Life in the Field: A Bump on the Head

This is not the kind of photos missionary moms like to see! Thankfully, he only bumped his head and is doing fine! 

Elder Jones had an exciting week in Mexico! From investigators progressing, to having a little run in with a short doorway, it was nothing short of boring! Here is an excerpt from Dallin's letter this week:

This week has gone well, even though I hit my head and was bleeding. :) After a lesson with a less active family, I was walking out of the house and didn't realize the door arch was so low. I was grateful the lesson went well, because they helped me clean up my head afterwards! Maybe hitting my head was a success because they ended up coming to church that week! 

We are having some good success here which is exciting! Apolinar is progressing really well. It helps that his sister is the wife of the bishop so we have a ton of lessons with them present. I'm sure he will get baptized this month. Vicky can get baptized any day, but her family doesn't like the idea of her getting baptized. Keep her in your prayers! We had a really good lesson about faith with her. I think shell get baptized within two to three weeks. Sherly is growing a lot right now and we have a baptism date for her in June. Her husband is less active, but he is helping us teach her. We are planning to baptize and re-activate :)

So the photos of the street art was in front of the huge Catholic cathedral in Salvatierra. It's super pretty right there. A nice huge plaza garden and they always have some type of an activity going on. 

We had stake conference which was good, but we didn't have to go all the way to Morelia. We got to watch it in our ward building through internet transmission, which was cool! 

Street art in Salvateirra.

Little Luna! This helped the head injury! Kitty therapy. 

"I bought this kinfe for 200 pesos. I think it's a pretty good purchase." 

Dallin's companion LOVES the little missionary fox we sent Dallin for Christmas. This is Dallin sneaking a photo of him taking a selfie with it! 

Delicious! 

Life in the Field: First Week in Salvatierra

Elder Jones spent his first week in his new area of Salvatierra and really enjoyed it! His new companion, Elder Sanchez is a great companion and on track to head home in a couple weeks. The city is beautiful and very big! The Elders had to travel by bus and foot to attend meetings this week-- a lot of walking! Here is an excerpt from Dallin's letter this week:

So basically everyone loves Salvatierra. It's one of the best areas. The weather is really nice, we live right in the historic center of the town and it is just beautiful. Everyone is friendly and there are a bunch of shops and a cool market in our area! Mom said she looked up the city and said it looked nice, and it really is! There's also a huge Catholic temple as well and its very pretty. My area is way bigger than my last ZONE! Not area but ZONE!!! We don't go very far from Salvatierra which is nice. My area is about 4-5 larger then my last Zone.

The members here are really nice and friendly. I really like the Bishop. He actually stops by peoples houses and invites them to activities and such. He is a cool guy. One sister in the ward is really awesome! She basically loves the Elders and she told me that she's my Second mom and I need to listen to her! Ha ha! We also have a sister that gives us free tacos which is sweeeeeet. Free tacos=Happy Elder Jones. 

I had my interview with Pres. Camarillo which was good. He wants us to search for all the less actives in our area, and with that, use them to find new people to teach. So thats good.

Elder Sanchez is really awesome. I really enjoy him as a companion. He is really relaxed and likes to work! We are both senior companions and I hope he doesn't die on me in the last few weeks. He got his travel plans today in his email today which is pretty cool. 

We have a few really good investigators and I'm sure we will get one baptism together, maybe two! Over all I'm really excited. Nothing for sure though! People have the choice to change! 

Life in the Field: Transfer to Salvatierra, Guanajuato, Mexico!

This week, Dallin was transferred to a new area in the Guadalajara East Mission. He is now in Guanajato, which is about a three hour bus ride from Libertad, or a main portion of the city. His new companion is Elder Sanchez from Ecuador, and will be going home in about a month! Here is an excerpt from Dallin's letter this week:

Salvatierra is really pretty. While driving to get here, it's very green and pretty with a lot of lakes close by. It takes us 3 hours to get to our stake center which kinda sucks, but oh well. I'm in the center of Salvatierra, and the weather is perfect. It's just like home :) 

Sergio got confirmed and received the Aronic Priesthood which was sweet! He has all my info, so when he goes to the temple, I can go too! Sergio is really happy and is excited! I gave him a tie, which was nice! We also gave him a picture of his baptism and we wrote him a note. Overall, really awesome. I said bye to him too which was sad but he has a lot of support from the whole church and his family. EVERYONE came to his baptism so I'm not tooooo worried about him

I said bye to the Robles family and the kids. That was sad :( I'll miss them a ton! They were the nicest family ever. I still remember when Guermo told me that his family would be my family for Christmas. Love them to death. 

Adrian, our investigator, has quit smoking, drinking, and doing other drugs within 2 weeks!!! He is a friend of Guermo and I'm super stoked for him! I hope whoever takes over our area continues with him! He is so Golden!

So while driving here in the bus I saw a car with a licence plate from Indiana and from Arkansas.... so dang random! I thought it was weird. 

Keep writing and sending letters! 

Life in the Field: First Baptism

The mission district all together!

Elder Jones had an exceptionally fantastic week in Mexico! He was able to have his first baptism on Saturday. At the baptism, he gave a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how important eternal families are. There were also a lot of vacationers in Guadalajara this week, so they were able to have a lot of great gospel discussions! Here is an excerpt from Dallin's letter:

A lot of people were on vacation this week, so we had more success with meeting people and teaching which was sweet. We have a new investigator which was a reference. He is a friend of Guermo, and his name is Adrian. He has some drug and drinking problems and he wants to stop. He saw that Guermo is much happier without any of it and he wants to join the church. We invited him to get baptized and he accepted! We are going to have a FHE with the Robles family and he is going to come! 

Sergio got baptized between the first and second session of conference which was nice! We asked his 10 year old daughter to give her testimony about eternal families, which was really strong and powerful. After, I gave a talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Eternal families. We put a lot of focus on eternal families. We sung "Families Can be Together Forever" and other songs about family. We told Sergio about 4 weeks ago that our goal for him wasn't just baptism. We taught him that his goal is to go to the temple and have an eternal family. When it comes to missionary work, you have to think with the end in mind. You have to think about them in some temple whites. When you do missionary work like that, your converts are going to stay strong and active. 

Conference was good. I listened to it in English which was nice. We were really spoiled this week and ate with the Bartolo family this whole week. Their house is really small and pretty bad, but gosh she is the best person ever. She always helps the missionaries and feeds us. Her food is the best ever and I love her to death!

Keep writing and praying! Love you all!

Sergio's baptism on April 4, 2015.

First baptism in the mission field! 

Happy Elders after General Conference!