Hola mi familia,
¿Como estan? Well, I can´t believe it, my baby brother is growing up 18. CONGRATS and Happy Birthday Jose Vaughn! Muchas gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki (puh-lease) haha, and Kim. This past week has been a little long, but thank you to my comp today was like christmas for me. She has medicine in her packages and since we didn´t have zone conference she called last week and said she needed them, so they delivered her packages and mine too. I was sooooo excited. I got 3 packages and an envelope. I was so chocolate deprived. THANK YOU. Thanks also, for the other amazing american food, cds, tights, and verb book. (wasn´t that yours mom?) BUT THANK YOU!!! The swiss chocolate didn´t make but the good old american chocolate did. phew...haha. THANK YOU THANK YOU AND THANK YOU!!! It will defintely comfort us in these difficult weeks of not many investigadors and lessons. I think I am suppose to be learning something in this very slow time. I may not be helping a lot of people, but I am sure learning a ton. And I´m grateful for my comp. Yesterday was a very long day and super hot, (Uruguay has the craziest weather) and so at the end we had an hour left and we were doing contacts and we went and talked to these elderly people outside with their handicapped daughter and they were just the nicest people in the world. They are very evanglist, but they were talking with us and saying god bless you for what your doing and so I asked we could sing them a song and they were excited and pulled out chairs for us and then we just started visiting. We talked about God and how it´s sad that so many people don´t believe in him and how he´s always there for us. And then they told us there life stories which were really neat and how they found each other and God and how now their mission in life is to take care of their angel daughter who is 44 now and handicapped and can´t take care of herself. It was so great, (and they gave us orange soda...haha.) And we sang to them and gave them a brochure and it was just a blessing because it´s been a long week and we have been getting a lot of doors slammed. And they were just nice and they asked us about our missions and how what a great sacrifice and great blessing to serve Heavenly Father and gave us some advice for life. It reminded me a sunday night visit with the Cooks. I just was grateful. I don´t know if we´ll be able to teach them, but if they don´t get baptized here, it will be in the next life for sure. This week we have interviews with the president because the last week Elder Bowen is coming to give a conference, so that will be exciting. Yesterday, the president asked us to write in our president´s letter our feelings of Joseph Smith, and I was thinking that I have walked and visited practically all the places he was, New York, Kirtland, Nauvoo, etc. And I have grown up in Utah and have seen so many neat things. But right now in this far away land Uruguay, my appreciation, love, and testimony of him have grown so much more. It´s the same with Jesus Christ, I´ve walked where he walked, but doing the things and serving as these have done I feel so much more gratitude and love. And my testimony is growing every day. It´s really amazing. I am giving the President and his wife two pictures of the sacred grove with the leaves on the back. (If you have more, I will always accept them.) But the gospel is such a blessing, and as hard as my mission is and how much I miss ya´ll, I wouldn´t trade it. Thanks for everything. I love you all MUCHO!!! Have a happy week. Tomorrow is 11 months, nuts huh?
con amor, Tiffani
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Happy School starting!!! (hahaha)
Hola mi familia y amigos,
¿Como estan? I am glad all well with you Dad, Mom, and Nikki and I hope everything is well with you others. Mucahs gracias for the emails Dad, Mom, and Nicks. That is so neat you got to see the temple dedication. I love the temple dedications and the spirit that is there. At least when I get back I can go and do a session there and in Draper. I think I´ll go to all the temples in utah. I sure miss them. So this week, has been pretty normal. We didn´t have any investigadors in the church but our converts are there and so that is good. We´ve found a really great girl her name is Maria Jose (kind of strange name but common here) she´s our age and we had two charlas with her so hopefully we´ll keep her progressing. She´s really nice and really willing to read and learn. So that´s great. Yep it´s still a little slow with investigadors, but like I said before it´s really awesome that our recent converts are going strong, Camila, Grasiela, and two other recent converts are doing awesome Facundo and Myriam. I love teaching and helping them learn more. The family Vidarte had a break down with us, they miss Hna Vera sooo much and they said it´s going to be the same when I leave and that no other missionary will be the same, and they are so upset. It was so hard. Hna Yeates and I explained that we can live together again if they remain faithful and that it´s not the missionaries who can save them it´s the Savior and that we have to follow the Savior no matter what. She came up with a really good idea that for all the charlas that we have with them from now on we should just focus on the Savior and make him central. It´s a great idea and so I hope it helps. They are such a great family, It´s not me that can save them it´s the Savior. I´ve started really enjoying companion ship study. At the beginning Hna Yeates would ask what did you learn and I would kind of roll my eyes inside (because I´ve had this experience before and it wasn´t that great) and just say what I´ve been reading. But I started warming up, we started really talking and applying things we learned and it´s amazing. I found that talking about it and explaining the things I learn I´m remembering better. Which is a huge blessing, because I have the memory of an elephant. I just love the scriptures though. I can´t believe how they talk to me and how every chapter just applies to me in some way. I can´t believe I went so long not liking to read the scriptures, before my mission. They are just letters from Heavenly Father to me and it´s amazing. I learn new things every day. I´m reading Jesus the Christ right now and my testimony of the Savior has grown so much because this book just explains things really well and I really love it. I found out a few days ago that we´re not having zone conference this change and so I won´t get my packages for a couple weeks (kind of a bummer) but I still have a few remnants left from the others. Hna Yeates was having chocolate withdrawls so I gave her a bottle of nutella. Haha. Oh also, there is a new music rule because last change hna yeates and hna orme asked if they could listen to other music and he said whatever brings the spirit you can listen to. I was soooo excited. I am not listening to Motab again. There is also this new thing in the mission where anyone can send emails to the mission office and the mission office will print them and send them to us kind of like Dear Elder. So anyone can email now, the address is urumontemission@gmail.com. So those who don´t have time to write and send a letter can just email. Well, the great news is it is warming up. FINALLY. Grandma sent me the weather report a few times during winter for Florida, I was like thanks for rubbing it in. Haha. But, thanks again for everything. I sure love you all mucho. Have a great week. Oh how was softball this last week?
Con amor, Tiffani
¿Como estan? I am glad all well with you Dad, Mom, and Nikki and I hope everything is well with you others. Mucahs gracias for the emails Dad, Mom, and Nicks. That is so neat you got to see the temple dedication. I love the temple dedications and the spirit that is there. At least when I get back I can go and do a session there and in Draper. I think I´ll go to all the temples in utah. I sure miss them. So this week, has been pretty normal. We didn´t have any investigadors in the church but our converts are there and so that is good. We´ve found a really great girl her name is Maria Jose (kind of strange name but common here) she´s our age and we had two charlas with her so hopefully we´ll keep her progressing. She´s really nice and really willing to read and learn. So that´s great. Yep it´s still a little slow with investigadors, but like I said before it´s really awesome that our recent converts are going strong, Camila, Grasiela, and two other recent converts are doing awesome Facundo and Myriam. I love teaching and helping them learn more. The family Vidarte had a break down with us, they miss Hna Vera sooo much and they said it´s going to be the same when I leave and that no other missionary will be the same, and they are so upset. It was so hard. Hna Yeates and I explained that we can live together again if they remain faithful and that it´s not the missionaries who can save them it´s the Savior and that we have to follow the Savior no matter what. She came up with a really good idea that for all the charlas that we have with them from now on we should just focus on the Savior and make him central. It´s a great idea and so I hope it helps. They are such a great family, It´s not me that can save them it´s the Savior. I´ve started really enjoying companion ship study. At the beginning Hna Yeates would ask what did you learn and I would kind of roll my eyes inside (because I´ve had this experience before and it wasn´t that great) and just say what I´ve been reading. But I started warming up, we started really talking and applying things we learned and it´s amazing. I found that talking about it and explaining the things I learn I´m remembering better. Which is a huge blessing, because I have the memory of an elephant. I just love the scriptures though. I can´t believe how they talk to me and how every chapter just applies to me in some way. I can´t believe I went so long not liking to read the scriptures, before my mission. They are just letters from Heavenly Father to me and it´s amazing. I learn new things every day. I´m reading Jesus the Christ right now and my testimony of the Savior has grown so much because this book just explains things really well and I really love it. I found out a few days ago that we´re not having zone conference this change and so I won´t get my packages for a couple weeks (kind of a bummer) but I still have a few remnants left from the others. Hna Yeates was having chocolate withdrawls so I gave her a bottle of nutella. Haha. Oh also, there is a new music rule because last change hna yeates and hna orme asked if they could listen to other music and he said whatever brings the spirit you can listen to. I was soooo excited. I am not listening to Motab again. There is also this new thing in the mission where anyone can send emails to the mission office and the mission office will print them and send them to us kind of like Dear Elder. So anyone can email now, the address is urumontemission@gmail.com. So those who don´t have time to write and send a letter can just email. Well, the great news is it is warming up. FINALLY. Grandma sent me the weather report a few times during winter for Florida, I was like thanks for rubbing it in. Haha. But, thanks again for everything. I sure love you all mucho. Have a great week. Oh how was softball this last week?
Con amor, Tiffani
Monday, August 17, 2009
Hola
Hola mi familia,
¿Como estan? I am glad you all are doing well. Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Kim. I am glad you guys won one of the games, I am still waiting for my jersey...haha. Well, the past few days have been good, a little stressful, but good. Hermana Vera had an incredible memory and so I just kind of followed her around La Paz, but now it´s my turn and we´ve only gotten lost a few times. haha. I am so glad Hna Yeates is my comp. I guess the biggest thing we´ve done is on friday we recieved a text to come to house of one of the members so we had time and she said she wanted to feed us french toast and maple syrup but all the days on the calendar are full so she wanted to feed us dinner, well turns out that our lunch was canceled that day and so we ate with them. It was fantastic, I think I´ll call it american toast. Anyways, she served a mission in california and she is teaching her husband english and they read the scriptures in english together and so they asked us if we would teach in english. So we´re like...okay and then we taught the plan of salvation in english. It was soooo wierd and soooo hard. I couldn´t believe it. I kept plugging in spanish words and hna yeates was struggling to. It was a good experience. We haven´t taught in english since the mtc and we did it together. Two weeks ago in english class, they asked me to say a prayer in english, it was the hardest thing ever. I ended up ending the prayer in spanish. I could not talk. I think it will be really funny when I get home, if I am already struggling to teach and pray and english. They want to us to practice on them more so we might do it once a week or once every couple of weeks. She loves american food, so I´m going to give her some ranch packets. There are actually a lot of people that know about it here and so I gave some ranch packets before to a family that lived in utah for little bit. They´re funny they´re like what are we going to do when you go. On friday and saturday the weather was amazing it was just like spring or summer, it was perfect I didn´t need a coat, scarf, gloves, sweater, etc. I just wore a short sleave shirt. And then on Sunday it dumped, and I mean dumped on us rain. We had 30 people in church, so it was a lot of fun walking all day in the rain. I really don´t like the rain. But today it is warm again. Every year in the end of winter they have a little summer for like a week or two weeks and it´s just like summer and then it will be cold again, so it´s great. I am sure grateful I only have one winter here. On monday we found a really great girl, Allison who is really mature for her age,she is 12, has a hard life, and so we went back on friday and then again on Sunday and she is so awesome, she´s like drinking it all up. And she prayed for the first time out loud yesterday and it was such a simple pretty prayer. I´m really excited to be teaching her. Well, thanks for the emails again and everything. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all mucho.
con amor, Tiffani
¿Como estan? I am glad you all are doing well. Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Kim. I am glad you guys won one of the games, I am still waiting for my jersey...haha. Well, the past few days have been good, a little stressful, but good. Hermana Vera had an incredible memory and so I just kind of followed her around La Paz, but now it´s my turn and we´ve only gotten lost a few times. haha. I am so glad Hna Yeates is my comp. I guess the biggest thing we´ve done is on friday we recieved a text to come to house of one of the members so we had time and she said she wanted to feed us french toast and maple syrup but all the days on the calendar are full so she wanted to feed us dinner, well turns out that our lunch was canceled that day and so we ate with them. It was fantastic, I think I´ll call it american toast. Anyways, she served a mission in california and she is teaching her husband english and they read the scriptures in english together and so they asked us if we would teach in english. So we´re like...okay and then we taught the plan of salvation in english. It was soooo wierd and soooo hard. I couldn´t believe it. I kept plugging in spanish words and hna yeates was struggling to. It was a good experience. We haven´t taught in english since the mtc and we did it together. Two weeks ago in english class, they asked me to say a prayer in english, it was the hardest thing ever. I ended up ending the prayer in spanish. I could not talk. I think it will be really funny when I get home, if I am already struggling to teach and pray and english. They want to us to practice on them more so we might do it once a week or once every couple of weeks. She loves american food, so I´m going to give her some ranch packets. There are actually a lot of people that know about it here and so I gave some ranch packets before to a family that lived in utah for little bit. They´re funny they´re like what are we going to do when you go. On friday and saturday the weather was amazing it was just like spring or summer, it was perfect I didn´t need a coat, scarf, gloves, sweater, etc. I just wore a short sleave shirt. And then on Sunday it dumped, and I mean dumped on us rain. We had 30 people in church, so it was a lot of fun walking all day in the rain. I really don´t like the rain. But today it is warm again. Every year in the end of winter they have a little summer for like a week or two weeks and it´s just like summer and then it will be cold again, so it´s great. I am sure grateful I only have one winter here. On monday we found a really great girl, Allison who is really mature for her age,she is 12, has a hard life, and so we went back on friday and then again on Sunday and she is so awesome, she´s like drinking it all up. And she prayed for the first time out loud yesterday and it was such a simple pretty prayer. I´m really excited to be teaching her. Well, thanks for the emails again and everything. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all mucho.
con amor, Tiffani
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
I am staying in La Paz...and my companion is...HNA YEATES!!!!!! :) :) :)
Hola mi familia,
¿Como estan? Muchisimo Gracias for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Joseph! I am glad things are going well. I am sorry about the softball game last week, I know you all will do well tomorrow. GOOD LUCK!! So yeah, my comp is going to be Hermana Yeates!!! She is so great! I am so excited and really nervous, we are co companions and the streets are crazy, it is a good thing I have a map. But it will be an adventure. I am really going to miss Hna Vera. She is such an amazing friend. Her name is Daniela Vera and she likes nutella and peanut butter and chocolate, yep I converted her too. haha. She will appreciate that. All the people loved her so much, so I am a little nervous. So her release date is in between November and December changes and so she wanted to go home the early change, so she called the president and he said there have been a lot of problems with Elders and Hermanas going home the change early and so he talked to the area presidency and they have a new rule that all missionaries will stay till their later date. So my release date is April 21st. I am not trunky, I am just letting you all know. But it is finally getting warmer, yeah! It is still really cold but not as frigid. This past week and half has been really good. Our work has finally starting to pay off again, we found 9 new investigadors, 2 families. We are so excited. Prayer and patience and work are the keys. The woman that talked to the bishop last week to start changing, came to church this last week, she was so scared but she came to sacrament and her daughter and friend and they want to get baptized, they have to keep coming to church but it is really neat. We had our last family home evening together with the Vidartes. When Hna Vera said goodbye to the famila vidarte they were so sad, and then when they found out that I was not going to stay for my whole mission in La Paz, the dad got so mad and said we are going to fix that, and after we explained a little bit that these were calls from the Lord he went to his room and started crying. It was soo soo difficult. But for now...we have more time. Anyways, thanks for everything. I love you all so much. I really love this gospel and how our family can be together forever, so many families do not have that. I am grateful that I can share this blessing with all the people here. You guys and your prayers, letters, support, and love, really keep me going. It is amazing how much you appreciate something after you do not have it or are not around it for a long time. I love you all much. Have a happy few days, and talk to you monday.
con amor, Tiffani
¿Como estan? Muchisimo Gracias for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Joseph! I am glad things are going well. I am sorry about the softball game last week, I know you all will do well tomorrow. GOOD LUCK!! So yeah, my comp is going to be Hermana Yeates!!! She is so great! I am so excited and really nervous, we are co companions and the streets are crazy, it is a good thing I have a map. But it will be an adventure. I am really going to miss Hna Vera. She is such an amazing friend. Her name is Daniela Vera and she likes nutella and peanut butter and chocolate, yep I converted her too. haha. She will appreciate that. All the people loved her so much, so I am a little nervous. So her release date is in between November and December changes and so she wanted to go home the early change, so she called the president and he said there have been a lot of problems with Elders and Hermanas going home the change early and so he talked to the area presidency and they have a new rule that all missionaries will stay till their later date. So my release date is April 21st. I am not trunky, I am just letting you all know. But it is finally getting warmer, yeah! It is still really cold but not as frigid. This past week and half has been really good. Our work has finally starting to pay off again, we found 9 new investigadors, 2 families. We are so excited. Prayer and patience and work are the keys. The woman that talked to the bishop last week to start changing, came to church this last week, she was so scared but she came to sacrament and her daughter and friend and they want to get baptized, they have to keep coming to church but it is really neat. We had our last family home evening together with the Vidartes. When Hna Vera said goodbye to the famila vidarte they were so sad, and then when they found out that I was not going to stay for my whole mission in La Paz, the dad got so mad and said we are going to fix that, and after we explained a little bit that these were calls from the Lord he went to his room and started crying. It was soo soo difficult. But for now...we have more time. Anyways, thanks for everything. I love you all so much. I really love this gospel and how our family can be together forever, so many families do not have that. I am grateful that I can share this blessing with all the people here. You guys and your prayers, letters, support, and love, really keep me going. It is amazing how much you appreciate something after you do not have it or are not around it for a long time. I love you all much. Have a happy few days, and talk to you monday.
con amor, Tiffani
Monday, August 3, 2009
Happy August!
hola mi familia,
Muchas gracias for the letters Dad, Mom, and Nikki. I am glad things are going really well. I received a envelope with my medicine and pictures of Jesus Christ and ranch and m&ms. MUCHAS GRACIAS!! I loved it as usual. Oh, I bought a cd player last week it´s a little one and they said if I buy a cord and it will work in the USA, but I think I will try and sell it or something. My comp was pretty excited too. She listens to english cds to help her as she excersises. haha. Oh, she wanted me to ask you all if you could send her a baby book of mormon in english like you sent me because her folks don´t really send her packages. She really thought it was cool. Thanks. Oh our next pday is wednesday and it is changes so I might get a new companion, I probably will because I have been with her for 3 months. She is sooo great, I am going to miss her a lot. I am excited she´s going to study in the states so I can see her again. We made tacos a couple days ago that was kind of funny because I had a little bit of mild sauce you sent me and so we used that but it needed more tomato so she told me use ketchup, I know wierd. It was kind of different but I haven´t had tacos in a while so it was good. I put ranch and she used ketchup as salsa. haha. (Maybe you could stick a few taco seasoning envelopes once in a while...please...haha). We also had interviews this week it was really late notice we thought it was this week but on Thursday night they called and said tomorrow the President and his wife and the assistants are coming to your apt to inspect and have interviews. We were kind of nervous and we had to clean all the next morning. It was a good interview. President DaSilva is a really nice man and his wife is so sweet. He picked up on that my concern is spanish because the interivew was all in spanish, with him translating some. And he read me 1 Cor. 13:1 saying what you all have been telling me the spirit will speak through me and that love and charity is more important than spanish. It was really good. He then talked to my companion mostly about me, I felt bad because it was her interview and I don´t like being the concern. He asked her what she thinks will help me the most and she said to have someone who is at my level or less of spanish because she´s my crutch. I was like, "oh, no." Oh he also told me to thank you all for your support and sacrifice and that he´s really grateful to be able to watch over me and the other missioaires for this time.
Also, this week a lot of new members went to the temple including the flia vidarte. They loved it and thought it was sooo beautiful. I was so excited for them and they bought us a picture of the buenos aires temple. It was really nice. We also have been teaching a less active named Silvia and her non member daughter Evelyn and she has made progress and went the christmas activity but she wouldn´t go to church and so she finally told us why she hasn´t been coming to church she was baptized unworthily and she knew living with a man while she was married with another man is bad but she lied and she was baptized and then one year later, there was a teenager pregnant and how the ward was like talking about it and how bad it was she stopped going to church because she felt guilty. And so she hasn´t been back since. She was crying a lot. And so we told her she needed to talk to the bishop and we set up a appt. for her and she came and talked to him and he´s going to help her and she is planning to get married. So that´s great and then her and her daughter can support each other and come to church. I was really glad we could help her. Also, another update, this week we were walking with brother vidarte and we saw the crazy man but he didn´t do anything because we were with him and brother vidarte knew him, a few nights later he walked us home and then he was walking home and saw him and talked to him and told him he´s a member of the church and that what he is doing it really bad and ugly and if he doesn´t leave us alone we´ll go to the police. The guy mumbled something "no no" and then walked away really fast. It´s amazing because Brother Vidarte is the only man here that would have the courage to confront him and stick up for us. It was amazing. I am sure grateful for that family. I know I always talk about them...Anyways, I love you all soo soo much, thanks for everything and the encouragement and advice, love, letters, prayer, etc. THANKS. Have a great week and half!!!
con amor, Tiffani
Muchas gracias for the letters Dad, Mom, and Nikki. I am glad things are going really well. I received a envelope with my medicine and pictures of Jesus Christ and ranch and m&ms. MUCHAS GRACIAS!! I loved it as usual. Oh, I bought a cd player last week it´s a little one and they said if I buy a cord and it will work in the USA, but I think I will try and sell it or something. My comp was pretty excited too. She listens to english cds to help her as she excersises. haha. Oh, she wanted me to ask you all if you could send her a baby book of mormon in english like you sent me because her folks don´t really send her packages. She really thought it was cool. Thanks. Oh our next pday is wednesday and it is changes so I might get a new companion, I probably will because I have been with her for 3 months. She is sooo great, I am going to miss her a lot. I am excited she´s going to study in the states so I can see her again. We made tacos a couple days ago that was kind of funny because I had a little bit of mild sauce you sent me and so we used that but it needed more tomato so she told me use ketchup, I know wierd. It was kind of different but I haven´t had tacos in a while so it was good. I put ranch and she used ketchup as salsa. haha. (Maybe you could stick a few taco seasoning envelopes once in a while...please...haha). We also had interviews this week it was really late notice we thought it was this week but on Thursday night they called and said tomorrow the President and his wife and the assistants are coming to your apt to inspect and have interviews. We were kind of nervous and we had to clean all the next morning. It was a good interview. President DaSilva is a really nice man and his wife is so sweet. He picked up on that my concern is spanish because the interivew was all in spanish, with him translating some. And he read me 1 Cor. 13:1 saying what you all have been telling me the spirit will speak through me and that love and charity is more important than spanish. It was really good. He then talked to my companion mostly about me, I felt bad because it was her interview and I don´t like being the concern. He asked her what she thinks will help me the most and she said to have someone who is at my level or less of spanish because she´s my crutch. I was like, "oh, no." Oh he also told me to thank you all for your support and sacrifice and that he´s really grateful to be able to watch over me and the other missioaires for this time.
Also, this week a lot of new members went to the temple including the flia vidarte. They loved it and thought it was sooo beautiful. I was so excited for them and they bought us a picture of the buenos aires temple. It was really nice. We also have been teaching a less active named Silvia and her non member daughter Evelyn and she has made progress and went the christmas activity but she wouldn´t go to church and so she finally told us why she hasn´t been coming to church she was baptized unworthily and she knew living with a man while she was married with another man is bad but she lied and she was baptized and then one year later, there was a teenager pregnant and how the ward was like talking about it and how bad it was she stopped going to church because she felt guilty. And so she hasn´t been back since. She was crying a lot. And so we told her she needed to talk to the bishop and we set up a appt. for her and she came and talked to him and he´s going to help her and she is planning to get married. So that´s great and then her and her daughter can support each other and come to church. I was really glad we could help her. Also, another update, this week we were walking with brother vidarte and we saw the crazy man but he didn´t do anything because we were with him and brother vidarte knew him, a few nights later he walked us home and then he was walking home and saw him and talked to him and told him he´s a member of the church and that what he is doing it really bad and ugly and if he doesn´t leave us alone we´ll go to the police. The guy mumbled something "no no" and then walked away really fast. It´s amazing because Brother Vidarte is the only man here that would have the courage to confront him and stick up for us. It was amazing. I am sure grateful for that family. I know I always talk about them...Anyways, I love you all soo soo much, thanks for everything and the encouragement and advice, love, letters, prayer, etc. THANKS. Have a great week and half!!!
con amor, Tiffani
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