First Email from Peru

man. this place is NUTS. i serioiously can{t believe i am here. also, the spanish keyboard is on, and i dont feel like changing it, so sorry for any typeos or weird symbols in weird places. no se.

 

peru muy bonita! the weather is the greatest thing of my whole life. and my skin isn{t dry anymore. just like home  a lot of the other missionaries couldnt believe how thick the air was and how it feels like they are breathing water haha them westerners.

 

my new pday is on wednesday, fyi. but we get to email you guys today because we just got here yesterday. yayyyyyyyyyy

 

okay, so i know i am supposed to only say positive things all the time, but i am going to be honest for just a little second.

i miss home a lot. today has been really hard, and ive cried. there are a lot of things i love, but it is hard. im really trying to do what elder bednar told us and look outward, and i am praying a lot... allll the time. my new companion is from bolivia and she is really nice, but she is shy and doesnt speak any english. at all. it will be cool and great, but today it is really hard. also, the schedule at this mtc is different, the rules are much more strict, and it is all really overwhelming right now. like for instance, just now as i am in the computer lab, i didnt know how to get on the internet because it is different, duh. and so i asked some elders in the room to help me, so they did, but verrrrryyyy reluctantly. and then after they were like, dont tell anyone that we helped you. we didnt help you. and so i asked them why, and they said because it is a reallllly big deal, and theyere not suppose to. what the?  i dont understand that. also at all the meals we are separated from the elders. i dont understand that either. i guess it must be a really big problem to have the sisters and elders innermixed.

there are so many things i want to tell my companion!! hahahahah it drives me crazyyyyy. i wish i knew spanish. but i dont. i decided im going to keep a little notebook with me and write down the things i want to say, and then figure out how to say them. another thing, is that latinos change the schedule a lot. we have been told that we are going to have to be really productive with our time because they will suddenly switch it up. hah welcome to a laid back culture.

so those ar some things that i am struggling with, but esta bien. the spirit is still here. and even though i cant imagine it right now, i willll eventually get this language.

 

sorry if those last 2 paragraphs were too much like a journal entry. woops!

 

okay, so last night at the airport, my mission prez was there! he is the cooooolest guy! it was so weird--i autimatically felt a love for him, and i wanted to be under his direction ahora! hahaha he was the only prez there because there were some advanced spanish speakers who get to skip this part and go straight to the field. lucky heads.

 

the food here is sooooooooooooo good. to me, anyway. my friend from canada was having a hard time finishing her plate (thats another rule--whatever you put on your plate, you MUST eat. so i am limiting myself for now, just in case) but it was soooooo funny to see hna. johnson try to finish her whole plate. she DID NOT like the veggies on her plate. hahahha oh man i was laughing at her so hard.

 

on the drive from the airport to el CCM, it was so crazy. we didnt get in until like 1 last night, so the streets were mostly empty, but since lima is a big city, there were still a good handful of cars (driving muy loco, might i add. they just cut each other off!) the buildings here are all so rundown. i couldnt believe it. they all looked abandoned, and it kind of reminded me of downtown bham. i kept expecting it to get to the "nice area" of town, but when we passed the plaza where the president lives, i realized it wasss the nice area of town. i forgot i was in a 3rd world country. there would be these abandoned brick buildings--just rows and rows side by side--with huge glass windows, and then suddenly there would be one random one that had lights on and bright christmas decorations in the window. it was verrrry intersting.

 

another thing (sorry this is all so random, by the way) if you were planning on sending a package to me here, then you probs should not. apparently while im at the mtc it is way expensive to receive things, or something?i dont fully understand yet. hopefully it isnt like that in the field.

 

okay, well. i am just about out of time. i loved talking to the family in alabama yesterday! sorry it cut out early--stupid pay phones.  i love you all SOOO much. i wish you could be here experiencing this with me. you all are da best.

 

i love you a lot! if you want to send some prayers my way and blessing for the gift of tongues, i would GLADLY accept them haha.

 

love,

hermana jill frances

Jill Calling from the Airport

Pictures from the MTC!

Email: Week 3

HEY there,

 

Okay, so i just wrote to all of you guys yesterday, but i will give you a quick little update of some things that i didn't tell you guys about.

 

ehmmm: so my companion, hermana creek, had a tumor in her right ring finger and she went to the doctors to get it checked out. the doctor said that she needed to have it removed before she went to the mtc in peru, so she had surgery for it this past wednesday, and she can't go to the mtc in peru any more at all (she was just going to come a few weeks later) because the doctor has to keep an eye on her finger because he wasn't sure if it was cancereous or not, and she has to go to phsyical therapy for her finger. haha she and i both think this sounds funny. pt for a finger. who knew? but she has to have it because the tumor was on a nerve and they had to cut out part of the nerve, too so she won't be able to feel her finger for the rest of her life. isn't that nuts? for a finger, of all things. and then another hermana in our district isn't coming down to the peru mtc yet either because her visa isn't in yet. so it is just me and hermana johnson going to peru on wednesday. she is my fave. 

oh also, a sidenote about the surgery. i had to wait at the hospital the whole time during hma. creek's surgery, and this delightful little nurse came and offered me a cold beverage of choice. and she had diet DP--my favorite!! and so i said, "well if you insist, kind one." and it was sooo great! but then later on while me and the other hermanas were waiting for hermana creek to wake up, i guess i was acting hyper? because the nurse came in and said, "well it looks like someone hasn't had caffeine for a while." hahahaha uh oh.

how embarrassing.  but it was sooooo worth it.

 

so in my district, we have translated popluar phrases in english to spanish. like, "what the?" is "que lo?" and then "good one" is "bueno uno" hahahaa i found one in one of my study books that  i use when our class gets ridiculous. i say, "quines son las personas?" "who are these people??" hahaha soooo funnnn

 

okay, well i am leaving on miercoles and i still can't believe it. also, i have to start packing soon. yikeessss. also, as excited as i am about going to peru, i have made some really great friendships here, and i am going to miss the people here so much. it's very bittersweet. and i hate saying goodbyes. i am just going to make sure that everyone writes me. because they are all so great. i wish you could all know them.

 

family!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!  thanks for all of the dear elders i got last week. those help so much. i loook forward to the ones i will receive in the future ;) haha

thanks for being so great and loving me and for all being so strong in the gospel--especially my older siblings. i don't know what i would have done if any of you had gone off the deep end (oh cliches. thanks for always being there for me).

 

I hope the rest of your holiday season is great! tell me how it was! i want to hear everything!

 

Love,

hermana fleming

Christmas Letter from the MTC

MERRY CHRISTMAS, FAMILIA!! or should i say, Feliz Navidad!

Suprise! I many not be able to call you guys on christmas, but i can email you. i hope you guys are enjoying today. hooray! did alabama get another white christmas? hahaha that twould be amazing.

oh man. so let me tell all of you about how yesterday and today went for me. holllla!

okay, so last night the whole mtc got together for a special christmas eve fireside. a random group of missionaries were chosen to act out the nativity (i imagined the familia was probabbly doing about the same thing around the same time?). I think it was supposed to be 'spiritual'? but it is really hard to take these 19 year old boys dressed in bath robes with towels around their heads, serioulsy.  hahah some were really happpy to be on stage, but then there were those who looked like they were embarrassed out of their gords ( where did that figure of speech come from? "out of their gords? mom? weird.) and of course there was one missionary who took his part as a wiseman carrying his "gold" EXTREMEMELY seriously. yikes. or, good for him? ahaha i have a hard time not making fun of those who take themselves too seriously.

we also sang "the 12 days of christmas" --missionary style-- yikes. yikes. yikes. i will spare you from the lyrics.

but then after we watched this old version of A christmas Carol which i loved! it really made me get in the christmas spirit.

and then one of the hna.'s in my room had a copy of this story that her family always reads on christmas eve, so i was selected to read that out loud to all of us in my room. yippeee!

 

and then for today. oh, it  has been quite wonderful! they do a really great job of keeping us busy today so that we don't have too much time to miss our families to the point to going crazy.  which is actually quite good for me. but  man, christmas in the mtc -- rick, you know how it is, right? the spirit is so strong. haha i loved it!

this is the first christmas that i have woken up and had to get ready for the day right away. and it is the first christmas where i haven't woken up earlier than normal (actually, scratch that. hahah i did wake up earlier than normal. compared to other christmases, that is. however, it has become quite normal since i have been at the mtc. ha)

i had a donut and milk for breakfast. yipee!

and then after breakfast me and the hermanas went back to our room and we filmed each other with our cameras opening up our gifts. haha it was quite funnny to open my wrapped up panty hose i got from mom and pops. none of them really knew how to react hahahahah soooo funny. but i loved them! thanks parentals, by the way, for sending me my wonderful package!

one of my roommate's parents sent her a little christmas tree so we all sat next to it and opened our gifts. so cute! i will be sending pictures and the videos soon :)

so, as you all know, at the mtc on christmas, all of the missionaries are privileged to hear from a general authority. but i've decided that at the mtc at christmas time, an apostle coming to speak is supposed to be like santa clause bringing gifts: you don't know who/what you're going to get until christmas morning. hahaha serioulsy, the excitement was crazy. also, when an apostle is coming to the mtc, it is very similar to waiting outside the doors of a major concert, justin beibs, perhaps? only everyone is wearing suits and dresses. . . and the crowd is a lot older (hopefully). whenever those doors opened, everyone was pushing to get to the seats closest to the pulpit. toooo intense. hahah mannn it was nuts.  also, i don't know why i chose to compare it to a justin beiber cocncert.  sacrelig!! haha oh dear.

So anyway, the apostle that came was David A. Bednar!!  isn't that so great?? he's soooo cooooool--we donn't really get to see apostles' "cool" sides in general conference. but seriously, this guy is really cool. and he never is going to look older than 30. hahaha.

but in his talk  he talked about the savior. he talked about the character of Christ. Character is moral qualiteies. if christ hadn't had perfect moral qualities, he couldn't have suffered what he suffered.  we all have the natural man within us, so when we are going through something hard--wheteher it be atemptaion, or a tradgedy or anything-- we tend to turn inward, and to think of ourselves and about OUR needs. but the savior does the COMPLETE opposite.  an example he gave us (which i will summarize quite briefly) is in Matt. 4 when Christ is being tempted by Satan. What is christ being tempted with during this time? most would say to turn stone to bread, or to rule this world or the others  that satan says. but that REAL temptation. the primary tempatation in these verses is when satan says, "if thou art the son of god." The primary temptaion was to deny who He was and turn inward to satisfy the ttemporal things he was missing at the time. and then when the angel's minstered to him, in the joseph smith translation of vers 11, i believe, it says that he sent the angels away to see John in Prison. He turned outward. I know i didn't convey this to you like Elder Bednar did, but it made me want to always turn outward. especially as a missionary. this mission isn't for me at all. and i'm still learning that.

anyway, that is my spiritual thought for all of you.

okay, so this is soooo crazy. i'm going to PERU on wednesday!! AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it!! t

tomorrow i get to email you guys again, and write letters and what not. and then on wednesday, i am leaving the mtc at 4 in the morning and will probs be at my gate around 5 ish in the morning. and then once i am at my gate, guess what?? i can CALL HOME!! yipee!!! i am going to buy a calling card at the bookstore on tuesday so that i can chatty pants with peeps. i want to talk to ALL of you guys. i wonder if i can make that happen. . . i don't know. 7 siblings. yikes. hahaha i also have a lay over in atlanta (so close to home, yet soooo far way. haha) but i don't know how long it lasts, so mabes i will be able to call you guys then, too.

 

man, i just love all you guys so much. i miss all of you today. but Heavenly Father is helping me not be too sad. truth be told, YES--i've cried. hahaha but no worries!  if i didn't cry, then that would mean that you guys suck as a family. hahaha suck isn't a very appro pro missionary word. oh well.

 

it is time for our Christmas feast! so this is where i sign off (like in our family home videos. hahaha oh man. . .) i love you allll sooo much! i am learning spanish, believe it or not, and i WILL be able to communicate to the people of peru eventually.

thanks for all of your love and letters and your great examples. you guys are da best.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Jill Frances Fleming

Email: Week 2

greetings from the mtc!

it is getting colder and colder here and i am wishing that i had brought a coat. yikes. the walk from my room to the cafeteria is THE WORST. my little arms and legs are going to freeze off!! but thankfully, all of my hermanas that are going to peru also don't have anything to keep them warm. YAY--misery loves company.

Thanks for all the emails you, my familia, sent me! the were absolutely wondie! Letters make my days soooo much better. my days are great, but they are better with letters. dearelder.com is also really wonderful--the day you write me a letter, it gets to me! so, saddle up, cowboys. i don't know what i meant by that. . .

good news! i got my travel itenarary (i-ten-ree) this past thursday, and my visa is for sure ready, and i leave on the 28th from the mtc at 4 in the morning! YAY!  i just can't believe it. my time here has gone by sooo quickly. i can't believe this is my last full week here. da best.

*MOM and POPS--guess what?? i left my fave shoes at home for me to wear on my mission!!! they are those one leather mocassins/loafers that i had ordered right before i left. PLEASE send them to me. hopefully before the 28th if you can. . . i don't know how much i trust peruvian mail system.

so the rest of the investigator lessons with francisco went really well! me and my companiera didn't laugh at all!! twas great. but then francisco turned into our teacher. . . so that was kind of embarrassing.

also, this week we are getting a "new" investigator. it is our old teacher--hno. osuna. he is great, but it will be a bit strange to see him as an "investigator." hopefully there won't be any laughing.

I still keep accidently saying my first name!!!! hahaha i just can't get used to calling myself "sister" or "hermana" ONe of the elders in my district has a tape recorder and he would put it up to me for me to say something, and i would alwyas be like "hey, this is jillllll." and then have to quickly correct myself. and i keep introducing myself to people as jill. woops. what can i say, i love my name.

Dusty stephens from our ward in bham 2 is leaving for the phillapeans (spelling???) today. he says he is very nervous. but he is doing well. i've seen him a lot while being here.

so, one of the hermanas in my district, hermana johnson, is my new favorite person here. hahahha she and i laugh ALLL the time. and we get in trouble in class. hahahah we are seriously laughing all the time. i think people have started to try to separate us. hno. osuna likes both of us, but we STILL get in trouble in class. esta bien. it keeps us sane.

Oh mannnnnnnn! i am learning sooo much! everyone should go on a mission. we get good speakers all the time. i will share a few things i wrote dwon in my journal because i can't recall everything right now. so here goes:

-We all would have been slaves or he would have killed us all if we had followed Satan's plan--that's the only way we would have made it back to live with God.

-Only someone with perfect love could have paid the price of our sins. we could never have done that for ourelves, and we all would have been cast out of God's presence.

-Everything in the conversion process must happen to you before it can happen to them --jeffrey r. holland

-"you must be weilling to give up the plans for your life now in order to have the life that is waiting for you"--elaine s dalton(she actually came and spoke withus! oh, and so did pres. monson's daughter. she was soo great, too!)

-as a missionary, i want to know how to succor the people i teach according to their infrimities (alma 7:12)

and then last night we had a fireside that was just sooo great. the speaker was talking about feelings. anyway, here are some things i learned from him:

-with a broken heart (like in the scriptrues) feelings are able to come into it, and feelings can come out of it.

isn't that so beautiful?? i've never thought of it that way, and i just loved it. we all need broken hearts all the time. you are willing to be vulnerable when you allow yourself to feel.

FAMILY--i love you all sooo much! it is going to be weird not to have christmas with any of you, but i'm glad to be here. I'm going to miss you guys a lot, but this evangelio (gospel) is so great. i love learning about the savior--i don't know how the atonement works, but it worrkkks. and it is the greatest. the compionship of the holy ghost is the greatest. that is why we have to invite others to be baptized--so they can have the holy ghost! with that, they will have the power of it in their lives all the time and they will know everything they are learning is true!! it's beautiful.

Welp, you guys are all great. dearelder letters are great (hint hint). and i love you all SO much. i will be sending pictures to moms and pops this week, and the cd of pics to joanna so that she can update my blog and such (by the way, joanna, would you mind updating my blog and such with the cd of pictures i am sending you? haha )

ok, well, time to go! i love you all mucho! also, i have 5 min. left on my my time on the computer, so mabes i will get on later and see if any of you responded.

love,

hermana jillbo

Email: Week 1

Dear Familia,

YAY!!! I am finally able to write you!!

oh how i miss all of you! the mtc is great, but es muy deficil (very difficult. mom, try to say that outloud. we can work on your spanish, too. hahaha) I struggle a lot. I wish I would have prepared more! now i am not only learning the lessons, but i'm learning them en espanol. but i LOVE spanish. it is in my brain all the time. except for when we taught our first lesson to an investigator. In my defense, it was only my 3rd day to be learning both spanish and the lessons. i won't tell you all the details of the lesson, but when the guy opened his door, i immediately forgot what i was supposed to say (he was extremely good looking, and he was speaking very quick spanish) looked to my companionera, and saw that she had also forgotten espanol, and i started LAUGHING. i couldn't stop. i've decided that is a reaction i have when i am nervous. i must conquer this. and then when we finally made it into his "house" (classroom), and hermana creek said the opening prayer, i finallllly composed myself. but that lasted about 2 seconds and i got lost in his fast talking again, and started laughing AGAIN. i just looked down at my lap and my body was convulsing. oh so embarrassing. we taught him again the next day. great.

but actually it was a lot better. ha ha ha but we had to say a bunch of prayers before that we wouldn't laugh because we were struck with the giggles (i don't think i like that word-- "giggles.")

Mi companiera es muy bien. her name is hermana creek, and she is from independence, missouri. she is so genuine and isn't easily offended and she is open, so we get a long great. though, she is constantly chirping in my ear "ooooh! he's cute, " or "oh my gosh! he is soooo cute!!" trust me, the cuties dont' go unnoticeed by me--i just tend to keep those thoughts to myself.

I LOVE my teacher. his name is hermano osuna, and he is from mexico, so his native lanugage is spanish and he is suchhhh a great teacher. i love love love my classes. my brain pounds most of the time, but my "sewing machine leg" is OUT OF CONTROL. (this means i am excited)

My district and zone are also wonderful!!! I am becoming such great friends with all the missionaries in my district. i love that everyone is so different. there are 7 elders and 4 sisters. we are the only sisters in our whole zone. and they all LOVE US. hahahaha this one missionary told us that his mom packed his suitcase and scattered fruit snacks in each suitcase and he was really excited to have those. i think the point of the story was to tell us that he has fruit snacks--but all i heard was "when my mom packed my suitcase" ahahhaa sooo funny and cute!

so you know how i had that filtered water bottle that i loved, but i forgot it?? and i was sad? WELL, guess what? they gave us new filtered water bottles that are WAY nicer and better. so now we wont get as sick in peru!!  YAY.

also, i don't know if my visa has come yet. i don't really know how that works, but hopefully i am still set to go to peru in 2 weeks :)

Family!--I've missed being werid!! we study so much and we are expected to be quiet during those times. I'm afraid one day i will just explode with all of my weird quirks and everyone will be scared. eeeek! the other day one of my weird voices slipped out when i was talking to an elder, and he looked at me really confused. hahah! also, sometimes i will make jokes, but people think i am being serious. sometimes i have to say, "jokes all around!" but sometimes they don't even get that! what the??

how are all of YOUUU!!?? My mission is great, but i want to hear from mi familia! i miss you all so much. i wish i could send emails more often, but we only have one day.. cryyyy. also, the first few days i would hear a sound that sounded like my cell phone, and i would reach into my purse to get my phone out, and check it, but then i would remember, no more telephone! hannah, are you using my old cell phone? how are you liking your new computer? better than ol gramps? how is work on the farm? lia! how is the new ward?? i love all of you so much!! thank you all for the dearelder letters you have sent me. those are my fave!!

I don't know if i will have time to respond to all of your emails, today because we have such limited time on the comps, but i will reply on paper for sure.

thanks for being sooo great! I miss and love all of you so much!

Love,
hermana fleming

p.s. yesterday for relief society, we heard from pres mosnson's daughter. it was WONDERFUL.

Going Into the MTC

Before going into the MTC yesterday, Jill took some pictures with her siblings who were there: Melyssa, Sarah, Rick, and Hannah.

Mel and Jill

Sarah, Jill, and Hannah

Rick and Jill

Hannah and Jill

Rick also took some great footage of Jill's last moments before life in the mission field. I couldn't stop smiling when I watched it! We love Jill!!!!!!!

All Grown Up

Well, it's official. This little girl is all grown up and in the MTC. She went in at around 12:30 MST today, and I should be posting a video soon of her entering. She'll be in Provo for three weeks (her first Christmas away from home!), and then she'll head to Peru, and finish out her training at the MTC there. You can find all of her contact information under the "About Me" section of her Facebook page. Missionaries need lots of love, so don't hesitate to send her a letter!

"Big Gulps, huh? Welp, see ya later"

This past week has been one full of "see ya later's." (I refuse to say goodbye.) Look at some of the pictures I took.