Week 15: Time that I get to spend with the family

What a great week! Skyping home was a blast! I still can't believe that you got a dog.. I'm sure Bethanie is loving that. Christmas was a bit different for me this year, a lot different from any others my entire life. But I still really enjoyed it, especially getting to talk to the family! That's what really made it feel like Christmas, because Christmas for me really is the time that I get to spend with family. 

This week the work has been a little slower because of the holliday. Weeks feel really weird when you don't work as much. And this week we won't be working as much either because of the new year. It will be nice when things get back to normal. 

Sunday I woke up and had a horrible stomech ache... I don't know what it was that caused it, but it hurt. a lot. During sacrement meeting I probably had to run to the bathrrom about five times. Everyone wasn't kidding when they said that you hadn't experienced diaria until you came to Mexico... The good thing is you only get it once! It just lasts two years... ;) 

Well I don't have a whole lot of time right now, so sorry if this letter is a bit short. I kind of told everything in Skype anyways ;) Thank you for all of your support! It was so wonderful to see all of you and how well you're all doing! Christmas looked like it was a blast! And the theater room looks amazing! and.. we have a dog. I still can't get over that. 

Love you!

Elder Twede

Week 14: Goodbye to my Trainer

I have a lot to write today! hopefully I can get it all in on time! ok. to start. We had our mission wide Christmas activity, it was a lot of fun as we did a white elephant gift exchange (I got a piñata that I gave to the kids that live downstairs when I got home) Afterwards each zone put on a skit. My zone did a skit about the Lion King but with missionaries. I got chosen agains't my consent to be Elder Simba. It was actually pretty fun to perform again and sing on a stage. We change the words to songs like "Oh I just can't wait to be senior companion" (it works a lot better in spanish...) and for can you feel the love tonight I got a dear john letter and sang it all sad. It seemed to be a hit with everyone. 

After the Christmas activity I had to say goodbye to my trainer Elder West. It was a sad moment but that the mission life for ya, lots of change. It's weird to think that he's back in Utah now. 

Funny story time. So I was teaching a lesson and there was this little boy there. He walked up to me and just started staring at me with his eyes super wide. After I had glanced back at him a few times and looked at my companion in confusion he finally asked in a somewhat concerned voice "why are your eyes blue?" I thought it was super funny. 

So last week I mentioned that we got a new bishop and I was pretty excited. Well I wasn't as excited as the members... It's actually kind of sad how much the less active members rejoice when we tell them. It's probably about the aquivilant to how the people rejoiced when they were freed from Pharoah. This last Sunday we had 17 less active members come to church. 

Well since it's Christmas time we've been focusing a lot on the life of Christ in our lessions. I really love using the example of Christ to help show people what we should been striving to be. There's a scripture that I really like in Matthew 20:28 "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" I actually like this scripture more in spanish because it uses the word served in the the place of ministered. Christ came to the earth to serve, not to be served. During this holliday season it can be easy to get caught up in what we want for Christmas. But if we take and apply the example of Christ and use this time of the year to focuse more on how we can serve others rather than recieve stuff, it will be a much more rewarding Christmas. 

Merry Christmas everyone! The birth of our Savior truly is a thing to rejoice in! remember that when you start to get stressed over getting ready for the hollidays. Just remember to enjoy it!

Love Elder Twede

Week 13: We have made a lot of progress

Well to start we had transfers this week. I stayed in my area with Elder Cardenas and Elder West until he leaves, which will be this Thursday. Elder Cardenas is from Monterrey and doesn't speak very much English, but he's really awesome and I'm super excited to be companions with him! I should be able to get a lot better at speaking Spanish with him as my companion now. I still really struggle with small talk, I can teach a lesson fine.. somewhat.. but it's when I have to talk about random stuff that I'm at a complete loss. 

This week we had a huge suprise when our bishop was released and the second counselor was called as bishop. I'll be honest I'm super excited! He's just about one of the most humble guys I've ever met! We're assuming that church attendance is going to shoot up now, which is pretty sad, but true. The first week we arrived in this ward there were 39 in church, yesterday there were 110! So we have made a lot of progress, but there's a lot more inactive members that could be coming. 

Every Saturday we've been teaching am English class, we usually have around 10 people show up and we even have a family with 3 daughters that can get baptized! We've been teaching them and last night we set a date for them to get baptized on the 4th! But as far as the English class goes, I'm worried about next saturday because Elder West will be gone by then and my companion doesn't speak English. So I'll probably be teaching the whole thing. 

This week I studied in Alma and the story of Ammon. I love his example of confidence in the Lord. It's something that I've been striving to have more of, because it takes confidence to talk to stangers in a language that I can't speak very well. Ammon had complete confidence in that he would be protected and the Lord would create a way for him to preach the gospel. I sometimes feel like I don't fullfil my purpose as a missionary just because I let myself get in the way of the spirit. I'm still in search of how I can have more confidence in the promise in D&C 84:85 that we will be given what we need to say right in the moment when we need it. That is if we treasure of the words of life in our minds, meaning we need to study and learn about the doctrines of Christ in order to recieve this promise.

one thing that I want to mention is I don't think dearelders are really worht it. I'd rather you just send me an email and I can print it out! that way I can get stuff every week and not get things 4 weeks after you've writen them. 

Well that's about it for this week. Thank you for your support and love! I love you all so much!

Elder Twede

Week 12: Perfect situations to act in faith

Well it's official, I'm no longer a trainee! Twelve weeks in Mexico and now it's off into the big world without my trainer. Well, that's not exactly true. Elder West goes home on the 19th, and he'll be staying with me and my new companion until then :) So I still have another week with my dad! But for my brother Elder Huefner, He'll be on the opposite end of the mission, about as far away as he could get from me because I'm on the furthest corner on the other side of the mission.

I can already tell that it's getting harder to write my emails in English, not that I'm always thinking in Spanish, but I do think in Spanish for a lot of the little words. Don't be surprised if in the not to far future I start throwing in Spanish words without noticing. But that shouldn't really be a problem for you, you always have google to translate for you ;)

Yesterday we had another opportunity to go to the temple again with our ward! We took an investigator and after walking around the visitors center we watched the Christmas devotional in a stake center next door. I'll admit I didn't really understand anything in the devotional except for the hymns because it was in spanish. But it was really cool to be there with an investigator. Walking around the temple grounds with all of the Christmas lights really hit me that it's so close to Christmas. Up until now I haven't really noticed, but it made me think of temple square and how beautiful Utah looks during this time of year. The temple grounds here were really beautiful, but Utah is just.. Utah. I never realized how beautiful it was back home until I left it.

some things that make me really excited for the transfers are that I won't be in a quad companionship anymore! Try planning for two companionship at the end of every day... It gets really hard. The other day Elder Olivos and I went to the wrong lesson and ended up running into Elder Huefner and Elder West teaching there. It just gets super confusing. The other thing is that I'll probably get your packages when we go in to get our new companion! The transfers got pushed back onto Wednesday, so I won't get them until then, but I'm super excited!

This week I've been studying a lot about my purpose as a missionary and it has really hit me in how big of an honor it is to be here called as a missionary! I've never felt the spirit so much in my life, and never before have I felt like I've been in a better position to recieve so many blessings. I look at so many other missionaries that don't seem to have realized what kind of potential they have as missionaries, just read the scriptures and it's very clear that as long as we're obedient there are countless blessings in store for us! As in 3 Nefi 24:10 it says "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." When we are obedient we bind the Lord into giving us these blessings as it says in D&C 82:10 "I, the Lord, am abound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise". Every day I feel like I come to understand the power in that promise more and more! 

Another huge thing that has been on my mind this seek is that whenever I use my inabilities as excuses, I am denying the very power of God in my life. If I say that I'm incapable of learning Spanish and what not, I'm also showing my doubt in Gods power. It's hard to put our trust fully into what we cannot see, but we are asked to act in faith. "I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." SO kind of tying it all back together into that last though I had about the blessings that we can recieve. In order to recieve those blessings we must act in faith with a perfect hope in God and his promise. For "hope cometh of faith". I must say that the mission gives the perfect situations to act in faith every day, and when I do, I most definitly recieve the blessings.  

Again thank you all for your love and support! I hope that you're all having a wonderful Christmas season! As for here, it's pretty hot and dry, so no snow this Christmas. But you guys don't have palm trees ;) so I guess it's fair ;)

Love you all!

Love Elder Twede

Week 11: It just keeps getting better and better

What a week, a lot of little things happened each day that really made
it interesting. One morning the neighbors decided to blast music at
4:30 AM, so I lost two hours of sleep. One morning we didn't have any
water, and when we finally got it working our water heater wasn't
working, so we had to take really cold showers. Elder West and I were
walking down the side walk on a busy road and someone threw eggs at us
from their car going about 45 MPH! Elder West got hit on his shoe and
I got hit on the elbow. It stung a bit, but what was most annoying was
that now I have to wash my sweater. All in all I this week gave me a
bunch of great stories to tell :)

I have had some pretty powerful lessons this week. Elder Huefner and I
had a couple of chances to go out and teach together and we still
don't speak Spanish that well. But there truly is power in testifying,
even if it's a very simple testimony. We went and visited Cindy and
Christopher together (the two that were having marriage trouble) Elder
Huefner and I taught eternal marriage and the spirit was very strong.
There's a different power in lessons when you really care about the
people you're teaching. I want to learn how to have that same kind of
love for everyone I teach, because it really makes a difference.
They're doing a lot better now!

Today we went into Mexico City! It was crazy! Shopping around is a lot
of fun, but it's easy to start wanting a lot of stuff. Armodillo bags,
hand crafted chess sets, awesome looking sculpters, and a lot of other
random stuff. Elder West was going to town in buying souveniers
because he's going home in two weeks, I just had to tell myself to
wait and I'll be able to do that all at the end of my mission. That
way I won't have to lug it around for the next two years either. The
picture of the big catholic church is where an old temple used to
stand, but they tore it down and built the Catholic church. It was
pretty cool, but I think old temple ruins would have been a little
cooler. One of these days I'll get to go to Teotihuacan and see the
giant pyrimid temples there! I can't wait.

For thanksgiving we were on splits with our zone leader, who Elder
West trained about a year ago. We call our trainers our dad and we're
his kids, so it was like a whole family reunion with our brother
coming over to spend Thanksgiving day ;) We made mashed potatos,
chicken, and got roles. It was pretty good, but we all had stomech
aches the next day. I think the checken may have been the problem, but
we're all fine now.

Thank you for your support! I love you and pray for you daily. I love
the work here and it just keeps getting better and better the more
Spanish I learn.

Love Elder Twede

Week 10: I'm Excited to be Back

Being a missionary is great when you can work! This week went by so
much faster now that I'm not sitting around in my house all day. It's
also nice to be able to see my own progress as I teach in each lesson,
I feel like I wasn't progressing as much as I would like while sitting
at home. So all I can say is I'm excited to be back out working again!

On thursday we moved into a bigger and better house! It's so nice! It
has a big main room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom that is
actually has a corner just for the shower! Our old bathroom you could
take a shower, go to the bathroom and shave over the sink all at the
same time! I might miss that a bit ;) but not really.

I've had some really hard lessons this week that would leave us
emotionaly drained afterwards. First there's a guy named Alberto that
lived in Provo for 8 years and was baptized during that time, but for
some reason he had to come back to Mexico, I'm not entirely sure why.
But he has been here for about 9 months and it has been very hard on
him. Elder West and I visited his home and he lives in an unfinished
room above a house, he has a curtain for a door, a bed and only a few
items to his name. It was sad to see and I know that he was living
much better in Provo because I don't think you could find a house this
bad in Utah. He's been feeling depression and it's very clear when you
talk to him because he just stares into nothingness and doesn't always
reply. On Friday we were at the church with the ward mission leader
when he called and asked if he could come see us. He came over and
Elder West and I shared a little message with him, but then we sat
there in silence and we were kind of at a loss of what we could do for
him. We pulled out our hymn books and started to sing, I don't think
I've ever felt the spirit so strong in a lesson and Alberto broke down
crying. And well... He wasn't the only one. We called the bishop who
ran over and interviewed him. but he's still very depressed and I'm
really worried about him, so if you can keep Alberto in your prayers
that would be great!

Speaking of the bishop he must of had a change of heart, because he
has suddenly started to work with us and has been helping out a lot!
Elder West says it's because of my leg, the bishop did ask the ward to
pray for me in sacrement and now that I'm better it got him excited I
think. It's funny how what seems to be a trial really can come out to
be a blessing.

You remember Cindy and Christopher the couple that I first baptized
two weeks after I got here. Well they have been having financial
issues and just got evicted from their house. The stresses have been
coming out on their relationship and it has been really hard on them.
We went to visit them at their new house and it was clear that they
aren't on very good terms with each other. We called the Elders
quorume president over and had a long talk with them. It came time for
Elder West and I to leave and Elder West asked if I could say the
closing prayer. The gift of tongues is real! I was able to say things
in the prayer that I have never said in Spanish before! It was all
stuff that I had maybe read or studied, but never spoken out loud. In
that very moment of need the Spirit brought to my memory those things
that I should say. But if you could also pray for Cindy and
Christopher that they can begin to work together in this hard time.

Thank you for all that you do and for your support! I'm really
beginning to love more and more things about my mission! It has had
it's hard moments and I'm sure that there will be many more, but I
know this is where I'm supposed to be and there's really no other
place I'd rather be right now. There really isn't any better feeling
than when you get to share your testimony and see it touch someone,
and it truly is amazing to see how much my own testimony has grown!
The finding of a testimony is in the sharing of it! I can't believe
that I've already been in Mexico for 10 weeks! If I include the MTC
it's 16 weeks that I've been a missionary! Ahhh I have so much work to
do before this all flies by! I just hope I can do everything that I'm
supposed to!

Love Elder Twede

Week 9: A spring in my step

Dear everyone,

I would like to inform you that I, Elder Twede, have again received strength and can return to work! 

Yep I said it! After nearly 3 weeks of not being able to go out and teach, I am up and about again with a spring in my step! Thank you all for your prayers and support. I know that I'm not better just because I started eating healthy, but because the Lord does actually listen to prayers and he does answer them!

This week was a crazy one! (So I guess that means it was just another normal mission week) We had a baptism of a nine year old girl who´s family has been inactive, we have been working with getting them active since we got here. Because she was nine we taught her as an investigator instead of the ward taking care of the baptism. Well... The baptism day came and it felt like the world had turned against us. We started to feel up the baptism font late which lead to problems later, we couldn't find anyone that had keys to the boiler so the water was freezing, the only people that showed up on time were Esther (the girl getting baptized) and her family, we realized that the water wasn't ready so we started filling up buckets in the custodial closet and dumping them in, the service started an hour and a half late, the stake president randomly showed up (Elder West said that he has never seen a stake president at a baptism his whole mission) the water still wasn't full enough and an older lady from the sister missionaries that was getting baptized couldn't get under the water all the way... *deep breath in* The stake president told them to stop after the fourth try, the same thing happened to Esther, but they got it on their third try. 

All I can say is it was a pretty stressful baptism. But she was still baptized and that's what's important! I'm just going to make sure that everything in our baptisms from now on are super planned way ahead of time. 

On Sunday the bishop asked me to do the confirmation, I don't know if he realized that I still don't speak Spanish, but I was grateful for the opportunity! I say that it probably wasn't the most profound blessing ever, but I definitely felt the spirit super strong, especially when I said "receive the Holy Ghost". 

I was still stuck inside this whole week so I had a lot of time to study. The most influential and powerful thing that I learned during my studies this week came from Mosiah 3:19

19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

I realized that I needed to humble myself before the Lord before I was ever going to get better and be able to get back to work. Not that I ever blamed God for any of this, but I never submitted myself to the conditions that he had given me. I was fighting it, I was praying for him to take it away without ever thinking maybe he wants it this way. I was so caught up in having it the way that I wanted it, and it was easy to get lost in that because I thought it was what the Lord would want. I never paused to really ask what his will was in all of this, I just assumed I knew. After reading this verse everything changed, I truly feel like I experienced a change of heart in that moment. 

This whole time that I haven't been able to walk I've been wondering what it was that Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me. It really was right in front of me the whole time, He just wants me to trust in him! I can't do this work on my own, but that's what I've been trying to do. I kept questioning my own abilities though and that brought on a lot of doubts about how capable I would be in serving in Mexico and learning the language. It's true, on my own I am incapable of learning the language, but that's the beauty of the gospel, we don't have to do it on our own! The Lord qualifies who he calls, but we have to put our trust fully in him in order to receive that blessing. 

Thank you for all of your prayer and support! I'm excited to be able to start writing home again about my experiences in teaching lessons! Mostly I'm excited to just not be inside anymore! I love you all! 

Elder Twede

P.S

Next week we are moving to a bigger house. I don't know how much time I'll have to email... or if I'll even have the chance. But I will try, just don't think that I died or anything if I don't. 

Week 8: Best Mission Birthday Ever!

I don't know how any missionaries could stand to be disobedient and just sit around their house... I'm already going crazy... This week I didn't teach a single lesson because I'm just stuck at home trying to get better. It was a very long week, but I've had lots of time to study and I've gotten a lot better at reading in Spanish! I never study in English, so I don't always understand the things that I'm studying, but I somehow feel that I'm still able to gain testimony about the things I read through the spirit. It has actually been a pretty cool experience to read something and not understand a word, but feel the spirit nonetheless. I am at the point where I can pretty much understand everything I read in preach my gospel! It's the scriptures that are still a challange... But it's coming along. 

I've been eating super healthy and it is getting kinda old because I don't have a lot of variety. But we have been finding places to buy healthy food. The fruits and veggies aren't a problem and are pretty cheap. But finding things like brown rice was a little harder everyone uses white rice here. But we did find it through a member! When my companion brought some brown rice home I about jump in the air for joy! but in reality I just sat there because I can't stand... But you get that I was excited :) 

I think I may have had one of the best mission birthdays ever! This morning Elder West and Elder Olivos went to Chalco to get me something special. Let me give a little bit of backround before I tell you what it is though. There's a senior couple that just got here this week. The wife is going to teach people here piano, so they ordered 10 keyboards for her to teach members with. Somehow Elder West convinced our president and them to let me use one while I'm stuck at home! SO. That's what Elder West brought back today! Talk about an awesome birthday gift! But I can't let any other missionaries know because he doesn't want other missionaries asking for one. 

Elder West also came back with a package from you Mom! (awesome birthday right?) It was filled with wonderful health food stuff to make me better! AND AN AWESOME BLENDER!!! I wasn't expecting that! Thank you soooo much! Right after we opened it we ran out and got a bunch of fruits and veggies so that I can make awesome smoothies! But that wasn't all. You sent my piano books! A perfect combination with my new piano :) I'm actually looking forward to this week instead of dreading it now! But don't worry, I'm still going to try getting better even though I have all these new fun things ;) I'd gladly give it all up if it meant I could be better and out teaching again! But as long as I can't walk it's going to be super nice to have.

I experienced my first real disapointment from someone falling away from the gospel on Sunday. It was really hard to experience. A member that we have been working with since I got here to reactivate got up in preisthood and said that he was never going to come back to church. We were shocked because he seemed so happy ever since we finally got him back, but he said the bishop visited him on Saturday and told him that he wasn't allowed to participate or talk in church, he could only show up and sit quietly... So now he's gone. We're still going to keep working with him! But it's super frusturating when the bishop keep driving people away... This isn't the first case in the ward, just the first one that I've witnessed first hand. All prayers for our bishop to recieve a softened heart are welcome. We could really use it in our ward.

Well it's hard to think of things to write when all I did was sit inside all week. Hopefuly I'll be better soon with all this stuff you sent me mom. I think that I a seeing a bit of improvement, but it's hard to tell. There's still a lot of pain. But thank you for your prayers and support! I loved all the letters from everyone in the package! OH! I also got 12 Dearelders yesterday! Most of them were from Bryce, I think they got held up 3 weeks in a row. So sometimes I think they do take a month to get here. But I still loved reading every single one no matter what time it was from. Thank you or those! In the next package some pictures would be great too! Elder West has a whole album full of his family! I can print them out here low quality, but I'd prefer good ones if you can :) 

Thanks for everything! I love you and I think about and pray for you daily. Life sounds pretty busy, just remember to smile through it all! That's been the biggest thing that I've learned this week. It's not worth wasting any time in this life without a smile. No matter what we're going through, We'll always be able to have something to smile about, that's what the gospel gives us :) I've seen that more this week than ever before. I think if there's one quote that I could leave behind in this life it would simply be "keep smiling" that is what I want to live by.

With lots of love,

Elder Twede

Week 7: A Time to Ponder

Well this has been an interesting week. For the past two weeks my leg has been hurting and I kind of walked around with a limp. But Monday night it really started to hurt, it´s nothing that I´m not fimiliar with as I´ve had this condition my whole life. Basically it got to the point where I couldn´t walk anymore. My trainer Elder West set up some splits with members so that either Elder Huefner or him could go out and teach while one of them stayed with me in the house. That´s pretty much all I´ve done since Tuesday is sit around. This has given me lots of time to ponder about a lot of things. I´ve thought about why this had to happen while I´m on my mission, am I doing something wrong? Do I just not have enough faith to keep these things from happening to me? Why am I here if I can´t be doing any work? And a lot of other things that really started to trouble me. 

I started to try taking advantage of the time to study the scriptures and the missionary gospel library in order to try replacing those thoughts with more positive things. I prayed for guidance in the things that I would study to help me recieve comfort. The first book that I picked up was Our Heritage. While reading about the pioneers and their trials, and about the men that excepted missionary calls so willingly when they had no money and families that they would have to leave behind, I was filled with gratitude for my situation and for the standard of missionary work that the pioneers set. Even though I´m living in fairly humble conditions when compared to home, I still feel extremely blessed when contrasted with what the pioneers would have sacreficed for their call to serve. 

I don´t really know what´s going to happen with my leg... I still have a lot of pain, I´m still staying home all day, but the Lord has a purpose for everything. I´ve already grown from this experience, maybe I haven´t learned everything that I need to and that´s why it still hurts. I don´t know. But what I do know is that my desire is to serve the Lord and keep his commandments. As long as I´m doing those things I except the conditions that he gives me. For he´s only molding me into the kind of person that I hope to become someday. I´m truly grateful for these experiences and I look forward to what other things I´ll be able to experience while on my mission.

The mission president did send another missionary for our companionship! So now we´re in a quad companionship! Two go out and teach while one stays with me and they just rotate through. It´s different but it gives me something to write about in my journal after being home all day ;) Elder West decided to go on a strict diet with me! A member went and did our shopping for us and got tons of veggies! So we´ve been making really big salads and eating super healthy. We told members that I couldn´t eat at their houses anymore, but Elder Huefner and our new companion Elder Olivos still can go out to eat with them. 

Thank you for your prayers and support! I´ve definitely felt comfort from them! Elder West and Huefner gave me a beautiful blessing and I continue to pray that everything will be alright, but whatever happens I know that the Lord has his hand in it. I love you guys! Don´t worry about me! The Lord has been really good to me with giving me great companions who take great care of me, a mission president who bends over backwards to make sure the missionaries are taken care of, ward members who bring me lots of healthy food, and a wonderful opportunity to learn :) 

Love,

Elder Twede

Week 6: Christmas... I know it´s a little early...

Ok... beginning letters is always the hardest part about writing. It´s hard to remember everything that happens in a week. There´s so much, but it all mixes in with the other weeks, I can´t tell if it was yesterday that I ate with the Chapital Family or if that was three weeks ago... Ok maybe it isn´t that bad, but it´s hard to keep everything streight in my head. 

We went on splits this week and Elder Huefner and I went solo without our trainer again because he had to go into the offices to get stuff ready for BYU next semester. It is amazing how in only six weeks I´m fine with walking around Mexico streets without having my trainer. I never would have thought I would be fine doing that before. But we did it and we even had to find our way into Chalco to pick up Elder West. That was the part that I was most nervous for, I didn´t want to get on the wrong bus and end up in Chihuahua. We did find him without any problems, except for when the bus driver asked how far I was going so he would know how much I would have to pay. I kind of just sat there with a blank face and I think he figured out that I had no clue what he was saying, so he just charged me an amount that I think was probably fair. 

We have a new investigator named Mirna! She´s awesome! We met her through a member who introduced us and from that first moment I felt that she was going to be a strong investigator. The other day we went to teach her on Saturday, we were going to teach about the importance of going to church. When we got there she was doing her laundry and she told us that some of her friends invited her to a party, but she told them that she couldn´t go because she had to do her laundry so that she could go to church on Sunday! We changed our lesson plan. Our biggest concern is that we´re going to have to get her married, most people here aren´t married, and we don´t know how the husband feels about that (we call him her husband, but they aren´t married). We´ll find out this week! 

We still are having bed bug problems.. Elder West is starting to find them on his bed. Elder Huefner and I got new matresses and we left the plastic wrap on them so that they hopefully won´t have any problems. But these little things just won´t go away... We got permission to fumigate the place, hopefully that will solve our problems. We have been keeping an eye out for a different place to live and we´ve looked at a few places, but I really don´t want to spend a whole p-day just moving. This morning we got up and deep cleaned our house, it really needed it. For some reason the house seems to get so dirty so easily. I understand why they don´t have carpet here, it would get disgusting so quickly. We rearanged everything so that we would have more space, and while doing this we found a Christmas tree and decorations! We turned on the Christmas music and started decorating! I know it´s a little early... But we couldn´t help it, and it really did bring a great spirit into our place! Even though I can´t be home on Christmas, I plan on making it just as good, so I better start preparing now! ;)

As for Spanish. It´s hard. Infact it´s really hard. I can´t wait for the day when I´ll be able to speak to people, or understand them for that fact. But I try to be patient with myself, I know that all the other missionaries that have to learn a new language go through this too. I´m just grateful that I have Elder Huefner as my companion still! We went through the MTC together and now we´re here. It´s nice to have that friendship with someone whose doing the exact same thing as me. I feel like I would be a lot harder on myself if it was only my trainer and I. But we are progressing a lot and I can teach a lesson pretty well without too much help. 

I didn´t take a ton of pictures this week because I left my camera card in the computer I was using last week... I don´t think I lost too many pictures, because I backed a lot of them up. But I´ll send the few that I did take. 

Thanks for your love and support! I love you all so much! Have a wonderful Halloween!

Love,

Elder Twede

Week 5: Days are just slipping by

I forgot to bring my journal with me... I'll see how much I can remember...

So after that whole futbol competition we were all very very sore... We were probably a sight to see walking down the street. Let's just say we might not have kept the normal missionary pace that we normaly do when we walk. But it was worth it and I have more pictures to send of it!

This week was a little bit slower because we had a really hard time teaching, no one was ever home. We only managed to teach about 3 lessons a day... Which is really low. It would help for sure if Elder Huefner and I could speak Spanish a little better, but we still aren't sure why we aren't having much success in teaching lessons. We did find a new investigator named Mirna! She's super excited and she even came to stake conference yesterday! We've set a baptism date with her in November. Now we just need to keep her coming to church every week for four more Sundays! We've had a couple of other baptism dates set, but they have to come to church five times before they can be baptized. It's good because it weeds out a lot of the people that would just go inactive, but it takes a lot on our part to get them coming sometimes. But I would rather baptize someone that's really converted and will endure than just go inactive. 

I feel like I have kind of slowed down in learning the language. There was a really steep learning curve right at the beginning, but now days are just slipping by and it's hard to tell if I'm getting better or not. But I really don't want to let the language get in the way of a lesson being meaningful, so I've made it my goal to always go into lessons smiling as much as possible. Since I started doing this I have noticed a difference, people know that I can't say a whole lot, but when I'm smiling they open up a whole lot more. They feel like I'm actually happy to be here serving them. We've had a couple of inactive members tell us this week that they like our visits because they feel like we actually care about them, and now they have started coming to church again. I'm finding more and more that it isn't so much about what I'm able to say, but what kind of spirit I have with me, even when I don't say a whole lot. 

Today we got to do something a little special! We got permission to leave our area and meet up with some other missionaries at a mall. We walked around a bit and I forgot how clean places can be! There wasn't any grafiti or garbage! This is probably due to the guards with big guns, but it was really weird to walk around in such a big clean building that didn't smell weird. After walking around we went to Panda Express. Let me just say that food is expensive! Because it's Panda it still had American prices... I'll send a picture of what food I buy here! It's a lot cheaper. Anyways, it was a lot of fun and I did enjoy my orange chicken. 

I really feel like I'm forgetting something... But that's all I can remember about this week off of my head. Thank you for your love and support! I love all the dearelders and I can't wait to go to my district meeting right after this and get more hopefully! I did hear that they are two or three weeks delayed, but I still enjoy them! I'm loving the work and growing so much! I encourage everyone to find the missionaries in your area and work with them! Missionary work moves forward much quicker when the ward members work with us. And I promise that it will be a rewarding experience if you do!

Elder Twede

Week 4: Another crazy week in Mexico!

Another crazy week in Mexico! I'll get right to it.

On Tuesday Elder West my trainer had to go into Chalco, leaving Elder Huefner and I alone for a full day. So there we were, two missionaries that could hardly speak Spanish with a schedule full of appointments that we would have to do on our own. It was pretty intimidating, but I learned something that has really helped me this week. While trying to teach I wasn't able to say a whole lot, but this opened the people up in a way that couldn't happen if I were fluent. Because the way I speak in Spanish at this point probably resembles how a cave man would talk, I have to rely on the spirit to really teach anything. This requires the people to pay extra close attention in order to understand. Relying on the spirit and attentive people = perfect teaching opportunity! I realized that I really shouldn't stress about not being able to speak Spanish. I mean, I can't wait to be able to communicate better and I'm not going to stop working super hard to learn it! But I should also enjoy this special time that I won't get again when I do know the language. I pray so fervently for the gift of tongues, but if I suddenly could speak Spanish I would miss the opportunity to learn to rely on the spirit in ways that I wouldn't otherwise. 

But I still can't wait to be able to talk to people.

We found this family that hasn't been attending our ward and they are amazing! They have three kids ages around 12, 9, and 7. The two oldest are boys and the youngest a girl. They were super inviting when we went to their humble house and they gathered the kids around to listen to our little message. When Elder Huefner and I bore our simple testimonies about why we chose to serve missions, the parents were in tears. They told us that they have very strong desires for their sons to serve missions. They then asked us what it was in Utah with all the Saints that helped us choose to serve. They are obviously very concerned about raising their kids in a place like this. What it came down to was what I was taught in the home. I told them that my parents raised me in such a way that I loved the gospel and understood the importance of it. The home is where the love for the gospel is developed in the hearts of children. As I looked at them and how amazing their family is, I knew this to be true. Their kids have all grown up in Mexico City, yet they are very different from anyone else that I have met here. Since this lesson with this family I have thought a lot about how I was raised, and I am so very grateful for so many things that I was taught in my home. I have been blessed to be raised by very amazing parents, now I hope I can go out and help other families so that future generations can recieve these same blessings.

I went on splits for the first time this week! Elder West is district leader (He's been a lot of things, previously to training us he was assistant to the president! He's really amazing!) but there was an Elder having some troubles so he went on splits with him. Elder Huefner and I got to spend the day with Elder Ovesen. He's really great and goes home the end of this month. It was fun to teach with someone knew and see the new teaching styles that he had. I realized how important it is to stick to the very basics with most people, teaching simply doesn't mean that it isn't as powerful. I probably had some of the most powerful lesson this day because Elder Oveson taught simply, but with power. 

Fast and testimony meeting this last Sunday was propably the most amazing one I have ever attended! We had 23 less actives (I typed menos activos first and didn't even realize it..) and most of them got up and bore testimony about missionary work! It was very rewarding to hear and see the difference that we have already been able to make in our area! The amazing family that I talked about all got up and each bore their testimonies and it brought tears to my eyes even though I didn't understand much of what they were saying most of the time. The spirit was just so powerful.

Today we had a mission wide futbol competition between zones! It was super fun and my zone won it all! I'm super sore though, I decided that I wanted to take advantage of the chance to work out, so I almost never stopped running whenever I was playing. And because my team made it all the way to the top we had to play three 40 minute games to get there! So in other words.. I did a lot of running today. I'm probably going to regret it tomorrow... and I got pretty sunburnt. But it was a ton of fun! I wish I would have played soccor as a kid! It's a blast!

Last week I told you about the bed bugs... Well.. I got rid of the mattess and have been sleeping on the ironing boards all week... And I still ended up having bed bugs in my blankets... But my mission president just barely gave me a new mattress today! I'm super excited to sleep on it! But I might not have any blankets because they're all up on the roof... 

Today I got 8 dearelders! It was pretty much the best thing ever! Thank you Bryce for putting those symbols at the beginning and end of yours! You should show everyone else how to do something like that with their own sign so that it doesn't take so long to figure out the order of them all. But I really enjoyed reading them! I hope the play perfomances are going well along with all the other crazy stuff going on back home. You all asked me a ton of questions! I can't remember them all... But I'll try to just answer some.

In my area I can't see the volcano. I have seen it though and it's huge! But it isn't very active at all right now.

There are dogs everywhere, but they aren't ever a problem. If one comes at you, you just have to bend over like you're picking up a rock and they go running.

I haven't ever gone tracting and I probably never will! We work a ton with the ward members! I like it this way though.

There really aren't any big bugs that are here that I've seen. I did see a big month, but that's it. It's the little bed bugs that are the bad ones...

Missionaries here don't have bikes or cars, because the drivers here are too crazy. I wasn't kidding when I said the other week that you have to look both ways on a one way street befoe crossing! Even on roads as big as bangerter!

The main ways we get around are walking and taxis'

It rained every day for the first two weeks that I was here, but it has slowed down now because it isn't the rainy season anymore... I miss it.. now it's kinda hot. But they say the entire year it won't get below 60 and above 90 hardly ever. Unless you're by the volcano where it does get pretty cold.

Sorry if I didn't get to all of your questions... But I'll try to talk more about what my mission is like in each email. 

love you all so much! Thank you for your letters! They were so much fun to read! I'm safe and doing well and really starting to enjoy the work more and more! I have my hard days, but the good ones far outweigh the bad. 

Until next week,

Elder Twede

The giant moth outside my door!

My bed this whole week. I got used to it after a while. And I'm always too tired to care if I'm comfortable or not.

brushing our teeth in the morning. Elder West took this without me knowing, tunred out pretty good.

the day our gas for our water heater ran out. 

I'll admit.. I forgot how much fun it is to get excited at sports events.. but today reminded me! I had a blast watching!

I good friend Elder Bradshaw from the MTC. One of the coolest guys I've met on my mission!

The mission! two zones were playing at this point.. so a lot of them are missing.

Elder West and his new tan line from today. I have one too...

Week 3: Bedbugs!

This has been a very interesting week. We haven't had a lot of lessons because not a lot of people have been home. Which means we have just been walking a ton from door to door as each of our lessons fell through. But this week I have learned more than any other in my life probably. Conference was a great way to finish the week. Those were the shortest sessions of conference ever! It was over so fast! But I have never enjoyed it so much. 

I've had some new interesting foods this week. Let me just say that cow stomach is the worst tasting thing in the world... I don't know why anyone would ever think of feeding that to three young missionaries... Elder West had this one particular big chewy piece in his, when our host wasn't looking he quickly threw it on his napkin and put it in his pocket. As gross as it was we did get some pretty good laughs out of it. fortunately it isn't a very common dish, Elder West has only had it once before in his 21 months here. We did get all of our health food! I love starting the day off with some grains. We also started to run now that I'm starting to get over my cough. 

This past week Elder Huefner and I started to have little itchy red spots pop up all over out legs and arms. Last night we discovered that we have bedbugs! yay! We discovered them right before we went to bed and we didn't really have ay choice but to sleep with them again... We both covered ourselves in bug spray, said a pleading prayer that we wouldn't get eaten alive, and squimeshly climbed onto the infested matress. This morning we pulled the two mattresses out and and deep cleaned so that they wouldn't have any places to hide. My bed was covered in eggs! it would have been a dissaster if they have hatched. But all is well and I'm just grateful that it wasn't worse.

my favorite talk from general conference was probably Elder Oaks. He talked about a lot, but I loved how he talked about making God out first priority. It isn't bad to have other priorities in life, but God should always be on the top. As a missionary this is especially true, if we have out eyes set on something other than God we won't be able to completely fulfill our purpose. It has been something that I've had to stuggle with in forgetting myself and giving my life completely to the work. I want nothing more than to serve with all of my heart, might, mind and strength. But it's sometimes hard to get my heart and mind to be completely here. As I stuggled with this a bit, I found that the best way to overcome it was to study the teachings of Christ. The more I study, the more I realize how I am nothing without God. The more I realize this, the better I can put my trust in him. The more I trust in him, the easier it is to serve him. The more I serve him, the more he becomes my highest priority. 

I love this work, even with all of it's little surprises and adventures. I know at times it may get difficult and hard to bear, but the more I learn to put God as my highest and first priority, the easier it is to endure. Thank you for your prayers and support! Just a note, I would be great if you could pray for the members in my ward. Many of them are offended by the bishop and it's really hard to get anyone to come. 

I love you all! I can't believe that it has already been two months! 

love Elder Twede

The piece of cow stomach that Elder West put in his pocket.

Conference is going to make me fat....

one of my little friends that I've been sharing my bed with.

making sure we don't have any other bug problems. No lice! yay for that!

MMmmmm! Batos de pollo (chicken feet)

Here it goes... 

Yeah... it doesn't taste horrible... but it's more the texture and the thought...

all done... I just realized that I don't have any pictures of me not pulling a weird face... maybe I'll take one really quick just so you know Mexico hasn't made me ugly.. ;)

Week 2: Our First Baptism

What a week! Mexico is crazy and I still kind of can't believe that I'm actually here! I'm starting to adjust to things pretty well now, but it's still a lot to take in. But I'm loving it and trying my best to learn the language so I can actually talk to people. That's the hardest part about being here is not being able to communicate with anyone but my companions. I want to participate in the lessons and I usually know what they're saying, but I just don't have the words to reply. I'm learning a ton about how to be a good teacher by watching Elder West, he's really good! He has been assistant to the president for the last six months, so he's super excited to be back out teaching. 

We had our first baptism this last weekend! They have been investigators for a while, the rule is that they have to come to church five times before they can get baptized because of how many people were getting baptized and going inactive. It used to be two weeks before they could get baptized, but our ward only has about 30% attendance... So we focus a lot on reactivating. But on Saturday we baptized Christopher and Cindy! They're awesome and have a little son that's about 2 years old. Cindy asked me to baptize her and it was probably one of the most gratifying moments in my life right after she came up out of the water. She was someone that really needed the gospel, she has had an incredibly hard life and it's awesome to see her find peace in the gospel. After we came out of the font she broke down crying, it was one of the most touching things I have ever seen. I'm so grateful to have had the gospel my whole, and I'm so excited to be able to share it with people like Cindy. 

For the baptism Elder West, Elder Huefner and I sang a song and I played the piano. It was really nice being able to sit down at a piano again, I really miss that from back home. We did OK, but I'm sure it seemed great to everyone there, because seriously... everyone here is tone deaf... not even kidding. It's actually pretty funny in sacrament meeting, the first week there wasn't someone to play the piano, so everyone just sang the words with random notes and it sounded horrible. The bishop was up on the stand plugging his ears, it was really hard to hold back the laughing. Anyways, the mission president and his wife came to the baptism and she recorded our song when we practiced it before. She said that you can friend her on Facebook Mom and see it there. She said she also has a blog for our mission! Speaking of the mission president, he's awesome! He really cares about the missionaries and will do everything he can to serve us. After the baptism he took us out for tacos, let me tell you, you haven't had a taco until you've had one off the street in Mexico! I had 9 of them... and they aren't the smallest tacos ever... I bought a scale today to start tracking my weight. 

The other food that I need to be careful about not eating too much of is pan (bread) it's everywhere! and it isn't just plain bread, it's more like pastries. it's super cheap and there are people riding bikes full of pan everywhere selling it. It's super good, but I need to be careful not to eat too much of it or I'll come back a lot heavier than I came here. 

We did find someone in the ward that is a health food specialist! when we visited her I noticed her shelves stocked with different grains. I asked about it and she went off talking about everything. The funny thing is that even though it was in Spanish I knew pretty much exactly what she was talking about. It was all so familiar! I got super excited and convinced my companions to go on a month long diet of grains for breakfast! She's putting it all together for us and we start on Wednesday! I'm super excited! We'll see how my companions handle it. 

So... our bishop here is a bit crazy... Pretty much every single person that we visit who is inactive says they don't come because of the bishop... In church in sacrament meeting he starting chastising the ward for being wicked (these are the most humble people that I've ever met) and then he read D&C 121 16-21, which is where the lord is basically condemning the people that were persecuting Joseph Smith. It was... Interesting. But it just means we have a lot of work to do in helping people recognize why they really should come to church. 

On Sunday when we were walking out of a meal with a member a guy ran into me as I stepped out the door. After I recovered I apologized, it was then that I realized that he was totally drunk. He couldn't walk in a straight line for the life of him, he was trying really hard though. But I really shouldn't have been surprised. There are drunk people everywhere and it's pretty common to see people snorting cocaine. They all like to try speaking to us in English when they're drunk or high, but then we respond in Spanish, they get a confused look, and we keep walking. 

As I've been adjusting to the life of a missionary, and the life in Mexico, there's one major thing that I've started to realize. I can be an obedient missionary, follow all of the rules, study hard, serve, do all the missionary things that a missionary does and serve the Lord with all of my might and strength. But if I choose to serve him with all of my Heart, might, mind and strength, then he can truly make me an effective missionary. After all this is his work not mine, if I put myself in the Lords hands to do his work that's when I'll be able to truly do his work his way. And only when I put myself into his hands will he truly be able to help me progress and grow. In order for the Lord to work on us we must give ourselves up to him. He cannot work with that which he does not have. I see that as we teach people who are not willing to put their trust in God. When they withhold themselves from God, He cannot force his blessings upon them. We must act in faith, for it is after the trial of our faith that we shall know. The Lord isn't going to give us the blessings first to convert us, we must first go to him acting in faith. 

All in all it has been a great week! I'm learning and growing so much every day! This week seemed to fly by! I hope everyone is doing well back home! I can't wait to hear from you! Thank you for all of your support and love. I pray for you often. 

Love Elder Twede

christopher and cindy!

The taco stand! it was amazing!

from my roof