CAMBIOS!!! I am still in belen with... guess it... HNA HERNANDEZ!! Yes, again! Very unexpected but i am happy. We were only separated 6 weeks. I¨m so excited! Hna Hernandez ROCKS! and we are working hard and will continue to. I guess Presidente doesn´t want me to get to know other hermanas very well, becuase he keeps putting me with the same ones! haha. Some of my favorite elders in the zone left, and I¨m sad... booo cambios
Hna Larsen is still in my zone but in another ward. So I still get to see her twice a week! She is feeling lots better too so that´s good. Her comp is Hna Cruz, the guatemalan sister.
i CAN´T BELIEVE I´VE BEEN ON THE MISSION 1 YEAR! I feel OLD! But it´s been a great year. Just like you said, this has been a great opportunity for me to learn and grow. I am really happy now on the mission, i feel like the hard part is over and from now on it´s just going to be more fun and spiritually stretching.
I didn´t really do anything to celebrate that day. Was going to but ran out of time. The next day a member bought us a 2 liter bottle of coke that we had to drink all of it between the 3 of us. He only drank 2 little glasses then left us. Haha, that was funny. We were struggling to finish it. It´s a reuseable bottle he bought so that's why. That day we were also given Mocochinchi, Chicha, Lima, and Tampico. We were about to burst when we got home!
Well we were supposed to have Sandra´s baptism this weekend, but she moved!! So she will be baptized in her new ward. She moved back in with her family (she was renting a room close to her boyfriend but she can´t afford it now).
Mom, you sound like superwoman. way to be involved in so many things. You are a great example of service I am sure so many people are grateful.
Family, please stop getting sick!!! Glad you have been to the Dr. and gotten the medicines you need. I realized I have picked up some Bolivian habits when it comes to my health. I try not to drink too much cold water, if I feel like i´m getting sick I drink hot lemonade (limes put in the blender) with honey, and try not to sleep with the fan on. If my stomach hurts I like to drink chamomile tea... pretty funny huh. I also bought an old fashioned water bottle for my stomach. Warm water and salt is good too for the throat. But these things work! Try it out if you like!
We have a few new investigators now that are really great, one of them is Andres, he is older, his wife and all of his 6 or 7 kids are members. They have all been to the temple too, and he has a testimony, but is afraid of being baptized and messing up after. We had a lesson with his wife, 2 of his kids and their wives, and it was super special. He wants to have an eternal family. He knows it´s what he needs to do. Trying to help him with this fear that he has. He is a super sweet guy. He offered us hamburgers and tampico and coca cola- too much! And one night he paid for our taxi to take us home.
We are also teaching a guy named Diego, his grandma Irma is a member and he recently moved into the house across the street (Irma´s daughter´s house.). He is really great, he is about 20 and wants to learn, but says he used to go to a christian church and he really liked it, the dancing and singing-loud stuff. He said he felt weird when he went to the LDS church. Hopefully we can help him understand! He had some problems with Word of wisdom too in the past so we will try to help him.
We visited a lot of members this week when Hna Hernandez arrived, so she coud get to know the ward. It´s been really fun! That´s one of my favorite parts of the mission. Being with the members and establishing relationships with them. Also I helped a couple times with the Primary kids, they are preparing to sing in sacrament meeting (Child´s prayer) and needed a pianist. One day their leaders didn´t show up so we just taught them! It was super fun. I think most all Bolivians are tone deaf though.
My convert Hugo is doing goood, he gave us a really good reference today, but Corina and Alejandro haven't been going to church, and we can´t find her at home. Hope she is doing ok! Shirley is doing great too. Her son has to have another operation this week, this time for his head. Pray for little Bennji! We thought he was close to gettin out of the hospital but it appears it will be a while still.
Oh tracee, I forgot, I really liked the package! Thanks! I was so excited get it!! The clothes didnt´t fit me though, they are super huge!!! Did you think i got fat? Cause i´m not!
Cross your fingers I can get the Dhl package from my friend. if i don´t get it by the end of the month they´re gonna destroy it!! eeeek.
I love you all. Keep being good. Do you want anything from Bolivia for Christmas?? Have a great week and trynot to get sick anymore!! How is your preach my gospel reading going??
Love Hna Tibbitts
Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
November 7
Wow, what a week, well, Halloween came and went, some people celebrated it here, it´s kind of a fad thing because it´s american, some people really don´t like it. I got a package from Malia Pruitt with candy 2 days later, so that was really nice, also she included some halloween tissues and glow sticks. For Halloween I was Hna. Larsen and she was me. We switched name tags... :) we told people we were dressed up and they didn´t get it at first.. hah.
Shirley´s baptism went great! She was laughing when she came out of the water!! She was really happy.A lot of members came to support her. Her grandma gave her testimony and it was really special. After we went to her house and her grandma served us cake. When we were walking there it started pouring rain!! We didn´t get too wet but her grandma made us change shirts and she gave us towels to put over our heads because it was still raining when we went home. We are excited because Shirley´s baby had surgery, and it went well, and he will come home in 2 weeks!!! The sad part is that she doesn´t have anything for this baby, only one bottle. We told the RS president that it would be good to have a baby shower for her. Hno. Menacho baptized her. He is the husband of Ericka, our pensionista. I don´t know why she´s not in any of these pictures.
Saturday Hna Larsen was sick all day, we only went to the baptism and to eat cake after. Sunday she started feeling bad too. She slept all morning, I almost didn´t think we would be able to come to internet. Her whole body hurts, especially her back, she says she´s never felt this kind of pain before. I´m afraid its... dun dun dun.. dengue! I hope not!!! please Pray for my poor companion!! I don´t know why this keeps happening, it feels like we are always struggling with our health this cambio. But I know the Lord always has a reason. Hope you alll feel better soon too.. no fun to be sick.
Day of the dead... people here go to the cemetery and visit their dead family members.. dad, mom, grandma, brother, etc. They eat their favorite foods ther ein the cemetery (not everyone but some). that´s about it.
we ate shwaerma and falafel in the fidalga the other day! it´s a mall type place with a food court. it was good, and hna larsen really like dit, it was the first time to try it for her.
My eyes;;; have not bothered me at all this week. Maybe it was just stress?? I don´t know, I might still have them checked but i dont know. will seee what happens.
Christmas::: I don´t know what else... some mascara? i can´t find any good mascara here... umm... I don´t know. Whatever you think.
Sandra, our investigator, is ready for baptism. She had her interview yesterday, but sadly her baptism isn´t until the 19th. She goes out of town every other weekend for work, so we just decided to get it done early and get it out of the way. Today is her birthday, she is turning 21. Her boyfriend is a member of the ward and is like 35. Kind of weird, he wants to get married but she doesn´t. Whatever, the important part is that she has a testimony of the gospel and she wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized.
have a fun vacation!! Wish i was there!!! But glad i am here.
love you all. be good! Hna. Tibbitts
Shirley´s baptism went great! She was laughing when she came out of the water!! She was really happy.A lot of members came to support her. Her grandma gave her testimony and it was really special. After we went to her house and her grandma served us cake. When we were walking there it started pouring rain!! We didn´t get too wet but her grandma made us change shirts and she gave us towels to put over our heads because it was still raining when we went home. We are excited because Shirley´s baby had surgery, and it went well, and he will come home in 2 weeks!!! The sad part is that she doesn´t have anything for this baby, only one bottle. We told the RS president that it would be good to have a baby shower for her. Hno. Menacho baptized her. He is the husband of Ericka, our pensionista. I don´t know why she´s not in any of these pictures.
Saturday Hna Larsen was sick all day, we only went to the baptism and to eat cake after. Sunday she started feeling bad too. She slept all morning, I almost didn´t think we would be able to come to internet. Her whole body hurts, especially her back, she says she´s never felt this kind of pain before. I´m afraid its... dun dun dun.. dengue! I hope not!!! please Pray for my poor companion!! I don´t know why this keeps happening, it feels like we are always struggling with our health this cambio. But I know the Lord always has a reason. Hope you alll feel better soon too.. no fun to be sick.
Day of the dead... people here go to the cemetery and visit their dead family members.. dad, mom, grandma, brother, etc. They eat their favorite foods ther ein the cemetery (not everyone but some). that´s about it.
we ate shwaerma and falafel in the fidalga the other day! it´s a mall type place with a food court. it was good, and hna larsen really like dit, it was the first time to try it for her.
My eyes;;; have not bothered me at all this week. Maybe it was just stress?? I don´t know, I might still have them checked but i dont know. will seee what happens.
Christmas::: I don´t know what else... some mascara? i can´t find any good mascara here... umm... I don´t know. Whatever you think.
Sandra, our investigator, is ready for baptism. She had her interview yesterday, but sadly her baptism isn´t until the 19th. She goes out of town every other weekend for work, so we just decided to get it done early and get it out of the way. Today is her birthday, she is turning 21. Her boyfriend is a member of the ward and is like 35. Kind of weird, he wants to get married but she doesn´t. Whatever, the important part is that she has a testimony of the gospel and she wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized.
have a fun vacation!! Wish i was there!!! But glad i am here.
love you all. be good! Hna. Tibbitts
October 31
Hello, how are you all, I¨m doing ok, this week was kind of hard because both of us got alittle sick, but we are better now, still recovering alittle bit, but that´s just how it is. IT HAS BEEN SO HOT!!! and then yesterday it rained. now it´s hot again.
the pictures attached are Nefi, age 3, and Paul, age 6. They are the brothers of the baby Lehí that was just born.. picture of the baby is in the other email. Their mom is Seluti and she is a recent convert- she wanted to get baptized for a long time but her husband had to get divorced to marry her, so that´s how they have a 3 year old named Nefi. They´re a g reat family.
We weren´t able to have Shirley´s baptism this week, becuase she had to work on sunday, and her confirmation has to be in sacrament meeting, so it will be this saturday. Hooray!! Shirley is so great and ready.
We lost track of Jose CArlos, and SAndra is really hard to find now because she is traveling constantly for her work, but we will keep working and looking!!
There is a family in the ward and they let us have FHE with them every monday night, and we bring investigators, last week we decided to make the treats and we made mud cups, actually Ericka our pensionista made the pudding and we brought the oreo and worms, it really surprised some of them! But it was a hit. I guess we had halloween early...
Last monday we had an activity as a zone with the zone Paraiso, my last zone, so i got to see Hna hernandez and she told me that Lars got baptized!! Remember the guy from Sweden we were teaching!! I AM SO HAPPY!!! Also another investigator, Nicole, got baptized.. we were about ready to give up on her! So in total that is 5 baptisms for me in october between the 2 areas. Yesss!!
What else... so the prophet made a decision for the missionaries all around the world, and it is that all missionaries can have DVD players in our houses!!! WE got ours the other day. It is a little portable DVD player.WE only have 1 DVD to watch. So... that´s my christmas idea mom! DVD´s... we can only watch DVDs from the church though. Ones that have the church logo on the case. I want the video for the REstoration, and whatever others you want to send. Finding faith in christ would be good. Just make sure you get the version with other languages on it for spanish.
we went to part of the ward relief society´s party for the birthdays of the sisters. Very different from a party in the USA. All the women were dancing!! They had a dance contest.. then ate cake. We had to go home before eating cake though!!
Well even though this week was hard i am happy. i am doing the Lord´s work, and that makes me happy, to be an instrument in his hands, and I know that the gospel message is true, i want to do all that i can to share it.
Going to the mission office later becuase i have a package that is stuck in customs that was sent by DHL.... don´t use DHL in the future please!
Ok so... my companion thinks i need glasses. I have been having a hard time reading in my personal study in the mornings, i get headaches if i read for very long. Do i need reading glasses?? I think so...
I think i can get a free exam here.But does our insurance cover that kind of stuff? although its probably cheap here.. i dont know. what should i do?
Sounds like a lot of fun stuff going on in your lives!!
Keep your grades up brothers!!
I am praying for Grandpa T and Melissa.. I had no idea that stuff was going on!
Have a fun trip to Oman!!! .. and trip to London!
Love you all..
Have a great week! Love Hermana Tibbitts
the pictures attached are Nefi, age 3, and Paul, age 6. They are the brothers of the baby Lehí that was just born.. picture of the baby is in the other email. Their mom is Seluti and she is a recent convert- she wanted to get baptized for a long time but her husband had to get divorced to marry her, so that´s how they have a 3 year old named Nefi. They´re a g reat family.
We weren´t able to have Shirley´s baptism this week, becuase she had to work on sunday, and her confirmation has to be in sacrament meeting, so it will be this saturday. Hooray!! Shirley is so great and ready.
We lost track of Jose CArlos, and SAndra is really hard to find now because she is traveling constantly for her work, but we will keep working and looking!!
There is a family in the ward and they let us have FHE with them every monday night, and we bring investigators, last week we decided to make the treats and we made mud cups, actually Ericka our pensionista made the pudding and we brought the oreo and worms, it really surprised some of them! But it was a hit. I guess we had halloween early...
Last monday we had an activity as a zone with the zone Paraiso, my last zone, so i got to see Hna hernandez and she told me that Lars got baptized!! Remember the guy from Sweden we were teaching!! I AM SO HAPPY!!! Also another investigator, Nicole, got baptized.. we were about ready to give up on her! So in total that is 5 baptisms for me in october between the 2 areas. Yesss!!
What else... so the prophet made a decision for the missionaries all around the world, and it is that all missionaries can have DVD players in our houses!!! WE got ours the other day. It is a little portable DVD player.WE only have 1 DVD to watch. So... that´s my christmas idea mom! DVD´s... we can only watch DVDs from the church though. Ones that have the church logo on the case. I want the video for the REstoration, and whatever others you want to send. Finding faith in christ would be good. Just make sure you get the version with other languages on it for spanish.
we went to part of the ward relief society´s party for the birthdays of the sisters. Very different from a party in the USA. All the women were dancing!! They had a dance contest.. then ate cake. We had to go home before eating cake though!!
Well even though this week was hard i am happy. i am doing the Lord´s work, and that makes me happy, to be an instrument in his hands, and I know that the gospel message is true, i want to do all that i can to share it.
Going to the mission office later becuase i have a package that is stuck in customs that was sent by DHL.... don´t use DHL in the future please!
Ok so... my companion thinks i need glasses. I have been having a hard time reading in my personal study in the mornings, i get headaches if i read for very long. Do i need reading glasses?? I think so...
I think i can get a free exam here.But does our insurance cover that kind of stuff? although its probably cheap here.. i dont know. what should i do?
Sounds like a lot of fun stuff going on in your lives!!
Keep your grades up brothers!!
I am praying for Grandpa T and Melissa.. I had no idea that stuff was going on!
Have a fun trip to Oman!!! .. and trip to London!
Love you all..
Have a great week! Love Hermana Tibbitts
Monday, October 24, 2011
October 17th
Hello, first of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACEE!! 20!!!
First of all I am all better, thanks to antibiotics, cold medicine, and drinking hot lemonade with honey. Yummm. Last monday was awful actually. When I got off the phone with the doctor I cried, I didn´t want to stay home, or be sick. Then after internet i cried again. I guess i was a little emotionally sensitive that day.
Things are good here with Hermana Larsen. We had a hard time in Guaracal, but things are going to be better here. We are good friends. We talked about it a little this week, and she said that she had a really hard time with her last companion, and she was praying that her next companion would be a friend, and then i came! so she was happy because she said her prayer was answered. She is my friend and she supports me and helps me a lot. It was hard in Guaracal because we were really hard on ourselves, we kind of thought that everything we did wasn´t good enough. But now we know better!! Every effort is important, no effort is ever wasted!! And we both felt really inadequate because we were in the beginning of our missions. Both of us have gained a lot of confidence now. so things are great!!!
So we have 5 people with baptism dates!! One is Alejandro. He is 11 and is the son of Corina. Before he wanted to be sure before getting baptized. But after the baptism of his mom he said he wanted to do it. So he was interviewed and will be baptized sunday morning.
Also we have Hugo. He is a reference from the Ex Bishop. He is 31 and single and lives with his parents. He is a little weird but is a good guy and wants to do what is right, and believes in the things that we teach. He will also be baptized sunday morning if everything goes how it should. we are having problems scheduling his interview.
Then for the following sunday we have Shirley. She is 20 and just had a baby about a month ago, 2 or 3 months premature. So her baby is in the hospital for now until he gains more weight. It´s kind of a sad story. She is not married and was kicked out of her house when her mom found out she was pregnant, and now lives with her aunt who is a member. She studies and works and goes every day to visit her baby. She loves what we teach, she understands everything, and wants to be a member of the church. she is excited for her baptism.
We also have Evelia for the same day. She is 35 or so with 1 daughter (who is 4 years old and will NOT be quiet more than 2 seconds to let us teach), also single. We will have to work on her a little bit to have her arrive to her baptism date. She lives with members. She needs to gain a testimony. But I trust in the lord!!
Then for 5 november we have Sandra, she is 20. Her boyfriend is a member of the church. He is like 12 years older than her though.. he wants to get married but she isn´t sure. She investigated the church when she was younger but her mom didn´t let her get baptized. But she has a testimony she just has some doubts about things. So we are answering her quetsions. She trusts us a lot.
Other than that we are looking for new people. MOre than anything we are trying to get references from the members. That always works better especially in this area.
The weather was rainy and a little cold this week. I left some of my cold weather clothes in my last area but was glad i kept some of it. Lots of mud in our area! Lots of walking too!!! but sacrifice brings blessings. I bought new shoes a few weeks ago that i am slowly breaking in. I got one pair fixed correctly, finally, and have one other pair, plus my boots. so i should be gooD! dont want to worry about shoes for the rest of my misson.
today we are going bowling as a zone.. there is nothing else to do in santa cruz! haha. We are going to eat at subway if everything works out well. excited about that! yummm
Mission conference was great. I was still a little sick but we went and Elder Pino of the 70 spoke to us, it was really great, he and his wife talked to us about obedience, humility, our calling, and a lot of other things, he praised our mission president Presidente CAlderon, and the goals we have for the mission. They asked me at the last moment to lead the music. I told them ok, but i can´t really sing.. just moved my mouth nobody knew the difference.
HAPPY 11 MONTHS TO ME!!!
there was no churh yesterday because of the elections. the members in the house that we live in (familia chambi) let us come to their little sacrament-testimony meeting. it was really nice. they are a crazy family. after we were done they had us look at all their pictures of the daughter´s quiceanera, she had tons of model type photos in her TWO dresses. kind of ridiculous. nice people though. our apartment is upstairs in the back. There are still some decorations up from the quince party in the patio, so its kind of fun. Only bad part is that currently we don´t have hot water in the shower. hope it gets fixed soon.. wasn´t that fun this week with the cold weather. happy that i bought a blow dryer.
well have a great week. i love you all lots. be safe in thailand wyatt!
love Hermana Tibbitts
First of all I am all better, thanks to antibiotics, cold medicine, and drinking hot lemonade with honey. Yummm. Last monday was awful actually. When I got off the phone with the doctor I cried, I didn´t want to stay home, or be sick. Then after internet i cried again. I guess i was a little emotionally sensitive that day.
Things are good here with Hermana Larsen. We had a hard time in Guaracal, but things are going to be better here. We are good friends. We talked about it a little this week, and she said that she had a really hard time with her last companion, and she was praying that her next companion would be a friend, and then i came! so she was happy because she said her prayer was answered. She is my friend and she supports me and helps me a lot. It was hard in Guaracal because we were really hard on ourselves, we kind of thought that everything we did wasn´t good enough. But now we know better!! Every effort is important, no effort is ever wasted!! And we both felt really inadequate because we were in the beginning of our missions. Both of us have gained a lot of confidence now. so things are great!!!
So we have 5 people with baptism dates!! One is Alejandro. He is 11 and is the son of Corina. Before he wanted to be sure before getting baptized. But after the baptism of his mom he said he wanted to do it. So he was interviewed and will be baptized sunday morning.
Also we have Hugo. He is a reference from the Ex Bishop. He is 31 and single and lives with his parents. He is a little weird but is a good guy and wants to do what is right, and believes in the things that we teach. He will also be baptized sunday morning if everything goes how it should. we are having problems scheduling his interview.
Then for the following sunday we have Shirley. She is 20 and just had a baby about a month ago, 2 or 3 months premature. So her baby is in the hospital for now until he gains more weight. It´s kind of a sad story. She is not married and was kicked out of her house when her mom found out she was pregnant, and now lives with her aunt who is a member. She studies and works and goes every day to visit her baby. She loves what we teach, she understands everything, and wants to be a member of the church. she is excited for her baptism.
We also have Evelia for the same day. She is 35 or so with 1 daughter (who is 4 years old and will NOT be quiet more than 2 seconds to let us teach), also single. We will have to work on her a little bit to have her arrive to her baptism date. She lives with members. She needs to gain a testimony. But I trust in the lord!!
Then for 5 november we have Sandra, she is 20. Her boyfriend is a member of the church. He is like 12 years older than her though.. he wants to get married but she isn´t sure. She investigated the church when she was younger but her mom didn´t let her get baptized. But she has a testimony she just has some doubts about things. So we are answering her quetsions. She trusts us a lot.
Other than that we are looking for new people. MOre than anything we are trying to get references from the members. That always works better especially in this area.
The weather was rainy and a little cold this week. I left some of my cold weather clothes in my last area but was glad i kept some of it. Lots of mud in our area! Lots of walking too!!! but sacrifice brings blessings. I bought new shoes a few weeks ago that i am slowly breaking in. I got one pair fixed correctly, finally, and have one other pair, plus my boots. so i should be gooD! dont want to worry about shoes for the rest of my misson.
today we are going bowling as a zone.. there is nothing else to do in santa cruz! haha. We are going to eat at subway if everything works out well. excited about that! yummm
Mission conference was great. I was still a little sick but we went and Elder Pino of the 70 spoke to us, it was really great, he and his wife talked to us about obedience, humility, our calling, and a lot of other things, he praised our mission president Presidente CAlderon, and the goals we have for the mission. They asked me at the last moment to lead the music. I told them ok, but i can´t really sing.. just moved my mouth nobody knew the difference.
HAPPY 11 MONTHS TO ME!!!
there was no churh yesterday because of the elections. the members in the house that we live in (familia chambi) let us come to their little sacrament-testimony meeting. it was really nice. they are a crazy family. after we were done they had us look at all their pictures of the daughter´s quiceanera, she had tons of model type photos in her TWO dresses. kind of ridiculous. nice people though. our apartment is upstairs in the back. There are still some decorations up from the quince party in the patio, so its kind of fun. Only bad part is that currently we don´t have hot water in the shower. hope it gets fixed soon.. wasn´t that fun this week with the cold weather. happy that i bought a blow dryer.
well have a great week. i love you all lots. be safe in thailand wyatt!
love Hermana Tibbitts
October 10th
I GOT TRANSFERRED!!!!!
I was sooo sad to leave Paraiso. I cried a little. I felt like there was a 99% chance that i was staying. I felt sick wednesday night when they were gonna call us too so i was really hoping not to go because i just wanted to go to sleep instead of pack my suitcases. They called us at 10:30 at night to tell me that i was going... Booo!! but hna. Hernandez stayed in paraiso and is in a trio now with hna pareja and hna randall. they will do great!!!
YOU WILL NOT GUESS WHO MY COMPANION IS.... HERMANA LARSEN!!
Yes, again!
Our area is BELEN.. in english.. BETHLEHEM!
It is not anything like my last area.. lots of dirt roads! We are a little further away from the city. OUr area is HUGE!!! We take the micro a lot. Also the neighborhoods are like mazes. I can´t figure it out. I´m so lost! Plus we don´t really have a good map.... lots of the streets don´t have names and the houses don´t have numbers. the members are nice and there are members who help us.
Well not much to tell about, we had a baptism sunday morning of an hermana named Corina, she is super great, she is a single mom with 2 kids, her son is 11 and he has a baptism date but he wants to be sure before he does it, he is pretty intelligent and knows a lot for an 11 year old.
So all together we have 3 people to be baptized on the 22 october!! just praying they will all make it!! we are looking for new people as well now.
Well since i got here i have been a little sick, it got a lot worse last night so after this we´re going to the pharmacy and the grocery store and then going home so i can sleep!! zzzzzz i have a super bad cold i can hardly talk my voice is almost gone and my throat hurts. but i am happy i am here with hna larsen we had a lot of trials when were together in guaracal but this time is going to be different and we have learned things since the last time together so i am happy. she has changed a lot, but in a good way! we have already been doing great so far
hope she is happy too that we are together again.
tomorrow we have a mission conference with Elder Pino the area presdient hopefully my health will be good enough so that we can go.
hey... your lives sound great! thanks for always filling me in.
love you all, have a great week Hermana Tibbitts
I was sooo sad to leave Paraiso. I cried a little. I felt like there was a 99% chance that i was staying. I felt sick wednesday night when they were gonna call us too so i was really hoping not to go because i just wanted to go to sleep instead of pack my suitcases. They called us at 10:30 at night to tell me that i was going... Booo!! but hna. Hernandez stayed in paraiso and is in a trio now with hna pareja and hna randall. they will do great!!!
YOU WILL NOT GUESS WHO MY COMPANION IS.... HERMANA LARSEN!!
Yes, again!
Our area is BELEN.. in english.. BETHLEHEM!
It is not anything like my last area.. lots of dirt roads! We are a little further away from the city. OUr area is HUGE!!! We take the micro a lot. Also the neighborhoods are like mazes. I can´t figure it out. I´m so lost! Plus we don´t really have a good map.... lots of the streets don´t have names and the houses don´t have numbers. the members are nice and there are members who help us.
Well not much to tell about, we had a baptism sunday morning of an hermana named Corina, she is super great, she is a single mom with 2 kids, her son is 11 and he has a baptism date but he wants to be sure before he does it, he is pretty intelligent and knows a lot for an 11 year old.
So all together we have 3 people to be baptized on the 22 october!! just praying they will all make it!! we are looking for new people as well now.
Well since i got here i have been a little sick, it got a lot worse last night so after this we´re going to the pharmacy and the grocery store and then going home so i can sleep!! zzzzzz i have a super bad cold i can hardly talk my voice is almost gone and my throat hurts. but i am happy i am here with hna larsen we had a lot of trials when were together in guaracal but this time is going to be different and we have learned things since the last time together so i am happy. she has changed a lot, but in a good way! we have already been doing great so far
hope she is happy too that we are together again.
tomorrow we have a mission conference with Elder Pino the area presdient hopefully my health will be good enough so that we can go.
hey... your lives sound great! thanks for always filling me in.
love you all, have a great week Hermana Tibbitts
September 26th
Wow.. what a week!! We have a lot of new investigators this week, lots of changes too, what to start with... Ahh!! Still working like negritas to get people to accept baptism dates.
Ok Braulio, we taught him once this week, he is not going to church right now but we are helping him with his doubts and he is going to read the BOM, we taught the apostasy and he asked, why is it called la gran apostasia (gran= great or large), when was the medium apostasy or the little apostasy, haha, funny, it was just a long time, so he is complicating things a bit by thinking of things like that.
Viviana, do you remember her, we finally found her last night and she is going thru a lot of problems, but is reading the BOM and cutting down on smoking!! So with time I really think she will be baptized.
Wemet an AMERICAN girl the other day, in the street, she was talking english, and said to her friend, ¨hey those are the sisters from my church¨so we talked to her and told her she has to come back to church, it was way weird to speak in english.
BUT THEN. Sunday, Irma mother of Irma with her little boy, she brought some friends to church that are from SWEDEN, she used to work there and some friends came to visit, Daniel and Lars, father and son, they seem like typical swedish people, or what i think would be typical, we taught them during church the restoration and Daniel told us he is looking for the truth. so we are going to keep teaching them! it was sooo weird to teach in english. i like spanish better when it comes to teaching the gospel.
We also have a few investigators that are Brazilians. One we understand but the other we have no clue. Dad, send me portuguese lessons please!! We were able to get a few Book of mormons in portuguese though. Maybe i´ll read one too!
That and our Chinese investigator came to church...l it was out of the blue since we visit her like, once every 3 weeks or so, haha,
So with all these languages going on i´m one confused missionary!
Haha but things are great, working hard to get people to get baptized, I can´t remember if i told you about Zahera (Saera is how you pronounce it) but she is coming back into town after 2 weeks and also the couple Fernando and Dabeiba are planning on getting married. WE´RE GONNA HAVE A WEDDING!!! The sad thing is that they didn´t go to church yesterday and they were supposed to bring their documents to start the process, but hopefully with time.
We met a member whose nickname since he was little is Nephi, but now he is inactive, we got him to go to church yesterday and he brought his little boy to have him blessed, it was really special, so hopefully we can work with him more! We have another family too of members, the familia Estrada, who have gone 2 sundays to church and the Dad is going to recieve his patriarchal blessing and
the melquesidec priesthood.
Also anotehr family of investigators the familia Santivañez went to church yesterday, for the 1st time! Considering they have been investigators for about 6 months we were really excited.. finally!
Mom, your talk sounds great, i can´t believe you used so much stuff that i´ve told you! That´s quite the compliment!! thanks.wish i could have heard it!
We had interviews this week with president. went well! he says to me, you almost have 1 year on the mission! Nooooo!!! I don´t want to leave!! I love it, and am trying to preach the gospel to everyone, even if they don´t speak my language or live in my area. it doesn´t matter, ever effort makes a difference and smoeday the gospel will fill all the land. But until then...!!!
Sounds like fun all these activities you have going on!! Glad to hear that Pres Crosbie is improving!
Oh wow.. Taco bell.. way to make a sister trunky.! that sounds way good.
I love you all. have a great week, keep up the good work, brothers be good! study hard and dont skip seminary, do all your homework too! sorry there are no photos again, this computer is kind of crappy.
Love Hermana Tibbitts
Ok Braulio, we taught him once this week, he is not going to church right now but we are helping him with his doubts and he is going to read the BOM, we taught the apostasy and he asked, why is it called la gran apostasia (gran= great or large), when was the medium apostasy or the little apostasy, haha, funny, it was just a long time, so he is complicating things a bit by thinking of things like that.
Viviana, do you remember her, we finally found her last night and she is going thru a lot of problems, but is reading the BOM and cutting down on smoking!! So with time I really think she will be baptized.
Wemet an AMERICAN girl the other day, in the street, she was talking english, and said to her friend, ¨hey those are the sisters from my church¨so we talked to her and told her she has to come back to church, it was way weird to speak in english.
BUT THEN. Sunday, Irma mother of Irma with her little boy, she brought some friends to church that are from SWEDEN, she used to work there and some friends came to visit, Daniel and Lars, father and son, they seem like typical swedish people, or what i think would be typical, we taught them during church the restoration and Daniel told us he is looking for the truth. so we are going to keep teaching them! it was sooo weird to teach in english. i like spanish better when it comes to teaching the gospel.
We also have a few investigators that are Brazilians. One we understand but the other we have no clue. Dad, send me portuguese lessons please!! We were able to get a few Book of mormons in portuguese though. Maybe i´ll read one too!
That and our Chinese investigator came to church...l it was out of the blue since we visit her like, once every 3 weeks or so, haha,
So with all these languages going on i´m one confused missionary!
Haha but things are great, working hard to get people to get baptized, I can´t remember if i told you about Zahera (Saera is how you pronounce it) but she is coming back into town after 2 weeks and also the couple Fernando and Dabeiba are planning on getting married. WE´RE GONNA HAVE A WEDDING!!! The sad thing is that they didn´t go to church yesterday and they were supposed to bring their documents to start the process, but hopefully with time.
We met a member whose nickname since he was little is Nephi, but now he is inactive, we got him to go to church yesterday and he brought his little boy to have him blessed, it was really special, so hopefully we can work with him more! We have another family too of members, the familia Estrada, who have gone 2 sundays to church and the Dad is going to recieve his patriarchal blessing and
the melquesidec priesthood.
Also anotehr family of investigators the familia Santivañez went to church yesterday, for the 1st time! Considering they have been investigators for about 6 months we were really excited.. finally!
Mom, your talk sounds great, i can´t believe you used so much stuff that i´ve told you! That´s quite the compliment!! thanks.wish i could have heard it!
We had interviews this week with president. went well! he says to me, you almost have 1 year on the mission! Nooooo!!! I don´t want to leave!! I love it, and am trying to preach the gospel to everyone, even if they don´t speak my language or live in my area. it doesn´t matter, ever effort makes a difference and smoeday the gospel will fill all the land. But until then...!!!
Sounds like fun all these activities you have going on!! Glad to hear that Pres Crosbie is improving!
Oh wow.. Taco bell.. way to make a sister trunky.! that sounds way good.
I love you all. have a great week, keep up the good work, brothers be good! study hard and dont skip seminary, do all your homework too! sorry there are no photos again, this computer is kind of crappy.
Love Hermana Tibbitts
September 19th
Hello!! thanks for the letter. you have no idea how much i love reading hwat you write me. thanks for including al the little details, it really lifts my spirits a lot.
First i have to tell you that I saw Hna. Castro this week. She says to thank you all again for the letters, they were a huge help to her. She has about 3 weeks left in th emission!! Her companion recently had to go home to get surgery! So she is in a trio now to finish.
I got the package you sent me with the pictures and stickers and bookmarks. thanks for thinking of me!!
Well this week we did not teach Braulio we couldn´t get an appointment and he hasn´t gone to church... hoepfully we can see him this week with president, may be hard because we have interviews and conference next week so president must be really busy.
Hna. hernandez´s birthday was well, kind of hard. we had fun but the members fed us soo much food that monday! we were stuffed, we felt sick that night. I finally gave her a card today. I wanted to make it a funny card so i waited a while because i had to think of a joke. . It was a joke about BRaulio. When we were trying to explain that he doesn´t need to read the entire BOM to know it is true, we shared an example. We said that it is like a cake. If you have a huge cake, you don´t need to eat the whole thing to know it is delicious. YOu just have to try a little piece. But he said, what if the cake has more than one flavor? So you do have to eat the whole cake.. he said.. and started using other examples. So i made her birthday card with a picture of a 5 layer cake on it and i wrote all the ¨flavors¨on it. Hehe.=)
WEll this week was good, we are working hard, we are never short of people to teach but we are looking for the people that will actually accept the gospel. we have a few people that we are working hard with, Marioli, and Graciela, they are both moms that haven´t accepted a baptism date, but we will see, because we know that spirit will answer them, if they ask! Also, miracle, we found a couple that is super great, Fernando and Dabeiba (weird name) they are a young couple, he is a member but inactive for a long time, she is catolic but wants to learn about the church, they live together but are not married but are planning to get married because they are expecting a baby in march. we had a great lesson with them and they went to church on sunday and talked to the bishop, she has accepted a baptism date but it depends on the marriage and if she feels like it is true. They are reading the BOM and setting goals.
Santa cruz is pretty right now! it is the month of santa cruz. the 24th is the day of santa cruz. the trees are blooming with pretty flowers and it is hot again- its spring here.
Wow.. BYU! how embarassing. good thing i´m not there now. all the zoobies must be crying!!
Tanner and Wyatt.. good luck with volleyball!! Rooting for you! Good luck with all the homework too!
I still cant get the pictures to send.. sorry! be patient with me!
Praying for the stake president too.. he´s the australian guy right? or english? i remember him, kind of, i think.
thanks for your support and for suppoirting me in the choice to go on a mission. i have great experiences every day. hard too. but that how it is. thanks for raising me in a great family and always staying strong in the gospel. its something that we dont see as much here in bolivia. it´s not easy to live the gospel but it is the best that you can do for yourself, because the lord blesses you when you try.
well, now i´m gonna go eat churrasco with my district! should be fun. i might buy new shoes again today. we´ll see. we have to go the store to buy food today because we have almost no food in the house. pday is always shopping, shopping shopping. time´s up! love you all have a great week and please keep praying for me and the people here.
love Hermana Tibbitts.
First i have to tell you that I saw Hna. Castro this week. She says to thank you all again for the letters, they were a huge help to her. She has about 3 weeks left in th emission!! Her companion recently had to go home to get surgery! So she is in a trio now to finish.
I got the package you sent me with the pictures and stickers and bookmarks. thanks for thinking of me!!
Well this week we did not teach Braulio we couldn´t get an appointment and he hasn´t gone to church... hoepfully we can see him this week with president, may be hard because we have interviews and conference next week so president must be really busy.
Hna. hernandez´s birthday was well, kind of hard. we had fun but the members fed us soo much food that monday! we were stuffed, we felt sick that night. I finally gave her a card today. I wanted to make it a funny card so i waited a while because i had to think of a joke. . It was a joke about BRaulio. When we were trying to explain that he doesn´t need to read the entire BOM to know it is true, we shared an example. We said that it is like a cake. If you have a huge cake, you don´t need to eat the whole thing to know it is delicious. YOu just have to try a little piece. But he said, what if the cake has more than one flavor? So you do have to eat the whole cake.. he said.. and started using other examples. So i made her birthday card with a picture of a 5 layer cake on it and i wrote all the ¨flavors¨on it. Hehe.=)
WEll this week was good, we are working hard, we are never short of people to teach but we are looking for the people that will actually accept the gospel. we have a few people that we are working hard with, Marioli, and Graciela, they are both moms that haven´t accepted a baptism date, but we will see, because we know that spirit will answer them, if they ask! Also, miracle, we found a couple that is super great, Fernando and Dabeiba (weird name) they are a young couple, he is a member but inactive for a long time, she is catolic but wants to learn about the church, they live together but are not married but are planning to get married because they are expecting a baby in march. we had a great lesson with them and they went to church on sunday and talked to the bishop, she has accepted a baptism date but it depends on the marriage and if she feels like it is true. They are reading the BOM and setting goals.
Santa cruz is pretty right now! it is the month of santa cruz. the 24th is the day of santa cruz. the trees are blooming with pretty flowers and it is hot again- its spring here.
Wow.. BYU! how embarassing. good thing i´m not there now. all the zoobies must be crying!!
Tanner and Wyatt.. good luck with volleyball!! Rooting for you! Good luck with all the homework too!
I still cant get the pictures to send.. sorry! be patient with me!
Praying for the stake president too.. he´s the australian guy right? or english? i remember him, kind of, i think.
thanks for your support and for suppoirting me in the choice to go on a mission. i have great experiences every day. hard too. but that how it is. thanks for raising me in a great family and always staying strong in the gospel. its something that we dont see as much here in bolivia. it´s not easy to live the gospel but it is the best that you can do for yourself, because the lord blesses you when you try.
well, now i´m gonna go eat churrasco with my district! should be fun. i might buy new shoes again today. we´ll see. we have to go the store to buy food today because we have almost no food in the house. pday is always shopping, shopping shopping. time´s up! love you all have a great week and please keep praying for me and the people here.
love Hermana Tibbitts.
Monday, September 12, 2011
September 12th, 2011
Hello, it was good week i will tell you, we were able to do a ton of lessons with members and that is always super great, we went out with maria 2 times and with lucho and fernanda as well and it was a fun week. yesterday was hna hernandez´s birthday and i didn´t do anything for her, i´m a bad companion haha but i had left all my colored paper at the church so i couldn´t make a card and i didn´t have any food in the house either to make a special breakfast so i just told her that another day i will surprise her with something. but yesterday we had fanta floats and lime pie at lunch with nelly and the hermanas so that was fun... today we had lunch with the Galdo family and we are going back later for a ¨surprise¨ haha so we will see and we are going to have ¨tecito¨ with hermana Selfi so that will be fun.
saturday night was the open house, and it was so much craziness, the bishop was freaking out because a general authority was supposed to come as well as some other VIP people and people from the church offices came as well as presidente calderon and his wife and i guess there wasn't much communication between them and the stake and the ward so it was all craziness, but it went well i took photos and the only sad thing is that we asked the tour guides to get references, the tour guides were young single adults and they didn´t really get the references as well as we had, i think they got a little shy and soem of them put really inprecise addresses and we didn´t get as many poeple there in the first place but oh well, it was good.
the bean burgers were ok too haha.
well all of our investigators are having some challenges, but its true they need to learn that being a member is a big commitment and takes a lot of dediction, we had an appointment to teach Braulio with president calderon and President never showed up, a few days later he apologized though he said that he had double booked us by accident so we are going to try to go with him this week, and the lesson with Braulio not going to lie was super hard, i almost cried because we really tried super hard to help him understand, but he wouldn´t accept what we taught, he wants to read all of the triple combination before praying and asking God if it is true. so hopefully we can change his mind or have a miracle happen so he can get baptized in september.
no i dont think we are going to the sand dunes anymore but today we went bowling and well i dont really like bowling but i did bowl one strike woo hoo and it was fun to be with the zone, can´t get the pictures to send, this computer is being dumb.
Mom haha what you said about the talk made me laugh, i would just say that the way the Lord speaks to us is through the scriptures because that is what helped me decide to go on a mission.
welll i love you all, i am so happy every day for the opportunity i have to be here serving the Lord, i really know that this is bringing me and all of you great blessings, and its so amazing to see people learn to accept the gospel. the other day we were with Jorge, our recent convert, he has been reading the BOM in 1 nephi and he saw that it is his story!! because he has a few brothers and sisters that are rebellious and dont listen to him, so he's our nephi, it was really special when he shared that with us.
Have a great week!!! love Hermana Tibbitts
saturday night was the open house, and it was so much craziness, the bishop was freaking out because a general authority was supposed to come as well as some other VIP people and people from the church offices came as well as presidente calderon and his wife and i guess there wasn't much communication between them and the stake and the ward so it was all craziness, but it went well i took photos and the only sad thing is that we asked the tour guides to get references, the tour guides were young single adults and they didn´t really get the references as well as we had, i think they got a little shy and soem of them put really inprecise addresses and we didn´t get as many poeple there in the first place but oh well, it was good.
the bean burgers were ok too haha.
well all of our investigators are having some challenges, but its true they need to learn that being a member is a big commitment and takes a lot of dediction, we had an appointment to teach Braulio with president calderon and President never showed up, a few days later he apologized though he said that he had double booked us by accident so we are going to try to go with him this week, and the lesson with Braulio not going to lie was super hard, i almost cried because we really tried super hard to help him understand, but he wouldn´t accept what we taught, he wants to read all of the triple combination before praying and asking God if it is true. so hopefully we can change his mind or have a miracle happen so he can get baptized in september.
no i dont think we are going to the sand dunes anymore but today we went bowling and well i dont really like bowling but i did bowl one strike woo hoo and it was fun to be with the zone, can´t get the pictures to send, this computer is being dumb.
Mom haha what you said about the talk made me laugh, i would just say that the way the Lord speaks to us is through the scriptures because that is what helped me decide to go on a mission.
welll i love you all, i am so happy every day for the opportunity i have to be here serving the Lord, i really know that this is bringing me and all of you great blessings, and its so amazing to see people learn to accept the gospel. the other day we were with Jorge, our recent convert, he has been reading the BOM in 1 nephi and he saw that it is his story!! because he has a few brothers and sisters that are rebellious and dont listen to him, so he's our nephi, it was really special when he shared that with us.
Have a great week!!! love Hermana Tibbitts
Monday, September 5, 2011
September 5
Hello family!!!
This week was a little rough... I don't know why, it just was. that's
how the mission is. you have some great weeks and some hard weeks, and
sometimes your feet really hurt, like now, haha, but its ok. None of
our people with baptism dates went to church yesterday, so that makes
them lose their baptism dates, but i have faith that we will be able
to go see them this week and re-commit them.
Ok you asked me about the weather, its basically hot all the time, it
only get cold for like a week at a time when the ¨Sur comes, basically
cold air from argentina, otherwise its hot, and we havne´t have a sur
for a while, the poor hermana pareja from la paz though doesn´t have
any short sleeve shirts so she is dying of heat.
Braulio is doing good, he´s reading the BOM and gospel principles,
the problem is that he wants to study everything. He went to church
yesterday and enjoyed it, he´s pretty funny. The other day we met him
at the church to teach him. We were with Selfi, the crazy lady in the
ward that i´ve told you about, anyways, he says that we have to walk
down the street until we hit something, so we were like, ok.. we
started walking and he walks into a table where a lady is selling
breads, he picks one up and takes a bite out of it and then throws it
back with the other breads, hahaah, it was funny, he is crazy, he said
he had to try it first to make sur eit was ok, haha, but he did buy it
and he bought us bread - tortilla but they´re not like mexican
tortilla-- so we ate it and then had our lesson. Yes, we want to
teach with president because Braulio is a theology student. it´s not a
special rule or anything, we just think president could help.
president wasn´t able to come this past week but hopefully in this
next week.
Viviana didn´t go to church yesterday but we did get to teach word of
wisdom, she smokes and drinks a lot of tea and she wants to live the
word of wisdom, so we were happy, we talked to her about life and got
a lot closer to her, i really think she will get baptized.
Hermano Lucho says hello!.. haha.. he´s the guy that always eats lunch
with us on sundays. he went out with us yesterday to teach lessons.
hilarous.
Next week as a zone we might go to the sand dunes! I´m excited, i hope we go!!
This week the the OPEN HOUSE: i´m kind of nervous not going to lie. we
had a meeting yesterday to verify with all the organizations what they
have for their stands and the relief society is nuts, they want to
serve refreshments and wanted to serve hot dogs, we were like, are you
kidding!! its an open house not a barbeque! just serve juice and
cookies. they were thinking hot dogs or soy hamburgers, which they
learned how tomake in an activity.. so we will see.
Well... I love you alll! have a great week in school and work and
whatever else. keep prayhing for me and these people. Love Hermana
Tibbitts
This week was a little rough... I don't know why, it just was. that's
how the mission is. you have some great weeks and some hard weeks, and
sometimes your feet really hurt, like now, haha, but its ok. None of
our people with baptism dates went to church yesterday, so that makes
them lose their baptism dates, but i have faith that we will be able
to go see them this week and re-commit them.
Ok you asked me about the weather, its basically hot all the time, it
only get cold for like a week at a time when the ¨Sur comes, basically
cold air from argentina, otherwise its hot, and we havne´t have a sur
for a while, the poor hermana pareja from la paz though doesn´t have
any short sleeve shirts so she is dying of heat.
Braulio is doing good, he´s reading the BOM and gospel principles,
the problem is that he wants to study everything. He went to church
yesterday and enjoyed it, he´s pretty funny. The other day we met him
at the church to teach him. We were with Selfi, the crazy lady in the
ward that i´ve told you about, anyways, he says that we have to walk
down the street until we hit something, so we were like, ok.. we
started walking and he walks into a table where a lady is selling
breads, he picks one up and takes a bite out of it and then throws it
back with the other breads, hahaah, it was funny, he is crazy, he said
he had to try it first to make sur eit was ok, haha, but he did buy it
and he bought us bread - tortilla but they´re not like mexican
tortilla-- so we ate it and then had our lesson. Yes, we want to
teach with president because Braulio is a theology student. it´s not a
special rule or anything, we just think president could help.
president wasn´t able to come this past week but hopefully in this
next week.
Viviana didn´t go to church yesterday but we did get to teach word of
wisdom, she smokes and drinks a lot of tea and she wants to live the
word of wisdom, so we were happy, we talked to her about life and got
a lot closer to her, i really think she will get baptized.
Hermano Lucho says hello!.. haha.. he´s the guy that always eats lunch
with us on sundays. he went out with us yesterday to teach lessons.
hilarous.
Next week as a zone we might go to the sand dunes! I´m excited, i hope we go!!
This week the the OPEN HOUSE: i´m kind of nervous not going to lie. we
had a meeting yesterday to verify with all the organizations what they
have for their stands and the relief society is nuts, they want to
serve refreshments and wanted to serve hot dogs, we were like, are you
kidding!! its an open house not a barbeque! just serve juice and
cookies. they were thinking hot dogs or soy hamburgers, which they
learned how tomake in an activity.. so we will see.
Well... I love you alll! have a great week in school and work and
whatever else. keep prayhing for me and these people. Love Hermana
Tibbitts
August 29
Hello...!! Cambios happened.... Hna. Portillo went to La Cañada, my 1st area, with the sister that she trained. that was pretty funny but she was really sad to leave paraiso and the TRIO PERFECTO. So Hna. Hernandez and I are still here in paraiso, and we are doing super great, we have a bajillion investigators i can hardly keep track, we had 7 investigators in church yesterday so we were happy.
There are sisters in Charcas, so instead of elders at lunch we ahve hermanas, Hermana Huaynate (my 1st companion in the mission) is here with Hna Pareja who is a greenie and is actually assigned to serve in Venezuela but is waiting for her visa, she is from La Paz and is suffering a lot with the heat.
Well we have a bunch of new investigators, one of the is Hugo, he is 23 and has 2 kids, is separated, and a year ago he crashed his car and had surgery on his head, he has a bunch of scars, also one of his eyes he can't see out of now, so he always wears sunglasses now and a baseball cap, but he is a good guy and wants to learn more, he has a baptism date for 17 september.
Also we have a couple Viviana and Gary they are in their 30's and engaged, they don't live together but Gary is almost always at Vivíana´s house, they went to church yesterday and liked it a lot, Viviana is going to to go to the distribution center with Zelfi the crazy hermana that always accompanies us, Viviana wants to buy a hymnbook, bible, book of mormon, etc. they are both really interested and are keeping their commitments and viviana has a baptism date for 17 september as well, we are going to work with the elders for gary because he lives in the zone to see if we can have his baptism too.
also this week we were able to visit a sweet old man named Braulio, he is probably 65 years old, lives alone, i dont know if he works but he studies theology and so he knows a lot about the Bible, we are planning to teach him with the mission president. He came to church yesterday dressed in all white, ready to be baptized haha but we are going to invite him to baptism today.
I love you all!! Have a wonderful week. Know that i am happy that i am on the mission, i love what i am doing and am seeing miracles every day, and iknow that partly it is because therea re so many people praying for me and for these people, so thank you and keep praying!! Love Hermana Tibbitts
There are sisters in Charcas, so instead of elders at lunch we ahve hermanas, Hermana Huaynate (my 1st companion in the mission) is here with Hna Pareja who is a greenie and is actually assigned to serve in Venezuela but is waiting for her visa, she is from La Paz and is suffering a lot with the heat.
Well we have a bunch of new investigators, one of the is Hugo, he is 23 and has 2 kids, is separated, and a year ago he crashed his car and had surgery on his head, he has a bunch of scars, also one of his eyes he can't see out of now, so he always wears sunglasses now and a baseball cap, but he is a good guy and wants to learn more, he has a baptism date for 17 september.
Also we have a couple Viviana and Gary they are in their 30's and engaged, they don't live together but Gary is almost always at Vivíana´s house, they went to church yesterday and liked it a lot, Viviana is going to to go to the distribution center with Zelfi the crazy hermana that always accompanies us, Viviana wants to buy a hymnbook, bible, book of mormon, etc. they are both really interested and are keeping their commitments and viviana has a baptism date for 17 september as well, we are going to work with the elders for gary because he lives in the zone to see if we can have his baptism too.
also this week we were able to visit a sweet old man named Braulio, he is probably 65 years old, lives alone, i dont know if he works but he studies theology and so he knows a lot about the Bible, we are planning to teach him with the mission president. He came to church yesterday dressed in all white, ready to be baptized haha but we are going to invite him to baptism today.
I love you all!! Have a wonderful week. Know that i am happy that i am on the mission, i love what i am doing and am seeing miracles every day, and iknow that partly it is because therea re so many people praying for me and for these people, so thank you and keep praying!! Love Hermana Tibbitts
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
August 22
hello, i am using a pretty slow computer this week, so this may be short, and i can´t get it to send pictures and i took a bunch this week! sorry... next week!!
Mom and DAD... HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! thanks for getting married!! haha.. have a great trip!!! take lots of pictures and send postcards here haha. that´´s a lot of countries you are going to see. and tell the paul´s that I love them and hope they are doing so good, i would love to get a letter from them too haha but i know they have missionary kids too
HOpe you all feel better soon and can get on track with the time!!
HOpe you can get the house back in order too..
Hna. Portillo is better now with her back. the solution was WORK!! :)
Hna. Patzi was with us for a week, well, i don´t really know why, but Hna. Portillo went to her area and to another area too to teach them and help them improve the work. It was a fun 5 days. Hna Patzi si great, she is my friend,she lived in my house in guaracal for one change, and it was fun week this week, we had a lot of adventures.
for example, once we got locked out of the house, and another day, the wires for the electricity burned- blew up and we didn´t have electricity for a day. fun times, good memories (now looking back haha, pretty terrible when it happened)
The OPEN HOUSE is on september 10. We have to prepare something really good, still thinking. it´s not a worldwide thing but it is something we are doing in all of the mission santa cruz.
Cinthia and Mauricio are doing ok, they didn´t come to church and we don´t know why, they wouldnt answer their phone, but we met cinthia´s 16 year old son Andres, and he is really good, we didn´t think he lived there but i guess he does now, so we are hoping that he can get baptized too with his mom and uncle.
patricia doesn´t want to get baptized anymore and she won´t tell us why, i dont even think she knows why, but we haven´t really seen her, every time we have been by this week the grandma comes to the gate and the grandma is like 90 years old and hates us, she tells us no one is home.
sadly i must tell you that the Orgaz family is having some problems, Irma says she can´t take it anymore and she wants to separate, it´s really sad i hope they can talk and realize that they are not perfect but that they can solve these problems that they have., with the Gospel!!
But... we visitied a less active family that we just barely heard about, the Estrada family, they are super great, the parents are FAbiola and Helder, and they have 2 sons Yihad who is 3 and Helder Junior who is 10, we are going to try to help them have friends in the church so that they want to go, and they said that they want to help serve the lord, i thimk the hardest thing for them is the distance to the church and getting up in the morning and getting ready, such i sthe problem for everyone, and when it´s cold almost no one is at church, or they come really late.
CAMBIOS are this week. Hna. Portillo is going to be transfered so she is pretty sad. Most likely i will stay here with hna. hernandez and just be a duo... should be good! love this ward and my companions, they are super great, and i have learned to love them a lot.
DAD -- i got a letter from your friend Malia Pruitt this week. she served in bolivia in la paz, cochabamba, santa cruz, and potosi, now she teaches primary, her 4 and 5 year olds wrote to me too and sent me cute pictures.
i lOVE YOU ALL.. have a great week! Love hermana Tibbitts
Mom and DAD... HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! thanks for getting married!! haha.. have a great trip!!! take lots of pictures and send postcards here haha. that´´s a lot of countries you are going to see. and tell the paul´s that I love them and hope they are doing so good, i would love to get a letter from them too haha but i know they have missionary kids too
HOpe you all feel better soon and can get on track with the time!!
HOpe you can get the house back in order too..
Hna. Portillo is better now with her back. the solution was WORK!! :)
Hna. Patzi was with us for a week, well, i don´t really know why, but Hna. Portillo went to her area and to another area too to teach them and help them improve the work. It was a fun 5 days. Hna Patzi si great, she is my friend,she lived in my house in guaracal for one change, and it was fun week this week, we had a lot of adventures.
for example, once we got locked out of the house, and another day, the wires for the electricity burned- blew up and we didn´t have electricity for a day. fun times, good memories (now looking back haha, pretty terrible when it happened)
The OPEN HOUSE is on september 10. We have to prepare something really good, still thinking. it´s not a worldwide thing but it is something we are doing in all of the mission santa cruz.
Cinthia and Mauricio are doing ok, they didn´t come to church and we don´t know why, they wouldnt answer their phone, but we met cinthia´s 16 year old son Andres, and he is really good, we didn´t think he lived there but i guess he does now, so we are hoping that he can get baptized too with his mom and uncle.
patricia doesn´t want to get baptized anymore and she won´t tell us why, i dont even think she knows why, but we haven´t really seen her, every time we have been by this week the grandma comes to the gate and the grandma is like 90 years old and hates us, she tells us no one is home.
sadly i must tell you that the Orgaz family is having some problems, Irma says she can´t take it anymore and she wants to separate, it´s really sad i hope they can talk and realize that they are not perfect but that they can solve these problems that they have., with the Gospel!!
But... we visitied a less active family that we just barely heard about, the Estrada family, they are super great, the parents are FAbiola and Helder, and they have 2 sons Yihad who is 3 and Helder Junior who is 10, we are going to try to help them have friends in the church so that they want to go, and they said that they want to help serve the lord, i thimk the hardest thing for them is the distance to the church and getting up in the morning and getting ready, such i sthe problem for everyone, and when it´s cold almost no one is at church, or they come really late.
CAMBIOS are this week. Hna. Portillo is going to be transfered so she is pretty sad. Most likely i will stay here with hna. hernandez and just be a duo... should be good! love this ward and my companions, they are super great, and i have learned to love them a lot.
DAD -- i got a letter from your friend Malia Pruitt this week. she served in bolivia in la paz, cochabamba, santa cruz, and potosi, now she teaches primary, her 4 and 5 year olds wrote to me too and sent me cute pictures.
i lOVE YOU ALL.. have a great week! Love hermana Tibbitts
August 15th
HELLO!!! another great week in paradise, hermana portillo was still with her hurting back for a few days but we were able to still work and have good results, some of the days she was able to stay at the houses of members or we had members come to our house to stay with her so hna. hernandez and i could go out and work. we are working hard and seeing results and i love that.
yes... everythign in the package was fin eincluding the letters taped on the back. good idea writing JESUS TE AMA. haha.
HNA PATZI is my companion temporarily we are in an interchange for 5 days, hna portillo went to be in another ward and in another zone with hna patzi´s companion because i guess they are having a lot of problems in their area and with their investigators, i dont know but she will be here til friday so that should be interesting, to have hna patzi here with hna hernandez and i.
cinthia and mauricio are our investigators that we have been visiting for at least a month, but just recently they accepted a baptism date!! but we will see. they are both very christian and they have their "communities" but they are seeing a lot of truth in the church and they loved what they saw on sunday, mauricio stayed for 2 hours and cinthia 3 and loooved it. so we are praying super hard for them. cinthia was in an accident a year or so ago and can´t walk, she has a cane, and is always on lots of mediations but she wants to walk so bad and we´re afraid she might say that she neds to be healed before being baptized. so we will see . satan cant win this time!!
gabriela, jorge, patricia... JOrge was supposed to recieve the priesthood this week, but he left after the 1st hour because he hurt his knee playing soccer. his sisters gabriela and patricia came!! so we were happy. patricia is 17 and we have taught her a lot, but she says she wants to wait to get baptized. a little persuasion and hopefully she can be baptized the 27th. gabriela hadn´t expressed interest in the past, but that changed b-c she came to jorge´s baptism. she is the mom of the 2 little kids in the baptism pictures. she is 26 and single. patricia is the one that looks like jorge´s girlfriend in the pictures, but she´s a sister. haha.
Familia orgaz. we ate with them this week and they ordered all that food, because they are moving out of their house b-c they cant afford the rent, thankfully they are just moving across the street. but they gave us gifts this week. they gave each of us a book of mormon in english. inside they wrote us notes and for me and hna hernandez they wrote in english!! and it was so nice and tender what they wrote, all of us cried including carlos. it was a special moment and i will treasure this copy of the book of mormon forever! I love this family!! even though i wasnt in the area when carlos was bapttized, end of june, they are still so special to me and we have seen so much progress in this family.
Open house... TO THE RESCUE! we are having open houses in all of the mission, to get references. our chapel is going to be the center of all the other chapels in all of santa cruz. presidente calderon is going to come as well as an area 70, and they have invinted the mayor, governonr, lots of importnat people. should be exc iting!! we have to make a stand about missionary work and they are going to present all the organizations and family history, employment, etc. exciting!!!
people becoming inactive.... in the ward! don´t stop going to church!! it will just cause you more problems. i promise you this, there are so many things happening with teh people who are just recently not going to church too much here in paraiso.
umm question for you all, who is running for president in the u.s.?? sometimes people talk about it but i have no idea. is there a woman running?? or members of the church?
sounds like a fun redfish trip!! hiking... miss it! but i hike everyday haha, just though places not as pretty haha.
sorry there are a lot of misspelled words. this keyboard is awful and i dont have time to correct.
sorry i am writing late we had the intercambio and we had to go pretty far to drop off hna . portillo and get hna. patzi. then the elders played soccer 2 hrs.....ugh...love you all. keep being good and doing all the things that you learn in church. love hna Tibbitts
oh i have a little more time. we are tring to have a baptism this saturday. Of karina. she was the lady that was supposed to get baptized my 1st week here in paraiso. but she got sick and didnt come. and then a few people in her family died so that made her really busy. we are going tonight to see what she really wants, and tell her that she cant wait anymore!! they gospel is what she needs now to be happy and to deal witht hese problems. there is so much more happiness that she can have living the gospel. hopefully she will understand and do it.. be baptized!!!
clara didnt come to church, she is afraid to tell her boyfriend about the law of chastity, and now she´s working on the weekends, well everyday, so we need her to decide what she really wants, praying a lot for her, her kids came yesterday to church with the member friends that live next to them.
this week is going to be great and we´re not gonna let satan get past anyone!!
yes... everythign in the package was fin eincluding the letters taped on the back. good idea writing JESUS TE AMA. haha.
HNA PATZI is my companion temporarily we are in an interchange for 5 days, hna portillo went to be in another ward and in another zone with hna patzi´s companion because i guess they are having a lot of problems in their area and with their investigators, i dont know but she will be here til friday so that should be interesting, to have hna patzi here with hna hernandez and i.
cinthia and mauricio are our investigators that we have been visiting for at least a month, but just recently they accepted a baptism date!! but we will see. they are both very christian and they have their "communities" but they are seeing a lot of truth in the church and they loved what they saw on sunday, mauricio stayed for 2 hours and cinthia 3 and loooved it. so we are praying super hard for them. cinthia was in an accident a year or so ago and can´t walk, she has a cane, and is always on lots of mediations but she wants to walk so bad and we´re afraid she might say that she neds to be healed before being baptized. so we will see . satan cant win this time!!
gabriela, jorge, patricia... JOrge was supposed to recieve the priesthood this week, but he left after the 1st hour because he hurt his knee playing soccer. his sisters gabriela and patricia came!! so we were happy. patricia is 17 and we have taught her a lot, but she says she wants to wait to get baptized. a little persuasion and hopefully she can be baptized the 27th. gabriela hadn´t expressed interest in the past, but that changed b-c she came to jorge´s baptism. she is the mom of the 2 little kids in the baptism pictures. she is 26 and single. patricia is the one that looks like jorge´s girlfriend in the pictures, but she´s a sister. haha.
Familia orgaz. we ate with them this week and they ordered all that food, because they are moving out of their house b-c they cant afford the rent, thankfully they are just moving across the street. but they gave us gifts this week. they gave each of us a book of mormon in english. inside they wrote us notes and for me and hna hernandez they wrote in english!! and it was so nice and tender what they wrote, all of us cried including carlos. it was a special moment and i will treasure this copy of the book of mormon forever! I love this family!! even though i wasnt in the area when carlos was bapttized, end of june, they are still so special to me and we have seen so much progress in this family.
Open house... TO THE RESCUE! we are having open houses in all of the mission, to get references. our chapel is going to be the center of all the other chapels in all of santa cruz. presidente calderon is going to come as well as an area 70, and they have invinted the mayor, governonr, lots of importnat people. should be exc iting!! we have to make a stand about missionary work and they are going to present all the organizations and family history, employment, etc. exciting!!!
people becoming inactive.... in the ward! don´t stop going to church!! it will just cause you more problems. i promise you this, there are so many things happening with teh people who are just recently not going to church too much here in paraiso.
umm question for you all, who is running for president in the u.s.?? sometimes people talk about it but i have no idea. is there a woman running?? or members of the church?
sounds like a fun redfish trip!! hiking... miss it! but i hike everyday haha, just though places not as pretty haha.
sorry there are a lot of misspelled words. this keyboard is awful and i dont have time to correct.
sorry i am writing late we had the intercambio and we had to go pretty far to drop off hna . portillo and get hna. patzi. then the elders played soccer 2 hrs.....ugh...love you all. keep being good and doing all the things that you learn in church. love hna Tibbitts
oh i have a little more time. we are tring to have a baptism this saturday. Of karina. she was the lady that was supposed to get baptized my 1st week here in paraiso. but she got sick and didnt come. and then a few people in her family died so that made her really busy. we are going tonight to see what she really wants, and tell her that she cant wait anymore!! they gospel is what she needs now to be happy and to deal witht hese problems. there is so much more happiness that she can have living the gospel. hopefully she will understand and do it.. be baptized!!!
clara didnt come to church, she is afraid to tell her boyfriend about the law of chastity, and now she´s working on the weekends, well everyday, so we need her to decide what she really wants, praying a lot for her, her kids came yesterday to church with the member friends that live next to them.
this week is going to be great and we´re not gonna let satan get past anyone!!
August 8th
Hello!!
trying something new... putting key words of all the things i want to write about and then will write the paragraph. we´lll see.
I got the package!!! thank you!! I opened it at Irma and carlos´house. Irma liked everythig haha and made me take the picture that i sent. i shared with my companions dont worry. thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
baptism- was so great! friday we went to the chapel to turn on the water to fill the font, and there was water in it from 3 weeks ago!!! it was nasty!!! so we went to turn the thing htat lets the water out, but it drains super slow, like in 12 hours, and we couldn´t wait that long, so we got a plunger and tried to use that so it would go out, we locked the doors of the chapel and hna. portillo hiked up her skirt nad got into the water to do it hahah... didn´t work. but then our friend LUCHO arrived with Nelly our pensionista and they helped us take the water out with buckets, it took 2 1/2 hours, not fun!! but we did it, filled the font overnight, and the baptism went well, we had it in the morning and family members of both jorge and wilson came that are not members, so that was great, they were both really happy and wilson´s mom brought a bunch of food to eat after, it was a great day, they were both confirmed on sunday and jorge was interviewed by the bishop to recieve the priesthood next sunday, he is excited, the bishop is gonna put him to work blessing the sacrament each week.
Before the baptisms we had a few problems, we went one day to Jorge and he didn´t want to be baptized, he was afraid of the consequences of messing up after, but we were able to explain to him that he will have the spirit with him so he will be able to confront his problems and help his famly. Also wilson´s dad almst didnt let him get baptized the day before, he said he needed to get baptized in the catholic church-- don´t know why bc his dad is a member but inactive--- but he changed his mind. woooo... we weren´t gonna let satan win with jorge and wilson.
Pizza-- we made pizza with carlos and irma on wednesday. it was sooo fun. Hna. Hernandez recieved a bottle of ranch dressing so we made some with that and also carlos had bbq sauce, he is obsessed with it haha so we used that too, it was sooooo yummy. also the other night we ordered SAHARA pizza, american style, we were starving one night so we ordered it, yummy...
service in los angeles.... the los angeles ward that is .... it was fun! their church was super dirty. it is something that we are doing in every zone in the mission, clean the dirtiest chapel. service starts in our own house, is what president says.
intercambios.. i did an intercambio with hna. Zelfi this week, she is a crazy lady in the ward, a super good issionary, the apointments we had weren´t home so she just started introducing me to neighbors, she knows everyone around where she lives, it was pretty fun.
shoes.. i bought shoes on monday, so cute, a little small but i thought they would stretch, i wore them tuesday with new tights that i bought (with fleece inside-- super warm!) and since they were new they stained the inside of the shoes, and my feet were hurting sooo bad all day, we tried to clean them but the stain wouldn´t come out and we tried to take them back but they wouldn´t accept them stained, boooooo so that was pretty disappointed but everything happens for a reason right??? so... they wre 159 BS which is a lot, i wanted to get good shoes, i guess i will keep looking?? maybe i can sell them to someone in the mission... for now i have the 2 pairs of brown shoes and i bought some skirts that all have brown in the fabric so i´m probably fine with just the brown ones for now.
sick companions. we wre in the house 3 days this week... hna portillo had a super bad hurting back and hna hernandez had a bad stomach. I¨m fine!!! but pretty boring being in the house... always better to work and be tired than to sit and be bored.
Clara and her 3 kids... aren´t really progressing right now. we went there the other day and clara had just barely burned herself with oil. Hna. Portillo helped her treat it and hna. hernandez and i finished cooking. so we didn´t get to teach what we wanted to and they went out of town for the weekend so this week we are going to work a lot with them.
Happy 6 de Agosto. Dia de Bolivia! there were lots of parades and fiestas. bought a little flag pin! a good day for a baptism. sunny and warm.
Love you all!!! Hna. Tibbitts
p.s. RAMADAN KAREEM...
trying something new... putting key words of all the things i want to write about and then will write the paragraph. we´lll see.
I got the package!!! thank you!! I opened it at Irma and carlos´house. Irma liked everythig haha and made me take the picture that i sent. i shared with my companions dont worry. thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
baptism- was so great! friday we went to the chapel to turn on the water to fill the font, and there was water in it from 3 weeks ago!!! it was nasty!!! so we went to turn the thing htat lets the water out, but it drains super slow, like in 12 hours, and we couldn´t wait that long, so we got a plunger and tried to use that so it would go out, we locked the doors of the chapel and hna. portillo hiked up her skirt nad got into the water to do it hahah... didn´t work. but then our friend LUCHO arrived with Nelly our pensionista and they helped us take the water out with buckets, it took 2 1/2 hours, not fun!! but we did it, filled the font overnight, and the baptism went well, we had it in the morning and family members of both jorge and wilson came that are not members, so that was great, they were both really happy and wilson´s mom brought a bunch of food to eat after, it was a great day, they were both confirmed on sunday and jorge was interviewed by the bishop to recieve the priesthood next sunday, he is excited, the bishop is gonna put him to work blessing the sacrament each week.
Before the baptisms we had a few problems, we went one day to Jorge and he didn´t want to be baptized, he was afraid of the consequences of messing up after, but we were able to explain to him that he will have the spirit with him so he will be able to confront his problems and help his famly. Also wilson´s dad almst didnt let him get baptized the day before, he said he needed to get baptized in the catholic church-- don´t know why bc his dad is a member but inactive--- but he changed his mind. woooo... we weren´t gonna let satan win with jorge and wilson.
Pizza-- we made pizza with carlos and irma on wednesday. it was sooo fun. Hna. Hernandez recieved a bottle of ranch dressing so we made some with that and also carlos had bbq sauce, he is obsessed with it haha so we used that too, it was sooooo yummy. also the other night we ordered SAHARA pizza, american style, we were starving one night so we ordered it, yummy...
service in los angeles.... the los angeles ward that is .... it was fun! their church was super dirty. it is something that we are doing in every zone in the mission, clean the dirtiest chapel. service starts in our own house, is what president says.
intercambios.. i did an intercambio with hna. Zelfi this week, she is a crazy lady in the ward, a super good issionary, the apointments we had weren´t home so she just started introducing me to neighbors, she knows everyone around where she lives, it was pretty fun.
shoes.. i bought shoes on monday, so cute, a little small but i thought they would stretch, i wore them tuesday with new tights that i bought (with fleece inside-- super warm!) and since they were new they stained the inside of the shoes, and my feet were hurting sooo bad all day, we tried to clean them but the stain wouldn´t come out and we tried to take them back but they wouldn´t accept them stained, boooooo so that was pretty disappointed but everything happens for a reason right??? so... they wre 159 BS which is a lot, i wanted to get good shoes, i guess i will keep looking?? maybe i can sell them to someone in the mission... for now i have the 2 pairs of brown shoes and i bought some skirts that all have brown in the fabric so i´m probably fine with just the brown ones for now.
sick companions. we wre in the house 3 days this week... hna portillo had a super bad hurting back and hna hernandez had a bad stomach. I¨m fine!!! but pretty boring being in the house... always better to work and be tired than to sit and be bored.
Clara and her 3 kids... aren´t really progressing right now. we went there the other day and clara had just barely burned herself with oil. Hna. Portillo helped her treat it and hna. hernandez and i finished cooking. so we didn´t get to teach what we wanted to and they went out of town for the weekend so this week we are going to work a lot with them.
Happy 6 de Agosto. Dia de Bolivia! there were lots of parades and fiestas. bought a little flag pin! a good day for a baptism. sunny and warm.
Love you all!!! Hna. Tibbitts
p.s. RAMADAN KAREEM...
August 1st
helllo... BRRRR... it got cold again. earlier this week it was super hot and now my hands are cold writing you, i forgot my gloves at home. oh well.... another great week!!!
we didn´t get to have any baptisms this past week but saturday we have 2!!!! Jorge is going to be baptized as well as wilson, he´s a kid we found this week, his mom and him always come to church but he hasn´t been baptized and is 10, his parents were reluctant b-c he has 2 inactive siblings and his dad is inactive too, so we are going to work with them, but wilson is a good nino and wants to follow jesus, so we are excited.
we have a great family we are teaching too, clara and her 3 kids santiago, joske, and abigail, 11, 9, and 8 yrs old. they really want to learn and it´s just clara that is having some trouble reading and praying and not being confused by what the world says.
Jorge is progressng great and told us that he is traveling in october, and he won´t be able to go to church then haha, he understands the importance and wants to follow!!
i sent some pictures of th familia orgaz. thye are so great. Andres is 1 1/2 and now knws how to say Hermana and always wants to shake our hand and his parents say he is in love with us and always talking about us. They want to go to the temple in utah in a year and i told him they could stay with us.... ok!!??
i sent pictures of the 2 elders we eat lunch with eveyday, one is elder reyes who was in my group in the mtc and the other is elder guaman from cochabamba. sunday we had to fry the french fries and bananas b-c our pensionista ha dto go to a family lunch, it was fun! also a member always eats with us, Luis aka Lucho, he is hilarious and we convinced him to go out teaching with us last night because we were short on lessons with members, and he did, it was hilarious, he served in chile and said that they would preach with microphons in the markets and crazy evangelist type stuff like that, we needed to do contacts too and he was so excted, he stopped an old man and after introducing us asked him straght out- have you ever thought about the meaning of life?? it was reallly bold and funny....
brr.... need to go home and get another jacket!!! cold!
i´m gonna buy new shoes today!!! alll my black ones are worn out i only have brown ones now hahahah...
love you all... have a great week!! tell gma and grandpa and alll the family that i love them.
we didn´t get to have any baptisms this past week but saturday we have 2!!!! Jorge is going to be baptized as well as wilson, he´s a kid we found this week, his mom and him always come to church but he hasn´t been baptized and is 10, his parents were reluctant b-c he has 2 inactive siblings and his dad is inactive too, so we are going to work with them, but wilson is a good nino and wants to follow jesus, so we are excited.
we have a great family we are teaching too, clara and her 3 kids santiago, joske, and abigail, 11, 9, and 8 yrs old. they really want to learn and it´s just clara that is having some trouble reading and praying and not being confused by what the world says.
Jorge is progressng great and told us that he is traveling in october, and he won´t be able to go to church then haha, he understands the importance and wants to follow!!
i sent some pictures of th familia orgaz. thye are so great. Andres is 1 1/2 and now knws how to say Hermana and always wants to shake our hand and his parents say he is in love with us and always talking about us. They want to go to the temple in utah in a year and i told him they could stay with us.... ok!!??
i sent pictures of the 2 elders we eat lunch with eveyday, one is elder reyes who was in my group in the mtc and the other is elder guaman from cochabamba. sunday we had to fry the french fries and bananas b-c our pensionista ha dto go to a family lunch, it was fun! also a member always eats with us, Luis aka Lucho, he is hilarious and we convinced him to go out teaching with us last night because we were short on lessons with members, and he did, it was hilarious, he served in chile and said that they would preach with microphons in the markets and crazy evangelist type stuff like that, we needed to do contacts too and he was so excted, he stopped an old man and after introducing us asked him straght out- have you ever thought about the meaning of life?? it was reallly bold and funny....
brr.... need to go home and get another jacket!!! cold!
i´m gonna buy new shoes today!!! alll my black ones are worn out i only have brown ones now hahahah...
love you all... have a great week!! tell gma and grandpa and alll the family that i love them.
July 25
Dear Family, how are you doing, glad to hear that you are all doing so well, we had an incredible week!!!!!!
I love the work that i am doing with my 2 companions, we have a lot of fun and work hard and are finding a lot of good people. We have a TRIO PERFECTO we say. =) We were able to meet almost all of our goals this week. We are doing everything possible to have a baptism this coming weekend but Karina (who was going to get baptized last weekend) is going thru a lot of family problems, we have 2 other people that could get baptized so we have spent a lot of time on our knees asking Heavenly Father to help us have them be baptized. We were able to do so much this week, apart from the regular missionary stuff we do, we were able to see part of the stake dance festival of the young men and women and we did an activity, a game night that went super well, the members came and helped and it was a success. I am trying to send photos but its not really working.
THANK YOU for sending me that package cant wait to get it, hope it didn`t cost an arm and a leg to send.
We gave talks in sacrament meeting too and JORGE was the only investigator that we were able to get to church, but i don´t even care because he is golden and has a desire to be baptized, oh and he brought his little 3 yr old nephew with him Narcisso, he is sooo cute, and knows how to fold his arms to pray and was good until the 3rd hour he got a little crabby but we got an hermana member to help us with him so jorge could go to priesthood. Patricia didn´t come, i dont know how interested she is anymore, we shall see. we have spent a lot of time with the familia Orgaz as well, Carlos and Irma, carlos is a recent convert, they are working now to go to the temple and they had a party this weekend, they gave us the wristbands they gave to all the people that came haha.
So this week i discovered that in our area there is a park that has an old airplane parked in the middile of it, they call it the pirate airplane because it was pirated and people used it for drug trafficing. hmm.. Starting to learn my way around the area, and the market Los Pozos is the hardest, it is so full of people and craziness, but we have some investigators and members that live there that we visit. Also we see there tons of mennonites, it´s really weird, but they don`t speak spanish or live in the city so we can´t talk to them.
I wish i could tell you about all the incredible members and people that we teach. for example the members nelly the pensionista, hna. Zelfy, hna. Ma, hna. Sharifa, investigators Elena, Mauricio, jorge, karina, marcia, jose alfonso, there are so many but i dont have time, i will tell you when i get home about all the wonderful people and experiences that i am having here. oh also Maria fernanda and the other maria, members haha.
I feel very blessed and happy to be in the mission after a week like this. why can't I have 2 years!!!
Miss you all and love you all. I feel very blessed to be here even though its hard but i am going to treasure every moment here int he mission, in paradise, love you Hermana Tibbitts
I love the work that i am doing with my 2 companions, we have a lot of fun and work hard and are finding a lot of good people. We have a TRIO PERFECTO we say. =) We were able to meet almost all of our goals this week. We are doing everything possible to have a baptism this coming weekend but Karina (who was going to get baptized last weekend) is going thru a lot of family problems, we have 2 other people that could get baptized so we have spent a lot of time on our knees asking Heavenly Father to help us have them be baptized. We were able to do so much this week, apart from the regular missionary stuff we do, we were able to see part of the stake dance festival of the young men and women and we did an activity, a game night that went super well, the members came and helped and it was a success. I am trying to send photos but its not really working.
THANK YOU for sending me that package cant wait to get it, hope it didn`t cost an arm and a leg to send.
We gave talks in sacrament meeting too and JORGE was the only investigator that we were able to get to church, but i don´t even care because he is golden and has a desire to be baptized, oh and he brought his little 3 yr old nephew with him Narcisso, he is sooo cute, and knows how to fold his arms to pray and was good until the 3rd hour he got a little crabby but we got an hermana member to help us with him so jorge could go to priesthood. Patricia didn´t come, i dont know how interested she is anymore, we shall see. we have spent a lot of time with the familia Orgaz as well, Carlos and Irma, carlos is a recent convert, they are working now to go to the temple and they had a party this weekend, they gave us the wristbands they gave to all the people that came haha.
So this week i discovered that in our area there is a park that has an old airplane parked in the middile of it, they call it the pirate airplane because it was pirated and people used it for drug trafficing. hmm.. Starting to learn my way around the area, and the market Los Pozos is the hardest, it is so full of people and craziness, but we have some investigators and members that live there that we visit. Also we see there tons of mennonites, it´s really weird, but they don`t speak spanish or live in the city so we can´t talk to them.
I wish i could tell you about all the incredible members and people that we teach. for example the members nelly the pensionista, hna. Zelfy, hna. Ma, hna. Sharifa, investigators Elena, Mauricio, jorge, karina, marcia, jose alfonso, there are so many but i dont have time, i will tell you when i get home about all the wonderful people and experiences that i am having here. oh also Maria fernanda and the other maria, members haha.
I feel very blessed and happy to be in the mission after a week like this. why can't I have 2 years!!!
Miss you all and love you all. I feel very blessed to be here even though its hard but i am going to treasure every moment here int he mission, in paradise, love you Hermana Tibbitts
July 18
Hello! Yes, I had cambios, now my area is PARAISO (English-- Paradise) and I am in a TRIO now with hna. Portillo and Hna. Hernandez. Hna. Portillo is from Sucre Bolivia and has 15 months in the mission and Hna. Hernandez is from Burley, ID (Her dad is mexican) she has about the same time as me in the misison.
Our area is pretty small but larger than I am used to! haha, now that i am finally in an area where there are not 2 companionships. We have part of EL CENTRO, the plaza principal is by the border of one of my areas, and our area extends to the 2nd ring of the city, sort of on the north east side of Santa cruz. I really like our area so far. Hna. Portillo has been in the ward for a while so she knows all of the members so we have met some of them, they are all really supportive and help us. We live close to the city cemetery, we walk down the side street sometimes and there are a bunch of flower shops selling flowers you can put on the graves. The graves are all above ground. There is also a market in our area, lots of parks, restaurants, and lots of avenues. It´s a richer area but there are still lots of peoplle that want to learn.
Our chapel is the stake center so it is really big. We eat everyday in a restaurant that is run by hna. Nelly, she is a member and returned missionary, there are always choices and we get to put the food on our plates, which is great b-c the other pensionistas i have had load tons of food on youir plate. Elders in the area next to us also eat lunch there, and one of them is ELDER REYES from my district in the MTC; he was in guayamerin for 6 months so i hadn´t seen him since i arrived to santa cruz. Also there is a member family that has a washing machine that they let us use on mondays..
Hna. Larsen was transfered back to her 1st area.. that was kind of weird surprise, now there is just the one companionship in guaracal. They will take care of Martha, but I will miss her!! We were going to have a baptism on Saturday, but the hermana got sick and so she didn´t show up. We had everything ready, and we had been filling the font with buckets for 2 hours because it wasn´t going to be filled in time. So it was pretty disappointing, hopefully we can have the baptism this week on Saturday. The hermana´s name is Karina, she married with 3 kids, she is the only one in her family that has listened to the missionaries.
We have 2 other investigators with a baptism date, Jorge and his sister Patricia, Jorge came to church yesterday and really liked it, Patricia was out of town but we hope that she went to church where she was, she said that she would. Jorge is 22 and Patricia is probably like 16.. they are great though! We have a lot of `people though that we have goals to invite them to baptism.
FYI I am good health wise now.
Another family that we have visited is the familia URGAZ , Carlos got baptized last month, his wife Irma is a member and they have a 1 yr old son Andres, they invited us over on sunday for lunch because they were having a little party of sorts, it was fun, we had fish soup, picante de pollo(chicken) chuño (dried potato) cooked in yellow sauce, and rice, it was pretty good but i got soo full, also lots of coca cola. Carlos works at a restaurant and also turns his house into a restaurant at night, he loves everything to do with food, he asked for a couple of recipes- can you please send me recipes for Muffins- doesnt matter what kind just something simple- and chocolate chip cookies, thank yo u!!
Sounds like fun summer stuff you have been doing!!
Love you all! thanks for the support. we´re going to work hard this week, please pray for me and my companions and the people here , we are looking for teh people that are prepared for the gospel. Love Hna. Tibbitts
Our area is pretty small but larger than I am used to! haha, now that i am finally in an area where there are not 2 companionships. We have part of EL CENTRO, the plaza principal is by the border of one of my areas, and our area extends to the 2nd ring of the city, sort of on the north east side of Santa cruz. I really like our area so far. Hna. Portillo has been in the ward for a while so she knows all of the members so we have met some of them, they are all really supportive and help us. We live close to the city cemetery, we walk down the side street sometimes and there are a bunch of flower shops selling flowers you can put on the graves. The graves are all above ground. There is also a market in our area, lots of parks, restaurants, and lots of avenues. It´s a richer area but there are still lots of peoplle that want to learn.
Our chapel is the stake center so it is really big. We eat everyday in a restaurant that is run by hna. Nelly, she is a member and returned missionary, there are always choices and we get to put the food on our plates, which is great b-c the other pensionistas i have had load tons of food on youir plate. Elders in the area next to us also eat lunch there, and one of them is ELDER REYES from my district in the MTC; he was in guayamerin for 6 months so i hadn´t seen him since i arrived to santa cruz. Also there is a member family that has a washing machine that they let us use on mondays..
Hna. Larsen was transfered back to her 1st area.. that was kind of weird surprise, now there is just the one companionship in guaracal. They will take care of Martha, but I will miss her!! We were going to have a baptism on Saturday, but the hermana got sick and so she didn´t show up. We had everything ready, and we had been filling the font with buckets for 2 hours because it wasn´t going to be filled in time. So it was pretty disappointing, hopefully we can have the baptism this week on Saturday. The hermana´s name is Karina, she married with 3 kids, she is the only one in her family that has listened to the missionaries.
We have 2 other investigators with a baptism date, Jorge and his sister Patricia, Jorge came to church yesterday and really liked it, Patricia was out of town but we hope that she went to church where she was, she said that she would. Jorge is 22 and Patricia is probably like 16.. they are great though! We have a lot of `people though that we have goals to invite them to baptism.
FYI I am good health wise now.
Another family that we have visited is the familia URGAZ , Carlos got baptized last month, his wife Irma is a member and they have a 1 yr old son Andres, they invited us over on sunday for lunch because they were having a little party of sorts, it was fun, we had fish soup, picante de pollo(chicken) chuño (dried potato) cooked in yellow sauce, and rice, it was pretty good but i got soo full, also lots of coca cola. Carlos works at a restaurant and also turns his house into a restaurant at night, he loves everything to do with food, he asked for a couple of recipes- can you please send me recipes for Muffins- doesnt matter what kind just something simple- and chocolate chip cookies, thank yo u!!
Sounds like fun summer stuff you have been doing!!
Love you all! thanks for the support. we´re going to work hard this week, please pray for me and my companions and the people here , we are looking for teh people that are prepared for the gospel. Love Hna. Tibbitts
Sunday, July 17, 2011
july 11
I spent $30 on medicine this week.
haha but don't worry, i am ok. i had like 4 little heath problems. well, first i was having headaches and a cold, got some pils for that, then i had stomach problems, had to take suero (dont know what it´s called in english, but it´s gross), then i started having a really stiff neck on thursday, friday it was even worse, it was so much pain, saturday i went the doctor, he said that i had slept on it wrong and it turned one of the muscles around. so he did some massages on my neck and prescribed me some pills. also i had him check my foot, i hvae eczema on it so he prescribed me some pils and some creams for that. so this week was kind of hard becuase both of were sick! But we are better now!
cambios are thursday! scared!!
the zone activity was playing soccer with presidente calderon. we didn´t actualy go because my companion was stil a little sick. we have mission conference every 3 months, but they do it in a few sessions, so you don´t see al the missionaries. we see president calderon a lot because we are pretty close to the centro and his office.- the assistants and secretaries work in the same stake as us.
sending pictures of the zone, and of my companion´s birthday! 22! we made her breakfast in bed and at night we ordered SAHARA PIZZA- american style pizza. it was sooo yummy.
well, anyways, the work is kind of hard now, we are not finding lots of people to teach, i don´t know why, so we are evaluating our contacts and teaching and obedience to see what we need to change. we know that the lord is preparing people here. just have to keep searching. Paola is doing well, she understands everything, but she couldn´t go to church yesterday so we were sad for that, but happy that she wants to keep learning and be baptized. Martha our convert is doing awesome. she gave her testimony last week in relief society. also she said one of the prayers in sacrament meeting.
i am happy and grateful to be here, and know that the lord will give me more oportunites to help eople if i keep trying to be obedient and do the best i can- that´s all he asks of me. it gets so frustrating sometimes to see people make bad choices and not hear this message, but they have their agency. i appreciate your advice that you give me each week. i told hna. larsen what you said and she said to tell you thank you! because it helped her too. i love you all! have a great week. i am praying for all of you. love hna. Tibbitts
haha but don't worry, i am ok. i had like 4 little heath problems. well, first i was having headaches and a cold, got some pils for that, then i had stomach problems, had to take suero (dont know what it´s called in english, but it´s gross), then i started having a really stiff neck on thursday, friday it was even worse, it was so much pain, saturday i went the doctor, he said that i had slept on it wrong and it turned one of the muscles around. so he did some massages on my neck and prescribed me some pills. also i had him check my foot, i hvae eczema on it so he prescribed me some pils and some creams for that. so this week was kind of hard becuase both of were sick! But we are better now!
cambios are thursday! scared!!
the zone activity was playing soccer with presidente calderon. we didn´t actualy go because my companion was stil a little sick. we have mission conference every 3 months, but they do it in a few sessions, so you don´t see al the missionaries. we see president calderon a lot because we are pretty close to the centro and his office.- the assistants and secretaries work in the same stake as us.
sending pictures of the zone, and of my companion´s birthday! 22! we made her breakfast in bed and at night we ordered SAHARA PIZZA- american style pizza. it was sooo yummy.
well, anyways, the work is kind of hard now, we are not finding lots of people to teach, i don´t know why, so we are evaluating our contacts and teaching and obedience to see what we need to change. we know that the lord is preparing people here. just have to keep searching. Paola is doing well, she understands everything, but she couldn´t go to church yesterday so we were sad for that, but happy that she wants to keep learning and be baptized. Martha our convert is doing awesome. she gave her testimony last week in relief society. also she said one of the prayers in sacrament meeting.
i am happy and grateful to be here, and know that the lord will give me more oportunites to help eople if i keep trying to be obedient and do the best i can- that´s all he asks of me. it gets so frustrating sometimes to see people make bad choices and not hear this message, but they have their agency. i appreciate your advice that you give me each week. i told hna. larsen what you said and she said to tell you thank you! because it helped her too. i love you all! have a great week. i am praying for all of you. love hna. Tibbitts
July 4
hello again, it's just a normal winter day here in sta cruz. Sorry i am writing a little later than usual, we had a zone activity.
this week my companion was sick so we didn't work 3 days, that was sad, she is still a little sick, just with a really bad cold, the problem with the humid cold is that it is hard to get warm, and even if you're bundled up when walking around, the wind is strong. so far i have been ok, a little bit of a runny nose sometimes but overall i'm ok, just trying to take care of my dear companion and help her get better. we have a little more than a week before cambios so we are trying to take advantage of this time and really enjoy it. she has been a good companion, and she is my friend.
happy 4th of july! sure doesn't feel like it, haha, i think we are going to order american style pizza today to celebrate :)
Thanks for your encouraging words in your letters!! it always helps me! today it was exactly what i needed to hear.
I got my birthday package this week!! Thanks! I got it the 30th so it still got to me in the same month as my birthday! good job!! Thanks! I love everything i got. I also got a package from my friend Eechien, so that was fun to get 2 packages at once. I will think this week and let you know what i would like from the u.s. I have a millon stickers now!! so thats kind of fun.
We had a mission conference this week, with 4 zones, we presented our numbers for the last month and talked about the goals we have in the mission, were instructed, etc, it was really good, it made me want to be more obedient and try harder to learn the scritpures and PMG so that i can better help people be baptized, also it helped me have more HOPE that i can find poeple that are ready for the gospel, there was a companionship that had 13 baptisms in june, and also i'm happy to report that Hna. Castro, who is still in the same area, had a baptism about 2 weeks ago of a family of 4!! :)
Interviews with Pres. CAlderon are pretty short, he just asks how you are doing, what kind of things you have been working on personally and in the work, and gives you time to ask him questions, when we go the office we also have our area books and emergency money checked, and we have to do a little practice with one of the assistants, and repeat a few scritpure masteries.
Hna. Larsen went to el centro last monday, to send letters, and we also found a place to buy souveneirs, kind of a tourist trap place, we saw other americans there and it was kind of weird, the only thing i bought was a nativity set, it's really cute, hna. larsen bought these flute things for her family. it was fun to see what there was, never really had been to a place like that before.
Don't really have many stories about members or investigators because we didn't work much this week! We do have a new investigator named Paula who wants to learn more, and be baptized. the problem is that she is only 17 and president has a new rule that we can't baptize people under 18 unless their family gets baptized too or are members. so now we need to work on her family, she lives with her grandma and her aunt.
Love you all! have a great week! love hna. Tibbitts
this week my companion was sick so we didn't work 3 days, that was sad, she is still a little sick, just with a really bad cold, the problem with the humid cold is that it is hard to get warm, and even if you're bundled up when walking around, the wind is strong. so far i have been ok, a little bit of a runny nose sometimes but overall i'm ok, just trying to take care of my dear companion and help her get better. we have a little more than a week before cambios so we are trying to take advantage of this time and really enjoy it. she has been a good companion, and she is my friend.
happy 4th of july! sure doesn't feel like it, haha, i think we are going to order american style pizza today to celebrate :)
Thanks for your encouraging words in your letters!! it always helps me! today it was exactly what i needed to hear.
I got my birthday package this week!! Thanks! I got it the 30th so it still got to me in the same month as my birthday! good job!! Thanks! I love everything i got. I also got a package from my friend Eechien, so that was fun to get 2 packages at once. I will think this week and let you know what i would like from the u.s. I have a millon stickers now!! so thats kind of fun.
We had a mission conference this week, with 4 zones, we presented our numbers for the last month and talked about the goals we have in the mission, were instructed, etc, it was really good, it made me want to be more obedient and try harder to learn the scritpures and PMG so that i can better help people be baptized, also it helped me have more HOPE that i can find poeple that are ready for the gospel, there was a companionship that had 13 baptisms in june, and also i'm happy to report that Hna. Castro, who is still in the same area, had a baptism about 2 weeks ago of a family of 4!! :)
Interviews with Pres. CAlderon are pretty short, he just asks how you are doing, what kind of things you have been working on personally and in the work, and gives you time to ask him questions, when we go the office we also have our area books and emergency money checked, and we have to do a little practice with one of the assistants, and repeat a few scritpure masteries.
Hna. Larsen went to el centro last monday, to send letters, and we also found a place to buy souveneirs, kind of a tourist trap place, we saw other americans there and it was kind of weird, the only thing i bought was a nativity set, it's really cute, hna. larsen bought these flute things for her family. it was fun to see what there was, never really had been to a place like that before.
Don't really have many stories about members or investigators because we didn't work much this week! We do have a new investigator named Paula who wants to learn more, and be baptized. the problem is that she is only 17 and president has a new rule that we can't baptize people under 18 unless their family gets baptized too or are members. so now we need to work on her family, she lives with her grandma and her aunt.
Love you all! have a great week! love hna. Tibbitts
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
June 27
It got cold this week! BRRRRRR walking around in tights, a coat, 2 sweaters, lots of layers, scarf, gloves, hat, etc. BRRR it´s windy here. but that´s ok it just makes it harder to find people in the streets because everyone stays inside, i have been sleeping with 3 blankets becase we don´t have heating in our house, so its cold inside too, last night we ironed our sheets before getting into bed haha.
I had an interview with pres. Calderon this week. it was good, i was able to learn from him.
We have a new goal in the mission, well a goal for the month of JULY. it is to have 200 baptisms in the mission. that means about 2 people each companionship. The truth is I am a little worried because we dont really have anyone that is progressing to that point. For example, we aren´t visiting Aida and Alejandra anymore, they weren´t there for our last visit, and they didn´t come to church, we might call them later this week but they don´t have the desire to be baptized so we are looking for new people.
We are trying to ask for REFERENCES of ward members- friends, neighbors, and family members, so that the member can accompany us to visit them.
I know i need to have FAITH and TRUST in the LORD. it´s just hard sometimes. I am learning to be closer to my Heavenly FAther. He loves me and I know he wants me to reach this goal. I worry that I¨m not doing enough here sometimes. But really I am putting forth a lot of effort, trying to obedient as possible, and have a good attitude, these things are important and we can´t always control what the people say or think or if they want to be baptized a lot. We just have to trust that the spirit will convert them and that they will recognize the answers to their prayers.I am also trying to follow the spirit more, and have the spirit be there, strong, in each lesson, or even when we talk to someone in the street. It is so difficult when we are surrounded by houses where we know there are drunk parties going on, bad music, there are dead animals in the streets, advertisements with pornography all around. I just hope and pray that people recognize me as a representative of Jesus Christ. The Son of God. And i hope that they realized that our message is true, and that they must come unto him to have their salvation, with their families.
I get discouraged easily sometimes, but I am trying to be better, and really put my whole heart into this work. Sometimes I don´t want to put my heart into it beacause sometimes there is heartbreak. When someone doesn´t get baptized that you love, it is so sad. Trying to improve every day and develop attributes of Jesus Christ.
I do love the mission though. I love that i have this time to devote to the lord. I hope that I can make the best of time time I hvae left- about 10 months is all! =( it is so short. sometimes when we are int he streets we check the time and an hour passes in what seems like 5 minutes.
Pray that i don´t freeze and pray that we can find people to baptize please! i love you all! So much! what a blessing to know we will have a forever family
love Hermana Tibbitts
I had an interview with pres. Calderon this week. it was good, i was able to learn from him.
We have a new goal in the mission, well a goal for the month of JULY. it is to have 200 baptisms in the mission. that means about 2 people each companionship. The truth is I am a little worried because we dont really have anyone that is progressing to that point. For example, we aren´t visiting Aida and Alejandra anymore, they weren´t there for our last visit, and they didn´t come to church, we might call them later this week but they don´t have the desire to be baptized so we are looking for new people.
We are trying to ask for REFERENCES of ward members- friends, neighbors, and family members, so that the member can accompany us to visit them.
I know i need to have FAITH and TRUST in the LORD. it´s just hard sometimes. I am learning to be closer to my Heavenly FAther. He loves me and I know he wants me to reach this goal. I worry that I¨m not doing enough here sometimes. But really I am putting forth a lot of effort, trying to obedient as possible, and have a good attitude, these things are important and we can´t always control what the people say or think or if they want to be baptized a lot. We just have to trust that the spirit will convert them and that they will recognize the answers to their prayers.I am also trying to follow the spirit more, and have the spirit be there, strong, in each lesson, or even when we talk to someone in the street. It is so difficult when we are surrounded by houses where we know there are drunk parties going on, bad music, there are dead animals in the streets, advertisements with pornography all around. I just hope and pray that people recognize me as a representative of Jesus Christ. The Son of God. And i hope that they realized that our message is true, and that they must come unto him to have their salvation, with their families.
I get discouraged easily sometimes, but I am trying to be better, and really put my whole heart into this work. Sometimes I don´t want to put my heart into it beacause sometimes there is heartbreak. When someone doesn´t get baptized that you love, it is so sad. Trying to improve every day and develop attributes of Jesus Christ.
I do love the mission though. I love that i have this time to devote to the lord. I hope that I can make the best of time time I hvae left- about 10 months is all! =( it is so short. sometimes when we are int he streets we check the time and an hour passes in what seems like 5 minutes.
Pray that i don´t freeze and pray that we can find people to baptize please! i love you all! So much! what a blessing to know we will have a forever family
love Hermana Tibbitts
Monday, June 27, 2011
June 20
Hello everyone, thanks for your emails and sending pictures!
This week was pretty hard because we had to leave a lot of investigators, it seems like we are always doing it, we visit a lot of people 1 or 2 times and then no more, so we have to talk to people in the streets and knock a lot of doors, so pray we can find people that will accept our visits and that will progress!! But we did find a few people who I am excited about.
Ok so about my companion. Well for one thing I am not supposed to write to you about anything negative about my companion, area, the investigators, nothing. So I try to do that. Sometimes things happen and I think, well, that´s something I´lltell them about after I get home. Haha. Do not worry, it´s just that we live in a hard place and it´s part of life. Like we get whistled at a lot. Stuff like that. DO NOT WORRY!! ok! I think the hardest part about being with Hna. Larsen now is that we have been together a long time. Not many missionaries stay together with the companion 3 transfers. We are friends but it does require a lot of patience sometimes. It´s not the easiest thing to be 2 americans in bolivia, trying to reach all of our goals as missionaries. We get discouraged a lot. We have obstacles that are huge that we don´t even know how to get over. But one thing that we know is that there is a reason. We are trying to be more loving and serviceable to each other so that we can hvae more success in the work. the mission makes one VERY humble, i think. and the lord gives us trials to give us strength.
anyways, about Martha, she is doing good, we don´t go to the sewing classes because it is not related with missionary work, but she likes it, and is happy. at the baptism when she spoke her niece was there, she is named Justa and is in another ward and is a strong member of the church, martha didn´t even know. But Justa has been sealed in the temple to her husband and she said that she did the temple work for martha´s mother. Justa also said that she had a dream after doing it and that martha´s mom accepted the work! Martha didn´tn really understand what that meant.. we ahven´t taught about the temple yet.. this week we will! it´s nice to know that Martha´s mom accepted the gospel and that they can have an eternal family.
Not much to say. We gave Aida and alejandra a book of mormon this week. I hope they read! I hope they will. They didn´t come to church yeseterday, don´t know why, since we saw them saturday and they said they would come, i´m sure it was an emergency or something. We are getting pretty attached to them, Aida is like a mom to us in some ways.
We have interviews with Presidente tomorrow, and a conference int his week with the Area authorities, i believe, not sure, we´ll see.
I love you all. keep praying for me please. Be good! Read the conference talks. I love the talk Guardians of Virtue. Read and meditate and make your lists of what you do and won´t do!
love. Hna. Tibbitts.
This week was pretty hard because we had to leave a lot of investigators, it seems like we are always doing it, we visit a lot of people 1 or 2 times and then no more, so we have to talk to people in the streets and knock a lot of doors, so pray we can find people that will accept our visits and that will progress!! But we did find a few people who I am excited about.
Ok so about my companion. Well for one thing I am not supposed to write to you about anything negative about my companion, area, the investigators, nothing. So I try to do that. Sometimes things happen and I think, well, that´s something I´lltell them about after I get home. Haha. Do not worry, it´s just that we live in a hard place and it´s part of life. Like we get whistled at a lot. Stuff like that. DO NOT WORRY!! ok! I think the hardest part about being with Hna. Larsen now is that we have been together a long time. Not many missionaries stay together with the companion 3 transfers. We are friends but it does require a lot of patience sometimes. It´s not the easiest thing to be 2 americans in bolivia, trying to reach all of our goals as missionaries. We get discouraged a lot. We have obstacles that are huge that we don´t even know how to get over. But one thing that we know is that there is a reason. We are trying to be more loving and serviceable to each other so that we can hvae more success in the work. the mission makes one VERY humble, i think. and the lord gives us trials to give us strength.
anyways, about Martha, she is doing good, we don´t go to the sewing classes because it is not related with missionary work, but she likes it, and is happy. at the baptism when she spoke her niece was there, she is named Justa and is in another ward and is a strong member of the church, martha didn´t even know. But Justa has been sealed in the temple to her husband and she said that she did the temple work for martha´s mother. Justa also said that she had a dream after doing it and that martha´s mom accepted the work! Martha didn´tn really understand what that meant.. we ahven´t taught about the temple yet.. this week we will! it´s nice to know that Martha´s mom accepted the gospel and that they can have an eternal family.
Not much to say. We gave Aida and alejandra a book of mormon this week. I hope they read! I hope they will. They didn´t come to church yeseterday, don´t know why, since we saw them saturday and they said they would come, i´m sure it was an emergency or something. We are getting pretty attached to them, Aida is like a mom to us in some ways.
We have interviews with Presidente tomorrow, and a conference int his week with the Area authorities, i believe, not sure, we´ll see.
I love you all. keep praying for me please. Be good! Read the conference talks. I love the talk Guardians of Virtue. Read and meditate and make your lists of what you do and won´t do!
love. Hna. Tibbitts.
June 13
Hello!! Thanks for the emails. This was a good week!
Yes it was a shock that we are staying together. We had to make a lot of goals to keep working well together. But it is exciting too! We are trying to find more ways to serve each other and love each other. something that i like is ¨no hay una companera perfecta, séalo usted¨-- there is not a perfect companion, so be one yourself. ahh i can´t translate it very well.. haha.
something good is that We get more time with Martha, our golden convert! She is doing so well. Every week for R.S. Activity they are making sheets to give to an orphanage, and Martha is teaching all the hermanas how to sew... she used to sew clothing as a job. She went to the distribution center and bought a Bible, BOM and hymnbook... it´s weird because here you have to bring your hymnbook, there aren´t just ones you can use in the benches. We are teaching her daughter Paula when we can find her. She usually gets home from work at about 8:30 at night and we have to get home at 9 so it is a little difficult. But she is interested so we are trying to help her learn. Martha gave her testimony in the baptism that the other hnas had this week. Basically she just said that the gospel has made her feel a lot more peace and tranquility in her life and that she is happy she has it. :)
We finally got the Liahona of the conference talks this week.. it was like christmas!! We were super excited. In english too! So we were happy. We take turns reading it haha. We also got for the strength of youth pamphlets. They are really helpful! !
On monday after i wrote you we went to a market with winter clothes and i bought a bunch of winter clothes!! So i won´t freeze! It was cheap and new stuff, so i was happy, also I bought a fuzzy warm blanket, the mission puts blankets in each apartment but they are itchy so i bought another one, it was a happy day!! My birthday was really good! We kind of kept it low key but we did get pizza at night, yum yum. On Saturday the other hermanas had a baptism and hna. Julie, my pensionista in my last area came with her husband Edgar!! She brought me a little cake and a gift and notes from Hna. Castro and the other hermanas that are there. I was happy! They wrapped up a can of american coca cola... haha. To remember them since we drank coca cola almost every day. Took pictures but can´t get them to upload... next week!
Also i bought gummy bears in honor of my birthday, and green apple soda :)
Something i remember from the MTC from a talk i listened to by Elder Holland is that the best gift you can recieve at this age is the gift of the mission!! So just keeping that in mind made me happy. I am really doing the best thing possible for me at this moment. even thought it is so hard sometimes i am happy.
We are still teaching Aida and Alejandra. We are starting to get kind of attached to them, they are like great friends we have. They always are so happy when we come visit. They came to church again on sunday and we taught the plan of salvation. We also invited them to baptism but they didn´t accept... we probably should have done better to address their problems, but they want to keep learning so at least we will have more chances. Alejandra is still stuck on the father... it stresses out Aida too as her mom.. they feel like they can´t forgive him right now so we taught about the atonement and how we have to forgive.. i understand what they are feling though, it´s not easy especially since he brought so much pain into thier lives.
Well things are going good here in the mission. Every day is a challenge but just have to keep perspective. I am glad to hear you are making goals. Hna. Larsen and I had a talk about that this week. We have so many goals it is almost overwhelming. there are so many things we want to work on. But we know the Lord will help us! Trying to work on patience, faith, charity, the list goes on. See chapter 6 of preach my gospel. i have a long way to go. but i take comfort in ether 12:27.
I love you all. Keep being good and working on your goals. that is how we can be happy!! trust in Heavenly Father and he will help you. He wants you to be happy! The gospel is true and changes lives, and i am so happy i have a family that has the gospel, i love to remember the covenants that keep us together and that keep us safe from satan! Love you all. have a great week. Hna. Tibbitts
Yes it was a shock that we are staying together. We had to make a lot of goals to keep working well together. But it is exciting too! We are trying to find more ways to serve each other and love each other. something that i like is ¨no hay una companera perfecta, séalo usted¨-- there is not a perfect companion, so be one yourself. ahh i can´t translate it very well.. haha.
something good is that We get more time with Martha, our golden convert! She is doing so well. Every week for R.S. Activity they are making sheets to give to an orphanage, and Martha is teaching all the hermanas how to sew... she used to sew clothing as a job. She went to the distribution center and bought a Bible, BOM and hymnbook... it´s weird because here you have to bring your hymnbook, there aren´t just ones you can use in the benches. We are teaching her daughter Paula when we can find her. She usually gets home from work at about 8:30 at night and we have to get home at 9 so it is a little difficult. But she is interested so we are trying to help her learn. Martha gave her testimony in the baptism that the other hnas had this week. Basically she just said that the gospel has made her feel a lot more peace and tranquility in her life and that she is happy she has it. :)
We finally got the Liahona of the conference talks this week.. it was like christmas!! We were super excited. In english too! So we were happy. We take turns reading it haha. We also got for the strength of youth pamphlets. They are really helpful! !
On monday after i wrote you we went to a market with winter clothes and i bought a bunch of winter clothes!! So i won´t freeze! It was cheap and new stuff, so i was happy, also I bought a fuzzy warm blanket, the mission puts blankets in each apartment but they are itchy so i bought another one, it was a happy day!! My birthday was really good! We kind of kept it low key but we did get pizza at night, yum yum. On Saturday the other hermanas had a baptism and hna. Julie, my pensionista in my last area came with her husband Edgar!! She brought me a little cake and a gift and notes from Hna. Castro and the other hermanas that are there. I was happy! They wrapped up a can of american coca cola... haha. To remember them since we drank coca cola almost every day. Took pictures but can´t get them to upload... next week!
Also i bought gummy bears in honor of my birthday, and green apple soda :)
Something i remember from the MTC from a talk i listened to by Elder Holland is that the best gift you can recieve at this age is the gift of the mission!! So just keeping that in mind made me happy. I am really doing the best thing possible for me at this moment. even thought it is so hard sometimes i am happy.
We are still teaching Aida and Alejandra. We are starting to get kind of attached to them, they are like great friends we have. They always are so happy when we come visit. They came to church again on sunday and we taught the plan of salvation. We also invited them to baptism but they didn´t accept... we probably should have done better to address their problems, but they want to keep learning so at least we will have more chances. Alejandra is still stuck on the father... it stresses out Aida too as her mom.. they feel like they can´t forgive him right now so we taught about the atonement and how we have to forgive.. i understand what they are feling though, it´s not easy especially since he brought so much pain into thier lives.
Well things are going good here in the mission. Every day is a challenge but just have to keep perspective. I am glad to hear you are making goals. Hna. Larsen and I had a talk about that this week. We have so many goals it is almost overwhelming. there are so many things we want to work on. But we know the Lord will help us! Trying to work on patience, faith, charity, the list goes on. See chapter 6 of preach my gospel. i have a long way to go. but i take comfort in ether 12:27.
I love you all. Keep being good and working on your goals. that is how we can be happy!! trust in Heavenly Father and he will help you. He wants you to be happy! The gospel is true and changes lives, and i am so happy i have a family that has the gospel, i love to remember the covenants that keep us together and that keep us safe from satan! Love you all. have a great week. Hna. Tibbitts
June 6
Happy Birthday to me!
I¨m gonna be 22?? what?? weird...
We didn´t have cambios! I am still with Hna. Larsen in Guaracal! We were so shocked when we found out. WE have a lot of challenges but we are happy we get to stay. ... FYI transfers are every 6 weeks. So we have at least 5 weeks more since 1 week has already gone by. Hna. Harman that was in our house went to my last area, la cañada and is companions with hna. Castro. She will have 6 months in that area. Hna. Broome is now companions with hna. Ortiz. Hna. Ortiz trained her and now they are back together. CAmbios are funny sometimes.
Thanks so much for your encouraging words. ...investigators come and go really fast sometimes...We didn´t see Cokie or her daughter Dirse this week, unfortunately. We called Dirse on saturday night and we think she was in a bar or out dancing or something. I heard music and then she hung up on me. So don´t think she is living the word of wisdom. Melgars did come to church! But the mom didn´t stay all 3 hrs.
Alejandra and her mom Aida came to church on sunday! For gospel principles we watched the restoration video (1st vision), the spirit was super strong in the room, and they are going to pray to know if Joseph smith was a prophet. Some of the members knew alejandra from high school and university so that was good to find out.
A lady named Jersey accepted a baptism date for 2 july. She is really great, has a lot of faith, she is looking to find peace in her life, she told us that she gets angry often and doesn´t want to be that way, her husband is out of work and her 17 year old son´s girlfriend who is also 17 just had a baby... they are both still in high school.
Have I ever told you about the familia Tamés?? They are less active but they are so fun. We go there when we are tired at night and just talk and talk. They live in a 1 room humble brick house. The mom is single and has 2 teenage sons and 1 teenage daughter. The mom, victoria has a really strong testimony, she was baptized as a kid and all her family are members, most are inactive too though. She wants to go to the temple and she wants her 19 yr old son to go on a mission, but she wants him to have the desire to go.
The mission is so hard but i am learning a lot and really learning how to rely on the lord. The Lord really wants me to be humble and patient in this time I feel. We have so many goals that we want to make and we are always making plans. It is so exhausting. My shoe inserts are great :) but my feet still hurt every day when i come home. i go to bed every night exhausted.
Sorry not much time to write, trying to get these photos to upload but it doesn´t want to cooperate very well. Thanks for your prayers and letters and the packages.
I¨m gonna be 22?? what?? weird...
We didn´t have cambios! I am still with Hna. Larsen in Guaracal! We were so shocked when we found out. WE have a lot of challenges but we are happy we get to stay. ... FYI transfers are every 6 weeks. So we have at least 5 weeks more since 1 week has already gone by. Hna. Harman that was in our house went to my last area, la cañada and is companions with hna. Castro. She will have 6 months in that area. Hna. Broome is now companions with hna. Ortiz. Hna. Ortiz trained her and now they are back together. CAmbios are funny sometimes.
Thanks so much for your encouraging words. ...investigators come and go really fast sometimes...We didn´t see Cokie or her daughter Dirse this week, unfortunately. We called Dirse on saturday night and we think she was in a bar or out dancing or something. I heard music and then she hung up on me. So don´t think she is living the word of wisdom. Melgars did come to church! But the mom didn´t stay all 3 hrs.
Alejandra and her mom Aida came to church on sunday! For gospel principles we watched the restoration video (1st vision), the spirit was super strong in the room, and they are going to pray to know if Joseph smith was a prophet. Some of the members knew alejandra from high school and university so that was good to find out.
A lady named Jersey accepted a baptism date for 2 july. She is really great, has a lot of faith, she is looking to find peace in her life, she told us that she gets angry often and doesn´t want to be that way, her husband is out of work and her 17 year old son´s girlfriend who is also 17 just had a baby... they are both still in high school.
Have I ever told you about the familia Tamés?? They are less active but they are so fun. We go there when we are tired at night and just talk and talk. They live in a 1 room humble brick house. The mom is single and has 2 teenage sons and 1 teenage daughter. The mom, victoria has a really strong testimony, she was baptized as a kid and all her family are members, most are inactive too though. She wants to go to the temple and she wants her 19 yr old son to go on a mission, but she wants him to have the desire to go.
The mission is so hard but i am learning a lot and really learning how to rely on the lord. The Lord really wants me to be humble and patient in this time I feel. We have so many goals that we want to make and we are always making plans. It is so exhausting. My shoe inserts are great :) but my feet still hurt every day when i come home. i go to bed every night exhausted.
Sorry not much time to write, trying to get these photos to upload but it doesn´t want to cooperate very well. Thanks for your prayers and letters and the packages.
May 30th
helloo... well another week has gone by. I GOT PACKAGES THIS WEEK!! the one from Tracee for easter and the shoe inserts from G&G hindman. Thank you!! i was happy! Can't wait to get more!!
Your lives sound crazy! glad to hear your heads are above water. my life is crazy too right now.
There are transfers this week!! I am pretty sure that I or Hna. Larsen will have cambios. We don't know anything yet! it is sad!
haha, so Martha is doing good. She is going to all the activities and the institute class that they ahve for the adults in the ward and everything!! she has friends and so all is well!! attaching pictures from her baptism. my camera died there, it was sad!
yes we did teach the man in the park and his family. it was nuts. We couldn´t control the lesson at all. they were just asking questions and talking in english and spanish. next time we go we are just going to show them the restoration video i think.
We didn´t get to teach cokie this week. she wasn´t home when we went to the lesson. that happens a lot. the mission teaches patience. we have an appointment next week. We did get to teach her daughter Dirse though. She is 25 and a single mom with 2 kids. She doesn´t like living in her house because basicaly her mom is raising her kids not her, because she works and goes to school. She wants to move out. hopefully she doesn´t move far!!
only the daughters in the melgar family came to church this week. the less active people have such a hard time sometimes. i don´t get it. we visit them, they say they are going to church, and then they don´t show up. it is frustrating. patience!!
this week we taught a lady named Aida and her daughter Alejandra. Alejandra is a single mom and is 22. Her son is 4 and is named justin and is a wild crazy kid. I guess they wanted to hear from us to get help for Alejandra. She is still in love with the father of justin, but they didn´t get married when he was born, and now he lives with another chica and she is pregnant and they are not married too... Alejandra thinks that he may come back to her.. i didn´t even know what to say, it was weird, but my awesome companion said... i don´t think he wants to come back. which was exactly what i was thinking. it was perfect. and she is praying to figure out what the lord wants her to do. So we were happy to help with that, and help her realize that she is a child of God and can do better!
well i don´t have much time today to write you, had a lot to say to pres. calderon. but i love you all and pray for you all too. we are looking for people who want to be baptized but it is sooo hard! Satan really works hard with all our investigators. We found out some sad things about a few of them this week. Satan really does try to destroy families. Trying to keep going forward with a lot of faith and love for the people. The mission is really hard sometimes!! i love you all. i would love to get more letters from friends and family!! DEar elder is great!!
love hna. Tibbitts
Your lives sound crazy! glad to hear your heads are above water. my life is crazy too right now.
There are transfers this week!! I am pretty sure that I or Hna. Larsen will have cambios. We don't know anything yet! it is sad!
haha, so Martha is doing good. She is going to all the activities and the institute class that they ahve for the adults in the ward and everything!! she has friends and so all is well!! attaching pictures from her baptism. my camera died there, it was sad!
yes we did teach the man in the park and his family. it was nuts. We couldn´t control the lesson at all. they were just asking questions and talking in english and spanish. next time we go we are just going to show them the restoration video i think.
We didn´t get to teach cokie this week. she wasn´t home when we went to the lesson. that happens a lot. the mission teaches patience. we have an appointment next week. We did get to teach her daughter Dirse though. She is 25 and a single mom with 2 kids. She doesn´t like living in her house because basicaly her mom is raising her kids not her, because she works and goes to school. She wants to move out. hopefully she doesn´t move far!!
only the daughters in the melgar family came to church this week. the less active people have such a hard time sometimes. i don´t get it. we visit them, they say they are going to church, and then they don´t show up. it is frustrating. patience!!
this week we taught a lady named Aida and her daughter Alejandra. Alejandra is a single mom and is 22. Her son is 4 and is named justin and is a wild crazy kid. I guess they wanted to hear from us to get help for Alejandra. She is still in love with the father of justin, but they didn´t get married when he was born, and now he lives with another chica and she is pregnant and they are not married too... Alejandra thinks that he may come back to her.. i didn´t even know what to say, it was weird, but my awesome companion said... i don´t think he wants to come back. which was exactly what i was thinking. it was perfect. and she is praying to figure out what the lord wants her to do. So we were happy to help with that, and help her realize that she is a child of God and can do better!
well i don´t have much time today to write you, had a lot to say to pres. calderon. but i love you all and pray for you all too. we are looking for people who want to be baptized but it is sooo hard! Satan really works hard with all our investigators. We found out some sad things about a few of them this week. Satan really does try to destroy families. Trying to keep going forward with a lot of faith and love for the people. The mission is really hard sometimes!! i love you all. i would love to get more letters from friends and family!! DEar elder is great!!
love hna. Tibbitts
Monday, May 30, 2011
May 23
Hello!!
This week was the baptism of MARTHA!! It went well. We were kind of panicked saturday morning because our witnesses got busy and couldn´t come. But we found some others. Then we realized we didn´t prepare a musical number. So we did that last minute too. We sang a primary song , i´m trying to be like jesus. (Yo trato de ser como Cristo). We told her it would start at 7. She didn´t show up til 7 15 haha, people were telling us we should have gone to get her. Also she was late to sacrament meeting so they did the confirmation after sacrament. Oh well, we are happy she is baptized and she has friends in the church and wants to keep learning more. Everything works out with the Lord´s help. Her granddaughter Ainoha nayseth came, but none of the rest of the family, they don´t support the decision. sad :( i can´t get this computer to upload my pictures. only have one because my camera died when we were taking pictures!!! bummer!
We had another training on tuesday, it went well, during one part of it president was randomly calling on missionaries to give examples of teaching a certain principle, in this case, law of chastity, using creativity. My mind was totally blank, i had no ideas, then the thought popped into my mind, i better think of something to say because he´s gonna call on me!! So i thought of something and he called on me, luckily i was prepared!! haha. the spirit will warn you when you need to be prepared! lesson learned.
still have not gotten packages. please don´t be afraid to send them though. it will take a while but they will come. others get them so no worries, i will too.
This week we had such a fun lesson with an hermana named Cokie, she is an older lady, she started going to an evangelist church recently but is struggling understanding everything. one of her doubts was about prayer, she didn´t really get how to pray, so we taught her, and read her james 1:5 and she cried! She was so happy because she has so many doubts and doesn´t know how to deal with them. Now she knows she can pray and ASK GOD!! just like joseph smith did. we are teaching the family, pray for them!
We had the funniest experience. We were talking to a girl in a park, and this man walks up to us, says that his mom needs the gospel, and that he will show us where she lives, and let´s go. haha. he talked to us all in english. so we were like, ok, he took us around the corner, to meet his mom. he is a member in a different ward. he told us to go meet her and make an appointment. ok. so we go in and the mom was there with 2 daughters. they start going nuts! the mom and daughters are saying come in to the living room, no they have to come back later (they were eating lunch), have something to drink, no they have to go! they were all yelling in english and spanish, then thanking us a million times for coming, i don´t think me or my companion said more than 5 words, it was chaotic, haha, hope this makes sense.
We were so happy that one of the less active families, familia Melgar, that we have worked with a lot finally came to church on sunday! And they stayed for all 3 hours!
I don´t know why we are short of BOM´s. They are sent from the US. Sometimes they just stop coming. That´s how it is for pamphlets and such. We just started getting pamphlets for lesson 1 (restoration). We are running out of lesson 2 pamphlets too (plan of salvation).
mom- glad you like the 3 rules. it has helped me a lot. i got that from my district leader. I have it in my planner and look at it a lot.
Brothers-- study!!! promise it will be worth it. glad to hear that you are all healthy and happy.
thanks for the news on the missionaries. that´s a bummer about israel, but the lord knows why everything happens.
I love you all!! keep writing. sigan adelante y confien en Dios. until next week. love Hermana Tibbitts
May 16
Hello!
So good to hear from all of you!! And talk to you!! Thanks for your encouraging emails. They help so much!
I can{t believe i have been a missionary SIX MONTHS!!
Something i have learned in the mission is that there are 3 things you can control in the mission
1. level of obedience
2. level of effort
3. Attitude!!
So if you work on those 3 things you will always have success!!
Also my companion helps me so much. Hna. Larsen is really great. she helps me keep the spirit because sometimes i get really stressed out and that drives it away!!
Sometimes i wonder how i{m not fainting from exhaustion in the streets day to day, but i know my heavenly father is helping me and lifting me up!!
This week i got a little sick,(stomach) so the doctor prescribed me some pills that totally took away my appetite! So i almost did'tt eat for like 2 days. it was weird! All i did was drink soda. I went thru almost 3 liters of 7 up in 2 days. That was all i wanted. I think i had a ramen soup once. We still went out and did work. I{m not taking the pills anymore and slowly my appetite is coming back. Now all i want to eat is cookies. And soda!!
Marta had her interview and is getting baptized on saturday! We are so happy!! She is amazing and she is ready. I love her so much! The elder who interviewed her (E. Schenk) said that she taught him new things in the interview. She has a lot of faith. She hasn't read any more than the introductory parts of the Book of mormon but she knows it is true. She wants to be a member of the church although her children dont{ want her to be baptized.
ARe people saying there that the world is gonna end on the 21 of may?? lots of people ask us about that here.
we are searching far and wide to find people to teach. a lot of our investigators are burning out, like Victor. He isn{t trying to quit smoking and doesn't want to be baptized so we have to leave him. sad but that{s how the mission is. Maybe when his wife comes back we will go back, but for now, no.
But we have found some good people! For example we found Dirse, she is a single mom with 2 kids, she works and studies but she wants to find the truth and wants to learn more, and is always super grateful to learn and have us come. We just need her to pray and come to church!
We met someone that was Gnostic.. have you all heard of that? it's more of a philosophy than a religion.. it was super weird and hard to teach him!!
Something sad is that the mission is short on book of mormons! We are gonna have to make copies of the introduction and 1 nephi to give to people because we haven{t gotten any for a while. Same thing with the pamphlets.
WE had training on tuesday and we also have it tomorrow. We were there from 8-530, it was so long! But i learned so much.
Please pray we can find FAMILIES!!
I love you all. Sigan adelante. Be good!! hasta la proxima. Love Hna Tibbitts
May 9
Hello!!! Happy mother's day again!! It was so great to talk to all of you!! I loved hearing your voices and hearing about what you are doing and be able to explain a little more about the mission and how things are going! We were just told that for christmas we can talk with our families for 60 minutes! woo hoo!! i can´t wait. I love you all and thanks for being supportive and wonderful. I have the best family!! Sorry if you didn´t understand my explanations of things like the bananas etc. But the ones that she cooks taste bad when they´re not cooked.. maybe that will help you understand more :)
This week was a little difficult to start out. The mission has changed me in so many ways. But it got better! We found some great people to teach this week!
First of all, Marta is getting baptized on the 21st!! She is happy about it, she wants to folllow this path, and she has changed a lot already, with the gospel in her life, we have really noticed that she is a lot happier. Unfortunately her family doesn´t really want to listen to us.We have taught all of them one time or another, but not more than once or twice. She is separated but her husband is always at her house, sitting in the dark at the front of their house, drunk, and it really bothers her. It´s kinda creepy actually haha. Her house is really humble. It doesn´t have 4 real walls. We saw a huge rat there one day. it was nasty! Her 2 daughters (including mom of Ainoha Nayseth) don´t live the law of chastity, they are living with a man but not married. she asked us if it was ok that she could get baptized since that was the case. we told her of course, since you are living the law of chastity!! She is so wonderful. She is very humble and docile, that´s a word in english right??
We also are working a little bit in a barrio that is actually really nice, but small and a little farther away. it is called aeronautico becasue it´s by the air force-army or something base. One day when we were there knocking doors we met a man named Jorge who is a member from a different ward and stake, recent convert of 2 yrs, he is older and divorced and his children live in our area, they are all adults, all single except for one (4 kids). We were able to teach with him there and he bore powerful testimony and really testified to his kids that he wants them to know about the gospel and accept it so they can have a forever family. it was great.
Also in aeronautico we met Guido and Eva, and taught them, they are catholic, their kids are all grown up and live around the world, they have traveled a lot, he was in the military but is retired now, they had a lot of questions but are willing to learn, they want to know more about the bible etc. We found out that she is the president of their neighborhood home owner´s association, something i didn´t even know existed in places like here, but they have one since it´s a NICE NEIGHBORHOOD, there are mansions here for bolivia, super nice. a lot of houses have the speaker things outside the door, and i´ve seen a few with cameras there too. They are going to invite us to their neighborhood activities so we can meet people. They know tons of people!!! I hope they progress, they are so nice!! Guido answered the door when we rang their doorbell, he told us in the visit that he wasn´t having a great day, but he saw us and thought that God sent him 2 angels!! :)
we had zone meeting on thursday with president calderon. He talked to us a lot about the importance of FAMILY. For example, if you are teaching a child or teenager, and they don´t have the support of their parents, it´s beter not to baptize them. they need to family support or otherwise they will easily go inactive after a while. The gospel is for FAMILIES. we are not just looking for people to be baptized, but for them to also be able to go to the temple and make those covenants there. (Preach my gospel chapter 1- the gospel blesses families-- i glued a picture of a temple next to it to remind me)
Tomorrow and the tuesday after that we have training from 8-4 with 4 zones and president Calderon! Should be great to learn a lot, but it takes a lot of time away from our work. pray that we do good in the practices!!
Well running out of time. I´m so glad i´m here doing the Lord´s work. it is so important and it´s so rewarding to be able to help people learna bout the restored gospel. Please pray for my success. I know this gospel is true. The book of mormon is true. I finished it last week and started again!! :) one of hte mission goals is to read the BOM every 4 months. it´s fast but not too fast!! Study your scriptures and pray! God answers!! I love you all! Keep choosing the right! I¨ll try to take pictures to send next week. love Hna. Tibbitts
May 2
Hola! From the chilly city of Santa Cruz. It got cold!!! Winter has begun! Thurdsay it was hot, and then friday it got cold all of the sudden! It´s really windy and the cold is different here than in utah for exaple, because there is humidity here. almost all of our investigators got sick and didn´t come to church, so they lost their baptism dates, all except for marta!!! We watched the restoration video with her in the church, she really liked it and i don´t know if she understood about joseph smith before, but she prayed afterward and the prayer was really sincere, she wants to know more and share the message with her family, she still has some doubts but we are working with her.
Last sunday-monday wa sactually one of the worst times i ahve had in the mission, i was really sad because we weren´t meeting our goals especially with lessons, so this week we realy forced ourselves to teach more lessons and we did well! We have had to stop teaching a lot of investigators becasue they are not progressing. It is sad but has to be done. The Lord prepaares some people and not others and that´s just how it is. So we are looking for more people! Pray we can find the prepared people!!
the good news from this week is that jacqueline and carlos have both prayed and know that joseph smith was a prophet. they are so humble and full of faith. they just need to go to church now! but jacqueline was sick on sunday, i think she might have dengue. thursday is carlos´s birthday, he is turning 12, and he gets to have a party!! we are excited for him. he is excited too. the other day we went by and he was making his piñata. oh, also jacqueline wanted us to discipline carlos though haha. I guess he isn´t very obedient to his teachers at school, and he bothers the other students, pulls girls hair, etc. haha. :)
i love you all. thank you for your exampes for me and for continuing to perseverar hasta el fin (endure to the end!) it´s so important, keep going, sigan adelante! read the Bom and pray always! it´s the best thing you can do. Love Hermana Tibbitts
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Hello, happy easter!
We did nothing out of the ordinary for easter. We didn´t even sing any resurrection songs in church. Nada! so it was kind of weird. Hna Larsen and I are still together!!! and we are still in GuarHooray!! Hna. Harman is still in our house/ward and her new companion is Hna. Ortiz. She is from peru. She is the most mellow, calm person in the world, also the most punctual. So things are good.
There is a catholic church right by our house and alot of stuff was going on over the weekend. On friday there was an acting thing of the crucifixion, or what led up to it. kinda weird.
We have 4 ppl with baptism dates! Victor, Marta, Nayseth, and Jorge. CArlos and Yaquelin lost their dates because they didn´t go to church :( but we will work more with them. CArlos didnt´come to the english class because his mom wouldn´t give him 1 boliviano. They hvae been selling food in the church to raise money for the temple trip they are going on in may.
Victor is working on the word of wisdom now. His wife is still in La paz so he is alone with his 2 daughters, it´s really hard for their family. They are in 1 nephi 15 though! His daughter that is 7, victoria is reading in the bible in revelations, she is very smart, and she is very concerned about the end of the world and when jesus comes, she LOVES primary, and wants to get baptized, she tells her dad that she is getting baptized when she turns 8 (august)! :) she is really cute.
Marta and Nayseth are praying but looking for their answers to the prayers (along with victor). She is catholic and doesn´t quite understand priesthood authority we think. so we are working on that.
JOrge is a 13 year old whose brother is a member but less active. He always goes to Young men activities and to play soccer at the church. He said the other day he had an interview with the bishop. Haha. dont´know how that works exactly. But he likes the church a lot and he is our friend and wants to learn more :)
This week we didn´t get to teach a lot becasuse of the holiday, a lot of ppl went out of town, or weren´t in their houses when we went t hte appointment. Funny thing that happened: we were walking down the street and some kids kicked their soccer ball down toward us by accident (happens a lot), Hna. Larsen kicked it off and her shoe went flying too! haha. good hting it was dark and not many people around.
every day we arrive at the house totally beat! exhausted. My feet hurt sooo bad! I walk like an old lady but the end of the day. I would love for someone to send me some gel insoles to put in my shoes. :)
I love you all!! Thanks for supporting me and praying for me. The mission is totally great. I have learned so much. I have so many more goals still but I love what i am doing and am happy i am here. my companion hna. Larsen helps me so much when i get stressed out or get a little bit of a bad attitude. She is amazing. but even more than, her, my Heavenly Father has blessed me so much. He has helped me through some really tough times. Les quiero mucho. Sigan adelante!! Con amor Hna. Tibbitts
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