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

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.........

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.....

Conference week

Hi Everyone,

I loved conference! I didn´t really get to watch a whole lot of the saturday morning session because for those of us who wanted to watch in English, they were having technical difficulties. I watched the afternoon in English, Sunday morning in Spanish and Sunday afternoon in English. I had a cool experience the Sunday morning. When we were singing" I Know that My Redeemer Lives", I was singing in English while everyone around me was singing in Spanish.  When the congregation was shown singing on the screen, there were a part of them that were signing in ASL. I really felt the Spirit, and comfort. No matter what language we speak, when we´re singing hymns, we´re  singing praises to God.


At the stake center, I saw  a sister there that lived in Ojo de Agua while I served there and some time ago she´d moved to the port. It was so lovely to see her face and we gave each other a big hug.

April 1st. Here in Mexico, April Fools Day is in December so I forgot about it.  In the morning the zone leaders called  me (they´re both American) and sid that President called, and my companion and I needed to leave the house and go to higher ground because an unexpected hurricane was going to hit.  I was so confused.  Then 30 seconds after I hung up they phoned back to say" AprilFools Day." Sayer and Olinek...


This week has been a week of....trying to be patient. There were a few days where nothing was working out how we wanted so we decided to buy some icecream and have some comfort food.But...we have some new people we´re teaching.
M. We found him when we were trying to find the directions of a man that Jarquin and I once contacted. He´s in his late 50s or early 60s. He says he´s Catholic but he doesn´t attend  his meetings. He works a little store in his sister´s house... and he´s always tryng to give us free food when we come to visit him . He has lots of interest, but his biggest obstacle right now is his sister, because she doesn´t want him listening to us. We still haven´t met her. He agreed to go to conference with us, but on the note that we´d wait for him at the intersection of his street so itwouldn't cause trouble with his sister. We got there at the time we agreed and phoned him and he said he was already on his way, so...we went to go find him. He loved conference!

Another was B. ,  a reference from the Elders.  She is wonderful, only she didn´t come to see conference.  She's searching for a good church. She´s attended with Catholics, Baptists and Pentocostals. When we first met her she said she loved how the church was organized and everything but she wasn´t so sure about the Book of Mormon. Then my companion explained like just like how she'd like to share with both her kids super awesome news, the same is God with His plan and the church and she said ´´yeah, that makes sense.´´ The next day we met her husband (they´re separated) and her son. Her son is excellent, and it´s a shame he doesn´t live in our area. When I was talking about Joseph Smith, I mentioned how he was a boy who was searching for the truth. and she said ´´Just like me!´´

Right now in the book of mormon I´m in 3rd Nephi and at the beginning the people are SOOO wicked... killing the people they don´t like before bringing up their case to the judge and then killing the judge.  God is telling them to stop killing prophets and other people. I´m thinking...where is the rightousness??? I knew they were wicked before, but still...  Then I got the the part where Jesus comes and after I read Chapter 11 I basically shouted 'Jesu came!' holding up my scriptures.  My compa said to me  ''It´s not the second coming yet.''  I was thinking ....no, not yet, but  I hope that when he does come again we´ll all be shouting with joy ´´´Jesus Came!´´ Because if we´re rightous people, it´s going to be a joyful occasion.

So...let´s be rightous people so we can rejoice when the day comes.

Love

One of the kids eating a cookie with hot sauce       

Hermana Jones