Hi Family,

Soooooooooooo ya What's happening?

             I'll start off by saying that the whole country of the Philippines (or just my area) was shut down yesterday because Manny Pacquio was boxing..... Ya know in like Brazil and stuff when everyone watches the world cup or whatever? Ya when Manny Pacqiuo boxes everyone just huddles around little TV’s and goes nuts. (PS Manny is Filipino) But ya, I'm sure he won because when he loses everyone here looks like they want to kill me haha.. 

             So besides that all is good... It kind of sucks because we have two areas since we are with Elder Christiansen, but whatever, I’ll get over it. A pretty crazy thing happened, we were teaching a less active named Auring then we get a text from some random lady and she's like "Elders I NEED help, something tragic is happening" or something like that. But we didn't know who she was. We told her where we were and like 10 minutes later she showed up bawling and just sat down. Turns out we like PBTW to her or something (preach by the way, where you give someone random on the street a pamphlet and get their info) so she had our number from the pamphlet.  Anyways her problem- if I understood it correctly-- is they have been living in this apartment for like 20 years, then 2 years ago her husband died which forced her to get a job to raise her kids and what not… then she couldn't make a few payments so they kicked her out and her kids of the apartment.... So she was going crazy, like way tragic for her of course, and she just kept saying, “I need your help I need your help”... So we taught her and we were like, “Sister, we are rich, but not in Pera (money). We are rich in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Something cheezy like that) But we taught her and she ended up feeling a lot better. So the next day same thing…she's freaking out and texts us so we taught her again about families and it seemed to help... But ya that's that. We will see what happens. 

   I saw my companion Elder Dela Cruz get mad for the first time ever the other day (my companion is way to0 nice) at my old trainer Elder Tabucol. That was a funny scene of events.... But all is good now. 

   We taught a new investigator named Girlie and she was trying to bible bash with us hard core... I answered one of her questions wrong-- it was like "So in your church does god give us problems?" And I was like, “ No, he doesn't give us problems, He gives is trials” which I kind of shouldn't have said. I should have said he gives us agency… but anyways… she went way crazy and she's like "you're wrong, Satan gives us problems" than she just pounded us with questions! After we answered the best we could I was like "It says in Ephesians (I use this all the time) one Lord, one faith, one baptism.... you should know that. There's one true church girlie, and I know that's The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints....."  and I went on. It was funny…

   Other than that, nothings really been going down.... I'm literally wolverine and shave every second!! I’m not kidding..... But ya love you. I got the packages but haven't opened the presents yet... loves

-Elder Jones

Heeeello. So where to begin....

To start: President Balledos loves to mess with me…So just as things were going good we got a call last Wednesday that said Elder Sison (our Zone leader) is going to work with the AP's this transfer, so Elder Hernandez will fill in for him as a zone leader for the rest of the transfer. Then, since Elder Christiansen was left without a companion because his comp was E Hernandez, we are now in another threesome (which I really hate).... threesomes are awful!  My job is to train E Christiansen to become a District Leader. But, I am not fond of him. Which creates many problems. He's very very.... cocky-- I mean confident. But, we'll see how it goes... So for now I'm in a threesome again!

We have two areas also which sucks... But besides that some cool stuff has happened this week. First off, last Monday night me and Dela Cruz started walking home at about 8:20 then we said, “Magandang Gabi” (beautiful evening) to these lady’s and just kept walking. Then one of the most amazing experiences on my mission (yet) happened. I stopped and just sat there really debating on why I stopped. Elder Dela Cruz kept walking and I said, "hey... lets go back." I obviously didn't know why but the spirit hit me way strong. Then we went back to the ladies and introduced ourselves ya know... Then after a while of just talking we asked if we could share, and the main girl (Jailley, 19 yrs old) said yes, of course. She always sees us walk by and wants to come to our church... So we were like oh... Cool... So we shared an awesome message and stuff and left... so that's that story, It was a kind of a you had to be there type deal haha..

Then we taught this lady with huge potential named Christine. (It was her) second lesson. We are like, “so ya know.... Did you read the BOM?” and she's all “ya.... I know it's true!” So that was awesome. The biggest problem again is just somehow getting our peeps to church. And we have two areas, which cut our work in half. But, whatever. That's about all that's gone down.

 I hate threesomes. Everything was going smooth now there's a little obstacle... But all will be okay.

Me and my Tatay (father aka trainer aka elder Tabucol) are still best of friends. We are both in the same ward (10 missionaries in our ward-- it's nutso) and he's training again an Elder from Saudi Arabia. He says he misses me as his Anak (kid). Touching really, I know. 

But..... ya how's all with the fam??

(Mac and Russ emailed back and forth…this is some more funny stuff from him…)

Ya all is good... Gee willikerzz crazy week for you haha... and who was the kid at Betos??

Zone studies every Monday with our whole zone and the zone leaders give a workshop... Normal is every other day

(Russ asked, “What are you doing the rest of the day?” Mac replied, “shop…clean…eat…”

Russ asked him if he was doing good on gospel study. His reply:

“too be honest pops… I usually sleep accidentally during personal study haha... But I got this deep BOM study guide online and it's awesome... it takes the BOM way into detail and it's so super deep.... but ya... lesson wise I know all the lessons pretty well now... Better in Tagalog actually than in English haha... I probably couldn't teach in English haha”

Hello,

Well I’m sure everyone is hootin and haollerin after Bryce's wedding. That's awesome. I'm bummed I missed it... But it's all-good. How was Seattle and what not?? Oh and speaking of BYU basketball, my trainer’s (Elder Tabucol) his new companion knows Ty Haws, and my current companion knew him as well, which is coolso beanso. (Elder Lamoglia and Elder Dela Cruz.)

   My area is good.. .We are just exploring a different part of it each day. It's so big haha... Friday we went to a part in our area called Phillex Mines that was an hour Jeepney ride away. So we spent 50 pesos each getting there (50 pesos is the equivalent to like a dollar and 5 cents.... but here it's a fortune) and we got there and there was no people.... at all... everyone told us it would be a good place to go and ya...... 0 people haha... So we started walking back cause it was getting kind of late.... so we are walking and we see heavy rain in the distance and of course we are like "Oh that won't get to us. We're good." But after about an hour and a half of walking and waiting for a Jeepney the rain was dominating us. No houses in site-- just me, my companion and the open road... and finally after what seemed like forever sprinting in the rain looking for shelter a taxi drove by filled with like 5243807976 people. So we crammed in that. The taxi driver was our savior.

   We have so many potential investigators and about 4 progressing... the only problemo is the church is in Baguio plaza which is was far away so the struggle is getting them to church. But we are working on some less actives to return. There's this one investigator named Shaira who is very awesome and stuff, she's 17 (ya for some reason all of our investigators are like 17-22 yr old women) and she is so ready to be baptized, but she has a different religion and her parents hate us. They despise us and always turn us away because they are devoted to some no name catholic church. But she always comes out and we teach her in her store so her parents don't kill us haha... Than another potential is Sister Caroline Nester. She is awesome and has two kids but she lives in the bukids like waaaay the crud away from anything. But she is awesome and always asks questions and stuff, but her problem is no money at all.... Like they hunt for their food and just live off surroundings type of dealio. The people in the middle of no-where are my favorite though... so humble and what not. 

   Another problem is some of our investigators only speak Illocano... neither me or my companion speak it-- so it's a struggle every time we teach. But it's just like when I didn't know Tagalog. Same concept... lots of awkward hand gestures.. 

   But ya my area is great, my companion is great. I'm loving district leader-- it's awesome! I went on exchanges and gave an apartment check and stuff --haha it's the life! 

   Earlier today the DL's (me Elder Hernandez and Elder Lagasca) the sister training leaders (Sister Perena and Pemesa) and the zone leaders (Elders Tanner and Sison) all had a meeting.  The meeting was about what the ZL’s had talked to president Balledos about and was way awesome stuff. It was kind of a new look on our mission and a strategy because there are so many missionaries coming in the next few months. So it's like the district leaders will choose someone in their district who has the most potential to be a future district leader and start in a way training them like going on splits and making them do little workshops and what not. And the Zone leaders will do the same thing with all the district leaders. This way President can start seeing his leadership and our mission can start having awesome leadership because we will sort of be pre trained... It's a cool idea and I hope it works in the future!

   On an ending note, this investigator told us last week the Born Again missionaries in our area just preach against us... they don't even preach their religion.  They just tell people we are of the devil; a cult, and we believe this and that. And that ticked the crap out of me to be honest.... But our investigator was like, "Ya but everyone loves the Mormons! Two handsome teenage kids preaching what they know to be true for two years!" And she just talked about how the Born Again missionaries were like old guys just trashing us and stuff so ya.... there's that..

   Anyway… hope all is well. Congrats Bryce and NIkki! Don’t have baby’s too fast! Love you all. The church is true! I’m changing more every day. Obedience leads to charity which is the start of Faith and hope,(I just made that up..... mom make a quilt out that quote or something)... Love you

-Elder Jones

PS Whats up with the US? Everyone’s telling me it's in shambles???

Hi Family, this is Elder Jones.

So not much happened this week. It flew by because we taught so many lessons. It's awesome. 

So I've seen 3 different women’s Boobies from when they in mid lesson nurse their babies....... I kid you not it's a daily routine and I'm scarred for it..... 3 times..... wowzers... So ya Philippenos don't really care about much  so there's that.

Our new area is interesting because it's way big. It goes from a college town where we have like 5- 19 ish year old girls we are teaching to the boonies where we are using machetes to get to town. It has so much potential though. We are teaching this 18 year old girl named Shaira and her parents hate us because they are Iglecia (church), but every time we teach her I don't think her parents know, but she is so awesome and has so much potential! We are still teaching a good amount of Less Actives which is good. They are all awesome no joke. 

Last Thursday there was a Baguio mission reunion and all the missionaries (like old people) who served in Baguio forever ago came back and we met them and worked with them. It was awesome working with RM's-- but funny thing is they were almost all less active! So they pretty much told us after the mission you go less active, which was a horrible thing to say but it was way funny... Don't worry though..... I won't go less active. 

We had our first District meeting which was way fun, I gave a workshop on following up and it went well, except I'm the youngest person-- mission and age wise-- in my district, so everyone else knows like why more than me, but I try to make things interesting as district leader. My districts great though. I love it.

Anyways hope all is good, hope the wedding is good. Love you guys

Elder Jones