Family!! 

What a wonderful week this was. :) First your questions. Mom release date? As in when I’m coming home?  I´ll be ending my mission and heading home the15th of July. Wow crazy. Let’s not talk about that yet!  I love the new music! I listen to it everyday. I really love the song Glorious and Do you have Room. Thanks again for sending that :)

This week was really good. We found a new family to teach!! they are a family of 4 and are awesome. The only problem is that the parents are not married. SO what do we do? Talk to them about the temple, and it worked! The next day (yesterday) the mom was talking to us on the way to church and told us she talked to her husband after we left and she wants to marry him in the temple and he said the same. SO they are going to get married civilly so they can be baptized as a family and then be sealed in a year. WOW!  The Lord is amazing. Such a miracle that that happened! They really are such an amazing family and I love them so much.  They are all going to come to church next week. 

Alright, next family. We got a reference the other day about another family that just moved to our area. They have received a lot of lessons and are married so they can be baptized but they just have to come to church. We passed by for them and taught them with our new Ward mission leader. They really want to come to church and promised us that they will come but in the moment they can’t because her husband works on Sunday and their 6 month old baby is really sick so they can’t leave. BUT they will attend I know it!  So we are very happy with them as well. 

We are working very hard with the Bishop and he really is getting better.  We feel more support and love from him and the ward.  He does some things and says some things that are very harsh and our investigators don't like it.  We have been pretty worried about it so yesterday we decided to go and talk with him about that and some other worries. Everything seemed to work out ok so I think when something happens, if we talk to him immediately afterwards it will work out so much better and help him a lot. 

This week was really amazing and we found a lot of families to teach FINALLY!!  We are so happy.  Also I don’t remember if I told you about an investigator in my other area named Guillermo?  Well my daughter sent me a photo of his baptism!!  SO HAPPY!  

Yesterday I was called on to give a talk at church.  I shared a few things written and it was amazing to feel the spirit just take over. I´m not kidding, you know how President Gottfredson got all red and firm when the spirit took over him, it was something like that (except I was not all red) but I could feel my whole body get so excited about missionary work and member missionaries. It was an incredible experience. I love my mission!

Well family that´s about it for this week. I hope you all have a great week and love Halloween. We are going to dress up this year as missionaries ;) haha.  I told that to one of our investigators and they just started laughing. This is probably the last week I have together with Hermana Comán so we are going to work SOO hard this week so she can finish strong here. 

I´m so happy and I love my Savior. I testify to you all the the second coming is so close. I PROMISE you that you do NOT want to be unprepared for that day.  IF YOU ARE NOT READY NOW, YOU WILL NOT BE READY LATER!!! I plead with you all, PLEAD, that you will prepare for that day. We don’t know when it will come and I want my family to be together forever.    

I love you my family. This is a wonderful and amazing time to be living in this world. There are so many things that are coming to pass and I can not wait for the day that the Savior will come. Be strong and be examples and a light of Christ at all times. I love you!

Until next week

love,

Hermana Tycksen 

My family!

I´m so amazed at what happened this week. We really have seen some miracles happen here and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a part of it. I really feel the strength of your prayers. I don’t know how to explain it other than I am so much stronger as a missionary and as a person. I have especially been feeling it today. Alyssa, I´m so happy that you had such a great dance and that it was so fun for you. I'm so proud of you Alyssa and the example you are to me. You really are amazing.

This week we had some really amazing things happen as well as some really crazy things happen. So first to start off the week... Remember our recent convert?  Everything has been good until last Sunday when we went by the house and he was acting really weird. Come to find out he had a dream about me. First I need to explain. The mom had a dream about her husband and when he came into her life she realized he was the one she was going to marry. He thinks the same thing is going to happen for him. He had a dream about me and decided on Sunday to talk to his mom after we left. On Tuesday we went over there to eat almuerzo and the mom was asking to see my CTR ring and then when I went to the bathroom, she told my companion that her son had a dream and that he wants to marry me and come find me when my mission is over. My companion told me that when we left and immediately we called the President. We explained the situation and then he told us that we couldn’t talk to them or go to their house while I´m here. DO NOT worry please, its more just hilarious. It´s completely harmless and funny.

We found another family who are so golden. They are a family of 4 and are so special. We have only taught them once and we are going back tomorrow to teach them. We are going to see miracles with them I know it. :)  There were so many things that happened as well that were incredible experiences but I don’t have time to tell you. I love you my beautiful family. I´m so happy here and have never been happier in my whole life. I´m just so full of joy today. Oh crazy thing, I completed 9 months in the mission this week.... WHAT?? Where did those 9 months go? I have no idea. But I realized today that I’m really proud and happy with who I am, and who I’m becoming. I finally feel like I’m becoming the missionary I always wanted to be and that just brings me such joy. Obviously everyday is a struggle and some days are really hard.  But as a missionary and as a person I just feel... Happy and that God is happy with me. 

Dad I wanted to thank you for asking me to study the sacrament prayer this last week.  I really learned so much and it changed everything for me. When I took the sacrament yesterday I had a thought come into my head that said, "I’m clean". It was a very special moment for me to have the opportunity to understand the Sacrament more than ever before. Thank you.

Well my family I love you all so much. Thank you for all you do for me. Mom I’m going to make chocolate chip cookies today for my companion and I’ll let you know how they turn out. Lets pray they are good. Also thanks for teaching me how to clean. I wont go into details but I thought the bathroom was being cleaned each week until I noticed the bathtub... I don’t think it has been cleaned in years. So gross. Anyway, I love you all!! Keep staying strong and close to the Lord and He will ALWAYS bless you. Even when you feel like you don’t deserve His blessings, He loves you so much that He blesses you anyway. :) 

Love always,

Hermana Tycksen

PS hope you like the picture, hehe 9 months!! 

Hello family! 

Interviews with president were great! I really love interviews with him because he is such a great man and I feel like I receive great advice and help from him with things that I need. I did receive something from the assistants as well.... MY PACKAGE!! I was totally in shock when I saw it there for me!

We had a zone meeting which was great, I really love meetings :) But the only thing that is kind of a bummer is that we aren’t allowed to use backpacks anymore, we have to use a side bag from now on.  We have time to get money and pay for another bag.

This week we have been really happy but just haven’t had really any success. Our goal for baptisms this month is 3 and we didn’t have any investigators who can be baptized by the end of the month come to church yesterday.  The district leaders are a little stressed out but we just need to keep working harder everyday. I feel like I’m working hard but i know there is still so much more that I can do and so much more of my energy that I can give. Please pray for me that I can find the determination inside to work at my full potential. I love you so much my beautiful family, thank you for all of your support and love for me. I´m so happy to be out here serving a mission and to be here in Chile. There isn’t anything else I want to be doing.   

Something really awesome I studied this week is that if we are Representatives of Christ we need to love the people like Christ loves them. He loves us so much that He gave His life for us. Our president said "are you willing to give your life for your investigators and new converts" as I thought about that I realized that I’m not. I love them but not in the same way the Lord loves them and I’ve been really trying to focus more on loving the people no matter what they say or do to us. I just have to be humble and love them. It’s probably the hardest thing ever to try and not have a singe bad thought about someone who gets mad at us for coming to their house but it’s so worth the struggle because I feel the love of God more fully in my life. 

Keep working hard family and know that I love you and pray for you always! Until next week!

con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

Hello my beautiful family!

Wow!!! Conference was amazing!  I started taking a lot of notes then one of the talks said that we should listen and write the things that the spirit tells us because that is when we learn more. So I decided in the second session to take more notes about what the spirit was telling me. It ended up being very inspiring as I received revelation for our investigators and things they might need to hear. I wrote their names next to the things that I was writing so I would remember why I wrote that specific thing.  We got to watch the Relief Society meeting on saturday morning. We had 3 investigators in conference but the problem is that all 3 can’t be baptized for a while because of moral issues.  But I’m just glad that they could come and gain a stronger testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. I can't really say I had a favorite talk because they were all amazing. But I did realize that in the first session they were talking A LOT about preparing and repenting. I know that no one knows when the second coming is but I have been feeling more and more since the last conference in April and again this conference that the 12 are just pleading with us to prepare because it´s closer than we think. I feel that so strongly. There is such an urgency to get members doing missionary work. 

Mom I was thinking the same thing when Elder Christofferson talked!!  I know that women have an important role to play. 

It just makes me feel so blessed to be a woman. There is such a respect for women in the church and I think that girls don’t understand that.  Some really don’t know who they are and whose they are. One of the sisters said that if we understand that we would all act differently, and more like the Savior. I also LOVED the Relief Society meeting!!! WOW those women are amazing. I loved how they talked about covenants. They are the only way that we can get back to God because it shows our willingness to lose ourselves for Him. I know and I testify to you my lovely family, that if we do not live our covenants we will be held accountable in that one on one interview with Jesus Christ. DO NOT procrastinate Repentance. I´ve seen it a million times out here and there is a horrible feeling for people who do not keep their covenants. 

Ok so this week we had some amazing things happen. We have had some amazing miracles and I´m so blessed to still be with my companion because she teaches me so much.  George and Kemberly are doing well. We talked with the family a lot and then one day they fixed whatever was wrong and are doing a lot better.  Yesterday we decided to go contact an old contact named Valesca.  When we got to her house a girl answered the door and when to get Valesca, she let us in and we found out that the other girl was a roommate. So what do we do? Teach them both of course! :) They are awesome and so prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel. We have to wait a week to teach them because they will not be here this week. But they both are studying in college and I totally can relate to them because of all the stress that exams, homework etc. bring from classes. So we promised them peace and help in their studies if they will pray and read the book of mormon. So they accepted and it was a really awesome lesson.

As for the letters yes they are here I just don’t have them yet because our zone leaders still have them. I´m not really sure when I will get them but I´m thinking sometime this week. I´ve learned so much this week while working. There are so many things that I need to do to improve myself. But I was looking back at who I was before the mission and not that that person was bad but it’s just the fact of all the things I’ve learned and felt that I know that I will not return home the same person. 

Thanks for all the updates on whats been going on at home!  The time is flying by so fast I can’t believe a year ago this past weekend I made the decision to go on a mission. I´m so happy and it feels more and more normal to be here. I´ve never been happier in my whole life than serving the Lord and I have such a determination to serve Him well and worthy and with all my heart, might, mind and strength. It’s not easy and I fall short a lot, but I know and I honestly feel that He is proud of me and the work that I´m doing out here. I love you my family! I pray for you always. Please be safe and keep close to the Lord. Something one of the speakers said is to love God more than your own parents, we love our parents a ton, so that just means we have to love God and serve God more than anyone or anything else in this world and we will receive more happiness than we can imagine. It´s not easy obviously, but nothing this good comes for free, it always come at a price. Sooo my invitation this week is to think about each of your lives, because they are all different no matter how close we may be, and think about if you really are serving and loving God with all your might. If not I invite you to think of how you can change that and how you can improve, because you will be more happy and more close to the Savior than ever before and you will be ready when the day comes that He can welcome you into the kingdom of God as a faithful servant of His. I love you all! Be safe! Have a great week!!

Con amor,

Hermana Tycksen

p.s. we had a district activity today and played soccer.... Lyss I think you would be proud of me to know that I´ve now learned how to play soccer like a latin. I might just take you when I get home with my latin soccer skills ;) hahaha Love you!!!