Hermana Jones Week 59

So this week was super super great.  First of all, I am super happy that you got my package.  Hermana Daniel is one of the nicest members that I have ever met.  I was really interested what you guys would think about the candies that I sent.  I remember the beginning of my mission I hated tamarind and they put it in everything here.  There are tons of candies that are made with it.

Also, here you almost never drink just plain water.  They either make water out of blended up fruit, Jamaica, or they put tamarind in it.  So I drink tamarind water probably at least once a day. Hahaha, so now I love it.  I am glad you liked the gummies-- those are my favorite candies here in Mexico.  

They also make something that it kind of like caramel apples but instead of covering it in caramel they cover it in tamarind or a paste that is chilies mixed with sugar and... mmmmm it is super tasty. 

This week I also got your package, and everyone was amazed with the jelly beans.  I shared them with some of the people in the ward and they loved them.  Hahah

 So this week has been super fun and crazy.  The family that I sent you the picture of went to church this week and loved it sooo much. They are so amazing and I am sure they are going to get baptized. 

Then on Monday we went to a meeting with a Seventy.  It was super super amazing.  His name is Elder Nash.  I was a little nervous because I was singing with my companion in the meeting, and then I got more nervous when I got there and saw my name on the program that I was going to bear my testimony and then me and my companion got called on to do a practice in front of everyone.  It was pretty nerve wracking to do a practice in front of the mission with the mission president and a Seventy watching you, but it was fine and everything went good.  I learned a ton from the meeting. So that was on Monday. 

On Sunday night we had the sisters from Tianguistenco come to our house because we had to leave at  in the morning to get to D.F. in time for the meeting with Elder Nash.  It was super fun, though, to have us six in the house.  It was like a sleepover. 

Then the best moment of my life happened yesterday. There was a meeting in Toluca for all the recent converts and I saw all my converts from Sauces.  It made me cry but I was sooooo happy. Then today we have Pday and tomorrow we have to go back to D.F because there is a meeting with all the leaders of the mission with Elder Nash so I am super excited to see what he will say.  

Also a miracle I saw yesterday is we were contacting, and a lady came up to us and said she wanted to got to church on Sunday.  We were obviously super excited and gave her a Book of Mormon. Then it started raining and hailing super hard.  To the point that it hurt a ton because it was hail the size of marbles hitting us on the head so we stayed under a tree and a family saw us from their window and invited us inside their house.  Thy are going to church on Sunday too.  So many miracles happening here in Mexico.  I have really gained a testimony, though, that you can't find greater joy here on Earth than sharing the gospel.  Super cool to hear that everything is going well for you and I hope you guys have a great week. 
Love,
Hermana Jones

Favorite scripture that I read this week 
Alma 36:3

About the photos: Baby bananas here in Mexico taste the best.  Our get-together with the other hermanas.  The best family ever-- I am missing their oldest daughter and dad in the picture.  Mexico has the best bread, and just my luck, I got to see how they make it!

Elder Jones week 49

HEY GUYS! Great to hear about how you are doing this week! So we had a great week to end the transfer. Richard and Wudullnara got married!! We had the opportunity to attend their marriage.  It was a massive marriage-- 114 other people got married that same day!  They had their wedding reception in the church building, and then right after the reception was the baptism of Jairo and Alex. They`re two really strong young men that always accompany us. 

And then on Sunday after the meetings we had the baptism of Richard and his son Rogger baptized him.  It was a really great baptismal service and I can`t wait until a year from now when they go to the temple.  Rogger is seriously thinking about serving a mission now.  When we met him 3 weeks ago he said he wanted to enter into the police force, but he had 3 exams this last week to enter into the police force and he said that if he didn´t make it in he was going to go on a mission, and if he did he was going into the police.  And he didn´t make it in!  I let him borrow my white baptism tie for Richard´s baptism and told him to keep it for his mission. Hopefully I don´t leave Rimac this week so I can actually go to the temple to get a white tie. 

As of now, all our recent converts and reactivated members that qualify to go to the temple on Wednesday have a family name to bring to the temple!  So that´s a great relief for me.  Isabella taught the Gospel Principles class on Sunday for the first time and she did a great job!  We´re thinking that she´s going to be the new teacher for gospel principles because we haven´t had one for a couple of months, because she wants to teach the class, and because she wants to serve a mission a year from now.  

Also we had a really awesome sacament meeting yesterday! we`ve been teaching this family with a child prodigy violinist. His name is Rodrigo Castillo. His dad wants us to look him up on youtube but we can´t but maybe you guys can if you want.   They live in the floor below Olinda, and whenever we´re teaching Olinda we always hear him practicing violin and he´s amazing.  He´s also 13.  We´ve taught them a few times and they love the Book of Mormon.  He also speaks English and he´s been to Chicago before.  So anyway we gave him a hymnbook and told him that it would be great if we could do a special musical number in church someday and sing "the Spirit of God" while he plays it on violin.  He said he would like to but they rarely have time for teaching appointments, much less church.  But he showed up out of nowhere yesterday in church yesterday with his dad and his violin and told us that he wanted to do it.  So Elder Price and I sang the Spirit of God while a Child prodigy was playing it on violin and his dad, Fernando, accompanied him on the piano. It turned out so well. 

And the best part was that we had 10 investigators attend church yesterday.  The mission is seriously the best.  There is nothing like this.  I hope I get to stay a while longer to be able to go to the temple with these people.  I hope you guys have a great week! 

Elder Jones 

Hermana Jones Week 58

So I just talked to you yesterday, so there is not a lot to say so I will try sending some pictures and see how it goes.  Did you get the picture that sister Brady sent you of the Relief Society wishing you Happy Mothers day?

On the pictures, one is of our zone, one of the sisters in the zone.  Also, I am officially on the wall in Mexico.  The girl is the one with the hernia that we helped her and her brother at church.

Love,
Hermana Jones

Elder Jones week 48

Hey guys! 

It was great talking to you all yesterday!! You all seem happier than I`ve ever seen you. Glad to know you're doing great! I had a great week.

So, like I told you yesterday we were going to have a baptism yesterday for Amadea, Laura´s mom, and she didn`t come to church and when we went to her house we couldn´t find her.  So she didn`t get baptized so that is sad BUT we did reactivate a pair of 15-year old twins named Orlando and Javier.  And we`re going to the temple with them on the 20th! We have been visiting them for a couple of weeks after we met them in the street and recently this week we were able to talk to the entire family, and it turns out that the father wants to get baptized!  but he just needs to get divorced to his ex-wife and get married to the mother of the twins.  The mother of the twins is also attending church again.  She said she felt like something was missing in her family when they weren`t attending church.  They`re a really great family.  The twins have always attended seminary every day despite the family being inactive.

So today I`m not going to have a ton of time to write because we just got back from the Municipality with Richard and Wudullnara helping them with their papers to get married this Saturday! It turns out that there was a cheaper massive marriage in another district of Lima on May 16th so they decided to choose that one.  And Richard got a job this week! and what's better is that it doesn`t make him work on Sundays! This family is receiving sooo many blessings.  I can`t wait to see where they are a year from now.  We`re in a good ward with a good ward council so I`m sure that they`ll be sufficiently prepared for the temple a year from now. 

Isabella is progressing really well.  She just got a calling this week as president of the Gospel Principles class.  She did a great job welcoming the class.  She still wants to go on a mission.  Next week she`s going to teach part of the class for Gospel Principles.  She´s going to bring the name of her grandpa to the temple the 20th and one of the other converts in our ward, Cristian, is going to get baptized for him.  We`re also working on getting names printed for Olinda, Sofía, Richard, Wudullnara, Rogger, Samuel, Orlando, Javier, and Kevin so they can all go to the temple for the first time!  We`re going to have a family history activity on Friday just to get everyone ready for the temple trip on the 20th. 

We had a couple of great experiences teaching tithing this week. last week in the fast and testimony meeting almost everyone that went up to bear their testimony spoke about the blessings of paying tithing, and this week we talked to a few less active members that noticed and want to pay their tithing now because they have faith that they will be blessed when they pay it. 

Also I forgot to tell you about the craziest thing that happened this week!!!  We had a surprise baptism on Friday.  No one came to our English class, except for Robert who is 18 and was going to get baptized a while ago but his mom didn`t let him.  But he`s 18 and therefore doesn`t need the permission of his mom, so we were talking to him and we asked him if he wanted to get baptized. He said yes.  We asked him if he wanted to get baptized that same day, and he said yes.  So we filled up the baptismal font and baptized him at 9:30 at night.  It was a crazy experience.  He´s got such a strong testimony and a lot of faith. 

I had a great week, and I hope everything goes well for you guys this week! 

Elder Jones   

Hermana Jones week 57

Sorry I don't have a lot of time to write because we only have half P-day today but I hope you guys are doing great.  This week has been fun.  Monday we went to D.F. for training and yesterday I gave a talk in zone conference on how to strengthen the faith of members and help them participate more in the work of salvation. 

I am pretty tired today because Monday we went to D.F. and Tuesday we had zone conference in the morning and then I went with a hermana to work in her area.  Everything is great here though.  I think we are going to call on Sunday at 5 our time because my companion's parents have church at 2 because they live in Utah haha.  

Yesterday in exchanges I tried dorilocos for the first time and they are delicious.  You open a bag of Doritos and they put peanuts in it and shredded carrots and a vegetable that I am not sure if we have in the U.S called jicama and then they drench it in hot sauce.  I think I am going to be sad coming back to the U.S. because we eat so much hot sauce here I don't know if I have taste buds any more.  Even when they give us rice in the food they pour hot sauce all over it.  

Also, we went to a house of some recent converts yesterday and they have a wall in their living room that is covered with the names of all the missionaries that have ever come to their house and they have them sign their name and write where they are from.  So I got to write my name! hahha they must really love the missionaries to let them write all over their walls!

Anyway I will see you guys Sunday! Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Jones
hermana Jones

Elder Jones Week 47

Hey guys!  I`m so happy to hear all this great news! I can`t wait to talk to you all Sunday! I`m thinking about skyping at 4pm on Sunday if that`s okay.

We had a great week! Today for Pday basically all we are going to do is help Richard and Wudullnara (the parents of Leonardo and Gabriel) with their marriage WHICH IS SATURDAY. And Richard is getting baptized on Sunday, and his 18 year old son Rogger is getting reactivated and will be ordained as a priest on Sunday, and then baptize his father a few hours later.  So this week is going to be a little crazy trying to get all the forms and certifications ready but I know we can do it!  Keep them in your prayers because this family is seriously the best.

We`ve been working with Laura and Miguel and Laura still really really wants to get baptized, so we`ve been talking about a marriage in July.  We also reactivated Miguel yesterday, and he`s doing so much better and their family has much fewer problems.  Honestly the best way to help a family is through the application of gospel principles.  They are so much happier.

We also have so many less actives that we are working with, too. Yesterday we had 14 less actives attend church.  And all of them are going to get reactivated this month.  We`re going to the temple on May 20th (the day after transfers) and we`re preparing all the people that are going to be reactivated before that day to bring a family name to the temple.  We`re also working with all the recent converts, including the ones that will be baptized before the 20th to bring names to the temple.  There is so much family history work to do with the recent converts and reactivated that we would definitely feel overwhelmed if the ward wasn`t helping us so much.

There was a ward activity on Friday and it was a huge success.  Almost every member came with a friend and we met at family of 10 that are really good friends with president Huapaya (the counselor of my mission president who lives in my area). We have a family home evening with them tonight.

There is seriously so much work to do.  We are finding so many prepared people and the members are helping us out so much.  That`s the only way to go in missionary work, with the members.

I had such a great week and I can`t wait to talk to you guys on Sunday!

Elder Jones

Hermana Jones week 56

Wow, you've done a lot of work on the house.  I couldn't even recognize the house when I saw all the pictures.  I couldn't tell which one was Hal's room and which one was Tyler's.  Except for the bunkbeds gave it away. 

 I was thinking though that it would be really cool if you could invite the people from mom's side of the family to come to my coming home talk.  Also, I can't believe that Lauren Holbrook got back from her mission.  Crazy how fast time flies.  I got my official date of when I am coming home this week and it is Aug 19th.  

Also the guy who is going to Chicago took my box to give to you guys.  I gave him your number so he can call but just in case I will give you his number too.  Well I will give it to you next week because I don't have it with me now. I wasn't able to send all the stuff I wanted because he is going in airplane and I didn't want him to have to bring a ton of stuff but I hope you like when is in there.  Also for when we talk on mothers day can you send me what all my login information is for Skype because I think I lost it.  Also next week I will tell you what time we will be calling once we find a member's house we can go to.  We only have half an hour to talk this time but its not so bad because it wont be long until I see you guys again.  

Anyways I am loving it here in Lerma.  It is super great because the people are so nice and our ward is HUGE. Yea it is a little different here because there are minimum  missionaries in every ward but there are some areas in our zone that have  missionaries in their ward.  I can't even believe how the hermanas in the ward are able to feed all their missionaries.  This week was fun because I got to visit a lot of different areas.   My favorite is working with new missionaries because they are always so excited to work.  It makes me happy to see.  I hope that the rest of my time in the mission I will get companions that don't have a lot of time in the mission because it helps me stay excited to be in the mission. 

So funny story from this week....I don't know if I should tell it but I will.  So it is starting to get really hot here so we are drinking lots of water but the problem with a walking mission is when you have to go to the bathroom you can be in the middle of nowhere and not have a quick way to get to a bathroom.  The good thing is here in Mexico they are very open to strangers entering their house.  It's a  great contacting strategy.  Anyway, the problem was it was an outhouse type of thing and it was super tiny. I didn't realize that my backpack was open and my Book of Mormon fell in the toilet.....It was super bad and of course I had to get it out.....yea it was pretty bad.  I learned though that you can have really bad things happen but it can still be great.  That day was probably one of my most memorable and funniest days of the mission even though I fell and scraped my legs, got terribly sunburnt, had my Book of Mormon fall in the toilet and all our appointments fell through.  We were just having a great time all day. 

Also a good experience this week was when I went to another area to work the goal was to help  parents decide to get married so their family could be baptized because they have been living together for a long time but didn't want to get married.  I learned a lot from the lesson we had with them that we will always always know what to say when we listen to the Holy Ghost.  It was one of the happiest phone calls I have ever gotten when the hermanas from that area called me Sunday night to tell me that the family had been baptized that day.  I hope you guys have a great week.  Work hard, finish school off well, and share the gospel.

Love,

Hermana Jones