Elder Kevin Jones

Transfer Day!

25th P Day in Peoria- 48th P Day in Phoenix Mission
Chopping Trees
Elder Jones is getting transferred!

Happy Pday, friends and family. Greetings from Peoria. First of all, I
want to wish my mom a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Love you, Mom! 29 has never
looked so good. :)
It looks like I will be leaving this area after nearly six months of
service here. I will truly miss all those who I have met and been able
to serve. I will never forget those I have met here and I look forward
to seeing them again after my mission. Anyway, it was a pretty great
week. I'm learning a lot out here. One lesson I learned this week is
to wear sunscreen. I'll explain more in the letter. Here was my week!

Monday: Pday. Shopping, haircut, sports. The usual. One of the Elders
got a really bad bloody head from accidentally head butting another
player. Yeah, too much blood for me to handle. Good thing I'm not
going to be a doctor. Haha! So they took him to the ER and we all
kinda left after that. After pday we went finding for a couple hours
and then had a short lesson with Chris at 8. Most of her member
support was out of town this week, so we made it a point to visit her
often to help her stay going.
Temp: 100°F (humid)

Tuesday: Not much really happened during the day. We didn't help at
the thrift shop today so that made for a long, hot finding afternoon.
Probably our highlight of the day was our dinner appointment with the
Hunter family. They have never signed up but have been in the ward for
a while. It was one of those dinners where we just clicked with them.
We talked non stop through the whole dinner and had a great lesson
afterward. Usually there's a little bit of awkward silence during
dinners, but not this one. They loved us and we loved them. Brother
Hunter is one of the funniest guys I've met on my mission so far.
After dinner we met with Leah. We read 2 Nephi 1 with her. I never
really noticed what a powerful chapter that is. Lehi gives such
prophetic counsel to his sons before he dies. I suggest everyone read
it. Our lesson with the Reese family had to cancel. When we got home
for the night at 9, Chris texted us and asked if we wanted
Jack-in-the-Box tacos. We said sure and she brought us 4 tacos! She
was already there and figured we'd probably want some too. They were
pretty good! Haha.
Temp: 104°F

Wednesday: Another average day! Haha. We had a lesson in the
afternoon. After the lesson I really had to use the bathroom so we
went to the church. It was like 4:45 and we didn't have a dinner
scheduled so we were just planning on going home and fixing something.
So we get a call at like 4:55 from the Crump family. He is our bishop
in the Centennial ward. I guess he signed up for dinner but no one
told us...haha. So we biked over to their house and had a great
dinner. Last time we were over there, their dog had brand new,
2-day-old puppies. Now they were about 4-5 weeks old. Oh my gosh. They
are the cutest little things I have ever laid my eyes on. After dinner
we just gathered around on their couch, each of us holding one of the
puppies. Have no fear. I'll send pictures so you can behold their
cuteness. After our dinner appointment, we had a missionary
coordination meeting and then set out on visits with Jake, a ward
missionary. He served in Indiana two years ago. He's also a big video
game nerd, and I sat up front. Let's just say Elder Bradshaw was kinda
bored with our conversation consisting of League of Legends, World of
Warcraft, and other games we played. Yeah we totally nerded out. I
haven't had good game talk for a year!!! It was nice!!
Temp: 103°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. During our planning session we tried to
contact more people in Utah about the mystery referral we received a
couple weeks ago. Still no luck. So we figured out which mission he
lives in, and we called the Utah Salt Lake City West mission office.
Yep. They're supposed to get back with us with info regarding the
referral. We made plans and set goals for the coming week. After
dinner, our lesson cancelled so we set out finding. We got s text from
Chris asking to meet her at Culver's for dessert and a mini lesson. It
went great. And the custard was good as usual. :)
Temp: 102°F

Friday: After studies and lunch we headed to district meeting. It was
a pretty great meeting! Elder Bradshaw and I led a discussion on using
family history as a missionary tool. My goodness, I've given a
discussion in 4/6 of the last district meetings! Share the
love...haha. After the meeting we had a lesson with Pedro. We talked
with him about the Plan of Salvation. It was great getting to meet
with him again. He's always so busy with work and college
preparations. We had dinner with the Dutson family! We had Navajo
tacos!! They were sooooooooooooooo good. Words can't explain their
deliciousness. Then we had banana splits for dessert. I really love
the Dutsons. Haha! They were baptized a little over a year ago, so
they love missionaries. After dinner we had a scripture reading
session with Chris. We read the end part of Jesus's Sermon on the
Mount in Matthew 7. She really enjoyed how Jesus shows His love for
His Father. Then her parents showed us their 3D TV. Crazy.
Temp: 104°F

Saturday: Wow. This was a pretty intense day. We had planned on going
over to Chris's house in the morning to help her move their brick
patio in preparation of their trees being cut down. We ended up going
over there and they were trimming up the tree a little bit. Long story
short, we didn't move the patio. We ended up completely getting the
tree down to its bare branches so the people will just have to tear
out the stump and a couple thick branches. We made a lot of progress
on the tree after being there for a long time. Oh, and we did all of
it with a pole saw, hand saw, and loppers. Elder Bradshaw would saw
off a branch, and I would cut them into smaller branches so we could
load them on the truck and haul them off. This was a huge tree, so we
set to come back Monday morning to finish. That's about all the
excitement that happened Saturday. Haha!
Temp: 109°F

Sunday: Church! It was a great day of worship. The meetings went well,
the talks were great, and we had some people there. After dinner we
had a combined lesson with Britney and the Reese family. My goodness,
it went well!! Britney, Brother and Sister Reese and their daughter
Anna, Bishop Brewer, and his son, we're all there. Plus Elder Bradshaw
and myself. There was a lot of discussion and bonding between all of
us. We discussed the law of tithing, the law of chastity, and
following the prophet. It was great—I think we all learned so much
from each other.
Temp: 109°F

Monday: Not the typical working Mondayy.... Since it's transfer week,
pday is on Tuesday. We went over to Chris's to finish the tree. This
time without the shade of the tree!! We got it almost completely down.
I'll attach pictures. So earlier in this letter I mentioned how I need
to wear sunscreen. Well, long story short. I forgot. You can see a
distinct line on my face where my backward hat was. (I wore it
backward because my back was to the sun for the majority of the day)
It's pretty funny. So Chris's family fed us breakfast before service,
lunch after we finished, and then her aunt and uncle took us to dinner
at the Cheesecake Factory. I think it's a tradition for them to take
us there before a transfer. Haha! It was delicious as always. We ended
the night with a lesson.
Temp: 105°F

So it was a LONG week! But rewarding. Luckily my sunburn doesn't hurt.
It just looks funny! Thanks for all of the support. I look forward to
another good week. Thanks for the prayers on my behalf. You are all
truly amazing.

Much love,

Elder Jones
Oakwood / Centennial Wards
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Tree before it was cut down

Elder Jones working hard

Add caption

This is how you use the shears

taking a break on 2nd day of cutting tree down

The pose

break time

Add caption

what kind of Cheesecake to pick?

Culvers

Dinner at Chris's house

always wants a cheeseburger

Puppies at a members home

Elder Jones is in love!

First love Puddinhead!

Kisses

They love each other

Add caption

I think Elder Jones likes the crown.

Weekly Selfie

Elder Langi hanging out at church on P day

Elder Jones's favorite Tostadas!

THe last dinner at Chris's house

Bishop working of the remains of the tree

Transfers and Bumpercars -
-51st week on mission, 49th Week in Phoenix Mission, 1st week in Glendale

Hello, friends and family! I am no longer in Peoria. I was transferred
to a new area and got a new companion. I already miss Peoria and my
past companion, but I am looking forward to working in my new area! I
am now serving in the Glendale zone, Black Canyon Ward. However, my
address is Phoenix. This area is crazy busy. It is a more humble area
too. And when I say "more humble", it's (mostly) pretty dang poor. But
that's okay! I've already met some great people here. My companion is
Elder Thaut (pronounced "shout" but with a T) and he's from Graham,
Washington. He is 23 and has been out for 6 months. He played League
of Legends and other games back home just like me. We're getting along
great and teaching well together. Here was my week!

Tuesday: I packed and said my goodbyes to members and missionaries. We
taught Leah. That's about it! Pretty sad day.
Temp: 105°F

Wednesday: We had our transfer meeting. Brother Wincek drove us to the
transfer meeting. This transfer we had our normal meeting where we all
got our new companions, but the WHOLE mission came to transfers,
regardless of whether or not we were getting transferred. But I got
transferred. Like I mentioned earlier I'm in Glendale with Elder
Thaut. Still on a bike. Yay! I'm living with two other elders, Elder
Rodriguez and Elder Clough. I love those elders. We all connect pretty
well. After the transfer meeting we had lunch and then we stayed for
the rest of the day for a mission conference with some guest speakers.
It was a pretty busy day. We then went back to our areas. We literally
had to run in, put my suitcases down, and speed off to our dinner
appointment, then we had a baptismal interview for a guy named Mike
who will be baptized on August 8. We then went out with a member to do
some visits. We had an appointment, but it fell through. As we were
walking through the apartment complex, we hear someone say, "Hey, you
got a pamphlet for me?" And so we gave him a Restoration pamphlet and
talked to him about eternal families and how the gospel blesses
families. His name is Paul. He seemed very interested and invited us
to come back to teach him and his wife. We then went on a couple more
visits, without much luck.
Temp: 104°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. It's weird setting weekly goals that would
be hard to hit in a couple months in Peoria. We also went to the store
because we have been so busy since transfers. After planning, we
taught a super solid recent convert, Brother Gomez. We went out
finding and talked to a couple people. People here are usually pretty
open if they answer the door. Haha!
Temp: 104°F

Friday: Friday, was pretty bad haha. It started great, though! We
taught a recent convert named Leonard before district meeting. He is
super black, but he's from Haiti! He speaks Creole, which is basically
just Haitian French. We have a member who went to Haiti on his mission
and speaks Creole, so we met at his house. We reviewed the Restoration
with him and watched the Restoration video in French with English
subtitles. It was a great lesson. We then went to our district
meeting. We had lunch and went out for an hour or so. We had dinner
with some members and then had a pretty weird lesson with a guy named
Jesse. He's a member who wants to come back to church. After that
lesson as we were leaving, Elder Thaut got a flat tire. We were almost
4 miles away from home. So we walked. And walked. And walked. Aaaaand
walked. Our other 3 lessons cancelled. Oh, and it was raining. So we
walked 4 miles home in the rain, through the ghetto, at night. It was
pretty fun. Then some drunk people in our apartment's parking lot
wanted to bash with us. Not havin that. So we went inside. Crazy
night, haha.
Temp: 109°F

Saturday: After studied we went to Hermana Contreras's home to eat
lunch. We have lunch with her every Saturday with the Spanish elders
and the zone leaders. We went to the bike shop to get Elder Thaut a
new tube, and as we were leaving SOMEONE SLAMMED INTO THE BACK OF OUR
CAR AND REAR ENDED US! This guy was right on our bumper while we were
driving and Elder Rodriguez had to stop pretty fast and we heard the
screech of the tires, and BAM! He hit us, and he pulled into a parking
lot, we followed, and he turned around and drove off. Hahaha! We
thought our car was going to be pretty damaged because he hit us kinda
hard, but there was a tiny scratch on our bumper. And none of us were
hurt. The Lord protects His missionaries. That's for sure. We had a
solid lesson with a new investigator named Elaine who we committed to
be baptized when she receives an answer. It was a great lesson. Then
we ended the night with a lesson with Kina & Jesse, who are a
part-member family. Pretty sure they were high but it was a good
lesson. Hahaha! Three lessons cancelled, so we also knocked on some
doors.
Temp: 109°F

Sunday: Another busy, successful day. My first Sunday in this area!
It's weird covering only one ward. I got to meet the members and talk
to them. It was cool! I said the opening prayer during sacrament
meeting, and after the meeting, the young women's president came up to
me and said, "Are you 14 years old?!" Sigh....no. I'm almost 20..I
haven't gotten that one in a while. After church and ward council we
went home for an hour then headed to dinner with the Barton family,
who live in one of the few nice areas. Their kids are a riot. We had a
good time with their family! After dinner we met with a recent convert
who is really young but on death's bed. She has 4 types of cancer and
is in her last days, but she is super strong. Her testimony is
impeccable. We gave her the sacrament and shared with her about the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson. Then the miracles
happened. We set out finding around 7:30 after the lesson. We biked to
the most sketchy part of our area (at night) and knocked on a door
looking for a lady named Kathy. A lady opened up. It wasn't Kathy, but
she told us who she was and that she's a member and has been waiting
for someone to tell her where the church is and she wants to go back.
We got her info and gave her ours, and we're going to get her records
transferred into our ward. She was so happy to talk to us. The Spirit
is real. But that's not all. We knocked on another door in a SUPER
sketchy complex looking for a guy named Samuel. He wasn't there, but a
lady answered and we talked to her. Then her friend walked outside.
This is how the conversation went.
"Hey, guys. I'm Michael. Are y'all Latter-day Saints?"
"Yeah"
"Oh cool, so what's the difference between you guys and Christians?"
"Well, we are Christian in every aspect of the word. We believe in
Christ as our Savior, and that through Him, we can be clean from sin.
We also believe in a loving God."
"Oh cool! Do y'all believe in baptism?"
"Yes, we do. By immersion."
"Well, I've been looking for a church...how can I be baptized?"

So we explained to him how he could make that happen. We wants us to
come by and begin teaching him. Then as we were leaving, their
neighbors came out and talked to us. He's a member and wants to come
back too!!! All in this one little sketchy complex that permanently
smells like weed and booze. This proves that there are people
everywhere who are being prepared to hear His gospel. I've seen
miracles in these few days I've been here.
Temp: 108°F

Thanks for all of the support. Keep praying! I love my new area,
companion, and apartmentship. I hope you all have a great week. Love
ya!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

I see Elder Jones's back and bike!

Bradshaw and Jones

I see Elder Jones and Elder Langi

I see Elder Jones

Lunch Line

Not sure what this pose is about, maybe thinking about ballet?

Look what I ate!

Lunch w/ trainer Elder Jeong

Weekly selfie

Leah and the Pottles, my last day in Peoria.

About to leave Peoria.

Walking home in the rain. Cool sunset behind the clouds!
This is Elder Thaut.

Waiting with Elder McCullough (I love this kid.)

Riding bikes. Indoors.

Look who was at transfers with me. :)
My trainer, Elder Jeong!

Selfie with Elder Flynn!

Me and a Elder Thaut!

G-Town Throwdown : 52 weeks on Mission, 50 weeks in Phoenix mission, 2nd P day in Glendale

Hello, friends and family! Greetings from the Glendale zone! This week
has been super good. I got my 4th baptism this past Saturday. His
testimony and story was extremely moving. I'll write more about it in
this letter. Our week consisted of a ton of lessons to recent
converts. Since this area has had so many baptisms recently, that's
what has been the focus. However, we are still finding new people to
teach almost every day. I'm really enjoying my time ever even though I
miss Peoria. It is definitely a lot different, but I'm adjusting well.
Places we wouldn't visit at night in Peoria are equivalent to the
nicer areas in my area. That's okay, though! People here are super
prepared. Anyway, here was my week!

Monday: Pday...it was great! We have to use the apartment washers and
dryers because the individual apartments don't have their own. There
are 8 washers, so we used them. We used them all at the same time. I
feel sorry for anyone who needed to do their laundry because we took
all of them. Haha! We then went to Walmart to do our shopping. Walmart
here is a nightmare. It's super busy and there are tons of people
asking for money and stuff. Plus the store is huge and super
confusing. We spent way too long in there. Plus, the registers were
all acting up. So yeah that was lame. We then played a card game
called Munchkin for the rest of pday. It was a great day. After our
fun, we went and visited a recent convert/part member family, the
Popes. We taught them about the importance of church, prayer, and
reading our scriptures. They had some really great input. As we were
crossing a crosswalk in one of our more sketchy areas (35th Ave. &
Dunlap), this guy as high as a kite was just crossing the crosswalk
and harassing us and a family saying, "IT'S HER BIRTHDAY TODAY. A
WOMAN. A REEEEAAALLLLL WOMAN!!!!" and he was throwing his hands in the
air and just being crazy. Don't do drugs, kids. We then visited some
other potential investigators and then came home. One of the best
pdays in a while.
Temp: 108°F

Tuesday: LONG DAY. All of our appointments fell through so we were
biking outside all day. It was super hot. Probably did about 30 miles.
No one was home, and we had a priest biking with us just in case we
got in to a home. I felt sorry for him because he biked with us from
like 1-4. So yeah. We were gross after that day.
Temp: 110°F

Wednesday: It was a great, busy day. We went out with Brother Gomez,
recent convert in the ward. He's like 70 but he does so much for us as
missionaries. A little back story on him: he was going to church with
his wife for 20 years because she wanted him to go. He wasn't a
member. After 20 years of that, Elder Gardner was super bold with him
and challenged him to read and pray and to be baptized. Brother Gomez
said that when E. Gardner said that, he felt an overwhelming feeling
go through him and he said, "okay, yeah, I can do that!" And he did,
and he was baptized a couple months later. And his testimony is
unshakable now. He does so much for us. We had a couple lessons during
the day, one with Christine. She's a recent convert who is about to
pass away from a terminal illness. She has such a strong testimony and
spirit. She's in her 30's, so it's sad to see her like this. She is
staying strong, though. We then had a great lesson with a guy named
Cesar. He's having some troubles too and we meet with him a couple
times per week. We shared a chapter with him out of the Book of
Mormon. He loves to sing, so we sang two hymns with him: "There is
Sunshine in My Soul Today" and "Abide With Me, Tis Eventide" (one of
my personal favorites). As we sang outside the little group home, we
got a little audience. I felt the Spirit and I hope more than the four
of us felt it as well. Brother Gomez couldn't get over how beautiful
the Spirit was in such a normally sad place. It was great. We then met
with a member African family who just moved in from Ohio. They really
wanted to know where the church was but just couldn't figure it out.
They saw us walking around their complex right after they were praying
to know how to find the church. We talked to them and told them where
the church is. They came! Such a cool family. They don't have
furniture or a table or anything, but their spirit radiates from each
one of them. Pretty great day—we were in a car almost the whole day!!
Temp: 107°F

Thursday: Weekly planning with some Munchkin breaks worked in. I'm
really enjoying living with another companionship. It's a lot more
fun. We had a dinner mixup which actually turned out to work great for
us. Haha. Our dinner apt. was going to pick us up at the church at 5.
At 4:50, someone else who thought they had us for dinner dropped by a
pizza. So we put that in the fridge, went to our actual dinner
appointment, ate, came back, and took the pizza home and ate it later
that night. Score! We had a great lesson with Brother Gomez after
dinner. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. He's just great. Words
can't even describe him! We decided that we're going to focus more on
finding this week. We have people to teach, but we could have way
more. When we were inside for the night, we were planning and we heard
someone yelling outside our window. Two people were fighting over a
money shortage from what I assume was a drug deal. It was super funny.
We listened and then went to bed. Life is good in the hood.
Temp: 102°F

Friday: Zone meeting. I forgot to write in my journal for this day
so......yeah. It was a great zone meeting. That's about all I
remember. Moving on..
Temp: Not sure....but it's safe to assume it was HOT.

Saturday: BAPTISM! Mike was baptized and it was the most powerful
baptismal service I've ever been to. It was probably one of the most
powerful testimonies I've ever heard. Mike has had a rough life, and
he actually found a Book of Mormon while he was in prison. He read it
and was converted. After his baptism he shared his testimony. He read
some of his journal entries from 2012 where he mentioned he cannot
wait to change his life and join the Church. He remained faithful as
he waited to be released. He remained faithful as he waited to be
cleared to be baptized. There was not a soul in that baptismal service
who was not deeply moved by his inspired words as a new, clean
disciple of Jesus Christ.
On a more funny note, we got two new investigators! One of whom wins
the prize of funniest name I've ever heard. One was Maria, and the
other was Quanishiana. (Pronounced: Quah-nee-shee-ah-nuh) We taught
them the Restoration and they both accepted it. It was a great night
and a great day.
Temp: 101°F

Sunday: Mike was confirmed at church. I had the pleasure to stand in
the circle while he was confirmed by Bishop Mecham. Mike brought his
girlfriend to gospel principles and she commented a ton during class.
She had a lot of great input. We will hopefully begin teaching her
very soon. He had dinner with a member of the bishopric and his
family. We then visited some people with him after dinner. We set up a
lesson with two people, one of which will be a new investigator next
week! Then we stopped by one of our new investigator's house and her
husband was there and is interested too! It was a wonderful day! Oh,
and I come home one year from today! Hump day!
Temp: 106°F

I love it here. Being a missionary is super fun. I look forward to
hearing from you all. Keep me in your prayers! Love your hair, hope
you win! :)

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Elder Jones found Mucho Mango in gallon size!

Cuddle session with Elder Clough, Elder Rodriquez's
trainee, He is awesome. Plus Elder Rodriguez doing bunny ears.

Here is a photo of us WINNING. We beat the south district in Baptisms
and member present lessons for the month of July. Oh yeah.

Left to right: Elders Wheeler, Price, Thaut, Dennis (DL), Gardner
(ZL), Jones, Ogden (ZL), and Flynn

2. Elder Rodriguez's creepy face

3. Random chicken walkin around Cesar's group home

4. BAPTISM!! Left to right: Elder Garnder, Mike, Elders Thaut, Jones, Ayimadu.

HUMP DAY!!! 1 year down, one year to go.

Hump Week!! 53 week on Mission, 51 weeks in Phoenix Mission, 3 weeks in Glendale

Good afternoon, family and friends! We hit record highs this week in
Phoenix. It hit 118°F Saturday so that was absolutely insane. I've
never felt like my skin was boiling, but I sure did that day. As you
can tell by the title of my email, this week was "hump week" or, in
other terms, I hit my 1-year mark! It's crazy to think that I'm
already half way done with my mission. I never thought I'd be able to
endure a whole Phoenix summer while on a bike, but this summer is
almost over! Oh yeah! Onward! Here was my week! Lots of great—and
kinda crazy—things happened.

Monday: Pday, pretty boring but great. Our roommates are in a
different district than us and their district had an activity all day.
So Elder Thaut and I stayed home and emailed and were lazy. It was a
much needed lazy day. We taught a really cool recent convert family
about enduring to the end. I always love hearing about how the gospel
can change peoples' lives. Especially here—most people don't have much
money, but they are grateful for what they have.
Temp: 104°F

Tuesday: Haha Tuesday was a very crazy day. Things did not go as
planned! So we got up and went to service with a member of the Spanish
ward. As we were riding over there we got caught in a random dust
storm. It was huge. And windy. And gross. And we were trapped in our
car until it passed. It was crazy! Then all of our members who were
going to come with us said they couldn't go to our appointments with
us, and our teaching appointments all ended up canceling on us. So
that was pretty lame but we had fun finding. We had dinner with a
German sister and she brought her friend who isn't a member! We had a
good dinner with them and a good lesson on how much God loves us. He
said he agrees on what we taught. It would be cool if sometime down
the road he met with missionaries! After dinner we went to visit a guy
named David who we met a couple days before. He lives in the same
complex as us. I felt prompted to check the mail at like 8:30pm as we
were coming in. We had already checked the mail once that day, but I
felt prompted to check again. That's where we met David. He said he's
interested in learning more. So we taught him and as I shared with him
about Joseph Smith's first Vision, he said, "Wow. I'm speechless—I can
relate to Joseph Smith. I'm just searching to find out who's right."
It was a very powerful lesson. One I'll never forget.
Temp: 103°F

Wednesday: We went searching for a new apartment, but we couldn't find
anything much better. So it looks like we're going to stay here! After
lunch we went out finding until about 4. Not much luck. Before dinner
we had a great lesson with a progressing investigator, Sarai
(pronounced Saudi). We hadn't met with them in a while so we caught
up. She had a few concerns about church and the Book of Mormon, but we
were able to talk to her about them. She is excited to start meeting
with us again. That evening we went out with our assistant ward
mission leader, Brother Barton. He's the man! We got to visit with a
few of our investigators and set up times to visit. We then taught a
recent convert lady. Her dog was huge and cute. :)
Temp: 108°F

Thursday: HUMP DAAAAAY! And Weekly planning. After planning we had a
short lesson with Christine, a recent convert who is in very poor
health. Her testimony is still rock solid, though. She doesn't let her
health shake her faith. We then had dinner with Brother Gomez, a
recent convert, and his wife! I love Brother Gomez! We then visited
Jesse, a less-active member. He hadn't been to church in forever. He
wants to come back to church but he has a lot of misconceptions that
we're in the process of clearing up... After the day I headed over to
our district leader's place for an exchange with Elder Dennis. He came
out with me.
Temp: 111°F

Friday: Went on exchange with Elder Dennis. Not much great happened.
We had district meeting, which was good. Plus I can't remember and my
journal entry is super bad because I didn't have much time...haha. IT
WAS HOT.
Temp: 116°F

Saturday: All I remember is that it was incredibly hot. As I mentioned
earlier, there were records set. I have never sweat so much in my
life. Plus our appointments fell through so we were out in it all day.
Phoenix don't care about yo skin.
Temp: 118°F

Elder Rodriguez's car shows temp outside!

Elder Jones w/ apartment mates- Elder Thaut
Elder Rodriguez, Elder ?

Elder jones w/ his camel "hump day" tie

Selfie weekly

Elder Jones and Elder Thaut "flexing?"

waiting at church

We found sticky mustaches.
Rodrigo pulls his off.

Elder Thaut w/ his favorite animal cat

White is so hot it's off the scale. Literally.

Elder Rodriguez's hump day picture!

Sunday: It was a great Sunday. Lots happened! Right after dinner we had a lesson with a girl named Gabby. She is 12 and has been coming to
church with some of her friends and Brother Bleyl, in the bishopric,
introduced us to her last Sunday. So we met with her! We taught her
half of the first lesson and she wants to be baptized. It was a pretty
cool lesson. I haven't taught someone that young since my first area!
After the lesson we went to a guy named Rich's house. He stopped us as
we were passing by his house and told us to come by sometime. So we
stopped by. He is absolutely crazy, but he loves God. He will be a
good place to stop by to get some water. After we talked to Rich for a
while we headed home. It was a great day with two new investigators!
Temp: 110°F

That was my week. Everything is going great here! Thanks for all the support. :)
Have a great week! I love you all!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Weekly apartment mates selfie!

Miracles!!! 54 weeks on Mission, 52 Weeks in Phoenix, 4 weeks in Glendale

Hello, friends and family! This week had a couple miracles that were
amazing to watch. I felt like a true servant of the Lord as we
participated in helping God bring His children to Him. We also had
interviews with President Griffin, which is always a highlight. Here
was my week!

Monday: A pday full of absolutely nothing. Haha. We emailed and played
Munchkin most of the day. After pday we went out and had a great
lesson with the Pope family. Man, I wish we could spend all night with
them. We shared a short message on the 10 Commandments. The Popes'
mother lives with them and she isn't a member of the Church. However,
she asked us why we were on a mission and how we found God. We both
bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Restoration. It was a pretty
cool experience. We then went out finding after the lesson but not too
much happened.
Temp: 109°F

Tuesday: Super funny experience. We went over to a referral that the
bishop gave us. It's for a lady who isn't a member but she lives in a
halfway house. We pulled up on our bikes after riding 30 minutes to
get there, and a lady about 1/4 of a mile away saw us pull up and
started yelling at us to get off the property. We told her to calm
down for a second and told her we're there to visit someone who ASKED
us to come by. She was mad that we actually had a reason and she still
told us to go away. So we told her we'll be back some other time then.
It was hilarious. Then on our way home for dinner a drunk guy stopped
us and said, "Are y'all Mormon or Latter-day Saints?" We told them
that "Mormon" is just a nickname for the Latter-day Saints. He wasn't
buying it. "NO. Are you MORMON or LATTER-DAY SAINTS?" I told him,
"Sir, we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints." And he said, "Thank you." And walked away. It was super
funny. After dinner we had splits. I went and taught David, the guy we
met at the mailbox. I was with Brother Christensen, an elder in our
ward. We taught the Plan of Salvation. He told us at our first lesson
he was a bit skeptical about Joseph Smith, but he said that as he read
the Book of Mormon something just "clicked." He said he believes it's
true. He accepted the Plan of Salvation too. By the Spirit, I invited
him to be baptized on September 26. He accepted. Earlier in the day we
were on our way to a 4 o'clock appointment and Elder Thaut turned down
a neighborhood road and said he felt prompted to visit a referral we
had gotten a week ago that hadn't answered the door yet. So we
knocked, no answer. Again, no answer. Once more, no answer. Confused,
we headed toward our bikes to leave. Then a little girl answered the
door! We asked to speak to her parents and her dad came out. He told
us that he is Baptist and wasn't really interested, but as we bore
testimony of the Restoration right there on his doorstep, his
countenance changed. He looked at us and said, "actually, yeah. You
guys can come by." The cool thing is that it's a family!! Oh yeah!
Temp: 106°F

Wednesday: Interviews with President Griffin! During interviews,
President asked me how long I had been out now. I said, "I don't know,
like two weeks?" He thought it was pretty funny. I told him I had been
out for a little over a year now. He said, "Wow, here pretty soon I'll
be sending you on an airplane back home!"—yikes. After dinner we had a
great lesson with Gabby, a 12-year old girl we're teaching. We put her
on a baptismal date for September 19!
Temp: 106°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. Not too much else. Had a great lesson with
a super solid recent convert, Frank.
Temp: 106°F

Friday: We had a great district meeting. President Juchau of the
mission presidency was there. Elder Flynn gave a really good
discussion on the Book of Mormon and having Christ as our foundation.
All of our lessons cancelled that night which was lame.
Temp: 103°F

Saturday: The night of miracles. The day was pretty slow so I'll just
skip to the night. We felt prompted to go visit some people in the
bottom of our area which is a rougher area. And it was night time, so
we knew it was by the a Spirit. We didn't have a lot of luck until
about 8pm. As we were walking back to our bikes, a car pulled up next
to us and there were two ladies in the car and they asked us to visit
their brother. They pulled over and walked us up to his apartment. His
name is Martin and he has had a lot of challenges recently, and has
turned to God. He has been looking for a church but nothing had stuck
out at him yet. We sat down with him and talked about the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, focusing on baptism. He said that he really wants to be
baptized and start new. We invited him to be baptized on September 19.
He accepted. The Spirit was tangible.
Temp: 103°F

Sunday: Martin came to church! He stayed for the whole 3-hour block
too. We will be visiting him tonightt. Went finding after dinner and
visited a super crazy guy. Enough said about him haha.
Temp: 104°F

What a week full of miracles! Thanks to all who have been praying for
me and for our success out here in Arizona. I miss you all so much but
I know this work is very important. Glendale can be very unpredictable
but I love all of the surprises that we encounter. It's good to have a
laugh every now and then too. :) Have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Weekly Selfie

Finally got the nametag picture from Jones and Bradshaw

Elder Thaut and friend

Elders Clough and Jones w/sock ties

Elder Ogden from Camdenton, MO, one of
Elder Jones' zone leaders, cut his hair today!

The "cool" nametag picture I get today.... Really, that's as creative as he can get? This is just SAD! I told him to try again.

The Mighty Four- silly picture. Elder Thaut's face is the best!
Elder Rodriquez's face is great too!

Arizona sunset.

Beautiful Skies! 55 week on mission, 53 weeks in Phoenix, Az mission, 5 weeks in Glendale area

Good day, friends and family! Pday is upon us once again. This past week was great. Today has already been pretty eventful. While we were studying President Griffin stopped by our apartment to lend Elder Rodriguez a violin so he can play it. So it was pretty cool to see him! Luckily out apartment was pretty clean. As we were taking the trash out, a guy in our complex stopped us and said, "Hey, guys, this is kind of embarrassing, but I just can't figure out how to tie this thing." He wanted us to help him tie his tie. We did, and he was very grateful. He called us "life savers" little does he know....hahaha ;)
So here was my week!

Monday: It was a great day. We did the usual stuff then went to the church and played volleyball with everyone from our zone. (Except Elder Flynn and his companion.....if you're reading this, know we missed you....) Then Elder Ogden from Camdenton, MO cut my hair! He did a pretty good job. We went out and taught a couple lessons after our time off. We taught the Pope family and they're still doing great! Then we taught Martin, the guy whose sisters stopped us on the street to go talk to him. He's doing great. We taught the Restoration and he felt the Spirit. Pretty cool lesson!!
Temp: 105°F

Tuesday: No appointments cancelled! It was a Christmas miracle!! Brother Gomez went out with us all afternoon so we weren't biking much. We taught three lessons during the day and they all went great. One in particular stuck out to me. We taught a guy named Bill who has been baptist his whole life. He's an older guy, probably about 70. We shared the Restoration video with him. He said it was "inspiring." We biked all the way to the bottom of our area for dinner and they cancelled at the door. That was pretty lame. After dinner we had a lesson with Katie, a recent convert. She had forgotten about our appointment but she was sitting outside on the steps with a couple of her friends. She invited them both to come sit in on the lesson, and one actually accepted! His name is Chad. We were planning on talking about prophets, but we quickly changed our lesson to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we talked about the parts of the gospel: Faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end; Chad was very interested in baptism. He asked us, "I want to know more about baptism. I think that's the next step for me." So right there, having known him for 10 minutes, we testified of baptism and extended a baptismal date for him. He accepted. It was a great lesson.
Temp: 98°F (rainy)

Wednesday: Not much out of the ordinary. We taught a few lessons but nothing spectacular. We did, however, get to visit Mike, the guy we baptized a couple days after I got into the area. He's HILARIOUS.
Temp: 104°F

Thursday: Weekly planning! As we were planning a pretty gnarly storm rolled in. Here in Arizona there is SO MUCH lightning during storms. So while we were planning, the lights went out. We looked around for a second and then, "BOOOOOOOM!!!" And the lights came back on. So that night we had dinner with Brother Gomez and some of his family. They made some killer ribs. After dinner we went out with our assistant ward mission leader, Brother Barton. He is the definition of funny. We made puns the whole night. It was glorious.
Temp: 105°F

Friday: District meeting. I gave a practice teach over inviting people to sacrament meeting. After the meeting and dinner we taught Katie about the Word of Wisdom. She brought up that some of her friends were harassing her about being baptized a member of the Church. The Spirit immediately put into my mind a paragraph in the Joseph Smith pamphlet about his persecution. I read it to her:

"So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation."
She said that it really helped her. I love the Spirit. As a missionary, it is so critical to stay in tune with the Spirit. If not, one could miss a critical moment to help somebody's own personal situation.
Temp: 106°F

Saturday: It was a super good day today, but super hot. One cool experience did happen. Our last door we knocked on for the day finally opened after a day of no answers. Gary answered. He told us that he used to be Mormon, but is now a "non-believer." Then he told us he believes in Christ. Then he told us that he likes the teachings of the Church. Then he said he wants us to come pray with him. So he convinced himself to have us pray with him and come back once a week. It was a pretty cool experience. Then we had dinner with the Pope family! Before they left, they gave us something interesting. Kool-Aid pickles...they mixed the pickle juice with Kool-Aid powder. Then put the pickles back in the jar and they soaked. It was sooooo good. The pickles were red!!! We then taught two first lessons. One we referred to the Spanish elders. Good day!
Temp: 110°F

Sunday: Typical Sunday! Church, lunch, little nap. I woke up from my nap with a terrible migraine. Fortunately it went away when we ate dinner. Not much happened at night. Except a cooooool lightning storm. The sky was insanely beautiful.
Temp: 105°F

This week was great. Our whole district hit out mission's standards of excellence. That like never happens apparently. The Glendale zone is doing great, and I'm very happy to be a part of it. The work is hastening. He is making it happen. I am honored to participate in His marvelous work. Have a wonderful week, everybody!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Weekly Selfie

Left to right: Elders Hunsaker, Richards, Bradley, Wheeler,
Dennis,Ogden, Thaut, Gardner, Jones, Rodriguez,
Clough, Ockey
Bottom row: Elders Flynn, Price, Hermanas Zamora, Lamb

Add caption

Pretty sweet rainbow

The glorious horse monument.

Arizona dust storm/thunderstorm + sunset

My bro and me

Lightning!

CLEVER TITLE! 56 Week on Mission, 54 weeks serving in the Arizona, Phoenix mission, 6 weeks in Glendale.

Dear friends and family,

Wow, pday finally came. It's transfer week! But they still haven't
sent out transfer news.......kinda lame. I'll keep y'all posted. Here
was my week!

Monday: Typical pday routine. After that we had a zone activity to
celebrate Elder Hunsaker's last pday. We went bowling and I'm pretty
sure everybody doubled my score the first game. Then I bowled a 100
the second game. Oh yeah! I actually beat a couple other missionaries!
Haha. I was pretty proud. After pday we went to FHE at the Gomez home.
Then we had cake! A pretty bad storm kept us there for a long time.
Finally we braved the storm and biked the 3 miles home. We were wet
and dirty but we made it!
Temp: 103°F

Tuesday: Pretty cool day. We visited a potential investigator named
Alice. She's an older lady. We knocked on her door and she let us in.
We shared a quick message with her and she invited us back. She is
open to hearing more! That night we went out with a member of the
elders quorum and visited Katie, a recent convert. We taught her about
the importance of coming to church, reading scriptures, and praying.
We related it to CPR (church, praying, reading) and how it can revive
us when we have "spiritually died." Then he took us to Dairy Queen. It
was a great night!
Temp: 101°F

Wednesday: We did a pretty cool service project in the afternoon. We
helped out with the International Rescue Committee (IRC)! We worked in
the "shop." Refugees from foreign countries would come in and we would
help them find the things they need like clothes, dishes, toys,
toiletries, etc.. Some people were from Romania, Ghana, Liberia,
Czechoslovakia, and other countries. Hardly any of them spoke English
so that was frustrating at times but it was still fun. We had splits
after our coordination meeting. I went out with our assistant ward
mission leader, Brother Barton. We made puns all night. It was
glorious.
Temp: 98°F

Thursday: Weekly planning! After planning we did an exchange with out
apartmentmates. I stayed in our area and Elder Clough was my companion
for the day. He is awesome! At dinner we helped Brother Taylor unclog
his drain. We did not prevail. The drain won the long battle. It was
fun to help him, though. Later that night we taught David, our most
solid investigator. We taught him the Word of Wisdom. We thought it
might be a problem for him, but he said that he's already living it.
He's still going strong for the 26th! It was like 79°F that night
which was amaaaazing. I can't wait for Fall and Winter!
Temp: 96°F

Friday: We had such a great zone meeting. I felt the Spirit so
strongly. I usually don't feel the Spirit a TON during zone or
district meetings, but I did this time. I got a lot of revelation on
what I can do better and how I can be a better missionary. Elder Thaut
bore his testimony on the sacrament and we sang "I Stand All Amazed"
as the closing hymn. I adore that hymn. That night we were heading to
a potential investigator's apartment and two kids stopped us on the
bike path. One was a Jehovah's Witness and it sounded like he just
wanted to bash and prove our religion wrong. After we let him read a
few scriptures, we felt prompted to talk about the Book of Mormon. The
Spirit filled our mouths as we testified of the divinity of the Book
of Mormon and Joseph Smith the Prophet. After we finished the two kids
(17 & 16) were speechless and they thanked us for talking to them. We
gave them our number and a Restoration pamphlet. It was pretty cool!!!
Temp: 93°F (rainy)

Saturday: Not a ton happened. Lots of appointments cancelled. A funny
thing happened as we were biking home for the night. As we passed a
house there was a big group of girls just singing at the top of their
lungs. As we passed, they got quiet and Elder Thaut started to sing in
a super low voice. They all busted up laughing. It was a funny,
had-to-be-there, moment.
Temp: 93°F humid!

Sunday: Normal. Church, ward council, dinner, finding. Not much to report!

Monday: Working Monday's are always the worst! But it was a great day!
Lots of dumb things happened. Two lessons cancelled at the door, but
we had a great lesson with a guy named Bill. He has been sick recently
so we gave him a blessing. He felt the Spirit as he was crying during
the blessing. Then we visited a cool referral from the bishop! We got
a return appointment with her! She seems very interested. We then went
to FHE and dinner at the Gomez home! I loooove them! It was a great
night with a great message.
Temp: 103°F

That was my week! I hope you all had a great week as well. Love and
miss you all! Thanks for all of the prayers and support.

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Double Elders!

Last pday. Me, Elder Flynn,
Elder Wheeler (his trainee)

Elders Jones, Thaut, and Roderiques

Rock hands!

Zone

Elder Thaut and me. At a door,
waiting for a member to show up.

Elder Thaut and a cat.

The Dirty South!
57 weeks on Arizona Phoenix Mission, 55 weeks in Phoenix, 7 weeks in Glaendale

Dear friends and family,

Last week was super good! We found six new investigators and had
transfers. I am staying in Glendale with my companion, Elder Thaut,
for at least 6 more weeks. Thank goodness! I love this area and my
companion and I are getting along better than ever. President Griffin
told us, "I'm not used to a companionship getting along as well as you
two...." So this week a lot of changes happened in the zone. Our zone
leaders now cover three wards! Because of all the switches, we are now
in the "Dirty South" district. We are no longer in the "Notorious
North." That means Elder Rodriguez and his companion are in my
district now! Rodriguez is the district leader. Ah, it reminds me of
Peoria. :) Anyway, here was my week!

Tuesday: Pday. We didn't get the transfer text until like 2pm which
was lame. We had lunch at Culver's. When the text finally came we
found out that our whole apartment is staying and that we're now in
the same district with our roommates! And Rodriguez is the district
leader! Heck yeah. After pday we went out with a member to visit Jesse
& Kina. Kina isn't a member; Jesse is less-active. Kina is extremely
interested! We used to teach them but they would always cancel, so we
dropped them. We decided to visit them just to check up on them, and
they want us to start teaching them again! We had a wonderful lesson
about how God loves us and how families are essential to His plan.
Kina was kind of scared off by baptism before, so we are moving slower
with them now. Which is totally okay.
Temp: 103°F

Wednesday: We visited an older lady named Alice! She is baptist and is
pretty set in her ways, but she enjoys us coming by and talking with
her. Somehow we got on the topic of family history and she just LOVED
talking about it. It was really neat to see her open up. We shared
some family stories and next time we will share more. Her neighbor is
a member of the a Church, so we will be talking with her about getting
her into the Family History center. After dinner we taught David. He's
the one who lives in our apartment complex. He had just got a ton of
new electronics so we opened them with him. Brother Barton was with us
and said, "Man, David, I feel like I'm with you on Christmas morning!"
We joked for a long time. We shared a message on spiritual CPR—church,
prayer, and reading scriptures. He enjoyed the message and knows those
are very important.
Temp: 100°F

Thursday: Weekly planning and a couple lessons. We taught some kids
who have been coming to church recently, Zach and Caden. They were
taught before, but they just moved back for the school year. It was a
pretty scattered lesson, but good. We had dinner at the Gomez home.
They have a couple Navajo sisters living with them temporarily, and
they made us Navajo tacos. Hooooooooly cow they were delicious. We
then had a lesson and went finding for the night. Not too much luck.
Temp: 94°F

Friday: We finished weekly planning then had district meeting! We were
"inducted" into the Dirty South district. It was good to have Elder
Rodriguez leading the district once again. Since we're in their
district now, that means we get a ride to district meeting. So that's
a perk. :) After the meeting we had dinner with the Jones family!
Brother Jones makes the best ribs ever. My face was a mess afterward
but that just means I enjoyed it. :) After dinner we watched "The
Testaments" with Mike (a recent convert) and his girlfriend who we are
about to start teaching! It was a great night full of laughs and
testimonies.
Temp: 100°F

Saturday: Exchanges with the Spanish elders! I went with Elder
Rodriguez in his area. Just like old times—sitting there, not
understanding a word, and bonding with Rodrigo. It was a great day. I
don't know why, but it seems like I always get American food for
dinner while on exchanges in the Spanish area. Someone did ask me
where I was from in Spanish. I responded, "Soy de Missouri." Rodrigo
was proud! It was a great exchange.
Temp: 102°F

Sunday: We had a pretty good Sunday. We had three investigators there
which was great! Unfortunately David didn't come today so he won't be
able to be baptized on the 26th...we'll just move it back a week or
two. No big deal! After church we met with Gabby finally. She's 12.
Her mom said that she can't get baptized until she's older. Laaaame!
But oh well—we're still going to teach her. Our lessons fell through
for the night so we visited a recent convert, Javier. He is AWESOME.
He's moving this week right by he church! So still in our ward. They
took us to visit their new home. Spending the evening with Javier and
his family was wonderful.
Temp: 103°F

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes. I don't feel any older....haha.
20 is a pretty big number. It's crazy to think this is my second
birthday on my mission. Ugh it's going by way too fast. I hope you all
have a great week! Love ya!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Favorite place to eat

Lip Syncing in car

Elders Jones and Rodriguez

Missouri street sign

exchange w/ Rodriguez

puppy who fell asleep during lesson

weekly selfie
20th Birthday!

Birthday dinner at Chili's

Chris's family and Elder's celebrating Kevin's birthday

Elder Thaut, Elder Jones, Chris

Goodbye!

Bye!

600 Volkswagens- week 58, 56 weeks in Phoenix AZ Mission, 8 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

Last week was great. It was slower than normal, but it was still a
great week. My birthday Monday was awesome. I'll write more about
it in my letter. Anyway, it feels weird to be 20. I feel like I should
be starting my freshman year of high school. Oh well—half way to 40!
:) Here was my week!

Monday: My 20th birthday! It was a normal pday. We went and played
sports at the stake center. It was supposed to be "district wars"
meaning district against district, but one companionship—you know who
you are—decided not to go so the teams were uneven. Oh well! After
pday Chris from my last area came to Glendale and took Elder Thaut and
me out to dinner! Her aunt, uncle, mom, stepdad, and a couple cousins
were there to celebrate! They also had a couple birthdays in their
family so we all celebrated together at Chili's. It was a great night.
I really enjoyed catching up with Chris and talking to her again. I
miss teaching her; she is probably my favorite person I've met on my
mission. After dinner we went out with a kid named Juan, a priest in a
neighboring ward. He's preparing for a mission next year and so he
comes out with all the missionaries whenever he can. Our lessons fell
through, but we got to talk to a couple cool people.
Temp: 94°F

Tuesday: Nothing too special happened today. We had a lesson with an
"eternal investigator" named Bill. He's awesome and loves
missionaries, but he just doesn't want to commit to changing his
religion. He feels the Spirit when we read the Book of Mormon with
him, but he doesn't read on his own. I feel like if he does, he'll
gain a testimony. Something cool happened that night. We went on
splits and I went with Brother Jones. After we made our visits, I told
Brother Jones that I loved Volkswagens. He is a mechanic, and he
showed me a ton of pictures of his old Beetles and the ones he has
restored. He told me that over his lifetime he has bought, restored,
and sold/kept almost 600 VW Beetles. He really likes to make them into
Baja Beetles. They were SWEET. Not only do we share a name, but we
shared the interest in Volkswagens. :)
Temp: 94°F

Wednesday: A full day of service. We started the day early and went to
do service at a senior center. Our whole zone participated in the
activity. Basically what we did was pass out food to people who needed
it. We stood behind the table and put food into peoples' bags. Some
were homeless, some were refugees, and some just needed some extra
help with food. After the line had gone through, we started talking to
a couple from Syria. I bet you can guess why they aren't there
anymore. They told us that they're Christians and lit up when they saw
"Jesus Christ" on our name tags. They told us in very broken English,
"Nobody in Syria Christian. You all angels. Thank you." It is so, so,
so awesome to be able to represent Jesus Christ Himself. Moments like
that keep me going. Then we went to help at the IRC again. Elders
Thaut and Gardner helped in the shop, and Elder Ogden and I folded
sheets, took things to the dumpster, and cleaned up. It was fun. After
dinner we went to an investigator's house for a lesson. We taught her
about families and she is super excited to learn more. She told us
that she used to work at Culver's, so I reminisced. :)
Temp: 94°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. After we planned we went out with Brother
Haight. He's new in the ward and is a very young guy. He's newly
married. All four of our lessons happened and we got along great with
him. It turns out that he plays Munchkin with his friends when they're
all together, so they have like two expansions to the game. He let us
borrow an expansion! So we've been enjoying that. :) I think this is
the first time in a while where no appointments cancelled!
Temp: 96°F

Friday: Mission tour! Elder Foster and Elder Montoya, both from the
First Quorum of the Seventy, came and spoke to us! The biggest thing I
got out of the meeting was when Elder Foster told us, "You only have a
short time to be a missionary, but a whole eternity to look back on
how you spent your time." That struck me. I think I can do better at
working my hardest all the time. There were other great insights from
the meeting, but that was the biggest one for me. We had a couple
lessons cancel, but we did get to see Mike, a recent convert we
baptized right after I got into the area. He is hilarious. We had a
great discussion about the Priesthood.
Temp: 98°F

Saturday: Lots of food. Javier, a recent convert in our ward, fed us
and four other missionaries in the zone breakfast! Home made flour
tortillas with chorizo and beans! It was soooooo good! Then we almost
went straight to lunch with the Spanish elders. I was so full. Later
in the evening one of our lessons cancelled, but we had a great lesson
with the Costa family, who were baptized in April. They're going
through a lot, but it's amazing to see their faith. It's a testimony
builder for sure.
Temp: 98°F

Sunday: Church, studies, dinner, finding. Not too much to report here.
Haha! One cool thing did happen, though! David, the guy who has a
baptismal date for October 10, came to church! He loved it! We were
worried because it was the primary program and his first Sunday, but
he loved it. He wants to come back.
Temp: 101°F

That was my week! Sorry it wasn't that interesting. I hope you all
have a great week. Thanks for all of the prayers and support. I can
truly feel them on a daily basis. Stay awesome!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Elders Jeong, & Jones at Mission Tour

8 zones at mission tour w/ 2 of the 70 to speak. Elder Jones is on the top row 5th from left in a pink tie! I think that is the tie McKay Prestwich gave him when he was serving in Webb City.

Elder Jones and Jeong one last time

Elder Thaut w/ the weekly cat picture

weekly selfie- although I'm not sure he
took this picture! And he has on an old
companion's shirt which is to big!

Breakfast at a new member's house.

Blood Moon, week 59, 57 weeks in Phoenix, AZ mission, 9 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

Greetings from Arizona! I bet you're all experiencing nice, fall
temperatures. HA. WE'RE NOT!! But that's okay because although they
aren't "fall temperatures", they're falling temperatures. A couple
days were pretty unbelievably nice. Then summer was like, "NOPE NOT
DONE YET!!" We had a pretty cool experience with the blood moon
yesterday. I'll send pictures and I'll talk about it in my letter.
Anyway, enough rambling—here was my week!

Monday: Pday. The normal stuff happened. Elder Ogden cut my hair and
we played sports at the stake center. Like I said before, I'm a huge
fan of speedball. It's a mix between basketball and soccer. Pretty
fun!! After pday was over we went to the Pope family's home to teach
them about the Word of Wisdom. The lesson went well like always.
They're an awesome family and have really grasped the gospel since
they've been coming back and since Sister Pope and Caden were
baptized. After the lesson we went out finding and biking.
Temp: 89°F

Tuesday: We got a new table today. We finally have a table to eat on
and we no longer have to use a box! Hahaha. We made a couple visits
and taught Christine and Bill. Bill received some bad news on his
health so that was super sad. He wasn't feeling well during our lesson
so we made it pretty short. I'm sure he'd appreciate a prayer on his
behalf. After that lesson we had a few minutes before dinner so we
knocked on a potential investigator's door. A lady answered and was
super friendly. She let us in and it turns out she's a member. We
asked if we could help them with anything and she pointed to her
brother and said, "You could teach him, he's not a member. He could
use the company!" He accepted the invitation to have us teach him. It
was a pretty cool experience! After dinner we went on splits but no
one answered. Oh well.
Temp: 86°F (Amazing!!)

Wednesday: A pretty good day. In the morning everyone in my apartment
except me decided to update to iOS 9. I didn't for some reason. Well
it was good I didn't because their iPads all froze up and wouldn't
work! They had to reset them all! It took like 3 hours...haha. So I'm
going to update mine tomorrow just in case it doesn't work. They told
us the problem had been fixed, but I'm going to wait just in case. I
don't want to sacrifice my precious email time... :) After dinner we
had three lessons! One with Gabby, one with the Barton family, and one
with David. David's was pretty great. We have taught him almost
everything now. We shared the law of tithing with him. He said that
has always been a difficult principle for him, but that he would be
willing to live the law. It was a great lesson.
Temp: 96°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. Had a great dinner with the Gomez family. I
just love them. They feed us every other Thursday night. The best
night of the week!! After dinner we went out with our ward mission
leader, Brother Clawson, to make some visits. We had a lesson with a
returning member. We then visited one of his home teaching families.
It turns out that their daughter was hit by a car and is really shaken
up. We gave her a blessing on their doorstep. It was a really cool
experience. Holding the Priesthood of God truly is a great blessing.
Temp: 103°F

Friday: I went to Peoria today! I had an appointment in Peoria IN MY
OLD AREA! It was pretty weird to be there again. I felt like I was
back at 6 months out!! It was funny to be with Elder Rodriguez
again—in Peoria—on exchanges. Crazy. We then had a great district
meeting and great lessons with two recent converts. One of them,
Mike—the guy who got baptized my first week here—is awesome. He asked
us some questions and we gave him some answers. Plus he always gives
us a feast of junk food and soda during our visits. :) One of the
other wards had a baptism and we stopped by the church to get some
water and I saw President Juchau's car in the lot. He's a member of
the mission presidency. We left a note on his windshield that said,
"We love you, President Juchau!" And he texted us that night and said
that it made his day. So that made us feel pretty good!
Temp: 102°F

Saturday: Exchanges! I was with Elder Ogden in their area. Elder Ogden
is from Camdenton, MO so we reminisced about Missouri. Except he's
returning to Zion in like 3 weeks. We did a lot of finding and taught
a lesson. Had chipotle for dinner which is always a plus.
Temp: 103°F

Sunday: Nothing too exciting. We went to church and had ward council
after church. It was fast Sunday. A guy named Will came to church and
expressed his desire to have us teach him! Oh yeah! So we set up an
appointment with him for Tuesday. Had dinner with the Bleyls, one of
my favorite families. Afterward, there was a blood moon! Brother Bleyl
has a kick-butt camera so he was getting some sweet shots. He sent one
to me so I'll definitely attach it.
Temp: 102°F

So that was my week. I can truly feel the prayers and love. I hope you
all have a wonderful week and remember that the Lord loves you. He
knows you more that you know yourself. I have seen that so much
recently.

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Big EXTRA purchase this week

Blood Moon

Chipotle!

Elder Ogden's Chipotle!

Yes, those are bullet holes. Hahahaha.

The Bleyl's dog is begging for food! Haha.

Left to right: Elders Flynn, Dennis, Clough, Bradley, Thaut, Jones,
Wheeler, Gardner, Ockey
Bottom: Elders Ogden, Rodriguez, Dwigans

Spiritual High week 60, 58 weeks in Phoenix Mission, 10 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

Man, after this week I'm on a spiritual cloud nine! Last week was so
awesome. I was able to strengthen my testimony in multiple ways. By
the end of the week the temperature has gotten really nice. Yes, still
warmer than Missouri and most places, but nicer. :) We have a pretty
open day today so I'd love to hear from as many people as I can. So
email away!!
Here was my week:

Monday: Pretty dang good pday. We did the normal stuff then we went
bowling as a zone! So that was super fun! I'm awful at bowling but I
still love doing it. I think my high score was a 92 but I did get one
strike. Yeah, so I'm kinda a big deal....just kidding. After pday we
had a great lesson with Javier, a recent convert in the ward. He fed
us cake and we got to play with his new puppy, Dwight. That little guy
is so so so so cute!
Temp: 102°F

Tuesday: It was a really good day! And really hot! I've just about had
enough of you, summer! We went finding during the day but didn't find
too much luck. We talked to some people and tried visiting a lot of
potential investigators. We had two lessons in the afternoon which
went really well. Christine, the recent convert in our ward who has
terminal cancer, gave us some names to take to the temple! (We were
going this week) After dinner we went out with a member of the Elders
quorum. We taught another recent convert, Katie. She has been
struggling with everything except her faith recently, so we read out
of the Book of Mormon with her about overcoming trials. We read
Helaman 5. It was a very It was a very powerful lesson—there wasn't a
dry eye in the room. I truly felt like a representative of Jesus
Christ. Those moments drive me.
Temp: 103°F

Wednesday: So our downstairs neighbor has a leak right above our
bathroom, so a maintenance guy came in and found a leak in the pipes
behind our toilet. So he was working on it while we were studying and
then he disappeared. We figured he went to go get a tool or something.
Nope. He ripped our toilet out and left it in the middle of the
bathroom. Right in front of our sink. It was really confusing. We
didn't want to move it and mess anything up so we just left it there.
Haha.

Thursday: GREAT DAY!! We went to the temple super early and we had a
great time. We went with out roommates. Christine gave us four names
to take to the temple so we each got to do one of her family names! It
was a really special experience to participate in their ordinances.
The temple is so wonderful. After dinner we went to visit David and we
discussed his baptism. He's all set for October 10th!!!
Temp: 102°F

Friday: It was a good day! Elder Thaut was pretty fed up with the
whole toilet situation so we called the apartment office. The lady in
the office was furious that that happened to us. She sounded like she
was on a mission to get it fixed asap so that was reassuring. Sure
enough, 20 minutes later a guy came and put our toilet back in.
Hallelujah. Then we had district meeting. I gave a training on how to
help our investigators overcome their concerns. It went pretty well. I
made a Titanic reference so that was pretty funny. We spent the
evening with Juan, a priest in the stake. He goes out with all the
missionaries in the stake because he's preparing for a mission. We
biked to our two lessons with him. They were both recent convert
lessons and they went really well. One was with Katie. Lessons with
her have been really powerful recently. It's cool to get Juan in there
and let him experience those powerful moments himself. I wish I would
have experienced some of those moments back home before my mission.
Temp: 95°F

Saturday: General Conference!! It was spectacular. If you didn't get
to see it, go watch it. It was inspiring. I am so grateful that we are
taught by modern day prophets and apostles. I'm also pretty impressed
with myself that I knew who the new apostles were! They weren't new
names to me! Then again, I wouldn't have known who they were before my
mission....haha.
Temp: 92°F

Sunday: General Conference again! Woo! David was able to go to Brother
Barton's home to watch Conference with his family. David said it was
just what he needed. We promised him that if he listened to it with
real intent, there would be personal revelation just for him. And he
said that President Eyring's message in the Sunday Morning session was
what he needed to hear. He was moved as President Eyring spoke about
the Holy Ghost. After Conference and dinner we went out and made some
visits with Brother Barton. It was a great night.
Temp: 88°F

Wow! What a week full of revelation. With a temple trip and General
Conference happening all in one week, it was truly a spiritual high
for me. Keep up the good work and I thank you all so much for your
prayers and support. I love you all. Have a great week!!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

All of Elder Flynn's companions who are still in the field! And
we're all in the same zone! (Bowling) Elders Thaut, Jones, Flynn,
and Wheeler!

At the temple! Elders Jones, Thaut,
Clough, Rodriguez (morning)

Afternoon at the temple.

Me and Elder Thaut!

At church watching Conference!

Weekly Selfie!

From the Mailbox to Baptism -- week 61, 59th week in AZ Phoenix mission, 11th week in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

What a week. After about two months of teaching him, David was
baptized on Saturday! It was a wonderful event. I'll talk more about
it later in my email, though. We taught a lot of lessons, found some
new people to teach, and had a great time. We have also been putting a
renewed effort on talking to everyone on the street. We've been seeing
a lot of success from doing that. Even if we don't see the effects
right away, the Lord will bless us for our efforts to invite EVERYONE
to come unto Christ. Here was my week!

Monday: It was a great pday! For me, at least. Elder Thaut was super
sick all day so we just hung out at home. Elder Clough told me he was
a champion at ERS (card game) so we played each other. I beat him 2
out of 3 times. So after pday we did exchanges with our roommates so
Elder Rodriguez could interview David for his baptism. He passed! I
went with Elder Clough in the Spanish area. It's so hard to stay awake
during lessons when you can't understand a word that's being said. It
was good though. I got to drive!
Temp: 83°F

Tuesday: I didn't write in my journal....I was sick but it's okay. We
had a couple lessons and did some finding. Not too much happened.
There was a crazy flood! Our street was under water!! I'll send a
photo.

Wednesday: It was another pretty normal day. There was a short span
where I was sick again during the middle of the day, but luckily it
passed. We did some visits in the afternoon and then went out with
Brother Barton in the evening. He is probably my favorite member in
this area. Top 3 in my mission, for sure. The weather was wonderful!!
Temp: 83°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. Went to visit Cesar, a member in our ward.
He lives in a rehab facility and there was a new resident there who
sat down and said he had some questions. He proceeded to bash us very
politely. He would bring up a point and we would show him where it's
wrong and that happened a few times. When he found out we could
explain all of his misconceptions he left. People who try to bash
always make me laugh. It's getting hotter again nooooo...
Temp: 91°F

Friday: We got back late and planned late so we had to rush to get to
bed so I didn't write again...I went to Peoria for a doctors
appointment so that was fun! We then had a great zone meeting. We
focused a lot on talking to everyone and the importance of it. I led a
discussion on "working hard" with an emphasis on talking to everyone.
It was wonderful! It got me pretty psyched to recommit myself to
talking with more people. It's something I've been working on and it's
worked out!

Saturday: BAPTISM!! David was baptized! It was such a special service.
Brother Barton, his main fellowshipper, performed the ordinance. I
gave a talk on baptism. David's story on how he met us is a testimony
to me on why talking with everyone is so important. David had just
moved here to Arizona to help take care of his brother who was sick.
He said something kept telling him that he needs to go to Arizona. So
he did, and a month or so later, he went to check his mail. We went to
check the mail at the same time. We talked to him and he invited us
back. The rest is history. He is a loving, funny guy who just wants to
do the right thing. I'm so glad I got to see him progress through the
conversion process. I'm excited to see his continued progression!
After the baptism it was a pretty normal day. We knocked on a
potential investigator's door and a guy answered. The person we were
trying to see wasn't home, but we were able to set up a lesson with
the guy who answered. Again, talking with everyone works!
Temp: 96°F

Sunday: David's confirmation. It was a pretty stressful morning! We
tried to call and text David to tell him who was picking him up for
church but he didn't respond. I went with a brother from the ward to
pick him up and he didn't answer. His neighbor told me that he had
already left for the day. GREAT, he's gonna skip his
confirmation....so we rushed back to the church and there he was,
sitting by Elder Thaut. Phew!! He had lost his phone on the bus the
night before and decided to walk to church. I'm just glad everything
worked out. He was welcomed into the ward very warmly. After church we
did some visits, not much luck.
Temp: 95°F

So that was my week! It was wonderful. The mission is changing my
life! I love watching other people take steps to be closer to God and
Jesus Christ. It strengthens my own testimony about how much They
truly love me. The Lord blesses us as we show our faithfulness to Him.
Let's all do a little better! :) Have a wonderful week, everybody!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Flash flood! That is our street. That curb
is 3 inches. It's up to the sidewalk.

Left to right: (top) Elders Flynn, Gardner, Dennis,
Rodriguez, Jones, Ockey, (bottom) Wheeler,
Ogden, Bradley, Clough, Thaut, Dwigans

Left to right: (top) Elders Flynn, Gardner, Dennis, Rodriguez, Jones,
Ockey, (bottom) Wheeler, Ogden, Bradley, Clough, Thaut, Dwigans

David's baptism!!!

The "Dirty South" district won this month's
competition. Here is our trophy. :)

Being silly waiting to go into a lesson.

Weekly Selfie

Zone

silly

Rain, Hoarding, and Transfer News-
week 62, 60 weeks in Phoenix Mission, 12 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

This week was long, but awesome. It was really rainy and a lot of cool things happened! IT'S COOLING OFF!!! In other news, I've been a missionary for over 14 months now. Yeah if that's not crazy I don't know what is!! Both Elder Thaut and I are staying in the area for at least one more transfer. Our roommates, Elders Clough and Rodriguez, are also staying together for a third transfer! Our apartmentship cannot be separated! We will conquer Glendale! Also, no one in the whole zone was transferred. We must be doing something right, or something wrong. ;)

Here was my week!

Monday: Pday. Played speed ball and went to Ross! I got a sweet new tie! (I'm pretty sure I acquired 4 new ties this week. I'm up to like 65) After our time off we made some visits. We saw a member family from Liberia. We visit them a lot because they're kind of recent converts and new to the area. It's a mom with six kids ranging from 2-13. Since they're all girls, we sat outside their apartment and everyone sat in front of us at our feet and listened to us teach. It was a really cool experience to teach the children and hear their simple testimonies of the Savior.

Temp: 96°F

Tuesday: A pretty average day. A priest from another ward named Juan came out with us for the afternoon and we made some visits with him. He and I have gotten pretty close this last transfer. He's from Tulsa, Oklahoma so we reminisce about the Midwest. Haha! After dinner we went out with a member to visit David, who was baptized last week. We taught him about the priesthood and its power. Plus we talked about life which is always fun. He is really interested in how the missionary program works so we explained it to him!

Temp: 97°F

Wednesday: We helped the bishop's wife move a piano! It took six missionaries to do it. We moved it out of a member's house, into her truck, and unloaded it at the bishop's house. Then she gave us some of her famous homemade cinnamon rolls. Sooooo worth it! Probably the best cinnamon rolls of all time. We had a lesson with the Pope family that afternoon. We hadn't met with them in a while so it was great to see them again. After dinner we taught two guys named Jesse. One at 7, one at 7:45. Two different places, two Jesse's. It was kinda funny. We also weekly planned.

Temp: 100°F (...RIGHT?)

Thursday: Zone conference! Something funny happened during our morning exercise. So as we were walking down our street, we see two fit guys running down our street shirtless. At the same time, there was an older guy riding his bike on the other side of the street. The two guys passed us, and the older guy saw them, turned his bike around, and began biking in their direction with a creepy smile. Yiiiiikes. Hahaha! Anyway, zone conference was wonderful! It was really long. We talked about the importance of having a mission vision, but not only developing a vision, but establishing a mission culture. It was a pretty in-depth topic in which a lot went right over my head, but I think I got a lot out of it. Definitely something we can all work on as a mission. They fed us lunch after the meeting and we sang Happy Birthday to the people with birthdays! I got to sing it in Korean with Elder Jeong before he left! It was a cool experience. I'll attach pictures. I already miss my "dad", Elder Jeong. Then I got a flu shot. I hate needles! But I also hate being sick so I was conflicted!! That night we were on our own for our lessons. We ended up teaching 3 lessons that night, one was pretty cool. As we were biking down 27th Ave, (a pretty sketchy area at night) Elder Thaut stops to talk to a kid who is walking up the street. This is what happened:

"Excuse me, can we ask you just one question?"

"Yeah, sure. I have a minute."

"Awesome! If you could ask God one question, what would it be?"

He pauses a moment. "Probably where will I go after I die?"

"That's a great question. As missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ, we can answer those questions for you, just as if God was telling you."

Right there, on a busy 27th Ave with cars whizzing by, we read with him Alma 40:11-13 which goes over where we will go after we die. The Spirit was strong after we testified and invited him to learn more. He gave us his name and address, but it turns out the address was wrong. But we shared and testified nonetheless, and if missionaries ever run into him again he will undoubtedly remember this experience.

Temp: 98°F

Friday: I experienced the nastiest thing I've ever experienced. We went to a service project in the morning that we were told was "yard work." We met a guy who worked for the city of Phoenix. He then proceeded to tell us the "situation." We were going to clean up a compulsive hoarder's back yard. He had shovels, wheelbarrows, rakes,MASKS, gloves, and all sorts of other tools. There was crap piled up to his windows. It was a decent sized back yard and only two missionaries could fit back there with him. Shout out to Elder Dennis and Elder Bradley for being back there the whole time. There were cockroaches, rats, lizards, and—prepare for it—dead cats. The whole place reeked of cat pee and poop. It was absolutely disgusting. He kicked us out because he couldn't stand to see all of his stuff being thrown away. (It was basically just old papers, dirt, dead things, and various parts to random things). I enjoyed serving, but I was glad to get out of there. There were bees and wasps flying around everywhere. *shivers...* so anyway, then—after taking a long, much needed shower— we had a short, hour-long district meeting after lunch. We then went to a lesson with a YSA member named Spencer because we thought this guy was YSA age. Spencer doesn't have a car, so we biked to his house and walked to the lesson. It was about a 20 minute walk. About half way to the lesson the winds pick up. I feel the first raindrop. Then the dust hits me. Yep, we got caught in a dust storm. Haha! Luckily the investigator was there and we had a great lesson with him. When we left, though, it was pouring down rain. We called our roommates and they were free so they picked us up. Not much else happened in the afternoon. After dinner we went with Juan to visit Mike, a recent convert. He always has snacks and soda for us. It's nice. :)

Temp: 91°F

Saturday: Chris came to our area and took Elder Thaut and me to Culver's! It was really great to see her again and talk to her. Went finding, and did a lot of street contacting. Had a great lesson with a couple great recent converts.

Temp: 87°F

Sunday: A pretty normal Sunday. Ward council and Church. There was a kick-butt lightning storm after church while we were out so that was fun! We visited a lot of people and ended with a visit with David. The Patriots vs Colts game was on in the background and I commented that I like the Patriots and he said, "Maaaaan! And I've been letting you into my home? Leave!" Just kidding, of course. He's hilarious.

Temp: 86°F

Monday: Non pday Monday. During studies we got a call from some missionaries giving us a referral. Elder Thaut answered the phone, and took the referral info. The missionary asked Elder Thaut if his companion was Elder Kevin Jones. He said yes, and handed me the phone. Lo and behold, on the other end of the phone was Elder Kaleb Claypool from my home stake serving in Nevada Las Vegas West!! Their investigator is moving to Phoenix and we're going to teach her! It's so cool that I got to talk to my friend from the YSA Branch back home!!! Anyway, We then went out with a member to lunch then we went on some visits with him. Had dinner, had a pretty normal lesson with the Popes. They really like to talk. Haha! We got the transfer news and we are all excited to stay together one more transfer at least.

Temp: 83°F

LOVE this! FLU SHOT!

What a great week! So I'll be home today if anyone wants to email me...haha. I'm very excited to be here with a Elder Thaut for six more weeks. The members are excited too. Everyone tells us that they can tell we get along. President Griffin told our zone leaders that we would stay together because we are working well together. I'm a happy camper!

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Much love,

Elder Joeng and Elder Jones
Elder Jones'"dad" (trainer),
he goes home to Korea today)

Elder Jones

Black Canyon Ward

Arizona Phoenix Mission

catching up at multi-zone conference

crazy pose multi- zone conference

Weekly selfie!

waiting on a lesson

Elder Thaut and cat

Elder Ogden's drawing

Elder Jones and Elder Thaut at Culvers

Elders Jeong and Jones singing Happy Birthday in Korean,
one last time.

Lunch at zone meeting

Elder Jones w/ 3 of his 5 companions-
Jeong, Flynn, Thaut

Oficial multi- zone conference

Service. Meetings. Service. 63 Weeks on mission, 61 weeks in Phoenix AZ Mission,13 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

This week went by super fast. It was a shorter week, yes, but it feels
like just yesterday was pday! I guess that's a good thing! That
referral that my friend Elder Kaleb Claypool gave us from Las Vegas is
the definition of a golden investigator. I'll talk about it later in
my letter. Plus we did a ton of service...anyway, here was my week!!

Tuesday: Pday! We just hung out at home and emailed, napped, and
played chess. It was transfer week so we didn't do any activities.
After pday we had about 30 minutes until we had to meet some members
at the church for splits. So we decided to visit a recent convert and
a potential investigator who live in the same complex. So we set off.
We started with the potential investigator. We knocked and no one
answered. Knocked again, no answer. We turn around to go down the
stairs and a guy walks up. We talk to him for a second.

"Hey, who are you guys looking for?"

We tell him.

"Oh, they're not home right now."

"Oh, okay. Well, would you mind if we shared a video with you real quick?"

He accepted, and we shared "Because of Him" on his doorstep. He felt
the Spirit, and accepted a return appointment.

We realized we had just enough time to get to the church for splits.
We were feeling good! As we were biking down Butler, a lady who
appeared to be in her 20's waves and exclaims, "HI!!" So we stop and
talk with her too. She wanted to know what we do. We told her, and she
was very intrigued. She then told us that she has been looking for a
church since she's new to the area. She was very excited to see us and
she told us that we were an answer to her prayers! We shared our
testimony with her and got a return appointment.
There, in 15 minutes, two contacts turned in to two new investigators.
Talking to everyone works!! Unfortunately, both appointments fell
through, but one the lady (Chavon) still wants to meet with us next
week.
Temp: 77°F

Wednesday: We started the day with service at a senior center. We
handed out food to people who needed it. It was super fun! There was
some leftover bread so we took some cinnamon raisin bread. I
looooooove that stuff. :) After service and studies and some finding,
we met with Elaine, the referral from Las Vegas. She told us her
story, and we shared a short message with her. We really just took
some time to get to know her. After that lesson we went out with
Brother Barton and visited some people. I wore a sweater!!!!
Temp: 72°F

Thursday: Today was super intense....haha. So a few days before we got
a call from some senior missionaries who are in charge of housing.
They told us that they were just coming to check for any repairs that
we may need. So we didn't clean up much for the visit. Long story
short.....they came to check for cleanliness. They told us they'd be
nice and come back in two hours. We had to deep clean the apartment.
So we changed and ripped the place apart and cleaned everything. When
they came back, they were taking pictures of how clean the place was.
They couldn't believe it. So they gave us coupons to restaurants. It
was pretty cool! I'm glad someone forced us to clean the place. I bet
this place hasn't been deep cleaned in a long time. We then celebrated
our accomplishment and went to Taco Bell for lunch. After lunch we
went to visit Cesar and a couple other people. Then dinner.....I was
still full from lunch. After dinner we had a great lesson with Elaine,
the lady from Vegas. She and her son, Aaron, came and we watched
Finding Faith in Christ. She loved the video and she said it helped
her a lot. We invited her to pray for peace and be baptized on
November 7. She accepted. We ended up moving it to November 14 because
of a stake broadcast on Nov 8. The Spirit was sooo strong in the
lesson.
Lesson learned today: Don't put off cleaning!!
Temp: 77

Friday: I had a doctors appointment in Peoria! It went well. Then,
while in Peoria, WE WENT TO FREDDY'S. AHHH IT WAS SO GOOD. I hadn't
had Freddy's since I was home. We planned then had district meeting.
We watched the Restoration video with David, our recent convert. He
loved the video.
Temp: 81

Saturday: SUPER long day. We got up at 4:45 and headed to Avondale for
a Valley-wide service project. All of the Valley missionaries
participated in a painting project. Except the Glendale zone picked up
trash all over the city of Avondale. It was kinda lame that we didn't
get to paint, but we had fun!! We then came home and crashed. I
haven't been that tired in a long time. Then we went to meetings for
stake conference. President Griffin spoke about helping the
missionaries. He said,
"Quit feeding them so much. They're getting fat." That kinda shows
President's sense of humor. It was a great night, but I was so happy
to get home and sleep!!!
Temp: 86

Sunday: Stake conference. Had another lesson with Elaine. She's the best.
Temp: 87

That was my week! Sorry the letter is a little late today. We went
mini golfing as a zone. I am so bad at it. I hope you all have a great
week! and CLEAN YOUR ROOMS! :)

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Weekly Selfie

Freddy's! one of Elder Jones' favorites back home

Elders Jones and Rodriguez

Trash cleanup

THE ZONE

week 64, 62 weeks in Phoenix Mission, 14 weeks in Glendale--- Sick, Sick, SICK!

Dear family and friends,

Happy Halloween! As you can tell from the title of this email, I was
sick all week. And it was absolutely terrible. I'm pretty sure I had
the flu. I had a sore throat, headache, nausea, fever, congested nose,
and a cough. Probably the worst I've felt my entire mission! But we
didn't stay in very much. I persevered! We still ended the week with a
lot of lessons. Here was my week! Sorry if it's a boring email!

Monday: Pday! We went mini golfing as a zone activity which was pretty
fun. I'm still super bad at it. After our time off, our lesson fell
through so we spent the night finding. Not much else happened!
Temp: 89°F

Tuesday: I didn't write in my journal because I went straight to bed
after we got home. The sickness began on Tuesday. We did stay in until
we had a few lessons at 2, 3, and 4. Those lessons were super hard to
teach because I felt sooo bad. So yeah, a pretty miserable day.

Wednesday: Still sick! Despite my illness, we went to do service for
the IRC (International Rescue Committee). They help refugees from
other countries. Once again, we worked in the shop. Elder Clough and I
sorted through incoming clothes and restocked the clothes racks when
they were getting low. It was super fun, like always! Except nobody
who comes in speaks English. There is a lot of Arabic, African
languages, and European languages. After service we headed to dinner
and a lesson with a less-active family who wants their 8-year-old
daughter, Jamie, to be baptized! It's pretty cool because we get to
teach her parents, too. I've never met such an attentive kid. Jamie
sat there the attentively for the whole 45 minute lesson. She asked
great questions and is excited to be baptized. She isn't an
"investigator" because her parents are both members and she is 8, but
we're still going to teach her so she knows about the gospel! It's
pretty cool. Her dad really opened up and showed some interest in
coming back. He actually served in the military and was stationed at
Ft. Leonard Wood so he was excited to learn I was from Joplin! Plus
he's super into cars and he said he loves when VW makes manual cars. I
told him about my Beetle and he was pretty excited to hear about it.
Overall it was a great meeting! Later that night we met with Elaine
and went over the Baptismal interview questions with her. She is so
ready to be baptized! Super cool!! You did well, Elder Claypool! :)
Temp: 85°F

Thursday: Still sick. Weekly planning. After planning we had a great
dinner with Javier and Ana, recent converts! Javier just received the
Melchizedek Priesthood! He teaches our gospel principles class and
does a great job even though he's only been a member just under a
year. We had some Mexican food! Then we had a great lesson with Frank,
another recent convert. He's the best. He has a little tiny chihuahua
named Sammy and I have spent the whole time I've been in this area
trying to get Sammy to come up to me. She finally did and I held her
the whole lesson! I think she likes me now.
Temp: 78°F

Friday: Super bad day, but we did our best! All lessons cancelled and
I was still sick. Had district meeting which was pretty good.
Temp: 77°F

Saturday: It was a pretty weird day (Still sick). We got up and
exercised and came back to study. Mike, a recent convert, calls us up
and asks if we want to come over and present our first lesson to his
girlfriend, Cindy. *We usually go over to Mike's home every Friday to
see him and Cindy is there on Fridays. We usually just talk with Mike,
but we felt prompted to start teaching Cindy. She is very active in
her own church, but is curious.* So we went over there and he fixed us
French toast. Then we presented our first lesson, the Restoration. She
accepted it pretty well and accepted the challenge to read and pray
about the Book of Mormon. It was a super powerful lesson. That's all I
remember about Saturday.

Sunday: Still sick! Church, nap, studies, dinner, finding.
Temp: 82°F

That was my week! I'm feeling a little better every day. Today I just
have a cough. That I can deal with! Things are cooling down to the
point where I need a sweater at night. Life is good!

Have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Elder Thaut and the weekly cat

Our apartment unity is unreal

Normal Picture

weekly selfie

French Baptism- week 65, 63 weeks in Phoenix,
15 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

This week was super great! A lot happened and we are making progress!
Plus I'm not sick anymore! I have a cough that's just lingering, but
that's okay. As of today, I come home in just 9 months. How crazy is
that? The mission is definitely changing me. In a good way, of
course... Anyway, here was my week!

Monday: It was pday! Not very many exciting things happened. But it
was still a good break. We spent the day at the church because our
neighbors still haven't reconnected their wifi. Haha! After pday our
first lesson fell through, but we were able to meet with the Popes. We
taught them about the Priesthood and talked to their 11-year-old son
about the responsibility of being a Priesthood holder when he turns
12. It was a great day!
Temp: 83 F

Tuesday: We actually spent a good amount of time trying to find people
to teach! We haven't been out biking and finding as much as usual
because of meetings, service, and me being sick. So it was good to get
back out on the bike. Plus the weather cooperated really well for us!
Nothing super crazy happened, but we were able to find and talk to a
lot of people and set up return appointments! We went on splits after
dinner. I went with Brother Gomez and visited Katie, one of our recent
converts. We read Alma 7 with her. She really enjoyed it. The Spirit
is always so strong when we read about the Atonement of Jesus Christ,
and that is what Alma 7 focuses on. When we got back to the church
after splits, my bike was locked with someone else's lock to the bike
rack. Someone thought it would be funny. Turns out it was our
roommates and they had forgotten they did it, so we had to wait for
them to come back and that made us have to bike in the rain. I wasn't
very happy, but it's okay.
Temp: 77 F

Wednesday: It was super rainy! We went and volunteered at the IRC and
worked in the shop. It was super fun, as always. Except for the
language barrier with most of the refugees. There was a pretty cool
experience there. It was nearing the end of our time working there for
the day, and a lady comes up to us and tries asking us a question in
broken English. She just couldn't get it out. She was extremely
frustrated with herself! Elder Rodriguez looks up and asks, "Habla
Espanol?" And she lights up and they start speaking Spanish to each
other! The refugees speak mostly waaaay different languages. Very few
speak Spanish. So that was super cool that Elder Rodriguez could
communicate. After the service I went on exchanges with Elder Clough
in my area. We went straight to an appointment across our area in the
cold rain. We taught Jamie, an 8-year-old girl whose parents are
less-active members. She really wants to be baptized. And I kid you
not, this girl is the most attentive child I have ever met! She pays
attention better than most of the adults we teach! We taught her the
Plan of Salvation. She understood it and loved it! Then we biked home
in the rain. My tan sweater was super dirty!! Went out with Brother
Barton after dinner. He always makes the nights better.
Temp: 65 F

Thursday: Weekly planning. Then we had a short lesson with Cesar
before dinner. He's a member who just needs a visit every week. We
then had two pretty solid lessons right after dinner! We met with Zach
and Caden, two boys who live by the church who want to be baptized.
They love going to scouts. We then met with Elaine and Aaron. We
retaught them the rest of the Restoration and talked about their
baptism. They are super psyched to be baptized next week. As we were
leaving with Brother Gomez to go teach a lesson at his house, Brother
Calhoun, our elders quorum president, stopped us and told us he had
been praying for two Melchizedek Priesthood holders to show up at the
church to give him a blessing. His prayers were answered! He had hurt
his leg and had a long shift coming up that night and he was hurting
super bad. We gave him a blessing and he told us later that he felt a
lot better at work. It was an awesome, chilly day!
Temp: 65 F

Friday: Super awesome day! We had our district meeting and interviews
with President Griffin! We met at the church building around 1 and
President provided lunch for the whole zone for achieving our
contacting goal from the month of October! He got us Bobby Q's, a
super good bbq restaurant. After lunch we had our district meeting,
and President came to it. He gave us a super good training about a
plethora of things...all I remember is that it was super good! Then we
had interviews. Mine was super short but I always enjoy interviews
with President.
After interviews we rushed off to dinner with Mike and Cindy. Cindy is
Mike's girlfriend, and she is investigating the Church. Mike is newly
baptized. We only planned on being there for a little while, so Cindy
left to go pick up some pizzas. Apparently while they were cooking our
pizzas, one of ours caught on fire. Apparently the whole restaurant
was filled with smoke and made everyone evacuate. Cindy somehow got
the 4 pizzas and booked it out of there. Hahaha! So that was just our
luck. :)
Temp: 72 F

Saturday: Amazing day! We had a baptism in our area for a guy taught
by the French sisters out of the Scottsdale mission! Raphael was
baptized and his smile was undeniable. He may not speak English, but
his testimony was so strong. So our ward will now have two more
missionaries for a while. A set of French sisters will come to our
ward to translate for him every week! They came last week too and man,
our ward LOVED having them there! We were invisible! Hahaha. Just
kidding. But it was a wonderful baptism. Then we we had zone meeting.
It was okay.
Temp 79 F

Sunday: Church was super good! The regional broadcast was great. Not
really sure why Missouri was included in the American Southwest
region, but what ever! After dinner we met with Elaine and Aaron and
taught the Plan of Salvation. We went over their baptismal program and
filled out their baptismal records. Elaine wants me to baptize her and
Elder Thaut will baptize Aaron. I'm so excited to baptize Elaine
because I know her favorite missionary--That's you, Elder
Claypool!--so well. Saturday will be a great day.
Temp: 81 F

That was my week. I love and miss you all. You're always in my
thoughts and prayers. Remember that God and Christ love you more than
you can imagine!! Stay strong and read your scriptures. You won't
regret it!!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Elder Jones w/ his "happy tie"

P day picture

Elder Jones got to see Puddenhead!

Using the wifi at Culvers

Culvers dinner

Brother Gomez's dog, Sammy!
She's so cute!!!!

Elder Thaut w/ his weekly cat fix!

Cold Water Miracle! --- week 66, 64 weeks in Phoenix Mission,16 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

It was such a wonderful week. We were able to baptize Elaine and Aaron, two people my good friend Elder Claypool taught in Vegas before they moved to Phoenix. The baptism was nothing short of a miracle. Let me tell you, Satan did not want them to be baptized and confirmed! But the Lord made it happen. Anyway, here was my week! I'll talk more about the baptism shortly.--OH! And our neighbors got their wifi back so we have Internet again! Hallelujah!

Monday: Pday. We didn't have wifi so we emailed and played some sports at the church. It was a normal pday. Nothing too exciting. We went on exchanges that night so Elaine and Aaron could be interviewed by Elder Rodriguez. So I went with Elder Clough in Solano. Sometimes it's hard to stay awake when you don't know the language at all...haha! Elaine and Aaron passed their interview so all is good!

Temp: 77 F

Tuesday: I forgot to write in my journal so I don't remember much about Tuesday... We did have a great lesson with Christine, our recent convert who has a terminal illness. She isn't very old; maybe 40. Her spirit is so sweet. She knows she doesn't have much longer on this earth, but she is using her time to the fullest. She has been researching family names to have taken to the temple. She just finished the Book of Mormon all the way through. She has a bedrock testimony of the gospel, and it's always a pleasure going to visit Christine. Later that night we visited some people and had a lesson with a guy and his son. It was pretty good! We didn't have much time so we said we'd come back the next day.

Wednesday: It was a super good day. We had three really solid lessons in the afternoon. One with an investigator where we read 1 Nephi 8 in the Book of Mormon. This guy, Bill, has been investigating for a few months now so we've been reading with him. He really likes the Book of Mormon, he just lacks the true conversion. It'll come, though. We have faith! He's such a good guy! We then met with Jamie, the eight-year-old we've been teaching. She is super sharp! She is very excited to be baptized, and her dad wants to get worthy to baptize her, so that's super cool! After dinner we went out with Brother Barton to visit Gary and his son. When we got there, his (ex?)wife, Allison, was there too! She was totally on board as we answered their questions about Joseph Smith and shared the message of the Restoration with them. Gary is a very analytical thinker, so he automatically questions every point in religion. Brother Barton is an attorney, so he's super good at talking to people and talking them through situations. He challenged Gary and Allison to read and pray about the Book of Mormon together and to set a baptismal date in faith. They accepted when we extended December 5th as a baptismal date for them. They agreed to experiment on Moroni's promise in Mornini10:3-5 in the Book of Mormon. It was one of the most powerful lessons I've ever been a part of on my mission.

Temp:67 F

Family and friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. These changes I have been seeing in people for over 15 months is no mere coincidence. The Lord cares about His people. It is never too late for anyone to receive His grace and mercy. Whether you're a member of the Church or not, His arms are always outstretched.

Thursday: We volunteered at Goodwill from 9-12. It was pretty fun; we were basically free employees for three hours, but we had a great time! Afterward we did a district lunch across the street at Panda Express. It was super good!!!!! I don't remember liking it that much! I'm super excited to go home and have one in Joplin! :) After service and lunch Elder Thaut wasn't feeling well so we stayed in and I studied while he slept it off. Later we had dinner and a lesson with Frank, a recent convert. He's the man! They're the ones with the chihuahua named Sammy. I sent a picture holding her last week. I chased her around their living room while we waited for the bishop to come to Frank's. After dinner we visited a referral named Lashay. We got in and taught them a short lesson and got a return appointment! She was really interested in the missionary program. It really catches peoples' eyes seeing two young guys devoting two years of their lives to the ministry at such a young age.

Temp: 75 F

Friday: We weekly planned and had district meeting. I led a discussion on accountability. It went alright. After the meeting we had a great lesson with Cesar. He really opened up to us about how grateful he is that we take time to visit him every week. Man, I love Cesar! Then we had a great lesson with Mike, a recent convert, and his girlfriend, Cindy. Cindy is interested in the Church, but is very active in hers. We read out of 2 Nephi 2 and shared the first half of the Plan of Salvation. She is definitely coming along. :)

Temp: 79 F

Saturday: BAPTISM!!! Elaine and Aaron were baptized into the Lord's Church at 6:30pm. It was a very stressful afternoon leading up to the baptism, though. We started filling the baptismal font, and after 30 minutes the water was still ice cold. We had no idea what to do. We had tried all we know how to do. We saw a brother in the building and asked if he knew how to fix the problem, and he called a member of the stake presidency and he came by and reset the water heater settings. The water then got warm! The baptism started a little late because of the cold water scare, but it still happened and it was glorious. The Spirit was so strong. I was able to baptize Elaine, and Elder Thaut baptized her son, Aaron. Their smiles and good spirits were tangible. It was a day I'll never forget!!

Temp: 77 F

Sunday: Elaine and Aaron were confirmed during sacrament meeting. None of the microphones were working, so we had to project our voices! It was the first time I confirmed someone. I confirmed Elaine, and E. Thaut confirmed Aaron. After church we ate and studied. Elder Thaut wasn't feeling well, and I didn't want to stay in again, so Elder Clough stayed with Thaut and I went with Elder Rodriguez to the Spanish ward for the night. We went to their ward choir practice, which was pretty fun. I didn't understand any of the words, but it was good.

Temp: 67 F

So that was my week! I hope you all had a great one too. Love you all. I appreciate all of your prayers and support for me and all of the other missionaries serving around the world.

Much love,

Elder Jones

Black Canyon Ward

Arizona Phoenix Mission

Elaine and Aaron's baptism

cool sunset

Dinner at Culvers

The district after volunteering at Goodwill!

The "Dirty South" District... Standing: Elders Thaut, Ockey,
Clough.. Sitting: Elders Dwigans, Jones, Rodriguez.

weekly selfie!

Spaghetti & Tiwi -

week 67-65 weeks in Phoenix -17 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

My week went pretty well. There were a couple funny and crazy things
that happened. We had spaghetti 4 nights in a row, all the mission
cars got a driving monitoring device called Tiwi, and I got hit by a
car (I'm okay, Mom...). Plus we got to teach a lot and yeah the normal
missionary stuff! Anyway, here was my week!

Monday: Brother Turley, the high councilor over missionary work, fed
our whole zone breakfast. They were super good breakfast burritos!
After pday we had a couple lessons and then biked in the cold, windy
evening!
Temp: 58°F

Tuesday: We went and volunteered a couple hours at the IRC! We helped
stock the shelves in the clothing distribution store. It was pretty
fun considering we're usually there on Thursday dealing with the rush
of people. So this time it was more calm. We then had a lesson with
Christine. Because she's in so much medication because of her medical
condition, she couldn't speak, so she wrote out all of her comments.
Recently she's been having to do that. We then had dinner with a
family who aren't members! It's kinda cool how we found them. We got a
referral from their son who is a member saying that he felt inspired
that he refer them to us. We met the mom, Theresa. She said that her
son was serving in Argentina and that she would feed us dinner. So we
set up the time and it was wonderful! Such a cool family. Not ready
for the gospel yet, but now she knows we're around. After dinner we
didn't have a ride (we got dropped off) so we waited for our member to
pick us up. He was running late so we sat outside for a while. It was
pretty cold! But we survived.
Temp: 61°F

Wednesday: Tiwi arrived! We had a big zone conference about the new
Tiwi devices and then just a normal meeting afterward. So basically
Tiwi is just a little black box that sits in the corner of the
windshield....and monitors your speed, seatbelt, and it monitors how
hard you brake and accelerate. It speaks to you, too! It says "check
your speed", "check your seatbelt", and "aggressive driving." I'm on a
bike so it doesn't affect me directly, but it's a pretty funny device!
If you make a speed or seatbelt violation, you have a few seconds to
correct it or else a notice is sent to the mission president and SLC.
Aggressive driving violations are automatically sent. Kinda crazy, but
I can see why they're necessary! So after the conference we went
finding and we met a referral that we received a while ago! She is
interested and we set up a return appointment!
Temp: 67°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. And I got hit by a car. Haha! It's kinda
crazy how my bike is totally fine. So we were just biking south on
31st Ave headed to a lesson, and we come to a four way stop. We stop
first, and a car to the right of us stops. We start going, and I guess
the car didn't see us so she accelerates (fast, I may add...) and
slams in to the front of my bike. Somehow I ended up standing and my
bike fell over on the ground. I'm still not sure how that happened.
But the lady pulled over and was soooo scared that I was hurt. I was
fine and—somehow—so was my bike. We we just left. It made for a funny
story when we got to the Gomez home. They were kidding us because we
were a little late, so I told them what happened and they were mad at
the lady for me! I assured them it wasn't that bad. Haha!
Temp: 74°F

Friday: We went finding some and then had a lesson with Jamie. She is
doing great. Still the most intelligent eight-year-old I've ever met!
After dinner we went out with Juan to visit a couple people. We
visited Katie but she wasn't home. Then her neighbor invited us in
after we talked to him for a little while. Man, he's the definition of
crazy...yikes. Then we headed to Mike's house and taught him and
Cindy, his girlfriend. She is reading the Book of Mormon and is liking
it! I really hope she gets baptized. Unfortunately Elder Rodriguez had
to leave the apartment....they put two extra elders in the Spanish
ward, so they split Elder Clough and Rodriguez. Elder Clough is still
in the apartment and our new roommate is Elder Bryan from Kaysville,
UT! He's awesome. I still miss Rodrigo, though.
Temp: 77°F

Saturday: We went finding all through the afternoon. Not too much

luck, but we tried. Then after dinner we had a great meeting with
David, our recent convert we found at the mailbox. Then we met with
Javier and his wife, Ana, also recent converts. Javier just received
the Melchizedek Priesthood a few weeks ago! He has had bronchitis so
he's been down and out for a couple weeks. So we went by to see how
he's doing. Fortunately he's doing a lot better and isn't contagious.
They're having us for thanksgiving, so we finalized those plans.
They're having us for lunch and dinner. Oh yeah!!!
Temp: 82°F

Sunday: Church, ward council, and then we went to the stake cottage
meeting! Cindy and Mike were able to come so it was awesome. President
Cathcart in the stake presidency presented the lesson. He drew out the
whole history of the Church and apostasy from Adam all the way to our
time. He drew it all on the board and explained it all in 30 minutes.
Pretty impressive!

So that was my week. Mom, I bet you can't believe I ate spaghetti 4
times this week! You should be proud!!
I hope you all have a wonderful week doing whatever you do. Then
Church is true, as is my love for the Savior.

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

new apartment companionship

Elders

lunch line

eating

multi zone conference

silly

weekly selfie

another apartmentship photo

Transfers, Thanksgiving, and Training---
week 68- 66 Weeks in Phoenix- 18 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

The transfer news is here! Elder Thaut will be transferred. It is the
only change in our apartment so I guess that's good. I really will
miss Elder Thaut! He and I grew to be really good friends. He will
definitely be a friend for life.

This letter will not be in the normal format for a few reasons:
1. I lost my journal for most of the week so I don't have any of the
temperatures/specifics. (I found it though, so all is good!)
2. Transfers are tomorrow so we're rushing around
3. 4 people getting haircuts today somewhere without wifi
4. Sooo much to do today!

Anyway, here was my week!

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was super good. I actually got a lot of pictures! We
started off at the stake turkey bowl! We played flag football with
anyone who showed up from the stake. There was a good turnout!
Probably 40 people showed up. Then Javier and his family invited us
over for Thanksgiving lunch. He invited us and the four Spanish
elders. There was a full house! We had the traditional food and a lot
of joking and fun. He invited us back for dinner! He made us mole, an
Hispanic dish that is basically chicken with a spicy dark chocolate
sauce over it. It is different, but I loved it! Then we went back on
Friday for lunch to eat leftovers! So we were at Javier's a lot this
week!!

Zone-wide Exchange
So we had a zone-wide exchange to help increase zone unity. Normally
we do day-long exchanges with our district leader. This time, however,
the zone leaders arranged a day that everyone would be on an exchange
with different people in the zone. I went with Elder Gardner, my zone
leader. It was a great day! We got to teach a few lessons and find a
new investigator. I got to experience YSA! It was a pretty fun
experience. Plus they live with a member of the stake presidency, so
it was cool to be back in a member's home for the day. Afterward we
all met at the church to exchange back and we had a super solid
testimony meeting.

New investigators
We found four new investigators this week! A lady called the mission
office saying she wanted to join the Church. So we got the referral
and called her and set up a meeting. We met with her, and it turns out
her husband wants to be baptized too! So that was pretty cool! We
spent most of the time just visiting with them and getting to know
them, but they are super solid. She loves cats so Elder Thaut was in
heaven! Haha. After that lesson we dropped by our apartment to grab
something and we street contacted this couple walking through our
complex. Turns out they have been taught before and they wanted us to
bless their new house. So we went over there and talked with them for
a little while.

Taco Bell
We found out yesterday that Elder Thaut would be leaving, so he
challenged Elder Clough to the grande meal challenge from Taco Bell.
That consists of both of them each eating a whole grande meal. A
grande meal is 10 items (burritos or tacos.) they each did 2 burritos
and 8 soft tacos. They both finished the challenge but didn't feel too
well afterward...haha! Elder Thaut said he never wants to eat Taco
Bell again. This is monumental for him.

Weather
It was pretty dang cold last week. With highs only in the low 60's it
made for chilly biking weather. Phoenix has made me a wuss when it
comes to temperature. I have really come to love my sweaters and coat.
They are my best friends!!

Training
I just received a call from President Griffin saying that I will be
training a new missionary in Glendale. Please pray for me as I embark
on this new journey. I'm pretty nervous as it's my first leadership
position.

So that was my week in a nutshell; I probably missed some things. Next
week will be my 16-month mark. I appreciate all of your prayers on my
behalf. I love you all and pray for your safety and happiness. Shoot
me an email and I'll do my best to respond!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Elder Jones

checking out ipad info

view of apartment

reunion w/ PuddinHead

best friends

At Thanksgiving lunch with Javier Left to right: Elders Clough,
Jones, Bryan, Thaut, Cespedes, Rodriguez

Munchkin party during thanksgiving

We all gathered at our apt. After thanksgiving... Haha

Care package from Chris! Homemade tostadas,
doughnuts, and soda!! Thanks! :)

Thanksgiving Picture- companionship: Jones and Thaut

Weekly selfie

District picture. Standing: Elders Dwigans,
Cespedes, Thaut, Clough
Sitting: Elders Ockey, Rodriguez, Jones, Bryan.

I'm a Father! (kind of)...

week 69- 67 weeks in Phoenix- 19 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

Transfers happened! My new companion (son) is Elder Fernandez from
Fresno, California. He turned 19 yesterday. He is waiting on his visa
to go to Rosario, Argentina! So he'll be here in our mission until
that comes in. It could be tomorrow, it could be in six months! He's a
great missionary. Here was my week!

Tuesday: Pday, except we were super rushed all day because Elder Thaut
was getting transferred. I got my training call. Someone in the stake
presidency is a chiropractor, so he gave the whole zone free back
adjustments which was amazing! We visited Javier and Elder Thaut asked
him to give him a priesthood blessing. The Spirit was so strong as
Javier gave his first blessing as a newly ordained Melchizedek
priesthood holder. It was a great way to end a dream companionship.
Temp: 64°F

Wednesday: Transfers! Elder Thaut got shipped out to Buckeye and Elder
Fernandez just got here from the MTC. After the meeting we went home
and got settled. We went out with Brother Barton and taught Liz and
Rusty, two of our new investigators. They accepted the challenge to be
baptized on January 2nd! They're really solid and prepared. We put
someone on date in Elder Fernandez's first lesson. Oh yeah!
Temp: 67°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. We went to the institute building for lunch
with our roommates and the zone leaders. We couldn't find someone to
come out with us so we biked to our lessons after dinner. We had four
in one night! Elder Fernandez said he was feelin it in his legs! He is
borrowing Elder Rodriguez's bike and He has a great attitude about
working. It's helping me stay motivated too!
Temp: 72°F

Friday: District meeting! Elder Bryan is the new district leader and
it was a great meeting! We did a scripture chase—literally! There were
two chairs set up, each with a Book of Mormon. We split up into two
teams. Elder Bryan would ask a question and we had to find an answer
in the Book of Mormon before the other team. Questions like, "Where is
my mom now? She just passed away." or "Why do bad things happen to
good people?" It was a really fun activity and I learned a lot about
the power of the Book of Mormon. After dinner we went out with Brother
Taylor and taught David, and made more visits. Not much luck, though.
Temp: 73°F

Saturday: I went on exchange in my area with Elder Bryan. We helped
Christine set up her Christmas decorations because she can't get out
of bed. When we finished she wanted to see them so she—after a lot of
help and painful screams—got into her wheelchair and started crying
because she was so thankful and because it was so beautiful. I
definitely felt the Spirit. After dinner we contacted someone in their
parking lot and got a return appointment for the Spanish elders! We
had a lesson with the Costa family, and their friend was there and is
interested. He's pretty much a golden investigator, just as long as he
stays in the area.
Temp: 73°F

Sunday: Pretty good day at church! Liz came! She seemed to like it. It
was fast and testimony meeting which can sometimes make missionaries a
little nervous, but it was fantastic!! The Spirit was so strong during
the meeting! Probably Raphaël, the French convert in our ward, bore
his testimony in French and even though I didn't understand it, the
Spirit was there. He testified. After church and studies we had the
Christmas devotional. It was great as always. It was Elder Fernandez's
19th birthday! :)
Temp: 77°F

So that was my week! I love you and miss you all. Stay strong and I'd
love to hear from you all. Please keep sending prayers that I'll be
able to train Elder Fernandez well.

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission