1st Apr 2013 Zone Leader Cape Town

SORRY EVERYONE I COULDN’T GET ELDER JONES MAR 25TH LETTER ON LAST MONDAY. IT IS ON NOW AS WELL SO SCROLL DOWN FURTHER. BAPTISM.

HAPPY EASTER!

Sounds like the week was fun with the family getting together for Easter. Thanks for the pics. I love it here so much! And I'm doing what the Lord wants me to do! I'm so excited for conference! Although I won't be watching it for a few more weeks till it comes out on DVD and is sent to us. Thanks for your thoughts about the Atonement! I love the Atonement myself! Its importance is of such great significance that, like dad said, the creation and the existence of all things revolves around the atonement. It is the key to everything! I'm so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and for what Jesus Christ did for all of us! It's mind blowing! Easter is huge here in South Africa! Everybody is out celebrating and partying and holidaying! It's crazy! It's almost bigger than Christmas!

My actual transfer news is that I am staying here in Cape Town as the Cape North Zone Leader, and I am getting an Elder I had in the MTC as my new companion.

Paha! I hope everyone is doing well. Dad I hope the surgery on your eye goes well too. I'll get to email once more before that which is good. I can hardly believe that its almost time to call home again for Mothers Day! That's crazy! Seems like I just called home! Time is sure flying by so fast!

This week was really good. We had 2 confirmations on Sunday of the Two that were baptized last Sunday. We have been having some success with teaching investigators and we have one that should be getting baptized this month. One that was solid just moved back to Port Elizabeth, but the missionaries will keep teaching her there.

My companion, Elder Twitchell, received his news yesterday that he was becoming the new Assistant to the President. So that was cool. It has been raining more lately, which means winter is rolling in. All in all, life is good! I don't have much time, but just know that I am doing very well and I am loving life! I am so grateful for all of the support that I am getting from home, from friends, and from family! Take luck!

-Elder Jones

Came upon a guy with this cap. Had to take a pic.

25th Mar 2013 Zone Leader Cape Town

Good morning!   

Thanks for the email! That's interesting that you got my journal entries backwards in the mail. Hmmm... I'm glad you got it though! I'm trying to keep it all up to date but it is so hard! I'll catch up though.

This week was good! To start the week off, right after we finished emailing last Monday, we walked out to our car and turns out we got a parking ticket... :( that was a bummer... R300... so we each had to pay R150... Convert that to $'s and it doesn't seem like much, but in R's it's a lot! That's a week’s groceries! So we won't park there again!

This past week has been really nice! We have been having quite a few appointments with our investigators! Pretty much all of our investigators are either being taught at members homes, or part member families. It is really awesome! We had 8 investigators at church this Sunday and 2 baptisms! I think I neglected to mention this last Monday that we were having baptisms this Sunday. I baptized one and my companion baptized. It turned out to be really nice and the ward was excited about it. The area I'm in has been dead for a long time. All last year there was only 1 baptism, but we have 2 so far and 3 or 4 with baptism dates for the upcoming month! It's exciting! Working with members is the best to help those ready to hear the Gospel.

I baptized the one beside Elder Twitchell

(faces have been darkened for privacy laws)

I went on exchanges with the Durbanville Elders and I was able to spend the whole day biking! That area just got new bikes and it was the second day that they had them, and as we were at the furthest point from the flat, the pedal (the whole arm) just kind of fell off... and so we went to the nearest members house and he didn't have any tools to fix it (socket wrench) so we ended up walking the whole way back to the flat. My butt was so sore after that day! I am almost entirely recovered now. I'm not used to a bike seat! Just a car seat!

 I was also able to go on exchanges with the Milnerton Elders. I went with Elder Ingram and we were able to see a few pretty cool miracles. I'll share one. Some people weren't there for an appointment, so as we were leaving, a girl walked up to us and asked if we were the Mormon missionaries (happeneds a lot!). We said yes and then she said that her parents told her that if she were to ever see them, that they needed to go visit her parents. So we got their details and off we went to go see them. When we got to the house, the people were telling us that they have been looking for missionaries for years. The Father was a member, but less active, and the rest of the family wanted to be baptized! They were all saying that they know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true and that they all want to be a part of it. That was awesome! But the next appointment after that was a complete contrast.

In a different situation, we went to a less-active's house to teach him. And he lives in a little room at the back of another house. When we sat down and prayed, we heard a knock at the door, and the owner of the property asked, "What's going on here?" and we told him that we were missionaries, then he asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses and we said no we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Then he said, "Same thing, you do not have permission to be here, you must leave this property, NOW!" So we got up and left. Big rejection right there! Anywho!

We came upon this accident

This week was a nice one! I really enjoyed it and it seemed to go by slower, even though time is just flying by!

Thank you Aunt Terry for the support! Congrats Jennet on the mission call! I'm so excited for you! You'll have a blast! Thanks for all of the letters and the love that I am constantly receiving from everybody!

Please can anyone of my friends contact Marshall. Still need Marshall to email me :)

I love you all! Take Luck!

-Elder Jones

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

25th Feb 2013 Zone Leader in Cape Town, South Africa

Good Morning!

Thanks for the support! And for the update on everything! Sounds like you had fun in the snow too! Those were cool pictures! It great to hear about what is happening at home! Well this past week has seemed like it has taken forever! A lot has happened!

 First I will start with the events that happened after I emailed last time, so last pday. We went Croc hunting again and this time we went to the bottom of a Dam that is by our area. So we drove to it and then parked at the bottom of the dam and got out and went to the river to search for crocodiles. Well that was probably the dumbest place to go, at the bottom of the dam, because there are no croc's there. What we did find though was a bunch of Xhosa kids! They were swimming in the water and cliff jumping and stuff! It was really cool! I got some videos of them doing flips and stuff!

Then since they said there were no crocs, we decided to just have fun and explore around the river. So we go exploring and we crossed the river over a bunch of rocks. When we got to the other side we walked around and looked at all the cool stuff by the river. We decided it was time to go back to the car. So we went back to the place where we crossed the river, but this time there wasn't a pathway of rocks to get across, it was a raging river! We were stuck... Luckily all of these Xhosa kids told us they had a way to get across. They said we needed to climb up and go across the dam. So we start following them. They brought us to this cliff face and then started climbing up the side of it! Not expecting that, but not having much choice, we followed. Luckily we were all able to scale the wall safely and everything was ok! We climbed up and crossed over the dam and got to our car and went to our appointment... an hour late... I learned a valuable lesson from all of that. Heed the warning signs!!!

 

As we got out of the car and went to the river side, there was a sign that said, "Warning: random flooding occurs due to automatic flood gates." I read it but just shrugged it off not thinking much of it... Well we suffered the consequences for not heeding the warning sign! reminds me of the warning signs that the prophets and apostles and scriptures give us, and how if we listen to their counsel, we won’t get caught on the other side of the river with the only way back being a long and dangerous journey, but we will be able to avoid those dangers and make it safe and on time. I can't lie though, that was a fun adventure! But being spiritually caught on the other side of the river is not a fun adventure...

The next day I left to East London and spent the night there, then in the morning I flew out for Cape Town! It was nice to be home in Cape Town again! I'm now with Elder Twitchell and I'm loving it! He's from Utah! He's very diligent with the work and very obedient and I'm loving it! My Zone Leader duties are still somewhat unknown to me. I know what they are, but I don't know how to do them all yet, so Elder Twitchell is teaching me these things. Right now I'm kind of just riding along, I feel like a greeny again just learning everything over again, but I'm slowly starting to get into the rhythm of things. It's only been 5 days... It's coming.

Also this weekend was Stake Conference! It was awesome! And I got to see some people from Khayelitsha! That was cool! They all thought I was home already! I was so spiritually edified and uplifted by Stake Conference! It was awesome! There was an area authority there and he had some powerful talks! One particular one stuck out to me about Pornography! He spoke so passionately about how destroying pornography is! He spoke about how he knows 7 families that have been destroyed because of the stuff and he said that the amount of members of the church who are tampering with the stuff is astounding. He spoke of how pornography is a big stumbling block to the growth of the church and how it is affecting the worthiness of a lot of the priesthood holders in the church. He also spoke of how that is the tool that satan is using to destroy God's children. He was very bold and passionate about this topic and I loved it! I wish I could portray the spirit that I felt when I was listening to him speak! There is also a cool Mormon message that he showed that shows about the impact of pornography. "A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, so watch your step." -an old proverb.

Well my time is spent! I love you all! thanks for the support! Take luck!

-Elder Jones

18 Feb 2013 in Mthatha, South Africa

Hello!

It's been another great week on mission! No snow here though. I'm kind of jealous that you have snow, but that's alright, I'm sure you are jealous of my weather right now too.

 

 

Thanks for the update on everything! Sounds like everyone is doing well.

 

Well this week was interesting! Full of adventure! Monday for P-Day we went Crocodile hunting! Steve Irwin style! Elder Bullock is adamant that he saw a Croc in the river as we crossed a bridge one day, so we were asking some of the people here and they said that croc's do live in the river. He got pumped, and so we went croc hunting. It ended up being kind of lame and we didn't catch anything or see anything, but it was kind of fun searching the river bank.

 

 

Tuesday, Elder Bullock and I needed to head to East London for Leadership training. We came back Wednesday, so our week pretty much started on Thursday. On Thursday the Zone leaders came from Queenstown to do exchanges and we taught a couple lessons that day too. For supper, we went to Panorratis (all you can eat pizza place) that night. It was awesome!

 

 Then Friday the Zone Leaders interviewed our two baptismal candidates, and they both passed! I'm stoked! They will be getting baptized next Sunday! It's so awesome! Also on Saturday I was privileged to go on Exchanges with Elder Taylor, and I was able to interview their baptismal candidate. It was awesome! One of the most spiritual experiences I have had on mission so far! It is so amazing how the Gospel can truly change people, and I have seen it so much on mission and I feel so much joy seeing the joy that the gospel brings into other people's lives! I just want to share this with everyone! So there will be 3 baptisms this coming Sunday!

 

In contrast to that great news, I received a call this morning from President Wood... the bad news is that I won't be able to stay in Mthatha to see the baptisms happen on Sunday... The good news is that he gave me my transfer news, and... well... I'm going to Panorama to be with Elder Twitchell as the Cape North Zone Leader!!! I'm excited! No more District meetings to hold!! Woot! Also I won't have to wait an extra week to get my post because I will be in Cape Town and be picking it up from the office myself for the zone! Woot! I'm stoked! But bummed at the same time... I really wish I could have seen the baptisms...

 

 If this transfer would have been a normal transfer with 6 weeks instead of 5 weeks, I would have been able to... but It's not... So I'll be saying goodbye to everyone today and tomorrow... I'll probably fly out to Cape Town on Wed. I'm stoked! Well my time is far spent! But Mission is AWESOME!!!! I'm loving life! Thanks for the help Grandma and Grandpa! Thanks to everyone for everything they do for me! I love you all so much! Take Luck!

-Elder Jones