BEST DAY EVER

Ok so this week has been STELLAR!! It's been such a ride.....I don't
even know what happened but it was good stuff. I will do my best to
cover some of it and make it interesting but no promises.

Monday was good stuff. Tuesday was sad bc people were leaving and
going home. Hna Palmer has been flipping out bc she just got here but
it's ok. I'll get back to Tuesday in a second. Wednesday was crazy for
everyone else but we had a pretty normal day.

Ok before I move onto Thursday, Tuesday we were planning for a Noche
de Hogar with a Part member family and we REALLY wanted something that
could touch all of them. It's a family who lives in the Elder's area
but they asked us to visit the daughter every week because she opens
up to the Hermanas a little more. Then last week her parents asked us
when we could come for a Noche de Hogar. The Dad and daughter are
members but the mom is not so we wanted to teach a good lesson with a
strong spirit, but simple. So we had planned that morning to talk
about humility. I was sitting in District Meeting, looking at Elder
Wilding talking and just thinking about what this family needed to
hear. I had thought about asking Elder Wilding if he had any ideas on
what we could teach when Elder Seely gave his testimony about how the
best thing ever in his mission is being able to testify of the
Restoration. That thought stuck with me and I thought, "Aw yeah that's
really cool." Then it was like a little bell or something went off in
my head and I thought, "That's what we need to teach them. Something
about the Restoration." So when we got to comp study later I told Hna
Palmer my thoughts and we started pulling together a lesson. We would
start getting down what felt like the right track and then we'd get
stuck and it wasn't coming together. At one point we had 3 focuses in
mind but felt we should just have one, but didn't know which: Joseph
Smith, The Book of Mormon, and the Holy Ghost. So we decided to pray
about it. At the end of the prayer, I sat there trying to listen for
an answer. I wasn't getting anything so I stood up and Hna Palmer
says, "I feel like we need to focus on the Book of Mormon." After
that, the lesson plan just fell together. It ended up being such a
good lesson. The daughter and her dad had a chance to testify of the
truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that God answers our prayers in
front of the mom. It was so cool. I testified of the Book of Mormon
and then I looked to my companion to testify and when she started to
talk about how the Book of Mormon has changed her life and how she
knows it's true, such a strong spirit came into the room. I can't even
describe it to you but it was soooo powerful. I just thought, "Holy
cow, she's going to be an incredible missionary." It was really cool.
We invited them to read the Book of Mormon as a family every day and
they accepted to do it. Such a cool experience. Big testimony to me of
the importance of planing, prayer, and relying on the spirit.

Thursday was una LOCURA!!! LITERALLY MADNESS!!! I won't go into
details but, we had a very detailed and planned out day.......NO
AMOUNT OF BACKUPS COULD HAVE PREPARED US FOR THE ROLLERCOASTER RIDE
THAT WAS THURSDAY!!!! It started out with a really nice weekly
planning, got interrupted with some service.......and ended with
"service" (?) and madness until after lunch time. But hey, we ended
the night with a top notch Noche de Hogar with a bunch of jóvenes
including 2 investigators.

Friday was tranquilo enough for me to not remember what happened.
Saturday was awesome. We got some contacting in and I realized even
more what a máquina my companion is holy cow. SHE HAS NO FEAR AT ALL!!
We're working on our contacting and so we had some time to do it on
Saturday and saw LOTS of milagros. This guy who started out super
crazy and unbelieving and ended a lot more chill and decided to pray!!
Then a random guy yelled at us from his car, and turns out his
daughter is a member and both the parents (Dad inactive, mom non
member) were telling us to come meet with her so that she goes back to
church. Milagro. Then I contacted an old man and asked if I could help
him paint his garage. He said no but he did let me give him a
card......even if he had ME put it in HIS back pocket of his
shorts......and then later a lady named Carmen sang to us!! The
adventures of contacting just are the greatest.

OK SUNDAY WAS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!! So we get off the bus
going to church, help out a member get all the stuff that fell out of
her car in order, welcome people,etc. Then I finally walk into the
church and look up and I almost died. Why? Because standing in front
of me were......EVA AND RUBÉN!! LIKE RUBEN AS IN MY RECENT CONVERT
FROM ELCHE!! AS IN EVA HIS FIANCÉE!! AS IN SOME OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE
FROM THAT BLESSED PLACE!! They came and visited me and gave me a
wedding announcement and I WAS SO HAPPY OH MY!! The best thing ever is
to be able to see someone again who was converted and is STILL
progressing soooooo much in his this path with Christ. Such a milagro
and blessing from my Heavenly Father.

BEST SURPRISE EVER!

Guys I LOVE THE MISSION!! I was on the bus yesterday coming home from
church, switching my view back and forth between out the window and
Hna Palmer learning little hand games with the members and I felt a
deep love in my heart for Spain and this work. I can't completely
explain to you how I feel about this place, but it feels like when I
went back to NC before my mission and it felt like I had just come
home. Spain has become home, and I love it with all of my heart. I
thank my Heavenly Father everyday for allowing me to come serve these
people for 18 months. It's been hard.......but it's been the best last
12 months of my life. I know this church is true and that I'm doing
God's work.

Have a great week. Love y'all.

Kia Kaha.

Hermana Twede

We went on a hike today! Don't mind the tomato face....es normal.

Pano from the hike today. Mediterranean on one side, Spain on the other.

Our fave American family who are leaving us. The Wallace crew will be greatly missed.

This is our new ride. Be jealous! (JK)

BB Therapy

My watch finally kicked the can this week.......that was sad. So for a solid 8 hours I just had a pale strip of naked skin on my wrist and lots of stress as I tried to look at the time during lessons only to see NADA, before I broke and had to go to the store to buy a new one. Now I know what time it is so we good, WE GOOD!!

Well this week was chock full of milagros. First off, why is that a thing? To say something is "chock full" of something? Doesn't make sense. Anyway, so I have two main miracles for the week. One of them was our investigator who had a fecha bautismal (baptism date) but kind of almost dropped us. We had been trying to get in contact with him but he wasn´t answering our calls or anything and we don´t know where he lives because we always meet with him in a member´s house or in a park. So we went to correlación and talked about it and just asked if the bishop or someone from the ward could give him a call that would be awesome. So right then, one of our ward mission leaders walked out and called him. He came back in explaining what our investigator had said to him and that we could call him. So we were going to call him after correlación but during the meeting, when the elders were talking, we got a phone call from him. So we walked outsde and answered it and talked to him for a bit. The next day he called us asking if he could meet with us. We had a Noche de Hogar that night so instead we invited him to that and he said yes! We had a great Noche de Hogar that night with lots of people. Then we met with him on Friday and we knew from other member friends that his big issue was diezmo (tithing) because he already doesn´t make a lot of money from his job, then he has to pay for his house, his car, his brother´s medications, etc. So we gave him the folleto for Diezmo because those have worked really well with him. He had a lot of questions but we told him to read the folleto that night and that on Saturday we would talk about it. So Saturday comes and we meet and talk about diezmo and the importance of it and asked him to explain what he understood from it and he understood it REALLY well. Then at the end we asked him if he will live the law of tithing after his baptism and without hesitation he said, "Yes." SO COOL! I am not going to lie I expected a little more resitence and questions. It just goes to show that those who are becoming truly converted will accept all the commandments and LIVE them. Really cool.

Another miracle is a joven that has been taught since January and has had countless fechas in the past. Last time we set a fecha, we were serious about it and he knew what he needed to do. His issue has been church attendence. It is so hard to get him to church more than once a transfer. So last time he missed his fecha, instead of setting another one, we gave him some space. So as of late, we haven´t met with him. But after our noche de hogar on Thursday, we set up a cita with him for the next day. We had a good discussion with him. He told us that last week after work, he told his boss he couldn ´t work on Sunday anymore, so now he has Sunday off!! So we invited him to church. Then I had a small prompting to set another fecha bautismal with him. I asked him if he really wants to get baptized and he said yes. So together, we picked out a date. August 12th! Then we showed him on the calendar that he needs to come to all those sundays leading up to his baptism, including the ones after. He accepted. So we invited hm to church the next day and he accepted. And he really came!! It was so awesome. After church, we got off the bus and we were walking back home with him and he pulls out his permission form for Youth Conference!! We didn´t even ask! He just said, "Hey look I´m going to Youth Conference!" We were so excited for him!! So that will be a very good experience for him and I am confident that he will be more than ready for the 12th of August.

Another miracle that we've seen explains the title of this week's email. BANANA BREAD!! We had a hard day on Saturday and after needed some therapy. Here in Cartagena everyone loves banana bread thanks to Hermana Bailey so as of late we've been a banana bread factory. But on Saturday, we decided we needed something to get our spirits up so we made banana bread. Need therapy? Make banana bread. Helps when bajo de animo and makes people happy and if you ever have a hard time visiting less actives.....one dose of banana bread will do the trick.

Ok well this morning I was reading a really cool talk about forgiveness called, "The Healing Ointment of Forgiveness" by Elder Kevin R. Duncan. Oh my it was soooo good. There was a lot of parts I really liked. "Forgiveness is the very reason God sent His Son, so let us rejoice in His offering to heal us all. The Savior’s Atonement is not just for those who need to repent; it is also for those who need to forgive." I had never thought of forgiveness being the reason that God sent His son to the earth. When we think of the Atonement, we think of Christ suffering for our sins but I guess for me, I never think of "forgiveness" right off. But that really is the whole reason Christ was sent here. To carve a path of FORGIVENESS from our sins. We know that the Atonement was for our sins so that GOD can forgive US for our trespasses, but did you realize that it's also for YOU to forgive your NEIGHBOR/FRIEND/FAMILY for their trespasses?? And for THEM to forgive YOU of your trespasses?? Makes one think. I guess my thought for today is: People? Forgive one another!! Stop holding onto your grudges. It's not worth it. A kid asked me once that if you are messed up and your mom is messed up because your dad abused you as a child, what do you do? Do you forgive him? I told him yes. It's not your job to hold onto that. Let God take care of it. My favorite quote ever is, "Holding a grudge is like drinking poison hoping for the other person to die." If Christ went through sooo much to take those grudges from you, save yourself a lot of pain and LET HIM TAKE IT!!

I know Christ is my Savior. I know Heavenly Father loves me. I know that through them I can do anything.

Love you all. Have a great week.

Kia Kaha


Hermana Twede

Sorry we didn't take any pics this week. So enjoy this rare art from the children who like to draw on my iPad on the way to church.

BICICLETA 🚲

It's been quite the day. And week. And month. And year. But
specifically, this week has been filled with police stations, almost
dying, Zone Conf, interviews, banana bread, new investigators, dropped
dates, and waaaay too much of Spanish men than preferred. I'll
explain.

Sooooo Monday we had a KILLER Noche de Hogar with an investigator,
recent convert, menos activos, and strong members. KILLER!! So
awesome!! Hermana Palmer learned that when you don't know what anyone
is saying, just say, "Qué fuerte!!" It was a good night.

Tuesday.......was interesting. It was a very up and down day, but we
made cookies for our Noche de Hogar and ended up having a super great
night. You wanna get close with the members? Chocolate chip cookie
bars may just do the trick;)

Wednesday I turned 1 YEAR OLD in the mission. I'm getting old.....it's
not ok. Soooo to celebrate we met with an investigator in the morning
who I love to pieces. Then we had interviews with Presidente
Andersen!! I love that man. He told me a lot of things I needed to
hear so it was awesome. Then we visited some menos activas and we've
started doing Personal Progress with them!! It's fun going back and
doing it but now and Spanish. I don't know why I never thought about
doing that before with my less actives but I LOVE IT!! Then later that
night we had another really good Noche de Hogar and then I
accomplished my mission goal: bought a barra de pan and ate it.....all
of it. Let's just say 6 Months to Sexy came in with a bang the next
morning. #YIKES

Thursday we had a killer Noche de Hogar AGAIN with a bunch of jóvenes.
We had it about prayer and I don't think I've ever testified so
strongly of the power of prayer. There's something about teaching kids
your age who don't have the testimony you do and you just want them to
believe soooooo bad that God is their Heavenly Father and He wants to
help them with whatever they go through. So it was great.

Friday was ZONE CONF!! Hermana Palmer's first and SHE SAID THE OPENING
PRAYER!!! She was so nervous leading up to it but she NAILED IT!! I
was so proud.

Saturday is where things really started to get interesting. So we had
planned before to make banana bread as an excuse to go meet all of our
neighbors. We also set a goal that day to find 2 new investigators. So
we go to our next door neighbors and they let us in and have us sit
down and we get talking. Then she says, "I always see missionaries
living there. I want to know about your church." Mind you, VERY
catholic. So.....we taught her the first lesson. To her and two of her
daughters and at the end gave her and one of the daughters a Book of
Mormon and invited them to read. At they end, they commented that we
seemed like closed off people because missionaries who have passed
through dont say hi to the neighbors and keep to themselves.
So....MISSIONARIES!! GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS!!! THEY NEED LOVE AND
THE GOSPEL TOO!!
The second neighbor we went to see, her husband was.....not
clothed....so he didn't let us give him banana bread.....not really
mad about that. But then we went and visited our cute Ines, very
catholic future investigator, taught her a lesson, and set a return
appointment. So between our neighbors and Ines, we reached our goal of
2 news and had some great lessons!! It was a good day.

Yesterday was awesome. Started with studies. In the middle church. And
ended with getting home late because we lost our phone and had to go
to the police stations!! Woohoo!!

But an experience we had in between all the craziness was really cool.
The Super SHEs (Sister Training Leaders)have been having us do this
thing this month where we try to develop a certain attribute of Christ
during July.

Mine is faith. Yesterday, they challenged us to contact the first 3
people we saw, no matter what they looked like. So......Hna Palmer and
I got off the bus from church and started contacting on our way home. We
contacted two interesting old men who didn't want much. Then we were
coming up on a girl who looked about our age and I wasn't going to
contact her but a thought came to my head, "She is number 3. Contact
her." So we started talking to her and asking if she has ever had a
desire to know that there is a God and she says yes. I just looked at
her and said, "Hey, we're jóvenes like you. We're not weird people.
But I can tell you that this gospel has blessed my life so so much. I
know that I have a purpose here in this life and I know that it's to
become like and later life with my Heavenly Father. We just want to
share this message with you as well. Is there another day this week
when we could do that?" She accepted, we showed her a video, set up a
return appointment, and invited her to pray to feel God's love.
Coolest contacting experience. It's such a cool experience to be able
to look kids in the face who are MY OWN AGE and tell them, "There is
hope. There is happiness. You have a purpose. And we're here to help
you find it." I love he mission. I love the miracles we see when we
have faith. I love everything I've learned and everything I've become.
I'm excited to go the hardest I've ever gone in my last 6 months and
give the Lord my all. I love this gospel. I know it's true.

Love you all. Have a great week.

Kia Kaha.


Hermana Twede

P.S. SORRY IF I DONT WRITE YOU BACK WHEN YOU EMAIL ME. I DONT HATE
YOU. I LOVE YOUR EMAILS.

One Year Celebration. Face masks and Uno!

Oh Spain.

Oh Spain.

Feliz Dia de la Virgen Del Carmen!

DÍA DE 'MÙRICA

🎶MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF THEE, SWEET LAND OF JAMÓN Y CHEESE, OF THEE I SING.
LAND WHERE MY IPAD DIED, LAND OF PAELLA PRIDE, FROM EVERY SPANISH
SIDE, LET FREEDOM RING. 🎶

HAPPY MURICA DAY!!! Hope y'all enjoyed your 4 de Julio like true
Americans. We celebrated with red and blue pancakes for breakfast with
white chocolate chips then took a road trip to Murcia for
intercambios. It was a great day. No we didn't light off fireworks
although that woulda been cool.

Well it's been a week. It's been a crazy great one. We have had some
INCREDIBLE lessons with our investigator. He is seriously so great. We
had a really cool lesson about the Word of Wisdom and committed him to
stop drinking coffee.
Him: "But if I don't then I will be tired!"
Me: "That's exactly why you shouldn't drink it! Because then you
depend on it! You need to take care of your body. Will you go home
tonight and chuck your coffee??"
Him: "Hermana that's money!!"
Me: "But it's also eternal blessings from Heavenly Father!! Will you
keep the Word of Wisdom."
Him: "....yes. I want to be obedient. So I will stop drinking coffee."
WOOHOO!!! And he's still going. He is so strong and so excited to be
baptized next week. We talk about it all the time. "22 de Julio a las
7 por la tarde." He says every time we bring it up. I always feel so
blessed for the opportunity I've had to help him enter into this
covenant of baptism with his Heavenly Father. He has seriously walked
into the font and that's the way it should be. We as missionaries
shouldn't be dragging them in, we should be walking with them, side by
side, as they enter the font and start this new life.

We had some ups and downs but overall it was a great week. I can't
remember all that happened right now but we got some citas set up with
some futures for this week and a Noche de Hogar almost everyday this
week!! Hey you humans, DO FAMILY HOME EVENING!! Not just with your own
family but with everyone and anyone. It's such a good bonding
experience. Also if you guys have cool FHE ideas, like cool fun object
lessons, I'd love to hear your ideas. I'm not creative and we're
trying to come up with more ways to teach gospel principles. SO SEND
IN YOUR IDEAS!! Feel like I'm a commercial but whatever.

Ok so I have started reading the Book of Mormon in english again,
focusing on the Christlike Attribute of Faith. I was reading in
chapter 2 verse 16 when Lehi tells his Familia they got make like a
tree and get out of Jerusalem. Laman and Lemuel are over there like,
"WAAAAAAT?!! Dad noooo whyyyyy are you kidding?? But dad I just bought
these sandals they will definitely not work for the wilderness!!" And
on and on. Then you have Nephi in verse 16 that says: "16 And it came
to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being
large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the
mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he
did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words
which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against
him like unto my brothers." Sometimes I think we think, "Aw Nephi look
at that Stud. Doesn't even question it he just goes." WRONG! Sorry but
nope. I love this verse because it goes to show that Nephi DID have a
hard time accepting the vision Lehi had to leave his home. I think the
only person who wouldn't think twice about leaving their home for
unknown reasons would be Jesus Christ. But, because of his faith,
Nephi, instead of murmuring like his brothers and like so many of us
do, turned to the Lord. When the Lord softened his heart, he was all
in because even if he didn't know everything, he know it's what the
Lord needed them to do. I hope to be more like Nephi and have enough
faith to accept and carry out the Lord's will.
We shared this scripture in a member's house and she said something
I'll never forget, "I imagine Nephi as a big strong young man. But boy
is he tiny compared to the faith he has." SO TRUE!! May we all learn
to have faith like Nephi and do what the Lord asks of us. I know that
we are blessed when we do what the Lord asks because He does nothing
save it be for our benefit.

Love you all!! Until next week!!

Hermana Twede

Happy 4th! Sorry, I'm sweating after running.

Intercambios

We love Isabel!

Meet Ines. 92. Very hip. Very Catholic. My favorite.

My home E. Wilding. Because we hit a year this week and we're old.

WHO'S LINE IS IT ANYWAY?

HUMAN BEINGS HOW IS IT ALREADY MONDAY?!?! But really I feel like I
just did this like yesterday.

Ok so this week was awesome and we saw lots of Milagros. So here we do
this thing called PLAN MAMUT and it is a plan of having missionaries
and members working together through Family Home Evenings. The goal is
to take strong member families and have them do Noches de Hogar with
less active families and then have the less active members turn in to
strong members. We also include investigators so that they
automatically have friends in the ward. The elders have seen a lot of
success with it but we have kind of done it half heartedly. Last
Tuesday we had a great district meeting and talked about it and after,
Hna Palmer and I decided we were going to go all in and do it. GUYS WE
SAW MILAGROS!! The first family we went to, we asked if they would be
willing to do a NdH every week and they said, "Of course! We want to
help the families who are a little down spiritually. We also know that
it's going to help us too. So of course. We will do it." WOOHOO!! So
cool. This week we ended up having 4 different Noches de Hogar it was
so awesome.

Another milagro is our awesome investigator. He's honestly like
teaching a child sometimes so we move kinda slow and try to keep him
focused. We met with him on Friday and that day I had been wondering
if he was understanding anything we were teaching or if he remembered
anything....especially the Plan of Salvation. So we sort of planned a
review with him plus another lesson if he was getting everything.
Anyway, so we meet and we start walking to a part and he says to me,
"So I was thinking about something we learned last week.....after we
die when we go to that place with the paradise and the prison, didn't
you say there were missionaries there? Can you explain that again
today?" I was soooo happy when he asked me that bc it showed me that
he really is internalizing everything. Although some things take
longer to understand, he LOVES learning and he is soooo excited to be
baptized in the near future. He used to have really negative thoughts
and was really weighed down, but then we gave him his paper of
assignments and he says his thoughts are much more positive. He told
us the other day, "When I read the Book of Mormon, my mind is focused
and clear during the day. But when I don't, it's not. I feel much
happier because of my little paper of things I need to do." SO COOL.
Nothing compares to watching someone truly becoming converted to Jesus
Christ and His gospel.

Another milagro was that it rained this week. TWICE. The week before,
Hna Palmer asked me when it rains here in Cartagena. "Approximately
never." I answered. (Why? Bc everyone here told me the same thing.
Really hot, no rain.) Well......I was wrong. We actually went out on
Saturday to find this new American Family who just moved here (they
are wonderful btw) and when we left casa it was a beautiful day and
everyone was at the beach. By the time we got to San Pedro (12
minutesish) it was looking pretty feo up there in the sky. Then when
we went American Family hunting, it started a down pour. So if y'all
saw some crazy girls in sandals standing outside a building across
from a Catholic Church soaking wet....it was us. Note to self: it DOES
rain in CartaG but it's about as predictable as the weather in Utah.

It's been a great week with lots of miracles. This fast Sunday we did
a fast as a mission for the work and I think we are in for some big
miracles down here in the Málaga Spain Mission. I have been reading
lately about Alma and Amulek when they went to go teach the Zoramites.
At one point, Amulek is standing up there and he's preaching straight
fire to these people and he starts in about prayer. Now because I read
my scriptures in Español, he says over and over again,
"Clamad.....Clamad...... Clamad a él en vuestras casas, sí, por todos
los de vuestra casa, tanto por la mañana, como al mediodía y al
atardecer." So I looked up what Clamad means and it means to clamor.
Well....,I'm not an English major so idk what the means so hopped on
over to the dictionary and saw that "to clamor" means "to cry out".
HUMANS! We're not just supposed to do this casual prayer thing like
it's on our To Do list. We are literally supposed "to cry out" to our
Father in Heaven about everything that's going on in our lives. Later,
Amulek says to "derramar vuestra alma". Y'all know what "derramar"
means? It means to spill or shed. When we pray, we should be SPILLING
OUR SOULS out to our Father. Not just a, "Hey how's it going. Today
was great. Hey could you make sure tomorrow is good to? Sweet thanks,
bye." NO! He is your literally Father in Heaven who wants to talk to
you. SO TALK TO HIM! Prayer has taken on a whole new meaning for me in
my life during my mission. Even though I can only talk to my earthly
parents once a week, I have a Heavenly Father who I can talk to at any
minute of every single day of my life. No batteries needed. My
challenge to you all is to stop having a one way voice recording with
God, but to actually TALK to Him. Because He's there and He's
listening. To every single child's prayer.

Love you all. Have a great week!!

Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede

We figured out the key to get fresh hot bread from Mercadona...happy hermanas

Our Favorite Isabel!

Cool graffiti in Los Alcazares

Are we Isabel yet?