So I got my second companion, or my tio (uncle), last Monday and right off the bat we went out to work! This week was the hardest I had to work and think! He didn´t know the area so basically I had to do all the planning! The biggest problem is our area is so big I can´t visit so many people and make good use of our time because they all live so far apart! But after the week ended it all worked out it looks like! We definitely walked around a lot more but because of that we talked to sooo many people and met soooo many people who were interested in our message! Our number of new investigators exploded and we taught so many little lessions here and there. Another miracle that came about in my time of need, my spanish errupted with confidence! I feel like I can finally speak somewhat comfortably with anyone! It´s like it just all triggered at once rather than gradual progression. This first week was mostly finding new people to teach and next week is almost already booked solid with all of our new appointments we made. My new companion´s name is Elder Poeppelmeier. He´s from Missouri and he is the most focused missionary I´ve met so far. He´s a giant of patience and humility and the only thing I think he could improve on is his confidence when he talks. But that´s why he´s with me! I was really taken aback yesterday when after we had a short contact with a lady who talked a ton and I presented The Book of Mormon to her and asked her to read and pray about it, he was really excited and told me that I showed him some things I used that he never thought about using before and that I helped him learn more. I feel like we have such unity because what one of us might lack the other has in spades! I´m truly blessed to have him as my companion! The area is definitely going to change, for the better. We´ve been starting to see the fruits of our efforts through the tender mercies of the Lord with some of our investigators! We started to get the ward a lot more involved in our work too which is a huge help.
Basically we have an older couple that attends church every Sunday and no one knows why. They never try to progress or have the desire to be baptised. The lady even sings in the choir. The man is really hard headed and doesn´t want to change anything he´s doing. They´ve been coming for like a year. We wanted to try to set up lessons with them to help them enjoy the church even more but they never really had interest in hearing the missionaries. What a miracle we received when another member, named Hermano Valasquiez, who doesn´t have the chance to come to our ward very often came thing weekend and talked to them a lot and gave a lot of info about them. They like him a lot apparently. So we wanted to try to set up an appointment with them and bring. We called him to see if he could help us invite them for some time during the week and what a surprise when he told us that he met the man that same night in the grocery store and challenged him to be baptised, and he accepted! We were at a loss for words and now we´re doing what we can to teach them what they need to know to go through with it and Hno. Valasquiez is going to help us the whole way! How exciting! There´s also two brothers that are twins who have been coming to church for a long time too without really any desire to join. Basically they only came because the missionaries were good friends with them but they don´t want to do anything more than hang out with us. So we started getting them involved in the choir! And lo and behold they started making so many friends fast and now we think they found more reasons to come besides just us! We´re really excited for them because they´re 20 years old and really like good friends to us. The gospel is the greatest gift we can give to our good friends here to help them. Also it seems left and right we found or have been given references to people who already want to be baptised but just need to take the lessons with us and get to church! The blessings really do come after all we can do!
Yesterday was my cumplemes (monthly anniversary) here in Argentina! I´ve been here a total of three months already! Time is just blasting past me! Plus the two months I had in the MTC I have a total of five months in the mission! Que loco! I feel like an old missionary already! There were lots of changes last transfer period and a lot of missionaries in our zone got swapped out so there´s a lot of new faces when I´ll be going to the zone meeting tomorrow. Today my district of three companionships got together to eat at a buffet called Gran Moron. Eating chinese food in Argentina is pretty silly, but oh so good.
That´s about all the excitement for this week. Thank all of you for your support and keeping up with my adventures in this marvelous work here in Argentina! I can´t wait to share all my stories and experiences with you all when we see each other again! Take care every one of you!
Con Amor, Elder Trevor Jones
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
My Tio is Here
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
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
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
Monday, January 31, 2011
Zone Conference
I heard about Steven´s reassignment to Alabama. I´m glad he´s finally getting out of the MTC haha. This week my companion and I worked hard. It felt wonderful. Our mission has a goal for this transfer (6 weeks) to get 200 baptisms. Last year at this time they got 195. Now that I´m here 200 will be nothing! January, February, and March are, for some reason, the highest baptizing months here. Probably because here those months are during summer.
Tomorrow I have my first zone conference. Basically we go to the mission offices and stay there for almost the whole day and listen to talks from the mission President and his assistants etc. We all also have to prepare a talk in our opposite language (english for the latinos) and we will be randomly chosen to speak in front of everyone. I don´t remember if I mentioned this but It´s pretty sweet that in the missions in spanish countries, the missionaries that already speak spanish learn english. I thought that was really cool. My companion knows a good ammount. He studied a little before the mission because he someday wants to go to the USA and study at BYU. I love helping the latinos with their english when they ask me. It´s one of the few things I feel like I can teach well.
Well I finally got sick. Saturday was the hardest day I´ve had yet, health wise. Sometime the past week I ate something bad and threw up Saturday morning. The rest of the day I was able to work with my companion but I felt like if I ate anything I wouldn´t be able to keep it in my stomache. I felt fine Sunday fortunately. Today I played some ping pong with the other missionaries. We just ate pizza and came to do our emails. Nothing else too exciting really. Tomorrow should be interesting and long.
Thanks for reading and giving me your support everyone!
-Elder Trevor Jones
Tomorrow I have my first zone conference. Basically we go to the mission offices and stay there for almost the whole day and listen to talks from the mission President and his assistants etc. We all also have to prepare a talk in our opposite language (english for the latinos) and we will be randomly chosen to speak in front of everyone. I don´t remember if I mentioned this but It´s pretty sweet that in the missions in spanish countries, the missionaries that already speak spanish learn english. I thought that was really cool. My companion knows a good ammount. He studied a little before the mission because he someday wants to go to the USA and study at BYU. I love helping the latinos with their english when they ask me. It´s one of the few things I feel like I can teach well.
Well I finally got sick. Saturday was the hardest day I´ve had yet, health wise. Sometime the past week I ate something bad and threw up Saturday morning. The rest of the day I was able to work with my companion but I felt like if I ate anything I wouldn´t be able to keep it in my stomache. I felt fine Sunday fortunately. Today I played some ping pong with the other missionaries. We just ate pizza and came to do our emails. Nothing else too exciting really. Tomorrow should be interesting and long.
Thanks for reading and giving me your support everyone!
-Elder Trevor Jones
Sunday, January 30, 2011
So hot!
Well I need to make this one fast because I only have four pesos on me now and time costs money (on the computer)! Ahhh! Anyway there wasn´t a whole lot of excitement this week. The best was on monday for P day I got to play some legit soccer with a bunch of latinos. I actually did really good which was awesome. We got super crazy at some times and laughed a ton and had an amazing time. Afterwards we went to the small house/pention where another companionship are staying and had a barbeque! The meat here is so much better than the states! Probably because none of it is fake haha. It was amazing after just throwing it on a grill behind the house. All of our things are super cheap and poor. There wasn´t a grill, just a patch of dirt with a rack. We had to buy the wood and the charcoal and start the fire and just roast the meet behind the house in this sort of court area. Then we made a common potato salad here with potatoes, eggs, mayonaise, and onions. It was so delicious.
It´s amazing at how much I´m actually learning about other cultures here, moreso than the culture of Argentina where I´m actually living. One of the Elders during the barbeque is from Hawaii. We spent a ton of the time sharing jokes and talking. I got to learn a lot about the Hawaiin culture from him. Also that all their jokes involve a Hawaiin (who´s always a stud), a Japanese, and a Portuge ( apparently they always make fun of the Portugese). Also my companion is from Columbia and I talk a lot with another Elder from Chile. So I´m really learning a lot about several cultures. It´s really cool.
These past few days have been ridiculous. Everyone who has sent me letters here always say how cold it is and they can´t wait for the sun to return. I sure can! The average humidity here is always 60% - 99%. It´s always an inferno in the summer! Tuesday was ridiculous, with 108 F and 99% humidity! And ya, it did rain and it didn´t get any colder. I never saw so many beads of sweat on a person´s forehead before. Looking at my companion´s face, it was like trying to count the rocks in a mound of gravel. But that´s the mission life. I hear winter is just as crazy. That the humidity makes you feel cold no matter how many layers of clothes you have on. Haha bring it on!
We also kicked but with our work these past couple days. Visited a ton of people and shared a lot of lessons and spiritual thoughts. I love days like this when we accomplish so much! Well time to jet. Oh and this post is on Thursday because the internet died last monday so I couldn´t email. Thanks for reading!
-Elder Trevor Jones
It´s amazing at how much I´m actually learning about other cultures here, moreso than the culture of Argentina where I´m actually living. One of the Elders during the barbeque is from Hawaii. We spent a ton of the time sharing jokes and talking. I got to learn a lot about the Hawaiin culture from him. Also that all their jokes involve a Hawaiin (who´s always a stud), a Japanese, and a Portuge ( apparently they always make fun of the Portugese). Also my companion is from Columbia and I talk a lot with another Elder from Chile. So I´m really learning a lot about several cultures. It´s really cool.
These past few days have been ridiculous. Everyone who has sent me letters here always say how cold it is and they can´t wait for the sun to return. I sure can! The average humidity here is always 60% - 99%. It´s always an inferno in the summer! Tuesday was ridiculous, with 108 F and 99% humidity! And ya, it did rain and it didn´t get any colder. I never saw so many beads of sweat on a person´s forehead before. Looking at my companion´s face, it was like trying to count the rocks in a mound of gravel. But that´s the mission life. I hear winter is just as crazy. That the humidity makes you feel cold no matter how many layers of clothes you have on. Haha bring it on!
We also kicked but with our work these past couple days. Visited a ton of people and shared a lot of lessons and spiritual thoughts. I love days like this when we accomplish so much! Well time to jet. Oh and this post is on Thursday because the internet died last monday so I couldn´t email. Thanks for reading!
-Elder Trevor Jones
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)