18th March 2013 Zone Leader in Cape Town

Hello Mom and Dad!

This week seemed a little bit longer, which is nice.

Thank you for sharing about your mission experience mom. Each missionary goes through different challenges. I have been super blessed with tons of support! I am so grateful for all of the support that I do get! The letters I receive from home do not make me "trunky" or want to go home; rather they are of great support to me and give me greater drive and determination to work harder and to do better! That’s why I love them so much! I'm so blessed to have the people who do write me to be giving just support and encouragement, rather than talking about things that drag me down. I know you care and love me so much and I am grateful for your guidance and direction. I have the best mother in the world! Worry not, for there is nothing to worry about. As long as we are being obedient, the Lord will provide. I love you!

We saw and exploded car on the road! Took a pic!

 

 My Zone is doing great! Couldn't have a better zone! They are all awesome! This week has been rather eventful! We had Zone conference on Tuesday! It was awesome! We have what we call a zone report, where the zone leaders go up to the front and announce the zone successes and each zone member and where they are serving. We were told to make it interesting and enjoyable. So we came up with an Easter Idea and got an Easter bunny suit and had Elder Jones (from Australia) wear it and we sang a song and changed the words so that it incorporated all of our zone and stuff and Elder Jones hopped around the room with a inflated hammer bopping people on their heads! It was awesome! Everyone loved it! So fun! I have a video of it too.

 

Here is that car again. We see it around

I don't have much time, but then we went on exchanges in Paarl on Friday. We had a powerful day Saturday where we taught 4 lessons and each lesson was at a different member’s house, and in total the amount of investigators we taught between all the houses was 9 and 6 of them came to church the next day! Goes to show how powerful working with members and teaching investigators in their homes can be! Members are the only way to make real growth in the church! They play a huge role in missionary work! We are focusing a lot on teaching investigators in members homes and also finding from members referrals! It's nice! I don't have any time left but this week was nice and I am loving mission too much! It has been roasting hot lately, but that's alright! I love you all! Take Luck! (oh ya! Look up the talk labeled "The power of the word of God" from March ensign and look at the picture and read the story. He is pretty much talking about Khayelitsha)

-Elder Jones

11th March 2013 Cape Town, Zone Leader.

 (No pictures today. My camera was dead all week. I didn't charge it...)

Goeie more!

I seriously can't believe I am emailing again! I was just here I swear!

As for going to the new developed mission... I have no idea! I am sure they would have announced that, but maybe they are going to surprise us! We’ll find out in July I guess. But for now I don't think that I'll go there...

I'm so jealous that you can go to the temple! I want to go to the temple ASAP when I get home! I miss it so much!!!

This week has been a nice one. A quick one though! Sheesh! We went skating on Monday! That was awesome! Elder Spencer (the only other Canadian in our mission from Saskatoon) and I were the best skaters there! It was hilarious! All the other missionaries kept saying, "Those Canadians! Of course they can skate, they are Canadian!" And honestly we aren't even that good at skating! But we had fun!

I was able to go on exchanges with a new missionary! That was fun! Also My companion, Elder Twitchell and I had to hold a Zone Meeting on Friday. It was on Praying with Faith, and it went very well! Church went well and a young man gave his farewell talk. He is going to Zimbabwe in Africa. Lately the ward has been focusing on missionary work, and I am really excited because I am hoping that as we work with the members, and church is focused on missionary work, that we'll be able to start getting some referrals from members and have the work push forward.

 I want to share a cool experience from yesterday.

We were following up on an investigator, but they weren't home, and as we were walking away from the apartment complex. A man playing soccer with his son outside greeted us and started to talk to us. He explained the struggle he was having with his work and how he was stressed because of how dangerous it is (a money carrier in those armored vehicles). Then he shared about his bad past and how now he is focusing his life on Jesus and giving it to Him.

 We shared with him our purpose and what we do, and he was so excited that he invited us into his house and wanted us to meet his family. So we went in and they continued to share with us their life stories. We were out of time (they talked a lot and were very excited) so we talked with them a little bit more about how our message can help them and arranged to come back to share in the week.

That was awesome for me for two reasons. I have been praying that I would be able to find a father-led family in our area and to be able to teach them. Also, this is the first white investigator that I have ever had. That was a powerful experience! I'm so excited to go back and teach them.

I have been focusing a lot on praying constantly in order to resist temptation and to progress in the work, and I have found, without fail, Heavenly Father answers every single one of my prayers! Even if I pray 50 times in the day.

Just an example…One time we were having a hard time holding appointments, so I just said a simple prayer that we would be able to find someone that we can help, and within a few minutes, a man walked up to our car telling us that his friend wanted us to come and visit him and teach him the gospel. That was awesome! I love it so much! I'm learning so much on this mission and I am so happy to be enlisted in this great work of Gathering Israel!

Thanks for all of the support from everybody! It would be so much harder for me if I didn't have the great support from back home! I love you all! Take luck!

-Elder Jones

 

4th March 2013 Zone Leader in Cape Town South Africa

Aloha Mom and Dad!

That looks like a nice blizzard! I miss those sorts of things, but that's alright... I'll just keep improving mywatch/farmers tan...

 Thanks for all the support in my new leadership position. It is awesome so far! I am responsible for the Cape North Zone (Panorama, Bellville, Milnerton, Goodwood, Durbanville, Paarl, and Gugulethu). It is the Largest Zone in the mission right now (largest # of missionaries), but I'd say one of the best! I still have to go on a lot of exchanges with other missionaries though, and I need to give a talk in Zone Conference, plus I need to hold a Zone meeting this Friday to discuss some issues that the Mission President wants to be told to the missionaries. I'm excited though!

 

This bug is over two inches long

Thanks for the update about Marshall’s wedding!!! I didn't know! That's awesome! PLEASE COULD SOMEONE, SOMEHOW, ASK MARSHALL TO WRITE ME? Even if it is just one side of one page, I don't care, just something! I have been itching to hear from him, and I have written him but I am not sure if the letters are getting to him or not because I haven't gotten one reply... Glad to hear that the Martins are doing well. I just love hearing about how the family is doing!

Yes our mission is being reduced. There are 58 new missions around the world, and ours is losing Namibia, and Johannesburg is losing Botswana, so Botswana and Namibia is going to become one mission. This will happen on the 1st of July. I am hoping that I get to go to Namibia before then! Thanks for sending the picture of Anthony! I'm glad he is doing well!

This week has been so awesome! And it has flown by ridiculously quickly! Feels like I was emailing yesterday! Time is just flying! We played sports on Monday for Pday with other missionaries. It was fun! Played some football! Also Monday was the 2nd anniversary for my car crash! I am still feeling the results from that (especially after playing sports!)

 

This car pulled up right beside us on our way to our next appointment! You don't see a lot of these. 

We have been working a lot with members and trying to get to know everybody in our ward. We are also trying to incorporate members a lot more into our missionary labors because without the members doing their part in the missionary efforts, there is no way we are ever going to find people ready to hear the Gospel. They have been emphasizing that a lot in church also, so I think we are going to start to see a lot of success coming from working with the members. We have been managing to visit some less-actives also and are having success there. We are working very hard every day and I hardly have time to brush my teeth, let alone shave and eat breakfast! My letter writing is going down the pipes, but I will try to use every spare minute I have to write. My letters might be starting to get a lot shorter.

We have 2 investigators who are preparing for baptism this month, which is awesome, and we are working with a couple others. We had one day this week, Thursday, where everything that we had planned to happen the night before, happened exactly as planned! Every appointment held and everything worked perfectly to a "T"! It was awesome! Those are very rare! I think it has only happened 4 or 5 times in my whole mission so far! So that was awesome! We had a Zone Leader Skype call this week where President Wood was able to express some concerns amongst the mission and we are to distribute that information to the Zones in our Zone Meeting.

 Have I ever mentioned that this is my first that we are in an actual chapel! Not a rented hall! It's even the stake center! It's awesome! Fast Sunday was awesome! I introduced myself to the ward and bore my testimony. A lot of the testimonies were about missionary work, and there is a young man in the ward who leaves for his mission to Zimbabwe in 2 weeks. So that's cool! It's cool to see how the Kingdom is growing here in South Africa! It's cool to be a part of it too!

 I have to go though... Time is up! I love you all! And thanks for everything you do for me!

-Elder Jones