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!