Week 85

Hey guys! Glad to hear that everything is going great for everyone! Sorry to hear about Tyler. That sounds rough, I hope he gets better. This was my last week in Magdalena, it went by so fast. We had a great week.The Bustamante family is doing great as well. They have a daughter who is 22 named María who never wanted to talk to us. She lives apart with her boyfriend and 3 daughters. But something changed this week and she just decided to listen to us all of a sudden, and her boyfriend Paolo was really interested in listening to us. They are the humblest family I have met in Perú. The 5 of them live on the side of the cliff going down into the ocean in a hutt barely big enough to fit one matress. They don´t have light or water. They listened to us this week and they recieved and accepted the message very easily. They´ve had problems as a couple recently and we invited them to pray often together, also to be baptized, but first to be married. They weren´t too fond of the idea to get married, but a couple of days later we came with Hermano Vela. He´s a convert, returned missionary, and recently married. Whenever he goes up to bear his testimony in church he always says that marriage is the best experience that he has ever had in his life. So when we brought him to the lesson with María and Paolo he bore a powerful testimony of marriage and they decided that they are going to get married. There´s a massive marriage for free at the end of the month. So they said that they are going to take advantage of that to get married, and then baptized. But I´m not going to get too excited yet because it´s not the first time that a couple has told us that they´re going to get married, and then end up not doing it. But at least they understand that they need to get married to be happy. So yea they´re progressing and so is the Bustamante family. They have a really hard life, but when we come and we read the scriptures with them or teach something we can feel that something changes and we both leave the lessons edified.

We´re also teaching Hernan, who came to church by himself last week because he was interested in knowing more. He wanted us to give him the lessons for the people getting to know the church. When he presented himself in priesthood last week he said he was "here to serve". We had a lesson with him on friday and he had read the pamphlet about the restoration and he had some really great questions, and we were able to teach the lesson based on them. He understood very well and he wants to be baptized on feburary 6th. He told us that he wasn´t going to be able to go to the stake conference on sunday but the next sunday he would go. We encouraged him to go to the stake conference anyways, and he came! we sat next to him. He really enjoyed the conference and he´s really excited to learn more. On friday we had explained to him about the organization of the ancient church of christ and how he had called and given his authority to12 apostles and seventy to help him preach the gospel to more people. In the stake conference there was an Area seventy that spoke and Hernan really enjoyed his talk. Afterwards Hernan asked us who Elder Calderón was, and we explained to him that just like in ancient times there were seventies called to preach the gospel, today there are as well, and he is one of them. Hernan was really surprized and we can tell that he´s going to progress and be baptized. We´re just waiting for him to tell us that he´s already a member because it seems too good to be true. 

I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Jones

Week 84

Hey guys!

We had a great week! Jose didn´t get baptized because his mom changed her mind last minuet and isn´t willing to talk to us, but it´s fine, he´s still going to come to church. We can´t really do anything if the parents don´t give permission and don´t want to talk to us. But we had a really great family home evening with José and Alejandro with the Moscoso family on Monday. We taught Elder Moscoso´s dad this week and he´s not really that interested, but we´re going to try again on tuesday. Almost all day wednesday and thursday we were with Elder Juan A. Uceda, the Area president. On wednesday he had a meeting with the zone leaders and the sister trainer leaders and talked about the challenges of the Area. I learned a lot from him. Tomorrow we´re going to train the zone about what we learned with him. On wednesday night there was a meeting with all the ward council members of the 10 stakes in the mission with Elder Uceda and I got to see almost all the members I´ve met on my mission. Rimac 2nd ward was all sitting together and it was great to see all of them. I miss that ward so much. The Rosales Flores family is still doing great. They´re getting ready to be sealed in the temple in May! Which is not very far away. I also saw many members from Caja de Agua and Callao. Elder Bates´ family visited Mabel Lopez´ sister in Utah and sent pictures. It´s awesome. We have an appointment with her and her family today. We´re teaching a family that didn´t progress very much a few weeks ago, and now is progressing a lot. The Bustamante family. It is a mom, dad, 3 children, and a lot of grandchildren, but only one granddaughter old enough to be baptized, she´s 14. They have a son that passed away in may, and we´ve been visiting them every day this week, and they came to church yesterday. The parents need to get married, but there´s a massive marriage that is free this month, so we´re going to try to help them get married. I realized that I enjoy trying to convince families to get married a lot more than I do trying to convince parents that don´t want anything to give permission for their children to get baptized. So I think for the rest of my mission I should really just focus on families, because it´s a lot easier, It´s a lot more probable that they stay active in the church, and that´s how the church grows, through families. 

That´s awesome that dad was hired full time! What a blessing. I pray that everything works out for mom´s teaching position. I filled out the BYU endorsement and I´ll try to schedule an appointment with my mission president this week. I´m definitely interested in taking the spanish class. I don´t know what is a reasonable number of classes to take during summer semester, but looking at the classes they offer I think I would be interested in taking Calculus, Organic Chemistry, or any english, history, or health science class. Preferably early in the morning. I hope you guys have a great week! 

Elder Jones  

elder jones week 83

Hey guys! good morning! That`s awesome to hear that you all have kind of a snow day! Also really exciting to hear about Tyler and his mission papers! I cant wait to see where he is going to go! We had a great week! the zone is doing really well and getting a lot better. My companion, Elder Bates, is the best. On monday we taught a new investigator that has attended church twice in Pueblo Libre. His name is Jordy, he`s 18, he got in contact with the missionaries because his girlfriend is a member of the church. He`s really smart. He`s studying to be a lawyer, and when we taught him for the first time on monday he had already looked up a lot of what we believe on internet, and we could tell that he had found a lot of favorable and unfavorable material on the internet, but as we taught the restoration and were able to resolve his doubts, it started to make more sense to him. He was really interested in reading the book of mormon. I`m sure he`s going to get baptized soon, but he still isn`t willing to dispose of a lot of his time to meet with us and go to church. But we have an appointment with him on tuesday. Also on Monday we taught the father of Elder Moscoso. We had a family home evening with the Moscoso family and Elder Moscoso`s dad, and it was really interesting teaching a lesson with Elder Moscoso right next to me. It was different than teaching with any other member because he is also a representative of Jesus Christ. It was a really great lesson. On tuesday I was on a companionship interchange in Chacra Rios with Elder Berrios and It was a good experience bonding with the Elders in Chacra Rios and getting to know them better. I learned a lot, because the Elders in Chacra Rios are working really well. Wednesday was pday, we changed it so we could go to a park with lots of water fountains and lights that isn`t open on mondays. Before that we had district meeting, and we bought the zone watermelon, and they all got really excited about that. Other than that it was a pretty normal week, we got a lot of good work done. José is getting ready to get baptized on saturday. Bruno doesn`t want to listen to us anymore. Oh yea and we taught a Jew! It was Elder Bate`s first experience meeting a Jewish person. He explained to us a lot of what he believes and it was really interesting to listen to him. He told me things that I already knew about what Jews believe, but now that I understand the Gospel a little bit more in depth than I did before my mission, I was able to recognize that Jews understand a lot of plain and precious truths that many other people don`t. I felt the spirit while he was talking, because he was speaking a lot of truth. He wants to be a Rabbi, and he knows the scriptures really well. I don`t remember his name, it was in Hebrew. But we realized that all we need to do is help him to recognize that Jesus is the Christ. And that`s only possible through the Book of Mormon. In the introduction of the book of mormon it says that the purpose of the book is to convince the Lamanite descendants, the Jews, and the Gentiles that Jesus is the Christ. God knew that the new testament, although inspired scripture from God, would not be enough to convice the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. And that is why we have the book of mormon. I`m really excited to teach him about the book of mormon, and he already knows a little bit about it, that it came from a branch of the tribe of Joseph, and that really interests him. He invited us to Shabat in his house this week and I think we might go with permission from our president. Also we found someone that Elder Bates` Dad baptized while he was serving here in Magdalena. Her name is Mabel Lopez, she`s inactive now and married with 2 sons. Her husband and sons aren`t memebers. When we met her she immediately recognized Elder Bates because he looks like his dad. She was able to connect with Elder Bates` family on facebook, and also her sister who was baptized with her lives in Orem Utah, really close to where the Bates family lives. Her sister and her family are all active there. it was really interesting to be there while she was talking on the phone with Elder Bates` dad. He had put her name in the temple on friday and we found her on saturday. She came to chruch yesterday, and we have an appointment with her and her family this week. I know that God puts his missionaries where and when he needs them. President Larson didn`t know that Elder Bates` dad served here. I hope you guys have a great week! 

from elders jones

elder jones week 82

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Hey guys! I had a great week! I´m glad to hear that everyone is doing so well and sorry that mom and dad didn´t get the positions that they were looking for, but I´m sure it´s because there is something better waiting for them! There is a really cool mormon message called "the will of god" that talks about that. 

We had a week of miracles! We´ve been finding random people in the street that are super prepared to recieve the gospel. An elderly couple stopped us in the street just because we looked really happy and they wanted to know why. Elder Bates and I get along really well and it´s true that we´re always really happy. Alejandro who was baptized this last week has been helping us a lot with another investigator his age named Jose, and he is able to have one on one conversations with him that we can´t have, so when we plan lessons to visit José we talk with Alejandro first to ask him what really impedes José from getting baptized, and we are able to teach José that in a lesson with Alejandro. He´s progressing really well. He came to church yesterday for the 3rd time, and he has decided that he will be baptized on the 16th! We have seen a huge progress in him as he has come to recognize the existence of God and his plan. We are also teaching Bruno, who came to church by himself a couple of weeks ago because his aunt, who is member and lives in a different part of Lima, told him to go. And we were finally able to teach him on saturday and he accepted everything, even to be baptized on the 16th, but only if he could be baptized before 4:00 because he´s going to be busy after 4. haha. He´s 19, and he speaks english. He wants us to teach him the lessons in english. He came to church yesterday and he really liked it, and we can tell that he has the desire to be baptized, but that he needs to understand the gospel a little bit more for it to make a lasting impact on his life. I was studying a conference talk this week called never too early, never too late, he was talking about teaching children, and he cited a scripture from Matthew 13:19 that says "When any one heareth the Word of the Kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he that received seed by the wayside." That helped me understand because my entire mission I had thought that the only thing we need to accomplish in a lesson to help the investigator progress is that they feel the spirit, but really if someone feels the spirit but doesn´t understand, satan has power to make them believe that it was never there. So just as hearing the spirit is understanding what it is saying.  So Bruno needs to understand the gospel more, even though he has already felt the spirit in the lessons. And I´m sure that with time in the lessons and as we teach so he understands, his understanding will increase. Also we had a really great experience with a referral this week. Our mission president told all of us to get on line in the middle of the week to check to see if we had referrals, which is something we never do during the week, it is always on monday. But wew checked and there was a referral of a woman, named Yolanda, who was listening to the sister missionaries in Tarapoto (the jungle) and had a baptismal date for december 26th, but then she moved to Lima. So we contacted her and she was really excited to hear from us and we accompanied us to church yesterday. She is really anxious to get baptized. The members of the ward recieved her well and she already has friends in the church. I feel grateful for the revelation of president Larson, because if he hadn´t said that, then we would recently have found out about her today, and she wouldn´t have attended church yesterday. We had a great week and I´m looking forward to this week!

Elder Jones

elder jones week 81

Hey guys! It was great to talk to all of you too! You all seem happy and well. Don`t worry about the christmas package, it`s fine. I think there was a postal strike in Lima or something for a while. I had a great week! We had the mission christmas party on tuesday, that was really fun. For christmas eve we sang christmas carols to less actives and lonely people in Pueblo Libre as a zone, and at night we ate dinner with a family in the ward and with the secretaries. We saw the fireworks from a pedestrian bridge. It was cool. On wednesday Alejandro was baptized by Elder Godoy`s son Taylor. It was a really great service. The Bishop feels a great responsability for Alejandro. He gave him a suit, and when he came yesterday to church for his confirmation in his suit he looked so happy. Also on saturday we joined 3 baptisms of the zone together in one service and many missionaries brought investigators. Christmas morning we played Capture the flag with water balloons and buckets of water at the Chacra Rios Church building. It was really fun. It was a pretty calm week. It was easier to get into people`s houses.

I hope you guys have a great new years!

Elder Jones