Elder HJones: 2019!!!

So we are starting to see more progress in our area. We have found more people that have the desire to learn more and follow Christ! But the sad thing is, I am leaving. We had transfers. But the transfer is really small. I will be in the same branch, and will just be changing areas. My new companion is Elder Ambao from the Phillipians (thinking maybe I can learn a third language...??).

This past transfer was a little difficult. We worked a ton but didn't see the progress that we wanted to see. We found some awesome people and families, but they didn't progress and didn't want to act. Sometimes its frustrating when you do everything you can and they still don't want anything. But I'm sure that's how God feels. He does everything in His power to help us. He answers prayers, sends revelation, send other people to help us. But in the end we have agency. God can do everything in His power to help us, but we have to accept it and do it.

But now I am excited to be in a new area and find new people to teach!

Elder ZJones: Happy New Year 2019!!!

So we had transfers this past week. I am still in the same area with Elder Burk. We are staying together. I am excited! We get along and he works hard, so it has been fun.

This past week we baptized Bruno and Julieta which was a blessing. There dad came right when they were getting baptized. He is a less active but he wanted him kids to be baptized. We are hoping that this will be the first step of helping him to come back to church!!

We are teaching 3 families.
1. Familia Salinas. There are 3 in the family. A single mom with 2 girls. The Mom came to church with us, the others weren't there. But she has a kiosko. She hasn't been getting many who are buying. We promised her that if they come to church they will have people who will buy from them. She came and loved it. She was participating and everything. Pray for them, Cecilia, Martina, and Delfina.

2. Familia Castro. Sebastian, Monica, Alexander, and Aylen. They have come to church with us. They love talking with us and learning. They don't have such a great desire to read The Book of Mormon though or be baptized. Pray they they will pray so that they will know that there family can be eternal.

3. Familia Guzman. Santos, Graciels and they have 3 younger kids. They absolutely love church. When we went by on Sunday to wake them up and pick them up, they were already walking to get on a bus. We were contacting somebody and they ran passed us so that they could get on the bus and get to church. Santos is going to Bolivia for 2 weeks. They want to get baptized but want to wait. Pray they they will feel and know of the blessings that they will receive if they are baptized!

Happy New Year!!!! I am excited for a new year. I told my companion that 2018 was the best year of my life. It is the only year during my life that I served God all year without worrying about other things!! I am pumped for 2019 and can't wait to help more people come unto Him!

Have a Wonderfilled New years!! Love you!!

Elder EJones: Happy New Year!

Where do I start?

This week was so amazing being able to see all of my family and to talk to them. That was the best Christmas gift!!

This week has been good, hot and rainy. Lots of our appointments this week fell through and so we did a lot of contacting. Literally, contacting is not the funnest especially because it's so hard to find some people that will actually be there when you say you're gonna return. And I need to remember to keep my teaching simple. Very simple. Because it's difficult to understand the gospel when you don'y know it. It makes me realize how spiritually weak I am compared to the Savior, and I can't be impatient with people, because I know the Savior isn't impatient with me.

So this week we finally got the Liahona from General Conference. Yay! And I have modified my daily reminder, the first part remains the same, but I have added another line (phrase) from this conference. So I have October 2017 and October 2018 in one....

REMEMBER TO PUT JESUS CHRIST AT THE CENTER OF YOUR LIFE TODAY....BY BEING WILLING TO TAKE HIS NAME UPON YOU

I'm trying to be better and strive to live and love every moment in my mission. It's really hard sometimes to be completely focused, but I'm setting more and more goals, and New Year goals: to improve and to become the servant of the Lord that He needs me to be; to help gather Israel and do what I've always wanted to do; to be a missionary; and here I am, so I'm trying to not waste one moment.

Lots of fireworks, drunk people, parties, and not a lot of people in their houses is what happens here for Christmas and New Year's. But things are good, and my goals for 2019 are motivating me right now!!

Elder EJones: Conferencia de Navidad

This week we had our Christmas conference with President Rodriguez and his wife. Presidente talked about the importance of having faith in Jesus Christ. To have faith in Him as the Son of God, to have faith that God is our Heavenly Father, and to have faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We can't have faith if were not willing to act. Not willing to change to become more like Jesus Christ.

And what better time do we have then to come unto Jesus Christ now? The Spirit of Christmas isn't in the snow, it's not in the traditions, the food, or the music. The Spirit of Christmas is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the gift the Lord gave us. I know that as we give as he gave, we will find joy in Christ. Joy in his birth, and in the restored Gospel.

In Spanglish....Christmas....CHRIST-mas (more Christ).

Elder EJones: It's NOT Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Another week down, and they just keep getting faster it seems like. Things with Elder Bello are really good!! We are getting along really well together. He speaks English and is basically fluent so the fun thing is to talk with him in Spanish and he responds in English and everyone looks at us weird in the trufis and micros and stuff haha. And yes, we are working hard and trying to find and talk to more and more people everyday.

Christmas in [summer] is something else. Eating watermelon and mangoes and things like that makes it feel more like the 4th of July here and not like Christmas. But it's really good. I think here there's lots of fireworks and stuff on Christmas. People do have Christmas trees and lights and stuff here so that's pretty cool.

The food here is good. Lots of rice and chicken so that means lots of mass, so eating less and working out more in the mornings helps to stay healthier from all the rice we eat. jaja.

This week I learned more about faith. Faith is sincere and lasting repentance. To be sincere is to have meaningful, full purpose of heart in repentance. Lasting repentance is that we continue to repent day by day, and continue to change to align our lives more with the Lord. Literally with faith we can do all things with the Lord. We have to be willing to have faith, and act on that faith to receive the answers in the Lord in his time.

I know that Christ lives and loves me. He wants me to come unto him and I can as I exercise faith in him and strive to be better daily!!

This week were were able to baptize Olga Rodriguez. She has been progressing and learning since a few weeks before I got here to El Quior 2. I have been able to see the power of the Lord work in our area with investigators like her.

The Lord is willing to bless us as we are willing to follow his example to keep his commandments. He gave the commandments,

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

As we love the Lord with all our hearts, we are willing to follow him and keep all his commandments. We can find true happiness as we do so, and true joy that we want to and are willing to share!! Merry Christmas!

Love you,
Elder Jones

Elder HJones: Miracles Come by the Spirit

 

So I can tell you guys right now that it is not beginning to look a lot like Christmas. It's super hot here and it doesn't feel anything like December. But there are lights and decorations, so it helps a little.

So last week, was had the awesome opportunity to baptize two individuals. Sebastian and Angel. They are way awesome and were literally answers to our prayers. I am so grateful that God really does here our prayers and helps when we call to Him.

And we had our Christmas conference with President this week. It was really awesome. We talked about the Spirit and the role he plays in the work. We talked a lot about how the Spirit is the teacher, we a missionaries are the instruments to help the people feel the Spirit, and the people are the ones that accept him and follow through with their promptings. If we work side by side with the Spirit, that is when we see miracles. 

Feliz Navidad!

Elder Jones

Elder EJones: The Waters of Baptism

And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts.

This week Elder Reyes and I had the opportunity to baptize sisters. It was cool to witness the power of baptism and the Holy Ghost in the lives of those that we teach. baptism is the gate in which we enter to receive the blessings of Christ in our lives. To learn to be a light, and to represent Jesus Christ at all times. The gospel is true and Christ is the way.

Love you,
Elder Jones

P.S. Random side note...so Elder Reyes and I sang "Peace in Christ" this week at the baptism. Elder Reyes sang a verse in English; I sang another in Spanish; and then we sang together. It was pretty cool even though the both of us cannot sing. The first counselor in the bishopric was there and he was sick, with his whole body hurting. The next day, in sacrament meeting, the last thing he said after all the talks was that he went to the baptism in pain. Then, looking directly at me said, (in Spanish, of course," "But the elders sang a musical number and one of them had an amazing voice and in the moment he started singing my pain went away." It was kinda cool to hear that.

Elder ZJones: God is Good!

At the Buenos Aires Temple

This week has been crazy!

To start off, we baptized Lorena and Aylen this past Friday! It was a blessing to see there desire and the love they felt after they received the Holy Ghost. We will be planning on helping Gabriel and his little brother, Juan Pablo, to be baptized this week. Pray for them that they will continue to change and love the gospel.

Baptism of Lorena y Aylen

So we had Stake Conference this past Sunday. Our ward is big so they divided one ward into two. There were six missionaries here in the area of Gral. Rodriguez. They took out a pair of elders, brought in the sisters from our area and put us in the other side of Gral. Rodriguez. So we will be working to find new people to teach and trying hard to help the new ward that we will be in. It was require some work to take it all in, in the beginning, but we know that God knows better than we do and that He can bless many peoples lives as we find them.

There is a part member family with two kids that want to be baptized. Right now, the Father doesn't have a big desire like the kids. Please pray for him that the his two children, Bruno and Julieta can be baptized  this weekend!

Some fun news: So a missionary who served in Antofagasta, Chile, who served in the same mission as Hyrum,  just finished his mission. He is from my old area and during stake conference, I got to meet and talk with him. He said that Hyrum and I look exactly the same (like everyone does) and we got to talk for a little bit about him and the mission. It was a cool experience and one to remember.

Hermano/Elder Sequira

Thanks for everything! Love you all!

Elder Jones

Elder HJones: Tender Mercies

A funny story to start out. Last Saturday I was teaching an English class to some of our new friends. They asked me to pray in English. And to be completely honest, it was hard. Every time I prayed out loud, I pray in Spanish. I am not used to praying in English. So during the prayer, I wanted to speak in English but Spanish words left my mouth. I guess I need to practice now. haha

So this week was a big improvement in our area. When I arrived here two weeks ago we didn't see much progress. It was really different from my past areas and it was a little more difficult to see the progress that I wanted to see. But we have worked hard and we continue working hard and now we are started to see more progress in our area.

I was thinking about the things that we do to see the success and miracles from God. And I thought of three simple things that we do to see miracles from our Father in Heaven.
1. Diligence
2. Obedience
3. Trust in God

These three things are very important. Sometimes they are difficult to have. Sometimes everything fights against you and makes it almost impossible do them. But I have seen in the mission that nothing is impossible. If we do these three things, miracles will come. This weekend we are planning on baptizing two people. Sebastiana and Angel. Please pray for them. that they can continue progressing this week and that they can stay firm to their decision.

Something else I have learned here is that it is important for the missionaries to "win" the trust of our leaders. The other day, we passed by the house of the branch presidente. I hadn't talked with him a lot before,  and I had the impression to pass by to talk with him, ask him if he needed any help. We only talked with him for  5-7 minutes. We shared a scripture with him. And before we left, he expressed his gratitude to us for passing by to talk with him. He said that it had been a while since the missionaries have stopped by his house to talk with him and to ask if he needed help with anything. And now I can feel that he trusts us more. Because, in reality, we are on the same team. We are working towards the same purpose. So that was pretty cool this week. And yesterday he was talking with us quite a bit and I can tell that everything is going well between us.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder ZJones: The Temple

This week was awesome! We are helping a the Vergara Family! And they are doing really well. We are preparing Lorena, Gabriel, and Aylen to be baptized this week! We are excited for them because my companion and I have seen such a big change in them. In the beginning, Gabriel didn't really believe in God. After reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and sharing with his brother, he now believes in God. Aylen bore her testimony yesterday at church. She knows the church is true.

We have stake conference on Sunday. There are about 150 people that come to church, so they will be dividing  the ward. Our area is close to the church and the area of the sisters will change. We are hoping that we don't lose everything with the division! haha

Elder Burk and I went to the temple on Thursday-- it was the first time in 14 months and it was awesome! Presidente Resek wanted all the leaders to go to receive revelation and to prepare themselves for this last month of the year. It was a blessing to be able to go to the temple and feel of the Spirit to know exactly what my companion and I can do to help  the zone! I know this is God's church and that He loves us!

We want to find families this Christmas season to help families come unto Christ! Pray for us and the zone!

Elder Jones