1 Down, A Lot More To Go

Family and Friends,

Hey y'all! How is everything going? I'm happy to inform you that I made it through my first transfer!! Woot woot!! And I'm staying in Anacortes with Sis Cluff, she's not getting rid of me yet😉. Anyway, this week was pretty good! Here it is:

Monday: We had a zone activity at Washington Park here in Anacortes. It's super pretty and right on the water. We cooked hot dogs and burgers and played games. It was pretty fun! That night we had 2 lessons with members and they went so well! We are trying to help members know how they can introduce the gospel to those around them in simple and casual ways and it's going pretty well so far so stay tuned.

Tuesday: Kind of a slow day. We tried contacting a lot of people but not many were home or didn't want to listen. So that was rough, but it's all good.

Wednesday: We had our last district council which was sad but it's all good because we all have places we need to be. We had another exchange and I got to lead out in Anacortes with Sis Budd (so I also got to drive for the first time in 2 months! It was great!). It was a little crazy because we had a booked afternoon. We taught our friend Jason about the Holy Ghost and  baptism and he said he wants to work towards baptism!! So awesome! Then we had 3 member lessons later and got to talk to a lot of awesome people during finding time! It was super awesome and I learned a lot about how to talk to people and relate the gospel to them from Sis Budd. She's awesome!

Thursday: Sid Budd and I did our studies in the morning and then we left for the farm stand that we were meeting Sis Cluff and Sis Aagard at. I got some super good salsa at the farm stand! (I have a bit of an addiction to chips and salsa haha.) After Sis Cluff and I got back home, we did comp study and then went out for finding. That was uneventful but right after we ran back to the apartment to get something.  When we were about to leave again, there were 2 cop cars in front of our apartment! They were checking out this creepy truck that was in the parking lot and they were there almost the rest of the night so we got stuck in our apartment the rest of the night haha! Pretty crazy stuff!

Friday: We did service at the zoo and Dave (the owner) had us in the reptile room. Yeah nope! It's a trailer with 20-30 cages and 3/4 of them are snakes. If you know me you know I don't like snakes so I was internally freaking out the whole time. And Dave kept telling me about all the poisonous snakes they have, yeah that didn't help either. But I made it and didn't get bit by any snakes! The rest of the day was mostly just weekly planning so nothing too exciting and snake free.

Me trying not to freak out as I block a hole so a
giant snake won't come through the hole!

Saturday: A lot of our appointments fell through which was sad but we visited some pretty awesome people. We visited a family who's son is the only member and they were so sweet. The mom asked if the son, Donna, wanted to go to church and he said "totally". So, she said that her, Donna, and her daughter, Tina, would all be there tomorrow. They would need a ride and we got some members to give them a ride that night! We also got to visit a less active couple that are only less active because they have health issues. They are the greatest and their dog is so cute! (it's a golden doodle) We had a super awesome conversation with the wife and were able to do some service for her as well.

Sunday: It was Sis Cluff's birthday! So that was awesome and church was the best. We had dinner at a member's house and she made Sis Cluff a cake that was so good! We visited Sis Salas and had such an amazing visit. She has such a strong testimony! We finished off the night at the Gardners. They just moved in and are the nicest couple. They are already so willing to help us and have us over for dinner sometime.

Well that was the week! There is a talk from this last Conference called "Exercising Your Spiritual Muscles" and it talks about how we have to do those small and simple things over and over. When you work out you have to continually work at it so you retain and can develop more muscle. It's the same for our spiritual muscles, we must continue to exercise them so they can be retained or developed. Anyway love you all and hope you all have the best week!

Kia Kaha,
Sister Twede

View during weekly planning.

Me and Sister Budd at the park.

We picked blackberries from off the side of the road!

Selfie with a bird.

Life is an Adventure

Family and friends!!

Hey y'all! How is everyone? I hope everyone is doing well! This week went by pretty fast, I can't believe it's already Monday again! But this week was pretty good so I'll give you a quick update on the week.

Monday: We went out to Mt. Vernon and wrote emails there because we had another exchange later that day and that's where we met the other sisters. I went back to Camano with Sis Barraclough! We actually came out together so we were a little nervous because we are both still trying to understand mission life haha! But that night we met with one of their friends named Ris. He is super awesome and is just waiting to get baptized. He loves the Book of Mormon and always talks about how great it is haha. He's awesome!

Tuesday: Sis Barraclough and I did some service that morning and then went and had another lesson with Ris. It was about family history and let's just say it was a little rough. Neither of us have ever done a family history lesson with the family history consultants so we didn't really know what we were doing but it's all good because we learn as we go! Later that day while we were tracting a little we accidentally tracted into some members! It was great because after we shared a scripture and were leaving the wife said "thank you so much for coming over I really needed that". It was awesome! Then when we went to our lesson with a member family the mom told us that she was just over at that same member's house earlier that morning! Crazy right?! It was pretty awesome.

Wednesday: We had district council that morning and that is always awesome. We talked a lot about the importance of families and the plan of salvation which is exactly what we were planning on teaching our friend Jason later that day!! That lesson went really well. We hadn't met with him for a while because he has a crazy work schedule but he is still super interested in learning more about the gospel but wants to take it slow. Later that day we went out to visit some less actives with a member from one of the wards, Sis Bray. It was really neat because we visited a sister and she told us that life is an adventure and when we got home Sis Cluff found a sticker she had gotten in one of her areas that said "life is an adventure" it was so crazy!

Thursday: Kind of a weird day. All of our plans went out the window except for two things. We had another lesson with Jason and we talked about the Plan of Salvation and mostly talking about our life on earth and the Atonement. It went really well and he feels that he is starting to understand things. We went back out with Sis Bray that night and when we showed up to another sister's house she saw Sis Bray and said "God works in mysterious ways" and started crying. She had been really struggling and Sis Bray used to minister to her and she had been asking for her just 2 days earlier. It was definitely what she needed. It's so awesome how the Lord is so aware of all of our needs.

Friday: We had service at the zoo in the morning and Sis Cluff took me around to see the cougars and the emu so that was neat! Nothing too exciting happened during the day but we did get to talk to a lot of people later that night which was awesome!

Saturday: We went to a memorial service that morning for the grandson of a family in one of the wards. It was really a good service and the spirit was so strong during the whole thing. The rest of the day was pretty much just weekly planning. We had a our last lesson with Salemma because she's leaving for college so that was sad that night. But she's super excited and she's going to be awesome.

Sunday: We had Stake Conference and it was so good! So much good stuff was said! There was one talk that talked about ministering and the sister talked about how we should minister to everyone around us and to just love them. It was so great I loved it.

Well that was the week. I just want to elaborate on what one of the sisters talked about on Sunday. Everything we do should be motivated by love for those around us. The 2 greatest commandments Christ gave is were to love the Lord thy God and love one another. When we love those around us that is when hearts are changed and they can be able to feel the Saviors love for them through us. Well, I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Kia Kaha
Sister Twede

Exchanges with Sister Barraclough!

Mom asked Bethany to take this picture

"Life is an Adventure"

Dog driving a car

Cougar at the zoo

Fanny Pack Friday

Rain and Moss Don't Mix

Family and Friends!

Hey there y'all! How is everyone doing? This week went by pretty fast actually. It was a pretty crazy week too so here it is:

Monday: We got all of our stuff done in the morning and then went down to Oak Harbor and played card games with our district. That was fun to spend time with them. After we went and visited some recent converts that night. It was pretty great!

Tuesday: Pretty slow day. We were going to go help a nonmember unpack some boxes for her but she had to reschedule, so that was kind of a bummer. The rest of the day we just tried to contact people but nobody really wanted to listen, so it was kind of a slow day.

Wednesday: We had interviews with president! It was so good to talk to president for a bit. Later in the day we got out and walked to the store and got ice cream and talked to some people on our way. We tried to also visit a referral but the house literally didn't exist so that was a problem. And I realized that up here they like to skip random numbers, idk why. It's weird. But we did see one of our recent converts, Mary, and she broke her leg earlier that week! It's a super bad compound fracture and she is having surgery for it this week. So that was super sad but she's still positive so that's good!

Thursday: We had District Council in the afternoon and it was really awesome. We talked about being one with the Lord and the Spirit and that that is the most important thing. We had dinner with part of our district after at this pizza place right on the water! It was super awesome and really good haha. That night Sis Cluff and I drove out to Camano Island for exchanges! It was such a pretty drive!

Friday: EXCHANGES! So I got go stay in Camano with Sis Allen and it was so much fun! It has so many more trees than Anacortes which I didn't think was possible but it is! We had some awesome lessons with a member that morning and lunch with a lady they had been teaching. Both lessons were awesome. After dinner we went to the south end of the island and visited some members and I tried crab! It was kind of weird, but not bad. We went and visited one of their neighbors and gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and she seemed pretty interested! Then later at another member's house I also got to achieve a life long dream and try creme brulee! It was super good!

Saturday: Funny story time! So that morning it rained, which was so awesome! And around noon we went to our friend Becky's house and we were planning on dropping her because she just isn't progressing and she took it really well. She has had missionaries over before but she has never had any desire to be baptized or anything. So as we were walking out she has moss growing all over her front steps and because it had been raining they were a wee bit slick. Sis Cluff started down first and well...she went down haha! She totally slipped on the steps and fell and as I went to go help her I slip as well! We both just sat there for a minute just laughing and Becky came down without any trouble and helped us up. We felt so bad because we had just dropped her and now she was helping us up and making sure we were ok haha! We had moss and dirt all over so we had to go home and change before we could do anything else. It was the funniest thing and we couldn't stop laughing about it all day! Haha so that was the highlight of the week! We are both bruised but ok 👍the rest of the day was pretty much just weekly planning so nothing too exciting.

Sunday: Church was really good. We had some meetings after Church and then we went and did our studies. Later, we went and had dinner with a sweet member family. We studied Come, Follow Me with a member and we talked about the importance of the Holy Ghost and it was a super awesome discussion.

Well that was the week! One of my favorite chapters that I found this week is Alma 26. Verses 6 and 7 are some of my favorites because it talks about how as we bring others unto Christ they will be able to withstand the whirlwinds that Satan sends. Reach out to others because there are people right around us that need the light of Christ in their lives, but they don't know where to find it. I love this chapter and I would invite all of you to read it when you have a chance. Love you all and hope y'all have an amazing week!

Kia Kaha
Sister Twede

Our view while eating pizza

Creme Brulee

Me and Sister Allen

Fanny pack Friday!

Exchanges

Fanny Pack Friday (Part 2)

Meetings and Stuff

Family and friends!

Hey hey hey!! How have y'all been? I hope everything is going well! This week was packed full! We had a lot of meetings and trainings, but that's all good stuff.

Monday: Pretty uneventful. We didn't really do anything, so yeah...moving on.

Tuesday: We had New Missionary Training and that was so awesome! We talked about a lot of good stuff but what really hit me hard was an Elder's testimony at the end of the meeting. He talked about how a mission is hard, it's hard to leave your family and friends but this work is SO IMPORTANT! We are here to help others come unto Christ, we are here to help them back on the path and yeah it won't be easy but it will be so worth it. That's what I really took away from that training.

Wednesday: We had district council in the morning and that was great. We talked too about using the Book of Mormon when teaching people. After DC we did our studies and visited with Sister Davis from one of the wards and then we contacted some people later that night.

Thursday: TEMPLE!!! I got to go to the temple with Mary, one of our recent converts, to do baptisms! I went with Sister Aagard because both of our companions had to go to a meeting in Everett because they are both Sister Training Leaders. But it was such a neat experience. We had lunch at the temple and then headed back to Anacortes. Once we got back, we did some studying and then Sis Aagard and I went out and talked to some people and we ran into 2 teenagers at separate times while we were out. So that was really awesome!

Friday: We went to the zoo and did service! That was so fun! We go every week and they have wolves, cougars, a sloth, alligators, chickens, an emu, and a bunch of other animals that I can't remember at the moment. We mostly just help wash dishes for them and anything else they need help with. It's one of my favorite things we do. After that we had a lesson with Becky and Nathan and that was interesting. We aren't sure if we should keep teaching them or not but we're going to see in our next lesson. After that we went to a less active's house and had a really good lesson with her.

Saturday: Kind of a rough day. Sis Cluff and I were both kind of out of it and so when we tried to finish weekly planning, we couldn't. So, we went for a drive at a park that has a loop you can drive and it was definitely a nice break we both needed. Then wevwere able to get some good weekly planning in and an awesome lesson with our friend Pam. So, after all that it was a good day.

Sunday: Church was great! We had dinner at the Millards (an awesome family in the Anacortes ward) and then stopped by a recent convert's house. Her name is Ashley and she's 10. We hadn't been able to meet with her for about 3 weeks so we decided to stop by and they were home! We shared a really quick message about building our foundation on the Savior and asked them what they can do now to do build their foundation on the Savior. It was so awesome!

Well that's pretty much the week! Kinda crazy week but good. I just want to really express how important the gospel is in our lives. This is something that we all should be striving to share with others. Sis Cluff said imagine that the people you meet are a loved one and you only have one thing to say to them what would you tell them? Well the most important things right? So share the gospel with all those you meet, tell them they have a Heavenly Father who loves them because that is the most important thing. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Kia Kaha,
Sister Twede:)

Me and a possum at the zoo

Fanny pack Friday

My favorite

More Zucchini and Stuff

Friends and Fam!

Hey there everyone! Sorry about last week I have no idea what happened to my group email last week but I'm alive!! Right now I'm on Fidalgo Island in a city called Anacortes. It is absolutely beautiful here!

Sister Cluff and I cover 2 wards so it gets a bit crazy, but it's all good. Last week was kinda crazy traveling and trying to get used to everything, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of things a little bit. So now for this week:

Monday: We went and played some sand volleyball with our zone and had root beer floats (woot woot!). Then that night we taught some recent converts.

Tuesday: Kinda a slow day. We taught this guy Jason and it went so well! We taught about the restoration and committed him to read the intro to the Book of Mormon and he said he'll probably read more, so that's awesome! We then went and visited an active couple and it was so great meeting with them. The wife is a paraplegic so they can't make it to church just because it's hard but they are still so strong. And when we left they gave us 2 zucchinis! So now we have 3 huge containers full of zucchini in our fridge and not sure what to do with them. Haha! But, we'll figure it out.

Wednesday: We had district council and we talked about personal revelation. It was just really great and there were definitely things I needed to hear. After that, we visited this sweet old lady in one of the wards and she is a piano teacher and in her house she has the HUGE filing cabinet full of music! I wanted to look through it so bad but I was a little scared to ask. But yeah, after that we did a lot of tracting and personally... it's not my favorite but it's all good. We visited a member at the end of our day and she was super sweet and let us share a message. So that was a nice way to end our day.

Thursday: We had a lesson with this guy John that we are teaching. We taught him more about the Atonement and the Sacrament and invited him to come to church again this week (he went last week which was awesome!) And he said he would so yeet! After that, we visited with a lady who's husband just died and it was so sweet meeting with her and made her so happy. She told us to come back again. Ok, so deer up here in Washington are everywhere and they aren't scared of people. So, they will just kinda stand there and look at you. It's pretty funny! But we saw 2 deer just sitting in the grass of someone's house that we tried to visit and they didn't even budge! They just looked at us and watched us until we left. Haha. I thought it was pretty funny.

Deer just chillin'

Friday: ZONE CONFERENCE (and Fanny Pack Friday)!! Man it was so good! It was all focused on Elder Boyd K. Packers talk The Candle of the Lord in the January 1983 Ensign (I recommend reading it) and learning how to receive, recognize, and act on spiritual promptings. I loved it so much and really learned a lot. And that was pretty much most of the day and then we tried to visit some people that night.

Fanny Pack Friday

Saturday: Kinda an up and down day. A couple of our lessons fell through so that was sad but the ones we had were pretty good! Sis Cluff was having a rough morning though, so we called our district leader to see if the YSA elders in our area could give her a blessing. They said definitely. So later that day we were on our way to meet the elders and we saw the CUTEST lemonade stand. So, of course we had to stop and get some and it was so worth it! And the elders got Sis Cluff her favorite candy so that helped too. We visited this girl Salemma that night and we talked with her about how Heavenly Father does everything for our benefit. We started talking about the Second Coming and we asked her how she can prepare for that. She told us she was preparing to go through the temple! She had tried to go through once before but then stopped but now she really wants to and it makes us so happy! She has an amazingly strong testimony and we know she can do it.

Lemonade!

Sunday: It was a good day. We had church and a meeting with one of the wards mission leaders and that went really well. We had a really good dinner appointment with some members and then tried to visit someone who is interested in the church but he wasn't home so we came home and studied some Come Follow Me.

So yeah that was pretty much my week! Something really quick I want to share is something I learned this week about bearing your testimony. Elder Packer said that a testimony is found in the bearing of it. As you bear your testimony to others, no matter how simple it is, it will be able to grow stronger and the Holy Ghost will be able to testify to you that what you are saying is true. So share your testimony as much as you can and you will be able to know the things you say are true through the Holy Ghost. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Kia Kaha
Sister Twede

Mom ALWAYS Has a Way of Finding "Stuff" Out!

Bethany's email for this week was inadvertently deleted when she went to send it. So, we just got pictures this week. However, Mom Twede is including a fun story that happened this week.

Bethany left the Provo MTC on Tuesday, July 16th. We were wondering if we were going to hear from her once she arrived in Everett. We didn't hear anything, but had a feeling she was just fine. Her mission president, President Auna, arrived in the mission just two weeks before she did, so this was his first transfer of new missionaries. As parents, we just chalked it up to a new president trying to attend to his missionaries. So, we didn't worry about not hearing from her when she arrived; although, we were curious to hear where she got transferred and all about her new companion. But, we figured we would just wait for her first P-day, the following Monday.

However! Something curious happened the Friday before we heard from her. Darren and I were returning home from Salt Lake that evening. There was some heavy traffic and I turned the data on my phone to check the traffic congestion. Anyway, when my data clicked in, all of a sudden....I started getting notifications of several Facebook messages. I looked down at the phone and wondered what in the world was going on. The group that I was getting messages from was a group called "Oak Harbor District". I looked at the messages and wondered why I was a part of this group and what all the messages were for. (Side note, when Bethany left, I switched my cell number to her phone.) As I read the messages, it was very apparent that these were missionaries talking to each other and discussing where the next district meeting was. Part of a message gave an address in Oak Harbor, WA! Ahhh! Bethany's phone was still logged into her missionary Facebook page!! I was receiving FB messages that were coming to her missionary account. It was her new district that had just added her to their group and including her with the messages. After reading the messages, we determined she is in Oak Harbor, WA located on Whidbey Island, she is obviously part of the Oak Harbor District and her companion is Sister Cluff. Bingo!

We had a blast that night Googling pictures of Oak Harbor and Whidbey Island. The next morning, I wrote to Bethany to tell her what had come our way to help us know where she was without hearing from her. Just more evidence that moms ALWAYS have a way of finding things out!!!! It was really fun seeing the FB messages, but Darren made me log out of her FB account the next day😒.

When we talked to her today, we were all curious to see if our assumptions were correct. I asked her about it and instantly her and her companion (who is Sister CLUFF, by the way..ha!) just started laughing. Bethany said as soon as she read my email, she said, "My mom finds out everything!" So, we were correct about the companion and we were correct about the district. However, she is actually in Anacortes and not Oak Harbor, which is just on the island above Whidbey Island. Anacortes is located on Fidalgo Island. It is such a beautiful area and we are so happy for Bethany to be in a wonderful place doing the Lord's work!

My MTC District

Everett Sisters at the Seattle Temple

My trainer, Sister Cluff

Anacortes Views

Anacortes Views

Zucchinis we got for service

Anacortes Views

A Hot Mess & Stuff

Friends and Fam!

Hey there everyone! I made it through another week and man this one was so awesome! There were so many spiritual experiences and I have learned so much.

Thursday: Nothin much happened, I just talked with my fam and then we watched fireworks so that was cool but having to wake up the next day was not so fun.

Friday: Fanny Pack Friday week 2! We got to go play sand volleyball as a district which was way fun but the sand was super hot. But I got to see one of Brielle's friends who works at the MTC and that was super awesome! I honestly can't really remember what else happened that day haha.

Macey Bailey (Brielle's friend) and Sister Twede

Saturday: Ok class that night was absolutely AMAZING!! At the beginning, however, we all were pretty tired and a little rambunctious and let’s just say our teacher wasn't too happy with us. But near the end, we had a Gospel Study Review on the Atonement. Our teacher asked us to write down the role our Savior has in our lives and as I started to do so I began to just write my testimony about the Atonement. Of course I was crying because the Spirit was SO STRONG! After we wrote those down she had us finish the sentence "Because of Him..." on the board and it was just amazing to see the things we all put down. It was just so amazing and the Spirit was so strong hardly any of us talked on the way back to our residence.

Sunday: My first fast Sunday woot woot. I'm going to be straight up, it was kinda rough. I feel like I was having a hard time feeling the Spirit throughout the day, but the devotional that night I was able to feel it again. The MTC Presidency spoke and I loved President LeSueur's talk. He talked about developing Christ-like attributes and I realized that that is something that I should really work on while I am devoting all my time to the Lord and to the people of Everett, Washington.

Monday: We got our flight plans!!!!! Sister Rowley and I are headed off to Washington on Tuesday the 16th!! I'm so pumped (and a little scared) to finally get up there! The sad part is tho that we have to say goodbye to the other sisters in our district at 4:30am. But we are all so excited as well. 

Tuesday: The devotional was so awesome! Elder Andersen of the seventy came and he talked about how we need to learn to love the Lord. He gave us 3 steps to do that: 1. Learn His Language (revelation), 2. Play His Music (service), and 3. Take His Name Upon Ourselves. At the end of his talk, he showed a video with Elder Holland talking about when Christ asks Peter if he loves Him. This kinda made me think for a minute "Do I love the Lord?" and "How do I show that love?". The Savior’s response is perfect "If ye love me, feed my sheep". Right now that is what I'm doing by serving a mission but we don't have to have a name tag on to do that. We all can feed His sheep. 

Wednesday: Well I got sick so that's rough. Sister Rowley also got sick so we've both been just trying to get through the day and sleep as much as we can. But we did get to host so that was fun! I was kinda sad I didn't get to host my best friend who came in but it's ok because I saw her today. It was so hot though (hence the title haha)! And some of these sisters’ bags were so heavy and we had to lug them all the way up the stairs but hey I got my workout in for the day haha.

Well that's pretty much it! I just want all of you to know how much I love my Savior and I know He died for each and every one of us. He loves you more that you could ever know and wants to help us, all we have to do is reach out and ask for His help. I love you all and hope you had a great week!!

 Kia Kaha! (Forever Strong)
Sister Twede:)

A side note from Mom....

Today was a special day for Brielle. Today marks 3 years since she left on her mission to Malaga, Spain. She also had the opportunity to see Bethany today in the MTC! A week ago, Brielle had a job opportunity come to her to be a gym coach in the MTC. Things worked out and she got the job. So, everyday, she is helping missionaries during their gym time. When she got the job, she told her boss that her sister is in the MTC right now and asked him if she should avoid seeing her. Her boss responded with, "That's wonderful! No, you go see her every chance you get!" So...today it was Bethany's p-day. Brielle emailed her in the morning and told her she would be in the weight room during a certain time and to come by and see her if she got the chance. About 30 minutes later, Brielle recognized the missionary at the door. She said that Bethany tried to maintain her composure and walk over to Brielle. It didn't take but a few steps and Bethany was running to Brielle. She gave her sister a huge hug and held on tight! Brielle pulled back and saw tears coming down Bethany's face. Brielle asked her if she was ok and she said she was. I think it was just great for her to see her sister when she never expected to in the MTC! Brielle sent us this picture and called and told me about the interaction. I have to admit, I had my own tears as well;).

Sister Twede and Sister Twede

Fanny Pack Friday

Our awesome neighbors who left us this week;(

Me and My Comp

After we hosted new missionaries

Before we hosted new missionaries

My district after we cleaned the temple today