November 28, 2011

Hey Mom,

So I am going to tell you in advance that not much happened this week so this may be a shorter letter...anyway.

Caitlin said her week was fun and she was happy to make some money.  Chels will just have to deal for a couple more weeks and then she might have a crazy brother to keep her company too.  I am happy that you had a fun Thanksgiving though and that you had a substitute son there.  We had an opportunity to celebrate with some of the Americans in the international branch and then we got to go to the doctor because Elder Hubbell got something in his eye that actually scratched it.  Crazy.  That was fun though and it was cool to see Elder Wallis there too.  

I am kinda sad that I barely miss Stake Conference, but we have a zone conference tomorrow which will be awesome I am sure.  We had a primary program this week for the other ward too so two primary programs in two weeks made for some fun Sundays here.  Last Monday was awesome with the bishop and I am happy we got to go out there one more time.  That family is so awesome.  He has been a member for longer than Elder Hubbell has been alive...so he and his family are quite strong.  We had a couple of other good meetings this week, but it was honestly another tough week full of lots of opposition.  We tried a lot of different ideas and worked on ourselves and still didn't see any results, but they will come.  Honestly, there has been a lot of opposition in general, but that just means that the Lord is near and He has big things set up and Satan is doing all he can to hold us back.  We are going to keep on working diligently and the Lord will bless us.  I love being here and I know that God is our Eternal Head.  He is the source of all good that we see in this life and I know that His goal is to help us to become the best that we can - to become like Him.  I know that the Church was restored so that the Lord's great work could come forward and that only through obedience to the ordinances and laws of the gospel of Christ will we find true happiness here and eternal happiness in the kingdom of God.  

I love you Mom.  Thanks for your wonderful example and love.

Love,

Elder Jones.

 

 We have Valeriy's baptism

 Elder Hubbell

 Thanksgiving

 The Bishop's house

 

November 21, 2011

Hey Mom,

Thanks for putting money in the account.  I think that should be plenty as there are only a few more things I want to buy.  I only have a couple more p-days left and anyway, I don't want to spend too much money because I am sure that I will have a lot of stuff to buy at home to get set up for school.  And pictures are kinda a pain here.  I tried three weeks ago and last week and the computers were being slow and you know how much I hate that, so I gave up.  I have them on my hard drive and camera so I hope you can wait a couple more weeks.  

Haha, so Elder Cloward is certainly the same goofy young man, but I am sure that he is going to be a great missionary there.  (Elder Cloward is one of Ryan's friends and son #3 of our family, I sent Ryan his email he sent me last week.  He is serving in the Germany Berlin mission.)  I can't wait to get home and be able to send him some emails with some of the lessons that helped me most here.  I am sure that his mission is very similar to this one, except that the church is more established there.  But hey, we have a temple here...

I am glad to hear that you have things figured out with you callings and I am sure that will work out just fine.  But did you realize that the beginning of the month and the end of the month are pretty much the same time?   The real most effective way is the beginning and middle ;P  Visiting teaching is super important though so I am glad you are helping there.  The Elders quorum here is really trying to refocus on home teaching which is awesome.  I have certainly gained a testimony of the importance of home teaching out here.

So I can't believe Chels is driving.  (Chelsea got her drivers license last Friday.)  That is pretty cool I guess, but I am not sure if I will let her drive me around when I get back.  I am excited to hear about Nate too.  (Another friend who will be receiving his mission call this Wednesday.)  That is awesome and I am definitely happy to be there to see him go out.  He will be a great missionary I am sure.  The younger missionaries these days seem so much better than us so the MTC must be way better or something.

Well I don't really know what to say about this week.  It was full of opposition, but that is good, because it means the work is going forward.  We had a lot of opportunities to pray with people and help them feel the Spirit and we hope to see a lot come from it.  The ward is doing really well and I love the members here.  We are going to go to the bishop tonight I will get pictures of his cute family.  They are awesome and I am excited that they are growing,  The work is going well and I am excited to see what comes this week.  I love the Lord's work and I am so grateful to Him that He has allowed us to help.  I know that God lives and loves us and that Christ is our Savior.  He guides this Church today through the prophet Thomas Monson.  This is the true Church of Jesus Christ.  

I love you mom.  Have a wonderful week and a great Thanksgiving.

Love,

Elder Jones

November 14, 2011

Hey Mom,

So I am glad that you get letters from your other sons more often than you get them from me.  I wish I got letters from them as often as you seem to get them.  They are busy though which I understand so I can't be upset with them.

Chels is probably going to be a way better swimmer than me which is kinda embarrassing because I am twice as long and strong as her.  I am glad to hear that she is doing well and having fun there.  I definitely will have to get into to the water and learn how to swim again.  It has been like ten years since I really swam...weird.  Haha, that is funny that you lost your voice too this week.  I started losing mine last Saturday and then by Wednesday it was gone gone at district meeting.  That was funny.  Anyway, I am healthy again and just at the right time because winter has hit.  Our temps were in the thirties for the past few days and we got our first snowstorm - not much of a storm though.  Anyway, I am sorry that you got sick and I hope you relax a little and let yourself heal. 

That is cool that everyone will be out to see me get home.  I guess I will be sleeping on the floor or something, but after the mission I am not too concerned about where I sleep.  Not that I ever have been.  That is cool that I will get to see some of the family there when I get back.  And don't worry about the talk about home - it really doesn't affect me.  I am honestly quite converted to missionary work and on p-day I can get myself back into focus.  And I am way excited for all the people that will be coming back to Utah with me.  I have served around a lot of them and Sister Schmidt and I are in the same district right now.  Anyway, they are wonderful missionaries.

I sent a quick letter to Caitlin too and told her to get a hold of Sister Schmidt who will be going back to SUU and who said needs new friends because all her old friends got married :)  I love hearing from her.

Oh man, that is funny that you are already released from the Primary, but it is cool how that is how things can work out.  I am glad that you were able to help, even if only for a month.  The Relief Society is fun too I guess.  The Stake Nativity is always cool too so that is awesome.  Speaking of nativities, can you put more money on my card??  (I will explain the connection in a month if you remind me ;P)  By the way, I wouldn't call singing a talent of mine, just something I am not bad at.  

So this past week was honestly full of miracles amongst the trials.  We were continuing to struggle to find people to teach and each day we talked about what we were lacking. We prayed, studied, talked to our leaders, and even fasted and just continued to struggle. We knew there was something that we weren't doing and then we realized that we had stopped praying with people on the streets for the right reason. Instead of praying to help them have a good spiritual experience, we prayed just so that they could become new investigators, which isn't necessarily bad, but then we realized that we had started praying with less people. So last night after finishing our fast, we went out and just invited everyone to pray with us and we ended up praying with 4 people and got all of their contact info and also found two new investigators which was awesome. It was a really cool testimony builder.  We are ready this week to go out and hit the streets hard and we are going to reach the goals that we have set. I really have no doubts that we will be stopped. I am sure the adversary will work hard against us, but we are finally starting to figure it out and feel it too.  

That was Sunday night, but the miracles started Monday when we met with one of our investigators Valeriy.  He has been progressing well but was planning on going out of town again for a month while recovering from his surgery.  So as we talked about the importance of baptism and testified of it, he decided he wanted to be baptized.  So on Tuesday morning, we had a baptism!  Valeriy is doing really well and I am so excited for his future in the church.  He might be gone until I go home, but I will definitely stay in contact with him.  He is a great young man.  The Sisters also had a baptism on Saturday with a woman, Lyuba, who they met two weeks ago.  One of the recent converts just invited her to the church, and they didn't even know each other.  Lyuba asked Polina if she was a member and Polina said yes and then grabbed her and brought her to church.  It was awesome.  Lyuba is really nice and Elder Hubbell and I had the pleasure of teaching her once when the Sisters were sick at home.  She will be a good member too.  We are going to see another baptism next week with the Assistants investigator Petya.  He is a way awesome young man and I have no doubts he will be a leader here.  Anyway, the Lord is really blessing us for going out and doing the work.  I love this work so much and I am so thankful to be able to help the Lord rescue those who are currently lost.  The ward is really doing well and continuing to grow as they see us work hard and do all we can to help them.  I know that this work is a work of miracles.  The Lord truly does love every one of His children personally and will do all He can to help them come unto Him.  I know that Christ is our Savior. He is the reason that all of this is possible.  I know that He is central to our Heavenly Father's plan, and truly the center of all that we do.  I love Him so much.

Thanks mom for being such a great example.  I love you as well.

Love,

Elder Jones

November 7, 2011

Hey Mom,

So it is already the second week of November.  Ridiculous how fast the time goes.  I swear it is on fast forward right now.  Anyway, so the weather is cold but dry here and the days are getting shorter and shorter.  We switched our clocks a week ago already so it gets dark dark by 5.  Crazy.  I did get the package by the way and shared the candy with the district.  Good stuff.  Thanks a ton for all you sent :)  And yes, the missionaries put on the halloween party which was super stressful, but fun too.  I think everyone enjoyed it which is most important.  

That is cool that Chels is having fun and improving.  I will be swimming with her when I get home to keep/get in better shape.  I hate turns and strokes and stuff too so I will have to learn to do it right so I get a good workout.  That is good to hear that Chelsea is having fun, even if it is "kicking her butt."  Ugh, that soccer banquent sounds awful too.  I am glad you had a "relaxing" end of the week though and it is good to be busy, even if you only have one kid.  I agree with Dad on the saying no by the way.  You certainly need some time with him too.

So I am sure that the missionaries are going to do just great there in America - they will learn how to do missionary work correctly and then they will pick up the language just fine when they get here. (The missionaries going to Ukraine from the MTC who were supposed to leave last Wednesday were sent state side while they work out visa issues.)  I am way excited for them.  And they are unofficially going to be here in just four weeks so the moms shouldn't worry too much.  I think they can pretend that their missionaries are already here.  Yes they are trying to do temporary residence because the new visas are only 90 day visas, but I don't know how it works.  Luckily the church has people here in charge of that.  And there was a change in the law which changed the types of visas.  The only reason I know any of this is because I was in the office as this all happened.  I am confident it won't be a problem for too long.  The government just still doesn't know what they are doing exactly.

So yes, I know Eric Wunderlich is your cousin and it was funny to say, hey, I am related to that guy.  Anyway, the project was cool and I am happy that they are doing such a good work.  The people there were all really nice and though not too many of them seemed super interested now, I think it was a great experience and they all have great thoughts about the church instead of all the negative ones that get passed around.  

Gospel principles was really fun.  Russian and Ukrainian are quite different but you can definitely understand each other.  I think Vera (a co-worker of mine from Russia) would understand it just fine, especially if her Mom is Ukrainian and spoke it, but she would be surprised and confused a little I am sure.  The biggest thing is that the accents are way different and so people just get caught up on that.  My understanding of Russian is fine.  I could get along just fine in Moscow on vacation, but I certainly understand Ukrainian a lot better.  When I listen to Ukrainian, I understand it all.  I just get the idea when it is Russian.  A lot of people we talk to speak Russian though and we get along with them and teach them just fine so it is weird.  

So this week was a good one, even if it was really tough.  Let's just say that we laid a lot of seeds as we talked to and invited hundreds of people, but didn't really see much fruit yet.  We met some awesome people yesterday with whom we are going to meet throughout this week and I am excited to go forward.  I am honestly not ready to go home, only because I don't think about it and before I know it, it will be on me.  We are working hard and having fun together and I really think we will see some great successes over the upcoming weeks.  

Yesterday was an incredible day and it was really a cool experience for me personally.  It was stake conference weekend here and it was really cool.  One of our investigators went to both the Saturday and Sunday sessions and loved it.  He really is incredible and will be baptized, but there are some things that are holding him back, mostly that he isn't living anywhere near Kyiv right now.  He pays fast offerings, does family history and loves the Book of Mormon, but he still isn't baptized.  He will be though and will receive so many more blessings for it.  Anyway, on the Saturday session we sang in our mens choir in front of the stake adults and it was awesome.  It was a really powerful composition of Redeemer of Israel.  Way cool.  We will be singing in the International branch with the sisters in two weeks which will be fun too.  Sing sing.  Anyway, the Sunday session is what was really cool.  We had a Europe East areawide broadcast from the Church Headquarters.  Elder Clayton, Sister Thompson, Elder Oaks and President Ucthdorf all spoke and it was awesome.  I received a lot of great revelation and Elder Clayton's talk about families and marriage and whatnot was quite timely seeing as that is my next step in life.  Anyway, it was really great and we were so blessed to be a part of it.  And we got to listen to it in English which was awesome - Hooray for the International Branch.

Well, I think that is about all.  The work continues to move on and the Lord of the harvest is blessing us daily.  We literally witness miracles among others and with ourselves each and everyday which help to strengthen our faith.  I know that God lives.  He is our Heavenly Father and loves us so much.  I know that through prayer we can reach out to Him at anytime and I know that He always always answers our prayers.  I love you mom. Thanks for being AWESOME!

I love you,

Elder Jones

October 31, 2011

Hey Mom,

So Sister Leavitt (the member who called me last week from Ukraine) is probably one of the Leavitts, but they used to live here and she has some organization or something that she works with.  They brought Michael McClean out here for a week to talk to members and do some charity and she just saw us at church and asked for your number. 

Yeah, so honestly, I can't really control my weight right now, but it keeps going up and down but overall, I have lost 20 pounds on the mission.  Sorry.  And the Gilbert's syndrome is obviously not a problem.  It is genetic and apparently half the population carries at least one of the genes for it.  Not anything to worry about though, but my eyes are still a little yellowish.  My body will deal with it and the doctor just recommended that when I get back, I go to get my levels checked and see if it could be something else. 

So nothing is really happening with transfers.  Elder Hadley is out for his last transfer and Elder Johnson and Hofeling will be serving together as Assistants.  I am excited, because those two are awesome.  I will miss Elder Hadley, but I will be seeing him anyway back at the U so it is fine.  I will be staying with Elder Hubbell for my last transfer here in the Borshahivsky ward.  I didn't get the package by the way, but I think that I will get it when they pick up mail this week.  And yes, there was a change in the visas and the government laws and so the missionaries for this transfer are having trouble.  They will be coming December 5th though.  The change happened as I was leaving the office.  Now visas only last 90 days, but they can do temporary residence, but they are having trouble.  It doesn't affect me though.

I am glad that work is going well and that you are enjoying it.  Chels and Caitlin both said the concert was fun and that I will have to listen to Parachute when I am home.  We'll see.  Anyway, I am glad that they are both happy and doing ok.  Those silly girls with all their busyness.  

Dad said you cried :P  (Rob gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament Meeting about testimony and made me cry :P  They had the two new counselors speak.)  I think that is cool that they were able to speak and about such an important topic too - awesome.  And prayer is important too, especially for the Primary kids.  (I did sharing time yesterday on prayer.)  We are going to help with the Primary program here for the international branch.  There are only like 5 kids so it is more of a ward program, put together by the Primary.  It will be at the end of November.  Choir is fun, isn't it.  We are performing this weekend - our men's choir -  for stake conference.  Our choir has about 12 voices which is silly because there are a lot more men, but they just aren't coming out which is too bad.  It will be great though.  I love singing and cool hymn arrangements are always awesome.  Good luck with Rachel by the way.  (I was supposed to go help Rach unpack today on my day off, but they ended up with the flu so I didn't go.)  Have fun.

Well, the work is really going well here and we had a really cool week.  We helped with a wheelchair charity project thing which was really cool - we got to do some manual labor and translate for the LDS chairities reps from Salt Lake.  Apparently Eric Wunderlich is their boss or something...?  (He's my cousin.)  When the women mentioned his name, I thought it sounded familiar and then I remembered.  Anyway, there could be lots of them I guess.  The project was cool though even though it took a lot of time.  Good word about the church got out and three of the guys became new investigators.  On Saturday, we spent all day at the church for the project and then our Halloween party which we threw.  It was cool, even if stressful, and I really think everyone enjoyed it.  Sunday was awesome too and I loved the meetings.  I can certainly say though that I look forward to English again.  It was nice to be in an English class and more freely be able to share my thoughts.  Honestly, I had a "wow, I am in Ukraine" moment in our gospel principles class where half the class spoke Russian, the other half Ukrainian, and the teacher just spoke whatever she had just been spoken to in (does that make sense?).  And to make it even funnier, everyone understood each other perfectly.  That doesn't really happen anywhere else.

 

The work is going forward and we are continuing to find new families each week on the streets, tracting and with help of the members.  I think we should have some baptisms soon.  President is continuing to challenge and invite us to step it up and I am just glad that the missionaries I serve around are all willing to do so.  

I know that this Church is true.  Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer and only through Him can we be saved.  God lives and loves us and has revealed His plan for our happiness through living Prophets.  The priesthood of God is on the earth again!  This is all part of God's perfect plan for us.  I know these things are true.  

I love you Mom.  Have a great week and tell everyone that I love them.

Love,

Elder Jones

October 24, 2011

Hey Mom,

So I am glad that you were able to talk with Sister Leavitt.  (She is an American member who called me yesterday from Ukraine to say that she had been to the International Branch and seen Ryan and to report that he looks well.)  She is very nice and definitely would lie to you to make sure you don't worry.  Don't worry though, I am already putting weight back on for the winter.  I think I lost a lot of weight over the summer and I can see that some of my clothes are a little looser, but I am fine.  I went to the doctor to get some blood tests and I had an ultrasound too which was quite awkward.  All is well though.  They diagnosed me with something called constitutional hypatic dysfunction.  Pretty scary sounding, eh?  Actually it is just Gilbert's syndrome.  Does it run in the family?  Because it is a genetic disorder.  You can look it up online.  Elder Mayberry sent me info about it and there is absolutely nothing to worry about.  Just a harmless disorder that made my eyes yellowish for a week.  I do love to torture you as you know!  Honestly, I am healthy, eat well, and work out too so all will be fine.  

So I don't know anything about transfers.  We will find out next week, but I am hoping that I will stay in this ward. I do love this ward, the area and the missionaries here and hope I can continue to serve here.  Our transfer will be small because the missionaries aren't coming in from America - visa problems - but things will work out just fine.  I can't believe that I am going into my last transfer.  Tell Aunt Kathy thanks for the letter and package by the way.  I greatly appreciate her love.

Your job sounds...fun.  I would hate to have to count money, but if you can enjoy it, then that is good.  It sounds like there is at least some sort of variety...sort of.  I hope that all went well with the girls this past week.  Chels seems to be happy with swim, even though she said it is "kicking her butt."  Who in the world is Parachute by the way?

Hopefully things work out for Dad too.  Crazy old man.  I think it is funny that he spends so much time in a suit now.  We are in the same boat!

So Brother Harshbarger told me some things about the FBI and it certainly doesn't sound any less awesome.  Let's just say he loves his job.  I will have to look more into it when I get home.  Basketball went well and I didn't get too hurt.  President Klebingat's son broke his wrist playing basketball in school last week.  Lovely sport.  And I am super happy to hear about Jake and Nate's papers.

We are all healthy here.  No worries.  I love how random this letter is.  I just answer your questions as I go down...funny.

The work is going and we are finding new families to teach each day.  We are just trying to help everyone we talk to have a spiritual experience and this past week we prayed with tons of people on the streets and in their homes and helped them to feel the Spirit.  We will continue to find families each day and do all we can to help them progress towards baptism.  The wheel is going fast now as we find lots of new people and get rid of the ones that don't want to progress.  Prayer really is such a simple principle and each day we teach people what their relationship is with their Heavenly Father and then challenge them to pray with us right there. We pray and sincerely ask Heavenly Father to show his power and love to them and the Spirit is present every time.  As they feel that, they desire to meet and feel it again.  Such a simple, yet powerful principle - conversing with our Father.  Anyway, I have a lot of other things to do.  Tell the girls I love them, even though I didn't write.  I love you too mom. Thanks for all you do.  Have a wonderful week.

All My Love,

Elder Jones

October 17, 2011

Hey there mom,

So I am glad that you were willing to stay up late to write your son.  (Chels was on the computer until 11ish doing homework.)  And I guess that is good that Chelsea is doing her homework too :P  I am sorry that you don't have the same flexibility with your schedule, but I am sure it will be good to learn more skills.  As we know, that is really why we are here on the earth and all these skills will help us to endure to the end and become like God.  You just felt like you wanted something new and that is why you changed??  Or did the company ask?  Good luck and keep on learning!

The trek fireside sounds like a lot of fun too and I think that is awesome that Caitlin got a connection for a future job.  (One of the leaders from trek is the superintendent for the Granite School District and told Caitlin to send him her resume when she is close to graduating and he would look it over.)  That would stink for her to have to live and work in the Salt Lake area though :{  Ok, maybe not, but I wouldn't want to teach in a Utah school, but then again, I don't want to be a teacher at all.  Speaking of connections to future jobs, tomorrow we are going to play basketball with one of the members (Brother Harshbarger) of the international branch who has a referral for us.  He is here in Kyiv for only 90 days and gave an awesome talk yesterday.  But what I am trying to get at is that he works for the FBI and so I will talk to him a little about that tomorrow.  I am way excited though.  He and his wife and kid seem super awesome.

I am glad to hear that the program went well (The Primary program yesterday, I'm now back in Primary.) and I think that is cool that all went as planned.  That rarely happens.  That is cool that they enjoyed it and I am way happy that you love being around them.  Yesterday we had ward council at one of the members houses for the International Branch and their little kids love the missionaries.  I love kids too and I can't wait until I am not a missionary and don't have silly rules about kids. 

I hope that Chels has fun with her swim meet.  There is no doubt that swimming is a completely different sport (than soccer which explains why it tires her out so much) so I hope she isn't too hard on herself.  I would love to practice with her when I get home.  That would be great exercise for me and I would be able to push/support her.  By the way, random thought - how much of this letter will actually go onto the blog because most of this is  pretty random and not interesting or necessary for anyone other than you.  It is a good thing I am so far away and can't get embarassed by the silly things I probably say that are read by some random audience. (Yeah, isn't it a good thing :P)

In another side note, a member told me that I might have worms yesterday, but as far as I know, I don't have any of the main symptoms.  I thought I would just freak you out a little and I will let you know more once I talk to the doctor.  I feel fine though and I am not losing weight anymore which is good.  Granted 20 pounds is more than I had to lose in the first place.  Ha, well I will stop torturing you.  Honestly, don't worry because I am taking care of myself and I am healthy.

Well, this past week was full of contacting people on the streets and tracting which didn't help my companion's cold.  Elder Hubbell is a stud though and is doing better.  The freezing temps are annoying, but I guess it is good that I am already ready for winter.  My body is adjusted to the temps already.  I had a good exchange with Elder Shepherd, one of the new missionaries in the district here and we did good work.  We talked to hundreds of people and honestly, we don't have a lot of investigators right now, but all of them are super elect and desire to progress toward baptism so I hope we can help them receive a testimony and work towards opening the gates of eternal life for them.  We had two men just randomly show up to church yesterday and they both are so ready which is awesome!  This was an awesome week for me for learning too and I know that I still have a long way to go which is frustrating, but again, that is why we are here on the earth.  I realized that one of the biggest problems in this church is that too many people get caught up on the organization or the programs and forget about the purpose of the gospel.  The gospel is all about helping us make covenants and learn how to keep them to the end of our lives so that we can be prepared to enter into God's kingdom and receive all that He has.  It is all about the people.  God doesn't care about the organization - that isn't His work and glory.  His work and His glory in our eternal life.  As we go out and remember that all that we do is for the people, to help them to prepare for eternal life, then we have the drive that we need to do the work of the Lord.  That is what drives us to talk to every and to invite them to come unto Christ, the knowledge that only we can unlock the gates of eternal life through baptism and the other covenants and ordinances of the gospel.  I know that this is God's work and glory and we are only His servants in this great work.  I love this work.  I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ. 

I love you mom.  Have a great week.

Elder Jones