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

Hello all

So this past week just on Monday I finished mt training with my companion and we found out he was transferring. I also received a text message from President Ostler saying that I will train. So yes my new companion has only been in the field a couple days and I'm training right out of my own training. Its kinda difficult but that's OK it will really help both of us. Right now we are just focusing on finding new investigators and helping our progressing investigators work towards baptism. The other day we went and visited Sister Exyl and Brother Jared. Brother Jared showed us all the new stuff he bought for new years. A white shirt, dress pants, shoes and a bunch of ties. We taught him how to tie a tie and yesterday at church he was so qwapo! Or handsome! It was so cool to see him all dressed up and Sister Exyl was also dressed up for Church. Their entire family is coming to church and they are always there early now. Since we really need to find some new investigators in our area we have been talking to so many people. Just within the past few days we talked to 39 people. Our mission President has also put in some new goals for every companionship to OYM each week. We are really trying to find those people that are ready for our message. It is very hard though. We have had several people say that we can come back and share our message with them but some have said no, or I'm busy, or just I'm not interested. Last night after church the only thing we did was talk to people. We talked to a lady earlier this week and we gave her a pamphlet about the restoration. After we gave her the pamphlet she wouldn't even take her eyes off of it, even when she shook our hands and was taking to us. She said we could come back this week so I'm really hoping that she will become a progressing investigator. We also ran into another guy who is always in the same spot. Me and my last companion, Elder Villan, gave him a Book Of Mormon and taught him about the restoration. Just the other day he had us sit down and just went on and on about how he doesn't like the Book Of Mormon because all the war and that it doesn't say a single thing about Jesus Christ. He had us show him one spot in the Book where in talks about Jesus Christ, so we did. I'm pretty sure he was kind of drunk at the time too.

So for new years we had to return to our apartment early because it gets pretty crazy outside. Everyone is partying and yes there are fireworks. I have never seen so many fireworks before. Groups of people get together in the roads and just shoot of fireworks and party all night long. The entire sky was full of fireworks. Try to find a video on you tube or something of new years in the Philippines cause its absolutely crazy. I took some video of it but I think the file is to big to send over E mail. But I have never seen so many fireworks in my life. The sky was just full of them for as far as we could see. There was also lots of loud music and people lighting these extremely large firecrackers in the streets. The streets were full of pieces left from the fireworks the next day. 

Happy new year to you all! I hope grandma will get feeling better soon. You all have a great year and don't forget to write. I will talk to you next week! Bye!

Elder Jones

Hello Family!!

So I have some interesting news! I ate Balut the other day! My companion really wanted me to try it before he left so I said I would so we sat down and ate Balut the other day! It is very different but not as gross as I had originally thought. So after Skyping on Christmas we went and visited some members and investigators and every single one of them fed us! So we were hungry at all on Christmas! We had a lot of fun and our relationship with some of the members here has really improved! This week we are suppose to have transfers and I'm pretty sure I will be getting a new companion. And hopefully many of our investigators will return and we can go visit them again. 

On Tuesday we had our christmas party which was really fun. We played some games and watched a video. There was also a lot of food there and some of the Elders and Sisters put together a presentation for us. Our Mission president also dressed up like Santa and had some of the Elders dress up as Elves. It was pretty funny. This week I also went and bought myself a gift. I got a star wars hoodie. Its way cool. Its super comfortable. 

The Tagalog is coming well. It was hard at first and I couldn't really understand it but now I can understand enough to know what people are talking about and I can kind of have conversations with people. Om just trying to increase my vocabulary and learn how to but it all together. Its coming a long good though! 

Not a whole lot happened this week just because it was Christmas but we tried to oym some more. There were several times when I was talking to some one and my companion was talking to someone else. We oymed alot but its also really hard to find new investigators through oyming. It just depends. 

Well we have to go its 6 and we have to go to the Zablan Family for a FHE with them!! 

Love you all and miss you!! I will talk to you next week! Have a great week in Utah and tell everyone hi for me!!

Elder Jones

Hello Jones Family

 

This week has been pretty good but kinda slower because of the Christmas season. Since Christmas is around the corner many people are leaving the city and going to the province so our work has slowed down a little. We are just trying to use our time to find new investigators! We have found several which is really good! Right now we have several progressing investigators and Im really looking forward to seeing them be baptized hopefully this next transfer. One investigator who we have been working with since I got here is Sister Exyl. She has changed so much and she knows it is true. We are wating for her and her boyfriend, who is a member, to get married! Hopefully they will get married in the end of January or middle of February then she will be baptized shortly after that. Her boyfriend Brother Jared has been inactive for some time but is now returning to church with her. Yesterday at church Brother Jared was late but sister Exyl came early and was there 35 minutes before church started! It was sooo cool to see her there that early! Im really looking forward to her baptism. Another investigator we have is Sister Merryann. She is married but her husband is gone a lot cause of work. We have only been able to teach him once but Sister Merryann has been progressing so well! She comes to church prays and reads. She hasnt specifically told us that she ahs received and answer but we both feel that she has and that she knows it. Just this week her young baby boy was very sick and we were in a hurry so we had forgotten our oil. We quickly returned to our apartment and grabbed our oil. In a hurry I set by keys on the table and left them. When we were walking back to Merryanns I told my companion I forgot my keys and he started to worry. I asked him what was wrong and he said he didnt bring his keys since I always have mine. We were locked out. We just shrugged it off at went to work. We got back to Merryanns and gave her baby a blessing. It was so cool cause her husband was there too. The next day when we came back her baby was fine. It was such a cool experience. After our proselyting we had to get into our apartment and we finally find a way.

 

Tomorrow we have our Christmas party at the mission home and next week we have transfers. I will probably be getting a new companion and Im just really hoping a get a super good companion. Its good to hear you guys are all doing good! Get better those of you who are sick and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Caden Devon and Rylee!!! We celebrated your birthday at our apartment with a box of donuts and some candles!! I have pictures but I will have to send them later. Tell jamin and jared hi! I really miss those guys! Have a great week and Ill talk to you on Christmas day!

 

-Elder Jones

Hello Jones Family! 

This week we had a decent week but the storm and some of the other rain we have got throughout the week really messed with our proselyting time! Just the other day while getting ready to leave it started pouring so we had to stay in the apartment til it passed! We also had our ward Christmas party on Friday! It was a ton of fun! So on Monday we had to stay in our apartment all day so we went to the other missionaries apartment which is right by our where we played chess for a little and ordered pizza. Luckily we got to go out and work on Tuesday. But Friday we had hardly any work because we had weekly planning until 3 then the Christmas party at 6. Then on Saturday we had to stay in our apartment for a little and let a storm pass over but the we were able to go out. We have many investigators right now and several of them are doing really good! They have been reading and praying and we visit them several times a week. One of the hardest things is church attendance though. The church is pretty far. We are really trying to get our investigators to come to church, which many of them do and we have been working a lot with the less active families. Its so cool to see most of the less active families we have been visiting at church! There is one family here that I'm really looking forward to working with, the Ranon family. The father is less active and has been for many years and he wants for his 7 children to hear the message of the gospel. We have only taught them twice but we stop by often to see how they are doing. The kids have already been reading and praying and they want to go to church. Brother Ranon said they would go next week he is just hesitant to go back because its been so long and he doesn't feel worthy. But we shared a message with him and he said he wants to return and do what he needs to do to get back on the right path. We also invited his children to be baptized and they all said they want to be. Brother Ranon then told us don't rush their baptism because he wants them to really have faith and become good active members of the church. I though it was cool when we said that! I'm really looking forward to seeing their progression in the coming months!

I love you all!! Have a great week!!

Elder Jones