Monday, June 30, 2014

Hey!
Well it finally happened! I finally got sent to a new area and got a new companion! I got transfered out of Chosica to Campoy which is pretty much in Lima. It is flat here which is a good change but this week my legs have been more tired than ever and I don't know why. The war I am in is called Mangomarca (you can google maps it if you want). My area is really small but because of that we walk a lot I think. IN my other area we planned our lessons around where the people were according to distance but here we have one lesson at one boundry of the area and another lesson at the other boundry... basically we just walk from one side of the area to the other all day long. This ward is much richer than the other ward! There are actually people in this ward with Cars!! Crazy huh! Basically every house has a computer with interenet! It's a pretty cool area! The one problem with teh area is that we don't have a single investigator with a baptismal date... We don't have any invistigators progressing either... but the good thing is that we found a few new investigators this week that have a chance of progressing. I have faith that if we work hard and pray lots we can get back on our feet.

My companion is Elder Horo from Chimbote, the same city in Peru that Elder De Paz is from. He is 25 and a little wierd. I'm not exactly sure how to describe him. He has glasses and is pretty short. He is brown, has black hair, dark brown eyes that are almost black. Haha! I think I just described most of the people living her in Peru, haha!!! He is good though and wants to help me learn lots. He has the same amount of time as me, 5 months, so we are both still learning lots and improving our teaching everyday. The thing that's hard about him is that he treats me like a baby, haha... it's quite annoying. For example, On saturday, I stepped in some dog crap (which is not uncommon because of the quanitity of dog crap here) because I was walking peacfully down the side walk and he suddenly had a change of thought, nudged me and said "Elder, por aqui"(meanining "Elder, come here") and since we are companions, we have to stick together and so I did what he said and stepped off the side walk because he wanted to go another direction and stepped right in a pile. Then, because I obviously "don't know how to scrape dog crap off my shoe" he says "Elder," (ahh that's all he says, haha) "ven aqui esta un cancha de grass." (Elder, come here onto this piece of grass.) So I scrape some crap off on the sidewalk and follow his advice and use the grass. But just as I start using the grass he pointed and said, "Ven por aqui hay mas grass"(There is more grass here) (ahhh haha what do you want from me!?) haha, anyways the thing is is that he always is telling me what to do, how to do it and where to do it just like I'm a 4 year old child.

Haha anyways I like the story of me stepping in crap and I think that if some comidian was standing there watching us, he would have used that in one of his acts. Hey, what's super cool about his area is that there are 4 missionares in this ward and one of them just happens to be Elder NETZLY!! We live together and he is my district leader! It's pretty sweet! His is cool and he is a super good DL. We have the tiniest room haha, it barely fits 2 twin beds and our desks. It's like 10 feet by 8 feet, litterally.

This week is the last week of President Ardilla and we get our new president on Friday. President Boswell! There are going to be some huge changes here in the mission and hopefully for the better!
My new penchtanista is not nearly as cool and loving as my old one. She is not a member, but the worst part is that at night we barely get any dinner and we are dying of hunger. I've been buying lots of fruit after dinner so I don't die of starvation and so that I don't get fat!
Also, we don't have a hot shower here either but it's really not a big deal and I'm pretty well uesed to it after only a week. Oh yeah, and yesterday we went to a members house, (This member has money) and he is a photographer and a videographer and he took some sweet pictures of my companion and I! They are sweet, but I can't send them today...

That's about it for me! Thanks for all your love and support! Love you! Keep working hard! Don't forget to read and pray and pay your tithing and have family home evening, and always talk about the church!
Thanks!
Love You!!
Love Elder Jones
Hey!!
It sounds like things are super good in ol' Wyoming! Man it really is super weird for me to think about Brad getting married, but I can accept it because that's what I'm going to do when I get home haha! Brad sent me some pictures of Wyoming and I miss Wyoming so much haha. He also sent me som pictures of his work and his adventures with Ken and Tyler and Michael and ahhh how I miss motorcycles and being a person sometimes haha. That's super cool that Sheri and Larry are listening to the missionaries!! I hope that in some small way I helped but I know it's not me, it's simply that the Lord has plans for everybody and this was obviously the time to touch their hearts! Super Cool!!

This week for me was good! On Monday we went to Matucana which is up in the mountains and super pretty! It's not like a jungle or anything but there is grass and there are a couple waterfalls that are really pretty! Man it was super awesome! We hiked up to this waterfall for about an hour and it was tough because it is high elevation and I'm not used to hiking! But I thing the coolest part is that when we got to matucana I saw COWS!!! For the first time on my mission I sas Cows! There are little patches of grass that they feed on in these crazy steep hills and there are little "herders" more or less, that watch over them! It's sweet!
Tuesday was good as well! I believe that most of our lessons fell through but that is normal. I can't remember anything super exciting that happened this week but on Saturday I went on a division with Elder Fernandez, the companion of Elder Rasmussen, which was cool but not a whole lot of fun because we only taught 2 lessons and walked like 20 miles, haha, not really, but we walked a ton, probably like 10 miles...it was rough. The news for this week is that tomorrow is cambios or transfers and I believe for real that I will be leaving this area and will be getting a new companion because I've been in this area longer than normal. It will be interesting to see where I go and who is my new companion! Lately Elder De Paz has been trying my patience quite a bit because he has an attitude a little different and will not talk when he is upset or if something annoys him so a change will be good but it hasn't been bad.
This week I've been reading in the conference Liahona, which has been Sweet! I'm reading to improve my Spanish as well as receive guidance and feel the spirit and while I've been reading there are lots of things that have caught my attention about families. There is one talk given that focuses on the importance of family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening and I know that honestly these things are simple things that don't take much time and not a whole lot of sacrifice but in the long run will bring huge blessings!!! I also know that this is one thing that I say everyweek but it's because it will help strenghten everyone and help bring peace in homes and tons of other blessings!
The other thing that caught my attention in the talks given was about patience. I know that I need more patience in my trials because I have pleanty of them and that I am learning this attribute. I know that each one of us need to develop more patience! Thnks for all the support!! Thanks for the love! I know this Church is True! I know that the Scriptures Help Me Everyday! I love you all!
Love Elder Jones
Hey!
This week was good for me!! Monday was pretty sweet! We had P-Day and we tried climbing a hill in our area but it was super steep and the rock and everything was super looose and dangerous so we came down and went and explored the limits of our area. We explored the cemetary and went to where the houses end and there is litterally nothing for miles but rocks. That was cool. Tuesday was good and so was Wednesday! I can't remember exactly if it was Tuesday or Wednesday but one of these days we felt an earthquake!! It was kind of strong I guess...the strongest I'd ever felt!! It was awesome! Sadly no damage for the people to repent but it was cool! Actually what was cool about the earthquake was that we were knockingon a dorr, rather a piece of plywood wired to a 2x2 stick stuck in the ground, haha, and the family didn't want to have a lesson apparently because they weren't coming out and we could hear them inside the house but then Heavenly Father decided that they needed a lesson and sent us an earthquake and they came out, haha!!! I believe the earthquake lasted like 10 seconds because it was sufficient enough time for the whole family to come down their stairs and leave the house, haha. We had service this week and moved lots of dirt out of a "house" in 5 gallon buckets. I would have to guess that Elder De Paz and I each carried like 75 buckets of dirt out of this house and probably walked like a mile and a half carrying a 5 gallon bucket ull of dirt. It was a work out for sure! We were so tired. I'm not sure how much dirt it was but a good 4 bobcat bucket fulls! haha. Then Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference here in Chosica and we had 70 come. Elder Juaquin Costa and President Ardila also came and talked. It was good! I really enjoyed it. Today we are going to Matucana as a zone. It's about the limit of our zone and is about an hour and a half in bus! Apparently it's green and almost jungle and has waterfalls and stuff! I'm excited! And yep, tha's about if for this week!
I'm a little disappointed on the lack of spiritual experiences this week, haha, but no worries! Keep working hard and keep studying the scriptures. I love you all!!! :)

Monday, June 23, 2014




Hey!!It's winter time here so it's been a little chilly in the mornings haha. Nothing compared to the chill of Wyoming but it's enough that I put my sweater on to study! Luckily we have hot water in our shower so I don't have to freeze that way! Hot showers are awesome!
This week was a little longer for Elder De Paz and I. Monday he was a little upset with me but we got that all settled haha! The rest of the week was just simply long because we don't have any investigators that are progressing and we have Elder Rasmussen breathing down our necks 24/7. We've been working super hard but right now we are learning the lesson of patience and diligence because we know one day our hard work will pay off. Elder De Paz says he hasn't been in an area this tough for a year and he said that before he came to this area he thought his trials of the mission had passed but that's not the case. We had a ton of lessons this week but nobody is progressing. We've been teaching a ton of less activities. Who knows haha. I don't really have any awesome experiences this week but something that's cool is that this morning Elder De Paz said that I was talking in my sleep last night and that I was talking in Spanish...haha. I guess that means that wither my mind is really confused or I am slowly changing to Spanish so that's cool. Anyways keep up the hard work.
Keep working hard, praying, reading the Scriptures, and going to Church and everything will work out great! Love you all and the support you give!

Elder Jones