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

Summer Fun

 So we are getting ready for girls camp, and the leaders thought it would be fun to bleach our theme onto the shirts.  They turned out so cute and Morgan was so impressed with them, that we decided to do some of our own.  So after swim team this morning, we hit up the old Wal-Mart (ugh) and got some cheap t-shirts and letter stickers.  You just arrange them the way you want them and then spray them with a 30% solution of bleach and water.  Let it get the lightness you want and then rinse them out in the sink or run them through your washer.  Yah, we go a little over the top sometimes, but the kids loved it and were able to express their creativity!  Have a super awesome day!!!

So

Happy Anniversary to Me !!!!!

Well, it has officially been 22 years since Jeff and I got married.  And I still like the old bloke :o).  To celebrate we went and saw Jurassic World with the fam.  And for those who may not remember, this is nostalgic because we went and saw Jurassic Park right after it came out the night before we got married.  So it is awesome that this movie came out now and we could celebrate it with our posterity!

News From the Front

so this week was a long one! we had dinner with the Bishop, the lofthouses, and the Dominguez family. The dominguez family is awesome! She served her mission in italy...and she made us pasta for dinner. Mom...it was the best pasta i have ever tasted! it was out of this world! there arent words to describe how i feel about that pasta. the sauce was homemade and it was just the perfect combo of creaminess, cheesiness, and meatiness. hmmmm...and apparently her lasagna is even better! BWAHH! 

we also had a party with the spanish group celebrating fathers day 1 week early. they made a HUGE pot of "sancocho de pollo" which is basically dumping 6 whole chickens in a pot and cooking them down with some veggies! oh man was it good! it was so fun too just to be around all of the spanish members! i really felt of their love for the missionaries which is just the best!

we also did a lot of service this week! we helped some members move on friday. then on saturday we went and fixed up the yard of a recent convert who is going through tons of struggles right now and her yard was a disaster and the HOA was getting angry with her because of it. and so we went without her asking and just knocked it all out within a couple hours to get it looking brand new again!

i love service!

The Mission is awesome! our district last transfer struggled a little bit because of our district leader who was going home didnt really care. but now we have a newbie district leader who has got that young blood in him to help us older missionaries get excited again! He gave us the "baptize" vision again as a focus and we have seen tons of miracles from it! we have one investigator named Jose who has a ton of doubts about everything and is just super confused right now. But we had a super good lesson with him where we were really bold and just told him that if he does what we ask him to do and asks god for a confirmation, he will be able to overcome all of his doubts and know that this is true. If he can do that he will be such a strong member! 

then we had another miracle this week! we were tracting and the second door we knock on is a bunch of mexican bros who were playing fifa. the guy who opens the door takes one look at us and says "no....No..." and then just walks into the back room with the door still open. and so we are just standing there and i poke my head in and say hi to the other guy who was sitting on the couch. and so we start talking about soccer and then the gospel and it is a really good conversation, when "de repente" his friend/cousin comes out with his bible and has this curious look on his face. the First buddy says "hey man look! i am talking to these guys! come join me!" so we ask if we can come in and share more with both of them and they say SURE! and it was the coolest because they were totally prepared because we talked more about baptism in that lesson than even the book of mormon! and they were just wanting to just do it! it was sweet! we set a soft date for august 1st and we are going back on saturday! 

then the third big miracle this week is that there is this LARC family who is struggling. but the Great Great grandma is trying to get to the temple! so she is being really active in the church. And so her Great Great Grandkid Isabella, who is 8, is coming to church with her. now we didnt have anybody that could be baptized this transfer, but during church when my companion was in the bathroom, isabella came up to me and i asked her, "When are you going to get baptized?!?" and she surprised me by saying, "I already told you! in 26 days!" haha i was like "WHAAAAAA????" so we are going over there tonight to try and teach her!

i love you guys and i am praying for you! hope you have a great week!

Sancocho!

we got lost on this dirt road.....

-- 

Love Elder Jones

Cultural Celebration!

So, we had our cultural celebration for the Payson Temple this week-end.  And what a party it was.  It was absolutely amazing.  Here are the girls during the practice part.  We ran through the show 2 times for practice before we had a 3 hour respite.  During the 3 hour break, the kids were able to eat and do hair and get our "glam" makeup on in preparation for the show.

Sydney was soooo funny.  This is the first time we have done "glam" makeup for her.  She told me later, I kinda like this mom.  Then Sunday morning, she says, I feel like I need mascara this morning.  Guess who is getting makeup for her birthday!  She had so much fun helping the other girls with their hair and getting everything just right.  And then it was back off to the stadium one more time.

Mason was in the armies of Helaman march.  It was so cool to see the YM of 4 stakes out on the field.  They sang the Youth of Zion, and onward Christian Soldiers.  They finally all sang for the performance and it was really powerful.  

Sydney's group did the ribbon dance to Redeemer of Israel.  All the youth in the stands participated in the signing of the 3rd verse.  Then we were all part of the finale when we created a rainbow.  We are waiting for the whole thing to be available on-line on the churches web-site.  But until then, you can catch some highlights at this link!  Cultural Celebration Highlights    When the video is ready it will be able to be seen here... Payson Temple Cultural Celebration

Because after all of this really nice weather, a storm cloud appeared and didn't disappear for about 2 hours.  It was insane, the amount of rain that fell.  The girls were so worried and wanted to go home, but we just reassured them that the show will go on no matter how long we have to wait.  And it did.

  And this was the aftermath of the show.  Getting home at 11:30, sending Morgan off to work and my little Sydney sleeping in until 8:30 when we had to get them up and get ready for the temple dedication itself.  We truly tired her out!