Hello Family. 

My new companion is a Filipino but is actually from Qatar. Both his parents are Filipino but they work in Qatar. Lots of people think he is from Japan, China or Korea. The other day a little kid walked by us and said ' Hi America Hi Korea." It was really funny. He speaks Tagalog though so if I cant understand he can. But I can understand a lot now and I have to speak it so much everyday that I'm getting a lot better at it. 

The other day we went and taught sister Jennet again. We finished the plan of salvation. A couple days earlier while talking she hold told us that her dad had died. So we told her through the plan of salvation she can see him again. I thought she was about to cry. It was a really cool experience especially when she told us that she understands the plan of salvation. We were really able to teach it to her simply and in a way that she as well as the Deato family, who are recent converts, could understand. When they all told us that they understood and I could tell that thy really could by the look in their faces I felt like we had done our job. we then invited sister Jennet to be baptized again. She is very shy and in the past just hasn't answered but this time she said yes. We then set a goal for March 7. I feel that sister Jennet will be baptized then or close to it because she is reading and coming to church and always likes to hear our message. She said she feels something about our message and listens really well.

our area is pretty difficult. We talked to 72 people last week on the streets and some seem interested but most of them don't seem interested. Im really hoping we can find some new investigators who will really progress in the gospel and really want to know if its true. 

Love you all!!! I will talk to you next week!!! BBYYE!!

Kumusta po kayo lahat!

noong martes tumanggap ako ng package mula sa inyo! Maraming salamat po! Gusto ko ang cookies, stocking at pants. HAHA! Kahapon meron kaming Stake Conference. Nagsimula yan sa 10 AM. Simbihan namin dito ay nagsisimula sa 2 PM linggo linggo. Ibig sabihin ang schedule namin was way different. umulan all day kahapon. So during our proselyting time we got extremely wet. We walked around with our umbrellas and talked to a bunch of people. We had some really cool experiences. We talked with one guy yesterday who was just sitting along in one of the small ally ways. He was telling us how his left side of his body is paralyzed and he cant at all use it. He is a super nice guy and we talked for a while. I gave him a pamphlet for the plan of salvation and told him we believe that when we are resurrected our body will become perfect. He was a very humble and nice man. I told him we will try to come back and visit him and he said that would be fine. Earlier this week we had a day that was pretty discouraging. Every where we went we couldn't teach for one reason or another. Then I saw one of our investigators smoking who I hadn't seen with a cigarette for almost 2 months. It really stunk and after that I couldn't stop thinking about what we need to do to help him. We then headed down to teach one of our investigators who we just started teaching and is progressing very well. She had left her home so we couldn't teach. We have been teaching her at the Deato family's home. We went to the Deato family and their son Romeo was sick. We talked for a little bit I asked them about Janette our investigator then we gave Romeo a blessing. While walking home again I was upset cause we didn't get to teach Janette cause I was really looking forward to it after that day. While walking home a bunch of kids sitting on the side of the street yelled out "Elder Jones" I looked back and saw about 6 of them. I said "Kumusta kayo" and they responded with "Ok long Ikaw" I told them "Mabuti" Then said " Ingat kayo" and continued walking on. When they said hi to me it really made my day. I felt like even though we didn't get to teach much and we had some hard trials that through our example and being friendly to all the people that we meet is one way we are doing missionary work. I felt good about my actions before to talk to people and just make friends. Its so cool when walking around tons of people are always saying hi to us. The next day when we returned Romeo was out of bed playing with his friends outside. It was a miracle that we had went from sick 12 hours ago to being outside with all his friends. A couple days after we were walking y Jumong and all his friends the all ran over to us and wanted to talk with us. One of Jumongs friends said "Elder Jones I'm catholic are you allowed to teach Catholics and can you teach me" another said "Im Iglesia can you teach me" I told them we could then they started asking about our beliefs. I started to answer their questions then told them some day when we are with Jumongs family we can probably teach them about our message. So now they always ask when we are going to teach them. Its really cool to see Jumong become a member and now all his friends have an interest. 

I love you all and have a great week!!! BYE!!

Elder Jones

Hello Family,

Yes training is a huge difference especially when I went from the trainee to the trainer in just a day. I'm learning a lot though. Because we are both brand new and we still have a lot to learn we have been studying so hard everyday and even though we are new its been so cool the things we have able to accomplish. We are still continuing to OYM a lot in order to find new investigators. Last week we OYMed a guy who seemed kind of interested. We asked him if we could come back he said yes so when we returned his wife was actually sleeping so we didn't teach but he had a lot of questions because he had read the pamphlet we gave him. So we answered his questions and he told us to come back. We are going to keep dropping by and hopefully we can teach him. There are several people that we OYMed last week that we have a return appointment with for this week. So hopefully we can get a lot of new investigators. Here pretty soon we will be going to visit a lady we OYMed at the end of last week. She seemed super interested and asked tons of questions and wanted us to come back on Monday to share our message with her. We are having so many cool experiences OYMing and we are meeting a lot of new people in our area. Just when we are walking there are people who will say "Hey its the Elders" Its way cool. I'm just really hoping we can find a lot of new investigators. The first day with my new companion we OYMed a girl as we were returning to our apartment. Her name is Janette and she lives right by the Diato family who are recent converts. We have taught Janette several times at the Diato family's home and yesterday she came to church. Sister Exyl and Brother Jared are always at church now. It has become a habit for them to be there. They haven't missed for a long time now. Its so cool to always see them there. Sister Merryann is really progressing I was worried about her not reading the Book of Mormon then the other day we shared a scripture with her and she said "Oh I read this chapter." It was so good to hear her say that cause it reassured me that she was reading. Unfortunately we don't have any baptisms soon. The closest one is in February and it really depends on if the Investigator is ready. But because we are finding lots of new potentials investigators and many new investigators who are progressing we will hopefully see many baptisms in our area within the next few months. But it will take some time. 

I LOVE you all and miss you! Have a great week and I will talk to you next week! BYE!

Elder Jones

Hello all

So this past week just on Monday I finished mt training with my companion and we found out he was transferring. I also received a text message from President Ostler saying that I will train. So yes my new companion has only been in the field a couple days and I'm training right out of my own training. Its kinda difficult but that's OK it will really help both of us. Right now we are just focusing on finding new investigators and helping our progressing investigators work towards baptism. The other day we went and visited Sister Exyl and Brother Jared. Brother Jared showed us all the new stuff he bought for new years. A white shirt, dress pants, shoes and a bunch of ties. We taught him how to tie a tie and yesterday at church he was so qwapo! Or handsome! It was so cool to see him all dressed up and Sister Exyl was also dressed up for Church. Their entire family is coming to church and they are always there early now. Since we really need to find some new investigators in our area we have been talking to so many people. Just within the past few days we talked to 39 people. Our mission President has also put in some new goals for every companionship to OYM each week. We are really trying to find those people that are ready for our message. It is very hard though. We have had several people say that we can come back and share our message with them but some have said no, or I'm busy, or just I'm not interested. Last night after church the only thing we did was talk to people. We talked to a lady earlier this week and we gave her a pamphlet about the restoration. After we gave her the pamphlet she wouldn't even take her eyes off of it, even when she shook our hands and was taking to us. She said we could come back this week so I'm really hoping that she will become a progressing investigator. We also ran into another guy who is always in the same spot. Me and my last companion, Elder Villan, gave him a Book Of Mormon and taught him about the restoration. Just the other day he had us sit down and just went on and on about how he doesn't like the Book Of Mormon because all the war and that it doesn't say a single thing about Jesus Christ. He had us show him one spot in the Book where in talks about Jesus Christ, so we did. I'm pretty sure he was kind of drunk at the time too.

So for new years we had to return to our apartment early because it gets pretty crazy outside. Everyone is partying and yes there are fireworks. I have never seen so many fireworks before. Groups of people get together in the roads and just shoot of fireworks and party all night long. The entire sky was full of fireworks. Try to find a video on you tube or something of new years in the Philippines cause its absolutely crazy. I took some video of it but I think the file is to big to send over E mail. But I have never seen so many fireworks in my life. The sky was just full of them for as far as we could see. There was also lots of loud music and people lighting these extremely large firecrackers in the streets. The streets were full of pieces left from the fireworks the next day. 

Happy new year to you all! I hope grandma will get feeling better soon. You all have a great year and don't forget to write. I will talk to you next week! Bye!

Elder Jones