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
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.
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