ARGENTINA

ARGENTINA

27 August 2012

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

21 August 2012

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

15 August 2012

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

07 August 2012

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 cariƱo
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