Hermana Jones

Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission

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