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