Elder Jones week 36

So this week was the best week of my life. I´ve seen so many miracles and more importantly I´ve been able to feel the pure love of Christ.  We met another Cornelio this week! (Someone that is ready to get baptized right away). Her name is Xiomara. She´s 9 years old and she lives with her mom, who is an active member, and her 8 month old brother. They just moved here from Chiclayo and she hasn´t ever been baptized. But she wants to get baptized right away so she´s going to get baptized this Saturday! On Saturday and Sunday we did a fast of thanks for finding her and for her great desire to get baptized.

Then another miracle occurred. In sacrament meeting the bishop was announcing the 6 baptisms that we´re going to have in our ward this Saturday, and after making the announcement one of our investigators, Eileen, who has been investigating the church for over a year but hasn´t been able to get baptized because she didn´t have permission from her mom, went up and whispered something to the bishop and sat back down. Then the bishop made another announcement and said that there has been a correction and that this Saturday there are going to be 7 baptisms, including Eileen! I was so confused and so happy at the same time because I had no idea that she was going to get baptized this Saturday. We talked to her afterwards and it turns out that in the morning out of the blue her mom changed her mind and gave her permission to get baptized. She wants to get baptized as soon as possible, so this Saturday she´s getting baptized! Along with Alonzo, Camila, Olinda, Xiomara, Cusi, and Rosa. I have no idea if that would have happened if we hadn´t been fasting, but it is a miracle, and it came while I was fasting so I refuse to call it a coincidence.

This transfer I´ve really gained such a great testimony of giving thanks to God for the miracles he´s given me. At the beginning of this transfer we made the decision to fast to give thanks after each miracle we experience, and He has blessed us with 4 Cornelios. This week was great and I´m really happy here on my mission. I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Jones

Hermana Jones Week 46

I am so grateful that I am able to be here on the mission.  This week we found a less active family and we are going to baptize their nine year old boy to be baptized this Sunday! It is super great to be able to help a family come back to church. We are also helping the dad to receive the priesthood! Also we have a family of three who agreed to be baptized. She is working as a firewoman right now because her husband died about 6 months ago so she has a hard time sometimes but she loves hearing about the plan of salvation and we also had a family of 4 agree to be baptized this week!

Anyway one thing I have learned is the trials that we have change who we are. I feel like this week I have come to understand more what my purpose is as a missionary and why I am really here. This week there was a lady we have been visiting who said that she didn't want to listen to us because of all the things she had read on the internet.  We responded to all her doubts but her heart had become too hard and she wouldn't listen. Afterwards I felt the biggest pain I have ever felt having someone choose not to listen to our message because I realized for probably the first time the depth of how important the gospel of Jesus Christ is in each of our lives. I realized I am not sorry for the trials that we have in our life because every one of them is preparing us to return to live with our Heavenly Father.  This week me and my companion sang in church "I Need Thee Every Hour" and I could feel so strongly how much I needed my Savior in everything that I do.

Oh also one morning this week I decided to make pancakes and it just made me laugh because one of thepancakes looked like the tree of life. Everything in this earth is to give us joy, even our trials, because we appreciate the little things a lot more :)

Have a great week!

Elder Jones week 35

Hey Guys! So I had a great week. This week we taught the sister who we found reading Isaiah last week. Her name is Elcira. We visited her this week and asked her if she had had the opportunity to read what we had left her to read in the Book of Mormon. She said she had and that we really liked it because it is really easy to understand and it gave her a warm feeling inside when she read it. We asked her if she had the chance to ask if it was true in prayer, and she said of course she had and that she doesn´t have any doubt that it´s the word of God. What we need to work on with her is that she still doesn´t understand that if the Book of Mormon is true, the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is the only completely true church that exists today. 

Also we met Sebastián this week. He is so prepared to receive this message. We taught him the restoration, and he said that he really wants to find out if the Book of Mormon is true, and that if it was up to him and he didn´t have to ask permission from his parents he would be baptized today, because he wants to get baptized "the way God was baptized." He´s such an amazing example of faith to me, because he doesn´t need proof to know that baptism is what God wants for him, he just wants to act on faith because he feels like it is what God wants for him. He also knows almost all of the stories from the Bible really well, and that is thanks to his parents who taught him since he was a small child the stories of the Bible. It reminds me of when Dad would give us challenges to learn 100 scripture stories, or 100 scriptures. And I´m really grateful to him for that because I would be a lesser missionary if he hadn´t done that for me. 

 Also this week we met a really amazing woman. Her name is Olinda, she´s about 60 years old, and she´s completely blind. She´s a reference from the Elders in Leoncio Prado and they´ve taught a couple of lessons with her. We visited her this week and asked her when she would like to be baptized, and she said this Saturday! So we have a lot of work to do this week and honestly she´s just an incredible woman. 

 This week a couple of our investigators, Eileen and her grandma, Marta, are having some family problems, and we read with them Doctrine and Covenants 122, which includes one of my favorite scriptures. Verse 8. The Son of Man hath descended below them all: art thou greater than He? Something that I´ve really come to gain a great testimony of on my mission is the importance of trials. We can´t truly achieve real happiness without them. I had always believed that but I never really understood it completely until my mission. So this week I started asking for trials and difficulties that will help me grow. I don´t know if I will continue to do that because this week was really hard. And I think I´ll just let God decide when to give me trials because I do know that he knows what is best for me. 

 So yesterday I was feeling really sorry for myself and I just wanted to stay in my apartment, but I remembered the words of Gordon B. Hinckley´s father. " Forget yourself, and go to work". We visited a recently reactivated family and their daughter was in need of a priesthood blessing, so we were able to help them with that. Later I felt like we should visit one of the recent converts in the ward, even though it was 8;45 at night. We arrived at his house and he told us that he had been contemplating suicide. So we were there for him, and we talked him out of it. 

I hope you all have a great week and that everyone stays healthy. Sorry for writing so late today, I woke up with a fever of 104. I love you guys.

Elder Jones         

Hermana Jones week 45

I just want to bear my testimony that there is joy in the Gospel. I will tell you a few of my experiences that have shown me that Heavenly Father knows me and loves me, and I know he loves each of us. So the first experience was when I got a blessing last week for being sick it was one of the longest blessings I have ever gotten, and it didn’t say a single thing about my health or getting better which I thought was weird but I have gained a testimony in the power of the priesthood that really it is the power of God working through men because in this blessing it promised that I would feel far away from home, but that I could feel peace that Heavenly Father is protecting my family that I could receive words of comfort from my family. In this blessing he also blessed me that I would have a clear mind that I would be able to work hard and that I would finish my mission with honor. The last part of the blessing was that I would be surrounded by angels who would lift and support me.

 I can say that my companion has been an angel in my life. She just cheers me up. Like this morning we went through the primary book and sang almost every song with the hand motions and everything. The other experience that I had this week was on Thursday in the morning me and my companion started talking about how much we loved our dads. I started remembering when dad would play Blue Suede shoes on the guitar while we were little and we would run and get ready for bed. I started talking about all the hikes up mountains we had and all the family parties we had on Saturdays when we were little.  I remembered when we went camping to the camp that had a beach and just how great of a childhood I really had. I just want to tell you mom that I love you so much and I am so grateful to have such an amazing mother in my life. I am sorry that I really didn’t appreciate that before college, but I do with all my heart. 

 The general conference talk from last general conference, “Stay in the Boat” that said “When things get hard we need to hold on to the gospel with both hands…Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation"…"  Life is like an old time rail journey:delays, sidetracks, smoke,dust,cinders, and jolts interspersed only occasionally with beautiful views and thrilling bursts of speed.

The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

A Jones never gives up.

Serve with Honor 

 Love Hermana Jones 

Elder Jones week 34

Hey Guys! So I don`t know what happened this week but our sector just blew up with new investigators. We found 10 new investigators this week and 7 of them have baptismal dates. We had a some great experiences this week. Oh also my companion doesn`t need to go home! We found an inactive family this week and they want to be reactivated. They`ve basically just been waiting for someone to invite them to come back, because they`re already so prepared. It reminded me of something Thomas S. Monson said in one of the conference talks mom sent me. He said that the work of reactivation is a work of love. And that these people that have lost their way will remain lost until someone reaches out to them with love. Also this family has two children who have never been baptized so now they have baptismal dates for February 21st.

 Also we a biblical experience this week. and I didn`t even realize that it was really close to a biblical story until a couple of days after. So in Acts 8:26-40 it talks about when Philip was prompted to go to Gaza and he sees an eunuch reading the scriptures, and felt prompted to go and talk to him, and the eunuch was reading in Isaiah. Philip asks him if he understands what he`s reading, and he says that he doesn`t. Philip then teaches him about Jesus Christ, and what is needed for baptism. and then the Eunuch is baptized that same day. So on Wednesday we had an appointment with one of our investigators and it fell through, but while we were waiting for them to answer the door we could see that their neighbor was reading the bible because their door was open. We asked her what she was reading, and it turns out she was reading Isaiah. We said that Isaiah contains prophecies and asked her if she understood what she was reading and if she had any questions about it. Then we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the requisites for baptism and what baptism means. We invited her to baptism and she said... no. but we came back another day and taught her the Restoration and now she has a baptismal date for March 7th. 

We also had an experience this week where we were walking in the street trying to find the address to a reference, and a man came running to us to ask us for a priesthood blessing. He wanted a blessing because he is addicted to cigarettes and has been since he was 18 and he`s 53 right now. He had once listened to the missionaries before and they gave him a blessing and he wanted a blessing. So we entered his house and taught him about the word of wisdom and the changing power of the Atonement, and gave him a blessing. He now has a baptismal date for the end of March. And it will require a lot of faith because it`s really hard for him right now. He can`t go 30 minuets without smoking right now. But I`m certain he`ll be able to overcome it. 

We had a great week. Today we went biking up to the big statue of Jesus Christ in Lima and I fell and messed up my elbow. Two other elders fell too and we took a picture together. I hope you guys have a great week. It makes me happy to see pictures of so much snow. 

Elder Jones      

Hermana Jones week 44

So this week was pretty great but kind of stressful. Abraham agreed to be baptized this week which was an answer to our prayers :) The only thing was that on Sunday morning we went to their house and Abraham wasn’t there. He had left the night before and never come home and he didn’t have his phone with him. Also his dad is sick so the rest of the family wasn’t going to go to church either! Their family right before their baptisms always create so much stress.  We didn’t know what to do because the family was determined that they couldn’t go so the elders went and they still didn’t say they would go. So pretty much we were all pretty sad because the dad was going to receive the priesthood and baptize his son and now none of them were going. I feel like Satan was probably working pretty hard on them Sunday morning. So we all went to church and we had just sung the song about to start sacrament when one of the sister walked through the door, then another, and another. With each person we just got happier and happier until the whole family walked through the door. Then I nearly fell out of my chair when Abraham walked through the door.

 One thing I have learned in my mission is never lose faith because it is never too late for a miracle. So after first hour we asked them what happened in the morning and they said Abraham showed up and they got their act together and got everyone to church. He just said in the morning he felt so bad but when he could hear our voices downstairs all of a sudden the spirit started telling him to go to church and he kept trying to ignore it but it just got stronger and stronger until he got out of bed and told everyone they were going to church. In my mission I have learned one of the only things Satan fights more against than a baptism is someone receiving the priesthood. So just imagine a baptism that would finish a family and the head of the house getting the priesthood. So this week was full of miracles. Also this week was better with my district leader because ironically I got super sick so I went to him to get a blessing and it was one of the best blessings I have ever gotten so I really feel like that softened both of our hearts. What I have learned this week is even if we don’t agree with what our leaders are doing they are called of God and really are the leaders in the church of Jesus Christ here on the earth.

Oh also I was visiting Olivia and Jose Luis (two of my converts) and they wanted to know if you would be interested in Skyping them because they really want to talk to you guys and they want to practice their English. They said you guys could practice your Spanish on them and they could practice their English on you guys.  I thought it was really funny but Jose Luis actually know a good amount of English for his job because here in Mexico it is actually really important to learn English because you have to pass a test that says you’re 80 percent fluent in English to get most jobs here in Mexico now. 

Oh yea I forgot one more funny story. We were teaching a guy this week and then the Jehovah Witness missionaries came and started teaching his mom in another room...so that was weird but them it happened again this week that we were teaching the grandparents of the familia Chavez when the catholic missionaries showed up and started teaching one of the daughters. I have never had other missionaries teaching in the same house as us so it was pretty funny. Anyway it makes me laugh to see all the snow there because everyone complains how cold it is here in Toluca but I love it because it isn’t ridiculously hot but it isn’t cold either. 

Love,

Hermana Jones

Sister Jones Week 43

So this was a super stressful week but it ended up being really good. We got a new district leader and he was super controlling and would call us every 5 min to see if we had our numbers for the day. He didn't have the goal at the normal level.  He wasn't just inviting us to get higher numbers.  He was forcing us! I was super stressed all week and really close to biting his head off.  We made it too the end of the week.  My testimony has really grown of respecting our leaders because they receive revelation for each of us.

This week we had so many people come up to us and say that they want us to visit their daughter because she isn't a member of the church or their husband or their friend and all the lessons have gone really well. Also we had a new family at church this week and if everything goes well Abraham(the last member of the Chavez family)  will be baptized on Sunday(please keep him in your prayers).

Also a lot of young woman in our ward are thinking about going on missions.  They all went out and worked with us this week which was super great. Also there are so many sister missionaries now that some of the missions here in Mexico will not accept anymore sisters.  There is an overwhelming amount. It wouldn't be a problem to have so many hermanas except that they need priesthood in every area.  It is making it difficult with having more than half the mission as sister missionaries. So that is pretty crazy the difference in the setup of missions now from just two years ago. For example our ward has 4 sisters and 2 elders and we have 10 more sister missionaries than elders in our zone now! hahah we are outnumbering the Elders. It was funny because one of the members was talking about how sister missionaries are like bacteria in a dish. You start out with one and then before you know it there are thousands!

Anyway I have learned lots of important lessons this week. We learned in church this week that we can't look at our leaders as men but leaders in the church of Jesus Christ.  Heavenly Father will always bless us for being obedient to leaders in his church.. I hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

hermana jones