Week 65: More and More Miracles

9/28/15

Hey everyone!

I hope things have been great with all of you! Miracles abounded this past week and I am really excited to share the outcome.

Things are going great on my end! We have had a crazy week. Since I got transferred to this new area, I have had pretty much no time to sit and even think. We haven't been able to spend too much time in our area because we have been helping our zone members by giving them rides or even just spending time with them. That's the idea behind this assignment is that more work gets done when the other members of the zone are able to get out and work. Elder Palmer can do a lot on our own, but it's more important that we have a unified, working zone of 14 missionaries rather than 2 really hard working missionary. Kind of like in 1 Nephi 4, "It's better that [two men] perish than an entire [zone] dwindle in [laziness]."

Elder Palmer and I implemented an idea from one of our zone members this past Saturday. It essentially involved our whole zone fast together and to go out and tract from 10 am to 8 pm, and to just see the miracles that come as a result. We saw tons of miracles as a zone. Investigators were just popping out of the wood work! We ended the day teaching 23 lessons as a zone, finding close to 25 investigators, and committing 3 people to baptism. What is even better is that success came from across the zone, and when the zone is working, the Work is progressing!

It is amazing how revelation works! Although we didn't have that idea, Elder Palmer felt inspired to implement it. That goes to show you that God definitely answers our prayers through other people.

Have a great week!

Elder Jones

Week 64: Lakes!

9/21//15

Hey everyone!

I hope y'all are having a great week! Elder Palmer and I have had almost no opportunity to slow down whatsoever. We have been running nonstop, all while trying to squeeze in proselyting time every now and again! Even so, we have had some interesting things happen.

We've done a lot of exchanges and errands. On Saturday we ended up going 120 miles running people back and forth between activities, music rehearsals, and baptisms. We are just the lucky ones with a car who can do that I guess...

We had a really good week. We set a couple more people for baptism in October, and so the work is definitely progressing. What is even more awesome is how well our zone is doing. It is really exciting to see our zone having 10 to 20 potential baptisms in October. They are working really hard. God is totally helping us out. As a mission, we have a goal of reaching 720 baptisms buy the end of the year. For the most part, we have been behind on reaching that goal, but this month and next month should help us catch up by December.

We had a really awesome experience yesterday. We contacted a guy in his garage who is catholic and started off the conversation by being completely uninterested. As we talked, I was able to ask this guy an inspired question (thank you Heavenly Father) that allowed elder Palmer to start teaching the Restoration. The conversation continued, and the spirit was super strong. We got to the point where I started to share Joseph Smith's first vision, and he didn't want us to stop.

He had a ton of questions. At the end of our lesson with him, he said he wanted more religion in his life and wanted us to come back. I attribute that one to God for giving me that awesome question and to Brother Wofford for beating the importance of inspired questions into me :)

How is everyone doing? I miss hearing and talking with each one of you, whether that's at home or in a previous area. And just so you all know, we are allowed to check email throughout the week since we have iPads. We just can't respond till Monday! I hope y'all have an awesome week! And keep being awesome!

Love,

Elder Jones

Week 63: New Area

Hey everybody!

Since I was transferred to the Lakes stake this past week, I have had to start from scratch again! Learning a new area is always challenging, especially when your companion has been here awhile and thus knows it inside and out. Even so, we have been having an awesome time!

We were able to contact numerous potential investigators who were all interested in learning about the Gospel. We were even to set two of our new investigators with baptismal dates! Those lessons were so fun because the investigators were actually excited to say yes to the baptismal invitation. They are both set for next month, so we will keep working on them. Pretty good start to week one! 

One of those investigators is a single mother with three kids. She is super nice,
but she totally recognizes that her life isn't nearly as happy as it could be. She wants to find peace, and she thinks she has found it in the gospel! Elder Palmer and I are super excited for her.

Lots of good things are happening right now. It's crazy to think that if I hadn't gone on my mission when I did, I might not have met the people who have made my mission awesome! God has a reason and a time for everything!

I hope y'all are having a great week!

Love,

Elder Jones

Week 62: I Know I'm Late :)

Hey everyone!

Super sorry about how late this email is. I haven't had any downtime in the last couple days until now. To put it simply, I ended up getting transferred to the Lakes stake here in Vegas. So far, I am really enjoying it. My new companion is Elder Palmer. He is from Canada. The cool thing is that we were pretty much already friends because we served around each other in my first area about a year ago.
 

I'm super stoked for this transfer! We have some awesome missionaries in our zone and it will be fun to see them get better. Half of this zone is made up of new missionaries and their trainers, which is crazy. This is quite literally the youngest zone in the mission.

I'm super sad that I ended up being transferred again. Elder Sutton was such a great companion, and our areas were awesome! There were so many people that Heavenly Father led us to so that we could get them started on the Gospel path that leads to eternal families. I will miss them and I hope that I get the chance to see them get baptized! That will be exciting.

As I said, my new area is awesome. We had a lesson today with a woman who had had missionaries over several years ago. Right as we said the prayer, another woman rang the doorbell and came in and sat down to listen to the lesson. We taught very simply the Restoration of Christ's church, and then proceeded to ask them how they felt. They both said they felt something different as we bore our testimonies. It was neat to explain to them that that was the Holy Ghost testifying to them of truth! They said we could come back on Friday!

I hope you all are doing well and that you are having missionary experiences of your own. I know that God lives and that this is His work! I know that the Atonement of Christ is real and that we can be forgiven through His infinite mercy. I also know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. 

What more could I possibly need? I want to challenge you to share your testimony with someone, and let them know what the Gospel really means to you. As you do so, people will feel that what you are saying is right.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jones

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