Letter #3

Hello all!

Thanks for the letters and package!

i heard about the world cup, actually in the Salt lake temple, and I couldn't believe it! a man started talking to me about where I'm from, he told me about the world cup, and then I realized he was in the temple presidency! haha!

Travel update: The plan is that I am still leaving for Bolivia on the 15th, so next Wednesday. BUT- my visa is not here yet. It should be here any day now. The travel office said the consulate has sent it. No Peru MTC for me except we might stay overnight there and then go to S.Cruz the next day. So pray that my visa gets here in time. It shouldn't be a problem but there is a slight chance it won't get here.

Well. Let me tell you about this week. Being a missionary has a lot of ups and downs but overall life is great!!!

Last tuesday we went to the temple and did sealings. I had never done them before! I was amazed at how simple it was but how powerful they are too. That night our devotional was by Julie B. Beck the general Relief society president!!! It was so exciting! Hna Fernandez and I sang in the choir, I can't remember what song it was now, but it was super good! She talked about how she lived in Brazil as a child when her dad was mission president a lot, and also told a lot of stories.

Wednesday/health update: We finally decided we had had enough with being sick, so all 3 of us companions went to the doctor. Hna. Vasquez got stuff for her cough, Hna Fernandez had some tests done (they think she is having a thryoid imbalance I think, she has lost like 5 lbs since she got here, which is a LOT for her since she is tiny, and she eats more than she did here than at home), and they said that I was developing an ear infection. What the heck? I haven't had an ear infection since I was a kid! So they got me antibiotics and had me on a regimen of Advil (it has antiinflammatory unlike tylenol, and my throat was getting really swollen), Sudafed, benadryl, and vitamin C. I got a blessing from the elders in my district and it was amazing. As soon as they put their hands on my head I felt a little bit better. Not completely better, but a little bit. The preisthood is real!!! The antibiotics made it worse before it got better. I got soo stuffy I was blowing my nose nonstop. It was gross. But now I am mostly better I have to blow my nose once in a while and I cough a little bit. We had to go back to the Dr. for hna. Vasquez on saturday since here medicines were making her throw up. Oh, we went to the byu health center to pick up our prescriptons on wednesday, that was weird. then we went there on saturday since the mtc clinic was closed saturday. Then we had to go to rite aid to pick up here meds! It was weird being in the real world! An Mtc driver took us there.

We have had 3 elders come into our district, 2 already left, they have been in AZ for 2-3 months waiting for their visas to Mexico. It's been good to have people with some experience in our classes other than the teachers. Also they have been good examples to the elders here.

5 of the elders in my district were reaassigned because they won't get their visas for a while. 2 are going to Ogden, one to Salt Lake, one to Saint George, and one to Boise (Boise people- his name is Elder Gonzalez if you meet him!!). 4 of those elders are leaving this week and everyone else next week, including my companions! They leave the 13th so I will have to get a new companion for 2 days til I leave.

Like I wrote to Tracee, WE GOT TO GO TO THE SALT LAKE TEMPLE ON FRIDAY! All 3 of us were able to go. It was soo great! It was a group of international missionaries and so I qualified for that and so did my companions. Most of the other missionaries were japanese but some were from Fuji, england, and some other places. It was Hna. Fernandez's first time there and she loved it!!! We did a session (live- cool!) and then did a whirlwind tour around temple square. My comps were taking pictures non stop! We got special treatment there because we are missionaries, it was really fun! So we saw the tabernacle, Christus, and conference center and that was all we had time for.

One of the cool things we did this week was go to the Referral center. It's basically a call center here at the mtc, and we call people who have requested church DVDs like Joy to the world, or Book of mormons, etc. I was nervous about going because we were supposed to make calls in spanish. So we went and there weren't any calls to make in spanish! So I made some in english. Mostly I got answering machines but I did talk to one guy who really liked what he got and wanted to know more about the church. I am excited to go back and do more calls.

Running out of time and I could write so many more things!

Sunday was great. Fast sunday. OUr district did a musical number since some are leaving this week. We sang "Escrudinar, meditar, orar" (Search ponder and pray). So some people in my district can't carry a tune but I think the Spirit gave them that ability for our performance in sacrament meeting. It was amazing! We had mission conference instead of Relief society/priesthood and it was really good but it felt sooo long it was only 2 hours though. Tha'ts how things are here in the mtc. Most of the hours seem long but the days seem short and the weeks seem long. That night we got to watch the 1st presidency christmas devotional, it was sooo good! Then Sunday nights are movie night! So we got to watch the movie mountain of the Lord, about the Salt lake temple, it was soo good! And I'm glad we got to watch it after having been there 2 days before.

Gotta wrap this up. Oh, shout out to my friends-- are you there? or did you already forget about me? Write me!!! you can use dear elder until next week!

My language is improvoing a lot, but it's hard! Teaching in a trio is really hard too! We are trying to respond to people's needs better and ask questions better. Your prayers are appreciated. I love you all. I was going to write some scritpures here that I liked but I can't find where I wrote them down. I think one is Rev. 3:20.

 

love. Hermana Tibbitts