January 18, 2011 - To Dad

Hey Dad,

So first off, thanks for getting in touch with Daniel.  Elder Woodbury will be way happy to hear that you talked with him.  I saw him yesterday at our conference and so I told him that I would call him today to let him know what's up with Daniel.  I think it would be way cool if we could convince him to transfer schools, even though he is almost done because he graduated when he was 17.

Good luck with all of your busyness these next couple of weeks.  I hope all goes well.  Also, have fun with the weight lifting class and keep it up and then when I get home, we will definitely work out together.  I need to get back into shape, not that I really am too out of shape.  I have actually lost more weight which is kinda crazy.  Anyway, lifting will get some of that back.

Oh an have fun with your day off...which I guess is already kinda over.  Haha good ole' time zones.  Speaking of time zones, I get to go to Bulgaria in two weeks for my visa renewal so I will be vacationing there for two days.

So Lviv is going well.  We are really starting to bond with the members which is so great.  Also, we had a zone meeting yesterday and so I am really excited now to just go forward and work hard.  We have some huge goals and I know we are going to reach them.

Hmm, so the blessings of service.  So I know that for me, some of the blessings I have received are first a greater faith in Christ and a love for Him.  By keeping his commandments, we only become closer to Him and service is one of those commandments.  Also, I truly have come to love the people here in Ukraine.  Even though they aren't perfect, the members here are my favorite people in the whole world and I feel joy every time I am able to help them.  I have truly seen miracles as the people around me grow and I grow with them.  I have received tons of other blessings, such as strength to keep going when it is hard and greater faith in the power of the Atonement.  One of the greatest though is just happiness.  I am always happiest when I am out working and serving the Lord.  King Benjamin hits it perfect in Mosiah 2:41 -  And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.  I have seen temporal blessings to both me and those I love, but even more so, I have received countless spiritual blessings: knowledge, power, love, charity, faith and so on.  All of this is because we have sacrificed to serve the Lord.

I hope that helps you a little.  I can't really explain all of the blessings I have received, because they are so great and some of them I haven't really noticed.  The Lord truly is blessing me greatly and I am so thankful for that.  I love the Book of Mormon.  I love Jesus Christ.  He has set the path and only through him can we truly be happy.  And by following Him, he helps us to be happy, just as He has done for me while I have served.

I love you Dad,

Elder Jones

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.

Another pic

This is a picture that was taken by the Shipps (their son Matt went to school with Caitlin and Ryan).  They went over to Ukraine for the dedication of the Kyiv temple.  Their older son served a mission in Ukraine and opened some of the areas there.  Their youngest daughter (shown in costume) was adopted from Ukraine.

Pictures

So I'm sending these from Igor's computer.  Enjoy.
Temple at night, the Lviv branch building with me, another with Elder Valdivieso (Ryan's companion), and the Lviv opera house.  (They went to the opera, obviously.)

Have fun.  Love,

Elder Jones

 

So me with a Soviet shopka, me with Santa, the District on Christmas, and Yuriy's baptism.

Well, I love you.

Elder Jones

 

January 10, 2011

Hey Mom,

So first off, good luck with work.  I can't believe you are working 8 straight days, that is killer. We don't really even do that as missionaries because Sunday and Mondays here are always a little more relaxed.  Oh and I was wondering, how much money do I have on my card?  We went to the opera here for a cultural night which was way cool, but cost a little also.  Anyway, I was just wondering. 

I am happy to hear the package got there fine.  Thanks for getting those letters to friends figured out.  And thanks for passing the stuff to Margot. I hope you all enjoy what I sent.  I don't even remember everything that I sent, but I hope everyone is happy with something.  Oh and please pass a huge thanks to the Grahams for their generosity, and also to everyone else who has been so nice.  I would try to write letters, but I barely have time to do that at all.  Keep a list though of people that help if you can and I will definitely write eventually, even if it is after I return.

The Lord is truly so kind to us and I have learned that it all depends on our faithfulness.  As we keep the commandments, he blesses us so greatly.  It may not always be the way we expect it, but he does every time, and right now it is obvious that he is blessing us by softening others' hearts.

Have fun with your Family History class.  We just started a new temple prep/family history class here and Stas, the one who let us use his computer, will be doing the family history portion.  We are going to go over and help him with some stuff this week.  I am sure that your class will be fine, no matter who is there.  Just keep on preparing and you will learn so much and you will be able to help whomever may come to your class.  Oh and say hello to Kathy from me.  I hope all is well with them.  I am glad to hear that Josh is doing his Eagle Project.  I guess before we know it, he will be a missionary.

So missionary life here is going fine.  A new transfer is starting today and Elder V and I will be together again for 6 more weeks.  We did a lot of work with members this week which was great.  I truly love the members here; they are so amazing.  Also, we found a cool new investigator, Yuri, and we are going to go to him in an hour to teach him some more.  Hopefully he will come to church this week which will be a great experience. Also, Yaroslav is doing ok.  We talked about baptism and he is considering it. Sadly he got sick and couldn't come to church, but I think all will be fine with him.  The work is starting to pick up a little here which is great.

So thanks for sharing that verse from Timothy.  (2 Timothy 1:7-8 in case you are wondering.)  That is a good one and I really love Paul's epistles to Timothy. Timothy was his good friend, really like a son, and Paul taught him so many wise counsels that apply to everyone who is serving the Lord, which conveniently is almost all of us.  I love Paul's writing as it is all about Christ and how we can become more like Him.  That is why I love the Book of Mormon so much - it testifies so much of Christ, who we all must rely on.  Jesus Christ literally means everything to us and only through Him can we truly be happy.  That is why God has given us all that He has, to help us to learn to trust in Christ and turn to Him so that we can be saved.  It is incredible that God loves us so much, that He created this perfect plan.  We can't fail if we just apply it to our lives.  I love the gospel so much and I love my Savior who has taught us this gospel.  And I love my wonderful parents and all others who have taught me and helped me to get to this point.  Thanks for everything that you have done to help me to know of Christ, to whom I need to turn at all times.  

Well, again Mom, I love you.  You are truly the best mom ever.

With Love,

Elder Jones

January 3, 2011

Happy New Year Mom,

Anyway, so it sounds like you all had a great adventure in California.  I can't wait until I get to go again, it will be tons of fun.  28 people at that house is a ton.  I hope Dad had fun cooking.  Let me know how grandpa is doing too.  I hope all is well there.  By the way, are Mark and Debbie living across the street from Grandma and Grandpa now?  I thought you mentioned that they found a house there, but never heard anything else.  Well, I am glad that you all had fun and got home safely.

I am glad that Sunday was good too.  We had a great one here, even though we were at the church forever for meetings and whatnot.  I ended up teaching both Sunday school and Elder quorum which was fun I guess.  It was certainly a challenge, but an assignment that I was happy to fulfill.  Oh and "Jesus the Christ," would be a great book to do a discussion about, but I bet that reading it with Dad would be so much fun too.  I have read a little, but don't have time at all to study it so I probably won't while I am out here.  Good luck with your family history class.  Stas, the member whose computer we used, will be starting one here too so I am excited for that. It is way good for non-members who are interested in their families.  Lots of people really have the spirit of Elijah these days.

Everything here is going well.  We found a good new investigator this week who came to church and wants to change his life.  We are going to work towards a baptismal date with him this week I hope.  The branch members here are awesome and I love them so much.  I hope to be able to strengthen them a lot and help them get to the temple.  And as far as my getting to the temple, we are allowed to go once a transfer here, but I am not in Kyiv which is a problem.  I will have plenty of opportunities though so I am not at all worried.  Whenever it comes, I just wants to be ready for the experience.

So Mom, I love you.  Don't worry about me being gone.  I am being blessed so greatly here and I know that you are too.  I am glad that you have felt the love of so many others.  I have less than a year left which absolutely scares me.  It is going by soooo fast and before we know it, I will be finishing up, but in the time I have left, I have some big goals and desires.  Mostly, I just want to continue to build my love for these people here. They are so great and I love them so much and want to help them to have the happiness that I am having right now.  I know that this is only possible through our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I love studying the Doctrine of Christ in the Book of Mormon.  All of the prophets from Lehi and Nephi, to Jacob, Alma, Mormon and Moroni, they all testified of Christ.  Studying those words, the words of Christ, is truly an incredible gift.  I know that this is the rod that helps us to be happy and to return to our loving Heavenly Father, who created all of this for us.  I love you very much Mom.

With love,

Elder Jones

January 3, 2011 - To Dad

Hey Dad,

So I am glad to hear that you had a good and safe trip back to SLC.  We have had some crazy experiences traveling on the buses here in the snow and some of them aren't very defensive drivers, but I have never seen them get in accidents.  Sometimes is just scary when everyone is piled in and there is no room and the driver is flying on cobblestone roads.  

Anyway, so everything is going well here and we are having fun.  We found a cool new investigator who came to church this week and he is finally reading the Book of Mormon too so he is slowly progressing.  We are thinking of extending a baptismal commitment on our next meeting on Tuesday.  Other than that we haven't done much.  I am warm and happy and healthy.

We have gotten to go around town a little to see some sights, but that is mostly just while we are proselyting.  This city is pretty beautiful and I love the old buildings.  Very European.

We were inside for all of New Year's Day and the Evening before because people get a little drunk here so we were told to stay inside.  We stayed with some of the other Elders and had a fun time setting goals and watching a football game even.  We were given a game and two movies to watch.  Also, Elder Woodbury and I got to talking about all of his crazy adventures.  He is such an outdoorsy guy and he has climbed tons of peaks in Idaho (he's from Moscow), Colorado and all those surrounding states.  He also worked at the Outdoor Program in Rexburg at BYU-I from 2007 to 2009 so maybe you know some of his co-workers.  He also wanted to know if you know a guy named Mike Baiser.  He is from Moscow apparently.  Anyway, Elder Woodbury thinks it is so cool that you run the Outdoor Program at the U.  Also, he wants to know if you have e-mailed Dan Turner yet.

Well, I love you Dad.  I am grateful for your awesome example.  Good luck with all of the VA trips and the HP group stuff along with work.  And have a wonderful new year.  Before you know it, I will be home - I have less than a year left now, yikes!

Love you,

Elder Jones