Elder Kevin Jones: Birds and Baptisms 7th Pday in Peoria, 30th Pday in Phoenix

Birds and Baptisms 7th Pday in Peoria, 30th Pday in Phoenix

Hello, family and friends. Happy Tuesday P-Day! Elder Flynn and I are
both staying in the area. Yay! :) We had another great week. We had a
baptism! I'll write about it later in this email. It was great. Some
other funny things also happened that I will write about. Let's get
started!!

Monday: Typical P-Day stuff. After dinner we were supposed to have a
lesson with Alberto, our 17 year-old investigator, but we never heard
back from him with his address. Apparently he was in the hospital
so....yeah. We're definitely praying for him. He's a great kid with
true desire. We heard he's doing okay, though so that's good. We
knocked on a potential's door named Lydia and she answered! She said
we can come back and teach her. She is interested in learning about
our faith. We were able to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of
Mormon and she said she's interested. Good day.
Temp: 90°F

Tuesday: Happy St. Patrick's Day! I wore a green tie and let Elder
Flynn borrow one of my other green ties haha. He doesn't have very
many! It's depressing! We met with Pedro and he said he's all good for
baptism and we worked out the logistics. Megan was sick so she had to
cancel her lesson. We instead met with a recent convert, Chris. She's
struggling a little bit, but she is great. I feel like she is trusting
me since I've been over there a few times now. I replaced an Elder who
was here for like 9 months, so it was a change for everyone! Oh, and
she gave us some Girl Scout cookies. Score!
Temp: 91°F

Wednesday, Eh, pretty slow day. After studies we went to our Oakwood
ward mission leader's (Brother Wincek's) house to discuss our week
because our coordination meeting was cancelled. We also discussed
Pedro's baptismal program. Brother Wincek is the best. Hahah he's just
always happy and on top of things. We had some awesome burgers for
dinner at a member's home. Burgers never get old! We've been having
them more recently and I can't complain! Our lesson with Sandra
cancelled so we just went finding on splits. Nothing too special haha.
Temp: 81°F

Thursday: We weekly planned, but it wasn't the typical weekly planning
session. About 15 minutes into our planning session, (we plan outside)
we hear birds squawking at each other and fighting. We run over to
break it up and they all fly away. A minute later, one bird just flies
down and lands on the table next to us. I guess it had a broken foot
or something from the fight and it couldn't fly away. It proceeded to
squawk as loud as possible right next to us. It was so strange. It was
absolutely terrified of us. It couldn't really fly away and we were
just staring at it. It finally flew into the air and we followed it
out front where it "landed" on the ground. It couldn't walk, so it
just lay there. We didn't know what to do! Neither of us could get the
courage to just kill it and end its suffering. It was stuck in the
middle of the road and I think if managed to fly over the neighbor's
fence. I'll attach a picture of the madness. It was wild, that's for
sure. So we went to Chick-fil-a for dinner and they were giving away
free ice cream. #inspired. We contacted an investigator who was super
solid but dropped her baptismal date two days before the baptism. That
happened a couple weeks before I got here. She was happy to see us and
she set up a time for us to come back! Oh yeah! Also inspired.
Thursday was choc-full of awesome things!
Temp: 70°F (rainy)

Friday: After studies we had district meeting and stuff. It was a
great meeting! A returned missionary from the Spanish ward came and
talked to us a little bit. He was pretty awesome. After the meeting,
we stuck around and prepared for Pedro's baptism. We had dinner with
Chris. She took us to Culver's and man, that hit the spot. Elder Flynn
couldn't get over how good his chocolate Oreo concrete was. He
probably told me how good it was about 50 times haha. After dinner we
had a great lesson with Britney. She's getting a lot better health
wise. She should be able to come to church this week! When we were
biking home from dinner, an unmarked police car drove past us on the
road and came on his loudspeaker and said, "Evening, Elders." It was
pretty dang sweet. I felt pretty good after that hahaha.
Temp: 81°F

Saturday: BAPTISM!!! Pedro was baptized by his girlfriend's dad and it
was spectacular. His journey to baptism has been long because his
parents weren't that supportive and kept telling him to wait. One day
he just told them that he's getting baptized. It was awesome!! Haha.
I'll attach a picture. After the baptism the Winceks took us to lunch
at a delicious deli. It's a definite lunch spot. It was packed! Dinner
was rough because we had just stuffed our faces 2 hours before. We
made it happen though. Sandra cancelled our appointment again.
Temp: 84°F

Sunday: Church was great. Pedro got confirmed and I got to stand in on
the ordinance. It's so amazing because he had been waiting to be a
member for over six months. He couldn't be happier to be baptized and
confirmed. We had dinner with the Chase family and it was awesome.
They have four teenage kids so it was pretty refreshing to just talk
to them. Plus they made some delicious chicken. It was grrrreat.
Leah's lesson had to cancel because of a fireside that she went to.
She's so involved! We went finding for the rest of the night--nothing
too exciting.
Temp: 88°F

Monday: NOT P-day...haha. We had a lesson with Pedro in the afternoon
and we read the Book of Mormon with him. He committed to read the
whole book by graduation which is really soon....if he can do it I'll
be extremely impressed. Haha. We had dinner with the Wrights, who
served a couples mission in Independence. They were involved with the
Kansas City temple! I told them I was in the Celebration and they
remembered out act! They even had a book about the Temple. (mom and
dad: the same one we have!) I got a picture with it so I'll send it.
We had a lesson with Megan and taught some more commandments. She's
been sick recently too. She's feeling better, though!
Temp: 84°F

That was my week! This week is supposed to get up to 97°F so pray for
my white skin....haha. Love and miss you all. I appreciate all of the
support and prayers. Have a wonderful week! I love getting mail so if
you need my address, just ask my mom or myself.

Much love,

Elder Jones
Oakwood / Centennial Wards