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