HADES

Holy Hannah on a popsicle stick!! It is HOOOOOOT! Hades decided to
unleash his wrath on Cartagena early this summer so we've been sticky,
hot, and stinky these past few weeks.

Besides it being hot it's been a good week. I don't even know what to
write for this week! We had some crazy things happen that is for sure.
We learned a lot and have grown a lot this week.

At one point of the week, I became very frustrated with the work. I
wish it were easier for me to hide my feelings but......I didn't do it
very well that day. Everyone failed us and no one was answering their
phones and it was hot and I was feeling very.....useless. I sometimes
get myself in these ruts where all I want to do is share the gospel,
do what I came here to do; and when we don't have work, I get
frustrated because I can't do that. So this day I was frustrated and
Hna Palmer knew it so, like the great missionary she is, she suggested
we pray. So she said it and then after I looked at her and asked what
she thinks we should do. "Contact." So we did. We took the car to a
different part of San Pedro and I told her to pull over when she felt
like we should. So we end up parking in a spot we usually park in when
we get out to contact and we hop out. We got in a discussion with a
man and his wife and this man was just telling us how faith is just an
excuse that we use when we can't explain something. They weren't
interested so we gave them a card and kept walking. There were three
people walking to their car and I said hello but didn't stop them and
as we kept walking, all of a sudden Hna Palmer whips around and starts
talking to them in Spanish. She looked to me for some help and so she
started talking to them and one says, "Son...? De donde son.....? Oh I
don't remember." And then Hna Palmer goes, "English?" And all three
go, "YES!!" All from the very south of England. So we have a great
conversation with these people and move on. Next people we contact,
Hna Palmer is the one who stops them....again!! She always apologizes
to me for not being able to help me in contacting but here she was
stopping all these people. They said something and Hna Palmer goes,
"English?" This couple answers, "YES!!" From London area. We have a
great conversation with them and move on. Last people we were going to
contact and Hna Palmer stops them too!! She was on fire. The husband
started speaking a little bit and then she asks them again, "English?"
Both answer, "YES!" North of England this time. All three groups of
people she stopped were ALL from England. So she got to share her
testimony in English with all of them. After, as we were walking to
the car, I just said, "Do you realize what you just did? You stopped
every single person we contacted tonight! And almost ALL of them spoke
English!! Do you know how much God loves you?" Cool experience.

Then on Thursday, we got a call from one of our investigators and he
told us he would be getting off of work early if we wanted to meet.
First: that has NEVER happened. Second: he had told us THE DAY BEFORE
that he could only meet on Fridays for which we set up a Noche de
Hogar for Friday. So we met with him and he first thing he tells us is
he wants to be baptized on the first of July!! WHAT?! Craziness. So we
were freaking out a little bit and then he just kept saying, "I want
the spirit because I know it is going to help me. And I know you guys
are here to help me too." It was a cool lesson. We ended up meeting
with him for the next two nights and we changed his date for the 8 de
Julio so that he's ready in time. But that was really cool to
experience. There's some things he has a hard time understanding, but
he has such a great desire to be baptized so he's doing his best to
keep his commandments and come closer to Christ.

I love the mission. I really do. I've learned so much from training.
We've had some rough days this week but we've learned a lot. I know
that God loves us soooo much and that if we hand everything over to
Him, He will make us better than we could ever imagine. I know that
Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He knows my needs and my struggles.
I know that I can hand my weaknesses over to Him and He will make them
strong. I know that we live in a world that continues to tell us
Satan's lies and tries to make us feel like there is no hope. I was
reading the story about Korihor the past few days in Alma and the last
verse really hit me. It's Alma 30:60 "And thus we see the end of him
who perverteth the ways of the Lord; and thus we see that the devil
will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag
them down to hell." But something I realized is that our Heavenly
Father, when we do His will and keep His commandments, ALWAYS supports
us. He keeps His guiding hand on our shoulder until the end. He walks
by our side through it all and even carries us when we can't walk. We
can hand all of our burdens over to our Savior because His yoke is
easy and His burden is light. I know Christ loves me and my Heavenly
Father is always watching over me. I'm grateful for the opportunity I
have to share that with these people in Spain.

Have a great week!!

Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede

Pday in CartaG

When your comp has a whole bottle of face mask stuff. Aprovechar.

Call me a Spainard bc this is the most beautiful Tortilla de Patata y'all have ever seen.

Sea me Dreamin'

High On A Mountain Top

Hello humans.

It's been an adventurous day to say the least. We woke up, studied,
cleaned, got groceries, then rushed to Cartagena to meet up with
everyone and go to a pueblo of the elders. So we go to this pueblo
called Sierra Minera where (quote Elder Wilding) "There's a cool
mountain we can hike with a castle and stuff." Well.....there was a
mountain, and a castle, and stuff......but what the brochure didn't
tell us is that there is no real path, nor that you can't go exploring
the mines, NOR that there are many nests of hornets if you come down
the Stupid Way #2. Soooo long shory stort, on the way up, we were
attacked by thistles and on the way down, I accidentally stepped on an
unseen hornets nest, got stung three times in the arm, then launched
myself away bc heck no I ain't staying there to be attacked by those
little nasties and skid down a rock and scraped up my leg.....so we
got off the train looking all nice and shiny and got back on looking
like victims of war. Crazy hair, bee stings, scraped legs and arms,
and dirt....everywhere. Quite an adventure.

The hike today. Elder Ngtai was telling me about a video game

called sky room or something even though I have no clue what it is but

he felt the need to tell me. This was before I got attacked by bees

and rocks.

Now to back up to the rest of the week. Tuesday I woke up in Málaga,
went to Fuengirola, then to the mission home to pick up my new
companion!! Her name is HERMANA PALMER and she is from Arizona and is
super great. She's already working so hard and her Spanish has already
improved. She loves the people here so much just automatically it's
such an example to me that you don't have to speak the same language
to love God's children. I'm learning a lot being her trainer and
hopefully teaching her some. But I know that I'm going to learn more
from her than she will from me during this time together.

WOOHOO CARTAG TWEDE PALMER WOOHOO

A lot of this last half of the week has been meeting people and
contacting. A contacting miracle that happened the other day was after
we had gone through all our back up plans and normal plans and
everything else so I guided her home and we parked the car and started
contacting. But first, we had to make some cards really quick bc we
had none. So we kneel down to pray and it was my turn and I just
really was needing a miracle that day so I said, "Heavenly Father,
please help us to find someone who needs our message, who wants to
listen to us." Well, we got rejected by a girl and her mom, then got
into a 20 minute long convo about the weirdest things and gave a Libro
de Mormon to a drunk man, and this was right before we go in to Piso
but decided to walk a little more and this older guy practically jumps
out and grabs us and says, "Hey, who are you guys? What church are you
from? What is that book?" And right there, on the side of the street,
we taught this man the entire lesson of the Restoration in about 10
minutes, gave him a Book of Mormon and left. He was so happy to get
that book it was awesome. Such a direct answer to our prayer. Then we
saw him yesterday on the way home from church and he waved and said he
had read some of the book we gave him!! Really praying that he decides
to continue with the lessons. If not, I know he will one day. He needs
the gospel.

I love the mission so much. I love this opportunity I have to teach
Hermana Palmer how to love the mission. How to talk to these people
and show them that they are precious children of God. I love my Savior
Jesus Christ. I love my Heavenly Father and I know He is constantly
guiding me. I know that this church is the only true church on the
earth because it has the authority of God. I'm grateful to be a part
of this work here in Spain. I will forever be indebted to my Heavenly
Father for this opportunity He has given me.

Love you all!! Chao!!

Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede

Our fave fam who left for Ecuador for the summer today:(

Manicures on the bus on the way to church

IT'S RAINING IT'S RAINING I'M TRAINING

Hey folks well.......I write you today from the capilla but in about
an hour and a half I'm headed to the bus station to catch a bus to
MÁLAGA!! Why? Well I'll tell y'all in a minute.

So this week has been great. Hna Johnson and I did an English fast
this week and what that means is we speak straight Spanish 24/7. All
of our goals throughout the transfer led up to this last week of full
Spanish. We did it so that poco a poco, we spoke more and more Spanish
every week so it would be less hard to go all the time......we'll it
wasn't. It was hard. But we started and ended it with a fast. So
Sunday after lunch, we started a food fast as well as an English fast
and fasted for the strength to complete our goal. Deciding to do this
goal wasn't easy but during weekly planning we said a comp prayer to
ask if it was a reasonable goal and if it would be good to set it. We
both got the confirmation that it was what we needed to do so our food
fast was to receive the strength to do our English fast. Well.....we
got it and we learned a lot. We were a lot more focused (hah go
figure), improved our grammar, and had fun. We had a really hard day
on Tuesday and we discussed the goal and I asked Hna Johnson if she
wanted to change it and she looked me in the eye and said, "No. I want
to finish it. It's going to be hard but I want to finish it." I was so
proud of her. And we did. We finished it. And it was awesome.

I'm trying to remember what else happened this week and I just can't.
Everyday has just been one day closer to transfer calls so that's
crazy. Really don't even know where this transfer went. Flew by. But
on Saturday, we went to a cita around 4 o'clock with one of our menos
activas who is a straight máquina. So we are sitting in there, sharing
a message, feeling the spirit, when the phone which was in my pocket
starts to vibrate. So I pull it out to silence it and I see caller ID
and it says, "Pdte. Andersen".......and then the freak out began. But
I calmly (on the outside not the inside) silenced it and put it back
in my pocket and kept listening to the lesson all while having a flip
out moment in my mind and body. Then the phone of our member rings and
I look at Hna Johnson and say under my breath, "President Andersen."
And she just smiled and is like, "it's for you! Calm down." So when we
got out of the cita (ended up getting two references in that cita so
that was awesome) I called him back and....,NO ANSWER! But he sent us
a text saying he couldn't talk right then. We told him sorry and that
we were in a cita and he says, "Never apologize for that.....I will
call later tonight. You may want to talk to me!" Well yes that helped
the nerves. So we just left it until later.

So after this, we went to Smöoey which is a FroYo place where our
investigator works. We haven't been able to get ahold of her this week
so, like the creeps we are, we thought we would go to her work. (Keep
in mind this is Saturday.....in the afternoon......and we had just
started our fast a few hours before) So our plan was to casually go
buy some frozen yogurt bc we knew she would be working and that would
give us a chance to talk to her. So we walk by and see her working,
and couldn't commit so we just walked past from a distance. Then far
away, Hermana Johnson turns to me and goes, "Ok, rock-paper-scissors.
You win, you decide if we go or not; I win, I decide." (Because it's
not Not weird to show up to your investigators work) Me: "Soooo the
goal here is to lose?" Hna Johnson: "Yes." So we duel. 1x: Hna
Johnson's paper beats my rock. Hna Johnson: "Best two out of three"
2x: Her paper beats my rock AGAIN!! So.....we went. And we bought ice
cream. And came out with a cita with our investigator. WIN.
But.....then we had a conundrum. We are fasting. And we have a big
thing of ice cream in our hand.
Hna Johnson: "Should we just eat it? Home is 10-15 minute walk."
Me: "No that feels like sinning."
So what do we do? Walk home. And what does the ice cream do? Melt bc
it's hot outside. And who ended up holding it? Me. So we got a lot of
weird looks and I was holding this cup of icrecream that was dripping
all over my hands and leaving, not a trail of breadcrumbs, but of
melted ice cream all the way home. People looked at us like, "Stupid
Americans you're supposed to EAT the ice cream." So that was the
adventure of the night. Advice: Make sure to creep on your ice cream
making investigator when you're NOT fasting. But this just goes to
show the sacrifices we make for the Lord and helping the people we
teach.

So that night, we saw some other miracles. Followed the spirit back to
the house of a menos activa who we had already passed by that day when
she wasn't home and when we went back we got to teach her. But long
shory stort, we waited up until 11:30 (bedtime) for a phone call from
president......and it never came......the Lord has been teaching me a
lot of patience this week.

But the next morning, when all of us (including president) still have
sleep in our voices, we got a call. Hna Johnson is headed off to
Torremolinos and then I will be going to Malaga today to pick up my
new little missionary tomorrow. That's right, IM TRAINING!! I'm
nervous because I don't want to mess up that poor Hermana right off
the bat, but I'm excited to help build the foundation of her mission
with her and see her grow in ways she won't even notice. So the next
three days will be crazy but it'll be an adventure.

I'm incredibly humbled by this calling and so excited really. I was
nervous about it yesterday when I was doing my studies and had a
feeling to read in General Conference talks and I had been reading in
the April 1985 talks so I went back to the list and the first talk I
saw said, "Prepared To Serve" so I read it. It's by M. Russell Ballard
and oh my.....SO FUERTE. It was directed to the priesthood and I
wondered how it would help me as a trainer when I came across this
quote, "Of all the training I have received in my Church assignments,
none has been more important to me than the training I received as a
nineteen-year-old elder serving a full-time mission in the British
Isles. As I look back now, I can see that no training in my life was
more important for what I am now doing in the Church than the training
I received as a full-time missionary." It made me realize the weight
of this calling but I also realized that my entire mission, I've been
in training. Training for my life. I firmly believe, that God has been
putting me in certain areas to learn very different, very specific
things to prepare and TRAIN me for very specific experiences I will
have later in life. I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father for constantly
stretching me further and further so I can reach the potential that He
sees in me. I love this work and this gospel and I'm excited to share
that love with my new companion.

Thanks all for the support!! Have a great week!!

Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede

We have cool graffiti in our area

Daryel......he's crazy

Sunsets here never get old

CHORIZO!!! I made her try it. She didn't like it. SPAIN

Turtle park in our area

We made fried rice. She had been asking for it forever so she was a

happy camper

My little Guapi giving me a manicure

Cat Got Your Tongue?

I will have you all know that for the past 4 weeks, Hna Johnson and I
have been opening our companion study by singing Christmas songs. And
on my birthday, I listened to my Christmas music on my pin drive.
There. I said it. My secret is out. Now you all know.

Ok well it was an awesome week!! This Saturday, we took a nice little
road trip to ALICANTE!!! We had our tri-zone conference there and got
to drive past the beloved land of ELCHE!! Only saw it from the freeway
but that's ok. But the conference was OH MY SO GOOD!! We had a General
Authority come named Elder Gay who served in Spain actually a long
time ago. But guess what? He opened the area of ELCHE!! He told us
that the first "chapel" was held in a tiny lunch room in a random
piso. Also, when he dedicated the city of Elche, he said that in the
blessing he said that one day "there would be wards there and the
church would find a great center there"!!! That was super cool to hear
because now there are two wards and the stake they are in is called
the stake of Elche. But his talk was INCREDIBLE!! He shared sooo many
stories from his mission and his underlying theme was, "Missionary
work is a revelatory work." And it's SO TRUE!! You literally can't do
anything without revelation. I loved it because he also talked about
how we have the authority and calling to receive revelation and we
need to trust in that calling and act on the impressions we
receive....even if they don't make sense.

Stripe Squad at Conference.

During the whole conference, especially when he talked about acting on
impressions, I kept thinking about this girl about our age who we had
contacted last week and hadn't been able to get ahold of. I had had
her on my mind the past week and a half and just had a feeling that we
needed to go to Smooey (frozen yogurt place) that night after getting
home. She had told us she works at Smooey so I just figured, "Lets go
see if she's working. We will go like we just want to buy FroYo but
really we are using it as an excuse to see her and set up a cita." So
I told Hermana Johnson what I was thinking and she was down
(Claro....who doesn't want FroYo and a new investigator?) so after we
got home, we put our stuff down and went walking by the beach to
Smooey. As we are walking, Hermana Johnson asks me how far down it is
and just after I tell her that it's not too far, I turn my head to
look at the water and right there is our Future Alba! She still
remembered us and we asked how she was (like it was a coincidence that
we saw her) and she said that she was on her eating break for work,
that she only gets 5 minute breaks to eat. So we happen to catch her
on that break. MILAGRO!! So we talked to her and she told us that the
reason she hadn't been answering our calls was because it wasn't a
WhatsApp (what EVERYONE in Spain has bc it's texting and calling
through wifi or something) number but now that she knows, she said
she'll answer. So we set up a cita with her for tonight and we're
excited! I feel like we need to teach her. I don't know why but after
we contacted her last week, she's constantly been on my mind. So we
will see. But it was a milagro to see, especially right after Elder
Gay talked about this work being a revelatory work.

So yeah that was the best part of the week!! Yesterday was Stake Conf
and we had 2 investigators and a future come!! Woohoo!! Also last
night we made friends with a cat.....so if you happened to walk by and
see two girls in dresses and chapas meowing at a cat and crouching
near the ground......it was us. Also I made friends with a scary dog
that our menos activa owns. His name is Negro. He's a good puppy. Just
don't make eye contact with him.....he might eat you. Yes I've done
it. Yes in purpose. But I was behind the gate so tranquilo.

I just want to talk about Heavenly Father for a second. He's awesome.
Did you know that?? I hope so. Because He's seriously súper great. And
guess what?? He cares about the details of our lives. Lately, I've
been exhausted. Drained mentally, physically, and emotionally. More so
than ever before in my life. The other day, I said a little prayer for
energy just to stand up from my study table and go to work. We had
just been doing language study and it was like both of our batteries
died at the end. No energy to do nada. But I said a prayer and said,
"Heavenly Father, I have approximately zero energy in my body or mind.
I need help." Right after that, I got out of my seat, got my stuff
together, and we went to work. The rest of the night I felt great and
had energy to keep going. God gives us our daily bread. We just need
to ask for it. He's in the highways and byways of our lives even when
we don't notice. Get to know your Heavenly Father. Trust Him. He knows
what you need. So just ask.

I love this work so much. Being a missionary is the hardest and most
exhausting thing that has ever happened to me......but it is by far
the best thing I've ever DONE.

LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede