Hello again!

Well I can honestly say this week flew by. Its so crazy how it feels like just yesterday we were sitting in the computer lab. Anyway this week was really great. The work is really picking up in our area. We were so busy. On Wednesday we handed out all of our Book or Mormons and then had another lesson and we didn't have one to give. We went to see how Brother Ed was doing and he had a friend over. Brother Ed is a very strong member who was baptized several years ago. He really wanted us to share our message with his friend so we did. His friend is hard to teach cause he likes to talk and talk and talk so it was kinda difficult but that's OK we were able to share with him the lesson about the plan of salvation. After the lesson was the really unexpected part. Brother Ed started telling him you need to really and pray about the message this elders have just shared with you cause it will change your life. He was pretty stern with his friend and very bold we would have never done that as missionaries. Brother Ed then said you know these elders are sacrificing for you and Jesus Christ also sacrificed for you so you can at least pray and read the Book of Mormon. My companion and I just sat there. We didn't no what to do cause they were both just talking but very sternly. It was crazy. We didn't have a Book of Mormon so we dropped one off at Brother Ed's the next day. When we left Brother Ed's home my companion and I just looked at each-other and couldn't believe what had just happened. We have had many lessons this week and each day has been full of teaching appointments. Our mission president also wants everyone to OYM more so we have been working hard to do that. We have found several new investigators through OYM. We met a man named Brother Dennis the other day who is extremely nice and was very interested. He said at the end of the lesson that he believes the things that we taught him. The only problem is he leaves on December 1 to work on a cargo ship for 9 months. That really stunk when he told us that cause he is so interested and has been praying and he wants to read the Book of Mormon. He also told us he wants us to teach him and his wife together so we are going back tomorrow and we are going to try to teach him as much as possible before he leaves. 

We had exchanges on Saturday and Elder Viavia from Samoa came to our area and worked with me, so I led the area that day. It was my first time leading the area and I learned a lot cause I had to take the first step in teaching, talking with investigators and I had to make the decisions on where to go. It was great Elder Viavia and I worked really well together and I feel like my Tagalog really improved because of the opportunities I had. We didn't have a lot of lesson with investigators because it was Saturday and they were all busy or not home. We had to lessons with investigators but we had 5 RCLA (Recent Convert or Less Active). It was great on Sunday almost all the members who are less active that Elder Viavia and I visited were at church. 

This week has been great and the work is really picking up. I'm looking forward to another great week.

I love you all!

-Elder Jones

Hello all!

Its good to hear about how you guys are doing back home. I hope your doing good Rylee just be careful. So here its just sobrang mainit sa araw-araw. Its never cold. Hearing about the weather back at home makes me miss the cold but thats ok. We dont have air conditioning we just have fans that we use to stay cool. So today has been so busy because we had a zone activity today, my first one. It was fun we just played a bunch of games. We have a zone activity every quarter so my next one wont be for about another 3 months. After the zone activity we had to quickly go shop and now we are at the computer store and right after this we will go out proselyting for the rest of the day.

So this week was good. We have been trying to OYM a lot to find new investigators but its so hard sometimes. We have talked to so many people but haven't got many new investigators. We have a lot of investigators right now but its difficult when people don't keep commitments. We just try our best and work with them to help them keep their commitments. But on the other hand we have a lot of investigators who are keeping their commitments. This last Saturday Jumong Zablan was baptized. He is only 8 years old but we have been working with him for a while. His older siblings have all been baptized already but when I first go here he wasn't interested at all. He didn't like listening to me cause he had a hard time understanding me. But as my Tagalog has improved so has the friendship me and him have. Just a few weeks ago he really began to show an interest in our message. He started praying and he reads the Book Of Mormon but its hard for him to understand. So now he is always excited to see us and always talks with me about basketball since he loves it. Him and his younger sister are always yelling Elder Jones Elder Jones when they see us walking down the street. He always wants to pray in the lessons and he has learned a lot. Its so cool how his attitude has changed in the past several weeks. Last week he was counting down the days till his baptism. It was cool he was in the font just seconds before his baptism with his grandpa and looks up at he and just gave me a huge smile. That was such a cool experience I felt so good. Just yesterday I was standing with all the other missionaries greeting people as they walked in and Jumong comes and stands right by me and does the same exact thing I was doing and looks up at me and says "Im a missionary" 

Mahal ko kayo

-Elder Jones

Hello 

So last week I just got to shake Elder Oaks hand he had to shake the entire stakes hand so he wasn't able to talk to each and everyone of us. He talked about his purpose as an apostle and also a little about missionary work it was great. The power wasn't working so there was no air conditioning so it was very hot in the chapel. I think I told you about the electricity going out over and over again. There wasn't a storm here in our area. we haven't had a really bad storm here yet but when it rains it floods very easily in our area. If it rains really hard and floods we cant go out proselyting. That thankfully hasn't happened yet. Its good to hear about what you all are doing. I would really like to talk but we are so busy. You know missionary life. 

So this week we had some great lessons. We had 8 investigators at church this week which is good but we can do better. We are going to try this week to really find a lot of new investigators. We have many now but it would be so cool to have more. We had one day this week that was just full of lessons. We have one investigator named Medina and she lives right by a member. They all live in this building with probably around 8 different families living in it. Each room that a family lives in is about 10 feet by 10 feet or smaller. Its crazy. But it makes it perfect for teaching and being able to feel the spirit. Anyway we taught sister Medina several weeks ago as well as her husband and invited them to be baptized if she comes to know that its true. She seemed really hesitant because she is catholic. So we went back this week and ended up meeting someone else who lives in that same building. Her name is Jonnalynn. He taught Jonnalynn and sister Medina joined us to hear about the restoration again. We asked her if she had read and prayed and she said she had. She told us a story about the member who lives in that same building, Sister Kipkipan, who kept inviting someone to church and sister Medina said she keeps getting an answer of the name of that individual who sister kikipan invited to church. So I think who knows its true along with my companion but we don't think she knows it yet. So we went back again just a few days ago to teach sister Median and Jonnalynn. Then again sister Medina invited another one of her friends in that same building to come listen to our message. So we have 3 investigators all in the same building its crazy. Sister Medina is reading and praying, sister Jonnalynn is reading but we invited her again to pray, and the other sister came to church yesterday so hopefully we can continue to meet with all 3 of them. And sister Medinas husband actually seemed interested when he heard our message again. After the last message Sister Median said she could actually understand everything I said compared to the first lesson with her when she could only understand some. Learning Tagalog is so fun and they say it takes about 6 months to learn. 

I'm having a lot of fun and just love teaching the people here. Even though I'm not very good at it yet. Everyday I have tons of kids around me cause I'm white but when I speak Tagalog they flock to me and ask me a million questions. I always give them pass along cards with the picture of Jesus Christ to them.

Well until next week. I love you all and will talk to you next week! Have a great week!

-Elder Jones

Hello Family!!! 

So currently I'm serving In the Manila West Zone In the Sta Cruz Ward!! Our area floods really easily so after it rains a lot of the streets are usually under several feet of water! Its really cool yesterday I met Elder Dallin H. Oaks. He was at our church building for a special session. There was so many people there and we went through the crowd and shook everyone's hand. His talk along with the others who spoke were amazing and it was kinda funny the light kept going out and the microphone stopped working. So over and over again they continued to fix it but the power just kept going out. So Elder Oaks went and stood down in the middle of the crowd and gave his talk in a very loud voice in order for every one to hear. He kept going back and forth between the microphone when it was working and the middle of the crowd when it wasn't. He said that we was getting is exercise for the day.

We are having some pretty good success right now! We have several actually many investigators. One family the Factor Family the Grandmother is an active member but her grand-kids are not members so we have been teaching them. They are always so interested in our message and love it when we come by they get so excited. They have been reading the Book Of Mormon and are really excited to go to church! Its so cool when we teach them we have to leave the door open because of missionary rules with the oldest male only being 14 in the lessons. But at the end of each lesson there is always a crowd of kids that has gathered together in the small home and at the door listening to us share our message. There are usually about 15 kids in total. We have many other investigators. We really learn a lot about the scriptures and gospel very fast since we study for several hours everyday and then spend all day sharing what we know. We are constantly learning more and more and our testimonies are always being strengthened. There are a lot of spiritual experiences that I want to share but I don't have enough time to do so. we are only allowed a short period of time to E mail. As I read the Book of Mormon each day I learn so much so just continue to read the book of Mormon and always have something with you to highlight scriptures you like. 

We have not had any other dinner appointments they are extremely rare in this area. I have gotten to eat some food here though like Suman, Pancit, and bihon. All of which are really good! I have not eaten anything like dog or balute because we are not allowed to eat balute but I'm not sure about dog. The picture is of me eating Suman, and also Pancit. But they don't feed it to missionaries here very often.But we have FHE with many of our investigators and less active families. We usually are fed after the FHE but its so fun to get together and have FHE with people especially since not many of them understand the importance of it! We are trying to help them understand and have FHE every week. The picture I sent it us with the Gudio Family. They are less active but are at church every once in a while not very often but they came to church yesterday which was great!

Well we have to go now!!  I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!! Im sorry that I cant share more. I would like to tell you everything but it just isnt possible. I do write in my journal almost daily so I have many of my experiences in there! 

BYE! I LOVE ALL OF YOU!

-Elder Jones

Hey again family!!

So I cant believe that I'm sitting here E-mailing you all again. It feels like it was just yesterday that we had our P-Day its so crazy how time is flying by. So there are computer shops all over the place here since hardly anyone owns their own computer so we have to pay 12 pisos an how for internet each week. It usually costs about 20 to 25 pisos for each of us. We are very far from the MTC and also the mission home. This week we had to go to the mission home for our interviews with the president. Some of the Elder in our district along with us rode the LRT. Its just a train that takes you long distances in a very short period of time. It is also very cheap. 10 pisos per ride but it is also very very crowded. There were tons of people just all smashed together in the trains we couldn't even move there were so many people. My talk yesterday went great I spoke on missionary work. It was very short only a 7-10 minute talk. My companion and me work really well together. And out shower has 3 buckets a big one with all the water then a small bucket with a handle which we use to scoop and pour the water. Then another bucket we use to fill the large bucket. And yes my showers are always very cold but I've gotten use to it and its actually nice since we sweat all day long plus our apartment doesn't have air conditioning. 

We have had several really good lessons this week along with our two baptisms. We had a few really slow days though where we just didn't get to teach. Pam is the girl who was baptized this week. Here grandfather baptized her and I baptized Johnlery Rosario Regadio who is the one in the picture. We have several investigators right now who we feel will get baptized within the next few months. Hopefully they will be baptized but its really hard to meet with people here since everyone is always so busy. But we do our best and we always have good numbers at the end of each week.We had family home evening with Brother Jared and Sister Exyl this week. Brother Jared's brother, who is inactive came, and Sister Exyl invited a friend. It was an amazing experience especially since we could see the joy that family home evening brought to all of them. Several of the less active members here who we have been visiting were at church yesterday which was great. 

So there are trikes and Jeepnys everywhere. Its basically how everyone gets around. The trikes are so fun to ride in and the jeepny is usually very crowded. We don't ride in them a lot just because we usually walk everywhere in our area.

Well there is so much I still want to say but don't have time for especially since I have to do some assessment or something today while we are on the computers.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

- Elder Jones

Hello Family

So this week has been great we are so busy everyday. I cant believe that its already P-day again it doesn't feel like its been that long since the last P-day. So my companions name is Elder Villan he is from the Philippines. Hes really helping me with the language and he gives me plenty of opportunities to teach in the lessons. My tagalog is getting better very fast. So I hand washed my clothes for the first time today. It took a while but after a while ill get better at it. We have two baptisms on Saturday. Brother John Larry is an investigator we have been working with for a couple months and Pam is a teenager whose older sister and younger brother were baptized already. Brother Jared is a less active that we go and see every other day. His girlfriend Sister Exyl is one of our new progressing investigators. They came to church yesterday it was great. We were concerned about her getting baptized since they live together and aren't married but we asked her to be baptized and she said yes and we also found out that they are getting married in January so shes going to work to be baptized right after that. Finding out that they were getting married so soon was an answer to our prayers. We are going to Brother Jared and Sister Exyl home tonight for Family Home Evening with them and their kids. We taught another new investigator this week who seems very interested his name is JR. I invited him to be baptized and he said he would if he comes to find that the church is true. We gave him a book of mormon and hopefully hes been reading. Yesterday after church we had an amazing lesson. We went to a family whose less active and only part member. One of the sisters who is not active is married to a non member and her parents were there too. Her parents are active. We taught her husband the restoration and shared a 20 minute video with them about the restoration. Her husband brother Edward, who is not a member, was very interested. We asked him to be baptized at the end of next month and he said he would work towards it and be baptized. His wife also said she has really been wanting to return to church but just hasn't. After the lesson her dad came up to us with a tear in his and and said "Thank You" We are also teaching a lot of other people right now. 

We haven't had any dinner appointments yet but our first one is on Wednesday.  I'm also giving a talk this Sunday in our ward and I just shared my testimony yesterday in the ward. Ill get the mailing address to you next week I don't have it memorized. But its the Mission home that you send it to. 

I LOVE YOU ALL 

Its so fun here in the Philippines I'm glad this is were I get to serve. Good Job Taylor I cant wait to see it when I get home. I love you all and I'm so happy to hear from you. Get well soon Caden Basketball season is here! HAHA! Tell Marc and Teri hi for me along with the rest of their Family. Have a great week!

Hello Guys

So being out of the MTC is amazing so far. My companion is great he is from the Philippines and speaks 7 languages. English, Tagalog, and 5 other dialects here in the philippines. Its really hard being a missionary here when its so hard to communicate. My Tagalog is improving everyday but they say it takes about 6 months to get it down. One of the hardest things is the sentence structure. Is reversed from English you say the verb first and then you just say the main words that are connected with a linker. Its hard to explain but after a while is actually easy to get the hang of. We have several investigators an some with baptismal dates but right now the numbers in our area are down because the missionary here before me just went home and since he only had a few weeks left he slacked off and was disobedient. My companion and I are working very hard to get the numbers up. We met a family the other day who is going to let us come teach them this week and when we went to go see them yesterday we met the people who live right by them who also has allowed us to go teach them. So we have two potential investigators which are both families. We mainly teach a lot of less active members because we are short on investigators. 

The city is crazy I have never walked so close to moving cars before. There are homeless people everywhere and when we are proselyting at night we see homeless people sleeping on cardboard boxes in the streets. The neighborhoods are crazy. The homes here are super small and most are old. We teach one family who is active except one of them who we are trying to get to come back to church who lives in a home the size of my bedroom. When out on the streets we walk in small ally ways that lead to neighborhoods that are like giant apartment complexes made of falling apart concrete, rotten wood, rusted metal slats, and some even have portions constructed out of blankets. Of course there are some here who live in nicer conditions but nothing like at home. Our apartment is super nice though. Our shower doesn't work so we shower with a bucket of cold water but our apartment is large and clean without any cockroaches ( mga ipis) We eat rice and oatmeal everyday and rarely get dinner appointments. 

We saw General conference yesterday it was great I took notes on every talk and learned a lot. A bunch of the members from this stake and all the missionaries met at the church to watch conference all day. Some of the sisters made us all food and yes it was rice. So my new p day is Monday so I wont be emailing on Fridays anymore and the days are going by so fast its crazy. I feel like we are back in bed 4 or 5 hours after we woke up. 

The other day someone called me Jo that's what us american are referred to here and some one yelled out "Welcome to the Philippines" as I walked by. Also little kids will chase us and say "look americano americano!" 

Things are great here right now Im working hard to learn the language but still of course have a long way to go. I LOVE YOU ALL AND CANT WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN!!!!!! GOOD JOB on your castle Rylee and on your cake Devon!!! I cant wait to try it save some for when I get home!! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!