Elder Kevin Jones: Blood Moon, week 59, 57 weeks in Phoenix, AZ mission, 9 weeks in Glendale

Blood Moon, week 59, 57 weeks in Phoenix, AZ mission, 9 weeks in Glendale

Dear friends and family,

Greetings from Arizona! I bet you're all experiencing nice, fall
temperatures. HA. WE'RE NOT!! But that's okay because although they
aren't "fall temperatures", they're falling temperatures. A couple
days were pretty unbelievably nice. Then summer was like, "NOPE NOT
DONE YET!!" We had a pretty cool experience with the blood moon
yesterday. I'll send pictures and I'll talk about it in my letter.
Anyway, enough rambling—here was my week!

Monday: Pday. The normal stuff happened. Elder Ogden cut my hair and
we played sports at the stake center. Like I said before, I'm a huge
fan of speedball. It's a mix between basketball and soccer. Pretty
fun!! After pday was over we went to the Pope family's home to teach
them about the Word of Wisdom. The lesson went well like always.
They're an awesome family and have really grasped the gospel since
they've been coming back and since Sister Pope and Caden were
baptized. After the lesson we went out finding and biking.
Temp: 89°F

Tuesday: We got a new table today. We finally have a table to eat on
and we no longer have to use a box! Hahaha. We made a couple visits
and taught Christine and Bill. Bill received some bad news on his
health so that was super sad. He wasn't feeling well during our lesson
so we made it pretty short. I'm sure he'd appreciate a prayer on his
behalf. After that lesson we had a few minutes before dinner so we
knocked on a potential investigator's door. A lady answered and was
super friendly. She let us in and it turns out she's a member. We
asked if we could help them with anything and she pointed to her
brother and said, "You could teach him, he's not a member. He could
use the company!" He accepted the invitation to have us teach him. It
was a pretty cool experience! After dinner we went on splits but no
one answered. Oh well.
Temp: 86°F (Amazing!!)

Wednesday: A pretty good day. In the morning everyone in my apartment
except me decided to update to iOS 9. I didn't for some reason. Well
it was good I didn't because their iPads all froze up and wouldn't
work! They had to reset them all! It took like 3 hours...haha. So I'm
going to update mine tomorrow just in case it doesn't work. They told
us the problem had been fixed, but I'm going to wait just in case. I
don't want to sacrifice my precious email time... :) After dinner we
had three lessons! One with Gabby, one with the Barton family, and one
with David. David's was pretty great. We have taught him almost
everything now. We shared the law of tithing with him. He said that
has always been a difficult principle for him, but that he would be
willing to live the law. It was a great lesson.
Temp: 96°F

Thursday: Weekly planning. Had a great dinner with the Gomez family. I
just love them. They feed us every other Thursday night. The best
night of the week!! After dinner we went out with our ward mission
leader, Brother Clawson, to make some visits. We had a lesson with a
returning member. We then visited one of his home teaching families.
It turns out that their daughter was hit by a car and is really shaken
up. We gave her a blessing on their doorstep. It was a really cool
experience. Holding the Priesthood of God truly is a great blessing.
Temp: 103°F

Friday: I went to Peoria today! I had an appointment in Peoria IN MY
OLD AREA! It was pretty weird to be there again. I felt like I was
back at 6 months out!! It was funny to be with Elder Rodriguez
again—in Peoria—on exchanges. Crazy. We then had a great district
meeting and great lessons with two recent converts. One of them,
Mike—the guy who got baptized my first week here—is awesome. He asked
us some questions and we gave him some answers. Plus he always gives
us a feast of junk food and soda during our visits. :) One of the
other wards had a baptism and we stopped by the church to get some
water and I saw President Juchau's car in the lot. He's a member of
the mission presidency. We left a note on his windshield that said,
"We love you, President Juchau!" And he texted us that night and said
that it made his day. So that made us feel pretty good!
Temp: 102°F

Saturday: Exchanges! I was with Elder Ogden in their area. Elder Ogden
is from Camdenton, MO so we reminisced about Missouri. Except he's
returning to Zion in like 3 weeks. We did a lot of finding and taught
a lesson. Had chipotle for dinner which is always a plus.
Temp: 103°F

Sunday: Nothing too exciting. We went to church and had ward council
after church. It was fast Sunday. A guy named Will came to church and
expressed his desire to have us teach him! Oh yeah! So we set up an
appointment with him for Tuesday. Had dinner with the Bleyls, one of
my favorite families. Afterward, there was a blood moon! Brother Bleyl
has a kick-butt camera so he was getting some sweet shots. He sent one
to me so I'll definitely attach it.
Temp: 102°F

So that was my week. I can truly feel the prayers and love. I hope you
all have a wonderful week and remember that the Lord loves you. He
knows you more that you know yourself. I have seen that so much
recently.

Much love,

Elder Jones
Black Canyon Ward
Arizona Phoenix Mission