2 more weeks!!

Hey guys

So just this last Saturday Jacel was interviewed for her baptism and she passed the interview so she will be baptized this Saturday. Axl wont be baptized though until probably September but once he is baptized everyone in the Nunez family will be members. We did teach Axl though last week and he definitely has a testimony and knows the church is true he just has to come to church more. He meets all the requirements for baptism except for church attendance. The Nunez family is doing great! 

So far things in our area have been good. We are just constantly looking for new investigators and we are finding some which is good .We are still teaching Kenneth and Joanna and they are doing great. They are progressing really well. Its great when we go teach them cause they get their Book OF Mormons out and all their pamphlets and as we teach we show them scriptures and they really enjoy it and they are learning a ton. They also have lots of great questions and they always want to know more about what we are teaching. Its way fun teaching them. The best part is they are making many changes in their life. They are trying better to life commandments and they are getting theirs papers together so they can get married so they can get baptized. Right now things are going good and we are just working hard to find more investigators. 

Miss you all and Ill talk to you next week! 

Elder Jones  

Hello Everyone!

Well we had another good week here. Time is going by very fast still. It feels like I just emailed you guys and now we are back at the internet shop emailing again. Lately we have really been trying to find new investigators in our area. We have been looking, OYMing and trying to explore new parts of our area where we have been before. Our area is very small so it we see the same people everyday and we walk the same streets everyday so sometimes its hard to rind new investigators. Right now though everything is going good. 

Yesterday Kenneth and Joanna came to church again. It was great to see them at church again and right now they are progressing really well. They have been reading the Book Of Mormon and keeping their other commitments. They mentioned to us that they have been experiencing many blessings and they are noticing a change in their life. In order for them to be baptized they have to get married first and that might take several weeks. Next time we go visit them we will follow up with their marriage and see how its going. Just this last week Axl, Jacel and Jancel were out of town. They went to the province for Jacel's birthday so we didn't get to teach them as much as we would have liked too. We have to teach Jacel a lot this week for her to be prepared for her baptismal interview this Saturday! We have another very busy week ahead of us again! Love you all!! I will talk to you again next week! 

Elder Jones

Hey everybody

There hasn't been to many changes in our area. Elder Streeter and I are still companions and we are doing great. We are still teaching the rest of the Nunez family specifically Jacel and Axl. Jacel came to church yesterday but Axl want there again for some reason so he wont be able to be baptized for at least another 4 weeks. Jacel is still on track for her August 13 baptism. Yesterday Kenneth and Joanna were at church again. Last week we taught them the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. They were very accepting and committed to live them both. The only problem right now is that they are not married yet, have a kid and are living together. We let them know that they have to get married and when we returned to their house we shared the Family a Proclamation to the world with them. It went really well. They are both doing great. We are also still teaching Charlie and his siblings and they are doing good too. They are reading the Book Of Mormon and praying and they love when we come over to teach them. 

This week we had the best week we have ever had in our area as far as numbers go. We taught 25 lessons and again OYMed 190 people. We are seeing many miracles in our area and I think in the future there will be a lot of baptisms in this area. We are trying to work more effectively with the members. So far its been going good. We are sharing more messages with the members to help them do their part as missionaries and to help them share the gospel. Its so great being a missionary. 

Love you all have a great week

Elder Jones

Hey everyone!

I wasn't able to email yesterday cause our schedule was changed due to the fact that today we had a temple day and we just got back from the temple. The temple here closes at the beginning of August so we had a temple day this week before it closes for the next 3 months! Things are going great. Last Saturday Abegail was baptized. It was cool there were so many people who came to the baptism. We are still working with Jacel and Axl and their baptisms are getting closer. Once they are baptized everyone in their house hold will be members. The work has been going good though lately. 

Last week I didn't get transferred and neither did my companion so we are still here in the same area. My companion right now will be my last companion and this will definitely be my last area. There are a lot of great things going on in our area and I really didn't want to leave so Im glad that I didn't. I want to stay here and see the progression of our area and also see Axl and Jacel and Charlie get baptized. Have a great week everyone!!   Love and miss you all!

Elder Jones

6 more weeks to go!

Happy late 4th of July everyone!

Just this last week we had some great experiences ion our area. One of these experiences includes our investigator Charlie. I think I mentioned before that we talked to charlie out on the street and he told us his parents were members and we started teaching him a couple days after that. Well anyway this week we met his parents and also all his other siblings. We are now teaching all his siblings and yesterday Charlie along with his youngest brother and the youngest came to church. Next week his other brothers and sisters are going to attend church. Yesterday was Charlie's second time at church and he is really doing well. He is progressing very well and all his siblings are very interested and doing well too. Charlie's baptismal date is August 20 and Im really hoping he will make that goal so I can be here to see him get baptized. Im super excited to see the progression of his family and we are really hoping that the parents will come back to church soon with their kids. Its so great teaching amazing people like them they are super cool. 

Abegail was also interviewed for her baptism on Saturday and she passed. She will be baptized this Saturday and the baptism will start at 5 PM. She also asked me to baptize her. Im very excited for that and Jacel and Axl are doing great. They all came to church yesterday and Jacel and Axl are keeping all their commitments. Axl's baptismal date is this upcoming July 30 and Jacel's is August 13. Right now they are all on track and if the keep progressing the way they are they will be baptized on their scheduled days. Im super excited for them. They are all doing great and they have so much support. We again had another great week and we will have another great week this week. 

Love you all 

Elder Jones

Hey there every one

This week we had the best week I think since Elder Streeter and I have been companions. We taught a total of 22 lessons and OYMed 190 people and it was a great week. The mission is really focusing on us hitting 190OYMs every week and teaching at least 20 lessons a week. Our mission President, however, wants us to set our goals higher. We are going to try and get more than 22 lessons. Hopefully we can teach 25 or even more. We have seen so many miracles and blessings in our area as we have been working hard and being obedient. 

Last week after church while working we talked to a 18 year old boy named Charlie. While talking with Charlie he told us that both of his parents were Mormon but had not been to church in a long time. He also mentioned that he use to go to church when he was a little boy. So far we have taught him twice, invited him to be baptized and yesterday he came to church with us. He knew several people at church which was great cause he already has so fellow shippers now. We still haven't met his parents but hopefully this week we will and we can start working with them to help them come back to church. We didnt know his parents were members or that they even lived there cause they have no records in our ward cause they are back in the province where they were baptized. Hopefully Charlie's parents will return to church and all his siblings could be baptized in the process. There is a lot of potential and Im really glad that we OYM 190 people every week or else we would have never found him and many of the other people we are teaching. 

Yesterday Abegail, Axl and Jacel all came to church. Axl and Jacel are sister Meribel's kids and Jancel's brother and sister. They both also have baptismal dates and they are doing well. Abegail has a baptismal date for this July 16 and she is on track. Axl has a baptismal date for this July 30 and Jacel's Baptismal date is in August. They are all reading their Book Of Mormons though and preaying and attending church. They are all on track so far. Hopefully They will all be baptized by the end of August. If they keep progressing they way they are they will be baptized before the end of august which is our goal. Things are going great and the work is amazing! 

I love and miss you all!! Ingat po kayo 

Elder Jones

Hey Everyone

This week we had another great week! First of all we had Zone Conference and it was great and unfortunately it was my last Zone Conference. Its so great to see where the mission and work is going here and I wish I could stay longer to be a part of it! A lot of the Zone Conference was about increasing the way we work with members and also just the way we work so we can be more  effective. 

We had some great experiences this last week with some of our investigators including Kenneth and Joanna, a young couple who was a referral from the Tolentino family, and another one of our investigators named Ralph. We met Joanna and Kenneth about 2 weeks ago when they and us joined a Family home evening at the Tolentino's home. Last week we taught them the restoration of the gospel and yesterday they came to church. Joanna's desire to learn about the gospel has grown very fast and Kenneth's desire is growing slowly but it is growing. We will be teaching them tomorrow and we are going to finally set a baptismal goal with them. Our other investigator is Ralph. We have been teaching him for about 4 weeks now and at first he wasn't really progressing but he had a lot of questions. 2 weeks ago after finding out again that he still hadn't read anything in the Book Of Mormon we spent an entire lesson just talking about reading and the importance of it. We also read the introduction to the first book Of Nephi and that got him interested. Well he started reading after that. He has been praying and reading now and we also taught him the Law Of Chastity and the Word Of Wisdom. Well he struggles with both of those commandments but he has been progressing well over the past few weeks and he is working hard to live the Law Of Chastity and Word Of wisdom. Ralph also came to church with us yesterday for the first time. Im really hoping he will keep progressing the way he is and hopefully be able to be baptized this August. 

Love you all! Have a great week!! 

Elder Jones

Hey everyone

Yesterday my companion and I had a great experience at church. First of all we went and picked up one of our investigators,Rodrick, on our way to church. Rodrick came to church with us which was great, then while sitting in sacrament meeting another one of our investigators randomly showed up. We talked to Roland several days ago on the street and asked him if we could teach him. He said yes and let us in his house to share a short message with him. After sharing our short message with him we invited him to church. The church is kinda far from his house and he has never been there before so we weren't to sure if he would make it, but yesterday while sitting in sacrament meeting he showed up. He was all alone and he had to find the church by his self but he did it. He was a little late but he was there. We have only taught him once so far and we have a return appointment this Tuesday.

We dont yet have any upcoming baptisms this month but hopefully next month and the month after that we will have a couple. We are still currently teaching Abygail. She is progressing well and she attended church again yesterday. Her baptismal date is July 9 and she is progressing well towards that day. We still have a lot that we need to teach her in a short period of time but we should be able to pull it off. We are also still teaching Jancel's Brother Axl. He is doing OK too but yesterday he wasnt at church cause he was sleeping so that kinda stunk. Hopefully he will be at church next week especially since he has a baptismal goal as well for this upcoming July 30. We have several other investigators that we are teaching who have baptismal dates for this upcoming August and some of them are doing well and are progressing. Some of them are progressing slowly but hopefully over the next few month period they will be ready for baptism. Right now things are going good. We have a lot of work to do but its coming along well. 

Love and Miss you all

Elder Jones

Hey everyone

Well this week we had a decent week. It was kinda difficult just cause there was a lot going on. We weren't able to teach as much as we wanted but we found some great new investigators last week. One of our new investigators is a man named Rodrick. He is probably about 38 years old. We have only taught him once so far but we have a return appointment with him tomorrow. We seems really interested. He listens super well and he really likes us and wants to listen to our message. He said he will go to church next week so Im really hoping we will see him there. We met him last Thursday when we OYMed him. He then set a return appointment with us for last Saturday. We went and visited him last Saturday and the lesson went really well. Right after we taught him he said he also has a friend who he wants us to meet, so he took us over to meet his friend but unfortunately he wasn't there so we will hopefully meet him tomorrow. This week we also taught Abygail a lot and invited her to be baptized. I dont know if I have mentioned Abygail but she is related to the Decena family who are all strong faithful members here. Abygail's friend and fellow shipper is also Jancel. Yesterday her and Jancel came to church together which was great. Abygail has a baptismal date for this upcoming June 9 and I think she will be ready by that day. 

Last Saturday I also Interviewed several people for baptism. The other Elders in our district have an upcoming baptism this Saturday so I interviewed their investigator Iszchie. Her named is pronounced heshe. Her dad was a less active member who has just recently returned to activity and his daughter will now be baptized this June 18. Its great to see brother Nathan, her dad, return to church and at the same time his daughter, Iszchie, get baptized. I also got a call from our Assistants and they asked me if I would interview one of their investigators. The Elder that was suppose to interview their investigator couldn't so they asked me to do it. After interviewing Iszchie we traveled over to the Russell church building which isn't to far from our area. Over there I interviewed their investigator. He is a really cool guy and it was great to see how much the gospel has helped him change and how he is a completely different person that he was before. He has went through many hard things and has come from a very dark past but he has changed so much and it was great to be able to interview him. Its really cool being a district leader and being able to interview investigators for baptism. 

Well g\have a great week everyone! I love and Miss you all!! 

- Elder Jones

Hello everyone!

Rainy season is now here! It has been raining a lot lately and last night while we were out working it started to rain really hard and the storm was right over us. The thunder was very loud and the lightning was very close to us it was crazy. Our area also kinda flooded last night. One of the roads in our area was completely under water and we had to walk around trying to find a way home. Im assuming it will be raining really hard for the next couple months here. The lighting storms are also very active here. The storms are really cool we just get really wet when we work in the rain! 

We had a couple of baptisms lined up for this month but just last week they all fell through. A bunch of our investigators weren't at church last Sunday and so now they cant be baptized this month. It really stinks cause the closest baptism we have is in July still kinda far away. Last Sunday we had a great experience though. One of our investigators, Brother Ralph, was suppose to come to church with us and we went to go pick him up but unfortunately he wasn't able to come. After that we decided to drop by another one of our investigators whose name is christian. when we got to his house he was there and when he saw us he knew why we were there so he ran inside a quickly got dressed. moments later he came out with his sister who was also dressed for church. He asked if his sister could and we told him that of course she could. He all hopped on a jeepney and went to church together. It was the first time that christian came to church and he invited his sister to come with us and she did. It was a really good experience. 

Today was our temple day again. Since we had our temple day today our P-day was also changed to today so we are Emailing now. anyway we are about to go out to work. Love you all and Have a great week!!

Elder Jones

Baptism

Hello po sa inyo lahat

Well this week is transfer week but we haven't heard if anything will be happening yet. We usually dont find out until Tuesday. I cant say that anything will happen but I cant say that something wont happen. Its possible I might leave but Im not sure. We will find out tomorrow and Ill let you know next week. 

Anyway this past week Jancel was baptized. It was great. Her brother and sister were there and we are teaching both of them. The only problem is that her sister goes back to the province this week but her brother will be staying here. He also now has a baptismal date for this upcoming June 25. He is also progressing towards his goal. Its was great that Sister Maribel ,their mother, and Jancel's brother and sister were able to attend her baptism. Last Saturday Brother Rowel Decena was suppose to baptize her but he called us and told us he had an emergency and couldn't so I ended up baptizing her. Its so cool when you get to baptize some one. Its a great experience. 

Last week we also did a lot of OYMing like we do every week. We OYMed 194 people just last  week. We almost talked to 200 people and invited them to listen to our message. OYMing has become just a regular thing that we do. We just OYM all day and talk and invite people all day even if we are not teaching. Its really fun though and we get to meet a lot of people through OYMing. I also gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament about the importance of missionary work. It went really well. The work is still going good. we are just trying to find more and more people to teach. Hopefully we can find a lot this week and in the weeks to come. 

Mahal ko po kayo lahat. Mag-ingat kayo lagi! 

Elder Jones

Hey there guys

Well this week was a great week. Our investigator Jancel was interviewed last Saturday and she passed and she will be baptized this Saturday. This week we also started teaching her older brother Axl. He also came to church yesterday with his mother and his sister Jancel. We also invited him to be baptized last week when we taught him. He accepted and right now he has a baptismal date for this upcoming June 25. We are also teaching another girl named Abygail who is the Decena's cousin. Abygail is doing great. she also came to church yesterday. She told us last week that this June 6 she has to go back to the province to study. She told us that she didnt want to go but that she wants to stay here to study, be baptized and cause she likes it more here. She has been praying that she would be able to here and not go back to the province. Yesterday when we saw here she told us that she would be staying here to study and she was super excited about that. Her mom gave her permission to study here. She also has a baptismal date for this upcoming June 25. 

There are a bunch of great things going on in our area right now and we are finding a lot of people that are really interested in our message. 

This last week I also went on exchanges with the Zone leaders. I worked with Elder Castaneda which if you remember he was my companion back on Coron. It was super fun working with him again. He is a great missionary and it was really fun to work with him again. Anyway him and his companion fresh started this transfer. That means that they both were brand new to the area. Anyway, since they fresh started they dont have a ton of investigators right now. We went to go visit a bunch of people but nothing worked out so we just talked to people all day. So we just OYMed all day and we talked to 48 people in one day which is a lot especially since our goal is 30 a day. It was a great day. 

Love and miss you all! Have a great week!

Elder Jones

Hey there everyone

We had a great week this week. We talked to a lot of people and we found several new investigators this week. Some of our new investigators seem very potential and very interested. Finding has been something we have been focusing on in our area because we dont have many investigators. Last week we actually find 9 new investigators including a couple of friends named June and Albert. We talked to June about a week ago and he set a return appointment with him. When we went back to visit him we met his friend albert. We began to introduce ourselves and who we are and what our message is about. They immediately started asking questions. i was very glad that they did because it shows their desire to learn and to hear our message. We invited them go to to church. They really wanted to go to church but unfortunately they both had work last Sunday.They told us that they would try to get work off next week so they could go. Even though we only have taught them once I can see that they have a lot of potential Im just really hoping that they will progress! 

We also began teaching Christian. He is 19 years old and he knows the Decena family. The Decena family is a very active family in our ward.  Christian was going to go to church yesterday but he didnt show up so we arent sure what happened. He seems very interested as well. Im really hoping that he will begin to progress as well. Hopefully since he know the Decena family they can really help him and fellowship him. Anyway we had a great week this week and we are going to have a great week again this week. Im really looking forward to it. 

Love and Miss you all

Elder Jones

Hello Every one

The work is going good here in Pasay. Last week was kinda crazy though. Last Tuesday we didn't really even work because we spent all day at the Hospital. My companion had to have a check up with the dermatologist. We also had several of our investigators move out so now we dont know where they are but people say they are no longer in our area so our teaching pool just got even smaller. We did talk to a lot of people last week like we do every week the only difference was that a lot of the people we talked to are interested and told us that we could visit them. We got their information and will hopefully be visiting many of them this week. We have many potential investigators lined up that we will be visiting this week. Im really looking forward to finding more investigators this week. I also had the opportunity to interview two of the other elders investigators for their baptism this week. We are all really excited to see them get baptized since they have been being taught for a long time and its been a long time since there has been a baptism in the ward. We are really trying to improve our efforts so that we can have some more baptisms in the next few months. 

Jancel, our investigator is doing well. She is so ready for baptism that we are teaching her all the lessons in about 4 to 5 weeks time to prepare her for her baptism. She always reads her assignments in the Book Of Mormon and she already knows that its true. She has also been very active in church and she has lots of questions. Its great teaching her though because she has so many questions, she listens really good and she is progressing really well. She has a baptismal date for this May 28 and she is progressing well towards that date. We have been getting busier in our area as we find more people to teach. The work is going good and its just getting better!

Love and Miss you all!

Have a great week!

Elder Jones

This week went by really fast. We have been really bust in our area lately trying to find new investigators. We have been talking to a lot of people and sharing the gospel and trying to set return appointments. Most of the time we get rejected but on the other hand we have found some great people who appear to be very interested in our message. We talked to one guy named Joey. We Just recently moved here to Pasay and he sells corn for a living. He pushes a cart around with corn all day long and sells it to whoever will by it. He is a very cool guy and we are going to be visiting him later tonight. When we talked to him he was very welcoming and very nice to us. In excited so go visit him tonight along with another one of our new investigators Raymond. Last week while trying to find the house of a guy that we talked to we met Raymond. We introduced ourselves and asked him if we could share our message with him. He agreed and we began teaching him right then and there. He was very receptive and had a couple of questions for us. We are going to visit him later tonight as well. 

Yesterday we also taught Jancel again. She is doing very well. She came to church yesterday and she has been reading her Book Of Mormon. We began teaching her the Plan Of salvation last night and we talked about where we came from. As we were closing the lesson we asked her if she had any questions and she did. She asked if after death if our body and spirit will be separated forever of if the will be joined together again. We told her that because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that all of us will be resurrected. When we told he that she got a big smile started laughing and said "Ang galing" which is kinda like great or awesome! We are also teaching Sister Jackie. Sister Jackie is married to a Recent Convert in our area and ever since they got married last December she has been being taught by missionaries. Because Jackie's family has been Catholic for a very long time she is kinda hesitant about being baptized even though she has a testimony, reads the Book Of Mormon, prays, and attends church. Last week though when we taught her she we asked her again about her preparation for her baptism. She seemed a little more prepared for it but she is still uncertain. The time will come though when she decides to be baptized. 

This week was a pretty good week. We had a lot of great things happen in our area and we found some more investigators. The work is slow and steady but things are looking better. 

Elder Jones

New companion

Hello again everybody

It feels like I just emailed you guys! This week we had a decent week! Lately we have been focusing a lot on finding since our teaching pool is very small! We talked to lots of people and we talked to some people that seemed like they might be pretty interested. Im really hoping this week we can find some new investigators. Some that are really prepared. The ward here hast had a baptism in 4 months so we are working on that. We are just struggling a little bit even though we are working hard. Thats OK though cause it will all work out. We did, however have a great experience last week while teaching Jancel. We taught here last Tuesday with some of her friends the Decena Family. Brother Julius Decena and his wife sat in with us, The are both Returned Missionaries and just got married 2 weeks ago. Brother Noel was also working with us, he just got back from his mission about 4 weeks ago and sister Tin tin another returned missionary worked with us. It was a great discussion! We taught the restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith and they all shared their testimony with Jancel, then we invited her to be baptized this may.

Our area here in Pasay 5th ward is pretty small but I really like that. We work in the same small area every day and we are still exploring and finding more areas to work. Its also nice that our area is small cause we can go from one side to the other in a matter of minutes. We see the same people too everyday! We have made a lot of friends in our area they just haven't let us teach them yet. The work is going good though! Im really excited to see what happens in our area in the next few weeks and next few months. 

Just last Wednesday we had transfers. Elder Bernard left and went to back to Palawan. This time though he is assigned in Puerto Princessa. My new companion is Elder Streeter. He is an american. He is my first American companion.  He is still new in the mission but he is doing well. I think him and I will work good together.

Have a great week everyone! Miss and Love you all!

Elder Jones

Magandang tanghali sa inyo lahat 

Yesterday we had a great experience in our area with one of our new investigators. Maribel and Recent Convert here in our area has several kids who are all teenagers. Last week we met one of them and started teaching her. Her name is Jancel and she is 14 years old. We taught her 2 times last week and then invited her to church. Yesterday she showed up at church with her mom which was great! After church and after going back to the apartment and doing our studies we went out to work. We went to go stop by the Decena family to see if Brother Decena could come work with us for just 30 minutes to visit a Part Member family. When we arrived at the Decena's home we found Jancel and her mom there with them. The Decena family is a very active family with several returned missionaries. Jancel was memorizing the articles of faith with some of the other members there. Then Jancel asked us when could she be baptized. It surprised both Elder Barnard and I and then we asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes. It was a cool experience. Lately we have been working very hard to find investigators and teach and help our investigators attend church. 

The work has been going good lately though. Over the past few weeks we have found many investigators who are interested in our message and they are doing alright. We have been struggling with helping our investigators attend church. The church is kinda far from our area and not many people know where it is so sometimes it can be hard to get investigators there. Its great to see the progression of our area. Im really hoping that we can find some more investigators and hopefully help some people to be baptized in the next few months. 

The work has been great lately and things have been going great. We are again excited for another week ahead of us. Thank you! Miss and Love you all!

Elder Jones

Hello again 

We had another great week in the mission field. This week went by really fast. But we had some great experiences. We are still teaching our investigator Jaymix and we are also teaching his two cousins Rico and Sherwin. They are doing good. They have lots of questions especially about what they read in the Book Of Mormon. They have been having a hard time trying to make it to church. For the past 3 weeks they have been planning on coming to church but something always stops them right at the last second. Yesterday they were planning to attend general conference when they texted us and told us an emergency came up and they had to leave and go somewhere else. It stunk not to see them there but the time will come. Im just hoping they get the opportunity really soon to make it to church. 

This week was pretty crazy with General Conference as well. We didn't get to work last Saturday but we were able to watch all the sessions of general conference which was great. I really learned a lot and really enjoyed general conference. It went by really fast. It sure didn't feel like 10 hours of general conference. Im so glad we have living Prophets, and Apostles on the earth today. My testimony of Living Prophets and Apostles has really been strengthened the last few general conferences. The are so important and they are called of God to lead and guide us. Always listen to them and try to apply their messages in your lives.  

The work has been really good lately. Im really looking forward for this week. Im excited to see what happens and what new things we can accomplish this week. We have several return appointments with some of our new investigators and Im excited to visit them. Thank you every one for all your prayers and support. I Love you all! 

Elder Jones

Hello Everyone

 This week we had a great week. We had several new great investigators including one named  Sister Alihandra. We met her last Wednesday and set a return appointment. While on our way to go visit here we stopped by brother alincastre and asked if he could come   with us to go work.  He came with us and we  visited  Sister Alihandra last Saturday.We began teaching her the restoration. She listens very well and is super interested. She really understands what  we teach as well. At the end of the discussion we invited her to come to church and she said she would   but she needed some one to go with her. Brother  Alincastre volunteered. We gave sister Alihandra his number and ours and she said she would text. The next day while we were at church one of the members approached us and told us that the Alincastre family just showed up and Sister Alihandra was with them. It was great to see the members helping and supporting us and our investigators. Investigators progress much faster when they have members helping and supporting them. 

Over the past several weeks we have found many new investigators and many of them are great great people. If you didnt know we have a goal in our mission to OYM at least 190 people a week which my companion and I have been doing. We have seen so many blessings come from it. We have found so many new investigators in such a short period of time. It has been great talking  to so many people because now we have tons of friends in our area.We talk with so many people and its great. 

We havent yet see general conference but we will be watching it this Saturday and Sunday. Im really excited for it. Im hoping we can help a  lot of our investigators be there so they can hear from the living prophets and apostles.

Elder Jones

There was a holiday here in the Philippines this week which is Holy week. And its a big holiday for some of the other religions like catholic. Any way a bunch of our investigators went out on vacation since they didnt have any work. Sister Amy was gone for most of the week so we only taught her once. Jaymix went on a trip and hasn't come home yet. We had a pretty good week though. We still taught several people and we found some new investigators. 

Last Monday we also had a Family Home Evening with the Macanlalay family. He is the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric. We had a lot of fun. There was a bunch of people there that they invited and we played some games after the message and we also ate. Brother Macanlalay ordered a huge pizza for us! It was a surprise. It was a 36 inch pizza! Its was huge. There was a lot of us there though. 

Right now we are still looking for new investigators in our area. We have several new investigators and several others that we have been teaching for a while but we still need more. There arent a lot of less active members in our area which is really good it gives us more time to find and teach investigators. 

Elder Jones

This last week was great and we saw a lot of progress in our area! First of all we had some new investigators and we also had 5 investigators attend church. Our new investigator brother Jaymix came to church with us along with two other new investigators, Sister Amy, and Brother Raymond. Jaymix and Amy both life in the Park Ave mansion and they are friends with Sister Dara and her husband Brother Gilbert, who are both very active and faithful members. Brother Raymond lives with a Recent Convert in our area named Gelsum. Gelsum has been a member for about 6 months but he has fallen away but he is coming back now. My companion and I went to go vist Gelsum and we met Raymond and taught him. We invited him to be baptized but he said he wants to read and pray about it first. On Saturday night we went by them to invite them to church and they said they were going. Gelsum called of work to go and work has been wants holding him back. Sunday morning we woke up got ready and stopped by Gelsum and Raymond, they came to church. Then after that we went to the Park ave Mansion to pick up Amy and Jaymix. They also came and we all went to church together with Sister Dara and Brother Gilbert. It was a great experience and it was a lot of fun to help them get to church.

We are still doing a lot of looking in our area and last week we also had a very humbling experience. We talked to a kid sitting on the side of the road who was smoking. We asked him what he name was and how old he was. He said his name is EJ and he is 18. We then introduced ourselves and asked if we could share a message with him and he said we could. As we talked to him and got to know him better we learned that both of his parents have already passed away. He has a little sister whose name is grace, she is 10 years old. It was great to share just a little with them and we will definitely be going back to visit him again. I really felt like the family at church could really help him. It was great to see how receptive he was too.

The work is going good now and the work is also picking up. Im looking forward to seeing our new investigators progress this week and finding some new investigators. Love and miss you all!

Elder Jones  

Musta po sa inyo lahat

This week Elder Bernard had a very cool OYMing/ finding experience. One day, after being punted time and time again, we went to visit one of our new investigators but unfortunately he wasn't home. He lives in a large apartment complex where it can also be very hard to find investigators. Across the hallway was another apartment and the door was wide open and the guy was inside cleaning. We asked him where our investigator had went and we told him that we was gone but should be back later. After talking to him for just a short period of time we introduced ourselves and the message we carry. We asked him if we could share with him and he said he had to go somewhere soon. We asked him again if we could share for just 10 minutes and he immediately told us to come in. We shared a short 10 minute message with him and set up a return appointment. He is also familiar with the church since he plays basketball with some of the members. It was a very cool experience. His name is Jay mix and he is a 23 year old male. He seemed very interested and before we even invited him to do anything we said he would like to come to church. We are hoping to see him there this next Sunday.  

The work has been going good lately. We did have a rough week though last week. We talked to so many people but weren't able to teach many lessons. It feels good though just to talk to the people we meet on the streets. Of course not every one will accept us but as we talk to people maybe we are planting seeds for future missionaries to harvest. My companion is very good at talking to people. He is not a afraid to talk to anyone even if its a large group of people. Its really helped me a lot lately too. Its hard for me to sometimes start talking to people but once Im talking to them its easy. He isn't afraid at all and he just talks to them which is exactly what I need. Since we have been companions though its become easier to talk to large groups of people. Our area here is actually pretty small too. If you look on the map our area looks big but when you work in our area its pretty small cause there are lots of businesses in our area, and a lot of busy roads and large skyscapers. We work in the same few areas almost everyday so lots of people know us now but we are still exploring and finding new things. The work is great though and it is also progressing. 

Elder Jones

The work so far here in Pasay has been going good. Last week we had a bunch of new investigators which is what we really needed. We have been focusing on finding since our area didn't have many investigators. We have basically just been walking around talking to people and setting return appointments and trying to teach people on the spot. We have talked to a lot of really cool people but its very difficult here in ?Manila cause it doesnt seem like as many people are interested but we just keep talking to people to find those who are. 

We have several new investigators here that seem really interested. Including a guy named brother lucky who is actually a referral. Last week we went to go vist brother Gilbert who lives in a building called the Park Ave. Mansion. People who are more wealthy live there and its a big building and there are also a bunch of guards at the enterance and they almost didn't let us in. After we did get in though we visited brother Gilbert and his family and he actually had a friend that plays basketball with them all the time at the church so he has a little background and he has a lot of friends that are members including the bishop. Brother Gilbert took us over to brother Lucky and we taught him right on the spot. Brother Gilbert told us that lucky said he is very interested. Im excited to see where this all takes us especially since brother Gilbert has many friends in the Park Ave. mansion who play basketball with him. We are hoping that over time we will be teaching many of his friends over there! 

Thank you all! Love and miss you all! 

Elder Jones

Last week was transfer week and as I was expecting I was transferred. I spent 4 transfers or about 6 months in Quezon Palwan and now I am here in Pasay Manila in Pasay 5th ward. My companion is Elder Bernard again. I follow up trained him in Quezon and now him and I are companions again which is crazy. I like being companions with him. He is one of those missionaries who is hard working but he also knows how to have fun at the same time. We are both brand new in the area too. He has only been here for 2 weeks because he was emergency transferred when he replaced a visa waited here in our area. Since both of us are new here we took the map the other day and walked the border of our area so we would both know where our area is. So far we do not have many investigators at all. It will take some time to get things going but we have a big task ahead of us. 

The other day when I arrived at the Mission Office in Buendia I received some very good news. I dot know if you remember the Camacho family from when I was assigned on Coron, or the Dizen family or Dexter Tolentino. Any way one of the elders in the office told me that Sister Camacho and her 2 daughters and 1 of her grandsons was baptized along with Dexter Tolentino and Sister Dizen and her Daughter. It was so cool to hear that. Those were our investigators when I was assigned on Coron who I knew would eventually get baptized and now they have been. It so cool to see how the work we do as missionaries is not just harvesting but also planting and preparing them. 

So far everything is going OK in the new area. Like I mentioned before there is a lot of work to be done and I think that's why Elder Bernard and I are companions again because we already know each other and how to work together. This transfer is also a little different. Because of the change in MTC training this transfer in 8 weeks instead of 6 so we have a lot of time to do some great work here. Miss and love you all!

Elder Jones

Baptisms

Hello again everyone

We had another great week this week. The week was kinda crazy because one of the elders in our district was sick and had to stay at our home. In our district there are the Quezon Elders, and there are 4 of us, then there are the Rizal Elders, there are 2 of them and their area is about 2 hours away. One of the Rizal Elders was sick and they had to stay at our apartment until Thursday. The work was still really great though. Elder Barrientos and I taught a lot of lessons again. The week ended perfectly with a branch activity here which followed the baptisms. 

Our investigators, Jolisa Alicos, Yna Fahardo, and Jimboy Enaje were all baptized on Saturday and the other Elders investigator Bryan Laurence was also baptized. It was a great experience and It was soo awesome to hear them share their testimonies with us after they were baptized. After the baptism they branch activity began. There was a lot of food there and everyone started running around the pool and pushing others in. It was crazy anyone who was dry after about 20 minutes, besides the missionaries, became a target for those who had already fallen in. They started dragging people to the pool and threw them in we just sat there and watched. It was great cause we didn't have to worry about being thrown in so we just enjoyed seeing everyone else being hunted down and thrown in. Yesterday the district presidency also came down and reorganized the branch presidency here. President Custudio was released as the Branch President and President Yap was called as the new branch President. He will do a great job. Im really looking forward to seeing the progression of Quezon Branch.  

Love and Miss you all! I will talk to you next week.

Love Elder Jones

Hello again Jones family

This week we had a pretty good week again. The work is still going great and we taught a lot of lessons again. Our 3 progressing investigators who have baptismal dates for this February 20th were interviewed last week and they all passed. I also interviewed the other elders investigator, Brian Lawerance, for his baptism. This Saturday we will have 4 baptisms in the branch and they are all investigators. It will be great and Im really looking forward to it. 

Yesterday at church we had lots of investigators at church again but its was really cool to see Sister Cany there because she brought her husband. It was cool to see them there together and now hopefully they can both be baptized together this March. I asked if we could share our message with her husband tomorrow when we go to visit and they said yes. Cany is progressing so well and now we will be able to start teaching her husband which will be even better. Now they can progress together. We had many other great experiences this week and Im really looking forward to this upcoming week.

I love you all! I miss you guys too

Elder Jones

Hey Jones family

Again we taught many lessons this week and it was amazing. We also had some very awesome experiences that I would like to share with you. As I mentioned last week, we watched the Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration movie last Saturday and it went great.

There were a good amount of people there including some of our investigators. One of our Investigators, Sister Cany, came and I went and talked to her after the movie and she asked me for a copy of it and she was also crying. Cany is one of our amazing investigators who is basically golden. She is very active in church and yesterday she got up and shared her testimony in sacrament meeting. It blew my mind. Our investigator shared her testimony in sacrament. It was so amazing. Cany really wants to be baptized and she wants her family to also go with her to church so she has already been doing missionary work. She also has 3 small young boys. The oldest is 3 or 4 years old and the other 2 are twins about 7 months old. Even though she has her hands full she always finds time to read, pray, go to church and she brings he boys with her most of the time which is so cool. 

We also have 3 investigators who will be interviewed tomorrow for the baptisms. Yna, Jolisa, and Jimboy. They are all about the same age 15 going to be 16 They are all super great They are all active in church and seminary, and they all have testimonies. They are all referrals. We met Yna and Jolisa through their friends that are members here and we met Jimboy through his mom. Its been great to teach them. They are all so receptive and are doing great. Im very excited for their baptisms this February 20th. 

Our area here is also very large and we basically just work in the close parts of our areas. Our new investigators, Sister Vergie and her family who we met at church, live kinda far in a place called Panitian. It is a part of our area that is about 30 minutes away. It doesn't seem far but here in the Philippines that is far especially since we have to take trikes. Last Wednesday we went to Panitian to teach them and we also met some Less Active Members. They told us that they use to have sacrament many years ago in Panitian but for some reason it stopped. My companion and I talked with President Custudio , the Branch President, about having sacrament again in Panitian. He agreed and gave us permission to make arrangements to have sacrament there this Sunday. We are really excited for it especially since we will be able to help more people out in Panitian. 

Well I wish I could tell you everything from this week. We had another great week and the work here is amazing. I love you all and I will talk to you all next week! BYE Love and miss you all!

Elder Jones

 

Magandang Hapon po sa inyo lahat

Well this week was a little different since we had interviews with President Ostler in Puerto Princessa. We had to leave Wednesday afternoon and travel for 3 hours to go to Puerto then our interviews were on Thursday. We didn't get to work again until Friday so we lost 2 days of work. But we were still able to teach many lessons and many or our investigators that have baptismal dates for this February 20th were at church yesterday. 

Yesterday Yana was at church again so now she has been 4 times in a row, Jullisa was also there again so she has now been 5 times in a row, Zember came and also Jimboy. Im pretty sure those 4 will all be baptized this February. They are all doing great. yesterday the one of the senior couples here in Palawan came and visited the branch and of course they spoke and I was chosen to be the translator. It was fun I stood right by them holding a microphone while they spoke and translated everything. The branch though it was funny and they got a kick out of it. I've been here for almost 6 months so everyone in the branch knows me pretty well. 

This Saturday we have a cool activity that we missionaries purposed to the branch President. We are going to watch the movie about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. We are inviting all our investigators, Less active members, Part member families and anyone who wants to attend. Im excited for it since not many members have even seen the Joseph Smith movie. It will be a great testimony builder for lots of people.  

One really cool experience we had this week was with our Investigator Jimboy. We taught him the Word Of Wisdom and he told us that he drinks coffee but thats the only problem her has. We taught him Tuesday night and Wednesday morning Jimboy's mom asked Sister Clara, a member, why coffee is bawal (prohibited of not allowed). Jimboy's mom told sister Clara that Jimboy didn't drink coffee but instead he had hot chocolate. Up until now he still hasn't drinken coffee and it was so cool to see how fast he quit. 

Have a good week everyone! I love and miss you all! 

Elder Jones

Good afternoon everyone

Well we had another amazing week. We taught a total of 29 lessons and 13 of our investigators went to church yesterday! It was an amazing week. We had some very cool experiences as week including one with our new investigators Vergie Kordero. Last week she attended church and she came with a member. The member introduced her to us and we asked if we could teach her. She lives in a place called panitian which is about 35 minutes away from the main town of Quezon. She is 33 years old and has 3 kids. While talking with her she told us that her husband had left her and she never finished school so she decided to go back to school. I believe she is in 10th grade right now. That was a very humbling experience for my companion and I then we talked to her about how the gospel can bless her live and her families life. Yesterday she attended church again and she brought her kids with her. The oldest is 14 years old and is a Girl the second is a boy who is 8 and the youngest is only 6 years old. We are going to panitian this Wednesday to teach them again. Im very excited to teach them and see their progression in the gospel they also have some great fellow shippers who help them get to church with their trike. 

Another experience that we had was with another one of our investigators named Cany. We teach Cany every Tuesday and she is very interested. She listens very well and also keeps all her commitments. We have tried to teach her husband but hes not very interested but maybe as time goes on he will also be prepared to receive the missionaries. Sister Cany told us that whenever she wants to pray or read the Book Of Mormon and especially when Sunday gets close she has a lot of trials and temptations in her life. We just shared with her how we can overcome those trials through faith and that there is always a way to be obedient to every commandment that we have. She then told us she is looking for a church where she can be for the rest of her life, somewhere where she can continue to grow and also bring her 3 young boys there. She then told us that she feels like this is the church that she has been looking for. It was a very cool discussion and great experience. 

As far as our other investigators are doing they are doing great. Yesterday JR and Nelson went to church and their friend Jimboy who we just started teaching last week came with them. Yana was also their and Jullisa. Those two have a for sure baptismal date of February 20th. Cany also went to church and Vergie and her family. It was great to see so many of our investigators go to church and to see so many of them progressing. 

Love you all I will talk to you next week! Have a great week everybody! 

Elder Jones

Kumusta ulit Jones family

Well we had another great week. We taught 29 lessons and had 100 OYMs. We have been working on getting 30 oyms a day and its very difficult we usually get about 20 sometimes more and sometimes less. The work is great though. The field truly is white and ready to harvest here. Two of our investigators who will for sure be baptized this February 20th are Yana and Jullisa. Seminary here is every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night and after seminary we go and teach them. He teach them separately since Yana has read and studied all the doctrine so we basically just review and talk about it. We actually teach Jullisa because she hasn't read Preach My Gospel or the doctrine principles book. They both have a testimony and are progressing well for baptism. Jullisa use to drink Coffee and when we taught her the Word Of Wisdom she quit in one day and Yana taught us the Word Of Wisdom. Its amazing to see how prepared these two are for the gospel. 

Our other Investigator Zember who has been attending Church, reading and praying for many months now has a baptismal date and he told us that he feels that he is close to receiving an answer. It has taken him about 2 months now and he still isn't 100% sure if its true but he says he feels that he is close to knowing for himself. We invited him to be baptized on February 20th as well and accepted with out hesitating. Im really excited for Zember we have been teaching him for almost 4 months and I think he will now be ready this February 20th. 

We will also be having a branch activity this February 6 where we will be showing the Restoration movie and we are going to invite investigators, Less active members, Part member families and just anyone that we can. It will be really cool especially since I dont think a lot of members here have seen the Restoration movie so it will be a great experience and testimony strengthener. 

Love you all!

Elder Jones

Staying in Quezon

Hello Family

Well we just got a call from the Zone leaders about 30 minutes ago for transfers and Im NOT transferring I have at least one transfer here and Im super happy and excited about it!!! We have some amazing things happening in our area right now. We have several great amazing investigators and also many investigators with baptismal dates for February 20th. The first one is Yana. Yana is 16 years old and we met her because she was attending seminary at the church and her next door neighbor is Joy, the seminary teacher here. We started teaching her about 3 weeks ago but after the first lesson she went on vacation and just came back last week. Joy gave her a preach my gospel, the gospel principles book and some Liahona magazines for her to read while she was on vacation. Yana read them all and now she asks us more deep doctrinal questions. She has a testimony though and she has been praying about it and she really feels that it is true. She also attended our coordination meeting last night. The next investigator who we have is Jullisa. Jullisa was a referral from her friend Renya Medioro. Jullisa is also very active in seminary and church like Yana. They both have baptismal dates for February 20th. The next two are JR and Nelson who are cousins and they are also Jesabel's cousins. They noticed that Jesabel changed when we taught her so they wanted us to teach them. JR is 13 and Nelson is 14 and they are very receptive and they have a great support system from Jesabel, Camille, and Jesabel's mom Clara. The only problem JR and Nelsom have is they are very shy and they both have Word of Wisdom problems that we need to help them overcome. But they are willing and want to change and they accepted our baptismal invitation for February 20th. We have several other investigators that have baptismal dates for February 20th but these 4 are very potential. This week we also had several new investigators. We oymed a lady named Sister Rosemary last Monday and the told us to visit them on Saturday so we did. We didnt have another male working with us so we taught them outside sitting on a bridge over the ocean that goes to their house. They seem very interested and they know lots of members.

Yesterday in church the Branch presidency reorganized the youth leadership positions. Jesabel and Camille both got callings which was awesome. Jesabel is the new Laurel president and Camille is the new Beehive President. It was cool to see them get callings so fast! The work here has been amazing and Im really looking forward to another transfer here!! I will talk to you all next week! Love you all! BYE!!

Elder Jones

Hello everyone.

This week we had another wonderful  week and taught many lessons. Our teaching pool has been slowly increasing again as we have been receiving referrals form some members. Jesabel and Camille, our two recent converts, both gave us referrals at the end of last  week that we will be contacting within the next day. They have also been coming and working with us and with us and the members. Its so cool to see them become so involved in missionary work and so active in church so fast. Jesabels mother also shared her testimony yesterday and talked a little bit about how thank full she was that her daughter is now at church with her. They have also been asking us many questions about what she needs to do to serve a mission. Its really cool to see her desire so serve a mission and her mom is supporting her. I think with in the next several years she will be serving a mission.  We also received  and referral from one of the young woman here named Renya. We have been teaching her friend who has now come to church twice in a row. We also received another referral from Sister Joy,the seminary teacher here. The great thing about the referrals is they are people that are intersted in our message and most of them have already went to church at least once whether it was just weeks ago or long ago. We have many investigators who we are teaching right now. Many of those investigators just need a little more action to reach the requirements for baptism. The work has been great and it is amazing being a missionary. Transfers are also coming up and I think I might be getting transferred since Ive been here for 3 transfers and we finish with training in a week. Its been amazing to serve in this area! i love Quezon Branch so much. The people are amazing and the work is great. I have met and become friends with many amazing people here!

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

Elder Jones