Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:14:33 -0600
Subject: Re: Week #7
From: brittney.tidwell@myldsmail.net
To: callitidwell@hotmail.com

Moommmm,

So I learn something new every week, this week i learned how to flush a toilet with a bucket. Because our water in our apartment randomly ran out...yeah that happens in mexico apparently. There isnt just an endless supply of water all the time like in the US. So my laundry bucket was not only my laundry bucket but also my shower and my toilet flusher. Who knew there were so many uses for a bucket. I dont know why we waste so much money on a water bill, buckets are so much cheaper. But now our water is up an running again so that is wonderful!

So in this certain part of our area there are they HUGE hills that lots of people build their little shack houses on and theres just stairs after stairs going up to the different houses up the hills and its seriously like climbing the grand canyon everyday. Well one day this week, one very HOT day this week me and my companion were climbing the grand canyon to try to find this less active lady in our ward that hasnt been to church in a long time. Except we didnt really know where she lived so we were going up the stairs and back down over and over again....FOREVER! i seriously felt like i climbed three mountains and i was all dirty and wanted to stop trying to find this lady because it was taking forever. We didnt know where her house was because in mexico, they dont really have a good house address system. They just write the number of the house on the side of their house with a sharpie marker... so it was pretty difficult. So finally we found the ladys house and she is the sweetest and most kind lady i have ever met. My companions feet have been swelling up lately because of the heat and this lady, who didnt even know us until that moment, got a bucket of water and totally washed and massaged my companions feet and put lotion on them and everything. As i was sitting there watching her wash my companions feet i just thought to myself, this lady is the definition of Christlike love for people. I mean how many people do you know that are willing to wash a total strangers feet??? Anyways this lady goes on to tell us that she doesnt go to church because everyone at church is mean to her. it was super sad. By the time we were done talking with her it was dark out and we had to climb down the moutain in the dark, so that was pretty fun.

And guess what, on Sunday, this inactive lady and her whole family came to church! Me and my companion were so glad! It reminds me of the scripture Jeremiah 16:16, thats exactly how my life is. And this experience just showed me how important each person is to God, important enough that he sends his missionaries to climb mountains and look in caves and holes of the mountain to find them.

So another Awesome thing happened this week...,. i found a mariachi band! a REAL mariachi band!!!! AND THEY SANG LA BAMBA!!!! and they said i could join their mariachi band after my mish. THE CHURCH IS TRUE! I knew i was sent to Mexico for a reason. Hopefully by the end of my mission my gringo accent will be gone so i can sound authentic in the band.

So another thing about Mexico....they LOVE coca cola. They drink it like water. Like seriously, you have no idea how many times i have asked for water and gotten a huge bottle of Coke instead. I never really liked Coke but i guess i do now because around here, Coke is life.

And Mom, dont worry too much about the wires here. Yeah the electical stuff here isnt very good....but ill be ok. And its a mission rule not to go on any roofs for that reason. Its so weird because here everyone just seems to do their own stuff, like we were talking to this man outside his house and we asked him if he wanted to have a lesson with us and he said that he couldnt because we was putting his water pipes in and we look over and there was this huge hole in the ground going to his house. I hope he knows what he is doing! haha.

I think tha language is starting to come. i can understand the basic topic of what people are saying to me so thats a blessing. I will try to do the costco thing but i cant until i get permission from my mission pres to get on that website so until then i have to just keep sending my pictures via email.

Well i hope that you have a fantastic weel! love you lots mom, and dont worry too much, Heavenly Father is watching over the little white girl in Mexico.

Love, Bert

p.s. My companion always laughs at me when i try to roll my tongue. I just CANT do it!!!!!

 

---

Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 15:32:17 -0600
Subject: Re: Cuernavaca!
From: brittney.tidwell@myldsmail.net
To: callitidwell@hotmail.com

Mi Mama

Ok let me just tell you a little about Mexico, First of all i have this lovely little apartment above this little store, and the lights do this cool thing where you flip the switch and the light SOMETIMES turns on. And they have weird names for their laundry machines here... they call them BUCKETS...thats right, i get to wash my clothes by hand. I love it!!! Basically i am camping. And thank goodness that it is so hot here, otherwise my freezing cold showers wouldnt be nearly as fun. So if anyone from the ward tries to complain about going to girls camp because they dont like ¨camping¨ , you can just read this email to them.

But really i do like it here a lot. Whenever you teach anyone, they give you these little yellow mangos that are so delicious. Sometimes i put them in my little freezer so i can have a cold snack later when its really hot. Also they like to crush the mangos into this juice-type thing and then pour it over crushed ice like a snow cone, that is also super delicious. And the food here.... SO GOOD!!!! but they serve it to you like you are going to take it home and feed your whole family. They keep on telling me that they need to fatten me up (its one of the only things i undertand in spanish)

So basically I am the only white person around. Like no joke. The only white people i see here are other missonaries, and its only me and my companion in our big area so i basically never see white people. My companion}s name is Hermana Platero. She is awesome and i love her already but shes from El Salvador and doesnt speak hardly any english. Remember how before the mission i would always joke around about how i would have to speak to myself because i wouldnt be able to speak spanish_ ya.... well its TRUEEEE!!!! Remember in the movie Nemo when Marlin is talking to Squirt the little turtle and Squirt is talking super fast and Marlin goes ¨its like hes trying to speak to me, i know it!¨...thats EXACTLY how i feel when these mexicans try to talk to me. i have NO idea what they are saying. and whats even more hard is that most of them dont have hardly any teeth so its even harder to understand what they are saying. I am starting to question whether or not they actually taught me spanish in the mtc. Any another weird thing is that because i am the only white girl around, everyone, especially the men, just stare at me like i am some alien from outter space. Its seriously so weird. they will stop whatever they are doing or turn around completely to stare at me. And im just like.... ¨hola...¨ (cuz thats the only i know how to say)

So the first day of the mission me and my companion were trying to find the house of someone that we have an appointment for a lesson for and we couldnt really find it so we were searching and searching and then right when we found it and knocked on the door, my nose thought that it would be a good time to start gushing blood. It got all over me and all over my books of mormon and pamphlets and ya..everywhere, it was bad. it got everywhere because they dont really have any public bathrooms here so we had no way of getting any toilet paper or anything. So i got to make a great first impression with that investigator with blood all over me and the books of mormon. I think it kind of freaked them out...

So after that we had a dinner appointment at a members house so we showed up...still with blood all over me, mind you, and i sit down at their table and on their table they had this little jar with their giant pet snail in it and i looked over and right next to the dinner table they had this bed with this really old man laying on there...i wasnt sure if he was asleep or dead until he woke up and started freaking out and saying something about how there was a white girl in his house. Thats when i realized that i wasnt in Kansas anymore. 

But yesterday one of our investigators came to church and he said that he really liked it. So thats was awesome! We have a date for him to be baptized next month so i am super excited for that!

The cool thing about mexico is that everyone just sits on the street all the time. They just hang out on the side of the road so its easy to find people to talk to. 

When we arent walking, we are riding the bus. Which is slightly terrifying. The buses here are crazy. They drive at the speed of light and when you want to get on or off the bus you have exactly 2.6 seconds to either jump on or off before the bus takes off. They dont stop for anything. 

Well even though it is super different here, i am so grateful to be here. The people here seriously have nothing. A lot of them live in shacks but they are so grateful and humble and want to give you everything they have and they are so willing to listen. its so awesome. i love it.

Be grateful for what you have because in all reality, we are the ones that are hard to get along with. We are the missionaries that the other missionaries from latin american dont want to be with because we are so rich and stuck up and need everything (like the light switch and toilets) to work all the time. 

 

Well i love you so much mom! have an awesome week and good luck with the garage sale! Hopefully i will be able to learn how to make this delicious food so i can fatten you guys up when i get home. Fat people life is the best.

Love, Bert

 

---

 

---

 

Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 06:49:52 -0700
Subject: Re: Week #3
From: brittney.tidwell@myldsmail.net
To: callitidwell@hotmail.com

MOM!!!!

I LEAVE FOR MEXICO ON MONDAY!!!!!!!!  I get to the airport at around 6ish in the morning on monday and then i have a lay over in Georgia (i dont know why, it doesnt make any sense) from 2-4ish so i should be calling you guys around those times! (by the way can you put more money on my card cuz we are suppose to have $200 for flight fees- i dont think we'll use it but they want us to have it just in case)

 Also i found out that they have this think here where you just put all your stuff in a box that you dont want to take on your mission and you put your name on it and someones phone number and then the people tht work at the mtc call the phone number and that person just comes and picks it up, and they will tell you where to pick it up and all that jazz. So i think i am just going to do that with my coat and some other stuff that i dont want to take. So i'm just gonna put Grandma Tidwell's phone number on there so tell you to expect a call, unless you want me to put someone else number

So the funniest thing happened yesterday. One of the hermanas in my district got these fake mustaches in the mail from her mom so we were trying to find a good use for them so we all brought them to class one day and when my teacher was turned around writing something on the board we all put them on and i went "Hermano Chatterly, I mustache you a question" He turned around and saw that we were all wearing mustaches and just had this look of unbelief! hahaha then he goes "This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me!" hahahha it was AWESOME!!!!! We missionaries have to find creative ways to entertain ourselves here. 

Also another awkward thing that happened this week is that we play volley ball every day and yesterday was the last day we could play (cuz we have to get ready to go to mexico) so we were all playing hardcore and then the couch guy says its the last serve so we all got super intense and the ball was coming over the net and i was thinking "I totes got this! YOLO!' and i jumped up to spike it over the net and it was all in slow motion (because that how intense sports moments happen) and I TOTALLY MISSED!!!!!!!!!!! and my arm got stuck in the net and i heard the ball drop behind me and i turned around and everyone in the whole court was laying on the floor because they were laughing so hard! And then i realized that i was attempted to hit the ball with my left hand and this hermana goes (in between her tears and laughter) "Are you even left handed!?!" 

yeah...it was embarrassing....I defintely didn't inherit your volleyball spiking skills.

So i took a spanish language assessment a few days ago and i acually got a pretty good score on it. i got a 4.75 (7 is a native speaker) but i think it might be rigged because i still feel pretty white and definitely not like I speak spanish very well. So we'll see how it goes when i get to mexico!

I'll get on email a little bit later today for a few minutes since you didnt get the chance to email me back. but i love you! have an awesome week!

Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2014 07:47:11 -0700
Subject: Re: Week #3
From: brittney.tidwell@myldsmail.net
To: callitidwell@hotmail.com

Alright so...this week was also pretty freaking awesome! So... i went to vegas you know for a DAY trip. LONGEST.DAY.OF.MY.LIFE.  I left for the airport at 4:30 AM, and Randy drove us to the airport!!!! i was SO excited!!!! he basically told me his whole life story. His wife is some crazy hick girl who wrestles alligators in florida! NO JOKE!!!! I saw pictures and everything!!!!! Not that I had a crush on Randy or anything, but i was wanting to hang out with him after my mission...but I know that there's no way that's going to happen now! I can't compete with a Gator Wrestling girl!!!! so i get to vegas and get my visas and everything is fine and dandy and then around 2ish we got dropped back off at the airport for our 6pm flight. So i wasnt very excited for waiting in the airport for 4 hours until my plane came....i should learn not to be so ungrateful..... the plane kept on getting delayed and delayed and i didnt end up getting on a plane until 11pm!!! and i didnt get back to the MTC until almost 3AM! I SAT IN THE AIRPORT FOR 8 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by the end of it i was sitting on the floor and just doing my charcoal drawing haha. But a lot of people actually came up to us and asked us about the church and what they were doing. We even gave one lady a book of mormon. Probably not what she expected to get on her vegas trip! haha.

So I pretty much love riding the buses here. Its one of my favorite things to do because the bus drivers are so cool and we have some pretty good conversations about Chia Pets. I also got the "emergency exits" speech down pretty well, the bus drivers even let me get on the microphone and tell it to everyone before we go anywhere so they don't have to. I've done it quite a few times now and i think i finally got it perfected. It goes a little something like this:

"Good Afternoon Hermanas and Elders of the bus. Its a beautiful day for bus driving, but in case it gets not-so-beautiful there are emergency exits all along the windows to my right where the orange bars are. There are also two emergency exits on the top, one in front, one in back. If the bus bursts into flames, please use this fire extinguisher on my right. And if you get a paper cut, there is a first aid kit on my left. Please keep all arms, legs, and companions in the bus at all time and please, no flash photography. On behalf of myself and the bus driver, thank you for choosing us for all your traveling needs and have a wonderful day here at the MTC"

I should probably work at disneyland or something when i get back cuz i think its a hidden talent of mine.

So we got a new investigator this week, her name is Nayella. Our lessons with her are so awesome. She has a lot of questions about the church so its great! My other lessons have been going pretty well too. I leave the MTC in like 11 days!!!!! what.the.heck. I'm still a gringa!!!!! But i'm pretty freaking excited :) 

So the piano player that i like is Paul Cardall. Ask Cameron what music would be good to put on there...im not really sure what other music to put on there, but thank you! I appreciate all the hard work you are putting into it.

Did you ever get the letter i sent you guys?

Have you contacted the missionaries for Kylar yet? 

Well I love you! Have an Awesome week!!!

Love, Bert

Week 3

Hey mom!

SO this week was kind of crazy, On sunday i was sitting there in sacrament meeting and my branch president gets up and announces that Hermana Tidwell is giving a talk in spanish..... yeah that was awkward. I just stared at him like... "umm... WHAT!?" but he just stood at the pulpit and waiting for me to go up there, so yeah i gave a talk in spanish

Basically what i've realized is that in the MTC, right when you think you are prepared and got this thing wired....they make you do something like... give a talk in spanish.

 I made a new best friend! the bus driver! His name is Randy, I told him all about how my grandpa is a bus driver but he doesnt have any teeth but he still likes to eat fried chicken. Randy didnt appreciate me comparing him to my grandpa though. haha but we are still friends. I ride the bus up to main campus for devotional and i sat right behind randy the whole time and talked to him about Chia pets. After devotional we were kind of late so me and the other 7 girls in my district were running to catch the bus back right as it was leaving...so we missed it and we were kind of freaking out cuz we didnt know what to do but then, low and behold, Randy came driving his bus around the corner and i just screaming "RANDY!!! YOU CAME BACK FOR US!!!!!" haha it was so funny, Hermana Corriveau was laughing so hard, she peed her pants...like she literally peed her pants. 

So on monday My whole zone decided that we were going to have a spanish only day, and we couldnt speak english at all. And if someone did speak english they had to carry around La Roca De Verguenza (the rock of shame) and its a HUGE rock....so no one wanted to speak english. So we were going pretty good with not speaking english until gym when we were playing volleyball and my companion got a concussion. Which is an even bigger deal then usual because she has had 4 concussions already that were hospital worthy...so yeah it was bad and we had to go to main campus for a few hours so we could see a doctor.... so that was fun.

On Tuesday Hermana Platt was acting kind of weird, she was wearing her huge winter coat and furry boots and gloves when it was seriously so hot outside,but she kept saying she was cold and didnt feel well and we didnt know what her deal was. But we had to go to main campus for tuesday devotional so we decided that we should probablytake her to go see the doctor just in case, well we get there and guess what!? She was a 104 degree temperature and her heart beat was like way fast! So they had to take her to the emergency room!!! My district is dropping like flies! The poor district leaders have never given a blessing before the mission, and let me tell you, they are definitely pros at it now! haha

So one of our investigatory, Luisa is like this old lady who always falls asleep on us during the lesson. Its super awkward, she just passes out, sometimes when shes in the middle of reading a scripture, she just passes out! So yesterday when we taught her, we made her go for a walk with us so she couldnt fall asleep. haha that lesson went a lot better!

The other investigator that we are teaching is Meagan, this 16 year old girl who doesnt have any friends in highschool....so..its pretty easy to connect with her ;)

So i think thats pretty much all that happened this week for the most part, Time here is weird, its like i cant believe its already Pday again but then when i sit here and try to think of what happened this week, i cant remember what i did, I write it my journal every week so ill remember, and also so i wont go crazy and be like "WHAT DAY IS IT!?"

Haha by the way, Hermana Corriveau hates Pday because every time she just gets a new email of some more of her friends that are engaged haha

Well i hope you are having an awesome week! I sure love you a lot!

I would like my ipod before i leave the MTC though because i think it will probably get stolen if you try to send it to me to mexico. I basically just want piano music (like hyms) and girls camp music and efy music. My favorite hymns are How Great Thou Art and Be Still My Soul.

Love, 

Hermie Tid

P.S. I'm Flying to Las Vegas Tomorrow

 

 

• Brittney Tidwell
  Edit profile details
• Brittney Tidwell
  brittney.tidwell@myldsmail.net
• 
• 
• 
• 

From:	Brittney Tidwell (brittney.tidwell@myldsmail.net) This sender is in your safe list.
Sent:	Thu 2/20/14 9:27 AM
To:	C Tidwell (callitidwell@hotmail.com)

BERT ALERT!!!!!!!!!

So the MTC isnt too bad, I have a lot of fun with the girls in my district. But I hate sitting for sooooo loonngggg. Sometimes i start to just go crazy and start laughing for no reason....i think my district thinks I'm really weird.  The best part about west campus is that everyone over here is going on a spanish speaking mission so everyone talks to each other in spanish. Its kind of awkward though because i am in the habit of saying "Hola, Como Esta!?" to everyone that passes by so when i go to main campus i say that to people on accident and they give me weird looks because none of them speak spanish.

So the spanish is coming, slowly, but its coming. I teach lessons in spanish almost everyday but i usually have notes about the majority of what i want to say but On monday we were all sitting in class and then this teacher walks in and tells us that we have to go to TRC and teach these people who may or may not be real investigators and we have to go in 5 minuntes so everyone starting freaking out. and some girls started crying because we didnt plan anything for it but i was just like "oh well, YOLO!" and the lessons actually went a lot better than i thought. I remembered a lot more spanish than i thought i would which was good because my companion was having an anxiety attack over it! 

The branch presidency always has to have interview with us like twice a week and they always ask me if i am stressed out yet or anything. I'm glad that I learned the concept of Yolo before i left on my mission, because the other girls in my district get SO stressed out over the lessons and stuff and want them to be perfect, and I just plan it the best I can and then just laugh at myself when I say everything completely wrong (which is most of the time). In the MTC you really just have to either cry or laugh because you are always being put in situations everyday that you can't be prepared for and actually make you feel really awkward. 

So the stake president told me that i would be the peacemaker among my companions when i was on my mission even in the MTC and i was not very excited for that, but its definitely happening. I love the girls in my district, they are so awesome. But One of the girls has been having a really really hard time ever since she got here. She seriously has a break down almost everyday. But she talks to me a lot about it and she said that she is glad that i talk to her because she thinks the other hermanas dont like her. So thats been fun. But its ok, She is awesome too, she just doesnt like the MTC very much. 

The best part about the MTC is that they have these super delicious muffins...i have one seriously almost everyday....im gonna get so fat here. Its gonna be awesome. 

Oh! another cool thing is that Elder Holland came to the MTC! he didnt actually give a talk though because his son was the one giving a talk and he just came to watch him but it was still really cool that he was there! It reminded me of when i ding dong ditched Elder Oaks. But i decided to be in the choir when Elder Holland came because everyone said it would be an awesome opportunity, but I pretty much just lip sang the whole time because they only had a spot left for my to be in the sopranos and they sing SO DANG HIGH! It reminded of the scene on Shrek when Fiona sings to the bird higher and higher until the bird's head explodes. I felt like my head would explode any second when I was trying to sing that high-pitched. 

But Elder Holland's son gave a really good talk about Joseph Smith's life and his journey with his family to Palmyra, I guess they were super poor and Joseph Smith got left behind on accident and almost died. I didn't know that before. It was really good though. The devotionals here are THE BEST! 

The best thing about being a missionary is that it feels like I get answers to my prayers a lot more quickly than before. I feel like I have a lot more power to get revelation then before and I love it. We get to role play as investigators sometimes and they are suppose to be based off of real people we know and even though its a role play, the missionaries here are so inspired that I get answers to my prayers about how I could help the actual people that I am acting as when the other missionaries teach me. There are like little miracles that happen everyday. Like I get to eat Tater Tots for breakfast almost every day!

Well thats really cool that you and Janae get to volunteer and the temple every week and that you get to answer people's questions! You are a missionary just like me! :)

Well I love you Mom and I hope you are having an awesome week!

Love, Britt

Hey Mom!

The MTC is pretty weird. I have P-days on Thursdays. It goes back and forth between being really really hard and really really awesome. I basically sit in one room ALL DAY LONG and study, which isn't too bad because I was used to doing a lot of homework at BYUI. The MTC is like a mix between efy, girls camp and BYUI. I am in a district with 8 girls (including me) and no elders. I thought I would hate being around so many girls ALL THE TIME but its actually been really fun. They are some super awesome girls who don't have any drama (except one Hermana, who cries seriously every day *Sigh* *eye roll*) My companera is named Hermana Naut and she is a convert of a little under 2 years. She is awesome and knows so much about the gospel especially for being a convert! The other Hermanas in my district are Hermana Corriveau, Hermana Platt, Hermana Lakin, Hermana Johnson, Hermana Capener and Hermana Peterson. They all pretty much rock. They are all going to Cuernavaca like me except Hermana Lakin, she is going to Scottsdale Arizona! which I'm really sad about because she is SOOO AWESOME! so if you are ever in Scottsdale in about 5 weeks and see a sister missionary named Hermana Lakin, have her over for dinner or something because she rocks. 

So I have given 5 lessons already to a fake investigator named Andrea from Argentina, all of them were entirely in spanish.....and let me tell you something, I don't know what language I was speaking but it sure as heck was not Spanish! But Andrea understood somehow...so that was pretty cool. By the 5th lesson we committed her to being baptized which was pretty cool because she didn't commit to being baptized for any of the other Hermanas. So I am living up at west campus which is for spanish speakers only, which I like better than main campus because you have a lot more freedom and everyone talks to you in Spanish. 

I play volleyball every single day here. Its pretty fun, but its actually really scary! All the elders are so sick of being in the classroom studying all day so they just go crazy!!! There has been two people with broken arms from it already and Hermana Platt got a concussion from being hit in the head with the ball! its truly terrifying. But don't worry, I'm pretty good at dodging the ball ;) 

Its been pretty cold here, I hate the cold... but its been getting warmer, its been raining instead of snowing so that's good. But you don't have to send me anything, my suitcases already have too much stuff in them :P 

They have some really awesome devotionals here that we go to on sunday and tuesday nights. We also watched this video of this talk that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC a couple of years ago called the Character of Christ. I think you can only watch it at the MTC but you should look for it and see if you can find it because its really good! So my day pretty much consists of waking up, getting ready, going to breakfast then studying for about 3 hours then going to lunch then playing volleyball for about an hour then teaching lessons and studying for another 3 hours and then going to dinner and then having language class and doctrine class for another 3 hours then planning then we get to go home. So its a lonnnggg day. #MTCprobs

 

Well I love you a lot and I hope you have a good week!

 Love, Britt

(p.s. I have some pictures to send you but for some reason the computer I am using won't let me upload them so I will send them to you next week)