Thursday, January 1, 2015

Elder Jones week 28

Hey guys! Courtney and I are thinking 11am Chicago time for the 3 way Skype call. AHHH I`m so excited to talk to you guys. If you want you guys can have like 15 or 20 minuets alone with Courtney since she has a time limit.

Okay, so this week was so great. We had the mission christmas party on Thursday which was the best. There was a bunch of really great food, soccer, volleyball, dodgeball, basketball, and every zone had a skit that they prepared, and there was a gift exchange.  It was a lot of fun and I got to see all my friends from the CCM on the day of my 6 month anniversary on the mission!

This Saturday we had planned that Isabel and Oliver would get baptized, but Oliver wasn`t able to go to church yesterday so he`ll have to get baptized the week after, but Isabel is for sure getting baptized on Saturday. We started teaching their dad, Eucebio, who has terminal lung cancer. He has left the hospital to be with his family for Christmas and New Year`s. He does want to get baptized, but he wasn`t able to make it to church yesterday.  We taught him 4 times this week and he kept every reading and praying commitment that we left for him, and he has faith that the Book of Mormon is true.  He asks a lot of questions about the plan of salvation, and I realized that it is really hard to teach someone that has already come to terms with the fact that they are going to die.  To look them in the eye and tell them that you know that they will see their family again and that they will live again after this life.  It is very hard but I know that this is true, I have a testimony, and the promises we make are real. They aren`t just made up to make people feel better or to handle death more easily.  It`s real, and it`s true. We`re working really hard with this family because they are prepared by God to receive this gospel. 

We did a lot of service this week and we didn`t really get much out of it.  It didn`t help our sectors grow, and we didn`t find new people because of the service we did. And I realized that it`s because we didn`t ask for referrals when we did the service.  Members of the church have the responsibility to do service because by serving their fellow being they are serving their God.  But missionaries are already serving their God 24 hours a day, and we have the responsibility to preach the gospel.  And I realized this week that if we do service projects without the purpose of finding new people to teach, and we don`t ask for referrals, we are wasting the Lord`s time.

I had a great week. We taught a lot of new people and we`re trying our best to help them progress. We have 3 families that we are working with, including Isabel`s family,that we really have a lot of hope for that they are going to get baptized.  And a goal I have for myself is that I want to see a family that I taught get sealed in the temple before I finish my mission. And I realized that if I want that to happen, the records that I fill out in the area book need to be superb, because I need future missionaries to prepare them for the temple and they have to be able to teach them according to their needs. 

I hope you guys have a great week and a very Merry Christmas. I`ll see you all on Thursday! wooo. 
Elder Jones



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