This Plan of Happiness :)

Kristen Tuft in the middle, Hna Zollinger on right in red, Hna Smith in red on left next to Hna Albornoz next to Kristen in mint colored sweater.

Hnas Tuft, Zollinger, Smith, Albornoz in Andes of Calama 2014

Hna Albornoz and Kristen Tuft, Calama 2014

Hello!!

This week has been absolutely the craziest of my mission. Yep. We have learned and grown so very much, I can't even describe it. My testimony of the Plan of Salvation has grown more than I ever thought possible, and the Lord's timing is incredible. His ways are not our ways, but I have learned to trust and come to know that His ways are much better than mine. I know that this is His work and that He is hastening His own work. We are instruments in His hands.

Okay. So to start off. On Monday and Tuesday we were in a trio with Hermana Smith, because on Wednesday she had to go pick up her hijita (she's training a new hermana named Hermana Wisrock from Huntington Beach...?) On Monday, Hermana Albornoz BEGGED me to make soup, so we went to Lider and bought stuff to make leek soup. I was in heaven. :D So anywho, we worked Monday and Tuesday, and my poor little companion has been hurting in her tooth a LOT lately, and yes, being the dentist's daughter that I am, kept insisting on seeing her tooth, but she was embarrassed and wouldn't let me. Until Monday morning she was brushing her teeth and showed me her mouth and it was BLEEDING like crazy!!! So I maddeeee her show me and claro. Her back molar was split in half. So we called the mission doctor, Elder Garrison, and got her an appointment with the dentist muy rapidito. So we ended up traveling with Hermana Smith to Antofa on Wednesday, instead of Thursday for our meeting. And as we got off the bus, I left my bible. And it is good and gone. I checked with every person possible to be able to find it and nope. Someone has my little bible in their hands.... I hope that they will read it at least. :)

So we headed to the dentist's. :) Then, we worked with Hermana Howell and her hijita for the day and had our consejo on Thursday. It was a fantastic meeting and can I just say, I love President and Hermana Dalton! They always know just what to say and just how to say it. They truly are incredible examples to me of how to speak with the Spirit. I also love the Book of Mormon and we have not been using it as well and effectively as we should have been, but that is changing. :) I love the Book of Mormon!

Friday brought some not so good news... We were planning for the week, and we called our investigator, Jazmin, because when we stopped by her house on Tuesday, her kids told us she had just left with her husband to go to the hospital. Jasmin has been our investigator the whole time I've been here in Calama, and had a baptismal date for July 5th. We were really worried about her, because she's been really sick for about 2 months with realllyyy bad migraine/headaches, and the doctors kept telling her it was nothing, so she stopped going. She also hadn't been to church in a month, so we had to push her date back a couple weeks, but she kept saying, "I want to be baptized. My goal is the Celestial Kingdom with my family." Well, we called her cellphone on Friday to see if she would answer, and her husband answered and told me that she had passed away that morning. I cannot describe the pain that I felt hearing that news. A million thoughts rushed through my mind and through the sobs I explained to Hermana Albornoz what her husband, Antonio, had just told me. We had a good cry, and then talked about it.

Truly, I just kept thinking, "She was almost baptized; how could the Lord take her now?" The reassurance and comfort came, that she would be baptized. That through the work of the temples, that are such a marvelous blessing in our days, she can, and will accept baptism. She already did. The Lord's timing is perfect. Who knows what miracles we will see at the passing of Jazmin, but the Lord does. He knows her family, her 5 kids, her alcoholic husband, her sister that lives around the corner, and He knows their needs and the blessings that are awaiting them. I am an instrument in His hands, and only an instrument. He is working along side us, but I have learned that I need to let him work through me. This is a wonderful, beautiful great plan of happiness, of salvation.

Through this experience, I have learned so much. The past 2 days I have felt such a huge urgency of this work. The Lord is hastening His work. I told Hermana Albornoz yesterday, as Alma said, "Oh, that I were an angel!" There are so many people out there waiting, and with the sound of a trump, the gospel is being spread across the whole world. I know that this is the work of the Lord. I know that this is His church. We see and are part of miracles every single day.

It also made me very grateful for the freedom in which we live, and for that reason alone, Joseph Smith had the freedom to pray to our Father in Heaven, and could restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ again here on the earth. I'm proud to be an American. :) Happy late 4th of July to you all!

I hope you all have a fantastic week and smile lots and pray for the opportunity to share your testimony with at least one person this week. :)

Lotsss of love,
Hermana Tuft
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P.S. Happy 61st Anniversary to my wonderful Grandma and Grandpa Tuft on Sunday!! :D I love you both loads. :)
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Hey Mom and Dad!

I'm glad to hear that the earthquake didn't do any major damage! Hermana Morales emailed me and didn't mention anything about it, so at least I don't think it didn't even reach Mexico City... I hope that everyone's alright. :) (There was a 6.9 earthquake this morning in southern Mexico/Mazatlan area, and Guatemala. The missionaries/Spencer felt it but are all just fine. Kristen knew that when she wrote.)

I'm glad to hear that it's been a great week for everyone. A little hot, yes. But a good week overall! As I was reading Spencer's letter....wow did that take me back to last year. I know exactly how that feels. He'll make a wonderful missionary, and I'm so excited to see him grow so much. I feel like I've grown loads, and there's still so much more to learn every day. I loveee it. Hermana Wisrock is a new mission that just got here to Calama last week, and we spent the day with her and Hermana Smith. Poor girl. I know how it feels to listen to so many people talk around me and not knowing what is going on. But it is short lived! It comesss. :) I told Hermana Albornoz today that I honestly feel more comfortable speaking in Spanish..... English gets a little shaky sometimes. Ohhh wellll. :)

It has been a very difficult past couple days, but I have felt such peace and comfort. It made me so happy to hear that Grandpa Tuft is not in any pain hardly, and that is a miracle. I know that if he goes before I get home, it is all in the Lord's timing and that he received the answer that he would complete all that he needed to do here on the earth before he was to go. I know that promise is still true. Send them my love, and I hope to be able to write them either a handwritten letter, or an email por lo menos by next week.

As far as my goals go, I have set quite a few. :) I talked to President about it, and he suggested that I set goals that have to do with our purpose as missionaries, and I remember a goal that I had set at the beginning of my mission. I set the goal for a baptism a month, or in other words, 18 baptisms. I haven't had anywhere close to that, but I had the feeling come to my mind that we really need to focus on families and that number of 18 doesn't seem so far away when I think of it like that. So my goal is yes, 18. But more than that, 2 families at least in the next 4 months. I have prayed about it and I feel like it is a good, reasonable goal. I'm clay in His hands, but I have to do my part, that is for sure.

Of course I have other goals as well, for example working with the ward leaders better, and we have been working on that the past couple weeks. As well as finishing the Book of Mormon twice. I'd love to challenge the two of you as well, and maybe with Lindsay....that would be a good family challenge. :) To read it again before I get home... :) That's about 4 pages-

I also have been reading my patriarchal blessing, setting apart blessing, and father's blessing a lot. I also asked Elders Funaro and Garcia to give me a blessing on Friday, that said similar things en cuanto a my companions being lifelong friends, and that I would be a great support to them throughout the rest of my mission. I have felt moments of knowing people before we came here, and yes there have been moments where I have thought that were fulfillments of premortal callings, especially with Isabel. It will be interesting to see the fulfillment of those blessings and callings in the next few months. I was interested, Dad to know what your thoughts were as you said that I would have the opportunity to work with native languages as well as Spanish. That intrigued me...

One last thing and I've got to run, but we are planning an activity for July 19th with Pioneer Day, and we're going to watch 17 Miracles, and I didn't know if there was a family story that I could translate and share in Spanish of my ancestors... Just a thought and question that you could both help me with. :) I remember going to Martin's Cove, but I don't remember any specific stories.....

I love you both so much and I am SOOO grateful for your long letters each week. I love them. So please don't condense them for me.... :P Send my love that way, and to the little bunnies. Hahaha poor little Spencer and I being replaced with Bella and Floppy. :P

Les quiero MUCHO!!! :)
Hermana Tuft


ish every day.... :) I don't know if that would be possible, but that might be something to talk about tonight at family night. :)