Sister Jones' Mission Blog: "We all have our boats we have to build"

This is something my district leader, Elder Lindley, said (a district leader is in charge of 4 or 5 companionships of missionaries and helps them improve and be better missionaries). In this meeting with him, he explained that when we are teaching people about God´s gospel, it is not always easy. Sometimes there are commandments that are really difficult to follow, and those can be their ¨boats¨ (like for Noah, or Nephi).

Anyway, this week was crazy! I left Cartagena on Wednesday morning, so on Monday and Tuesday I just tried to say goodbye to as many people as possible. It was sad, cuz I honestly might never see these people again...but it´s alright. I finally got here with Hermana Merrill (we were in the Missionary Training Center together, Cartagena together, and now we´ll be in Malaga together! Not as companions, but close) and it is SO pretty! The people are so open and friendly here, and there are a LOT who want to hear our message. So that´s really cool. I don´t know how I´m ever going to get to know this area though...it´s a city, and there are a lot of areas where the buildings look exactly the same, and it is just mass confusion for me haha. And, as a Sister Training Leader, one of the things we do is one of us goes to an area of another sister companionship for a day to work with one of them, and the other one comes to Malaga, to our area here. It´s a lot of traveling, but it is so awesome to be able to learn from them. We are in charge of six pairs of sisters, and we have to do these exchanges with each of them at least once a transfer, so that adds up to about one exchange each week. We haven´t done one this week, to let everyone settle in a bit in their new areas, but this coming week we´ll do two. It´s complicated, but I´m so excited! It´s a great opportunity to learn from other missionaries and help them improve as well.

My new companion, Hermana Miller, is awesome! She´s from Utah, and the nicest person I´ve ever met. And she knows what she´s doing, which I really appreciate cuz most of the time I have NO clue hahaha. I´m excited to spend this transfer (these next 6 weeks) with her.

I can´t really tell you all about the investigators cuz I don´t know them very well yet...but we teach a lot of people from Africa and South America and Spain as well. It´s so cool to learn about these cultures...I seriously never would have had this opportunity if I hadn´t been on my mission. It´s such an amazing experience to be here, because I have a year and a half of just serving people and making their lives better. Not everyone wants to know more about our church, and it´s okay. But for those who want to change and want to know if it´s true, their lives change. It´s a real miracle :)

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior! He suffered for our sins and died and was resurrcted to break the bonds of death. I´m so blessed to be able to talk and testify about Him every day.

I love you all! Have a good week!

Hermana Jones