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!