Hello Family!! 

This week has been great but also kind of hard. Many people were busy or not home. One of our investigators is also moving so that really stinks. She had a baptismal date and everything to. She just wasn't really coming to church much but that's cause she is busy but she came when she could. Anyway we had some great experiences this week too. Last night while heading to a members home we stopped to talk to someone. Just seconds after we started talking a lady walked out of the house. He was waiting for her. We started talking to both of them and she told us that when she was 18 the missionaries taught her family in the province. So she has a book of Mormon and read it a little bit. We asked if we could come back and teach her she said we could. It was so cool how we were just walking then found someone who had had experience with missionaries. We also had a great message about the Book Of Mormon with Dan Jhong and Richard. They are all interested have been reading but we are trying to get them at church. Its hard thought cause sometimes they work and sometimes they have to go to the Provence. Sorry this E mail is so short but we have to go. Today we are going to this cemetery in our area with the other missionaries cause supposedly its the most luxurious cemetery in the world. The next transfer is at the end of March and I'm pretty sure Ill get transferred then. Love you all and have A GREAT week!!!Ill talk to you next week BYE!!

Love Elder Jones

Hello Jones Family!!

How are all you guys doing? This week has been really cool but also super difficult. This week was super hard to teach for some reason. We just kept visiting people and they weren't home, or they were sleeping or something. People here sleep at 1 to 3 because its so hot outside so its pretty normal. We had some amazing lessons though this week. This week we went back to meet with Richard, Jhong, and Marvin. When we got there Jhong invited his brother Danilo to come and listen to us there was also a girl named Bibi that was there. We met with Jhong, Richard, and Marvin last week and taught them about the restoration. Before we started teaching Jhong started to explain the restoration to his brother. It was super cool! Just shortly after we started Danilo stopped us to tell me I was good at Tagalog! It was super funny cause Im not that good but it means he could understand what I was saying. We proceeded with the Restoration and they had tons of questions, comments, and stories. It was absolutely crazy how amazing it was. The spirirt was so strong and they were all so interested. We gave them book of Mormons or is Tagalog Aklat ni Mormon. We invited them to ready, pray, and go to church. They all expressed that they were super interested and how they wanted to learn they things that we had shared with them. When we asked them if they would go to church Richard points at them all and says "Magsimba tayo" several times. Magsimba is go to church and tayo is we or us. Yesterday Jhong and Richard came to church. Marvin Bibi and Danilo had to work and to do some other things. Which stunk but having Richard and Jhong there was great. We stopped at their house to see if they were going and they said they would then Richard, who is a jeepney driver, drove us all over to the church in his jeepney! It was super cool. Every single one of them is so interested, very nice and wants to find out for them selves. Im just hoping it will lead them to action because in order to know we have to act. Every time we go by there are always like Elders Elders . Marvin had to leave before we finished the lesson and so did Bibi which stunk but we invited Jhong, Danilo, and Richard to be baptized if they can to know it was true and they all said yes without hesitation. By far they best experience and strongest spirit I have ever felt and experience in any one lesson!! AMAZING! The other day while waiting to go meet with some less active members we walked around looking for people to talk to. We walked down a small road outlet that goes to a dead end. It was dark and there were to people sitting on chairs in front of a stand where people sell food for extra money. There was a girl and a boy a husband and wife. The girl said to us "Hello Elders" I had never seen here before and didn't know who she was. She told us she was a member but inactive and hadn't been to church for a very long time. Her husband wasn't a member so we st down and talked to them. We ended up going back yesterday and teaching him. Him is very humble and said they would go to church next week. She hasn't been to church for a long time but I think us teaching her husband trigger a spark because she offered to give the opening prayer and was super happy to have us there. It was super cool. Its crazy how the holy ghost leads us to people. This road is super short and we knew it went to a dead end but we felt like we should go that way! And we found them! 

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

Love Elder Jones 

Hello,

The work is going great. We are teaching a lot and talking with tons of people in order to find those who are prepared for the gospel. This last week on Friday we had a service project which was awesome. One of the members had a large fence made of metal sheets and some of them were really rusted so we removed them and put in new ones. It was way fun and my companion and I got super dirty because of all the things we had to do and touch. My hands were black as if I had been working at the bike shop. It was great! While doing it I realized that I miss working like that in the yard and the bike shop. But thats ok because we are doing the most important work in the world right now. My companion and I are doing great we have become friends instead of just being companions which has helped a lot. This week we also had a disappointing experience. We taught a lady who live close to a member named sister Cathy and her husband June. They were both super nice and Cathy had starting reading the Book Or Mormon and praying. She went to Church with sister Merryann and Sister Kipkipan and she brought her two daughters. They had a great time at Church then last week when we went back to share a message with them sister Merryann and Kipkipan told us that June, sister Cathy's husband, doesn't want us to teach her or go to church. It stunk super bad cause she at first when we invited her to be baptized she said no but the next time we went back she said she had taught about it and had some questions that we answered. She had also started reading the Book Of Mormon and praying and she was attending church. It really stunk! But we have had some great experiences like the Zablan kids oldest Brother and his girlfriend, Marion and Leah. They are both reading and praying and want to go to church and be baptized. They weren't able to make it to church yesterday because something came up but they both really want to go and love it when we come by.

Things are going great here and we are having so much fun! I love you all and I will talk to you next week!!!

Love Elder Jones

Kumusta po kayo lahat!!

Sister Kasupanan showed me the pictures of Taylor's baptism yesterday!! I loved seeing the pictures!! I really wish I was there!! It reminded me of when I baptized Rylee!! Ill never forget that!! I miss you all!! 

This week here in the mission field was kind of challenging we didn't get to teach much but we just talked to a bunch of people when for some reason or another we couldn't teach! We talked to several people this week who had actually been to church before with their family or friends. But they haven't been for a while. We asked them if we could come back and share our message with them and they said we could so we have a lot to do this week! Earlier this week we were walking and as we walked by some guys who were smoking and drinking one of them yelled out "Hey Jo you want a drink" so we stopped and talked to them. Not the best OYMing approach I know but after a while we were talking to about 6 people one of them had been to church before with her family and told me she wanted to go back. She is of course not a member. Another guy who my companion was talking to was extremely interested and wanted to hear more about our message. The way the conversation started wasn't the best but everyone is a child of god and we should take every opportunity to talk to as many people as we can about the restored gospel. 

The other day we met with sister Exyl and Brother Jared to share a message. It was so cool we had a great conversation where Sister Exyl told us she is ready for baptism, she knows its true and she told us an experience that happened a while back. While getting ready for church everyone in her family was running late so she left and walked by herself to church. I remember that day when me and Elder Villian walked in 40 minutes before church started and Sister Exyl was sitting in the chapel alone. It was so cool to hear her side because she expressed how important church is to her. I later asked them if they feel like the gospel had strengthen their family and they said yes. They then gave more examples. It was so cool! They are at church every Sunday and are both active in answering questions and sharing experiences. Its so cool to have seen here progression in the gospel. 

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

Love Elder Jones

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