The First Baptism!

Life is good! 


This week has been slow, but full of blessings! I got to do lots of tracting and street contacting. As a trio, we had 5 or 6 people ask for a follow-up, 4 people at church, 2 new on-dates, and 1 baptism on Saturday! I'm starting my third week in the field, and I'm already witnessing lots of people open up to hearing more about the gospel. I have to acknowledge Heavenly Father for these numbers; His hand is in my life for sure. Not that it's about the numbers, but it makes us feel like our work is contributing to the mission and to the Lord. 


This weekend in particular was awesome! My companions shared a message about the Restoration during the baptism, and I did a musical number with a member--A Child's Prayer in Spanish. The baptism in general was amazing. Yarel is the boy who got baptized, and he's 9 years old; this counted as a convert baptism. That same day, my companions were asking me for ideas for our Sunday School lesson (the teacher was absent), and they told me I should teach once I shared my ideas. I got nervous at the thought, but I had a little experience from being Sunday School President at my BYU YSA ward. I agreed to teach since I wanted to contribute, and the youth speak English, so I felt a little more comfortable with teaching. My companions pitched in comments here and there, but I was the main teacher. I felt pretty good about it! I got to teach about Job and I spoke a little Spanish during the lesson.


I had zone conference on Tuesday, so that was motivating for me! I love my mission president and his wife, President and Sister Henderson. They are so full of light and love when they speak or enter the room. Although I didn't know people outside of my zone at the conference, the messages were uplifting and informational. We had food partway through (it lasted from 9am to 3:45pm), so that was great. We took a mission photo, a new-missionaries photo, and zone photos. The missionaries with upcoming birthdays got big candy bars. The companionships with the cleanest car from each zone got a large candy bar, fake medal, and 100 bonus driving miles. Who got the award? Obviously my companions Elder Perez, Elder Lancaster, and I. We detailed our car so much. 


Elder Perez is finishing his mission and leaves this Friday! I've loved serving with him, and I'm excited that he's moving on to school and his next phase. I'm going to miss him SO much. He's a hard worker though, so his mission has been successful for him. He gave his parting testimony at zone conference.


Two exciting announcements were made at zone conference too! 1. Our mission gets to go to the Seattle temple on August 24th! 2. Elder Holland is coming to our mission to speak to us on August 27th!!! Things are always good when we acknowledge the Lord, I testify of that.


Love you all, and to all those who are starting school, may the Spirit be with you! 


If you would like to help me, please pray for the following potentials and on-date people: Edelmira, Victor, and Joel. Thank you!


Elder Jones


p.s. I'm going to try weekly photos and see how that works. Otherwise, I'll stick with the one album. Here's the link for this week's photos:


https://photos.app.goo.gl/7FLQEHz6QemBEy639

















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