Monday, September 23, 2013

Monday, September 23, 2013

Monday, September 23, 2013

Well...family.....thank you for all your fun emails. SPECIAL SHOUTOUT TO MOM!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! WHOA....eat cake. Just do it. It has calories but go eat some good chocolate cake. Happy Birthday!
General Conference: Yeah - Can't wait to watch!!!! Relief Society Women's Conference, too!!!
Because we have so many couple missionaries for the temple from the states, we are going to have the wonderful opportunity of watching it in English! Ush ush! So excited. We are marking down the days for conference. I LOVE conference!
Ok...so I have a lot to write and such little time to do it. First, sorry about the pictures and that you only get three. I told my comp that we have got to take more! We are working on that. I have some funny stories for you. We were walking through a long hallway to get to a house in the back of a little store. The hallway is like something you would see in a scary movie. As we were walking, I saw a black sheet and my comp turned around to me and said boo....well...I freaked out scared and like shoved her into the wall and booked it out of there. It was hilarious. She came out laughing so hard and we both laughed. She said...when it comes to fight or flight you just fly...you don't fight...you run. I told her that I thought it was Satan and we both laughed. Then later, we were waiting outside of a catholic church to meet up with someone. Well...it was dark and there was a little bit of light on the side of the church. My comp saw two nuns in white walk in and she thought it was a nightmare or something that she was seeing in her mind. It was so funny because it was real. THEN we were waiting outside of a little store. We saw a police car coming and my comp was like...shhhh I'm illegal...because she hasn't received her residence card yet. I told her to just act normal and she did a gangster stance to act like all the gangsters around us in the area. It was just really funny. We busted up laughing. Or all the times I freak out when I see a butterfly because things that fly really scare me. We just had some fun laugh attacks and just enjoying working in our area. It's fun to laugh.
We did divisions with Sister Kilpatrick and Sister Dickson. Hna. Kilpatrick and I were focused on finding and receiving more references. We did a practice, watched a video and headed out to work. It was so cool because we received a ton of references...just coming at us left and right! We also went to a member’s home who had gotten a little discouraged about someone who rejected her invitation to come over for an FHE. We went over and did a practice with her and it really helped. She went over the next day to her neighbors and they said yes! So we are looking forward to that. We are trying to get to know our members to see who would work with each of the investigators that we have. Things are going really well.
That recently re-activated member Joshua has been going with us a ton to do visits and help people. He has given us so many references because he knows practically everyone in our area. It has been so cool to see his transformation. It's cool because he is starting to plan for a mission right now so he should get his call around next year! He was just made the secretary of the young mens!!!! The young men actually have a really good and strong presidency that I am so excited about! Naun is fine. His cousin said some things to him that kind of offended him for a while he was saying...why was I even baptized and I don't want to go to church anymore. It has been really sad but he's slowly coming back and not letting those around him affect his going to church. It's just that he needs a really good friend...someone that he can count on. All of his cousins are less actives and aren't the best examples. Kind of frustrating but things are looking up for him. We had a good lesson with him yesterday about Nephi and how Nephi had such a positive attitude. Nephi is his favorite person in the Book of Mormon so we are using him a lot to teach principles. It’s great! Manuel has been out of town but we are planning a lesson with him for in the temple that we are looking forward to. He is progressing really well and we have found that he is more linked to the gospel and progresses when we talk about how the gospel can help him with his parents who have passed away. That's why we want to do a lesson in the temple. He and his wife went and bought a waffle maker because we have been craving waffles so they said we can come over for a lesson and waffle party. They are so funny. I feel so spoiled in this area. People are always feeding us and taking care of us. Like...for example...my back pack was super dirty and I was getting ready to wash it but our cook took it from my hands and said she'll wash it. It's like offensive to them if you turn down their offer of service. They love helping out! It's so funny.  We are really going to have to bump up the exercise. People just keep feeding us and dropping things off to our house. Way too spoiled here. Ha-ha.
We found two new investigators this past week...one through Joshua who is named Donald. He is amazing!!!!! He has so many questions about prophets and baptism. He loves the Bible and so introducing the Book of Mormon was a little bit hard because we had to really explain that the BOM doesn't take anything from the Bible...it actually gives more. We found another good member that we are going to teach with him. But we love that he is so analytical and wants to know more. He accepted a baptismal date for October. Another investigator named Vinicio who is 26 came up to me while my comp was talking with someone and asked who we were. I explained and he said...can you help me? He then said he hasn't been drinking for 3 years or doing cocaine. And he hasn't been smoking marijuana for 26 days. I explained what we do as missionaries and he invited us to his home. He is a little depressed because his girlfriend who lives in Guanacaste who also is 60 years old kicked him out because he was taking drugs again. Yes...quite the age gap but not a surprise here. So we have been helping him and he also accepted a baptismal date. Things are going really well here.
 I'm loving my mission and just really having a lot of fun. My testimony has grown in so many ways that I never thought possible. I love being a missionary. As much as I love home and you guys, I LOVE THE TICOS and being here. I had a freak out moment of coming home. My comp leaves in 4 weeks so we had a breakdown of just not wanting to go home yet. Thankfully I have a lot more time than her but it is starting to really pick up and I am getting so nervous. I love being here! But I hope you know that I love all of you. I'm sure you can all relate. Anyway. Hope you guys have a great week. Know that I care about you and pray for you each day. Also...all the members and people we teach pray for you too. Have fun. Be happy. Be firm and faithful. Serve others. Share the gospel in every way possible. SMILE! Don’t stress. And WRITE ME! Ha-ha. Talk with ya next week. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Hna. Jones

 Me freaking out about holding a pet bunny rabbit. Sheesh! Crazy. It kept jumping all over the place and so yeah...that's as close as I got to it. They were all laughing so hard at me.


I did divisions with Hna. Kilpatrick from South Jordan. She went to Utah State and was studying elementary education so we got along really well. We chatted it up and she's an excellent missionary. We had lots of fun.


We made an almond spinach salad that was so good. Well...I made the salad and my comp made Parmesan chicken and pasta. She really can cook and is teaching me so much! I had no idea that to bread the chicken, you need to put it in egg and then in the breaded stuff. The things you learn.



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