Elder Kevin Jones: Miracles!!! 54 weeks on Mission, 52 Weeks in Phoenix, 4 weeks in Glendale

Weekly apartment mates selfie!

Miracles!!! 54 weeks on Mission, 52 Weeks in Phoenix, 4 weeks in Glendale

Hello, friends and family! This week had a couple miracles that were
amazing to watch. I felt like a true servant of the Lord as we
participated in helping God bring His children to Him. We also had
interviews with President Griffin, which is always a highlight. Here
was my week!

Monday: A pday full of absolutely nothing. Haha. We emailed and played
Munchkin most of the day. After pday we went out and had a great
lesson with the Pope family. Man, I wish we could spend all night with
them. We shared a short message on the 10 Commandments. The Popes'
mother lives with them and she isn't a member of the Church. However,
she asked us why we were on a mission and how we found God. We both
bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Restoration. It was a pretty
cool experience. We then went out finding after the lesson but not too
much happened.
Temp: 109°F

Tuesday: Super funny experience. We went over to a referral that the
bishop gave us. It's for a lady who isn't a member but she lives in a
halfway house. We pulled up on our bikes after riding 30 minutes to
get there, and a lady about 1/4 of a mile away saw us pull up and
started yelling at us to get off the property. We told her to calm
down for a second and told her we're there to visit someone who ASKED
us to come by. She was mad that we actually had a reason and she still
told us to go away. So we told her we'll be back some other time then.
It was hilarious. Then on our way home for dinner a drunk guy stopped
us and said, "Are y'all Mormon or Latter-day Saints?" We told them
that "Mormon" is just a nickname for the Latter-day Saints. He wasn't
buying it. "NO. Are you MORMON or LATTER-DAY SAINTS?" I told him,
"Sir, we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints." And he said, "Thank you." And walked away. It was super
funny. After dinner we had splits. I went and taught David, the guy we
met at the mailbox. I was with Brother Christensen, an elder in our
ward. We taught the Plan of Salvation. He told us at our first lesson
he was a bit skeptical about Joseph Smith, but he said that as he read
the Book of Mormon something just "clicked." He said he believes it's
true. He accepted the Plan of Salvation too. By the Spirit, I invited
him to be baptized on September 26. He accepted. Earlier in the day we
were on our way to a 4 o'clock appointment and Elder Thaut turned down
a neighborhood road and said he felt prompted to visit a referral we
had gotten a week ago that hadn't answered the door yet. So we
knocked, no answer. Again, no answer. Once more, no answer. Confused,
we headed toward our bikes to leave. Then a little girl answered the
door! We asked to speak to her parents and her dad came out. He told
us that he is Baptist and wasn't really interested, but as we bore
testimony of the Restoration right there on his doorstep, his
countenance changed. He looked at us and said, "actually, yeah. You
guys can come by." The cool thing is that it's a family!! Oh yeah!
Temp: 106°F

Wednesday: Interviews with President Griffin! During interviews,
President asked me how long I had been out now. I said, "I don't know,
like two weeks?" He thought it was pretty funny. I told him I had been
out for a little over a year now. He said, "Wow, here pretty soon I'll
be sending you on an airplane back home!"—yikes. After dinner we had a
great lesson with Gabby, a 12-year old girl we're teaching. We put her
on a baptismal date for September 19!
Temp: 106°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. Not too much else. Had a great lesson with
a super solid recent convert, Frank.
Temp: 106°F

Friday: We had a great district meeting. President Juchau of the
mission presidency was there. Elder Flynn gave a really good
discussion on the Book of Mormon and having Christ as our foundation.
All of our lessons cancelled that night which was lame.
Temp: 103°F

Saturday: The night of miracles. The day was pretty slow so I'll just
skip to the night. We felt prompted to go visit some people in the
bottom of our area which is a rougher area. And it was night time, so
we knew it was by the a Spirit. We didn't have a lot of luck until
about 8pm. As we were walking back to our bikes, a car pulled up next
to us and there were two ladies in the car and they asked us to visit
their brother. They pulled over and walked us up to his apartment. His
name is Martin and he has had a lot of challenges recently, and has
turned to God. He has been looking for a church but nothing had stuck
out at him yet. We sat down with him and talked about the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, focusing on baptism. He said that he really wants to be
baptized and start new. We invited him to be baptized on September 19.
He accepted. The Spirit was tangible.
Temp: 103°F

Sunday: Martin came to church! He stayed for the whole 3-hour block
too. We will be visiting him tonightt. Went finding after dinner and
visited a super crazy guy. Enough said about him haha.
Temp: 104°F

What a week full of miracles! Thanks to all who have been praying for
me and for our success out here in Arizona. I miss you all so much but
I know this work is very important. Glendale can be very unpredictable
but I love all of the surprises that we encounter. It's good to have a
laugh every now and then too. :) Have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission