Dear Family,
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope it´s fun. I´m was sad this morning
because I didn´t get to go to the Turkey Bowl. That´s alright though because
we are goig to have today. All the North Americans have planned it. I´m
pretty excited because it´ll be a nice change from soccer. We play it every
day during Physical Activity time. It´ll be nice to play something
different.
The new missionaries got here this morning. There are 22 new Latinos
and 5 new North Americans. I´m jealous because thier first meal was turkey
and mashed potatoes. My first meal was a spinach empanada thing. It was
gross. Anyways, I´m excited they´re here because now, I´m not the little one
anymore. I now know more spanish than someone else. It´s great. We were by
ourselves Tuesdat and Wednesday. It was so quiet and boring. On top of that
we had an English fast yesterday(Wednesday). That made it more boring
because no one in my district was really talking because we couldn´t speak
English. It was a hard fast. We´re going to do one again in a couple of
weeks. Maybe by then we´ll know more Spanish so we can speak with each other
more.
Last Thursday all of the Buenos Aires missionaries got to go and
listen to Elder Bednar.I lied in my letter. I t wasn´t all of the Argentina
missionaries. It was a great experience. Elder Bednar let us ask him any
questions. There were some intense questions, but it was cool how he
answered the questions. The Spirit there was so strong. I loved it.
Hopefully I´ll be able to here a general authority again before I go home.
Funny story. At the meeting there was a translator so the Latinos could
understand. At the beginning Sister Bednar was talking and she had some
missionaries come up and bear their testimonies. One of them was from Utah.
He tried to start in English but he couldn´t remember anything so he ended
up saying it in Spanish. So the Spanish translator had to translate it into
English. It was really funny. I hope my Spanish is that good. I want to know
it so well that I forget how to talk in English.
This Saturday will be our first time going out proselyting for 7
hours. I´m really excited for that. It´s going to be a lot harder though. I
feel comfortable enough speaking in Spanish though. It should be a good
experience. We have been practicing really hard for it this week so
hopefully it goes well. Our teacher always tells us that as long as we have
the Spirit with us then we don´t have to worry. The words will be there.
This week, Elder Marchant and I have been praying for the Spirit alot and
we´re going to keep praying for the Spirit.
Tomorrow is Milestone Day. We have our last English one. After that
it´s all Spanish. It should be quite the experience. We know enough Spanish
to get by though so I´m not too worried.
I think that´s about it for now. If I think of more to say then I´ll
send a letter. I hope your Thanksgiving is great. I´m jealous I´m not there
but, I´ll live. Thanks for all the letters. I really look forward to
Thursdays because I can´t to read my emails and write home. I never knew how
important letters could be. Tell everyone to send me letters, especially
people from church. It´d be nice to here from them. I love it here and I
love being a missionary. Until next week, I love you all.
Love
Elder Jones
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Another Week
Dear Family,
This has been a quick week. It seems like I just wrote to you yesterday. The
time is starting to go by quickly. I have just under 7 weeks left at the
CCM(MTC). I can´t wait to leave and go to Uruguay. The MTC is great I´m
really enjoying it. Everyonr here is so awesom. The Latinos are hilarious.
There is never a dull moment when they are around. The Spanish is coming
along good. It gets frustratng at times because the teahcers are just
throwing gobs and gobs of stuff at us. I´m taking it all in slowly but
surely. We´ve been working on lessoon one the last two weeks. Elder Marchant
and I can teach the first lesson without cards now, in Spanish of course. We
can´t say everything that we want to because we don´t have a big enough
vocabulary yet, but we know enough to get the point across. Pretty soon I
should be able to carry on a conversation with the Latinos without looking
like an idiot.
The CCM has bidets, but only on my floor. I used one. It was interesting,
that´s all I have to say.
Last Saturday we went proselyting. It was so cool. We all got different
areas throughout the city. Elder Marchant and I were about 10 minutes from
the temple. Our area was right next to the "NO ZONE". Missionaries aren´t
aloud there obviously. I really enjoyed it. In Argentina, almost every house
has a gate around it. Usually there is a doorbell on the mailbox. If there
isn´t we have to clap. Elder Marchant and I did that alot. The first house
we went to was a rejection, of course. We talked to a lot of people. We had
to use our cards though because our Spanish was still bad, but we did
alright. I can´t wait to go out this Saturday.
Today we are going to listen to Elder Bednar. He is in the area for a
mission conference. All the missionaries in Argentina get to listen to him.
I´m really excited to go. It will be cool to see all of the missionaries. We
weren´t even supposed to go but President Wilson made sure we goto to go.
I have a pretty interesting story. Elder Barrera, one of the Latinos here
was originally called to Romania. Then 5 days before he left, he got a
letter from President Monson saying his call had been switched to Urugauy. I
thought was cool because it confirms to me that we really go where we are
needed.
We sang our first Christmas song in class. We were all upset about it. It
was pretty funny.
I´m running out of time so I´ll say more in a letter home.
I love you all,
Elder Jones
This has been a quick week. It seems like I just wrote to you yesterday. The
time is starting to go by quickly. I have just under 7 weeks left at the
CCM(MTC). I can´t wait to leave and go to Uruguay. The MTC is great I´m
really enjoying it. Everyonr here is so awesom. The Latinos are hilarious.
There is never a dull moment when they are around. The Spanish is coming
along good. It gets frustratng at times because the teahcers are just
throwing gobs and gobs of stuff at us. I´m taking it all in slowly but
surely. We´ve been working on lessoon one the last two weeks. Elder Marchant
and I can teach the first lesson without cards now, in Spanish of course. We
can´t say everything that we want to because we don´t have a big enough
vocabulary yet, but we know enough to get the point across. Pretty soon I
should be able to carry on a conversation with the Latinos without looking
like an idiot.
The CCM has bidets, but only on my floor. I used one. It was interesting,
that´s all I have to say.
Last Saturday we went proselyting. It was so cool. We all got different
areas throughout the city. Elder Marchant and I were about 10 minutes from
the temple. Our area was right next to the "NO ZONE". Missionaries aren´t
aloud there obviously. I really enjoyed it. In Argentina, almost every house
has a gate around it. Usually there is a doorbell on the mailbox. If there
isn´t we have to clap. Elder Marchant and I did that alot. The first house
we went to was a rejection, of course. We talked to a lot of people. We had
to use our cards though because our Spanish was still bad, but we did
alright. I can´t wait to go out this Saturday.
Today we are going to listen to Elder Bednar. He is in the area for a
mission conference. All the missionaries in Argentina get to listen to him.
I´m really excited to go. It will be cool to see all of the missionaries. We
weren´t even supposed to go but President Wilson made sure we goto to go.
I have a pretty interesting story. Elder Barrera, one of the Latinos here
was originally called to Romania. Then 5 days before he left, he got a
letter from President Monson saying his call had been switched to Urugauy. I
thought was cool because it confirms to me that we really go where we are
needed.
We sang our first Christmas song in class. We were all upset about it. It
was pretty funny.
I´m running out of time so I´ll say more in a letter home.
I love you all,
Elder Jones
Thursday, November 12, 2009
One week down
Hello everyone,
This has been quite the week. It has also been going by very slow. It´s
starting to go by faster now. Time to answer questions. I did bring some
melaleuca lotion. The spanish is coming along pretty good. We´ve learned the
first two principles of lesson one in spanish. We have also learned how to
testify, pray, greet someone, and invite them to church. It´s pretty hard
remembering everything because the teachers are constantly throwing it at
us. It´s still going pretty good though. I don´t remember if I told you, but
my companion in Elder Marchant. He is from Missouri. He´s a pretty good kid.
There are actually nine elders in my district, not five like I said before.
When I talking in the phone in Dallas, some more missionaries showed up.
Anyways, this Saturday we are going out proselyting for the first time. We
are only going out for two hours. We go out every Saturday. The first two
Saturdays are for two hours and then after that it´s for seven hours. I´m
really excited for that.
The food is pretty good. There have only been a few things that I didn´t
like. We had a zucchini casserole for lunch one day. It was gross. The
cereal isn´t very good, but I´ll survive. Other than that it´s been good.
All of the teachers don´t speak very good english so it can be pretty
interesting in class. We know enough spanish at this point to understand
most of what they say.
I found out why I am at the Argentina MTC(CCM). The North Americans going to
the two Urugay missions are the ones that come here. New missionaries get
here every three weeks. It switches off between Montevideo and Montevideo
West. So in three weeks they will be another batch of North Americans going
to Montevideo West. It´s been raining off and on so that´s pretty nice.
We are in the same compound as the temple. Unfortunately, as I said, we
don´t get to go because the temple is closed. I found at that we have part
of Montevideo is in our mission
Mom could you send me one of the black name tags in the hutch. I only have
one because the clipon ones are unavailable at the moment. Also could you
send me some ugly ties because we do an ugly trade every week. Those need to
be sent in a padded envelope because boxes don´t get here. If you can´t send
it it´s alright.
I´m out of time so until next week, I love you all.
Love Elder Jones
This has been quite the week. It has also been going by very slow. It´s
starting to go by faster now. Time to answer questions. I did bring some
melaleuca lotion. The spanish is coming along pretty good. We´ve learned the
first two principles of lesson one in spanish. We have also learned how to
testify, pray, greet someone, and invite them to church. It´s pretty hard
remembering everything because the teachers are constantly throwing it at
us. It´s still going pretty good though. I don´t remember if I told you, but
my companion in Elder Marchant. He is from Missouri. He´s a pretty good kid.
There are actually nine elders in my district, not five like I said before.
When I talking in the phone in Dallas, some more missionaries showed up.
Anyways, this Saturday we are going out proselyting for the first time. We
are only going out for two hours. We go out every Saturday. The first two
Saturdays are for two hours and then after that it´s for seven hours. I´m
really excited for that.
The food is pretty good. There have only been a few things that I didn´t
like. We had a zucchini casserole for lunch one day. It was gross. The
cereal isn´t very good, but I´ll survive. Other than that it´s been good.
All of the teachers don´t speak very good english so it can be pretty
interesting in class. We know enough spanish at this point to understand
most of what they say.
I found out why I am at the Argentina MTC(CCM). The North Americans going to
the two Urugay missions are the ones that come here. New missionaries get
here every three weeks. It switches off between Montevideo and Montevideo
West. So in three weeks they will be another batch of North Americans going
to Montevideo West. It´s been raining off and on so that´s pretty nice.
We are in the same compound as the temple. Unfortunately, as I said, we
don´t get to go because the temple is closed. I found at that we have part
of Montevideo is in our mission
Mom could you send me one of the black name tags in the hutch. I only have
one because the clipon ones are unavailable at the moment. Also could you
send me some ugly ties because we do an ugly trade every week. Those need to
be sent in a padded envelope because boxes don´t get here. If you can´t send
it it´s alright.
I´m out of time so until next week, I love you all.
Love Elder Jones
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The First Letter
Hey everyone. I made it here. The plane ride was very long and very boring.
We sat in the plane forever in Dallas because it was taking forever to get
the luggage loaded. We landed about 9:30 this morning. We had to wait in
line forever to get our passports stamped. Then we got our luggage and
exchanged our money. We didn´t have to go through customs so that was nice.
Some random lady came up to us and told us to follow her. Then we loaded in
a van and went to the MTC. We had interviews with President and Sister
Wilson and then ate lunch. That´s about it so far. My pdays are on thursdays
so that´s when I can write. My email is ethan.jones.umo@myldsmail.net.
That´s about it for now.
Love,
Elder Ethan Jones
We sat in the plane forever in Dallas because it was taking forever to get
the luggage loaded. We landed about 9:30 this morning. We had to wait in
line forever to get our passports stamped. Then we got our luggage and
exchanged our money. We didn´t have to go through customs so that was nice.
Some random lady came up to us and told us to follow her. Then we loaded in
a van and went to the MTC. We had interviews with President and Sister
Wilson and then ate lunch. That´s about it so far. My pdays are on thursdays
so that´s when I can write. My email is ethan.jones.umo@myldsmail.net.
That´s about it for now.
Love,
Elder Ethan Jones
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The Airport: He's off!
We just got back from taking Ethan to the airport. It was strange to see him go because he doesn't seem old enough. At our house we referred to the kids is 3 categories. There was the older boys, the girls, and the "little" boys. Ethan is the oldest of the "little" boys and it is crazy to think that he is old enough to be leaving for 2 years to serve a mission. He is so excited to go. He has always wanted to serve a mission. When he talked about it, it was always "when I serve my mission," not "if I serve a mission." He will be missed but we are so proud of him and are excited for the experiences that are in store for him. We know he will be a great missionary. We love you Ethan!
Here are some pictures from the airport. He is flying with 2 other missionaries, Elder Crandall and Elder Opie.
I am leaving on my mission today. I am going to the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission. and I'm going to the Argentina MTC. I am flying from Phoenix to Dallas and then from Dallas to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am very excited to go. I have been waiting for this for a long time, and it's finally here. I'll see you all in two years.
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