Week 13 in Mexico Hermana Courtney Jones

Thanks for all the pictures, like usual :) It is crazy to see Hal with his name badge! In the letter he sent I had to double-check that it was him becuase he sounds so different hahah.It is funny to think of you guys on summer break because every day is the same here on the mission. I hope you are having fun and that Tyler is liking the job. I am also glad Allie had fun at girls camp even with all her mosquito bites. As for my eyelashes and eye brows it isn't that bad since I have bangs I can cover my eye brows at least :)

This week I ate some weird foods and some of the best foods I have ever eaten in my life! I had a quesadilla with flowers de calabaza (flowers of a large squash), and pig hooves. At first I didn't know how to eat the pig hooves because there is no meat on it! But you just eat the skin and the ligaments between the toes.... It wasn't the best food I have ever eaten but it wasn't the worst either. Then the best foods I have ever eaten was a quesadilla with oxaca cheese and mushrooms... mmmmm yummy! Also, tacos de pastor is my new favorite food. It is a taco with onions, beef, cilantro, and pineapple and they cook it on a skillet.

Anyway, other than food, this week has been good I have had lots of great experiences and some scary experiences. As for the scary experiences there is the best lady I have ever met in my life in our ward and afterward she talked to me and said that when bad things happen you can let them go to your heart or you can let them stop at the name that is over your heart (Jesus Christ). As a missionary, bad things will happen, but it is not because of who we are it is because of the name that we are representing. Sometimes I feel like there are angels here in El Oro but they are in the form of members of the church.

This week I have never been so cold in my life.  It has rained every day, but it has also been freezing cold because we are up in the mountains. I think this is the first summer of my life where I wear a hat and gloves every day....but I prefer that much more than getting sun burnt every day.

These past couple weeks we have had an amazing experience with an inactive family. The mom has been a member for 25 years and two of her daughters were baptized, but her youngest son, who is 19, was never baptized. At the beginning of the last cambio we worked with him, but he said he would be baptized if his mom ever went to church again because he liked the person that she was when she would go to  church. The only problem was we visited her twice last cambio and both times she was really mad and a little rude and wanted nothing to do with us. We stopped visiting Raul, the son, because he didn't want to go to church or be baptized but the 5th week of the cambio he saw us and came running and said that his mom wanted to meet with us. She said that she didn't want to go to church but wanted her daughters to come to church.  They are 25 and 30 and have 3 kids between them. So the next week the daughters came to church. When we went to visit Maria Teresa (the mom) again she said she had read the pamphlet on the Plan of Salvation and all she wanted was for her family to be united and she knew it was through the church that she could do that.

So we started teaching her all the lessons that she had forgotten, and she is going to come to church this Sunday. It is amazing to see the change in her from the first time when she slammed the gate and said all types of rude things, to the lady who now gives us food and hugs every time she sees us. This experience made me think of my zone leader who always says "Every member a missionary, every member an investigator". Whenever he eats at peoples houses he teaches them the things he learned in his studies, part of one of the lessons, has them commit to read part of preach my gospel and he says it's because we are all investigators and once we stop investigating that's when we start losing our testimonies of the truth of the gospel.  

This week was great, and everyone was super excited that it was our first week as a ward! My favorite scripture this week is in 1 Corinthians 12. It talks about how every member of the church is a member of the body of Christ and how can the foot say to the eye that we don't need you. Every member has their talents, their gifts that help the work of the Lord and when we are missing members the work continues but it isn't quite as effective.  Have a great week. I love you all. 

Ok, I know we shouldn't have favorites but Yaretzi and her mom come and teach with us two times a week and this little girl is so funny :) she reminds me of myself when I was younger...super bossy and sings all the time!   Also, here's a picture of the El Oro ward.

Hal in Mexico City MTC

Week 2 Elder Hal Jones

Hey guys! I love it here at the CCM. The first day was amazing. We had meetings all day and at night we met our branch presidency and they called my companion and I as District Leaders. My companion is Elder Baker and he´s really cool. I love our district and we´re all so close now.  Our district includes Elder Tonga, E. Labrum (he doesn´t know the Labrums from chicago), E. Harper, E. Charles, E. Bean, E.Wood, E. Shupe, E. Brown, E. Baker and I.  There are two Hermanas, also - Hna. Amis and Hna. McLean.

From the first day I´ve been the best at Spanish in our district and whenever anyone has questions about Spanish they ask me. I know that isn´t because of my own ability because I only took one year of Spanish. I wake up at 5 every morning to study the language and then E. Baker and I go running at 6. I know the Lord is blessing me because of my diligence in studying the language and the material. We taught our first investigator the second day and then two more times later.  During the second lesson I was just able to completely understand what he was saying and I was able to remember Spanish that I hadn´t thought of in 4 years. Every day my ability in Spanish just grows tremendously and in the lesson we taught yesterday I didn´t even need to use my notes I was just able to talk with him in Spanish for the entire 40 minutes and I know that I was just a vessel for the spirit to flow through me because I wasn´t doing the teaching, the spirit was.

I just love it here. I can really thrive in environments where I have one goal and no other distractions. It hit me this week that my mission has started and that I need to work as hard as I can and be the best missionary I can be. Our zone leaders leave next week so our branch president said that E. Baker and I are probably going to be Zone leaders, which is crazy because we just got here. 

The weather here is amazing. Literally everything we were worrying about isn´t even a problem. I don´t think it´s ever gotten above 85 degrees here and I haven´t gotten sunburnt at all. Every day at 6pm it starts raining and thundering which is awesome. The view is amazing because we´re right at the bottom of a valley and all the houses are built on the sides of the mountains. So yesterday when we were outside studying for our investigator lesson, Mexico was playing in the world cup and whenever Mexico scored a goal we could hear the entire city going crazy.

Also my whole district is going to the Lima Peru Central mission! and there´s another district going to our mission too. When we came on Wednesday there were 300 missionaries in the CCM and once we came there were about 450 missionaries. Before we leave there are going to be over 1000 missionaries here! I miss you guys and I can´t wait to tell you more. I know that the Lord has called me to succeed and I already know that these are going to be the best two years of my life. 

Also the food is amazing and really authentic Mexican food. I love it, but so many people complain about it. I've kind of figured out that whenever people are away from home they will find something to complain about. 

ps. can you tell Brother Rowlings that my favorite scripture that I want to use for my plaque at church is Ether 12:12.  Also I  need a micro SD card for my camera because without it it only holds 2 pictures. 

Week 12 in Mexico Hermana Courtney Jones

Thank everyone for all their letters and tell them sorry if it takes a while to respond it just seems like the hour to write goes so fast now that I write Hal too. Thanks for the pictures, too. I actually laughed out loud when I saw Dans face at the airport. Everyone gave me weird look,s but that's ok. There is something weird on the mission that you don't miss your family because you are so busy and focused on the work but your love for your family grows stronger and stronger every day. I think a lot of it has to do with teaching people that their family can be together forever and realizing every day how much you want what you are teaching for your own family.

We had transfers this week and my companion and I are together for another change! It is crazy because that hardly ever happens with our mission president! Since I am with my companion this change I have one more change after that after she leaves which means I will probably be here in El Oro for the whole summer. At the beginning of my change here I was praying every day that I wouldn't have more than one change here but about half way through the change I started praying that I wouldn't leave. It is funny how things change but I have grown to really love it here. 

The members are amazing, and this Sunday was probably the best Sunday of my life, although really hard. It is a long story, but pretty much this week my companion and I were fighting to get a baptism. We were going through the binder looking for anyone from other missionaries who had baptisms and could get baptized that Sunday. We finally had someone, Genaro, who had 4 assistencias a la iglesia! We went to look for him and he lived in the woods and we searched for his house for 2 hours and couldn't find it. We were super depressed but we decided Heavenly Father would help us find it when it was time. Then 2 days later we contacted a lady in the street and she said we could visit and gave us her directions( its really hard here because no houses have addresses people just say go by the church and across is a big tree, walk straight for a while and you will see a big rock turn there, etc.) Anyway, we found a house that we thought was her house but it wasn't but as we started talking to the person she told us that her brother had listened to the missionaries about a year ago. When we asked her who her brother was it was Genaro! We found out where he lived and went and visited. After two visits he said that he would be baptized that Sunday and passed his interview. Then though on Sunday he didn't come to church. We went to his house every hour  but he wasn't there. We were super sad because it was our one baptism what we had worked the whole 6 weeks for and he didn't come.

I felt really strongly that we needed to visit him one last time and at 6:00 at night we visited, and when he opened the door he started crying. He had had problems with the word of wisdom before, which is why the missionaries before stopped visiting when he didn't stop but when we visited he had gone 2 months without breaking the word of wisdom. When he opened the door he said that he was afraid to be baptized which was why he didn't go to church but afterwards felt so terrible he was about to start drinking again but that was when we knocked on his door. He wasn't baptized this week but we have hopes that he will be baptized the next week so keep him in your prayers. 

This week was amazing, though, because we had our ward conference and our little branch is officially a ward! We didn't have any baptisms this cambio and the elders only had one but at the beginning of the cambio there were 80 active members and this Sunday there were 162 people at church. Looking back on this cambio I think I have learned more in 6 weeks than the rest of my life combined. I learned that heavenly father loves every single one of his children and someone coming back to church is just as rewarding as someone new at church.

This week so many things went wrong. The thing that I think I have learned the most is how to find joy even in times of trial. One day it was freezing cold and raining but we were working with the Elders and our zone leader started jumping in the puddles and spraying us with water. A terrible day turned into one of my favorite memories from the mission. Also me and my companion fell in a mud slide and were covered in mud and our dresses were filthy but so many people laughed and talked to us that day and asked why we were out working on a day like that. We got 6 new investigators that day just because we were covered in mud walking in the rain and people wanted to know why. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan and many times the plan heavenly father has is not the plan we have for ourselves but looking back I wouldn't want to change anything.

Ok more stories from the week...I no longer have eyebrows or eyelashes so I don't know when the next time I will be putting pictures up of myself will be:) I was turning on the furnace but it wouldn't turn on so I went to look and... PHOOM... baptism of fire! I learned a lesson that day. Never put your face close to a furnace. Luckily I didn't get burned just my face no longer has any hair. Also I started doing my personal progress with my companion in Spanish. She is a convert so never did it so she is working on it now. It is actually so fun. Right now on P-days I am teaching her to the play the piano for her knowledge project she is going to learn 4 hymns and then play them one day in church. She told me I should do the experience where you are nice to someone in your family for two weeks and give them nice notes and give them compliments. Since she is the only one living with me she counts as my family. She is so funny sometimes.

The only person leaving is our District leader this cambio, which I am kind of sad about because I have never met someone who is always so happy. This change he had major back problems and has a infection in his intestines and gastritis and yet he is always trying to cheer us up and always laughing and having a good time. One thing he taught us this week that blew my mind was in Luke 10:30-35 he said to change the word Jerusalem to heaven, Jericho to the world, Levite to the law or justice, The Samaritan to Jesus Christ, oil and wine to the atonement, the inn to the gospel, the inn keeper to the missionaries, and when the Samaritan returns to Christs second coming. My mind was blown when I read it with all the new words!

Anyway I love you all and hope you have a great week! Two of my favorite quotes from general authorities this week were "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". The other one is along the lines that "if blessings came immediately after we choose the right and consequences immediately after we chose wrong everyone would choose the right and there would be no reason to come to this earth". I know that when we let God lead our lives everything will eventually turn out.

Love Hermana Jones

Oh, and favorite scripture this week Romans 5:1-6

P.S every member a missionary, the way the missionaries have success is when the members are giving them people to teach. People are much more likely to invite someone into their home who their friend has said great things about and that this person has blessed their life as opposed to a person that they just met in the street!

I don't know if you can see it very well in this picture, but the little city in the middle of all the mountains is El Oro where we live and then all the mountains around it are the pueblos where we work every day.  Every mountain is a different pueblo.

Week 1 Elder Hal Jones

I just got to the CCM (Mexico City Missionary Training Center)! I already love it here and I never want to leave. My P-day is on Tuesdays so that's when I'll be able to email.

I flew into the Mexico city airport with probably 30 other Elders and 15 Sisters. I felt really bad for the flight attendant who went around asking if anyone wanted coffee.  Pretty much everyone in my group is from Utah, but there are a lot more people coming. Today there are 150 new missionaries at the CCM.

I hope everything is going well! Ill have more to talk about next week after I've actually been a missionary for a while. 

Your Missionary's mailing address is:

[Elder Harry Jones]

[30/07/2014] [Branch 12 - District B]

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero

07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal

Mexico

The estimated departure date for your missionary is 30 July 2014. The use of the

above address on all correspondence will greatly facilitate delivery to your missionary

at the MTC. Please don't send packages.

Week 11 in Mexico

I cant believe that Hal is really going on his mission this week and that Tyler is working at Jewel! What is Tyler doing at Jewel like what is his job? What did they do for youth conference? Just go to the temple? That's funny that Margot Embree is working at the Buffalo Grove pool.  I am sure she is loving it because you get to work with tons of people. I kind of miss swimming, especially because it has been super hot here!

Its ok, though, because this week was really good.  We have a baptismal date for a lady and her two daughters. She has 13 children, but most of them are older and have their own families, so we are hoping that we will have an opportunity to teach them too. This week was our district leader's birthday so I will send pictures of that and also of our "little" walk to the Afaros house. Hermana said that it would probably only take half an hour because it was preparation day and we were going to spend time at their house because they are recent converts, but it ended up taking about three hours! It was crazy but pretty fun :)

Sorry I don't have a ton of time to write today, but could you look up how many pounds are in a kilo and what food to eat to not get gastritis?  Because this week our district leader got gastritis and I am super afraid of getting it.

Tell Dan happy birthday for me! Also my generation and the generation of missionaries after me have more Hermanas than elders. Isn't that crazy? My companion was telling me that just a year ago there were only 10 hermanas in the mission, and now that is changing crazy fast.

Anyway, I will try to send some pictures but this computer is not doing so well.  Two are of our walk and the bushes we have in Mexico.  The third is of my district leader.

Love Hermana Jones!

Week 10 in Mexico

I can't believe how much everything is changing. I feel like my graduation was yesterday, but it was a year ago! I hope you guys had a great time with all the visitors for the weekend with Hal.  I am glad that Hal passed all his stuff and it is crazy that he got to go through the temple. I was a little overwhelmed the first time I went through the temple too but it just gets better and better every time. I like how Allie is wearing my dress in the picture :) Things never change - ha ha ha!
I was also thinking about how so many people in our family are sharing the gospel with Mexicanos! I am here in Mexico, Hal is about to spend 6 weeks teaching the gospel in Mexico, mom gave away a Book of Mormon to a lady from Mexico, and because of Dad teaching world religions, a girl in the Spanish branch with her mom joined the church. It just makes me so happy because the last line of the blessing I got before I left on my mission was that my family would be blessed with the spirit of missionary work.  I have only been gone for three months, and it is already happening. I can't wait to see what happens when both Hal and I are on missions. Thank you for his email! I will be able to write him in Spanish pretty soon when we are both here in Mexico :)
I was also thinking about how every decision we make in this life has an effect. I remember I didn't know what other class to take, and world religions seemed to jump out at me and at the time it didn't really mean much but looking back it has been a great missionary opportunity. I don't know how many people Dad has gotten to talk to about the gospel because of that class, but it has been a lot. Every time I hear what the sisters are doing in the ward it makes me so happy. It always makes me want to try harder and teach more people because I want to teach someone's family the same as the sisters there are having the chance to teach.
This week I really learned what kind of member I want to be when I get back from my mission. There is a lady here who is the best. She comes out teaching with us every week, and when there is an inactive member or investigator at church she is always the first person to go talk to them and invite them to sit by her. It is so amazing. I don't remember the name of the talk but it is by elder Bednar and it is a talk he gave at the MTC about Christ. If you guys can find it, it is honestly one of the best talks I have ever heard. He talks about how when people get up and bear their testimony about their ancestors and the things they did in there lives, he always thinks that's good for them but what have you done recently? I thought a lot about that this week, and that we constantly have to be working on our testimonies and faith. One thing I really loved was when I was reading in the Bible dictionary about faith it says that miracles don't strengthen your faith. It is obedience and righteousness that cause people to have unshakable faith.
In the talk by Elder Bednar he talks about a woman who in all sincerity showed Christlike characteristics when her daughter and friend were in a car crash and her daughter died and the first thing she did was call the other mom to tell her that her daughter was still alive but in the hospital. Then in the talk he goes on to say that the woman was a Relief Society president and the day of her daughters funeral a lady called and was mad because she had a cold and no one had come to give her a meal. So the Relief Society president didn't say anything just made a meal and on her way to her daughters funeral dropped of the meal at this lady's house.
This week was pretty good.  We spent our P-Day at one of our recent convert's house. They were confirmed my first week here. It was the Dad's birthday so the family, the elders, and us made lots of food and spent time with them. It was so great-- there is something really amazing about new converts. They just have an excitement that I think a lot of us start to forget. We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ here on the earth! It was really funny this week because a big problem we have here in trying to convert people is that a lot of people here worship Mary more than Jesus. My companion asked a good question to one of our investigators though.  She said "When you are sick do you go to the doctor or the mom of the doctor?"
Anyway, this week was great. I will send a picture of me finally on top of the mountain. One of our investigators lives on top of a mountain that takes us about two and a half hours to walk up every time we go to visit and unfortunately no taxis can make it up so you have to walk. A lot of people have donkeys that they ride to get to their houses. This week also our zone leaders had us have a zone fast. It was really interesting though because they talked about how when we fast we are always asking for something but they had the whole zone hold a gratitude fast for all the things that we are grateful for. It really does make things very different when you are giving up food to show your gratitude instead of asking for blessings. Anyway, i hope you guys have a great week. I know Hal will :)
Love, Hermana Jones

Week 9 in Mexico

Ok so first of all happy birthday to Dad and Hal!  I am so excited that Hal is going to the Mexico MTC.  He gets to experience two different countries on his mission!  I heard that the México MTC is great!  So he shouldn’t worry.  It is also nice because a lot of Americans go there.  They have one American teacher and one native Spanish teacher so it is easier to learn.  It sounds like these next couple weeks are going to be crazy!

I am so glad to hear that grandma listened to the missionary’s lesson and tell her that I love her!  Also I was wondering if you could give me Catie and Abby’s email.  Also Hals once he gets his missionary email.

So this week I got a new spark of hope.  The mission president came for interviews.  He interviews every missionary before he makes the list of new changes.  He told me that he feels really strongly that I need to be here in El Oro and possibly for a long time.  So my companion and I are staying in this area for another change.  That means the minimum amount of time I will be here is for 15 more weeks.  At first I felt like crying because this area is so hard but then I felt excited.  There are people here in El Oro that Heavenly Father needs me to find.  It’s pretty much a scavenger hunt to find the people that God has prepared to hear the gospel.

Also amazing news is that in Jan. the branch here in El Oro had 30 members and ten of them were active.  This week the branch president sent in the papers for our branch to become a ward!  Just goes to show that the work of the Lord is hastening!  

Ok another piece of advice I have for Hal is to have someone write down his blessing when he is set apart as a missionary.  I look at that blessing almost as much as my patriarchal blessing because there is a lot of much needed help in these blessings.  

This week we had a miracle with some members who were willing to come out and teach with us!  One of the members and her little girl who is three, Yaretzi, proselyte with us.   Literally she touches the heart of every person we talk to.  We shake their hands and then she reaches out to shake their hand too.   Then while I was talking to the investigator she started singing “Soy Un Hijo de Dios”.  Every single person we talked to said that we could come visit them at their house.  We also found another family who wants to be baptized!  They haven’t even listened to the missionaries before now.  Then there is Max who was inactive for 18 years and then this year started coming to church again.  Now he literally talks to every single person he meets about the gospel.   It just goes to show that the members are the key in missionary work.

I also learned that when you are truly hungry everything you eat is amazing.  Fasting here is really hard.  We are high up so it is really dry.  We are constantly walking in the mountains.   While fasting I feel like I am going to die.  When we got to the members house, we ended our fast.  Then she brought our this soup with eggs, tomatoes, and chicharone.  Pretty much every food that I can’t even get down without starting to gag.  The weird thing was that it was possibly the best food I have ever eaten in my life.  I EVEN HAD SECONDS.  On your mission you really start to just loose all sense of taste because you are eating for pure hunger.  

I have found out that here in El Oro there are the best people and the worst.  You find people with unshakable testimonies.  Their whole lives they have been surrounded by the temptations of the world and their testimonies are constantly tested.  This week I made the goal that I was going to be the best missionary I have ever been.  What do you know?  Everything that could possible go wrong did go wrong.  This was a good lesson to me that what makes people strong and good isn’t times where everything is easy.  Everyone can be kind when people around them are being kind.  Every member can share their testimony when they are surrounded by people who feel the same way.  It is the times where there is opposition that you find out who you really are and how strong your testimony really is.  

This week I feel like Satan was sending everything he had at us.  There were terrible people that we had to work with for three days straight.  We had to have the branch president come and bless our apartment. We lost our phone.  The lights and gas don’t work even though we prayed for both.  It rained every day.   We had to stay with a Hermana from the ward one night because there was someone following us.  By the end of the week I just felt like crying.  Then the other night as we were saying our prayers my companion just started laughing really hard and smiling and singing.  I was so confused.   I thought she had finally snapped.  When I asked her why she was so happy, she said, “Hermana Jones we are about to experience some major miracles here in El Oro!” I was still confused.  Then she said Satan wouldn’t be working so hard on us if we weren’t doing something right.  If we weren’t on the path to find people and bring people to baptism.  This is one of the major reasons I love my companion.  If we were outside the mission, I know for a fact we would not get along at all.  She is really loud and really straightforward with investigators.  She says things I would never think about saying.  For example, when investigators ask if their baptism in another religion is invalid, she just looks them right in the eye and says, “Si”.  I know that there is a reason that we are in companions.  With us you get two different witnesses of the truth.  Sometimes people need someone to be blunt with them and sometimes they need someone to be gentle and soft with them.  I have never had such a good friend in my life though.  I know it’s because of the trails we went through, the scriptures we read together and just the attempt to be better people.

Also my district leader is so funny. He and his companion had lots of problems this week too.  They cover half of El Oro. He got super sick this week but still went out to work every day. He would just pause every ten minutes to throw up.  He sends us a scripture every night and the next day we were going to have a district meeting.  The scripture he sent was Jacob 7:16.  It is a little sad on the mission when you start getting your humor from the scriptures :)

Anyway I am learning a lot.  I can already tell when I get home from my mission that El Oro is the place I will want to visit.  I think this is the place where I’ve developed an unfaltering knowledge that this is the work of God and that through his help all things are made possible.  Have a great week!  Try not to be too stressed with all the things happening!  I love you guys

 Oh I forgot one thing that made this week so great!  At the end of the week the mission president visited and after everything that happened during the week I was feeling a little down.  Then he brought me a package from the Kurihara’s, letters from the Chapman’s, Grandpa, Rachel, Pat/Amber, and ones from home.   Mail here is so slow.  All the letters just made me so happy.  It was so good to hear from everyone after a rough week.  

The best though was that I finally got the Liahona in English from the most recent general conference.  As much as I love to hear the words of all of you guys, the opportunity to hear the words of the prophet was so comforting.   I read the whole Liahona that day.  I know that the words of the prophet can always comfort us in our times of need.  Love you guys!  Continue to help the missionaries because the work moves so much faster with the help of members!!

Love Hermana Jones

They have tons of chicharones because a lady in our ward gave us a bag with at least 50 of these little bags in it! So we gave them some :)