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