Christmas temple tour!

me and my comp :)

 nativity pic for mahjah

First Philippines Post - She's there!

hey fam bam! 

Sorry i didn't call in Hong Kong! we were literally escorted to the next flight cuz we didn't have any time and we had to go all over the place and it was crazy. but! we made it! and then this random dude drove us to the mission home like two hours away and we arrived all gross and out of it and then they took our pictures yessssss. lolz so you'll probs get that picture. there is one of my and my trainer, sister garcia, and one of me and the mission president and his wife. then we ate dinner and had a training meeting and had interviews with president sperry and then were on our way! my trainer is american, she is from texas, but she's super cool lolz jk texas is great. i am in the philippines.... i don't actually know the name of my area, its like venuzuela or something, idk, i just follow my trainer around :) the area is considered city so its pretty crazy and we spend a lot of time sitting in a jeepney/tricycle every day to get to our appointments but its suuuper fun. we live with two other sisters who are in our same ward, but different areas. they are both filippina and both super nice. one is my trainer's trainer! and in our ward is her trainer! so we have four generations here its pretty cool, we'll take a picture sometime. our apartment is chill its two story with a living room/kitchen area on the bottom and bathroom and then two bedrooms up top. we have fans in every room so its not too hot. i still sleep with earplugs cuz its pretty loud but we live in a nice/safe area. we went jogging this morning in our neighborhood, its a cute place! our neighbors are all super nice and friendly, but pretty much everyone is here so thats no surprise.

My first night we were taking the other new elders to their area and didn't have the key so while we waiting we went streeting and i placed a book of mormon! that was tight. i could understand a lil of what they said and they must have understood me cuz they took the book and my trainer didn't have to change anything i said lolz that was encouraging! the days all kinda blend together so sorry if this is scattered (who am i kidding with that if, sorry this is scattered!) anyway before all of our lessons sister garcia asks me what part i want to teach, or i just have to bear my testimony, its super chill, she does all the hard work :) yesterday though we went to church and i was so surprised they speak sooo much english! but the bishop asked me to speak and then in our investigators class they had me give the spiritual thought, and then in relief society they asked me to share how our family does food storage.... quite the spread of vocabulary!!! it was fun though and everyone is suuuper nice and smiles and nods at me for encouragement when im struggling with a word or anything. its not nearly as bad as i thought it would be, i can understand the flow of the lessons cuz if i don't know what the investigator/less active/recent convert said, i can always understand my companion. the other day we were teaching a girl and she was like sooo whats the priesthood and why don't girls have it? and my comp looked at me and was like you want to take this one? and i was like i don't even know how to answer that in english! but i had understood the question so i was stoked so i answered it. i thought i did pretty well with that lesson but at the end the girl was like umm next time sister jones can teach in english if she wants, i'll understand it just fine lolz i told her if i teach in english i'll never learn tagalog!!

I got my first "hey joe" my very first morning waiting for a jeepney, that was funny. people say that to us all the time cuz we're americans. and the little kids follow us around and try to speak to us in english. they are sooooo cute! so we just chat with them and ask if they're joining us. like 5 people a day comment on my nose.... that's new. never has my nose been a topic of conversation but people say stuff all the time its way funny and my eyes cuz no one has blue eyes, even my trainer has brown eyes so they just stare me down and i make faces at them and they say something that i don't understand and my trainer laughs and i say salamat po. :) its a good system. 

Oh yesterday we totally had a flood!! it was so tight!! we were walking over to the church to meet our members that were coming to teach with us (ps our ward is so legit!!! every single one of our investigators came with a member that was able to stay with them and show them were to go and we have a few rm sisters that come teach with us and they're awesome!) anyway we were walking over and it was like sprinkling  then we had to wait at the church for like an hour cuz our members were late and while we were there it started pouring and by the time we left the streets were soooo flooded!! then we took a tricycle across town and it was crazy! the water was like up to our knees and all up in the bike and it died a couple times and we were just chilling in the water and then we finally made it to the appointment and we were soaking wet! and it had stopped raining really hard so we kinda just looked crazy. it was great. we taught about eternal marriage to a recent convert who is like a 16 year old girl and it was super fun. then they fed us soup and it was delish and i've had fish twice so far and i didn't die either time!!! i have liked everything i have had! but i have yet to try belut... i told my trainer i will try anything once so that's coming....im not gonna bring it up though cuz she said it tastes just like a hard boiled egg.... which i don't like..... yay!!! 

Anyway the work is great, we focus a lot on reactivation because there are so many less active. our mission motto/theme is twice in white, cuz we are working on getting our less actives to the temples which i love! tomorrow we are taking a bunch of less actives slash recent converts on a temple tour and i am sooo excited!! its gonna be way fun! and then thursday (or maybe friday i can't remember) is our christmas conference allll day so that'll be way cool too! our mission president is so nice! and so is his wife all all the senior couples! we only talked with them for a bit but then the aps were telling us about them when they took us home and they said he has magic scriptures cuz they always open up to exactly what scripture he says lolz he seems really awesome, im excited to get to know both of them better. 

hmm what else do you want to know..... we cook for ourselves a lot (every lunch and dinner and we do breakfast by ourselves) today we're going to the palanke so i can get lots of fruit :) whenever we make american food the other sisters are like ewwww its so heavy lolz its way funny. they're super funny, we have a good time. sister garcia is way awesome and patient and she never gets mad at me lolz she has only been out eight months and i am her first american companion and she was praying for one so she is stoked and im stoked cuz she's a great trainer! sometimes i use weird words i picked up at the mtc and afterwards she is like umm what're you saying, its way funny. like musmos! it means little ones but i like to use it like i would use the work munchkins in english and its super deep (old school) tagalog cuz i found it in the scriptures (3 nephi 27) so the people don't speak like that but they understand it lolz.

I am sleeping well and healthy, except a cold thing i brought with me from the mtc! we have a catholic church somewhere close so we get to wake up and go to sleep to them having mass lolz its a party. we have a pretty view from our window and im on the top bunk so i love looking out in the mornings when i wake up. we have a super early curfew cuz it gets dark early so everyday we head out of the apt around 12 after all our studies and then we have to be home by 7 which is rough cuz people work till late so we pretty much have set appointments everyweek cuz they are only available the one day.

I only have like ten bug bites, totes nbd, but kinda annoying. i don't even know when i got them... they just appeared magically one day.... sneaky mosquitoes... they should be called ninja mosques. we have a fridge and a stove top thing and a toaster oven so im having to adjust my cooking a bit and that's an adventure, but i made stirfry the other day and it was actually pretty dec! we have rice every day for lunch and dinner, its suppper yummy and then usually some stuff on top of it. my comp got a huuuuuge package from home the day i came (i got your package but no letters yet, we get them every two weeks and they apparently weren't there before i got there) with a bunch of american stuff so we have been super spoiled of late with like salsa and oreos :) we have a bucket shower!!!!! its fun, it wakes ya up in the morning! but after we work out it feels way good! im still getting used to the baby bucket as toilet paper thing... i've been using the one role of toilet paper we have.... imma have to get used to that soon so that one day when we run out i don't die..... i didn't even have jet lag when i got here! i asked my comp about calling with the phone you gave me for christmas and she said thats probs chill, just ask president sperry first. or we can skype at the bishops house... i would rather call. maybe we can skype for a second to say hi and then call while my comp skypes so it doesn't take forever at the bishops house... what do you think? idk what time it will be, we haven't gotten that far yet... my watch has two time settings on it and one is still on utah time, so i can't tell you your time no prob.

The flight was suuuuper long but i just slept most of the time. it was lame cuz the senior couple was sitting right diagonally in front of us and apparently they get to watch movies. so we were dying. but thats ok! i colored a lot. thanks for those! congrats to suzanna! that'll be great!! when does she report? is she speaking english? crazy things are happening at the mtc, let me tell ya. she'll be in for an adventure. congrats to jessie!! nick is already home for christmas? dang son. sorry, i didn't send my card, you already know that though. ummmm what else....

My feet are still kinda swollen from the plane (they were really bad until today when i shoved them in running shoes and now they're barely swollen!! apparently they just needed some tough love) other than that im good to go! its not even that hot here lolz cuz im in a skirt, win, and i don't wear any makeup, double win, and we carry handkerchiefs around all the time and wipe our faces off whenever we get sweaty (all day erryday) soooo weather, nbd. lolz a bunch of people here wear towels down their back so they don't get pasma, its great :) we say a man selling taho.... (can't remember if thats what it is called, but its the drink bro langer told us about) but my comp didn't know what it was so we didnt get any yet... next time! and we could hear a bunch of little kids singing the Christmas songs at the catholic church bro langer taught us! i was like oh hey i know this song!! (it was the jewish sounding one) and my comp was like ummm random. what are they saying? and i was like uhh idk. i sent the lyrics home! lame. oh well. little kids came to our door caroling, but the other sisters sent them away cuz we can't give them any money or whatevs. 

aight. that should be enough to stop mom from getting a hernia this week. im outie. 

im doing great, the church is true, the philippines is prettttty much straight up awesome. and an adventure all the time. love it!

peace out american scout

love sister jones! 

Sarah's on her way to the Philippines!

Sarah called me from the SLC airport tonight.  It was great to hear her voice. She said her time in the MTC was really a great experience.  She is now on her way to the Philippines via Los Angeles then Hong Kong.  I'm hoping to get a phone call from each airport.  Here is today's email:

so im leaving today. sweet. last night i slept in a random room so i wouldn't be alone in my room (cuz that's bawal) (forbidden) anywho my room was preeeeetty deppressing with mga kasama ko gone. but its all good. im almost all packed! so i get to go to the temple once more this morning and finish up packing and then kick it till 4:30!!!! (ps the random sisters i stayed with last night were so sweet! they made my bed for me and are totes adorable) also i have a bunch of pictures buuut no way to send them to you (its super weird at the MTC how you have to send them and my only way to send them was through Sister Hayden, who is now flying to Hong Kong as we speak sooo you're out of luck. 

 Sister's in Sarah's district and her teacher.

Sarah's district

Last night we had class and it was me, two elders, and my teacher bro langer. super weird. but so fun!! he taught us a bunch of Filippino Christmas Carols that the musmos sing door to door for monies (the little ones sing for money) they were way cool. they sounded kinda hebrew and they had a dance and clap with one of them that was tooootally hebrew sounding/looking. it was way fun. then we just chatted in Taglish for a couple hours about his mission and our mtc time and what to expect. i finally told him how terrified i was when he first started teaching and he was super surprised. it was cool. i got myself a lil solo sticker for today so people aren't freaked out when im walking around without my seeesters! but i don't really need it cuz im with sister breck for most of the day...... 

talk to you tonight!

-sister jones

Sarah Leaves the MTC in ONE WEEK!

ta-da! we're all stoked. everyday we have a last something (yesterday was our last morning service, today is everyone's last P-day except mine cuz i pretty much have all of tuesday next week to kick it without them.) its sobra exciting! all of our investigators are getting baptized so life is good! lolz we taught our investigator's "husband" the other day cuz he was subbing our class and after we were all like aight. that was ok. not bad. not great. you know just feeling kinda mediocre about it and then we had weekly planning and our sub teacher came in and was like umm how do you feel about your lesson today? and we told him and he was like umm you're all crazy. that lesson was one of the best i've had in the mtc. i had to keep reminding myself that i was not actually a 65 year old man in the Philippines cuz i just felt so strongly that that is how you saw me, that is who you were teaching. and then he asked us to come in and motivate the new-bies about teaching "investigators" in the mtc. i thought the whole thing was suuuper ironicly hilarious because i came into the mtc absolutely hating role-playing. i was not stoked for that at all. and then as we got started we just focused so much on the needs of our fake investigator that they became real. we pray for our investigators, we rejoice with them when they progress, we are disheartened when they don't understand us/the doctrine and we strive with all our hearts to go back and try again until they do understand. this feeling of reality has made all the difference in our role-playing. even when we role-play amongst ourselves! we assume a character of someone real. someone we really know with real problems and real concerns and real heartache and then we teach them and react as we think they react. this kinda seems trivial but! the Spirit is able to work through us as we assume these roles and involve ourselves in the eternal progression and salvation of people we know and love, even though it's from afar. so that's been a cool experience. and now i don't hate role playing! huzzah! lolz. k next. how was dad's birthday!!? did you do anything exciting? did you get my card? i crack myself up. i spent like three trips to the bookstore picking out that card and laughed allll day about it but no one else in my class thought it was that funny sooo i hope you did :) 

hey guess what, i get to talk to you in a week! sooo im done. also emails take forever soooo yeah. :)

love you!

ps we got to watch the first presidency christmas devotional for our fireside on sunday and it was great! (of course) oh! and i sat next to this random elder kid who was like oh hey i moved to ventura three weeks before i came into the mtc! suuuper random. did a hall family move into the stake? parents names Nathan and Victoria? three kids, he's the oldest? or maybe 4 kids letsbehonest i don't remember.... anyway! small world! (they lived in Newbury park right before that for a lil but they were in washington mostly)

mmk now im for reals done.

love sister jones

Thanksgiving day letter and weekly email

Thanks!!! super stoked ako. (I'm super stoked. that's taglish for ya lolz) 
soo this week was pretty chill. I already told you all about t-givs and nothing has really happened since then... [I'll post Sarah's Thanksgiving letter next...]except our district sang in church on Sunday and sounded awesome. just saying. we have a really great mix of singers its way fun. we sang Be Still my Soul, partially in tagalog and partially in english. way fun. we also have to prepare a talk every week in tagalog and then they call on two people randomly to speak but you don't know if it will be you until after the sacrament. sooo we started preparing those and its super fun! this week, elder sneezy and i decided to include random tagolog words in our talk to see if anyone noticed. and then of course neither of us got called to speak. pero! we had awesome talks prepared that included the words: cyanide, fireman, albino, and gorilla in them quite nicely :) 
Next week. jk next week is fast sunday and the week after is our last week!!!!! we only have one ish p-day left and we get our travel plans in two days!! im super excited about that, in case you can't tell :) this week we get to host!! (show the new missionaries around the mtc when they first get here)!! it should be fun, mostly cuz its different :) i'll tell you if i get any criers next week.... yesterday we had a lesson on the fundamental teaching people, not lessons, and it was suuuper good. im pretty sure my teacher is kinda like what joseph smith would be like if he spoke tagalog and taught at the MTC... it could be that we just watch that movie all the time though. ... but seriously, my teacher is joseph smith, winks and all (go watch the movie.) anyway he got super excited cuz he said we were all teaching the best he has ever heard us teach!! (i think that's cuz we were speaking english but its all good ) he had us all write down a concern and keep it secret, keep it safe (yes he made that LOTR analogy in class, twas a party) and then two other missionaries had to teach us and try to address our concern without knowing anything about us, just by asking good questions and listening to the Spirit. we had some suuuper random concerns in there but after the first try when we were getting used to it, we found and addressed their concern every time. it was super cool. now we just have to do it in Tagalog!  both of our "investigators" (our teachers pose as investigators they knew in their missions and we teach them) have committed to baptism so thats exciting! except one was supposed to get baptized on friday and we have only taught him the first lesson and half of the second soooo we postponed his date till next week.... which is awkward cuz our other investigator was supposed to come to his baptism... oh well maybe they can just get baptized together now! anyway its fun slash super cool to get a taste of seeing people change their lives because of the Savior and the gospel, even though they are pretending. they react and act just like their investigators did and they have real problems and concerns. one thing we learned this week is that the doctrine is the only thing that can really help. we can't fix their problems, answer their questions, or talk them through their concerns. all we can do is lead them to the doctrine and to the Savior and as they develop their own relationship with Christ, he will fix their lives. Everything in their lives. so all we have to do is bring the Spirit and teach the lessons! nbd :) its a pretty cool feeling to be able to be the Lord's hands in this work. and it has only just begun!!! 
aight im outie. we're singing Jesus Once of Humble Birth this week, Christmas has begun!!!!!!!! 
stoked ako. 
Mahalkita!!!
-Sister Jones

November 20 - Less than Three more weeks!

hey kids, don't have much to report! this was a chill week, we're all stoked for T-givs cuz we don't have class and we get to hear from an Apostle. the group ahead of us leaves today (already left) and we got a new group in last week. international means from different nations... like Fiji and Samoa and Tonga! super fun. my comp, sister hayden is the new coordinating sister and now Sister Pace is the senior comp soooo i get to do whatever i want! lolz jk, but for reals. sounds like you guys are fixin for a great Thanksgiving! eat lots of rolls and pie for me! i'll eat rolls here buuut pie is tbd. :) probs not..... im glad nick got to come home! thats awesome! The new teaching/training should be way cool! so we taught district meeting this week (pretty much Sunday School) and it was on enduring to the end and i went on lds.org and found the greatest stuff!!! soo i highly recommend just playing around on that sight :) (that's the only place we ever go so i have like all the mormon messages memorized (say that ten times fast) and am working my way through random talks! its actually super awesome, i have stumbled across some great stuff! i'll probs write you kids a real letter on T-givs cuz im kinda outa it right now... my bad! we're off to choir! peace out home scout

 

mahalkita!

-sister jones

 

ps 

oh and we watched a video documentary thing on the missionary work/helping hands work in ny right now and it was super cool. you should look it up! and! our district is singing in sacrament this week cuz we only have three weeks left, one is fast sunday, and there are two districts leaving!! (we do a farewell musical number) crazy!!!! we get our flight plans next week. time's a flying! so stoked.

choir stories - 1/2 way through the MTC

So I have two stories for you this week!
1. in choir we're singing "How Great Though Art" and it is awesome. especially with the massive amounts of Elders there. cuz its one of my favorite songs. also, the choir director told us how it was written and it was the coolest story ever! so this time imma tell you the story :)
Verses 1 & 2 were written by this german dude who was walking home in the middle of a huge storm and when he finally made it home, the storm cleared and he looked out at his backyard (which just so happened to be this awesome lake/forest area) and it was so beautiful and clear and he was so struck by the beauty of the earth and the powers of God that he wrote verses 1 and 2! cool, huh? you can totally feel that too in the first two verses. it is super earthy and awesome.
So that song wandered around eastern europe a bit amongst the Christians (what few there were) and it got pretty popular!
Then, a bit later, there was a dude who was a missionary in Russia and he had taught himself that song and Russian and stuff like that and he had dedicated his life to missionary work. so he would travel around Russia and every time he got to a new village he would ask if there were any Christians and he would gather them all together and teach and preach and edify and it was great! so he got to this tiny little Russian village and he went to a house and asked if there were any Christians there and they told him that the husband and wife down the road are Christian, so he wandered on down there and as he got closer he heard someone reading the bible. This was amazing because at that time, no one could read in the Russian villages, so he was super intrigued! and as he got closer he saw that there was a group of Christians and non-Christians alike gathered in this home to hear this woman read the bible! and she was reading about the Atonement and these people were so struck and amazed by what they were hearing that they were exclaiming as she read (which i guess is normal in other countries to comment while people read) and so this man just sat on the doorstep of the house (not wanting to go in and disrupt the wonderful spirit of the room) and wrote down everything he heard the people exclaim as they heard about the Atonement for the first time! and that is verse 3! how amazing is that!
k so this same guy was serving in a prisoner of war camp as a preacher or something and after a sermon/lesson/religious chat a man came up to him and started talking to him about his wife. This man's wife had been a christian for quite some time, but the man had never joined her in worship, he was not converted to Christianity until he was in the prisoner of war camp. and he had no expectation to ever see his wife again (either because he thought she was dead or he didn't expect to live through this ordeal). His only desire and greatest hope, was to worship the Lord with his wife. and he knew that that would only happen when he was reunited with her in heaven after this life. So! this preacher man went home and wrote verse four from that story. so beautiful. and the arrangement we are singing is amazing. it has the women and the men singing separate praises at the end going back and forth and then finally they join together in praise at the very end. just like this man and his wife will when they are reunited in heaven. its so beautiful!!! 
the director told us to write verse five about what we see and find on our missions and send it to him. kinda a cool challenge. 
ok story 2!
so on friday i think (all the days blur together) we were sitting at lunch and the MTC director (Brother Richard Heaton) was sitting next to us and chatting with us about the MTC and everything and he asked us if we have any questions and we asked him about our investigators and how we can help them and we kinda outlined our situations and everything and he gave us some really great advice! so that night when we taught Toni, we did what he told us to and it was great! then we didn't really think about our conversation with him after that, only what he had taught us. so then on sunday right before the fireside, a man got up to the podium and asked where the sisters going to the Philippines were, and we all raised our hands of course and he looked around and was like ok. and then he made his way around to each group of us and he asked us if we ate lunch with Brother Heaton, and we were like uhhhh no? (cuz we thought he meant today and can't remember what happened that morning let alone two lunches ago, and we had no idea who brother heaton was by name....) anyway he continued his search but then came back to us and was like umm im pretty sure its you sisters. so we went behind the stage thing and there was brother heaton! sure enough, it was us. so he asked us if we had done anything with what he told us on Friday and we said we had and told him a lil bit about our experience and he was like perfect! thats gold! and then he told us that conversation with us at lunch has turned into tonight's fireside! so he asked if we would share our experiences during the fireside! so we agreed and they led us out to the front row reserved seats. then a bit into his message he brought a mic down and had each of us share who we were, where we were from (he said he was in ventura a couple months ago) and where we were going and how his advice affected our teaching and what we learned and whatnot. super cool! so now everyone is like HEY! you're the philippines sisters! every time we say hi to anyone (which is always cuz my companion is the most friendly person in this world and yes i have met mom) so that's a party. we're famous. lolz. ps can you watch those firesides?? one of my elders said they're online somewhere... we're singing for the musical number in a couple weeks so you might want to check that out to see if it's true :) our district has an awesome bass, tenor, alto, and then two of us make one good soprano lolz and an awesome piano player! so we're putting together "come thou fount"

We're not supposed to speak English at all anymore. it's bawal. which is forbidden. which is funny cuz banal is divine or holy. interesting language. the word for monster (specifically bigfoot) is really close to the word for spouse too.... interesting... anyway its interesting cuz sometimes we chat away in Tagalog, no bd, and other times we are just really quiet for extended periods of time... but no complaints here about that! too much chicka-chicka usually if you ask me lolz anyway my english is already terrible so have fun with that. 
sooo pananampalataya (emphasis on the T and not P like mom had it) is a cool word and all but that's just it. it's a word. it would be naming my blog "Faith!" sooo maybe we could name it Itago ang Pananampalataya! (which means keep the faith) i like that actually, let's do that :) 
Thanks to everyone that wrote me!! it was so fun to hear from all of you! i'll try to write back this week, but let's be honest, it might not be till next week :) but i loved reading the letters and especially the pictures!! so thank you!!
things are great! i have to be (i mean get to be of course) senior comp one more week, (i thought we were switching this wednesday) so that's a party! we're getting two new districts on wed with four sisters and like 7 international missionaries which is the Best!!! we had a bunch in the district that left and they make it sooo much fun so we're all excited about that! but then the group above us is leaving and we'll be the only ones left!! (besides the new-bies of course)  
anyways loves and hugs
mahalkita!
-sister jones

November: Learning and happy in the MTC

     So this week was awesome as per usual!  I went to class, it was great! We ate lots of food, except on fast Sunday when we almost died, jk it was great, we had mission conference and the MTC Presidency spoke to us as well as President and Sister Sonne (district presidents maybe?) and they all did a really great job! One thing that I particularly enjoyed was something Sister Brown talked about, quoting President Monson, that we need to prepare with purpose, teach with testimony, and labor with love. and that our purpose is to help children of God fulfill conditions prescribed by the Savior to save souls! It was a really great conference! Then we met with our branch president (just the 8 sisters that are left in our branch) and his wife talked about a bunch of scriptures that we need for our mission that were all about the power that we can draw from the Savior and the comfort that comes with that power. and how much she loves us and wants to help us and is our mother here (for reals she is super nice and loving and just wants to take care of all of us all the time!) and then President talked about developing a conviction like the pioneer women had to set an example for our future kiddos and whatnot. It was pretty cool, he told us some awesome stories. Our branch president is kinda funny cuz he is suuuper successful and therefore a wee bit intense and sometimes he offends the elders but its hilarious and he's just trying to get them to develop good habits so they'll look sharp and present themselves well in the mish which is important.
     Then President Seamons came and talked to us and he was hilarious! he talked about our black name tags and what it means to wear them and everything, he was awesome. Our fast and testimony meeting was also way cool because it was all in Tagalog (slash Taglish) and even though we couldn't understand everything that was said, the spirit was so strong and you could feel the conviction from the missionaries that they knew what they were saying was true. Super cool.
     umm halloween was boring here, except I saw a Zombie which was weiiird cuz I totes forgot it was Halloween. Hows the election turning out? We're all anxious to hear what happens!  Love you all!  I took a couple pics at the temple on Sunday.
Time to switch the laundry!
mahal kita!
-sister jones
ps. happy be kind to mom week!!!!!!!

here's some pictures!!!
they're of my companions and i and the last one is our district and a bad one of my name tag, sorry i couldn't get a better one, i'll try again another time.
love you

Letter with a video recommendation

Sister Jones gets to watch videos in the MTC:)  She saw a good one and asked me to post it on her blog and her FB.  So it's posted!  Ask Sarah about her new powder puff nickname...(from the Elders in the District)  I'll let you find out for yourselves...I'll give you a hint. Her companion's nicknames are Blossom and Buttercup...
Yesterday for gym they played kickball and had some good friendly school rivalry going on.  She's really enjoying the devotionals too. Here's a quote from her letter:
"Mosiah 2:17 says 'when you are in the service of your fellow man you are only in the service of your God...' I think that means not only are we serving God by serving others but we are doing His work, we are acting in a manner in which He wants us to act.  We are going about our Father's business in a way...we demonstrate our priorities by how we spend our time.  if we are worshiping the Lord we will spend the most time serving Him...it definitely demonstrates who or what we love most and what we most desire..."
Mahal kita!
Sister Jones

Daughters of God Shared by Sister Jones!

Week 3 - learning Tagalog

hallo!!! 

 How did Nani's baptism go?   Whats happening in NY? I heard at the temple this morning that there is like a massive storm times two on the east coast and nyc is underwater and totes shut down? are people ok? are the Nelson's ok? (our friends in NYC)

Yesterday our teacher taught about prayer and it was super awesome. He told us that by the end of class he wanted us to be completely different people and we kinda were which was way cool! He just had us go through our resources and read and study and then study with our companions and then teach and then right after that we had to teach him as our "investigator" Toni and he had just challenged us to end every lesson with the investigator offering a kneeling spoken prayer and then we were like 2/3 through our lesson and toni was like umm i have to go you're out of time and we were like ok can we come back blah blah blah and i was like umm you're gonna pray before we leave. i just like kept talking till he prayed for us which was kinda hilarious cuz it was actually bro langer and he knew what i was doing but if it was real it would have been crazy cuz we hadn't taught him ANYTHING about prayer except through us praying at the start and end of our last lesson. but it was fun. 

Tagalog is super fun. we're working on our syl (speak your language) which means we say everything we know how to say in tagalog everything we want to say that. like instead of saying yes we ALWAYS say opo ect. its fun, i enjoy it cuz thats the kind of language learning that is chill for me, pick up phrases in a language and implement them into my normal language. but my grammar is still awful unless its scripted. like i don't think in Tagalog i just translate from English so its English grammar which is wrong in tagalog. room for improvement obviously. im also working on the dictionary. yesterday i started letter A. I'm going through each letter and writing it out on my own paper and studying from that and highlighting a word once i know it and moving on to the next letter once i know the majority of that letter. actually kinda entertaining :)

Everything is wonderful, I'm still alive, the weather is bipolar but whatevs its Utah. I'm loving it here (especially the devotionals, we're singing in the choir tonight and its AMAZING)

Ok one more thing on that! we went to practice on Sunday and the director was A. hilarious and B. super motivational lolz we're singing faith of our fathers and there are like a million elders so that sound awesome and he was like how old are you sisters? do we have any 19 year olds yet? and we don't so he was like ok good. now i want you to sound like mature 21 year old women. once the 19 year olds invade all bets will be off but you sisters can do this! it was funny and then he showed us how and we actually sounded preeeeetty awesome. just saying :) then he told us a bunch of super awesome pioneer stories about like John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt as missionaries and how that is the faith of our fathers and that is what we are singing about and how we need to feel that in our music. super cool. loved it!

aight im done now for reals. :)

love you all!!

Mahalkita!!!

-Sister Jones

First Email from the MTC

October 16, 2012

Hello! Kumusta po!

Today is my P day! (obviously.) I wrote you a letter but you will probably get it today or tomorrow. everything is great! I have two companions, Sister Hayden and Sister Pace and they are both wonderful and working so hard!! The first day was a lil bit crazy cuz they just threw us into Tagalog, but my teacher, Sister Watkins is awesome! and so great at helping us understand what is happening even if we don't know what she is saying! We have already taught three lessons in Tagalog!!! ano po ang CRAZINESS??? yep. the first two were pretty rough but the last one actually went pretty well! we talked about the Holy Ghost and all it can do for us and I could actually understand and communicate with our investigator!! no doubt, we have a loooong way to go, but that was super exciting! and only after what, 6 days?? i see a bunch of people here that i know, which is exciting! i saw the clive elder the first day, he was sitting in front of me in our orientation meeting! so i said hello and thanked him and he seems cool. my district and branch are awesome!! our district has mga kasama mo and i as the only sisters and then 6 elders. they are very energetic and fun! they are good elders and we are all getting along very well! (sometimes i need to be studious like mga kasama mo and not as silly like the elders..... room to improve, for sure!!) the food is pretty good, everyone else doesn't like it very much but i think its good. idk what that says about my tastes in food buuut whatever! we have class allll day and its a lot of sitting, but we all go to the gym in the mornings and during gym time so that breaks it up nicely. we have yet to play soccer but! my coordinating sister, Sister Huddleston, plays soccer! i think she played for Dixie state actually so its gonna happen one of these days before they close the outside field! sometimes i fall asleep in personal study when it gets too quiet... more room for improvement!

 Tagalog is SUPER fun to learn and everything is a tongue twister but that makes it all the more exciting when you get a word down! we went to the temple bright and early this morning and it was lovely!! not even that cold out! (although i have already busted out my coat a bit) Thats awesome that Omar and Jake are companions!! they'll have a lot of fun together i think! 

ps being in a trio is pretty much a party. all the time. except at night cuz we all pass out mad fast. Church here is amazing!!! for relief society Sister Linda Burton came and talked to us (general relief society president) and it was amazing!! and then we met with our branch and a few missionaries that are leaving soon spoke in Tagalog which i didn't really understand but thats ok. Singing the hymns in Tagalog is super fun! it makes you feel like you actually know the language! our district decided to all read the Book of Mormon in Tagalog which is way cool, but right now it is taking forever!!!! I'm still in 1 Nephi 1..... but i also started the Book of Mormon over again sa Inglesse and that is going much better. And the Pearl of Great Price. That is such a great book of scripture. also on Sunday we had a district meeting were our branch president came and told us how hard european missions are and how lucky we are that we aren't going there (he served in Sweeden) sooo cool. most def stoked i'm going to the Philippines!!!! tomorrow we're teaching our "investigator" again and we can only use our scripture. no notes, no dictionaries, nothing!!! (prayers are welcome, that will be exciting) (our investigator is our future teacher! lolz) thanks for all the letters and love and support! its fun to hear from you guys!!

 i'll write back on paper today cuz i won't have time to respond via email. also on sunday we went to a fireside by someone who is in charge of the provo mtc or something... it was really good! we sang a lot! which is cool to hear all the missionaries in one room singing hymns! he talked about the new mission ages a bit and how they're shortening the time in the mtc, but that wont happen to us, probs not till Jan/Feb so we will be training all the new missionaries that had shorter times.... huzzah! and then he talked about a bird's eye view vs a worm's eye view and that was super cool and a great thing to hear right at the beginning because it reminded us that we should always keep the purpose of what we're here to do in mind!! 

 for the film on Sunday we watched an old talk by Elder Oaks on desire that was amazing! i feel like everything has been answers to questions that i've had or things i've been pondering for quite some time. The Lord is so great!! I said my first prayer in Tagalog without notes in our third lesson and it was really slow, but cool! It is so pretty up here with all the fall colors!! we have some great views of the mountains in our classrooms and occasionally we get to see them without a glass in between!! on sunday we went on a temple walk and it was beautiful!! we took some picture, but i did not take my camera soo you`ll have to wait on those lolz till i get home and am fb friends with mga kasama mo at mga elder. sorry :) well my time is short so this is all you get! 

Mahal Kita!!!!

-Sister Jones (Seeester Jones)

Sarah's in a 3 companionship...

The email didn't work for Sister Jones last week, so this week we got two emails!
Hello!!!!

So sorry about last week. I am getting all your dear elders and packages and whatnot and they are awesome! (ps an elder in our district has yet to receive anything!!! So he decided he would take a letter from me as a tax for getting them from the box and he read dad's first letter and was DYING and so a bunch of the elders read it and all thought it was hilarious and want dad to write them and all want to meet him. lolz they were both hilarious :) ) anywho!! the grey skirt is perfect, thank you!! great job on the length! I did not get abducted by pirates buuuut sometimes the elders are a lil bit savage so does that count? ;) joke long joke long (jk jk) and i did get rocky mountain fever aka a wicked cold this weekend. suuuper lame but its pretty much gone already sooo it's all good! 

We went to the temple today and it was lovely! The weekend with your sisters sounds awesome!! im so glad you got to experience that with all of them!! Grandma Sheldon sent me a letter right before that and so did Lindsay right before her baby! so it was perfect timing!  Nick is destroying all of you at writing me. he wins, hands down!! thanks broski!! Its always fun to read all of your letters! I sent in my ballot today! 

We should name my blog something cool in Tagalog like pananampaletaya (faith) ooooor something else that i can't think of right now.... i'll work on that. also, smile gun is actually ngiting baril, sorry i didn't know about linkers last week so that was totes wrong. my b. 

Tomorrow we're teaching real people at the TRC!!! Two lessons all in Tagalog! and then the next day we're teaching a new "investigator" and the next day another "investigator" (our teachers do role playing so we can have a progressive investigator) its crazy! also, if we learn Joseph Smith's account of the first vision before saturday in Tagalog, our teacher will show the elders how to tie their ties really cool and the sisters get..... biyaya sa langit. (blessings in heaven) but its all or nothing so we're memorizing it to help out the elders. our teachers are both super great!! they have so much enthusiasm and love for the gospel and the people of the Philippines! it makes me so excited to go there and serve them!! 

we have such amazing opportunities for growth here! for example. last week Sister Burton taught relief society, this week it was Sister Dibb! (Ann M. Dibb) both did an amazing job! I had to bring my journal with me today to remember what has happened this week because all the days just run together!! 

We played soccer yesterday!!! it was super fun! kinda crappy soccer, but way fun to get all the sisters from our zone out there together and mess around. the brother that was working the field served his mish in Ventura!! he was in first ward when sister dalton and doxey were in our ward! (were they together??) anyway around then.

I've decided to write a miracle a day in my journal and it has been really fun! the Lord is so kind and there are miracles around us all the time! its really cool to step back and acknowledge and thank the Lord for what He has done in my life that day. plus in the five million prayers we say every day! but those are in Tagalog a lot and our vocab is limited so we can only thank him for like ebanghelyo at Espiritu Santu, at stuff like that. so we are always suuuuper grateful for those things lolz.

Being in a threesome is super fun but it definitely has its own challenges so its been a great opportunity to work on my people skills lolz and to really turn to the Lord to find out how to work through some stuff! (don't worry my companions are amazing! and we're having a great time together and all is well :) ) i just have a lot to work on, for sure. the language is coming along pretty well, i can understand a lot more than i can say but the last couple lessons i have mostly been able to describe what I'm trying to say using round about language like we had to explain what a prophet was.... so we said he is a speaker for God, and our investigator was like oh so you're prophets?? and we were like noooo we are little speakers for God, the prophet is the Main speaker for God! obviously not the best explanation buuuut it worked and we didn't know how to say things like authority and keys and priesthood and stuff like that so it makes it interesting and it definitely tests the depth of our understanding of the gospel because we have to explain everything using the vocab of a three year old definitely exciting! also if i start talking like yoda in my emails it is because the Tagalog sentence structure is totes backwards and we need to start thinking like that so we can get the hang of it. also tagalog has in-fixes. like english has prefixes and suffixes. Tagalog has those PLUS infixes. suuuper exciting. it is actually kinda exciting, no joke :)

ok cool, time's almost up! ps the teaching cycle is amazing and the Lord blesses us so much when we follow His plan for things (like use the teaching cycle to teach our investigators!!) the gift of tongues is definitely what is getting me through these lessons and it is so cool!!!!!

love you all!!

mahal kita!!

-Seeester Jones :)