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!!