Received March 23, 2011: Hanging In There

I really don't know what to say about this week. It's been rough. We're having a hard time getting in to see people, and I've been hesitant to set appointments these last few days because Hermana Walser has been sick. But more than that, I have a huge problem.

Hermana Walser does not speak Spanish.

Not her fault. I totally understand how it happened. But the issue remains that I'm doing everything right now. She bears an awkward testimony in every lesson, but that's all she can do. I have to take all the phone calls and teach all the lessons. So I have to teach her the area and the language before I leave. Yikes.

In all other ways, she's a sweet girl. Not much teaching experience because she can't, but really willing to serve these people any way she can. She's lived a rough life, and she's not sure what to do about all the changes she's going though now that she's gotten active in the church. Hope I can help her be a strong teacher.

In happier news, we have a new investigator who just showed up to church this Sunday. Issue is, he lives in the middle of nowhere. We're going to have to adjust our schedule to go see him.

Not much else this week. It has been really slow.

Sincerely,
Hemana Maren Jones

Received March 16, 2011: "I Wonder Where The Birdies Is?"

So, I figured I would send about 65 emails during the course of my mission, if I remember correctly. I'm going to have over 70 I am pleased.
So, to begin the craziness of this week, (which I will recount in reverse order) I will say that today is over 50. I'm thrilled. I am DONE being cold in skirt.

To continue, we had a shock yesterday.

We were set. Hermana Lockwood was sure she was going to be in Woodstock for a while, at least, until she killed me. We even had full appointments on Tuesday and even one today. We were so sure we were staying.

Ha.

Hermana Lockwood has been called to serve in the Westchester 2 ward. At first, I was heartbroken. She and I had gotten to be really good friends, and we had (I know, stupidly) planned a lot to do together this month. Now we're on opposite corners of the mission.

The weird part: She is going to be working with Hermana Gailey, who is going home the same day as me, and in turn I received Hermana Gailey's companion, Hermana Walser who is going to kill me off. I guess the good part is that we're sure to see each other again at transfers next month. Still weird.

So, moving backwards.

We haven't seen Rosa in a week. Her family has been driving her nuts with non-stop visits. Ruben is still out of town, so we’re really struggling with lessons now.

Moving back in time, our district leader, Elder Rapier lost his companion, Elder Swenson, a week before elder Swenson's birthday in an emergency transfer last week. He was kind enough to not eat the three epackaes of candy that came in for his lost companion.

That’s about all for now. Still reeling from transfers.

Love,
Hermana Maren Jones.

Email Received March 9, 2011: "...and it was good."

OK, fun week.

Ruben, who had surgery, is now wearing pants again (his last excuse for not being able to come to church was because his belt rubbed his stitches, so he couldn't wear pants.) but has taken off to Saint Louis to see his daughter, and may be going back to Mexico again. I hope we don't lose him, and I'm afraid I might not be here for his baptism.

We had two amazing lessons with Rosa, the mother of the troubled teens I mentioned last time. Salvador (Her husband who spontaneously stopped drinking) has left the house for a while, because he doesn't get along with Rosa's mother, who is visiting for the next month. But he has and is reading his book of Mormon.

But getting back to Rosa, the last we had seen of her, we had started the 10 commandments, which she vaguely remembered from catechism. (BTW, she insisted on using the BOM - she says she understands it better than the bible.) This time, she UNDERSTOOD them. We got to "graven images" (the words for Image and idol are the same in Spanish) and her eyes got huge, and she explained the whole thing to us. We just had to say yes, you understood correctly, we should not have idols in our house. And then we got to the Sabbath day, and she was shocked. She, of course had learned the Spanish Catholic twist "Remember thy fiestas, to keep them holy." So when we read the whole thing, she promised, without any prompting on our part, not to take overtime on Sundays any more. Well then we got to adultery, and she had the typical, don't cheat on your husband sort of understanding. When we explain, she gets this sad look, and says, "You know what? I never got married." Hermana and I have out heart attack, and then Rosa gives us this long explanation, in which it comes out, that they are married civilly, but not by the catholic church. Well, we calm down, but we're out of time.

So, Monday we come back, and most of her extended family is there. For benefit of all we decide to review the 10 commandments... but we didn't have to do much. Rosa ran the whole thing, from calling on people to read to explaining the scriptures. Our only job was to keep things moving and on topic. Rosa just taught the whole thing, and bore testimony of the Book of Mormon the whole time. We gave out a whole bunch of copies, and Rosa committed everyone to read. I wanted to cry for joy - She's just so amazing! I don't really know how many of her family are in our area, but I'm sure this had a lasting impact on them any way you cut it. It was such a miracle. We committed her to be baptized, and she said yes, without any vacillation, right in front of her whole catholic family.

She also has a deep testimony of the Proclamation to the World. It was what we shared with her the first time we met her. She knows it's true, and she pulled out her copy to share with the rest of the family, and we pulled out our extras. She spent five minutes just talking about, basically bearing testimony, of that. Herman asked me if having a burning testimony of the Proclamation was enough to get someone baptized.

Other than that, most of our time has been spent knocking. It's tough, because it's cold and damp. But we saw a big sign the other day that said, "Spring is coming! So Thank God!"  With flowers and a little angel on it. It fit my mood well at that moment.

Don't worry about me. I do get moments where I feel weird about going home, like when I found out my MTC companion is going home next week (which is transfers, BTW,) but I'm all here. Just have my bed ready.

Love,
Hermana Jones

Email received March 2, 2011: In The House Of The Lord

(OK, so I ran out of time last week - the library was packed and computer times were shortened slightly. I'm sorry this didn’t gets out till today this will be a combination of what I meant to write last week and what I want to say this week.)

Yes, I know I'm late. No, I'm not getting transferred. We went to the temple the morning of the 23, so we got back late. Because we're so far out of the way, we have to ride in with a member or take the Metra and a couple three buses. Well, luckily, we got a member. We and the English sisters headed out to the temple, and the session was just packed. At least, the sister’s side was...

I've heard that many of the brethren don't like to go to the temple because the workers can be less than humble sometimes. I find that disheartening to think that the temple can be an unpleasant experience, but to the brethren, I say, man up! You know members aren't perfect, and to let a little brusqueness get in the way of the blessings of the temple is just silly. I always wondered why there were three times as many sisters as brethren in the sessions, and from what I've heard, there isn't any really good reason for it. Gentlemen, take it like the man's duty to ask the girls to dance. It's slightly uncomfortable at times, but it’s well worth the result.

Anyway, it was a great session. I wish we could go more often.

This week has been pretty good. We've got some amazing progressing investigators, and we really think they will go all the way. They're already making huge changes in their life! And they want to come to church so bad. But things are just so hard for them. They have two sons who have been into drugs (one just came back from rehab and the other is just going in) and from their tattoos, I'd guess they're into gangs as well. Her brother is getting deported this week, and she's being asked to work Sundays now, on a job she can't afford to lose.

Another one of our investigators just read the "Testimony of Joseph Smith," which is basically JS-H with notes for non-members, and it sent his mind spinning. We spent most of the lesson trying to calm him down, because he wasn't making much sense. He acted like he had never heard the story before (ignoring the fact we had told it to him twice before) and was freaking out about what that meant about his membership in the Catholic Church. We focused on getting him to "try the fruits," (Read the BOM, come to church, etc.,) and praying to know if it was true. He said he needed to study and pray some more, but I have a lot of hope for him.

Things are melting out here, if not necessarily getting warmer. The skies are clear, so the snow is melting, but it's still extremely cold at night. We've had freezing rain several days too. Hermana keeps trying to ditch her coat, but I don't think we'll really be able to get rid of coats for a while. I'm just glad we can leave our boots at home.

We have a new ward mission leader, and he's on fire. He had been working closely with the elders for the last few months, and is taking to his new calling like a fish to water. We’ve always struggled with getting members to lessons, but things have really picked up, now that he's really keeping track of what we're doing. It feels good to work with him, too. Our old ward mission leader is doing fantastic as a Sunday school teacher. I think the branch is building strength in its callings, and I hope that means the lord is preparing us to grow soon.

That's about all here. BTW, it's P. Doll's birthday this week. Just so you know.

Love,
Hermana Maren Jones