Monday, August 3, 2015

Last letter of the mission....

Hi Everyone,

So... how does it feel that I´m writing my last letter as a missionary? A little weird. It hasn´t all sunk in that in three days I´ll be back in my home and native land. That the majority of the people around me will be speaking English.

It´s been a privilege to be a servant of the Lord here in Veracruz. In Ojo de Agua, Nogales, Primero de Mayo, Jardin and Zaragoza. I´ve seen many miracles here...even in my short time in Zaragoza and I know that we are only instruments of God, nothing more.


Yea, I know that I am nothing ; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things ; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.  Alma 26:12

I can´t repeat enough the words of Ammon. Was it tough? Absolutely. Did people reject to hear this glad message? Every Day. Was I free from illness, Haha...nope.  Brother Laycock wrote in my little ' byebook' before I left that a mission would start out as the hardest thing I´d ever do and become the most rewarding thing I´ll ever do. He´s right.

I left Edmomton knowing only' hola',' adios',' como estás' and 'aguacate'. When I got to the mission, I cried many nights because I couldn´t understand why I was here. I couldn´t speak the language. I couldn´t understand what people were telling me. I felt lost.

 Now, Mexico has become a part of me. A part I can never take back. I´ve met amazing people here, been able to feel the love that God has for His sons and daughters. And trust me.... He loves us SO MUCH!!! Never ever doubt that.

He´s been able to help me a lot. I´m still the same girl, the same Tessa Marie...but He´s been able to help me how He sees me and how I can help His sons and daughters even more. That´s what I strive to do.

When I was 15 I wrote down my dream in a paper cloud for our grade nine farewell that I wanted to change someone´s life for the better.  My Heavenly Father has let me be a part of that. Him...guiding me along to the people that especially needed Him. I know He´s got a lot more in store for me, and sometimes the future frightens me, but right now I´m feeling pretty calm. So...let´s do this.

I love you all. Thanks for supporting me throughout all this time and I´ll see you in the Bearspaw Chapel at  1 pm August 9 as I report my mission. All of my friends and family are welcome!

Para Siempre,

Hermana Tessa Marie Jones

Misión México Veracruz
Tessa in the missionary training center March 2014  

Tessa in the number one spot on the board, meaning next to go home 2015
 March 2014-August 2015

Monday, July 27, 2015

My missionary family

Hi Everyone,

So opening an area is interesting. We´re really reopening it because there were missionaries in it before. But... we don´t have an area book in our house so we don´t really know a whole lot about our area. Basically the Elders have been giving us some tips about a few members because they worked in that area before. It´s pretty small and we´re trying to go around and visit the members so we can gain their confidence and we´re trying to find the less actives. One of them we found has been less active for 20 years and he came this Sunday! The ward is so small, and we only had 40 people come this Sunday. That´s a lot smaller than the branch I was in.

 The assistants came to the ward and one of them helped with the blessing of the sacrament and a visitor helped pass the sacrament. So... yep. What was nice is that we were able to get to know some of the members in the ward.

 It´s a little difficult when this past week we didn´t know a whole lot of members, not knowing who the recent converts are ... basically not having an area book. An area book is a missionaries map.  We asked for it in the mission offices but one of the Elders said it wasn't a helpful area book so ... we continue without one. a ni modo.

On Wednesday we didn´t have anybody to eat with so... we ate with Elder and Hermana Willingham! They took us to this restaurant called Rock & Burger... and my burger and horchatta were super yummy.  It was fun to go out and eat with them. They really are like the grandparents away from home. Hermana Willingham likes to say that we are cousins because her mom was a Jones. She said she has ancestry from Wales.

Even though it´s a little difficult here, we try to make it fun. Yesterday I was thinking what a blessing it was to be where we are. We´ve got an awesome district leader who cares about us, as well as the zone leaders... and being in the area of the mission offices, we´ve got the assistants and secretaries.  We´re basically surrounded by a whole bunch of brothers ... because when you´re a missionary, your family kind of grows.

This is my second last email as a missionary.... so weird. Not all of it has quite sunk in yet. Yesterday I basically said goodbye to one hermana who helps out us missionaries and I´ve grown to love her dearly.

Sorry I don´t have photos this week. My cable went missing a few weeks ago and I don´t have an adapter today.

Take care Everyone!

Hermana Jones

Monday, July 20, 2015

Opening a new area

Hey Everyone,

Hold up, I´ve still got 3 weeks almost. But I´m excited for these last three weeks. I´m in Veracruz now (it´s what I predicted) and I´m opening an area! I´m opening this area with.... Hna Casabal!!!! My companion after Hna Jensen in Nogales. So it´s sweet because she´s cool and we get along. I think Gramma will be excited to hear this part, we share the ward with the senior couple missionaries. They´re pretty excited to share the ward with us.  We´ve heard good things about it, so that´s good.  We´re in the area of the mission office.  The chapel is right in front of it so that´ll be nice and handy.

My picture is the first one up now. It´s craazy!!!  And... one of my baptisms made it to a picture frame in the mission offices! Happiness right there!

I´m super tired right now.  I tried sleeping on the bus but didn´t have too much success there. It was my last bus ride in the ADO of the mission!  Hna Rodriguez and I (she´s going to train) were the only sisters among a bunch of Elders for what seemed like a long time but was only maybe 20 minutes.  I saw Hna Jarquin and she´s doing great.  There´s this other hermana from Chile and she´s so sweet and she always says in English ´´I love you!´´ That I saw too. She´s feeling a little sick so I´m sure prayers for her would be great. Hermana Amestica is her name.

So....this last week in San Andres was a good one. We found double the amount of new people that we found last week. Among these people we found this cute older couple. I started talking with the viejita (the older lady) to ask her the name of the street we were on and we told her we were mormon missionaries and asked if we could help her carry her little bag of groceries to which she gratefully agreed.  She´s 79 and her husband is 81 but they seriosuly look 10 years younger. They accepted a baptism date and wanted to go to church, but the sad part is that when they we came back the next day she told us that her sister in Mexico City was sick and they had to take care of her so they couldn´t come to church with us.  They were super sad about that.  Hna Rodriguez said she´d keep me up on  newa with them when I get home.

Something Hna Rodriguez said this week ´´This is the  area where I´ve worked most with the members. Everyone reading this, you don´t know how much your help means to us missionaries. If you sacrifice one hour of your day to go out to a visit with us... it means so much!

So, here´s to a new adventure and a new area. I´m super excited to see what happens these last few weeks I have here.

Love you all,

Hermana Jones



Monday, July 13, 2015

Still in beautiful San Andres

Hi eveyone,

Greetings from beautiful San Andres. I´m hungry because I forgot to eat lunch. Or really... I didn´t want to do anything because my feet were tired from walking up 254 stairs in El Sato de Eyiplantla. I know I shouldn´t complain, I´m a missionary.  Even though we have super powers, there´s a limit to them sometimes.

We gave talks in Sacrament Meeting yesterday.  I didn´t know until the branch president's secretary asked if we were ready for our talks.  I said ´´what???´´  So, I prepared something while my companion and Elder Hoffman were giving their talks. So....even though it was completely last minute and my only points I had were scripture references... it went pretty good. And...I went a little bit over. Sorry. It was short in my mind. I promise I won´t do that to the High Council speaker when I get home.   And my talk was in Spanish.  I hope I can give my homecoming talk in English without messing up and speaking spanglish.

  President wants us to do divisions 2 times a week with the members.  I already mentioned that J. was going to do divisions with us. Well...it was a great day. J. was contacting like a missionary. She was  awesome to teach with. When we split off I worked with J. and we had a lesson with one investigator named E. We taught him the plan of salvation (his mom died 3 months ago).  While I was teaching a principle, J. was reading in the pamphlet of the things it said and when I finished speaking, she would automatically take over from where I was teaching, and taught as if she wasn´t just a recent convert of a few days.  I´d say she was a missionary.  When we left the lesson she told me that before we came to her house she was praying that Heavenly Father would help her to say the right things, and said she felt He was there in the lesson with E. She wants a year to pass by so bad so she can be a missionary and she was asking me when someone can recieve their patriachal blessing.

One day when we went to visit R, he told me that he wanted me to leave a photo of me before I leave to put it up in his family photos because he said he considers me as one of his family.  That was so touching to hear that. He was ordained to the priesthood this Sunday!

Some people just aren´t listening to us or not taking in importance to what the gospel has to offer them.  That´s a little frusterating. But I can´t lose hope to find those chosen. They exist! I´ve found them before and I´ll find them before the plane home!

Elder Hoffman and Elder Pantuso have been amusing themselves in counting down how little time I have left. I got a little cold this week and asked the Elders to give me a blessing (I rested for a day, but I need to continue working)   Elder Hoffman asks me ´´why are you getting sick? Oh.... it´s because you´re old and you´re about to die´´.   Mission terms. Because your mission is your life and when you finish your mission you die as a missionary).  I know it´s all in good terms. They´re good guys. But when I was walking with my companion I asked ´´why do they have to do that?´´  She says to me ´´don´t worry about it, it´s just their way of saying they´re going to miss you here´´

When we had divisions on Friday, Hna Fletcher was telling me something that President said in a leaders council. That more than baptisms, a successful mission is one where you´ve had many spiritual experiences... I´ve experienced a ton. These two that I shared of J. and R.  are part of those experiences.  And... we got to see the baptism of an 85 year old man of the Elders in Santiago. They did the baptism in our chapel because over there they have a prayer house and ours has hot water. It reminded me of Gregorio. 99 years old and was open to listen to us and make a covenant with God.

We´re here on this earth to have spiritual experiences and make covenants with God.

Love,



Hermana Jones

Monday, July 6, 2015

Special prayers requested.....

Hola a mis papas, hermanos, abuelos, tios, amigos, conocidos ... todos que lean mi blog,

Este... I´ve got a month. Today. My companion asked me what hymn I wanted to sing today and I chose " El Fin Se Acerca."  I don´t know what it´s called in English.    Hna Rodriguez asked if I changed in my character from when I first arrived and I wasn´t sure what to answer.  When we met the STLs for Nanciyaga today, I asked them. Hna Fletcher was saying that I´m the same character but a lot less fearful and more confident. Well...coming from my very first street contact to now I would agree with her.

And.... I am going back to school in the fall!!! For this I am very excited. You all know how much I LOVE being a missionary but I´ve missed school. It´s a little new because I´ve changed my degree to be a SPANISH / ESL teacher. So...at least at the end of one amazing adventure I get to start another one.

Jessica already has a calling. She´s going to be the 2nd councilor in the Primary. She´s not entirely sure what it consists of but she is very excited to have a calling.  Tomorrow we´re going to do some divisions with 2 members in the branch and she´s one of them.

We found a few new people this week but none of them were able to come to church this week. Two of them already had plans to go visit their family in the prison. Their names are M. I., E., A. and E.... like E. in "Frozen. " When we saw E. she said that she loves hymns because it fills the emptiness she has.  We  said.... this message can help you fill this emptiness!

We´ve been working hard with our converts. R. has said that he´s been having trouble with his faith, so one day we decided to read with him the story about when Peter starts walking to Jesus and I asked him what he would do if he was in Peter´s position. It was super cool because he totally put himself in Peter´s position and it really helped him. He didn´t go to church the past two weeks because he was sick, but he came this Sunday and that made us very happy!

One thing we work on with the new converts and investigators is the " My Family"  booklet for Family History.  We started it with A. this past week and he got super excited when he started filling it out. The other day when we left from seeing E. we went to see A. because he lives near by and his mom said ´´he was excitedly waiting for you guys, but he had to leave.´´   The promise of Elias really is alive!

A new assignemnt President has given us is read the Book of Mormon again and this time focusing on the mini blocks in the chapters.Like...where there is a natural shift in the story and to think of the doctrine that can fit in them and write down 4 questions that can help us with teaching. Well.. this is what I thought of today when  I was reading. Lehi had to leave Jersulalem because it was so wicked and the people wanted to kill him. He also  had to leave behind a lot of stuff. Well, these days we need to be aware of where we are. Perhaps we find ourselves in dangerous situations. If we stay in these situations, we can be killed spiritually. So we need to be obedient like Lehi and leave behind the situation, including leaving behind things to us that may seem valuable at the time. Perhaps it could be friends, oppurtunities to be in a higher level of society. Many things. So let´s be brave and valiant like Lehi.

Last of all and something very important ... Please put Hna Rodriguez and her family in your prayers. Her dad had been super sick from diabetes for a long time and he passed away on Saturday. So... I´m trying to help my companion in the best way I can. She´s more worried about how her family is doing and says it´s easiest for her to work so she she can forget for a bit what´s going on at home, where she can focus on other people. But please... put her in your prayers.

Con Cariño,








Hermana Jones

Monday, June 29, 2015

6 weeks left

Hi Everyone,

Well...it´s official. I´ve got little time left as a missionary and I´m not quite sure how I feel. I´m coming home August 6th.
We had interviews with President this Friday and he said to me ´´Hermana Jones, you´ve got 6 weeks left. These last six weeks I want you to work harder than you ever have in your mission. You´ve done a really good job, and before you leave I want you to give it all you´ve got.´´

He also told me that most likely I´d finish my mission in the pórt. And...I´ve got mixed emotions in that párt too. Because there´s a part of me that wants to finish my mission in the port too.

Other news...I have another companion. Hna Palafox had to go to the port because her knee was really bothering her. My new companion is Hna Rodriguez. She just came from Nogales. So...she´s been updating me on how everyone´s doing. So... that´s kind of fun.  She´s 26 years old and she´s from el Distrito Federal. She just turned 8 months in the mission yesterday.

This week has not been normal at all.

Monday is always a little crazy. Seriously... Monday is never a restful day. It´s a lie.

Tuesday we started the day in divisions. But that ended up quickly because Hna Palafox´s knee was really bugging her. So after lunch Hna Kind and I went back to the house and I started making a bunch of calls so Hna Palafox could stay with a sister and for another sister to go out and work with me.

Wednesday, we were in the middle of a lesson and then President calls us to say that Hna Palafox has to go to Veracruz and we needed to go on Thursday.  Then in the evening at our English class, Jessica came and told us that she wanted to get baptized on Friday, so Elder Hoffman had a baptism interview with her. After English class we went to buy the bus tickets.Hna Palafox said she couldn´t leave without buying a memela, so we bought Memelas.

Thursday we left early morning to Veracruz with Hna Rodriguez waiting for us. We had to wait 3 hours for the next bus to San Andres.  Thursday is weekly planning here so we did our weekly planning in the bus place.

 Friday we had interviews with President,  and also Jessica´s baptism.  After Jessica got baptized, President told her to come and meet him. So that was cool.


Oh...and then Saturday  was crazy because this whole week my ear had been bothering me, and the drops weren´t working.  I want to a pharmacy doctor and he told me to go to a specialist but told me it would be super expensive. So...we decided to go to the clinic to just ask a few questions .... and in the end the specialist fixed me up for free.

So.... does that sound crazy or not?  I seriously hope this next week is a lot more sane.

Keep being awesome!


Hermana Jones

Monday, June 22, 2015

Thoughts for the week.......

Hi everyone,

This week we celebrated Rodrigo´s birthday. He turned 52. He said he never before really celebrated his birthday so we decided to celebrate it. We bought him cake with candles and a few decorations and sang to him. He was well pleased. I tried sending some pictures but this computer I´m using today doesn´t want to send pictures.

We also had Alan´s baptism on Saturday!!!! Something that was nice is we invited some less actives to come and assigned them to give a little thought. One of them was a teenager and he stayed a little after because there was this dancing activity that he participated in. And the other one came for the first hour to church on Sunday.

We found some new less actives!  One of them  is a nurse. This nurse was actually calling after us when we were walking down the street so we turned around and she told us she was a member that hadn´t gone to church in two years.  We visited with her and she´s pretty cool. She gave us a referral, so we after we went to visit this referral, and at the end thinking we had a new investigator , she told us she was a member.

 Yesterday in Gospel Principles we learned about the 12 different spiritual gifts. Something the teacher said made me really think. God gives each of us gifts and it´s important that we recognize these gifts.  Once we recognize the gifts, it´s important that we use them and build them. If we ever neglect or reject these gifts that God gave us, he´ll take them away. It´s like the parabol of the talents. There were the two men  that were given talents who worked hard on gaining more. And the one who hid his talent was reprimanded because all he did was hide it. So.... we should find our talents and gifts that God gave us and use  them for good.


Sorry for the short letter. The internet kept crashing today and I couldn´t send photos.

Love you all
Hermana jones

Monday, June 15, 2015

Friendship

Hi Everyone,

First week of the new transfer with the new companion. She loves David Archeleta. And mangos. Funny, the other day we found mangos so we picked them up.  Then this man saw us with mangos and he gave us more mangos. Then a taxi driver gave us plums he bought because they were too sour for him.

We´re working with A., R´s 12 year old son so he can get baptized. He has a perfect knowledge of the Restoration but he doesn´t quite have a testimony of it.

When we went to visit R. and A. on Saturday one of R´s friends from his AA group was there.  We started teaching him, and he says there´s so many things he wants to change. After when we were talking to R. he starting crying telling us of how much he tries to help his friends and how this gospel has changed his life. He is a great soul.

I just want to share something, something I realized in one of my personal studies. Last week  I was studying a few days about the Plan of Salvation. There´s a chapter Our Search for Happiness which I really love which talks about the eternal plan that God has for us. We know that it started before we were born on the earth and God presented his ´plan to us and told us we needed a saviour. Jesus was chosen,  saying that he´d give all the glory to God. Jesus was the first born of the Spirit children of God. He´s our older brother. Now...stop and read that again. He´s our older brother. Older siblings have this ´´older sibling love´´ for their younger siblings and me being the baby of my family...I see this. And so it is with Jesus. He loves us a lot and wanted to protect and help his younger siblings. So much that he suffered for every trial, every temptation, every hard time we ever have to face.  We never ever are alone. It came up to my mind when we were teaching I. (a recent convert) and her friend that she brought over. Her friend is an athiest, but what I was testifying of that knowledge that I learned I felt a great spirit. Who knows what her friend thought at the end of the day. But I felt good.

There´s no movie theatres here in San Andres so those who didn´t go to a city that has movie theatres didn´t have the chance to see' Meet The Mormons' . They showed it in the chapel here on Friday, so people were able to see it. I only saw a very small portion of it (part of the missionary mom story ...my favourite story), because I was in the kitchen making popcorn.  J. came to see it and she really liked it. She mentions a lot her baptism on July 18th, so she´s pretty excited about it. I seriously love her. She´s awesome. I don´t know exactly why, but on Friday I wasn´t 100% me like...with all my happiness and all. And she comes up to me and says ´´Hermana Jones, you always ask if there´s anything you can do for me ... well is there anything I can do for you?´´

We had a few other experiences in where the people have taught and helped us, but I don´t have the time to share them.

In a mission, you don´t just teach people,the people teach you and you gain many lasting friendships.

Love,
Hermana Jones

Monday, June 8, 2015

San Andres transfer day

Hey Everyone,

Has it really only week a week since I last wrote? Because so much has happened in just a week!

Mount Pleasent Relief Society... I got your post its!  I loved them! Thankyou!

Okay, so on Monday night we got a call from the STL´s asking if we could have Hna Guaní work with us on Tuesday because her companion got called to be an STL and they had to go to Veracruz for a meeting.  They would come back with her new companion.  She taught with us  in the morning and after lunch we already had plans to have a sister accompany us...so we took advantage of the extra hands and we did a little divisions. I worked with Hna Guaní. She and I have the same time on the mission. The sisters phoned us in the evening to say that Hna Guaní would have to sleep over with us. She was in Ojo de Agua before coming here to San Andres so she was filling me in of what´s all been happening there.  Wednesday morning we went over to the STL´s house so Hna Guaní and her companion could go to their area.  Her new companion is named Hna Rodriguez from Guatamala. She just finished her training and she´s got a super sweet character.

 Later at about 10:30am, Hna Jarquin called me, crying, telling me that she´s leaving San Andres to go to Veracruz, never to be returning. Hna Jarquin hadn´t been feeling too good for the past few days and she and Hna Fletcher were getting tired of all the doctors here telling her to go to another doctor and so forth. They needed to go to Veracruz to see what was up. So...after a lesson we had with Rodrigo we went to the ADO to say goodbye to her. I´m going to see her again. I have plans to go to Nicaragua.
Hna Jarquin´s doing fine now. She had surgery and so I hear she basically needs to rest a bit. She´s hanging out with our pair of senior missionaries who work in the mission office. But put some prayers in for her. If you want to put her name in the temple, her name is Angie Tatiana de los Angeles Jarquin Valle.

 This week when we went to see a recent convert,  he was feeling  bad because he broke a commandment. When we learned about that we taught him a lesson about repentence, and he was repentant.  Then two days after we went back to see him and we read some scriptures with him.  It was probably one of my favourite lessons here in this area. We could feel the spirit as we were teaching/reading and we could see the words of the scriptures touch his soul.  He has a few issues with keeping the Sabbath Day holy because he doesn´t regularily go to church.  He knows that part of his repentence is going to church and he committed himself to going.  Unfortunatley he couldn´t go this Sunday because there were elections going on and he was assigned to help with the voting. But he plans to go this next Sunday!

This week we went to see R. every day before his baptism. He wasn´t feeling too well this week and even went to get tests done. Satan didn´t want him to get baptized.  None of his friends came to support him in his baptism. We went to get him on Saturday before his baptism and he was saying everything was going wrong that day he was almost ready to not go and be baptized. See the potential in him? Satan certainly does. He wasn´t the only one being attacked. The other elders in our district had a baptism planned to with this young man named S. On Friday they couldn´t get a hold of him and he wasn´t in his house.  They still couldn´t Saturday morning. We put S. in our prayers and he did come to get baptized. Elder Hoffman and Pantuso also had a baptism...so our district had a baptidistrict Saturday!!!  On Sunday when R. got confirmed he was promised he would get an eternal family. It made me so happy! So he´s going to find a wife one day and his sons are going to follow his example and get baptized too. I was sitting next to Jessica and she also smiled when she heard that he´d get an eternal family.

We also had a new person come to church with us. His named is F. and he´s 27. I think that´s what he said. He was a reference from a member and when we went to contact him he let us teach a lesson. We taught him on his patio. He´s pretty Catholic, but even though he didn´t exactly accept the invitation, I know he´s going to get baptized.  He lives with his cousins and one of his aunts saw us with him and turned on the radio really loud ....  So ...  When I phoned him Sunday morning he told us he still had plans to go with us to church. He really liked it.

We had transfers!!!!  Hna Citam got sent to Veracruz and since she was the only sister leaving from the area I had to travel with her. So basically my whole day has been traveling, which can be a little exhausting. My new companion is Hna Palafox. She was in my last district, so I already know her a little bit. My new sister training leader is Hna Kind...who started the mission in the same district when I was training. I got to see Nefi, Giselle, Hna Margarita, Monsé and Julio in the ADO which was sooo nice! Hna Margarita was like a mother to me so I gave her some good hugs.

My USB stick was found by a brother in the branch!

Please pray for Alan (R's son) so he can have desires to get baptized this week.

Welcome home Whitney and Brent!

Love you all,


English Class             

Tessa loves the children!!      



Feeling loved by the Mount Pleasant R.S.

Hermana Jones

Sunday, June 7, 2015

June 2- Charity and Love

Hola Mis Queridos,

We have a baptism on Saturday!!!! R. He had his baptism the other day and he passed it. He's so excited about it.' Principles of the Gospels' is taught in the room with the baptismal font, and  N. decided to come to church on Sunday. Elder Hoffman opened up the door of the font to show his investigator and R. saw it he said the N. ´´That´s the baptism font will I´ll be getting baptized in!´´  He also told us he has plans to invite 4 of his friends from his AA group. Keep him in your prayers!

We had divisions again and I got to work with Hna Jarquin! So that was fun. Something I never noticed is she said ´´Every contact you make you show your love.´´  And...we had some pretty rude contacts. Well..you can´t win them all.

It´s now rain season! So I´ll be carrying my umbrella everywhere. Keep me in your prayers so I don´t get sick in it!


We were in downtown today doing a little shopping , and I was feeling a little sad because my USB where I transferred A WHOLE LOT of photos from my mission went missing. About half the photos of Ojo and the majority of Nogales . I know I sent lots of photos home but...it still is sad.  We entered a store and I saw a shirt that said ´´love, and be loved´´  That shirt made my day. It´s a simple little message. Love the people around you, and they´ll  love you back. So how about we show the world some love!  ´´Gimme love, gimme love,´´-Ed Sheeran.  A hug, a smile, sit by someone lonely or new, sacrificing our own time to help somebody else. Buy someone you love chocolate and peanut butter.  Don´t wait for special day to do it. Do it today! Do it tomorrow! Show an act of love every day. If we all try to do this...the world will be a much better place.  I was actually studying' Charity and Love' the other day in Christlike atributes. Christ loved the sinners, the republicans, the samaritans, the children. Charity is the pure love of Christ. Search up what charity means on lds.org. In the meantime I´m sending one definition that I wrote from my spanish dictionary because I loved it so much.   Oh, and I bought the shirt.

Este... we got to the computers late and my english class is waiting  .
 But... stay awesome!

Love you all,


Rainy Season    
Hermana Jones

May 25 - San Andres

Hi Everyone,

I´m not sure if I mentioned it before but we end P-Day an hour earlier because we have English class as missionaries.  Basically Elder Hoffman (my district leader) and I try to teach English to my companion and another one of the elders in our district. Sunday night I asked Elder Hoffman what we would teach in English class and he suggested a cooking class. It ended up with the Elders making pancakes, and cooking terms, but it was fun.

Speaking of English classes... before I came,  Hna Terry tried to start up some English classes but they didn´t end up being successful and they stopped them.  Wednesday night one of the brothers called us and told us that there were these kids waiting in the chapel for an English class, so we ran over there and gave one.  That was kind of fun.

We´ve been working super hard this week. We contacted a lot of references and have quite a few new people in teaching.  I hope that we can keep up with everything so we can help people progress with a desire to make changes and get baptized! It´s probably been one of our best weeks in the field.
 R. got sick this weekend and he couldn´t make it to church. He felt so bad.  We decided to drop N.  because we didn´t see a huge interest in him. J.  says she doesn´t want to get baptized until July. The family that we found... we haven´t been able to see them.  So... my patience is being tested a little. It never was my strongest suit. But we´re going to push through it. I´m going to  keep working hard.

Something interesting that happened on Saturday.  We had an appointment with a couple investigators.  When we got to their house one of them was about to leave on an errand and another one was busy doing something else.  We made an appointment to return back another day. When we were walking back we started talking to this young mom. She was saying that a few years ago she visited the church about 4 times and then stopped when she got married. She was saying that she wanted to find a religion because she wants her two sons to grow up right.  She doesn´t live here in this area but was visiting her mom. Where she lives, there´s just Elders working there and we told her they could come and teach her, but she said that wouldn´t be the best idea because her husband is super jealous. So...what we´re going do is visit her every Saturday when she´s with her mom and we found the direction of the chapel in where she lives. She´s super ready to hear the gospel, so I hope we can find a solution soon! This experience showed to up that when we go to visit and teach someone we already know, the person next door can be more than ready to hear the gospel.

I hope all is well at home.

Love
Tessa and her companion  

More of the beauty around San Andres    


Hermana Jones

Monday, May 18, 2015

My family....

Hi Everyone,

R. went to church again, on his own. Maybe he didn´t want my sterness again?  He´s reading the scripture assignments we leave him, and was participating a lot in Gospel Principles.  But...he still hasn´t prayed to know if the church is true. So...keep him in your prayers.

J....she´s super busy with her school and work.  The appointments that we set with her weren´t able to happen because she´s so  busy.  She phoned us the other night to tell us she knows the Book of Mormon is true. On Sunday instead of going to Relief Society we found an empty room and gave a lesson. Even though she knows the Book of Mormon is true...she still wants to wait a while before she gets baptized. She´s passing through a little hard time with her friends because they sees she´s changing and they don´t like it. So prayers for her please!

When we saw R. on Sunday I asked him about N. and he said that N didn´t want to go to church. Sometimes when we go to  visit him we think  he listens to us because he likes listening.  He never has questions when we asked him if he has questions.

 Something cool happened this week. I´ve invited to be baptized   teenagers, young adults, couples, grandpas .... wonderful souls. But what I want to do before I return home is successfully invite a family. I told my companion this and she said ´´We´re going to find a family.´´  One night in my prayers I pleaded that I could find a family.  The next day we went to an appointment we made with this one lady. She said ´´I´m really busy, I´m about to head out on errands."  So we asked if we could sing a hymn. I opened my hymnbook to' Lead Kindly Light,' so we decided to sing that. When we started singing, one her daughters, holding her baby, just stopped what she was doing and listeneed to us. Everyone  stopped and listened to us. When  we finished, one of them asked, ´´Can I find that song on internet?" Another asked ´´Who sings that song? Who´s it by?´´  And one of them brought out a notepad so we could write it down.  We ended up teaching a little lesson, and while  we were teaching, this voice in my head said so clearly  ´´This is my family-´´  Later when I was telling Hna Citam about it, she said she felt that too.  So...this is my family, well one of my families,  because I will keep searching for those ready souls.....Everyone I need your help. I know that prayers get answered and I have faith. Because this family is so chosen, Satan is going to do everything he can to destroy their progress. I´ve already seen it the last time we went to see them. So keep them in your prayers.

 I may not have mentioned it, but when I was reading in Alma way back 3 months ago, our mission president wanted us to read the Book of Mormon as a mission and highlight everytime it mentions something about Christ or about the atonement.  We´re going to finish Alma tomorrow. Reading about these people, these prophets, again has helped me have even more of an appreciation for them.

Sorry this letter is so short, but I this is basically wanted to share with everyone.

Love
Hermana Jones

Monday, May 11, 2015

San Andres....Investigators, waterfalls, divisions

Hi Everyone,

Family it was so nice talking to you yesterday! The time went by fast, and so weird to think that the next time I see everyone it will be in  person. Okay...we´re going to stop talking about that. I am still here in the mission.

Well, you know about N., our investigator who´s missing his legs and just has little stumps, but I forgot to mention he also has a girlfriend who is a member. She lives in Mexico City, and when we put him on date he laughed a little because he said that would be his birthday. But he´s super receptive.

 Another investigator, J, well her boyfriend found the WhatsAp of our branch president and is sending him messages basically everyday to ask if we´re teaching her.  Branch Pres wanted to talk to J. on Sunday and we went with her. He gave a good welcome and gave some advice on how she can keep growing her testimony (he´s a convert himself). He mentioned all the messages, and she hadn't known about that.  Please pray for J. because it´s so hard to find her during the week and she's super busy, which doesn´t help when she still  has a lot of questions.

Oh... I haven´t mentioned R. He´s an investigator that´s been taught for a month more or less. He came to church the Sunday before I came, but he didn´t the first Sunday I was there. He´s a little frustrating because one day he reads the scriptures we assign him and the next day he doesn´t. He prays one day, and the next day he doesn´t. Friday he told us he´d keep his word that he would go to church on Sunday and Saturday he said he wasn´t entirely sure because he had to do something early in the morning. So...me being frustrated  pulled out the scripture in Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 that talks about commitments and how it´s worse to not complete a commitment you already made than to not commit at all.  I had him read the scripture, and I said to him ´´You told us yesterday that you would come to church, keep to your word because like the scripture says, it´s a lot worse if you don´t come."   Then he said....okay, you can count on me I´ll be ready tomorrow.  When we left the lesson Hna Citam said to me ´´I´ve never seen you mad before. You´re always so sweet and calm when you teach. That was kind of fun.´´  Which made me laugh. So you all hear me out there.... if you don´t keep your commitments I´m gonna planch you!  Would someone please tell me the English translation of planchar? I know what it means but I can´t think of the word in English and it´s not in my dictionary.

It was super fun having divisions with Hna Fletcher this week. I loved the whole day and the visits we made. This one girl is struggling a little because her little son doesn´t like going to church.  I left her with my favourite scripture in Alma 26. When we went to eat lunch with the sister, at the end she asked me if I´d be coming back, and I told her it was just for the day so I gave her my facebook.  Hna Fletcher said ´´Hey, you´ll probably see her at district conference!"´´  She was happy about that. We wished a Happy Birthday to one member and she gave us cake. We  had a lesson and ate hamburgers, and talked and looked at our mtc pictures when we got back to the house. Something she said was really cool. She said ´´Someone told me that when you´re on a mission you´re still the same person, but the positive attributes just pop out even more.´´  Well...my personality definitely is still the same, but I´ve also changed a bunch too. I don´t know if I make any sense... but I liked what she said.

It´s mango season here so there are some mangos dropping from the trees. The other day when we were walking through this lot that doesn´t belong to anybody, we found 4 mangos that were good and the skin hadn´t been pierced. When we were home, I took them, washed and peeled them and cut them and put them in the freezer. Yesterday for breakfast I made a smoothie of mango, strawberry yogurt, milk, and juice. I think my companion liked it because she asked if we still had mangos.  She told me liked it too.

Well, that was fun! Thanks everyone for being awesome.

Love,
El Salto     


Divisions with Hermana Fletcher
Hermana Jones

Monday, May 4, 2015

Getting to know San Andres

Hey Everyone,

Well here I am in  San Andres again. It´s beautiful here! Next week we plan to go sight seeing.


Reay, Laurel and Tiffany....I got your letters! You can let Sister Olsen know. My mom printed them out and sent them out via snail mail. Thank you! As you can see, I posted them on the wall. They´re by my desk. Tiffany, you asked how you can prepare to be a missionary.  The most important thing is your testimony and desire.  Don´t worry too much about being a scriptorian because the mission is a great  place to learn even more about them. And love everyone. That´s my advice.

I finished reading the Book of Mormon on Sunday Morning!!! I haven´t finished it front to back since grade 10 and I have learned so much!  Sunday morning when I finished I prayed about it and I felt so happy and at such peace and joy. It is the word of God!

 Thursday when we went to Veracruz for the visas, the zone leaders from Nogales were there and I was asking about everyone there. Everyone is doing great and they said that the ward is growing a lot, like 200 people in the chapel. It made me so happy!

NOGALES LES EXTRAÑO MUCHO!!!

When we got back from the visa office, President´s daughter  said that they were headed to San Andres and asked if we could ride with them, and we did.   I saw so much greenery and it was so pretty! President was headed for San Andres because we had the next day a zone conference. We didn't know before, so he phoned our assistant and said ´´Los Tuxtlas don´t know they have a zone conference tomorrow, that worries me.´´  Then half an hour later our district leader phones us to inform us and we said ´´yeah we know, we´re with president right now.´´  The conference was really good, and President took us out for memelas afterwords. Yumm!

We have this investigator named Jessica. Her family is Catholic. Her boyfriend is a member and he lives in Venezuela. She´s awesome, but put some prayers in for her.

We have a variety of food in our kitchen so I´ve been cooking what I´ve been able to. When I saw a lettuce head  in the fridge I was super happy! I´ve never been so happy before to make a salad. Oh yeah...here in the mission I´ve grown to love tomatoes.

 I´ve been thinking a little bit. Hna Terry left me a picture saying that she was so happy I was taking her place. She told Hna Citam on two different occasions that I would be her next companion. She also said on the note to be a good step-mother for her. I never thought of it like that.  Hna Citam just finished her training and I´m her next companion. So...I may never get an official mission daughter, but I´m here to help out Hna Citam continue her progress and be her step-mom. She said at first she was still missing Hna Terry but very soon she felt my love and she felt better. It´s something I´ve never  really thought about, how I am. My patriarchal blessing says I´m blessed with the power of love and compassion, and I think of the comments people in the mission have said to me. Every one of my companions in my bye'bye book thank me for the love I´ve shown toward them. But how I act is second nature to me. So...I thank my heavenly father for that gift and that I´ve been able to help  people with that.

Take care everyone!

Love
Hermana Jones


Monday, April 27, 2015

Transferred!!

Hi Everyone,

This afternoon I write to you from... SAN ANDRES TUXTLA!!!!! The week before last when we had interviews I told President ´´Well, the Lord already knows that I´d really love to go to Los Tuxtlas, so if there are souls out there that need my teaching, please send me there.´´ He said ´´Okay, I´ll have to see what the Lord says.´´ I am beyond stoked...and being in San Andres alone is only part. My Sister Training Leaders are Hna Fletcher and Hna Jarquin!!!!!! I love these two very  much! It was a 3 hour bus ride and when we FINALLY got there...because it seemed like forever... and I saw Hna Jarquin she yelled out ´´COMPITA!!!¨´ and I yelled"compita" back as well. So basically I will be seeing her and working with her the rest of my mission. Why compita?' Compa'  is short for companion and the  ' ita' makes it more endearing. It´s a district of branches here, and I´m in the branch where Hna Jarquin started her mission.

My new companion is pretty green, she just finished her training. Hna Terry trained her and when we saw eachother in the ADO (the bus company we use to travel) she told me to take good care of her, and that she´s super awesome.  Her name is Hna Citam, from Merida, Mexico. I´m not sure if I spelled that right.  And...it´s not stupidly humid!!! This past week we had a few days of 40+ and I was sweating like crazy.  But here it´s dry heat. I LOVE IT!

I loved my birthday. It was pretty simple. I didn´t eat a cake but that was quite fine with me. I ate tamales, cheese, nacho chips... food. We ate with the member who we were assigned to eat with, then we went to see Angel and Neri because Neri made tamales for us.  Then we went to see Esperanza, the Elder´s convert, to eat a little more.  We brought tamales home,  and accidently robbed the Elder's sandwiches that they brought from Esperanza´s house. The sisters in Relief Society sang me' the Psalm of Manañitas' (a mexican thing) and 'Happy Birthday' to me in Relief Society.  I said goodbyes to some of the people I was able to teach, and we had a traditional FHE before transfers at Nefi´s house.  When they sang to me ,Nefi´s dad was there playing the guitar along. It was pretty simple, but I loved it.
And thanks a lot to those who sent me birthday wishes!!!

The new missionary coming in my place is pretty lucky because we´ve got this awesome teen R. in teaching. She was a reference of the Elders. And there´s A. and her grandkids, and another new person we found this week.

Well I didn´t quite get my goal done of finishing the book of mormon due to packing my life in two suitcases for two days. But I´m soo close!!! I´m in Moroni.

I know this letter is a little short, but I feel it´s sufficient for this week and I don´t need to bore you all with details my super hot days. But I will advise that since my time is slowly ticking, I won´t promise that if snail mail is sent to me  it will get there in time in the next few weeks. It takes 3 months about for a letter to get here from Canada.

Take Care and Read the Scriptures Every Day!

Love,
Goodbyes       

Birthday Girl        

Birthday Food     


More Birthday Celebration   

       
   
Reunion     
Hermana Jones

Monday, April 20, 2015

More news from 1 de Mayo

Hi Everyone,

It still continues to be super hot.

Hna Martinez and I went to a wax musuem today. We decided to do something cool this week because this is most likely my last week here in 1 de Mayo and who knows if I´ll stay here in the port or go foreign (I really want to go to Los Tuxtlas).

It was a good week. We have a new person we´re teaching named R. She´s 30 years old and has this almost 3 year old daughter J. who is a ball of energy. We were lucky to have one lesson this week where J. was napping for the most part of the time. We found her on Sunday and made an appointment with her later that day, and we´ve seen her throughout the week. It´s neat teaching her, and different than teaching others before. She came to church with us on Sunday and we thought she was only going to stay the first hour.  She ended up staying all 3 and said she thought it was all really beautiful. This morning when we walking down the street in journey to the bus stop for the wax museum (it´s  a 10 minute walk because it´s at the beach) J was outside and greeted us. She greeted again, and us again.  Then this man greeted us from some house nearby.  That was kind of funny.

Also because I feel like this will be my last week, we decided to walk to the beach this morning. We got up half an hour earlier so we could have a good amount of time there. It´s a little darker now in the morning because of the time change. It was beautiful to watch night to day. It makes me think of Alma 30:44 when Alma talks to Korihor testifying that there is a Christ, one thing being the world, the sun, planets, stars all around us. I have that scripture on the little box I made to protect my scriptures.

I´m now in the middle of the Book of Mormon and it is my goal to finish it before the end of the transfer. So basically I need to finish it on my birthday. A wonderful birthday gift to me. I love learning and I get sad when the prophets are sad and happy when they are happy.

This week Hna Martinez and I wanted to set up a FHE at the chapel with the Elders. We had that Saturday night. The Elders were in charge of the lesson and us in charge of the game. So Saturday came and we still had no idea what to do with the game and planning what to do while the Elders gave their lesson. They taught about the Plan of Salvation. We were given the idea of telephone by Julio and a game of blowing flour out of a cup to find a little reward at the end. We were trying to think of how to relate it the the gospel... and somehow we got an awesome idea. We added a third component. There is a blindfolded person and they have to go through an obstacle course with someone at the other end guiding them. At the same time other people are trying to distract them. We gave a scripture about the Holy Ghost that had to get passed down to the end. In the game of blowing flour out of the cup, the people had to cover their eyes so flour wouldn´t get in.

 God´s plan for us is a great plan and in order to carry out the things that He wants us to achieve, He´s provided the Holy Ghost to help guide us. Lots of the times, we´re not exactly sure what´s at the end of something we´re experiencing, whether it be easy or difficult, but even when we can´t see it through the journey  we´ve got to keep pushing on to the end to find that prize. (the flour in the cup game). When we´re on the road of life, there are lots of distractions. A lot. We need to stay firm and listen always to that one voice that will lead us home.   One thing I found interesting, even though I have more than a year of speaking Spanish, some things can still be a little difficult to explain. Like the activities we had the people do. I started trying to explain the activities part and how they related to our little message but I had a little difficulty so I had Hna Martinez take over. After she explained why we did said activities, I bore my testimony. That I was able to do. Today when I was reflecting on that, I thought of something Mom told me when I first got here frustrated because I couldn´t almost speak a thing.... she told me that as long as I had my testimony and I could share it, that was the most important thing. Thus it is now. I am a whole lot better at speaking Spanish, but with the things I lack, my testimony comes in its place.

Take Care Everyone,

Hermana Jones
F.H.E.

F.H.E.

Wax museum     

Wax Museum     

Wax Museum     

Golden Investigator    

Scenery.........

Monday, April 13, 2015

Here comes the heat.......

My Dear Family and Friends,

 M. has not prayed yet, and B.  has been really hard to find because she works in Xalapa which is... 3 or so hours away. I´m not sure. Xalapa is part of a different mission.  We do have some good news coming up later.....

 Wow is it ever getting hot! We shower two times a day now. In the morning and  at night. Showering with cold water is one of the most refreshing things. But I still like sleeping in my sweater. Hna Martinez told me last night ´´You´re crazy. You´re sleeping in a sweater and here I am sweating.´´  I just said,  ´´I´ve got the window.´´  I sleep by the wall where the window is and Hna Martinez is a little claustrophobic so it´s always open.

Yesterday in the chapel we had all the windows open and the ceiling fans going because the air conditioning wasn´t working.  Later during Gospel Principles ,the bishop was in the classroom and trying to get the AC going...and it started!!!  He looked at me with the biggest look of amazement on his face.  At the same time we said to each other ´´CHEESE PARTY!cheese party." Not" fiesta de queso." Cheese party is a little inside joke I have with a few of the members. Mainly the bishops family, and Julio and Monse. They don´t have cheese parties here, and when I told Hna Jarquin about them one of the first weeks I had here,  she thought it was the weirdest thing.

This week we had a lady tell us that she had a testimony that Saturday was the Sabbath day and advised us that we really needed to study the Bible better to have the same conviction.  And a guy on the street with a little too much beer to drink tried to kiss my hand.  I told him he couldn´t because the only being I was dedicated to was God, and only Him. We are spotting dogs everywhere on the streets. Like 4 of them sleeping in a row! Whenever there are dogs, squirrels or airplanes in sight,  I am well informed, because Hna Martinez loves them all. She also LOVES tortillas. And ketchup. We were shopping today  waiting at the till, and she said to me ´´´We forgot tortillas and ketchup!!!!´´ So...we left the line and returned to get the two items.

So I continue to study the Book of Mormon and LOVE IT!!! Yesterday I was reading the chapter where Jesus blesses the little children. It´s his first day teaching in the Americas and he's about the leave but the Nephites start to cry so he decides to stay a little longer and tells them to bring the little children to him so he can bless them.

3 Nephi 17

 21 And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

 22 And when he had done this he wept again;

 23 And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones.

 24 And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.



 It seriously just warmed my heart reading this and made me so happy. Little children are innocent and some of the most loving creatures. Jesus blessed them and wept for them. I imagine he was weeping of joy for being in the presence of so many little ones. He tells them to" Behold", in Spanish ´´mirad´´ is used.  It means' look'. So clearly he wanted to Nephites to look at the little ones for their example.  I really like in English how it says' little ones.'  It made me think of Grampa Des because I remember he would call me little one.

 This morning I was reading 19 and it´s the next day and Nephi is baptizing the people with the authority of Jesus gave them, and  angels are ministering to them,  and in the middle of it all Jesus appear again. He tells the Nephites to pray, so they do.  In the middle of that Jesus goes to pray to Heavenly Father as well.  When he came back to see the Nephites still praying, he smiled.  When he returned again from another prayer and they are still praying he smiles again.  So... I know that prayer is super important and I have a strong testimony of it.  I learned how happy Jesus is when we pray. No doubt when we are here on earth praying, he must be smiling down at us as well. We´re praying to our Father, His Father.   Read further for some more great things....I have more to write now!



 Friday evening we went to a house of this person we contacted and made an appointment with. A minute before E Acevedo called us to tell us a reference. The person we had planned to visit was not at her house so we decided to go find this reference. Her name is A.  and she is looking for a church to attend. She´s hopped around trying different churches and hasn´t quite gripped on them yet. 4 of her grandchildren live with her and the littlest one is one of the cutest girls ever. She accepted the invitation to baptism, went the a ward activity about Family History Saturday night and really enjoyed it, and also enjoyed church on Sunday.

And... one of the recent converts told us her mom wants us to start teaching her!!!

Everyone be awesome, pray and read the scritpures and you´ll be amazed by the things  you learn.



Love

Hermana Jones

Has to wait to more weeks to open her Birthday package.....