Californiaaaaa!

Hola family! Ok so first off I was able to upload some pictures so I hope you can see them, let me know. The first one is of me in Ventura! Holla! It is so beautiful! Second is back at the MTC of my district, it was our last temple walk..sad day. Thrid is of me and my new companion Hermana Frost! Fourth you have me at my first baptism!!! (p.s. i promise I am a missionary..for some reason my tag was covered. Whoops)..His name is Antonio and before he met the missionaries he had been reading the bible and praying for something. So its pretty sweet. Hes really solid and works so hard and still makes time to read the book of mormon. And when I mean he works hard he works 2 jobs and sleeps maybe 2 hours a day...and gave up monsters and coffee to keep him awake. SO COOL! We have 2 baptisms this saturday, Enriqueta and Luis...they are solid as well. Luis was praying for a sign when the missionaries talked to him in the street and one of Enriqueta's roommates got a pass along card and she saw it and called the number. MILAGROS! (miracles) Oh and speaking of Miracles one of our investigators came to the movie night and to all 3 hours of church! PROGRESS! Im so excited for him!

The Ward I serve in wants to serve missionaries ALL THE TIME. Its nice, haha and the kiss everyone. Im such a Mexican! YAA!

Ok, so from what dad said you guys really had a stressful/injury filled week. Im sorry :( that makes me sad. I hope everything is looking up but it is so good to hear that you are all working to help each other out. Keep it up, that is what family i for. Tell Jeff I said Happy Birthday!!

And mom, got your letter, I felt really bad for kinda giving you all grief about not writing me a email last week, didnt know were writting an actual letter. Email is good though. I enjoyed getting your letter and hearing about everything. I miss you all lots, but being a missionary is so awesome! Tell Branden he is so awesome for walking that 20 miles!! Go him! Tell him Im proud of him! Wow, also tell the Elders in the ward to keep it up! Definitley go to the baptisms, new converts need as much support as they can get.
I need to write jamie and jeff, what is there email address??

I can really tell that the world back home is still moving along, which is weird because I feel like everything there should be on pause until I get back. Its a really weird feeling. Like I feel like I'll get back and everyone will be playin poop head and everyone will be the same age. Its a weird feeling, thats the only way I can describe it.

Haha so most of the time I forget Im in california because I mostly feel like Im in Mexico most of the time. Its great though. Vive Mexico! Haha..Also hahaha..ok to me this is funny, but we were visiting a less active member the other day and she told me and her and some of the people in the ward thought I was from Spain. Haha cause I mentioned how Aunt Patty and Uncle Jack live in Mexico and she was like...are you Mexican?...and I was like no I am from Las Vegas...she was really confused. Anyway now I'm from Spain, I'm not an American.

yeah people here are pretty freaked out by the earthquake/ tsunami but I guess because we have the islands right here we are more protected. I still don't feel like any of that is real.

Ok this is going to be a pretty short letter, Im sorry. I love you all. I told myself I would remember everything I wanted to tell you, but I didnt...soooo I guess I'm going to have to start writting it down. Being a missionary is so sweet. Every day Im so ready for bed and tired, but there is nothing I would rather be doing.

Yes it rained here all yesterday, so that was my first experience tracting in the rain. Haha it was great.

People feed us a lot....a lot. Its nice....but I dont get near enough exercise for that. Hahaha...ahhhh. Mexican food is really good. But I dont like their jello...at all. haha. But I know how to eat like a real Mexican now! Yay!

I love you all lots and lots! Tell the Relief Society thanks so much for the package! I will write the ward soon!

I am so grateful for all you do for me, thank you so much, I won't ever be able to repay you Mom and Dad!

Family

Well hola, first off I would like to thank everyone for the weekly emails...and by that i mean thanks dad. Haha. Just kidding..sort of. Anyway today is Monday which is my pdays here in the California, Venutra Mission. Woo hoo! We go to a library and use the computers here with our library card but I had to just get a temp. because I havent had any mail come to me to prove that Im a resident. No worries though. :) So I guess you want the ligustics first. Well I am in good 'ol Oxnard, California haha. I am never more than like 5 miles from the beach...ish. But I never see it. My hair knows though...talk about a fro. haha. My companion is Hermana Frost and she is from Montecello, Utah. She has 2 transfers left in her mission. Crazy. Transfers are every 6 weeks so thats when I can move..maybe (doubt it). So they prefer that all mail be sent through the mission office because we move so often and they can foward it that day so it only delays it a day if that. So put that address up. My address at my apartment though (if you want to google map it or something haha) is 1940 Ginger #50 Oxnard California. We don't live in the area we serve in thoug (because this area is safer haha). We are in a spanish ward and we have a set of Elders that serve in our ward as well. Yeah. haha.
Oh and Dad, just use a picture from the family photos or something. Dont use the one with Landon..that one is awful...out all the pictures i sent you choose that one? haha..it doesnt have to be a full length picture or anything, and i cant email photos...so in order to get the pictures I have now you have to send me my other SD card back. haha :) love you guys.

Ok..well California is beautiful. I love the weather...although its a tiny bit cold for me sometimes. Spanish is awesome...im still learning and im mostly the smiling companion but I do try to put in my two cents when I understand and my companion has been really helpful at helping me teach parts of the lessons. Its great! We have 3 people with baptism dates and they are all super solid! One is getting baptized on saturday. Its so cheesy but even though I just met all these people and I can barely understand what they are saying I love them so much! I also love spanish even though I don't fully understand everything they say. Since I have been here everything has been busy, we knock, have appointment, visit less actives, have dinner with members(ill write more about this), have meetings, ext. Luckily we have a car, a 2010 carolla to be exact. I was also told that I will always have a car so we dont have to worry about the bike thing at all which is nice.

The members are great and we have dinner appointments every night.....and its a really huge deal that im a vegetarian. Hm. Like haha..ahhh. I feel so bad because every time they tell them they seem so beside themselves and worry so much and I dont exactly know what to say either....because I can't really speak spanish haha. But I try. Itll all work out, but its an interesting experience. I havent ever had to talk about my eating habits every single day. Also...haha they feed us a lot of food and they never stop haha. Its a good thing we can run every morning but I dont know if that will make up for it haha.

We have found a new investigator that seems really hopeful. Its so awesome to just be able to testify to people all day about the gospel! YOu just want everyone to accept it. I havent had any doors slammed in my face or yelled at. Pero, one lady let us in and we were teaching her the first lesson and her little kid came up and pulled up her shirt and started nursing. I was like...WOA. haaa. weird stuff. haha also..ok im going to tell you this because my companion is just so sweet but we were talking to these new investigators and my companion was like...what happened to your neck...and she was like..umm thats a hickey..hahahaha. Oh man. I wanted to die it was so funny.

Ok random note but im spying on the elder in front of me and he is adding pictures so i guess I can do that...next week por que my chord is at my house.

My companion told me Im going to make a good Mexican...dont really know what that means but ill roll with it. Lip liner here I come!!! Just kidding. I guess its just because I like all the hot stuff and how every time I see a cart with corn and chili I want to stop and get some..I havent yet but it WILL happen, and i'll say "get that corn outta my face".

It was way good to talk to you all. Even if it was for a very short time and I didnt know exactly what to say. Its always good to hear from home. Are you all excited for conference? I am! I havent figured out if Ill be watching in English or Spanish. I guess I should find that out. Also, sorry if I write in English, I promise I can speak spanish but its just a lot faster and easier in English..plus last time I checked I didnt think you all spoke Spanish.

Let the sibs know they can email me..on this email...and that I check it on mondays haha.

I dont really know what else to say. My investigators are so awesome, my companion helps me a ton, we eat a lot, the weather is perfect, the gospel is true, spanish is the best language ever, i have fro hair, Im not afraid of knocking doors, i read the bom, my family is awesome...yeah.

OH funny thing..so the first night in the mission home I didnt sleep there because...well hi there was 15 elders sleeping there...so i stayed at a member of the stakes house and I had a queen bed and a room to myself (it was really weird)...then we got back together with the Elders. Its the first time I was really home sick while on my mission...and it was for my district at the MTC...how ridiculous is that? Haha.

SO yeah, just have the mission home address on the blog so people can write if they want. Um, OH so there was that earthquake in Japan...so we had our weekly planning that day which means we leave the apartment much later than normal and our first appointment was at like 230? Well they were all freaked out and the elders (every time we eat dinner its with the elders..OH and in spanish culture they feed us but dont eat with us..) ANYWAY..the elders were like can you all swim? Ha...so I guess we had a tsunami warning...news to us. Nothing happened obviously, but it was interesting. I bet there was some sweet waves here...

Ok well I guess this is long enough. Missionary work is awesome! Love you lots and am so grateful for all you do.. Hope you are all still reading the B.O.M!

-Hermana Kayla Tippetts

6 days left in the MTC

Family! How are things? Mom it was great to get a letter yesterday! I love hearing about everything that is going on.

I guess the first thing you guys want to know is....YES I got my flight plans. I leave Monday the 7th and I report to the MTC travel office at 6 am (which is a blessing cause you can report starting at like 3 am). Anyway so here are my flight plans...my plane takes off from the SLC airport at 10:26 am and ill arrive in Denver, Co. at 11:50 (go figure). Then my flight from Denver leaves at 12:50. I arrive in Santa Barbra at 2:20. So crazy right? So yes, the official church policy is that there is no policy on phone calls at the airport, so we can call home. Ill probably buy a calling card. Mom you will be at work though so I dont know how that will work out. So I will be traveling with 15 other people so thats good, since Ive never done a connecting flight before, and ive never been to Denver so thats cool. But yeah, as of this time next week I will be in California. Loco. Its so weird because in a way I felt like I got here yesterday, but I also feel like I have been here for an eternity. So its good. I just got comfortable here which means its time to go haha. Oh so mom one thing you did forget to write me was my mission address, I need it so that I can give it to my district so they can write me. So please send it to me asap. Speaking of address can you change the address on the blog to the mission home address until I know where I am...gracias.

Thank you for sending the package to the mission home. you are the best. About the tape...i dont know. I would hate for it to get here after I leave and it have to be forwarded to California so if you dont think itll make here just wait til I can give you my address in Cali. Oh also I dont know when ill be able to email next because I dont know when my pday will be. You guys can start emailing me, mom dad and sibs. Ummm OH and Im sending a package home today, a shirt I wont wear, a lot of my letters and I dont remember what else. haha,. So yeah look for that.

Im glad you enjoyed the tape. I think its such a fun idea. Dont record over my stuff..i want to keep making tapes so Ill have them. Were you able to find a recorder for them? Did you give the "ward" email to bishop? Oh haha the deacons in the ward wrote me...mostly Brandon and the Deacons quorm president...an Allen I think. Haha tell them thank you for me, and Ginny Young, she wrote me this week too. Tell I give her many thanks.

Man, I dont know what else to say. OH abotu the wheel of fortune thing, dont worry about putting it on the SD card, I love that you are thinking of me but itll be there when I get back and I probably shouldnt be watching it anyway, so just send it back my way. I havent been very good about taking pictures lately. Sorry. Oh you can go on Ksl.com and they did like a special on the MTC...you can see me once in it...Im wearing a purple shirt and its at one of our devotionals...haha my companion is wearing a bright pink shirt if you want to see.

hello this is elder skyler almquist!!!!! yes your daughter is absolutly an amazing hermana, i mean sisters loc cientos i mean sorry wow this spanish is killing me!!!!!!!!!!! well i ama writing you this message to let you knwo the gospel is true, and that Jesucristo is our savior. Remeber hm in your thoguhts and prayers everyday. O my favorite constleation is orian, i don;t know wh but it is my favorite!!

^noob. haha hes in my district the constleation thing is because hermana spillers mom asked what hers was so she could look at it. hahahaha. anyway.

Nothing exciting has happened this week. We got our travel plans and since then we have all kicked it up a notch. I think we are all secretly nervous about our spanish and how well it will work in the field. Im nervous. But Ican speak bad spanish!!! WOOOOOO. Spanish is hard BUT it will get there. I can confidently get through a lesson, not perfectly but the spirit will make up the rest.

Dad! Thanks for writing me, maybe you should carry around a little "kayla notebook" and every time you think about something you need to write to me or want to tell me write it down. Ok? Haha. I enjoy hearing from all of you. Including Mariah. Tell her Im sad I didnt get a letter this week.

Tell Chrissy thanks so much for sending the new temple holder. I LOVE it. I also loved that I kinda found everything out first. Haha. So you all listened to my tape? did you find everything on it? haha Im sorry its all over the place . I really didnt know what I was doing.

Oh ok, so on the first dayhere they take all the new missionaries watch missionaries that are about to leave start teaching people. Well me and my companion get to be those missionaries! Ok..actually me and my companions..We have another companion..Hna. Holder. She has been here for 11 weeks and is going to Texas. She got appendicitis 2 days before she was suppose to leave so shes just been recovering with us. Her spanish is really good so it really has been a blessing to me.

Oh could you maybe see what the weather is going to be like in Ventura/Santa Barbra? I have no idea what Im walking into.

Oh there is a skirt I saw an hermana have. its really cute. Its from urban outfitters online. She said its on the sale page and its like a ballerina looking skirt and its like cream...with like a black band at the top..if it isnt too expensive can you get it for me maybe? also I was wanting that black dress with white polka dots I got at the DI. Long sleeve. My blue and white stripped button up shirt (not the denim one)...Ill write more when I get to cali. Dont send those things yet. Sorry Im a pain. I feel really really bad. You dont have to if you dont want to.

Your putting all my emails on the blog right? oh and the pictures..not all but some. OH I saw Elder Trevor Tonks here the other day...we took a picture, dont worry.

Oh the scripture for the plaque is Alma 29:9-10. If that is too long then Alma 31:34-35. :) I think that should be good.

Tell Mariah good luck on her audition. I really hope she gets the scholarship! Ill be praying for her! She will do great! Tell her to own it and dont worry what the judges are thinking. Dont over think it and do it!

Also my companion got this really cute calender from her friends...its like all these cute epic pictures and stuff for each month I love it. OH speaking of pictures I was wondering if you could send me like some of the pictures from my farewell party. The people I took pictures with...like probably the ones i put on facebook. Thanks. :) you guys are the best.

Anyway I love being a missionary. I love it. Im nervous for the field but it is going to be SO ROCKIN! I cant wait to meet my companion..and see my area!

I guess Ill talk to you next Monday...I dont know what time ill be able to call so Iguess just have your cell phones with you! DOnt forget to send me my address!!1

and then there were two....

Hola Familia! How does this fine day in Feb. find you...ok I just realized that the question mark doesnt work on this computer so forgive me. Haha. So first off, Im still at the MTC..haha what about you all...NO QUESTION MARK AHHHH...haha. So pretty much everything is the same for me, except tomorrow we get our travel plans and next week is our last full week here. How is that possible...I feel like a. I got here yesterday and b. I have been here for eternity so I dont really know how that works out. Either way its crazy.

So first off...as of tomorrow we will be in the oldest district in our zone and me and my companion will be the only Hermanas in our zone. Loco. Haha. Lately we have been taking our own trays at dinners and such because the other districts use to take our trays...and then there were these random elders for a while that would take my tray at every meal. It was a Christmas miracles! ???? the question mark works now because I figured out that the keyboard was on spanish mode. Anyway so during the older districts testimony meeting the Hermanas kinda chewed on the Elders and was like you better take care of our sisters. Needless to say tray taking has resumed. Good news.

So sad/embarrassing news...Elder Smith is no more...actually he never exsisted. Ha. We found out the other night that the little chewing noise is actually something to do with the air conditioner turning on and moving to door if its not in its place. Haha.

Oh Spanish...well its spanish haha. Im getting better at it, in fact in class I taught about subjunctive noun clauses...and totally understand it. So that was really awesome. I am with out a doubt getting better every day..and I mean when I got here I had no idea how to speak in spanish and now I can talk about the gospel. So life is good. However I am not naiive to the fact that I will look like a complete fool when I start talking to real spanish people, haha but thats ok, Ill learn and get better. Its going to be so awesome. Im also sure I willl have some funny stories about speaking in spanish and saying the wrong things. I cant wait. It will be awesome.

Speaking of looking like a fool in the field...I AM GOING TO BE THERE IN LIKE 14 days. Isnt that crazy?? Ah. I cant believe it, I am mildly freaking out. No big deal. It will be awesome to finally be in California...but what part of Cali? Crazy. Oh and also I kinda realized/found out that most sisters only have like 2 to 3 areas in their whole mission...so pretty much that means Im going to be in Bakersfield for my whole mission! Woo hoo!!! Bakersfield pride! haha.

Ok want to here an "im really awkward now story"? Of course you do...haha. Ok so yesterday I went over by my teachers computer to grab the "plan of salvation" and as I reached for it, he reached for the mouse and I touched his hand...with only one finger but I pretty much jumped back and was like "im so sorry"..."really, Im sorry". He was like "Hermana....its fine". Haha. Im such an awkward noob. So that is something to look forward to. hahahaha.

Oh mom, well if you didnt send the package to cali yet, then yes a pillow would be great, and if you didnt, well dont worry about it, Ill get one there Im sure. thank you! Also no I didnt get the recommend holder in the package...maybe it didnt get put in? I looked all through the package but Ive thrown away the box it came in...so I hope it didnt get caught in a crack or something. Im really sorry if it did. Thank you so much for getting me one though. Oh and I need you to send me my mission address, just write it in your next dear elder so I can give people here my address to write me.

Tell Mariah I am going to kick her fanny if she doesnt write me and tell me about this. CONGRATS ON THE 1!!! That is so amazing. She better get that audition and get that scholarship. THat would be so so awesome. She deserves it. Tell her to write me. Right...now.

Ok so here are some cool things that have happened this week,.
First I came up with this little analogy and it really helped this make sense to me. So in class we were talking about why God gives bad things to good people...or allows bad things to happen to good people. Well it reminded me of soccer...or any sport. You come to practice and your coach puts your right to work..and I mean he WORKS you. So hard that you dont think you could take another step...people are vomiting, you are crying, but he keeps making you go. Contrary(sp?) to popular belief, its not because hes punishing you, its because he understand what you will need to be able to succeed in a game so far away you cant even think about it right now. It kills the coach to see his kids suffer...but he knows itll help. I think God is the same way, he sees us suffering...He sees us hurt andHhe doesnt want us to, but He sees the big picture...He sees what your are going to need 20 years down the road. He sees the strength you are going to need, and if we always trust in Him and rely on Him. Everything will be ok.
Idk if that makes sense but to me it did.

Also on Sunday at our devotional we did a little "musical devotional"...where they had a few elders and sisters come down and say their favorite hymn and why it is their favorite and we would sing one verse of it. It was awesome. THen at the end we sang a cool arrangement of "Called to Serve". We were to pretend like we were the 2000 stripling warriors, because there were about 2000 of us in there. We were to sing the first verse really softly and quietly...then the second verse medium loud...the 3rd loud and then at the chorus where it says "called to serve our King"...we stood up right before it said King and sang the rest of it. it was sooooo awesome. It made me pumped. Then as we were walking out we all sang "Armies of Heleman". SO COOL! I love singing. Its so awesome!

Ok..well I love you all very much and love hearing from you. We dont get dear elders on saturday or sunday and since yesterday was a holiday we didnt get any mail either. So if you have written me then and I didnt respond this week, im sorry i probably wont get it until today or tomorrow. Im so grateful for your letters and tell Grandpa thank you so much for my valentines day card.

Oh and you guys are getting a surprise in the mail soon...so check it ok?? haha! Love you guys!


-Hermana Kayla Tippetts!

Footie Pjs....thats a great idea

Hola familia!! How are you? I love hearing from you guys! It makes my day! I am so grateful for all of your love and support.

So this week. This week has been so good. I really love being a missionary. I feel like I learn so much every day and every time I learn something knew I feel less adequte...but in a good way. Like I am nothing...but the Lord makes up for EVERYTHING. All I have to do is rely on him in all my doings and I will be a great missionary. Does that make sense? Its really cool. I also learned a lot about humility. I learned that as a missionary a part of being humble is being bold, because it means that you are confident in the things of the Lord and you aren't worried about what you might "look like", I think that is so true. I need a lot more humility. haha.

Oh so with Spanish this week, I finally have gotten to the point where I really and honestly don't stress about it because I know that I will be taken care of and as long as I am continually trying to do my best it will come. I know its comign more and more every day. Haha the other day we had our TRC (which is where we go to this place and practice being a missionary...haha and they give you a task to do with volunteer investigators), well we had a native speaker as a "member" this week. She was from Peru and so sweet. However, it was an interesting experience because instead of talking to the investigator like the member really would she would look at us and tell us what to ask the ivestigator while we were in the middle of talking. Ha it was really hard, but she was so sweet and really wanted to help us. We have taught all our lessons in spanish, no english at all and I think we have done pretty good. My spanish isn't perfect but its getting better.

How was everyone's valentines day? How was watching Dave and Lisa on the Wheel of Fortune, Mariah mentioned it but didn't give me details. I want to know every detail. How is everyone in the family doing? Is Jamie recovering from the loss of the Steelers? (Sorry Jamie). How are the grandkids? Did they get my letters? Tell them thanks for the Valentines, I loved them!

My companion is so great. We really are a lot alike, like really its weird. We have started saying the same things at the same time and we even do the same stretches at the same time. Like one time we were both sitting on the couch and we leaned off the edges with one arm in the air. hahaha. Weird. We have now started doing this thing where we get ready for bed and then we turn off the lights in our room and lay on the floor. We call it meditating but really its just laying there and talking haha. Its been a good stress reliever. Oh and if for some reason some girl is reading this that is wanting to go on a mission let me give you some advice on things to bring. Bring a lot of cardigans, I wish I brought more. Bring lots of belts and things to mix up outfits with. I brought a lot of head bands but they hurt my head so I never wear them. Bring lots of high undershirts...you will feel more comfortable trust me. Yeah thats really all I can think of right now haha.

Lets see...not much has happened this week...same old same old. But its great. Oh I think we have something like 20 days left here? Im not really sure but close to that. Sometimes I forget that I'm ever going to California. Im excited for the not cold and the humidity. OH it has been warmer here lately, its been so nice. Yesterday in gym we went and ran outside because it was so nice! It gives me hope that I wont ALWAYS be a whitey. Haha. Really.

How is the ward? How is everything? Played any games lately or anything fun? Any good movies? Tell me how life is going. Tell Dad to write his daughter haha. Oh and thank you guys so much for the Valentines day card. I'm glad you didn't forget that I am a princess haha. It did make me miss Disneyland though.

Oh ok heres another Ive been thinking about this week. OK so you know how a lot of people talk about us "sacrificing" two years. Well I shouldn't just do that. Why because even Laman and Lemuel "sacrificed". I need to concecrate my mission. Everything I do should be so I can be a better missionary, so I can be more effective. Another thing people say a lot is "the Lord has given me so much...this is like me giving back". Ah thats crazy, because really He's just giving us MORE but LETTING us serve missions. Its crazy. We will be forever in debt to our Heavenly Father and to Jesus Christ. I am sooo grateful for the experience to come to earth and experience all these things.

Lets see, I can't think of what else to tell you, oh on Wednesday (not tomorrow next Wednesday) me and my companion will be the only Hermanas in our zone. Yikes. Can you say patience builder much? Haha just kidding. sorta.

So I really don't know what else to say, we have our devotional again tonight and they are always so cool. My favorite part (and maybe one of my favorite parts about the MTC) is when we sing the hymns because it is 2000 missionaries singing about the gospel they are so excited to go preach. Did I already talk about this? I might have. Sorry if I did but it is so cool.

Oh! I dont think I ever told you how Sundays go around here. Well your "zone" is also your Branch. So every sacrament meeting is with your zone. Well we all have to prepare a talk every week and then on Sunday when they are just standing at the pulpit after the sacrament is passed one of the Branch presidency gets up and tells who is going to speak. Its super on the spot and so this Sunday I got called on to speak. Haha. Oh it was interesting, when I was bearing my testimony I called everyone "misionerAs" instead of misioneros" so I pretty much called all the Elders females. Awesome.

Thank you so much for all you do for me. I am so grateful for it. I don't deserve it but I am thankful for it. Oh tell Dave to write me and tell me how he likes his CD. Give everyone a big hug for me!
Tell Grandpa I think its so cool that he is reading the Book of Mormon, tell him to write me and tell me what he thinks of it!

I love you all so much and I hope that you have a really good week. I don't know if these weeks go as fast for me as they do for you, but its crazy.

HERMANA TIPPETTS!

Dragon Tails... Inserio?????

Hola mi familia. Come estan? Good I hope. Ok so first off, mom, you said that you were happy to contribute, so here are some things I thought of that I might need haha. Well...a water bottle for one, bpa free...you know the good stuff. Um oh and snacks, I ran out of snacks. The nature valley bars are perfect. Just make sure they dont have too much sugar, Im trying to eat better :). Also maybe like almonds? Dried fruit? I dont know, whatever. You are the best. Oh and if for some reason sometime soon you are at desert book and see a temple card holder with the Vegas temple. My temple recommend holder broke.

So this week...hm I always forget what happens but here are some of the things I remember. 4 of our investigators have baptism dates!!! Haha (yay for fake baptisms). Really though they feel real to us. These are people we teach atleast once a week and they are pretend investigators. The only reason we are getting these is because we are learning that it is not our teaching that really affects anything, its us being open to the spirits guidance and creating an enviornment for the spirit to be felt. Its pretty awesome. Oh one experience though that will lead into the next theme of the week...so we are teaching an investigator called Genesis and she is a strong Baptist. She is 18 and has heard a lot of things about the church. Our whole class teaches her. Well she has called some of them the devil and so on. So pretty rocky. One day we were teaching her about Christ and watched a movie on Jesucristo and read from the BOM and she was just really happy, so we asked her to say the prayer. While we were saying the prayer I really felt like I should ask her to get baptised. So we ended the prayer and I was like...sooo ummm we are having a baptism on the 18th...pause....you should come. I totally chickened out! Then afterwards my teacher (Genesis) was like...soo were you going to ask Genesis to get baptised and i was like...yeah. She then said..well what happened? I just said I chickened out and she said that Genesis would have said yes ....AHHH! I was so mad at myself for the rest of the day. Good news though we taught her again shortly and asked her to get baptised and she still said yes! Yay!

But that is really the theme of the week. We have been talking so much about relying on the Spirit to direct us in our lessons. We watched a talk from Elder Bednar and he asked the question... how do I know its the Spirit or just me?...he then said "STOP WORRYING ABOUT IT!....just be good boys and good girls and keep the commandments and you need not worry...the Spirit will guide you". Cool huh? I love it. So we have really have been trying hard to listen to our investigators (teach people not lessons) and listen for the spirit, which is really hard for me because when I hear them speaking spanish and i want to say something back im concentrating in my head how I can say what I want to say in in Spanish and then I just stop listening to both. Ive been learning to let all that go...its pretty awesome.

Another theme for me this week is that this gospel is all about LOVE. Really, i cant explain exactly how I have just NOW figured this out but every little things is because God loves us. Read the title page and introduction of the Book of Mormon. God asked prophets to write in these gold plates (which im pretty sure took a lot of effort), he then went through the trouble to make sure they were hidden for US. Oh man. It is just so cool.

Oh so i got the compliment of my life this week. We were all stressing about spanish and our teacher was like "listen you are all really white kids trying to speak spanish, spanish people are going to find that endearing"..."well maybe Elder Manu and Hermana Tippetts arent so white"...HOLLA. Im just saying.

Oh mom you asked what our laundry faucilities are like...well yes that is a weird question...but its pretty much a giant laundry mat under the main building. Its nice. We have tables and computers in there too so we can write letters. Pretty snazy. Also mom you may or may not have said "newb" in your letter...that makes you a noob because its NOOB. ok I will never say noob again because Im a missionary and I dont say those kind of things (p.s. make sure millie can still say it though...someone has to carry the legacy).

I hate how fast this time goes! Ah. I love being a missionary. It really is great. Its really hard. I doubt myself a lot, Im not great at spanish, Im never been the most gentle humble person, but the Lord is working on me and he will make up for his weaknesses. And then...when i feel that way i think ( because of my companion).."it could be worse I could be part of the Martin Willie hand cart company". So there you go.

So I heard there was something called the super bowl?? Whats that all about? Did someone win or something? Who might it have been? Tell me if you so please...

I love you guys! haha. Its true..when all else fails...tell the truth. Good motto eh?

Me and my companion are really weird. We name ever email the same thing even when we dont tell each other. Also we walk up the stairs with are feet out really wide we are convinced that it works a different muscle in our leg...pero, no se. Oh and we sing in the shower some times and fight if mulan is a princess (which she is clearly not...no pretty dress...no princess-ship HA). Its pretty awesome.

OHH so my Lord of the Rings loving has come in handy...we were in class the other day and Elder A likened the gospel to harry potter and then someone brought up Lord of the Rings and how frodo had that "light thing" that made the spider go away and i was like (with an appalled look on my face)...you mean the light of galadriel...hahaha Then the Elders told me I went up like 20 cool points. So just in case you were wondering if I am still cool...I am. I know it was keeping you up at night.

I love you guys so much!!!!! I think of you all daily! Tell Grandpa thanks for the message! I love that hes thinking about me!

Oh and I have been getting letters from Missy and Vanessa pretty much every week. They are awesome and I am so thankful for them and for all my friends for that matter! Yay! Oh and tell chelsea that the letter got sent back to me so I sent it back today...so check her mail.

I dont know what else to say...Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador!

LOVE YOU FAMILY! (oh i sent the picture card in Mariah's letter today so look out for it!!)

Hola mi familia. Come estan? Good I hope. Ok so first off, mom, you said that you were happy to contribute, so here are some things I thought of that I might need haha. Well...a water bottle for one, bpa free...you know the good stuff. Um oh and snacks, I ran out of snacks. The nature valley bars are perfect. Just make sure they dont have too much sugar, Im trying to eat better :). Also maybe like almonds? Dried fruit? I dont know, whatever. You are the best. Oh and if for some reason sometime soon you are at desert book and see a temple card holder with the Vegas temple. My temple recommend holder broke.

So this week...hm I always forget what happens but here are some of the things I remember. 4 of our investigators have baptism dates!!! Haha (yay for fake baptisms). Really though they feel real to us. These are people we teach atleast once a week and they are pretend investigators. The only reason we are getting these is because we are learning that it is not our teaching that really affects anything, its us being open to the spirits guidance and creating an enviornment for the spirit to be felt. Its pretty awesome. Oh one experience though that will lead into the next theme of the week...so we are teaching an investigator called Genesis and she is a strong Baptist. She is 18 and has heard a lot of things about the church. Our whole class teaches her. Well she has called some of them the devil and so on. So pretty rocky. One day we were teaching her about Christ and watched a movie on Jesucristo and read from the BOM and she was just really happy, so we asked her to say the prayer. While we were saying the prayer I really felt like I should ask her to get baptised. So we ended the prayer and I was like...sooo ummm we are having a baptism on the 18th...pause....you should come. I totally chickened out! Then afterwards my teacher (Genesis) was like...soo were you going to ask Genesis to get baptised and i was like...yeah. She then said..well what happened? I just said I chickened out and she said that Genesis would have said yes ....AHHH! I was so mad at myself for the rest of the day. Good news though we taught her again shortly and asked her to get baptised and she still said yes! Yay!

But that is really the theme of the week. We have been talking so much about relying on the Spirit to direct us in our lessons. We watched a talk from Elder Bednar and he asked the question... how do I know its the Spirit or just me?...he then said "STOP WORRYING ABOUT IT!....just be good boys and good girls and keep the commandments and you need not worry...the Spirit will guide you". Cool huh? I love it. So we have really have been trying hard to listen to our investigators (teach people not lessons) and listen for the spirit, which is really hard for me because when I hear them speaking spanish and i want to say something back im concentrating in my head how I can say what I want to say in in Spanish and then I just stop listening to both. Ive been learning to let all that go...its pretty awesome.

Another theme for me this week is that this gospel is all about LOVE. Really, i cant explain exactly how I have just NOW figured this out but every little things is because God loves us. Read the title page and introduction of the Book of Mormon. God asked prophets to write in these gold plates (which im pretty sure took a lot of effort), he then went through the trouble to make sure they were hidden for US. Oh man. It is just so cool.

Oh so i got the compliment of my life this week. We were all stressing about spanish and our teacher was like "listen you are all really white kids trying to speak spanish, spanish people are going to find that endearing"..."well maybe Elder Manu and Hermana Tippetts arent so white"...HOLLA. Im just saying.

Oh mom you asked what our laundry faucilities are like...well yes that is a weird question...but its pretty much a giant laundry mat under the main building. Its nice. We have tables and computers in there too so we can write letters. Pretty snazy. Also mom you may or may not have said "newb" in your letter...that makes you a noob because its NOOB. ok I will never say noob again because Im a missionary and I dont say those kind of things (p.s. make sure millie can still say it though...someone has to carry the legacy).

I hate how fast this time goes! Ah. I love being a missionary. It really is great. Its really hard. I doubt myself a lot, Im not great at spanish, Im never been the most gentle humble person, but the Lord is working on me and he will make up for his weaknesses. And then...when i feel that way i think ( because of my companion).."it could be worse I could be part of the Martin Willie hand cart company". So there you go.

So I heard there was something called the super bowl?? Whats that all about? Did someone win or something? Who might it have been? Tell me if you so please...

I love you guys! haha. Its true..when all else fails...tell the truth. Good motto eh?

Me and my companion are really weird. We name ever email the same thing even when we dont tell each other. Also we walk up the stairs with are feet out really wide we are convinced that it works a different muscle in our leg...pero, no se. Oh and we sing in the shower some times and fight if mulan is a princess (which she is clearly not...no pretty dress...no princess-ship HA). Its pretty awesome.

OHH so my Lord of the Rings loving has come in handy...we were in class the other day and Elder A likened the gospel to harry potter and then someone brought up Lord of the Rings and how frodo had that "light thing" that made the spider go away and i was like (with an appalled look on my face)...you mean the light of galadriel...hahaha Then the Elders told me I went up like 20 cool points. So just in case you were wondering if I am still cool...I am. I know it was keeping you up at night.

I love you guys so much!!!!! I think of you all daily! Tell Grandpa thanks for the message! I love that hes thinking about me!

Oh and I have been getting letters from Missy and Vanessa pretty much every week. They are awesome and I am so thankful for them and for all my friends for that matter! Yay! Oh and tell chelsea that the letter got sent back to me so I sent it back today...so check her mail.

I dont know what else to say...Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador!

LOVE YOU FAMILY! (oh i sent the picture card in Mariah's letter today so look out for it!!)

HOLA FAMILIA

Hola familia! Another week down at the MTC, it is SO true what they say, the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It is crazy. I can not believe its already P-day again. I Love getting all of your letters all week.

Sooo new stuff going on here. Well yesterday my class talked about the Word of Wisdom. We talked about all the ways that our investigators can over come addictions. Ex. get a blessing, stay busy, avoid temptations, sing songs, ext. Well then our teacher said "well we are going to do an experiment so you know HARD it is to give up an addiction"...so I decided I was finally going to give up my drinking habits (its getting kinda hard to hide at the MTC)...hahaha CHISTE (significa joke). haha so we thought we'd have give pick something. NOPE our teacher decided that we were going to give up English. SERIOUSLY? For a day? Nope for a whole week. No hablo en Ingles por uno semana (week). Of course we can write our families in English. Crazy right? She said we are going to have to do all the things they would do. Pray a ton...sing songs...stay busy. If we speak English its like our investigators giving up not drinking alcohol. Its difficult but it will help lots. Mostly I feel like a caveman because i am pointing at and acting out a lot of stuff haha.

So the other Hermanas in our district left last week :( they went to the Peru MTC because they got their visas. We were really sad but it has turned out to be OK. I am so happy for them because their Spanish is going to explode in Peru. Plus they can play soccer and its warm there.

Also one of our favorite districts left for Mexico on Monday. We are so sad, they were such a hard working good example. They maybe also took our trays every meal. Good Elders.

So an update on Elder Smith...we found his hiding place...IN THE CEILING, VOMITO(barf!). Haha. I think he might even have a family. No bueno.

Ok so mom you asked me some questions and I am remembering to answer them haha. So P-days...no we don't get to sleep in..haha we never sleep in past 6:30. We don't take naps either, we don't have time for them. Pero (but), P-days are really nice, we do laundry, go to the temple, write letters, and study. Its really nice. Also we get sack breakfast to eat while our laundry is being done. Um in gym we work out in the gym. There are 3 levels. 1. basketball courts/volleyball/four square. 2nd mats for like stretching and push ups. 3rd running track and elliptical/bikes/weights. Usually I run and lift weights. Friday nights we play volleyball with the hermanas and Elders. Sin embargo (however), we played a HARDCORE game of four square yesterday...i mean we had people LINED UP to play with us. haha for real. Like we even had one of the people come over and tell us if we kept diving we would lose our four square privileges (kinda like you job mom), i found like I was in 5Th grade again. Oh and you asked about meals...we have 35 minutes for meals. They have a couple different lines for stuff. Its really not that bad but I don't have a lot of options. Ice cream every Sunday and Wednesday though haha.

Thank you SO MUCH for the skirt. It is so pretty. I love it. I was definitely in need of another skirt. You guys are so awesome and I love you. Also thank you for the picture card, um i will send it next week because I still don't have too many pictures. I am so happy to have it though. I am so grateful for the friends and family that I have. I am so spoiled with packages and letters. I love them.

So yeah I've heard from Dave, Lisa, Chrissy, the nieces and nephews, Vanessa ext. Tell Vanessa I sent her a letter last Tuesday and will send her one today too...I hope they get to her. Also Loris first letter got sent back to me so she has 2 in the mail. Um Chelsea's letter also got sent back to me too so I don't know what to do? or where to send it. So help me out I want to write her haha.

Oh soo I had a ingrown toenail scare. 2 Elders in my zone have had them and they are NAASTY and they had to get this nasty procedure and I was pretty sure I had not only one but Two....so i really was stressing out (Elder Almquist said "girls get ingrown toenails?? NOOB)...so anyway my lovely companion made me go and get it checked out. GOOD NEWS...no ingrown toenail. SUPER HAPPY...

Oh and then the other night we were getting into bed and all of a sudden FIRE ALARM...haha we had to run out in our PJS and some people were brushing their teeth outside. haha it was crazy. (Crazy for the MTC).

I love it here, I have learned a lot of things this week...um its crazy how much you learn by constantly being surrounded by the spirit and constantly studying. I didn't think I could learn this much on my own.

Oh man my time is goiiiinnngg ahhh. ummm....

So we have all these fake investigators...they pretend to be investigators and we teach them every week. Its fun, but is really difficult in Spanish because I cant always express how I feel. SOO actually I think that's why I was called in Spanish so I wouldn't talk so much...seriously...

I was going to bring my study journal and give you scriptures to read but its in my back pack and my time is running way too short. But I'm in the Isiah chapters right now so its really hard. However I like reading my sciptures in Spanish better right now. Its so awesome! I can actually understand a lot of them.

Here are some of the quotes we found funny this week. "I'm really going to miss you Elderss"- Me "no youll be annoyed by us by the end" Elder Adams " No you will be trained by them"- Me. "women are programmed awesome"- Elder Almquist. "Ugh, I just flipped open to hypocrite"- Elder Garland. "Id rather die than smell bad" Elder Garland.....Elder Manu and Elder Almquist memorizing The first vision to breakfast at Tiffanie's. So much more.

I love you guys so much..I know this church is true..I know the Lord is so aware of all of us and will do all he can to help us.
\ I'm so lucky to have all of you, please take care of your selves
Have a good week!!!