Blazing Hot

Hello my sweet family and friends! Argentina is great and it is blazing hot here. oh my gosh i am so sunburnt but its nice because i have a really nice tan. i am getting a tan line on my feet and it looks awesome!

this week me and hermana lara have done a lot of walking. i literally live on a hill and we go up and down it like 4 or 5 times a day. we go in the mountains because that is where all of our investigators are. we had the opportunity to do service for a member. her name is lrma. she is so tiny. smaller than  grandma jones. its so funny. we helped clean out her yard and stuff. This week has been better. thank you for all the emails of encouragement and love. it really means a lot. megan says im still the favorite child around there so keep it alive. I haven´t forgotten my sweet family. i keep a picture of you guys in the front of my scriptures and i always use it for the plan of salvation lessons and i testify to them that families are forever.the people here love to look and the picture and i love to share it with them. 

yesterday, me and hermana lara had our weekly planning session and we kind of talked about our companionship. we are much better now and we really get along. i mostly just talk and talk so hopefully it helps. but she said that my spanish is really good and that i am learning really fast. my face was in shock!! ¡Que Bendicion! it was really nice of her to say those things. it was an anwer to my prayers. we are getting along great and she really helps me with my spanish. 

this week, we have been focusing on our menos activos. we have so many of them its not good. we try to see them a lot during the week and keep them involved. One that is on my mind a lot is Ricardo. he was baptized a while ago but he has a smoking problem. he talks at rapid speed and i honestly never talk to him but i just love him. he is so funny! we teach him about 3 times a week. he doesn´t talk much in the lessons but  its all good. its a good time to practive my spanish. 

we are doing things at every hour of every day. if you could see my planner oh man. its full blue ink. 

funny story. yesterday we were walking around and this group of boys were by us. they started saying stuff in english. (i think they were making fun of me) like hello and how are you. so i started saying stuff back to them and randomly they started swearing!!!!! it was so funny because it scared me and hermana lara. that was the only phrase they knew in english was swear words!!!! it was funny!! 

i am finally in alma!!!! i am so excited becasue the book of mormon is so good! i can´t even explain my love for the book of mormon and jose smith. everyone needs to read this book. seriously the stories are so amazing and if anyone has a question. pull up a scripture. when ever we teach the restoration lesson, i get chills everytime when talking about jose smith. he did see 2 personages in the sacred grove. yo se que. 

this week we have had a hard time getting members to participate in coming to lessons. they just think all the investigators or less actives are ok and doing fine. but no, they aren´t beucase they arent going to church. so my challenge this week is to find the missionaries in your area and give them a reference. seriously missionary work with members is SO IMPORTANT!!!!!! so either give them a reference or go out with them to teach someone. you might think they are doing fine but they could use the help. they don´t have magical powers. 

ok sorry for being a little mean. it just makes me upset when the members make exuces for not wanting to come. 

i love you all so much. have a wonderful week. happy birthday to my sweet brother and nephew next week. zac, stay awesome and always remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures EVERY NIGHT! ryan, i love you and have a happy happy birthday. you are missed here in argentina. stay cool and keep the garden going. 

have a good week and i love you!!!!

con amor,

hermana jones

¡Hola Familia!

Hello from argentina! I am currently sitting in a little cyber kiosk and people are speaking spanish and i have no idea what they are saying. I will be completely honest, this is so hard. I havent even been here a week and it is hard! but of course, i knew that. I arrived here on late tuesday night. the flight was so long and my feet were like watermelons. It was really sad, because one of the elders in my district, elder russell, left his passport in his carry on which was checked so he wasnt able to fly with us but he took the next flight out. we then arrived in argentina and we went to the mission home. i hadnt showered in about 2 days and we were all starving! the mission president and his wife greeted us and we stepped out into the world of argentina! oh my goodness it is so hot here. we then, for about 2 days, did training and workshops and lots of things! lots of good food and nice people. on Thursday i got to meet my new companion! Her name is hermana lara. she is from chicago but she lives in orem. she does speak english but also really good spanish! she tries to help me and we dont talk alot. sometimes i feel like she is annoyed of me, but that is ok. i think its because of my lack of the language. its really hard to try and talk to people who dont speak english! haha cheestos! i am trying so hard but i feel like im getting no where. i try to study but there are so many things going through my head that its really really hard. i am in Esquel, argentina. it is in the most south area in our mission. there are mountains and trees everywhere. it kind of feels like home. there are mostly dirt roads and we live on a hill so i am constantly walking up and down hills. i have so many blisters and calices(?) on my feet its crazy. i am getting a nice tan and its all good! you guys keep saying that ill have a ton of baptisms but funny story we had one on saturday. Arturo and elvira are an old couple that they had been teaching before i got here. since september. it was really cool to see! i understand a lot of spanish but when i get to the point of responding, its too late. The food here is amazing!!!!! i love it. there isnt a lot of meat like everyone says but its still really good. there is dulce de leche on everything! its delicious.

my p-day is on mondays now. we do get dear elder down here but i have no idea how to do it. so youll have to ask sister lovell. they will send it to us once a week. i will try to send pictures another time i always forget to take them! sorry.

this week i am a little home sick. i have never felt like this before. every time i think of you guys i just want to cry cause id rather be home. that is a terrible way to think but i will try to be better. The people are really nice here and its just hard to love and communicate with them when i cant speak to them. i just feel like the spanish will never come. i am trying so hard to stay up beat. its hard when me and my companion dont talk becuase i have a lot of time to think and that is when i get most down on myself.

i hope everything is going well. have a good week and ill talk to you next week:)

con amor,

hermana jones

The Last Days

hello my wonderful family and friends!!!!

where do i start?! All the weeks are blending together and yes, i leave for the wonderful land of Argentina on monday morning. We leave from slc & then we go to Georgia and then we have another flight from Georgia to Buenos Aires. so it is going to be a very very long flight. I am sort of excited because i will have a lot of time to read the BOM. My goal is to get to mosiah by monday. Then from Buenos Aires, we take a long bus ride or a plane and it will be like 20 hours. Que Bendicion!!!

This week has been good! Thank you for all the letters from the family party! tell them all hello!!! Also thank you for the box of bagels!!!! they were so tasty! we all loved them!  we had many devotionals this week and they are always spiritual experiences. We had to end with 2 of our investigators because we are leaving. it was really sad because one of them was rosie and she was our TRC investigator. the other one was Alberto. and he was just hermano magallanes. seriously our teachers are the best and we got these huge poster boards and printed pictures of them and us and we are going to sign them so they will always remember us. I will cry so much when we have to leave. we are learning more spanish but i feel like i am soaking in nothing. but whatever.

 

There are so many people who are going to neuquen and we meet people all the time that were in our mission. they always say that the mission president is really good. I will be really sad when i have to end my days here at the mtc because i am finally getting use to it here and i am loving my district more and more. but i know when we all get back together and we are all going to have a huge party and talk in Spanish all day long. it will be a great reward.

 

I want to tell everyone that i love you so much and whoever is reading this blog, i love you too!!! Yo se que mi Salvador vive. Yo se que las palabras en el libro de mormon son el amor de Dios. Yo se que mi Padre Celestial me ama mucho. Jose smith fue un profeta de Dios. Les amo mucho! 

okay, so my challenge for this week is to truly study the scriptures. I have my english and my spanish that i have marking like crazy. i mark them by topic and lesson. maybe you don't have to mark them all crazy but mark your favorite stories and verses. You never know when a missionary experience will come up and you can share your favorite story or verse. 

i attached some pics! the first one is of me and hermana webb have a lightsaber war. it was awesome. the next one is our district with hermana turley. the next one is our district with hermano magallenes and the next one is the 2 of us with Rosie. 

 

Love all of you!!! have a good week!!!

 

 

 

Hello my dearest family and friends:)

It was so nice to talk to you on christmas! it was kind of scary and first because it just felt weird. But when i was done, it wasn't long enough. I will get to call you when i leave for argentina on the 12th, but ill let you know more when it gets closer. This week was fun and honestly i can't remember a lot that we did. We taught a lot of people. Every other day me and hermana webb teach like 3 people a day. it gets crazy. Christmas was good. Elder Russell M. Nelson came to speak to us for christmas and then on sunday The crazy organ dude from music and the spoken word and david archuleta came and they sang! it was so amazing!!!!

Every week, we have to do a language assessment and they ask us questions and we have to answer through the microphone. it is so funny because they ask us crazy questions and you have to listen to yourself talk back. oh man it is so funny to hear myself talk about i don't know what. But i got a good review back! Hermano Magallanes helps us with our planning and language study he is so nice we are so lucky to have amazing teachers because there are some teachers who are so mean! 

 

yesterday, our whole district got to be hosts for the new missionaries. it was really sad to see them cry so much! i hope i wasn't like that. i probably was. It is really cold down here and we had to do it in the crazy cold weather. but it was really cool to meet new people and we FINALLY got new hermanas! it is nice to have more sisters in our zone.

Like i said, there isn't much that went on this week. oh but HAPPY NEW YEAR!! its crazy to think that it is 2015! We are all about goals here at the mtc. my goal is to read the book of mormon twice this year. i am loving it more and more. i can honestly say that i haven't received an answer to know if the book of mormon is true. BUT the scriptures say to read and study and then ask. I am praying every night to ask and i am learning so much from them. I am also learning a lot about jose smith. He was an incredible man and he did everything he could so we could have this book. my other goal is to once a week, find  christ like attribute and really study it and try to be more like christ in that way. We went to a devotional on tuesday and it was about repentance and change and we need to change to become christ. we are literally representing him. 

my challenge this week is for everyone to make a goal ( i know stupid) but it is really important to make goals so we can become more like the savior. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year. hey mom anyway, before i leave for argentina, could you send a lot of that chocolate granola?? or the dirt?? everyone loves it here! i will be sending stuff back cause i have a lot of stuff that wont fit in my bags. LOVE YOU ALL!!!! 

here are some pictures!!! ill send more next week too!!!!