Pictures from the End of December

 

Elder Miller - ?  -  Elder Windrous - Elder Twitchell

playing "bats"something like basketball and being silly

 

Here´s a picture of us on Christmas eve. We ate Turkey, told the Christmas Story, and Sang a Hymn. Here, we´re singing majestically ´Joy to the World´.

 

Happy New Year!!!

December 31, 2012

Heeeeeey family,
Happy New Year!! I can´t believe it, it´s already 2013. It doesn´t even seem like so much time has passed. I devoted the whole of year 2012 in the service of the Lord. It´s a marvelous thing, I’m so grateful for this opportunity.
2013 is sure to be a lot different this year, for everyone! We´re moving to Utah! How weird. Presidente Cordon said that he´s excited to have me as a neighbor, if I live in Bountiful. You´ll have to invite him to my Homecoming talk.
Haha, Sidney told me that you added him as a friend on Facebook, he didn´t know that you were my mom, he thought you were my sister. ahaha.
Christmas here was pretty normal. We taught a few lessons at night (which I thought was a miracle! We didn´t teach ANYONE last Christmas!) and visited Sidney and Karla. Before the Skype call with you guys, we had cleaned the house a bit and studied, and then we ate lunch, and then called you guys. It was a pretty busy Christmas. How was it there? That´s neat that you got to talk to all of the family, how is everyone doing? I need to write a letter to you guys, and also to Amber and Alicia, I’ll try to do that next week. What did you guys get for Christmas? What did Santa bring?
Today is being kind of weird, today is Elder Windous´s last P-day. He´s really sad to leave, but he´s started to see the good side of going home, and seeing his family again and everything. He´s trying to take advantage of every moment, which is great. He´s being a great example for me. We played ´Bats´ and Basketball a little bit today. Bat´s is kind of like baseball, but it´s way more simple and you play with two teams of two. It´s hard to describe, I’ll show you when I get home. But I did take a picture of our Basketball dream team, which consists of 3 American’s and a Chilean. I´ll send it to you guys. The missionary on the Left is Elder Miller. I don´t remember, I think you mentioned something about him. After this, I think we´re going to buy food and then go home and rest. It´s Elder Windous´s last P-day, so I’ll let him decide.
This next week is going to be really busy, we´re not going to have a lot of time to work. Thursday Elder Windous is going to the Temple with Pres. Cordon, so I’m probably going to stay here in trio with other missionaries. Then, on Friday, I go to Curitiba for the Zone Leader Council. I know this week is going to pass by way fast, and I’m a bit sad. I´m going to miss Elder Windous a lot! He´s been a great companion, I can hardly believe he´s going home already.
Today for New Years we can´t do anything, we don´t even stay out late. Which is good, I like to sleep. For us missionaries, we don´t have any holidays. But, I am 100 percent sure that everyone is going to light off fireworks all night :/ it´s kind of annoying. But we´ll see.
But yeah, everything is going well on this side. That teenager didn´t get baptized, but we´re going to keep working on him, and we´ll see. I´m really excited for the New Year--it´s going to be a year of a lot of work and changes! I’m excited to see who my new companion is next week, but I feel a bit bad for him, because he´s going to hit the ground running here! We´re are going to work, find, teach, and baptize! I realized this the other day when you guys were talking to me on Skype, but I have little time left (by the way, when you said that I had 260 something days left, Elder Windous died laughing. He thought it was soo funny you were counting :) ) So I’ve got to take advantage of the mission!
I love you guys lots, I hope you´re doing well. I´ll pray for you, and that everything will go well in the move. It´s kind of scary, but it´ll be alright. Have a happy New Year, make some good goals for this year. Tell everyone I said hi!
LOVE
Elder Twitchell

I week till we Skype

12/17/12

Hey family,

We were basically running the whole week this week! Elder Windous doesn´t want to miss a moment of his mission, so we´re walking at top speed everywhere we go. My legs are getting a lot stronger now! I´m glad it´s p-day, though, I’m going to rest a bit.

Yeah, that´s too bad about the package, I didn´t know that there was a deadline. This next time just send it the normal way where it doesn´t cost so much money. Haha, but that was funny that you called the mission office. We were just talking to people on the street, and we got a call from the secretaries, and he just said, ´Hey Elder Twitchell, your mom just called. She´s really worried about your Christmas package.´ haha. But I’m loving the 12 days of Christmas package. We had some muffin mix pancakes this morning, so that was fun.

Today Elder Windous and I went to a local park called ´Vila Velha´ or old village close by in Ponta Grossa. I sent a picture. We went with Cristiano, the ward Missionary Leader in Bon Sucesso, the area that Elder Windous was at here in Ponta Grossa before coming to my area. I think you mentioned Cristiano a while back, but he´s awesome. Vila Velha was neat, it had a lot of strange shaped rocks. We also saw a giant lizard! so I took pictures of it.

So things are going pretty well here, we will probably be having a baptism this next week, I’ll tell you more about it with Skype. Oh, by the way, I just wanted to confirm that we´re going to skype, but it´ll PROBABLY be before Noon. I´m not exactly sure when, just be ready. I´m way excited, I’ll have to write down some key stories that I want to tell you guys... And you´ll have to tell me everything that´s happening out there.

Everyone is getting excited for the Christmas Conference this Friday, it´s going to be great. Last year it was a good time to see everyone from the MTC together again. Now I’m excited to see all of the friends from the mission. I´m especially excited to see Elder Little and Elder Woodruff. That was nice of Elder Little´s mom sending you a thank you note. Tell her that Elder Little is great, he´s being an amazing missionary.

Something embarrassing? I saw a man walking on the street, that wasn´t paying attention, so he ran into a sign on the street.. hehehe.

I hope everything goes well with the move out there. It must be super hectic right now, with Christmas and moving and everything. But it´ll all be fine. You guys will really be having a new year--a new year a new house, a new place, new ward, everything. It´ll be neat for you guys.

LOVE YOU LOTS! I can´t wait for the skype in ONE WEEK!

LOVE

Elder Twitchell

CHRISTmas Time

12/10/12

Hey Family,
Christmas is arriving, what a good thing. Christmas time helps the whole world reflect a little bit about our Savior Jesus Christ, and his birth. It´s pretty easy to lose focus on Jesus Christ, but in it´s very name Christmas reminds us on the most important person.
I´m glad you enjoyed the picture of Sidney and Karla´s baptism, it was a really special baptism for me. It´s amazing to see the difference that the gospel´s had in their lives. Their conversion strengthened my testimony so much in the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It can cause such an enormous change, if we let it. I sent the photo for you and Jan McKinney, who is one of the couple missionaries in our mission. They asked us to send photos of our baptisms to her, because I think she´s going to do a slide show or something.
It sounds like the Christmas party was a huge success! 150 people, that´s a ton! These kind of activities help a lot in reactivating people, especially when they´re a bit nervous about returning to church. I´m sure it was pretty stressful too, but it went well, so that´s the important thing. I´m getting excited for the Christmas Conference that we´re going to have on the 21st in Curitiba, the whole mission is going to get together. I´m really excited to see Elder Little and Elder Woodruff again. I found out that Elder Little is a District Leader, and Elder Woodruff is training. That’s great!
So Christmas time is really arriving. Santa Claus here is the same thing, with the big red suit and hat. I think it must be awfully uncomfortably for him, especially in the warmer areas of Brasil. He doesn´t have snow or anything like that to cool him off, just sweat. Like i said, here, Christmas isn´t associated that much with snow, but they do light off like a thousand fireworks on Christmas eve/ Christmas Day. But it´s neat, they do have the Christmas Spirit here.
Speaking of Christmas, we should start planning already the Skype. So our Ward Mission Leader, Lincoln, is going to let us use Skype at his house, so that´s already dealt with. The call is going to be on Christmas, but it has to be before 5 PM because 6 PM we have to leave to work. I forgot again the time difference, but I think it ought to be like noon or 1 PM there that I’ll be calling. But yeah, I’m way excited to talk to you guys, it´s going to be fun!
So Elder Windous is from Spring Creek, which I think is the same city as the missionary in your ward. What´s his name? I´m pretty sure he´s from the same city as Elder Windous.
Ok, something funny? People are always saying goofy things to us, especially contacts we do on the street. I talked to one man, that told me that his wife had died. I taught him a bit about the resurrection, telling him that he could see his wife again one day. He just gave a weird look and said ´I don´t want to see her again, she was cheating on me her whole life!´ haha, oops, that was a bit awkward, especially since this guys was like 90 years old... oh well.
Another funny thing, this week we gave Sidney a Book of Mormon, and told him to give it to a co-worker of his. Sidney had told us about him a few times, and how he was needing God in his life, so we thought that the Book of Mormon would help out. So Sidney did give him the Book of Mormon, and when he was talking about the experience, he was like ´Alright, i already evangelized someone!´ hahaha, that was great, I’m excited for him to evangelize more!.
Ok, so i already got one Christmas package (the one for the 12 days of Christmas). I got a paper from the mission saying that I have to pay like $R160 to pick up another package that´s arrived (this is about 100 dollars). I have to pay this in cash, so I’ll have to take it out of my debit card. And i have heard nothing about the Halloween package :( But we´ll see.
Well, I love you all lots, i keep you all in my prayers. Hope this Christmas season will be one that brings you closer to the Savior! It´s going to be a great blessing, I’m happy to be here on the mission this Christmas!
Love you, Keep safe!
Elder Twitchell

Batismo!!!

Batismo!

December 3, 2012

Hey Family!!!!
Hey sorry, I have basically no time, but things are going well here.
Sidney and Karla got married on Saturday, and were baptized and confirmed yesterday! It was great! I baptized Karla, and Elder Windous baptized Sidney. I sent a foto, I hope you get it!! Sorry, I’ve really got to run, but I have gotten one package for Christmas, I still haven´t gotten the other, and also I haven´t gotten the Halloween one.
I love you guys lots, congrats with Autumn finishing her Application!
Sorry I don´t have time now, but next week I’ll write more!
Love
Elder Twitchell

Elder Windous  -  Sidney  --  Karla  --  Elder Twitchell
December 02, 2012

We don't BITE!!! Staying in Ponta Grossa

November 26, 2012

Heeeey family,

So I’m still here in Ala 2, and Elder Windous is too. He´s going to end his mission here with me. Also, our Zone here got enormous. Before there were two zones in Ponta Grossa, Ponta Grossa and Campos Gerais. But now the two zones merged into one giant Zone with like 24 missionaries. We´re the biggest Zone in the mission now. It´s going to be a lot more work, but that´s fine. This means that I have two missionaries from my group in my Zone, we still have Sister Horkley, and now Elder Reeves is part of our Zone.

Sidney and Carla are going great, they went to Church yesterday, and they´re firm and steadfast with everything. They´re going to get married on Saturday and baptized on Sunday.  They´re such a special couple, they´re going to be amazing in the Church. This ward is really lucky to have them here.

What´s the craziest thing that happened this week? Well, the other day, Elder Windous kicked a dog in the mouth, that was pretty neat. I´m being protected out here. Haha, also, the other day we were teaching a family of five, and it was all going well. At the end of the lesson, I asked if I could use the bathroom, and they all kind of started giggling and said I could. I thought it was strange, but I got up to go to the bathroom, and there was a guy in their bathroom, sitting on a bunch of wet clothes in a bucket. This guy was like a cousin or something. When we had arrived there, he went to hide in the bathroom, and stayed there for like half an hour. He just gave me a sheepish look and shuffled out of the bathroom. Elder Windous said ´We don´t bite you know!´ haha it was so funny, sometimes people act like children to avoid talking with us.

Our most spiritual moments this week were basically all with Sidney and Carla, they´re accepting everything, reading the Book of Mormon and all. It´s so neat, they´re way excited for the baptism. Carla’s grandma is a member of the Church, and she´s going to see the baptism too.

That´s neat that you are visiting the inactives. This is so important for these people, a lot of times they don´t return to church because they don´t know how they´re going to make the first step. The mission is focusing a lot on less actives recently, and it´s going really well. We´re finding a lot of neat families and helping them come back to church. They just need a friend to support them as they come back.

Sounds like thanksgiving was a lot of fun, having everyone together. It must have been great! On Thanksgiving day itself, we didn´t really have anything super special. We got money from a member that couldn´t make us lunch that day, so we went to our house and had French Toast. But the day after, on Friday, Elder Windous and I went to a ´Churrascaria´ with a member. What´s a Churrascaria? It´s a Brazillian BBQ, but it´s amazing. You go there, and these men come around constantly with all kinds of meat. I never knew that there were so many kinds of meat until I went there. They also came around with this kind of fried cheese, and fried pineapple with cinnamon on top. It was all delicious. I ate so much that it was hard to walk afterwards.

I hope the family is well, and that everyone had a great time together for Thanksgiving. I´ll be calling you guys in just a little bit, so that´s good. Tell Autumn she has to finish her application soon so that we can study together at BYU. Can´t fool around with this, it´s important! How´s the ward out there? How is school going with Autumn? What´s new back home? Keep me updated with everything!

Love you all a ton!

Elder Twitchell

Happy Thanksgiving!!

November 19, 2012

Hey family,

Well, this week was a good one, we´re seeing a lot of miracles here in Brazil. That couple that i said we were teaching, Sidney and Karla, are going to get married on December 1st!!! Yay!! we went to the Cartorio (I don´t even know what it´s called in English) on Thursday and marked the marriage. It´s going to be great, although Elder Windous and I are really worried, because this next week is transfers, and we´re afraid that one of us won´t get to see the baptism on the 2nd of December. Ahh, but I think we´ll both stay.

That´s too bad about the profanity at the BYU game, but I’ve stopped being surprised at the pride and iniquity of people. Our times are compared to the times of Noah in terms of wickedness. The only difference is that God saved some of his best, greatest, and noblest children for these times. What a great cause we defend! And It sounds like you had a powerful sacrament meeting yesterday. All about missionary work too, that´s great. Man, things are getting crazy with missionary work, the work is really accelerating. I´m sure that we´re going to be getting a TON of new missionaries soon. I´m just thankful I get to see all of this happening while I’m still on the mission. I´m thankful for missionary work, and how much the mission has already blessed my life. Pretty much all of the prophets and saints in ancient times wanted to participate in the marvelous work and a wonder that is happening in our times.

That´s sooooo neat that Sydney Chartrand is going on a mission to Russia!!!! haha, you have to send here a congratulations from me. I know that she always had a desire to learn Russian, so now she´ll get her chance. That´s cool, I can´t wait to get the letter from you guys that says where everyone else got called.

Ok, I’ve got to run in a minute. I love you guys lot, the mission is being such a great blessing for me. I´m so grateful that I’m serving the Lord in this moment. I´m becoming a much better person because of the gospel. I love you guys a lot, I am so thankful for having such a supportive and loving family. Every day I’m here I realize how blessed I really am having you guys.

Read the Scriptures! And pray! And go to Church! The Lord will bless you´re life if you do this!

Love

Elder Twitchell

November 12, 2012

Nov 12, 2012

Dear Family,

Wow, one year ago yesterday I received my Visa for Brazil!!! pretty crazy, huh, it´s been a while! I´m going to hit my one year mark in Brazil next week.

I know I’m doing pretty bad with pictures. But the thing is that I feel weird taking pictures during a normal day. We´re not supposed to look like tourists... I basically take pictures only on P-day or when there´s a baptism. But you´re right, I’ll try taking more pictures. I´ll set a goal to take pictures every p-day.

Yeah I heard about Mitt Romney. It was funny when we found out here, it was quite anti-climactic. Elder Windous and I were doing a service project for a less-active lady in our ward. We were basically weeding. Anyway, Elder Windous got a call from a member that told him that Obama won. Elder Windous told me, we both were like ´Well, shoot.´ and continued weeding. Haha, this way is a lot better, people get way too angry and violent about these kind of things. My vote was for Jesus Christ. Things probably won´t change all that much, Obama didn´t do a whole lot the past four years... well, he killed bin laden and threw 1 trillion dollars into the ocean... but the only thing that I want when I get back is to study at BYU and get married forever.

That´s sad that that lady from Quincy sent that hateful post. I wonder what she was thinking while she´s writing that? ´Wow, they´re so hateful that I’m going to send an angry private message. That’ll teach them´. haha, what a clown. You should copy the message she sent you and paste it in the comments so that everyone can see. Hey, look what she said! People are so cowardly with the internet. But no, don´t do that, it won´t help anything. I think when I get back, I’m not even going to use facebook anymore. I do have a plan to write for the BYU Political review when I get back, though. Man, I had such high hopes to do that while I was studying at BYU, but now I’ll have to do that after the mission.

Well, this week was pretty good, we found a neat family this week that we´re already making plans to marry them so that they can get baptized. I hope it all works out! Our lunch fell through on Saturday, but that was fine, because Elder Windous and I had a classic American breakfast... for Lunch! We had pancakes, bacon, and omelets. It was delicious.

I don´t know what I’m going to do for thanksgiving day here. They don´t have it, so I’ll probably just be eating rice and beans at a members house. That’s fine though, I think that Christmas we´ll have a big meal.

Well, I’m glad you liked the letters, sorry that it took soo long.

But hey I got to goo. Love you lots, don´t get too discouraged about Obama, if we´re doing the right things, the Lord will bless us. It´s not even that big of deal, the Church is True, the Book of Mormon is true, so what else matters?

Oh, and you forgot to warn me about floods and dogs and fleas and snakes, so I think I’m going to have problems this week.

Love

Elder Twitchell

Power of Prayer

November 05, 2012

Hey family,

Wow, everything is going crazy in the United States right now. I had some investigators get worried about my family and friends, because they know I’m from California, and they thought that California is close to New York. All week I was hearing about the Hurricane that hit New York. Wow that´s pretty crazy that it went so high north. Did a lot of people die? Just another sign that the world´s going to end. Who knows, maybe it´ll even be like the movie 2012. I`m not too worried if the world ends in 2012. We have the Christmas conference marked on the exact day that the world is supposed to end, so even if it does, I think that all of us missionaries together will be taken up to heaven or something. No worries :)

I bet everyone is going crazy with the elections in the US but it´s been pretty normal out here, there aren´t that many people talking about it, although I’m sure I’ll hear who wins before next Monday. Oh well, I feel so disconnected with it. I think if I were to vote right now, I would just put on the ballot Jesus Christ. Come on down, let´s start the millennium already!

That’s cool about the Folsom 6th ward, things really are changing. Nothing’s going to be the same when I come back. Haha. Folsom is just exploding, isn´t it? I got a letter from Elder Olpin the other day, he´s doing fine, I’ll have to tell him that he´s not even part of Folsom 3rd ward anymore. Who’s going to be the bishop of 6th ward?

This week was good, it´s getting hotter, so now it´s feeling more like Brasil. Zone Leader Council was good, but it was pretty rushed, there are a lot of things happening. We´re going to be getting a lot of new missionaries soon, with this change in the ages for missionaries. We have 50,000 missionaries in the field right now, but i heard within a year there are going to be 110,000 missionaries, wow, que loucura! Well, now everyone´s going to hear the gospel. What a good thing, the world is needing it.

I´m reading through the Book of Mormon again, and I got to the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi, which is already hard in English, but Portuguese is even worse. But I read through them this past week and I actually was understanding pretty well, which is crazy. Anyway, I was reading in 2 Néfi 25 about the marvelous work and a wonder that God will do in the last days. Wow, it was super spiritual. This work is already happening, and we´re part of it! And, even more, the work is accelerating, becoming more intense every day. It´s an exciting feeling.

So for funny things this week, I’ll tell you a joke that Elder Windous told me.

So there are a lot of Churches in the world, and every single one thinks it´s the true church, thinks it´s better than the others. So there was sent a grand invite; every denomination, sect, church, religion, etc. has to send a representative, and everyone will get together, there´ll be a great debate, and whoever wins will be the true church. So everyone got together in this one building to have this debate. Unfortunately that building exploded, and everyone from all of the religions in the whole world died.

The only one that was living after this big explosion was the LDS representative. Do you know why?

Because he was on Mormon standard time and arrived way late.

Hahahahaha. I thought of this when you were saying that everyone at Church gets there late. I liked this joke.

Something spiritual that happened this week:

Yesterday morning before Church Elder Windous and I went out to get investigators and bring them to church. Unfortunately, NOBODY came, so we went back to Church, because we had arranged for some members to go and get some investigators, and we wanted to see if they had arrived. When we returned to Church, we saw that we had zero investigators!!! This is a missionary nightmare! So, during Elders Quorum and Sunday School, we went out again and tried one more investigator. This investigator is a young couple that we started teaching a couple of weeks ago. When we got there, they had just woken up, and were still in pajamas. We told them that they could get dressed and everything and still come to sacrament meeting. They said that they would come, so we went back to church.

Sacrament meeting came, and they still hadn´t arrived. I sat there anxious as I prayed that this young couple would come. The first hymn was sung, the first prayer offered, the announcements declared. As the sacrament hymn was ending, I was feeling discouraged. We had done everything to bring people to church, but nobody came. I was already in prayer, repenting for not having brought anyone to church, when this young couple came into the chapel, Just in time to partake of the bread! What a miracle!!! after the sacrament meeting, all of the members were excited to have these investigators at church, too, so everyone went to go talk to them. This really strengthened my testimony, that when we do everything, and force ourselves to the maximum, the Lord helps us out.

But yeah, I’ve got to go, but I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all a ton, keep reading, keep praying. Keep me updated on how the move is going.

Love,

Elder Twitchell

PS I didn´t get the Halloween package yet. I´ll be getting it in the beginning of December, then :)

Dia das Bruxas - 2 Baptisms Ana and Guillherme

October 29, 2012

Family,

Well, this week I think was one of the craziest weeks I’ve had on the mission. We´re working a ton here, finding a lot of new people to teach, and just talking to everyone we see. And, to end this crazy week, we had two baptisms!!! Ana and Guillherme got baptized this week (if you don´t remember, they´re the siblings of less active members we´re reactivating.) Wow, these two are really good, I was really impressed, because they´re still pretty young (they´re like 11 years old) but they both understood the importance of being baptized, and went in front of the rest of their family in returning to Church. Congrats to them!

Ok, for the questions, my companions name is Zachary Dell Windous (EVERYONE makes a joke of his name, because it´s like Windows. They ask if he´s Windous XP, or Windous 7. haha). And no, we didn´t have a Halloween party here, it´s something that nobody celebrates. They just kind of know about it, but don´t participate.

You´ll be seeing how my apartment is in a bit, I finally got off the letters (because there was a mail strike). IMPORTANT in my next letter will be the memory card with a bunch of pictures, so look out for it. I also sent Amber a card. But like i said before, things with mail will be a lot more delayed while I’m here in Ponta Grossa, I only get mail once a month when I go to Curitiba. I go there this Thursday, so I’ll be able to see if I got your mail.

What was the funniest thing that happened this week? Eeesh, right now I’m not remembering anything. The most spiritual thing was that we had two BAPTISMS! alright!
Oh, and I’ve never been robbed here in Brazil. Thank goodness!

Ok, I’m already running out of time. Keep me updated on everything! You´ll be getting letters soon!

Love Elder Twitchell!

Mission Tour...

October 22, 2012

Dear family,

This week was an amazing week, we worked a TON! Elder Windous is a great companion, we´re already working and teaching really well together, although I was sad that Elder Oliveira left. He was a good teacher too. But Elder Windous has been out almost two years, I think he has just 3 months left. He was companions with Elder Brino when he left Bairro Novo. Elder Windous is from a small town called Spring Creek in Nevada, which is like 10 miles away from Elko. We´ve already made plans that I would visit him in Elko on the way to Utah for college (well, not anymore, he´ll have to come visit me now :) ) Elder Windous is a really hard working missionary, with a strong love for the gospel and the people we teach. And he really wants to baptize!

This week, we´ve been preparing Tainara and the other non-members in her family to be baptized, I think this week we´re going to have a least two baptisms. They’re such a special family, they all love the gospel already, and like every time we come to visit, they invite a friend to come here too. We´re working really hard so that they understand everything, and that they´re well integrated by the members, so that they don´t fall away later on. But I’m feeling really good about them, they´re a really special family.

Marcio and Giselle are still going along, but only Marcio went to church today. He wants to take it really slow with the church, but we´re trying to help him. we have a new Elders quorum presidente this week, and he is already making plans with us to help integrate Marcio with ward activities, we´re all pretty excited.

We had the mission tour this week, where a general authority comes by and sees how the mission is doing. We had Elder Godoy come, and it was sooo good, he´s a really good speaker, and he got us all really excited. He was talking about how we have a lot of people praying for us on this side of the veil, but we have even more people on the other side of the veil, praying that the missionaries will talk to and convert one of their relatives, so that they can do the temple work for them. When we convert one person, he´s going to have generations of people in the church, but he also will be the means of doing the temple work of generations of ancestors before them. It was really neat. He also told us to work more with less-actives, so we´ve been visiting a lot more of them. It was just a good tour, I’m sad that I won´t be here for the next one.

I do know Elder Ham, he´s in my zone, but I didn´t know him too well before. He´s with Elder Morris, and it seems like he´s doing well. Elder Ham is a really excited missionary, Elder Windous and I are really happy to have him here in our Zone.

The funniest thing this week? I was at the bus terminal the other day, because we had been doing exchanges with Elder Azevedo, a new district leader here. Anyway, I was waiting there, sitting on a bench, when out of nowhere a drunk guy came and sat next to me. He was way drunk (and this was like 10 in the morning...) and he asked me to share with him a ´Good word´. So I got my Book of Mormon out, and read from 2 Néfi 2:25 and read ´and men are that they might have joy´. I then told him that he has to stop drinking so that he could be a happy man. He just nodded, thanked me, and thanked the good word. Then he took my Book of Mormon, and like embraced the Book, and put it up right against his heart. then he pointed up to heaven, and then gave me a thumbs up, and returned the Book of Mormon. Haha, it was pretty funny, he really enjoyed the Book of Mormon. Maybe a little too much.

So, just to let you know, I only get mail once a month when I come to Curitiba, so for this I’m going to be kind of slow for now, responding to letters. In my package, I’d like some new socks, maybe a tie or two. A pair of pants would be nice too. My shoes are getting a bit worn, and they don´t hold out water as well as they used to (especially my boots) but don´t worry about it, it´s not been raining that much lately. I would like assorted candies, some peanut butter (crunchy!)(oh, by the way, thanks a ton to Aaron, I think it´ll be a while before I run out).

But yeah, I’m doing pretty well, I’m super happy being on the mission, we´re seeing so many miracles like everyday, and I’m sure we´re going to see many more. I´ve never grown so much in my life, like I’ve been growing on the mission. It´s amazing.

So, I’m CTR, I’m keeping away from snakes, fleas, dogs, and floods (although I don´t think they even have floods here). I’m studying the scriptures every day of my life, and trying to follow what I learn. The Lord is helping me, hearing my prayers, and guiding me. How truly sweet this is.

Have fun with all the big changes. Tell me what´s going on!

Love,

Elder Twitchell

New companion Elder Windous

October 15, 2012

Hey Family!

Sounds like you had a fun family trip in Utah there. You can never have too many grandbabies around, huh? That´s cool that Grandpa got to go to the blessing, and that he´s feeling better, too. I think about him often, I can´t wait to see Grandpa Twitchell again.

Haha, how strange it is to think that someone quoted me at Church. They should be quoting Prophets and Apostles! But yeah, it´s weird because I feel like I didn´t even get to know anyone in our ward at home. So the Hoggan family. But that´s neat, maybe I’ll have to give a homecoming talk there too.

Way to go for Autumn, preparing for a mission and college. It will truly be a blessing! I can promise you that going to College and serving a mission will be eternally more gratifying than being a Disney Princess. And you get the chance to bless the lives of others. Just look at Jasmine from Aladdin. Do you ever see her doing something to serve others? Of course not. Keep reading the Preach My Gospel, it will really help guide you in your study to be a missionary, especially Chapter 3.

Well, today we had transfers, and Elder Oliveira got transferred to Parigot de Souza in Jardim do Sol. This is the Zone Leader´s area in the Zone that I started the mission at, way over in Bairro Novo. His house is like two doors down from Bairro Novo´s house. He´s going to like it there. Elder Oliveira was a great companion, he was very focused and truly has a desire to find the people that the Lord is preparing. He´s also kind of goofy, and loves to scare off dogs. I had absolutely no fear of dogs while with him, because he did all he could to scare them off. I hope he does well in Jardim do Sol!

Oh, and hey, you´ll be getting pictures soon, I promise!

So now my new companion is Elder Windous, an American from Nevada. He didn´t move very far--there are two zones in Ponta Grossa, and he was the Zone leader in the other one. Now he´s here.

This week was a good one, we were able to find a lot of new investigators, which was neat. Among these new investigators is a less-active family that we found. They´re all siblings living together, it´s one man named Vinicius, and then his four sisters. From what I could gather, only Vinicius and one of his sisters are baptized, so we´re just going to have to baptize the rest of the family. They all seemed interested in going to Church, but only one of them, a young woman named Tainara, could come yesterday. But Tainara was really well received, and was already making friends with some Young Women in our ward. I would say finding them was the most spiritual moment of the week. We taught them about the Restoration, and they all were asking a lot of questions, and all of them said that they would pray. Afterwards, Vinicius came up to Elder Oliveira and I, and asked us what he would have to do to be able to serve a mission. Isto ai, that´s what I like to hear, I hope they continue doing well.

Marcio also went to Church this week, but Giselle wasn´t feeling well, so she didn´t come.

What was the funniest thing that happened this week? There were actually quite a few funny happenings this week. One was last night, Elder Oliveira and I passed by the Stake President´s house to say good-bye. The Stake President has a daughter named Deborah, who has like 8 years. President do Carmo were always teasing her that she would marry Elder Oliveira, and Deborah always got mad, and refused to talk to Elder Oliveira. It was always soo funny. But last night, when he said good bye, and was leaving, Deborah just started Wailing like none other, she was so sad to see Elder Oliveira go. It was quite funny.

I still haven´t received the Halloween package, and I won´t know until the beginning of November when I go to Curitiba. In my Christmas package, let me see... I´m not really sure what I’m needing at the moment... I’ll try to find some things that I need in the Christmas package.

Well, I’ve got to run, but I Love you ALL lots. Tell everyone hi!

LOVE

Elder Twitchell

PS Autumn keep studying Preach my Gospel, and keep studying to get into BYU also.

WOW the conference was awesome

October 8, 2012

Family,

WOW the conference was awesome, I thought that nothing could top the last conference, but this one was amazing. I got to watch it all, but two sessions I watched in Portuguese because the English feed wasn´t working. Oh well, it was still a super spiritual experience. Everyone got really excited about the announcement about the missionaries. There were a few young women in our ward that got way excited, and are already making plans to serve missions. The first thing I thought was ´Wow, now Autumn needs to serve a mission. Haha, I thought it was great. I think it will be interesting, there are for sure going to be way more Sister missionaries now, which is great, there´s going to be a lot of powerful Sisters coming soon. I also think it´s cool that they´re going to let young men become Elders with 18 years. I think they want them all to serve missions earlier, so that they can have families earlier. But yeah, I hope that Autumn is seriously considering a mission now, that´ll be so cool to have another missionary in the Family!

The talks were incredible this time, and it easy to see that there is a big change going on in the world, I felt like the Prophet and the Apostles were making strong stands on some things. For example, Dallin H. Oaks tore apart abortion, divorces, gay-marriage, everything! I didn´t even know he was such a bold speaker, but I gained a lot of respect for him.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, as always, got right in the faces of the members, and in particular the missionaries. Peter must be feeling pretty dumb in the Spirit World after that talk. I can get fish when I want! I need disciples who love me. It´s true, sometimes missionaries do their work on their mission, and they after, they basically abandon Jesus and ´go fishing´. At the judgment day, there is no way that these missionaries will be able to look at Jesus Christ and say that we loved him. Wow, all of us missionaries there were going crazy. Jeffrey R. Holland is the definition of a bold speaker.

And of course, I loved President Monson´s message, especially during the Priesthood session, when he talked about being a missionary that helps people change lives. I also liked that he said that we have to be on the Lord´s errand, and be a blessing to others.  Other honorable mentions were the talks of President Uchtdorf, Elder Ballard. These were that talks that were really speaking to me, I felt like.

Now I can´t wait to get the Liahona for this conference and study it. I liked what President Monson said at the end, that we´ll learn a lot more from the talks when we study them afterwards. Lately I’ve been studying more the Liahona, so that I can have the words of both ancient and modern prophets.

The conference was a good end to a truly busy week. On Tuesday, we had leadership training and interviews with the presidente. We didn´t even get back to our apartment until 6 PM. On Thursday we had Zone Leader Council in Curitiba, which took the whole day. And of course conference, which took up most of Saturday and Sunday. We just had a ton of spiritual nourishment!

This Friday, Elder Oliveira and I put on a fireside for our ward about missionary work and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I talked about the Life, miracles, and Suffering of Jesus, and Elder Oliveia talked about how we can give value to this sacrifice (Through the gospel of Jesus Christ). We had a lot of participation from the ward, and the Stake President´s family sang a special hymn at the end. It was a special activity designed to bring together the ward in unity, and I think that it worked well.

I am jealous that you got to spend the whole month with my nieces and nephews. I´m sure that even though it was hard to hear the conference, you didn´t mind, being in such good company.

It´s hard to believe that this is the last week of the transfer. Next week, I’ll probably have a new companion here in Ala 2. Time is truly flying now, I don´t know if i like it. The more I learn, the more I understand the importance of this missionary work, and the true joy that comes from it. I have the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ--the means by which eternal life can be reached--everyday, in Brazil, in the Portuguese Language. A year ago, I wasn´t even capable of doing anything, but the Lord has really blessed me, and is making me a polished shaft in his quiver.

Tell me about your feelings about the Conference! What were some of your favorite parts! I´ll be getting a letter off to you soon, because the strike ended. I already had a letter written, but couldn´t send it, so I’ll just write another and send it with the last one, so it´ll be two letters.

Well, I love you all lots. I feel so lucky to be serving the Lord, and bringing honor to my family. I feel so blessed to be part of this family. (even though no one can pronounce my named right (: )

Love  

Elder Twitchell

Holy Ghost

October 1, 2012

Hey,

So I did try to use my credit card this week, because I ran out of contact solution. However, the computer at the store denied access, and I couldn´t use it. So I went to the bank to see if it worked, and took out $R 20. Wow, $22? what a rip off, $R20 is more like $12 in Dollars. I bought the eye solution, but it´s way expensive here, in the next package I think it´d be good to send me some :)

Congratulations for Ford being born, that´s so neat! I did get the pictures I think that you guys should keep him It´s going to be a party with all of your grandchildren out there, huh? I can´t wait until I get to meet him in a bit!

This week was way busy, we had to do interviews and splitz like all week. I feel like I wasn´t even with Elder Oliveira at all. But we had a few baptisms in our Zone this week, so that was cool. Elder Oliveira and I are working hard to prepare some investigators for baptism, but this week we didn´t have any baptisms.

That family that I was talking about last week (the one where the mom already has an answer) went to church this week. It was just the parents that went, Marcio e Giselle. But it was cool, there was a lady in our ward that greeted them at the door, showed them around a bit, and helped them get to class. It was neat, I didn´t even know who this woman was, but she helped out a ton. It makes such a difference when there is a good member to greet investigators. This was a special Sunday too, because it was ward conference, so the stake president spoke, and there was a special musical number by the Relief Society. One of the ladies in the RS invited Giselle to participate in singing, so she did, it was way neat. Marcio and Giselle both really liked it.

What was an embarrassing moment for me this week? I don´t know, I’m always doing embarrassing things. We´re always talking to people on the street, so sometimes we talk to the same person like 2 or 3 times. This week, I talked to a man on the street for the third time, without remembering him. He got all frustrated, and murmurred ´You already talked to me, AND wrote down my address, and you still haven´t passed by my house!´ Haha, oops, but we really do talk to a lot of people. This type of thing happens to me all the time, I’m kind of retarded with remembering the people i talk to on the Street. In Bairro Novo it was even worse, there were people that I had spoken to like 8 times.

I have a funny story, the other day we were reading with some investigators 2 Nephi 31. We got to verse 8, which talks about how the Holy Ghost descended upon Christ in the form of a dove. Well, it was a little girl of about 10 years that was reading. In Portuguese, the word Dove is written as ´Pomba´. Also, in Portuguese, there is the word ´Bomba´ which means bomb, and they´re pretty similar. So when this girl read this verse, she read ´o Espírito Santo desceu sobre ele na forma de uma Bomba´ which means ´The holy Ghost descended over him in the form of a Bomb.´ Hahaha, it was sooo funny. Who says that the Holy Ghost whispers and is gentle? When the Holy Ghost wants you to feel something, it comes like a Bomb.

Well, enough of my shenanigans. I´m super excited this week, because tomorrow, Presidente Cordon is going to give us a training, on Thursday there will be a Zone Leader Council, and on Saturday and Sunday is general Conference. It´s just going to be a crazy spiritual week. The Holy Ghost is going to descend upon us in the form of a Bomb! I´m preparing myself by writing down personal questions, and I’m going to see how they´re answer during Conference. It´s going to be awesome.

 

LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

CONGRATS to little Ford!

Elder Twitchell

HUMP DAY!!! Happy Autumn

September 24, 2012

Dear family,

Well, congrats to Amber and the new baby, whenever he´s born. I´m sure you all are super excited out there--I´m excited here. Here we are leaving winter and easing right on into Summer. There really doesn´t exist spring or fall here. There’s hot, and less hot. However, these last few days have been pretty cold, even though it should be hot! oh well, the weather here is crazy.

Yeah, I think there´s a strike going on with the mail system, so I’m not sure how that will interfere with the letters. But I did get Aaron and Joylyn´s package--Thanks a ton! Everyone in my Zone is coveting my peanut butter.

Congrats on Autumn going to church alone. That´s better than most people. Also, it´s kind of nerve racking having to talk in front of a bunch of people. I´ve already given two talks here in Brasil, but I think it´s kind of easier as a missionary, because I already have a ton of topics and principles that I’m always ready to teach. But it´s still scary.

The most spiritual thing this week? We found neat family the other day that had already received missionary visits a few years ago. It seems like the Mom already read the Book of Mormon, and prayed to know if it´s true. But the dad didn´t. It was funny, because when we taught them about the Book of Mormon, and invited them to read and pray, the Mom said she already had an answer. The dad then asked what it was, and she said, ´I´m not telling you, I don´t want to spoil the surprise.´ Haha, it was kind of strange, but they really liked the visit. We were able to find a lot of new investigators this week, which is always a fun thing.

The funniest thing this week? Well, people were tearing apart the United States this week, I heard a lot of people say little funny criticisms about the US. One man got angry at me, because I ´came all the way from the United States to beg from honest Brazilians´. Ouch! My favorite was a contact that I did on the street. He was not interested at all in our message, and he noticed that i was American, so he asked me, ´Do you know why the US, Europe, and Japan have all of these natural disasters, earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Brazil doesn´t have anything? It´s because Brazil has the Holy Ghost, and the US and Europe don´t have Him. The Holy Ghost prevents these things from happening in Brazil´ Wow, uncalled for!!! haha, it was really funny.

I spent my hump day very well, Elder Hobbs came and spent 24 hours with us on a division, and so we spent part of Hump day together. It was fun to talk to him and see how he was doing.

Today was a great P-day, we had our whole Zone eat at the Stake Presidents house, and then afterwards we played a game called ´Bats` which is kind of like baseball, but a lot simpler, with only four players. It was a ton of fun, the Stake President and his family truly loves the missionaries!

Well, we keep working out here, we´re doing well. The Lord is blessing us a lot with new investigators, and opportunities to share the gospel with others. Keep strong in the gospel, and look to serve others. Heres a spiritual thought for you; Moroni 7:45-48 

45 And ^acharity suffereth long, and is ^bkind, and ^cenvieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily ^dprovoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

47 But ^acharity is the pure ^blove of Christ, and it endureth ^cforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, ^apray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true ^bfollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall ^cbe like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be ^dpurified even as he is pure. Amen.

LOVE

Elder Twitchell

PS LOL who told you about snakes? haha, I’m definitely keeping far away from all kinds of snakes.