Monday, April 5, 2010

Happy Easter!!! (a little late I know)










Hola mi familia y amigos,
¿Como andan? Muchas gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Joseph. I´m glad all is well. Dad, I´ll keep you in my prayers. I hope you feel better. I´m glad you all enjoyed conference. It was fantastic. My conference experience was the best I´ve ever had. I went in with a question for help and guide for my life after the mission and every talk gave me like one piece of advice that I should remember when I get back. I´ve never had a conference talk to me like that before. It was great and I watched in English. And then to feel like it event talked to me more, President Monson closed with my absolute favorite scripture proverbs 3:5-6, that´s on my plack. And it´s basically, what you all tell me all the time, everything all works out. But it was very comforting and very amazing. Also, this past week we prepared Pamela to be baptized and she was baptized friday. A lot of poeple didn´t come because it was a holiday week, so I gave the talk and played the piano. And my comp did the musical number, but it was so great in the end. She even teared up. Which is interesting because she´s so heavily on depression pills that she can´t show emotion, but she did and she was so happy. And then she came to every single session of conference which is a lot better the most of the members. I was so happy for her. She has a lot faith. It was an interesting experience this week, because in the baptism interview preparation we had with her she confessed something and we had to call president but he cleared it up and all was well. Phew... Then on thursday which was April fool´s day, I had my best april fool´s day ever!!! In morning we decided to play a joke on the elders who live 2 blocks away. So my comp called in a panick voice and said that I fell down the stairs and wasn´t moving, and then we put a sign on the door saying april fool´s day and ran across the street to watch. Well, if it was real, I think I would have died they took so long. But they finally came kind of half dressed. And then they knock on the door and find the sign, it was so funny. They rolled their eyes at us, but we laughed about it all day. And then to top it off. They tell us that Pamela is at the church waiting for her interview, and we´re like you all are liars. But it turns out she was at the church waiting for the interview, and misunderstood 8 in the night for 8 in the morning. But fortunately the elder told us he´d do the interview and all went well. It was a blessing we found her because she doesn´t have a phone, and the guy to pick her up at night bailed that night, so it was a blessing in disguise. I think Heavenly Father has a sense of humor also. :) It was a funny experience. Well, that´s about what happened this past week. It was a great week. I have a great comp. I hope you all have a great week as well. I love you all. I´ve attached pictures of the bull here and of us and the baptism. Fun stuff.
con amor, Tiffani

Happy 18 months in the mission April 1st!!!!!! CRAZY!! (from March 29)

Hola mi querida familia y amigos,
Como andan? Muchas gracias for your emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Kim!! And a thank you to Hna Vera!!! I´m really glad all is well!! I´m super excited for conference and it´ll be fun that we´ll watch it at the exact same time!!! Have fun at priesthood Dad and Joseph. This week has been good. I have a great companion and we´re very united and so we share everything and so it was her turn to be sick this week. She was sick for 4 days and so we were in the house that time. I was bored out of my mind, but I have a good comp and she´s fun to be with even sick. I really know my apartment here in Paso a lot. It´s really good that I´m staying an extra three weeks just to make up for the week of my toe, the week of the flu and the flu of my comp.
But she´s better now and so we can work. We had a miracle these past 2 weeks this really great investigador we have Pamela, she´s 27. she´s came to church and we´re having a baptism for her friday the day before the conference. She´s really excited. And so are we. She´s really medicated on depression pills and so she has a glazed look on her face all the time, but she understands everything and is reading book of mormon and loving the church. And I´ve seen more emotion on her face now that she´s participating in the church. It´s amazing her family is against this but she´s set on
going and the ward the sisters are really befriending her. I´m so excited for her. So please pray for her. I also this week had zone conference well a tri zone conference. My very last zone conference ever. It was really a wierd feeling. All the missionaries that go home give there testimonies in front of everyone. I only cried a little bit. :) But I received great news, the family gonzalez that we taught in progresso is progressing well and they are getting baptized in May. I´m so stoked. This last conference was really good. The president talked a lot about the book of mormon and the power in this book and he gave us all a new copy of the book of mormon in spanish and told us to read it before the next conference. And do what we ask investigadors to do and pray to know the truth of the book. And mark all the
parts that mention the savior and the words he says. So I decided because I only have to month left to finish it in a month. That´s 23 pages a day, in spanish and it´s pretty intense. But I´ve been doing it and it´s amazing EVERY page mentions the Savior or God, every page. It´s so neat, I can´t get a ton out of it because I´m a lot slower reader in spanish but I´m learning and my testimony is growing. And I´m excited to read the book of mormon my last month of the mission. It´s like a cherry on top of the mission. We also this week, went to my first quince party. This recent convert had her 15th birthday party and it´s huge the number 15 so we went and watched and ate.
It was really fun. I love this family, Flia Ferdandez and am excited for you to meet them. They treat us so well and they would do anything for the church for the Savior. But this is what happened this week. I´m excited to work this week. We´re healthy now and we´ll be careful. :) I hope you all have a great week!!! Enjoy conference!!! I love you all MUCHO!!
con amor, Tiffani

100 Countacts (from March 22)

Hola mi famlia y mi amigos,
Como andan? Muchas Gracias for the emails, Mom, Dad, Nikki, Joseph, and Kim. I´m glad things are going well. I´m glad you had a great trip to Alaska dad and a great trip phoenix all of you. Mom, tell that crazy stalker dude that if he doesn´t stop he´s going to have a angry returned missionary come and give him a piece of my mind and a lesson on the eternal families. Say hi to grandma for me dad, and tell her I love her. Well, this past week has been quite interesting. I got really sick this past week. Go figure...my body is almost done... It´s like that scripture the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Yeah, my flesh is dying. haha. I got the flu, stomach flu, and fever and we were out from work for 4 days. It was super boring as always, but I have a good comp and she did a great job at entertaining. We had fun,
even though I felt awful. But we have such a good ward and this elderly couple that´s like our grandparents called and visited us everyday to make sure we had everything. And then they did our laundry. SOO kind. I told them I would visit there daughter when I get back she lives in ogden and she´s a less active returned missionary. So they are excited about that. And it will be fun to see connections when I get back. But now I´m better and working.
The subject is "100 contacts" because during this illness of mine, my doofy zone leader was telling my district leader to excite us to work and to push and I´m like, you are such a dork, I have a fever and my body hurts so bad.
This past week the president really wanted the whole mission to do there 140 contacts for the week. And it´s saturday and we´re like well that´s to bad we have 13. But we just kind of thought that we could try. So on saturday we did 100 contacts. It was NUTS!! I was so exhausted and sore after. But by sunday we did 140. And they were real contacts not just throwing brochures at people, but we really talked to 100 people or groups of people. CRAZY! We celebrated with pizza and ice cream. It was well deserved. But also, this week we have a baptismal date with a great investigador, Pamela. She´s a great person. She´s like 27 and she´s heavily medicated on depression pills.
It´s really sad. But she understands the church and the things we´re teaching and she loves it. We went to go get her Sunday and she already left for the church because we were a little late. And it was rainy. We were excited. She´s scheduled to be baptized the day before general conference.
So if you´d like, you can all pray for her, her family is really against it. I really am enjoying my personal study and more my companion study now that I have a new comp. But I just love how much I´m learning and how much the scriptures talk to me. It´s so interesting. I was reading in the book of omni and jarom and I was like what is the point of this book, it´s like 5 authors and they write like a verse each. But then I thought that´s kind of sad actually, most people don`t say how much they love the book of omni or how it´s been a answer to their questions. But when reading the authors are like well I´m doing this because it´s a commandment and here´s my part. But I was like there calling was to write in the book of mormon a record that would be read for ever and they just half heartily did there callings, and there writings are a testimony of that. I was like how important to always
magnify our callings, who knows what things they could have written to help us now or there children. And I´ve seen that here, how important it is to do our callings and the magnfiy them so we can help others. So that´s what I learned the past couple of days. I´m going to miss miss miss this fixed personal study every day. And I know I have to fight with a lot of other thigns to keep my personal study after the mission. But I plan to. Thanks so much for everything. I love you all much!!!
con amor, Tiffani