Happy End of April-Beginning of May!!!!!

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
First, thanks so much for the emails Dad and Mom, thanks for always sending one everyweek. I love reading them. I´m glad all is well. Hna Yeates sent me a letter wanting me to say thanks you guys for supporting and helping her and sending her a letter or something. She seemed really appreciative. That´s really nice. I get to see her next week at Hnas Conference and I´m excited. We get to go to the temple (yeah), hopefully that envelope will have come so I have do those names you sent. Oh by the way our pday is next Tuesday not Monday because of the conference. So I´ll email then. Please send Sister Rassmussen my love also. She´s a strong and amazing person. Oh we had zone conference this past week and it was really good. I still don´t understand a lot but the spirit is always strong and I am understanding more and more. It´s exciting. President and Sister Ashby are such good people. They are very motivating and talk about what we really need to hear. Sister Ashby told we need to spring clean because she wants the apts good for the next president and so we ahve been scrubbing all day. It´s pretty exhausting, but our apt is so clean. It´s great. This week has been great we are having 4 baptisms on the 16th of may. And the one is Laura and we´re completing a family they are getting married on the 15th and she´s going to be baptized the 16th it´s so neat. We were witnesses this week to help her set a wedding date, it´s so complicated to get married you need 4 witnesses. Anyways, so that was so exciting. She´s so ready for the gospel and willing to live it and go to church and the great thing is we started teaching her parents yesterday. So we´ll see how that goes. The other 3 are cousins and their mothers are less actives but we´re working with them to come back and they are really reading and keeping commitments and enjoying learning about the gospel. If they come to church they can get baptized. YEAH! It´s been kind of a hard 2 weeks because we have had to drop a lot of people or they dropped us because they weren´t willing to live the commandments and it was so sad and so it was nice to see some of the fruit of our labor. We had stake conference and it was a 6 hour trip two hours there and so forth and anyways, it was good. It is so amazing to see the church is the same as it is in Payson, Utah or anywhere the set up and everything, whatever the language the spirit is the same and church is the same. It is the Church of Jesus Christ. It is true. I love you all very much, thanks for everything. I´ll make that wish list for the package next week thanks. I love Minas, I will sure miss it. I´ve had some great experiences here. But I´ll go where the Lord wants to me to go, with a good (little scared) attitude. Thanks again for the emails, they are like vitamins everyweek. I hope Stefi and Nikki have a great time together in your new apts. and I hope Joseph is tearing it up in baseball. Love you all. Talk to you Tuesday.
con amor, Tiffani

Muchas Gracias for all the Birthday wishes...

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
Thank you much for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, Stefi, Kim, and Uncle Jay. Also, Thank you Kim for the tops I loved them. Thanks for all my birthday presents. Yes, to answer your question Dad, I can get pictures in emails, I got nikki´s shoes and coat (so cute).
Well, this week has been a good week, actually we had some really great news. We talked to the local judge here and we went with the Crums and had this presentation planned but the judge was kind of impatient, but he told us that in the winter time the waiting time to get married is only a month which is fantastic much better than 3 and so we will have a couple weddings in the next 2 months. We told this awesome family Andreis, Laura and their baby Aaron that they only had to wait a month and they should go get a date and they did the next day and they will get married the 15th of May, which is a Friday and so we´re going to see if she can baptized the next day. Because he´s already a member. He´s been wanting to come back. They are amazing, he works grave yard all night sometimes and the past month he´s had to do it twice on saturday and they still come to three hours of church. They are so neat. Anyways, that was exciting. Because if they married and baptized that weekend I will be able to see it because changes are May 20th. I would love so much to see her get baptized she´s so cool.
President Ashby is stressing that each ward has a mission plan and so last night we presented the second draft to the ward council and they were much more excited about it than last time and we´re going to have a missionary activity in a few weeks and the patriarch is going to speak and Hna Crum is going to make donuts and apple cider, because it´s fall here. At this activity we´re going to present the plan and hopefully get them members more excited about missionary work. They seem to have more confidence in us. Which is good.
Well, today I got a sleeping bag because it is so cold at nights. Last night I had 4 layers of clothes. My comp is showing me tricks to layer and stay warm. It´s going to be an interesting winter is all I can say.
Anyways, I had a great birthday. My comp woke up early and made me pancakes, it was fabulous I haven´t had them in 6 months. And then at lunch we had to drop off my comp´s laundry at the Crums and they threw me a suprise lunch. It was so nice. I walked in and Hna Crum made me a cake and they made real hamburgers on the grill and spanish rice and they invited the other elders in Minas to come so we had a party. I was so suprised. It was so nice of them and the food was delicious. It was a good birthday, I feel very old though (you can send me that cane Stefani). haha.
This week we have zone conference so I´ll let you know how that goes next week, but it should be good.
Thanks for everything. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! You´re words are really encouraging and really helpful, I love hearing everything. I´ll be sending another CD shortly so you can have more pictures. I´m glad you got the first. Happy week and I´ll talk to you Monday!
con amor, Tiffani

Feliz Cumpleaños a mi...I am so old! haha.

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
I can´t believe I´m going to be 22, time sure flies. Well, I´m glad you all had a great Easter. I kept trying to tell everyone happy easter, Feliz pascua but I kept saying ¨Feliz basquez, and my comp kept correcting me but by the end of the day I got it. haha. THanks for the emails Mom, Dad, and Kim. Congrats on your sale Dad and I´m glad your health is good and sleeping is good. Also, I´m glad Nikki and Mom are feeling better, strep throat is going around, so I hope I don´t get it. I´ve been really blessed health wise. Thanks for the pics Nikki, I love the coat and shoes. Also, Thanks for the birthday wishes and birthday presents I LOVED the clothes and the food. We have been eating pretty american. haha. Thanks Brother and Sister Cook for the birthday money. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Bell for Birthday card and money. I appreciate so much. Easter was really good. My comp and I celebrated last week because well we thought it was last week and it then we thought it might be our last week together so she gave me a big chocolate cadbury egg and I gave her a bottle of nutella (and you thought I was crazy about nutella and chocolate) she keeps saying she´s on a diet but when that chocolate comes out, it´s hopeless. haha. We had a great present this awesome family came to church they need to get married but they came for all three hours which is amazing and neat. We fasted this week for the judge here so that he will work with us and these people to get married faster because it takes a while, we prepared a presentation and are going to talk to him this week. I´ll let you know how it goes. If he works with us we can have 3 or 4 baptisms this change. Also, we had a nice American pot roast easter meal with the Crums, that was sure nice of them. It was delicious. In two or three weeks we are having an hermanas conference all the hermanas in the mission are going to mission home and part of it we get to go to the temple. So yes please send me that card, that´ll be neat, Great Grandma will have part of her work done in spanish. Also, I made another CD of pics so that will be on its way. I´m so so so excited to talk to you in a month, I don´t know the particulars but I´ll let you know in the coming weeks. Well, we just got a Latin elder from Uruguay as our new district leader so I get to practice more spanish on the phone everynight when we give him our numbers for the day. It´s been interesting. Yes, spanish is still really hard, I just don´t understand very well. But I´ll keep working at it. I think you have been pretty inspired mom and dad about your advice and teaching more because I haven´t done much I need to, but I don´t really know how to teach in english let alone spanish mixed in. But again I´ll keep working at it. Today, me and my comp went shopping for some winter stuff for me. I found some warm boots cheap and a sweater. Next week this store will have sleeping bags so I am going to invest in one. I´ll be using my card the coming weeks as a heads up. Anyways, we live next to a horse track and on Saturday a bunch of people were coming from the campo or the country with horses and in there cowboy clothes they had a huge rodeo this weekend. Horses were everywhere, they rode all over the place. Cowboys are called Gauchos here, and I love seeing them dressed up and thir children. It is so cool to see the culture here. The people are really neat. Well, Thanks so much for everything. I love hearing from you and thanks for the prayers, presents, news, emails, letters, everything. I LOVE YOU. I hope you have a great week. Everyone have a spoonful of nutella on the 17th. haha.
con amor, Tiffani

Happy Easter!

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Happy Easter!!! Thanks for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, Joseph, and Kim!! I love to read them and read them multiple times. Congrats on the homerun Josevaughn! I’m so glad you all enjoyed conference. That’s an awesome trick you played Nikki, way to get the football players. Haha. And congrats on the new job Kim. I am so happy all is well.
Well, so much has happened this past week and half. For starters, I had interviews and it was really good. He talked a lot about change and he said he didn’t know if I was going to stay here in Minas and so I stressed a lot this past week about transfers. I have a lot of respect for President Ashby, he is a good man.
Anyways, we had that concert last Friday and the elders kind of just wanted to have it, so me and my comp and Crums took over to plan it. And so I wrote a script for the concert so it was like a narration and we used that DVD that Dad and Joseph made me and they really liked it. So the program was about the Savior. And my comp translated the script. Hna Crum was the narrator and I did a duet with Hna Wilson. I played “I hope you call me on a mission” on the guitar (I can’t believe I remembered that) and Hna Wilson sang. It was fun. And then she sang some songs and the other elders sang and Edler Crum played the harmonica and President’s Ashby’s daughter sang and he played the piano. And then we watched the DVD and then all our district sang “How Great Thou Art”. It was a neat program. We about 30 people come. But it was good.
Then the next two days were conference and I LOVED THEM. I was really excited we watched it in English in a room in the Church. The talks were so good. Sunday morning was kind of a power house session, I loved the talks by Elder Holland, Elder Uchtdorf, Elder Anderson, and President Monson. WOW. It’s amazing how they all talk me and talk to each person individually. Saturday was excellent also actually all of it but I like Elder Nelson’s talk about prayer and the primary counselor’s talk about respect both were great. I loved the talks about the temple Sunday afternoon, I sure miss the temple. We had a lot of investigators come. It was awesome, and they enjoyed it.
On Monday we received change calls and I’M STAYING for another 6 weeks. It is such a blessing. I am so excited to have more time here. We have some neat investigators that could be baptized this change. And so I was so relieved and happy. YEAH!
Yesterday was a really cool day. My comp and I didn’t plan very well because we thought I would be saying good bye to people. And we had to keep thinking of things to do, but it was one of the most amazing days because I could see Heavenly Father guiding us and being in the right place at the right time. My comp’s bike broke she has a lot bad luck with bikes and so we had to take it back to the church and walk. And because we walked we found people and we’re in the right place to help this woman traveling back from work and we had some neat lessons because we found these families and this one family we were teaching asked “I want to learn more how I can get into the celestial kingdom” we were so excited. Anyways, I just looked back on the day and I could see Heavenly Father’s hand in it every hour. It was amazing. I’m excited for this change and hope we’ll see lots of miracles.
I love you all. I received 3 packages and they were amazing. Clothes, food, candy, THANKS SO MUCH!!!! I loved it. THANK YOU THANK YOU. I hope you all have a great week. Talk to you Monday!
Con amor, Tiffani