Hermana Jones week 65

That's pretty cool that Dad gets to work with some Mexicans in his job.  One thing that I never noticed before in my life is how hard they work.  In all my time here in Mexico, I have never seen a person begging for money, even though there are some people who are super poor.  They will take whatever job they can find or sell things in the street. 

I am super excited that mom got a job!  Also it makes me sad that Sister Smiley lost her mom.  I am sure that was very hard, but at least she got to come home and see her. 

This week was hard because I spent a lot of time out of my area and was going to bed super late and waking up super early to go to other areas.  Finally, on Friday I got a  really bad fever from not sleeping and getting wet in the rain every day.  So they sent me home early on Friday but I slept and now I am all better.  So new goal for the week is it doesn't matter how many areas I have to visit, I am going to get my sleep.  Good life lesson haha!

The picture of the super thick fog was when we were in exchanges. We left super early in the morning and there was a trail in the corn field to get to the main road but when we came to a fork in the road we couldn't see more than a foot ahead of us so we were wondering where the iron rod was to show us the way to go.  

I was super super super happy hermano Moctezuma was able to be baptized.  If you would have seen him when we first met him, you would not believe he is the same person.  He was an alcoholic and had a lot of rough things from his past.  But he hasn't drunk a drop for 2 months now and had his interview and was able to be baptized!  I think it was one of the happiest days of the mission to see such a difference in someone and to complete a family in the gospel!  What a blessing to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and the gift of full repentance.  

Also, we have another couple who was supposed to get baptized and married last week but their baby got really sick and went to the emergency room with heart problems and pneumonia.  Their baby got better, though, and it was super funny in church because they had all the people who had less than 6 months in the church stand up and introduce themselves.  Viviana got up and it made me laugh because she said hello I am Viviana I am getting married Saturday and baptized Sunday and you are all invited and then sat down.  She is also the one who cut up all the pamphlets we gave her and taped up all the pictures of Jesus in her house.  

Also we are teaching a family with three kids and the parents are Petra and Jose.  Petra has 2 months straight coming to church by herself with her kids and their story just amazes me. We showed up at their house and they had nothing.  Her husband had no job and they had nothing to give their kids to eat.  We promised them that if they came to church her husband would find a job.  So they went to church Sunday and he found a job on Monday.  Ever since, they have not missed a Sunday.  They will not be able to baptized until December because her husband was married before, so the divorcement process is long here, but they have their plans to get married in December. What amazes me the most is they are not even baptized but they asked us how they could pay their tithing. People like that just make me so happy I want to cry.  They are so humble and so teachable it makes me want to be a better person every day.  

Anyway I got a letter this week that really made me think a lot.  It was talking about the experience of one of the apostles in his mission when he was discouraged he found a stone that said whatever thou art, act well thy part.  Under are numbers in a square and whatever way you add them up they will add up to 18.  The letter I got said that we should not waste time trying to be a 9 if we are a 6 because it will mess up the "magic" if we are a 6 we need to be the best 6 that we can be because that is the plan Heavenly Father has for us.  That is who he needs us to be.  Whatever situation we are in, wherever we are, we need to bloom where we are planted.  We need to use who we are and the trials we have to make us better, to help others.  Also, the letter went on to say the difference between Nephi and Laman and Lemuel is 1nephi 2:16 that he had his own personal conversion so when hard things happened, he didn't need to think what he should do-- he had received his answer.  He knew that God existed and what he wanted from him and he would never do anything to go against that.  I hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Jones

 

 

Elder Jones Week 55

Hey guys! I´m so glad to hear that everything is going so well! Everything is going great here.  I´m learning a lot, and we´re preparing a lot of people to get baptized in July.

 I had my first baptismal interview this week!  It was such a great experience. The baptismal candidate´s name was Flor and she´s about 50 years old and she had been sufficiently prepared to be baptized, but she still didn´t feel ready.  She felt like she needed to learn more about the church before getting baptized.  She wanted to wait until September or October.  So Elder Patiño and Elder Jordan had me give her an interview.  The spirit was so strong in the interview.  It was the only time in my mission where I had to teach someone by myself, without a companion.  But what lacked in number of missionaries was made up for by the power of the spirit. At the end of the interview, I was able to tell her that she was ready to be baptized and that she could be baptized right now if she wanted.  Somehow she changed her mind and she´s going to get baptized this Saturday. 

We´re finding a lot of people to teach.  On Friday one of our appointments fell through and we were walking towards the house of a recent convert and from the other side of the street a 20-ish year old man was looking at us and walking in the opposite direction and when I made I eye contact with him he nodded.  So I felt like we needed to talk to him, and we followed him into the alley where he lived and knocked on the door he entered, and the mother of the man who nodded at us answered the door.  We explained that we saw her son and we felt like we needed to talk to him.  It turns out that he is deaf and he lives there with his mother and his sister.  She let us in and we quickly found out that her husband recently died and we taught them about the plan of salvation and his mother, Yoni, wants to get baptized on July 25th. He taught me how to say Jesus Christ in sign language when I gave him a pass along card of Jesus Christ. 

We had a similar experience with one of our recent converts, Milagros.  She and her sister are both members but her parents and other sister aren´t.  We came last week and taught the father and the sister that aren´t members and they weren´t interested in what we had to say.  The next day the mother died.  We came back this week and taught the father about the plan of salvation and temples, and he wants to get baptized so he can go to the temple and get sealed to his deceased wife. 

We also found three really prepared people that are going to get baptized on July 18th.  Magdalena, Josael, and Marco.  We´re trying to have daily contact with them because they´re basically just waiting until they have enough church attendances to get baptized. If the could, they would get baptized today. 

I continue believing that I have the best district in the mission. I´m really grateful for how hard they work. 

I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Jones      

Hermana Jones week 64

So, first off-- Happy Father's Day!  I don't really know when it is in the U.S, so I am just going to assume that it was on Sunday like it was here in Mexico.

This week was suuuuper good.  I think I gained like 20 pounds though, eating so much food.  What a shame that I am going to gain all my weight here in the mission right before coming home hahaha. So Saturday someone from church was going to have their birthday party for their little son at church and so they invited the missionaries.  It was super fun because we could talk to all the parents who were there with their kids and we even have some new people to teach now from the party.  I am not going to complain about the cake and ice cream either.  It was a pretty good idea of those members.  I think I am going to do that after my mission.  Just any party that non members are going to show up to I am going to invite the missionaries. 

Also on Friday I completed 16 months in the mission and it was the best day ever because the parents of the Moctezuma family got married.  It was really interesting to see a marriage here in Mexico because you just go to the office of the judge and sign papers but it was still pretty exciting.  

Then Sunday was the best day ever.  There were lots of baptisms. The bishop was super happy because he teaches gospel principles now, so all the investigators love him.  He always ends up baptizing almost all of our investigators.  Our gospel principles class has gotten huge.  So huge that there is no space for the people, so now you graduate from gospel principles after 2 months and there are still over 30 people in the class each week.  It makes me so happy to see how much this ward focuses on missionary work because it really just brings a different feeling to the ward. 

Then on Sunday for Father's Day we went and visited the Jimenez family.  They are some investigators we have who are suuuuper funny.  And they always feed us so much food, I feel like my stomach is going to explode every time we go to their house.  They are the best, though, and they have two dogs who have the same hair as Hermana Infante and I do.  

Also, I learned how to cut hair this week -- hahaha, not really. Little baby Franco Moctezuma doesn't like to get his hair cut, but one day I was talking to him and he said I could cut his hair.  His mom was happy, so she gave me the scissors, so I went for it.  I am super proud.  He only has one bald spot in the back.....but for my first time it was pretty good hahaha.  Anyway, I hope you guys have a great week and I hope all the kids have fun in their camps.

Love,
Hermana Jones

Elder Jones Week 54

Hey guys! Glad you had such a great week with Grandma and Grandpa.

So transfers were this week and as you`ve already heard, I was made district leader.  BUT not in Rimac, they moved me to Callao. Widely known as the most dangerous and poorest part of Lima.  If you look at a map of Lima, there´s a peninsula jutting out of it.  That´s my district.  Elder Mondaca and I are in the Callao Ward and Elder Mann, Elder Tejada, Elder Jordan, and Elder Patiño are in La Punta Ward.  Elder Mondaca is from Bolivia, Elder Mann and Elder Jordan are from Utah, Elder Patiño is from Ecuador, and Elder Tejada is from Honduras. We have the best district in the mission. Seriously these Elders are the best.  On Wednesday I gave my first District meeting training and it turned out great.  Also I have to interview 3 people this week for baptism, and I don´t know how to do that, but I´m sure it will work out fine.

This was President Borg´s last transfer meeting.  He´s going home this week, and we´ll have our new president, President Larson.  On Wednesday we had to go all the way back to Rimac for Rafael´s baptism, and we stayed for 15 minutes and had to leave to be able to get back to Callao in time, but it was really great to see him get baptized.  He was really happy. 

So I like the new sector, the members are really nice, but they aren´t used to accompanying the elders. Something that we´ve been focusing on this week is figuring out the schedules of the members and asking them when they can accompany us during the week, and we actually had quite a few lessons with members this week.  Just like investigators won´t get baptized if we don´t invite them to get baptized, members won´t accompany us if we don´t invite them to accompany us.  Also we were able to print off the ward list of action, and I told La Punta about it and how effective it is, so they´re going to be working on that as well to find people that were given a baby blessing but weren´t baptized, or young men that are missing an ordination in the priesthood.  One of the struggles in this area is that on weekends on every street on every block there are parties going on. 

So we were able to see the dedication of the temple of Trujillo transmitted to the stake centers.  Elder Bednar and President Uchtdorf came to dedicate it.  When they were sealing the cornerstone on the temple you got to see what President Uchtdorf sounds like when he´s not giving a talk, and he´s a very happy and funny person.  The talks were great and you could feel the spirit very strongly there.  We weren´t allowed to take notes or bring anything inside the chapel because it was like a temple session. 

On Monday, before the transfers we were able to teach Samuel.  He brought his nonmember mother to our ward mission night last Thursday where we saw "Meet the Mormons" and he said that she really liked it. Before watching it, she had said that she wasn´t going to let him serve a mission, but after seeing it she said that he needed to serve a mission.   So now he´s preparing to serve a mission a year from now.  Also when I went to Rafael´s baptism on Wednesday, the Rosales Flores family was there and Rogger told me that on Tuesday he met with the bishop to start his mission papers! So I´m happy for both of them.

I had a great week. I´m trying not to be too overwhelmed by how much has changed in the last week. I´m happy and I´m learning a lot.  I´m really grateful for the time I had with Elder Price to learn how to be an effective missionary.  I hope you guys have a great week! 

Elder Jones   

Elder Jones week 53

Hey guys! This week was the best. We finished teaching everything that Rafael needs to get prepared for his baptism on Wednesday. He had his interview yesterday, and he´s all set for his baptism! The only thing is that transfers are tomorrow and I´ve got 6 months here in Rímac, but the thing is that the zone leaders have been saying for a while now that Elder Price is going to move up this transfer as zone leader, and I´m almost positive that´s going to happen too, so I think I´m staying in Rímac for 2 more months! This transfer is 8 weeks long because our new mission president is coming in 2 weeks.  Also there is a new address of the mission offices if you want to send letters-- it´s:                     

 Misión Perú Lima Central 
Av. Juan de Aliaga 520 
Magdalena del Mar, Lima 
Lima 17, Peru 

So it turns out that on Wednesday we´re actually going to have 2 baptisms because the missionaries in the ward next to us have been teaching someone that lives in our ward boundaries, and now that he´s about to get baptized they just recently realized that he lives in our ward.  His name is Luis and he´s about 60 years old.  I´ve taught him before in the church building when I was on a companion exchange with the Elders in Leoncio Prado.  Tomorrow we have an appointment with him with the 4 missionaries to do the handoff. We called him last night and he said he wants to get baptized as soon as possible.  So he´s going to get baptized on Wednesday. 

There isn´t going to be church on Sunday because of the dedication of the temple of Trujillo.  We are going to be able to go to the stake centers and see the temple dedication broadcasted.  But only those that have a temple recommend or a voucher from the bishop.  It´s going to be interesting, because the stake centers are going to be converted into temples for a short period of time.  We can go with all our recent converts and reactivated members, and the good news is that we´re going to reactivate 7 people this week.  So as long as everything goes as planned, and I don´t get transferred to a different ward, this will be the most productive week of my mission. 

Last week we met an eight year old in the street named Juan Carlos.  He seemed really happy to see us so we assumed he was a member, but he wasn´t.  We invited him to come to the church on Sunday with his family.  He actually came! alone!  When we arrived at church he was just sitting there by himself looking really content, and he stayed for the 3 hours.  Later we visited his family and they´re actually a really great family.  Two parents (that are married!), two sons, and the sister of the mother lives there too.  We taught them all and it turns out that the father was baptized when he was 8 but never came back to church.  The mother was going to get baptized a few years ago but they moved and lost contact with the missionaries.  They´re a really great family and I can tell that they´re going to progress. 

Everything is working out really well with Leeloo, she wants to get baptized now, but she has to wait until the 28th, so she can have enough church attendances.  We´ve also got a few baptisms lined up for July.  We started teaching Yolanda this week.  She´s been to church a couple of times already, but we haven´t had the opportunity to teach her unitl this week.  She´s good friends with a really strong family of returned missionaries in our ward, and when we teach her with them the lessons are much more powerful.  She wants to get baptized, but she still has a lot of obstacles in her life. Her member friends are willing to help her in every way possible to get prepared for baptism.  She has a goal to be ready for baptism by July 11th. 

I hope everything goes well for you guys this week. Love you guys! 

Elder Jones

Hermana Jones week 63

So this week was super good! I had lots of exchanges this week, so I was only in my area three days this week working but everything is going super well in the areas of the hermanas. I love working with them so much because I get to see so many people being taught the gospel and the different stages of learning they are in! 

My favorite was to go teach with hermana Galicia becuase they have a family of ten they are teaching right now! And they all went to church this week. It made me so happy.  I can really see the hand of the Lord in my life. 

This week we also found a miracle.  We met a man named Jesus, and he has been to church a lot, but he was always too busy at work to listen to the missionaries but he had an accident at work and hurt his arm, so now he is always home because he can't work any more doing heavy machinery.  So we have been visiting him for a couple weeks and because he is hurt we can visit him every day.  The secret blessings from God, aaaaand he is getting baptized this week! yay! 

Also we were working all this week to get the papers done for Viviana and Eric and the Moctesuma family, so they can get married and we finally finished. The elders in our ward also finished getting the papers ready for their family, so we are going to have our big wedding on Saturday and then all of them are getting baptized on Sunday. It makes me really happy to see the difference in all of them since we started teaching them.  The Moctesuma family makes me laugh because it reminds me of when we were little and crazy. The only thing is they have 7 kids instead of 5. Their mom loves it when we come because I play dead donkey with them. I always wondered why you guys loved that game so much when we were little but I realized finally that it was so we would stop running around and be quiet. Its funny though because now every time we come they want to play dead donkey which is fine with us.  It is just funny to teach lessons now because now instead of running around and fighting, all the little kids are laying on the ground with their arms and legs up in the air hahah.

Also we went and worked with our ward mission leader and his wife on Saturday and they are amazing! They are both return missionaries and so they taught with us really well. Hermana Viviana was a little afraid to tell her family that she was getting baptized, but when we were there her family came and visited halfway through the lesson! so we taught them and they all went to church on Sunday!

Also we finally got the Liahona this week, so we could read all the conference talks.  I loved conference this time there are so many good talks to share with our investigators. Anyway I hope everything is going great all of you are in my prayers and I am glad the move went smoothly. Weird that I am going to have to start telling everyone that I am from Indiana now and not from Chicago haha! I was reading about the new 70 at the back of the Liahona and it was the same 70 who came for stake conference last week(Elder Montoya) in his biography it says he was nervous to become a 70 but the profeta Monson said "you are here because you love the Lord" I liked that a lot to think about any place we are in life. Am I here because I love the Lord?

Also they are finally going to open the temple here but it is going to be in September! The month after I leave and they are going to have a ton of people in the stake I am in right now dance. Looks like I will just have to come back to mexico to see it Hahaha. Anyway I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Jones

Tyler Jones - Eagle Scout

Congratulations to Tyler on earning his Eagle Scout award.  Way to go Tyler!

Hermana Jones week 62

Wow, I cannot believe that you guys are moving this week!  It seems a little unreal to me.  It was funny, though, because I told a family in the ward that you guys were moving to Indiana.  It was funny because they said all that moving only to end up in the same place that you started! hahaha I got a pretty good laugh out of that.

This week was super fun but a little hectic.  We have 7 people who are getting baptized on June 21, so I hope you guys can pray for all of them.  The first couple is Viviana and Eric. They are amazing-- we gave them a pamphlet in the street and said we could visit when we got their we asked if they had their pamphlet.  They looked down and didn't answer so we thought they had thrown it away but then they brought us into their room and they had cut out all the pictures of Jesus from the pamphlet and taped it up on their wall. They were also at the point of having an abortion when we met them because they didn't even have enough money to feed themselves and they didn't want to bring a baby into the world only to starve, but we promised them that God would help them provide for their family and hermano Eric got a job! 

Also we have the Moctesuma family, which is the family from the picture I sent you who have 7 kids. Their oldest daughter, Jessica, said she wants to be a missionary!

Then we have Fabian and Marilu who are referrals from a member and they are the best.  I love teaching them because every time we ask how they feel, they say that they feel like they found something that they have been looking for for a long time.  The reason this week has been stressful is because none of them are married!  So we have been getting the papers ready and getting the wedding ready for three couples!  Here in Mexico a lot of people don't ever get married because there is a lot of paper work and in some places it costs a lot of money so they don't have the ability to pay to get married.  

Anyway, another funny thing that happened this week is that we had stake conference, which I will talk about in a moment, but the elders in our ward were going to have a baptism, so they started to fill the font, which usually takes about 2 and a half hours.  The four of us went with the members who were going to feed us and we ate for an hour so it would be plenty of time to come back, so we ate and at the end I looked at my phone and there were tons of missed calls from members of the church and missionaries in our zone. Our phones were on silent because we were in stake conference before.  So I called, and everyone was in panic. The font was overflowing and filling the whole chapel.  So we ran back to open the door to the font because only the elders have the keys and spent a lot of time cleaning the church hahaha so sadly there were a lot of witnesses because it was stake conference so all the stake leaders and all the missionaries in our zone are laughing about how the zone leaders and sister training leaders flooded the whole church..... The stake conference was really good though because one of the 70s came in.  

I am super amazed every time I have heard a 70 talk in the mission because they never have notes! I don't know how they do it.   I loved it, though, because I could feel the spirit so strong while he was talking.  Some of my favorite things he said were that some decisions seem small but have huge consequences.  Another part I loved  was when he said God doesn't give us unnecessary trials. Every trial is designed specifically for us so that we can be stretched to be the person that he wants us to be.  Anyway, I am out of time, but it sounds like this week is going to be a busy one for you guys. Wish you Luck! and I will keep you in my prayers.
Love,
Hermana Jones

Elder Jones week 52

HEY GUYS!

That's great news that everything is going according to plan with the move.  I wish you guys the best of luck this week with everything!  Especially Dan with his birthday! 

I had one of the best weeks in my mission so far.  We just focused on being as efficient as possible with our time this week and do everything we needed to do to teach with members, have new investigators, and invite EVERYONE to baptism.  We invited everyone we taught to baptism this week.  Also before this week the greatest number of lessons with a member present I had had was 10, and I could never get above 10.  This week we did everything we could to get above 10 lessons with a member present, and we got 20.  Numbers don´t define success in missionary work, but I can say that I learned a lot this week about how to work efficiently and effectively. 

We witnessed some miracles this week.  Alicia, who is the aunt of Isabella, who recently was baptized, has a 2-year-old grand daughter that Isabella takes care of.  This week her grand daughter caught a fever and they weren´t able to calm the fever so they took her to the hospital and when they got there they told her something along the lines of that a virus had entered into the brain and that it would probably leave her as a vegetable.  They called their hometeachers and they came to the hospital to give the blessing, and then later we came to start a fast with them.  Then during the fast, the fever disappeared and she started to eat again.  She still needs to stay in the hospital for treatment, but as long as the fever is down it´s a lot more hopeful that she´s not going to have permanent complications.  It was a really great experience because Isabella was recently baptized and this has really strengthened her testimony of the fast. (Also a really good Mormon message if you want to learn more about fasting is "the hope of God´s light") 

I´ve been really sick all week but I´m still really happy with all the work we´ve done.  I´m learning a lot and I can feel myself growing and progressing.  I love the mission.  I hope you guys have a great week! 

Elder Jones

Hermana Jones week 61

Hola familia, jaja!

So first of all Happy Birthday to Dad. I hope you had a great birthday.

So this week was pretty great. Sandra got baptized on Sunday and was super happy. It made me kind of sad, though, because she bore her testimony that it was the happiest day of her life but the started crying and said that the only way it could be better is if her husband was there with her.  It is a little hard because he worships the santa muerte which is pretty much just the grim reaper.  It is kind of scary because people who worship it have tattoos of it or have shrines in their house.  In D.F. there were more people who worshiped it so there were huge cases that had the grim reaper inside and people would put offerings by it.  We are going to work with her husband a lot though.  It will help a lot that Sandra got baptized because it will bring the spirit more into their home.

This week we went to our training meeting in D.F., so that is always fun because we get to see all the other zone leaders and sister training leaders.  The Brady family brought us there because all their kids go to a special school in the city for kids who are bilingual.  I can't even imagine going every day to school  hours away.   4 hours every day just to go and come home from school.  They are the best family ever, though, and  they live in a neighborhood where there are a lot of people from other countries who are only there for work so when we went to eat with them yesterday one of their friends from Germany was there.   It was crazy because his kids can speak German, Spanish, English ,and Russian fluently and one is 7 years old and one is 11.   I was super impressed and I think I am going to try and do that with my future kids jajaja well I have to go because we don't have a ton of time to write on Half Pdays but I hope everything is going great there in Chicago and that you guys are going to have a great move.

Love,
Hermana Jones

Elder Jones Week 51

Hey guys! 
I had a really great week! Dominic got baptized! I don´t have that many pictures because the person that took the pictures took them in a way so that they turn out really blurry but one of them turned out well! It was a really great baptismal service. His grandma came from another part of Lima.  She´s a temple worker.  When he gave his testimony at the end and talked about wanting to serve a mission his grandma started crying.  He was really well recieved in the ward and the ward council is doing everything they can to help his mom, Liliana. I´m really happy with this ward and the diligence they have in recieving the people we teach and baptize.

So the biggest challenge we had this week was that everyone, including me, was sick.  Two of our investigators with a baptismal date weren´t able to come to church because they were sick.  BUT their baptismal dates still stand because they have enough church attendances.  

I got your package this week! Exactly on the 28th.  Thank you so much. I haven´t eaten anything yet because I´m still a little sick but I´m going to the doctor today to get checked out.  That´s one thing I´ve learned on my mission: Go to the doctor and take medicine when you are sick.  But I should be getting better sometime soon.

This week we started teaching Rafael who recently moved here from Iquitos (the jungle) and he´s living with his distant relatives who live in our ward.  He´s 18 years old.  They invited him to church last week and he came.  I met him and invited him to a giant family home evening last Monday, which he really liked. Then we had a lesson with him on Tuesday with his relatives and the YSA leader in our ward, Christian.  It turned out really well because the Acevedo family is a family of full returned missionaries.  We invited him to baptism for June 27th and he accepted.  Later that day he called us and told us that he didn´t want to wait until the 27th, and that it would be better on the 17th! We had a lesson yesterday with his relatives, Christian, and Jairo (the 18 year old that was baptized 2 weeks ago).  We taught the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and he´s still really excited for his baptism the 17th! Leeloo will also be baptized on the 17th. 

I had a great week! Happy Birthday to Dad!  I wish you all the best of luck with the move, employment, and Allie with the karate. Love you guys! 

Elder Jones