I don't have a lot of time to write by my companion is a good kid, but a kid, not a man haha. Life is good. I don't have a favorite food because all I eat is rice, potatoes and chicken but I love the fruit here. They have all sorts of different fruit. My favorite are the little bananas that are like half or quarter the size of a regular banana. They are so tasty! They flavor things differently and use more oil in their cooking. I like all the food but the fruit is my favorite. I also love granadillas. You should look for them in the stores because they are starting to sell them in the U.S. now according to one of my teachers in the CCM.

A MUST Read Letter

Nothing is the same here. The people act weird, look weird, smell weird and even taste weird...haha. I don't get to look in the mirror very often so when I do, I just about have a heart attack because I am white and have blonde hair and blue eyes haha. Everyday I have people that stare at me when I walk down the street. Families that can't get over the fact that I have ojos azules (blue eyes), and little girls that love to say HELLO because it's in English or people that love saying GOOD AFTERNOON because it's in English too. The people are crazy...

A Better Week

This week was so much better!! Last week was like the hardest least fun week of my life but this week was honestly no bad at all!! Getting a Pday was super nice and I definitely needed one! I thought a lot less of home this week and that made it easier because home is seriously the most awesome place in the world but everyday I get more and more used to this place. Latino companions are rough as well and I'm sure you can testify of that too. Last Monday we went to a members house with the other Elders in our district and ate lasagna and it was so so good! I fell asleep on their couch waiting for them to finish preparing the food and that was nice. When I'm at members houses I feel more at home too because they are generally a little cleaner and way more friendly and love the missionaries. On Tuesday we taught some people but I can't remember who at the moment and same for Wednesday and Thursday. We have a little group of investigators we have been teaching but it would take too much time to remember all their names and write them .On Friday Elder Martinez, (Ever is his first name haha and he is in the other companionship in the Pierola ward and lives in our apartment too) anyways, we got to go to Lima to Immigrations! We had to get up a 4 and shower so we could make it too La Molina by 6:15 but we got up and the shower barely had a little trickle of water and the heater wasn't working either so we kind of had showers. Then we went to Lima and when we got to immigrations, I saw a few gringos from the CCM, my Comp. Elder Sitton and 2 hermanas. They were looking so rough! They were like depressed and hating life haha. I was doing pretty well but they weren't. I cheered them up a little though. I was fun to talk to them and they have much easier living conditions than I have. We got to eat Chineese food too! Then on Saturday, we had some apartments set up, but then the people were gone so we went to one investigator's house and she was busy preparing for whycol...(when it rains and the mud and rocks come down the mountain and flood the houses and streets and fill the river with lots of water and mud and trees. I guess it's pretty serious) so she said she couldn't come to church but I told Elder Lascano we could go do some service because we had nothing else to do so we wnet and filled sand bags in our church clothes haha. The pile of sand was down about 12 feet or so and Angelica's nephew was carrying buckets of sad up a ladder and filling the sand bags. I carried a couple buckets up the ladder bu mostly just carried the buckets over the treacherous trash haha. We worked there for like an hour and a half and filled like 20 sandbags haha. It was a slow process. I'm slowly learning how much  of an immature little child Elder Lascano is haha. It takes so much patience! It was funny to me that he couldn't even shovel sand. That was a nice change though. Sunday was pretty normal, not much happened. We live on a hill and our penchtanista lives like a mile away so we usually walk down there 2 times a day to eat but lots f the times we don't have time so we get a taxi or we have the other elders bring our food up to us. It took Hermana Bety like 5 days to get my laundry done this week because of all the rain we've been having so I had to wear my shirts like 3 days in a row nad garments 2.. haha and I still haven't gotten my socks back...a week later so I've been wearing the dirty ones again. We have some crazy eating conditions too and our laundry is done in a bucket and laundry tub it;s so crazy. They come back clean, I don't know how but they do. I bought some new Spanish scriptures at the distribution this week was 97 soles!! We get 87 personal soles for snacks and soap and stuff per month. (30 Dollars)!! So far I've used like 10 soles, so I'm in good shape for a while. I used my debit for the scriptures. Things are much better! No need to worry haha. I'm sure that they well continue to get better with time as well.
I sleep fine in the field but when I was sitting all day long in the CCM, I couldn't sleep at all! It was terrible. I still want some candy and chocolate and maybe a good jump rope for morning exercise. I bet if you go to a sports store somewhere, you can find a good one. I prefer one with bearings on the handles and like a cable rope but whatever. One of the Hermanas in the CCM had a really nice one like that. Life her is crazy but good. Thanks for the support and the love! Hopefully I can send some pics, but the computers are slow so maybe not haha. Thanks! Love you all!

All People in Lima Peru CCM

Rama Manti:

Elder Pond, Elder Jones, Elder Sitton, Elder Foster. 

Hna. Cunningham, Hna. Mahas, Hna. Smith, Hna. Flora.

 Hna. Riverin, Hna. Huish, Hna. Hubert, Hna. Bowers, Hna. Kingsford

Pdte. González, Hna. González

Rama Zarahemla:

Elder Velarde, Elder Garcia, Elder Vanegas, Elder Temporelli, Elder Lazo, Elder Yegros, Elder Morno, Elder Sosa

Elder Martinez, Elder Tello, Elder Bonilla, Elder Gomez, Elder Pardo, Elder Blanco, Elder Balderrama, Elder Batista.

Hna. Perfecto, Hna. Simons, Hna. Cano, Hna. Perez, Hna. Guachalla, Hna. Lopez

Pdte. González, Hna. González

Abundancia:

Elder Sinuiri, Elder Esteban, Elder Murillo, Elder Zegarra, Elder Ortega, Elder Castillo, Elder Farfan,

 Elder Rosales

Elder Fernandez, Elder Galindo, Elder martinez, Elder Correa, Elder Naranjo, Elder Igarza, Elder Sepulveda

Hna. Ponce, Hna. Guachalla, Hna Aquino, Hna. Medina, Hna. Tacconi, Hna. Flores

Pdte. González, Hna. González

Hermana Zambrano, Hermana Milano, Hermana González, Presidente González, Elder Galindo, 

Elder Bobadilla.

First Week Out of the CCM

The last two weeks have been absolutely crazy!! I finally made it out of the CCM which was nice but I kinda wish I was back in there because it was so easy and I didn't have to worry about a thing and there were other gringos and I could speak English and, well lots of things. I'm not going to lie, the mission life is hard. It's actually super hard. Peru is crazy and all the people here are crazy. I haven't adjusted to the Peru world yet but hopefully I will soon. I just can't understand how these people live like they do. This past Thursday, Saturday and Sunday were rough because I've been tired and getting used to my new companion is difficult because he is way different than the gringos in the CCM. I really do like him but like any trainer or senior companion, he feels the need to boss me around all the time and that's hard to get used to. The weather has been really hot and the air is extremely smoggy. Due to the dirty air and the elevation and the climate, I've developed some sort of cold in my head and chest and lost my voice for like 3 days haha. But yesterday at church there was a lady visiting from Arizona (I think she is dating one of the older fellows in our ward) anyways, she gave me some vitamins and some cold medicine and I finally got my voice back. I can function and do pretty much everything I need to do. The food here is pretty good but I like mom's cooking better. We have a penchtinista (the sister who cooks for us) named Hermana Bety. She is a nice older lady that gives us lots of food and I appreciate that. She lives down by the river and we live up on the hill so we walk a good 3/4 mile to her house to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. She doesn't have much of a house honestly and at first it was scary to eat there, but I'm getting used to it. She has a dirt floor with a little table for us 4 missionaries and then out in back of her house about 15 feet away is the river, which of course is really really dirty and gross. Out back is where we do our dishes in tubs of water. Everything is really dirty but as of today, I've been holding up to it. Yesterday was super rough because it was fast Sunday and with being sick, I had no energy and was about to die so I wasn't in the most cheerful of moods. Plus it was hard to talk to people since I didn't have a voice but then the Bishop gave my companion and I a blessing and the rest of the day was great!
My companions name is Elder Lascano. He is from Equator and turned 18 in November. He has only been out 3 months, only about a month and a half longer than me, and he is training me. He is not the most mature Elder and it makes it difficult sometimes and less difficult other times. He knows a little english so that helps as well. There are 4 missionaries in our ward. Elder Martinez, Cuadra, Lascano, and I. Elder Lascano and I have one side of the canal and the other Elders have the other side. We climb hills of dirt and dog crap all day long. Our ward is called Pierola and we are in the Chosica stake. Our apartment is on a hill and a corner so it is really noisy all the time. They don't believe in mufflers in Peru and the honk their horns at every corner because they don't have stop signs. The first night was rough. My Spanish is coming along. I can pretty much understand everything if I pay attention. Speaking is a little slower but I can get my point across.
 Life is good. It's super enjoyable when we are working and talking to other people. Oh yeah! We taught 30 lessons this week. From Tuesday night to Sunday night!!! Crazy huh!! We have a few committed to baptism and have a ton of new investigators. Thanks for everything! I love you so so much! Be safe and keep working hard!!

Elder Jones' Birthday

Today is nuts!! I don't even know if I have an hour to write!! I got up at 5:30 and did my laundry and took a shower because breakfast was at 6:15 and then we went to the temple at 6:40 and then we had like an hour to shop so Elder Sitton and I took 3 Hermanas to the grocery store and one of the ATMs ate Hermana Smiths card so we had to go to the bank and the machine shredded the card. I feel so bad for her. Then we rode the bus back and got back on time though. Then I changed out of my sweaty suit and snarfed down some food and the lunch ladies gave me a little cup cake!! I also got 2 ice cream cones!! I am so stuffed. That was all about 10 minutes ago. At 1:00 we have to go to immigrations and do something... they seriously stink at planning around this place. It's been a mess. We got a new President at the CCM like 4 weeks ago and he doesn't know what's going on and so Elder Sitton and I have been trying to help him figure things out. It's funny though since we're zone leaders, we are in charge of a bunch of stuff like devotionals but there is a set of Latino zone leaders as well who don't know a thing so the President tells us one thing to do and then we do it and then the other zone leaders think they're supposed to do it so then it gets all mixed up. Haha, I'm pretty sure the secretary hates elder Sitton and I because every time we go to her office, something got miscommunicated and we take the brunt of it. It's tough because the Pres. doesn't speak English or not much anyway and his wife does so there is like a chain from us to the secretary to the Pres. or through his wife. It's so crazy. I'm excited to get out of here in a week!! I can't speak Spanish but I can get my ideas across most of the time but this place is just getting old. The new gringos are sick of it as well and yesterday was their first day haha. Elder Sitton and I get to know quite a few people because we go and introduce ourselves to them and answer a bunch of their questions. It's fun! There is one girl from Smithfield who knows Shayla but I have no idea what her name is. I haven't taken any pictures this week but I'll take a pic. of my list of all the people here at the CCM and send it to you sometime. There are like 12 Elders and like 30 Hermanas..gringos.This is one of the crazies birthdays I've had!! Oh Yeah!, I gave one of the Hermanas a blessing the other night and afterwards she told me that I said a line in her Patriarticle Blessing!! That was super awesome and spirtual. I'm so excited to get out of here!! Next time I write you I'll be somewhere else haha but I don't know where! Thanks!! Love You!

Love
Elder Jones

Spanish is nuts!! I can pretty much carry on a conversation which is really amazing for only being here 5 weeks!! The Lord really helps you when you try hard. The Gospel is truly amazing! It's pretty sad, there are 2 elders in my district who don't try and one doesn't have any desire to serve and is really prideful and everybody dislikes him and he knows like 10 words. No joke...so sad. Elder Sitton and I are zone leaders and it's lots of fun but kind of frustrating. We didn't get any instruction on how to do anything. Also I gave m first talk in Spanish on Sunday. It was really good. The Lord really helped me! Make sure you eat all your food because I'm seriously the only North American here that cleans their plate and when others don't it really annoys me. There are a ton of starving people here and every little bit counts. Keep up the good work.