CENTENARIO!!

Jan 25, 2016

hello family and friends!!!! i hope that you have all had a good week!!!!!! well the transfer was made! hermana huaman stayed in plottier and i am now is centenario! i honestly  thought that i was going to stay. but they called us and said that i was going. Hermana huaman is going to be there for 5 transfers! its super crazy! i honestly didnt want to leave plottier. i felt like i had more to do. but said goodbye to my loved ones and i moved on. My new companion is Hermana Afane. She is from El Salvador but she lives in Florida. she is really nice and what ive heard she is a really hard worker. Im excited to be in a different area. it will probably be my last area because i have 3 more but im going to take advantage of every minute. Im also nervous to get to know everyone again but ill do my best.

otro buena noticia!!! Maximo Rodriguez got baptized on saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT was amazing! we honestly didnt think we were going to have a baptism because they had been out of town all week but we went to visit them on thursday and they were still planning on it so we went with it and we taught the rest of the lessons in 2 days and he got baptized! it was really really sweet to see maxi get baptized. I'm gunna miss him a lot but i know he'll be okay. his example is going to help his family a lot. he really had the desire to get baptized. 

Did you tell you what happened with luciana?? she had told us that she didnt want us to visit her. so we went to talk to her. but she really didnt want us to come a lot because its summer and she always has her family over. but we apologized for taking a lot of her time and i never regret anything that we said or taught. because i know what we taught is true. Her "husband" doesnt want to come to church and its been hard because nicole and nicolas havent been home but luckily yesterday i got to say bye to nicole. it was really cool and it was sad to leave. 

im a so grateful for the opportunity that i had to serve in plottier. honestly im sad that i had to leave. it was really sad to leave hermana huaman. its going to be hard to get use to another hermana. but im going to try my best to be myself. im grateful to be a missionary and that i can use the atonement everyday. im ready to change and all i hope is to do what the lord wants me to do. "Recuerde que hay un Salvador que conoce tu nombre y entiende los deseos de tu corazon. te guiará y te brindará consuelo al acercarte en humildad y obediencia." 

i love you all so so so so much!!!!! i hope you all have a good week! remember that i love you so so much! éxitos!!!

hermana jones

ps. ill send photos next week.....i forgot to bring my camera to the cyber!

La ultima semana de enero

Jan 18, 2016

hello familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how are you all doing? i can believe that January is coming to an end! this year is flying by. honestly it has been really hard for me to come to the knowledge that i will have to finish this part of my life. i know i still have a few months but now im making goals that are going to help me more to be the best missionary i can be. I am pretty sure that this is the last week that hermana huaman and i will be together as companions. this saturday is the last day of the transfer. we have been together for 3 transfers or 18 weeks. what a good experience it has been to be with hermana huaman. thank you for writing her and making her feel good. she was really suprised to see almost the whole ward on her email! it was reall cool! thank you so so much! 

this week we have been trying to change and be better. it has been a little tough because hermana huamans foot has been really hurting her and we have had to rest a little. but president casariego has given us new goals and to have more lessons with members so we were trying to do that. he did pretty well for the first week. we tried to have members come with us but also it was hard because all of our members went on their temple trip so no one has been here so this week we are going to work a little bit harder. we had 2 investigators in church and it was really good. we had committed a lot of people to go to church and they all said yes but we didnt have a lot of people in church it was a little bummer but we did with what we had. we have been progressing with familia ortiz. we finally found them again and we got to teach them. juan ( the dad) has a lot of good questions and it gives me the motive to study more of the bible and the book of mormon to know how to answer them. we invited them to come to church and they said that they are going to come. flavia is doing great! we are going to make tacos with them on wednesday! she is doing so great! she studies and come to church every week! we are just waiting for her husband to say yes. i dont know when but i hope soon. 

 

some sad news. On saturday, we called luciana and miguel to see how they were doing and to, of course, invite them to church. miguel spoke to us and was happy and normal, but on sunday after church Luciana sent us a message and told us that she doesnt want us to visit her for awhile. we are not sure why and we are really confused. we are going to go see her on last time to explain what happened. I feel bad because they arent following gods plan. i know, that they know its true. but they are denying it. so we are just accepting their agency and going to keep helping them. i dont feel bad for what we taught or what we said. i know what we taught them is true. they just used their agency to choose another path. it honestly breaks my heart. i love that family so so much but there is nothing that i can do. but our heavenly father is a god of miracles. so we just need to be patient and wait. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! this is going to be a good last week...for this transfer! i love this gospel and i love being a missionary!!!!!!  

hermana jones

hola de argentina!

Jan 11, 2016

hi fam how is everyone?? i hope that you all have had a good week. this week has been good! good news im almost legal here in argentina! this week i had to do some paper work so hopefully ill get my dni soon.

we have 5 new investigators this week. there is a member and she is 12. she has a lot of friends. so we are taking advantage and we got to meet some of her friends. they are really great and we are going to work with them alot. Sadly, maximo didnt get baptized on saturday but he is scheduled to be baptized on the 23rd. he is ready but we are trying to involve his mom who is moving a little slower. maxi is really great. the other day he was asking his mom if he could get baptized! it was really cute! 

 

Flavia is the best, as normal! yesterday she came to church and payed her tithing! it was awesome! the only thing that is stopping her from getting baptized is getting married and her husband doesnt want to get married. its sad but she is really cool and is moving on! She loves to learn everything and is really smart. yesterday she taught us how to make homemade noodles. so we ate spaghetti! 

 

as a mission, our focus right now is working with the members. we are struggling a bit cause our members dont do much. ha but we are learning how to ask for more references and going to lessons with them. president sent us a stastistic and from the 1000 references that we recieve and the member comes with us to contact them 665 of them get baptized! WOW!!! so president is really working with that! so if you know people..... and i know you do please give their name to the missionaries and help them teach. it is so important you dont even know. 

 

yesterday was a good sunday. we had 65 people in the church! that is really good! these past few weeks have been in the 30s or 40s so 65 and we were very happy. also we had 3 investigators that went!!!! Flavia, Maximo and his friend, Ceferino. it was a good day! 

 

i am feeling ready to start a new week! i know i need to change some things but me and hermana huaman are really pumped for these last 2 weeks together to see some miracles!!!!!! i know that god is a god of miracles. he can help us with anything. thank you for all of your support and love. keep me updated on everything!! ha 

 

This church is true and all i want to do is follow the will of the Lord. i just want him to be proud of me. nothing is more important. I know that if i follow the commandments and do what he says, he will bless me and i will be able to live happily! 

 

I love you all so much and i hope you all have a good week!!!!!!!!!!!

hermana jones

Happy New Year

Jan 4, 2016

hello everyone! i hope you all had a good happy new year!!! it was really cool to have it hear in argentina! fireworks are illegal here in plottier but everyone does them anyway. so at midnight i went outside and watched all the fireworks!! it was really really cool! its super super hot so its like 90 to a 100 degrees in place of 10 degrees! haha

for new years we got to eat with a family and we went to Luciana's house to spend the time with them. we ate pollo al disco. they but chicken and a bunch of other stuff and put it on a disc and over a fire and cook it. it is so amaizng! i love it. we then played games and got to be with them for a while. the next day we had a pday with the zone. we made tacos and played soccer pretty much all day. it started to hail and then it was super hot. the weather here right now is really weird. on friday there was a huge rain storm and the biggest thunder storms that i have ever seen. ill send pictures. it was kind of scary but really really cool! 

 

this week the assistents came to us and said that we need to change our goals. so, as a zone, we have made new goals and they are raising them. the problem was that we have a lot of investigators but not any baptisms. so we are starting to put more fechas and see them more. the goal is to have 14 investigators in church every week. it will be hard but i know that if we have successful lessons, they are going to come. we are working a lot with old investigators. we are working with anahi and maximo. they are the ones who can get baptized this saturday. we are working really hard with them. we are seeing good things here in plottier and i know that if we are obedient to what god asks, he is going to bless us. 

 

i dont have a lot of time. but i hope you all have a good week. i love you all so so much!!!!!!

hermana jones

Hola!

December 28, 2015

HOLA!

it was so good to see all of you on christmas! what a good chirstmas present it was to see all of you even if it was a 6am in the morning. christmas day was good. it was really really hot. but we had a good classic american bbq. we made hamburgers and hot dogs and soda. it was really fun. we did secret santa and i got homemade chocolate chip cookies and a map of argentina. haha it was super fun!!! we played a lot of soccer and we got to spend time with some members. it was a good to be with members and with the people that i love. 

 

we have been progressing with flavia. she is the mom of the chicos that got baptized in august. she is really smart and really learns from the scriptures. she told us yesterday that she knows that the book of mormon is true and when she reads the bible that she feels like something is missing. obviously its the book of mormon!!! haha it was so cool to hear that from her. i ask that you guys can pray for her because she wants to get baptized but her "husband" doesnt want to get married. she is really amazing and is so happy but its hard when she knows she cant get baptized. we are working really hard with her and i know she sees the difference when she goes to church and when she doesnt. 

it was really cool it talk to everyone. sorry it wasnt a lot of time but it was well worth it. i hope you all have a wonderful new year! this gospel is just so amazing and it all makes sense. when i study and learn new things it all just makes sense. i love it!!!! i know that we have a father in heaven that loves us and that his son jesus chirst lives. i know that we need to do everything we can so the spirit can be with us. i love you all so so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

hermana jones

 

 

Navidad Super Seca

Dec 21, 2015

hi family! how is everyone doing? i hope that everyone is enjoying the Christmas season. you are all are lucky because it is hot and nobody does Christmas here. Christmas here is an asado or bbq and party. the Christmas spirit is different.

 

although the Christmas season is different here the spirits of the people have changed a little bit. there is more service and nicer words and the people arent has dry. so we are taking advantage and trying to contact everyone. on saturday we had a really good activity in neuquen. we all went to neuquen and we had the video a savior is born ( i dont know what its called in english) and we had cards and we invited them to watch it right there in centro de neuquen. it was really cool!! there were a lot of people. it felt nice to wish everyone a merry Christmas and invite them to watch the video about the birth of jesus christ. 

 

this past week our mission is concentrating on coming to know the savior jesus christ. who is really is. yesterday we had a training and learned more about him and how we can repent and be true disciples of him. i really felt the spirit. my testimony of the savior is growing here in the mission. i feel good. i have a lot of things that i want to change for the this new year. i know that i need to repent for the little things that im not doing and turn a new page. 

 

we are working with luciana a lot. she has loosened up a bit from when we talked to her a couple of weeks ago. but she still doesnt come to church but we are visiting her a lot and helping her. we are doing exactly what jesus would do. loving her. she is so kind and thinks of others first and is so motherly. i love it. 

 

we are trying to work with nicole and nicolas but they have both gone to on vacation for summer vacation. so its hard to find them. but we are taking it one step at a time. 

we are excited to start the Christmas festivities!!!

 

i am really excited to see all of you on Christmas!!!! everyone needs to listen! I WILL BE SKYPING AT 10 AM ARGENTINA TIME SO THAT IS 6 AM UTAH TIME! i will send a message before i call but i please ask you that you can all be there cause it will be the last time that i see all of you for another 5 months. so it would be a really good christmas gift to me if you can all be there!!!! so so sorry if that early but its the only time i can do it. i love you all so so so so so much and i hope you all have a good christmas! remember the true meaning of Christmas! the savior lives and i am so grateful that he was born. because if he hadnt been born, we wouldnt have temples, the priesthood, the restored gospel. i am so grateful for the example of the savior and that i can repent and become a better person. FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODOS!!!!!!!!!!!! 

hermana jones

hola, hola

Dec 7, 2015

hello family! how is everyone doing?? this week has been really good and really sad. but this week we have been in a trio so its been super fun. we have walked a lot becuase we have been teaching in 2 areas so i hope in getting skinnier. ha.

some sad news. we went to each lunch with luciana and her family. and after we finally sat down with them to talk about them getting married and they should have a goal to help them progress. the came out and said that they are still thinking about it and they had said that they need money to have a celebration after and they dont have money. we really were direct but with lots and lots of love. so the next day we went to visit her and she told us that she and miguel(her boyfriend) have decided to not go to church until they get married. so it has ben super hard for us. i dont think ive ever cried so hard in my life for someone! they are going to take a break from church because she also feels like the members are judging her because shes not married and stuff. we bore our testimonies and really expressed our love for her. its going to be hard becuase her kids, nicole and nicolas just got baptized but she said shes going to support them in going to church. we are kind of stumped right now. we arent sure what to do. It was sad because nicolas came to church alone yesterday and he told us that he doesnt like to come to church alone and he wants to come with his family. we are trying to work it out. but i think its something that it will take time. please keep praying and fasting for luciana, miguel, nicole, and nicolas. it would really help alot. if you have any advice that would help too....

with everything that has happened i can feel the love for these people. i couldnt hold back the tears. i love that family so so much and they have progressed so so much. i know it has happened for a reason but its hard to deal with. 

also this week we put a fecha with maximo. he is 9 years old and he wants to get baptized. his mom is less active so we are working with the both of them. in the other barrio we have been teaching in the area of the hermanas because one of them is with us and she has 3 baptisms this saturday so we are really really working and walking a lot! its good. my tan is beautiful!! thank you so much for the birthday wishes i hope to have a good birthday tomorrow!!!! 

have a good week!!!!!! i love you all so so much!!!!

hermana jones

fotos:

one of the pics is of maximo and his friend, we ate food from peru it is literally the best food on the planet. i was stuffed after! ENJOY!!

 

 

12 Meses

Nov 30, 2015

I cant believe that i have made it to 12 months. what a crazy year it has been. to think back one year and what i was doing. I can not think of a better place to be but in Argentina serving my Heavenly Father and helping him find his children.

one year ago i had stepped into the MTC and i didn't understand a thing. My third day i had to teach an investigator. I thought i knew everything. obviously that isn't true. but i can tell you that i have grown up a little and i have learned so much about myself, about the gospel, about other people, and most importantly about my savior. I can honestly say that i never thought i would get to this point in my mission. sad to say but it was true. I love every second of my life right now. i have come to know my savior more through his atonement. i am not perfect but i know that he can and he does forgive us. I repent everyday for  the things that i know i can change and do better the next day. The only thing i want to do is keep God's commandments and do what he wants me to do. I want him to be proud of me. 

My favorite day of the week is Sunday. Its the day when i can see if what i did in the week was good. The chicos that we are teaching, their mom came to church to see them be in the primary program. it was so humbling to see her sitting in sacrament meeting. Also 2 or 3 families came to church for the first time in months. Nicolas came to church with a white shirt and tie and next sunday he will be receiving the aaronic preisthood. Every sunday, i have a chance to write in my agenda all of the miracles from that day. i can say that we saw a lot of miracles yesterday. 

 

we have been working hard with a less active and her son that is 9 years old. he had told us that he wants to get baptized so are working with him and his mom so she can go back to church and her son can be baptized. 

i am learning new things everyday about myself and who i am. its really weird. but i feel like I'm changing. i am grateful for the opportunity i have to be here and meet interesting people everyday. 

Espero que tengan una buena semana y se que estamos en la iglesia verdadera. les amo con todo mi corazon y cada dia pido que el senor pueda protegerles. gracias por su apoyo y por su animo! 

se que el Libro de mormon es verdadero y se que jose smith fue un profeta. gracias a el que tenemos la iglesia restaurada! se que este libro es muy muy importante y que podemos aprender algo cada dia. les amo y espero lo mejor por ustedes:) 

HAVE A GOOD WEEK!!!!!!!!! 

Blessings of the Gospel

Nov 23, 2015

hello family and friends!! how is everyone doing?? i hope that you all have had a wonderful week!!!

this week we had the baptism of Nicolas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so amazing! he was so prepared!! he is 16 years old and he wants to go on a mission. it was amazing to have the whole family there! his dad works a lot so it was a huge blessing to have all of them there! we had the chance to talk to the whole family and the dad (miguel) says he wants nicolas to baptize him. Me and hermana huaman wanted to cry! This gospel is changing this family so much! miguel told us yesterday that he wants to be a member and they are going to get married in january! this family is so special and i am so happy that we have been able to teach them! 

This week we have been running everywhere! we had the baptism on thursday and justo the mission called us to go and do tramites (paperwork and Visa's) in Neuquen! so we were freaking out and running everywhere with little sleep. but that is what the mission is about!

 

 also this week we had a ward activity! it was NOCHE DE JUEGOS!!! with little money we pulled it off!! we did a lot of games and everyone had a great time!!!!! it was amazing to be with the ward and come together to just play and have a good time!

Now that nicolas has gotten baptized we are contacting alot. I know that there is someone out there that is ready to hear the gospel!!! we are meeting a lot of new people and everyone of them has an interesting story that can relate to the gospel. I love being here and i am grateful everyday to be a missionary. i know this is the true church and i know that the book of mormon is true!!! 

i hope everyone has a good week!!! i love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hermana jones

 

 

BAUTISMOOOOO!

Nov 16, 2015

so i have so good news. this thursday, nicolas has decided to get baptized. he was going to do it on saturday but his sister isnt going to be there so he decided on thursday . Nico is so prepared to be baptized its crazy. he is really smart and he has the desire to be baptized.

this week we had exchanges with the hermana lideres and we found a lot of contacts. we are working really hard with the ward. we want to strengthen the ward first so we can work hard together to have baptisms. everyone is working hard to help nicolas. there are a few problems with the bishop. he is really frustrating to work with. dad i dont know if you could give us some advice.... we are not sure what to do. he says one thing and does another. its super frustrating for us as missionaries to work with the ward. yesterday we got to celebrate hermana huamans birthday. it was really nice. im so happy that i am comps with her. its been really good to be with her. she has taught me alot about the mission and about me. im so grateful for her. 

 

this next week we are going to be flying trying to help nicolas get ready for thursday. its going to be tough because after nicolas, we have to start fresh and find others i know that people are prepared to hear the gospel. we have met a lot of new people solo, we have to go out and find them. 

yesterday we finally got into a house of a less active!! the secret is to ask for water. its so hot they have to give it to us! haha so we asked if she could give us some water and we got to teach her and her son who wants to get baptized!! so we are excited! 

 

before i forget, president casariago and his wife have a facebook page with all of the photos. go search on facebook, Presidente y Hermana Casariago. Mision Argentina Neuquen. i hope that you can find it! i love being a missionary and i love the challenges that come with it!! i hope everyone has a good week!!!!!!! i love you all!!!!!!!!!

hermana jones

 

 

Mi Carta Maravillosa

Nov 9, 2015

hello familia how is everyone?! i have been asked if i could write a longer letter today so the wish has been granted. ha

we are teaching 2 recent converts. one is 13 and the other is 9. they are so so sweet and so so smart. their names are Nahuel and Lelin. They are the 2 chicos that were in the picture last week. they have had some trouble coming to church because their mom wants them to concentrate in school. they want to go to church but its hard for them. we are teaching them and helping them pray and they are so so so smart and they remember everything. i love teaching them they also make fun of my spanish. we have a good time. this week we are trying to contact more.

 

we have looked in our area book for new investigators. and this week have found 4 new investigators. so this week our plan is to contact them and put a fecha. BAUTISMO!! their names are miguel, benito, nancy and luis. also, this week we put a fecha with nicolas. the brother of nicole. he said we wants to get baptized. so we have planned for the 21st. i know that he is a preapared 16 year old kid. he is truely amazing. 

 

a miracle happened yesterday. we had made a cake because we found a less active in our member directory. and it had her birthday. so we went to look for her and we stopped to asked this man if he knew where the house was. we started to talk and he said he was catholic but he wife is mormon. we talked to her and she is from salta, argentina and she was so happy to see us. it was getting late and so we decided to give them the cake! so she was really happy. it is so crazy because we had contacted this man and we found a less active and now we have a new investigator. what a small world. 

me and hermana huaman are trying so hard to be more obedient and we have a lot of good plans for this coming week. we are excited and the time is flying. i love every minute of the mission even when times are tough. Me and my comp are getting along great. she really helps me and i am learning alot. we also laugh alot. 

i hope everyone has a good week. i love you all so so much. the church is true and i love being a missionary. 

 

hermana jones

 

 

HOLAAAAAA!!!

Nov 2, 2015

hello family how are you all?!?!?! i hope you have had a good week!

this week has been sooooooooooooooooooooooo hot! i have some pretty sick tan lines! haha

this week has been really rewarding! the family of Nicole they all went to church on sunday so that was a big blessing. Miguel, the dad, works alot and is not here so when he is here he comes to church. when the dad is home we try to take advantage and we teach the whole family! yesterday we had a good lesson yesterday. there has been some contention in the family and yesterday we did a "honey roast" kind of thing. where everyone at the table has to say something nice to every person in the room. at first it was awkward but at the end everyone was crying. for sure the spirit was there and i am so happy that i have been able to meet this family!

we also had about 5  less actives in the church on sunday. it was a really good and rewarding week. today is the first day of the transfer and me and hermana huaman are going to be together for another transfer! i love plottier and the people are really really great!

sorry this letter is really short but that was the highlight!!

i hope everyone has a good week! i love you all so so so so much!

hermana jones

Las fotos: Me with some kids that got baptized about 2 months ago and they are just the best thing ever! los niños se llaman Nahuel, Lelin, y Niela. also with the zone leaders because they both got tranfered.

Feliz Halloween

Oct 26, 2015

Hello family! espero que tengan un buen halloween!!! acá en argentina no celebran halloween! mama gracias por su regalo de halloween! lo recibí!  todos les encanto! hahaha

this week was really stressful and we worked hard! its been tough because we havent been able to see nicole alot.......satan always attacks after the baptism. but we are going to keep moving forward! now we have  put a fecha with her older brother! Nicolas. he is so amazing! he doesnt feel prepared enough to be baptized but we invited him and he is praying to recieve his answer. i know he will get baptized on saturday entonces no se preocupen. we are working really hard with him but other than that we dont have any investigators progressing so that is going to be our focus this week. finding the people who are prepared! 

last sunday was mothers day down here so we help prepare an activity for the mothers to celebrate with them! it was really successful and a lot of people went! the food was delicious!!!! yesterday we had to stay in the pension all day because of elections! its super weird but president wanted us to stay inside cause it can be kind of scary. this is the last week of the transfer and so we are pushing to the fullest! i will be staying for sure so im excited! i like plottier alot. the people are really great here. 

im sorry that this letter is short but that is what happened this week! i hope everyone has a good week! i love you all so so so much! remember that your heavenly father loves you so so so much!!!!!!! CHAU!!

hermana jones