New Area Guaraituba - Elder Woodruff - District Leader

July 30, 2012

FAMILY!!!
Alright, so I got transferred. I loved Bairro Novo sooo much, I learned a ton there, and there are so many special people that I was sad to say goodbye to there. But I can´t lie, I was pretty happy to get transferred, and get to know another place.
So, now I’m serving in a neighborhood called Guaraituba in the Municipal of Colombo. It´s not technically Curitiba anymore, but it´s basically an extension of the city. With my new missionary, I’m actually going to be finishing up training a new missionary. He was already trained for 6 weeks by Elder Croskrey, who finished his mission last week. So I’m going to continue the training for the last 6 weeks.
My new companion is named Elder Woodruff. He´s got Wilford Woodruff´s blood running hot in his veins, because he is his great-great-grandchild... or something like that. But man, I’m super excited to be here, Elder Woodruff is ready to work. And not just him, too, the Ward here helps us out a TON. They always have someone new for us to teach, and go on visits with us pretty much every day. It´s such a supportive ward here. It´s been hard this week trying to get to know the area, the ward members, and our investigators (we have a ton!) but I’m starting to get the hang of it here. Also, our House here is HUGE! Well, not enormous, but it is way bigger than my last house. I couldn´t believe it when I first got here. There´s just so much space.
I´m also the District Leader here, taking care of the Colombo and Rio Verde areas. It´s cool, because I already know the Elder in Colombo (Elder Sandoval and Elder da Silva) and also I know Elder Guimarães in Rio Verde. Elder Guimarães is training Elder Gama in Rio Verde, so that´s cool too. We have a lot of power in our district. I´m excited.
Speaking about that, my trainer, Elder Brino, became the Assistant to the Presidente here, together with Elder Hobbs. Congrats to both of them, they´re great missionaries.
Elder Little stayed in Bairro Novo, and is with Elder Sardinha now. I don´t know Elder Sardinha, but he was part of this district that I’m in now before, and everyone has said good things about him, so I trust that Elder Little is in Good Hands. Unfortunately, I didn´t get to see Leonida´s baptism, so I don´t even know if she got baptized or not!!! Ahhh, this part is no fun, but she´s so good, she´ll get baptized soon, for sure.
Haha, that´s funny that you got called on to give a talk about me. Now I feel all self-centered. That´s good that you shared the story about Zeneida, though, she´s so special. Every time I taught, I got such a strong feeling that our Heavenly Father loves her in particular, you know? The Holy Ghost was always guiding us to be a comfort and a blessing to her. Here, I’ve only given one talk until now (about the Word of Wisdom, which is a kind of weird topic for a talk). But Elder Woodruff gave a talk yesterday at Church. It was really good, it was about adversity and overcoming trials.
Cooking is doing well here, too. Today, we had pancakes with maple syrup, and then afterwards brownies. Wow, I’m going to get fat. I want to learn how to cook rice and beans, so that I can eat a real meal, but it sounds like cooking beans is kind of hard and time consuming. So maybe after the mission :)
Well, I got to go, but I Love you all a ton! Have a good rest of the Summer Break!
Love,
Elder Twitchell
PS NOoooooo I can´t believe it´s almost hump day. Blehhh...
PPS I´m going to the Temple again this next week. Look out for an e-mail on Wednesday.

Part of Elder Little’s letter to his family

Yesterday we did have 3 BAPTISMS! it was really good I got to baptize all of them, a mom and her 2 kids it went really good but the mom is afraid of water so it was a little hard I almost had to do it again that would have been really hard for her when she came up she just grabbed me and hugged me ha but it was a very good experience to finally have a baptism! (this was Leonida who Avram was wondering if she got baptized and she did)

Get to be a Trainer again!!!

July 23, 2012

Hey family!

Well, sorry to write so late, I kind of got some crazy news today.

Today we had a Zone activity--Dessert day! So me and Elder Little, we bought all we needed for our amazing brownies, mixed it all together, and brought it to the Chapel to bake it there. Well, it was at this activity that my Zone Leaders told me: I´m going to train again!!! What! And there would be a training meeting. At 1:30. Well, sadly, at this point in time it was 12:30, and it would take about an hour to get to the training meeting. So, Elder Little and I had to leave our brownies cooking with the other missionaries. We didn´t even get to eat them, after our hard work. Dang!

But it was cool, I was excited to get to train again. I also saw that Elder Knowles is going to train, so that was cool to see him again. I still don´t know where I’m going to go, but there are really only three options for me at this point:

1) Stay here in Bairro Novo (meaning I’ll hit my year mark here)

2) Open an Area

3) Do a ´White Wash´, where the two missionaries are taken out of an area, and two others are put in.

Whatever happens, it´ll great, and a lot of Work! Personally, I think I’ll be doing a white wash somewhere, and Elder Little will stay here in Bairro Novo, but I don´t know.

Oh, and Leonida and her Family came back from their travels yesterday. We got to talk to her, and we remarked a baptismal date with them for this next Sunday! Elder Little is going to baptize three people this next week! woohoo!

But hey, I got to go, sorry I’m in such a rush, I’ll try to write more this next week!

LOVE

ELDER Twitchell

Love the Book of Mormon

July 16, 2012

Dear Family!

Well, things are going pretty well for us this week. We had ward conference in Bairro Novo, so we had a ton of people at church. It was cool, I went with the 1st councilor in the Bishopric in his car to go and visit all of our investigators and bring them to church (Only one of them ended up going, but we did our part!). Besides this, a lot of members brought friends to church. We ended up having about 10 investigators at church, which is a record for me. It was way cool, and the sacrament meeting and classes were really special. Bishop Barros gave a really good talk about charity and service. There were a lot of ex-investigators that came to church too, and some of them I got the chance to talk to and mark visits with them again. This part was cool. Among these ex-investigators was Daniel, who I taught way back with Elder Brino. He told me that he wanted to go to this Church from now on. We passed by his house later that night, retaught him the Restoration, and gave him another Book of Mormon, and he told us that we would definitely read this time. It was cool.

We had a special training on Thursday for Leaders, and I got to see Elder Barkdull and Elder Hobbs. They are doing great, although the two were sad that they didn´t get to finish training their missionaries. The training was about the Book of Mormon. Man I can´t get enough of this book. I got sooo excited that I bought a hard-back Book of Mormon that I’m going to mark up a ton. I´m stoked for all the crazy revelation I’m going to receive.

So I finally got the package today! Thanks a ton, I especially liked all the candy. And I did get the camera and USB stuff. It came through fine. Oh, and I did think of something that you can send me in my birthday package.... HOT CHOCOLATE! I love it.

I´ll have one more week in this area (maybe, I still don´t know if I’ll be transferred. But I hope so, I want to get to know more than one area), and you´ll be happy to know that I’ve been taking a lot of pictures recently. Elder Little and I cleaned the house today, and after we got done cleaning, I took a bunch of pictures of our house, along with some hamburgers we cooked, and brownies too. I also want to take some pictures of some members here, there are some really cool families here that I don´t want to forget.

So I have been thinking a bit about what I want to do next year. I think I’ll probably get home like September 7 or something like that, i don´t know how well that works with BYU. But I want to continue studying there, and currently I’m thinking about studying Economics or something like that. I don´t know, I just really enjoyed my economy class, and I thought it´d be something cool to study. I don´t really have anything else in my mind at the moment about when I get home... Except like watch the new Avatar and go visit that Portuguese section of San Jose and talk to them. Those are basically my only plans.

Well, I’ve got to run, but I hope you guys are doing well, and you have a good week in Utah! I´m keeping you all in my prayers. Continue praying for me.

Love,

Elder Twitchell

Got to go to the TEMPLE!!!

July 11. 2012

Family,

Yeah, this week we got to go to the Temple!!! yeah, sorry I forgot to tell you guys. It was pretty cool, I saw Sister Horkley there. It´s been a while since I’ve seen her. I took a bunch of pictures there, don´t worry. I got the memory card in one of you´re letters, so I’ll probably send you my older memory card soon. I just want to take more pictures of Bairro Novo. There are only two more weeks left in the transfer, so I’m thinking that I’m going to leave soon. If not, I’ll almost hit my year mark in my first area. LOCO! haha.

So Leonida didn´t get baptized, because she´s traveling, and will be gone for two weeks. Dang! It´s not good for her to be away so long--it´s a lot of time for Satan to work on her. And even if she does get baptized, I’ll be transferred for another area. Oh well, what is important is when she´s baptized, not if I baptize her. Oh well, I just feel bad that since Elder Little got here we haven´t baptized anyone. But he´s been super positive about it, and I’m sure that once I leave, he´ll baptize a ton!

Sounds like Georgia was a lot of fun. I´m jealous you guys get to see all the babies. How was the temple there? What did you buy when you went shopping? And how is Utah? Wow, you guys are doing a ton out there! haha, sounds like a good summer. I won´t even get to spend summer with you guys for another two years, because when I come home, I’ll probably have to start studying right away. How crazy. Everyone in our District is thinking a bit about home, because Elder Robinson and Elder Stevenson are going home. It´s crazy. They´re already talking about what they´re going to study, what they´re going to do for work, etc.. They´re pretty sad about going home. I can´t even imagine.

Being a district leader is fun. It´s a bit different. In my district we have 8 missionaries (including myself, and my Zone Leaders, who take care of themselves). I have to go on splits with everyone in my district, and I call them a few times a week to see how they´re doing, and help them fulfill their purpose with more success. It´s hard because I’m already worried about my own area. But now I have to worry about 3 other areas. Also, every week I give a training session for the district, which is way weird for me. I don´t ever feel like I have much to say that´s actually useful, so I try to encourage them to participate, and we practice a lot. The Lord is helping me out a ton, and also my Zone Leaders here, Elder Joás and Elder Stevenson. They are always giving me constructive feedback. I can definitely appreciate better all of the great leaders I’ve had in the past. I know I was always the annoying one that didn´t doing anything or pay any attention. Luckily, the Lord has had mercy on me by giving me great missionaries.

I´m going to try to send off a few letters soon, for the Family. I´ll also try to clean our apartment a bit so that I can take pictures to send to you!

Keep praying for me, you guys are always in my prayers. Be grateful for every blessing the Lord gives you. Be grateful for the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. I know that it´s true, and it surprises me how often the Book of Mormon seems to be talking directly to me.

Love you Lots,

Elder Twitchell

Celebrated the 4th of JULY

July 2, 2012

Hey family!

Georgia! Well, you are lucky! I bet it´s pretty hot there, with the humidity and all. Today in Curitiba it´s basically perfect, there´s some sun, but it´s not too hot. We had a Zone activity today, to celebrate the 4th of July! It was pretty fun, we made Chili Dogs at the Chapel, played some soccer and basketball, and then we all took a picture together with the American Flag. America! It´s funny, because right now our Zone is almost totally American--we have 3 Brazilians, and one of them didn´t show up because he was sick! Haha, it was fun, they enjoyed the Chili dogs.

It seems like you are always running into missionaries at the Airport, Mom! My goodness. And they´re all going to Brasil too! I´m sure it was fun talking to them. I don´t know when you guys are going home, but in three weeks Elder Robinson and Elder Stevenson from my Zone are going home, you should see them at the Airport! And yes, Presidente Cordon still has another Year left to serve. It´s kind of crazy, I’m going to be out for a year in just a couple of months! I want to cry, I’m super old already.

Leonida did go to Church yesterday, it was pretty cool, she liked it a lot. We want to help her be ready for baptism this next week, but we need a lot of prayer for this to happen. I want Elder Little to baptize at least ONE person while he´s with me! These past two months have been a bit difficult in this regard, but we have some really promising candidates right now, so we´ll see.

I continued to sally forth in my attempts to learn how to cook this week. I tried hard-boiled eggs this morning, but i took them out of the Water too early, and the yolks didn´t cook. hahah, it was funny, i gave one to Elder Little to try one out, and he took this big ole bite out of the hard-boiled egg, started chewing, and then looked at the yolk and saw that it was raw. I could tell that he was kind of grossed out, but he looked at me, and said ´Really good Elder, Thanks!´ Lololol it was funny. I´ll cook them good next time. Oh, by the way, i want to know how to make pancakes??? Send me the Recipe please! I have that little cook book you sent me. Wow, that thing´s a life-saver, i feel kind of dumb that i didn´t use it that much when i was at BYU, it basically tells you how to do everything. It´s a bit harder in Brazil, because they don´t have all of the ingredients, but we can still do most of them.

Well, I’ve got to run, have a great week in Georgia! Tell Autumn to have fun at EFY.

LOOOVE

Elder Twitchell

PS I still haven´t gotten that package... Uh oh.