3rd Sept 2012 in Knysna in the Cape Town Mission South Africa

Hi Mom and Dad

I'm in South Africa!! Buyah!!! (Sorry I have to constantly remind myself of where I am and how lucky I am to be here and how much of a blessing it is to be on a Mission.) I have some awesome news that I will share farther down in my letter!

I love you both so much! I can't explain how awesome it is to have such supportive parents! (Oh what about that Kool-Aid Pie recipe?)

 Baboons we saw on the side of the road on the way to P.E,

Now let me share that we had an epic week! The work is still moving along great here in Knysna! Brother Julius got confirmed yesterday! Woot! He's awesome! And we have 4 of his family members with baptism dates for this month! Eric and Julius are powerful! It's amazing how when we baptize someone, we can just utilize that energy they have, and their testimonies of the gospel they have, and receive a lot of work! People to teach just seem to be flowing towards us!

 This is going to be an awesome environment to train a missionary in! WHAT?!?!? Did I just say train a missionary? What in the world am I talking about? But yes! It's true! This past week we were able to go to P.E. for a Multi-Zone conference, and we were able to receive training from Elder Cook! (Pictures)

 Elder Cook and Sister Cook with my companion and I

It was wonderful! I learnt alot from that conference, and it helped me have a self check. It was kind of a nice kick in the pants and gave me a great big boost to work harder and to be a better missionary! And it was much needed especially before I start training! What?!?! Why do I keep mentioning me training?

On a high bridge in between Knysna and P.E.

 Well after the conference was done, President Wood had me and 5 other missionaries go into another room, and 1.5 weeks early, he told us that we were all going to be training next transfer and that we would be staying in our areas! 20 new missionaries are coming in this transfer and I will be training one of them here in Knysna! So yes I will be here in Knysna for another 3 months, 6 months in total! So just before Christmas I will be transferred somewhere else... which is kind of a bummer, but I am super stoked! Since Knysna is a 2 man district, I will also be the District Leader! Ya it's a daunting task I have been given! But I'm really excited for it!

A guy driving while reading the newspaper.

 My companion doesn't know yet, so don't tell him! Just know that Life is great here in Africa! Had some really nice days! Apparently it’s supposed to be in the +30's this weekend. Summer here we come!

 I love you all! Take Luck!!! -Elder Jones

27th of Aug 2012 in Knysna South Africa

Hi mom and dad,

Mom, Dad, thank you for always sharing spiritual experiences with me! I love hearing about things you learnt or of experiences you had! I remember that talk from Dallin H. Oaks also! It's a good one and its true (refer to my past week experience in this letter)!

 That grill, smoker gift thing dad got from work because he is an employee for 15 yr. sounds spectacular! I can hardly wait to come home and start eating food from home again! I hope you realize that for the first 2 weeks or so we are going to be eating everything that I want to eat! Paha! I'll try to learn some African dishes to make for you guys too! Like Mqushu, or pap and stew... but other than that it’s just rice and chicken... (there are some members who want recipes from Canada, and I was thinking they would enjoy the Kool-Aid pie! Maybe you could send that to me dad?)

When is dad able to go back to work? Sounds like camping will be a good time! Keep sending me pictures! I love them! Thanks for everything! I have the best parents ever! Don't let that get to your heads! I love you both!

 Now to share what happen last week. Yes, we had another baptism yesterday! Brother Julius Ceaser Myingwa was baptized by Brother Mason! It was awesome! Next week he gets confirmed! We have people with baptism dates on the 23rd of September, so I hope we'll have some then! This week was pretty sweet! We had exchanges on Thursday with the Zone leaders, and we were able to get quite a bit of work done.  A struggle this week has been having appointments hold, but we have still been able to have quite a few appointments!

 It was my companion's Birthday-Day on Friday, so we went to a members place and had a nice big birthday dinner! Then on Saturday it was one of our fellow shippers B-Days, so we were invited to another member's place and had yet another B-Day dinner! And before that we were invited for lunch at an in-active members place and had a B-day lunch! So lots of B-day stuff going on! But B-day on mission is different... you still go out and teach people haha! So it was a fun week!

Also, yesterday, we received a call from a less-active member in our area, and he wanted us to come to the hospital and give a blessing to his girlfriend who is not a member (apparently the missionaries have taught her lots before, but she couldn't get baptized because she is breaking the law of chastity with this less active member, and I won’t mention his or her names!). But his girlfriend was in the hospital because she is 8 months pregnant, yet the doctors think that she is going to give birth prematurely. (At least that is what I understood from the situation... I didn't really fully understand what the problem was; I just knew that she and her child were in danger for some reason and that I was asked to give her a blessing.)

So my companion did the Anointing, and I did the Sealing of the Anointing and the blessing. Well, out of all the blessings that I have given, for some reason it was really hard for me to say words. I was trying to give her a blessing according to the problem that was at hand, but since I didn't fully understand the problem, I found it extremely difficult for me to utter even a normal sentence... I was rather confused why it was so difficult, but I managed to continue to give the blessing even when it was full of pauses. Eventually the words started to come more easily to me and after we had given her the blessing, and I opened my eyes to find that she was in tears and smiling. So that was a cool experience!

I am excited to hear the outcome from the situation. I have found that not once has a blessing that I have given been neglected by Heavenly Father, even when the words I speak feel as though they are not sufficient for the blessing I intend to give. Truly it doesn't matter, so much, what is said, but what matters is the faith of the person receiving the blessing, and the power behind the authority of the person giving the blessing. It is such a testimony builder to know that the priesthood that myself, and millions of other men around the world hold, is truly the power and authority given to man to act in the name of God for the salvation of His children!

(This picture is in one of our classrooms)

The weather is getting better here every day! Which is nice! It gets hot enough that I am sweating sometimes, and summer still is months away! I'm not complaining! I'm still doing great here in South Africa! This week on Thursday we are going to PE for a Multi Zone Conference, and Elder Cook is going to be there! The same one who was at the Missionary Training Center when I was there and I got him to sign my pocket hymn book! I'm pretty stoked! It's going to be awesome and I'll be able to learn a lot!

Time is flying by as well! Sometimes it feels like my mission is going way too quick! I love it though!

-Elder Jones

Aug 20th in Knysna South Africa

Hi Mom Dad

That's too cool!! No quad stories is ok with me when there is a story as cool as that! You go mom! Even bears have nothing on ya! How cool is my mom?

 Sounds like everyone is having a blast! Wow, first time dad’s siblings are all together in 21years! Woot! Wish I could be there to experience that! But then again Anthony and Ben are both on missions too haha! So I guess I'm not alone.

 Sounds like the weather is just awesome there too! I always miss the good weather! Remember last summer when I was working up north and it was raining and cold all summer, but in Raymond it was roasting hot and sunny all summer!?!? Ya that was a bummer! Oh well, I have many summers ahead of me, not to mention I’M IN AFRICA!!!

Time is just zooming! We are already half way through this transfer! Crazy! I'm assuming that next transfer I'll be training and District leader here in Knysna. Unless I go to Namibia, but we'll see when the time comes! I love you both! Thanks for the emails! I love them alot!

 

No let me fill you in on my last week. Brother Eric has now been confirmed! Woot! Next Sunday, Brother Eric's cousin, Julius (his name is Julius Ceaser, how cool is that?!?), is going to be baptized! We also have 4 people so far with baptism dates on September 23rd, but I’ll keep you posted on those! I hope we will have a bunch more with baptism dates this week! Our teaching pool is huge! I like it alot! We had 8 investigators at church this Sunday, which was alright, but we could have had more... I don't know what happened...

  Man, here in Knysna, there are so many people from all over the place! I really wanted to learn a language while I am here in Africa, but there are so many languages that focusing on one, is like impossible! And almost everyone speaks English also so it makes it easy for me to just speak English all the time. But there is Chichewa, Tumbuka, Xhosa, Shona, Afrikaans, Zulu, Swahili and recently we have some Sutu investigators! What language do I learn? Andiazi (I don't know)! So I just have bits and pieces of a bunch of different languages, but altogether it does not benefit me very much! If I ever go to Namibia they speak different languages there too! Paha! It's just hectic that’s all!

My companion has had a back problem for the entire 3 months that I have been with him, and It seems like it is not getting better at all but getting worse, so he has been having some treatment and stuff, and he can't sit very often during appointments, but he is a trooper and we are still doing the work. I think we will go to the doctor again sometime soon...
 

If there is anything I miss the most from home, it is the quality of food! But you've heard that before. Recently I bought a bunch of Smokey’s that I could just quickly grab for lunches and stuff. I was saddened when I noticed that the Smokey's were nothing like ours from home... It's like a dollar store quality of Smokey... but even that is better than these! This is very common with a lot of the food here in South Africa... oh well.. I'm still alive and I'm loving my mission!

I can't even explain how awesome of an experience it is to be here and to see the lives of so many people affected by the true Gospel! It seems like the people are flocking to us to hear the message of the Restoration! So much so that I haven't taught the Plan of Salvation for what seems like ages! But I could spit out the restoration perfectly and quote every scripture by heart and answer every question possible! I've taught that lesson probably about 100 times since I've been here in Knysna! I can hardly wait to get all those people progressing through to the Plan of Salvation! It's exciting!

Enjoy the nice summer weather you have up there! Because Winter is just around the corner! I only get summer and spring all year round! Take Luck!

Shaganaka! (Shona)        -Elder Jones

 

13th Aug 2012 in the city of Knysna, South Africa

Hi Mom and Dad,

The Olympics over already?!!? Poop! I was definitely expecting more golds! I’m sure they'll do better in Brazil next time. Mike Freeze is Leaving soon!! That's awesome!!! I'm excited for him!

Also, I heard from Elder Palmer, and I'm sorry to ask for this... but, would it be ok if maybe you could forward or email me Elder Palmer's blog every week? I just found out that his mom is sending mine to him every week, and he knows alot about my mission and what I'm up to.

Also thank you so much for sending that priesthood line of authority! Thank you for all the updates!  Keep me posted! Good to hear your eye is doing better dad.  I'm sorry but that sounds like it would be really funny to see when you look one way and your eye is stuck and the other moves! I hope your eye fully recovers soon dad!

Sounds like you had a nice time at Lake Louise on your holidays! I'm jealous! I was supposed to go there last year for snowboarding but I wasn't able to because of the car accident... :( poopy... That's cool that you saw a bear! I'll let you know about my baptism in my blog. Thanks for the email! You have no idea how lucky and blessed I am to have you both updating me so much! I really appreciate it! I love you both so much! Take care! And dad, get well! Mom, keep doing what you are doing! And I got a snail mail letter from you mom this week! Thanks! Love you both! Now to update you with my events from last week.

You see the water in the baptismal font in the picture? That's why every boarding (apartment) has water filters! And yes that was the color of the water that I did the baptism in...

Yup! We had a baptism this week! Eric has just been baptized and it was awesome!!! He was so prepared it was ridiculous! This man is a Saint! Just an all around wonderful person! I find that the people I have been able to meet on mission are of the most Christ-like people I have ever met! He is one of the couples who separated from his wife just to fulfill the commandment of the Law of Chastity because they had a tribal wedding and not a government wedding but it is recognized now as an official wedding! So faithful and willing to sacrifice everything for the truth! His Cousin, Julius, is also going to get baptized in 2 weeks! I am really excited for that! But yes this was my first actual baptism that I performed since I have been here...

First time I was able to put on my whites and, as you can see from the picture, my white shirt I am wearing isn't white anymore because of the color of the water... haha!

So yesterday was a good day! This past week though was nice! We were able to go to George for District Meeting, because after District Meeting, Elder Andriamanantena had to do a baptism interview. While he was in the interview, The George Elders and I were outside and we found camelians (spelling?) in the bushes! That was awesome!

The work is going very well here in Knysna! Our teaching pool is big! We had 8 new investigators this week and we had 9 investigators at church on Sunday! Life is good! So next week I get to see Bro. Eric be confirmed, then the week after we get to have another baptism! Sorry, this is just too cool! And if Bro. Eric has the Aaronic Priesthood by then, he can baptize his cousin Julius! That would be sweet!

Anywho! Thank you Aunt Terri! I got the package! Loved it! Thanks for the letter Grandma! And thank you to everyone else who sends me letters and packages and who supports me! You are a huge help! Things are great here! Just working along! I love the work! I love the people! I love all of you! Take Luck!

Elder Jones

6th Aug 2012 in Knysna South Africa

Molweni!

Woo! Holidays! Sounds like you are going to have a blast this week! I thinks it's awesome to see the change in my family from boring, to SWEET AWESOME QUADDERS!!! Paha! I just love you guys! I'm glad that you are able to go! Every week is a new report.  It keeps my emails exciting!.

We have another baptism coming up this coming Sunday, and another coming up in a couple weeks after that! Woo! Thanks for keeping me posted on the Olympics! I appreciate that! Go Canada! I wish I could watch... I love the Olympics! I love you both! Thanks for the Emails! They are  such a strength to me! Now let me tell you how my week went.

Transfers have come and gone! Nothing changed, but I didn't get my new planner till Saturday... So I had to go the whole week finding blank spots in my planner to plan for the past week! That was poopy... sorry, missionary talk... planners are important ok! Without one, I don't function!

This past week we have been running around trying to balance teaching everybody in our teaching pool! There are just so many, it's crazy! Just progressing them is getting difficult. It's nice though because it allows us to focus more on ones that are progressing, and go a bit slower with ones that aren't. But the work is booming! We had 11 investigators at church on Sunday! 5 of which we still haven't been able to teach yet! Things are almost awesomely out of our control!

 Paha! I had a cool experience with teaching one of our investigators. Her name is Lina, and she has a friend named Nomfundo, who we have visited a few times before but had never been able to progress with the lesson because we were always restarting lesson 1 because there were new people there every time. So on Thursday we were finally able to sit down with just the 2 of them and teach them Lesson 2. So that is what we did! We discussed about Priesthood and prophets and the church of Jesus Christ in former times, and about the apostasy, and about the restoration. By the end of the lesson she was very excited! And she was more curious about how somebody gets the authority, and how to know if a person has that authority. So we informed her that it was by the laying on of hands like in the times of the Old Testament (using Moses and Joshua as an example) and like the Savior did to His Apostles, and like has been done once again in modern times from the Apostles to Joseph Smith, which restored the authority. If a person cannot trace their authority back with a consecutive, unbroken chain, to Jesus Christ, then they do not have the authority.

 So after explaining that, she share an experience where a pastor came to her and told her that he wanted her to be in charge of the woman of the church, so he laid his hands on her head and gave her authority, and that she was, until that point in time, still in that position of her church. She then started yelling, "THOSE LIARS!!! I BELIEVED THEM!" and started saying how she was never going back to that church again and stuff like that! Sadly she moved to Mossel Bay like yesterday, so the missionaries there are going to work with her... so there goes one prepared investigator... We were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon though, and she is now reading it. Good stuff!!!

 I love mission! It's too awesome!!! Also the other Canadian in the mission from Saskatoon is in the George district! so thats sweet! George is our neighbors! anywho.. its raining today, and windy, and fairly chilly... I'm starting to adapt to the climate here... it’s like +12 and I'm starting to get cold easier... oh well, summer will come soon! Wooot! I wish i could share all of my experiences here, but i don't have time. Take Luck!

-Elder Jones

30th 2012 July Knysna South Africa

Hi  Mom and Dad,

Hello!! You are right! Time is flying! 2 more weeks and I'll be 8 months out on mission! It was a year and 15 days ago that I received my mission call! Crazy! Thanks for updating me with everything! I'm glad Dad's eye is recovering! I'm glad you are doing well with school! I'm glad Raymond didn't get pummeled with Hail! That sounds like it was terrible! I wonder if the Temple is alright! I'm glad it didn't happen in Raymond! My car would have been destroyed! You have insurance from hail damage on your car right? If something like that is going to happen, throw my car in the garage so it won’t be destroyed and yours can and get covered! :)

My clothes are doing great! Life everything is perfectly fine! My shoes are doing well too! Nothing is wrong! I had to spend $85 on getting my x-rays and doctor reports done for my Namibia visa though... but ya, I’m doing great! And even if my clothes were going bad, I would just buy some here.. no biggie! Thanks for wondering though!

My companion and I are doing great! Had a rough patch in the middle of the transfer, but its all good now! And we just found out last night that we are going to be together for another transfer yet again! So it should be good!

I am in 3Nephi chapter 10 right now... I'm going nice and slow and marking my scriptures, I'm also half way through "Jesus the Christ" book which is an amazing book! And I’m in the book of John in the New Testament! I stopped my Old Testament study in Leviticus... not useful enough... Keep me updated on the Olympics, because I have no idea what’s happening! All I know is that in Woman's soccer, Canada beat South Africa 3-0!!! Woo!!! Go team Go!!!

That mud bogging thing looks sweet! Wish I could have seen it!

On August 12th, we have 2 baptisms set and happening here in Knysna! Woot!Running out of time! I love you both!!!

Here is what happened last week. One more week down! Transfer is officially over tomorrow! But turns out that nothing is changing for me here in Knysna! Elder Andriamanantena and I are staying here! I'm happy about it! Its stress free...but I need to work on my showing love to others... anyways... This is an accomplishment for me!

In the past 3 weeks, we have gotten 30 new investigators, and we have not gone tracting once! It was merely by implementing the “Teach while you Find and Find while you Teach method! So ya! That is very effective! The work is going great! We have had 9 investigators at church these past 2 weeks! Which is sweet We have more investigators than we can even comfortably visit! It's crazy! I have no complaints whatsoever!

All I can say is that I love being a missionary, and that I am learning more and more every day! I also found out yesterday that my last area, Khayelitsha, is on fire! Not literally (quite the opposite actually because it has been ringing there for like a month straight!) but like the work is booming and the ward is growing in strength and my recent convert, Nobuntu, has returned and is solidly going to church, and my other one, Anda, is solid in church as well! Ntomboxolo is going less active apparently and same with Tamara... so I am writing them letters to encourage them... Bro. Raymond, Musa, and Masixole all have the Melchezidek Priesthood! Which is sweet!!! I was so happy to hear all this stuff! I miss that place! But I love Knysna also!

Anyways... The pictures are of Knysna from across the lake. The bottom is town (aka white people) the stuff on the top of the hills is township. It kind of looks creepy eh? But that is where I’m serving right now! I love it! And the other pictures is a member, Leoni, in the hospital who we went to visit with the "crew" which consists of Jane, Janine, and Ashwin, who all come fellowship with us alot! Janine is Leoni's Sister and she is in front of me in the pictures. You may have noticed that these people are very short! Maybe I'm just super tall... Enjoy!

 Take Luck!

24th July 2012 in the city of Knysna South Africa

Mom and Dad,

I am so grateful for the protection that Heavenly Father has blessed all of us with! He truly does answer prayers! And thank you for letting me know everything. I have learnt more than ever, that trials and challenges aren't things that are to mourn over or to view as a consequence, but are to be taken as a challenge to be overcome and to learn from! I can learn from all situations or circumstances which I have gone through! For it will be for my learning and benefit... KIM HAS BRACES?!?! Interesting I'm out of time I love you both!!!

Now to fill you in of my last week.

First off, sorry I couldn't email yesterday... We were in a rush and all I had time to do was to email president Wood. We went to Mosselbaai with the George Elders for P-Day, so we had to leave as soon as possible! We had a Braai (aka BBQ) on the Ocean Front in Mosselbaai! Cooked up all sorts of meat! Chicken, steak, sausage, ribs! Twas awesome! And beautiful! So that was why I couldn't email...

But this week was sweet! Our stats surpassed our goals on almost everything! And our days are filled with appointments! It's really nice to see the blessings from obedience! On Thursday, the Zone Leaders, Elder Pack and Elder Acton, came to have exchanges with us! I went with Elder Acton and I had a blast and was reminded of some very important things that I needed to start doing again! Sometimes Missionaries tend to get in a rut and just have a certain specific way they work, but tend to miss other important things! So it was a good reminder for me! And we made a fort that night to sleep in! So that was sweet!

The pictures are of the fort and of mosselbaai and the braai!

Oh ya! When we were done braaing and had cleaned up, we were about to drive away, but this fellow came up and said, "Can you guys please convince my Uncle to not drive, he's drunk." so Elder Shuward (spelling?) and I went over to the small truck and started talking to the guy. This guy was utterly and entirely wasted! His mouth and teeth were green, we couldn't understand a single word coming from his mouth because he was slurring his words so much (and speaking Afrikaans...) and he could barely stand up! So we just talked with him and repeated over and over that he needed to get out of the car and into the passenger seat! Eventually we convinced him and he got out and gave the keys to his nephew and got in the passenger side... His nephew was drunk as well, but not even close to as drunk as him... so we may have saved the life of some innocent driver out there that he could have killed! Man he was hammered!

I also got a video of a guy in township who could barely walk because he was so drunk, and fell over once! It's so sad to see these Children of God just destroying their lives, and looking so pathetic because of the stupid worldly things. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have and the blessings that have come from that knowledge! Especially the Word of Wisdom! What a blessing!

I love missionary life! It's awesome! I love everyone who is supporting me! A couple weeks ago I got a package from Aunt Terri! Thank you! And thank you Grandma and Grandpa for your support! I love you all!!! Not just these few I mentioned, but to everyone who prays for me and emails me and writes me and cares about me! I am so grateful! Take Luck!

-Elder Jones