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

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

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

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

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

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