Nativity - Elder Jones as Joseph

Elder Tyler Jones week 75

We got to see Carmela get confirmed this week! It was super awesome and one of the missionaries that started to teach the family a year or two ago came back and saw her get confirmed. So that was super cool. They’re all doing super great.

So I got news that I’m getting transferred this week. I’m a little bit bummed to be leaving Hollister but it’ll be alright. I’m going to Fremont which is on the other side of the mission. Way up north. So I’m excited to see how it goes. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing for Christmas this year. But whatever it is, it’ll be good. My companion is named Elder Cabral and he speaks Portuguese natively.  I’m going to be sharing an apartment with an Elder named Elder Holland. He’s from Indiana and came out 2 transfers ago. That’ll be pretty cool. 

We had our branch Christmas party this week. We had about 200 people come. That’s more than I’ve ever seen at a branch party before. We didn’t think we’d have so many people so we didn’t prepare a whole lot of food. But somehow the pasole made it through the whole time. So it ended up being good. We had a little posada and the person being Joseph didn’t show up. So they asked me to be Joseph which was also a lot of fun. Brisa got to be an angel which was awesome as well.

I’m excited to speak to you at Christmas!

Baptism in Hollister

Elder Tyler Jones week 74

We had another good week!

So Brisa and José Luis's mom told us that she wanted to be baptized at the end of their baptismal service and this week she was baptized! It was super awesome! A lot of members of the branch showed up to give support and it was a really great service! Also, elder Stewart had the opportunity to baptize her so it all went super great!

Getting everything planned out was pretty fun. There were a lot of complications and getting everything figured out took a good while. But it all worked out and we're happy. 

We had stake conference this week. That was pretty cool. Elder Clark from the seventy came because they were reorganizing the stake presidency. Our branch president, president Nordstrom, got called to be the second counselor in the stake presidency. So we were pretty sad to see that happen since he'll end up being released as the branch president. He's really awesome and has helped us out a lot. 

We went hiking at Pinnacles National Park again today. We had a lot of fun doing that and got to go into some caves. 

I'm a bit nervous that I'll get transferred next week. Hollister has been my favorite area so far and it would stink to leave.

I'm excited to get to call you guys for Christmas. That should be awesome!

Elder Tyler Jones week 73

We had a pretty good week!

This week was a little bit crazy. They're trying this new program in our mission where they bring together a bunch of missionaries and have them all go on exchanges for a week and work in one area. So I went on exchanges with Elder Reid. They essentially wanted us to go tracting all day long but said if we had any appointments we needed to go to we could do that. 

We had a few members from the ward come out with us which was nice. There were a total of 14 missionaries in the area. Altogether we ended up finding over 200 people over the week. But none of them came to church. So now we've all gone back to our regular areas and the elders there have to sort of have to figure out what to do with all of those people.

But we met with the Ramirez family again and a couple more people wanted to be baptized this coming weekend! So we're going to be trying to pull everything together for that. Hopefully all goes well with that!

So we've been doing pretty good!

Baptism and coconut jello

Elder Tyler Jones week 72

We had a pretty great Thanksgiving. On Thursday we went to our branch president's house for dinner. They had a lot of family in town and we had a pretty normal Thanksgiving dinner. It was really a lot of fun. 

On Friday we had a big branch dinner.  It was all American food but all of the branch members really enjoyed the gravy.  All of the Ramirez family came which was awesome.  They had a really good time. There was pretty good turn out and a ton of food.

We spent a lot of this week in preparation for he baptism on Saturday.  But it happened! Rosa, José Luis and Brisa all got baptized on Saturday and it was awesome!  The branch all came together to support them and it was a great experience.  They were feeling really good.  One of the members of the family , Carmela, mentioned that she'd like to be baptized as well. We've been teaching her but she wasn't ready yet but she came to church Sunday and after talking to our branch president she could be baptized as soon as this Saturday. 

They were all also confirmed on Sunday. They were all pretty happy after that. They wanted to make jello with us on Monday so we did that today as well. That was actually pretty fun. We made coconut jello with drawings on it. I'll send pictures.

So it's been awesome!

Elder Tyler Jones week 71

Sounds like you guys had a good trip to Odon! that's crazy that everyone is getting so old! Shelby is a freshman in college and Alex is already in his second year. That's so crazy to think about. everyones getting older.

We had a pretty good week!

So some of the members of the Ramirez family are planning on being baptized this Saturday! So that's pretty exciting! They came to church and then they're planning on coming to the branch thanksgiving dinner this Friday and then they'll get baptized Saturday! We visited them a lot this week to start getting them prepared. We're pretty excited for that. Three of them are going to be baptized on Saturday: Rosa, Jose Luis and Brisa.

It's been a pretty fun week. The sisters hit a deer with their car so we got to bike this week. It was actually pretty fun and the weather was perfect for it. It feels a bit like early fall here. So it's pretty awesome.

A guy we met on the street came to a chili cook off in the English ward. He seemed to really enjoy it. He brought a friend along as well and we introduced them to the English elders. They're both super nice and they're going to watch the Joseph Smith Movie with them at the church this Saturday!

We went to san Jose a couple of times this week. We had to go up to pick up some bikes from the mission office and then we ha a transfer two training that we went to. The training was pretty good. We got to sit in traffic for a long time on the way back.

So it's been a pretty good week!

I hope you have a great thanksgiving!

Elder Tyler Jones week 70

It's been a good week!

We had a bunch of less actives we were working with come to church this week. We were really happy to see them there. There's one family that came back and the son got to pass the sacrament. I was happy to see that.

We have a part member family that is planning on getting baptized on the 25th. We're trying to get some more members involved in that. They're always super willing and excited whenever we teach them it's just they can be a little bit flakey. So we'll be praying a lot this week that things go through with that.

We found a couple of interesting people this week. You might remember the Clementes. They're an older couple in Menlo Park that we were working with. They were just recently sealed in the temple. But anyways, this week we tracked into an older couple that are almost exact replicas of the Cclementes. They're so funny and so nice. We've been teaching them and they love it. It's been awesome to be teaching them. 

There's a family here in the branch that owns a paintball business. So today they invited us to come play paintball with some other elders in our zone. It was so much fun. We also went to help set up lights for a Thanksgiving parade here in Hollister.  So it's been a fun p-day.

Anyway have a great week!

Pinnacle National Park

Elder Tyler Jones week 69

We've been visiting the surrounds towns of Hollister because our mission president recommended it. That's been going well for us. It's been interesting to see some of the smaller towns. They're really nice towns.

We went to San Juan this week and found some people that are pretty interested. We're going back to see them again this week. A member saw us knocking doors in his complex so he ran up and introduced us to his neighbor. That was pretty cool. We also taught a guy that looks exactly like Albert Einstein. So that was pretty cool. He even talked like Albert Einstein. 

The Ramirez family didn't come to church this week. They had a ton of family in town. But they're still willing to be baptized. The mom of the family is really excited to be baptized and go to the temple. President Nordstrom wanted us to have the whole family be baptized together. So we've been working on trying to get more enthusiasm with the rest of the family. So that's been pretty cool.

They came to the trunk or treat at church Tuesday. They seemed like they had a good time. We've also had a couple other investigators go to the trunk or treat. We stayed for a while but then headed back. We weren't allowed to do proselyting on Halloween night.

We went to Pinnacles national park today with the district. We went on a hike that was probably about 5 miles. It was a super cool hike with lots of cool scenery. I'll attach some pictures.

But it's been a good week!

Getting ready for the Halloween party

Elder Tyler Jones week 68

It's been another good week for us.

We talked to the Ramirez family a few times this week. They're still pretty excited to be baptized. We're still not exactly sure if the date will work out for them. We talked to the mom this week and had a kind of funny conversation. She was apparently talking to her sister about the temple this week. She was talking about how she would need to be baptized to go into the temple. Her sister told her that it was still a really beautiful building and that she could just walk around it from the outside. The mom was really proud to tell us about how she rebuked her sister and told her that she was going to go in the temple and that she wasn't satisfied with just seeing it. We've got a lesson with them on Tuesday to talk to her and her family about when they could be baptized. So hopefully all goes well with that.

They didn't end up coming to church this week. They went to a Halloween party that ended at 1:00 in the morning so it wasn't terribly surprising when they didn't wake up on time to go to church. 

We taught a lady named Veronica this week. It's the daughter of an inactive member. She's been feeling like she needs to come closer to god. Her son is into some problems and she feels like she needs gods help. We taught her a couple of times this week and both times they ended up going really well. So that's been going awesome.

We found a lady this week in the street. She was picking some flowers to give to her landlord. We talked to her for a little bit and she told us all about how her sister is a member in northern California and that she used to go with her a while ago and she absolutely loved it but she doesn't have anyone to go with down here so she hasn't been attending. She isn't a member yet but she wanted all of the reading material we could give her so we're going back this week to talk to her again.

This week was the primary program. It was super awesome. A couple of boys from the branch that were baptized serveral months ago got to participate in it.  It's was awesome to see them doing the program. They had little suits and everything. That was really awesome to see.

So it's been a good week

Elder Tyler Jones week 67

Hey Mom - that's so crazy that you hit a deer!  I'm glad everyone's alright and that there wasn't too much damage.  Sounds like you had some fun with the babies this week.  Sorry to hear that everything's been so crazy.

We had a good week,

We've still been working with the Ramirez family.  Two of them are members and the rest aren't.  This week the two members and two that weren't members ended up coming to church.  The family was planning on going to the temple visitor's center this weekend but weren't able because of work.  They still seem like they really want to go though. The two members in the family are Mayra and Agustyn.  They went inactive essentially right after their baptism but it's been awesome to get them back into church.  Them with all their kids and family take up like a third of the seats in sacrament meeting.  Agustyn got the Priesthood this week! We brought him to meet with president on Wednesday and he was ordained after church on Sunday. That was super awesome! 

We passed by a less active member of the branch this week that I haven't met before. His name is Frederico. He's probably in his late 60's and has some problems. He lives with his daughter. He sleeps on a cot in their kitchen. We went to visit him and he was super nice. Also, his daughter and his daughter's family was super nice to us. We shared a quick message with the family. The daughter ended up telling us that she felt like she needed God's help with some problems she's having with one of her sons.  So she asked us for the church address and wanted us to come back so that wen't really well.  They're an awesome family and we'll see what happens with them. 

I've got to go now. 

But it's been an awesome week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 66

Sounds like you guys had a good week. 

We had a good week.

We've been try to get members to church a lot. It's hard for them because they work so much. But we're still trying to push them to come. A lot of people just stay for sacrament meeting and then head out. 

We had a couple of pretty cool experiences this week.

We've been working with one of the recent converts in the ward and he's been pretty fired up about missionary work. He's been inviting a lot of his friends to come to church and to meet with us and everything. So he's doing awesome. Last week we found a couple of his friends at his store. We talked to them for a bit and ended up teaching them the restoration. They seemed to really like it. But we came back this week and they said they really liked the restoration pamphlet that we had given them. They said it answered a lot of their questions. They said they read it like three times and that they had practically memorized it. So that was pretty cool.

We've been working with another part member family as well.  2 of them are members and 8 of them aren't. It's been hard to congregate them all together. But this week we had a lesson and a family home evening with the whole family. In the lesson we talked about the plan of salvation and it seemed like they really enjoyed it. When we came back for the family home evening we had a little game that they really enjoyed. They were all laughing and having a good time. Then we had a lesson about temples and eternal families. That went really really well. They said they'd love to prepare to go to the temple some day. They also committed to prepare to be baptized this November. We're really happy for them.

We had a bit of smog this week because of the fires in California. It was a little bit weird since it looked like fog but then it smelt bad as well.  It wasn't terrible though. We're far enough south that we didn't get it very bad at all.

Anyway, I'm doing well.

I hope you have a great week!

Tunnel under the road

Elder Tyler Jones week 65

We had a pretty good week!

Elder Dalley left on Tuesday. So I was with the English elders that were coming in for a couple of days. They were whitewashing the English ward in Hollister so It was interesting to see them trying to figure that out while also trying to accommodate some of our Spanish appointments. They're two great elders so they're doing really well. The English ward is super on top of things here. They're super missionary minded and within an hour of us getting back the ward mission leader had already called them and was getting them situated and appointments aligned. It made me a little jealous but our little Spanish branch is super awesome still. I love the people in the branch.

Anyway, Elder Stewart got here on Thursday. He's from Idaho Falls and he's awesome! 

There was a kid from a semi-active family that got baptized this week. We stopped by the night before to see if they were all ready to go for the baptism. They weren't really so we ended up getting everything together for the baptism the night before and the morning of. But it was still great. There was a lot of support from the branch and it was a great baptism. We hadn't practiced enough with the dad enough for how to do the baptism so when he went to do it he ended up grabbing him around the neck and sort of just smacked him into the water really quick. The mom was a bit frightened by that but he went completely under water so it was alright. 

Everyone in the branch got to meet Elder Stewart this week and they're all super awesome. They're so loving and great members.

We got some news about Mannuel. He's on his way back here with his family. Mannuel has assisted to church a couple of times and had a baptsimal date before. But he had left to go get his family. They should be arriving sometime this week. We're hoping all goes well with his travels. Mannuel is super awesome, a couple weeks ago in elders quorum he bore his testimony about everything that we had been teaching him and he's been reading out of the Liahona magazine. When he comes he'll have to get married to his girlfriend but he feels ready to do so and is willing to get married. So that'll be awesome if we can see him sometime soon.

Other than that We've been working with a lot of members and their friends. We've found a few new people to teach through working with members and they seem like they'll be pretty awesome.

There's a man that was baptized recently named Armando. He owns a little Herbalife shop that sells smoothies. We've been trying to get him to come back to church. The problem is that he forgets about things. He's been doing awesome with missionary work This week he introduced us to three of his friends at his shop and we started teaching them. Armando is always so happy. He loves to laugh and joke. He was one of the first people Elder Stewart and I saw together. It probably wasn't the best person for Elder Stewart to start practicing his Spanish on since Armando has maybe 3 teeth total and can be a bit hard to understand. But it's been going well.

I hope you have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 64

We had a pretty good week this week. We learned that Mannuel has gone to mexico to be with his family but we learned this week that he is now planning to move back with his family to get baptized. Hopefully he follows through with that. He has changed his plan several times now so it's a bit hard to know for sure.

Conference was really awesome. We watched a couple of the sessions with some members and we also watched a couple of sessions at the church. We ended up having a less active family come to conference with us on Sunday morning so we were super excited about that. For the Saturday morning session we watched it in one of our members store, they put up a projector and pulled together some couches and it was really nice.

We had a really good lesson last night. One of our members had been talking to someone about the gospel and she called us and asked if we could come right now to come see him. We came and he was really interested. We taught him about the restoration and he said he'd be willing to be baptized. So that was super awesome. His name is Francisco. He's Seperated from his wife and has a daughter. He asked a lot of good questions and he said he'd read. We've got a lesson with him this Wednesday.

We went to Monterey today with a member. we got to see some seals and Jelly Fish so it was really cool. The member said she would be sending pictures to you. It was a lot of fun. Monterey is really beautiful. There were a ton of people there. There were like six or seven places giving out samples for clam chowder. I got a couple of free magnets as well from a member that owns a gift shop there.

So we figured out that Elder Dalley is getting transferred this week. He's going to Gilroy which is still in the stake. So I'll still see him around. He's covering another branch in the stake. Other than that I learned that I'm going to be training again. They're also whitewashing the English elders here. So all the other elders in Hollister are leaving. 

Anyway, I'm doing well.

Elder Tyler Jones week 63

Hey, sorry to hear about the heat there.  That doesn't sound like much fun. We had a big heat wave a couple weeks ago but now it feels really nice.

We had a good week this week.

It turns out that Manuel may be moving to Mexico. So we're not exactly sure about if he's going to stay or if he's going to be baptized. We're going to talk to him tonight to see what's going on with that. He's super awesome and wants to be baptized. His initial plan was to bring his family here but he might just head back to Mexico. So we'll see what happens with that. He came to church again and really enjoyed it.

We ended up knocking a lot of doors this week. We had a lot of fun doing that. We were able to find a bunch of people to teach. A lot of them said yes just to get us to go away, but I feel pretty good about a few of them. We'll see what happens with them in the coming week.

We've been seeing a lot of less active families and teaching them as well. We were teaching a less active family this week and while we were teaching one of their friends came in and started to listen as we taught. He seemed to like it and we have an appointment with him this Thursday. He said he's come to church with the family before and that he really liked it but he hasn't gone as frequently because the family doesn't come. So we'll try to get the members to church and hopefully he comes with them.

I got to do a couple of baptismal interviews. Both were very good experiences.  One was in Spanish and one was in English.  They seemed ready and excited and both were baptized.  So that was a nice part of the week.

We've been working with a recent convert recently. He called us up this week because he was feeling really stressed and we met him at church. He has recently got a new calling and he feels really anxious and stressed. We talked with him for almost two hours just because he wasn't doing too well. He seems like he's doing better. He came to church this Sunday and he seemed happier so it seems like he's doing well.

The Branch is doing really well. We've got some members coming back into activity and church attendance has been going good. Everyone's getting pretty excited for conference.

I hope you have a great week!

Elder Jones in costume

Elder Tyler Jones week 62

We had a good week. We had two big branch parties over the weekend. We celebrated Independence Day on Friday and then there was a quinceañera on Saturday. So we were handing out invitations and inviting people like crazy. We had a goal of getting a hundred people to the party on Friday and we had a lot of less actives come and a bunch of investigators. So that was really awesome. We probably had about 90 people there. So it was really great.

We ended up doing a little dance for the party. Everyone was all excited about doing a dance and then no one actually wanted to dance. Everyone they asked to do it said they were going to be out of town during the party. And then they showed up for the party anyway. So we did a little dance. We didn't really get to practice but it went alright.

The only problem was that people seemed pretty partied out by the end of the week and church attendance was sparse for the branch this week. There were probably 30 at sacrament. It was good though. I was the final speaker this week. President told me to prepare 15 ish minutes but to be ready to extend it or shorten it dramatically because you never really know how long people are going to talk in the branch. The lady before me went on for a long time so I ended up shortening it to about a four minute talk. It was about he Book of Mormon so it wasn't really a hard talk to give.

Mannuel is in Mexico right now getting his girlfriend and his kids to bring them here. He's getting back tonight. So we'll be excited to see him again tomorrow. President is going to come with us to talk to them about getting married. So hopefully all goes well with that.

 It's been going great!

View from one of our members' back yard, and Elder Freeman

Elder Tyler Jones Week 61

New to our mission is that they're letting us use Facebook now. They left us the option of not using it if we don't want to.  And I kind of don't want to.  So as for now I'm just not going to use it.  It shouldn't be too much of a problem seeing  as a lot of the people we teach aren't actually online all the time and many also don't have facebooks.  So unless it poses some difficulty in the future, I'm probably just not going to be using it.

Nonetheless, we had a great week!

First of all we had to push back Manuel's baptism. He's going to Mexico to pick up his girlfriend and his 4 kids. So when they come he'll have to get married. He's already expressed that he's happy to get married and he's going to have president Nordstrom marry them in October. So when the family comes we'll be able to teach them as a family.

We've been working with a part member family and they came to church! There are about 2 members and a bunch of non members. Not all of them came but those that did seemed to like it. They had some crazy kids, too, which are always fun. We're teaching the family and we had a family home evening with all of them. They just recently moved to a new house and it's a lot nicer than their last house. It's also a lot closer to the church which makes it easier for them to get there on Sunday.

We had a zone conference this week. We went to Monterey for the conference. I got to see Elder Freeman there again. So that was super cool. Also, in driving through our area to get to Monterey it made me realize how incredibly beautiful our area is. There's a lot of hills and trees and greenery and it's all just super pretty. So it was a nice drive. It took us about an hour to get there.

We also have soccer every Thursday night. We went this week because we were bringing Mannuel. There are a lot of non members that come and it gets pretty intense but it was a lot of fun. There's a guy that sort of leads the whole things and he's not a member. But last week he came to church and brought his family. He's Latino and speaks Spanish but his kids don't so they went to the English ward. So that's awesome for them.

Anyway, it's been a great week. And I'm loving serving in Hollister.

Elder Tyler Jones week 60

I'm glad things are going well with you guys, and neat to hear about Mom's experience with the Burmese family.

We had a pretty good week. We taught a man that came to church and we were teaching him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He came to church and felt good going there. As we were teaching him about baptism, before we invited him to do anything he said that baptism sounds really great and that he wants to do it. So he's preparing to get baptized on the 23rd. So that's pretty exciting.

Our ward mission leader didn't end up being able to come to church this week. At his work they told him to just finish cleaning the floor and then he could go to church. But then that apparently took forever and the other workers didn't know what they were doing so he had to do a bunch of things for them and so he wasn't able to leave work. He's sort of the ring leader for a couple of less active and part member families. So we didn't have as many people at church this week.

We're teaching a really cool family. They're a younger couple but they have two young kids. They're super cute. We ended teaching them pretty frequently. They had been investigating a while ago. The husband at one point was preparing to be baptized but his wife had some worries about he Book of Mormon and the church so they didn't follow through with it. But we've been teaching them and reading the Book of Mormon with them. They're reading on their own now as well! We had some members come with us to our lessons and it went super well. We asked the wife how she feels about the Book of Mormon now and she gave the sweetest testimony of the Book of Mormon and she's pretty excited to come to church. She's only able to come once a month because of her work schedule but we're really excited for them.

The branch here is awesome. The San Benito branch is like a cute little family and all of he members are just awesome. It was my companion's birthday this week and they had a little surprise party for him. So that was super awesome of them. So I'm really happy to be here in this branch.

I'm doing great!

I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Jones and Elder Dalley

Elder Tyler Jones week 59

Sounds like you guys are doing well. I'm glad your babies are being good. We didn't go to see the eclipse either. Some elders went to go see it but their car got towed. It sounds like you guys are having some good times. That's crazy to hear about grandmas car. Wow I didn't know you guys had peach trees. Sounds like you're having a good harvest.

It's been a good week for us. I got here to Hollister. Hollister is pretty awesome. It's a relatively small farming town. Most members live inside of town but a few live far out into the fields. So it's a pretty cool area. There isn't traffic here, like there was in Menlo Park, which is really nice.

The members here are great. We have some recent converts that are really nice. The branch is relatively tiny. There's between 30 and 50 people that attend sacrament meeting. They're all pretty awesome. The ward mission leader here is pretty cool. He had been sort of wish washy before apparently, but we passed by this week and we talked to him. He seems pretty excited about missionary work now. We talked to him about the branch baptismal goal and he got really excited for that, he ended up bringing a bunch of people to church. He started lining up appointments with investigators for us and all that. So he's pretty awesome. He brought up the branch attendance to he highest it's been for a while.

We also had a meeting with our branch president. He's a pretty cool guy too. He's an orthodontist and he's pretty excited about getting back on track with missionary work as well. He doesn't have a lot of priesthood support in the ward so that makes it hard for him, he's also running his own business so he's a very busy guy. But it seems like he's holding things together well.

Elder Dalley is my new companion. He just finished his training. So he's really awesome and has a lot of fire for doing work. He's from Idaho and he's really awesome. I'm really happy to be serving with him.

We have a really really nice apartment. It's maybe the nicest missionary apartment I've seen so far, pretty spacious and has its own washer and dryer inside of the apartment. So we don't have to go try to use coin laundry anymore. That's been really nice.

We've found some pretty cool investigators this week. We're teaching this young couple. They have two really cute sons that are about one and three years old. The one year old likes to dance a lot. But they're a cool family. They had come to our church a long time ago b said they'd be interested in learning more again. 

We also found this family that is pretty cool. They have a son that has cancer and also got into a really bad car accident about a year ago. He was apparently in really bad condition but some elders went over and gave the son a blessing and he's doing a lot better. The dad is pretty much already convinced about the priesthood and that this is the true church. It's just the mom is more hesitant. Also, they might be getting divorced soon which complicates things. 

So it's been an awesome week!

I hope you guys have a great week!

Javier Baptism

Elder Tyler Jones week 58

We had a great week. Javier got baptized. Here's the little blurb that we sent to president for the baptismal report:

Javier was found by the sister missionaries while contacting.they
referred him to us and we began to teach. From the beginning he was
interested and enthusiastic about the gospel, but he took particular
interest in the Book of Mormon. We gave him a copy and he started to
read right away. He felt the spirit telling him that it was true and
he gained a powerful testimony of the restoration and committed to be
baptized right away. The ward members did a lot to fellowship Javier
and made him feel right at home. Despite his struggles with his broken
foot, he put in the effort to come to church every week and even go to
the temple with us. He had a great experience at his baptism with a
lot of support from the ward. He's now excited to keep progressing and
to go to the temple again to be baptized for his parents. This Sunday
we asked him how he feels now after being baptized. He told us that he
feels great and that he just wants to do whatever he can to serve god.

So yeah we had an awesome experience with Javier. The ward did an awesome job of showing up for his baptism and it was really awesome. The relief society is goi to bring him food while he's on unemployment and a member is getting him a white shirt and tie. So that's really awesome. During the service I had to get in the water with them since Hno. Clemente has a bad arm and Javier has the broken foot. The first time Hno. Clemente tried to do it on his own but he couldn't get him under all the way. So I helped him the second time and his hair was still above the water. So we ended up doing it three times. But Javier was laughing by the third time so it was good.

I'm getting transferred to a small town called hollister. It's a small Spanish branch in a little farming community. So I'm pretty excited for that. I'll be leaving tommorow.

Anyway, im having a great time!

Sitting at google headquarters, visiting temple

Elder Tyler Jones week 57

It's been a good week for us,

Javier is still ready to get baptized on Saturday! So we're super excited for that! He has his baptismal interview tomorrow and we've already gone through all of that with him. So now we're just trying to get his baptism all organized. But he seems really excited. We need to get a bag to put over his cast while he's getting baptized but we're just going to get a bag from CVS or something like that. Also, Hno. Clemente is going to be baptizing Javier! Hno Clemente is a recent convert that's super awesome and is about to go to the temple to be sealed to his wife. So that's going to be super awesome!

We had a temple trip yesterday. We brought Javier, Douglas and his girlfriend, Juan Carlos (The sister's investigator), and Hno Bojorquez and his wife (the first counselor). That was super awesome. We took up 2 cars with Juan carlos going with the bojorquezs to the temple and we went with Javier in Douglas's car. We got there and went into the visitors center and there was all sorts of presentations and things for them to see. it seemed like they really liked it. Then we just walked around the temple which they seemed to like as well. there's also a beautiful view of the bay from the Oakland temple so that was nice to see. Ill send some pictures of that trip.

Douglas is doing well also. He's had a hard time meeting with us because of his work schedule but it's starting to clear up so he's been able to talk with us. He wants to get baptized he just needs to get married to his girlfriend first. So they really enjoyed the temple trip and were able to talk to Hno. Bojorquez about trying to get married. So things are going well with them.

Also, we had a big multicultural night this week as well. It was between our ward, the English ward and the Tongan ward. It was pretty cool. They had a lot of interesting performances and whatnot. Some investigators were able to come as well so that was pretty great.

So things are going well for us here!

I hope you have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 56

Sounds like things are going well in indiana. That's awesome that you guys got that car from Grandma. That's so cool that Allie will be driving around in it. That's so awesome that Dan's going to be giving his talk in sacrament next week! I'm sure he will do a great job! Hopefully the babies aren't too crazy this year. I suppose you'll get this letter after your first day of work So you probably already know a bit about how crazy they are.

We've had a great week! 

Javier came to church again! So we're super excited about that. He's still in line to get baptized on the 19th. This has been his second time coming to church and he's really been enjoying it. He's already read a lot of the Book of Mormon. He's been getting to know a lot of people around church which has been awesome. He has a broken foot so he can't really do much all day so its generally really easy to find him at his house. We've been getting members to go over and see him so that he knows some more people in the ward. We usually only go over in the morning or mid day though. The people he lives with like to drink a lot and are aggressively catholic. But Javier doesn't drink or anything like that. He committed to live the word of wisdom this week. He didn't have any big problem but he's still committed. So that's been super awesome. Hno. Clemente has come with us a couple times for lessons and he's been really awesome. Hno. Clemente has always been an awesome person to bring to lessons. It's hard for anyone to not like Hno. Clemente. 

Also, the Clementes are planning on getting sealed in a few weeks. They've already gotten their endowments and their trying to set a date to be sealed in the temple. So we're super excited for them. 

Also, We found a member that's just been looking for where the church is. They were active before they moved to the area. But they moved here and couldn't find the church building so they hadn't gone. But we contacted into her in the street and she told us that she's a member. Then they came to church the next day. So that was cool.

We contacted a guy on the street this week and he pointed us towards a house and told us to go and knock on the door. He essentially said "My wife is never going to believe this". But he told us to say that he sent us. So we got to the house and knocked on the door and it turns out she's an inactive member. Her husband and kids aren't members. She was so surprised because she's moved a lot and every time she moves the missionaries somehow manage to find her really quick. But we talked to them for a little bit. They don't live in that house, they live outside of our area and were just visiting family. But they were all pretty excited about the gospel and going to church. She took at as a sign that she really aught to be going to church. So she'll be trying to bring her family along with her to church in El Camino ward just south of us. They had a little girl who went to primary as a little girl. She's ten now but she was super super excited when we talked about primary because she remembered how much she loved going to primary. So that was an awesome experience.

We went to play mini golf today. There's a place where missionaries can go to play mini golf for free because the owner is a member. We noticed that their's a big discount for families that go play mini golf there on Monday evenings as well. But it was a fun thing to do and we had a good time. 

Anyway, I've been doing well

I hope you have a great Week!

Semi naked bird I found, plus picture with companion

Elder Tyler Jones week 55

I'm glad you guys have been doing well in Indiana. Sounds like things have been interesting and I'm glad that you guys got to make the trip to Odon this week. That's pretty cool that you guys got a new car this week. I hope it works out well.

It's been a good week this week. Javier came to church this week. He had a broken foot and is going to be in a cast for the next couple months. He's really been enjoying having our lessons and he's been reading a lot of the Book of Mormon. He's already read all of first Nephi and keeps going on. It seemed like he really enjoyed church. We talked to him about baptism and he's willing to, so we're super excited for that.

This week we found a guy who was pretty interested in the gospel. He doesn't speak Spanish but we just started to teach him so we could refer him to the English elders. When we went over he had 2 other friends with him. They were all pretty intoxicated and the apartment smelt rather potent and was pretty messy. One of them was eating cat food. So we talked to them for a little bit and then left. They invited us back for dinner the next day as we were leaving. We thought that there was little chance that they were actually going to have us for dinner but we thought we aught to jus come back anyway. So we went back the next day and it was super weird. The entire apartment was cleaned up. They were all really well dressed with collared shirts and their shirts tucked in. They prepared a really nice dinner, set the table really nice and we had a good dinner with them. We talked about the gospel and all 3 really enjoyed it. We're going back next week with the English elders to hand them off. 

We also had a pastor trying to convince us that repentance wasn't necessary. We stopped to talk to him for a while but then even after he followed us to the car to try to keep talking to us about how we don't need repentance. He was an interesting guy. He wasn't really like offensive, he was really nice he was just sincerely trying to convince us why we're only saved by faith and that there's no need to repent. That went well into the night and we got home late because of it but it was a kind of fun experience.

Anyway, it's been an interesting week. I hope you have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 54

That's awesome that Allie had such a good time on the high adventure. That's good that she didn't get sunburnt. I was never very good at avoiding sunburns. Come to think of it, I'm still not. He suns been alright here still. Collared shirts make some interesting tan lines. That's so awesome that dan got to go to scout camp. Sounds like he had a lot of fun. 

It's been another good week for us.

Abraham didn't come to church this week. He was busy with work this week so we weren't able to meet with him and he didn't come to church. So that was pretty disappointing but we should be able to get in with him his week. 

A less active member came back to church and brought a friend though. We talked to him for a little bit. He really enjoyed church and he wanted to come back we were able to get his phone number and we're going to try to meet with him sometime this week. Hopefully all goes well with that. 

We also decided to try with another part member family. The wife comes to church regularly and the husband is already baptized. We're going to try to meet with them this week. We talked with them at church and they seemed really nice. They think their daughter had an evil spirit though. So we gave the daughter a blessing and they were pretty happy with that.

Our mission president challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days a couple weeks ago. That's been going well. I'm in Mosiah right now and am enjoying it. 

I'm having a great time, I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 53

Sounds like you guys had a good week. That's so exciting that the kids are going to be having some fun. That's pretty cool that Allie is going to get to go on a high adventure. Sounds like you guys are having some fun. Enjoy the meat for a week. There's a sister missionary in this ward and she's vegan. It's pretty hard to mix Mexican food and vegan so e members get creative. That's so cool that you guys are learning the scripture stories again!

It's been a great week.

We got to visit Abraham again this week. He came to church as well. He had been really busy the past couple weeks but we got to visit him and he's still excited to get baptized. He's already come to church five or so times and he's super awesome. He's doing great and will probably be baptized soon. We're going to try to figure out when that'll be with him is week.

We had an interesting experience this week. We got a referral to go see a man named Manuel at a trailer park several weeks ago. We knocked on his door a lot of times and no one ever answered. So we ended up dropping him. This week we were in the same trailer park trying to see someone else and we just knocked on his door another time just because. An older man opened the door and looked at us. We asked for Manuel. The guy seemed confused for a while and then he told us that Manuel is his brother. He told us that Manuel died just a few days earlier. We got to talking to this guy for a little bit. His name is Jose. He couldn't talk long that first day but he invited us to come back the next day in the evening. When we came back he let us in we talked to him for a while and taught about the plan of salvation. He wanted to be baptized on that first lesson. So we'll see where things go from there.

Also Douglas came to church. He wants to be baptized still he is just trying to get married to his girlfriend so that he can. He's been really busy at the same time. So he's slowly trooping along.

also, we went on a hike today. We had already gone to this one several months ago but it was still nice. It was pretty sunny and hot but it was still a really nice view. There's a lot of really nice hiking places in Portillo valley in the south part of our area.

Anyway, I'm doing great!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 52

Sounds like you guys have been having a good time. I'm glad you guys are having some fun... that's crazy that you guys can still catch so many fish in the pond. I'm glad the weather has been pretty nice for you guys as well.

It's been another great week!

We had a lesson with the Martinez family that went well. they're a part member family that has moved from El Salvador. The wife is a member and the Grandpa is a member. The grandpa is here for the summer to try to reactivate them. So that's been awesome. The wife and the son have come to church but the father still hasn't. They work a lot and they have a hard time getting off of work. So we've still been trying with that. We had a dinner with them and they made pupusas for us which were really good. We watched the restoration video with them and they enjoyed it. So we're hoping to get them to come to church. We finally got all of the information to get their records transferred to our ward from El Salvador.

We had a meeting with President Hunt. It was just a little meeting to get to know him and to learn about some of the changes in the mission. He's really excited and he's super awesome. So things are going pretty great. So I'm excited for how things go with the mission.

We've been working on some finding. We've found some really nice people, it's always a little hard to get them to act on their commitments but it's going alright. We were walking by and we talked to a family in a trailer park. They had a little parakeet which was really cute. It was green with a yellow head and red cheeks. It's head looked like pikachu. They let me put him on my shoulder so that I could be like a pirate. Then he started trying to bite my ear. He was really tiny so It didn't hurt, it just tickled a little. So that was pretty cute until I tried to get him off and he got scared and pooped on me. So the family thought that was super funny which was good.

Things are going well, we've been really trying to get people to come to church. The main problem people have is that they have to work a lot to be able to afford to live in even the poorest parts of this area. So people have a hard time getting Sundays off to come to church. It's going well though

One of the people getting baptized at the end of the month is moving to Los Angeles for work and he doesn't know when he's going to be back.  So we're trying to see how long he'll be there so we can know whether to refer him to the elders in Los Angeles or wait for him to get back.

Anyway, Have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 51

It's been another great week!

That was awesome to hear from Allie about her trip and sounds like everyone's having a good time! That's fun to hear that all of the relatives are in town. I'm sure that must be crazy but I hope uncle Dewey and Susan had a good time on their mission.

So we got a new mission president this week. His name is President Hunt. We had an outgoing devotional for President Mella which was awesome. Everyone in the mission came together for the devotional. All of the Tongan missionaries got up and did a dance and it was all pretty fun.

President Hunt came in on June 30th. We met him at a baptism yesterday. He seemed really nice, We didn't talk much with him because he was super busy but we talked with Sister Hunt for a little bit and she seems super nice. It'll be awesome to have them here with us.

The ward had a baptism on Sunday. The missionaries found him a long time ago. He wanted to be baptized almost immediately but he couldn't as a result of some past problems. He stayed active for the whole time though. The First presidency waved the responsibility to the Mission President, President Mella interviewed him and he was able to get baptized. It was a super cool experience. There was a lot of support from the ward.

Abraham didn't come to church this week which was a bit disappointing, he had to work so he wasn't able to come. He's still preparing to be baptized at the end of July though. So we're still hopeful that all goes well with that.

Christian also didn't come to church this week, he came last week for the first time and had supposedly left on a camping trip. So we're trying to figure out what's his situation. He seemed to enjoy church the last time though so we don't know.

Also, they're starting a lot of road construction in the area so traffic has been even worse. So that's been a lot of fun to deal with. I suppose it gives me more time to listen to talks though. I've still particularly enjoyed talks by Neal A. Maxwell.

Here's a quote I like "Adequacy in the first estate may merely have ensured a stern, second estate with more duties and no immunities! additional tutoring and suffering appears to be the pattern for the lords most apt pupils". I thought that was an interesting way of looking at things.