Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 7

That's so exciting to hear about Courtney. Dan needs to start growing out his mustache. unfortunately I'm not allowed to. Anyways sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun there. How does Dan like Middle school?

This week was super duper awesome. 

We finally got in contact with Herick.  Herick is someone that the past elders had been teaching and had actually set up a baptismal date with but he had gotten really busy right around the time of his baptism so they couldn't baptize him. We're still trying to set up a time where we can meet him next week. We went to see Rosa again. She's been to church already three time and she's getting close to being able to commit to baptism. We finally got to meet Juana as well this week. She had actually been the first person we tried to get in contact with when we got into the area. We had gotten to meet her for the first time this Saturday night because she has been really busy as well. She had already been baptized and she just needs to receive the holy ghost. We invited her to come to church so that she could receive the holy ghost and be confirmed but she didn't come on Sunday. She has the craziest funniest little five year old though. He had used his magic to turn me into a rabbit and Elder Smith into a shark. So we had a lot of fun meeting with them. We had met with Brichie only once this week and he wasn't at his house the next time we came. It was alright, we had a good lesson with him on the book of Mormon. We're starting to get steady lessons with Dario. We actually have a lesson with him at 5:00 today. He likes the message a lot, the only thing is that he has a Santa Meurte necklace and a Santa Muerte statue in his house that he prays to Jesus through. He's super nice though and he likes to get the lessons. 

We've also done a lot of contacting this week. We've met a lot of nice people. It's great that there are plenty of streets where we can pretty much guarantee that everyone we meet is going to know Spanish. We met a lot of people that we're really nice. We had taught a couple of people sitting out on their lawn. I think I'm starting to realize how many different christian beliefs there are out there. The guy we had been talking to is catholic but he believes that you can only worship Jesus through Mary. But we had a nice discussion with them and we might go back to see his friend some time this week. We had also met another group of people sitting out on their lawn. We started to talk to them and they invited us to sit and talk with them. A little bit in their daughter had told us that both of them were nearly deaf so it was interesting teaching the restoration by nearly yelling the entire thing. One day it was about 3:00 in the afternoon and we were walking down the street to find people. We asked a man that had walked past us how he was and he replied saying he was very bad. We had asked him why and he responded because he doesn't believe in god. At this point we start talking about how we are able to know if there's a god. He went on a little tangent on how everything in this world is logical. At this point he had gotten a little closer to us and we could smell alcohol in his breath. He asked us if we knew what there was before god. We just told him that god is eternal. He told us that's not possible,  that there had to be something before god. Then he told us that he knew what was before god and with wide eyes he just told us: Aliens. He told us how he read it in a book once. Then he sort of just walked away giggling.

We got to eat balut this week. I think that's how you spell it. A Filipino family had given it to us. Basically what it is is a hard boiled fertilized egg. It's essentially just got this black soupy liquid inside, egg yoke and a little baby chicken inside. It's best to not look at it when you eat it. Nonetheless, it made my companion vomit. It didn't taste too good. If you crack open the egg and pull away the yoke, you can distinctly see the little baby chicken inside it as well, With the head, eyes, beak and everything. I'm pretty sure Filipino families just give it to missionaries for the entertainment of seeing them eat it.

We're also going to be getting a new investigator. This man had gotten a blood clot in his brain and was going to need to go into surgery for it. However, he had gotten a blessing and after a few days the clot had gone away with any operation. So now he want's to meet with the missionaries. So we're really excited to get to teach him.

Spanish is coming along well. I've been getting better at being able to understand people. It was pretty hard to understand everyone with all of their different accents at first. It's getting a lot better now though. I've gotten to start to be able to go and contact people on the street in Spanish and actually get through a normal conversation with them which is exciting. It seems like Latinos are really nice about helping people learn Spanish though. So even if they're not really interested in our message they're willing to talk with us and let me practice Spanish. All the Latinos are just so great.

Anyway, it's been an awesome week, I hope you guys have a good time.

Love,

Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Jones Week 6

I'm glad you guys are having a great time in Indiana. Wish grandma a happy birthday for me. Allison is going to love the etymology teacher. She's super nice and funny. When I got to the mission office dad's letter was waiting for me which was awesome to get.

So much happened this week and it was so great.

So Tuesday after my district had left I went with the zone leaders for a day. I had just slept on their couch. I had to be at reception by 3:00 AM on Wednesday and I was the only one leaving that day. I set my alarm for 2:30 so I could get their on time but I suppose they didn't trust people to get their by themselves if they were alone so I woke up at about 2:00 AM to a 50 or so year old Mexican man yelling "Buenos Dias Elder!" which was pretty funny. We left at about 3:00 for the airport. When we got there the man trying to figure out my flight was getting pretty frustrated because all of the delta flights had had a problem that messed with everyone's flights so My flight had changed slightly. But Everything was alright. In the Mexico Airport I met a man from Guatemala he had 4 kids who were 0, 2, 5, and 8. He wanted to get a picture with me to send to his kids. He also was helping me some with my Spanish. I met a man from Jerusalem in Los Angeles and we talked for a while. On my flight to San Jose the flight attendant talked to me because he had served a mission in St. Petersburg which was also cool.

I got to San Jose at about 12:30 and my mission president and his assistants were there to greet me. I pretty much had just stayed with them all day. Other people were supposed to come in the same day I came in but the Delta flight delayed everyone by a day who was coming from Utah. There was one other Elder that came in at 12:30 at night though. He was transferring here from Canada after a visa wait: Elder Ourkerk. So the Assistants and I went to pick him up. The delta issue affected him as well though and he was in an airport waiting 14 hours for his last flight. We got back to the airport and at this point I had apparently been awake for about 25 hours with the time change so Elder Ourkerk and I got to sleep in until about 7:00 while the Assistants went to get other missionaries in the morning. We had our introduction and orientation which was nice.

Friday we Got out companions. My Trainer is Elder Smith. He's super awesome as well. We're both new to the area that we're serving in right now so we've been going try to figure out who everyone is that we're supposed to be teaching. Apparently there is a lady: Juana who had been baptized but had not yet been confirmed so we've been trying to get in contact with her all week. She was never at her house when we went and she had never answered her phone but we're going to just keep on trying. We got to teach a lesson with another lady named Rosa who has committed to being baptized. We did a lot of street contacting this week as well which has been really great. We apparently don't do any tracting in this mission, only street contacting. We've gotten to set up a few appointments with people. One of them was Juan who was just sitting on his front porch rubbing his belly when we first met him but he agreed to let us come back and give a message to him and his family which is good. 

We went and did a bit of yard work for some members, in this process me and my companion took down the biggest thistle I've ever seen. This thistle was taller than either of us. It was cool seeing how big they could get. We also cut up some box springs and threw them out for them. They were from the English Ward but they were super nice. The husband was the kind of person that new a little bit about everything so he was really fun to talk to.

Going to the Spanish ward was fun. Rosa hadn't come which was disappointing but I was able to understand some of what was being said and I enjoyed it. Apparently they're in desperate need of piano players so I'm likely going to be playing piano in sacrament. We've got a little keyboard in our apartment that I've been practicing on and it's starting to come back to me.

Anyway, I'm out of time.

Love you guys,

Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 6

Dear Family,

We are thrilled to report that after Elder Jones arrived safely in his mission day before yesterday here in San Jose, California.  We picked him up at the airport and he was able to do get a little rest after his very early morning departure from Mexico City. He ate dinner at a member’s home, followed by an interview with me, and accompanied us to the airport to pick up another missionary.  The next day he was able to meet up with all of the other new missionaries coming in after their day-long flight delay, and they went out to do some missionary work right away.  Then we had dinner and a testimony meeting together  at the mission home. This morning, after orientation at the mission office, all of the missionaries met their new companions and went back to their areas.  Elder Jones will be serving with Elder Smith in the San Jose area.

You should expect to hear from your missionary on his next Preparation day, which will be Monday, August 15. Thank you for your prayers and support, and for sharing Elder Jones with us here in the wonderful California San Jose Mission.

Also, I encourage you to join the "California San Jose Mission Moms" Facebook page, where we often post pictures and missionary updates.

With love,

 

 

Glen D. Mella

President, California San Jose Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

 

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 5

Sounds like you guys are having a good time. That´s crazy that Dan´s going into middle school. I remember how it took me forever how to figure out how to use my locker in middle school. It sounds like you have a really awesome job. That´s a sad situation but it´s cool that you get to help people like that. That´s awesome that the garden is going so well.

 I got my flight itinerary yesterday. I´m leaving next Wednesday. at about 3 in the morning. It´s kind of funny, My companion will leave Monday with the a few people in my district, then Tuesday the rest of my district will leave, then I leave Wednesday. So that´ll be exciting. I´m not sure what they´re going to have me do on Tuesday. They have a sheet that lists everyone that´s leaving this week. About half leave Monday, the other half Tuesday and then I´m the only one leaving Wednesday. But yeah. this time next week I´ll be on my way to San Jose. 

Been spending more time talking to native speakers this week. It´s been surprising that if they know that you´re not a native speaker they won´t talk super fast and so I´ve been generally able to hold a conversation with them in Spanish. So that´s been fun.

 It seems weird here seeing everyone we´ve known since we got here leave. Last week the district that we had a nearly identical schedule to left so it´s kind of strange having them gone. But I suppose that´s quenched by the excitement of us leaving so soon.

We finished our lessons with one of  our practice investigators and we have one left with the other, they´ve been going along a lot better, It´s a lot easier to teach lessons when you kind of understand Spanish. I feel like I am at the point where just talking Spanish all the time with people that really know Spanish is the main way that i´m going to get much better from here. I think I learn a lot whenever I talk with native speakers. 

I taught my roommates the "when you wake up in the morning and its a quarter to three, ya brush your teeth" song, So now Elder Pippert has been singing it all day.

I´ve been reading a lot In Mathew and Mosiah this week which I´ve really enjoyed reading. 

I guess not much changes at the MTC from week to week, but It feels like more things change from week to week since we´re just constantly learning new things. Anyway my daily schedule is pretty much:

5:30 I get up, shower, Get ready. 6:00 read scriptures until 6:50. Go to class, Get there about 7:00. Read scriptures until 7:30, go to breakfast, get back to class about 8:00, read scriptures until 9:00. Have language learning class until about 11:30, practice teaching until 12:30. Go to lunch, Go to Gymn, get back to class around 3:00 Have language learning class until about 5:00, practice teaching until 6:00. Go to dinner, Go to language learning in computer lab, at about 6:45. Go back to class around 8:00 practice teaching until about 8:20, Personal language study until 9:00, plan until 9:20. Get back to the house at 9:30, Then write in my journal, get ready for bed and read scriptures until 10:30. 

Huh, when I write that all out it seems repetitive but it´s really pretty fun and exciting every day. 

I´ve played a lot of ping pong this week during gym, I´m getting pretty alright at it. 

I´m getting my haircut today and weighing all my luggage to make sure its within the weight limits. I´ll probably also just read scriptures today.

Anyway, Love you guys,

Elder Jones