Monday, June 15, 2015
Tyler Jones - Eagle Scout
Congratulations to Tyler on earning his Eagle Scout award. Way to go Tyler!
Monday, June 8, 2015
Hermana Jones week 62
Wow, I cannot believe that you guys are moving this week! It seems a little unreal to me. It was funny, though, because I told a family in the ward that you guys were moving to Indiana. It was funny because they said all that moving only to end up in the same place that you started! hahaha I got a pretty good laugh out of that.
This week was super fun but a little hectic. We have 7 people who are getting baptized on June 21, so I hope you guys can pray for all of them. The first couple is Viviana and Eric. They are amazing-- we gave them a pamphlet in the street and said we could visit when we got their we asked if they had their pamphlet. They looked down and didn't answer so we thought they had thrown it away but then they brought us into their room and they had cut out all the pictures of Jesus from the pamphlet and taped it up on their wall. They were also at the point of having an abortion when we met them because they didn't even have enough money to feed themselves and they didn't want to bring a baby into the world only to starve, but we promised them that God would help them provide for their family and hermano Eric got a job!
Also we have the Moctesuma family, which is the family from the picture I sent you who have 7 kids. Their oldest daughter, Jessica, said she wants to be a missionary!
Then we have Fabian and Marilu who are referrals from a member and they are the best. I love teaching them because every time we ask how they feel, they say that they feel like they found something that they have been looking for for a long time. The reason this week has been stressful is because none of them are married! So we have been getting the papers ready and getting the wedding ready for three couples! Here in Mexico a lot of people don't ever get married because there is a lot of paper work and in some places it costs a lot of money so they don't have the ability to pay to get married.
Anyway, another funny thing that happened this week is that we had stake conference, which I will talk about in a moment, but the elders in our ward were going to have a baptism, so they started to fill the font, which usually takes about 2 and a half hours. The four of us went with the members who were going to feed us and we ate for an hour so it would be plenty of time to come back, so we ate and at the end I looked at my phone and there were tons of missed calls from members of the church and missionaries in our zone. Our phones were on silent because we were in stake conference before. So I called, and everyone was in panic. The font was overflowing and filling the whole chapel. So we ran back to open the door to the font because only the elders have the keys and spent a lot of time cleaning the church hahaha so sadly there were a lot of witnesses because it was stake conference so all the stake leaders and all the missionaries in our zone are laughing about how the zone leaders and sister training leaders flooded the whole church..... The stake conference was really good though because one of the 70s came in.
I am super amazed every time I have heard a 70 talk in the mission because they never have notes! I don't know how they do it. I loved it, though, because I could feel the spirit so strong while he was talking. Some of my favorite things he said were that some decisions seem small but have huge consequences. Another part I loved was when he said God doesn't give us unnecessary trials. Every trial is designed specifically for us so that we can be stretched to be the person that he wants us to be. Anyway, I am out of time, but it sounds like this week is going to be a busy one for you guys. Wish you Luck! and I will keep you in my prayers.
Love,
Hermana Jones
This week was super fun but a little hectic. We have 7 people who are getting baptized on June 21, so I hope you guys can pray for all of them. The first couple is Viviana and Eric. They are amazing-- we gave them a pamphlet in the street and said we could visit when we got their we asked if they had their pamphlet. They looked down and didn't answer so we thought they had thrown it away but then they brought us into their room and they had cut out all the pictures of Jesus from the pamphlet and taped it up on their wall. They were also at the point of having an abortion when we met them because they didn't even have enough money to feed themselves and they didn't want to bring a baby into the world only to starve, but we promised them that God would help them provide for their family and hermano Eric got a job!
Also we have the Moctesuma family, which is the family from the picture I sent you who have 7 kids. Their oldest daughter, Jessica, said she wants to be a missionary!
Then we have Fabian and Marilu who are referrals from a member and they are the best. I love teaching them because every time we ask how they feel, they say that they feel like they found something that they have been looking for for a long time. The reason this week has been stressful is because none of them are married! So we have been getting the papers ready and getting the wedding ready for three couples! Here in Mexico a lot of people don't ever get married because there is a lot of paper work and in some places it costs a lot of money so they don't have the ability to pay to get married.
Anyway, another funny thing that happened this week is that we had stake conference, which I will talk about in a moment, but the elders in our ward were going to have a baptism, so they started to fill the font, which usually takes about 2 and a half hours. The four of us went with the members who were going to feed us and we ate for an hour so it would be plenty of time to come back, so we ate and at the end I looked at my phone and there were tons of missed calls from members of the church and missionaries in our zone. Our phones were on silent because we were in stake conference before. So I called, and everyone was in panic. The font was overflowing and filling the whole chapel. So we ran back to open the door to the font because only the elders have the keys and spent a lot of time cleaning the church hahaha so sadly there were a lot of witnesses because it was stake conference so all the stake leaders and all the missionaries in our zone are laughing about how the zone leaders and sister training leaders flooded the whole church..... The stake conference was really good though because one of the 70s came in.
I am super amazed every time I have heard a 70 talk in the mission because they never have notes! I don't know how they do it. I loved it, though, because I could feel the spirit so strong while he was talking. Some of my favorite things he said were that some decisions seem small but have huge consequences. Another part I loved was when he said God doesn't give us unnecessary trials. Every trial is designed specifically for us so that we can be stretched to be the person that he wants us to be. Anyway, I am out of time, but it sounds like this week is going to be a busy one for you guys. Wish you Luck! and I will keep you in my prayers.
Love,
Hermana Jones
Elder Jones week 52
HEY GUYS!
That's great news that everything is going according to plan with the move. I wish you guys the best of luck this week with everything! Especially Dan with his birthday!
I had one of the best weeks in my mission so far. We just focused on being as efficient as possible with our time this week and do everything we needed to do to teach with members, have new investigators, and invite EVERYONE to baptism. We invited everyone we taught to baptism this week. Also before this week the greatest number of lessons with a member present I had had was 10, and I could never get above 10. This week we did everything we could to get above 10 lessons with a member present, and we got 20. Numbers don´t define success in missionary work, but I can say that I learned a lot this week about how to work efficiently and effectively.
We witnessed some miracles this week. Alicia, who is the aunt of Isabella, who recently was baptized, has a 2-year-old grand daughter that Isabella takes care of. This week her grand daughter caught a fever and they weren´t able to calm the fever so they took her to the hospital and when they got there they told her something along the lines of that a virus had entered into the brain and that it would probably leave her as a vegetable. They called their hometeachers and they came to the hospital to give the blessing, and then later we came to start a fast with them. Then during the fast, the fever disappeared and she started to eat again. She still needs to stay in the hospital for treatment, but as long as the fever is down it´s a lot more hopeful that she´s not going to have permanent complications. It was a really great experience because Isabella was recently baptized and this has really strengthened her testimony of the fast. (Also a really good Mormon message if you want to learn more about fasting is "the hope of God´s light")
I´ve been really sick all week but I´m still really happy with all the work we´ve done. I´m learning a lot and I can feel myself growing and progressing. I love the mission. I hope you guys have a great week!
Elder Jones
That's great news that everything is going according to plan with the move. I wish you guys the best of luck this week with everything! Especially Dan with his birthday!
I had one of the best weeks in my mission so far. We just focused on being as efficient as possible with our time this week and do everything we needed to do to teach with members, have new investigators, and invite EVERYONE to baptism. We invited everyone we taught to baptism this week. Also before this week the greatest number of lessons with a member present I had had was 10, and I could never get above 10. This week we did everything we could to get above 10 lessons with a member present, and we got 20. Numbers don´t define success in missionary work, but I can say that I learned a lot this week about how to work efficiently and effectively.
We witnessed some miracles this week. Alicia, who is the aunt of Isabella, who recently was baptized, has a 2-year-old grand daughter that Isabella takes care of. This week her grand daughter caught a fever and they weren´t able to calm the fever so they took her to the hospital and when they got there they told her something along the lines of that a virus had entered into the brain and that it would probably leave her as a vegetable. They called their hometeachers and they came to the hospital to give the blessing, and then later we came to start a fast with them. Then during the fast, the fever disappeared and she started to eat again. She still needs to stay in the hospital for treatment, but as long as the fever is down it´s a lot more hopeful that she´s not going to have permanent complications. It was a really great experience because Isabella was recently baptized and this has really strengthened her testimony of the fast. (Also a really good Mormon message if you want to learn more about fasting is "the hope of God´s light")
I´ve been really sick all week but I´m still really happy with all the work we´ve done. I´m learning a lot and I can feel myself growing and progressing. I love the mission. I hope you guys have a great week!
Elder Jones
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Hermana Jones week 61
Hola familia, jaja!
So first of all Happy Birthday to Dad. I hope you had a great birthday.
So this week was pretty great. Sandra got baptized on Sunday and was super happy. It made me kind of sad, though, because she bore her testimony that it was the happiest day of her life but the started crying and said that the only way it could be better is if her husband was there with her. It is a little hard because he worships the santa muerte which is pretty much just the grim reaper. It is kind of scary because people who worship it have tattoos of it or have shrines in their house. In D.F. there were more people who worshiped it so there were huge cases that had the grim reaper inside and people would put offerings by it. We are going to work with her husband a lot though. It will help a lot that Sandra got baptized because it will bring the spirit more into their home.
This week we went to our training meeting in D.F., so that is always fun because we get to see all the other zone leaders and sister training leaders. The Brady family brought us there because all their kids go to a special school in the city for kids who are bilingual. I can't even imagine going every day to school hours away. 4 hours every day just to go and come home from school. They are the best family ever, though, and they live in a neighborhood where there are a lot of people from other countries who are only there for work so when we went to eat with them yesterday one of their friends from Germany was there. It was crazy because his kids can speak German, Spanish, English ,and Russian fluently and one is 7 years old and one is 11. I was super impressed and I think I am going to try and do that with my future kids jajaja well I have to go because we don't have a ton of time to write on Half Pdays but I hope everything is going great there in Chicago and that you guys are going to have a great move.
Love,
Hermana Jones
So first of all Happy Birthday to Dad. I hope you had a great birthday.
So this week was pretty great. Sandra got baptized on Sunday and was super happy. It made me kind of sad, though, because she bore her testimony that it was the happiest day of her life but the started crying and said that the only way it could be better is if her husband was there with her. It is a little hard because he worships the santa muerte which is pretty much just the grim reaper. It is kind of scary because people who worship it have tattoos of it or have shrines in their house. In D.F. there were more people who worshiped it so there were huge cases that had the grim reaper inside and people would put offerings by it. We are going to work with her husband a lot though. It will help a lot that Sandra got baptized because it will bring the spirit more into their home.
This week we went to our training meeting in D.F., so that is always fun because we get to see all the other zone leaders and sister training leaders. The Brady family brought us there because all their kids go to a special school in the city for kids who are bilingual. I can't even imagine going every day to school hours away. 4 hours every day just to go and come home from school. They are the best family ever, though, and they live in a neighborhood where there are a lot of people from other countries who are only there for work so when we went to eat with them yesterday one of their friends from Germany was there. It was crazy because his kids can speak German, Spanish, English ,and Russian fluently and one is 7 years old and one is 11. I was super impressed and I think I am going to try and do that with my future kids jajaja well I have to go because we don't have a ton of time to write on Half Pdays but I hope everything is going great there in Chicago and that you guys are going to have a great move.
Love,
Hermana Jones
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Elder Jones Week 51
Hey guys!
I had a really great week! Dominic got baptized! I don´t have that many pictures because the person that took the pictures took them in a way so that they turn out really blurry but one of them turned out well! It was a really great baptismal service. His grandma came from another part of Lima. She´s a temple worker. When he gave his testimony at the end and talked about wanting to serve a mission his grandma started crying. He was really well recieved in the ward and the ward council is doing everything they can to help his mom, Liliana. I´m really happy with this ward and the diligence they have in recieving the people we teach and baptize.
So the biggest challenge we had this week was that everyone, including me, was sick. Two of our investigators with a baptismal date weren´t able to come to church because they were sick. BUT their baptismal dates still stand because they have enough church attendances.
I got your package this week! Exactly on the 28th. Thank you so much. I haven´t eaten anything yet because I´m still a little sick but I´m going to the doctor today to get checked out. That´s one thing I´ve learned on my mission: Go to the doctor and take medicine when you are sick. But I should be getting better sometime soon.
This week we started teaching Rafael who recently moved here from Iquitos (the jungle) and he´s living with his distant relatives who live in our ward. He´s 18 years old. They invited him to church last week and he came. I met him and invited him to a giant family home evening last Monday, which he really liked. Then we had a lesson with him on Tuesday with his relatives and the YSA leader in our ward, Christian. It turned out really well because the Acevedo family is a family of full returned missionaries. We invited him to baptism for June 27th and he accepted. Later that day he called us and told us that he didn´t want to wait until the 27th, and that it would be better on the 17th! We had a lesson yesterday with his relatives, Christian, and Jairo (the 18 year old that was baptized 2 weeks ago). We taught the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and he´s still really excited for his baptism the 17th! Leeloo will also be baptized on the 17th.
I had a great week! Happy Birthday to Dad! I wish you all the best of luck with the move, employment, and Allie with the karate. Love you guys!
Elder Jones
I had a really great week! Dominic got baptized! I don´t have that many pictures because the person that took the pictures took them in a way so that they turn out really blurry but one of them turned out well! It was a really great baptismal service. His grandma came from another part of Lima. She´s a temple worker. When he gave his testimony at the end and talked about wanting to serve a mission his grandma started crying. He was really well recieved in the ward and the ward council is doing everything they can to help his mom, Liliana. I´m really happy with this ward and the diligence they have in recieving the people we teach and baptize.
So the biggest challenge we had this week was that everyone, including me, was sick. Two of our investigators with a baptismal date weren´t able to come to church because they were sick. BUT their baptismal dates still stand because they have enough church attendances.
I got your package this week! Exactly on the 28th. Thank you so much. I haven´t eaten anything yet because I´m still a little sick but I´m going to the doctor today to get checked out. That´s one thing I´ve learned on my mission: Go to the doctor and take medicine when you are sick. But I should be getting better sometime soon.
This week we started teaching Rafael who recently moved here from Iquitos (the jungle) and he´s living with his distant relatives who live in our ward. He´s 18 years old. They invited him to church last week and he came. I met him and invited him to a giant family home evening last Monday, which he really liked. Then we had a lesson with him on Tuesday with his relatives and the YSA leader in our ward, Christian. It turned out really well because the Acevedo family is a family of full returned missionaries. We invited him to baptism for June 27th and he accepted. Later that day he called us and told us that he didn´t want to wait until the 27th, and that it would be better on the 17th! We had a lesson yesterday with his relatives, Christian, and Jairo (the 18 year old that was baptized 2 weeks ago). We taught the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and he´s still really excited for his baptism the 17th! Leeloo will also be baptized on the 17th.
I had a great week! Happy Birthday to Dad! I wish you all the best of luck with the move, employment, and Allie with the karate. Love you guys!
Elder Jones
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
Hermana Jones week 60
Ok, so I sent a lot of pictures because the computers we are using are pretty good.
When is the last day of school? I saw pictures of Dan and he looks suuuper different. I can't believe that that is the same Little Dan Dan... he looks so tall....he is probably going to be taller than me by the time I get back. Today we also had exchanges and I am in the same place, but I have my fist companion who is from another country other than Mexico or the United States and she is from... LIMA PERU! I was super excited to have her as my companion, and she seems like she is going to be really fun. Her name is Hermana Infante.
Anyway, this week was super fun. We didn't have a lot of time to work because we were with the Seventy on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and then we had a half Pday on Wednesday but it was still super great. We had a baptism this Sunday of Miguel Angel, and it was super great. All of his family was inactive but they are starting to come back to church and we baptized the youngest brother in their family. It was a really great end to the exchange.
This week was also pretty cool because my companion thought she would be leaving so she took me to part of our area that we had never gone to before called Las Misiones. In that second I remembered a family that had gone to church a few times while I was in Sauces but then they moved to LAS MISIONES!!! So I went home that night and looked in all my agendas and I found the number of the mom and we are going to go visit her this week! yay, I am so excited because she is the same lady that was in the pictures of my birthday with the piñata so I am going to see them again!
Also, funny story from this week-- we were walking for a really long time when we came across a group of about 15 dogs that were all fighting and we were super scared because they started surrounding us. I could just imagine them biting us because almost every missionary has been bitten by a dog here in Mexico. They started surrounding us and I started praying and singing, who knows what hymn... and we both went behind a pole and let them pass. They didn't pass, so we stared walking but the dogs followed us! They weren't fighting any more, but it was still scary, so we decided to turn around and walk the other way so they would keep walking, but they turned around and followed us. Then we crossed the highway, and they followed us! Wherever we went, we had a huge group of dogs following us. It went from super scary to super funny we pretended that we were Moses leading the people to the promised land while my companion sang "Let my people go." Then we went into a gated community so we thought the dogs would leave because they couldn't get in, but when we came out three hours later they were still sitting on the lawn. So all day we had our army of Street Dogs. It was pretty awesome.
Anyway, this week was great. Oh I forgot that the hermano who baptized Miguel angel is about to go on his misión, so he was super excited because it was his first baptism! I hope you guys have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Jones
When is the last day of school? I saw pictures of Dan and he looks suuuper different. I can't believe that that is the same Little Dan Dan... he looks so tall....he is probably going to be taller than me by the time I get back. Today we also had exchanges and I am in the same place, but I have my fist companion who is from another country other than Mexico or the United States and she is from... LIMA PERU! I was super excited to have her as my companion, and she seems like she is going to be really fun. Her name is Hermana Infante.
Anyway, this week was super fun. We didn't have a lot of time to work because we were with the Seventy on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and then we had a half Pday on Wednesday but it was still super great. We had a baptism this Sunday of Miguel Angel, and it was super great. All of his family was inactive but they are starting to come back to church and we baptized the youngest brother in their family. It was a really great end to the exchange.
This week was also pretty cool because my companion thought she would be leaving so she took me to part of our area that we had never gone to before called Las Misiones. In that second I remembered a family that had gone to church a few times while I was in Sauces but then they moved to LAS MISIONES!!! So I went home that night and looked in all my agendas and I found the number of the mom and we are going to go visit her this week! yay, I am so excited because she is the same lady that was in the pictures of my birthday with the piñata so I am going to see them again!
Also, funny story from this week-- we were walking for a really long time when we came across a group of about 15 dogs that were all fighting and we were super scared because they started surrounding us. I could just imagine them biting us because almost every missionary has been bitten by a dog here in Mexico. They started surrounding us and I started praying and singing, who knows what hymn... and we both went behind a pole and let them pass. They didn't pass, so we stared walking but the dogs followed us! They weren't fighting any more, but it was still scary, so we decided to turn around and walk the other way so they would keep walking, but they turned around and followed us. Then we crossed the highway, and they followed us! Wherever we went, we had a huge group of dogs following us. It went from super scary to super funny we pretended that we were Moses leading the people to the promised land while my companion sang "Let my people go." Then we went into a gated community so we thought the dogs would leave because they couldn't get in, but when we came out three hours later they were still sitting on the lawn. So all day we had our army of Street Dogs. It was pretty awesome.
Anyway, this week was great. Oh I forgot that the hermano who baptized Miguel angel is about to go on his misión, so he was super excited because it was his first baptism! I hope you guys have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Jones
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