Your old bones are creaking ole chap...

nice Florida rain storm

But I still got some fight in me!

wow this week was pretty good! 

haha so on tuesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. and that night was the luckiest night of my life! so it just happened to be Elder Ferguson's (District leader of mine in semoran days, and was in the same ward during the pleasant hill days) last night on the mission. he lived in the same zone as us way up in sanford. so all of the sudden me and Elder Dalmas (Zone leader, also going home the same time i do) gets a call from Elder Ferguson saying that they had lost their house key and they couldnt get into their apartment and had to stay somewhere for the night. 

so....

Elder Ferguson (24 months), Elder Thompson (his companion, came out with me into the mission field but spoke english, 21 months), and Elder Fenn (Elder Ferguson's Trainee, 12 weeks) Came and Had to sleep over at the Zone leader's apartments with Me (22 months) and Elder Dalmas (22 months) It was the funnest night of my life! haha talking about old dogs and their stories man. Elder Fenn was the only Youngin there. 

in the morning we went out to a place called KiKi's Breakfast Diner. Apparently their pancakes are huge and the waitress had only seen 1 person finish 3 of them at the actual restaurant. so of course all 5 of us decided to take the challenge, and me and Elder Ferguson did it! WHOO! :) i actually learned a lot during that exchange. I had been really stressed about making sure that everything was going perfect that the last months of my mission would be great! I was trying to fit everything in that maybe i hadnt applied in other areas and was stressing out way too much. So me and Elder Dalmas spoke a lot about that and how we have put forth our best effort so far in our missions and now we need to enjoy them. Not take a break, but still work hard and just have fun! think of all the wisdom a missionary acquires over 2 years and what help that would be to impart of that wisdom to everyone you see! i am going to love this last part of my mission. i am going to love elder gale! and i am going to work on developing christlike attributes, and follow the spirit courageously in developing the habits i want to go home with! and i know that with faith miracles will happen!

wait! did someone say MIRACLES????

so now is your Chick-fil-a Miracle of the Day! 

we were at chick-fil-a (my new favorite restaurant) and we were eating when a guy comes and sits down at the table next to us, and so we start off a conversation with, "hi hows it going? Chick-fil-a sure is busy today..." then it ended in him giving us his number and address and wanting us to come back and share more about our church with him! :) BUT! while we were thus conversing in the spirit, Jessica Herrera walks by!

BACK STORY!!!

so jessica was a girl who we had knocked into at her mom's house who actually lived down in orlando. So we had referred her to the elders there and they actually had an appointment for the day that we saw her at chick-fil-a!

BACK TO THE REGULAR STORY!

so she tells us that her phone is dead and that she probably wont be able to make the appointment with the other elders! Divine intervention! so we were able to contact the elders and make sure that they knew! wOOhOO!!!

Then the same day, we were biking in an apartment complex looking for a former investigator family, and just could not find the building number. so as we were biking i saw a guy halfway out of his car and decided to ask him where the leasing office was so we could ask the management. He told us where it was as he was taking his little boy out of the car seat and trying to get all of his groceries too....BING BING BING!!! so i asked if we could help with the groceries? and he said YES! and that is all we needed! he let us teach him the first lesson, he downloaded the book of mormon on his phone said that he would get baptized when he knew it was true and the English elders are going over next week!

 

As for other items of miracle business ...

we have been trying new ways of getting into peoples homes, so we made this survey with 10 questions that is super crazy because you ask them if they want to take this survey and then (being super confident!) ask if you can come inside while stepping forward into the threshold!!! WOWZERZ!!! and it only works if you are 100% sure of yourself! haha it makes contacting people so much more exciting! but it works! we taught a couple lessons to people but they werent interested. 

so anyways! we were knocking in a complex and it was going nowhere and so we said alright as soon as we finish this building we are out of here! so the very last door in the building (too perfect i know!) opens up and we take the survey (outside) with a young man named anthony. After the survey he allows us to share the restoration with him. and he soaked every last bit of it up! He even said the last prayer and told god that he knew that what we shared was true and that he was going to read the book of mormon and pray to get an answer! He is the coolest!

BUT......He goes to boot camp for the navy in 6 days so we gave him every single way possible to contact missionaries wherever he goes! 

When i get to heaven i am going to watch the movie called, "the rest of the story..." and i am going to find out what happened to anthony! :)

other than that we had an investigator come to church. His name is Andres. and he liked it! haha we havent even given him a book of mormon yet so we will see how it goes with him! :)

i think the thing i learned most this week was the power of prayer with the spirit! it is only by the prayer of faith that we get the spirit to direct us in the work. and the scriptures teach us that we should cry unto the father all the day long. so Just know that you can never pray too much! 

it looks like things are looking up in this area and ward! it keeps on scaring me how little time i have left on the mission. i want to make every minute of it!

a good selfie after a 22 mile long bike ride in the rain!

i got one word for ya!......LAMBORGHINI :)

--

Love Elder Jones

Hello Familia

Florida Rain Storm

so this week was good! we met with members, we went to the temple, we had apartment checks (we got 100%!! president mentioned it in his regular interviews with us! woo hoo!) we had a great lesson with a less active and found out that his granddaughter hasnt been baptized. so she might have a lot of potential there.

we had a lesson with a former investigator and her husband and brother. they are hard core 7th day adventists! and we smoked them! answered all of there questions! they said, "wow you guys defend your faith really well!" which isnt necesarily good because we want them to believe what we say and have faith and stuff not just be convinced by the knowledge of man. but they said they would have us back over! 

Thanks dad for all of the advice! it is still a work in progress but practice makes perfect!

right now i personally am having difficulty because elder gale does things so differently than i do. and he always makes mistakes, over small easy tasks. or doesnt know what to do. or is really hesitant about a decision. and it makes it hard for me not to nit-pick him and its hard for me to trust him. How and when do i give that constructive criticism, and what advice do you have to help me look past some of the things that dont really matter. Its a pride thing that i have to work on that i dont want to come home with. I always think my way is the best way until someone shows me a better way and unless someone does it my way then its the wrong way. does that make sense? how can i be more accepting?

THIS IS OPEN TO EVERYONE TO ANSWER! I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET!

i want to let the mission change me into a better person than i was!

i love you all and love hearing about the stuff you are doing! thanks for the pics! hope you enjoy mine!

--

Love Elder Jones

After cleaning inspections, they had a little gangsta fun!

Boy, oh Boy, we went a Trekkin'

So we had trek this last weekend.  Wow what an adventure.  Jeff and I were able to be a Ma and a Pa for this one.  Which meant that we were able to have our own family and cart and all that jazz.  We had 4 boys and 3 girls in our group.  Mason and Sydney were able to go also, but they were each in a different group.  We had to fit all of the stuff we were bringing into a 5 gallon bucket which we carried on our handcart.  It was really hot, so we came prepared with neck coolers and water bottles for our kids. We went on the Muddy Creek trail in Wyoming.  We trekked 8 miles the first day, 5 miles the second day and 7 1/2 miles on the final trip out to the buses.  We crossed 2 creeks, went down "gravel hill" and had a good ole hoe down in the field.  All in all we had a wonderful experience.  Grateful to have had most of our family with us on this adventure.  Enjoy the pictures!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Well, we finally made it to the City of Rocks this year.  And right during a heat wave!!!  But it all worked out.  We had a great time.  The temperatures were about 10-15 degrees cooler than in Elk Ridge so that was perfect, with a light breeze to boot.  We went up with the Thompsons, a family in our neighborhood and met up with Kim and Spencer Rich too.




We had a wonderful time climbing, playing games and just plain messing around.  And as you can see, Jeff wanted us to all be comfortable at camp, so we literally brought everything except the kitchen sink.  He even got a solar shower so we could wash our hair and stay clean during this trip.  After getting everything set up, Thursday night we went to practice rock and it was still very warm, but that got us all back in the groove and ready to climb the next day.



Friday we went to a little bit harder spot, but still super fun.  Then to find a climb in shade.  We had to slog across the heat to get there and almost killed molly with heat exhaustion.  But we made it yet again, and had a fun time in the rocks there.  Saturday, we were really pooped, so we just hiked bath rock and got some awesome pictures from the top. Went back to the campsite and cleaned up.  Morgan had to work last night, so we had to get her home so she could get ready.  I love my family and their willingness to play with us.  Till the next time, we love this place!

On top of the world, looking down on creation.... 

I can honestly say we wore them out!  That's what late nights
around the campfire will get ya!!!

Oh whut uh Lyfe...

the primary kids drew this for the missionaries!

This week was awesome! we went to have dinner with a member and 2 of her friends from the Dominican Republic (my favorite country!) (well maybe not...USA is pretty good) (but still my favorite spanish country! ;)) were there! so we talked to them about the restoration and it was awesome! they have started reading the book of mormon, they came to church yesterday, And we have 2 appointments set up for this next week!  Also we have an amazing Primary president in our ward who stepped up the game and invited isabella (our investigator who is going to be baptized on the 11th of july) over for dinner! so we had an awesome lesson with them about following the prophet and the word of wisdom (p.s. when you get the chance look on ldsyouth.organd search the video "follow the prophet" its pretty funny! #youreallymessedusupColton!) haha Isabella said something really funny about the Fall of Adam and Eve she said, "Eve is the reason we have pain and sickness!" aka "because eve messed up, We have to pay!"  haha looks like we might need to clarify that up with her. ;) lets see....what else happened this week?

i went on exchanges with our Zone Leader, Elder Langston from Layton UT. we learned a lot about Follow up and having shorter more powerful lessons! and then the rest of the week was just good ole teaching and healing! I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! 

well that is it all that is going on over here in orlando FL! right now it is bright and sunshiny but pouring rain and lightning like crazy! i dont know how that works! but it does! haha

have a great week!

Love Elder Jones

Girls Camp!!!

Isn't this the most beautiful setting?

 Well, we survived girls camp.  It was only Wednesday through Saturday, so it wasn't so bad.  We had a great group of girls and the leaders were awesome.  Sydney showed her maturity level, but so did the other newbies.  She had a hard time paying attention and sitting still for too long.  The second night she was soo tired after the faith walk, that I spoiled the whole "snipe hunt" for her thinking that she would just go to sleep.  Well, I was mistaken.  She laughed at the girls putting toothpaste on their faces, and then when they got back, she left with them to go to the haunted bathrooms!  No wonder she was tired.  She slept in one half of the cabin, while I slept in the noisy side.  I took the day shift, so at night I put in my ear plugs, my eye patch and took my PM pill.  I slept GREAT!  I can't say so much for the other leader in our cabin, oops.....  But, the highlight of the whole trip was after the faith walk.  Each of the girls was given a square polished tile from the scraps left over from the temple.  It has a hole in it so you can wear it on a chain.  How cool is that.  Each of the girls that went on the faith walk got one.  And after some careful calculations, each of the leaders got one tooo!  I love it.

the ultimate photo bomber (SYD)

So now that we have survived camp, we are moving on to TREK.  That happens in only 4 weeks!  Crazy.  But we were all assigned our families yesterday and now we are super stoked about it.  It is only 3 days, so we can handle that.  Will keep y'all posted.  Have an awesome week

Happy Father's Day!

"Duck Cloud" will he never get over the clouds?

He really wants to go to this bible school!

this week was really good! we taught the daughter of a less active who is wanting to get baptized in A CHURCH! but her mom (who she lives with) isnt a member. but we were able to teach her a lot and get her reading the Book of Mormon before she had to go back to texas and we arranged with the  missionaries over there to start teaching her so it was awesome! This week was just awesome! i really learned a lot about faith in missionary work and how faith and Attitude are everything to being a successful missionary and just a successful person! I can testify that through Faith all things are possible! I had a great exchange with Elder Johnson where we talked a lot about Faith, Attitude, and Desire and how those things are the biggest factors in missionary work! I love it when you can find answers in the Book of Mormon that confirm your own thoughts and ideas! I had that experience in Alma 7:3 when Alma came to the people of Gideon with....wait for it.... much HOPE and DESIRE! My mind was Blown! :) The power of faith and Positivity is REAL! I love it!

we had a huge miracle on that exchange when we were visiting a le
ss active member, we realized that an active family lived next door! the father happened to be outside and so we set it up to come by later that night! so we come over and the mom says, "i have somebody for you!" like what??? then she says, "do you want to go meet them right now?" and so we say "yeah! of course!" so she calls her and says, "hey can we come over?....ok....ok....sure....sounds good!" then she said, "SHe is coming over here instead!" it was so awesome and such an example of member missionary work! we were able to testify of the restoration and how the gospel blesses families! we set a return appointment and the english elders are going back next week! YEAH! i know they are going to be baptized! i love Missionary work!

Hope all is well and that you all had a happy fathers day!

Love Elder Jones