Elder Tyler Jones week 56

Sounds like things are going well in indiana. That's awesome that you guys got that car from Grandma. That's so cool that Allie will be driving around in it. That's so awesome that Dan's going to be giving his talk in sacrament next week! I'm sure he will do a great job! Hopefully the babies aren't too crazy this year. I suppose you'll get this letter after your first day of work So you probably already know a bit about how crazy they are.

We've had a great week! 

Javier came to church again! So we're super excited about that. He's still in line to get baptized on the 19th. This has been his second time coming to church and he's really been enjoying it. He's already read a lot of the Book of Mormon. He's been getting to know a lot of people around church which has been awesome. He has a broken foot so he can't really do much all day so its generally really easy to find him at his house. We've been getting members to go over and see him so that he knows some more people in the ward. We usually only go over in the morning or mid day though. The people he lives with like to drink a lot and are aggressively catholic. But Javier doesn't drink or anything like that. He committed to live the word of wisdom this week. He didn't have any big problem but he's still committed. So that's been super awesome. Hno. Clemente has come with us a couple times for lessons and he's been really awesome. Hno. Clemente has always been an awesome person to bring to lessons. It's hard for anyone to not like Hno. Clemente. 

Also, the Clementes are planning on getting sealed in a few weeks. They've already gotten their endowments and their trying to set a date to be sealed in the temple. So we're super excited for them. 

Also, We found a member that's just been looking for where the church is. They were active before they moved to the area. But they moved here and couldn't find the church building so they hadn't gone. But we contacted into her in the street and she told us that she's a member. Then they came to church the next day. So that was cool.

We contacted a guy on the street this week and he pointed us towards a house and told us to go and knock on the door. He essentially said "My wife is never going to believe this". But he told us to say that he sent us. So we got to the house and knocked on the door and it turns out she's an inactive member. Her husband and kids aren't members. She was so surprised because she's moved a lot and every time she moves the missionaries somehow manage to find her really quick. But we talked to them for a little bit. They don't live in that house, they live outside of our area and were just visiting family. But they were all pretty excited about the gospel and going to church. She took at as a sign that she really aught to be going to church. So she'll be trying to bring her family along with her to church in El Camino ward just south of us. They had a little girl who went to primary as a little girl. She's ten now but she was super super excited when we talked about primary because she remembered how much she loved going to primary. So that was an awesome experience.

We went to play mini golf today. There's a place where missionaries can go to play mini golf for free because the owner is a member. We noticed that their's a big discount for families that go play mini golf there on Monday evenings as well. But it was a fun thing to do and we had a good time. 

Anyway, I've been doing well

I hope you have a great Week!

Semi naked bird I found, plus picture with companion

Elder Tyler Jones week 55

I'm glad you guys have been doing well in Indiana. Sounds like things have been interesting and I'm glad that you guys got to make the trip to Odon this week. That's pretty cool that you guys got a new car this week. I hope it works out well.

It's been a good week this week. Javier came to church this week. He had a broken foot and is going to be in a cast for the next couple months. He's really been enjoying having our lessons and he's been reading a lot of the Book of Mormon. He's already read all of first Nephi and keeps going on. It seemed like he really enjoyed church. We talked to him about baptism and he's willing to, so we're super excited for that.

This week we found a guy who was pretty interested in the gospel. He doesn't speak Spanish but we just started to teach him so we could refer him to the English elders. When we went over he had 2 other friends with him. They were all pretty intoxicated and the apartment smelt rather potent and was pretty messy. One of them was eating cat food. So we talked to them for a little bit and then left. They invited us back for dinner the next day as we were leaving. We thought that there was little chance that they were actually going to have us for dinner but we thought we aught to jus come back anyway. So we went back the next day and it was super weird. The entire apartment was cleaned up. They were all really well dressed with collared shirts and their shirts tucked in. They prepared a really nice dinner, set the table really nice and we had a good dinner with them. We talked about the gospel and all 3 really enjoyed it. We're going back next week with the English elders to hand them off. 

We also had a pastor trying to convince us that repentance wasn't necessary. We stopped to talk to him for a while but then even after he followed us to the car to try to keep talking to us about how we don't need repentance. He was an interesting guy. He wasn't really like offensive, he was really nice he was just sincerely trying to convince us why we're only saved by faith and that there's no need to repent. That went well into the night and we got home late because of it but it was a kind of fun experience.

Anyway, it's been an interesting week. I hope you have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 54

That's awesome that Allie had such a good time on the high adventure. That's good that she didn't get sunburnt. I was never very good at avoiding sunburns. Come to think of it, I'm still not. He suns been alright here still. Collared shirts make some interesting tan lines. That's so awesome that dan got to go to scout camp. Sounds like he had a lot of fun. 

It's been another good week for us.

Abraham didn't come to church this week. He was busy with work this week so we weren't able to meet with him and he didn't come to church. So that was pretty disappointing but we should be able to get in with him his week. 

A less active member came back to church and brought a friend though. We talked to him for a little bit. He really enjoyed church and he wanted to come back we were able to get his phone number and we're going to try to meet with him sometime this week. Hopefully all goes well with that. 

We also decided to try with another part member family. The wife comes to church regularly and the husband is already baptized. We're going to try to meet with them this week. We talked with them at church and they seemed really nice. They think their daughter had an evil spirit though. So we gave the daughter a blessing and they were pretty happy with that.

Our mission president challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days a couple weeks ago. That's been going well. I'm in Mosiah right now and am enjoying it. 

I'm having a great time, I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 53

Sounds like you guys had a good week. That's so exciting that the kids are going to be having some fun. That's pretty cool that Allie is going to get to go on a high adventure. Sounds like you guys are having some fun. Enjoy the meat for a week. There's a sister missionary in this ward and she's vegan. It's pretty hard to mix Mexican food and vegan so e members get creative. That's so cool that you guys are learning the scripture stories again!

It's been a great week.

We got to visit Abraham again this week. He came to church as well. He had been really busy the past couple weeks but we got to visit him and he's still excited to get baptized. He's already come to church five or so times and he's super awesome. He's doing great and will probably be baptized soon. We're going to try to figure out when that'll be with him is week.

We had an interesting experience this week. We got a referral to go see a man named Manuel at a trailer park several weeks ago. We knocked on his door a lot of times and no one ever answered. So we ended up dropping him. This week we were in the same trailer park trying to see someone else and we just knocked on his door another time just because. An older man opened the door and looked at us. We asked for Manuel. The guy seemed confused for a while and then he told us that Manuel is his brother. He told us that Manuel died just a few days earlier. We got to talking to this guy for a little bit. His name is Jose. He couldn't talk long that first day but he invited us to come back the next day in the evening. When we came back he let us in we talked to him for a while and taught about the plan of salvation. He wanted to be baptized on that first lesson. So we'll see where things go from there.

Also Douglas came to church. He wants to be baptized still he is just trying to get married to his girlfriend so that he can. He's been really busy at the same time. So he's slowly trooping along.

also, we went on a hike today. We had already gone to this one several months ago but it was still nice. It was pretty sunny and hot but it was still a really nice view. There's a lot of really nice hiking places in Portillo valley in the south part of our area.

Anyway, I'm doing great!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 52

Sounds like you guys have been having a good time. I'm glad you guys are having some fun... that's crazy that you guys can still catch so many fish in the pond. I'm glad the weather has been pretty nice for you guys as well.

It's been another great week!

We had a lesson with the Martinez family that went well. they're a part member family that has moved from El Salvador. The wife is a member and the Grandpa is a member. The grandpa is here for the summer to try to reactivate them. So that's been awesome. The wife and the son have come to church but the father still hasn't. They work a lot and they have a hard time getting off of work. So we've still been trying with that. We had a dinner with them and they made pupusas for us which were really good. We watched the restoration video with them and they enjoyed it. So we're hoping to get them to come to church. We finally got all of the information to get their records transferred to our ward from El Salvador.

We had a meeting with President Hunt. It was just a little meeting to get to know him and to learn about some of the changes in the mission. He's really excited and he's super awesome. So things are going pretty great. So I'm excited for how things go with the mission.

We've been working on some finding. We've found some really nice people, it's always a little hard to get them to act on their commitments but it's going alright. We were walking by and we talked to a family in a trailer park. They had a little parakeet which was really cute. It was green with a yellow head and red cheeks. It's head looked like pikachu. They let me put him on my shoulder so that I could be like a pirate. Then he started trying to bite my ear. He was really tiny so It didn't hurt, it just tickled a little. So that was pretty cute until I tried to get him off and he got scared and pooped on me. So the family thought that was super funny which was good.

Things are going well, we've been really trying to get people to come to church. The main problem people have is that they have to work a lot to be able to afford to live in even the poorest parts of this area. So people have a hard time getting Sundays off to come to church. It's going well though

One of the people getting baptized at the end of the month is moving to Los Angeles for work and he doesn't know when he's going to be back.  So we're trying to see how long he'll be there so we can know whether to refer him to the elders in Los Angeles or wait for him to get back.

Anyway, Have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 51

It's been another great week!

That was awesome to hear from Allie about her trip and sounds like everyone's having a good time! That's fun to hear that all of the relatives are in town. I'm sure that must be crazy but I hope uncle Dewey and Susan had a good time on their mission.

So we got a new mission president this week. His name is President Hunt. We had an outgoing devotional for President Mella which was awesome. Everyone in the mission came together for the devotional. All of the Tongan missionaries got up and did a dance and it was all pretty fun.

President Hunt came in on June 30th. We met him at a baptism yesterday. He seemed really nice, We didn't talk much with him because he was super busy but we talked with Sister Hunt for a little bit and she seems super nice. It'll be awesome to have them here with us.

The ward had a baptism on Sunday. The missionaries found him a long time ago. He wanted to be baptized almost immediately but he couldn't as a result of some past problems. He stayed active for the whole time though. The First presidency waved the responsibility to the Mission President, President Mella interviewed him and he was able to get baptized. It was a super cool experience. There was a lot of support from the ward.

Abraham didn't come to church this week which was a bit disappointing, he had to work so he wasn't able to come. He's still preparing to be baptized at the end of July though. So we're still hopeful that all goes well with that.

Christian also didn't come to church this week, he came last week for the first time and had supposedly left on a camping trip. So we're trying to figure out what's his situation. He seemed to enjoy church the last time though so we don't know.

Also, they're starting a lot of road construction in the area so traffic has been even worse. So that's been a lot of fun to deal with. I suppose it gives me more time to listen to talks though. I've still particularly enjoyed talks by Neal A. Maxwell.

Here's a quote I like "Adequacy in the first estate may merely have ensured a stern, second estate with more duties and no immunities! additional tutoring and suffering appears to be the pattern for the lords most apt pupils". I thought that was an interesting way of looking at things.