God's love

Hello Pamilya!

This week went pretty ok. We had to go to the Mission Office earlier this week for Trainers/Trainee Meeting and I got to see Sister Roisum, Sister J. Davis (Kasama!), and Sister C Davis from my stay in the MTC. They're doing great and many hugs were exchanged. Know what is really embarrassing for an AP (assistant to the President)? When they put down that Elder Jones is playing the piano when there isn't even an Elder Jones in the mission at this point...I was about to joke around with him about which Elder Jones he was talking about: the one in California or the one in Arizona (that is where Tanner is right? please fix that for me

if not), but then he started apologizing profusely and immediately got a program fixed for me to have. Anyway, it was good and spiritual.

A couple days later, Sister Montemayor and I had an exchange with the STLs in Panichi. I was in Panichi with Sister Jipus and Sister Montemayor stayed in our area with Sister Douchane (Do-shane). It was great! Sister Jipus has a great love for the work and likes to talk and smile a lot. I keep forgetting that everyone has there own way of teaching: Sister Montemayor has more of a serious approach to the work and Sister Jipus, who is still serious about it, has a little more of a skip in her step, if that makes any sense. I learned a lot from her and the most interesting lesson we had was the one we had before we headed to the appartment. I don't remember the name of the dear sister, but she was very hard of hearing. I was supposed to start the lesson so, I raised my voice as loud as I could without sounding angry, and asked "KUMUSTA PO KAYO?" She looked at me for a second and said in Taglish "I'm sorry, I'm hard of hearing. Could you say that louder?" Sister Jipus and I just looked at each other and started to laugh really hard, we couldn't help it. It was just so funny that I was talking as loud as I could and then apparently it was't quite enough. Somewhere between our giggles, Sister Jipus switched places with me on the couch so that I was sitting closest to this sister so she could hear me. The next morning we did a CSP (community service project) with the district the STLs are in. We went to someone's mango field and helped clean up the dead leaves on the ground. 

That day, when I got back to Camiling. Sister Montemayor and I got out to work and we went to see the Rodillas sisters, who all have baptisms coming up. We taught the twins first, they're 11, and it went pretty well. After we were done teaching them, their older sister, Diza Mae (14), came over so we could teach her. We start our lessons by singing a hymn, but when we started singing, her father, who was passed out on a bed they have outside by the side of house, woke up. (Just as a note, we do have permission to teach these girls) I guess he was experiencing a hangover and started to shout. We were on a different side of the house, fortunately, (our presence would have just aggravated him even more) and Diza Mae quickly pointed a way for us to crouch/crawl under the house (yes, under) to get to the opposite side of the house her dad was on...we moved our lesson to a nearby dry rice field. We had said the opening prayer, when we were joined by the twins and the last sister, Donita (18). We asked if everything was ok and Donita started talking to Sister Montemayor in Tagalog, but I understood enough to know that she was talking about the lack of support they were all getting from their dad and how his drinking habit was hurting them. As she was talking though, I was focusing my attention on Diza and the twins...they were crying. My heart ached with them, I don't really like seeing others in pain and not know exactly how to comfort them. I sat there for a second, asking God if there was something I could do or say that would help them, I had lost track of what Donita was saying, I just knew they were hurting, when something on the ground caught my eye. It was something that Sister Montemayor had shown me a couple of weeks previously, I had almost forgotten about it; a seed pod. 

No, I haven't gone crazy. there's something kind of special about the seeds inside this pod, and I felt that it needed to be shared with these sisters, but I waited till the end of the lesson. The Spirit was so strong while

we taught and we were all crying at one point or another during the lesson. But right at the end, I broke open a couple of the seed pods and gave each of them a seed. Here's the lesson I wanted to prove and felt they

needed to be reminded of: God loves them and He shows His love in many ways. I'm including a picture of the seed and I think you'll understand what I mean.

Mahal ko kayo, look for the Hand of the Lord everyday,

Sister Jones  

p.s.

Yes, I do shower with a bucket of cold water...it's different and can be a little difficult, especially if you don't want to get too much stuff wet in the bathroom when it already takes half the day for the water to drain completely and for the residue to dry.

One in the Work

Hello Pamilya!

This week was a little interesting. We had our Zone interviews on Thursday and, because of a "brown out" (a scheduled black out for electric repairs), we went to Tarlac for them. So, instead of a five hour meeting of spiritual workshops and interviews in the morning here in Camiling, we spent an hour traveling on a bus, as a Zone, to Tarlac to make it to the mission office, and then didn't make it back to our area until about five and then we weren't able to go out until about 5:30. For us Sisters, that's a bit of a bummer since we're supposed to be back in our apartment no later than 8pm, but we did manage to find couple of people to teach so we didn't feel quite as guilty when we reported to the District Leader that night. Then Saturday was the opening of a bigger supper market in Camiling....let's just say it was hard to find people to teach that morning and early afternoon. 

I was very grateful for zone interviews though. Our missions Theme for the year is "We are One In the Work of Salvation" (referring to members, missionaries and leaders) and the subject that we are focusing on for February is Being Covenant Keepers. One of our workshops was about "To do the WILL of our Father" and the first thing the ZLs pointed out that we needed to do in order to do the will of our Heavenly Father was to get to Know Him. I can testify that that is so true. Why would we do something a certain way for someone if we know nothing about them, would we really be willing to do it? The same is with our Heavenly Father. How do we get to truly know Him? Prayer, diligent study in the scriptures, and willfully becoming obedient. Prayer because when you talk to someone one-on-one you tend to learn something from them and about them. Diligent study because the way a person acts in the past is a indicator of the way they act now and in the future. Willfully becoming obedient (not causally, but completely) because He manifests himself to us when we obey His commandments. I hope and pray that we all remember the covenants (a two way promise between God and man where god sets the terms) that we have made are not just a one time thing. They are lifelong and essential for our happiness now and in the eternities.

We had another Zone Acitvity: a scavenger hunt in the area around the chapel that ended in an unintentional water balloon fight, but it was so much fun.

My team

Sister Montemayor's team

Keep smiling and looking for the missionary opportunities around you!

Sister Jones

A Hike and a Baptism

We're only allowed to take money from a bank ATM or one that has a guard standing by one. Every guard has a huge shotgun as well as a handgun...I thought American security guards looked scary. My permanent retainer is/is almost broken...I don't know if I'll be able to find anyone to put it on again if it is coming off, trying to switch chewing to the other side of my mouth. So please don't freak out if one day I send a picture where my eye tooth is way above my gum line.

Grant, I don't blame you at all for staying at home after that extraction. Those were hunkers. Yes, I do miss the cold actually. Sounds like I'm missing one of the more interesting winters Moses Lake's had in a while.

Saryn, that sounds so familiar. I've spent an extra twenty minutes trying to find someones home too. You were actually in the car with me a couple of times on the way to Allison's house. I've actually played quelf before, the Smith's love that game, even though there are some very questionable questions/commands in there. I'm so glad that you're having fun with your friends.

Sydnee, I'm so glad you're my older sister, you know that right? You are always such a good example to me.

Hello Pamilya!

Sorry I wasn't able to really write last week, I was in charge of the Progress Record and sending it off, but it wouldn't download and then I couldn't email it to the Zone leaders until about fifteen minutes before we needed to leave the internet cafe...frustrating.

Last P-day, we had a Zone Activity where we went hiking at a campsite and it was beautiful. The view was amazing, not as clear as the view camping at home, but I still loved it.

Our mission president was a little concerned about the fact that some companionships hadn't really been doing their full companion and personal study on days where there is a Zone Activity so we had our personal study on the mountain (well, not exactly a mountain, it was only a five minute slightly steep hike). It reminds me of prophets in the times before Christ like Moses and Nephi, when they wanted to speak to the Lord, they would go to "the mountain". It's like the mountain was their nature made temple. Anyway, I was studying and felt the Spirit so strong and I felt God's love for me and for all of His children. I'm not saying I don't feel like that while I'm having my personal study in the apartment, but it's easier to feel the Spirit when the next door neighbor doesn't randomly start playing Bruno Mars and Michael Buble. (The windows always stay open, it's too hot to close them so it's something we can't control) I love studying the scriptures and the words of our Latter-day prophets.

Angela got baptized and confirmed this last weekend! She is such an awesome young women and can I just say that the Young Women of the branch I'm in are very supportive? He dad had nothing against us when we would come to teach her and would even sit in most of our lessons, but he didn't come to her baptism for some reason...but her cousin, a recent convert, and, I think, all the Young Women came to support her. I think she's going to have a great support group when she has questions.

We can find new investigators in the most unlikely of places. We were working on BRT (build relationship trust) with one of the less actives of the branch, they were harvesting mangoes, when out of the nearby corn field comes a very kind tatay (respectful term for someone older, or grandpa) named Tay Jonny. He was talking to us and we were able to do an OYM-to-teach and now we are teaching him and his wife. He is so kind, and very accepting to what we have been teaching. We recently talked about how there is a prophet on earth today and he talked for about three minutes how he was amazed that there was a living prophet on earth today. So, for those of you who start doing the OYM program that President (hmm..what's his name...) Baker (?) the work of the Lord will move forward. Missionaries have to do it everyday, but if there is one thing that helps them most it's when members start talking to people too. Think that being a member makes you look like an alien sometimes? Try being a missionary, that's when you really look weird and sometimes it's hard to connect with people because you are so different from everyone (even the members).

I'm so grateful for area that I'm in and for the kindness of the people here as well as the kindness of our Father in Heaven. Not just for me, think about it, He loves YOU. He knows you by NAME. He knows YOUR NEEDS and how you need to RECEIVE those things. I know this to be true, in the name of Jesus Christ amen

Mahal ko kayo!

Sister Jones

ps if anyone is/has been called to the Philippines and are a sister, do yourself a favor and get a couple sets of sheer nylons. the mosquitos love imported meat and bug spray isn't always enough to cover that fact up. 

Making Progress With The Language!

Hello Pamilya.

Things are going well over here. It's really hot, especially the last couple of days, but we've taught so many people. I've actually been able to teach a couple principles, with broken Tagalog, in a lesson without someone looking to my companion for translation. Yay! I'm still a far way, REALLY far way, from being at a five year old's capability to speak and understand, but people have been saying that I'm improving and that when I talk, I sound Filipino. So, apparently, I have the accent down. On to grammar!

This weekend is Angela's baptism and I am so excited for her. I mentioned her in my first email when I got into the field. She was going to have her interview with the District leader before church started yesterday, so Sister Montemayor and I were waiting at the doors to support her as she was going to her interview, and she didn't show up... so, we went to the chapel to be with our other investigators when during the opening hymn, Angela came in. She had her interview after Sunday School and is good to go for her baptism. Nothing is scarier than having someone who is so ready to accept the gospel suddenly not show up for their baptisimal interview.
I'm sorry, I don't have much time today, but I really enjoy this work and am so grateful for my Savior and for the scriptures and the Spirit they bring while I'm reading them.

Sister Mikenna Jones