Letter received in the mail on Wednesday, 11/17/10

Hola Madre!!!

Sorry my email was short, our P-days here are a million times busier and we only have like 30 minutes on the computer and 2 hours to write, clean, and get ready for dinner and also gym.   So P-days are just as busy as any other day.   Before I write more I need to mention something from experience.   When you see a sister missionary (anytime) please give her a big hug because this is hard, stressful work and we never receive affection.   It’s hard not getting affection or being held by anyone, especially being in a closed in box like here.   So when you see a sister hug her, she needs it!   I promise!

Today on our P-day we went to the university and did a service project of picking up trash on the campus grounds.   It was blistering hot, but it was good.   It was sad though cuz a lot of the students were laughing at us.   It’s sad cuz we were trying to help them get trash off and have a clean campus.   It’s all good…we were able to get out and serve others.  J

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I did hear from the Glod’s and that was extremely nice.   It was great to hear their family is doing well.   DearElder is probably the best (form of) communication from anyone because I found out they open your mail sometimes.   Hermana Curl had a letter opened and later read in an email from the sender that money was supposed to be in the envelope.   They stole it!   Sad eh!   So DearElder (DR MTC) is safest or pouch.

So Sunday’s are my favorite days because they are relaxing (also ice cream days), spiritual, and just nice here.   It’s so nice when we have extra time we can nap or walk around the temple.   It helps keep the Spirit.   I bore my testimony last Sunday en Spanish, it was cool to hear testimonies either in French or Spanish, no ingles.   The President and his wife are good people.   Their names are President Hendricks and Hermana Hendricks.   They were mission presidents before in Costa Rica and all their children served in Spanish speaking missions.   Cool eh!   They leave this January….Hermana Hendricks took care of me while I was sick, with cough drops.   I slept during class once, and she brought me warm lemon honey stuff which, no offense, totally tasted like I was drinking throw up……Shhh don’t tell her I said that!

So I’m super excited because we get to go to the mall on Tuesday.   The Haitians are leaving that day and we can go shopping.   We haven’t been out or bought really anything since we’ve been here.   A lot of restocking.   We’re all ready to get out a little from this box.   Cool thing we have a really tiny distribution store attached to our building and I bought the Children’s Hymnbook (Songbook) on CD for only $1.30.   Sweet eh!   And a 50 piece of Articles of Faith cards in Spanish for $.20 and gave them to everyone.   It was sweet!

I’ve taught the 1^st lesson a couple of times in Spanish and the 2^nd lesson about the plan de Salvacion.   It was hard, but my teachers said we did a really good job.   Hermana Kamisese is such a blessing for me.   She’s patient and a great motivation for me.   She has such a love for the gospel and teaching which helps me want to teach more…..cuz you know me, not a big fan of teaching.

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(Jessie said some private things here and then she continued with…..)….can I just say I am so grateful for men of God who receive guidance and are ready anytime!   Anyways we talked (Jessie and her MTC President) and he had good insights then he asked me if I wanted a blessing.   I wasn’t planning to get one, but I wanted one when he asked   We had to wait til after devotional cuz we were already running late.   He later came and got me and gave me a blessing, a blessing that had most of the things I needed to hear and didn’t even mention to him.   It was such a relief for me and a total answer to prayers!   I felt so blessed to have that experience tonight and know how my Heavenly Father feels about me right now in my life.   I was glad I didn’t send this yet, so I could share this story.   And one funny thing is before I left he was like “I’ll ask Hermana Hendricks to give you a hug.”   I thought that was funny cuz I didn’t even say anything about it, but Hermana Kamisese and I talked about it today.   The Lord sure does know and the Spirit guides people through other worthy members.

Before I leave, cuz it’s bedtime, tell everyone I’m sorry you’re like the only one I wrote to this week.   I’ll try to redeem and respond next P-day!   But here is a little about my small district:

Hermana Kamisese:   awesome, Tongan companion as always.   We’ve been companions for 5 weeks now.

Elder Pinkston:   District leader, from Alabama, nice all American boy.

Elder Perez:   20 years old from San Diego.   El Salvadoran.   He is the best Spanish speaker in class.   He basically translates for the rest of us.   Total goof, sometimes over the top, but very kind.

Elder Mangleson:   from Sacramento.   Very kind, quiet and loud at the same time.  He’s funny cuz he thinks he’s black, but he definitely isn’t.   Good guy.

Elder McGlauthlin:   from Arizona.   A total comedian.   The Haitians call him Jim Carrey cuz he makes faces and is funny.   He’s madly in love with is GF (sweet) and we Hermanas don’t have names, we’re just ‘Hermanas’ with a certain tone.

These are some things about them (so) you can kinda picture them.   They are a good, fun group.   

Gotta go! 

Hermana Me