Letter mailed 06/12/12
Hey family,
I just wanted to get a
quick letter off so that you don’t go a lot of time without hearing from
me.
Elder Little and I are
going great. I can’t believe it’s almost
been a month since he got here. It kind
of freaks me out. My mission is passing
by so fast!!! I wake up, get ready,
study, and then before I know it, it’s already time to work!! We make some visits, talk to people on the
street, and before I know it, it’s already time to go home, plan, and then I’m
in bed again. It goes by crazy
fast. Can you believe I’ve been out for
more than 8 months!!! Man, I almost
start crying when I start thinking about my 1 year mark.
Anyway, it’s fun being
with an American Companion. We just
understand each other better than if I had a Brazilian companion. We both get excited when the members give us
strange fruits, and understand me when I quote Napoleon Dynamite. It’s fun.
Of course, we have the difficulty of the language; both of us have
problems with speaking clearly the language. But, we’re both learning. Out here, we’re having some cool
experiences. Two months ago, when Amanda
was baptized, her cousin, Tabatha came to the baptism. That same day, Elder Lopes and I went to
Amanda’s house to see how she was doing.
Tabatha was there too, and she seemed really curious about the
church. So, we taught her the
Restoration, gave her the Book of Mormon, and invited her to read and pray
about it. It was a really spiritual
lesson, one of the better ones that Elder Lopes and I taught together.
But weeks past, and we
didn’t hear anymore about her. Tabatha
lives in another city, so we couldn’t just past by and see how she was
doing. It was kind of frustrating. I thought that maybe we had scared her off
with the Book of Mormon.
However, yesterday
Tabatha came to church in our ward!!
Wow, it was super random, but it was awesome. So Elder Little and I came by after lunch to
talk with Tabatha, and see how she was doing.
We soon found out that Tabatha didn’t get frightened by the Book of
Mormon – on the contrary, she had read it every day since we gave it to
her. She’s already in Alma!! And when she didn’t understand something in
the book, she went to lds.org and Mormon.org, and used the resources found
there. Wow, it’s so coot to see somebody
with true spiritual hunger. I don’t
really know what we’re going to do, because she lives in another city, but at
least, little by little, she’s gaining a testimony of the church!!
Well, like I said, this
letter is just a quick little one. But I
want to know how everyone is doing? How
was Mother’s Day? How did Autumn do with
all the tests and finals? How is she
using her summer break? I can’t believe
school’s already out. How’s Brandon
doing? I get so mad at the girls of your
ward. Why do they get mad at Brandon? My
goodness they’re spoiling a perfect missionary opportunity.
Well, I hope you all are
doing well. You are in my prayers. Continue making the right choices, and be
good examples unto others.
Love Elder Twitchell
OK, I still haven’t sent
this letter so I guess I’ll write some more.
These weeks have been pretty good, I’ve been learning a lot. I’ve been working really hard lately to work
together with the ward. Missionaries
shouldn’t have to work alone, and neither should the ward – they need to work
in Union. So I’ve been making meetings
with the Bishop and with other leaders.
It’s been going pretty well. Something
I’ve realized is that everyone wants to fulfuill their calling, serve others,
or have missionary opportunities, but they just don’t know how. I’ve been having the opportunity to help the
members of our ward with this recently, and it’s been a blessing. Leadership isn’t about ordering others
around, but it’s helping them and inspiring them. You have to be a good example.
This past week we’ve
started teaching a lot of new people (12 in total) so I’ve had the opportunity
to present the Book of Mormon to a lot of people. I think I gave out a Book of Mormon every day
this week. This Book is such a
blessing! It’s kind of hard imagining
what it would be like without the Book of Mormon. My love for the Savior, and his plan for us,
has definitely grown through reading.
Something good that I’ve been doing lately is I write down good
questions that our investigators ask. For
example “What’s the purpose of Life” or “Why does God allow suffering?” Then in my personal study, I look for a Book
of Mormon scripture that answers that question.
It’s pretty cool.
Well Elder Little and I continue
to work in this great labor here in Brazil.
It’s fun, because he’s still new, so he helps remind me of all the weird
stuff here in Brazil. So, without
further ado, here’s my “Weird Stuff in Brazil”
Brazilians
Are Talkative!!
Alright, for those who
have been in/served in Brazil, they’re probably thinking I’m crazy. Curitiba is kind of known as having people
who are more reserved and/or cold. And I
can see how they would say that. But,
even so, compared to the US, the people here TALK A LOT Man!!! Sometimes it’s hard to even teach! (OK, not sometimes, most of the time) We start teaching about how God is our loving
Heavenly Father, and Woosh!! They sweep in, talking up a storm. Goodness gracious. Just for you to get an idea about this, the
other day we started teaching these two men (they’re brothers) about the
restoration. We got one sentence off,
and then, these brothers just started going off. They talked about their work, crappy
co-workers, about how they had visited about 10 churches already, about their
favorite pastor, how this pastor speaks in “tongues” sometimes and so
forth. I got a few more sentences out,
and one brother started telling me about his son, his first wife, how
treacherous she is, and then finished the discussion off nicely by mentioning,
rather nonchalantly, that his brother had a drug problem. And there I was, trying to talk about
prophets. Haha, but it’s good, I like
it, it can be pretty entertaining. They
get so excited when a “man of God” comes by that they end up saying just about
everything they have to say.
Well, that’s about it,
sorry I didn’t get this letter off last week!
I hope everything is going alright with you guys! Man, I can’t believe it’s summer
already. You’re in my prayers and my thoughts!! Keep praying for me!!
Love Elder Twitchell
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