Hermana Tyson in Miami!

Hola familia!!!!

      I am in sunny GHETTO Miami, Florida! I love love LOVE IT. My companion is so wonderful. She is from Syracuse Utah- she grew up on a farm- Dad they sell hay- so you should start buying from them- I will give more info in my letter. Her name is Sister Briggs and she is just great. This area is amazing. The people are great, and I have had a fun time getting to know all our investigators or "friends." The only downer part is that they recently re-arranged the whole stake to be all english and spanish in one ward- It came from the 1st presidency, and this stake is the first one in the world to do that. They want to eventually dissolve all spanish (and other language) branches in order to "UNITE ZION". So they have translators and headsets- and whoever talks just speaks in their native tongue- and then it will be translated. The majority of the hispanics in our ward are bilingual and there is more english than not- so the meeting is mostly in english. I am worried that my spanish isn't going to come as quick as I hoped, but it will come. I just have to try my hardest to speak when I have the opportunity, and when I am with my companion as well. The majority of our investigators are english- but on saturday we contacted some real gems- i think they have potential. We ride our bikes everywhere- the President has one i could borrow until mine gets put together. I am thankful that i can have a bike- because it is helping my knees become stronger- and walking would be more painful. It is great to be on bikes because we can stop and talk to everyone we see. We made a promise on Saturday that we would talk to EVERYONE WE SAW- even if they were on the phone or leaving- we just gave them a pass along card. These are really great- they have numbers on them to receive a Book of Mormon- and the church website. The church just re-did the whole site- it is really cool- if you haven't checked it out do it! I got really sunburned on the tops of my hands. it is quite silly actually... my skin hasn't seen the sun since beautiful hawaii- it was an odd place to get burned but it isn't too bad anymore. just praying that i don't peel..

      The heat has actually been bearable- it still isn't the summer here- I hear it will get worse, but by then I will be used to it. We live with a cute aubelita from Cuba- Hermana Gonzalez... she is so so darling. She is a member, and has had missionaries living with her for 25+ years. It is just a cute little apartment behind her house. We did laundry today- and got to hang it out on a clothesline. So FUN. Simple things for simple minds. I am so happy... seriously we have just had such a great time together.

      I will do a quick rundown of the 1st/2nd day. So we got in and came down the escalators to baggage claim and President and Sister Hale were just walking in the doors--- they are sooooooooooo CUTE ADORABLE NICE.... words can't describe. Seriously. Well, we went to the vans and trucks (The AP's drive a way nice brand new crew cab Silverado...) and then loaded up to go to the office... all the other sisters got into the car with the Hales and I was the only sister left... so NATURALLY I got into the 12 passenger van with all the elders. oops! haha. It was funny.... my companions were like "oh she would..." haha. We went to the office- it is right next to a hotel- so we went and took pictures and got info. and binders while the AP's took our stuff to our rooms. Then, we went to the Hale's house- or mission home. It is a beautiful house! They have a pool and a nice backyard so we had homemade CAFE RIO. ... uhhhh YUM... and just spent time getting to know each other. We watched some orientation videos and then just had interviews... just short ones so he could get to know us and pick our companion. Several times they both said- "Karli- there is no way the Lord would have called you anywhere else because you have all these friends already in the mission- and they have just been waiting to see you" and things like that because I know so many people in the mission. He kept calling me Karli and then correcting himself saying Sis. Tyson- and apologized but he just had heard my name from the others so much. haha.  But in the interview we talked about the Pearsons, and he had actually just been emailing Pete- i told him to tell him hello from me. Sounds like they were really close to the whole family. In the interview he said- "Ok, pretend you are your mom right now and you aren't in the room- what would she want to tell me about you?"- and i told him what I thought mom might say- that I love everyone and no matter what background, you love serve and work hard and... right after that my companion's face popped in his head. We all had a testimony meeting after interviews then went to the hotel. We got there about 1 am- and that made for a long day. (we got up at 2:30 am the morning before to get to the airport.) The next day was transfer meetings... when we got to find out our area and companion. All the new once introduced ourselves, then we got our assignments. I was the last sister to get mine- I knew it was right- right when I saw her. We went and sat together, listened to the Hales speak- and our closing song was Armies of Helaman- the cool way- "we are NOW the lords missionaries..." and as we were singing Sis. Briggs started to cry, and so I put my arm around her, and then I started to cry- then we were both trying to sing and we couldn't... then we saw the Hales look at us from the stand and THEY started to cry... right then I knew that this conpanionship was inspired and that God put us together for a reason. I am reminded of that each day. It took about an hour to get to our area, I unpacked and then we went to work!!! 

 I am going to tell you a little about some of our investigators.

James Bennett- is probably in his late 60's. He is a black man and lives in the ghetto of the ghetto. We taught him the first day. He is in a wheelchair, and is mission a thumb- he is an army vet. He is so great- I truly feel the Lord has prepared him... he is an honest seeker of truth, and just really wants to know God's will for him to be the best he can be. He never thought he would live this long- but he has an amazing spirit and i know he is here for a reason. We commited him to follow the word of wisdom yesterday- he totally agreed- something we thought may be hard for him.. but hopefully he is true to his word. I think he will be. 

Olymphia and Kevin-

They are a young black couple with 5 kids- all from different dad's i think. The gospel has truly changed their lives. They noticed that since they have been meeting with the sisters, things have been changing. They call us their "angels". The day I met them I fell in love with them. They live in a very rundown duplex and their kids are running around everywhere- but you can tell they love them. Olymphia has been to hell and back- and was in a battered women's shelter for a year- and they are helping her get on her feet. She grew up in the projects and doesn't want to end up back there and is trying hard to provide a good life for her kids. They are moving to Georgia on friday- I am so sad because they have a special connection with us- but we are going to send the missionaries to them there. She came to church yesterday with her two kids- one of them has tumors all over his body- it is so sad... she can't afford treatment but in GA they are going to look into it. I love them.

Tianbin and Jian Zong-

THE CUTEST couple from China. They are prepared. Sister Briggs found them in our area book- missionaries found them a while ago but had no success... They tried to get in touch with them again- and this time had success. When they first started teaching them they didn't believe in God- but when they taught them the first lesson and watched the Joseph Smith movie Tianbin said "I will be baptized!" We are working on preparing them both. She was very sick and had mental and emotional problems, and God has really helped her overcome them and she has recognized how the gospel is already changing her life. She really wants to get to know people and become involved so we had a FHE with another family here, and she is coming to RF on tuesday. They both came to church yesterday- earlier in the week they had plans so we weren't expecting them, but last minute they called and said they cancelled their other plans so they could come to church. It was a blessing to have them there for testimony meeting. After church she said, "...there is no other church where I feel so content. We have been to a lot of churches but this is just so different... I dont know why... "  Well- i know why! it is because it is true!! :) It is so cool to hear people describe that. They are so cute- makes me miss Hawaii. Jian Zong was talking baby talk at that FHE and it reminded me of my roommates in HI. Ha. I love them so much- the bishop said that soon China will be opened and they can go help spread the word there, and she said oh "you can count on us!" It was adorable. Really.

Pedro- we contacted him on Saturday and talked with him and gave him a Book of Mormon- he is prepared... It was amazing. He is Catholic but he described many experiences he had where he felt "cold outside but buring inside" =THE SPIRIT. He can only meet Saturdays  (which is the case with lots of the hispanics because of work) but we are excited to see how he liked the reading.

Lady- one quick experience with her. We were riding home and were so tired- but we promised the Lord we would stop for everyone...She looked like the last person that would listen to us but she was very nice... She said she had been to other churches and could just see in the people and feel that it was false. She said that she could tell we weren't false- we were pure, and truth, and light. It was neat to hear that she could recognize us as representatives of Christ... she was speaking spanish so i couldn't understand everything- but Sister Briggs told me after. She said we had eyes of light... it was neat!

I

I love this work so much. I love to work hard, and i am sure i don't even know what that is yet-- I am am thankful for parents who taught me how to woIk! I am just ready to give everything I can to the Lord. On Saturday there were some teenagers that we passed on our bikes without stopping, but as we were riding on, i felt SO GUILTY. I told my companion we should turn around- we promised the Lord we would tell everyone we could about this gospel- so we turned around and just gave them a pass along card--- They probably threw it away, but we recognize that we have to give EVERYONE the chance to say NO because they might just say yes! 

Thanks for the love and support. I love you so much and will write a letter- my time is up!

xoxo.

Ty- thanks for the email- I'll write you back