Gold, White and Blue

Hey little croissants 🥐
HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?!? I hope it was just stellar.

Well I'll cut the small talk. This week was SUPER great!! Holy Moses
just a big rush of the Spirit and things pretty much all week. I'll
just start from the beginning.

Tuesday: INTERVIEWS!! Seriously my favorite part of transfers.
President Andersen is such an inspired man I just love the
opportunities that I get to talk to him and receive counsel from him.
This interview I had some questions and one that had been weighing on
my mind for my whole mission and I finally got up the nerve to ask
him. Wow......i don't know why I waited so long to ask it but the
spirit was so strong as he gave me counsel and guidance. LOVE IT!
Mission presidents are just so cool let me tell yah.
Later that day we had a really good lesson with a less active and His
investigator girlfriend. They're so nice I just love them.

Wednesday: ZONE CONFERENCE!! Holy. Cow. That's all I can say about
that. Seriously it was like getting blasted with a fire hose of the
spirit the entire time. It was a long day in Murcia but oh so good. We
had about 5ish hours of Zone Conference then about 30-45 minutes of
Zone Meeting right after. THAT. Was incredible. We were setting a
baptismal goal for the Zone and the spirit was so strong. At one
point, our Zone Leaders asked us all to get on our knees and we said a
Zone prayer about the goal we should set. After the prayer, it was
just silence. We all slowly got back into our seats and you could
literally FEEL that every single missionary in the room was tapping
into their spiritual connections, trying to listen to what the goal
needed to be. Finally, they asked for some numbers. One person raises
their hand and says, "6". Almost half the Zone raises their hands
saying they got the same number. I had a feeling in my heart that
said, "yeah that's pretty good." But I also had the feeling that
wasn't quite it. Then as people are getting ready to set that as the
goal, someone says, "I got 7." About 4 or 5 other people agreed with
that number. So now we were at a crossroads. 6 or 7? Then they asked
for any more numbers and one elder in my areaish says, "Well I got 10
so....." everyone kind of thought that was crazy. But some agreed. I
just sat there pondering over these three numbers thinking, "Ok
Heavenly Father, we're putting all of our revelation together and
trying to set a goal of how many of your sheep are going to return to
you this month. Which number do we need to set?" Earlier in the
conference, President Andersen had been talking about how sometimes
the Pendulum of Baptism swings out of balance for multiple reasons,
one of those being "Limiting Heaven's Miracles." In a matter of just a
few minutes, our entire conference that we had just had went through
my head pointing out certain moments that taught us of faith,
repentance, and miracles. In that moment, I realized that our entire
conference had prepared us for that moment. It had been our call to
repentance. Our call to be better. And our call to STOP limiting
Heaven's miracles. That's when the spirit bore witness to me that our
goal needed to be 10 baptisms for the month of a February. Half the
Zone was on board, half wasn't. But, by the end, the spirit bore
witness to everyone in that room that 10 was the number. It was so
strong and dense, you could have cut it with a knife. So now we have
set a plan on how we are going to accomplish this goal and I'm so
stoked because we are going to see some serious miracles in this
zone!!

Cheesin' it with Elder Neubert.

Then we had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast......THAT WAS CRAZY
AMAZING!! So much counsel was given I loved every second of it. My
hand started to hurt from writing down so many notes. Some changes
were made as well. Some pretty crazy changes but after they explained
why they were made, I felt more at peace. We now have a lot more
flexibility in our schedule to help increase our productivity
depending on our areas and also to help us develop habits of making
time for scripture study and other important things that will carry on
with us after the mission. Seeing these changes made me realize that
the Lord really is moving His work forward and I'm so excited to be a
part of it.

SO THAT WAS WEDNESDAY!!

I'm gonna skip a few days real quick here to Saturday. (This is
already a novel so sry)

SATURDAY!!: BEST DAY OF THE WEEK!! WE HAD A BAPTISM!! We had the
opportunity to travel to Alicante for our baptism and with the help of
sooo many people, had the most beautiful baptism. Everything was so
chalk full of the spirit it was great. Our investigator gave his
testimony at the end and told his path to this point and it was so
wonderful. You could see God's hand in his life soooo much just
preparing him for this moment. Then afterwards, he was talking to
another member who was asking how he felt and he said, "I was so
nervous and had so much anxiety at the beginning, but as soon as I
stepped into the water, it all went away." AAAAAHHHHH YAYAYAYAYAY!!!
Seriously the best thing you could ever hear as a missionary. He is
seriously GOLD and was dressed in WHITE as he entered the BLUE waters
of baptism. It was such a good day and very special for everyone who
attended. Ugh I love this work. And guys....God is so cool. He is
preparing so many people right now and I'm so stoked to keep finding
them.

So it was a good day. Before our train back, Hna Garcia and I
celebrated with delicious Columbian food. Good day. And then the next
day he completed the action by getting confirmed and became a full
blown member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Well.....that's pretty much a wrap!! I know this church is true with
all my heart, might, mind, and strength and that's why I'm here in
Spain speaking a language that isn't my own, missing my family and
friends, only to get rejected at ALMOST every door. But I wouldn't
have it any other way. I'm a living witness of the love God has for
His children and I proudly answer the call to gather His lost sheep.
This gospel is true, Christ lived, died, and rose again so that we can
do the same. I know it without a doubt and I will testify of Him until
the day I die.

Thank you for all the support and love. Have a great week!

Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede

I'm Singing (Really Crying) In The Rain

Well it was a good week. VERY cold. And VERY wet. Literally rained almost all week and it was snowing in a bunch of places in Spain so all the Spaniards down here are freaking out pero bueno. Just reminds me how grateful I am for the state of Florida. Shout out to them for warmth pretty much year round. But it's fine. RAIN OR SHINE THE WORK OF THE LORD GOES ON!!

Picnic on Thursday because our eating cita cancelled and it was like a hurricane outside.

We did soooooo much contacting and knocking on doors this week it was insane.....we had one day where we knocked on a lot of doors before an eating cita and then we went back and finished the job a few days later. So in one neighborhood in our area, every single door possible has been knocked on. We met very nice people who weren't interested, very nice people who told us to come back another time, and very nice people who yelled at us to go away. All in all we came out with a total of 8 futures over those few days. So it was great!

Well.......this week. What happened? Well.....to start, we got a call from a man who knew us but we didn't know him but he wanted to meet with us so we accepted. He ended up trying to get us to read HIS folleto that had a lot of scripture from Psalms on it. We didn't so he read it to us. After we asked him why he wanted to meet with us (you know, How To Begin Teaching kind of questions....can be found in your local Preach My Gospel:)) and he just told us that he wanted to meet with us to share HIS message with us. He told us that he wanted to share his message with other people too. He thanked us for our time and told us that if we see him around to say hi to him and he will try to do the same. Then he closed in the name of Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost, Amen. Shook our hands and left. We walked away from that experience very confused and quite speechless, not really knowing how to react to that. You know that moment when you watch a mind blowing movie and you walk out just not really knowing what to do with your hands or your thoughts and just kinda feel like a blob? Yeah it was kinda like that. Then we both decided that he literally just did what we do but in 5 minutes, and with his own doctrine. It was a good laugh.

We had some good lessons this week though. We are getting ready for our baptism this weekend which is actually really stressful but great too. I'm really grateful for this experience we've had with our investigator. I love teaching these lessons because we are helping other people come unto Christ through repentance and baptism, but also helping deepen our conversion as missionaries. Every time I teach something, I remember how I need to be better and what more I can repent for each day.

Another cool experience we had was on Friday. It was really cold and this was the morning we finished tocing the puertas in that area that I talked about earlier. We had an eating cita and then had a lesson with another investigator right when a downpour started. After our cita, we went to English class and there were complications with keys to the JAS center and we had to cancel. Well....it was insanely cold and we had people to call and plans to reevaluate so we went to the bus station where it was warm to call and figure out what we were going to do because we had already gone through all of our back-ups. We called a bunch of people, then tried to figure out what to do. Neither of us had the ganas to go contact, but we couldn't go back to piso and still had like an hour or more left of proselyting. We were thinking, and thinking, and thinking, then we pulled out all the tarjetas we had and said, "Ok, we will pass by these last people and contact on the way. We have 14 tarjetas left and then we are completely out. So if we go through all of these before 9:45 and have nothing else to do, we will re-evaluate again." So we went out and started. No one in the calles. And every person we did see rejected us and our cards. After a bunch of rejections I just thought, "Haha wow.....Heavenly Father is not gonna make this easy for us.....ok let's go." We literally contacted just about every person we saw. I went through my 7 and then we shared the last 7. We got to a point where I had 3 more left and Hna. Garcia had 1 and we had about 20 minutes left. So we were walking one way and a group of 3 jóvenes was walking towards us. I really don't like contacting jóvenes and so I wasn't going to contact them and I don't think Hna Garcia was going to either. As we were walking past them, my feet just stopped in their tracks and my mouth opened and just said (actually kind of shouted bc so unexpected), "HOLA!" And started talking to these teens. It ended up being the best conversation I've ever had with a group of younger kids and they were super nice. I handed out all three of my tarjetas to them and just had one of the best contacts of the night.

And then there was one. We had about 15 minutes at this point. I saw this man walking towards us and got the impression to stop him so I did and asked how he was. He responded, "You know what? I'm bad. And I'm tired. I'm going home to rest so I don't have time to talk to you." Well of course I asked him why he was bad. He told us that he gets up at about 5 am and goes to work until 9:30 at night. He said he's always tired and isn't happy. He doesn't want anything religious he just wanted to go home. He apologized to us for being rude but we just told him we understood. Then I had the feeling to testify so all I told him was, "You know, we are sorry that you're not feeling great. But we want you to know that God loves you and if you need anything you can talk to us." He nodded his head and thanked us and actually smiled!! (Which he had yet to do up to this point.) We walked away knowing that he felt something after talking to us because he seemed to brighten up a little more. So that was cool.

Ok so we still had one card left and like 8 minutes. We tried talking to this woman who was great and really nice....until she heard we were missionaries and then didn't want anything to do with us. At this point we have 3 minutes and we are determined to get out this last card (almost standing in front of our piso at this point). I see a man walking towards us with his dog and just said, "That's the one. He's gonna be our last card." We walked up to him and told him we liked the sweater......of his dog. And that's all we needed. He was SO nice and super interested in why we were here in Spain and told us we spoke very good Spanish and then took a card very quickly (especially when we mentioned we teach English classes but that's besides the point). He told us he would speak to his wife about us coming by sometime and thanked us. SUCH A MIRACLE!! Especially after so many rejections. We walked away and it was 9:47 and we realized that we gave out our last card at pretty much exactly 9:45. GOD IS SO COOL!! Such a cool good night.

So that night was one of the best parts of the week and just was a huge testimony that God directs this work and He will show you miracles when you work hard. I love this gospel so so much and feel so grateful to be here and doing the work of the Lord.

Thank you all so much for your support and experiences!! You all are good eggs. HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Kia Kaha!!

Hermana Twede

Together Forever

Hello world.

Well. This week was great. I have officially hit 6 months of living in Spain as a missionary. That's super weird. But it was just a regular day. Actually it was the best day of the week ever and we were literally so busy it was wonderful. Busy days are the best days....but it hits you hard about 2 days later but WHO CARES WHEN YOUR DOING THE WORK OF THE LORD?!?! But yes. I officially have less than a year of my mission left. That's a scary thought bc it's gonna pass by so fast. It really gives me even more animo to really work as hard as possible every single day so I don't waste a single second of this precious time.

Happy 6 months to me! I celebrated by eating a tiny orange...mandarina!

OK SO THIS WEEK!! Well it was a good one. We visited a lot of people, ate tons of food (thanks to members), set a baptismal date, talked about deep doctrine, did face masks, activated surround sound in our piso, dropped my name tag down an elevator shaft, sprinted to the bus like everyday, and walked through a sketchy palm tree forest at night. It was great. But really though.....we bought face masks and then Hma Garcia's mom came in clutch and sent some more so we did them like 3-4 nights in a row.

Face masks. Elders are trying to get some now.

On Tuesday the Zone Leaders and SHEs came to give us announcements from consejo. We set a lot of goals and everyone is trying to be a human while contacting. If you don't know what contacting it, I think it's what other people call teaching.....but idk if that work even exists in the Spanish language. So it's contacting. We have a tendency to be robots while we try to talk to people on the street and that just doesn't work i don't care who you are. Plus it's really boring for the missionary. SO.....We're just to be normal humans. It's been working....sort of. We did have a good talk with a nice lady the other day and she was just the sweetest thing you'll ever meet. She didn't give us her info but she just told us how great we were for talking to people who we don't know and sharing a message about Christ. Nothing like a sweet española to make your day brighter.

Also we tried contacting an entire building on saturday that has 11 floors, but then a lady figured out what we were doing and got mad at us so we had to abort the mission and switch buildings bc she literally waited until we left. But we talked to a lot of people so menos mal.

Something spiritual that happened this week happened on Thursday. Like I said, Thursday was our fullest day of the week. We literally had set citas every single hour starting with an eating cita at 2. We had just finished up our cita with our main investigator where he told us he had prayed about baptism and knew it was what he needed to do and we set a date. So we were pumped after that. He is seriously so great to teach. He told us that last week in church he was going to leave for work because he works at one and we get done with church at that time so he was planning on leaving at 12, meaning he would miss sacrament meeting because we have it last. But he said he just had a feeling he needed to stay for at least a little bit of sacrament so he did. He ended up having the opportunity to partake of the sacrament for the first time and told us he just felt so good when he participated in that. AAAAHHH I LOVE THESE MOMENTS!! I love when people can feel the spirit that accompanies the sacrament because it is so special and that is when people really understand what it is like to feel the spirit. So that was really fun to hear and explain that that was the spirit he was feeling. Oh wow. This work is so cool!!

So after him, we went to our cita with some other investigators.They are 7th Day Adventists who have an incredible knowledge of the Bible it blows my mind. They are kind of tough to teach because if it's not in the Bible, they have a hard time accepting it. But the wife had been asking what we teach about families the past few visits so we decided to show them a video and give them The Family: A Proclamation To The World. We started out by sharing a video where it sings the "Families Can Be Together Forever" song and shows a picture album of families and some apostles speak about eternal families. I've seen the video before, but while I was watching it, I felt the spirit re-enter the room. Then as I really paid attention to the pictures and music, the spirit bore witness to me very clearly, that I REALLY AM going to be with my family for eternity. That because of Jesus Christ, that is possible. And one day I will have my own eternal family. It made me so grateful to be apart of this gospel that teaches me that if I live in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I can be with the people I love more than anything for all time and eternity. It was a tender and special moment for me there in that living room that made me a little emotional. But I was so grateful for that witness from the spirit about something that I teach and say, but sometimes forget the great significance of it.

I feel so blessed to be a part of this work. My favorite definition of a missionary is "Someone who leaves their family for a time, so others can be with theirs for eternity." How grateful I am to do that. To help others come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and ENDURING TO THE END!! So grateful to be a missionary at this specific point in time and in this specific place in the world. The Lord has some incredible things in store for Elche and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Thanks so much for the support!! Hope y'all have a fantastic week!!

Kia Kaha!!

Hermana Twede

Milagros Peeps. Milagros. (Miracles)

Greetings to my fellow Nephites and Lamanites. (I've run out of ideas
of what to call y'all so this will get interesting real fast)
Ok so I'm just gonna scratch the small talk and jump right in. So this
week was GREAT. Lots of miracles holy cow.

First, (not a miracle just fun), so Hermana Garcia's brother got
married this week so because she wasn't there to celebrate in person,
we decided to open out "sparkling cider" stuff that they have here and
made a toast to them through video. We also reenacted our
interpretation of some parts of the wedding including but not limited
to: cutting of the cake (Twinkie) and stuffing each others faces,
drinking the fancy drinks all cute like, and cosas como así. It was a
good time.

We also had intercambios this week in Alicante and it was
super great. Our STLs are crazy but we love them. Also their piso is
freezing and they only have heating in certain rooms (not including
the one where we sleep) and the window in our room is broken so we can
hear all the people partying at the bar down below all. Night. Long.
It felt like camping: where you can't really sleep bc you're freezing
cold but also keep hearing noises and imagine a bear breaking into
your tent? Yeah something like that.....minus the bear part. But the
rest was super great. Got to eat some good ol Roscón (a dessert here
for Día de Reyes that looks like a big donut with cream in the middle.
But there's a crown toy and a bean or rock thing in the cream and if
you get a piece with the king thing you win but if you get the bean
you have to buy the Roscón next year). We had some killer lessons and
just a lot of fun. I learned SO much. Love intercambios. Always a
blessing.

Ok biggest miracle from this week. I was going through some names of
old investigators and came upon the name of Rubén. I passed it but had
the thought to go back to it and call him. I ignored it (never do
that) and kept going. Then the thought came to my head again,
"Hermana. Call him!" So I went back to his number and called him up.
No answer. So I just thought it was just my thoughts. Then about an
hour later we got a call.....FROM RUBÉN!! Well we picked up and asked
if we could meet with him and he said YES!! We met with him on Friday
and when he came he brought his girlfriend who is a member. She helped
us teach the lesson and it was super great. We were going over the
Restauración just to see what he remembered and they looked at each
other then the girlfriend says, "Ok I'm just gonna stop you right
there. He already wants to be baptized." We looked at her. Then looked
at him. He just smiles and nods. Jajaj we had no clue what to say. We
just sat there speechless for a minute with our mouths open and they
just laugh and the gf goes, "Easy right?" He's been going to all the
church activities possible and to church almost every week with her
family in Alicante and he loves it!! There's some things we have to
work through but we were talking to them and they said, "The crazy
thing it, it wasn't coincidence that you called when you did. Right
after he made the decision that he wanted to be baptized, you called
him." AAAAAHHHHH BLESSINGS!! We told them our side of the story and we
were all just in awe. We are currently working on a Fecha for him and
he's just great. He came to church on Sunday in a suit and everything
it was so great!! He had to work at 1 and we have sacrament last at 12
and he said, "I have to leave for work at 12 for work but I'm hoping
next week I can stay the whole time." But then some members were
talking to him and then he was in the chapel for sacrament!! He
literally stayed for as long as he possibly could and got to take the
sacrament!! It was so awesome. It's incredible to see how te Lord
prepares His sheep and then PREPARES YOU!! If we hadn't heeded that
prompting to call him, we wouldn't have found him. So grateful for the
spirit and the opportunity to do this work.

Something I learned this week was how great the calling of a
missionary is. We are LITERALLY standing at the door for them to start
their journey back to our Heavenly Father. Think about it, if someone
wants to get baptized and they are over 8 years old, they HAVE to do
it through the missionaries. They can't go through the bishop or stake
president or anything. They have to take the missionary discussions
before they are able to do so. That is how great the calling is as a
missionary. We stand at the door, welcoming people through the door to
Salvation if they so choose. When I heard that, it made me want to be
so much better of a missionary. It made me want to be more worthy of
the calling I hold. It also makes me cherish the time I have here on
the mission so much more because it's only so much time that I will be
able to do this work. This mission is already teaching me so much and
I can't wait for what this next year of my mission is going to bring!!
Love you all peeps!! Have a great week!!
Kia kaha.

Hermana Twede

Mom's find of Brielle's new apartment on Google Maps

Saying Goodbye to Hermana Moore

Alicante

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!

HOLA DE ELCHE!! FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!
Hello fellow humans of Planet Earth.
Well.....between scalding my mouth with mate (yes the South American
drink), sprinting to citas with Hma Moore in Granada, miraculously
packing up all the things, traveling 6 hours sola, sprinting to a
baptism, talking to a crazy man who tells me he has special gifts,
watching church movies on New Year's Eve, playing fútbol, planning in
British accents, losing my coat and one of my earrings, and freezing
my bum off here in Elche.....you could say it's been a crazy week!!

So yes, I had to say goodbye to the Motherland of Granada on Wednesday
and that was sad.....but all good things come to an end (unless it's
the gospel....that just brings you eternal happiness). On Wednesday
morning at about 8:55 AM, I said goodbye to the district and my
beloved companion Hermana Moore, and shipped out on a bus heading for
Elche. Traveling 6 hours by yourself wouldn't be weird in a normal
situation....but seeing as I'm on a mission, it was quite the
experience. Mostly just passed out and tried not to drool or snore.

I arrived in Elche at around 3 PM and met my new companion Hermana
Garcia from good ol state of Idaho!!

Since that day it's been an adventure. In my last email, I was praising
the fact that it is 10 degrees warmer in Elche....what I wasn't counting on was that it is
humid here......and cold.....which makes for a colder Hermana Twede
here in Elche than in Granada. But no pasa nada. Also pretty sure I
lost my coat the other day so bueno.....sweaters work fine for the
rest of the winter right?? (My mom is freaking out right about now but
it's fine)

I'll just tell y'all a little bit our life here in the good old city
of Elche: we play soccer every Thursday night and lots of non-members
come, but they get real serious about it over here so it's a little
stressful when a bunch of spaniards are yelling at you; we hold
English classes on Wednesdays and Fridays; our neighbors have a crazy
dog that barks at you whenever you leave or come back; none of the
timbres are marked with letters or numbers here so it's a little
difficult to find piso 4°B; Pday is taken VERY seriously here so it
gets planned in advance and today we went and played paddle ball; they
have a festivo for a virgin and like to set off fireworks that ,are
you feel like you're in a war zone; don't climb the
chimeneas.....that's illegal; going to San Anton or the Palmerales is
a big No No; everyone wants to feed the Hermanas; and if this guy Joe
asks for your name and the city where you live, make it up.

So long shory stort, life is pretty good in the hood of Elche. The
members are super nice and my comp is just great. We are almost the
same person so we think of the same thing at the same time and it's
just great. There are an insane amount of palm trees here in
Elche.....pretty much puts Hawaii to shame. No joke. No i have not yet
seen the ocean....maybe when we go to intercambios this week we will
be blessed to have that experience.

So something a bit more on the spiritual side. When I got the call
that I was going to Elche to be companions with a Hermana Garcia, it
brought mixed feelings. New place, new people, and a companion who
just finished her training. I was excited and nervous because I knew I
was going to be senior companion and therefore had a little more
Spanish under my belt. Which also made me really nervous because I am
not very confident in my abilities regarding this language. My whole
time in Granada I didn't really see significant growth in what I could
understand and how much I could speak. And it was hard because a lot
of the people there (including myself) still saw the
first-transfer-in-the-field Hermana, who couldn't understand Spanish
para nada, and this made seeing progression difficult. I also had a
native companion and a companion who spoke a lot of Spanish who I
relied on A LOT. This further increased my anxiety of leaving because
I knew I wouldn't have that "crutch" anymore. But now that I'm here, I
understand that it was essential for me to leave my home (that is what
Granada became for me here in Spain) so that I could understand how
far I've come with the language and how much God has blessed me. I
cannot explain how it felt when I realized how much I could understand
and speak since being here. Given, I still have a VERY long way to go,
but I'm now seeing how much God was helping me when I was in Granada.
It was like He was telling me, "Ok Hermana, right now we are just
filling your head up with this Spanish. I know how you feel and I know
you're frustrated, but you just keep studying and keep practicing. You
won't use a ton of it here in Granada but there will come a time  when
you'll be able to start using it so just be patient." This last half
of the week has really opened my eyes to see this change and I feel
like God is helping me even more right now so that I can help my
companion. I guess my point in all of this is that God is mindful of
us. ALL. THE. TIME. Even when it seems like He's not listening, even
when it seems like He's given up on you, even when you're ready to
give up yourself, HE IS THERE. HE IS LISTENING. Don't give up. Keep
pushing forward. He's got your blessings locked and loaded, He's just
waiting for the right time, all He needs is for you to hang on a
little longer. Exercise that faith just a little more. Take one more
step in the darkness, and soon you'll be standing on a mountain top in
broad daylight. Our Heavenly Father loves you. He is helping you. And
when the road seems the hardest, when the burden feels too much too
handle, that's when he's carrying you. Keep the faith. Never give up.
Love you all so much! Hope you have a great week!!

Hermana Twede

Dinner after a baptism