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