Week 18 - I love being a missionary!

Hey everyone!

 

This week has been incredible. Like I was talking about last week, we had a baptism set for Saturday;it was so cool! The girl we had set for baptism was so excited for Saturday, and to be honest, her excitement was contagious. I was pretty nervous about everything from the opening prayer to when she walked in the font, but really it was great.

Being a missionary is great! To think that the Lord is preparing people who are waiting for us to reach them is something I just can't wrap my head around quite yet, although it's true. My Ward Mission Leader Brother Truman said it best that there are people that we promised to find in the pre-existence. It seems crazy, but really it's awesome! Heavenly Father loves each of his children, and will prepare a way for His servants to find those people. If she were my only baptism, I think that I would go home happy.

That was probably the most exciting thing that happened this week. We helped out with a lot of different service projects, like removing bushes from a member's front yard. Another missionary and I even lit some of them on fire because there were spider nests underneath the bushes. It was pretty funny... 

We also were able to help a less-active woman in the ward come to church on Sunday! I've been working with her for the past 2.5 transfers, and wasn't until we gave her a blessing the other week that she actually came to church.

One last experience was that I got to attend our mission's monthly musical fireside last night. I'm glad that I get to be in such a musical mission (those tender mercies...). The performances were great. You all should go if you're ever in Vegas.

Anyway, I love all of you! Take care and keep in touch!

Love,

 

Elder Jones

Week 17: New Investigators and an upcoming baptism!

20 October 2014

 

Hey everyone!

 

Oh man, oh man do I have exciting news! The 12 year-old girl that we have had set for baptism for the past 3 months is finally getting baptized on Saturday. I've been so honored to be able to work with her, and to be the principle missionary in teaching her. We are still working on reserving the building and getting the program ready, but it's so awesome to see someone prepare to be baptized. As a missionary, you get an inside look at their progression; you really get to see there testimony grow and grow as they prepare to make that sacred covenant. She seems pretty excited as well; she was able to go on a trip to see the phoenix, AZ temple before it is dedicated and she loved it! As you can probably tell, I'm just really happy right now.

 

We also found three new investigators this past week. Each of them is actually really excited to meet with us. We have appointments set with each of them for tomorrow. What's really interesting is that we found each of these investigators through less-active members, and part-member families. I can promise each of you that there are so many opportunities to do missionary work in your own ward if you just take the time to fellowship those that are less-active.

 

It's weird to think that it has already been more than three months since I left. So much has happened, and I am starting to really see how quickly the next 20 months is going to go. Heavenly Father has so much left to teach me. It's such a blessing to be able to serve God with all my heart, might, mind, and strength even though it's only a short time.

 

I hope everything is going great for all of you. Keep me and the other missionaries around the world in your prayers. It's such an honor to be one of the 88,000 missionaries serving worldwide, but it's definitely not easy so we are going to need all the help we can get!

 

Take care and keep in touch!

 

Love,

Elder Jones

Week 16: New Transfer!

14 October 2014

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the late email; yesterday was super busy. This week has been super busy as well with the transfers that happened last week.

Let me tell you how excited I am for this new transfer. I am really excited! My new companion is awesome. Elder Tau is from Hawaii, has been serving for 20 months, and really loves to work. We've met and talked to so many more people than I have talked to in my first two transfers.

One day, we decided to just walk our area. It was an eye-opening experience because we ended up talking to a lot more homeless people than I have been used to. One was a lady whose husband died in '07, and whose second husband "stole everything" from her. It was sad to see, but it was important that we were there to talk to her. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and really seemed to feel the Spirit in what we were saying. We got her phone number, so hopefully we can help her get a job and get on her feet again.

We also finished teaching the lessons to the little girl that we have set for baptism, so now she's good to go! I think that she is pretty excited for it too. It'll be exciting to be a part of someone's baptism! There's really nothing like bearing testimony of the Gospel to someone. I can honestly feel the power in what we teach.

Those were just a couple of the experiences that I've had this past week, but I would hope that all of you are having missionary moments of your own. If any of you get some spare time, write me and tell me about them. The reason we have each other is to build each other up with the opportunities and experiences that Heavenly Father helps us to have.

Anyway, I love all of you. Thank you for being who you are, and for the lives that each of you live. Your examples alone have helped want to become better.

Take care and keep in touch!

Love,

Elder Jones

Mission Pictures - Week 15

 Looking good in the neighborhood!

 Zach's Dream Car - Grandpa would love it!

Hanging out with fellow missionaries!

Week 15 - Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ

Elder Jones & Elder Tillotson

Hey everyone!

I hope all of you enjoyed conference; I sure did! We had lots of fun because we were able to go over to a member's house, make breakfast, and watch. It was funny because, while my companion and I were riding our bikes there, a minister from a local non-denominational Christian church stopped us and invited us to their services. The chance to bible-bash was tempting, but we chose to watch conference instead ;)

It has also been a crazy weekend in that transfers happen today. My trainer Elder Tillotson is getting transferred to another zone to be a zone leader. My new companion is a Polynesian guy named Elder Tautuiaki (not sure how to spell it). From what I have heard, he's pretty cool. Hopefully we get to work really hard this transfer.

We have also had lots of lessons. The twelve year-old girl we have set for baptism is almost finished with the missionary lessons; not exactly sure how converted she is to the Gospel, but we will try to help facilitate that conversion so that her baptism coming up is a truly meaningful experience. That is one thing that our ward mission leader is concerned about; he's worried that this will be another numbers baptism, instead of a new, strong follower of Christ. The ward has struggled with retention of new converts, so we don't want to rush to get her baptized and have her fall away. But she is doing really well overall; hopefully we can do that sometime this month.

I really love all the pictures that you've sent me. It's exciting to see friends and family from home since I can't see them for about 21 months ;) Keep sending them!

Make sure to keep in touch! I love all of you and would love you even more to hear from you! Take care, be safe, and press forward with a steadfastness in Christ!

Sincerely,

Elder Jones

p.s. I will try to send pics tomorrow!

Week 14: Crazy Times!

Hey everyone!

I hope everything is going great at home because things are certainly going well over here. This area is actually beginning to pick up a little bit, and I'm super-excited to be a part of it. 

We have had some crazy fun experiences this past week. We were able to share three lessons with the 12 year-old girl that we have set for baptism. Whenever we teach her, her grandma (who is a less-active) sits in on the lessons and totally adores everything we teach. One morning, my companion were talking about teaching them about the law of chastity, but when I went to do my personal study, I had a strange impression that we needed to teach her about tithing and fast offerings. When we went to teach them that night, the grandma said that she'd been wondering about tithing because her mother-in-law was such an active tithe-payer, and she really wanted to follow that example. It's awesome to see gifts of the Spirit (in this case, discernment) in action!

I also had another cool experience while on exchanges with another missionary on Friday. We just decided to go at it that day, and talk to everybody that we saw. We went to visit a less-active in the ward who I had never met before. The person who answered the door was a non-member lady who is the wife of the less-active. We asked if the less-active was home, but it turns out that he's stationed with the army in North Carolina. We asked if we could share a message with her, and she said yes! We taught her about the Restoration, and she told us a little bit about her husband's family. She said that her in-laws (who are LDS) would be thrilled to know that she was meeting with us. It's amazing to think about how many opportunities there are to teach people in part-member and less-active families, and really, the Lord isn't going to bless us with new converts until we've cleaned up and organized His house a little bit.

We were also able to finally help our ward agree on a legitimate ward mission plan. The last few months have been rough since the ward council has been a little difficult to work with, but we're making progress. The ward is becoming quite a bit more goal-oriented. Hopefully this continues because this area really will blossom if it does.

It's crazy to think about the times that we live in. This dispensation really is the final one leading up to the Second Coming. It is really easy to see that the Lord is hastening the Work. In D+C 4, the Lord talks about how the "field is white already to harvest; And lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul." The only thing required to hasten the Work is work! We have to do everything we can to help others receive the joys of salvation so that we can truly enjoy salvation ourselves. There's a parable in a book called House of Glory by S. Michael Wilcox called "The Parable of the Keys." I won't include it in this letter, but I would encourage each of you to look it up on the internet and read it. I can promise that salvation and exaltation will not be joyful without all of God's children. We are what brings Him joy. That's why it is imperative that we are member missionaries, and that we do our family history work.

I hope all of you have a great week. Keep in touch, keep up the good work, and keep sharing the Gospel!

Love,

Elder Jones

Week 13 - The Savior's Atonement

Hey everyone!

It's great to hear how you all are doing. After hearing about some of your experiences from this past week. It just makes me think about how thankful I am to have all of you in my life. I truly have been blessed to have been raised where I was.

This week has been pretty amazing. We have been able to teach a lot more lessons than usual, and even got to go on some crazy exchanges. On Tuesday night, I had the chance to go on splits with the high priests in the ward. We went to visit one of our investigators who just so happened to be standing out in front of his house working on his car (and smoking a cigarette...). We were able to have a good discussion about the First Vision and how we can receive answers from God. He and his son are non-denominational Christians who have very Catholic views in regards to doctrine. He told us how he believed in the Trinity, and had questions about our view of the Godhead. It was a wonderful conversation, and said that he still really wanted to meet with us. Hopefully we can find another time to meet with him (he has a crazy work schedule).

On Thursday, I went on exchanges with the two other greenies in my district. All three of us were put together because our trainers all had to go to a leadership meeting. I was the only one with driving privileges, so I got to drive (don't worry Dad; I didn't drive too fast ;) ) One of the lessons we taught was to a man who "really wants to find the truth". He had been dropped by other missionaries about a year and a half ago because he couldn't make a decision about baptism. We taught him about the Restoration, and he actually remembered quite a lot. I even extended the baptismal invitation to him at the end of the lesson, but he told us that he wanted to know for sure before he agreed. I can kind of see why he was dropped before, but hopefully the Spirit is able to touch his heart because he really is a receptive, golden investigator. He was quite thankful that we invited him to baptism, though.

One thing that has been on my mind a lot recently is the Atonement. We learn that the Atonement is the only thing that can change us, that we can't become like our Heavenly Father without it; but how can we more fully utilize it? The answer: live and learn the Doctrine of Christ. 

The Doctrine of Christ is the most important thing that we can learn about. It teaches us to have faith in Christ, to repent, to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to endure to the end. The only way we can internalize this doctrine is by having faith unto repentance. One scripture I read today really stood out to me:

1 And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel‍ of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen‍ to the earth, for the fear‍ of the Lord had come upon them.

 2 And they had viewed‍ themselves in their own carnal‍ state, even less‍ than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning‍ blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created‍ heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men.

 3 And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission‍ of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith‍ which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words‍ which king Benjamin had spoken unto them.

These people only received a peace of conscience and a remission of their sins because of their faith in Christ unto repentance. It was because they recognized the need for the Atonement and wanted to change that they were, in turn, changed.

I would hope that we all learn to have that faith and desire, because Christ is the only way we can improve. One of my MTC teachers said that "Christ is the answer to everything, including your French toast".

I love you all and hope you all have a great week! Keep in touch.

Love,

Elder Jones