Hey again family!!

So I cant believe that I'm sitting here E-mailing you all again. It feels like it was just yesterday that we had our P-Day its so crazy how time is flying by. So there are computer shops all over the place here since hardly anyone owns their own computer so we have to pay 12 pisos an how for internet each week. It usually costs about 20 to 25 pisos for each of us. We are very far from the MTC and also the mission home. This week we had to go to the mission home for our interviews with the president. Some of the Elder in our district along with us rode the LRT. Its just a train that takes you long distances in a very short period of time. It is also very cheap. 10 pisos per ride but it is also very very crowded. There were tons of people just all smashed together in the trains we couldn't even move there were so many people. My talk yesterday went great I spoke on missionary work. It was very short only a 7-10 minute talk. My companion and me work really well together. And out shower has 3 buckets a big one with all the water then a small bucket with a handle which we use to scoop and pour the water. Then another bucket we use to fill the large bucket. And yes my showers are always very cold but I've gotten use to it and its actually nice since we sweat all day long plus our apartment doesn't have air conditioning. 

We have had several really good lessons this week along with our two baptisms. We had a few really slow days though where we just didn't get to teach. Pam is the girl who was baptized this week. Here grandfather baptized her and I baptized Johnlery Rosario Regadio who is the one in the picture. We have several investigators right now who we feel will get baptized within the next few months. Hopefully they will be baptized but its really hard to meet with people here since everyone is always so busy. But we do our best and we always have good numbers at the end of each week.We had family home evening with Brother Jared and Sister Exyl this week. Brother Jared's brother, who is inactive came, and Sister Exyl invited a friend. It was an amazing experience especially since we could see the joy that family home evening brought to all of them. Several of the less active members here who we have been visiting were at church yesterday which was great. 

So there are trikes and Jeepnys everywhere. Its basically how everyone gets around. The trikes are so fun to ride in and the jeepny is usually very crowded. We don't ride in them a lot just because we usually walk everywhere in our area.

Well there is so much I still want to say but don't have time for especially since I have to do some assessment or something today while we are on the computers.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

- Elder Jones

Hello Family

So this week has been great we are so busy everyday. I cant believe that its already P-day again it doesn't feel like its been that long since the last P-day. So my companions name is Elder Villan he is from the Philippines. Hes really helping me with the language and he gives me plenty of opportunities to teach in the lessons. My tagalog is getting better very fast. So I hand washed my clothes for the first time today. It took a while but after a while ill get better at it. We have two baptisms on Saturday. Brother John Larry is an investigator we have been working with for a couple months and Pam is a teenager whose older sister and younger brother were baptized already. Brother Jared is a less active that we go and see every other day. His girlfriend Sister Exyl is one of our new progressing investigators. They came to church yesterday it was great. We were concerned about her getting baptized since they live together and aren't married but we asked her to be baptized and she said yes and we also found out that they are getting married in January so shes going to work to be baptized right after that. Finding out that they were getting married so soon was an answer to our prayers. We are going to Brother Jared and Sister Exyl home tonight for Family Home Evening with them and their kids. We taught another new investigator this week who seems very interested his name is JR. I invited him to be baptized and he said he would if he comes to find that the church is true. We gave him a book of mormon and hopefully hes been reading. Yesterday after church we had an amazing lesson. We went to a family whose less active and only part member. One of the sisters who is not active is married to a non member and her parents were there too. Her parents are active. We taught her husband the restoration and shared a 20 minute video with them about the restoration. Her husband brother Edward, who is not a member, was very interested. We asked him to be baptized at the end of next month and he said he would work towards it and be baptized. His wife also said she has really been wanting to return to church but just hasn't. After the lesson her dad came up to us with a tear in his and and said "Thank You" We are also teaching a lot of other people right now. 

We haven't had any dinner appointments yet but our first one is on Wednesday.  I'm also giving a talk this Sunday in our ward and I just shared my testimony yesterday in the ward. Ill get the mailing address to you next week I don't have it memorized. But its the Mission home that you send it to. 

I LOVE YOU ALL 

Its so fun here in the Philippines I'm glad this is were I get to serve. Good Job Taylor I cant wait to see it when I get home. I love you all and I'm so happy to hear from you. Get well soon Caden Basketball season is here! HAHA! Tell Marc and Teri hi for me along with the rest of their Family. Have a great week!

Hello Guys

So being out of the MTC is amazing so far. My companion is great he is from the Philippines and speaks 7 languages. English, Tagalog, and 5 other dialects here in the philippines. Its really hard being a missionary here when its so hard to communicate. My Tagalog is improving everyday but they say it takes about 6 months to get it down. One of the hardest things is the sentence structure. Is reversed from English you say the verb first and then you just say the main words that are connected with a linker. Its hard to explain but after a while is actually easy to get the hang of. We have several investigators an some with baptismal dates but right now the numbers in our area are down because the missionary here before me just went home and since he only had a few weeks left he slacked off and was disobedient. My companion and I are working very hard to get the numbers up. We met a family the other day who is going to let us come teach them this week and when we went to go see them yesterday we met the people who live right by them who also has allowed us to go teach them. So we have two potential investigators which are both families. We mainly teach a lot of less active members because we are short on investigators. 

The city is crazy I have never walked so close to moving cars before. There are homeless people everywhere and when we are proselyting at night we see homeless people sleeping on cardboard boxes in the streets. The neighborhoods are crazy. The homes here are super small and most are old. We teach one family who is active except one of them who we are trying to get to come back to church who lives in a home the size of my bedroom. When out on the streets we walk in small ally ways that lead to neighborhoods that are like giant apartment complexes made of falling apart concrete, rotten wood, rusted metal slats, and some even have portions constructed out of blankets. Of course there are some here who live in nicer conditions but nothing like at home. Our apartment is super nice though. Our shower doesn't work so we shower with a bucket of cold water but our apartment is large and clean without any cockroaches ( mga ipis) We eat rice and oatmeal everyday and rarely get dinner appointments. 

We saw General conference yesterday it was great I took notes on every talk and learned a lot. A bunch of the members from this stake and all the missionaries met at the church to watch conference all day. Some of the sisters made us all food and yes it was rice. So my new p day is Monday so I wont be emailing on Fridays anymore and the days are going by so fast its crazy. I feel like we are back in bed 4 or 5 hours after we woke up. 

The other day someone called me Jo that's what us american are referred to here and some one yelled out "Welcome to the Philippines" as I walked by. Also little kids will chase us and say "look americano americano!" 

Things are great here right now Im working hard to learn the language but still of course have a long way to go. I LOVE YOU ALL AND CANT WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN!!!!!! GOOD JOB on your castle Rylee and on your cake Devon!!! I cant wait to try it save some for when I get home!! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Kumusta Pamilya!

How are things going back at home!?

 

Thingsare great here! we leave the MTC here in the next couple days and go out into the field. Im really excited especially after going proselyting in Manila the other day. My companion and me went proselyting with another Elder named Elder Belnap  who leaves to go home the day we leave the MTC. It was sooo fun! We left a church building in Manila and walked for about 20 minutes over to an area where him and his companion are teaching! Let me tell you there is a very distinct smell in Manila every 10 to 20 feet its crazy and usually its not a pleasant smell! There are also people all over the place and traffic is crazy. We just walk in between moving traffic to get across the street so cars literally pass us just a foot away or so. They honk to let you know they are coming but it is so busy. There is also trash every where. There was a corner where a building was knocked over and there were still three walls but the entire things was  filled with trash. Im pretty sure thats where a bunch of people just take their trash each week! Our first lesson was with a family whose parents are members but arent active. The dad is a drug addict and the mother supports the family. When we got there the dad was sleeping and the two little boys had just gotten home from school. The mother has been going to church with the boys but the father doesnt go. The two boys, one is 9 and the other is 10, are getting baptized this weekend so we taugh them about reading the Aklat Ni Mormon ( Book of Mormon) and Panalangin (prayer). We went to two lessons after that who werent home but our last lesson was with a recent convert and we taught her about reading the Aklat Ni Mormon, Ang Plano Ng Kaligtasan (The Plan of Salvation) and Ikapu (Tithing). We just reviewed the  Aklat Ni Mormon, Ang Plano Ng Kaligtasan but actually taught her about Ikapu. It was a really goo lesson! Im soooo excited to enter the field this next week Manila is such an amazing place. During our sveral hours of proselyting we also ran into about 7 new converts. In the past several months there has been over 12 new converts just in one area from these two Elders! Its soo cool to see how the church is growing here. The people in Manila also love the elders one person yelled Gwapo from a jeepme which means handsome while he was pointing at us elders.

 

After Proselyting we all jumped in the cars and left to the MTC and it took us 4 hours to get back because of the rain. It started raining and within 20 minutes there was about 2 feet of water in some areas so even though we were 45 minutes away from the MTC it took us 4 hours to get home. And ya motorcycles in the rain the philippines has a solution!! A PONCHO!! HAHA! People still ride their motorcycles here in the rain they just put a poncho on. Same with riding a bike.

 

This week has been great Ive been learning a lot and we are starting to get ready to leave the MTC. We finished a bunch of our classes so now we just have hours of study time everyday and our lessons have gotten really good! We teach almost 100% of our lessons in taglish not quite tagalog but we are getting there! All of our investigators have been coming to church and Adam has a baptismal date! Remember this is all just practice not yet the real thing!

 

Our district is awesome all of us are really close and we joke around and tease eachother as well! Dont worry we always get our work done! We have two sisters from Australia, and a couple from Samoa Tonga, and one from Hawaii. Most of the Elders are from the states but one is from Samoa and one is from Tonga its so cool we are all really good friends. Our teachers are also really cool. Our teachers are Brother Alcibor and Sister Baraquiel. Both of them are from the Philippines of course and they are so funny they make class so enjoyable even thoug its the same thing over and over and over again! Thers so much that happens in a week that I dont even know waht all to say.

 

So the sentence structure here in the philippines is V A O L. Verb Actor ObjectLocation. So the verb is the first thing in each sentence and depending on whether you are focusing on the Actor Object or Location the sentence structure changes which also means you have to use different conjugations. So there is the root word and to make it past present or future there are diffierent conjugations but there are differnet conjugationsfor each sentence structure and they can only be used on certain verb roots. I hope thats makes sense.

 

So sorry for all the misspellings but this language is really messing with my spelling since some words have about 5 a's in them even though there are only 8 letters total.

 

Im having so much fun here and cant wait to enter the field we got to go to the temple again today which was awesome. I have so many experiences and oh ya we drove by a Lomborghini dealership where there was also a Porsche, Bently, Masarrati, BMW and Audi dealership right by it! It was so cool! We also saw a Mcclaren the other day on the road it was the one we saw at the race track.

 

I will talk to you all again next week!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! BYE!!