Week 21: I'm Back! 5.25 Miles

Coming to you live... two days late!

Sorry guys, I know that you all were sitting there refreshing your emails all day Monday... We were locked inside for Carnaval!! For those of you that have no idea what that is, it's basically a nation-wide water-fight/prank war and we had to be locked in!!! But it was really fun. We ordered pizza on Monday night and Burgers last night... Wow those burgers were good!

But... Just a lil update since we don't have too much time!

We are working super hard, and last week we found a whole bunch of new people to teach! It's super exciting to be teaching people that actually want to learn and accept your message! I'd love to say a lot more, but I think it'll have to wait for next week...

I love you all! The church is true! Jesus lives!

That's basically the message... 

PEACE!

Elder Jones

Photos: Me with spuma from carnaval, me playing piano while some random dude pretends to paint.

Week 20! House Hunting Ain't So Fun Anymore... 5 MILES!

Hello my dear friends!

So we got news that we are being kicked out of our house on the 29th, and we still don't have a house. YIKES. Needless to say, we've been doing double duty on not only contacting people to find people to teach, but also to find us an apartment! So, if any of you know of an apartment in Guayaquil, Ecuador, lmk. We actually did call some lady a few days ago, so hopefully that's the one!

An update on the rain situation: It rains every single day, often for the entire day. It's raining right now! But the rain is absolutely beautiful. It is ridiculously hot here, and the rain comes basically to save our lives.

Yesterday, we went to eat lunch with the Bishop's family, which was good. His 24 year old son was visiting, he literally just moved to Quito like three weeks ago. But he and I are pretty good friends! So we were talking for a little while after lunch, and he started telling me about life up in Quito. Basically, he lives in a friend's house, doesn't have a super stable job, and is living there to save up money to 1. get a place, and 2. save up money to be able to marry his girlfriend. Geez! But he seems really happy, and super confident. Anyway, eventually we had to get going. I asked if we could leave with just a little spiritual thought, something I usually like to do after eating with members. I shared Alma 32:27, one of my favorite scriptures. It reads,

 "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

So I shared this super little scripture with my friend, and when I finished it, he looked at me with tears in his eyes! I didn't know what happened! He said, "I have nothing in Quito. I have no home, no steady job, just a girlfriend and a goal. Today I came home to pick up the rest of my clothes to bring to Quito, but this whole day I've been wondering if I should even really be doing this. If I will really be ok eventually. I've been doubting my whole decision to even move to Quito. I get that I need to have faith, and Heavenly Father is constantly telling me that I need to be there, but still I get scared." He then related the story of Peter walking on water. When Peter started to fall, Jesus said, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"  Peter had the most faith of anyone! He had enough faith to even be able to walk on water!  But Jesus tells him that he's got little faith! I think that the point of this part of this scripture is that we can have so much faith, and see so many miracles, but still we doubt. I don't know why! But my friend told me that this scripture gave him a little push to have some faith. 

Guys, you never know when people need a little pick me up! If you feel like you should say something to someone, do it!

I love you guys!

Elder Jones

Pictures: Just an Iguana... sorry

Week 19: I Bless The Rains Down In Ecuador... 4.75 Miles

It happened.

Finally.

Since day one, I've heard unimaginable stories of absolute gallons pouring down from the Heavens. Guys, the rainy season started 2 and a half months ago. 2 and a half!!! But miraculously, after weeks of waiting, Saturday night- they came. There's a song or a saying that says, "When it rains, it pours." I am pretty sure that there is not a word in the English language (or Spanish, for that matter...) that can accurately describe what happened. Elder Paz and I were walking around looking for people to teach as we noticed this dark cloud start to take over the sky.I'm not sure I can even describe it as a cloud! Perhaps a better description for this event would be "We watched the midday sky turn black."  Literally, all of the street lights turned on at once, and a few drops of rain hit my nose as if to warn me of my impending doom. I honestly wasn't too concerned, I expected the rain to start out slowly and eventually get worse. I was wrong. As soon as I felt the last drop hit my nose, we heard a crack of thunder and all at once, it came. It was the weirdest thing, the rain wasn't even coming in drops, it was literally coming in buckets! We were being attacked by a million fire hoses from the heavens! After a minute or two, it became painfully apparent that using my umbrella was useless, so I just stood there in the rain. Guys, we were standing by the road waiting to cross, and as the cars drove by they sent up waves of water 10 feet high! Needless to say, we ran for home. With all the thunder and the lightning and rain, we were more than a little wary to leave.

That was really fun, not gonna lie!

But besides that, this week was pretty slooow. By Sunday morning, we had absolutely no new people to teach, and only one of the people that we were teaching had a date to be baptized. Needless to say, I felt a little discouraged! It's really weird that sometimes you can be giving your 110%, and it seems like your getting nothing in return! I wasn't about to give up, but boy was I tired! Sunday after church I sat down to have a planning session with my companion, and to start, I offered a prayer. I asked Heavenly Father what we needed to be doing differently. I told Him how I felt. I told Him I wanted to find new people to teach. When I finished my prayer, a thought popped into my head. "This is the Lord's Work." The Lord's. Not the work of Elder Paz, not the work of Elder Jones, or of Isaac Jones, or of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is the work of the Lord. I don't get to complain! What do I have to complain about? If I'm doing my part, the Lord will make up the rest! As we left the house, I said another prayer, just one of those quick little prayers that you say in your head or in your heart or wherever you wanna say it is. But I asked Heavenly Father for a little boost! Just to help me make it through the day. And then, we hit the concrete.

I swear I knocked on a million doors in the first hour, and not one person let us in! Now, one thing I think I mentioned in a previous email was that after the rain, the sun comes out, turning the entirety of Guayaquil into a pot of boiling water, and Elder Paz and I were the cobs of corn being steamed above it. Walking around in this humid hotness turned me absolutely tomato-red. But still, no one opened their door. Then, we decided to call an old investigator called Joseph. He answered and told us that it was his Birthday, and that he was with friends. Next thing I knew, he had invited us over to talk for a few minutes! So we went to his house and as we started the lesson he asked us about a million questions, the last of them being, "So when can I get baptized?"

Ding ding ding! Miracle!

After that, we went to visit an old investigator. We stopped visiting him a few months ago because he didn't have much time with his work, but every time he sees me, he likes to shout out, "AY, CHONE!" I guess when I told him my name was Elder Jones, he heard "Elmer Chone." It took about half an hour to explain that my name is not Elmer, but Elder is just a title. I never had time to explain to him that my last name was "Jones," but oh well.

So we were walking by his house, and as always he called out, "AY, CHONE!" I shouted back "AY, ARMANDO!" And I asked when we could visit him and his family. He answered by opening up the door and motioning us to enter! His family ended up being busy, but we taught him for a little bit, and then his friend entered, so we taught her, and he pulled in another friend, and we ended up teaching the three of them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Boom. Another Miracle.

I guess what I'm saying is this week I learned to trust God more. I'm not here so that I can find more people to teach, or to find people to baptize so I can have cool stories or whatever, I'm here because I know God's plan. I know that I will live with my family for eternity. I know that I can be better each day. I am here so that my brothers and sisters, fellow children of an infinitely loving Father in Heaven, can have the hope and comfort that I have.

My friends, if you haven't, I'd encourage you to read the story of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I testify that through the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ restored his Church to the Earth. You can know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God as you understand the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The Prophet Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, and as you read that book and feel of it's authenticity, you will also know that Joseph Smith was called of God.

I know this email has been pretty long, sorry! I just want to finish with the word of one of the Lord's living Twelve Apostles Elder Jeffrey R. Holland who said, 

"I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven... I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days."

It is true. Read it and know.

I love you all!! 

Elder Jones

P.S.: This talk by Elder Holland is SICK! It talks more about the Book of Mormon... https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng

Pictures!! 1. A pretty rad view from the top of a member's apartment building 2. the first "noche de hogar" or family home evening that I conducted all by myself (I'm all grown up) 3. My comp and me after the rain storm.

Week 18: House Hunters... 4.5 Miles!

Hello my dear friends!

This week has been quite something! First, to explain the subject line:

My companion and I are officially fed up with the 10 dogs that like to have very loud conversations in the middle of study time, night-time, and every other time. Not to mention our neighbor is a large man that enjoys sitting on his balcony without a shirt and stare into our window, definitely creepy, especially when it's three in the morning and you just want a cup of water! Anyway, thanks to these strange incidents and countless more, we have received permission to look for a new house! We've heard legend of one that has Air Conditioning, we honestly don't really care about what else it has, if it has AC we WANT IT. 

Anyway, we're keeping that house in our prayers ;).

My companion's name is Elder Paz, and he's from Bolivia. Like my previous companion, he doesn't speak a lick of English, but the difference is that now I CAN SPEAK SPANISH! Obviously not perfectly, but he and I can talk to each other about just about anything, and it's way nice! Anyway, he taught me to make this thing called 'payuje' which is basically mashed plantains and sugar and cinnamon. I don't even know how to describe the taste, but it's AMAZING. We put it in a cup with milk and it kinda tastes like a smoothie... anyway we eat it day and night. It's pretty dang good! 

My comp and I are getting along great! We are working really hard and my legs hurt from walking so much... but today we are going to Isla Santay with the zone leaders, which is basically this really pretty island that we get to see on a bike, so I think my legs might hurt even more... oh well!

Being the 'old' elder in the zone, my companion doesn't know anyone. He's a little shy, which makes me basically the senior companion... I have to lead the discussions and talk to people a lot... it's definitely helping me improve my Spanish and teaching skills, but it's also wearing me out! 

This week I've really learned a lot about growth. I definitely did not feel ready to lead my sector, but I just had to do it! As I've jumped in head first, I've learned a lot, and fast. I can see the progress I've made in just about every aspect in only this short week, and I'm super grateful for the opportunity! I'm still utterly exhausted, but I feel a lot more prepared as a missionary now. I'm seeing this same pattern in just about everything, if you want to experience growth, you just have to dive in. If not, I would not feel this good with teaching, or speaking, or with anything at all! I guess that's life!!

I miss you all! Hope to hear from you soon!

Elder Jones

Sorry... only one picture (and I'm not even in it)