Elder Kevin Jones: The Super Bowl: Away From Home Edition

GO PATRIOTS!!!! This week was really pretty good. I'll go through my journal to review the specifics. I'll be randomly putting in, "GO PATRIOTS!!!" into my letter, so yeah. Not being able to watch the Game (capitalized because it SHOULD BE.) was pretty rough, but it was equally as exciting to hear about it from home. GO PATRIOTS!!!

Monday: It was P-day, and it went by suuuuuper fast. Like, the fastest one so far. It was basically a do-nothing-and-email P-day. I got a good nap in and made some killer brownies. They were delicious! After P-day we had a lesson with the Evans family. It was awesome! A priest named Drew came with us. He just turned 16 so it's cool to have him come out with us. He met us at their complex. He rode his longboard in his shirt and tie. What a cool kid haha. We also had one other lesson with Eliza, who is the 10 year-old. She really wants to get baptized!!

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Tuesday: We had zone conference! It was great. Three zones got together to have a conference with the mission presidency and the assistants. They focused a lot on setting goals and planning, which are my two weak spots. No matter how many discussions I get on them, I just don't plan very well! It's something I'm working on, though. I hope I'll be at least a decent planner by the end of my mission haha! In addition to the spiritual feast, I got to catch up with some missionary friends who are in different zones. Sadly, Elder Jeong wasn't at my zone conference....yeah we probably won't see each other very much since he's up in Flagstaff and I'm in the Valley. Joe had to cancel our lesson with him. Pretty average day.

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Wednesday: The day was great until I screwed up my left index finger. I'll get to that in a second. We had a good lesson with Joe and committed him to stop smoking by February 14 and to be baptized on Feb 28. Hopefully that will go well. He's having doubts that he will be able to quit, but we keep reassuring him that it is possible through the Atonement. We gave him a blessing to help with his addiction recovery. So after coordination meeting, we heard someone playing basketball. We opened the gym doors and it was a less-active 16 year-old kid who is part of the Evans family. He was playing by himself and we had a couple minutes, so we played a quick game of two-on-two. I reached for the ball and it jammed my finger hard. It seriously felt like I broke it for like two days. It was all bent weird and purple. Luckily it wasn't broken because it felt a lot better a couple days ago. I guess that's what I get for playing basketball on a Wednesday haha.

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Thursday: We had weekly planning all day. We planned in the mother's room at the church which was a brilliant idea. Those chairs are THE BEST! We planned all through the day and afternoon, and a member took us to Chipotle for dinner. I ate the whole burrito in like five minutes. I was still hungry afterward. To everyone who knows how big those are, yeah, that's pretty impressive. Elder Shurtleff looked over at me and was like, "WOW. That was fast..." Haha. We had exchanges that night with the Zone leaders. I was with Elder Burgoyne.

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Friday: I was in the zone leaders' area all day. It was cool because they have a truck! We taught an old guy named Wilbur that morning then went to district meeting. Elder Shurtleff gives great district meetings! A member took us to In-n-Out Burger AND IT WAS SO GOOD. It definitely hit the spot!! I hadn't had it since I was in Utah like two years ago. The truck was super nice and it was cool to bond with Elder Burgoyne since he goes home on Feb 10. I'm gonna miss him!

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Saturday: We had an open finding day so we knocked on two potential investigators' doors and both

answered. Neither doors were the people we were looking for, but both said we could come back. It was pretty weird because we hardly ever have any success in that apartment complex. I'm not complaining, though! We got a cool referral for a person who is less-active and her roomate. He isn't a member. They both want us to teach them! They even came to church on Sunday! Pretty sure we saw a land mine on the road...............it was beeping and scary looking. Haha.

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Sunday: SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! We went to church and after that we taught a less-active member. Since the Super Bowl was in Phoenix, we had to stay in after church and dinner. We met other Elders at the church and played some card games and played hide-and-seek. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PPPPPAAAAATTTTRRRRRIIIIIOOOOOTTTTTSSSSSS!!!!!! :) Can y'all tell I'm excited?!?!

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Anyway, it was a good week. Mom and Dad, could you send me a Patriots Super Bowl champion shirt when they come out? I would LOOOOVE IT! :D

Have a great week everyone. :)

Love,

Elder Jones