August 10, 2010

Hey Mom,

Thanks for the story.  (Ryan asked me to tell him about the story when Chelsea nearly drowned in the pond at Church and what my thoughts were at the time.)  You are right, I only wanted to make you cry.  Thanks for fighting through the tears and letting me know what all happened.  I am glad that you were paying attention to the Spirit and that the Lord really was protecting her.  Sometimes he challenges us in what seems like cruel ways, but as so many prophets have testified, the Lord never will give us more that we can handle.

So to update you with what is going on here, I am actually with Elder Parker again for the next two weeks.  This week we are in a city called Bila Tserkva, about an hour or so out of Kyiv.  We are helping with the Temple and will have an opportunity to go to Kyiv a couple of times this week.  Yesterday, we went to the metro station up the street from the temple.  There we directed people to the temple and told others who were interested that they could go visit.  It was a really neat experience and I met some people from Russia and from Finland who were coming to visit the temple.  The couple from Finland weren't even members, but they were so impressed by the Helsinki temple that they decided to visit the Kyiv temple.  There are so many people who are visiting, regardless of their beliefs, and each and every one of them has felt the Spirit of the Lord and they are so grateful to be involved here.  There are members who are helping at the open house and get to stand in the midst of the temple all day conversing with visitors.  Others are visiting from all around the world to feel the Spirit of the Lord's house.  There are even nonmembers that have felt the Spirit so strongly that they have asked to meet with missionaries.  Others are even asking to be baptized.  The blessings of the temple are so evident and they are felt by everyone that is involved.  Tomorrow I will have a chance to go through the open house myself and I am really looking forward to it.  It is such a beautiful place, the most beautiful in all of Ukraine, and so many people have been blessed by it in such a short time.  The Lord is literally opening the windows of heaven here in Ukraine and all of us are receiving the promised blessings.

So all is going well here and I am so very excited to continue to help people prepare to visit the temple and to see it.  We will be telling everyone we see as we continue to go on this week and then in a week, we will do all we can in Rivne to get as many people to the temple as possible.  It is truly the most holy place in all of Ukraine and so many people have commented about it.  The open house is already a lot bigger than was expected and the Area Authorities are really excited to see the work expand.  I have done all I can to testify to people of the holiness of the temple and the blessings that they can receive, along with their families from going through.  It is truly a miracle here and I am super excited to continue to tell others.  I know that the Temple ordinances which we have entered into will allow us to live happily ever after, as a family.  I know this is true.

All my Love,

Elder Jones

p.s.  Have fun with the pictures.  The first two are of Rivne.

The next are from when we played baseball.

The next two are the two Elders that we are staying with in Bila Tserkva.

Finally, the last two are of the Temple!  (Posted above in the email.)  Enjoy!