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