Monday, February 25, 2013

ala Bom Pastor in the City São José dos Pinhais -- Elder Vighetto


February 25, 2013

Heeeey family!!!

Ok, I know where I’m at now!!!

I got transferred to ala Bom Pastor in the City São José dos Pinhais. It´s a little city connected to Curitiba, kind of like when I was in Colombo. Elder Barkdull is my zone leader here! haha, that´s cool. Also, on Tuesday, I went and got my new Companion, Elder Vighetto. He´s a Brazilian from São Paulo. He´s way excited to be here, we´re going to baptize a lot here!

So our week was kind of crazy, because we didn´t have a clue where we were, who to talk to, who to teach. It was funny, on Tuesday we had a meeting where we got our companions that we would train, and from there we all were told to go to our area and work. Elder Gabriel, the Assistant to the President, came to me, gave me the keys and the cell phone for our area, and basically told us to go find our house in São José. It´s because we went to do a ´White Wash´ in an area. In other words, there were two elders in our area before, but both of them were taken out, and we went to go take their place.

Hahah, it was kind of crazy. Here we were, Elder Vighetto and I, with all of our suitcases. Elder Vighetto looked at me, asked me how we were going to go to our area, and I couldn´t tell him! haha. We called Elder Barkdull, and he helped us a bit to navigate to São José, and then we entered in contact with the Bishop of Bom Pastor, so it ended up working out. But it was all kind of crazy. We got to our house, and it was way dirty, so we cleaned it up a bit, and bought some food for the week. The Bishop soon met up with us, and helped us know the people we would be teaching.

The Bishop here is real neat, his name is Bishop Miner. He´s actually an American from Texas. He´s way excited to have us here.

But yeah, we´re real excited here. Elder Vighetto is awesome. He´s 18 years old, and really excited to work here. We´re going to see some miracles here, without a doubt.

Tell Autumn Congratulations in getting into BYU! She´s going to love it there. I´m really excited to study together!

Hey, I’ve gotta go! LOVE YOU LOTS

Elder Twitchell

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Transfer/ Trainer to a new Missionary


February 18,2013

Hey Family!
Well, Carnaval week was pretty normal, they basically don´t have it here in Paraná. The only thing that affected us was on Tuesday, the day of Carnaval itself, we had to return home at 8 instead of 9. But it was really normal.
Emerson and Ana got confirmed yesterday, so that was neat. They´re so great! During the week we went over to Emerson´s house, and cut his hair. He´s looking a bit like Henry B. Eyring now, so that´s nice. His family is so neat.
So we had transfers today, and yes, I left Ponta Grossa. I was really sad about that, I wanted to stay one more transfer with Elder Hobbs. Things were going really well, and our Zone was baptizing a bunch! But, oh well, I had to leave sometime.
I got called as a trainer again, 11 new missionaries are going to arrive tomorrow. I still have no clue where I’m going to go. I´m guessing that I’m going to open a new area, but I’m not sure where. I also don´t know who my new companion is. Haha, I’m kind of lost right now, I have no idea what´s going to happen to me. I´m just here in downtown Curitiba in a Lan House with Elder Little and Elder Guimarães, because they´re going to train too. In a couple of hours we´re going to go to the Trainers training meeting, and then tonight I’ll probably be in trio with some Elders here in Curitiba.
Tomorrow I’ll be able to pick up my new missionary. I´m pretty excited to train again, and open an area. It´s going to be a lot of work, but it´ll be neat. It´s nice to have a little change up from being a Zone Leader. Although, I loved being a Zone Leader. It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun too. It was neat to help the other missionaries in our zone progress, and have success, and baptize a lot. I felt like I developed a love for each one of them. It´s kind of weird. Maybe I’m sounding kind of gay right now, but it´s true!
That´s so weird that Blake already got back from his mission!!! eeeesh, I’m getting old. Elder Little already has almost a year on the mission. I´m going to hit 1 year 5 months in a few days. It´s kind of sad. I can´t even imagine what it´s going to be like, finishing the mission. I feel like I didn´t have a life before the mission, and that I won´t have a life after the mission either. haha.
What do I want for Easter?
Well, that´s kind of tough. I would like maybe a new pair of pants, I only have two pairs right now that I can use. The others got way faded. Also, maybe some new pairs of socks, a bunch of my socks have holes in them now. My shoes are getting destroyed, but I think they´ll last me the rest of my mission. One pair of my shoes I’m going to get the sole redone here in Curitiba, so don´t worry about it. I would like more peanut butter!
Well, congrats on the new house. That’s neat, Fruit Heights is going to be good. I also think it´ll be easier to tell people that my family lives in fruit heights than Erda. NOBODY knows where Erda is at! Tell Amber congrats on the new house too
LOVE YOU LOTS!
Elder Twitchell

Monday, February 11, 2013

Emerson & Ana got baptized!!! Busy in Ponta Grossa

 
Elder Twitchell  --  ?  --  Ana  --  Emerson  --  Elder Hobbs
 
February 11, 2013
Hey Family!!!
We had two more baptisms yesterday!! Emerson and his daughter, Ana, got baptized yesterday! They were a real quick baptism. We just did a contact with them on the street like two weeks ago. Emerson was really sad, because his son died two weeks ago in an accident. So we went to his house, and taught him the gospel. He accepted everything quickly, and decided to get baptized yesterday. It was really special, I got to baptize Emerson. He´s a real good guy, with a lot of potential in the Church. We´re sending members over there to have family nights with them, to help them feel more involved in the ward. It´s going to be great!
Leonardo is doing great, too. He is 11 years old. We´re still working on his mom. She´s a great lady. We´ll see what a few more batches of brownies will do :)
That family where the mom is smoking is going well, although it´s kind of hard. She´s smoking a lot less.  However, she had to go to the hospital Saturday, and we´re not really sure what´s going on. We´ll see soon, but I think she´s ok. We sent her some brownies too, to help her get better soon.
Oh, hey, I did kill that spider. I´ll send a picture. Don´t worry about where I found it.
So with BYU, I’m still not really sure, but I think I’ll just get there late and work full-time. I think, no matter what, you would have to pick my classes for me. I´d like to be able to do that with more calm, so I think I’ll just work. But I’m not completely sure yet, we´ll see. What do you guys think? Also, next month we´ll be having interviews with our President, so I’ll ask him what he thinks. If I’m just with a normal missionary the last month, I think I’d be fine with going home a few weeks early, but if I am training, I want to stay until the end. We´ll see.
Zone training was neat, it´s always nice to see old friends. I have a lot of friends there: Elder Brino, Elder Hobbs, Elder Barkdull, Elder Woodruff, Elder Guimarães, (I was his district leader for a while), Elder Knowles. It´s really weird, because now my group is becoming the old missionaries on the mission. The Sisters from our group are going home next month!!! Sister Patton, Sister Horkley, and Sister Hass (Sister Hass is in my Zone right now). It´s kind of weird.
We´re are working a ton! I think Elder Hobbs and I are going crazy. Each and every day this last week was full of things to do. Today, we had a Zone activity, we went to the chapel in downtown Ponta Grossa, and played Ultimate Frisbee, and then afterwards we all ate hamburgers. I didn´t get a lot of pictures, but Elder Hobbs and the Sisters got a lot of pictures, I think you´ll be able to get it through them.
Well, I’ve gotta go, Love you LOTSS!
LOVE
Elder Twitchell
 
PS No one in the world has heard of Erda, Utah. Not even the missionaries from Utah!!! haha.
Tell Amber Congrats on the new house. I sent her a letter too.

Smashed spider!!!


Monday, February 4, 2013

Brownies = Baptism!!! Leonardo got baptized

 
Leonardo with his family

 
He is getting baptized!!!  Elder Hobbs and Elder Twitchell
with Leonardo

 
Brownies Elder Twitchell made for Leonardo's
mother for her Birthday
 
February 4, 2013
Family,
Well, this week was, as always, really crazy.
We had a baptism! Leonardo got baptized yesterday. He´s been going to Church with his cousin (who´s a member) for a few years, but his mom never gave him permission to be baptized. A lot of other missionaries tried to pass by and persuade the mom to let Leonardo get baptized, but she never let him. However, Elder Hobbs and I won her trust, and we didn´t try to force him to be baptized. We were patient, and in the end the mom let Leonardo get baptized. The Lord really softened her heart. Also, I made some brownies, and put on top of it a type of chocolate that´s called ´brigadeiro´. It was sooo goood. I brought these brownies to the mom on her birthday. So that did the trick too. I´ll send a picture of the brownies.
So about BYU, I think I still want to room with Spencer and Ben and all of them, it´ll be neat. You can go ahead and leave me there.  I just don´t know how it´s going to work out, because my mission ends like a week before September 21, so I don´t know if I’ll be able to study. Maybe I can just work, but I don´t know what I’ll work with... do you have any ideas?
That´s nice that Amber finally bought a home of her own, that´ll be great. It´ll give Elaina a place of her own to wreck! How´s the new house? Where is it at, too? I think you already told me, but i forgot. Is it close to you guys?
Neto is awesome, he helped us a lot in Bairro Novo. Wow, it was almost a year ago he got back from his mission. I was his last mission companion, because before he got released as a missionary, his parents basically left him with us for a day. haha, it was funny. And yeah, I know Jessica Santos, she moved into Bairro Novo while I was still there. They were already dating when I left.
Last week we had a mission tour. Elder Dallin H. Oaks was supposed to come (because he has a grandson on the mission, Elder Oaks!!! Elder Oaks is way funny. I did a practice with him during a zone conference, where I invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. So I pretty much owned Elder Oaks, spiritually speaking :)) but his doctor wouldn´t let him travel, so he couldn´t come. But Bishop Stevenson (of the general bishopric) President Christensen (of the 70 presidency) and Elder Costa (of the 70 area presidency) came, it was amazing. Presidente Christensen gave a talk, and the rest of the time, they answered questions. It was so spiritual. Elder Costa was the man; I think he´s going to be the first Brazilian Apostle.
I really like that talk from Elder Ucthdorf also. I love any talk from the first presidency, they truly are inspired. I think my favorite always is the prophet. President Monson just loves people, and loves the Lord. He´s a great example of leading a Christian life.
But yeah, I gotta go. Hope everyone is doing well!!! LOVE YOU LOTS!
Elder Twitchell



You were asking about spiders. Well, here's a picture of a spider we found.  This is the brown recluse, which is t