ARGENTINA

ARGENTINA

12 December 2011

HOW GREAT IS IT THAT WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO RENEW THESE (BAPTISMAL) COVENANTS EACH AND EVERY SUNDAY WITH PARTAKING THE SACRAMENT!

heloo mom

well, he did get baptized! its about time, six months of a dry spell and i got the chance to see one of Gods children enter the waters of baptism once more! i was jealous of him, he is as close to perfect as one can be in this life. but how great is it that we have the opportunity to renew these convenents each and every sunday with partaking the sacrament! i am so grateful for the opportunities and knowledge i have now! i am a part of Gods plan and help by bringing his children to him once more. o what joy it brings me! all the hard work has payed off! (if you cant tell, i am super pumped jaja) adrian has shared a little with his family but not anything there yet. still working with him. my comp confirmed him a member yesterday. and the ward mission leader baptized him. i was pretty much just his teacher. but he really was ready and learned everything and soaked up knowledge like a sponge. i wish everyone was like him. it would be a lot easier. no new investigators. the shoes fit. i dont know anything about christmas yet. i dont think anyone here has skype capabilities. so i am still trying to figure things out here. i will let you know next week what will go down for sure. well i love you mom! have a great week! chau char!

love elder jones





05 December 2011

WE REALLY JUST NEED TO KEEP OUR HEADS HELD HIGH AND STAY OBEDIENT. BLESSINGS COME THROUGH OBEDIENCE. IT'S NOT EASY BUT IT'S WORTH IT FROM WHAT I HAVE SEEN.

hey mom,

well, not much new. no we didnt get to watch the christmas devotional. i dont know anything about me going home yet. that is called trunky talk jaja. mom, you email is very wierd, i cant understand parts. were you tired when you wrote it? jaja. just kidding! love you! well, last night there was a parade in the streets here in toay because boca juniors, a futbol team, sealed their victory in the league here. and everyone was outside in their cars and their motos honking and waving banners and what not. it was crazy. but i liked it. im not sure how we are going to do chrismas call this year. we still have to wait and see.

anyways, from looking over what we have done in the past week, it seems that we focused to much on one person and suffered in all the other stats. He is going to be baptized this week though! we got permission to move his fecha up because he is already converted. he came to church on sunday and loved it. it was awesome. i really think he will be one to get the ward back up and running. he already knows so much. but yeah. we really need to find new investigators. i think we really just need to work on the way we find new people. i honestly think pres detlefsen is awesome. he is always positive and has improved the mission so much. there isnt much else to say. its gonna be sad when he goes home, he finishes two transfers befoer i do. but o well. i am looking forward to seeing more baptisms. we really just need to keep our heads held high and stay obedient. blessings come through obedience. its not easy but its worth it from what i have seen. well mom, i love you.

elder jones




28 November 2011

WANT TO HAVE A HUGE GIFT FOR CHRIST THIS DECEMBER!

hey mom

questions. yes the packages came. tell grammy thanks for me! not a whole lot to tell this week. pretty much all the new investigators we got are not progressing. we got one new investigator last week whos name is adrian. he was a reference and he has a fecha for the 17 of december. he already has a testimony of the book of mormon and is going to share what he knows with his family. he is an golden investigator. we havent found victoria since our first visit with her. we also had zone conference on friday. it was awesome. we set a goal for our area to have 4 baptisms in the month of december. want to have a huge gift for Christ this december! i also realized the Lord wants me to work on charity. i have had a lot of hints to it and it finally hit me in zone conference. so i am trying to be more charitable. well mom, i dont have much else to tell you. i love you and hope all is well! chau!

elder jones

A GOOD AREA IS MADE BY THE MISSIONARIES, NO?

hey mom!

how are you doing? the apartment is good. we still stay in in the mornings. its for the first two transfers with new missionaries. so yeah, being in an area for 6 to 9 months doesnt bother me i guess. i shouldnt worry about not having a good area. a good area is made by the missionaries, no? so i have to keep working and making this ward a better ward. last night we had a meeting with all the leaders and it didnt go very well. noone does their visiting teaching and the family orientation needs a lot of work here as well. so i have a lot cut out for me. but i know the Lord will guide me every step of the way.  well, not much is new, we only found six new investigators last week! i felt great! we went on divisions, me with elder camejo and elder liljenquist went with his comp in santa rosa. elder camejo is my district leader. so we found five investigators together and then the next day elder liljenquist and i found another. so i think its safe to say we had a good week. and we also have one person with a fecha! her name is victoria. she is an older woman with a couple grandkids now. she has a speech impediment i think and it looks like she doesnt understand us but she does. she also has bad nerves and cant sit still. but she said she will get baptized if she knows its true! so i dont have any complaints there. then yesterday i gave a talk on the ensign of august 2010. i changed my fear for love. it was great. afterwards an hermana came up and gave us a reference. so tonight we have an appointment with a member family and their friend. so we are going to sack out a baptismal fecha as well! so its going pretty well i would think. the Lord has blessed us very well this past week. i am not going to say we need to stop looking for people either. we still have to get working on finding more people. this week we are going to have zone conference with president detlefsen. its going to be awesome. i love zone conference and hearing president detlefsen. he is amazing. so i am hoping to have more fechas at the end of this week. it will be a lot easier that way to baptism when we have fechas planned out. well mom, i dont have a lot more time, but if you could send me the direction of your house, that would be great! i love you and take care!

elder jones

ps, happy thanksgiving! 

14 November 2011

MY MISSION IS TURNING INTO STRAIGHT UP HIDE AND SEEK

I always try to send positive emails to Taylor to let him know I am proud of him and what he is doing, but not having served a mission I don't feel like I know what to say to him when things are so hard. If any of you that have served missions can give him some advice to pump him up I would sure appreciate it! It would be so awesome if he could get a ton of dearelder.com letters for Christmas!!!!


hola mi vieja

well another week down. not much to report here. president detlefsen  sent out a letter saying that we are now going to be in each area for quite a while. apparently for at least six months, up to 9 months. thats what he said anyway. enrique, still havent found him, joaquin and olessia we have basically dropped. we need new investigators. i have never been good with finding new investigators. i dont know what it is with me. i just need to keep changing myself to try and find out where Gods children are hiding that want to hear the gospel! my mission is turning into straight up hide and seek. hopefully this week turns something up. we got a reference from the zone leaders and they seem pretty solid. pablo and deborah se llaman. i am hoping we can get them taught this week. i called them on saturday and they said they were out of town but would call us when they got back. he is the nicest person ever from what he sounded like on the phone! i have a really good feeling about them. but well wait and see. we are still working with the guaymas family. not much happening there. o yesterday, we ate with the bishop. the day before was his sons birthday and they had a whole lamb cooked! so we ate the leftovers. it was so delicious! then they broght out this wierd looking piece of meat with ribs and i tried it and turns out it was peludo, o sea armadillo! i ate armadillo. and ya know what, i really liked it. so i came to the conclusion that i want to get into hunting when i come home. a lot of people hunt here in la pampa and i want to try it out. be a good way to get food. i almost forgot. i am going to send my sd card your way in the mail. it apparently fried. i dont want to try and fix it here in argentina. then again, i dont know if its fixable. but its my sd card with ALL my pics of the mission. i dont know how its fried but i have hope that it can be fixed! so please be a miracle worker! i am gonna lose pics from the first half of the mission if its done, :,( but yes. that all i have for you mom. yeah... i love you mom!

elder jones 

09 November 2011

WHEN THEY READ AND PRAY THEY GET CLOSER TO BAPTISM

hey mom

everything is fine. not much to report. another week here in toay. we werent able to find "e", which was a bummer. "j" and "o" is a toughie. last night we taught them the importance of prayer and at the end had joaquin pray. we also got them to understand why they need to read and pray. gave them the vision concerning what happens when the read and pray, that being, they get closer to baptism. still dont have a fecha though. we really are just in the search for new people. its been like that every where i go and i am starting to realize that every where i go as well. i still got to keep honing my skills on the search process. mom, i dont have much time but know i love you! 

elder joens

31 October 2011

YOU CAN'T BUILD A TOWER WITHOUT THE SCREWS.

hey mom.

yeah, since i hit the year mark, i feel old and my whole body hurts. its not fun! i want to go back to having a good ole 11 months and 29 days in the mission! i felt great then! the new apartment is fine. we have to buy a lot of stuff for it though. so yeah, for now we dont have a shower cutain, curtains for the windows, forks, plates, cups, shelves. so its an interesting exp thus far jaja for my comp. elder l. is doing great. he speaks good and is getting better every day. for the training with new missionaries now, we dont leave in the mornings. its kinda lame but we study all morning. o well. we didnt find our investigator last week. he was gone. so i dont know if he will get baptized now. so yeah, i am not sure what we will do with him. we found a couple who is married this last week though. she is from russia. shes been here 14 years. but we taught them the book of mormon and its importance and we need to go back and verify to see if they prayed or not. i think there is some potential there. but yeah, i have been learning a lot each week. its amazing how much one grows spiritually in the mission. i absolutely love it! i cant believe its almost over. time to put it in overdrive though and start working even harder! i want to get out and find newbies! the hardest part for me though is open my mouth and talk with EVERYONE. there are a lot of people here who just work outside and me personally i dont like interrupting them while they work. that is something i am working on though. so yeah, i really just and trying to work on the little things. i came up with the analogy thingy last week. you cant build a tower without the screws. so i am trying to look for the screws to build my tower o sea, i am trying to do the little things so i can see the miracle. god is a god of miracles, not magic. we have to work for our miracles. well mom, i love you! chau!

elder jones

24 October 2011

THEY SAY THE FIRST YEAR GOES BY SLOW. I DOUBT THAT.

TODAY WAS A GREAT DAY! I woke up to a letter from Taylor's mission president!! It was only a copy of a letter he had given to Taylor last week as a new trainer, but nonetheless it made my day!! I love my boy!!


hey mom!

i really cant believe i am at the year mark! its crazy. they say the first year goes by slow. i doubt that. it went by super fast. i dont know what they all talk about. but yeah, so my kid is here! his name is elder liljenquist. you dont say the j in his name. he is from florida. he talks rather well for a newbie and still doesnt understand about anyone but he is way cool. i forgot to bring my camera to send you a picture but yeah. i may do it next week. so i had to go to bahia on tuesday and we were there all day then came back late wednesday night. so we lost a whole day of work. but not much happened. we found a less active family and the parents arent members. so we are trying to get them to come to church and also get the parents married and then baptize them. the mom is waiting on some divorce papers but o well. not much to do but teach them and animate them to go to church. and yesterday a random dude showed up to church with some family members and turns out he is not a member. his name is richard. he is about 25 and doenst know how to read. but we taught him the restoration in church and are going to go back on wednesday to see how his prayers went. i think we could baptize him next week! i really want to see him get baptized. he is pretty cool and yeah. so we really just need to keep looking for new investigators and all. and i am trying to not talk in english to my comp. he wants to learn as fast as he can. so we are giving up on english for a little bit! well mom i love you and thanks for everything! until next monday when i have a year in the mission! jaja chau!

love elder jones

17 October 2011

I AM STILL HAPPY AS CAN BE! IT'S THE LORD'S WORK AFTER ALL!

hi mom.

you have more stuff to send me? wow, that is a lot! i dont know if i will have stuff in my suitcases. well, i did get the package from the young women. send them my love! i loved everything in there. even down to the hawaiin punch. those are amazing! so last week not much happened. new problems surfaced with the contract. it was made in my name and here to set up the gas and electricity, you have to take the company the contract. so i was backed up on the contract for the rent and all, so if someone didnt pay the rent i wouldnt be put on trial, but if the missionaries didnt pay the gas or light, i would have been the one to roast for it. so i have to take the contract to bahía blanca wednesday. o i didnt tell you. elder gonzalez left this weekend for mar del plata. it was transfers. i dont know who my comp is yet. i am with an elder soto right now from chile. he is here with me until we go down to bahía blanca to pick up our NEW MISSIONARIES! i am going to train! woohooo! i am so excited! i cant wait to have a new missionary under my wings! its gonna be awesome. i dont know how i will do but i want to try my best. i know i will get someone who is perfect for me to teach and at the same time i can learn a lot from him. i am going to miss elder gonzalez though. it was an awesome transfer with him even though we didnt baptize. i learned a lot about myself and about the mission. i really just need to be more straight forward as a missionary. i was/still am a timid missionary and dont like dropping the cane on the people here. but i am a missionary and need to call the people to repentence. its my calling. also, i have been thinking lately a lot about what i am going to do after the mission. i have no idea what job i want, what i want to do with school and all that. but i know i should not worry until the time comes. i also am learning that i need to just stop ignoring my problems but just take them head on when the arise. its a lot easier in the long run that way. familia guaymás is still not progressing. we are trying hard with them and all but its just not going well, i promised elder gonzalez i wouldnt give up on them. well mom, i love you! take care! 

elder joens

ps, i am still happy as can be! its the Lords work after all!

PRACTICE DOESN'T MAKE PERFECT, THE ATONEMENT DOES!

dearest mother

i dont even want to think about time flying by as it is right now. i cant be at the year mark already! its too fast. i wish i had another two years! your making me trunky jaja. the weather has been wierd apparently. it rained thursday through sunday. and it rained hard. cool story though! so thursday night, around six, it starts raining real hard. i have my jacket and elder gonzalez has a jacket but not made for rain at all. so we went to the church to go to the bathroom and see what we should do. so while he is in the bathroom i get down on my knees and start praying. we had no real options other than go home, keep working in the rain and get soaked and ruin our clothes or improvise something. so what do i do? i plead with the Lord to let us find someone and just get into a house. so elder gonzalez ends up making a jacket out of trashbags. so we go out, knock doors for about thirty mins. people say no, dont answer doors, tell us to come back later and such. so we are at the point of going home and decide to knock one last house. we knock. an older woman answers and lets us in! her name was margarita and we talked with her a little and shared a quick message. she said she wasnt going to change at all and so we probably never will go back but my prayer was answered! i was so thankful and am thankful for the opportunity to have the power of prayer available to us. other than that, nothing really happened this week. we are going to move to toay probably tomorrow or wednesday. we just have to sign a contract witht the owner and she is out on vacations. elder gonzalez is a very hard worker. he is going to be a great missionary later on in his mission. anything funny this week? there were many funny things this week. but mainly, today we had to break a door at our house we live at now because the key to it broke off inside and we needed to get in and see what stuff we have for our house in toay. it took us about thirty mins to get in. i may send a video of that next monday. i just finished jacob and the book of enos today. i am loving the book of mornon. as soon as i finish it, i am going to start it in spanish. then i will read the dandc in spanish and then the pearl of great price in spanish. i want to get better at my spanish. presidetn detlefsen said we all talk way to much ingles in this mission. so i am going to get better at that. really, i am working on the basic things right now to try and make my being a missionary that much better. like they say, practice doestn make perfect, the atonement does! jaja well i love you mom. take care! good luck with the job search!

love elder jones 

03 October 2011

SOMETHING I AM REALLY GRASPING IS THAT WE HAVE TO DO SO LITTLE BUT YET SO MUCH TO REACH EXALTATION!

sup homies jaja. hi mom!
 
so conference was the best part by far. i absolutuely loved it. i learned so much but dont even know where to begin. but yeah, nothing special really happened this week. we had a total of five lessons taught, some of them being with less active members. this area is turning out to be tough. a lot of door knocking. but o well. the gu. family is struggling. they really arent progressing anymore. i dont really want to pass by them anymore but hey, i cant really do anything about it now can i? they need us.sorry i dont have much to write. i havent had any big experiences this week. conference was pretty awesome though. i learned so much about myself and my patriarchal blessing. something i am reallly grasping is that we have to do so little but yet so much to reach exaltation. i feel like an idiot for my past. i have no desire to be like who i was before. i dont know what i was thinking back then. man, hindsight is great isnt it? well mom. i love you so much! thanks for everything.
 
love elder jones

26 September 2011

IT'S JUST A HIDE AND SEEK GAME. WE'RE LOOKING FOR INVESTIGATORS AND THEY ARE HIDING.

Before I post Taylor's letter, just a note that I have included links in the sidebar to all of the talks that were given at the General Relief Society Meeting this last Saturday. I hope if you didn't have the opportunity to attend the meeting, you can find time to watch. I must say President Uchtdorf's talk was AMAZING!!

hola madre

another week down, tomorrow i have 11 months in the mission! its wierd to think that already. btw, the ciber here is not good at all. it took me about thirty mins to load the internet page. therefore i have no time really here to write you. we are still waiting on the apartment. the owner is drawing up a contract and all. the work was long last week. i dont really remember much happening this week. it was a lot of walking. i noticed today that my right shoe is starting to seperate in the front. i am going to have a floppy shoe soon jaja. well, guaymas family is ok. the kids came to church again but the parents didnt. we are still trying to get them to come. the siesta here is terrible. it could be worse than general cerri. i hope not. we have found new investigators but have had to drop them right after as well. you could tell they werent going to progress, they were to far into their beliefs. but we still invited them to church and everything. so now its just a hide and seek game. we´re looking for investigators and they are hiding jaja. well mom, i love you! take care!

elder jones

19 September 2011

STILL IN NEED OF NEWBIES. I DON'T THINK THAT WILL EVER CHANGE. BUT WE ARE WORKING HARD.

hey mommie

sounds like you had a lot of birthdays back home. i miss the food! jaja. well tell everyone that had a birthday happy birthday for me, please? a typical p day. wake up, eat breakfast. study. buy groceries, make lunch. do laundry. take a nap. go to the ciber, write you. then work. then go home and plan and go to bed. sometimes we go to centro and look around to buy stuff, but i havent really bought anything yet. i am going to do trunky shopping at the end of the mission. the weather here blows. literally. the wind is blowing all the time, and there is a lot of dirt and dust. i have had a sore throat since i got here. my throat i think isnt handling all this dirt that well. so all last week i was sick. i had stomach pain and headaches. didnt work tuesday. but we worked the other days. i think the food here is different from the other areas. its not fun. believe me jaja. its starting to get hot here too. so in this area, the people dont understand me. i dont know if i told you that but they just dont understand how i talk. everyone in my last two areas understood me. but here noone does. so the Lord is humbling me a little bit i think.

onto the week. so, we didnt really have any success working until about saturday. the stake mission leader came out and did visitas with us and it went great with all but one of the lessons. we went by this familia. they are a family of eight, the dad, and two daughters are baptized. the mom still not and another son is not. so we are working with them. we went by with the stake mission leader and he basically dropped the cane on the dad. i felt it went horrible. so we got a call later that night from the dad. he sounded angry and he said we should call before passing by his house. normally we pass by whenever and they attend to us. so that was wierd. but yesterday, sunday, we had a lesson with him and figured things out. he told us what he was thinking and we solved his problems/doubts. and then last night, we found three people. a couple and a friend of theirs. they let us into their house and we came them a brief resumen of the first two lessons because they had a lot of questions. they also ended up giving us an asado! it was amazing. so we are going back to their house on thursday because he is in the military and will be gone until then. so yeah, we are here for now. still in need of newbies. i dont think that will ever change. but we are working hard. i have walked quite a bit here in toay. o and we may have found an apartment here! so i am praying that we get it. well mom i love you! take care! chauz!

elder jones

12 September 2011

I KNOW I AM HERE FOR A REASON. THE LORD CALLED ME HERE TO DO SOMETHING.

hey mom.

well to start off, the bus ride from santa rosa to toay is about 20 mins. its not bad. but we are also looking for a house. we lose money having to pay for the trips daily. i have yet to fall asleep on the bus though. santa rosa reminds me of general cerri, in that the siesta is "holy" here as well. its big but not small. we have a lot of campo, but we stick to the more populated area, even though its a bit small. we live in santa rosa because the area was closed six months ago, and opened four months ago. so we are looking for investigators as of right now. we dont really have any solid investigators. we are tracting and looking like mad men trying to find people. i sunburned my face yesterday outside. we walked all day. only had one lesson with a recent convert. we dont get fed each day either. but, i know i am here for a reason. the Lord called me here to do something. i think it is to find people. so i am in the search. tonight we have a cita with a man. he told us that he has gone through a lot of things. so tonight we are going to teach him the restoration and how Christ can help him with all his trials, burden and afflictions. its going to be a great lesson. well mom i love you! chauz!

elder jones

05 September 2011

ON SUNDAY THERE WERE 79 PEOPLE IN CHURCH. A LOT MORE THAN USUAL. SO I WAS HAPPY!

hey mom!

dallin is already gone. wow. i feel old. i cant have a brother in college. but i guess you are saying that about a son in college and one on the mission! reading the book of mormon is awesome. i bet you can do it three times in a year. i have read it about three times already. gets better everytime. so as you said, transfers came and gone. and i am officially an elder not in mar del plata. my new area is toay. its right outside of santa rosa in the province la pampa. it was a 12 hour bus ride. a very uncomfortable bus ride. but hey. i made it! i live in santa rosa and each day i travel to toay. it will be a pain later on in the month with money and all but o well. my comp is elder g. sounds latino but he is american. his parents are both chileans. he grew up in the states but for high school lived in chile. he also went to byu hawaii. and he is an amazing soccer player. so i need to see how amazing he plays. he is on his third transfer. so i am his second comp in the field. its almost as if i was training. but he is way legit. he already knows the language. so it will be awesome. and its not really cold here either. so i think i am set. all i gotta do know is get to know the place.

so my last week in antartida was a sad one. we tried to get four baptismal fechas but they didnt work out. a and a went on vacation to tucuman. so we could teach them. The other couple went to their lawyer to try and finish a divorce so they could get married but the lawyer wasnt there. they cant get baptized until married. so its a long process with them. but it was going well in my opinion. and on sunday there was 79 people in church. a lot more than the usual. so i was happy! presidente wants us to leave our areas better than when we got there. i honestly think it is better off now than when i got there. a lot of the families didnt want me to leave and it was tough saying bye to them all. i really loved that ward. but i am no longer needed there. i shall use my "skills" as a missionary and try to be the best tool i can in the lords hands. well mom i love you! take care. know that always i love you. until next monday. chau!

love
elder jones

29 August 2011

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!

thanks mom! my birthday was pretty good i guess. i ate potatoes, milanesas de pollo, and had an ice cream cake! i also played futbol the night before with an investigator and ate a lot of pizza. this area is too good to me, being the members. i am going to miss them. thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! yeah, its not hot here at all. i am actually not cold either thanks to the thermals! elder m is great. well, this past week was a toughie. but we found a and a! well, she told us sorry for not talking with us. she said he didnt want to talk to us because his mom was pressuring him and all before the wedding about becoming "mormon" and all. but she said she wants to get baptized still. and that he wont stop her. i think he is waiting for his mom to go back home (she doesnt live in mar del plata). we are still working with n.but i think we should drop him. he isnt progressing. familia gu is a part member family. the parents arent members but the kids are. so we are working with the parents to get the dad divorced and to marry the mom right now. its complicated. other than that, same old same old. looking for newbies. i got a little home sick this week but it wasnt bad. it was due to my birthday of course. president detlefsen shared a good scripture with us. its found in 2 nefi 33:3. its nefi talking about worrying for his people. he said that he bathed his pillow each night with his tears. he really cared for his fellow beings, his brothers. i feel that i have a lot to learn and still have a ways to grow to be like nefi. president challenged us to be more like nefi. right now i am trying to imagine everyone how they would look dressed in all white and going to the temple. to not look at them how they are now but how they could be if they only had the gospel. well mom i love you and thanks for everything!

love elder jones

22 August 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR!!!

My oldest baby turns 20 on Saturday!!! I will sure be missing him! 

hey mom. still not 20 yet. got a bout five more days left! no longer a teenager. por fin! jaja. nah, your not old. you only have a 20 year old and a second child heading off to college. wow. i am old. thanks for the packages. i am waiting until saturday to open the letters. well this week was a hard one. we didnt find anyone new, and we didnt get to talk to antonio or alviana. they have basically disappeared. so this means there fechas to get baptized are not going to happen. i dont know if they are even still going to get married. they wont ansmwer their phone either. so an hermano gave us a lot of food this week. we had empanadas and a whole chicken made by him for us. he is great. his name is hermano kostiouk. well, this friday, with the quorum de elderes, we are going to do some visitas and then make pizzas and play futbol. we are planning on bringing nico along with us so he can get to know the other members. well mom, i am sorry i dont have much to tell you, this area is turning out to be more work each day. o and transfers are the 4 of sept. so its possible i leave the fourth. well i love you mom!

love elder jones

15 August 2011

THEY DIDN'T COME TO CHURCH FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN A ROW. THAT REALLY DROPPED OUR "ANIMO"

It has been a long time since I've taken Spanish, but I think "animo" means enthusiasm. My heart is breaking for him as it seems like he has had more down weeks than up! It is so hard being a long distance parent. Taylor usually lets things roll off his back fairly well so I hope he is truly doing okay.



hey mom
yeah, i figured the houseboat would be different. not having many to help tie it down and all. but o well! jaja well, antonio and alviana are still going to get married the 25 as far as i know. but they didnt come to church for the third sunday in a row. that really dropped our animo. we really wanted them to come. we have taught them everything now and they still havent come to church. i am running out of things to do with them. i think we will just have to have a hard lesson with them on figure out what is going on. on saturday, we went to their house and they told us that there where going to church the next day but didnt come. other than that mom, i dont have much else. we did divisions last week and not much happened out of divisions. i was told i have three boxes waiting for me today. so i guess your packages got here. i was told i have to pay 200 pesos for the incomiendas though. so i owe the office about 200 pesos. my comp is sick and i am battling not getting sick as well. well mom i love you. take care!
love elder jones

IT'S COLD AS EVER!

hey mom! well your on the houseboat right now, lucky! well, its cold as ever right now. well, not much news. no new investigators this week. didnt see nico last week because he was pretty much gone the whole time. antonio and alviana didnt make it to church yesterday either. that made the week a damper. we had a good week with them. we taught the plan of salvation as well as the gospel of jesus christ to them. we also had a noche de hogar with them and another family, in which the mom is the relief society president. we also ate pizza :) but when we went to look for them on sunday morning to take them to church, they were nowhere to be found. we couldnt talk with them at all yesterday either. just now we talked with them and found out that they had to go to the hospital. again. this time, adan, their son, fell and hit his head and they took him to the hospital. and they had left their cell phone in the remis. they jsut barely got it back. but on the brightside, they do have a date to get married now! they went to the place here and are going to get married the 25th of august! we are excited about that! other than that, we have not much else to report. well mom, have fun on the lake for me. love you!

01 August 2011

THEY HAVE A FECHA FOR GUESS WHAT DAY, THE 27TH OF AUGUST! THAT WOULD BE THE BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER

hey mom!

sorry about last email, we got there late. already august, wow. already the houseboat time again? time is flying by to fast. sunday sounded pretty good. o, our fridge is broken. its been about a week now. its is not pleasent not having a fridge. but, we have had a lot of food brought to us at night. saturday night, we went to this rotiseria in front of where we live and bought four empanadas each. then while waiting, an hermano showed up and bought us a pizza as well. then later, while in the house, the hermano who took our fridge so he can fix it, brought us a whole rotisserie chicken with bread. so i ate half a chicken, half a pizza and two empanadas saturday night alone. and i only weigh about 103 kilos jaja. 

well i got some great news! fist, last night, we had a meeting with elder patanea, not sure if i spelled his name right, who is the area seventy. it was a meeting for both stakes in which all the leaders went to, including the missionaries here in mar del plata. basically they told us that we already have everything thing we need to get the new stake! we meet all the requirements and that we could have the new stake by january! so i am very excited about that. president detlefsen also spoke at the meeting as well as the two stake presidents. it was so spiritual there. so we just need to keep doing our part as missionaries and baptize! speaking of which, we found a family this past week! its a young couple who has a baby of 10 months. they have a fecha for guess what day, the 27th of august! that would be the best birthday present ever if they can get baptized that day! they only need to get married and then they can get baptized. their names are antonio and alvania. they are about 20 and 21 years old though i am not sure. their son is named adam i think. they have even already started getting the papers ready to get marrried and everything! we are so excited for them. they didnt come to church yesterday because the wife had some problems with her heart and so they went to the hospital. but we are going to their house tomorrow to see how they are doing. we are now implementing a new way for the members to give us references. we are giving all the members five pass a long cards each and telling them to give the cards out. for now, we just want them to give the cards out and to gain confidence, once they have confidence, we are going to get them to start talkign to people about the cards and trying to get citas for us to go to their houses. so far it is working. with nico, we did the paso de fe. we left him for last week and didnt pass by his house. delia told us yesterday that nico was a bit sad and upset that we hadnt passed by. so today we called him up and had him come to our house and played a board game and did a rotiserrie chicken in the oven with rice. we also had two of the kids from the ward come along to meet nico so that he has some friends. delia also told us yesterday that she talked with bishop mancuso. after, we talked with the bishop and he told us that he wants to have an interview with nico this sunday. so we hope that happens! nico is also now working for the ward mission leader as his aid in whatever it is he does, some sort of manual labor. and hermano valdes, the ward mission leader, is slowly working with nico as well. he is making nico say the prayers for the food and he also talked to nico about baptism. apparently, nico is scared to get baptized and then lose his only good friend he has for being associated with church. the next time we talk with him, we are going to try and get to this subject and help nico out. well, that is about all the big news i have for you this week. have a fun houseboat trip! love you! send my saludos to everyone!

elder jones

25 July 2011

SHORT AND SWEET

hey mom

wow, nine months huh. o how time flies. well, this email is going to be short. we have some rain and lighting going on right now and the power just came back on. but not much new last week. we found a family of menos activos in which the mom is the only member. so i guess they are a part member family jaja.we had interviews with president on friday. those went well. well mom i love you! sorry its so short, i dont have much else for now. chau!

elder jones

FUNNY STORIES

hey mom. how is it going? i
 
not a lot to report. the week was kind of the same as the past weeks here in antartida. but i do have some funny things to report jaja. first, i was walking with my comp, and i am laughing. two dudes on a moto go by and one says "hey, why are you drunk" so i got called drunk while walking and laughing. second, we are eating at a members house. the mom, sister of the mom and a daughter live there. the mom and her sister start fighting telling us about their eating habits and that we need to drop the cane on the about the word of wisdom. third, one guy came up to us and told us that joseph smith wasnt a prophet, that he was acutally a drug addict. i laughed and kept walking. finally, a guy of about 85 years old pulled his pants down and and is about to show us his private parts telling us something is inflamed and all. i almost had a heart attack right there and then. and this was while we were teaching him! so all of this happened yesterday. i think its safe to say it was a great day. well, nico is starting to become a lost cause. i think we are going to drop him. after that, we really dont have anyone else who is investigating right now. i know there are people out there but i just got to go and find them. well, scripture of the week. alma 29:9. love you mom!
 
elder jones
 

11 July 2011

I CHALLENGE YOU ALL TO LOOK UP A SCRIPTURE YOU LIKE ABOUT THE ATONEMENT FOR EACH DAY THIS WEEK

I am gladly accepting his challenge!! Love his positive attitude!

hey mom,
 
sounds like you are pretty busy jaja. but thats how we all are nowadays. well, another week come and gone. not much has changed. this area is a pretty hard area now that i really think about it. the members are amazing and all but the work is just going really slow. none of the investigators are progressing and we didnt find any body new. knocking doors sucks and we never have success. so we are left to passing my ex investigators and passing by members for references. i have the faith that something will happen but the work is not turning anything up yet. sorry i didnt write sooner, i was in a meeting we had as a distrisct to talk about how the work is going and how we can get better, right now my dl is elder vance. it seems to me he is a pretty good missionary. he really cares about our district and wants to help us. as of right now, i am studying in the book of mormon in ether. we put a goal for everyone to look up a scripture on the atonement ( it took me five seconds to think of that word in my head) and share it with the members each day. i challenge you all to look up a scripture you like about the atonement for each day this week. possibly share it with a friend or family member. be creative. we are in the process of finding new invs. and coming up with a lot of "shaft" but soon we will have the wheat! i love you!
 
elder jones

05 July 2011

IT SNOWED AND I CAN SEE MY BREATH INSIDE MY HOUSE

happy fourth of july!
 
well, this last week was a slow week again, but it snowed! it snowed for a total of five minutes but it snowed! i was on divisions as well so i didnt have my camera but elder miranda took a pic with my camera of the snow for me. so i have a picture of snow. well, dario didnt get baptized, we havent been able to find him at all. since being thrown from his house, we cant find him. elder miranda and i are getting along great. not really anything new, just the same old working with the members and trying to find new investigators. there is a kid in the ward here who is 18 and we have been helping him out. he went on splits with the elders before i was here and heard a lot of doubts that the people the elders were teachng had and some of the doubts stayed with him. so now we are teaching to him. we told him to pray and ask for what he should do and turns out he did it. he got his answer and told us he isnt going to miss a day of church again! that was the highlight of this week really. just trying to get by in the cold here. i can see my breath inside my house. and the wind makes it worse. so i am very bundled up. well mom, i miss you and hope you have a great fourth of july! eat a hamburger or do something american for me!
 
elder jones
 

28 June 2011

TAYLOR IS A MAN OF FEW WORDS

The headline this week doesn't come from Taylor's letter because the letter was so short!!!


hey mom!
 
well, this week went by fast. nico couldnt come to futbol. delia´s roof still is in bad shape. mar del plata is huge mom. there are close to 50 missionaries here. we mainly walk, take the colectivo and taxis.
 
 
i did learn a lot from zone conference. elder arnold told us a lot of good stuff but mainly as a mission, we found out that our planning is not adequate at all. we can easily achieve 180 baptisms a month if we change how we plan. we didnt find any new invesitators this week. but we are working with dario still. he didnt come to church but the bishop said we can still baptise him this week. yanina, well she is just not progressing. i dont think she has a real testimony of the gospel. i think she goes for her kids and husband. other than that, we just have to find new people and use the area book. well mom, i love you. take care!
 
elder jones

20 June 2011

DELIA AND NICO HAVE ALREADY NOTICED A DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LIVES

As you read Taylor's letter this week, you might think some of his comments are a little more random than usual! He usually is answering questions that I have asked him and that is the case again this week. Specifically I asked him what he liked about about Argentina, besides the work he was doing, and what he missed about home. I laughed out loud when I got his email, not only for the bidet comment but because he told me to try gnocchi. As a lot of you know, I am very picky, as are my children. However, gnocchi is something that I like! Taylor wouldn't have known that though because I don't think he ever went to an Italian restaurant with me, other than Round Table Pizza! It is so good to know that there is hope for all the younger boys!


howdy
 
im doing well. elder miranda is great. i am understanding him a lot better now. it just takes practice. he talks a lot faster than argentines do. i miss from home the pepporonis and albertacos. i love that argentina has the badet. never need to use toilet paper again! i also love the ñokies. its a pasta dish. you should try it some time!
 
well, we found some new investigators last week! and we had two in church yesterday. one of which has a fecha for the 2 of julio. his name is dario. he is way evangelico but we are getting around that one step at a time. the other is named yanina. she is married to a member and still isnt baptized but has gone to church for about a year and a half now. so we want to get a fecha with her as well. we are still working with delia and nico. delia didnt come to chruch because it was raining and her roof doesnt really work well. so she stayed home tryiing to keep everything clean. we are trying to organize a game of futbol on saturday so that we can invite nico to meet all the young men. well, on wednesday, we have zone conference with elder arnold, the president of the area here in argentina. i am a bit scared that he may drop the cane on us as missionaries. but who knows. maybe he is here to just give inspiring words?! well, i almost forgot. delia said that nico and her have already noticed the differences in their lives since we showed up. so we are going to start being more directive with nico now. well mom. i love you! take care!
 
elder jones

13 June 2011

THAT'S COOL THAT YOU HAD STAKE CONFERENCE. WE DID AS WELL! ONLY OURS WAS PROBABLY SWEETER!

In the last couple of weeks I have had three people ask me about a word that Taylor uses frequently in his letters, "jaja" and what it is. So, in case there are more of you out there wondering, it is the Spanish spelling of "haha." I think I learned a lesson this week. I didn't mention anything about pictures in my email to him and he sent some!

Also, I wanted to let all of you know, in case you haven't taken the time to check, I have added several new links to different missionary blogs in the sidebar. Please take some time to view some of these different blogs and read some different missionary experiences! The latest one I added, just today, is the Chile Osorno Mission Blog. This is the mission where the volcano erupted in Chile. Also, I have been seeing emails all day long in the missionary moms group that the group of missionaries that was traveling to Argentina today is stuck in Atlanta because there is no air travel going in or out of Buenos Aires due to ash clouds and the missionaries that were supposed to be coming home are stuck in Argentina.  Some missionaries I heard had a 50 hour bus ride to their mission home (not in Taylor's mission but in the Buenos Aires North Mission) because they couldn't fly and that mission happens to be separated into two distinct areas. Please keep the missionaries in your prayers!



hey

another week come and gone. yeah, i can see the ash clouds in the sky. my pants are fine, i had a member fix them. 

well, transfers have come and gone again. elder beyer left me and is now in bolivar with a different elder jones, which i thought was funny. i am now with an elder from columbia. his name is elder miranda. he is pretty cool. i have trouble understanding him though jaja. but it will just take time i guess. he started the mission at the same time i did, he only has been in argentina one transfer more than me. and i am now compañero responsable. watch out! jaja. thats cool that you had stake conference. we did as well! only our was probably sweeter. we only had a broadcast from the states to all of argentina. elder neil l anderson and boyd k packer spoke to us as well as two other people who i dont remember their names. but they mainly dropped the cane on the young men going on missions and the parents raising their kids in the church so that they can then know right from wrong. but it was awesome! that was the main event of the week. we werent able to find luis, estefania or start teaching nicolas. but its a new transfer and new week and so we can pick up the work! elder miranda and i are going to tear it up! we just need new invesigators. that is all we really need to pick up the work. so we are trying to figure out how we can find new people. well mom i love you!

elder jones




Taylor, President Detlefson and Elder Beyer


Taylor, Elder Beyer, Delia and Nicolas



Elder Beyer and Taylor
Deep in thought? 


06 June 2011

OUR GOAL NOW IS TO GO BACK AND TEACH HIM THE PLAN OF SALVATION AND ABOUT HOW HE CAN BE WITH HIS WIFE FOR ALL OF ETERNITY AS WELL AS WITH HIS FAMILY

Loved Taylor's letter this week!  You know the old saying, "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!"? Well, this proud mama is happy!!!

well howdy do mom!

sounds like your having fun back home! playing tennis, cleaning, dismantling the furninture etc. the rubber shoe things are too small. so i have given them to a elder in my district. they were to skinny. the echoes i have are wider in front part of my shoe. they were like dress shoes covers almost jaja.. well todays p-day was amazing. we went to puerto, which is in our zone because we couldnt go to centro because its out of our zone. so we went to the beach/pier looking for sea lions. we found them of course. they smelled bad. then we went to the end of this pier and there was a big statue of christ and i got a picture of it. and while we were on our way their, i told elder beyer it would be cool if we would see killer whales jokingly. well, after taking pics and about to leave, i saw something in the water. it was a killer whale! so i saw killer whales today. that about made my week already jaja. last week was a fun week as well. i had my first experience with a dog. a dog came up from behind and bit my pants and ripped them at the heel. i was not a happy camper. i got real close to kicking it but it ended up getting bit by a rottwheiler so i was sastified jaja. we also saw the two kids who robbed us three times on saturday. that was funny because they just stared at us as they rode by. i laughed to myself along with elder beyer.

so on to the missionary work. we found three newbies last week! the first was luis, a neigbor of a member. his wife had died about a year and a half ago and we got into his house and taught him the first lesson. our goal now is to go back and teach him the plan of salvation and about how he can be with his wife for all of eternity as well as with his family. we also found a girl named estefania and her friend andrea. they were a bit difficult to teach because andrea wouldnt stop talking. so we want to go back and teach estefania because we think she is really interested in the gospel. delia is still going to church and she loves it. nicolas is a bit hard. he is at the stage where he thinks we are only there for teaching his mom. but we can change that. delia told us that nicolas took to us real well though. she says he doesnt really have any friends but that he does like talking to us even though its only for five mins at a time then he leaves. but we are gonna get moving on him! well mom, that is about all i got for this week. i love you and take care!

elder jones

30 May 2011

DELIA'S BAPTISM WENT GREAT

I am so grateful for the scripture reference that Taylor sent home this week!  Personal and family prayers are both so important in our lives!!!


well howdy do!

delia´s baptism went great. we didnt have any problems except for the fact that almost everyone showed up late. we had about forty people there. so it went well. elder beyer was the one who baptized her. we still havent taught nicholas yet. our plan tonight is to start teaching nicholas. he came to the baptism and i think he liked it. but we will see tonight. we also have another person whom we possibly could baptize this week. her name is yanina paletta. she is married to a member and has come to church regularly the past year and a half but doenst want to get baptized. she doesnt want to give up smoking or wine. but i think we can get a fecha with her this week because she wants to take the temple prep classes but bishop mancuzo said she cant until she talks with the missionaries. he thinks she will get baptized by talking with us again. so lets pray she listens to us! sorry, i dont have my memory card or the reader with me. i forgot them in the apartment. well, i am sorry but that is really all the excitement. we did divisions last week and i went with elder nolan while elder campos came over to be with elder beyer. nothing really big there. the citas elder nolan had set up pretty much all failed us. so we gotta work on making citas more strong. last district meeting, elder beyer and i gave the workshop in the meeting. so we shared some things from preach my gospel and then did practices with the rest of the district. so, i guess now thats about it. i wish i had more to tell you but thats about it. i love you mom!

elder jones



Find 3 Nephi 18:18-21 in the Book of Mormon here

23 May 2011

DELIA IS STILL ON HER WAY TO BEING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK AND WE HAVE ETERNAL INVESTIGATORS WHO DON'T WANT TO GET BAPTIZED BUT STILL LIKE TALKING WITH US

I am grateful Taylor sounds so upbeat this week!  I am grateful that he is so honest and forthcoming about things that are happening to him in Argentina too, I think!  I know my brothers didn't tell my mom about these kinds of things until after they were home from their missions.  I love my boy!  Keep him and all the other missionaries in your prayers!!


howdy partner
another week down. almost seven months in the mission. how the time flies! i dont know how it has gone by so fast. yes i got the package. all that remains is the peanut butter. elder beyer and i destroyed the candy in about five days. we thank you dearly. well, i had my first person tell me i dont speak well in castellano. it was delia, our investigator who is going to get baptized this week. she is the only one here who says i dont speak well. everyone else says i speak better than elder beyer. not being prideful or anything!
well, delia is still on her way to being baptized this week! our goal is to start teaching to her son nicholas. we have become friends with him i think but not really taught him anything. so we got to get on that. he is about 16 17. but that is the highlight of the work right now. be have eternal investigators who dont want to get baptized but still like talking with us. doing contacts here is not effective because the testigos de jehova are always where we are knocking doors. its ridiculous! we are trying to figure out new ways to talk to people and get members involved. o yeah, i almost forgot mom. we got robbed but dont worry. it was funny. so we leave a cita we had and its about five in the afternoon. still light out. we look across the street and see some punks just chilling on the curb. we look at each other and say, o great. were gonna get robbed. so we turn right, walk about half a block, then turn and walk another half block. then the kids catch up to us. so they start talking to us and stuff. then they start talking real fast saying "give us your money" and stuff to that affect. well, we didnt have anything on us. so we gave them a pamphlet and told them we would see them later. they didnt like that. so i put my book of mormon on the ground to show them i dont have anything. so they then go to tell me that i shouldnt put my stuff on the ground because it would get dirty. it was funny and we ended up running from them for about a block and stop to talk to two men on the side of the road and they ask us why we didnt knock the two kids out because elder beyer and i are big. but all in all it was funny! i thoroughly enjoyed it! we are being careful and there is no need to worry. i love you mom! pray that we find new investigators this week!
love
elder jones

18 May 2011

I AM GETTING FAT HERE AND VISIONS FOR A NEW MISSION IN 2015

hey mom.


jaja it didnt seem that long to me this past week :) we have hot water! a member finally came to fix it jaja. well, we found a new investigator this week! we set a fecha for the 28 of this month as well! she already knows the book of mormon is true and we are going to do a family home evening tomorrow as well. o yeah, i am getting fat here in this area. i have eaten so much here! we are doing many family home evenings here this week which means i am going to be eating both lunch and dinner now. before it was just lunch. our baptism for this week fell. the guy moved out of the ward boundries because he got in a fight with his parents. so now we got nothing til the 28. but it will work out! the fossa family is doing well. we are going over there tonight to do a family home evening. elder beyer and i are doing well. so on friday we had zone conference. but it was with all three zones in mar del plata. so we had about 45 missionaries at zone conference. president detlefsen talked about visions. he said his vision for the mission is a new stake at the end of this year, two new stakes the following year and a new stake the following as well. and then in 2015, have a new mission which is mission mar del plata and mission bahia blanca. and then at the end of the year, we will have thirty more missionaries in total. so that means this mission is growing a lot! elder beyer thinks he is leaving next transfer and that i am going to train. i am a bit nervous about thinking about having to train! but the Lord knows best! well, thats about it. i love you mom. look up helaman 8:15. its exactly the same with faith. love you!


elder jones


Find Helaman 8:15 in the Book of Mormon here

09 May 2011

MOTHER'S DAY SKYPE PHOTOS

Taylor's email this week is shorter than usual.  I thought I would give a few of the highlights from our skype conversation with him yesterday.  Best of all he looks and sounds wonderful and happy!!!  He has a great companion, Elder Beyer.  He loves his new area, Mar del Plata.  The zones and stakes there were just reorganized according to Taylor, from two to three, which shows growth!  It is a city of a million or two people so very different from the country town of Cerri where he first served.  He says it is already very cold there and he has already had to wear the coat that it took me a long time to get him while he was in the MTC!!!  He said his apartment isn't the nicest (to put it mildly), he was supposed to send pictures today, but we know how that goes!  He says that in the week he has been in Mar del Plata he has only taken two showers (EWWW!) because his apartment doesn't have hot water and he can't stand the cold water.  My mom told him someone better get that fixed or they'll have her to deal with!  He says someone is supposed to be getting to it, but it has been this way for the last four months in this apartment.  His companion had already talked to his family and was making brownies with the member family the whole time we were skyping with Taylor, but we did at least get to wave and say hi to all of them.


All in all, yesterday was a pretty great Mother's Day!!  I am so grateful for a son who is setting a righteous example for his younger brothers.  I am grateful that he made the decision to serve the Lord and that he is happy.  I am grateful for the lessons he is learning and the man he is becoming!!!  I am also grateful for four other sons who make good choices on a daily basis!!!  There is no other calling like motherhood!!!

hello! it was good talking to you too. i got the pics. so today we went to cento in mar del plata. i bought two futbol jerseys. i also bought a thirty peso tie. it looks legit. i also saw burger king and mcdonalds today. but we ate at a restaurant called crip. it was soo good. i had a real hamburger. i was in heaven.

we didnt find anyone new last week. we are trying to find new people but its hard. we have a baptism planned for this week and i hope it turns out well. we are going to pass by him tomorrow. well, i dont have much else to tell you. i didnt bring my camera with me so maybe next week mom! i love you!

elder jones

02 May 2011

TRANSFERRED TO... MAR DEL PLATA! WE ARE GOING TO TEAR IT UP HERE!

ONLY SIX DAYS UNTIL MOTHER'S DAY!!!  I AM SOOO EXCITED I CAN HARDLY STAND IT!!!!

well, i did get transfered to... Mar Del Plata! i am in a barrio thats called Antártida. its a ward as well. my comp is elder beyer. he is from bountiful utah. he is going home in october. so he has been out in the field a decent time now. yeah, i am excited to be in a new area. i needed a change of scenery. i am told the area is pretty big so i am excited! my last week in cerri was nice. i said bye to a bunch of members and took a lot of pictures and yeah. i am going to miss them. the members were amazing there.  but o well, maybe i will come back to argentina in the future! hint hint i want to jaja. we didnt find anyone new last week. fast and testimony meeting went great. there was only about 30 members in church but almost all of them shared their testimonies! i even got one of the youth to share his testimony after i shared mine! well, i feel like elder beyer and i will get along real well. we already are clicking in my opinion jaja. we are going to tear it up here! well i love you mom and i will try getting a hold of you soon!

elder jones


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25 April 2011

TAYLOR HITS SIX MONTHS ON WEDNESDAY AND WE GOT THE FIRST PICTURES FROM ARGENTINA TODAY!!! YIPPEE!!!!!

I can't believe it's been six months already! I can honestly say that some days it feels like he left only yesterday, but other days it feels like he has been gone forever!!  I was so grateful to get pictures from him todays finally.  Seeing him in his white clothing is next to Rodrigo is definitely one of those "paydays" a good friend of mine told me would come so many years ago when the boys were little and I was complaining about how difficult things were!!!

feliz pascua!

well this week was alright. we didnt find any new invesigators though. that was a bit sad. well, i still have not got your package yet. yes, i got the package of letters from the activity day girls. tell them they rock! i dont know anything about mothers day. what day exactly is mothers day? jaja well, i think i may get transfered on sunday. i have been here three transfers now, and elder soderquist only has about 3 more left in his mission. i think he will stay here and a new missionary will come in.
yeah, we are still working with samantha. its kind of hard though. elder soderquist and i have different ideas on how to work with her but we cant come up with what to teach her. but it will all go well in the end. its just hard cause she is 13 and i think she thinks we are stiffs. so we are trying to get to know her better and get her to open up. we did divisions last week, so i went to maldonado again, elder milne my district leader came to cerri. i was with elder vaterlauss. another yankee like me. and to boot this is his first transfer in the mission. he is straight out of the mtc. so i was comp mayor. that was scary jaja. i was technically the one with "more experience." but it went well. we found a family in his area and taught them the first lesson! and i found out that they had already investigated but stopped. so we set up a cita for when milne and vaterlauss could pass by. from what i heard it went well! that was my official spiritual high because i was trusted with me responsible for an area for a day and i didnt screw up jaja. they even trusted me with teaching their invesitgators who have fechas. yeah, i am pretty close with a couple families here in cerri. one is the arroyo family. the mom and daughter are members, the dad not, but they are all amazing. they love the missionaries, and they were baptized like eight months ago as well. i also am close to the alonzo family. they have a lot of kids, two of whom are preparing to serve missions. i pretty much just love this area, it may be one of the areas i may visit after i finish my mission! but yeah, that is all. i love you mom and i will talk to you soon!

                                                             After his first day in Argentina


                                          Elder Cox, Silvana, Rodrigo, his brother and Taylor

                                                          Elder Cox, Rodrigo and Taylor

                                                      Elder Cox, Rodrigo and Taylor

                                                         Ana and Daniel and their families

                                                      Taylor, Ana, Elder Cox and Daniel



                                                                 Exploring (April '11)



love, elder jones

24 April 2011

HAVE PATIENCE!!!


I TRIED TO ADD MUSIC AND IN THE PROCESS IT REMOVED THE BACKGROUND AND PUT A POST HERE THAT I DIDN'T WANT.  DON'T ASK ME HOW OR WHY (PROBABLY OPERATOR ERROR) BUT I WILL GET IT FIXED THIS WEEK!!!  DEPENDING ON HOW MUCH TIME I WASTE, MAYBE A NEW BACKGROUND!!