All ready to talk through SKYPE yippeee!

1. Are you shoes holding out and are you doing ok clothing wise still?

1.Yeah all that stuff is ok, but the soles are starting to go. They should last long enough.

2.Were you able to meet with the two white Father families last Wed?

2. Well we met with one and I was so nervous that I think I was trying a little to hard, but we did manage to get a return appointment with them for tomorrow.

3.What did you think of your Christmas stuff or are you still waiting to open it, they say missionaries never wait once they get packages.

3.Well I have been enjoying all of the stuff that wasn't wrapped, but all of the wrapped stuff is still waiting till Christmas.

Well I don't have much time to talk so I'll just have to fill you in during the phone call. I would really prefer not to do the video thing so we'll just talk.

This week has been really good. we had Dinner with a General Authority, Elder Watson, on Saturday and Sunday we listened to him talk. We also had a baptism combined with a little unorthodox wedding, which I'll have to give more details about that on Saturday. I love the family lots and can't wait to hear from you.

To our beloved brother serving the Lord on a mission.

We have been so so busy and can hardly wait to hear your cool accent. Anyway in response to some of the things you said in your last letter about the voice verses the video. I would hope that you change your mind about the video and use it because for Jer it would be so wonderful. Lately he has been asking why you are taking so long to come home and wants to see if you are ok, like physically there, which in a video would help. I understand if you have concerns about being able to see us and the possible loss of focus that could come because of it but I want you to know that I think you will be fine if that is one of your worries about seeing us actually. You will need to add my name as one of the couples contacts in order to access our lines and its just that simple.

Dad has had crazy week with lots of late late surgeries and will even be doing a few surgeries on Christmas eve and he is on call so we are all holding our breath as to what might happen this year.

This week was a bit trying on my bus job as one of the young men had to test if I would really go and get the Principal if he didn't sit in his assigned spot so after being horrible one day and skipping riding for two days and then trying the same shenanigans I had to keep my word and go get the big guys. Then to make if really cement hard he saw me in Ace hardware with his Dad and knew he was really in trouble. I think he will not be being naughty ever again since I went right up and made friends with his Dad but didn't rag him out or anything like that. Dad said wow that kid really didn't want to see you at all.

C hurt his shoulder last week so on Mon I took him to Sis Zufelt and he said it was crazy how afraid he has been since the rib break and it all just ran off him and by Wed night he was pretty ok. He pinned in what is called the Pink game against Richfield and then this weekend he had 5 matches and pinned 4 the one he lost was by 4 points to the a National ranked senior from Emery county, he was frustrated because he almost had him pinned and then he slipped out. The coaches didn't tell C who it was that he was going against but C said they were ringing there hands and talking all whispers so he like started to get suspicious and wondering what was going on. They told him after the match was over who he had just wrestled. He will go against him in Jan. at our school so I am going to try and video it then. C ended up taking 3rd place and getting a medal in the end this weekend up in summit county.

Mc was super glad we let him out of doing the Christmas dance if he would wrestle in Milliard county. Besides Dad had his work party that night so we really couldn't be in two places at once.

The boys started to collected pop cans to have money for Christmas presents and Mc ran head long into a whole slew of them. The Lady next door to a really messy spot of cans said if you come over and get one you have to get all of them and so the next day we brought the truck and they filled bags until they were over the cab of the red truck. They made 119.00 they were so thrilled so Sat we went shopping and they got presents for each other actually two each they were so smart with the things they got.

I was put back in as an assistant three year old teacher in primary of course its almost as if I never left anyway because Jer will not go without me anyway. I am kind of glad because he sometimes is pretty tough to handle when he gets an idea in his head of what he wants to do. We also have gotten rid of his Binky finally so he tends to be noisy with the fact that he won't whisper.

Tonight C was advanced to a life scout and hopefully I can get him to finish all his half completed badges. Mc went to a tenderfoot and got his first aid badge and then went camping the first time at the roller rink and learned about preparing for a mission. Then they went cross country skiing he had a blast.

Well this is going to be short because the little boys are trying to do the Gingerbread house alone and J is begging me to help her with some art homework. I hope this week is super great and fulfilling for you. Please consider the video and we will be ready on Sat early with the computer on and running. Waiting for what ever you end up choosing to do.

Love all of us.

Christmas Tradition Build Gingerbread Something!

Jer got to pick our gingerbread house AKA train this year. Here is C boy helping Jer start and the Mom holding all the cups filled with water to brace the pieces while the icing glue takes hold. Then the finished product which no one is supposed to partake of until Christmas day and after but for some reason that car always had an empty bed except for the minutes I filled it for the photo shot.

POP CAN Christmas!

This is the story of how to teach kids to get their own Christmas presents for their loved ones. Pick up pop cans off the sides of the road.

Run into a whole bunch at a neighbors house that the wind blew everywhere.

Clean up the yard for them and get to keep pop cans.

Turn them in to be recycled.

Make a bank roll of money because the price of recycling them went up and up.

Filling a truck bed above the cab even when half were smashed looks amazing.

Even Jer got in on the action collecting some that the other kids missed in the low lying weeds.
Taking them shopping was the funnest we have ever had, they got to buy two gifts this year for each other.

Preparing for Christmas, getting a tree.

Our family is a dieing breed we do go to the mountain and climb in the snow to get our Christmas tree. Of course we do a little snow play along with the getting.
The Christmas tree is a symbol to the world of Christ with it's needles pointing always towards the light of Heaven and it's ever green's and lovely scent of clean and pureness that is brings into your home. Just like how Christ gave a sacrifice for our sins the Christmas tree gives us a sacrifice by being cut and coming to our home in the season that we remember the birth of our brother Jesus Christ

Personal Testimonies of some in our family.

1.Dad says you know walking along fall in a hole or walking along and slip in a ditch has there been anything like that in what you would call a walking accident?
1.Well not that I can really think of. Just bicycle accidents. I've definitely got a lot of mud on my shoes recently because there is a lot of dirt roads in Motupa and it's the rainy season.

2.WHAT IS THE EXACT PRICE OF A BOTTLE OF SUNSCREEN please. We are all wanting to know by now, ok, make the conversion from their money to our money please.
2.Well I can't really answer that because I haven't shopped today yet. ( a tiny bottle is 17$ in our American money finally told to us over the phone.)

3. Please give us more detail on the Christmas tradition that means so much to you. The eating of any old kind of foods or just the breakfast stuff that is in your stocking because we never ever ever at any other time of the year are allowed pop tarts and carnation milk drinks. Or are you talking about the family get together dinners?
3.Exactly! the pop tarts and the carnation milk drinks!

4. Tell us what to do about the skype computer to computer and their name so I can add it to my list please.
4.Well I've never used skype, but I assume we can do the computer to computer thing and my Mission President ok'd the the video thing, but I'm not sure if I personally want to do that part. If it's ok with you maybe just the voice thing.

5. Who can be here for the calls?
5.Well I forwarded the the e-mail President Poulsen sent, but the answer really is none but family.

Well let me set something straight. I'm not sure if you understand correctly what I meant by fight for my testimony. My Testimony is solid! I've never had the testimony that I've had while here on mission. But that's just the thing isn't it. Out here I'm devoting all my attention to the Lord. Therefor my testimony is strong. What I meant is that if you want to have a strong testimony you have to fight for it. You have to keep the commandments. You have to study your scriptures and say your prayers. And on mission, you have to be obedient! The days when I do exactly what I'm supposed to and I don't let the Natural man get in, then I feel my testimony grow. The days that I give in to temptation and falter are the days I don't feel that growth. Most days I grow, and I strive everyday to do what the Lord expects. There are days where I could have done better and I could have said or done something more to improve the situation but I don't and those are the days that I struggle. Everyday is a day to improve :)

Anyway, for the week it was great. We, for the first time on my mission, organized and completed a wedding, so that our investigators could be baptized! It was really quite funny. Bro Manzini of the district council came to do the wedding and he even did the whole " you may now kiss the bride" thing and I'm not going to lie it was funny to see Dear Brother Samuel (50 something years old), and his wife kiss each other. It was even funnier to see Dear Bro Frans (68 years old) Stretch out to kiss his wife and his wife run away. She said she was to old, and that there were to many people around. Either way we had a blast, and they are now legally and lawfully married. This Friday was their interview and they past, but I was a little bit worried that this last Sunday, dec 12th, was going to be to soon and I didn't know what would happen if we asked them if we could move the date back, so I just prayed and asked God to help with the situation so that the best possible thing would happen and on Saturday, President Swanapoel asked if we could just move the baptism to the 19th. I'm pretty sure it was an answer to my prayers because it gave us a good reason to give Brother Samuel and Frans so they didn't even get frustrated or upset. The interview is still valid and they are very prepared, it's just that we now have one more week to speak with them, prepare them, and resolve any hidden challenges.
Well some more awesome stuff that happened is we Set TWO very solid appointments, with TWO white father led families in TOWN. Which doesn't happen very often. The first was a family we had met before and set an appointment with the wife, but when we went back they weren't home. So on Saturday we went back to their house and found the Husband. we explained to him how we had met his wife and left a Book of Mormon, but we had missed them the second time. He said let me go get my wife and they both came back to speak with us. The wife at first seemed to think we only wanted to talk with her so she suggested we come to her work, but the I said " we would really like to meet with the whole family" so she looked at her husband and he gave a shrug of approval and said sure. We set an appointment for this coming wed at 6:00! man I'm excited and I sure hope we don't mess it up. The second family was a family that we had tracked to before but only found the Domestic worker we had left a Restoration pamphlet with here and one for the Owners so when we came back a lady came to the gate and we asked if she had received the pamphlet. She said yes but that she hadn't read it. We explained who we are and what we teach, then she asked "what makes you different from any other christian church?" we tried to explain the restoration but she said "any church has their own story" Then I pulled out the big guns.... The Book of Mormon and I said " well we have a book called the Book of Mormon and it is an evidence that what we say is true." We also explained that we only ask people to pray and search for themselves if our message is true. Then in an effort to kind of brush us off (at least it seemed to me) she said "I'd like to learn more about this book, so I'll read it then give you a call" then adding in the whole act really nice and genuine she said "but is there anything I can do for you guys?" and with all the sincerity I could muster I said " honestly, there would be nothing more to lift my spirits then if you would allow us to set an appointment to come back and share more with you." after a thoughtful second she said " ok, you can come Wed at 1:00 and my husband will be home" boy did my heart jump for joy! the Book of Mormon is powerful and I love it! It always seems to make good things happen. When you introduce it, it makes people curious. When people read from it they feel the spirit, when you teach from it no one can argue with what you say. It's just awesome. I don't have much more time to write, but Saturday we had the branch Christmas party and alot of our investigators came so it was a good fellow shipping activity.

Anyway I love you all
Elder Jones

The phone call I must admit I am ecstatic, Why do you have to call our land line why can't we go computer to computer so it is completely free? I have been doing a practice run with Estella she phoned over and taught us how to make it work because her and her Hubby skype to Japan all the time. So anyway we are awaiting your response and will do whatever is best just help us to know what we need to do like give us their contact name and we will add it this week and be prepared to go at 8:00 sharp. The only thing I am worried about is the fact that all the kids are crazy and perform for the video camera so Estella was laughing so hard. They have a hard time talking in turn also so I hope that all can be heard correctly on your end, they sure are loud here on this end. Does the computer you are going to use have a mic and a video cam on it we will be using Dads and it is all cool and set up to go now.
J and C came up with the crazy idea to have our tree right in the middle of the room so we keep having to dance around it, I admit it is making me a bit crazy to have it in the way so much.
The boys have been going to practice on Tue and then Wed having a match sometimes then back to practice on Thurs. K is wrestling with the Jr. High group because he just couldn't stand to wait. So Wed night they had matches in Millard and we barely made it in time. K scooted in and was right away out on the mat against a kid who was lots taller than him. He wrestled 4 matches he did not win but he just kept at it even with a stupid nasty coughing. The boys were all lots older than him mostly because at his weight of 85 they are lots older than him. He has the keep going attitude though so that's good now that he has gotten over his fears. Mc had to be talked into going and that was with a compromise that he not have to do the dance at the middle school. He ended up doing six matches most were Millard boys. Two he won and he never backed down once. He is so very very good but when he isn't in to being willing to do it there is pretty much nothing that will change his mind.

C lost at a NSHS battle of the axe to a kid he has won over and over through the years. It was kind of a shock to him. This weekend Fri they are in Juab and he pinned two and then one was won by points. The next was exhibition status and he lost but it still counted as a win for him this kid was a Jr. He said it is kind of harder since he had broken his ribs, he feels a bit slower and not as aggressive as he was in the past. There is some hesitancy that he gets but he hasn't figured out how to get over it. Saturday he wrestled all day and was supposed to have five. The first match he pinned and the second match of the day about tore his shoulder out because the Payson kid had an a full nelson and pulled the shoulder out with his head pushing against. The next match he was really sore and had been iced but he still pinned the kid but it did him in because the kid had an under hook that really finished off the sore shoulder. After that C had to talk to a trainer and they wouldn’t risk him getting hurt so that he couldn’t go the rest of the season. So the last two matches he had to do a bye in their favor. He has been on ice and heating pads with my tense machine pulsing all weekend trying to recover. Dad will most likely make him have xrays to make sure it is all ok in the morning so he can move forward since he has a match on Wed. We made it back to the ward Christmas party and really had a fun time participating in a reenactment of old time Christmas in Navuo. C left early with J because he had had enough of the pain and needed to lay it down but the rest of us had a blast, we wrote letters to all the missionaries in our ward and saw how a wagon wheel was made and ate from a famous bakery just kidding.

Devin sent home maple syrup that he taped out of a tree all on his own. I got to see pictures of him with his tongue hanging out there licking the sap as it dripped out. His companion is from Fillmore and he even wrestled with him during High school.
I haven't heard how Sam is doing so I will have to get an update.

On a more quiet private note Dad is wondering why you seem to struggle keeping your testimony? He well we are trying to understand what you mean when you say this. You are out teaching others this wonderful truth and way to help themselves return to the savior and yet you are having a hard time. I have whisper to remind you since you were such a young child that when Papa gave you that blessing that all you had to do was to have faith and you would be healed you took that and prayed every night that the problems that the medicine created in having scary dreams of hurting someone would leave and the hunger that plagued you would be taken away. You would tell me that you knew that you would be better soon and then 4 months later they told you that you could run, run and run. I remember we were in Milford with Dad and you went up and down that hill in front of the hotel running like crazy. Most of all you had the amazing faith to believe what Papa said that you would be fully healed with not a trace left of damage on your heart valve. Remember that's what the cardiologist said at your last visit “no one would be able to tell that you had been ill at one time except her and only because she had the records to prove that you had visited her”. The most important part of the whole thing is that you took the faith and grew it till it became the truth in your life and you were better. You prayed and believed that Heavenly Fathers promise would come about. Pres. Cottle said something to that affect also that you would grow and your testimony become stronger as you served the Lord. Dad says praying for deep testimony strength, that will help the Lord increase you and your testimony to an iron strength, ( he didn't say it just like that with those words but that is what he was trying to get at as we were talking about his concerns in this area for you so I am now trying to put it into words again to tell you about it) Sorry I wish I could have recorded exactly what he said. Anyway as you have said all the answers are in the scriptures and confirmed through prayer so now I better quit sounding all preachy to you the preacher boy of the moment.
Well it is Sunday the first of this letter was written throughout the week especially the private note part. Today as I sat in Relief Society and the lesson began I was amazed to be hearing pretty much what I had written to you about all the gifts that the Lord gives to us if we ask or are blessed with them through priesthood powers or they are told as to which one we are given in our patriarchal blessing. Now take the time to read D&C 46 and then read Moroni 7. What amazing things are said in those scriptures that can affect us for good if we choose to accept and use those gifts and listen to those angles that the Lord has working for him when we have faith. Moroni 7 will help you to grow your testimony especially as you pray.
Today we are reading about Papa and how he is working so hard to know the Japanese language while he is serving sometimes the gifts that we are given take time to be developed to, such as gift of translation for Papa, it came over time. My gift of faith came from many hard experiences of just keeping belief in the Lord until by the time Jeremy was born there was no way anything was going to keep me from believing that he would do anything but live. I will send some of Papas journal to you, it is so very fun to read how he is working within his mission. Makes us relate to you.
On a side note J and C have cleaned their letters out of their email and so they wonder if you would be able to forward to your address their letters so that I can print them off that way to keep for you? I told them I wasn’t sure if the LDS mail was like yahoo and kept letters and stuff like that or if after you read them they were just gone, I am assuming that its just like any other kind of email and has storage but will not be something you can get once you leave the mission field so anyway please forward so that we can complete the book we are doing for your mission letters.
Well smiled and keep really busy make sure you write in your journal even if it’s a boring day Papa did and it is still fun to see the note for the day as he served.
Have a super great week.

Love your family

Nearing a phone call time from the Missionary!!!!!

Ok so seeing's how this e-mail is Entitled phone call, I'll tell you the plans. The Senior couple here has offered to let us use their computer, because they have skype. So if I call you from skype it should only cost $0.02 a minute for 45 minute's making that a whopping $0.90 I'm not sure how you feel about that, it might be a little expensive....Just kidding. Tell me if that will work if not I'll make different plans. I hope that will work. We've been given some guide lines that we are only to call our parents, but we can speak with other brothers and sisters if they are present so it should be just the same as the last times. My advice is try to do a speakerphone thing or something that way I'll get enough time to talk with everyone... I'm not sure but yeah anyway if you have questions just e-mail them

1.Is Elder Lechner from Utah?
1.Elder Lechner is from Wyoming

2. Dad wants to know how big are the cockroaches give a measurement.
2.I'd say the biggest has been a little over an inch.

3. What is your favorite animal that you have seen over there ( J says bring her a Zebra and Jer wants a giraffe)
3. Well I'd have to say the very rare and ferocious house cat. Just kidding..... Um we see little monkeys all the time and their pretty cool.

4. Dad wants to know if you eat grapefruit over there?
4.Yeah I was eating lots of grape fruit when I first got here but they seem to be running out of supply

5. Dad wants to know what the most spiritual experience you have had while you have been there.
5. The most spiritual experience........... That is an absolutely difficult question to answer.

6. Are you going to try doing a Christmas bush this year?
6. No probably not, I don't think that even when we did it last year it was a great idea

7. What is your favorite temple?
7.My favorite temple is my home temple.

8. Dad wants to know if you have had any walking accidents?
8. I'm not really sure what you mean my Walking accidents, Like is that getting hit by a car, chased by monkeys or something that means I had to change my pants? Get back to me on that one.

9. They want to know if you are loosing your hair on the top?
9.Nope still got a full head o hair

10. How do you feel about your Father in Heaven and Fathers in general now that you have been away from home watching other fathers?
10. I realize that I probably should have respected my father a little bit more, because he is a great father. The ones hear don't usually seem to stick around much. And if they do they don't set the best example for their kids. Most of the members of the church are good examples though.

11. Tells a measurement on the growth of your testimony?
11. A lot of growth, the trouble is I feel like I always have to fight to keep it. But I guess that's just the way it is.

12. What is the one Christmas tradition that meant Christmas to you and you never wanted to forget doing it.
12.Breakfast after opening all the stuff....food of course

Well this week was a great week, We finally got all our post and yes I got three packages. 2 from the fam and 1 from Brock and Jamie. I Especially like the journal entries from Dad's journal. They are giving me a stronger desire to write more in mine.
Let me just tell you some of the highlights of the week. Sunday we had a lesson with two of our older investigators Brother France and Samuel. They are in thier 60's or so and they seem older then they look but they have been keeping all of the commandments and attending church for the past month or so and the only thing holding them back is the fact that neither of them were legally married to their wives, they only did the traditional thing, so we told them in order to keep the law of chastity and be baptized they have to be married legally and lawfully so this coming Tuesday we are going to attend a small...Very small marriage ceremony set up by me and my companion. Bro Mazzini in our branch is a marriage officer here and he is going to do the marriage. Although the wife's don't want to leave their church they seem to be excited about the whole marriage thing and they are supporting their husbands. I think they will come around eventually. Elde Rasi and myself are going to be the witness's and they only need 1 or two more close family to make it official so we invited the others and Bam! they will be legally married. And then have interviews on Friday for baptism. We Elder Rasi and I are making sure to take it by the spirit so if there is anything that seems amiss we will have to move their date to the 26th but so far everything is going well. This last week our District achieved our baptismal goal of 28 with Modjadji getting 3 more baptisms putting us at 30 baptisms in the last 4 months. The best part is that all those who have been baptized are still going strong in the church and I just looked at the time and I went over so I have to go. but I love you all

Elder Jones

From the family:
Brock is finally this week back to work but then they laid Uncle Jathan off because the part he was doing is done and it takes more skill that he does not have so we are praying that he can find something that will help them.
Christmas packages were two packages one rather long and large and one a small box. We sent an apron to your past companion also. They were sent out at the very last week of Oct. Then Aunt Jamie sent one two weeks later.
Aunt Bethany wanted to know the price exactly of sunscreen there because it costs like 7.00$ here.
Well I have possible job idea for you for upon your return, You could be a sub bus driver and then anywhere in the state of Utah you could make money. I found out today that in our district alone there are 47 permanent drivers and only a total of 57 drivers. That's only 10 subs that they can pull from so it could be a real possibility for you because they said they are very short handed and several are much older drivers. This week and many weeks seem to be flying by faster and faster and its almost hard to keep track of what happens through the week. Mon. we all had one quiet evening and stayed home and went to bed like really early being like 8:00pm. Tue C had a match against Canyon View and he won 12 to 8 he almost had the kid pined three times but he still had fun. Dad and I went to see the Cardiologist and Jer will not have to go back for two whole years. They said that his heart looks really good and is getting stronger. We drove super fast but did not make it back in time to see C wrestle. On Wed the little boys wrestled at a Junior High tournament against Juab, North Sanpete and Manti. K lost his first and then won by a bye because the kid walked on the mat looked at K and said he didn't want to do it and the kid was a 5th grader. Mc won one and lost two his win was 1 to 14 he is really learning lots about how to make this work for him. I again didn't get to watch because I had a training. Thur was back to quiet after practices and Fri too. Sat I had to do training all day long and the kids all hung at home. C and Dad after his wrestling practice helped complete B Howells eagle project, a maker welcoming everyone to Joseph. J has been helping me keep the little guys busy this week and staying with them at home so they didn't have to go to all the matches. We finally on Sat got the tree up and they think that they want it out in the middle of the room. I will see how well this goes but I guess I am just going to let it happen. I can't wait until the basement is done so we can have a real big family kind of Christmas in much larger spaciousness and then who will care if the tree sits in the middle of the room. There will be lots of space. Sondra and Chad are out there in the east and he is learning to fly and work on copters. He likes it.
This year everyone in the family has agreed to help a little girl that needs a special dog that helps alert her parent by paying towards some funding to help her. Its the little girl I told you about that her Mom had a nervous break down when she was normal and then all of a sudden quit being normal and became baby like again. The kids are excited to see the pic of the dog when they finally raise enough money to get one. The poor Mom was having kind of a rough time about the whole idea but has decided that it just might be a good one especially when her little girl just sits and is silently crying and her Mom doesn't even realize it because she still has to be busy doing things in the house. So we are all very excited to hear your voice and accent and wondering how will the calls work and have you found someone that you can use their land line off of? Phone calles have lots of moms are starting to talk about it on the Missionary MOMs site. By the way you should tell Elder Lechner (sp) to have his Mom join the site under the African site.
We asked the Kids the tradition question and it was rather interesting to see the input.
These are some silly questions but that's the mood that they all seem to be in tonight as we write.
We hope that many of your goals were met through this week in the Baptism area please update us on the wonderful work you are doing.
Love the family

Giving to someone who really needs it.

This is what my kids are giving to someone they do not know this year.

A good cause, a caring thought because they know it will make a big difference in her live.

Giving to little Chickadee please click the link and help her get her doggy too just like we are this year.

Thanksgiving Over now for us and the Missionary

.

1.C is having a wasa about getting rid of your facebook. He said why can't we just delete people and then he can put back on whoever he wants back there. I need to know what your thinking and why. 3.Is it easy for you to resist looking at it when you are doing your emails to us?

Remember Brother Cottle's blessing and how he specifically told you to obey all the rules and you would be blessed on your mission. I am realizing how amazing that blessing can be.

C ate like a pig for Thanksgiving and is now running every morning again to drop back to the 103 spot. He did not believe us when we told him that he could very well be so sorry if he wasn't careful. I guess he has to live and learn. His first match is on Tue so we will see how things go for him.

This is Sunday morning and it is very quiet and peaceful I am reflecting on times when you where here and wondering how you think and feel about your life as a child in our home. 2.Did you feel safe, alone, happy or scared? It is so wild here some days with the way all these boys get going that I often can't wait until they are grown and be bit more quiet and then I think I must be crazy because then that would mean I was older and the fun moments would maybe be all gone. Just reflecting because some Sundays I feel so frustrated with how crazy they seem to be especially when they are cooped in the house and its cold so cold that know one wants to be outside.

In the last week we have had record cold for this Nov. already down in the -degrees and then add the wind and Dads office is so stinking cold. He finally broke down and got a heater that can move all over to try and get the office warm and to take the chill off when it hits morning and we have to stoke the fire again. I have wanted this heater for like three years so I couldn't believe it when he got it. I still wish that we had done a wood burning stove somewhere in the house though for when the electricity is out.

We have started reading Papa's missionary journal and 4.C wants to know if you are keeping one. It is really fun to hear Papas outlook of Japan and what it was like to try teaching and learning a language at the same time. They only went to the MTC for a week back then and their companions taught them the language by just not talking anymore English. It was hard and he really put all his feelings out there in his journal

I am now working on a goal to lose the last 20 pounds so that I will be back to what I weighed before I got pregnant with Mc. I ran my first 10K on Thanksgiving morning just here at the house alone with the treadmill while some of my friends ran up in SLC. That is 6 .2 miles. So I felt pretty good about that because then it didn't matter how much I ate I had burned so many calories. It really feels good to be back in shape even if I still have spots that I wish would not be so soft. J said at least she knows she can be in shape after having kids because I did it. I told her she better start running or something then or she wouldn't do it later in life. I at least danced and ran when I was a teenager which is more then what she is doing these days. While watching them prepare to sing in sacrament meeting I got to wondering. 5. Do you ever have to lead the singing or help with the singing at the branch or the bigger church in town? 6. Have you had to give very many talks in church while being in Tazneen or Motupa branch (sp?) In Church today they talked about how the Tithing was used to help with all the activities that are involved with the wards along with building of temples ward houses and materials that are used within our class rooms during church. That the fast offerings were for those who have need for food and helps when they are in a desperate situations. It was rather eye opening talk about how the monies are used within our church. I had to go to primary again with Jer he is really having a hard time parting from me but it will happen in time I am sure. This week we see the Cardiologist for Jer and I wonder if they will say he can go without the oxygen at night I bet not but I wonder. We will for sure have to have back up or put the alarms back on to monitor him which will mean I sleep less because of the beeping that it does

Well there are about 83 days left before Will returns home. He was sent to a more risky area of Columbia near the jungles and it will be his last transfer till returning home in about January. He is another reason that C said it would be dumb to erase your facebook. We were going to do the Christmas tree today but Dad sat down in sacrament meeting and his phone range and we were left to figure out how to get home after church. So no tree decorating today. Please fill us in on all the weekly stuff you did and I hope that the way I asked questions today isn't to hard to pull the answers out if they are just tell me to write different next time. Love you and have the most amazing great week ok.

Love the whole family.


Elder Tyrell Jones return letter.
1.Please delete my facebook thats it.
2.I'm not really sure how to answer that question??? It just felt like the place I grew up
3.....
4. Yeah I'm trying but not doing so well
5.Well for the past six months I have been leading at every sacrament meeting until yesterday, because I asked another member to try it.
6.To many talks in both the Motupa and Tzaneen branch. There's only so many who will give talks the others are just scared out of their wits and won't do it.





Well this week is the week before transfers, and it has been a week full of guessing and trying to predict if anyone is leaving or staying and doing this or that, but we finally got our answer on Saturday night. And the answer is...........................................................................The whole District is staying exactly the same, So by the end of this transfer I will have served in Tzaneen for a whole 7 1/2 months! man that's a long time. I still haven't had a 6 month area yet, I've completely skipped it all together :)
Anyway let me give you a report for the week. Monday was a normal p-day, we shopped e-mailed and did all that good stuff, The coming p-day should be somewhat exciting though, were planning on going to a zoo type place....Maybe. Tuesday was an ok day but we didn't have the Interviews we were hoping for due to our investigator not coming to church. But we'll recover and we'll do our best to help him out. Wed I was on exchange with Elder Lechner! in Lenyenye. It was the first full exchange that we have had. He was in the MTC with me and we were pretty good friends there so it was way fun. He'll probably be a good friend when I get home. As a matter of fact we have a deal that whoever gets married first, has to buy the other a meal at Olive-garden. anyway it was a really fun exchange and at the end they had one interview planned and the interview went very well and she was baptized this Sunday. She was the Wife of a member but she had never been baptized because she was in Zimbabwe, she loves the church the only difficulty was her ability to speak English. Lenyenye seems to be doing very well. there stats are always really strong and they have really helped a lot of inactive members get active again so that's exciting. Thursday was Thanksgiving, so we cooked some macaroni(there are pics) and we ate it during our weekly planning. Friday we had district meeting and I kinda took a load off my shoulders and assigned Elder Lechner, Elder Searcy and Elder Palmer to basically take the discussion so it was nice that way. Saturday everyone was in suspense until we got our Transfer information and then Sunday We had 6 investigators at church, and 4 of them are preparing to be baptized in the coming weeks.
We have just achieved 59 for our trimester goal and we have a goal of 19 for a zone in December. We are way on track and the Zone leaders are telling us that if we achieve our goal in December we will be the first zone to achieve over 100% for not only the trimester alone but for each month of the trimester. It's always really exciting and motivating to hear all that stuff so it keeps us going.
Well I've got just a few questions,

1.Did Justin ever get my letter? 2. Hows Uncle Brock?
3. How many packages did you send, and when?

Well I think that's about it for that.
I love you all and I love to hear from you all.
Elder Jones

A photo gallery of Thanksgiving in South Africa by Elder Tyrell Jones

Missonary is Thankful for???

1. I hope that you are not going to use anymore money out of your account unless you tell me because you actually overdrew your account. I am not sure if it is because you were ahead of me or behind my deposit. Please tell me if you still need more so I can make sure there is more in there for you. Or could there be a possibilities of someone else accessing more after you used your account?

1. Yeah about the account, I figured that there was money in it so I actually used it to buy some emergency airtime for our phone, when we were trying to figure out Bro Kuda's situation. My card is secure, I just should have done a better job checking my account before I used it

2, Did you get a notice that they maybe have a package waiting for you at the mission home yet?

2.Well they usually don't notify us we just find out when they bring it, and they forgot to bring it for zone conference. I may find out on the 1st of Dec

3. What is the price of sunscreen there?

3.Sunscreen is way expensive!!!!

4. So do you still wash clothing in your own apartment? Take a pic to show us someday maybe even the fridge or the rooms that you are in.

4.Yeah we have a washing machine. We just have to hang dry everything

5.Yes we all read your letters on Mon morning or evening depending on how it all works are you worried that we don't all read them?

5.I just wasn't sure.

6.We ate oranges from Africa this week do you think they taste better there or here now that you can compare.

6.I actually haven't had an orange for a long time. But I think they taste the same

7. Is your favorite scripture still the same or have you got a new one these days?

7.Yeah I've got lots of favorites

8. How are all your greenies doing including your companion?

8.There doing really well, Their all very obedient and motivated. I'm worried that my companion is annoyed with me about something but when I ask he says everything is fine.

9. How do you feel about your mission right now HONESTLY, when people ask me I say he loves it and is really enjoying it but I want to use a word that you feel expresses how you feel about it please.

9.You've got it right. There are obviously frustrating days, but overall I LOVE my mission

10. Please tell us one thing that you are thankful for now that you have seen another country and are living far from home.

10.I'm grateful for my Family and for My companions and everything I can think of that makes my life easier.

Well this week has been a good week, but we didn't get alot of good proselyting due to leadership training and zone conference being on Tuesday and Wednesday and both of those activities took up a good portion of the day. but by Thursday everything was good and funny story there was a small earthquake here. We were sitting in our room doing our planning and there was a distant rumbling noise and a small quake. Elder Lechner and Byrnes in the other room didn't feel it though. Some of our investigators that day said they had felt it and others didn't know a thing. I wonder if it had anything to do with the earthquake there. Friday I was in Modjadji with Elder Palmer on exchange and I actually got permission to do a three way Exchange because my companion and Elder Palmer's comp cant drive. So I went with Elder Palmer. Elder Lechner went with Elder Searcy(Elder Palmer's comp) and Elder Rasi went with Elder Byrnes(Elder Lechners comp). It was interesting but i thing the rest of the district liked it so they could get to see the other areas. Saturday was a nice day, we had some few appointments in the morning that didn't hold, We found out Jerald and Faster are actually Muslim, We went to a church leadership training thing(because I needed to go as clerk) and it was actually really interesting to see. later we contacted a referral that we received from Elder and Sister Atkinson. And it was awesome!!! He was telling us his whole story and how he wanted to join our church and prepare for baptism. We had hardly even said anything yet. So we got to know a little about his needs and we decided we should just share shortly about "The Gospel Of Jesus Christ"(it talks about faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost.....) After that we gave him a solid invite to church and the next day he showed up bright and early! Man it was cool! Later that night some of our appointments dropped so we called up one of our part member families that was preparing for baptism, but missed it because they went Zimbabwe, and we set thing straight with them. We gave them a new date to look toward and they are now on their way for Dec 12. Cross your fingers! their a great family though. Sunday we had the Africa wide District and Stake broadcast from church headquarters addressing directly to the African countries. We were addressed by Elder Oaks, Sister Dibb, and Elder Packer. Elder Oaks basically Shamboked(beat down) in a good way, some of the false African traditions and that was pretty cool. I hope it helps alot of the members of the church. anyway that was pretty much the week, and the today the most that has happened is I got a hair cut and we got our car washed. It's promising to be a fairly normal p-day and that's usually ok by me. Maybe I'll catch a nap who knows.

I love the family Too much

Elder Jones

Notes from the Fam

This week is Thanksgiving will you have an kind of a moment to think about it on Thursday? By the way we are thankful that you are serving and that you are learning so much about the good life that is there for the learning and taking. We are going to have our own dinner and then later go over to Jadies house with only Nana and Papa and Amber and Us. This will be the first time that Justin actually gets to see your letter that you sent him as he has been down at school since you sent it. Maybe then he will send a note to you after reading it. We were going to try and get a tree but now to night there is a ton of snow everywhere and we even took and parked the cars up on top so we had some in different places. Uncle Tom poured gravel on our hill so we kind of have a bit to have to drive through and with snow added to that mix we were worried about getting out of the drive way.

So I thought that there was lots of Chickens which would make lots of eggs right in that land of Africa. If the only thing that you could eat were eggs you would be getting enough protein to make it through the day. Did you know that? Those take as long to cook or boil as noddles. Start eating some so your body has enough protein. Also pack celery and peanut butter with you for fast snacking. They do have peanut butter right? The celery has fiber which a body needs and protein is in the peanut butter. I need a healthy boy when you get back here if you are going to keep up with all of us. Besides you must learn now or it only gets harder as you get older and have more on your plate to have to attend to. Right now there is only a mission and your physical needs and healthy eating is one of those parts that are in the physical need. Also Avocados are really healthy for you brain with low fat fats that your body can break down well. Do you need good tasting salt or do they have some?

The craziest thing happened on Tuesday night at about11:15PM I was just dropping off to sleep and Dad was just laying down on the bed when there was the craziest roaring sound and then a shaking. Dad was like what the heck was that and then I was wide awake thinking J had maybe just drove her car into the side of the house or some such thing as that. We went down the stairs and the dogs were barking off in the distance and all lights were out across the valley still. It was a 3.2 earthquake stated two miles from Jo meaning right about in our part of the valley. Close to Grandmas house and moving out towards Richfield.Jamie and Brock heard it but didn't really feel it very much. They said they could hear the sound echoing out towards our house so it must have started there somewhere. We really quickly called J and she was on her way from the High school but hadn't felt a thing. After that I really do not like the idea of boys in the basement for a bedroom to much. Not that being up in the air feels much better really.

We talked about listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and how each of us has times when we know things that we should do but maybe we don't do, or the whispers are rather quiet and we have to practise heeding the warnings. Then there are times that the warning is really very loud and maybe even repeated again loudly and we instantly see the result of what could have been had we not obeyed. I hope that I will practise listening better and better because I can think of many a time that he told me and I wasn't paying attention very well at all. But then there are other times that I payed lots of attention. I think that when I take the time to have a quiet moment in the morning along with reading my scriptures is when I am better about listening and hearing what he has to warn me with through out the day.

Brother Levi asked how you were doing and I said great and named off all your jobs that you have at the moment. His response was that out of all the boys he knew you would be one that would have the energy that that takes to do them

We are hoping that your investigators week was somehow less painful and that you have been able to share the fact that families can be forever to him. We have prayed that the pain would lesson and that he could still listen to the truth that the Lord is tyring to help him to know to get through this painful time. We are a bit unclear as to if the Bro. Samuel was the son or someone else that lived with Bro. Modika.

Mc wrestled this week and won two and lost one he is learning so much and trying to take it all in. K is working hard at wrestling also and he is going with the Jr. High kids because he is so much bigger then the other kids that are his age. C made the weight and now knows how to eat good and drop it fast now if he can just keep it up. He is on the Varsity team as he beat out the 112 and the 119 kids that were going into those spots.

Hope you like all the news and the questions. Make sure to write a tiny note to J she says you never write her back so make sure she feels the love today she needs it a bit.

Love you and keep smiling as doing a great job. Love the Family

Goal met by the Missionary.Baptisms completed ahead of time.

1.When you say you are not eating very healthy what does that mean. Are you not eating or does that mean that your are living on roman noddles. You know if you do not eat enough Protein then you can lose lots of muscle especially if you are having to walk around alot.
1. Mom you actually hit it right on the nose! Roman noodles all the way, except they aren't called roman noodles. I just don't really know how to shop, and I don't feel like there is ever time to cook. and I can't afford lots of meat.

2. So how is your goal setting going are you learning things about setting goals that will help you when your return?
2. Well I sure hope so.

3. What are your planning skills like now that you have been a missionary for a year?
3. Well I'd think they are a little better, but I haven't tried them on everyday life kinda stuff.

4. Discerning what does that mean to you? You said that you were trying to discern if one of the investigators was ready can you help us to understand what you learned about discerning in this area.
4. Discern to me means to be able to find what needs to be done, by the spirit.

5. Have you been to the little museum that holds drums from the Queen Modjadji it is there somewhere in Tazneen.
5.I'm not sure where that is. This whole area is Called Tzaneen... Motupa, Modjadji, Lenyenye. You'll have to find out which part of Tzaneen. (our area is called Tzaneen because we are in the center of Tzaneen Town.)

Wow sounds like an eventful week. A lot of things just clicked over again in my mind again and that is the fact that C and J and everyone is just growing up fast. It's way weird to hear that C is sucking weight and that J is driving around kingdom come. Just wondering, does the whole family usually read my e-mails or not? Well this week has been quite eventful for us. It started out normal, and then by Thursday we got a phone call from one of our members in Motupa, and he was sounding pretty distressed. He was saying that his house had been hit by a major hailstorm and that all his windows were broken and that his house was full of water. We told him that we couldn't really come over so soon because we usually do our weekly planning on Thursday and we don't get out of the flat until around 1:30-2:00. He begged us to do everything we could to come as soon as possible and I told him we would have to get permission to move our planning. Eventually I go a hold of Pres Poulsen and explained the situation. He said it was a good idea to move our planning and go help Bro Kuda. He told us to tell the Branch president and other leaders and then go. After we got everything we, picked up Kuda, who was in town explaining his situation to his boss, and the we left to Motupa. What once was a very green place full of mango trees and gum trees was now full of trees without leaves and houses without windows and roofs. When we got to Kuda's village, his was hit the worst, and he wasn't lying when he said his house was messed up. It took us 3-4 hours (not quite sure) to get everything cleaned up and livable again. We had to Clean out water and mud and hang up all his clothes, some of which we took home to wash for him. We had to clean up all of the leaves and branches from around his house, but eventually we got everything done. Things are relaxed now, but I tell you I had never seen so much damage done by a hail storm. The pieces of hail were about the size of golf balls.
After alot of thought and prayer we finally decide that Bro and Sister Mpofu were ready for baptism and they have showed it through the sacrifices they have made, and this Sunday Sister Tinashe and Bro Mpofu and his wife were all baptized for the remission of sins. It was pretty rewarding to see and I think it excited the brach a little bit. We had some investigators there to watch the baptism and I think it has done some good. On the other had, when we got to the service in Motupa we were disappointed to find that two of our awesome investigators were not at church. Bro Modika and Bro Samuel are some investigators we found last week, and they came to church without even a hesitation last week as well. This week unfortunately they were not there so we went to their home after Church to find quite a few people there sitting around Brother Modika, who was just starring off into space. After sitting down some asked if we had heard what happened and I replied that we did not know. They then continued to say that Bro Modika's son had been murdered on Saturday night. That was quite a shock and we decided that that was a pretty good reason to have missed church. We didn't know quite what to do so we just shared a few thoughts and then left them with a prayer. I hope things will be ok with their family. They could use our prayers.
On a lighter note, with the three baptisms we met our trimester goal of 9, with one month to spare.

Well I love you all.

Elder Jones

Our Newsletter full this week.
Jef Lun is getting married next week. Just is trying to finish the last few classes that are required for par-legal degree. Rh is still in Hawaii but will be back for Christmas. Devins brothers said he sucks at writing and if he does its like a paragraph and he seems to always be baptizing which was better then how their missions were. Yesterday they were all cleaning out their Moms attic of old stuff and so we got to see all of them. Sam I haven't heard anything newer then what I said last week and Cody loves college, Samantha loves college, Dallas loves college. Sarah R,Jamie R,Meg H & Brenton H, are all listed as getting or gotten married. Will is home some time in January. There are several of your high school friends who are returned missionaries that are requesting to be friends on facebook.
Winter is here with a vengeance and its dang stinking cold, there is still no coal available and we are getting a bit worried because we are going to maybe have to get a different inside heater. The basement is cleaned out pretty much and now Dad is trying to figure out what he is going to do to finish the floor. Dad got technical enough to figure out how to hook up netflix so we can watch movies over the Internet since he keeps forgetting to return ones that we rent and we have a bill that made me really upset and I told everyone no more rentals ever because he can't remember to return them but now we have got to figure out a new TV because the lap top is just to dang small to see and even really hear the show when its a family trying to watch. We have about talked everyone into just getting one big Christmas gift and that be a TV this year.
This week was tough starting on Tue C came being all frustrated because he was at 107 and couldn't drop even with all the hard wrestling that they were doing. The coaches really want him at 103 because there is a senior who is well known all over and they know that because C knows what he is doing he could be the only kid to beat this kid from Emery county. The only other kids that is on their team at that weight has never wrestled. Well we put him on a really strict smaller portion high protein diet and started him drinking water, finally by Sat morning he was at 103.4 at 5 am but the hydration test and weigh in was at 1:30pm so by that time because you weigh more in the afternoon he was back up to 104.3. They decided that he would wait one more week and keep hard working out and stay on a small high protein diet until next Saturday since they really only started working out last Thur. I am not sure that this will happen the kid has really no fat anywhere on him and he still has to grow some over the next few months. He has a much harder time going without food then you did. You should have seen him on Friday night he cooked food for everyone and washed dishes. He did not eat that night and finally I told him he should go to bed instead of torturing himself. We took Mc and the K and Z to the first wrestle tournament in Saline, Mc is so very very good at wrestling also. He almost took second but the kid he won beat him out of the spot in a round robin. K did take second but only because he had a bye. Z took forth because someone did not show up to wrestle so it gave him the medal that they had. They were all thrilled and so you know what its going to be like a bit more crazy with two boys wrestling practice at different times.
Oh today is Sunday and I am not sure why it has to be such a struggle to get to church all the time as of late. The boys stoked the stove but it didn't burn so in the morning there was not enough hot water for everyone to get clean. Then we have boys who drag the feet about getting ready and so we were almost late. Then the two oldest boys decided to sit out in the foyer. Dad and J were the ones that stayed home from lack of a shower. I got to teach a group of really wild primary 3 year olds as a sub this time because the new teachers had to be out of town. One of the little boys is from we think a part member family but we are not sure. I say we because Darren had made a comment in his testimony how it felt good to him to have Alonzo there to help him when they need to give blessings to those who are in need of comfort durning procedures. Then today as I went to walk into the primary the Mother of these little children that we were trying to figure out if they were members was introduced to me with her Hubby standing there. The person who was introducing said and oh this is Alonzo's wife the one who you met at the Hospital. Dad knew who I was talking about when I told him about it later after church and he said he wasn't sure but he thought that she was a member and he was not. Crazy thing is that the little kids know me from riding on the bus with them. Hopefully the missionaries will soon maybe have some people to teach the truth to here in our ward if they are only a part member family.
We received a very nice letter from your Mission Pres today. Telling us that you were prayerfully chosen to be a trainer and because of your obedience, hard work and faithfulness while serving there. I thought everyone had a chance to be a trainer but I guess that may not be so true based on the things that were said in the letter from your Mission Pres.
I guess the more things happen with you serving the more I realize that I do not know the process of what takes place in the process of a missionary. Please tell us all about your new companion and we are hoping that you were able to reach the goal of all the baptisms.
Love you have a great week and I hope that you are starting on some new people that need the gospel because those that you have been teaching were able to be baptized.
Love all of us