2 years

As I reflect on my mission, it's hard to think that almost 2 years have passed since I've seen family and friends. I think that as one loses himself in the work, the culture, etc, you kinda just forget about everything else. Not entirely obviously, you still worry about things (school, family, how many people email you haha) but the time has really flown by. I feel like just last week I was in my first area freaking out about everything. 

About 5 years ago I would say that I didn't believe in God. But today I can say without a doubt in my heart that I know that we all have a very loving Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is my best friend. Both of them know how I and how all of us feel in every moment, and know when to help us, and they do in a very special, divine way.

It's interesting because I can say that not only due to my own experiences that I've had, but also because I've seen hundreds if not thousands of lives touched by Christ and his love. A mission is a wonderful start to a life, and I will never ever be able to thank God enough for the opportunity I've had to represent His Son and His church these two years.

A big thank you to all those who have written me during these past 2 years, sorry that I've been pretty bad at responding to all you guys haha, but when I get home I'll have all day, all week to be able to talk to you guys. In the mission I've got an hour a week hahaha. 

I feel like the biggest change that that has happened to me is my capacity to just love people like crazy. That also means that sometimes I get even more upset and frustrated with people because there are more feelings involved, but I know that life is just so much better when we love. If we can love people life just changes. it's easier, easier to put up with, and really we're just happier. And the best part is that loving isn't just a coincidence, I can choose to love everyone! I don't have to say "well that guy just isn't nice so I CANT love him" I mean it doesn't really work like that. God loves ALL his children...He loves those who make bad decisions, those who accept Him, those who say He doesn't exist, He loves all of us despite our flaws and weaknesses. I'm not perfect, but I have a perfect example to follow, we all have it, and my time as a missionary has helped me to learn more about how to follow Him. 

I love you guys! and I'll see you all next week.

August 18th 6pm - my house

-con mucho amor, Elder Jones

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!

we got high today

Almost 22 months as a missionary and I still make dumb jokes like that. Today we went to the torre latino. It's just this really big tower. We went to the museum and I didn't actually learn why it was built or why its there, but it was pretty cool.

My compa and I inside the torre. 

It was really interesting looking out on all of Mexico city, and we could see things like the airport and the temple even though they're kinda far away. 

This past week it rained a lot. It wasn't a whole lot of fun. Getting wet all day every day as a missionary is not the best in the world. And the other part of that is that we were knocking doors all week, which is neither the best in the world, and so we spent many hours knocking doors while getting wet, and it was slightly miserable. But I remember in some moment something just clicked, and my situation didn't change, and nothing got better, and I was still knocking on doors and getting wet, but my perspective changed, and I was just content. I was happy that I was serving the Lord. Even though my circumstances weren't wonderful, I just chose to be happy. Many times in life we let our situations and circumstances and trials define us and control our lives. But yesterday in a meeting a new sister missionary from Fort Worth said something really interesting. She had to talk about hope, and in broken Spanish she said that if we want hope, we have to choose to have hope. It's as simple as that. If we make a conscious decision to change something, we can change it. That's what I was thinking about today, is that we can always be happy when and if we choose to be happy. Love you guys a lot! Have a great week, choose to be happy!

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​Elder Jones

Pictures

"are you apostate?" no, we're mormons. "so you're apostate?"

Buenas tardes del hermoso lugar de la Ciudad de México. This week was just another normal missionary week. I could talk about miracles if you wanted but I'll save those for after the mission. I'll share one experience though: we were contacting some lady we found in the street when this other guy walks up and just butts in and asks "what are your names?" tbh he kinda scared me and smelled bad (i may have judged him a little bit but after being robbed 3 times you don't trust anyone) and so i didn't understand him, and he decided to ask me in English, and proceeded to ask if i wished for him to speak to me in English. I told him no and we began to talk and he said a bunch of weird things and then told us we were apostate a few times, and i finally got a little tired of listening to him and asked "sorry, but why are you talking to us?" and he said something along the lines of "I don't like you. I don't want to see you here. i don't want you here. Go away. Don't knock doors. If you want to talk to someone, you make an appointment. So go away." So I extended my hand to say goodbye and he told me "no. it's okay. bye." and so I wished him a nice afternoon and left. If you've ever asked yourself, a mission is about 40% experiences like that, 50% getting ignored or rejected nicely, and 10% getting accepted. but you get used to it, and typically the 10% makes the other 90% worth it.

This week I have learned some cool things. I've been studying the Book of Mormon a lot and it really is just such a complex thing. to show you a little bit of its complexity:

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​This is every name that shows up in the Book of Mormon, up to around Alma 40 something. I couldn't get it all done before they erased it, but maybe some of you guys could figure this out. or maybe not because its in Spanish. but either way, I've been thinking a lot about the Book of Mormon this week. I don't know how many of you remember the earthquake back in September, but there's a certain area here in the city called la Condesa. it's pretty fancy, lots of big buildings and stuff like that. but there was a brand new building that had been built when the earthquake hit. the building didn't fall, but was so severely damaged that it can't be used anymore. Someone sued, and an investigation was done, and it turns out that the foundation wasn't dug deep enough and that's why the building ended up that way. but many times it's like that with our testimonies. We don't have a good foundation, or maybe we think we do, or maybe we think that our foundation is deep enough when really it isn't. There's a story in the Book of Mormon in 3rd Nephi 14 that talks about this:

24 Therefore, whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock—
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand—
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

And then if we go to Helaman 5:12 we can learn a little more about this rock:

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty stormshall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Our testimonies will never fall if we can build them upon a firm foundation. and for me the Book of Mormon is one of the firmest foundations there is. When we read that book, and study it thoroughly, it really is impossible to disprove it. I know that it's true. it can help us in every moment, and answers many questions that we have in our lives. 

I'm out of time but my next thought will come next week! love you guys, have a good week!

Elder Jones