Questions after Christmas to the Missionary

1. Do they grow gardens there and I mean gardens somewhat like ours?
2. Do they know how to even grow like the poor people and what is the irrigation or watering like?
3. Do these people that live in the garages have to pay rent?
4. Why do you have to wait until the 30th to get a package is that the only time you go to the mission home?
5. You live on a cliff so it is mountain like or hill like?
6. Where do you do your laundry at?
7. Have you read the stories about your ancestors and their missions?
8. Do you ever read your patriarchal blessing?
9. Do you like the notes that you find every once in awhile?
10. Nana and Papa wonder if you have read the books that they got you for your mission and if you have learned more about the history of our church?
ANSWERS
1. Africa is actually very agriculturaly inclined, they don't have a garden like ours, but many people have a small garden in their back yard and alot of what we are fed comes from their gardens.
2.The area i'm in is more cityish so the irrigation is just sprinkler or hose like we use.
3.I don't really know if they pay rent or not. i'm sure they do.
4. Transfers is on the 30th so that's when we go to the office to get post.
5.It's like a cliffy hillside.
6.we just do our laundry in the washing machine at our flat.
7.i've read some of them.
8.yes i have several times
9.i think i've found them all now. and yes i liked them.
10.i Have read the whole book of our search for happiness, i've read part of the church history book. and bits and pieces of jesus the christ. I'm still working on them, but we are supposed to read preach my gospel most of the time so i'm still working on it.

SANTA always puts Jesus In His Manger will it happen again this year?

Last years photo with Tyrell holding the kids in place before they tore into the front room to see our Christmas haul!
















By the magical light of a small Christmas candle
A little old man tries to carefully handle
The small porcelain manger which serves as a bed
For the wee Baby Jesus to lay down His head.
In wonder he brings the manger up to his view,
Smiles at the baby and whispers, “I love you!
I love you for bringing this season of joy,
I love you for growing to a man from a boy;
For being our light and leading the way,
For being the spirit which makes Christmas Day!
You’ve been my mentor, my model, my hero and guide,
Please continue to help me and stay by my side.
I’ve tried to follow your teachings and give as you gave,
Reminding all to be kind and that it’s wise to behave.
Help me to serve others and bring them your light,
Especially the children, please bless them tonight!
Some have so very little, scarce food for their table,
You know how it feels – you were born in a stable.
Bless all their mothers and fathers with a knowledge that’s sure,
The best gift they can give is their love, strong and pure.
That’s the Spirit of Christmas when all’s said and done,
God’s gift of love, that came as His Son!”
Then back to His mother the child is returned
The Nativity glows as the candle is burned.
In a wink the little old man slips quietly away
Some say he goes up the chimney and climbs in a sleigh.
Whatever the case, His mission is clear
–Give unto others, bringing love and good cheer.
He flies into the night and bids us adieu
Doing for others what Jesus would do!
-- Greg Olsen

No childrens faces, they were all on the phone telling Tyrell that Jesus was there and I wasn't fast enough to catch all those moving bodies this year. But isn't he sweet laying there!
2009 photo

Two letters at a time these days! At least we are not waiting for a ship to sail around the world!

Dec 16-20 2009
1. How long can we talk that day is there a time frame limit?
2. Did you get a package or two or three because they should be there by now?
3. What holiday do they celebrate there Christmas with lights or what?
4. Do you like me to forward Sam, Will, and now Devins letters to you?
5 When is the next transfer time?
8. Do you like your companion and flat mates better then your college roommates?
9. Did you ever see Elder Kolinker like he said he was going to be speak at the MTC?
10. When I sent the pic of J. with all the gear on for running the spot light were you able to view it and have you been able to view the pic that are attatched to Will's letters that I have forwarded?

So Devin is in the MTC today. Dad went and stood in the circle to set him apart. We have been super busy every single night here. Mon C. was in charge of the family home evening and we read a story and played bowling. Tue the big kids went caroling and the little ones to bed. Wed J. went to the basketball game at the SVC and the big boys wrestled and the little ones to scouts. We all crashed rather fast that night. Thur M. wrestles practise and C. danced at the Middle school, J. studied and the little boys went to bed. Fri I went to SLC to the dentist and they all went everywhere and I wish I were in bed. Every day has been super busy with running to each kids thing whatever it ends up being. Dad has built the three oldest display cases to hang thier medals on and horse trophies. They are really cool looking when I figure out how to attach pics we will send them to you. Well C. managed to end the cameras life at the sanddunes last April and now K. killed my video camera part so all I have for pictures is the old phone. Dad cant figure out how to take pic or at least view them, we know we took them it just won't show us what we took and thats on his new phone, and the video is the same way. Oh yeah Dad finnaly got the TV to work thats after I called and found out that the antana was set fracing the wrong way. So now the kids are feeling frustrated because the chickens decided to quit laying eggs since it has been so cold and they are not getting to sell them. On my trip up to SLC they decided that they are going to put Jer. under general asthisia and fix his two teeth they are starting to really decay. They will be closing the little hole opening also so that he only has to go under one time. We have the dates set but they are running comflict with other times that are set up already. So Mon. I get to spend rearanging all the surgery times and make sure that nothing is getting crossed over the top of. Everyone is excited to talk to you on Friday some just realized today that it was that close to happening. We have our special phone card set up and are ready to call you. I dont think anyone will have gotten up yet so know one will be able to tell you what they get for Christmas which will be interesting. You can tell that the boys were so happy about this last wrestling match since they quickly wrote to you. Well I hope that you can see the pic of our Gingerbread house it came from Swedan out of a box and then we used the mold that Aunt Jadie gave us along time ago to make a train. It was a bit tricky because the roof kept falling down and Dad still wants to put more candy on it so we will see if we are done today or if they are going to add more in an hour or so. Until Fri day keep the Lords Spirit with you strong and shining. Talk to you soon Love Mom.
Dec 21 from Johannesburg
Ok i'm not going to e-mail long because the internet is being stupid, but i'm going to answer your questions and then talk to you guys on friday ok.

1.i'm not really sure on a time limit. all of the elder's i've talked to said they talked for like two ours and stuff so i don't really know.
2. I havn't gotten any packages yet so i hop they are ok.
3.they pretty much celebrate christmas all over the world but know one is very big into it here. you can only find christmas decorations at the mall
4.i love getting all of those e-mails from my friends in the field. it's encouraging
5.transfers are on the 30th. and one of us elder martin or i, is definatly leaving (most likely martin)
8.Yeah i deffinatly like my flat mates better.
9.yeah elder koeliker came to our ward the first sunday he was back here and he was supprised to see me.
10.my lds mail dosen't really process pictures so i havn't gotten any.

Well i love everyone and i'm sorry it's so short but i can't wait to talk to you guys on friday. Follow those plans and if somthing goes wrong and all else fails, i can call you with the card i have.

Love you all
Tyrell
last weeks letter
Dec. 14 2009
the internet went down just as i was going to send this letter last week so here it is...

I think you may have forgotten to ask me the rest of the questions, but to answer the first. we are usually all together when we have p-day, but we just prsolyte like other missionaries, two by two.

well this week has been pretty good. monday was just a regular p-day, we shoped e-mailed and then went back to te flat to chill until our apointments at 6. tuesday was really cool. i'm not sure if i mentiond it before but we have geen going to a handicap school on tuesday mornings just to talk with the students and give them company. it's so awesome to go there. they are all celestial children of god and i always enjoy seeing all of the smiles on their faces when we show up. many of them are very handicaped and others are not so bad off. this tuesday was the last day that we were going to be able to go until january and ethier i or elder martin is leaving on the 30th, so we just took pictures with everyone and said goodbye untl january. wednsday was a good day as wel. every wednsday morning we have been doing service at meals on wheals where they distribute food to homless and very poor people. well this wednsday was their christmas party to celebrate their success . at this paryt they prepared food for alot of people and all of us elders ended up putting on santa hats and ended up being the servers. thursday was pretty cool, i went on exchanges with our district leader elder mcombs and i learned alot there. friday was intense! Elder martin and i had to ride bicycles a very long way. and from the time we left to the time we got where we were going it qoured on us. it rainned and rainned and rainned. after that it didn't really get better because we went to our investigators's house, lebo, who is on date for baptisim and her aunt was there so she got all upset at us and started telling uus we were taking lebo away from her and all about how we were false prophets. so that was a little bit frustrating. after her aunt left us alone we told lebo not to let her testimony be shaken and we left. we kept getting rained on and eventually had to go change our clothes. the rest of the week was fairly normal but yesterday we had our mission christmas party that was really fun.

Tyrell

P.s. i need to get a pumpkin pie recipe from you mom. my investigator wants it. this place loves pumkin but they don't have a clue what pumkin pie is so yeah.

P.P.s. sorry if this e-mail is hard to understand it was kind of rushed.

To M.

Well hey there M, looks like you've got yourself your own e-mail adress. That's pretty sharp. Sounds like things have been pretty crazy and mom says you have been the best example. Keep it up and keep up the reading. The Book Of Mormon is great and you will use it alot on your mission. And keep up all of the wonderful prayers.
It sounds like you've been doing a really good job in wrestling too. Keep practicing and one day you'll be a PRO!!!
And by the way. THAT IS ALOT OF ICE CREAM!!!!!!!! I wish i would have seen that, i don't get to eat alot of ice cream here because it's a little expensive so i don't get to buy it all of the time. And guess what? It tastes different then it does in america, i'm not sure why, but it's still good when i do get to eat it.
Well i've got to go, but i love getting e-mails from you so keep on sending them and i'll get to talk to you on christmas over the phone
Love you lots
Tyrell

P.S. South Africa is a pretty big place but i'll keep an eye out for that girl from finnland.

Hi Tyrell
My class got to have a party in school for math because we got 150 green dots. We had games and extra recess and we got to play on the computers. Wed I went wrestling in Beaver and I was against a seventh grader. I lost but I went all three rounds and the score 10 to 14 and I didn't get pinned. I wrestled a sixth grader I lasted all three rounds and the score was 2 to 16 and wasn't pinned but I lost. And then i had to wrestle a kid on my team and I won. He was younger then me and I did win I almost pinned him. And the score was 10 to 5. My name to do for this Christmas is Z. so i got a remote control car that's small. I am in about page 37 in my Book of Mormon I try to read every night but sometimes I fall asleep. Today I went to Devin's house for his farewell and we ate dinner and ice cream and ice cream and more ice cream. Crisp Groceries freezer's went out in the middle of the night and so we got a whole bunch of free ice cream. We did to about 1000. dollars worth but Mom split it with Jamie and one of J.'s friends Moms. Aunt Terry had a whole truck worth. So everyone had as much as they could eat. Mom was in the right place at the right time. Lately Dad has been funny and mad at the same time. Maybe you can pray for him. Did you find the lady that went from Finland to South Africa? I hope that you do find her. I love you Elder Tyrell Jones
Love the future Elder M. Jones

Just for K. Dec 16 2009

Hey K., I miss you to and it sounds like everything is very interesting at home. I will Just have to tell you that africa is a pretty cool place. Right now there is alot of rain, and VERY VERY loud thunder!!! You keep up the reading ok! and don't forget to be a very good example for z. and Jer. ok. ok i love you lots
Tyrell

K. saying Hi
Dear Tyrell
I wanted to tell you that I miss you and that Dad is boxing C. on the Wii right now. It is almost time for me to wrestle. iloveyou it was fun when you where here. the horses got out today. I said the prayer in primary.i hope you teach a lot of people.love k.

My little Guy took the time to type the letter out as I told him how to spell the words that he didnt know.

South African adventures!!!!

Hi tigerripanelly! December 6ths 10 questions!
1.Do you tease your flat mates like you do all the kids here at home or are you the model roomate of reservedness in missionary hood without a twinkle in your eye?
2. Can you buy that kind of technology stuff there meaning mp4 player, Dad wants to know since its close to China?
3. Have you met Elder Craven, his Dad is following my blog most likely because it says Johannesburg in the search titles. He would have just arrived in Nov since he left to the Provo MTC till his docs arrived late. He looks kinda like Will Casper.
4. What are the Christmas phone calling agendas going to be like? Do they use Skype?
5. Do you call us or do we call you?
6. Do you have a primary song book?
7.The kids want to know what time you start studying the scriptures in the morning, after breakfast or before, and all four of you like on that movie or only with your companion?
8. Do you need a rain hat or do you ride with your umbrella out on your bike?
9. What do you drink Soda or water or juice?
10. What are you Pdays like, what do you do on that day? Laundry Shopping or playing?
11. How many bros and sis does your companion have and what state and town is he from?

1.My flat mates aren't little kid's so no not really, and i'm not really sure what you are asking about the twinkle in your eye thing but i'm pretty much the same tyrell you know.
2.Yeah you can buy all that technology stuff here. like i said it's pretty much like america but more black people.
3. I didn't meet Elder Craven, but i saw him at transfers.
4.the christmas phone calling agendas are that my companion have to find somone who has a land line that we can use and we asked the second counselor in the Bishopric and he said we could. You guys are going to have to call us at the given time which will be at 7AM SHARP! (your time) i hope that is ok. If you call the first time, and i'm not there, just call again soon. that's is on christmas day. So don't loose this information. if you have problems, i will try to iron out the kinks.
5.You are going to have to call me.
6.no i don't have a primary song book.
7.we wake up at 6:30 and we prepare for the day. Get Dressed, Shower, Exercise, and eat. Then at 8:00 we do our own personal study and at 9:00 we do companionship study for an hour. then we go out and start the day.
8.don't need a rain hat i'm fine
9.I drink all Three
10.Our p-days are all of those things.
11. i'm not sure about my comps family.
Tell dad I'm sorry for him that kind of sucks and he should probably stop drinking all that dr. pepper, not sure if that has anything to do with it but that's all i can think of. He's the medical pro so he knows.
Anyway, this week has been good, We were finally able to baptize Kabelo yesterday and that was super awesome. He is going to be an awesome follower of christ. Things have been going good this week. We were able to find 18 new investigators and we have 14 people on date for baptisim. we hope that we can get them all in the water but that dosen't always happen.
WE had some interesting things happen this week though that were pretty scary. The first one was on thursday, Elder Macombs(Our district leader and flat mate) was on exchanges with another elder from our district named Elder Kampoy (African from congo) They were riding the bikes that day and we got a call from them just after our last apointment that elder kampoy had wrecked really bad and was not in good shape. We got back to the flat and he was all scraped up and his arm was hurting really bad from how he landed on it. So we were advised to take him in for x-ray's. turned out that he was fine and we had to wait along time while they fixed him up. We were there until 2 in the morning, and the next day we were all super tierd. but we are all on schedual again now so that's good.
The next scary thing happend when we were waiting to pick up the other elders on satruday night. While were were sitting there waiting, this big group of tsotsies (not good guys) came running up to our car, so we took off and they went back to where they were. It was so freaky and it was a good thing that we had left the car running or we would have probably been in a lot of trouble. So after that the other elders took a really long time to show up to the place that they said tey would be so we got really worried. and they finally showed up at like 9:30 so we quickly picked them up and went to the flat. My companion was mad because they had said they would be there at 8:30 and they didn't show until 9:30. anyway that's pretty muck it for the excitement for the week and i'm out of e-mail time so i'll talk to everyone later

Love
Elder Jones

2009 Family Christmas Letter

1.Dad and C. shearing the lambs for show time.
2.Jer. shopping for Missionary ties.
3.C. waiting to ride the poles at the Sigurd 4th July fun days.
4.C. and M. trying to teach lambs to lead more like they are being draged though.
5.Dad with Jer. horse riding and K. looking on.




Lets start with JaNuaRy. Tyrell was here from Snow College and the mission papers got started. He was an old man in the college play & we laughed our guts out. Oh I had another birthday. K. sported a cast from sleding and cutting his thumb almost off. Tyrell sports stitches from cutting his leg open snowboarding for the first time. C. took fourth place over all in the Jr. High State wrestling turnament. fEbUrAuY Wrestling practice started for the little boys. M. decides that he is going to wrestle for the first time ever and WOW he can really kick butt for having so little experience out on the mat. Dr. appoinments for J.. I am super busy with scouts. School school school. March All the Dr. appointmenst and mission stuff is about to be wraped up for Tyrell. Z. is loving Kindergarten. Stake Pres. appointments are done for mission papers. Pinewood Derby cars are made and racing. J. loves going to career information days for girls with her friends at UVU and stayed at Aunt Rozanns house overnight. April WAITING FOR THE MISSION CALL! Ty's finales are almost done. The Dad and the Mom are going to help Tyrell move back from Snow College and the post-office calls to ask if they should deliver the big white package or are we picking it up. Yeah picking it up!!! Tyrell said it took forever for us to drive to Ephriam so he could see where his call was too. Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA and that MTC not Provo MTC. MaY arrives but now Tyrell has wait the whole summer before he could leave, what a long painful wait.He spent the whole time working even the holiday celabrations. Horse shows for 4-H, J. and M. shine. J. is Sevier counties representative for state by the end of the summer. M. also is a rep but choose not because the competition is steep. jUnE-jUly-AuGuSt The three oldest not Tyrell grew lambs for the fair. J. took third place over all for market lamb. That is some stiff competition. Sadly M.'s lamb didnt make weight so next year he will try again. All the kids took a chicken in that they had raised this spring and all got BlUE Ribbons. They mostly cared about the money. Horse RIDING horse riding HORSE RIDING do I need to say more its what we did all summer every free chance we got. We went tent camping for the first time since Jer. was born. We haven't been brave enough because of needing so much equipment to deal with all his lung issues. It was a blast but I admit with kids I really want a trailer. We slept through the rain and had wet sleeping bags but it was still fun. School started soon after that and then here came SEPTEMBER. The missionary talked on fast sunday because A general Authority came and bumped him out of his time slot the next sunday. The next week he flew for 24 hours arriving in Johannesburg South Africa MTC for 3 weeks he is now in the field and loving it. The next week J. placed third over all at the state 4-H in barrels and is setting a goal to begin high school rodeo in the spring of next year. It is quiet around our house with out the older brother to tease and torment. OcToBeR So now we are settling into school. Jer. started Early intervention and head start its been an adjustment but of course. NoVeMbEr. J. runs the spot light at the High School Musical. C. plays football and it is a struggle this year for his team, he still loves playing though. DeCeMbEr finds us here pretty much summing up the year. We wish everyone a wonderful year and may peace come to you, may your focus be on the true meaning of this season Jesus Christ's birth. Also let us remember to touch someone else's life for good. Love all the Alonzo and Brooke Jones Family MERRRY CHRISTMAS AND A SUPER GREAT NEW YEAR!




1.K. and M. riding in Sigurd Parade Caleb is in front.
2.Tyrell on the mountain above the farm.
3.J. on the same mountain above the farm but the photo shows the farm and river.
4.M. done riding the barrels for 4-H.
5.Z. ready to water fight.

FiRsT 2009 sNoW fALL

Driving to the top of sawmill bench just to see snow and play is what the kids wanted.

Mischief and naughty is what happens after being traped in a car.


Staking claims to the tree we want when its time to cut down our Christmas tree.