Elder CJones: Bautismito

"Everything I've been through, everything I'm about to go through in my career and my life, if my family wasn't with me and didn't support me, it would be really tough."
-Karl Malone

This week was really good we finished with two baptisms and a less active wanting to come back to church. It's been hard in the past little while to get people to church but we are slowly getting better. We received transfer news this week and both my companion and I will be staying in the same area.

We are teaching some really cool people this week! Cynthia,the sister of Anahi, is working to be baptized this Saturday. She is 18 years old and has a really cool and energetic 2 year old son. We have dropped a lot of people this week because they weren't keeping their commitments. We will be starting this week fresh with new people to teach.

We have zone meetings every week and conferences with the president every month. Since Christmas, we haven't had a visit from any visiting authority.

Quiero escribir en Español por que es tan mas fácil a pensar en Español. If you need, use Google Translate haha. Cada día estudiamos a las 8 y planeamos hasta las 10 y después trabajamos, tocamos puertas y hablamos con las personas en las calles. Esta semana tengo 33% de mi misión atrás, que es muy loco.

En mi distrito, hay 10 elderes, 5 americanos, 4 de México y 1 de Salta, Argentina. Contactamos en las calle y a las pulgas.Vivimos cerci de el otro lado y hay miembros que pueden cruzar y comprar cosas por nosotros. Pero las cosas son mas caras de aqui.

Quiero compartir  que yo se que esta Evangelio es verdad, con todo mi corazon yo se que este Evangelio pueda cambiar vidas cuando queremos cambiar! Testifico de la verdad!

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Elder Corom Jones

"Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and make your dreams real." -Enrique Iglesias

Elder CJones: Un Bautismo y Overtime Basketball

"I wouldn't change anything. I've made mistakes, but thanks to those mistakes, I've learned."
-Enrique Iglesias

I love the Mexican culture, people, music, food, and pretty much everything here! Mexico is pretty much my second home. Well, Enrique Iglesias is the King of Latin Pop and really popular here. He is right when he says,"I wouldn't change anything. I've made mistakes, but thanks to those mistakes, I've learned." As we constantly make mistakes, we get better and we learn.

This week we had a really amazing baptism for 12 year old Anahi! She has been preparing for her baptism for a long time.She has been progressing a lot to be able to have her baptism. The night of her baptism her mom told her that she shouldn't get baptized but she came anyway because she really wanted to get baptized. She had a beautiful baptism and I had the opportunity to confirm her on Sunday during church. She is a really cool young women and has made a bunch of sacrifices over the past month to be able to change her life to be baptized.

One of the fun things I get to do here is I can play on a public basketball team with our bishop and while my companion contacts people that are watching. We got special permission to do this. This week we played. I play with Elder Cox. He is about 6'6" and played basketball in high school. We messed around the whole game until the end . . . when we tied it up with nine seconds left and then won by 10. Ha ha.

The weather here is crazy hot and humid, about 100-105 degrees with 70-80% humidity. It's constant sweat and constant work. It's cloudy sometimes but that constantly changes. When my companion goes to the other little town, we have to have splits with the ZL's because it's dangerous for Americans there. One of the ZLs is an American and the other is Mexican and so we just split. Elder Cox and Elder Hidalgo are the ZLs. Elder Cox is from American Fork and the other is from Puebla, Mexcio. I really love working with my companion! There are somethings that are crazy about him, that drive me up the wall, but he is a really cool guy. Ha ha.

In our area, it is pure bike and walk. We pretty much walk and bike everyday and we choose depending on how far we need to travel. It's easier to contact people when we walk.

Pues, yo creo qué puedo hablar en Inglés, y los lideres dicen qué tengo más capacidad que muchos de los otros Americanos. Me encanta el idioma y la música haha. Las personas que me conocen, saben que me encanta la música. Aqui en Valle Hermoso, tenemos mas bautismos y exito con fechas que los otros compañerismos. Quiero compartir que yo testifico que el Evangelio es verdad y pueda cambiar vidas cuando lo permitimos cambiarnos.

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Elder Corom Jones

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."
-William Shakespeare

Elder CJones: Preparing the People and a '69 Chevelle

Valle Hermoso is a really really cool place.  It's small enough that it doesn't get too crazy and yet, it's easy to memorize, and it's big enough that there are some really fun things here are well--like power outages . . .over and over again. This week we had another power outage, the third since I have been in the area.

My companion has been working in two areas. He goes once a week with a zone leader to a town called Sauteña. It's a tiny, tiny town about an hour away. During this time I get the chance to work with the other zone leader.

We have been working a lot with Anahi. She is preparing for her baptism on Friday. She is really really excited to get baptized and she has been waiting patiently for each week to come to church so she can learn, meet new people, and have the three times at church so she can get baptized. She has made a lot of changes in her life and is so excited for Friday!

We have been working to find a lot more people this week. At times, it's difficult to find more people to teach depending on the day and the area. My companion and I have been working really hard to teach and help as many people as we can. We are the leading area in Valle Hermoso this month. As we keep praying and searching for people we are receiving blessings of the great things and miracles of the Lord.

I know this church is true and I know that nothing is better for a personal testimony than a mission! I love you all and I want the best for you!

Oh, I saw my favorite car this week, even though it is going through a hard restoration process, a 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle.

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Love you!
Elder Corom Jones

"Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God's love encompasses us completely. ... He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken."
-Dieter F Uchtdorf

Elder CJones: A Clear Mind and A Spiritual Force

Well, this week I started off on exchanges with two of the three zone leaders in our area. Before I explain too much, I got the permission with one of my zone leaders, from the president, to play on a public basketball team with our bishop and members of the ward! This is one of the reasons we had exchanges, as well. We use these games to contact and find people to teach. After the game, I was talking to one of the two leaders and they were explaining the importance of baptismal dates. He explained it as a goal--like the end of a race. Without a goal or finish line we are working towards no goal. Therefore, I learned a little bit clearer the importance of setting goals and baptismal dates for the investigators.

During the rest of this last week we worked on setting these goals with the investigators and we saw more success as we worked hard. We had 3 investigators come to church, Anahi, one that I talked about last week and 2 new investigators, little girls, Estrella and Alma.

I recognized that as we set goals and work with the investigators with these goals, we will find success because the Spirit and us as missionaries have something to work with. This week, we lead our zone of 14 missionaries!

I know that we as a church have success. This week I finished reading "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder" by the apostle, LeGrand Richards. As I finished, my testimony of the Gospel was strengthened. I know that we are blessed as a church for having the truth and relelation from God. For all who wants to know the message we share as missionaries, I challenge you to read that book to understand the message that we share to the entire world.

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Love you all!
Elder Corom Jones

"The Mormon people teach the American religion; their principles teach the people not only of Heaven and its attendant glories, but how to live so that their social and economic relations with each other are placed on a sound basis. If the people follow the teachings of this Church, nothing can stop their progress — it will be limitless. There have been great movements started in the past but they have died or been modified before they reached maturity. If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known."