Thanks for the emails!

 

Haha yeah its pretty crazy I am sr. companion, but i like it . it is sooo different. But I have a wonderful companion. Realy she is becoming a great friend for me. She got to the mission 3 wks before me but speaks less spanish becasue she didn´t study it before like I did. But  we have a great zone and we are finding a lot of great people to teach!! I don´t speak spanish 100% but i speak well enough and i understand most of what people say. the hardest people to talk to are teenagers/young adults because they talk fast, and old people. haha. It´s funny sometimes the reactions we get. Being 2 americans, we have to be extra careful, especially at night. We don´t knock doors after 7 p.m. and keep our distance from men. But don´t be scared!! I can hold my own! Mos tpoeple see that we are americans, but one investiator thought we were Germans haha, and another lady thought we were Brazilian. What the heck?

 

We are FIVE sisters in our house now. A sister left the mission unexpectedely, so now Hna. Flores lives in our house, she is in a trio with Hna. Patzi and Hna. Harman, she is great to have around, she finishes her mission in june and she is from Trujillo, Peru.

 

 

My interview went fine. Basically it was just like... how are you doing? are you ok? ok good good to see ya. haha. But we also had to bring our area book to be reviewed and do practices with one of the assistants. that was the hard part haha. But President Calderón is great. He has helped me so much alreayd on the mission. He is so inspired. Hna. CAlderon is great too. He is a convert. The missionaries contacted him when he was 18 or so, he was playing soccer in the street, he said he wanted to punch them! haha, but he accepted an appointment, and eventually joined the church. Hna. Calderon is wonderful too.she is the sweetest lady. You really feel her love every time you talk to her.

 

We had zone conference with 2 zones the day after. We were all supposed to prepare a 10 minute talk on the book of mormon, and they called on someone randomly to give the talk. Well I was picked!! And of course I didn´t prepare very much. Oops. I forgot!  But it´s was ok. I had a little prepared so i used that and I think it went well! Not the best talk i have ever given, but it went ok and it surprised me that they picked me most of all, that president has that kind of confidence in me! The conference was great and I learned a lot. There are a TON of missionaries coming to our mission. They are going to be opening a ton of areas. So I am happy that the mission is growing.

 

Florencia is getting baptized April 9! Her family are all members and because of some documents (long story) for a long time we didn´t think she could get baptized. But she can so we are happy! She has a super strong testimony and has been attending for over a year so it´s about time. It is special to teach her nad help her get ready for her baptism, she´s already ready though haha.

 

We are teaching a wonderful family! Victor and Sulema are the parents, they have 2 cute daughters Julia and Victoria who are 4 and 7. The day we had stake conference they came to our chapel here, and found no one, but someone in the street told them they could go to another chapel, gave them the address (out of the stake), they went there, got there in time for Relief society/priesthood, and enjoyed it a lot. Someone there gave them a gospel principles book and they hvae been reading it, Sulema really likes the word of wisdom,and they are both soo good! They came yesterday to church ut also only for the last hour! But they are happy to have a church to go to, and like the lessons, and they are going to go to general conference (i´m soo excited!) and want to go to ALL  of the activities that they are having here in the ward. We are so excited for them. We actually contacted Sulemna in the street one of the 1st days in the area, but we kind of forgot about her oops. But  friday we decided to go go back knock on the door and we were able to learn about the 1st time they wen tto chrch and made an appointment for satuday. The 7 yr old asked us questions about revelations and the anti christ haha. She is super intelligent, turns 8 in august.

 

thank you for your letters and your prayer. I appreciate it. Poeple here are usually nice so don´t worry too much about that. Pray that these people progress!

 

 

haha I love you alll. have a great week.

love Hermana Tibbitts

Hello!
 
People have asked me how to send packages. I don´t think there should be a problem with things getting stolen. just tape it up good. And if you want to you can tape on a picture of Jesus or the virgen mary. Smaller packages are probably better. I would love to get some!! I would love to recieve easter candy, or any american candy, and something I would really love to get is pictures and stickers, like church related pictures or flowers, designs, etc. to decorate my planners and to use in people´s memory books, just any sort of stuff like that, especially mission related would be great, stationary type stuff. Also I could really use a nice umbrella. I am on my 2nd umbrella here. My companion has one from land´s end that is really nice. If it´s not nice quality then it will break here, there is wind and the rain is a lot. Oh, and definitely I want one that is compact. Right now i am using one that is not collapsible and it drives me nuts. Also I would love to get pictures of my family, and gel insole things for my shoes.

No pictures to send this week, sorry. but we´re going to el centro to mail letters and print pictures, and then later we´re going bowling as a zone!! so we should have pictures for that. 

It was father´s day here in bolivia on saturday. So lots of parties and drunk people. Happy fathers day dad! You get to hear that twice this year. Also FYI mother´s day here is may 27, i think in the US it is may 8?? I don´t remember but it is a different day. I don´t know which day I will be able to call, but can you please send me your phone numbers? I need to update your information in the mission office, I need your address (do you have a physical address?? or po box in the uae?) and can you send your cell phone numbers and VOIP number?? thanks. 

So with father´s day a lot of people had forgotten that it was father´s day when we made appointments with them, so we went to their house and they were gone, or they told us to come back another time. One lady felt bad because she was having family over and getting ready for that, but she gave us a piece of cake! hahah. 

Sunday was stake conference!! So we got to go to church at 10 instead of 8 (yes, this ward has 8 a.m. church- yuck). Elder Rafael Pino of the 70 was there as well as President Craig of the temple in cochabamba. They spoke as well as some of the stake presidency and president calderon and hermana calderon. it was a really great meeting!! We have a mission conference on wednesday so that should be great, and tomorrow we have interviews with president calderon! my first one, haha, don´t know how i got away so long without having one, 

We walked sooo much this week! I thought I was gonna die! not really, ut the mission is WAY more physically demanding than I thought it wouold be. Also emotionally demanding. You come to care so much about the people. Now i think i understand what people say about missions, that it is the hardest thing you can do, but most rewarding. It is sooo hot and sometimes we don´t have any lessons until the evening. But when you have a lesson and you are able to teach something of value to that person, really helping them with their needs and it´s worth it. 

In other news, this week we saw 3 dead rats in the street, and 2 dead cats.One of the cats was completely flattened by cars. I almost stepped on it. I don´t even know how to explain that one Plus we have seen lots of dead, flattened frogs, but that´s not out of the ordinary.

I wrote more but it got erased! sorry! out of time. Love you all. until next week. Hna. Tibbitts

Hello!

 

Before I say anything else, CAMBIOS HAPPENED!!! On Thursday. So now I am in a new area with a new companion. I am with Hermana Larsen in the area Guaracal, Zona Cañoto. I am senior companion and my companion is from Fillmore, UT. How crazy is that? But Hna. Larsen is awesome. She is such a sweetheart. She went to Weber State before the mission studying art and she moved around a bit before living in Utah. I'm sending a picture of her. She arrived in December so we are both new sisters. She didn't know any spanish before the mission. So things have changed a bit for me!! But it is a good change I think, we are both going to learn so much and really understand spanish and how things work in the mission so I'm excited!!

 

Also sending some pictures from the activity today. All the sisters in Zona Cañoto and Zona Paraiso went. And the Americanas haha. We played volleyball and the elders played soccer in the parque urbano.

 

If you want to look at a map of Santa Cruz, I am in the south part between the 3rd and 4th Anillos. Barrio Guaracal and La Morita, we share the ward with 2 other sisters, Hna. Harman and Hna. Patzi. Before I was in the east part by the 4th Anillo and av. 3 pasos al frente.

 

Carnaval was soo boring! 3 days in the house without leaving. It was boring but I read a lot of the Bom and we did get some water balloons thrown at us when we were with the other hermanas who live on the second floor, haha, from the kids next door.

 

Since we just got here 2 days ago we don't really know any of the investigators yet, so we've been doing a LOT of tracting. Every day we come home exhausted, but really Hna. Larsen and I have high hopes for this area. We feel good and we really want to do a lot of good. There is one Hermana, Florencia, who is an investigator, she lives with a member and her 2 daughters were baptized a year ago. She wants to get baptized and she has a STRONG testimony the only thing that has to happen is that she has to divorce her 1st husband and get married to the man she is living with. So hopefully we can do that soon. We are also teaching 2 people that live in the relief society president's house. (Her daughter is primary pres too- awesome family!! ) One is a new investigator and the other had a baptismal date but then went out of town. They didn't come to church yesterday but we have high hopes for both of them, they have good questions and really want to learn.

 

Soooo...the mission is hard. But i am happy. It's full of surprises every day. But I have had the lord trust in me a lot and that makes me happy. I have grown in so many ways and I've been blessed with the language and being able to relate to the the people. I can't believe I'm almost at 4 months! Where has the time gone??

 

The weather is still crazy here. Rain, sun, rain, sun, rain, sun.

 

I love you family! Hope you are doing good. 

 

love,

Hermana Tibbitts

Hi everyone,

 

Dear friends, please send me letters by DEAR ELDER. I can't write you by email and there is a possibility I can get in trouble if i have emails in my inbox from people who are not family.

Next week is Carnaval, so I won´t be writing. Saturday afternoon, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, we will be in the house, except to go to church and maybe a few appointments close to our house. We don't want to get soaked with dirty water and paint!

I sent a hand written letter to Tracee- it has the letter i wrote when my companion had dengue. Sending letters is a little hard since the only post office is in El Centro and it´s not possible to go there very often. We are so crazy busy all the time also it's kind of far. But we went last Monday and it was nice. We went to the plaza and the post office and also we ate chicken in a restaurant, yummm. It was fun. I'm trying to send pictures but they´re loading very slowly.

We bought boots in the Feria. There is a fair every Thursday in the street that is close to our house. Tons of people set up tents and sell used clothes. I bought a purse there that had goodwill tags on it a while back. I got big black boots that go up to my knees. I feel like I'm wearing combat boots kind of. But they are fun, Hermana Castro bought them too. It rained like crazy this week, but it's fun to walk through puddles and mud. Very few of the roads we walk on are paved.

Evelin still doesnt want to change. Her biggest obstacle is changing her style of dress. She dresses in short shorts and mini skirts. We are frustrated with her we will probably stop teaching her this week. It's sad but it has to be done. She knows it's true but doesn't want to do anything about it. We also brought a member her same age and she made a comment that made Evelin uncomfortable...sad. She thinks that being a member of the church will change her personality and form of being, but that is totally not true! The gospel only makes you happier.

We are praying super hard to have a baptism in the month of March. We trust the Lord but it has been hard going. All the people we find don't progress. Please pray for us! I know prayer can do anything!!

Changes are soon but Hna. Castro and I will probably be together still since we have less than 1 cambio working together. We don't want to leave yet!!

Haha, so I didn't eat the chicken foot. But I did eat the soup. It was good. everyone here has chickens that they raise for eggs and to eat. Some people have ducks too, and most people have dogs. There are 4 dogs that live in our house: Muñeca, Carito, Cabezon, and I ca't remember the other one's name. They are pests. I don't like dogs. sometimes we see dogs fight in the street.

Love you all. Hasta luego. 

Hna. Tibbitts

Hello!

Thanks for the letters. I love reading them. The ward here is having a campout in a few weeks when there is Carnaval. Carnaval is March 6-8 so that week I don't think I will be able to write. We have to hide out in our houses because the streets are crazy. So just a heads up.

 

Dear elder arrives in 2 weeks. Just FYI. That's a good way to write me!

 

I don't have much time to write. But things are good. Carla's mom forbid her to talk to us anymore. It's sad, but she has to obey her mom. She is going to try to talk her dad into letting  her. Evelin is doing great. She didn't come to church though because she is scared that she won't be able to change. Just little things like having good thoughts and dressing modestly. We are going to buy her a skirt for Sunday because she says she doesn't have anything long, haha. She is great. She wrote us letters telling us this and dedicated us a song and tied it with ribbon and colored it all pretty. pretty funny. she is great we are working with her a lot.

 

What is Bolivia like?well its different. There is so much poverty. Most of the lessons we teach outside sitting in lawn chairs. I feel like I'm camping sometimes, with the clotheslines and such. The grocery store that we go to is pretty normal. like Lulu's but maybe a little better. I can get peanut butter and other American stuff. I haven't looked for poptarts but I don't want them. Usually I eat corn flakes for breakfast with milk and yogurt. Sometimes bread with jelly. Lots of people have stores in front of their houses called ventas. They are closed in so you just tell them what you want and they give it to you and you pay. Yesterday we got soaked in the rain. We had to go home and change and shower...the umbrella didnt do anything. Gotta go! Until next week. 

Love, 

Hermana Tibbitts

Letter #12

Hello, thanks for your letters! They are very detailed but I love reading them. 
The mission is great! I am loving it more and more and getting more comfortable with the language and stuff. We had a training meeting this week with Pres. Calderon and Hna. Calderon and it was great. Mostly what we do are practices. For example we did a practice of how to begin teaching the doctrine of Christ (2 Nephi 31), and using analogies. It was great, the Lord helped me out! We lost all 6 people that we had with baptismal dates, but that´s ok, the lord blessed us with more people. We have Carla, who is 19. We had appointments with her but we called her house and her mom told us she had to go to Cochabamba for an emergency and wouldn't get back until Monday. We called on Sunday after church just in case to see if she was there and her mom lied to us!!! She never went to Cochabamba. She was waiting for us when we had the appointment. Anyways, we are excited to get to teacher her now that we know she is not in Cochabamba. 
 

Also we taught Fabiola this week. She accepted a baptism date but she is nervous because her family is judging her for it. So hopefully she will go through with it.

 

We also have Evelin that we are taching. She is 18. We taught her the restoration in the first lesson and she was smiling so big! She was so excited to hear about it! She was like, yeah, i'm gonnna pray about this for sure! She is really excited about the gospel.

 

We had a couple of cool experiences this week. One was when we were talking to an old man named Wilfredo. He was wanting to Bible bash, we were just like, ok, whatever, but then he mentioned the Book of Mormon. We asked him if he had read it, he said no, then we gave him one and he totally changed! He got really excited. He was flipping through it and looking at it and was like "Wow, i have never held Book of Mormon, I'll read it and get back to you." That was pretty cool.

 

Also we had a cool experience with a man named Julio. He drives a micro all day long so he doesn't have much human interaction or many friends, and he has family problems. He wasn't very attentive in the lesson and we asked him to give the closing prayer and he didn't want to. But we got him to repeat the words that Hna. Castro said, like a little kid, and he cried! It was very special, the spirit was strong. 

 

So things are good!  

 

Love, Hermana Tibbitts

Letter #11

Hello,

Don't have much time to write since I just spent a bunch of time re-establishing my pasword for this and such. But things are good! We basically started over this week with investigators since Hna. Castro's health was only so so. But we have been really blessed! We found the Castro family, Marcelino and Lourdes, and their 3 little sons, they live very humbly. Marcelino has a drinking problem but he knows he needs to stop to keep his family together. Also the other day we found Carla, she is 19 and she committed to baptism for March 5th and we are very hopeful for her progress. She really wants to change her life. Also we were able to talk to our pensionista this week, Hna Julia and Edgar, her husband. They have not been able to be sealed in the temple because they have problems with their records in the church and with the government. It's really sad but common here, so please pray for them because it's been really hard for them. They are such a wonderful family and take good care of us. She cooks really good!

I got a letter from Hna Fernandez today!  (My MTC companion)

Sorry I can't write more. We got lost on the way getting here so we dídn't have much time to beign with. I love you family. Hope everything is good with the house and school and everything. I got to read what you wrote finally (after 3 wks) so I will respond as soon as I can.

Here is the info for the mission:

(country code for Bolivia is 591)

Phone to the office 591-333-7072, fax 591-333-7074

Mision Bolivia Santa Cruz

Calle Savedra esq. Cochabamba

Torres Cainco piso 7 of. 1 y 2

Casilla de correo 2042

Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

P.S. Anyone can email me at this email address (dannielle.tibbitts@myldsmail.net) just please send your physical address so I can write you back!

Longer letter next week! Please pray for me and my investigators and my companion. I love you Mom and Dad and Tracee, Tanner, Wyatt, Boone!

Love,

Hermana Tibbitts