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