Monday, March 30, 2015

My television debut.....

Hey Everyone,

Well, this week has been a little frustrating. The person we found on Sunday dropped us when we went to our scheduled appointment with him on Tuesday, another isn´t living the commandments he should be living and Satan is working REALLY hard with him.

Lidia is so wonderful and progressing but she decided it would be better to push back her baptism. Her daughter that lives in another area broke her leg so we haven´t seen her in the last 3 days.  She´s basically my only hope right now.

 We´ve found other people but they weren´t able to come to church on Sunday or they´ve just disappeared off the face of the planet.  So...I´m a little discouraged right now.

Well...I loved the General Women´s Conference. Last time it focused on temple covenants and this time it focused on families. Even though I love the Spanish language, I would have preferred to watch it in English so I could hear the actual voices of the speakers. I love how Henry B Eyring is always the one from the first presidency to share a message. I love how it talked about how we as women need to be strong in setting an example to the world. It makes me think of Queen Esther. She is my favourite woman in the bible.  And also the women in the Book of Mormon. We don´t hear much about their stories, but  they are amazing. Like... Sariah and Nephi´s wife. We don´t know her name, but we know she cared about Nephi because she  defended him when Laman and Lemuel wanted to kill him and she also loved her mother in law and was sad she was suffering when they were traveling in the boat. Or the mothers of the 2000 stripling warriors. They taught their sons to believe in God and  never doubt. And not one of them fell dead. Also the prophets that speak in the Book of Mormon like Ammon  or Captain Moroni or everyone else. I know they had good mothers and good women in their life because a mom is a large part in the raising of her kids.

I AM SO EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE, In the words of Aunt Kelly, I feel like it's better than Christmas. Especially as a missionary.

We were on the TV this morning. We didn´t know it until Hna Lulu, the bishops wife, mentioned it to us. It was in the morning when we were doing exercise at the beach. I´m international now. Haha. So...shoes are super hard to find here and my shoes that I bought were tearing a bit.  One of the sisters insisted I give her my shoes so she could take them to someone to get them repaired.  In the afternoon we were in the house and I was sewing up the shoes I've been using in the meantime.  Hna Lulu phoned us and asked if we wanted  to go shoe shopping. We went somewhere in Downtown and she bought me some new shoes! I'm pretty sure I´ve already mentioned it, but  I love the Bishop´s family!

Well, I´m really hoping this week will be better. Please keep me in your prayers cause I'm just really needing some spark.

Love,
Still enjoying photography........


Hermana Jones

Monday, March 23, 2015

A wonderful week!

Hi Everyone,


We had another baptism yesterday!!!! Carlos! Last week, part of the fast we had was for him.  The day of the miracle of Angel, we also saw him, and he was super happy. We also found his mom Lidia! He was telling her that he has been going to church with us, and that he really likes it. We convinced him to cut his hair, which he did this week. After sacrament meeting yesterday, in the next class he was shaking.  We were asking how he was doing. He said he was fine, although we didn´t believe him. But after all the meetings when we saw him again he was doing fine and he just had some nerves. He was excited to have his baptism. We had Julio baptize him. The Elders also had a baptism!!! I´m happy for them because they've been working super hard and I was hoping Elder Ledesma would have one in his training. Because it can be really discouraging when all your baptism dates fall. It was Esperanza and she was super happy. Lidia came with us to church and brought along her granddaughter...I forget her name but she´s super cute. She was very shy when we first met,  but she's sure gotten over that.  Lidia was crying a little bit after the baptism service and really wants to get baptized too. If everything works out, she should have her baptism next Sunday. Prayers for her please! Lidia Medina Lion. When I was wheeling Gregorio back to his house, the pequeñita took a hold of one of the handles which I thought was the cutest thing! Gregorio loved it too, and wanted to give her money so she could buy a candy.

My companion is really lovely. It was a little difficult for me last Monday because I didn´t know a whole lot about her,  plus I said farewell to one of my best friends, but she´s a doll. I´ve been trying to be a good companion and show her the area well so that she can get to know the members. I took her to the bishops house on Tuesday. We both love cheese and photography. She plans to study photography when she gets home.

This week we celebrated Margararita´s birthday, found a new investagator named Ramón and another named Adán. We had some wonderful lessons with less actives where I could tell they were touched by the things we shared with them and they also helped me. Especially Hna Gonsalez... she's blind and sometimes she feels alone but she's got such a strong testimony of the love Heavenly Father has for her.

The other day when a lot of our plans fell, we went to go visit Margarita and Monse and they brought us down to street to eat something and I got a chicharrón preparada which I´ve been craving so long.  Margarita was telling the lady there that we are her borrowed daughters. I love her!

Angel, Neri, and Gregorio recieved the Holy Ghost. And we´re continuing in the hopes of making this ward even stronger.

Love you all, Hermana Jones

A little helper           

Cheese at the Bishop's house! We love it!  

And chocolate!!!!!

Morning selfie          

It rained today! Alot!


Happy Birthday Mom!!

Monday, March 16, 2015

Miracles

Hi Everyone,

First up, we had transfers this morning (they happen on Mondays now) and Hna Jarquin returned to Los Tuxtlas, to a branch called 1 de Mayo. She wanted to go back near the end of her mission but she didn´t know it would really happen.  My new companion is Hermana Martinez and she´s from Cordoba, Argentina.

Hna Jarquin and I have experienced lots of miracles this week.  Our testimonies have increased a LOT!  Multiple times in the scriptiures it mentions people who are fasting and praying for a good cause that they neededhelp in.  It also talks about obiedient people recieving blessings, This is something we still need to be doing these days.


So you all remember A. and I was asking you all to keep him in your prayers. Tuesday morning when we went to go see him, he was the same. Didn´t want to get baptized just yet. N. told Hna Jarquin that she wanted to get baptized but wouldn´t without him. Tuesday after lunch we decided to have a fast... for a few reasons and one of them is that he would accept a baptism for this Sunday.

Wednesday we went to go them with Giselle. We talked about baptism again and shared some scriptures about it. I knew N. wanted a baptism, so I asked her about wanting to get baptized so she could express what she felt about it infront of her husband. Hna Jarquin shared a story from her life about the blessings she saw in her family when she chose to get baptized. I shared an experience from my life and  then I felt like singing a hynm. I opened my hymnbook to " Beautiful Zion" and started singing it.  Then we asked A. to say the closing prayer. In the prayer, he asked that the Lord would soften his heart. He started crying in his prayer and when he finished we helped him recognixe that what he was feeling was the Holy Ghost.  He wanted the Elders to come in that moment for his baptism interview.


We had three baptisms this Sunday A, N. and G.  These baptisms were a miracle in themselves with their sicknesses.


I´m keeping this short because that´s the main thing I wanted to share today.

I love being a missionary.

Hermana Jones
Changes...........



Saying Goodbye to a dear friend.......


Baptism           

Hna Garcia has completed her mission    
Primary Activity        

Monday, March 9, 2015

One Year!!!

Hey All,

Well I´m one year old as a missionary. Crazy how a whole year has gone by. Now here I am with one foot on the banana peel......

Well, this week was a little more difficult than the last two lovely weeks we've had.  We had an investigator tell us she wasn´t interested in our message  after the 2nd visit and we didn´t have too much luck in finding more people to teach.

We´ve got some people with stubborn hearts. Such as A. Sr. , the dad of the less active we found. On my year anniversary in the mission we had  taught about the Restoration.  Let me tell you....it was SUCH a strong spirit we had in that lesson. A. Jr told us he was thinking about his conversion and how he really wants to go back to church. We had A. Sr give the closing prayer, and when he finished he was crying.  We said ´´feel this, feel how important this is and in which path God wants you to go. We reminded him and N. (his wife) to pray for themselves that night. We came back the next day and he DIDN¨T pray! We were so sad and disappointed. He´s got a hard heart...please ...save a space for A. in your prayers.

G., however looks forward to his baptism. We figured out this week that his daughter C.,who comes and cares for him, is a member of the church...and in her own words has been ´wayword for twenty years.´´ Not only her but also her brother and her daughters ... all inactive. But C. plans to come to his baptism. Also some prayers for G. because... he´s feeling old and getting a little tired of living and hates that he can´t do stuff like he used to do.

J. C.,  remember he´s a little blind...  We left the Elders in charge of him in Priesthood. At the end of the meetings we were getting some things organized and one of the primary kids called us because  he was walking with her grandma and he was so upset. ... i don´t know exactly what happened,  but he was standing alone for some time and he did not like it.

In spite the not great things, there were some good things that happened. Tuesday we got to spend a few hours with Hna Amestica, because with people sick getting sent home and special transfers, she´s companions with the sister training leaders.  They had a meeting on Tuesday so they called us to come and be companions with her for those hours. She started the mission in my district when  I was in Orizaba and she´s such a sweetie.  When we went to the mission office to get her, we got to see Elder Dial and his companion for a few seconds!  His companion Elder Ibarra was in 1 de Mayo before Dial came in.

We bought a cake for my year mark and the STL´s happened to phone that night so they sang me the new year song.

The bishop and his family take good care of us.  They fed us when the sister that was signed up didn´t know when it was our turn to eat with her, and they bought us nice sweaters because it´s been really cold this past few days. My compa has been using one of mine because Hna Barrios has hers.

We got to see what a Book of Mormon for the blind loooks like. We have a blind sister in the ward. We love each other and always share scriptures that we like when we´re reading.



Braille
 Hermana Jones

Monday, March 2, 2015

Blessings

Hi Everyone,

This week was a bit crazy and busy with things not exactly related with things in the mission field, but my companion and I have found the Lord blessing us in many ways.

We had many hospital visits. Well..... 3. 2 of them involved my companion. She´s a little sick and needed to get some tests done so that took some time from the field. But in the hospital visits we the opportunity to teach two lessons.

The last one happened as a Relief Society activity. Not a whole lot of the sisters could make it so we were few in number, but it was a really special. We brought with us a bunch of hot chocolate, sandwiches, and these squares that were orange flavored (it´s all about oranges here in Mexico right now), and Liahonas (which are the friend, new era and ensign all in one). When we got to the hospital we set up a little station. There were a bunch of people there, and they just started lining up to get something to eat/drink. The Elders were passing out the Liahonas,and some people went up to them to ask for them. I was handing out pass'along cards of when Jesus was resurrected and the people in this little line were really happy to see this image. A picture of our Savior, the Saviour of everyone, whichever religion we are.  Also here outside were Evangelists singing  Christian songs...which I´m not going to lie... it was a a little fun hearing their singing.

Hermana Jarquin was saying that night when we got back to our house... there were many people there. Evangelists, Catholics, Latter Day Saints (us)... people of most likely a lot of different religions. But we were all there with one purpose....to spread some love. Hna Jarquin wanted me to take a picture there with her presenting a Liahona to someone, and with that she learned a story of lady who had lost all of her family. This lady gave out her address so the missionaries could come visit her. We also got a a few more addresses of people who wanted the missionaries to come and visit them.

So remember A.? We´re teaching his parents now and they are lovely people. Their names are A. and N. When we placed a baptism date with them they thought it was a bit soon, but we´re going to help them out so they feel prepared. They´ve been traveling 45 minutes to go to a Catholic church in downtown and we said  ´´Come with us...it´s a lot closer´´ and when we went to visit them on Saturday night their daughter was there. She's a member,and they told her that they were going to go to church and they wanted her to come with them. They loved church! They said that they felt there was a lot of unity there and loved hearing the testimonies of people in the congregation and not just listening to only one person give a sermon.

G. is doing wonderfully. He´s the cutest little old man. He calls us hermanitas. We have to teach him a little like a kid and we´re trying to teach him how to pray. When we taught him the Restoration Hna Jarquin asked him if we could pray together to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and when we prayed, we felt this sweet peace. It was a really cool experience.

We passed Y. to the Elders.
L. has been gone almost all week because her sister is sick and lives in another part of town.

F. told us that she wants to be a missionary and she went out to teach with us for a couple hours on Wednesday, and she´s going to go out and teach with us this next Wednesday. D. wants to go out and teach with us too, and F. said to him ´´no, you can go out and teach with the elders.´´

Hna Jarquin and I have been reading a ton in Alma...and we LOVE it. She finished it today. All 63 chapters in 12 days. I love chapters 42, 43 , all the chapters with Captain Moroni, because he was a clever man. He was always ready and prepared. When he and his men are out in battle, he comes up with the best strategies and he doesn't have his men go out and battle for blood and victroy, but to keep the freedom of the people.The scriptures say that if all men were like him, Satan would not have any power over anyone on the earth.
But something MORE than that.
He was an AMAZING friend.

Everybody, please go and read Alma 53:2. How he was with Lehi. They were great friends who loved each other and cared for each other. More than that, the people of Lehi loved them.

Yesterday we were sharing about Moroni in a lesson with M.´s family. Hermana Jarquin was saying she hoped that everyone could find a friend like Moroni. She also said that of all the 17 companions she´s had (due to many trios) ... I am her Moroni. That meant a lot to me. I love my companion. We´re not just mission companions. We´re also friends and sisters.



And well...according to the Bishop, the members in the ward love us.

Please, everyone, be a wonderful friend.

Love
Hermana Jones