Clarification

Okay dad, this is for you. Yes I am getting your emails, the ones you send to jessica.casebolt@myldsmail.net are the ones I check and see on monday, so keep sending them to that one, but also you can send others to urugoest@gmail.com and they receive it in the mission office, print it off and distribute them to the districts on tuesdays as if they were letters. But for that one make sure that you put my name in the subject line. Does that clear things up? Let me know if you still don´t get it. And just so you know, last week on tuesday I received the printed emails from mom and dad through the mission office. so if anyone else sent an email to the mission office (uruguost) then you probably did not put my name in the subject line or did not send it soon enough.

I have a couple questions about seth for renita and judy, first, can you send me his email address that he gave you as well as his address? And did he talk about when he went to south america and where he went, and did he learn any spanish? did he say anything about me being on a mission? and what did grandma think about how things went since she was the one that kept wanting to go in the first place?

I mentioned that we are having the hermana´s conference this week, I guess that they also always have all the hermanas share a talent so Hermana Moreno and I are going to sing I know that my Redeemer lives in portuguese. We found a portuguese hymn book in our house and our land lady, Idalina, is from Brasil and helped us learn the pronuciation. I´m actually pretty excited about it and although I haven´t been learning a ton of portuguese i´m hoping that I´ll keep picking up a little here and there, it´s really cool when we hear it, the accent is really interesting.

Today we had lunch with carmen, she made us rice and beans with a little bit of sweet potatoes cooked in with it. It was yummy and the other hermanas came too and hna mcewen who is from hazelton idaho and went to isu was talking to me and we know some of the same people like tara rigby for example, she has some of the same sentiments about the rigbys that i do. the other people i don´t think you would know. it was fun though to chat.

This week the ward had an open house everynight from tues to sat each night with a theme-priesthood, relief soc, youth, primary and missionary work on sat. We all participated by singing a couple different songs and the other hnas and i shared a short thought. after I finished mine that ward mission leader told me to stay up there and then he came and told everyone that i had not even been here for 30 days and just complimented me for how í´m doing. it was nice. we also brought food from our backgrounds. I made french toast and syrup because it was easy, cheap and I knew i could get all the ingredients. for the syrup i just used vanilla instead of mapeline. I think everyone liked it and there was one lady that just stood by the table and would take one peice after anoter and dip it right into the syrup, so i think she really liked it!

we have had a couple more lessons with adriana. we taught tithing and it went great. her mom comes to stay with her a lot and doesn´t like that we are teaching her so we can´t go over there when her mom is there but she told us that the other day her mom came over and was complaining about her legs hurting her and was about to take some medicine, but adrianas littler girl said no grandma, just close your eyes and repeat after me, dear heavenly father...how sweet is that? she said her mom couldn´t refuse little vanessas plea.

Amy to answer some of your questions, hna moreno is from cordoba argentina but her father is from spain and her mom from lebanon. she is the only member in her family and she was studying law before she came on her mission. after her first change on her mission she went home because she was having health problems, she has chronic anemia, and then after eight months she came back, which apparently know one thought she would be allowed to. but she now has until august left in her mission. this is incredibly judgemental and rude of me but I personally think she is a hypochondriac. in these first four weeks she has complained about her ankle, having a cold, the flu, respiratory problems, a bad period, ´´sand in her urine´´, and some other things. not saying that any of that is untrue, but she talks about it to me and to everyone we meet and seems to like everyone to know that she has health problems and can´t have children. Just tellin´ it like it is.

Lunches have been better, we have had some more appointments, we have had a lot of rice and beans and a few pasta dishes. people here are poor so they usually use food that is cheap and filling and then add in a little bit of meat or some potato or something. sometimes i wonder if they only do that for us, i think sometimes they really sacrifice to give us lunch.

At first I was not so sure about what we would do for food though because hna moreno hasn´t really seemed to have figured out how to do that whole thing. but I am starting to figure some things out, like how to get lunch meat and that you can get a lot of things at almacenes, the little stores that are in peoples houses, like eggs milk and other stuff. so i have been making a lot of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and french toast and scrambled eggs and i toast bread on the stove. so it´s getting better. and carmen taught me how to make hot chocolate here. they do it this special way that i really like. they heat up milk on the stove and add a mixture of cocoa, cornstarch and sugar and water all stirred up that you stir into the milk. it is yummy because it is just hot chocolate and but with the corns starch it makes it thicker. i have actually thinking i could making pudding and simply add more corn starch. that´s basically what their hot chocalate is, runny pudding. i like it though and carmen says it´s a way to keep from starving, but she means it a little more literally than we do when we use that expression. haha.

mom I don´t really have time to write about the zone conference and i don´t think you will get that letter because of the soda explosion, but it was good and i met some other hermanas that were really nice and hermana moreno thinks one of them, hna halladay from new york, will be my companion at this next change. she seemed quiet but super sweet. speaking of which at nine o clock at night on mothers day we find out about transfers so i was thinking maybe you could call me at nine thirty my time, is that six thirty your time? and you need to let me know if you are going to call me or if i´m going to call you, they like the families to call us so that we don´t have to pay the phone bill, but if you want me to call you that is fine, i just have to leave money for the new hermanas to pay the phone bill. so let me know.

okay, i typed as fast as i could and actually have gone way over on time. i love you and i´ll let you know next week if the packages came and how the hna´s conference went.

Un beso grande! Love Jessica

Where to begin!?

Wow, I really don´t know where to start but I guess first I´ll let you know that the week I sent a whole bunch of letters, two mondays ago, some elder tried to send a bottle of brazilian soda through the bolsa and ruined a bunch of letters so you may or may not get those. Also a lot of you asked if I got my letters or packages, and no I still haven´t so cross your fingers for tomorrow! By the way, how heavy were they? Remember they have to be under something like 5lbs. My companion says only 2 kilos but I don´t know if that is right. If they are too big though they won´t make it.

Renita, Judy, Grandma, and Grandpa, GOOD WORK! I don´t know why Seth has been on my mind so much lately. Especially the week before I found out you were going to go look for him. I have always heard that when someone serves a mission Heavenly Father will not only bless that person but He will bless their family. I have been praying so much and so hard for Seth and sometimes I think if Heavenly Father will bless our family with one thing because I served a mission, maybe he will give us a way to get Seth back. I´m really glad you found him and let´s keep praying for him!

Mom that´s really awesome about Ryan Workman! I asked him before I left where he wanted to go and he told me Taiwan, so it sounds like he got his wish!

On Tuesday it is back to Montevideo. Twice a year they have an Hermanas Conference and all the Hermanas go hang out with the presidents wife and they eat yummy food and go to the beach and the temple and watch mormon movies and stuff. It sounds really fun but I wish we didn´t have so far to travel. Especially since this year it is only one day long, we leave tues night and will arrive in the morning, the conference is all day and then we get on a bus that night to come back. It is usually two days and we stay at the church hostels by the temple but they are trying to leave those open for all the people coming over from argentina to attend the temple while the one is buenos aires is closed for remodeling. did i ever tell you that they are practically building a new temple? they have torn down two whole parts of the temple, more than half, and the part lefts standing is just concrete inside. Anyways the conference should be fun though.

My companion just said that we are going to leave now and come back later so I´ll write more later! Love you!

Thank you!

Hey everyone! I think when I wrote this last week I saved it instead of sending it! I´m sorry! So here it is now and I´ll be sending another.

Thank you all for your emails! I only skimmed them but I will print them later and try to answer any questions next week. Also, Amy I got your email last Tuesday, so the next day, which means anyone who responds to this today, I should receive it tomorrow which is awesome! It´s also nice that anyone can write to that address, friends and family alike, so make good use of it! Once again, urugoest@gmail.com.

I´m attaching some pictures of our house and the dog that lives in our yard. The house we rent is actually in the backyard of an older couple, I wrote a letter that tells more about all that. The dog´s name is Kafu and he´s no sally but he makes me feel safe at night! And dont worry mom he´s actually safe to touch!

IMPORTANT the mission office is being moved so there is a new address. Start sending letters and packages to:

Hermana Casebolt
Uruguay Montevideo West Mission
Agraciada 2893 #401
Montevideo Uruguay 11.600

But don´t worry the ones you sent should still get here. And just a reminder, always put pictures of Christ on the outside of packages, everyone does it because people here will leave it alone because they are super superstitous. You can buy stickers, print some offline or cut them out of ensigns and tape them on the box.

Okay, so as far as my week goes I decided to tell you a little about some of the people we´ve been working with. Adriana and her son Gabriel are the ones who accepted a baptismal date, the 30th of this month. The hermanas before us had been working with them, well actually the just taught them one lesson. But Adriana has truly been prepared by the Lord and He guided us to her. She had been looking for a church that felt right but couldn´t find it. Every time we teach her she will say, ´´oh I didn´t get that in my other church, or they teach it this way and I never could understand how it could be that way, but now I get it, this makes sense´´. It is really cool and humbling because we honestly don´t have to even do anything, we are literally just instruments in the hands of the Lord.

We have also been working with a man named Carlos. His wife was baptized a while ago but he still isn´t. They have some marital problems and I think part of the reason he doesn´t get baptized is because she wants him too. But he came to church yesterday and then later sent us a text message (all the hermana companionships get a cell phone) thanking us for our concern and efforts in his behalf. It came as a surprise to me to be honest but a good one and we hope he will get baptized soon.

I don´t know if I have already told you about Carmen or maybe I did in a letter that you haven´t recieved yet, she is the relief society pres and a ward missionary and she does a ton for us. Plus she is hilarious and I always feel like she knows how I´m feeling and cares so much about me, I love her so much. But anyways we went to her house the other day and Hna moreno snuck up behind her and scared her so now she is out for revenge. She keeps saying ´´abran sus ojos´´ or ´´keep your eyes open´´ then the other day were walking in the street and this moped comes by and the person on it yells ´´abran sus ojos´´ and then that night there was a note on our door that said ´´abran sus ojos´´. it is so funny and hna moreno is so scared. that same night though i went in the bathroom and used black eyeshadow to write it on the inside of the lid of the toilet so when she went in later and lifted the lid it said abran sus ojos and now she is sure that carmen somehow has broken into our house. it is so funny and she tells everyone about it and when she does i stand behind her and point to myself and mouth that i did it so everyone, including carmen knows that I did it except Hna moreno. It is really hilarious.

Well I am out of time. Sorry I feel like my emails are never very good and always really short. I try to make up for it with letters though, are you getting those? I send at least one to mom and dad every week and then alternate with everyone else. But let me know if there is anything specific you are not liking, too short, too long, too boring, whatever. and let me know if you are getting my letters.

Tomorrow we have district meeting so hopefully I will receive some packages and I´m sure I´ll get your emails if you sent them to urugoest so that will be good. I love you so much! sososososo much!!!

Love Jessica

Uno Mas!

(Prior to sending this email, Jessica had sent a one-liner asking for the recipe for Island Cookies.  This email followed a few hours later.)

Hello again! After I finished earlier I printed your emails since I didn´t have time to read them and then my companion asked if I had had time to read them and respond and I said no so she said we could come back later for a little bit!

So Dad, yes I am getting your emails. And your jokes were funny, I had already heard all of them but it was still funny to read them and imagine you chuckling over them. I´m glad you had a good birthday and got my card! You asked me how church is here, it´s good. I wrote a letter more about church that I´m going to mail so I won´t tell to much about it right now, but one of those letters was to amy so have her read it to you. It´s kind of a small ward but there are six wards here in this stake, so that is good. The sad thing is there are 650 people whose records are in our ward but only about 100 attend. And by the way, our ward is from 3 to 6. I guess thats what I get for leaving the country as I kept saying.

I did finally get part of my giro so that is good, and I went and took out 50 dollars from my account for a back up. The currency here is in pesos and it is 20 pesos to a dollar. So it´s kind of weird because 100 pesos is only five bucks so when we buy groceries it´s about 200 or 300 pesos. And rent is 3000 pesos. But no dad, I don´t have to scrape sap every day for gum!

So Jennie and Ryan, what´s the deal with the new job? When did that happen and what´s the new company? And congratulations! Hope the basement is coming along well and can´t wait to see pictures.

Mom in one of your emails you mentioned Mexican food. Oh how I would love some Mexican food right now. You also asked about zone conference and Hna Crofts, I wrote a letter about that and sent it on Tues. It was great though and I really liked the other hermanas that I met. And Hermana Crofts is doing well but struggling with the language. She really has a great trainer though and they have a lot of fun together and I think she´s really happy.

That´s funny to me that you are getting a land line. For the phone call we get 45 minutes and although I can call you, they prefer you to call me. So I will give you our number, which is funny because then you could techniquely call me whenever you wanted! But if you´d rather I can call you. I have also heard that on Mother´s day they sometimes extend to an hour. Cross your fingers. And be warned, homesick or not, it will be a cry fest on my end.

Now I have some bad news. I am down to my last stamp. And it is on an envelope addressed to mom and dad. Hopefully tomorrow I will get my letter with stamps that mom sent. If I haven´t made it clear yet, Tuesdays at district meetings are when we get the bolsa with our letters and packages.

In the house we live in we have a microwave and a petroleum tank with a burner on it, but no oven. So if anyone has any ideas of quick food fixes let me know. I was thinking of trying to make chocolate chip cookies but I didn´t recognize any of the ingredients at the store today and we would have to borrow Idalina´s oven so I gave up on that idea. But if you can think of an easy treat that doesn´t require much let me know. I thought of no bake cookies but they don´t have peanut butter here. maybe that´s something you could send in a future package, but don´t make it a priority it´s no big deal. And by the way just a reminder in case you missed it in my earlier emails, packages are supposed to be under $50 and I think something like 5 lbs. I don´t actually really remember the weight and 5 lbs doesn´t seem like much, but just don´t over do it. Also, if I might put in some requests, I for some reason really just want some american candy. Like starbursts or something. And also I was thinking for treats maybe you could do something like the jar recipes where you put together the dry ingredients and then i just add eggs and oil. But again that stuff isn´t very important and don´t worry about sending tons of packages. Your´s should get here thought that you´ve sent. I have seen lots of other get packages and when i was in montevideo a bunch came into the offices. And they all had pictures of Christ on them so make sure to remember and do that.

I was going to try and send a small package of alfajores today because I heard other missionaries have done that and it is cheap but the post office was closed when we got there so maybe next week.

Renita and Judy, I´m glad your going to see if you can find Seth. I have actually been thinking about him a lot lately, yesterday especially. I was actually thinking yesterday that I should try and write him, so try and email me his address to the mission email and maybe I´ll get it tomorrow. I actually had this feeling yesterday of kind of a desperation, like "we have got to get him back!" kind of a feeling.

Well I think that answers most of your questions. Hope so. I love you all!

Jessica

Updates

Feliz cumpleaños padre! Happy Birthday dad! I sent you a card about two weeks ago so I hope that you will get it today or tomorrow if it hasn´t come already. Hope you have a great birthday and eat some cake and ice cream for me! And mom make sure there are candles on that cake!

So as I said in my first email, I am in Montevideo today. We have our zone conference tomorrow so last night we left Artigas at 12:30 and took another 8 hour bus ride to get here this morning. Tonight we will take another bus to Taycuarembo for the conference tomorrow. I´m not sure how long it will take to get there and we still don´t have definite plans of who we will stay with. Today has been fun though because I got to see all the elders and Hermana Crofts from the MTC and talk about our first weeks here. As I led on in my last email, my has not been easy. It´s just hard with Hermana Moreno because she doesn´t really do things the normal missionary way that I would have expected. A lot of times she doesn´t get out of bed until closer to 8 so I just do my own personal study while she gets ready and then she we have our companionship study at nine and then she finishes getting ready at ten but then a lot of times by the time we are ready to leave we just walk around a little bit until 11:30 when we go to our lunch appointments. Then after we will sometimes go back home because she doesn´t take everything. Basically what I´m saying is I don´t feel like we really spend much time working. And when we do, it´s not that fun. Sometimes when we go into a home to teach HNA Moreno just looks around and doesn´t say anything for a while and it´s awkward, sometimes she´ll even pull out her cell phone and text. It makes me so uncomfortable and it´s hard because I´m not really learning to like missionary work. She´s also kind of weird about her ankle because sometimes she acts like it doesn´t bother her and she´ll say sometimes that it doesn´t hurt her but other times she´ll complain about it especially to members or she´ll ask me to do a lot of things for her that I´m pretty sure she is still perfectly capable of doing for herself. Sometimes I wish that we lived with another set of hermanas so I could at least have some other girls to talk to. And although I don´t have much of a problem communicating in Spanish with Hermana Moreno it would be nice to talk in English sometimes. I miss the free flowing expressive talks that I could have with Hermana Smith in the CCM. I didn´t know I was going to miss her so much but I really do and all the other sisters from the CCM for that matter. It´s been really nice to hang out with HNA Crofts today though and we got to leave our trainers to go to the place to have our blood taken and stuff and she told me that she´s been worried about me because her trainer has heard a lot of things about my companion. It is kind of nice though to know that I´m not crazy for being bothered by her though because I´m not the only one to think she´s a little different. With the difficulty of all that it also makes me really homesick. I think of you all the time and sometimes wonder what it would be like if I could just be home right now. Don´t worry I´m not saying I´m ready to call it quits or anything, but I am definitley looking forward to the next change and hoping that I can be put with a new companion. If I get an interview with President Petersen at the conference I might have to talk to him about the situation though with my companion because I´m really have a hard time staying positive and feeling happy here and I don´t know how long I can last like this.

We have been able to do some teaching though and been following up on some investigators that the last Hermanas were working with. One of them, Adrianna, accepted a baptismal date last week and if all goes well will be baptized on the twenty fourth. I don´t know if we´ll be able to stay long enough to see that happen though because we are changing areas. Our section of artigas is a lot of country area and gets pretty dark at night and there aren´t tons of lights. So I guess the stake president or someone brought that up and it got back to the mission president and he is going to switch us to a different barrio that is more lit up and not so much country. It´s good but also hard because we were just getting comfortable in our area. Speaking of the stake president we have eaten at his house three times now and they are a wonderful family. I don´t know if you recieved it but he took a video of me playing hand clap games with his daughters yesterday and tried to email it to you.

We haven´t really had much luck with getting lunch appointments, that´s why we´ve eaten with him three times. Also, every missionary gets a credit card so they can take out their giro, or allowance every month, but I didn´t get mine since I came early. They said they would put my giro on hna moreno´s card but they never did nor did she receive her. So I´ve just been using my own money but it´s been kind of a weird situation and since we haven´t had money we haven´t gone to get food and we don´t really have much at home and the only meals we get with members is lunch so that´s been a little frustrating but hey, I did want to lose weight right? I did finally get my card today when we were at the mission office but I went to take out the money and there was nothing on it so I need to go talk to them again. Hna Crofts and her companion and me and my companion have spent most of the day together, we went and got lunch and did some shopping, I got a new straightener because my isn´t working, and we ate ICE CREAM! So yummy. So it´s been a pretty good day.

Before I forget I wanted to tell you that the mission as a gmail account that you can write to and put my name in the subject line and then type your letter and they print them off every week and distribute them at district meetings through the bolsa, urugoest@gmail.com. (i think that is right) That is good because you can respond to my emails on Monday and then I can get your letters and read them every week. But still email!!!!!!! I´m trying to deal with it but I´m so homesick right now and today I only got one short email from mom and Amy. I know that you are sending letters and aren´t neglecting me but I feel so out of contact with you and it´s making me cry. Literally. Hopefully I´ll get some letters and maybe a package tomorrow.

But thanks for the pictures and it looks like you are having a good time in California. Emma is such a little sweetie pie! Kiss those cheeks for me!

Love you so much, Jessica

Second Chance

Hey! I get to email again today because since hna moreno hurt her ankle she didnt make it to the internet cafe to do her emailing, i came yesterday with hna flores. so since i had to come again today hna moreno said i could go ahead and email again. her ankle is doing better and she is walking on it, it is still kind of weird to me though and when she gets in a car or gets out of bed or goes up stairs or anything she acts like she has lost the use of her whole leg and cant bend her knee or anything, so i really dont get it.

Still send your letters and packages to the mission home, that is best and then they take everything around to the districts in the weekly meetings. We had ours this morning and i still didn´t recieve your package, I was really depressed watching the other missionaries get their letters, but I know that I´m not being neglected, the mail is just slow sometimes so it is really okay.

That was interesting to read that blog post from Elder Morris´s mom. I´m actually really really impressed with how those elders have done and already matured. Elder Morris was always quiet in the MTC but really nice. And Elder Albrethsen was called to be district leader of his district and it was amazing to see him step up to the plate and really try hard to be a good example and learn. I´m excited to see that group come to the mission field and watch them continue to learn.

So I did want to tell you a happier story since i was kind of down yesterday. On Sunday after the first session of conference, we did actually try to go proselyting for the first time. We knocked on the first door and a young teenage girl let us in. We taught her the first discussion and i actually recited the joseph smith story and the first vision and testified that joseph smith was a true prophet. It was really cool and she said we could come back on Monday, so last night hna flores and i went to see her while hna mcewen stayed with hna moreno. We taught her the plan of salvation and it went really well again. we have another appointment on friday with her and she committed to come to church with us on Sunday. Afterwards we went to visit a family that the other hermanas are getting ready for baptism. It was really great just to get out and feel like a missionary and be with hna flores. She is really awesome and could tell i´ve been having a hard time. she talked to me a lot and made me feel a lot better. If hna moreno decides she needs to rest her ankle more this week I´ll probably going on splits with the other hna´s and a member will stay with hna moreno.

Last night when we got home, hna moreno was receiving a blessing from some of the elders and carmen was there also. You havent gotten my letter yet so you don´t know who carmen is but she is a lady in the ward who has been very helpful and checks on us a lot. It was so weird to me though because after everyone left and it was just me and hna moreno and carmen, hna moreno was complaining about being hungry (we don´t eat dinner in our mission) and Carmen of course wanted to do something but Hna moreno kept saying ´´no its okay, we dont have anything to make and we dont have any money (i don´t really know about the money thing because i haven´t gotten my monthly allowance yet so i´ve had to rely on hna moreno, but i´m sure we have money because we have been taking taxis today so i don´t really get why she was saying that) so anyways she would say, no no no don´t worry about it i´m just so hungry, ohhh, my stomach hurts´´ so of course carmen isn´t going to just say okay and leave when she is still complaining so she found some kind of drink mix left from the last hna´s and made some kind of hot chocolate. it was kind of stupid to me. She is so great though and she came over this morning to check on us and decided our house needed to be cleaned so while i did our study time for two hours and hna moreno got ready she went to work cleaning and took a bunch of stuff outside so she could clean. she is so sweet and comes from poor circumstances as most here do but is willing to do whatever she can to help us. that´s partly why is bothered me how hna moreno seems to take advantage of her goodness.

Anyway, i really shouldn´t complain so much about my companion, she really is great and we are getting along fine, i´ve just been frustrated. My thirty minutes are up though so I have to go. I love you so much and think way too often about how long 18 months are. They will pass quickly though and before too long I won´t be so anxious for them to go. I hope you like the pictures I´m sending and I´ll talk to you next week.

Love you love you love you!!!

Hermana Casebolt
 

So Much To Tell

Hola from Uruguay! I have so much to say i don´t know where to start. when we left buenos aires we flew to get to uruguay and when we were walking through the airport we saw a missionary with his parents and it was matt harris! what are the odds. Anyways, our flight was cancelled and we had to wait a while in the airport but eventually we got everything figured out and made it to uruguay. some of the missionaries tried to call their families from the phones in the airport but not everyone could get through including me. So once we got to uruguay the president and his wife picked us up at the airport and drove us to their home. they are so nice and i felt a little more at home just being with them and seeing similarities in them because we share the same culture background, more or less. At their home we ate lunch and it was so good, it was like having a real, homeade meal. Afterwards we went to the temple and i did my first session all in spanish. so awesome. We at the churches hostels that night, oh and yes hermana crofts was with me, and then the next day we met our trainers. my trainer is hermana moreno from cordoba argentina but her father is from spain and her mom from lebanon, she doesnt speak much english and we do all our communicating in spanish. the area we have been assigned to is called artigas. it is in the northernmost part of the mission right by brazil so i might be learning some portunol which is a mix of spanish and portugese. on thursday we were the last ones to leave on the bus at ten that night and got to our house here at 6 the next morning. we are opening a new area here in artigas and so its been slow going to start. we havent really even gone tracting yet for various reasons and it has been really frustrating. to be honest i have been really homesick this week, so i will try not to let this letter be too much of a downer. it has been hard though that we havent done much because since i am homesick i wish i could get busier doing missionary work so i could have a distraction. its just been kind of weird because the first day we had to go to the store in the morning and then do our long planning session since it was friday and then hna moreno didnt want to go out because it was dark and then conference weekend kind of threw things off too. but conference was really good and like you said mom, it made me feel good knowing that you were doing the same thing although also sad to see the temple and think that i was just walking by there with dad about two days before i left.

today for pday our zone got together and went to...BRAZIL! How cool is that amy, my sixth country! We just kind of walked around and then ate lunch at a buffet and guess what, it was a lot like rodizio. who knew. its been a rough day though, when we were walking over the bridge into brazil hermana moreno stepped in a pothole and twisted her ankle. she is complaining about it a lot and quite frankly i think being overly dramatic. We have been getting along really well but i dont feel like she has really been training me and today has definitely tested my patience and topped of all of the other emotions i have been feeling. The good thing though is since she says she cant walk the other sisters came over and one is staying with her at our house and the other came with me to do my email and go to the store. her name is hermana flores and she is from ogden but her parents are from mexico and el salvador. she is really great and has been making me feel a lot better. i am about out of time and have really said very much, i was reading your WONDERFUL emails, but i did get a really long letter written with a lot more details about our trip over and the first couple of days. also, if you havent already please send me some american stamps, i am almost out of the ones someone gave me in the mtc and if i have them i can send things through the bolsa and its faster. i still havent gotten your package but tomorrow we have a district meeting and we will get the bolsa and i am crossing my fingers to get stuff. also for future reference i have heard it helps to print off a small picture of christ or the virgin mary of use stickers or something and tape them onto pakcages and people will be more likely to leave them alone. also they say not to send anything over 4 llbs or 50 dollars. Well I have to go, but I love you and miss you and your emails made me feel a lot better. Cant wait to talk to you on mothers day!

So much love, Hermana Casebolt