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