chanchos

Hola mi familia!

Good week this week, not much to write!

We went to Lima and had our monthly leadership training which was awesome.  They put in a couple of new rules for baptizing in this area. The investigators have to attend church three times, and they have to go to church all three hours three times before getting baptized.  Also, they have to pay some sort of offering or donation before they can get baptized.  It will make things a bit trickier but I can definitely see the wisdom in these rules, making sure that the converts remain active and faithful members of the church.  We'll see what type of good results it brings!

We found lots of awesome families this week that are MARRIED so that was awesome.  We'll see what happens with them! stay tuned.

The Pimentel family invited us to help them out a bit in a field by their house where their uncle raises pigs.  So we went and it was definitely the grossest experience I've ever had haha.  Let me just say, we saw the BIGGEST pigs I have ever seen in my life! I haven't really seen too many pigs but I HAVE seen Charlotte's Web and these pigs were like 50 times bigger than Wilbur. I'll try and send a picture but I don't think you'll be able to tell how big it is. There was one that was like over three feet tall when on all fours. crazy! It convinced me to never raise pigs, even though I don't think that ever would have been a possibility.  

Jose Pablo passed the sacrament yesterday in his cute little white shirt and tie. That is so satisfying to see!  All the converts here are progressing really well and we are working to find more prepared families.

Thanks for all the love and prayers! Love you! The church is true! 

Hermana Jones

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 

Hermana Leyva dies

Hola!

Well Hermana Leyva got extended a few days so she will be here until this saturday, but we have transfers tomorrow so I think I'll be getting my new companion tomorrow, not really sure. This week was super sad because it was her last week! Hermana Leyva is the best.  Not sure what I'm going to do without her, I guess I'll just keep working.  But it's okay because I'll be seeing her at BYU. :)

So we had a crazy week because we had to travel down to Lima for the going away party thing they do for the missionaries that leave.  They go to the temple, eat at a fancy restaurant, have a little training and I don't really know what else but it sounded pretty fun! Well unfortunately I didn't get to participate, instead I went to the area of the companion of another sister that was going home and worked in her area haha.  It was still good though.  They finished at like midnight so we went and stayed with hermanas and then traveled up to Barranca with President adn Sister Archibald because they were going up.  

In these last few months President has been saying that if a Zone reaches their monthly baptism goal, he will buy them pizza and teach them deep doctrine.  Well the month of July our zone met our goal! the first zone to meet their goal in almost a year.  So as promised, he came up and we all ate pizza and he taught us deep doctrine for like 5 hours. It was awesome. Plus we got to be in the car with him for three hours going up so I got all my questions out.

On Friday we visited Jose Pablo, Neil's son, because we had wanted him to get baptized on saturday but we were gone for a couple of days and couldn't visit him.  We asked if he had been reading and said a little bit, but said he had prayed and said, "I felt like something in my chest that I can't really describe, it was just like a happiness." and before we could say anything he said, "so I would like to get baptized tomorrow if that's okay. " Uh, yeah, that's okay! He had already had all the lessons and it was a tender mercy for Hermana Leyva to have her last baptism.  That whole family is a miracle and now they are complete. We found out that Cecilia got baptized 33 years ago, and the Lord led us to her house now less active married to a non member and with a son.  We were able to search and find her church records and now her son and baptized.  What a miracle! They are awesome.  Somethign I didn't know, Priests can give the priesthood to deacons.  So we are going to have Neil give the priesthood to his son.  

Life is good.  I'll update you next week on my companion and everything. Have a great week, love you! 

Hermana Jones

Busy Week

Hola hola! 

This week was pretty busy and crazy and basically had no sleep!

We started off the week by traveling up to Caraz, a small area super far to visit the hermanas there. So that took up Monday and Tuesday and we got home at about 3am on wednesday, got to sleep a couple of hours, and then had a great training with Pres. Archibald.  It was a multi.zone and the reason is because last month Elder Oaks came to train mission presidents and he asked all the presidents to train their missioanries better on the Trinity.  So that's what he did, and it was amazing.  If you ever want to really learn about a Gospel topic, get Pres. Archibald to teach you after his 30 years of CES service.  He had a whole training planned out but somehow it just turned into a deep doctrine question and answer session which was fun haha.  That went until like 6pm so we only had a couple of hours of proseliting but it was great.  

Then on Thursday was Hermana Leyva's birthday! and she was sick, poor thing.  Fever, nausea, and everything.  But I think she still enjoyed her birthday! 

We finally got to work well on friday and saturday and yesterday which was good, but it was pretty disappointing because the Huaman family had a bunch of issues and now the dad doesn't want to get bapitzed.  Well, we aren't going to baptize his family without him so we are going to see what else we can do to help them this week and make sure they get baptized. Pray for them! 

Also Jose Pablo, Neil's son should be getting baptized this week as well so pray for him too! 

This week we are going to be going to the going away party in Lima for the missionaries that are leaving. I think I'm going to be able to go to the temple and eat with them!   Interesting fact: These next three transfers in total there are about 80 missionaries elaving and 100 coming, that's a huge change!  

Funny story: yesterday we got home and tried going to the bathroom, but we couldn't open the door! The doorknob turned, but it wouldn't open.  So we tried taking it off and fixing it and such and we could not fix it.  We even tried running into the door really hard, and kicking it like a police man but with no luck.  It was stressful because we really had to go to the bathroom haha.  Well nothign happened and our landlord isn't here this week.  Then, we went back and tried it and it opened, like nothing had ever been wrong.  It was pretty ridiculous but i'm glad we could open it! 

This week I have been studying a lot about VIRTUE.  You know those people that you meet that are just genuinely good people? Well I guess I just never realized before that that is what virtue is.  Just being completely pure in thoughts and actions that not even a bad or mean or angry thought ever crosses your mind.  Even when no one is watching you or is around.  I don't know how that didn't click to me before but it is something that I am definitely going to be working one more.  Elaine S Dalton would be so proud of me! 

Thanks for all the love and prayers, life is good and the church is TRUE!

Hermana Jones

Otra semama ya?

Hola!

Okay so I don't have much to say today because I can't believe it's already been another week!

The work is going well here, the Huaman Family all came to church yesterday and loved it, turns out that the dad, Andres, is friends with Martin, who got baptized like 3 weeks ago.  So that's perfect! They are on date to get baptized the 23rd of this month. 

This week Martin also received the priesthood and that entire Pimentel family is progressing a lot. We are working really hard to make sure they stay in the church and can go to the temple in a year. They are going to be such awesome leaders in the church.  The branch is really excited because it's been a while since there has been baptisms here so they are helping a lot.  

Today we are going to travel up to Huaraz to do a work visit so that will be fun and long! the part we are going to is very pretty so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

This week they had a talent show at church and so Hna Leyva and I sang together and I played the piano.  It was pretty funny because I don't consider myself a very good singer but here I look really good so that was fun haha. 

We are trying to work hard and make these last couple of weeks count for my companion! 

Like I said, not much to report but life is good. I hope all is well with the new house/city/ward! Happy birthday to Jake and Jessica this week! Love you! The church is true!

Hermana Jones 

crazy week

Hola!

The reason I'm writing late is because we got up early and had Zone Pday going to a place called Caral in our zone, which are ancient ruins.  They are the most ancient ruins discovered in the Americas, and the second most ancient in the world.  We're talking 5000 years ago.  It was so cool! I took lots of pictures.  We couldn't touch anything but it was fun to see and take pictures and speculate about Jaredites, haha. 

So this week was pretty crazy and we only got like 3 1/2 days of proselyting, but it was still a good week!

So this week we had to move apartments because there was a single man living in our old building so we had to find a new apartment and found one that is perfect! It's beautiful, but the only problem is that it's like 60 degrees because the main window faces the ocean (beautiful) but has a cold breeze.  And the window doesn't really shut well haha.  But it's awesome.  So, Mom, it looks like we both spent some time packing this week! Along with Dad and Matt and Jessica and everybody.  

So we got all moved in and then the next day we traveled to Lima for the mission leadership council which was awesome! President read to us and discussed with us a talk called "The unwritten order of things" given by Pres. Packer at a BYU devotional I think. It was aweome and he talked a lot about becoming better leaders and being "quick to observe." Then the asistants did a training on the commandments and they asked Hna Leyva and I to do a demonstration on teaching Tithing which was nerve wracking front of Pres. and all the leaders, but it turned out well. 

Right now we are teaching the Huaman family which is an awesome family that is VERY humble.  They all came to church again which was great and they have their bap. date for the 23rd so we are working with them for that.  

Other than that I can't think of much that happened but life is good and I'm happy.  My companion goes home in three weeks, crazy! Luckily she's awesome and keeps working and we are excited to see what else there is to come here!

Thanks for everything! Love you!

Hermana Jones

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