Hellos for the last time on the mission!!! 

I have been so focused in what I have to do and there are so many people and families that we are teaching that I don’t want to leave until they get baptized!!!! It’s so sad to think that I won't be here to see it. 

Well this week was very

very short. It all went by way too fast and I can’t believe this is the last week I have working as a missionary.  This week we had a lot that happened. We got the stand (I believe I sent you home a photo.  The stand has a question and we put it out for people to read).  Anyway, we have to use that in the morning and in the night (about 4-6) everyday, so it took up a lot of our time to go and teach investigatores. We started out this week with a FHE with the family that got baptized on Sunday and it went really well, they prepared everything. We also taught a family that is soooo perfect. We taught them the restoration and it went really well. The son had a few questions that we were able to answer and the mom said that maybe in one moment he´ll choose to be a member to the church and he said it could be that later on he´ll decide that. So we have another FHE with them today and we are going to go with two members that are awesome. I’m really excited for tonight. :) We´re going to focus on the Restoration again and watch a video.

We also had an intercambio (interchange) on Tuesday and I went to a little town called Olmué. It’s sooo cute. I went with Hermana Martinez that is from España and she´s actually from the mission that Brooke´s serving in.  We had a great time and we had a few FHE´s to do and also taught some great lessons. She´s really awesome and we laughed a lot together. Then on the fourth of july we went to see a referral of a member in Olmue named Pamela. SHE´S GOLDEN!!!!  Honestly the biggest miracle ever and she´s the reason I’m so sad to have to come home. We taught her the restoration and when we invited her to pray about Joseph Smith she said that she´s already done that.  She read the book of mormon that we gave her and decided to pray about it and to know if it’s true.  She´s going to come to church this Sunday with us and I’m really excited. She also has a daughter that we haven’t taught yet and lives with her dad. So there are 2 other people in the house that can be baptized!!!  We also have an appointment with her today and we´re excited to teach her and see how her prayers have gone. I feel so blessed here in Limache. I’ve seen some pretty amazing miracles and I love Limache!!!

On sunday we had church and I bore my testimony along with Hermana Agle. it was a great meeting and the spirit was very strong. We went to lunch and had to do the stand but then we went to go and see Yaritza and her mom Luz. They were there so that was good and we taught them as well the restoration. We taught the restoration a lot of times this week and it has been so amazing. I always feel the spirit but I really felt the spirit so strongly every time that we told the first vision. I love how strongly the spirit is whenever the first vision is said. OH I also forgot to say that this investigator of the other hermanas got baptized but we taught him a few times as well so it was really awesome to be there and see him get baptized.  His name is Gustavo and he´s 16 but honestly the best kid ever. It was a very exciting day and the spirit was soooo strong. I love baptisms!!! 

I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by but I’m so excited to keep going on in life and learning and progressing and I’m excited to be able to apply all the things I’ve learned in the mission to my daily life. I know that it will be different and there will be a lot of challenges but I know that the Lord will bless me to fulfill everything I need to do. I want you all to know how much I´ve changed and grown over this year and a half of my mission. I feel closer to my Savior, I know that He loves me and that He died for me so that I can be better and progress to become more like Him, and so that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father. I know that my Father in Heaven is there and that He hears and answers my prayers. I’ve seen it so many times up to the point that members have told me to not pray for specific trials or experiences to grow because my prayers are always answered haha. I also have grown to know even more profoundly that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet.  I testify that he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. I know that they live. I know that they appeared to Joseph and that he was a prophet of God. I know that Thomas Monson is the prophet today and that Jesus Christ directs His church through our prophet. The book of mormon is the word of God. It is my favorite book in the whole world and I testify that if someone reads the book of mormon they will grow closer to God. The book of mormon is the best way to grow closer to our Father in Heaven as well as our Savior. Read it and study it everyday. Don't miss, PLEASE. I have come to know the importance of our callings in the church and I have become even more grateful for wonderful parents who have been my example my whole life of how to act in their callings. There were so many times that I never wanted to go with dad to do his home teaching but I understand now the importance in doing it and completing with the task. So thank you mom and dad for your great examples in always being faithful to your callings and doing your visiting teaching and home teaching even when it wasn’t easy and when you didn’t feel like doing it. I know that there were many people blessed by your faithfulness as well as me because I was able to learn from your examples.

I love you family!!! I cant wait to see you all in a little more than a week!!!  Since I´ll be getting home early in the day if it’s possible I would love to go to the Salt Lake Temple and take a family picture with my missionary tag still on. But if we can’t do that then that’s ok :) I love you all!!!  Thanks for all your support during my mission, I couldn’t have done it without you all. 

con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

Hello family!!

We had some pretty amazing spiritual moments this week. We went to see Oriana and Katy and we talked with them about the plan of salvation and also the gospel of Jesus Christ. We mixed the two lessons together to be able to teach them and commit them to be baptized. When we started talking about what we have to do in this life to get back to God, we talked about faith, repentance, baptism and when we started talking about baptism Katy said "mom i wanna get baptized!!" she is sooo amazing and so special. We talked a little bit more and it was a perfect lesson. I invited them to be baptized and when i said it, Oriana said Yes. We have faith, we repent so we are at that point right now to take the step and be baptized. So they accepted a date for the 15 of June to be baptized!! Oriana got sick this weekend and wasn’t able to come to church yesterday which was a huge bummer but I’m not worried about them because they will be fine. I’m so excited for them!! Katy was soooo happy.  When we went back to talk again of the plan of salvation and finish the lesson we had Katy tell us the lesson up to where we stopped and she remembered everything!!! We did the lesson with pictures we had found in Liahonas and we cut them out to make the plan of salvation. Pretty creative hahaha :) 

We have transfers this week. I’m not sure what will happen. My companion thinks that I´ll be leaving but I don’t feel like I will be. I know that whatever happens is for the best and what the Lord has in store for me and that is something that i have to learn. 

We also had a new thing that we are doing as a mission. Its a stand that has like two posters with questions on it. And we put the stand somewhere in the street and people walk by and read it and we contact them and try to get a direction to go to and teach them the answer to the question and if they don’t want that we just give them a card with a internet page that will teach them of the answer to the question. It’s pretty interesting and it’s actually kind of hard. But the point of it is that those who are chosen by the Lord will come to us and ask us questions and be willing to accept us in their house. We had 2 people that gave us their direction and that we could pass another day and one of them accepted a book of mormon. It was pretty interesting and we really saw a lot of success with that. Its amazing the things that the church is doing to get the word out to all the world about the gospel of Jesus Christ. So awesome and such an amazing time to be a missionary!!!! 

Well its sounds like you all had a great week. I’m so excited for lissa and for the new experiences she is going to have. missionary. Lissy I’m so proud of you with graduation. Dad I did get the chance to do BOM live and it was amazing. It was the best experience i could have had. 

Stay strong and keep working hard in all you do: Love you all!!!

con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

Hellos!!!!

Wow, WAY too much going on here this week! It’s been nuts. I’m sure you all know and have heard about the earthquakes going on.  First off, we didn’t feel the earthquake, we were coming to our house at 9:30 and there was a guy in a car going around warning everyone about it and that we might have to evacuate for the tsunami. For about 40 minutes we didn’t have contact with anyone. With the warning of tsunami, our cell phones were the first thing to go and we had zero contact for that time. When we finally did get in touch with our district leader we were informed that we didn’t have to leave our area and the next day we found out that the tsunami was about a 7 foot wave.  They made a lot more noise over it than needed. But it was a good experience because the whole mission learned a lot about what we need to do in an emergency. The ward members were trying to call us and inform us of what was going on, so don’t worry we were receiving help. The thing that they are saying is that this is nothing compared to what is coming. There was the earthquake of 8.3 and then right after one of 7.8, they are expecting one to be around 9 point something. If it gets that big, we will be affected by the earthquake and possibly the tsunami, but where our house is here it won’t get to us so we are safe. 

On Thursday we had zone conference with President!! It was AMAZING. Everything I needed to hear, they talked about. They didn’t do the zone conference big like they usually do, it was our small zone of 14 missionaries and so we had to talk a lot. We ended reading the book of Mormon for the first time this year (in three months) and it was incredible. I really have felt the love for my Savior grow even more. I have been so anxious to start again the book of Mormon for the second time this year. When I finish my mission i´ll have read the book of Mormon 3 times in Spanish and I have learned more in that time than in my whole life reading the book of Mormon. This time we are reading and marking for the following things: 1. prayer  2. all names of Christ and God  3. all the times that God or Christ talk to the people.  4. obedience  5. all references to satan (murmurings, murdering, disobedience, anger, hatred, etc). We just recently starting and are now at about 1 Nephi 9 and I have learned soooo much. I cannot believe how many times satan is in the scriptures. Not because he is something great to learn about, but President wants us to know and be able to realize the attacks and temptations of satan. I’m really excited to read the whole book of Mormon and get the power to know how satan thinks and acts to be able to make even better choices in my life. I invite you all to do the same.  President talked a lot about the earthquake and we were to do practices of what to do. The next morning there was an earthquake about 6:55 AM and it was just little, but our district leader called us to make sure we were ok and was practicing what he needs to do as a district leader in case of an emergency. So I felt safe to know he will be my district leader until I finish my mission.

As for conference, WOW!! I hope you all loved conference as much as I did!!! So incredible, I honestly love conference. President Monson, loved his talk. I loved what President Packer said. His was more of a testimony than a talk but it was incredible. I have such a love for President Packer and what I wouldn’t give to have even a little sliver of his knowledge. He knows so much. I also really loved the talk about Joseph Smith from Elder Corbridge. That he is either a prophet or a pretender, the church is true (all of it) or it’s not. There is no in-between. Everything is either all true or all wrong. LOVED that. I’m going to use that with my investigators. As for them... none of them came to church. We went looking for them and there was a lot of things that they had going on that they couldn’t come or they just didn’t want to, I’m not sure. We have found 6 new people to teach this week. They are great and really are miracles of how and when we found them. Such an amazing time to be a missionary. I can’t believe how fast the time goes by. I feel such an urgency to be prepared for the second coming. Everyone of the prophets said something even a little word or story of the second coming. Please be preparing for that day and remember the words of the prophets. Remember what President Monson said, We MUST study and re-read the words of conference. They are there for our understanding and study. 

I love you all my family. I hope you all have a great day!!! Do whats right, always and you will be happy :)

Love,

Hermana Tycksen

Hello family!!

To start out I have to tell you what just happened.... it was so funny.  So this lady walked into the internet place and she had a baby stroller and I kept hearing a dog whine, it didn’t really mean anything to me until my companion started laughing right next to me. I looked over at her and there is the stroller with a dog inside of it. I looked around at the lady to see if she had kids... nope! Her dog was her baby and she had strapped him into a stroller to take him shopping. SOOO FUNNY!!! I was dying laughing. 

I’m doing good. It’s getting cold here and we find spiders in our house all the time, I hate spiders. BUT yesterday we totally had the most amazing miracles happen.  WOOT WOOT!!  In the morning we got ready and we were studying and we needed to leave somewhat earlier and ended up leaving at 10:25 to go look for investigators. We went to look for Brandon and he was ready and came with us. 1st miracle. 2nd miracle is that my companion was saying Hermana we need to go get Jaun Raúl (a new convert that is 89 years old and can’t walk very fast or very much so you have to go in a car). I told her that we didn’t have anyone to come get us in a car and I didn’t want to go because we were going to be late to church. Well we ended up going to see if Jaun Raul was ready and we passed by. Yep he was sitting in a chair in the doorway waiting for us and when his daughter saw us she started yelling they came, they came!!! He got all excited, it was like seeing a little kid on Christmas and that tore me apart because I had not wanted to come. Then when we got him out the door I asked how we were going to get him to church, by walking or by car. and my comp said by car/taxi. Sundays and in the morning are almost impossible to find a taxi and especially one that is empty-just a side note. So we started waiting and calling people to come get us but no one could. 2 taxis passed by but other people took those.  I said to my companion no one is coming to get us?  She said no. Right then a taxi passed by and saw us and we flagged it down, it came over and it was empty. He helped us in the car and get to the church. When he got there it was 10:55, church starts at 11. I got tears in my eyes as he pulled up and helped us to the church.  When we walked in to church a member of another ward told us that someone was looking for us and she walks with a limp, the only person we know that walks with a limp is Monica. miracle 4, Monica and her daughter came to church for the first time!!!! We had 5 investigators in church yesterday and each one of them was a miracle that they were there. 

Brandon loved primary and wants to come next week. So does Monica. We didn’t have anything else happen yesterday because no one would answer the door or listen to us, but it didn’t matter because we had some really amazing miracles happen. My companion taught me to trust more and have more faith in God, I was doubting almost the whole time that something would happen, but she taught me to be more faithful. It was a really amazing experience I won’t forget. Well family i love you all. I’m happy. I’m doing good and I love my mission. Things are hard, but they are also so good that you forget the bad moments. Everything will work out for the best, I know that.  I love you all and hope you have a great week! Be safe and do what is right, in this there is safety and peace :) LOVE YOU!!

love,

hermana Tycksen

Hola!

This week all of our appointments fell through.  We have 4 investigators that we are really focusing on to come to church so that they can be baptized but... we have not been able to find them ALL week!! It’s terrible. We have 5 sundays this month and one down with a big fat zero investigators in church as of yesterday. So 4 weeks to really work my bum off and get people coming to church on a regular basis.  This week has been a week of learning for me. And I have learned a lot. Let me share these few things with you. :)

We got a little letter from the Area Presidency of Chile to all the mission presidents and we were asked to read it.  I have been trying to put everything I learned into practice, like talking to everyone that I see about baptism. So that’s my focus right now. I want to baptize. I am always thinking about it. It’s what I want to achieve.  I always wanted to baptize but I’m making it even more of my focus so that other people when we teach them, know that we want them to be baptized and if they don’t accept it and don’t want us to come back. it’s ok.  It’s the best way to find the people who are really going to put forth the effort to complete with baptism.

As of yesterday we´ve had some great success. We contacted this lady and she was really awesome and then started to talk about her family and we talked very briefly about the gospel and then asked if we could share more with her and she invited us in. We went in and started by singing her a hymn (I am a child of God) which she loved soo much that she started to cry. It was perfect to invite the spirit and totally set up the lesson. We talked about Faith, Repentance and Baptism briefly and she liked it so much she told her sons friends to come and listen to us (while we were still talking about faith). So one of the friends came to listen (he´s never been baptized). They were really great and really special so we are going to be passing by for them again this week. But the thing that got me was when we were finishing the lesson and we prayed we were preparing to leave and the lady asked us to sing I am a child of God again for her and her son’s friend. So we did and she thanked us and said she´ll be waiting for us to come back again on Thursday. Awesome!! :)

This week we had interchanges. I went with Hermana Isaacson from Orem and we went to her area. She´s companions with Hermana Paz so that was really fun to be able to see her as well.  We did a lot of contacting and almost all of the contacts we did were really great and they are going to be passing by for them again. I learned a lot from Hermana Isaacson. She was companions with one of the Hermanas from Mexico that was really amazing and she passed on a lot of great advice of how to do contacts and teaching, etc. So when we do the contacts we focus more on them than getting inside to teach them. We get to know them for like...2 min and then start to ask to share more with them. It works really well so that you can enter into the house and start to teach them. If someone comes up and just says we´re missionaries and we want to teach you a message about Christ, a lot of the time here and especially in our area they say they are Catholic or Christian and don’t need to hear a message of Christ because they already know Christ or are with Christ, etc. The point is to first get their confidence and then ask to share a message. To show concern for them first and their lives and then they feel ok to invite you inside.  If I just say we want to share a message, even though they are doing a lot of things to get ready for school or cooking or with kids, etc., it’s stressful, so instead of doing that I ask to come back another day when they are less occupied and they then feel respected and tell you the day and time you can come back. That was really long to explain that but it’s just something that I’m trying to put more in practice. 

I love you all and I hope you are all doing well and are happy :) stay strong and do what is right, always :)

Con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

HOOOOLA!!! 

Hellos to all :) This week is getting colder. Its starting to be close to autumn.  

We´ve been working really hard.  We have an investigator and he´s awesome. He´s the fiancé to a less active member who is reactivating. But he wants to be baptized. We are working really hard with him. We put a date to be baptized for the 1st of March, but then the next day he told us that he prayed and thought about it and felt like he needed to be prepared a little bit more. so we talked bout it and then taught the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and found out that he smokes. So that´s his big concern right now is that he wants to stop smoking and drinking tea so that he can be clean before and after his baptism. So he´s golden.  We are focusing a lot on him and the lessons are incredible that we have with him. They are always so spiritual and in two of the lessons we had with him this week he started to cry because he told us that we came in a time when he really needed to listen. He talks about how he feels different with us and that we bring a lot of peace when he’s listening to us. So he can recognize the spirit and we´ve helped him to recognize it as well as his answers. He knows the church is true and wants to be a member. So we´re really happy and excited for him. We just gotta put a date to be baptized and help him feel ready to do it. So please keep him in your prayers.

I read something today that was a letter to the Mission Presidents of Chile from the area presidency. They put in a letter of a mission president (that you all know, named elder Lawrence Corbridge who wrote the 4th missionary). He talked about how the missionaries should talk, think and dream of baptism. I realized that I have always thought that was my focus of wanting to baptize. But it really has not been because i haven’t focused on baptism with people in the beginning of the lesson. I have always focused on them coming to church and reading and praying before getting baptized. It’s been hard because the people don’t do their promises but it´s because they don’t understand why they would do them. If they understood baptism, then when they have a desire to be baptized they will have a desire to read and pray and go to church, etc. So I have made it my goal to really focus on that this week and for the rest of my mission and to help the people understand and want to be baptized so that they will then have the desire to read and pray and progress. 

Everything with my companion is good. We get along really well and we´re always laughing. I thought this would be a hard change but it's been great. I have learned a lot from her and I know that there is still a lot that I need to do to be better. I have grown up so much. I honestly think sooo much differently about so many things in the gospel and about life. I know that there is nothing better for a woman than to serve a mission. I now understand why it makes you a good mother as President Hinckley has said, it’s because your children will become your investigators and so you learn so many things of how to teach them and help them through their struggles. I’m so thankful for the time I have to serve a mission and for all of you that are supporting me so much. I feel the support. I know that the mission is hard, but it’s the best thing of my life thus far and the best thing for my life. I love you all so much and am always praying for each of you. 

There is always things we need to do to be better and more like our Savior. But I know that when we make the decision to be like Him, we will do the will of the Father, like the fourth missionary talks about. I love you!!

Con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

Hello family!

We have some really awesome investigators which we are pushing with to see more and teach more often but as of right now they are only able to meet once a week so there isn’t too much progress yet. The hardest thing of this area is it’s FULL of Jehovah Witnesses and Aventistas. I have been studying the bible like none other and I still don’t feel like I know it all that well. One of the members we went to see yesterday was talking to us about his mission in Concepcion Chile and how many baptisms they had. I know the mission isn’t about numbers of baptisms but they had a ton, about 8-13 baptisms every week for companionships. He said that he didn’t waste time with people. If they didn’t want to follow Christ he didn’t want to waste time with them and keep passing wishing and hoping that they would change their minds. He said that if people only want to learn from you for your knowledge or because your friends that he stopped passing because it was wasting the time of the Lord in being there if they are not progressing. I know that seems harsh but it really hit me yesterday. When I got here to this area there are investigators that have been teaching for.... months and they still are not reading or going to church or praying and it’s time to stop passing for them. I think as missionaries we get in this mode of being afraid not to have investigators. We hold onto people hoping that they will change and we keep passing to have a lesson but also because we don’t want to be out in the street all day long without once entering a house to teach. It happens. Sometimes we want that security net of an investigator to pass by when you don’t know what else to do. But I’m in a moment of my mission where I have noticed in this area more than any other that I am to the point of wanting to teach people to get baptized and not just to teach them. There is a purpose and if they are not willing to be baptized and follow Christ then I can not plead and beg them to do it. 

We have this family that we are teaching, they´re Jews and they are sooo awesome. They are not married, just living together and have a kid. But the dad is looking for the way to Christ, we are not pushing him yet because he´s still opening up a bit but the mom is right there. I know that they have an answer but they just have not recognized it yet. They have not come to church yet but we will keep passing for them and I´ll let you know what happens. Ah, its just that there are a few people that are ready to be baptized but it’s problems that make it so they can’t yet. 

This week there was an experience really, really hard that happened to me. We were contacting and we started talking to this guy who started to talk about how religion ruins people and how the people who are in religions are like the worst people in the world. Ya so right there I was wanting to leave but he kept talking and accusing us of not knowing things and would not let us say a word. He then started talking about how Christ was a terrible person. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I testified that Christ lives and that only through Him can we be saved, the man then got upset and started talking again and I cut him off to say bye and we left. We walked 2 steps and I started to cry, my whole body was shaking. It’s not that I was angry, I was hurt that someone could hate my Savior so much that they think He is a horrible person. It pained me to see someone deny the spirit of the truth they know. I think that’s also why parents suffer when their kids do things they should not. It’s because the parents know what they are doing and how great is the sin they are committing but can’t do anything for them, but pray. And that’s what I did. To be able to keep working I prayed for that man that one day he would have the chance to hear the gospel and that he can have a change of heart. 

Yesterday was a special broadcast for only Chile from some of the 70 and Elder Cook. It was about hastening the work and it was amazing. They also talked about the law of chastity. Something one of the 70 said was that in this life we have the power to create. God has given us the power to create life. So the reason we keep the law of chastity? Because we are learning to be obedient. God will give to those who live in the highest part of the celestial kingdom to be able to have children and create worlds. If we are not obedient and don’t learn to use the power of God correctly in this life, how can God TRUST us to use His power correctly?? HE CANT!! I have never heard someone say the law of chastity in that way, of looking at it for the eternities. We always talk about it for just this life, but I know what he said is true. Sometimes the truth cuts and it hurts but I know that if we don’t learn obedience in this life, what privileges will God trust us with? None. Trust is everything. I have finally learned that. If you don’t have the trust of your parents how can you expect to go do things when they don’t trust you? With God and each of us His children, if we don’t keep His commandments He can’t trust us with privileges He wants to give us. I never want to be in a situation where I feel like God does not trust me. I invite you all to ask yourself that question. Does God trust me? Am I being obedient by making good decisions? Is there something I’m doing to make it so God does not trust me? I know that we are all imperfect. I know that I’m not perfect and there are soooooo many things I need to do to better myself but I know that the commandments are there to protect us and so that God can freely bless us with all that He desires. We´re not perfect but if we never do self evaluations, we will never progress and change the things we are doIng wrong. 

I love you all my dear family. I want to be an eternal family but to make that happen everyone needs to put in their part and do their effort. I love you and pray for you each everyday. I testify that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. He lives and is at the head of His church. He guides us today through President Thomas S. Monson, who was called to be a prophet of God. I know the power of the Book of Mormon and what it does to peoples lives when they read it and study it. It’s changed my life personally. I’m a better person each day because of the things I learn in the Book of Mormon and when I try to apply it to my life. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

PS. Guess who I found this weekend?? Hermana Castleton!!!