Letter #2

Hello! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I love you!!!

Thanks for the letters and treats! My companions loved the caramel corn thing, they had never had that before!

I still cannot figure out how to upload my pictures to this email. Sorry. They have pretty much everything blocked on these computers.

NEWS: I am staying here til Dec. 15. Then I am flying to Bolivia. No Peru MTC for me unless my visa doesn't come through. But it sholdn't be a problem.  Some of the elders in my district are leaving on the 6th. Sad!

Sounds like you had a great Thanksgiving!

I did too. We had a fireside that morning and Elder Jefferey R. Holland came! Hna. Fernandez was in heaven! His wife spoke also and his whole family came and the children sang for us. Elder Holland said to not be homesick and that his family  was  our  family today. The emphasis of his talk was that Heavenly Father knows you by name. It  was  super spiritual! We had a thanksgiving dinner with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. it was good but i felt sooo full afterwards and everyone  was  super tired after eating. We also had a fireside that day by a counselor in the mission presidency. They talked about how important the Book of Mormon  is. We watched the film about Vincenzo Di Francesca. I don't know if you have seen it, its kind  of  old,  but way good!!  He found a book of mormon on the street in New York City and read it and was converted but there was no cover page so he didn't know the name of the book and didn't find out for years later, and then it took several years more for him to be baptized becaue he had moved back to Italy by then. It was way good. We also did a service project! We helped assemble parts to make book bags for underprivileged  children around the world. Our district's job was to make bundles of 25 pieces of fabric. So we just counted and bunched them up. It was fun though!

I met some bolivian sisters here! Hna. Penafiel  and  Sis. Pinto. They are going to temple square. They are super sweet. One is from Cochabamba and one is from Sucre. They said Santa Cruz has weather like Miami!

Hna. Vasquez got pretty sick this week. There is a clinic here at the MTC but it was  closed from Weds-sunday so we had to go to the front desk and call the on-call doctor.  He prescribed her some medicines which we were able to get there but they didn't really help. She has an awful cough and gets headaches. It is up and down. I had to stay with her for part of the day on Sunday while she rested so I just studied the whole time. She is better for the most part today. I have had a sore throat though. Ugh.

The heater in our room also broke on Wednesday, and same thing, they said they couldn't fix it til monday. And then they didn't fix it yesterday. We were pretty mad. But they fixed it today! Hooray!!!! Hna. Fernandez was dying. She is not handling the cold well at all. We run around the MTC a lot because of the cold. The other day she realized that it was cold enough to see your breath and she though it was so cool! She thought that was only  something that happens in movies. haha. I showed her how to throw up leaves and then took her picture and she loved it.

Something we have started doing is doing fake contacts around the MTC. It is actually pretty fun. I get nervous though. But we have been able to make a lot of friends that way and feel the spirit.

Oh, so what is my schedule like? Wake up at 6 or 6:30. Then we go to our classroom at 7 and study til 7:45. Then we go  to breakfast. We have gym five days a week but it is at different times of day. Then we have 2 classes per day and then one period of MDT (missionary directed time) so that's when we do personal and companionship study. The classes and MDT are at different times depending on the day. We also go to the TRC twice a week (Teaching resource center, you teach lessons to volunteers and the teacher grades you). We are going to the RC this week twice. (Referrals center- call center to follow up on materials that are distributed). Tuesday nights are devotionals with a general authority. We never know before hand who it will be.

Sundays we have 8 a.m. sacrament meeting, we watch music and the spoken word, relief society is with all the sisters in the mtc, and then we hafve study/temple walk/ interviews and then devotional at night. And other stuff, I can't remember right now. It's packed. All the time we are busy.

Oh yeah! Last week's Tuesday devotional speaker was Per G. Malm of the 70. He spoke in the last general conference, he is the bad Swedish guy. He gave a super great talk. He told us to commit ourselves 100% and not fear because fear is the opposite of faith. Also, the spirit is the real teacher and what converts people.

There was supposed to be a storm that night but it never came. there was like an inch of snow. It was pretty funny.

What else have I learned this week?

-Have VISION.

-Healing and forgiveness are the same thing.

-push onwards even when you don't want to

-dedicate yourself to reverence, and then you will gain spiritual knowledge.

-charity never fails because it never stops and you still feel it even if you try to resist it.

-Everyone on earth said Yes to the plan of salvation. Just remind them that they did:)

-The Lord will be closer to you than ever when you teach.

-Never see a fault in another person. Be like God by seeing them how God sees them.

-You NEVER have to be alone.

-We recieve a remission of sins by compassion for the poor.

Last week we did a session in the temple and this week we did sealings. none of us 3 had done sealings before. it was pretty cool. Almost out of time. Love you all! Have a great week! Keep writing me on Dear Elder til Dec. 15!! 

Love Sister Tibbitts