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