Last e-mail from CCM!

Oh boy!  Here we go.  Our last e-mail from the CCM.  He told Jeff  he is very anxious to leave the CCM and get his "real" mission under way.  This is his zone.  Not sure how all this works, but I know they have zones and districts.  So this must be bigger than the district...  I am sure we will be experts by the time this is all done, all ready for Mason.  Here is his e-mail:

well this is my last week coming up and i just had my one month anniversary! this past week was really good! we had a devotional were an Area 70 spoke, his name was elder Valencia, we also had the coolest games of soccer i have ever played! it was so fun! we had like 20 people playing and we played on the big field! our investigators are doing great! all of them are getting baptized this next week, even Bryan and McCoy (the other elders in our district that we have to teach) we taught carlos the law of tithing and chastity and bryan and mccoy are on the plan of salvation right now. and it was so cool! we had TRC (where we teach volunteers and sometimes real investigators) and our teacher hermano vargus invited 2 of his non member friends to it! and after we taught them, they wanted to invite the missionaries over to their houses and be baptized!!! HOOT Hoot! SO awesome! then on sunday i was going to have to give a talk about the fall of adam and eve, but they didn´t end up calling me, so....i didnt have to give a talk in sacrament for the whole 6 weeks i was here! but the main thing that happened this week was that the district above us District 12 A left! :( that means no more pranks, soccer, and just having a good time with them any more! i was really sad :( i cant even imagine what its going to be like leaving my own district...its crazy, i have only known them 6 weeks but i feel like i have known them my whole life!!! we had a zone testimony meeting with the district that was leaving and it was really spiritual! ...and just to keep the ball rolling we found a new game to play with keys! we all stand in a circle and take turns throwing it up in the air and we all cant move and cant look up and we have to see who it hits! haha it was pretty rad!!! :) i know this church is true and i love you all sooooooooooo much and love hearing from you guys! 

 -- 

Love Elder Jones 

He also sent us a picture of a "Nacho Libre Bike".  Oh, the places you'll go...   We sure feel blessed to have a missionary out in the field, to see how his testimony is growing and to know that he is serving the Lord. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and remember the "Reason for the Season".

Contact Info

So... we just received the letter from the mission home about how to send things to our sweet missionary, and rules of contact. So here it is. The mission office counseled us against sending too much "stuff". They find it is difficult for them at transfer time as well as distracting them from the work. If you feel impressed to send something to Elder Jones, please keep it small and use the following address:

Elder Wesley Jones
Florida Orlando Mission
10502 satellite Blvd, Ste. E
Orlando, FL 32837-8479

The mission has several missionaries with the same last name, so please use Wesley's first name as well as last. Please send all mail through the U.S. Postal Service. These items can be forwarded. UPS and FEDEX do not allow packages to be forwarded which makes it difficult for the mission office. So if you want your package to arrive in a timely fashion, please use USPS.

The mission also has a web page that you can peruse. They post pictures of the missionaries, and posts about what is going on and service opportunities. So check out www.floridaorlandomission.com for additional information. He will be there on December 2, so I would imagine they will have pictures of the new kids on the block shortly after that.

Deep breath, now comes the time for mom to have faith and trust in the Lord to take care of her boy. The CCM wasn't the hard part, it was like sending your child to the dorms. They have food and a roof over their head as well as adult supervision. Now, not so much. Keep the prayers coming, he sure appreciates them and feels the effects. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It's Tuesday...

We just got our new message from our sweet missionary. He also figured out how to extract pictures, so enjoy! "so heads up yallz! this week was super cold!!! and that is super bad! cuz the only warm thing i have is my suit! and that is because i am going to orlando! and supposedly its never cold there! but it was cold here! and i almost died! but other than that this week was great!!! for service this week we cleaned all of the light fixtures and replaced all of the flourescant light bulbs...until the unavoidable happened...elder banegas dropped one!!! and they are the craziest things! cuz like the gas inside is pressurized, and so they EXPLODED!!!! BOOM!!! it was awesome! haha ;) oh remember when i threw my keys on the roof? well our zone leaders remembered that and got them down, and then put cheeze wiz all over our toilet seat in our dorm! it was the sickest... :( but on a more spiritual note, we taught luis the law of chastity, yup the big mamma, but it actually went really good! we also taught carlos the plan of salvation! so both of our investigators are going really well. quick note on our lesson about the plan of salvation, it was super spiritual cuz we were going to talk about the gospel but carlos had a question about the tree of life so we switched the lesson to fit his needs! and that is always cool to see the spirit come into the room! then on friday we had a priesthood blessing night where anyone who wanted to get a blessing could! and holy cow it was so powerful with the words that were being said! i totally had the chills the whole time! and it was crazy cuz i got to give my companion a blessing and i truly know that it was the words of god coming out of my mouth not my own words! then on sunday for priesthood we had a jeopardy game about the gospel between the districts in our branch and our district wrecked the competition!!! it wasnt even close!!! i freaking love my district and everybody has grown so close its awesome! :) i also saw my first cockroach this week and those things are wiginasty!!!! asceroso! but we also made our own investigator profiles on monday so now we can teach each other and play the part of the investigator and that is cool cuz we can find out what the investigator actually needs! so that pretty much concludes my week except for one detail that i have waited last to tell...even though i got my keys back from my zone leaders, i accidentally threw my spare keys in a palm tree...but we got those down with a pair of scriptures! so i just want to end with my testimony of the power of scriptures! haha ;) but really yo amo esta evangelio y yo se que mi padre celestial me ama mucho! el libro de mormon es verdadero y las palabras de dios! yo estoy agredecido por la opportunidad a servir un mision, y yo les amo mucho mucho mucho!"

Jeff's Trip to Hong Kong

Jeff was able to take a day and go to Hong Kong while he has been in China.  His friend that went with him sent us this photo.  I can honestly say that one of these is not like the other (in every way possible).  We sure do miss him, and he is getting really tired of being away from home.  The poverty over there has shocked him, made him feel very gluttonous and basically ruined him for Christmas.  He will be more prepared the next time he goes over.  But he just wasn't ready for that aspect of his trip.  He is very tired and ready to come home.  So the count down begins.  And we will fill in the rest of the adventure after he visits Beijing.  Enjoy.

Wes is not illiterate!

Well, I found out today, that at the CCM in Mexico, they have Spanish keyboards.  I hadn't realized this.  I just thought my son couldn't type very well.  Apparently they are different enough, that capitalizing letters is difficult and there are a lot of extra keys for typing in Spanish.  I know he was in a hurry to get his e-mails out and read all the incoming notes, so I was using that as his excuse for poor typing skills.  So now we know it is not completely his fault.  I thought I would pass that along, just in case you were thinking the same thing.  Have a great day!

The count down begins. The second Hobbit comes out the day after Morgan's birthday, so she and Jeff and Mason are going to go to the late showing that night. We are very excited nerds at this time. So now you know why we have the movie trailer poster on the blog. I wish I could go, but someone has to stay with Sydney (we acknowledge her limitations), and I can't stay up that late anymore. Until our review, don't pass up an adventure ;o).

We love our Missionary

w We just love our boy. He is improving so much there at the CCM. Here are a few blurbs from his e-mail.

it was awesome this week! we had a devotional where an area 70 daniel johnson spoke and he asked us to pray to god to really know if he exists, and that he has a body, and that he knows that i exist and that he actually knows me and what i have been thru....and that he really loves me! i have never really done this before so i really tried this time, and immediately after i started praying i felt the most overwhelming feeling of love and compassion, such as i have never felt before! it was probably the most spiritual thing i have experienced at the CCM so far! and it was just cool cuz now i can actually say that i know these things are true and i know that my heavenly father loves me!

on to other things this week, for service our district cleaned the cafeteria, and i have mixed feelings about that cuz i actually saw where our food was being made and it was a kinda wiginasty (one of the many Albin-isms i have learned) Every body has been getting sick this week and it has been going around the district! i thinks a total of 6 people have gotten the bug, and guess who the carrier was... my compañero!!! i just want to say a shoutout to my dad for teaching me how to be a germa-phobic cuz i havent gotten sick yet!!! haha

haha During this week though we had our first TRC, where we actually taught real people who were investigators and less active members, and not just our teachers!!! it is so much more nerve racking when they are actual people that you could influence their lives with your broken spanish!!!! but it ended up being pretty good and i felt like we taught with the spirit, and said what they needed to hear!

and we also had another group of latinos leave us again today! so sad! we had a huge group of them in our dorms for their last night and we sang each other our national anthems and took pictures! its so funny cuz they know a little english and we know a little spanish so there is a language barrier but somehow we communicate and teach each other!! haha they call me taco! (cuz i tried a mexican taco instead of an american taco (trust me there is a huge difference!) and it was super good! it had chicken, pineapple and salsa thats it!) but i really am going to miss those guys! it kinda sucks cuz they are only here for 10 days and we are here for 6 weeks! But its only 3 weeks now and i am so excited!!! remember to always look to christ in everything you do! a scripture that helped me out a lot this week was Ether 2:24-25...it talks about how god gives us trials so that we can make it to the promised land! we will be pushed to the bottom of the sea but he will bring us back up! I love you guys so much and miss ya tons! i know this church is true and that jesus christ is our savior and that he loves us!

Wes is safe for at least another week ;o).  He is being our dear Wesley.  Now the MTC knows what our Sunday's have been like for the last year or so.  Here is a sample of his letter  "We play volleyball (not even as fun as playing sand volleyball with all my peeps back home) basketball and soccer! the other day our district played another district and it was super fun!!! we whooped them! :)" 

 Wes and his companion teach "investigators", who then turn around and become their teachers to help them teach better.  He says he is learning a lot about how to teach and how to plan.

Halloween:  " Halloween was Freaking awesome! we dressed up in our most outrageous costumes (which isnt much since we all have the same clothes!) but elder Fearnley actually has a Batman 1nzy (didnt know how to spell that one! haha) then we Feasted on candies and set up a mini ping pong set in our dorm! which was a bad idea cuz we stayed up past our bedtime playing it and then got in trouble...oops! :( Each week we do a service project and this week i had to help clean the cafeteria and the rest of my district had to do bathrooms...got the better end of that one there! haha! we are learning how to plan and how to teach better in our classes! but sometimes we get bored, so to relieve the stress we play Key Ball! (we just throw our keys to each other and it is ridiculously fun!) but we were playing, and in a strange turn of events i ended up throwing my keys on the roof! oops again? we got them back though! :) We Got new Latino room mates and they are pretty chill! and then the highlight of the week was fast sunday!! the spirit is always SOOO strong and everyones testimonies makes the whole week better and puts our mission in perspective! that we are servants of Jesus Christ and we should act like it in all that we do! i love this gospel and it has blessed me sooo much while i have been down here! i love you all and hope to hear from you all next week! :)"

Love that boy.  Have a great week.

I don't usually brag about things that we make, but when I find a winner, I like to share.  Jeff harvested A LOT of walnuts this year.  He likes to make potitza (sp?) that his grandmother used to make.  It takes a lot of walnuts, and as we are cheap, walnuts are expensive, and we have walnut trees around here....  Well you get the picture.  So I have been experimenting with different recipes for spiced nuts.  And we have a winner.  This is the link to get to the site.  I don't take credit for awesome recipes that I find.  But I do like to share them when I find them.   http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/12/sugar-and-spice-candied-nuts/  So go out and try it because these are dang good!

Happy Halloween!

This year I just told the kids to use what we had for costumes.  We have a lot of options and cute stuff.  But what did they choose?  They chose to be fat man and fat woman.  they just wore baggy clothes and stuffed them with pillows.  Then Sydney had the audacity to be upset when someone in her class told her she was fat!  Anyway, Jeff took Sydney and her friend around trick or treating while Mason and his friend went out on their own.  Morgan just went and watched a movie with her friends.  I told Mason this was his last year to trick-or-treat and he was not happy.  He says "Wesley was able to trick or treat until he was 17!"  So we explained the cost and benefit of delay growth pattern. Not a happy camper.  Over all we ended up with a net gain, as I ran out of candy here, and they filled up the cauldron more than when we started.

The best was this morning when I questioned Mason about how much candy was in his back pack.  He mentioned a few, so I told him to empty it out.  It just kept coming and coming.  We narrowed it down extensively much to his chagrin.  Crazy kid.  All I know is that I would hate to be a teacher today ;).  Hope you all had a great Halloween!