Mac wrote this to me (Jolene) It's Tagolag...not sure what it means but...

Salamat pa nay the best ka, ayos naman po ang linggo namin, walanamang problema. Mejo tahimik ba sa bahay? Lakasan mo and Radyo!!! Salamat mahal ko kayo. Oh and miliit lang ba si Rowen? hmmmm, uminom ba sya ng gataas??? 

Yo, just a normal week not too much but here's the hip hap.

Monday- We did P-Day stuff I played basketball forever with some of the members it was fun, it's been a while because of my toe but now it's all good. We had an FHE to a family (Ildifonso family) that is moving to Cavite, They are awesome all was good they are less-active's and hate the ward but they came to church the last Sunday they were here. The dad pulled me and Elder Batal over and asked us if he could tell the bishop what he really thought of him (it wasn't good things) and we said naaaaa just say nice things haha so anyways they were all crying and stuff it was good.

   I'm a little frustrated with the ward here, the leadership is..... let's just say a pack of wild dogs could run the ward better.. there's some very good members though and overall it's good. Just the leadership.

Tue- Had district meeting, and just worked, we taught this cute/crazy old lady named Sosima Valdez. She's a long time investigator haha but she reads the BOM and stuff and has come to church but her neighbor kinda told her false crap about our church so she stopped coming to church because they were kinda judgmental but it's all good she's great. 

Wed- WEEEEE GOOOOT BIKES!!!!! Ya so we've had bikes and it has made things 900 times easier cause our area is huuuuuge, the AP's finally brought them after like a year of me requesting (sorry I exaggerate a lot)

   We went back to the Monces family and Brother was there (the famiLy that was way crazy because the dad was caught with some harlot) but they were back to normal like nothing had happened and we were like uhhhhhhhh like a week ago you were bawling telling us you were going to kill your husband and his mistress but okay? Forgiveness is great? But ya than there daughter Chrysiline is our main focus, she has a husband and a kid but she said she got dressed and ready to go to church than the mom was like "no don't go, you won't know anyone and you will have no friends there" so she didn't go. So ya we chewed out the mom after that haha but she's an emotional wreck so you never know.

Thursday- Uhhhhh nothing happened, taught some old people

Friday- Rode our bikes((:: but ya we got rejected like crazy this day

Sat- We went to this old member in the morning, who lives forever away but it was our only available time, his name is Tatay Fred or brother Fred and he has a grandson that comes to church every Sunday but hasn't been baptized so we went and told him he needs get baptized but Tatay kept saying naa he can't read and write and stuff (the kids a slow learner.... real slow) but we are like it doesn't matter he's still a son of god blah blah, but ya so he has a baptismal date now for like July somm. We convinced Tatay to let us baptize him so yay. 

   Later this day we went to a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar out barangay now that we have bikes((:: and it was soo far haha we did some finding and there's surprisingly a lot of people there (there is way too many people in this country) but to make a long story short we got caught in rain storm and I not my companion but just me got chased by dogs on my bike, they were nipping at my legs and stuff for like 200 yards. like a whole herd haha if anyone’s ever heard me scream at the top of my lungs ya i did that for like 5 minutes it was great.... (I also pee'd my pants)... na but it was scary.

Sunday- Wow what a day, church, we had like 15 or so less-actives that haven’t come to church in a while come, it was great, we were stoked because now with bikes we visit them more regularly. We god demolished by rain on our bikes and got super muddy because we were on these back roads.

Ya all was good. Transfer day this Friday we will see what happens

loves -Elder Jones

Hey Elder Jones commin at ya from a sweaty hot computer shop.

Ya this week was great.... Literally feels like yesterday I was emailing you but I guess I week went by? I'm confused but it's all-good here's my weekly recap:

Monday- Went to Narvacan in the morning and we worked with a member from Narvacan who showed us some apartments and after a while we finally found one (it was p-day as well so we were like yaaaa let's get this over with.) Then we went to the closest city, Candon, and withdrew money (ya weee rich naaaa), then just came back and worked. But it started raining like crazy and this little kind-of col-de-sac full of LA's we got stuck in (I say col-de-sac but it's like hut's of the side of a dirt road), ya, so we didn't want to get soaking so we hopped around each house and taught all the LA's haha.

Tuesday- This day was cool beans: we had exchanges and I worked with elder Rifareal in Burgos area. It was all good, they just baptized a family and their area is progressing really well. But ya we got to ride bikes (2nd time on my mish!) And we taught a paralyzed guy who was funny, but we had a good experience where we went to this lady's house and I recognized her because I saw her at church and in gospel principles class. She was the one like asking all the hard questions and the lesson was the plan of salvation. AAAANYWAYS we followed up and were like ,”have you read the introduction?” and she's like "ya.. I want to join your church. I know this book is true blah blah blah,” but she ended up saying the thing that really got her was mine and Elder Batals lesson in gospel principles. She liked our teaching and really felt the spirit there and after that it was no problem. But she says she can't get baptized because her husband is like “nooo Catholic for life! Booooo Mormons” and stuff… but she wants to get baptized so we'll see.

Wed- Went to Monces family (the golden one) and showed them the restoration video of the church (they had a dvd player!!!!) and they're like crying and stuff. Ya they will get baptized if they just come to church, they just live far and have 0 money. I will tell you why they don't have money on the Friday day. It’s a good story. Then we taught the Dato family (who's LA but way nice), the daughter is active and is preparing for a mission, but the dad is Catholic. We were talking to them and the dad walks in, see's us and just books it away and we were like “Heeey brother join us” and stuff. Then he finally came and joined us. He's not a member and he has only listened to the missionaries once in his life until this time, it was his second time. We taught the family and it was good. After the lesson the mom was like "How did you do that, he's never listened to anyone" and stuff so it was cool.

Thur- YEAR MARK EVERYONE!!!! WOOOOOOHHH ya to make a long story short we found a family, Salisar family, taught them, their kids worship us like dead serious but they are like "when are you coming back, can we come to your church?" So they're good! But we get back to the apartment and it's my year mark and my comps 11 month and members surprised us with food so we showed. It was sick. 

Fri- Went back to Monces (see Wednesday) and everyone was crying, the daughter actually called us and told us to come. Long story short the husband was caught with a "mistress" and the wife was gonna literally kill him because it's the second time it's happened to her, so they were all bawling, we don't know where the husband is and me and my comp are just like uhhhhhhhhh ya! gospel woo! But we actually kinda ripped into them and said pull it together but it was crazy haha. 

Sat- We were invited by Santiago elders (elder Fulivai and crew) as well as president to give a workshop to there ward on how to home teach haha but President gave a MEAN workshop and than me and Elder Batal gave one, it was all good. Then we taught Galves family, the one's from Leyte that came here because of the typhoon. We finally taught their whole family, they are way receptive.

Sun- Went to Narvacan again with President Balledos this time, he approved an apartment their then told us to find one in Santiago because the one we found their sucks haha. Then we taught LA's. 

That's my week... pretty good. Love you bye

-Elder Jones 

Jones fam and Friendzz 

Hey so this is the hip hap this week.

Monday- We had our zone activity in Santiago and what we did was bought a whole pig and played volleyball it was way coolso everyone brought there own rice then we just chowed after we were done playing sports. The Pig was pretty big, way good and they guy cut it up for us and we just layed it on banana leaves and chowed. Than we taught our recent converts and that's it for monday.

Tuesday- We had exchanges i stayed in our area with elder Nuielua from New Zealand and it was all good we taught a bunch of less active old ladies, it was less active old lady day haha na but ya.

Wed (still don't know how to spell it)- We had a tri-zone conference with Candon zone Bangued zone and us Narvacan zone, president and the assistants came, no special guests): hah but it was good we did some activities ate some food but the theme of the conference was pretty much stop complaining because presidents been getting a lot of complaints from the missionaries about it being a "stat" oriented mission and even me and my comp the missionaries in our zone always complain to us that all we and president wants is stats which president is focusing on hi stats a lot lately but it's working because our missions performing the best it's ever been lately. So president told everyone pretty much to just stop complaining haha it was awesome.

Thur- Dad i'm following in your footsteps because we looked for an appartment forever this day and had to figure out contracts and bills and stuff so in a way i feel like a real estate agent?? haha but ya we have to find three new appartments because there are so many missionaries coming in 1 in Santiago, 1 in Santa, and 1 in Narvacan by next transfer, so far Santiago is good, and santa we just have to find for narvacan. 

We taught sister Forranda the lady we found selling egg plant lesson 2 and like half way through the lesson we are like too bad we didn't see you at church last week blah blah than she's like Elders i'm soo sorry i should up at 9:30 a little late and was too scared to go in!

So ya she came to church but was too scared to actually go inside beacause she was late haha.. Dang

Friday- We taught Monces family the family who used to have an IBD and we taught the BOM and they were like ya your church is true we know the bom is true and we were like uhhhhhh sweet they just need to come to church. They like wait for us though and if we don't go every friday and wedsnday they like have a cow haha. Than we taught anopther less active old lady named nanay amorine, she's hilarious and doesn't give a dang about anything haha but she showed us her wine collection and told us how much she loves wine and we were like uhhhhhhhhh nice.

Saturday- We had Stake conference today. Man this stake is a little too relaxed (candon stake) it starts at 9 the preisthood session and by 9;30 the only people there are missionaries and the stake president so he kept making the "ahh didn't know it was zone conference" joke than around ten his councilors and some others showed up. Neck ties are rarely used as well haha. If you have Garments, can get to church regularly and are active you have a good chance at becoming a bishop or stake president here.

Sunday- Went to sunday session of conference than visited an old lady in the hospital and webnt to less actives.

That's pretty much it. love you all

-Elder Jones

Dear Family

   The week of Elder Jones in a recap. (I'm trying to make my emails to you longer so I’ll go day by day haha) 

Monday- Ya so last Monday I had my operation you all know about it …blah blah… it's all good. I still workout and play b-ball and it's healing and stuff. Yay! We taught this Less Active family, the Eldefonso family, and their dad has like... Epilepsy or something??? No idea but he's got something wrong with him. But ya, we taught them and he came to church this last Sunday so it was great. It’s been a while since he came to church but we are still working on getting his family to church.

Tuesday- We had a zone training/ interview which was good. We gave a training on commitments (me and my comp) and interviewed each companionship, so it took a while but everyone in the zone is great (so far so good). We didn't get any lessons though this day, which sucked. We got punted like 1 million time (punted is just like... getting rejected or their not home or something. Ya mission lingo woo!) 

Wedsnday (how the crud do you spell Wednesday??)- Went and got a check up on my toe, doc says all good, looks fine. He also noticed we are Mormons and said he's Muslim so he can have a lot of wives and I was like "uhhhhh nice" but ya he's cool. We taught our IBD the Monces family they are way legit and receptive and want to get baptized the problemo is the dad is like "geeeeh nooooooo." He doesn't want them too, but we taught apostasy and stuff and the lesson was way spiritual. Then after that, they are like "We want our friends to hear your message!" So they took us to their friends and now they are new investigators, so cooool.

Thur- We had a ton of lessons, but the best one was the Galves family. They are from Leyte which is by Tacloban, so their house and stuff got destroyed by the typhoon. They moved here and they speak Visayas which my comp speaks also so we were walking by and he heard people speaking Visayas and he's like, “Yo you hear that?” and I’m like, “Ya that ain't Tagalog or Ilocano.” Anyways we talked to them (well my comp did in their lang) and we taught them. We had an immediate connection. it was great! We returned on Saturday as well, but they were way receptive. And yes they know Tagalog so I was struggling trying to speak Visayas. haha.

Fri- don't remember.

Sat- We met the Stake President of Candon zone and the zone leaders and talked about the progression and what not. This happens once a month but the stake's really progressing, they are putting up two groups 1 in Santa and one in Burgess. So we went with him in Santa to find a meetinghouse but all you need for a group is a group leader then the missionaries do the rest. So it's going well in Candon stake. 

Sun- Church. Me and my comp have been teaching the gospel principles class (the class with all the recent converts and investigators) every week and this last week we taught about Jesus and the class was overflowing. it was way legit. 

But ya, that's my week. All’s good. Loves and kisses XOXOXOXOXOXO

-Elder MacKay Hunter Jones

Hey family! How's everything going????????????????????(((:::::::::::::::::

             To be honest (mom don't freak) I just got done with surgery on my toe haha... But what happened was it just fetchin hurt and I can't like workout and stuff and it's painful to walk sometimes so I was sick of just "toughening it up" so to speak, so I called Sister Balledos and I was like "yo, what should I do?" So she told me to go to Candon hospital. So I did. It's the closest city but ya I went there and the surgeon was like "memememememe HEHEHEH haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa JKJOLOINCNOICNCOIn."

            But ya I didn't understand him cause he spoke Ilocano. Then he's like "ohhhh Tagalog" (but ya I don't know why I just added that in), anyways he said for me to come back today (this was last Saturday) because I needed to get rid of the infection first. So I took some pills the past three days (by the way they cost a pretty penny) and this morning he did the deed and it was not the nicest feeling in the world. Haha! But ya, he numbed my toe then cut through the middle of my toenail and did his thing. But I was watching it and it was still a little painful. haha but I was just like "AHHHHH WHAT TH- AHHHHHHHHHHHH................................. AH................ AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"     That's what I sounded like.... (Na it wasn't that I’m just messin.) But ya I got no toenail now on my left big toe, haha, and it feels wonderful actually. He said it will take like 2 months to grow back and it will be all good.... I have my toenail as well. And you can see the in-grown’s on the sides.. But ya it's all good now. 

            Besides that I’ve been getting familiarized with my area, which is good-- my area is awesome! I love it but the problem is-- it's huge! So I have to tricycle everywhere-- but we are getting bikes soon (says the AP) so I’m excited for that. We had MLC this last Wednesday with all the zone leaders, the assistants and President and it was good. We went down to San Fernando for it, my old stompin grounds. But ya, again my area is Santa Maria—you can look it up on Google images. The Catholic Church is like a famous landmark in the Philippines. It's really awesome. 

            But ya, we found this old lady just looking for someone else and she was selling eggplants so my comp bought some. Anyway, we talked to her and gave her a pamphlet and set a rt appointment.  We returned last Saturday night and they were awesome-- way receptive-- and they live like in this farm under trees and they have a huge family that all have kids and they all live in that one foundation, but ya we did a sick lesson one (their name is the Forranda family) and they want us to come back anytime. They actually were like "Can you come back tomorrow?" haha but ya they want to come to church and stuff. 

             There's this other family, the Cabuska family. They are LA's but his daughter is serving in Cavite Philippines Mission right now, which is cool. Anyways, they're like dirt poor and I kind of got after him and I was like, “well we didn't see you at church. Why? blah blah blah”, and he's like, “Well, I don't have money, you want me to walk? I'll die before I get to the church.” (They live far away) and I didn't really know what to say-- you just had to be in the lesson. But, we weren't like arguing at all, it was more like he knows he needs to go to church he just can't and there was a huge silence and the spirit was very strong and I said, “ya now Brother Cabuska, I don't know how to help you. I really don't. I'm trying to think of a way for you but I can't, so it's up to you blah blah blah? But it really was a sick lesson and he teared up and stuff. 

             But ya this week was cool beans. So far the people are awesome, the ward’s great. It’s like 80-90 attendance which is alright. And just send me anything, like I mostly want Skittles and Starburst and stuff. Stuff that won't melt or crunch to easy.

 Anyways love you. 

-Elder Jones