Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 12

Sorry for late email. Today's been crazy.

That's awesome to hear about Caleb. I'm so excited for him. Really
excited for general conference as well. Sounds like you guys are
having a good time in Indiana. Tell Dan to accelerate his mustache
growth.

This was an awesome week. We got some new elders in our zone that are
all super cool. So something fun happened this week. Our mission
president called us and told me that I was going to be a participant
in an experiment. I'm the only one in this mission but they're getting
missionaries from all over. Apparently it's going to be about how
technology affects language learning. So I got to go in a Skype call
with the guy conducting the experiment on Thursday which was cool.
They're going to have me using Duolinguo and apps like that to assist
in language learning and they're going to track my progress. So that's
exciting.

Oh, we got iPads this week. They wait until your second transfer to
give them to you. It's nice to finally have a planner. I had just been
looking off my trainers planner the first transfer.

We had a pretty good week for missionary work. Nathan, the one who
walked 6 miles to try to get to church came to church this week. We've
had a few really good lessons with him this week. We started teaching
a less actives girlfriend while reactivating him. She's been really
receptive as well. We've got a good hand full of people that are just
doing well.

One of the people I had gotten to teach during transfers got baptized
this week. We got to go to the baptism which was nice. We've gotten a
lot of new investigators this week as well so we'll see what comes of
that next week.

We had a family home evening tonight with a members sister tonight
which went really well. She's going to come to conference which is
exciting.

Anyways, it's been an awesome week.

Love you guys,
Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 11

Hey Guys,

That's still so crazy that Courtney's getting married. Sorry Dan and Allison had to run out in the rain. It never rains here in San Jose. I'm glad you're enjoying your new job.

So this was an awesome week. Exchanges are tomorrow. Fortunately Neither I, nor my trainer have to go anywhere. Just a couple people in our zone are leaving. We went crazy with missionary work this week. Our Bishop gave us a list of less active members to go visit and we visited them this week. We got a bunch of really solid investigators from it. We went to go teach them and they would end up wanting us to teach their non member family members. On top of that, this week we got a few really awesome referrals from the members in the ward.

We had also talked to an interesting man this week just while we were out contacting. We had started talking to him and he had some interesting ideas about how Jesus had already come and that everyone left on earth is garbage and that we're all doomed. So that was a fun experience.

We had stake conference this week which was awesome. They had us go to all the sessions of stake conference. They had my companion do the translating into Spanish which was interesting to see. None of our investigators came. We had gotten a message about half way through stake conference, we got a message from one referral that he was on his way. He had been trying to walk to stake conference. We couldn't get him a ride. We went to meet up with him to talk with him. He had ended up walking about 6 miles to try to get there. He seemed super positive when we went to talk to him and he seems like he is genuinely interested. He's been homeless for about 3 months now. We're probably going to be trying to connect him to employment resources. The employment resources center is in our ward building which is nice.

Something I don't think I've mentioned yet is that the amount of diversity just among Latinos in San Jose is crazy. We're teaching all sorts of people from pretty much everywhere in Latin America. All the members are from all over the place as well. One sister in our ward is from El Salvador and she taught us how to make Papusas. Papusas are super good. They're basically this special batter that you flatten out into a circle, put whatever you want inside, ball up the contents inside the batter and then flatten it out again and cook it. It's super good.

Anyway, this has been an awesome week, hope you guys are having a good time in Indiana. I'm doing well here in San Jose

Love you guys,

-Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 10

That's crazy to think that Courtney's going to be married so soon. Tell Dan to start growing out his mustache for me. Also, tell Allie to stop being a goober and get to bed on time. I'm glad you enjoy your job. I got some envelopes and stamps so I'm sending dad a letter today.

So this week was awesome.

We were able to talk to Herick earlier in the week and he was committed to getting baptized. Later in the week we weren't able to get in contact with him. He wasn't at his apartment, he didn't answer his calls or messages. He didn't go to church this week as well. So that was disappointing. We're just going to give him a bit of time and come back.

Gwen, the lady that said "thank you Jesus" came to church yesterday. We had referred her to the English missionaries and seeing her in church was awesome. Veronica is progressing really well. Her and her wife were interested in the temple in a lesson we gave and got really excited about it. So we're in the process of organizing a temple trip for them. So we're excited about that. We met a man named Edibierto this week. He's awesome as well. We've been teaching him and he's been keeping commitments and such which is great. He wasn't able to come to church though.

We picked up some more awesome investigators this week. We had zone training meeting this week. That was nice, they had me play the piano for that. The sisters in our ward had a baptism and I had to play piano for that as well. There was also a district leader meeting this week. So during that I went on transfers into the English program. We got to ride bikes all day which was so much fun. It's so much easier to contact when you can just do it whenever you're on your way to your next appointment. Apparently they rarely have Spanish missionaries biking since we cover a much larger area. We got to contact some Latinos on the way as well. I was surprised that I was able to speak with them so well. I think it was a bit like taking of the training wheels. Without a companion that knows any Spanish its more important to really clearly understand everything they're saying.

There are transfers next week and everyone's freaking out about it because apparently they're expecting a lot to change in our zone. I'm kind of content where I'm at right now so I hope I stay but no one knows apparently.

Anyway, I'm having a great time and meeting a lot of awesome people.

 Love you guys,

Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 9

Sounds like you guys are keeping busy. That's unfortunate that the van broke down. I assume that dad went fishing in the pond behind grandma and grandpas house. Sounds like cross country is wearing lil Danel out.

This week was pretty great.

We had gotten a referral from the English Missionaries that there was a less active member who had a wife that only spoke Spanish so he wanted Spanish Elders to come teach him and his wife. Their names were Arturo and Victoria. We had a couple really great lessons with them this week about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. They even came to church yesterday. They both really loved it. So I'm really excited for them.

Herick decided that he didn't want to get baptized right now and that he'll call us when he wants to start having lessons again. We've been trying to get in contact with him again after that but we haven't been able to.

We're teaching a man named Mannuel as well. We had actually found him while he was just sitting in his truck. We started teaching him and then earlier this week we stopped by his house and we started talking to him. He had drunken a lot that day and he was crying about how he's going to be kicked out of the room he's renting and that he wants to stop drinking. We talked to him a little bit but came back later this week. We talked to him again. He didn't get kicked out but he still really wants to stop drinking. He's having a hard time with it.

We had exchanges this week. I was in the English program for a day with Elder Long while an English Elder was in the Spanish program for a day with my companion. It was a lot of fun. Elder Long is great and we had a good time. We did a bit of contacting. English speaking people aren't as nice as Latinos. We had a good time though. We talked to some people and had a few lessons that wen't pretty well. We had dinner with the Bishop of English ward that night and he had the exact same mannerisms as Uncle Pat which was fun to see.

I got to play Piano again in sacrament meeting which is always fun. Didn't have to talk this week. There was a man that lives in the church building that was raiding the kitchen fridge. The Bishop asked us to go talk to him and keep an eye on him during church. So that was an interesting experience. 

Anyway, It's been an awesome week, hope you guys have a great week as well.

Love,

Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 8

When I got to zone conference, They gave me a couple of dad's letters. I was happy to get those. My Apartment mailing address is 750 N King Rd. Apt. 1207 . Weather is perfect here. It hasn't rained since I've been here and I'm pretty sure it never rains here.

Sounds like you guys are keeping busy in Indiana. It is kind of weird to hear that grandma's selling the house. It seems like it will probably be for the best though.

Anyway, this week was fantastic.

My companion and I got to go do a little bit of yard work for an old lady nearby. While we were talking to her we learned that she was from Iran and that she had been living there in the 1970's. So she was super cool and had some cool stories. She made us some Persian food for lunch which was also really good.

On Wednesday every one of our appointments fell through.  Which was a bit challenging but it was alright. That day was less fun. However on Thursday we tried stopping by Herick's apartment again and he was there. So that was super duper awesome. Apparently he had been really busy with immigration lawyers and whatnot but we got to talk to him and start teaching him again. He's really cool. He had actually referred himself after he had just decided to go to the temple visitors center one day. He had watched the restoration video there and filled out a form online to have missionaries come see him. So he's awesome. So he has a baptismal date for two Saturdays from now.

 On Thursday we had also been walking down the street after another one of our appointments fell through and we saw an old lady that was trying to sweep out the door. We offered to help her. She's from Louisiana and has kind of a southern christian demeanor to her. When we offered to help her she had said "thank you Jesus". We had started talking to her and she said that she had had surgery recently and that she had been praying for someone to help her. She was happy to sit down and talk with us for a while. We had taught her about the restoration. She seemed to really like it. She told us that she had recently left her old church and was looking for another church to join. She was super awesome. Unfortunately, we're not going to get to teach her though. She doesn't speak Spanish so we referred the English Elders to her. I'm excited for her though.

We finally got to confirm Juana. She had been baptized about a month ago by the elders before us but she didn't go to church the next day so she hadn't been confirmed. Everyone was kind of getting on us to find her and confirm her. The Bishop and Mission President had just told us to confirm her in her house if we found her. But it was good, we got to sit down and have a conversation about the holy ghost with her and then confirmed her.

Saturday night we got a call that My companion and I were going to be giving talks in church Sunday morning. Fifteen minutes each... Spanish. So that was fun. It really wasn't that bad. I was able to pretty much say what I wanted to say. I took up all the time I needed to as well. It seems like Latinos really like to see people try to learn Spanish. Sacrament meeting was kind of busy both giving a talk and playing the piano but it was fun.

We had an appointment with a less active member and his non member wife this morning. We went to go teach them and they both seemed really excited about the gospel and the wife seemed really enthusiastic about wanting to come to church. She was also happy to see that I was trying to learn Spanish.

Spanish is coming along much easier. I can pretty much say whatever I need to say. I just need to figure out subjunctives and learn more vocabulary.

Anyways, I'm happy, hope you guys have a great week.

Love,

Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 7

That's so exciting to hear about Courtney. Dan needs to start growing out his mustache. unfortunately I'm not allowed to. Anyways sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun there. How does Dan like Middle school?

This week was super duper awesome. 

We finally got in contact with Herick.  Herick is someone that the past elders had been teaching and had actually set up a baptismal date with but he had gotten really busy right around the time of his baptism so they couldn't baptize him. We're still trying to set up a time where we can meet him next week. We went to see Rosa again. She's been to church already three time and she's getting close to being able to commit to baptism. We finally got to meet Juana as well this week. She had actually been the first person we tried to get in contact with when we got into the area. We had gotten to meet her for the first time this Saturday night because she has been really busy as well. She had already been baptized and she just needs to receive the holy ghost. We invited her to come to church so that she could receive the holy ghost and be confirmed but she didn't come on Sunday. She has the craziest funniest little five year old though. He had used his magic to turn me into a rabbit and Elder Smith into a shark. So we had a lot of fun meeting with them. We had met with Brichie only once this week and he wasn't at his house the next time we came. It was alright, we had a good lesson with him on the book of Mormon. We're starting to get steady lessons with Dario. We actually have a lesson with him at 5:00 today. He likes the message a lot, the only thing is that he has a Santa Meurte necklace and a Santa Muerte statue in his house that he prays to Jesus through. He's super nice though and he likes to get the lessons. 

We've also done a lot of contacting this week. We've met a lot of nice people. It's great that there are plenty of streets where we can pretty much guarantee that everyone we meet is going to know Spanish. We met a lot of people that we're really nice. We had taught a couple of people sitting out on their lawn. I think I'm starting to realize how many different christian beliefs there are out there. The guy we had been talking to is catholic but he believes that you can only worship Jesus through Mary. But we had a nice discussion with them and we might go back to see his friend some time this week. We had also met another group of people sitting out on their lawn. We started to talk to them and they invited us to sit and talk with them. A little bit in their daughter had told us that both of them were nearly deaf so it was interesting teaching the restoration by nearly yelling the entire thing. One day it was about 3:00 in the afternoon and we were walking down the street to find people. We asked a man that had walked past us how he was and he replied saying he was very bad. We had asked him why and he responded because he doesn't believe in god. At this point we start talking about how we are able to know if there's a god. He went on a little tangent on how everything in this world is logical. At this point he had gotten a little closer to us and we could smell alcohol in his breath. He asked us if we knew what there was before god. We just told him that god is eternal. He told us that's not possible,  that there had to be something before god. Then he told us that he knew what was before god and with wide eyes he just told us: Aliens. He told us how he read it in a book once. Then he sort of just walked away giggling.

We got to eat balut this week. I think that's how you spell it. A Filipino family had given it to us. Basically what it is is a hard boiled fertilized egg. It's essentially just got this black soupy liquid inside, egg yoke and a little baby chicken inside. It's best to not look at it when you eat it. Nonetheless, it made my companion vomit. It didn't taste too good. If you crack open the egg and pull away the yoke, you can distinctly see the little baby chicken inside it as well, With the head, eyes, beak and everything. I'm pretty sure Filipino families just give it to missionaries for the entertainment of seeing them eat it.

We're also going to be getting a new investigator. This man had gotten a blood clot in his brain and was going to need to go into surgery for it. However, he had gotten a blessing and after a few days the clot had gone away with any operation. So now he want's to meet with the missionaries. So we're really excited to get to teach him.

Spanish is coming along well. I've been getting better at being able to understand people. It was pretty hard to understand everyone with all of their different accents at first. It's getting a lot better now though. I've gotten to start to be able to go and contact people on the street in Spanish and actually get through a normal conversation with them which is exciting. It seems like Latinos are really nice about helping people learn Spanish though. So even if they're not really interested in our message they're willing to talk with us and let me practice Spanish. All the Latinos are just so great.

Anyway, it's been an awesome week, I hope you guys have a good time.

Love,

Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Jones Week 6

I'm glad you guys are having a great time in Indiana. Wish grandma a happy birthday for me. Allison is going to love the etymology teacher. She's super nice and funny. When I got to the mission office dad's letter was waiting for me which was awesome to get.

So much happened this week and it was so great.

So Tuesday after my district had left I went with the zone leaders for a day. I had just slept on their couch. I had to be at reception by 3:00 AM on Wednesday and I was the only one leaving that day. I set my alarm for 2:30 so I could get their on time but I suppose they didn't trust people to get their by themselves if they were alone so I woke up at about 2:00 AM to a 50 or so year old Mexican man yelling "Buenos Dias Elder!" which was pretty funny. We left at about 3:00 for the airport. When we got there the man trying to figure out my flight was getting pretty frustrated because all of the delta flights had had a problem that messed with everyone's flights so My flight had changed slightly. But Everything was alright. In the Mexico Airport I met a man from Guatemala he had 4 kids who were 0, 2, 5, and 8. He wanted to get a picture with me to send to his kids. He also was helping me some with my Spanish. I met a man from Jerusalem in Los Angeles and we talked for a while. On my flight to San Jose the flight attendant talked to me because he had served a mission in St. Petersburg which was also cool.

I got to San Jose at about 12:30 and my mission president and his assistants were there to greet me. I pretty much had just stayed with them all day. Other people were supposed to come in the same day I came in but the Delta flight delayed everyone by a day who was coming from Utah. There was one other Elder that came in at 12:30 at night though. He was transferring here from Canada after a visa wait: Elder Ourkerk. So the Assistants and I went to pick him up. The delta issue affected him as well though and he was in an airport waiting 14 hours for his last flight. We got back to the airport and at this point I had apparently been awake for about 25 hours with the time change so Elder Ourkerk and I got to sleep in until about 7:00 while the Assistants went to get other missionaries in the morning. We had our introduction and orientation which was nice.

Friday we Got out companions. My Trainer is Elder Smith. He's super awesome as well. We're both new to the area that we're serving in right now so we've been going try to figure out who everyone is that we're supposed to be teaching. Apparently there is a lady: Juana who had been baptized but had not yet been confirmed so we've been trying to get in contact with her all week. She was never at her house when we went and she had never answered her phone but we're going to just keep on trying. We got to teach a lesson with another lady named Rosa who has committed to being baptized. We did a lot of street contacting this week as well which has been really great. We apparently don't do any tracting in this mission, only street contacting. We've gotten to set up a few appointments with people. One of them was Juan who was just sitting on his front porch rubbing his belly when we first met him but he agreed to let us come back and give a message to him and his family which is good. 

We went and did a bit of yard work for some members, in this process me and my companion took down the biggest thistle I've ever seen. This thistle was taller than either of us. It was cool seeing how big they could get. We also cut up some box springs and threw them out for them. They were from the English Ward but they were super nice. The husband was the kind of person that new a little bit about everything so he was really fun to talk to.

Going to the Spanish ward was fun. Rosa hadn't come which was disappointing but I was able to understand some of what was being said and I enjoyed it. Apparently they're in desperate need of piano players so I'm likely going to be playing piano in sacrament. We've got a little keyboard in our apartment that I've been practicing on and it's starting to come back to me.

Anyway, I'm out of time.

Love you guys,

Elder Jones