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

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

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!

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