Week 3 Elder Hal Jones

Hey!

So I´ve been having another great week! It´s getting harder to do 17 hour days but I´m glad I´m doing something all the time. Learning here is like drinking out of a fire hydrant, you get some water, but mostly your face just hurts.

It was hard to talk to people for the first week here because all anyone wanted to talk about was the first thing they´re going to do when they get home and what restaurants they miss the most. Their hearts were still at home, but now everyone's gotten over that, so that's good. The Spanish is going really well, and my lessons are getting a lot better. I finished the online language work that was supposed to take us 6 weeks so. I´m doing different language study during that time. Every Sunday we´re supposed to prepare a 5 to 10 minute talk about a specific topic and members of the branch presidency choose who will be giving their talks that week.  This week it was on faith, and the speakers didn´t take the whole time, so they asked for a volunteer.  I had my talk memorized, so I volunteered and gave a 10 minute talk on faith and that inflated my ego quite a bit because no one memorizes their talks in our branch. I think one thing I need to work on while being here is being humble. 

This week the people in Mexico City were shooting some sort of explosive in the air and it sounded like the cannons in the Hunger Games movie whenever a tribute died.  So whenever one would go off, we would make some sort of joke related to the Hunger Games.  Also I forgot to mention last week that I´m in district 12. Elder Baker, Elder Bean, and Elder Labrum and I have decided that we´re going to do 40 pushups every night until we leave the MTC, and then go up one every day while we´re in the field. 

Every day here is great, and I´m learning so much. On Sunday we watched this really good MTC Christmas devotional from a couple years ago by David A. Bednar. I don´t know what it was called but it was the best talk I have ever heard and if you can somehow watch it it would be worth your time. My companion and I are getting really close and we can´t wait to go out in the field.  Honestly, I feel like I´m ready to leave now. I just really want to serve the people in Peru.

Everyone in our district got really sick on Friday from something that we ate or drank -- I don´t know, but no one was complaining about it during class or felt entitled to slacking off because they were sick.  It was really hard for me to focus while I was sick but I prayed for strength and I got it. There are some days when I feel like I just really need a hug from Dan but President Pratt says that if you miss your family you aren´t working hard enough.

In our lessons we aren´t teaching volunteer members anymore, we´re teaching actual investigators or inactive members.  We started teaching José yesterday and I think it went really well. His wife, Esperanza, has cancer and he has 3 little kids. I stopped using notes for my lessons so I can just prepare what I want to say beforehand and then teach by the Spirit if there´s anything else I feel like I need to say. I´m just really happy here and I know I´m going to be even happier in 4 weeks. 

Every morning Elder Baker and I talk to this custodian here named Marco and he´s trying to learn English, so whenever he asks us how to say something in English he´ll write it down in a notebook he carries with him and he´s always so grateful and happy to see us. We found out today that he served a mission and he gave us some advice. We decided we´re going to get him some English scriptures from the store before we leave. also everything is really really cheap at the store so I have a lot of pesos that I haven´t used yet.

I´m really glad Allison had a good time at camp. I remember when I was her age and I was covered in mosquito bites after scout camp. Hope you guys have a great week! 

Week 13 in Mexico Hermana Courtney Jones

Thanks for all the pictures, like usual :) It is crazy to see Hal with his name badge! In the letter he sent I had to double-check that it was him becuase he sounds so different hahah.It is funny to think of you guys on summer break because every day is the same here on the mission. I hope you are having fun and that Tyler is liking the job. I am also glad Allie had fun at girls camp even with all her mosquito bites. As for my eyelashes and eye brows it isn't that bad since I have bangs I can cover my eye brows at least :)

This week I ate some weird foods and some of the best foods I have ever eaten in my life! I had a quesadilla with flowers de calabaza (flowers of a large squash), and pig hooves. At first I didn't know how to eat the pig hooves because there is no meat on it! But you just eat the skin and the ligaments between the toes.... It wasn't the best food I have ever eaten but it wasn't the worst either. Then the best foods I have ever eaten was a quesadilla with oxaca cheese and mushrooms... mmmmm yummy! Also, tacos de pastor is my new favorite food. It is a taco with onions, beef, cilantro, and pineapple and they cook it on a skillet.

Anyway, other than food, this week has been good I have had lots of great experiences and some scary experiences. As for the scary experiences there is the best lady I have ever met in my life in our ward and afterward she talked to me and said that when bad things happen you can let them go to your heart or you can let them stop at the name that is over your heart (Jesus Christ). As a missionary, bad things will happen, but it is not because of who we are it is because of the name that we are representing. Sometimes I feel like there are angels here in El Oro but they are in the form of members of the church.

This week I have never been so cold in my life.  It has rained every day, but it has also been freezing cold because we are up in the mountains. I think this is the first summer of my life where I wear a hat and gloves every day....but I prefer that much more than getting sun burnt every day.

These past couple weeks we have had an amazing experience with an inactive family. The mom has been a member for 25 years and two of her daughters were baptized, but her youngest son, who is 19, was never baptized. At the beginning of the last cambio we worked with him, but he said he would be baptized if his mom ever went to church again because he liked the person that she was when she would go to  church. The only problem was we visited her twice last cambio and both times she was really mad and a little rude and wanted nothing to do with us. We stopped visiting Raul, the son, because he didn't want to go to church or be baptized but the 5th week of the cambio he saw us and came running and said that his mom wanted to meet with us. She said that she didn't want to go to church but wanted her daughters to come to church.  They are 25 and 30 and have 3 kids between them. So the next week the daughters came to church. When we went to visit Maria Teresa (the mom) again she said she had read the pamphlet on the Plan of Salvation and all she wanted was for her family to be united and she knew it was through the church that she could do that.

So we started teaching her all the lessons that she had forgotten, and she is going to come to church this Sunday. It is amazing to see the change in her from the first time when she slammed the gate and said all types of rude things, to the lady who now gives us food and hugs every time she sees us. This experience made me think of my zone leader who always says "Every member a missionary, every member an investigator". Whenever he eats at peoples houses he teaches them the things he learned in his studies, part of one of the lessons, has them commit to read part of preach my gospel and he says it's because we are all investigators and once we stop investigating that's when we start losing our testimonies of the truth of the gospel.  

This week was great, and everyone was super excited that it was our first week as a ward! My favorite scripture this week is in 1 Corinthians 12. It talks about how every member of the church is a member of the body of Christ and how can the foot say to the eye that we don't need you. Every member has their talents, their gifts that help the work of the Lord and when we are missing members the work continues but it isn't quite as effective.  Have a great week. I love you all. 

Ok, I know we shouldn't have favorites but Yaretzi and her mom come and teach with us two times a week and this little girl is so funny :) she reminds me of myself when I was younger...super bossy and sings all the time!   Also, here's a picture of the El Oro ward.

Hal in Mexico City MTC

Week 2 Elder Hal Jones

Hey guys! I love it here at the CCM. The first day was amazing. We had meetings all day and at night we met our branch presidency and they called my companion and I as District Leaders. My companion is Elder Baker and he´s really cool. I love our district and we´re all so close now.  Our district includes Elder Tonga, E. Labrum (he doesn´t know the Labrums from chicago), E. Harper, E. Charles, E. Bean, E.Wood, E. Shupe, E. Brown, E. Baker and I.  There are two Hermanas, also - Hna. Amis and Hna. McLean.

From the first day I´ve been the best at Spanish in our district and whenever anyone has questions about Spanish they ask me. I know that isn´t because of my own ability because I only took one year of Spanish. I wake up at 5 every morning to study the language and then E. Baker and I go running at 6. I know the Lord is blessing me because of my diligence in studying the language and the material. We taught our first investigator the second day and then two more times later.  During the second lesson I was just able to completely understand what he was saying and I was able to remember Spanish that I hadn´t thought of in 4 years. Every day my ability in Spanish just grows tremendously and in the lesson we taught yesterday I didn´t even need to use my notes I was just able to talk with him in Spanish for the entire 40 minutes and I know that I was just a vessel for the spirit to flow through me because I wasn´t doing the teaching, the spirit was.

I just love it here. I can really thrive in environments where I have one goal and no other distractions. It hit me this week that my mission has started and that I need to work as hard as I can and be the best missionary I can be. Our zone leaders leave next week so our branch president said that E. Baker and I are probably going to be Zone leaders, which is crazy because we just got here. 

The weather here is amazing. Literally everything we were worrying about isn´t even a problem. I don´t think it´s ever gotten above 85 degrees here and I haven´t gotten sunburnt at all. Every day at 6pm it starts raining and thundering which is awesome. The view is amazing because we´re right at the bottom of a valley and all the houses are built on the sides of the mountains. So yesterday when we were outside studying for our investigator lesson, Mexico was playing in the world cup and whenever Mexico scored a goal we could hear the entire city going crazy.

Also my whole district is going to the Lima Peru Central mission! and there´s another district going to our mission too. When we came on Wednesday there were 300 missionaries in the CCM and once we came there were about 450 missionaries. Before we leave there are going to be over 1000 missionaries here! I miss you guys and I can´t wait to tell you more. I know that the Lord has called me to succeed and I already know that these are going to be the best two years of my life. 

Also the food is amazing and really authentic Mexican food. I love it, but so many people complain about it. I've kind of figured out that whenever people are away from home they will find something to complain about. 

ps. can you tell Brother Rowlings that my favorite scripture that I want to use for my plaque at church is Ether 12:12.  Also I  need a micro SD card for my camera because without it it only holds 2 pictures. 

Week 12 in Mexico Hermana Courtney Jones

Thank everyone for all their letters and tell them sorry if it takes a while to respond it just seems like the hour to write goes so fast now that I write Hal too. Thanks for the pictures, too. I actually laughed out loud when I saw Dans face at the airport. Everyone gave me weird look,s but that's ok. There is something weird on the mission that you don't miss your family because you are so busy and focused on the work but your love for your family grows stronger and stronger every day. I think a lot of it has to do with teaching people that their family can be together forever and realizing every day how much you want what you are teaching for your own family.

We had transfers this week and my companion and I are together for another change! It is crazy because that hardly ever happens with our mission president! Since I am with my companion this change I have one more change after that after she leaves which means I will probably be here in El Oro for the whole summer. At the beginning of my change here I was praying every day that I wouldn't have more than one change here but about half way through the change I started praying that I wouldn't leave. It is funny how things change but I have grown to really love it here. 

The members are amazing, and this Sunday was probably the best Sunday of my life, although really hard. It is a long story, but pretty much this week my companion and I were fighting to get a baptism. We were going through the binder looking for anyone from other missionaries who had baptisms and could get baptized that Sunday. We finally had someone, Genaro, who had 4 assistencias a la iglesia! We went to look for him and he lived in the woods and we searched for his house for 2 hours and couldn't find it. We were super depressed but we decided Heavenly Father would help us find it when it was time. Then 2 days later we contacted a lady in the street and she said we could visit and gave us her directions( its really hard here because no houses have addresses people just say go by the church and across is a big tree, walk straight for a while and you will see a big rock turn there, etc.) Anyway, we found a house that we thought was her house but it wasn't but as we started talking to the person she told us that her brother had listened to the missionaries about a year ago. When we asked her who her brother was it was Genaro! We found out where he lived and went and visited. After two visits he said that he would be baptized that Sunday and passed his interview. Then though on Sunday he didn't come to church. We went to his house every hour  but he wasn't there. We were super sad because it was our one baptism what we had worked the whole 6 weeks for and he didn't come.

I felt really strongly that we needed to visit him one last time and at 6:00 at night we visited, and when he opened the door he started crying. He had had problems with the word of wisdom before, which is why the missionaries before stopped visiting when he didn't stop but when we visited he had gone 2 months without breaking the word of wisdom. When he opened the door he said that he was afraid to be baptized which was why he didn't go to church but afterwards felt so terrible he was about to start drinking again but that was when we knocked on his door. He wasn't baptized this week but we have hopes that he will be baptized the next week so keep him in your prayers. 

This week was amazing, though, because we had our ward conference and our little branch is officially a ward! We didn't have any baptisms this cambio and the elders only had one but at the beginning of the cambio there were 80 active members and this Sunday there were 162 people at church. Looking back on this cambio I think I have learned more in 6 weeks than the rest of my life combined. I learned that heavenly father loves every single one of his children and someone coming back to church is just as rewarding as someone new at church.

This week so many things went wrong. The thing that I think I have learned the most is how to find joy even in times of trial. One day it was freezing cold and raining but we were working with the Elders and our zone leader started jumping in the puddles and spraying us with water. A terrible day turned into one of my favorite memories from the mission. Also me and my companion fell in a mud slide and were covered in mud and our dresses were filthy but so many people laughed and talked to us that day and asked why we were out working on a day like that. We got 6 new investigators that day just because we were covered in mud walking in the rain and people wanted to know why. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan and many times the plan heavenly father has is not the plan we have for ourselves but looking back I wouldn't want to change anything.

Ok more stories from the week...I no longer have eyebrows or eyelashes so I don't know when the next time I will be putting pictures up of myself will be:) I was turning on the furnace but it wouldn't turn on so I went to look and... PHOOM... baptism of fire! I learned a lesson that day. Never put your face close to a furnace. Luckily I didn't get burned just my face no longer has any hair. Also I started doing my personal progress with my companion in Spanish. She is a convert so never did it so she is working on it now. It is actually so fun. Right now on P-days I am teaching her to the play the piano for her knowledge project she is going to learn 4 hymns and then play them one day in church. She told me I should do the experience where you are nice to someone in your family for two weeks and give them nice notes and give them compliments. Since she is the only one living with me she counts as my family. She is so funny sometimes.

The only person leaving is our District leader this cambio, which I am kind of sad about because I have never met someone who is always so happy. This change he had major back problems and has a infection in his intestines and gastritis and yet he is always trying to cheer us up and always laughing and having a good time. One thing he taught us this week that blew my mind was in Luke 10:30-35 he said to change the word Jerusalem to heaven, Jericho to the world, Levite to the law or justice, The Samaritan to Jesus Christ, oil and wine to the atonement, the inn to the gospel, the inn keeper to the missionaries, and when the Samaritan returns to Christs second coming. My mind was blown when I read it with all the new words!

Anyway I love you all and hope you have a great week! Two of my favorite quotes from general authorities this week were "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". The other one is along the lines that "if blessings came immediately after we choose the right and consequences immediately after we chose wrong everyone would choose the right and there would be no reason to come to this earth". I know that when we let God lead our lives everything will eventually turn out.

Love Hermana Jones

Oh, and favorite scripture this week Romans 5:1-6

P.S every member a missionary, the way the missionaries have success is when the members are giving them people to teach. People are much more likely to invite someone into their home who their friend has said great things about and that this person has blessed their life as opposed to a person that they just met in the street!

I don't know if you can see it very well in this picture, but the little city in the middle of all the mountains is El Oro where we live and then all the mountains around it are the pueblos where we work every day.  Every mountain is a different pueblo.

Week 1 Elder Hal Jones

I just got to the CCM (Mexico City Missionary Training Center)! I already love it here and I never want to leave. My P-day is on Tuesdays so that's when I'll be able to email.

I flew into the Mexico city airport with probably 30 other Elders and 15 Sisters. I felt really bad for the flight attendant who went around asking if anyone wanted coffee.  Pretty much everyone in my group is from Utah, but there are a lot more people coming. Today there are 150 new missionaries at the CCM.

I hope everything is going well! Ill have more to talk about next week after I've actually been a missionary for a while. 

Your Missionary's mailing address is:

[Elder Harry Jones]

[30/07/2014] [Branch 12 - District B]

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero

07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal

Mexico

The estimated departure date for your missionary is 30 July 2014. The use of the

above address on all correspondence will greatly facilitate delivery to your missionary

at the MTC. Please don't send packages.

Week 11 in Mexico

I cant believe that Hal is really going on his mission this week and that Tyler is working at Jewel! What is Tyler doing at Jewel like what is his job? What did they do for youth conference? Just go to the temple? That's funny that Margot Embree is working at the Buffalo Grove pool.  I am sure she is loving it because you get to work with tons of people. I kind of miss swimming, especially because it has been super hot here!

Its ok, though, because this week was really good.  We have a baptismal date for a lady and her two daughters. She has 13 children, but most of them are older and have their own families, so we are hoping that we will have an opportunity to teach them too. This week was our district leader's birthday so I will send pictures of that and also of our "little" walk to the Afaros house. Hermana said that it would probably only take half an hour because it was preparation day and we were going to spend time at their house because they are recent converts, but it ended up taking about three hours! It was crazy but pretty fun :)

Sorry I don't have a ton of time to write today, but could you look up how many pounds are in a kilo and what food to eat to not get gastritis?  Because this week our district leader got gastritis and I am super afraid of getting it.

Tell Dan happy birthday for me! Also my generation and the generation of missionaries after me have more Hermanas than elders. Isn't that crazy? My companion was telling me that just a year ago there were only 10 hermanas in the mission, and now that is changing crazy fast.

Anyway, I will try to send some pictures but this computer is not doing so well.  Two are of our walk and the bushes we have in Mexico.  The third is of my district leader.

Love Hermana Jones!