May 31, 2010

Hey Mom,

It is also good to hear that REI is not going to be as crazy this week. Hopefully the extra rest will give you time to work on family history and allow your ankle to heal. We actually had a family history specialist from the Kyiv Stake here yesterday and she gave a presentation during our third hour of church. I actually ended up doing a little translating too because we had a senior couple, the Petty's here from Kyiv and Elder Monson was at a member's wedding (that is a long story, but he got permission to go with Elder Fanning and do some missionary work). I got to stay in Rivne with Elder Smith and we taught a couple of lessons and did some work. I guess that Russian comment last week was well timed, because I was with Elder Smith for two full days this past week and I will be finishing out this transfer with him. Elder Monson received a call from President Steinagel on Saturday - he is going to be training again in Kyiv and President wants him to come in early to get used to the area, so he will be leaving today at 1:00 and I will finish this week with Elder Smith before we go into Kyiv for transfer meeting and for Elder Scott's visit. That made for a really crazy weekend, receiving that news. It came four days earlier than expected, but Elder Smith and I are going to have a great time together this week. He is a great missionary, and even though he speaks Russian, we will have a lot of fun together.
Anyway, so I am glad to hear that the girls are doing well. I haven't heard from Chels in a while, but she has been busy. Caitlin sent me a long letter about all of her crazy experiences in California. I can't believe that she is graduating in a week. Hopefully both the girls stay/get healthy to finish out school. And hoorah for Bonneville, even though it isn't as good as it was when I was there ;) (I had told him that 5 of the 7 students that maintained a 4.0 gpa at middle school are from Bonneville, and one of them is Chelsea.)

Also, I got a letter from Elder Sudbury this week and he definitely is excited about the work in Mexico. He said he as already adjusted which is great.
So about this upcoming week. On Thursday, we go into Kyiv. On Friday, all the missionaries will be at a transfer meeting where I will get my new companion. Then Saturday, we are spending time with Elder Scott from 9am until 1pm and then we have a night train back to Rivne, assuming I stay here (I will find out Wednesday, which means if I receive a transfer, I will have to pack in one day). This past week was a really crazy one, but we set two new baptismal dates (now we just have to get those people from accepting a date, to being baptized). The work was good this week and I am looking forward to this upcoming transfer. Even though Satan is doing all that he can to bring down the people here, the hope that the Gospel and the Temple bring are getting us all excited and it has given me a new desire to talk to everyone, which is hard enough with the rules here. The blessings of the Gospel are so evident though and it makes me excited to share that with everyone.

So I wanted to share with the family something that I read in the May 2009 Liahona. Elder Bednar's April 2009 conference talk is absolutely incredible. It is called "Honorably Hold a Name and a Standing." He talked about the Temple and the necessity to visit it as often as you can. I challenge you to read it together for family home evening and then make plans to start attending the temple as often as you possibly can. One part that really hit me is when he talked about our sacrament covenant and how we covenant to be "willing" to take upon us Christ's name. It doesn't say that we do take his name upon us. He talked about how it is necessary for us to make those temple covenants in order to fully take the name of Christ upon us. It is such a blessing to be living in Utah, where literally everywhere you go, you can see a temple. For the people here in Ukraine, they have had to take a day long bus ride to get our to Germany to go to the temple. Many don't have money, or the visa to be able to visit, and yet so many people have gone. With the temple opening soon here, our goal is to get people there. Without the temple covenants, we can't live together as a family forever. We need to take part in those covenants for ourselves, and then we need to do the work for all those who never had a chance. I am glad that you are working so hard on family history, but remember that once the names are ready, the work has to be done.

Well, I have some more letters to write, but I want to let you know that I love you very much. I know that this church is true. It is Christ's Church. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet and that through him, this church is perfectly led. I know that the priesthood is on the earth again and I am so lucky to be able to use it to bless the lives of those around me. I know that Christ is our Savior and that only through Him can we be saved. We must always strive to follow his Gospel, and as Elder Andersen taught this last conference, we need to teach our children to love His gospel too. I love you all and again, I want to thank you for your love and support.

Love,
Elder Jones

Thought I would throw in one last picture with Elder Monson. Ryan fits right in with all the blond kids don't you think?

May 24, 2010

Hey Mom,

Well, it sounds like work is crazy like always. Hopefully with Caitlin leaving soon and the sale ending, life will get normalish again. How are the church callings? You are still the family history guru right? We have a specialist coming from the Kyiv Stake next week to teach our members how to use Family Search. Elder Monson and I have been helping members a little with it too, just because it is in English. The Temple is so close though and the members are all excited. President Steinagel said in his letter to us last week that they are laying the sod and the fountains are being built and whatnot. It is mostly just the beautification that they have to do before it is done. And in a week and a half, I will be going into Kyiv. We are finishing our transfer early and next Saturday, every missionary will be in Kyiv to listen to Elder Scott.

So, I got a letter from Elder Sudbury last week and he said that last Monday he was taking off for Mexico so he is officially out of Utah. He was very excited about that.

Say hi to Grandma and Grandpa from me. (They're visiting right now.) I haven't gotten any letters from them, but I have slacked and haven't written any either. It is so hard with all that I need to write and such a short amount of time to do it. I did get a letter from Grandpa Chidester this week and he said all is going well.

Wow, it is so awesome to hear that Ian and Miles are both preparing to head off to Brazil. That will be such a great experience for them. It is too bad though that they are stuck in South America with everyone else ;P

Hmm, so this week was a pretty tough one for us. We had to drop another baptismal date, and we have a lot of people who aren't progressing right now. We have some potential families and a couple of investigators who we hope to set baptismal dates with this week. Elder Smith and Elder Fanning are doing awesome right now too. It has been awesome to work with them. Yesterday Elder Monson and I got to sit in on branch council and that was a crazy experience. It was really sad to hear about all of the problems right now with the branch and a lot of the members. We have so much work to do and I am grateful for that, but it was just really humbling to hear of what is happening to people who used to be so strong.

Elder Andersen's talk was absolutely amazing. (Each week we're sharing a general conference talk.) I remember listening to it just a couple of days ago and his testimony is so strong. That quote you shared with me is absolutely amazing and it is true. As Mormon taught, we have hope because of Christ, but if we don't have faith in Christ, then we aren't willing to act, and therefore our hope is lost. As Nephi taught, (along with every other prophet), it is only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his infinite atonement, that we can receive eternal life. (2 Nephi 31:19-21, a couple of my favorite verses). There is no other path, and therefore we need to enter into those covenants, and then endure to the end. The enduring to the end is the hard part, but if we remember to trust in Jesus Christ, and rely on His Atonement, we will never need to fear. (D&C 6:33-37 and Helaman 5:12) All we need to do is live the Gospel and all will be fine. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple. First, we need faith, which leads us to action, specifically repentance, which leads to baptism and confirmation. After that, we must endure to the end. And so the cycle begins again, and as it does, our faith grows, we have more desire to repent and to follow the prophets and we are made clean again by sacrament, allowing us to have the Holy Ghost with us always. I know that it is as simple as that. Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. This Church is the Church of Jesus Christ and he leads it. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and it teaches us all that we need to do and helps us build our faith in Christ. That is the message that I share with the people of Ukraine, and as they accept it, I see their faith grow and they are able to overcome all trials. I know that this gospel is true. As I live it each and everyday, I feel closer to the Savior than ever and I know that He is here to help each and every one of us to return to live with our Heavenly Father, as families. That gives me the hope to get through all the tough moments of everyday and to look forward to the day that I stand before Christ.

Love,

Elder Jones

May 17, 2010

Hey Mom,

So, life here in Rivne is absolutely crazy. This past week we had to drop Zhenya as an investigator. He wasn't serious and he isn't making the right choices. David is also tough to meet with, but his sister, who is serving a mini mission in Kyiv, should help a lot when she gets back next transfer...assuming I am still here. I feel that he will start progressing soon when he is out of school. Having two other missionaries here has helped us so much, but it has also lessened our work load a little. Plus they speak Russian! The scary thing is that I can say little phrases in Russian now. Maybe that means I will be going to Kyiv sometime where there is tons of Russian. This past week, we had our zone leaders here on a 3 day exchange too. We saw some miracles from that! They called it a dedication exchange and we did all we could to more fully dedicate ourselves to the work. After two tough days, Elder Dorius and Monson ran into an old investigator and he wanted to get baptized. We set a date with him and hopefully within the next month it will go down. Elder Monson just said hi and the guy stopped him and they started talking. Turns out he wanted to get baptized 10 years ago but couldn't. Also, yesterday, after having 3 lessons fall through on us, Elder Monson and Sasha Polyshuk ran into these two kids and set up a meeting. When Elder Monson and I showed up for the meeting, there were these 5 teenagers together who all wanted to be taught. Hopefully a couple of baptisms come...

So, today, we don't have much planned, but last week's p-day was awesome. President Didyshok took the four Elders and his 5 year old son and we spent the day out in a village where a 200 plus year old fort was. It was a great day and it helped us build his trust as our branch president. Sadly, my camera died - battery - but I will get pictures from the other Elders.
So as you guessed, we have been getting tons of rain and it is always humid. The umbrella has been great though and my shoes are doing just fine.

So I look forward to this spiritual thought thing from the conference talks. Elder Monson and I are through all but the last session now in English. We have been listening to them every day and this conference was absolutely incredible. I love the emphasis on family, because in today's tough times, the Family is the best way to keep out of trouble. Elder Holland's talk was absolutely incredible as he testified so boldly against moral sins. I also loved...well I loved them all. The Atonement was at the center of so many of those talks and that is exactly as it should be. Christ is at the head of His Church and His Atonement is the center of our Heavenly Father's plan. I have been reading in Alma where Alma and Amulek teach so powerfully about the Plan of Salvation. I have developed such a love of the scriptures and each and everyday as I read, I learn so much more of the importance of following the Gospel and Plan of God. This Church is true and my testimony of that grows stronger everyday as I read the scriptures and then bear my own testimony to others that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for us. I know as we do our best and remember to apply the Atonement everyday, the Holy Ghost guides us and we feel the Love of our Father in Heaven. I know that we can all live together as a family and gospel is the path. Christ is the means if we will just turn to him. As Amulek said, we cannot be saved in our sins, but we can be cleansed through the Mercy of Christ. I see that mercy always as we are given opportunities to teach. God blesses us everyday. I know that He knows us and loves us and wants us to live with Him again. Keep following the words of the Prophets and we can't go wrong.

Love,
Elder Jones

May 10, 2010

We had the chance to talk with Ryan for almost 1 1/2 hours on Mother's Day so his emails were short. He mainly sent pictures. One of the things he mentioned is that Elder Scott will be in Kyiv in 4 weeks to meet with the missionaries. He'll be going to Kyiv for the meeting. He also said that all the missionaries will be helping out for the temple open house in August for some period of time since they don't have enough volunteers. He also will be able to go to the temple dedication.

(1st email)
It was great to talk to you too but now it is time to get back to work ;P
Here are some pictures by the way...Number 1 is when we changed our filter. The white one is the one we put it I think ;)Number 2 is of Vova Polishuk at the top of a really tall tower we climbed.It was probably the most dangerous thing I have done on my mission but I didn't climb out to where Vova was which would have just been stupid. The rest are the pictures Vova took from the tower looking out over the city(2nd email)
Well Mom,
Here are the pictures that I took of the branch building in Lviv. It is an awesome building. I don't have any pictures of the city but that is ok for now. (Ryan told us in the phone conversation that Elder Holland had prophesied that some day a temple would be where the branch building is now. Ryan had zone conferences there last Friday.)
Well, I am probably going to send a letter to Elder Sudbury in a minute, but I just want to let you know that I love you...all of you, and that I am really thankful to be serving a mission right now. I know that this church is true. That Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that through Him and only through Him, we can live with together eternally. I know that this is where I need to be right now and that the work here is going forward. The Lord's hand is in the work. I see it everyday. I have a strong testimony of the Temple too and I know that as I prepare people to go, and as you yourselves find the time to go, we will feel God and His Spirit more closely in our lives. The Temple is the House of God. I know that this time on Earth is for us to prepare to live with God and we need to do all we can to get there. Read the Book of Mormon everyday because it is the true word of God. The Book of Mormon is truly the most incredible book on the Earth. I love you all and I love Jesus Christ.

Love Elder Jones
P.S. I am into Mosiah again in my reading of the Book of Mormon. It is really so much fun that I cannot stop. I just read Abinadi's preaching to King Noah and his Priests and it is so full of doctrine. I know that it is true.

(3rd email)
Hey again,

So here are a few more photos. The video of the parade yesterday is too big to send but I will see if I can edit it down or something for next week. (It was V-E day.)

Number one is Elder Smith who is training Elder Fanning here in Rivne. Elder Monson asked him to pose :PTwo and Three are a statue of Bogdan Khmelniskty who was a famous warrior who always had a mace.Four and Five are Elder Fanning and Smith being themselves. And the camera that Elder Smith has is not his own - it belongs to a member here. (They had two more missionaries join them in Rivne last transfers. These two speak Russian.)

May 3, 2010

Hey Mom...again,

Well, here is my real email to you, but I figured I would send the other so I don't forget. (He sent an email with his phone number so we can talk with him next Sunday, I'm so excited!) Also, I just thought - since you say you always forget questions, if you want to write a list before Sunday, that may be a good idea.

So when I said Columbia, I meant Marmot - Elder Monson just bought a columbia jacket and I guess I was thinking about that. It would be wonderful if you could send that and some socks sometime soon. The jacket I won't need until fall - It has been in the mid to upper 20's(C) all week and the humidity is killing me - I am always sweaty. The socks I will need though - maybe another 10 to 15 pairs if you can. Men's Wearhouse took us for a ride with those sock because about half of them have holes already. And don't worry about the ring - whenever it comes, it will come. Also, I never wore the wool socks but I am sure they will work out. Tons of missionaries don't even have them but I do :)

Anyway, so my interview with President Steinagel was cool. He is such an incredible man. He is so strong spiritually and he is really in charge of a lot of stuff here, but he always gets it done. I will be seeing him again on Friday because we have zone conference in Lviv, and then on Sunday he is coming to Rivne to do some Branch changes I hope. He is like the equivalent of the Stake President for all of the cities in the mission except for Kyiv where they have a stake, so he is always going around.

Elder Hofeling is the same one that was in the MTC with me. He is a cool kid and has a solid testimony. I will see him on Friday at zone conference and then on Saturday because we are doing a Rivne/Lutsk branch activity. Last week was fun to hang out with him. (Elder Hofeling is in the next major town over, Lutsk.)

As far as our baptismal dates, Zhenya is pretty cool and he is set to be baptized on Saturday - his story is a cool one and he luckily has support from his mom. Also, we have a kid named David, the brother of a member who will hopefully be baptized in June if his parents support him. His sister had to wait until she was 18 to be baptized but I think their parents are softening.
The temple is an incredible story right now.

Well, I am out of time. I didn't realize the time is gone, but we will talk again in a week. I love you and hope all is going well. Tell everyone hi from me.

Love,

Elder Ryan Jones

April 26, 2010 - photos

Here are a few of the pictures Ryan sent this week.

A picture from Nastia's baptism. He wrote about that in his email last week. Elder Monson baptized Nastia.

This is Ryan looking over the city of Rivne.

Here is a statue of "some legend warrior dude about to finish off a three-headed dragon - totally awesome." His words.

Ryan on top of a World War II tank.

A castle in Lutsk that Ryan visited a couple of weeks ago on his p-day.

World War II monument that says "Glory to the Heroes."

Ryan standing next to the monument to give you an idea of the immense size of the monument.

Looks like he is having fun seeing the sights on his p-days! :)

April 26, 2010

Hey Mom,

So 9:05 PM (our time) will work out just fine. That will give us as much time as you want to talk, seeing as you will be paying for it ;) I will send you an email next week with our companionship's cell number. And btw, if you use a calling card, the prices will probably be a little higher than advertised because you will be calling a cell phone...just so you know. Also, transfers are this week, but we found out on Saturday (the Zone Leaders get a fax and then call everyone) that Elder Monson and I are staying together in Rivne for another transfer.

So, this past week was absolutely crazy. On Monday, I had my interview with President Steinagel which was cool. Then afterward, Elder Clemmens and Hofeling (who are serving in Lutsk) and I went around town and checked out some statues. I will send some pictures home. This week, we also set two new baptismal dates which is very rare. One of them was a total miracle; here's the story. On Thursday we met with an active member, and had a quick lesson on the importance of testimony and then challenged him to write his testimony in a new Book of Mormon and pray about someone to give it to. That night he gave it away and the next morning at 7am, he called and told us he found a new investigator and asked if we wanted to come and meet him. We met with him that day, a 15 year old kid named Zhenya, and then he ended up staying at the branch for 4 hours and he sat through institute. Then on Saturday, he came to the branch building 3 hours before a 20th anniversary of the Church in Ukraine activity which the branch held. Then yesterday, he sat through all three hours of church before meeting with us after. After a 20 minute lesson, we asked him to set a goal to be baptized and he said "Why not do it right now?" It was absolutely incredible and now on the 8th of May, Zhenya is getting baptized. Those are the types of miracles that we see everyday here in Rivne. It is truly the only way the work can progress so quickly because of all that we cannot do here. But, as we do our very best and trust in the Lord, and pray for miracle after miracle, the Lord's hand is literally evident in all that we do. It is absolutely incredible what is going on here.

Well, you heard about the Temple dedication date. We were so excited to hear about it. President Steinagel sent a text out to everyone. He is pushing us so hard to do our very best to prepare the people for the temple, whether it is the members or those we meet. It is truly such a miracle and a blessing for the people in this part of the world. I am so excited to help out and there is a rumor floating around that all the missionaries will be pulled into Kyiv to help with the open house and dedication. Also, There are going to be many General Authorities coming in and out of Ukraine for the next few months before the dedication. The temple is just one more miracle that the Lord has granted to all of us here in the Eastern part of the World.

So I am glad to hear that the family is all doing so well. It is good that everyone has been so busy, but you also have to be safe in the process ;) I know your ankle will heal soon enough.
Oh, I have a request for some items. First, have you heard anything about my ring? Whenever you get that and you are ready to send a package, could you also send me my Columbia Jacket. I don't really have any mid-weight jacket and even though I may not get it until it is too warm, it would be nice for the fall. The other option is that I spend $50 to buy one here. Also, the socks we got were pretty poor quality and many of them are suddenly getting holey. I think I will just buy some more here, but I just want you to know that I will be spending a little money sometime within the next month or so. Also, with the package, some peanut butter would be appreciated ;P And I don't know if I told you this, but from what everyone has said, a USPS flat rate box is the safest and easiest way to get a package here.

Well, I don't have time, but thanks for your support and love and for your testimony. I love you all and am grateful for your examples. Keep close to each other, follow the prophets, read your scriptures and pray often and all will be just fine.

Love, Elder Jones