3rd pday in Phoenix

Hello, Mom and Dad! Your son is getting a tan! Not Sam, not Charles;
but Kevin! :) It's been hot AND humid this week. We're supposed to get a ton of rain starting  tomorrow through thursday from the hurricane. Apparently there's a
hurricane—I didn't know. Haha.
Every time I tell people I'm from Joplin, MO when they ask they say,
"Oh man, that's where the tornado was..." So I tell them about that.
There was someone in the Moon Mountain ward who served in the Oklahoma
Tulsa Mission and served in Joplin during the tornado. So everyone
here knows about it. His missionary house was destroyed. Funny story,
his name was Elder Jones too.... He's in the YSA ward so I haven't met
him. He heard that the new Elder is from Joplin and his parents say he
wants to meet me. I think he was in Joplin 1st.
This week was pretty slow. We had a great lesson about patriarchal
blessings with our recent convert, James. He's such a great guy. He's
already preparing to get the Melchizedek priesthood. He does family
history and already has tons of names for the temple. We're gonna go
sometime around The beginning of October. James is keeping me going
through the slow week. No one answers when we go visit them, everyone
cancels appointments, no one wants to get baptized. The Lord is
testing my patience, but like Nephi, I know The Lord gives no commands
to His children save he shall prepare a way that we can accomplish it.
The guy I street contacted hasn't answered the door yet. I'm not
giving up! Haha. We biked 28 miles Saturday. It was 108 degrees and
humid. It was insane. I drank SO Much water.
Hahahahahaha that guy who was excommunicated......let's just say he's
not meeting with us anymore. He got super mad when we brought a member
of the bishopric to his lesson (which we have to with excommunicated
members) and he blamed us for his not coming back — we didn't feel bad
at all. He was acting like a baby. He'll come back when he's truly
ready.

I got everyone's gifts. I love them. It was Sister Simon's birthday on
the 14th too! She turned 81 and took Elder Jeong and me out to lunch
to a FANTASTIC Mexican restaurant names Mackayo's. It puts Del Rio to
shame.

Tonight to tomorrow night is my first exchange. I'm going South to the
Cactus View ward to spend the day with our district leader, Elder
Syndegaard. He's awesome. I am gonna learn so much from him! Wish me
luck! And yeah, the swimming pool is really nice :( haha.  (TOO bad he can't swim in it!)  We run about
1 mile a day. I hate it. I'm learning to love it. Slowly but surely.

oh! Can you send my drumlins jacket? Apparently it's gonna start
getting chilly in the mornings. Thanks :) I got the big package, but
not the LDS.org one yet. And thanks for the new shirt—I love it.
Wrinkle free, no iron! Just how I like it!

Have a good one. I love you so much, send my love to my siblings and
Grandma. :) I'll be praying for your surgery, Mom.

Much love,

Elder Jones