Am I in Utah?

 Family and friends,

I wrote you all a poem. 

October is gone 

That didn't take very long

Anyway,

☀️Highlights☀️

- We got 2 referrals this week! One is a little boy that hasn't been baptized yet, but his parents are members! The other one was a self-referral that sounds super solid! We haven't been able to get in touch with either of them yet, so pray we can this week. 

- We had a meeting with all the mission leaders and it was so good! We talked about some really good stuff. Both Sis Vivas and I were kind of drained after the meeting. We went to Cafe Rio after and saw so many members! I almost felt like I was in Utah or something!

- We were able to get our friend Craig a Book of Mormon. He started reading and said that he really likes it! 

- Halloween was pretty great! We helped some sisters make a video and went and dropped off some treats to members. We had to be in by 6, so we did weekly planning...yay.......

🥤Spiritual Juices🥤

The past 2 weeks I've been studying the story of Peter walking on water. This is one of my favorites and let me just say that there is so much we can learn from with story! But I'll spare you from a novel about everything I've learned. First, I want to highlight 3 verses:

Matt 14: 30-32

       30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.

I love these verses because when Peter called out for the Lord when he was afraid, Jesus came IMMEDIATELY. I picture the Savior running to his aid to help Peter. Then after Jesus pulled Peter up they walked back together. When I read this, I realized that many times in our storms we begin to doubt and become afraid of the waves and wind. When we call out for Christ to help, He will be there IMMEDIATELY. He will then walk back with us until we have reached safety. Also He won't calm our storm when we call out to Him. If there's one thing I've learned on my mission it is that sometimes He doesn't change our circumstances. This is because He wants to change us. But He will give us the help and strength we need to over come our circumstances. Ask for His help! He's your lifeguard. 

I love and miss you all and hope you have the best week!

Let God Prevail

Kia Kaha 

Sister Twede:)

Fanny Pack Friday

Happy Halloween

After 3 weeks back to church, we finally took a picture

Sunday Picnic (It was freezing!)

Golden Hour

"Facebook is like selling lemonade on the side of the freeway." -Elder Hatch

Family and friends,

Wow, time has really been flying by! It's been so great!

☀️Highlights☀️

- We made a new friend!! We are probably going to be passing him off to some other sisters soon though because he lives in their area. But we made a new friend!

- We went to Denny's and a pumpkin patch on Monday!

- We got to join a devotional with John Bytheway! It was super awesome!

- We had a super awesome training on Thursday to learn more about how we can better connect with people on Facebook! 

- Someone just paid for our meal at IHOP (blessings!)

🥤Spiritual Juices🥤

So my past couple emails I've talked a lot about loving others. Well today, we will hit another aspect of this blessed topic: LOVE YOUR ENEMIES! We all have someone that we just can't seem to get along with, much less love. But in 3 Nephi 12:44, Jesus Christ tells the people "...love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you;"

Think about that for a second. Jesus Christ is asking us to raise to a higher level of loving others. He's telling us to love LITERALLY everyone! He's asking us to put aside our prejudices and look at everyone as a child of God. Because truth is, we don't know the whole story, God does and He still loves all His children so let's all try to love our enemies, bless those that curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for all those who persecute us. It makes the world a much better place!

I love and miss you all and I hope you have the greatest week!

Let God Prevail

Kia Kaha,

Sister Twede:)

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

We cherish every blue sky day!

Set up for one of our meetings

Fanny Pack Friday!

BAPTISM!

 Family and friends!

Well, well, well it's been another good week! So many good things!

☀️Highlights☀️

- SHARON GOT BAPTIZED!! So a year ago Sister VanDenakker and I met Sharon. She was so ready to get baptized right as we met her and on Sunday it finally happened! We got to tune in virtually and it was so good!

- Sister Vivas turned 20! Woot woot! We had a little party and taught her family, so it was really fun!

- We got to do service for one of our members. We helped her organize her food storage and let's just say I know where I'm going if the apocalypse happens...

- We also helped a lady move and found some pretty old cell phones!

🥤Spiritual Juices🥤

Watching Sharon's baptism was the best part of my week. It was so cool because as soon as she came out of the water, she started cheering! It was the most precious thing! But all during her baptism the Spirit was so strong. I knew that all the things that I have been learning through put my life and teaching and testifying about are true! This is the most important thing! I also realized how grateful I am for the opportunity that I have, not only now but throughout my life, to share the joy I feel that comes from the gospel. 

I was also reading the the Book of Mormon this week and I wanted to share this scripture that really touched me. 

1 Nephi 17:3

"And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness."

I know that as we keep the commandments of the Lord, He will provide a way for us to accomplish what He has asked and He will give us the strength to do it. TRUST. IN. HIM. 

I love and miss you all and hope you have the best week so far!

Let God Prevail

Kia Kaha,

Sister Twede:)

The Brick

Coconut Kenny's is the bomb.com!

Fanny Pack Friday (still going strong!)

We ate lunch at a pumpkin patch!

Picnic in the car.

Zoom Birthday Party

Sharon

Back At It Again

 Family and friends,

Well I honestly can't remember half of what happened this week, but it was a good one! 

☀️Highlights☀️

- WE GOT TO GO TO CHURCH!! That was super awesome! The weirdest part was probably that we could not shake hands with people but it was still great!

- Our bishop spoke and related fortnite to the gospel. Pretty skilled if you ask me! I don't think I could have pulled that out of a fanny pack😂!

- We had some really awesome discussions with people about Conference! It was so great!

- ‼Little Miracle‼ Our ward mission leader told us about a couple that lives behind the church that missionaries have come in contact with that he thought might be interested in talking to us. But, he didn't have a phone number. Since we can't go knocking, we thought we were all out of luck. But then Sister Vivas had the idea to look them up on Facebook and guess what?! WE FOUND THEM!! We are going to reach out to them so stay tuned!

🥤Spiritual Juices🥤

Many of you may know that I used to be a very competitive swimmer. I absolutely love swimming, I loved racing. The thrill of coming into the wall after a race after giving all you've got was the best feeling (unless you got a bad time then it was rough, but that's besides the point). But I couldn't get to those meets and do well just by showing up and praying really hard right before. Oh heavens no. It took hours upon hours of training, getting up at 4:30am, after school practices, sets that I thought would literally kill me, building endurance, eating right, some how getting enough sleep, and a whole lot motivation. It took a lot of work and preparation to be able to perform well at my meets. Even though I dreaded every time my alarm went off or when my coach wrote the main set up on the board, they all were worth it in the end. EVERY PAIN WAS WORTH IT! I put faith in my coaches to know that they knew what was best for me as a swimmer and at the end of a good race, I knew they knew what they were talking about. This is the same in life. We have a coach, Heavenly Father, who tells us what is going to help us reach our ultimate goal, eternal life. We must put our faith in Him, trusting that He knows how to help us get there. In this last General Conference Elder Holland said this:

"Faith means trusting God in good times and bad, even if that includes some suffering until we see His arm revealed in our behalf."

Heavenly Father sees everything perfectly. All the struggles you face in this life "shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." (D&C 122:7) Trust in Him and hold on in good times and in bad. He's there with you through it all!! I know this because I've seen His hand help me in my darkest moments. I love and miss you all! If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here for you😉

Kia Kaha

Sister Twede:)

Fanny Pack Friday!

The rest of these are things I put together this week.

Transfers, Flight Plans and CONFERENCE!

Family and Friends! 

This week was THE BEST!! I hope y'all were able to enjoy Conference and if you weren't go watch it! If you have no idea what I'm talking about go to the churchofjesuschrist.org! It was so amazing!

☀️Highlights☀️

- GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! Literally so amazing! Go watch it.

- Transfers were on Tuesday. This was actually sad because Sis VanDenakker is amazing! But I'm now with Sis Vivas and she's so awesome! She's is from Texas and was originally called to the Everett mission! We already get along well!

- My mom got my flight plans so now she actually knows when I'm coming home haha. I'll be coming home Dec 14th! It's really weird to be so close to the end because I still feel like I'm in my first 6 months! But I've loved every second and am so grateful for the things I'm continuing to learn! Missions are the best, they're hard like no other but that's also what makes them so great. 

- We had interviews with our president but we did it as companionships. We did a role play with Sis Auna and Sis Vivas and I did really well for only being together for 2 days!

🥤Spiritual Juices🥤

There are so many things that I learned from Conference but I don't really have that kind of time to type it all out and I'm sure y'all don't have that kind of time to read a 10 page essay haha! But something I do want to talk about, that I also talked about in last week's email, is God's love for you and those around you. We live in a world full of hate, anger, back biting, and fear. It's scary! I know I wonder how it has gotten so bad and what could possibly help heal the wounded hearts of so many around us. The answer is simple: LOVE! God loves each and everyone of His children; no matter who they are, where they come from, what they look like, what bumper sticker they have on their car, HE DOESN'T CARE! What He cares about is the actual person, the individual being! I love this quote from President Nelson from Conference

“Each of us has a divine potential because each is a child of God. Each is equal in His eyes. The implications of this truth are profound. Brothers and sisters, please listen carefully to what I am about to say. God does not love one race more than another. His doctrine on this matter is clear. He invites all to come unto Him, ‘black and white, bond and free, male and female’ (2 Nephi 26:33).”

So what is holding us back from loving our "neighbor as thy self"? What ever it may be pray for the Lord's help to overcome the natural man and see others as God does. I know it may seem like you can't make a whole lot of difference by yourself but let me tell you, to be able to change the world you have to first start with changing the man in the mirror. (You should also go listen to that Michael Jackson song;)

Anyway I love and miss you all and hope you have the best week! 

Kia Kaha,

Sister Twede:)

Transfers

Transfers

Morning walk and we can't see anything!

Vivas and Twede

Fanny Pack Friday!

Short Lived

 Family and friends,

Well, this week was good up until we got transfer text last night.... Sister VanDenakker is getting transferred😭. It was so fun being back together and I learned so much from her in the short time we were together, but I guess 3 weeks was how long the Lord needed us together. She's amazing and literally going to kill it wherever she goes!

☀️Highlights☀️

- We helped an elderly couple move and in return she gave us chicken bakes and a tube of elk meat! We have no idea what to do with it...

- We had Zone Conference and that was so fun! We went to Oak Harbor first and then got to stop in Anacortes to get lunch! That was way fun. Then we went to Mt. Vernon for part 2 of Zone Conference. It was a blast!

- We had a lesson with our friend who is a preacher's daughter and it went...well... she has a lot of questions which it good. We just didn't plan very well, but don't worry we are going to do better next time. 

- We had a super awesome lesson with some members down in Seattle! They are so amazing!

- We got to see some good friends from when we served in Anacortes!

🥤Spiritual Juices🥤

You are a child of God. He loves you more than you could ever imagine! This truth is something I hold so dear to my heart and know with ever fiber of my being. In my darkest moments, this is the one thing that I knew I could hold onto. And what is so amazing is the opportunity that we all have to be able to feel His love not only for ourselves and for others. We are all His children and more than anything, He wants us to love each other. So take time this week to love others! I love you all and hope you all have the best week!

Kia Kaha,

Sister Twede:)

Us and Sulemma

More kittens!

Fanny Pack Friday!

Meme of the week

Pam and Hannah

Attack of the Blackberry Bush

Family and friends!

Well is was kind of a crazy, but good, week up here in Burlington! 

☀️Highlights☀️

- We made a new friend!! She's super nice and she seems pretty open. When we asked her about her religious background she said "I'm a preacher's kid". I instantly thought "oh boy this will be fun", but we'll see how it goes! We have another lesson with her this week. She also brought out some super cute kittens for us to see!

- We had MLC (Mission Leaders Conference) and it was so good! So much spiritual knowledge gained and testimony-strengthening moments! 

- We helped our friend Joyce clean out a chicken coop that was literally being taken over by blackberry bushes. For those of you who may not know this, up here in good old Washington blackberry bushes literally grow on the side of the road EVERYWHERE! Yes, they give some pretty great berries, but they are like the weed of all weeds. They just grow and grow and once the touch the ground they grow a whole new set of roots PLUS they have nasty thorns that hurt so bad! So we chopped down a ton of those and by the end you could actually see the coop! 

- We also witnessed some cops take down a guy one night...haha.

🥤Spiritual Juices🥤

This week we had MLC and we talked about the Atonement. Now there are two parts of the Atonement: the redeeming power (this is what we use when we repent), and the enabling power (this is for pretty much everything else). We don't talk about the enabling power a whole lot but let me tell you this: the enabling power of the Atonement helps us more than we could ever imagine! Elder Bednar has said:

"The enabling power of the Atonement of Christ strengthens us to do things we could never do on our own." 

I would even add that it also helps us become who we never could imagine we could become on our own. 

I love this gospel and I know from the bottom of my heart that it is New Testament church Christ restored here on the earth. How do I know this? Because of the person I have become and the joy I have felt through living it everyday! This is the true church and if you aren't sure or want to know for yourself, get on your knees and ask God. I know He will answer you because He has answered me time and time again. I love and miss you all!!

Kia Kaha,

Sister Twede:)

Pday with the Sisters

Selfie on our walk

Cafe Rio with Sister Inskeep and Sister Cole

Fanny Pack Friday

Kitty!

The sky is on fire!

MLC