"Add this to my blog please".

Ammah wanted us to add this information to her blog. The videos really are wonderful.

On Sundays Sister Wilson and I like to watch mormon videos and the Bible videos that they have on the lds.org website. The bible videos are AWESOME. WATCH THEM! I keep thinking about you Mom and Dad getting ready for the Easter Pageant and these videos remind me of the pageant, it makes me miss it soo much! Mom there is a video about the adulteress, It is soo good it gives me goosebumps. I've almost watched all of them but my favorites are "Go and Sin No More" (the adulteress one), the Savior Suffers in Gethsemane,The Baptism of Jesus, Jesus heals a woman of faith, and others but I can't remember all the titles but they are all soo well made and just bring a really good spirit to the day. I can't give you the url cause this computer won't let me but just go to lds.org and than a little bit down it has one video of Peter preaches to the people then there is a link that says Bible Videos just click on it and they all pop up there are about 30 of them. Enjoy!!!

Here are the direct links to several of the videos Ammah mentioned in her letter home.

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/go-and-sin-no-more?lang=eng

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/jesus-heals-a-woman-of-faith?lang=eng

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/the-baptism-of-jesus?lang=eng

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/the-savior-suffers-in-gethsemane?lang=eng

Love,
Sister Ammah Jones

Week 5

February 19^th,                                                                                             * ** PICTURES BELOW

Kumusta pamilya!

I hope you are all doing well; we haven't been able to get mail for 3 days cause of the holiday weekend so hopefully i'll get some dear elders from you guys when we check tonight so I know how you all are doing. I'm sure you're doing wonderful though :) This past week was pretty great, I feel like I just keep learning so much here It's been such a great experience. I'll be on my way to the Philippines in 6 days! I hope you got my letter with all my flight plans on it. I get to stop in Tokyo for a layover! so cool! Excited Ko!

Mom all your valentine goodies came in handy ha-ha Sister Wilson and I decorated our door with hearts and we made little valentine goody bags for each of our elders. Sister Wilsons mom sent a bunch of candy too so combined with mine we were able to make some pretty awesome valentines. I gave each of them in their bags candy and those little jumpy frog toys ha-ha they loved them we were all playing with them all day having contests and stuff. It was so fun. Sister Wilson and I got up early to decorate the door and then we sat and waited in our class seats with our boingy heart headbands and kazoo lips for when the elders walked in haha they were so excited! Some of them (2) were a little sad cause they missed their girlfriends but they said they felt better when they saw our door. Yah so that was our valentine’s day here at the mtc, it wasn't much different though we still studied all day and continued to work hard.

We met our new roommates last Tuesday...and we finally got ones that are going to the Philippines too! They are so awesome Sister Wilson and I looove them, and they are in our zone too. We have so much fun together, they are very funny! Sister Foster is from Wisconsin and sister Mailo is from Samoa and she gave us both lava lavas! We wear them all the time :o) Sadly they are not going to our same mission they are going to Anjeles I think. We stayed up till 11 last night laughing and giggling ha! It's a nice change compared to our last roommates that we had cause they were super quiet and we barely got to know them very well. sister Wilson and I are loving them! Oh! And I finally found Dewitt! ** (Ammah's Mom's best friend from St. Johns son) I see him all the time now we have the same eating schedule every time I see him I never have my camera though so I'm gonna take it with me to each meal incase I run into him again:) I always love seeing familiar faces around here, it brings me home for a little bit.

So this week I had my ups and downs with the language. I had a really bad day this week I think that the stress just got to me and we were practicing a lesson about the word of wisdom to one of the resource teachers, Sister Scott, and we finished our lesson, and.. I just couldn't hold it in I started crying, I was just so frustrated with myself cause the lesson didn't go very well and I was just struggling the whole time mostly cause it was a new topic for us to teach and we had never taught it in Tagalog before. I was just telling Sister Scott about the things that were bothering me and that I was frustrated with myself that i couldn't speak very well, and I looked up at her and she had started crying too. And she said that she was crying because during our whole lesson she was just thinking to herself about how amazing it is that we know so much already and she was so sad to see me so very frustrated because we really do know how to say a lot of stuff, more than all our teachers had learned at the same points during their stay at the mtc. They keep telling us how amazed they are, cause when they were all at the mtc they were on the 9 week program and their teachers didn't start talking to them in Tagalog till the end of their fourth week and then they started easing Tagalog in. They constantly bare their testimonies to us about the power of the gift of tongues and how they know that it's real because they see us progressing so quickly here with this  very shortened program. I think that I just forget that sometimes, I shouldn't expect to be fluent by the time I get out cause that's impossible and I just need to have patience with myself. This is so much harder than I thought it would be... but I'm glad it's like that because I am going to appreciate being able to speak this language just that much more knowing that I had to work so hard to get to that point. I really am falling in love with this language though...it is so beautiful to me and I love listening to my teachers speak it so well. I  love thinking about the future and imagining about how useful it will be and how much I'm going to enjoy being able to speak it for the rest of my life. I really would love to come back here to the mtc and teach it to missionaries that would be so cool! And I was talking to a teacher here the other day about using it to get credits in school. You can’t minor in it because they don't have a program for it but you can take classes and I can get up to 16 credits just by taking a test to pass all these Tagalog classes. That would be awesome! They say it really helps with your GPA too :) so excited ko! Anyways after that day and after many prayers...Sister Wilson and I had to teach a few investigators and it went awesome! We walked out and sister Wilson just turned to me and was like "oh my gosh!" you did so good! I just was able to say all that I needed and I just felt so good. And it was weird all day I was just putting together all these sentences in my head in Tagalog and I just knew that heavenly father was helping me. The gift of tongues is so real, Heavenly Father has asked me to learn this language, and he wouldn't ask something of me and expect to me do it on my own and when he saw that I needed help, and when I asked for the help he came to my rescue. I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who loves me and watches over me. All we need to do is have faith in him and ask when we are in need of help and he will help us, I know that to be true.

We had the opportunity to role-play yesterday with each other in our district. And we were able to do it in English the first time which I really love doing cause it helps to gather my thoughts first in English and then after I know that I can teach it in English, I just translate it in my head into Tagalog. We were taught by Elder Castillo and Elder Erickson sa englais, and it was probably one of the most special experiences I've had here. They taught us the first lesson and when they got to the first vision part sister Wilson and I started tearing up and so were they. As they were teaching us I just said a little prayer in my heart thanking Heavenly Father for the opportunity to feel the spirit and be taught by them and as I finished the prayer I just felt the spirit hit me so strong and a few tears spilled over. This church is so true, I knew that coming in but every day my testimony continues to grow and I constantly feel the spirit testifying to me the truthfulness of all that we are learning and teaching here.

We had a really good devotional last Tuesday by Gregory a. Schweitzer of the seventy. He talked about how we need to follow the example of Jesus Christ and have the kind of love that he had for the people he taught.

In Luke 15 Jesus gives the parable of the lost sheep. When one of the shepherds sheep ran off and was lost, he went to find it. And when he did find it he didn't use his cane and snag it around the neck and drag it home scolding it along the way. He gently picks up this sheep, and lays it softly over his shoulders and walks it back to the flock calling to his friends and neighbors to come rejoice with him for finding that one sheep. This is the way we need to teach our investigators and bring them unto christ. These investigators are just heavenly fathers children and we need to bring them back the way the shepherd brought back his sheep.

I love you guys, please be safe and I really look forward to talking to you guys on the phone on Tuesday!!! Mahal Kita!!

Love Sister Jones 

** Excerpts from her hand written letter home.

 

Could you send my guitar capo should be with my guitar or in the pocket on the front of the guitar case?

 I love you guys i don't know when I’ll call but it will sometime on Tuesday between 8am-4pm I’ll just call the house phone. If not tell me otherwise through dearelder I’ll get them through Monday night.

I leave Feb 26^th at 8 am from the MTC my flight from the SLC airport leaves at 11:00am

Arrive in Seattle Washington at 12:19, Leave Seattle at 12:55 – land in Tokyo, Japan 4:35 pm Feb 27^th, Leave Tokyo at 8:30 pm and land in Manila at 10:35 pm. This is something like 20 hours on the plane.

Yeah…so I’m not going to Hong Kong?? I’m going to Tokyo?? What the??  I’m so excited!! We will be traveling with two other elders from our Zone plus two girls too. Sister Houser and Sister Tingy (who did the Easter pageant with us the last 3 years Mom.) Then we will meet up with two elders from our Zone who are going to Quezon too. We do not get to travel with any of the boys from our district though. We are all very sad about that and have to say our goodbye’s Monday night. They will be leaving Tuesday night at 5 pm. I am sending lots of pictures today, some from doing laundry with our district super early this morning and from Valentine’s Day. And our dorm room too.

Thank you for all the support and prayers they help tons. Mahal Kita!
 

****

All the girls in Ammah's Zone heading somewhere in the Philippines

Sister Jones and Sister Wilson being very silly on Valentines day in the MTC. Notice the flag I sent them in the background.

The decorated door and a surpirsed Elder.

Laundry in the MTC...looks cold?? 

*****

Ammah's Dorm room & all her meds she had to take when she was very sick. Thankfully I think she is better but none of her letters have said she IS better. Just assuming?

Ammah on her first outting from the MTC. To bad it was the Health Center at BYU to see the Dr. to get some much needed meds.  

Week 4

Feb 12th -

Kumusta my sweet family!

Thank you for all the dearelder letters you have been sending me, last week was rough with me being pretty sick and all so it was nice to be able to get those nice surprises each day. I am feeling much much better this week hallelujah! The Dr. here gave me more meds and they really seemed to have finally kicked in. I also received a blessing from my sweet elders in my district which I know played a huge part. How grateful I am for the priesthood. That night after my blessing I sat writing in my journal about the day and I just started thinking about all the times I’ve seen the priesthood work miracles in my friends lives and in my own. I feel so blessed to have grown up in a home that had a priesthood holder and I feel even more blessed to live in a time where we have priesthood keys here on the earth. I love you DAD!

This week has been awesome regarding our two investigators that we teach regularly. Daryl and Jenifer both accepted the invitation to be baptized! Sister Wilson and I were so excited! Especially since one of them was a big surprise hah. We've been having a little trouble with Jenifer, she is really shy and doesn't respond much when we ask her questions etc. But our last lesson with her went so well, she kept all the commitments we asked her to do like praying about the Book of Mormon and reading it regularly also praying to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. As soon as she said she had done those things I just knew we needed to invite her to be baptized, and we hadn't planned on it at all. When we finished our lesson on the Plan of Salvation Sister Wilson looked at me and we could just read each other’s minds, I turned to her and asked "Gagawin po ba ninyo susunod ng halimbawa kay jesucristo at pagbinyag?" and she said yes! Best feeling ever, it’s funny how much we get into roleplaying here because these investigators aren’t even real investigators they are our teachers but they encourage us to take it reall seriously. We constantly role play here, at least 2 to 3 times a day of teaching each other lessons. At the moment we have 4 investigators. We start teaching another companion in our district this week we have to teach them twice every week. Than we have Daryl Jenifer and Oni, who are all our teachers. Plus TRC on Wednesdays, that’s another lesson there too! To be honest I didn't really care for roleplaying at the beginning it was hard to get into it and take it serious but I've grown to LOVE it and I’ve realized how helpful it is and how much experience it gives us. I've noticed that it helps us learn the lessons really well also. Sister Wilson and I don't bring any notes in with us; just our scriptures and  we let the spirit guide us in what we should say. It's also helped me in learning how to rely on the spirit. Especially in Tagalog it’s hard to know what you want to say and knowing that you don't know exactly how to say it, but when you have the spirit, it guides you and it will fill your mouth with the words that your investigator needs to hear. It’s so awesome!

We had a great fireside this past Sunday. His name was Mark J. Lusvardi, and I can't remember exactly what he is in charge of. He’s not a general authority but he's some kind of program director, they mentioned a few things that he kind of looks over and one of them is church pageants, so I'm sure he has something to do with the Easter pageant. (By the way mom thank you for my pageant pictures they were perfect!) Anyway, he spoke on Divine Love. He talked about Ammon when he came to King Lamoni and told him that he was willing to spend his time there and teach them until the day he died (Alma 17:22-24). Also about Mosiah 28:3 and how the missionaries were so worried about the welfare of the peoples souls that it caused them to "quake and tremble". How much love for the people they must have had! I know thatI will love the Filipino people so much, I hear almost every day about how caring and nice they are. I’m sure I’ll probably feel the same way as those missionaries in the book of Mosiah who quaked and trembled just thinking about the people not accepting the gospel. I can’t believe that 2 weeks from today I will be on my way to the Philippines ahh!! We had to say goodbye to part of our zone today a few of the elders are actually going to Quezon City as well so it really wasn't goodbye. They told me about their flights and in total the flight to the Philippines is 20 and half hours! We first go to San Francisco which is 1.5 hours. Then from San Francisco to Hong Kong is 16 hours. Then another 3 hours to Manila. That’s crazy!! We should be getting our flight info soon probably in 5 or 6 days. I’ll write next week in my email all the flight info and when I will be calling. I’ll probably call from San Francisco becauseI heard that we have to sit and wait for 7 hours for our flight to Hong Kong, that will be perfect timing . Sister Wilson and I decided that we’re going to bring a few Books of Mormon and hand them out and talk to people while we wait :O) perfect!

Well I’m a little over my time on the computer, I love you all so so much. Thank you for keeping me updated on all that’s going on I hope Amelia is feeling better, and Grandma S. I've been praying for your recovery! Hugs and kisses to you all! Mahal Kita!

 Love, Sister Jones

p.s.

I love you guys, be safe! Andelyn and Amelia make good choices! I pray every night that you will so you better! Also HAPPY VALENTINES DAY in a few days! MAHAL KITA!

Ammah's Dorm Room. It looks like Ammah has on the left side of the desk and Sis Wilson on the ight. It's so neat and tidy?? Good to know. Notice the heart headbands on the top. I sent them these for Valentines Day.  Hope they got to be goofy and wear them

 

 Valentine Socks we sent the girls too.

* Pictures stolen from Sis Wilsons blog since Ammah hasn't sent any pictures in a few weeks. Yay for Sister Wilson and her Mom who keeps up her blog.

 

Tuesday February 5th

Kumusta po ng pamilya ko!

I can't believe that tomorrow begins my 4th week here, I literally feel like I was just sitting here writing you just a few days ago, time really fly’s here!

Life here is keeping me busy and it sounds like life in mesa is doing the same for you guys. The youth conference, snow trip, and cabin sounds like it was so fun! I was so sad to hear that our bishopric got released :( but, I do love all the new men called into the bishopric they will do a great job! Mom how did the NAU trip go?? That is a long ways to drive but I do hope it went well, ask Amelia to write me and tell me about it all please. I just got my package!! haha the whole time I was opening it Sister Wilson just kept saying "I love your mom! I love your mom!" I saw Cole his second day here and we have the same eating schedule so I actually see him multiple times a day.He's such a cute little missionary! *Cole is Ammah’s cousin.

Mom thank you thank you for that scripture in Jeremiah 1 it was SO perfect. I shared it with Sister Wilson and we immediately looked it up and highlighted it. The language is coming slowly but it's coming yay! I've figured out that I need to just focus on what I want and feel like I need to say to our "investigators" and the words come more easily. We usually teach a couple times a day to our two investigators, Daryl and Jenifer. The other day we taught Daryl the apostasy, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, AND how to pray all in one 30 minute lesson and we didn't even have any notes! It went so well we were very happy that the language is really starting to make sense, it's still hard but I'm not as frustrated and I've just been learning to be patient. We also started TRC this week which is training resource center and it's where volunteers come in and just listen to us teach them a lesson in Tagalog. They act like themselves and most of them are return missionaries form the Philippines so they all speak fluent Tagalog but it was really fun we taught two people. One was this girl who had served in Quezon City and she said we would love It :) we have TRC every Wednesday it's definitely something I look forward to. Sister Wilson and I got to teach a lesson on Sunday to our district and a member of our branch presidency about Faith in Jesus Christ. I've come to realize that this is my all-time favorite topic to study and teach EVER! You could talk for hours on faith seriously, sister Wilson and I taught for 45 minutes (in English ha!) and we didn't even use all the informoation we had planned. It went so good and I learned even more about how faith works. We came across a story in the Book of Mormon that I never had really focused on before or even had been taught much about before, but it is now one of my absolute favorite stories in the BOM HELAMAN CHAP 5: READ IT. it's so good! Nephi and Lehi are so awesome ha-ha sister Wilson and I were getting so excited reading it.

So one thing that our district LOVES to do is sing. All the elders love harmonizing together so whenever they have free time they all whip out their hymn books and pick a song to sing while we are studying. It's funny cause they all aren't huge choir kids or anything and individually they don't have amazing voices but they sound really good together. Il started singing with them and slowly they figured out that I could sing pretty good ha-ha so now they are all obsessed with my voice and fight over who gets to sit by me so that they can hear my voice hah! They made me sing a solo one day in class so embarrassing! I told them that I had recorded some hymns before they left and now they keep hounding me to ask my mom to burn them all cd's with my songs on them :o). We can't listen to cd's or music here at the mtc but out in the mission we can.

One of our Zone leaders, elder Holmes, had to leave this week due to a shoulder injury he got playing basketball ha go figure.. he has to have surgery on it and he was supposed to leave in a week. He had to get sent home to have surgery and recover for 2 months than they are sending him directly to his mission in the Philippines. We were all sad to see him go and so our whole zone (4 districts) prepared to sing "god be with you till we meet again" we all crowded on the stairwell with him at the bottom and as soon as we started singing his eyes filled up with tears. He cried through the whole thing, and a lot of us were crying aswell, I was included in that it just made me think of all the friendships I've made here and leaving our sweet elders in our district. I don't want that day to come :( But.. There are people in the Philippines being prepared to be taught and I anxiously await the day that I get there.

I have a story for you :o) Our Teacher Brother Kovach told us a story from his mission. He and his companion are walking through this jungley part of their mission which was in Manila and the Philippines has these spiders called bird spiders, and at night hundreds of them spin webs in the trees and as the birds come flying through they get caught in these webs and the spiders eat them. These spiders are huge, a little bigger than my fist  and at night they all hang down from the trees waiting for prey. Any ways him and his companion are just walking through at night going back to their residence and they can feel these spiders brushing the tops of their heads so what they would do every night is put their backpacks over their heads and just run through and they can hear all these spiders hitting the tops of their backpacks "thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk" haha Sister Wilson and I were faareeeking out! haha we always thought they didn't have those in our area of the Philippines. It's funny cause Sister Wilson has specifically been saying this whole time we've been here that she's "so glad they don't have bird eating spiders there" I was laughing pretty hard.

Mom thank you again for my package we were so excited,  I haven't tried the boots on yet but I will tonight and I'll write you about it. All the stuff in the box is so fun! Thank you!! I love you!

Ingat my family and listen to the spirit I'm so glad to hear you are all doing so well with yourscriptures and prayer. You will be blessed! I'll continue to pray for you all and I miss you! Hugs and kisses! Mahal Kita! :)

             Ammah's scenic route to the provo Temple at 6 a.m. in the morning