Hermana Jones week 49

So this week was super good but a little stressful. One thing I have learned is that when you have a leadership position, usually it means a lot more stress and a lot less sleep, but I am super grateful for the opportunity to help the sisters in their problems and that we have been able to see miracles in our area.  I think my favorite part about being sister training leader is I get to work in lots of areas and know lots of different people here in the city. 

It seems like every time I switch areas, I always get put into areas that haven't baptized in a long time.  I was looking at the area book, and there have only been 5 baptisms for a whole year, which is a little hard because we are supposed to be baptizing every week.  It is always hard, but it is definitely an  opportunity for my faith to grow.  Every area I get put into is somewhere that missionaries don't want to go, but when we find miracles, you can really see that they are miracles and not through anything that you did. 

This week I was super sick on the way to church and was throwing up in the alleys on the way to church.  It was really a miracle, though, because we had 7 people at church this week and they all said that they want to come back next week.  The family of 4 is super cute and loved church.  We are also teaching a guy who went to jail, but wants to be baptized and is super super excited to listen every time we teach him.  He asks to go teaching with the Elders all the time because he loves sharing his testimony about Jesus Christ with people in the street.  It is a little harder to get him baptized because he went to jail, but he wrote his letter to President Monson, and we are waiting for the reply to see if he can be baptized.  I really hope the answer will be yes! 

Also I had to conduct music in sacrament and I didn't know the hymn, so I just thought I would listen to the piano but no one could play the piano!  So I was up there singing a song that I didn't know the tune and well no one else knew the tune, either, so we just went with it!  Hahaha, good times here in Mexico!

On Monday I spent most of the day in a meeting with the zone leaders and assistants and then yesterday we had zone conference and I had to speak.  One good thing about the mission is I feel like I have pretty much lost my fear of public speaking after giving so many sacrament talks right on the spot in Spanish, singing solos in church, playing the piano without knowing the hymn, talking in Zone conferences and conferences with the hermanas.  My thought is if you can do it in a second language you will probably never have fear of public speaking again.  Also here, because the people talk so much, it is impossible to be shy or you will never get a chance to give a lesson because they will just talk the whole time! hahaha I just love the people here in Mexico because what they are thinking they will say and so you know exactly what people think of you. 


Two pictures I sent are of it hailing like crazy, which was super weird because it was hot all day and it melted in like 2 minutes. 

Also, the other pictures are a really good FHE object lesson I learned from my companion.  When you look at the container, you first ask the person how many balls can you see in the water, and the will say one because you can only see the one blue ball that is in the water.  Step two, then you ask them to put their hand in the water and then ask them how many balls there are, and they say that there are tons! The rest of the family is super confused because they still see one ball but then they put their hands in the water too, aaaaand the final step is everyone realizes that there are tons of see-through balls in the water! This example I loved because it shows that really we need to have faith in our experiences. Sometimes we feel like we can see the whole picture or that we can see every outcome but faith isn't something that you can see. Faith is the things that are hoped for and not seen. I know that God has a plan for each of us and we just have the faith to endure to the end.

My favorite quote of the week is everything is possible if we can just believe.  I hope you guys have a great week!  We are seeing lots of miracles here.

Love,
Hermana Jones 

Elder Jones Week 39

Hey guys!

I had a great week! Again, lots of miracles.  So training is going pretty well.  Every day we´re practicing.  We met a lot of really great people this week. 

The craziest experience we had this week was that on Thursday morning when we woke up we found a note that someone had slipped under our door.  It read: "My name is Jessica, I´m interested in getting baptized."  And she left her number.  So we called her that day and she said that she had been receiving the lessons from the missionaries in August and she had attended church a few times, but she went to Argentina for a few months with her mother to see her brother.  And it turns out that her brother had joined the church while living in Argentina without telling his family.  And when Jessica and her mom, Olga, went to visit him, they saw him completely changed and happier.  So that made them more interested in learning about the gospel and they attended church with him a few times in Argentina.  Now that they´re back in Lima they want to have the lessons with the missionaries and get baptized. 

So yesterday after church we had a really great lesson with Jessica and Olga, and Carlos, a returned missionary from Ecuador, and Hanz, who´s leaving on his mission in April to Japan, taught them with us.  It was such a great lesson.  Elder Mestre invited them to baptism, and they are going to get baptized the 28th of March. 

We´re also working a lot with the Ravello family, who is a family of investigators that are a referral from our ward mission leader.  The parents are really motivated to get baptized, but they have to get married first.  But their daughter, Sofi, went to the temple this week with the young men and young women, and had a really great experience, and she´s also really excited to get baptized on March 21st. This week on Tuesday we´re going to have a family home evening with them and the Pezo family from our ward about temples and family history. 

Also this week we met a less active member named Samuel, who is 16 years old and has been inactive since he was 8. We met him on Monday and we invited him to go to seminary that same day because it was the first day of seminary.  And he went!  He´s going every day now.  There´s a group of 3 other young men that live by him that pick him up and drop him off from seminary every day.  He was also able to go and visit the temple this week with the young men and women. He really liked the visitor´s center. He went to Stake Conference yesterday with the other young men, and I´m very hopeful that we´re going to be able to help him get to the temple by April.  

I had a really great week. I´m so amazed by how many people God is preparing to receive this message. It is a testimony to me that the Lord is hastening the work. 
I hope you guys have a great week and I love you all!
Elder Jones      

Elder Jones week 38

Hey  guys! So like you already know I´m training!  It was so scary for me because tuesday was the day of transfers and they usually tell you if you or your companion have a transfer the day before on monday, or on sunday if you´re training so you can go to the training for new trainers on monday.  But they didn´t tell me until an HOUR before the tranfers that Elder Membrillo is going to Condevilla and that I´m training!  So I wasn´t able to go to the new trainers training but right now I´m a lot more okay with that than I was on Tuesday. 

So my new son is Elder Mestre! He´s from Santiago Chile and he´s 18 years old! He´s a convert, the first member, and the first missionary in his family. We had a great week. So since he´s new we have an hour extra of companionship study together every day. It´s honestly the best. He just loves to learn and get better as a missionary. A couple of days this week we accidentally spent the entire first hour of companionship study just sharing what we learned in personal study. This week we finished our plans for personal study, companionship study, and language study for the first 3 weeks of this transfer. He´s also not afraid to talk to anyone. Since the taxi that brought us from the transfers to Rimac, he´s just been talking to people. I´ve learned so much from him this week and I´m trying my best to teach him in a way that will help him be the best missionary he can be. I´ve learned a lot this week about the power of my example. He does what I do. In the apartment if I take off my shoes he takes off his shoes, or if I take off my tie he takes off his tie. One of the families in our ward gave us all the books of the teachings of all the presidents of the church this week, and honestly it was such a temptation for me to just spend all my time this week reading them, but I decided that after my mission is probably a better time for those books, and that right now I should just anchor my study in the scriptures and preach my gospel, focusing on what my investigators need. 

So this week we had a lot of really great spiritual experiences. 
First of all we met a really amazing family! They are a referral from Hno. Gonzalez, our ward mission leader. His friend, Eucevio, has had some problems with alcohol, and recently his wife told him that he needs to change or she and their two daughters need to leave. So he remembered what Hno. Gonzalez had told him about the church and how it changed his life, so he called Hno Gonzalez on thursday and said he wants to meet the Elders. So on thursday Hno Gonzalez called us and set up an appointment that same night in the church building. Eucevio, his wife Doris, and their daughters,Sofi and Carolina, came. We had a great lesson and at the end Elder Mestre invited Eucevio, Doris, and Sofi to baptism and they accepted! they came to church yesterday and they´re going with our ward to the temple tomorrow! They said that they really enjoyed church and that they want to come back. So I´m really excited to be able to teach them and see them grow. I think if there is one family I´m probably going to be able to see get sealed on my mission it´s them. 

So this week I was thinking about dropping one of our investigators, Hector, because he hasn´t been completing the commitments. He has many many addictions and we´ve invited him to meet the bishop and seek professional help, but he wasn´t willing to do either of those. So I was talking to Elder Mestre this week about how we were probably going to drop Hector as an investigator this week. And his answer surprised me. He said that what we do as missionaries, we do because we don´t want these people to feel lonely or unloved by their heavenly father, and if we leave someone feeling that way we aren´t doing our job. When I heard that I felt like what he was saying was true, even though he hadn´t ever dropped an investigator before. So we visited Hector this week and we had a very spiritual lesson with him. It wasn´t about the word of wisdom, or the law of chastity, or the changing power of the atonement, we just taught about the Book of Mormon. And we invited him to come to church. and with Hector he hand´t ever been able to go to church because it´s hard for him to go so long without smoking, but on Sunday he came! and he met the bishop and now he´s progressing little by little. We asked him what changed and he said that he wasn´t going to go but an angel appeared to him the night after we visited him.  So now he has had a spritual experience that will help him progress in the gospel. 
I hope you guys are doing great! glad you´re reading the scriptures! 
Elder Jones

Me and Elder Mestre:

Hermana Jones Week 48

So we had cambios! I was a little sad after having 4 cambios in Sauces.  When I left in the morning it was worse than when I left home to go on the mission.  I am in D.F now (the big city).  It feels really funny because it was about a year ago that I was here in the city and now I am back!

I am Capacitadora now (I dont really know what that it in English, but probably like sister training leader) I am a little nervous because usually there are two, but I am the only one and it is my first time, so I don't really have anyone to learn from, but I am sure it will be a great cambio.

My new companion is Hermana Aguilar, and she is from Mexico.  She is super nice and I knew her from my other zone so that's good. It is also weird to be in the city because it is reversed because in Toluca it is so safe-- our zone had only 6 elders and 14 hermanas.  Here we only have 6 hermanas but I am super excited.  My area seems really nice, and the people are really nice here.  It is funny being an American hermana sometimes, though, because I am the first American hermana ever in this area so the members of the ward are super excited that president sent an American hermana hahha.

This week we brought a girl named Ruth to church.  She is 14 and she loooved it.  When we were on the bus ride home she said "today was magical."  We asked her why and she said that she loved church and she loved all the people there so that made us really happy.  Her family was really interested when Ruth got home from church because she talked about how much they loved it, so I am sure that they are going to get baptized.  It is weird going from such a huge house in Sauces to a tiny house in the city but even though it was sad to change I feel like it feels so much more like an adventure because I haven't changed in so long.

I hope everything is going great there. Anyway this week was super awesome and I am excited to get to be Capacitadora because we get to go to presidents house once a month and talk about things the missionaries need and I heard it was really fun.  It is always fun to be able to see the mission president and his wife because in the mission they are like your parents.  Anyway, I hope you have a great week and I will send you lots of pictures next week of my new area :)

My release date is set for August 17th, but I don't know if that is the exact date or not.

The pictures show a member's house we ate at last week, and also the girl who is getting baptized.  I was sad to leave!  The doll is one that a member made me before I left, and also there is a picture of me with my new companion.

Love,
Hermana Jones

Elder Jones Trainer

February 26, 2015

Dear Family of Elder Jones,

I am delighted to inform you that your son, Elder Harry Orville Jones, has been assigned to serve as a trainer in the Peru Lima Central Mission.  He will be the first companion of a new missionary in our mission.  We all feel there is no more important assignment a missionary receives in the mission field. It is the most respected assignment one can receive in our mission.  He will be responsible to teach his companion how to become the most successful missionary he can become.  This significant responsibility has come to your son because he has exemplified the qualities of outstanding missionary service.  Please know that this assignment comes to Elder Jones by the spirit of prophecy and revelation and only after pondering and prayer.

I am sure that you are pleased with the accomplishments and leadership ability that have made him worthy of this great responsibility.  We pray that you, with him, will “lift up your heart and rejoice,” for the hour of this important phase of his mission has come.  (See D&C 31:3)  Thank you for all you have done to make ElderJones the fine young man that he is and for your continuing support of his missionary endeavors.

Warmest regards,

                                                                                                                                

Alan M Borg, Peru Lima Central Mission President                                                                      

Hermana Jones week 47

So this week was good.  We had our meeting with president and three zones, so we didn't have P-day yesterday, so we have a half P-day today.  I was wondering if the message I sent 2 weeks ago ever got to you guys talking about my patriarchal blessing because I was looking for it in my sent mail but I couldn't find it.  Anyway I have questions about school, too. When do you have to start signing up?  also, I was wondering if you could send me the sheet of all the classes you have to take for an English major.  There is a sheet online that tells you all the classes you have to take every semester of college to graduate because it is going to be a little hard trying to help you guys sign up when I don't really know what classes I need. 

Anyway, not a lot happened this week.  I do have a few funny stories though.  Here in Mexico, there isn't clean water, so everyone has their water in huge buckets.  In one home we visited, the little 2 year old put a hot dog in the water bucket and they couldn't get it out, so they were kind of mad!  Kind of a sad story, but still funny.  

We got an investigator to church, and then when we were right in front of the building about to go in, she realized that she forgot her phone in the taxi.  She went running after it and then got in another taxi to chase it...so close to having her there, and yet so far.  Also, on Sunday our ward split! That was the first time I have ever seen that in my life, so it was really cool to be a part of it.  The new Bishop is the guy who took us to the volcano, so he is really nice.  Here in my mission, I have seen a branch become a ward and a ward split for the 4th time in 10 years, so there really is a lot of growth here in Mexico in the church. 

Rachel told me that I need to sign up for classes this week, so I said I would room with her.  It will be good because I don't know any of the housing and my companion said the place Rachel wants to live is good because there are lots of returned missionaries who live there so it would be great if you can work  with Rachel to sign me up for housing.

Love,
Hermana Jones 

Elder Jones Week 37

Hey guys! So, as always, I had a great week. We were pretty busy getting everything ready for all the baptisms that happened on Saturday. Olinda, Alonzo, Camila, Xiomara, Rosa, and Cusi were able to get baptized this Saturday. Eileen wasn´t able to get baptized because her mom in the last minute changed her mind again and withdrew her permission.  But we had an amazing baptismal service. 

Cusi is 18 years old and she has been attending church with her mom since she was 5, but she couldn´t ever get baptized because her dad didn´t give her permission.  But despite not being baptized she completed her personal progress and graduated from seminary. She´s inspirational. Rosa was baptized by her son Jean, who is about to leave for his mission. My companion Elder Membrillo baptized Xiomara, Camila and Alonzo were baptized by their grandpa, and Olinda was baptized by one of the elders that taught her while she was visiting her children who live in the other ward´s boundaries but aren´t members.  It was really amazing and I felt really happy to be able to see so many people be able to enter into the waters of baptism.  At the end everyone who was baptized went up and bore their testimony and their testimonies were so powerful. These people knew what they were doing when they got baptized. It was a really great night.

That same night a miracle occurred. Olinda, who got baptized, has been blind for about a year.  She knows that the church is true, and she knows that it is the church led by Jesus Christ, who healed the sick and the blind.  Olinda had been praying and fasting with the other Elders that first taught her that with her baptism she would be healed of her blindness.  The other elders had also given her a priesthood blessing, I believe.  And she had so much faith, I know few people with as much faith as Olinda.  So she was baptized on Saturday and my companion and I accompanied her to her apartment. She lives alone and she doesn´t have light in her house, so we helped her into her apartment and we always have to use the flashlight from our phone because she doesn´t have light.  My companion was using the flashlight to see around the apartment and all of a sudden Olinda told us that she could see a light.  That it seemed to her like there was a light flashing on and off.  At first we thought she was joking with us but every time that the light came near her she could tell.  And that´s something that she couldn´t do before because we had taught her using the flashlight before, but now she can differentiate between light and darkness.  I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ.  That he lives, and that he blesses us with miracles according to our faith. 

I hope you guys have a great week. I´ve been studying the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible along with the Bible, and it´s really interesting to me the small and simple truths that were taken away but that we now have access to because God has newly called prophets. 

Love you guys!
Elder Jones