* I got permission from Jessica to share the following email that she sent May 2:
"You don´t need to feel embarrassed, you´re part of our family!" That´s what papa Fagundez said to me yesterday when I was close to tears as half the family was gathered around my head picking out head lice. My scalp has been itching for the last two weeks and I´ve been sure that it´s lice but hna Fleming would look through and she kept saying that she didn´t see anything. I don´t know why though because finally at church yesterday I asked Hna Gardner in the bathroom to look at my head and she started to find them. Then at the family Fagundez house I told them I wanted to tell them something and ask for their help. Mamá wasn´t suprised, she said that she had told Juan that I kept scratching my head and probably was too embarrassed to tell her. But she went and got a white sheet to put over me and a special steel comb and they started to comb through and the little buggers just started falling onto the sheet. Some were so big!! It was disgusting but it´s pretty common here. In fact when I called hna Heaton last night she said that almost none of the hermanas make it through the mission without getting head lice. Today mamá fagundez is going to get some treatment and come over and wash my hair. We are going to look at my bed too because I´m pretty sure I have fleas or bed bugs and I get red spots all over my body...*sigh*...the mission. Don´t worry though it´s actually not that big of a deal and I feel really loved and taken care of by the familia fagundez, plus they know how to handle it since this is pretty normal for the people here.
Well Luis was baptized on Saturday. It was one of the most intense baptisms I´ve ever had. He´s read pretty much the whole book of Mormon and really understands our message. He´s had a lot of life experiences, lost his wife, lost a leg, and probably made some regretted decisions. The bishop baptized him and the second counselor got in the water as well to help. They had to be really careful so he wouldn´t fall and to calm his nerves. I will never forget him coming up out of the water. I´m not sure what was going through his mind but he was overwhelmed and kind of shaking his fist in the water. They just stood there for a minute and the bishop looked at him intently and then closed his eyes. A few moments later they helped him out of the font and we headed back to the sacrament room. Luis bore his testimony telling how he had not believed in Christ before until we came and taught him and he started to read the Book of Mormon. He thanked us, barely able to control his emotions and then sat down. I know that the Book of Mormon is what did it for Luis. What a remarkable treasure we have to read the words of the great prophets Nephi, Alma, Mormon and those of latter days. I´m so grateful for the Book of Mormon and for the way that God works to reveal His gospel to His children. He definitely knows what He´s doing. This week I read a great article from the May 2010 General Conference by Elder Christofferson called ´´´The Blessing of Scripture´´. I recommend it. Elder Christofferson´s talks have become some of my favorites.
I´m so excited to get the package you sent, I really really hope it comes tomorrow. Also, I loved last week that some of you emailed me on monday in response to my email because then on Tuesday I got to hear from you again! If it´s not a big deal I´d really like it a lot if you could always try to right even just a short response right after reading my emails on monday and send it to the mission email. It just makes me so happy to get to hear from you one more time in the week. If you don´t get time it´s no big deal but I just want you to know how glad I was last week to get new emails. I love you all so so much! Can´t wait to talk to you.
All my love, Jessica
