Sharing the Gospel

2018 Covina Ward Mission Plan

2019 Covina Ward Mission Plan

2020 Covina Ward Mission Plan

2021Covina Ward Mission Plan

2022 Covina Ward Mission Plan

A Message from Orion Ayala

Hey everyone, it's been a long while since I've sent out an email to everyone. Time is really flying by and I've gotten to explore and experience so much! I've decided to document day-to-day entries so that way I can schedule send this email on Monday and not forget about it.

Ever since my arrival in Idaho, I've gotten to see the Idaho Falls temple in-person, participate in a baptism, go fishing, and see the snowy landscape! It's been a blast, and getting to meet people and build special and meaningful relationships makes the experience really special.

We had a great time this past weekend when we were served some pozole, it tasted amazing and it reminded me of the holidays back at home!

Then, some crazy story with a cat... My companion and I were at an apartment complex making our rounds by going to the door contacts we had scheduled. Then some random guy pulls up in his car and drops a cat in our hands and says "Do you want a cat?" And before we could respond he takes off saying "If not take it to the animal shelter" and said "God bless you" and drove off!! We were still trying to comprehend the situation that we just had all while being stared at by some random people with a cat in our hand.

Long story short, we checked to see if the animal shelter was open but it was CLOSED. So now we were stuck with some random cat given to us by some random guy and we couldn't keep it with us. So we found it a temporary place to stay in a cardboard box and the next day we found out that some old lady found the cat and found an owner for it through Facebook. So everything worked out great for the cat and us!

Anyway, here are some pictures I've take from my last week at Mexico up until last week. I might send put some more but there is a file size limit for emails. Happy Monday!!

Picture 1: The arriving party from the Provo and Mexico MTC to Idaho Falls

Picture 2: The Mexico City Temple

Picture 3: The Idaho Falls Temple

Picture 4: Snakeriver in Blackfoot

Picture 5: Our first baptism!

Picture 6: Arriving to Idaho Falls!

Picture 7: My MTC district soaking in the rain in Mexico (best district ever)

To my MTC district in this email list: You guys are awesome! Keep it up, I miss you all, but I know you're all doing great work!

A Message from Sister Jones:

Hola!!!

I hope everyone has had an amazing week! We have seen some amazing miracles this week which is always the best! First off we had the baptism of our friend Fredy which was so awesome! Fredy was so excited that his baptism had finally arrived. We were in the street an hour before his baptism and we ran into him already on his way to the church. The spirit was so strong in the baptism it was incredible. He was baptized on Saturday and the second part of his baptism, his confirmation, was Sunday. Fredy is normally super early to church so he can greet everyone. When we arrived we still was not there so we figured he was running a little late. 5 minutes before church started he still was not there so we called him to see what was wrong. He said he had accidentally slept in. Fredy lives pretty close to the church so we ran over to him house and ran back to the church with Him just in time for his confirmation. The timing was perfect. It was literally a miracle. So Fredy got baptized ang was confirmed with the Holy Ghost!!

So with that story I figured I would talk a little about the importance of the Holy Ghost. Our prophet, President Nelson said "in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost." Without the Holy Ghost we cannot receive a testimony that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. Without the Holy Ghost we cannot receive a testimony of the Book of Mormon. With the Holy Ghost we cannot receive a testimony of anything. We can believe something to be true but we cannot know something is true without receiving a confirmation of its truthfulness by the power of the Holy Ghost. Before a person is baptized they can feel the influence of the Holy Ghost every once in a while. After baptism and confirmation a person has the ability to have the Holy Ghost with them as a constant companion. This constant companion is what we need to be able to survive spiritually and to be able to overcome temptations and the lies of Satan. This is why receiving the Holy Ghost is so important. That's also why we need to follow the impresions of the spirit that we receive.

Have an amazing week!!!!

Hermana Jones

A Message from Elder Ayala:

Hello everyone! This is my first email that I'm sending out from the MTC in Mexico City. Firstly, I want to thank everyone for supporting me throughout my mission experience so far.

During the first few weeks here in the Mexico MTC, I've had the opportunity to tour the 90+ acre campus, attend devotionals, and visit the Mexico City Temple! I'll start with the campus life first, I want to say that a ton of the aspects of living here are amazing. We have an "all you can eat" cafeteria that overlooks the mountains that surround the area. It so happens to be that the Mexico MTC (CCM) used to be an elementary school then a high school and up until 2013, the highschool was sold to the church and we made the statement "The High School is going on a mission". The campus is clean, has 100% purified drinking water, and classrooms to study, ponder, and pray.

The devotionals here are amazing! The CCM president, President Kirkham, is a very loving and spiritual person. He's spoken at a few of our devotionals but the most notable ones that I've attended were the last two. The Sunday School General President of the church, General Young Men's 1st Councilor, Mexico's area Seventy, and the president of the Seventies for Mexico spoke. My companion and I got front row seats! Elder Montonya, the Presidency of the Seventy for Mexico will be speaking in General Conference that's upcoming. It was cool because we all got to shake his hand and have a brief talk with him.

My visit to the Mexico City Temple was also amazing. The exterior and interior were beautiful and the experience of going was super inspiring. It turns out that the Mexico City temple is the largest temple outside the United States of America. Also an interesting fact about the temple is that it's the safest building in Mexico city because every other day, engineers adjust the temple so that it can align perfectly and be stable during an earthquake. Speaking of earthquakes, there has only been 3 so far. None of them were bad, it felt like the simulation that's in the California Science Museum. But what was interesting is that literally 20 minutes after our first earthquake drill, the real earthquake happened and so everyone was prepared!

Overall, I have plenty of crazy stories to share, like for example, some of the Sister Missionaries in our district got stuck in the elevator for 5-10 minutes. They were fine but it was a crazy experience for them and for me to witness after they called us and we had to get security to shut off the elevator and turn it back on. Thank you guys for reading! In this email should be attached a few photos that I took so you can see.

A message from Hermana Jones:

Hola!!!

I hope you all had an amazing past couple of weeks!! I got a new companion a few weeks ago, Hermana Nielsen, and we will be getting another in a couple days so we will be in a trio! We have been covering two wards that are both huge for the last few weeks so we have been crazy busy! It has been so fun!! We have definitely seen many miracles in the two wards.

One thing I am very grateful for is the Spirit. The Spirit will truly guide us to where we need to go when we need to be there. A couple weeks ago we met a couple people and a few days later we went back to visit them. While there we met another man, Fredy, who we invited to come to church and listen to our message. He accepted and has been very interested in learning about the gospel. The other day Fredy came to our friend's baptism and decided then that he too wanted to be baptized. So Fredy will be getting baptized in a few weeks!! The original people we found are no longer interested but if we had never gone back to visit them we probably would never have talked to Fredy. The Lord is guiding His servants in His work we just have to listen and trust in Him. It may not turn out the way we want or think but it will turn out so much better!!

I hope you all have an amazing week!!

Hermana Jones