January 3, 2011

hey there-
disfrutalo, here is a picture of me and my comp yesterday before chuch, not too exciting but thought you might want to see my new comp!!! she is awesome!!! we are doing really well together.

well thanks so much for the emails.... so glad bud that in search for my ski goggles you found the ipod, be careful!!! of course you can use it, i dont know why i didnt give it to you in the first place, i was just shoving everything in boxes. hopefully you can put it to better use than i did, i never really figured out how to use all the apps so you can learn and then teach me haha. oh so cute that you are watching the old fam home videos and so funny that you saw us not fighting for once, probably only because mom threatened us with our lives if we broke that manger scene jk, but wow really a miracle that we werent fighting. remember when you dislocated my shoulder and popped it back into place with mom and dad in the same room and then told me to be quiet so they wouldnt get mad..... baaahahaha. and so you watched one of me learning to ride a bike, what a coincidence!!! i taught my comp how to ride a bike this morning!!!! she is a champ and did great, is really wobbly and cant turn around but we are gonna work on it each day haha.

well its been a really great week i must say, we found REALLY wonderful people to teach this week and felt really blessed to find them. one of the girls we are now teaching is named Evelyn. we started with teaching her and her mom and little siblings, her mom was so so and was really accepting but wow to see how the message lit up the eyes of this 12 year old girl was pretty amazing. we left telling her to pray about our message and she was super curious, she stopped us and asked us how she was supposed to know if what we taught her was true and so we explained to her about the spirit and she was really excited to pray for herself. she was going to come to church yesterday with one of her sisters but got really sick so we are hopin for next week. another girl that we found that really touched my heart this week is named Vanessa. she is a mom of a two year old and is 16 and really is searching for her purpose in life, it was apparent that she wants to be a good mom and have some direction, so we will see where it goes, we know that the gospel can give her what she is looking for. there are several others but these are just two of them that i really felt strongly with and am excited for!!! so ya, life is good, the mission has its ups and downs, but i definitely felt really blessed this week and have much more hope for the work in this area.

my companion and i are doing great together, we really are able to teach in unity and get along really well. and can i tell you how much easier it is to live with 2 people in our tiny little house!!!! ahhhhhh its reallly nice, my first time in three months to just have two. i am learning alot and am really greatful to have the example of my companion, i know i have something to learn from each one of them.

so i have to share with you the biggest lesson i had this week.... strangely enough it was from a four year old. we were in lunch with a family and the mom was kind of joking around and talking about how they were really poor and how they could sell everything they have and immediately Martina stood up and was upset with her mom she said ¨ NO!!! mom that is not true!!! we are not poor!!! look at all that we have, we have dishes, we have cups, we have juice, we have icecubes, we have a refrigorator.......¨ and so it went for about 15 more minutes as Martina did an inventory of their house. we all just sat there laughing but when we left i realized what Christ means when he says come unto me as a child, Martina, and many other little kids truly catch on to things in life that we miss. Martina showed me the importance of gratitude. Everyday i am teaching people the importance of prayer and of giving thanks to our Heavenly Father for what they have as well as asking for blessings, but really how well am i doing at this for myself? it really made me think, everything that we have truly is a blessing, every little thing, every ice cube haha. but more than that, the things that matter most are the things that are not material goods, our families, our health, our friends, the gospel, love from others and love to give. but as it states in a talk that i just read by President Monson, the president of the church, these are the things that we tend to underappreciate the most. it also talks about how if we are always greatful for what we have, we will always be full, even if we are materialisically poor. i hope that i can be more greatful and i hope that as my family you know how much i love, appreciate, and am greatful for you. i cant tell you how much this experiece has changed my view on so many things, i am so greatful for your support and love that i can always feel so abundantly. thinking of you and having your words of support has truly kept me strong in the hard moments. i love you so so much and am so greatful for you and my wonderful friends that support me.

love you to millionz and zillionz and trillionz, be safe, keep healthy know that i love you always- jess