Monday, November 24, 2014

Highlights of this week

Hello My Dear Lovelies,

Yesterday was the primary presentation. And those primary kids are so stinkin cute. One of the little ones, named Fabian, came up to the pulpit and he said ´´se me olivido´´  translation..." i forget"... so one of the teachers came up to help and he said ´´oh yeah´´. There are some pretty funny kids, but one reason I love him is we were at his house last Monday for an FHE and his parents said ¨´Fabian, you should go to Canada.¨¨ and he just shouts´´NO!!!´´  I asked him why, and he tells me he wouldn´t understand anything.  I told him that was me when I first came to Mexico.  There´s something about testimonies from little kids. The theme of the FHE was' God is our Loving Heavenly Father' and his testimony was so pure and lovely.

Alma also got confirmed yesterday! Oh she is so lovely. When we went to visit her Saturday night we told her when it would happen and to be sure to be at church on time. So she came a little before sacrament and I was just hoping the bishopric saw her so she could get confirmed. But the sacrament got passed and the primary presentation started. So Hna Casabal and I motion for Elder Cortes to come over and Elder Cortes, being Elder Cortes, says he´s got it covered. He went up to the bishop during the presentation. Near the end of the presentation the primary kids call for the bishop to hand out some certificate to hand out to one of the little ones. While he was up there, he also called for Alma to come up and get confirmed. He confirmed her, and we were happy. I love confirmations.
Something funny.... Saturday night after our visit with her we were walking together a bit. Us to our house and her to the main street which is really close. And I hiccuped. She´s heard my hiccups before, at the goodbye party of Elder Ruiz and she said ´´Ya ...that´s already enough hiccups from you.´´ Joking. That´s when you can tell your converts also consider you their friends.

So our other Alma that´s investigating.... Her little daughter is a little sick, and one of the things we taught her this week was about the priesthood and that we can recieve blessings, and that little Fer could recieve one. We said the Elders could come by her house and give one and she said she would bring Fer to church. They came in the middle of the presentation ... but they came! After sacrament meeting we found the Elders so they could give Fer a blessing. When it was done, Alma was crying. She could feel something special, and that was really neat to see. She was so attentive each hour. Participating in the class...taking notes.... We love her and we love her desire to learn even more.

We had divisions this week and it was my turn to work in Orizaba. One thing we had was a Family Home Evening. The dad is a baker and I said ´´hey, my dad´s a baker.´´ And he thought that was pretty awesome. He has this big working table in the back of the house.  I got to touch some dough and attempt to form some buns. It wasn´t making cookies, but it was dough! Oh I felt so at home.

I love hearing from the people that write me. I love hearing experiences ... missionary or gospel alike.

Keep being super
and
DFTBA!   ... I may be a missionary but I´m still a nerdfighter.

Helping out in a bakery....it felt like home!

Frying donuts


A Canadian touch to breakfast made for Tessa's  companion
Hermana Jones

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

November 17, 2014 New Companion, New Baptism

Hello From a Cold Day in Nogales,

Yes, it´s getting cold here. I know I shouldn´t complain because there isn´t snow. But just saying.

Monday night we had a goodbye party for Elder Ruiz, who is now in his home. Hermana Orduña, my first mom, is in her house as well. I just want to say that I really apreciate what she did for me, and what she taught me in our six weeks together. At the time, I didn´t understand everything of what she did or what she had me do or whatever. But looking back, she wanted the best for me. To be the best missionary there ever was. She sent a letter with my new companion. It was very sweet, and in part of it she said that I was a large part of her conversion in the mission.

Hermana Casabal is my new companion. We have the same time here in the mission, but I have a month longer than her being  a missionary because of my being in the MTC for 6 weeks. She´s awesome. She's 22, from Puebla and studying psycology.

We found some new people to teach this week. And contacted some good contacts.
One of our investigators also is named A. But this A. is a mom of 3 kids, and has a store in her house. She was a contact from a month or so ago, and when we contacted her we left her with a Book of Mormon. When we came back to visit her, she said that she had been reading it. Well that sure surprised us. The other day she told us she wants to learn from us, as when she goes to the mass she says the priest says the same message again and again. That there may be a different scripture that he will share for 5 minutes but then go back to some same dialogue. But we have something. Something that is more. She accepted baptism when we met her, but not date. But yesterday, she accepted a date!

I remember Al sent me a message while I was in the MTC saying that I would be part of changing eternities. So... E, who got baptized Halloween ... she wants to go on a mission. She wants to share with people what she now feels. Wants them to feel the same. So... that´s changing eternities on a whole new level. I am so happy for her and her desire to help others come to this truth!

Well A. got baptized on Sunday!!!! She is a strong one. We had a visit with her Saturday morning and she said her mom was coming to visit her and she was going to tell her about her choice.  Her mom in the end ... she didn´t approve of this decision Alma made. Alma is a pioneer, she´s a strong one, and she knows this gospel is true. She told us a week or so ago that she was afraid of being alone in this as she´s the only one in her family that is doing this. We told her not to worry, she wouldn´t be alone in this. In fact...her family has grown. She has a whole bunch of family in the ward. A chose Alvin to baptize her, and she had names already for who she wanted to speak. A few of the YSA. She chose me to say the opening prayer, and I felt honored by that. There were quite a few people that stayed after church services to watch her baptism. After the ordinance of the baptism, when she was getting changed, Hno Charly explained how she needed a family in the ward and got pieces of paper so we could all write her a little note. One of the members said ¨¨I´ll be her grandma!¨´  And I thought that was really sweet.
For the closing prayer, it was A. In her prayer she said that she knew she wasn´t alone and that she had the ward as her family. There was a really strong spirit in her baptism.

Teaching A was a process, at first it was really frusterating, but in the midst of teaching, something happened, her conversion, and this is something I will always remember. A. taught me a lot through these 3 months of teaching her.

 I´m not stressed. I haven´t been stressed this past week. I know the area better than I thought I did.

Take Care Everyone!

Hermana Jones

Alma

Hermana Casabal

November 10, 2014 Blessings

Hello My Dear Family and Friends,

I`m quite content with this past week. We didn´t get everything done that we wanted. But we got a lot done.

There are these 9 points of mission work that we are part of....to help everyone continue their path so they can go to the temple. There´s three key points is what it boils down to. Conversion, Retention, and Reactivation. There´s this hermana named L. and she is really awesome. She moved here from Veracruz a few months ago and is less active.  I believe one reason is she doesn´t really know anyone here. This week, we ate with Hna C one day. She used to be inactive, but now she´s really active in the church with a calling and everything. She lives just a field away from Lulu. So we were talking with her and asked if she could visit L and befriend her. She said" Yeah! I can do that! "
Also with Hna C, she´s not endowed yet and we asked about it. She said that she wants to, but she´s not sure what the process is.  We told her how there´s temple prep classes. Sunday.  Hna L. ended up coming  to church and Hna C. attended temple prep.

Alma Marina. We wanted her to really feel the want and need of the gospel in her life. From the first moment we met her to the point where she is right now. Night and day. She´s excited to get baptized (next Sunday!), she´s reading the Book of Mormon, she comes to church on her own, the YSA has been awesome and they´re all friends with her. She´s going to have Alvin, one of the YSA, baptize her. She told us he was the first one who really invited her along and stuff.  People...you really don´t know what an impact you can be to other people...missionaries or not.

Our district leader this week asked us if there were any people that could get baptized , to visit them and see if they wanted to be baptized. There´s this guy named P. and his wife is a member. He´s been to church with her a number of times.On Wednesday, Elder phoned me and told me he wanted me to visit them. That´s when I was on divisions with Hna Terry. And I was just stressed out. I get a little bit more stressed when I´m on divisions in my own area, plus I was stressed about how there would be cambios .  Hna Terry said ``you know...when we follow our leaders and maybe if it doesn´t work out how you want it, the Lord will bless you in another way.´´
Hna Jensen and I went to go visit P. on Thursday. Long story short ... he planched us pretty hard and he made us feel awful. That was not fun at all. And so...when we were going to a house of a contact (aunt to the missionary that left on his mission, Elder Cancino), I related what Hna Terry said to me to Hna Jensen. So we knocked on this aunt´s door and she says to us, I´ve been waiting for you Hermanas. She really is a lovely person.
The Lord really does bless us when we obey.

There was this one morning where we went to find a contact we made, but no one at her house answered. Our plan B was to visit this less active for 10 or so years. A...a. She´s living in free union with her partner R. and we planned to teach them about the commandments and blessings of the law of chastity. They didn´t really know about it / forgot about it. Rafael said ...I want to know more of the commandments. We talked about making a goal for them to get married and R is a new investigador. He´s awesome.  They came to church with us on Sunday and A...a went searching for the bishop after Gospel Principles. And in ward council, the bishop said he made a goal with them that they could get married in 15 days.
Awesome contact of the other day. We were on the bus and this thing fell off from Hna Jensen´s backpack. We were looking for it, and I see it underneath this man´s foot whos was sitting behind us. Hna Jensen said ...leave it, it´s fine. But I go and ask that man if he could get that small white button from under his foot. Then after I get this feeling to contact him. So I did. He lives in the other ciudad, and we invited him to church there. And he asked us a second time where the church was. It all started from a white button thing falling from Hna Jensen´s backpack.

Cambios. Hna Jensen is off to Cordoba as a sister training leader.

These are a few of the things that happened this week.

Love,
Hermana Jones


Monday, November 3, 2014

Why I love October 31


Buenas Tardes de la Cafe Internet 2 minutos de mi casa,

I love October 31. Sure, it´s nice that Halloween falls on that day and we get an excuse to eat candy or dress up as something you´re not. But I for me especially, I love October 31 because that was the day I recieved my mission call. The day where I felt sick in the morning/afternoon turned around when my mom showed me my call. And especially...when I opened my call. How it felt so right, how much joy I felt that I was going to be a servant of the Lord.

I´ll tell you another reason why I love October 31.  Eleanora´s (or Nora) baptism was scheduled for this Sunday. But here´s what was happening on Sunday. We weren´t having church until 1 because Cordoba Stake was using our building for their stake conference, and then we missionaries of Orizaba Stake had a meeting with President and the bishoprics of the stake at 6. And we still needed to eat. Lots of things.  So...the zone leaders asked President if we could baptize her on Friday, as Saturday the building would be used. President said yes.
Friday fell on the 31 of October.

Nora was so excited to hear she could get baptized a few days later. She said that she feels her life has changed a lot since she met us. This was not that long ago. She chose Elder Ruiz  to baptize her. The bishop conducted her baptism and one thing that was cool is he quoted a scripture, which happened to be the first one she told us she really liked 2 Nephi 31 verse 20.
Nora´s family came to support her, which made us really happy. Alma Marina, our other investigator came and she said she felt something really beautiful. Because it was suddenly switched,  we tried to tell members when we ate with them that there´d be a baptism on Friday. We didn´t really know what to expect. But of the few YSA we have, they were all there. I love the YSA of Nogales. They are so welcoming of other people. Well...they basically all came off their missions within 3 months, so they also love the work. Some converts of Hna Jensen also came...2 baptisms she had before I arrived. She asked me to ask Misael (one convert) to offer the closing prayer. She told me afterwords it was because Misael was her first baptism here, and Nora is going be her last. Connection there.

Sunday, when she got confirmed, her mom also came to sacrament meeting. It was wonderful! This Sunday was fast Sunday, so it was testimony meeting. Nora went up to bare her testimony. In it she shared how she felt that for a long time she was in this darkness and she wanted to get out of it. The night she made her goals...she said she prayed like never before. The next day we found her. But just as Ammon says in Alma 26:12, I don´t want to boast of myself, but I want to boast of God. He´s the ones that brings about many mighty miracles.

You hear about those stories about missionaries finding someone at that right moment. To be one of those missionaries is something wonderful to experience. I am someone´s missionary.

Something that´s sad for me... Ana, Oscar, America and little Ana Cristina don´t live here anymore. On Saturday morning we went over to their house to help them pack up and we said our ...in the words of Oscar...see you laters. I will be seeing them later.

Love
Hermana Jones



Baptism Day

Hermanas

See you laters

Cute house where Tessa lives