Dearest familia,

I love you! Thank you so much for your support and prayers. Mom, it´s great to get the updates on everyone. I did get your dearelder and the one from dr. Davis this week, as well as one from my friend Brandon (if you´re reading this, Brandon, you are free to use my dating rant for whatever you want. I´m flattered) and a card from Regan Baker! Yay! Thank you so much. I felt very loved when I read all of them this morning. I won´t have time to respond today to everything, but I´ll try to next week. Today was crazy. Some of us got our ID cards, so we spend the entire morning at migrations. And then we had the temple in the afternoon. I´m a little bitter, because i´ve been wearing a skirt all day, and I haven´t had time to do laundry. it´s okay though. Bitter is probably too strong a word. :)

Okay, before I forget, I want to let Donny know that I did not forget his birthday, except while I was writing emails. HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY, DONNY!!! I love you!!!! and I´ll try to send you something next week. Life is crazy. But I haven´t seen any llamas or tarantulas yet. :)

My companionship is great! Hna Shearman is pretty much the greatest at everything. She is our coordinating sister. We´ve had to deal with some baggage from our last companionship, but we´re doing alright. I really just need to be more patient and express love more. Which are possible when the Lord helps you to change your heart. Miracles of the Gospel! Hna. Grow really struggles with Spanish, but she is SO patient and so sweet and has so much faith. She always adds so much to our lessons. I just love her.

Okay. I have 5 minutes. thanks so much mom for your email about my blessing. I got it right before I had to log off last week, so I didn´t get to read it until today. I really needed that, though. And for your advice, dad. :) I love you both!

Can I just tell you for two minutes the testimony that I have of obedience? Jonny and Donny, I hope that when you serve missions (and before and after), you will be as perfectly obedient to the counsel of your leaders as humanly possible. I wish that I could describe the difference that I see in myself, the difference that I can see in other missionaries, and the difference that I can tell in RMs. If you think that no one will notice your behavior, you are dead wrong. You can tell in the way people talk about missionary work, their attitude about the standards of the Church, and their testimony of the gospel. I am inspired by returned missionaries that I know were obedient, because of the advice they´ve given me and the attitude that they have about their missions. It makes ALL the difference. If ye receive not the spirit, ye shall not teach, or do anything worthwhile. Nefi and the army of helaman are some of the best examples. Every command with exactness!

I pray for each of you every night, that you will have what you need and be kept spiritually and temporally safe. I love you more than you know!

Your sister-daughter-friend,

Hermana Jane Elizabeth Jackson

Jane teaching in Peru

Dearest Familia,

First, I sent you a letter by pouch which you should receive in the next week or so. If you want to write me by pouch, the address is:

Hermana Jane Jackson

Lima Perú MTC

Misión Perú Trujillo

P.O. Box 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130

I don´t know how good the mail system is...if you´ve sent me anything, I haven´t received it, aside from Jon´s dearelder. After this week (my fourth--ahh!), you should just address it to my mission. The P.O. box is the same. I DID get a letter from my dear dear dear Rachelle Romney! It arrived Thursday morning from Chile, so I´ve had to wait a week to read it. It was worth the wait, though. Thank you, Rachelle, even though you will never read this.

Proselyting was super hard for me this last time. We went out contacting, just knocking doors and trying to teach people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Usually Hermana Cépeda and I teach well together, but I don´t know. Maybe I just have an anxiety issue to overcome. It was a good experience, though, and it was awesome to hear everyone else´s stories in our district meeting afterwards. I just love them.

I´ve been trying to speak the language more in my everyday life. Our districts are switching again--our latin companions left yesterday--and none of the old hermanas have native speakers. There are ten new hermanas coming in--five latinas and five...gringas.... My new district is the only one where the elders won´t have latin companions again. I´m in a trio again. :) With Hermana Shearman and another hermana, Hermana Grow. Sadly, we won´t have any native roommates either because there´s only one extra bed in our room. It´s okay, though. I am sad that there are going to be changes, because hermana´s Robison, Hoffman, and I get along so well, but I love hermana shearman and I´m sure I´ll love Hermana Grow and I know there are more things for me to learn from them.

This afternoon we have our tour of lima! Every three weeks the older missionaries get to take a tour. Usually, this means that we wouldn´t get to go to the temple, but Presidente Cavanaugh said that we could if we wanted to and we were back for lunch, so we went, and it was awesome! :)

Familia, I just want you to know how much I love you and how grateful I am to have this gospel and have this opportunity to share it with other people. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I learn so much every day. Sometimes I struggle to have faith in my ability to do this work, to learn Spanish, to study and teach effectively, to be sufficiently humble and obedient and charitable and patient--oh, goodness, do I have to learn patience!--but last week I was thinking about it and I just felt that I needed to remember the promises that the Lord has made to me and trust in them and keep moving forward. Intellectually, I know that. The application of the knowledge is sometimes difficult. Sometimes I look for really obvious signs of approval--I think I rely too much on what other people think of me at times--and when I don´t see any, I wonder if I´m making a difference or doing what I´m supposed to be doing. But then I remember what I know. I know that the Lord has called me here. I know that this is where I´m supposed to be. I know that the Lord fulfills his promises, and that He has a work for me to perform. I know that if I live worthy of the Spirit, I will be able to help further the Lord´s work and do what he would do. I have to trust the promises that the Lord has made to me, in the scriptures and in other places. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as I honor my covenants and keep the commandments, the Lord will pour out blessings upon me and upon my family. I know this. I don´t always feel it, but I know it. :) And I know that it is true for all of you as well. Press forward, with steadfast faith in Christ, feasting upon the words of Christ, and endure to the end, and the Father will not withold from you the blessing of eternal life. This is his kingdom and his gospel, and it will go forth. I know that the book of Mormon is the word of God and that by studying it daily, we will be blessed to have the power to move forward. I love you!

God be with you!

Barrels of love,

Jane

I´m not even sure what to write. So much happens in one week. Thank you soooooooooo (x 50 billion) much for your dearelder, Jon. I read it this morning. It was EXACTLY what I needed. And Li, for your emails. :) I really need to focus on the most important happenings, which are the gospel related ones.

Probably the single most important and awesome happening was on Saturday. We got to go out of our little bubble and teach people the gospel! In Spanish! ...or attempt to do so. We went with our Latin companions and an adult. We had a list of names of inactives to go visit. Hermana Cepeda and I went with one of the MTC teachers and spent most of the time walking around trying to find addresses. Whoopee. I have to admit that I didn´t open my mouth as much as I should have. Hna. Cepeda and the maestro were talking in spanish most of the time to each other, so I spent a little to much of the time in my ''observation mode'' instead of actively (at least attempting) to participate in figuring out what we needed to do. We bore our testimonies to a couple of people, and there was one place where I felt prompted to ask if we could come inside and say a prayer with her (she was making dinner) but I didn´t say anything. I´m kicking myself for that one. The really neat experience was when we knocked on the door of a compound looking for an inactive and they directed us to this family that hadn´t ever met the missionaries and they let us teach them the first lesson! It was awesome. They seemed genuinely interested in learning more, and we invited them to church the next day, set up a return appointment for some other missionaries to teach them this saturday, and left them a book of mormon with a commitment to read and pray about it. It was really neat. I have got to be more engaged, though. I mean, when you´re talking about things that can change people´s lives, you don´t have time to waste. Only 18 months to help as many people as you can feel the Savior´s love for them and open up an eternity in opportunity to progress. It´s so important to remember that.

Dearest family, I want to share with you my testimony of the power of prayer and the power of the Atonement. I have about as much patience as...well, I´m not sure there´s anything as impatient as I am... and I have far too many really strong opinions about far too many silly things. :) or I care too much about forcefully putting forth my ideas, and not enough about listening to and understanding other people´s perspectives. or all of the above. I have been praying so hard for humility and patience and charity and humility and a desire to be obedient and patience and all of those things, and it amazes me how much the Lord has helped me to put aside the things that bug me about the CCM or other people and to listen and to appreciate. It really comes back to charity and gratitude. Charity is always the solution. It never faileth. When we truly seek to understand, to help, to support, to encourage, to SERVE, everything else comes. Obedience comes, a willingess to listen comes, humility comes. Gratitude is a practical application of humility. When I remember all the reasons I have to be grateful for someone or something, and when I find things to appreciate, my irritation leaves. But prayer is such an important part of that. When I humble myself enough to ask for the Lord´s help, I receive the benefits of his Atonement--the Holy Ghost changes my heart and I have less of a desire to do evil and more of a desire to do good continually.

I love you all and I hope that all is well with you. I´m praying for you. :) sorry I don´t have any pictures this week--I didn´t go back to the room to get my camara after an impromptu meeting we had. next week, hopefully. :)

Love love love love love,

Hna. Jackson

soospishusss.....

¡Hola, familia!

I haven´t received any mail yet, because our temple time is in the afternoon and our emailing time is now, in the morning. Entonces, my district leader, will check it every preparation day, but I don´t know when when I´ll get mail because we haven´t really worked all that out. Thanks for your email, Grandma. Yeah, I´m in peru now. :)

Wow. This week has been crazy. I don´t even know where to begin. Hermana Cepeda is the best! She is incredibly diligent and loving and just about every good quality ever. Love her! She´s the coordinating sister for the Latina´s. The other two latina´s in our group are Hna. Calderon, Hna. Hoffman´s companion, and Hna. Balladares, Hna. Robison´s companion. They are super funny. We´ve taught them a few words in English, one of which is ´´Bashfull´´, and the other of which is ´´suspicious,´´ which they say ´´soospishusss....´´ We also have a standing competition as to who has the best companion, so whenever any of us does something nice or intelligent or anything, someone always says, ´´¡MI compañera!´´ It´s fun.

The language. Wow. It´s impossible not to feel humble all the time, because you can´t even speak like a normal person. haha. Usually when we´re talking about physical things, we can demonstrate everything out--I don´t think I´ve ever gesticulated so much in my life--but when it comes to ideas and the gospel, it´s rather on the difficult side of things. In addition to teaching with our north american (district) compañeras in class, we also have companionship study and teach at the ´´TRC´´with our Latina compañeras every day. Sometimes, it can be really frustrating to try to explain what´s in your head, because it´s not like you can revert back to english. That´s what´s so great though--you really have to be able to express yourself in spanish. It´s funny, because sometimes I try to think in Spanish, but i can´t because I don´t have the vocabulary. The other day, I was trying to say something to Hna. Cepeda and I had to stop, talk it out in English, and then translate it into Spanish as well as I could. Haha. Oh, man. It´ll get better, though. It already is. Generally by our last class, which begins before dinner and then goes until planning at 9, Hnas. Robison, Hoffman and I have laughing fits. It´s a pretty good way of dealing with our stress, but I think our maestro, Hno. Meza, thinks we are insane. He and our other teacher, Hno. Soto, are really nice though.

Our district is also really great. Hna. Robison is going to Equador Guayaquil South, Hna. Hoffman is going to Cuzco, and one of the 7 elders (Elder Savage) is going to... I think Lima East? Anyway, everyone else (the other six elders and I) is going to Trujillo! So that´s fun. I just love all of them. They are great. Soooo funny. Sometimes you really feel the age difference, you know? I´m trying to pick a funny story to tell you really quickly....okay, here´s one. We were going over district goals and one of them was to be more punctual (and help the Latins to be, because it really isn´t in their culture, you know?) and one of the elders was talking about how difficult it was to get anywhere on time because his companion takes forever in the morning. Then we were talking about how it´s difficult to get ready as an Hermana because there´s just so much to do, and Elder Cook told us, ´´oh man, if I was a girl, i would be late to everything! If you hermanas are ever late to anything, I don´t think I´d hold it against you.´´ And then elder Guymon said, ´´yeah, if I were a girl, I´d be four hours late every day. i´ve done shows before, and I´ve had to put on makeup and let me tell you, I am not good at eyeliner! It takes me forever!´´

Yes, they´re great.

Studying the gospel and spanish is awesome! you should all go on missions

Adios!

Hna. Jackson!