hey there-
well i am doing really well, i am going to add a few pictures in with this. we went to write our letters on the beach this morning and it was really beautiful!!! dont know if i ever told you that our house is only about three blocks from the beach!!! but this was my first time to actually be on the beach since i arrived in salinas. we really cant do anything but it was nice to sit there and enjoy the ocean!! ahhh i would love to live near the ocean some day and get to run on the beach every morning!!!! well here are a couple pics from this morning. my comp tried to take a jumping pic of me but didnt really work out haha, so thought it might be kind of entertaining even thought i look ridiculous. well actually looks like the pictures arent going to work... i dunno we will see.
this last week was good, i actually hit 8 months.... wow feels like i just told you that i hit 7, time is speeding by. nothing super exciting happened. we have a really amazing woman we are teaching that is named Flor, she actually came to church yesterday which was really exciting!!! it is always a bit uncomfortable for people the first couple of times but she did really well and seemed to really enjoy it and was really interested. she also told us that she had been looking on the church website and really loved it so we were really excited and happy for her! along with her we have still been teaching vanessa, she is the girl that is 16 with her cute two year old daughter. this week we were able to teach her and her 15 year old sister gisel. when we first got to her house she came out to the gate to let us in and was smoking, and then passed off the cigarette to her sister. made me really sad but it is really common here, there are no laws that stop even little kids from buying cigarettes or alcohol so its a huge problem. we see kids that are as young as 10 or 11 with cigarettes and drinking and they get addicted really young. but other than that our last lesson with them was great, they were super engaged and had tons of questions which is rare for kids their age with religion, so we are excited for them.
well ah this is a bit short this computer is acting weird so sorry, more to come next week. i love you tons and hope that you are doing wonderfully!!!! -jess
Monday, January 31, 2011
January 10, 2011
hey there-
so glad to hear from you!!! sounds like you are all doin so good and are burried in the snow, ah i miss the snow!!!! just melting here, the sun is SUPER strong!!! but you would be proud i am using my sunscreen everyday so no worries haha.
well another week eh!!!! mission accomplished.... on the mission.... my companion can officially ride a bike!!!! yehaw!!! we had our first adventure away from in front of the house yesterday and she is champ and we used them again this morning and she did great, only a few falls. we were going and i can ususally hear the sqeeking of her bike behind me and all of a sudden it just stopped so i looked back and somehow she had ridden straight into a huge meadow type thing with huge weeds.... hahahaha. have no idea how it happened. she looked at the bike as if it had controled itself into the weeds, just made me laugh. but ya she is a champ and we are going to get a ton more accomplished with the bikes again. we celebrated her year mark in the mission this week and i made her a banana cream pie... yummmmm, lasted for a day. oh and guess what! we still have stinkin fleas!!! he came and sprayed again on sat, but they say that some houses just have problems with fleas, so we will see, it was good for a week or so, he may just have to come and spray every couple of weeks.
well we found a ton of new people to teach last week and went to revisit all of them this week and unfortunately only we able to actually have appointments with a few. the people are really unpredictable. they say you can come back a certain day and time and then arent there. they arent much for schedules but its all good, always gotta have a ¨plan de respalda, ¨ just gets really frustrating. that is one thing about the culture that is really different. we are very much about schedules and here its like when they are free great, they will talk to you, but if not, even if they said they could initially, forget it, find them when they have time. but really its all good, its what i am here to do so i cant complain, talk to those who will receive us. this week we went back to teach one of our investigators for our third visit, his name is Mauro and he is 18. he was amazing, was progressing and understanding, and i mean really understanding what we were teaching, we were stoked. many people listen but dont understand, but he listened, understood and really got what we were teaching. in our last visit he talked about how he was going to reserve a time to set aside when everything was peaceful in his house and no one was around so he could really pray. so we went back to see how it all went and to have another lesson and got a bit of a slap in the face. he prayed, he felt the spirit, and was scared to go any further because he didnt want to change anything in his life, but knew he needed to. so he told us that it wasn´t his time to build a relationship with Christ, that in the future but for now he wasnt ready. we fought it and fought it, but really he had made up his mind and told us that he knows where the future will take him. man i have been sad about losing people before but this really crushed me. i felt like we really connected with him and the spirit was so strong in our lessons, he felt empty in the life he had and it was all changing but well, he made his choice. so anyway that was sad but on we go eh.
we met this awesome man named Diamantino yesterday, super old, but he was stellar. he had so many amazing questions and really listened and was thrilled to learn about the gospel, was just one of those people that was immediately nice. he lives with his wife some of his kids and grandkids so we hope that we can end up teaching them all, teaching families is the greatest, especially when can accept that they can live together forever. funny story with him we were setting an appointment and he was talking to my companion and i was getting my agenda out and thought i could sneak a piece of granola bar in my mouth but just then he looked and me and was like, ¨well are you going to share?¨ I thought he was joking but he held out his hand and so i offered him the rest of it in the opened wrapper and he was dead serious!!! he took my granola bar and ate it hahaha. random but great.
well i best be going, enjoy this weeks adventures, i love you to pieces, keep healthy and safe. Love you to the moon and back-Jess
so glad to hear from you!!! sounds like you are all doin so good and are burried in the snow, ah i miss the snow!!!! just melting here, the sun is SUPER strong!!! but you would be proud i am using my sunscreen everyday so no worries haha.
well another week eh!!!! mission accomplished.... on the mission.... my companion can officially ride a bike!!!! yehaw!!! we had our first adventure away from in front of the house yesterday and she is champ and we used them again this morning and she did great, only a few falls. we were going and i can ususally hear the sqeeking of her bike behind me and all of a sudden it just stopped so i looked back and somehow she had ridden straight into a huge meadow type thing with huge weeds.... hahahaha. have no idea how it happened. she looked at the bike as if it had controled itself into the weeds, just made me laugh. but ya she is a champ and we are going to get a ton more accomplished with the bikes again. we celebrated her year mark in the mission this week and i made her a banana cream pie... yummmmm, lasted for a day. oh and guess what! we still have stinkin fleas!!! he came and sprayed again on sat, but they say that some houses just have problems with fleas, so we will see, it was good for a week or so, he may just have to come and spray every couple of weeks.
well we found a ton of new people to teach last week and went to revisit all of them this week and unfortunately only we able to actually have appointments with a few. the people are really unpredictable. they say you can come back a certain day and time and then arent there. they arent much for schedules but its all good, always gotta have a ¨plan de respalda, ¨ just gets really frustrating. that is one thing about the culture that is really different. we are very much about schedules and here its like when they are free great, they will talk to you, but if not, even if they said they could initially, forget it, find them when they have time. but really its all good, its what i am here to do so i cant complain, talk to those who will receive us. this week we went back to teach one of our investigators for our third visit, his name is Mauro and he is 18. he was amazing, was progressing and understanding, and i mean really understanding what we were teaching, we were stoked. many people listen but dont understand, but he listened, understood and really got what we were teaching. in our last visit he talked about how he was going to reserve a time to set aside when everything was peaceful in his house and no one was around so he could really pray. so we went back to see how it all went and to have another lesson and got a bit of a slap in the face. he prayed, he felt the spirit, and was scared to go any further because he didnt want to change anything in his life, but knew he needed to. so he told us that it wasn´t his time to build a relationship with Christ, that in the future but for now he wasnt ready. we fought it and fought it, but really he had made up his mind and told us that he knows where the future will take him. man i have been sad about losing people before but this really crushed me. i felt like we really connected with him and the spirit was so strong in our lessons, he felt empty in the life he had and it was all changing but well, he made his choice. so anyway that was sad but on we go eh.
we met this awesome man named Diamantino yesterday, super old, but he was stellar. he had so many amazing questions and really listened and was thrilled to learn about the gospel, was just one of those people that was immediately nice. he lives with his wife some of his kids and grandkids so we hope that we can end up teaching them all, teaching families is the greatest, especially when can accept that they can live together forever. funny story with him we were setting an appointment and he was talking to my companion and i was getting my agenda out and thought i could sneak a piece of granola bar in my mouth but just then he looked and me and was like, ¨well are you going to share?¨ I thought he was joking but he held out his hand and so i offered him the rest of it in the opened wrapper and he was dead serious!!! he took my granola bar and ate it hahaha. random but great.
well i best be going, enjoy this weeks adventures, i love you to pieces, keep healthy and safe. Love you to the moon and back-Jess
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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
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
December 28, 2010
hey there-
welll like i told you i would be in tres cruses in montevideo today here i am to enter into my 5th change of the mission!!! man the time really flies, feels like i was just here. really my new companion and i didnt need to come because we already live in the same house but wanted to come and see everyone and its only like a 40 min bus ride. so ya!!! my new companion is Hermana Enamorado, her and her comp and me and my comp lived together but they are combining our two areas together and there will only be the two of us and not four in our ward now.... remember how i told you the area was super huge, ya it just doubled. and poor girl doesnt know how to ride a bike.... so i will try to teach her but we will see how that goes haha. but yes so its just the two of us in good old Salinas now. She is really great!!! I was able to do intercambios with her once this past change and we worked together really well, i admire her alot, she is a great missionary. so ya, i am stoked, we already get along great and teach together really well. so ya that is the newest segment of my life her in the mission.
not much else has changed since i talked to you, still clapping lots of houses. we found some really great people this last week that we are going to visit for a second time this week. its amazing how many people here have no belief in God whatsoever, starting from point a is a bit rough. i cant believe some of the trials people have here, they are truly faced with things that i dont think i could handle.
ah i wanted to tell you some really great nicknames that i have been given. there is a family here that well i cant really describe in words, they are so great!!! the dad´s name is nacional, after one of the soccer teams here and man, he eats, sleeps, and lives by this soccer team. their house is even painted with the team colors and their house is completely decorated with news paper articles, flags, whatever thing really that represent the teams.... fanatics you would call them. anyway long story short they are a family that is really great with all the missionaries, the first time they met me they couldnt figure out how to say my name so i have the permanent name of Hermana Kiwi. Another great one is of the four year old son of a convert family here that we spend alot of time with, he calls me hermana cookey. but then again he also calls a torta a tonta, or instead of cake, stupid. hahaha he is so cute he always chases after us when we leave saying ¨otro beso!!!!¨ until we have given him about ten each ( no worries these are cheek kisses haha) but ya love the people in Salinas, i am still adapting but it is all coming.
THANK YOU so much for your christmas packages, really was so special to receive them and i will put everything to good use!!!! i got a really special package from beth as well, i told you about the gingerbread house that my comp and i built but she also had a bunch of friends write little messages and put it together in a binder, it really was so special and made me so happy, really was so nice to hear so many words of encouragment and love. so i know they will see this eventually so i want to say THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU ALL!!! really you dont know how much it touched my heart and made me feel so happy and loved. I am truly blessed with the most amazing friends and family.
i just barely sent off with an elder, last name thorderson, that will be going home to slc tomorrow, something little for you mom and dad. he has moms cell number and can probably take it to dad´s office or something. let me know when it gets to you.
well sorry this isnt very interesting but i dont have a ton since i just talked to you dont want to bore you!!! but i love you so so so so so so so so so much and i am so happy that you all sound like you are doing so well. take care and know that i love you and you are always in my heart, thoughts, and prayers. much much love- jess
welll like i told you i would be in tres cruses in montevideo today here i am to enter into my 5th change of the mission!!! man the time really flies, feels like i was just here. really my new companion and i didnt need to come because we already live in the same house but wanted to come and see everyone and its only like a 40 min bus ride. so ya!!! my new companion is Hermana Enamorado, her and her comp and me and my comp lived together but they are combining our two areas together and there will only be the two of us and not four in our ward now.... remember how i told you the area was super huge, ya it just doubled. and poor girl doesnt know how to ride a bike.... so i will try to teach her but we will see how that goes haha. but yes so its just the two of us in good old Salinas now. She is really great!!! I was able to do intercambios with her once this past change and we worked together really well, i admire her alot, she is a great missionary. so ya, i am stoked, we already get along great and teach together really well. so ya that is the newest segment of my life her in the mission.
not much else has changed since i talked to you, still clapping lots of houses. we found some really great people this last week that we are going to visit for a second time this week. its amazing how many people here have no belief in God whatsoever, starting from point a is a bit rough. i cant believe some of the trials people have here, they are truly faced with things that i dont think i could handle.
ah i wanted to tell you some really great nicknames that i have been given. there is a family here that well i cant really describe in words, they are so great!!! the dad´s name is nacional, after one of the soccer teams here and man, he eats, sleeps, and lives by this soccer team. their house is even painted with the team colors and their house is completely decorated with news paper articles, flags, whatever thing really that represent the teams.... fanatics you would call them. anyway long story short they are a family that is really great with all the missionaries, the first time they met me they couldnt figure out how to say my name so i have the permanent name of Hermana Kiwi. Another great one is of the four year old son of a convert family here that we spend alot of time with, he calls me hermana cookey. but then again he also calls a torta a tonta, or instead of cake, stupid. hahaha he is so cute he always chases after us when we leave saying ¨otro beso!!!!¨ until we have given him about ten each ( no worries these are cheek kisses haha) but ya love the people in Salinas, i am still adapting but it is all coming.
THANK YOU so much for your christmas packages, really was so special to receive them and i will put everything to good use!!!! i got a really special package from beth as well, i told you about the gingerbread house that my comp and i built but she also had a bunch of friends write little messages and put it together in a binder, it really was so special and made me so happy, really was so nice to hear so many words of encouragment and love. so i know they will see this eventually so i want to say THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU ALL!!! really you dont know how much it touched my heart and made me feel so happy and loved. I am truly blessed with the most amazing friends and family.
i just barely sent off with an elder, last name thorderson, that will be going home to slc tomorrow, something little for you mom and dad. he has moms cell number and can probably take it to dad´s office or something. let me know when it gets to you.
well sorry this isnt very interesting but i dont have a ton since i just talked to you dont want to bore you!!! but i love you so so so so so so so so so much and i am so happy that you all sound like you are doing so well. take care and know that i love you and you are always in my heart, thoughts, and prayers. much much love- jess
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
December 20, 2010
hey there cute fam-
thanks so much for the emails, i am so glad to hear that things are going well and that you are getting everything pulled together for the holidays and i am glad to hear that you have the new tree all put together, so sad we had to put the other one to its grave last year after many years but this one will function much better for you old folks with the pre lit lights haha. to answer your question i did get one of the boxes!!!! thank you so much, i will be well makeupd and will enjoy my treats and of course the great socks for next winter.... i am boiling right now though.
well it has been a good week, we had our christmas mission conference on friday which was really great, always gives me more motivation is a great recharge. one of the senior mission couples talked at the very end and it was really cute. they were only called to serve english speaking in the offices for 6 months but when they were here they were assigned to serve in a ward that is struggling a bit and were sent off to serve a full time mission.... no spanish and all. they struggled to give their testimonies in spanish but it was really so sweet to hear them. we had a lunch with everyone and they served us stuffed chicken and sent us off with a bag of goodies... yummmm. got to see all my old comps and hermana thompson brought me stuff from some of the cute families i taught in maldonado. the calamaris family, of richard and paola, made me a video with new baby claudio, and the moirera family sent a letter that was so sweet it put me to tears. we were teaching ¨the abuela¨ and she was baptized a few weeks ago and sent me a letter to tell me all about it. hermana thompson keeps me up to date every week with a letter about the old area, i love those people and miss them tonz!!! speaking of that i was in church yesterday just chatting with someone when i caught a familiar face out of the corner of my eye, it was my DOM of my old ward in Maldonado, or the member who is in charge of helping with the missionary work within the ward, and then right behind him was his wife and baby!!!! they had taken a bus to come and suprise me and bring me a christmas gift. made me cry like a little baby but i was so so happy to see them, they are a family that will always be really close to my heart. so my christmas has been filled with some really great suprises already.
well if its not chicken pox..... its fleas.... yuck, yet another adventure. we have a flea problem right now and i look like i am back to chicken pox. there is someone from our ward that is going to come and spray our house tomorrow while we are out working so everything can settle while we are gone. guess its a big problem during the summer in this area because of the tall weedy grass and the heat and humidity... they reproduce really quickly. the problem started a few nights ago and i could feel them crawling and i was scratching like mad so i finally got up and tore the sheets off my bed and just laid on my matress. good thing we are getting it taken care of because we cant sleep with them either!!!! well guess its another adventure to add to the book.
well we found this really cute woman named clarita that we are teaching... haha honestly i dont know where it is going to go. she is a beautiful old woman that is about 75 with white hair and blue eyes. really i think that she just likes talking to us but we will see. we went to visit her this morning and she came out to the gate in her swim suit. while we were saying the closing prayer she started out with a prayer and then she just started saying... well i have no idea.... she went totally off topic, and then she started having a conversation with her eyes closed and her head down and then out of no where just opened her eyes and started talking, cant really explain but it was really cute and funny. i still had my eyes closed and head down until my comp nudged me and clarita was in full conversation with us. but ya she is adorable. we have found some really great families that were great contacts as well that we are going to go back to this week. things are really rough and slow right now but i am trying to work on my patience. i read this talk by one of the church leaders named Elder Uchtdorf called Continue in Patience, highly suggest you look it up and read it, its amazing. i have probably read it at least 7 times now and have needed something different from it each time. He says ¨Patience is the ability to put our desires on hold¨ I am truly learning to accept the Lord´s will and timing, i fall short every time but i have to be patient with myself as well. i know that as long as i am doing my part 100 percent that everything else will come with the Lords timing.
well cute fam, cant wait to talk to you. i tried to send a little box off to you today but when we went to the correo someone had broken in over night so they were closed... and i took that as i dont trust the mailing system here for this box to get to you so i am giong to save it until i get home.... sorry charlie, but its really great so i dont want it to get lost in the mail. but anyway, love you tonz, miss you always, and cant wait to hear your sweet voices. send foxy a smooch and tell her she is allotted a few barks. love you millions and zillions and trillions- monkey
thanks so much for the emails, i am so glad to hear that things are going well and that you are getting everything pulled together for the holidays and i am glad to hear that you have the new tree all put together, so sad we had to put the other one to its grave last year after many years but this one will function much better for you old folks with the pre lit lights haha. to answer your question i did get one of the boxes!!!! thank you so much, i will be well makeupd and will enjoy my treats and of course the great socks for next winter.... i am boiling right now though.
well it has been a good week, we had our christmas mission conference on friday which was really great, always gives me more motivation is a great recharge. one of the senior mission couples talked at the very end and it was really cute. they were only called to serve english speaking in the offices for 6 months but when they were here they were assigned to serve in a ward that is struggling a bit and were sent off to serve a full time mission.... no spanish and all. they struggled to give their testimonies in spanish but it was really so sweet to hear them. we had a lunch with everyone and they served us stuffed chicken and sent us off with a bag of goodies... yummmm. got to see all my old comps and hermana thompson brought me stuff from some of the cute families i taught in maldonado. the calamaris family, of richard and paola, made me a video with new baby claudio, and the moirera family sent a letter that was so sweet it put me to tears. we were teaching ¨the abuela¨ and she was baptized a few weeks ago and sent me a letter to tell me all about it. hermana thompson keeps me up to date every week with a letter about the old area, i love those people and miss them tonz!!! speaking of that i was in church yesterday just chatting with someone when i caught a familiar face out of the corner of my eye, it was my DOM of my old ward in Maldonado, or the member who is in charge of helping with the missionary work within the ward, and then right behind him was his wife and baby!!!! they had taken a bus to come and suprise me and bring me a christmas gift. made me cry like a little baby but i was so so happy to see them, they are a family that will always be really close to my heart. so my christmas has been filled with some really great suprises already.
well if its not chicken pox..... its fleas.... yuck, yet another adventure. we have a flea problem right now and i look like i am back to chicken pox. there is someone from our ward that is going to come and spray our house tomorrow while we are out working so everything can settle while we are gone. guess its a big problem during the summer in this area because of the tall weedy grass and the heat and humidity... they reproduce really quickly. the problem started a few nights ago and i could feel them crawling and i was scratching like mad so i finally got up and tore the sheets off my bed and just laid on my matress. good thing we are getting it taken care of because we cant sleep with them either!!!! well guess its another adventure to add to the book.
well we found this really cute woman named clarita that we are teaching... haha honestly i dont know where it is going to go. she is a beautiful old woman that is about 75 with white hair and blue eyes. really i think that she just likes talking to us but we will see. we went to visit her this morning and she came out to the gate in her swim suit. while we were saying the closing prayer she started out with a prayer and then she just started saying... well i have no idea.... she went totally off topic, and then she started having a conversation with her eyes closed and her head down and then out of no where just opened her eyes and started talking, cant really explain but it was really cute and funny. i still had my eyes closed and head down until my comp nudged me and clarita was in full conversation with us. but ya she is adorable. we have found some really great families that were great contacts as well that we are going to go back to this week. things are really rough and slow right now but i am trying to work on my patience. i read this talk by one of the church leaders named Elder Uchtdorf called Continue in Patience, highly suggest you look it up and read it, its amazing. i have probably read it at least 7 times now and have needed something different from it each time. He says ¨Patience is the ability to put our desires on hold¨ I am truly learning to accept the Lord´s will and timing, i fall short every time but i have to be patient with myself as well. i know that as long as i am doing my part 100 percent that everything else will come with the Lords timing.
well cute fam, cant wait to talk to you. i tried to send a little box off to you today but when we went to the correo someone had broken in over night so they were closed... and i took that as i dont trust the mailing system here for this box to get to you so i am giong to save it until i get home.... sorry charlie, but its really great so i dont want it to get lost in the mail. but anyway, love you tonz, miss you always, and cant wait to hear your sweet voices. send foxy a smooch and tell her she is allotted a few barks. love you millions and zillions and trillions- monkey
December 13
thanks for the email updates!
on our way to the cyber we just saw a moto accident, motorcycle that is, scary stuff........
so glad to hear that you have plans to go see the minnesota fam poppy and that auntie holly and the boys are going to come and visit mama, that sounds like a fun little trade. give them all my love okay??? its true poppy, aunnie and auntie marilyn are a HUGE blessing, dont know what we would do without them. how great is it to have family to take care grandma and grandpa. we went to an old folks home this week and sang some christmas songs and they were so happy!!!
okay okay now i understand the whole retirement deal... sounds like a pretty good plan you have going, but also sounds like you are retiring one job to work more in another... kind of kills the word retirement haha. mamas baking ahhhh!!!!! i miss the smell of the house with all her baking for the business at this time of year, enjoy it for me!!!
well today i officially have 7 months in the mission!!! wow the time passes so fast, each change goes by faster.
this past week was really good, we were able to do intercambios with the other two hermanas that we live with and i went with Hermana Enamorado in her area and the other, Hermana Puentes worked with my companion in our area for a day. It was SO good and I learned a ton, Hermana Enamorado is an amazing person and missionary. I really felt that that intercambio took place for a reason, i figured out so much by teaching with her for just one day.
My companion and i are continuing to look for new people to teach, we had some really great lessons this week and found some really great new people that are interested to hear more about our message. Its a fight to find people but it is such a good lesson of patience for me. I think i have been so used to things moving so fast in life that it has been hard to realize that we will be blessed if we can have patience. If i continue to do my part the Lord will do His, reminds me of a quote that says something along the lines of pray like it all depends on the Lord, but work like it all depends on you. I really feel that I am learning to trust in the Lord and His timing.
This friday we are having a mission Christmas conference, i am super excited!!!! The conferences are always great, and i am so excited to see my old companions as well of course!!
well earlier this week during my study i came accross a scripture that i have read plenty of times before, but that took a new meaning to me. it is in John 15 verses 1-13 really. but i am just going to quote a few of them. Jesus is comparing himself to a vine and us as the branches of the vine, it reads ¨abide in me, and I in you. As the branch itself cannot bear fruit itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ya can do nothing..... As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you : continue ye in my love.... if ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.¨ wow oh wow i love this scripture, i was truly able to read it at just the point i needed to. I know that without Christ I am nothing and that if I put my trust in Him and do everything I can I will be able to bring forth fruit.
well i love you millions and zillions and trillions, love you so much and hope that you are all doing so well. xoxoxoxoxoxo- Jess
on our way to the cyber we just saw a moto accident, motorcycle that is, scary stuff........
so glad to hear that you have plans to go see the minnesota fam poppy and that auntie holly and the boys are going to come and visit mama, that sounds like a fun little trade. give them all my love okay??? its true poppy, aunnie and auntie marilyn are a HUGE blessing, dont know what we would do without them. how great is it to have family to take care grandma and grandpa. we went to an old folks home this week and sang some christmas songs and they were so happy!!!
okay okay now i understand the whole retirement deal... sounds like a pretty good plan you have going, but also sounds like you are retiring one job to work more in another... kind of kills the word retirement haha. mamas baking ahhhh!!!!! i miss the smell of the house with all her baking for the business at this time of year, enjoy it for me!!!
well today i officially have 7 months in the mission!!! wow the time passes so fast, each change goes by faster.
this past week was really good, we were able to do intercambios with the other two hermanas that we live with and i went with Hermana Enamorado in her area and the other, Hermana Puentes worked with my companion in our area for a day. It was SO good and I learned a ton, Hermana Enamorado is an amazing person and missionary. I really felt that that intercambio took place for a reason, i figured out so much by teaching with her for just one day.
My companion and i are continuing to look for new people to teach, we had some really great lessons this week and found some really great new people that are interested to hear more about our message. Its a fight to find people but it is such a good lesson of patience for me. I think i have been so used to things moving so fast in life that it has been hard to realize that we will be blessed if we can have patience. If i continue to do my part the Lord will do His, reminds me of a quote that says something along the lines of pray like it all depends on the Lord, but work like it all depends on you. I really feel that I am learning to trust in the Lord and His timing.
This friday we are having a mission Christmas conference, i am super excited!!!! The conferences are always great, and i am so excited to see my old companions as well of course!!
well earlier this week during my study i came accross a scripture that i have read plenty of times before, but that took a new meaning to me. it is in John 15 verses 1-13 really. but i am just going to quote a few of them. Jesus is comparing himself to a vine and us as the branches of the vine, it reads ¨abide in me, and I in you. As the branch itself cannot bear fruit itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ya can do nothing..... As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you : continue ye in my love.... if ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.¨ wow oh wow i love this scripture, i was truly able to read it at just the point i needed to. I know that without Christ I am nothing and that if I put my trust in Him and do everything I can I will be able to bring forth fruit.
well i love you millions and zillions and trillions, love you so much and hope that you are all doing so well. xoxoxoxoxoxo- Jess
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