Elder Kevin Jones: 600 Volkswagens- week 58, 56 weeks in Phoenix AZ Mission, 8 weeks in Glendale

600 Volkswagens- week 58, 56 weeks in Phoenix AZ Mission, 8 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

Last week was great. It was slower than normal, but it was still a
great week. My birthday Monday was awesome. I'll write more about
it in my letter. Anyway, it feels weird to be 20. I feel like I should
be starting my freshman year of high school. Oh well—half way to 40!
:) Here was my week!

Monday: My 20th birthday! It was a normal pday. We went and played
sports at the stake center. It was supposed to be "district wars"
meaning district against district, but one companionship—you know who
you are—decided not to go so the teams were uneven. Oh well! After
pday Chris from my last area came to Glendale and took Elder Thaut and
me out to dinner! Her aunt, uncle, mom, stepdad, and a couple cousins
were there to celebrate! They also had a couple birthdays in their
family so we all celebrated together at Chili's. It was a great night.
I really enjoyed catching up with Chris and talking to her again. I
miss teaching her; she is probably my favorite person I've met on my
mission. After dinner we went out with a kid named Juan, a priest in a
neighboring ward. He's preparing for a mission next year and so he
comes out with all the missionaries whenever he can. Our lessons fell
through, but we got to talk to a couple cool people.
Temp: 94°F

Tuesday: Nothing too special happened today. We had a lesson with an
"eternal investigator" named Bill. He's awesome and loves
missionaries, but he just doesn't want to commit to changing his
religion. He feels the Spirit when we read the Book of Mormon with
him, but he doesn't read on his own. I feel like if he does, he'll
gain a testimony. Something cool happened that night. We went on
splits and I went with Brother Jones. After we made our visits, I told
Brother Jones that I loved Volkswagens. He is a mechanic, and he
showed me a ton of pictures of his old Beetles and the ones he has
restored. He told me that over his lifetime he has bought, restored,
and sold/kept almost 600 VW Beetles. He really likes to make them into
Baja Beetles. They were SWEET. Not only do we share a name, but we
shared the interest in Volkswagens. :)
Temp: 94°F

Wednesday: A full day of service. We started the day early and went to
do service at a senior center. Our whole zone participated in the
activity. Basically what we did was pass out food to people who needed
it. We stood behind the table and put food into peoples' bags. Some
were homeless, some were refugees, and some just needed some extra
help with food. After the line had gone through, we started talking to
a couple from Syria. I bet you can guess why they aren't there
anymore. They told us that they're Christians and lit up when they saw
"Jesus Christ" on our name tags. They told us in very broken English,
"Nobody in Syria Christian. You all angels. Thank you." It is so, so,
so awesome to be able to represent Jesus Christ Himself. Moments like
that keep me going. Then we went to help at the IRC again. Elders
Thaut and Gardner helped in the shop, and Elder Ogden and I folded
sheets, took things to the dumpster, and cleaned up. It was fun. After
dinner we went to an investigator's house for a lesson. We taught her
about families and she is super excited to learn more. She told us
that she used to work at Culver's, so I reminisced. :)
Temp: 94°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. After we planned we went out with Brother
Haight. He's new in the ward and is a very young guy. He's newly
married. All four of our lessons happened and we got along great with
him. It turns out that he plays Munchkin with his friends when they're
all together, so they have like two expansions to the game. He let us
borrow an expansion! So we've been enjoying that. :) I think this is
the first time in a while where no appointments cancelled!
Temp: 96°F

Friday: Mission tour! Elder Foster and Elder Montoya, both from the
First Quorum of the Seventy, came and spoke to us! The biggest thing I
got out of the meeting was when Elder Foster told us, "You only have a
short time to be a missionary, but a whole eternity to look back on
how you spent your time." That struck me. I think I can do better at
working my hardest all the time. There were other great insights from
the meeting, but that was the biggest one for me. We had a couple
lessons cancel, but we did get to see Mike, a recent convert we
baptized right after I got into the area. He is hilarious. We had a
great discussion about the Priesthood.
Temp: 98°F

Saturday: Lots of food. Javier, a recent convert in our ward, fed us
and four other missionaries in the zone breakfast! Home made flour
tortillas with chorizo and beans! It was soooooo good! Then we almost
went straight to lunch with the Spanish elders. I was so full. Later
in the evening one of our lessons cancelled, but we had a great lesson
with the Costa family, who were baptized in April. They're going
through a lot, but it's amazing to see their faith. It's a testimony
builder for sure.
Temp: 98°F

Sunday: Church, studies, dinner, finding. Not too much to report here.
Haha! One cool thing did happen, though! David, the guy who has a
baptismal date for October 10, came to church! He loved it! We were
worried because it was the primary program and his first Sunday, but
he loved it. He wants to come back.
Temp: 101°F

That was my week! Sorry it wasn't that interesting. I hope you all
have a great week. Thanks for all of the prayers and support. I can
truly feel them on a daily basis. Stay awesome!

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Elders Jeong, & Jones at Mission Tour

8 zones at mission tour w/ 2 of the 70 to speak. Elder Jones is on the top row 5th from left in a pink tie! I think that is the tie McKay Prestwich gave him when he was serving in Webb City.