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