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