Week 44 - My 20th Birthday and Christmas!! Lots of Skype pics too!

Our packages! (well a few of these are empty boxes we have had for awhile haha)

What's up guys??!

Well this week’s been awesome!! We had a Christmas conference and then Christmas plus New Year’s is right around the corner! This week Elder Curtis and I tried really hard to get some new investigators from finding but we pretty much came out empty handed but… we've definitely planted some seeds which in my eyes is just as good! We had a less active member let us come over and teach the family he lives with and we saw something amazing in him during the lessons so we can't wait to go back and follow up!

It's FREAKING COLD HERE! I love it!! Like seriously way better than that 80-degree hotness we had on Christmas! :p But if there was that rain game going on right now it would ice up like crazy!! It kind of reminds me of home and stuff so it's really good :) It was so amazing being able to talk to my family on Christmas they've all grown so much it's crazy to me! I miss them so much and they mean everything to me. I can't wait to see them when I get home :) I got some awesome gifts from them and from others too so thank you so much to those who thought of me! It REALLY meant a lot! It's crazy this month’s come and gone! I'll hit a year in no time!! We went caroling this past week and it was so awesome to see some of these people’s faces when we'd just show up! And we sang them in Spanish! Oh and my birthday was on Wednesday and we had a Christmas conference with the whole mission! It was a ton of fun! I saw a ton of my favorite missionaries and just had a good time. We went to this lady's house and I had an experience I won't ever forget it was pretty great hahah!. Then we met up with our recent convert Suamy and went to this winter wonderland light thing they have here… it was okay hahah. That's pretty much how my weeks gone.

 Love y’all lots! Merry Christmas and happy New Years!

~Elder Tidwell

Some Birthday love...

Thanks to everyone for the cards and stuff!

The Winter lights display!!

Elder Curtis and I.

Yes...we are in dinosaur eggs!

Us with Suamy.

My little tree with my presents around it that my family sent!!

A familiar face from home!

Just catching up with Sis. Soto and Sis. Pinster

Elder P!

No hugging...so a handshake had to do.

One last pic with Sis. Pinster!

My Christmas eve pj's from my parents!!

Gingerbread houses!

My terribly old mattress....

Words From Mom...

I just wanted to say a quick little something about what a wonderful time we had Skyping Tristin on Christmas! Definitely our highlight for the day! He looks and sounds great! We had a lot of laughs and got to hear all about how he is doing. I thought I would include some pictures from our Skype...We had a short little Skype in the morning but since he had a district meeting we scheduled our time with him for in the evening. They didn't have anywhere to go for dinner on Christmas so ended up eating at Jack in the Box but he didn't seem to mind. He looked very happy. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and hope you have a very happy New Year, filled with lots of love and laughter!

Our quick family photo from our Christmas morning Skype!

He opened a couple of the presents we sent!

Portland sunglasses ;)

Me (mom) getting to say hi one on one during our Skype in the evening!!

Jenna chatting with T

Jillian taking her turn to say hi!

Jace giggling away with his big brother!

Kaleb talking with T, filling him in on his current video games he is playing.

Kylie...trying to stay strong and not cry...

But it was just to much...she was able to calm herself down enough to talk with him though! :)

Dad getting a few minutes to talk face to face.

Us with our boy! Until Mother's Day....let the countdown begin!!!

Week 43 - A new area and getting ready for Christmas!!

These wheels are everywhere here!! 

Well guys this week has been great!!

We had transfers and sadly I got taken out of my area but I just got moved down the road to another area that's really close! My comp is Elder Curtis and we've had an awesome week and have gotten so much stuff done in this ward!! I'm really excited to see how this transfer goes! So there's a member here that we hang out a ton with and he goes to lessons and his name is Suamy. He's the one in the picture with me in my ugly sweater haha.

We've had an awesome week and have meet a ton of new people! Our district is really chill and they're a ton of fun! On Thursday we knocked on a ton of doors which usually sucks a bit, I hate knocking. But... we had a butt ton of fun doing it and made like a ton of jokes, it was awesome! We knocked this one door and it was pretty dark outside and when I looked down I saw this figure and was like what the heck is that? Elder Curtis like waved his foot in front of it and it moved! We figured out it was this baby kitten hahah.

On Friday we had district meeting and we actually played a super fun game and learned a ton about the temple and its importance in our investigators lives and in our own lives as well. It's such an amazing place where we truly can come closer to our Heavenly Father and learn more and get answers we need.

I'm so excited for Christmas! It's going to be so great to finally talk and see my family again! I've missed them a lot and I know it's going to be awesome to see them! I hope you all have a great Christmas this year and I hope it's one you all remember! :)

Love you lots! I'll talk to ya next week!
Love Elder Tidwell

A flag of Mary!

Some Christmas decor from the local neighborhood!

Pizza biscuits that I am perfecting...so good! 

A cool bridge we found

The river beside the bridge

Me and my comp

The ward Christmas party

Me and Suamy

Week 42 - Such a great week!!

Hi Y'all! What's up!

This week was pretty great! On Monday we hung out with some other missionaries and then played a pickup game of soccer with one of the members of their ward and a whole bunch of guys that were already playing. We sucked... well except for the member and Elder Curtis hahah! I mean let's face it... we're as white as you can get hahah! But win or lose we still had a really good time. Then Tuesday we helped out with Project Saving Smiles again! It was awesome as always! When we were driving there though we like drive straight into a wall of fog it was crazy hahah.

Wednesday we went to the temple and that was such an amazing experience I loved going there and I can't wait to go again. Afterwards we saw our mission president and of course we had to take some pictures with him! We then went to see the Benitez family and hung out with them for a little bit then they told us they were getting sealed in the temple! It was so awesome to hear that! We'd really wanted them to do it and they decided all on there own to do so! :)

Thursday we went back to Project Saving Smiles and finished up. It was such an awesome opportunity to spend time with the other workers and volunteers. The kids came out with some awesome stories and some new friends.

Friday was when things got a little crazy! I woke up and had the worst pressure in my sinuses and the biggest headache I've ever had! On top of that we had zone meeting and I felt so sick again and my face was just like on fire! Hah but we definitely had a fun time and then left as soon as we could hah. One thing that definitely drove me nuts is when someone at the meeting told me that I can't rest or anything when I'm sick. I have to continue the work. I kind of paused for a moment and thought about what to say when it kind of just came out as it's seems like a good idea to get better then to force something and get others sick. It kind of drove me nuts like of course I'm going to get better before I go to work. It's better to be at 100% and give my all then only be at 50% and only be able to give 50% there you know? Hah needless to say I took a long deserved nap when I got back home. (Btw...I am feeling much better now)

The sealing for the Benitez family was on Friday also which we really wished we could have been there for but we got to be at the reception at their house and it was so awesome! They looked so happy :)

Saturday we went contacting a ton and met a bunch of new people! Then at the end of the day we went to say hi to one of our favorite families, the Pinedas and invited them to church and they actually came! After church on Sunday the sisters had a baptism and then we had a little church get together after and ate a bunch of food and played a little soccer with the kids in the gym. Don't know if I was supposed to do that, but we did hahah.

And that's pretty much how my week's gone!

Love you guys! Thanks for checking in!!
~Elder Tidwell

P.S. Found out that I am getting transferred, just don't know where yet!

Elder T in the background

I love this place!

My zone

J and his sister! I seriously love these guys!

Santa selfie!

Yeah and there is this! haha