SO I had a pretty interesting week. Thursday I had divisions with the Leaders of our Zone. I went to another place called Parque Leloir for a day and got to work with a missionary from Peru. He´s a stud, hence he´s a leader. Saturday we had a baptism for a man named Jose. There were two baptisms scheduled for that day. Jose´s, and the baptism for the Stake President´s son. But the President told us he wanted them separate because they organized his son´s more for him... So we had to try to set up Jose´s baptism the day before. I was dead nervous that no one would show up for Jose. We had Jose´s at 5:30 and the son´s at 6:30. All in all around 15 people showed up for Jose´s and a million people with tons of decorations and food for the after party for the son. We were a bit peeved because it wasn´t really fair for Jose. BUT, I know that the baptism of Jose was way better because it was so humble and spiritual and it changed his life for ever. My prayers to have an amazing baptism for Jose had been answered!
So some exciting news in the mission here: This mission has had a grand goal to get 200 baptisms in one transfer period ( 6 weeks ) for some odd years now. January and February are basically summer here with the most vacations and always the best times for the number of baptisms. So this last transfer we really stressed on our work to try to reach our goal. And we just had the announcement a couple hours ago that we had 201 baptisms this transfer! We all exploded when we heard it. They even made T shirts, which was pretty funny. On top of that! Today my trainer was being transferred to a new area, and I was going to receive my second companion. We have nick names for relationships between companions here, for example trainers are Dad´s. The next companion after your Dad is your Uncle. So I just got my uncle. It´s always tough when you start out with your tio (uncle in Spanish) because you know the area and he doesn´t so you have to do the planning and everything even thought you can´t really speak or have much experience. So this is a definitely a new opportunity to push myself! My tio is from Missouri and he has a really patient, lax attitude about him. Which is exactly what I need because trying to figure out how to run the area is going to be hectic. It´s also like a new step in my mission because a lot of the elders I got to know in my zone left for other areas and new ones are coming. I have either one or two more transfers left here then I get to move to a new one too!
But for now the work continues! Thanks for all your support and encouragement! I´m still alive and walking each day with my eyes wide open to help people!
Elder Trevor Jones
Monday, February 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Same Old Same Old
I´ve had a few enlightening experiences here. The whole purpose of serving a mission is to help people. We believe that the greatest help and blessing we can give to people is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with all of the promised blessings it brings to families and the lives of people. That is essentially our purpose. I´ve finally been starting to see the change our efforts have been making.
There´s a man around thirty six years old who feels he has a problem with his heart. The doctors tell him he doesn´t have anything but he says he feels his heart beating slower than normal at times and he feels he is in mortal danger. He´s in a state of depression because he fears for his life. We constantly visit this man and we know the best way to help him help himself is to give him hope and get him out of his sorrowful state. The mind is such a powerful factor to help us when we´re sick and he won´t get better if he never thinks he will be. After several lessons and visits I finally started to see a spark in this man´s eyes. He laughs more, he smiles more, every time we come he says he´s a little better. I finally started to see it. He is really interested in our church because he doesn´t like his past experiences with his former ones but he keeps having doubts about the differences. We know we can bring joy and hope to his life. The same happened with another man who had many trials lately with his family, his job, basically all his life. We were able to show him a video about perserverence (Mormon messages from Elder Holland) and he started to cry and change everything about himself. This work is true. The blessings it brings are true.
I´ve had so many experiences like that and I can´t wait to be more apart of them by learning the language and growing in my knowledge!
Of course today we played some more ping pong. I actually threw out my back bending down to pick up the ping pong. I´m a little worried because I´ve never had a problem like that before. But our mission president told me exactly what to do and I already feel better. I only have one more week left with my trainer and then I get someone new! I´m excited to see who it´s going to be!
That´s about all I´ll talk about this time. The rest of the week is generally the same. Til next time
Elder Trevor Jones
There´s a man around thirty six years old who feels he has a problem with his heart. The doctors tell him he doesn´t have anything but he says he feels his heart beating slower than normal at times and he feels he is in mortal danger. He´s in a state of depression because he fears for his life. We constantly visit this man and we know the best way to help him help himself is to give him hope and get him out of his sorrowful state. The mind is such a powerful factor to help us when we´re sick and he won´t get better if he never thinks he will be. After several lessons and visits I finally started to see a spark in this man´s eyes. He laughs more, he smiles more, every time we come he says he´s a little better. I finally started to see it. He is really interested in our church because he doesn´t like his past experiences with his former ones but he keeps having doubts about the differences. We know we can bring joy and hope to his life. The same happened with another man who had many trials lately with his family, his job, basically all his life. We were able to show him a video about perserverence (Mormon messages from Elder Holland) and he started to cry and change everything about himself. This work is true. The blessings it brings are true.
I´ve had so many experiences like that and I can´t wait to be more apart of them by learning the language and growing in my knowledge!
Of course today we played some more ping pong. I actually threw out my back bending down to pick up the ping pong. I´m a little worried because I´ve never had a problem like that before. But our mission president told me exactly what to do and I already feel better. I only have one more week left with my trainer and then I get someone new! I´m excited to see who it´s going to be!
That´s about all I´ll talk about this time. The rest of the week is generally the same. Til next time
Elder Trevor Jones
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Short one!
This probably shouldn´t go on the blog because it´s going to be way short. (The blog poster decided it was worth putting on the blog! :)) I only have six pesos on me and I´m taking a lot of time on the Internet so I don´t know if I´ll have enough to pay haha. Anyway just got done playing some ping pong and eating asado (Argentine Barbeque) and now we´re here doing email. This week was a bit slow. We´re kind of spending more time with our really good investigators. Maybe because my trainer will be leaving in two weeks and really wants to do all he can with them before he goes.
I´ll have more talk about hopefully next monday. Happy Valentines Day!
Elder Trevor Jones
I´ll have more talk about hopefully next monday. Happy Valentines Day!
Elder Trevor Jones
Monday, February 7, 2011
February 7, 2011
Well this week was definitely strange and different for us. Tuesday we had a zone conference which basically lasted all day. I´m glad I got to see some friends and we heard talks from the President, his wife, the assisstants, and other little lectures and things. Obviously the best part was lunch. Then on Wednesday I had divisions with my district leader again! Only this time we were in my area and I had to plan the entire day and lead us! It was crazy being my first time leading. But everything worked out almost perfectly! I had no idea which bus we needed to take to get to which area but somehow when we got off we were on the exact street I wanted to get to! It was really inspiring to see such a successful day from what I tried to plan. Miracles really do happen after our faith and after we do all we can. Thursday we got a surprise visit from the traveling assistants. Basically in our mission there are four assistants to the president. Usually there´s two but when the rare occassion where both will finish their mission at the same time, they split them into two groups in order to train the next assistants. One group is the regular assistants that do all the duties of the assistants and the other group is called the traveling assistants. These two Elders travel throughout all the mission and join in the work of every area. Each day they travel sometimes minutes and sometimes hours by train to a new area and join the companionship there. Thursday happened to be our day! It´s always sudden and a surprise. Basically I would have to lead the area again because what happens is we don´t work as a group of four but split off into two groups of two. Myself and one of the assistants would take one part of our area and my companion with his assistant would take the other. The assistant who accompanioned me is from Chile and he is almost done with his mission. The assistants are generally the best of the mission because of their hard work and their experience. So I really got to see a completely different way of doing the work that day. We got a lot of work done but unfortunately a lot of the people I wanted to visit weren´t home. Well that´s the mission life. Today we played ping pong again. We had more of a tournament with the stakes being a type of dingdong pastry here called Alfojors. They´re like a small cake made with chocolate and sometimes with layers and fillings. Basically like a ding dong with cake batter. They´re really popular among the missionaries. We´re so sloppy with how the tournament was organized haha. We basically just played against each other and everyone just ate them together anyway. My ping pong skills began to resurface too haha! That´s about all that has been exciting this week. The next transfers are in less than a month and my companion will be leaving. Which means I´ll have to do a lot of the planning and clueing my new companion in on who is who and what we do here.
I´ve really learned a lot this week regarding the viewpoints of our country from those of south america. And I don´t only say this from the view points of Argentines. My companion is from Columbia and I talk a lot with Elders from Chile and Peru. First off, they´re super prideful for their countries. If I slip up and say something that doesn´t give the idea that Argentina is the best country in the world, it could be fatal. It really makes me think about relations with us and the rest of the world. For instance, theres a lot of english and united states influence here. They all know who Obama is and about our celebrities and movies and music artists and such things. But do we know who their President is? Do we have any knowledge regarding each of their countries like they do ours? I believe the majority of us don´t, which makes them all a bit resentful at us. But the truth is they really are a very loving people, I believe even moreso than us. My opinion is that we are pretty haughty and it´s true that most of us really don´t care about much outside our country. For instance we use a unit system that really makes no sense at all and the rest of the world uses the metric system. I didn´t know much about central or south america before the mission. To me, for the most part, latinos were basically all the same. I was definitely proved wrong and regret ever thinking that a thousand fold. If you say that here they will definitely be offended. I think that´s one of the reasons I´m here. To help show me the light about this people and relate it to the others about how the countries of the world view each other. It really is a mind churner. Despite how Argentines view ¨Yankees¨ (Americans from USA), or how we view latinos, I have nothing but the greatest love for my country and for the people of Argentina!
That´s about it for this week. Thanks for all your love and support in keeping up with my endeavours to help the people of Argentina! Take care everyone! I´m grateful for my friends from school who have recently sent me DearElders! They really made me happy! I mean you, Kaitlen and Aletta! Thanks for remembering me haha!
Elder Trevor Jones
I´ve really learned a lot this week regarding the viewpoints of our country from those of south america. And I don´t only say this from the view points of Argentines. My companion is from Columbia and I talk a lot with Elders from Chile and Peru. First off, they´re super prideful for their countries. If I slip up and say something that doesn´t give the idea that Argentina is the best country in the world, it could be fatal. It really makes me think about relations with us and the rest of the world. For instance, theres a lot of english and united states influence here. They all know who Obama is and about our celebrities and movies and music artists and such things. But do we know who their President is? Do we have any knowledge regarding each of their countries like they do ours? I believe the majority of us don´t, which makes them all a bit resentful at us. But the truth is they really are a very loving people, I believe even moreso than us. My opinion is that we are pretty haughty and it´s true that most of us really don´t care about much outside our country. For instance we use a unit system that really makes no sense at all and the rest of the world uses the metric system. I didn´t know much about central or south america before the mission. To me, for the most part, latinos were basically all the same. I was definitely proved wrong and regret ever thinking that a thousand fold. If you say that here they will definitely be offended. I think that´s one of the reasons I´m here. To help show me the light about this people and relate it to the others about how the countries of the world view each other. It really is a mind churner. Despite how Argentines view ¨Yankees¨ (Americans from USA), or how we view latinos, I have nothing but the greatest love for my country and for the people of Argentina!
That´s about it for this week. Thanks for all your love and support in keeping up with my endeavours to help the people of Argentina! Take care everyone! I´m grateful for my friends from school who have recently sent me DearElders! They really made me happy! I mean you, Kaitlen and Aletta! Thanks for remembering me haha!
Elder Trevor Jones
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