Friday, May 30, 2014

I haven't gotten bit by a dog this week, but Elder De Paz got bit by the same dog that bit me twice in the last 3 weeks haha! Just his pants though, no skin. This dog is nuts...silent but deadly...!
Hey!
This week was really good! We didn't have P-Day Monday, but we got to write so that was cool. Monday was a pretty blank day really. I don't know if it's just Peru or us but there was nobody around to visit on Monday. We had some lessons though which was good. Tuesday was pretty much the same. We had a lesson with Susana who has a baptism date set for this Saturday!! She is super prepared and is living all the commandments, she has been going to church, reading the scriptures and the pamphlets that we give her and is progressing really well! Wednesday wasn't too bad because more of our lessons or more of the people for the lessons were in their houses. We had a lesson with Andre who has a date for baptism set for this Saturday! On Thursday pretty much all of our lesson fell through but we had a lesson with Sandra who has been going to church as well and is progressing but slowly...Friday was the best day ever! We got to go to the Temple as a zone! The way it was going to work out was that there wouldn't be room in the session for 3 of us new guys in our zone but everybody got to go through!!!! That made me super happy because we only get to go to the temple every 3 months! President was in the Temple with us as well and we got to talk with him and ask him lots of questions! It was awesome! I went through the Temple with Elder Batty as well and got to talk to him! That was cool!! After the Temple we went to the Chapel in La Molina, which is huge and nice haha. We ate lasagna and them played sports until about 5. Then we left and came back to Pierola and ate dinner and our day was finished. It was so much fun! Saturday was good as well, other than pretty well all our lessons fell through. We did meet with 2 less active families and one came to church on Sunday. We also ate steak and french fries and ice cream with Julino! Sunday was really awesome as well! There was hardly anybody at church due to laziness and mother's day so that was a little sad since none of our investigators were there but after church we ate dinner with Ivonne, a member in our area. It was really good and a ton of food!!! Then we went to the Family Shikshi and skyped our families!! That was really really awesome as well!!!! I got cake and skype worked great!! It was so cool to talk to the family! It was awesome!!
My Spanish is improving as well!! I gave a talk in church yesterday as well! I believe that this is my last week here in Pierola... It's actually pretty sad because i really love it here and I love the people! The ward is pretty lazy and the bishop doesn't like to help the ward out much but other than this aspect, I'm going to really miss this area. We have 3 baptisms scheduled for this Saturday and I believe that they will go through! That's about it for this week!
This morning I studied a little bit about hope and learned quite a bit about this attribute! First I learned or realized my idea of hope wasn't completely accurate but i came up with a little definition of hope for myself. "Hope is a knowledge of something good and a desire to one day have that good thing in our lives." -Elder Jones  :)
I'm not sure if that definition is completely accurate or if it makes sense to anybody else but I like it, haha.

I studied in Ether chapter 12 this morning. This chapter is awesome and I think that all can benefit from this chapter! The chapter talks a lot about faith, hope and charity and by studying this chapter I learned how closely intertwined these attributes are.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

This week was a bite free week with the dogs haha!! It's a miracle but the same dog that bit me last week snapped at Elder De Paz this week haha but only got his pants! In about 2 weeks I'll be getting a new companion haha! SO my companion is good. He is a little mean sometimes but I need somebody to get mad and straighten me out haha! He is really good for me! Yep thats about if for this week.

Monday, May 5, 2014

I like clean stuff and I'm kinda collecting a little bit of junk in my apartment. Mostly books but the problem is that I don't have places to put them haha. It will be cool to see the huge change when I come home!
Monday we went to a members house to get a soccer ball and we stayed there for like an hour and a half which was nice because afterwards we were going to play soccer. Then we played soccer and I really don't like soccer. Then Tuesday we had some lessons. Then Wednesday I had divisions with Elder Rasmussen. It was good but we only had 1 lesson because he is already really strict on the rule where there must be an adult make in the hose if we are going to have a lesson and in this part of the world that is practically impossible since every man works until 8 at night. It's a good rule if there are problems with an Elder or other person but it's kind of hard to follow. He interviewed Diego for his baptism as well. Thursday was normal other than we had service in Chosica as a zone. That was fun. We filled bags like grains sacks with sand and gravel and hauled them to the third story of a house for like 2 hours. It was hot! Then Friday was normal. Saturday was pretty awesome!! We studied personally and then went to another zone to do service. I got sun burnt and we had a baptism that night. Diego, who is 12 got baptized! I baptized him as well which was SUPER SUPER Cool!!! Baptism help make all the work worth it! Sunday was good as well. We had 7 non-members from our area at church. I can't really call 4 of them investigators just family of a member but maybe someday they well be investigators. We had lunch in the other missionaries area which was super far away. We are out of money for transportation too. Yesterday we only taught 2 families because nobody was home and I helped one Hermana with her English homework haha. People are always wanting help with English. It's everybody's goal to live in the U.S. one day. It's so sad because everybody wants to so bad but it's so hard to get visas and they don't know English. Most people spend a good couple years here after high school studying English. I am super glad and blessed that I know this language and I live where I live!! Also this Hermana works for a factory that makes the plastic covers for cakes and gets paid 35 soles for 8 hours. That's like 12 dollars!! Her brother works nights and gets 50 soles. That's rough!!!! It's like 2 hours at the fairgrounds.... Anyways other than that not a whole lot has happened. This morning I studied in Alma 7! Alma 7 is a really awesome chapter because I think in versus 23-25 it talks about patience and love and Christlike attributes and the blessings we can receive if we develop these attributes! Also if you want a good spiritual chapter, I really like Alma chapter 5. This chapter is so true!
Love Elder Brent Jones
This week was super great! I got a new companion, Elder De Paz!!!! He is super cool! He is 20 and way more serious and grown up than Elder Lascano! He was converted when he was 10 and he knows so much about the scriptures and the doctrine of the church and I envy this! The toughest part is that he knows so much but when he is explaing things to me and helping me learn more I don't get all the information because of course it's all in Spanish! Probably the best part about his change is that Elder De Paz is way way way more obedient than the other Elders that were in the apartment before! Now I have somebody to wake up with and I'm not tempted to sleep in! Elder De Paz is from Peru and has 16 months in the mission! Also in this change I got a gringo in my apartment!! His name si Elder Rasmussen from Sandy. He has 14 months in the mission and I am grateful for him as well to help explain things to me! He is way strict with the rules, letter of the law, which is good but it's a complete change from Elder Lascano and Elder Cuadra. (by the way I have a story to tell you about Elder Cuadra but due to time and I'll it to you later, it's intense!) This new change has been great! Let's see, Monday was our P day of course and it was a huge bummer in all truth. We wrote our families and then went back to the apartment so Elder Lascano could write his convert...a birthday card... then we went to chosica and printed some more pictures and then went to the post office to mail a letter for Elder Lascano. Then we waited for his convert's mom for like an hour... and then we went to a meat market in chosica! Haha try to imagine that!! And then we ate chicken and french fries at a resteraunt with them for like 3 hours. In total we spent like 4.5 hours with this family! It was ridiculous! Then we had a couple lessons that night. Tuesday was cambios (transfers) and so i went to La Molina with Elder Lascano and picked up Elder De Paz. We had some lessons to which were good! Wednesday we had some sweet lessons and committed Pamela to Baptism on the 19th!!! She is so ready! Her sister is a member and right now she is living with her sister! She may have cancer or some ailment so that prepares her even more! She understands total! Then Thursday we had some more lessons and committed 2 more people for baptism on the 10th of May!!! It was a mom and her daughter. Friday was good too and so was Saturday! Sunday was sweet too because this one kid that Elder Lascano and I stopped working with due to our laziness came to church so we went to his house and visited with him and his dad and set a baptism date for 26 of April! His dad was awesome. He was laying down the law about how he needs to read the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon instead of going out and playing and how he needs to make sure he goes to church every sunday because this is a big choice he is making!! The crazy thing is that his dad is catholic and doesn't want to change! Yep, that's my week! It's crazy the success you can have when you work hard and have the spirit and are obedient and have awesome companions!! This week I was studying in the scriptures and this morning I did a little studying for the family and came across a scripture in Mosiah 3:13. This scripture talks about prophets and how we need to follow them and how they are called for us!
Love Elder Jones