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