WEEK 25

hola!

yep that's right, week 25 here in good old San Pedro! Transfers were today, and it looks like this area just can't get rid of me, I'll be here for at least another 6 weeks. I'M SO HAPPY ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Me and Hna P are gonna tear it up this transfer.

Sad news...............................J: we got a text from him on sunday night that said he can't be baptized because his dad doesn't think he is ready :( but it's ok, we are going over there tonight to reassure him that this is the right thing and that his padre celestial will tell him if he is ready or not.

Really embarrassing moment this week. We were eating at a member's house with some investigators, and I ran upstairs to go to the bathroom. Their house is like 150 years old and the steps are really slippery, and many people (my comp, ward mission leader, and several others) have been known to fall on the stairs. Anyways they were going to start eating so I ran down the stairs (which are right next to the dining room table, and totally fell down the WHOLE FLIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! It was like I was a kid in a sleeping bag sliding down the stairs all over again, just missionary style. So embarrassing. There are still times when I will be praying and my comp will just start busting up and then after the prayer I ask her why she is laughing and then she just says that she was just picturing me fall down the stairs again....oy yoy yoy. so embarrassing!

We had a really fun family home evening at the R's this week with G and E! It was really fun, we watched The restoration video and then played a little game and ate some gluten free banana bread. I will attach a few pics

We were able to see a less active this week, Hermana T, and usually she is very quiet and doesn't talk much at all (which is weird for the Mexican culture, usually they can talk for DAYS). Anyways we taught her the restoration and afterwards she opened up a lot and told us that she really is trying to com eback to church and that she wants to, and so she has been taking small steps to get back, it was super awesome that she finally opened up to us!

So there is this lady named T. She is from Chicago and has the cutest little family ever. She calls us "her girls" and loves us so much. her fiancé just got out of jail and they are planning on getting married and then they want to get baptized, so we are excited to see where that goes. She is the funniest person I have ever met, and her prayers are to die for. She loves praying and, she has been known to pray more than twice in one lesson. funny lady.

B is doing so good, best little missionary ever! He just wants to share it with everyone and invites everyone to church, even if he doesn't know them! And he stands up to his friends when they make fun of his religion and just tells them that "They haven't read the Mormon Book" (I have never once heard him call it the book of Mormon haha) It's super gratifying to see one of your converts continue to be so active in the church and fulfilling their calling and doing missionary work! I love little B!

So today we went to New Ulm, and of course I took a picture by the sign so I will send that in the email! It is different than the one on the movie, but it's still cool. The town is basically all germans, and so all the stores and signs and everything is in German. It's kinda cool. so the sign said "welcome to New ulm" just in german.

We ate dinner at the church here in town called "Jesus Assembly of God" and so that's what the other picture is, those signs were ALL OVER the bathroom, like 3 in every stall haha. Our investigator A invited us there. He likes meeting with us because he wants to know why people think Mormons are so crazy. But now he knows that we are not and told me that when I told him that I know God is our heavenly father that he felt a barrier break down and that he knew what I was saying is true and that he just didn't understand other people and why they didn't like us. It was a cool moment. Then One of the pastors there, pastor B, asked Adam why he was hanging out with us, and he told him that we were very nice and told him good things about God and pastor B was all "It's all a trick. They send the pretty ones out to trick you, stay away from them" right in front of our face! I just felt sad for people who won't even give the truth a chance. Oh well, we will just find the ones who are LISTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well that's all for this week, va pues!

Hermana Jones

"Do you carry tasers or a hand gun?"

Yep we got asked that question this week! When we knock on white people's doors, they almost always look at us like we are aliens and they look so afraid of us...which I don't understand why because we don't look threatening at all...but anyways, we knocked on this guys door this week, and the first thing he asks is "Do you carry a taser or a hand gun?" with this frightened look on his face hahaha some people. But we taught the guy a restoration and we are going back to see him tonight!

BEST THING EVER HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!! So there is a less active in the ward named E. She has had a hard life, and she got baptized last may. Anyways she is dating this guy who used to worship the devil (he was still a part of that religion when I first got to the area but now he isn't a part of it), but he still wouldn't let her go to church or let us come over or anything. We even tried to get her to come joint teaching but he wouldn't let her. Anyways his heart has softened A TON and he has come to church the past 3 weeks with her. And then we invited them to a member's home to have a lesson this week, and they came!! So she brought all her kids and they played with the D's kids and we taught A (the esposo of E)  the restauracion, it was awesome! We are planning on going this Saturday to have a fhe activity with the families.

Later that day we had a "cottage meeting" idk if they have those in Utah but the first time I ever heard of it was here....so the members invite their friends or family or whoever and other members and the missionaries invite their investigators and we just have some snacks and socialize and then the missionaries share a gospel message. so we had one this week at the T's, and it was a success I guess you could say. Haha like 10 members on 2 investigators. It was fun though! J and T were the investigators, and they stayed until 10 talking with the T's, so that was pretty cool. Seems like they had a good time. Hermano C is just too generous sometimes......I think I told you about the bike situation, but I can't remember. Long story short, Hermana P didn't have a bike, and Hna W left her's at Hno. C's because she knew he would take it, so I figured maybe hna P could use it. She can buy another bike, but that was an option. So we ask hno C, and he told us no, but then went and BOUGHT hna p a bike and she wouldn't accept it because it was way too nice of him and she felt like she was taking advantage of his niceness....anyways she ended up accepting the bike. So basically hno C is just too nice. So to the cottage meeting he brought 15 frozen pizzas, 4 gallons of ice creams, 2 cases of water, 3 boxes of hi-c, and silverware and plates.....hahaha all for the 12 of us that were there. We got to take a lot of the pizzas home though so that was nice!

We taught this girl who goes to Gustavus named A this week, and she was super tight! I love working with college age kids! She asked us our first names, and after a lot of convincing we finally told her (I know, it's bad but I really felt like she was my friend and like we knew each other before this life) and in the closing prayer, she was like "I'm grateful for my friends Sarah and I..." and then some other stuff but it was kind of nice to be called Sarah again, a little weird, but I liked it.

So we taught R this week, this nice jarocho, and he brought his Guatemalan friend M along! R had to work this Sunday, but M came to church! He told us he will come again next week, he is super awesome and always wears wife beaters, even to church. Last week R came to church, and it's super awesome because he told us he hasn't missed work in 5 years, but he skipped work last Sunday to try church out, and it was the first time in 5 years!

It's kind of bad, I have always been a bad giggler, but I can always keep it under control unless I am with another giggler. And Hermana P is a giggler. Sometimes we just laugh over the stupidest things and can't stop FOREVER and it is so embarrassing, especially in serious times. I always just sit there and pray for help from Heavenly Father so I don't offend anyone. But it is also a blessing because we can always laugh in any situation, which helps me a lot and that I didn't get to do a lot with my other comps.

Well that's all that I can think of to talk about, thanks for all the support guys!!!!

odele pues

Hermana jones

"they gonna be on bikes, they gonna ride their skates to California​!"

hola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the title of this comes from this black lady from Chicago we are teaching. We had just finished saying the opening prayer, and her little 9 month old had crawled in the room, and she shouted at him "they gon be on bikes, the gonna ride their skates to California!!!" haha I have no idea why

Well mom sounds like you got the picture of C and E! We were teaching them a while back, but they weren't progressing. however, we went over to see how they were doing and invite them to take English classes from Elder and Sister C, and they were super happy that we came over. So we went to their house with the C's to teach English, and C basically invited himself to church, and I had to do a double take, because we had tried SO MANY TIMES to get them to come to church, and for some reason, he just decided it was the time! so guess what, him and his wife came yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! milagro!!!!!!!

Oh so guess who else came to church??? G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He got work off!! And came!! His prayers are so cute and special, so I asked him to say the closing prayer in sunday school, and it was amazing, he talked about how grateful he was for us and he told heavenly father that he loved how he was feeling and wanted to keep coming back to church! He has a set work schedule, and they are changing it around so he doesn't know if he will have sunday off every week, but we are praying that he does. He is such a great little person!! If he can come two more times, he will be baptized march 22nd WOOOOOO!!!!!

We have been teaching these kids out in Madelia, J, W and W, for a LONG time, before I even got here. It has been really inconsistent though. And it has been so hard to get them to church. but we have been getting J to weekly activities and church, and we taught him this week, and set a baptisimal date! He will be baptized the 22nd as well!!!!!!!!!!! He is kind of like G, like they just have this humble spirit to them. When you around them, you just feel good. he will get a great addition to the church, and great future missionary! estoy tan animada!!!!!!

So last sunday we were tracting, and knocked on this guy named J's door. We taught him the restoration, and it didn't seem like anything too out of the ordinary, but then we met with him and his friend a little later that week, and J said that he had prayed and received the greatest feeling in the world that this was what he needed to do with his life, and so he is planning to be baptized on the 22nd as well!!! It depends on if he can come to church every sunday until then, but he wants this and loves church! We have been having a good week.

Sometimes being a missionary is super hard. We have been trying to get members more involved here in St. Peter (there are only 2 member families here) and we had so many great things set up for this Tuesday. Someone was going to take G to institute, someone was going to have an investigator over for dinner, and we were going to teach a restoration with a member, so it was going to be an awesome day, and then all the investigators fell through. We got pretty discouraged because no matter how hard we were trying, it just wasn't working. anyways, then we saw SO MANY miracles later on throughout the week, and so I don't know what the Lord is trying to teach us right now, but I guess when things look like they are just completely falling apart, something great can happen! We had 7 people at church (which is really good for the area), and the zone leaders told us that was more than the whole zone combined!

I love Jarochos. We met a lot this week, and they make these really good dulce things. They look like a tortilla but they are sweet and you put azucar and canela on them....mmmmm! oh, and I found someone who can make tortillas better than café rio...yep E!!!!!!! I want her to teach me, because they were so yummy! And ya'll know how much I love café rio tortillas......We taught D this week and ate dinner with him at the R's. It was so funny because D burped really loud while we were eating dinner and I don't think he knows that that is bad manners here in the USA but I was laughing so hard inside, and then I couldn't handle it anymore so I went to the bathroom, and just laughed for like 3 minutes and then got my composure again and went out. hahahaha its a good thing that my comp doesn't mind burping, in fact, she does it too! We have burping contests (in the apt of course)

Today we ate at El agave, and it was so good. I love it, everyone who works there knows us so they always talk to us in Spanish and everything, it is the best

well I think that's it for the week. Things are still cold, we were tracting in -10 plus wind chill the other night.....wooo!

Hermana Jones

Hola

hola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For some reason I was super excited to email this week, even though I don't have much to say

SO CHURCH YESTERDAY WAS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J came!!!!! He is this super cool kid. I've been teaching him my whole time here, off and on. He lives really far away and so It's hard to teach him and his fam consistently. All his uncles, aunts, and grandmas are less active members of the church, and he is 17 from el Salvador and wants to learn more. we've been trying for, well, about 5 months to get him to church and he came yesterday! He loved priests quorum. G wasn't able to come, but he called us Saturday night really late and told us that he can come next sunday! WOOOOOO! To celebrate he is going to make us some Mexican food this week, I can't complain about that! Maybe he will make Guatemalan food too

Speaking of food, it's one of the things I love most about the mission. Yesterday we ate dinner with C and Z, and they made us enchiladas and gorditas and jugo de Jamaica and jugo de pina and it was all so yummy! They showed us how to make it and everything. They just keep putting more and more and more on our plates and I felt like I was going to explode. Then afterwards we had to go home for a few minutes to take some pepto because our stomachs hurt so bad haha, but vale la pena.

We have been finding a lot more Mexicans around town lately, it's awesome. We taught a lot of Spanish restorations this week. As much as white people scare me, I like teaching in English as well.

Our car was grounded again this week, so we walked outside all day in a snow storm, and it was really fun! We were soaking wet all day, but it didn't stop us. It snowed like 16 inches that day! Then that night, the wind picked up. Hno C called us and was like freaking out that we were outside, and then he told everyone in the ward that we were outside that night and they got all mad at us and we were like "why are you getting mad at us for doing our job?" we were still working really hard. Apparently Hno C thought that we were walking on the freeway and was afraid we would get hit by a car, haha but we would never do that.

The Mankato ward is super awesome. A family was talking to us about how they have kind of gotten out of the missionary grove this last month and want to get back into it, and they said they made a list of people to share the gospel with. Then he asked us if we were teaching  a single mom with 3 kids because the spirit told them that there was someone in st peter who they needed to help that fit that description. oddly enough, we are teaching a single mom with 3 kids! it will be awesome to get them involved more! The ward is seriously so awesome.

One of the elders had a baptism this Saturday, a mom and her 2 daughters. It got me really excited for our next baptism, G!

I love my comp. She reminds me SO much of Hanny V haha. long hair, skinny little thing, cheerleader, and yeah they are basically the same person!

Pres and Sister C are in Utah right now for business purposes, and so the 1st counselor in the mission presidency, President E, is filling in for him for a few weeks. We miss him a lot!

hasta luego!

hna jones

6 meses........

I think I am finally used to the cold. It is to the point now where I want it to snow everyday because at least the temperature will be in the teens! Today we got stuck on a hill in the snow, and it took us awhile to get down the hill haha but good times. I seriously think the Lord is blessing me to be fearless at snow driving, because it utah i was terrified but here it is so fun for some reason!!!

G wasn't able to come to church this sunday:(:(:(:( i was soooooooooooooo sad! We fasted with him saturday, and he talked to his boss but he still said no. They just don't have enough workers. Blah!!!!!! It was so cute though, we told him that we wanted to fast with him and hna P asked him if he knew what fasting was and he was all "yeah I am fasting right now, i fast all the time" haha so it was no biggie for him. We are really praying hard that he will be able to come. He is one of the most sincere, faith filled people I have ever met. Just talking to him brings the spirit. He has such good values and morals and he will be a great addition to the church, he just needs to come first! 

Happy/sad story. So we taught this guy named G and he told us to go talk to his friends in casa 25 so we went there and there were SO many mexican men who lived there, so we taught a few of them the restoration, and it was late and they didn't seem too interested, but we went back another day and taught one of the guys again, A, and he was actually super interested! He said that he was happy in his life, but that something was missing, So we invited him to come to church to see what was missing, and he wouldn't come, even though we pushed it more than we normally do. Then, 20 mins later, he calls us up and tells us that he changed his mind and wanted to come to church!!!!!!! it made me so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So he came yesterday, and really loved it. But it is sad because he says that he doesn't want to join the church for the wrong reasons, and that my companera calls his attention, so he asked us to not come back. I wish we could teach more women because this is  a problem we run into all the time!!!!!!!!!!! President likes the elders to teach young single men and vice versa for the sisters, but with the language barrier, it's hard to do that. Blah. I guess I wish we were more ugly?

Wednesday we had a zone conference, and it was super awesome and much needed! We learned a lot about repentance and working with members. i love president and sister C so much! i am convinced they are the best mission president couple in the world!!!!!!!! I am going to miss them dearly. the new mission president ( I heard his name is president F?) will come in july, so it will be an interesting switch. After the zone conference, we went on a blitz in Lakeville with the Lakeville sisters! It was basically an exchange where we worked in the same area during the day as the other sisters. I went with the one and only sister T. She is a convert to the church and super funny. I had a blast, and i learned a lot from it!

Then we came home Thursday and got lost. Oh my goodness our gps is the worst gps in the world, never ever get a Magellan, always get a garmin. So the Magellan took us this super weird way and we were out in the middle of nowhere, and we finally find a gas station and found out that we were way off track. So we take this freeway going the complete opposite direction of our house and somehow ended up back in St. Peter that night on time! It was super stressful because we have to go to the cities a lot this month, and we are already super low on miles, and that didn't help us to be lost in the middle of nowhere!!!!!!!

We had a really bad lesson with D this week. We had a joint teacher, hno O with us and D was not respecting us at all. He interrupted like every 5 seconds and was talking about super unimportant things and hno O basically just told him to pay attention really boldly, and it worked! We have decided to take it a lot slower with D, because he can't read and no one has been able to read the book of Mormon with him, he hasn't been progressing and we know he won't with the book of Mormon. We are trying to get it on cds so that he can listen to it, and then gain a testimony. We are just praying that he will be able to understand it!!!!

But yeah, a year from tomorrow is my release date and I'm 6 months in this Friday......craziness!!!!! 

Training is really fun. Really hard, but really fun. It's crazy how much my spanish has improved over the last 2 weeks. Like from not fluent, to fluent. It's crazy how the Lord gives you the extra measure of what you need to do his work!!! I don't know if i would love my mission as much if I didn't speak spanish or work with the latin people, because it has made me so happy! i am really grateful that I was able to pick up the language so fast and that I get to do this everyday!!!

That's all, now ya'll keep it real in the real world for me! (we teach a lot of black people from chicago, so picture me saying this like they would haha)

Hermana Jones

Manty'osh

?que tal?! manty'osh means "thank you" in quiche, the Guatemalans are teaching us but that basically the only thing I ever remember haha

so this week has been super fun.

Tuesday: Went to Eden Prairie for the day. I got to work with a sister that came out the same transfer I did! her name is Sister S. Her companion also went home so we just stayed in that area and had fun. The area is closing so we had to clean the apartment really good

Wednesday: went to a bunch of meeting with pres and then spent the day with Sister R, who was also training. We just tried visiting some less actives in Bloomington, but got to teach a restoration and meet a bunch of cool people from Liberia! It was awesome! She is a Karen speaking missionary, which is the language the Karen people in Myanmar speak, its super cool! When she prayed in that language it gave me chills. She is training a new missionary that is Karen, which will help the work so much! Especially since they don't have a book of Mormon or any church materials in Karen. Then we got to meet our new missionaries!

My new comp's name is Hermana P. She's from Pleasant Grove and just turned 19 not too long ago. She was in the CCM en Mexico!!!!!!!! She's this super cute awesome little missionary and we have a lot of fun together. I'm super excited to be training her, even though it feels like I just barely finished my own training. Anyways, after we met, we had to go to the car dealership to get our car looked at because it was leaking oil, but they fixed it and we were on our way

G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is one of our invesitgators who is SSSSSSSSSSSOOOO awesome, loves reading en el libro de Mormon y lo hace todos los dias and prays and knows everything is true and just is such a great kid!!!!!!!!!!! But he just can't get work off on sundays...........he asks his boss all the time but they are short staffed and so no one else can......it's hard because he is so prepared and just has to come to church to get baptized. Pray that he can get work off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just some "D" lingo for ya ( he doesn't speak Spanish as a first language and says things super funny)

1. !Hace Friiii!

2. siempre means always pero el dice "siempo"

He always just makes me laugh so hard, and I really hope he gets baptized while I am still here in St. Peter.

Well that's my life right now, just chilling in the cold and teaching the gospel to the Guatemalans! I would have never in a million years pictured myself doing what I'm doing here, but IT"S LO MEJOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you all!

Hermana Jones

Transfers!!!

well hello familia y amigos!

 

Today I am emailing from Mankato because we went out to eat at this restaruant in mapleton with our whole district, and it was SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is called Token BBQ and it is owned by a member. He gave us each a rack of ribs (and I ate 3/4 of it, which I am proud of, it was HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!) and fries and these things called turds. they sound gross but they are delicious. they are a hollow jalepeno with creme cheese in it and a little baby hot dog wrapped in bacon. SO YUMMY! And then we tried this SUPER tart cherry stuff, like it hurt my throat terribly and i had to drink boiling hot water to make the pain go away haha. I guess it's just cherry concentrate for the sauces they make. Basically got peer pressured into it. If we ever come visit minnesota one day, we will go eat there Dad would love it!

 

So transfer news.............I'm training! it's a long story....

 

So I had an interview with president in the beginning of Jan, and I was telling him that having companions that are going home soon is hard sometimes, and he told me not to worry because I would be training the next transfer. Anyways, then we started talking more and he asked me about my goal setting and I was dead honest with him.....that I don't like goals haha.  He was astonished (that was the word he used) because he said I seemed like a really goal oriented person. Anyways, he committed me to work on my goal setting and planning. So then he interviewed Sis. M and something funny about president is he tries to convince EVERYONE to go to BYU idaho, no one knows why but yeah, so he tried to convince her to go there and she was not happy about it, but she went back later to talk to him about it again, and then he called me in his office again. He told me that he was nervous for me to train a new missionary if i wasn't a good goal setter. So......not wanting to let down president C.....I started to make goals. Thats right, not just "desires to change" but real GOALS!!!!!! and not just long term goals but even short term ones.  I know, the mission is changing me. So, as hard as it was, I've become a MUCH better missionary and worked really hard this transfer. So president called me up on Friday and asked if I felt ready and I said Yeah and he called me again this morning and told me that I would be training! She is the only spanish sister coming out this transfer, and he says she is a very accomplished person. I am excited to meet her on Wednesday! And yes, I will be staying here in St. Peter woot woot! Probably for another 2 transfers.....so I will probably be here a little over 6 months and 6 transfers....they can't get rid of me!

 

I love the ward here in Mankato, it seriously is the best. The members are always so willing to help, even though most of them live really far away. The mankato ward boundaries are HUGE, and most of the members live in Mankato. It's not super far, but sometimes it's hard to get them involved a ton, especially with the language barrier. Yesterday our ward mission leader bore a great testimony in sacrament meeting about coming to church even though it is hard with the language barrier. There are some ASL people in the ward too, and so he bore his testimony in sign language and english, and i translated for our spanish invesitgators into spanish. it was so cool that everyone who was in that room, no matter what they spoke, could understand his testimony and it just really brought the spirit. He and his wife are HUGE examples to me.

 

 

ok i am already out of time, transfers take a lot of time but anways have a great week!

 

Hermana Jones

Lake House (fishing huts in the distance on the lake)

da passova wit his guys January 2014

Buenas tardes!!!

So the title of this email is from this version of the bible I read this week. It is hawaiin pigeon, and it's called "Da Jesus Book" and it was super awesome, I totally want to get one when I come home. Anyways there were pictures in it and one was of "Jesus eats da passova wit his guys", super funny.

Anyways so things in St. Peter here are still FROZEN like I'm amazed I haven't turned into an ice cube. Church was cancelled again (2nd time this month!) and we weren't allowed to use our cars, BUT we were allowed to go outside. So we just walked to the trailer park and taught people there. But when the blizzard came, man that wind chill...........it was like knives stabbing my face! I've never been so cold in my LIFE!!!!!!!!!!! That night we got a member to come with us to our appointments and she drove us, but anyways where there are open spaces the wind just whips like CRAZY and the snow is just flying all over in the air. So we couldn't seen anything in front of us, and then we saw some lights flashing and someone had gotten stuck in the snow bank, so we tried to push them out, but man the wind and the snow like almost knocked me over like 6 time and I was so disoriented haha I found myself like walking in the middle of the road trying to find my companion and she was just on this snow pile trying to dig the girls out. We were only out there for about a minute, but we got in the car and we were soaking wet, it's like we had just come out of the swimming pool. We weren't able to get the girls out, and when we were driving back from our appt the girls were still there, but the tow truck was on it's way. THE BLIZZARD WAS CRAZINESs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One awkward moment this week....we contacted this girl getting her mail at her apt complex once, and went to stop by her. Well we knocked, waited and then she came to the door in a towel like she has JUST gotten out of the shower, let us in, got BACK in the shower and finished showering for like 10 minutes, came out, got dressed, and then we sat down and taught her the restauration haha those 10 minutes were just..............awkward haha.

WE GOT THE QUICHE BOOKS OF MORMON!!!!!!!! We only ordered 2 to start, and we gave them away and they can read them and understand them! They are an abridged version and only have certain chapters, but they have the pictures and everything, it's so awesome. And it's NOTHING like Spanish

We taught someone from Kenya this week who WASN'T muslim! We aren't allowed to teach muslims because it is very dangerous for them to join the church, but there are a lot of Africans here from muslim countries. But we found someone who is a Christian from Kenya! Her name is Lorna and she has 2 little kids that are SO CUTE! She wants to come to church, and hopefully will next week with her husband and little babies. Being a Spanish missionary means that you don't get to teach a lot of Africans unless you are in English work, but luckily St. peter is the only Spanish sister area with both woot woot for st. peter! I will probably be here at least another transfer.

We set a baptism date with D! I will take a pic with him this week so you can see what he looks like, just so short. He always runs around the trailer park with his hood on and hands in his pockets because its so frii (he never pronounced the "o's" and the end of his word, so siempre hace friii to him haha) we have seen a huge change in him as he has stopped drinking and been coming to church. Being a missionary is the best!

M is a converso reciente and like hardly ever keeps appts. So this week out of the blue he called us and set up an appointment, which was awesome, and he was actually there! It was such a miracle! He is so funny, and told us right when we walked in the door "vamos a la iglesia el domingo" too bad church was cancelled.

We went to le center this week just on a whim and were able to teach a lot of people! It was awesome, and we finally got a hold of A, that little Guatemalan model dude. He's from el departamento quiche, but speaks a different dialect, so we are hoping they have a book of Mormon in that dialect too.

today we are going out to dinner with an investigator named E. Guatemalan and like 23, he tries to hug us everytime we talk to him and it's super awkward 1. because we are missionaries and 2. because we are like giant gringas compared to him hahahaha and we tell him every single time that we can't but whatever, it's just funny

OH we went out to Cleveland, which is this tiny town like 6 miles aweay from st. peter to eat dinner with a member family, and they live like out in the middle of nowhere but have a lake house! It's so awesome, they have a dock and a few little motor boats and everything. I swore that I would never ever live in Minnesota after my mission, but maybe I can buy a summer home on the lake when I am rich. There were tons of little huts on the lake ice fishing, it was super cute! I will send a pic

My emails keep getting longer and longer......sorry haha but anyways things here are going really good. Freezing, but great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Transfers are next week, so this is me and hna M's last week together :'( She's headed back to socal to soak up the sun. She's so funny, I'll miss her craziness when she leaves

In the word of Domingo, "odele pues"

Hermana Jones

5 Meses January 2014

It's so weird that I have already been out for 5 months! well 13 more to go, it's gonna fly by!

So basically we had some interesting experiences this week....I will list some

1. Two Guatemalans came to church yesterday! One named D who we have been teaching for a little while, and another who we just met this week named V.  He has a CAR!!!!!! So this week, he gave a ride to D to church. They didn't know each other before we sent them off to church together, but now they are literally like BFFs. V is 22 and D is 40. They were giggling together all throughout church, it was SOOO CUTE. Except they talked in Quiche to each other most of the time, and VERY loudly, especially in sacrament. Everyone in the room was like staring at them because they were SO LOUD. The worst part......they were talking really loud and giggling during the closing prayer!!! Oy yoy yoy the verguenza! We are going to talk about reverence with them jaja

2. First bible bash happened. So we were knocking doors in this one apartment and this lady told us we could come back another day and teach her, and so we went on our way and then she came and found us and told us to come back, and so we went! Then we taught her the restoration and set up another appt and everything. So we came back, and she had talked to her friend who majored in the bible basically, and invited her friend from Belle Plaine to come, and just had a list of questions and basically things to try and prove the book of Mormon isn't true. And her friend was taking notes while we were talking and basically would point out every part of our argument where there wasn't solid evidence to support it. It was weird. I got a really bad feeling during the lesson, but hey, she is going to still meet with us so we will see where this goes!

3. Met this guy from kenya this week, and he is muslim so we can't teach him, but he is SO funny. he always says "wonderful" and "love it" in a thick accent. We see him around all the time

4. We had a GIGANTIC Milagro!!!!! a potential that we stopped by my very first day in st. peter. So he is basically always working and really unreliable, and so after months and months and MONTHS of stopping by, we decide to go there at 8:50 at night (which is like the worst time of night to not be doing anything but you can still see lots of miracles) and he was HOME and we TAUGHT him and his BROTHER the restoration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooo! We saw him again today, haha and he is the buffest little guatemalan ever. I guess he works out everyday

5. We taught E (you saw her daughter when I was skyping you) this week, and she was SUPER tired, and fell asleep during our lesson to her AND started snoring hahahaha me and my comp just looked at each other and laughed. 

6. G, another Guatemalan we are teaching, accepted the baptismal invitation!!!!!!!!!! All he needs to do is to stop working on Sundays. It's sad, because the bosses of businesses here take advantage of the immigrants, and don't give them much freedom. It's sad. So we fasted that he can get sundays off to come to church. He is SUCH a good kid. Really smart, wants to learn english (not just WANTS to learn, but is WILLING to learn, which there is a HUGE difference!) and Is just freaking awesome!!!!!! It was so cute, he called us on his birthday to tell us that he is so grateful to God that he got to live another year. SO CUTE! So i made him snickerdoodles haha

7. Last night we were tracting and knocked on a potentials door, and oh my gosh SCARIEST lady ever answered the door.She just had this weird aura and weird feeling about her. anyways we were there to talk to her boyfriend, and she sneered "I know why you are here" and she definitely had the wrong idea and we were just defending ourselves and told her we were missionaries and she said "oh, how quaint" in the sassiest voice and so we  starting asking her about her beliefs and she sneered "I believe......in the DEVIL." and oh my gosh she was so creepy haha I am never going to stop by there ever again!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could re enact it for you!

8. We helped V move things around in his room and a drunk J (that guy we have been teaching forever that just won't quit drinking) came and told us he was going to call the cops because we were robbing V.....we were like no we are helping him move his stuff.....anyways then he and V got in a fight and so we went and taught V in the nearest kfc because it was the closest place. Then we ended up teaching him how to read! He didn't go to school in Guatemala and so he wants to learn to read. 

9. A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is the coolest kid ever. He is christian, goes to Gustavus and basically wants to know why everyone thinks mormons are so crazy. We have been meeting with him for a while, and he came to church yesterday!!! He is super sociable, and made friends with like everyone. i know he will get baptized!!!!!! I hope it is while I am here.

10. The first pic here is of C and E. They are these abuelitos we have been teaching forever. C is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hard to teach, and his wife can't hear super well and no matter how many times we explain to him that we don't know exactly where our spirit is in our body, he just doesn't understand. Anyways, we had to drop them, and it was sad. I will miss them and their yummy food they feed us, but it's better to spend our time other places. 

Well we taught 30 lessons this week............it was a crazy busy, awesome, hard work week!!!!!!!!! It's great to find the people who are prepared for the gospel and to help them make changes in their lives!! Thanks for all your support familia y amigos

Hermana Jones

Book of Mormon in Quiche'

Breakthrough January 2014

hola ya'll

I am about to have an Hermana Jones breakthrough moment here on my mission. You'll have to stay tuned to hear more about it!!!!

So I am coming up on 5 months here pretty fast..........craziness. I still feel like that little baby missionary sometimes. But on the bright side......I think I am fluent in Spanish.....so that's been good! Gift of tongues is real woot woot

So there are some people progressing in little Guatemala. What up?! We ordered some libros de Mormon in quiche (their native dialect) to make them more comfortable. there are also some people that don't even speak Spanish, and so we are going to give them one to read. It is going to be so awesome! I am also going to order one to try and learn a little bit.

So our week was CRAZY awesome. So Sunday church was cancelled, so we went to Hno R's to take the sacrament and stayed there for like 3 hours. Then we went home and had a mission conference call, and pres told us what we needed to do to use time wisely. So we planned, and planned, and planned some more. Then Monday we did the same. It was SO nice to get out on Tuesday.Then we had zone conference in Lakeville which took a whole day. It was great.  Then we had We ended up teaching 11 restoration lessons throughout the week (normally we have 5) and in total, 26 lessons. For only 5 days of work!!!!!!!!! It was craziness!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went on exchanges with the one and only Hermana W. It was the funnest ever. She has a sense of humor like mine and we just understand each other. I wish we could be companions at some point, but she goes home next transfer :( oh well, we have one more exchange together and we are going to live it up in Lakeville!

Missionary work is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm super glad I am here on a mission because it is helping me change A LOT of things about myself to be better.

So B (recent convert) bore his testimony in church yesterday. It was basically 25 minutes long with EVERY SINGLE story he has (all of his crazy dreams, when he got electrocuted, when he crashed on his motorcycle, how he was an alcoholic, etc.) and I just thought "well, next time we teach him it will be about what a testimony is" oh and he also swore once. odele........he's a funny one.

I am starting to get depressed because pomegranates are out of season. I average about 5 pomegranates a week and I don't know what I am going to eat with out them. I guess I will have to have a pomegranate farm in southern Utah someday. The members feed us well though, they are so great.

All I can think about is food because my stomach won't stop growling right now. We are going over the Hno. C's today to learn how to make homemade taquitos mexicanos........mmmmmmmm! And yesterday we ate this yummy loaded baked potato casserole which was really good also. mmm

pues, es todo. tengo hambre y vamos a hacer compras. me llamo Hermana jones, y soy misionera. over and out

Hermana jones

It's gonna be a FREEZER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! January 2014

So don't freak out that I'm emailing you on Saturday instead of Monday....it's supposed to get to -50 degrees on Monday so President told us to email today instead of Monday so we don't have to go outside. By word of mouth, the schools are all closed and if you go outside for just 3 minutes you will have frostbite!!!! I hated the cold in Utah but it's SOOOOOO much better than here that's for sure! One of our investigators, W, says the best prayers in the world, and yesterday he said "Bless everyone in this good old state of Minnesota this weekend, because it's gonna be a fritzer! I mean FREEZER!" His prayers are the best thing ever. We taught him about following the prophet and in the prayer he said "Now about Mr. Monson, is he really a prophet?" Hahaha I just love that guy.

Well this week has been kind of slow for us. Not just because of the new year, but because basically all of our appointments have fallen through. It's kind of a bummer when that happens. BUT in my experience, when you have a REALLY good week, the next week is really slow. Esta bien, asi es la mission.

We spent new years eve at Hno. C's house! His sister is a way good cocinera and made us ham, mashed potatoes, tamales(the best ones I have EVER had) and some yummy salad. C came with us too! He was working in California for a while, but then he came back, but I think he already left to go to Iowa to work for 6 more months :( so I probably won't see him again. Oh well, I ordered him a picture of the Veracruz temple to write my testimonio on to give to him.

So I don't know if you got my written letter yet......but I don't think I will end up going to the doctors. So this is what happened. My leg felt really numb for a few days in December , and then it went away for a while. Then a few days ago it came back and got really bad. At first it was just numbness in my lower back and right leg, but then it got to the point that every step I took I got a shot of pain down my whole leg. So I called the medical lady and she told me to see a orthopedist asap. But then I got a priesthood blessing (which was hard for me to ask for, I don't know why) and Sister C called me yesterday and helped me figure out what it was. I think I just irritated/dislocated the sciatic nerve( I don't remember exactly what it is called ) but I just have to do stretches every day to help it. It has now turned into a dull aching pain throughout my whole leg, but after I stretched today it felt a lot better. So I'm fine!!!! It's not gonna stop me from doing anything!

I know why I am here in St. Peter. And it's because there are so many Guatemalans! We taught several this week, and one who really really REALLY understood the restoration, which is a MILAGRO!!!!!!!! My goal is to baptize at least one Guatemalan before I leave the area. There is a trailer park that is primarily Guatemalans so we just started to call it "Little Guatemala"

Well that basically the week! So you won't hear from me til the Monday after this one. But everything is great and I love being a misionera!

Hermana Jones

Bautismo

navidad 12/30/2013

Christmas was definitely different this year! Not gonna lie, I have rarely been homesick on my mission, but the day after Christmas and Skype I got like super homesick! It was so sad! But now everything is back to normal, phewf

Sounds like Christmas for everyone was great!

I don't really have much to say this week........except that the temperature got up into the 50's!!!!!!!!!!!!! for like 3 days everything was melting and we didn't have to wear coats/tights/basically anything!!!!!!!! And then Saturday night it dropped from 51 to -40 degree windchill.....it was the biggest switch I have ever experienced in my life. I honestly think this is the worst place in the world to ever live. but that's ok, I love the Mexicans so that makes it all worth it.

Thanks for all your support! Love you all!

Hermana Jones

Short email, 12/23/2013

So I only have a little time today because our pday is Christmas and we are skyping sooooo yeah this will be short.

My new comp is HERMANA M she's the best!!!! She is from California and she is super funny. We have a lot of fun. This is her last transfer and so we are going to work super hard here to make it the best transfer ever!!!!

It doesn't feel like Christmas to me yet, but I am excited! We are going to chill at the familia D's house and eat yummy food. On Christmas eve we are going to be with Hermano C and his family, and that will be super fun. We are also going caroling with the elders tomorrow! Before my mission I was bummed that I would miss 2 Christmas's at home, but now I am glad because mission Christmas's are really special and different.

So the baptism was great! B agreed to bear his testimony after the baptism, and I was afraid that he would talk for hours about how he was electrocuted when he was 7 and how he had "seen that bright light and seen the angels" but he just gave a short testimony of how he was proud to be a Mormon and loves "the Mormon book" as he calls it haha

So we have been teaching this lady E for a LONG time and she has never come to church, but she is going through some really hard things right now and so we decided we were going to teach the Sabbath day again and commit her to come to church and we were really gonna crack down because it's about time. well right when we sat down her daughter runs up to us and says "vamos a la iglesia manana!" so that was awesome, we looked at each other like "ok, that was easy". AND SHE REALLY CAME!!!! It was the biggest miracle of the week!

Well that's basically all. oh wait one more thing. Hermano C thinks of us as his "angeles", which drives me crazy but I know it's a cultural thing. Well anyways he has 3 porcelain angels on top of his Christmas tree named P (she was the sister here before me ) W, and Jones.............I will have to send a picture..........it's so weird because the angels say our names on them..... weird.

Well feliz navidad and see ya on Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana jones

At a Fiesta!

stayin in st peter, Dec 2013

Transfers were today.............. and I'm staying here! I already knew I would, since hna W is going home and the area is doing really well, President wouldn't whitewash the area so I'll be here for at least another 7 weeks! My new companera se llama Hermana M! I will meet her on Wednesday. From what people have told me, this is her last transfer, so I will be killing off another missionary haha. I'm a little nervous to lead the area, but it will all be fine. I'm not a psychic or anything....but I will probably be here for a long time. If hna m is going home, they probably wouldn't transfer me.....so who knows.....and a lot of Spanish sisters are leaving soon so there will be new ones to train...I could be training next transfer! Ah! I also hit my 4 month mark this week...where did the time go?! I am super glad to stay in St. peter though! I love this little place!

So sis W is going home Wednesday.....I am sad! She's awesome. I have been taking pictures of her all day because I don't have that many of her haha. Tomorrow we go to Bloomington and I send her off! She will go to the temple with pres and his wife and then have a testimony meeting and stuff like that. I will go with the Bloomington Spanish Sisters for the day, which I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited for because that means I get to be with Hna P! She is from Mexico DF.. St. peter was her first area and she finished training right when I got here. She is just the best ever, I'm excited to chill with her all day!!!!!!! Anyways, then on Wednesday I will get my new comp y regresaremos a San peter.

This week in reunion de distrito we watched an old seminary clip about Christmas time.....and it was about being home for Christmas. Hna W wants to be on her mission for Christmas, but the video was so funny because it was about this guy and he hadn't seen his family for a very long time and was like "I'm going home" and idk it was just so funny because hna W was not very happy with him!

B se va a bautizar el sabado! woooo! So something cool that happened. We assigned him 3 nefi 18 to read one time, and he read the whole chapter  and beyond. so in 3 nefi 19 there is a verse about how white jesus's robe is, but anyways B was electrocuted once and this is how he always says it "I've seen that bright light, I've seen the angels" (we've heard him tell the story probably 25 times, no joke so I have it memorized) and so he loved that verse because he says he has experienced that , and because of that he has the strongest testimony of the book of Mormon and it has made all the difference! He has faced so much opposition from family and friends and it is awesome to see how strong he is!

We taught some more Guatemalans this week! P and J....at least I think his name is J....last night we were counting all the js we know and there are like 15 haha.....anyways they liked the restauracion and we are going back this week. P prayed at the end and it was kind of a creepy prayer and reallllly long, my knees were killing me haha but I think he said part of it in Guatemalteco (their dialect) and was whispering it so I couldn't tell.

hno c's mom and sister are here from mexico! His sister is going to live here with him and his mom is staying for 6 months....so yeah they are going to be baptized haha. They are super awesome! They brought us each a t shirt, shot glass, and some good old Mexican meds to help us with our coughs. The medicine just says to ask your doctor how to use it.....so we haven't tried it yet. oh and they gave us pesos to use for the next time we go to mexico! But anyways, his sister has read the WHOLE libro de Mormon and been to church several times..........so I just wonder why she isn't baptized yet haha and the mom has been several times. It's funny because hno c had NO idea about any of that haha.

We got fed so much this week. One of the ward members owns a bbq restaurant and smoked some turkey for the ward party.......oh my gosh it was soooo good. The ward party was so awesome!

That's basically the week. espero que tengan un buen dia!

Hermana jones

something Hno. C gave us.....he says those two angels are us haha we don't know what to do with it. it even lights up!

trailer park with tons of snow

"the little person who just keeps things going", Dec 2013

helllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

Can I just say that it is COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! man, there were so many snow adventures this week. So first of all there were exchanges. We were in a town called Cleveland just 6 miles east of saint peter and we were running late to meet the other sisters in between here and Lakeville. So we put the address in the GPS (and our gps is super crappy) and it took us this super weird way, and we were just driving through farms in the country for like 45 minutes. So we used so many miles, AND the dirt roads were icy and we got stuck a few times, AND we were like an hour and a half late.....hahaha I guess you could say we don't trust our gps anymore!!! But instead of going to Lakeville this time Hermana C came here to St. Peter! It was a crazy day, because we weren't able to use our cars for most of the day because it was snowing too hard! And they don't plow until the storm is over so imagine non stop snow all day just building up.......I was glad that we didn't have to drive much though, I hate snow driving! The next morning was scary though, because I had to drive hna C and two other sisters to Bloomington, and the roads were so dangerous

 

But other than that, it just keeps on dumping down on us! We have been getting texts almost every day about having to stay inside because it is too cold to be outside. In Utah, it is cold when it snows but when the sun is out it isn't unbearable, but here if the sun is out, it is just an illusion because you still freeze your butt off! The other day we helped a lady move and it was NEGATIVE 10!!!!! I literally thought I had frostbite! And because it's so cold, everything is just ice. it's EVERYWHERE!!!!

 

so the subject of the email is a sentence from someones prayer haha. We are teaching a guy named W who says the greatest prayer, and he prayed for me and said "Bless sister Jones, the little person who just keeps things going" so I guess I'm just a little person! He has come to church 3 times, but just won't commit to be baptized....it's frustrating sometimes!

 

Guess what..........we had the craziest thing happen this week. so sometimes we do finding in a town called Le center, but we don't spend a lot of time there because there are no members there and it is super far away from the church and hard to find rides for people. Anyways about a month ago we were finding there and found this guy named A, and he said he was from mexico, but we were pretty sure he was from Guatemala because he spoke Spanish differently. Anyways we taught him the restoration and gave him a book of Mormon, but hadn't seen him since. One time we called him to help him get to church, and he said he would go (but we weren't sure if he completely understood what we were saying) and so we kind of forgot to find a ride for him or anything. Then he called us and told us that he waited and waited that morning for someone to bring him to church, but no one came, and we felt sooooooo bad. Well anyways we asked Bro. C to take him to church because it is kind of on the way for him and he went and got him yesterday and so A came!!!!!! And he really liked it. And then after church he came with us to a member's house to eat lunch, and we were able to teach him more about the book of Mormon, and he says he has been reading it! Woo! And he is Christian, and Christians really understand the restoration much clearer than catholics, so there is definitely some real potential there.

 

J had his baptisimal interview on Saturday, and afterwards I got the best feeling in the world! It just made me so happy that he is going to be baptized and I think it was that joy that it says in Dand C 18 15. IT was awesome because he knows the book of Mormon is true and has been going to church and praying and keeping the commandments. But then something bad happened. We went to wake him up yesterday morning for church, so like right after his interview, and there were beer cans all over the floor in his trailer, and he was definitely drunk. We asked him if he has been keeping the word of wisdom and he swears on his life that he had, and kept telling us that it was his roommates that were drinkning, not him. Well one is a recent convert who definitely doesn't drink and it could have been the other one, except for the fact that J was definitely drunk. So we told the bishop not to announce the baptism in sacrament, but we still have yet to talk to J. we couldn't trust what he said because he was drunk, but at the same time we have to take his word for it. We don't know if we will put off the baptism yet, but it's just so sad because he is _____ <-------- this close. But addictions are hard, especially if it's been an addiction for 20 or so years. We just can't give up on him!

 

But B is still good to go to get baptized!!! The only sad thing is that it is right after Hermana W leaves, she is hoping that there is some crazy storm and that she is forced to stay here for a few days and doesn't have to go home. It's so funny, she is in denial about going home, and claims she still has 2 months, but really its like......7 days haha. IT was her 23rd birthday this week, and Hno c threw her a birthday party! He gave her soooooooo many presents, and he said he felt bad for me so he gave me one too haha it's a little cross keychain. He gave her a balloon with a  cross and basically everything he gives us has a cross on it, so when we see him tonight we are going to tell him that we don't really use the cross. It was really nice of him though!

 

We taught another Guatemalan named D this week. He is so cute because he has the biggest smile ever, and when we met him he just smiled so huge the whole time.And his name means Sunday so it makes him that much more cute. I love how small the people are, even though it makes me feel like a giant.

 

That's basically everything for this week! Just freezing but that's normal

 

Hermana Jones