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