So this is a picture of the girl we baptized just an hour ago! She's 10 yrs old, and on Friday we'll baptize her mother and then on Saturday a mom and her 4 children will be baptized. The Lord is doing great things in this little area.

A shot of the area he is serving in.  

Elder Tibbitts loved the cupcakes!!!  We were hoping he would be able to eat them  :) Yay!!!!!

....and he loved our personal note!!  He said he cracked up when he read it....It says:  

"We love you Elder Tibbitts, we got you some cupcake bisque to help you feel better."  If any of you are Studio C fans, you'll understand our family's joke.   Ha!!

The day after his mini surgery....

" I had 4 stitches on the inside of my cheek, and two of them have fallen out so far, Tuesday I was out of it all day. I remember having the anesthetic and then I remember lying down in my bed at the flat. That's about all I remember, so I guess everything went pretty well.

Elder Tibbitts has found another hard lump just behind his jaw bone.....he is suffering from headaches, chills, and a round of stomach pain.  He isn't sure what is going on and we are anxiously waiting to hear the results from the tests tomorrow.    

Elder Tibbitts did want me to post this excerpt from an email he sent to someone, who he has become acquainted with, and is having a rough go....He said as he wrote it, it helped him as well.

"What a thin view we have when we commit ourselves to a relationship with a girl before a mission. It closes the windows of heaven, to a degree. I have found that nothing is more rewarding or satisfying than loving my family. Nothing is. Having a relationship with a girl before a mission is, in a sense, me saying to Heavenly Father, "Hey, thanks for putting me in a family, but I've found someone that I work with better. Your plan was pretty good, Heavenly Father, but I've since found someone who I love just as much as the family you gave me, or more! I've figured it all out, but thanks for helping." 

I have found that it is an issue of pride. It is me believing that I know better than Heavenly Father. The antidote for this spiritual and emotional sickness is to apply the plan of salvation. God is just, He is perfect, He has a plan for me individually, and for all my brothers and sisters collectively. His plan for me involved me coming to the family I am at now, being sealed for all time and eternity with them, building and blossoming my relationship with them, until I reach the point where I find someone to join eternally with me and my family. Until the time comes for me to have an eternal companion, surely not before serving a mission (and even if I did know who I was going to be sealed to, would it really make that much of a difference?), I will trust God by building and loving the individuals in my family that He has placed me in. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is here to aid the family. It always has been, and it always will be. In the end, there will be no church, there will only be family and priesthood. And so, to find eternal happiness and joy, to be freed from our present burdens, we need not go looking for answers in the dark corners of our lives, but rather to simply embrace what Heavenly Father has already so lovingly blessed us with. How many people live in a functional family? And out of those functional families, how many have made covenants? Surely, we are scarce in this world. 

So let us all take pleasure in what Heavenly Father has given us. Let us build meaningful, lasting relationships with those individuals He has already positioned us with. And then let us go help other families realize the same blessings that are available to them! When we do this, we will find that our worries and issues melt away, our minds are enlightened, and our understanding quickened. Truly, the love of God manifested through divinely appointed families is one of the highest blessings available to His children on the earth."

Please keep Elder Tibbitts in your prayers!!