Elder Tyler Jones week 65

We had a pretty good week!

Elder Dalley left on Tuesday. So I was with the English elders that were coming in for a couple of days. They were whitewashing the English ward in Hollister so It was interesting to see them trying to figure that out while also trying to accommodate some of our Spanish appointments. They're two great elders so they're doing really well. The English ward is super on top of things here. They're super missionary minded and within an hour of us getting back the ward mission leader had already called them and was getting them situated and appointments aligned. It made me a little jealous but our little Spanish branch is super awesome still. I love the people in the branch.

Anyway, Elder Stewart got here on Thursday. He's from Idaho Falls and he's awesome! 

There was a kid from a semi-active family that got baptized this week. We stopped by the night before to see if they were all ready to go for the baptism. They weren't really so we ended up getting everything together for the baptism the night before and the morning of. But it was still great. There was a lot of support from the branch and it was a great baptism. We hadn't practiced enough with the dad enough for how to do the baptism so when he went to do it he ended up grabbing him around the neck and sort of just smacked him into the water really quick. The mom was a bit frightened by that but he went completely under water so it was alright. 

Everyone in the branch got to meet Elder Stewart this week and they're all super awesome. They're so loving and great members.

We got some news about Mannuel. He's on his way back here with his family. Mannuel has assisted to church a couple of times and had a baptsimal date before. But he had left to go get his family. They should be arriving sometime this week. We're hoping all goes well with his travels. Mannuel is super awesome, a couple weeks ago in elders quorum he bore his testimony about everything that we had been teaching him and he's been reading out of the Liahona magazine. When he comes he'll have to get married to his girlfriend but he feels ready to do so and is willing to get married. So that'll be awesome if we can see him sometime soon.

Other than that We've been working with a lot of members and their friends. We've found a few new people to teach through working with members and they seem like they'll be pretty awesome.

There's a man that was baptized recently named Armando. He owns a little Herbalife shop that sells smoothies. We've been trying to get him to come back to church. The problem is that he forgets about things. He's been doing awesome with missionary work This week he introduced us to three of his friends at his shop and we started teaching them. Armando is always so happy. He loves to laugh and joke. He was one of the first people Elder Stewart and I saw together. It probably wasn't the best person for Elder Stewart to start practicing his Spanish on since Armando has maybe 3 teeth total and can be a bit hard to understand. But it's been going well.

I hope you have a great week!

Elder Tyler Jones week 64

We had a pretty good week this week. We learned that Mannuel has gone to mexico to be with his family but we learned this week that he is now planning to move back with his family to get baptized. Hopefully he follows through with that. He has changed his plan several times now so it's a bit hard to know for sure.

Conference was really awesome. We watched a couple of the sessions with some members and we also watched a couple of sessions at the church. We ended up having a less active family come to conference with us on Sunday morning so we were super excited about that. For the Saturday morning session we watched it in one of our members store, they put up a projector and pulled together some couches and it was really nice.

We had a really good lesson last night. One of our members had been talking to someone about the gospel and she called us and asked if we could come right now to come see him. We came and he was really interested. We taught him about the restoration and he said he'd be willing to be baptized. So that was super awesome. His name is Francisco. He's Seperated from his wife and has a daughter. He asked a lot of good questions and he said he'd read. We've got a lesson with him this Wednesday.

We went to Monterey today with a member. we got to see some seals and Jelly Fish so it was really cool. The member said she would be sending pictures to you. It was a lot of fun. Monterey is really beautiful. There were a ton of people there. There were like six or seven places giving out samples for clam chowder. I got a couple of free magnets as well from a member that owns a gift shop there.

So we figured out that Elder Dalley is getting transferred this week. He's going to Gilroy which is still in the stake. So I'll still see him around. He's covering another branch in the stake. Other than that I learned that I'm going to be training again. They're also whitewashing the English elders here. So all the other elders in Hollister are leaving. 

Anyway, I'm doing well.

Elder Tyler Jones week 63

Hey, sorry to hear about the heat there.  That doesn't sound like much fun. We had a big heat wave a couple weeks ago but now it feels really nice.

We had a good week this week.

It turns out that Manuel may be moving to Mexico. So we're not exactly sure about if he's going to stay or if he's going to be baptized. We're going to talk to him tonight to see what's going on with that. He's super awesome and wants to be baptized. His initial plan was to bring his family here but he might just head back to Mexico. So we'll see what happens with that. He came to church again and really enjoyed it.

We ended up knocking a lot of doors this week. We had a lot of fun doing that. We were able to find a bunch of people to teach. A lot of them said yes just to get us to go away, but I feel pretty good about a few of them. We'll see what happens with them in the coming week.

We've been seeing a lot of less active families and teaching them as well. We were teaching a less active family this week and while we were teaching one of their friends came in and started to listen as we taught. He seemed to like it and we have an appointment with him this Thursday. He said he's come to church with the family before and that he really liked it but he hasn't gone as frequently because the family doesn't come. So we'll try to get the members to church and hopefully he comes with them.

I got to do a couple of baptismal interviews. Both were very good experiences.  One was in Spanish and one was in English.  They seemed ready and excited and both were baptized.  So that was a nice part of the week.

We've been working with a recent convert recently. He called us up this week because he was feeling really stressed and we met him at church. He has recently got a new calling and he feels really anxious and stressed. We talked with him for almost two hours just because he wasn't doing too well. He seems like he's doing better. He came to church this Sunday and he seemed happier so it seems like he's doing well.

The Branch is doing really well. We've got some members coming back into activity and church attendance has been going good. Everyone's getting pretty excited for conference.

I hope you have a great week!

Elder Jones in costume

Elder Tyler Jones week 62

We had a good week. We had two big branch parties over the weekend. We celebrated Independence Day on Friday and then there was a quinceañera on Saturday. So we were handing out invitations and inviting people like crazy. We had a goal of getting a hundred people to the party on Friday and we had a lot of less actives come and a bunch of investigators. So that was really awesome. We probably had about 90 people there. So it was really great.

We ended up doing a little dance for the party. Everyone was all excited about doing a dance and then no one actually wanted to dance. Everyone they asked to do it said they were going to be out of town during the party. And then they showed up for the party anyway. So we did a little dance. We didn't really get to practice but it went alright.

The only problem was that people seemed pretty partied out by the end of the week and church attendance was sparse for the branch this week. There were probably 30 at sacrament. It was good though. I was the final speaker this week. President told me to prepare 15 ish minutes but to be ready to extend it or shorten it dramatically because you never really know how long people are going to talk in the branch. The lady before me went on for a long time so I ended up shortening it to about a four minute talk. It was about he Book of Mormon so it wasn't really a hard talk to give.

Mannuel is in Mexico right now getting his girlfriend and his kids to bring them here. He's getting back tonight. So we'll be excited to see him again tomorrow. President is going to come with us to talk to them about getting married. So hopefully all goes well with that.

 It's been going great!

View from one of our members' back yard, and Elder Freeman

Elder Tyler Jones Week 61

New to our mission is that they're letting us use Facebook now. They left us the option of not using it if we don't want to.  And I kind of don't want to.  So as for now I'm just not going to use it.  It shouldn't be too much of a problem seeing  as a lot of the people we teach aren't actually online all the time and many also don't have facebooks.  So unless it poses some difficulty in the future, I'm probably just not going to be using it.

Nonetheless, we had a great week!

First of all we had to push back Manuel's baptism. He's going to Mexico to pick up his girlfriend and his 4 kids. So when they come he'll have to get married. He's already expressed that he's happy to get married and he's going to have president Nordstrom marry them in October. So when the family comes we'll be able to teach them as a family.

We've been working with a part member family and they came to church! There are about 2 members and a bunch of non members. Not all of them came but those that did seemed to like it. They had some crazy kids, too, which are always fun. We're teaching the family and we had a family home evening with all of them. They just recently moved to a new house and it's a lot nicer than their last house. It's also a lot closer to the church which makes it easier for them to get there on Sunday.

We had a zone conference this week. We went to Monterey for the conference. I got to see Elder Freeman there again. So that was super cool. Also, in driving through our area to get to Monterey it made me realize how incredibly beautiful our area is. There's a lot of hills and trees and greenery and it's all just super pretty. So it was a nice drive. It took us about an hour to get there.

We also have soccer every Thursday night. We went this week because we were bringing Mannuel. There are a lot of non members that come and it gets pretty intense but it was a lot of fun. There's a guy that sort of leads the whole things and he's not a member. But last week he came to church and brought his family. He's Latino and speaks Spanish but his kids don't so they went to the English ward. So that's awesome for them.

Anyway, it's been a great week. And I'm loving serving in Hollister.