Hello 

So this week has been probably the best week so far in my mission. We had 17 lessons taught to investigators with a member and we found 9 new investigators including a family who was taught before we also had 9 investigators at church and to finish it off we had a baptism on Saturday. It was great! We taught so much and every single day was so busy. On Wednesday and Thursday we had exchanges with the zone leaders and since we are on a island an the zone leaders are in Manila they flew out here and we had threesomes two days in a row. Several of our days this week we had tons of amazing experiences. One lesson led to another, and another and we have been finding many new people to teach. 

One day we went to a part of our area and taught one of our new investigators. She is family with a Recent convert here and she is doing great. She is always at church reading the Book Of Mormon and really feels that it is true. After that while trying to contact a referral we talked to a family who was actually taught about a year and a half ago. We asked them if we could share a message with them and afterwards we asked them if we could return and they all agreed. We have been having many great experiences like that and next month we have several more baptisms lined up. We are just doing everything to help their faith and desire increase. 

For the Baptism his name is Ryan and his mom is a member but his dad isn't. He is 9 almost 10 and his mom has been inactive for some time but now she is active again. Ryan asked Elder Ordesta my companion to baptize him and me to confirm him in sacrament meeting. It was super cool and the first time I've been able to do that. It was also in Tagalog so ya it was very different. My first time confiming someone was in Tagalog. Ryan is great he is just super shy. But he is always at church and he reads the Book Of Mormon and is very smart. His Dad came to the baptism and we think that he felt something. We are going to try to follow up and hopefully teach him. He seemed to be pondering a lot at the baptism and listened very well to the talks given. It was a super cool experience. 

But the work is going great. Every single day here is just teaching teaching teaching we hardly ever have a single hour where we don't teach. My companion and I are working super good together and me and him have actually been friends since my first transfer in the field. So it was super cool to be able to work together. Ya every week we get a letter from President Oslter and are able to read it. He is a really good mission President and we just had our interviews with him on Saturday which went great. Here in Coron we are almost nonexistent in the mission because there is only 4 of us and we are on an Island far from Manila.  

Mahal ko po Kayo at Mag-eemail ako sa inyo sa susunod na linggo! Mag-Ingat po Kayo

Hello Jones family

4/20/15

So whats up right now is we are sitting in a computer shop Emailing. Lately things have been great. We are having a lot of fun, working hard, and just enjoying our missions. Things have been great lately and we have been teaching a lot. This Saturday we also have a baptism. A boy named Ryan Ardines is getting baptized this Saturday. His mother is a member but his father is not. His mother has also been inactive but now she is active again and her son will be baptized this week. Its so cool to be here in Coron. Its really hot here right now but luckily we get a lot of cold wind from the ocean. We also see a lot of tourists here since its a big tourist spot. 

This week we had a good week. Just two weeks ago while meeting with a less active member we met his sister and her daughters who we have been teaching. She is very interested and has been coming to church, started reading the Book of Mormon and has expressed to us that she wants to change things in her life. We are also trying to get her brother involved in order to help him return to church. Also one of the recent converts here named Norlito. He is 13. Him and I have become good friends. He is always wanted to talk with him and I joke around with him. 

Well I will talk to you all next week and I'm looking forward to skyping you guys and being able to talk with you all!! Love you guys!!! Miss you a ton!!!

Elder Jones

Hello 4/12/15

So right now in our area we are actually teaching a ton! We taught about 13 or 14 lessons last week with a member present. There is a member here who works with us everyday he doesn't have a job so he is almost like a full time missionary with us. Its so nice to always have him come a long cause it gives us many opportunities. Right now we have several baptisms lined up but we are really trying to make sure these people are prepared for baptism, understand the doctrine, and realize the importance of baptism. One thing that has been happening in our area is we dont find a lot of new investigators in one week but the investigators that we do find are very serious about the message. We have several new investigators who are coming to church and are doing well. We also have several new investigators who already have baptismal dates. 

We meet in a very small branch building here. There are only about 6 rooms then the main room where we have sacrament. There are usually a good number of people there every Sunday. My companion and I actually knew each other from my first transfer in the field and he is hard working. We are actually going home batch so we both go home at the same exact time. He is from Cebu. So far things have been great here and the work is great. We teach a lot and have many investigators at church every Sunday. 

Love Elder Jones

Hello

This week we had some really cool things happen. On Tuesday we had a service project and build a home for one of the members in our branch. It took us all day. We left early in the morning and we left later that night. I had so much fun even though it was very very very hot!! Then on Saturday we had a activity for the Primary and the youth. The activity was about the plan of salvation. Many people came and we had a great out come. My companion and I went and invited several less active members who live right next to each other. We ended up having them come with us to the church and the next day at church they all came. It was great to see them come to the activity and then the next day watch them all walk up the street to the church. In the activity We had two paths that they could choose, the right path and the wrong path. There was also a pre earth life and a celestial room. They started at the Pre earth life of course and then walked trough earth life with their families. There were pictures of things on the correct path and the incorrect path. Then at the end of the correct path was the celestial kingdom where the families sat together and wrote their feelings. 

The new area is great I love it a lot. The flight was only 45 minutes so very short. We haven't seen general conference yet. It is this weekend for us so we are excited and looking forward to watching it.

Love you all!! Have a great week!! 

Hello Jones Family

So right now I am in my 2nd area and I'm in the area that is considered the most beautiful area in the whole mission. I'm in Coron Palawan. There is no ward here it is just a branch, and yesterday I already talked and My companion and I taught the gospel principles class. The branch here is very small and there are only 4 missionaries here as well as a senior couple. When Elder and Sister Duford picked me up at the airport the explained to mean that this area, and branch really needs to be strengthened. Its so cool that I'm assigned here and I will be helping these people to understand the gospel. They told me that this area is still in the 1800 of church history time. My new area is just a small town that sits on an island surrounded by other islands. The town sits right inside a massive cove and there are lots of boats and many of the people here fish for a living. There are several places in our area like neighborhoods but are just houses on stilts over the water.Also many of the people here do not speak English or really understand English like others in Manila. So one thing I will be doing here is improving my Tagalog and all the other Elders here are Filipino. Its such a cool area and is so unique. There are no Jeepneys here just trikes and the trikes here are specific to this place and are designed to carry 7 people. The branch here is also great. Yesterday after church we went to work and while working we saw a group of 3 members out doing their home teaching. They joined us and we went and taught with them. The members in the branch are always working with us. Its so great! There were also 2 baptisms here on Saturday. Narlito and Kyle. They are both younger but are already very strong in the gospel. There is no baptismal font here so they were baptized in a swimming pool. I had already met my new companion because we were next door neighbors in our first area. We are also in the same batch so we have now both been out for 7 months.So far I'm really liking this area and I'm really looking forward to working here its so great!! 

Love you all!!! Have a great week!!

Elder Jones

Magandang tanghali po

A couple weeks ago we OYMed a guy named Paul. Just two weeks ago we saw him again and we started teaching him. We invited him to come to church with us. On Sunday the 15 of March we walked over to his home and he was sitting outside all dressed up waiting for us 15 minutes before we said we would be there. He also came to church with us yesterday. We Finished teaching him the restoration last week and we have already given him pamphlets about the restoration, plan of salvation, gospel of Jesus Christ, word of wisdom and law of chastity and he has read them all. Every time we see him he asks for a new one because he already read the others we gave him. He has also been reading the Book Of Mormon and has accepted our invitation to be baptized. We also just found another guy named Jepoy. We talked to him on Friday and asked him if we could share a message with him. He said yes and on Saturday he rode his motorcycle to the church where we taught him. He wanted to come to the church to one see it and two so that there wouldn't be so many distractions but instead he could focus and have it quite. It was cool to see him take the time to go all the way to the church to listen to our message. He expressed some things to us and how he wants to change his life. He really wanted to go to church but had something yesterday so he couldn't come but he said he will for sure be there next week. We are really finding some people who are very serious about the message and learning about the gospel. OYMing is also a very important tool because many of these people we found through OYMing and actually originally oyming another person. The OYMs branch out and we find more then one person and have found some who really want to know!!

So here in the Philippines many people have roosters outside their home that are chained up like pets. One day while walking down a eskinieta or basically a ally way. This rooster attacked my leg as I walked by it. It just kept walking because its on a lease so it cant go far but it was super unexpected! My Companion though it was pretty funny! And it was!

Love you all and have a great week!!!!

Elder Jones

Hello 

So our investigator thats wants proof we have showed him several scriptures but he keeps saying thou shalt not add. I keep trying to explain to him that in order to know if the book of mormon is true we have to read and pray about it. I don't think he understands. He still wants proof. We have given him several scriptures about faith and how we need to have faith. Anyway we have one investigator who has come to church once but hasn't been back for a while. He is doing great though besides church. He does all his assignments as well as reads. last time we were there he had read all the way to page 40 and done his assignment. He has also been praying and he has just been doing a great job. Last week we started teaching him the Plan of Salvation. We stopped about half way through and told him when we returned we would finish. He basically told us "Good cause this is really nice" I wants to know more about the Plan of Salvation and Im hoping this will help him come to church. Sister Exzyl is still doing great. We are still waiting for their marriage. The other day over at their new home Brother Jared's son Godwin was mocking and copying me. Godwin is super awesome and he is always speaking nonsense. Anyway I said "Makakapagpabagabag" and he stopped copying me cause he couldn't say it. It was so funny and everyone started laughing. Many of our investigators are doing well. We are actually finding tons of people its just that people are progressing but slowly. We have many new investigators but they are progressing very slowly. It is also very hard to meet with people in our area sometimes because the are jeepney drivers, trike drivers, and everyone sleeps during the day cause its so hot. But we just do the best we can.

Earlier today we woke up early to go to the temple! We went to the LRT and there were so many people so we took a jeepney which went or about 45 minutes then dropped us off where we had to then get on the LRT and go to EDSA station then get on another LRT and go to another station where we had to take a shuttle to get to the temple. It was great it took forever but at least we had a great time and had fun with the district. I also saw one of my MTC teaches over there at the MTC and we talked for a little. It was awesome last time I couldn't understand her and this time I could. So we talked for a little then we also saw Brother Garcia, one of the cooks at the MTC. He also remembered me so we talked for a little! It was so cool to talk to and see them again. The temple was great we had such a great time.

Next week on Wednesday I finish training my companion so ill probably be transferring. I really want to go to Palawan but we will see what happens.  

I did get the package just last week so it was more like Birthday rather than Christmas but it was still amazing!!! THANK YOU all for the wonderful letters and packages!!! 

Love you all!! Thanks for he packages letters and Emails!! Until next week!!

Love Elder Jones