Spring Cleaning

So this week was a fun one and passed oh so quickly. First off we had........*drum roll*.......CLEANING CHECKS!! I mean it happened on Thursday but we started on Monday. It was SUPER GREAT!! I. LOVE. CLEANING CHECKS!!! (We've been working on our positivity lately) But here was the deal, we didn't know when they were coming. We were told they were coming Wednesday morning so Tuesday night we came in from working and went to town on our Piso. Then the next morning we talked to so many missionaries about cleaning checks and finally were told that they could be coming that morning. So we waited for the call and cleaned all morning. (I've never spent so much time cleaning a kitchen).......they never came. Then we got a call that afternoon saying they would be coming the next morning. So Thursday morning we woke up, exercised and then went right to work cleaning again. Finally finished and about 20 minutes later the Croshaws came and checked out the Piso. WE PASSED!! And they gave us delish banana bread! *Fist Pump*

I'll back up for a quick second just to say we found 3 new investigators within 24 hours. We contacted them or knocked on their door, shared a message with them, invited them to read, and then set up a day to come back. So that was a miracle. We've had a decline in the area so we've been trying to work harder with the members and also keep contacting. But one thing I learned....never lose faith! Because God will surprise you through people you least expect.

Also on Tuesday we held a little birthday celebration for Elder Smithson after district meeting. We were in charge of making banana bread so we whipped that out the night before and also brought our messed up brownies. Well....both were a hit so that was a bonus!! S/O to Hna Bailey for that recipe.
Wednesday we dusted off the old basketball skills and played some ball with a bunch of investigators. I'll just paint y'all a picture of how it went: Hna Twede running up and down the court running into everyone on the opposite team.....and occasionally her own team, and attempting some 2 pointers (even though we all know I can't shoot a basket to save my life) and thankfully came out with a bunch of air balls. Can't have people thinking I ACTUALLY play basketball. Much easier to lose when you have zero expectations.

Ok I just need to apologize right now. I feel like the more this email goes on, the more boring it gets. So I will try to spice it up here.

Well flashback to Thursday. Right after the Croshaws left, we (this is not a joke) went to the kitchen with that banana bread and may have accidentally eaten the entire thing in one sitting. Actually.....that was a lie......it wasn't accidentally.......we knew exactly what we were doing. After that we did weekly planning real quick, packed some clothes, then mom-walked to our eating cita. We had delish Colombian food but toward the end of my FIRST plate (there's always the main meal and then the dessert), I looked at Hna Pickett with big eyes and just mouthed, "I CANT FIT MORE!" Then they brought out ice cream and she says, "Hna there's always room for ice cream." While I'm just shaking my head. But I powered through and finished. Then we shared the thought and all I'm thinking is, "All I can do right now is testify bc if I try to do more than that I will toss it." So when we walked out, we were all happy and smiling and as soon as we got in the elevator, "OH MY GOSH I'M GOING TO DIE!" Then we had to walk (more like crawl) to the train station. I had to take a break in the bus station at one point bc I was just on a downward spiral. Luckily, nothing was tossed and we got safely to Alicante for .......INTERCAMBIOS!!!

Hermanas Twede, Simpson, Pickett, and Favero

Thursday and Friday were intercambios and they were AWESOME!! Got to work with my piano homie Hna Favero on Thursday night and then my other childhood piano buddy Hna Simpson Friday morning. It was a blast. I love Alicante. And our SHEs. It was all super great.


Saturday was boring you don't want to hear about that.
I mean....wait...NO! I'm sorry! IM SORRY!! I MEANT THAT SATURDAY WAS THE BEST DAY TO EVER EXIST IN THE UNIVERSE AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! WE LOVE SATURDAYS!!!!!

Today we went around a pueblo with the Crevillente Hermanas and met these Russians and then everywhere we went after that we saw them. Also today is the 2ND DÍA DE LA MONA so literally everything is closed. But guess what......ONLY IN ELCHE!! So that's cool. Means everyone up and headed to the beach so it's a ghost town around here. But it's cool. Still had a chill Pday.

Ok so SPIRITUAL GOODNESS!!! This week I've been reading about King Benjamin. Just one thing to say about him: spiritual beast. So he's up there on that tower having the first ever General Conference and his scribes are writing the first Ensign as he speaks and then he starts talking about how we need to put off the natural man. So I'm sitting reading this in Spanish and there's a verb in there that I don't recognize but I assumed it meant to "put off" or something like that because it was right before "el hombre natural" part. So I head to my good friend called the dictionary and looked up the meaning of 'despojarse' and it gives me a list of meanings such as: to renounce, to relinquish, to get rid of, to give up, to shed, etc. But the one that caught my attention was the definition, "to get rid of". I sat there thinking for a minute and realized that that meaning, means a sacrifice on our part. We always talk about how we need to put off the natural man, and it's like, "Yeah ok let's do that. It's a little difficult but....,yeah sure ok." But what we don't realize is that it literally is a sacrifice. You have to sacrifice your very NATURE, to draw yourself closer to God. And I LOVE that. I love that to get rid of our natural man we have to sacrifice WHO WE ARE to become who God wants us to be. There have been COUNTLESS times in my mission where I've been told to get rid of my own habits, thoughts, actions, and NATURE, to put them in line with His. "There is no growth in the comfort zone, and there is no comfort in the growth zone."
I know this is God's work and He is molding me into who I need to be. Is it comfortable? My heavens no. But is it worth it? Cien por cien YES!!!! Keep up going. Keep growing. Let God make you who you were always meant to be.

LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!
Kia kaha

Hermana Twede

Our cutie Cristina who will be getting baptized on Sunday and her parents asked us to give her the lessons. It's been such a blast coming up with fun ways to teach the gospel.