Hellos to my beautiful and favorite family!!! 

This week was good!!  But there are always things that are hard about the week, this week was that satan really was working on me to not want to go out and work. It was a struggle everyday to get up and do my exercises but I pushed through and finally came Sunday and I really felt the strength from taking the Sacrament. I love to be able to take the sacrament and to receive the strength I need for this week to push through and be obedient in all things. I realized that out in the mission we think that everything in our family and home will be perfect because we are serving the Lord but really I think that it’s only a matter of time until something happens that Satan does to try and destroy us as missionaries and have the feelings of wanting to come home.

I know that satan is real and I know he has power. But it’s like you said, mom, that when we do the small things we have more strength than we realize. I testify to you all that the power of the scriptures, prayer, fasting and going to church will SAVE YOU.  I´ve seen it in my mission. The little things are so important because if you can’t do the little things how can you do the big things such as the word of wisdom? We can’t.  At some point in time if we don’t do the little things, Satan will work so hard that we fall even deeper into his traps. One of the members (the RS president who works in the jail) told us one thing that really hit me about a young girl that wanted to kill herself and she told this young girl that if she did that she would not be running away from her problems, she would only give satan the power to have her feel the pain and guilt of her problems for eternity, that really freaked me out. I do not want satan to have power over me. There are always trials but the power of the Atonement is a million times more powerful than anything satan can do to us. The Atonement is what saves us. There is always hope.

Ok so this week. Yesterday Iganacio was confirmed a member of the church!!! YAY!!! it was so awesome. he´s really amazing. I have such love for him and he really is such a pure young kid. It’s such a joy to be around him because he is literally so innocent and pure. Yesterday was an amazing day because after lunch we went to do contacts with one of the converts that is preparing for his mission next month. We contacted this one guy that’s apparently friends with the grandparents of our convert. We started talking about God and about His creations and the man had sooo many questions. We talked a lot and used lots of scriptures and it was amazing to see the change in this man. He went from kinda not believing us to wanting us to come back again to answer all of his questions. I´m so excited to teach him because he´s so amazing and he has so much knowledge. We also found this old lady named Olga. She is amazing. She does all the homework we give her and she really wants to have more faith. she said she doesn’t believe the Book of Mormon but when we talked about how we can have more faith there was something that happened, I don’t remember what was said exactly but she then said, ok you convinced me and now she believes a little bit more in the Book of Mormon. There really are so many miracles that are happening everyday here. I love my mission and I love my life as a missionary.

OH HAPPY NEW YEAR!! totally forgot that that was this week haha. For new years... it was a little bit sad. We went to my favorite families house, the family Alfaro. and we had a BBQ but not an american BBQ. There was steak and chicken and pig. It was so huge we couldn’t eat all the meat. Then we did toasts and we had to be in the house at 11. They threw fireworks in the cities next to us but in Quillota they didn’t do anything. So for an hour and a half we sat there and played games and listened to church music. At 12:30 we went to bed. Luckily there wasn’t any parties going on next door. I think everyone went to the coast because they do something very famous that they shoot fireworks on the water in all of viña, valpo, con con, and reñaca. Its like 4 huge cities where you can see all the fireworks along the coast. If you get the chance look it up on google, cause I´ve heard its amazing. 

I still haven’t received your package but we have interviews with president this Friday so I should be getting it then. I love you all so much. Mom I´m going to need your help when I get home to keep me in the routine of studying because I don’t want to lose my studying habits.  I know that they are going to have to change with returning home because I’m not going to have 3 hours to study everyday. But I would really love to study with you in the mornings. You can be my companion :) Its going to be a hard adjustment so I´m going to need some help adjusting, Maybe Alyssa can help and do it with with us. :)  

I love you all so much my sweet family. Stay strong and stay together. Real life really is like the mission because you shouldn’t ever be alone. That’s why visiting teachers and the one for guys (I don't remember the name of it) are in pairs. The work of the Lord is perfect. "Do what is right, let the consequence follow." Always think "would I do this if Christ or my parents were here?"

Con todo mi amor, Hermana Tycksen