WEEK 1 in GRANADA

Well folks I'm officially in the field and I can't believe it. I got
to Malaga last Tuesday (thankfully) after almost missing my train because
my ticket was a duplicate. But the Lord looks out for His missionaries
and we made it!!

My companion is HERMANA PASTRANA from MEXICO and she's great!! She
doesn't speak a lot of English though so it's Spanish literally 24/7
which is always fun. You don't realize how much you like your native
language until you can't speak it anymore, haha. Oh well, I was called
to preach in Spanish, not English. My Spanish I feel has already gotten
better since I've gotten here which is good and I understand a lot
more than I did my first day.

This week was full of blessings. We met a lot of people and could see
where the Lord guided us to go this week. We met with an investigator
for the first time this week and committed her to baptism so that was
cool!! We work with a lot of less actives here so that's fun too. My
district is great. My companion and I are the only sisters in our
district and the elders are crazy fun.

I love love love the ward here. They're super generous and loving so
that's really good.

Well Alma is just a great book to read so go read it. You can see how
much the Lord loves this work with the way he blesses Alma and the
Sons of Mosiah.

Well that's all I have for y'all this week! The church is true! Love you all!!

Hermana Twede

Granada...Here I am!

Hermana Twede her first Sunday at church in Granada with a member.
We received this post twice in text messages from two different people who know the lady in the picture with Brielle separately.  It was amazing to us to see how this reached us without the sister who had it taken and posted it knowing it would come directly to us so quickly! 
(Thank you Sergio and Maddie & Tyler!) 

Letter from Presidente Andersen

Dear Bro. and Sis. Twede,
    We are were so happy to welcome your wonderful daughter to our mission a few days ago. She is going to be an amazing missionary! She has been assigned to serve with Hna. Pastrana in the Granada area. It's a great area and we feel certain that she will grow to love it there.
    We also want to let you know of our mission blog that you are welcome to anytime. It usually gets updated every few weeks. The blogspot address is: spainmalagamission2016.blogspot.com.es. I hope you will find it interesting as you open all of the links to learn more about this amazing mission!
   Thank you for trusting us with your child and we hope to able to take care of her needs while she is serving here with us.

Pte. and Hna. Andersen

CCM District and Presidente and Hermana Packer

Pictures of my district and with Presidente and Hermana Packer. 

These were sent by Hermana Twede on August 22, but they were taken when she arrived at the CCM on July 12, 2016.

The Last Week in the CCM!!

OK FIRST OF ALL HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?! One minute I SWEAR I was walking off the plane and into the hands of a bunch of Spaniards and now I´m half Spaniard, speak Spanish (sort of), and boarding a 2 hour train in 5 days to head to Málaga!! WHERE DID TIME GO?! Golly, I feel like Adam and Eve and the CCM has been my Garden of Eden where it´s hard but all is well and then now I´m getting sent into the cold, and dreary world of real Spain. Jk, Spain is gorgeous and I´m stoked. Let´s do this!!

Ok so this email I want to talk about...can you guess? YES! THE PARK! Because it was the best one I´ve ever had and goodness the church is true!!

This last week was kinda rough because I felt like I was plateauing in the language and then we were having grammar lessons that made my head want to explode and I was kind of down. But I still prayed everyday to have a positive attitude and halfway through the day my prayer would be answered and I got a second wind. But, on Friday, we found out our park companions and I had Hermana Martens who is the companion of my park companion Hermana Meredith from last week. She´s a fireball let me tell yah. So we were kinda stoked but I was a little nervous because we both have super strong personalities and I didn't know how that was gonna work. But I prayed a lot and had faith that all would be well. Also, this week I had been praying to: 1. find people who needed to hear the gospel and 2. Be able to communicate with confidence.

The morning of the park, I woke up super tired and not feeling into it at all. I was tired of feeling like I couldn´t speak Spanish and tired of just everything and I had a feeling that it was going to be a bad park day. But as we were sitting through some demo teaching (the teachers always help us do some examples and give us goals before we go out) and I said to myself, "Look here's the deal Hermana. You´re not feeling great, yes. And this can be a terrible park day, yes. But goodness sakes if you just rub some dirt on it and have a positive attitude then this day is going to be great. You owe it to the Lord, yourself, and your companion to make it a great day." So I decided that no matter what, this day was going to be great. As I was sitting there, I had a random thought pop into my head about some elders last week who had been prompted to go to the Crystal Palace (in the park) and ended up helping some hermanas out. I don´t know why this exact thought came to me but I did know that it meant we needed to go to the Crystal Palace.

As we were going down to the temple, I asked Hermana Martens what goals she wanted to set for the park. She gave me a funny look because we had just set our numbers goal. So I clarified and said goals for our companionship and for the people. She told me she really wanted to bear her testimony in Spanish so I made a promise to myself that she would be able to do that. Then we decided to speak Spanish even if the person said they also know English.

We get to the park (sorry this is a long story) and say another prayer. Hermana Martens said to walk a certain way so that we could make our way to the Crystal Palace. We were walking down and tried to talk to a lady who was totally not interested and didn't even answer some of our questions so we wished her well and let her go on her way. Then we pulled out the map to see if we could figure out where to go for the Crystal Palace. Well the map was no help because we had no clue where we were. So I told her we should ask someone for directions. We walked for a little bit and then I saw a guy on a bench reading a book and then another guy watching us. It would have been easier to ask the other guy but I felt the need to bother the guy on the bench. So we asked him where it was and he gave us very clear directions. Hermana Martens started walking away but I stayed and kept talking to him. They both gave me the same look like, "He´s reading a book. Why are you interrupting him while he's reading a book?" (Julian Smith anyone? No? Ok.) But, I didn't care I just thought, "Ummmm this guy doesn't really need to read that book, he needs to hear the gospel." So like my stubborn self I kept plugging along and soon the man was having a good conversation with us.

Let me tell you some things about this guy:
1. He´s from Madrid
2. Has kids who kind of live all around Spain
3. Speaks spanish, italian, french and ZERO english
4. He hardly ever comes to the park to read....usually stays at home but decided to switch it up that day.
5. Was leaving in like 30 minutes for a 2 week vacation to visit his son
Are 4 &5 a coincidence? I THINK NOT!

So we talked to him about his life and then I asked if he had ever been to the temple and whipped out a pass along card and popped a squat right there next to him on the bench. Then we talked about what he believes and he's a Catholic but doesn't practice. Then we told him we sing at the temple and in the park if he wanted to listen. He did btw but didn't have time. Then when it was time for him to leave, I sort of had a little bit of verbal diarrhea and said, "Uh hey would you like to know more about what we believe?" He didn't say a word he just looked me in the eyes and nodded his head. I was a little shocked but super stoked. He gave us a reference and it was great and thanked us for our time. Hermana Martens said that´s the first time she´s ever really shared the gospel in the park so that made me happy.

We ended up having another good gospel convo with another guy and that was great and then we went to sing because we were late. Now a little back story really quick. Two weeks ago, I was in the park with Hma Matsu and we met a couple right at the beginning named Maria and Tirso. They said they have been looking for the missionaries for 2 years and wanted to interview us because they loved our spirits and energy. I fell in love with this gospel and really felt like they were prepared for the gospel. They told us they were in Germany the next week but would find us at the park again 2 weeks later. Well, that Saturday was here and I was really hoping and praying to see them. As I jumped into the group to sing, I looked up and saw someone filming us and then I recognized the lady behind the camera...IT WAS MARIA! Oh golly I was so happy I couldn't stand it. Then I looked over and saw Tirso talking to Presidente Packer and he looked at me and gave me a big smile. After we were done I went to talk to them and could hardly stand how happy I was. They were so excited to see me and Hma Matsu again. And as they were packing up their stuff, Tirso dropped something and it was a Libro De Mormon and in my head I was like, "OH MY GOSH PRESIDENT GAVE TIRSO A LDM HE IS THE BEST PERSON IN EXISTENCE!!!"

Longer story somewhat shorter, Presidente shared the experience in testimony meeting and said (because they needed permission to interview us for their documentary) "I told them to send me there stuff and we would get all in order. But I told them that the only way they could interview you guys was if they let missionaries come and teach them first." I started crying and couldn't stop because I just thought "Maria and Tirso are my family and now a piece of my family will get the chance to hear the gospel." It was so so cool. Everytime I talk to them I can feel how open their hearts are and how ready they are for the gospel. It seriously felt like I had found some more of my family and now they could find happiness in the gospel as well. SO AWESOME!! If this is what it's gonna feel like in Malaga then: 1. I´m going to become a softie and need a lifetime supply of tissues and 2. BRING IT ON!!

Ok well that was my main story for the week. Sorry for the length!!! We also set a goal to not speak any English this week so that´s been fun. Obviously everyone has been weirdly more focused lately.....mostly because we can only communicate so much. BUT I LOVE IT! Spanish is great. The gospel is great. And Yáll are great!!

Have a grand week! The church is true!!

Hermana Twede

Here are some pictures from this week:

The Spain palace is great, Spanish architecture is beautiful and 

America is doing everything wrong in buildings.

And me and my comp and other Hermanas are cutsie. 

My Nametag

No Fear of Man

So this weeek went by holy quick and I don´t have a lot of time left on here so I won´t share too much. But the experience I want to share is about the park. (Getting sick of hearing about the park yet?)

So I was companions with Hermana Meredith from my district whom I love with all of my heart and was actually kinda praying to have as my companion. We were so stoked when we found out we were comps. So on Friday night she came into my habitacion (MTC room) and said that we should pray that everyone we talk to will feel the Spirit no matter what. So I did that but all week I have been praying that I will be able to communicate with people because I have been getting tired of not knowing what people are saying and it has been holding me back from actually talking to people. So I prayed to be able to communicate so that I could just do what I needed. We watched a devotional by Elder Holland on Thursday about us just opening our mouths because we were giving the weapon of words and we need to use it. So, on Saturday morning me and Hma. Meredith set some goals and they were pretty high. But Hma Meredith wanted to go for it so I had faith and said ok.

So, we get to the temple and say a prayer and we were so ready for the day it was unreal. Then we got on the Metro and I saw a girl who looked about our age. I made a beeline for her and we just started chatting with her. Holy cow, I don't know how I knew to say what I said but we were just jabbering back and forth with her it was so fun. She told us our Spanish was very good. Then we talked about what we do and believe. She was interested so we talked about the BOM and tried to give her one. She didn't want one but she still wanted to know more so she filled out a referral card. As she was doing that, we totally missed our stop for the park. So, after talking to her we had to get off and then we switched lines and got back on. We started talking to another girl and missed the stop again. So we switched lines again and almost missed the stop because we got talking to someone again but we finally got off.

After getting off we were going up to main ground and getting talking to this old man who lives by the temple. We asked if he believed in God and he said he used to but didn´t. We asked him what he believed in and he said the earth and people but not God. My heart broke for this old man. We talked to him about the gospel a little bit and I told him I know that God helps us. And if you know Spaniards you know that they do this finger wave at you. He kept doing that saying "No. God doesn't help me." He continued to kinda not believe what we were saying and said it wasn't true and at one point I looked him in the eyes and said (in Spanish), "I don´t know a lot of Spanish, but I do know that the only way I'm able to talk to you right now is because God is helping me, and I know that He loves you." He still didn't believe us and finally he walked away. After that we were so spent so we said another prayer and continued on our way. We didn't have a lot of "success" as far as passing out Book of Mormons or folletos (pamphlets) but every single person we talked to we talked about the gospel and bore our testimonies. WE FEARED NO MAN THAT DAY! It was a successful day for us and a very good learning experience.

People need this gospel. I know that it´s hard to believe in something that you can´t see but if we could just open our eyes for a second, we would see evidence of God´s hand in EVERYTHING! Golly I love this gospel and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the opportunity to share it.

My favorite chapter that I read this week was in Jacob chapter 7 I believe about the story of Sherem. I just love how it shows God´s power and how He doesn´t let His children be led away. Also I love what I do and that I have an opportunity to be Jacob and bring people to Christ.

This gospel is great and yáll are great! Have a great week!!

I Can Go The Distance

Hey y'all! First off....say hello to the newest Sister Training Leader of Zone 1 at the CCM!! Yep, my comp and I are sister training leaders now because our Russians left us....sad.  But, we got 26 new missionaries this week and they are so great!! Most of the sisters are going to Malaga, so that's fun!! And they all speak fluent Spanish, so that's even better!! We also got sisters from Russia and Ukraine and they are the sweetest girls. I just love them.

So the coolest thing that happened this week was actually just yesterday.  We were studying and then randomly we all got pulled into the Sala Grande and they told us we were going to watch a missionary get set apart.  The Madrid missionaries were there and turns out this missionary is 25 years old. Right before he came on his mission, he got released after serving 2 years as a branch president somewhere near the Canary Islands.  Way cool!! And one of our teachers had taught him after he had gotten baptized when he was 18.  So, our teacher got to help set him apart as well as the new missionary's companion helped set him apart. Then, the new missionary bore his testimony and you could just feel the love God has for the Elder.  It was so awesome!!

Also the park....was really cool.  My comp was Hermana Matsu!! Love that girl.  I had decided that morning to grab a French Book of Mormon just because I felt I should.  When we got to the park, I told Herman Matsu that we should say another prayer.  So, we found this little dirt path and said a prayer.  When I finished, there was a lady walking towards us and so I greeted her and she said, "Do you speak English?" We were like, "uhhh yes!" And then a guy runs up and they both say, "We've been looking for you guys for 2 years!!" Turns out they are into making documentaries and they are wanting to do one on young people and religion.  They said that 2 years ago they had met sisters like us and said that there was just something about us that they just wanted to interview us and know more. They kept talking about a certain warmth that we have that comes from somewhere else.  I just kept thinking, "Wow. These people need the gospel."  So, we got a referral from them.

Then later we had some elders run up to us saying they had already passed out 7 LDM (Spanish Book of Mormon) and needed more.  We're both thinking, "How do they do that?! They must hand them out like candy!" Then we kept walking.  We only had about 20 minutes left, but I saw a black guy sitting down by a fence and just started walking towards him. We started speaking to him in Spanish and I was holding a Spanish LDM.  He told us he was from Senegal and had only been studying Spanish for 2 years, but he was fluent.  Then he points to the book I was holding and asked about it.  So, we talked about it and asked if he wanted to read it.  He said yes, but he speaks mostly French.  Mine and Hermana Matsu's eyes got huge and she just pulls it out of her bag and says, "We have one of those." We asked him to read Moroni 10:4-5 and he did but then he just kept reading.  He read the Book of Mormon for about 5 minutes and we just stood there! It was awesome! Then, he thanked us and gave us a referral and we went on our way.  But, when we were a few yards away, I turned around and he was STILL READING THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! Happy heart moment for Hermana Twede and Matsu.

I think those are the big things from this week. I couldn't believe that P-Day was already here!! These weeks are flying!! And I'm already over halfway through my stay here.  Kinda freaky!! Also, I've discovered that it is impossible for me to give a sincere prayer in English.  I have actually forgotten how to pray in English.  So, that was exciting to discover!! Hopefully, that will happen with the rest of the language!!

Also, I've been getting so beat up in futbol. I keep sliding and getting hit in the head.  I have bruises all over my legs...it's awesome!! Loving it.  Also, I am in love with Spain.  It's great!  That's all.  Well, I love y'all a whole bunch!! Tengá un buen semana!!!

Hermana Twede

Hermanas Twede and Soelberg

Spanish Art Museums are cool