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