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

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.

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 !!!!!!

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!!!

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!!!!!

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

Muchas Gracias for all the Birthday wishes...

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

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

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