12 degrees, Nov 2013

chipas it is cold here. seriously!!!!!!! The other night we were tracting at 8:00 at night and it was 12 degrees!!!!!!! and it's only November!!!!! so I think the main difference between the cold in Utah and the cold here is that the SECOND you go outside in this kind of cold, your whole body is frozen. Like you can't feel your hands after 10 seconds. So it's the same temperature, but here it like makes you colder faster. But asi es!

so we had a BAUTISMO!!!!!!!!!!!! woo Hermano C. It was such a good day. He was soooo nervioso though haha and it was sort of stressful but everything worked out fine. We also got 2 investigators to come to it! Then after there was some great food. I will send pictures next week, I forgot my camera cord.

So J had a HUGE turnaround this week! So come to find out he didn't fully understand the word of wisdom, he thought 1 beer every once in a while was ok haha so we cleared that up and he has been having a lot of spiritual experiences lately so he is well on his way to being baptized!!!!! He went to the baptism and said he felt like crying, and we told him that was ok to cry and he seemed relieved. Then he told us that he went home after the baptism and read in the book of Mormon and he said he got a confirmation that it is true and he said, "I wanted to call you and shout I KNOW THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!!!!!" Ahhhh it's sooo awesome. When he cut out those bad influences his spiritual progression just skyrocketed.

So I was driving the car for a little while, but the mission just got a new rule where they are doing designated drivers, so Hna W has to drive again haha. She is so sick of driving since she has been doing it for like 5 transfers. I'm kinda glad with the snow and all!

So we are kind of teaching this old mexicano couple (we are teaching the abuelito ingles) and last night we went over right when they were finishing dinner and so they let us have some, it was muy rica and picante!!! The tortillas were fresh and handmade...mmmmmmmm. I love Mexican food. Maybe one day I will be in a Spanish ward and get fed Mexican all the time. Haha I just thought of a funny thing that happened a while ago. So we ate dinner with an investigator and he gave us organge soda, and we had a lesson afterwards and all 3 of us were burping like crazy during the whole lesson haha. Too bad it wasn't a burping competition or I would have won!

oh I got the package!!!! And the card is hanging on my wall! My favorite thing was that Anna sanders wrote something in Spanish.....I didn't know she served a mission or served Spanish speaking! But yeah, it's super fun to see. I never would have imagined myself getting one of those. And the bag is super cute, I love it. It works great also.

So we went to this Mexican restaurant in Madelia the other day that was so cheap. I got and enchilada and salad for 2.50 it was GRRRRQUISIMAS.

We started teaching English classes yesterday! We only had Hno. C and J there, but it went really well. We are going to try and have it every week right after church.

I know I keep talking about food but there was so much good food this week......we ate dinner at a less actives home, and it was this really good chicken and this weird yummy rice. I asked her what it was and she said it was Minnesota wild rice. Apparently there is a kind of rice that grows in the lakes here that the native Americans harvest and sell, and it was so good! And I guess it only grow here, so I will have to send some home so you can try it.

That's basically it for this week........................................so until next week! have a great dia de accion de gracias

Hermana Jones

corn fields, Nov 2013

hola hola!

It's weird to think that I've almost been out 3 months! It's flown by, and it will keep flying by! Sometimes 18 months seems SO LONG but other days I look at how far I've come already.

Well being in this area has really opened up my eyes to some things. One of our investigators, S, is from El Salvador and is in the US on a work visa. He got into some trouble with the law and was on probation for a while, but we found out a few weeks ago (when we were translating a letter for him) that he was no longer on probation. But something weird happened and they took him to a detention facililty last week because his DUI was a violation of the work visa (obviously) and they are probably going to deport him. It is SO sad because he has a wife (well techinically girlfriend) and two little girls. They don't have much money and don't know what to do. It's so hard to see because if their dad gets deported, they may never see him again. It's just so sad and keep them in your prayers. his wife is super strong though and just keeps saying that God has a plan and its true, it's just hard to watch.

Also another sad story. There is another family in the trailer park and the mom works CRAZY hours milking cows (like 65 hours a week or something) and the dad can't work because he has health problems. And because of this, their kids haven't grown up in a home with parents that are always there for them, and they are just a handful. Well one of the sons fell out of a tree and got really hurt, and so child services counted it as neglect, and the mother is now in a detention facility waiting to be deported also. We heard about this from someone else, and so we went to stop by and see if there was anything we could do to help, and J (the dad) answered the door and he just looked so stressed. We asked him how things have been and he almost started crying, and he couldn't even get himself to speak. He kept walking around the room running his hands through his hair and kicking the chair and there was so much pain in his face. He couldn't get himself to say what had happened, and he just told us to  come back later. It was so hard to see that. I wish there was something we could do to help these people in their suffereing, but all we can do is pray and tell them God has a plan for them.

Other than that, things are going pretty well. We have a baptism on Saturday! I'm excited. It's cool to look back and remember one lesson we had with him where he argued with us about the difference between a profet and a pastor, and then to see him invite a friend to one of the lessons and bear his testimony to his friend about how he knows Joseph Smith is a profet. It's so awesome!

I've been having a hard time this last week just being afraid for the end of the transfer. Hermana W goes home after this transfer, and I am pretty sure I will stay in St. Peter, but I rely on her SO MUCH and I don't know how I will be able to do things without her. I am so nervous for my Spanish especially. But I know that it is not going to be easy no matter what, so I just need to buckle down and try and learn all I can before she goes. Everyone says that they are finally comfortable with Spanish during the 3rd transfer, and I feel like I won't be then and so that is also making me nervous. I just need to work really hard and expect miracles I guess.

Yesterday we taught a viajito English! He is going to take the citizen test so we helped him learn some of the words he will need to know. The saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" really is true haha. He just kept saying that how we were saying it was wrong, even though we were saying it in English how it is supposed to be said. Then he would say it in a Spanish accent and say that was the right way. I was cracking up. We are starting an English class at the church this week! we are going to do it after church every sunday as an incentive to get people to church and also to find more people. 100% of the people we teach that don't speak English want to learn so it will be a good opportunity for them.

One of my favorite people, C, went to California :( he is going to be working there for a month and then in Iowa for like 6 months, so I don't know when we will see him again. He is a recent convert from mexico and is so awesome. He is just so short! I am sad because I didn't even get a picture with him because one day he was just gone. it was so weird.

There are 3 people we are teaching in Madelia. J is 17 and from El Salvador, W is 12, and W is 13. They are siblings and so awesome. It was really hard to get a hold of them for a while, and FINALLY this week we got to teach them....TWICE! They were both great lessons. We are going again tonight and hopefully they are there. We have learned that the best thing to do is to just stop unannounced and so hopefully they will be there!

I can't think of anything else for this week. Its getting really cold here and everyone is getting ready for the winter, Christmas lights and everything! I can't wait to get my David CD!!!

Thanks for all the support!

The first snow

first snow!!!!! it was a little exciting until my face started freezing off

"if I won the lottery, I would build you mormons a new church", Nov 2013

So I will explain the quote. We were teaching this guy B, he has 76 years. Anways we were teaching him and right at the beginning he said "I told the man up stairs in my prayer this morning that if I won the lottery, I would build you mormons a new church" haha he's the best.

well this week was a pretty basic week. There were a lot of good things that happened, .like a less active from El Salvador who hasn't been to church since he moved to the us came with his non member wife and daughter!! WOO!! We are going to do fhe with them tonight. 

so C is our investigator from china and SHE IS THE BEST!!!! The last time we taught her I wanted to change missions and go to china for a minute haha. She goes to Gustavus and we met her there to teach her. She bought us all this yogurt and these cookies from the cafeteria even though we had just eaten dinner. So she was a referral from the sisters in dinky town, but even though we hadn't even met her she like ran over to us right when she saw us and started hugging us and holding our hands and stuff, she is SO CUTE!!!!

two of our investigators with baptisimal dates had major setbacks this week, but its ok! We will keep working through it. One of them is doing super great though, we just hope he doesn't work during his baptism! It should be not this saturday but next, I am so excited! 

We had a mission conference this week in Lakeville, and Elder G from the 70 talked to us. It was awesome! He had so much energy and made everything so exciting, and I want to be able to do that. Sometimes I feel like I am so solemn when I teach because I am trying to speak the language right and teach the doctrine right, but I need to be more excited and full of energy so people don't care about how i am speaking the language, but what I am saying. 

We taught a lot of people from Guatemala this week, and it made me want to go back SO BAD!! There is even an elder here from guatemala, and I talked to him about going to rio dulce and he said that is where his family goes on vacation all the time. It made me super nostalgic. I love teaching people from guate because then I have something to talk to them about besides the gospel haha

well that's basically it!!! cuidense

hermana jones

We have SO MUCH RAMEN from the members......32 oriental flavor oh yeah

pictures!

minesoooooota, Nov 2013

yo yo yo familia

well I actually remember stuff to write this week!

so first of all Minnesota is actually becoming pretty to me! Cuz there are no mountains the sky goes on FOREVER and it's cool to see with all the fields and trees. And all the rivers and lakes are really pretty too! I will send a pic I took last week of a sunset over a random lake in the middle of nowhere haha. We were driving on this highway and there were no cars so we just stopped in the middle of the road to take the pictures.

So we were in a town called Le Center, and we don't go there very much so we went finding and found this mom and her 2 kids and taught them. Her kids were SO cute. Actually, all Hispanic kids are. When they speak their cute little Spanish....I want to die because its SO CUTE!! Sometimes its a bad thing because its gets me excited to be a mom haha but that will have to wait. Her little boy  who was like 2 was such a talker. He would repeat everything like 100 times and we let him look at our restoration pamphlet and he pointed to Jesus on the front and said "Es Jesus" and it was soooo adorable. One of our investigators has a little daughter who is probably 6 and whenever we come she gets so excited and just yells "CRISMOS!" Which isn't really a word haha. Oh one more story about kids. You always see little kids who are really chunky....well they ain't got nothin on this one little Guatemalan guy. probably 15 months old.......looks like a sumo wrestler. like the kid's gotta be wearing like 6 year old kids clothes he is so big. If it was appropriate to take a picture of him....I would haha seriously....a sumo wrestler.

We had a super good lesson in relief society yesterday. The RS president talked about the Spirit and how it guides us to do missionary work and she told us that a few months ago there were only 2 missionaries in the Mankato ward, and then there was a stake conference where the stake president said "Mankato will be a stake of Zion" and soon after that there were 8 missionaries in the ward! It's just a cool thing to see how big things are happening here and I get to be a part of it! The crazy thing is that the Mankato ward boundaries are HUGE, it's hard to imagine there be a stake here really soon but we are doing our best to make it happen!

My first day here we had a little orientation at the mission home, and President C said that this mission is a foreign mission in the united states because there are so many people from around the world. And it's so true! There are so many Africans! Not in my area, but there are some. We talked to a lady from Somalia the other day, and she told us a lot about her country and the wars going  on there and it was just super cool to talk about her culture. And of course I get to teach the Hispanics, but I've learned so much about different parts of the world. We are even teaching someone from China tonight so that will be fun.

Speaking of cultures......the other day we went to visit some recent converts named C and M (they are brothers) and we walked in to see 6 dead chickens just sitting on the counter!! They had just been plucked and they were starting to clean them and get all the meat out. Haha M just went to a farm and picked the chickens as they were running around, and then the farmer killed them and gave them to him.... 3 for 20 bucks....I guess that's a pretty good deal for a few chickens haha. I will send a picture. We went back later and got to see all the blood and guts, it was kinda gross.

Sometimes I am AMAZED at how different the latinos view time. I don't even know how to describe it. It's like time doesn't exist to them. They can talk for literally hours on end and they will stop whatever they are doing to talk. And they also are late for EVERYTHING haha. It's so hard for me to understand sometimes but asi es.

So sometimes it stinks here and I don't know why, but I swear everyday I say something like "it smells like poo" well the other night we were riding our bikes and as we got home I just thought to myself "It smells like poo" but I say that so much so I didn't say it to my comp or anything. well then I am walking inside and it really did smell like poo so I looked at the bottom of my shoes and they had dog poo ALL OVER THEM! It was nasty. luckily I found it before I walked all over our apartment! So never say that phrase or else it will happen to you haha

So this week we went to a restaurant in Mapleton! Yes there is a town called mapleton here! It is owned by some members of the ward and it is a barbecue place. They had a yummy pulled pork, but not as good as the smoking apple. But they had these REALLY good sauces to go with the pulled pork, like this one peach flavored one. It sounds weird, but it was SO GOOD!!!

I finally had an authentic Mexican meal! our investigator F wanted to feed us so of course we said yes! He made homemade tortillas, some Mexican saugage with eggs, frijoles, and then me and Hermana W made some salsa in a molcajete! It's like the one we have at home. I told him that my family had one and he asked me a ton of questions about it haha. It was really yummy. I wish I could have it right now mmmm

We went to Mankato to go shopping today, and I got a super cute skirt and shirt from target. the skirt is a pencil skirt that is pink and has a cute design and the shirt is leopard print! They were both on sale so I couldn't pass it up. I also got lots of good food. We go to Mankato to shop whenever we can because there is only one store in St. Peter and it is pretty expensive. BUT there is a shopko opening up here, and I think it is just a grocery store. but yeah, it's crazy because then there will be 2 grocery stores......st peter is growing!

Up at gustavus there is a building that looks like the provo temple so I am going to try to take a picture of it when I am there tonight to show you. It's crazy how much it looks like it! Excpet instead of a moroni and the top there is a cross because it is a Lutheran school.

J came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited because this whole week he wasn't drogado or drunk all! and since he came to church he will receive blessings. ANd he is still planning to be baptized on the 23 woot woot!

Pretty sure that is it. I can't believe it snowed in Utah because it hasn't snowed here yet! Just rain which is so weird

hasta lunes!

Hermana Jones