Hello Hello,

So coming at you from the Philippines.

This past week was transfer week so it was exciting as usual. So the beginning part of the week I was with our Zone Leader Elder Tanner. That was way fun. I just did Zone Leader stuff, which was way busy and hectic-- holy moly. But than transfer day was Friday and everyone was all excited, I got transferred to Kias, which is on the outskirts of Baguio. So I went from University which was a waaaay small area and it had 25,000 people in it so it was like the heart of Baguio. To Kias, which is an open area. So it's pretty difficult but it is huuuge. It's like what you picture the Philippines at first thought kinda place. There's a main Barangy (neighborhood) called Kias which has like the Philippine military academy and what not than after that our area is like the whole bottom half of the mountain. It's insane! The Zone leaders said we don't really have a boundary on our area it's so big haha. It’s all forestry and what not and like the most humble people who pretty much have never seen a white person,  so it's fun. We just tract and explore. 

I got a new companion his name is Elder Dela Cruz. He's way nice and quiet. It's his last transfer but so far he works hard. He's just so quiet, but so kind. He's from Quezon city and said he knows Tyler Haws which was pretty cool (who doesn't know t-haws). (In) my new apartment we have 2 other Elders, Elder Hernandez and Christianson, Christianson is from Bountiful and we always talk about Bountiful stuff-- like the Bubble and stuff. He went to Mueller Park Junior High also.  Then Elder Hernandez from Quezon province-- me and him are way tight.

So I'm not training clearly which is a relief, but I am District Leader now and opening an area, so my works cut out for me. District leader life is already way busy, and I'm still just way to confused at what’s going on. My district has 8 missionaries and they are all way cool-- 4 Sisters and 4 Elders-- so it will be way fun.

My new area is nuts! We see crazy Filipinos left and right. Probably the craziest thing happened to me last Saturday: me and Elder Dela Cruz taught this random lady who let us in and was waaaaaaay nice, but we were lucky to get two words in, so I kid you not when I say we were at her house for 4 hours trying to leave/ get a quick lesson in haha. So we were actually kind of golden and once we interrupted her and got like a 2 second lesson in she was like, “oh I love you guys come back any time. The book is true. I just have to read it, I will go tell all my friends and preach it like you two!” 

So ya she was crazy, but she loooved us and loved how hard we were working and the fact that we were teaching about Christ and what not. So I said the closing prayer and as I was saying it she was like "Amen" "OPO (yes)" over and over in the middle of my prayer haha so I was straight up laughing in my prayer. So we finally left, then as we were leaving she's like “I'll walk with you,” so we were like, “okay crazy lady” so she walked with us a ways than she stopped at her mom’s house (keep in mind she is like 60 so her mom is like a dinosaur) and she invited us to teach her mom. So we are like why not.  We go in and start breaking the ice with her mom, and then they're like, “oh come downstairs and teach the rest of my family about Jesus!” So we go down and there is this HUGE Baptist Catholic party going down and as we walked down everyone just stopped what they were doing and stared at us... The most awkward thing that's ever happened, then the lady is like "THEY'RE HEAR TO TEACH US ABOUT JESUS!!!!!" so we were stunned and awkward and what not haha so this huge like Baptist party thing is going down and now they are feeding us and getting ready for us to teach them, but missionaries aren't supposed to teach lessons to huge congregations or else I would have been down.  So, me and my companion are like "Soooooooo Meron curfew na Kami...... siguro babalik kami mamia" which is just like we have a curfew we will come back some other time. But they insisted so we just bounced as fast as we could haha....

Yup one of the weirder things that's happened to me... words can't describe the weirdness...

Anyways all is good. Hope all is well with you.  Thanks for all the letters and packages. I can feel my Faith growing each day as we teach others it's amazing. 

Love

-Elder Jones