Monday, January 25, 2016

Life in the Field: Finding Nemo in Mexico

Elder Benitez & Elder Jones
Dear family and friends, boys and girls,

Haha! I don't know why I started to think about the Disneyland announcement before fireworks or the parade when I typed that out. HA! 

This week was super sweet! A lot of fun. We had a World Wide Transmission/Conference for all missionaries in the world! ALL 75,000 WERE WATCHING! It was awesome! It was on Wedsnday and we learned a lot! Elder Oaks spoke, which was awesome. The whole thing was focused on Repentance, and baptism. But mostly Repentance! The funny part was that they told us that it started at 9, so we got there at 9, and then told us that it starts at 10... then at 11... so we sat there for ever! Haha! But, it was fun! We messed around a bit! Afterwards, I got to talk with Elder Dance, and some other good friends from the mission! :)

This morning, I found NEMO! I walked outside and he was just chillin' there. It made my day! Haha! I heard that they are making "Finding Dory". Sounds pretty good!  

We went on divisions with the zone leaders. We both worked in Tapatio and spent the night in their house. It was a lot of fun. Learned some things and had a great time! Elder Lavery and Ventura are pretty fun guys.

Today we had a zone activity, which was super fun! We played a relay race game. We had to do something, answer a question from PMG (Preach My Gosepel), and then search for a puzzle piece until we finished the puzzle! It was super fun! Then we ate carne asada, and chorizo! SUPER YUMMY!

I wore my amazing "I pooped today" shirt. Everyone loved it! Hahaha. The sisters were laughing their butts off. 

We have an awesome investigator named Diego. HE IS SO PERFECT! Pray for him! He is 28, and is a psycologist. He has been talking with the sisters from Salt Lake Temple Square, and now is taking lessons from us!

Next week there will probably be a baptism. So, I'm looking forward to that! It's a little girl that is 9, and her mom is reactivating! Pray for Yaritzi and her Mom, Maria!

We also are teaching Elideth. She is 20, and her dad is less active but we are reactivating him and she came to church as well! Pray for her as well! She needs a lot of help!

Also pray for Raul and Maria! They need sooo much help! They were going to get baptized, but now they don't want to. Hopefully they can change but if not, we need to let them go :(

That's about it! Its very probable that I'm going to train next week :))))))) Let's hope it happens! I'm stoked to see what happens! I HOPE I'M TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE

Elder Dallin McKay Jones
Elder Jones & Elder Dance
Walked outside & found Nemo!
I thought Nemo lived in Australia? 
Elder Ventura, Elder Lavery, & Elder Jones
Delish!

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Life in the Field: Lucky Machete's

Getting ready to do some service with machete's. 
This week was pretty sweet. We got invited to eat tortas ahogadas with Diego. He is the best! Hahaha. He makes me laugh a ton. The tortas were really yummy! I ate two! And enjoyed some Coca! He was super funny with my glasses. Kinda hipster nerdy look with a sweet beard. He works in a gym and right now he is trying to gain weight. He is pretty dang strong. He eats a ton. I also got to take a selfie with his dog Miller.

One night, to honor Rachel, I bought Crepes because I know she loves them! It was super good but dang... freaking expensive!!!! It was 45 pesos for a crepe with chocolate, Strawberry, Nuts, and Cream cheese. Next time I'm just going to ask with chocolate for 25 pesos. 

We did some service with the Alveres family. They are going through a rough patch right now, but they always help us with missionary work! I'm hoping the blessings they need will come soon! But we helped them clean up in front of their house by cutting grass and moving rocks! It was fun! They have daughters that are super freaking funny!!!! Gosh we were laughing so hard! They always have jokes to say. But keep this family in your prayers! They are the best!

Once again someone wanted a picture with me using them as an arm rest. It was funny again. Her name is anayeli. Her family is less active but they are starting to come to church again! Hopefully her Dad will stop smoking!

We had stake conference which was good! A lot of amazing talks! A family that recently got married in the temple went up and talked and it was so freaking funny! It was spiritual as well, but this guy was like, "My wife was super hard to baptize... she didn't want anything!" Hahaha! He was just talking and talking and everyone was laughing so hard! Our mission president gave an amazing talk about the atonement of Jesus Christ. As well Sister Egginton gave a full talk in Spanish! It was awesome!!!!!! 

Today we went with the zone leaders and ate pizza and talked a bit. That was good. 

Yesterday we also got some new investigators that go to Luz Del Mundo (Light of the World). We had to give it to them straight a few times, and this guy wanted to bible bash a little, but we were able to control it and teach which was good. Let's see if this will be worth our time or not...

Happy birthday mom!!!!! Glad you had a good time :))))))

Dinner at the crepe cart!
Tabasco for everything!
Mexican Water.
Elder Jones & Diego
Just some pondering... Napoleon Dynamite inspired posing.
"It was my Mother's lucky machete." - Nacho Libre
After Stake Conference

Monday, January 11, 2016

Life in the Field: Barrio las Juntas

Diego and Elder Jones
This week was alright... kinda long, but what can ya do?

More than anything, we were in divisions with the elders here until Friday, when they had special changes to Zona Chapala.

We had Interviews with President on Wednesday which was good. He rolled up like a boss in his mini van drinking some coke and straight short sleeve white shirt. He is the best! Hahaha! I had the first interview, which was great! I had the longest interview I think... talked a lot about my district and my companion. Everything is good with the comp, and i think he will train next transfer. 

As well, we are working all of Barrio las Juntas! (This is a really large area of Guadalajara, so it's adding a lot of area to their current area.) SO NUTS! We will be working it all until February. So we are learning new parts and working hard!

I took some pictures with Diego. He is a super cool investigator who wants to get baptized but of some things, he has to wait a little. His beard is amazing... I'm going to grow one like that if i go to Utah State. ;) 

We ate a bunch of hot dogs as well. It was a party. We were invited over to eat for dinner and we ate with the Ex counselor of the mission. He interviewed my first baptism, so that was fun talking to him! 

Nothing really new.... We have some new investigators which are super awesome! hoping that they will progress! We are hoping for baptism this week but who knows! Let's hope for the best! Pray for RAUL and MARIA!

We are searching a new house for the next group of missionaries. Hope we find something for them.

Oh and today we ate some Chilis. I had a huge craving for Chilis again, and I'm happy and fat!

Love you all a ton!
Meal calendar. Looks like they will be well fed this month!

Monday, January 4, 2016

Life in the Field: Happy 2016!

Happy New Year! :) 
People here are pyros on New Years! Gun shots and Fireworks! Hahaha. We left in the morning the next day, and it looked like fog but no.... it was straight smoke from fire works! Hahahaha. It smelled like straight gun powder!!!!!!!

This week was nuts!!!!!!!!!! 

Umm, we ate a ton of pizza this week.... A TON!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus on the 31st and the 1st we had to be in our house at 7:00 PM.... it was nuts and fun! Hahaha. On the 1st, the zone leaders stayed in our house because they were working in our area with us!

We had zone meeting as well! It was great, and I shared a message about our purpose as missionaries. It was fun! I used the talk by David Bednar about being a Preach My Gospel missionary! It went well! ;) I got some letters from Rachie Dachie!!!!! that was nice :) No packages, but that's fine! I'm still waiting for the one Becca sent!

I went to the area of the zone leaders Sunday for a few things... we started to mess around on the whiteboard, and ended up with all the jokes of what everyone says a lot! Hahaha! It was fun!

It has just been weird because the zone leaders have been sleeping here for the past 3 days do to a few things with some other missionaries. We've been eating crap a lot and talking and having fun. We are working hard with the other missionaries and trying to help them but we will see what will happens... We have interviews this week.

The baptism we had planned fell through because the mom of Raul is in the hospital... so pray for Raul and Maria, so they can get baptized next week and that their mom gets better!

We had some really good lessons this week. I studied about Pride a lot and it's helped me a lot! It's something that we all have and that we need to get rid of!!!!!!!!! I also got some cool experiences when studying! I studied the New Testament, and everything I studied I was able to use in my lessons for certain experiences I've never had! It was sooo cool how God prepares us to teach by the spirit!

I'm looking forward to some good work this week! I miss you all a lot!