Hola Familia! 

That is so great that you did that service for grandma. It´s funny because before my mission i would have probably complained about having to go and do service and then end up enjoying it during the process, whereas here in the mission we are dying to do service for someone and no one will accept it. Funny how things change so quickly. 

Please do Family History! It´s such an amazing thing and then go to the temple! Go to the temple as much as you can! I´m so jealous when the members get to go to the temple.  They only go once a month but we don't ever get to go as missionaries and it´s killing me. I miss the temple SO Much!! Hermana Castleton and I talk about it all the time and how much we miss the temple and wish we could go. Mom, I really loved that you sent that email to me last week about Ammon.  I had just read that chapter like about a week before and totally forgot about it until you brought it up again and then I re-read the whole thing.  It´s such an amazing chapter.  We love to study so much, I love working but I wish we could have a day like every Sunday that we could just use to study because we have so many things we want to study and to learn and we don’t have time to do it. We have 3 hours everyday to study and somehow that still does not seem like enough.

Alright so this week!  I have about 30 flea bites all over my legs, feet, arms, and hands. We are not really sure where it´s coming from because it can’t be in the clothes or they would be in Hermana Castletons as well... but they are awful!! They itch so bad.  We are going to the store today to try and get something to help with the itching so that will be nice. 

We had 3 investigators come to church this week (they are a family of about 4) and we are so close with them! We want to push for their baptism for 2 weeks! I think they can do it. :)   Also, we have another investigator named Yerko. He is so awesome! He knows so much and is ready for baptism but the only problem is he doesn’t want to give up his wine.  He was cut off from being taught because he was not progressing anymore.  But we came and started teaching him again. We are praying for a miracle with him that he will have a desire to change and not drink wine anymore. His wife is a member and they come to church every week. He is so awesome but just will not give up the wine!!  It is so frustrating and sometimes I don’t like agency.  

We have had some hard moments this week of planning. In this area we have to be careful where we go at night because there are some parts of our area that are dangerous because people here are ALWAYS drunk. So we have been trying to stay close to the pension every night so that we are close to home, plus those streets are more safe. So we are still trying to work with that situation.

We had a luau this week for our activity misional. It was so fun!! There was not a whole lot of people that came. probably about 20.  We watched Johnny Lingo which was pretty funny and had a good message, and then Hermana Castleton and I talked about the movie and a lesson for about 5 min afterwards and then we had some games.  We had hula hoops, that was really fun.  Then we had a limbo contest and I ended up winning the contest and won this really, really ugly trophy but it was fun. Then they brought out cake and hot chocolate and cut open coconuts. It was so good!! Cake here is spelled the same as in ingles but it´s sounded different ( it´s sounded kay-kay). 

Well family I hope all is well and I love hearing from you all. You are all in my prayers every night. I´m so happy to be here in Chile serving the Lord. It´s been such an amazing journey so far and I would not trade it for anything else. Have a wonderful week and I´ll talk to you next Monday!! I love you all so much!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

Hola Family!!!

So this week was a lot better. We are learning to laugh at crazy experiences and make each day fun. First, I didn’t know she is Courtney´s cousin!! We were dying about that when we read that  and I actually didn't know anything about the bombing.... That doesn’t sound good and I’m not really sure I want to know more about that. Please don’t tell me. We are very unaware of what is going on in other parts of the world and even in Chile. We don’t really know anything. Thanks for sharing those scriptures and talks with me mom and dad. I really needed to hear that and I loved it very much.

Ok so where to start? Well this week we went and taught a lady and her husband, she is paralyzed. We taught them the plan of salvation the first time we went to see them and she was crying, it was a really great lesson. Then we went back another day to teach her and her husband but her husband was not there. We taught the first lesson and then found out she is less active. So we invited her to church and she said she wants to come but it´s difficult to get her there because she is paralyzed. So we are going to be working more with them this week about how to get them to church and things like that. Her husband isn’t a member and we really think that if we can teach him the lessons he will be ready for baptism because he is so prepared by the Lord. Then we contacted a family who are members but they are also less active. They have lived in the area for 3 years and have not been to church. They were really active when they lived in Spain and they said they don’t have very many friends in the ward and also that she has pain in her feet. We invited them to an activity for this friday (which is a Luau) and they said they would try to come. We are going to work with them because we feel the only reason they are not coming to church is because they don’t have friends. They were very receptive when we went to teach them something from the book of mormon so that’s good. 

We went to new beginnings last night for the Young Women. The President´s wife asked us to come so we went and it was so great. There are only 4 young women in the ward but they are so amazing!! They are so strong!! They always ask us if they can come with us to appointments and help teach our investigators. We have a lot of help from them. One day we were walking from an appointment and we passed by a guy so we said hi and then like a few seconds later he yelled after us and started running towards us. He was like Hermana´s of the Church! So we turned around and he said I´m coming to church!!! I´m going to bring my work clothes cause I have to work but I´m coming to church! Hahaha we were like ok great we´ll be waiting for you!! But he never came, I think it was because he was really drunk. But we just laughed about that. 

We had interviews with the President this week as well. We were really excited for that. They went really well. We talked about the area and the help the we have and things like that. We also talked about our area book and what things we need and things we need to work on. He told me some things that were really helpful. He said that he really felt inspired that me and Hermana Castleton needed to be here and we needed to be together. He said he felt that so strongly and he knows we can do this. I´m so amazed with that. Hermana Castleton and I have a lot of deep talks about the gospel and things that are really interesting to us. It´s so amazing to think that Heavenly Father trusts us enough to start a new area when we don’t know the language very well and we are still very very new at this. It´s so much trust He has in us and it makes me feel like I can really do this. My patriarchal blessing says that I will call on my pre-mortal training to do the work here. I really feel like that is happening in this area. I feel like I was trained in my first area but I also feel like there are some things my spirit knows that my body does not and I´m starting to feel like I know what I’m doing and what we need to work on and who to work with. We just need to be organized and do it. I feel like I have so many ideas and we have so many people we want to see but there isn’t enough time in the day to do it all!! President started to get really teary eyed and he thanked me for being patient and accepting this. He said that he knows this isn’t easy for me and my companion but that he has total faith in us and knows we can do it. He also said that he does not expect perfection and that the numbers will be low because it´s a new area and we are starting from scratch with literally nothing to go off of. So that was a relief because I have been feeling like the numbers are so low and that we were not great missionaries when I knew that we were working hard. I don’t like numbers sometimes because I feel that we are working so much harder than the numbers show. But God knows where our hearts are and how hard we are working and I know that He is pleased with our work and that is really all that matters is that I´m working hard for the Lord and that I´m inviting all the people I can to come unto Him.

So this last weekend i had a baptism!!! One of the families I was working with in Casablanca got baptized on Saturday!! I am so happy for them and I´m so sad that I was not able to be there. I¨m going to ask Hermana Paz to send me the pictures so I can try to send it to you.  

I got my package!!! The candy is all gone. We ate that really fast but I was thinking the other day about wanting the articles of faith in spanish because they really are so amazing and perfect to give people to understand our beliefs. And then you guys send them to me! Ha! Also, we were wanting some pictures to put up in the house and then I got those pictures that are all my favorite ones!! We were so thrilled. So now our house is all pretty with pictures of Christ. We love them so much. 

We have some really great activities coming up these next couple weeks. We have an activity this friday that will be really fun and we are excited about that. And then we have another noche de postres. I´m going to get really fat from all these pastries, but it´s fine. We have a lot of hills here so we are always burning off the calories of the bread or at least I hope we are. The hills are insane here, sometimes I feel like we are walking straight up because it´s so steep.  

So here is something fun I get to look forward to. We have a lot of fleas here. It´s awful. I have been bit so many times and they itch like crazy, but we can't scratch them or they will scar. We have to be careful because we have a mamamita who is the lady who washes our clothes for us. If she has fleas in her house, we will have fleas in our clothes. So the elders said that if we get fleas in our clothes we need to switch mamamitas and get another one. I´m actually really terrified about this, I don't want fleas at all in anything or anywhere. Hermana Castleton said she´s seen a few fleas in our house already from when we come back from working and we carry in fleas (not always but on rare occasions) that made me a little sick, I´m trying to be super careful but it´s inevitable. My teacher in the MTC said that everyone at some point in their mission will get fleas. Awesome.  I´ll let you know how that goes when we get our clothes back tonight. 

Don't worry about anything. I´m fine and happy. This week was better and I´m learning to be happy with everything that happens. It´s an interesting experience. I´m learning so much about myself and so much about the gospel. I´m so excited for everyone I know with mission calls to enter into the work of the Lord. It´s so rewarding and hard but I learn so much about everything and I really can’t get this experience through anything else except a mission. I love being here, I love the people and the work. I love my investigators, the ward and the leaders as well as the other missionaries. We all get along so well and we have a lot of funny moments and awkward moments. They are memories that really will last for the rest of my life. 

Well family I love you so much!! I hope you all have an amazing week!! Keep working hard and being servants of the Lord.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Tycksen

Dearest familia!

Wow it sounds like a crazy week you had there!!. Alyssa, that is a cute way Skyler asked you! I want to see pictures of her dress when it´s finished! :) I´m excited for her. Elder Guthrie found you!!! That’s so fun! How was the dinner and everything? He´s a great missionary, and we had a lot of fun. That is so cool he found you guys. I wasn’t really expecting to see a picture of him. Oh btw, the picture of Bre i didn’t know that was her, I thought it was a model. Not kidding, she really looks incredible in that picture and Michael is the cutest thing ever!!! I love him so much!!! 

Ok, so here is the big news. I have been transferred :( I cried because I didn’t want to leave my area. I loved my area and we are supposed to have 2 families being baptized this Saturday and I won’t be there. So we went to transfers and I saw everyone in my district!! It was so fun!!. There are not enough sisters here so guess who is training..... Hermana Stott!!! She was hoping to be put with a spanish companion but she didn’t and was put with an american.  Also, I got transferred to a place called Miramar.  It´s basically in Valparaíso but it´s not like the center of Valpo. It´s about 1 hour out of Viña. It´s so beautiful here. But they have not had sisters here in this area for over 10 years so this is a new change. When we first got to the apartment there were couches, beds and dressers. They had to hurry and find an apartment and didn’t have time to really finish so for about 2-3 days we did not have a kitchen. But we do now.  Also let me tell you about our bathroom. I´ll send pictures. The way to get into the door is to pull a string. Then there is a shower head right above you, the sink on the left and the toilet on the right. Yep, it´s the bathroom and the shower in one. So we can basically go to the bathroom, shower and brush our teeth all at the same time if we wanted to. 

It´s actually a really cute house and we really like it. It´s like a condo so there are other houses in there too but there is only one door to get to the street. I hope that makes sense.  The lady that owns it is so sweet and incredible. We really love her a lot.  She is baptist so we can work with her on changing her religion haha.  My companion is Hermana Castleton, she is from Sandy Utah and 20 years old. She went to Brighton High School and was on the soccer team. She is so cute and we really get a long so well, she is like another me so we get along really well and we work hard together. So the thing about this is that she has 7 weeks here in the mission. We came here on the same day and so we are supposed to be with a trainer for 12 weeks but we are finishing training each other. only problem with that is that her trainer never trained her.  I´m at the point where I can understand a lot of spanish but it takes so much concentration and it´s really hard, I don't understand everything.  

Mom, I feel like a failure as a missionary. This is so hard and I have never done this before. I´m not kidding, I honestly don't know what I´m doing.  We are trying to contact people in the street and also recent converts and less active members but we have only taught 1 lesson in 4 days. That´s not good. It’s really hard. I don't know what to do. I´m trying so hard to be positive and to work as hard as I can but it´s complicated because there are specific areas we are allowed to go because the other areas are dangerous. But when we talk to someone on the street and ask for directions they just say no and then we try to keep talking and they say no again. In Casablanca Hermana Paz could always figure out a way to get people to help with directions even when they would say no the first time.  I´m trying to learn but this is hard. We are trying our best but our numbers are so awful and we feel like failures. The elders here are all really nice and want to help us as much as they can. The district leaders call us every night to make sure we are ok and to see if we need anything.  There are 3 companionships here in the mission right now that are all training each other. It´s a really hard situation. Please pray for us here because we really need as much help as possible.

There is a young girl here in Miramar named Yazmin. She is a member and 17 years old. She looks exactly like Kenzie. It´s so weird, well she is wanting to go on a mission and loves coming with us to lessons. She has offered to come with us for hours when she can to as many lessons as we have for that day. She wants to prepare for her mission in anyway that she can. We really love her and she tries to help us out so much. The members here are awesome, they really are so nice and welcoming. The ward here is not a ward it´s a district. There are a lot of less active members here and because of that it´s become a district. 

We did teach a lesson but it was with a less active member and we didn’t know that in the moment. But the lesson went really good and he came to church this Sunday. So that was really good. So I know there has to be a reason the mission president sent us here to Miramar and that me and Hermana Castleton are companions.  There is always a reason for everything, but in the moment seeing that is really hard. I find myself thinking about Casablanca a lot because things here are so different. The people here aren´t very nice. They just shove you away and don’t want to talk to you or want you to walk with them, whereas in casablanca you could talk to anyone and they would be really nice to you and accepting and when you asked for their address they would give it to you without hesitation. It’s just a different environment. A lot of people have told us it’s like New York people here. That they are so busy and consumed with their needs and are so involved in themselves they don't want to talk to anyone.  Please give us some advice what to do because we need it. 

This place is beautiful though. We are right next to the beach and watch the sunset every night. The ocean and all the lights from the houses at night is amazing.  We are located on a huge hill that overlooks Valparaíso and we are facing towards Viña so its really awesome and really beautiful. This will be a hard transfer, not because of my companion but because of the language barrier, situation we are in, and not really having any investigators. We don’t have investigators because we had to split this mission so there are still Elders from the other mission here and they have the area book. So we are basically starting from scratch here. 

I have been very discouraged at times. Sorry this email is more about the hardship of this area so far, but next week I hope will be better.  I love hearing from you all and hearing about what is going on with everyone. I miss you and I love you and pray for you all everyday.

Con Amor,

Hermana Tycksen

Hola familia!! 

WOW!!!! Conference was just amazing!  We went to Valparaíso for conference which was really fun. We listened to it in english which was a huge blessing!! We were able to see all of conference which was also really nice because I heard Sara was not able to see the saturdays sessions because she didn’t have an investigator there with her. That’s really sad because it´s a time to listen to the Prophets of the Lord. 

When we got to Valpo it was insane! they have this huge street fair every Saturday and Sunday the first of every month. So it´s kind of crazy with people everywhere and food.  When we got into the building and started to prepare for conference, all of the spanish elders and Hermana Paz went into the main room to watch and the english elders and I all stayed in another room to watch it. We all pulled out bags of food, I wanted to feel a little at home with how much food we eat during conference so I brought a lot of candy and stuff (not really candy because candy is expensive, more like cookies). It was fun. During the Sunday session one of the elders leaned over to me and said You need a typewriter, because you don’t take notes you write a novel. I just laughed because I do take a lot of notes but it just really inspires me all they say so I write it down. 

I loved all of conference and was really sad to see it end. It’s such a spiritual time and such an edifying of the soul which I love so much. I´m not sure what talk was my favorite but I really loved President Uchtdorf´s talk on darkness and light. He talked about everyone has the light of Christ in them but we need to act on that light. It´s also important to remember that we will all have dark times but we can be a light shining in the darkness. A thought came to me that we need to be a light not only for ourselves but when there is darkness all around us, other people can’t see the way as well and it´s important to be a light for others to follow. I loved his stories about the girl in the darkness and the African people singing in the darkness. I love that.

I loved Sister Dalton´s talk as well. She is such an amazing woman and I´m sad to see her leave the presidency of the Young women. She has such a love for the women of the church. While I was watching her speak I could see a glow around her whole body. She literally was glowing and the spirit was so strong when she spoke. I love sister Dalton so much and she is such a light to the world that when people see her speak they want the light and the joy she has. 

We had a baptism in between the Sunday sessions which ended up being really beautiful. All the missionaries in the zone were there and we sang "I like to look for rainbows" it was great even though we are the only sister missionaries and all the elders are tone deaf haha somehow it still sounded beautiful. 3 people were baptized yesterday and they were all so emotional and beautiful. It was a joyous day! 

We had one of our investigators go to the saturday session which was really great. We are teaching them tonight and we will discuss conference with them and how they felt. They are one of the families we have with a baptism for the 20th of Abril. As well as another woman and her two kids. They are amazing people and we are really excited for them. 

So this week. We went to a members house to have a family home evening and while we waited for our investigator to show up the little boy of the family (is about 6) asked his dad to turn on the music. They hooked everything up to the tv and then turned on the video on youtube of michael jackson´s first time ever doing the moonwalk. The little boy danced and sang the whole song of michael jackson and tried to copy his every move. it was so cute and so fun!! I wish I had a video of it but i didn’t think about it until later. The Family Home Evening went well and we taught her more about baptism.  She is amazing and knows so much because she studies what we give her.  She is so prepared to be baptized!!

We have another investigator who just had her baby!! the baby is so cute and small. It’s been nice to see a new baby because it makes me feel like I´m not missing out with Michael. Even though I can’t hold the baby it’s still nice to be with a baby that is straight from the presence of God. 

Oh, we also have a member in the ward that we are super close with named Logan. He is 18 and really fun and helps us out a lot by coming to our appointments. He just received his mission call to Brazil and we are so excited for him! The whole ward is going crazy about him and his new mission call. It´s so exciting. He is a little bit higher than where Sara is.  I was hoping it would be where Sara is but Brazil is really huge and that was a really small chance. 

Mom I did as you said and I have been trying to study as much as I can on Rebekah and Isaac. They have such a tender love. I love that it´s basically love at first sight because when Rebekah see´s Isaac she hurries off her camel to run and meet him. I loved that, but also that Rebekah was preparing herself for a long time and because of that she was able to have the love of her life. If she had not been preparing herself she would have never been the one that the servant chose to come back with him to marry Isaac. It´s such a beautiful love story :)

I love you all and i hope you have a great week!!! Keep working hard in all you do and remember the words of the prophets. It´s important to review our notes on things because it helps us remember the feelings we felt (especially with conference since we don’t get the ensign of the conference talks for about 1-2 months). I would challenge you all to re-read your notes until the ensign comes out and then you can re-read all of the talks until the following conference. 

I love you all so much!! I hope you have a great week!! Let me know how my little Michael is doing! I love you all! Until next week!

Con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

P.S. all the elders have been telling me my spanish is really good for only being here for a month. They said that my spanish is way above where any of theirs for their first month, so that was really nice to hear.   I feel like it’s not as good as it should be but it´s come a long way since my first week here. 

Also a fun fact. No sister missionaries are transferring this week so we have transfers in 6 weeks. But there is a possibility that if we get new sisters next transfer (depending on how many we get) some of the new girls that came in with me might be training either a new girl or someone we came in with. There was about 8 new girls that came in with me so if we get at least 6 new girls then that takes all our trainers and then the other sisters will be put together. Anyway, kind of fun fact! Love you all!!

-Em

Hola familia!!

Let me tell you more about this week. The other day I had an experience that was really touching. Hermana Paz and I went and bought some bread, she bought 2 pieces and I bought one. We walked out and next to the panería lives an investigator who is an old man and has nothing, literally. It was so hard to talk with him in his house the first time we were there because he does not really have water or a bathroom, so you can imagine what it smelled like. There were flies everywhere and the conditions are just really awful. Well we were leaving the panería and Hermana Paz stopped and all the sudden turned and walked in the opposite direction. She went to the house of this investigator and started yelling for him. He finally came out after a long wait and without thinking twice she gave him both of her pieces of bread. In the moment I was so selfish thinking no this is my bread I want it, I´m so hungry.  And she just acted and gave it to him. When we started walking away I felt so awful that I had such a selfish thought because I really didn’t need the bread, he did and I just sat there and did nothing. But I learned so much from Hermana Paz and her willingness to just serve people.

Last night when we went to eat with this family, they are not members and we are working really hard with them, we walked to the door and yelled "Ahlo" and they came out and the boys (3 of them, 5, 8 and 12) came out and were so excited to see us. They love when we come over and they invited us in and we just sat there talking for a while and having such a fun time together. Hermana Andrea (the mother) loves when we come over because she said her home becomes a place of peace and calm. This family was taught by other missionaries about 2 years ago and one of the missionaries left for the states about... December I believe. They still have contact with him and love him a lot. Well, the missionaries that came after he had taught them, she said they didn’t have the same spirit as him and so she would not listen to them. This was 2 years that she just did not like the other missionaries that came to see them so she would not ever listen or invite them to come back.  Well after the first time we taught them she invited us back and told us that we have the same spirit as this elder that taught her 2 years ago. So we have become really close with their family. They are so great and really love the peace that comes with the things we teach them. The only problem is she does not know how to receive answers and we have been trying to explain the spirit to her and that when we feel the spirit, that´s our answer to our questions. So we still have work to do with them. But it was just a really nice way to end the night especially since it was Easter. I didn’t know it was Easter until after Church. 

Oh, when we were trying to prepare our postre for the noche de postres, we were trying to make brownies from scratch and it was a bit of a problem. We ended up buying a mix and it actually turned out really well, but the problem was that we didn’t have a pan that was really good, so one side was more thick than the other and the side that was not as thick ended up burning a lot and was not very good, but the thick side was really good. We also made jello stuff which was interesting because all the peach powder we poured in was mixed in, but somehow something peach-like settled at the bottom of the jello. It´s hard to explain but we ended up winning an award for the most natural dish and we were laughing really hard about that because it was a last minute decision to make it.

The nights here are getting colder and colder. It´s fall right now and I can really feel it. Sometimes the day is really hot and then the nights are so cold I have to put my gloves on.

OH! Yesterday we were walking and saw a member of the church so we stopped to talk to him for a little bit. And while we were talking to him we heard a lot of cars honking so we looked over to the road and saw that this van was stopped and a guy was trying to push the van by himself while trying to steer it through the window. So we ran over and asked him if he needed help and he said yes so we ended up running behind the van and pushing.  We were all laughing so hard because it was 2 girls and a 18 year old boy pushing this really big 15 passenger van. We were running down the road and people were staring at us. Finally the guy got the van started and said thanks and sped off. We didn’t even have a chance to teach him the gospel or get his contact information so we were a bit bummed about that. But we hope that he will be placed in our path again sometime in the near future.

Yesterday was a success. We had 5 investigators come to church!! It was really great, one of the families that came has 5 kids all under 6 years old. So it´s a bit crazy, they don’t have work or a house right now so the church has been giving them a lot of help. They are living with a friend of theirs until they can figure things out. We are a bit worried about them that they are more interested in the help they are receiving than the gospel. So we are really trying to make sure that they understand the gospel.

At the end of church we were with a bunch of kids at the piano playing and I never thought how much I would miss playing the piano. I was sitting there playing himnos and really missed playing the piano. It makes me so grateful I had the opportunity to learn to play an instrument because the people here don’t have that opportunity because no one has access to a piano or another instrument. So lissa make sure that you really practice hard with your violin because it´s a skill that a lot of people never get the opportunity to learn.

Well family my time is up. I love you and pray for you all each day. Let me know how baby Michael is doing as well as Bre. I hope they are adjusting well. I´m doing really well here! I´m working hard and making each day count. We need miracles here in Casablanca so keep us in your prayers! I love you all so much!  I´m glad to hear you´re all happy and well. Until next week!

Love

Hermana Tycksen