Week 27 Elder Jones

Hey guys! This week was the best. Elder Figueroa is still the best. We eat so much but we work out so hard in the morning and we work so much during the day. And we eat so much good food. We eat a lot of spinach, carrots, tomatos, fruits, and oatmeal. So I`ve never felt this healthy on my mission before and that makes it a lot easier, because I`m not so sick all the time. Also happy birthday to Allison this week! It was weird when Courtney`s birthday passed this last week because that was the first family member birthday that I`ve missed on my mission so far. I got the Christmas package! that made me so happy. Elder Figueroa and I are gradually eating the twizzlers this week and we`re waiting for Christmas to eat the rest. Thank you so much guys that made my week. Oh speaking of Christmas I don`t have a time limit to talk to you guys so I guess we`ll just talk as long as you guys want to talk, haha. My mission president is very cool. I have to coordinate with Hermana Jones because I think she`s an hour behind me in Mexico City, and I don`t know if Chicago is the same time zone as Lima or an hour ahead. This week on Thursday is the mission Christmas party and I`m really excited. That`s really awesome about Mina I hope she gets baptized, because I`m pretty sure we have the best ward in the world to support new members. Congrats to Allison on her talk and her 3 stripes! and Dan and his two stripes! And Tyler on being on Youth Committee, and the ACT! That`s so weird to see a picture of the inside of our house because sometimes I forget that I used to live in a comfortable house.  

Okay so about this week. We worked really really hard. Isabel and Oliver have finished all the lessons and now they accompany us to teach other investigators. They`re both getting baptized the 27th, two days after I talk to you guys. They`re both really excited. We taught an amazing lesson to the inactive family of the missionary that left from our ward to Paraguay a few months ago. Before he left he told us to work on his family and try to get his parents to arrive at the temple and get sealed. Elder Figueroa`s family is inactive too and he bore his testimony to them, and told them that if they don`t want their son to suffer on his mission, they need to go to church. And they came to church yesterday! For the first time in years. There`s also a family in our ward with 9 children, and all of them are members except one daughter, and a while ago she would avoid us and didn`t want to listen to us, but then she fell from the 3rd story of her house, and now she`s bedridden for the next 4 months and we come by to visit her every day and we teach her and she actually listens to us now and she wants to get baptized. It probably wont be while I`m still here in Caja de Agua, but I`m still really excited for her. We reactivated a family this week too! They`re a really beautiful family and they are now preparing to enter the temple! It`s a lot better when the goal for the people we teach is the temple instead of just baptism or reactivation. We have a lot of investigators that are progressing very well but none of them were able to attend church yesterday. That was the first time in my mission that I didn`t have any investigators attend church. So in Gospel principles the only two people we had in the class were Hno. Jesùs and Hna. Salomè. Hna. Salomè is a recent convert and is 87 years old, and has been my substitute grandma for the past 5 months. She can`t hear very well but she loves to talk about Jesus Christ. Her daughter is a recent convert too and so is all of her daughter`s family. I`m excited for this next week and I hope you all are doing great and that you have a great week! 

Elder Jones

Week 37 Sister Jones

So this week was super good. I feel so weird though because I am 20. You guys have a 20 year old daughter now! This week on my birthday we got to eat with the bishop at his pizaria. So pizza on my birthday! It was super good. Then one of the hermanas from the ward said she was going to have a noche de hogar ( family home evening) at her house. Two of our families investigating the church ( Yanze and her family and Rosie and her family) were going to her house for the FHE.  It was funny though because when we got there it wasn’t a noche de hogar it was a birthday party for me and they had a cake, a piñata and everything. So it was super funny. Those three families are so fun. We had to leave and go to one of our other appointments.  They said that they were going to continue the party. When they were super tired the next day at church and people asked why, they would say it was because they were celebrating with hermana Jones.....oh these hermanas really kill me :) Then we went to the house of hermana Vitalia because she said that she would come with us to a lesson of one of our investigators.  There was another party! It was really funny because I learned the birthday song in Spanish and it isn’t the one that everyone sings in the US. Then in the night someone rang our doorbell which freaked me and my companion out because there have been some problems.  When people open their doors and someone will punch them and then rob the house. So we were super scared but it turned out to be one of our investigators and they brought a present. So really it was a super good birthday. I still feel weird that I am 20 though. Also it was weird to pass my birthday in warmish weather because usually it is freakishly cold by the time it gets to my birthday.

On Wednesday we are having a Christmas activity with half the mission here in Toluca. I am super excited because I will get to see old companions and it is always fun when lots of missionaries get together. Anyway my new companion also went to BYU and lived in Heleman halls the same as me. She is a piano major so she is really good at the piano. It is crazy how small BYU makes the world. I was also thinking about how am I going to sign up for classes if I am here in the mission... oh well I am sure everything will work out. Anyway life is good, the mission is great, God is good. Share the gospel!

Love Hermana Jones 

 one of my converts seals chocolates and she offered to teach us how...hahah my first one turned out pretty terrible but she thought it was super funny that I made a Mexican Santa!

my new companion and pizza on my birthday at the bishops pizzaria!

piñata

best birthday ever :)

birthday cake...they smashed my face in it

Elder Jones week 26

Hey Guys! That`s such great news about Dan!!! That makes me really happy. And also congrats to Allie and Dan in their karate testing! I`m really excited to talk to you guys! 

So transfers was on Tuesday and I`m staying in Caja de Agua, and my new companion is Elder Figueroa from Cordova, Argentina! I`m not exaggerating when I say this, he`s the funniest person I've ever met in my life.  I spend about 90% of my day laughing. He also works harder than almost any other missionary I know, and it`s amazing because I really want to work hard too so we get a lot done.  This week we had 8 new investigators.  He also knows how to talk to people, and this week we`ve gained the trust of a lot of people.  I`m the happiest that I have been on my mission.   Elder Figueroa runs with me every morning so that`s awesome.  I am going to work as hard as I can to keep up with Elder Figueroa.  I realize that I won't always have such hard working companions on my mission, and I'm going to take advantage of it.  

We met a family this week, the Parra family.  The daughter just had a baby last week and they`re really prepared to receive what we teach. For the 27th of December we`re going to have 3 baptisms: Isabel, Oliver, and Michelle. Isabel and Oliver I`ve already told you guys about and their mom won`t be able to be baptized the 27th because she is still looking for work that won`t make her work Sundays.  Right now she has a job that she works every other Sunday.  Michelle is 10 and her sisters and cousins and uncles and aunts are members, and she attends church every week and she received the lessons from the elders a while ago, but never got baptized because her family members went inactive.  But now they`re active and we`re going over the lessons again and she`s going to get baptized.  This week was stake conference and one of the 70 came and he`s so awesome. Elder Calderòn.  We brought Jesùs and he was able to talk with Elder Calderòn for a while.  Also speaking of Jesùs, we were able to get him the Book of Mormon on audio when we went to the temple and one of the members in our ward let him borrow something to play it on, and this week he`s been listening to the Book of Mormon!  He says that he already knew it was true, but now that he has the opportunity to study the book of Mormon his testimony is even stronger.  Also Jesùs got the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday!  That was really exciting for me.  He told me that now that he`s an Elder I have to call him Elder Pachas.  

I got bit by a dog this week. We were walking up a staircase and I saw the 3 year old son of one of our investigators, Nato, and I shouted "Nato", and the dog that was next to me on the staircase, that I didn`t even notice was there, bit me on my calf.  It didn`t break the skin but there`s a hole in the calf of my pants. I`m going to try to fix it this week.  And what`s funny is that it was on the way to pick up Isabel, Oliver, and Jesùs for stake conference, so I didn`t have time to change pants before stake conference.  My mission president and the member of the Seventy were at this conference and when I shook their hands they both noticed that I had a hole in the calf of my pants. I hope you guys have a great week. I`m loving my mission and it`s going by too fast.  It gets pretty hot here, but there are people with Christmas sweaters.  It`s really different than any Christmas I`ve known but I love it.  Love you guys. 

Elder Jones

Week 36 Sister Jones

So this week was so amazing I can't even explain. We had all our recent converts in church.  We had our investigator in church and she invited another family to church with her.  Then we had the family that we contacted who wanted to learn English.  We had another investigator there.  So there were 12 investigators of ours at church! It was the best feeling ever because we tried to go to gospel principal's class second hour but it was so full of investigators and recent converts we couldn't even get more chairs in the classroom. It is a pretty good problem to have. 

I feel like this season you can really feel the love that God has for his children that he sent his only son to die for us. This week also we got all of Karen's papers together and she is finally getting married this week!!!! I am so excited this has been the longest process ever. 

I was so happy all week because I was so positive that we weren't going to have cambios.  They normally they don't move anyone the cambio before Christmas break. However,  Saturday night they called and said that Hermana Dungan was getting moved out of the area. We were so sad we went and bought a ton of ice cream and ate it all.  It was so sad though because she was seriously my favorite companion in my mission by ALOT. We just had so much fun together. I have not cried one time in my mission for moving to a different area but I did cry when Hermana Dungan left.  I feel like in the mission you find and build friendships that you couldn't find anywhere else. I was pretty sad but I have another American companion who is about to start her third cambio with me. It is crazy that if I include the MTC I have 8 cambios here in the mission!! Anyway I am sure that I am going to love my new companion too and we will have lots of success here in Sauces. 

Also at the bus station I found an Elder who is in El Oro ( my last area).   I sent tons of letters back to El Oro to the people there.  So that was a blessing to be able to send the letters. It is funny because the Elder I talked to said that people still ask what happened to the little red head girl that used to be there in El Oro. hahah I loved it there so much. However, I think you start loving every area you are in. 

It was kind of sad though when Hermana Dungan left.  The family that started investigating through English lessons is more attached to hermana Dungan and me than we thought. When Hermana Dungan said she was leaving they were so sad and thought that we both were going to spend the whole year and a half of our missions here in Sauces. They even went and talked to the bishop. They told him that it was really not going to help people progress in the church if they are moving missionaries all over the place.  They told the bishop that he should talk to the President and tell him just to leave us here for the rest of our missions. It was actually so sad because they were so upset. 

Today was also super fun because we washed Hermana Karen's dog for her.  The Hermana Karen who is about to get married. It was kind of hard because it kept running away and rolling in the dirt.  We would have to wash it again but it was fun. Then we went to our recent converts house and we played soccer with the mom and her three kids. It was so fun but it was kind of sad because even the 6 year old boy is better at soccer than I am. I swear people here are just born with soccer skills. Anyway I hope you have a great week!

Love Hermana Jones

The world is full of good intentions but with our actions we could change the world.

we went to the cool stained glass place at sunset!

baptizims are the best! This month we baptized 4 people and the Elders baptized 4 people so our ward had 8 baptizims this month. They are thinking of dividing the ward soon! this is also all the hermana in our ward :)

all the Americans with the USA flag

my favorite investigator Yantze!!

And her neighbor rosie :)

Eler Jones Week 25

Oh my gosh DAN!! I`m really glad you`re okay but that really scared me. I`ll keep him in my prayers. I`m sorry you guys got the stomach flu too. 

This week was great though. We went to the Temple with Jesùs Pachas, Jacky, Estephany, Harold, Mara, Consuelo, and ANGELO. All recent converts and Angelo who was recently reactivated. They all did baptisms for family members and it was a really awesome experience. Jesùs got baptized for his father and he was so happy while I was talking to him afterwards. 

I made Thanksgiving too! I made Lùcuma no-bake cookies, mashed potatoes, and I made alfredo sauce from scratch for pasta, with peas and carrots. It was sooo good. Even the leftovers were amazing. And I made all of it with our tiny electric heater that we have for a stove. 

Isabel and her family are progressing really well. On Wednesday we had a lesson with Isabel and her mom Delia and we asked her if she had been able to read recently and she said "no I haven`t been able to read yet today", but all the other days she had been reading a TON. Her book of Mormon is completely marked up and she always has a bunch of amazing questions for us. So yea she`s going to be a convert. We had a really awesome FHE with the familia Fonseca and the family of Isabel and Delia. We played killer frog as the activity!

Sometimes I feel like it`s not fair for other missionaries in other parts of the world how many people God has prepared in Lima. We`re the smallest mission in the world and we have 250 missionaries in our mission. Tomorrow we`re getting 24 more missionaries. In January there are going to be 6 missionaries in our ward. It`s just crazy how much the church is growing in Lima. We had a training from one of the 70 a couple weeks ago and he said that every 15 minutes, someone is baptized in Perù, Ecuador, Colombia, or Venezuela. 

So tomorrow we have transfers and Today is my last day with Elder Torres. It`s weird that I`ve only had one companion in my mission so far except for the CCM. Oh! I almost forgot! We found another family that is going to get baptized. It`s a mom and her two daughters. Celestina, Brisa, and Rosilla. They`re so awesome. They live really really high up in the mountain and we teach them on the rocks outside of where they live. Yesterday we taught them at night and we could see the entire city lit up. I think once I leave Caja de Agua one of the things I`m going to miss most is teaching lessons with an airplane view of the city. 

But yea tomorrow is transfers. I just really hope I get a companion that wants to work and loves the people. I`m excited to talk to you guys! It`s going to be so sad when I wake up in the morning on Christmas. I hope you guys have a great week and you all start feeling better! Bye!

Elder Jones

 

Sister Jones Week 35 in Mexico

Wow sounds like you guys had a crazy week!!! I hope you guys are feeling better.   Especially Dan Dan. I got food poisoning on Thanksgiving so I was sick too! Looks like we are twins :) We went to D.F on Wed. for a training meeting.  I ate street food with all the other missionaries, which was probably a pretty bad idea.

Anyway this was a really good week. On Wed. we spent all day in the city and then on Thanksgiving we had crazy cambios.  They mixed up everyone in the whole zone and we went to different areas and had different companions for the day. Luckily I ended up with an American so we celebrated Thanksgiving at night. It was kind of weird to have no one even know about Thanksgiving but it was good. In the mission we only have little hot plates to cook on.  However, these other hermanas bought a waffle maker. So we made brownies and then cooked them in the waffle maker. It was actually pretty good :)

Then on Saturday we had a baptism!!! It was super great because it was a whole family getting baptized. I still can’t even explain how different they are from when I first met them. The first time we went over the parents were fighting, the kids were crying and the parents were at the point of getting divorced. Then the mom started listening and went to church for a while.  However, she gave up hope because her husband didn’t want to come to church. Then about a month later a miracle happened the husband also showed up to church with all his kids. Then over the next month there was the biggest change I have ever seen in anyone. They started to be soooo happy and the husband and wife went to a church dance together and then.  They  accepted to be baptized. It was soo cute because their whole family was just so happy. They wanted to be baptized on Saturday so they could be confirmed on Sunday.  So it was one of the best Thanksgiving ever.

Also on Sunday it was a miracle because we had a family of two, a family of 4 and one of our single investigators come to church. It just made me sooo happy. The family of 4 has become some of my favorite people here in the mission. One day the mom and the dad were in their car and they passed by us asking if we could give English lessons. They wanted to pay us but we told them if they would let us teach about our church for a half hour we would teach English for a half hour. So we went and they were amazing!!! They had so many questions about the church.  We were starting to move it to English lessons because we had been teaching about the church for 45 minutes but they just kept asking questions about the church. Then after about an hour of teaching we moved to English.  Then they just spent their time asking questions about the church in English hhahah. Then they came to church with us this Sunday and it was an interesting experience. In gospel principals we were talking about the spirit world but then it went really down hill.  The teacher started talking about spirits and people started sharing really weird experiences and dreams. Then the mom of the family was super disturbed.  It was a good thing her kids had gone to the other classes because I think the mom would never want to talk to us again.  However, her 9-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son loooooved their classes. The son wanted to go to an activity with the church on Saturday. I could tell that she didn’t want him to go because she was so confused. So that night we went back over to her house and explained the plan of salvation to her and she ended up loving it. I was so grateful because I was so nervous we were going to loose her as an investigator hahaha the great things that happen in church sometimes :) Just goes to show that the church is perfect but sometimes we as humans make mistakes.

Anyway I have a lot to be thankful for this year. Oh also it is really funny because tons of people here ask if they can come visit us in Chicago when I get home form my mission. So maybe next Thanksgiving we can just have a house full of people from Mexico!!!!! hahahahaha anyway I hope that you guys have a great week and know that I am super grateful for everyone of you!!! I will definitely keep you guys in my prayers!

Love Hermana Jones 

p.s- a Jones never gives up :)

that's the photo of all the new missionaries and their trainers this cambio

intercambios on thanksgiving

our object lesson

Baptism on Saturday!!!! The last one really describes the kids really well!  So cute!!!