Hello Hello....

It has been great!!!! I love being a missionary!!!!!! We started this week teaching this really great family. The dad is returning from inactivity and we are teaching his wife and two kids...THEY ALL CAME TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY! We really focused on prayer because it is something that the mom has never been exposed to really and has never really practiced it. They all committed to pray. We set an appointment but it was a couple weeks out because they have some crazy things going on. The daughter is getting her wisdom teeth out so we decided we will bring her a shake or something so we have a chance to see the family and just follow up on how prayer is doing! Yay! I really feel the spirit when I am with the family and from what we have heard from the ward the daughter has never really wanted to listen but she has really taken to us and is willing to give this all a shot. I love how Heavenly Father gives inspiration! On tuesday I went on exchanges and it was good...it really made me feel better to know that we have power house sisters in the mission and all will be well. 4th of July!!!!!!!!! It was a great day. We went by to check on a referral from a member...again. We had checked a few times, this time she was home and SO excited to see us! We taught her the restoration and invited her to be baptized and she said yes! Woo hoo!! We invited her to be baptized on August 18th...she thought about it..said she would want to but thought she had to go out of town that weekend...but she said she would look. It was such a great lesson..she is so prepared by the Lord. She also speaks spanish...she knows a lot of english but spanish is her first language. So I told her Joseph Smith's vision in spanish. I felt the spirit so strongly! We were really worried about Wendy because she cancelled our appointment..hadnt returned our calls or texts and didnt come to church. We really wanted to go see her but we figured there was a reason we never did the lessons at her house...but all day all we could think about was her. So finally we prayed to know if we should go visit her. We both just felt like we could go visit her, that it would be ok. So we went (she happens to live in the same apartments as us). So it was thelast thing we did and it was so good to see her. I think she needed it. She is still doing good. Fighting to stop smoking and drinking coffee and she is having the most stressful things going on at work. She needs our prayers. I love her. We'll see if she can get ready in time. We also met with a girl this week who has been going to church for 3 years and hasnt been baptized because her parents dont want her to. Now she is old enough but really respects her parents. She has also never had the missionary lessons for the same reason. We decided to test her and have lunch with her so we could really get to know what is going on. She is such a sweet girl and has recently been praying about what she needs to do in life and she feels Heavenly Father keeps answering her "you need to get baptized". So we are now going to be getting together with her to make that happen! YAY! Then this weekend we went to a celebrities baptism...woo hoo. hahaha. Anyway Nancy came (the member referral) and she was just bawling. She found out that she cant be baptized on the 18th but we set a different date with her for that month. Following the baptism we went to the members house and had a lesson. She says she knows the Joseph Smith is a prophet! AHHH! I just love being a missionary. We had 8 investigators come to church yesterday. The ward was so happy. I love Moorpark...I love that this area is just booming. My emotions are going crazy. Hahaha. I have felt anxious at moments, just overwhelmed with happiness, content....everything. I dont think that it is all really hitting me yet...maybe subconciously but haha. I dont know. I love my life. I love you all. I am just ready for all the great things Heavenly Father has in store.... LOVE YOU ALL!!! Have a great week! Tell the girls to have a great week at girls camp. Hermana Tippetts

I haven't been with my companion for three days!!!

Soooo hello. I feel like i am in a crazy flash back. I am at the mall in Newbury Park and Hermana Clark is with me. Haha. Its crazy. So we are still together because we were in Bakersfield all weekend and came back on Sunday but since Moorpark is closer to to Bakersfield then Ventura we just decided to stay in Moorpark all day and since we have to meet up again tonight to do another exchange we just decided to stay together here in Moorpark and since my Neff watch broke the Elders gave us permission to come to the mall to get it changed. Crazyyyy... Exchanges were really good. Bakersfield was hot but really not that bad. I love Bakersfield so much. Crazy thing that happened. One night we were filling up the tank so that we could leave in the morning and a car pulled up full of a family that lived in Lamont and that I taught!!! It was so cool. We took a picture. Another cool miracle. We were knocking in Bakersfield and we saw this man and woman searching for something...and we realized that they were searching for their keys. We offered to say a pray with them to help them find their keys and then taught him a little and he told us he has a lot of questions for us so we were able to set up something to meet with him more. We went and got in the car and as we did we saw that they found their keys...we rolled down the window and said "prayer works!!!"...haha. It was really cool. Moorpark is just doing so great right now. We are teaching a lot of people and they are progressing. We set two people with a baptismal date last night. THey were referred to us by members and are really excited about the church. It is a mother and daughter. Super cute family. We met this guy named Ryan this week because I guess the elders had found and returned his iPhone for him and he was really grateful so he left a note in our door with his apartment address. Well one day we decided to go by and see him we went by and caught him in the perfect time to talk to him a bit about the gospel. We had a very inspired conversation and he set up an appointment for the next day. We came and he said that after we left his buddy had called and invited him to a 12 step program and he said that he had tried to quit using prescription drugs a week before and we were such an answer to his prayers. He's really excited to learn and expressed the want to be baptized! Wendy is getting baptized! Sister Bennett was super great and bold and pretty much told Wendy it was up to her to decide when she is getting baptized because she just needs to stop drinking coffee. She said that she could stop right then and we set her with a date of the 21rst of July. We are teaching lots of people and I love it. Don't think I'm not excited to see you all...i mean of course I am...i just can't think about that until Im on the plane I owe to heavenly father to finish out serving ...."with all my heart might mind and strength"... Love you all....Hermana Tippetts

Mom you are a facebook stalker!

First off....mom I cant believe you are stalking me on facebook!! Haha Yeah the boy that was in the picture with McKay is in my war..its the bishop's son. In fact the Hunt family actually lives here in Moorpark and are in my ward. I havent seen them yet. Small world. I think I will answer all your questions first because I always seem to forget them. Well reply to what you said. Lets see...ya the beach would be just fine as long as we go to church in Cali(what part of california is it in). Haha you said that Bentley was a little more filled out and said you cant wait to see me...hahahaha well you'll get the same effect..a little more filled out hahaha. ANYWAY. Uh, I will fill out this returned missionary sheet and send it to you. Dad told me to fax it but I dont really have the resources to do that. But ill send it good ol snailmail. Also I am pretty sure that is our address here in Moorpark. Well this week has been super great! I love Moorpark. At the begining of the week we went down to Ventura to have a meeting with President and then I worked with Hna Clark a little bit to plan the exchanges a little more. I know I said this last week but the youth here is SOO amazing. We were at the ward mission leaders house to have ward correlation and as we got there the girls from mutual were leaving and one of the young women introduced us to her friends and we were ableto get an appointment with both of them. They both have come to youth conference and participated in the road show! We taught 16 year old boy who wants to get baptized so bad but he can't because his parents have yet to sign the permission form but he was telling us how he has to hide his book of mormon under his mattress. He also said " I dont really understand all of this...but I know its true". He has such a strong testimony of the gospel. Its awesome! The bishop here is really great and has taken these boys in (there are this group of boys who are all learning about the gospel). It really reminds me of my group of friends growing up. We have been knocking a lot and Sister Bennett is really on fire. I know it must be hard to be in your first area and knock a ton but she is really just doing work!! I am so proud of her and know she is going to be an amazing missionary. Well she already is...but you know what I mean. Anyway as we have been knocking we have run into lots of people who dont want to talk to us but we have found a good hand full of people who want to learn more. We met this great family last week who invited us back and we have an appointment with them tonight. She is a former Jehovah's Witness and he grew up Catholic but doesnt really believe in religion. The wife doesnt even believe in God any more. However when we met him at the door he talked to us for a while and it was fgetting really good. Then his wife came ot give him dinner. She stepped outside and started talking to us and after a minute she let us in. We started teaching her about the plan of salvation because all of her doubts could be resolved by the plan. She talked a lot but the spirit was really strong. She believes in energy and told us that she felt "really good energy" with us. We told her that was the spirit. I am really excited to teach this family. We also are teaching a less active man and his family...well he is more of a returning member, but their family....namely his wife really warmed up during our lesson and came to church on Sunday! We are really laying a solid foundation here...not because we are great...but because President recieved inspiration that we needed to come here in this moment and the Lord has helped us do the rest. I love being a missionary. I love feeling the spirit so strongly every morning as we study and then being able to use what we study as we talk to people on the street. I only get a couple more weeks with Sister Bennett and I could really use some prayers to know how I can be the very best trainer for her. The mission is so important and I really want her to be able to have the tools to be a good and effective missionary! Thanks. The Lord is just blessing us with tender mercies every day and we have made it a goal (Sister Bennett and I) to write down our favorite thing that happened each day and it hjas really helped me to have even more joy. I invite you to do the same. Tell the nieces and nephews thanks for the little shout outs! Love them! Hope all is well! have a great week! Hermana Tippetts

Hello family from (Moorpark) which is very close to thousand oaks

Well...I did get your email mom and i didnt see anything attached to it so I am guessing that it will be coming in the mail this week. Ill wait for it. So to answer your question, yes I am in Moorpark, we live in an apartment and yes i will still be traveling. I will be traveling with Sister Clark! We wont be doing so many exchanges because of this being such a new thing but I am excited. Yesss... So I feel bad for Sister Bennett (my new companion!!) She had the craziest first week EVER! We had to stay in Ventura for a couple of days and we never really got to work together. Then we got here and had to figure this whole white washing thing. We didnt have any appointments and we knocked a lot. It has been really great though. Just really different but I guess she didnt know the diference. She is so great. We have a lot similarities. We LOVE cars. Its been kind of nice. Haha. she understands me. She knows Trevor Tippetts. Also at church on Sunday someone came up to me and told me they knew Tippetts in Vegas and she knew uncle Mark and aunt trudy and said she grew up with my cousins. That was pretty neat. We have a couple people with baptismal dates now..and a few new investigators. I just feel the spirit so much here. I can just feel that there is a huge reason we are here and this is where heavenly father wants us. Im not sure why but I was just thinking about all the things that had to happen so we could be here together and it just blows my mind and helps me know that this is really inspired. We talked to this family who the dad of the family isnt a member but comes to church every week and the wife is a convert and the son is about to go on a mission next month. So as we were there we invited the son to practice teaching the lessons with us to his mom and dad. When we invited them to do that we really felt the spirit and we have an appointment to do so this week. The youth in this ward/stake are AMAZING! There are so many converts who are in young mens and young womens and they are sharing the gospel with everyone. I am so impressed by them! I really feel like we are also here for the youth because they are so willing to open their mouths and share the gospel. I really love being a missionary and I have been reflecting on my mission and it really hit me this week that any of the success I have had on my mission had nothing to do with me, it was all just blessings of our Heavenly Father and from the Holy Ghost. presidente castro sent us this great quote this week: “I have felt impressed to speak today about the need for integrity—old-fashioned, personal, practical integrity. To me, integrity means always doing what is right and good, regardless of the immediate consequences. It means being righteous from the very depth of our soul, not only in our actions but, more importantly, in our thoughts and in our hearts. Personal integrity implies such trustworthiness and incorruptibility that we are incapable of being false to a trust or covenant.” (Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, Ensign, May 1990, 30) I like because I feel that is what we are trying to develop every day! I hope that I can be that person. I also heard that they opened up Personal Progress to everyone and im really excited to get my medalion when I get home! Well life is great and the greatest joy is serving the LORD! LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Hermana Tippetts!

Soooo....I forgot today was transfer day

Haha or did I tell you today was transfers??? Well I guess I will get that out of the way first.............I am being transfered! Its crazy. So I will be white washing (which means there are Elders there right now and they will both be leaving) and training (in english ahh..) and I will keep my traveling sister assignment but the other Traveling Sister will be here in Ventura while I am in Moorpark!!! Im going back to the Thousand Oak area. CRAZY...but I wont lie I had like a mini revelation the night before so it wasnt a huge shock. BUT STILL. Crazy. I am super exciting but everything is going to be so new. Well....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!! I was thinking about you and was thinking about your birthday. Ha so I hope it went well. Also can you give a shout out to Lori and Vanessa for their birthdays! I thought about them as well. Life has just been so crazy and I didnt have time to go to the store and buy cards but I love you all the same. Lets see...this week was really good. Sister Thompson and I had so many miracles and she was a great missionary! I am excited to see her up at school. This week we talked about an inspired of way of teaching and we put it into practice in district meeting and asked got a baptismal date that day in a declaration on the front porch! I know our mission president is so inspired. I am also grateful that he is so focused on Preach My Gospel and doesnt feel the need to come up with all these fancy programs because Preach My Gospel is the Lord's way to do missionary work! Oh then before that we were leaving an investigators house but we started walking down the street and started talking to these 2 guys. They invited us to come and sit on the porch so we went up and taught them the Restoration and they both accepted baptismal dates!!! YA! The Lord is really preparing people and if we are willing to be bold and do work he will help. The Evangelista family is doing super great and so is Bro Wages. We finally saw the Fa family and taught them the Plan of Salvation. We invited her to be baptized and she is going to pray about being baptized. She is really so great and is putting everything into practice that she is learning. Now we just have to get her to church more often. She has a really crazy work schedule but we need to be more firm with her.. Sorry if this email is so crazy. My mind is all over the place. Everything is changing haha but it is going to be such an adventure! I got an email from Chrissy too and Im sorry to hear that both her and Jamie had little accidents! I hope they get better soon and I will keep them in my prayers! I was randomly studying in the for the strength of youth (the new one) and I noticed that every single section it mentions in some way that this principle will help you have the spirit to be with you and I think that it is so cool that we have some guidelines to better help us have the spirit to be with us. It just goes to show us how important having the spirit with us is. I love the gospel! Well really my mind is so crazy and we have to be in Oxnard at 3 to take the new sisters out so I have to let you go. Pray that I will be able to train in pure english! Im so excited to meet my new missionary. She is going to be great! I have always wanted to white wash. It is going to be such an adventure! YAY YAY YAY! All is well and we are working! It is so good to hear how everyone is doing. Im sorry this letter is so crazy. Haha love you all!

im not talking, im just complimenting the elders on their spanish

April 28, 2012 Good Morning Family on this beautiful Memorial Day weekend! It is so good to be here in Ventura. I am always so spoiled with wonderful weather. The sun is shining with a cool breeze...SOOO nice, but I have to remember that June gloom is coming. Anyway it sounds like you have had a great memorial day weekend! Was it some kind of joke to make dad the youth speaker? Hahaha. What did he speak about? Andres got baptized this saturday!!!!! Woo hoo (see attached picture). I was out of town thursday and friday doing exchanges in Oxnard and Newbury Park and when I got back...bam baptism. It was so crazy. I still can't believe that he is a member of the church already! I feel like the time went by so fast. He was so prepared and has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. The day before his baptism he finished reading the Book of Mormon for the second time! That is pretty amazing. The baptism was really simple but really beautiful. His wife and sister and law gave talks, his daughter and niece sang a special musical number, the bishop baptized him (in spanish...so precious). We watched some mormon.org videos between the baptism and the spirit was so strong during the temple one (also side note one of the videos we watched was a conversion story of two kids who played on rivalry football teams and at the baptism Bentley was there as a missionary! That was so cool). When we came back from being baptized he really was just glowing. Then on Sunday he was baptized by fire (he recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost). His daughter was talking about how excited she is to have the priesthood in her home. I love this family so much and I will always be grateful to our Heavenly Father who allowed us to be here to teach him. We had a really cool thing happen to us this week. So we were walking back from meeting this family (the little 14 year old boy reminded me so much of Joseph Smith) and we see this lady struggling to carry a car seat and some bags so we run up to her and carry her carseat. We then teach her a bit about the book of mormon and set a return appointment with her. She was really excited for us to come back. Before leaving we asked her if there was anyone she knew that might need some service. She said her father and mother would need some and she gave us their address. So then we get in the car and I check the phone to see that we have a text message from the referral center I noticed that it was the same street as her parents, when I checked further I realized that it was the same people! They called for a DVD (finding faith in Christ). SUCH a miracle. Unfortunatley we did not have finding faith in christ in the car so we had to wait until we saw the elders. We are really excited about it. We had training for this bike rodeo that the city is helping out with and we are volunteering to help. I will be putting helmets on kids. It sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun. We are doing it this saturday from 8 am to 2 pm. It was really fun to be at the meeting and all the missionaries (well a lot of them) saying that we could help in spanish and english...BECAUSE WE SPEAK BOTH. Pretty cool. Lets see...It was really fun being back in Newbury Park. I love that place so much. SO MANY PEOPLE TO TEACH. I felt like I knew everyone though. Oh yes...next week is transfers....BUT my companion has to leave this thursday (home) because of visa and school stuff. She will be at BYUI (and I would really like to live with her too). SOoooo...starting wednesday I will have a new companion...but who really knows who...these are the random things missionaries have guessed.. 1.companions with Sister Castro (I wish) 2. mini missionary (someone who isnt a missionary but gets set apart for a week) 3. solo sister in a tri-pan with the assistants (that is really a joke) 4. break up a tri pan that is in Bakersfield and bring one of them down here. Im guessing the mini missionary but I wont find out until tuesday. Either way it will be super great, I know it! I love the scriptures! I love reading them in english and in spanish and the depth that it brings. I love how simply the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and I know all who read it will come to know who we worship. I know that reading the Book of Mormon helps us to change our desires and inline them with those of Christ. I love being one of the Lord's full time missionaries. I will use his time to the fullest. LOVE YOU ALL!! Hermana Tippetts

I CANNOT believe its Tuesday...

Wow, the last few days have been so great and so crazy. First let me explain why I am writting on Tuesday. We had zone conference this week and we had ours on Monday so we had to have pday on tuesday. No stress. So we had sisters conference last week and it went great. As we were driving away me and Sister Vasquez looked at eachother and said "is it already over? I can't believe that it already happened". They day went by TOO quickly. We had beautiful musical numbers by the sisters, classes taught by some of the sisters and I learned so much!!!, Sister Vasquez and I taught about finding and talking to everyone, President Castro talked about our theme "thou art an elect lady whom I have called"...it was amazing and totally what all the sisters needed to hear. We had workshops on learning how to meditate and how to be more organized and take care of ourselves. We had a yummy yummy lunch and ended the day with some beauty tips by one of the sisters. It really was a great day. It was so spiritually uplifting and so impowering to see all these beautiful sisters who have desires to serve the Lord. THEN.... The very next day we headed up to Bakersfield in the evening. It was a really fun ride and we arrived in east bakersfield. As we were getting close to Arvin you could smell the lovely stink that is the Arvin signature and I rolled down my window and took in a good wiff. That smell will always be pleasing to me. hahaha. We were in Bakersfield until Sunday morning when we drove back. Bakersfield was HOT but I LOVED IT. I was a little worried that I would die when I finally got back to Vegas but I think I will be able to handle it ok. So many great things happened in Bakersfield. We crashed an apartment bbq and they fed us and we taught them the gospel, we set like 6 people with baptismal dates, we met so many people who were prepared for the gospel, and at the end of the night I always got to end up with my companion. YAY! I left my books in south bakersfield and didnt realize it until we were in Taft, so we were planning on staying the night in Taft again before we drove to Bakersfield but we decided that it was important that I had my books so we drove back to South Bakersfield. As we were about 10 minutes outside of Taft we realized that sister Vasquez forgot the phone in Taft so we turned around to go get. Needless to say it was a late night. But as we were driving in the middle of no where Bakersfield I rolled the window down and was just taking it all in and (I admit it was a little smelly), and I said "I will never forget this moment", Sister Vasquez found that so funny and has become one of her newest catch phrases. While we were gone our area was just great. Andres talked to the bishop about his baptism and all is settled for him to get baptized excet for his interview that he will have with a missionary tonight. He will be baptized this Saturday and I am so excited. In Preach My Gospel under the section of "helping people prepare for baptism and confirmation" I was reading how our commitments that we extend are what will help them prepare to make covenants with God like baptism and every single thing we have invited Andres to do, he has done. I know that he is so ready to make covenants with God! Yay! Two funny stories: So one day we had a lesson with one our less actives Julie and as we were driving to her house, about to turn into her neighborhood we saw her parked at the stop light going to the other direction. As we were turning I rolled down the window and was like, "Julie, turn,,,turn Julie"...hahaha she did and sister Vasquez was like "she obeyed you". It was funny. Julie is so funny and we have been trying to help her so much. I really hope she can feel the love the savior has for sure. Other funny story...so for zone conference we have car checks and part of that car check is that we have enough air in our tires. Well I wont lie (sorry dad), I really have no idea how to use those tire pressure measurer thingys...but I was willing to try. So about an hour before we have to go to the meeting we texted our zone leaders saying something like "hey if you havent filled up your tires yet there is a great gas station by the church and if you happen to see two confused sisters there you could help them out". The thing is we feel like we are always asking for help so we were trying to be a little more discreat about it....well needless to say they never showed up and I thought I did it right...added air...checked it...got a different reading every time but figured it was ok. Well...it wasnt...we were like 5 pounds low. hahaha...we blamed our zone leaders and afterwards we brought up the text...and they were like "oh........". Life lesson learned...if you want men to do something, ask them directly. They were nice though and came outside and taught us how to use the tire pressure gauge. So yeah. Life is just great. We are teaching some great people but as well e really need to find more so I am excited for the next couple weeks to work so hard and gain the trust of the Lord that he will place more elect investigators in our path! I have been learning so much and it is so crazy that here at the last part of my mission (kill me) I am still learning so much and still have a lot to learn. As for you question Mom about disneyland...I really dont care when we go. Whatever will be best for everyone else. Love you all lots! May 22,2012

Well hello again...

Well Im glad after calls we still get the chance to email because just like you said mom you get kind of lost for words. I had no idea what to say to anyone haha. Sorry, but it was fun to hear from everyone. It was so fun to hear how the kids are growing, especially Brandon I cant believe he sounds like a little man...and SHAVES. That is so weird. For sure tell Jamie and Jeff I missed them there too. But I will be able to see them and talk to them and not have to have a awkward phone call. Haha I am so awkward. I do like the idea of the new plans. I hope you can get your money back and everyone. Sorry it has been such a hassel. So this week was pretty good. We had some great miracles bringing members out with us. We really noticed it was something that we needed to improve on this week and we were able to hit the standard of excellence. Yay. I read a really good scripture this week in the Bible, it will be familiar to all of you but it really hit home with me. I was studying to know how people will recognize us as servants of the Lord when I came across it. John 13:34-35 " a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35. by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". I have sang that primary song a billion times but it just really made me think about and reevalute how much others can feel my love or the love the Savior has when we are with them. In my Book of Mormon reading I really found an answer to my prayers and it just reaffirmed my testimony that when we read the scriptures and apply them to our lifes we will be guided. We have some investigators who have been learning for a while but in their situation right now they are lacking the desire to make preparing for baptism a number one priority, we have been recently counseled that we need to spend our time with those who are elect and who are easy to teach. We love this family but we feel like they need some time to reflect and ponder how the gospel of Jesus Christ fits into their lives. BUT we were getting some flack from people saying that we should just go over and maintain and "friendship" with them. That we didnt have to teach them things. That really bothered me but I wasnt sure what to think. So as I was reading in the scriptures I came across this verse. 2 nephi 9:48 "Behold if ye were hoy I would speak unto you of holiness but as ye are not holy, and ye look upon me as a teacher it must needs be expedient that I teach you the consequences of sin." We are teachers and we are here to help people understand what God expects for them and what he has in store for them, so that scripture really instructed me. LOVE THE SCRIPTURES!!!! So this week we have Sister's conference. All the sisters in the mission will be coming for a training from 10-5. It is going to be so great! I have to conduct the morning session and I am so nervous. I dont know how to conduct very well so after emails the zone leaders are going to practice with me. Hahaha. I feel so dumb but thats ok. Sister Vasquez and I will also be giving a training about finding people and we will be focusing on talking to everyone and also teaching as soon as we find people! We are super excited about it. It will be a great day. I love Hermana Vasquez (my companion) she really is just such a great person to be around. She will also be going to BYU-I so maybe next semester or something I can live with her. There are 3 other spanish sisters who will be going there and I think it would be so cool if eventually all 4 of us lived together. It would be so easy too since most of us have lived with eachother already. But yeah I think just talking to Vanessa would be great to figure out the whole housing situation. We got to do service this saturday washing cars for a school fundraiser (it was for President Castro's daughters school) It was really fun and we were even able to find a less active woman through it who has only been a member of the church for a couple of years. It was such a blessing. We even took advantage of it and washed our own car! Woo hoo. Less time on Pday that we have to spend cleaning. It was sooo cute too because the little kids who were cleaning were being really agressive with our car and the mission president's daughter was like "hey dont do that, that is the sisters car" Anyway I really love being a missionary. Right after our phone call we went to an appointmen with a lady we met the other day, it was one of those "sure I guess you can come back" and when we got there it looked like they were all running in trying to hide from us BUT we came up anyway and she let us teach her. As we were teaching her she had the question of "what is the true church, Ive always wanted to know so that I could fall God". She loved the restoration and without hesitation she said she would prepare to be baptized! yay! The EVANGELISTA FAMILY IS SO GREAT!!!! I love them. Hermano Evangelista (the one we are teaching), he knows the church is true and is preparing for his baptism and he even called his mom and family in Mexico and told them to find the missionaries and invite them to come over because he knows its true and he wants his family to know. How cool is that? It really goes to show you that when we are repenting and when we are trying to live the gospel as he is striving to do our desire to share the gospel grows. Well I love you all and hope you have a great week. Thanks for being such a great family! LOVE YOU!!!! Hermana Tippetts

Well its Monday again

May 7, 2012 Well...It has been a week. Haha Weeks go by WAY too fast. I am with my companion again (I just love her to pieces), Hna Vasquez. She never fails to make me laugh. She just said that you all are going to think she is a clown. Haha oh man...ANYWAY... So I guess first things first is orders of business....I can call home around 5 oclock on Mothers day. That will be the best time for my companions family (and they are all the way in honduras) So that will work out. Whoever can be there that would be great and whoever cant will be missed BUT itll all be good. Sooo we had transfer meeting this week (that is the meeting we have the first day of ever transfer and all the missionaries who are changing come to Ventura and the missionaries who are leaving bare their testimonies and the new missionaries get their trainers. President usually says a few words...we get to sing the mission song which is my FAVORITE, #41 let Zion in her beauty rise). They never cease to be inspiring, this transfer President left a blessing upon us that if we would go back to our new zone of proselyting with a renewed energy to do this work and that we would be successful. He also talked about how when we obey commandments we directly get the blessings and he invited us to really obey the commandments that we would like to see the blessings of. Its been a great week! On Monday we had this awesome miracle when we took the new sisters out for their first "declaring" experience. First one we saw the fruits immediatley...so we were about to go back to the mission home and we saw this lady sitting at the bus stop so we stopped and talked to her. She was really struggling the drug abuse and we promised her that if she read the Book of Mormon when she had a craving she would be able to stop. She was so excited and filled with joy. She lived in a different town near by so we got her information so the missionaries could visit her and she wanted them to come over that night! It was so cool. The second one we saw the fruits the day after. So we met this guy Cameron walking down the street and we started talking to him about the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon. Finally he said, Im really sorry sisters but Im already meeting with........SOME ELDERS. Haha. We were like OH..ok. We found out which Elders they were (our zone leaders), but then felt impressed to read in the introduction of the Book of Mormon with him and ask him if he knew it was true. He said yes! We committed him to be baptized and he accepted. We called the Elders that night to tell them about it and they said they had recently dropped him because he wasnt really progressing. Well the next day we get a phone call from them telling us that they followed up with him and were able to set him with a baptismal date and they said he was never willing to do that before. A huge part of it I think was one of the new missionaries is straight from Samoa and doesnt know much english and is a convert and she bore a powerful testimony. It was SO awesome. We met a really great couple...well they are kind of funny and have a billion questions but they are interested and are keeping committments. After we met them she said that she wanted to cancel but he wanted to hear us out. We had met them and taught them the Restoration the first time we met them and then we came back and taught the plan of salvation. They have really great questions but are really nervous that they are going to get brain washed. Its really funny and cute. She had some bad experiences with members of our church growing up and I am SO grateful that we are able to talk to her abut those things and get them straightened out. Im really excited about him. Ok another miracle...I dont know if I told you about this a while ago but when I was in Newbury Park...well actually the full story would be better to share in person because its kind of sacred. BUT we really started teaching this investigator Marcos that Sister Dalton and myself started teaching he came to the cinco de mayo party the branch put on (it was SO amazing) and then came to church the next day. He is planning on helping the members with a mother day activity this week. He is so great and the branch has been so good at fellowshipping him. We have such an amazing branch! Which is so great because member fellowship is so important, if these new members dont feel part of the ward family it is really hard for them. We saw Claire again (the lady who we knocked on her door when she was praying to find Jesus) and left for London on Sunday but we committed her to be baptized in London and we exchanged information. Im really excited for her. Hermano Evangelista is SO great. Wow. We taught him the Word of Wisdom last week and he has problems with coffee and seemed iffy on wanting to quit but we came back this week and he started drinking things like hot chocolate instead and he told us at church this week that he hasnt drank coffee at all!!!!!!! You can just see the light in people's faces when they are keeping committments and really repenting. They are preparing to make covenants with God which we know will purify us! Kristen is also moving along. We have had some really spiritual lessons with her and she really wants to get baptized she has some serious fears about going to church and water but I know she can work through them. I can see her pushing through her fears every day. She is such a great and strong woman and I love teaching her. We really just need to help her become more consistent. I love being a missionary. It is really so great. You would think by this time of my mission I would have spanish down perfectly and I would know exactly how to teach but its not true. I stll have so much that I could learn and Im really striving to learn more spanish and learn how to be a better teacher. It is super humbling to know that I will never have this totally figured out but thats ok! We have to cut our pday short again today so we can have a meeting with President and Sister Castro and plan for sisters conference which we will have this month!I love the Castro's sooooooo much! It is going to be a busy month! P.s. Mom yes I would like to visit the mission after. But we dont have to. We can talk about it laterrrrrr. Ive got lots of time here still. Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hermana Tippetts

FAMILY

April 30, 2012 Well hello...Transfer pday, always full of surprises. Not really for me or for Sister Vasquez we will be staying here in Ventura together! Yay! Which is so great because we havent been together for a whole week. Its been crazy. I will tell you about it. Monday...normal day... Tuesday...we started out the day together (me and sister Vasquez) and then I had called the dentist beacause my wisdom teeth were killing me and I had an appointment at 2 oclock. We went and the cut off a lot of my excess gum haha. So we left and my tongue and mouth was SUPER numb and we met up with Sister Baker and Sister Sanchez (serving in Bakersfield) in front of our next appointment and we switched. Sister Sanchez came with me and we went to teach Bruce and of course I couldnt talk very well. It was hilarious. So then the rest of the day I was with Sister Sanchez. We had a great lesson with the Fa family. I really want them to hang out with dave and lisa, jed and chrissy. It would be magical Then at 9 oclock at night Sister Lillywhite came and joined us. See...Sister Sanchez is a temple square missionary that was here for a few transfers but was going back. Wednesday...started at 3 am is when the day started. Sister Lillywhite and I drove Sister Sanchez up to the Santa Barbara airport and we got back just in time to start working out and study. Craaaazy. We were so tired but had sooo many appointments so we just kept trucking haha. It was seriously insane. Loved it though. Heavenly Father blessed us sooo much. Thursday-Friday- was a blur of still tiredness and awesomeness. Poor sister Lillywhite...we taught SO much spanish and she is a english missionary. She was so great though. Sister Baker and Sister Vasquez drove back friday night, so we all slept at our apartment. SATURDAY....SUCH A GLORIOUS GLORIOUS DAY! We all woke up and were at the church building by 9 am and headed up past ojai to a canyon for Steve's baptism. It was so amazing. Started off kind of rocky because some of the very key people got REALLY lost but eventually they all made it back. Steve came down all dressed in white (as you can see from the picture). We got a quick picture with him and they headed into the water. The spirit was so strong and Steve's face was glowing when he came up out of the water. The rest of the baptism was so great. He was so ready and excited to make this commitment with his Father in Heaven. It was such a great baptism. Words cannot describe it but I will hold it in my heart for the rest of my life. Sunday..Steve recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost! Yay...so great. Lots and lots and lots of stuff happened but we have to be at President's house tonight at 4 so we can have dinner with the new missionaries and then take the brand new sisters out to declare! So exciting. But Sister Lillywhite is leaving so I have to take her to her apartment so she can pack up before then! Love you lots. The mission is the best thing in the whole world!!!!!!!!!

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!!!

When in doubt about eating or getting on the freeway....eat

Hello family! It is a great Monday morning in Ventura! I love Ventura. It is the best city ever. I love going and seeing other parts of the mission but it is always super rewarding to come back home to Ventura. Today we are going hiking in Ojai, a little town connected to Ventura. Super excited.

This week was great. We had an exchange with the sisters in Simi Valley. Mom, I know you have questions on how all this works so I will explain. What happens is there is 12 companionships on sisters in the mission. So we go visit them. I go with one of them and Sister Dalton will go with the other sister. If the sisters are close enough to Ventura one comes here and one of us goes to their area. I travel if its spanish and sister Dalton travels if its english sisters. So it doesnt really matter if they are old or no we do it with everyone. Since Simi Valley is pretty close Sister Vandenhazel came with me in Ventura. That was an adventure because it was my first time staying in my area without Sister Dalton and I got us around pretty well. WOO HOO. Im learning.

So lets see...oh a precious tender mercy of the Lord. So I think last week i told you that we went and visited the former Elder Finkle in the hospital (he had a heart attack and worked for the mission for 13 years) and as we got their the Assistants were there too. We skipped dinner so we could see him and we were pretty starving. The assistants told us that they had apples and oranges in the car that they would give to us. Well as we were leaving the hospital Sister Dalton and myself started talking to this man in spanish and the assistants left. So later that night we had a meeting with President at the mission home, so we went and the assistants were leaving. So as we leave we are driving the car when I notice there are apples on our windshield. So nice.

Cool thing that happened this week. We were in an appointment with Bruce and he just keeps getting confused between the Holy Ghost and the Light of Christ so we were trying to explain that as well as our lesson which was on obedience and prayer. Now we have been trying to get Bruce really studying the Book of Mormon, he was doing well a few weeks ago and then it dropped off again. Now side note....Bruce is this 84 year old man who is super active in all these clubs and he LOVES speech writting. He is part of toastmasters club. So as we were about to invite him to read the Book of Mormon a very clear thought came into my head to invite him to write a speech about a chapter in the Book of Mormon. So we invited him to do it and he was so excited. I know that the spirit guided me and I am so grateful for it because I have no idea how Bruce will get excited to read the Book of Mormon but the Lord knows.

Chris Star!! She is so elect. Now remember how she came to church last week? Well we had an appointment with her this week and it was amazing!!!!! It started out super awkward but once we got into the lesson it was amazing. She told us that she felt that the Lord told her to get baptized but she has been searching this last year on where to go!!!! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted. She is just so open and prepared. She brought up the scripture in John 15:16 and was really confused if that meant she wasnt saved. We werent able to jump ahead and explain that because we want to give her milk before meat and start from the begininning of the restoration until the end but I know she will totally understand it when we explain authority.

Michelle. So the other day we had just been praying our guts out for people to find and as we were walking/knocking we saw Michelle. We talked to her and taught her the full restoration. She also committed to be baptized. Its hard to just teach the full restoration on the door step but you could just see her countence brighten and in her prayer she was so sincere about asking if the 14th of April was the day she should be baptized. She is in her 20s and lives at home so we are really hopeful that when we come back we will be able to teach the whole family as well.

It has been a really great week. I just love being a missionary and testifying of Jesus Christ. I love that everyone I talk to I have the calling to invite them to come unto Christ. That is not something you really get to do all your life. Stop every person and talk to them about the good news of the gospel. Once you get a taste of that you never want to go back!

I am so glad to hear all is well at home. Chrissy also emailed me and it just seems like things are trucking on and going great! Love you! Be good!

P.s. Mom I feel like you and my companions mom would really get along haha.

So I can't believe its Monday again...

Where is the time going?? I really cannot believe that is monday already. I was talking with my companion this morning and I was like "Mondays are just crazy, on one hand I feel like everything that happened this week happened so long ago and I should have already told you about it but on the other hand it feels like just yesterday was Monday so how could I have anything new to talk about? haha. She agreed.

So yesterday morning we drove straight to church from Bakersfield...but I guess I should start my email from last tuesday... Or..I dont really know where to start...ok

SO thanks for the sonic giftcard. I got it when I was in Newbury Park but there are no Sonic's in all of Ventura county so I was pretty bummed. BUT when we were in Bakersfield this weekend we got to use it a few times and I will be able to use it next time we are up there! YAY for ocean water. Such a treat. You are the best mom.

Wednesday was great, it was our only "full" day in our area because we were going to Bakersfield and we had zone conference and P-day ...and that full day ended at 6:30 because we had to drive to Bakersfield. We had lots of good appointments though. In the morning our first appointment fell through so we were walking around this trailer park checking up on a few investigators but not very many people were home at this time of day so we were walking to go check on someone that one of our investigadores told us might be interested and as we were walking we saw this teenage boy walking into his house and we stopped him and asked him if his parents were home and he said yes so we came right up and talked to her. She learned from missionaries in Oxnard but moved up here. She has brain cancer and is just really searching for answers. We were able to testify to her of the power of the Book of Mormon in bringing others to Christ. She was really open and invited us back. We had an appointment every hour for the rest of the day. Then we headed up to Bakersfield and stopped in Fillmore for some good ol Taco Bell and were able to declare the gospel to some men that were sitting next to us in Taco Bell. They just kept looking over at us and so we were able to strike up a conversation with them and testify as they were leaving. They know the missionaries in Bakersfield (where they are from) and have a Book of Mormon. YAY!

Then Thursday we were in South Bakersfield thursday and I went out with Hermana Randall (my companion when I was in Bakersfield but now she is in another part of Bakersfield). It was such a great day. We ran into a few people and the spirit was just so strong. Loved it. The day went by WAY too fast.

Then we headed over to east bakersfield english sisters. I was with sister Forbes (I included a picture of that exchange I was wearing a pink skirt). She just got emergency transfered there for some silly things and she was kind of stressed out and it was fun to be able to go out tracting with her and find a TON of new investigators. I think we found like 4 new investigators or more. Such a successful day. One thing I loved about that day is we went to go check on a "potential" and as we were walking there we see this man outside so we go to talk to him and he just wanted to fight with us from the get go. He was trying to bash us and I was just smiling and testifying of the Book of Mormon but it got to a point where he just wasnt listening at all so I just went up to him and gave him and hand shake and told him it was so nice to meet him and I invited him to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it was true...and then he just went off and was like "I dont buy your fake niceness at all. I know its fake and bla bla bla...your church is from the devil...bla bla bla". So we left...and I was fine...because there was nothing more that we could have done but still...hearing that someone thinks you are fake is kind of a bummer. So we go to the potentials house and no one was home but as we walked to the car we noticed there was a lady working in her garden so we went over there to talk to her and at first she was a little stand offish but we started talking to her and she was telling us that she was looking for a church because hers got shut down and before she had seen our missionaries and always thought they looked really happy but never really wanted to talk to them and she told us that she could tell that we "had christ in our hearts" because of how happy we were. It was awesome...so at first she didnt want to make an appointment but finally we gave her this scripture to read and we asked her if we could come back and discuss it and she went and got her calender. It was so great to just see the spirit working on her. LOVE IT. Also when we were there we contacted this lady and had her pray at the end and she cried...it is SO rewarding to help people start their communication with God again.

Then we headed to do "tri pans" I went to east bakersfield hermanas (aka ARVIN!!!!! my old area) and Sister Dalton went to North Bakersfield. It was so great to be in Arvin again, it is such a heavenly place with so many spanish people. We had a random miracle there...we went to go check on someone I use to teach at like 8 oclock...she had moved so we went to check on someone they are teaching who I also taught (and he llives with a member)..so I asked the member if he knew where Antonia moved and he told us. So we went to go check it out but we were one house off and found this really cute family and taught them. SO COOL! I love the the Lord works.

Then on Sunday we were sitting in church on sunday and in walks this lady Chris Star ( I guess I should explain. Last pday we had a referral for her from church headquarters that she wanted a bible so we went to go contact her and taught her for a few minutes and gave her the bible and invited her to church but we werent able to see her again because we were going to Bakersfield). She walks in with her boys and it was just such a miracle! Her youngest boy had a hard time adjusting to primary so she sat in there the whole time but I think that wasgood because she got to see what it was all about. SO GREAT!

Oh the other picture is us missionaries with (formerly ELder) brother Finkle. He worked for the California Ventura Mission for 13 years and would take the missionaries who served in Ventura to Duke's (a hamburger place) So he took us newbies there. So fun. Then the other picture is me and Sister Dalton by the beach (Duke's is right close to the beach)


That 5k sounds so awesome. Tell them I said congrats and thanks for the story about the blessing. I have such a huge testimony of the priesthood!!! OK I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND TAKE CARE!!!! TALK TO YOU NEXT WEEK. (oh and also this week we will be going to Lompoc on friday and Santa Maria on Saturday)