Week 18 (Jan 30, 2012): Ceci and Grandkids

Dear family,

What a week! We have had a lot of investigators fall through which is kinda disheartening. It is so hard to be teaching someone, start to really love them and see that they feel the spirit and know that something is true, but to not want to continue learning and preparing to be baptized. That said, I learned a great lesson this past week.

One night as we were closing our planning session and asking for confirmation that what we had planned was what Heavenly Father wanted, I felt a strong impression that what we were missing was showing more faith as we show more gratitude for the success that the Lord has blessed us with. Later I read in Luke 17;11-19, that tell os the 10 lepers. They, like all of us missionaries, call out everyday, "Lord, have mercy on us"... or in other words.... "HELP US DO YOUR WILL TODAY!!" We plead for his help and protection and guidance and blessing... in everything that we do and are, or at least try to depend on him by living his gospel. And then it says that the Lord blessed and healed all of the lepers... as they left to show themselves to the priests, they too showed their faith. But the Lord wanted to bless them even more and He did to the one who showed the greater faith and "turned and gave thanks and glorifyed God". He was made "whole". I think this means more than just made whole physically, but spiritually and emotionally also. To have leprosy was and is a grave disease as people are shut our and shunned from normal society and life and sometimes even shunned by family. The damage that this would do to someone in every aspect of their life... but the one who showed the greater faith and in his moment of rejoicing recognized from whom the blessing was given, and turned and thanked and glorified God. And he was made whole because of his faith. We too can and will be made whole in every aspect of our lives if we will show thge Savior our gratitude and recognize his hand in our lives guiding and blessing us in every way possible. We too can be "made whole" as we show the greater faith and are thankful for all that the Lord blesses us with.

I know that my Savior lives and leads and guides His church.
I know this is true.
Love you all so much.

Love,

Tu Hermana Jones
vitamins - Mom, this picture is just for you... just so you know that I am taking my vitamins and still am super healthy! haha

julio dispensas - One of the Dispensas that they have on every corner. This is what a lot of the moms do for work... they have a dispensa where they sell anything from toys to cookies and it is just part of their house! This dispensa reminded me of Monica! hahah (I hope you see this one!)
For Vincentes baptism we bought a cake! They have a huge sweet tooth here and vincente was so excited when Hermana Rolon gave him the HUGE piece that had his name written on it!
Everyone for the baptism! They showed up almost 45 min late and so it was only a little stressfull!! We sent Hermano Miguel out to look for them in his car!








Hermano Miguel is very very humble. He is always looking for ways to serve others. He gave Vincente one of his white shirts for church and Vincente was so excited!!
Hermana Ceci and her grandkids! She was baptized just a few days before I came. She is loud and hilarious and we love visiting her and her grandkids. When we are walking to their house, we can here her grandkids shouting "Plummer! Jones! Plummer! Jones!" To them we arent "hermanas"
Ceci's Granddaughter

Week 17 (Jan 23, 2012): Vincente's Baptism

How are all of you?! Guess what!? Vincente Francisco had the opportuntity to be baptized and confirmed this past weekend! What a blessing it has been and will continue to be to work with him and his mom. He was so excited. He also asked one of the members of our ward, Hermano Miguel, to baptize him who has really helped us and befriended him a lot. Hermano Miguel was more than excited this past week. He often will go to appointments with the Elders in our ward in their area and at random times durring their lesson, he would change the topic and tell them that someone had chosen him to perform his baptism! If I can, I want every single one of my investigators to be baptized by a member instead of one ofthe Elders only because it is such a neat opportunity for them...both the investigator and the member! His mom has been the only member in their family for about 12 years. She bore her testimony at his baptism and with tears in her eyes told how when she was baptized, as she entered the water, she prayed and told Heavenly Father..."Father, if only one of my family members can sometime in the future enjoy the same blessings that I am right now...".

The day before his baptism, we visited them at their home and they showed us how to make empañadas before we left... Vincente told us, "Yo cocino hermanas!" "I cook hermanas!" ... he was so excited and so proud!

We visited the orphanage this past week again to visit Marcos and Christian. They were soo excited as we talked about going to church this next sunday...especially Christian the 11 year old. We had gotten permission from one of the other workers before to have a member pick them up for churhc, but the man that was working there this time told us it wouldnt be possible. They were so sad and I just wanted to cry. I litterally felt my heart break when I looked at Christian and I knew he had heard what the man had told us. We are going to try and continue to visit them on sundays for and teach them the lesson that was taught in primary or young mens so they can still have Sunday as a day to learn about Christ. I hope and pray that Marcos and Christian will be able to continue and read their Books of Mormon that we left with them so that thier testimonies can keep growing so that one day they can come back to chruch when they are not living in the orphanage.

I just want to bear my testimony that I know that this church is true. I know that the Savior lives and loves us. He is perfectly loving and patient with us and that means that our Father in Heaven is also. What a blessing that we know and can share with others this message. The gospel has been restored to bring the blessings that Father in Heaven wants for each and every one of his children. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Sending with so much love,

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Hogar por los Niños

This past week I had my first "district change" meeting.. this new transfer all of the missionaries will either be trainers or trainees, which is abnormal for a district! It has been a great week. I will tell you about a few experiences that i had this past week...

In a lot of our lessons, we try and start off by singing a hymn. One day we chose to sing "I am a Child of God" or "Soy un Hijo de Dios"! No song brings the Spirit faster I think than that song. We first sang at Clara, one of our investigators homes. We were sitting outside with her mom and sister and as we sang, six little boys who had been playing football come running over and everything was silent as they just stood and the gate and listened... you could tell that they felt the Spirit. Later, we were at Anotnia{s with her kids. Her son, Axel, is three and durring the lessons, we are normally trying to dodge mangos that he pelts at us but as we sang, he could feel the spirit and just sat there quietly smiling and listenting.

We also found two really neat families this week. One familty has three little kids all under the age of ten and their little boy, Bruce William, is so beautiful he looks more like a girl! Anyways, we were able to teach them and the Dad, Alberto was really excited when we explained about the Apostacy and Joseph Smith. We are going back to teach them tomorrow. Another family that we found is a very young couple named Emmanuel and Jasminee. They have a two year old boy and accepted a baptisimal date this upcoming Febuary! But we still have lots to teach and a long ways to go! Teaching families is my favorite part of serving a mission.

Also, yesterday Hermana Plummer and I had a really neat experience. We had gotten a reference for this orphanage that is in our area and had the chance to visit them yesterday. It is called "Hogar por los Niños" and about 15 boys ages 8 to 18 live there. The lady that works there led us into the living room and one by one the boys came pounding down the stairs until all fifteen were sitting int the living room ready to listen! We opened with a prayer and went around and introduced ourselves... most of them are ages 8 to 12. Instead of teaching the first lesson, we just talked about stories from the Book of Mormon and old the story of Nephi and his family and then read some scriptures from Christ in the Americas using the picture that are in the Book of Mormon. It turned out that two of the boys, Marcos and Christian, had already been baptized two or three years ago before they had been separated from their families...they were really excited to have their own book of mormon again and that we could come and pick them up with a member the next week. A lot of the other boys want to come to church too!!

I love this work and I love my Savior. I love the words of the prophets and the direction that we recieve from them.

Love you all so much.

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): The Nativity

Another Pesevre... or nativity of our neighbors! This past friday was Dia de los Magos (3 kings) and so they are all starting to take down their mangers!

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Team Olympia

Hna. Plummer and I outside of the chapel for a district activity the day after christmas. We bought matching jerseys to more fully embrase Paraguay...EVERYONE wears jerseys here from team "Olympia" and during games, whenever there is a goal, everyone and their neighboor sets off fireworks.

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Clara at District Meeting

District Meeting with President and Sister Callen - After one of our district meetings, President Callen wanted to take a picture of all of us, one of our investigators, Clara, passed by and joined in our picture. I have never met someone that has been through more than Clara...she has a strong desire to repent and learn more about the Gospel.

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Areseli's Birthday

Hermana Plummer and I with Areseli for her birthday. We have been working with her.

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Assorted Fruits

Fruit is so cheap here! I live off of smooties and cereal! And the occasional deep fried chicken and sopa paraguaya (kinda like cornbread...with corn) that the members feed us!

Week 16 (Jan 16, 2012): Candy for Vinciente

Dear family,

I hope that all of you are happy and doing well! I dont have a lot of time to write today because something happened with my email to President Callen and need to rewrite it...ah! But here are a few pictures for you from this past week. It has been a good week... we are still working with Salvador Aquino. He loves the book of mormon and frequently sends us texts with his latest favorite scritpture. Vinciente Francisco is doing well...his attention span though is about five minutes long. Our plan is to buy a bunch of candy at the Super today...we hope that will help him pay attention during the lessons. Because of his work we have had to continually move his baptisimal date. So many other people to tell you about...they are so humble and love to talk about the Gospel...or anything that has to do with Jesus! This is not saying that they dont have their problems and struggles...but that they are quick to recognize blessings as blessings from God.

I love serving as a representative of Jesus Christ. I love this Gospel. I love the people here...I love the scriptures and love the seeing how the scriptures and the truth changes people as they feel the Spirit.
I love you all so so much.

Les amo,

Hermana Natasha Jones