January 18, 2011

Hey Mom,

So I don't know who Elder Belyeu is. He must be serving in Eastern Ukraine, because he is not in this mission. Also, thanks for the money update. I spent quite a bit for Christmas so I wanted to know. And the timing is perfect because I am going to Bulgaria for my visa trip in two weeks and I will need a little money if I want to get anything. It will basically be a two day vacation because we can't proselyte. It will be cool to see some of my MTC district too. And I got Elder Sudbury's letter.

So tell your cousin congratulations. That will be such a great step in her life and I am glad to hear that she has the desire to follow Christ. I bet her faith has grown a lot in these recent years and months especially.

I hope that you had a good lesson on fasting. That is one thing that I have certainly learned a lot more about on my mission. It is such a great way for us to receive blessings and revelation, by making a little sacrifice. It is only difficult when we make it difficult too. I like those 5 principles of fasting (from the April 2009 Ensign article "Fasting With Power") and I will pay more attention to those now as I go forward.

Everything is going so well right now in Lviv. Yesterday, we had a zone meeting and talked a lot about teaching with power. President Steinagel has a book about his mission which I just found out about yesterday. It looked pretty official so if you want to look up a book by Lane Steinagel, go for it. I think it was called Kia Toa and then something else. He shared some of his stories from that which was really cool. The branch here is great too. We are really starting to bond with them and I love them so much. Yuri is incredible and he, along with his sister and two other youth here were all called as ward missionaries on Sunday. That is so great for them. The branch is really excited to go forward right now and I think that by working with them, we can really turn things around here.

I am glad you enjoyed the pictures. The soviet one was a soviet picture. They don't smile here for pictures. I will try to send more when I can. The one of Christmas lunch was at the Sister's apartment. It is way nicer than ours. Santa was just one of the members from a branch party.

So good luck with the Book of Mormon reading. I will do my best to read everyday as well. I have truly come to love the Book of Mormon. It is so great and reading it is so necessary for our happiness. I love that by reading it, we can never fall, because we are building our foundation on Christ through obedience to His commandments. I am so grateful to our Loving Heavenly Father who has given us all of this.

I love you Mom. Thanks for all you do.

Love,

Elder Jones

p.s. How is Hal Sharp. I heard that he is having some problems. Let them know that I am thinking and praying for them. He and Elaine are awesome.