Leave that snake skin behind!

My dear family,

     Hello hello! Another week here and gone, and wow what a week it was! There were so many ups and downs and I learned so much!

So this last week, a member of the ward (her name's Shayla) got back from her mission to Tallahassee. She's come out to a few lessons with us and she's just fantastic! One in particular was a cool experience. We had planned on seeing someone, (with Shayla coming with us) but they were sick, and so we went and tried another girl who hadn't been to church in a while. Turns out that the girl that we were visiting was one of the first people to introduce Shayla to the church! So the roles were kind of reversed and Shayla was able to reconnect with her too. We had no idea that they knew each other! 

      I don't know if y'all know about "Find, Take, Teach" but it's something that our stake has been asked (but rather, told) to do. So, this past week, Sister Matheson and I were able to go to the family history center a few times this week with a couple members. One of them was our recent convert, Kat, and that was really special to see her finding her ancestors and requesting the ordinances for them. I had such a fire and craving to do family history before my mission, and it has kind of died down, but I realize that it's only because I haven't been able to do it! Family history is amazing. It's one of the most effective ways to do missionary work ;) of course, that's not the kind of missionary work that I've been called to do right now, so it has to wait just a little while longer for me to dive in deep. But I can't wait! Something that never occurred to me before is to look on Family Search and to look through the memories and stories of my ancestors. They're amazing! It's incredible to be able to know your ancestors as more than just a name on a screen.

We had zone conference this last Friday, and it was all about repentance. President Heap taught us about how repentance isn't as scary as we think it is. It's not supposed to be a punishment or torturous thing. Repentance is simply, change. It's changing from the person we are now or were in the past, and leaving that behind in search of something new. It's like a snake skin. You get rid of your old self and then move on and never look back--you wouldn't fit into it again anyway ;) 

       Ooh, another update, so apparently I'm the only Spanish speaking sister missionary within a 2 hour radius of Lubbock, so I've been asked (or rather, assigned) to teach an investigator in Brownfield who specifically requested sisters, and she doesn't speak a lick of English!! I have no idea how to cope with this tremendous challenge right now, but all I know is that when the Assistants asked me, I felt a confirmation from the Spirit telling me that this needs to happen. I'll keep y'all updated!

Random thought, I just realized that I never told y'all what we do every day! Well, here it is:
6:30-wake up (unless we have morning sports, then we wake up @ 6)

-Exercise

7- get ready

8-personal study

9-Companionship study

10- 12 week (new missionary training)

11-lunch :)

12- either language study or we go out and work

5-dinner :)

8-language study (if we didn't do it earlier)

9-come in and plan

10:30- go to bed :) (I think that might be my favorite part of the day--you just can't get enough sleep as a missionary!)

I love y'all so much!! Have a fantastic week!

Love, Sister Tycksen

We got this picture from this senior couple--they serve with these sweet sisters and last night--January 18th--they took this picture at a YSA FHE and sent it to us.  LOVE IT!!!!