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

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

Hello Everyone!
Missionary work is so funny sometimes. Victor is progressing but slowly. He doesn't have much time for visits and now Sulema is living in La paz for the time being. So he is there with the 2 girls being mom and dad. He did make it to sacrament meeting finally! In the last 10 minutes (investigators have to come to sacrament 3 times to be baptized). He had come to church 2 other times but not to sacrament. He likes what he is reading though and wants to learn more.


We didn't get to visit Romina and Mario again, and they didn'tcome to church :(

We had a movie night to bring in references. It was almost a disaster. We almost didn't have popcorn because the stove didn't work in the church, and then the projector didn't have speakers. But we figured everything out although we started the movie 45 minutes late. We watched the testaments. Not a lot of people came :( But we did get ONE reference. And he came to church the next day. So we are happy about that. His name is Jorge and he is 13. He has friends in the church so he has been coming to some activities. Going to visit him tomorrow.

Hna. Larsen and I made a lot of progress this week and were able to discuss why we aren't having as much success as we want, and already it is working!! We have changed some things to be better comapanions and to be more bold and more powerful and feel the spìrit more in our lessons. We have 3 people with baptism dates now for the 14 of May. Marta, Jacqueline, and Carlos. Jacqueline and Carlos are way special, she is a single mom and Carlos is her son who is 11 but turning 12 the 5 of May, and he really wants a cake, but his mom doesn't know if she will have the money. Having a cake for my birthday is something I always took for granted! How lucky we are to have a cake every year no? Hna. Larsen and I are going to do something for him. They are super excited and hopefully the will keep their commitments so they can be baptized! They live very humbly, Jacqueline washes clothes and sells refresco (juice, etc) in the streets to earn her living.

Oh, we also had the weirdest experience. We were running late to the movie night, with the popcorn in bags (ended up making it at the pensionista's), and this tall blonde lady comes up to us and asks us if we know German... we said no... it was a German lady! Young, super tall and super skinny. But she asked us who we were and we asked about her too, turns out she is not only a german in Santa Cruz but a Jehovah's Witness!! Baaah! Super funny. She invited us to some event in her church and we invited her to the church too, haha, super weird, and we were talking English the whole time, super weird to do a contact in English, I was translating my words Spanish to English haha!

Cambios are this week! But I think Hna. Larsen and I will stay together.So not really worried about it.


I love you all!! I love hearing from you!! Have a great week. Send pictures with a letter please!! Love, Hermana Tibitts

Hello!! Thank you for your wonderful letters. Did you already get the one i wrote you then? that´s great! it didn´t take too long after all. I just got a letter from Kristen that was sent in february. So I would say to use the POUCH if you are going to send hand written stuff. the PO Box that is in SLC. plus it´s less postage too!


The bananas are different than the ones that you eat raw, they have a differnet taste, she just cuts the ends off and puts them in the oven til the skin turns black, she says she eats them all the time instead of eating bread, haha, i am so sick of the bananas but they are ok, i wish she would fry them instead, more yummy that way.. but its ok.
the truth is i was addicted to coca cola for a bit because in my last area we had it every day!!! Then i came here and didn´t have it for a while, and got sad! haha
The baptism was great! Of course we had to worry about getting the clothing, priesthood there, keys to the church and the font, filling up the font (it takes 3 hours!!), etc. But it went well!! She is very happy. sending pictures. hna. Larsen and I sang I like to look for rainbows (cuando me bautizo), and it was great! She was confirmed sunday in church and now she wants to go do baptisms in may or june when the ward goes to the temple (date pending).

Friday was one of the best days on the mission so far. We taught really well and found some good people. We are still teaching Victor and Sulema, but Sulema went out of town for a week so none of the m went to chuirch on sunday, even after they said they would. so we are going to work harder with them :) they didn´t come to conference either but they are really interested in that, they are going to look up the talks on the internet! And we gave them a BOM this week so they are going to read it, along with the principles of the gospel book they have.

We had 2 jovenes 18 yrs and 25 yrs Romina and Mario come to church with us, it was so funny, we contacted Romina in teh street, invited her to churhc, she said yeah, she was so excited, she said she would make us breakfast! haha, but it was fast sunday and she woke up like 10 minutes before we left haha, but she came along with her brother! we hadn´t even had the chance to teach them, but they came and they liked it! So that was exciting, hopefully we can help them progress and eventually be baptized. other than that we are searching for more people, and trying to have faith that we will find people to baptize, it´s so easy for me to get discouraged because it seems like i can never do enough, we can never meet our goals, so i am working on that, i know the lord will bless us.

Yes we teach english classes once a week in the evenings. Hna. harman does most of it, members and investigators come, mostly kids, we always teach from the scriptures or stuff like articlesa of faith, primary songs, etc.

gotta go, time is up. love you all! keep being faithful! love, hna. Tibbitts