Hey guys! I hope you all had a great Easter and General Conference! I learned a ton, and I really liked the talks. Also, happy Mormon Christmas, since Jesus was actually born on April 6th.
So we had a great week! I´m sending pictures right now of our Pday last week. We ate guinea pig for the first time on my mission! It´s actually really tasty. I thought it would be like the chicken here with a lot of fat, tendons and cartilage, but it´s basically all meat! Even the skin was really good and I usually can´t eat the skin on chicken. The best part was probably the head. I ate the eyes and the brain and the ears and basically everything else. I have a video of me eating the brain that I can´t send because it´s too big, but i´ll have to show you some day. Just so you guys know, Little Ging... tastes really good.
So we had a lot of great spiritual experiences this week. On Monday we were walking in the street to an appointment and a woman stopped us in the street and told us that she wants us to visit her and her children. She said that she had received the lessons from the missionaries years ago and her ex-husband is a member. So we came back another day to teach her and her children with Sister Tasaico, the Relief society president, and we had a really great lesson. It turns out that her life events are almost identical to Sister Tasaico´s life events. The spirit was really strong in the lesson, and she came to the conference and she had a great experience.
So news with Eugenio and Doris, we have news about their marriage. We found them a lawyer! Someone from Elder Price´s old sector in Magdalena who is a lawyer offered to help them try to get married for free! And that´s a big relief for me because I have no idea how to get people married in Perú and all I could do was talk with ward members, and they would all give me advice on what to do, but no one knew exactly what to do. But now that that is getting taken care of I feel less of a weight on my shoulders, because honestly I´ve never met two people that want to get baptized as badly as Eugenio and Doris. They´re progressing so well. The second counselor in the stake presidency lives in our ward and we had a family home evening with them and Eugenio, Doris, and Sofía this week.
We´re preparing Isabela to get baptized soon. She had a goal to get baptized this Saturday the 11th but family problems arose this week which complicated things, but I´m certain that she can get baptized this Saturday. She is progressing so much and it´s obvious that a mighty change has been brought to pass in her life. That is one of my favorite parts of doing missionary work: seeing the change that one undergoes as they come closer to their Heavenly Father and make covenants with him, from the door to baptism. It is a testimony that the feelings and changes that were brought to pass in my own personal conversion weren´t coincidences, but something real, something true for everyone.
Also we actually met a British family this week. They´re from London. We were waiting for someone to open their door because we had an appointment with them, and across the the street on the 2nd story of the building we heard someone say in English, and in an English accent. "Look daddy, white people". We turned around and we saw two of the whitest kids I´ve ever seen and their parents were there. We started having a conversation with the parents and they´re from London but the dad´s family is from Perú and they recently moved here to Perú to run a foster care. We couldn´t come in because the mom was feeling "a bit ill" but we talked from the window. The mom told us that we "look a bit smart today" and we had no idea what that meant but apparently it means that we were dressed in white shirts and ties. We´re going to visit them this week.
I really enjoyed conference. I learned a lot. I need some time to reflect and apply what I learned. I hope you guys have a great week!
Elder Jones
Somebody in the ward said that I should tell you that I am staying in Mexico to marry a Mexican boy...as a joke for April Fools Day! But I decided not to, hahha! Anyway, this week was really good.
We have a guy named Jorge who is getting baptized this week in between the conference sessions on Sunday and then a family who is getting baptized the next week. This week was really good and we have been working really hard.
There has been a lot of drama going on here in the ward but one of the things I like about being a missionary is that you don't have to worry about it. What I have been thinking about a lot these few weeks are the experiences we have that help us remember what is really important. One of the things that I love about being in the mission here in Mexico is it helps you realize all the things that I had in the United States that we don't have here. Like air conditioning or washing machines, or not having to warm up our water with an iron in a bucket of water or coming home every night to kill tons of cockroaches. But the thing is, you can be happier even though you have less and it comes from realizing what is really important.
Also, I was reading my blessing that I got when I was set apart for the mission, and it was really interesting because it talks about how my family will be protected with protection and strength while I was gone. I thought about some of the things that happened while I have been gone (like Dan having health problems) and I was a little doubtful that Heavenly Father was protecting my family until I remembered what I had been thinking before. What is really important? Sometimes we can't see the plan Heavenly Father has for us but I started to think the protection that I was promised in the blessing was not physical protection at all-- it was the spiritual protection of our family. More important than anything that happens in this life is the spiritual strength that we obtain and the chance to live as an eternal family.
Since I can't think of anything else exciting that happened this week, I will share some more things I learned from my studies. Oh, and the class schedule looks good for BYU. OK, so another thing I was studying was about Jesus Christ and how when John the Baptist was in jail and asked if it is really the Savior and what the Savior sends back is tell him the people that were healed and the miracles that were preformed. He didn't send back any of the words he said or the lessons he taught he sent back the acts he had preformed. I like this example a lot because we need to follow the example o Jesus Christ and show people that we are representatives of Jesus Christ by our actions and deeds. What is the best way to share the gospel? by being an example.
Also in church they were talking about family history work and someone started talking about angels. How a lot of times we don't believe in angels in this day but how when we are doing family history work we are surrounding ourselves with angels. Our ancestors are guiding our efforts here in our lives or they are guiding our efforts to find their names. It brought a new meaning to family history work for me.
Anyway, I hope you guys have a great week and I hope it gets warmer there for you. The photos are of the family that is getting baptized next week, and of the washing machines here in Mexico :).
Love,
Hermana Jones
Hey guys! I had a great week!
So I received my new companion, Elder Price, this week and since the start I´ve realized that he´s such a blessing for this sector and ward. I was a little worried about being in the trio because I felt like we weren´t going to be able to teach all the people that need our help but now that I´m working with Elder Price everything is going really smoothly. I´m really grateful for the opportunity to work with a missionary as dedicated and obedient as Elder Price. He´s from Sacramento California and he has 16 months in the mission. He came from Condevilla because he was also training and his companion had to go home. We witnessed quite a few miracles this week.
On Thursday we were able to teach a recently reactivated young man, Samuel, with plans to go on a mission next year. We taught his cousin, William, who is almost ready to be reactivated, and his cousin Renato, who isn´t baptized yet but really enjoys the lessons. These three young men have such a great desire to learn more about the gospel and progress, it´s so much fun to teach them.
We´ve been working with Laura this week, and she will get baptized on April 25th. She´s so excited for her baptism and we can really see the progress she´s made. She´s made a goal to finish the entire book of Mormon before her baptism.
On Saturday we went to a baptism in Elder Price´s old ward and it was really great. Elder Price baptized a 17 year old young man named Franklin who looked really happy to be able to get baptized. It was a little sad, though, because that same day of his baptism his dad had to go to prison. On the way back, we were in a taxi talking to the taxi driver and he was actually really interested in our message. He accepted a book of Mormon and we wrote down his information to pass the referral, and when we tried to pay him he didn´t accept the money. He said that the Book of Mormon was more than enough.
Yesterday we were walking to a lesson with Isabella and someone said "hello" to us in English, like always, but for some reason we decided to go up and talk to him and he spoke perfect English, and it turns out that he was from Salt Lake City. He was born in Peru but grew up in Salt Lake with his Dad. His name is Raul, and he´s not a member, but his dad was and he always brought him to the general conferences when he was growing up. His dad passed away in November and now he´s living here in Lima alone. He´s 28. He told us that he feels really alone and that he´s going through a hard time right now. So we´re going to visit him this week and he´s going to go to the conferences with us. He´s a really nice person. He also has a really heavy Utah accent.
I´m learning a lot, and I´m really happy.
I hope you guys have a great week!
Elder Jones
So this week was really good-- we had the baptism of Israel! Not a ton happened this week. One thing I did realize this week is that in every bad situation there is always silver lining. This week our backpacks got stolen with all our scriptures and everything, which was kind of sad because I have 13 months in the mission now, so my scriptures were pretty marked up. The good thing, though, was that we got to go to the temple visitor center and I got to go to the temple for the first time in my mission! It was so nice to see the temple after so long of not seeing it. That is the nice thing about the mission is your desire to go to the temple really grows. You learn so much more about the importance of the temple and I got really antsy sometimes thinking about not being able to got to the temple for a year and a half but really there is such a peace just to be on the temple grounds and feel all the peace that you can feel there.
Also I learned a lot of humility because I had to start all over again in my scriptures but it was a good experience to study basic doctrines again. Don't worry, though, we are completely safe though.
I am working super hard on my Spanish because my dream job after the mission would be to work at the MTC and if that doesn't happen maybe the cupcake store at BYU, so at least I will get lots of yummy cupcakes.
Anyway, more things that have happened this week... well, we spent most of the morning getting my visa renewed so I can stay here in Mexico. Also, I don't think I will be able to sign up for my classes for BYU, so Mom & Dad, I will need you to do it. I don't really care what classes they are, as long as they cover some of the classes that I need. Also, if I could finish my classes as early as possible because I would rather have classes early and finish early too. Especially on Monday because there is Family Home Evening. Also if you can sign me up for intermediate tap dance and beginning guitar. The other classes is just whatever generals I need and the beginning English classes.
Hey Guys! So I had a great week. My companion had to go home this week, but now I´m in a trio with Elder Kidd and Elder Pascual (the other companionship in my ward) It´s SO different with 3 missionaries, and I feel like I´m going to need to do splits everyday for these next 2 weeks that we´re together in a trio because there´s so much work to do in the two areas. Yesterday we didn´t do splits and we both had so many important appointments that day and we weren´t able to visit everyone we needed to visit, so I think it´ll be a lot easier and a lot more effective to do splits most days.
We had the baptism of Sofía yesterday! You need to hear her give her testimony-- it´s impressive. We had a lot of support from the ward and a lot of people came. It was a really great baptismal service, but the best part of it (also the part where I learned the most) was in the closing prayer. Sofías dad, who isn´t a member yet because he has to get married to his wife, gave the closing prayer. He said, in his prayer, "Thank you for baptizing my daughter by way of Elder Jones, and I ask that the next two people to get baptized be my wife and I". When I heard that, first of all I was impressed by how much he wanted to get baptized. But also I learned that he really understands the priesthood. I didn´t baptize his daughter, God did. I´m just an instrument. It´s true that I physically preformed the ordinance and put her under the water, but I was just an instrument in God´s hands in that. A hammer is needed to pull out a nail, but the hammer doesn´t pull out the nail, the person uses the hammer to pull out the nail. Eugenio understands the priesthood and baptism in a way that I didn't, and that´s just another testimony to me that the spirit is the real teacher in the lessons, not me.
So this week we had a lesson with Isabella. She was going to get baptized a few years ago but she´s from a part of Perú where the church really hasn´t reached yet and she realized that it would be really hard to be a member of the church where her family lives. But she goes to church every week with a family in our ward that she´s living with, because she´s here in Lima for a few years to study. And we taught her yesterday about the Book of Mormon and we invited her to do all the things necessary to find out that the Book of Mormon is true, and she committed to baptism! It is something she hasn't done in years, preparing to learn that the Book of Mormon is true. So I pray that this is the time God has prepared her for.
We lost This Is My Work And My Glory To Bring To Pass The Immortality And Eternal Life Of Man dog this week because we had to take a taxi somewhere. The dog followed our taxi for about two miles, but he couldn´t keep up with us and we lost him. But he did follow us around for almost an entire week.
I hope you guys are all doing great. I´ll continue to pray for you all!
Elder Jones
Hola! well this week was super good. We have the temple really close in my area now, so this week we are taking some of our investigators to the visitors center there.
We also have an investigator this week who is getting baptized. He has been coming to church for a long time and went to the visitor center at the temple and loved it. He has had a really hard time changing his life around though because he has had lots of problems with the law of chastity but we have been helping him and the Elders and he has been pretty much living with a family from the ward to help him out. I am super excited for him.
Anyway this week was fun we went with two other hermanas today and asked permission to go bowling! It was super fun because I haven't been bowling in so long! There are some perks to being in the city on preparation day-- there are so many fun things to do.
Anyway, a lot of our investigators are studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses, but it has really been a blessing because I have learned about a lot of things and spent lots of time studying the Bible. One of the hardest things that happened, though, was when we were teaching our investigator and the Jehovah's Witnesses came and wanted to talk to us, which was bad because they love to Bible bash, so we were in that lesson for a solid 2 hours. We tried our hardest though not to have contention and to have the spirit with us.
This week I also had a very interesting experience. We were teaching a lesson and it is a family of a Dad, his three sons, and the daughter. The lesson was good until the oldest son came in took out his Bible and started saying all these different scriptures about why we were wrong and how it wasn't the plan of God that we had trials that we came here and we would have lived in paradise if it weren't for Adam and Eve. We read a scripture but then I felt like I needed to tell him my experience with trials, but I just kept trying to push it away but finally I bore my testimony that I know that we are here to be tried. That there is a difference between innocence and wisdom and that through our experiences we gain wisdom. That every trial we have makes us stronger, tries our faith, and gives us an opportunity to choose to follow our Heavenly Father in whatever circumstance. So I shared some of my trials, and he just looked at me. I thought he was going to start arguing again, but he took off the hat he was wearing and he only had a little patch of hair on his head-- the rest was all burnt. He talked about how when he was younger he was bullied, but not just with words, people did terrible terrible things to him. I don't think I will ever forget the spirit I felt in that lesson or ever forget the love I felt in that moment for that boy and I know the love I felt wasn't my own it was the love that Heavenly Father really has for each of his children.
I know that our Father in Heaven suffers when he sees the pain we have here on this Earth, but he lets us have these experiences because he knows it is the only way we can be with him forever. It is the only way we can have really happiness. That moment I realized a boy who looked completely normal before had terrible scars under his hat. I realized in that moment every one of us here on this Earth has battle wounds whether they are visible or not. That this earth really is a war against Satan.
I have no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father knows us personally. My patriarichal blessings talks a lot about some of the things that are trials for me, and I have gotten blessings from leaders who don't have any idea about what is happening, but they say the things that I need to hear and say things that are not possible for them to know. I don't know how much I am helping others here on my mission, but there is one thing that I can say is that the mission has helped me. I can truly say that I have seen miracles, that my testimony has grown immensely, and I have come to understand more what really is the gospel and atonement of Jesus Christ. One of my favorite talks I read this week was by Elder Holland and it is called "Aren't we all Beggars."
Anyway, I hope you guys have a great week. Much success to you!
With love,
Hermana Jones
Hey Guys! I had a great week! First of all everything is going well with the Ravello Family. Their 12 year old daughter Sofía gets baptized this Saturday! She`s really excited, and I can really tell that she knows that this church is true. She`s reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, she`s almost halfway done, and we started teaching her less than a month ago. Her parents are both excited for her baptism, and it turns out that the documents that they need to get married are going to cause a delay a little bit, because Doris first needs to legally get divorced from her ex-husband first, and he`s living in Panama right now. So it`s going to be a while before her parents can get married and baptized, but it`ll be some time this year so I`m happy about that. We had a family home evening with them and the Pezo family in our ward and we taught about temples and family history. They still have it as their goal to get sealed in the temple, and even though I wont be here on my mission when that happens.
I`m so happy that this family is going to be together after this life. So we had 3 lessons with them this week, and one them only Sofía and Eugenio came, because Eugenio and Doris had been fighting earlier that day, and he just came to us with all of his marriage problems and frustrations and had a lot of faith that we knew exactly what to say to help him and his family. While he was telling me everything, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by everything. I don`t have experience in marriage counseling, and everything was riding on us being able to help this family, because if we can`t help them they won`t become an eternal family. So I was trying my best to listen really closely to what he was telling me and I remembered something that I had learned that day during the extra hour of companion study that trainers and new missionaries have. I remembered a quote from Elder Holland from the Preach my Gospel videos, where he says "If you listen, you won´t have to wonder what to say. If you listen, what they are saying will highlight a gospel truth that you need to teach". So I was listening to Eugenio with the intent to find out what gospel truth the Spirit was telling me to teach, and it turns out that it was repentance. And I felt impressed to share Alma 36 with him, all of it, the entire chapter. And I could feel the spirit testifying to me that that was what he needed.
So this week we received a bit of sad news from our investigators Jessica and Olga that were going to get baptized the 28th of this month. We went to an appointment we had scheduled with them and they weren`t home, so I called and they said that they feel like they don`t want to participate any more and that they don`t want us to visit them. So it is very sad, and I know that it`s the enemy placing doubt in their hearts, but it`s okay. Right now isn`t their time. God needs some time without missionaries to prepare them more.
Samuel is progressing really quickly. He will be reactivated this Sunday. I`ve never met a teenager on my mission so interested in learning the Gospel. He wasn`t able to learn these things growing up because his family was inactive, and now that he has the opportunity to learn he`s taking advantage of it. He`s also going to seminary every day, and we`re working with him in his family history also.
Also this week I went to the temple! I got a lot of really good answers for my investigators and I learned a few new things.
So yesterday something really funny happened. My companion and I were both feeling a little bit discouraged, and when we said a prayer to leave our apartment, my companion said a prayer to ask for encouragement. So we left to go teach, and right when we left, a stray dog started following us. It followed us the entire day. And when we entered a house he would wait for us until we came out. At the end of the day we entered our apartment and he waited outside for us the entire night. This morning he went running with us and right now he`s waiting outside the internet store for us. It`s insane. We named him "This is my work and my Glory. To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". I`ll send some pictures because maybe you don`t believe me... seriously this dog is crazy!
I hope you guys have a great week, and I continue to pray for you!
Elder Jones
