welcome to the jungle

This week I went to the jungle! I'll send some pictures soon. Let me tell the story: there's a girl, whose name is Blanca. We call her Blanquita. She's 18. She lives in a place called la Pedrera. la Pedrera is a farther, poorer part of our area, and at the very end of that part of the area there's a dirt road, and then there's a trail, and then there's not even a trail, it's just "the jungle" and you make your own pathway. Blanca lives at the end of this pathway in a house made out of sticks and tarps. They heat up food and stuff like that by the fire, no stoves or ovens. There is no carpet or linoleum floors, just dirt. In January Blanquita got a disease that paralized her from the waist down. She couldn't use her legs for a while, and then she got the feeling back and had a walker, and now in July she's walking fine. But this week I got to meet her. We taught her the restauration (the pamphlet in the picture....that's on the roof of the church btw)

On the front of this pamphlet there's a picture of Jesus. He's holding a little lamb. It looks like he loves the lamb and he's hugging it tightly. I explained this to Blanquita, and explained that there's a certain way that we can access that love that he has for us, and we do it through covenants, or promises, with God. The first of all these covenants is baptism. Blanquita accepted to be baptized on august 12th, and we're going to work with her so that that can happen. I've met many people like Blanquita in the past 23 months, but her story touches me. She's still willing to follow God despite her circumstances. How many of us would do the same? Blanquita is a great example for me, of humility and love for the Lord. Hopefully one day I can also make sacrifices like she does. I know Jesus loves me. He's my best friend. I've come to know him much better throughout my time in the mission. And I'll never be able to deny it. I love you guys!  Have a great week, Elder Jones

Trunky

I've been trunky for a while, but idk what the big deal about it is. I mean everyone is always like "elder are you dying?" "elder do you want to go home?" "elder are you trunky?" and I mean yes I'm ready to go home, I've been ready to see my family and friends and have a normal life for quite a while now, but that doesn't matter! Just gotta keep working. Obviously I want to see my family and I think about home a lot, mainly because every day I've got to tell at least one person that I've got almost 23 months in the mission. But this life isn't about what we want to do. There are lots of things I could do.....get a tattoo, or drink coffee, or play soccer on Sundays, but does God care about that? He wants us to be happy but in his way. We have to be obedient and do his will, not ours. That's how we'll be happy eternally. So yes I'm trunky, but it's normal. And I'll keep working, the same waywlaways I always went to church even though there were some days I would have preferred playing with the FC Dallas club or something like that haha.  In the mission you've gotta have hope. I mean if you don't, you just want to die. Actually, you want to die but you live because you have hope haha. That hope, like Moroni says in Ether 12 that faith is an anchor for our souls. Without that anchor we just float really wherever. That anchor keeps us tied to the gospel. Losing yourself in the work is also interesting. If you always focus on things like "man when will this be over" or "this sucks and is hard" or stuff like that, we cant immerse ourselves in the work.  Sometime we'll have those thoughts and stuff, but if we're lost in the work, they don't affect us too much. We continue on with life. I don't count the days hahaha. No worries there and I'm laughing about 75 percent of the day. The other 25 percent I'm either spiritual or angry. But I get over being angry pretty quick bc I laugh about something haha. Relying on the Savior is also a really interesting point. Someone once told me that they believe in God because we cant do it alone. TBH we can do this life alone, pretty easily. Lots of people do. But we cant do eternity alone. And life gets way easier whenever we rely on the Savior. Alma 7:11-12 talks about this, how the Lord took everything upon him to help us and that's pretty cool. It's a principle that's necessary for our lives.  Love you lots mom!! Have a great week!

​Elder Romero and I did interchanges and had a movie night. We probably should have gone to bed earlier hahaha

 ​I got my sombrero too

baptism in the water

baptizing in the water is my favorite thing to do

​in our ward we have about 180 active members! thats a lot of people, especially here in mexico. we got to church yesterday and this lady was like "elders! can you sing a special musical number right now?" and so out of nowhere i had to learn some random hymn on the piano and the other 3 elders in the ward with some other members sang (pretty terribly) but im sure the spirit was felt. 

haha but anyway im in the middle of nowhere! i mean literally people ride horses everywhere here. theres also cars and stuff, but horses are very popular. 

​heres just a sneak peek at my area. there are also pyramids! 

but anyway this week i was reading in mark about when Christ goes to heal jairos daughter, and so jairo goes up to him and is like "hey i need help me daughter is gonna die! and they start to go but then the lady touches Jesus clothes and is healed for her faith. but then as they continue on their way they say "whats the point in going? she already died!" but they continue and as they get there, it says that people made fun of and mocked Jesus for going to heal her, but he puts them aside and takes in the parents and his disciples (note that these are probably the only people that believed that Christ could heal her) and goes in and raises her from the dead. but whats interesting about this is that the people made fun of Christ, but he went in to cure her anyway. he put them aside and did what he had to do. i get made fun of a lot or yelled at or cussed at and ya know all that kind of stuff for being white, or Mormon, here in mexico, and its tough sometimes, but we can always follow Christs example and just put them aside. but the other interesting part is that he only took in the parents and his disciples to see the miracle. the others didn't deserve to see it and have that confirmation of their testimony. just a few things to reflect on this week. Jesus is cool!!! and hes our friend!! love you guys a lot, have a great week!