Hermana Jones

Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission

lunes, 20 de diciembre de 2010







Hola todos!
Feliz Navidad this week! Thanks for all the emails too! I will do my best to respond asap! Still no mail... hopefully this week we receive mail! That´s the one bummer about being in the south, we don´t receive mail very often and it´s very delayed.

So, President Gulbrandsen called me this week and asked me if I would be ok going to Rio Gallegos (in the province Santa Cruz, find it on a map!) for the week until my new companion comes! My flight leaves Ushuaia Christmas day in the afternoon and the flight is just over an hour I believe to Rio Gallegos where I will spend a few days with Hermana Lyons and Hermana Chavez. Hermana Lyons is training Hermana Chavez. They are the closest Hermanas. We had arranged for an Hermana in the ward to be a mini missionary, but because it´s more than a day or two, President said he´d really like to give me the opportunity to experience Rio Gallegos! After being there, I will have gone to all the areas of my trainer! Hermana Mora also was in Rio Gallegos before coming here to Ushuaia. I´ll return here to Ushuaia the Tuesday after Christmas and receive my new companion. I have no clue who she will be, but we will see! So that´s kind of exciting. I am excited to see another part of Argentina and the other zone here in the south.

This week went well. We are working with lots of people that can get baptized, but they need to go to church more or get married or other various things that we will work out. Next transfer we are going to baptize a ton! We put another baptismal date with Rogelio yesterday and he accepted. He didn´t make it to his last date, but now he is working on his testimony so this time around should go better!

My companion goes home to Mexico next week! Saturday about an hour before I go to Rio Gallegos she flies to Buenos Aires, and then from there she goes home beginning of next week when we have transfers. I am kind of sad, because she has been a great companion and I have learned a lot from her. Thanks to her also, I can speak spanish much better than before! It makes me hope that my next companion is latina so that I can continue to learn spanish from natives! Also, a lot of times here in Argentina they speak funny or don´t speak grammatically correctly and so she teaches me to speak correctly and not sound like a hick or someone who doesn´t know how to speak well.

I hope you all have a gift that you are going to give to Christ this year for Christmas! I read the Book of Mormon with an emphasis in Christ, highlighting every reference to His name. Now I am highlighting references to His attributes and the Atonement. I highly recommend it. I have learned a lot focusing differently on the Book of Mormon.
For Christmas for myself I bought a small spanish Bible that is about 2.556 inches by 3.531 inches and has both the old and new testament. It will be very nice for carrying around all day, and luckily I have good eyesight and can read it! Also, I took my shoes to a shoe repair place this morning and am having the buckles/straps replaced for my Christmas present to myself! I am excited for that! I won´t have to worry about my shoes breaking at any moment with all the hiking and walking up and downhill we do here in the great city of USHUAIA!

Well if you can´t tell, I am very happy to be here and I am very happy to be a servant of Christ at this time of year! I hope that we can all remember Christ and His sacrifice for us and how central to the plan of our Heavenly Father He is! Have a great week all and Merry Christmas!

Love,
Hermana Jones

lunes, 13 de diciembre de 2010

Hola!This week went much better than the last! Today it´s like a blizzard outside! We went to the National Park, which is why I am sending this later than normal. It was awesome, but very very wet haha. I´ll have to send pictures.I am just now today finally feeling completely better from that virus I got. Today is the first day that all of my food left in a normal fashion... If you get what I´m saying ;). My companion goes home in two weeks! She leaves for Buenos Aires Christmas day! Crazy! I´m not sure what´s going to happen because transfers aren´t until the tuesday after, and so my new companion won´t likely be here until the tuesday after, so I don´t know what President will have me do. Maybe they´ll assign me a mini missionary or maybe they´ll have me stay with a sister in the ward. I don´t know. Normally I would just go stay with other hermanas in the zone or whatever, but the closest hermanas are in Rio Gallegos which is not exactly close... you have to fly there! So, I´ll let ya know about that later... haha.As for calling on Christmas, yes you have to call me and I will be at Silvia´s house. Her number is 430847. The area code for Tierra del Fuego is 2901 and for Argentina is 54. I believe it would be 54-2901-430847. That´s a land line. If that doesn´t work for some reason, which I don´t think will happen, you can call 54-2966-15-350329 which is a cell phone. I hope that makes sense... If not let me know and I´ll clarify. I´m not positive about the time, because my companion has to be taken to the airport in the afternoon, but for now, let´s say 7pm here. I´ll confirm next week. I think here is 5 hours ahead? Not sure. Right now It´s almost 5pm. I can´t wait to talk to ya´ll!!!!This week, President changed our daily schedule and now we are shifted half an hour. We don´t go to bed til 11 and we get up at 7. He changed it because it´s light very late and there are more people the find and teach later. (People here sleep in insanely late). This week we found a great family that was a reference from some members. They are going to get baptized as soon as they get married! They have 2 kids that are older than 8 as well! I´m excited for that. We have a lot of investigators that are leaving to Bolivia for the holidays. I think that in January and February we will see lots more baptisms when they return and just the way things are going. My companion is very excited to go home. We have to keep the focus, which is not always easy, but has to be done so we can keep having success here! We are teaching a lady right now that has a date for Christmas day, but she also still has to get married, so we will be working hard with her. I´ll keep ya´ll posted on that. :)I am almost done reading the Book of Mormon. I am in Moroni 8. This time in spanish. I love the Book of Mormon! I love Moroni 7 that talks about the attributes of Christ (faith, hope, charity), that we should all strive to develop in our lives. I am personally working on patience right now. I recommend having an attribute every week that you can focus on developing in your lives!Love,Hermana Jones

lunes, 29 de noviembre de 2010

(white as in baptismal clothes white) (Christmas falls on a saturday, the day of baptisms!)Hola! Well, this week went relatively well. Not too much that´s new. Unfortunately, we lost a few investigators. Mimi told us she doesn´t want us to come back. I´m not sure what happened there. She went from having a baptismal date, feeling the spirit strongly, going to church and everything to not wanting any contact. She even told us to get rid of her phone number and everything. Kind of sad, but the work goes on.We are working with a man named Rogelio that has a date for saturday, but we have a long ways to go to prepare him, so hopefully all works out.The weather here is nuts. One minutes its warm and around 50 degrees and the next its like a blizzard. On my way to this place where I am now writing it was snowing and windy like crazy and now it´s sunny and nice. Crazy! I´m trying to send a video. The file might be too big... we´ll find out! I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!This week we found a lady that´s less active and taught her kids, hopefully we can get them back to church! They didn´t go yesterday, but hopefully soon! Yesterday we had 8 investigators at sacrament meeting! Now we just need to get them progressing to baptism! They´re all so close. Two girls, their mom won´t let them get baptized for now, two want to wait until february to get baptized, two are brand new investigators, and two we´re working on their testimonies. Lots of work, but hopefully we have some baptisms soon!Good luck on finals to those at BYU! I´m sure the next couple of weeks will pass super quick!The pictures are: my companion in Barrio Mirador (the area furthest up the mountain where the Bolivianos live), my thanksgiving feast - TOUCAN SAM!Love,Hermana JonesNOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended

lunes, 22 de noviembre de 2010

HOLA!Esta semana fue de diez!And I can´t write in spanish haha. This week went well. Lucas got confirmed yesterday, so that was good. Also, this week we received a reference of a woman that works in a kiosk here and the reference was from a guy that is less active but he told us she wanted to listen to our message and get baptized. We thought he was sending us to visit some friend as a joke or something that didn´t want to hear about the gospel, but we went anyways. Her name is Mimi and she had a picture of Christ on the wall of her kiosk! We pretended we wanted to buy some chocolate and then she asked us if we were Mormon. We started to teach her and she went to church yesterday! We put a baptismal date for the 5th, so hopefully all goes well and she gets baptized the 5th! The next day, we visited a less active lady that lives on the same street and she said that she had gone to the kiosk and talked to the lady in the kiosk and they were going to go to church together! She hasn´t been active in about 10 years! They went to church together yesterday and it was awesome! We are going to help her become active again and they are friends now! By the way, I don´t know if you noticed in the pictures from last week but the water in the font is green! Just how the water is here! Well, I don´t know if I had mentioned before, but because we are so close to antartica we have long hours of daylight here. It is light when we go to bed and light when we wake up! I heard in December and January it doesn´t get dark until around 12:30 am and gets light around 2am! Crazy huh! It´s weird because it´s always light even when we go to bed. Also, I don´t know if I ever said, but from my area you can see Chile! Kind of cool.Also, the past week Hermana Tejada called us to see if anyone was going to be in Buenos Aires for her fairwell. (She finished her mission). I got to talk to her for a few minutes which was fun! She said my spanish has improved a TON. Also she told me how my converts in Vicente López are doing! She said that they both have been blessing the sacrament every week! Also, one of our investigators, from when I was there, Carlos (16 yrs old) got baptized a couple weeks ago and my first convert Abraham baptized him! Also, another lady got baptized and Miguel (my other convert there) baptized her! Both are doing tons of geneaology work to prepare a bunch of names to do when they can go to the temple next year! I was really happy to hear of their progress!The work here continues to go well. For now, we are working with 3 or so to get baptized next month that have baptismal dates and hopefully all goes well with that. Also, we are working hard to find new people to teach!This morning I was studying in the Book of Mormon in Alma 26-29. I love chapter 26. It is basically Alma talking about his mission and the missions of his brothers among the people of the lamanites. I specifically would like to mention Alma 26:27. Even though sometimes times were tough, and they wanted to quit the Lord was always there for them and they were able to endure with patience! Also the Lord gave them success! This is a great promise (no I don´t want to go home and I´m not discouraged, but it´s good advice in general in life). The Lord will always be there for us! We have to rely and trust in Him! Also, this morning I was thinking about my goals for my mission and what I want to do and become. I love verses 28-31 or so. I want to be able to say that at the end of my mission!I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving! Eat lots of Turkey for me! I have yet to see turkey here. I haven´t even seen it like deli meat for sandwiches. They eat lots of salami type meats and ham in their sandwiches. :)Chao!Hermana Jones

martes, 16 de noviembre de 2010
















thankfully... I hear it is really hot up in the northern part of the country!Well, it looks like Hermana Mora and I are here for another 6 weeks! Todays it the first day of the transfer! There were no changes made in our district here in Ushuaia. However, this is Hermana Mora´s last transfer so for sure next transfer I´ll get a new comp and probably be here for another transfer or 2. So, I´m pretty much guaranteed to be here til February! Wooohooo!!! LUCAS got BAPTIZED!!! Wow, there was a TON of opposition. More than I thought possible. It seems to be the trend whenever we have baptisms, but luckily he has a very strong testimony and we were able to overcome all of it and he got baptized. Also, it ended up being a baptism for our branch as well! It was great! I´m trying to send a picture of that, but this computer isn´t allowing me to view my fotos. Anyways... ok now it´s working. The pictures are the baptism of Lucas Santos, and us in the street with a member Yosi that was accompanying us, and our rocking district here in Ushuaia together 2 transfers!We still haven´t had zone conference or interviews with the president because he hasn´t come, so the past transfer we didn´t have anything, but I heard he is coming soon, in the next week. I´m excited for that! Normally everyother transfer we have zone conference and everyother transfer (the transfers we don´t have zone conference) we have interviews with the president.This week also, after at least 2 months of not getting mail, we received Mail!!!!! It was a good week! Thanks to Mom and Cheryl Benner for the packages! Any packages sent after that have to be sent with the new instructions. I also got letters from you mom, Heidi, Kasey, Courtney, Hermana Payne, Grandma Rowberry, and Trevor Fuhriman. Thanks to all I am writing back today so be looking for letters in the mail! Also I don´t have Heidi Pincock´s address. She is in the MTC right now, but about to leave for Austin TX so if someone could look on her facebook or something and find her address in TX please email it to me!We are working with 3 or 4 others right now that are really close to baptism, but need to go to church more or overcome some obstacles. We have 2 girls that are 9 and 11 that want to get baptized and can, but their mom won´t let them for now. It´s sad, but we will continue to work with the family and hopefully that can get baptized sometime soon!This morning I studied Alma 5, and I decided for now it´s my new favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I love it. I recommend that you all read it! Well, that´s about it for now. I will try and send the picture later.Love,Hermana Jones
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lunes, 8 de noviembre de 2010

Hola familia qué tal!?This week went well. We have a baptism Sunday the 14th! Next sunday. His name is Lucas Santo. He is 17 and he is very smart. He is friends with a family in our branch and has been attending our branch. Yesterday in the gospel principles class he said he felt the spirit very strongly as we were talking about the Holy Ghost and got the impression that he needs to be baptized asap! We were going to set a baptismal date with him for the next weekend and he asked us first if he could be baptized Sunday! It was a definite answer to our fasting and prayers! The only thing is he has to have an interview with the District President first, because he doesn´t live in our branch. So he probably will be baptized in our branch if he gets permission, but we aren´t sure yet. Sí or Sí he will be baptized though, and that is the most important part!We are also teaching a guy who is preparing to be baptized the 20th and another the 27th. I hope that all works out with those baptisms! I love it here! I love this work! Sorry to you all, but I don´t want to ever leave Ushuaia :) You all will just have to come here when I finish my mission ;). My companion is great! I learn a lot from her and she is a great help to me! I am at the point with my spanish where it´s easier for me to speak spanish than English fluidly. I tried to record a video for you this morning in English and I felt like I was stumbling with my words haha. Christmas will be fun when we talk on the phone... This picture I am sending is dedicated to Hermana Tejada, my trainer who is from Florida, and who served in Ushuaia for 7 months!!!Things here are good, the food keeps coming and still tastes good! The people are still great, still lots of Bolivians. We asked if we could get a box of Book of Mormons in Quechua (Bolivian language) because lots of our investigators speak Quechua, but they don´t have the Book of Mormon in Quechua yet... keep paying your tithing! We have had several run ins or sighting of Jehovahs Witness missionaries. They are a billion of them here, especially up in the Barrios in the woods and mud where all the Bolivians live. Also, they speak Quechua. Almost all our investigators that live up there are also being taught by the Jehovahs Witnesses too. Jehovah´s Witness missionaries are members that go out and preach their gospel on the weekends in the afternoons. It is interesting...What else happened this week... not too much. I heard that all of Latin America is going to join together and have the same money and all like Europe did a few years back. What´s the deal with that? Any word, or is it a rumor?Well, I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all! This week on the 12th I complete 6 months in the mission! Crazy how fast time has flown! I feel like I just left the MTC, and I´m already 1/3 done! Also, I hear the last year goes by even faster because you know the language better and know more of what you´re doing! Hermana Mora will most likely be my last companion that has lots of time in the mission. My next most likely will have around the same time in the mission as me, or less. Crazy to think about! In my reading I just finished 2 Nefi. I love the last chapters that talk about the latter days and the Book of Mormon and then the doctrine of Christ! The restoration of the gospel is what will convert the people! The testimony of the Book of Mormon, because if you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, you automatically know everything else!Love,Hermana Jones!!!!!
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

lunes, 1 de noviembre de 2010

Hola!
This week felt a little long, but it went well! We had the census on wednesday and had to stay in our apartment until 8pm or so. We got lots of good studying in! Wednesday also, the ex-President of Argentina and the husband of the current Presidente passed away. I´m sure things were way crazy up in Buenos Aires, especially since the Presidente lives in my first area. Here it wasn´t too bad.

This week, I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time in the field! It´s a good read, I highly recommend it. :) Every time you read it you have to do what Moroni says and ask for a confimation! That way your testimony of the Book of Mormon can continue to grow! After I prayed, the first thing that came to my mind was how the Book of Mormon affects our lives and how it has affected the lives of people I have talked to and taught, especially my converts lives. Read the Book of Mormon and do as it says in Moroni 10!!!

This week we put lots of baptismal dates and now it´s a matter of helping the investigators overcome their addictions and go to church! But we have about 6 or so that want to get baptized. This week we will put dates with 4 or so more as well. So by the end of this week hopefully we will have lots of baptismal dates! We have to work hard to get these baptisms to happen, but I have faith that we can do it! In church yesterday we have more investigators than I´ve ever had at Sacrament meeting. We had 6! Also, we got an inactive family to go, which was awesome. Our church attendance was insane yesterday! We had over 100 in the chapel! Around 120 I think they said. For a little branch, one of 3 small branches here in Ushuaia, it is a miracle! I was the first speaker. I talked about missionary work, and specifically about the sons of Mosiah. It went well, but I was still nervous.

This week, I noticed a lot of people use ATVs in the street, and it reminded me of the cabin! Also, this week I noticed somebody finally took advantage of the big open bowls with fresh snow, and when I came out of the apartment friday morning, there were some beautifully made turns on one of the mountains. I was wondering how long it would take before I saw that! :) It is definitely getting warmer here though. I love it. Things here are going great, my companion is great, and I love the area!

Vamos a bautizar un montón! Encendemos el Tierra del Fuego!

Love,
Hermana Jones
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

lunes, 25 de octubre de 2010

Hola!This week was much better than the first two weeks. We had a lot more lessons and our numbers were much better. Also, we have investigators that are progressing towards baptism. We have one with a date for the 13th but she has to quit smoking first, so we are working hard with her. Also the other day we found a girl thats 21 that was a reference from a member and she is great. She will be baptized too once she goes to church for 3 weeks. Also, right now we are working with lots of part member families and lots of less active families. Also, we are trying to get lots of references from members and find new investigators that way, it seems that we have more success with references. The members here are great. I feel like I already know the members and the area here better than Vicente López when I left it. I already know the streets and I have met and know most of the members that are active. I get to speak in church next sunday! woohoo. haha. I never had to speak or anything at all in Vicente López. It is VERY different here. I love it. It is much less dangerous here than in Buenos Aires from what I´ve seen and heard too. I can carry my triple (scriptures) with me here and not worry about it getting stolen which is nice. before I just carried a blue Book of Mormon.This week we had a crazy wind storm and there were some houses destroyed. There were winds of over 100km/h. Pretty crazy. I feel like it is getting slightly warmer here. Summer is coming! It´s still cold, but I am definitely getting used to it. I prefer this over super hot and humid summer in Buenos Aires!That is a bummer about the packages. I guess in the future if people want to send me packages they have to send them to Sister Gulbrandsen. Sorry for the trouble it´s caused any that have sent packages in the last little while. I will probably receive mail in 2ish weeks and then I will let everyone know what I received. Thanks for the support!My companion is doing well. She finished next transfer right after Christmas. Her family wants her to be home for Christmas really bad, and every week email her asking her to do something about it. I feel bad, because she can´t and she wants to stay here anyway. This transfer ends the 16th of November and the next transfer ends the 29th of December. I don´t think I´m going anywhere anytime soon though... :) Moroni 10 :32 - come unto Christ! Also, always be an example of the believers. The members have a huge influence on the investigators.Love,Hermana Jones

viernes, 22 de octubre de 2010

To the families of our missionaries:

The Argentine postal service will no longer let us, as office workers, sign for and claim packages that are sent to your missionary. The person to whom the package is addressed has to show his or her passport and sign for the package in order for it to be claimed.

In order for your missionary to receive a package from home, it will have to be addressed to Sister Gulbrandsen. She can claim the package with her passport and signature. This will require that the missionary’s name appear in the return address area so we will know who is to receive the package.

We have several packages waiting to be picked up, and if the missionary to whom it is addressed cannot arrange his time to come claim the package himself it will be returned to the sender. Packages that have been sent to missionaries serving in Rio Gallegos, Rio Grande, and Tierra del Fuego will unfortunately be returned as they cannot fly here to retrieve their packages.

We are so sorry for this inconvenience to you and to your missionary. We have made efforts to resolve this issue with the postal service, but they will not alter the rule for us. So, beginning immediately, we ask that you address your packages as follows, noting that the name of the missionary needs to be listed in the return address.

John Doe (Elder James Brown)
Street address
City, and State


Sister Karen Gulbrandsen
Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission
Gral. Lavalle 1828
1646 San Fernando
Buenos Aires
ARGENTINA


Thank you for your cooperation in this matter and we are sorry for those packages that will be returned to sender. Please inform all family and friends of this new development.

Thank You,

Sister Kroff
Secretary
Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission

lunes, 18 de octubre de 2010







Hola!This week was great! My spanish is suddenly improve a TON. I LOVE this area. I can tell you all right now, I´m pretty sure it´ll be my favorite area. It is a good size, beautiful, and the members are awesome! Yesterday was mothers day here! Happy Mothers day! We ate lunch with a family in the ward and it was really fun. Thank goodness it´s not winter, because it´s cold and I´d be wearing a parka everyday. As is, my companion wear two skirts! One made of fleece! Also, it is much less humid here than up in Buenos Aires. This week it snowed a little bit, but not too much. It is really really windy at times! Walking to this internet place I thought I was going to blow away. There was dirt and small rocks in the air flying at me! The dogs here in Ushuaia are a little more scary. They ´bite´ too. Luckily it didn´t pierce through the skin with all my layers, but I got bit once this week and my companion too! I´m definitely over any fear of dogs I ever had when I was little. There is nothing but hills here! My legs are going to be in good shape! Luckily I haven´t gotten to tired or worn out. Hey, our apartment is much smaller here, like the size of my room at home, but we have a CD player! I love being able to listen to music. We still don´t have any upcoming baptisms, (that we know of :) ) at the moment, but we are working hard to get some dates set. Hopefully this week will be successful. The scripture for the week: Helamán 10:4-5. These verses are very inspiring. Makes me want to have the confidence of the Lord strong enough that He would give or do anything I ask because He knows I would never ask anything contrary to His will.Pres. Gulbrandsen challenged us to read the Book of Mormon before Christmas as a Christmas gift to the Lord, a couple weeks ago. Right now, I´m in 3 Nephi. I love the Book of Mormon!!!! I´m trying to figure out how to get pictures on here but it´s not working... I´ll try again later. I hope all is well with everyone! Thanks for the emails!Love,Hermana Jones

miércoles, 13 de octubre de 2010











lunes, 11 de octubre de 2010

Hola!All is well here en el fin del mundo! I will send lots of pictures! I LOVE it here! It is cold, very muddy, windy, and the weather changes like crazy within minutes, but it is incredible! There are 3 branches here in Ushuaia that make up a district and there are 4 companionships including us down here. All the rest are Elders. Our zone is the companionships here in Ushuaia and there are 3 I think companionships in Rio Grande which is further north on the Island, all Elders. Hermana Mora and I are the ONLY hermanas on the Tierra del Fuego. The other zone in the south is Rio Gallegos which is in the province Santa Cruz, if you look at a map. It´s the province above Tierra del Fuego I believe. There is one companionship of Hermanas up there in Rio Gallegos. Usually Hermanas that are called to Ushuaia and or Rio Gallegos spend the majority of their missions there. My compaion Hermana Mora goes home in December, 2 transfers. It is likely I´ll be here for at least 2 transfers after that so I will be here awhile. Probably at least 4 transfers, 2 with her and at least 2 with someone else, maybe more. So at least til around April most likely. It is cold! I am very glad I am here for the ¨summer¨ and not the winter! After being here it´s likely I´ll serve in Rio Gallegos, but who knows. The Lord. Hermana Tejada my companion before spent her whole mission in the south except for when she was in the north in Vicente López.Anyways, Hermana Mora is great. She doesn´t speak english, but so far we´ve been able to communicate :). She is from Durango, Mexico. This week was a little tough, we didn´t have lots of lessons, and I am learning the people and the area, but it is coming along well. The area is small (compared to Vicente López). Part of our area we have to hike up in the mud to these houses that people make out of plastic and wood they find. It´s crazy! I´ll have to figure out a way to take a picture sometime. Lots of the people here are Bolivianos. There are tons of souvenir shops and stuff in the centro of the city. The members are super great. They feed us lunch practically everyday and accompany us in lessons as well. There are lots of recent converts here, so I think we will be baptizing a lot more here. I am super pumped!This weekend we had a conference with Elder Arnold of the seventy! It was bomb! It was just our zone so like 16 of us with President Gulbrandsen, President Arnold (Pdte. of South America South area) and their wives. Elder Arnold spoke in general conference sunday afternoon session! We also had district conference (like stake conference except we don´t have a stake here). It was great! They taught us a lot of things to apply to the area and we did lots of practices. Hope all is well with all of you!As far as packages for Christmas, which a lot have asked... I am not sure how long it takes, but we will get packages sometime in december before Christmas. I would say send them in November sometime and you should be good! Mom and Kasey thanks for the packages you already sent. I don´t think I will receive mail for awhile because they had zone conference the week before I came and received mail, so probably end of the transfer.Today I studied the priesthood. I love sections 84 and 107 in D&C. The organization of the church is perfect and the priesthood is key! We are going to teach a recent convert tonight about the priesthood.The pictures are the baptism of Miguel in Vicente López and Ushuaia!Love,Hermana Jones

martes, 5 de octubre de 2010

Hola!!! Get out your maps/globes, drum roll!!!!! I am in USHUAIA! The furthest south you can go! The end of the world! I am on the southern coast of the Tierra del Fuego. There are tons of mountains and it is beautiful here! There are only 2 areas with Hermana in the south. Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego) and Rio Gallegos (Santa Cruz). I will definitely have to send pictures next week. It is amazing. Also, turns out I won´t be having summer after all, as it is cold here year round! Woohoo! Winter in Utah, winter in Buenos Aires, now Ushuaia! This is the same area that Hermana Tejada came from, and she LOVED it. She was always telling me how great it is here. How the members are awesome, the area is a TON smaller which will be nice. There are hills and mountains everywhere and snow!!! I will probably have to buy some boots. I got a call last night just after 10pm saying I would be picked up this morning at 7:30 am to catch a 10 am flight! Here I am. The flight was just over 3 hours long. Anyways, more to come next week about the area and all! As far as mail and everything, it´s all the same. Then forward our mail here from the offices, so no worries. Hermana Tejada is staying in Vicente López for her last transfer and she is training again! She was a great companion, I learned a TON from her. Whoever she is training is very lucky! She dropped me off at the airport this morning.My companion´s name is Hermana Mora. She is from Mexico and doesn´t speak any English! Woooh. Goodbye English. I will have to rely on my dictionary if I don´t know words now more. She seems really nice.This week was incredible! Last sunday, we had lunch with a family in our ward, and who was a non-member relative that lives with them. We talked with him a bit and committed him to be baptized the 10th of October. We set another appointment for saturday because he works every day of the week, and then he told us he had to go out of town the weekend of the 10th. So, I asked him if he would be baptized the next day, the 3rd, because it was the only day that worked before his trip. At first he was like what!? That´s way too soon. We continued to testify and then we said ok, you are going to say a prayer right now and ask. We knelt, and it was the most spiritual experience I have had yet on my mission. He started praying and he simply asked specifically if he should be baptized the next day. Then there was silence for a good 2-3 minutes (not exaggerating). Then he said ïn the name of Jesus Christ amen¨. The Spirit was so strong, and he truly had faith and real intent. The Hermana his cousin, was in tears and we sat down and he said, tomorrow I will be baptized. It was amazing. He got baptized the next day in between conference sessions! I will send pics next week, I forgot my cord. Conference was awesome! Saturday we watched in English because we didn´t have investigators there, but Sunday in Spanish because we had investigators there. I loved the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf.Well, gotta go! Have a great week all and I´ll fill in more details next week!Love,Hermana Jones
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lunes, 27 de septiembre de 2010


Hola!

I got a computer that lets me send pictures again! Abraham´s baptism, my district, and my district at the river.
This week was good! Transfers are next week, so p-day is moved to tuesday, just fyi. Also, Hna. Tejada has one more transfer left, so most likely I will be transferred this coming week. I heard it is rare that you are with your trainer longer than 2 transfers, but we will see. It´s kind of a bummer, because we committed 2 men to baptism yesterday! It was awesome and I have no doubt that those will go through. One is the 10th and the other the 17th of October.

General Conference is coming! We watch it the same time, with time change it´s at 1pm, 5pm, and the priesthood session at 9pm. We go to the stake center.
Church yesterday was good, Abraham got confirmed, and he is preparing to receive the priesthood. He is so solid. This week we had a lesson with his brothers family, that he lives with, and we also taught him about missionary work. He had memorized DyC 4 by our next visit and was all pumped to share the gospel! He really is golden.

We have an American family in our ward with 3 kids in the hospital. We fasted 2 days this week as a ward for them. They ate something, and have e-coli. One of the kids is in serious conditional and they don´t think she´ll make it. She is in a medically induced coma and has lots of complications that arose. Their family is here for 2-3 years working for the embassy.

We are continuing to work hard to get baptisms. We have been extending the baptismal commitment to everyone every lesson.

Kasey - reeses, no mucho, peanut butter, lo que quiere. :) recibí dos cartas de usted de pouch de Julio, no creo que voy a recibir más hasta la próxima conferencia de zona en 5 semanas.

Josh - crazy story! we considered calling the fire department, but our ward mission leader decided it would be better to do it the next day at the stake center, since there was a baptism already planned. :)

This morning, I studied prayer, and while I have been on my mission my testimony de la oracion has grown a ton. Prayer is key for our investigators, so that their hearts are opened to the spirit.

Scripture for the week: Mosíah 2 todo. Especialmente, vs. 24 y 41.

Tengan una buenisima semana!
Love,
Hermana Jones


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lunes, 20 de septiembre de 2010

Hola!
Abraham se bautizó!!! This was the craziest week ever! But, long story short, Abraham got baptized yesterday! I am trying to attach a picture right now... It´s not working. Anyways...

We had zone conference which was amazing. I loved it. Also, I got tons of mail. I got both packages mom, thanks a ton! Those weren´t as expensive as I expected. Thanks to Katie, Mom, Grandma Rowberry, Rebecca Peterson, Aubrey, Jessica, Kasey, Weights, and Madison Thompson! Most the letters I got were written in July and sent, so I´m sure if others sent me mail after that, in August or september, they´re on their way! But, thanks to all for the letters! I will write back soon!

So, this week was crazy trying to teach Abraham everyday so he was ready. We had to teach him everything in a week. So, the baptism was supposed to be saturday. We went to the chapel at 8 am to start filling the font for the baptism at 11. We started the water and went back to check it every 15 or so minutes. around 10:30 we went to check it and the water was dark brown/black! There was no more clean water!!! We were like NO!!!!!! Just then everyone started showing up. What we ended up having to do was reschedule the baptism for Sunday after stake conference in the stake center. That is the building of our zone leaders, and they had a baptism already planned, so we turned it into a stake baptism. It was awesome. The look on Abraham´s face after his baptism was priceless. After we went to a family´s house in the ward Villa Ballester (zone leaders ward) for lunch. It was delicious. Good day.

All weekend I had the most gigantic headache ever. Luckily it´s gone today, but it was not fun. However, last week I fixed our water heater, turns out the pilot was just out, so showers are nice and hot now. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVOR!!!! I hope you got my card! I sent it last monday.

Today, we went to the beach. The weather is great. Today is the last day of winter! It´s very humid and around 70 degrees I would guess. Perfect. I heard summer is miserably hot! Wooohoo! :)

Well, all is great here! We have another baptismal date for October 3rd, and we are going to have to work really hard to get him to church the next couple weeks.

Thanks for all the support! Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana JONES!

lunes, 13 de septiembre de 2010

Vamos a bautizar!!
We have a baptism saturday!! I am so excited! I will send pictures! My first baptism! Apparently there hasn´t been a baptism in Vicente López since like March.
Well, with Maria, things are kind of crazy. She had some friends tell her bad things about the church, and she hasn´t attended since, but we are working with her.

Our baptism is a man named Abraham. He is from Bolivia and he is awesine! He has attended church 3 times now as of yesterday, so we just have to finish teaching him the lessons this week! He has such a strong testimony. This week we taught him lesson 2 plan of salvation and committed him to be baptized saturday and at first he thought that was too soon, so we knelt down and prayed then and there and he asked. After he prayed, he knew it was right! It was so cool! I have no doubt that he will be baptized! Saturday 11 am! Also, this weekend we have stake conference, so that should be good. I am trying to send some pictures, if it works well, I will do it more often!

The first picture is Hermana Tejada and I in the rain in capital when I went to do my visa stuff. The second is us and our zone leaders at the conference for leaders that we went to this week. It was really good. The third is my new district eating pizza libre last week for P-day. Mom, see if you can post these on the blog.

This week, we have zone conference! So I will finally get mail for the first time in like 2 months! I can´t wait!

Courtney - thanks for the email!! I can´t wait to get your letter!
Kasey - suerte con thermo. gracias por su email tambien
Teej - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! FELIZ CUMPLE!

Sounds like everyone is doing great! I love hearing from everyone! Bummer about BYU football... probably because I´m not there. :) Just kidding.

Have a great week!
Hermana Jones


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lunes, 6 de septiembre de 2010

Hola!
This week went well! I do have some kind of sad news, our investigator who was supposed to get baptized this week, well, we couldn´t get her to church yesterday, so we have to postpone her baptism til at least Sunday, we will see. We are going to visit her tonight and try to set another date (Sunday I hope). I am a bit nervous for that.

Today for pday we went to Villa Ballester and played fútbol (soccer) as a district! It was really fun. This transfer we got transferred to a new district (the other district in our zone). They are all fun. Then after we went and ate Pizza Libre! (all you can eat). I am stuffed.

This week we had the pleasure of experiencing the tempesta de Santa Rosa! Supposedly it´s a famous storm they have every year the same week, and it´s like a tropical storm. So it rained like crazy and was super windy all week. Also, some flooding. If that happens again, I will probably invest in some rain boots. It was nuts, but today is super nice and sunny. Also, warmer, last week was a little cold. Spring doesn´t officially start til around the 20th.

Crazy all the MWC changes happening! It will be really different by the time I get back! Also, my companion may be going home after this transfer. She doesn´t know. The zone leaders told her this is her last, but she thinks they might be joking. She hopes she has one more! She is going to call tonight and find out. Also, her parents told her she is coming home in october, which would mean this is her last transfer. Her 18 months is up half way through the next transfer, so it could go either way.

We did get one of our investigators to church this week, and we did put 3 other baptismal dates for the end of the month with 3 of our investigators, so I hope those go through! All the dates we´ve had have not gone through thus far ( we haven´t had any baptisms) so I hope all goes well. We are praying and working hard for baptisms. We have a great area. It is the biggest in the mission and has some of the wealthiest areas. Also, some fairly poor areas, but I have faith the Lord will help us bring people to baptism!

Great news, because my companion is a ¨leader¨ we get to go to a conferencia for leaders in the mission again this week! It is tuesday through friday from 10-3. Those are awesome because I learn a ton, and we get really good free lunch!

The español is coming. I can understand much better every week, and the speaking is coming, slowly, but coming. I just have to make myself speak up more! Which I am doing better and better.

Hope school this week goes well for everyone! Thanks Katie and Kasey for the pictures! and Dad! Looks like everyone is doing well! There is no USB connector on this computer, but hopefully soon I´ll try and email pictures home.

As life gets busy because school is starting again remember, Alma 37:37!

Love,
Hermana Jones
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lunes, 30 de agosto de 2010

Hola!

This week was great! Maria is getting baptized the 11 of september, I think I messed up the date in the last email, but its a week from saturday. She is so sweet. She asks us to call her grandma. She is 80 years old. She told us how happy the Book of Mormon makes her feel and how great it is and how true it is. She is a golden investigator! I can´t wait til her baptism! I am counting down the days! The first time we taught her was very memorable. She asked Hermana Tejada to do up her bra, because she couldnt do it up herself. I won´t ever forget Hermana Tejada´s face. That´s the one time I´ve been grateful my spanish skills lack, because otherwise she might have asked me! She is hilarious. She told me yesterday that Hermana Tejada is like my mom. Which is true. They call your trainer your mom, and if you train someone they´re your daughter. Anyways, she is great.

This week we found lots of new investigators and dropped old ones that weren´t progressing. This morning, we had to go to Belgrano to the Doctor. My companion is having back problems. I hope it gets better for her!
I heard Utah is now in the Pac 10!? That cant be true is it?

What else, well things are going well. I was sick a couple weeks ago, but I´m good now. I had a cold. The springtime weather is quite nice.

My companion has one more transfer after this one, so she is basically a year ahead of me in her mission. She will probably have one more companion after me for one transfer. I will probably be transfered next transfer somewhere else, but who knows. We have a few weeks before that comes! She is a great companion. She is constantly striving to improve and she is a great example. Also, her spanish is so good. Most people we talk to think she is from here. Me on the other hand... haha. Sometimes people don´t even understand me haha. Oh well, it´ll come.

This week I have been studying the Plan of Salvation a lot. I love it. The more I study it, the more I realize how great and perfect of a plan it is. Also, without Christ, we are nothing!

Today, we are going to buy groceries and relax. It should be nice!

Sounds like Katie got all moved in nice and school is starting up again! I feel like I completely skipped summer, because I did haha so it seems weird everyone is starting school again! That´s cool you guys saw Kasey! Good luck with school everyone!! I´m glad everyone is doing well!

Love,
Hermana Jones
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sábado, 28 de agosto de 2010

Hola!
Sorry, P-day is moved to tuesday on transfer week. I am staying here in Vicente López for the next transfer which begins today, and Hermana Tejada is still my companion! She only has one transfer left after this one before she goes home!

Things here are going great! Sorry I haven´t written much in the last few weeks. For P-day my companion and sometimes our district have been doing activities and also last week was a holiday so it was hard to find a place to email.

Last week, for P-day we went to Unicenter, this big mall and went bowling and ate lunch and had ice cream. It was way fun.

As for our investigators, the past few weeks we left-dropped a ton of them, and have been finding lots of new ones that are ready to hear the gospel. We found this one lady that´s probably around 85 years old. Her name is Maria. She is from Italy and we got her to church on sunday and committed her to baptism! Now we just have to teach her more and make sure she goes to church the next two sundays. (Have to go to church 3 times before you can be baptized). So she has a date for 8 of September! That was very exciting!

We are working with lots of people and trying to get them to progress. Every week miracles happen! We found a wonderful family this week as well. We were on our way to an appointment and we felt like we should knock on a random door on the way. Turns out the wife is inactive and the husband and son are not members, they are an awesome family and we are trying to work out their doubts and help them gain a testimony so the rest of the family can be baptized and all go to church together.

Lots of people here think I am German. It´s funny. The spanish is coming pretty well. I can understand or at least get the gist of everything they say, and I am working on speaking more fluidly. I can usually say what I want, but sometimes I have to stop and think about it, so I am trying to be able to speak faster and not say ´um´ so much.

Spring has sprung! The weather this week was amazing! It has been sunny and some days I wear a sweater, and somedays just a shirt. Not too hot and not too cold!

Still haven´t received the mail and packages because we havent had a zone conference yet, but with the new transfer, we should be having one in the next couple weeks Id guess. I cant wait!

Also, with that, since we only get letters every 6 or so weeks, and postage is expensive, those who send me letters often, like once a week, feel free to only send them every 6 weeks to save on postage, because I wont get them for 6 weeks anyways. If you still want to write every week, you can send them together all at once! Thanks to all for the mail that I will receive soon!

Kasey - no se preocupe! y gracias por los emails! voy a enviar una carta pronto!

Sorry again for the short emails the past couple weeks! Things are going great, and 2-3 weeks ago Hermana Tejada and I set a goal to accomplish our daily goals everyday for the rest of the transfer (2-3 weeks) which ended yesterday and we did it! When we put in our part, the Lord blesses us! We have been much more successful as a result!

Alma 29 vs 9

Love,
Hermana Jones

lunes, 16 de agosto de 2010

Hola!

I am alive, but I have to go! I will explain next week, but today is a holiday so we just found computers, but p'day is over. I love you all lots and will write more next week!

Love,
Hermana Jones

lunes, 9 de agosto de 2010

Hola!
NO time!

Good week, we went to the river today and played soccer and football as a district and had a picnic.
I will have to write more next week, but we are working with 4 investigators towards baptism right now. Hopefully they all get baptized this month. We will see.

Teej - My companion goes to U of U. Gross huh?

We talked to someone in our ward who is working on the temple here and it should be done in a year! Then I´ll probably get to go!

Yesterday, was dia del niño (kids day!) they have lots of holidays here and they go crazy! Anyways, I thought that was funny!

Mom, next package you send, whenever that is, dont worry not too urgent, include: my sports watch, vitamins, and a pair of thermals.

The weather is improving a lot! It´s nice like spring time!

Well out of time, Love you all! I´ll write more detailed next week!

Hermana Jones!

lunes, 2 de agosto de 2010

Hola!

This week was great! I am learning more and more everyday!
Yesterday was crazy, and not so great, but it´s over now and we just have to move on a laugh about it now.

However, basically, we got up at 5:30 yesterday because we were determined to get all our investigators to church that had committed to go. We were out of the house at 6:30 to go get them all up. We got to the first house around 7, and woke them up and they said they´d come, so we left to go wake up more and return later to all go together. We went to this big apartment complex thing to wake up 4 or so families there, but the outer door to the building was locked! Then we ran around (literally running the whole time) trying to find a phone to call them to let us in. We finally found a gas station and called, but none of their phones had credit. Here they buy cards with credit for cell phones. We have a cell phone, but we have to leave it in our apartment for security reasons. Anyways, we went back to check if it had been unlocked one last time, and it had. I´m sure our faces looked hilarious, we sprinted in there like little kids in a toy store and started knocking on doors. NOBODY would get up and answer! So we finally went back to the other investigators house that we had already woken up first, and she said she would have to come late because her kids were still sleeping. We told her we´d wait, but then it got too late, and we didnt want to miss the sacrament. So then we sprinted to a bus, and got on and probably looked very flustered, etc. from running around for 2 hours from place to place, and half the ward was on the bus! haha. Long story short, we had 0 investigators go to church. It was really frustrating, because we put in a huge effort this week, all week. Then, after church, we had a lunch appointment with a member. She lives far away. We waited for the colectivo (bus) forever. Then it came, but turns out it was the wrong one, so we waited for another. Long story short it took us over an hour to get to her house, and then she wasnt there! We were even on time! We waited for 15 min, but then ended up turning around and going clear back home to break our fast. By this point we were so tired. Also, last night, to top it all off, we were knocking doors in this one neighborhood where a family of investigators lives. This old man opened up and very frankly told us we shouldn´t be out, to leave now, and then proceeded to say all sorts of words, that luckily I don´t know, but my comp told me it wasn´t very nice. :).

All in all it was a very good learning experience. I love being here, and love serving. There is so much to learn and so many people that are ready to hear the gospel! "el campo blanco esta ya para la siega".

Words of wisdom for the week, Mosiah 2. I especially like 24, 34, and 42. The Lord has given and done so much for us, we are eternally indebted to Him. Keep the commandments!

Today, we are going to Burger King. That´s right, Burger King! We got coupons. 2 for 1. Im excited.

Kasey - yes, you can email me whenever you want! Yes, you can send pictures!
Aubrey - thanks for the pictures, they´re beautiful!

Zone meeting this week, we had interviews and all was good. We got mail. I got a letter from Hermana Cindy Hurst in Honduras!! That was exciting, and I got a bunch of DearElders from Grandma Rice that I think she meant to send to the MTC, but those were fun to read as well. So besides that nothing yet, but I´m sure I´ll get your letters next time for sure, I´ll let ya know!

Mom, the address I think is San Fernando, but they´ll be able to figure it out. The letter I got from Hermana Hurst said Ferando, so either will work, they´ll understand. And yes, the numbers at the end are a phone number. That´s the mission office, and you can include it if you want. More security I guess in case they have questions or it gets lost. Either way though, I should get your mail just fine next time we have a zone meeting! I can´t wait!

I love you all so much! Thanks for all the love and support! This week, I thought a lot about how families can be together forever, and I´m so grateful for this blessing we have!

Love,
Hermana Jones

lunes, 26 de julio de 2010

Hola!
This week was even better than the last! It´s still cold, but I am getting used to it. The weather here thus far seems very similar to Seattle.

This week we found a ton of new investigators. Like 20. There isn´t enough time in the day to teach them all! We need to work on getting our investigators to church. The past 2 sundays it has rained and I think that prevents some from going.
This week, there was a conference with the President for leaders, and my companion is the only trainer who is an hermana right now, so I got to go too! It was 3 days for about 4 hours each day. It was great. I learned a ton.

We have set baptismal dates from a few people this week for August 14th, so hopefully they attend church 3 times (requirement) so that they can be baptized! The field is truly white!
This week, we stopped to get a snack, luckily, because we wouldn´t have run into Meri. She is golden! She is from Peru and had LDS friends there. She came to church sunday, and everything. She said when we first met her that the day before had been bad, and she had been praying a lot for help from God, and then she told us that she thought we were her answer! It was a cool experience.

Lots of people here are from Peru and Paraguay, and most are Catholic. I have also run into Evangelicals, and Jehovah´s Witnesses quite often.
The food here is really good! Lots of pasta, bread, and meat. Most of our lunches we eat with members and they feed us well! Breakfast usually I eat cereal and yogurt or fruit. The cereal here is weird. But it´s cereal. They have some great pastries called facturas, and also these brownie things called alfajores. Look them up, they´re delicious.

Yesterday we were eating lunch with a couple of families. They asked where I was from and I said WA. Then one was like, oh one of my mission companions is from there, do you know John Rex?! It was funny. They know the Rexs and still keep in contact with them it sounds like! They are the Roy family. I think. Then later, Hna Tejada and I were walking to an investigators house, and she said wait, do they have a daughter named Jessica and have they lived in Florida? So my companion also knows who the family is, from a long time ago! Crazy stuff, small world.

Thanks for all the emails! Courtney, Kasey, Grandma, and Family! I love reading from everyone! Sounds like life is good!

Courtney - let me know when you get back, and your address and I´ll write you a real letter!
Hna. Payne, I hope you get your visa soon! Also, it´s cold here. Bring your yoga pants, I changed my mind. You can wear them under your skirt. Also, survive the first week in the field, and you´ll be fine. The first week was much harder than the second I thought.
Kasey, I will try and write you today, I should have time. Hope works going well!

I hope everyone has a great week! Things here continue to get better and better! I love this work, and I see miracles all the time! We only receive mail when we have zone conference, which we have this coming week. From what my companion has told me, she has gotten all the mail she was supposed to, packages included, so that´s good news!

Love,
Hermana Jones
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lunes, 19 de julio de 2010

Hola!

I am still alive! haha. This week was good. I have been really tired all week trying to catch up on sleep, and I have never walked so much in my life!
Our area is called Vicente López. The mission home is in our area. Some parts of the area are very nice, and some not at all. From what I hear, it is a fairly big area, and we use the train and buses to get out to areas. We also walk a lot.

I am learning a lot. It is hard to understand the people here sometimes, because of their accent. It gets better everyday though.

Today, we got to go to Capital! I saw where Evita took place. :) Us new missionaries had to go to do something with our visas. I´m not sure what, but we did it. We also got to go to McDonalds, as there is a McDonalds in Capital. It was fun.

The weather here feels quite chilly. Our apartment is cold. we have a couple of small space heaters and thats it for heat. We aren´t in our apartment very much though. Showers also are my least favorite time of day... No heat in the bathroom and not even luke warm water. :) I am getting used to it though. I will have to take some pictures of our apartment.

Hermana Tejada my trainer is awesome. She is from Miami FL, but her dad is from Ecuador so she knew spanish before. She is a very hard worker. Some nights, we have to run home to get home in time, because we work up to the very last minutes. She is very obedient and very diligent. It´s great. I couldn´t ask for a better trainer. But, I do miss my MTC companions :). I hope Hermana Payne makes it to Argentine sometime soon.

We have a lot of investigators. More than I expected we would. We spend a lot more time teaching than I thought we would too. We try to get new contacts on the buses and on our way to teaching, and spend most of the days teaching investigators, and this week we visited quite a few less actives.

Church on Sunday went well, we had some investigators come which was good. Sunday was like a tropical storm minus the warmness. We came home soaking wet, and we had to go home and change to dry clothes half-way through the day! Today hasn´t been quite so bad, but it´s still raining.

Well, I am just about out of time, but thanks for the emails! I will try and write a letter today, but I don´t know if I´ll have time, because we spent most of the day in Capital and p-day ends at 6.

Love,
Hermana Jones
Haley arrives at the mission home in Argentina

martes, 13 de julio de 2010

Hola!
I am here! Tired, but all is good. We went to the mission presidents house and had interviews, lunch, etc and then our companions came and picked us up! My companion seems awesome! Her name is Hermana Tejada. She is from Miami, FL. She spoke spanish before her mission, and her accent is very good! She has been out for 15 months! Our area is in the city and includes the mission presidents house, so it isn´t far at all.

Buenos Aires is huge! It is very beautiful. We went past the temple, and it is under construction right now. They said it will be rededicated in about a year, and we will probably get to do the open house and all of that! That will be something to look forward to for sure!

Normally my p day will be mondays, but on transfer weeks, p day is moved to tuesdays. So, today is pday. We are going to go grocery shopping, and then I will start unpacking, then at 6 we go out. We already have some investigators my companion tells me, and a wedding, and a baptismal date! She even set up for us to go teach more to our taxi driver who drove us from the mission presidents home to our apartment. We will mostly be using buses and trains and lots of walking. I feel kind of scatter brained at the moment, lots to take in and lots to learn, but it will come. It is pretty cold here today. Only in the upper 30s I would guess. It´s a nice change for sure!

For lunch, we had empenadas, and fruit salad, and these brownie things. All were delicious. I am going to come back fat haha. They told us that here in Argentina, they eat breakfast, and a late lunch, which we will often eat with members, and they dont really eat dinner.

I´m sure that next week, I will have plenty more to say, but that´s about all I have for now! Hopefully I can sleep really well tonight! I am tired after the traveling. There were crazy storms, so we didn´t get into Buenos Aires until around 10am this morning.

I am excited to be here and can´t wait until I can speak spanish!

Love,
Hermana Jones
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lunes, 12 de julio de 2010

July 12, 2010: Haley left the MTC at 8 am this morning bound for Argentina! She was able to call us from the airport and she sounded great! It was so good to hear her voice. She sounds the same only maybe a little more grown-up already. She was sad that Hermana Payne's VISA didn't come through so she had to stay at the MTC another week or two. The other 6 or 8 elders for her district were with her flying all the wayo Buenos Aires. She is the only sister in the group today so technically she is companios for 24 hours with 2 elders...not every sister can say she was companions with elders! She has a short layover in Atlanta this evening and then on to Buenos Aires where she will arrive at 8 am MST Tuesday morning the 13th f July. We can't wait to get that first e-mail saying she has arrived safely and where she will be serving.

Ann Marie

miércoles, 7 de julio de 2010

Hola!
I found out from the travel office I am all set to go monday morning at 8am! Hermana Wheeler leaves tuesday morning at 3am, and Hermana Payne's visa is delayed we just barely found out! So she is here for another 2 weeks they estimate at least. They sent in a request to have her temporarily reassigned just in case getting her visa takes longer than they expect.

This week was great! Thursday we got out travel plans. Saturday we had a special devotional for Independence Day. It was a musical presentation about religious freedom. It was pretty good. I think it was partially to keep us all indoors and occupied during the Carrie Underwood concert down the street at the stadium of fire. Then after that we got to watch the fireworks from the south parking lot of the MTC. It was pretty cool. That's about the only 4th of July celebrating we did. And the fireworks got done late so we had permission to go to bed about half an hour late. woohoo haha.

So I leave Monday morning at 8am, my flight is at 12pm, and I don't land in Buenos Aires until around 8am tuesday morning. That will be tiring, but I am excited. I'm sad that Hermana Payne won't be my companion when I travel. She was supposed to be on my same flight and everything with me. She and one other Elder in my district are the only two who got delayed. So I'll be flying with the rest of the Elders in my district. I can't believe how fast the time has flown. These two months have gone by fast! I will most likely call in Salt Lake before 12pm MST, but if for some reason I don't, I'll call on the layover in Atlanta. I haven't exactly figured that out yet. Also, since Melina won't be home, and if there is anyone else that won't, I think I can still call her if she has a cell phone with her. Send me a dearelder and let me know if she will have a phone, and what number it will be!

Sunday, we had a mission conference again, so no Relief Society or anything. The fireside Sunday was good. Both the fireside sunday, and the devotional tuesday were about the Book of Mormon and evidences of the truth of it.

This week we committed our progressing investigator Paola to baptism and she accepted. It went really well and we were really happy. We also had our last appointment with Gabriel yesterday, didn't get him quite to baptism, but it was going that direction. This week is teaching week. Meaning, instead of having class almost all day, we only have about an hour of class, and the rest of the time we practice teaching. I like it. Sometimes sitting in class for hours on end gets boring :).

Sister Dotson is here! I found her thursday morning. I have seen her almost everyday since then. She seems to be doing great! Her companion seems nice as well. Her companion is white, but a lot of the other missionaries she is with are Asian. It is fun to see her around. I still need to try and take a picture with her. The past few weeks we haven't been taking pictures because we haven't been going up to the temple, we have been doing more personal study instead on Sunday afternoons. I'll definitely have to find her before I leave and take one.

I will send a package home in the next couple of days with some things I don't need. Next week I'll be writing from Argentina! Also, I found out that you can still use Dearelder for my mission in Argentina. I believe it is free still as well. They print it and deliver it pouch or something is what I heard, so send me DearElder's people! DearElder.com. Otherwise, I have no clue what the mail is like down there... I guess we'll find out!

My favorite scripture this week has been: Alma 26:12.

Quote of the week:
"You never make the decision to quit and turn back when you're in the middle of a big hill." -Sis. Elaine S. Dalton

Love,
Hermana Jones

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jueves, 1 de julio de 2010

Hola!

This has been an awesome week as always!
Thanks for all the postcards! Looks like you guys had a fun time!

This week was the mission presidents seminar, and it was cool! There were lots of general authority sightings. We shook Elder Christoffersons hand. We also had a special devotional by Elder Oaks that was awesome! That was friday night, and after the special devotional I got to meet my mission president and his wife! They are so nice and so awesome! I also got to meet all the other Elders/Sisters going to my mission that are in the MTC right now! My mission presidents wife is so funny. She goes "hey girls! I found out today that we don't have to require you to wear nylons, so after the mtc, say goodbye to those!" She was so funny.

Hermana Wheeler got to sing to apostles and/or the Prophet everyday last week since she was in the special choir! We weren't allowed to go, but she always came back so excited!

We get our travel plans tomorrow or friday! I'll know when I can call home and everything! I'm so excited! Still no word on the visas... so hopefully we get those in the next couple days too. We hear that the world cup is slowing everything down majorly and there have been tons of delays. My mission president and his wife even have to go home for awhile til they can get their's.

As for the picture for the plaque, choose any you want, you can pick one of me here I've sent home, or whatever, it doesn't matter too much. I'll try and make a CD of pics and send it home next week too.

Today, we got to go to the outside world! Hermana Payne lost her drivers license, so we had to be driven in an MTC van to the DMV in Provo. It was fun. Then we waited over an hour for them to pick us up. We actually talked to lots of spanish speaking people. Someone in the DMV asked Hermana Wheeler if she could help her because she didn't know english, but Hermana Wheeler had no idea what she was saying. It was really funny.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!! I wish I could be there to celebrate! Just know I will be thinking about you!

So I had the most embarrassing moment of my life this week... This one probably shouldn't be posted to my blog. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent). One of my companions Hna. Longhair, went up to some Elders to practice contacting. We know these Elders pretty well, but luckily they left for the field the next day... Hna. Me, and Hna. Ouch followed suit. Right as Hna Me and Hna Ouch caught up to Hna. Longhair, Hna. Me accidentally let out a disturbing bodily function. It was definitely heard by all, but I don't think the Elders knew which Hna is came from... Hna. Ouch, and Hna. Me started laughing til we were almost crying, while Hna. Longhair tried to finish the contact without cracking a smile. Anyways, long story short, it was embarrassing, and we just start laughing almost to tears whenver we think about it. Now that that's out of the way...


Before I leave the MTC, could you please send me:
-my wax kit thing in my bathroom in a small ziploc bag thing
-maybe some more stamps
-some more knee highs
-my address for pouch and for regular letters in Argentina (I forgot to bring it :) )
-could you print me these talks? -The Atonement and Faith (Elder Oaks), Why Do We Serve (Oaks), and Abide in Me (Holland) I highly recommend them :)

I'll be on the lookout for Sis. Dotson today!

1Nephi 1:20 - Tender mercies are everywhere, keep an eye out for them! Oh, cool story, so Hermana Payne lost her scriptures this week, she loses things a lot, but I had been praying about where they were and then one night I was studying the restoration and wasn't even thinking about them, but I heard a voice in my head say her scriptures are in the TRC in such and such class room and so we went and they were there! It was crazy.

My talk went well, there were no General Authorites at that meeting, but we did see many that day.

Quote of the week:
"Strength and struggle go together. The supreme reward of struggle is strength. Life is a battle and the greatest joy is to overcome. The pursuit of easy things makes men weak. Do NOT equipt yourselves with supreme power and hope to escape the responsibility and work. It cannot be done. It is by following the lines of least resistance that makes rivers and men crooked."

Last night for Devotional, Sis. Dalton spoke and it was awesome! She talked about faith and virtue. Well, I'm out of time.
I hope you all have a great week! Thanks to both Grandma's for the letters this week!

I love you all!

Hermana Jones

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sábado, 26 de junio de 2010

Hola mi familia, well, the enter button doesn't work on this computer, so sorry about that. This was a great week. I got a new mission call. I have been called to serve in the Argentina Buenos Aires North mission, spanish speaking. :) This one was signed by Pres. Monson. I asked the general services and they called church headquarters and had a new one sent, it came the next day, talk about quick. Today we get a bunch of mission presidents for the presidents seminar. They are here through Sunday as far as I know. Pres. Krueger (my branch pres..) said my topic for my talk on sunday changed to the Atonement, but then it changed back. So as of now I think I'm still speaking on the restoration. and yes, It's in english. Last sunday, Sis. Payne got called to speak, and she had written her talk in english and I translated it for her because she ran out of time, so the talk she gave was written by me. Saturday, the provo temple closed for cleaning for 5 weeks, which is a bummer because that means that last week was the last time I get to go to the temple for a long time. I also heard that the Buenos Aires temple is not currently operating. someone should check on that for me. Mom, you should add paragraphs in here since I can't before you send this out, it confuses me and I'm the one writing it! On the bright side, we get to clean the temple for 4 hours on our p-days instead! That will be cool. Relief Society on sunday was great, we had Bonnie D. Parkin speak to us. She is very energetic. Both the firesides and devotional this week were also great.The MTC is pretty busy and full right now. We have like max capacity missionaries and then the mission presidents are all coming so lots of the cafeteria is blocked off and lines are extra long.. it is pretty cool though that we will have GA's here all week! I'll have to let you know next week if I have any sightings.. Friday we have a special devotional. My comp sis. Wheeler is in the special choir and she sings for the mission presidents and GA's everymorning starting tomorrow, but Sis payne and I aren't allowed to go.. She did say though that she knows the schedule of who is here and everything for the week, and so I think for our devotional friday it will be someone really awesome.. Also, sunday we will have someone in the mission conference..I'll let you know how all of that goes next wednesday I guess! I just saw Christian Rennie a little bit ago.. He is going to Uganda English speaking.. He leaves a week before I do to go to Uganda.. Well, things here are still going great! I love it here! Quote of the week: "The Lord will not force you to learn, you must exercise your agency to authorize the Lord to teach you." -Elder Richard G.. Scott Mom, thanks for the package! I'm glad kids day was fun.. I hope you all had a great father's day! Teaching in the TRC this week was good, but my comp's didn't like it too much. We teach only in spanish now, and it is hard because we can't say everything we can in english, and it is hard to explain things.. Especially when the investigator has questions. Spanish is harder for them and so I have to help and encourage them a lot, because they have a hard time with it. It will only get better though.. We got really good at teaching in english. Hermano Del Toro one of our TRC teachers told us that the lessons we've been giving our investigator Gabriel were the best lessons he's ever seen given in the TRC, and that we were doing great.. But then spanish teaching came along and it's a whole different story. haha.. In spanish I have learned all the tenses and how to conjugate everything that we are going to learn, now I just have to practice using it as much as possible and learn more vocab so I can say more. I am so excited to go to Argentina, but I don't feel ready either! It's a good thing I have 2 1/2 more weeks to learn more spanish! Well, I hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for all the letters and support! I get my travel plans a week from tomorrow and find out the status of my visa. Keep that in your prayers, two sisters got reassigned this week to other missions because their visas to Argentina were delayed. As of now, I leave the MTC July 12th. From what I heard the flight with layovers is roughly 18 hours to Buenos Aires! That is going to be a long day! The church is true! Love, Hermana Jones

miércoles, 16 de junio de 2010

Hola familia y amigos!

Another great week has come and gone! A lot happened this week, but it was all pretty normal stuff.
District A left :(. They went to Nicaragua and Panama and the sisters to Washington DC.

This week, I was given an assignment to speak at the mission conference when the mission presidents are here and general authorities. It is on Sunday June 27 (the twins birthday)! I don't know why I was picked, but my branch president asked me to. I'm the only one from my branch speaking. I have to speak about the restoration, which is so broad so if any of you have ideas of how to narrow that down, please send them my way! My companions are way excited, because it means we get to sit on the stand with GA's and possibly even the prophet. :) I am nervous and excited...

My companion Hermana Wheeler tried out for the small MTC choir and she made it! They are singing everyday next week and practicing everyday this week! They sing for GA's and mission presidents everyday while the mission presidents are here! How cool is that?!

This week the spanish has been pretty intense, but luckily I'm still following it. We learned subjunctive this week. Starting now in the TRC and TE and all of our teaching, we are only allowed to speak en espanol. I prefer teaching in spanish. I don't know why, but I like it. This week we teach the first lesson in spanish in the TRC. Our TE investigators are great! I love teaching them. It is really hard though. We really have to relate to them and try to meet their needs while we teach. Right now we are teaching Paola and Gabriel.

Also, this week I memorized a lot of things in spanish during my language study. I know the first vision, the missionary purpose, Santiago 1:5 (James) and almost have D&C 4 down. Love it! I love the missionary purpose:
"Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristos a fin de que reciban el evangelio mediante la fe en Jesucristo y Su expiacion, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepcion del don del espiritu santo, y el peseverar hasta el fin."

My quote for the week is
"What is BOLD today will not be BOLD tomorrow. The Lord tells us to be Bold but not overbearing. Overbearance is boldness without love. When people know and feel your love, you can NEVER be too BOLD!"
I'm not sure who that is by, but I love it. We have to have love and charity or else we have nothing! We can't have the spirit. If you do have the spirit you can say anything!

Also, a great talk I'd recommend for you all to read is called "The Challenge to Become" by Elder Oaks. You can find it on Lds.org. I am getting quite familiar with that website, since it's the only one we can go on! :)
Anyways, that talk is awesome. Mom, if you could print that and send it to me that would be awesome. Also, if you could print me some primary songs in spanish like Army of Helaman, and some of the popular ones that'd be awesome too and send them.

The weather a couple days ago was cool and rainy and I loved it! It was sunday and we walked to the temple in the rain!

Thanks to everyone for the letters! I am so blessed to get mail so easily here! I know it will be much harder in Argentina. They said if you do send mail or packages to put pictures of Mary on them. I loved the letters from the Fergusons and the drawings of the temples. Also, Thompsons sent me cartas en espanol! I loved those! Check your mail boxes in a few days!
And Heidi! You are my hero! You write me more than anyone besides my mom! I love you!

Katie! I am so excited for you! All done with High School! Now that you have tons of time on your hands all of a sudden, enjoy it! One great way to enjoy it is to write me! :) DearElder.com.
Melina and Trevor, you're almost done with school now too! How awesome is that?! Trevor, keep the drawings coming. I love them as do my companions!

This week for Devotional we heard from Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy. It was great as always. He talked about exercising faith and covenants. He said that living by covenant is the way we mature and obtain the attributes of Godliness. It is so true. As we live those Christlike Attributes (Ch. 6 Preach My Gospel) and STRIVE to be like Christ and come unto Him, we will become better. In class this week we talked a lot about the plan of salvation and the way we live our life now prepares us for which kingdom we go to. I loved that. If we want to go to the celestial kingdom now, the answer is easy, live a celestial life now. I know that is true and I have gained such a strong testimony of that this past week.

Well, that's about it. I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all the encouragement and support, it helps tremendously!

Love,
Hermana Jones

miércoles, 9 de junio de 2010

Hola!

This has been the best week yet! (Yes, I know I say that every week). I can't believe it's been a whole month. I'm still getting over whatever it is I got 2 weeks ago, but hopefully soon I'll be completely better.
First off, I just barely got a ready Rachelle's letter and the pictures, thank you so much, that made my day!!! I love the one of Courtney in Jerusalem!
Also, Courtney, thanks for you email and support! That quote that you said was your favorite was my favorite as well!
Congrats also to Aubrey this week!
Thanks for all the letters and packages!

Well, my quote of the week for all of you is, "there is nothing you gave up of greater importance than what you will give (on your mission)." -Elder Robert D. Hales.
That's right! Elder Hales came last night and spoke to us for devotional! We got great seats, and after as he was leaving we were watching him leave outside and he waved and said, "HEART, MIGHT, MIND, and STRENGTH!" It was so cool!
Supposedly we have been and will have tons of GA's because of the time of year with mission conference and mission presidents coming in the next few weeks. Anyways, he spoke on the light of Christ. It was so good!

This past week we got the new district with 2 new Hermanas! They are awesome. One of them LOVES GUATEMALA and has been there three times doing volunteer work! She actually went right before I did and volunteered in the same school in Patzicia! She said when they went they built the sports court, which had just been built when I went! It is so fun talking to her! She is going to serve in Albequerque, NM. We are getting a new district today, but no new Hermanas. The oldest district in our zone which has the other 2 Hermanas that you may have seen in pictures, they leave this week :(. Those Hermanas are going to Washington DC North, they'll be part time proselyting and part time visitors center. We will miss them.

On that note, Sunday our Branch Pres. called me to be the coordinating sister. For those who don't know, that just means I'm in charge of all the Hermanas in the zone/branch. Almost like the Relief Society Pres. I have meetings every tuesday night, and branch counsel on sundays. Also, whenever we get new district the zone leaders and I are in charge of giving them orientation and tours and getting them all settled. Isn't that crazy?! I feel like I just got here and now I have to help others who really are just getting here. The zone leaders are also changing since the oldest district is leaving and the new ones are awesome. I'm really excited. So for a few days we will have 5 districts in our zone, but then the oldest one will leave. The two new ones, ours, and the one that's one week older than we are here. This week we also had our DL (district leader) changed. Now it's Elder Smith, which is not what I expected, but it is so awesome! He has really changed and I love it.

My companions are both doing awesome. Being in a trio has taught me a ton, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. They both bring so much to our companionship and I learn so much from them everyday. They often remind me of Katie and Melina, and when they do, I see tender mercies from the Lord. I love them!
I see answers to my prayers all the time here, it is incredible! The Lord answers prayers in His way and time, that's for sure. One day I was praying about something, and one of my companions answered that prayer. She doesn't know it, but she did. It was when she was saying a prayer in our comp study or some time and what she said in her prayer was exactly what I needed to hear. It is amazing how the Lord works.

This week, I have been studying the Atonement and the Resurrection and Spirit World a ton. Our TRC teaching went really well this past week. We taught the 2nd lesson and our task was to ask about how reading and praying went in spanish. This week we have to teach how to pray and about prayer in spanish, and teach the second lesson again in English. Then starting next week, solo espanol!!! Saturday, we had what we called SUPER SABADO DEL ESPANOL!!! (imagine that said over a loud speak by a soccer, (futbol) announcer). It was super saturday of spanish. In our district we could only speak spanish. Our teachers taught in all spanish too. I loved it. My companions not so much, but it will come :).

Also this week, we started teaching a new progressing investigator in the TE. His name is Gabriel Lopez, he lives in Buenos Aires. He needs to gospel, but he is going to be hard to teach we can tell already. Two other companionships of Elders in our district are teaching him already and they always come back discouraged after teaching him haha. It should be a great challenge!

Well, I don't have too much else out of the ordinary to say. Everyday is pretty similar, but it never gets old because I get to focus on the gospel 24/7!!
Personal Study has become my favorite thing ever! I'd like to share something I studied today.

In Moroni 10:32 I love when it says "COME and unto Christ, and BE perfected in him". If you will notice, as I did an hour or so ago, that is in the present tense! Do you know what that means!? You can BE perfected in Him now! Use the Atonement! "by my grace ye may be perfect in Christ". La iglesia es verdadera, No?!

Love,
Hermana Jones

miércoles, 2 de junio de 2010

Hola!
Despite being sick, I think this was my favorite week yet! I will send pictures home soon! I am finally starting to get better. I haven't been that sick in a really really long time!
This week I saw Amanda Lovejoy from Port Orchard, she is going to Orlando, FL ASL mission. I have also seen Kyle Corbitt a few times! He seems to be doing well his first few days here!

Our Devotional and Firesides this week were incredible!
Yesterday for devo we heard from Bradley D Foster of the second quorum of the seventy. It was the best talk I've heard here yet! He talked about how Satan wants to trick us and make us think we are nothing. He talked a lot about or divine potential and who we are as sons and daughters of God. I have many great quotes I wrote down throughout the day yesterday that'll I'll include in the end if I have time!

In the MTC we teach a lot! We have the opportunity to teach to others needs. We were given an assigned sister/elder and told to pray and follow the spirit and prepare a message to teach to their needs. The Elder that taught me, Elder Taylor in my district was inspired! He even said that he completely changed the message he originally prepared for me as we were walking to our zone meeting where we would be teaching eachother!

I haven't had to speak in church yet, but I heard rumor I might this sunday for the Zone leaders. We will see, I think they may have been trying to scare me! However, Hermana Payne, who I LOVE, had to give the closing prayer in spanish and she was so nervous! I have never seen someone so nervous about saying a prayer! She couldn't even sing the closing hymn she was so scared!

This week, today, we are getting a new district in our zone! That means we will have 4 districts in our zone, and we won't be the youngest anymore! It's hard to believe I'm starting my 4th week here! Also, we get another one next week! Then the week after the oldest district in our zone, my favorite district (the other Hna's district) leaves. We are getting a new trio of hermanas in that new district today too, but they'll be sleeping in a different room, because we only have one open bed in our room.

Thanks Katie, Melina, and Trevor for the letters! Also, Katie for the graduation announcement! That's so exciting! Thanks also mom for the letters and for the card, it made my day!

This week in the TE we taught our "progressing investigator" for the first time. Her name is Paola and she is from Mexico. I can't wait to teach her more! In the TRC, we contacted in spanish and talked about the importance of families. We also taught the first lesson in English again. This week in the TRC we are following up with commitments with investigators on a "bus" and teaching the second lesson in english. Those spanish tasks in the TRC are one of my favorite things to do! I love it! Also, we signed up to teach Hna. Rex the second lesson to practice in the TE next week!

Our district is becoming much closer and much more unified! It was shaky at first, but it is getting so good! We had a great discussion in our district meeting last night about tender mercies and I know that the Lord is there right besides us and will never leave us! I have seen miracles happen here in the MTC! It is incredible! We discussed in class earlier yesterday about other worlds, and had some deep discussion, and then the devo last night was about that and about how we may feel insignificant, but we aren't. We are children of our Heavenly Father with a purpose!

Some great quote and things I heard this week:

"Things of the world are sweet, but never satisfy."
"The Lord knows us well, he has custom designed our curriculum." -Elder Maxwell
"When our validation and successes come externally, we can necer have enough." -Elder Foster
"It's not what happens to us, but how we deal with what happens to us that matters." -Elder Foster
"You are a daughter of God, do not let anyone tell you otherwise."
"Missionary work is a manifestation of our spiritual identity." -Elder Bednar

My favorites:
"When you serve others, lose yourself in the work, and you will find yourself."
"Humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less."
"When you study you are the Lord's investigators."
"I may have changed according to the world, but I'm finally becoming what I used to be."

I love serving the Lord, and my testimony grows so much every day! I am so grateful for the Atonement. Without it, we would have no hope. I am learning to be patient and to rely on the Lord, it is vital to missionary work!

Love,
Hermana Jones