31 With a Step-Son

Greetings Nerds of all ages!

Well, it´s official! I´m away from the land of my birth (in the mission, I mean). It´s a bit odd to walk the streets of a different city, but time will soon meld the irregularity into a smoother stone.
What´s also odd is basically never speaking English. My first two companions were primarily English speakers, so I was more adjusteed to speaking a mix of the two languages. Here, my comp speaks only spanish, and the two other Elders in our house are primarily Spanish speakers as well. This is gonna be GREAT for my language skills! (And it has been, heh heh.)
Also, as noted in the heading, Elder Serraty is actually my Step-Son (I´m his first comp away from his trainer. Elder Sullivan was my Step-Father)! It´s wack...I´M A SENIOR COMPANION!!!

Madre Vieja is indeed a glorious area, but our nighboors below us...now, they´re a diabolical sort. When I was in the car heading to the house for the first time, the other missionaries and the Branch President warned me that below us live a family of Jehovah´s Witnesses. I thought nothing of it, as members of such a church are normally very nice people. Later, however, when Elder Serraty and I went to intoduce ourselves to them, the mother of the family came out with a face of loathing, and told me, ¨I don´t want Mormons coming into my house¨. After some pressuring from Elder Serraty, she let us in, just so the new missionary (me) could intoduce himself. I told her that we just wanted to be freinds, and she responded with, ¨I don´t want to be your friend. I have my friends at church. I don´t need to be friends with the mormons¨. It was at this point that her son came out and intorduced himself. He was a bit frendiler, and started asking questions about doctrine of our church. We responded clearly to his questions, and testified several times to the truthfulness of the message. As we went to leave, we asked the mother if there was anything that we could do for her, to which she replied with a cold, ¨no¨. I couldn´t help but think with dread, ¨Oh no. This is going to be a very loooooong transfer.¨ It was at this point that the son suddenly put his arm around my shoulder, gave me a one arm hug and said, ¨I´m a returned missionary. We´re members of the church. Welcome to Madre Vieja.¨
Suddenly, the mother, the son, and Elder Serraty dissolved into histerical laughter. They then brought out their photo of the temple, as well as the Jesus Christ picture that every Momo has. ...I couldn´t stop laughing for about two days. :D

Ah! We also had an awesome experience with a visit from an Apostle of the Lord. Elder Holland of the 12 spoke to our entire mission, and I have to say, it was spectacular. (I nearly died of laughter when he told us, ¨I´m going to step out to call my bretheren of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, and then, when I come back, I´ll let you know if we´re headed for Jackson County.¨ (I´m not sure how many of you will get that.) His words were definetly inspired, and he spoke with a power that could have only come from the Spirit. (Also, in this same conference, I got to see Elder Thibault and Elder Sullivan again, along with missionaries from my group in the MTC.)

We also had a beautiful demonstration of the Spirit. Long story short, we contacted a house, and the ladies inside were not at all in the mood to listen. They openly attacked the church, and more often than not, talked loudly over us. Suddenly, in the midst of all this chaos, I felt the Spirit whisper, ¨Ask them as to how old they think you are.¨ At the time, I just thought, ¨What?¨ (Later, Elder Serraty told me he thought I was crazy at first when I asked the question.) However, such was definetly an inspired question, because our answers (18 and 19) seemed to extinguish their aggression. It was in this moment that Elder Serraty and I testified powerfully of the church, and invited the Spirit wish a force that I´ve never felt in my mission. In the end, they were completly quiet, and actually even asked for forgiveness for offending us. As we left, they even prayed for our well-being, and that the Hand of God would be with us in our Holy labor. The entire experience has just taught me truly the power of the Holy Spirit, and his power to melt hearts of stone.

Madre Vieja overall is just a glorious place. The members are loving, my companion is glorious, and the work rolls strong.

Hurrah for Israel!

-Elder Jones

My new Zone....I think this photo fairly describes us. More or less.

There's no day like a Monday! Especially when it's a P-Day! (Those would be MTC shorts I'm wearing. They were a gift from my old Ward Mission Leader.)

Elder Serraty accompanied by his Gringo Step-Father!