Hermana Mohrman's Mission to Uruguay Montevideo

My homecoming talk...

2010-05-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to all who have supported and helped me on my mission. It was a incredible experience. I'll be giving my homecoming talk on May 16th in Payson at 1:30pm. The address is 100 South 700 East right across the street from a old old school. All are invited!!! Nos vemos!!!!

LAST EMAIL FROM URUGUAY

2010-05-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hola mi famila y mi amigos,
I decided to write you all one last time. Como andan? I hope all is well. Thanks for the emails Dad (a couple), Nikki, and Kim. Well, last week was really good, so wierd it was my last week as a missionary. But it was good. We found a few new people to help the area keep growing, which is really great. We had some rain storms as well. Always fun we sang and danced in the rain. And we had interviews with President, it was a good interview we did it tuesday so I had a week left exactly and he said remember the Savior how he endured to the end and then said it was finished on the cross. It was a really good analogy. So I tried to do that. Then on saturday we celebrated my birthday with pizza from Hna Thompson and she post stick noted our whole apartment in the night with good things about me. It was really nice. And a great confidence booster. We had stake conference on sunday and it was really nice, our mission president spoke and then a counselor in the temple presidency about the temple. I really want to go at least once a week when I get back. And then on Sunday night, my uruguayan grandparents made me cake and pizza and we celebrated my birthday on sunday, it was so kind of them. And that week we were obedient and did our 140 contacts. Good way to finish the last week. On monday, I had a great day as well. We found 2 new people to teach and so I got to teach the first lesson one last time, I was happy about that. And then we did our 20 contacts monday and one more and so I feel like I ended my last week and day really good. We had also a great retention lesson with Sebastion who was baptized about 2 months ago and we helped him resolve some doubts he had with the help of some members. I was really excited. I loved Paso de Los Toros, it´s great area. And I love Hna Thompson, what a great friend. I´m really excited to see you all next week. I love you all mucho!!! I can´t believe my mission is over. It really flew. I really loved this time here. Heavenly Father really blessed me, because I thought I wouldn´t live to see the end in the beginning, but here I am, and I love my mission, it has changed my life. Nos vemos in a week. LOVE YA!!!
con amor, Tiffani

Time is flying...

2010-05-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
Como andan? Mucho gracias for the emails Dad (a few times), Mom, Stefi, Joseph, and Kim. I just can´t believe this is my last pday and my last email home! It´s nuts!!! I appreciate very much all of you for writing me. 18 months is a very long time. And you all are the best family ever. I love you! Answer to your question, Dad, no he didn´t give them out and he didn´t say a word about them. Oh..I also recommend Mom and Dad to bring a jacket, it´s getting chilly. I also decided about where we´re going and when I wrote some people from my other areas, on thursday we can go to minas, on friday progreso, and on saturday paso de los toros, and sunday La paz. On saturday my uruguayan grandparents said they´d feed us. So nice, and I told my comp we´d take her and her comp to get ice cream. So that´s really a fixed day, because I´m here. But it will be fun. The mission packet said I can´t see you all till after the family home evening with the mission president at 9 on tuesday...so maybe you can go to the temple, or see something, or sleep, probably the best option. But I´m super excited to see you all.

I feel like there´s a lot of pressure as this is my last email, (might write home next week) but I honestly don´t know what to say. This past week was good. We did a lot of contacting and a lot of finding. This week will be better in that department. My comp is great. We have a lot of fun together. We found this really great lady last week and her two kids and they were really excited to listen to us. So hopefully, we´ll help them progress this week. Pamela the lady that got baptized was confirmed and she was really excited and the bishop introduced her to the ward and told everyone about her to help her have support. It was great. Then we have a fun family home evening with the family fernandez that we baptized a while a go and I played the guitar and we sang hymns and at uruguayan sausages (not so yummy) But fun altogther. We´re really building good relationships with the members and planning family home evenings and charlas with them. So hopefully, they´ll start to give us references. Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and I decided to give my last testimony in uruguay, kind of crazy. And then in zone meeting today they asked me and another elder going home to give some counsel, I was like well, I don´t know, I don´t think they care to much, we´re the only hermanas and they kind of ignore us, but I read Jacob 6:12. Figured that summed up what we should do :). Then we decided to celebrate my last pday and we went out to eat in a uruguayan restaurant. ahh memories. :). I´m plugging away at the book of mormon in spanish, I´m excited to finish is right as I´m done. I also, talked to my old friend hna yeates last night and we we´re just talking about how we can´t believe it´s the end. I told her I didn´t think in the begginnning that I would live to see the end. :) It was fun. It´s been great having such a good friend to grow up with in the mission. I´m glad we live in the same state and I´ll see her again. Well, I just have to say I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY FOR THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER SAINTS!!! It´s such a great privilage. I know this Church is soooo true. And that Heavenly Father loves me soo much and answers prayers. I also know Jesus Christ paid for our sins and our pains and he understands everything. He´s a true friend. I know God restored the church through Joseph Smith and he translated the great book of mormon. All the answers are inside. I know we have a living prophet today, President Monson, and I know God continues to guide us and help us. I love this work so much. I want to be a good member missionary and do this forever. Thanks so much for the love and support. I love you all so much!!! Nos vemos en un rato!!! LES QUIERO!!!!

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

2010-04-05T20:08:00.002-07:00

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)

2010-04-05T20:08:00.001-07:00

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)

2010-04-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

Helaman 3:35

2010-03-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hola mi famlia y mi amigos,
Muchas muchas gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Kim. I´m so jealous dad, those pictures are gorgeous, ENJOY! I also am so happy for my little stud brother. Good luck! And enjoy the warm Phoenix everyone. Tell grandma happy birthday for me. It is getting colder here, it´s starting fall. It´s really nice, I´m really enjoying that part. I can´t believe how the time is flying. Time is so warped on the mission some days are really long and then you look back and I can´t believe how much time has passed. My companion is great. Her family lives in Salem and her little step sister goes to Salem Hills High. She wants to work hard and wants to be obedient it´s a breath of fresh air, last change we had some disagreements on obedience. It´s really great, and she´s a friend. Today we´re in montevideo because she has immigration stuff, so I got to see my old pal Hna Yeates. She´s just a wonderful friend. Hna Farnsworth is with her now, so ít´s funny we´re both here at the same time with comps that were comps in the CCM. This past week has been a little crazy, our baptisms fell through they hid from us on the day of the interview, I was really sad. First time that happenend to me. We also had a talent show the same night so the peope had something to do at the church and me and my comp sang and I played the guitar. It was fun. Then on sunday I had to give a talk, I was nervous as always, but Heavenly Father helped me, it was how the gospel is a guide for our lives and they asked me use preach my gospel. I love that book. I talked about the Family Vidarte and there change and how the gospel guided them to baptism. It was good. I hear the family vidarte is still struggling but I´m excited to see them. We also had two miracle investigadors in the church we just invited them in a street contact and they came because our ward mission leader picked them up. It was a miracle. I hope they progress, I know I´m here 6 weeks longer to have more sucess. Oh quick note my toe is practically perfect, a little infected but good still. My email is still a little crazy so just send the emails to my old account, this account and my comps account until I let you know what´s up. So I put this scripture as my subject because we read this week in comp study and then when I talked to Hna Yeates about the end this scripture really hit me because it talks about the purification of souls and heart because of much fasting and prayer and yielding your heart to God. In the first of my mission Hna Ashby talked about how a mission is a fast from the world and I´ve come to see that through this fast and this refiner´s fire of a mission, I´ve learned so much and how this has been an incredible sanctification for me, I feel like Heavenly Father has helped become more like he wants me to be, I still have a long way to go but it´s been amazing. You should all read this scripture. This is kind of fast explanation but it really touched me this week this scripture. I sure love being a missionary. Thanks for your love and your emails and your PATIENCE!! I LOVE YOU!!!
con amor, Tiffani

My last change...

2010-03-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
Thanks so much for the emails Mom, Dad, and Kim. I´m glad all is well. Thanks for the well wishes. My toe is getting better which is a huge blessing. I´m still walking with one flip flop and a normal shoe. It just hurts when I bump it or if I try to wear a normal shoe. But it´s getting better. Huge blessing. I just found out who my new comp is Hna Thompson from Las Vegas. She came with Hna Farnsworth. I hope we have a great change. We had some really good charlas this past week. I started working wednesday, Hermana Rojas left wednesday morning (the substitute while I was in bed rest) and I was really sad we became friends really fast. She said we can visit her when you all come. I was like I can´t sit in the house or the house of someone else anymore. So I went to work with my flip flop. But we found some investigadors which is a great blessing and we have a baptism scheduled for this friday. We´re praying really hard for this because they filled up the font 2 times before, but hopefully she´ll go through with it this friday. I´m excited. Her name is Carmen and all her family are members but inactive and so she can help them come back. Her son Anthony is getting baptized too. We also have a talent show this friday after the baptism and so I´ve been practicing the guitar. It´ll be fun. Sorry I didn´t send any pictures, next week. But this email is going to be a little short because we´re at the bus station and we´re going to catch a bus to paso de los torros. I´m so glad I´m finishing there. I love you all so much. Thanks for your love and support and emails. Have a great week.
con amor, Tiffani

Hola from the Hermana gimp in Uruguay :)

2010-03-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

Hola mi famlia y mi amigos,
Como andan? Thanks so much for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Joseph!!! What´s up Stefi??? Congrats on a good basketball season jose vaughn. I´m glad life is well for you all and you are all happy and busy! Next week is changes, so pday will be tuesday as a heads up and I´ll have my last companion. I hope I finish here in Paso de los Toros. Well, this week has been very interesting, very interesting. We had a baptism Saturday of Paola, she´s 14. it was so great, she was so excited. It was a fight in the beginning to get her to listen and commit, but she watched the Testaments after the baptism of her family and it just changed her outlook and touched her heart and then she started listening and finally saturday was baptized. It was monumental for her and for other recent converts Miria who was baptized last week and Sebastian who was baptized 3 weeks ago, because we asked them to say the prayers and so it was there first prayers in public. It´s so neat to the progression. But I´ve included some pictures of the baptisms. The other big news this week is that I was operated on...my toe. You all know it´s been hurting and infected and the doctors wouldn´t do anything about it because I´m a out of towner. And so finally some doctor said come on tuesday because you need to see a surgeon. And so we went on tuesday hoping someone would help us because they just like the red tape. But there was a member, her name was ana there for a check up and she ended up helping us and talking to the nurses to get me a appointment with the surgeon. She´s was a answer to prayers. And so the surgeon saw me and said well we need to operate. And he said we´ll do it today. But he didn´t get my records or anything no one did which was a miracle because if they did I would have to pay a bunch. But they didn´t and he just said follow me and so we went to wait for the surgery upstairs, (this hospital looks like it´s from the early 1900s and from england, it´s crazy) But then we waited in line to be operated on for 3 hours. They do things very different, but then they called me into the room and the doctor looks like he´s ready to heart surgery with a nurse and we´re in a room about he size of a bathroom and sitting on a little bench side by side. Then he said put your leg up in my lap and so I turned a little bit and I had to support my leg with my arms while he gave me a PAINFUL shot and started digging in and then put stitches in. Oh it hurt. All while my leg was in his lap, it was so strange. And I was supporting my self. Talk about an interesting experience. They were really nice though and we talked about the church while they were operating. I couldn´t watch there was a a lot of blood. But then they bandaged me up and gave me pain killers but not a antibiotic. So I called Hna Da silva and she made call the mission doctor and say what happened and he told me that I could go to work that same day. I was like ummm it really hurts. And hna da silva was like no you need to rest one day at least. And the elders gave me a blessing. But then my toe got really swollen and infected because I didn´t have antibiotic and it felt like a knife was in my toe and so we went back to the doctor thursday and he gave me pills. It´s been painful. So this past week I´ve been in my bed with my toe in the air trying to get rid of the infection. It feels better and is getting better, fortunately but I haven´t done much. The president sent a corto plazo which is a member to work with hna bangas saturday until I feel better. Tomorrow they are getting rid of the stiches. I don´t know when I go back to work, I hope soon, I´m so bored. But the corto plazo Lucy Rojos is really nice and is preparing ot go on a mission. But there is this really nice couple has been taking care of me and watching me while my comp´s been working. It´s been really nice. Here´s some lovely photos of my experience this past week :) I know you´re all grateful for this. Heavenly Father always sends me grandparents when it get rough :). And I know he´s always looking out after me. And this was a big blessing to get it taken care of now. The members have been so nice and great. But that´s what happened this week. Talk to you next tuesday. I love you all mucho!!! Have a great week!!!
con amor, Tiffani

Happy Birthday Kim!!

2010-02-22T10:49:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
¿Como andan? Thanks so much for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, Kim, Los Crums, and Naomi!!!! I really appreciate them. Congrats Jose Vaughn on being accepted to BYU, that´s awesome!!! Feliz Cumpleaños Kim!! What a great way to celebrate a cruise!!
This new email website is www.new.myldsmail.net, and I have the same password as before not the new one I changed it. So you can check now, if you couldn´t find it. I have a quick favor, could you email me the address of Grandpa in Nicuragua all of it and city. Because the missionary that baptized my companion Hna Banegas and her family is the bishop in Nicuragua and I think it´s the same city that Grandpa lives in. If you could give me the address, I could write him to go visit grandpa and invite him to church or whatever. It would be great. A update on my toe...It´s pretty fat and infected and I´ve seen a bunch of doctors, some nice and some not so nice. But they couldn´t do anything because the church´s insurance is in montevideo. I got a blessing last week. but this week I called Hna Da Silva and she said to soak it everynight and take some medicine. I am going to a surgeon, and I think they are going to remove the nail. But I´m going to wait till next week because we have another baptism of the daughter of the family we baptized a few weeks ago, but she didn´t want to and now she does, she´s really great. So I´ll take the antibiotic and pain killers and soak it and then we´ll see next week. But I´m really excited for this girl Paola that will be baptized this next. The baptism this past week was so nice. Miria the woman that got baptized didn´t have any support from her family she is a widow and has eight kids. But she was so excited and the ward just welcomed her so much. It was a great testimony to me of the importance of friends and support in the church for these new members. There are photos. We are being so blessed, it´s amazing how despite our difficultadies the work is going forward. I also had an interview with President Da Silva and it really helped me. It was a great feeling of peace. It´s still hard, but it´s better. I attached photos of the baptisms and of the skies. I´ve never seen such beautiful skies, than in Uruguay. Well, thanks so much for everything and for your love and patience. Have a great week!! I love you all Mucho!!!!
con amor, Tiffani

a new week....

2010-02-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

Hola famlia,
So this is my new email. I hope all my emails will transfer to this account. If not, I hope you printed them. But the old account will close the 31st of March so if there are problems.

But thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, and Kim. It sounded like everything went well.

We´ve been looking for new investigadors all week. We also put a baptism date with an old investigador named Miria for the 20th, she´s really excited and she´s stopped smoking. Her husband died 2 months ago and so she is really looking for peace. And finally is stopping smoking. It´s really great. I´m really happy for her.

This past week and half I´ve been sick to my stomach, I think I had food poisoning or something really bad, but we have a doctor in the ward and so I´m finally feeling better. I also went to the hospital for my ingrown toe nail and the doctor said to take antibiotics and then he´ll look at it when the swelling goes down. But everything was free and all the medicine, and our neighbor drove me to hospital so I didn´t have to walk, which was really nice.

I´m sorry I don´t have much else to say. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all!!! Talk to you next week.
con amor, Tiffani

It´s raining, it´s pouring, no time for snoring in Paso

2010-02-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

Hola familia,
¿Como andan? Thanks so much for the emails Dad, Mom, Kim, Nikki, Stefi, and Joseph. Oh, I got the a package and an envelope, THANKS THANKS THANKS!!! It had my medicine and candy and the package had lots of great chocolate (that didn´t melt) and the stuff I need to doctor my self up. I did sugery on my toe last night for a deep ingrown toenail, kind of gruesome and oh the pain, it´s amazing the things you do on the mission. But it feels better.I know you all wanted to know that haha. But also, thanks so much kim the for the lotions and spray and scrub. I loved it. I´m glad the wedding planning is going well. Good luck with everything this week. I´m sure it will be good. Thanks for the pictures dad and for bringing that doll, Nikki you looked very pretty. Thanks Joseph for dedicating the game to me, I hope you win, even though payson was my school. :) And mom, No te preocupes, todo estará bien. Stefi, thanks, smile and be happy!!!! Nicks, I´m glad you enjoyed the temple, I love the temple. I thought it was very different as well, the intitarories got me, and the endowment was better. But it´ll get better, it´s good you didn´t go to salt lake first. I was blown away and really confused. But I loved the peace inside. Kind of crazy how it worked. But I really miss the temple right now, so go lots.
So I´ve attached a bunch of pictures, finally it works. Some are from Progreso and some from Paso, the scenery ones are from Paso, this is my view from our balcony it´s pretty sweet. And very pretty. We´re by the river. and our churchhouse It´s called rio negro because the at times it looks black because of some elements at the bottom, it´s pretty cool. Also, this past week the family ferdandez that I told you about was baptized after some close calls like oposition from the husband at first, and the baptism questions but in the end it all worked out, they were so excited. I was really happy for them. The mom Blanca and three of her kids Sebastian 18, Jacklyn 16 and fabiana 10, and Sebastian can go on a mission in a year, that would be awesome. They were excited. This is a really good ward. They really fellowship people really good and support and help us a lot. We´ll have to do a lot of finding these next weeks because we don´t have any investigadors but it´s a lot more fun knocking doors when you´re new to an area so that´s good. We´ve had a ton and I mean a ton of rain. I´ve never seen it rain so much or so hard in my life. We´ll probably have to start building an ark. It´s rained for 44 days straight in brasil and we´ve gotten some of that, fortuanately I wasn´t here for January. CRAZY. But that´s about it. Oh some photos are of the temple and of the trip we took as a branch in progreso. They were so excited, it was neat. So pretty. Anyways, have a good week. I love you all. Good luck!
con amor, Tiffani

Hola, from Paso de los Torros!!!

2010-02-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia,
Muchas Muchas gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Stefi, and Nikki, and Naomi. I sure enjoy them. I´m glad all is going well. Enjoy the temple Nicks it is so neat. I´ve seen a lot of blessings in my mission and in my past area and now. Thanks for your patience and love and emails, and the packages haha. I also, learned a very good lesson not to judge people from hearsay. My companion is Hna Benegas from Honduros and she´s a really great person. A little crazy but a great person. We´re having fun and working hard. I´m teaching her to play the guitar because she wants to play a song for her mom when she goes home. So that´s fun and I´m getting to practice some. She doesn´t speak english, so I´m getting to practice which is great. Paso de Torros is so so pretty. Super duper hot, but pretty. We´re right next to a river. It´s kind of like Minas. It´s pretty. But the people are really nice. They don´t understand me too much but I guess we´ll get used to each other...haha. It´s kind of interesting we have church at 4 to 7 in the afternoon. Because there are 2 wards and because of the heat the second meets at 4. We have a great ward mission leader who goes and picks people up and drops people off for church. So all our investigadors can come. It´s such a great service and a great example. It´s a lot of fun. The people here are very relaxed and so it´s a very calm and peaceful area. I really like it. I´d love to send pictures but the attach button is working, sorry. But we´ve been teaching this family a mom, and 2 daughters that are preparing to baptized this saturday. They are really excited to baptized. The problem is they are moving to campaña which means out out in the country where there is no church or missionaries. But they want to get baptized and they might move because the Dad who works out in campaña will come and get them soon. So hopefully, can get baptized and then when they are in town they can go to church when they can. It´s kind of hard for those people that live in the middle of no where. But we´ll see. Well, that´s about it for this week. But thanks so much for everything. I love you all mucho.
con amor, Tiffani
p.s. Hola, Brother and Sister Cook!!! I just wanted to right a quick note to say hello and thanks so much for your love and your letters and the money throughout my mission. I´m so grateful and Iove you all much. I can´t wait to see you all in April.

I´m leaving on a jet plane...not quite but I´m leaving Progreso

2010-01-26T07:07:00.000-08:00

Hola mi famila,
Como andan? Well, first thanks so much for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, Stefi, and Kim. That is so INCREDIBLE that Payson is getting a temple. That´s so awesome. I´m excited.
I´m going way north to a place called Paso de Los Torros. Hna Yeates was there before and she loved it. But everyone told me it´s SUPER hot. So I´m thrilled. But I´m with a latina, Hna Benegas, who goes home this change, and who really doesn´t speak spanish that I know of. (But I´m super scared, I´ve not heard the best things) We´ll see.
This past week has been pretty busy. We had a baptism for Gladys. The woman that is blind. It was so beautful. I was so excited and she was also. We also went to temple. What an incredible place, I sure miss going regularly. We got to do a session with the DaSilvas. But in the morning we brought 2 investigadors to the temple and the branch went for the first time in at least a year. It really excited the branch. They now are focusing on the temple and trying to plan a trip every month. I´m so excited for them. The branch president has a lot of enthusiasm too, it´s great. It was him and his wife and his counseler and his wife´s first time at the montevideo temple and they did baptisms and so they just ate it up. We printed pictures to put on the bullten board to keep them excited and they love it. That´s how the work progresses when you focus on Temples and the Savior. One of the investigadors Blanca and older woman said she recieved her answer at the temple and felt such a peace. We watched Between Heaven and Earth in the church next door with them. But the next day she was jumping off her chair for excitement, however, yesterday she told us she can´t pay tithing and she won´t commit to anything she can´t do. So I was sooo sad. But the other hermanas will work with her. We shared our testimony with her about it and then invited her to pray about it which she said she would. So I hope for the best. She was going to be baptized this week, but there is always a chance. Yesterday, you´ll be so proud of me I didn´t cry like a baby the whole day, just a little bit. The branch was super nice they had a family home evening in the church just to say good bye to me. And like 20 people came. It was so nice. I´m going to miss a lot of great people here. One family of investigadors gave me a huge ugly hat as a goodbye present because I wear a straw hat to survive the heat and it´s ugly and so I always say this is my ugly hat. Well, this familyl loved that and so they gave me another ugly hat. It was funny. Another cool experience, I gave the blind woman Gladys my card and a letter and she had her daughter read to her after I left and then she went to the family home evening and told me that her when her daughter read my first name she goes "I´m going to name my baby, Tiffani". And so Gladys said now I´ll always remember you, and then she started crying. I was so touched. There are some really neat people there. The branch president said that they want to have a barbaque at the church when you guys come and get me and some other people are excited to meet you and feed you :). That´s the highlights of the week. Thanks for encouraging me and helping me. I´m really grateful for Hna Farnsworth, she´s helped me alot. I know I´m being blessed and that this is huge privelage to be here. Have a great week. I love you all mucho.
con amor, Tiffani

Happy 21 Nicks!!!

2010-01-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

Hey family,
Happy birthday Nikki!!! Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Kim. Dad, I was just kidding Dad last week because your email was so short and I like them long, this week was pretty short as well. What´s up?
Well, I´m glad all is going well with the wedding plans. Sorry you´re going crazy mom. :) Sorry about your crazy interview nicks, my mission interview was pretty crazy intense as well. And there are no boys involved there...
Well, as a heads up next week is changes, so pday will be tuesday. I´m pretty ready to leave, I hope so. Sad, my first area that I´m not going to freak out when I leave. haha. Anyways, this past week was fine. We had interviews with president. Nothing to exciting, but it was fine. I´m excited to go to the temple wednesday. We turned it into a an opportunity for the branch to go, they haven´t gone in at least a year. And so it will be great, we´re also bringing investigadors so they can see the outside of the temple, and I called the bishop down in montevideo to see if we could use the church next door to watch a movie about the temples and then have someone in his ward talk to our investigadors about the importance of temples. I hope it turns out well. We also introduced a famliy that we`re teaching to tacos, so saturday we made tacos with the seasoning you sent me and my comp and I made tortillas. It was really good, and they really enjoyed it. I gave them a bunch of taco bell packets they liked to put on their tacos. They don´t eat spicy food here so it´s really new to them. It was fun. We´re also teaching this really neat lady Gladys, right now that is practically blind but she has really neat and is going to get baptized this saturday. We really want to take her to the temple grounds, but she might have to go to the doctor with her daughter. She listens to the book of mormon every day on cd. She´s pretty amazing and has just great faith.
No more drug deals happened in sacrament and it turned out really good. The branch president is getting really behind this temple trip and wants to do more and so he had talks about the temples to excite the people and explain a little about them. And friday we watched moutain of the lord for an activity in the branch and ate fruit salad. About 10 people including Gladys who can´t see but wanted to be apart of it and another investigador Blanca that is amzing also and she loved the movie. so they came but they are really excited. Our president hasn´t been to the temple since he got sealed to his wife in the buenos aires temple. He´s never been into the montevideo temple. So that´ll be great for him and his wife.
Things are still super hot. I´d send you all a photo if I could of all the bug bites (mosquitos) on me and have you guess how many bites I have. But that´s a little awkard so just imagine I counted 55 bites JUST on my legs last tuesday or wednesday. Kind of crazy and itchy.
Thanks for everything!!! I love you all mucho. Talk to you Tuesday.
con amor, Tiffani

Feliz Cumpliaños a mi madre...Feliz cumpliaños!!!

2010-01-11T11:51:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! I WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, I LOVE YOU!!! Muchas gracias for your emails this week Mom, Dad, Stefi, and Nikki. And thanks for the photos dad (you´re missing about half your email dad, but you can make it up next week.) That is sure a change in scenery for your engagement photos Nicks, from palm trees to snow. I like the palm trees, but the new one is cute.
Well, this past week has defintely not been dull. We had the baptism of Nancy, which was really nice. We spoke again, she wanted it the exact same as her sister. But it was really good and she was excited (in her own way, in her pictures she doesn´t smile) But we had a few investigadors come and they really enojoyed it. Also, this past week and well today, I have fleas. My comp touches every four legged creature, but I am the one with fleas. It is very uncomfortable, I have bites all over my body. It´s like the chicken pox but worse. I´ve cleaned and cleaned and then I called Hna Da Silva and she has a spray for me. But last night I didn´t get any new bites so I hope it´s working. I don´t know if I`ll make it out of here alive to be honest between the sun, mosquitos, ants and the fleas. But it´s just another summer in uruguay. Today we had pday and we went to my old zone close to La Paz and we played basketball with the elders it was fun. There was a lot of elders there from the MTC and so we all know each other well and it was really fun. Me and Hna farnsworth were the captains and my team won. (of course..haha) It was a 3 zones activity and I saw Hna Yeates (poor girl is so ready to leave). But she told me some sad news, all the people that were baptized while I was there are inactive and it´s the same with Minas too. You know that story of the water bucket and how when the hand swishes it around it does something, but then when the hand leaves the water goes back to the way it was. That´s basically how I feel. They are awesome people who now have a covenant they aren´t keeping. And it´s really sad. I don´t know if I really want to go back to my areas. Maybe we can see other stuff. We had quite the experience, I thought I have seen it all in Progreso. But not quite. Yesterday, we had fairly normal church meetings and then we go to sacrament and it was normal and then the high counciler speaks. Normal talk, but I look back and there is this kid that I´ve never seen, looked like he´s going to the beach standing just talking to one of the recent converts and she then digs through her purse and he gives her money and she sells him cigarettes. RIGHT IN SACRAMENT MEETING!!! Can you say crazy. This recent convert sell cigarettes at her home to support her grand daughter and we tried when I first got here to explain she can´t do that, but the branch president said he didn´t want us to say anything and he would look into it. Well, and so she still sells them and now in church. And then the kid took his cigaretts and leaves. Like a normal day of business. ABSOLUTELY NUTS!!! But anyways, just another week in progreso! Let´s just say we´re never not entertained. But I´m excited, because the president is letting us plan a temple trip with the recent converts in a couple of weeks. And people are getting excited for that. I don´t think this branch has gone in at least a year, and they live 40 minutes away, and so it will be a very good and necessary thing. Well, I´ll talk to you next week. Thanks so much for everything. I love you all. And happy birthday again mom!!
con amor, Tiffani

P.S. Quick explanation of the fotos. The one is of a chef that makes super good food in la paz that we visited and he´s awesome. And then another is of us with a recent convert and us eating pizza to help brighten his day. He´s great. And then one is of a car with a bottle on top, if you need to sell your car just put a bottle on top it. It´s how they advertise here. I´m serious. HAHA. Uruguay´s great!!! love ya.

Feliz Dia de Reyes!!!

2010-01-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

Hey family,
Thanks so much for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, Stefi, Kim, and Los Crums. MUCHAS GRACIAS!! Dia de reyeys is day of the wisemen a holiday in south america on the 6th of january. Also, thanks for the photos Dad and Nikki. Wow, Nicks...you´re so thin. They are really cute photos. I really like number 8, 7, 13, and 4. They are cute. And Dad, great job on the invitation! It is still very strange seeing you with a guy but it´s slowly sinking in. I sent some photos not as lovely as nikki´s but they are of our service project, the president likes to make fun of me because I can´t understand as well as some and the fact that supposedly I cannot work hard because my dad is not in construction and farming, unlike hna farnsworth. I just shake my head and grit my teeth and told him just because my dad doesn´t do construction or farming doesn´t mean I wasnt taught to work. He is really getting on my nerves...he really likes riling me up and he´s really pushing it. Sorry side note, there is also photos of the baptism we had on january first of Pamela. She was so excited. And her non member grandparents came. Missionaries plan baptisms different way, but I like to do it how mine was where I got to pick the program and have my picture on he program. So I do that with the converts. And she chose hna farnsworth and me to give a talk. It still scares me. But it was fine. It was such a great and pretty service and she was so excited. But the president then got on my case sunday telling me missionaries should not give the talks and should include members, and everything and why the baptisms weren´t going to be on the same day. I was just like...leave me alone and get off my case about EVERYTHING...So this week with Nancy´s baptism the little sister of Pamela (she did not want to get baptized until she saw her sister do it) we are still going to let her choose everything (I told president that to, because she is 9 and these things matter to a 9 year old and a 11 year old) They just like to drama and if there is not enough, they make more. I´m sorry this email is kind of complaining, I just need to vent a little. The family gonzalez didn´t accept a baptism date sadly the mom and daughter would if the dad would and his problem is tithing. He doesn´t like it. But he came to church the following sunday for a little bit of sacrament which was great. It is so sad, they are so great they even feed us every wednesday. They are basically members. President Da Silva is letting every missionary go to the temple in january. I am so excited, we are going the 20th I have not been to the temple since may. I miss it and am excited. New years was good the fireworks are awesome, my comp fell asleep but I was determined to stay up till midnight as it was my last one in Uruguay. Well, thanks for everything and the updates. I love you all mucho.
con amor, Tiffani

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!!!!!

2009-12-28T11:22:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia and amigos,
First thanks so much for the phone call. It was the best christmas gift I recieved. Also, thanks for the packages of food, you will see pictures of how well it used. THANKS. I really aprecieated the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, Stefi, Joseph, Kim, and the Crums. Both weeks. Well, the past few days have been exciting. It´s been a rainy muggy hot christmas, but that doesn´t stop the excitement.On Thursday we at e christmas eve dinner at out president of the rama´s house which was good. I brought a kenny rogers salad and they liked it. We couldn´t eat with them because they eat at 12 at night and we had to be back by 11 on christmas eve. But they packed us dinner and then walked us home. At 12 the war started and there were fireworks eveywhere it was gorgeous. I´m going to take pictures the 31st because it´s a bigger show. We also set baptismal date for the first of january it´s for a 11 year girl but she´s excited to start the year out clean and a member. On Saturday we had a service project removing paint from a house of an invesigador with the bishopric. It was hard work, but it was fun to help and she was grateful. In the afternoon we ate with this family that lives 40 minutes away from us. So a member of the bishopric drove us out there which was super nice and this family lives on a ranch with horses and animals and a pool and everything. It´s super nice. They offered us to ride the horses but we can´t unfortunetly. But we fed the horses and we milked the cow. THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE…It was kind of fun. It´s not as gross as it looks and it´s quite the work out on the hands and arms. But it was fun. And then on Sunday we had a charla with this great family we´ve been teaching the Family Gonzalez and we watched the temple movie “Between Heaven and Earth” and then we challenged them to go to the temple in one year on January 9. We´ve asked to be baptized before and they always say a quick no. But this time they said they would think about it. The are scared of the changes and the rules. But we were brave enough to bring our branch president because he had to change a lot to be baptized and he shared a good testimony. Kind of put us down a little bit because we were born in the church and don´t understand. But I quickly said we had to find our own testimonies just as much as you all. Silly guy. But it was a good lesson. And we have a lesson with them tomorrow. I pray pray pray they accept tomorrow. Please pray for them. Thanks so much for everything. I LOVE YOU ALL MUCHO!!!! Here´s some photos, one is of a pig they normally cook for christmas. It´s actually really good. Have a great week and happy new years. Talk to you next week. Thanks for your prayers, I´m feeling better.
Con amor, Tiffani

Merry Christmas!!! (from 12/14)

2009-12-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
Thanks for the emails Mom, Dad, Kim, and Naomi (I mean Hna Bell). Congrats Joseph on doing so well in your tournament. Thanks so much for the package of the CDs and the boxes and the money, and alergy medicine. THANKS THANKS. I really really appreciated it all. So last week was interviews, and I asked about the phone call. We have one hour on Christmas to talk to you all. I don´t know if we´ll have a pday on monday or if christmas is. I have no idea. But can you call me at 3pm our time and I think it´s 10am your time, I hope that hour works. Five hours difference. I went to countrycodes.com and couldn´t find progreso but Las Piedras is the city closest to us so I hope it works, if not, after 15 minutes I´ll call you. I´m not changing as you already know. I´m glad I didn´t want to change right before the holidays (It´s already rough enough). Did you also know that changes are now on tuesday so that means you can come wednesday in April. I don´t know if they told you that. But anyways, we went to tres cruces anyways the big bus station where everyone meets for changes because we live kind of close. So I saw Hna Yeates and Orme and Vera. Hna Vera is done. It´s crazy. It was fun seeing everyone. This friday we have a big mission conference for Christmas. That will be fun. Yesterday Alejandro that was baptized the week before was confirmed and then he bore his testimony and he was really excited. I´m glad for him. Also, this really great family we´re teaching the parents came to sacrament, it was exciting. The wife Yolanda has a testimony but Gustavo her husband is kind of here and there. Then the next day we had a family home evening with the president and his wife (I know...but we brought the wife) And at the end it turned in to a make fun of testimony meeting session between gustavo and the president. I was just shaking my head. However, they were talking though a couple of days ago saying how they wanted to the temple work for their family. And I´m like yay,first you need to be baptized. But they are thinking about it. I really hope they get baptized. Last week we had interviews and it was kind of a call to repentance, to do our 140 contacts every week. He´s like I know you can´t control baptisms or people in church but you can control this and it will help you focus and bring greater joy in your life. He did it really lovingly, but I felt bad and so we did our contacts last week and are going to do so. He did that with basically all the missionaries. But I did feel better after doing them last week. I have a really good zone and then after we all ate lunch together at a restaurant. So, that´s kind of what happened this past week. Thanks for everything, I love you all. Talk to you next week, maybe write you too on monday, I don´t know.
con amor, Tiffani

Next week´s changes...

2009-12-07T12:40:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone,
Thanks for the emails and photos Dad. That´s a ton of snow you´re having. It´s really pretty. Also, thanks for the emails Mom, Nikki, and Kim. I also want to thank Uncle and Aunt Julie, Dawn, and Hna Wilson (Sariah), and grandma Mohrman for the letters, I really appreciate them. Just as a heads up next week is changes, I have no idea what will happen if I stay or go or what so just so you know I´ll have pday tuesday (most likely..things sometimes change) and I´ll check it really early just so ya know. We also didn´t have interviews or zone conference last week so we have them tomorrow, so next week I´ll let you know how it goes. Well, last week had a baptism with Alejandro and he´s really excited about it. The branch president and counselors were against it, so that was hard, but we felt he was sincere and our district leader did also. We had stake conference yesterday which was really good so he´ll be confirmed next week. I had to call the mission president because the branch president was going to do it all in one day and I so I called and the mission president said to wait, and that didn´t fly well with the branch president either and he didn´t even show up to the baptism. It´s been very dramatic these past few weeks in this little branch. I feel like writing a book called Progreso, the rengade branch. Because they like to do things their own way. I really like the president he´s a good, but he told me once I don´t care what the stake president, or the leader, or an apostle tells me I will do what the Lord wants me to do. So they´re a bit rebelious and then they get upset when the ward members are rebelious. We have so much contention and back biting and drama. It just makes me sad because this is not how The Church of Jesus Christ should be. After the baptism some forever investigadors who need to get married started having a YELLING match with the one counselor that came and in front of investigadors and just accusing him of stupid things and telling them what horrible leaders they are. I am just like, who do you think you are, you´re not even members. And I´m like how can we help this branch. But 3 or four times this week I´ve been on late night phone calls of talking sessions with some recent converts who just have problems and don´t want to find solutions but want to vent. And I´m just like I´m not a therapist and if they don´t want to turn to the Lord then there is nothing that can help them. But I´m really just scratching the surface on the problems in Progreso. But we´ll just keep being missionaries and trying our best. I´ve learned a lot about respecting and supporting leaders and trying to build an area instead of tearing it down by complaining. It´s just sad. I really want to help this area. We had a really good family home evening and played uno with this amazing family, flia gonzalez, and the dad gave the lesson it was amazing. I love them, they just have some doubts and won´t accept a baptism date. We decided to fast for them yesterday. I really want to help them. Oh, at stake conference I don´t know if you remember but I told you about this woman Norma that we found during general conference as we doing contacts in the other city and she came to conference the next day. Well, the elders have been teaching her and she is so awesome and progressing. I saw her at stake conference yesterday and it was so great she goes I´m learning and I´m trying to help my family understand these great things. It was so neat. I hope she gets baptized also.

con amor, Tiffani

weekly email

2009-12-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hola mi famila,
Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, Stefi, and Nikki. Also, thanks Hna Bell and Mitch for the letters.
This past week was good we set a baptismal date with this man named Alejandro for friday. He was going to get baptized the 21st of november, but after Hna Rogers left he kind of dropped out of site. I kind of thought she was the reason, so I called to see what was up and if he still wanted to get baptized the 21st and he said he´d talk about in church. He didn´t come. So we dropped him. Well, the next sunday he shows up and he calls a meeting with the counselor and us and kind of complains and whines to the counselor that he wanted to get baptized and we weren´t helping him. Well, that was not true at all and I told him straight up, what he did. So we straightened some things out and had some charlas with him and set his own fecha for this friday. He started being a lot more nicer and is very excited his baptism. The fight isn´t over, there is a little more drama the president of the branch doesn´t like him, but we´re praying for him and Alejandro and the President will come and support it, just more drama. I felt like a therapist this past week we had a lot of people call us for emergency charlas literally crying to us there problems. I´m sure glad I´m not a bishop. I felt really bad and helpless. But this week work wise will be good, we´re trying super hard to be obedient to get all the help we can get. We have zone conference and interviews with the president this thursday. And then alejandro´s baptism friday (we´re praying). We also have stake conference sunday and some investigadors are really excited. Yesterday we made our thanksgiving dinner it was super good and we made brownies, thanks for the food again. Also, today we made a thanksgiving dinner as a zone and got permission to watch the "Other side of Heaven". On thanksgiving we ate with our branch president and made him turkey card, it was so funny there reactions, they don´t eat turkey here. Yesterday was the elections for uruguay and the communist party president won. Very sad. I´m serving in a communist country. It´s also been super crazy weather we´ve had a lot of heat (as you can see by my sundburns) and yet rain EVERY day for the past 2 and a half weeks. I love you all.
con amor, Tiffani

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! and CONGRATULATIONS NIKKI!!!

2009-11-23T09:59:00.000-08:00

Hello family,
Well, I´d thought I´d start in english because it´s the week of thanksgiving and that´s not a spanish holiday. I´m actually quite in shock right now but I´m happy for you Nikki, It´s still hasn´t really seemed real that you´ve been dating mitch all this time. But wow congratulations. I expect A LOT or MUCHO of details next week... But Happy Thanksgiving!!! What are you guys doing for thanksgiving? Hna Farnsworth and I are going to cook all that stuff sunday because we have more time and so we´re excited. And then on Monday our zone is going to have a thanksgiving dinner. So that will be fun as well. If dad, you have time to send me the orange roll recipe I´d really appreciate it. But the definite highlight of the week was Elder Bednar. What an amazing amazing conference with him. Him and his wife and Elder Snow and his wife came and they all spoke to us. And then after Sister Bednar and Sister Snow and Elder Snow, Elder Bednar had a question and answer session for 3 hours. It was incredible. He first told don´t write a word I say down, because what I say is not important and I´m not the teacher and when are you ever going to read these notes again and if you´re to concentrated on writing you´ll miss the true teacher the spirit. So I really tried to listen and just write down thoughts I liked and that really applied to me. I loved it. I enjoyed it so much more as well. Elder Bednar is so nice and so upfront and relates well with the young adults. He emphasized a lot learning by the spirit and how as we focus the spirit will teach us. He also told us that I hope by the end of this confernce you all realize that you don´t need a apostle to answer your questions, we have the right to recieve revelation and he said I hope you say Thanks for coming, but bye because we don´t need you anymore, we can find answers for ourselves. It was so profound, not just learning about being teachers of the spirit but learners of the spirit as well. INCREDIBLE!!! I´ve been studying some of his talks the mission has given us and my notes and I´m just in awe. It was so great. I also got to see a lot of great missionaries and it was so neat to listen to 350 missionaries sing called to serve since I didn´t get that in the mtc. The spirit was powerful. And then I saw hermanas from the other mission that were with me in the mtc and hna ung from payson, I had no idea she was on a mission. But it was so fun to see my old companions, elders in my districts and other missionaires that I´ve known before. At the end as well, I saw a hermana from my first area minas and after a week in the mission I went to her engagement party, but now I saw her and we hugged she was so sweet and she goes you can communicate now in spanish, I taught her family a lot in MInas. It was so great talking to see her. It´s been a good week, the work is steadily going. Thanks for the prayers. I love you all mucho!!!! Thanks so much for the emails, Dad, Mom, NIkki, and kim!!! LOVE YA!!! You´re always in my prayers. I´m so so grateful for the great family and friends I have!!!
con amor, Tiffani

Elder Bednar´s coming...yeah!!!!!

2009-11-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
Thanks for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, Stefi, and Joseph. WOW all of you, it was AWESOME. THANKS!!!
Also, a huge huge huge thanks for my thanksgiving package. I had quite the blessing in disguise today with that. We got a call saturday that we had to go to montevideo for immigration stuff for hna farnsworth, which is kind of a bummer thing to do on pday. But we went and I got my package. We were so excited. Truly the nutella was just in time, I threw away my last one yesterday. I also got to see Hna Yeates, that was a lot of fun. She´s doing well, sick all the time. She´s going home in March and so is Hna Orme so I´m going to be the only one leaving in April. Oh well, they can come to my homecoming. But I also got to look around the bus station tres cruces which is like a mall and Hna Yeates and I love to shop. Don´t worry, I didn´t get that much. It´s a dangerous thing my new comp likes it as well. But anyways, this past week was good. We got to do more service on this house of Virginia. It was hard work but really fun. The priesthood were funny, they´d show us how to do something and then we´d do it and then they´d take the tools from us and finish it. They are very protective of the hermanas. It´s funny, Hna Farnworth´s dad was in construction and she´s like I know how to do this stuff. And I´m not that inept either and so we were just shaking our heads at each other. But it was a lot of fun.
We have this goal as a mission to do 140 contacts every week and President Da Silva is like you can´t control baptisms or people in church but you can control contacts, people we talk to do. So we really wanted to be obedient. But because of some obstacles we only had 44 contacts by sunday and we were like uggghhh, we know we´re promised blessings if we do that and so we after church and lunch and study we started at 3:30 and worked only until 8 on sunday, we did 47 contacts and 2 lessons of recent converts. And it wasn´t stupid contacts either just throwing brochures at people, we really tried. Just have to tell you that was a miracle. We´re setting the goal this week of 160 contacts. We need blessings. We´re probably going to have to drop a lot of investigators because they aren´t progressing, which is hard because that is knocking doors. But my comp has a ton of faith and she´s like if we´re doing our part Heavenly Father will do his. And so it´s like having you all here to tell me "everything always works out." I´m pretty stressed, my biggest fear as becoming senior comp was that I was going to kill an area. I know if we´re trying it won´t happen. I have a great comp and she´s a huge answer to my prayers. Well I love you all so much and thanks thanks thanks for the package. We´re excited for thanksgiving. I LOVE YOU ALL MUCHO!!!! Thanks for the prayers and love and support. CONGRATULATIONS Joseph on becoming an elder and getting your eagle. That is so awesome. I´m glad all is well, enjoy the pretty snow. It´s getting hotttt. Have a great week, and I´ll tell you about Elder Bednar next week.
con amor, Tiffani

Happy Holidays

2009-11-09T11:12:00.001-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
¿Como estan? Muchas gracias for all the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Kim. I am so happy life is going well and I heard you all are enjoying snow. How pretty. It´s getting pretty warm here. We have had like all the seasons in like a week. But it is getting warmer. Congratulations Jose Vaughn in recieiving the Melchezidik priesthood next week how amazing. And congrats on recieving your eagle as well next week. Sounds like a action packed weekend. I am so happy for you.
Well, this past week has been crazy busy, but really good. We had a baptism saturday. I was so excited. Her name is Virginia and we have experienced some drama because this but everything worked out. The ward has been doing service on her house and we got to help last saturday as well which was fun. It was hard work, the branch president wants to work us hard, which is great. We had a lesson on the ten commandments last week and she asked us what happens to people that know the commandments and break them. Well that is a broad question but we covered repentance and talking with the leaders if it is serious and how everyone will pay for their sins and I was kind of worried after because she seemed really bothered with it, but we went on. Then on Friday night our ward mission leader told us that one of the newer members of the ward was trying to solicit certain favors for the service on the house. And I was blown away and like oh no she is going to be offended. Plus, that is quite a lot of drama for a little branch like here. But she had her baptism interview and it went very well and she was so excited and then on Saturday we had the baptism, 45 minutes late with a lot of stess, but she came and it was a beautiful service. I love seeing these great people make these big changes because they love the Lord and they know it is true. And yesterday we had a great lesson with this family Gustavo, Yohana, and Betina and we watched mountain of the Lord. Because they do not want to commit to make these big changes in their life. But they have been coming to the activities and general conference and one time at church. It was so great. But we focused on temples. And they were impressed with the sacrifice of the pioneers for the temples and the dedication and at the end of the lesson Gustavo prayed that he could have an eternal family. They are so great. I hope and pray they get baptized. My companion Hna Farnsworth is so amazing. I didn´t do anything my first change but she already loves the people and loves to share her testimony and teaches what she can. And she just wants to get better. And she is just a good friend. Which is so nice. It is a lot of responsibility and stressful, but she is patient with me and wants to do all she can. I´m really grateful for her. Oh I don´t know if I mentioned this but for those who are not immediate family and want to email you can use this address urumontemission@gmail.com and just put my name in the subject line. I hope you have a great week. I love you all mucho!!!! Talk to you later.
con amor, Tiffani

Happy November!!!

2009-11-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

Hola mi famila y mi amigos,
¿Como estan? Muchas Gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, Kim, Hna Bell, and Los Crums. I loved loved loved them. This past week has been kind of exciting, we are going to have a baptism this week with a really neat woman named Virginia and she said the reason she was converted was because of the faith with the action of the members. The members are really serving and helping this neat woman. I´m really excited. Faith with action is everything. I´m really sad Hna Rogers is leaving. I learned so much from her and learned a lot of we had some great times. I´m training and I´m so so scared. We were suppose to meet at the mission home at 8:30 and then the President and the Hermana had a little meeting with us and then we met the missionaries we´re training. My companion is Hermana Farnsworth from Nevada. She´s really nice. I´m excited to get to know her. Hna Yeates is also training. It was really interesting to have her there because we were there together in the beginning and we had a lot of de ja vu. I´m super nervous. But it´s what Heavenly Father wants me to do, so I´ll definetly learn and grow. I hope pray I can do a good job and help her. So I forgot to tell you about the cookies, it was a kind difficult day when I received those packages and so I opened them and I felt bad that you took all that time to do the cookies and send them and so I opened them and I tried one and you know what it was good. It was a miracle. After a month and a half, they were still really good and not hard. Kind of a small insignificant thing, but it really brightened my day and made me feel so much better. Through small and simple things...right, Heavenly Father really just made me feel so much better through that. Well, it´s getting warmer which is a good thing. But also alergy season could you please send me some semprex and eye drops? Thanks for being such a great family, I don´t have time to read your emails before I send you this but if there is questions I´ll write back monday. I love you all so so much. Sorry this is short, and I´ll write more monday. Have a happy rest of the week!!
con amor, Tiffani

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!...EAT LOTS OF CHOCOLATE!

2009-10-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Happy Halloween or Feliz dia de los muertos, yeah I like halloween better! Thanks so much for the emails and the pictures (minus my parents) but I loved them and I´m going to print them and show them to everyone, how lucky are you. But thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Kim. I´m glad all is well in the land of utah. It´s getting warmer I bought a goofy looking hat to protect me from the sun. I probably won´t send a photo of that one. So this week has been pretty eventful, no baptisms but we had zone conference, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Da Silvas are really great people. He really wants us to learn to follow the spirit and to live worthy to have the spirit with us. It´s really great. I also got my packages. YEAH!!! I loved loved loved the bible and the gospel principles book, and medicine. I´m really excited and I got my card thanks. I also loved loved loved the orange sauce, it really saves some of my lunches when I eat at our apartment. haha. And thanks for the jerky and chocolate and everything. I was so happy. I think I will get packages every six weeks but envelopes I will get sooner so that might be better. But we recieved some great news Elder Bednar is coming November 20th to talk to us. I am so excited. It´s going to be 2 mission conferences, the west mission and us. So I will get to see some of the missionaries from the MTC. This past week we did a service project. We helped build a wall of house and leveled out a path and cleaned up, etc. It was a lot of fun. It was a little back breaking but I´m glad we could help her she´s a single mom and an investigador and the branch really has helped her out a lot. It´s been great. So here´s a funny story, there´s a conspiracy theory going on here in this little branch. This forever investigador Marcilino and this new member Richard have come to the conclusion that there is corruption in the branch with the money and the leadership and they tell us about and they tell us how they need to find a way to break in the church and look at the records and they are serious. It´s absolutely nuts. They are very different people. For instance Richard told us that he went to one of our investigadors mom´s house and gave a blessing to dog. (Is that allowed?) He used to be an evanglist and it really shows when he talks. It´s really funny some of the members here and kind of scarey because they could really start a break off or something. But that´s the conspiracy theory of Progreso. But today we had a zone activity which was really fun we played volleyball for a little while and then the elders played soccer. But today is our last pday of the change. So next week pday is wednesday as a heads up. Thanks so much for hte emails and the news. Here´s some photos of the service project and the zone conference. I Love you all mucho mucho!!! Thanks for the prayers, I know they help.
con amor, Tiffani

Middle of October...wow...and it´s getting warmer!!!

2009-10-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hola mi famlia y mi amigos,
How are ya´ll doing? I figured I´d start out a little different. Anyways, thanks so much for the emails Dad, Mom, and Kim. I sure love them and you all too. I´m glad things are going very well. But this last week was good, we had a baptism for the cutest girl. Her name is Brenda and she´s 9. She´s the daughter of a used to be less active. The hermanas found her before I got here and got the ward involved in helping her because she´s a single mom and left the church because she joined and then met someone and they got married and he beat her. So she divorced him and moved. But we´ve been teaching her and her daughter and she was so excited to be baptized. And her mom has come back and she said a beautiful prayer at the baptism and how grateful she was for the church in her life. The ward has been really great with her and really supportive and helpful. It was such a beautiful service and Brenda borrowed this pretty little baptism dress, because they don´t have anything with her pink tennis shoes, there´s a picture it´s soooo cute. Earlier on Saturday, my companion had a baptism in another area and so we got permission and went. I really love baptisms, they are so neat and I love to see how excited they are. I ended up playing the piano for both baptisms, it was kind of amazing because in the mission I am able to play a lot a lot more hymns and I know Heavenly Father has really helped me with that and so I´m glad I can help. We had a really funny charla this last week with a family who the dad we are trying to help quit smoking and so we brought the branch president because he used to smoke, and it was the funniest, shake your head kind of charla. Because he starts telling stories of his crazy ways of quitting like being around people that smoke all the time, and having cigaretts in your pocket. We´re like what are you thinking? And then he started telling stories of when he got drunk. And we´re like stop stop.. But he just kept going and going. But by the end everyone was laughing. The president said the prayer and he was late with a interview with the stake president and he said in the prayer with the family there please bless that the stake president won´t hit him for being a half an hour late. We´re like...well that´s the last time he´s coming on a word of wisdom charla. The branch president is a really interesting, but really nice fellow. But we made a schedule with the dad and he´s almost done quitting, the sad thing was we tried set a baptismal date with them yesterday and they said no, because they don´t want to change and there is a lot of rules in the church. It was sad, but they said we can keep visiting them, so we´re going to keep working with them. Oh, Hna Yeates called me to give a reference yesterday and told me this cute cute kid Jose Luis, that we had found and had been working with got baptized in La Paz. I was so excited. We also had an incredible day at church yesterday, we had 10 investigadors. It´s been a very successful week. We also had an activity Friday that the young men we´re supposed to be in charge but they didn´t come till hours laters, so we at to do it, but we played ping pong and guess what all those practicing games of me losing paid off yet again. I beat everyone. It´s so fun. Also, this friday is zone conference and interviews so I will get my packages. YEAH!! Thanks so much in advance for the christmas package. I´m excited, is there anyway you can put in knee high nylons. I go through them fast, because the dusty roads just tear them up. And they are required, and they are really expensive here. Also maybe 45 or 50 boxes would be great dad. THANKS!!! Have a great great week. THanks for the prayers and advice and help and love. I LOVE YOU!!!
con amor, Tiffani
p.s. here are some baptism photos.

Another week...with a great bapism

2009-10-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
¿Como estan? I´m glad all is well. Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, and Hermana Bell. I really appreciate knowing how everything is going. This past week has been really good. Our investigator Irene was baptized and it was a really beautiful service. She was so excited to be baptized. When we were asking the questions to prepare her for her interview she said she had an abortion when she was younger and so she had to have an interview with one of mission presidents counselors. But everything went well, and her daughter and son in law and grandkids came and supported her. It was really great. We are teaching them right now so hopefully they will follow in her footsteps. On Sunday when she recieved the gift of the holy ghost she bore her tesimony of her own will and she was really grateful for the gospel. It was neat. We also had a spring activity on friday and it was pretty funny. Because there is this one lady in the ward who wanted to really help plan the activity and so she said we should act out Alma 32. And one of us should be the dirt, the seed, and the tree and her boyfriend our ward mission leader would narrate. So I was the seed, it was pretty embarrassing and hillarious actually. This woman said she was going to be the soil and so she dressed in all black and had a black nylon on her head and she said she was going to be fertile soil and dance. (How dancing means fertile soil, I have no idea) But her boyfriend turns on some classical music and then in a very dramatic voice talks about Alma 32 and she comes out and starts wiggling because shes fertile soil. I was trying so hard not laugh and then it was my turn and I made a seed around my neck so I sat down like a seed in dirt. It was sooo funny. But the thing is we had investigadors and I could see their faces, they were like, who are these crazy mormons? But at least we made that woman happy and our ward mission leader. But after we decorated little cakes like sugar cookies and gave them sprinkles and colored frosting and they really enjoyed it. So that was good. My companion got a little sick this week and on saturday and sunday I started feeling bad, the spring weather here is crazy hot and cold, hot and cold. But now I am better, thank goodness. Springtime is really pretty here there are so many kinds of flowers and it is so green. Our area is so huge, it´s a bunch of little tiny towns put together so we ride buses all the time. We also get to use trains once in a while which is fun. We are having zone conference and interviews October 23. So I will get my packages then. They are combining them so I guess I will only get packages every 6 weeks which is a bummer, so if you could send my medicine well in advance, that would be good. I am excited for the thanksgiving one, hope I get it before thanksgiving haha. Thanks for your testimonies and experiences. I love hearing about them. Thanks for the encouragement, advice, and prayers. I love you all mucho.
con amor,
Tiffani
ps. here are some photos. The first are of the baptism of Irene and her family. And then there is one of her with this cute little family that the boys always give us little presents. And then one of our acting out of alma 32. so so funny.

Happy October!

2009-10-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hola mi famila y amigos,
¿Como estan? Thanks so much for the emails Dad, Mom, Kim, and Alyssa. Loved them, loved them. I´m glad you all enjoyed conference. It was sure amazing. Thanks for sharing the talks that really touched you. I was able to watch conference saturday and sunday and all in english except the relief society session, so I´m glad you gave me a little update kim. But actually I understand quite a bit, which I was really grateful for. The talks that I really loved were from Elder Scott about listening to the spirit and recieving personal revelation and Elder Holland and his very powerful testimony of the book of mormon and the prophet..amazing. And the one seventy about the mighty change of heart and the likening it to the physical heart transplant. There were so many great talks. One of my earlier comp told me that if you go into conference with a question that you have been prayerfully pondering you can recieve the answer in conference. So I decided to try it, and it was really neat. I recieved one of the answers in conference and the other no and I was kind of disappointed. It was the question that you want to know when I should go home, so I was like well, a lot of the talks talked about recieving revelation and the how sometimes it takes time and patience. But then this morning we woke up to no electrictiy and a huge storm and so we were trying to find the breaker and then tried to start a fire and tried to call someone and all didn´t work and so I suggested we have a prayer and right as I asked for us to have light the power flipped on. It was really amazing. And it was just another testimony to me that I know heavenly father hears ours prayers and even if he doesn´t give an answer right away like my question he will answer. And it was just a really neat experience. So that question, I´m still praying about. But we had an amazing conference because we had 13 investigadors come. And they had to ride a bus 20 minutes away. We also had a miracle because of some miscommunication this fmaily that we´re teaching missed the bus, but they were all ready. So my comp arranged for a taxi but there were six of them so they wouldn´t fit and they were kind of mad at what happened, so we prayed that they could come and the grandma and the grandkids came in the taxi and then 20 minutes later the parents came on a moto. It was so neat, and they felt the spirit really strongly. We´re going to have a baptism for the grandma this saturday and we´re going to invite the family to be baptized as well in a few weeks. We also were doing some contacts in the other city between sessions and we found this neat woman Norma, right across the street from the church and we talked to her for a while and then shared our testimonies and then invited her to conference the next day and she said yes. So that night we wrote our testimonies in a book of mormon to give her because she´s not in our area and so we passed by to get her and she was ready with a skirt which is rare here and she was really grateful for the book of mormon and then she came to conference and really felt the spirit. She really enjoyed it. We then presented her to the elders and so hopefully they can teach her and baptize her. But it was such a neat experience. So technically 14 investigadors came I was really blown away. That´s all we taught this past week to everyone follow the prophet and an invatation to conference and it paid off. In minas when we had conference it was in the same city and not nearly as many people came. But Heavenly Father is really blessing us. I saw a few families from La Paz, they were visiting family, which was so great, they gave me big hugs, it was great to see them. I loved conference. Oh I have a question for you all, What are your absolute favorite scriptures? Thanks for everything, for the emails and prayers and everything. I love you all mucho.
con amor, Tiffani
p.s. these photos are of the norma and us the neat woman from the other city, and the family that was a miracle that came and the grandma is going to be baptized the end of this week. And us the country with the cows.

Happy 1 year to me...Happy 1 year to me!!!

2009-09-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
I can´t believe it I´m hitting a year in the mission on Thursday. At first I didn´t think I would survive a year. haha. Muchas gracias for the emails Dad, Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Kim. I really really appreciate it. Have a good trip dad! I´m glad Mom and Joseph you´re safe with the car and good luck Joseph with basketball. I´m glad life is GREAT for ya Nicks. We´re going to watch the relief society conference on Saturday before the general sessions, but thanks for the recap Kim. Oh...Stefi thanks for the photo last week, I laughed really hard. Well, I´m really excited for conference. The ward here , well actually it´s a branch is good. They asked me to present myself and give my testimony and then right before sacrament started they asked me to give a talk also, I was like ummmm...It wasn´t that long but whatever, I still need to develop that talent. :) Progreso is HUGE!!! We take buses everywhere because it´s like a bunch of little tiny towns hooked together. It´s in the country and it´s really reallly pretty. Some parts are like I´m walking into the movie of Anne of Green Gables. I forgot to mention the conference with Elder Bowen 2 weeks ago. It was amazing. He shook all our hands and he told me what a great name I had and then turned me around and told everyone my name and laughed. It was funny. He talked a lot about the book of mormon and how that was the keystone, which I knew but it was amazing how he just used the book of mormon and had practiced teaching sessions and his testimony was really powerful. Then us hermanas ate lunch with him and his wife our mission president and he told us, you hermanas are the best, you always have the greatest success. It was really nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn´t get the cookies, probably won´t for a couple of weeks till zone conference unfortunately, I´ll dip them in milk. :) This area is really really busy we are running from charla to charla. We´re having a baptism in 2 weeks. I haven´t been this busy since my first 2 changes. Last night, Hna Rogers and me made crepes on a camp stove, they were really good. Our apt. doesn´t have a stove or oven, I´ve been spoiled in my last two areas to have a stove and oven. But it was an interesting experience. The people here are really nice and a lot more willing to listen than in la paz, but I still really miss la paz. Yesterday my comp had a tarantula climbing on her leg, it was really funny and scarey, but she killed it. I hope we don´t have a spider problem here as it warms up. Oh my credit card works, thank goodness, I used it some last week. But thanks for sending me another. I´ll let you know when I get it. Well, I think that is all. I love you all mucho mucho and miss you all a ton. Thanks for the prayers I know they work. Have a great week. I LOVE YOU!!!!
con amor, Tiffani
p.s Here is a photo of us and our crepes.

My third area

2009-09-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hola familia,
Thanks for the emails, Mom, Dad, Nikki, Stefi, and Kim. I really appreciated all. About that question dad, I´ll fast and pray about it and let you know. I am glad life is good for you all, and I´m sorry softball isn´t doing so hot, there is always next year. :) I´m glad your talk went well dad and your enjoying your class mom. Another change gone by, and I´m going to my third area Progresso. My new companion is Hna Rogers from Utah. She´s going home in December. Oh well, I can learn a lot and she´s really nice. I am really sad to leave La Paz. It was so hard to say good bye to the people there. I cried like a baby, go figure. But I had a feeling I was going and it was time. I was so grateful we found investigadors together and that they are doing great, Hna Yeates will baptize them next change. We had 6 investigadors in church our last week together, it was awesome. We´ll we see how progresso goes. I´m only like 30 minutes away from La Paz. The Vidartes said they are going to go to church there one sunday. They are really great. I´ll miss them a ton and a lot of people here. This past week has warmed up quite a bit. It´s really nice, but I started remembering last summer and how sweltering hot it was. I never realized how the physical aspect of the mission effects a lot. I guess I´ll just tough it up. I´m really nervous to go to this new area as always. Change is still tough. But I´ve been lucky I´ve only had 2 areas in almost a year and Hna Yeates has had 4. Heavenly Father has really blessed me and he will continue to help me and bless me. Thanks for sending me the card. I´ll let you know when I get it. I´m so excited for conference in a few weeks and I can´t believe I´m almost hitting a year, it´s nuts. Sorry, this letter it kind of short, I´ll have more to write monday. I love you all mucho!!! Thank you for being a great family. I´ll be sending photos home in a few weeks, so you can see the fun Hna Yeates and I had. :) Have a great half of a week. LOVE YA!!!
con amor, Tiffani

Another change almost gone...

2009-09-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia,
I am glad all is well with you all. Things are good, warm finally. Muchas gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Kim. So heads up next week is changes so pday will be wednesday, and i have this sinking feeling that I might be leaving La Paz. I really love this area, well mostly the people, but I will be really sad to go. I hope I have one more change here with Hna Yeates. I´ve had 2 changes with all my comps and so I don´t want to break tradition. haha. This past week has been good. We found 9 new people and some of them are really great. We´re excited to continue to teach them. My family Vidarte has callings now. They are like fully integrated in the ward. It´s awesome!! I feel like a proud parent. haha. The gospel is amazing. This week the ward is having a talent show and guess what me and hermana yeates are doing a duet on the guitar. It´s the same song I did with Hna Wilson, ("I hope they call me on a mission," It´s like the only one I have memorized) But this lady in our ward is really sweet and she played us some uruguayan folk songs and we recorded them and then she had me play that song and then she said I could borrow her guitar till the talent show. So at nights when I have a few minutes we practice or I just practice hymns. It´s really fun. I really miss the guitar. I made a resolve to practice that and get a lot better when I get back. But I´m glad I have had a few chances to use what I know. Our investigador luis came to church again which was great, but he booked it home after to smoke. He never goes longer than a hour to smoke. It´s really sad. But we have a lot of charlas with him to try to help and motivate him, but after church we went and he told us he smoked and that he has faith and knows he can quit. It´s getting pretty frustrating because he´s not exercising any self control. I don´t know what an addiction like that is like, but I know many have quit and it´s very possible. The day after he got a priesthood blessing he smoked more than he had the whole week. He´s just waiting for Heavenly Father to stop smoking for him. But that is not how it works. But we´ll keep praying and working with him. The members here are great they are helping us a lot with our investigadors. We had two really good noche de hogars this past week also. One in English with this family Schvint, they are so great. She showed us some mission photos and we ate pizza and played uno and we taught in English another funny experience. We also had a noche de hogar with this less active family we found last week. It turned out nice, the kids aren´t members and they love having us visit and the parents want us to bring a ward member so they can know ward members. They are really ready to come back. He´s looking for work right now, and we can tell they are struggling and are looking for hope and help. We´re having another NDH with them saturday. They are really great also. On Sunday one of the women came up to me and said I´m like a spoiled child and I don´t know what we´re going to do when you leave, because I give them some ranch packets. It was pretty funny. She said you need to send us ranch for the rest of our lives. haha. Oh this week President Bowen is going to speak to us, and I´m excited, he´s a good man. Well, I´m barely surviving (this running stuff is rough haha). I love you all mucho. Thanks so much for everything. I love all your emails. Have a great week and a half.
con amor, Tiffani

Happy 11 months !!!

2009-09-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

Hola mi famila y amigos,
¿Como estan? Muchas gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, Joseph, Kim, and the Crums. I am glad things are well with you all. I´m glad you had a good bday Joseph, did you get keep your present from Kim? haha. This week has been good and rainy. Every 31 of August there is a storm called santa rosa and it´s still going strong, so it´s been kind of a bummer. But it´s warming up which is good and bad. This past week we had interviews and it was good, I really like the DaSilvas. They are great people. He gave me some advice to try and find other ways of finding people and use baptisms to find references. The great thing is on Sunday this guy Luis (his wife is a less active that we visit) came to church. The first visit we went to with Hna Yeates he sat down and listened to the lessons. He had listened before but couldn´t stop smoking. Now he has a lung disease and wants to change. And so we have been teaching him the past 2 weeks and this week he came with his girls. He really wants to be baptized, but he smokes like 25 cigarettes a day so we´re working with him to stop. If he keeps going maybe his wife will come back and his daugter will also want to be baptized. It´s really great. So we have some investigadors now and it´s really a big blessing. We´re also teaching 2 twelve year old girls and one came to church and the other Alison is amazing, but she has a rough home life so she didn´t go, but I think she´ll come next week. It´s really great. But the interview with president Dasilva was really good, really short, but good. My comp started to kill me last week, and asked me to go running every morning. She´s scared of getting fat, especially with all the chocolate you all sent me. I HATE RUNNING!!!! We only do it for like 20 minutes, but the after the second day, I could barely walk during the day. She just laughed at me. And the next day she gave me a break because I couldn´t move at all. Every morning I have been praying for rain because I won´t run in the rain and every morning it starts to rain around 8. I guess she has more faith in her prayers. But, I love my comp and so we´ll run until we change. Well, tonight we´re going to have 2 family home evenings, which I´m pretty excited about. The first one will be in English with the family that the wife served in california and her husband is trying to learn english, so that will be interesting and fun. And then our regular family home evening with the vidartes. Another fun one. So I bought another backpack today, yep my 5th one, I don´t know why I have such rotten luck with my backpacks. Thanks again for the packages, I really really really love them. We made the cookie dough you sent last night while we wrote our letter to the president and practically ate the whole thing. Little piggies. We have to deal with the stress some how haha. Things are good, sorry I don´t have a lot to say this week, but things are good. I love my time to study every day, I learn so much. I love the gospel and know with all my heart it´s true. Have a fantastic week. I love you all mucho. Talk to you later.
con amor, Tiffani
ps. I really liked the kitkats you sent me, if you have any extras lying around the house to send...I´m so excited about the cookies.

HAPPY 18 LIL´ BROTHER!!!!!

2009-08-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

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

Happy School starting!!! (hahaha)

2009-08-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

Hola

2009-08-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

I am staying in La Paz...and my companion is...HNA YEATES!!!!!! :) :) :)

2009-08-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

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

Happy August!

2009-08-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

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

I am Healthy Again! YEAH!!! July 27th

2009-07-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia,
¿Como estan? Thank you very much for the emails Mom, Dad, Stefi, and Kim. I am really glad overall Las Vegas was good. Well, the great news is I am HEALTHY!! Finally... I started to go out and work this week, which was a lot better. Except the weather, it was absolutely crazy this past week. I have never been in wind and rain so strong. It was like 40-50 miles per hour. My umbrella broke. It reminded me of when we watched that hurricane on TV and the news reporter was knocked down by the wind in the bushes. haha. So it´s been an adventure that´s for sure. The people thought we were absolutely nuts walking out in it. Their reactions were funny. Anyways, we also had Christmas in July this past week, and it was a success. We had about 40 people come and we had them decorate a envelope like a present and then we put it in a box for a game and then sang christmas songs and read the christmas story and ate and then after we played a game "Do you love your neighbor" and we put the gifts under the chair, and the ward loved it, it was fun because all the adults played also. And then they opened their presents and we put pictures of christ from our brochures with a quote that you guys gave me from that christmas quote book and we translated it. Except, I made it and put a scripture reference in english. So my companion explained a gringa made it. It was funny. But I think they enjoyed it. The theme was to share our best gift the Savior with everyone so we asked them to put names of people they knew in a box decorated so we could visit. It turned out well. I really enjoy planning activities. When we set for the party thursday night after english class we were the only ones in the church and it is scarey to be in the church at night especially with our previous experience and so we had to carry tables upstairs to the gym because it has 2 floors so we used the elevator and loaded the elavtor with tables and I refused to ride up because I didn´t want to get stuck in the elevator and so we pressed the button and then sprinted through the church upstairs to meet the elevator, it was soooo funny. We did that like 5 times. We got our excercises and then when we cleaned up we did the same thing. It was a fun couple of days. The family Vidarte brought their nephew to church he´s like 20 and they have really caught the spirit of missionary work and they want to share with all their family, and so the nephew Manual read the brochure and the lesson in gospel principles was the restoration and he turned to the vidartes and said "that is like in the brochure I read" and he paid really close attention. It was amazing, we are going to start teaching him. We are also going to have a family home evening with them all tonight. They are such a great family! I love them a lot. Sister Vidarte calls us her angels. I was listening to a talk during my sickness last week by Elder Holland and he talked about how right before something really good happens something really bad happens like the first vision. But he said many times and this happens more how bad things happen right after really great things. Because Satan wants the person to forget the miracles and blessings that they had seen like with Moses and his vision and how Satan came after or when Peter saw Jesus walking on water and then he started to do it and then when the storms came he forgot his faith. He applied that to us when we have miracles and blessings in our lives many times trials will follow because Satan wants us to forget and forget our testimonies. This talk really hit me hard and I realized that´s what has been happening. We had a miracle with the Family Vidarte and then after the crazy man, my sickness, no investigadors, etc. I know it´s because Satan wants us to forget the miracles and blessings. It was a really big answer to prayer and really has helped me this week. I am really grateful for the all the experiences I have had and know I will continue to see miracles. I love you all soo sooo much. Thanks for everything, always. Have a happy warm week!!!
con amor, Tiffani

¡¡¡¡Happy Christmas in July!!!! (7/20)

2009-07-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia,
¿Como estan todos? Aren{t I so creative in my subjects...haha. Anyways, thank you soooo sooo much for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Stefi you guys have made my week literally.
We'll get to that later. I hope you have a great time in Vegas, lucky family. Enjoy and lots of luck!! But this past week was our first zone conference with our new President. It was really good. He wants everything to stay the same as with President Ashby and so it was the same format with a different President. It was really good. Except I was really really sick. Yep, I am still sick, but I am getting better. Anyways, I did my first missionary acting at the zone conference they always call missionaries to practice and show examples and so we were called on this past wednesday to show how to resolve doubts when some rejects a baptism invitation. And then all the missionaries critique. It was so scary. I was really sick, so my comp did most of the talking. Anyways, we are the only hermanas in our zone conference and so we are automatically targets for everything,zone and district meetings also. It is probably a good thing. I talked to Hermana DaSilva a lot, she is really sweet woman and told me to go to bed for at least 2 days and call the church doctor in Argentina. He said I have a virus, the flu and I need lots of rest and water. Everyone is sick here. And so this past week I have obeyed and have been in
bed since wednesday. I have been bored and sick out of my mind. It is amazing when you don{t work you think of home and I haven{t been homesick like this since the beginning. I guess the best medicine for homesickness is missionary work. I have listened to a lot of talks and read some, but I have had a really super bad headache for most of the days and I couldn't read. I even missed church, it was sad. It was my first day of rest on the day of rest in my mission. The ward has been really good and some hermanas have took turn babysitting me while my comp worked. But we don't have investigadors so my comp babysat me most of the time. I felt bad because she wants to go work. But I guess Heavenly Father knew that I would be sick for a week, so it is good that we haven't had investigadors.
She has been great and has really helped me. I have seen a lot service and love this past week from her and from the Hermanas, when they came they cleaned some of our house and even washed some of my clothes. Really really nice. Our family, the family Vidarte they came visited us after church it was so neat and really brightened my day. They are amazing, the son passed the sacrament yesterday. Always blessings. Oh and I haven't seen the crazy man. haha. Thanks for the ideas for the party, Dad. I hope it will be a success. And for the information about the swine flu. The uruguayans are some of the most panicked people I have ever met. Thanks. I think I will live. I get to be a missionary tonight and I am pretty excited, we are having a family home evening with the family vidarte!! Sorry, I don't have much else to write. But I love you all much and thanks for the prayers, love, and letters, and support. Have a fantastic week!! Love you and miss you all much.
con amor, Tiffani

Hola from La Paz

2009-07-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia,
Muchas gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, Kim, and STEFI!!! I really enjoyed them. Good luck Joseph with basketball and have fun in Vegas everyone else. I am glad you all are having a good summer. Dad, I will look for a cd player here and the music rule has not changed we are still stuck with motab. Thank you, enjoy chicago and you should eat a chicago hot dog. I am glad you get to go to MTC again Mom, I can tell you are happier when you go. I am glad your talk went well nikki and good luck on your even Kim. Well, another chilly week has passed. And I have been sick with the flu, I really am allergic to the cold I think. The mission president{s wife told me to call the area missionary doctor and he said I just needed to rest and take some medicine. They were worried because of this swine flu. What{s up with this flu, what is it, they even have announcements in church to stay home if your sick. And everyone is so scared, so I am just wondering, they don{t tell us anything. So wednesday I stayed in bed all day. I have to say it{s a bummer to be sick without a mommmy and a television. haha. But I got some reading done. So that was good. I got a blessing to and that always works. I am feeling a little better but I am going to sleep after I write this email. We received some great news this week, that our mission president gave us an extra hour to study spanish after lunch, I am sooo excited. I think that will really help. My comp and I have been talking and I really want to learn to teach and I have not had the opportunity to learn because my comps have always liked to talk. And so we are using companion study to practice lessons and teach with unity and it has been really good, she is trying to help me more and I really appreciate that. We have been really struggling to find people to teach we have like 2 investigadors and it has been really hard and we have been sad and so I read Alma 26 and shared it with her and it is an amazing chapter and gave us more hope and confidence that we will find people as we continue to pray, work, and obey. Also, this week we ran into "the creepy-anti american-freaky sounding-obviously mental stalker dude" as Stefi puts it again. He was waiting for us by the church but we were walking in the light and people were around, so he just yelled the usual things at us threats on our lives, how much he hates the USA and the mormons and all that. So we called the mission president and he said we can use that study hour in the night and so we come to our apt. one hour early to study and the ward is so helpful and supportive and we have had priesthood holders with us every night and they walk us home and so it is really great. And we have lessons with the members which is much better. Always a silver lining. I took your suggestion dad to have a "Christmas in July" and we are going to do it as a ward activity. We are really excited. We planned some of it in a missionary meeting we had yesterday. But if you guys have ideas, activities, suggestions, that would be great. We are having it the 24th of the July so like Christmas Eve. We hope it will turn out good, the ward does not have activities ever and they need to be more friendly and united so we are hoping this will help and they become more friendly with the new members also. Oh, our family, the family Vidarte that was baptized two weeks ago, the dad and son recieved the priesthood yesterday and that was so exciting. They are going to do baptisms in the temple saturday and Grasiella who was baptized about a month ago is going to, they are all so great. We feel like proud parents. haha. Or what we think proud parents feel like. haha. This week we are having zone conference, our first with our new president so that will be interesting. I will let you know how it goes. Well, thanks for everything. I love you all mucho and miss you a lot. Have a happy week.
con amor, Tiffani

Pop Quiz

2009-07-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia,
¿Como estan? Muchas gracias for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, Joseph, Kim, and Naomi! I am glad all is well and you had a great 4th of July. I was really thinking how grateful I am to be from the United States on saturday and many freedoms and blessings I have. So I am sending a picture of me all bundled up, everyone guess how many pieces of clothes am I wearing. The answer is at the bottom. haha.

Also, photos of our baptisms last week.

Well, this week has been pretty normal as far as the life of a missionary, good and hard. The highlight I would have to say was the mission conference. It was great to see all the missionaries together and my old districts and companions. Also, President Da Silva is a really neat and humble man. I could tell they were really nervous. But it was really neat he had questions and answers and one of the questions was what is your vision for the mission and he wants us all to recognize the spirit and he really emphasized the spirit in his talk. It was really neat and like a breath of fresh air. Because he talked about how it´s not just about baptisms its about inviting people to Christ through the 5 steps faith, repentance, baptism, the spirit, and endure to the end. He joined the church when he was 21 a week before he married his wife who was a member all her life. He has been an area authority the past 7 years and has 3 kids. He says he can carry a conversation in english, so that is good. All of his kids have served missions and the youngest is in the other Uruguay mission. His daughter teaches at the MTC, so Mom maybe you´ll see her. His wife is really nice to, she didn´t talk a lot, she was so nervous but she was like if you get sick I want you first to pray and then get a blessing and put your confidence in Heavenly Father that he will help you. They both really emphasized prayer and following the spirit. He said a few times this is just my 3rd day as a missionary, so I am new also, he was really humble. I´m excited, I think it will be really good.
We had kind of scarey experience this week to as we were walking home from "our family" vidarte this man started walking with us and yelling at us how much he hates the united states and we should go home, even though my comp is from chilie, but he followed us and we went to an old investigador and talked to him while he kept walking and yelling and then we walked to our apt. another way and when we were about a block from our apt. he was walking toward us. He was CRAZY!! He walked right to us, I don´t know what possesed us to keep walking straight but we did and he walked right at me and my comp said what are you doing, and then he cut and walked around us, but I could see the pure pure hatred he had. So we ran another way to a member to hide, because he was looking back to see where we lived and so we waited for a half an hour and then the memeber called some priesthood to walk us home. It was so scarey, this is the second time we´ve seen him and he yelled at us and the first time we thought it was funny, but it was the first time he followed us and was aggresive. Oh my goodness, I´ve never been so scared in my life. But we told some members and now priesthood are helping us in the nights. And we have pepper spray too and the members have seen him before and said he is just crazy. I know Heavenly Father is protecting and helping us. But anyways, that is the exciting news of this week. It´s raining cats and dogs again, but it´s not bitter cold so that´s good. I love you all much, thanks for the emails and everything. Oh I have on 23 pieces of clothes including my boots. yep it´s chilly. haha. Have a great week!!!!!
con amor, Tiffani

Happy Birthday Dad and America

2009-06-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia,
Well, Happy Birthday Dad!! You are getting up there. haha. I really enjoyed your talk. And Happy 4th of July everyone else! Are you going to have a yummy American barbaque? Thanks for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Kim. I truly love and appreciate them. We went to computer place to do emails and myldsmail.net was shut down and I was panicked because I wanted to hear from you all. So we went to the grocery store, and prayed a bunch and it worked when we came back. Prayers work. Anyways, these past two days have been really good (and really cold) but our family was baptized. It was so beautiful. They were so so excited. After the baptism the dad Luis, gave me and Hna Vera a big hug and kiss on the cheek, which is totally not allowed but he suprised us and we were all so happy that ce la vi. It was really funny, because there is this really old crazy man in our ward that tried to kiss me on the cheek last week at stake conference and grabbed my head, but I put my hand in front of my face and told him to shake it. He was kind of offended but at the baptism he said he talked to the bishop and understands and he said he has repented of it because he went to the temple that day. I was trying really hard not laugh. Fortunately this guy did not see. But the baptisms were so great, I was realy ticked off at the ward, because only like 20 people came and all of them left except 5 while the family was getting dressed so no one heard them bear their beautfiul testimonies and no one except the bishop was there to welcome them in the different auxiliaries, because usually the relief society president and the young men presdient, etc, give a welcome. It was really sad. This ward is having a lot of trouble with retention especially the recent converts because they will not befriend people. It is difficult challenge. Our ward also has like 600 people and averages about 50 to 90 people everyweek, last week was 53. So we have a lot work. But if people just befriended and like called someone when they missed church or something I think they would have more people in church. Sorry to rant and rave. But the famlily Vidarte were again so excited on Sunday when they got the gift of the Holy Ghost. Wow!!! It is amazing because when we started teaching them which was like my 1st week here the house was really really dirty and the boys were crazy and always fighting, the parents smoked a lot. But as the time passed and as they went to church and read and prayed the house got cleaner and organized, they put a picture of the temple on the wall and the Savior and the boys calmed down and the parents didn{t yell at them as much, and they were excited to learn and listen. The outward and inward change was just amazing to watch these past 6 weeks. The gospel can change anyone. This friday we are having a mission conference with my new mission president. I am excited to see what he{s like. His wife doesn{t speak any english I sure hope I do not get sick, because that is who we talk to about that stuff. Anyways, it was been raining cats and dogs I have never seen rain like this in my life and plus it is cold, (I can see my breath in my apartment) we are pretty funny looking with all our rain gear. I am glad all is well with you all. That is so neat you all were able to see 2 temple open houses. Have a happy week! Thanks again for all the packages I loved them, I really appreciate the thermos kim. Thanks and I love you all mucho!!!!
con amor, Tiffani

Another change has gone by...

2009-06-26T07:31:00.001-07:00

Hola mi famlia,
Gracias for your emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Aunt Charlene. Thank you Brother and Sister Cook for the money! Congrats on your callings Nikki and Stefi that is awesome, wow, I will keep you in my prayers. Also, I am glad you feel better mom and can go to the mtc again. That would have been cool if you could have met my mission president. And a big congratulations to you Dad for meeting your goal. Maybe I will start when I have a companion who wants to run also. That is so great. Thanks again for the packages I truly loved them and am so happy. The egg thing is pretty neat.
Well, we are not changing, I get another change with Hna Vera that is great. She is awesome, it will be good to be with her but it is going to be difficult because we do not have any investigators, but it is okay we will find people. But we are baptzing our family tomorrow. The family Vidarte. I AM SO EXCITED!! They are so neat. And they are so excited for their baptisms. They are pretty poor, but when they found out that stake conference was last week they got church clothes and dressed up so nice. It was a amazing. They loved the conference and they pray together and read the scriptures and are starting to have family home evening. It is unreal. I am attaching pictures of our baptisms 2 weeks ago Camila and Grasiela and also a picture of the family that are getting baptized tomorrow. Hna Yeates and Hna Orme are going to be companions together in Minas. So not fair. But I am happy for them. At the stake conference we got to listen to Elder Bowen. And it was really neat, he also had a special meeting for the recent converts before and he really excited them and explained all the things they need to hear like do not get offended at the people and endure to the end. It was really neat. We have one recent convert Facundo who was in love with the missionary that baptized him and so he just gets offended really easy and hasn{t come while I was here. But he loves president Ashby and so we called him and they talked to together at the night session of stake conference and he completely changed he decided to come to the next day conference and he listens to us and is excited to learn and he helped with a lesson in the following week. He still has a ways to go, but the change in his countenance already is amazing. I hope he keeps going. It still is so very cold, but as we were walking home from a charla, I realized I love being a missionary. It is still hard everyday and my spanish is not very good, but It is so neat to see the lives of people change and know that I am a tiny part of that. I am really grateful for the experiences that I have had and I just love studying the scriptures and finding new things. It is truly a blessing. I know Heavenly Father has watched over me a lot these past almost 9 months, and all my life for that matter. I love you all a lot, thanks for the prayers, love, support, packges, american food, emails, letters, total, THANK YOU!!! I will keep working hard. Have a happy week. I think pday will be normal on monday, so I will hear from you all in 2 days. Enjoy the warmth, :).

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-19T14:20:00.001-07:00

Hola mi familia,
Happy Father's Day dad!!!! Thanks for being an AWESOME dad! So these past couple weeks have been crazy and will continue to be so until our new president comes, July 1st. Our pday was changed to friday for zone conference so I have been there all day, and next week is changes so I don{t know what will happen and pday will not be till that friday. Bummer, but ce la vi!! Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Kim. I was so excited to read them, almost 2 weeks is a long time. It would be so hard if I didn't have email like mom and dad. Saturday we had our baptisms Camila and Grasiela and it was fantastic 45 people came including the famlies which aren{t members. It was really neat and they were so so excited. Right after the baptism the Bishop asked me to speak in church the next day and we had ward council and seven forty five. So that was scarey, I wrote a talk and ended up just talking. It was amazing, not very good, but amazing that I sort of did it. That night we had a missionary youth activity about Joseph Smith and watched the Restoration and talked about Joseph Smith and listened to music while we wrote our testimonies and then encouraged them to share a missionary flier with their friends. It was neat. This week has been hard because we have not had a pday but our family is going strong. They are really excited for their baptisms on the 27th. And we have a lot of members who are helping us with lessons with them so they get more incorprated in the ward. We hope that we will both be here to see it. Zone conference was really good. We had it with 6 zones and so it was huge. And it was sooo great because I got to see the Crums, Hna Wilson, and Hna Yeates. I was so excited when I found out they were coming. And they are doing great and the people we baptized are doing great. The crums are leaving next thursday, they gave me a big hug. It was soo great. They fed us a really nice meal and we watched a movie called Only a Stonecutter you should really see it, it{s amazing you can probably find it at deseret book or something. The spirit was really strong. And it was sad because this is the last time I{ll see the Ashby{s and they gave some nice gifts. They really are great people. I also recieved my packages finally. I recieved 4 from you guys and one from Grandma mohrman, so if you could tell her and thanks I will write her she was worried about it not getting here. I just cut them open and looked because our pday was gone but THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I AM SO EXCITED! For the shirts, food, egg thing, etc. I sure miss american food. haha. THANK YOU!! The other missionairies were soo jealous. I just said I am loved. But really thank you. I am glad all is well. Have fun traveling dad, I hope you don{t get to tired. Get better mom. Have a happy week!!! I love you all mucho. Oh and Happy Anniversary mom and dad!
con amor, Tiffani

HOLA

2009-06-08T12:22:00.001-07:00

Hola mi familia,
Muchas gracias for the emails Dad, Mom, and Kim. I´m glad life is going well for you all. Congrats Joseph on that honor. I´m glad your feeling better Mom. You need to send your talk Dad. Good luck with softball Kim, I´m a little jealous. Oh, thanks for the addresses. Anyways, well first this has been a really good week we have had a lot of family home evenings with investigador and less actives and strong families and it´s been really good. We started this activity with the ward called 14 days of dedication and every family needs to read from the book of mormon a little everyday together and have a family prayer and have 2 family home evenings about misssionary work. And we started with a fast yesterday for the missionary work and then after we will have a family home evening as a ward and to share experiences and stuff. The ward is really excited and supporting us. And then yesterday we had a investigador family mom, dad, and two sons come for all three hours of church and they enjoyed it. It was fantastic and we´re going to ask them to be baptized tonight. And our baptisms to be Camila and Grasiela are still going strong and they are excited for the baptisms saturday and the ward is excited so I hope they come. Grasiella´s two little kids started coming and I am using my orgami skills to keep them occupied in church so Grasiella can pay attention. The boy Marcello always wants to sit by me and calls me Hermana morMON and says the last part really loud, he´s really cute. We´re also having a youth activity to watch the restoration and talk about Joseph Smith and have them write their testimonies and give us references this sunday so hopefully that will be really good. This past week we have tried a little different technique in all our tracting, we got a ward list which has over 600 names and only about 70 come. But we are playing detectives and searching for the less actives and those that will talk to us we´re asking references. Because for example we knocked a long street yesterday both sides and we have to clap and so the neighbors know we´re in the area and then no one answers the door. So it´s pretty difficult. But hopefully with some time this will work. And hopefully we can help bring some people back. Today we´re having a zone activity and watching a Joseph Smith movie and eating Uruguayan calzones so that will be interesting. So this past week has been pretty productive and it´s amazing how the work moves with the support of the ward. The bishop is amazing. The members are always giving us food which means they like us. Oh one of the members is a returned missionary who served in California and she asked me if I could make her cinamon rolls, so could you send me your recipe dad please? I haven´t gotten any packages yet because we haven´t had zone conference yet unfortunately but I´ll let you know when I get them. We´re going to have it next week because it´s the last one for President Ashby. I´m glad you liked the alfajores treats, they are filled with dulce de leche which is on every dessert here. I like the chocolate ones better but that was a speciality of Minas so I sent those ones. I love you all much. Thanks for everything. I sure love the shirts they help keep me warm. Have a happy warm week!
con amor, Tiffani

8 months...WOW

2009-06-01T08:16:00.001-07:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
Muchas gracias for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, and Aunt Charlene!! Oh and I recieved the envelope with the shirts and medicine THANK YOU THANK YOU I LOVE THEM!!!! You don´t have to send me ampicillin anymore the doctor said I could stop it now. I´m so so glad your surgery went well mom. How long will you be down? Congrats dad on the 20 pounds, I wish I could lose 20 pounds..haha. That´s hilarious you cut your own hair Nikki. It´s like those little kid stories. hahaha... Congrats on finsihing another school year Jose Vaughn. Anyways...Well the great news is I am all healthy right now, cold but healthy I called Hna Ashby and she told me medicine to get and my cold and cough is gone and I told her about my mattress and she had the elders bring me a brand new one that day. It was fantastic. So no more bed bugs. It all works out as you guys always tell me. It has been FREEEZING here I have been wearing on average 8 layers on bottom and 7 layers on top and a scarf, hat, and gloves. It´s pretty funny, but it´s oh so cold. We tract a lot more this area, because we don´t have as many lessons. It´s hard work. The people here are a lot more hard and not friendly and so we make a lot of people mad. Yesterday we found this big apt. building that you had to be buzzed in so we rang each button and took turns talking in the speaker phone it was so funny, because it was like that movie Errand of Angels when they tried to say as much as they could before they hung up on them, when people left the building they just glared at us and made sure the door was shut tight. Oh well, the great news is we have 2 baptism coming up for June 13 and they are great. Camilla is 9 and she comes to church by herself for 3 hours for the past 6 weeks and reads and prays amazing little girl and then Grasiella she´s a older woman and she comes to church for 3 hours also and she was found 2 weeks before I got here. It´s amazing. We also found this super friendly woman who gave us her number because she really really wanted to meet with us but was busy and we´re like this is really strange and so make an appt. and went and she made us hot chocolate and gave us cookies and we look at each other and we´re like we hope she´s not poisoning us, because she was over the top friendly and turns out she was an evanglist and just appreciates what we´re doing but she wants nothing to do with it and she invited us to her church, but we´re going to try to give her a book of mormon this week if she´ll see us. I asked Hna Vera if I could teach more and she´s so awesome and letting me do it, it´s difficult but I have to practice. I´m also teaching english class we have like 15 people come mostly kids so we play games and I bribe them with candy, it´s fun. Oh we had a zone meeting instead of a district meeting last week to motivate us to be really obedient and work really hard because President Ashby want to leave with a bang and so we´ll have zone conference like a 2 weeks before he leaves. Oh I forgot to tell you that when I was at the bus station to go to my new area I was talking to this Hermana who is 4 months behind me and she went the CCM in argentina and had our teacher Hno Melerio and I guess he brags about that we gave the best charla he´s ever heard in the CCM, the one that made him cry. But she goes, yeah I´ve heard of you and your companions by name from him. My companion and I had the goal to blow you guys out of the water. So that was funny. I didn´t even think he liked me that much. So that was fun to hear. Well, I´m glad the funeral for Sister Rasmussen went well, she was an incredible lady. I hope you feel better soon mom. Enjoy the warmth. Thanks for the emails, packages, and letters, and prayers. I love you all mucho mucho.
con amor, Tiffani
p.s. could you please send me the addresses for Aunt Charlene and Naomi?

Happy Memorial Day (couldn't think of a better subject)

2009-05-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, Nikki, Kim y Joseph y Alyssa (Could you tell her to send emails through you dad or mom or nikki I´m only allowed to recieve emails from family, please thanks, sorry for the bother?) Nikki I want pictures of your hair, sounds great. I´m really sad about Sister Rasmussen but she´s with her husband and much happier on the other side. Joseph great job on your talk. That was nice of Hna Johanson she was great friends with Hna Dittmar, she went home this last change and gave me some sweaters which was really nice of her. I can´t believe Joseph can be elder in 6 months that´s insane, has he gotten his eagle yet? As for coming down here and picking me up, I am excited but sorry it´s still seems like a really long time away. About asking for the release date, I will try to call the offices, I really don´t want to bother President Ashby, if you know what I mean. Well, this week has been really interesting. A lot a lot of changes. La Paz is a whole another World. It´s definitly the city, some of the hermanas call it the Bronx area of hermanas areas because we´re really limited to around our house. Don´t worry, I´m not, I think they exxagerate. Anyways we live really close to our church which is really nice. It´s also been really hot here, wierd it was freezing in Minas, but so it´s like summer here. Wierd. And the Bishop really wants to help the missionary work, which is great also. My companion Hna Vera Speaks english and she wants to study english at byu when she´s done. So we read the book of mormon together every morning her in english and me in spanish and I try to speak english in the apartment and spanish in the streets to help us both out. But I am learning a lot. She´s really nice and laid back which is great and she Works hard. She´s going to teach me how to make empanadas today, so that´ll be fun. I bore my testimony for the Ward to introduce me and they seemed like they were really used to missionaries changing, so hopefully I can learn to love them like Minas. It feels like I just came out on my misión again. It´s really hard. I have a cold, an ingrown toe nail, and bed Bugs. So it´s been really fun. But I´m going to peform surgery on my toe today and we´re going to find bed bug killer stuff. It´s kind of bummer. I guess, there´s always something to keep you Humble. Oh well, great stories. Heavenly Father will help me. We have really great news we invited this woman, Gladys to come to three hours of church and they found three weeks ago and the she came last week to one hour but she came to all three hours and she wants to get baptized so we have a baptism date for the 20 of June. We´ll probably baptize another girl in the next few weeks to. So this is really exciting. And another woman we taught hasn´t wanted to come to church but we invited her and we took members and they invited here I told her it was my first time to here and she came for an hour. It was cool. Oh and I ordered uruguayan leather scriptures covers for my spanish scriptures with the Pictures of the Montevideo temple and buenos aires temple and Jesus knocking on the door, and the misión logo. I´m so excited when I get them I´ll take Pictures and send them. I can´t believe how hard it is to change areas. Thanks for the words of encouragement and love, and help. I know I´m in your prayers and you all are in mine. I love you very very much and miss you all alot. Thanks again. Have a wonderful week!!!!
Con amor, Tiffani

2nd Area...La Paz...here I come.

2009-05-20T08:05:00.001-07:00

Hola mi famlia y mi amigos,
Thanks for the emails Mom, Dad, and Nikki. So much has happened this past week and a half. It´s been a whirl wind. Well, so I got change calls monday night and yes I´m changing and I´m going to La Paz it´s right outside of Montevideo. My zone or state is canelonis or something like that so you can look it up on google earth. I´m so nervous and really sad, but I know it´s where Heavenly Father wants me. My new companion is Hna Vera from Chilie, yep a latina. Very nervous. She was companions with Hna Wilson and trained Hna Yeates. Hna Yeates is taking my place in Minas, lucky lucky girl. But I couldn´t ask for anyone better to take care of Mahana. hehe. And I left her the christmas tree. haha. I told her to have christmas in July too. Last night I asked Elder Crum to give me a blessing, it helped. Of course I balled like a baby as I said goodbye to people all day. They were so neat, I was so grateful for the oppotunity to teach them. As we finishing english class last night, Alejandra my second baptism and her daughter ran in and wanted to give me a scarf it happened to be made by a member Blanca (she is amazing the one in a wheel chair I had talked about earlier) who was there but she wanted to give me something and Blanca told me after she had wanted to make me a scarf but didn´t have the money so she said the Lord answered her prayers and she was able to give me something, it was so neat and so touching. I cried..go figure. A gift from three people I love here. So neat. I gave photos of the sacred grove with my testimony the people I am closest with. So if you could send me more Dad I would so appreciate it. They love it. Alejandra saw it and I explained what it was and you took the picture and she showed her daughter and was like it is real, Joseph Smith really had his vision. So neat. On Sunday Hna Crum made me a goodbye dinner, I have said my favorite meal is chicken enchaladas and she has always said yeah right we´re in Uruguay but she had been thinking of how to make it and she did and it was sooo sooo kind. We had tostadas and spanish rice. Boy I sure miss hot food. Oh well, I took the hot sauce with me. Anyways, I ended with a bang. It was awesome last friday we had the wedding of Laura and Andreis and I got to be a witness because I had my id with me. It was cool I signed some papers and then I take a photo with the couple. I accidently put a smiley face at the end of my signature because I forgot it was official. whoops. After they took a photo of the wedding party and we were in the minas newspaper, but when we went to get one it was closed. It was sad. But it was so exciting to see them they were so happy and then we had the baptism at 7pm it was incredible we had 40 people come which is unreal and then we had a marriage fiesta after and it was so cool. I took lots of pictures. When she was in her baptism dress I could totally picture her in a her temple dress in a year. It was incredible. It´s been so neat in Minas. I´ll sure miss it. But it will be good. I love you soooo much!!!! Thanks for all the help and advice, it helps a lot and brings a lot of comfort. I´ll let you know when I get the packages. THANKS!!!! LOVE YOU talk to you monday.
con amor, Tiffani

Happy Birthday STEFI !!!!!!

2009-05-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEFI! (bougan) haha. Well, first I want to say too, that it was
absolutely fantastic to talk to you all yesterday. Happy belated mother's day mom! It was so good to hear how everything was. Sorry for the tears, I still miss ya'll mucho but I know I'm supposed to be here. Thanks for the emails, Mom, Dad, Nikki, Joseph,and Kim. I loved them. Thanks for the counsel and encouragement and news of what's going on. I'm glad you're all happy and well. Oh, I recieved two packages last week at the hermanas conference the one with the names and the baby book of mormon that is sooo cool. I'm going to take it with me just a little reference, I won't use it as a crutch. And I got the tights and nylons and candy and conference talks. I loved those talks. THANK YOU THANK YOU and Hna Wilson says thank you so much. She told her family last night that she lives in a candy store because of me. I quickly told her that I wasn't forcing on her, but I had told her earlier that my candy was her candy and she loves it. Thanks for always sending what I need. Oh heads up my next pday will be next wednesday because of changes. I'll find out on monday what will happen. The next step in my mission. So I got a great phone call my our zone leader right after you called saying interviews will be on Thursday instead of Friday so we'll get to see the wedding of Laura and Andreis and we might be witnesses. That will be so exciting. Oh my zone leader's name is Elder Weidrichson or something like that from Reno, Nevada and he said that his mom and you mom
are friends on some missionary website. Is there a parent chat room or something? It was kind of random because he said my mom says to tell you hi. It was funny. Oh, so I forgot to tell you some great things that happened last week it was jammed packed with activities. On the second day of the hermanas conference we had workshops and these great members of the church uruguayan women came to talk to us about different things like motherhood, and virtue, it was neat and then we had a cooking class with Hna Crum and she gave us cookbooks. Really Nikki and Stefi the microwave is amazing to cook things in and it's fast. And then on Friday we had that missionary fireside, we had 30 people come which was pretty good for a friday night and a fireside, but the church leaders supported it which was a blessing. Then we presented the ward mission plan and we asked for time in church too and the President said we could we could teach relief societiy and priesthood the fifth sunday. The members are really great about feeding us and helping us with charlas. On saturday we had gotten special permission to let our investigador Laura have her son's one year old birthday party at the church and we helped set up and clean up,but it was great because it was mostly nonmembers that came and we showed them the chapel and invited them to church and got some names and addresses of them to visit. It was great. And the best thing was Laura and Andreis still came to church even with all they're family visiting. So she can get baptized. I'm so excited for Friday. It will be a
great way to leave Minas. Pday was really nice today, we didn't go to the Cross which I was very grateful for and we went shopping and wrote letters and took a nap, it was really nice and laid back. Tonight we're having a noche de hogar family home evening with Laura and Andreis and the Crums oh and we started teaching her parents and her little brother it's amazing that's 2 families. Familes can be forever, yeah. We're so excited.
I'm really grateful to see some of the fruits of our labors. It's been a hard week but a lot of great blessings. Thank you thanks you for the prayers and love and everything. I love you all soooo much!!! I'll write to you wednesday. Happy week!
con amor, Tiffani
p.s. Thanks again for the call and words of love and counsel. I loved it. I love listening to conference talks. Thanks. love you much.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

2009-05-05T08:30:00.001-07:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
Muchas gracias for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Joseph. I sure love reading them. Well, first I want to say sorry Nicks, you are a faithful writer. And I absolutely loved the shirts you and mom sent me and I´m not just saying that. really. Congrats Joseph on your awesome baseball season and good luck at state. Spanish is still rough. Oh, you can call me at 8 in the night my time so I think 5 your time.There is this really cool website that helps calls other countries www.countrycodes.com. If you can´t get a hold of me I´ll call at 8:15. Anyways, this week has been really good. It´s been getting chilly, the Crums were so nice and brought me a comforter from the mission home, they spoil me. It´s the exact same comforter I have a home, so that was really wierd. Anyways, not important. All is well with our baptism Laura and it´s actually the 15th of May because of an activity at the church so she´s going to get married at 2 pm and then get baptized at like 7. It´s cutting it close, but she´s excited. And the great thing is we´ve started teaching her parents and her brother wants to get baptized but he´s nine so we´re probably going to wait fore her parents. YEAH!!!!! It´s been discouraging at times. Oh and an investigador Veronica, we had thought dropped because she didn´t want to live the law of chastity sent us a text and said she wants us to visit and she keeps reading the book of mormon. It´s going to take some time, but I think she´ll be baptized, she´s really sweet. Also, this past week we had an awesome ward activity. Hna Crum and us made them tacos and spanish rice and refried beans. All from scratch, so I gave her my taco seasoning packets. But I brought my taco bell sauce to the party and the kids wanted to try it and they about died. It was hillarious. They do not eat hot food here at all or anything with flavor. But it was a blast, and all the women worked together and rolled tortilla shells and help prepare some of it and we made so much food, it was so awesome. They loved it and we had 5 investigadors come and they loved it too. This month is an activity month because this friday we´re having a missionary fireside the patriarch and we´re presenting a ward mission plan to get them excited about the work and help us. The members are everything. Today I am emailing from montevideo because we´re having the hermanas conference today and tomorrow. I´m really excited. We´re going to the temple at 1:30. I haven´t received the names of great grandma in the mail, so I´ll check right before we go but I don´t know. I´ll do them sometime while I´m here. Hna Crum left to prepare for the conference sunday and has called in the nights to let us know that it´s going to be a blast. I´ll tell you about it on sunday. I´am sooooo excited to talk to you all. Well, we had an interesting relief society yesterday we´ve been trying to get a woman Gabriella to close her store for one hour and come to church and she did. It was great. But in relief society they didn´t prepare a lesson and so they talked about stake conference last week and basically ripped it apart. They we´re just acting like a bunch of gossipy old women. My comp tried to jump in and comment and read that the gospel is perfect not the people. And they kept going. Fortunately Gabriella had a sense of humor and just kind of smirked and smiled the whole time. But we talked to her the next day and she wants to come back. We explained that church reallý isn´t like that and usually we have lessons. She also, could be baptized with time. Well, I gotta go. I´m so excited to talk to you. I love you all soooo much!!! Have a great week. Oh happy early birthday stefi! And Happy mother´s Day! You´re the best mom in the world.
con amor, TIffani

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

2009-04-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

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

6 months - CRAZY

2009-03-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
THANKS SO MUCH for the emails mom, dad, nikki, and kim. Well, wednesday is happy 6 months to me on my mission...I can´t believe how much time has gone by. I have a little suprise in the mail for you all, hopefully it will make it, I think you all will be happy. Well, I was able to get some envelopes in the mail. MUCHAS GRACIAS!!! I got my medicine, garments, chocolate, awesome DVD and picture book. Wow, that will be so awesome to use when teaching. Actually both of them. My comp is really enjoying all the treats you send. haha. Well, this week we have a missionary concert in the town next to us and the elders are putting it on and yes we have to sing. But also, we were thinking of showing this dvd you gave me. It would be awesome. It´s supposed to be pretty huge, the mission president and his family are coming and they are singing. So we´ll see how that goes. Oh also, p day is next wednesday and not monday because it is change day, I hope and pray I don´t change, but I´ll go where He wants me to go...So depending on that we´ll see about email, please still email. Anyways, tomorrow is interviews. You know me and interviews, job,work, school, church, they all make me nervous. Oh we found out who are new mission president is he´s a Latin from Argentina or Paraguay. So that will be another scarey change, but one I don´t have to worry about for a while. I´ll get pretty used to change I think by the end. Also, I am so excited for general conference. Today the Crums took me and Hna Wilson to that giant statue of General Artigus, the one they took me to before but Hna wilson hasn´t seen it. We also went to an Uruguayan cememtary it was really interesting. Lots of sculptures and they just put them in boxes over the ground. It´s like a little city. It was a nice pday. Yesterday, we decided to reenact the story of the good samaritan. We were far away on our bikes and my comp´s bike broke. We decided to knock on some houses and we were right next to a another church. We talked to one lady who was outside her house and she´s like no I can´t help you I´m from this other christian church and pointed to the one we were by, and we´re like we just want a wrench, but she was like no no. And so we went next door and this guy with kind of a tough exterior helped us and took like 45 minutes of his time to help us take off the tire clean out the bolts, etc. etc. It was so kind. Then we gave him a pamphlet and got his name and address and to find out he lived in the other area so we gave his name to the Crums. But he was so awesome. It was like a modern day good samaritan story. It was really cool. We also were really excited yesterday because a couple we´ve been working with came to church after he worked the graveyard shift for 12 hours. It was like their test and they still came and he´s a member of like 7 years and he wants to come back and she wants to be baptized, but they need to get married so we´re working on that. It´s a struggle to get married here. It´s really sad. We´re going to try to talk the judge here to see if we can work out a way to get married faster and easier. We´ll see how that goes. Well, it´s been a good and hard week. It´s pretty warm here. But I love you all. Thanks for everything so so much.
con amor, Tiffani

Hola and happy belated st. patricks day

2009-03-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos…
Happy belated St. Patty’s Day! I hope you all found your pot o’ gold. :) I found mine…well two...two great packages. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! I LOVE IT. I finally got my raspberry gingerale, they were full of yummy food items, I had to rip them open real fast and then run over and do email, so I’ll explore more later. THANKS SO MUCH. I LOVE IT.
I’m glad to hear your week has gone well. Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, and Kim. I loved them. I read them like 5 or 6 times. :)
Well, another week has gone by. Boy, this change has flown. I know I still have 2 weeks but still. Anyways, I have to say Hna Wilson is an amazing companion and I am so grateful for her. This week she got sick with a sinus infection and had to miss a few days of work, she still went out for little bit. The Crums took care of her like they did me. On the second day I called a member (with her help) and I went to charlas with her for like 2 hours. I got so good studying in this week because of it though, but it was soooo scarey. Because I really just bear my testimony, normally. And so I had to teach a first lesson in like 5 minutes because the woman was really busy, but I asked the member to bear her testimony and so she started bearing her testimony about baptisms for the dead, resurrection and the word of wisdom. And then she kept telling the lady that I didn’t understand anything. And I was thinking you know I don’t understand much, but I sure understand all your saying and I had no idea what to do. So I just bore my testimony at the end and said we’ll be back to explain more because she needed to go. It was actually pretty funny, because that poor woman had no idea what the member was talking about and was just nodding her head. We have a return appt. this week, we’ll see how it goes. But it was nice of her to help. I was able to practice sharing scriptures and teaching basic principles. I know I had some divine help, because I didn’t understand a lot.
Also, this week we got the bikes fixed and so we are using bikes. We really fly and it’s so nice, except it’s really hard to make street contacts and my backside is extrodinarily sore. Hopefully, I’ll get use to it. But it so fun to ride a bike I felt like a little kid again.
On Sunday the Crums had a baptism after church, because the father works every other day. It was a family a father, mother, and daughter. It was exciting. It was really different because at twelve a clock right after sacrament we had the baptism so Hna Crum made a pizza for the kids to munch on and then we had the program. I played the piano. And you’re not going to believe this but I sang a duet with a solo part for the baptism for like 50 people. It was terrifying. And my companion has a gorgeous voice but she insisted a duet. So we sang I like to look for rainbows in Spanish of course and I sang the first verse. CRAZY I know. Poor people’s ears :) Anyways, so yeah. And we had some really neat investigators 3 women, come to the baptism and they don’t have a problem with the law of chastity, unlike pretty much the rest of our investigators. It is so hard to get married and almost everyone has a problem with it here. Anyways, exciting.
Sunday night I got a phone from the offices saying I needed to go down to Montevideo today by nine fifteen in the morning to sign an immigration paper. So we woke up bright and early and went. But they said they would bring our packages to us. YEAH!!!! And so I went to immigration with some missionairies from the Montevideo west mission some hermanas I knew in the MTC and it was so cool to see them again. It was fun the visit. And then we came back and The Crums made us good old American or Mexican American taco salad. It was fabulous. They are so neat and spoil us rotten. 
Well, I have to be off, but thanks sooo much for everything. I love you and miss you. You’re always in my prayers. Have a great week. When you send the next package no need to make an extra one just whenever could you send chunky peanut butter and knee high nylons, we have to start wearing them again and I tear them a lot. THANKS. I LOVE YOU!!! Happy week.

Con amor, Tiffani

Hola

2009-03-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Well, first thanks mom, dad, nikki, and kim for the emails. Truly appreciate them.
This week has gone by fast. Super fast...It´s been getting cooler which is a huge blessing it feels like fall in March. The seasons are still really wierd. This week we went to a anniversery party for our ward mission leader and it´s similar to a reception down here they have a devotional on marriage and lots of good food. It was interesting to see. And it was nice to interact with the branch more. It really is a good branch down here. The members are neat. We also had quite a few storms this week. It was crazy one storm came out of no where and huge dark clouds came over the hills and engulfed the sky so quickly we ran into a store to get an umbrella and called our investigador to see if we could come early because she lived right there and fortunately she was there. Big blessing. The storms here are crazy and later I saw an incredible lightening storm. I´ve never seen anything like that. So I got to wear my rain gear a lot this week. Also, this past week we had zone conference, which was soooo neat. We got up at 4 am friday to take a bus down to Montevideo, about a two hour ride. Then we were instructed from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. The spirit was so strong as the President and his wife talked to us. It was a really great experience. At one part he talked about that story from Elder Uchtdor where the plane was 1 degree off and he told us that we were doing well, but that we needed to be 100 percenters and not 99 percenters. He talked a lot about the small things that make the difference. It was inspiring and I left with a resolve to want to do better. I also am understanding more which is a blessing. During lunch they gave us pizzas and then sang to all those who were going to have a birthday and they sang to me and gave me homemade chocolate chip cookies. It was fun. I don´t know the other misionaries well but they are really fun to talk to and get to know. Afterwards, we went to the distribution center and I got some dvds and we watched one today in the church for companion ship study with the Crums, On the Lord´s Errand the life of Thomas S. Monson. It was incredible. What an incredible man and prophet. On saturday our district went to Soleis a town 40 minutes away and helped the elders there do contacts and find people because they´re struggling a bit. It was interesting, kind of fun. Our bus broke down, and so I got a nap and another bus came and saved us. On sunday we had a miracle. We have been teaching this neat family for 2 weeks, the dad is a member but inactive and when we found them he wanted his wife to be baptized and she loves it. Well, they both came to church and we told them saturday we would go pick them up well walk to them and the amazing thing is they were ready to go and I could tell he was nervous but the ward welcomed them with open arms and they seemed to really enjoy it. I hope I can stay to see her baptized. We have found some neat people. There is a good chance I will be changed April 8th, I hope not but you never know. I really love Minas it´s beautiful and the people are so neat. Sunday night after planning we hung out with the crums again suprise suprise they had been gone for 4 days in montevideo and so they made us hot chocolate and we caught up a bit. They´re amazing. Time is sure flying this change...I really appreciate my companion a lot.
Thanks for the letters. I love them. I didn´t get any packages, I hope they haven´t gotten lost. Could you send me more medication please. As well as Ibprofun or advil or something, just for aches and pains, I´m getting old here. hehe. I´m excited for my packages on the way. That sleeping bag liner I talked about earlier is pretty neat and really small and my comp says it keeps the body 15 degrees warmer. My comp says she´s giving her folks your email and so you can see her emails and could you ask them what kind of sleeping bag liner they sent her. I´m a little nervous about this cold. But we´ll climb that mountain when it comes and I only have to do it once. YEAH! I LOVE YOU MUCHOS. I am glad all is well. Have a great week!

con amor, Tiffani

Whew...what a week!

2009-03-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y mi amigos,
Well, first thanks so much dad for the two emails and mom for yours and nikki for yours. THANKS. I love them. Oh last week I think mom´s email was cut off. Congrats Joseph on baseball and your future speaking in church. What great things to do. Also, I never thought I´d hear nikki and football in the same sentence but it sounds like your having fun. haha.

We haven´t found Juana yet, I think she moved out to the country so she might not ever be found unfortunately but keep praying and thanks. I´m glad the mtc is great as always for you mom and I´m glad those kids in your sunday school class are good for you, they´re sure lucky to have you. Hello bougan...hehe. I love you all so much your words and prayers help so much. I´m excited for the treats on the way. Oh my comp has a blog her name is sariah wilson and so maybe you can find hers.

Well, this past week I got the chicken pox, yes that´s right the chicken pox. The ironic thing we were talking about wierd medical things earlier and then I woke up with them all over my stomach and I felt kind of blah. I thought of chicken pox because this family we visit frequently has had them and the dad has had a really bad herpes infection on his face. And so...I didn´t know for sure because I had had them before but I had hna crum check and she researched it and the second time it doesn´t come back as bad and it starts on your stomach. Fortuantely it just stayed on my stomach and back. And friday and saturday I was quarantined to my apartment. I felt bad because I didn´t feel that sick and we had to find a bunch of members to help. But my comp had some great charlas so that was a blessing, and I studied a lot. Apparently I was contagious until the sores start scabbing and by sunday I was able to go church, but hna crum said don´t kiss any kids or pregnant people to make sure. And the miracle is I haven´t been that sick, and I feel fine now. The crums were so nice and helpful and babysat me some of the time. hehe.
Today we went to an amazing place, Punte Del Este, the richest place in uruguay and on the coast. It was incredible. We played on the beach volley ball and soccer and then we walked on the beach and it was incredible. That area reminds me of florida. It was so fun. We then went to burger king and that was sooooo good. Good ole american food. It´s been really neat. Gorgeous, Gorgeous and march is the best time to go...hint hint. Anyways, It´s been quite a week. We might get bikes because our area is so big that could be interesting especially in skirts. Spanish is still pretty rough but my comp and I are trying to talk as much as we can. She´s so nice. I didn´t know you could have fun and work hard at the same time. She kind of reminds me of nikki. I ate my first really disgusting food this week cold rice and tuna and lumpy carmel pudding, but it was from such a poor kind family that my comp and I was praying that I could eat it and not be sick and I did. What a blessing. It´s been raining a lot this past week and that has been a cool relief.

I have zone conference this friday so I´ll let you know how that goes. THe president has asked us to prepare a 5 minute talk in spanish and he´ll call on some people. I hope it´s not me.

Well, I love you all so much. Thanks for everything. I´m sorry I haven´t written any letters my pdays have been booked. I love hearing about everything and it´s not boring at all as some of you have said. I truly treasure it all. I know the prayers are working. I LOVE YOU.

con amor, Tiffani

Five months have already gone by...

2009-03-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia and amigos,
Thanks for the emails mom and dad...they are so comforting. so i got a envelope today and it was great with mms and medicine. thank you and I got the envelope the with ranch seasonings and candy. THANK YOU!!!!! i loved it all. i also got letters from tylie johnson and darrel thomas will you thank them for me please. i don´t have lots of time to write on pdays, it´s a day of rest but we´re going and going it seems.
Well, this past week and half a lot has happened we had a mission conference and it was great, the spirit was incredible Elder Jensen and Elder Zivic are amazing. There were two hundred missionaries in a room and it was awesome. I got to shake both there hands. I also got to see my old companions hna yeates and hna orme it was so exciting and they are so encouraging. I said goodbye to my trainer and have a really nice companion hna wilson. And the great thing is I haven´t got too lost. I have a lot of divine help. The Crums are really helpful and kind. We ate Sunday lunch with them...another american roast and potatoes. They are so awesome and encouraging. On Sunday evening, the Crums invited us to a charla and they invited the family to be baptized. It was amazing. It was a man and his wife and they were so excited. It was neat. We have found so many new people these past few days and hopefully we can see them progress it´s neat. Well, on Saturday we were walking to lunch and then these two girls asked us if we could carry these big bags to help them to their house and it was far but we did and then we were able to come back and teach them and there whole family. It was awesome.
Today we have had a good pday...we cooked some frozen pizzas and doctored them with some of the stuff you gave me. We have a gas oven and so we have to use a newspaper to light it and that is scary and it was my first time and all I can say it was a good thing my comp had water near by. It was so scary and funny at the same time, but we have the hang of it.
Sorry this is short...thanks for the emails again dad and mom they really help me a lot. you asked if i wanted something for winter my comp says a sleeping bag liner is really good for the winter, so will you look into that. and as for bday...i really like clothes. haha. I love you all. thanks again.
con amor Tiffani

Update from the Goose...

2009-02-26T05:26:00.000-08:00

Tiffani did not have a regular p-day this week because of transfers and a conference. She did however indicate that her companion, Hermana Ditmar was transferred and her new companion is from Boise, Idaho and her name is Sariah Wilson. We look forward to learning more.

So instead of getting a regular email from Tiffani, we received on from the Senior Missionaries in her town that she speaks about...the Crums. Here is there email from Monday the 22nd:

Hello to the familia Morhman,
First let me identify myself, I am Hermana Rosie Crum, my husband and I are a senior coouple serving in Uruguay. We have been in Minas since the 1st day of January. We came to Minas in december to get to know the area and look for a house, Hermana Mohrman and Hermana Dittmar had located a house for us, and we liked it and we had lunch with the girls and went back to our area, 1 and 1/2 hours away. We moved the 31st of December and have loved the oppportunity to get to know Hermanita Tiffani.
We have watched her grow, both in spanish and in confidence of her abilities. We truly love her and appreciate her cute sense of humor.
We live only a few blocks from the apartment of the sisters, and most nights when they finish their work they stop by, for a recap of the day and sometimes for something good to eat. (american). Often we study spanish with them in the morning, we didn't speak spanish before we came here either, and we have enjoyed Tiffani as she has shared the first vision, in spanish with us and shared her testimony in spanish also.
She is bright, talented, and fun. Missions are hard but she is adjusting, (so are we, and we only have 4 months left.) we just wanted to share with you both that we love your daughter and that she is doing well. One day it will click and she will understand what the people are saying, and then oh boy look out, she will be a fire ball. She has had great training in the workings of the mission, and will be a great trainer for someone else, later on.
I know you are proud of her and so are we and we feel like we know you a little, because she shares her love for you with us. Last night she said she loved Uruguay and the people here, and always she shares her love of the Savior.
Thanks for sharing your darling daughterr with us.
Los Crums from Mesa Arizona

Hola

2009-02-16T05:09:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Well, just to let you know in advance we didn´t print emails first and so I´m not going to comment a lot on them because I haven´t read them but thank you Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Kim. I´m glad Joseph is doing well in basketball. And Nikki is okay and the car can be fixed. I´m so happy you can breathe and eat better dad that is so amazing. And I´m always glad to hear you love the mtc and it is going well mom, nikki should defintely volunteer. I really liked the mtc. I hope stefi is well also, i assume she is...Anyways, this last week we had that fiesta at the crums which was pretty neat. We had over 60 people come and most were nonmembers which was the goal. It was awesome. It was an american party and therefore we helped hna crum all monday cook and prepare for the party. We showed two dvds finding faith and the restoration. It was quite the thing, and people really liked the american food. Pres. Ashby´s daughter came recently from the states and brought back squeeze cheese like you sent me and we used that and a lot of people really liked that. Yummy stuff, and we had hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, veggies and dip, cookies and cakes, peanut buter and jelly sandwiches, and koolaid courtesy of you all. Thanks. They loved Koolaid. It was a long day but a success and elder crum playd the harmonica and they sang a duet ith hna crum and it was really neat I spent most of the time restocking food and helping ebcause it is still really hard to communiacate with people. Hna Crum was a cateror so it was quite the set up we had going. Well, this week I had to give a talk in district meeting, my district leader must really like to hear me or knows how much I don´t like to give them, two talks in 3 days. Anyways, I survived. The crums went to montevideo to watch the mission office for 4 days, so I missed them. But it was a blessing because the day before my shoe broke my 100 dollar shoe and they took them to find a place to fix them so hopefully it will be good. Um, we also had 12 people in church this week and that was awesome and our investigador will be able to be baptized saturday. Oh I also have interviews wednesday in maldanado so that will be interesting. I´ll get my packages. I hope it goes good. We have changes next week and my comp thinks she will be changed so I might have a new companion next week and remember that conference next week so I don´t know if I will be able to email next week at all and if I do it will be wednesday, so you don´t worry or anything and still write just in case. I hope I can. Well, it´s gotten really hot again and humid but I wear a lot of sunscreen and a goofy looking hat to protect me. I have the funniest tan lines. We´ve found 27 new people this week so it´s been really successful and we´ll get cookies again. Well thanks for the emails again. I love you. Tell kim happy birthday.
con amor, Tiffani

Hola mi familia....Happy Valentines Day!!!

2009-02-09T06:08:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Thanks for the emails Mom, Dad, Nikki and Kim. Truly Truly Truly appreciate them. Well, I am glad all is well and I´m sorry it is cold... too bad we can´t mix our weathers to have it in the middle. Anyways, yesterday I gave my first spanish talk in Uruguay. SCAREY, but it wasn´t that bad. There is an extension of our branch about 40 minutes away called Soleis. We went last month and they have elders there. Well we go with the crums once a month for a support and the elders asked me to talk and guess what on. The fifth principle of the gospel, so I already had ideas which was great and I used a lot of preach my gospel because it´s the only way I can make it long enough. They asked 2 days before so I had to stay up late to finish it, but I did. It´s kind of peaceful at night anyways to think. Anyways, I was the concluding speaker...again a lot of pressure and I did it, and I apologized for my spanish in the beginning and then i gave my simple talk. There were only about 20 people there with 6 missionaires. But they told me after I did well and it was encouraging. Also, this week there was a huge huge spider in our house and it was so scary looked like a tarantula and I got stuck killing it because I didn´t want elder crum to come out of bed to kill it and that´s what would have happened if I didn´t kill it. I had to spray it down from the wall with mosquito killer and then when it got low enough I smashed with a shoe and screamed bloody murder. haha. It was so scary, but now kind of funny.
On the 21st we are probably going to have a baptism for a woman named Alejandra which will be really neat. She is working on quitting smoking... oh and our last baptism Juana has gone AWALL and has been missing since the week after her baptism we go to her house everyday but no luck so we´ll keep looking and praying. It´s really sad, because she isn´t even enjoying the blessings of being baptized. ´This week we had a couple of spanish study sessions with the crums and they are so nice and encouraging and patient. Elder crum doesn´t even speak spanish. the crums still spoil us and took us out to eat at a restraunt friday which was really good and soooo nice. They are so great and spoiling us. Well, sorry not a lot of info, I spent some of the writing time reading because we didn´t get to print first. But could you send me more medication I´ll have enough till the next package hopefully. Thanks so much for the love, support, and prayers. I love you all so much. Thanks for the help. Well, have a happy week. I´m glad you could see minas on google earth. I keep you all in my prayers. We´re having a fiest tonight as a missionary activity with the crums so i´ll let you know how it goes next week, it is exciting and i am using some of the kool aid to help out. we´re expecting like 60 people. It will be fun. i love you.
con amor, Tiffani

google earth image of Minas

2009-02-02T09:42:00.000-08:00

HAPPY FEBRUARY!

2009-02-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Well, first I would like to thank you mucho much for the package, I recieved one at zone conference and it had awesome seasonings and candy, nutella, snoopy mug, mustard...thank you soooooooooo much!! I loved it. Also thank you for the emails, Mom, Dad, Nikki, Joseph, STEFI...I almost died of shock. hehe. I always love hearing from you all. Thanks also for the words of comfort. Thanks for the patience. Mom...your talk was wonderful, and not because it was about me but it really reminded me of a lot of things. I have had some neat times these past four months. So Elder y Hna Crum´s kids google earth Minas and they can see where they live so I thought you could try it. We live on the road artigus and there is an LDS chapel on it and we live across the road from it down a tiny bit in a bunch of houses connected together by the fork in the road. So if you want to try it.
Well, I had my first zone conference it was really interesting...I couldn´t understand a lot of it. But I learned a lot. Our mission goal is having march maddness like the numbers in march maddness 16 lessons with a member every week, 8 investigadors in church, 4 baptisms and other numbers like that but based off march maddness. We also played a scripture search game based on basketball shooting. It was interesting and it was a lot of being obedient and stuff like that but it was also really good and I like the Ashby´s. They fed us uruguayan pizza after and it was okay but it was really nice of them. I got some choc. chip cookies from sister ashby because we found 24 new people a couple weeks ago. So they were good. I shared with the crums and they appreciated it. I also got a letter from hna orme it was really nice and encouraging and she says hi. I´m sure she misses the chocolate. hehe. I didn´t get to see her or hna yeates which is sad but I will feb. 25 we are having a mission conference that day and Elder Jay Jensen and Elder Zivic are coming to talk to the whole mission so just to let you know that pday is feb. 25 a wednesday and I don´t know if I will be able to email. I sure hope soooo. But just a heads up. It will be neat to hear from the general authorities.
Last week the crums had a barbeque after district mtg. which was awesome, they went to an american store in montevideo so we got doritos too...small american pleasure. I love the stuff you sent. I ate pudding with the crums yesterday and they loved it also. America is such a great place and not just the food! I know obama is a moron but I am sure glad we have the gospel. There are some stupid people here that congratulate us on our new pres. and love him and as missionaries we can´t express political opinions, but they just don´t understand anything. I don´t understand why they care so much.
So yesterday I bore my testimony in Sacrament. I was sitting next to an investigator Maria and I challenged her to go and she wouldn´t so I said I would go with her and she did. and for the first time ever it was neat that she tried. Part of the challenge was for me because it is always scary to bare my testimony as you know but I did and I balled, it´s so scary. But I am glad I did. And I realized as I bore my testimony that I really love these people here. They are really neat. It´s still hard and hot duh...but I´m glad I´m here in Minas with these people. We are teaching some neat people, but they need to get married so we´re waiting. The elders had a baptism saturday and I stumbled thorugh the piano, but no one else could so I´m glad I was there. Well, I sure miss you all sooooo much. And I know this is important, I love you mucho mucho. Thanks for the emails the words of comfort and encouragement and stories and events and everything help sooo much. Thanks for always being there for me. I keep you all in my prayers. Have a great week!!! LOVE YA´LL!!!!
con amor, Tiffani

Hola

2009-01-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Well, thank you emails from dad,mom, nikki, joseph, and kim. MUCHAS GRACIAS!! I also want to thank you for the envelope I received it last tuesday so I had to wait till day but the mms survived and they look awesome, that is so cool. thanks for the medicine also and candy and bookmarks and pictures. Joseph looks like a stud...I am excited about the quote books they are neat, we have tri zone conference friday and maybe hna yeates will be there and i´ll give her the other book because I don´t think it would be as appreciated here. THANKS!!!! So yeah i have my first official zone conference friday so I hope it is better and good. The crums might drive us i hope so. So I am glad Stefi is okay, that is sad about mahana what a good car. I am glad your program is going well for you nikki. Thanks mom for talking about me I´m sure it was great, and I´m glad your class went well. I hope you are enjoying Denver Dad, i am glad the review went well and everything worked out and I´m glad you still got to teach a tiny bit of sunday school last week i am sorry you miss it. Could you also say thanks to dawn, mary carter, marc carter, ansons, bells, kerry, and alyssa, grandma mohrman for letters and cards I received. Thanks. Mail takes forever here...plus its hard to find time to write letters. So this week has been a little interesting. our fridge went out and we didn´t know how to fix it and my comp made us work anyways and so i was praying all day that our food didn´t go bad, food is expensive here. and we came back it worked. we still bought a new plug today but it was a huge miracle. Then a few days later we had water all over our kitchen and Elder crum came and saved the day and our pipes were backed up and so he cleaned them out and got it working but his clothes are dirty but it was sooooo nice of him. And it works. Another huge blessing. The crums are so neat, we had sunday lunch with them yesterday and she is helping me know things I can cook down here that are easy and simple and she is an amazing cook. It´s awesome, i think the elders are jealous. Well, we had a relief society social and this lady brought escargot and told everyone how to make it. I couldn´t understand and glad I didn´t because I sure enjoyed wathcing everyone´s faces. They were so grossed out. It was hilarious. We had some really neat lessons this week. We visit this really neat girl who is year older than me and in a wheel chair full of tumors Blanca and her mother and they are such amazing testimonies and it´s so neat to just feel the spirit there. They are so poor they don´t have electricity and her mom got baptized less than a year a go so that´s why we visit but her husband never let her be baptized and then he died, so she did. They are just amazing women. BLanca also always supports us in english class. everyone loves the candy, i give out there and to almost all the charlas. We´ve gone through 3-4s of it. I always carry it and give it out and I let my comp eat when she wants and she ends up giving out to, copy cat. Oh and the crums have quite the sugar teeth and so it´s gone down pretty fast but I still have a bunch and i´ll get my packages friday so I am excited. Well it´s been a pretty calm pday jsut running errands all day, so I´ll try and write letters today and i will send them via pouch so we´ll see how long it takes. I LOVE YOU. I´m sorry not that very interesting, but thanks for all the news. I Hope you have a great week. THanks again sooo much for everything.
con amor,
Tiffani

Hola from a very hot and humid Minas

2009-01-19T10:15:00.001-08:00

Hola Mi familia and amigos,
Thanks for the emails Dad, Mom, and Nikki!!!!! Well, like the subject says it is super hot here. I think summer is coming full blast we´ve had a very mild june and beginning july as you would call it. Yesterday, we had a mission fast for rain uruguay is in a drought and we sure got it all night and yesterday morning. It was amazing how fast that fast worked. And a needed relief, but today it is roasting, saturday was 104...I know I talk about the weather a lot, the uruguayans talk about it all the time and it controls their lives, if it rains they won´t leave there houses or if it is too hot they won´t either, so it´s bad on sundays because of church. Today we went shopping down town in there super market they are sure different then american ones, they have a lot of pasta and a canned foods, bread and really basic stuff I sure miss walmart, but they have a lot of veggie stands that we get our veggies from that I eat the ranch with. Today the crums took us to the water park or factory, Minas is known for alfahors or cookies and water. So we saw that and it was neat they had a little park with plants from all over the world in the mountains and they had a spring you could drink water from coming out of a big statue of a cougar. Because a cougar is there symbol and then we saw through a window them bottoling water. It was a pretty area up more in the mountains and there is a resort up there. Then we went to a huge huge huge statue of general artigus some old general here on a horse and it was so neat it was on top of a mountain and huge. I got lots of pictures, whenever I can send them. Minas is a pretty area. ANyways it was a fun day with the Crums and we bought some alfahors we didn´t know where they made them or we would visit that factory too they are two cookies with carmel in the middle with a coating of sugar, or chocolate or something, not a big fan but everyone loves them here. The crums are spoiling us they feed us good food sometimes late at night and they had us over for ice cream and cantelope. They are neat, I feel blessed to be by them. Anyways, this week was officially the end of my change and I counted the total number of lessons I taught and it was 395. A lot huh, I mean sometimes it was just a prayer and a few words and I guess that is counted, but according to my comp it is so yeah. 395, a bunch. We also found 24 new people this week which means we schedule another appt. with them and the Ashby´s give cookies when you get 24 new people in a week. I hope we can find them again. Sometimes it is easy to let them fall through the cracks when they miss an appt or if you find a lot. I hope we can have 24 seconds or thirds even though that isn´t a number kept track of on the mission.
Well, to comment on your emails. Stamps would be nice to have but I don´t know about time pouch takes a really long time but it sounds like the other takes a long time to. So I can try both or whatever is easier. Thanks for the packages we have zone conference in 2 weeks so I hope I get them then. I loved the chocolate chip cookies in the last one, they were gone in about 1 week. hehehe. saved me money on granola bars. haha. That is fun about Naomi. You should of been hard, my teachers always were. :) Looks like for mom and nikkis birthday you get to give talks what a nice present. hehehehe. I haven´t have to give a tlak yet yeah. I am sorry it is so cold, I hear I will have my share in june and july, and august. I bet denver will be freezing. I am sorry to get a rise out of the comments about my looks, I didn´t think anything of it. haha. I love you all so much, thanks for telling me about everything, stories, things happening, spiritual thoughts. I love hearing from you. It makes me soooo happy and I am glad you are all well and enjoying everything. I am glad you had great birthdays. I am looking forward to getting that quote book, it sounds really neat. Anyways, I´ll comment more in the letter this week, even though I don´t know when you´ll get it...I LOVE YOU MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!! I miss you much.
con amor, Tiffani

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND NIKKI!!!

2009-01-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Thanks for the emails from Mom, Dad, 2 from Nikki, and from Kim. THANKS!!! I haven´t had time to print and read and then write and so I think that I´ll just print them and skim them quickly and then if you have questions or need something let me know in the beginning of the letters. And then I´ll comment next week on the stuff. Congrats on the calling mom! That is so awesome you went to Germany Dad, I am glad you got stocked up. I also wrote a letter to Sister Yeates but pouch is dumb and they forget us in Minas so that it takes forever, I won´t send mail through them because it will take months. but can you let her know I love her and miss her through her mom. This week the Crums said they would mail my letters that I wrote last week and the ones this week. I am sorry they are long I had a lot of time in the hospital and I some from this week. Anyways, thanks for the encouragement, prayers, and everything. Well, I want to say my feet are normal again they don´t swell so that´s good. Thanks again for the packages I loved them and I love sharing the candy with the kids in our charlas. And the extra things, I didn´t realize how much I miss from the states. The grocery stores here are so different. But Sister Crum is giving me ideas of cheap and easy foods I can make and I am so happy with my ranch seasonings. Thanks for the vitamins they are helping with my charlie horses and I don´t have them as much. So I had my first baptism, and it was sooooo neat. Her name was Juana and she is a lamanite and she was so excited, it was last minute because she didn´t go to church on sunday till the closing prayer, but our leader interviewed her and said she needed to be baptized and I was so excited because I wanted to baptize her but because of the rules I thought we had to wait. She is so ready and she has such a hard life she is 54 and looks like she is 74 and she works for all her family because they are lazy and a lot of them belong to a devil worshiping church. She has no running water or electricity, it is so hard. But she has an incredible spirit. Elder Crum baptized her. We were worried because we waited 2 hours for her to come to the interview and because she works so hard it takes her an hour and 1-2 to walk a 30 min. walk. Hard life. But she came and she was so excited and happy to be baptized. So neat. I ended up playing the piano on their broken organ, Sister Crum taught me how to play it better. But I know Heavenly Father is helping with that because I haven´t played in so long. Then we went to the elders baptism after right after ours and after the Crums took us out to eat at a hamburger pizza places, they had good food. They are neat. It is almost like having the Cooks nearby. Please tell them hello Sister Crum cooks us late night dinner sometimes, it is awesome. When it rained they came and saved us so we could get umbrellas. The Crums are so neat, we drove with them on Sunday to the branch in Soleis, the elders want us to support them and President Ashby said that we could go once a month and it was so tiny. But it was neat a woman was baptized and received the Holy Ghost and she was neat and introduced me specifically to her nonmember son. A lot of people think I am so pretty down here and that is definitely a first, a little flattery never hurt right...but people here are so nice and loving. They also have a really neat thing here. There is a drum group that have like 25 drums, bongo drums and flag shows and they put on shows and I was able to see some and it was neat they dance and play and march up and down the roads. But yeah we´ve had some neat things this week. Next week pday will be on monday again, so yeah. Oh I made crepes while we waited for phone calls about changes, we´re staying together at least another 6 weeks, and the crepes were good, the oil is weird here but they were super good and thin and I flipped them and everything. I´ll send pics when I can but I am not promising anything I wish I could. That was nice of president to write. I know I have a lot of blessings here. I hope all is well with you all and I hope you’re all happy and healthy. Thanks again for the letters, love, and prayers. I LOVE YOU ALL MUCHO!!!
con amor, Tiffani
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND NIKKI!! HOPE YOUR WISHES COME TRUE!!!

Pictures from the Argentina MTC

2009-01-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

These are pictures that Tiffani's MTC companion, Hermana Yeates, sent to her mother who sent them to us...the top one is of her and her companions Hermana Orme and Yeates.

January 5th, 2009

2009-01-05T09:07:00.000-08:00

Well, I am sorry you didn´t recieve my emails last week. I hope you can read it. Yeah, it has been an interesting a couple of weeks. Last week we hiked to a cross on a mountain overlooking the beach pretty view wasn´t thrilled it was a cross but it was a beautiful area and beautfiul view. I wrote about in the last email. Anyways, this week we helped the Crums move into there house this week and had an interesting lesson while we were helping htem move in. We had to wait for a contract to be signed so us and two sets of elders and the Crums sat in the house next door the mother of the renter and we gave her a lesson. 8 missionaires pretty funny. They are neat people and spoil us. We traveled to intereviews friday in maldonanda two hours away with them and got so lost it was so fun and had a brief interview with the president then on the way back we stopped at a american grocery store and I found a bottle of nutella in a place and I asked the crums to buy and I would pay them back 10 usa dollars. Expensive but I was excited. Then we got lost on the way back headed toward montevideo for a while and it was so fun. Then on Saturday my companion is sick so we went to the hospital in Montevideo and took a two hour bus ride and then she was there for 20 minutes and they told her there was nothing that could be done till monday so we rode back 2 hours. Wasted trip, but I am glad I can sleep anywhere, plus I could catch up a little. We were moving the crums in wednesday till midnight and then the fireworks went off it was crazy. That is where I am today in montevideo and that is why I am doing email so early we took a 5 45 bus and fortunately I slept. So nice. Anyways I will be here all day, and actually I don´t know how long, I hope we can come back tonight. I don´t want to spend the night at the hospital. Remember, in my setting apart blessing by President W. I was told that I would teach indians in the mountains. Well I guess I am in one of the few places with mountains and not utah mts but mountains for here and right now we´re are trying to baptize a indian or lamanite woman and we might actually be teaching two other indian women not exactly sure. But I thought that was cool that that promise is coming to pass. On sunday the Crums made us lunch and she is a good cook and we had american meal meatloaf, carrots, potatoes, and ranch, and watermelon. YEAH. Oh when we cleaned the house before they moved in this week they set up a grill and grillled us burgers. It was awesome and good. They don´t do that here in Uruguay. Very interesting week.
Con Amor, Tiffani
p.s. So I want to say I have the best parents in the whole world. I received three packages from you all and a letter from nikki at interviews. THANK YOU THANK YOU. I loved all the candy, cookies, nutella, ranch, A1, and all the things I asked for like hand sanitizer and vitamins. Sorry this is so rushed I don´t have to time to print read and then think. Thanks so much for all the things you sent I received the salem hills tshirt and I loved it. LOVE YA ALL.
pps. pday next week is on wednesday instead of monday because of changes so I will email then. Happy birthday mom and nikki love ya all.

December 29th, 2009

2009-01-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Well I want to start off saying...Happy New Years! This email will probably be shorter because i haven´t read your emails yet because today for pday we went to pan de azucre meaning sugar bread and hiked a mountain a big steep mountain not like utah but hard and at the top was a huge monumental cross that people can climb in and stand on the top. I wasn´t that thrilled when I found out because it was a cross, but I have the say the view from there was incredible. I could see the ocean and it is so green. A gorgeous site. The cross was so huge and tall that the top was rocking back and forth a little because of the wind. Kind of scary...but the view was awesome. We woke up at 5 to catch a hour bus and then hiked in about 1 1-2 hours and then some elders were so nice and helped me down because I am not a very good hiker. At the bottom is a very large zoo and park and it was so pretty. We saw a bunch of weird animals that I have never heard of in my life. But I took pictures. They have rats down here like the killer rats on the movie princess bride. crazy and huge. After the zoo we ate a restraunt and I had hamburger that they but egg and ham on top which is really weird but decent. And now we are here doing email. It was a fun day.
p.s. Well, I want to say that talking to you all was the best christmas present I could ever have. It helped so much thank you.
I love you all and I am so grateful your my family. Thanks for sharing experiences. I hope you are all well and happy. I´ll write you more next week sorry I just don´t have a lot of time. Quick request could you check my debit card account everyso often I will use once in a while. Please also remember my medicine every month and please send multivitamins because I have been getting charlie horses and my comp says they help. Thanks. I love you and really miss you. Enjoy new years, the fireworks here will be crazy. They sound like a war zone here it was like that at christmas. crazy. I love you.
Con amor, Tiffani

December 15th, 2008 - Monday

2008-12-17T12:40:00.000-08:00

I know it it is early...but this will be my last email for a while till christmas or after I don´t know. Because our pday is on Christmas. To begin with I want to say a huge thank you for the two envelopes and package I got. In the envelopes I got the batteries I asked for and the medicine and other things and in the other envelope I got candy, emails, and quotes. In the package I got the christmas decorations which I love soooo much. Thanks.. I set them up today and took pictures. I sure wish I could send you pictures but I can only make cds in montevideo and I go there very rarely so I can send my memory card if you want and we can just mail swap if you want. I am sending you some christmas cards from the ashby´s for you all. She gave us five each so am sending 4 home. I wish I could send you all something for Christmas. Anyways, On christmas the president has asked for you to call us. So there is a five hour difference me and my comp decided that her folks would call her at 7 your time. So could you call me at 9 am your time 2pm my time. So 9 your time, would be perfect. I get a 90 minute phone call and I am so excited. Could you thank Uncle Jay, the Cooks, and grandma and grandpa bell for the christmas money. So this is how money works. Not a lot of places use credit cards so I do whenever I can I used it for the first time to buy shoes to help my feet heal so if you could check my account. We each have a church credit card and money put on each month and then we take it all out at the beginning of the month and it only works at certain banks. But whenever I go to montevideo I can take money out of my debit card and I´ll keep trying to find places to be able to take it off. But I have a lot of money for a while I changed all my dollars to pesos today. I don´t have to pay customs boxes the assitants bring them to all the zone conferences and interviews. There is no local address to send them to. But thanks again for the the boxes and envelopes and emails from dad, mom, nikki, and kim. Well, so there were a lot of up and downs this week, It sounds like it is going to be this way for the next 16 months. But on monday and tuesday it rained and poured and it rains so hard here and so I wore my raincoat and rainboots. It was funny. But it was nice it was cool. On monday we started house hunting for a senior missionary couple coming to our area to help our branch and we met them saturday and showed them all the options and they took us out to lunch. It was an awesome morning. And they were so kind, they were both told I was homesick so they tried very hard to give me lots of words of encouragement, We found a house close to ours and they were just exciting to talk to. They made my saturday. On Tuesday we went to a marriage farewell. It was neat and interesting. They have a party at the church and they had a devotional by a recently married couple and then the family bore testimony and gave advice to the couple and we sang hymns and then they brought out a lot of good food really good food. Then on wednesday we I had my first district mtg. all in spanish and they even asked me some questions in spanish and I was kind of frustrated at that and they extended our working hours to ten at night . Then on thursday I don´t know I just worked and it was a really cool breezy day and it was a great day. Then I don´t know what happened I woke up friday and I just didn´t want to be here. And I was sad all morning and then we rode to montevideo to have a christmas program at the presidents house. My comp made me talk to her and I started crying because she has been telling me a lot of stories about how hard the mission is and the many many trials she´s had like her grandfather dying and I just didn´t see any light at the end of the tunnel. She helped me a little but I slept the rest of the way and then we went to the Ashby´s and it was so neat they fed sloppy joes and chips and salad and we read the christmas story and sang and they gave us some nice presents and the testimony´s you wrote which were so nice thank you. President talked to me right before I left and it helped me and then I read your emails today and I know I need to enjoy it here. And just because it is hard I need to enjoy and learn to love it. On sunday we went to church and I like to church even though I can´t understand it, the organ is broken so I haven´t played yet but I understood a little about the topics and the members are so kind and they really love us. They want to feed us everyday and we got multiple invitations for christmas eve I felt bad. So nice. That night we watched the christmas devotional in spanish and it was neat because a really inactive lady we visit came and I still felt the spirit and I still understood the mormon tabernacle choir. It was neat.
I hope you all have a great week and a half before christmas. Thanks for the prayers and love and if I forgot anything I am sorry I can tell you christmas. Oh my comps family wants to talk to you and so I gave her your address and number so they will probably call. They live in provo. I am glad all is well. Thanks again for everything. Merry Christmas!!! TE AMO!! I LOVE YOU!

December 8th, 2008

2008-12-17T12:39:00.001-08:00

to be posted

Picture from district in the Argentina MTC

2008-12-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of all the missionaries in the Argentina MTC. Tiffani's group were the first North Americans to go straight to Argentina and all those original North American missionaries were all going to Uruguay. Tiffani entitled this image "Capacitacion Centro Misional - October 2008 - December 2008"

Tiffani's companions were:
Kelsey Orme - Gridley, California
Analey Yeates - West Valley, Salt Lake City, Utah

The Elder's in her district were:
Elder VanWagnen - Salt Lake City
Elder Hutchinson - Canada
Elder Daniels - Idaho
Elder Manning - AZ
Elder Fowler - California
Elder Smith - Washington

December 3, 2008 - I am in Uruguay!!!!

2008-12-03T15:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I am here. It has been a whirlwind the past couple of days. And I am finally in my area Minas. Ummm, so my pday will be on mondays from now on and on transfer on wednesdays and sometimes they just change it randomly, so I hope it will be pretty regular but you never know so don´t worry if I don´t send you a weekly email once in a great while, our pdays are moved. Anyways, it was a half an hour flight to Montevideo and we were picked up by the president and his wife and all the assistants they were so nice. We then came back had a quick orientation and ate lunch. Next we had pictures with the president at the temple and he will send you picture of me and them and I also wrote a letter to you yesterday and had some of the things I wanted...sunscreen, not charged ones because my charger is not working, hand sanitizer, multivitamins with calcium (Hna. Ashby said I should take one everyday), carmax, black permant marker, peptobismal, and bandaids, ranch dressing packets, I know random, they are all things that would be helpful, oh and could you start refilling my prescriptions yasmin, spironlact, ampicillin, including one for semprex my allergies are here. I´m sorry I´m taking time to write things I need I´m sure you want to here more interesting things. After we wrote a letter we had more orientation and they are really neat, we visited and the assistants answered questions about Uruguay. It sounds like it is going to be hard, I am so grateful for your prayers. Later, we ate, and had interviews with the president. I kind of cried as I am sure you are all surprised and told him how scared I was of dogs and the rigorous schedule we are working all day with study in the morning, and the walking and heat. I felt like such a baby. He was really nice and just expects my best and with your prayers and love, I will be fine. Muchas gracias. We stayed that night at the temple hotel like the ones we stayed at in Argentina super nice. We stayed with two girls who are coming home today, it was kind of hard to see that, but they were so nice and encouraging. The next day we met our trainers her name is Hermana Dittmar she is from Texas but her family moved to Utah and live in Provo now. She is super nice and very encouraging. I really appreciate that. We had to go to immigration and get a health exam and give our blood. Took a while and then we took a two hour bus ride to our area. It is nice and really different. Looks a lot like argentina. Lots of palm trees. which I like. Tonight we have about 5 appts. pretty scarey, but Hna Dittmar is so encouraging and is willing to help me whenever and whereever I need it. I am really grateful for that. Well, I think I mentioned everything. I love you all, thanks for the love and support. I received emails from Nikki, joseph, mom and dad. I recived a envelope from Dad in argentina and one in Uruguay but it was addressed to the president so I gave it to him. I received and envelope from kim in Uruguay. THANKS SO MUCH. FOR ALL OF IT!!! Te Amo Mucho. I miss you all. I hope all is well. Thanks for the news. Enjoy the holiday season. I know I am doing the best thing for the holiday season. Love ya.
Con amor, Tiffani...

"Your missionary arrived in Uruguay"

2008-12-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

2 December, 2008

Dear Mohrman Family,

Today we went to the airport in Montevideo, Uruguay, to pick up Sister Mohrman and invite her into our mission. She arrived a little tired, but full of excitement and enthusiasm to get to work.

We have spent the day with her getting to know her, and we have recognized that she will be an asset to us here in the mission. With this time that we have had with her she has shown many talents that will be put to use in blessing the lives of many wonderful people.

With the morning comes the day of transfers, where she will meet her trainer and after head off for her first area in order to start ¨ [bringing] to pass the immortality and eternal life of man¨.

We are now sending you a photo that we took with her this afternoon. As you can see, she is extremely excited and ready to start. We are so excited to have your daughter with us and hope that you receive this photo with excitement and pride in all that your daughter has done to prepare herself for the opportunity that she now has to serve the Lord for the next eighteen months.
Love,
The Ashbys

(Note this is the form letter they email for all missionaries but we were excited to post it along with the picture above...she is there!!!)

November 27th, 2008 - Happy Turkey Day!

2008-11-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

Hola mi famlia y amigos,
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! First thing is I am so thankful for you all. Thanks for the faithful emails, prayers, letters, and treats. I love them all. I am sorry mom and dad you didn’t get to give your talks. You can send me them and I’ll read them. Well, Presidente Wilson and Hermana Wilson are the best, they gave us a thanksgiving dinner or lunch I should say. It was fantastic. They started cooking yesterday and helped the cooks here make us turkey, potates, stuffing, gravy. We also had two desserts it was awesome. It was the first time I had ice cream in two months, very tasty. It has been a really good day. We had a zone meeting and talked about testimony and thanksgiving and at the beginning had a thanksgiving quiz and I didn’t do too bad...haha. Anyways, I am glad pday is on thanksgiving. I miss being with my family, but it sure makes me appreciate holidays at home so much more. Today is the last time I will go to the Argentina Temple, it’s so beautfiul and that will be sad not being able to go every week. Thanks for prayers and words of encourgagement about going into the field. I loved the MTC it has been an amazing experience here. There are so many great people here and so many great things to learn and study. Spanish is still kind of worry, I am really slow at picking this up. But I know I will have a companion who speaks and all will be well. It has been a really neat and really hard week. On Saturday we went proselyting again and we went to new area and went for about an hour and half longer. It was really difficult because we talked to tons of people who were VERY catholic and liked there religion and in the afternoon everyone was taking siesta time. We were able to talk to a man from Uruguay, Daniel and we gave him a book of mormon and he really listened and was so patient with all of us and that was neat. And we have two appts. for saturday so we’ll see if they go through. It was a good experience. On Monday Elder Aidukaits and his wife came to speak to us. I shook there hands and he smiled at my name. They are so neat. I loved their talks. He is in the first quorum of the seventy. He talked about how we can see miracles on our mission because the Lord has promised we could and what we need to do. Actually they both talked a lot about miracles and feasting in the scriptures. It was so neat and inspiring. Very good and neat people. I loved listening and it was 2-3 in spanish but I still understood a lot. They have a neat spirits. This last week is a little crazy and stressful, we are leaving Tuesday morning.
I hope you got my letters last week with the temple schedule and I am sending you a picture of our zone that we took last week, we all get a free picture. So I hope you get it. This is what I recieved from everyone to let you know, I got an email from mom, dad, and stefi, and two letters from grandma mohrman. Thank you so much. I love everything. Thanks dad for the gingerale. Can you let me know if you get my letters? I don’t think I need anything but thanks so much anyways. I hope all is well. Enjoy your yummy food and day of rest. The next time you will hear from me I will be in Uruguay. crazy, two months have already gone by. Thanks for the prayers, I am pretty nervous. Happy week!!! I love you!!! Te amo!!!
Con Amor, Tiffani

November 20th, 2008 - Greetings from the CCM...

2008-11-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
I hope you all are doing well. Thanks for the letter from Grandma. I received the two packages THANKS THANKS THANKS!!! Just like Christmas. I also received emails from Mom, Dad, Nikki, and Joseph. Thank you much!!! I love hearing from you! Well, It sounds like life is getting exciting for you all that time of the year. I keep playing Christmas music over and over to get in the spirit. And I actually miss the snow covered mountains. One night as I was missing them and the holiday season I was thinking I am right next to a mountain and it is white. The temple. It made me feel better and so I can listen to Christmas music and look at the temple. Happy Holidays!! Eat lots of good food and cook lots for me. I cannot believe I am leaving in a week and a half. A lot of missionaries are going crazy being here but I am pretty content, I mean everything is taken care of for me, it is cool, and I just get to enjoy studying. Because when I leave I will walk all day in the lovely humid heat and start having to cook for me and Hna Wilson gave us a lesson on taking care of our health out in the field and all the bugs and parasites just waiting to make a home in me and kind of scared me so I am just really grateful to be here. I am working on being happy about the field. Because I really love proseylting on Saturdays. You know me and change. haha. It will be good. Ummmm...this last week we went proseylting on Saturday and I always forget to tell you dad but driving in France was heaven compared to here, the lines on the free way are more like guidelines that as long as one wheel is in or half the car in or around then your okay. We’ve had some pretty close calls driving to the area but it is a bus full of missionaries so I think we’re okay. But they are CRAZY with driving!! It was a neat day! We were able to have some good placements on Book of Mormons and talk to some neat people. We talked to this guy Martin who already had a Book of Mormon and was asking us doctrinal questions in spanish...kind of tricky. But we did pretty well he was catholic and wanted to know why we didn’t worship Mary and worship and stuff like that. He was neat and accepted our simple answers and testimony and said he would read and pray more. Saturday really gave me a strong strong desire to memorize where more things are in the scriptures. We also talked to this girl Sophia and she said she didn’t believe in God but we realized it was because she didn’t know about God she really liked listening to us and said she would read. Those are just some of the experiences but we were so much more united and bolder on Saturday and contributed more. We had a companionship goal for Hna. Yeates to talk more and she did and she did AWESOME!!! I really like my companions and I am really going to miss them. We already talk about how excited we will see each other at zone conference. Hna Orme says in exchange for all the chocolate I have given her she is going to find me a husband during her last semester at BYU. Pretty funny girl huh... On Sunday we watched Legacy it was better than I thought it was I used to hate it because it was so sad and it was still very sad but I appreciated it more. This week we had two english fasts where we couldn’t talk any english for part of the day and we get really good at charades. haha. We have been playing some scripture and spanish games a couple times a week against the other district that is going to our same district and we beat them. I have a really good district and they are really smart in the scriptures. very motiviating. I like my teachers. Things are good. I played the piano on Sunday and I didn’{t do too bad just my rhythm I insisted on Silent Night because of my ancestor and everything. It was good. Thanks again for your emails and letters I love them. I hope all is well. Sorry this is a little scatterbrained in writing. Te Amo!!!!!
Con Amor, Tiffani

November 13th, 2008 - Happy Early Thanksgiving

2008-11-13T22:54:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
To start I received emails from Dad, Mom, and Nikki. Thank you. And I received letters from Mom and Nikki, and the envelope from Dad. Muchas gracias. I really appreciated all of it. Well I am on my last 3 weeks here at the CCM in spanish or the MTC. I was going to tell you that I left on Dec. 2, but your one step ahead of me. It is amazing how fast it has gone and yet how sometimes days are really long. It has been a pretty calm week. We said adios to second group of latin missionaries and hola to the new ones. There are now about thirty of us north americans and 7 north american sisters. We are now about half and half with the latins. The other girls are really nice. The temple opened again this week and I am excited I get to go after I email. This past week has had some up and downs. Pretty routine. One really neat experience was that President and Sister Bowen came and spoke to us, he is the area president and and in the presidency of the seventy. He spoke for a about an hour and a half. They laughed and commented briefly on my name when I shook there hands. He spoke a lot about magnifying our callings as missionaries and the importance of obedience and Preach my Gospel. He was nice he translated about a third of it so I could understand more. But I still was able to get a lot out of it. So last Saturday wasn't the best experience we had tracting we were a lot more timid and didn't talk to as many people. I don{t know why, but it was hard. I felt bad because I didn't do my best. Which is sad. But next week I will do better. We were able to give a BOM to a really nice lady and she seemed to really like our message. She was working here while her family is in Chili. A lot of people are like that. It was really quiet in our area and so we tried some door to door contacts. Not really successful. They have buzzers and intercoms and cameras so we didn't do that too long. Nobody talked to us. We found a few people who had been given BOM by other missionaries and they liked it and it was neat to see that and here how they were still reading it. Right now we{re learning Lesson 3 in spanish it is pretty difficult memorizing everything, every friday we are tested so to speak and give our teachers lesson 1, 2, and 3 now. Kind of nervous about that. We usually practice to a latin companionship everyday and they are really nice about that. Hna. Wilson asked me to practice a song for sacrament on the piano. I'm a little nervous about that because I haven't played forever. But I practiced a little bit and I think I can do okay. Last Sunday was good, well they are good in general because we get a siesta which is something I won't get to much of when I leave so I live it up. We also get to watch church movies. We watched church history seminary movies and they were really good. I am starting to get into volley ball down here, surprise surprise. It is really big down here and I really like watching the latins and playing with them. There are a lot of missionaries that are really good and the teachers sometimes play and we have quick tournaments during activity time. It is fun. Yesterday we were playing with an polynesian Elder from Oregon who plays for Oregon State and he treats the volleyball like a 300 pd lineman. It is hillarious to watch but sure scarey to be in his way and a couple of sisters found out the hard way. kind of funny. I really like my district they are really funny guys and we get along well. Which is good. I have also forgotten how to eat down here because I always spill and drop things. My companions want to take a picture of me with a bottle of stain stick. It is good, I think I will be ready to leave even though it is really scarey. I am sorry I don't have much more to talk about. Thanks again for the letters, prayers, and emails. I hope all is well. Te amo. I love you much.

Con amor, Tiffani

p.s. stefi and joseph get on the ball. I love you.

November 6th, 2008: Happy Holiday Season

2008-11-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia y Amigos,
Muchas Gracias for the emails from Dad, Mom, and Nikki. And another Muchas Gracias for the two envelopes from Dad and Mom. I am so grateful for the love and support you all give. My district is amazed with you. I got the one envelope with the cd today and so I will listen to it tonight. Thanks. Thanks for the letters-emails in it. I am grateful for the chocolate but I think it may be getting to warm for it. It is kind of melted. But it is okay, I still eat it. My health is good so I can keep working. So I heard about the election from some of the cooks here and I felt really bad for you and for me. I wish I had done my part and voted just to show support. I am glad the propisition 8 passed there are silver linings. Hna Orme showed me a scripture in Helaman that day that told about the people turning away from God and putting in bad men as leaders and corrupting there governments. Very applicable. I am amazed everyday at the book of mormon and how it applies to everything about us. It is so neat. I am really learning to love the scriptures. I am grateful that we have the gospel and that no DUMB president can ever take it away.
On a positive note, Hna Orme, Hna Yeates and me had some great experiences proselyting saturday. I really enjoy doing it, even though it gets pretty hot and humid and my feet hurt. It is worth it. I hope I still feel that way when I do it everyday all day. We were able to place 5 books of mormons to people that seemed really interested and sincere in there desire. We gave like ten pamphlets and were able to get 7 names and contact info for the missionaries. It was so awesome. It was neat to have people understand our poor spanish and be able to still feel the importance and joy in our message. The spirit is amazing. We went to the same are as last week Vicente Lopz which is by the coast. Our area touched the coast. It is a more well to do area. We went all day saturday well from 9 to 4 and it was a busy enough area that we didn{t have to clap a single door (they do that instead of knock). The best people we talk to and are golden we joke and cannot run away from us are security guards, men that the neighborhoods pay to sit in a box about the size of 2 telephone booths and protect them. Basically they sit all day and do nothing. They are not from the area and are usually from the lower class of people kind of less to do. But pretty much all we have talked to minus a few are really nice and humble and listen to us. We were able to get 3 references and hand out two bom to them. One man Raul was so neat and he loved our message and when were were done he said that he really felt something. It was neat beacuse that discussion was really united and we all participated. The spirit is amazing, again. There are also a lot of workers in the area and we talked to man named hector with his two sons were with him about 9 and 10 and he stopped his work to listen. He was really humble and let us talk for like 15 minutes. He was interested. I had candy in pack because was a long day and i gave the boys packages of skittles which they really liked and made them less restless and kind of listen a little bit. They liked us. My favorite experience was about a girl Frede we met last week who was amazing and she was a maid who stopped to talk to us and she told us her brother had a book of mormon in paraguay and that she knew about us but not really anything. So we gave her a bom and challenged her to read it. The following week we gave the contact infos to the missionaries and we had lost her number and I felt so bad. I hoped we would go to the same area and if we did I prayed we could find her because she had a neat spirit. I prayed friday and saturday to find her and saturday around 11 she was one her way to work and we found her and she gave her number and told the bom was beautfiul and she liked it. It was amazing. Prayers are answered. I love sharing this message with people. Thanks for your prayers of support and words and love. I appreciate it so much. I love you all.
con amor, Tiffani
p.s. I will write questions and comments to letter to you all this week. I love you. thanks for the stamps.

October 30th, 2008

2008-10-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia y amigos,
Muchas gracias for all the emails and letters. I am glad to still be a part of things. Well another week has gone and it flew. We have been studying and practicing lesson 1 and 2 a lot in spanish. It is very tough, but our companionship is becoming better. Our one teacher Hno. Melerio told us we were doing so well and we made him cry a little bit after teaching him lesson 1. The spirit was really strong. It was neat and a great compliment. It is so nice to see progress sometimes. Do not get me wrong though spanish is still keeping me humble, a lot. It is hard but I know I am being helped. Last friday, I missed a class for the first time because I got the flu. I was so sick all weekend. But I toughened it up for Saturday to go tracting. It was the first saturday we went tracting all day. Usually just for 2 hours. They put us in a bus and took us 45 minutes away to the city. Our companionship had an off day, plus me and hna. orme were sick... she had a cold. In the morning we talked to some crazy wackos and it wasn't going well. But in the afternoon we talked about our problem a little bit and prayed and then we were able to meet some neat people and gave away two more Book of Mormons. We mostly got some names and phone numbers for the missionaries assigned to that area but it was neat to be able to talk a little bit and testify. It was also really neat to walk around and see things other than the MTC. It is a neat city, the part we went to. The meeting place was the church and it was a beautiful little church looked a lot like the one in Antibes, France. The mission pres from that area came a few days later to get our contacts and he told us that this area is so ready for baptism that we can really start with questions like this to meet people. "If there was one book in this world that could tell you which church was true, would you read it" and then if yes "If after reading realized that the church was true, would you be baptized" Amazing huh. It is the highest area in argentina I think for baptisms. Really neat. We met some really nice people. These experiences prosylting are eye openers, the next 17 months will be hard. I felt really sick that night and the district leader gave me a blessing and I healed fast. It was a really nice blessing and the presidents wife hna. wilson helped me. The temple is closed for the next 3 weeks and that is sad but I will go before I leave the mtc which is nice. Time is flying and there is so much to learn and memorize. I really appreciate the prayers and words of support. They really help. I am sorry I can not respond to everyone. I will say though who I get letters and emails from so you know I got them. I will respond to what I can. I love you all. Thanks Dawn and Nikki for the letters. And Mom, Dad, and nikki for the emails. I have not received one from uncle Jay but tell him thanks for thinking of me. I hope all is well. I keep you in my prayers. I love you! Te Amo. Happy week!!! The gospel is amazing and I am so glad to have the privilage of teaching it.
Con amor, Tiffani

Oct 23, 2008 - Sorry, I cannot think of a clever title for my letter like Hna. Yeates. haha.

2008-10-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hola mi famila,
Como le va. At least I can greet people in Spanish. haha. Yes, Spanish is still so very difficult. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I know that one day I will catch on. Things are going pretty well, like I said spanish is a little rough. But I think I am really in the swing of things. We went proselyting again on Saturday and we did much much better than before. I enjoyed it. It was so exciting we were able to give 2 book of mormons away and made 2 appts. and one almost appt. We were going to teach lesson 1 but we need to give the contacts to the area missionaires, because they can visit more often we can only do it on saturday. But we are visiting the one lady, Connie, Saturday. We practiced a little presentation that we gave when we talked to people and we were a lot more bold. I basically greeted people and introduced us and later bore my testimony of the book of mormon. I did not really understand anything, but I smiled a lot. haha. Hna Yeates said she understood like 70 percent which was great and she taught a bit more. Hna. Orme is the best and does most of it. Even I don't understand it was still really neat. I really cannot wait to pick up the spanish so I can really teach and really understand people and be more helpful. The latin employees and missionaires laugh at my red face when I get back from proselyting because of the heat and my cherry sunburn face, it is pretty funny but worth it. The weather is gorgeous here we had a huge crazy storm and the day was dark almost the whole time, it was really wierd. I love going to the temple each week, it is so pretty. We were finally able to take pictures sunday. The latin group of missionaries left this week which was super sad and we had some new missionaires this week some more north americans elders and sister but mostly latins. Yesterday, we had a district goal to talk only in Spanish the whole day everywhere, it was a pretty quiet day and we got really good at charades. haha. Hey Joseph congrats on being a stud, enjoy the dances. You will be proud of me we have a ping pong table here and the elders love it so I do not ever really play but yesterday I finally challenged on the elders in my district who loves ping pong and is a major stud athlete and basically I destroyed him. 3 games 3 skunks. haha. Your teaching has helped me. I need to learn how to slam it though and be more aggressive, they told me I am a really good defensive player. haha.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the packages, I got the conference one last week and the 2 packages of treats tuesday. My companions love the talks and so do I, I love to study them and read them. There are so many great talks Thanks so much for the notes, they make me so happy. They say thanks. Everyone thinks I have the coolest family in the world 4 packages in the 3 weeks. When I recieved the two from customs it felt like Christmas. I was so grateful the chocolate made it okay, the only thing that melted was the jolly ranchers. The chocolate really is a lifesavor. haha. I usually eat some after a nasty meal. People think of me as a chocolate girl or something. haha. THANK YOU!!! I SO VERY MUCH APPRECIATE IT!!! I hope all is well and happy!! Thanks for your prayers. I am so happy the MTC is going well for you Mom, and traveling for you Dad and your calling. You should send me your testimony in spanish when you bear it in novemeber. I love hearing how things are going. TE AMO!!!!
Con Amor, Tiffani

P.S. Nicole Curtis sent me a email, crazy bonkers huh, it was really nice. Thanks for the email everyweek they make my day. NOTES TO SIBLINGS. Nikki, where are your notes I saw you wrote my companion the first week but what about me. I know your busy. its okay. Thanks for the faithful writing Joseph and the for the 1.5 emails from you Stefi. I love hearing from you all. I hope you got my letters earlier. Happy week!!!

(Note: Nikki has been sending email to Tiffani's email from her first email...that was an incorrect address and the correct one is on this site)

October 16th 2008

2008-10-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hola everyone...I can not believe it has been 2 weeks. It seems like it has been months since I have seen you. It is weird, time goes very fast and very slow. I just have to say spanish is tough business. I am impressed with everyone who learns a language. I have good teachers who help, but I am just super slow. Memorizing is really hard for me. every friday we have milestones or like tests and we usually have to pass off english and spanish stuff. We are still on lesson one. Very tough. I eat a lot of chocolate to keep me sane. suprise suprise. My companions think I am willy wonka or something. We are all chocoholics, I exposed them to fine eurpopean chocolate and I do not think they{ll ever be the same. haha. I was able to go to the temple last thursday and it is beautfiul. It was wierd listening with headphones because it was in spanish. On Saturday we went tracting about twenty minutes away from the temple. We had to talk to the people. My companion H. Orme knows a lot of spanish and she helped a lot. But we were pretty chicken and not as bold as we should have been. But it was an eye opener and for me. Plus most argentines and uruguayan my teacher tells me don't like americans. But we still should have tried harder. We learned a lot and set goals for next week. It was funny how people recognize us missionaries and try as fast as they can to get away from us. On Sunday we watched Mountain of the Lord which I loved and I had never seen and I was grateful I received my endowments from SLC. We also had sunday nap. really great. On Monday Elder Civic and his wife from the 1st quorum of the seventy presidency and his wife spoke to us. They were so sweet. They shook all our hands and when I introduced my self he asked if I was a mormon, it was kind of funny. His wife was so sweet she sat by me and she translated a little bit for me, so nice. He spoke in Spanish but the presentation was in English and so I understood some. On Tuesday Elder Nelson came and his wife and the Cvics and they recognized me. When I shook their hands and Hermana Civic kissed me on the cheek. All the missionaries sang for him This is the Christ in Spanish with an elder accompanying on the violin it was powerful. Elder Nelson was really brief but gave us an amazing apostolic blessing to all of us missionaries. He promised these blessings, that we{ll be safe, that we will lose ourselves in the service of our Lord, that our families will draw closer to the Lord through my service, and that we can become true disciples of Jesus Christ. Truly incredible. The spirit was so strong. It was a great blessing to listen to Elder Nelson and Elder Civic and their kind wives. I hope I can be faithful to receive those blessings. There is a neat spirit here, also an intense pressure but I know it is a privilege to be here. Thank you so much for the prayers, love, support, emails, and words of encouragement. They help so much. I hope all is well. I love you and I miss you. Con Amor, Tiffani

P.S. I got notes saying I have 2 packages in customs. Thank you so much. The President said we actually might get them. If we pay for the taxes. which wont be very much. I will let you know if I get them. also, the rule about food has changed so I eat it alot and it helps, so if you do send anything I can keep it and eat it. My companions and I love the Lindt balls. heehee. Thanks again for the other package, they have some good sauces down here so I doctor my food up a lot my companions laugh at me. We have had some awesome steak and potatoes. I hope you get my letters. I sent one to stefi through argentina mail so she gets stamps I hope she gets it. We also have an address change down here just more detailed to send letters and stuff.

Hermana Tiffani Mohrman
Argentina MTC
Bonpland 2349-55
(C1425 FWE) Buenos Aires
Argentina

Thanks so much I love you and I love the support and news from home. Happy week. Talk to you later....Te Amo...I will let you know about letters and packages I receive.

October 9th, 2008

2008-10-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hola,
I appreciate so much the emails, it is so nice to be loved. This week has actually gone by pretty fast. I want to say some business first before I get into it before I forget. I only have 30 minutes to do email and I can not print anything. It times me out. Also, they said all e'mails need to come through someones account and then to me. I do not know why. Also, I cannot have food in my rooms so please do not send me food, so I can be obedient. We can use the pouch system so could you please send me some USA stamps it will be cheaper. I am only sending a few letters this week to test the Argentina system. I hope all is well. Things are pretty good here. The MTC here reminds me of the apt. we stayed in Europe by the temple so they are really nice. The food has also improved. no more fish. I get to do a session today. So I am excited. On Saturdays we will do proselyting on the temple grounds and in the visitor centers so that will be funny especially with me not knowing spanish. My companion Heremana Orme knows a lot of spanish and she talks a lot me and Hermana Yeates just listen and are grateful she can communicate. We already had to practice part of the first lesson on the temple grounds with people on there and it was scarey to say the least. But I can bear my testimonio is spanish a very small one, but I did that and that was cool. I also learned to pray and say the first lesson although I cannot remember anything when I need it. Oh well I will keep plugging away at this spanish business. haha. On sunday we had the sacrament and an hour and half testimony meeting which was neat. I even bore my testmony, which I am sure will shock everyone who knows me. I was one of 3 who did in english everyone else did in spansh. These young whipper snapper elders sure pick it up fast. Us hermanas are the first 3 north americans sisters at this MTC ever and we{re the only ones here now. Definite minority. That was cool. Conference was really neat and my favorite talks were Elder Uchtdorfs and Elder Hollands. Really neat. I felt they were really talking to me. Us Hermanas had to watch Priesthood which turned out to be pretty neat. I like Priesthood session. Especially Elder Scotts talk. hahaha. the President and his wife Hermana Wilson are very nice and supportive. She is such a sweetheart. It is neat the Argentina flag also has a sun on it. I{m suppose to be here. I can only take pictures once every three weeks so they will come sometime. The latinos missionaries are so nice and so patient with us and they really try to talk to use and vica versa. The food is decent. We eat a lot of meat and potatoes. Which are tasty, I say decent because they don}t really feed us sugar, once in a while. But it is good. I really enjoy it. Elder Nelson is coming next Tuesday and Im so excited. We are practicing This is the Christ in Spanish to sing to him. It is hard but it is a great growing experience. I hope not only in weight. haha. Anyways, I love you all. Thank you for everything. I will write letters as much as I can. Con amor, Tiffani

Side note post...

2008-10-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

I found this poem that Tiffani wrote earlier this year. I never knew she wrote it and only accidently found it posted online. While she has never been one to write poems, I think the message is applicable. It can be found at:

http://www.poetry.com/dotnet/P6174056/999/1/display.aspx

HIM

How can thou forget
"Thou captain of thy soul"?
The supreme sacrifice,
the greatest gift of all.

Our older brother and redeemer
our comforter and friend.
How can thou be thine own captain
when such a price was shed.

The price was paid, the cost great
and given all through love.
And all is asked for in return
is obedience to him above.

Life is simply but a step
a memory in the eternities.
So best remember the only captain
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Tiffani Brighten Mohrman

I Am Here

2008-10-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

Hola Family,
They let me e-mail you finally because the internet was now in the computer lab. After a long flight, we rode a bus to the MTC which is really close to the airport. We had some sort of orientation that I think went over my head because I was so tired. I really like my companions, Hermana Yeates and Hermana Orme. They had Hermana Orme come early so we are a threesome. There are only 3 american sisters in the whole place with a max of 16 total sisters so we are definitely the minority. The food is okay, they do not believe sugar and so I am really glad for the treats you gave me. They served a rice stew for lunch which was a lot better than the fish we had for dinner. I filled on up veggies and rolls dipped in vinegar and oil. We only have 45 minutes to get ready and 30 minutes at bed time all to ourselves and that is the only time I can go to my room. It seems really hard and I am pretty scared, I am really grateful for the letters and the support you gave me at the airport. I love you very much and miss you. This is going to be my e-mail address. My p-days are Thursdays. The temple is so gorgeous. I will not able to send pictures soon because we are only allowed to take pictures one sunday the entire time we are here. I love you again. Thanks again for everything. I will write you next Thursday.
I LOVE YOU!!!! GIVE MY LOVE TO EVERYONE!

tiffani.b.mohrman.um@myldsmail.net
Con Amor, Tiffani

P.S. I have the wrong plug for my convertor is there anyway you could send me the one for australia and china with diagonal plugs.

On the road to the Argentina MTC

2008-10-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

Images of Tiffani at the airport...

A final hug at the house...

The Mohrman girls....

Tiffani, Mom and Dad...

Sisters Mohrman and Yeates and the four Elders from Utah and Idaho...great young men with great young ladies...
Tiffani and Mom...
Tiffani and Nikki...
Tiffani and Stefi...
Tiffani and Joseph...
Tiffani and KimMarie....

Hermana Tiffani Mohrman and Hermana Analey Yeates from Salt Lake City....
The family....

Sisters Mohrman and Yeates boarding the plane...

Tiffani boarding....and the plane to go to Dallas and then on to Argentina...

Today Tiffani left for the Argentina MTC. She will be there for 2 months and then on to Uruguay. As her father, it was hard to not feel much emotion. Tiffani is not only a daughter and sister...but a friend to the family and watching her face her fears was humbling and an example of more I can do and try harder...especially with my own fears. Here are some images from Tiffani with the family and a wonderful sister missionary that is travelling with Tiffani...it would not surprise me if they are companions for the next two months. Her name is Hermana Analey Yeates and she too has a blog page http://hermanayeates.blogspot.com/ and then a mission page her family will maintain. The following are the images of the day:

So long farewell...my farewell talk

2008-09-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (9/21/08) I gave my farewell talk, and I appreciated the lots of support I received. I decided to post my talk for those who didn't hear it.

The Fifth Principle and Ordinance of the Gospel

Good afternoon Brothers and Sisters. I’d first like to thank those who have come to support me and hear me bear my last testimony of the Savior and His gospel before I serve my mission in Uruguay.

The very first time I was asked to speak in my life was actually in this same ward and at this same pulpit and I can remember it pretty clearly. I was eight years old and had just been baptized and my Dad and I were asked to speak on Mother’s Day. My dad wrote me a simple Mother’s Day appreciation poem like M is mother and O is for etc, etc. And then I was to say how much I loved my mom and my testimony of the church and then I was done. However, as I sat with my Dad on the stand through the music and the Sacrament I was feeling scared to death and my Dad asked me if I was okay and he could tell I wasn’t okay and then he asked me if I didn’t want to give my talk and I could just go sit down by my Mom. So I didn’t give the talk and went down to my mom crying and just kind of hid behind her shoulder for the rest of the meeting. My dad spoke and excused me using my shyness. I remember feeling pretty disappointed in myself for not giving the talk. But I was able to move on and grow up and since then I’ve spoken many times here and in other wards and even at a stake conference with perhaps a little of the same nervousness but mostly with faith that Heavenly Father will always help me and support me when I try.

That’s mostly how every big change or hard thing in my life has been like, pretty rocky at first and hard…I cried when I started Kindergarten and I cried when I started BYU. But it has always turned out right. My parents have given me the tagline “Everything always works out.” because I need to be reminded of it many times in my life. The scripture that I asked the Bishop to put on my missionary plaque was Proverbs 3:5-6. It’s along the same lines as everything works out if you try your best and as long as I’ve remembered those words then I’ve been fine.

I decided to call my talk, “The Fifth Principle and Ordinance of the Gospel” which is not frequently talked about under this description, but we all know it. The first four principles mentioned in the fourth article of faith are; Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism my immersion for the remission of sins, and fourth the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. In 2^nd Nephi 31:15, 20 another step is added. Elder Russell M. Nelson in his talk, “Salvation and Exaltation” puts it another way,”

“Eternal life, or celestial glory or exaltation, is a conditional gift. Conditions of this gift have been established by the Lord who said, “If you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God. Those qualifying conditions include faith in the Lord, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and remaining faithful to the ordinances and covenants of the temple.”

The fifth principle and ordinance summed up and used more frequently in the scriptures is enduring to the end and I like even better what Elder Uchtdorf said in his talk two conferences ago about “joyfully enduring to the end.”

What does it mean to endure? Elder Uchtdorf in that same talk gave an excellent description,

“Enduring to the end implies “patient continuance in well doing” (Romans 2:7), striving to keep the commandments (see 2 Nephi 31:10), and doing the works of righteousness (see D&C 59:23). It requires sacrifice and hard work. To endure to the end, we need to trust our Father in Heaven and make wise choices, including paying our tithes and offerings, honoring our temple covenants, and serving the Lord and one another willingly and faithfully in our Church callings and responsibilities. It means strength of character, selflessness, and humility; it means integrity and honesty to the Lord and our fellowmen. It means making our homes strong places of defense and a refuge against worldly evils…”

Elder Uchtdorf gave quite a list and sometimes the weight of these choices can make it quite difficult to endure, let alone joyfully. But I love that the gospel means “good news” and that to live the gospel means to live the good tidings from our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know that He just wants our happiness, our happiness in living the gospel to its fullness and then finally our eternal happiness in receiving the gift of exaltation. It is His way that we can be happiest. The rocky parts, the challenges, the trials of our faith, all will make us happy one day if we continue to follow and put our trust in Him, our Savior, who went through the roughest rocky parts, the most difficult challenges, and the greatest trials.

One of my favorite books about enduring trials is a missionary story that happened in the former Czechoslovakia. A young woman name Olga Kovarova Campora. While growing up in a communist country she had hardly any personal freedoms, from what she wanted to be when she grew up, to where she could go, to what she believe in and worship. She fortunately discovered the gospel in her early twenties through a yoga instructor who introduced her to the knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father. She chose to get baptized and had her baptism in the middle of the night, because if she and the others were caught they would go to prison. She wanted to make a difference and bring people to the light, so she decided to become a yoga instructor and lecturer like the man who taught her and she began teaching about basic moral principles which were completely foreign to these people oppressed in the communist regime. She taught about honesty, caring for others, caring for yourself, compassion, service, and how these things make you healthier and happier. In these lectures, she never once bad mouthed the communist party and she even mixed in quotes from famous communists and interpreted them in the way that fit her moral based lessons, which shocked the communist police who would come and spy. Because of the little bit of light shared, the people who wanted to learn more were then secretly taught the gospel. She worked hard for seven years and suffered many things but she brought light to so many people that even if they weren’t taught the full gospel she planted many seeds. And then because of her faith and the member’s faith and the faith a many others around the world, the wall came down and the communist party fell. This extremely difficult trial turned into a great blessing. She not only had lived through it she conquered it and many people still reap the blessings of her work. My favorite part of this story wasn’t mentioned in the book but happened about 7 years ago, a missionary came to Payson from the Czech Republic and told us that his father had been converted to gospel through Olga’s yoga lessons.

She said about her story when looking back during these very challenging communist times,

“The most essential lesson I learned during my early membership was that I didn’t have time to flirt with the gospel; I needed to live it as fully as I possibly could. I discovered that living the true gospel means doing good despite the pressure I might feel. I came to understand and appreciate the simplicity of the gospel. Starting to obey God’s commandments has brought me on a journey of joy and has taught me the real meaning of freedom.” (234)

Her real freedom came not only from enduring, but joyfully enduring by taking an active stance because she loved the Lord and His gospel. The real freedom from heartache, trials, and challenges in all aspects of life is following the Savior and leaving your burden with him. Read Matthew 11:28-30.

A major encouragement that can help us joyfully endure the trials of our faith is remembering who we are and who we represent. Growing up for me was little bit different because of my name, it always made people watch me even though it’s not spelled the same as the church it still held me accountable especially when people knew I was a member a church. The name though that holds us the most accountable is the name we take when baptized, Jesus Christ’s name and not only that, but we were baptized because we believed that were children of our Heavenly Father and therefore we automatically have His name. By remembering the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ and the great sacrifice He made for us, we can be given strength and knowledge of the divinity within each of us. There’s a parable that I really like about a eagle and a chicken that I think helps illustrate this.

A farmer and his son were out hunting in the mountains and came across a young eagle. Since the eagle’s nest was so high up, they decided to keep it. They brought it home and put it in the chicken coop and fed it chicken feed. Five years later a naturalist came to see the farmer and after passing through the garden he said to the farmer, “That bird is an eagle, not a chicken.” “Yes,” said the farmer. “But I have trained it to be a chicken. It is no longer an eagle, it is a chicken,” “No,” said the naturalist. “It is an eagle still; it has the heart of an eagle, and I will make it soar up to the heavens.” “No,” said the farmer. “It is a chicken and it will never fly.” They agreed to test it the next morning. The naturalist picked up the eagle and said to it, “Eagle, thou art an Eagle, stretch for thy wings and fly.” The eagle turned this way and that and then, looking down, saw the chickens eating their food, and down he jumped. The farmer said, “I told you it was a chicken,” “No,” said the naturalist. “It is an eagle, give it another chance tomorrow.” So the next day he took it to the top of the barn and said, “Eagle thou art an eagle; stretch forth thy wings and fly.” But again the eagle seeing the chickens feeding, floated down and fed with them. The farmer then said again, “I told you it was a chicken.” “No,” asserted the naturalist. “It is an eagle and still has the heart of an eagle. Only give it one more chance, and I will make it fly tomorrow.” The next morning they arose early and took the eagle outside of town, to the top of the high mountain. The naturalist picked up the eagle and said, “Eagle thou art an eagle, stretch forth thy wings and fly.” But the eagle just shivered. He then pointed the eagle directly towards the newly rising sun and added these words to it. “Eagle thou art an eagle. Thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth. Stretch forth they wings and fly.” The eagle looked around and trembled as if new life were coming to it and suddenly it stretched out its wings and, with the screech of an eagle, it flew.

Sometimes we all forget who we really are and why we’re here and we need to be reminded to help us endure those hard things that happen. We need to be focused on the sun or the Son of God and follow Him. He points us back to His Father and our Father in Heaven. When we do remember who we are and what we represent we can soar and make a difference in this life. Much like the phrase, “Eagle thou art an eagle…” we can substitute our own names and say, “Tiffani, thou art a child of God. Thou dost belong to Heaven and not to this earth. Open thy heart and serve.”

We are all children of our Heavenly Father and our elder brother Jesus Christ gave us path to go back to him. Enduring to the end sometimes sounds like a very difficult task yet when we know that if we trust Him, he will direct our paths and things will always work out. Heavenly Father is always there and always looking after us. I’ve had so many witnesses of the love He has for me as one of his many many children. Through the trials and challenges that I’ve had, I know Heavenly Father loves me as he loves all his children. And I’m really excited to share that knowledge of the love He has for His children with the people in Uruguay.

Another little update...

2008-09-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

So today is exactly two weeks till I fly to Argentina. I'm very nervous, but also very excited. I received in the mail today my tickets and itenary (can't spell it :) and my first name badge, it's partly in English, so I think I'll get another that is all in Spanish when I go down there. Even though I'm suppose to report on the third, I'm actually leaving October 1st at 1:30 to Dallas and then after a hour and a half layover I'm flying straight to Buenos Aires. Approx. a 10 hr flight. Very long. I know I get to fly down with 4 other missionaries from Utah and then I'll meet like around 14 others to go down to Argentina. So that'll be nice. Although, I'll probably feel more like crying than socializing with other missionaries. :) It was funny because in my packet with my tickets and passport and stuff were two pass along cards. I guess I start being a missionary from the get go, no easing into it. :) It'll be exciting. I'm practically done shopping which is SUPER nice, I used to like shopping but all this has kind of put a damper on it, guys have it so much easier. :) My last talk...before talk...oh I'm just going to say it farewell talk is this coming Sunday which I'm really nervous about, actually scared to death, so I'm just working on that and getting some last minute things done. I can't believe how fast it's coming...

"I love to see the temple, I'm going there some day..."

2008-08-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

So last week as I mentioned earlier, I was able to go to the Salt Lake City Temple and receive my endowments. It was a very interesting, unique, intriguing, and neat experience. It’s always been interesting about this side of the Church and how it’s not supposed to be talked about in detail, and if it is discussed it is very very broadly. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen and I’ve always loved the mysterious and perhaps I shouldn’t put it that way, because it is very special, but it was very intriguing to learn about the endowment. I was very overwhelmed and in awe. The next week I was able to go to the Provo Temple with my Mom, which is also a different experience and different from Salt Lake. I really enjoyed it and I hope to go often throughout my life. I absolutely love the temples and it’s because of the great love my parents taught me for the temples. When I went to the temple I thought a lot of when I was twelve and I went and did baptisms for the first time at the temple. It was pretty similar, I was able to go with my parents, the temple workers were so kind and so helpful, we celebrated after, and I was very overwhelmed and in awe. Over the years I was able to do a lot of baptisms and confirmations in a lot of temples and now I hope to do temple sessions in a lot of temples. It’s such a peaceful and happy place. It’s so neat, and I love to go. My mom and I are planning to go to as many Utah temples as we can before I leave on my mission and when I get back from my mission I want go through it in Spanish. I'm excited.

A bit of news...

2008-08-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

I realize I received my call a little over two weeks ago and I haven’t written anything on my blog, (really new at blogging and telling my life over the internet :) ) so I’ve decided to write a little update on what’s been going on with me for the last few weeks. I am so very excited to go to Uruguay. I was absolutely shocked to receive my call, because I was so sure I was going state side. A lot of ladies I know have been going or went state side and 3 boys from my ward just got called state side. It was a typical mission call opening experience, I had no idea where in South America Uruguay was so I had to look at a map. I researched Uruguay on the internet for like the next 4 or 5 hours that same day, and also the next few days. I was so amazed when I saw the flag of Uruguay because in the corner it has a big smiling sunshine. My middle name is Brighten, so I felt it was a confirmation to me about my call. It was really comforting and neat. I know that Heavenly Father really loves me.

A week later I got my visa papers and I started getting all my info about me ready and I had to get a background check which made me laugh. I found out for ten dollars that I am no criminal in the state of Utah…that was relief. Then I started all my shots of death. So very painful and expensive. But I guess that’s better than turning green or swelling up or getting spots or something. :) Anyways, they’re done, yeah. The main things I have left to do are shop for clothes and shoes…and shopping is always delightful.

I’m looking forward 08-08-08, this Friday because I get to go to the Salt Lake City Temple and get my endowments. Which will be really neat. My family received like 5 invitations to go weddings on that day and I knew of others getting married on that day, so I wanted to be included in all the festivities and so I get to become endowed on that day. I’m excited.

Things are going well, and I’m trying to get through finishing the Bible and Preach my Gospel before I leave and my Mom is so kindly and patiently teaching me the basics of Spanish to give me a head start. “Hola, como esta?” Anyways, there is my update. Adios amigos…

It's official...a call to serve!

2008-07-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

So this blog will be of Tiffani's experiences on her mission and we will maintain it for her by placing her weekly emails, photos or other newsworthy events here. Tiffani received her missionary call to serve today, July 17th, 2008. She has been called by a prophet of God, President Thomas S. Monson, to serve in the Uruguay Montevideo Mission. She begins her mission by reporting to the Buenas Aires Argentina Missionary Training Center on October 3rd, the day before General Conference. I can not be more excited for her and I know that Heavenly Father is very mindful of her.

Enjoy this Mission Blog of Tiffani's experiences.