January 30, 2012

Hey Mum!!

How I love my comp! We work so well together and are pretty much best friends now! I have seen a few pictures of his dad’s leatherwork!! Crazy huh! They also love painting! :) This week has had its ups and downs like every week. Tanya the lady that called and told us it was a miracle that we stopped her, fell of the face of the earth. I’m wondering if the less active guy said anything to her. I hope not because she is such a great lady! We have met some great potentials. Most of them didn’t want to hear what we had to say and others want to see us again. I know we are going to find some great people! One of the miracles for this week was, a guy named Damemder Kumar was given to us through a referral. Most of our referrals are the most solid ones! We went over to his flat, he told us he was studying in Yorkshire University and his school visa expired so he had to move to Reading University. He was being taught by the missionaries in Yorkshire and had a baptismal date! He is studying bio-medicine and his finishing his PHD. He wants to find a vaccine for the plague! How crazy is this guy! He is sooo cool! He is from India so we are just waiting for his school visa to get here and we will get this guy baptized ASAP! This Sunday all 3 of us fasted together so that his visa might come! Hopefully this weekend we can schedule a trip to go to the visitor’s center at the temple! Im soo happy :) Addie my RC has gone back to Nigeria. I miss him... I didn’t get to see him before he left because we both were soo busy. Chris is still on to get baptized on the 11th of February.. :) can’t wait!!!! This Sunday a lady walked into the Reading ward saying she wanted to know more about our church! She said I had given her a Book of Mormon and bore testimony about it! I cannot remember her to save my life! She had a dream that night were a guy came to her and said "follow your heart". She has been looking for truth and randomly just walked into church, she wants to get taught by the missionaries! Im soo happy I’m still close to my old ward to keep close to the people I taught and stopped on the streets!  Funny thing that happened this week was we knocked on this door and a guy warned us to get off his porch before he came after us! I laughed a little because he was a jerk. 

We have taught members, less actives and recent converts this week! I have learned so much from this one girl named Kailash! She shared a spiritual thought with us on forgiveness! She is sort of autistic but is there enough to make her own decisions. Anyways she was saying how people are mean to her and she tries to forgive people when they do wrong! It makes me cry to think about it but it made me think of the times I have been a jerk to people. When I get home I want to apologize to a few people! I didn’t understand at the time what being mean was! I understand now.

We have been working very hard! Elder Fawson and I give each other a run for our money haha! Try and keep up with me while I keep up with you kind of a thing! :) Today we are going to give a blessing to a member who has epileptic fits ( I hope its spelled like that) through faith we will work a miracle if it be Gods will! She is a great lady! This next week we are going to have another zone conference and district meeting! Pres Shamo asked me to start taking driving lessons because I will need a license in the future! SO excited! Not sure if I can handle driving the right side haha I guess we will see how it goes!  We had interviews and he spoke so open with me! Pres Atchinson asked for Crystal and me to stay close by. Who knows why he still needed us close by but I will figure it out in the long term! I often times look at myself from where I was till now! In 5 months it’s amazing to see what you can become! " 19 years of preparation, 2 years to serve, and a memory forever to remember" :) I have strengthened my testimony, I am turning into an instrument in the hands of our Father, I love seeing change, love challenges so I can become more humble. It is getting cold! Supposed to snow this week! I doubt it though. Weather here is unpredictable! I wish I could write down all I have learned this past week but I am writing it all in my study journal!

I love you family! Keep smiling-

 Love elder jones-

***I felt a little sad knowing that grandma had passed... dad sent me a few videos which i loved! :) Thanks for telling me you were getting surgery haha I hope you get feeling better mum. When you got to Thatcher please stop by the Alders and Innes families to tell them I’m doing soo good! :) It is getting nice and cold this week! Hopefully it will snow! I wish i had more time to write sometimes but i do try to put the most important things in the email.. tonight I will write in my journal about a lot of this! :) I’m glad I made great grandma happy! She has been one of my heroes growing up :) Shared a lot of memories with her!

January 23, 2012

WOW WOW WOW!!

 Look at those new calls happening!! That’s GREAT!! Jeffrey and I aren’t going to be too far from each other haha! This week has been one of the best weeks so far! I love serving with Elder Fawson! We are best friends :) He wants to study music when he gets home. He is a hard worker, makes me laugh every day and is a very good missionary. 

This week we have talked to some great people! We have found 2 solid Investigators which i am very excited for! I will share a small miracle! So we stopped this lady on the street named Tonya! She was telling us how 13 of her friends had passed this last year and that she has been wondering what they purpose of life was! We then explained to her about the purpose and why we are out here as missionaries! She was sooo happy to talk to us. One of her good friends is a less active member in the ward and through him she has learned a little about the church! Maybe by her coming in to the church this member will begin to come back and fix his life back up. Before we left we said a prayer with her on the street! The next day she called us with tons of excitement and told us that after we left that she had one of the best days! She told us that she has not talked to her sis in a long time and that when they met up they were laughing and are now close again! She is happy :) We will see her tomorrow. We are planning to set a date as well! We found some great people as well! I love just hearing what people have to say and their views on life. When you listen earnestly they will do anything for you! :)

 In church this week they talked a lot about temples and family history! One speaker talked about the people in the Book of Mormon and how they all faced their tents towards King Benjamin! We can then change it and say - How many of our homes are faced towards the temple?- He talked about the Angel Moroni and how he faced East! And said how do we get our home to face East? We can begin to turn that by doing those things which the church has asked! The small things such has tithing, church, prayer, church callings etc. It may take time but we can do it. How many of us put temple 1st on our list? I liked how he said that everything is answered in the temple! If you can’t go in the temple you can be answered on the temple grounds! I will write it more clearly next week. I don’t have my diary on me. Now about Family history work! The speaker said-- It’s not about doing the family history work, it’s about receiving the blessing of doing it- I thought since Dad has picked talking to the stake about these 2 subject he could use that quote! If we aren’t close to a certain member she said - by doing the work for them we begin to develop a love for them- I guess I don’t want to sound preachy or anything but I did learn soo much this week! Reading ward misses me but they are happy that I am still around. Elder Fawson and I taught an amazing lesson in Elder Quorum.. I talked about our testimony and the power which they carry. I used DC 63:3 I think that might be it.. Then talked about the priesthood, how us elders should be the ones who should constantly be caring for the members, casting out sicknesses and healing. I shared an experience Dad told me about the 3 missionaries that healed Lupita’s mom.. Elder Fawson gave a wonderful talk as well! We work really well together! :) The ward seems to be a lot more humble because they don’t have as many people in the ward! I feel that I am supposed to be here for a reason! I am seeing the blessing of it. The ward loves us very much because of the hard work we are putting into everything :) I laughed when I heard that about Jill’s mom and Dave Brown! Mom will you tell grandma to tell great- grandma how much I love her and thank her for the great example she has left on me! And that care about her so much! Thanks.... I’m glad things are going well for the community and our family! I’m thankful to be out here serving!

Love ya-

Elder Jones<3

P.s that is funny that you are friends with Elder Fawsons mom. Tell roost how proud I am for getting his Eagle done! Tell him he better fulfill his promise about getting more badges and awards in scouts than I did! :) Keep smiling guys

January 19, 2012

Hey Family :)

Guess what??? Yep I got transferred.....to Woodley! Yep that’s right! I’m 2 miles from my other flat! Woodley Ward and Reading Ward meet together for church. I thought by me just getting moved to Woodley was not cool to be honest. Elder Burton got transferred to Maidstone which is a nice town. I was jealous in a way, but then i thought of the email President sent us! He said wherever I have put you, know that you are there because the lord wants you to be there. That uplifted me to know that someone is waiting for me in the Woodley area. I failed to mention that they White washed Reading and Woodley. I got hard working kid for Cedar City Utah. His name is Elder Fawson. We are going to work our faces off which I am way excited for! I am happy but sad about everything in a way. We were teaching some cool people in Reading but I am sure Woodley has some good people as well! Woodley is more in the Town Centre so there are plenty of more people to talk to. This next week Addie (Recent Convert) is going back home to Nigeria.. I’m going to miss him. The good thing is that Chris Sharp has asked me to baptize him :) I sure do love Chris! He is a great great guy! Gave the worldly life up for the gospel in a matter of a month or 2! I told him that I would come back to London when he gets married in the temple <3 I’m happy that I am still close to Reading and can still be a part of it all!  Other than that not much has happened! Still trying to adapt to the area! The whole mission got switched up pretty good! Not much to say this week haha I am sure that next week will be great! Sorry I didn’t post pictures last time! I will do it as soon as I can! :)

My new address is:

74 Quadrant Court

Jubilee Sq

Reading

Berkshire

RG1 2GU

January 16, 2012

Hey mother dear!!!!     (He writes a separate letter to his Dad…)

Sooo this week we have set a baptismal date!! Chris will be baptized on February 11th. I hope one of us gets to stay to watch him get baptized... he told us how he knows the church is true and knows that the Book of Mormon is true as well!!! He has invited his mom to church! The best part is, is that his mom is bringing one of her friends as well!! This next week should be great!! :) We had a referral named Simone come to church! She has started to tell her sister about the church. Her sister is now interested in our church!! I’m soo happy to figure out what will happen in the next week or two! :) Moves day is this Wednesday so I’m excited to see what happens! Whatever happens I know it is called of god! But a refresh would be nice. Anyways I got your package today!! AWESOME! Thank you for the insoles. I am wearing them right now!! The Pictures were brilliant! I laughed!! The part that made me laugh the most was Andres Christmas card!! That was funny… hahahaha!! OH thank you for sending me that little horse!! I will post some pictures :)

I sure did enjoy Stake Conference this week! I totally forgot to bring my diary full of notes. I won’t forget next week so I can let you know what I have learned. I have gotten sick this week so it hasn’t been the fullest week it should have been.. :/ but I’m  feeling a lot better.  That is really interesting about Stake Conference for you guys! That is really special :) My group of missionaries really did set the bar up high! I know that a lot of the kids this year can set that bar! Like I had mentioned before... A lot to do with a mission is going to be the parents! I wouldn’t know how to put it in a way where they could understand the importance of it but I hope something can work out! I have sent a letter to a friend this week to help motivate him to go back on a mission! I hope he doesn’t take it wrong! All I want is for him to know I love him and that is why I have taken time to send him a letter!

What stood out to me about the temple statistics about RC(recent converts) being to the temple is way low.. Our mission focuses a lot on bringing back those less-actives... I am not sure about those in Mexico but the less-active people have ridiculous excuses about not coming back to church! If missionaries bear solemn witness about Jesus Christ and the importance of Enduring to the End they will come back, and partake of the fruit like they once did. Like I said I don’t know how missionary work is like in Mexico but that’s just my opinion. That goes right back to the quote you gave me -- ”when we come to know God, and have a strong relationship with Him, we then begin to understand our responsibility to those around us.”

We don’t have a p-day this week because of Moves Day! Last week I think I said we went to Windsor Castle!! That sure was cool! I’m mad they didn’t let us take pictures inside of the church.. It was amazing!!! Inside they had knights, priest, kings and queens who have been laid there since the 1200's. Hard to capture all the historic info. We will have to come back and visit after a year or so when I am home, or you can come here before I finish, either way it will all work out. I found out that Peter! (best friend in the ward) used to be an area 70.. He whispered it in church since I was sitting next to him. He cried because he had felt so bad about taking his name off! He wasn’t excommunicated for anything serious. He removed his name I think out of anger! He told me how he needs to come to Mexico to thank you for having such a fine son. ;) He’s lying! He is just trying to make me feel better ;)

Well I hope I will be able to send you guys a quick email on Wednesday letting you know what happens! Grandpa sent me a Package as well! I sure do love my grandparents!!1 <3 Love you grandmas and grandpa ;)
Thank you for prayers mom! Thank you to those who pray for me as well!
I love you:)
Elder Jones

January 9, 2012

Hey mother dear!! :)

This week has been really good! We worked extra hard and found some great people! I thank those who are constantly praying and fasting for me! The prayers and hard working are paying off. I have built such good relationships with members and investigators. This week we have found some new potentials who are very interested in our church! The greatest thing that happened this week was we gave a lady that is currently going through Dialysis a blessing! The Priesthood is an amazing thing. When you lay your hands on someone’s head it’s amazing to feel that close to the spirit. I won’t ever be able to explain everything because they are soo sacred. Another great thing that happened was we had a girl who's is in her 20's walk into church. She loved everything about it and wants to learn soo much more! Fast Sunday was very nice! Every person bore strong testimony! A lot of thoughts came into my mind about missionary work and how angels are there constantly to bear me up in times of need! I have had soo many great experiences since I have been out here! I'm working on not being Prideful and having more experiences to be more humble so that i may learn what the spirit is trying to teach me. The reason why I feel this was is because i was reading in Mormon 8 and Moroni 1. the part that hit me the most was Moroni said-- Christ hath shown me unto you and I know your doing-- verses before talk about pride so I thought to myself-- How prideful am I?--  We taught a Less-Active this week who hasn't been to church in over 3 years! He said that lately he has been waking up with a smile on his face because he is meeting with us. He said that he is such an angry person but has felt happiness to know that he is trying to change his life again. After the lesson he said the most humble prayer I have heard in a long time. It touched my heart.

I remembered today that it is Colton’s b-day! :) The ward has been soo good to us lately and we have heard from lots of people how very proud they are of us! They are proud because we have done our best about trying to reach out to the less active friends and we have been doing our best to serve them in any way possible! Mom I thank you for the letter you sent me! I know you think you are being preachy but I have and am learning soo much from you! Remember this -- seek the advice of your father and mother and put it to practice-- <3 I am still studying those papers you send me about my questions last week. Thank you again for that. Wayne, one of our investigators is driving to Israel next week, so last Thursday we met with him and his family! He sure is crazy and would never come into this church but I love them soo much! They are trying soo hard to make us into Christians! Dumb I know! But we have a good thing about him. We found out that he is ranked number 300 in the world in Black Ops the game! a guy with no legs and one arm is ranked 300!!!! hahaha he said the reason why he got into it was because he wanted to talk to people about Jesus! Shows how crazy he is hahaha his name on Xbox is called - The Preacher man JC-- Anyways we have met some cool potentials this week! We will set some baptismal dates soon and hopefully get someone baptized! Thank your brilliant letters mum! Sorry my emails are simple sometimes.. I will do better at putting more detail and more stories into them!

I love you! Thanks for being amazing parents to me!

Elder Jones

January 3, 2012

Hey mum! ;) It’s what they say here…

Sorry I didn’t get back to you! This week has been soo busy! Plus there have been more holidays and that is why we couldn’t email yesterday. I got The Hinds email address is you want to talk to her.. She has a lot of cool jewelry! I thought you would like some of it.. I really do love them.. They have taken care of Elder Burton and I quite well :) -- juliannahind@gmail.com-- anyways this week we have worked hard! We have found plenty of potentials who are interested! These next few weeks should be interesting! I wanted to thank you for the Christmas stuff! I’m sorry to say that the Heated Blanket blew out hahaha even with a converter.. Don’t feel bad! The flat is warm and if I sleep with my PJ's(nacho) on I get quite warm :) The nerf guns have been quite fun to have :) I LOVE my jerky :) and the CDS.. Thanks for everything again.. The ward gave us cuff links, ties, candy, bath bombs, etc! It was great :) The scarf you guys sent are wonderful! i love it, especially the gloves as well :) So I got the package with 17 miracles, Swedish fish and the chapstick! the chapstick you sent has sparkles in it lol it was the other one haha il just give those to the sister missionaries.. Don’t worry I got 2 sticks left :) I watched 17 miracles later that day! It re-newed my spirit and gave me that desire to keep working hard. I think the best part of my week was getting a few referrals who are very interested in the church. The other good thing was a x-member in our church asked me to re-baptize him in due time. He removed his name and regretted it.. I sure do love him.. He is one of my dearest friends in the ward! Just on the side note he built the little pond that you see in the London Temple pictures :) His name is Peter Tanner. He sings alot. I think he is on either iTunes or amazon.. He might be under P.V Tanner.. look him up if you want :)

We celebrated our new years at one of our members houses! We only stayed til 9 which was alright! Their son was smoking that night and they caught him.. It was sad to see his parents.. Totally set the night off for them. :/ Church the next day was great.. One of our LA's who hasn’t showed up in over 2 years was there:) I gave a talk about charity. I based it all on Moroni 7: 45-48. Peter was in the back cheering me on :). Since everyone looked exhausted I started off in Spanish and everyone quickly jumped out of their seats and laughed! :) It was a good little talk.. They then asked me to give the lesson in Sunday school. That was about temple work and family history. Since we have a lot of divorced members I didn’t know where to take it.. The spirit was present.. The members taught each other, comforted each other and all went really well :) I def was nervous for that one. I’m glad that a family member and I are building good relationships again :) Uncle Tony and Aunt Chris sent me a really nice letter :) Grandma sent me a really heart felt letter as well! I sure do love my grandmas :)  I absolutely love that idea dad has thought of! Anything about buying, selling, investing or making I would love to do!

I’m grateful for great men who come from my community, I’m grateful to have had them played a part in my life.. I’m grateful to have been involved with them,. Learned from them, and loved them. Trials show me that I can keep going no matter what that circumstance might be. Lately I have had growing opportunities.. since almost all the missionaries are 20 and older I have had to adjust in a heartbeat.. i didn’t realize how young I was until last week, on the other hand I feel prepared for the tasks, I’m confident and love serving! I’m grateful to have those opportunities to learn and to grow! I will read that talk given my Elder Holland. I love that quote as well - the passed is not to be lived in but learned from-- I have learned from and will continue to learn from :)

Thank you for helping me understand that as well! I have seen how one thing can lead to 10 different other things. Crazy. I thought that question about why those shepherds were chosen to see the savior! I will print those articles off so I can better understand that. Thank you for always reminding me about service! I will do better each time at serving those around me. I know this email has been short but not a lot of crazy stuff has happened.. This week is going to be full of miracles I know it :)

P.s this past week we prayed to know which street to knock. the 2nd door we knocked a young guy in his 20's  came out and listened to all we had to say.. we taught him the plan of salvation and wants to see us soon! Sometimes we think about seeing crazy miracles, but the small and simple ones like that mean just as much to me.

December 27, 2011

That explains soo much dad! Thank you  :)  it was soooo good to talk to you guys! I’m glad for that time I got to talk to you guys! It gives me that extra little boost to keep on going! I am sorry about not getting a proper email to you guys this week but I will get a good one next week... thank you for the tips... this week we are going to work extra hard to find the lost! I’m thankful for all your prayers mom and dad! I have seen the power that mighty prayer has taking on me.. My prayers have become more meaningful and sincere each time! I forgot to tell you that lil Jesse sent me a card with 100 dollars in it.. I thought that was a sacrifice for him because he is in college and works. Showed a lot there. Anyways thank you for all you have given me and continue to give me. I can write all day how thankful I am. I guess words can’t express. I wish I could have Skype a little longer but that is fine! :) I sure do love you guys and look forward to talking to you on Monday! Have a great week! (look for the small in simple miracles in your daily lives) my insights towards my patriarchal blessing are : 1st its says... you are to assist in gathering Israel for the last time.. ( Isaiah 55-66 talks a lot about the gathering of Israel) You will be an instrument in gathering those of the tribe of Ephraim, of which you are a descendant. You will have the privilege of gathering those lost tribes of Israel and bringing them into the kingdom of your Heavenly Father. You will prepare them to return to their Heavenly Father and gain their exaltation. You will prepare them to go to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity in the house of the lord. They will call you blessed for all that you do for them. ( my thoughts on that are.. tell me if they are wrong or right... well there are 12 tribes of Israel right?? where are those 12 found? where can I learn more about them.. I have found a lot about Judah, Ephraim, Asher, and Levi, but haven’t found the rest. I don’t understand if my blessing refers to those 12 tribes or just gathering the lost tribe of Ephraim. What I thought was interesting as well was that every tribe has a symbol.. Ephraim’s is the wild ox, Judah the lion, Asher the olive tree, and Levi the Urim and Thumim.. Now about the Levites. DC 13 talks about them. So what do the symbols mean? I thought the levitcal sign was deep. Does that mean that JS was a Levite? does the brestplate have another meaning instead of just being a plate? Sorry about all the questions haha. I have just been studying alot... the last question that I thought was interesting as well was... when the angel came to the shepherds in the field what made those shepherds different from the rest? How come the angel came to them instead of others??