Email received 12/15/10

        Thank you so much for the perfect ornament I love it!!! And i am glad you’re not sending it cuz I would lose it lol.... and yes that is the exact same Hermana Miller who is my trainer. (Hermana Miller also has a blog.   You can find it at:  http://hermanamiller.blogspot.com/   She is Jessie’s first companion in Puerto Rico.)   She is from Buffalo, New York, but her parents are now in Utah. She is 6 ft, so we probably look a tad bit funny together, but its cool. So hmmmm so much to tell you let's see if I can remember it all. Sorry last time the only time I had was to write the email after that I had no other time to write to anyone else. Also you’re not going to like me, so I asked the ccm president if I could have special permission for emailing the pic and he said no, then I went to walgreens when I arrived here and my card wasn't working at the machine, and then today I forgot to bring my cord, to download and email it to you. Sorry so today we are going to walgreens and I'm going to try again and send you my mission pic.... its not great, but it will work, I will give you a few to choose from hopefully its not to late. (I asked for a photo for the family Christmas letter)   ………………….

I am in the city of San Juan, in Guaynabo you can check it on a map, definitely not the best looking place lol.... the people are very kind though. It's challenging because they say they have faith, believe, and obedient, but they don't show it. So that is something Hermana Miller and I are trying to figure out (so) that (we) can help these people take action! That is one thing the Puerto Rican people do not like to show action, they all believe it’s the heart, they tend to me lazy and somewhat stubborn (extremely kind-hearted and sweet spirit's).... so that is our goal with the people we teach. Our goal in the mission is to recruit the menos activos- less actives because there are so many, so we don't really have investigators cuz we're just trying to get the already members back. It's really sad because there are about 16,000 members of the church on this island, but only 3,000 are actually active INSANE eh.... so that is our job. Also crazy thing so once Hermana Miller leaves in April, I'm the person to be in charge of this area cuz I'm going to have to stay here for at least 3 transfers. 1 transfer= 6 weeks…………………. And its interesting cuz everyone raved about how beautiful pr is, but it's not that pretty and that could be cuz I live in a city.  The houses here are interesting very retro, and they all have bars so we have to yell to see if someone is home. Also our place is interesting. I'm starting to get used to it and not mind it as much, but it’s very petite... I don't know if I wrote in my last letter, but we can't flush TP so we have to throw our tp after using it and I thought it would be so awful and smelly, but it’s honestly not as bad when you get used to it.

    So Spanish has been very stressful for me, cuz I feel like I am getting worse, other missionaries think I'm doing well, but in all honestly it’s not good. The accents are really hard to understand, so it’s definitely a challenge for me to respond back because I don't want to say something that won't relate to what is being spoken. So I rely a lot on Hermana M. and try to listen to her and follow her., but she gets frustrated because she does most of the teaching which I feel bad, but I just don't know what to say. We have had some tensions and it’s been a challenge, but we are still working on it. Some days are good others are not, so this has been a very hard experience for me, and I feel bad cuz she is going to end with me. Just keep praying please I really really really need them …………..

      Okay let me give you some better news.... after last pday we had the chance to have a hermanas conference at the mission office. The conference was all the hermanas in the mission (which isn't it crazy I'm serving in PR East mission area), (Jessie’s mission call letter said she’d be serving in the Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission.   Shortly after she received her call the East and West missions were combined into one.   That’s why it’s ironic she’s in the East side of the mission), anyways we played games at night because it was after our pday which ends at 6 and so we got to know one another a little, and then had a sleep over. The next morning was the conference, it was a full day experience.... it was good, but most of it was in Spanish so it was hard to understand it all, but bless hermana M cuz she translated a lot for me which helped. We watched the other Errand of angels and had a lot of food and speakers. One of the activities which hermana M. and I didn't care for was washing one another’s feet. This was our 3(rd) day together and we both hate feet. So we did a super quick rinse to one another and that was it lol. We got cute little lotion, spray body kits and it was a good time to get to know the sweet sisters here. Then we had our planning session which took 3 hours out of our day... it was good and it seemed like the spirit was helping us figure out good plans for our menos activos and I had suggested a lot of ideas which we wrote down, but then when we were with the people, my lesson plan was shut down all of sudden and we changed. So yeah....

     We had a chance to go to the mall in Carolina which is in our zone and sing (in the mall Christmas songs) with all our zone and pass out pass along cards. It was fun and it was really good to go to a mall. Also we got to see some of our hermana friends from the conference. Hermana Ghersi and Moldovo are in our zone which was so fantastic too see them, they are the ones from the ccm. Even Hermana Ghersi is on my district which is wonderful, I love that girl. We also had our first district meeting together yesterday and that went well and was enjoyable. We have a good group and hermana M and I had to teach them about difference between teaching a lesson while contacting and one with a cita (app). I've noticed I am a million times better when I teach in English than I do in Spanish, I just have the spirit with me more and I really can get my thoughts out... dang Spanish lol. Also I forgot to mention that I came here for the ward Christmas party the food was great, met the ward members, and they played PR music and sang PR Christmas songs. It’s interesting cuz they people here don’t know the Christmas American songs in the hymn book, many people do not speak English here. It’s not like the US at all. It was good though I had fun at that. Our ward is very small, just as many people here as there are in KW (Key West).

     One day we were walking and making contacts at a neighborhood and we saw this woman who was putting her kids in the car of her ex- husband and we started talking to her and she did not seem interested at all, but she told us to hang on while she put them in the car. Then the kids left with their dad, and they woman started talking to us. We contacted her and asked her questions... she was really thinking (which is a sign that they could be interested), then she interacted and kept listening. During our contact we started to teach her the first lesson. She was still interested so we were like this could be someone ;) so she then offered to let us in. We got to teach her the full 1st lesson and she was kind and interactive. We gave her an invitation to read and pray... so we really hope that she will do those things and have the desire to learn more. We have an appointment with her this sat... so we are really hoping that she will let us in and become a progressing investigator. That was a good experience. Also the other day we were driving around (which by the way, I am going to hold off getting my license as long as I can, cuz people here are crazy drivers, not as bad as the DR, but still. We also have this rule that I have to help my companion back up and so I get out the car and help every time, and we always have to park in backup) anyways... so we were searching for an inactive in the ward directory and we were going to the houses and asking if the people knew this one member. So no one knew him, so after we tried contacting them talking about the gospel. One girl answered and she is 16 and was interested in our message, her mom allowed us in, she listened here and there, but the 16 year was the one who was listening the most. The family were Jehova's Witnesses, …………..... but she took a Book of Mormon and seemed very interested. We'll have to see how it goes cuz I don't know how her mom felt about the whole situation.

   The last story is about a couple name Rafaella and Pedro. Pedro is not a member, but Rafaella is and she is inactive, starting to go to church again. Sweet older couple. Apparetly both us and the elders teach them. So we visited them and taught them about the scripture, commandments, and prophets. (we don't use the discussions as much cuz they are for investigators, but we teach non actives so it’s different) Anyways apparently he has told everyone he will get baptized, but he won't accept the days that the missionaries have given him, so the missionaries said he could choose, and he claims he will receive an answer to a certain day. Well this has been going on for awhile and personally I think it's becoming a joke, so i don't the missionaries they need to give him a day and say this is it or nothing. Because he could just be giving us all a hard time and instead of realizing this is not a joke. So I recommended that we pray and fast as 4 missionaries to figure a day for his baptism than represent the date and explain that we a source of his answer that we prayed and are trying to help him receive that answer. So we prayed and fasted and have chosen together Jan 15, so next time we see him we are all going to be there together and be 4 witnesses and testify to him. I really hope this will be a spiritual moment for him and he will know of its truthfulness.

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LOVE YOU!!!!

ME