Elder HJones: Going well!

Everything has been going really well here! Our zone is doing really well. We have six sectors in our zone. Three of them are working really well and having a lot of success;  three of them aren't having as much, so this week we are going to work with them to have more progress in their areas.

This past week was really good. We are seeing a lot of progress from a family that we are teaching. The Nuñez family. The mother Karen and one of her daughters Coni have already been baptized. Now we are working with Javiera and Camila. They can get baptized on Saturday. Camila might have some problems with some commandments commitments, so this week we are going to teach her and go over the blessings to those commandments so she can receive them when she lives it. Please pray for our friends!

In church yesterday we had eight investigators with us!! Most of them were the family of Karen. They came to see the confirmation. The family is way awesome and we are going to be working more with them during this week.

One thing that we saw last week and something I have learned over the course of my mission is the importance of the members of the church in the mission work. The missionaries need the help of the members. I didn't do much before the mission to help them, but its something that I want to change. It's a invitation that every member should accept. Help the missionaries. Give them references. They can't do it alone.

Les quiero caleta!

Elder EJones: Los Olivios

Hola,

We had cambios this week and I'm in a new area, Los Olivos. The members here are super good and helpful to the missionaries. As we strive to be missionaries in all aspects of our lives we become more like Christ. Seeking out those who don't have the message of the restored gospel, and filling the emptiness with everlasting joy and hope.

Members are just important as the missionaries. As we minister to all those around us, we will become one.

Elder Ulisses Soares gave us three ways to help those not of our faith, or those that are recent converts, or less actives.

1. They need brothers and sisters sincerely interested in them
2. They need an assignment
3. They need to be nourished by the word of God

I know that as we strive to work together we will see the hand of the Lord more in our work and in our lives, I've seen it here and know that the Lord performs miracles and loves each of us.

Elder CJones: 17 Months

Well, this week was a pretty good week. The members began to help us with the missionary work and we began working with lots of references. The weather has gotten hot, like really hot, and it's a blessing when the members help us when it gets hot outside.

The heat really kills us and we have been looking for better ways to work so we aren't out in the sun so much. We thought that the help that we are getting with a few members will help grow the confidence between the rest of the members and is and then we will be able to have greater success.

This last week was Spring Break and the youth in the ward have been helping us reach their friends.

Junior, a young man that was baptized almost two years ago, is planning to serve a mission and he went out with us a couple times this week. He is honestly a really good teacher and understand the doctrine of the gospel so well that I know he will be a great missionary. On Tuesday, he took us  to visit his friend Jaqualine. She accepted a baptismal date and is really excited to come to church and learn more. If you can pray for her that her parents will have a more open heart to the gospel and let her come to church.

We also have been working with the Palomarez family. They are a member family that brought a friend to church and we are now teaching the friend and her two kids. They are really awesome. The mom will be getting baptized this week with her kids, we hope. Her kids are Ezmeralda and Junior, but not the same Junior who is planning to serve a mission haha.

Those are our people that Elder Ancco and I are teaching and focusing on at the moment, we are also trying to find more people to teach and it's getting a lot more difficult with the heat and humidity. Pray that we will be able to find some more people and families that are more willing to listen to the message of God.

So, something really interesting happened yesterday. We had stake conference and it was alright, not too well prepared, but it was good. Afterward, we got a ride to where we were going to eat and we got there before the family did so we waited outside in the shade on a small bench. As the family showed up, we saw a man coming toward us and he wanted to talk to us and we didn't feel the Spirit as he walked up and said that he wanted to talk to us.

At this point in the mission, a drunk is a normal thing to see and I know they always want to talk with us. I would have been fine with a drunk, but this was next level stuff. He started asking us who we were and what we were doing in business suits. We told him we had just returned from stake conference. He started telling us the he was the greatest guy ever and that all he had was thanks to Satan. This guy was a legit Satan worshipper! He rolled us his sleeve and he had a tattooed Satan on his arm and told us a bunch of trash about what he believed. He honestly just wanted to fight with us. We were kind to him even though he went off on a bunch of things. It was a very interesting experience.

Well, I have some really cool news!! Back in August and September, when I was serving in Valle Hermoso with Elder Hernandez, we baptized a mom and her daughter, Flora and Julieta. This week, Julieta will be finishing up her mission papers because when she completes a year in the church she wants to go on a mission!! It is one of the coolest things that you could ever hear, that your convert is not only active and serving in a calling in the church, but that they will be going on a mission!!! I am so excited for her!!

I absolutely love the mission and I know it blesses the life of the missionary and the people! Whoever has the chance to serve, do it!! It will only be the best thing you could ever do!!