wonderful, wonderful dayyyyyy (7 brides for 7 bros)

well folks, we´ve only got 1 more year to be separated. crazy, huh??? i cant believe that i have 6 months in my mission.

momsie!! happy birthday! i hope it was just grand. i wish i could have been there to give you a big hug.

well, first things first: the lice keep their little dance on my head goin' strong. what the?? this week my wonderful pensionista searched through my hair and found the little nasties walking around, and killed them. thank you, hna. munante. it is really gross to kill them because they make a popping noise. ewwww. im cringing just thinking about it. so when others volunteer to do the killing for me, yes please. also, ive lost all my dignity.  i really hope mom and dad's box gets here soon!!

you guys--we have changes again this week! this change went by soooo fast. annnnd im going to be receiving a new companion. i scared, k? im going to miss my compy, hna carazas a lot. we are good little friends. but also, 4 1/2 months living with the same girl 24/7 is a long time together. sooooo... that is all i will say about that. but yeah. i just pray that me and my new compy will love each other. hahaha eek!

soooooo this week i have been sick. i had a fever one day and had to stay in m y rooom allllll day. soooo boring. but i slept the whole time and rested my bod. but now ive been coughing a whole lot and today i dont have a voice. at all. and all the missionaries in my zone this morning just loveddddd asking me questions because i couldnt respond. dummies. hahahah just kidding. i actually love all the missionaries in my zone a whole lot.

anyway. boring stuff. sorry.

so this saturday we had the baptism of Andrea--the 16 year old. oh man you guys. she is soooooooooo great! her baptism was one of the most beautiful baptisms i have ever been too. a ton of people came and the talks were really great. oh, and both of her parents came who arent members. so she was baptized and then right after they asked her to share how she felt after being baptized, and when she was talking the spirit was soooooo strong in the room, and she started crying, and i looked at her parents and her mom was crying, too which means that sheee could feel the spirit, too. and it was just sooo soo beautiful and great. so yesterday we went and visited her and asked her what her parents thought of everything, and she told us that they are going to come to church next sunday--wooo!!!! and that they are just kind of curious as to what the beliefs are and everything--wooo!!! yayyyy!!!  so we're hoping that they will be the next ones to be baptized. we're definitely going to try to start teaching them.

also, you guyyyyyssss. Elizabeth is just the greatest in the whole wide world!!!!!!!! i wish all of you could meet her. tonight she is going to have her own FHE with her family, she told us yesterday. because she is doing the basic things first, and building her testimony, she is going to be sooo strong. because she prays and reads every day. and then last night, we went to their house have a little farewell for hna. carazas, and she fixed us Papa Rellena, which is this fried potatoe thing with meat stuffed in the inside. oh so delicious! and because this family is soooooo poor, anything that they give us, i feel sooooooooooooooooooooo loved by them. because i know that it isnt easy, you know? AND her son jefferson asked us last night, "so, when is my baptism?" YAY!!! so he is super excited to be baptized too. i just LOVE this family soo so much.

anyway, im attaching some pics of Elizabeth's baptism and of the FHE that we had with the familia Ampudia last week.

i love and miss you all SOOOOOOOO much. thanks always for your letters and emails and everything. i love and miss you all BASTANTE.

love,

hermana jill frances

not to fret young ones...

... you will receive an email from me. hahaha im sure you were all on the edge of your seats waiting... i kid, i kid. but sometimes i like to imagine that you are. hahaha so what? i like attention. hahaha just kidding. mabes.

anyyyyway. today we went to chancay again and it was ohhh so fun!! that is why i am just now writing to all of you. i have pictures to send, but we forgot the little adapter thing, so sorry. no pics for this week, folks. 

but you guys. this week has been ohhh soo good and ohhhhh soooo hard. man oh man. 

first the good--

we had the baptism of dear ol elizabeth this weekend and it was just the cutest and sweetest. We went to her house an hour before to check to see if she needed anything and to see how she was doing, and she was like, ''no no no! im doing great'' and then she couldnt contain her excitement and did this little clapping motion that reminds me of something that mom would do. like, it was kind of spastic hahaha and sooo cute! and she gave us both really big hugs. and then after being baptized she was just sooo happy. and her little son, jefferson, whom we are teaching too, said that he cant wait to be baptized, too. eeeeek!! and then sunday morning, elizabeth was supposed to be confirmed, like normal, but she didnt show up and we were really worried. so after church we went and checked on her, and she said that she got off of work at 7 am this morning and was rushing from work to get to church by 9. but since everyone depends on public transportation here, it isnt the most reliable and she didnt make it back to her house until like 11. and she told us that she felt bad allll morning and embarrassed. awwwwwwww!! i raelllllllly just love her sooooo much. i wish you could all meet her. but we comforted her and said that next week she'll be confirmed, and all will be well. but she is just the cutest. and last week we had an FHE con una family that is super super strong in our ward and have kids around the ages of her kids and it went sooo great. and they invited us to come again tonight. yay!! so she is very excited about going to that again. woo!!!

also, i dont remember if i told you about andrea, but she is 16 and THE GREATEST. oh my word. i love her so much. and she likes the song ''zombie'' by the cranberries and it is set as her ringtone for her phone, and she sounds soo cute when she tries to sing along. ahhahaha. anyway, andrea is reallllly smart and her aunt and uncle are members of the church, and she asked her aunt if she could ask us to take the lessons from us, and duh. of course. and so about 2 or 3 weeks ago we started teaching her, and last week we committed her to a baptism date and the lesson was soooooooooo great. ok, so i dont like to cry in lessons because i feel strange ahhah. but, i was bearing my testimony to her about the restauracion and how she has a lot of faith to have this desire to get baptized, and i just started crying! i couldnt help it. and then hna carazas started crying too. and then she gave us hugs and it was reallllllllllllllllllly great. and she is soooooooooooo excited for her baptism this weekend. she is seriously the greatest. lia, she is way mature and reminds me of you a lot. im just positive that you guys would be friendly friends(said like mom). 

anyway. so those are the toppings of my week. 

the lows--

we visited one of our old investigators whom we havent visited for like 5 weeks, just to see how he was doing. and he when we were talking to him, he was like, ''hna fleming--what?? you still dont know spanish??'' and i just wanted to start crying!!! and hna c was like, what? she is learning a ton. and i couldnt even talk because i was on the verge of tears. hahaha oh man. and then later one i was talking again, and he was like, hna carazas, you really need to teach your companion spansih. SO RUUUUDDEEEE. but you guys, that is just the culture here. people are sooooooooo direct. and rude. hahahha not evvverrryone. but many. anyway, so then i was like, did you reallllly think i was going to learn all of spanish in just 5 weeks??? you guys--i was soooooo mad. hahahaha. but then i coooled down. the rest of the story isnt important. but i just HAD to tell you guys who will have compassion on me! hhaha

but, with that being said, hna c earlier in the week told me that i was talking in my sleep, and i was talking in spanish! hahahaha she said that it was loud and clear hahahaha poor little dear. but woo hoo!!!! im dreaming in spanish!! sometimes, at least. 

another dumby thing that happened was that i spent 6 soles on water. stupid. i didnt mean too. but i felt really dumb, because i can usually buy them for like 1 or 2 soles. 

and i found a lice on my head. a big one live and kickin. what the??? so i hope it arrives soon, the shampoo that mom an dpops are sending me. 

ohhhhh man. my lovely family. i love you alll sooooooooooo much! i dont have time this week to write you back personally, but i loved alllllllll the emails and pictures i received sooooooo much!! i will try to send personal letters soon! also, happy birthday mommy!! i love you soo much!i will be sending a card soon!

love, 

me

"she's out of our haiiirrr"

that is a reference from monsters incorporated, in case you didnt know. and i am using it to refer to my lice. i believvveeee that they are out of my haiiirrr.  haleilujah! i hope they are gone. i havent found any, but i think that the eggs stiiiill remain. little reproductive nasties...

anyway. hiiiiiiii!!!! i am always ohhhhhhhhhh so excited to write you guys every week. but mostly to receive your emails. da best. pleeeez dont ever stop writing me. i would cry. hahaha but seriously.

so this week has been ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so great. where to begin, where to begin.

last week´s pday: we went to parque de las aguas which has a bunch of water fountains and has a laser water show thing. it was actually realllllly great and cool and peaceful. i dont think i really liked that kind of thing before the mission, but i really enjoyed being there. and there is this one section of fountains that the people can play in, but i didnt want to "play" in it because that would mean that i would get wet, and it is kind of cold at night here now, annnnd we were all wearing our proselyting clothes. but you can go into the middle of this fountain without getting wet, but you have to move fast and skillfully--uh oh dopey. 2 things that im not. but i tried anyway. and right before i reached the middle, i FELL, right on ma backside. hahahhaha normally i would be scarred with embarrassment. but i wasnt embarrassed at all. hahaha my dignity here in peru doesnt exist. hahaha and then my freaking companion pulled me into the fountains and the other sisters too. freaking. but then it ended up being really fun and all of us played like little kids in the fountain. i attached some pics. oh, and there is a pic of me and hna. santiago. she is my fave, and i hope that we can be comps in the future.

alllsooo, we had a lesson with the son of Elizabeth, Jefferson. he is 8. and we taught him about prayer and how the relationship with God is sooo important, and then we asked him if he would say the closing prayer, and Elizabeth taught him how to pray and helped him along! it was the greatest cutest thing in the whole world. Elizabeth has come suchhhhhh a long way. and this sunday we announced her baptism that it was this saturday, and she couldnt stop smiling. and once again, during sunday school, she was taking notes the whole time. you guys, she is seriously soooo great. i pray that she will stay active in the church and everything because it is going to bless her family so much. they are soooo poor. whenever anyone is ever sick in that house, im always scared because they dont have the money to go to the doctor. but she has a family in the ward now who is going to care for her.

on saturday was the baptism of Consuelo, or Lucia. hahaha Consuelo is just a nickname. but everyone calls her that, right? but after being baptized she refuuused to respond consuelo. only lucia. hahaha she said, i've changed my religion, so i have changed my name. Consuelo remains in the water." hahhaa she's the greatest. and in the closing prayer, the person called her consuelo, and she corrected him in a loud whisper, "lucia!!" hahaaha she is the greatest!! i attached some pictures from the baptism, tooo.

oh man you guys. it was just the greatest.

oh, annnnnd yesterday night, this big family from utah came and performed orchestra-type of music in our stake, and they are traveling to other parts of peru. anyway, one of the daughters was going to share her testimony and needed to have someone translate it into spanish... and they chose ME. ahhahahaha i was oh so nervous, but thankfully testimonies are the words i know. who knew 5 months ago that i would be translating in front of a lotttt of people. not me. thanks for the prayers, peeps. i am ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh so grateful.

you guys, this soooo cool to be a missionary. i know that for me and my testimony of the gospel, i HAD to serve a mission. thanks for all of your support and your prayers. i love all of you soooooooooooooooo much. thanks for loving me. i love an dmiss you all SOOO much.

love,

jill frances

seguin caminando...

oh me oh my! if only you guys could know the sheeeeeeer happiness i feel when i read your wondie emails and letters that you send me. i just got a letter from asher today that said that he wanted to send me flowers and a box of butterflies. isnt that just the cutest thing in the whole world?? i wanted to cry because it was so cute. so what??

this week has been sooo great with lessons. thanks to alllllll the prayers! yay, hunny!  the people we are teaching are progressing soooo great! first, i want to tell you about elizabeth.

she is the mom of hugo, he is 17 and was baptized back in february. anyway, she has started to see him change a little by little, and that is what caused her to want to listen to the lessons. we just kind of forced ourselves into their house haaha and she listened. i remember the first lesson we had with her, she was sooo fidgety and like didnt smile at all and was trying to complete all of our sentences, and wasnt reallllly listening. but we have been teaching her for just over 2 weeks, and she has changed sooo much! she smiles all the time. when we show up at her door(that is more of a piece of old wood that doesnt fit the frame and never closes all the way), she has the biggest smile on her face. this past week, we just stopped by to drop off an ensign article, and she asked,"are we going to study??" but we didnt have time, and she was disappointed. she lovvvesssss learning about the gospel. she always reads the things we give her to read at the end of every lesson. she finally got to assist church this past sunday for the first time, and she loved it soooo much. during the gospel principles class she was taking notes like crazy, and she told us that she wants to bring her 2 little boys to church next sunday. she also told us that she sees that this is going to bless her family, and she wants it to help her family sooo bad. she just wants to be a good mom and have a happy family. her family is pretty messed up, but she is trying sooo hard to help them. mom, you would just LOVE elizabeth. she is the sweetest. tonight, the mission president's wife is accompanying us en a lesson, and she is going to testify to elizabeth how much the gospel has blessed her family. im soooo excited for this lesson. elizabeth will probably be baptized the first weekend of june, but we're not completelllyyy sure.

you guys---referencias to the missionaries are sooooooo important. talk with everyone, and just bare your testimonies about the truthfulness of the gospel sincerely, and often with your friends, and they will feel the spirit. talk about the authorithy of God on the earth, and how it is onlyyyyy found in this church. do some research to feel more comfortable about the facts, and share it with people. and invite them to take the lessons from the missionaries. we have the most success with referencias because the people have trust in their friend, and the lessons begin with a strong base of confidence with us as missionaries. also, if you can offer your house for the missionaries to teach in, that is also soooo helpful. it is soooo much better because then the spirit is already in the lesson. a lot of times, we have to work up to that point because of the setting. but if you can have lessons in your homes, DO IT.

our little consuelo is the greatest. she is getting baptized this saturday, and i am soooooooooo excited for it. we are teaching her the commandments right now, and she is living all of them. i think that Heavenly father placed her for us to teach at this point in her life rather than sooner because from was she told us, she was quiiiite the partier in the past. hahahaha but now, she is soooo ready. she is like a grandmother for me. only, i cant understand her perfectly sometimes because she kind of slurs when she talks hahah poor llittle thing. but she has soooo much personality. loooove it!

we also started teaching ricardo, who is 19 and is wayyyyyy receptive to the gospel. and andrea who is 16, who is searching for the truth. actually, they are both searching for ways to vence their temptaions in their lives. theyre looking for something more, and they are just the greatest. i will tell you guys more next week about how the lessons go with them this week.

and the lice. ohhhhhh the lice. they continue walkin' on my head. annnnnd hermana tyler, the president's wife, thought it would be a good service project for the sister missionaries  to come over to our room(well, on our roof) and pick out my liceeeee!!!!!!! ewwwwww!! we were like monkeys, de verdad. it was soooo strange. hahahahaha. when the sisters got over to our apartment, i felt like i was hosting some kind of party that everyone was expecting to be fun and exciting, but the games i chose to play were really lame. hahaha because they were all really excited(dont ask me why--i dont know. haha) at the beginning, but then everyone had their own section of my hair, digging them out. ew and double ew.

and then this morning, 2 of the hermanas whispered to me that theyyyyyy have lice now! eeeeeek! i had a feeling that was going to happen. ooops. but i actually do feel bad. but what can i do??? but hna tyler told me that i need to go to the doctor today to see if there is something more i can do. because having lice also causes me to be more sleepy during the day because they are robbing my blood!! "getch yur littlee..."(from shrek 2).

anyway. so that is what is happening. my exciting, exciting life. hahahaha but seriously, i loooovveeeee being a missionary. it is really great and fun.

thanks for all your prayers and love and letters and emails and everything. i love all of them sooooo much. everyone be safe! love,

jill

here is a little picture...

here is a little picture of the lice-picking sesson we had. thank you, thank you.

how embarrassing.

no tengo mucho a decir...

i dont have a lot to say today, but i will use my extra time to attach some pictures. woooo!

oh man oh man! it was sooooooooooooooooooooooo great to talk to you guys yesterday. i wish i could have talked to ALL of you foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrr there is so much to hear about and to talk about. and i felt as though i was talking sooooo fast. there was just so little time. but oh, how great it was!!!! i just love you guys sooo much! also, happy mothers day to momsie and all my sisters who are moms and who will be future moms(joanna, hannah, lia. hahaha that is what people said to me yesterday. future mom. wierd).

anyway, la obra misional is doing great. this past week was a little more difficult because the bacteria is hna c´s stomach has come back or something and it is really strong, so we have had to work at a little slower pace. but today we are going to the doctor, so hopefulllllllllly he can actually help her this time around. the doctors here. .  .

consuelo is my favorite investigator right now. she is soooooo receptive to everything and she wants to learn about everything alllllll the time. i feel as though that is rare that people of her age are so teachable and willing to change their ways--especially as a catholic. but shes going to!!!!!im sooooooooooo happy for her. i willl have to take pics with her so that you guys can see her. she is just the cutest.

okay. i know this is a short email, but im going to send some pictures, too! next week i will write more. i hope everyone has a great week! i love and miss you all sooooooo much and i look forward to hearing from each of you every week. sorry that i dont always have the time to respond.

love,

me

-----------------------------------------------------
so the adapter thing for my pics isnt working. uhhhhhh. i will try it again next week. sorry for now.

love,

hna me

lejos de tiiiiii. voy a morir!!

oh fam fam famillllyyyyy!!!! i miss you all soooo much! and im sooo happy  to be writing to you all today. this week has been SOOOOO great!!. also, thanks for all the emails today!!!! ahhhhhh!! my inbox had 23 new emails!! nutsssssssss. you guys are my faves. but also, i dont have very much time to write a letter today. but dont let this keep you from sending me emails. no no no!  i am going to print them out and send each of you hand written emails, of course! wooo!! i mean hand written letters. hand writtten emails dont exist. heh. oh gosh...

anyway, yes. this week has just been the greatest.

first i will start with the not so great news---

ehmmm. so for this past week, the climate has been changing, and things have really been cooling down. and with cooler weather, comes a drier climate, right? so my head has been kind of itchy and ive been scratching it a lot, but i was like, oh, i just need to use more conditioner so that i will moisturize my head better. so i was doing this for about a week, but the itching was just getting worse! so then 2 days ago, i was taking my shower, and i was massaging/scratching like crazy my head whilst shampooing it. and THEN. all of the sudden, i felt this little clump of something in my hair. so i grabbed it with my nails and pulled it out, and there were TWO BUGS!! these black little bugs!!! ewwwwwwww eeeeeek!! so i hopeed out real quick and threw on my towel and was like, hna carazas. what are these things??? and she was like ahhhh!! you have piojos! and of course i didnt know what that was because it is in spanish. duh. and so i searched for it real quick in my journal, and found out that i have LICEEEEEEEEE! and ive had it for a weeek!!! ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!!! im litchrally soooooo grossed out by myself. and so they have had time to grow big and suck my hair blood on my head, AND lay babies all over my head. ewwwww. and i always have my hair in a bun, so they just nested all up in there. isnt that just the GROSSEST?? but it isnt because i am non hygenic. i think im just about as hygenic as they come in peru. but we have investigators who are NOT. and i think they came from one who has  A HUGE pile of trash outside of their house and hna carazas always leaves me the seat next to the pile of trash. freaking hermana. so yeah. right now the battle against my lice is going on. how embarrassing. so i am straightening my hair everyday, and hna carazas said to me that i now have rotisserie lice. but in spanish it is funnier because rotisserie chicken is called pollo a la brasa, and she said that i will have piojo a la brasa. hahaha. oh man. so gross.

oh kay. time for missionary talk. wooo!

so we FINALLY have investigators with baptism dates!!! por fin! and we have 4 who accepted to a date this weeek. !!!! we are sooooooooooo excited. this week has been soooo great, and i feel like all of our hard work is finallyyyyyy having results. we are teaching this cutest little 78 year old woman named consuelo, and e brought her to church yesterday and she said that she LOVED every bit of it. she was really rich at one point in her life and traveled around everywhere with her husband. but he died about 20 years ago, and she lives by herself now and her kids and family never really visit her. but she is sooo cool and great! and she wants to be baptized. so hopefully she keeps this feeling and we can be inspired with what she needs to hear. she is just the cutest and greatest!!!

and then jhon. ohhhhhh jhon. he is 19 and wAS DEFINITELY being prepared to hear this message. oh my goodness! we gave him a book of mormon on tuesday, and left him a chapter to read, and on wednesday we visited him again, and he had already read his chapter, and loved it!! and told us that he knows it is true and wants to be baptized!! he is just the MOST sincere and great. he has never heard anything about the church, and so this is alllll new information for him, and its what he´s been looking for. oh man you guys. he is just the coolest in the whole world.

and then we are teaching the mom of one of our converts, hugo, who was baptized back in february. and she always reads the chapters we leave her, which is sooooooooooo rare that people keep their committments. but she does and she has become sooo much happier since taking the lessons. we are praying that she will stick with her baptism date, too.

also, there is andres who wants to be baptized, but his work scheule prohibits him from attending church every sunday. that is the onlyyyyyyyy thing that is keeping him from being baptized. so if you can, pleeeeeeeeez pray for little andres. he´s the greatest.

okay, weellllll this is all for this week. hopefully it isnt too scattered and crazy. i was typing as fassst as i can. i love you all so much and miss you all sooooo much!! be safe and keep being great!!!!!

love,

jillbo