June 17

Hello family!

Happy Fathers Day!!!! I hope you got my card dad! i think its pretty funny :) I love you!

This week has been pretty slow. but ill start out with the end of it.

We got transfer calls this saturday... Yep, im leaving good ol' O'Fallon. And Im heading to Danville IL. Who would of thought? But apparently like The whole mission is being transferred around! We are going to get a new Mission President and everything! so why not move everyone else? Oh well Im excited to start fresh in another area and work my tail off! and i know its where im needed. Me and Elder Reay are way good friends! we say we got comfortable to fast. thats why im leaving. but its where i need to go.

Like i said, this week has been pretty slow. we haven't had a lot of teaching opportunities. All of our investigators keep dropping our appointments! so we have been visiting members and tracting a lot. A week or two ago we tracted into this lady named shelly and at first she was pretty hesitant. We couldnt get her number to call her later, so we told her we would stop by sometime. She just started getting back into church in January and she has been going to this methodist church because she likes the messages. Anyways... one day me and Elder Reay were getting ready to go out and he told me lets not ride bikes this time. im kind of tired of it. so we walked instead. We tracted some street and visited some potentials. Then we said, lets go visit shelly. We walk over to her house and shes not there. As soon as we step off her porch guess who pulls up... Shelly. Perfect timing! and we had like an hour long discussion/lesson with her. She just kept saying how we were on her mind ever since we left and how funny it was that as soon as she started getting into church we showed up... Funny isnt it? If we had rode bikes that day, we would not have met her and not had an awesome discussion with her. She is so Golden! and has so many questions! to bad im leaving... Oh well. she'll get baptized either way. I know it.

Guess what? i bought some swords! hahaha nothing big or anything, but we stopped by this garage sale while we were out and i got them for $8 what a "steel" <--- Get it? haha its been a dream to have two swords in X shape on the wall, and now i have it. but ill probably be sending them home because... well swords with a bunch of elders probably isnt a good mix so expect that in the mail later.

We went on splits with the AP's this last week, and i just tried to learn all i can! my goal for this next transfer is to be obedient with exactness. just improve myself and learn as much as i can!

One of the AP's is leaving this week and hes usually so exhuberent and happy but when we went on splits he was just down in the dumps cause hes leaving. How awesome is that? (in a weird way)

Well i love you family! I hope everything is going well and you're progressing in the gospel! It definitely is true. i see it more and more every day! And i know that if you put forth the effort, you will see it too.

Love you guys!

~Elder Chris Jones~

June 10

Hello Everybody!

This week went by fast! i hope you all are doing well! First off, Thanks dad for the birthday package! im actually trying to fix up a bike that we found in our closet so it was perfect! thank you.

This week has been pretty good! Guess what?! I was on exchanges and we tracted into these two kids, Alex and Sequoia. They are the best! We gave them each a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment a couple days later, and when we got there they had already read a couple chapters! They love it! they say that every time they read it gets better and better and they want to know more. Oh yeah... did i mention, They are Lamanite Descendants?! Apache/Navajo. Its the greatest! They came to church yesterday and they loved it. We are going to try and set a baptismal date next time we visit.

There's this kid in our ward named Soren. Hes an only child and the only member in his family that is a member. And he was converted over X-Box! haha he met this kid on there and they became good friends and somehow they kept getting on the subject of religion. Turns out that kid he met is Mormon and asked him if he could send the missionaries over to his house... one thing led to another and here he is. he has a strong testimony but lately has been a little less active so we have been visiting with him and hes been coming to church and he is coming out with us on teamups Its awesome hes a way cool kid.

Anyways ive been feeling like i need to do more, our numbers don't look the best but we're working on it. Me and Elder Reay are way good friends now! We even have some mutual "Friends" back home.

Well i cant think of much else to say and im running out of time. We get transfer calls this week! ill let you know how that goes.

I love you guys. i hope you are all doing great!

Love, ~Elder Chris Jones~

June 3

Hello Family!

So everything is good with me and my companion. i felt bad about complaining about him last week so i told him that i did and... we're good friends now. Except for some reason he has a lot of energy at night and he never seems to be grogy in the morning. but thats all. :D

This week seems likes it went by way fast! i cant believe its already monday! Thank you for all the Birthday letters ive gotten so far! It was great!

This week we have been doing a lot of tracting and trying to get more lessons to teach. as well as working with the members and trying to get referals. On Wednesday we tracted into this house, and when we walked up to the door we heard a gun cock a couple times. so me and my companion looked at each other kind of nervous and kept going. Dont worry the guy was just cleaning his guns. :) so we talked to him for awhile aabout guns and hunting and stuff and then we got onto the subject of why we were there. We talked about the Book of Mormon and where it came from and stuff and how we can come closer to God, and find answers by reading this book. A couple of times this guy Jeremy (a different Jeremy) when we would be talking to each other, we would look at him and his eyes would be watery and you could just tell that the holy ghost was testifying to this guy and it was so cool! We set up a return appointment for friday but when we showed up he wasn't there... Darn. We will get a hold of him. and he will get baptized.

We tracted into this other lady, this black lady, and it was the funniest thing because she kept saying stuff like "Jesus is awesome" and "Give me that Book. This is my book" And we said a prayer with her and while i was giving it she kept agreeing with everything verbally haha so i kept hearing all this mmhhmm, yep, and uh-huh. and it was throwing me off a little. but it was way cool!

My Birthday was a pretty cool day! usual mission work, and then we celebrated at the Morellos house. (had dinner and cake) But it was such a good dinner. we used sparklers on the cake instead of candles and it ended up melting some of the cake and also a hole in their table cloth. haha 

a couple months ago they went on a trip down to central america and went on a Book of Mormon tour! Theres so much cool stuff down there! like these hiroglyphs of lehis dream! The people down there dont know what it is or means, but apparently they tell people all these stories about their ancestors. Like how these people came long ago on weird boats... Jaredites. There was a family that came and settled where two older brothers hated the two younger brothers... Laman, Lemuel, Nephi, and Sam. and theres the Glyphs everywhere and the translation of it is "And it came to pass."

Anyways sorry for the tangent, thought i would tell you about that because i think its way sick!

It stormed on my birthday... way hard! There was another tornado Sirens and everything. Not in my area though... :( but it was fun! the sky was green, the thunder was loud and the rain was thick!

Well thats about all. i love you guys and i hope you are doing great! Keep up the good work! it sounds like everything is great and i hope you are enjoying your summer!

Love, ~Elder Chris Jones~

May 28, 2013

Hello Family!

I got the fruit snacks last monday and they were all gone by saturday. Thank you For the birthday cards and stuff. Haha Tell Jared and the Braven team "thanks for the package" Its just what i wanted! Two chicken feet! hahaha gross....    added note: "Craig brought home, from his China trip, pickled chicken feet for everyone at Braven office.  So Jared boxed one up for Chris' Birthday and mailed it to him.  We all thought it was hilarious especially since Chris is living on 'Winged Foot Dr'"

This week has been pretty crazy with transfers and all. Got my new companion Elder Reay. And since then we have been trying to settle in. Which makes this week seem like its been pretty slow with the work. But its all good. My new companion is Total opposite from Elder Gallegos! Elder Gallegos was kind of a slacker and did his own thing, which bugged me a bit. Elder Reay however is like to the letter! And its bugging me too. Like last night i wasnt able to write in my journal earlier so i started writing at like 10:25. And when 10:30 comes around (time for lights out) He goes and turns off the lights. While im writing! and says its time for bed! It doesnt sound like a big deal, but it was making me frustrated! Anyways hes pretty loud and obnoxious sometimes but its starting to mellow out and i know we can become good friends. The same thing happened with Elder Gallegos (different story but same principle) and we have become great friends.

So sorry i didnt email yesterday. It was memorial day and everywhere we could go to email was closed. But it turned out to be a way fun P-day! we had a tri-ward picnic and to start it off they did a 5k at 7:30am. I ran it with one of the AP missionaries and kept up pretty well. Later they had the actual picnic so went and had a ton of food and talked with a bunch of people. but we left early to go play frisbee golf with our zone leaders. It was way fun! like hole 9 it started to rain insanely hard! but that didnt stop us! we finished playing in pouring rain and were Soaked!!! After that we went and played basketball at the church, but since our shoes and socks were soaked we decided to play barefoot... Bad idea! with the 5k and barefoot basketball, my entire lower body is Sore! Hopefully that doesnt affect the work today. just so you know... It wont! ill be pressing forward!!

As for our investigators... We are meeting with Jeremy tonight. Jennifer didnt come to church... again. so we are going over to her house today to set things straight. Nick is our most progressing investigator! we had an awesome lesson this last week! The spirit was there so much and i know he felt it and he was telling us how he knows he needs to change. like stop smoking and drinking and he say that everything we are teaching him makes sense. so we invited him to be baptized and he kind of avoided it but he said that when he does prary about it he knows he'll get an answer if its true or not. so keep him in your prayers. He will be awesome!

Well i think thats all. I love you guys! also, I know theres not a lot of big opportunities to do missionary work in utah but i know there are little ones, so take advantage of all of them because its the greatest! it doesnt have to be handing out a Book of Mormon, but just inviting someone to church or helping someone who is struggling can make the biggest difference. i heard a quote from a leaving missionary this transfer and i love it.

"Jesus Christ bled from every pore for us. Let us sweat from every pore for him."

Love you guys.

P.S. My birthday is on friday so.... do with that what you will.

May 20, 2013

Mckays farewell was this sunday?! He is going to do awesome! 

hmm.. what to say about this week. It was pretty busy this week. Nothing to really say about it other then that. On wednesday we went tracting basically all day and got 6 return appointments. We knocked on this guys door and it turns out he is a pastor for a non-denominational christian church. So we had a pretty long discussion with him and we are going back this week to visit him. We also ran into this lutheran Elder and it was interesting. We talked to him for a bit and then i asked him what lutherans think about mormons and it turned into a discuss/argue the differences between grace? and our religion. i think its weird that No One (as in other religions) believes in the premortal existence. talking to other people about their religion really builds my testimony in ours.

On saturday we had an appointment with Jeremy. He likes to mess with us. Last time we expected a simple dinner and his entire family showed up! On saturday we thought just a simple discussion, but he knew we were coming so he invited his friend over and he showed us an anti-mormon video. It was so stupid. it was basically a He-Man cartoon trying to explain mormons. it had some truth, but most of it was just crazy dumb! We talked with his friend, who thinks he knows everything about religion, but i honestly don't think hes read the bible a bit.

Later that night we got transfer calls... Im staying in O'Fallon and Elder Gallegos is leaving. Both the sister in our ward are leaving, which makes me the only one left. Transfers aren't until wednesday but my new companion is going to be Elder Reay. I hope hes cool. Hes going to finish up my "training" but since Elder Gallegos didn't really train me. Its probably going to end up being a game of catch up. Its fine though, Elder Gallegos taught me a lot and im sad to see him go. Its definitely going to be different though. For the past like 2 weeks everytime we go to a dinner appointment or give a Member Lesson/Less Active lesson, Elder Gallegos just looks at me on the spot and says... "You got it Jones." I hate it. haha i never have prep time, so i basically have been giving the same lesson to everyone. That will probably change over this next transfer though.

I hope you all are enjoying the beautiful weather! I love you guys.

Love, 

~Elder Chris Jones~

P.S. in the picture is my district, (until wednesday of course.) and my two Zone leaders Elder Eells and Elder Orme. Elder Eells is going home on wednesday and he is the elder right behind me. Elder Orme will still be my Zone Leader and he is on the far right being a strong guy.

May 13, 2013

Hi Family!

It was so good to talk to you all yesterday! i really enjoyed it! added note:"The whole family came in for Mother's day and we spoke to Chris on Skype for two hours (we were waiting for his brother Ben to get here from work).  It was such a blessing for all of us to hear is voice and see how much he has already grown. His confidence is starting to shine through. Mission life has been good for him.  We laughed and giggled and enjoyed his conversation until the last 10 minutes, then we cried.  It was hard to say good-bye again."

I guess since i talked to you all yesterday ill just tell a quick expierience.

so last Monday we had dinner with this family but the mom is the only one who goes to church so everyone else is "less active." (the Father and Son) We had dinner, talked with the family, and then had a lesson at the end and left without thinking anything of it. Yesterday their son whos 17 or 18, comes to church. We figured it was just because of mothers day. so We go up to him and say hey glad you could come to church. And he says... Last week after you guys came over, i just felt  i needed to go on a mission!!!!!! SOOO SICCKKK!!! This Kid who has been less active for a long time is now deciding to go on a mission!! Because we visited him!

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass! Missionary work isnt always about finding people who have never heard of the gospel and giving it to them, but small things like visiting someone, or asking them simple questions, or just bearing your testimony, can have a big outcome! Great things ARE brought to pass.

Anyways, i hope you guys are doing great! I miss you and i love you!

Love, 

~Elder Chris Jones~

May 6, 2013

Hello Family!!!

Guess what happens on sunday?!?! Mothers day!! I cant wait!!! We're not really sure where or when we are going to be skyping, but i think the plan is 5:00pm our time. so 4:00 there. So be on then and if anything changes i will let you know. we should know by the end of the day so if i can get back to the computer, i will let you know.

So first off, let me apologize for "gloating" about tearing it up on a bike last week. I was taught humility quickly and on tuesday i got two flat tires... on the same tire. haha

So i guess i pinched the tire or something but when we came out from an appointment i had a flat tire with a gash in the side. so i ended up buying a new tire and tube. Everything was good and we headed off to visit this guy. We put our bikes down and when we came back outside, my tire was flat... again. so we had to walk it over to the bike shop and i guess i ran over an arrowhead shaped piece of glass and i had to buy another tube. So with the new tire and two new tubes i ended up spending over $50 that day. 

Speaking of biking, while biking last week, we had this funny expierience. so we were going to visit this guy and we had to make a left turn. So we got into the turn lane, and down the road in front of us comes this guy riding a blue bullet bike with no shirt on. And as soon as he sees us he stands up, lets go of the handle bars and makes prayer hands at us while he coasts by! hahaha so funny!!! it was awesome!

Had a couple exchanges this week so i lived out of a suitcase for a couple days first with the zone leaders and then with the other Elders in our district. After my last exchange we had a zone leader/district leader meeting and good news! i finally got my Ukulele! bad news... its broken. the neck pulled away from the body. so im in the process of getting that fixed. and in the mean time im just using my companions. We went to the music store like a week ago and now my companion is going to buy a banjo! its going to be way sweet! hes wanted to learn how to play one forever and he found one there pretty cheap so now is his chance.

Let me tell you a little bit about our investigators. Jeremy, is this guy who fell away from the church but his dad is like a bishop or something in colorado. so he has had missionaries over a lot in the past, and our bishop actually married him and his wife. The other day we had a lesson with him and it was probably the most spiritual lesson i've had on my mission so far! Hes going to get baptized.

Rob is this guy who works night shifts at target and has basically been drunk for 49 years. when we visited him he finished off a beer, started another one, and when we left he said he was going to the bar to drink some more. He had a car accident back in the day and it left him with a brain injury so even when hes not drunk, he still sounds drunk when he talks. but he said his liver is shot and he wants to change. So what better way then the gospel of Jesus Christ? Hes going to get baptized.

I dont know. we have a couple of investigators but only like 3 of them are progressing really well right now.

One thing i've learned while i have been out here, is understanding brings love. I have gained a better understanding of the scriptures, and i love them. i have gained a better understanding of my companion and we have become great friends.

The more you understand something the more you care about it and the more love you can have for it or them.

Well i love you guys i hope everything is going well! i cant wait for sunday! and ill let you know the details later!

Love, ~Elder Chris Jones~