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.

HUMP DAY ON FRIDAY

September 17, 2012

Dear family,

Eeeesh, I´m getting old, I´m almost to my year mark. The 21st is DEFINITELY hump day, I didn´t even know what day I´ll be going home. I don´t think about that that much. Haha, I think you guys think about it more than I do. This month has been the FASTEST month of my life. It just keeps going faster and faster. I pretty much wasn´t even in Guaraituba, it passed by so fast.

Ok, with fleas, I´m not having too many problems. I know that back in January Elder Brino and I were getting bitten every night by all kinds of creeping things, but since then, it hasn´t been that much of a problem. We get bitten, but not a ton.

Elder Trevisanut is right about the wife points, but for me its more like the more you suffer on the mission, the more ´wife points´ you gain. And the more wife points you have, the more beautiful your wife will be. Therefore, the more you suffer on the missionary, the better your wife will be. It´s just kind of a joke for missionaries. That´s why when it rains, I don´t even bring an umbrella. I get soaked to save up some wife points :) haha, just joking.

Being a Zone leader is cool, but I´m like you, I´m not even sure what it means. It just means that I have less time to do everything. When I was district leader, I went on divisions with each missionary in my district, and I got all of the numbers for the week from the missionaries in my district. As a zone leader, I go on divisions with the District Leaders in our Zone, and I get all of the numbers from the District leader. But I like it, it´s a lot more work, but its really rewarding.

I´m doing ok with the Language, but I´m trying to force myself to get even better. Adam D´agostini told me (almost a year ago, wow!) that once I get the language down, I should keep working, and try to truly become fluent, so that´s what I´m trying to do. It´s easier to do this with a Brazillian companion, so I´m trying to take advantage of this.

Elder Oliveira and I are doing well, he´s super focused on the work, which is great. He´s also kind of a goofball. That´s something I´ve learned on the mission, missionaries are all just silly boys, preaching the gospel. I remember people said before the mission that the Church must be true, because we have thousands of 20 year old boys teaching the gospel, and if the Lord wasn´t guiding this work, it would have crashed years ago. Yeah, I completely understand and agree with this statement now. The Church is true!

I still haven´t listened to the tape, because I still haven´t found a tape player!!! haha.

And also, for some reason, the pictures and videos on the memory card don´t show up on my camera. I didn´t even know that there were any videos, until I put the memory card on the computer, and the videos showed up.

That´s cool that Austin still remembers me, I can´t wait to see everyone again. But, I still have a lot of work to do, so you´ll just have to wait!

Love you all a ton!!!

Elder Twitchell

PS There are a lot of members who have asked me if I´m relatives to President Twitchell, who served as a mission presidente here in Brasil like 15 years ago, or so. Do you guys know anything about this?

PSS  I  did get the letters from the nieces and nephews. And they do have Halloween here, but they don´t celebrate it that much. It´s called Dia das Bruxas! (Day of the Witches)

Thanks for the Happy Birthday Wishes

September 10, 2012

Family!

Well, on September 7th, nothing really special happened here. It was just a bit harder to talk to people on the street, because a lot of them were drunk. Oh well, what can you do. The missionaries serving in Curitiba got to be a part of the parade in Curitiba, so they marched around for a bit with the Book of Mormon in hand. The missionaries here in Ponta Grossa didn´t get to participate, but that´s ok.

You´re right, this week was way busy, but we got some good work done. Elder Oliveira is a great missionary, we´re working a ton here! This area is kind of weird, there are parts that are WAY rich, and everybody is riding in their fancy cars. I hadn´t seen any Audi or Porsche since I’ve gotten in Brasil, but in this week alone i saw like 10 Audis and 2 Porsches. What, que louco! And then there are areas that are just absolutely dirt poor. We taught a lesson this week for an old couple that recycle for a living. They were way humble and poor, but they let us in and we left them with a message and a prayer.

On Thursday, we had Zone Leader Council in Curitiba. This is where all of the Zone Leaders in the mission get together with Presidente Cordon and the assistants, and we talk about some of the problems in the mission, and how we can resolve these problems. In the morning we had some training, and then we ate lunch. Then, in the afternoon, instead of having more training, we went to the Temple! Wow, it was soo neat, Presidente Cordon asked us to enter the Temple seeking inspiration about how we can lead our Zone better. It was great, but we got home pretty tired. We had to wake up 4:15 in the morning to catch our 6:00 Bus to Curitiba. It took about 2 and a half hours to get there. Then, we left Curitiba about 6:00 at night, and arrived in our apartment 9:15. Wow, it was so long. It´s funny, because we got home absolutely exhausted, even though we hadn´t really done anything! We had been sitting the whole day, instead of walking. Just goes to show you that it´s better to work hard than to be lazy. The harder you work, the less tired you get.

Wow, I can´t believe that Elder Scott is going home already, that´s crazy. It seems like just yesterday we played basketball. I still have the ties that Elder Fukino and Elder Scott gave me, although they´re getting pretty dirty :)

I passed my birthday well, I didn´t even remember. I remembered a bit in the morning, so I treated myself to some peanut butter and Pineapple juice (this kind of juice is the best, they need to bring it to the US). But during the day, I didn´t remember, until 9:45 Elder Hobbs and Elder Brino called me up and wished me a happy birthday, and then about 10:00 Presidente and Sister Cordon called me to wish me a happy birthday too. It was nice, it´s funny how such simple little things like a phone call can make you so grateful. I did get the letters from the ward for my birthday, too, tell everyone thanks! I really enjoyed my Birthday. President Cordon said something really interesting to me, he said that I wouldn´t spend that many birthdays in the service of the Lord. And also, as Amber commented, a lot of my friends probably spent their 21st birthday a lot differently than I did. How grateful i am to be in the service of the Lord at this moment. I´m not a perfect servant, or a perfect person, but my Heavenly Father loves me so much, and for this reason he gave me an opportunity to serve Him and His children here in Curitiba.

Well, I’ve got to run.

Love you LOTS!!!! Thanks for the Happy Birthdays

Elder Twitchell

Zone Leader Conference

 

Zone Leader Conference at the Curitiba Temple

September 6, 2012

(Avram is on the 2nd row from the back in the middle)

Love pictures

Avram has always loved babies, I'm glad he got to hold one.



Elder Little, Avram, Neto, Caroline



?, Neto, Avram, Elder Little
Notice Avram's tie, I really like it, it's the Curitiba Temple

 

Caroline and Neto sent me these pictures of Avram

when he was serving in Barrio Novo his 1st area.

 

 

 

 

Zone leader - New area Ponta Grossa with Elder Oliveira

September 3, 2012

Familia!

 

Ok, things have been way busy on my end. You guys will never guess! So, I found out yesterday that I would leave Guaraituba, and got called to serve in an area in Ponta Grossa, which is another city here in our mission!!! I got called to serve as a Zone Leader, too. I´m not too sure what that means yet, I arrived here in Ponta Grossa like two hours ago, and I’m with the other Zone Leader here, Elder Oliveira. He´s a pretty peaceful Brazilian from Rio Branco, which is way in the north of Brazil. So yeah, I’m writing you guys here from Ponta Grossa now, but I still haven´t had a chance to see how it is here. I do know that this area was an area that Sister Patton passed through, but then they took the Sisters out and put Elder in.

Also, Sister Horkley is in my zone now, so that´s cool. I´m seeing a lot of missionaries from my MTC group lately--Sister Patton, Elder Hobbs, Elder Barkdull, Sister Horkley. The only one I haven´t seen recently is Elder Reeves and Elder Trevisanut. I think the last time I saw him was in December!!! Where´d you go, Reeves!?

Elder Woodruff is staying there in Guaraituba. He´s lucky, I was pretty sad to leave so soon from Guaraituba, the ward there was really great. But Elder Woodruff will do fine.

About Leandro, he has 14 years, and Pedro still has not been baptized, no. I don´t know how long it will take for him to be baptized. But his family is pretty happy.

Elder Harper is well. Elder Harper and Elder De Araújo were serving together as Zone Leaders, but their area closed, and Elder Harper is going to open up an area pretty much neighbors with their old area.

I did know Elder Christensen, he was in my Zone in Bairro Novo. He´s pretty cool, but I didn´t get to know him all that well.

Congrats on the New computer, that´s exciting. Now you´ll be able to have more time to use the computer, especially on weekends. I´m glad that you got my letters, I know it´s been a while since you´ve gotten one. And I haven´t sent the memory card yet. The envelopes for my letters are a bit ripped up, because for some reason, the glue part of the envelope decided to start sticking, without me even licking them!!! So now with all of my envelopes I have to basically open them, and then seal them again with my own glue. It´s kind of annoying, I think I’m going to start using Brazilian envelopes.

That´s exciting that you´re going to Utah, have fun there, and tell everyone I said hi. I can´t wait to be an uncle for the 7th time, it´s going to be great to get to know my new nephew in a year. That´s cool that Adam is going to Italy, too. Is he just going to visit?

How have things been with Church lately? With Brandon? How is School for Autumn? Tell Dad that I sent him off a letter, it should be getting there soon.

I´m excited for my birthday, I’m going to bake that cakes next week, it´s going to be glorious. I´m sorry that Elder Woodruff doesn´t get to try some, but what can I do? :)

Tell me how everyone is doing!

Love you Lots! Happy Labor day! (They don´t have Labor Day here, but they have dia 7 de Setembro, which I think is basically Labor day)

Elder Twitchell