WE HAD 8 INVESTIGATORS IN CHURCH.

hey mom,

its hard to believe i only have one week left. what do i have to say? well, we had 8 investigators in church. none are close to baptism though, they all need to get something or another worked out to be baptized. but we are still working hard. gotta push the whole last week. but other than that, its the same old story. he is living with his girlfriend, r, once more. so he and r need to get married to get baptized. g got angry for some stupid thing in church yesterday and we almost lost him as an investigator. he is going to get married the 23 of november. so that is exciting. as for the others, we have a new investigator named h y who showed up to church yesterday. he wants to get baptized, so we shall see how it goes. but other than that, i am just saying bye to everyone and trying to leave the area prepared for future missionaries. well mom i love you. chau!

elder jones

A TOUGH WEEK

hey mom.

well, two weeks is all that is left. i unfortunately dont have much to tell you. i had a tough week, our investigators are having problems getting to church. but g is doing great. i think he will get baptized my last sunday. but he is having problems with his wife. we still need him to get married. j had worked all weeek. and i really dont have much to tell you for now, just trying to stick it out til the end. the other baptisms are just not gonna make it. so we are trying to find newbies, like always. well mom i love you!

elder jones

CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING

hey mom. 

conference was amazing. i really loved it. although, priesthood session we couldnt see. so i have to wait til the liahona gets here. as for the talks, i loved president eyrings from sunday morning as well as elder hollands from sunday morning. elder holland had given a very similar talk in the mtc. i loved it. as for the past week, not much to tell. we had some good lessons with g, he came to sunday morning session. and wants to get married with his girlfriend. he has been living with her for 18 years already. so we are going to try to get them married this week or next. j didnt come to any sessions because he was working all weekend. he is a police officer. as for r, we couldnt find her sunday morning. but we had a good lesson with her and her daughter, l, which is ro's sister. that is all for now. well mom i love you! only three weeks!

elder jones

OUR GOAL FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER IN BAPTISMS IS 3

hey mom.

this letter unfortunately is going to be short as well. i have been in the ciber for about an hour waiting for the computer. the week went well. we had three investigators in the church again, which was awesome. r, ro's mom, j once more, and m p. r has a fecha for the 20th of october. j has one for the 13th of october. and m needs to get married before he gets baptized. but we had a great lesson with r this week, ro invited her to church, and we are having good lessons with j. all we need to do is continue to find people. our goal for the month of october in baptisms is 3. so we are working for it. love you mom!

elder jones

WE HAD THREE INVESTIGATORS IN CHURCH

hey mom.

well, this past week was a cold one, with some rain. that cita we had fell through. but o well. o was about to be baptized on sunday, but called on saturday night and told us he didnt want to get baptized. so we didnt have the baptism this weekend. but, we did have three investigators in church. g, j and m. j is our most likely candidate for our next baptism. he is good friends with bishop and so we hope to get him baptized this week. as for newbies last week, we seem to have exhausted our resources concerning the members. so we unfortunately knocked a lot of doors. we didnt find a lot of new people but we are working. it is tough getting through to the end, but yeah, this last transfer is a hard one, knowing i am close to the end. i really dont have have much to tell you. love you mom!

elder jones

LAST TRANSFER

hey mom.

hey, i will be finishing up here in mar del plata. elder h is still my companion. last week was pretty slow considering on how we have been going before. we have been working, trying to get more investigators, but not much. we have a cita right now, so my email wont be very long unfortunately. but highlights, i get to see both elder l and elder h all this transfer, they both got transfered to the zone. so that is cool. plus elder m was transfered to another area, but i got to see him all last transfer. hopefully we get o baptized this week. well mom i loooove you!

elder jones

WE HAVE TWO BAPTISMS PLANNED THIS WEEK.

hey mom!

this week was pretty tranquilo. not much to report. we did however have the temple rededication of buenos aires temple. that was awesome! president henry b eyring, m russel ballard and d todd christopherson all came for the rededication. so the temple is officially open once more! i hope i can go to the temple before i come home, it would be awesome to go through the temple once in argentina. so we shall see what takes place. as for the past week, we just worked with our investigators, trying to prepare them for this week. as of right now, we have two planned for this week. so we are aiming to have those two this week. i hope it works out! the two new investigators we found, are actually ex investigators. their parents didnt listen in on the lesson, but the kids already know everything and we are going to try and teach them. the parents said if they want to, the kids can get baptized. so maybe in the last week of the month we have them get baptized. my comp and i are getting along fine. elder h finishes up his mission in january, so we both have a lot of time together, and its kind of hard to not be trunky, but we are getting through it. this weekend we also are going to have transfers. my last transfer is coming up, scary! but hey. time flies when one works, o no? jaja well mom, i love you!

elder jones

PONER LAS PILAS

hey mom

you just cant help being trunky cant ya? jaja. well, we did have our baptism this week!  so i will attach some fotos afterwards. this week was a little slow though. i spent my birthday with a member family in a family home evening. it was good. we did get a baptismal fecha with his dad,  brother of a, our other baptism. other than that, it was a slow week... last night elder h and i talked and we are going to "poner las pilas" and work hard these next two weeks for baptisms. we have two fechas in total for the 15. j came to church yesterday and we had a good lesson in gospel principles. elder h and i taught the class and we pretty much taught the first lesson and put a fecha with j for the 15th. so we are excited. we have a couple familes as well that we are going to visit this week. so i hope it all goes well. as for other news, i ate at subway today! jaja i found a subway in centro, but not nearly as good as the ones back home. i had a meatball sub. i am trying to be more charitable. i realized that my charity gauge is a bit low, so i am trying to raise my charity. not easy, but im doing it. we havent heard such a thing about at least 21 lessons a week. as for the investigators we found the other week, not much progress, we are trying to get to them right now. but we shall see. we have the goal of 4 baptisms this month, but i think we can get more. we both have sufficiant time inthe mission and we know our way on how to work efficiently etc... well mom, i love you!

elder jones

HAPPY 21st TAYMAN!!!

hey mom!

woohoo. 21 years old! but yeah, not much to tell you, i feel pretty much the same. this past week was awesome. we did divisions, found 11 new investigators and are going to have two baptisms this coming weekend. sorry i cant write much, my comp is off to bahia for training for leaders and we have to run to the terminal. but i am loving the area! i know it will be a good week! love you and thanks to all for the birthday wishes!

love elder jones

I REALIZED THAT IF WE COULD UNDERSTAND THE ATONEMENT EVEN A LITTLE, WE WOULD REALLY NOT SIN ANYMORE, WE WOULD REALIZE WHAT SACRIFICE JESUS CHRIST MADE FOR US AND TRY OUR BEST TO BE ABLE TO RECEIVE HIS FORGIVENESS THROUGH OBEYING HIS COMMANDMENTS.

hey mom!

well, with a, he had been going to the neighboring ward for half a year, and then they finally realized he wasnt a member. and he just happened to be in our ward boundary :) but yesterday, he brought his nephew, r who is 14 to church, so we are going to try and work with him as well. we are getting along great elder h and i. as for d and n, we didnt have success in finding them this week. this last friday, we had a mission conference with half the mission and with one of the new area presidency´s members, elder v as well as with presidente. elder v talked a lot about the atonement, and that if we want to be good missionaries, we should understand the atonement. i realized that if we could understand the atonement even a little, we would really not sin anymore, we would realize what sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us and try our best to be able to receive his forgiveness through obeying his commandments. so i have been trying to study the atonement more often. as for new fechas this week, we found a family of five and a solo dude. the family of five is awesome, they go to an evangelical church, but are looking for something more, its a mom, and her 4 daughters and 2 sons, one of which is only 6 years old. we took them to a meeting in the church thursday night, the same day we found them. they are really golden investigators. the other newbie, man, this is a story. he has been going to colinas, neighboring ward since 2005. and we set a fecha with him for this sunday.  we taught all the commandments, even had the elders quorum pres come with us and become friends with him, and he never showed up to church on sunday. he was going to get baptized right afterwards. so tomorrow, on divisions, i am going to visit him with one of the zone leaders. so we shall see what happened. but other than that, nothing to report. well mom, i love you and take care!

elder jones

I WAS BLESSED BEING ABLE TO COME BACK, AND I DON'T WANT TO WASTE SUCH A GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO HELP OUT THOSE IN THE WARD ONCE MORE. I KNOW THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND I AM SO GLAD TO BE A MISSIONARY!

hey mom

well, good news. we had a baptism! his name is antonio c. he got baptised on saturday and confirmed saturday as well. then on sunday, he was ordained priest. he is awesome. he had only been listening to us for a week and a half. other than that, its great to be back in antartida. i saw pretty much all the members. d is struggling, throwing out excuses left and right for why she doesnt go to church. but i dont get it. so we are trying with her. we found a friend of hers though, nicknamed p, who had listend to the missionaries before. she is one who is willing to listen, but its harder for her to do anything. she lacks a back bone, not to be harsh. but we are trying to help her. then we also found a, a 22 year old girl. she is the daughter of an ex investigator, n. a really isnt interested in religion, but during the lesson, it sparked interest. she asked us some great questions as well. as if there is a prophet in the world today, as well as how she can know if the message is true. she is a golden investigator from what we saw, but we only saw her once during the week. so we need to try harder to find her. other than that, we are working with a recient convert, r, and his non member family. he called us at 11:15 saturday night, telling us that his wife wants to listen to us and get baptized, but didnt come to church sunday because he had to work. so this week we are going to try to help her and their kids. then we also have another part member family, f r. the mom is the only member, so we are working with j c, r and l.  the dad, j c, has problems with smoking and drinking. last night we were able to clear up some doubts about the book of mormon. so this week we hope to get a baptismal fecha with him. seems so much easier here but i cant let up and being obedient and diligent. i was blessed by being able to come back, and i dont want to waste such a good opportunity to help out those in the ward once more. i know the church is true and i am so glad to be a missionary!

love elder jones

hola mamita

as for transfers. you wont believe what happened. first, both me and elder s left tandil. elder s went off to carlos caceres. and you will never believe where i went off to. i am in mar del plata! and even better, i am back in antartida! i never thought that woud happen, to be honest. and turns out elder m is in the ward next to antartida, and another elder who also served in antartida is in the other bordering ward. so its an antartida zone party! jaja. my companion is elder h, from salta argentina. he is a hard worker and he is the district leader. we are going to kill the area. since i already know pretty much the whole area, i am going to be able to work even harder off the get go. i am really excited to be back. i am not exactly sure why i came back, but im sure there is something that i didnt finish here. i heard that d is inactive now though, which makes me sad. so i am going to visit her this week and drop cane on her. maybe its time to baptize her son n. who knows. back in tandil, two new elders will be in villa aguirre, and i feel kinda bad because we didnt leave any investigators. we pretty much left them with nothing. but i pray they dont have as much trouble as we did. the new president is president p. i forgot his first name though. i have only met with him once, at zone conference. he seemed really cool. i like him. other than that, not much to report. concerning trunky papers, i heard that they now only send them in the last transfer of the mission. so i wont be seeing them for another transfer. i never got the package you sent either jaja. well mom i love you!

con cariño

elder jones

SO WE ARE JUST TRYING TO KEEP ON TRUCKING.

hey mom

not much to report once again. we had divisiones with the district leader again. it went well for me, i was in the  other area with the district leaders companion. elder s was sick as a dog and then got the district leader sick as well. so it wasnt the most productive week this week, but hey, we are trying to get out and work. elder f also came up to visit because he heard that we were having trouble and all. so we talked with him for a little while and we feel more motivated to do the work. its just been hard with nothing happening these last two transfers pretty much. i heard from elder f that v from bolivar ended up getting baptized though! that made me happy to hear. well, i really dont have much else to tell you jaja. sorry the letters are so short, we do pretty much the same thing everyday, knock doors, visit members, ask for references and doesnt really turn up anything. so we are just trying to keep on trucking. well mom, i love you!

elder jones

I AM PROUD I WAS CALLED HERE AND I KNOW I NEED TO TRY HARD TO HAVE HIS APPROVAL. I AM THANKFUL FOR THE MISSIONARIES AROUND ME WHO ALSO CHOOSE TO SERVE AND THOSE WHO ALL HAVE SUPPORTED ME AND CONTINUE TO DO SO.

hey mom

well another week down. unfortunately not much to report again. we have been visiting the members a lot trying to get references. we had divisiones last week with a member and a youth from the branch. we had five lessons with less active members that day. i had a good experience though. there was a man who is about 45 and loves the missionaries, is a member but hasnt gone in over ten years. he is just agaisnt the chuch. while we were talking, he asked why we leave our homes and countries and families for two years. i was able to tell him because God had asked not only me but all worthy young males to do it. he then proceeded to ask if i thought i was really that important for Him, God. i told him yes, i do believe so. i felt good being able to say that. i know this is His work. i am proud i was called here and i know i need to try hard to have his approval. i am thankful for the missionaries around me who also choose to serve and those who all have supported me and continue to do so. well mom, i love you! sorry i dont have much else to tell you.

elder jones

HE SAID WE NEED TO BE WILLING TO SUBMIT OURSELVES TO ALL THAT IS REQUIRED OF US AND BECOME LIKE CHILDREN AS IN HUMBLE SUBMISSIVE ETC...

hey mom

this week was a little different. we had zone conference with the new mission president. he is pretty cool. he talked a lot about the first chapter of preach my gospel and we pretty much just got to know him and his wife. she also talked to us about doing questionnaires in the contacts we do to try as a different approach with the poeple here because tandil is very tough. we dont talk with the fees hardly ever because they are in olavarria. they stay there pretty much the whole time. as for my camera, its still broken. a place here said it would be super expensive to fix it because they would need to send for new parts. one thing i really liked from the conference we had was that presidente shared with us about mosiah 3:19.  he pointed out that the word submit was used three times in that one verse alone. he said we need to be willing to submit ourselves to all that is required of us and become like children as in humble submissive etc... but i really enjoyed getting to meet him. as for both j's, we didnt get to see them this week. they werent home when we went by. and l hasnt been showing interest either. on sunday, we had branch conference and it was the branch's birthday as well, the branch here is 21 years old! so i am about as old as the branch! the speakers in sacrament as well as the classes talked about the goals of the area. to strengthen everything so we can have a stake here. we are close as a branch but we are lacking as a district in new member baptisms. so i guess i just have to keep on working hard! well mom. i love you!

elder jones

hey mom.

so another week closer to the close of my time jaja. the new rule is
just for the zone, and the zone is just tandil and a small town called
rauch that is part of our zone. it sure aint easy. but we are pretty
much telling everyone in contacts that if they knew the church is
true, would they get baptized on this date? so we are weeding through
those who will and wont listen to us. and its not working out, at
least for me. yeah, tandil is the toughest area zone wise in the
mission. we havent had a lot of success here. not just me but the
whole zone. elder s is doing good. we just havent had success is
all. as long as we work i am fine. i know what i need to do and i keep
on doing it. we had divisiones on thursday and friday. i was with the
district leader here in my area, elder h. we found two new
people, both named j, and the older one is about 70ish. so we
talked for a little and shared part of lesson one with them. we also
talked about the healing power of christ. he had just had surgery. the
other j is his son i believe and he started crying at the end
during the prayer. so we are hoping we can help them get to church
this sunday. we also talked with l, which didnt turn anything
up. she said she already knows everything but just doesnt want to get
baptized. so we didnt have much luck there. we are still going to pass
by to try and help her but i have little hope there. we also taught
this less active family the first lesson. it was a great lesson. they
were participating and even the hermana at the end shared her
testimony and told us she knows she needs to try and work harder at
coming back to church. she knows she is wrong and she just needs to
put her back into it. but other than that, we didnt really have much
happen. so i guess that is all. i love you mom! take care and until
next monday! chauz!

elder jones

hey mom

well, sounds like things are still interesting there. here, i dont have much to report. the zone has made some changes here, in that we now have to put baptismal fechas with everyone we talk with. so we are going through a lot of people super quick. we havent had much success though. i really am just in a hard place i think, i am trying to figure out what to do but it aint easy. i feel as though i have plateued, not sure if i spelled that right but whatever. i heard that the new president was supposed to get here on friday, but he is having visa problems as well. so pres d is still here and the new pres got here and is here on a vacation visa. so it looks like pres d is staying here even longer than expected jaja. as of right now, no one is progressing. we are still trying with j and her older sister l, but nothing so far. i still dont remember his name, the new mission presidents. so yeah. we have been working our tails off. i did reach the conclusion though that i love empanadas. they are the best! well mom, stay strong as well. i love you!

elder jones

I REALLY ENJOYED LISTENING TO HIM. I LEARN SO MUCH EVERY TIME HE SPEAKS WITH US.

hey mom.

thanks for the emails! i received a lot this week and tell m and t thanks for the letters. that is so awesome that dallin is going to norway! i guess i shouldnt complain about my 8 baptisms i have now. but yeah, i am stoked i get to see him for three weeks! the family is awesome. the hermano is the president of the branch. they do treat us very well here. but yeah. once again, not much to report. elder s and i are doing fine, just not much going on here in the area. we are trying to get things going but to no avail. we just had transfers and the both of us are staying, so i am the first comp elder s has for more than one transfer.  on friday, we had zone conference with pres d. the last one unfortunately. he leaves this friday and the new president gets here friday. so i say i will probably never see him again. but he gave a good couple of workshops. mostly talked about getting the obedience back up. he commented that the obedience of the mission as a whole has dropped and we need to kick it in to gear for the new president until he gets acquainted with us all. i really enjoyed listening to him. i learn so much every time he speaks with us. i will miss him. but the new mission pres will do great. well mom, i love you!

elder jones

I KNOW CHRIST DIDN'T WANT TO BLEED FROM EVERY PORE, BUT HE DID IT WILLINGLY AND SUBMITTED HIMSELF UNTO THE FATHER. I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THAT AT LEAST HERE IN THE MISSION.

hey mom

well, unfortunately the week has been uneventful. i believe i am just in a trying time again. we really are trying to work on what we do here, but to no avail. elder s and i are doing really well as of right now, we have transfers this coming sunday. and we are having our final zone conference with pres d on sunday. i believe it will be his last sunday that day. the other companionship is doing ok i guess. so i found out about the camera. its something that the shop here cant fix. they need to order parts to do it and they arent even sure they can do it. i think it would just make more sense to buy one. what do you think? yeah, the gas and electricity are great to have. its pretty dang cold, we walk out in the morning and there is frost on the ground. plus its humid. so it is pretty chilly. thats awesome about dallins call. i am stoked to here what it is!

so this week, we havent found any new investigators. we have been on quite a low streak of late. i cant think of much to do to try and get more investigators. we are just not feeling so hot either. i know i am feeling a bit depressed and less desires to go work. not much i can do about that though, but go and work. i know Christ didnt want to bleed from every pore for us, but he did it willingly and submitted himself unto the Father. i should be able to do that at least here in the mission and go out and work even though i dont feel good. so i am just trying to find the enthusiasm once more. not sure how, but i got time to figure it out. well mom. i hope i here from you soon. i love you! take care

elder jones

WE ARE JUST PLANNING ON WORKING ON HELPING OUT LESS ACTIVE MEMBERS

hey mom

well i still dont have much to report. its cold, i wake up to seeing my breath in the air. we walk a lot. anything funny last week? not that i can think of. i now cant speak in english very well. spanish words come out all to often and i mix up my words. we havent had any progress with investigators this week. so we are just planning on working on helping out less active members. hopefully we can pull some references out of them. we also had a reference come in last night, we are going to visit it afterwards. hopefully we get some help soon. havent received the package yet. i wish i had more to tell you, but we walk a lot, try to teach people at doors or wherever but to no avail. i took my camera into the shop today to see if they can figure out what to do with it, so next monday i will  let you know whats up. well mom, i love you! chau!

elder jones

hey mom.

yeah, this week was just like last week. not much change. we didnt have any good success. there is a girl here named l who is 14 and goes to church every week. but she feels she doesnt have a testimony so she hasnt been baptized. so we are going to try and start working with her. but yeah, according to my camera, it is completely broken. the front is coming off. and it wont turn on. so yeah. i dont know what you want to do. its kind of sad getting to the end of the mission. i dont like it. but hey, not much i can do about it. the other elders are talking to me about the trunky papers getting here soon jaja. but yeah. i really dont have much to tell you. i wish i had more to tell you but yeah. many a birthdays are coming up soon it being the month of june. happy birthday to all those in this week! love you mom!

elder jones

BUT TODAY WE PLAYED BASKETBALL!

hey mom!

the bus ride was ok last night. i got here just fine. i actually got a
full night of sleep on transfers. my companion is elder s from
boise idaho. he has about six months in the mission. i am in a house
of four elders once more. elder t and elder r. we dont
share an area though. we are in our own area. but the house does not
have gas or electricity. its been about a month that way. and we dont
have closets or anything. its a mess jaja. its ridiculous. but today we
played basketball! there is a court close and i really enjoyed it. i
stink, of course. but hey, what an i say, i i havent played in so
long. well, i like the area so far, the ciber i am in is not great
though. well mom, i dont have much else to tell you. i love you!

elder jones

I AM OF COURSE STILL HAPPY, TIRED BUT HAPPY.

hey mom!

wow does time seem to blur by. these last two transfers have blown by. as you know, this upcoming sunday, we have transfers. i think i am leaving. and to make it a double, its also mothers day. on saturday i will send you an email telling you what time i can do the call. we are planning on doing skype. if i do stay, i will be calling you about 5 or 6 my time. if i leave, i will be calling 1 or 2 my time. but i will send the confirmation email on saturday. i think i have a total of one more area in me. i have had three transfers in each area, after this transfer in which i am in, i have four more. so we shall see how it goes. but yeah, i still am not sure what i will do when i get home. i am of course still happy mom. tired but happy. the new mission president gets here about beginning of july. today we went and took pictures all over bolivar in preparation of transfers.

as for our investigators, n and j are doing ok. we went by and she still hadnt read. but we found out she speaks english a little and helps out kids with homework. j, her son, has a disorder in which he almost has autism but its not near as bad. we are going back tomorrow to visit her. r, r and a arent progressing at all. they dont have any desires to listen to us or put forth an effort. r is not with any desires either. we walk up to her house and see her run inside every time and then doesnt answer the door when we knock. o is our only true investigator for now. his problems are with smoking and drinking. he is having a lot of trouble leaving it behind. we had his date set to get baptized this week on sunday, but he didnt make it to church. so we moved it to the 20 de mayo. it does give him more time to leave his vices behind though. other than that, we only found one new investigator this week. her name is l l. she is about 55 years old.she has 5 kids, all grown, the youngest being about 11 years old. a sixth had died at about 5 years of age. she lost her husband to cancer and she also has cancer. they have passed through it all. she is catholic by tradition but doesnt go to church. she loved our message and paid attention. we are going to go back later to try and see how she is doing with reading and praying. she said she loves to read, and would get baptized if she knew the church was true. we are very excited to have found her. well mom that is all for now. i love you! say hi to the family!

elder jones

WE FOUND 6 NEW INVESTIGATORS! IT WAS AWESOME.

hey mom!

sorry, but today´s email is going to be short. we are in olavarria and are heading back in about an hour. we have to get to the terminal in about thirty mins with our luggage. but recap of the week. we found 6 new investigators! it was awesome. first off is n. she is about 28 years old, give or take. she got married 8 years ago and has a kid named j who is about 7 years old. she is catholic by tradition but doesnt go. she really liked what we taught and said she would read and pray. so we are going by her tomorrow. but for now, we dont have much to do with her. then we found her neighbors, r, r and a. r is the daughter of r, and a is the marido of r. r is about 26 years old. so r is about 55. they are pretty crazy. a is about 25 years old. same thing with them. we need to go back and verify. then we found another lady named r. she is an ex investigator. she came to church before but stopped. she was afraid of baptism, but we got that out of her. she has a fecha for the 13 de mayo. then we have o. he is 19 years old. he is the younger brother of a member who hasnt gone to church since he moved from buenos aires about a year ago. he wants to get baptized, even asked what he had to do to be baptized. he has a problem with smoking, and i believe he also will have a problem with the law of chastity seeing as how he has a girl friend. so we will see how that goes this week. j has dropped off the face of the earth. and v once more came to church. we want to talk with her this week to see what is her deal. she pays tithing and all, but isnt baptized. i think she just needs the invitation once more. so we shall wait and see how it turns out. today we had interviews with pres d. he is awesome. he talked about our studies before hand and how we cant waste our time which is set apart to study. i wish i could hear more from him all the time! well mom, i will be talking with you next week. i love you!

elder jones

AS FOR LAST WEEK, IT WAS BETTER THAN THE ONE BEFORE, BUT STILL NOT WHERE WE WANT IT TO BE.

hey mom

i cant believe another week has gone by. its wierd to think i am pretty much 3/4 way done with the mission. i am just awestruck. today was a long pday. we had the toilet clogged by elder w, then elder h used the toilet, and then i also used the bathroom, but neither elder h nor i realized it until after i had finished. so we spent most of the day with the bathroom because we have no plunger and it was the siesta and nothing was open. safe to say, i hate the siesta. and we now have over a hundred flies in our house. you would not be happy mom, jaja. i got the package as well. i used the gravy today. elder h and i made mashed potatoes with gravy and slow cooked some meat in the oven. it turned out super delicious! thank you soo much!

as for last week, it was better than the one before, but still not where we want it to be. we found three new investigators. still short of at least two newbies a day. but we are getting better. we didnt do divisiones with the zone leaders because we are out of money and havent received any for quite a while, so traveling was out of the question. we might do divisions this week. but who knows. service with the hermana was great the other week, she had just asked us to help her. we did more service this week as well. we dug a huge hole for a recent convert family who is building a house. they needed a hole dug for the sewage system. i am not exactly sure how it works, but it had to be about 2 meters deep and 1 and a half meters wide. it was not easy. we had set a bunch of citas this week, but nothing really super solid. we found one person who is the neighbor of h. he is older and runs a kiosko out of his house. he understood most of what we said, which surprised me, given his age. we are going back tomorrow to see if he had read and prayed. so we shall see what happens. we talked one night with a super evangelical man named o. during the lesson, which we pretty much couldnt teach because he talked the whole time, he pointed to me and said, i want to hear what you have to say. i started to speak and he cut me off and went off again. then afterwards he started telling me, not elder h but just me, to go and find God. it was kind of awkward. then at the end, i said the prayer before leaving, and he stood up with us to send us off, and he asked to say one himself. he then placed his hands on our heads and started to pray, shaking us while he prayed. when he finished, he pushed our heads back with an AMEN! and i was trying hard to just not freak out and laugh. so we walked out and just were in awe with what took place. i think he thought i was full of demons. but who knows, he was for sure a little tipsy from some drinking, and had bloodshot eyes. i shall not judge him though. well mom, that is all i have for you, next week, i am sure we will try to figure out what we will do for mothers day. i love you!

love elder jones

I NEED TO STEP UP AND GET THIS DISTRICT MOVING

hola mamita

im glad you enjoyed my letter so much! jaja. another week down, and not much to report. i hate when i dont have much to tell you. but capacitiacion was awesome. i loved it so much. and it was cool seeing a lot of old companions and leaders. i saw for instance elder g, my companion from toay. he is now a district leader as well. but yeah, president d is awesome. we have new "commandments" now though as missionaries. we need to baptize each week. we need to find at least 2 new investigators each day, and get baptismal fechas with them or they dont count. that is no longer our zone rule but a mission wide rule. he also talked about how  and i quote "we need a missionary who prays with more power." he feels we dont pray with enough zeal, is that the word? we arent sincere enough in our prayers. we also dont have enough hunger to baptize, if we did, we would be doing what we need to, which is baptizing each week. as a district, we only found 1 new investigator last week. the asistents talked about goals and being specific and not just planning for one week but having the vision of planning for three weeks to a month in advance. we really need to get working though on finding newbies. the zone leaders told me i need to get it into gear. four missionaries and one new investigators is not helping the mission. they said they want me to go up to being zone leader and that i cant do that if i cant get even the district up and functioning. i know i said i dont want to be zone leader, but if i can and am needed to be, i have to step up my game as well. i dont want to lose what can be. its just like the celestial kingdom. we dont not want to go there, so we need to do everthing we can to get there. so i need to step up and get this district moving. i am going to do divisiones with the zone leaders this week, and also with the other companionship this week. so i am going to learn form the zone leaders and then go right into teaching it to the other companionship.

last week, we didnt really get any lessons in. J didnt come to church. we werent able to teach him, i think he is falling out of sight. we may have to drop him. we have to many eternal investigators. that the last thing we need. B is afraid to get baptized and not be able to keep the commandments afterwards. i think its just an excuse though. we dont know how to get to him yet. we ate dinner with L and her dad this week. her dad had invited us to an asado and it was pretty good. on saturday we helped out an hermana cut all the branches off her trees and take them out to the garbage. she had a lot of trees and thick branches. my shoulder still hurts.then on sunday we went by the familia v. hermano v is the mission leader. he told us about one of his daughters who is not baptized and we could try to start working with her. so we are going to try to get something going with her, she is named v. really, we need to kick it into high gear. we know that we need to work even harder, we were put here for a reason, and we dont want bolivar to suffer. we want it to be its own ward and possibly stake! well mom, i love you! take care!

elder jones

I READ MATTHEW 7:21-23. IT'S A GOOD ONE WE USED WITH AN INVESTIGATOR. I RECOMMEND IT.

hey mom!

yeah, transfers passed, i am still here in bolivar as district leader. but right now i am in a ciber in olavarría. tomorrow we have training in bahia blanca with president d, all the district leaders and zone leaders will be there. its gonna be awesome. i love hearing president d speak. then wedensday i get back and we have district meeting and then we head out to bolivar once more. we had our branch council this week and finally got our fifteen names of less active members to work with, five from each organization. we also finally got to watch all of conference. so that was good. i still loved elder bednar´s talk the best from priesthood session. i am pretty sure i will be getting home on halloween. easter was ok here. nothing special. everything was closed though. we didnt have dinner or lunch with anyone at all. so we ended up cooking in the house. i made rice with an onion and shredded meat. it was delicious, although i through way to much pepper into, almost all of it to be exact jaja. 

e, we still havent been able to find nor m. so we are still in a drought of not finding people to baptize. we did talk with an ex investigator however who invited us to an asado this week. so that should be good. we are going to try and sack a fecha with him and his family. we will see how it goes. we have one investigator named j g, i believe i already told you about him. well, he has a fecha for the 28 of abril. he knows the book of mormon is true. we still have to teach him however all the commandments and get him married. he smokes and drinks. but i prefer having investigators with problems to not having invesigators. much less stressful i think jaja. l has dropped off the face of the earth, his wife told us pretty much to not pass by anymore. other than that mom, i dont have much else to report. i read matthew 7:21-23. its a good one we used with an investigator because he uses all the miracles other churches perform as an excuse for not coming to our church. i recommend it. well mom, i love you! heree come some pictures your way!

elder jones

WE NEED TO BE ANXIOUSLY ENGAGED IN A GOOD WORK.

hola mami,

 

sooooo. this wasnt the best week ever. mainly because we saw saturday sessions of conference in a ciber with a bunch of kids everywhere yelling and screaming where we couldnt feel the spirit. and sunday, we didnt see any of the sessions due to bad preparation here in bolivar on part of the branch presidency. they hadnt prepared the internet to stream it live and thus noone watched it here. plus we only got half of the priesthood session. which i thought was still awesome but got up til president eyring´s talk. so it could´ve been better. but hey, i am not going to complain. hopefully i get to see them soon. hopefully. as for investigators, we taught a new lady who lost her husband tow years ago. she is about 72 years old. she doesnt retain much though. but other than that, nothing. we are giving up on L. we cant seem to find him. we had an appt with a new lady as well. she turned out to be a dud as well. she was super awesome the first time we talked with her but when we went back, she was a total jerk. i have been thinking a lot about some things. we need to stop using our carnal eyes and start seeing things/trying to see things as God sees them. we cant judge anything without knowing everything, God can because he knows all. he also is the person who knows the best way to help us. he is the first source we should go to for help, then our priesthood leaders and we cant ever forget to do things. we cant sit still. we need to be anxiously engaged in a good work. its just like said in conference, i believe in priesthood session. we really cant be idle. being idle even condemns us because we didnt choose to do good. as a misssionary, God is always testing us. he is always seeing what we will do in certain situations. thus we need to do good always.

 

we talked with a less active member last weekend. he is very less active. he is into drugs and just super lost right now. in our visit with him, we ranged from the restoration to the plan of salvation to the word of wisdom. he tried to convince us marijuana is good for us jaja. but we left him a chapter to read in alma 32. he is feeling like he lacks faith. but i think we can get him back, he just needs to stop with his addiction to prescription drugs. but other than that mom, i got nothing to tell ya. thanks for your email! i hope you keep on keeping on! love you!

 

elder jones

THE BOOK IS BLUE AND THE CHURCH IS TRUE.

hey mom.

this last week was a tough one. we just didnt have anything to do. we walked a lot. im not sure what it was that made me sick. i just was sick again. i guess it was something i ate. we still haven't found L. he has still been out in campo. i dont want to give up on him till i find him but i know i have to put my faith in the lord to know when i should stop losing my time looking for him. the citas we had set up didnt turn up anything. we have a new zone rule in which if we dont get a fecha bautismal in the lesson with the person, they dont count as new investigators. so we had no new investigators. as district leader, i am getting used to it, the other companionship is doing awesome. i love seeing new missionaries, they have so much fire and animo, its awesome! elder h and i get along great. we have no problems. its almost as if he were a long lost brother jaja. as for lunch here in bolivar, we have lunch twice a week, so we get an extra 100 pesos each for food expenses. we passed p-day today playing hackey sack. i think i am super "unstretchy." i said that today and i was made fun of by the other elders for my lack of english vocab. so having to give a talk back home in english will be a bit hard jaja. as of package, the only thing i guess i would really want would be ties, a paisley or two would be awesome. so i got pooped on last week. its was awesome jaja. i walked around with bird poop for about 1 hour on my shoulder. elder h laughed.

we have pretty much been looking for new people to teach. i am looking for opportunities to share the gospel everywhere. its just hard when nooone thinks its important. but hey, the book is blue and the church is true. keeps me going jaja. i am so excited for general conference. i dont know how or where i will watch it but i am stoked. well mom. i love you! sorry my email isnt awesome. not much happened. love you once more!

elder jones

HE SAID WE WILL BE A WARD.

hey mom!

so this week was quite the week. we had our ups and downs, that is for sure. we had zone conference. that was awesome. pres d has been making a lot of changes trying to prepare the mission for when he leaves in june. i told you the new mission pres will be from spain right? this zone conference, pres talked about being focused and not conforming ourselves. if we are not having success its because we arent focused and are conforming ourselves to what other missionaries have said and the fact to what has happened in the past. 1 missionary can make the difference. elder p did get his new comp, elder w. so i officially have my whole district! its awesome. last week i was with a lot of pain in my body and my sinus were going crazy. this week after zone conference, i came home and woke up at 4 in the morning with stomach pains. so i sat in bed all saturday morning and then we went out to work in the afternoon. being district leader is nice i guess. i dont want to be zone leader, they lose too much time worrying about the zone. so i would be fine staying as district leader or back to normal missionary jaja. concerning the visas, the first of january, argentina changed the way they do visas, so that is why it is taking so long for missionaries to get here. 

L didnt come to church. he has been in campo all week working. we havent been able to communicate with him. (i know my spelling isnt the best, the computers are in spanish and they dont tell me what i spell right and wrong.) we didnt find anyone new and we still are lacking solid investigators. but we did set a couple of appointments for today and tomorrow with a bunch of people. so we shall see how it turns out. so all i really am doing right now is trying to lead the district seeing as how i am the oldest now, and just be obedient and find new investigators to increase our teaching pool. not an easy task, but hey. what can we do.

on sunday, elder f came and gave a talk as a representative of the mission presidency. he is pres d´s counselor. he told us in the future we WILL BE A WARD. he said all we need is a miracle. and the way in which we can do it is by helping out the missionaries by giving missionaries references and not worrying about corrupt leaders. he pretty much dropped cane on the members and i loved his talk. so that is all i have mom. i love you. take care. chau!!!

con cariño,

elder jones

HE WANTS TO TAKE OFF HIS BACKPACK OF BURDENS.

hey mom!

wow, so much going on back home. glad to hear everyone is busy! this weeek was a long one. i was sick all tuesday and wednesday, and part of thursday. but hey, not gonna complain. as for all the investigators we found with the zone leaders, none of them are solid. but o well, with finding a lot of people, we have to weed out the shaft, i think is the word. its "yugo" in spanish. l.p. is amazing. he wants to take off his backpack of burdens or so he says. i have a feeling that he will open the door up for the rest of his family. he never had thought about getting married but his wife always wanted to. so i think that we may be able to get him and his wife baptized within these next few weeks. but it will take some work. we had mesa redonda this weeek with the zone leaders. the zone leaders had just gotten back from bahia and from a meeting with alll the other zone leaders and with president detlefsen. they talked about being to conformed as missionaries and not nearly as focused as we should be. we shouldnt think we have limits. if we put limits, we stop working as hard. they told us that if we are not baptizing each week we are doing something wrong. so it looks like i got even more work to do in my companionship as well as help out the other companionship in my district. although the other companionship is going back and forth from azul, and bolivar. we finallly had our first branch council meeting of the year. its seems like we can start to get working with the leaders we have but it will take some time to teach them how to work with the missionaries. but i know if we do our part and stay worthy, it will work out. we talked in district meeting about obedience. it is the first law of heaven. and if we cant even obey the first law of heaven, how can we expect ourselves to obey all the other laws that follow as well? so i guess it was a good week. stilll trying to figure out how to be a good leader and all, but i think i can handle it jaja. well mom, i love you! next weeek i will try to send some fotos. i didnt want to get my memory card wet in the rain today. love you!!!

love elder jones

IT'S NOT EASY BUT IT ISN'T IMPOSSIBLE.

hey mom

im good. yeah, for now, elder p is working with another elder from a different area. they go raotating back and forth between their areas  every now and then so when the new missionaries get here, they still have investigators. we did divisions this week with the zone leaders. it was pretty good. we found about 8 new investigators on divisions. o and i almost forgot, we had two baptisms this week! technically three but one of them was a girl who was 8 years old. the other two were her brothers, 12 and 10. their parents live in the town far away but now come every week. so its nice. their baptisms were awesome. i really love watching people come unto the lord. its just amazing! 

one of the new investigators we found this week is blind. he wants to get baptized but it appears he is mentally challenged. and he doesnt really understand everything we say either. we ask him questions and he just sits there. so i think we are going to drop him. we also have l.p. he is about 43 years old and came to church on sunday and stayed for the baptism service afterwards. he really liked it. we also found a 16 year old girl, and it seems that when we taught the restoration to her, she actually understood it and it made sense, but we havent found her since. so more than anything, we have to keep finding. the standard of the mission has been raised now. 1 baptism per companionship each week, 25 lessons taught weekly, 5 in church, and 2 new investigators daily. its not easy but it isnt impossible. i personally have not hit all of these goals. but i do know its possible. i just have to try even harder. so another misionary shared with me 1 nefi 5:1. but he changed it a little to accomodate for when missionaries come home to parents. you should read it jaja. well mom, i love you! take care! i will try to send fotos next week. bye!

elder jones

IF WE PUT ON THE ARMOR OF GOD, OR STUDY THE SCRIPTURES AND PRAY AND KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS, WE CAN MAKE SATAN FEAR US AS WELL BECAUSE WE WILL NOT FALL INTO TEMPTATION.

hey mom!

i am studying in alma right now. i just started the war chapters and yeah. not much to report there. just war. i did like though how captain moroni first prepared his warriors with armor and then he sent them off to battle. the lamanites were afraid of them when they saw the nephites. its the same with satan. if we put on the armor of god, or study the scrips and pray and keep the commandments, we can be able to make satan fear us as well because we will not fall into temptation. elder h is awesome. he is almost like a long lost brother jaja. he is on his second area. so big news. we got an email today telling us who is going to be the new mission president starting in august around there. he is 53 years old and from elche, spain. so that is something cool to know. one of the other elders is here. he is elder p. he is from st george utah. he was supposed to train but his newbie didnt get his visa from what we know. so since thursday we have been in a trio. its not easy because the people see us as three north americans who are dressed wierd, who would let us in their house? so its been a challenge but we are getting through it. hopefully his newbie gets here sooon though. so we are trying to find new things to do. we have spent a lot of time in centro area and it hasnt really worked out. so we are venturing farther and farther away from the middle of bolivar. 

we had two new investigators last week. neither came to church. we also had two investigators in church. two kids of that one family who lives far away. they are 10 and 12 years old. we just need to find a way to get out there and teach them. as of right now, we need to keep up the animo. the zone leaders told me yesterday in our phone call to pass the weekly stats that we lacked the hunger to find. i guess i could see it. sometimes as missionaries, we see the people sitting outside drinking mate and just talking with a bunch of people and she inch away sheepish like. i am gettting better at it but it is still hard. i remember a conference talk about having to be commited. he gave the example of two kids gettting ready to cliff jump and right as one was about to jump the other said wait, but he couldnt stop, he was alreeady committed. its the same with us. if we just throw ourselves in there and say hola, then we cant back out. i thought a lot about that these last couple weeks. we are really trying to be 100% obedient and its working out well. last week we got eaten alive by the mosquitos. they were horrible here. so as district leader, i have to plan district meetings and relay what goes on in my district to the zone leaders.  so yeah. well mom, i cant think of anything else. so take care! love you!

elder jones

BIG NEWS. BOLIVAR IS GOING TO HAVE FOUR ELDERS NOW!!!

hey mom!

im glad you enjoyed my email :) so transfers have come and gone once more. elder w has left me for edo. castex. i am now with elder h. he is from idaho falls. he is from the same group as elder l and elder w. so its pretty cool i guess. big news. bolivar is going to have four elders now. although the other two elders arent here yet. one of them was going to train another, but the newbie didnt get his visa so he wont be getting here this week i believe. but i have also been made district leader here. i guess presidente really trusts me! jaja. so it rained a bunch last week. after lunch on thursday, we got a ride back to the house because we needed our jackets and boots. the water was up to knee height. i took a video and will send it home next week. it was like we were in a boat almost. 

so c didnt make it to church. neither did j. we already dropped j though. she wasnt progressing. c, i am losing faith on. she is never home. i think we will stop passing by. we really just need new investigators. this sunday, a family from a city about 50 kilometers away came to church. they are a less active family. they have four kids, three of whom are not baptized and over the age of eight. so tomorrow we are heading out with the mission leader hermano v. they feel alone out in the pueblo, urdampilleta. so we are going to try to teach them too. the dad teaches tae kwon do. so maybe i may learn a thing or two :D since elder w got the call that he was leaving, we have been meeting a lot of people. today, on the way to the ciber, we met a dude named m. he said hello as we walked by and then we ended up talking to him and he gave us his number. we also got the number of a taxi driver named a. and the parents of elder w's convert, m, told us to pass by this week. we gave the mom a blessing and a book of mormon. so we are going to try and start teaching them this week today. well mom, that is about it for now. i love you! i have all my pics saved on a usb flash drive. so i will just keep the sd card for now. i love you!!!

 

con cariño

elder jones

I AM TRYING TO DO THOSE THINGS THAT I HAVE LEARNED, LIKE DOING THE WORK IN THE LORD'S WAY INSTEAD OF MINE, TAKING THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES ETC.

hey mom!

well, yes i got your package. well, with all the new investigators we found, not any progress. werent able to find any of the new investigators to teach once more. we called c saturday night and found out she was in the hospital with her five year old, he had had an accident or something and she wasnt able to make it to church that day. so we pretty much didnt have any investigators at church on sunday. j did come to church. but we talked with her afterwards and have pretty much dropped her now. she doesnt want to get married and neither does her marido. so we really just need to find more newbies. today, we are in olavarria. we came to be with the senior missionaries. they had all the missionaries from olavarria over plus us to have lunch. then they showed us pictures of their missions in southafrica, madagascar and china. pretty much they are amazing. i want to be like them. i also realized i want to go travel the world. we also had interviews with presidente  this week. he gave a great talk before interviews about doing things in the way of the Lord, instead of our way. in 1 nephi 17:8-10 it talks about nefi building the ship in the Lords way instead of his way. but he had to wait to be shown how to do it. before he was shown, he had to follow all the commandments and then after everything he did, he was shown how to build the boat, where to go to get the materials and then he did it. it was pretty awesome and i learned that i need to read the scriptures even slower to try and get the things the spirit is telling me. we shouldnt speed through the scriptures when we read. we are to learn and apply what we learn to ourselves and our lives. i havent been the best at that and now i am trying to do those things that i have learned, like doing the work in the Lords way instead of mine, taking the time to understand the scriptures etc... we got a new mission leader called as well. its the old branch president. so i think we will have a lot more success having another mission leader. our old mission leader is still having problems though. members have stopped coming because of the hipocrisy they have seen in the church. so we are having to do a lot of damage control. elder f talked with us today about how we reallly are here to fix problems. not just go for a cake walk. he said we should take a step back sometimes and just realize that we are here to fix the problems and that we pretty much set apart to fix them. well mom, i love you. take care! 

love elder jones

EVEN THOUGH WE FOUND A LOT, WE CAN'T STOP LOOKING, WE HAVE TO KEEP INCREASING OUR TEACHING POOL AND TEACH TO THE NEW INVESTIGATORS

howdy mom

 

well last week was pretty good i can say. concerning our mission leader, he is no longer active or so he says. he resigned from his calling. and he didnt come to church. so we are trying to figure out what to do with him. elder w and i are getting along well. no problems. no, i havent got my package yet. we did divisiones last week. so i stayed here in bolivar with elder j, our district leader. we found 6 new investigators. and when we switched back, we got two more, elder w and i. so i think we had a pretty good week. and we now have a total of 9 baptismal fechas. for now, only one of them seems really solid. she is about 23 years old and she has a kid about 5 years old and another about 6 months old. a year ago, she lost another child, a girl, to cancer i believe. the girl was about 1 year old. but she read and believes its true. we only have to get her to church now. but other than that, we just have to keep finding newbies. even though we found a lot, we cant stop looking, we have to keep increasing our teaching pool AND teach to the new investigators. so we have to balance our time even better this week. well mom, i love you. take care. until next week!

 

elder jones

WE LACK 200 PEOPLE ON THE REGISTROS TO HAVE A STAKE. SO WE ARE CLOSE.

hey mom

well, not much to report as usual. actually i guess there is. its not the first time i heard that about being a spy though. with v, we havent been able to teach her since. we are still going on with problems on finding the parents. but she still knows its true. m hasnt read yet. i think we are going to drop her either way. i dont think she is interested. but we will try to get a fecha with her before we drop her to see what her reaction is. here in bolivar, we are an hour from olavarria a bigger city. we are part of a district. still not a stake yet. so we have about 30 people going to church. and the church is a house we are renting out. the baptismal font is actually a plastic tarp pool thingy. as of right now, we lack 200 people on the registros to have a stake. so we are close. babies being blessed as well as baptisms will help us get to our goal of a stake! we are making an effort to find families but today in the world, satan is attacking the family as a whole. its hard to find a family who is well off in the fact that there arent any big problems between its members. but we know that they are out there. here in bolivar, its just me and my comp. there might be another companionship coming here next transfer. but i dont know. so we also have a big problem here in bolivar. the mission leader, hermano d, might go inactive. he has had problems with the first and second counselors since he has been the misison leader. they are not supporting him, in fact, they have told him to stop passing by the less active members and the sick members. also, apparently from the branch presidency, they are trying to weed out the strong members from the weak. and if the less active members dont come back when invited to do so, they wont be accepted when they try to come back later. we really have a problem here and we need to get to the bottom of it fast. so tomorrow we are going to go by one of the counselors and see what is up. try to see his side too. well, that is about all i have for you mom. i love you and take care!

elder jones

EVEN THE LITTLEST OF CHILDREN CAN LEARN TO KNOW OF ITS TRUTH IF THEY DO AS MORONI'S PROMISE INDICATES!

hey mom!

 

sounds like stake conference was awesome. bolivar is still awesome, i have had one person call me a spy and a police officer stopped us to ask us for our documents on account of "we could be spies" as well. so this week was splendid jaja. elder w is awesome. we did a lot of door contacts last week. like, a ton. but anyways. yeah, the F's have lived everywhere. they lived in long beach or huntington beach for a little but that is all i remember. we did find new investigators. p, but he already said for us to not come back. then we have v, she is eight years. she loves hearing the gospel and we taught her but we have to go back and get the parents permission to baptize her. she read 3 nefi 11 and prayed and already knows its true! even the littlest of children can learn to know of its truth if they do as moroni´s promise indicates! we also found m, a mom of about 25 years and her son of 8 years of age. we taught them on saturday! we had spent the whole day walking and looking for references and we just knocked her house and l, her son came out. we asked if his parents were home and he fetched his mom. so we taught them and it went well. they didnt accept an invitation to be baptized but hey, i have a good feeling about them. m said she loves to study and that she would read and pray. so that was good. and l wants to come to church as well! the only problem is she works in a dance club and gets home about 9 or 10 in the morning. so we have to try and get that fixed. other than that, not much to report. i love you mom and take care!

 

elder jones

WE CAN ALWAYS SAY THAT WE KNOW TWO PEOPLE (THE MISSIONARIES) WHO CAN EXPLAIN BETTER THAN US AND ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS. SO I CHALLENGE YOU TO TO BE MORE VALIANT AND SHARE THE GOSPEL MORE!

hey mom!

bolivar is awesome. super hot and humid, but awesome. elder w is great. he is from texas. and he has the same time in the mission as elder l. so he is a newbie as well. we do get along. here in bolivar, its actually a branch. we dont have a stake over here. its a district. the district is in olavarria and we are about an hour drive from olavarria. so we are trying to get a stake out here. just recently a new branch pres was called, pres c. but, prob best part of my week was having ice cream with the senior missionaries here in bolivar.  they are working in the district of olavarria and they come out here a lot to help out the branch. they took us to ice cream on saturday. elder f was a mission pres in madagascar and was there when madagascar became its own mission, they have served in the south africa temple mission and they have taught english in china. so they are pretty awesome. then they came to church on sunday and elder f gave a talk. he talked on misionary work of course and how the members need to be missionaries as well. he shared the story of david and goliath and how the members need to be valiant like david. his brothers and everyone didnt want to fight goliath but david showed up and said he would, tried to put on the armor but didnt work for him, so he just went out with what he knew how to use. so we need to be the same, valiant and do what we know how to do and just share the gospel, even if it is just a little we share. and we can always say that we know two people (the missionaries) who can explain better than us and answer any questions. so i challenge you to be more valiant and share the gospel more!

anyways, as for investigators, we have a couple. but none came to church yesterday. one is in her 50´s and her daughter is a member. she needs to get married before she can be baptized but hasnt talked with her husband yet. the other is 8, and his mom and brothers are inactive. we are trying with him as well. there are other investigators but we have a lot of work to do in terms of finding newbies. well mom i love you! take care! i hope all is well!

elder jones

Shelby Curtis's Missionary Blog

For those of you who knew the Curtis Family in Mission Viejo Third Ward (and First Ward) back in the 1990s, Shelby reports to the MTC tomorrow. She is going to the Philippines Quezon City Mission.

TONIGHT I HEAD OUT TO BOLIVAR!! IT'S APPARENTLY BEEN BOOMING. I CAN'T WAIT TO GO OUT THERE!

hey mom!

another week down, as well as a transfer. i am on my way to a new city! i am still in santa rosa, but tonight i head out to bolivar! its apparently been booming, this area. i cant wait to go out there. i am going to be with a new comp. i dont know him, but i think he is about as old as elder L in the mission. the weather here is super hot and dry. it hit about 105 last week. it is tough to sleep due to the heat but somehow i sleep anyway. my clothes are alright for now. maybe a new pair of pants. i am down to one set of work pants. i dont use my suit pants to work. plus i need to dry clean them. they are super dirty. bolivar is apparently the same amount of heat, only more humid, so i think i will be losing a few pounds out there! we dont really do any service here. no one asks us for help. we offer but no one accepts. o well. toay is great. gonna miss it but glad i can move on. yesterday in sacrament, a couple bore their testimonies. they are best friends of the last guy we baptized, who by the way, i couldnt say bye to. he was traveling on sunday. in their testimonies they thanked me for having taught their friend and about how grateful that i was the missionary who taught him. it made me feel good that i saw someone genuinely affected by my efforts.

the new investigators, we had no luck. we taught them lesson one and after that, we havent been able to find them since. we got another fecha though. his name is j c. he is a bit hard to understand.and he doesnt understand us either. so safe to say its hard to teach him. he doesnt understand our questions. but i know he can learn. he prays to a virgin every day though, so that is a problem. and he doesnt pray like we do either, he offers recited prayers. so a lot of work is ahead of elder L. well, i love you mom. and next time you hear from me, i wil be in bolivar!

love, elder jones

IT'S WEIRD TO THINK I COME HOME THIS YEAR

hey mom

im glad you enjoyed my letter. i thought you would jajja. yeah, its wierd to think i come home this year! i cant believe it. time flies, that is for sure. we havent found either of the 2 investigators in house yet. but we found two new investigators, or should i say, elder L. found two new investigators with elder E, an asistente. last tuesday and wednesday i had to do paperwork all morning long. it was ridiculous. my visa had expired and i still havent gotten a document from argentina which is like a passaport id thingy. so i lost all morning both mornings. so that is why elder L was with the asistente.  they are a young couple and L just got off of drugs. they both just started up with a new church and are looking for somethinhg to fill a hole in their life. two of their children have passed away as well. i can tell they are looking for something but dont know where to find it. i just hope they dont have a problem with the book of mormon. we go back tomorrow to teach them. so i hope that goes well. but yeah, we just have to keep looking for new people to teach. well mom, i love you! take care!

love elder jones