yay! i write now, k?

okayyyyyyy woooooow. this week i feel has been crazy. mostly because the main leader of the missionary work for the whoooole world came to our mission and talked with a few of the missionaries, and then later we had a meeting about everything that is new to the missions in the whole world. for starters, when someone has the learn a foreign language for their mission, normally they would be in the mtc for 9 or 12 weeks. wellllll. now it is 6. and the other misssionaries who are speaking their same language would normally be in the mtc for 3 weeks, but now only 2. and there will be some missionaires who wont even go through the mtc, but straight to the mission field. crazzzzy. i pity them. that  would scare mee sooooooooooo much. but also, they told us it is because the mission work has to progress faster and faster. the guy that spoke also said that he is like 99% shure that Jesus Christ knows now whennnnn he is coming. crazy huh? its soon, folks. also, because of the change in the time in the mtc, we had to change the time when transfers-changes are by 3 weeks earlier. and our mission president told us that this probably means that we will all go home(those of us who go home after february) 3 weeks early. also, crazzzy. it is only 3 weeks, right? but that means that i will end my mission like june 4th. it isnt 100% sure, but that is what it is looking like. so, now you know. 

okay, so those are a few of the new things they shared with us. 

now---- we had the baptism of santiago this weekend!! woooooooooo. it was realllllly sweet and wonderful. he and his wife julia are sooooo great. they both help the other be stronger and more faithful in the church. their next goal now is to go to the temple. wooooooooooo!!! 

also, susi and carlos. PLEASE OH PLEASE pray for them this week, specifically, by name. that susi can be baptized this week and that a miracle can happen with her work so that she can come to church this sunday and be confirmed as well. pleez oh pleeez. that would probs be my only request for this week. 

okay, this is all i am going to write today. sorry it is shorter than usual, but esta bien. next week i promise. im going to send another email with a couple o pics. 

i love and miss you all the mossst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love, 

jill

here are 2 pics from the baptism, and one from pday today. we went to aplace with caves and it was super cool. there are more pics. but the internet is super slow here. enjoy!

its the mosssst wonderful tiiiiiime of the yearrrrr

my subject is referring to the fact that yesssss. i have begun to listen to christmas music. eeeeek!!! hahahha but i must say that is a tad strange to have the climate getting warmer as christmas gets closer, and not colder. what the??

sooooo, this week me and the compi prepared lunch with a less active lady and she made us eat sooooooooooooooo much. so when we left her house, we were super super full, right? soooo then we were passing by this investigators house and they called out to us, "hermanas! hermanas!" so we stopped by to see how they were all doing and talking with them, and then they told us, "ohhhh, we are just about to sit down for lunch, we'll dish you up a plate, too!" 

and we had JUST eaten. (this happens often more or less, so it wasnt thaaaat big of a shocker.) buuuuuuut what was the hardessssst for me was that they served us a plate full of chicken hearts, lungs, and liver. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! the whole plate didnt have one ounce of real meat. only the organs. i wanted to throw up the whole time. and with a full stomach, ya. definitely, no. but, we had to eat the WHOLE thing. me and the compi were dyyyiiiiing. 

also, this week we were in a bus and like always, i was looking out my window, and BOOM. you will NEVER guess what i sawwwwwww. 

a lady of about 60 years walking down the sidewalk...NAKED. yes. completely naked. it was one of the most scarring things i have ever seen. and the poor little kids...the couldnt stop staring hahaa oh man. what a sight...

also, jorge got baptized this week!!! on saturday!! it was a really great baptism service. he was really happy, and a lot of people from the ward came and supported him. im attaching some pictures from it. and on sunday for the first time he came to church in church clothes!! and not in jeans. i wish you guys could know this guy. he is going to be a great leader in the church. 

also, hector should have been baptized this past saturday, too, but he had to travel to a province for work. so we will see what happens 

this week, we have another baptism of Santiago. he is reallllllllllllllly great!!!!!!! he is the husband of the Julia who was baptized just about 2 or 3 weeks ago. me and the companion and Julia had a fast that he would accept his baptism date, and he did!!! at the beginning he was super hesitant and saying, "mas adelante, mas adelante" which means like, later later....or something. hahah i dont know how to translate it exactly. but then after fasting....YAY!!! and it helped julia gain a testimony of fasting too :)

we have been hearing things here and there about the hurricane sandy that hit this week. that sounds soooooo crazy. it is good to know that there werent too many deaths. 

the positive side is that in times like these the  church has a great opportunity for missionary work. 

also, the election. you guys will have to tell me how it all goes. its all in gods hands now. 

okay, well i love you guys all sooooooooooooo much. im attaching some pictures of one of the catholic parades that passed by my room. wooo!!!! they arent very good pictures, and you cant smell the strong aroma of incense...hahaha but mabes you can get a little idea of how it is. i toook a video to show later when i return. hahaha oh man. and the others are of the baptism of jorge. 

i love you all sooooooo much!! take care!!!

love, 

jill frances

wuzzzz uppppp

familyyyyyyyy

i loveyou all and miss you alll soooooooooooooooooooo much. 

this week has been superrrrrrrrrrr magical. and i will tell you why. but first--i must tell you of how people celebrate halloween here, or the day of the dead. it is actually the first of november, and what they do is they have this tradition to remember the people that they love that have died...so what they do is go  to the graveyard where the person is buried and they bring the favorite food, or music, or....beer(eeek!) of the dead relative, and they bring all of that to the graveyard and have a kind of "family reunion"  around the tombstone of the person. hhahaha it is strange, si o no??  but, also, it is cool, too, because it is soooooooo different from our culture. and for that, i wanted to share this little fun fact with you guys. 

also, here in the whole month of october, they are celebrating  a tonnnnnnnnnn of different saints. when i say celebrate, i mean worship. hahahha and for this, they have parades. but there are like a billion every week. and they make a big float and have the saint on top and they carry the saint around and have these big band instruments with drums and tubas and all kinds of things, and they burn incense LIKE CRAZY. and then later....kegggerrrrrr. hahhahaha the beer. oh buddy. and they have fireworks too. really relaly reallllllly loud fireworks. at any time of the day or night. and it drives me crazyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. i need to try to take a pic  before it all ends so that you can see it for yourselves. 

okay, so. i MUST tell you guys about the wondieeeees that i have gotten to know. okay, so we found a less active and he is married, but to a nonmember and they have 2 kids. anyway, they are superrrrrr coool and we clicked with them right away a little bit over a week ago, and visited them various times this week, and in the 2nd visit, we invited Susi(the wife of Carlos, who is less active) to baptism, and she said yesssss. and then the 3rd visit we put a date and she said yes, too!!! for this 17 of november. and also, i am going to write my journal entry of one of the nights after we visted with them:

i dont think ive ever felt soooo happpy. really, i dont. tonight with susi and carlos i am the most happy. i just feel like crying my happiness. hahhaa i dont know how else to express myslef. tonight we talked with them a bit about enos and carlso said that he thinks that he is like enos hahha because he is in the repentance process. and then we told them that he can baptize susi and said that he wasnt sure about that because he wants to be sure that he is worthy of it. and then we decided last minute to show them the video of search for the truth about wilford woodruff, and when we chose it i did not understand why because it didnt have anything to do with what we were talking about. but at the end of it susi was kind of crying a little bit, and said that Thiiiss IS the true church of jesus christ of latter day saints because it has the same organization as christ's church in the bible times. the spirit was superrrrrr strong. we were all sooo happy. 

and yesterday the whole family attended church and carlso talked with the bishop and they are on a road for good things. 

i realllllly love them and tonight we have a fhe with them. yay!!!

well you guys, i love you all soooo much! this weekend we have the baptism of jorge and hector. PLEASE be praying for both of them.

i love you all sooooooooooooo much and miss you all soo much.

love, 

me

ohhhhhhhh familyyyy

the emails i received from you this week made me all soo so happy. they were all so caring and great. thanks a lot.

okay, on to the news. my new zone is a little bit laaaaaaame. but me and the companion are trying to love them. they all just have such big shoes to fill because our last zone was duh bessst. 

speaking of big shoes to fill...yesterday we were visitng Julia in her little corner store, and this guy was buying something that was on a high shelf, and julia asked me if i could get it down for her because im tall. and she said to the guy, "i dont need a ladder with her. hahaha" and then the guy said, "yes, the human ladder." hahahh ha whahhhhhhhhh im biiiiiig. i will need to live in a place with bigger people when i get back so that i can feelfemine again. 

also, there are a couple of words in spanish that sound like words in english, but dont mean the same thing at alllllll. and sometimes when i am talking in english to elders, i will translate from spanish to english(at times) and the word choices sometimes are no-no's, k?? for expamle. the word "molestar" in spanish means "to bother" BUT it looks like it would mean "molest" in english, right? soooo i was talking to a fellow american elder and telling him about this guy in the streets who was molesting us... eeeeeek!! hahhahahaha ooooops. 

also, so we have been teaching Jorge for a while now, and he is really logical and smart andgreat. and a couple of weeks back when we invited him to baptism he said that he didnt want to be pressured and that he would tell us when he wasready. so these weeks we have been praying super hard for him to feel good about it, and on saturday night i was praying and after i told compi that jorge hassssss to be baptized soon, or he will turn into an eternal investigator. and she agreed. so we decided that sunday we were going to invite him to be baptized on a specific date again. and thennnnnn on sunday when we were talking to him he said, well, ive been thinking a lot about the conversation thatwe had a couple of weeks back about getting baptized and....the time has come. "HALLEILUJAH!!"   and so we all kneeled down together and offered a prayer of the date that it should be, and we all felt for this 3rd of november. and then he went on to tell us about how he was still super grateful for everything that he had learned in the catholic church because it helped him learn about christ. but he said," when i was in the catholic church, it was like having a cup that was half full. but it couldnt be filled there. but here, ya, it's being filled." isnt that just the greatest???? so please please please pray for him these next 2 weeks. alsso for hector, because he also has a date for this 3rd of nov. 

okay, welllllll this is all for now. i sure do love you guys all sooooooooooooooo much and miss you,too!!1

love,

me

hi hi hi

howdyy howdy howdy--

yayyyy!! i got soooo many nice, long emails today. tank oo, tank oo.  i was ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh soooo happy to hear from you guys. you have nooooo idea. im going to try to attach some pics to the email, too, so im not sure if i willhave time to respond to each of you individually. but i will try, okay kum kwads? yayyy!!
well, the reununion of changes is tomorrow and happiiillly me and the compi are staying together one more change!!1 yyayayayyayyayayyy. she is my fave of all the comps i have had. also, this past week another sister missionary came and lived with us (only for this week) because she and her companion couldnt last for just one week more. yikes. it made me even moooorrre thankful for good ol hna. quispe.
speaking of hna. quispe, poor little thing...she tells me that i am ALWAYS talking in my sleep. hahhhaa loud and clear. in the 2 languages. hahahaha she can understand a little bit of english and so she tells me that when i am talking in english, she tries suuperr hard to understand. hahahhaa and when i talk in spanish, she always remembers what i have said so that she can tell me the next day. one thing i did this past week was that i yelled a prayer in spanish. hahahhahhaa oh man. how embarrassing. it made me wonder what i was dreaming that made me have to yell it?...haha.

okay, now on to the important things---JULIA WAS BAPTIZEDDDDD. thank you guys all sooooooooooooooo much for your prayers. ive never told you guys about julia becuase she has been investigating the church for more about 9 years, and we had had 2 different dates for baptism for her before  this one, and she had cancelled them because she is a superrrr busy lady. but 2 weeks ago, we had a reallllly good lesson with her and said frankly that a baptism date isnt something to play with because she would be making a covenant with God. so we put the date for the 12th, and she said yes. and then this past week, we were visiting her every day and reminding her of this past friday, and then on wednesday we went and we had been praying super super super hard that she wouldnt cancel, and when we went, on wed she said, you guys, im ready. im going to be baptized on friday. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! iw anted to cry. i almost did. hahahhaa she is just the greates little thing in the whole world. i really love her a whole lot. and she always knows when i have digestion problems...lucky her, she is one of the few people i have chosen to be completelyyyy open with hhahahahaha. soo, wooo!!!!!!
also, im attaching some pictures of a snail that we found, and my companions put it one my arm!!! ewwwwwwwww it felt sooooooo grosssssssssss. but then they told me that its slime is good for your skin. and then for some reason, i allowed it to stay on my arm long enough to take a pic with it. weird, huh?
also, the lady who does our laundry invites us to eat papa rellena sometimes and it is soooooooooooooooooo delicious. you guys should look it up and fix it because i love it sooooooooooo much. and i took pics of that, too.
and a picture of me and her son, Roman. he is mentally handicapped, and reminds me a lot of linda harris. he is reallllly great hahaha.
also, the sad part about changes is that my 3 favorite elders from the zone are getting changed. sadddddddd. but today i took some pictures with them to remember them. (one of them wasnt there because he had to go to a meeting. but his name is elder norriega).
and yeah. this is all for now. i am reallllly praying that the sun comes out soon. i am soooooooooooooooo tired of smoggy city air without sun or anythingggggggggggg. wahhhhhhh. oh yeah, and mom asked if i had hiked machu pichu, the mountain that they talked about in general conference. soooo iwanted to clarify.... as much as i love my mission, it is NOT a pretty place. my mission is only in the city and it is verrrry dirty. and machu pichu is verrrrry far away from me, and i will never get the chance to go there while i am a missionary. buuuttt there are still some cool little places that we can go to just outside of lima. phewwww! they save me.
okay, well i love you all soooooo much!!!!!!!!!!thanks for everything.
love,
me

10 monthsssssssssssssss

woooo!!
aint no holla back guuuurl aint no holla back guurrrll.
yikes. i dont know whyyyyy that song is always in my head when i begin my weekly emails to you guys. i think it is because i always think to start out with "holllahh!!!"  because im sooooooo excited to write. and then that song by the lead singer of no doubt(i cant remember her name...) comes into my head. or maybe it is sung by someone else? whatever. mabes you guys dont even know what im talking about. oh well.
so, as all of you have mentioned to me in your emails, the age of the missionaries. that is really cool, huh? i couldnt believe it. i was thinking, ohhh freaking. i wanted to go when i was 19. now i am going to return being 100 years old and ill neverrrrrrrrrrr get married. hahahahhaha i kid i kid!! im promise im not thinking desperate thoughts like that...heh heh. but handy and lia...i have to admit that it made me think of you guys quite a bit. when i first got out on the mission, i i have a journal entry that says, "i  would never wish a mission on anyone. it is just tooooo much time away from family" hhahhahahahahhahaa oh man. dramatic. but now, everything´s changed. if you guys feel that it is something you should do--and only youuuu will know-- serving a mission is really great. thats all i will say about that.
okay so yes, general conference was sooo great. and what made it even betterrrr is that our wonderful friend, Hector(and other investigators, too. but i am going to focus in on hector this email) came to it!!! it was sooooooooooo great!!! HE is so great. thank you for praying for him. we had a lesson with him this past week that one wwas one of the most spiritual of my whole mission. hector kept saying over and over again howwwwww great he felt and how everytime we are in his house, he feels soooo different and soo good and whole. and we explained that he is feeling the spirit. and he loves loves loves the book of mormon and he cried as he was telling us how great he felt and how he couldnt believe how strong the feeling was for him of the spirit. he is really tender and great. i really love him a whole lot.
also, this weekend is the baptism of Julia. i havent talked very much about her, but she is SOOOO wonderful. her daughter is member, and so she knows a lot about the church, and she owns a little corner store and we always go and visit her and she gives us delicious cookie and herb tea. YAY!! so if you guys could pray for her this week that everything follows through for her baptism, that wouldbe really grea.t
also, we were contacting, and a drunk started talking to us. normal. and when we were telling him goodbye, and he extended his hand for me to shake it, he pulled my hand up to his mouth, and did a medieval bowing thing, and kissed my hand.
help`. me.
okay. this is all for now my wondies. i love you all and miss you soooooooooo much!!!
love,
me

azuuuuu machina

lucky lucky me. the tv in the room is in english and just said, "well slap my a** and call me..." oh man. help me. it has been toooo long since i have heard these phrases. help. me.!!!!
okay, so first things first. RICK (aunque no me haya escrito hace TIEMPO)  Happy Birthday this week!!!!!!! 29. hala!!!!   i hope it is real real great.
2nd. this week has been sooooooooooooo great!! but we have worked so so so so so hard and saturday night we were soooooo tired. and sunday morning i wanted to start crying because i was so so sooo happy when we saw that 7 of the people we are teaching came to church---on their own! we didnt even have to call them or anything. you guys, that was theeeeee best feeling. now we just have to pray that this week we can continue to teach them clearly and that we can set some baptism dates. they are soooo great. and now, let me present a few to you.
first, there is Hector. he is probs 40. and he is suppperrrr funny and has these huge eyes that he uses to make these crazy, attitude eyes at us when we leave him with committments. hahhahhaa but he always keeps them!! and his testimony of these things is growing sooooooo fast. yesterday after church he was telling us that he couldnt believe how good he feels learning about all of this and feels super privledged he told us, and he had little tears in his eyes. it was realllly cute.
and theeennn there is Henry. oh man. he is soooo great, too!! his past is pretttttttty crazy. he was a professional theif in the U S of A, where he robbed huge quantaties of clothes from brands like louis vutton and guchi, and others like Express, and he would always rob cars. ahhhhhh!!! and he told us that he still has all the money he made, and that it is in a couple of banks in the States, but he is closer to family here and is living here, working construction, and just feels kind of empty, and also he realizes that earthquakes and hurricanes and all sorts of natrual desasters  are happening all the time, and he is looking for that which will save him. so he has been studying more about religions and what not. anywayyyyyyy and WE are teaching him. and he has a lotttttt of questions and all day yesterday in the church, he was observing everything. and yeah, has a lot of questions. and today we are going to teach him. eeeeek!! he is really really great. pleaseeeeee pray for the both of these guys.
also, we are praying super super hard that this week Julia will follow through with her baptism. it is planned for this friday.
okay, well everything is going realllllly great!!! my compi is the greatest and so is my zone. i am quiiiite content. :)
i love and miss you guys all soooooooooooooooo much!!!! i complete 10 months this week as a missionary. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! the time...
love,
me