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