Lettter from March 04, 2013

March 4, 2013  (letter)

Hey Family!!

I lost the other notepad I had for writing letters so I’m going to use this one from now on.  I know that I haven’t written in like three months.  Sorry!  To me, it doesn’t even seem that long.  Time keeps hurrying by.  It’s good to be in the Lord’s service, because I keep myself occupied doing good.

I think I’ll be able to write more, now that I’m here in Bom Paster.  In Ponta Grossa, our Lan house and supermarket were far from our house, so we ended up losing a lot of time on P-day.  Also if we had some sort of activity with the Zone, we lost almost the whole P-day.

Our area here, however, is a lot more convenient.  The supermarket is just two blocks away, and the Lan House is on the way.  Today, between writing e-mail and buying groceries, we spent a little over an hour.  Those tasks in Ponta Grossa drained almost three hours.  Blehhh…

But I really did love it there in Ponta Grossa.  I feel like I really learned a lot, especially being a Zone Leader.  I loved and worried about the missionaries there.  Even the problematic ones!!  Pretty much the whole Zone was together on transfer day, at the bus station.  It was one of the strangest feelings.  I almost started crying as the bus started going, and I waved Good-bye to all of the missionaries I had been serving.  The mission has kind of turned me into a baby.  You saw me during Skype at Christmas.  I get emotional about anything. 

The mission is such an adventure.  I’ve never had so many things to do, so many worries disappointments, accomplishments, victories. 

 But, Elder Barkdull helped us get to our area, giving us directions through the cellular, and also the Bishop from Bom Pastor helped out.  It was a bit rough going by bus with all my suitcases and Elder Vighetto’s suitcases, but it all worked out.

Our house was a complete mess, moldy bread, ultra dusty floors, spiders and cobwebs, and a broken door. It was like a house from hoarders!  We threw out all of the possibly toxic waste in our house, and throughout the week we cleaned bit by bit.

Even harder was starting to work.  The last elders that worked here left a list of families that they were teaching so that helped out.  Also, the Bishop came by one morning at 5:50 am our door was broken, so he just entered into the house and woke us up!  Haha, it was one of the weirdest experience I had on the mission, getting woken up b the bishop.  He drove us around the area, showing us where the members and investigators live.

It was a lot of help, but still the first few days we got lost quite a few times.  But now we’re getting to know the area, so it’s not too bad.

Elder Vighetto and I are jumping with excitement to be working here.  There are a lot of good families we’re finding and teaching.  The ward is amazing.  Also, I’m the District Leader of two other areas, and we’re going to get them working too.  WE’RE all excited to baptized a lot here.

It’s so weird to think that I’m going to hit the 1 year 6 months mark in less than three weeks.  The mission has passed by faster than anything in my life.  At the beginning of my mission, each month seemed to be such a big step, but now, they are flying by like nothing else.  I’m excited to come home but when I start to get sad.  I start thinking “what do you mean that I have just 6 months left?” It’s strange.

I want to know everyone is doing.  How’s dad with his new job?  How’s Erda?  How’s the ward?  What’s something funny that’s happened?  Who’s leaving on missions?  I’m way excited to have a 2^nd cousin on the mission, by the way.  I’m telling everybody to watch out for her.

Ok, time for the weird thing in Brazil

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

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

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!!!

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

 



Happy Ground Hogs Day

January 28, 2013

Heeeeeyy family!

Wow, I can´t believe how fast time is going. I feel like the day doesn´t even happen. I wake up, study, eat, teach the gospel, and before I even know it I’m already lying down to sleep again. It´s a weird feeling. It´s weird to think it´s already Ground Hogs day again.

Alright, Best two Years and RM are great movies, for sure I’ll watch them right when I get back, especially RM. As I’m sure you know, the mission isn´t EXACTLY like in the movies. Now that I think back, the missionaries in the Best Two Years were Fubecas! (which means they don´t choose the right. break rules). It seems like they were always in their apartment, they taught an investigator in their house (can´t do that!), left their companions alone, spoke English at home, and don´t know that in Matthew 3 it talks about the baptism of Jesus. Come on guys!

But yeah, we do call each of our four district leaders, 3 times a week. One time is just to get the numbers from their district, like how many lessons they taught, etc (this one takes all Sunday night and a bit of Monday morning. Getting the numbers from 15 different areas takes a while). We also call each of them during the week, just to talk to them, see how they´re doing, how the district is doing, problems, etc.. And then we call a third time to see if they need us to interview anyone. I like talking to the district leaders and see how they´re doing. We have great leaders here in Ponta Grossa.

Yes, we do go grocery shopping on Monday. P-day is basically three things: e-mail, grocery shopping, and clean the house. Sometimes we do something fun, but normally it´s just these three things. Food here is actually cheaper. Well, depends, some things are more expensive. The fruit is waaay cheap. But American-ish foods are usually expensive, because they´re imported.

I´ll have to send you pictures of our apartment. The apartment here is way better than my other houses I’ve been to. It´s bigger than the house in Bairro Novo, but smaller than the one in Guaraituba. However, it has cooler things here. We got a microwave last week, so that was neat. The first thing I did was buy a bunch of popcorn! Oh yeeeah! We also have basketball courts close to our house. It´s neat.

That´s cool about Neto, he´s awesome! Tell him I have saudades for him! He was studying English when I was at Bairro Novo, but that´s great he´s still studying.

The family we´re teaching is doing well, the mom is smoking a lot less now. They didn´t go to church this Sunday though. We did have a few other families come to Church, though, and the ward got really excited, I never saw the ward get excited like they were yesterday. Also, a young woman named Roberta visited out of nowhere, and the Relief Society women were going crazy about her.

Ok, funny story, so yesterday we had lunch with a family that has a kid named Arthur, who is 5 years old. This family has xbox and computer games and everything. Well it was funny, because while his parents were preparing lunch, Arthur was with us, talking to us. Then he went over to get his dad´s laptop, because he wanted to play games on it. But then he saw that we were watching him, so he whispered ´You guys won´t tell my dad if I play games on his computer?´ we told him that if his dad told him he couldn´t, he shouldn´t do that, but then he just looked around to see if his dad was near, and then said again ´You won´t tell him, right?´ Elder Hobbs and I were laughing so hard, it was so funny. Just the way he said it was so mischievous. I don´t know if this story will be funny for you, but it was funny for us.

Ok, I gotta go! Love you lots, hope Autumn gets into BYU!

Happy Groundhogs day!

Love,

Elder Twitchell

Loving it in Ponta Grossa!!!

January 21, 2013

Hey Family!

Just another crazy week in Ponta Grossa! I´m loving it here, things are going great. The blessings of the Lord are everything, and we´re having a good time in His service.

So I’ll answer some of these questions real quick.

How are the Spiders?
Well, there are spiders here, but not a ton. There is a normal amount of spiders, it just depends on where you go, and if you´re house is clean. When we helped out the Sisters in 31 de Março, there were a ton of spiders, because it hadn´t been cleaned in months. But not too bad. The most dangerous spider here is the aranha marrom, which I think is the brown recluse spider. It´s a small spider, but it´s pretty dangerous. I´ve already seen them, but I haven´t heard of any missionary having problems with them since I got here.

How is it with Elder Hobbs?

Things are going great! It’s a lot of fun being with someone I already knew, and Elder Hobbs is always way excited to work, which is good. Everyday we´re seeing miracles here, it´s amazing. We´re already working well together, which is good, because there is a lot of work to be done. We´re always busy with something. But the zone is going well, we had a lot of baptisms in Ponta Grossa this week. Oh and Elder Hobb´s first name is Jake.

How is our apartment now?  
Our apartment is feeling more like home, we cleaned it a ton, so now the spirit is more present. Also, today we received a Microwave as a donation, so we´re pretty excited for that. I think we´re going to start making Popcorn :) I´m pretty excited. Also, today, I’m going to make brownies with white chocolate bits inside, and brigadeiro on top. It´s going to be great!

How are the sisters?  

Well, they´re doing well, but they still haven´t received their fridge, sink, washing machine, etc. It´s kind of tough, and it´s taking way too long for these appliances to arrive. But we´re hoping it gets better soon.

When is that couple going to the Temple?  

So they sent me a quick letter and a present (two cans of ´Nescau´, which is the equivalent of Nesquik here. It´s way good) and they said that their sealing would be in April, but still don´t know the exact date. I´m excited for it, I hope I’m in Curitiba for the sealing so that I can see it.

We had some neat experiences here. This week we found a family with the mom and her four kids. Two of her daughters were baptized like two years ago, but the mom and other children weren´t baptize. Anyway, when we first visited them, we invited them to be baptized, but the mom kind of closed off to that. So for our second visit, we were trying to find another, less threatening way of helping her get baptized. Elder Hobbs and I planned a special lesson about the Plan of Salvation, and brought members with us to help out. In the lesson, we used Alma 34:32, and asked her how she thought she could prepare to meet with God in this life. And, out of nowhere, she started talking about baptism! She asked us when the next baptismal service would be, and then she said ´I´m going to get baptized! For sure I’ll get baptized´ It was way neat. To baptize her it might take a while because she smokes, but we´re going to help her out. But it was neat to see how the Spirit was helping us out in the lesson, and helped soften her heart a bit.

But yeah, things are going great here. That’s neat to hear about my cousin (is she a second cousin or something?) coming to Curitiba, it´s going to be neat. Hope you aren´t freezing too much out there!

But, I gotta go, love you all Lots!!!!

Love,

Elder Twitchell