Cadiz....Not.

HOLA AMIGOS MÍOS!! Qué tal?! Pues recibimos llamadas de traslados y me voy a.................NOT CÁDIZ!!! Hah y'all thought I was leaving, jokes on you I'm staying here in good ol' Elche. But fun fact, they are closing the Hnas area in Cádiz this transfer so NO ONE is going there.

So yep me and Hna Pickett get to party it up another transfer here in Elche for which I am STOKED! This area is getting so great and we are always busy so I'm excited to see what God has in store for this area.
This week was pretty great. On Wednesday a crazy man tried to drag Hna Pickett into his Piso....that was weird. Then right after tried to beso her.....even weirder. And the whole time I just stood there in shock, not having time to react. Sorry comp.
Also, more people contacted us than we contacted them so that was cool. And an old man gave us carmelos so even better. Pretty much it. K bye.

Jokes. I'll give a quick run down of the week. Tuesday night we went and visited a member family who we are working with on the Big List. They are just stellar and their kids are the cutest little half Africans ever. They have fros (claro I touch their hair all the time bc it's great) and one of them got corn rows and I'm like, "Yeah girl you embrace that African side of you!" ANYWAY!! We went and poor things they were all sick. So we really wanted to do something for them so we went to Mercadona (our version of Smiths I guess?) and got them optioned up tissues and took advantage of this incredible machine they have there with oranges and you stick a bottle under the nozzle thing and pull the thingy majig (idk what it's called) and it literally just squeezes out fresh orange juice into your bottle. Like straight from the oranges. INCREDIBLE!! So we got them each one and them wrote them a note, put it in front of their door and door bell ditched them. Sort of. Doorbell ditching is a struggle in Spain because everybody lives in apartment buildings so we tried ringing their neighbors to let us in and they didn't buy the, "we are friends of your friends and we want to leave something for a surprise." But thankfully their brother in law walked by and let us in so that was great.

Oh also on Wednesday everyone and their dog failed us so that was cool. But yet we still ended up being super busy. Also we went and found this thing that missionaries here call "The Utter" and it's a machine that gives you the freshest milk ever in Spain. It tastes like the milk in the states so it was incredible. We got some good contacting in and found our crazy cat lady again who we had contacted a few weeks ago. She goes and feeds the stray cats all the time so that's cool. She's super nice and we'll try to set up a cita with her here soon.

I'm skipping to Friday bc it was great. Sorry Thursday, you were great too, but I'm picking favorites this week. So Friday I rolled out of bed at 6:50 and swallowed and thought, "Well fetch." Sore throat. I have yet to get sick on my mission and all my comps have gotten it but literally by miracles from God I've avoided it. But my immune system decided it would be funny to give up for a little bit. So I had a headache and scratchy throat, but we had a good day planned so I downed some ibuprofen and went to work. We went out to a pueblo we didn't know was ours to stop by a reference and get some contacting in and kind of scope out the area. It's called Los Arenales del Sol and it's the cutest little BEACH TOWN ever. So we went to the beach and the Mediterranean was gorg so pics will be coming. No we didn't step foot on the sand, calm down. We are obedient. But we took a couple minutes to go soak in the view and the smells and take some pics. But later soon came to realize that no one lives there until summer so.....no work out there right now and our reference was MIA. But we met her dog.....he didn't seem to like us very much but...,bueno.

After we got back Hna Pickett was trying to convince me to take a nap but I said no. We made lunch, ate, did language study, and then I gave in because I felt like I got hit by a train. But that night I got 1 L of fresh orange juice and downed it real quick and now I'm practically healed. Quickest cold ever and thank heavens!!

Ok Sunday was the coolest day. I know these are always novels but I'll try to be quick. So one of our former investigators (that's weird to say in English) has been comin to church a lot so that's awesome. He brought his little sister and she's just precious and loved primary so that was cool. Then we are sitting there in sacrament (oh btw it was Fathers Day here in Spain on Sunday) and someone walks in and our jaws just dropped. We teach this part member family and the dad hasn't come to church but HE WAS THE ONE WHO WALKED IN!!! He came to see his daughter sing with the primary. It was such a sweet experience to see the whole family in church. GOD IS COOL AND MIRACLES ARE GREAT!!

Today we went to Alicante and hiked to a castle and the view was GORG!! I love Spain and the Mediterranean. Also I said goodbye to my fave Hna Burrell. Gonna miss that crazy lady. Hasta 2018. It's also super hot today so that's fun. But I made the mistake of thinking it'd be cold so I wore a hoodie to hike in.....big mistake. Sweating so hard. Oh well.

The Sights of Alicante

Quick story and I'm done. I was surprised a little bit at first to hear I was staying here in Elche because everyone expected me to leave. But I guess there's more for me to learn here and my work here isn't done. I was getting really anxious before calls about staying or leaving and I asked Heavenly Father in my prayers Saturday night that whatever happens, to just help me feel the confirmation that it is His will. After I found out I was staying, I felt a big wave of peace just come over me and my heart and I knew that is is exactly what is supposed to happen. I don't know why and i don't know what's going to happen but I know this is where I'm supposed to be and I'm willing to submit to His will because I know that my mission and my life are in His hands and I'm willing to trust Him.

How blessed are we to have such an amoroso Padre Celestial?? And one who shows us so many miracles? I feel so blessed to be out here and the more time I pass in the mission, the sadder I get when I realize that one day I will have to leave this place and these people. I will have to leave this calling and this ability to preach every single day in the Calle. But it gives me even more reason to give my all every single day and treat it like it's my last. We've seen some incredible things here this last transfer, handed out almost an entire box of Book of Mormons, and seen this area transform completely. So we are stoked to see what happens this transfer.

Ok have a great week beautiful humans and know that God loves you and missions are great!!

Alicante Zone Missionaries

Kia Kaha.

Another Amazing Week and Lots of Pictures

Welp. Here we are again. Another Monday. How did that even happen??

Today is Pday and it's been hot all last week. HOT. LIKE I GOT TO WEAR
SANDALS AND IM GETTING A FARMERS TAN AND WATCH TAN LINES ALREADY!! And
now it's Monday and it's pouring rain. Sometimes I seriously wonder if
I'm actually in Spain or some random part of Utah will how bipolar
this weather is.

This week was super great and super full of miracles it was just
awesome. We had intercambios on Thursday and Friday with the one and
only HERMANA BURRELL AND FAVERO!! Those were killer. Thursday night I
was with my fave Hna Burrell who's been my SHE since I entered the
mission field but this was our last intercambios ever since at the end
of this transfer she'll be returning back home. That's super sad
but......happens. But we had a great night, taught some great lessons,
had Spanish boys walk behind us and serenade us with Adele, and then
bought ice cream. Then Friday morning I got to teach the sweetest man
from Colombia I think and got some serious piano talk in with Hna
Favero. She's just a great human. I love those two lots and lots.

So Friday after we got back we had a lesson with a guy who referred
HIMSELF on mormon.org and he said he's investigated a lot of churches
but none of them made him feel "full". Then he remembered the two
Mormons he works with but didn't have their number so he found our
website and asked for a Book of Mormon!! He was stoked to read it and
we will be meeting with him again this week!! #MILAGROS
Then like a couple hours later, we were in Centro and stopped walking
to decide if we had time to pass by a menos activo before English
class and this guy walks up and asks us, "What are you looking for?
What do you want to do?" That caught us a little off guard but we just
told him what we were deciding and he was like, "oh yeah your church
is just over there right?" Then he asked if we wanted to see the view
of the palm trees from his apartment window and we explained we didn't
have time but maybe another day and he was like ok. Then we said, "umm
but also we are missionaries who share a message about families and
Jesus Christ....could we come by and share that with you sometime?"
His answer: "Yeah sure whenever you want." We asked him for the next
day and what time and he told us yes at 11. We walked away from that
like, "Uhhhhhhhhhh wat just happened??" God is so cool. And He blesses
His missionaries. Two for two that day super great. #MILAGROS

Saturday was the bomb.com. We visited with two new investigators and
then went to a member's house for lunch and she made us HAMBURGERS!!
LIKE REAL LIFE HAMBURGERS!! Like they compete with American Made
hamburgers so dang good!!! Best hamburgers I've had since the 4th of
July I almost cried.

Then that night was the Anniversary for the
Relief Society activity and we were singing in it so we went. THEY DID
SUCH A GOOD JOB!! Almost every single woman in there had sewn her own
bonnet and apron and wore it. They had cardboard cut outs of wagons
and paintings of pioneers and everything and they did skits and told
stories and showed videos and it was all so great and everyone looked
so cute!! I sat there in awe and loved all of it. While I was sitting
there, I felt a big rush of the spirit and an overwhelming sense of
love for these people. I LOVE SPAIN!! And I love these people. They're
my people. And God loves them so so much and I'm blessed with the
opportunity to feel that love too.

I don't have much of a spiritual thought this week. Just that I love
life right now. There's been so many days the past few weeks where I
just think, "I never want to stop being a missionary." When I hunk of
missionaries going home, I cry for them because I know that soon my
time will come to leave these people and this country. There will be a
day where I can't put on my chapa, and that just sounds like such a
sad day. But I love so much what I get to do these short 18 months.
The mission is something absolutely incredible and I love it so much.
Words cannot express my love for my Savior and this work that He
directs. I'm grateful for this chance to be on the front lines of His
army and bring His children to the knowledge of the truth. If anyone
is debating on whether or not to serve a mission, I say GO! Yes it's
hard. I'm not going to lie to you and say it's not. It will be one of
the hardest things you've ever done in your life up to this point. But
it is 1000000000% worth it. Nothing I've ever experienced in my life
has compared to what I've experienced here in Spain. I love this work
and the message of good news I carry every single day. I know this
gospel is true with all of my heart and that Christ is my Savior and
that I have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over and guides me. I
was reading about Abinadi last night and how he testified until the
moment he died. It made me think, "Would I do that? Would I die for my
testimony?" As I wrote this, I can confidently say that yes I would. I
would die rather than deny the things I know to be true. I love this
gospel and I testify of its truthfulness. Thanks to the mission, I get
to do it every day too.

Thanks for all the support. Love you all so much. Until next week.

Kia Kaha.

Hermana Twede

Amazing Week

Yo.

Ok so I'm just gonna jump in. Getting really bad at small talk.

So today we went back to the Pantano d'Elx but this time we had some
homies from Alicante come and two elders from Elda so that was cool.
Our guides (which will go nameless) decided to back out so Hna Clark
and I ended up doing it even though we had no clue where we were
going.

Ok so LAST Monday I wrote my group before we did actual Pday fun stuff
but I didn't care to write another email. So last week Hna Pickett and
I went and did compras and cleaned and all that stuff, then we went
shopping in centro, went and climbed to the top of a cathedral, went
to an archeological museum, went in a castle, I faced my fear of
spaniards and finally got a trim after over 8 months (Sorry Lezlie I
just couldn't do it before), then we went to a little cafe and sat
outside and ate delicious bocadillos. Needless to say we SLAYED Pday
last week. We've been getting so efficient with them it's great. Like
this morning we got groceries done in 15 minutes. CRUSHED IT. ANYWAY.
Last Pday was great and later that night we had some Noches de Hogar
and they were awesome.

Tuesday.....INTERVIEWS!! Wow. President Andersen is just killer. Sorry
homies in other missions, but the mission President of the Spain
Málaga Mission is the best in the world. He's like Darren Twede's
cinnamon rolls.....none compare nor compete. Sorry not sorry.
So after interviews we had a KILLER lesson about the restoration with.
Joven chica who doesn't believe in God but said a prayer at the end
and promised God in her prayer that she would read and pray about the
Book of Mormon. HOLLA! So vamos a ver what happens with that. Then we
had English class and I got to go early to help this adorable little
girl with her homework because she had a test the next day. Makes me
think I should have payed more attention in Mr. Durham's English class
bc I don't know my own language para nada. But I'm learning more bc I
have to teach it so fun. Then I went and picked up my new scripture
cases I ordered that a guy in our ward makes for missionaries!!
They're killer but I forgot to take pics so sorry you can't see them
in their glory quite yet.

Wednesday we had some good visits with recent converts, good food from
members, and some good Big List visits with old spaniards. Thursday we
had weekly planning, ate some delicious food again from members, some
not so delicious pineapple upside down cake (don't listen to Shawn and
Gus....they're lying. I had such high hopes after watching Psych and
they've been thrown on the ground over and over again), and had some
more good Big List visits with our favorite Colombian family here.

Friday.....ZONE CONFERENCE!!! Best day of the week. Got to see my
homie G's from the CCM and old comps and just having a good time while
being spiritually fed. The conference was a bit of a "Come to Jesus"
moment for me because they emphasized working a lot with people
between the ages of 15-25 or in other words, jóvenes. Which I don't
like doing. Never have been a fan of contacting jóvenes or anything.
But this conference made me realize I gotta do it because these kids
go on to serve missions and have families and raise faithful
generations. So I'm ready to start working more with jóvenes and we
had a really cool experience which brings me to SATURDAY!!

So we had a missionary activity on Saturday and invited a ton of
people and we were gonna eat and have a tour of the capilla and it was
gonna be great. But then it rained.....right on our little hopeful
parade. Idk if y'all know, but when the rain in Spain falls mainly on
the plains.....the country shuts down. So we planned on 70 people and
I think 20 came and 10 of them were missionaries. Woohoo. But it was
fine it was a good activity. Then we were contacting that night and we
contacted this joven chica and we asked her if she is creyente and she
said her parents no but she's super interested in religion. So we
asked her if we could pass by and share a bit about our beliefs and
she answers, "yes of course!! I would like that very much!" So we got
her info and we're gonna be paying her a visit this week!! WOOHOO!! My
testimony of contacting jóvenes is growing and she helped it.

Sunday was killer with investigators in church and stuff and it was
great. One of our investigators fasted too....just on his own!! So
cool!!

So this week I was studying in Mosiah when Abinadi comes into the
picture. If I could describe Abinadi in one word: MAQUINA (machine)!! That guy
is just one cool dude. So I'm reading and King Noah is in power and
just doing all these awful things and then Abinadi shows up and says,
"what are yah doing?! You guys know better than this!!" Then Noah gets
mad and is like, "Who is this guy?!" And they arrest him but then
Abinadi is talking to them and he says, "You teach the Law of Moses,
and commandments, but you don't understand it nor do you practice it
yourselves." It just made me wonder that as a missionary, do I TRULY
understand what I teach everyday? And if I do, do I practice it in my
own life? It just gave me cause for reflection. A French man in my
ward asked me, "How can someone teach or testify something that they
don't believe themselves?" Well.....you can't. Also it's hard to
testify with the Spirit if you don't already have a testimony of what
you're testifying. And if you can't testify with the spirit.....you're
really just saying empty words. So now Ive been trying to really apply
these lessons to my own life and make sure I'm keeping the commitments
that I invite others to do daily. THE GOSPEL IS SO COOL YOU GUYS!!
There's sooooo much you can learn.....it doesn't matter how long
you've been a member.....don't ever fall into the trap thinking you
know all there is to know about the gospel. Heavenly Father will
humble you in a quick second.....I can testify of that. I'm learning
so much everyday that I REALLY study my scriptures and words of living
apostles and prophets and it's incredible. I LOVE THE GOSPEL OF JESUS
CHRIST!! This things changes lives. It's changed mine, and I'm seeing
it change others. Our father in Heaven is so merciful and loving we
can't even comprehend it. I know that He has a plan for every
individual person on this earth and if we choose to follow it over our
own, we will find eternal happiness.
Thanks so so much for the support and love. You all are wonderful!
Have a great week!!
Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede

BACKWARDSDRAWKCAB

Hey y'all.
So if you didn't get the title of the email on first glance I'll
explain: its "backwards" spelled forward and backward. But no I'm not
referring to the Rascal Flatts song from the Hannah Montana
Movie.......I'm referring to how I somehow put my clothes on backwards
literally all week. Not on purpose. No I didn't get dressed in the
dark either. I don't know what happened. On Friday I put on a pair or
workout pants and thought, "FINALLY ITS ON CORRECTLY!" Then I looked
down and......backwards again. I'm going crazy it's fine.

ANYWAY! Well it's been another week in this neck of the Lord's
vineyard. And it's been good. We've seen some miracles and been
blessed a lot. I'll just give a quickish (hopefully....probs not) run
down.

First miracle was on Monday. After Pday we went and had a Noche de
Hogar (FHE) with a member and her daughter who got baptized earlier
this year. It's been over a year since the mom got baptized and guess
what?! SHE WENT TO THE TEMPLE AND GOT ENDOWED THIS LAST WEEKEND!!
AAAAAHHHHH HAPPY DAY!! She told us everything that had gone on at work
leading up to going to Madrid and you could really see how Satan was
trying really hard not to go, but she's just incredible and said,
"Nuh-uh not me Satan!" And went to the temple!! We were so stoked for
her and the blessings she is seeing because of her decision. GOD IS SO
GOOD!! He blessed us soooo much when we do what is right. #MILAGROS (blessings)

Miracle of the week happened on Tuesday. So before I left Granada, I left my
SD card, containing pictures from the first 6 months of my mission,
with Hermana Moore to move over some music and P90X videos that we
didn't get the chance to do. So we've been trying to get it to me over
the last transfer and a half and at one point (this last week) no one
knew where it was. #STRESS So I had been talking to the SHE's and they
told me they gave a bunch of letters and stuff to Crevillente during
intercambios and they'll bring it to District Meeting. But when I
described what the envelope looked like they said they hadn't seen
anything like that with our stuff. So district meeting comes and I ask
the Hnas from Crevillente if they had anything that looked like it and
they said they didn't see anything like it. That morning, I had been
praying during personal study and just prayed for a miracle to happen.
I didn't care about the music or the videos, I just didn't want to
loose those pictures (like 3+GB of pictures). I knew that if I had
faith, and if it was God's will, we would find it. Sounds silly but
just listen. So after district meeting we go to the car and they're
like, "I didn't see anything with your name on it but you can look."
First glance, I see two envelopes from my good homie KALEE TYSON!!
That was awesome. Then I see an envelope covered with some familiar
stationary and a picture of Michigan drawn on it.....IT WAS FROM HNA
MOORE AND CONTAINED THE SD CARD!! Literally almost cried. The SHE's,
ZL's, and Hnas from Crevillente said they didn't even see that at all
in with the stuff. #MILAGROS FOLKS. MILAGROS. Needless to say I was a
happy camper and since then we've been enjoying new music and Super
Buff Tony has been destroying our abs. #MILAGROS

Wednesday we worked some more with the Big List and now we're in the
phase where we start having the members choose out of the list of
names who they want to work with. So this week we sent references to
Cali, USA and Melbourne, Australia and put them in contact with our
members here. This upcoming week we will be hopefully having a Noche
de Hogar with a family and also giving a Book of Mormon to another
family. Stoked! #MILAGROS

Thursday we celebrated Hermana Pickett's 6 month mark!! WOOHOO SHE'S
GETTING UP THERE!! We also discovered something beautiful called
dessert paella and it's stellar so we're gonna become rich and famous
off of it. But as I was lighting the candles for her cumplemes I
burned my thumb on the metal part of the little lighter and seared off
a chunk of my finger print. Fun. But hey, now it'll make it harder to
clone me so menos mal. Also on Thursday we were gathering areas where
people live for the list of names for the Big List with this elderly
couple in the ward. Jajajajajja #STRESS! Asking 80+ year olds to
remember where their friends live and how many
children/spouses/grandchildren they have is a real struggle sometimes.
There were points we didn't know if we were ever going to leave that
house. But we got it done and it was a good laugh. That night, WE CUT
HNA PICKETTS HAIR! I had mentioned that one time I cut Hna Moore's
hair and she said, "Well I need a haircut.....wanna do mine?" I was
like, ".........uuuuhhhhhhhhhh do you want me to do it?" "yep. Just
cut it." Ok my companions must not be right in the head bc for some
reason they keep trusting me to cut their hair. Idk why. But hey if
some certain friends of mine at BYU or in my house had let me try
cutting their hair I might be better at it (*cough cough* Brady Brett
Joe and Darrick). In the end however, I didn't give her a bowl cut on
accident so....#MILAGROS.

Friday was also stellar. We went and contacted a future we got from a
huge building a few weeks ago and asked when we could stop by for like
15 minutes and she said, "Ok well i can spare 15 minutes right now
come on in!" We just stood there like, ".....wait what? You're
inviting us in? No no you don't understand, this is usually where you
say no and that you have zero interest." #PLOTTWIST But we walked in
and sat with her, shared a video about Christ, gave her a Book of
Mormon and set another cita with her for this week! #MILAGROS Also she
told us she had a friend in colegio (like elementary school) who was
Mormon and turns out this lady is STILL in our ward AND we've been
doing the Big List with her and her family and her sister's family!!
#DOUBLEMILAGROS!! So we're super stoked to see what happens with her
and her family.

Saturday we celebrated (well Spain celebrated....not really us)
something called Carnival. Leading up to this day, every Tuesday and
Thursday little kids get dressed up in costumes and walk around and I
think get candy? But Saturday was the Big Day for it so EVERYONE was
dressed up. That night we walked into centro and it was insane.
Speakers playing music, a stage, bouncy houses, you name it. Elx was a
party. It's bigger than Halloween here. It was fun to experience that.
Also to celebrate we got these delish crepes that we've been staring
at for like the past 2 weeks and Hna Pickett finally convinced me to
buy one. INCREDIBLE!! #MILAGROS Literally Spain may not have figured
out a garbage disposal but at least they've got killer crepes
so.....#BLESSED

Dessert paella and cumplemes celebrations

Six month celebration for Hermana Pickett

Centro during Carnival. No it's not mission appropriate music
but.....we don't control the Spaniards so.....

Sunday was great and killer and loved all of it.

So apologies....,that wasn't quickish at all. I'm a long-winded human
being. It's a family trait. #SryNtSry

But as far as the spiritual side of things.....I've been made a goal
to read all the conference talks before next conference and I've made
a calendar and everything for it and it works out perfectly. So this
week I read the first talk of conference by President Uchtdorf called,
"Oh How Great The Plan of Our God!" INCREDIBLE!! So so good I loved
it. But there is a part at the beginning where he says, "It seems to
be human nature: as we become more familiar with something, even
something miraculous and awe-inspiring, we lose our sense of awe and
treat it as commonplace." He further relates this to the gospel and
how sometimes we don't fully appreciate this knowledge that we have.
It hit me that I do the same thing with my mission. I remember being
in the CCM almost 8 months ago and saying, "WOW DID YOU FEEL THAT?!?!
WOW THIS SPIRIT IS SO STRONG!! WOW THAT PARK DAY WAS AMAZING!! WOW
BEING A MISSIONARY IS SO COOL!!" But as I've gone along, I've come to
realize that I've become accustomed so just how cool the missionary
life it. I haven't been in awe of the things we get to do everyday as
missionaries. It's not until I realize that in 10 months I won't get
to do this anymore, that I realize just how incredible this experience
is and how incredibly short it is. I've made a goal for this week and
for the rest of my mission to live in the NOW. I've always had a
problem with this because I'm a planner and too many times I look
ahead instead of enjoying the ride. I always thing, "Oh when I have 1
year.....,when I get home.....when I go back to school.....when I this
and that....." and I start wishing this time away. But I need to live
more in the moment and make every. Single. Day count. Because before I
know it it'll be over and I'll be wondering where the time went.
There's also another part in this talk that talks about when he shares
the Plan of Salvación with his friend. "Some of my friends would say
that this message felt familiar, even though such things were never
taught in their religious upbringing. It was as if they had always
known these things to be true, as if I was simply casting light on
something that was always and deeply rooted in their hearts." THIS
COULD NOT BE MORE TRUE!! I believe that there is a part of us that is
awakened every time we talk about this plan. A part that we don't know
that we remember, but our spirit does. Want to know why? Because YOU
were sitting in that counsel up in Heaven. YOU were sitting there when
our Heavenly Father came to us and said, "Here's the goal, how do we
accomplish it? Here are some requirements. Let's make a plan." YOU
gave your ideas. YOU saw plans go up and get changed and revised until
we came to the conclusion of this perfect plan. YOU were there. And
YOU chose it. Whether you choose it now or not, at one point you did.
At one point you chose Christ. And if you haven't already, at one
point you will choose Him again. Because deep down, you know it's
true. You know this gospel is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and you
know He is your Savior. I know it's true. I know that Christ is my
Savior. I know that Heavenly Father is preparing people everyday to
come to the knowledge of the truth and my job is to find them. The
gospel has been restored and I've been called to Spain to spread the
good news. I'm so grateful for this calling and I know it's blessing
me now and will bless me in times to come. God is so good. And He
loves His children. That includes YOU!!

Thanks for all the support ya beautiful people. Have a great week!!
Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede

Gospel Rap ft. Elder Salazar y Elder Gómez

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Día de San Valentin chumps. I wish I had something cool to say
about it.....but it was just another day. Totally forgot about it
until Hna Pickett said after exercise, "Happy Valentines Day." And
yeah......there's that.

Well....what to tell y'all. I don't know. We went and played paddle
ball again for Pday that was fun. Get some blood pumping and some
sweat going there. Great. I actually learned the rules today so that
was even better. But y'all don't want to hear about that. Let's get to
the good stuff.

This week we worked A LOT with the Big List. One experience we had was
really cool. We went to the house of these members who have kind of
been skeptical about this from the beginning. We got there and sat
down and the wife just starting cuenting us these stories. There were
two people who she put down on the list that she had the opportunity
to share the gospel a little bit with. One of them was her sister who
lives in Australia. She told her sister that there were missionaries
handing out Books of Mormon there and sent a picture of it to her
sister. Some other stuff happened, I can't remember what, but she said
she told her sister, "Look for it. Look for God." Then the mom of the
best friend of her daughter was over at their piso one day and saw a
quote from some apostle I think and she really liked it. She had seen
the way they lived and was interested about it so they are trying to
plan a Noche de Hogar with this family. I didn't completely remember
all the stories but I remember she said, "Thanks to this list, I had
these experiences. Because if we hadn't written those names down and I
hadn't been praying for these opportunities, I wouldn't have even
thought about it!" So that was really cool to see and we're excited to
see the miracles and fruits that will come out of this. We have a lot
of citas this week where we will start planning noches de Hogar and
other ways to get into contact with this people. I keep imagining
what's going to happen if all goes well....I just imagine having too
many people to teach that we need to bring in more missionaries and
then 2 families getting baptized at a time. Maybe I'm getting ahead of
myself but I'm really excited. The lady also said, "This list that you
got from your President really is inspired." And I agree. It's such a
good way to work with the members and it gets them excited about this
work. This work is almost impossible without the help of the members
so I'm stoked to get them stoked about sharing the gospel.

Something funny that happened on Sunday (funny for others....not so
much for me). I'll back up for a second. A few weeks ago (like Hna
Garcia como compi status) one of us got asked to give a talk in
church. I offered to do since Hna Garcia had already given one earlier
and I've yet to do it so far. So I prepare it all week and it's good
to go. Then they tell us this girl is leaving on her mission and wants
to do her farewell talk so we pushed it to the next week. No pasa
nada. But....they forgot. So they said they'll get us in sometime. So
fast forward.....to last week. They asked one of us to give a talk
this last Sunday. I already had it written so offered again. We put a
reminder on so that we remembered to do it. Sunday comes and it was
insane. We missed the bus to church and it was 9:45 and church starts
at 10. We live like 20ish mins walk from the church. So we walked as
fast as possible, got to the church panting, a little sweaty, and sat
down in relief society 30 seconds before 10. #BLESSED So we relax, go
through classes, then right before sacrament, one of the counselors
from the bishopric comes to us and asks, "Which one of you Is speaking
today?" We both are like, ".......uh wat?" And then both our eyes got
huge and I was like, "HAH Yo!" TOTES FORGOT AND MY TALK WAS IN MY
STUDY JOURNAL NOT EVEN ON MY IPAD ITS FINE! So I went and sat up on
the stand and literally went mad hands on that Gospel Library. The
whole time I'm praying, "Heavenly Father, please let there be a lot of
announcements today. Please let one of the deacons drop his tray.
PLEASE HELP ME WRITE THIS TALK!" Awful to pray for those things
but.....I have since repented. ANYWAY.....it's my turn and I have like
5 bullet points and ya está. Now if you know me, you know I HATE
public speaking and I always write out my entire talk and read it word
for word bc I get nervous and forget it all. But that's all I had. And
then the moment came when they called my name. I stood up, took a
breath, and prayed, "Ok Heavenly Father, you're gonna have to help me
on this." Under pressure, next to no talk prepared, AND I HAVE TO
SPEAK A FOREIGN LANGUAGE! I was started on a downward spiral to say
the least. Result? Actually decent! Now I know I can speak off of
bullet points and stuff so that's cool. Literally all the spirit. God
really blesses His missionaries even when they're almost late for
church and forget about their talk. #BLESSED

Ok spiritual stuff. So first off, Satan is the worst. And he tries
really hard to get you to throw in the towel every day. The worst. So
he was working on me a bit these past few weeks and just making me
feel like a bad missionary and that nothing was gonna come out of my
time here. On Friday I was sick of feeling that way and I knew they
weren't feelings and thoughts from my Heavenly Father. So in my prayer
for personal study I just asked to find something in the scriptures to
help me. I've been reading them in Spanish to help my Spanish but I
got the impression to read in English. Then I flipped open my Book of
Mormon and started to go through (at this point I'm in 3rd Nefi) just
trying to see where to read when I got a thought to my head to read 3
Nefi 19. This is after Christ comes, calls His apostles, then ascends
into Heaven again and people come from everywhere because they heard
that Christ was ministering to the people. The 12 Apostles had to
break up into 12 groups because there were so many people. Well they
were praying and the thing the desired most was to have the Holy Ghost
with them. So Nephi went and was the first to get baptized and then he
baptized all the apostles and as they walked out of the water, the
Holy Ghost descended upon them. Later angels minister to them and then
Christ comes down and commands them to pray. As they are praying,
Christ goes off by himself and just thanks Heavenly Father for giving
them the Holy Ghost because of their belief in Christ. Then He goes
back and as they are praying, He blessed them and then He thanked the
Father for sanctifying them because of their faith and their belief.
The verse that I liked a lot and that helped me was verse 29:
"Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given
me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified
in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may
be one, that I may be glorified in them."
When I read this, it hit me that Christ prays for us. Us who He has
called out of the world to do this work. Us who are trying to do what
is right and follow His example. HE IS PRAYING FOR US!! He is at the
head of this church and He knows that the adversary works on us
constantly so He's doing all He can to help us follow Him. NEVER GIVE
UP!! CHRIST IS PRAYING FOR YOU!

Guys....,God is so cool. I feel so blessed to have this experience on
the front lines of His work here in Spain. I love these people and
this work so much. I got an email this week from a girl who got called
to this mission (S/O Future Hermana Rust Coming March 21st) and I just
having the opportunity to tell her she got called to the best mission
ever. I love the mission with all of my heart and I feel so blessed to
say that the Málaga Spain Mission is my Waters of Mormon, because it
is where I'm coming to know my Savior.

Thank you so much for the support. You people are the greatest. Love
y'all and have a great week!!

Kia Kaha❤

Hermana Twede

Random video of caterpillars.....