What a week! All is well!!

What a week it has been!! We've had some amazing experiences, and some not so amazing experiences BUT everything happens for a reason... So we keep our smiles on and keep moving forward! :D

I have so much to say, but there's not going to be much order in what I say....so just bear with me! :P I'm going to start with the sad news, and it'll just be uphill from there... :P So this week we had to "cut" Daniela, Lucia, and Tzulian... They weren't progressing, so for now we aren't going back, but someday in the future we'll stop by, or other missionaries will and they will be able to receive the gospel hopefully in that time... It was really sad for me, because we were at Tzulian's house yesterday and teaching him, and all of a sudden Hna Matias said she had such a strong feeling to ask him if he wanted us to continue teaching him. He said exactly this (but in Spanish of course... :P) "I don't really have time right now, so honestly no I don't really want you to keep teaching me." He's 12... I felt so hurt, and it was such a weird hurt... It was more like a pain because he didn't just reject me, he outright rejected Christ... I'm not going to dwell on it, but it was really sad. One day he'll be able to accept it though. :) I also remembered that in the MTC they told us that sometimes it takes a lot of different times being introduced to the gospel to finally accept it. So that was a comforting thought. One day. :)

AND NOW. For the happy stuff. :D We got a call from the Elders and they said they had a contact for us and that he wanted to be baptized. So of course we were super excited, didn't quite know what to expect, but we stopped by his house (his name is Andres by the way.... :P) and he wasn't there... We called him and he didn't answer... But as we were walking away, he called us back, said that he WAS in his house and YES he would LOVE for us to come visit him. He was SOO excited. So we walked back, and started talking to him. Andres started listening to the missionaries 5 years ago, when he was 13. He wanted to be baptized then, but his mom wouldn't let him. He found the elders the other day as he was walking somewhere, and they invited him to come to church on Sunday. So he was at church last week, and then we went over there on Wednesday. He was in a hurry to get to one of his classes, so he put his Book of Mormon on the chair and walked inside, so Hna Matias looked at it really fast. He had read the WHOLE thing and marked it up SO much! Come to find out, he has read the whole Book of Mormon multiple times, and in English too. He asked us if he could be baptized the following Friday (August 30). We said yes of course he could, and went to work things out with Hno Delgado with talks, etc. I cannot explain the excitement he has for this work. He wants to be baptized ASAP and wants to serve a mission in the following year. Yesterday, things changed a bit so his baptism will be the 2nd week in September, but still we are all so excited for him. :)

On Friday, we had a devotional with Elder Viñas of the Area Presidency. It was such an amazing experience! We got to sing I Know That My Redeemer Lives as a special musical number (Hnas Howell, LaFevre, Cluff, and I) and that went very well! I love to sing. :) We talked about the Atonement of Christ, and how it affects us individually in our missions. We were asked to study that subject this past week, and I learned so much, but I wanted to share a couple thoughts. I was stumped on where to start... The Atonement has such a huge impact in my life every single day, but how does one put that into words? I started reading D&C 4 about missionary work, and all of the attributes there are the in the Attributes of Christ section in Preach My Gospel. We are all called to the work, if we want to follow the example of our Savior. Something that Elder Viñas said was that if we effectively utilized the Atonement in our lives every day, we couldn't help from sharing this Gospel. Sometimes we have doubts, but these doubts are thoughts of the natural man. The only thing that stops us from sharing this gospel is ourselves; all we need to do is open our mouths. :) That was an interesting thought to me. Also, I couldn't help think about prayer being such a huge part of the effects of the Atonement. It is only through the name of our Savior that we can talk with our Heavenly Father. Just some food for thought. :)

Now to answer a couple of questions, and then I'll be off for the week! So the conversion story of Hna Matias' family! (So sorry, Dad! I keep forgetting!) Her uncle joined the church and went on a mission. While he was gone, his WHOLE family joined, including Hna Matias´dad. Then he met her mom and she wasn't a member, but they got married and had Hna Matias and when she was 4 years old, her mom joined the church and they went to the temple to be sealed, and she has 2 little siblings. So that is her story! It's pretty incredible how her uncle going on a mission had such an eternal influence on her whole family. :) The power of a small leap of faith... :) With the ward going to the temple in a couple weeks, they are getting so excited and doing LOTS of family history. We are helping with those efforts by answers questions and helping get others that can't go involved in different ways. The youth are also going, and Pia might be going as well. She hasn't made a definite choice yet, but it is a large chunk of money too, so she might be going in the following trip. But she is very excited, so that is so much fun to see. :) Also with the language, I feel confident in speaking mas o menos, and if people don't understand what I'm trying to say, I know enough these days that I can reword it and then they help me out the rest of the way. :) Or Hna Matias translates into something more understandable. :P She's had 4 North Americans as companions so far. And she's only been out for almost 6 months. So she's pro these days at translating broken spanish... :P

I think that's all for this week! I'm so glad that things at home are going so well and that school has started back up well! It's so crazy to think that when I left you all were just finishing school, and now you're ALREADY started back up! TIME FLIES!!! Love it. :D I love this gospel, and I know with all of my heart that it is true. I know I am here in Chile to share the gospel, and that I have been called by a living prophet through revelation in these the latter-days. The work is hastening so quickly, and we ALL have a job to do! I love you all so much, thank you for your love, support, and continued prayers. I know that our Savior, Jesus Christ lives.

All my love,
Hermana Tuft
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Hello Mom and Dad! I'm going to forgo my family note this week, because I want to write all the siblings back separately. :) So here's a quick little note to you both! :) Thank you for all the news and stories from this week! And the pictures!! I get all the pictures, and they don't take time away to upload at all, so don't worry about that Mom. :) I have plenty of time for everything. :) The bathroom is SOOO different BUT it looks so great and I LOVE the shower curtain. :) I hope that most the questions you both asked were answered in the main letter! But a couple other answers... :) Yes I use my orthotics every single day. In the MTC, I didn't use them all day, but I do here because my feet have adjusted well. :) Yes, Hna Matias is taller than me. :P Yes, she is pretty tall! Hahaha but I laughed at the short joke comment. :P Thank you both for the info on Megan Walker's farewell! Tell her to just love this last week. It flies by sooo darn fast. :) BUT she is going to be such an amazing missionary. I am so excited for her! ALSO PLEASE TELL MIRANDA A PERSONAL HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HER FROM ME!!! But tell her I love her loads and miss her guts and I wrote "Miranda Danda's birthday" in my planner for Saturday. :P

Also, if I have a choice I always drink water, but otherwise yes I drink Fanta or Coke. (This is so random, SO sorry.) But Dad, yes I was in that Sunday School lesson with Brother Caron a couple years ago about the birthright. I love that thought. It's so sad to see people "sell their birthright," but we can do our part and every day choose to follow the Savior and therein keep our birthright. Also, thank you for your thoughts on my empanada lady. :) I'll keep that in mind and see what we can work out. We don't pass by there as much these days, but every once and a while. :) Also, I printed everything last week and forgot to print the parable of the keys, so I printed it this week and will be reading it this week. :) Thank you once again!

Also, I loved the thought from Elder Scott. I love keeping the thought in mind that we are all becomings. Also the thought, "Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. That causes your faith to increase and your character to grow." I know that it so true. Thank you for the thoughts and reminders from both of you. :) I do keep a smile on my face and I am so very happy every day. I honestly can't feel sad these days. Sad for other people's choices, but sharing this gospel has made me so happy. I was a happy person before my mission, but that happiness has increased exponentially. :D I love you both so much and I am so continually grateful for your prayers and examples. I couldn't have asked for better parents. Thank you for being my parents and that I can be with you and the rest of the family for all of eternity. I love you so much!

Love from Chile to the sun, the moon, the stars, and back to Utah,
Kristen :D

Faith in His Timing

Hellloooo!!                                           

This week has absolutely FLOWN by!! It seems like they are flying by these days.... Every day is so wonderful and amazing. :) So I don't know how much time I'll have today because I couldn't print this morning (more on that later) so I'm typing like a mad woman and hope to get it all in! :P

So this week I have gained such a strong testimony on faith in the Lord's timing. Our view of timing is so warped and messed up, but the Lord's timing is perfect and we HAVE to trust Him. There are many examples of this from my mission so far, but this story is by far the "craziest" for lack of a better English word... (That's a great sign.... :P)

So two weeks ago we got a reference from a lady (Hma Luz) who's visiting her sister for about 2 months. Her sister lives in our sector, and she is attending Zapahuira for the time she's here. Her sister (Sara) is not a member, and so we went over there 2 weeks ago. Anywho we went over to Hna Sara's house and her son and his family was there and we shared the Restoration with them, but Hna Sara wasn't there for most of it. Later, we found out why she kept leaving; her husband has been sick in bed for 6 months, and he can't move or walk at all. She lives in her house and has been taking care of him with minimal help for 6 months... So Hna Luz came up from Santiago to help her sister and that's how we got the reference. Hna Luz joined the church years ago, served a mission, and now lives in Santiago with her daughter. So we went back a few times and shared with Hna Sara. It was hard, because she didn't believe that God loved her and was doubting that He even existed... So that was a struggle to explain and we prayed and prayed for her that she would know how much our Heavenly Father loves her. On Tuesday, we visited her and Hna Luz asked if we could call the Elders because she explained to her brother in law (Juan) about the Priesthood, and he said that he wanted a blessing from the Elders. He kept saying, "Where are the Elders?" Over and over and over... It was so sad to hear, because it was more of a whisper. He was so sick... So we called the Elders and they came and gave him a blessing, and then afterwards Hna Luz asked Sara if she wanted one as well, of comfort. She said she did (which is a HUGE deal!!!). So we left for the night, and set up an appointment for later in the week. We had a feeling on Wednesday to stop by, so we walked over there and I hollered "halo" kinda loud and then we peaked in the door and there were a bunch of people and a coffin... Juan had passed away 3 hours after he received the blessing... It was such a sad, but peaceful moment. Hna Sara was so sad, but she told us how grateful she was that he wasn't in pain any more and that she felt so peaceful about it all. We are going back again tomorrow (she said that she didn't want visitors for the rest of the week because she was going to recuperate and Hna Luz is there, so we'll go back for the first time tomorrow.) We're praying for her, and hope she will recognize the Lord's hand in it all. I will keep you posted!

As for the rest of our investigators, they are doing well, but we're struggling to work with their schedules because everyone just started school back up again a couple weeks ago. So we're working with that and it's been a struggle. We had a bit of a hard time getting in touch with Daniela and Lucia, and every time we went over there, their mom was really harsh and rude with us, and we didn't know what we had done to make her mad at us... Come to find out, she was mad because they got back from church later than she was expecting, so we started talking with her and helped her clean her house, and now she's super friendly and wants to start sharing with us too! YAY!! It's amazing what a little communication will do for ya... :P We don't have any baptismal dates set yet, but hopefully we can work on that this week. It's going to be a crazy week, so we'll see!

As for working with Simil (the ward list of 31 pages), we've had a lot of success with that! We're working on reactivating, and in the processing, we're working with a lot more families and most of their kids & spouses aren't members. So that has been fun to see! The gospel truly is for families and it really can change people's lives, if they will let the Atonement work in their lives and make the necessary changes. As for the family history in the ward, it's going great! The ward is going to Cochabumba, Bolivia in September, so they are getting names and such together so they can do their family's work. We've loved hearing their enthusiasm, and we're still working on a way that we can help with that enthusiasm, but haven't been too successful so far... Lots of studying and prayer. :)

And as for the area we cover, it's pretty big, but we split it with the Elders, so they have half and we have the other half, so that's cut some of the walking down which is a blessing for the little feetsies. :) (But my feet are doing great Mom. :)) The streets are the big problem! Tons of the streets are numbers (Pasaje 1, 2, 3, etc) and every time they build another block of homes, they start over with 1, 2, 3, etc... So there are about a million Pasaje 1, 2, 3, etc's. :P Makes things a little bit difficult. :) But other than that, it's fairly easy to work with!

I'd better be going, but I just want to wish my little MWalk (Megan Walker) luck this week with her talk! You'll do so great and I'm so excited for you!! Send me your email and mission address when you get it! Love you cute girl! I love you all so much, and it sounds like although things are SUPER hot there, that you are all doing great!

Lots of love!!
Hermana Tuft
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Hello mi Familia!

Congrats Jess on your Graduation!!! :) I'm so happy for you! :D And it was SO great to hear from Spencer and Lindsay!! :) I will write you both back next week, I think... :) Good luck with starting school, I know you will have a great time, just remember to smile and find the good in every situation! I can't believe Spencer is a Senior and Lindsay is in 9th grade!!!! Holy SMOKESSS. So excited for both of you. You are in two of my favorite years. I have so many memories of those years! :D Let me know how things go! When does school start back up for Kyle?? I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your love and support and everything you all do for me, even from thousands of miles away. :) Have a FANTASTIC week for me!! :D

Lots of love,
Kristen

P.S. The reason why I couldn't print this morning was because I went to Lluta (Yuta) with Hna Jessica and she taught us how to make empanadas! SOOO I'm very excited to make them for you when I get home... :) Lotsss of time to go still, but all the time to improve my chef skills so they will be perfect when I make them for you all! :P I´m so excited to share. :D LOTS of love. :)
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Hello Mom and Dad!

This will be short, but I just wanted to write you a quick note to finish answering your questions. :) Dad, we had quite the experience with the empanada lady that I was going to share with you last week, but didn't get the chance! We were walking to an appointment, and passed their house and they weren't selling them that night for some reason. Her husband was sitting outside, so we started talking to him, and come to find out he was VERY drunk and I had no idea... (Yes, I have grown up in Utah my whole life and am learning lots....some that I would be fine not learning, but oh well. :P) His wife was in their house, so we went in for a short little visit with her, but as soon as we got in the door we got the WORST feeling ever and couldn't leave fast enough... It reminded me of the book we read together Return From Tomorrow, how all the spirits were trying to get into the bodies of those that were drunk in that bar... It was such an awful creepy feeling that we haven't gone back... It's sad, but we can't teach them anything if there is that kind of spirit there... We can invite them to church and continue to be friendly, but I feel like that's the extent of what we can do at this point... :( Thank you for the thought from Elder Scott, Dad, I love reading those! And thank you for sending the story! I printed it so I can read it later. :) And I'm glad to hear that you are headed back to NM!! Please keep me posted with how things go. I will be praying for all of you. Tell Elder Davies hello for me!

Also, I will definitely give Mamita a hug for you, Mom! She is such an amazing lady, and has been my mom away from home here in Chile. :) Every morning she has breakfast ready for us (bread, jam, and hot chocolate/strawberry milk/things like that) and makes us lunch and always puts something in our study room for us when we get home at night. :) She is an amazing lady and says to tell you all hello every week, (but sometimes I forget!) So hello from Mamita Tita! :) I was dying laughing at Lindsay's pinterest experiment... :P Tehehehe I can just imagine how that one turned out. :P And thank you for writing Sage and Sierra! Sage wrote me. I love you both SOOO much and I hope all is well. I love hearing from both of you every week, and I hope I answer everything/give enough details and such. :) Time is flying by and I love this work. It was so much harder in the beginning, but every day I seem to be more and more lost in the work and love it more and more. :) I am growing so much and I know that this is where I am supposed to be right now. Thank you so much for teaching me this gospel and helping me gain my own testimony. I love you!!! :D

Your little Chilena,
Kristen :D

Photos!!!

Pia with her family on her baptism day 3 August 2013

Hermana Kristen eating her carrusco and coke!

Hermana Matias, Pia at her baptism 3 August 2013, and Hermana Tuft in Arica

I AM IN CHILE!!!

Hellooo all!!

I know it's a little crazy, but I have these moments of INSANE happiness, and right now is one of those moments. So bear with me. :) And I know I've been in Chile for a whileee now, but I just get so excited that I'm here and that life is so great and that the work is EXPLODING. More or less. :D It's just such an exciting time to be alive, and we all have SOOO much to be grateful for. Honestly, please take a moment to think about all that you have been blessed with. Because at the end of the day, we have two choices: We can be miserable and think of all the things that went wrong that day, or we can turn the table around, and look at all the GOOD! Because the good will always exceed the bad. ALWAYS. Just think of all the movies where it seems like the villian will win, but in the last 5ish minutes the tables turn and there's the hero on top. That is YOU. But you have to just keep pushing through and trying your hardest. :)

ANYWHO. So this week has been absolutely incredible. We have been so very blessed once again here in Zapahuira. I have a couple stories to share and questions to answer so I will get started!

We have been working a lot with the church records("Simil") to find all the inactive members. I think I mentioned that last week, but that's been filling our "spare time" :) this week. :) It's so great because most of the members have been inactive for years (that part isn't so great) BUT they now have families that we can share the gospel with and that means they can work towards the temple! That is the great part. :) So I will keep you posted with that. ALSO we have a new goal in our mission to find at least 1 person/family per day. The goal is to have an "investigator pool" of 10 or more progressing investigators constantly. That's a high goal to set, but it's possible. So that's what we've been working towards. :)

This week we found a new investigator named Carla. She's 16 and has a 2 month old baby, and lives at home with her mom and her sister. This story of finding her was a miracle in and of itself. We had just gotten out of a lesson before lunch, and because we split the sector it takes about 10 or 15 minutes to walk back to the house. It was 1:10 and lunch is at 1:30. So we were walking back and we turned onto a random little street (called pasaje's here) and let's get something straight: I hate knocking doors. I don't know a missionary that likes it, but I definitely hate it. I feel like it does little good most of the time, but for some reason I walked up to a door, knocked suddenly, turned to Hna Matias and said, "Vamos hacer contactos por 5 minutos." And right then Carla opened the door with a huge smile on her face! That for one caught me by surprise, so I was a little stunned and said hi we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and can we share a short message with you? She got excited and said of course, but to come back at 4. So we went back and shared the restoration with her, and asked her to offer the closing prayer and I kid you not she literally bore testimony of the restoration in her prayer. It was the most sincere, heart-felt prayer. So that was Saturday and she said she wanted to come to church with us so we went to pick her up on Sunday morning and....her mom came out and told us Carla couldn't go because they are all Catholic and don't want another religion in their lives, especially us.... So that was a bit of a shocker and a downer BUT we will keep praying for her and go back sometime this week hopefully. :) One thing I've learned is to NEVER give up on anyone. :)

And that leads to my other story! Remember Fabiola and Jorge? Fabiola and Julieta are sisters and we've been sharing with them for about a month or a little more. Jorge and Fabiola are living together, but have plans to get married next year.... They always say they will come to church, but never can when Sunday rolls around... So this week we invited them to be baptized on the 24th of August, and they said they want to be baptized, but they don't feel ready. They said they would pray about it and we could talk about it next time. So we went back and their dad was there and we shared with him too! He has a lottt of questions, but they are all questions that this gospel has answers to...another person that has been prepared... Anywho they said they would come to church with us on Sunday, and we called Julieta on Sunday morning and she said she couldn't go. But then we called Fabiola and she said she was ready! So that was great! She and Jorge came with us!! After Sunday School is of course Relief Society and Priesthood, and Jorge seemed a little leery to go without Fabiola, but he went with Elders Hotvedt and Pizzaro. We met up with them afterwards, and Jorge said to Hna Matias and I that he wanted to talk really quick with us. My heart sank cause I just thought, "Kay this is it, he's going to tell us that he doesn't want to meet with us anymore, etc, etc." He has been leery during this whole process of teaching them. But we went out of the church and he told us his thoughts. He said that before we come he thinks how much he doesn't want to listen, but when we're there he feels so peaceful and wants to learn so much more every time. He said he felt the same thing in the church today, and that he has never felt that before in other churches that he has been to. He said he wasn't sure if he was receiving his answer, or if we could help him know what was going on. I WAS SO HAPPY!!! He talked to us about all of this without any pauses for about 5 minutes, which is huge for him to talk that much anyway. It was such a miracle. We talked about opposition in all things and how he was feeling the spirit, and encouraged him to keep praying and reading, because yes he was receiving his answer.

That was a huge testimony builder for me about patience. Answers don't all come at once. We receive pieces of truth little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept. We have another lesson with them tomorrow, so I am very excited for that.

It was also great, because they were there for Pia's baptism, and also for her confirmation yesterday at church. It was so great because her mom and mom's boyfriend came with her! Her family is opening up more and is more receptive and welcoming when we come over, so YEA!! :)

This week has been so great, and I love it here more and more every day. :D And the great thing is that I'm learning exponentially it feels like....so that is great as well! :) (Spiritually learning, as well as language....) I can understand about 80 or 90% mas o menos and I can speak....less than that BUT I can get my point across for 90% of the time. It's a process, but I feel so blessed. :)

That's all for this week! SUPER long today with stories, but I really wanted to share. :) I love you all and I just want you all to know how much I know this church is true. I know we have living prophets today, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that the complete fullness of the gospel was restored through Joseph Smith, and it all started with an open, faith-filled heart and a prayer. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and I know that he loves us. I know we are children of our Heavenly Father and he is so very aware of our thoughts and desires, but we have to turn it all over to Him. He knows you better than you know yourself. :)

TONS of love from Chile,
Hermana Tuft
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Hello Family!!

Wow that was such a long letter! I loved hearing about your weeks and everything going on at home!! :) I'm also glad to hear that things are cooling down a littlleee bit. Meanwhile here in the desert it is definitely getting hotter. :) And that is a sarcastic happy smiley face, just for the record. :P **IlovethesunIlovethesunIlovethesun.** But in all reality **IhatethesunIhatethesunIhatethesun.** :P It's not super hot yet, but the temperatures seem to be rising. :) Winter here consisted of chilly nights, and hot days. :)

To answer a couple questions! In our church building we only have the one ward, but there is 1 chapel here in Arica that has 2. The mission has about 5 or 6 cities, with 3 or 4 zones each. There are a lot of different little towns in between, but there aren't regular missionaries there, nor chapels, nor branches for the most part that I'm aware of.... Yuta is one of those towns, but it's close enough that there are members that live there that come to our ward. Our ward is the most northern ward in Chile... About 10 or 15 minutes from the Peruvian border... :) We have 10 sisters here in Arica, and 6 in our district. For the most part, each ward in the mission has 4 missionaries, sometimes 6 or sometimes 2. We have Elders working with us in this ward, but for the most part in the mission it's either all sisters or all elders in a ward. We work with the ward mission leader every week, but we don't have ward missionaries yet. We go on splits sometimes with members, but just Sunday mornings to get investigators. And the youth LOVE coming with us to lessons, so that is so great! :)

As for the food, we eat TONS of rice and chicken. TONSSS. Tom told me the exact same thing before I left, but I never realized how much I would be eating it... :) It's all super delicious though! We have a salad every lunch, and breakfast is usually bread with a drink and I usually sneak in a fruit. Dinner is "Once" (pronounced 'own-say') and I love once. It's bread with herbal tea or something called ecco. I love once. :)

I'm so glad to hear that ward conference went well! I've got to go for this week, but I love you all so much and be safe this week and have fun and take lots of pictures!! :D

All my love,
Kristen
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Mom and Dad! I hope I answered all the questions! :) I loved hearing about the new temple video and can't wait to go when I get back! I am either going to the temple the day I get back, or the day after. I honestly miss it so much. And I would love for you both to come with me if it works out that way... :) Really quick! Dad! I think you should go to New Mexico once more. It is a lot of work to get it all put together, but I think you will regret it if you don't and I honestly think there is more to this story that you need... That's just me thinking out loud, but I think there is more, that one more visit could help uncover... Not that you want moreee uncovered, cause it seems like this Peter Shirts story will never end...but I think it will be good. :) Let me know what you work out and such. And I can't remember the story about the keys, so I would love a copy of that if you get a chance... Also! Glad to hear that the Sutterfield wedding went well.  Happy for Nathan! Didn't know that Dixie was retiring! Mom! You're painting my room?! What color?? Pictures are always great so please send lots! :) And what are you doing in the bathroom?? Tell Mrs. Crockett hi for me, and have a great couple days with Singers! Also, Taylor Williamson wrote me a quick note, but thank you for keeping me posted on that! :) If you remember, she is going on a mission to Canada speaking Spanish. :) And Kenna did too so that was fun to hear from her! She sounds so great! How's Megan Walker feeling these days?? Getting ready these last couple weeks?! I'm so darn excited for her. :D I've got to run, but I love you both soooo very much and I think of you often, and I look at myself in the mirror for each of you every day, with a smile. :) I'm sending a HUGE hug in this email too, just so you know. :) Thank you for being my parents, and thank you for your emails and prayers and constant support. :D
All my love,
Kristen

The weeks literally FLY by!

Hello all!!

I honestly don't know how this happens, but every Sunday night I think to myself....WHERE HAS THIS WEEK GONE?! In such a wonderful way though! :) I love every minute and the language is coming and I feel so very blessed to have this opportunity!!

I have a confession to make..... So normally I write down things from the week in my planner that I want to share....but this week I didn't write a single one.... So we're goin' from memory here, and that's a little sketchy for those of you that know I have a horrible memory. :) Tehehe whoops. :P

SO this week was amazing. We have had great success, and I have learned SOOO much from Hna Matias. She is an angel. :) I love how Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need when we need it even if we don't know it ourselves... If that makes any sense. :) We're working a lot with the ward to get things in order a bit more. We finally split the sector (which apparently has been a rule since March, but no one split this ward so we've just been working in the whole thing...) It is a little hard cause we can't visit the members in the other half of the sector anymore...but it'll be good to get to know other people as well. :) When you split a sector, you split all the members, the converts, the places where you tract, etc. So hopefully that can maybe clear things up a little bit....?

Saturday was kinda a crazy day. It started out so peacefully, everything for the baptism was in order, etc, but then 4 o'clock rolled around and things went crazy... The Elders were supposed to meet Hno Delgado at the chapel, but he didn't show up so they started to fill up the font and then went for another appointment. So Hna Matias called them to see how things were and they said they were great and not to worry. So she asked where they were and they said in an appointment, but they were supposed to be at the chapel with the font filling up.... Anywho we all but ran to the chapel, and the font was about 6 inches full and it takes about 2 hours to fill and by now it was 5 and we had an hour before it started and it was super dirty and such. Anywho needless to say I panicked a little and started talking in English and Hna Matias just looked at me...and smiled. Poor girl. Sometimes I forget where I am and that she doesn't speak English. :P So we cleaned things up and got the font filled and things were great. :) It literally was a miracle though because the font started filling super fast, which has never happened. :) Miracles I tell you. Every single day.
Pia was so excited and we were so excited for her. She had a school thing on Sunday, so unfortunately she couldn't be confirmed this Sunday, but next Sunday she will be. And she literally is counting the days. :) She is so great. :) We also had 4 investigators that could attend the baptism, so that was wonderful! Fabiola, her pololo Jorge, Julieta, and her pololo Hernan came. We found out this week that Jorge lives with Fabiola. Which is a problemo that we'll have to resolve.... But Hna Matias overheard Fabiola tell Jorge after Pia got baptized that she felt so good and wanted to be baptized too!! SO that's this week's goal: get them married, baptized, and to the temple. :) Prayers on your behalf would be so greatly appreciated. :) Otherwise, we're still finding investigators, and I'll keep you updated with that next week! :)

Okay! More on Hna Matias! She is from Huanuco, Peru and has 2 younger siblings, and of course her parents. :) They are all members, and her grandparents as well. They were the first ones to join in their family, so yes I just realized I should ask her how they met the missionaries. :) More on that next week. :) (Huanuco is close to Lima for all you that had no idea, like me. :)) This is her first time being sr comp, but she's doing great with that and we have no problems and get along so great and laugh and talk lots, which is wonderful practice for me. :)

Dad!! GUESS WHAT WE FOUND OUT?! So with our empanada lady...she and her husband are members that were baptized 15ish years ago, but of course are not active because of work on Sundays, so we're going to visit them and see what we can do to get them to church again. :) That was very exciting. :) We asked for a list of all the members in our ward on Sunday, so we can start visiting all of them for references and reactivation and such...and 31 pages of people later.... :) We're going to be very busy. :) I'm guessing that about 20 or more of those pages are less active members... Referencias!!! :D It should be good. :)

I´d better be going for now, but I love you all TONS and thank you for your constant prayers and encouragement. I appreciate it all so much. :) I know this church is true and that we are so very blessed to be alive in these the Latter Days. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. I have the wonderful opportunity to testify of that every single day. I know that President Monson is a prophet of God. I also know that Jesus Christ died for all of us, because He loves each one of us so very dearly. How very blessed we are to have this gospel in our lives.

Until next week!!!

Love,
Hermana Tuft
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Hello Fam Bam!

It sounds like you all are doing so great!! I loved hearing about the weekend up in Cache Valley, with the Family Reunion, and boating, and Juanito Bandito! I am so looking forward to seeing that when I get home. :D And the Mister Party Pooper Pants made me laugh so hard. :) He stole it from me, I'm telling you... :P AND SPENCER SINCE STINKIN' WHEN DID YOU GET YOUR BRACES OFF SPEAKING OF MISTER STINKER PANTS!!!!! I saw that picture and about freaked....CAUSE YOUR BRACES ARE GONE WHAT IN THE WORLD!!! So there you go my little freak out moment over email. :P I would love to hear about Timberline, and Lindsay about your escapades in Idaho & your whole nose ordeal (glad to hear it's healing well), and how was Washington, Kyle and Jess??? :) That's so exciting that graduation is coming up as well! :) Also Lindsay, do not worry. It took me forever to get up on the surfboard too, when I went last summer with the Schmidts, so it must run in the family. :) So fun though. :)  (Although Spencer didn't get his braces off...)

I love you all so much and I honestly can't say that enough. I wish I could give you all a great big HUG every single day, but alas that will have to wait a few more months/yearish. :) I love it here. Every day has it's ups and downs, and the language is coming slowly but surely, but at the end of the day when you look back, there is no place I'd rather be and nothing I'd rather be doing. It was crazy to hear that Elder Coats stopped by the house, because it was honestly last week that I saw him... I'm glad he's doing well and adjusting to "life" okay. :) He was SO scared to go home after being here for so long... I hope I won't be "scared," but it will definitely be a little bit of an adjustment. Not much, but a little. :)

I love you!!! I hope all is well, and don't forget to keep laughing and loving life! :D All my love from Chile,
Kristen
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¡¡Hola Papito y Mamita!!

¿Como estaíspo? :) I love you both. Hope you know that. :D I was reading last night in my journal from 2 months ago, and 2 months ago today was when I saw Mom in the temple! :) How the time flies. :) I wish I could respond to all of the happenings there, but I have about no time left! Needless to say, I promise I read your letters and it's usually once more throughout the week. :) So please never write less, because I hate talking to missionaries here and them saying, "Oh the letters will get shorter. Just wait, in a few months it'll be a couple paragraphs." :( So I honestly want to thank you both so much for writing all that you do. I love that you both tell your sides of the stories too, so please continue like you are... :) I know it takes some time, but I appreciate all of it so much. Thank you. :D

So with the money situation! I have yet to use my personal card, because we have a mission one that we take our monthly money out of, but there are some momentos that I want to buy to bring home, so I'll use some of my personal money for that. Nothing too fancy, but everyone tells me that things here in Arica are SO much cheaper than everywhere else in the mission... The regulator pills were the bowel pills Mom sent. :) My health is great, but sometimes it's nice to have that as well. :) I hate this whole eating so much food stuff... That is my continued problem, but all is well and I'm exercising every morning, and with Hna Matias we started going running. :) So thank heavens for that. :)

I've got to run, but my thoughts this week with my studying the Atonement and Faith was this: In Alma 34: 8-10 and 15-18 explained things so well... The Zoramites didn't believe, so they had no access to the Atonement. (Interesting that your lesson was on exactly where I'm reading, Mom!) It says, "He that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice." We just have to exercise our faith to access the Atonement. I have more thoughts written down on that, but that's what I wanted to share! :)

Got to run!! Please tell Patti, Aunt Steph, and Megan thanks for their letters and I printed them off, but I don't have time this week to write them back!! :( Mainly just Megan I feel really bad about, because last week she wrote after I wrote home, and this week I didn't have time. :( Tell her how much I love and appreciate her letters every week though, and that Audrey is growing SOOO fast!!! She's the most adorable little girl ever. :)

I love you both so very very much. Thank you for your love, I don't think I could say that enough ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡LES AMO MUCHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Love your little Chilena,
Kristen :)

HAPPY HAPPY DAY!!!

HELLOOO!!!!

Oh my goodness I have been soooooo excited to write home this week!! I love my mission so much, and I love being able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. His love for all of His children is so evident, and I get to see it up close and personal every single day. This is such an amazing and beautiful experience.

The reason why I'm so darn excited?! So..... PIA IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!! :D She's 13 years old, and we've been working with her for 3 weeks, and she's wanted to get baptized the whole time, but especially after she went to the baptism of Byron last week. She said the sooner the better, and we said GREAT!!!! :D It's kinda a crazy story. She lives with her grandma, because her mom had her when she was 13 and her mom travels to Santiago a lot for work. So her grandma told her she could get baptized, but when we were there last time, her grandma was in the other room and over heard us talking about baptism and told her that she couldn't be baptized yet because she didn't know enough... Which is valid, I mean we haven't met with her grandma and she's just trying to make sure she knows what she's doing... So that was Saturday night, and as we were leaving, she said she would talk to her tonight and let us know in the morning if the 3rd would work. So we got to church JUST as they finished the opening prayer (we had to pick up Lucia and Daniela, who live a long way from the chapel and we just ran out of time...anywho) Pia caught my attention and held up 3 fingers, had a HUGE smile, and mouthed "the 3rd!" DAH! I had the biggest chills ever and so we worked it out right there in sacrament and they announced it at the end. SO! This Saturday, August 3rd we have a baptism at 6 pm if anyone would like to come! :D It's been a great experience, and I honestly cannot describe my feelings. :) Pia hasn't had to make any major changes in her life, but she has so much more light now, from when I first met her. It's so incredible to see that inner change of heart.

So that is the HAPPY news, now for the sad.... Hermana Delgado is headed to Copiapo right now. :( We got transfer calls on Saturday night LATE, and we were sure we would all stay, because President Dalton (and I think this comes from the First Presidency...not 100% sure...) said that he would like us to stay 6ish months in one ward/sector. I'm really excited for that because I think we'll be able to work with the ward better this way, instead of new missionaries every 6 weeks... Anywho! We thought we would stay, but Hna Delgado has been called to Copiapo (20 HOURS FROM HERE HOLY COW) and she'll be a sister training leader there. She's super nervous, and the past couple days have been crazy cause she has so much energy and we were up really late last night while she was packing, and then she headed out at 8:30 am.

So right now I'm with Hnas LeFevre and Howell in Costanera, and we'll hang out for the day at El Morro and the mummy museum in Asapa. Tomorrow morning they'll go with me to the bus terminal to pick up Hna Matias! I'm SO excited to meet her!! She's in Copiapo right now! So they're switching places... :) I'm nervous though because I have to remember all the names of the members and where they live and our investigators and streets and EVERYTHING. Hna Delgado was here for a transfer before me. It'll be good though. :) And plan a baptism.... :P Good thing we have companions, cause this wouldn't work if I was solo... :P All I know about Hna Matias is that she is from Peru also, and that she doesn't speak English as well BUT I'm really excited for that because I feel like I've been learning so much faster with a Latin companion. And Peruvians are so amazing, so I'm really excited. :) I did talk to her for 2 seconds on the phone, but that's it. :) She has 2 more transfers than me, and she'll be finishing my training. It should be great! :)

Also, the story of Mamita joining the church! I keep forgetting to write that home... So sorry Dad!! Her mom was really sick, (this was 20 years ago in Santiago) and her sister was a member here in Arica. Her sister told her that she was going to contact the bishop there so they could give her mom a blessing, and Mamita said that after that blessing she knew this church was true. They moved up here to Arica, and she was baptized 2 months later. To this day, she and her 2 sisters are members, but she has 6 others that aren't members. Her son served in Buenos Aires and got back in January and now is married and living a few blocks away with his wife. Her other 2 daughters aren't members. It's an amazing story of the power of a Priesthood blessing, and such great faith.

I think that's about all for this week! We had a great week, but we're trying to find new investigators right now... I'll keep you posted about Maribel, Daniela, Lucia, Fabiola, and Julieta. :) I know this church is true. There is not a doubt in my mind, and I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father that knows our needs and gives answers to our prayers. What an amazing blessing it is to have this Gospel in our lives. We are so very blessed, and we need only open our mouths to share our testimonies for others to know of it as well. I hope all is well at home, and I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and support. The Lord's work is hastening, and we are a huge part of it. You are all in my prayers!!

All my love,
Hermana Tuft

Hello Family!!

It sounds like you all have kept busy this week! And LINDSAY YOUR NOSE!!! How are you doing?? I'm sorry...I did have a little chuckle when Mom and Dad said that you have two black eyes....so sorry (for laughing and for how painful that must be!!!) Send pictures por favor!! And of the family vacation last week too... :) How was camping with the Decker's Kyle and Jess?? And I hope Spencer has a great time at Timberline! That's so weird....I remember the first time Kyle went, and now this is the last time Spencer will go.... Crazy how time flies!! How are things up in Smithfield Megan & Tom?? Are you headed to Lake Powell in the next couple weeks? And is there a Tyler reunion this year... I haven't heard anything about that so I was just curious... I love you all SOOO much. I miss you like crazy, but there is no place I'd rather be right now. :D I hope all is well and know that I pray for you all every single day. Talk to you soon. :)

LOTS of love,
 Kristen

P.S. I'm just curious....but how long are my letters printed....? Just curious... :P And my camera is on it's way home with Elder Coats who lives near Fillmore and leaves today! So keep your eye out for that! Lots of love!

(Photos posted with permission of those involved to be on Facebook or Blog.)

Hermanas Tuft and Delgado at Lago Chungara 15 July 2013

Hermana Kristen Tuft, Isis, who drew those heart-warming pictures and Hermana Delgado.

Hermanas Kristen Tuft and Ana Delgado and Hermana Jessica in her home in Yuta (prounounced like Utah). They are inside Hermana Jessica's home with no roof and canyon winds and it was FREEZING.

Hermanas Tuft and Delgado being silly with two members.

Tuft family Midway vacation - cups for all! We didn't leave Kristen out. She sings the song "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables" from Les Miserables' and we made it NO EMPTY CUPS, at least not forgotten. :)

Hermanas Kristen Tuft and Ana Delgado leaving for Kristen's first area, Arica, Chile!

Hermanas Tracy Bruce, Kristen Tuft, Ana Delgado, and Presidente Leland Bruce.