Elder Jones week 67

HEY guys so sorry about writing so late, and I`m really going to have to write more next week because I don`t have a lot of time.  In the morning we came to write but there was an emergency with one of the young men in our ward and we had to go to the hospital, then Elder Anderson had some appointments with people from his old wards to visit them because he's gone tomorrow. 

But the highlights of this week which I will expound on next week are that Arantza and Mario got baptized!!! wooo!  They are soo happy.  Also, I got to visit Callao yesterday and all of Elder Anderson`s old sectors.  Tomorrow I`ll have a new companion.  I love it here.  I`m growing a lot.  I`m also figuring out how to learn from the spirit.  I hope you guys have a great week and sorry for not being able to write very much today.  I promise that next week I`ll be able to write more.  Love you guys! 

Elder Jones

Ps. Elder Anderson lives in American Fork. 20 minutes from BYU and he and his mom have offered to let me rent out a room with one of Elder Anderson`s other companions Elder Soria from Argentina. It would be a lot cheaper.  Just wondering what you guys think about it.  Love you.

Elder Jones week 66

Hey guys!! Glad to hear that everything is going great! Oh my gosh, Dan is so grown up now.  I can´t believe how much he´s grown while I´ve been on my mission. He did a great job too in the cross country meet! Congrats. 

We had a great week. Still working with the Ortiz family. Last Monday we had a family home evening with them and the Godoy family. Tonight we have another one with them and the Moscoso family. The ward is still working with us really well with the Ortiz family. Arantza is getting baptized this Saturday!! Her parents will soon follow, once they get their marriage figured out. This week we were teaching the Ortiz family about the Word of Wisdom and it was really hard for them at first because the mom really likes coffee, tea, and wine but two things really helped them out. 1: that we had Manuel Ramos there teaching with us.  He´s 18 and he´s preparing to serve a mission.  He was able to bear his testimony and he helped them out a lot. And 2: We reminded them of their testimonies of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith was a prophet because the Book of Mormon is true. And thus the Word of Wisdom is a commandment inspired of God. So they´re willing to keep the Word of Wisdom now. And to bury their weapons of war they got rid of their cabinet that was full of fancy alcohol bottles and glasses. 

Mario Gonzales will also get baptized this week! It´s kind of amazing how quickly this change has been brought to pass in him. We met him a little over 2 weeks ago and he´s a completely different person. He loves the Book of Mormon and church. We´re really happy for him and excited about the change that is going on in his life.   

This week I was on a companionship interchange with Elder Martinez and something he and his companion Elder Adams are doing is every time they see a father with his children they talk with him.  So we saw one who was about 23 years old and he went over to talk to him. He wasn´t actually a father, he was just playing with his older sister´s child.  Then then his younger sister who is 22 came running over saying that she´s Mormon too and that she moved here from another ward and stopped going to church when she moved. So we were able to teach her, her brother, her older sister with the 2 year old son, and their mother. They almost got baptized a while ago but just didn´t do it, but they´re really receptive and they want to get baptized now that a lot of things have changed in their lives. So we have another family that we are teaching! The Astete Family. 

So yea I´m still happy. I´m learning a lot. I participated in the mission council for the first time in my mission this week. That was fun. Well I hope you guys have another great week love you all!

Elder Jones Week 65

Hey guys! So I had a great week!!  We saw so many miracles.

So news about the Ortiz family that I told you guys about last week. They still want to get baptized as soon as possible AND also their daughter that lives in Utah.  Last Monday we visted them and they told us that they had just gotten off the phone with their daughter in Utah and it turns out that the exact same day that we started teaching the Ortiz family, their daughter started listening to the missionaries in Utah, and she attended church for the first time last week as well!  This entire week they´ve been Skyping their daughter in Utah to tell her what they´re learning from the lessons and she tells them what she´s learning. They´ve also been on mormon.org a lot this week, trying to learn everything they can about the church they´re about to join.  They´ve been going to all the church activities. They´re proactive with getting their marriage ready so we don´t even need to help them with that.  In short, they are becoming their own agents and they are learning by faith.  I can already see the change in them.  We visited them with Ernesto, a recent convert who is about 30 years old, married with a wife and a 2 year old son name EJ.  He´s really interested in their progress as well as every other member we see.  They always ask us how the Ortiz family is doing, and everyone wants to invite them over for family home evening.  Today they have a family home evening with the Godoy family.  We´re really excited for them.  Mario also went to church yesterday and he´s getting ready for his baptism the 26th. 

I´m really greatful for the opportunity that I have to be here in Magdalena, even though it´s different from every other area I´ve served in before on my mission.  I´m learning how to work more effectively and discovering new tools that weren´t available in other areas (for example easy access to mormon.org and strong member families).  I have  to rely a lot more on the Lord than on my own ability.  OH also Elder Tejada that was in Callao with me is going to be one of the mission secretaries so he`ll be in my ward now! 

I hope you guys have a great week!   

Elder Jones week 64

Hey guys! I had a great week. We´ve been doing some interchanges and on Tuesday I did a companionship interchange with Elder Dayton, the mission financial secretary. We had to stay in the office until 6 o clock. I spent most of the time putting rubber bands on packs of contact cards. It was a unique experience. But once we got out to teach we did a lot of great work.

On Wednesday Elder David A. Bednar came to our mission. I learned a lot. He knows how to teach, and he´s hilarious. He talked a lot about learning by faith. He didn´t give a talk, it was more interactive. What I got out of the meeting was that I teach too much application of correct principles and I don´t do enough to allow my investigators to be their own agents and learn by faith by learning how to apply what the spirit teaches them. He talked about how there are two types of god´s creations, like it talks about in 2 Nephi 2, things that are acted upon and things that act upon other things. I have to turn my investigators into agents instead of objects. I learned how to get better at using questions and getting out of the way of the spirit´s teachings.

I´m really glad that I learned those things on Wednesday because on Thursday we found a family. It´s a father (Lucio), mother (Sulema), and 3 daughters: ages 19 (Aranza), 18 (I don´t know), and 4 (Ariana). Their 18 year old daughter is in Utah studying in Snow College, but none of them are members. They visited Utah last year to see Utah and they had a really great experience and they say that everyone in Utah was so nice to them. Also the sister of the mother was recently baptized in California. The father´s cousin is a member in another ward in Magdalena. We met them on Thursday and they´re all prepared to receive the gospel in our lives. We applied what we had learned in the meeting with Elder Bednar and we had a very spiritual lesson. As well on Saturday. We were able to gain their trust very quickly and they express what they feel in the lessons so it´s a lot easier to teach according to their needs. They all came to church yesterday and the ward just attacked them with kindness. I´m serious this is the best ward ever. Several members invited them over to family home evening or dinner during this week, without us even having to ask them to do it. They have a goal to get baptized on September 19th. Three days before Elder Anderson goes home. 

  

We also met an investigator that listened to the missionaries 16 years ago. His name is Mario. He´s about 50 years old. We couldn´t teach him for very much time because we had an appointment, but he accepted the invitation to get baptized on the 26th of September. He came to church yesterday and he really liked it. The ward also helped us out a lot with him. 

So we didn´t make our goal as a zone for baptisms in August. We had a goal of 22 baptisms and we made 12. We´ve been talking about what we need to do to get better this coming month and I´m really excited for what lies ahead in these next few weeks. I hope you guys have a great week! 

Elder Jones week 63

Hey guys! That´s awesome that Courtney is home!! That must be so exciting. 

I had somewhat of a difficult week because we had to drop ALL of our investigators that had a baptismal date last week. Some of them just did a 180 and told us that they don´t want us to come by anymore, and some of them just don´t want it anymore. So we´ve started from the ground up this week, and we´ve been trying everything we know how to do to find people to teach. It is really hard. But I´ve been trying to not get discouraged and just trust in the Lord. And prepared people came. So we feel really good about this week. 

We had 6 baptisms as a zone this week. So we currently have 12 and this Saturday we have 7 people planned to get baptized. The zone is really working well. I´m learning to be patient in a way I´ve never had to before. Also on Wednesday we have a meeting with Elder Bednar! I´m really excited. I feel like it´s going to lift the mission up, because that´s what tends to happen every time a general authority comes to the mission. 

We reactivated someone this week! His name is Gino and he´s been attending church for a couple of months now, and when Elder Anderson told me he was less active because he doesn´t have the lessons or an interview with the bishop, we brought him to the bishop during the 3rd hour, we had him have an interview, and we sat him down and taught all the lessons, and he actually has a ton of referrals for us and he wants to help us out with missionary work. He´s really nice and I´m glad that he was able to have his interview with the bishop. 

I learned a lot this week through my mistakes about how to become a good leader. This week was definitely a refiner´s fire for me. But being uncomfortable is necessary for growth. I hope you guys have a great week! 

Elder Jones week 62

Hey guys! so yea I´m not in Callao any more.  I was so sad when I had to leave, I was not expecting that.  Now I´m a zone leader in the Magdalena stake. It´s not like any place I´ve ever served in.  There are more than a million people that live in our zone. We have 26 missionaries in the zone.  14 are sister missionaries and 12 are Elders.  The wards in our stake are; Magdalena, Breña, Las Brisas, Chacra Rios, Venezuela, Bolivar, and Pueblo Libre. We have a crazy strong ward, Magdalena, and it has 6 missionaries, Elder Anderson and I, and the 4 secretaries of the mission; Elder Dayton, Ramos, Hulet, and Matareco. The mission offices are in our proselyting area.

To give you guys an idea of how different Magdalena is from Callao, there's a restaurant right next to my house called Don Belisario.  My address is Gonzalez Prada 530, just so you can look it up on Google maps.  I feel like I´m serving in the United States.  I feel like I´m on vacation, I´ve never lived this comfortable before in my mission. But we still work really hard and we find a lot of prepared people. We have some great missionaries in the zone. The district leaders are Elder Dayton (he went to the CCM with me, and he´s the mission financial secretary), Elder Adams, and Elder Price.  Elder Price is in my zone again and it´s awesome.  Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by my new assignment as zone leader, and it really helps to have Elder Price to help me out.  Also my companion Elder Anderson is the best.  He helps me out a ton.  He´s going home to Utah in 5 weeks.

This week was honestly great.  It´s been fun adapting to the way missionaries have to work in rich areas.  We are teaching the richest people in Perú. BUT even though the people are happier with their money and tend to be less receptive to our teaching, the people that do let us in and listen to us understand sooo much better. And they fulfill with their commitments.  We met a 17 year old young man named Luis this week, We taught him about the Book of Mormon because he didn´t have that much time.  He read what we left him and prayed and  the next time we saw him, I kid you not, this is how the conversation went. "Hey, Luis how´s it going?" "Good, I read the Book of Mormon and prayed.  This is the true church, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and I´m going to get baptized." So yea, that makes things easier when people understand and they do what they say they will do.

Being a zone leader isn´t that much different, but I just have more opportunities to serve other missionaries. Sister missionaries rock. They do good work. I´m really excited to serve and learn here.  I´m excited to work in a strong ward.  All their recent converts from the last 2 years are active.  That´s something you don´t see very often in Peru.  We have 2 seventies in our ward as well and they´re awesome.  We live with the stake president, so whenever we need to talk to him about something he´s right there.  I´m really happy here and I´ll send some pictures next week! I hope you guys have a great week!       

Elder Jones week 61

Hey guys! I had a great week! Glad to hear that everyone is doing fine as well.

The biggest news is that Jerico and Colin both got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday!  I baptized both of them.  There was so much opposition that came up this week that tried to stop them from getting baptized, but they got baptized!  

On Tuesday Jerico´s mom changed her mind and said that she wasn´t going to let him listen to us any more or go to church and much less get baptized.  We passed by every day to try and talk to her and convince her to change her mind, but she kept hiding from us and sending other people to tell us that she wasn´t there or that she was busy. But on Friday Jerico sat down with both his parents and bore his testimony and told them that he wanted to get baptized.  The next day we saw him in the street and he told us that his parents were going to let him get baptized that same day, and they came to his baptism!  All of their extended family came to the baptism, as well, and they had a great experience.  We let Colin and Jerico borrow the Joseph Smith movie to watch yesterday, hopefully they watched it. 

We´re still working on getting Brillit, Jeremi, and Melanie baptized. Their only challenge is waking up on Sunday morning to go to church. This morning I was reading the July Liahona and there is an article that talks about why we should go to bed and wake up early. I really liked it, and it is really important. Just thinking about my life before the mission, you miss out on a lot of life when you wake up late.  There´s a promise from Gordon B. Hinckley that if you go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 6am , things will work out for you.  I encourage all of you to follow that council. Especially now that the school year is starting. 

We have seen a lot of miracles this week.  Last week a 45 year-old man named Rafael came to church and had to leave after sacrament meeting. We made an appointment to visit him on Wednesday and he is so prepared.  He was taking notes during the lesson about the organization of the church of Jesus Christ, the apostasy, he wrote down what he needed to ask God about in his prayers.  But he didn´t want to accept a baptismal date for the 22nd of August. He thought it was too soon. We visited him on Friday and he loved the lesson and he had felt that god had answered his prayers about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, but he didn´t want to commit to getting baptized the 22nd. We invited him to come to Jerico and Colin´s baptism and he was the first one to show up (because he showed up at the hour it was supposed to start).  He came to church yesterday and he stayed for the 3 hours. Later on Sunday we saw him in the street and askeed him if he had meditated more about his baptism and he said "I´m going to get baptized on the 22nd" We´re really happy for him.

Also I don´t know if I told you guys about Erick and Mariela last week, but we eat dinner at Mariela´s parents´ house on Thursdays and Sundays.  Mariela is going to be reactivated on Sunday and Erick will be baptized in September.  The parents of Mariela are Eduardo and Mariela. Mariela (mother) is active in the church and Eduardo has been inactive for 25 years.  They have 2 sons that are returned missionaries. Yesterday, out of nowhere, Eduardo showed up to church with his family.  Later in the day we stopped by to teach him and he said that he feels like it is time to return to the church.  He said that on Saturday we went out to eat with his son Victor, and Victor bore his testimony to him and he felt the need to return to the church.  He´s going to have his interview this week with the bishop and soon will be an active member of the church.  He wants to get married to his wife in the temple and get sealed to his children.  It´s a miracle. In such a short time his entire attitude toward the church has changed drastically. Yesterday in the Elders Quorum class they talked about being good parents and the importance of having one on one time with each child.  I think this story is a testimony of that.  I´m so happy for this family. 

So I recieved an email from the Fonseca family from Caja de Agua, and I don´t know if you guys remember me talking about helping a recent convert Stefany start her mission papers way back in November, but she got her mission call! You´ll never guess where she´s going!  Mexico City!!! but the east mission.  I´m really happy for her and her family.  They´re going to be blessed by her service. 

I hope you guys have a great week! 

Elder Jones