AN AMAZING WEEK, HIS FIRST BAPTISM COMING UP AND "GOT HIT WITH THE SPIRIT STRONG"

I am going to let Taylor's letter pretty much speak for itself this week and only say I love him!!!

hola!

well, last week was an amazing week. i was happy with how it turned out. i will tell you about the investigators later on in the email. well, transfers are at the end of this week on sunday. i dont think elder cox or i are leaving. we have a good feeling we are staying and all. elder cox had been in cerri for almost three transfers. this is his third. he thinks he will train me for another transfer and then he will leave, then i will get a latin comp. those are his thoughts anyway. i have no idea what is gonna go down. cerri is kinda a smaller town from what cox tells me. there are about 3000 people more or less. and we also cover a smaller town called medanos but to get to it we have to take a train i think. he has never been out there. sorry i havent sent pics. i havent brought my camera to the ciber ever with the chord. maybe next time. my apartment is pretty small. bed room, study room and kitchen with a bathroom. 

well, that golden investigator family i told you about is amazing. the mom, silvana is the best investigator elder cox said he has ever seen. and her kids are amazing as well. she has three boys and one girl. they are 10 5 2 and 2 months. so only silvana and her son rodrigo who is 10 can get baptized right now. and rodrigo is going to get baptized this sunday! he prayed during our first lesson with him at the end. it was amazing. he wants to get baptized as well. like actually has a desire which is so awesome. we already taught lessons one and two with them. they also have watched finding faith in christ and the restoration videos. it was freaking amazing. now silvana is a whole nother story. she has read all the folletos we have given her, six which is all the types of folletos we have, and already wants to pay tithing, even though she doesnt have a job. she gets 100 pesos a month for each kid and that is what they live off of. so she is an amazing person. ella es re eligida para ser bautizada. (she is way chosen to be baptized). she also started the bom without us asking her to. she is almost done with first nephi and also has read 3 nephi 11 as well. that was when christ came to the americas. plus she and rodrigo both already know that the church and bom is true! elder cox said he hasnt seen anything like this in the mission during his time here. he has been here 1 year and six months i believe. the only problem we have with silvana is she is living with an hombre who is named facundo. they are living together but not married. and with something like this, they cant get baptized til they are either married or separated and not living together. but that is gonna be hard because neither of them have jobs. silvana told us that she doesnt really get along with facundo and that she is willing to move out pronto as well. she is just ready to do all she can to be a member. she reminds me and cox of the pioneers and how they did a lot to be members. so we are working on a solution with helping her get baptized. but rodrigo we will get baptized this week, so we are excited! they both pray all the time, morning and night. they dont smoke or drink. she smoked but gave it up a while ago, she also drinks coffee and said she can give it up no problem.

so earlier this week, we had a couple storms come rolling through. on one of the days we went to go visit silvana, a storm had just barely missed our pueblito and it looked kinda bad. but when we got to her house she was ecstatic to see us. she told us she prayed for the storm to pass so the missionaries could come to her house. she is just an awesome hermana! if all the people had half her faith in cerri, we would have so many investigators. nah, but we are trying better. the zone leaders want us to find eight new investigators this week. so we gotta try extra hard this week to get into houses and teach to people. we can do it though. so yeah, that was pretty much our week. we went to mcdonalds today, which is in centro in bahia with two other elders from our district. they are elder george and elder metcalf. they both are dying soon. george goes home this next week and metcalf after this next transfer. they are pretty cool. well, thats about all we have going on here. i am super stoked to be teaching to silvana and rodrigo. they are so blessed for their desire to learn and find the verdad. pues, check out 3 nephi 11. i just read it the other in personal study and it was a while since i read it. i got hit with the spirit strong while reading it and the spirit just testified to me of the truthfulness of these things once more to me. well, i love you all and hope noone else gets hurt this week. especially me! jaja. chao!

elder jones


Find 3 Nephi 11 in the Book of Mormon here

YES I AM HAPPY. I AM DOING THE LORD'S WORK. I COULDN'T BE IN A BAD MOOD!

Today was ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE BEST MONDAY OF 2011!!!  Earlier I got a brief email from Taylor that I knew COULD NOT be Taylor's weekly email, so I quickly replied to it thinking that he might still be on the computer writing the other email.  In just a few seconds I got a response.  I was able to have a conversation with Taylor for several minutes, over several emails!!  As we were wrapping up our conversation, I asked him to tell me just briefly if he was happy, (I didn't want to wait for the longer email).  Here is his reply:

yes i am happy. i am doing the lords work. i couldnt be in a bad mood!


As a mom, what could be better!  I am grateful for his attitude.  I am grateful for his example to me and to his brothers!!  Enjoy his other letter!


ando bien acá. 

well, im doin pretty good here. investigators are lacking unfortunately. we have a little boy named daniel ruiz, im not sure if i told you about him, but he has a fecha for the 6 of febrero. his family didnt come to church yesterday. so we are hoping they make it next week. his family had a cumpleaños saturday night and thus they didnt go to church. cumpleaños take a long time and people tend to sleep in the next day. but yeah, we have nothing else really. although, hermana linari, a member, brought a family of five to the capilla yesterday. we were so stoked. she introduced us and we set up a cita to go teach them. its a mom with three sons and one daughter and the oldest is ten. the others are around five and younger. so we could possibly get two fechas with them. we passed by their house last night to try and teach the first lesson but she had people over. we still talked and got a very quick first lesson in. about a 2 min lesson jaja. but we got another cita for tomorrow. we are bringing hermana linari with us because they are good friends and neighbors. hermana could explain everything a lot better than we can. plus she already gave silvena, the investigator, a folleto about the plan of salvation. so i feel we are in a good spot and this could be our golden family we have been praying for. they said they liked church and yeah. elder cox and i are very excited. so elisa. we found her this week. she talked to us and straight up dropped us. she told us she wont continue and when asked about churhc and why she didnt enter, she said she just couldnt and went to her brothers house. i bet she was having trouble with stopping smoking and stuff. it was annoying but people have their free will. if she really would have prayed for the answer to the things which we taught whether they are true, she would have been a great member. but we tried our best. and she wasnt progressing so we had to drop her unfortunately. yes, i am settling in ok here. i just have to ask a lot of people to repeat the things they say to me. its also a pain to have to go and change out my money from dollars to pesos. to actually change money, in a lot of places, i need my passport but its in the mission office. so it sucks. but i will find a way soon. i hear jewelry stores do changes so i could be in luck there. of course i am happy! i got to bahia blanca by plane from buenos aires. the most spiritual experience. hmm, not many this week. we had to do a lot of contacts, not many people would talk to us. but i would have to say it may have been talking to this investigator we found and i explained the origins of the book of mormon to him without really knowing what i was saying. but i sounded pretty legit and i am thankful for the gift of tongues and how it has blessed my life. general cerri is about thirty mins from bahia blanca. so i am not far from the mission home at all. laundry is pretty ghetto here. we have a "lavaropa" which pretty much just twirls our clothes around in water with some soap. then we hang em out to dry. so we dont wash clothes on the same day because there isnt much room to hang our clothes to dry. not much else happened this week. we have like no investigators right now. i hope this will change this week. we want to be able to have at least one baptism here this transfer. so right now, i am praying for a miracle! love you all and thanks for everything you have done!

love elder jones

LANGUAGE IS COMING ALONG, FRUSTRATION WITH INVESTIGATORS AND ALMOST BIT BY A DOG

I know Taylor gets my emails, because he answers my questions for the most part, but I wonder if he reads anything but the questions sometimes!  This last email was filled with news from our Stake Conference including the names of our new Stake Presidency and what it was like hearing from Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve.  It was a wonderfully uplifting weekend!  I am so grateful to be living in this day and age, where we can share letters instantaneously!

¿como andan?

 

lets start off with the questions. the language is coming rather well i think. i am told i sound pretty good by argies, i can understand almost everything most of the time, and i can express myself pretty well too. so i guess how the language is coming is up for interpretation. define definition of sick. i had a bad exp after i cooked some hamburgers here but i think i just didnt cook them all the way. most of the time, i am eating at a members house. i dont use the sleeping bag, i use the liner though. its pretty hot at night. it has rained a lot for quite a while. there are a bunch of mosquitos here now. i have been poked by them many times and i may be crawling with diseases jaja. elder cox and i are going great. we havent butted heads and we can teach together pretty well too. i need to bring my camera to the ciber if i want to send pics. i forgot today. maybe next time. carla didnt come to church. with maxi, we read the family, a proclomation to the world with him and his mom. he still hasnt changed. we have just one fecha really for the 29th and its elisa. when we got to church yesterday to set up chairs and unlock the building, we saw her sitting outside and motioned her to come in. she nodded her head and we were like, ok lets go in. apparently she left before ever coming into the capilla (church). so we got into a car with a member to go off looking for her before the meeting started and did not find her. we were very frustrated. we had no invest at the capilla yesterday. its annoying. omar is coming along. he reads and hasnt really said no to us, but he hasnt prayed for the answer to what we have taught is true. i think that is what is holding him back. i believe there are about 150 missionaries in my mission i believe. jaja no, i have not been mugged or robbed. i almost got bit by a dog though. i noticed the dogs who roam around the pueblito are nicer than the ones who are behind fences and gates. the ones behind stuff always bark and yelp. but the dazer you sent keeps them at bay, or at least quiet.

 

so this past week was alright. we found four new investigators. but they all kind of died as well. three were some old people who are friends that we found doing contacts. we had the first charla (lesson) with them and then set up a cita for later. when we went back, they didnt have interest so we kind have dropped them. the other is a mother of two little girls. her name is soledad. she is in her twenties i think. we taught her the first lesson and then committed her to baptism for the 30th of the month if she had recieved an answer concerning this gospel and the like. so when we went back to visit her the second time, we found she is gone on vacation until february. so her fecha fell. we also found a family of five. the parents are silvio and silvia, yes i spelled them correctly, and three little niños. contacted silvia and set up a cita with her and when we went back we had the first charla with silvio. so it is kinda all over the place. we have a cita with them later tonight so pray that we can get in and continue with them. other than that, we are doing a lot of contacts, trying to bring menos activos to the capilla and trying to get people to pray. we have a cita with the head jehova witness here in cerri for later this week. my comp is kinda excited while i am not at all. but we met him doing contactos and hopefully is can turn into something good. thats all i got. i have no more time. thanks for all the emails and i love you all! your all capos! (stud muffins i believe is what it translates to)

 

your argentino elder,

elder jones

o i forgot my scrip. its alma 26:22. pray without ceasing. its a good one.

 

love you mom!

Alma 26:22 Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing---unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.

"I HATE THE SIESTA" AND "A TASTE OF MY OWN MEDICINE" AND 2 NEPHI 29

With the tragedy in Arizona, I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and my children's lives.  I am grateful for Taylor and the decision he has made in his life to be where he is and doing what he is doing.  I know he is being prayed for daily by many, many people and is being watched over and protected by Heavenly Father!

¿que tal?

questions first. there is a cyber cafe thing that has a bunch of computers. we just go there and pay. it works out well. i did not meet an elder walker i dont think. i am not very good with names here. in cerri, we walk around everywhere. its a small pueblito. when we go to other places outside of cerri, we have to take a bus or colectivo. we have to buy cards or tarjebus to use the colectivo each time. so we rode a bus into bahia for the buffet. my camera takes video and there isnt a rule about videos on my camera here. so i am good. i think i can just hook my camera up to the comp and send pics through email. that or i can go somewhere to get them put on a disk and send the disk home. 

i think that answers all your questions. well what happened this week. first of all, i hate the siesta. noone does nothing here. they all shut their doors and sleep. so we can do anything except set up citas with members and have lunch with them. its really annoying. so we set three fechas this week. one fell already because he said he doesnt want to get baptized. his name is maxi and he is 13. his mom is an active member and i can see him getting baptized real soon but he just dont have a desire right now. he always goes to the activities and hangs out with the members but he doesnt want to do anything else. the other is with carla valenzuela. she is 9 and the rest of her family are members. she wants to get baptized but its difficult because her parents are lazy and dont want to walk to church. they live far from the church and when we talked with them last week, the mom gave the excuse that her flip flops are broken and doesnt want to walk in the heat. its just frustrating dealing with them. so you can guess that they didnt come to church yesterday. o and the minimum for a invest. to get baptized for attending church meetings is 3. they have to attend 3 meetings to become baptized. the final fecha we had was with elisa, who is 50 something. she has a daughter who lives with her. they both had fechas before i got here, but they went on vacation and only the elisa came back last week. her daughter stayed in bahia i think. so we finally talked to her on saturday, her first fecha and she didnt even remember. so we set her new date for jan 29, the others are for the 29 as well. i hope it goes well and we can get some baptisms. 

this week at church, we had one invest. at church and it was the gf of a member.she wants to get baptized but her parents wont let her, so we have to wait until she is 18. i havent even met her yet. im still trying to meet all the members here. so we found one invest on my first day here, and we are still teaching him. his name is omar. he takes things seriously and i like it. i think he just needs to actually sit down and pray to god though to know if what we are teaching him is true. he would be a great member. a problem i noticed here in cerri is peopled dont promise anything. they say that they dont want to make a promise and break it, which means that they are not going to do it in the first place. so i am not happy about that. when we set up citas (appts) with people while tracting, people say we can pass by talk with them if they are there. nothing is ever set in stone here. they all are lazy in that aspect. so i am getting a taste of my own medicine. jaja. well, elder cox and i are getting along real well and i am glad to be with him. thats it for now. check out 2 nephi 29. i read it and its pretty good scrip. about how the book of mormon is true. it is revelation from god to nephi and the people. it talks about how the book of mormon can exist and other stuff like that. i like it a lot! well, i love you all and pray for the people of general cerri! o yeah, if you do dear elders to the mission office or mission home or whatever, i can get them on tuesdays at district meetings. that is all. love you!

con amor

elder jones

Find 2 Nephi 29 in the Book of Mormon here

BLOGS AND GRATITUDE AND FRIENDSHIP

The email group that I am a part of covers five or six missions in the southern portion of Argentina.  In a recent email within the group, one of the moms told another mom whose son had recently been called to the Buenos Aires West Mission about a blog that the mission president's wife for that mission keeps so she could check it out now, even before her son enters the MTC.  It was just one more example of what an amazing sisterhood we share!  Very soon after Taylor had received his mission call, it was through the email group that I found Hermana LaPray's missionary blog and asked her mom if I could include a link to it on Taylor's blog.  I have made friends with women that I never would have known had it not been for the email group.  My heart is filled with gratitude for each of you!!!  I have included President and Sister Benton's blog here.  While I was looking at their blog I found a blog for the mission president of the Mendoza mission so I included it as well.  I actually know from a friend that Taylor's mission president and his wife don't speak any English.  They are native Argentinians.  Knowing that, I don't expect that they would keep a blog.  In part, that is why I think we didn't hear from them when Taylor arrived in Argentina.  I have heard that the missionaries just love President Detlefson and his wife both!  I await anxiously Taylor's reports on all things!

NEWS FROM ARGENTINA FINALLY!!!

It is a good thing his email came today or I just might have hopped on a plane and flown to Argentina to check on him!!  Not really, but I WAS dying to hear from him!!  I think he had four emails waiting for him from me when he logged in today, only because I didn't know when I might hear from him this first week he was there and I didn't want to miss him.  Every time I thought of something else to ask him I wrote a new email (Taylor did a very good job of answering most of my questions by the way).  I will only send one per week from now on!!

As a mom, it was difficult to have one of my sons gone through the holidays.  (I should probably get used to it as this was just the first of many.  Sigh!)  As I read Taylor's letter today though, such a feeling of peace and calm came over me.  What a way for him to be starting this new year!  He is where he is supposed to be!!

 jaja hola madre,

 

sunday was good. it was a fast sunday. well, i am in a small town or pueblito. its called general cerri. it is just outside of the city of bahia blanca. well, the sieste is in full motion in cerri. its hard because its super hot right now and everything just shuts down during the siesta. so during 2-5 noone answers door, and the weather is incredibly hot. the dogs here are many but they know not to mess with the people. so i met some investigators this week, noone of which i can remember their names, found some investigators while contacting, and tried new food. we mostly are working on reactivating menos activos and trying to baptize their children. we are doing a lot of tracting and visiting old investigators as well. we have a couple of investigators right now and its going alright i guess. my companion is elder cox. he is from nauvoo, illinois. he has about 1 year and 2 months here in the mission. he is a great comp and he has taught me a lot already. two nights ago for new years eve, we went to stay the night with our district leader at his house. we sat around and talked about the mission, argetnina and my background and how i am a greenie missionary. my district leader is elder george. he is pretty cool, from wyoming.

 

i met the president and all the office missionaries and the assistants. they all are pretty cool. the food actually isnt that bad here. i have had empenadas, milonesa and asado. today, we went to centro (i think that is in bahia blanca) and went to a restaurant that is a buffet. it was pretty good. i had asado, pollo, and other goodies. they also had crepes and dulce de leche ice cream. i was in heaven. we met about 8 other missionaries at the restaraunt and they all are pretty cool. we had a blast. i almost bought a sweet argie belt (argie = argentine) and a jersey for a futbol team. but i chicken out. everything is pretty cheap here. last night i spent the night at the district leaders house again and we slept on the roof because it is so hot here sometimes. it felt great to sleep outside. o, my first night here i got eaten alive by the bugs. so now i am covered with bumps on my arms. and they itch like crazy.

 

so i found out when i got here that coke, pepsi and anything with caffeine is against the rules. that changed in the mission a couple months ago. so i cant have any caffeine drinks which means no coke! but o well, i can live without it. they have other drinks that i can use. we are not allowed to drink the matte, an herbal drink that everyone likes. its wierd to be here. its not like the mtc, people ride around on mopeds and motorcycles. lots of people dont wear shirts. i can barely understand castellano. so who knows what i should do? but i am learning and people have told me i speak well, like i have been speaking castellano for a while. i dont know what they are talking about, i thought i was talking like all missionaries who come out of the mtc, like they dont know what they are saying. but o well. we have had a meal at a members house about once everyday or so. so i am living off that one meal and snacking at our house. our house is pretty small but its not bad. i will send a video with a tour of my house soon! i dont have much time left, i have to send a letter to the president. love you mom! thanks for everything. i will write the boys next time, i forgot my address book and dont have their addresses with me. ¡chao!

con amor, elder jones