Hey so what is uuup. Ya this was the hip-hap for this week.

Mon- We had P-day went to Candon and what not than all the Elders came to Tagudin and we played basketball for a few hours than went to work.

Tue- We had District meeting than went and preached the good word.

Wed- We had exchanges, I worked with Elder Dodd from Idaho.

Thur- So today was good, the zone leaders came over to talk to my comp haha (yaaa long story) then we went to Pudoc (a super far area) and found some Less Actives and taught them.

Fri- We went to an other far area and found less actives.

Sat- Went to a baptism of the other elders.

Sun- today was good, Went to Pudoc again cause this old guy investigator (Alfredo) invited us to his b-day party like forever ago, so we went there after church and like EVERYONE was hammered drunk. There was like a million people as well. Then everyone like sees a white boy missionary so of course they come up to me haha but it was funny. Than Alfredo comes up and he's like “Elders sorry everyone’s drunk, but I don't drink, I hate drinking!” So we were like WOOOOOOO! yaa! But ya they fed us and we were like ya we gotta bounce, cause the drunk people were starting to fight haha.

  Then we went to our paralyzed investigator’s brother June, he is pretty sick. He's the one who got stabbed in the spine forever ago.

   There were no tricycles going back home because it was dark and far so we just walked a ways.

But ya sorry there's not too much .. kinda forgot what all happened. But all was good. I've learned to love the mission no matter what so anything that happens I'm still glad I’m here and #7monthsleft is always a good thing.

   Oh have you sent those shoes??? If not... don't send them because I've been wearing sandals so my toenail can recovery, and I realize if you do send them I will probz just give it to some Filipino guy like I have and probably will do with the rest of my clothes haha.

Love you

-Elder Jones

Hey fam WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZUP. 

So this is the hip hap this weeeeekio

Monday- So Monday was just a normal P-Day, went by fast, Cleaned our apartment shopped ate out and what not. Than we went to our member’s house and they took us to their referrals, which was sweet. One is a family that's real good, I’ll tell you more about them. Then the other is some sassy lady named Marichu. So ya that was sweet.

Tuesday- Had District meeting which was sweet, than we went out and worked.

Wed- We had exchanges, I worked with Elder Mortel who's on his last transfer and it was sweet. We went to Raul-- just some sick guy we found a couple of weeks ago-- he's receptive with lots of questions. He accepted the baptismal invitation but we haven't set a date. Then we did some finding.

Thu- Went to a super far area called Pudoc (west by the ocean.) And found some less- actives. Taught them and they said they'll come to church. We went back to this old gay named Alfredo who we just found a few weeks before tracting right by the ocean and he loves us haha. He invited us to his b-day party and stuff and said it's just us and his family but it's only the 2nd time we've met so I was just like.... uhhhhh ya we'll try haha. Then we came across this guy named June while looking for a less-active and this dude (June) got stabbed in his spine way back when, he said he got held up for money and the guy just stabbed him, so he lost the use of his lower body. He's sick though, really receptive.

   

Then we had an appointment that fell through. It was a referral again from the

members (sister Cornel and sister Onada) they are sisters who own a sewing shop and are long time members. But they opened up to us this night because they are giving us like 12890754 referrals a day (not really they've given us 3) but she just said like, “Elder Jones, I’m so thankful that you're here” and I was like why? Then she went off on how they hated the missionaries before because of this and that and she's been waiting forever for a missionary she could trust and give her referrals too. So it's good here. The referrals they are giving aren't like golden or anything but they're good.

Fri- Ya nothing happened

Sat- Stake conference.

Sunday- Stake conference again, It was sick. Than we went to Patrick and his family (the ones I was talking about on Monday) we taught prayer and I invited them to be baptized and after I invited he's like "so before I answer, what's your purpose?" and I was like yaaa it's not bible study, we want you to cram and come closer to Christ, then they said yes IF  we come to know it's true.

So ya this week was good. I found out my comp has some girlie friends in the area so I ripped into him and so did the AP's haha... He's... a different one. But got your package, thanks your the best. Love you

-Elder jones 

So it's Elder bigmacattack j-onesy commin at ya from the Phill-a-pines. 

Ya this week................... yup.

Monday- Went to zone training and stuff than just played some b ball and cleaned and stuff. At night went to our investigators who have a baptismal date ( I just found them in the area book.) Ya so it's 3 girls like 23-ish years old and I was like, “so the other elders invited you to be baptized right?” And they're like “ya.... but we don't know, we don't really want to.” 

   So ya I just dropped them.

Tue- Went to Candon city for district meeting and I gave a workshop then we had a meeting. Candon's like forever away from Tagudin so when we got back we taught brother Manuel only because we got back pretty late. But he's good, nice guy. He's got potential.

Wed- Went to San Fernando for MLC again all the ZL's and DL's were there... Just listened to workshops and what not. Weird thing was President let me travel by myself there. It was weird not having a companion for a few hours haha.

Thu- This day wasn't bad… found some less-active members who got baptized like a year ago haha… ya already less active. And just found a lot. We have a ton of new investigators.

Fri- We taught a lot of our new investigators which was sick. Did a lot of finding again as well.

Sat- So this day I have never been rejected more in my mission. It got to the point where I was like, just expecting to get turned down. But thanks to my competitive attitude like every time it happened I was more determined to find and more determined to work. I was just mad like the whole day. Even like the solid investigators you can always count on told us to scram. My comp like hates it when I'm mad, when we get turned down so he's trying to cheer me up and stuff. Haha! But I was gonna drop kick someone.

Sun- Ya so.... get wrecked again-- no one wants anything to do with us haha. But everyone always said you get punted (punted is like mission slang for getting turned down) for a reason so ya we just find, talk to people and stuff. We came across this old lady who was taught by the missionaries ages ago all the lessons so ya we went to her and she's like... Been waiting for missionaries forever to come back. No one knows what happened but she's all good.

This week was rough though, I’m like... determined to turn this area around no matter what it takes. The members don't do squat, even when we visit active members they're just like....... soooo why are you here??? But I’m just praying something will happen here.. Just workin’ real hard. My drive is my competitiveness, and I have 8 months left haha... That's what keeping me going... anyways, love you.. All's good here.

-Elder Jones

Hello Family

So this weeks been good, finally got transferred...

Mon- We gave a workshop to our zone and it was sweet, everyone got kinda wrecked from the typhoon but it's alright. Had P-Day and played Basketball with the members for the last time.

Tue- Can't really remember what happened but I got a call from the assistants saying I’m getting transferred to Tagudin and my companion is Elder Naitoko from Tonga. I've got like a special assignment as well is what they were telling me. My comp just finished his training and another Tongan trained him because he can't speak good English and he's new so he doesn't know Tagalog yet but ya lets just say two Tongans together is... Not good. So they like destroyed the area. They averaged like 5 lessons a week and stuff, and were very disobedient.

Wed- Said good-bye to the members and investigators and went to the baptism of Santa Maria B elders. It was cool. This elder who also got transferred (Elder Reihl from American Fork) sang a hymn after the baptism then I walked up with him and we sang the third verse together. The ward was all like Bawling and it was actually pretty sad. The members were real good there. Than I just packed my stuff.

Thu- woke up at 3 am, picked up the people in our zone transferring and went to San Fernando to transfer Day. It was all-sweet... Ya so transfer day went down… saw all of my buddies and a few of us rejoiced because our time being a zone leader is up haha.. but it was a good 8 months. 

   Got in the jeep and went to my area. Ya so like I said before the area is shot. They had 3 investigators who weren't even progressing and other than that there's like a few members that are sweet but it's alright. Even though my comps been here 12 weeks he still doesn't really know the area, or how to plan or anything so the first night I took the area over, dropped there old investigators and started fresh. 

   My comps cool though just a hard-headed Polynesian. We can't understand each other?? But it's alright. Just workin hard and he's gotta work hard too.

Fri- Found the whole day.......... ya!!!! Finding! Found this British gay who's white. It was weird. We were walking at like 7:30 at night just tracting then we went down a random road and he was sitting there like... right directly in the light, and he called us over. He’s like "What, did god send you or something?" some smart British talk and then we laughed and talked to him for a while. Turns out he's got lots of problems that's why he's here, so we set a return appointment and stuff.

Sat- We found and stuff some more, went back to Glenn (the British guy) and ya he's sweet, just wants to change. It’s weird teaching in English as well. 

Sun- Went to church, we are just in a meeting in a house --it's only a branch. The branch really doesn't give two woohoo's about missionary work but I talked to the Branch President straight up and said, “Lets get you a chapel because we are crammed in this crappy little meeting house.” He agreed and said, “Find me Melchizedek (no one knows how to spell that) priesthood holders and we can get a chapel”, so ya... It's all good here.... Just got to clean up the mess some of the missionaries made. 

Thanks love you all. Keep it real.

-Elder Jones

Hey Home gals and home dudes. So this week was... one of the craziest so far on my mission. This is the hip-hap.

Mon- P-Day, Played lots of B-Ball... The usual

Tue- Had Exchanges, I want with a Samoan who is brand new on the mish but it was good. He doesn't speak really good English so communication was a little hard but it was all good. He's crazy. Elder Saua is his name.

Wed- Went on another exchanges with Elder Nuilua from New Zealand, it was sweet. He got a package of New Zealand chocolates and stuff so we chomped down on it. It was niiiiiiiice.

Thur- Today was funny. So after Tue. and Wed., I was pretty spent because-- 3 days I worked in 3 different areas and exchanges-- it just take it out of you. So we got back and my comp and me studied and what not, then ate lunch and fell asleep after lunch. Funny thing was President visited us without telling us! Haha! So I heard his voice and immediately woke up, our apartment was soooo dirty as well. I was like "uhhhhhh hey president.... sorry our apartment’s messy" but ya President is sweet. He ripped into us a little for having a messy apartment but that's it. Then we went and did work. When the night time came it started raining soooo hard so president told us to tell our zone to get back to the apartments.

Fri- Normal day but soooo rainy and windy.

Sat- BAM the Typhoon hits us Friday night and ALLLL today we got wrecked. (Typhoon Mario) Don't know if you've heard of it yet? But our town got destroyed. All the missionaries went to San Fernando in the northern part of the mission (where I'm at) but not us because president wanted us to like help out the people here in Sta Maria. But it's nuts man. It's the worst natural disaster I’ve ever experienced. Houses got blown to pieces, flooding up to the top of my head and just tons of stuff. So our power is still out (it's out everywhere) but this computer shop has a generator.

   Then it was way stressful because we had to account for all the missionaries in our zone and like half went to San Fernando and half stayed in their houses but with no electricity people’s phone have no battery and stuff. So we were on the line always with President and the AP's and we had to go kinda late to Narvacan and look for two elders in our zone because no one knew where they were. It was sweet we found them then brought them back to our place to sleep.

Sun- We just had Sacrament meeting then we cleaned the church up (the church got WRECKED) but ya. We called president and we were like.... "what do you want us to do??" He told us to stay safe but help members and stuff but we didn't really leave our apartment too much because it was dangerous.

Ya everythings all good now though, it's turning around here, the missionaries from San Fernando are headed back to their areas and what not... I wish I would of takin’ some pictures.. but I didn't because it was raining and my camera would've gotten wrecked. But it was pretty awesome and sad at the same time. We have been using candles for the past few days and eating... canned stuff until the power comes back.

 Love ya'll. Transfer day this Thursday-- Lets hope I get outta here.

-Elder Jones