Hermana Twitchell: the Follow up Trainer

Hola Mamacita!

So we got our transfer reports yesterday! And it is official, I am staying in Sacramento with Hna. Burke as my trainer and I am her follow-up trainer! (...by the way, why does everyone think I'm in Elk Grove? :P) Hna. Griffith is leaving us tomorrow morning, so that will be sad. An Elder in our spanish branch is going to be training this transfer, so I'm no longer going to be the brand new missionary in the branch! Yay! 

The reason why I'm emailing so late is because we had zone sports and everyone had to sign each others "Bye" books, then we did service with 4 Elders in our zone at an old people's center. It was a cute little luau and they had a band of old woman playing their ukes and singing hawaiian music. It was a lot of fun! 

Do you remember that talk by Brad Wilcox, "His Grace is Sufficient"? well I printed a copy of that talk before I left on my mission because I love it so much! This past week I had both my companions read it for personal study. They liked it so much that every single person that we talked to this week, we talked about grace or quoted something from his talk. It was great because I know all about that talk! :) It was really cool because we were able to call people to repentance by telling them about this talk, but then we were able to say it in such a way that is inspiring because we repent not to look back on the things we have done wrong, but to practice and learn so that we can move forward and become better. I love grace and I absolutely love that talk!

We generally have about 20 lessons a week. This week we had 25 and 15 of them were of recent converts and less actives because Hna. Griffith wanted to visit a bunch of people before she leaves. Hna. Griffith used to drive, but now Hna. Burke drives because she wanted to get used to driving in the city before Hna. Griffith left. It's a little scary at times because Hna. Burke has one year of driving experience in Payson, UT, but she does great! A lot of missionaries buy GPS's for their cars, but we just have maps. It's great because we know the area a lot better than other missionaries :) 

We have district meetings once a week on Thursdays and Zone meetings... I don't remember :P In our zone we're divided into three districts, the Engilsh missionaries, the Hmong missionaries, and the Cambodian/Spanish missionaries. It's cool, but at the same time it's weird because it's all in English. The Cambodians write in Cambodian on the board for fun, but we really can't communicate in anything but English.

I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to stay here in Sacramento. To be honest I was a little worried before with Hna. Burke just finishing her own training. It will be hard because a lot of times we don't know what's going on, but the Lord is with us and it's really all about the spirit anyway! 

Hey just so you know, I'm pretty sure that my next P-day will be next Thursday (since it's Thanksgiving). Also Hna. Griffith and Giselle (a 15 yr-old in our branch) want me to become friends with them on Facebook. Hna. Griffith said she would send a bunch of pics through FB. Oh! and I would love a general conference Ensign in spanish if that's possible, they only gave us English copies and they are great! but I think a spanish one would be super helpful. AND I would love Love LOVE a card from each of my siblings for Christmas if that's not too much to ask. 

I love being here in Sacramento. It's starting to get a little chilly, but there isn't much rain and there is no snow. Haha I am so excited to see what lies ahead for my mission and for the future people that I will meet and the people that I am currently talking with. The Latinos are so awesome and they are so full of love! 

I love you so much and I am so glad that you are going to be surrounded by family these Holidays. It will be great! I'll probably be having rice and chicken for Thanksgiving and it will be great! 

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

Primary Program -- Zone Sports

November 10, 2014

Hola Mamacita!

I'm pretty sure that transfers will not affect emailing (although next P-day is on Tuesday).  It varies how many people email me a week; sometimes it's just you and other times 6 other people email me! It's fine though, I'm getting better at divvying up my time. So it's fine if you give out my email. We have an hour to email. I can't print out the emails because our computers are funny...  (If you want to e-mail Autumn her address is autumn.twitchell@myldsmail.net )

 I don't know :P For Christmas... I would love a comfy black skirt and maybe a nice patterned shirt, and a primary hymn book in English and Spanish. That would be really cool if they had compact size, but if they don't that's okay :) Ummm ya that 's good!

Last Tuesday, we had a new missionary meeting and I got to see Hermana Kaaa! That was pretty cool. I took a picture with her and Hermana Porter and her companion (Hna. Kaaa's companion ran away right before we took a picture!).

I also took a picture of my desk, I thought you would like to see all the pictures and drawings from the babies :)

So... Samuel backed out of baptism. That made our week a little bit sad. But at least he says that he still wants to investigate the church. We texted him and asked him if it was okay for President Martinez to interview him today and I think he got really nervous about it and decided it wasn't the right time to get baptized. He will get baptized, but I think he needs several more weeks... 

Our other investigator, Franko, is finding out on the 16th if he can get married to Norma.  If he can, we'll have another wedding ceremony and then he'll get baptized! The only thing that is holding him back is this marriage, he is so eager to get baptized and I am so happy for him!

We had our quarterly interviews this week with President Jardine and it was so great! For Hna. Griffith it was basically her final interview. We've been wondering a lot what is going to happen at the end of this transfer because Hna. Griffith is going home, I still need to be trained for another 6 weeks and Hna. Burke needs a follow up trainer. We have a feeling that we are both staying here and that Hna. Burke is going to end up training me, but we don't know. It would be super hard because while Hna. Burke is pretty good at understanding Spanish, we are not very good at communicating... BUT if we were left together we would be forced to learn really fast and to me I think that would be a blessing because I think I need it. I really think being thrown under the bus is what I need because right now Hna. Griffith is my crutch and I think it's time for me to see if I can walk. Haha I'm really excited to see what will happen! Anyways, I had a really good talk with President Jardine about working towards my full potential, Hna. Burke said she talked to him about leadership (hmmm... interesting) and Hna. Griffith said her whole talk was about marriage. It's funny, almost every recent convert or less active that we have visited this week has asked Hna. Griffith if she has a boyfriend or if she found one on the mission (dah!) or if she's getting married when she gets home.

On Saturday, we went to a Sacramento community center as a zone and just cleaned as a service project. It was actually pretty fun. We were working with the zone leaders (Elder Milner y Seaman) and the Cambodian Elders (Elder Wilson y Peterson) with washing the outside windows and I learned how to say "I don't know" and "hello" in Cambodian! something like "auk-dong-pong".. ya I have no idea how to spell it  :P It's pretty great having a Cambodian Elder as a district leader. 

Yesterday we had our primary program and it was so AMAZING! I absolutely loved it! The spirit was so strong and the soloists were so cute! I think that was probably the best primary program I've ever been to! and it was in Spanish! 

Well, this morning we did zone sports as we do every week. Today we played kickball. It was great, I got to home twice! Weeeell I was running to 2nd base and they threw the ball to Elder Peterson who was standing on that base. So I did what any other determined person would do; I tried to slide... which really turned into more of a ninja roll. The best part was that I did at exactly the time when E. Peterson hit me with the ball and so I guess it looked like he hit me with such force that I fell over :P I'm not very good at sports... but I still have a lot of fun and the Elders have to be somewhat nice to me :)

Being on a mission is so uncomfortable. I have to stick with 2 people 24/7. I have to talk to random strangers on the street. I listen, even though I have no idea what they are saying... so I just smile and nod when they say that something bad happened... ummm I'm learning :) I always start in Spanish and then they interrupt me and say they have no idea what I am saying, so I switch to English. I play sports. What! :P I wear a name tag on my chest at all times. I'm always in a skirt. I tell Hispanics to come to the Spanish branch and we're their representatives, the only white people in the congregation! Whenever we talk with anyone we always end with a prayer. How weird!

But, I absolutely love it! There is nowhere else I would rather be! This is Christ's church upon the Earth and I know that it is true! I know that I couldn't be using my time any better if I weren't out here speaking a language I don't even know, trying to help others come unto Christ and feel his spirit. I am rejected all the time. Most of our referrals are from other Elders that can't speak Spanish, so their description of them is, "a Hispanic woman in her 20s, she seems nice" :P Then when we come, we can talk to them only to find that they really aren't interested, but when they are it is great and the spirit is there! I know that I am here for a reason and I am so happy to be in a tri-companionship. I would be so sad if I didn't know Hna. Griffith and Hna. Burke and I am so sad to see Hna. Griffith go next week, but she has served so well for 18 months and I am the luckiest Hermana to have her training me! even if it is only for 6 weeks.

I love-a-love-a-you!

Para Siempre este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell 

Ah! Cucaracha!

November 3, 2014

Hola Mamacita!

It's been a pretty great week! No we did not baptize Samuel on Saturday. We talked to him last Monday and he said he wanted a little bit more time, which is understandable because we only gave him a weeks notice! So we rescheduled for the 8th. But then we had a lesson with him on Saturday and we asked him if they could announce his baptism on Saturday. He got a little nervous because he still needs to be taught a two more principles before he can be qualified for baptism. So we moved it back to the 15th and it was still announced in church yesterday that his baptism is on the 15th! Muahaha! Now he can't push it back anymore! :P Haha, he's so ready! but I think he just needs to be nudged a little bit. :P We're having a lesson with him today about the law of tithing and the word of wisdom. Then he'll know everything! And his wife is such a huge support for him! It's awesome!

My Halloween was pretty good. Last Wednesday our branch had a party and they just decorated rooms around the building and had the kids go door to door. It was a lot of fun! All the little girls were Elsa! Haha it made me think of Elaina. 

We had a zone meeting/dinner so we weren't out visiting people on Halloween. We watched a video that the APs made for changing a tire and other car maintenance stuff, so that was fun! I haven't touched my bike once, but that's just because our area is so huge that we need a car! If I ever serve in Traci or Stockton, I'll most definitely need to use a bike. The Elders that also serve in our branch ran out of miles last month, but they weren't going to bike, so they just hitched a ride with the Cambodian Elders. The mission nurse came by and gave us all flu shots on Halloween! AHH! Yep, that was probably the scariest thing that happened on Halloween. :P But we got stickers and dumdums for it! 

It is true, we Hermanas do not get fed as much as the Sisters. But that's okay, because if we ever go to a recent convert or inactive members house, they'll feed us anyways. I think what makes it hard is that our area is so huge and we have another set of missionaries in our branch. So they have to feed one set or the other or both! I don't even know how big our branch boundaries are because the Hermanas cover central and South/East Sac and the Elders cover West and Central Sac. Hmmm... 

On Saturday we went to the Renteria's house and they taught us how to make Tomales! YUM! They were so good! But they are so tedious to make! Hna. Burke took some pictures, so eventually there will be some :P  We have spurts of getting fed a lot because on Saturday I was so stuffed! We ate a ton of tomales, then a member gave us a Little Caesars Pizza (the members love giving us those), and we had a lesson with Samuel and Christina and they gave us some sort of tortilla caserole. Ah! So much food! But it's nice, I really do feel loved by the members!

P-Days are great! but personally I think I like Sundays better. :P Haha on Sundays I get to sit there for 3 hours and just listen... Well I do have the fear that someone's going to ask me a question or ask me to give a talk, but I try not to think about it! Fast Sundays are awesome because that's when all the benches are full! The Hispanics really like testimony meeting, It's great!

P-Days we just do shopping, emailing, cleaning, laundry, zone sports that usually means soccer or basketball (you can imagine how that goes :P), writing letters, and taking naps. Last week we played volleyball and that was fun! But I lost my skills from the CCM and I am terrible! Well, there goes my glory days :P

It's the zone sports! We like the time to be at 1:30, but a lot of times they make it at 10. Bahh! Today it's at 1:30.

The money is good. I am not having any trouble with it whatsoever. 

The other day I told someone that they need to follow the Vegetable of God! rather than the will of God... I'm still not very good at Spanish, but I'm learning and it's great! The branch members are very encouraging and they say, "Just keep practicing!" in English. No! speak Spanish to me! Haha but they're all learning too. I have to be fair. I speak Spanish to them and they speak English to me and we both can't understand each other! :P 

Se que Dios tiene un Plan y este plan puede traer felicidad a muchas personas si ellas creeran. Les amo mucho!

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

(I know God has a plan and this plan can bring happiness to many people if they will believe . I love you so much !

God Be with You)

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

Funny Story!!!

Story from Hermana Griffith, I asked her about the pictures she had sent me and this is her reply:

Ya! ok so the one where shes taking stuff out of the trunk of the car is a funny story. We were teaching a lady,  who is the smelliest person I have ever met in my life.  I have a weak stomach and I couldn't even stand in her doorway without gagging. Anyways Burke and Twitchell had never met her but she always keep commitments and I felt like we should go back but I just didn't know if I could do the smell (its like sweat with pepsi) and anyways the two of them told me we had to go so we did and I told the lady we had to teach her outside. Anyways she ended up yelling at us-well mostly just me, and then I made her cry because I told her she was being rude. and then I felt bad so the next day we made cookies and took them over and she was having a yard sell of just junk (she might have been a horder...) and she wanted us to take some of the stuff. So were like "ok" and she loads us up with random stuff...she wanted to give us a toilet seat but we said no. anyways there was this cool looking jacket in the stuff and kinda like 90's style so were like "well maybe that would be something to keep ya?" the problem was that everything smelled super bad, just like the lady. So we stuck it all in the trunk and just never touched it for like 2 weeks and the car started to smell super bad. So that's your daughter throwing it all away in the church dumpster. I think she was the most mature when it came to touching the stuff... we kept the jack in there saying we were going to wash it cause Twitchell really wanted it. then i think you heard we got out trunk kinda smashed in a bit and when they switched us cars we left the jacket in there cause we didn't want to touch it....then the car guy made a special trip and ended up bringing it back to us and we told Twitchell she could only keep it if it was outside...I think she threw it away as well.......

Hermana Burke wasn't going to get anywhere close to the car

Me Encanta Ver El Templo!!

Oct 27, 2014

Hola Mamacita!

That is so neat that we have another baby in the family! and that we're having another girl! Yay!

So I was able to go to the temple on Saturday and it was great. There's a family in our ward, the Renterias, and they just got baptized about a month ago. Hermana Renteria wanted to have her husband get baptized for her dad on Saturday and that she would love to have us Hermanas there for support. So we asked the President Jardine and he thought it was a great idea! When we got there however, we came to find that the Renterias didn't have the right records to print out a card for her dad. She was pretty upset, but we still did baptisms in Spanish! and it was a really cool experience. It was a fun experience doing baptisms for the dead in Spanish at the Sacramento temple. Even though we weren't able to do the ordinance for Hermana Renteria, we were still able to help others and the spirit was so strong. 

It was also fun driving to the temple because I told my companions that my brother, Aaron, lives off of Zinfandel. Hola Hermano! Haha so close and yet so far! :P

So we committed Christina's new husband, Samuel, to get baptized this Saturday, Nov. 1st, el Dia de Los Muertos! It's a little fast, but as long as Samuel is committed to it, we will make it happen. I am super excited! We had a lesson with him on Friday and the spirit was there! He even said that he was feeling the same feeling that he feels when he prays or reads the scriptures. Dah! Samuel, that's el Espiritu Santo! I'm so excited for him to become a member, he is so ready!

I love to sing on the mission, it is so great! Last week at the wedding, they had me sing the prelude music and I was like Dah! en serio!? but it was great! Our primary program is in two weeks and a member, Hermana Islas, asked us Hermanas if we could help her son, Alex, learn how to sing because he is singing a solo in the primary program. Sure! So we went to their house to help him. Hermana Islas had to run an errand, so we practiced outside. Alex's solo was the last verse of "I stand all amazed" but in Spanish. So we were just practicing and this little boy comes over and he decides that he wants to sing, too. Then another one came, and another one, and another one until there were about 6 other neighborhood kids that were singing a Spanish hymn with us. It was great! One of the kids had his mom come over to hear us all sing, but then she saw our name tags and got nervous and left. :P It was awesome! I felt like Julie Andrews in the sound of music! but all the kids were black and hispanic and we sounded terrible! But it was so cool!   

So this past week I've been thinking a lot about what kind of a person I am. I've discussed it with mis companeras and I've pondered it thoroughly through my mind, actions, and deeds. I have come to this conclusion: I am an earthbender. During lessons I listen and wait for the perfect moment to strike and that is definitely the attribute of an Earthbender! Hna. Griffith is a firebender and Hna. Burke is a waterbender. It's so great! I finally know who I am now! :P 

I love you so much Mama!

Last week our zone had a service project to paint a member's house and the whole time I thought of you and how much fun we had painting in Erda. :P At the end of it the house was a bright purply-blue and the family was arguing about who picked the color :P We might have another service project coming up!

Se que esta obra es muy importante por todas las personas en la iglesia. Necesitamos servimos y amamos a otras personas porque es lo que Jesucristo haria. Jesucristo es el mejor ejemplo por nuestras vidas y necisitamos confiar en el y seguir su ejemplo. No entiendo nada en espanol, pero tengo mucho amor en mi corazon por las personas que yo puedo servir. La oportunidad para servir los hijos de Dios es una gran bendicion!

Para Siempre Dios este con Dios

(Is that this work is very important for all people in the church. We need to serve and love others because it's what Jesus would do . Jesus Christ is the best example for our lives and necisitamos trust him and follow his example. I do not understand in Spanish , but I have much love in my heart for people who I can serve. The opportunity to serve the children of God is a great blessing !

God Be with God)

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell 

Comment from Hermana Griffith:   then were in a picture at the temple as the Renteria family goes to do some baptisms for the dead....

Royce Enzo DÁgostini

Royce Enzo DÁgostini

Oct 22, 2014  4:27 am

8 lbs  2 oz  19 inches long

The baby was Jett  --  Jace  --  Royce for the 1st week till they decided on his name.

Ford wasn't too sure about having a baby in his family

Austin loves his new brother

Halloween

Ready for the Football game

La Boda! (Wedding)

10-20-14

Hola Mamacita! 

Yesterday we had a wedding! Christina and Samuel got married by the branch president and the ward threw them a wedding. Christina has been coming to church for years, but she has never gotten baptized. Then several weeks ago her boyfriend (Samuel) left for New Jersey, and the missionaries were able to baptize her. Then about two weeks, Samuel came back and the Hermanas were worried, La ley de Castidad! But Samuel is very impressed with the change in Christina that he is now investigating the church and they got married! I'm really hoping we can baptize Samuel within the next couple weeks, he is very interested.

Comment from Hermana Griffith   Christias and Samuels wedding...

Hermana Griffith, Hermana Twitchell, Hermana Burke

We're having another wedding hopefully in November or December as well. Franco y Norma have been living together and Franco isn't a member, but he wants to get baptized so bad! We're just waiting for some papers.

Because I am the new missionary, every single visit we go to, I get the opportunity to say a prayer. All the members and investigators like to hear me pray, and when we are meeting people, Hna. Griffith insists that I pray. I need to come up with more things I can pray about. :P One time I prayed at the end of the lesson, and I asked the Lord to bless our investigator, Maria... it turns out her name was Francesca, well most of the women we meet are named Maria... Haha I need to get better at remembering names. Thank goodness I'm pretty sure Francesca couldn't hear because she doesn't have the best hearing and we were outside. :P

We never ever tract. We always just go off of referrals that we have received and we receive a lot. We get them from the members and from missionaries that go tracting and find Spanish speakers. Often we contact people that we see outside on the street, but we never knock on doors unless someone refers us to them. It's kind of unproductive to tract with us being Spanish speakers in Sacramento. Even in the center of Sac, we would still speak a lot of English.

My Spanish is okay. It's kind of hard to practice with it in a trio because we try to divide the time teaching equally between the three of us, but then I don't know much, Hna. Burke knows a little bit more, and Hna. Griffith knows a lot. I am getting better though. The member in our branch are very helpful and a lot of them speak English so they can kind of know what I am trying to say. It's really bad though, because then they just want to talk in English and I think, "No! I need to practice my Spanish!" I'm getting a little better though. Slowly but surely it will come.

I think just something that I need to work on is being BOLD! Because I'm not, and that's a problem. As D&C 6:19 (...or somewhere around there) says, "Doubt not; Fear not." So I'm really trying to rely on the Lord and focus on being bold in Spanish and during lessons because I learn the most when I'm BOLD! and I don't feel like a very good missionary unless I'm BOLD! The moral of the story: Be BOLD! :P En serio

I finally met my sister training leader and she served in Folsom! She asked me if I knew a woman named Elicia Spencer. And I said, "Oh my gosh! She was my music teacher!" She said she had been teaching her for 6 months and that she was really interested in church and the Book of Mormon. It was so much fun to hear about Ms. Spencer. She is such an awesome person! 

I'm so glad everyone's doing good in the family! Give all the babies a hug and a kiss from me!

Mama! I told you not to cut your hair until I come home because I'm not cutting my hair! What's going on? That's okay, I still love you!

Para Siempre Dios este con Vos

Con Amor,

Hermana Twitchell

 Which Glasses do you Like?  

Hermana Griffith - Hermana Burke  - Hermana Twitchell
Comment from Hermana Griffith :  picture with the glasses we were teaching some young girls and they wanted us to wear them.