1st July 2013 Zone Leader, Queenstown, South Africa

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!

What a Glorious day it is! It's rather bland here in South Africa though, but I'm tempted to Parade around the streets with my Canadian Flag and sing "Oh Canada" for my P-Day activity! I hope all you Canadian's have an awesome Day today! I'll also give a shout out to you Americans and wish you a happy Independence Day on the 4th! Thank you so much for those pictures! Talia is Huge!!!! I was really surprised to see how big she is! Same with Oakley! I thought it was Diesel for a second! Those Spritz Oma was making in the picture made my mouth water!

 

Well this week has been interesting... It was transfer week this week, so..... drum roll.....! I'm staying in Queenstown as Zone Leader, and I got a new companion, Elder Mholo, from South Africa. Actually I received a whole new half of a zone! Every companionship in my zone had a new companion, and every companion that was staying in the area have only been there for 1 transfer! So I practically have a whole new zone! It's awesome! No evil traditions of the forefathers in play. And with the past Zone Conference on Obedience by Elder Bricknell, everybody seems to have a greater desire to be obedient and to serve more fully! It's awesome! I'm ecstatic about my new zone!

So on Tuesday my zone travelled to East London (3 hour drive) to send out their comps and get their new ones, on Wednesday we all switched around and drove back, so work didn't start till Thursday... Since Thursday we have been having a lot of struggles with the work, but I know it'll pass by. Our fellow shipper is gone for the holidays, so we have had to cancel a lot of our appointments with sisters. Also, almost all of our investigators who were progressing are gone home for the school holidays, so our teaching pool just depleted drastically. Let’s just say that the work has been dry for the past few days. But it will pick up again, especially after the holidays end in 2 weeks.

On Sunday, since it was the 5th Sunday, it was the Missionary Sunday. So Elders do everything from the prayers to the talks and even the musical number if they want. I was assigned to give the opening prayer, but the talks were all about missionary work and were powerful and awesome! Later that day we were talking with a member who was saying that those talks were answers to her prayers and spoke of how she has been doing missionary work and then she gave us 2 referrals! That was awesome! They weren't referrals for my area, but none the less that is two souls who Elders in East London and Grahamstown are going to be able to visit and teach! I want to plan a missionary fireside for the ward. If they were fired up about a few talks in Sacrament meeting, imagine how they would be after a missionary fireside!? I love the work here! I'm learning a lot!

I'm also going back down to East London this week for a Missionary Leadership Counsel Skype call with all the Zone Leaders in the mission. I'm excited to hear what President Wood has prepared for the mission to implement! Also when we go down, I'll be picking up a new car. It's a manual transmission, so it'll be nice to drive stick again! It's weird with the left hand though.

 

Happy Birthday Riley! I'm sorry if I missed it! I'm losing track of birthdays these days! I'll be surprised if I even remember my own!

Enjoy the Holidays! Enjoy the Celebration! Enjoy Canada Day! Enjoy the Family! Don't be too jealous of me though, because I'm doing something a billion times better than Canada Day, I'm doing the work of the Lord! I love you all too much! Thanks for everything you do for me! You've made mission such an incredible experience for me! Love ya!

-Elder Jones