Hello. So thanks for the B-day wishes. We have dinner appointments lined up here trust me haha… 

             So we are 0-2 with our baptisms. Yesterday we had the BCR (baptismal confirmation record) all filled out and we had the interview set up with Jessica and the Zone leaders. Then, I get a text from Jessica’s grandma who usually brings her to church and she said something like “Jessica’s mom and I got in a fight this morning and she won't let Jessica go to church" and when the grandma got to church it was all her Apos (grandchildren) but no Jessica.... she just kept saying like “sorry so sorry her mother hates me” and stuff! So we were real bummed but we are still working on her so just hope things go well.

            In other news we have been finding less-actives a lot this week and we have found a lot (there are 600 members in our ward and about 100 active) This one in particular (her name is giena Nicdao), she was baptized in the 90's and is a 36 year old grandmother so.... she had kids in her teens. But, we taught her and said like ‘ya know we want you back at church’ and she's like “I know I want to go I just can't with work” cause she works everyday 5am-5pm so we said, “okay talk to your boss and have him switch” and what not, so we will see. Then I was like “Do you want your kids to get baptized?” And she's like, of course! (she has like 4 kids and a couple grandchildren) So we will try to re-activate her, in turn get her kids baptized. 

            The Philadelphia guy—Steve-- is having us over for dinner again for my B-Day. He's so funny and he keeps saying like "Oh I’m fed up with the Catholics, I want to be a Mormon" and stuff but he hasn't come to church. He’s way funny man.

             One of our Less-Actives, brother Elmer, has gone to church 3 times now and he is re-gaining his testimony because he is going through a rough time right now. The dude's like 60 and he just sits in his computer shop and plays like World of Warcraft or something. He’s awesome though. 

            So that's pretty much it. There are 6 elders in Bacnotan area and they are all from America or New Zealand and out of all 6 I’m the oldest mission wise! So I have to help them out with Tagalog because they are so young! But it's real fun here in Bacnotan. 

Love you, haven't gotten any packages/letters yet... 

-Elder Jones

(We asked Mac if he was still on-line) Still here, I bet it's (my package) is just in the mission office. It’s starting to get REALLY hot here...

Also, Russ asked him if he saw the Zone Leaders often, he responded, “yes, a few time a week. One of them is from Woods Cross, Elder Germaine.”

Hey.... So... I would like to start off with the funniest story in the history of mankind.

            So it's a Saturday and we go to Guinabang (a barangay way in the middle of no where) to teach Divina Flora, the one whose baptismal date is Jan 25. So… we get there and after teaching the lessons we are like “So you excited?” and stuff then we start setting up the interview with her and the Zone leaders. Then her grandma is there and is like "....... wait she's already been baptized!!" haha! So, the grandparents referred her to us, said she has never been baptized; I gave her an IBD… she said yes… then a week before they remember that she's already been baptized!! I was dying ... Wowzers....

            But on the flip side we went to Jessica’s house (our other IBD) at 6 this morning because that's the only time her mom is available, her dad is in LA and her mom is Catholic so we needed their approval. After me and the grandma (g ma is a member) were bartering with the mom forever, she finally said yes and signed the papers. So she should be baptized Feb. 1 or it could get pushed back. We will see. 

   That's about it..... Transfer day came…me and Alonzo stayed comps to finish up his training, I’m officially district leader again which is cool. And our area officially sucks haha.... But it's all right… for every like 50 times we get rejected there's like 1 sweet soul hah...

Anyways ya… that's that.

Love ya.

-Elder Jones

Yo... Whatsup.

            So this week was good... It was pretty crazy actually. First off, we got rejected soooo much this week it's not even funny... But ya all is good. The first half of the week was way crazy though because ya know how last week I talked about all of the stuff happening here in Bacnotan…well, 3 Elders have gone home already. And for some other missionaries Russell M Nelson (of the 12) had to get involved and it's been nuts. One of my best friends here in the mission decided to go home as well. I had the chance to meet with him right before he left and I tried to talk him out of it but he went home. He was involved in the whole thing-- so it's way crazy haha... 

            We worked with Elder Done and Elder Newman who are like 5 weeks in on the mission and don't know anything and I’m the District leader for them and both their comps went home so I was like I gotta help these guys out. So we worked with them and like the first guy we taught in there area was begging to be baptized... Not really but I gave him an IBD and he hopefully will be baptized. 

            Our investigator, Divina Flora, came to church for the 3rd time in a row and her baptismal date is January 25-- so hopefully that works out. None of our other investigators came to church though but it's alright. Our less active –Elmer-- came though in jeans and a Nike shirt. It was sick.

             I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on overcoming addiction in Tagalog and it was pretty rough... Oh another cool story, like this prehistoric member in our ward (he's literally 100) told us why he can't speak or understand Tagalog (he only speaks Ilocano so our bishop translated haha) and he said in like 2nd grade the Japanese attacked and in the middle of school killed his teacher so that's why he only knows Ilocano, because he never had schooling after 2nd grade... Crazy stuff. 

            That's about it though... This week is transfer week so it will be a crazy one.

-Elder Jones 

Hello fam, sounds like all is good. Mom sorry you're sick, that's no good. But here's my week. BEAR WITH ME it’s a wild one... Not really.... kinda.... anyways…

            Ya so I’ll start with New Year. It was good ya know.... had some lunch and dinner appointments so New Years was fun... We couldn't sleep-- it was too loud with all the fireworks haha.. Funny thing about the fireworks here is like they are just dynamite. They aren't even fireworks-- they just explode and like thousands of people die each year but no one cares here. They just get hammered drunk and do stupid stuff on holidays haha... 

             New years day we met these guys one in particular was named Max, he's from Canada and he and his like hood boys (he's black) are making a resort here so we met them on the Jeepeny and he's just talking to us and he's way hilarious but you could tell he was trying to argue with us. So he'd be like "What are you guys doing here?" and we said like the typical "Oh spreading the good word" LOR something stupid like that then he's like "No, I know you. I was you. You guys were drop outs and did drugs and stuff and tried to change your life around" and we are like “uhhhh nope.” So he was way wrong but anyways we were just talking and he's trying to like argue a little but in a funny way, than he ended up saying like alright, here's my number, call me and we will set up an appointment... So ya we are going to hopefully start teaching him, he's like Muslim or something..

             Ya.. then we met this girl named Divina and she's like 14 she lives with her grandparents who are members so we taught her and gave her an IBD and she came to church so HOPEFULLY we can close the deal but I am very bad at closing the deal on baptisms haha... 

            Than I went to like this leadership thing with all like the "leaders: or potential prospects for leadership on the mission” and it was like a training for us and I just slept the whole time. We just got chastised for how low our stats are.. But it was alright. The new assistant to the president is Elder Tanner!!! My zone leader back in Baguio! I’m so stoked haha.. 

            Then the next day we were just out walking to an appointment and I get a call from the other AP, Elder Sison, and he's like, “we have a special assignment for you” and I was like... "heh" then he's like, “you are taking Elder (confidential) spot as a district leader and I thought he was talking about next transfer which is in like a week and a half so I said when? Then he's like "as of yesterday" so ya, I figured out what happened… so Bacnotan A and B  did fireworks and other stuff that's forbidden (like... bad stuff) as well as a lot of other Elders in our zone, (remember how I was talking about how I couldn't stand the other Bacnotan Elders?) ya so they got really really in trouble, and so one of them was a DL, so he got dropped and now I’m the DL of that district even though I was never even in that district.. But ya that's that. It was a crazy week.

             Than sister Belle, long story short, she wouldn't answer our calls and she wasn't at work (the palengke was were she worked and we would visit her sometimes, she's an investigator) so we went to her house last night and she was there with her fam... It was kinda awkwaard cause she didn't answer our calls but I got over it. Then we taught the restoration and turns out she got fired and stuff, so we just tried to make her feel better and now all is good…

Ya so that's that... okay bye.

-Elder Jones