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!!!!!!!!!