We Found A Family!!--Week 102-- 100 Weeks in Phoenix Mission-- 15 Weeks in Buckeye

We Found A Family!!--Week 102-- 

100 Weeks in Phoenix Mission-- 15 Weeks in Buckeye

Dear friends and family,

We had a really good week! Looking at our schedule ahead, my last
three weeks in the mission are gonna be jam packed with fun and
awesomeness! My letter may be kinda short this week, but oh well!


Family!!
We were just minding our own business last week and we got a text from
a member saying her friend and her kids are interested in having us
come by! So we took a member with us to her house on Tuesday. She had
fixed us lasagna (we just came from a dinner appointment....) so we
ate our second dinner with her and shared a message with her and her
family. Frances, the mom, speaks many languages. To name a few, she
speaks English, French (fluently), Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and
Italian. She has four kids, all speak English, Japanese, and one
speaks French. Such a neat family. Unfortunately, the kids' dad isn't
too happy with them going to church, so we are all praying his heart
will be softened so they can come to church as a family and be
baptized. I'm sure it will happen if the kids tell him how much they
love church. We'll see! In the mean time, we are SO excited to teach
them!

Baptism
We got to go to the baptism of one of Elder Gunnell's converts in
Phoenix! Two of my favorite missionaries, Sisters Haymond and
Casagrande took over his area AND the French work so I got to see them
at the baptism! Man, reunions are so fun. Plus, I got to ride around
in my first area! It was weird—I felt like I was being trained again.
I hadn't been back to that church building in 18 months. Definitely a
trip!!

Upcoming temple trips
We are going to the Phoenix temple with my favorite member family, the
Marr's, this Wednesday! They are like carbon copies of my parents,
just a few years older! Brother Marr's personality is identical to my
dad's, and Sister Marr's personality is identical to my mom's! I can't
wait for them to meet my parents when I come visit. Funny
story--Sister Marr HATES getting up early and when I asked if they
could take us to the temple this week they happily agreed. When I told
Sister Marr it was at 7am, Sister Marr said, "You're lucky I love you,
Elder Jones!!" Hahaha. Apparently it's a big deal that she'll be
getting up so early. It's so funny! Then, on August 5th, our zone will
be going to the temple with President Griffin for achieving our
baptism goal. Then, on August 9th, I'll be able to go with Elder
Gunnell's old zone since he gets to go back. So, in my last three
weeks, I get to go to the temple THREE times! So exciting.

Bye Bye, Bike!
I got to ship my bike home. That was such a wonderful experience for
me! I'll just leave it at that!!

Zone conference
We had a fabulous zone conference this week. The assistants led a
discussion about "What I wished I knew my whole mission" and we had a
great discussion on how we can improve. The older missionaries were
able to give the younger missionaries lots of advice I wish I had when
I came in! Then President Griffin got up and talked about how we can
choose our path. We must choose to follow the correct path. If we
don't have a vision of where we want to go, then it doesn't matter
what path we take. When we have the gospel, we have our desired
destination. It was really moving. I enjoyed it a lot. Plus, I got to
see a lot of old companions. In fact, ALL of my companions who are
still in the mission (except Elder Young) were there. Yes, Mom, I got
a picture. You're welcome! :)

Sheet music
My good friend Patience, who is a senior this year on the Webb City
drumline, sent me the snare sheet music for this year's marching show.
I figured I'd learn it and play around with it. Thank goodness it's a
pretty easy show, because my skills have decreased so much. Haha!


Well, that was my week! Everyone wish my wonderful mother a happy
birthday! She turns 29 on the 28th! (Ha ha....) And also, my best
friend ever turns 20 on the 29th! Happy birthday Jessica! You're the
best friend anyone could ask for!! I hope everyone has a great week.
God speed!!
Just 3 more weeks! Until then, I remain a dedicated servant of the Lord.


Much love,

Elder Jones
Buckeye 1st & Sundance Wards
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Elder Jones and 5 of his past and current companions- Elders Gunnell, Thames, Thaut, Bradshaw, Flynn

Cleaning their car

Elder Jones' companions, Thames and Gunnell

Smile!

Lunch w/ the boys!

Not sure why Elder Jones is with the birthdays since his isn't until September.  Maybe sneaking an extra gift?

Hands up!!

Zone Conference

Elder jones being silly on Thaut's shoulders

Bike loaded into Chris' car before she shipped it home.

Elders Jones and Flynn.  He was Kevin's 3rd companion, when he 1st served in Peoria.

Current Companions

acting silly

Brother and Sister Marr took Took Elder Jones and companions to the temple.

Elder Jones at Phoenix Temple

Taking the Back Seat - Week 101-- 99 Weeks in Phoenix Mission -- 14 weeks in Buckeye

Taking the Back Seat - Week 101--

 99 Weeks in Phoenix Mission -- 14 weeks in Buckeye

Dear friends and family,

Greetings from good old Buckeye, AZ. Things are going well here! I
wish I could tell you we had the greatest week ever, but it was pretty
normal. Here goes.


Exchange
I was able to go on exchanges with a Elder Davenport in his area. He
took a Elder Thaut's place two weeks ago. We taught a couple lessons
and visited some people. We tracted (knocked doors) for an hour or so
and met a lady who only spoke Spanish. I got to ask if she wants
Spanish missionaries and she understood me and said yes! It was pretty
cool! I served with Elder Davenport in Glendale so it was cool to
catch up with him again. We also did some service with the zone
leaders, Elders Weston and Thaut. They are Sooo fun to be around.

Interviews
We had interviews with President and Sister Griffin last week. He
prefaced our interview by saying he's not going to trunk me out by
talking about home. He's gonna save that for my exit interview. Funny
story though, when I went in for my little interview with Sister
Griffin she said, "So, you excited to go home?!" Haha so obviously
they didn't coordinate the message :) But it's okay. It's gonna take a
lot more than that to "trunk me out."

Stepping back
It's really really hard stepping back and letting my companions take
the lead in situations. I'm so used to being the leader having been
the senior companion almost my whole mission besides like five months.
President wants me to let Elder Gunnell and Elder Thames take over and
lead. I usually know what to say and I want to say it, but then I
remember what my wonderful trainer, Elder Jeong, would do to help me.
He would let me lead. He would let me make decisions. He would let me
mess up so I could learn. I'm grateful for his example of how to be a
good follower—while still leading and teaching. You da best, Elder
Jeong! :)

Awesome call
Last week we got a call from a member telling us about a lady named
Frances who wants us to come by. Well turns out she's a single mom
with like three kids who is interested in the Church! She said she
would not be able to attend church because of work and custody stuff
with the dad. However, by the grace of God, they switched the day Mom
has the kids to weekends! So they can come to church! We have our
first meeting with them tomorrow night. I can't wait.

Lessons
We were able to meet with quite a few people this week, but mostly the
normals. Stephanie is doing great! She's progressing to her
patriarchal blessing and will be attending the temple to do baptisms
here in a couple weeks. She is SO solid!


Well that's about it. Thank you all for your support and prayers. I
can definitely feel it. Stay classy, Y'all. Keep prayin.


Much love,

Elder Jones
Buckeye 1st & Sundance Wards
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Zone

giving directions to Chris

Crazy zone picture

1 MONTH to go!

Companions

My hamburger boy has turned into a steak man!

Elder Thames

Elder Gunnell

Chris and Elder Jones  Favorite member from Peoria.

 

Cue Last Transfer!--Week 100-- 98 weeks in Phoenix Mission- 13 weeks in Buckeye

Cue Last Transfer!--Week 100--

98 weeks in Phoenix Mission- 13 weeks in Buckeye

Dear friends and family,

Greetings heroes and villains, things are going swell out here in the
Buckeye Kingdom! We had a few miracles this week and I can't be more
excited for my last transfer. We have a lot of potential this coming
transfer. Plus I got another companion so that's cool!


New companion
Because Elder Thames and I are both going home at the same time,
President put another elder with us so he can take over the area when
we go home. Elder Gunnell is my new companion and we are getting along
great! He has been out for nine months and is from Shakopee,
Minnesota. He's a cool kid who played League of Legends just like me.
So we have plenty to talk about. It's been a while since I've had a
companion who played video games! I'm excited to get to know him
better and show him around our area!

Ladonna miracle!
We have been teaching a lady named Ladonna for a long time. She is
what we call an "eternigator," or an eternal investigator. We stopped
by her place and taught her a powerful lesson on church attendance.
She committed to come to church (which she has done multiple times,
but never showed up). WELL SHE ACTUALLY CAME. AND LOVED IT. She said
she would be back next week and we set up another time to see her. She
is progressing!!! Such a cool miracle. The members were so happy to
see her at church.

Service
We got to do some more service for the Gomez family! They are
remodeling their house so we went by and helped him move some bricks
and painted some of his house! We'll be going by again this week to
help him paint more.

Baptism!!
Rusty and Liz from my last area were baptized!! Although they wanted
me to baptize them, I couldn't go to the baptismal service because I
have been gone from that area for more than six weeks. Kinda sad that
I didn't get to go since they're two of my absolute favorites, but
they were still baptized and apparently all went well! They sent me a
picture of them after the baptism with their current elder, Elder
Wille. It's only fitting that they were baptized by one of my favorite
elders, Elder Wille! Rusty, after he was baptized, let a rubber ducky
go in the font just like he promised. I told him he wouldn't do it. He
did it. He's a legend. I love those people so much!


So that was my week! I love you all and appreciate your kind words and
prayers. I'm excited to finish strong. #REKT


MUCH LOVE,

Elder Jones
Buckeye 1st & Sundance Wards
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Kevin and his 2 companions Elders Thames and Gunnell

The three Musketeers

Rusty, Elder Wille, and Liz at their baptism. HE LET THIS DUCKY GO

Restoration Jenga with Stephanie!

New district photo!

Weekly Selfie

 

And Then There Were 3...Week 99- 97 weeks in Phoenix Mission-- 12 weeks in Buckeye

And Then There Were 3...Week 99-  

97 weeks in Phoenix Mission-- 12 weeks in Buckeye

Dear friends and family,

This week was pretty average, so I'm sorry if it's a lame email! Here goes!

Transfers
So we got our transfer news! Elder Thames and I will be joined by a
third elder, Elder Gunnell. I don't know much about him but I'm
excited to meet him and spend my last transfer with him! Speaking of
which.....last transfer.....yikes things are getting real.

Service
We did quite a bit of service! Last Tuesday we helped our ward mission
leader and his wife clean out their garage. Brother Woodruff is blind,
so it was fun to help out! He is amazing. It is incredible how many
things he does as if he could see. He helped us lift things, sort
through things, and put things away. All while not being able to see.
Yeah, he's amazing. Plus, it was like 110°F while we were cleaning out
the garage.
We also got to help the Gomez's again by finishing up painting in
their house. They had us over to help and then fed us burgers for
lunch! They're really fun people to be around. Both are high school
teachers so it was nice to pick their brains about how to be a good
teacher.

July 4th
Well we had a pretty lame Independence Day! After we helped the
Gomez's with their house, we just kinda......hung out because we
couldn't go out and proselyte after 6. So we had dinner and hung out.
Haha. HARDCORE! I did, however, wear my American flag tie. See
attached picture. :)

Lessons
We had lessons with most of the same people. We got to meet with
Ladonna finally after not meeting with her for about a month. We'll
see if our next appointment holds through with her!
Stephanie is doing great as a recent convert. She continues to learn
every day and accepts the gospel more and more. She is already seeing
the blessings in her life! Man, I love being able to promise people
blessings and have God follow through!! She's excited to go to the
temple for baptisms and she's already super eager to get her
patriarchal blessing! She is progressing—FAST.

Well that was my week! Sorry it was a short letter. I look forward to
my last transfer with new opportunities to learn and grow!
#FinishStrong


Much love,


Elder Jones
Buckeye 1st & Sundance Wards
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Abnormal district picture

Normal district picture

Stormy day in Buckeye!

Happy Fourth!