Welcoming Home Dallin & Jordan

 Dallin and his good friend Jordan Andersen (who served in the Australia Melbourne Mission speaking Mandarin)  returned home from their missions around the same time. As they are both headed to college in the Fall (Jordan to BYU and Dallin to BYU-Idaho) both families co-hosted a fun get together for friends and family to enjoy! 

Mission Accomplished!

Elder Jones returned from his full time mission to Guadalajara Mexico on August 29, 2016! 

Life in the Field: Last Letter Home!

Wow.... I can't believe it! I made it.... I'm happy, sad, tired, excited, confused, a bunch of mixed feelings... its been so fast! I can't wait to see you all soon!

I'll be going to Guadalajara Friday morning, and flying home Monday. It's been a fast two years... Mexico has been a great place to live. I've seen many things, and I have learned a lot, and I still have much to learn. 

This last week was interesting. Elder Timpson went to Guadalajara early to help the APs because one of them was ending his mission early, so one missionary is without companion, so he is hitching along with us. It's been a lot of fun three missionaries together.... but we have been working still. It's been difficult at times because we all want to work in our areas, so we have to find people to go with one of us while the other two work together. 

One day I was with Jorge, and my comp went with Elder Ee los Reyes. It was pretty fun being with a member and working. We jumped on the bus and it was packed, I was almost out the door, I decided to take some sweet pics to freak out Mom! It was a fun day. 

We went to go work in Villa Madero, and while walking on a back trail, Elder Ee los Reyes ate it pretty bad, and he got super dirty.... it was pretty dang funny. You can tell by the picture that he got pretty dirty, but the most important thing was that the tie is still clean and good. you can clean pants and shirts, but ties are a different story. While on the back trails, we took some funny pictures, and we were enjoying the weather.

We had a missionary activity but in the area of the Sisters in Stadio. It was super fun! Elder Rojas was my companion and same with one of the youth named Cesar. He was pretty cool. We worked hard and knocked a lot of doors. We asked him to choose a house and the door he knocked led us to an awesome family. The door opened, they just said come in with out even questioning us, we taught the lesson, answered their questions, and they were super prepared to receive us.... GOLDEN FAMILY. From the moment we walked in, the Spirit was strong. God does prepare people to be taught, as it reads in Alma 16:16. It's super important that the members help the missionaries! It's a group effort, not just a missionary effort! :)

Today we went to the centro, and I bought a new jersey to complete my collection. Two from Morelia, two from Guadalajara, and one from the National team! Woo! I tried to buy a poncho, but dang it was like 500 or 600 pesos.... hahaha way over priced! I could buy a blanket and cut a hole in it for like 100 pesos! We also ate tacos for lunch and walked around a little.

We are hoping to baptize Thursday night.which is my last night in Morelia.

Life in the Field: A Crazy & Busy Week!

This week has been CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Craziest week of my whole mission.

To start off the week, we did divisions. I was in the area with Elder Emery. It was a lot of fun being with an American for a few days. We were together from Monday through Wednesday night! We ate a ton of pizza.... soooo goood. It was good seeing Elder Starly. He is going home this week, same with Elder Struhs and Elder Sweeten. All of my buddies from the MTC. Only Elder Timpson and I are staying till the end!

The next day we started divisions with the Zone leaders, and I was with Elder Timpson in my area again. So while in divisions, the sisters in our ward called me. One of the sisters is new from Peru and her trainer is from the Dominican Republic. The sister from the Dominican Republic calls me and tells me that her comp. passed out after eating... and they're in route to the hospital. We go running to the hospital and they don't have her ID or her insurance card... so the sister that wasn't sick gives me the keys to her house and we go running to their house for the Info they need. Being in a house of sister missionaries is pretty weird... especially when they tell you that the id card and the insurance card is in her drawer where her clothes are.... hahaha! We ran back to the hospital with the info, we run inside of the emergency room, and gave her a blessing. President showed up right after, and everything was fine. It was a crazy day! 

We had a zone meeting on Friday and it was really fun. The picture where I'm on the floor and same with Elder Timpson, and with Sister Lagarda on the laps of the sisters is called the death picture... or end of mission picture... our lives of being a missionary is coming to an end but that means WE ARE COMING HOME SOON! WOOO!!!!

We had the baptism which went well. I was able to baptize :) She didn't get confirmed because she couldn't go to church, but she will be going to church next Sunday!

Today we went to downtown Morelia to buy some things and tacos. We went with Elder Atkins and Elder Rojas. It was super fun! It was packed!

While walking in downtown Morelia, I saw Iris, one of my investigators from Tarimbaro! She got baptized a few months back! I remember seeing her picture in the Lamanita. I was really happy to see her! We took a picture and talked for a little. She couldn't believe that I'm about to go home, and she said she will go to church in Camelinas this Sunday. 

We found five new people to teach which is nice. Pray for Yuliana and Haitana. We want to baptize them before I go home!!!!!!!!!!!

Pray for Susana, Carla, Diana, and the Cortez Family!

Life in the Field: Final Countdown

This week was super duper awesome. But, first off with the bad news... the Samora family doesn't want to listen anymore.... that was sad, but we found more people to teach and we are helping a lot of less actives come to church again!

This week we are going to baptize!!!!!!!!!!! Her name is Emelia, and she is an Ex Jehovah Witness! Highlight of the mission! Baptize a JW! We had an awesome lesson with her. She said she didn't get an answer yet, and we asked if we could do a kneeling prayer.... she hasn't done a kneeling prayer in a long time due to knee problems, but she said that it was fine. We all kneeled down and she started to pray silently. We were praying for 20 minutes in silence and I tapped her shoulder. She got up and said that it was great to pray again kneeling down, and she said she knows it's true. She is 75 years old, and asked if she could give us a hug.... Haha! I wasn't sure what to do, but she is 75 so I said it was fine. We gave her a hug, and now she is going to get baptized this week! 

We went to Villa Madero again. While we were there it started to hail.... I lost a ton of hearing after that because we were in a super poor house with metal sheets for roofing... we were walking and they invited us in. Part of the house started to flood a little but nothing too bad. It was good that the floor was concrete. We taught a lesson and we are hoping to find more people in Villa Madero.

We also ate some tamales, and drank chocolate atole. Atole is awesome! It's a drink made out of corn, and then it can be flavored with chocolate, strawberry, ect, and it's awesome. A less active family gave it to us. It was a good night. 

We took a district photo because Sister Villagomez goes home today. She ended the mission and she is going to study! Same with me soon!

Today we played ultimate Frisbee, football, and basketball. I had some good goals today even though I suck a football! Haha! I also did my "My Plan" program today which talked about dating and marriage.... It made me laugh a ton. It's to prepare us for going home...

I love you all a ton!

Life in the Field: Last Zone Activity!

This week was good. A lot of work and fun. I'm pretty tired to be honest. It's been kinda hard because I've been a little bit sick with a cold or flu, and I'm tired all the time. I just want to sleep! Hahaha! I feel better today, and I hope this week I feel better. 

Yesterday we had people come to church! Wooo! We have three baptism dates for before my mission ends! Wooo! Let's pray for baptisms! We are teaching Emelia, Yuliana, Haitana, Alejandro, Julio, Fam Zamora, and Maria. They are progressing! 

We started working in a pueblito called Villa Madero. It's pretty cool. Really small town, with a bunch of trees!

We had a stake activity in Patzcuaro. It was a lot of fun working with the youth! We found a super golden family for the missionaries in Patzcuaro! My companion was Hermano Angel. He is pretty cool. He was super nervous teaching, but he taught super well!

The super golden family gave us macadamia nuts! It's super hard to open them up, but they taste awesome! Overall, great day! I bought some awesome ice cream! Nieve de Pasta! It's famous from Patzcuaro! It was full with a bunch of tourists and I got to see the dance of the old people of Patzcuaro. Search it up on Youtube!

Today I had my last zone activity! We played rocks, which is like capture the flag. It was a lot of fun. We also played football, and spoons! For study time we played Jeopardy instead of studying... that was fun! Hahaha! It's good when we do different things....

The 13th we are hoping for a baptism!