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