Just Call Me Jessica

Oh what fun it is to rhyme...

2011-12-25T00:09:00.000-08:00

*sing to the tune of "Jingle Bells"

A year or two ago,
I wrote for you a poem,
A Christmas morning treat,
'cause I knew you wouldn't sleep!

Last Christmas I was gone,
I hope that poem lived on,
but now I have returned,
that last poem is adjourned!

It's time for something new,
the tradition continues,
I wrote for you this Christmas poem 'cause Jessica is home!

Oh Christmas poem, Christmas poem, it's the Christmas poem!
Oh what fun it is to rhyme around this Christmastime, Hey!

Christmas poem, Christmas poem, it's the Christmas poem!
Oh what fun it is to rhyme around this Christmastime, Hey!

So many things have changed,
but I love it all the same,
three cutie pies have come,
and we're wrapped around their thumb!

Our Emma's super fun,
Tiger Lily weighs a ton,
That Clarabelle's so sweet,
My nieces are a treat!

I'm so glad I'm an aunt,
That's why I wrote this chant,
A special Christmas sing-along to Emma's favorite song!

Oh Christmas poem, Christmas poem, it's the Christmas poem!
Oh what fun it is to rhyme around this Christmastime, Hey!

Christmas poem, Christmas poem, it's the Christmas poem!
Oh what fun it is to rhyme around this Christmastime, Hey!

Merry Chistmas!

A great baptism

2011-05-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

* 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

Lots to Say!

2010-12-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

*Disclaimer from Amy - Jessica has asked me not to post her emails as frequently for the time being, but since this email mentioned a number of her friends by name (who have blogs as well), I figured this one was okay to post. Now, on with Jessica's email:

Hey! Okay, we are on for skype!!! That means we will get to talk FACE TO FACE!! Almost. And sorry about the time mix up, I meant 2:00 your time. So that should be good right? I´m not exactly sure about how skyping works but I believe you need to set up an account and add the heath´s to your list or something so maybe you could email them or something.

Well I am unceasingly spoiled. I left district this week with FIVE packages! The elders gave me a hard time but it was all just fun and games as they helped me carry them out to a taxi. I got two big ones from mom plus the little cake one with my medicine, I got the birthday one from amy and paul and I promise I didn´t read the thing, I ripped it off and threw it away but I love the party hats and stuff. We had dinner with the Heath´s yesterday and her birthday was this week, so while she was getting dinner ready we set the table with a party hat and whistle on each place. It looked really cute and she was so suprised when she came out and saw it. She thought it was pretty hilarious and we also put a candle in the dessert and I gave her a little hand sanitizer, very useful here with taking buses all the time. I also got a package from the ward. We have such a great ward! The little notes from the primary and relief society were so nice and they really stuffed the box with good treats, I will try to get a thank you note sent to them. This morning I had lots of fun making little baggies for all of the hermanas. I put in a little card, some treats, and a hand sanitizer or lotion. Mom, those were such an awesome idea and you sent so many! I even had a couple leftovers! Thank you so so much! They turned out really cute, I will try and send you some pictures. Also tomorrow we are having interviews and Hna Heaton wants everyone to bring a white elephant gift, I am going to take a notebook from the package I got from our ward that has a kitten and flowers on the front and in the corner of every page, I can´t wait to see the look on whatever elder´s face that gets it! I am also tying it up with a box of mac n cheese and some cookies though.

The new change is going okay. Hermana Humphries is really fun and sweet but I do not like being senior companion. It is no good. I don´t know what to do and feel so stumped when it comes to making all the decisions. But we are still alive and healthy so I guess it´s going alright. Today we went over to the mission home to help Hermana Heaton bag up cookies. THis week is interviews and she has been very busy making cookies to give to everyone for Christmas. There were two elders there who are ending their missions this week and also a senior hermana so while she and hna heaton baked us for missionaries bagged. They had these long skinny bags and they were originally going to but a small banana bread and cookies on a plate and then in the bag but it didn´t really fit with the plate, so I came up with a better idea. We put the bread in and then tied it with curly ribbon, then we put a stack of cookies in the rest of the bag from where it had been tied and tied it again with a another color of ribbon. they turned out very cute, you would have been proud of me. It was fun too and I taught Elder Pacheco how to curl ribbon and told them how I used to be able to curl ribbon on my braces. It was funny. They also asked me where I learned to play soccer, apparently word spreads fast around the mission. It´s embarrassing though since I really don´t even play that well.

THis week we at with a lady named Alba. She is kind of different and doesn´t make the best food. But this time she gave us so much rice and milanesa I don´t know how I stuffed it all in me. Then she brought out dessert. I don´t know what it was but it was gross. I promise we have never done this before but we put napkins on our laps and put our bites there when she wasn´t looking. I felt bad throwing it a way after we left but probably not too bad because we were laughing pretty hard. WHat are all of your Christmas plans? Are you going to have a Christmas party? Can you send me pictures of the Christmas tree?

I got a letter this week from Lanae Carmichael, she is waiting for her mission call! Wonder where she will go. Also, Rochelle had been putting in her papers a while ago and I´m wondering if she got her call ever, I haven´t heard from her for a while.

Just to remind you, next week Pday is on Christmas so I will not talk to you until that night, but please email me before monday so that i can read your emails on tuesday anyways! I don´t know how I´m going to go so long. I did hit my nine month mark this week so that has been kind of a nice feeling but I still can´t believe I have nine more to go...ugh. I try to be positive but sometimes I don´t feel like ever made that adjustment that I was waiting to happen when I was in my first few changes. I try to take solace though in knowing that I am well on my way though now. I realized on tuesday when I was talking with hna garnder and flores at the bus terminal that after this change I will be the fourth oldest hermana in the mission. Hopefully the second half goes faster than the first.

Well I am out of time, I can´t WAIT to talk to you next sunday. I am sorry I didn´t get Christmas cards sent out to you but thank you for all of the Christmas packages that you sent to me! I love you all so so much! Try to think of questions or write down ahead of time anything that you want to talk about next week. I love you! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Love, Jessica

You even put in wired ribbon!!

2010-11-30T06:21:00.000-08:00

Hey! Well if you didn´t get it from the subject line I got packages this week! TWO! Thank you thank you thank you! I got the one with a CHRISTMAS TREE and gingerbread house with lots of decorations including lights and pretty wired ribbon that I already made bows out of, I loved it thank you so much! I also received the one with lots of goodies, cute socks, sticky notes, and sour balls. You all really are too good to me. Thank you so much Renita, Judy, Grandma, and Grandpa! I loved loved loved it all! I already wrote you a card that will be sent tomorrow.

It seems a lot longer ago, but last Tuesday we had our zone conference. It was pretty good and president heaton talked about gathering sheep and brought a big bell that you would tie around a sheeps neck and kept ringing it, then later he grabbed hna heaton around the neck with a sheperd´s staff. We also did a three legged race. It was pretty good.

We had a really good thanksgiving day actually. We had a really awesome day of work, tiring, but awesome. Everyone we talked to was really receptive. We had seven lessons and found six new investigators just in that one day. I asked Hna Gardner if she was fasting without telling me or what she had said in her morning prayers because the Lord was blessing us! Hopefully we can get these people to progress! That night we ate Thanksgiving dinner with the Heaths, the senior couple in our ward. The hermana went all out with mashed potatoes and gravy, a big beautiful chicken since there is no turkey to be found here, delicious yams, stuffing, rolls, and a really good carrot pie that tasted like pumpkin pie. It was so nice of them to have us over and we really enjoyed talking with them and spending the holiday there. It sounds like you all had good thanksgiving days too. And now we have less than a month until the Christmas phone call. YAY!

Yesterday was our ward´s primary program. There aren´t that many kids, maybe 12-15, which I guess isn´t too small, but they realy did a good job. They sang loud, said there lines, and just looked cute. There were these two Americans that came to Sacrament meeting that have just been traveling around South America. The guy didn´t speak Spanish and the girl just barely did so he asked Hermana Gardner to transalte for him. It was funny and kind of weird for some reason, I guess just because they were so obviously americans but not missionaries, maybe it just made me realize how out of place we probably look. It also made me think of Amy and Paul because they were carrying big packs, you know amazing race style.

Later yesterday we were walking own the street and Hna Gardner had a little outburst. We were passing by these guys and as always they started to say things to us that we hear a billion times a day and Hna Gardner just lost it. It was so funny because she has never even come close to doing this before but she just wheeled around and said ´´can we we just have a little bit of respect please?´´ It wasn´t really all that bad, mostly just funny because it came out of nowhere. The guy looked pretty taken back and sheepishly pointed at his buddy as if he had said it. I wonder if he will ever say anything to sister missionaries again or if he will just be worse than ever. It was pretty hilarious though.

This morning we played soccer with the zone, it was fun but I am super out of shape. It is time for me to diet! Did you happen to make the Christmas treats low fat? Haha, oh well I´ll just have to make it a new years resolution. Next week is changes and I really don´t know what will happen so I will let you know, cross your fingers that I don´t have to be a senior comp!

Talk to you later!

All my love, Jessica

5 weeks to Christmas phone call!!

2010-11-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Thanks for the great letters and emails I´ve been gettting from you! Dad and Ryan...I´m waiting! I really really liked Amy and Paul´s emails about their missions, Amy there are tons of testigos here, jehova´s witness, and they do missionary work too and a lot of times people think we are them. It is annoying and I am just like you, when they say they are testigos i say bueno chau. they always want to argue and even if you make a good point they just pretend that they don´t understand or something. I actually get really annoyed when my companions even try to talk to them, it literally is pointless because they just won´t listen even though they often times realize that what you are saying makes sense and what they are saying makes no sense at all. But i got to hand it to them, they know their bible, although it must be a lot easier to learn since they have crossed out a lot of the verses that don´t correspond with what they believe.

I´m glad you have gotten a lot of letters from me, I really hope you know that I try to write regularly, I´m sorry that come so sporadically. What are your plans for thanksgiving? Yesterday we had lunch with the Heath´s, the senior missionary couple, and they invited us to have thanksgiving dinner with them, yay! I would say my big news for the week would have to be my eyes. Hear me out. Since my second change I´ve had really dry skin on my eyelids, which I have had multiple times before in my life. But the last month it has been worse and worse. I tried vaseline but my eyes had an allergic reaction and I woke up with them swollen and puffy and flaky. then at the training this week I asked hna heaton for any tips and she came the next day with a cream for me to try which was way to strong and on saturday i just wanted to cry because my eyes were like red leather. The skin had no elasticity, i looked dumb and it hurt to blink. So I called hna heaton which i really didn´t want to do since she always gets a billion calls a day about stupid things like cold sores and elders who are craving sweets and therefore must have a parasite. But anyways she told me to go to a pharmacy and get a hydrocortisone cream which seems to be helping and then she told me to send a picture to the doctor today. I have also been having spring allergies which is pretty annoying, mostly just sneezy and runny nose.

Well, the good news is Martin has fecha! He should be getting baptized on November 28th if all goes well. ´We are have high hopes though. What else is new at home? What are all your holdiday plans looking like? I don´t think it will even feel like Christmas to me. It seems so weird that it is november and summer is just starting.

I hope you all have a great week and that I hear from each of you next week! or tomorrow i guess. Love you lots and miss you tons, I am counting down to my nine month mark-I will be the first to confess that I am a trunky, unfocused missionary. Keep on keepin on!

All my love, Jessica

Good letter week

2010-11-16T21:46:00.001-08:00

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

Happy Halloween

2010-11-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, i am going to tell you now that i got stuck with a not so great keyboard so punctuation will not be great. Thanks for all your emailsª Jennie I tried to look at the pics but they wont come through, i think it is the computer so i will just try again next week. sounds like the party was a big successª yay, good work. and mom i just cant wait to see you dressed up as the queen of hearts, what made you decide to use that costume+

Well I dont have much to tell this week, it was kind of a dull downer week but no big deal. I dont know if i told you already but we made some little halloween baggies to send to some of the other hnas. hna gardner had some cellophane bags with ghosts and pumpkins and then we filled them with some halloween pencils, glowsticks=thanks amyª, some candies including eyeballs and teeth, and a cute halloween card with pumpkin stickers from judy and renita. ´They turned out so so cute. we also took some extra teeth to district and put them on. Also for district i made a yellow cake with a recipe amy sent me at the beginning of my mission. it turned out really good and i made chocolate frosting and sprinkled the fall leaf sprinkles from renita and judy on top. our district was very happy and i was too because it was so fun to be able to make a cake and have an oven in our apartment. plus it turned out super delicious and cute. halloween is kind of a new thing here. some people think it is evil but we did see some little kids trick or treating last night. amy i also gave some glowstick bracelets to the little barcia girls, they really liked them and hna sol if you are reading they are starting the temple prep class. whoo hooª

so in other news yesterday right before sacrament the first counselor asked me to speak or share my testimony. Luckily I carry some fotocopias of talks that i like to use and so i pulled one of those out and took up my scriptures. i assumed that someone who was supposed to speak had not come so i tried to take up some time. they said about five minutes. i was super nervous but i felt like i did okay and probably spoke for about 8 minutes. everyone gave me very sincere compliments and thanks and said they really liked my talk but what surprised me the most is that hna garnder says i spoke for over 15 minutes, some said 20, others 45. so i am not sure how long i really spoke but i thought that was kind of funny. the talk i used was from a conference a couple of years ago, in english i think it is called joseph smith prophet of the restoration.

I hope you all have a great week, les quiero muchoª

all my love, jessica

Updates

2010-10-31T19:34:00.001-07:00

Hi! How´s it going? Amy your picture is sooo awesome! I love Paul´s costume, wow his knees are looking good! Haha,

Well good news! My neck fungus is gone. I have just been having really dry skin for so long and I think it was just dead skin turning black or something and after scrubbing really really hard and having a lot of skin flake off, my neck is back to normal. Sorry that is kind of gross. I have had weird skin in general is Uruguay. My eye has really dry rashy stuff on the lid also, Hna Garnder gave me some vaseline to put on it and that is helping but now it is itchy and bumpy and puffy like I´m allergic to the vaseline, ay que cosa. And lately my lips are super chapped and dry but today i finally found some good chapstick at a farmacia, but you could stick some in a package if it´s not too late :). Also, mom thankyou so much for figuring out my debit card. I don´t really get it though, did you arrange it so the one i have works until the new one comes? Because Friday night we went by an atm and i decided to try it again just in case and it worked! I was like, oh my gosh my mom is AMAZING! Seriously though there are so missionaries who can´t get their families to do anything for them which is kind of hard when you are in Uruguay and you just can´t do some things for yourself and it is so frustrating. But not me, my family rocks! And now I have another task to ask of Judy and Renita. There is a 16 year old girl named Varinia that accompanied us the other day and she was telling me that her mother was baptized about 34 years ago by an elder who later in his mission encouraged Varinia´s father to reactivate himself and serve a mission. Years after her parents married they realized that it was the same elder who had made such an impact in both of their lives and they wanted to let them know how much he had done for them and that the two had married in the temple, but they don´t know how to find him. BUT, he is from Pocatello and he is know about 54 years old. Do either of you know a Glade Gunnell? Could you look him up in the phone book or something and let me know if you find anything? If you do maybe you could even call him and get his email and send me that and his address so they can write to him. I just know how happy it would make me to hear that my converts are still strong in the church and their children are now sharing the gospel and marrying in the temple because I served a mission. Anyways, let me know.

Yesterday was stake conference, it was a satelite transmission and Elder Costa spoke along with Jean A. Stevens and Elder Ballard and President Packer. It was really good and Elder Packer told some interesting stories, one about an experience he had as a soldier in Japan and another in Peru. In japan there was a young boy he saw from a train that was starving, he tried to open the train window to throw his some money but the window would not open and then the train started to move, the little by ran alongside but the train started to pick up speed and he could not keep up. Elder Packer cried as he told of the sadness that he has carried with him for so long about not being able to ease the suffering of that suffering child. It was really touching.

Now that we have an oven I was wondering if someone would send me some more recipes. Maybe for pizza dough, lemon cookies, chewy brownie cookies and anything else that you can think of that is quick, easy and requires basic ingredients.

Mom, I like the dulce de leche spread on soft white bread with bananas cut up on top. Also good on any kind of cookie or I imagine graham crackers. And I think that the office Elders read an email that hna salisbury sent us titled ''urgent'', so they might have started the rumor or i think hna ung wrote something about it to hna crofts, we didn´t start the rumor though. It´s just dumb mission talk though. That´s cool that jerica is going on a mission, do you know when she leaves?

Yes I am taking my premarin and I still have a lot for a while. No I don´t think Hna Gardner has a blog.

Amy, justo I am writing a letter to you and paul that answer a lot of your questions and I will try to deliver on the pictures.

I gotta go, and I didn´t get that suprise sent yet but I will today, it´s just a tape. Okay, I love you so so much! Halleluja I am almost at my nine month mark. Miss you!

All my love, Jessica

I have a neck fungus. Yuck.

2010-10-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Hey mom and everyone else! How are you all doing? Well I always feel like I have business like things to say before typing all of my email, so here goes:

Mom, I tried to use my debit card today and it wouldn´t work. I called the 1800 number and got a ways into a conversation, put on hold, and then my phone died. But right after it did I realized the problem, silly me, my card expired in july. I don´t really know what I can do about that, any ideas? Okay well that was the biggest thing.

So, changes, I´m staying here with Hermana Gardner! Yay, I am really glad for that. this next change will be seven weeks too so I am glad to know that I will have a good comp that I get along with. I have high hopes for what we will be able to accomplish together this change. This week we contacted an earlier made contact named Beatriz. I was a little wary to actually pass by her house because frankly she kind of weirded me out the first time I met her, but i think it was her brazilian accent and the fact that she tried to sell us underwear and showed us the top of her bra for an example. But turns out she is super cool. After the opening song and prayer she suddenly told us she wanted to cry because she really misses her family in Brazil. told her i could relate. She also asked us some good questions, such as ``what do you believe happens after death, the testigos say the pbody and spirit sleep but i think the sirit goes to some world of spirits, but i don´t know why i think that´´. Yeah, we can work with that. And Martin who is progressing with quitting smoking says he is seriously considering being baptized...at the end of the year. that we can work with too though.

Today for pday we went to the temple since it is usually closed on our normal monday pdays. it was really nice and later we ate at mcdonalds and bought peanut butter. i love being in montevideo. We also bought some halloween stuff to send to the other hermanas.

Guess who got a haircut? me!!!! It was so long and hna smith came for a dentists appt and I had her cut off 10 inches!!! I have SHORT HAIR!! Just kidding, just got a trim!! haha did i get you? It is still super long and I like it. It was fun to see her and hna halladay too. I worried about them together but they are actually really compatible and also didn´t change.

Dear Amy, Happy birthday! I love you my beautiful still very young and hip sister. I look up to you so much and tell my comps all about you. Hope you went skydiving and got the card I sent. Also I got your package this week! I read all your blogs aloud to hna gardner and we both enjoyed them a lot. And glow sticks!! you know me well. love you!

Judy I also got your articles, they were so good, especially kloved the austin collie one and so did the elders who now think i am a colts fan. but maybe I am, it is pretty cool that they have team bible study. mira.

SO i have a neck fungus on my neck under my ears. I don´t actually know what it is but for a few months I have had some discoloration and dryness but this morning it was a dark color and looked like dirt. It doesn´t bother me but it is really gross.

Mom I don´t really want to ask for anything for christmas because your ideas are usually better and you already have done more than enough for me...but..hehe...my journal is almost full and I would like a new one. Hna Gardner has some from shopko that i really like. the brand is markings and I like the one whose picture is attached to this email. i like journals that lay flat when you open them too, not spiral. sorry i know i sound really picky and rude. some other ideas would be short sleeve summer shirts, and they can actually be really casual, mission dress is way more lax than i thought it would be. And I may have mentioned this already but i would really really like just a basic straight edge cutter if you think that would be possible. these are all just ideas though, don´t stress over getting packages to me, you are amazing and that is confirmed to me all the time because I see a lot of missionaries who don´t have the home support that i do.

Well I am out of time, I hope you like the pics and I will email again soon, monday, thank you for your letters and emails they were super good this week! I love you all!

Jessica

Emailing from the mission home...

2010-10-11T16:22:00.001-07:00

Hi! How's everything going? We have had a pretty good week and today we got our oven! We are excited but it was a bit of a pain because last night they called us to tell us that we would have to stay inside today and wait for it to be delivered to us. It didn't come until 3:30. So most of our pday we were stuck inside which was no good because we actually had a lot of things to do today. Hermana Gardner needed to come to the mission home today to show Hermana Heaton the health powerpoint presentation and we also needed to do our laundry, so we brought that with us to wash while we were here. It's almost seven now though and our pday ends at six so waiting for the ovens kind of threw everything off. This week was good because we felt like we were not only working hard but our numbers reflected that hard work. for the most part. We found some news, although none of them have been there when we go back, and we were getting more lessons from our knocking and we were getting all of our contacting done. The biggest frustration this week was that none of our investigators could meet with us. They all cancelled their appointments and would not answer their phones and weren't home when we went by. So that got really annoying because everything that we plan falls around our appointments with them and when they cancel it just kind of messes us up.

We went to the offices again this week to work on that health presentation. When we got there we put down our stuff and went into one of the other rooms where one of the elders has his desk to grab an extra chair and there was this picture of a girl on his desk and Hermana Gardner asked "hey who is that?" but she didn't it in this really intense way that got a funny look from the elder and then she's like, "i think i know her, what's her name?" and she didn't know the girl in the end but then we go back out where the other elders have their desks and another one of them has a picture of some girl and Hermana Gardner said, geez, did you all get pictures of your girlfriends this week, then we look around and sure enough the other two elders had pictures of girls by their computers too. Turns out they forgot we were coming so they didn't get a chance to hide them this time! It was so funny, Hermana Gardner and I cracked up about it. When we go back this week we are going to take some pictures of our own to set up while we work.

So before forget, next week is changes because President has to go to Argentina, so I won't be emailing next monday, I'm not sure what day it will be. Also, Amy I was wondering if it's not a bother, could you maybe start sending my the text of your blogs to the mission email on a weekly basis? And Renita I'm sorry I haven't been sending my emails to your address, I wasn't sure of what it was and I just figured you would get forwards, but I have you in my address list now. And thanks again to both of you and grandma for the wonderful package, we are going to put those mixes to good use now that we have an oven! And I'm going to throw in a package suggestion for maybe christmas or something, I would really like a straight edge cutter. If you could maybe find a cheap light weight one that would be really nice. I make a lot of notes by cutting out from colored paper to give to members, investigators and other missionaries. And you. And sometimes I just really wish I had a straight edge cutter. But nothing urgent, just an idea.

Oh I also wanted to tell you that last week I got a letter from the priests and from Sister workman. It was really nice of them and I wrote them back today and will send it off tomorrow. And I am hearing rumors that Hermana salisbury is getting close to engagement. Hermana Gardner and I have not heard really anything from her and we are gettin a little upset so if you talk to her tell her to write us. And did she ever give you the package i sent?

Okay my time is short and I didn't get pictures sent. Sorry, but tomorrow I am sending a suprise in the mail that I hope you enjoy. I love you so much!!!!!!!! Keep writing, I need to hear from you! Love Jessica

ps amy will you please send to the mission email a copy of president monson's talk in the women's conference and a copy of the talk by elder holland cast not away therefore thy confidence? you might need to shrink the font, if it is too long i may not get it. thank you!

Package, General Conference, and Ciudad Vieja

2010-10-04T21:37:00.001-07:00

Hey there! I really loved my emails this week, sounds like good stuff going on at the home front.

Well we had a pretty busy week, not so much for missionary work but on thursday we went to the mission office because hermana gardner who is a nurse was asked to put together a health presentation for the next zone conference so we went to work on that and while we were there I got a suprise package from Judy!! Wow that was an amazing package, thank you so much! THe candy is delicious, the stickers are awesome, and I loved the hot dog singing card, typical. And we should be getting our ovens in a couple weeks so I will be able to make the cake and sugar cookies! It was kind of weird to see the fall stuff that you sent though, its spring right now to me, but candy corn tastes just as good!

General Conference was so enjoyable for me. It was partly just nice to be able to sit and listen to someone else talk about the gospel in a much better way and also of course the talks were really good too. Mervyn Arnold that told about his wife and the cow that broke through the fence and ate week was the man that spoke to us last change and told us that same story. Hermana Garnder and I had fun taking our matching study journals which we have decorated so they are obviously hermanas notebooks and I really enjoyed taking notes from the talks, we didn{t watch the r.s. session because they are rebroadcasting it next saturday for a r.s. activity in our ward and we are going to watch it then. I really liked Elder Christoffersen and President Uchtdorf{s talk, wasn{t he so funny?

Today for Pday we got up and cleaned and studied then we took a nap then we went and ate lunch at the church with the elders, and then we went to a place called Ciudad Vieja. It was so cool. THere are just lots of vendors selling really cool things and lots of large buildings with really cool architecture and just an old charm to them. Oh english translation-Old City. While we were there we also went to the tomb of Jose ARtigas and saw the changing of the guard and we got our shoes shined by a guy in the plaza. He told me he didn{t have any grey polish, he was joking because my poor shoes were in such desperate need of polishing. It was fun and kind of a random thing, but worth in because 30 pesos later, or a dollar and half later and my shoes look like brand new.

Well I{m sorry that my letters took so long to get to you. I always send them early but I think sometimes the office elders don{t always get the bolsas out like they should and sometimes misplace things and then they resurface later. Today I didn{t and probably won{t have time to make some halloween cards to send out, let alone write letters, so sorry about that, I will try to get some letters off next week. I love you all so much, thanks for your letters, packages, emails, love and support.

All my love, Jessica

Here we go...

2010-10-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hey hey! How´is everyone? THings are okay here, just another week, kind of slow with a lot of knocking and contacting. I am really looking forward to general conference next weekend the watching the women´s session saturday morning and then we watch the other two sessions in the afternoon and evening. The time here jumps forward one hour on sunday, when do you guys change again? The investigators that we are working with right now are martin, victor, and lucia. They are all middle aged. Martin is really upbeat and excited but he is trying to stop smoking, victor is too but not doing super well with it and we are kind of at a stand still with him. Lucia is good but here daughter who was living in switzerland was killed in a car accident at the beginning of the year and that has been hard for Lucia, she has a lot of questions but I think she is looking for an easy answer and is having a hard time doing the work to really allow the gospel to help her. We had a good lesson with her this week though about the atonement and then we shared nobake cookies with her-have i mentioned that there is peanut butter in montevideo? its is pricy though. anyways she liked them a lot.

I haven´t heard from susie yet about her visit, how did she hurt her ankle and who is taylor? I´m glad that grandpa had a good birthday, sounds like fun, i wish i could have been there. did seth every go visit them like he asked, or have you heard from him at all?

Jennie I got your letter this week with the pictures, thank you! I love the one of emma´s big smile in her brown shirt with the flowers, so so cute. Mom you really don´t need to send another package, i was just going to tell you that in case you had one that you were going to send.

My key board is not working very well so i´m sorry if this email is kind of weird. Today we are planning on going to a botanical garden so i´m pretty excited about that i miss the way that in utah there azre landscaped yard everwhere not to metnion parks and other really pretty planted areas and mountains. So i´m interested to see what the garden that we go to is like. I will let you know and try to take some pictures. I made some sandwiches and we are going to have a picnic too. should be fun. Next week we might change our pday to another day so that we can go to the temple since it isn´t open on mondays, but I am not sure so monday i may or may not email. also they are making this transfer only 5 weeks long instead of six because president heaton has to go to argentina for something so that will throw thing s off later on. and the change after will be seven weeks long.

Sorry I really don´t have very much to say again this week. Missionary work has just been kind of boring lately...I miss you all a lot, I love fall time in utah, it is fun to read about the drivesyou have taken to enjoy the colorful leaves and the nice weather. Give sally some loves for me.

Until next week, All my love, Jessica

I'm a city girl!

2010-09-22T06:50:00.001-07:00

Hey there! Mom you met Hermana Salisbury!!!!! She better send me some more details about the guy who came with her. Me and Hermana Garnder are really feeling in the dark.

So my first week has gone really well. I like Hermana Garnder SO MUCH! We are having a lot of fun, we get along, we have a lot in common as far as our personalities go, and she is a super hard-working, dedicated missionary. If anything I feel like I have a hard time keeping up with her but I am definitely going to learn a lot this change. Being in the city has been good, I was really nervous because I had heard that the people here are a lot harder to work with and just not as receptive or nice, and it´s true, contacting is harder and it´s hard to keep your numbers up and I am really having to adjust to practically running along side people shouting about the gospel over the noise of the cars while they try to get away from me, but it´s coming for me. And I really do prefer city to campo (country). Life is just more exciting and busy. Time just seems faster altogether for some reason and I like it. But I will have to be patient with missionary work here because it seems to be a little more fruitless for lack of a better way to say it.

Hermana Gardner and her companion before had found an awesome 16 year old kid last change who got baptized yesterday. He is really cool and asked if he could take a minute at the end to stand and thank everyone for their support and helping him. It was so sweet. Also, President and Hermana Heaton showed up in our ward yesterday and drove us to our lunch appointment. I love them so much! We also have a senior couple in our ward-the Heaths from Idaho Falls. They are great and I am SO excited to have them in our ward and that we will get to work with them. I think we are going to have dinner with them this week too-homeade american food yeah baby!

AMy I love the pictures of your house, it looks so nice and the decorations are absolutely darling. Houses here, or apartments rather, are alot nice that in other parts of uruguay so that has been pretty interesting. Our church building is pretty normal and nice and we have a nice apartment too. We are really close to the beach but it isn´t the most beautiful beach but still pretty. We actually ate lunch on the beach our first day together. I will try to write some good letters today and get them off with some more detail, I´m pretty much out of time. I love you all so so so so much! I miss you and am glad that time in Montevideo seems a little faster so that I will be home a little sooner than I think! Until next week,

All my love, Jessica

This country girl is going to the city

2010-09-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom and everyone! Before I forget Judy, yes I can get all of those things. Explanation?

Well as I already told you I am going to Montevideo with Hermana Gardner, the one I took the camera for remember? Hermana Salisbury was her trainer and the area I will be in is where Hermana Salisbury started her own mission. In ways I am really nervous because I hear a lot that Montevideo is one of the harder areas of the mission. I actually went to pocitos, the area, when I went to the hermanas conference with hna moreno my first change but we just went and visited with one of her old converts for two hours until our bus left, but it will definitely be different than what I am used to working in. It´s city. the people are always on the go and you are in more apartment type places as far as I can tell. But there are also things I´m looking forward to. For one thing, next monday for pday I bet we will be able to go to the temple! Yay! And I think Hermana Gardner and I will get along really well and work well together. I´ll also probably get to see the president and hermana on occasion. So there will be good things and bad things as always. I will be glad to have a change though just to give me some new stuff to see and think about. I really do love hermana halladay though and I´m glad that I got to be her comp, but I still don´t think we made the most effective companionship. Her new companion will be hermana smith. I was hoping that I would be in a zone with hna smith but still no luck. I really have missed her and I am in need of a haircut. But I talked to her today and apparently the mission pres. wife and temple pres wife have her come to deo to cut their hair sometimes and she will probably be going this next change so I will get to see her and she will cut my hair too. Woo hoo!

Well, in short, this week was long. I was really dragging last night and Heavenly Father definitely worked things out so that a change would come just in time for me. AT the beginning of the change I felt really strong about dealing with the halt of the work and all, but it has really worn me down. Although we have had some progression. At a member lunch we met hermana chivel´s 18 yr old grandaughter who wanted to her the discussions. We have been teaching her and have been able to answer a lot of questions she has had. She has a baptism date for the 24th and came to church on sunday as well as a couple who is progressing extremely slowly but surely nevertheless. So I am glad hna halladay and hna smith will have a little something to work with. Today I mostly got packed and we went to the zoo and a museum and ate ice cream in the plaza. Tonight i have to go say goodbyes.

BIG NEWS: THe mission is getting ovens!!! for all of the houses! It will probably take a month or two but yes you heard right we are getting ovens. Hoo-rah! I am very excited about that. Let´s see I forgot to bring my list of things I was going to write about so I can´t really remember anthything else at the moment, but...only IF you have a package that you are going to be sending, please include some of those footies that you wear so that you can´t see them because we don´t have to wear tights in the summer now when it get´s super hot but i don´t have footies and they are hard to get. Although maybe hold off, I might be able to find them in deo, I´ll let you know next week.

I haven´t heard from hna salisbury yet about your meeting but she had sent me a couple of other emails before that. I´m sure she is busy trying to keep up with all the boys that are wanting to take her out. : ) I hope that you will be able to hook up again soon though. ANd i´m glad that you are getting my letters! Did jennie get hers too? I sent to all of you, I don´t think I will have time to write today though. Mom did you and judy ever get your bday cards?

I leave to go to montevideo tonight at 12:30. I will be on the bus all night entonces. We are going to go to the other hnas´ house before so they can come with us and hna halladay will stay the night with them. It will be really tiring to travel all night but I am excited to be going somewhere, it is just nice for some reason although I may eat my words after a week of trying to work the streets of the city.

Well I am about out of time. I love you all so much! I´m excited about this change because we will have general conference, interviews, and temple on mondays, so it should go really fast and when it´s over i will just have a month and a half left until my christmas phone call! I will email next week and let you know about my first week in deo. Oh! and on thursday i get emails at district so respond to this to the mission email before wednesday night and then make sure you write new emails to me before monday so I don´t get the same ones : ) I love you!

Jessica

I ate a hot dog for lunch

2010-09-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

Hola, how is everyone doing? We have a had a rainy cold week but yesterday and today have been beautiful and warm. I am so glad to hear that you met susie! I can just imagine the two of you cruising around in the corvette. How fun. Did she show you pictures from her camera or any videos? try and send me the pictures that you took in your email next week! Did she remember to give you my little package? It had some little flower clip ons for amy and jennie, wondered how they liked them. did she drive the corvette? haha

Before I forget, yes mom next week is change week so we will be emailing on tuesday. I am really not sure what will happen for changes. I thought that I would probably be going but at our conference they said they are going to start trying to leave us in each area for about 8 months, which sounds like a lot to me. For us hermanas that would pretty much mean only serving in two areas so I wonder if they will be a little more loose with the hermanas. We´ll see though. Whatever happens I am hoping to be in a zone with hermana crofts or hermana smith. I am hoping to see hna smith soon because I need a haircut! Well and because she is just awesome.

Hey mom, did you ever get your knee looked at? has it still been bothering you or is it doing better? how has it been doing for your exercise classes and everything? What are you doing today for labor day, anything special?

Yesterday we finally had some investigators in church. the llovet family and coca. The llovet family were a reverence, they are really poor and the mom has been having really serious health problems and the dad has been having to do everything as far as working and cooking, washing clothes and taking care of the kids. the boys didn´t come, they are super shy, but i think the parents had a good experience. I hope that they will start progressing faster and be a little more proactive.

Last week we did a noche de hogar with the familia de lima and we made my box cake and talked about obedience and how you have to follow the directions on the box. the cake turned out really yummy and i made chocolate frosting for it, people here don´t really have the custom of putting frosting on cake but I think that they liked it. I got your package on tuesday with my premarin in it, so that got here really quickly. Thank you for sending it and for the treats! I am making good use of the stationary. I was really missing home this week, tuesday and wednesday were especially hard for some reason. I have really appreciated hna halladay though, she is very patient and understanding and good to talk to. I just keep trying to tell myself that I am only days away from my six month mark. It still just seems like a really long time and I miss you all a lot.

I´m glad you had such a good week, sounds like you are preferred first grade teacher as always. Did you happen to get my letter yet that talks about my recent thoughts for a career path? I want to know what you think when you read it. And did you ever get my birthday card? I am sending one for grandpa tomorrow so I hope that it will get to him before his birthday is long passed.

I guess I don´t really have anything more to say. Just that I love you so much and I really miss you. The next time I email I will be more than 6 months along and maybe headed to a new area. I´ll be letting you know!

I love you to the moon and back! Jessica

Another P-day Email

2010-09-01T18:39:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! I hope I didn´t sound super desperate or angry in that other email, but thank you all for your emailing me! I thought you could just send them to the mission email and I would read them tomorrow, but you are quick!

Well it has been...not the best week. We had our conference in Mercedes and I actually didn´t really like it very much. For starters the traveling part always takes a toll on being able to sleep. We left at 12:30 in the morning and rode a bus for some 2 and a half hours to paysandu where we got off and went to a church where we and the other 2 hermanas slept on the floor in the guarderia for a couple of hours until we had to walk back to the bus terminal and ride for another four hours to mercedes and start the conference. The new area president Elder Arnold spoke to us along with his wife and the heatons. We kind of expected him to ``bajar la caña`` or drop the cane a little on us, which he kind of did, but not as much as I expected. But to be honest I didn´t really like him very much. Which I know is really bad of me. Maybe it was partly because I was tired but I didn´t really like his personality and he did talk a lot about how we need to do things and be really strictly obedient and what things we need to be doing in our lessons and planning and everything. I left the conference feeling really depressed because I felt like I am the worst missionary ever and don´t do anything right but I still feel confused about how to do things better and I don´t think I will ever be a very good missionary. But I think that is how the conferences with area presidents usually are. I just didn´t really feel the spirit though and we didn´t get to talk to the heatons really because they all left right after the closing prayer and...yeah I just didn´t love the experience. Although I have also realized lately that I have some pretty serious pride issues so that was probably playing into things. After the conference we went and worked in Mercedes for a few hours and knocked some doors by the river. It was weird because it was a really high end area with big nice houses. We didn´t have much luck.

Hermana Halladay and I are getting along well, she is really nice. But I still don´t think that we work very effectively. We pretty much started out the change with no real investigators and we needed to find news, we are still in that same situation. Our numbers have been horrible as far as lessons a week go and we aren´t really working with the members. It is hard because we both want to work hard and I think we do, just not in an effective way. I´ve been missing you all a lot this week and it´s just not been the best week, but i think you have those sometimes. I´ve been really tired too though after the conference. I´m just glad that there are only a couple weeks left in the change. I would kind of like to go to a new area, I think it would help me to refocus a little bit and get out of my comfort zone some more to shock me back into life....maybe, or it could just make things worth. But the elder arnold said at the conference that he wants us to start staying in each area for at least eight months so I am not really sure what will happen. the work is really slow here though right now, I hope it will pick up, I need to distract myself because I am really unfocused this week.

I am out of time, but mom I didn´t get the premarin yet but it might come tomorrow. Amy I think the mission address is 1167 enrique martinez montevideo uruguay c.p. 11.800.

Talk to you next week,

All my love, Jessica

It's PDAY!!

2010-08-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I love you and I miss you!!

Well this week was a little odd because all of the zl´s and dl´s had a 3 day conference in t-bo so our district meeting was moved to friday and the mission wants us to start doing our big planning day on sunday after church instead of on fridays so things feel a little out of sync. And this week will be a little off too because we have SECTOR CONFERENCE on wednesday!!! I´m so excited. We are going to Mercedes this time and we will be seeing the hermanas from paysandu (hna crofts!!) and from fraybentos, (hna flores from artigas!) So It should be pretty fun and the area president is going to be speaking to us.

Brahian Marichal was baptized on Friday night and it was a really nice baptism. His dad baptized him and it was really special for both of them. It is so awesome to see Javier, who didn´t know the church two months ago, baptize his son and then get up and bear his testimony and get so emotional about his love for the gospel. The big lug. We sometimes call him pica piedra-fred flinstone. Yesterday in church Miriam was moved from rs secretary to second counselor and hna de mattos was made the new president-i know hna sol i was confused too. hna de mattos will be good though and blanca was put into primary. Miriam also gave a talk in church yesterday on repentance and she did a good job. Working has been kind of slow. We are trying to find news still so not that much has changed. It has been a really humbling change because I think I am really a lot more aware of my weaknesses in teaching and actually doing missionary work. It just hits me sometimes how much I need to improve.

Today for pday we went bowling with hna vogel and hna humphries. It was...fun. Bowling is pretty lame though when you cant dance and sing along to the music though in between your turns. Judy I took the mickey mouse picture just for you, as well as the picture of daniella with her hlj ring. thanks a ton!

I tried to print all of your letters earlier but the printer in the cyber didn´t end up working so I will try to respond to them later. I skimmed some of them and jennie your trip sounds so FUN!! And the pictures were darling. I do remember when we when to jackson hole and i tried to eat all of the ice cream and then later we stopped and got ice cream cones. I don´t think I ever lost the weight i gained that trip! Good times and great memories.

Mom I am making good use of the craft supplies you sent me. For every conference I try to make something for each of the hermanas. One time I gave them a "blessing" by wrapping a twix and crystal light in a little paper. another time i taped a gold wrapper candy to a paper saying you are a missionary of gold. this time it is, a pen with a paper tied to it that says, "una lapicera para una misionera" it ryhmes in spanish but means a pen for a missionary.

How has your birthday been mom? Did you get my card yet? What have you done to celebrate? How was school? I'm really really excited for you to meet hna salisbury. maybe you can have her over for or take her out to dinner. I think she would love to drive the corvette wink wink!

I hope you all have a great week, enjoy the pics! I Love you so much!!!

Mom you said you like to think about me safe under the covers before you go to bed at night so I sent you a picture to help you imagine! Also there is one with a cool crown i made for jeans birthday. enjoy, all my love

Made it to Agosto

2010-08-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

Hey there! How is everyone? I made it passed my 5 month birthday and am on to number 6! Amy, it sounds like you had a fun weekend with Carrie, and mom I guess you can kiss summer break goodbye!

Well this week was a liiiittle bit better. Although Hna Halladay has a lot of weird quirks we are getting along just fine for the most part. I still feel like we need to be working harder though. Yesterday she wanted to go to the zoo to do contacts, it is in our area and it was dia del nino so there were tons of families going there. Maybe it wasn´t a bad idea but I didn´t think it was super effective. We had Andrea, a youth from another ward, accompanying us but all we were able to do there was a ton of basic contacting and a lot of the people didn´t even live in our area. I just didn´t think it was a great use of time so I finally tried to nicely suggest that we should go door knocking a pass by some addresses of contacts we had made in weeks past. I think it kind of offended her or hurt her feelings or something, but I just felt like we were doing a lot of fruitless contacting when we could be getting lessons with member and looking for news. We did end up knocking a lot and got 2 lessons with member and 3 others later on. Sometimes I just feel like both she and I are willing to work hard but neither of us know how to do it effectively. It is frustrating but I guess it is part of the experience and you learn as you go and just have to trust in Heavenly Father to make weak things become strong unto you.

So it really end up being a pretty long week and not super productive, but hopefully things will keep getting better. I find myself thinking way to much about how much longer I have left, whick is still a lot, but I like to think that since I will probably leave one change early to go to school, I have less than a year left, which means that after this change is over I only have two left to hit my halfway mark. It is starting to sink in with me that you never do stop missing home.

Today for pday we got up and cleaned the house then we went to centro and ate breakfast, playes soccer at the stake center, and now we are doing email. Last week on tuesday I sent nine letters so hopefully you will being getting them in a week or so. Mom I will keep my eye out for my premarin package. Thanks, and if you have another one ready the only request i have is more stickers. I dont know if you would find them at deseret book or where but I would like some temple stickers to put on peoples hymnbooks or boms, and then basic flowers and stars and stuff like that are really useful. But you all really need to stop spoiling me so much with so many packages!

I know this is short but this computer is being slow and I am going to try and send another email with pictures and i will write more if i have time. I love you!

Jessica

Starting of the change

2010-08-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

Hey there! I have so many things to tell you today I really don´t where to begin...as usual. Well first of all I got to packages last week at district and they were the BIGGEST packages I´ve gotten! Thanks mom and Judy it was AMAZING!!! I loved all of the treats and soup/pasta mixes and the stickers, paper, markers, pictures and all. I must have some really amazing luck because I seem to always get my packages, they come fast, and they are never opened or stolen from.

In other news, I cried like a little girl when Hna Salisbury left. For two days. It has been really weird being here without her and having a new person living in the house and walking the streets that I came to know with Hna Salisbury. Hermana Halladay is...interesting...to say the least. Let´s be honest, she and I are really different and she is kind of...weird for lack of a better word. She kind of gets on my nerves but I´m sure we will still get along. What I am worried about more than anything is that she doesn´t seem to be a very hard worker. Of course it is probably hard to tell since she has been sick, but our first day she would walk so slowly everywhere we would go and then her contacts were pretty bare-bones ´´heres an invitation and chau´´ kind of a thing, hna sol you would be proud of me though, I wouldn´t let them walk away without pulling out a folleto and really talking to them. After a while of that hna Halladay said something along the lines of, ´´not all of the contacts have to be super-salisbury contacts´´. I took it as a compliment.

Then on Saturday she started complaining about not feeling well and so she had to walk slower. It would take us a half hour to walk somewhere that should have only taken 10 minutes. It was really ridiculous. Then on Sunday when we woke up she said she couldn´t go to church. She said her stomach was hurting and she had a fever. I let the bishop know that we wouldn´t be there because she was sick so then he and his wife came to check on her later and as most people here do, they made a fuss about her temperature being high and needing to go to the doctor. It was really nice of them to come over though. So she was in bed all Sunday and yesterday and then today we left to go to district. She says she is feels fine until she starts walking. I´m sure she does feel sick but I think she is kind of being a little bit over-dramatic and she should still be able to work. We will see how the rest of the week goes but I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of divisions.

It has definitley not been easy and I had way too much time to think about home the last couple of days, but as Hna Sol said I would, I have really felt a new strength and support that I did not feel as much before. I was able to lean on her a lot and let her do most of the work, but now even though I am compañera menor I think I will be carrying a lot of the load this change. I almost wish I was senior comp though because I feel like hna halladay´s spanish and method of teaching are a little bit lacking. People react to her differently because she is kind of socially akward and doesn´t really know how to approach people and when she does they just seem to get annoyed be the way she talks to them and stuff. I´m being really judgemental and critical though and I really have no room to talk.

I am worried about the work though and our members. I could almost feel things come to a halt when Salisbury left and halladay came in. Susie, digo Hermana Salisbury, I know you will be reading this off my blog so here is something for your benefit:

Elisabeth did not come to church yesterday. I tried to call her but couldnt get a hold of her. Lourdes tampoco. We passed by her house several times fri and sat but never could find her. We went by alexi and valeria too and the moto was there and we heard music but no one would come to the door. Buuut, Brahian is actually pretty excited about the thirteenth although we still have a lot to teach him. I will be sure to send you pics. Everyone misses you a lot and when I got to Silvias house to take her your scarf we just hugged and I cried and cried. Thanks again for being an amazing comp and for teaching me how missionary work should get done! And thank you for telling me about the Vietnamese lady that had the misfortune of waxing your legs. Amy make sure that gets posted online!!!

Oh!! And congrats Amy and Pablo on the house!!!!!!!! So exciting. And no we aren´t really running anymore. I did get hna halladay to go out on sat morning but we ran for maybe 5 minutes before she had to stop. I have been doing exercises and yoga in the morning though. I do think I lost wait the last couple of changes.

Judy I hope you had a happy birthday, I did send you a card but it probably won´t get there for at least another week.

Well I am about out of time and I am going to attach some pics. I love you all so so very much!!

Love Jessica

Ps Hna Salisbury is going to come visit you, Y hermana cualquier dia esta bien pero por las dudas, si vaya el veinte tres es el cumpleaños de mi mama entonces seria un buen regalo para ella, pero haga lo que le queda bien. Te quiero hermana!! Saludos de Javier y miriam y todos!!!!!

And the new companion is...

2010-08-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

Hermana Halladay. I have met her once or twice and she seems very quiet but very nice and sweet, I believe she is from New York. And I am staying in Salto. I was actually kind of hoping to go somewhere else but it´s fine. I am not ready for a comp change though. I cried for probably an hour last night before I went to bed. I didn´t know serving a mission was going to be such an emotional rollercoaster.

Jennie! I got your package last week! THANKYOU!!!!! Oh my goodness, Emma does not look like the same baby that I said goodbye too. I love the family picture of the three of you. It turned out so so good. Thank you for the nutter butters, mnms, starbursts, and holy peach-raspberry crystal light! You are awesome, love you!

Last week was actually a really eventful letter week. I got a wedding announcement from colson, whoo whoo! A letter from Judy with a really good article, an amazing letter from becca lane who is serving in st. petersburg russia. her letter actually had a huge impact on me. It sounds like she is in a really hard mission and that there are probably so many things to deal with but she sounds really positive and like she is staying strong. It was really impressive to read and helped me a lot. She says when they do their contacting people ignore them, yell at them glare at them, laugh at them. We literally have had people contact us. I don´t have anything to complain about. I also got an awesome letter from lanae who met uncle ezra in nauvoo. Can you try and get her address for me so i can write her? Hers was really newsy too. Katie watkins from mexico study abroad got her mission call to the phillipines! what? yeah the phillipines, go katie girl! Also mary got hers to detroit...and i think there was another but I don´t remember right now. And did I ever tell you that a while ago i got an announcement for sarah hermann´s wedding?

So that´s a lot of the recent news that I have to tell you. Oh! Hello, and the awesome baptism on Friday. It was so good and after they had all changed and there was time for testimonies they were the first to get up and share their experiences with how the gospel has already changed their lives. afterwards we had a party in the cultural hall to celebrate blanca and ricardo´s marriage, they got married so that they could get baptized. Miriam and Javier, who were baptized a few weeks ago made pizza and cake for it, they are soooo cool.

Well this week has been a little tough just because I don´t want a new companion and I can´t help but feel that Hermana Salisbury is going home and I am getting left behind. I still have so much longer to go and i feel a little jealous that this is her last day. And I am worried about this next change because like you said amy, after being with a good comp for two changes it will be weird to adjust to a new one. I guess I will be emailing on Monday and letting you know how it goes.

I love you all, mom and dad the pictures are of your trip are awesome, looks like you had fun.

All my love, Jessica

Week of Boring

2010-07-27T06:27:00.001-07:00

Hello family, or should I say hello all of my adoring fans? Carrie you are more than welcome to send me a package and yes I do remember you, specifically I remember when I was little and would blow raspberries on the back of your neck, so yeah I you can count yourself as a personal friend! My sister Amy told me about how some random people are reading my blog and I feel really funny, like people are reading my journal or something, but it is funny to me because my journal is super boring and I don´t get why anyone would want to read it. But I hope you are enjoying! Personal shout out to Rochelle, Andrea, and unpersonal shout out to everyone else!

Okay, back to my family, sorry for the interruption family, it is hard being a famous missionary. amy I´m not actually sure on the address but I will find out, I think it is 1167 though. This week was lame and I really have nothing to report. We did have interviews with the president and the hermana and that was fun for the 10 minutes i was with them but the rest of the time the assistents do a big lesson thing and it was super dry. Dreams, Goals, Covenants, yeah yeah baptize baptize. Anyways, I wasn´t going to tell you about this because I don´t think it will happen but since I have nothing else to say I´ll tell you anyway. Hna Sol wasn´t suppossed to tell me this but in her interview i guess the president was asking about me and if I am ready to be a senior companion. A SENIOR WHAT?! I said, did you tell him NO WAY! I´m still not even sure if I want to stay here after my next change, my plan has been give it six months and then split! You can take away my crutch! Well as I said I don´t really think it will happen because I am definitley not ready for that. I guess he was only asking because they are having four new hermanas coming and they don´t really have a ton of older hermanas to handler all of us newer ones, but I think that he can figure out a better solution than using me. I would be just fine with going my whole mission as the junior companion, and let´s not even talk about training. (I am aware that I overdramatized all of that)

Mom and Dad! I am excited for you to go on your trip. make sure that you take a camera-charge it before hand and take the charger with you-and actually use it to take pictures okay! oooh, Frankie Valley and the four seasons just came on the radio in the cyber cafe, you´re just too good to be true! Anyways, that will be a really fun trip I think. Ryan, take good care of Sally! Speaking of Ryan I have a postcard to send you but I do not have stamps so it might be a while. Amy what card did you recently receive? Jennie I have not have received your package yet but a HUGE thank you in advance. Hopefully I will get it tomorrow, and thank you for your email! How was your Yellowstone trip by the way? Has anyone sent me stickers by chance? That would not require a package, just a regular envelope, so I am not going to feel guilty for asking for stickers-they are super useful.

Let´s see, today our pday will be cut short because we are going to a little pueblo where Blanca and Ricardo are getting married. I didn´t tell you much about them because I sent you a letter about them. But they are an awesome family and all 5 of them are getting baptized on Friday. They weren´t married but they immediately understood and accepted our "marriage proposal" and they are getting married today. It is kind of weird and humbling to think that two young american girls showed up at their house one day and told them to get married and they are doing it. It is one of many evidences of how the Lord´s hand is in this work.

My time is up. I am hoping to get lots of emails tomorrow at district (wink wink) and hopefully your letters will arrive. Oh I did get a letter from Melody the other week, Ro if you see her give her a big hug from me. And Amy matt harris is the guy I saw in the airport in buenos aires from my home ward, you can email him if you want and my email and facebook are open access to you and you too jennie, maybe you can have me socially set for when I get home. Feel free to add some juice to my personal ad.

Okay really do gotta go. I miss you and love you. Give sally a scratch for me and hugs to everyone! Hi back to Bishop Workman, and...I think that is everything. Over and out,

Love, Jessica

Ending the Trip

2010-07-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

Hey hey! It was kind of funny and cool today to open my email and have messages from my mom and my sisters, I don´t know why that occurred to me but I just think it´s awesome that we are close and keep in touch so much.

Okay, well the Montevideo temple trip was so much fun. While we emailed you Hermana Heaton let us use her washer and dryer, we had brought all of our garments so that we could wash them. It was so nice to have clean clothes that had been dried in a dryer. It was also fun saturday to be at the mission home because it was the Heaton´s 40th anniversary. Not that we really did anything but still, we got to hang out with them on a really special day. And then when we needed to leave they drove us to the bus station and I was laughing in my head watching President Heaton try to hide his frustration about the traffic. They both make me think a lot of mom and dad, that is probably why I like them so much. I think Hna Sol is getting sick of me talking about how much I love the Heaton´s and how great they are. Anyways it was going to be close for getting on the bus but we got there with 5 minutes to spare, or so we thought, Hna Salisbury had confused the time and it had actually left ten minutes before. Haha. So we ended up having to wait seven hours for the next bus which left at 12:30 in the morning. We probably could have called the president to pick us up but we felt too sheepish. We had to call him last night anyways though to ask a question and he asked us if we made the bus and we told him what happened and i think he felt bad and he said we should have called him. But oh well, it actually ended up being a really fun and productive seven hours and we are both glad for the way it worked out. We got pictures printed for the family and for Carla who was baptized on thursday and I bought a new straightener and some post-it marker things for my scriptures and we got some colored paper. We also wrote letters, I wrote to my converts in Artigas, and we ate at Mcdonalds. The only mcdonalds in uruguay is the one in the terminal in montevideo. It was actually pretty good. Oh and Hermana Heaton sent us with Peanut Butter sandwiches. Mmm..mm!

So yesterday we got home at 6:30. I was really tired all day and it was good to go to sleep last night. Yesterday was a pretty dull sunday. It has been really gloomy and rainy here.

Well out of time. I love you all and I hope the pictures come through!

Love Jessica

ps hna salisbury leaves in about two weeks and i am trying to plan some suprises for her but I am also freaking out and I think I am going to have an emotional relapse when she is gone!

At the temple

2010-07-19T06:38:00.001-07:00

Did you think I would ever email you this week? Well i finally am. A lot has happened lately as far as finding another great family to teach and stuff but I sent a really long letter explaing that so I won't go into it now. I tried to make the letter interesting to read and spiritual but I think I overdid it and it is probably just lame. But enjoy! And for the record I am out of stamps so there may be a lull in letter writing until the ones you have sent get here.

I also told you more in my letter about our first sector conference with President and Hermana Heaton. They. are. awesome. I already love them so much and get this, when we got here to montevideo yesterday morning for the sealing of the family galvan, we went to check into the hostel and they said they didn't have a reservation for us. So we called the mission secretary who was going to get us a room and told him there was a problem and he said that there weren't any rooms available so we were going to stay at the mission home! BOO YA! Party with the Heatons! So we came over to the house and the hermana welcomed us in and showed us to our BEAUTIFUL room that had really nice soft beds with fresh sheets and bedding and...the room has a HEATING! It was so comfortable and nice to sleep in a nice bed and a warm room, I forgot what a great thing it is to be able to get out of bed and step onto carpet and not feel a plunge in temperature. So nice. Anyways, there was a Zone Leaders training yesterday too so for a while we helped hna Heaton get breakfast and lunch ready for all of them until it was time to go over to the temple. It was fun to help out in the kitchen and get to know her better. The temple was so good and it was the first time I have ever been to a sealing. What a lovely experience. Do you remember me telling you about the Galvan family and how they are so special? I felt so lucky to have the privelege of seeing them sealed for time and all eternity as husband and wife and then seeing stefani and esteban come in dressed in white to be sealed to their parents. I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and the restored gospel.

For the rest of the day we just hang out at the hostel with them playing uno and telling jokes and then we came back to the mission home for dinner (oh and we ate navajo tacos at the mission home for lunch-so good!) and we did our studies and stuff. the president and his wife had to leave to go do something in the evening and it was really kind of funny but nice to just be in the mission home by ourselves. but it was really peaceful and quiet to study. THen when they got back we chatted with them and showed pictures and stuff and ended the night eating brownies and ice cream in our pajamas until we went to bed at 11:00. That's right we broke curfew with the president and the hermana! It was so so so fun though. Today we got up and exercised, took a really nice shower where I did not get cold when i got out, ate breakfast and then went through another session of the temple with another lady from fraybentos. We later brought the galvan's over to meet the president and wife which was really nice and they cried as we sang the first hymn the hna's sang with them. Hna Salisbury had also thought so much about a gift she could give to each of them and ended up giving the wife her coat which is very coveted and I probably have seen 50 women hint that she should leave it for them. It was really sweet to see her give it to mari who was so gracious.

I am now emailing you on the presidents laptop and we will be leaving to get our bus in about an hour. It has been a really fun little trip and today I got to help the Hermana unload and load the dishes in the dishwasher and stuff. It made me think so much of home. I really was missing my family today in the temple, I wonder if I will ever have a whole day with out feeling an ache in my heart for you! I love you so much. Renita, I just want you to know that one day when Hermana Salisbury and I were walking down some train tracks to get to a lesson I told her that in my family there is a famous story about my aunt becky and so when I read your email she was reading with me and we both laughed and i said, i told you it is a big story in my family. And then I got pretty teary eyed which I think is partly from how I was feeling in the temple today.

Well I got to go but I love you and will email you again on Monday I think. And by the way judy and mom the packages sound really great, thanks a bunch but you shouldn't spoiling me so much! Amy DID YOU GET THE HOUSE! The pictures look really awesome. Besos,

Your missionary hermana, Jessica

MUNDIALLLLL!!! and the chosen one...

2010-07-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

Happy fourth of JULY!!! and happy birthday to JENNIE and RYAN!

Well it has been another week. Mark that one off! We actually aren´t going to montevideo until next week on the 15th, they changed it, so I think next week I will be emailing that day. Well Uruguay is crazy excited about the world cup. They did not expect to do so well. The day of the game it was like being in a ghost town and we got nothing done. Finally we went over to the house of Hermano De Los Santos who is a really cool convert and we ended up watching some of the game with him. It was a super good game too. And All of the houses erupt everytime a goal is made, so imagine what it was like when they went to penalty kicks. After the game was over we were walking on the streets and we ran into Martin Conti who is a young married guy and usually pretty business like but I though he was going to cry he was so flabbergasted and he was all sweaty and just kept saying angels must have helped us. It was hilarious but really no good for missionary work. I was not feeling well either so we ended up just going back to the house and I laid down. I have been kind of sick this week. That day I had a fever and then I couldn´t really sleep all night, I was super hot and was having chills and my head hurt worse than it ever has before. I did sleep at first but then I woke up at 1:00 and my had was just killing me and my face was burning up. I got up to get some water to drink and then I just sat and sipped it for a while. I was having nausea too and I even went and got a bowl to keep by my bed but never did throw up. I am mostly better but I have a sore throat and stuffy nose. I haven´t really felt like eating either, so actually really haven´t been eating today which is kind of weird for me. But I think I will be fine in another day or two.

Yesterday for the fourth of july we wore red white and blue and as we walked in the streets we would sing patriotic songs and we even recited the pledge of allegience. It was funny and also kind of sad because we really didn´t do anything fun to celebrate, but we kept the patriotic spirit igual. Oh! and our lunch appointment fell through which isn´t normally a huge deal because we can just buy something instead, but it was sunday. Luckily though, my awesome aunts had sent me some macaroni grill pasta mix that we threw together and made a really good lunch. Thank you again!

Yesterday we had a really good lesson with Elisabeth. I don´t know if I have told you about her but she is a miracle for sure. One day we left church to go find someone that hadn´t come, we never did find them but when we were coming back into the church there was a lady going in at the same time and we didn´t recognize her. We started to talk and it turns out she is a member and was going for a long time and her son even served a mission but then she stopped going but wants to come back. So she even invited us over for lunch. When we went during the week her sister Elisabeth happened to be visiting from Paysandu. She has been praying and searching to find the right church. She has gone to many but feels that none of them have the truth. She also had a lot of questions that we were able to answer and she finally understood things that she had not been able to understand. She is so awesome and it is a miracle how we found her. We stopped by them on Saturday night and they were having a party for Vilma (the sister who is a member) and her husband´s anniversary. They gave us cake and empanadas but we didn´t have a lot of time so when we started to say we needed to go Elisabeth was like, oh no don´t go, stay! It was so cute! and they just worry so much about us and for some reason seem to think I am like a little helpless child dependent on my companion and so they are really worried about me for when hna Salisbury leaves, they said I should come stay with them to wait for me new companion! They are so funny. But yesterday we had to teach her the ten commandments so we were reading them in mosiah 13 and when we go to the one that says thou shalt not steal we were going to include tithing and so hna salisbury asked, how do we rob God? And without a seconds hesitation Elisabeth said, in tithes and offerings but I paid my tithing to the bishop today! WHAT!! It was only her second time at church, we hadn´t even taught her tithing and she already paid it!!!! What does Heavenly Father need ME here for? These people teach themselves! She has also read almost all of 1 nephi and when we got there she was reading teachings of the prophets. She lives in Paysandu but in the outskirts because her husband has some sort of blueberry plantation, but it is closer for them to come to Salto then to get the the city part of Paysandu so they come here on a bus every week and Elisabeth wants us to come to her house some day and we really want to go but we are going to have to get special permission. She and Vilma are now planning a goodbye party for Hna Salisbury too. THey are easily some of my favorite people we have met. I can´t wait for her baptism on the 16th. Also they have an almacen so they sometimes give us cookie packages or other treats. DREAM investigator.

Last pday I made a white cake with vanilla frosting and put strawberries on top and it we shared it with Miriam and Javier. I must say it was DELICIOUS. We also put half of it in another pan and I made chocolate frosting and we took that to a Noche de Hogar (fhe) with the familia De los Santos, they really liked it and they were baptized when hna Flores was here, so you know they are awesome.

Anyways, so it has been a busy week but actually kind of a tough one. We did divisions three times which probably absolutley my least favorite thing to do and then being sick was no fun, plus when I´m sick all I want to do is just be home and so I sat up all night thinking about home and how mom baby´s me when I´m sick and I was really missing some good old motherly tlc. I know you have said that 4 months seems to have gone by really fast but honestly to me it is crawling and I still have 14 months left...ugh. But I am trying to count my blessings because we are having success and I have a great companion so I really shouldn´t complain. Tomorrow we have district so I will look forward to getting your letters, Jennie send an email to the mission email and tell me about your 4th and birthdays! And on Wednesday we have conference with the new president. So next week I should have a lot to tell you too. I´m out of time though, so bye for now, I love you

Love Jessica

(*Note - the first few photos were stolen from Hermana Salisbury's blog)

Baptisms and such

2010-06-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hello family! It has been a long and busy week. We had baptisms on Friday for miriam and javier and fernando and a little girl who was a ward baptism. It all went really well and the spirit in the baptism was really strong so we feel really good about it and feel like wse had three really good, solid baptisms and they have been fellowshipped so well so we know they are in good hands.

Last week I on Thursday we got woken up during the night by some loud banging noises. It sounded like our gate was being clanged like someone was shaking it or something. I woke up first at 4:30 to it and I woke up hna salisbury because it really scared me but she was pretty out of it. Then we both woke up to it again at 5:30 and we knew there was something going on, but we just stayed hidden under our covers. Then the next day we found out that our neigbors had been robbed two grafas (the stove things). So I guess we had heard them jumping our gate to get over to the neighbors house. Don´t worry though we have a barred gate right on our door too with three locks. We are safe!

RENITA AND JUDY!!! I got your package this week! Holy smokes, cornbread, MINT oreos, craisins, chocolate chip cookies, and more! Thank you so much! We have been enjoying it very much but I am trying to hold of on the oreos so that I don´t completely ruin our diet goal for this change. But come next change I am going to scarf them down! In the mean time we made the cornbread and it was super good and easy. We only had to add water! That is really nice as a missionary and you really don´t have time or money to go to a lot of extensive cooking. Also, last pday we did make a chocolate cake with rainbow chip frosting and we ate it all ourselves! Delicious.

This week we did divisions. We are suppossed to do them twice a week but we never do because we don´t have a lot of people in our ward that will go with us. But we got some girls from another ward to come with us and they were really excited to do it and want to come back and do it again. I have to admit though I really hate doing divisions. It is just really hard for me because it forces me to be the senior companion and do everything and I still feel like I have no idea what I´m doing. It went fine though but I still didn´t really like it.

While I am thinking about it, the whatever week the 8th of July is in, I will probably not email on that monday, i will email on the 8th, it think. do you remember me saying anything about the familia Galvan from Artigas? Well they were Hna Salisbury´s converts so on the 8th we get to go to the temple with them to see their SEALING!! We are super excited about that but we have to make that our pday so it might mess up email that week and also our sector conference this change is on the 6th I think. So email might not be quite as regular but I will still get one to you each week, just don´t get worried if it doesn´t come on Monday.

On Saturday Uruguay beat Korea in the World Cup, didn´t see the game but all of the sudden all of the houses erupted and there were sounds of fireworks or guns, and people came running out of their houses with flags and jumped on their motos with their flags and all sorts of craziness was going on. I just don´t want to know what happens when they lose!

I tried to get some pictures attached to this email but for some reason it was not working today, so I will try to send another one after this, otherwise you´ll have to wait till next week. But I´m out of time so I gotta finish up. Thank you again for the packages, oh and mom I don´t think I did ever get the second one with knee highs and granola bars, but maybe it will still come. But thank you so much, I love you all and I really miss you! Keep up the letters and emails, I love hearing from you! Dad I haven´t heard from you for a while...But I´ll try and get some letters off to you tomorrow!

Love, Jessica

Holy PACKAGE

2010-06-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hi mom and everyone! Mom, last week I got your cake-pan package! WHOA BABY! Twix, reeses, cakes, soups, RAINBOW CHIP FROSTING and more!! THank you so so much it was awesome! And really you don´t need to send a package this week unless you really want to, but of course I will be thrilled to get one if you do. Whatever you send I´m sure will be fabulous be if you want some ideas, craft stuff is always good. Like stickers, paper, markers etc. We make a lot of stuff like that for members and to make bday cards and stuff. Speaking of birthday cards I sent one to Paul but I accidently wrote happy 30th birthday instead of 29 and I am really embarrassed, sorry. also I made one for renita but it will be getting there late because I left it at the house last week so I couldnt send it and won´t be able to until thursday. I will also be sending bday cards to ryan and jennie so you can watch for those.

Sorry i didn´t email yesterday, I had forgotten to tell you that this week is changes so pday gets moved to tuesday so those who change will travel on that day. Hna Salisbury and i are staying here together! Yay! It will be her last change so I will ¨kill her¨as the mission saying goes.

I think Uruguay is playing in the World Cup today because there are some really excited people in here watching soccer and they just erupted a second ago and it is a little difficult to concentrate.

Well the conference. It was so great. I got to see hna crofts and smith and talked to them a lot and we got to pretty much just hang out at the church the whole day. The conference was really good too, it was the last one for our mission president, the new one will be coming in soon. For lunch they had some ice cream place come to the church and give out big ice cream waffle cones to all of us, it was super yummy. I think that hna crofts and hna smith have each had some normal missionary hardships this last change and it was nice for us all to be able to talk about things and listen to one another. Really good conference.

We have our baptism program this friday and we are excited about that. We have some really cool investigators that will be getting baptized. One of them is a man named fernando. He and his wife were taking the discussions but she hasnt been able to be there the last several times. We found out last night that there is another man and she is deciding whether of not she wants to stay with her husband. As he explained all of this to us he was so calm and peaceful and not even a little bit bitter. He said that he still loves her and that the gospel has given him so much strength to deal with this trial and he wants to continue with it whether she does or not. His faith is so impressive and it is really humbling to be teaching him.

Today being our last pday in this change we are going to make a chocolate cake with rainbowchip frosting and eat the whole thing ourselves!! And then next change we are giving up all sweet treats so that hna salisbury can go home skinny. Haha we´ll see how that goes.

Amy I just skimmed a little bit through your email. DARK HAIR?! Ahh, pictures puh-lease. What else is going on with everyone? Everyone doing good? Happy Father´s day to dad and Grandpa! I love you and I am out of time but I hope you like the pictures and I will send another email to attach more.

Love, Jessica

Another Week

2010-06-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

Hello hello, thanks for your email mom! Also last week I just printed it the other off at the cyber to read and I´m glad I did because for some reason it didn´t come through from the mission one, so just always make sure that you put my name in the subject line. Same with Amy´s it didn´t come through, so I am going to print it today.

Thanks amy and jennie for getting the pictures sent. I don´t think I really told you why, but I just have seen other missionaries pull out there pictures as time fillers with investigators sometimes and the people always really like it and it helps them get to know you better and see more where you are from. So anything that you think would be good for that will work, but I do think that Mexico and San Francisco pics would be interesting to people so I would like some of those for sure. And mom that cake pan idea is SO GOOD! I am really excited about that. In my letter last week I did put a few ideas of things that you might stick in packages in the future, but nothing big or very important and just to give you an idea of what things I could use for your information. OH! but one thing that i do need to ask you about is contact solution. Here a bottle of contact solution is like $35. So I don´t know if you would be able send me some, if you even can send liquids or what. Maybe you could check into that though, or maybe I will just have to start wearing glasses a lot more. I do still have about a bottle and a half, but I don´t know what I will do after that runs out which won´t be for a while, but I just thought I would give you the heads up.

Things here are going well as far as missionary work goes. I think we will be having some baptisms on the 25th for a couple named Miriam and Javier. They have several children and have come to church twice and are really strong investigators and keep saying that they are getting ready for the 25th, so they seem pretty excited about it. Javier is a really big guy and we call him pica-piedra, or flinstone because he looks like fred flinstone. He is really funny too and for while we weren´t sure if he was even taking us seriously because he always making jokes, but the gospel is really changing him, it is amazing. I really respect him to, his first wife died and left him with two kids and I think he went through a really hard time and really had to open himself up to receive our message. He said he had talked to other missionaries but didnt want to really get into it but with time decided if he had another chance he would really start to listen. Then we came along! As the saying goes, the Lord really does prepare people.

This week we had interviews with the President. It went good and I think they are sad to be leaving but also ready. We half a sector conference this wednesday in Paysandu and that will probably be the last time we see him. I´m really excited for the conference because i will get to see Hermana Crofts AND Hermana Smith. And her birthday is the 19th so I´m going to make her a card and stuff.

How is Sally doing? I haven´t heard much about her lately. It is really weird here because I don´t really like dogs in Uruguay. They always bark at us and run at us like they are going to attack us, I told you how one bit me once. And everytime we knock on houses they just go nuts and bark like crazy. What´s weird though is that people ask us sometimes if we like dogs and you know what my normal response is to that, but here I don´t really like them.

This last week I have been studying in the Pearl of Great Price. It is so awesome. I feel like I have learned so much already just from the hour of study time we get every morning. I read the scriptures before but I really feel like I am rediscovering them now. Personal study is one of my favorite things that we do as missionaries. One thing I thought was really cool was in Moses it talks about how Adam was baptized. Maybe I´m ignorant but I didn´t even know that the scriptures gave an account of his baptism. Amazing. Also Hna Salisbury and I have been reading the Liahona together. Did you read the talk by Elder Bednar about second life and stuff? I remember hearing it when he gave it. Its really interesting.

The world cup started this week so people here are glued to their television sets whenever Uruguay plays. Also we hear the World Cup theme song all the time. Have you heard it? Oh oh whoa oh oh, when I get older I will be stronger, oh oh whoah oh oh! It is getting pretty old.

I didn´t tell you this last week but when I opened my email I was shocked to find an email from Elier! Do you remember who that is? That kid I told you about from Mexico? He is on his mission in some other part of Mexico and I have no idea how he got my email address or anything. It was a pretty normal email though just saying hi, but i didn´t write him back. I thought it was pretty funny though that he emailed me. I´ll copy and paste it and you can have Paul translate it.

que tal hermana casebolt como esta?? espero y me recuerde soy Elier Gamboa el amigo que siempre estaba con Helaman cuando tuviste tu visita en Merida bueno espero y si te acuerdes, que tal como le va en la mision hermana ami la verdad muy bien lo estoy disfrutando grandemente y sabe me siento feliz de servirle al señor, yo estoy en la mision mexico oeste bueno dentro un mes va a ser la noroeste por que se divide mi mision pero aqui estamos, mi area actual es una que esta cerca del benemerito de las americas, es una escuela muy grande en mexico de la iglesia, ya tengo 5 meses aqui jaja se pasa el tiempo muy rapido no lo cree?? bueno hermana cuidese mucho y espero que podamos estar en contacto va?? nos vemos y exito

I´m glad that you were able to find Hna Salisbury´s blog and that her family found mine. Salisbury family, if you are reading this, your daughter/sister is sooooo wonderful! She is a great missionary and a great person and I´m so lucky to be with her! You have a lot to be proud of.

Well time is up so I´m gonna end now, but I love you all so much! Say hi to the ward for me and everyone and Thomas. Also, can you send me Sharon´s address? Thanks. Ok well i will talk to you on monday.

LOVE, Jessica

Choripan

2010-06-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

Mom, I hope there is a good excuse for the absence of your email from my inbox today. I will assume that there is and not be mad. I received your package last week with my medication! Yay! I also got the brown sugar and more crystal light and breathsavers and holy NUTTERBUTTERS! Those were amazing! Thank you so much! I really mean it when I say I have the BEST family. It is totally true and probably why I am homesick.

For breakfast in the morning I make oatmeal a lot with cinnamon sugar and then I mash up banana in it so it is banana oatmeal, so I think Emma and I are alike because Jennie told me she likes that flavor of baby food. But now I put brown sugar on my oatmeal and it is even better. Speaking of food. The other night Hna Salisbury and I were on our way home and on the side of the street there was a guy with a grill thing that had a fire in it and chorizo roasting on top. CHORIPAN! Chorizo is like sausage and the guy made it so good. He had real buns and put them on the fire to toast then cut the chorizo in half and put it on the bun with lettuce and tomato and some good sauces-unheard of here! And it was only 25 pesos each! That is like a dollar and ten cents and it was delicious. He does it every fri and sat night, so we went back the next night and it was just as good. So now we are doing weekends with Mario for choripan.

Another good treat we had this week was monday night we got a bag of chocolate milk and had frozen some bananas and we got some chocolate cookies and hna salisbury threw them in the blender and made a really delicious banana chocolate smoothie. So so so good. And today we broke our fast which we started late, by having an actual, real, deli sandwich that we bought at a grocery store in the centro. Haven`t had a real deli sandwich since i left, and you know how i eat a lot of those. It was great.

Well now that I have told you everything i ate this week, yesterday we had four investigators at church, finally! So that was pretty good since we haven´t had any this whole change. And we have some people with baptismal dates too. This week we did divisions which I was really nervous about and not looking forward to and can´t say that I loved. I went with an older lady from the ward but the first places we went no one was home and then the third we found, she was an older lady also that the last hnas worked with. I got really lucky because the two of them chatted it up and I didn´t really have to do anything. My partner even talked to her about church stuff and then at the end I pulled out a pamphlet and talked about baptism and gave her a baptism date for the end of the month. By the time we finally got out of there, divisions were over. Hallelujiah!

Yesterday at testimony meeting, this one lady got up towards the end and pretty much shouted the whole time. WE HAVE TO BE OBEDIENT!! It was hilarious and I am ashamed to say I could not really contain my laughter. I just looked at my lap the whole time and pretended I was coughing. I was so embarrassed but it was so funny and I only lost control because I looked up at the stand and made eye contact with the bishops daughter who was also trying not to laugh and we both broke into a big grin and that´s when I just looked down for the rest of the time.

Do you really tomorrow is Emmas six month birthday!! Ahh, I can´t believe it. Give her a kiss for me and tell her happy birthday.

So I have another request. Could you please send me some of my pictures from mexico and some from our san fran trip? I am out of time and will explain why in a letter.

I love you all so much! Jessica

Pic Stolen from Companion's Blog

2010-06-01T06:23:00.000-07:00

You can find her blog here: http://www.sistersuswha.blogspot.com/.

Birthday Cake

2010-05-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

Wow good emails this week! Lots going on it sounds like! Emma is so so cute in the water and with her swimming suit, Jennie your swimming suit was really cute too!

I am so glad that you got the alfajores! They got there a lot faster than I expected. The red ones really arent that great but they were super cheap. the blue aguila ones are the best. Also, Amy I got your package last week! With the hat the cake mixes and frosting and p. sugar and all. I don´t think any of the packages I have received have been tampered with, knock on wood. Did I mention how much I enjoyed the butterfinges renita and judy sent? American candy is so much better than the stuff they have here. I miss it and I was never even a big candy person.

Well anyways, so we have been teaching this couple maria and pablo and they are kind of duds. They have two cute kids though and the little girl is hilarious. This week we actually did have a really good lesson with them and we brought a member who did awesome and got them to commit to come to church and be baptized. So during this lesson they told us ana paula was having her birthday on sat and i decided i could make one of the cakes amy sent and share it with them. I also put together a cute little gift. I will tell you more about this in a letter but basically we made the cake and even used the rainbow chip frosting and it turned out so delicious (we cut off the edge before we took it over) but we got there and they were really awkward and didn´t eat the cake nor did they give us ANY and there were these guys that were really rude to us and one of the took pictures of me with his phone like a was an animal. After we left I wanted to cry, THEY DIDN´T EVEN GIVE US ANY OF THE CAKE AND I USED THE RAINBOW CHIP FROSTING!!! And then they didn´t even come to church so now they lose their baptismal date. Ugh, I was so peeved, like I said I will give you more deets an a letter. But amy thank you so much for the package! We also made the soup one day and it was so amazingly delicious. We addedj some tomatoes and corn and it was really good. You guys are awesome package senders! As I have said before though don´t feel obligated to send them, I know it can get pricey. But for the record I do really like twix and reeses (wink wink).

Other news, I got bit by a dog this week, don´t worry it only ripped my tights, not my skin. Last night i plugged in a hairdryer, something popped and now we are without power. Tried flipping the switch thing, not luck. I have fallen in mud multiple times. It rains here a lot, it is cold, it is gray and bleak and I decided I hate winter here. People always ask us if it gets cold where we live. We just say yes and shrug it off but hna salisbury puts it best, yes it gets cold there but it isnt such a big deal because we have central heat and cars. Here there is no escaping it. and there is no such thing as good lighting so I feel like I am always in the dark. Luckily though today was sunny and we played ultimate frisbee in a really pretty park. Took some fun pictures hope you enjoy.

Are you getting letters from me about once a week? Amy and Jennie a sent a sticker request in a letter to each of you. You should get those letters this week. Amy thats funny that you follow hna salisbury´s blog. Do you like it? I can´t say that I really love being here yet, but I am really grateful that I have an awesome companion. She is great and I love her so much. Yes we go running pretty much every morning, I bought new running shoes before I came, ask jennie she was there. We get up at 6:30 and dress and are out the door at about 6:40 and get back at 7 and do crunches and stuff. I like it but I hate it at the same time. Mostly I just don´t like doing it so early. It is dark and SO cold. I usually sleep pretty warm though. It is so weird that the weather is like this in june. I want to be where you are enjoying the warm temperatures! We haven´t had any investigators to church this whole change. Yesterday I actually thought we would get a few but the weather was no good and half the members didn´t even come. It´s hard because it´s not like they go into there garage and get in a car and drive to the church. They don´t have garages let alone cars. And there are tons of people with little babies so they dont take them out in the winter. I have a feeling it will always be a struggle during winter to get people to church.

Some things I really want to be grateful for when I get home are carpet, central heat, nice walls, good lighting, cars, nice shower (we are getting a new curtain, the old one was sick nasty with mold-note picture), sink in the kitchen with two sides and temperature settings, an oven, a stove and pretty much any modern day convenience.

This week hna salisbury and I were talking about how being here is like camping all the time, then later we met some people who had lived in newark n.j. for a while (there are a lot of people here who have lived in newark) anyways these people told us that being in uruguay must be like camping for us. They actually have a pretty sad story but are really nice happy people. In a nutshell they went there and worked and found a better life, there visa expired after six months but the stayed for ten years and got deported and there kids are still there and they cant get back to them. there kids are like 17-19 thereabouts. they were so humble though and despite all that they were like, we are so grateful to your country though because it showed us that there are some places in this world where if you work you can actually have a nice life. It is sad and true, really people here have hard time getting by even if they do work. Anyways, out of time. Love you so much!! I miss you and will keep my fingers crossed for letters tomorrow at district meeting!

Love Jessica

This Week

2010-05-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hey there, I haven´t really read your emails yet so hopefully you sent them to the mission email and I´m going to type fast and I´ll read them after if there is time. Also, I´m attaching a few pictures, they are all from artigas.

I can´t say that I´m feeling too much better this week, but I´m sorry for my email last week, I shouldn´t have been so negative and I´ll try not to be so much today. I lots of letters and packages last week! Mom I love the sweatshirt from san jose! My favorite color! and I got the shirt and the mattress pad. Also I got some yummy treats from Renita and Judy, those butterfingers hit the spot and I still have some skittles and starburts left that I´m saving. Amy I got your blogposts and they were super fun to read. I also got a card from rochelle. I sent letters to everyone last tuesday so I hope you will get them this week. Also, I sent Ryan a card quite a while ago for his birthday, did he get it in time? Happy birthday a little late.

Mom I don´t remember if I told you that when I talked to the mission president I asked him if I could get my medication here or if he thought it would come if you sent it and he said he was going to talk to a doctor and told me to see if i could just pick it up in a pharmacy, so last week I went to a farmacia and they said all of uruguay has stopped carrying it. so i called the pres and told him that and he said he was going to have the zl´s close to brazil check in brazil. so they did and the had it there but only in .625 dosage, so he had them get it and I will just take to everyday. I guess it was funny though because the elder went and asked for premarin not knowing what it was and there were a bunch of women in that pharmacy and they were like, do you know what that is, are you buying this for a girl? How embarrassing! Anyways, the took it to a zl training and sent is with my zl who gave it to me at our service project on saturday when we helped build some houses, it looked like a drug deal, they even had it in some creepy bag. So funny. We are still getting to know the area and the ward. I feel like the ward here is not so interactive with us as it was in artigas, and that kind of makes it harder to me. But we´re getting there. We don´t really have any investigators though that are really progressing, so that has been kind of hard too.

At our zone activity this morning the zl told me, so did you here that hna moreno is being transferred to salto, and i said no. I don´t know why but apparently something happened in taecuerembo and she is being transferred here to be with hna roach. I have no idea why but I´m sure they are probably happy about that. I really think though as does my companion that hna roach helped hna moreno write that card. they would talk to eachother on the phone a lot in artigas and then at the at the hnas conference they went off by themselves for quite a while. but that isn´t important i guess.

we are starting to really get into winter here. everyday is glooming and drizzly. I´m really tired of it which is no good because it just started. this would be a good place for edward cullen to live. well what is new at home? How often do you receive my letters? Oh speaking of which thank you for the stamps renita and judy! Jennie, has emma started to eat baby foods? how is she doing with that? Mom when do you finish school? Ryan have you started doing phlabotomy or whatever? Dad are you taking the corvette out a lot?

Well I don´t really know what else to tell you. It has been a pretty dull week. Get up at 6 thirty, go run, get ready, study, go out to contacts and appointments, lunch, more contacts and appointments, go home to plan, go to bed, start over. That´s pretty much all we do. Yesterday though we did try and take a shortcut through a muddy gulley and I ended up falling after jumping a stream. I was a mess! That´s pretty much all. I´m going to write more letters today and send them tomorrow. I love you so much, thanks for all your support and good letter writing. also, i love getting packages, but don´t feel obligated to send them or anything, i know that can be a hassle. Hope you have a good week!

Love, Jessica

Cambios - Changes

2010-05-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone! I skimmed through your emails but don´t have to to print them and all that so I will try to answer some of your questions but your best bet is to send them to the mission email and I´ll try and write letters, because I have lots of other things I want to tell you today.

First thing is first, my new area is SALTO!!!!! I have heard that it is the promised land and that they have tons of baptisms, it is beautiful (this i know because I´ve seen pictures, it really is georgeous, trees, lakes, etc) and it is one of the warmest areas during the winter. So I am really happy. Also, my new companion is Hermana SALISBURY!!!! I have heard wonderful things about her from all of the hermanas and before I even knew she would be my companion I probably would have said she is the most liked hermana in the mission. Everyone raves about how great she is and hermana flores called me last night and told me I am so lucky and that salto with salisbury is the most ideal change you can get. So yeah me! I just hope that I can be as good of a companion for her. The other thing that makes me so excited is that I don´t leave till tomorrow morning at 6 so tonight I am going to go stay with hermana flores because her companion comes tomorrow. hna moreno is going back to taecuarembo and is very excited about that, she was there before artigas and was working with a family of 8 who will be married and baptized this month. and as far as her being a great missionary, if you count baptisms yes she is. hna and mcewen and i talked about this and the thing is, she always has baptisms fall into her hands. like with us, the baptisms we had were investigators that the previous hnas had worked with and left for us in the area notebook, and cristian just showed up at the galvans house and wanted to be baptized, and judy i´m actually not worried about him because he has already been attending a while with his uncle and cousins and i think they will support him and keep him active, and he really doesn´t act like a typical ten year old, he is really an impressive kid.

Anyways, I also wanted to tell you because I forgot to over the phone that I have been making brownies this week! Amy thank you for the recipe. i have made them four different times and they turned out wonderful! Once for carmen and her family and then we went back and made them againg to teach her daughter how to do it, another day we made them with carlos and yolanda and then when we got done we went to the church so carlos could do his baptismal interview with the zl and we took some of the brownies to them and the liked them so much that yesterday the called us early in the day and told us the would give us our changes early if i would make them brownies again. So this morning I made more and some of our zone went to brazil and I took them with us. the elders were very happy. It was kind of weird though because it almost seemed like a dating activity that we would meet up somewhere and bring them brownies, but whatever, i just do what i´m told.

Mom I was going to tell you on the phone but forgot that i still don´t know if elder morris will get through because only two elders were able to when i was at the airport. for one thing there are only two phones in the terminal and they are hard to figure out and the operator speaks spanish and it took us a couple of hours before we finally figured it out. So tell her if she doesn´t hear from him that is probably why.

Amy, I think caprincho is a some kind of big rat, they also eat armadillo. The other day carlos cooked for us and the rice had meat in it and the next day he told us it was caprincho and something else that sounds gross but the food had been really good. and yes people here drink mate all the time but we are not allowed to drink it and they know that so it hasn´t been a problem. Oh, and I was so not mad at all, I´m sorry it seemed like it! I was just so shocked and didn´t know if I should be happy or cry or what and it just took me by such a surprise! But I wish that you had called on Sunday! bummer. Oh and i think i know what shoes she is talking about. they are super cool and i really want to get some. to me they look like toms shoes but they have kind of a straw-woven bottom if that makes sense. or she might be talking about some others that are kind of like the old jelly water shoes but they are really cute. I´ll definitley end up buying some of the toms ones and i´ll send pictures.

Jennie thanks for the pictures, emma is so big! I can´t believe how much she has changed. tell her to stop growing and wait for me to get home!

A couple days ago I finally sent a couple of packages that I have had sitting around. one i sent to amy and paul and one to mom and dad. amy and pauls have two alfajores and mom and dads have a whole bunch. alfajores are a south american treat and i like them a lot. kind of like ding dongs but better i send them cheap though so it might take a month or so to get them.

Okay well I´m out of time but I love you a lot, I´m excited about this change, I´m hoping a package will arrive on thursday, and I will email you next monday, i think. LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!

Hermanas' Conference and First Baptism

2010-05-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the recipes Amy! I think those should work, except for the chocolate cake one because I they don´t have buttermilk here but I think I can do the yellow one and I think we´ll just eat it without frosting because I also can´t get powdered sugar. But the brownie and banana bread recipes should work great.

This week was the Hermanas conference. We left here on Tuesday night and got to Montevideo in the morning where we went to the hostel to spruce ourselves up, Hermana Peterson likes her sister missionaries to pretty. Whatever. So then we ate breakfast at the mission home which was french toast and bananas and it was really good. Later the president spoke to us and told the story of Winston Churchill and...was it Alexander Flemming who discovered penicillan? Anyways I think I had heard it but it is really cool. It´s starts out about a poor man who saves a young boy from drowning and then come to find out the father is a rich man and offers compensation for saving his son but the poor man doesn´t want anything so the rich man offers to pay for the poor man´s son to have the same schooling as his son. The poor man´s son becomes a great doctor and discovers penicillan which saved the life of Winston Churchill who was the rich man´s son. I think it goes something like that, but it was in Spanish so I might not have gotten that all right. It was good though. After that Hermana Peterson had someone speak to us who was there visiting but had been their first couple missionaries. The lady´s sister started some company where for 100 bucks you go and they tell you if you are spring summer winter or fall, and from that what colors look best on you. So she explained about what colors look good on what types of people and then she took each of us one by one to the front to tell us what we are. It took about two and a half hours and to me was the biggest waste of time. I couldn´t believe that they took that much time with missionaries to talk about appearance, how ironic considering that missionaries are usually thought of as being drab. At the end everyone got a scarf that was a ´´good color´´ for them. Mine is leapord print. Whoo whoo! Can you believe that they gave a sister missionary a leapord print scarf? It is hilarious and have made good use out of it already.

Later for lunch we had that soup that they make at cafe rio and it was good but not very filling and then we had oriental chicken salad for dessert. It was all really delicious. We also listened to the wife of the new temple president speak to us and she was really fun and I liked her talk. Of course we had the talent show thing and I was super nervous about singing and when my part came my voice pretty much came out as a whisper and hermana moreno started laughing, it was not the funnest thing but oh well, it´s over now. Hermana Peterson did give two more blankets to the new missionaries since it the nights are getting colder with winter coming. It was fun to do something different and see hna crofts, who is doing well, but I don´t know if it was worth 16 hours on a bus and two nights of sleeping sitting up halfway. I am probabaly just being a little negative though.

Adriana and Gabriel were baptized on Friday and confirmed yesterday during church. the baptism was really nice and hermana moreno and i sang our portuguese hymn again and i did much better singing for a people that i was a little more familiar with and I knew can´t carry a tune themselves. I sang the harmony for I know that my Redeemer lives and I think everyone was genuinely touched, especially Adriana who is from Brazil.

In other big news, Carlos, not sure if I have mentioned him, also accepted a baptismal date for next Saturday as well a man named Jesus. Those are interesting stories, more because they are weird than anything, and wrote about it in a letter that I will send plus I will talk to you on Sunday.

Speaking of which, I guess is will be better if you call me at 8:00 my time, so I think 5:00 your time. Once again my phone number is 00598 773-1633. If our phone doesn´t ring I will be calling you in a panick.

I know I just told you a new address to mail things to, but I guess the offices they were going to move to didn´t work out. So discard that last address and use this one:

Enrique Martinez 1175
Montevideo Uruguay
C.P. 11.600

Oh, I almost forgot to talk about my letters and packages! I got a package with Easter candy and cards from renita and judy and grandma and grandpa, and also the package from mom with knee highs, crystal light, cherry sour balls, and snackwells and some other things. It seems like they weren´t opened or anything and got here just fine. I also got a letter from mom with stamps! That is wonderful and I´m excited to send some letters tomorrow. I also got a dear elder from mom and lanae and natasha and some emails and a letter from rochelle and renita. It was a GREAT tuesday. Thank you everyone! and here´s wishing that tomorrow is just as great!

The next change is coming next week, we will find out on monday and then tuesday is when we move. So I´m not sure what day I will email but I think it will be tuesday. but that´s no biggy because I will have just talked to you on Sunday. I´m really excited about this change. I think that I will get a new companion, hna moreno says they never leave a new gringa with a latina for more than one change, and also the missionaries that i traveled with to the mtc will be coming so, hopefully I will see hna smith in the near future at a conference or something. i think that I will stay in Artigas though. I feel like I´ve just started to get comfortable here and I like our house and the our ward. They have been talking about changing our area so that there will be areas in the darker area but I think they might just altogether take out one pair of hermanas and since hna mcewen is done I think she and hna moreno will leave and I´m hoping they will move hna flores over to our house to be my companion. I´ll tell you more about that on Sunday. I can´t wait to talk to you and I hope you are all doing good. I feel like there´s something I´m forgetting to tell you but I don´t know what and I´m out of time. I love you so much! Talk to you on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Jessica

Clarification

2010-04-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

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!?

2010-04-26T06:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

(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

2010-04-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-05T18:08:00.001-07:00

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

Email from the Mission President

2010-03-31T20:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Casebolt Family,

We are so glad to have your Missionary here with us in the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission. Since they arrived they have had the opportunities to do a session in the Montevideo Temple and meet their trainers! they have also enjoyed some delicious home cooked meals from Sister Peterson and experienced some of the typical Uruguayan cuisine. They are now preparing to travel to their areas and begin a great adventure in the service of the Lord. Thank you so much for preparing your missionary to serve with us here in the Uruguay West Mission!

Uruguay Montevideo West Mission

Surprise!

2010-03-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

Bet you werent expecting to hear from me today! Tomorrow I fly out to Uruguay at about 8:30 in the morning. I will be going with all of the other North Americans that have been here for nine weeks. So glad that I got to do the three week program. Im so excited to go but also a little nervous. It will be fun though to travel with all the other missionaries and hermana crofts. I got Jennies letter and pictures today! Thank you! Emma is so so so cute. We went proselyting on Saturday again and did much better. Hermana Campos hurt her ankle though earlier in the week so it was just me and Hermana Urdapilleta. The family we had taught the week before was not there but I actually think they were and just wouldnt come to the door so they sent the little girl out to tell us that their mom wasnt home. That was hard but Im still really glad for the improvement we made, even though i still have so much to learn. I am trying to load some pictures on here so that i can send them to you but this computer is not cooperating. I will see if i can try again later because i took a ton yesterday (The last Sunday is the only time we can take pictures while in the MTC).

Anyways, not much else to tell, just classes as always and the usual MTC stuff. But not tomorrow! I am worried about my luggage though because I got a ton of books here that I have to take and they will make my suitcases way too heavy and i dont know if i will have room in my carry on. I have thought about leaving my curling iron and hair dryer though because they are both old anyway and dont work here even with my transporter and i could just buy new ones in uruguay. We will see.

Oh, and when we went tracting on Saturday my companion wanted to buy some alfahores, which i ate one here at the ccm and it was gross but she knows what kind are good and it was amazing! It is like an orea but cakey at the same time and bigger and thicker and with a caramel layer and I love them! Best thing I havent eaten so far. Anyways I am going to go buscar my camera cord since Hermana Crofts doenst seem to be working with my camera and maybe i can get these pictures on here later. If you read this soon email back right away so I can read it before i leave tomorrow.

Love you all and I will email when I am in Uruguay! (not sure if i will be able to email tomorrow though or if I will have to wait till next p-day) Hope you got my letters!

Love Hermana Casebolt

(From a second email with attachments):

Okay here are the pictures enjoy! The one climbing the fence is because we are trying to escape from the MTC. The one with in front of the soccer goal and basketball court is my district. The one with me and a bunch of elders are the elders that I traveled here with. I will try and send some more if I can today, or later if not. Love you!

My Week

2010-03-25T18:31:00.001-07:00

Hey Mom! Thanks for your email! It sounds like things are good at home! That is funny about grandma and grandpa, and thanks for the knee highs! I sent a bunch of letters on Monday, it took me a while to find stamps so thats why they didnt come sooner. I will also send some more letters today including a picture of all the districts that leave on tuesday. Thats right tuesday. I am almost done at the CCM. So crazy. I didnt get any letters today but I am assuming the mail is just a little slow but i hope they will get to the mission hope if they have to be forwarded from here. I did get one letter from Sister Gardner, it was so nice and she sounds like a really cool girl. She basically just said welcome to the mission field and stuff like that and thanks for bringing her camera, although i have not gotten it to her yet.

Last Saturday we went proselyting in Buenos Aires! It was a pretty good experience but a little hard and uncomfortable at first but I must say I was surprised that my companions who speak spanish were even more timid than I was! I had to be the one to walk up to people and start talking! It was good for me though. I wrote a letter about it so I wont go too much in depth here but we did teach a good lesson to a lady named Alejandra. We clapped outside her house and then taught her out front. She is married and has two little kids and another on the way. We have an appointment to go back on this saturday and teach her again so Im hoping it will go well and that she will have done the reading and praying that we left for her.

This week has been a little more frustrating as far as the language goes and really just everything in general, but I still love it, its such a good experience to have. My teacher has told our class that they are lucky that I have a buena onda, good way or personality or something, because I guess sometimes when other sisters have been put in latino districts they have not handled it well and would not get along with everyone and cry a lot and stuff. So it makes me feel good that he thinks I am doing so well.

Unfortunately Hermana Smith has not been doing so well. She hasnt really adapted the missionary lifestyle and doesnt really understand that obedience is a principle that we must follow even if we dont understand all of the rules. I still get along with her really well but she has been butting heads with other elders, the teachers, and even the president. I also wrote to you more about the situation but one of their big concerns is she spends a lot of time talking to one specific elder and they kind of segregate themselves in the classroom and at sports. This morning President George called me to his office to talk about the situation and see if I could offer any extra insight or advice on what could be done. I didnt have too much to offer because quite frankly i think she needs to humble herself before she can be taught anything and if she doesnt do it soon shes going to have problems.

I have been getting really close to Hermana Crofts this week. She is so great and we are hoping to be companions eventually. Last night I got in one of my roommates lockers and then Crofts and Smith asked her if they could borrow her nail polish so she went to get it and i was in there when she opened her locker and I scared her so badly. It was hilarious and we laughed about it so hard! She took it well though and told me the war is on! You should have seen her face though, it was sheer terror! So funny.

Jennie, thanks for your email, Im glad Emma is doing so well. Ive got a picture of her in my scriptures and i show it to everyone and talk about her all the time. I miss you all so much but she is one that I miss most because I know how much she must be changing already! I love looking at her pictures though and it just makes me want to kiss those kissy cheeks! She is such a little cutie!

I hope that you get my letters soon and if you have gotten them send me a quick note so that if Im able to recheck my email later i will know. I sent one to you-mom one to jennie and ryan, one to amy and paul and one to the girls and grandma and grandpa. Just dont think I havent been thinking of you because I have, I just had to find some stamps, but luckily another elder gave me a bunch because he said he only emails. Not much new has happened this week so I dont have a ton to say, we just have classes and the usual stuff. It has been so fun but i{m glad i will be able to go to Uruguay on Tuesday rather than doing another 6 weeks here of the same stuff. The next email you get I should have a lot of news to tell you! Until then I love you so much! I blow a kiss to our family picture every night! Please forward this and I have amy or jennie post my district picture on facebook please!!

Love, Hermana Casebolt or Rayo which means Bolt and I also use sometimes. Till next week!

Hellooooooo!!!!!!

2010-03-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

Okay I only have a half hour so I have only sped read some of your letters and Im going to hurry and write my because i have so much to say. first. today was the best day ever! i woke up at 6 to help my district clean the classrooms before breakfast where i ate OATMEAL SQUARES and then at lunch I got a PACKAGE and a letter from renita and judy!!! thank you sosososososo much i cried a ton. Also, mom thanks for your cards they were a huge comfort. i wrote a long letter on the planes about that day so i wont get into that here and i should be able to mail it today, i can only write and send mail on thursdays too.

so far i really honestly love the mtc. the first day right after i emailed you i went and talked to the president in spanish and he put me in a latino district so everyone in my district and classes are from chile, argentina, uruguay, and one from nicaragua who is our d.l. and a really good one at that. so i will be leaving the mtc for the field in only two weeks! three total. sometimes it is hard because my classes are taught to natives, so the spanish is fast and i have a hard time following but sometimes i follow really well, i know that Heavenly Father is helping me so much with the language. when i get frustrated my two companions are so patient and helpful. their names are hermana campos and urdapilleta, even the latinos struggle with that name. i am called hermana casey or hermana case. i love it even more than yessica. the elders are also so nice when i am having a hard time they will try to talk to me in english or make me laugh or just give me encouraging smiles. in my setting a part i was told i would develop a love for the people early on. i didnt realized to would be so early. i truly love these brothers and sisters. i have approached this experience with the idea that if i cant always express myself with the language i can express myself through a positive attitude. i have tried to smile and be really a happy and laugh and try to talk to the others so that they will know what i am saying through my heart if not my words. i feel like this has helped me so much especially when i have used mexican words that are swear words here but they know i dont mean it because i say with a smile and in a nice way. renita you talked about how light and darkness cannot occupy the same place. i know that is true because as much as a miss you all and wish i could see you, i dont feel homesick. i dont know if that makes sense but when i should be sad or frustrated because i have to focus so hard to understand the language that i dont actually learn what is being said, i still feel so happy. i know that is because there is so much light here that it is nearly impossible to get depressed-not to say that there arent hard times, there definintely are.

my typical day is that i usually get up at 6:30 and get ready, go eat, go study on my own, then as comps, then we have district (class) then lunch at 12:15 then district then sports at 3:30-my favorite part, i play ultimate frisbee with the elders or sometimes i get my butt kicked in soccer. it is so fun. then we go to district again, dinner at 6 45 and district till nine. then we plan and practice discussions till 10 ish. bed at 10 30. my teachers are hermano seta and hermano catron, they are both so nice and i really love the lessons they teach.

i am kind of in a weird situation as far as companions go because hermana smith is my companion so i try to be with her sometimes because she is alone a lot since shes the only girl in her district but i also am in a threesome in my own district so it is hard to balance. i love hermana smith though. she is crazy like me and we have fun laughing and joking. her second day she was really struggling with the language-i am the only one who came here with any spanish background at all-so i stayed up later helping her and she is always telling me how much she loves me and appreciates me which really helps to boost my confidence. also with the whole trying to have a positive attitude thing, a lot of people tell me how they love that i always am so happy and they cant imagine me ever being sad, this also helps me because i can see that people are noticing and that it really makes a difference. also hermana crofts is from the st george, she and hermana smith knew eachother there, and she is so fun and loves to play sports and we get along so well.

there are four girls in my room. 2 latinas and me and smith, i am on the top bunk and i put our family pic on top of a high book shelf at the foot of my bed. i blow you a kiss every night! we can see the temple right out our window not 100 yards away, but it is pretty torn up right now with the remode. i have so much more to say but my time is about up. please forward this to everyone i dont want to take the time to add their info, also please send to holly roch and lanae you, hollycsorensen@gmail.com, lanunu11hotmail.com, and rochelleleigh@gmail.com, i can only email immediate family so girls, write me!

i love you all so much! i miss you but know that i am so happy and loving this work. Heavenly Father is blessing you so much and I know he is blessing you because I ask him to everyday. I have to go! bye!!

Estoy en Argentina

2010-03-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody. This is Amy, not Jessica. Just so you knows, before Jessica left she told me I could post copies of her emails onto her blog for everybody to read. I'll probably use her subject lines as blog titles. So here is the first email that my mother received and forwarded to me:

Hi mom! I dont completely know how to use this keyboard so I might emit some punctuation marks. I also dont really know what to tell you first. Right now Im at the MTC in Buenos Aires. We got here about one or two hours ago and just ate lunch. The flight was long. Really long. I wrote you a letter on the plane telling you about the first day and the other missionaries so I wont go into all of that right now unless I have time, I dont know how much time I will have. So my email is jessica.casebolt@myldsmail.net and I will email on thursdays. So make sure that you email me back by Wednesday. You can probably just reply though. I had a really hard time sleeping on the plane during the night so I feel really tired but at the same time so wound up that there is no way I could sleep. My comapañera is hermana smith. She is from st. george and I met her at the airport in Salt Lake. She seems really nice and I think we will have fun together. Im the only one in our group that speaks any spanish which will probably have pros and cons. It will definitley be useful, it already has been, but I think Im becoming the know-it-all missionary. Thats ok though. At the airport I came out of security first (I also am probably the most comfortable navigating through airports) and I saw this lady waving us over. She was just dressed in everyday clothes and I dont even know if she is LDS but she picked us up and drove us to the MTC. She is from Buenos Aires and doesnt speak more than a few words of english so I had to translate to everyone. It was fun though, I think they plan it to be that way where there is one missionary in each group that has language experience. I met sister crofts at lunch and she said it was the same when their group came and hermana gardner was the only one that knew any spanish. she also said that hermana gardner was only here for three weeks before she went to uruguay and that there is no six week program at this mtc so Im interested to see how long I will stay. Sister crofts doesnt have a companion right now and she still has three weeks here so there is a possibility that she and I will go to uruguay at the same time. I hope it works out that way because I dont really want to do nine weeks in the mtc. Not that I wont like it here, I think I will but Im excited to get into the actual routine of a missionary.

I also met an Elder here that was in my mission prep class at school. Do you remember me telling you that someone else said they were coming to this mission? Well thats him. It is funny because the MTC and everything is different than I expected. When I thought missionaries and the MTC I think classes and studying and all that, but really its just a bunch of kids who still like to talk and joke and socialize and laugh a lot. So its been fun.

On the plane from Dallas I sat by this guy from Vancouver who is originally from Buenos Aires. He speaks like 5 languages and is a scientist coming for a conference on a new drug to cure blindness. He said they have made mice, rats and 2 kids in montreal gain their vision. Anyways, I tried to speak Spanish with him and he literally cringed at my accent. Like turned his head in disgust. I told him that I learned spanish in mexico and thats why my accent is different and he pretty much said, well you will have to learn it the right way in argentina. He was super nice about though and i really liked him but its like, if youre going to act all sickened when i speak im not going to be very inclined to talk to you. so im hoping it wont be like tat everywhere. he was very excited to talk about the olympics though and the hockey game and how much fun vancouver was. he was also quick to point out how americans get a bad rap because president bush dogs on other countries that are all friends and allies. it was so weird because he was nice about all of it the whole time and would smile and laugh as he said it but at the same time i wanted to say, even though youre being nice youre saying some things that could be really insulting to people. it was kind of interesting.

I really dont know what else to say since not much has happened because we just got here. I hope everything is good at home and Im sure you will forward this to everyone so hello all, i love you! I hear people speaking spanish here and it makes me so excited to be fluent. I feel so conflicted in a way because little thoughts will pop into my head about home and how I miss you all so much already but then at the same time I get these huge bursts of excitement for being here, I think it is going to be tons of fun as well as a wonderful experience. So far it is beautiful and actually looks a little like the Bay Area, at least more so than anything else I could compare it to. I will send that letter as soon as I can, its just details not super newsy but I dont know when it will get to you.

I am so happy to be here, I can feel the spirit in this process and we havent even had class or sung hymns or had prayers or anything. I just feel like this is so right and almost familiar. It is a feeling I did not expect but is really comforting to me. I hope it is comforting to you too and that you maybe are feeling it on your end as well. I love you so so so much and I wish I could give you a hug right now. Cant wait to read your response next thursday, i wish i could check my mail tomorrow. tell everyone else to mail me too even if it is just short. In fact its probably best if everyone elses is short. Start sending letters too so because I dont want to have to wait for three weeks to start receiving mail...if it takes that long. Next time I email you i will have a lot more to say because i will have actually had a week here but until then, i love you! Talk to you later!
Love, Hermana Casebolt

Dear Emma

2010-03-07T10:42:00.000-08:00

You have your own folder of pictures on my computer. And it is pretty full. And you've only been alive for like three months. Here are some of my favorites that I have taken:

Too bad this one is fuzzy because that face is priceless.

I Scream You Scream

2010-03-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

We all screamed for ice cream! So we went to Leatherby's. And by we I mean my parentals and brother, my grandparentals, and my aunts. If you haven't been there you are missing out. Our family has been going to Leatherby's for ice cream since before I was born and it is delicious. Most everyone gets a sarah-sundae with toasted almond ice cream and the most wonderful caramel, or with vanilla ice cream and the yummiest hot fudge. But you all know how I am when it comes to ice cream so I get both! It's called the Bart's Black and Tan, it's a tall glass with layers of vanilla and toasted almond with caramel or fudge in between and it is so so so good. I got an extra dish of caramel on the side last night. Mmmm....

Bart's Black and TanGrandma got swiss milk chocolate with marshmallow topping. It was good too.

Ate the whole thing.

By the way...this could be my last blog post for 18 months!!

Judged

2010-02-25T23:05:00.000-08:00

Sometimes at my job, I feel a little bit self-conscious. The people that I work with are so talented and creative and just insanely good at what they do and it makes me downplay my own accomplishments. I really love doing floral design and although I'm not the best at it, sometimes I finish an arrangement and feel so accomplished; I'll look at it and just get this feeling like, "oh yeah, I'm good". But then I look at what the person next to me is making and my mouth drops. Because of this, I often find myself wondering about how everyone else feels about my work. When I'm filling an order or the cooler my mind starts racing with thoughts like "did she just look at my arrangement?" or "I wonder if she thinks I'm crazy for using so much liatris?" I think part of the reason for these insecurities are because when a bride or even just a regular customer will come in and ask for something specific that is not what most girls would deem "cute", as soon as that person walks out everyone (including me) will start criticizing the things she chose. "Can you believe she wants sunflowers for her bouquet?", "What is she thinking using babys breath instead of wax?" or "Cascading? Not hand-held"? It really is quite funny when you think about it and no one should really care at all because we all have our own likes and dislikes and who needs some strangers approval? For that matter, why do I need approval? As long as I feel good about what I do, that's all that matters, right?

I just wish I had a better forehead...

2010-02-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

I have a widow's peak. I hate it. You know how some people just have those really nice foreheads and hairlines and they can pull their hair completely back and it looks awesome? I'm not one of them. If I want my hair completely out of my face I either wear a thick headband to cover my disfunctional hairline or I have to take a comb and smooth some stupid little bump into place so that it swoops over the widow's peak before it goes back into the bobby pin. And when I don't I end up looking like this:

Just don't get me started on my eyebrows.

Dreams

2010-02-15T20:50:00.000-08:00

Like so many other people, I have often wondered what it would be like to be an Olympian. Who hasn't, right? The Olympics are always so fun to watch, both summer and winter, and I will admit that I sometimes daydream about myself winning medals in certain events. Wow, that is embarrassing but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. So anyways, if I could choose any event that I would participate in it would probably be moguls or downhill for winter and swimming or gymnastics for summer. What would you choose?

New Stuff

2010-02-10T22:18:00.000-08:00

After I got off work this evening I went to Khol's with my mom to buy some new bras!! Had to type that TAMN style. Anyways, while we were looking around, we found some really cute pajamas that were on sale and we had a couple coupons so I got them. They are so comfortable and for some reason I really really really like getting new pajamas so I was pretty happy. They are a light gray with white floral print and I got a plain white t-shirt that was on clearance to go with them. Here's some pics! I seriously thought about taking pictures of my new bras too but decided that wouldn't be appropriate for a soon to be Sister; so you'll just have to use your imaginations for that one.

P.S. I really like a new song by Michael Buble called "All I do is Dream of You". It might sound familiar if you watched "Singing in the Rain" a million times growing up like I did. If you're a fan of Mr. Bubble, check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD5SMEs7zm8

Cool!

2010-02-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday I drove down to Spanish Fork to watch my niece Emma and hang out with my sister Jennie and her husband and some of my friends from school. It was a really fun little trip and this morning before I left Emma was being so cute. Not even kidding, when she and I were looking in the mirror at our own reflections, I said "cool" and in her little baby voice she said "cool"! It was so funny and she said it probably five times. She is so darling.

I love this one!

Treat Day

2010-01-31T22:11:00.000-08:00

When we made our trip to visit Amy and Paul in Campbell, I found a recipe book in their apartment that my mother gave to my sister a while ago. Before she gave her this cookbook, however, I had discovered a wonderful recipe for brownies contained in its pages, so when I found the book and mentioned its great brownie recipe we decided that brownies would be a good Sunday evening treat. Amy and I whipped up the batter, stuck them in the oven, and we all devoured them. My father said they were the best brownies he had ever had and asked me if I would make them for him to take to a weekly work meeting that he held every Monday morning. Because I am such a delightful daughter I lovingly obliged and sent him to work with two paper plates full of goodies. Ever since my dad comes to me on each Saturday or Sunday and asks something along the lines of "what are you gonna make for me to take to work on Monday?" It's pretty funny. So just like a mother taking her turn for kindergarten snack time, I've been playing housewife and providing refreshments for the railroaders.

Called to Serve

2010-01-28T20:35:00.000-08:00

Today being Thursday, a lot of people in Utah probably opened their mailboxes this afternoon to find a mission call waiting for them. On facebook today a couple of my friends were included in that group and it got me thinking about when my call came just 2 1/2 short months ago. I remember feeling so excited in a way but at the same time somewhat indifferent just because the whole thing felt so surreal and I couldn't really get my mind into enough of a focus to register exitement. It was like watching a stranger go through the whole process rather than myself. But anyways, after seeing that these two girls had received their calls I had this strong feeling of.....I don't know what to call it. Not jealousy. Longing? Nostalgia? I'm not sure, but it made me want to go back and do it all over again.

The anticipation was worth every second and reading those first couple of lines was truly one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced. Although I tried not to glance ahead while reading each word aloud to my family, I couldn't help sneaking a peek after the words "you are assigned" and caught a glimpse of the name of the country where I will be serving: "Uruguay". I think I gasped but I'm not really sure. Pretty sure when I read it aloud my mom did a loud clap and jumped up to give me a hug, but that's debatable too; the whole night was a bit of a blur. It's definitely one of those moments I have relived over and over in my mind and still get tingles from. I remember having such a special feeling just from reading the "Dear Sister Casebolt" and knowing that Heavenly Father was so happy with my decision to serve a mission. That knowledge and reconfirmation of my decision combined with an overwhelming feeling of love was probably the very best part of the whole thing.

I don't believe that Uruguay is where I am "meant" to serve because I think anyone could have a great mission in a lot of places if they try their best to make the most of it, I don't think there is such a thing as one perfect call, but I do feel that being called to Uruguay is a perfect call for me. It is a huge blessing and makes me feel lucky and absolutely honored and priveleged to have received the call that I did and I only hope to live worthy of it and be the best missionary I can be.

I would love to see comments about what you remember from that night or from when I told you where I was going!

Insignificant

2010-01-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

I love to read the blog Seriously So Blessed. I think it is hilarious. In case any of you don't know, the blog often does giveaways where the author TAMN offers prizes donated by her sponsers done through a drawing. One simply comments on that post and a week or so later she posts the winners. So, when I was leaving my comment on her most recent post as I faithfully and unfruitfully do for every giveaway, I noticed that over 1,000 other people had also left comments. ONE THOUSAND. I'm pretty sure only 4 people read my blog. Popularity is a bummer.

Branching Out

2010-01-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

I consider myself to be a pretty traditional cook. By traditional I mean that I usually stick to the tried and true recipes that I know and love, but because of this I don't have much variety in my cooking/baking abilities. The last time I really challenged myself was probably when I made chocolate chip cookies in Mexico without having measuring utensils, normal ingredients, and an ancient oven with no way to set the temperature. So the night before my birthday this week I decided that I wanted to find and try a new cake recipe. Amy and I searched online for a while and found a recipe for a Chocolate-Coconut Bundt cake. We put on our aprons and got to work. The cake was nothing special but it was fun to try something different and spend time in the kitchen with my big sister who is pretty much pro at finding and successfully making delicious new creations. Now I think I'll try some new kind of bread recipe. Jennie, would you care to join me?

P.S. I took these pictures with my new camera that I got for Christmas! What do you think?

On the corner of Memory and Santa Clause

2009-12-24T23:57:00.000-08:00

Just in case someone wakes up really early this morning and has to wait to open presents, I thought I'd share a little poem so they'll have something to read while they wait. Consider it part of your Christmas present Amy....Oh! I mean, whoever you are...

It's Christmas night and I'm in my bed,
thoughts of presents run through my head.
I hope I get that Barbie Jeep,
I hope that Santa thinks I'm asleep.

Between the trundle bed there is a crack,
And that is where I've hit the sack.
It's not too comfy, but I don't care,
I'm wearing padded underwear!!

I'm getting thirsty, my mouth is dry,
It think a piece of ice I'll try.
But my big sister is awful quick,
and she thinks up a mean old trick.

Holding a blanket she blocks my eyes,
But secretly peeks at her own suprise.
She is so naughty and has such gall,
I don't know why Santa brought her anything at all.

Maybe next year I'll write him a letter,
and tell him for her coal would be much better.
I don't know why, but I love her still;
even though she is such a pill!

Merry Christmas!

Runnin' Reds

2009-12-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Driving by the MTC the other day with Rochelle. Come to a red light so I stop. Car next to me stops too. A few seconds pass and car next to me goes. The light is still red. I say to Rochelle:

"WHAT THE?! THAT CAR JUST STRAIGHT UP RAN A RED LIGHT!"

So I waited until the light turned green-as I am a law abiding citizen and have never ran a red light-but when it turns green I went and caught up to the outlaw who was stopped at the next red light. How fortuitous. I looked over at the evil-doer and wiggled my finger in the air disapprovingly, giving him a stern look. His partner in crime was chuckling but the dead-beat driver was looking pretty sheepish and maintained a forced stare straight ahead. Me and Roch were cracking up; it was just about as good as when I let off a whoopi-cushion in Jake's car. I guess there's just nothing quite like driving in Provo.

Hot and Cold

2009-10-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but it seems that some kinds of heat are better than others. For example, when some people get cold, they like to take a hot shower, run a hair dry over their hands, or turn up the furnace. For me, the best heat is from a space heater. For some reason crawling into bed at night with the space heater on makes me feel so cozy, but there's only one problem; I'm one of those weirdos who likes it to be cold while I sleep. Don't worry though, I've found a solution. A little while before going to bed I crack open the window to let my room get cold and right before snuggling down under the covers, I turn on the space heater...leaving the window slightly open. That's right, I sleep with my window open and my space heater on. It's a little strange I know and maybe counter intuitive, but it makes me sleep so much better. Does anybody else have some weird sleeping quirks?

Sweet Saturdays

2009-10-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

What I loved about today:

Driving with the windows down and feeling the fall breeze.

The red trees in the mountains.

Going to the farmers market.

Eating carmel apples.

Not having tuberculosis.

Starting a new book.

Shaving my legs.

Listening to the Beatles.

Me gustaria una Gordita, por favor...

2009-09-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

Lanae and I have found the best restaurant for Mexican food (yes another post about Mexican culture). It's called TacoRiendo, which is a pun on the Spanish word corriendo which means running. Today I had the most amazing gordita EVER. The tortilla was like a tortilla on the outside but bready on the inside, the carne asada (steak) was so flavorful, and the crema and queso was nothing short of divine. The place is on State St. in Provo just north of DI and right next to Tesoro. If you want to go, call me!

Back at the "why?"...I mean Y!

2009-09-12T17:18:00.000-07:00

Returning to the good-ole boring campus of BYU is not easy after an exciting summer filled with Mexican fun. I've never claimed to be a "true-blue cougar" and must say that my return to Provo has not been a joyous occasion for me. However, one thing that has certainly improved my return to Happy Valley is hanging out with the people from my study abroad program! We've found some awesome, authentic Mexican places to go eat and had fun reliving our viaje. It has now been 1 month since I came home. Never would I have guessed that after 4 weeks I would still not be able to let it go. My point in saying all of this is...I miss Mexico!

Sell-es-TOON

2009-07-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday our group went on another excursion. We met at 9:00 and drove to a beach in Celestun where we took a boat ride to see the Flamencos (flamingos) in their flocks on the river. After that, we took our boat through some smaller connecting rivers that were enveloped in "el bosque", the forest. I like to use the Spanish word bosque better than forest because the forests here aren't like the forests I usually think of in the Western United States, so bosque to me sounds like a whole new word with a new meaning. So now there are forests, woods, jungles and bosques. After swimming for a little while, we rode back along the shoreline to the beach we had originally started at. The water of the usually calm Gulf of Mexico was a little rough going back which made our ride quite uncomfortable and full of violent turbulence as our boat would continually crash down on every other wave. All in all it was a great day and my butt recovered.

Makin' Amigos

2009-07-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

On Monday night we had our first "Noche De Hogar" or, Family Home Evening. We went to the home of one of our host family's and swam in their pool, jumped on their trampoline, ate treats and then had a lesson. It was really fun because a few guys from the ward came and we taught them how to play Marco Polo, a game that never fails to procure a great deal of laughter. On Wednesday night we met up with them again at an ice cream shop in downtown called Colon, famous for its coconut sorbet. After walking around for a while we came home and had another one of our host mom's delicious meals and called it a night.

Yesterday after school we went to Itzimna, a small colonial town about an hour away from Merida. There is large convent there where they used to hold open-air masses and train priests. Apparently this convent has the second largest courtyard in the world for open air masses, second only to that of the one in Rome. While we were there we also went to some of the ruins, a really interesting museum with modern artifacts, and ate an awesome dinner of queso relleno, panuchos, and banana con leche. To wrap it up, we returned to the convent for the sound and lights show, took some cool pictures of the cathedral lit up in the night, and headed for home.

Bienvenidos a Mexico

2009-07-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Today we went to some ruins near Merida called Dzibilchaltun, meaning "the place of writing on stones". It was really interesting and there was a small temple there called "El Templo de Siete Munecas" or the house of seven dolls. It was very hot today so we were very excited after the ruins to go to our welcoming party at a house on the beach. One of our directors from the University here has a home right on la playa del Progreso. The water was incredibly warm and my favorite part was that all of the houses on the beach have small pools the size of hot tubs but deeper with fresh, cool water to wash in after being in the salty water. It felt absolutely divine.

This was the cenote at Dzibilchaltun. They have found many sacrificial items in it such as pottery, jewelery and human bones. This was one city where they are sure that the winners of the Mayan ball game were sacrificed rather than the loser.

The Temple of Seven Dolls

These were probabaly living quarters.

The Gulf of Mexico and the Beach of Progreso.

En El Muelle De San Blas

2009-07-02T18:17:00.001-07:00

Today in class we listened to a song from one of my favority groups as far as Spanish music goes (not that I listen to a ton of Spanish music). It is called En El Muelle De San Blas, meaning at the dock of San Blas. Check it out! English translation is below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyMlsb1O5dE

She said goodbye to her love
He parted in a ship at the San Blas dock
He swore he would come back
And soaked in tears she swore she would wait
A thousand moons passed away,
And she was still at the dock, waiting.
Lots of evenings nestledIn her hair and her lips.
She wore the same dress
In case he would come back,
He would not mistake her.
Crabs bit her dress, her sadness and her illusion.
And time went by,
And her eyes were full of dawns.
She fell in love with the sea
And her body grew roots at the dock.
Alone, alone in oblivion
Alone, alone with her spirit
Alone, alone with her love, the sea
Alone at the San Blas dock
Her hair went white
But no ship brought back her love
And in the village people called her
The crazy woman of the San Blas dock
And in an April afternoon
They tried to take her to the nuthouse
But no one could take her away
And they never separated her from the seaA
lone, alone in oblivion
Alone, alone with her spirit
Alone, alone with her love, the sea
Alone at the San Blas dock
Alone, alone she stayed…

Now I know Why People Here Have Dark Skin

2009-07-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today while we were waiting for the bus we ate tacos at a little restaurant. While we were eating, the owner came and started talking to us and asked us if we knew why the man sitting next to us was so black. We were a little confused as to why he would ask this, but then he reached into the man's sack and pulled out the biggest bottle of Coca-Cola I have ever seen and said, "Because he drinks so much Coca-Cola!" And then they both laughed so hard like it was the funniest thing to say. Of course we couldn't help but join in. A little more about Merida, the buses are a little crazy, they drive much like I would imagine the bus in Harry Potter does, it seems like everything has to leap out of the way for the bus to come through. The University we go to is very small, smaller than my high school, I'll post pictures eventually. Also, here in Merida, I get honked at more than I ever have before in my life, that will take some getting used to but I guess it's pretty common here. Who knows, maybe it will be something I miss when I come back to the States...well probably not.

Lluvia Lluvia y Mas Lluvia

2009-06-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have to skip the introduction because I have other things I need to do, so here's what's new. After lunch today, we went to "El Centro", a long street with tons and tons of different kinds of shops. When we left the house to walk to the bus stop it was starting to sprinkle a little and by the time we got to El Centro, it was literally raining harder than I have ever seen. Luckily it's warm here so to me it felt really good when I was soaked to the bone. I honestly could not have gotten more wet if I had taken a shower, the rain had better water pressure than the home I'm staying in. I'll wrap this up with my 3 favorite things about Mexico so far:
1. La Comida, the food
2. Los Arboles rojos se llama "flamboyanes", the red trees
3. Hacer trueques, bartering

A Toast

2009-06-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

Okay Amy, you'll probably be the only person to ever read this so I'm dedicating it to you. Here's to giving in.