June 2, 2014
Well things are going pretty good for me. We should find out about the transfers tonight... ahhh!
Monday: My companion left for Lima to get her visa stuff figured out. I went and stayed with the other Hermanas in my zone. (Hermana Brock and Hermana Durfee) It was really fun. We made completos (the big sandwiches) and watched frozen. I love that movie. The songs are pretty cool in Spanish too. We have been singing the songs every day.
Tuesday: We woke up at 4:30 and left Huanuco at 5. All of the zone leaders and sister leaders go every month to Huancayo for training. It is about an 8 hour drive. The roads are pretty curvy and the drivers are crazy. It isn’t really a fun drive. But I had lots of fun talking with the zone leaders and Hermana Brock. They are awesome. I have made so many good friends in the mission!!
When we got to Huancayo I saw Hermana Goodfellow and Hermana Keyes(they are from my group in the CCM) I was sooooo excited to see them. The meeting went really well. We talked about issues of the mission and the things we can do to help. Hermana Henderson made brownies. I LOVED it. Later we went to the mission President’s house (which is so modern and beautiful). All of the sister leaders (there are 8) watched Enchanted with President and Sister Henderson. It was awesome. We ate salad (normally we cannot have lettuce) it was really fun. I loved seeing Hermana Vergaray. She was teaching us how to dance like a latina and we taught her how to swing dance. It was a fun little dance party. We laughed a lot. She will finish her mission this next transfer =(
Wednesday: we came back to Huanuco. I got to talk with Hermana Paisley and other missionaries. I just love her. Then my companion got back from Lima.
The other days of the week we were working like crazy because we lost 3 days during the week. I am trying to get everything in order before I leave the area so that she won’t be stressed. AHH crazy.
So yeah we are nervous about the transfers but I know that it will be a good change. The hardest part is saying goodbye to the ward members and recent converts. It is crazy. But it is okay. Everything will be okay =) haha
Anyway I will let you know all about the changes the next week! I love you all sooo much!!!
te quiero mucho!
Hermana Jones
June 9, 2014
Well this has been a crazy week! Monday night my companion got a call and she is going to be TRAINING!! ahh I am going to be a grandma in the mission! haha Luckily I did not get a call that I would be training ( I was really happy about it, because being an Hermana Leader and training would just be crazy) She left the next day for Huancayo to pick up her new companion. Hermana Sidan was so nervous. But I know she will do great. I had all day Tuesday to visit the people of the ward and my investigators. It was probably one of the saddest days ever. After being there for 6 months I really got to know a lot of people, it was hard to leave them. Especially my converts. But I had an amazing lesson with Claudia, Juan, and Gianmarco. Gianmarco still hasn’t got baptized and I was even surprised that he stayed for the lesson because he normally tries to escape. But I shared a scripture about how we should have hope and faith for the future and everything will work out. Then I told Gianmarco that the lord loves him and he is waiting with his open arms for him to accept the gospel. Of course we were all crying. The spirit was so strong. I know that one day he will be baptized. I cannot wait to hear about that day.
Gladis and her 2 families were really sad that I was leaving. I was too. I really wanted to be there for their wedding and baptism. They are still waiting to get their papers so that they can get married. Kevin and Victor were actually really good about the change. I made them pinkey promise that they will be friends with the new sister missionary that comes in. Leo was just running around like crazy and had no idea what was going on. Joselyn told me that she wasn’t going to cry. She gave me the biggest hug and then ran into the other room and cried. It was so hard to leave them! Here are pictures with Sarela making chicken feet and Melita washing clothes. Oh I just love them
Hermana Doris was my companion the whole day. We cried lots. haha She helped me pack all of my stuff and take me to the place to go to my area. She accidently left my really nice pillow and jacket in the little moto car... I don’t think I will ever see it again. She felt soo bad. I was really calm about it and told her they were just things and they didn’t matter. I smiled at her and gave her a huge hug. She is precious.
Anyway.. I made my way to my new area!!!! I am now in Huancayo!!! I am so close to the mission office and mission home. I see the president and his wife about every week. I am in the sister house so there are 4 sisters here including me. My new companion is Hermana Moss. She is from Washington State and is such a fun girl. She has been out on the mission for about 8 months so she knows Spanish! It is sooooooo much fun having a gringa companion! We have lots of work to do here in our area. I have just about organized the whole house.... I am a perfectionist sometimes. We don’t have lots of investigators but we are slowly meeting new ones and getting to know the members. It will be fun! It is so cold here in Huancayo... but luckily I brought clothes for the cold!
I have actually been thinking a lot about grandma lately. The other day my pensionista was watching the Mormon message that has the old couple... I bawled like a baby. Grandpa is such a great example of devotion and love. Keep me updated on everything. I wish I could be there too.
I love my mission here in Peru. I cannot imagine my life without it! I feel so blessed to be able to share the gospel every day!
Thank you for all of your love and support! I love you all soooo much!!!
te quiero mucho!!
Hermana Jones
June 16, 2014
Hey Mommy! Things are going pretty good here in Huancayo. There was lots of ups and downs, but I am doing good =)
I feel like I am kind of opening an area here. It has been opened for a while we just don’t have hardly anything going on here. We had one investigator that was going to be baptized this week. He all of the sudden disappeared the day of his interview (Thursday) and we didn’t get ahold of him until today. That was a little stressful. But I think everything will be okay with him. We found a new investigator that is excited about getting baptized. Her husband is a less active member. We hope to be able to get him reactivated too.
We have been walking lots and going through lists of names and knocking on doors. We have encountered lots of crazy dogs. I hate dogs haha. My companion and I talk a lot in English, we are always laughing I love it. She loves to crochet, so sometimes at night we both are just chilling and crocheting stuff. We are like two old ladies haha.
We have had some pretty awkward experiences this week as well. We were at the very end of our area visiting a less active member. They gave us about 4 or 5 cups of soda to drink... and when people give you something to eat or drink here you have to eat it or it is really offensive to them. I had to go to the bathroom sooooooooo bad. We were about 10 minutes away from our apartment and there was a bunch of construction on the road. We were walking around pot holes and big hills of dirt. And we were both laughing really hard. I bet it was funny for the people there to see two gringas laughing walking in our skirts across big piles of dirt and walking as fast as we could. It was hilarious.
Anyway, it has been quite a week. I am doing pretty well with the news about Grandma. I had my moments but I am fine and at peace. I had a really cool and special experience this week. You know how I always said I was going to play my cello at her funeral? Well this week we were at a members house and I told them that I play the cello. It just so happened that he did too. He let me play his cello and my companion got to play the violin. We played O mi padre (Oh my father). It was a really cool experience for me. I know that it was the Lords way of showing me that he loves me. I mean what a miracle to find a cello in Peru.. Especially this week!
I know that the plan of salvation is real. We are so blessed to know it! I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have every day to share the hope of the gospel that I have. The Lord answers our prayers and is always willing to help us if we do his will. I am so grateful for the awesome examples in my life. Especially my grandmas and grandpas and their faithfulness. I read the last chapter in Proverbs this week. It totally explains grandma and grandpa. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives!
My companion is from Arlington Washington. I do like Huancayo. It is really cold all the time. But it is pretty here.
The two other missionaries are from Mexico and Chile. They are both really nice girls. I like them. Being a sister leader is going good. I just call the sisters every week and see how they are doing. I went on divisions this week. I just help missionaries set goals to become better =)
Tell everyone I said hi and that I love them! Thanks mom for everything. You are the best!
Te quiero!
Hermana Jones
June 23, 2014
It makes me happy to hear about the family and how everything went. The Gospel is such a huge blessing in our life!
Things this week have been going pretty good. We worked really hard the first few days to get lessons and references. Then my companion got sick... she had a fever and slept for like 2 days. So I cleaned a lot and wrote all my converts in Spanish.. It takes me so long to write letters in Spanish, but I am getting better! So we haven’t had a whole lot going on this week. We live with two other sisters in the sister house here in Huancayo. The other two sisters were also sick. So I was the only one that was not sick :)
We have a lot of investigators that have been investigating for a while. Their problem is that they have felt really pressured about getting baptized. So we have been trying to focus a lot on the Book of Mormon so that they can get their own answer. Slowly but surely they will get there :)
We had a stake conference this week. Elder Godoy from the seventy came, along with the mission president. It was about the same as the one in Huanuco. They trained the leaders how to have ward council and all that fun stuff. I of course loved it. I love getting everything organized.
I felt special because Elder Godoy recognized me from the last conference. I felt like he was directing a lot of things towards me. It was awesome.
On Sunday we brought an investigator named Rocio. She has a 5 year old son that acts like he is 8. He is so smart. I brought coloring pages and markers for him to play with. He is super cute.
We will probably be playing a musical number one week in the ward. I am so excited about playing the cello. I need to practice haha.
Any way things are going good. I am just trying to study hard and be a good missionary. :) I will be going on divisions every week until the end of the transfer. I feel like time is just going to pass soooo much faster now that I am a sister leader. AH! My companion and I are doing great. She is so funny.
I love you all and miss you lots!
Hermana Jones
June 30, 2014
Things here are going good. I am going on divisions just about every week. I feel like this transfer is FLYING by. My companion and I are going pretty good. We are just still getting our work level up a little bit. It is hard when I have to leave during the week.
I found out that Sarela & Raul, and Melita &Lister finally got married and baptized!!!! I was soo so happy for them. I was a little bummed that I wasn’t able to go to the wedding and their baptism.. But I am still counting them as my converts. That made it a little hard to get use to my area here. I just need to keep looking for the reason that I was called here. I need to keep loving the people.
We have a really awesome investigator named Rocio. She wants to get baptized so bad... but she also needs to get married.. Fun right? haha She has a 5 year old son that acts like he is 8. He is so smart. Andres (the little kid) loves to read the scriptures even though he doesn’t understand everything. The other night he called us to tell us he was reading. He is precious. We are working hard to help them get baptized.
We have been having a problem lately where EVERYONE wants to give us food. Which giving us food is fine... just not every family that we visit. haha So Sunday we eat with the members for lunch. We ate a pretty big lunch and it was really good. Then we went to our investigators house and they decided to give us lunch... and here you can’t really turn down food or they will get a little upset.. so we ate lunch again. Then we went to another family’s house and they gave us food. I felt like a balloon. We ended up having to go to the room and sit down for a bit because we were so stuffed with food.
Huancayo is a bigger city. It has a lot more stores that are kind of like Walmart. They still have a huge market place too. There are a lot of people who own cars here.. That is almost unheard of in Huánuco. My pensionista is Hermana Marecela. She has been a pensionista for a long time. She is nice, I like her. But she is not the same as my Mamita Doris. I miss her a lot. It is basically the same food that we had in Huanuco.
We are planning a musical number for this Sunday. We will probably play Nearer my God to thee and Oh my father. I am excited. They are really excited too. It was really fun to play again. I feel like I can hardly play though... I need practice haha
Oh that is a hard question... The hardest thing in the mission... Really it depends on the time in the mission.. My first few transfers it was the language. But I think now it is saying goodbye to people here in the mission because most of them I will probably not be able to see again. Hermana Vergaray is going to finish her mission in a few weeks. I am sad to see her go. Other hard things are just forgetting about yourself and being selfless. Really nothing can happen in missionary work until we forget about our personal problems, wants, and desires and then try to line it up to the wants and desires of the Lord. It is hard. But it is possible too =)
Peruvian Culture is fun. I love how loving the people are here. Most of them are really open and humble. They are very family oriented. They might not have the best family structure but they do love their family.
Love, Hermana Jones