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