Member Support And My First Baptismal Interview

I thoroughly enjoy serving with Elder Maycock. He is amazing each day. We were able to have numerous lessons, via Zoom and in person. What's even better is that we called our members, and we were able to have them join some lessons. It makes it so much better to have them and their powerful testimonies while teaching.

I have good news. Audry and Hordania secured a new place to live! They are finally moving into a new apartment. They are trying to find furniture, bedding, and all kinds of stuff right now, so we and one of our members are going to help them. Although in-person meetings haven't been a thing in these past couple of weeks, we were able to have a lesson with Hordania and a member over a video call! Audry and Hordania are being exposed to the gospel now, and I love it! Our original date for Audry to get baptized was January 13th (five days from now), but she obviously hasn't been taught. As a result, we are going to call her when we know she's off work, and we're going to teach her about Jesus Christ and help her set a new date in February. Things are slowly moving along!

Yesterday, our mission did a fast together. The reason was that we want to "find those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives." It was wonderful, and our faith is high that we are going to see fruits from our labor here soon.

As some of you know, I am a district leader. This means that I help several missionaries in Auburn stay accountable for their work. One of the privileges I have is to do baptismal interviews, which means I can interview people that are being taught and analyze their testimonies of Jesus Christ. I basically give them one last hurrah to be sure they are fully prepared to participate in this special ordinance: baptism. I got to do my first one on Thursday! His name was Kurt, who is a sweetheart! His testimony was beautiful, and he believed strongly in Joseph Smith. I gave him comfort as he talked about missing his deceased wife. It was a tender experience to feel and hear how he loved the Lord. I loved this experience; it had me re-analyze my own testimony.

Our back tire on our car got a screw stuck in it this past week, so we changed our tire and put on a spare. I finally got to learn how to change a car tire! It's one of those basic life skills that is super handy. We got it fixed and now we're all good again.

English class was fantastic! Ten students came! That's a lot for us. We got them laughing and learning effectively. One of the students, Luis, stayed behind and shared some heartfelt things with us. He said he felt guided to go to English class so that he could talk with the missionaries. He knew we are English teachers AND missionaries, so he talked to us for quite a bit after the class. He indicated that he really wants to be a member of our church! He went on to tell us that he's struggling and pleaded for our help. We let him know he has so much support from our members, the Lord, and us. We'll see how things go as we start teaching him!

For our district activity today, we put together a puzzle. It was Grogu (baby Yoda). Yeah, that's right--I'm one of the biggest Star Wars fans on the planet. We had a lot of fun doing it!

Elder Maycock and I go a thousand miles an hour since we've both been missionaries for a long time. We are currently the two longest-serving Spanish elders in our mission, so we are GETTING THINGS DONE. I LOVE IT. I just pray that our works will show forth in baptisms and getting people to the temple.

Saturday was one of my favorite days in my whole mission. Elder Maycock and I worked SO hard! We went from thing to thing nonstop. We went to the apartment for a shortened lunch, and then we didn't return to it until 9:00 that night. We were constantly out and about teaching and proselyting. What an amazing feeling it was! Luis came to Kurt's baptism, so that was an amazing teaching moment where Luis got to feel the Spirit abundantly. We ate dinner with some members and taught them how to share content about Jesus Christ on Facebook. We taught five lessons, and three of them had members! So many spectacular things happened, but these were just a few. I was exhausted when I returned to our apartment, but it was fulfilling.

Please continue to pray for Laura Torres, Luis Alvarez, Audry, and Hordania. They are our most progressing friends, and we are working to get them on the covenant path.

Les quiero a todos ustedes. Cuídense!

Elder Jones