Week 45: What a privilege

Can I just say that I really love the mission! It's absolutely the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but the most rewarding! I always knew that the mission was important before I came, but I've learned so much here about what it is that I'm really doing! In Sunday I got to speak in church about *drum roll* Missionary work! I used the talk by President Uchtdorf titled "are you sleeping through the restoration?" I prepared a nice long talk and ran out of time in church to give it all... I actually only gave about a fourth of it. So I'll share a bit with you guys to make up for it :) 

There are so many things that I love about this talk! He starts out to talk about how today we are living in the restoration and that it didn't end with Joseph Smith. We will continue to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. He said 
"This is one of the most remarkable periods of the world’s history! Ancient prophets yearned to see our day."
What a privilege we have to be living at this time. I believe that we were prepared in the life before to come to this earth in this specific time to fulfill a specific purpose. We must have anticipated for our moment to come here, but as we passed through the veil that purpose suddenly wasn't as clear and now we easily get distracted. I love the self reflecting question that President Uchtdorf asked
"When our time in mortality is complete, what experiences will we be able to share about our own contribution to this significant period of our lives and to the furthering of the Lord’s work? Will we be able to say that we rolled up our sleeves and labored with all our heart, might, mind, and strength? Or will we have to admit that our role was mostly that of an observer?"
I know what I want to be able to say. Especially when I'll be able to remember how I was prepared before I passed through the veil and if I fulfilled my purpose. I don't want to have to admit that I just sat on the sidelines watching. 

OH there's so much more that I want to write about this talk., but once again like in church... Time restrictions ;) I invite you to all read it again! I especially like the part when he talks about the first and great commandment. 

This next Sunday we're planning a trip to the temple visiting center and we hope to bring about 40 recent converts and investigators! I really hope that it all works out! Extra prayers would be appreciated for everything to run smoothly and for everyone to show up. 

I only have three more weeks of training Elder Sanchez... It's going to be a sad day when we have to part ways. I've really enjoyed these last nine weeks with him! I'm sure that I'll make a lot of lifelong friends out here. 

I love you all so much. And happy fathers day dad! All the family trips look like so much fun! I look forward to being able to go on those again with you guys! 

Elder Twede

The truth is... I don't know what's going on either... so don't ask. 

Week 44: Loving my mission!

Hey I'm still alive no worries! I just didn't have a chance to write earlier today because we went on a trip as a zone on a hike to some waterfalls. It was super pretty and it was really nice to get away from the noisy city for a bit. I don't have much time to write today... But I'll try getting something written really quick. 

This week was great! We finally had over 100 contacts and we keep finding people that are super prepared to be baptized! At this point everyone we find can't have a baptism date until after the changes, so I don't know if I'll even be here. I would really love to stay in this area for another cycle because one more cycle here and we would probably have a ton of baptisms! But I know that that's not what's important that I'm the one that gets to baptize them, but I gotta admit, I sure would like to. It's interesting how all of my friends now are adults that have kids, but they all come to 19 and 20 year old kids for advice. Sometimes people ask us such personal questions that I start wondering if I'm really qualified to give advise in the subject. But then again I'm not really the one that's giving the advise, it's amazing how the spirit can bring thoughts to the mind right in the moment when it's needed. 

I know that a ton of things happened this week.. but I can't remember it all right now... I don't like being rushed when I write...

Today was a great P-day! We hiked up to some waterfalls and it was super pretty. I got a ton of great pictures! It reminded me a ton of when we went on our Oregon trip as a family and we took a ton of pictures on our hikes. My funny picture side even came back out and the whole hike I was scheming up goofy pictures that I could take. I had forgotten how beautiful the world can be.. I really miss trees! It was pretty funny because when we were on our way up the mountains in the bus, there started to be trees on one side of the road. All of the missionaries jumped to the one side of the bus and started taking pictures of the trees through the windows. Yep. It's a bit sad. But it just reminded me of how beautiful Utah is and how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful place. 

Well I'm going to try uploaded some of the pictures now. I love you so much! and sorry that I don't really have a message in this letter, it's more just of a report... But everything is great and I'm really loving my mission! It's really flying by! 

I love you all so much! I look forward to reading your letters tonight!

Love Elder Twede

We've pretty much contacted all of the people in my area. We've resorted to this now. 

You know that you're in Mexico when the pizza has beans and chilies 

It starts

It was a really cool hike. We followed this canal all the way up to the falls!

AHH I miss green! It just doesn't exist in the city. 

Super companions

My feet got wet here...

Let's make this waterfall a bit bigger!

Rest break. Good thing this dog followed us.

Just plain beautiful

Father son photo

Week 43: I continue to learn every day!

The mission can really be a roller coaster, but hey I love roller coasters :) This week has been great! But there is always opposition in all things, so when things are at there best, there always tends to be the worst. I can't say that I have felt down in anyway this week, but it was a bit rough for my companion. We have been really excited about our baptism date this 7th of June, but his last Sunday he didn't make it to church, so we have to put it off another week. Not the end of the world, but I think it kind of started to stress my companion out. 

But this week really was great! We found 8 new investigators and a lot of them have a lot of potential! We had a lot of opportunities to teach the restoration this week and I really really love teaching that lesson to people that are prepared by the Lord. You can see the spirit working in them the whole lesson, and when we invite them to get baptized at the end of the lesson many of them eagerly accept. The hardest thing here is getting them to understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. But when they really have a testimony of the restoration, everything else seems to come easily.

Mexico can be pretty noisy sometimes. Sunday morning people started shooting off fireworks in the road in front of our house. They weren't just any fireworks either, they were those bright flash bombs that are super loud... They started at 5:00 in the morning and went until 7:00... It's always sad to lose precious time to sleep on the mission, especially an hour and a half. 

We've been getting a lot of rain this week, and Elder Sanchez and I both lost our umbrellas... So we've gotten a bit wet. But hey, wife point huh? ;) yep Bryce, there are wife points in Mexico too. Whenever we get wet in the rain we gain more. If we drop our scriptures... well it's bad.. haha I actually don't know a whole lot about the wife point dealio. But I'm pretty sure I'll have it fine afterwards. :)

Oh the mission is just wonderful. I love it so much! I've learned so much and I continue to learn every day! Another month has slipped by and.. I really have no clue how it passed by so quick. I almost feel like every week when I write I say a month has passed by! 

I love you all so much! Thank you all for your email! They're my favorite! 

Love Elder Twede

Went and got my haircut today with Elder Sanchez. We think we're funny when the haircuter walks out for a few seconds. 

We took a small trip to paradise today.

Week 42: So Many Great Stories

Another week has slipped by! We had stake conference this weekend and I was able to enjoy it a lot more than the last one because I was actually able to understand what was being said. It was a super powerful conference and some very interesting this were said. The stake president at the end got up and talked about how Elder Holland said the spiritualness in the church among the saints is declining. I don't know if he meant the entire church or just here in Mexico. But then the president presented a plan for the stake to help the members have the spirit present. As a missionary is great because he basically laid out a lesson plan that we can use with all the members when we visit them. During the conference a bird got into the chapel and was flying around the whole time. I was nervous that it was going to fly into one of the fans and... well you can imagine why. 

Contacting people in the streets can be really fun! The best ones that I'll probably always remember are when we're actually able to talk for a bit and they don't just walk away. I contacted a lady with her little son and she didn't seem very interested and she was just about to walk away when her little boy screamed and ran and hid behind her. She asked what happened and then he pointed at me and asked "why are his eyes blue?" I started talking with him and told how I was born this way and then I asked him if he would like if we came to his house to visit. He asked if my eyes would still be blue and I told him that we would just have to find out. He looked up at his mom and she asked him "well?" He nodded and we ended up getting their home address. 

We made another contact where the guy went off on how we're a cult and all that fun stuff. I've never really studdied this topic exactly, but suddenly I had a scripture in the bilbe for everything he said. It got to the point were he nothing to come back with and finally just made up a scrpiture and said "in the bible Jesus said that man will never see God again" we asked him where it says that and... well he had read it once. I decided that it was useless to try showing him scriptures when he was just going to make up his own. He did give us his address for a visit, but he told us that we can only talk about truths from the bible. I think that would be great. 

Contacts really are one of my favorite things in the mission! At first they were really hard, and I still have to try really hard to do 20 every day, but so many great stories come out of them! Just imagine how many people I will have talked to after two years of this!

In stake conference they showed a video of a guy that randomely served other people but didn't really get anything in return except that he felt good. It was a beautiful message about how we should seek to serve others, and the scrpiture came to my mind from Ether 12

 4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in goodworks, being led to glorify God.

This one guy in the video was making the world a better place by doing small acts of service. Later in the same chapter in Ether, Moroni goes on to teach about faith and how it's this perfect hope that we have for this better world. As it says in James 2

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Therefore if we truly hope for a better world, we better get up and do something about it. And if we truly have faith, we'll be out "always abounding in goodworks" being that change in the world. Faith is more than simply a passive belief in Christ. True faith brings about goodworks. 

We're already half way done with training Elder Sanchez! I can't believe that we've already been companions for six weeks! But I'm excited to have six more with him! It's nice knowing that I don't have to go to the transfer meetings tomorrow. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your support and letters! 

Que Dios les bendiga. 

Elder Twede

I thought Bryce's and my scaffolding was a bit sketchy in our work. This takes the cake.

Week 41: Faith in the Mission

This week seemed really long for some reason, but at least it was a good week so I guess that it isn't really a bad thing that it was long. We're still finding new investigators and we're starting to teach more people. Right now we have 5 baptism dates! The 7th and 28 of June! Pray that everything goes well for the investigators to prepare for their days!

So I've been learning a whole lot about faith in the mission. It has seemed to be the main thing talked about when we have zone conferences or anything like that. We can work super hard, but without faith we're not going to see a whole lot of success. But when we really have faith, we will see miracles, like those great stories in the Book of Mormon.

Ether 12

"13 Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth.

14 Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost.

15 Behold, it was the faith of Ammon and his brethren which wrought so great a miracle among the Lamanites."

What really jumps out to me is that their faith was able to bring about a change in the Lamanites. Without Faith Nephi and Lehi wouldn't have been able to convert so many people to the truth. But what is it that we have faith in that brings about these miracles. For me lately it has been faith that the Lord really can change a persons heart. I've seen that it would be possible to convince someone to come to church long enough to get baptized, but convincing will never bring about a lasting conversion in someone. I have to put my faith in the Lord to convert those that we're teaching, and rely less on my own words and ability to teach. The more that I've gained this perspective, the more blessed I have felt with opportunities to teach people that the Lord is preparing. It really is the most exciting thing when we find someone that is prepared by the Lord, I sometimes almost feel like we don't have to do anything because they just accept everything we teach. It's super fun though.

The mission simply put. It's hard. But oh so rewarding! Everyday bring it's own set of challenges, but also it's own set of blessings. Packeges being one of them ;) but really. The package was great :) Elder Sanchez loves the granola.

I love you all to pieces! Talking with you guys on Sunday was such a treat, I'm excited for when I'll be able to share my stories with you in person without a time limit :) But until then I'll just keep working hard so that I can have plenty of stories to tell :)

Love Elder Twede

CAAAANNNDDYY! 

It was no match for that nail...

Week 40: Skype was the best!

I love you guys! Skype was the best! It did feel a bit weird right after as I was walking across a bridge and could see across Mexico and it hit me again that I'm not in Utah. But I'm still happy to be here :) Seeing everyone was great though! The kids all look and sound like they're growing up so fast! It's only been 9 months and Jaicee sounds a ton different! 

I don't really know what I'm going to write today, I kind of talked about everything yesterday.... And it's kind of hard to think right now because there's a fair in the street right outside the internet cafe and the really like to blast music. And I mean BLAST. It sounds horrible too because all the speakers are blown out. 

On Saturday I went on exchanges with my district leader in his area. It was weird after having trained for the last four weeks and making most of the decisions, and then going to someone else's area and just following them around all day because I didn't know where anything was. I realized how much more tiring it really is to be training after seeing the contrast for a day, but I'm loving training! 

So I read the scripture in Alma 37:6-7 this week that says,

 "6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

 7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."

I started thinking about Joseph Smith and how he was a simple farm boy that didn't have a whole lot of education. But through a simple young boy the Lord brought forth his marvelous work. The faith of 14 year old Joseph to put himself as an instrument in the Lords hands brought forth the restored church that even the most "wise" cannot confound. 

In applying this scripture to myself I realized that I don't have to have a degree in biblical studies to be able to teach well. I feel like a pretty "small and simple" thing in this big world. Just one little Elder trying to communicate in Spanish in an unfamiliar culture. But I know that if I rely on the Lord, through "small and simple things" (me) He'll be able to work great and marvelous things. 

It's been an amazing 40 weeks of my life, I only have 64 more... I have a lot I want to learn before that day comes! Better get to work :) 

Love you all :)

Elder Twede

This is what my street has looked like all week long

The electrical shower head. Everything I was taught as a child is a lie!

The volcano!

Facebook profile pic please :)

Week 39: One of Those Tender Mercies

Great week! We have really started seeing the fruits of our efforts to contact a lot of people. We found 7 new investigators this week and have other contacts that are big potential that we just haven't been able to visit yet. In church on Sunday we had a family of five come and Juan who was that contact that I mentioned in last weeks letter. Juan is one of those tender mercies of the Lord to be present to teach him. He's originally Catholic but said that he has been searching for a new church recently. He started talking with his neighbor who is a Jehovah's Witness but said that he just feels different with us. He's excited to share the little that he has learned with his family too, hopefully this one contact can branch out into an entire family!

In my daily studies it continues to be evident to me that everything in the message of the gospel is central in the atonement of Christ. I came across a scripture in Moroni 7:24 that really added to my understanding of the importance of the atonement.

"24 And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them."

It hit me that every good thing we have, every little tender mercy we enjoy in our lives, all comes as a result of the sacrifice that Christ made for us. Because of our fallen state we are incapable of being worthy of even the smallest of blessings, but as it says in the verse "all things which are good cometh of Christ" he made it possible for God to have mercy on us in our fallen state. As it says in Alma 42:15

"15 And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth forth the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God,and a merciful God also."

This plan is perfect. We are the ones that just have to choose to follow it. If we want his blessings, we have to follow his rules, or commandments. The mission truly has helped me gain a testimony of the love that our father in heaven has for us, his perfect plan is the greatest testimony of that love. 

As hard as the mission can be (Anyone that has served one can relate to the difficulty) The things that I have experienced and learned I wouldn't trade for anything! It really has been one of the greatest blessings in my life to be able to serve a mission! I can't believe how fast it is all flying by! I remember when I got here and talking to other elders that had 9 months and thinking that they were so old, in mission years that is ;) I can't say that I feel very "old", but I have learned a whole lot since the day I arrived in Mexico. 

I can't wait to talk to everyone on skype! I can't believe that 5 months has already passed since we last skyped! We're already almost halfway through this year! But don't worry mom, you will be getting your private time on the phone :)

I love you all! Talk to you next week :)

Love Elder Twede

I think we had a visitor while we were out working. 

We helped paint someones patio in our district leaders area for some service

The buildings just never end!

Crashing in bed after a hard days work