Mocambo happenings

Hi Everyone,

So...Elder Acevedo is our new district leader, and he's not so bad. You all could probably tell that I had a little fear about who would come. But so far, so good. He came from Cordoba. We also have a new zone leader, Elder Sayer. I find it a little hilariuous that Elder Sayer is here now, because we always end up in the same zone. When I started the mission, he was in Cordoba, when I was in Mocambo the first time for three days, he was in that zone.  We both had special transfers to Orizaba.   Now he got a special transfer into Mocambo. And the zone leaders are in our district. What's up with that? Haha.

Oh, Mom. The other day I was looking through my dearelders from the MTC and in one of them you found an Elder named Elder Larsen. Well I've met him. He's in the mission office and I told him that you found his blog. He found it quite funny.He also ends his mission the same time as me. Today when we were in the offices, there were some Elder's there that had a morning run to the offices and Elder Benett ( the one that was in my zone when I started) said ´hey...you were born in Cordoba!' and I said 'yeah!' and his companion...a newbie of 5 months asks me ´'you're from utah. right?´´ me ´´nope´´ Elder Benett ´´Canada!´´ ´´yeah!´´ It still makes me proud I'm the only Canadian missionary here.

We've been continuing in prepping for the Luau. It's a lot of work! There's not an activities comittee so the work falls on us, the Elders, Nefi, Giselle, and Fer. Hna Jarquin and I have been running around  collecting pinapples from the hermanas,  searching for cardboard boxes to the point of bringing them folded up on the bus with us. When we told Nefi of this he asked us if it embarrassed us. If we were at home, yes it would ... but here as missionaries, not a bit. It was going to be for this Saturday but we changed it for next Friday because the weather was awful Saturday and we were super stressed out. My companion and I couldn't sleep for awhile Friday night.

C, F and D.... We love them...we had a baptism interview for them this past week as they were supposed to get baptised this Sunday. Well....F. and D. But D. has to wait for Feb 8. F. wants to get baptized right now, and we asked C. if he could talk with his kids to see what they wanted and if F. can get baptized this next Sunday. We have transfers (normal transfers) the Tuesday after and even though Hna Jarquin and I don't want it, we feel like she'll be leaving the area. Prayers for this family please!

We're going be moving soon! We've been looking for a different house to live in since I got here, and we finally have one! It's a house that a member used to live in it, and we hope to move into it this week.

This next week is going to be super crazy. We've still got stuff to do with the Luau,and also the moving we'll be doing. With the craziness, we have plans on working with the members so that we can do divisions. The days we're preparing the Luau...one us is working with a member while the other is out working,  Please...leave me out of planning parties for a long time. It is exhausting,

I feel like this letter is a little short, but I'm sure it'll be longer with my photo and subtitles.

Next week you'll hear the news of what's going to happen with the transfers.

Cuídense,

Making a salad with  my companion   

My skirt makes a dress for my companion  

Tessa couldn't really explain what this was....

Hermana Jones

Special Cambio in our district

Hey All,

Well, to be honest, I'm a little sad today. Our little mission family here in 1 de Mayo will be a little broken.

Yesterday after church it was our turn to eat at Nefi's house. Elder Dial called us and asked us when we were going to meet again to discuss the Luau.  We told them to come to Nefi's house when they were done eating. When they arrived, Elder Dial was not looking as animated as he usually is and he said he had some news. That there's special cambios and he was getting sent away to a different area and assigned as a zone leader. I said 2 or 3 times .... ´´you´re lying, right?´´´
He doesn´t want to leave, and none of us want him to leave either. He thought he would end his mission here, have one more transfer with Elder Gonzales and the last two transfers he would train again.

So...after everyone in the house heard the news, he went to pass all the info of the week to the zone leaders. In the meantime, the rest of us were in the living room, all in shock, some crying, and Aunt Shelina (Nefi and Giselle's aunt) talking to Elder Gonzales trying to comfort him, because Elder Dial has been a great companion to him.

We all know it's a good thing, but it's hard to accept it. In my last area, sometimes I would get so frusterated because I felt like my leaders didn't always take me seriously . But here, my companion and I have felt and knew that our district leader trusted our work. If we thought something wasn't just or when we felt pressure from others, he told us he would talk with our other leaders.

So with that...we all will say a 'see you later´' to our district leader and friend tonight at an FHE that we're going to have. We will meet our new district leader Tuesday.

Come what may, and love it, right?


Bueno.

Well... we had some sweet things happen to us this week. I really loved our district class on Tuesday. Elder Dial was pretty happy in what we accomplished as a district the past week and each class we all discuss on how we can do better. This week we decided that we would do better in street contacting and Elder Dial assigned for all of us to do better in a Christ like attribute,. And for practices... going out and contacting. We have classes in the stake center, so it's not our area, but for addresses we would get we would give them to the hermanas in this area. We went out and picked this one random street to do some contacting. The first contact we made.... they happened to live in our area.

So the other day we went to visit these people. The wife was only there that time and she told us that usualy she doesn't pay attention to people on the street wanting to spread their knowledge about something. She said that something about us called her attention.

We´re now teaching a family that has been taught by the missionaries before and they know everything really well. The reason they haven´t been baptized is the mom is separated from her first husband and they´re not divorced so she can´t marry the husband she´s living with right now. but she found him after the missionaries taught this family .,.. and it´s really expensive. This exhusband says they can get divorced but she has to pay it all. and it´s 8000 pesos. They want to get baptized so badly and be an eternal family...especially because one of their son´s has died.

We are also teaching a guy that has been inactive for 10 or so years. We found him because we contacted his mom (and she wants my companion to marry him...jaja) and she´s said... my son is a member and he hasn´t been to church in a long time. But her....well she says she won´t go to church with us because she doesn´t like set times to do things and with that...she likes to make her own schedule.

We´ve been learning how to make a little more Mexican food!

Giselle and her best friend Anita (who is reactivating) have been  helping us a lot with coming out to teach with us (despite the fact that they don´t plan on serving missions).

Javier is a missionary now! He got set apart last night.

I love the gospel and helping bringing people to this joy.

Hermana Jones


PS

Savannah I recieved your letter last week!

No explanation for this one.... Any ideas Dial's?     

Tikis with Fer, one of the Bishop's daughters    

Tessa: "I love these people"              

Learning to make empanada

Y Nora...receibí su carta y gracias por la escritura!  La extraño!

Cold in Veracruz

Hello!

So...because I came to the port...you would think I would have escaped the cold. But no! We have some cold days here too when I need to wear a sweater. Luckily today was a nice day. But apparently there's snow in Orizaba right now, and a member toild us that it's going to go down to 0 here. Crazy things! Sometimes I am freezing in the night! We don't have blankets in my house, so  I washed my Christmas jammies because they keep me warm and toasty.

This morning we helped Giselle with her homework. She had us running and jumping, lunging, situps.... she gave us a workout! And had Nefi film it for some video she needs.

Right now, we're planning a ward mission activity. A Luau....and we´ve got lots to do. But we are seeing  all who can help us. We´ve got the YW assigned to do a dance. We´re making leis, grass skirts...trying to have it be super cool. It's going to be on the 24th of January.

Ooh...it´s come to my attention that Brother and Sister Dial are reading my blog. Hello! It was fun talking to you for 30 seconds on Christmas.

Here in Mexico, they celebrate something called Día de los Magos on January 6th. They are the Santa Clause here. Also...they eat this bread this day called Rosca de Reyes. It´s super sweet and tasty. The bishop´s daughter invited us over to try it, and who also came were YSA.  We didn't stay very long so they could enjoy their evening.

There´s this inactive youth in the ward. He got baptized 14 months ago, and after his baptism and confirmation, he never came back to church. The other night, we ran into him and his sister in the street. We invited him to come to church with us, and said we would pass by half an hour early. That was Wednesday night. So Sunday morning we come by and his sisters say he doesn´t want to come. But he was dressed up in his white shirt and his black pants. And...he came to church with us. He also recieved the priesthood. It made me really happy to have him come and now there is a priesthood holder in his house. He's the one youth who's in the photo with me and his mom.The other photo is with his sisters.

Someone else recieved the priesthood yesterday. Julio... Margarita´s son. Margarita came to hear the ordination and the bishop let us come listen to it as well. Margarita was super touched to hear the blessing, and it said wonderful things. Part of it talked how one day he would be out on the mission field. So Margarita also has a priesthood holder in her house now!

I'm not sure if I've said it in my general letters or not, but being on the mission I´m come to respect the priesthood on a whole new level. Hna Jarquin and I live just ourselves in our house. We don´t live with a dad or uncle or brother who has the priesthood. There´s been times in the mission where I felt super discouraged, or was sick and needed to ask the Elders or a Brother in the church to give me a blessing,and they've really helped me.


Well, other than another scraped knee. Or two scraped knees- I´m a klutz and trip every transfer).... here's a little bit of the things that have been happening this week.

Love,

Workout by Giselle-photo above and below      

Elders with attitude

Hermana Jones

January 5, 2015 "Happy New Year"

Hi Everyone

Today is my cumple-mes. I now have 10 months in the mission. So then it's also a cumple-mes of Brenten and my friend Elder Arnold. We celebrated it well. We played volleyball! In other terms... my companion, missionaries and a few youth&YSA played volleyball and I attempted to play it. We also had a piñata. I'm pretty sure that here in Mexico we can get away with any excuse of having a piñata.

Happy New Years! So...the night wasn't as crazy as Christmas Eve, and my companion and I were able to sleep. So we were happy about that. We had a little FHE at Nefi's house the night before where we talked about goals and the things that we wanted to complete in the year. So...here´s one of the goals I will make public.

Two emails ago,  I said that  I had no idea what to do with my life when I returned. But now I know...as of a week ago. I want to return to school and study to be an ESL teacher. I never thought before in my life that I would want to be a teacher. But I want to help people who have been in my shoes. To go to a different country, land, culture, and having trouble to express themselves the way they want to. To help these people feel better, learn, and feel comfortable  where they are. To remind them that they are still someone important.

The new year.... Hna Jarquin and I started the new year by going to the doctors. Nothing serious, but we're both a little sick, Like...we just have a seasonal cold. But...you know in the mission they want us to check in with the doctors when we're sick.

Cristian and his kids are awesome, but the other day when we were asking if they'd continue to follow the commandments to be baptized, Cristian said his kids would get baptized.  We asked about himself he said later.  We're not sure exactly what happened .... but, we hope he can get baptized with his kids this month!!!


There is someone named Paquito in our ward. Yesterday Hna Jarquin and I asked when we could come visit him. He said to us that instead of us visiting him he wanted to go out on some lessons with us, so we decided for a few hours on Wednesday.  He said it was better than going out on a date to the movies. Haha.

So with my cold, ,my throat hurts a bit. The mission doctor ordered me to stay in the house for a few days. So for us to still work, we did divisions. I stayed with Hna Margarita Saturday while Hna Jarquin went out to work with Nefi's sister.  I slept a lot...but for the hours I was awake it was really nice.  I got to know Hna Margarita a little more and look at old photo albums. She also gave me this sweet scarf she made.  I was going to stay with her again Sunday afternoon but with the time we got to Nefi's house to pick up his sister it was a litte late. So I stayed at Nefi{s house with his aunts. Later in the night when we were back at the house, Hna Jarquin told me they visited Hna Margarita for a little bit and she asked them,what happened because she was waiting for me to come and stay at her house for a bit. She's super sweet and one of our mothers here in the ward.

Also, yesterday Hna Jarquin told me she's felt more of a friendship with the members here in this transfer that we've had so far. Her first two transfer here were pretty rough, so I'm happy to see that she sees a change and that she's happier. I feel blessed to be companiones with her. We've only had 3 weeks together and we're already really good friends.

Well,
take care everyone.

First Sunday of 2015

Tessa loves this dog, even though he tries to eat her shoes

I have no idea....this picture came with no explanation whatsoever

In Tessa's words...Elder Dial's "food baby"

Hermana Jones

Music and Christmas

Hey Everyone,

Family it was really great to see you on Christmas! And Zoe, I met someone named Jose.

 When we spoke, I didn't talk a whole lot about Christmas Eve. We spent the evening at Nefi's house with his family. Part of it was some music of some mexican line dance that the two little cuties were dancing to. I got to know Nefi's sister Itzel a little better. One thing we have in common is that we LOVE books.[ Speaking of books, one of the bishop's daughter loves John Green.] Back to Nefi's house....
There were these cute little kids dancing. At one point Itzel was trying to grab me off the couch to dance with one of the elders.... but of course as missionaries we aren't allowed to dance. If we weren't missionaries I would totally dance with someone. I love mexican dances, even though I may not be the best, like way back when back at home when I was at the Dia de los Muertos partyt and we were dancing.

 Nefi put up this song and it was a dance. Not a line dance...but like a macerena dance that was super fun. I'll ask Nefi what it was called. At the request of Elder Dial we played macerena as well.  Nefi's family fed us quite well.

We've found a family! A dad,  with his two kids , a son and a daughter. We found them on Friday and taught them, and again on Saturday.  They came to church on Sunday! His daughter said she really liked it and that she thought it was beautiful.  She is 11 and her brother turns thirteen this week.  We snuck her in Sunday school with her brother so they wouldn't be alone. They have a baptism date as well, in January. The dad wants his kids to have a good example and not do all things that he did as a youth.

We found this inactive member this week that stopped going to church as of two years. When we found her, we met some of her grandkids, and we invited them to church. One of them, who´s 8 years old asked us ´´white shirt and black pants?´´ and lo and behold, this eight year old came all by himself to go to church. He's not a member, neither is his mom. So we´re going find her this week to see if we can teach him.

Something that was really funny, we went to visit this inactive. He's a grandpa and said... I can't go to church...that's a lot of walking! He uses a cane. But Hna Jarquin told me once that he had some Jehovoh's Witnesses books and she and her previous companion grabbed them from him  and went running off with them one day. He was chasing after them running.  So this one lady who was super sweet, not even a member, told him ''yes you can, you can totally go to church the way you are".

My apartment is one big room with a bathroom. It's pretty simple. We live with on top of a house of members.

Right now, we, the missionaries, and Nefi are preparing for January 18th, Domingo Misional. Nefi wants us to sing a musical number. Yesterday night we were at his house trying to pick a song. We haven't quite made a decision, and we were trying different songs.  After a while it was singing hymns that we liked best.  I was just listening for a few hymns, and Hna Jarquin and Nefi's aunt were telling me "Sing! You have a beautiful voice!". I've always considered my voice just an everyday normal voice, so it was nice of them to say.    We want to sing a combination of English and Spanish in this number so there were some English hymnbooks. One of the later points in the evening, Elder Dial wanted to sing ' Be Still My Soul' for them, as it's one of his favourite hymns and it's not in Spanish.  So the both of us sang it for Nefi's family and our companions and after Elder Dial explained a little bit about what it meant. It really is a great hymn with a wonderful message.

Hna Jarquin and I ... we have lots of fun and we laugh a lot. She calls me Chela sometimes because that's what they call white people where she's from. And she´s ' the Negra.'

I hope everyone has a great new years!
My plan for this year is to know the Bible better and study it along with the Book of Mormon.

LOVE

Christmas Eve

Dancing Cuties

Christmas Feast

Pinata Christmas day

Hermana Jones

Merry Christmas!

Hello Everyone,

Christmas is this week! Hna Jarquin and I are excited to spend it together. We call ourselves a divine companionship. We're both 20, outsiders of Mexico, we'll be finishing the mission on the same day, we're both scared to finish our missions because we don't know what to do with our lives afterwards.

So 1 de Mayo is awesome. I've already won over the girls in Young Womens because I was singing along to One Direction at the ward party we had on Thursday called a Posada. It's a Mexican thing, a posada. I looked up what it means, and it means inn. So I'm still not entirely sure what it is. But there was food, piñatas, and apparently lots of dancing (after we left...so we hear).

It's still weird that there isn't snow, but the weather here is actually pretty nice. Not extremely hot like it was when I was here for my short time in August. At the bus place in Veracruz I saw all my district from the MTC!!! It was so nice that we were all in the same place for a short moment. Everyone here in the mission knows I'm the Canadian, so this one Elder said to me.. "hey you're from Canada. I'm half Canadian because my mom is from Nova Scotia." Elder Stanfield, Here in this photo.

So in this ward, we're all extranjeros. Elder Dial (my district leader) is from Boise, Idaho and his compa Elder Gonzales is from Bolivia. Walking to the internet server Hna Jarquin was joking that Bolivia copies from Nicoragua because Nic is farther north,... so I said "so that means Canada is the best because we're the farthest north, you know"...some friendly rivalry between our countries.

The other day was a birthday of a little boy and his sister, so we bought them a cake and candles. Hna Jarquin said I should bring my little Canadian flags to put on the cake, so I did. Elder Dial was putting the flags near the flames of the candles and I said "hey...that's my pride" and he said "well pride is bad´´

So here in this area, we're pretty much starting from ground zero. Hna Jarquin said she and her last companion dropped all the investigators because they weren't progressing. But yesterday somone contacted us. She's a former investigator of Hna Orr and Hna Orduña and told us she wants to start taking the discussions again.  We've also made some good contacts.

I love being in a city. Being here let me know that I am a city girl at heart.  At one time I thought I would like to live in a small town .... yeah... that's not my thing. I need some busy.  After being in two large areas, this area is pretty small. We walk everywhere, unless we're going to the mall where we get our groceries.  We get to see the temple a lot! It's so close!

Our ward mission leader is pretty cool. His name is Nefi and he's leaving on his mission to Arkansas in May ..... that seems like such a long time. I attached a picture of him.

Family, I will see you on Thursday!!!!

Love,

Elder Stanfield

Veracruz Temple

Nativity

Posada

Nefi, Hermana Jarquin, Hermana Jones

Reunion of MTC district at the bus station

Hermana Jones

Goodbye Nogales

Hi Everyone!

As I predicted, I'm leaving Nogales and am headed to Veracruz. I'm headed to Mocambo, the zone where if there weren't district or zone leaders it would be purely Hermanas. It is the zone of the temple ...even though we can{t go in for a session... our work is for the living, says President.  My sister Hna Rodriguez is going to be one of my sister training leaders. I'm heading to the birthplace of Hna Orr (mission terms) and my companion will be Hna Jarquin, who was one of my companions for my 3 days when I was in Veracruz.

I will miss the people here. A lot. I have more than one family here in this ward, and friends that I´ve made.  I have learned from some of the members that I was able to help them a lot.

We had a wedding this week! It all happened with a bunch of  us crowded in a little office (us, the elders, hna gladys and hno charly, Angelica and Rafael) where this lady that worked for the city said a few words and asked if anyone objected and a few papers were signed. But it was a wedding! Angelica and Rafael got married and on Sunday Rafael got baptized! They are very happy, but sad that I´m leaving. Rafael was really looking forward to getting baptized.

We went hiking today! I almost felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. Oh I´ve missed it so much. We went with Hno Charly, Hna Gladys and 2 of their sons. They have been so good to us!  It was so fun to be in nature. I know I´ll be far from the mountains when I´m in Veracruz.

I´m trying to think what we did this week...oh. There was a stake Christmas concert and we brought one of our new investigators. His name also is Rafael...but we call him Rafa because it gets really confusing when people have the same names. We found him last week. We got on the same bus at the same stop, and Hna Casabal was saying that he remided her of her friend, because he has really curly hair. He happened to get off at the same stop as us and was walking down the same road that we were walking.  We felt that we should contact him, but we were thinking...he is a boy...hes not going to take us seriously. So we went to try and contact this one lady but she told us she was in a hurry because her daughter was sick.  Rafa, who was behind us, was now infront of us.  I was telling this story to Hna Casabal ...and yes Al it had a point... and then she motions to me that yes we should contact him. When we were about to ... he contacted us. He told us that he felt like he needed to talk to us because we had something different.

Well... I know that Nogales is in good hands.  That brings me some peace.

Until next week in a place that is not Orizaba.

Love,

We are guessing this might be the last picture of Tessa in a coat for a while

Hike

It may not be Everest....but Tessa marked that she was there

Got a bit dirty!

Hermana Jones