I have a neck fungus. Yuck.

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...

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

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...

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!

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

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

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