Hermana Twede: Adventures in Spain: REAL LIFE

Hello world!!! I'm running out of cool things to say at the beginning of my emails......today we went and bought food for Taco Tuesday tomorrow so that was fun buying 4.5 Kilos of hamburger meat. IN OUR ZONE WE CELEBRATE TACO TUESDAY!

Ok so this week was super great. Monday we had two Noches de Hogar and they were both soooo awesome!!! I love this ward so much!! Tuesday was also awesome bc we had district meeting that morning and it was super cool. Tuesday's are also kinda hectic here in Alicante because we have correlación then English class then ward NdH. But it was such a good time and a good way to meet a lot of people from both wards. Also found out something very VERY disappointing during the ward NdH. So it was someone's birthday in one of the wards so they asked me to play. When they did, I came to the realization that, I DONT KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG??? I searched for it in the Children's Songbook, NADA. The words in my head: "REALLY HERMANA TWEDE? REALLY?!? 14 YEARS OF PLAYING PIECES LIKE MOZART AND BACH AND YOU CANT EVEN WHIP OUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY?!?!" So much disappointment. Kind of like that scripture, "6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." In my case, those things so small and simple were the words Happy Birthday.

Wednesday was super awesome because we had our first set of INTERCAMBIOS!!! We had them with the awesome Hermanas from Crevillente: Hermana Woods and Hermana Lindley. I was with Hermana Woods in the afternoon on Wednesday and she is sooooo fuerte!! I learned a lot about having confidence in my calling and loving the people no matter what. We saw some milagros, had a great Noche de Hogar, drank delicious black berry batidos, and got some really solid futures. Also she's a gem because she put up with me not knowing where to go and getting lost. The next morning with Hna Lindley was so awesome. We got some delish Spanish postres from a Spanish bakery and they were soooo good. Hna Lindley is so stinking cute I just love her.

Thursday we packed up and headed to Málaga and got to ride with our ZL buddies from Cartagena on the way down. Friday we had intercambios with the STLT's Hermanas Moore and Gentry and it was awesome. That morning we went and volunteered among sandwiches at a soup kitchen type of place. I LOVE SERVICE!! Then I contacted and taught a member with Hna Gentry and that afternoon I was with Hna Moore. We saw so many miracles of just being in the right place at the right time and talking to the right people. Teaching with her felt so natural it brought me back to our days in Granada.

SATURDAY WAS THE BEST DAY!! I've failed to talk about this in past emails and for that I apologize. But on Saturday we had a mission wide conference because we got a visit from an Apostle!! And not just my apostle....ELDER JEFFERY R. HOLLAND!! Oh there are not words for how incredible it was being with him. He came early to take a picture with him and so that he could shake our hand (he says those hand shakes are Mini interviews and he looks us in our eyes to see if we're doing ok). One of the things I loved from what he spoke to us about was when he talked to us about home. He was talking about missionaries who go home and just go back to the way they were before the mission. "You can't ask people to make all of these changes in their lives and go home and you not do the same......THERE ARE NO U-TURNS IN THIS CHURCH!!" That really impacted me. When I would imagine myself at home, I would see a stronger testimony, better at studying the gospel, better study habits, but other than that being the same. But that's not what my mission was intended to do. It was supposed to CHANGE ME!! And I believe it has. Now it's just learning how to let it really change me when the time comes to take my chapa off. I love this gospel. I can honestly say that I have built my firm foundation in Christ and it will NEVER fall.