El Sol Aparecio

Hola Hola!
Ahhhh..... What a swell week.  The sun came out! It had been hiding behind clouds and Lima smog but somehow it appeared this week and everyone has been in a stellar mood because of it.  Fun times.  So yeah, this week has been great.  

Everything is going well here.  I don't know what to say because it's all good.  Hna Agle and I are working hard together and we get along well.  We are similar and both love being here.  We had to do a lot of contacting/tracting this week because we started in a new area, but it's okay because we found a lot of really cool people that are so ready for the Gospel.

This week we contacted a family, and they are not members, except for one son who is actually serving a mission right now in Argentina.  He left two weeks ago.  They had been taught before but weren't very interested.  So we visited them and it's cool to see the change they've had since their son left.  The ward helped them a lot with getting all his stuff he needed so I think that softened them a lot towards the church.  We taught them a couple of times and they already knew pretty much everything and had some really deep but cool questions about stuff like temples and family history.  The dad came to church yesterday, so we have a lot of Faith and Hope in them and their family.  How cool would that be to be on a mission and get a letter from your family saying they're getting baptized? 

Our baptism this week fell through because our investigator, who is 13, has the chicken pox. Yikes! She actually had them before but was expecting to be better by now, but she isn't still.  So we're hoping for this weekend.  Her little brother also wants to get baptized but he just got the chicken pox so it might be a couple of weeks for him.  Mom, thanks for responding to Hna Archibald's email.  I was worried because I said I've never had the chicken pox and everybody started freaking out so I looked at my shot record and it didn't have anything on there.  But turns out all is well and I can still go teach her! And hopefully the vaccination continues to work. :) 

I received the letter from Dad and the letter from Jennifer this week!(Thanks to the nieces/nephew for the beautiful pictures. I'm extremely proud of their swimming abilities.)  On the 4th.  Of course, they could have arrived earlier and maybe the Zone Leaders just didn't pick them up/hand them out until the 4th.  But they usually do about every week. So if that gives you any time range of how long it takes.  Also, my companion got a package that was sent two months earlier.  It was just in a regular box though and not one of those flat rate envelopes so I don't know if there would be a difference there.  Just for your info!

Mom, sending me those CTR (or HLJ) rings was the best.  We had a Family home evening with a bunch of people this week so we taught a little lesson on agency and had those rings for the kids. There were only two kids there, but it turns out that all the adults wanted them two.  So we gave out like 15 of them haha.  I figured only kids would want them but all the adults think they're sweet too. So yeah, they're going to go fast haha.  Great idea!!!!!! It's a great way to people's hearts. haha. 

I've learned a lot this week about the benefit of hard work.  I enjoyed Dad's letter that he sent where he included excerpts from his Sac. Meeting talk.  He gave some examples of the benefits we receive from doing hard things.  Justamente, I was reading in Moroni 9:6 that day and Jacob 1:19.  As a missionary, this time is so short to go and help people.  And I don't want to end my mission thinking I was lazy and having the regret that I could have helped more people if I had only worked harder.  So that's the goal.  

Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love you all,

Hermana Jones

#Thechurchistrue

Peru es lo maximo

Hola!

I don't have much to say this week because I'm in shock that it's already been another week! 

We had a baptism on Saturday for Maria.  Ella es "de oro." I  can't remember if I talked about her in last week's letter but she just showed up to church one day, We taught her the first lesson that thursday, and she got baptized 10 days later! She is so sweet and bore her testimony after the service, it was really powerful.  She actually served a mission for her Christian church a few years back, so she is very strong strong in her knowledge and testimony of the Savior.  She is super tiny and we felt bad because the water in the font was freeeeeeezinnggg.  She was just shivering the entire time and for like 20 minutes after she was in her dry clothes.  But she got baptized! Then on sunday she arrived at church pretty late and we were freaking out because she needed to be confirmed but she got there and got confirmed as well! Hooray!

Starting today, we switched our areas with the other Hermanas in our ward.  There are 4 urb's in our ward and before we had Previ and Condevilla, but now we have Previ and Condor and the other Hermanas have Condevilla,  More efficient that way, but sad because we had to hand over all our investigators from Condevilla, and there aren't a lot of really progressing investigators in Condor.  It's all good though, we're excited to get to know that part of town and do work there. 

It's starting to warm up here a little bit, which is fine but it never really was super cold.  It's funny here because people are always talking about how freezing it is but it's really only like 50s. It gets cold in the mornings because there are no heaters or anything and only hot water sometimes, but it's all good. 

We got a new bishop in our ward this week and he is super awesome. Our other bishop was really great too but he had really bad experiences with past missionaries who were extremely disobedient and caused a lot of problems.  So it was hard for him to trust missionaries.  But now we have Bishop Mocarro and  He LOVES missionary work which is great for us.  His two missions for the ward are to improve the missionary work and the focus on the family.  He's great.

The Food continues to be awesome here.  Our pensionista is the best.  She taught us last week how to make chocotejas which are little chocolates and delicious.  

Life is awesome here.  I love Peru and the people and the food and my companion and the mission!

Love you tons! :)

THE CHURCH IS TRUE. 

-Hermana Jones

pics: the baptism and a family night we had last night with some members from the ward 

Que Tal

What an awesome week! 

First off, one of our investigators got baptized! Woo! His name is Jose and he is 27 and awesome and he got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday.  I have a picture attached. 

On saturday, we there was a huge stake activity at our building.  They have these dancing activities here where all the wards prepare different culturual dances and such, and then they kind of perform/compete every once in a while.  Anyway, so saturday was the huge event.  I also have a picture attached and it was so cool to see all the different outfits and dances and be part of that culture! So our investigator, Jose, was kind of in charge of a lot of the dances (even though he wasn't a member) haha.  That lasted pretty much the whole day and he was really tired that night when we were supposed to have the baptism, but it ended up working out (huge miracle!) and he got baptized! It was cool because we had a "Noche Blanco" in our zone/stake.  All of the baptisms from our zone got baptized in one service, so there were 14 people baptized that night! The Stake President came and so did President Archibald.  It's amazing to see things like that and realize how much the work is progressing! The Spirit was really strong and everybody was happy.  Jose got confirmed on sunday and is happy. Yay! 

This saturday we had a mission conference with our mission and Lima North Mission.  Elder Callister came and Elder Grove from the area 70, I believe.  It was really powerful and motivating.  I love hearing Elder Callister speak. He spoke about the Great Apostasy.  He said that to be able to appreciate the Restoration as much as we need to, we have to understand the Apostasy, and that is very important doctrine to teach to our investigators so that they will appreciate the Restoration.  He gave us a lot of really cool insight on that.  We all got to go shake their hands, and when I shook Elder Callister's hand, I brought up the fact that he stayed at our house once and he said, "Oh of course! Creed Jones from Joplin!" haha, so he definitely remembers you, Dad! 

Last sunday, a lady showed up to church that we had never seen before.  The other Hermana in the ward said that they briefly met her on the street and told her what time church starts and where it was.  (We probably tell that to people 10 times a day, and usually nothing comes of it.) Anyway, so this lady, Maria, showed up to church! What? that never happens! So it turns out that she is in our area.  We went and taught her this last week, and on the first lesson she asked when she could be baptized.  We said, uh yeah. We can definitely help you out there. Haha.  So she is going to get baptized this week! 

We have been trying to work so hard this week and it's been so awesome to see the results.  We've seen so many cool things happen that can only be explained by the Hand of the Lord.  We are so committed to baptizing weekly, and that is making us work really hard.  The harder we work and the more Faith we have, more miracles happen.  It's incredible to see the Lord's hand in this work and I absolutely love it.  Missionary Work is the best and I am so glad to be here and be part of it.  The Church is true!

Love you all and best wishes for the week,

Hermana Jones

La Vida en Peru

Qué Tal!

Okay, everybody, let me just say.  Perú is the COOLEST place ever. I LOVE it here! This letter I'm pretty much just going to be talking about how awesome it is, so be prepared.

So I flew out early on Tuesday morning and spent the day in planes and airports.  We got on the plane to Lima and I sat next to a Peruvian lady! I greeted her and she screamed and got so excited that I spoke Spanish so we had a really awesome conversation for like an hour! It was so fun and she spoke so clearly and beautifully. She is an evangelic missionary, so she wasn´t interested in our church but she was so humble and so nice and it made me fall in love with all of Perú already.  So we landed a little before 11pm that night and then had to go through customs and everything which was long but ran smoothly.  It’s funny because you just push a button and it randomly chooses if they have to search your suitcases or not.  It was scary but I got a green light and all was well! There were 39 missionaries on the plane but only an Elder and I were in the Lima West mission.  President Archibald, his wife, their children, and the two Assistants to the President were there to pick us up.  I went with the Archibalds and the Elder went with the assistants.  We drove back to the mission home and I stayed the night there.  It was about 2am by the time we got to sleep! I got up the next morning and ate breakfast with them and then we went to the beach! We had a little mini-orientation for the four of us (2 from Guatemala MTC) that weren’t there the day before.  Then we all went to the mission office and met with the other 14 new missionaries straight from the Peru MTC and met our trainers and did orientation for the day. 

My Trainer is awesome! Her name is Hermana Agle.  She is from Boston.  She just entered the MTC 6 weeks before me, so both of us are very new.  We´re pretty much the same person which is hilarious.  She went to BYU, we’re the same age, studying the same things, and a ton of other things.  We just have really similar personalities and get along really well.  And we are both stoked to literally “Save Lima.” Haha.  So we are serving in the El Olivar zone and ward here in our mission.  It is the most central part of our mission, and our area borders the Lima Central mission.  Our areas are Previ and Condevilla which are in Callao.  Our area is pretty small so we just walk around all day and always see people we know around. I love it here! The first couple of days I was just in awe of how awesome everything was and how much I love it. Seriously.

Our apartment is pretty nice.  I say nice because it’s just like a normal apartment but apparently it’s like a mansion compared to the rest of town.  Apparently we have the nicest apartment in the mission as well, and the best pensionista in the mission.  Her name is Hermana Juanita and she is so sweet and makes the BEST food.  I love her food.  Next Pday we are going to start going over and having her teach us how to cook Peruvian food.   

Lima is a very dirty city.  There are dogs everywhere and trash everywhere.  And people don’t ever clean bathrooms.  It’s very different and smells very different than anything I’m used to but it’s so awesome and I love it.  I only get to be here for 15 more months which is so sad! But I’m loving it while I’m here.  I’m already forgetting what America is like and how fancy everything is there and am getting used to life here.

It’s pretty cold here.  Well, 50s and 60s which totally isn’t bad at all.  There aren’t any heaters or air conditioning or anything though so it does get cold in our apartment, but I’m used to it now and we just study in our sweats and everything.  It is just cloudy every day.  I haven’t seen the sun yet! Haha.  But it never ever rains.  Some people only have roofs on half of their houses because it never rains so they don’t need roofs.  Sometimes at night there is a little “Aguita” but it’s pretty much just mist coming from the ocean. 

It is so FUN to drive in Taxis here! I see why they don’t ever let missionaries drive because it is INSANE.  The traffic rules are all just suggestions.  Cars just do what they want but it’s sweet because people are actually really really good drivers, they just are crazy.  Every other second we are almost getting in wrecks, but I’ve never actually seen a wreck the entire time I’ve been here because they’re always aware and alert.  And if you try to be a nice and courteous driver, everyone gets mad at you and you usually do end up getting in wrecks.  It’s like riding a roller coaster every time and is so fun.  

I am so in awe of how humble everybody is here, and how strong they are in the Gospel.  They are SO willing to help in every way in missionary work.  We always have about twice as many member-present lessons than other lessons every week because they love coming out with us. We had ward council and asked if anyone could come out with us and like 5 people raised their hands and were all talking at once asking when they could.  It was so cool.  Then on Sunday we were walking to appointments and we kept seeing members walking to the houses of less actives and visiting them.  They were doing that all day which is awesome.  So solid. 

Our mission president has really been emphasizing trying to baptize weekly.  Hermana Agle and I have been so stoked on missionary work and are excited to do it.  President Archibald said he would take out the companionship which the most monthly baptisms out to eat in a ritzy place in Miraflores.  And we are so excited to do that.  It’s so cool that He and the Lord trust us enough to be two Gringas in a foreign country that barely speak Spanish, preaching the Gospel.  We have been using this to our advantage because people are always staring at us thinking, why are there two white girls walking around? We definitely stand out and so many contacts have been made because of it.  This Saturday we are starting our pattern of baptizing weekly. 

Missionary work is the best and Peru is the best.

The Gospel is true. Don’t ever forget it!

Love,

Hermana Jones

Wow-za

What a week what a week!

I have so much to tell, but I'm crunched on time today so I will just talk about a couple of things.

1. I'm going to PERU tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've LOVED being in Texas but I've been thinking about Peru since January so I'm definitely excited to go there.  Since I got that note from Dad, I kind of already knew I was leaving, but wasn't 100% yet because I hadn't been told anything else.  So on Friday I got a phone call saying that I am leaving on the 13th! The other two Elders that are here with me are leaving as well.  So tonight a member is taking me to an apartment of some other sisters that live closer to the airport, and I'm going to stay the night there.  Then sometime tomorrow morning, somebody is going to pick me up and take me to the airport.  That's all I know. I have no idea of times or anything, but I imagine it's going to be somewhat in the morning because I traveling to another continent, so I'd have to leave earlier rather than later.  I'm not sure if I get to call at the airport, or if I'll have time or layovers or what.  Sorry for the uncertainty but I guess the only way to know is if I end up calling tomorrow sometime! Anyway, I'm very excited.  I haven't been letting myself think about it until today because I didn't want to get "trunky." But today I'm going to pack and am getting stoked.

2. Lots of super cool experiences this week, but one was way awesome!  Well, it was cool to me anyway.  We went to appointment last Wednesday and they weren't there.  (That happened to us a lot this week.)  Anyway, so we decided to go find some of the inactive members in the area that were on our ward list. (the ward gave us a list and asked us to update it- if people had moved and such.) So we stopped at one, and the guy was in jail.  So we walked over to the next block and the lady hadn't lived there in 6 years.  So we were going to walk back to our car, and Sister George suggested that we walked the long way around the block just to see if anyone was out that we could talk to. (Why would anybody be out in the 110 degree weather?) So we walked around and as we were walking, a guy sitting in a car rolled down his window.  We thought that was interesting so we decided to go over and talk to him.  We start chatting (in English) and one of the first things he said is, "Just so you know I'm a cop and we're scoping out this house right now so don't get scared of my gun right here." So of course that brought up a couple of questions and turns out that he is like an investigator/detective something and was undercover watching a house down the road a bit and waiting for a guy to leave so they could go get him.  So that was pretty awesome in itself.  But he said that he'd still like to talk to us and if he has to leave then he will.  So we started telling him about our church and he was super duper interested.  He said that he has been looking for a church to go to because he is a spiritual person, but doesn't go to church.  So when he saw us walking over he thought, 'oh I hope those are missionaries, because I need to find a church.'  And that's why he rolled down his window as we walked by.  (By the way, this whole conversation was intense because he kept getting phone calls the whole time about the whole investigation situation.) We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was very excited to read it.  So we tried to get his name and number/address so we could send the English sisters to go teach him.  But here's the killer: he couldn't give us any of his info! Too many people in the world hate him for putting them in prison, that he never gives out his info.  But he gave us his word that he would come to church on Sunday.  I'm not sure if he ended up coming, because we told him when and where the English ward meets, and we warned the English sisters that he would be there.  I'm so glad we were able to talk to him!

I've loved being in Texas and I'm going to miss it all! Except maybe the heat. :)

I'm glad that I've been able to serve here and help out some people here! A couple of our investigators are getting baptized this Saturday so I'm sad that I have to miss their baptisms but happy for them. 

Love you all tons,

Hermana Jones

P.S. Mom, yesterday I was playing the piano in sacrament meeting and the stake president wanted me to thank you for making me take lessons all those years so he could enjoy the music I was making. Haha.