Super grateful!

Hola!

Well it was good week, like always!

Things are going well here.

The Lara Family came to church for the first time and LOVED IT.  So they are progressing well and we are bummed because the 30th of this month we have stake conference and the 7th of December there are elections again which means no church.  So that's another two weeks that we can't schedule baptisms again which will slow down the work a bit. But they have their date to get baptized the 13th of December and we are praying that everything works out with them.  Pray for them! ALso we are still workign with Araceli and hoping that she can get baptized this weekend! She is ready and everything but Satan is working on her so we just need to work harder! 

This week we went to Lima for the monthly leadership council.  My favorite part was the training that Sister Archibald did on Obedience.  It helped me learn and realize that commandments aren't just rules that our Heavenly Father gives us, they are guidelines that if we follow, we will become like our Father in Heaven.  It's like if we really want to become a good swimmer for example, and we had the chance to spend a day with MIchael Phelps, I would ask all the advice he has and try to imitate all he does in swimming and see how I could become as good as him.  Well we say we want to become like Christ, and so we have all these commandments that will help us become like Him, so why don't we follow them sometimes? It's a bummer.  So that whole training made me look at Obedience differently.  I'm so grateful that I was born into a very obedient family and have learned this from birth.  I hope I can continue in this legacy and keeping ALL of the commandments!

This week I think we are going to go to Lima again because I have a little going away party thing.  We are going to go to the temple, all those that are leaving, and going to eat and do fun things. I only have about 3 more days of proselyting then because my area is far from Lima.  So I'm goin gto do my best to take advantage of these days I have! 

Not sure if I'll be writing you next week or not. I'll be in an autosufficiency training or something. 

I'm super humbled and super grateful for this opportunity I've had. I'm not going to try and express my feelings here... so I'll just quote Ammon and say, "I cannot say the smallest part which I feel."

THe church is true!!!!!

Love you so much!
See you next week!

Hermana Jones :)

Happy Halloween

Hola familia!!

Lots of things happened this week, so it went by pretty fast! But things are going well and we're happy here in Barranca!
We did a work visit up in Huaraz, and I'm glad that I never have to make that trip again because it is long and uncomfortable. Basically just scaling mountains for a couple of hours.  But it was beautiful as ever and the hermanas there are doing great.

This week was also Hermana Fuentes' birthday! I need to stop having companions that have their birthdays because they always give us WAY too much food! Haha but it was a good day.  Then it was halloween so we dressed up as each other and switched our nametags. I know, we are just so creative! 

the work is going well and we are getting frustrated with these families we have because they just don't do what they are supposed to! Haha but thus is missionary work.  We just keep working and praying and are doing everythign we can to help them. We did receive an awesome referral this week of a family of 5 that is very humble.  They live in a super huge nice house to care for it when the people are gone, but they don't live IN the house, they live in this little dumpy side house.  And the houseowner hardly pays them and doesn't let them use their pool or go on their lawn or anything unless they are cleaning it. Lame.  But this family is really great and we only got to teach them once this week but they loved it and are excited to learn more and go to church and such. They are the Lara family, so pray for them! They're great. 

This week we were walking on the street and saw a kid with a monkey! He said he brought it from the jungle where his mom lives.  So we played with it and took pictures.  It made a super annoying screeching sound and it was eating french fries.  That was a fun experience! We took pictures.

Life is good here, the work is moving on.  in fact, it is hastening! Be part of it!!

The church is true, love you bunches!!!

Hermana Jones 

Another Monday?

Is it Monday again?? Crazy!!!

Good week!!! I don't have much to write.... hm....

We had to travel a bit this week because we went to a leadership training with President which was awesome, and it was fun to see other friends from the mission.  

It was interesting because President actually talked a lot about money in the training.  He was suggesting that the church isn't building more temples because now there are so many missionaries, that all the funding goes to missionary work. 

Something interesting he pointed out is that each mission spends so much money on all of the costs put together for all the missionaries and services and such, that they figured out that the church pays about 12,000 dollars for every person we baptize. Talk about worth of souls! haha.  Well President wants to lower that cost.  There are two ways we can do it.  We can spend less money or we can baptize more people!! haha So we are going to baptize more people.  Then we have to make sure they stay in the church because if they don't, that's 12,000 dollars wasted! Anyway, it was an interesting point of view to look at things.  

The Alberto Family is going to get married this week so we are excited for that and for them! They still aren't goign to baptize because we want to make sure they are fully repented and ready for baptism.  Marriage doesn't exactly mean full repentance... haha but they are great and we are confident that they will get baptized within these couple of weeks. 

Life is going well here in the mission and I'm loving it!

Thanks for everthing, have a great week!!!! 

Thanks for all the love and support!

Hermana Jones

Churchless week

Woops, sent the letter again without writing anything. 

We had a good week here in Barranca, it was pretty strange because yesterday were the elections and according to the law, you can't have any meetings on election day. So there was no church for us and I felt so weird all Sunday.  It was the first Sunday that I haven't gone to church in years! Also it was a bummer because we couldn't see conference, but will be seeing it this week. So this week now you can tell me your opinions/what you liked and such of conference. I'm excited to see it! Word on the street is that they didn't announce any temples and they are "Alma 54-ing it" O sea, we just need to strengthen what we have already got.  

Nevertheless, it was a pretty good week, just strange.  So many people were travelign because you have to go to your own city to vote if you never changed your address (Which is a TON of people) so like half of the population went to other cities and a ton came here that were originally from here as well.  So we did a lot of contacting and finding new investigators because our current ones weren't home! 

A lot of finding = a lot of rejection! It was a little frustrating just hearing everyone's lame excuses why they can't listen to us but it definitely helped me grow in my testimony of the Savior. I love these people so much and want them to be saved, but they just flat out reject us.  But that's what the Savior went through as well. Just gotta keep workign with Faith! 

Today starts my last transfer! We haven't found out yet about the changes but I'm 99.99% sure that I'll be finishing out here with hermana Fuentes. I'm excited to sprint out to the end! 

The weather is finally warming up and everyone is happy. Life is good. The work is going well.  

I can't upload pics today so next week for sure.

Have a great week!
Love you bunches!  

Week of Adventures!

Hola Familia, 

This week flew by because we went up to Huaraz to do a work visit which was pretty cool! Huaraz is far and there are 3 companionships of sisters there so we stayed from Monday until Wednesday and it was productive and it is summertime there so it was nice to see the sun feel dry air- not so humid. Hna Agle, my trainer/mom goes home next week so it was sad to have to say goodbye to her, but I'll get to see her again in January. :)

We got back and got to work for a couple of days and then had a zone training with Pres. and Sister Archibald and the assitants which was AWESOME.  I'm pretty sure Pres. Archibald would be an awesome coach because he is so motivating.  He was talking about the importance of what we are doign adn how important it is to hasten the work and have an attitude of urgency because there isn't much time! I felt like I could go walk on water after that. It was great. So we got back to work and had a great week!

This week I saved a dog off a roof. When we were running in the morning a kid and his grandpa were trying to climb a ladder and take their dog off the roof, but they couldn't do it so I tried but the dog looked like it was goign to bite me so I got up there with the kid, and a lady gave us a bag and the kid put it in the bag and it started going crazy and I threw the bag down to the grandpa and all was well! It was a fun adventure/service activity. 

The Rodriguez family is progressing and we found out this week that Lucero, the 22 year old daughter has to go away to study for 2 months so she won't be able to get baptized until December, so we talked to Pres. Archibald and he said it would be better to baptize her this weekend than wait.  So we went over there on Friday night and talked to her about it and at first she didn't want to get baptized on saturday because she had lots of doubts and such and didn't feel ready, but we were talking to her and helping her and it finally came down to the fact that she had doubts about Joseph Smith.  So we invited her to kneel and pray right then and there. So we all kneeled and she prayed and asked if Joseph Smith was a prophet.  The Spirit was so strong and we all stayed kneeling after to listen to the spirit and we got up and she explained to us that she had felt the Spirit so we told her that that was her answer and she agreed and agreed to get baptized the next day.  So on saturday she got baptized and her whole family came and it was great and she gave her testimony after about how she knew it was the right decision.  There isn't heated water in the fonts here so it was pretty cold the water but she said as she entered in the water while being baptized, she didn't even feel cold, or afterwards either.  She is super awesome and it was a great example for her family.  They are still going to get baptzied in October, because they have to go to church a couple more times still. Everything is going well with them.  Our challenge now is finding more families because a lot of fallen and have stopped progressing so that is what we are going to focus on this week. 

Oh yeah, I am going to send you the most fulfilling picture! Our itty bitty branch has had 28 baptisms in these last 4 months between two companionships, which is awesome! Not only that but they are all families that are still active and going strong.  Anway, most of them went to the temple and did baptisms on saturday and so they took a picture together and when I saw it it made me tear up a bit.  It's so great to see the progression towards the altar! the work is hastening! 

Thanks for all the love and prayers. Have a great week! The church is true!

Hermana Jones

Hola

So things are going well here in good ol Peru! 

We definitely had a week of ups and downs but things are going well and progressing. Not much has been happening but here are a couple of updates:

The Rodriguez family is progressing well, I don't know if I already mentioned them, but it is Alejandro and Sonia and their two daughters Lucero and Araceli.  The daughters are our ages, and the family actually lives in the area of the Elders, but the daughters are kinda flirty so they gave the family to us and we are teaching them now, and working so they can get baptized in October! 

We had a cool little miracle with them this week.  We visited them on saturday and they told us they weren't going to be able to go to church on sunday because Alejandro had to study for a big test at work.  Well we talked to them about sabbath day and eventually they agreed to go to sacrament meeting.  We left but still weren't pleased because we have this new rule that they have to attend ALL THREE HOURS three times to be able to get baptized so if they didn't go on sunday, we were going to have to move their bapt. date.  So we left worried but had said all we could and were just praying that they would stay three hours and we would be blessed for being obedient to the new rule.  we weren't sure how it was going to work out but we figure the Lord would help us out! 

So on Sunday they all came as promised, and after sacrament meeting we went to talk to them and casually asked, "so are you going to go to the classes?" and then without hesitation the stubborn dad just said, "yeah." and then went to class.  We didn't ask questions or anything we just went along with it and we aren't sure how the Lord did that, but it worked and they are stil on track to get baptized! 

I received some great news this week that my 2nd baptism, Maria Hambudge, who got baptized last August, got endowed! I was so happy to hear that.  It's one thing to baptize a person but it's another to know that they are progressing and enduring to the end! There has been a lot of focus on retention here because it wasn't done very well in the past, so there are a ton of inactives.  So we are very careful in making sure that they are going to stay strong.  I am excited to see the progression of everyone else as well and I think that would just make my joy complete to see them making it to the temple. :)

This saturday our branch is going to the temple, and so all of our converts here, the pimentel family and the Cuenca family are going to go and do baptisms.  The twins in the Pimentel fmaily just turned 12 last week so they got the priesthood on Sunday and are going to be able to go.  They were originally going to go this past weekend to the temple, but we brought up that situation with the twins so the branch changed the temple date for them. So cool! So I am excited for them all to go :) 

Last monday we played volleyball, and it was sad.  All athletic ability that I ever attained is now gone.  I've turned into a tall awkward gringa full and slowed down by all the rice and potatoes. But it's okay because I've never been happier than being in the full time service of the Lord. :)

The church is true!

love you bunches. 

Hermana Jones 

Life is Good1

Hola,

We had a good week and things are picking up a lot here.  We are starting to see a lot of fruits of our efforts and things are going well!

The entire Rodriguez family FINALLY came to church! The two daughters, Lucero and Araceli, who are 20 and 22 have been coming for weeks and are great, but the parents have been more difficult to get to come.  But they came yesterday and it was great.  The Relief Society teacher didn't come so the president asked me to give the lesson about temples and sealing. So I taught on the spot but it turned out really well and was perfect for the family because I focused a lot on how it is Impossible to enter into Exaltacion without sealing in the temple.  They were pretty worried because their Catholic marriage isn't cutting it.  So they enjoyed the lesson and we went by afterwards and taught more about it and they are definitely warming up to the idea of getting baptized so they can get sealed as a family.  

These next few weeks will be interesting because we found out that on October 5th they have elections here.  Well apparently they always have elections on saturdays, and when there are elections, it's illegal to have any sort of public reunion or gathering because it is law that all go vote. So we aren't allowed to have church that day.  Which means we can't watch general conference that weekend! Sad. :( So we have to wait until the next weekend.  Don't tell me about anything cool they talk about until I see it! haha. That also means that we can't have baptisms those two weeks because they have to get confirmed in sacrament meeting.  So we have to plan a lot better now.  

I have been reading Jesus the Christ a lot because I really want to finish it before I finish my mission.  I love it! I was reading about lots of the parables and I love the explanations and insights that Talmage gives. Not going to lie, I didn't really understand a lot of those parables before haha.  But I especially loved when he was describing the parable (I don't remember the name) but when the man goes and knocks on his neighbor's door in the middle of the night asking for bread for a traveler, and the neighbor doesn't want to get up and give it to him , but in the end he does it.  I love that becuse I was thinking about my life and how much Heavenly Father loves us, that he really wants to give us all these "gifts" so we just need to keep knocking and when we keep knocking and keep asking humbly, he will give them to us when we have proven our Faith.  So keep having faith! 

Good week, thanks for all the love and prayers! Life is good here and I love being in the service of the Lord. 

Helaman 3:35.

Love you bunches!
Hermana Jones 

p.s. I did a work visit with Hermana Stirling and she had ranch dressing and we made wraps and it was heavenly. I forgot that ranch existed! 

chanchos

Hola mi familia!

Good week this week, not much to write!

We went to Lima and had our monthly leadership training which was awesome.  They put in a couple of new rules for baptizing in this area. The investigators have to attend church three times, and they have to go to church all three hours three times before getting baptized.  Also, they have to pay some sort of offering or donation before they can get baptized.  It will make things a bit trickier but I can definitely see the wisdom in these rules, making sure that the converts remain active and faithful members of the church.  We'll see what type of good results it brings!

We found lots of awesome families this week that are MARRIED so that was awesome.  We'll see what happens with them! stay tuned.

The Pimentel family invited us to help them out a bit in a field by their house where their uncle raises pigs.  So we went and it was definitely the grossest experience I've ever had haha.  Let me just say, we saw the BIGGEST pigs I have ever seen in my life! I haven't really seen too many pigs but I HAVE seen Charlotte's Web and these pigs were like 50 times bigger than Wilbur. I'll try and send a picture but I don't think you'll be able to tell how big it is. There was one that was like over three feet tall when on all fours. crazy! It convinced me to never raise pigs, even though I don't think that ever would have been a possibility.  

Jose Pablo passed the sacrament yesterday in his cute little white shirt and tie. That is so satisfying to see!  All the converts here are progressing really well and we are working to find more prepared families.

Thanks for all the love and prayers! Love you! The church is true! 

Hermana Jones

crazy week

Hola familia!

On Tuesday night Sister Archibald called me and told me the news that Grandpa had passed away.  Thanks for letting me know beforehand that he wasn't doing well, so it wasn't super shocking. I hope everyone is doing okay, especially Grandma. It sounds like everyone had a pleasant time together for the weekend and How great is it to be members of the true church! 

This week was pretty crazy and I was only in my area for a day and a half! Here's a rundown:
On Monday hermana Leyva had to pack everything because she went to Lima for a couple of days before her flight left.  Tuesday morning she went to the transfer meeting but I stayed in my area with another hermana and we got the news of who our new companions are going to be.  Mine is now Hermana FUENTES.  She is from Colombia and has 7th months in the mission.  She is awesome and we are excited to work together! We are now sister training leaders together. So she got here on Tuesday night, and we worked all day Wednesday which was great because we found some awesome families!

On thursday we had a big leadership training meeting with all the Zone leaders, district leaders, and sister training leaders.  It was basically a priesthood meeting but we were invited as well so I enjoyed it haha.  President talked a lot about just being an example to others because there is no point in being a leader in the mission if we aren't having success because then people won't be looking up to us.  It was a great meeting and then we rode back to Lima with Pres. and the Assistants because on Friday we were going to the temple!
So Hermana Leyva and I went went to President's house on Thursday night which was AMAZING! Funny thing: About a year ago I stayed a night at the mission home when I arrived to Peru and my thoughts were; "This is a nice house. It seems pretty clean and updated." but now, after a year being in Peru, my thoughts were this, "THIS IS THE NICEST HOUSE EVER! There is carpet! And hot water!" I was tempted to sleep on the ground because there was carpet.  But I opted for the extremely comfortable bed instead.  I was literally in Heaven. And Hna. Archibald made us grilled cheese and ice cream and we just sat on the couch chatting with them until midnight. It was the best.  

We got up early on Friday and went to the temple and then went to Chilis to eat lunch. I was in heaven there as well while eating chips and salsa. I had missed chips and salsa so much! 

The Temple was beautiful.  I'm so excited to be able to go to the temple as frequently as I want when I get home.

On saturday we stayed in Lima because Bishop Davies came and did a conference with our mission, with Elder Uceda as well.  Hermana leyva and I sang in the choir which was great.  After that we went right to the airport to drop off hermana Leyva which was really sad, but now she's at home safe and happy. :)

We returned to Barranca late on saturday night and had a great day yesterday as well! We are trying super hard to reach the goal of baptizing families weekly. We have foudn some great families this week and are excited to see what happens. 

One of my favorite experiences this week was when Neil, our recent convert, was able to give the priesthood to his son, Jose Pablo who got baptized last week.  I honestly didn't know before that Priests could give the priesthood! So he read the prayer to ordain him, and then he gave him a blessing that was so beautiful, the just came from the Spirit! It was very spiritual and it sounded like he ahd been giving blessings for years. That family is so great!

Well Sorry for the long rant of information, but it was a pretty crazy week.  Life is awesome and I'm so happy being here in the service of the Lord. 

Whenever I think of Grandpa I think of an extremely hard worker, so I decided to just work harder than ever before to finish things up here. 

Love you all and thanks for all the love and prayers! 

Hermana Jones 

Hermana Leyva dies

Hola!

Well Hermana Leyva got extended a few days so she will be here until this saturday, but we have transfers tomorrow so I think I'll be getting my new companion tomorrow, not really sure. This week was super sad because it was her last week! Hermana Leyva is the best.  Not sure what I'm going to do without her, I guess I'll just keep working.  But it's okay because I'll be seeing her at BYU. :)

So we had a crazy week because we had to travel down to Lima for the going away party thing they do for the missionaries that leave.  They go to the temple, eat at a fancy restaurant, have a little training and I don't really know what else but it sounded pretty fun! Well unfortunately I didn't get to participate, instead I went to the area of the companion of another sister that was going home and worked in her area haha.  It was still good though.  They finished at like midnight so we went and stayed with hermanas and then traveled up to Barranca with President adn Sister Archibald because they were going up.  

In these last few months President has been saying that if a Zone reaches their monthly baptism goal, he will buy them pizza and teach them deep doctrine.  Well the month of July our zone met our goal! the first zone to meet their goal in almost a year.  So as promised, he came up and we all ate pizza and he taught us deep doctrine for like 5 hours. It was awesome. Plus we got to be in the car with him for three hours going up so I got all my questions out.

On Friday we visited Jose Pablo, Neil's son, because we had wanted him to get baptized on saturday but we were gone for a couple of days and couldn't visit him.  We asked if he had been reading and said a little bit, but said he had prayed and said, "I felt like something in my chest that I can't really describe, it was just like a happiness." and before we could say anything he said, "so I would like to get baptized tomorrow if that's okay. " Uh, yeah, that's okay! He had already had all the lessons and it was a tender mercy for Hermana Leyva to have her last baptism.  That whole family is a miracle and now they are complete. We found out that Cecilia got baptized 33 years ago, and the Lord led us to her house now less active married to a non member and with a son.  We were able to search and find her church records and now her son and baptized.  What a miracle! They are awesome.  Somethign I didn't know, Priests can give the priesthood to deacons.  So we are going to have Neil give the priesthood to his son.  

Life is good.  I'll update you next week on my companion and everything. Have a great week, love you! 

Hermana Jones

Busy Week

Hola hola! 

This week was pretty busy and crazy and basically had no sleep!

We started off the week by traveling up to Caraz, a small area super far to visit the hermanas there. So that took up Monday and Tuesday and we got home at about 3am on wednesday, got to sleep a couple of hours, and then had a great training with Pres. Archibald.  It was a multi.zone and the reason is because last month Elder Oaks came to train mission presidents and he asked all the presidents to train their missioanries better on the Trinity.  So that's what he did, and it was amazing.  If you ever want to really learn about a Gospel topic, get Pres. Archibald to teach you after his 30 years of CES service.  He had a whole training planned out but somehow it just turned into a deep doctrine question and answer session which was fun haha.  That went until like 6pm so we only had a couple of hours of proseliting but it was great.  

Then on Thursday was Hermana Leyva's birthday! and she was sick, poor thing.  Fever, nausea, and everything.  But I think she still enjoyed her birthday! 

We finally got to work well on friday and saturday and yesterday which was good, but it was pretty disappointing because the Huaman family had a bunch of issues and now the dad doesn't want to get bapitzed.  Well, we aren't going to baptize his family without him so we are going to see what else we can do to help them this week and make sure they get baptized. Pray for them! 

Also Jose Pablo, Neil's son should be getting baptized this week as well so pray for him too! 

This week we are going to be going to the going away party in Lima for the missionaries that are leaving. I think I'm going to be able to go to the temple and eat with them!   Interesting fact: These next three transfers in total there are about 80 missionaries elaving and 100 coming, that's a huge change!  

Funny story: yesterday we got home and tried going to the bathroom, but we couldn't open the door! The doorknob turned, but it wouldn't open.  So we tried taking it off and fixing it and such and we could not fix it.  We even tried running into the door really hard, and kicking it like a police man but with no luck.  It was stressful because we really had to go to the bathroom haha.  Well nothign happened and our landlord isn't here this week.  Then, we went back and tried it and it opened, like nothing had ever been wrong.  It was pretty ridiculous but i'm glad we could open it! 

This week I have been studying a lot about VIRTUE.  You know those people that you meet that are just genuinely good people? Well I guess I just never realized before that that is what virtue is.  Just being completely pure in thoughts and actions that not even a bad or mean or angry thought ever crosses your mind.  Even when no one is watching you or is around.  I don't know how that didn't click to me before but it is something that I am definitely going to be working one more.  Elaine S Dalton would be so proud of me! 

Thanks for all the love and prayers, life is good and the church is TRUE!

Hermana Jones

Otra semama ya?

Hola!

Okay so I don't have much to say today because I can't believe it's already been another week!

The work is going well here, the Huaman Family all came to church yesterday and loved it, turns out that the dad, Andres, is friends with Martin, who got baptized like 3 weeks ago.  So that's perfect! They are on date to get baptized the 23rd of this month. 

This week Martin also received the priesthood and that entire Pimentel family is progressing a lot. We are working really hard to make sure they stay in the church and can go to the temple in a year. They are going to be such awesome leaders in the church.  The branch is really excited because it's been a while since there has been baptisms here so they are helping a lot.  

Today we are going to travel up to Huaraz to do a work visit so that will be fun and long! the part we are going to is very pretty so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

This week they had a talent show at church and so Hna Leyva and I sang together and I played the piano.  It was pretty funny because I don't consider myself a very good singer but here I look really good so that was fun haha. 

We are trying to work hard and make these last couple of weeks count for my companion! 

Like I said, not much to report but life is good. I hope all is well with the new house/city/ward! Happy birthday to Jake and Jessica this week! Love you! The church is true!

Hermana Jones 

crazy week

Hola!

The reason I'm writing late is because we got up early and had Zone Pday going to a place called Caral in our zone, which are ancient ruins.  They are the most ancient ruins discovered in the Americas, and the second most ancient in the world.  We're talking 5000 years ago.  It was so cool! I took lots of pictures.  We couldn't touch anything but it was fun to see and take pictures and speculate about Jaredites, haha. 

So this week was pretty crazy and we only got like 3 1/2 days of proselyting, but it was still a good week!

So this week we had to move apartments because there was a single man living in our old building so we had to find a new apartment and found one that is perfect! It's beautiful, but the only problem is that it's like 60 degrees because the main window faces the ocean (beautiful) but has a cold breeze.  And the window doesn't really shut well haha.  But it's awesome.  So, Mom, it looks like we both spent some time packing this week! Along with Dad and Matt and Jessica and everybody.  

So we got all moved in and then the next day we traveled to Lima for the mission leadership council which was awesome! President read to us and discussed with us a talk called "The unwritten order of things" given by Pres. Packer at a BYU devotional I think. It was aweome and he talked a lot about becoming better leaders and being "quick to observe." Then the asistants did a training on the commandments and they asked Hna Leyva and I to do a demonstration on teaching Tithing which was nerve wracking front of Pres. and all the leaders, but it turned out well. 

Right now we are teaching the Huaman family which is an awesome family that is VERY humble.  They all came to church again which was great and they have their bap. date for the 23rd so we are working with them for that.  

Other than that I can't think of much that happened but life is good and I'm happy.  My companion goes home in three weeks, crazy! Luckily she's awesome and keeps working and we are excited to see what else there is to come here!

Thanks for everything! Love you!

Hermana Jones

Feliz dias patrias!

Hola hola!

Happy Peru independence day! Today and tomorrow are holiday's of Peru's independence AKA there are lot of parties and no one is going to let us in their house and lots of virgin parades in the streets. Fun times! But I learned the Peru National Hymn and today have my little Peruvian pin so I feel like a real Peruvian. Today our district is going to celebrate by making mexican food, (don't ask me why) but yeah so stay tuned for how these couple of days go!

This week was great and life is good and I'm just super happy!

Neil got baptized this week! Woo! We were a little worried because he had some doubts and didn't want to stop drinking coffee but we had a good powerful lesson with him and he decided to get baptized and got baptized and confirmed! His son however, still doesn't want to but we are working with him and praying for him. It was pretty cool how we found them last month.  We just knocked their door and turns out that Cecilia, the wife of Neil, got baptized when she was about 15 but had moved and such and the church couldn't ever find her but now we did and are working with their family so they can ALL get baptized and sealed! 

This week we had to travel to Lima again which is always interesting in the 4 hours on a bus with some type of action or horror movie playing haha but we went because I had to do some final paperwork and... drum roll please.... after a year and a half from when I submitted my papers and a year in Peru, I'm legal! Woo! My visa went through and I even have a little card with my picture on it. I'm excited.  

We got word that Elder Anderson of the 12 is coming to Peru and giving a conference to just our mission in the end of August, so that's exciting! Bad news, we're so far from Lima that we probably won't be able to go down.  We are praying and thinking of different options so that we can, I'm not going to lose the Faith! :)

Sad to hear that the Jones family is leaving Joplin after a solid decade, but it'll be good to move on to new things.  Good luck with the move! 

Life is good and the church is true. Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Jones 

Hola

Hola familia,

So this week was super duper awesome because..... The rest of the Pimentel family got baptized! So that family is basically like a family of 8 but it's really two families of 4, so 1 family of four got baptized last week and this week the other family of 4!

This week we did a visit down in Huaral, a couple of hours away so we were gone on monday and tuesday and were nervous because we wanted to get them baptized but we weren't in our area so we tried teaching them wednesday and couldn't find them and then thursday we couldn't find them either and we finally did on Friday.  We had a big ol lesson planned and went and taught it and the Spirit opened their hearts and they decided to get baptized and DID! It was amazing.  We had been praying so much trying to figure out what to do and it was so cool to see how much the Lord trusts in us to give us revelation and we were able to figure out their needs and they got baptized.  Life is good with them! We were visiting with all 8 of them last night and it was so satisfying to know that they were all baptized and they brought out a cake to celebrate and right before we started to cut it, Martin said, we should probably say a prayer to bless it first! It was something small but just so pleasing to see the change that has ocurred in their entire family.

So our district has been getting really excited and we really want to start baptizing lots of families because that is really the best way to go so now we are having a contest to see who can find the biggest family haha.  Of course it is not the type of competition where we want others to fail but we are supporting each other and it motivates us.  We were always calling in the district to say, We found a family of 10! or oh, now we have to find a family of 12! but its awesome because it is working and this week we found 2 families of 10! The Lord is blessing this area so much!

Well other than I that I can't think of what else happened this week but life is good! The church is true!

Love you bunches! oh and I'm glad you had a super duper awesome vacation this week!

Hermana Jones 

Good Week

Hola hola!

Okay this week was great because four of the Pimentel Family got baptized! Carlos, Baudilia, and the twins, Patrick and Rusell.  It was an awesome baptism because the Elders in our branch also baptized a family of 4 so that was great and President Archibald made the long trip up to see it! He is very picky about how baptisms should be so we had a planning meeting which took like 3 hours and made it all perfect and it worked and President said it was "awesome!" And it was.  We were all so happy for them!!

About 5 minutes before it ended, Cinithia walked in with her kids, (The part of the family that was supposed to get baptized but didnt.)  It was a sad week for that because I had to learn how to respect people's agency.  Despite how happy we were for the four that DID get baptized, we still were sad for the four that DIDN'T.  However, we are still working with them and they came to church yesterday so we aren't losing the Faith and know they will get there! And now Carlos, their dad, can baptize them because he has the Aaronic Priesthood. :)

Life is good here in Barranca, I love it here.  It is so tranquilo and great.  It got super cold this week and there is a cold wind from the ocean so I pulled out my coat and tights.  But I think I'm just whimpy because it's like in the 60s I think or maybe the 50s but I'm freezing. 

In Barranca I've eaten so many fun things! In my other areas I didn't eat anything weirder than chicken feet or heart, but now I've added to the list: duck, duck neck, duck heart, cow heart, octopus, snail, stingray, fish eye, and Guinea pig! It's been a fun time.  I need to take more pictures of the things I eat but I don't want to offend the people by taking a picture of their food and make them think I'm making fun of it haha.  

This morning I was reading in Alma when he talks about experiencing a might change in heart and he asks, "have ye been spiritually born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances?" and I was thinking about how our Spirits look the same as our bodies.  President was talking once about how when we grow spiritually, we physically can see the difference and people actually look better, if that makes sense.  So I related that to this scripture and it clicked to me that when we are trying to change and become better, we are literally "Receiving his image in our countenances" and our countenances change.  I noticed that a ton with the Pimentel family this week.  Yesterday, Carlos went to the choir practice! Just imagine, a big rough lookign guy that rides a motorcycle and has tattoos, singing in church choir! I was noticing how much his coutnenance has changed in these couple weeks, and that can only be explained by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

The church is true! 

Love you bunches,

Hermana Jones

Just call me Spider-hermana

Buenos Dias!

Happy fourth of July this week! It sounds like you had a fun little fiesta at home! We had a fun little fiesta here too. Luckily I have an awesome companion that likes the US and knows I love it so she learned the National Anthem and we woke up on Friday and I put my flag on the curtain string and raised it up while singing the national anthem. It was beautiful! The flag kept falling so we had to do it like 6 times haha but it was great. Then later that day we made real American mashed potatoes and root beer and brought them to lunch and it was delicious. Our pensionista's husband put up red and blue balloons haha.

So that was a great part of the week.  The rest of the week, well let's just say that Satan has been attacking our area and our investigators, so it was rough.  Please keep praying for the Pimentel family! Four of them are set for their baptism but the other four are having a TON of doubts out of nowhere and now don'twant to get baptized.  We are doing everything we can and praying lots for them, so hopefully all turns out well! Also the other families, Cuenca family and Haro Family are having lots of doubts that only are coming from Satan so yeah, we've been battling pretty hard! Good thing we have the Lord on our side and even though Satan thinks he's succeeding, The Lord will always win!

This week we also went to Lima for the mission leadership council which was awesome.  A few months ago one of the 70 was here talking and he was saying that we are called to our missions not necessarily because this is the exact area we need to be in, but for our mission presidents and the companions we need.  Well that is so true because just hearing President Archibald is very inspiring and I can tell that it was inspired that he is my mission president. I learn so much from him and Sister Archibald so I love every opportunity we have to be trained by them or just to chat with them about life and the Gospel.  I learned a ton a he gave a training on God. Literally, the first article of Faith, he just talked about God the Father and it was so awesome to hear all of his insight on knowledge that I took for granted.  My perspective on our Heavenly Father has changed and I think about Him differently now.  That has changed my thought process this week and has made me want to serve Him even better and more faithfully. 

Also this week we were informed that the end of August Elder Anderson will be coming and talking to us! Yay! Our mission is in charge of putting a choir together so I signed up and they choose from the list but my area is far from Lima so I probably won't but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :)

But really, thanks for everything and all the love and prayers.  I'm so grateful to be here in the service of the Lord and I know the church is true!

Hermana Jones

Back in the promised land

Hola hola!

Okay so I'm here back in the promised land of Barranca. Huaraz was nice and pretty but FREEZING and the climate here is literally perfect. I'm never hot and I'm never cold.  Also it's the promised land because the people here are amazing. Also its the promised land because there are tons of fresh fruits that people give us all the time.   Is it bad if you eat too many oranges? 

Big news. The Pimentel Family all officially agreed to get baptized on July 12th! It is Carlos and his wife Baudilia, and their daughter Cinthia with her husband Martin, and then four kids, Patrick and Russell who are twins, age 11, Mishelle, age 10, and Martincito, age 9. They are excited and we called Pres. Archibald and he is going to make the four hour drive and come up to be here.  We are so happy for them and are just so amazed by all the miracles we are seeing and especially have seen with this family. Let me just say that praying and fasting totally work! 

Also the Cuenca Family came to church and they are preparing for baptism on the 19th and also the Haro Family came but they still have to get married to be able to get baptized. Keep praying for them please! :)

I'm not sure what else to include here because this week was just awesome and wizzed by!

I bought a Peruvian hammock in Huaraz and we hung it on our bunk bed. It's pretty awesome. I'll send a picture.

Life is awesome here and I am growing in my testimony every single day. The church is so true and God lives and hears and answers our prayers! 

Love you bunches, have a great week! 

Hermana Jones

Hello Hello

Hello hello!

Well I'm writing this from the provincia of Huaraz, 10,000 feet above sea level! 

Huaraz is the zone farthest north from the mission home and Hermana Leyva and I are in charge of visiting here so we came up here to visit the other hermanas and wow it is so different than Lima!

We got up early and took a 4 hour taxi ride up here through the twisty turny scary roads of the Andes Mountains and made it without throwing up! The only side effect is that I feel like I can't breathe and it just feels like a ton of pressure on my head. We have been walking around today and are already tired! It's so different but SO GORGEOUS.  the skies are so incredibly blue and there are snowy mountains in the distance and I'm excited to see stars tonight.  Also it's super cold.  I think i'm goign to freeze when the sun goes down.!

Well this week was super awesome in our area.  I seriously never know what to write or tell because the weeks just fly by.  Good news! The Pimentel family ALL came to church yesterday and they are getting more and more excited for their baptism! So they are all set on the date for July 12th, all 8 of them! We are going to be praying and fasting a lot for them, so make sure to keep them in your prayers!

Another miracle, last week we met a little family of three that is awesome.  They all came to church yesterday as well and we visited them again and the mom told us that she remembered that she got baptized about 30 years ago but hasn't been to church since and is so excited to return and now her husband and son are going on July 19th! 

ANOTHER miracle: also this last week we contacted a man in the street that said he was married. (If they aren't officially married we usually don't visit them.) So we went back and found out that he has his wife and they have 5 kids, all above the age of 8.  Well at the end of the lesson we found out that they aren't actually married so we were super sad! It's so hard to marry people here and usually they just aren't excited to do it.  Well we talked to them and found out that they actually DO want to get married, but he doesn't have his birth certificate. It is in the town where he was born, and here you can't just get on a computer and find it or anything, you ahve to actually go there and get a copy.  Well just guess where he was born.... Huaraz!!! And where are we right now doing a work visit? Huaraz!!!!! It was so perfect! When he said that we were like, hey! We're going there next week! So he gave us his information and this morning we picked it up and we are praying that they can get married quickly and get baptized this month as well.  

Life is awesome and I love being in the service of the Lord and seeing miracles every day.  Thanks for all the love and prayers!

The church is true! 

Hermana Jones 

Doin the work

Hola Hola!

Happy Father's day!!!!! And Happy Birthday Matt!!! 

Father's day isn't nearly as big of a holiday here as Mother's day, but I still remembered.  Mostly because it is an excuse to drink and not work, so it was a fun weekend! 

Last Pday was sweet because we went to the beach! The beach here is awesome and not too crowded so we played soccer to celebrate the World cup starting. (People here are pretty bitter that Peru is NEVER in the world cup haha.) I'll attach some action shots of our zone soccer!

This week I had to go to an Immigrations office in Lima, so I had to leave early on Tuesday and got back on Wednesday.  Luckily we were able to do divisions and Hna Leyva stayed here and worked so we weren't just leaving our area. It's so weird being away from Lima and annoying to travel but I hope I'm done with the legal stuff until I leave the country.  After I got back we kept working and had a great week! 

The Pimentel Family is awesome and almost all are progressing.  5 of them came to church yesterday but not all so we are going to make sure they can all get baptized together here in July.  Also, Omar came to church again and he is awesome because he is somebody that actually does what he says he is going to do. We'll set a lesson for the park at 6 and he is there early! I've never met somebody like that here! It is great.  He has his date for this 28th of June.  Pray for him and for the Pimentel family! 

Yesterday was a funny day, because there were a lot of drunk people "celebrating Father's day" so we just had funny experiences.  Anyway so it was the end of the day and we had to stop by the branch president's house to ask him something so we stopped by and the Elders were there eating and we saw them through the window and they were saying to us, "no!" like "don't come in!" so we knocked and that was a mistake because they invited us in and were eating dinner (They eat dinner at 9 at night here) which means they are socially obligated to have us eat with them.  We were already full and know that He is a fisherman so it was surely going to be seafood, and we knew we made a mistake going there haha.  They gave us rice and fish. And snail and octopus. So that was a good experience... And then while we were eating a lamb walked in and was walking around and it was just the weirdest and funniest experience to top off the weirdest and funniest day.  This is the best mission ever!!

President Archibald had a training this week with Elder Oaks so we are excited to hear what he had to say and how we can help the work move forward! 

Thanks for all the love and prayers and have a great week! 

Love,

Hermana Jones

Surprise, Surprise from Barranca

Howdy!

So a million things happened this week!! Tons of surprises. 

Remember last week when I said that I was pretty sure I wasn't getting transferred? Well yeah I was totally wrong! So we finished internet and our ZLs called us and said that I was getting transferred so I needed to pack but I didn't believe them because they always joke about that but it was true so I went and packed and we had a couple of lessons and I said my goodbyes so some people and it was super sad! I absolutely loved Puente Piedra so it was sad to leave and to leave Hna Alonso but I was excited to see what was going to happen.  

Well we got to the transfers on Tuesday with all of my stuff and they started naming off the transfers and everything and Hermana Agle, my trainer here, who was a sister training leader in Barranca got sent up way north to Huaraz to train again and then I got sent here to Barranca to be a sister training leader in this north part of the mission.  in "Nortechico" as they call it, which means north of the city of Lima and it is so different! It is beatiful! We are in Barranca which is about 4 hours north of Lima and it is right on the coast.  My area, Limoncillo, is literally on the coast and so we have the beach and I can see the ocean from most of the parts of the area.  The air is clear, there isn't as much dust, not as many dogs, there are fields of sugar cane, and life is good!

My companion now is Hermana Leyva, and she makes this area awesome as well! She is super duper and I already love her.  We actually feel like we already know each other because we have basically had all the same companions haha.  She is from Peru, Trujillo which is up North but we have a ton in common because she speaks English and studied at BYU for three years.   Her dad was the mission president of the Lima East mission a couple years back.  She is great and we are already great friends and are loving working here together. She goes home in two transfers, so in August.  We set lots of awesome goals together and are excited to get the work done here.  Everybody says that the work is harder here up North but we're just not going to believe them and work anyway. There aren't a ton of members here, we work in a branch and Barranca isn't a stake yet, it's a district.  So our job is to strengthen the branch and make it bigger! We're excited.

This week we also had our mission leadership council which was great because President talked about how we really need to become "Buscadores", or "Finders." Finding in missionary work is what people normally like the least so once they find people, they just teach them and then baptize them but then they have to start all over finding and it becomes a cycle of not too much success.  Well if we really want to baptize weekly, we ahve to be FINDING weekly and just have the strong desire to always open our mouths and preach the Gospel.  So this week we have been keeping that in mind and our new motto is, "No hay limites" or, "No boundaries" in missionary work.  Everytime we think something might be weird or uncomfortable or inconvenient we just remember that. For example, the other day we walked by a school and there was a car parked with a family inside waiting for their child.   we decided to knock on the window and make them roll it down to talk to us and we got an appointment from them! NO hay limites. This way the Lord can trust us more and put people in our path in weird ways and we can find them. So now we are finders in missionary work and are already seeing a ton of miracles here.  

Life is good and I love my area and my companion and missionary work!
The church is so true and the Lord's hand is in this work!

No hay limites.

Hermana Jones 

Life in the stone bridge

Hola mi familia!

Okay well it seems like I was just writing yesterday because this week flew by and I don't think I have any fun stories of going to Ecuador or anything. It was just a good normal week in the work of the Lord!

Our investigator, Copertino is still progressing towards his baptism on the 14th. He came to church yesterday and loved it again and is excited for his baptism.

Our other awesome investigator, Roger, wasn't able to go to church yesterday because he was sick :( so that was sad but we are going to visit him and we will just have to push back his date another week and pray that everything goes well. He is being a little colder to us so just pray that everythign goes well with him!

This week we did a work visit with some sisters so I went to another area with sister Margetts, from South Jordan UT.  She is finishing up her training here so she is pretty new in the mission but she is so sweet and we had a great 24 hours together.  She also was going to BYU before the mission so I'm adding her to the list of people I can hang out with when I get back! -I'm pretty sure all of my friends are getting married.... haha.

Tomorrow are transfers again here in the mission but I think Hermana Alonso and I are going to stick around here for atleast another transfer. They haven't told us yet but later today they will.  We already have 3 transfers here together but we love each other and work well so hopefully President doesn't find it prudent to split us up! Well I guess it's really the Lord's call, but we'll see. :) I definitely don't want to leave the dusty land of Puente Piedra!

This morning I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the 2nd time! It just gets better every time.  I love how we are given the invitiation to read it and ponder it and pray and find out for ourselves if it is true.  There are so many people that bash the Book of Mormon but they can't say anything against a sincere testimony of somebody that has truly read and prayed about the Book of Mormon, and received the witness that it is true.  I've received that witness many times and my testimony is strengthened every time I read that great book. It's so true!!!

Thanks for everything and I love you bunches! 

Hermana Jones 

Tour DE Ecuador...and Peru

Hola familia!!

OKay, so you may be wondering why I'm sending this email on a wednesday instead of Monday.  Let me just explain, these past two days have literally been the craziest ever! I'll try and fit everything in here and help you understand how awesome these days have been.

Last week an Elder from the offices called me and said I needed to be at the offices at 8am on Monday to go to the migrations office and to bring money and clothes in case we got back late and I had to stay the night in the offices. Well people do that all the time so it's normal but at 10 on sunday night, another sister called me and asked what I was packing to go to Ecuador.  I was quiet and asked, "ecuador? what do you mean ecuador?" and she said, "oh, you didn't know? We're going to ecuador tomorrow." 

What?? Like the country??? 

So yeah, I'm not sure how that detail got left out, but about 15 of us had to go to ECUADOR!! Basically we are the ones that are here without visas and our time went up and we were illegal so we had to fly to Tumbes, the city closest to Ecuador, and take a bus to leave the coutnry and then come back so they could give us six more months legal here.  I was so shocked! But that is what happened.  We left and flew to Tumbes, up by the border and it was an adventure!
We got off the plane and it was incredibly hot and humid. We all got in a bus and drove to Ecuador, waited in a line, entered the country, then turned around and waited in a line to get back into Peru and they give us six more months! Woo! So we finished all of that at about 3pm and our flight back wasn't until 9pm. SO the driver took us to the center of Tumbes and we just walked around and took pictures and ate and it was great! Tumbes is so cool and green and has a million mosquitos! So we finished up and went back to the airport and it started pouring so our flight got delayed but then we finally made it back to Lima at about 12 at night! 

We drove to the offices and were getting ready to go to bed, at this point it was about 1:30 am, when an Elder called us and told Hermana Alonso and I that the next morning we had to be ready at 6:30 because President was going to take us to the temple for being the comp of the month. Yay! So we slept a good three hours, got ready and went to the temple. We did a session, my first session in Spanish! And my first time seeing the new movie! (It's awesome!) and it was so refreshing to be able to go after almost a year! I loved it. So then President drove us around central Lima to see all the fancy places and we went and ate at Tony Roma's on the beach! IT was so delicious and I was in heaven.  We went back and after about 30 hours being out of our area, we finally made it back to our area at about 5pm last night.  What!!! THat was the most eventful to days of my mission haha.  It was incredible and I can't believe I went to Tumbes, Ecuador, and The center of Lima.  I took a million pictures and it was paradise.  

We got back and were worried because we had been away from our area for so long, that gives Satan a ton of time to work. Luckily we were able to get to teaching again last night and everything is good so far.  Oh, and I'm extremely tired.... haha.  

Now every week that I don't go to another country is going to seem boring haha. But they were good experiences.  I absolutely LOVED going to the temple and being able to just sit and clear my mind for a bit and remember the covenants that I've made.  There is a constant mission stress here, worrying about all the people we meet and such, but It was great to be able to sit and just enjoy the Spirit. To just think about what I've done here and what I still need to do in these six months. I was able to reflect a lot and feel the Spirit testify to me that the work I'm involved in is true, and that I need to keep on keepin on here in the Lord's vineyard. The church is so true!!!!
This weekend we are excited for Pamela to get baptized, pray that everything goes well for her! She's awesome.

Thanks for all the love and prayers, I hope everything is going well back home! 

Hermana Jones 

Una Semana Loca

Hola hola!

Congrats to Lynelle for graduating BYU! I don't know if you'll still be sticking around Provo or what but that's great and I hope you feel accomplished from graduating from one of the top 80(or so?) universities in America! 

okay so we had an interesting week and this is why.

Last monday we had transfers, and how they do them here is that they call our leaders on Monday and tell us to pack up and go to the meeting on Tuesday. We don't know where we are going, they just tell us to show up with our stuff. Well Monday came and they said that Hermana Alonso and I were staying together so we didn't have to pack or anything. Woo! We were super excited because we DID NOT want to leave. It was great and we went and celebrated by eating Lomo Saltado, my favorite peruvian dish. (picture attached.) We enjoyed our Monday and all was well.

WELL, we woke up on Tuesday to a text message sent at 11:30pm from the assistant to president telling us to come to the transfer meeting, without our suitcases... what? we were confused. But we went and it was fun to be able to see all of the other sisters that were getting transferred and we took pictures and such.  So what they do is that everybody goes into the room together and there is a slideshow and the assistant announces, "In the area of _____ we have Hermana ____ with Hermana _____" adn then our pictures and names pop up on the screen and we find each other and hug and such.  Well before the meeting I shook President Archibald's hand and asked, "why are we here?" and he laughed and said, "that's one of the three questions of the soul right? Where did I come from, why am I here, and where am I going?" haha so he thought he was pretty funny and didn't answer me. Well the slideshow started and it came to our area and said, "In Puente Piedra 2, Hermana Jones and Hermana Alonso, as sister training leaders!" And our pictures popped up and so we jumped up and hugged and were super excited! So now Hermana Alonso and I are sister training leaders together! Yay! 

What is a STL you may ask? Okay so basically since they changed the mission age there are a ton more sisters and Zone leaders and district leaders can't go on exchanges with the sisters obviously so what we do is we still work normally here and have our area and investigators but at least once a week we travel to another area and do exchanges with other sisters to help them in their area or with whatever they need.  It's kinda like zone leaders for sisters but not because we don't have the priesthood and still work under all of the other leaders. A cool part is that we get to go to the mission council meeting every month and get awesome trainings from President. I'm excited!! We have a lot more pressure now and are going to be a lot busier but it will be awesome to be able to work more and help others in the work as well, and I can't imagine how much I am going to learn from all of this as well! 

So basically this week has flown by because we are getting ourselves oriented with all that and also we had a fun service activity! We painted the upstairs of the house of the Sanchez Family with our district.  We blasted our EFY music and all got to know the family well and the paint actually turned out really well! (Sometimes missionaries don't do the most quality work.... but hey! It's free) but no it looked really good and they were grateful.  All of the houses here are made of concrete so I don't know if that is easier or harder to paint than dry wall but it worked out. 

The weather is getting cooler (in the 70s!) and our animo is getting bigger.  Life is good here in Puente Piedra and we are excited to see what is to come in these next couple of months that we will be together! 

So at the beginning of my mission I set the goal to read Jesus the Christ on my mission, and then I never obtained the book and here it is only in Spanish. But hey, I might as well start now and see what I can read in 7 months. Mom, is there an extra laying around the house somewhere and if so, could you send it to me in the next couple of weeks? They only have it in Spanish here.... If not, that will just be a goal to accomplish after my mission. :)

Thanks for all the love and prayers and I hope all continues to go well for the Jones Family! (and friends)

Hermana Jones 

La Semana Santa

Hola hola!

Congrats to Matt and Jessica for getting married! And welcome to the family, Jessica! From Mom's little note it sounded like all went well and well, they ended up sealed so that's the important part. Send me some pictures one of these days so I can see! 

So now only two of us in the family lack our ticket to the Celestial Kingdom.  We'll get there! 

This week went well and it was one of the most interesting Easter's I have experienced!

So here they celebrate the entire week up until Friday.  They all burn incense and stuff like that and then thursday and friday everybody got the day off work and school and such.  Friday they only eat Fish and nobody did anything all day except there were virgin mary parades in the streets that people went out to participate in.  It was interesting to see the culture/religious differences of Easter. Everybody here celebrates the death of Jesus Christ. While we are grateful for the fact that He died for our sins, in the church we prefer to celebrate his resurrection and the fact that He now lives! 

Friday was a holiday for that reason but then everybody had to work on saturday and sunday, as if his crucifixion was the only thing Christ did.  Anyway, we had lots of good lessons about Christ explaining the garden of Gethsemani, (which most people don't know about) and the resurrection.  It was a good week and we had a lot of great lessons, but everybody claimed to be die hard catholics despite they hadn't gone to church in forever...haha. Anyway this week will be better because they will be back in the rhythm of life and we can teach more about the Restored Gospel! 

Yesterday I was actually asked to give a talk in church so I decided to focus on the resurrection and it went great.  While there are a lot of members of the church here, most of them are recent converts so were born into the Catholic church and carry on those traditions. I explained the significance of the resurrection and the reason why we don't use crosses in the church (Thanks for that quote by Pres. Hinckley, Dad!). It went well and when I said, "you may notice there aren't any crosses in any building or temple", a lot of people looked around surprised as if they had never realized that before. It was pretty funny. It went well!

Anyway, it was a great week and life is good here! Today they are going to inform us if we get transferred or not, and I'm hoping I'll get to stay here for another transfer with Hermana Alonso! 

Have a great week and Love you bunches! The church is true! 

The beach and a baptism

Hola familia!!!!!

This was the best week ever!! Actually it was the work week ever but turned into the best week ever. Let me explain.

It started out great because last monday we went to the beach as a district! There is a fancy beach in our zone so we went and took some pictures and obviously we couldn't get in the ward but we climbed on some cool rocks and took pictures in an abandoned boat.  Also I received a little mitt and ball set at our mission christmas party so I brought that and it was a relaxing day. I'll send some pictures! We were going to eat fancy ice cream but had to get back to the grind by 6. 

Okay so then the week just went downhill. Let me just say that Satan is real and does NOT like families.  The wonderful Sanchez family started having doubts, every one, and I could sit here and explain for a couple of hours everything that happened, but thursday night, a coupleof days before their scheduled baptism, they all decided NOT to get baptized! We love that family so much and were distraught, we left crying and praying and sat down that night and decided that that was NOT okay and we had to do something about it. We called President Archibald and he gave us advice and and our zone leaders and we planned a great lesson and went on Friday night and it just turned out okay but we did all we could. we left the house sad because they still didn't want to get baptized and we knew it was because Satan didn't want them to get baptized.  Well we prayed a lot and decided that we had done everything we could, so we just needed to continue to have Faith and work and the Lord would do the rest. So we told the family that we still were going to be at the church for their baptism and they could choose.  We filled the font and invited everybody and set up chairs and everything.

  At 8 they hadn't showed up so we went over and they were chilling in their house.  we talked for a long time and then all of the sudden, out of nowhere, the son said, Well, let's go! And they all said, okay! let's do it! WHAT!!!!!! We were absolutely shocked! The only thing that can explain that is that the Spirit softened their hearts and opened their hearts just enough to make the decision.  They all got baptized together and we are so incredibly happy for them!!!!! :) It was a great service with a strong spirit and the bishop gave them all books and bibles and hymnals and everything. I haven't stopped smiling since! So basically that was a super long story short. We were so discouraged and were about to give up but we kept the Faith and as always, light overpowered dark and they can now continue to progress to the Celestial Kingdom as a family! Wow.  The worst week ever turned into the best week ever.  I love that family so much. They are pretty much my second family. That was literally the hardest thing I have ever done, but the day of their baptism was one of the happiest days of my life. It was so rewarding! 

Thank you SO much for all the prayers and thoughts for us and for them.  Prayers work! After this week I can testify even stronger that Satan is real but that God is way more powerful. Faith with works brings miracles and the CHURCH IS TRUE! I'm so happy! :) 

Love you so much!  

Hermana Jones 

La Conferencia general

Buenos dias!

General Conference this week was awesome! I've definitely grown a lot to appreciate general conference on my mission.  The entire week I was super anxious for saturday to come! All of the missionaries say that General conference is better than Christmas as a missionary and that's so true. I loved it!

It's hard to pick a favorite talk but I absolutely loved the Sunday morning session. I felt like Bishop Stevenson and President Monson were talking directly to me, so it was great.  I also felt like there was a great overall theme of that the world is changing but God never changes so we need to stick strong to what we know and not let the world influence.  It was great.  I also loved President Monson's statement about temples. What I understood is that we can't keep building temples until we actually start using more the ones that we have! Let's get to work and start attending the temple more! I haven't been able to go to the temple since I left the Provo MTC and I sure miss it.  I think this week or next we will be able to go with a less active member we reactivated because she is going to get endowed. 

The work has been moving right along here and unfortunately we had a pretty slow week here, but we are working so that things will pick up again.  A couple of weeks ago we had a training called, "This is war" from our mission president and I love the title of the training because it is so true! I have seen that so much this week.  We are literally in a battle right now every day against Satan and it's hard, but we know who is going to win! We are keeping our Faith and animo and pushing through! 

OH! Fun fact: our zone had 38 baptisms this month! That's a record for the mission I think. Also, hermana Alonso and I were one of the 4 companionships of the month!

Funny story: This week was April Fool's day, (Dia de los inocentes) except they celebrate it here in November but I told Hermana Alonso that in the US it is in April so I was in the bathroom that morning and the phone rang and she answered the phone and said, "Oh, President Archibald! Como esta!!!" So I ran out of the bathroom with a "WHY IS HE CALLING" face and she just started cracking up and yelled "APRIL FOOLS!" haha. But the funny part: That night I was in the bathroom again and President Archibald literally called so I just naturally thought she was joking when she answered the same way... but turned out it was actually him!  Talk about the boy who cried wolf. haha.  No worries, he was just calling to chat and had a couple of questions about our area. 

Thanks for all the love and support and I hope you all have a great week meditating and reflecting on the words of our beloved prophet and apostles!

Hermana Jones

Los Milagros

Hello Hello!

It's finally reaching Otoño (Fall) in Peru so the heat isn't killing us as much which is great. Every corner here has ice cream for sale for 1 sol (about 35 cents) so I definitely having spent my fair share in ice cream this summer.  

This week the two little girls I was talking about got baptized! Their parents are members but we couldn't figure out why they weren't baptized yet and it was a mixture of fear, not really wanting to, and their dad wanting them to know everything before they got baptized.  We went over a lot and did Family Home Evening's with them and they just opened up more and more every time as we sang and taught and played little games with them.  So we pretty much just told them this week that they were going to get baptized on Saturday and they were okay with it! Their dad needed a little more convincing but in this whole process we were able to reactivate him and he baptized them this weekend. It was great! Next goal: Sealed in the temple.  

Also this weekend our investigator, Gary, got baptized! Gary is literally one of the smartest people I have met but is so humble and just awesome.  Here's his story: He used to be the typical worldly guy with his friends and girls and such but one day he woke up and was paralyzed from the chest down. I didn't understand too well what the cause was but I think it was Meningitis? is that the thing where the liquid inflames around your brain and spinal cord? Well it was something like that and he didn't know he had it until he woke up one morning paralyzed.  It completely changed him and now he is extremely involved in the community and helping others.  We met him because he plays on a wheelchair basketball team that practices in the church's court.  He has been investigating churches for years and almost got baptized as a Jehovah's witness but last minute dropped out because they couldn't answer all of his "doubts." Well we started teaching him and he just ate everything up and understood perfectly and was one of those people that when we called to remind him to read the Book of Mormon he would say, "I was actually reading just now!"  or one day he asked us what is the difference between Aaronic and Melch. Priesthood before we even taught that!  haha so he's great and was very happy to get baptized and afterwards shared a great testimony about how renovated he felt and it was something he had been searching for for years.

I'm super excited for General conference this week and we are using that a lot to proselyte. I'm using Jacob's line, "Have you heard the good news?!? There's a living prophet and he is going to talk to us this weekend!!!!!!!!" It's pretty fun and hopefully we can have a lot of people come and listen to the words of the living prophet. 

I hope you all have a great week and I love you bunches!

Hermana Jones

Call me Senora Dolittle

Hola Hola! 

Another week has flown by! 

Congrats to Matt on getting into Texas.  Moving back to the Midwest, that's the way to go! 

Random fact: I don't know what it is, but the dogs and cats here LOVE me.  I literally don't do anything and don't pet them or talk to them or anything because they are usually dirty and have fleas, but for some reason they swarm to me and especially when we are teaching a lesson they usually all end up on my lap or next to me without even petting them or anything.  It's super weird.  Hopefully I don't pick up fleas anytime soon.  haha.

This week Cesar got baptized which was great.  He was supposed to get baptized last week but last minute decided not to so we made sure we were contacting him daily and that he was reading the Book of Mormon and praying daily, and he got baptized! A couple of days before the baptism he was talking to us about this past week and how he has just felt the strong desire to get baptized and has realized how much the Gospel has changed him, he said that he just feels like he should or shouldn't do certain things and he recognized that as the Spirit! Cool when investigators recognize that on their own! So he got baptized and gave a great testimony.

The highlight of this week was on saturday morning, we went to make pancakes with the Sanchez Family because Melissa sent me pancake mix and syrup, and they've never had that! So we made them and then we had a lesson with them and they were all there together and it was awesome because in the end they all committed to get baptized on April 12th and we were all so happy! They are amazing.  I love them so much.  

Thanks for all the love and support and prayers and everything! 

The Church is TRUE. 

Feliz Dia del Danto Patrick!

Hola familia,!

Happy St. Patty's day! It's not a thing here so nobody is wearing green so I'm having fun pellizcando (pinching) everybody.   

We had a pretty good week this week! It was a little sad because Cesar, who was supposed to get baptized on Saturday, got some last minute doubts (source? Satan.) and backed out and we prayed a lot and did our best to help him get baptized but in the end he didnt. However, it was still okay because last night we had a sweet lesson with him and he is pretty set to get baptized THIS saturday now.  Pray for him! Ive definitely seen on my mission how terrible Satan is and how urgent it is that people get baptized and get the gift of the Holy Ghost ASAP because if not, Satan attacks and it gets harder and harder.  So hopefully all will go well this week.  

We are still working and we are trying to meet the goal of baptizing weekly here.  President makes that the goal because then it is something constant and we have more support from the ward.  He would rather us baptize one person four weeks in a row than 4 in one day, unless it be a family.  So basically we are just going to try for families every week and that way we will have a ton of support from the ward and even more people will be brought to the Gospel! 

One day this week we had to do divisions because my companion had to go to immigrations so I went with Hermana Morgan, who came here in the same group as me.  Her area has part of the beach so we got there and were going to go to her apartment and study becaue it was early in the morning but she accidentally left the keys with her companion.  We had no other option than go to the beach to study! So we went and sat on a bench and studied and ate girl scout cookies that I received that morning from mommy. (Thanks, mommy! :)) It was great.  

I don't have much else to see, the weeks just run together and I literally can't believe another week has gone by.  Time is flying by way too fast but I absolutely love being here as a full time servant of the Lord.  I'm so blessed!
Thanks for all the love and prayers!

Love you bunches, the church is TRUE.

Hermana Jones 

Soccer Champ right here

Buenas tardes!

 

This week was a great week full of miracles! I'll tell three here today. 

1.First off, we had a baptism!

On Tuesday we had a training meeting for the new missionaries and their trainers and afterwards we were all eating and President Archibald asked me in front of everybody, So Hermana Jones, who are you going to baptize this week? And there was a long silence because we didn't have a baptism planned.... haha so I laughed and I said, I'll guess we'll just find that out today.  Well later that afternoon we felt like we should go visit a member and we were surprised to find her there with her un-baptized 9 yr old daughter with her dad.  We sat down and taught them all and found out that she hadn't been baptized yet because her dad was against it.  Well we talked for a while and by a miracle he agreed to let her get baptized. We set the date for this saturday, since she already had been to church and met all the requirements, and Karla got baptized on saturday! President Archibald and his wife came to the baptism. :)

 

2. We found a family of like 15 that is awesome.  I don't have much else to say because we have only taught them once but they are great, so stay tuned.

3. Last monday we had Pday with the zone and played soccer like we always do and it's funny because it's pretty much all of the Natives playing because it's in their blood. But I'm happy to announce that for the first time in my life I scored a soccer goal! That means my soccer skills have infinitely increased since I've been here.  I'd like to thank my mom for putting me in one season of little league soccer and Matt and Jacob for going to a soccer camp or something and bringing home an OSU soccer ball.  

 

I finished off the week by turning 20! Talk about old? I'm not a teenager anymore. But it's all good because I finished out the teen years by being immature and locking our keys in the apartment (by accident) and so we had to wait at a members house until midnight for our landlord to come back.  Only teenagers do stuff like that so I finished out my teen years well.  :)

Our pensionista gave me a cake and they sang and cracked eggs on my head . Good ol' Peruvian birthdays! I'll see if I have pictures.

 

Hermana Alonso and I are super happy to be here and we are working hard and doing well.

Thanks for everything and love you tons!

 

Hermana Jones