Good letter week

Hi there! How´s it going? I am so glad that you got my tape and so fast! I hope that you liked it and since amy isn´t close and cant listen to it I have one that I am going to send to her and another that I will send to you hopefully for Christmas. It is really nice that Hna Gardner has a tape player and I´m going to try and take advantage of it while I can. I have seen some here but that kind of stuff is expensive here, $50 for just a basic tape recorder. I haven´t tried to get any money out because last time i took out enough to last me for a while but I can try again and let you know next week. So as it says in the subject line this week was a really good letter week. I got a really cute Halloween card from Jennie, several emails from hna salisbury that the offices hadn´t been printing, a written letter from hna salisbury (so weird to hear about her being on my old stomping grounds at byu), and a letter from Becca Lane!!!!! Her letter was so good too. She is a really good letter writer and always so uplifting. If you will recall she is serving in Russia and all of her companions have been Russian, only her trainer spoke english, she said her president is from the ukraine and the only english is knows is ´´Big Problem´´. It sounds like she is in a really hard mission but taking the challenge like a champ. I really have appreciated how our friendship is growing through sharing our missionary experience together. I can remember the night I got my call she had received hers that same day and I called her and we were so excited to tell eachother where we were going. She also told me about the excitement the Russian church members felt as the Ukraine temple was dedicated and they participated by satelite. ´´It´s practically on Russian ground´´ they kept saying. She aslo has told me that because of the history in Russia just how the culture is and it´s general attitude toward religion. It is really interesting and as the church has only been there since 1991 she really has to do a lot of work to just strengthen what they already have and work with less active members as much as looking for new ones. I cant wait to hook up with her when i get home and exchange stories. And judy i sent her the article you sent me from the deseret news about 1 nephi 4:1 and she said she really liked it and made laminated it onto the from of her missionary planner for one of her changes. Thanks again.

So some happenings from this week, we went to a ward activity one night for one of the elder´s wards and taught CPR, my lifeguard training came in handy. Last monday we went to an artisan market that had a bunch of really awesomehand made things and pottery type stuff. I bought a pretty candle holder that has a little hallow in the top to put scented oil in with a tea candle underneath. It is actually the first souvenier type thing that I have bought here. I also made some pretty good baking powder biscuits this week, so nice to have an oven. And one night I almost couldn´t sleep when I realized that I get to call you next month!! Six weeks....

So I do have some questions...for dad...who I haven´t heard from for a while. wink. I never knew before what to ask you about your mission but now I do have some questions. I would also be interested to hear responses from Ryan, Amy and Paul. So I was wondering if you ever had any companions that were not american, like from austria or germany and didn´t speak english. I know you had an office job that you liked, were you ever a district leader or any thing like that? Did you have any really memorable baptism experiences? Did you do most of your contacting in the street or knocking? And Ryan how did you find people where you were in a sign language mission, did you work mostly through references? How often did you have conferences or interviews, what was your president like and where from? Did the members work well with you, did you have a lot of member lessons each week? What change did you move to senior comp? Did you do divisions a lot, did you live with other companionships? What was it like for you to learn a new language (ps for all who have asked, my spanish is not perfect but I personally think i am rocking it) And anything else you would like to tell me. I am just asking all of this out of curiousity, don´t get me wrong when I ask if you were ever a district or zone leader or when you became senior comp. Our district meeting this week was changed to thursday because tomorrow and wednesday we are going to a training, just found out today. So if you (all four of you) hurry and email me back before wednesday I should get it and that would make be a very happy hermana.

Mom I am very much looking forward to your Christmas packages, you need not worry because I know you and I am sure it´s going to be awesome regardless! I love you so much, all of you! Talk to you next week...

All my love, Jessica