Sooooo...

Hello family, can I first say that everyone is laughing at me as I write me email because I was going through so many emotions. I was reading Mariah's letter first and got all excited that she will be going to BYUI(woooo hooooo)...then I was reading yours and was tearing up reading that Jamie's parents are taking the lessons(awwwww), and then I was like (nooooo its not time for that......!!!!!!!!) can you guess which part that came for? I leave it up for you interpretation. Hahah just kidding I cant believe they are already asking you for that stuff.

No none of my stuff got ruined in the flood. We are back in the apartment with only a minor stink.

This week coming up is going to be so crazy. So we have had a sister in the mission from temple square and she is going back to temple square on wednesday. Which leaves her companion....companionless. So my companion Sister Vasquez will be heading up to Bakersfield tomorrow and I will be here with the SLC sister until wednesday, when me and one of the sisters from a tripan close by will drive her up to the Santa Barbara airport. Then we have Steve's baptism on wednesday (hes getting baptized in a river up to canyon)...then on Monday we have the incoming missionaries. We have 3 sisters coming in so we need to take them out for their first time and then they wil be staying with us over night. Then Wednesday we will have the departing sisters stay with us. CRAZY life. So next week is transfers, I shouldnt be leave BUT you never know. Hahaha. I keep telling Sister Vasquez I'm going to leave. haha.

This week has been really good. Last monday we had this AMAZING lesson with Steve, we decided that we were going to have a lessons about the life of Christ so he could really have the spirit testify to him of Christ as he prepares for his baptism and it was so strong. I know Christ lives!!!!!!

Im awkward....hahaha. So we were getting out of correlation meeting thursday night with the spanish branch and we were saying hi to the sisters, with the traditional half hug/cheek to cheek kiss thing. Then as we were walking away one of the single adults from the ward who were out with the elders said "hermana deme un besito"....or give me a little kiss. He was joking but I think I almost died and ran away.

I met this guy from Spokane Washington who use to be a Hells Angel and it was a really good lesson. The thing that was really interesting was that after talking to him for a little bit I realzied the Eldon Nelson went to the Spokane and I remember him telling me about an ex hell's angel. This guy then told me that missionaries use to show up to his house and his mother in law told me that one was from Las Vegas. Maybe Eldon???

We are teaching this really great family. The father is a less active and the wife is a non member. She took the lessons before but just wasnt ready. She was so excited to read in the Book of Mormon and asked us where we wanted her to be by the time we came back. So great. Then the whole family came to church on sunday and she LOVED it. Sister Vasquez and I taught the lesson in gospel principles about the Priesthood and as we were talking about the need to have authority to baptize I saw the husband nudge the wife. Haha. So great.

We finally got to go by this potential that I have been wanting to go by for a while and it turns out that just the day before they were talking to some members of the church at a scout camp and were invited to the 5 de Mayo party that the branch is having. Heavenly Father really works with people and I am so excited tocome back and teach them.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY and I am so proud of you all, it seems like you are really doing missionary work. Keep inviting people over when ever you have the Elders over for dinner.

How is your scripture reading going? This week I really loved reading 2 Nefi 2. 26-29 are some of my favorite verses in all the Book of Mormon and Iknow that through the Restored gospel we really have the chance to choose eternal life!


LOVE LOVE LOVE
con carino,
Hermana Tippetts

Homeless....homeless...Like the christ child was

What a week in the great california ventura mission!!!!! Hahaha. It has been so crazy. But first let me tell you thank you for the easter packages. I got one on Monday (the basket) with candy. Yum. And then the next day I got the package with the easter clothes. I loved the skirt a lot!!!! So cute. It might be my favorite skirt now. Thanks so much! I loved it. I then also got another package a few days later from Chrissy with pictures candy and a stuffed rabbit from Jaden. I loved it all!!! I have the best family ever!!!

So Ill explain the pictures first... The first one is from our trip last weekend to bakersfield with Hno Viellgas (Anastacio) that I told you about last week, the second is Sister Vasquez hunting for eggs, and the third is us in our car/home driving back from Lompoc sunday morning.


So about being homeless....so last week on wednesday we were coming back to our apartment for lunch and and we saw a little bit of water near our apartment (it had rained the night before so I thought nothing of it), but sister Vasquez jokingly said, "Maybe something happened to our apartment"..not only a second later our apartment manager came running around the corner into our apartment...we turned the corner to see our door open and steam rolling out of it. SO we got closer and noticed a bunch of water in our apartment, so we took our shoes off and waded in. The water came up to our ankles. So we did some quick inspection and none of our stuff was damaged but the carpet was pretty wet. A hot water pipe broke and they needed to do lots of repairs. So we had to stay with the Oxnard hermanas for a couple of days...then we went to Lompoc to do exchanges with them. It was like a full week sleeping on couches and mats. I often was singing "homeless...homeless...like the christ child was.." So funny.

However...I was SOOO grateful to be sleeping in our beds last night. I LOVE ADVENTURES.

This week has been pretty good. We have been able to talk to a ton of people and declare the gospel of Jesus Christ to them! So awesome.

Andres and his family are doing so great. Every time we come over and teach them they are getting more solid. He is totally ready for his baptism and would be getting baptized sooner but they only have time to have us over once a week. He'll be baptized next month!! The reason they are progressing so much is because everytime we invite them to do something...they do it and Heavenly Father blesses them. I love this family so much!

Steve is on track to be baptized next weekend (the 28th). He is doing so great and is so diligent in reading his scriptures daily. Everyone at church thinks he is a member. He will be getting baptized in a river. Its going to be so awesome. Tonight we are going to have a lesson about Jesus Christ, it is going to be super powerful. Then we will head to thousand oaks to do an exchange with the sisters from simi valley. I LOVE THIS!!

Haha oh man, I am just so tired...but that is good. I fully expect and want to go home in a body bag!!!!

We have just had SO much drama the last couple days/weeks with people but that just means heavenly father is preparing to bless us so much! We are still seeing miracles daily and I know this is the Lords work.
I have such a strong testimony in the scriptures. Any time I feel down or overwhelmed I read the scriptures and am filled with the spirit. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I must admit I am pretty behind with reading because of all the craziness but I have still read every day, it has just been a little shorter but I really LOVE the story of Nephi building the boat. It reminds me so much of people we teach and all the oposition they face as they try to do what God wants,. (just like laman and lemuel were harrassing Nephi for wanting to build a boat). I know that as we strive to do what the Lord wants us to do that they Lord will bless us and he will also bless those around us (because after they built the boat laman and lemuel were humbled). Keep reading and I will catch up eventually. In my normal studies I am in 3 Nephi 28, In spanish I am in Alma 36, and with you all I am in 1 Nephi 19.

Oh ok, well the only reason I was so worried about housing is becuase I was talking to Hna Clark (who went to BYUI for a long time) and she asked me where I was going to live and I said I had no idea nad she was like you need to get on that or you wont have a place to live. But Vanessa is there right now so Im sure she knows the best.

Love you all so much and I hope all is well with dad and his procedure. Let me know if there is anything I can do. Love you so much and take care!!!!

Happy Easter!!! He is Risen!!!!

Hello family, it was great to hear about the easter sacrament that you all had. I love easter!! Our choir also sang, it was super touching. I just love when everything is really focused on our Savior Jesus Christ. When reality everything we do in the church has to do with the Savior but I think we tend to forget or mention that. Our Easter Sacrament was really great. In the spanish branch it was fast and testimony meeting and so many people bore beautiful testimonies of the Savior. Then in our english ward we had a choir and they read things about Christ between each number. Then in gospel principles we talked about the life of Christ. We had easter dinner with a member who invited a friend over and we were able to teach about Jesus Christ and how we can use his atonement using the Book of Mormon and and we invited her friend to learn more. We have an appointment with her this week. I love members that understand the need to be a member missionary! So great. The rest of the night we were out talking to everyone about Jesus Christ. We had a powerful lesson with one of our investigators that really really really needed to feel that spirit. Oh I also almost forgot to mention that we were in Bakersfield this weekend and drove home sunday morning but right before we went to bed I hid some eggs that a member had given me for Sister Vasquez, so in the morning she went for a little hunt. ( I love sharing American traditions with her! so great)

Now for this week...oh man. So when we go to Bakersfield we leave Wednesday night at like 630 and come home Sunday morning. So we are only in our own area for a very short time and we always want to use that time the most effictively. Ha. Well Monday we had an appointment with Betsy but before the appointment she texted us and told us she didnt want to waste our time because she really wasnt that into it, that she wanted to be able to spend time with her family. We then told her we understood but asked if we could come over anyway and talk about it. She said yes. We went over and it pretty much broke my heart. Her boyfriend isnt in to church and she really feels like this could put a wedge between them and so forth. We shared some scriptures that she really needed to hear and I know the spirit was so strong. But at the end she still told us that she would come to church when she was ready. My heart was soooo broken. Luckily we have the atonement to rely on. We are still in good contact with her, so Im hoping soon she will want to learn more.

THEN We called the Callahan's, they are a less active family that recently had been activated and then had a huge crisis. Well we hadnt seen them for a while so we called them and she told us that they were going to a new church now and bla bla bla. No matter what we said she just kept saying "we are happy now" "we are happy where we are". So there wasnt much we could do, but it gave us hope when she said, "but you can stop whenever you want". YOU ARE NEVER TO FAR TO COME BACK! (I lovedddd conference)

THEN..a really great girl we met and set a baptismal date with last week called us and said that her grandpa now decided he doesnt want her to learn. ..


I guess things happen in threes right? haha. But it made it hard for me to want to leave our area, but we had so much faith that Heavenly Father will bless us as we keep working hard. We had and have hope.

SO..then we headed to Bakersfield, and it was SO GREAT! I LOVE love LOVE it.

We had this cool experience when I was in Taft. In planning we were praying to know what street to knock and we saw a street called Hope. So we planned to go there. Well we got caught up in other things and didnt have the chance to do so. So at one point we had an appointment and they werent there. Since we were on the street we decided to try to knock a few houses. As we were walking to a house we saw two teenage girls walking across the street and we decided to talk to them. They were so elect and so excited aboutthe gospel and the one girl said that her dad has a lot of sins that he wants to take care of but doesnt know how! We were making an appointment with them and they told us they lived on Hope street!!!!!!! I know Heavenly Father sent them to us because we werent able to make it to hope street. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!! It was really wonderful.

Another really cool experience is that I went back to Arvin (I LOVE ARVIN SOOOO MUCH), and I was with Sister Anderson (she is sooo great), anyway as we were leaving the apartment, we were planning to walk so we were just getting some books out of the car and this man stops in his car and says "hey hermanas can I have one of those books that you give out"...we were like "umm...sure?" So we started talking to him...turns our he works for hermano anastacio (I dont know if you remember him but he is someone I taught when I was in Arvin), and he says that he has seen him change as since he started going to our church and he really wants to learn more. He wanted us to come over and teach him. We gave him a Book of Mormon and got all the information. I was just so proud of Anastacio and it was just a huge testimony to me that people will want to learn about the gospel as we talk about it and as we they see our example. They will want to know Christ because they know you!!!! Love it.

Oh man so many good things but I am just running out of time. You would think 30 mintues would be enough time to talk about stuff haha.

One funny tidbit. Do you remember the story about the man that me and Sister Hunter met when we walked to thousand oaks? Well Sister Hunter just sent me a letter this week telling me his address in LA, I guess they sent the missionaries there but he wants us to write him, Oh and that he wants to donate a bunch of money to the church hahahaha. So great. I cant wait for him to get baptized!



So things are super great. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!! There will never be another time in my life where I can just walk up to strangers in the street and tell them that Christ lives and that He loves them. I also love being a traveling sister and getting the chance to work with all the sisters. I am just learning so much!!!



LOVE LOVE LOVEEEEEEE,
Hermana Tippetts

He has Risen!!!

HELLO! Happy April! Such a pleasent time of year. The weather today is SUPER great. It had been cloudy for the last couple of days but the sun is shining brightly. My study desk is right by a window and I was just getting soaked with sun rays this morning. So wonderful.
Wasnt general conference SO GREAT???? OH man Elder Holland's talk...just had me sitting there silent for a moment. It was so good. I loved all the talks. I dont have my notes on me right now but I felt that as each person was talking I was like AMEN to that! So great. Next week I will bring my notes so I can tell you about all the things I loved about conference. We had a few investigators come and watch and I know they felt the spirit, but my heart broke for a few who didnt come because I know there were so many talks that would have blessed their lives. Im sure thats how our Heavenly Father feels when we don't watch conference.

How is the whole reading 5 pages a day in the Book of Mormon going? I must admit Im like 10 pages behind of where I should be but that is because I have a ton of other studies to do for my investigators so I have decided Im doing this reading when I have any extra time as I am stretching in the morning after our run and my companion is showering..or right before bed, ext. We dont have very many of those minutes so Im trying. I really was pondering on the story when Nefi, sam, laman and lemuel went back to jersulem and Lehi's wife was murming a ton and calling him a visionary man and doubting. Then when she had the proof (her boys came back), she was all happy and thankful. I was just thinking about how I want to suffiently develop spiritually that I have more trust and faith than to quickly be discouraged. (Discouragement weakens faith says page 10 of PMG) So Id love to hear about everything you all have been reading. I mean I guess I have extra motivation too because me and Sis Vasquez (picture attached) are trying to do all the commintments that we leave with our investigators in our own time (driving, before bed, before studies,ext) so we know how they feel. It is going GREAT!

This week has been really good. I guess I will tell you a funny thing first. So yesterday was April Fool's day and the holiday had been brought up a couple of days ago and I explained to Sis Vasquez was it was and she really wanted to do it. So yesterday we were coming back for the second session of general conference and we decided we would tell the elders that sis vasquez needed to go home. I couldnt stop laughing so it wasnt really believable (i kinda felt bad telling them that), but one elder came over and saw her "crying" and you could tell he looked super awkwarded out and was like is she ok? Ha and another elder was checking his white handbook seeing what he was allowed to say. We then told them and it was super funny. Sis Vasquez was laughing about it all day :).

So cool thing that happened this week. We were teaching Betsy about the plan of salvation and we get to adam and eve. We explain the very basics of what happened and she was like, "its actually kind of weird I was pondering about Adam and eve this morning and how God knows everything and it had to be part of his plan". I really felt the spirit so strong. She is just being so prepared by the spirit. I love teaching her, BUT she didnt come to general conference. I was sooo sad. There were so many talks that were perfect for her. However she did come to the ward talent show this friday which was so fun. One guy did the Napolean dynomite dance and Hna Vasquez has never seen that so she was super confused. She thought his 'vote 4 Pedro" shirt was so funny. Also random side note, our spanish investigators came and she was, at first, soooo offended by that dance, she though he was making fun of spanish people. It just goes to show you what happens when we are quick to make judgement (Elder Holland and Elder Uchdorf's talk)

Andres and the evangelista family are doing so good. They are taking all of our invitations and running with them. They came to all the sessions of general conference on Sunday and stayed with the spanish branch for lunch. He is looking forward and preparing for baptism. We are just praying that they will decide to come to the branch instead of the english ward.

We knocked into this awesome lady last night. There was a court that I have wanted to knock for a long time, so finally we had a moment to do it yesterday. The first house wasnt home but then we came up to the second house and found a young mom. At first she was just like "we are christian, thanks" but we continued to talk to her and taught her about the Restoration. YOu could tell the spirit touched her and she was really listening to what we were saying. She was really confused about why we would need a prophet on the earth but she intently listened to our answers. She said "well now my faith is questioned and I really need to take this to the Lord", she said we could come back next week and check on how her study went. She also lives really close to the Bishop and knows his family. WOO HOO!

I love Elder Oaks talk about sacrafice and I am just soooooo incredibly grateful for these 18 months. When I was watching the MTC choir sing I was thinking about how badly I wish I was in there spot again. There is nothing better than serving a mission.

The stuff from BYU-I should be coming through email. I had it sent to kaylacollege@tippetts.org. So I hope you get it soon...it should have been sent? I havent been able to have much communication with Vanessa, I mean we are relying on snail mail here. Ha.

Also I was just thinking the other day (because I was wearing the dress you sent me for easter last year), that how awesome that dress is and I have worn it so much, so I wanted to make sure I said thank you again. so thanks!

Sorry this is short but weve got lots to do, but I love you lots and I hope you all have a great easter. He has risen! I know Christ lives, and I know He is our Savior. I know because of Him we will be able to live again, and we can beat spiritual death. We can, through the atonement of Jesus Christ that he so loving did, we can repent and be washed in His blood. I love Him and I am so grateful for my knowledge of his great sacrifice and His gospel which allows to tap in to that sacrifice.


HERMANA TIPPETTS.

Ventura Ventura Ventura

I wish there was a way that you could see this view this morning the ocean and air is so clear...you can see the islands (channel islands) SO SO CLEAR! I love love love Ventura. So first I guess I will tell you about the pictures I am uploading. The first is of the girls in my district (last transfer) and our cool st.patrick's day bows. The second is from Hna Dalton's last p-day we walked on this walk way kinda near the beach. The third is a picture of us in a spanish neighborhood with a street sign..the sign means "you can do it!"..basically. Then there is a picture of me and a family we are teaching, then a family who feeds all the spanish missionaries frequently. Love it. I dont have a picture of me and my new companion just yet but Ill send one next week.

So I hope all is well, Im sure you are all very busy today or this week and thats why I didnt hear from you, its all good no stress I understand. Life gets super crazy.

So this week has just been great. So much cool stuff has happened.

Oh first I guess a crazy thing. Monday night (sister Daltons last night) we had an appointment with some of our investigators, we started walking up to the house and we noticed that there was a cop car in front of the house. As we were about to leave we saw our investigator getting led to the cop car in handcuffs. Awkward.

So the first day I had Hermana Vasquez with me was tuesday, Sister Dalton came out with us for one last appointment and then we were on our own. We had lots of appointments but for like an hour and a half we didnt have appointments and so we had planned to go by Bro Allen's house because he said we should visit his granddaughter who is now living with him. So we went to his house and he was home but no one else so we couldnt come in. Normally we are off because we want to find people but for some reason I asked him if I could have a glass a water, he went in, got one and we drank and talked to him a little bit, right as we finished and were about to leave she showed up!!! So we came in first Bro Allen wanted to show us a room he fixed up...he told me that building is his trade and I told him "oh my dad was a building inspector in Las Vegas" he said NO WAY! I built in Las Vegas for 14 years. Crazy. Anyway so we go to talk to Betsy his granddaughter WHO grew up in Las Vegas and went to Palo Verde. Super cool huh? Anyway so we started and taught her about the Restoration and she accepted to be baptized!!! We had another appointment later on with her that week and explained a little more about the Book of Mormon she told us that she is really searching for the truth for her son because she wants him to have the best., she would have came to church on sunday (she even bought a dress) but she has a 2 week old baby and it was pouring rain and freezing, BUT we are super excited. I also KNOW it was inspiration to ask for water. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost


Then about 2 weeks ago a member that we were going to have dinner with called us and told us that she had a non member friend that would be joining us for dinner. So we had that appointment this week. First I wont lie it was a little awkward, she is this cute old lady who lives in a senior citizen mobile home park with her senior friend and then this like 40 year old man and us. Haha. So we start talking and he was talking about bullying and some movie that was out that talked about bullying and I was going through my head thinking how we could turn this convo to the gospel (Sister Dalton if you are reading this you would laugh)...so I was going through my head and the first thing that came out was like "Yeah and for that reason and I am so grateful for growing up learning about being a child of God and my divine nature"...that just kind of got brushed over...so then they contiued to talk about the effects of bullying and finally I remembered the story in Mosiah 24 where Alma and his people are living out in the wilderness because they have been rejected by their people for believeing in God. So they are out there minding their own business when Amulon and a little army come out, put them into slavery and tell them that if they pray they will kill them. Then they pray in their minds for help from the Lord. he then asks me "is that a true story?"...and I was like YEAH! Its in the Book of Mormon which was written about 600 years before Jesus Christ. Oh man...I was trying. Anyway we were able to teach the Restoration and he was so excited to read the Book of Mormon and then Sister Black invited him to take the lessons in her home and he accepted!!!

I decided Easter candy is the best. So many fun stuff....HAPPY EASTER..its so soon. I love easter and I am so excited for general conference and how it will help us prepare for celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.

We had a booth and the swap meet and it went over really well. We were able to talk to so many spanish people and share the gospel. We totally have to visit it when we come back to visit. So Mexico-ish. Oh and a American man was talking to me and he asked me if I was mexican...i was like no..why? and he was like oh you just sound like it. hahahaha. YES!!!!

Oh we had a great lesson with Andres and his family about the plan of salvation they were so excited about going to the temple as a family and I know Andres is getting more and more excited about his baptism. He was smiling so big as we told him "a year after you get baptized you will be able to go here with your family". Afterwards they were all hugging eachother and it was so beautiful. The gospel BLESSES FAMILIES!

Another thing that happened....and I cant remember if its a scripture or a quote from a general authority but I can just hear Elder Holland saying it in my head but it goes something like "as you stand in hostile venues"...something like that. Yesterday we went to visit one of our investigators and she was having a birthday party for her son and had a ton of friends over. She invited us in for a second and her friends all just started bashing us as we were standing there in the midst of them. We decided to just sing a song for them and we choose to sing I know my redeemer lives. The spirit was so strong and afterwards we bore strong testimony that Jesus is the Christ,the Savior of the world. It was so awesome. I am so grateful for the power of the Holy Ghost!

Lots of great stuff is going on here there just isnt much time to write about it all! But I also had an idea that maybe we could start today. We can read the Book of Mormon as a family you all, jed chrissy jaden, jamie jeff brandon kendall ryanne erika, dave lisa and millie, and if we all read 5 pages a day we will be finished on the day I get home. I think that would be a really great thing for our family and it will strengthen our own personal testimonies and bring us closer as a family and we can share in emails and letters verses that we liked a lot. Will you do that?


LOVE YOU ALL! HERMANA TIPPETTS!

NO QUIERO MATAR!!!!

Well I think I failed to mention last week that today is transfer day. Oh man it feels like I blinked and now we are in a new transfer. NOT COOL. My companion Sister Dalton is going home. BUT I am staying here in Ventura and I will be getting Sister Vasquez as a companion. She is a transfer older than me, she is from Hondoras and is just super great. Im really excited. Today is going to be crazy getting Sister Dalton all ready to go. Luckily we havent had exchanges this week so that has made the week a lot less stressfu BUT YAY NATIVE COMPANION!!!! SHE IS GOING TO HELP ME WITH MY SPANISHl.

Sooo..I did get your letter and the card by the way. Have you gotten an email from BYU-I yet so I can know what track I will be going to. Thanks. I was really shocked and sad to hear about the news in the ward. I have had them in my prayers and will send a letter to the ward soon but I will have to wait until next week because today will be crazy.

This week has been so great! We were able to set 5 new people with baptismal dates!!! It is a direct blessing of applying all that we have learned in the last weeks to the work. We are just feeling so blessed for all the constant training and instruction we recieve.

One of my favorites was Andres. So Andres is a husband of a woman who is returning to activity. He has been coming to church for a while but the missionaries have never really been able to catch them at home, so we really didnt know what was going on with them. FINALLY last week we were able to set up an appointment, they we were running late and so were we so it was a short lesson. But it was evident that the wife did NOT want us to push him AT ALL. So we were a little nervous. I have just run into this so much lately...instead of it being "they are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it'..."they are kept from the truth because their families are too scared to invite them"...BUTTTTT...thats ok. I understand. So we come in to teach the whole restoration but we were feeling confident. He has been reading the Book of Mormon for a while and coming to church and those who do that will have their heart softened. So we were asking him to set a baptismal date for the May and his wife was very literally shaking her head at me...like dont you dare and I did it anyway because I felt the spirit...so she jumps in and is like no...he doesnt like to feel pressure or be pushed....im so happy that he is reading and coming to church on his own...so I looked at him and asked him if he felt pressured or pushed and he said no...so we were able to talk to him about making that goal to be baptized and it was SO GREAT! I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost in my life!! (this is a spanish investigator btw)

Then STEVE. He is so great. So he has had a billion and a half baptismal dates (like 2) and so many witnesses that these things are true but for some reason is dragging his feet. His girlfriend was suppose to move and he wanted her to to make sure he was doing this for himself and not for her. SO then out of no where her job in Salt Lake got terminated and she is staying here in Ventura. Crazy. SO then we really just recieved revelation that we needed to drop him. So we found this perfect article to read with him called "Start moving" from the July 2011 ensign and we were going to drop him. We get there and we tell him we are going to read this first before anything else happened. We read it and told him we felt like we have gotten to this point where we have to convince him and that is NOT RIGHT. So we needed to give him some time, and he pulls out his calendar and he was like "april 14th" looks good to get baptized. He said that he had resolved a lot of his concerns and was ready to take the first step. What the??? So we told him we still need to give him a few weeks off to really think and pray about this. Sooo it was intense

The rest were really awesome too but I dont really have time to go into most of them! Sorry :). I had pictures to upload too but I forgot to bring in my camera so I will attach them next week.

I have such a huge testimony of the restoration of the gospel. For many different reasons but this week has really affirmed it for me. In EVERY lessons (except Andres). Something has happened as we were reciting the first vision.
Mike and Mindy- He started taking pictures of something the dog was doing
Patricia and Kristi- Patricia blew her nose
Phil-pretty much just cut her off (regardless he had heard it before)
Robert and Craig- ROBERT FELL ASLEEP!!!!!!

I swear it is the advesarys last little low blow.

Anyway I love love love you all so much and am so glad to hear every one is doing well!!! KISS AND HUG EVERYONE FOR ME!!!!!!


LOVE HERMANA TIPPETTS!

and it just keep moving...

Buenas! So today starts the last week of my companion's mission. I think I have been freaking out/stressing out about it more than she has. Maybe thats good, helps her keep her mind off it. Haha. I hate having my companions go home because it makes going home a reality and it makes me want to jump off a bridge. This is just too good. ANYWAY....

So good to hear about your date night to the temple. I love the temple. Soak it up for me please. (Random thought, you never told me who Katie Johnston is getting married to). Jaden just sounds like such a cutie pants. Does Mariah want to go to school soon or keep working for a while? Me and Sister Dalton decided that Mariah and her little sister would get along great and I think I already told you that you(mom) and her mom would get along. So we decided that we are just going to have a big Dalton/Tippetts party. Woo hoo.
It sounds like the missionaries in the ward are "doing work". That is so great! Tell the ward I love them. I will write soon when I get a chance to sit down.

So this week has been pretty great (as all of them are). Last Monday we went hiking and it was SO fun. It was our whole district, the assistants, and Elder Curtis (one of the senior couples). Unfortunatley my companion has been suffering from bug bites from the trip. I guess she has sweeter blood than me. Mike is a husband of a member and he is going nice and slow. He did not trust the elders at all but is trusting us. He has started praying and simply asking God if he is there. He prayed before their garage sale and they made more money than they have in a garage sale! YAY!

Bruce..he does remind me of grandpa a bit. Funny guy. This week he gave us his speech and instead of giving us a speech on chapter 8 of 1 Nefi he gave us a speech of how he would approach people at the door about the Book of Mormon. He had done all this research about the plates of Nefi...ext. it was so cool. I just felt the spirit and felt so proud of him!!!

Raquel and Raymundo- we are finally getting back into the groove of teaching them after their move. This week we were able to teach them twice. Once about the Holy Ghost and how it will help them after they are baptized. It was such a solid spiritual lesson. I can't wait for them to be baptized and go to the temple.

We had exchanges with the Ventura sisters this week. It was my favorite exchange the sister I went with is so solid and we had lots of miracles that day. We were able to drop by and see Chris and teach her about the Restoration and use the skills that we had just learned in district meeting (we talked about how we can not take peoples bait and just keep teaching them..obviously directed by the spirit). The spirit was so strong and she is such a seeker. She has been seeking for the truth and I know Heavenly Father sent her to us.

We also picked up another husband of a member and he is so solid. He studies the Book of Mormon a lot and when we asked him to be baptized he said "I know its necesary because of that chapter in the Book of Mormon where the people get baptized by Alma...like the waters of Mormon"...super great. HOWEVER...his wife is super scared to push him at all. AH. Its ok.


OH and one of the BEST parts of this week was........ELDER L. TOM PERRY came this saturday and we got together as a whole mission to be instructed by an apostle of the Lord!!!!!! It was so amazing. With him was a member of the 70 and his talk was so amazing. As I was preparing for their visit these last couple of weeks I was able to write down questions I had about how I can be a better missionary. How we can help people prepare for baptism. ext. All of my questions were answered in that talk. Question after question. It was so amazing. Sister Dalton and I are just so excited to put these things into practice this week to just weed out the unelect and not waste our time on them. Then Elder Perry's talk was just so powerful. It was on the priesthood and I had been thinking about the priesthood a ton this week and I was just so overwhelmed with the spirit. The church is true and it is lead and guided by our Savior Jesus Christ through priesthood authority. That is what makes us different. I am so grateful that I have the chance to help people gain a testimony that there was a need for a Restoration of the priesthood. He spoke with such power and authority that can only come through the Holy Ghost. It was so great and I am so looking forward to general conference. I hope you all are preparing for it too!! They also talked about members being the real finders. Which was great because I had been reading Elder Perry's conference talks this week and there was one that talked about that. I think it was in 2009. You should read it. Also there was another quote.."the Missionaries are to be the full time teachers, the members are the full time finders". I challenge you all to pray to know of someone and then have the confidence to give a referral to the missionaries.

Last night I gulfed down like 5 enchiladas. Spanish people feed us way too much. Never doing that again. Haha.

Also we are creepers. Last night we tracked down Steve so that he could meet some of the members from the ward. It was great.


Being a missionary is so super great!!! I love it! I love you all and hope you have a great St. Patricks day!!!