November 11, 2013

I love my mission!

How are things going in the ol' Grove street?

Lets see... to start off the week last monday we had an awesome P-day. It was Sister scotts last P-day so... we balled so hard and played a Danville favorite... Dodgeball (bird flu), for hours! lots of fun. Then we had a lesson that night and we ended up picking up 3 new investigators! so sweet! Crazy story how we found them.
One day we were getting ready to head to the library with the other Elders for some training, and before we left we said a prayer as usual. Elder Brooks said it and he Prayed that someone would approach us about the gospel. We all were like.... ok sure! And then we left. As soon as we got out the door of our apartment building this lady outside asks "hey are you Jehovah Witness?" *head slap* "No we are Mormons." "Oh... Do you have any Books?" we all looked at eachother and were like what? yeah we do! So we got her some Book Of Mormons for her and her family and gave her our number. But we didnt schedule a time to meet with her. *another head slap* rookie mistake. So Elder Erickson prayed and prayed for us to meet her again and... we did! Set up a time and finally got to sit down and have a lesson with her! Prayer really does work! I love it!

It went great! It was pretty loud and distracting when we met with them but we had a lesson and afterwards her daughters friend was asking a bunch of questions! We have a lesson scheduled tonight so hopefully it goes well. :)

After out lesson we went to the Strawsers house for FHE The are an awesome family in our ward! it was great! They did this parable about popcorn and then after we played popcorn olympics! It was so much fun! When i get back we are for sure doing that for FHE.

We did some service this week at a members house and their basement had water in it. So we used their shop vac and sucked up all the water into buckets and then dumped it in this drain thing. At first he made it sound like there was going to be like Three inches of water down there and we needed boots and all that. I went barefoot and it turned out to be like a rain puddle at most. It wasnt a lot of work but it was long and at the end i just wanated to be done and go talk to people but then he asked if we could help him with one more thing and the first thing that went through my head was "No." But we said yes and we ended up helping him get salt for his water softener and while his water was being softened by salt my heart was being softened as i looked at this Old man who couldn't lift it. Just the simple help that we gave him went a long way. By the end of the day i was grateful for the service we gave.

Well those are the highlights of my week. other then that we have been super busy! and i just love it! i feel liike i have told you that everytime for the past couple weeks but  We are picking up the work here and its great! We have a baptism scheduled for sunday for Lina and the following satruday with Jimmy Hauffa! We are so excited! The work is great and I love it so much! i never want to end my mission!

I love you guys and hope you are doing great! i got to go but i will talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Chris Jones

November 4, 2013

Happy Halloween!!! hope you all had fun!

The last week has been great! me and my companion are killing it out here! He has the Greeny Fire and we are using it! It seems like everyday our appointments are solid and its hard to schedule in people sometimes. But we have been doing a bunch of less active work and our goal right now is to start a branch up in hoopeston! theres enough members up in that area! it would be easy... minus the whole they need to come to church thing. Also its hard to get up there to see people because its like half hour away and we only have so many miles a month for our car. But we figure it out. This last week we were able to go up there and see a couple of people and even farther to see Donny. We had great lessons with all of them and a few said they were going to come to church this sunday, but... they didnt. Its frustrating. But Sunday was still way good and there were a ton of people there which made it even better. Fast and testimony is always great and you could feel the spirit so strongly! I loved it! After Church the Sisters missionaries in our ward had a baptism! The Catterson Family! Its was awesome! since it was right after church we had a ton of members there to support them and it was cool To see their excitement and even some tears... haha it was great! My role in the program was a pretty big deal... i was chorister and i crushed it! got to sit up on stand, and when the music played... i lead. haha It seemed to be a bigger deal to some people then it really was. Last baptism i lead and i didnt know the count so some people were nervous, but i killed it.

Im sure you all want to know about how halloween was.... It was Fun! We had a Zone training that afternoon so we did our normal studies and then headed down to champaign  for that. It was pretty fun and i got to say goodbye to some missionaries who are headed home in the next couple days. Braydens friend from St. George is headed home so i got to say goodbye to him and he will be hanging out with him in the next week im sure. But that went really good and it got us pumped for missionary work! Then we came home and visited a couple people but we had to be in by 6:00pm That night so we came back and then went upstairs to the other Elders Apt and we played Dew Pong! haha it was so fun! No trick or treaters but we ate candy and just hung out with the other Elders. You guys looked great in all of your costumes! i hope you had a fun time and got TONS of candy!

All of our investigators are doing great! thery are so close to baptism its insane! but the adversary knows that and is working hard to keep them from it. Sam is doing great! We havent really been able to meet with her other then on sundays and a brief stop by over the weeks Which is bugging me! But this week we are really going to be focused on them because we promised a lesson with them and we are men of our word.

Well i hope you are all doing great! Im loving my mission sooo much and i hope you guys are getting opportunities to share the gospel because it is the greatest thing ever!!!

I Love you all and hope you have a great week! Stay classy!

Love,

~Elder Chris Jones~

October 28, 2013

How goes it?!

This week has been busy! but i love it! Sometimes when i get down to email i think of what things happened this last week and then when i start typing it i realize that it happened the week before! Time just meshes together and then runs right past me! Its crazy! it just seems to be going by so fast!

This week was great though. On tuesday i went on exchanges with the Elder Harrington and was able to see how they were doing and let me tell you. They are doing awesome! They just want to work hard and thats what they do! And you can really see it! I love our district!

This week we were able to see our referral that lives forever away! But it was awesome! Basically this guy has done everything! He was in prison for awhile and while he was there he got a hold of a Book of Mormon and when he started to read it he went into it trying to finding something wrong. But as he read he couldnt find anything! So he read it and then noticed there were other books that the church had so he ordered the triple combo and read that whole thing! and hes read like 4 times! Thats not the end of it. While he was there he was writing the church and he did personal study seminary and has graduated seminary! He had all the documents and papers he had written to the church about questions he had and he knows all of it! He had a baptismal date for Nov 9 and we kept it! But, He may still be on parole. so next time we meet with him we are going to see whats up and how everything is doing. We may have to move his date though... :( We have like 5 people lined up for baptism and ready but it seems like we just cant get them to take that next step! Its frustrating! but all in due time.

Remember that super rich/super catholic guy? Well we are like his best friends! Last week we had a lesson with him about the restoration and finally got him to realize that the Book of Mormon was written at the time of Christ and not in 1820! Its been slow with him but we are making some great progress! We committed him to praying to know if this was true and he said yes! After our lesson we were about to go but he gave us a whole tour of his house and showed us his childhood pictures and i played him in a game of pool! He won though... He gets a lot of practice down at his bar. But im going to challenge him again and i will beat him... someday.

That night our ward had their Fall Fest and a chili cook off! Guess who the judges were... The missionaries! We got to make our own chili as well and we were going for most unique so we made Mango chili! And guess what? it was delicious! but we didnt win... what do you do. But it was a good night and there were a bunch of non-members there that we were able to meet and possibly start teaching.
Ran a 5k The other day. The "halloween hustle" and the Mormons swept it pretty good! A kid who used to be in our ward took First overall and then Elder Harrington took 3rd overall and I took 5th overall and 2nd in our division. Elder harrington already got a medal or he would have been first in our division so they gave me the first place medal! :) and Elder Harrington got a 3rd place medal so... i beat him haha... but not really My time was 26.44 and his was 23.31 hes fast The cool thing about it was that since we were ranked and got medals we got our pictures in the paper! Mormons Stormin the Paper! Represent! Word of Wisdom! - its real.

Well I hope all is well! I Hope you know that i love you and wish the best for you all! Keep up all the good work you do. Until next time! :)

Love, 

~Elder Chris Jones~

October 21, 2013

This week seems to have flown by!!! i cant believe it! The work is progressing and im super excited to be a part of it!

lets see... Last monday was pretty fun. we had our Zone p-day and we went down to champaign and another zone came up as well, and we played some serious dodgeball!  first we split of into teams and our team did pretty good. but the fun part was when we played zone against zone! It was crazy! best of three and we were winning the first game but we ended up slipping and lost it. But we came back the next two games to Take it all! Go our zone!

This week has been pretty eventful. We got a media referral the other day, so we called him up but he wasnt home. Later that night we got a phone call back from the guy and he Told us all about how he was being taught previously before he moved out here but wasnt able to finish all the lessons so he wanted to start those up again. And he had a baptismal date for Nov 9! We are so stoked! This week we are going to be heading up to wellington to visit with him and see where hes at in the lessons and then start from there but we are so excited! The only problem is that wellington is like an hour away! so we are worried about getting him a ride to church or if he has one and all that. But the lord will provide a way!

On Thursday we went on exchanges with the ZLs and did some tracting. Me and Elder Anderson started tracting this one street and ran into this guy and his friend and he was crackin a bunch of jokes and he told us how is girlfriends sister is mormon and talked all about them going on missions and stuff. Anyways long story short. he says he doing some BBQ on saturday and invited us! Elder Anderson didnt get to come but we went and it was sooo good! Barbequed Ribs, bbq chicken, homemade mac and cheese, cornbread the whole 9yrds! Me and Elder Erickson were loving it! they were such a nice family and he said stop by anytime and if im cooking just come on back and we'll fix you up! ...They should be mormon! but seriously. we will see where things go.

This week i gave a talk in church. Im sure you probably all have seen it on facebook by now... Sam records everything! It can be bothersome sometimes but... what do you do. I spoke on Utchdorfs talk he gave in priesthood session about rising up. If you didnt get the chance to listen to it please do. "You can do it now!" Its good. I hope i got the message across that i wanted.

I love you guys!! I hope you know that! Be sure to rise up in any situation. We have trials not to make life hard but to improve ourselves and become better. Have a good week! :)

Love,

~Elder Chris Jones~

October 14, 2013

Hey there everybody!

This week was busy! the other Elders in our District had Two baptisms this week!!! How cool is that! one was from a part member and the other was a referral from a member. and they are awesome! The baptisms went great and Bill asked me to speak on the holy ghost at his baptism, so i did... and he got baptized. :) Its crazy though because since im district leader i interviewed them both. so on tuesday we took most of the night driving to their houses and having interviews. I was so nervous! but as soon as we started the interview everything went well and i realized i had nothing to worry about. These people were prepared.

On Thursday we headed down to champaign and had interviews with our mission president! That went way good and i was able to tell him how everything was going with training and everything. Our mission pres is the best! Afterwards we went to lunch with the AP's and the office Elders and some Sister Training leaders. Have you ever been to Panera bread? man what a ritzy place! (Not really its kind of like a kneaders) but they had these loaves of fancy/amazing looking bead the size of a small dog and i was really tempted to buy it... maybe next time.

On Saturday after the baptism we headed over to the Hauffas to have dinner. The Zone leaders came to give Jimmy his interview. so we ended up getting there a little early and then they tell us that they are moving the date! what?! not just a week but all the way to november 23! im over it though. They had good reason. Jimmys daughter wanted to be there for the baptism and when she found out that it was supposed to be next week and she wasnt going to be able to be there she told them to move it so that she could and the ony available date was then. I felt kind of bad for the Zone leaders because they drove all the way up here and then when they found out we moved the date, we moved the interview as well. I guess you could say they drove all the way up here for a great meal :) how nice of them!

After the "interview/dinner" we went to back over to the church and we did a lehis dream walk through! That was fun! first we read about the dream (for those who didnt know... aka investigators) and then we blindfolded them (midst of darkness) and put them all in a room where we had a tiny bell by the rod (string wrapped in a maze through the church) And then the adversary would try to drown out the bell with a lot of other ruckus. When they finally got to the rod they would start following it and then it was a duel between the "holy ghost" keeping them on and the "adversary" trying to take them off. Eventually they got to the tree of life and partook of the fruit (candy) and then we talked about everyones experiences  and then read 1 nep 11 and then related it back to our everyday lives. It was way fun and it was cool to see the people doing it finally get that they needed to hold fast to the rod and it would guide them the right way! Thats weird... it kind of like the gospel or something...? hold to it and you'll make it :)

Other then that this week has been full of finding people. Tracting and all that sort of stuff. Its been fun but i would rather be teaching then finding... Oh well you have to find before you can teach right?

Well i love you family! i hope you all are enjoying the change of seasons!

Hold Fast to the Rod!!!

Love, 

~Elder Chris Jones~

October 7, 2013

Can you Believe conference?!?!?! AAAHHHH It was soo good! It seems as though they talked about everything! I especially enjoyed Dieter F Uchtdorf's talk about less actives and those who are weak in the church. I feel it would be esspecially helpful in the ward im serving in because if everyone who was actually in our ward came to church every sunday, we would have to split the ward! crazy right?! there is work to do!

Mom thank you soooo much for the surprise sunday morning! When Sam showed up with cinnamon rolls and a card from you i wanted to cry! We enjoyed them and the tradition carries on! But just to be sure i bought some stuff and made some cinnamon rolls for everyone in between conference on sunday. I love them.

Thanks for the package Mom! I have basically eaten everything that was in there. (dont worry i shared it)

Lets see this week has been great! me and Elder Erickson are getting along great and he is an awesome missionary! Hes super ready to just get out of his comfort zone and share the gospel with everyone! We have been doing a lot of tracting this past week trying to build up our teaching pool but suprisingly enough there are a bunch of rich people in our area... and all of them are feeling pretty content. Oh yeah this one lady who was super nice said to tell our moms nice job and that they can be proud of us. so good job Mom... you can be proud.

The funny thing is that danville is separated in half. the lower half is the ghetto and the upper half is the richer area! guess what part we got? haha we still have some ghetto but one of the other elders left their camera in our car last week so when we went tracting we took a bunch of pictures of peoples NICE houses. just for fun ;)

We had a lesson with Jimmy Hauffa and everything is going great with him! We went over the baptismal interview questions and next week is his interview! I cant wait! the next week after that is his baptism! I hope everything goes right and stays true!

Well i love you guys! i dont have much to say this week, But i know this church is true and i was grateful to hear from our prophet this last weekend! I hope you all got something out of it and know that Your Heavenly Father loves you!No matter what!!! i hope you are all doing great!

Love, 

~Elder Chris Jones~

September 30, 2013

New Guy!

How is everyone doing! This week Flew by!! Holy cow! I cant even believe it!

This week has been great! on Monday we had our last p-day as a district and we ended up playing dodgeball for hours at the church! it was great. The sisters got wrecked! but... what can you do. :) Tuesday was Elder Smiths last day so we stopped by a lot of members and some investigators so he could say goodbye. Sam and Mikaela wanted to say goodbye as well and they took us out to lunch. Bishop wanted to take us out to lunch as well so we just united and made it one big gathering! And it was so good! We went to this place called Henks cafe and it is the greatest food for really cheap! We talked as we ate and Then Mikaela said her goodbyes and she cried... it was a touching moment. Later that night we went to a members home and had a weeny roast with them for dinner. Then went to bishops house to say goodbye to him. His wife was canning all day and she gave us a tub of home made salsa! sooo good! The next day was transfers so we went to the Zone leaders place to spend the night so we didn't have to get up at 4am

On transfer day we got up at 4:30... haha :) got ready and then headed over to the church. to help everyone get packed up. (thats why we got up so early) then we finally left at 5:50 Took a super long 4 hour drive to St. Louis and i got my new trainee! his name is Elder Erickson and he is a pretty cool guy! He is from southern idaho and is older than me by a month! what the? its crazy to think that just 6 months ago that was me. Its crazy to think that 6 months has just flown by!!! im thinking it needs to slow down a bit. So got him and then visited with some other missionaries there and then we headed off.. on a long drive back to danville!

The rest of this week seems to have just gone by in a blur! we went tracting to break Elder Erickson in and that went pretty good hes a natural! Had a lesson with Sam and Mikaela and guess what?! The Dad sat in! it was great because he got to have some fellowship time with bishop and it was sweet! Greeny fire? its real. And this week we are fasting that he will sit it on the lessons and be accepting of the message we have so that Sam and Mikaela can get baptized! Miracles are happening!

On Saturday we had a lesson with Jimmy Hauffa and it went really great! we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as the law of chastity and the 10 commandments and... We committed him to be baptized on October 19! how great is that! A few short weeks away and he will be dunked!

One last thing! Conference this week!!! I CANT WAIT!!! Im so excited for it! I hope you all are as well! We get to hear from the prophet and all his apostles! Hey Mom. can you send me some cinnamon rolls...? overnight shipping? im going to miss those! heres my address just in case! (that goes for anyone who wants to send me stuff ;))

9 Ridgeview ct apt 105

Danville, IL
61832

Well thats about all the news i have for you this week! i Hope you all are doing amazing! and Loving life and enjoying the gospel! I Love you guys!

Love,

~Elder Chris Jones~

Elder Erickson

September 23, 2013

Aloha Family!

Fall is finally here! (i saw it on a calendar... the official day was yesterday) But its really summer still! the air is still warm on most days and the sun is shining! But it is getting cooler ill give it that.

So this week has been crazy! Lets start out with Sam and Mikaela. Im kind of sick of reporting on them... because they need to get baptized. And they know it too. we just need to work out some things and meet with the husband. But they are doing amazing! In fact this week we saw a HUGE miracle! Mikaela's brother Jon Sat in on a lesson once and we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and he took a Book of Mormon and said he would read it. Well less then a week later Mikaela asked him if he was going to read and he said no its not my bible... and we left it at that. This week comes around and Jon asks Sam and Mikaela if he can go to mutual with her. (obviously a yes) So he showed up with his girlfriend and they loved it!! We had a lesson with them the next night and he told us how he just noticed the difference in the people that were there and how they acted and how the atmosphere was different! The night of mutual he grabbed his Book of Mormon and stayed up reading it! How sick is that?! He and his girlfriend also came to church yesterday and said they will be coming every week now! Im so stoked!! I love the gospel! So now we are teaching Jon as well as his girlfriend! I hope that since we are teaching their whole family that the husband will see the change its making in them and want to sit in on the discussions as well! AH! im just so happy!

This week we got some big news! Transfer calls! On tuesday we got trainer calls and guess whos training? i am. as well as two other Elders in our district. On saturday we got the Details. whos going where and all that. Elder Smith is going to be a Zone Leader in Shiloh (called it) Elder Brooks is staying and training and Elder Brown is White wash training carbondale IL. As for me im staying in Danville and training... and im District Leader... So theres that. Im pretty nervous for this transfer but... what can you do. I wont find out who my trainee will be until Wednesday when he gets up to the pulpit and says my name So ill be letting you know next week who that is.

Other then that not much else has happened. We have been doing service a lot as usual and this week we helped a lady tear down some walls in her house! Boom! I felt like hulk or something just busting through drywall! it was awesome! But we cut it short because we had a lesson with our solid investigator Jimmy Hauffa. I don't know if ive told you about him but he is from a part member family who moved into our ward awhile ago and things have been going great! He wants to get baptized and him and his wife's goal is to get sealed in the temple. The only problem is he works on most sundays (but we have talked to leadership about that) so finding a time to get him baptized and confirmed is going to be hard. But we are shooting for the end of October early November. :D

Well i love you guys! i hope all is well and that you are being great Examples! it truly does help! People can see the difference and want to know about it! I love you!

Love,

~Elder Chris Jones~

September 16, 2013

Hey there Family!

Started this week out with Mission Conference! So good! Elder Godoy of the seventy came and spoke to us and it was so powerful. The spirit was strong and it really touched me. It helped me evaluate my mission, like everything. Especially events leading up to my mission. And the coolest part was the change i felt during that conference and also the change ive made my during my mission. I love conferences and meetings! they make me want to do so much better and even though im doing great it makes me realize that there are a bunch of little things we all need to work on. You can always improve.

This week was weird! We had the same plan almost everyday, but something would come up and our plans would switch like that! First off let me say there is sooooo many service opportunities in Danville! On Wednesday we got a call asking for help doing drywall in someones kitchen. But when we got there nothing was ready. So we made a plan and after looking at the kitchen walls (they were warped) and everything that needed to be done, the lady we were helping decided she was just going to paint it. So we were able to move the piano out of the living room and then all the kitchen stuff into the living room. Guess what. She was getting rid of the piano so we said that we would take it and... now we have a piano in our apt. crazy right? But we helped her tear down all the wall paper and then start to put up primer. The next day we went over and helped her finish up the rest of the painting. Her kitchen is looking great and the Danville South Elders now have a new investigator! Service is a good thing.

Two new members in our ward this week! One of them is Reis. She is 8 and she has been a member for... a long time but now its official :D The other is Kim McCoy. The Danville South Elders had a baptism this past weekend and it was so cool! This lady has been an eternigator (investigating a long time) but now she has become an awesome new member to the Danville ward! I love seeing baptisms! Sheep are coming to the fold! And that is awesome.

Well saturday we finally got to do what we kept planning to do and that was to contact some referrals and tract! (one of our referrals we were asked to "tract" into) The first house we knock was this pentecostal guy who just came out and started telling us about the "gift of tongues" It went nowhere. We met our referral and he said to come back another time. Continued tracting and finished the street. Not a lot of success. But the very last house, we ran into was a non-demoninational pastor. He just wanted to bash. Which to be honest is something i have always wanted to try... we won obviously but it wasnt worth it. I felt like i was playing pokemon. just running around the tall grass until... "WILD NON-DENOMINATIONAL PASTOR APPEARED!" Thats probably the best way to describe it... haha

Thats all for now! I hope you guys are doing great! I pray for you all the time! keeping living the gospel it truly is the way to Lasting and Eternal Happiness! Stay Strong! I love you guys.

Love, 

~Elder Chris Jones~

Good Times in Danville with the Huff Family

September 9, 2013

Hey there Family! How goes it?

This week has been pretty good... not as good as it could have been but it went alright.

So as i told you last week, we had a zone training and i was super pumped to do missionary work! So the next day i just had this drive! i was pumped! but we only had one lesson planned... so we spent the day doing some service and visiting less actives and a bunch of referrals we had. Nothing really came of it, nobody was home. At the beginning of the day though we realized we didn't have any member to come with us to Sam and Mikaelas, so we basically called everyone but they all had meetings they had to go to! So... no member present. It ended up being a great lesson though we talked to them about tithing and then discussed their concerns about baptism. For the longest time Sam hadn't felt like she had been getting any answers to prayer but when we talked to her i asked if she felt like she had been getting answers to her prayers and she said YES! her only concern is her family. She wants her husbands blessing and to understand what it is she is doing. so we are trying to sit down with him but he has a really hectic schedule. But Sam id incredible! The closer she gets to the gospel the more negativity Satan tries to throw at her. But she is so strong and so is Mikaela. They know how to stand their ground! and i love seeing how much this gospel has changed them! Its amazing!

That night the Zone leaders stopped in and we went on exchanges the next day. It went good Elder Francis (hes from aunt Dona's ward) and i, did a lot of tracting and had little results but we found this guy who is from Lithuania and really respects what we did and said if we get him a Lithuanian Book of Mormon he will read it! So if any of you have one... Please send it ASAP! Later we visited some Perspective Elders and potentials and i started to feel pretty tired and my nose started to get stuffy... Yup sure enough the next day i woke up and was sick! I HATE IT! Elder Brown from Danville south was sick as well so in order to make our day as productive as possible, we did our exchanges and the sick people stayed in all day and Elder Brooks and Smith conquered the world. The next day i felt a little better so i decided i was just going to go full force with the day. And then Elder Smith got sick... so we ended up staying in another day... ugh... so unproductive! i wanted to be out doing work! Sunday i felt better. and today im feeling great. Elder Smith is starting to feel better today, so hopefully this week goes a little more smooth.

Well thats about it. sorry this email was so short. i hope this week is a little more productive. I love you all and hope you are doing great!

Love, 

~Elder Chris Jones~

SICK

September 3, 2013

Family!

This last week has been crazy! I dont know it just seems like this week Flew by! And it feels like so much has happened it doesn't seem possible that it went by so fast! But i dont know what to write...

Lets see... the work here is amazing! I honestly love it soooo much! Sam and Mikaela are the greatest! We had a lesson with them on wednesday and It went awesome. We taught them the Ten Commandments and the law of chastity (With Sam being who she is, that was an interesting lesson haha.) They committed to living them both. So now theres not much to teach them. Sam's husband was supposed to sit in on the lesson but he has surgery sometime soon so, as i understand it, he has to work more to make up for the hours... bummer. Oh well. Its been so fun to teach them. We have been able to see the change the gospel has made in their lives and it has been the greatest thing to see! Indescribable! On Friday Mikaela got her wisdom teeth out and Saturday they invited us over for breakfast and she seemed to be doing pretty good. (A lot better then i was doing) And then on Sunday they didnt show up at church so we texted them and it turns out Mikaela was allergic to her pain meds, as well as already feeling like crap so she was just miserable and didnt feel up to coming. So we offered to give her a blessing and at first she didnt want one but later on she texted us and asked if we could come give her a blessing. So we did and she looked Miserable and didnt feel like talking or anything. But after we gave her a blessing she seemed to feel a lot better! I love the church and i love the Priesthood! It truly can bless lives!

On Thursday we had District meeting and I gave a "training" on helping us get our investigators to church. That was pretty good. But then Elder Brown gave a training but before he gave it, he got real serious and told us He had been praying to know if being on a mission was for him, if this really was where he needed to be and that even though he had been praying he didnt feel he was getting an answer... We all helped where we could and Then he goes Just Kidding! It was part of his training! haha... not funny, but kind of funny. His training was on getting us to really feel that love for our investigators. Real Commitments. Real follow ups. And doing the best we can do to help them. Because in that moment when he said he wasnt sure... We all felt love towards him and that desire to help. SO good! I congratulate him on his training it was a really good way to help us gain a better focus.

 On Friday we had the opportunity to help a sister in our ward who's sister needed help roofing her shed, so our whole district came over and helped and we got it done in a couple hours and then had lunch. It was SO hot! But way fun. I have only roofed one other time helping Kevin with his Eagle Project but its pretty fun! There is a lot of service to do in Danville especially in our ward. On Saturday we also were able to help another sister move the rest of her stuff into her new place. Service is great! i love it.

Sorry for not emailing yesterday. Labor day and everything was closed. But we had a KILLER Zone P-day! Our zone drove down to Springfield IL and Had BBQ and games at this Mansion with another Zone! Dual Zone P-day! It was so much fun! We played football till it was time to eat and then we played some ultimate frisbee after. The House had a Pond/lake in the back And after Ultimate Frisbee we divided up in to three teams and played the greatest games of capture the flag! The other two teams played first and then we played the losing team. We dominated! And i scored... so that was way fun! And then we played the other winning team and we were evenly matched! It ended up being a draw, but we were so close! Rats. We had some type of zone training today so we came back to champaign and stayed the night at the  Elders apartment so we didn't waste miles. The training today was great! and i am so pumped to do missionary work again! I LOVE it!

Well i love you guys! i hope you are all doing fantastic!

August 26, 2013

Well this week has been pretty slow! Every night we plan to have a busy day seeing a bunch of people! But it never turns out that way. I just feel like we could be doing more work.

Anyways there is this lady in our apartment building who occasionally makes us cake and stuff, is in love with the Osmonds, and has a son in jail. ha But the other day she asked if we could go visit her son in prison since we are ministers and it wouldn't take away from her visitation. We thought it was a good idea, especially because talking to people in jail sounded like tons of fun! When we got to the jail though they said that we had to go to school and have papers and have a degree to be a minister! We showed her our minister card but they said it wasn't valid... How stupid is that! Um... True church? Priesthood Authority? ...Ministers... oh well. We were aloud to leave literature so we left him a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet, and then we gave the same stuff to his Mom and talked to her about it so that she could talk with her son about it. But she seems pretty interested so we are going to try and teach her as well.

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to help out with a Methodist Food pantry. Real nice people. Apparently every month they have this food drive thing where they gather up food from a bunch of places and then help out the community by giving it away. Someone we ran into told us we could come help, so we did. Apparently Missionaries have done it in the past but nothing big came of it so that was probably our only time.

Sam and Mikaela are doing great! They have been getting hit with anti stuff but they are still holding strong! Their family isnt super accepting of it, so last week we had a lesson about the Family Proclamation and told them how important families are in the church. And it went super good. Sam took the Proclamation and read it with her husband and told him that we wanted to meet with him. He said yes and now we are going to have a lesson with him this wednesday! Sweet!

On Thursday we had Zone Conference! First one on the mission! It was way good! basically it was a lot of trainings but it definitely helped us realize where we are at and what we could be doing better. I know for me it helped to that. I took a lot of great notes and one thing i especially like was when they talked about simply doing the basics. Things in missionary work like planning for the day having meaningful comp study and personal study really set off the mood on how you do missionary work, and how effective it is. I guess its the same with lots of other aspects of our lives just starting from the basics. And knowing where to begin.

Well not much else to tell. Except for the fact that today we confirmed... we have bed bugs.... I'm Ticked!! But don't worry we will be getting rid of them asap! I found one this morning and i wasn't sure what kind of bug it was but our bishop owns Terminix bug extermination so i bagged that bug and brought it into email today. And sure enough he tells us what it is... What can you do. Im getting rid of them... thats what im gonna do.

One more thing before i go. We cant go to the temple once a transfer anymore! im pretty bummed especially since we had planned to go this thursday. New mission policy, we cant go unless we have a new member going through for the first time. On the bright side. We might be able to go a couple times a transfer if we get new members to the temple ;)

Well, I love you family! hope everything is going well at home! stay strong in the gospel! and carry on!

Love,

~Elder Jones~

August 19, 2013

HAY there family!

Time is just flying by! I cant believe it! another week already?!

So Elder Smith was Dear Johned before i came out to Danville and he has had all his letters and everything. Theres also a sister in our district who wrote off her boyfriend at home, AND.... One of our Assistants to the President got Dear Johned so he gave us all of his stuff as well. Anyways... On Monday last week we went over to our bishops house and had a bonfire where we torched all of their stuff! It was so fun. Probably not as much for all of them, but i enjoyed it. All those memories just turned to ash and blew away with the wind...  Relationships on your mission, right? :)

We have been doing this soccer night on mondays where we invite all our investigators and non-members to play soccer and just try to contact them in a non threatening environment and it has been really fun! And so far its worked out pretty great!

On Friday we were able to do some service... baling hay! haha Sam's friend needed help on his farm so we obviously decided to help him out. And it was way cool, because we got to be farmers for a day! It was tough work lifting bales of hay all day but it was really fun especially catching the hay bales as the shot out of the baler! One time Elder Smith Tried to catch and it totally plowed him over! haha so funny! and then right after that another one shot just over my head but i tried to grab it any way and ended up pulling me down as well. 

Our lesson with Sam and Mikaela went great! but we ended up being there for quite awhile. We also started to teach Her son Jon and he seemed to be taking it in and loving it. so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. But then on Sunday we found out from his sister that he probably isnt going to read... We are hoping he comes to our next lesson so we can talk a little bit more about it with him. But on the bright side, we committed them to live the word of wisdom and the next day Sam quit coffee cold turkey! So now when she goes to the donut shop in the morning all she gets is donuts! Haha its awesome! Also Sam and Mikaela came to church again and its been great! The ward loves them and they seem already a part of it! They just need to get baptized, Because that is going Open so many doors for them! You can already see the gospel playing a role in their lives and its amazing! They are the greatest! I want this so bad for them because i know it will bless their lives entirely!

Well thats about all for now. I hope everything is going great at home! Enjoy the new school year! AHH I cant believe school has started! oh well... enjoy ;)

August 12, 2013

Smell that green grass... should be great

Aloha!

This week has been Great! We got transfer calls this week and guess what?! im staying! Im pretty happy because we are teaching some awesome people! But im also bummed because i wont be able to say goodbye to an Elder From my last area. Oh well im sure i will see him back in Utah in a quick 2yrs. As for those awesome people i talked about... We work out at the YMCA in the morning and and there is this lady named Sam who is always talking to the front desk before we go in. Well one day she asked about our name tags and why it says "Elder" we told her and she asked where our church was and we told her and then i was like "hey see you there on sunday?"  And she came!!! So we have been teaching her since!  And we also picked up her daughter Makayla as an investigator too! The first two times we taught her i was on exchanges with the other Elders but This last week i finally got to teach her and her daughter and it went great! We had to redo the restoration with her daughter (because we picked her up the second time we taught her) and it went so fantastic! At the end of the lesson i invited them to be baptized and Sam said she had already been baptized but then Makayla looked at her and said "Yeah, but not with the Priesthood Authority!" hahaha it made my day! Makayla said she wants to get baptized in a creek. So who knows... maybe she will. This next week we will be setting an official date with them and im so excited! I pray everything goes well.

This week we also picked up a new investigator. His name is Jay and we have tried to visit him before but he was never there. Anyways we finally meet him and he is SUPER rich! and SUPER Catholic. He retired at 37 selling used cars. He told us he went from $4 at age 18 to 4 years later having $1 million. But we had a good talk with him and invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true, and he said he would. Also he told us he would take us golfing!! How sweet is that! So one of these days we are going to take him up on that.

Yesterday before we went to dinner. We were stopping by some people, and we stopped by Latrice house. (She is the potential we picked up as an investigator with like 5 children.) but we talked with her and she said how she was having a bad day and that she needed religion right now. We told her how religion can bless her life and especially how the Book of Mormon can bless her life and then... Committed her to baptism! Set a date with a calendar and everything! The date is set for Sept 14! she has a lot to work on but we know if she is earnest and sincere we can help her make that date.

Well my week has been good and i hope we can make this next transfer a great one. I hope everything is going well at home! I love you and miss you!

Love,

~Elder Chris Jones~

Side Note

Chris:  Whats going on with the bachelorette? I saw a magazine about it the other day. hows my girl des? ;)

Mother:  Sorry, after hometowns, Brooks decided he wasn't falling in love with Des, broke her heart and he left the show. 

Chris:  she just needs the gospel... thats all

August 5, 2013

Well this week was great. I cant believe it went by so fast! Time is just whizzing by!

Well this week has been weird. We have been doing tons of service! On Tuesday we helped a member move in to a new house and we were helping them till like 3 in the afternoon. W didnt have any dinner plans that night so they invited us back to have pizza at their house. So basically our whole day was spent with them.
Wednesday another member was moving so we helped them.Then we went on exchanges and i went down to the south area of our mission. It was great. I asked one of the Elders here, Elder Brooks, his story, and what brought him to the gospel. And as he told me his story tears began to fill my eyes as he told me the trial and testimony builders that brought him here. After hearing his story i look up to him so much!

On Thursday me and Elder Smith met with this lady, Dona, we were teaching and she hasnt progressed at all. We have been trying to set up a church tour for her and she keeps flaking on those. She also isnt keeping any commitments (hence why shes not progressing) so we visit with her and she started to say "i dont think you can really know for sure." and Elder Smith got pretty upset at that and started getting contentious. So I stopped him settled it down, and told dona that she hasnt been keeping commitments so we were going to have to drop her. The rest of the day went pretty good and we visited some Less actives on our list.

Saturday. More service. its been good though. We have been trying to gain the trust and friendship of the members and i think all this service has really helped out on that. Hopefully we can start seeing some results.

Yesterdays Fast and Testimony meeting was Amazing the peoples testimonies were so strong! Elder Brooks got up and bore his testimony, and knowing his story, it made it that much better! Hearing others testimonies is the best! I feel like i learn so much from them.

This week we will be getting transfer calls and all that fun stuff. i dont think i will be leaving. But this transfer is the largest transfer our mission has seen. We have 30 new missionaries coming in! Thats the largest yet. Ours was the largest with 24. The mission is the greatest! i love it!

Thats all for now. I hope everything is going great with you guys. I love you an miss you! 

Love, 

~Elder Jones~

July 27, 2013

Hello Family!

This week went by pretty fast! remember those kittens? There is 3 of them i One is named Elder, The other Jones, and then one of them is Smith. ...cute...

We had exchanges with the other Elders in our district and i think it was definitely needed. We had kept trying to do them in the past but something came up so we weren't able to. But it worked out and it was definitely a breath of fresh air. Not that anything is wrong in either of our companionship's but it just felt good to have a little change up. I was with Elder Brown and got to be in the south Elders area. Their area is the ghetto... haha the dividing line between us and them is where it stops and gets.. "better." but it was so fun to be in the ghetto! There are a ton of black people and the way they talk is so fun! I want to pick up their accent! haha

The other day we decided to go to the farthest town in our area and tract up there for the day. So we take an hour drive up to this little town called Stockland and we get there and it is literally the smallest town i have ever seen! it has like 20 houses in it and we tracted the whole thing out in an hour. And had no success other then this one guy we talked to but we didnt get a return appointment with him. It ended up being an unproductive day and i feel like we could have gotten more work done down in our area... Im learning.

We have this guy that we have been working with along with previous Elders. His name is Matt Jones and he knows the church is true and wants to get baptized but his family hasnt been accepting of it and they have bad marriage problems and they have been threatening divorce for a long time. So like 3 weeks ago we stopped by his house. and we walk in on him and his wife in a huge argument! (it was probably the most awkward thing ever) and while we were there his wife took the kids and stormed out. Afterwards we sat there and tried to help him out. Well the last three weeks have gone by and we havent really been able to get a hold of him. On our way back from stockland we got a message from the bishop talking about matt. We asked him yesterday about it and he told us that the Divorce is definitely going to happen. and we shouldnt bother him right now while it happens. IT. BREAKS. MY. HEART...  To see a family be torn apart. He said after its all worked out he is going to get baptized, but the fact that his family is getting torn because of it Kills Me!

I know this Gospel is true. I know that families can be together forever. And i want everyone to experience the same joy I have felt, and continue to feel, from this Gospel!

I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Chris Jones.

July 22, 2013

Time is flying so fast! can you believe it?! Holy cow...

This week seemed to zip by. On wednesday we got to have interviews with the president. It was good to get to know him a little better and him me. He is from Farmington and seems like a pretty cool Mission President. Sister Morgan is awesome. At interviews we were standing around talking before it started and she comes up and asks if everyone is feeling alright...? No problems or sicknesses? I didn't want to bother them so we all said that we were fine. Well remember my Poison Ivy? It was getting way bad! its spreads through oils, and being out in the midwest, im sweating every second! so it just kept spreading! The next day i called her and told her remember how you asked if we had any problems...? well i lied... She laughed and sent me to the doctor. I got a shot... in my butt... The Poison Ivy is looking TONS better! and my arms is almost back to normal. :D it makes me so happy! im sick of it.

On thursday i got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders so i went down to campaign and was with Elder Anderson. Elder Anderson is pretty cool. and guess what? We hung out a couple times before the mission! he is one of Brayden's friends from St George! its cool to see him from back then to now. Anyway They serve on the campus of The University of Illinois and instead of tracting, we walked around campus and contacted! it was fun! I haven't done that before so i was definitely nervous doing it. but we talked to this Chinese girl and gave her a book of mormon and  told her all about it and she seemed way solid!

On Friday we had a dinner appointment, but we had some free time before it. So Elder Smith and i go visit this potential that lived near by. Her name is Latrice and she has a ton of little kids from 5-12yrs old and they were all there watching tv. Anyways long story short. We barged in, watched the restoration video with them and discussed it. And they were all so excited we gave them all a Book of Mormon and before we left they started reading it! It was so tight! We set a return appointment and we are visiting with them this week!

Last night we went over to a less actives house to see what we could do in helping them out (physically and spiritually) and while we were there the wife told us her cat was pregnant... a couple minutes later the cat comes over next to the wife and starts having contractions! So they got a box and a towel and put the cat in it, and in like 30mins out popped a kitten! then another 20mins or so goes by and out pops another! haha it was so weird! but i got to see the miracle of life... From a cat.... never thought that would happen on my mission. hahaha!

Well i love you all and i hope everything is going well back home!  I know this gospel is true! And i hope you guys know that to! Keep me updated on everything!

Till next time!

Love,

~Elder Chris Jones~

This is gross!

July 15

Hey Family!

Time flies! Am i right! i cant believe its already been a week! i cant believe theres not much left of summer for you guys! what have you guys done so far?

First off i got something this week! Guess what it is...?! Poison Ivy! It was bound to happen and it probably wont be the last time. My left wrist looks disgusting though! Luckily i ran out of short sleeve shirts so i have been wearing all of my long sleeve shirts to cover it up. It seems to be going down and it doesn't itch too bad, but thats that.

Last week was Zone P-Day and it was so much fun to go down to Champaign and hang out with all the other Elders and Sisters! we played football, Volleyball, Frisbee... It was the greatest!

I got to go to the Temple this week! It was so good! Chicago and Nauvoo are both closer to me then St. Louis but since they're not in our mission we arent aloud to go to those. But we got up at 5:30 and it was a ward temple trip so we left with a member at 6:30. Took about a four hour drive down to St. Louis, and went to the Temple! It was awesome! I had been looking forward to it the whole week! and when i got into the Celestial room i just felt the most amazing calming, warm feeling ever! I sat there till i was one of the last people in the room and i didnt want to leave! it just felt so good! I cant wait to go back.

This week we had this awesome lesson set up at the church where we were going to "reenact" Lehi's Dream. So we invited all of our investigators and told the other Elders to do the same. So we went to the church to set up and had dinner with some members there. One of our investigators cancelled but we didnt worry about it to much. Then 7:00 came around (when we were supposed to have it) and nobody showed up. We decided to wait a little longer for someone to come. Finally we hear the door to the church open and in comes a family the other Elders are teaching. We sit down and read through Lehi's dream with them and discuss it a little bit. Then we send them through "Lehi's Dream" and at the end have a lesson with them about what happened and how it applies to us today. And it was the best lesson that has happened on my mission so far! The spirit was so strong and the kids were so smart and i learned stuff i didnt know before it was the best! Then the other Elders asked the family if when they came to know these things were true if they would be baptized? And they said YES! it was so cool! And im glad i got to be apart of it!

Me and Elder Smith are doing great! We have a baptismal date set with an investigator, Teresa, She was a potential we decided to pick up and we had a stellar first lesson and invited her to be baptized August 3rd. We have a lot of work to do though. She has some problems we need to work through but it will go good. We have a lesson and breakfast with her tomorrow at a members home so that will be good for her.

Well i love you guys dont forget it! Hope everything is going well at home and that you guys are constantly striving to be better!

Love, ~Elder Jones~

P.S. on our way to the temple we drove by the arch. it was cool!

July 7

Hey family!

Hows Everything going! How was the 4th of July?! Who sang at the stadium of fire?

This week we did a bunch of service! We do service on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the YMCA every week. But on top of that a couple of people are moving in our ward so we got to help them do that. One of the families we helped move didnt want to move their piano so they were just giving it away, so obviously i wanted it! and i called it when we pulled up with our ward mission leader. But then our ward mission leader double crossed us and took it for himself. Its way out of tune and not very good (perfect missionary piano) and guess who is going to have to help him move it into his house...? :D

Last P-Day we went to... Indiana! The only part our mission covers! How cool is that? Its alright i guess, still just a bunch of corn fields. But it means i have been to every state in my mission! and thats pretty cool. We had service to do before we went over there so we didnt have to long to stay.

Ran another 5k, for the fourth! Me and 5k's have a love-hate relationship. Its good for me, so i love them. But... i hate running. So theres that. My companion came in 3rd place for our age group! He loves to run so i expected him to do pretty good. I think he came 4th overall, with a time of 20.00? Im not exactly sure how well i did in comparison to everyone but my time was 24.something. Not as good as last time but its decent.

After the race we helped someone move and at 4:00 was when we were able to have fun. So we went to a members home and played games and ate food until the fireworks started! We got to stay out till 10:30 which was pretty cool to watch all the fireworks laying on a blanket in the grass but, The next day was not as fun. Not getting as much sleep made the next day... well, we were all tired. The 4th of July was way fun! go America! It was probably better then P-Day...

We got to meet the new mission president this week and he seems way cool! His wife told us she quilts so i asked if she would make me one... she said no. but she said if she ever does that i could have it! :) This weekend the Assistants to the President came up and we have been on exchanges with them Saturday and Sunday. It was way good! They are great examples of obedience which was good for me because my goal this transfer is to become more obedient.

I got Katie and Randy's package not this week, but the week before. And it was awesome! Thank you so much! Katie... My least favorite chore would probably have to be... weeding and stuff like that. i dont like it when my hands get all dried up with the dirt. now question for you... Hows your missionary work?

Well that about all for this week! love you guys! Hope everything is going great!

Love,

~Elder Chris Jones~

Lexy's Baptism June 29

Lexy (12 years old) from Danville - June 29th 2013