MORE BUGALICIOUS
so...i only highlighted a couple of the bugs last time so of course that night we had a grusome run-in with a breed i hadn't mentioned. chiggers. (chiggas as my comp says). so they're these little flea-like things but smaller that live in the grass. everyone always talks of how terrifying they are (a man on the plane over here told me about when he got chiggers and had to bathe in bleach. what the?) so we're always paranoid to walk in the grass. but we treat our nylons and clothes with this bug stuff and we've gotten more lax (as has the effectiveness of the treatment over washes) since the sisters have gone without any chigger incidents....until now. my comp and i were watching a performance outside and we could tell we were being bitten but it was the last show of the summer so it was all sentimental and stuff. the next AM we woke up and...so you heard me say the man "got" chiggers, right? not just "got bitten by." yeah, that's cause they live in you. ahhh! so intense. they burrow into your skin and liquify it to feed off of and then reproduce. you're supposed to suffocate them with nail polish. the dr here said we must have walked through a "colony." eesh. i was actually pretty fine. i only had about 20 or less. my comp, on the other hand....was in EXCRUTIATING...itch i guess. not pain. anyway, we counted both legs and there were about 150! she'd scratch so hard her nylons would get bloody and we tried every treatment we heard of. they're on the wane now though so we're both in pretty good shape. a true adventure though. so back to avoiding grass at all costs. i'm gonna come home and be some kinda freak.

THE MAGIC OF CARTHAGE
for our last prep-day together sis thomas and i explored carthage more and took pics of the authentic this and that. so many cool buildings and stuff. and when i say so many, i mean as many as you can fit in a town of 2800. don't act like that's not a big deal though. it's almost the biggest town in the county and it even has a blinking red light at a 4-way stop. more than we can say for nauvoo. :) anyway, so we found things like rusty old windmills and an old abandoned college with a "kissin' rock" from 1965. i'll have to come back in about a year and a few months if i want to take advantage of that one.

TRANSFERS SOON, SOON, SOON
transfers are friday. they're cutting back the amt of missionaries in carthage so it's gonna get really quiet out there. sis alfaro from costa rica is coming my way. we'll just talk spanish the whole time so i'll be fluent. that's a lie. it's her b-day friday too so that'll be a treat. for me cause i'm gonna make everything i like for her bday since i don't know yet what she likes. awesome. sis thomas's bday was amazing and i have to give a shout-out to j-sco for going above and beyond with the bday assignment. we all enjoyed it immensely and everything was PERFECT! i'll go into more details in an upcoming thank you letter.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN NO MORE
i'm no longer going to be the driver next transfer (i am right now cause my comp only has an intl license). that's a little sad. i was just getting used to going a good 10 miles under the speed limit. :) that's a lie, i wasn't. but it's hilarious here. no one here is in a hurry to get anywhere. i think it's good for me. but i'm getting good at passing on a 2-lane highway. we drive through all these crazy corn fields to get here and there are kamakazi birds who fly straight from the telephone wires in front of the van when they see us coming. it's such a rush for us and them. no casualties yet.

THE GOOD STUFF :)
well, i'd like to leave you all with a thought. this week in district meeting we talked about following the prophet. it made me so grateful to have a prophet today, Pres. Hinckley, and to know that he speaks directly the things the Lord would have us hear. what more could we ask for. a lot of times when we talk to people they say there's no need for prophets today or thing that infringes on your agency because the prophet is telling you what to think. but i think if you ask those same people if they were given the opportunity to sit at the foot of their Father in Heaven and listen to the counsel He has for them, would they take it? yes, undoubtedly. what better source for your direction? we have that same blessing offered through a prophet. we can know exactly what the Lord would have us hear. when we're choosing to follow the prophet we're simply choosing to follow He whose servant the prophet is. i'm so grateful for that and i'm already looking forward to conference in October when we can hear from the prophet and apostles.

love you all and i definately feel the strength of all of the prayers and support. :) feel free to shoot me an email update!