HAPPY HALLOWEEN ...... or even better NEVADA DAY

Hola family. How is it going? Thanks for the emails. I love the pictures of the pumpkins. My companion and i have really wanted to carve pumpkins but of course there is not time for that (but we have the rest of our lives to carve pumpkins), but needless to say we enjoyed the pictures. This morning between personal and companion study Hna Clark was like HAPPY HALLOWEEN....and I was like don't you mean happy nevada day??? And she started cracking up....and I told her that we get the day off of school and she thought was the most ridiculous thing ever...and I was super serious and was just like Hna.....you get a week off of school to help pick "spuds"....now tell me who is ridiculous. She then reminded me that they get two weeks off.....hahaha. I just love her.


Stuff here in Newbury is great. I could say the same thing every week. Its great, we are working hard, finding people, teaching ext. But I guess Ill give you some examples of the stuff that has been going on.


So funny things:
We went by some former investigators and there father answered the door and he was of a different religion and was getting kinda upset with us being there so I just asked him if we could sing him a song and get on our way....he told me to sing to "her" (hna clark) and shut the door. It was....interesting...funny...and mostly sad. I sang to Hna Clark, no worries.


So one of the semi less active members is pregnant and going to have her baby this next week and we were knocking in the area and saw people carrying big boxes into her house...well one little woman was doing it so we went over to help. We then realized that they were giant boxes of hamburgers....so we carried them in. They were planning a baby shower for her and invited us to come back. We told them we'd try but we weren't really planning on it. So fast forward later that night we are walking by and they were doing something at her party so we kinda stopped and looked for a second and this lady we didn't know came out and invited us in (this is why I love spanish people, they will invite anyone into their party). We looked in and noticed that one of our investigators wife was there (who isn't the most fond of us) so we decided to go in. We went and sat by her and had some conversation and told her how we were coming over the next day. We were there for like 10 min and it was so funny. Right before we left they made us play this game. They blindfolded us and told us to put lipstick on her...totally got all over her face haha...


Cool stuff:
So there is this investigator Jesus who I taught before too...hes been taught by soooo many different missionaries. He is with one of our members and is kinda on the stubborn side. But we taught him the Restoration and it was a really spiritual lesson and I really feel like he got it this time. I think he understands how its the church of Christ. We also got the most committed response from him that Ive ever heard about reading the Book of Mormon and praying. Im really excited about it. Its amazing what the spirit can do.


Another day we parked in Las Casitas (pretty much where we spend most of our time) and we were kinda loud because Hna Clark was teasing me for parking on the other side of las casitas then where we were going, and out of the house comes one of our investigators and she was like "you are so loud". Haha then she started talking to us and we had a lesson with her...and she just really really really needed us in that moment and it was super spiritual. She could just feel Gods love for her and I can just see her testimony growing. She's amazing...this is Ashley by the way.


NEW PERSON! His name is Fili and he is SO awesome. So...we were looking for a former investigator and he didn't live there any more, so we talked to the woman that lived there and taught her a bit about the Book of Mormon and got a return appointment with her. So we went back and taught her fully about the Book of Mormon and right as we were about to sing a hymn this man walked in and we invited him to listen to the hymn. He listened and was really emotional so we invited him to make an appointment with him. So we went by this saturday and taught him about the Book of Mormon. His first question was "What is the purpose of this life"...my eyes got kinda big and I looked at my companion. PURE JOY. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and the spirit was sooo strong from start to finish of the lesson. It was seriously amazing. We both walked away speechless.........


and to illustrate the ups and downs of missionary work....


Our next appointment was just throwing anti stuff at us the whole time...wasnt listening or anything. It was crazy.


Anyway, I love this work and it just keeps moving on and on...I love my companion....my leaders...and the ward we serve.


Thank you so much for the package, Im hoping Ill be able to wear the jacket, the weather has just been so pleasant here. I love the tape and have listened to all of it. Both me and my companion was cracking up at the kids, so funny. YOU ARE THE BEST FAMILY EVER! Also the book of mormon in spanish cds rock. Me and my companion have been listening to them in the car and they make me sooo happy. SPANISH IS MY FAVORITE!




THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING! I LOVE YOU!


THE CHURCH IS TRUE, AND THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE WORD OF GOD!

Screaming Testimony

Well Hello family. Estoy aqui nada mas. This week went by sooooooo fast. Way to fast. I feel like Pday was yesterday! I think I had like two freak outs this week because I feel like time is going by wayyy too fast. I mean I didn't way freak out. Just a little haha. Crazy. What are the fam plans for halloween? What are the kids dressing up like? I know that Jaden is going to be Harry Potter but thats it. haha. Trunk o treat? We have to go in early on halloween but at 8 o clock. So not super early. We are going to be missionaries for halloween, just in case you were wondering. I wonder if people will still give us candy when we knock on their door...haha probably not.


So events of this week.


LUIS and VIKI and family came to church this week. They are sooo amazing. we just randomly met them knocking and he asked us to come back another day. We came back and he just wanted to know all about prophets and they are really just searching for the truth. So the next appointment we read the BOM with them because they didn't totally understand it. In the middle of it we invited them to church and they accepted with no hesitations. Then they CAME! Ah. THen after sacrament they said they had to leave but one of the members talked to them and invited them to sunday school and they stayed!!! I was so happy and proud of that member. I know it was so important for them to stay!


I FOUND RENE!!!!!!!!!! I know this isn't so exciting to everyone else but I taught him like twice last time I was here and I couldn't get him out of my mind once I got back. I wanted to find him. So i went to his address and they said no one by that name lived there. So i knocked around there...and we looked every where. SO today we decided to target before going and doing email. We were walking to go check out and there was RENE I was so happy/freaked out. We talked and he told me where he lives and he showed me how he has our number in the phone and bla bla bla. IT was so cool. It just gives me a huge testimony that we just need to "be good girls and good boys and we will be guided" (Elder Bednar's talk given at the MTC) People sometimes stress out sooo much about following the spirit and knowing if they are or not. But I know we were guided by the spirit to be there, but I sure didn't think that when we decided to do it that way. SO COOL.


Lets see...oh so last night we were knocking kind of late and night and I was bearing my testimony to this guy and all of a sudden I hear this barking getting really close to me and my companion grabbing my arm and squealing...I screamed of course. I didn't know what was coming my way...hahahaha. But I was alright and I went back on..the guy forgave me i guess because he still made an appointment with us and said a prayer. Hahaha..oh man.


I just asked my companion what else we did that just made us laugh...there is a lot but we can't remember. She's really wonderful. I love being her companion.


Oh I was wondering if you could look at how much BOM in spanish CDs would cost..they should be like 3 bucks. I would think...I don't know. But a lot of people can't read here.


I read these scriptures this week and loved them. Exodus 3:11-12. I feel like this is me. I am nothing on my own...but I love how he tells Moses "Certaintly I will be with thee". I really feel like that is true. Also Because of conference I have been trying to memorize a scripture every week. THis week I'm on Mosiah 28:3. I have a testimony that memorizing scripture is something that Heavenly Father wants us to do. I know it will give us strength comfort or whatever we need when we need it.


Oh,...my companion just reminded me of something "rapid bowels"...I have a problem. Like we will be out and I will HAVE to go to the bathroom. There is no in between. I either don't have to go or I REALLY have to go. But we have also found that in almost ALL of our bathroom runs we have found someone or ran into someone we needed to talk to. Inspired bathroom runs....the Lord is that precise in his work. Really though....


The family we live with is so wonderful. Its so peaceful coming home every night. Im super grateful for it.


We are teaching some really cool people right now and we are just trying to find the people who are ready. Javier is reading and is already in 1 Nefi 3. He hasn't come to church yet but he's been out of town. He accepted to be baptized the first weekend in December. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!


I LOVE THIS WORK! I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! It is soooo true. The gospel is true and every single person can know it!


HAVE A GOOD WEEK!

Newbury park....Lets slay this week

Hello Family! So one of the Elders was super bummed that his family didnt write him so he decided he wasnt going to write them back and I gave him a really hard time about it and said thats silly just write them back. Well....I have to take my own advice today. Haha :)

How is everyone? How is your October? Whats the weather like there?

Newbury Park is great. Its still pretty warm but Im not complaining. Every day I re-love it here more and more. I was nervous when I first got the call that I would be coming back so soon but I dont know why, I almost feel like I love it here more than I did the time before. I also really love being companions with Hermana Clark. We are a lot a like and she is just so sweet and easy going. I love it.

Lets see...this week has seriously been so crazy. I think we laughed so hard so many times saying "did that really just happen?"
I think it started last tuesday when we parked our car and started walking and saw this CSI van with this guy walking around with rubber gloves and plastic evidence bags. Hijole! Then that very day we were about to take lunch when we noticed we had a missedcall and a voicemail from the mission office. We were like ummmm.....so we listened to the voicemail and it was one of the missionary couples informing us that they had a new car waiting for us in Ventura and they wanted to know if we could come and pick it up today. We had like an hour and half until our next appointment (including lunch) so we decided it was the best time. So we hurried and left Newbury park and got to Ventura. We got a brand new toyota carolla that smells oh so good. But we are always so nervous because we dont want to hurt her. Her name is fraisa. That literally means strawberry but if you call a girl a fraisa it pretty much means valley girl. Oh and our brakes on our other car had a little issue on the way there and we had to stop to let them cool down so we were so worried we werent going to get back to our appointment in time but we made it back with5 minutes to spare. It was awesome!!!! Miracles.

THe Newbury Park missionaries are going to be the most in shape missionaries. Every other week we have a kick boxing work out class and it is intense. I was sore all this last week. One of my favorite part is I got to beat up some Elders. You never get to do that. Ha so the guy had like two giant pads that you hold and the Elders were chasing me like they were attacking me and I was suppose to hit and kick them. It waspretty awesome.

Ha one of my favorite things that happened this week...So one morning I was NOT feeling up to getting up and working out. So I started tellig my companion that I just wanted to walk...as we were laying in bed and I couldnt say it in English for the life of me. I kept starting over trying to say it in english but it would come out in spanish. Finally I just grew up and we went to the work out class. Later that day I was like p.s. I wasnt trying to speak to you in spanish this morning and my companion started cracking up. She was like I was wondering why you were speaking spanish to me.

So cool miracle. When I was here last time we started teaching this lady Lorena. Well as soon as I got back here i asked about her but hna clark said she moved and they dont know where. Well we had found this lady Carina the other day and we came back for our appointment and she wasnt there....BUT.....LORENA ANSWERED THE DOOR. How crazy is that. Its totally on the opposite side of town from where she lived before...crazy. SO now we are teaching Lorena again.

Oh another amazing thing. SO we were knocking at like 8 and this guy opened the door and was just like its late can you come back another day. SO we set up an appointment. We came back but he wasnt there but his wife let us in and he walks in 5 min later and was like "HERMANAS I THOUGHT YOUD NEVER COME!!!" then he went and sat all of his kids down to listen to us. We were teaching the restoration and as we were talking about prophets him and his wife asked us "why arent there prophets any more???" ....GOOD QUESTION. It was amazing. The spirit was really strong and we were able to say a kneeling prayer with them and one of the kids said the prayer.

Oh then one day we had to go to the bathroom and decided to walk from las casitas to ralphs hoping we could talk to people on the way. Well we get to ralphs and we run into one of my old investgatores and were able to talk to him. It was perfect timing. I LOVE SEEING THE LORDS HAND IN HIS WORK!

Ah there is just so much...but I dont have time. One day Ill be able to tell it all. But I love this work. We are teaching so much and no we have 2 people with baptismal dates and when we first started we had 0. I love this work. I love this area! Being a missionary rocks!

OH one more funny thing that can help you all understand what im like right now (an elder explained this to me). When you come out on a mission you have this bucket full of awkwardness. The faster you dump it out the easier missionary work is..because your not worried about being awkward. Can I just tell you I dont feel awkward about anything any more. Ive realized this is why RMs are so ...awkward haha. OK

LOVE YOU CUIDENSE MUCHO! LES QUIERO

Buenas Tardes!

Well mom you were right, I do get to email on Mondays now that I am back in Newbury Park. It was so weird to be back haha. The first night we were planning it was so weird to see my hand writing and name all over the area book. BUT I really know that there is a reason Im back here. I told all the members its because they need a punishment or something, or maybe I didnt do it right the first time haha. But Yeah I was really sad to leave Arvin Lamont and Tehachapi BUT its so good to be here in Newbury Park and we have been working really hard knocking and teaching, finding when we teach teaching when we find.
We have been seeing so many miracles too. Its crazy. We found this women knocking who had been learning from missionaries in Bakersfield and moved here and tried to come to church but she only saw Americans. We are really excited to teach here. We talked to this man that is here working for a couple days but lives in Simi Valley and is learning from missionaries. He brought his Book of Mormon out to us and we talked to him about it for a while and talked to him about baptism. I think it was really good for him to see missionaries some where else.
Then we found another less active member that was the first to be baptized in his family when he was ten and then all his family was baptized. Lets see.....we seriously had an awesome miracle every day.
This area is so much different then Arvin Lamont and Tehachapi...and is pretty different then when I was here...we dont have a very big teaching pool but we are finding new investigators every day.
I GOT TO SEE ERIKA AND GENARO. That was so awesome and like a dream. I didnt think I would see them again until I came back to visit but its going to be such a cool experience to teach them as members. I love that family so much.
Oh yes, we do live with members, The Davis Family, its a different family than we lived with before. I love living with them. Seriously it feels so good coming to their home every night. It is so peaceful and welcoming. They are such a nice family.
I got to sd card and the sonic card. Funny thing is.......there isnt a sonic in any part of my area hahaha. I guess Ill just save it haha. BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH :).
Activity days! That will be so fun! you will love it! It sounds like everything at home is busy as ever! Thats awesome. Why did Mariah go to Reno????
Millie just sounds like she is growing up so fast. Does she know what she is going to be for Halloween yet?

Ok well gotta run! All is well here...slightly cold....but really well :)

My companion Hna Clark is so awesome, I just love her to death. I will send pictures next week!

Cuidense mucho!
hermana Tippetts

Family

FAMILY i am going to make this short because I want to get back to work but I am here in Newbury park again, so crazy. So yes I got transferred, and I am with Hna Clark and she is from Ashton Idaho which is by Rexburg. She is super sweet and Im really excited to work with her. She has almost 3 months in the mission and I am her follow up trainer. Crazy. All is well I know this change was for a reason. As much as it broke my heart to leave Arvin Lamont and Tehachapi, I know God has a plan for me and all of his children there and they will all be alright. Im excited to start over in Newbury (so crazy that Im back so soon). I love you all so much. I love that you are thinking about serving a mission! I can't believe Millie is talking so much. oh man.


Ok i love you all sooooooo much take care. I sent a picture and note in the mail because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to email you or not. So it should be coming soon. Thanks for everything. and with the clothes its not super important. I mean you know me I would always love more clothes but I have enough, the only thing I really need is my bright blue over coat and maybe a coat or two.