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

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!!

FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD

I am grateful to have heard from Taylor this week.  Last week was LONG not hearing from him!!!  I am grateful for the lesson that Taylor seems to have learned this week.  It is interesting to me, because in my letter to him yesterday I wrote to him about how impressed I was with his attitude on working and reaching his baptismal goals (as expressed in the last email he had written) so that they could get the temple in Bahia in a year!  I told him how that work ethic would be a positive throughout his life and good things would come to him because of it.  I found it ironic to find out that he had had a "lazy week". I am indeed grateful for all of the lessons he is learning on his mission, and the patience I am learning!


hey mom. 

nope, samantha didnt get baptized on saturday. last week was probably my laziest week here in the mission. i dont want another week like it. being lazy on the mission does not go well at all. i feel bad for wasting the Lord´s time and all. me and elder soderquist said we shall not be lazy anymore. but enough of that. daniel hasnt come to church in a while and neither have his parents but that is something we are working on. mariano has not been able to be found. he is never home. so we dropped looking for him. but anyone else we have right now, not really. we didnt find anyone new last week and i can definately see that faith without works is dead. so then i have to work! elder soderquist is good. we are working with this one investigator paula who is the in law to a menos activo. she seems like she could get baptized soon but i think she may be living with someone. we are going to find out htis week. well, unfortunately that is all the news. i just really need to kick it into gear and find new people and then go from there! i love you mom and hope your wrist gets better!

elder jones

  

A TEMPLE HERE IN BAHIA IN A YEAR. IT'S A BIG GOAL BUT I KNOW IT'S POSSIBLE.

hi mom!  how dare you not tell me you fell down the stairs! dont you know i am bound to find out through someone else!? you crazy... jaja well i hope you feel better! well conference was amazing, but first the questions. i could do skype, i could not, it all depends on how/where i am during the mission. i heard of a couple missionaries doing skype and others not, but i dont know what i will do on mothers day. so i weighed myself again, i now weigh about 95.5 kilos. i lost more weight! i dont know what is going on but whatever i am doing is working jaja. yeah, next time i will work on sending pictures jaja.  well conference was pretty sweet. i got to watch all of it in english as well! except priesthood session. i watched the broadcast in the morning and it was only in spanish. i think by far my favorite talks had to thomas s monson on temples and marriage. i want to just go to the temple now and do work there and get married! jaja, so send on down some young woman so i can turn this mission into a couple mission jaja. but yeah, i know that temple work is an amazing thing and i love that i can help others who have passed away have the same joy that i have.  well this week, we found two new investigators. technically it was two but one we already had investigating but we hadnt talked with him in three weeks so he gets counted as new again. we had two other investigators come to conference which was awesome as well! they said they liked it. so i dont know if i told you about samantha, but she is 13 and a reference from a member. the member is her best friend too. so we are teaching her and have the fecha for the 16 of april. we are going to her house tomorrow to teach which i am excited for. we also found this other investigator whose name is mariano. he is about  17 or 18 and said he would go to conference but didnt go :( but we are going to see him tonight. so we will see what happened. well, that is about all i have. we just need to find new investigators. that is our goal, find and baptize, 180 a month, and a temple here in bahia in a year. its a big goal but i know its possible. we only need to baptize 2 people each month, we being each companionship, and it will happen! well, i pray for the strength to go out each day so i can find new people in order that i can keep up with my goal. well, that is about all i have now jaja. i love you all and take care mom! 


con amor elder jones