-Elder Jones
Monday, April 13, 2015
A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE!!
Wei! Just as a jot, you chaps CAN NOW write me by email! ...I still
can't respond to all because of time limitations, but I will try to hit
up a few every week. But yeah, the rules changed, and now I CAN write
y'all electronically! WOO!!!
Subject: This Is The Oldest I´ve Ever Been! (Also Week 35)
LEVEL UP!!! I´m now a level 19 Paladin! WOO!!!! (I´ve a photo about this that I´d love to send...but I think my card has a virus...the photos refuse to admit their existance in the computer.)
Nevertheless, I´m 19! I´m not sure what privileges this grants me...I´m sure I now have another attribute point or something. :D
My favorite thing about having missionary friends is that as I write, a pile of their weekly letters suddenly appear in my inbox. It´s glorious.
So! Brought back by poppular demand, HERE IT IS...THE GLORIOUS AND MYSTIFYINGLY MKZING (whoops, I mean Elder Joneszing) WEEKLY LETTER!!! YEAH!
Well, starting with my oldest memory, this last P-Day, our Zone visited a big hole in the ground (we rolled like tourists to these National Park-type caves near our area). It was rather exquisite; we had several deep conversations (Tim, if you´re reading this, high five). I´d send photos, but...umm...yeah.
Skipping ahead to later on in the week, as we entered into an apartment to teach a first lesson, my eyes fell upon the most beautiful and glorious person I´d ever seen in my life: a Chinese man speaking Spanish, clad in a shirt that displayed both the American and British flags. HE WAS LIKE THE HUMAN MANEFESTATION OF THE UNITY OF THE NATIONS!!!!! So glorious...
(You all were expecting something totally different when you started reading this.)
I´m not sure if you´ve seen the video (to my Parents: please put such on the blog where this emails are posted), but I had a wonderfully firey ending to the anniversary of my birth. We were downstairs from our house, in the house of the members who pranked me my first day in this area, when the son of this family challenged me to eat a little harmless red chili. (Okay, to be fair, he jokingly said, ¨Do you want one?¨, to which I pulled a YOLF (You Only Live Forever (my version of YOLO)) and ate one.)
...Yeah, my mouth was engulfed in flames. :D I was crying like a cracked aquarium, sweat poured from my gorgeous scalp, and my face was just a shade lighter than Rudolf´s Nose. The video you see is actually two minutes AFTER I ate the pepper, by which point I´d spewed the flaming midget vegetable corpse out of my mouth and into Outer Darkness. I nearly died.
And now, a spiritual note. In my mission, I´ve gained a strong testimony about the Gift of Tongues. I say this because I realized (after a while; it´s interesting that it´s taken me such a while to notice) that in our lessons, when the Spirit is present, my Spanish and my English seem to become one, and I can speak without difficulty (this is compared to outside of lessons, where on occasion (less now; this applies more to in the months before) I forget a point of grammar or mispronounce a word or fumble for a definition). Likewise, the fact that I was able to become fluent in a language in only six months attests to Divine Aid. The Lord does indeed give great assistance to His servants!
Also, I´ve started reading ¨Jesus The Christ¨. It is a glorious work, and really helps you to better understand the Lord´s ministry, before His birth, during His life, and after His death. I´d recommend such to all!
Paz y amor!
-Elder Jones, Lord of Highly Concentrated Wackiness
Nevertheless, I´m 19! I´m not sure what privileges this grants me...I´m sure I now have another attribute point or something. :D
My favorite thing about having missionary friends is that as I write, a pile of their weekly letters suddenly appear in my inbox. It´s glorious.
So! Brought back by poppular demand, HERE IT IS...THE GLORIOUS AND MYSTIFYINGLY MKZING (whoops, I mean Elder Joneszing) WEEKLY LETTER!!! YEAH!
Well, starting with my oldest memory, this last P-Day, our Zone visited a big hole in the ground (we rolled like tourists to these National Park-type caves near our area). It was rather exquisite; we had several deep conversations (Tim, if you´re reading this, high five). I´d send photos, but...umm...yeah.
Skipping ahead to later on in the week, as we entered into an apartment to teach a first lesson, my eyes fell upon the most beautiful and glorious person I´d ever seen in my life: a Chinese man speaking Spanish, clad in a shirt that displayed both the American and British flags. HE WAS LIKE THE HUMAN MANEFESTATION OF THE UNITY OF THE NATIONS!!!!! So glorious...
(You all were expecting something totally different when you started reading this.)
I´m not sure if you´ve seen the video (to my Parents: please put such on the blog where this emails are posted), but I had a wonderfully firey ending to the anniversary of my birth. We were downstairs from our house, in the house of the members who pranked me my first day in this area, when the son of this family challenged me to eat a little harmless red chili. (Okay, to be fair, he jokingly said, ¨Do you want one?¨, to which I pulled a YOLF (You Only Live Forever (my version of YOLO)) and ate one.)
...Yeah, my mouth was engulfed in flames. :D I was crying like a cracked aquarium, sweat poured from my gorgeous scalp, and my face was just a shade lighter than Rudolf´s Nose. The video you see is actually two minutes AFTER I ate the pepper, by which point I´d spewed the flaming midget vegetable corpse out of my mouth and into Outer Darkness. I nearly died.
And now, a spiritual note. In my mission, I´ve gained a strong testimony about the Gift of Tongues. I say this because I realized (after a while; it´s interesting that it´s taken me such a while to notice) that in our lessons, when the Spirit is present, my Spanish and my English seem to become one, and I can speak without difficulty (this is compared to outside of lessons, where on occasion (less now; this applies more to in the months before) I forget a point of grammar or mispronounce a word or fumble for a definition). Likewise, the fact that I was able to become fluent in a language in only six months attests to Divine Aid. The Lord does indeed give great assistance to His servants!
Also, I´ve started reading ¨Jesus The Christ¨. It is a glorious work, and really helps you to better understand the Lord´s ministry, before His birth, during His life, and after His death. I´d recommend such to all!
Paz y amor!
-Elder Jones, Lord of Highly Concentrated Wackiness
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Monday, April 6, 2015
Almost 34 weeks!!!
We (as a Zone) visited a cave today! I want to send photos, but I think my card has a virus that is preventing the photos from showing up on the computer!
Love ya! I´ve got to bounce! (This one hour of internet thing is super dificult...but I´m trying to sustain my Preisthood Leader in such.)
Monday, March 30, 2015
Almost 33 weeks!!
Ah...vacation...yeah, here, we´re in what´s called ¨Semana Santa¨ (Holy Week). ...I´m not sure if we´re going to get any work done or not, because basically no one is home, and those who are really don´t want to listen (it´s ironic: a week about Christ, and nobody wants to hear about Him) :D ...they go to the beach, visit family...sit at home and drink beer...you know, the usual. ;D
We had seven people in church! That´s cool. Uh...stories...I can´t really remember. OOH! We accidentally made ice cream! WOO!!! I wanted to make an orange slushie, but I didn´t have any water, so I used milk instead. When we took the concoction out of the blender, we realized we´d made a type of sorbet! We did it again today, this time with strawberry drink mix instead of orange! Hmm...what new shtuff do I have to talk about...? Huh. I got nothing. :D
Kids were an spring break, so we all were able to email back and forth to him! So awesome!!
We had seven people in church! That´s cool. Uh...stories...I can´t really remember. OOH! We accidentally made ice cream! WOO!!! I wanted to make an orange slushie, but I didn´t have any water, so I used milk instead. When we took the concoction out of the blender, we realized we´d made a type of sorbet! We did it again today, this time with strawberry drink mix instead of orange! Hmm...what new shtuff do I have to talk about...? Huh. I got nothing. :D
Monday, March 23, 2015
32 And Lots of Stuff to Do! (Stupid...the names are getting worse... :D )
*Huff...puff...huff...HOOOOOO.*
I shall be completely honest: that week was completely exhausting. Partially because our P-Day was shifted to today, so as to permit us to go to the TEMPLE!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! *Dances like The Doctor*
But yeah, the past few days, I´ve been completely exhausted. It´s amazing how much your body can come to rely on that one day of the week. Nevertheless, ¡VAMOS PA´LANTE! (The latter is a Dominican word consisting of ¨para¨ and ¨adelante¨. It translates basically to mean ¨we go forward¨.)
You know the best thing about extra long weeks? I remember even less than normal! I thought a quick check to my agenda would set things right, but nope...I can´t recall squat! Although, I DO recall DOING squats... ;P
All I can really say is that we´ve been working really hard this past week. At least I hope so; we come home exhausted every night! I´ve actually gotten really bad at writing in my journal because of such...I just zonk out! Really, it´s a testimony that God is giving us a bucketload of help, because there have been a few days in which I´ve thought, ¨Uh...how am I get through today?¨ But all has worked out. That´s another thing: our goal should not be just to get through today, but to completly and utterly dominate! Actually, when I´ve focused on such, the mornings have been a lot easier; I´ve gotten up without as much struggle. GLORIOUS!
Next week, I should hopefully have a cool story or something...heh heh. :D
Paz y amor!
-Elder Jones
I shall be completely honest: that week was completely exhausting. Partially because our P-Day was shifted to today, so as to permit us to go to the TEMPLE!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! *Dances like The Doctor*
But yeah, the past few days, I´ve been completely exhausted. It´s amazing how much your body can come to rely on that one day of the week. Nevertheless, ¡VAMOS PA´LANTE! (The latter is a Dominican word consisting of ¨para¨ and ¨adelante¨. It translates basically to mean ¨we go forward¨.)
You know the best thing about extra long weeks? I remember even less than normal! I thought a quick check to my agenda would set things right, but nope...I can´t recall squat! Although, I DO recall DOING squats... ;P
All I can really say is that we´ve been working really hard this past week. At least I hope so; we come home exhausted every night! I´ve actually gotten really bad at writing in my journal because of such...I just zonk out! Really, it´s a testimony that God is giving us a bucketload of help, because there have been a few days in which I´ve thought, ¨Uh...how am I get through today?¨ But all has worked out. That´s another thing: our goal should not be just to get through today, but to completly and utterly dominate! Actually, when I´ve focused on such, the mornings have been a lot easier; I´ve gotten up without as much struggle. GLORIOUS!
Next week, I should hopefully have a cool story or something...heh heh. :D
Paz y amor!
-Elder Jones
Monday, March 16, 2015
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
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
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| My new Zone....I think this photo fairly describes us. More or less. |
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| 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! |
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