Do you want to serve a mission too heres how!

I am all about helping tell the good story that makes my life more bearable and wonderful all at the same time. My oldest son serves the Lord teaching souls the good story and I would love to help him along the way or for that matter any other young man who is giving two years of his life to tell the world about the Lord and the truth that the Book of Mormon can bring to a persons life.

So with no further waiting may I announce our family is now going to become a part of the Internt MTC.

Say what? ya an INTERNT MTC. How? well people can search my site and hear my side of how I and my family live as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

We are cross referencing words and links that will lead those who need answers to questions that they have along with the things that we do to live a better life because we know who we are, where we are going, and were we will go once our lives on this amazing earth are done.

Come join me by being an Internet MTC to the world.

Click here.Links to how to do it, its easy.

Click here to get to the exact entry area.

When I need a lift I read from things like this click to read Just knowing that if we all do our part then the Lord will send the right people to get the work done. Even a Prince can realize the importance of the gospel and will come when the Lord whispers to him that its a more worthy cause then protecting idols. One of the Young Men that I used to Substitute teach in school here in America is serving a mission in the Princes country today. I hope that he will be able to teach members of the Princes family the truth of the Gospel and help his family become forever too just like mine. Read the story up there on that click to read link and enjoy.

Missionary asks about Family Prayer, Scripture reading, and Family Home Evening?

The Missionary's Questions to the Family.
1. How is family home evening going? 

2. How is family prayers going?

3. How is family scripture reading?

Family Answer: Honestly these are all always works in progress and refinement. There is an ebb and flow to them depending on the mood and strength of the family unit. So we are forever working to be better at each one and some days they are are done with greatness and some days we failed miserably and get up to the next day to work to do them again better the next time. We are not perfect but we are striving to gain that goal which will meet at some point if we try try try and keep always trying to reach that goal. 

1.I want to know what you mean about being obedient? Are you referring to the fact that sleeping is a favorite and hard for you even now that you are on a time zone that agrees with your biological internal clock or is it like Missionary Kathrine Howell says those who are native to the country often act as if the missionary rules do not apply to them?

1.Well I'm kind of confused about this Question, but I can say that I have been trying to develop alot more self control since I came on my mission and I started with making a resolution to be obedient all the time. Unfortunately you have to be with someone else all the time and they don't always want to be obedient and that causes contention. I don't like Contention and I don't like being disobedient so it's alot less stressful and alot more happy when your comp wants to be obedient too.

2.How do you practice listening to the spirit? 

2.We Do Real plays (Role plays) every day to try and discern the spirit, but mostly it just come in teaching and everyday life and decisions. You just have to search for it and you will find it. It's also easier when you don't watch TV and bother yourself with worldly stuff a majority of the time.

3.What are the Internet cafes like that you have to send letters to us from,are they hard to keep the spirit there about you because of the smoke or loud music?

3.The Internet cafes are ok. They are like public businesses so they don't allow smoking and what what inside. None of the Cafes I've been to are actually cafes. They are strictly for computer use.

4. What does it say on pg 15 of the 9:00pm schedule last sentence of the white handbook?

4.It says write in your journal. (I have been writing every night since the first day of January!)

5. Have you taken the time to see when your temple recommend expires? Make sure before you leave Africa that is is in affect with Pres. Poulsen so that you are able to attend here without having to take time to track down the people it will take to get it updated. 

5. I still have until July, then I will get it updated

6.What pictures would you like to see of our family do you have any choices that I could put on next week?

6.Any pictures I love pictures from home

7. Did you have lots of DA's this week? Has anyone asked you to do something that took practice that may have been lost from lack of practice? There is a sister that says she will make sure your fed if you have no DA's have you met her yet?

7.Not really, the ward is really good at giving us food though. We are not supposed to have DA's after 6:00 and that's when everyone wants to do it. The only way is if they have someone for us to teach.

Unfortunately I'm out of time but it's been a great week. I might have to write a letter. We'll see.

Love Elder Jones

 Dear Son and Brother

What a fun week we have had meeting your companions mother over the Missionaries Moms group.As soon as I saw the name I knew I had seen it on the group of the Moms from Africa. I am grateful for those who are willing to share and care about each other in this wonderful world that we live in. And we got see you little flat that sits sorta behind the green roofed house. The boys wonder if the car you have is still blue, that was the color of the one in the google maps address photo that Sister Seastrand sent for us to look at this week. 

This is my take on Listening to the spirit it takes practice every single day coupled with prayer so getting enough sleep helps turn on your ears to hear him loudly at times that you will need his quiet shouting like the time when the car was coming towards me on the freeway and I heard his shout to get in a different lane. 

The alumni wrestle happened this week and the team wiped out Gunnison C did not pin but he had 9 to 4 points on his opponent. I am not sure if you knew that Mike retired yet but can still whip Caleb Young on the mat. The two Willes brothers went against each other and tied up. It was fun to see some of the old guys on the mat. They honored Mike with a legend trophy that they want to start from now on. Thursday was crazy Mc went to the planetarium and then to a region wrestling. The buses made it back from SLC with barley enough time for them to hop in another car and head over to Millard county. He took 4th and was pretty pleased with himself. Of course we had to tell him earlier in the week that he had to finish out the season and go all the way to the end as he is starting to get tired of the practices every night after school. C that same night wrestled in Wayne county and pinned both of the kids he had to wrestle. Every kid on the varsity high school team has qualified to go to state this year. Jer goes around whistling all day now and asks me if I can whistle also. He even whistles in school and when he wants my attention.  Reminds me of someone else that's far away. I did another 6 mile run this week. My friend did an 8 mile run and so I guess this week I better get a move on if I am going to keep up with her.She already has ran a half marathon and she wants me to come run with her. I am a bit scared of it though because I have to talk myself into doing it everyday. Also running outside is way different then inside since there seems to be hills that pop up out of no where when you run outside, which of course makes you breath really hard at times and gets you into a discouraged state for a moment and then all of a sudden there is a flattening and if you kept going then you know that you can go more but if you quit on the hill then there is the talking yourself back into doing it more. This analogy reminds me of maybe how taking time to read the Book of Mormon when your at home and not having to do it can be just like preparing to run in a day but on your mission the time is set aside to do the reading its a part of the assignment. So I guess the bottom line is I just need to set the goal pay the fee and get running so that I am ready to run with her when the date arrives because when its all done I will feel so great. J even went with me on one of my walk/runs around the valley Sat. It only took us an hour and a half where last year it took me about two and a half hours to get around the valley. We couldn't run the whole time because she would get to tired and she had bad shoes on but it was fun to finally get her to go with me.  Tonight Z will be going to a get ready to be baptized class let me tell you he is so very thrilled to be able to go do this.

Please tell us all the new things that this week has brought to you in teaching the truth of all things that really matter most in this world.

Love the family who loves you here.

New Zone Leader and New Area for the Missionary.

So our questions are
1. Where are you in South Africa these days?
1.Well I'm am serving now in place called Pretoria East.
2. Will you be traveling all over and what are the names of the areas that you will cover?
2.Yes and the areas are Pretoria east, Mamelodi 1and 2, Centurion, Sunnyside, Soshanguve, Mabopane, Attridgeville and Saulsville
3. Who is your new companion, name and where is he from?
3.His name is Elder Seastrand. He's from Orem Ut. He is soon to finish his mission but he's doing really good at making sure it doesn't show. He is very obedient and I think that is going to help me to be obedient as well. It's really easy when you have a companion that wants to be obedient. It's positive peer pressure.
4. Did you have to write a letter to the parents of your son(companion he trained) also when you left him?
4. No we didn't do that, it would have been a good idea though.
5. Was it a bitter sweet parting?
5. Well yes I really loved Tzaneen, but I'm going love Pretoria as well. Pretoria is a big change from Tzaneen. 90% of the ward is white people and it's the same in our area. I think I'm going to have to start learning Afrikaans.
6. What will you miss the most about the son you have trained?
6.Well that's really a hard question for me to answer. I just enjoyed being companions with him, and it feels like it was really short.
7. What advice do you have for your brothers about learning to clean that will help them while serving there missions?
7.Just learn to clean up the messes you make when you make them.
8.Tell us the story of why the young man was being forced to leave church early before his interview by his Aunt.
8. Well the young man was scheduled to be baptized after having attended church for two weeks, the only problem was that he was going to be moving to Eastern Cape for school, on the same day. I was told that I should interview him but really just discern if he was ready and really converted. So we set up the interview and it went well. He, was personally prepared, but I still felt that the situation wasn't going to be good for him. Despite those feelings, I didn't want him to feel upset or discouraged so I filled out the record and said it would be ok. I really had two things pulling on me, the one was that I was afraid he would get upset and stop progressing if we said he should wait, and the other was guilt in feeling that I wasn't doing what God wanted me to do by saying yes. Well it turned out that his Aunt who was going to be taking him to Eastern Cape was a little impatient and said they would be leaving on Sunday morning before church and being unable to get baptized. So I really believe that was supposed to happen, and it was a humbling experience for me. I should probably do exactly as the spirit prompts me to do next time because the Lord just might not be there to save me the next time.

Well this week has been great, but it feels like it has taken forever. it started with transfers on Tuesday which was really suspenseful. They didn't announce where we would be going until the very very last minute before it was time to leave. Finally when I found out where I was going I was kind of excited because of my companion. I served around him a little bit in Soweto zone and he is a great missionary. I have already been learning alot from him. I'm no longer a senior companion but that 's kind of a good thing because it takes alot of pressure off of me. It's difficult sometimes being a trainer because your comp doesn't always know what to do and you have to try and make up for that yourself. So it's nice. so far we have both been able to talk and give ideas to each other so it's going well. Being a Zone Leader is nice because you have someone else there to get your back. One of the Coolest things that happened during transfers is that Elder Lechner is now my District leader here in Pretoria so I still get to hang around him. It's way cool! The other thing is that there are alot of Missionaries from my MTC group and missionaries that are older than me in the zone so it can be kind of intimidating to have to give them instruction. But the lord qualifies who he calls. A lot has happened this week, first we had Zone Leader council and that was great. It has helped me get in the swing of things. After the Zone Leader council President Poulsen took us to "The Top Of Africa" It is the tallest building Jo'burg. I had never walked around down town Jo'burg before and I got to tell you it's a little scary. Talk about big city! I could see one of my old area's from the top so that was really cool and if you look hard enough you can see the temple. I have some pics but I don't have time to send them today. The week has been alot of running around trying to organize things and doing interviews so I can't wait until we really get to crack down on our own area. Well that's all for now so I'll talk to you later
Elder Jones

Dear Elder Jones
So its been a very busy week again. Life with all these busy children just never seems to be quiet. Right now we are non stop after school. As soon as they hit the house we are hurrying to eat, run to do chores and fire stoke and then race to be on time to wrestle practices. We pick C up at 7:00 who of course wrestled right after school and then head for home. On nights when there is a match we have to hurry even faster to get all that done so that we can drive over the Mt. to where ever the tournament is happening. Thank goodness J is some-days able to stay with Jer and Z so that they are not always having to go off somewhere or with us. Pretty soon though it will be Zs turn to go to practices and Mc will start to slow down. On Fri Dad and I drove to Provo to watch the Hales Theater Play Foreigner that he got for my Christmas present. We missed the first 15 min because of how bad the traffic was but they still let us in. It was really funny to watch the play. We stayed in a hotel without any kids, strange for the first time in 4 years to not have at least one with us. The next morning we drove up to Heber city to watch C wrestle but it was so foggy that we got lost trying to find the arena that they had the tournament at. By the time we found the spot after going around it about twice he was all done and had gotten beat out placing him 7th out of 68 in his bracket. He felt really good about the time spent considering that not many freshman get as far as he did at this particular tournament. It was called the Rocky Mt Rumble and there were like schools from everywhere, 66 to be exact. We watched for awhile and then after falling asleep in hard spectator chairs we headed for home.
Today in Church the Parker family told about preparing to go to the temple and how when they were ready as a family to go Tiffany was not able to go and yet she had been the one that had needled at her Dad for most of her life until she hit her teen years. She told how she had to sit outside while her family went in and were sealed and how alone she felt. She said I know things happen for a reason and I am grateful that Brent came when he did because he helped me to get to a place where I needed to be to go and become a forever family. It was really a neat sacrament meeting today. Preston Parker said it was sad that he had the attitude all his life that things had to be his way or the Highway and then one day he realized that maybe the Highway he was on wasn't really going anywhere all that great. It almost broke his heart when Tiffany was unable to be with them when he had finally gotten ready to go to the temple. Several very close loved ones that passed on helped him to know that there was an urgency and he needed to be sealed to his family Now and to not waste any more time getting it done. I have never heard such urgency in a guy who never ever seemed that serious about anything to me. He made tears come to many an eye.
Well tonight I went to a Prom Dress check to make sure that J lovely lime green prom dress is temple garment worthy and then we went to a fireside. The boys would not come with us so it was just me and her. It was fun to be with her alone for a min.
That is so fun that you would get to eat dinner with the public affairs Rep over video production. I have always hope that would be a direction that the Lord would somehow open for you in your life. I guess time will tell right.
Well everyone wants me to tell you that they love you. Aunt Jamie said she thinks about you each day and she should be better about writing. Uncle Jathan is going back to school in the medical field. He does work at times with Uncle Brocks company but he got shocked and lost the feeling in his finger on a job that they had sent him out on and that is the thing that made him start to consider Physical therapy after having to go get the therapy done again, This is something he considered many years ago already once. He says its about time he does it and stops just thinking about hints and directions that he keeps receiving. Brock is back to work but his leg does get to bothering him at times. He has to wear one of those compression socks. Papa is still driving truck and Nana has her birthday today. Uncle Brock took us Jan. birthday girls out for dinner yesterday and he paid for it all it was kind of fun to do together. I love you your Dad loves you and we hope that this week is super great for you and we are all on pins and needles waiting to hear where and what you are now up to these days.
Love the family

Teaching steers to lead for showing at the county fair.

Some days it takes muscle to get a calf to learn to lead. Some days it just takes muddy areas too to get them to yield. J girl working with her steer to make sure that when it hits a 1000.00 pounds she can still make him go where whe wants him to go.

C boy had to make his steer get sandwiched just to get the halter on to teach him the finner points to leading.

This is the beginning to teaching a steer to lead for FFA showing this summer in the county fair.

Learning to be non judgmental when being a missionary.

1. When driving back and forth to Johannesburg is it long and populated or barren of people kind of like going through Scipio to Nephi?

1.Well It's barren for the first 3 hours, then it gets really crowded as you go through the city of Pretoria. you actually hit standstill traffic sometimes. Speaking of which we are going toJohannesburg tomorrow. I'll explain further down.

2. The skype cost what happened there?

2.I'm still not sure, I haven't heard anything concerning it.

3. What was it like to have dinner with a General Authority you never told us.

3.It was really nice actually. Myself I didn't really get to talk much with him because he was sitting on the other side of the table. I did get to talk with the Public Affairs Representative. That kind of got me excited because he's the one who produces the church videos and stuff. That was actually the third time I've met Elder Watson on my mission now so it was kind of becoming normal thing by dinner, but he paid for it so that was nice.

4. Have you eaten snake meat Z wants to know.

4.Nope I haven't eaten snake meat yet. I'm not really sure if I will. People are just really afraid of snakes around here.

Well this week has been exciting, and yet it has seemed like we keep running out of time. Starting with Monday. Last Monday was scheduled to be our deep cleaning day, but Sunday night President Poulsen called me so that I could set up Missionaries interviews with my district on Monday morning. So we set up interviews and that went well. President just asked me how my spiritual self is doing and asked about all of the missionaries in the district. He asked about how I have liked serving in Tzaneen and I told him it has been my favorite area so far, maybe because I've been here so long now. Anyway after the interviews we rushed to do our shopping and e-mailing, which was short (sorry!) and then we rushed to our flat so we could clean before Proselyting time. We cleaned with much vigor and yet we didn't finish the list, which made for our having to wake up very early today. Very early!

Tuesday was a normal Proselyting day with some excitement's and challenges and the same was with Wed., actually it turned out to be a very humbling day, at least for me. We were doing our regular Proselyting and we were going to take one of our young members, Mungoni Manzini, to teach with us so we called him and he told us that he couldn't come now because his Mom had to take his Dad to the hospital because he was feeling sick. That also cancelled our last appointment because it was going to be with his family. After hearing that I let the natural man get in and the thoughts I was having were "O my heck, people go running to the hospital when they get just a little bit sick and it ruins everything" That kind of put me in a sour mood, until I realized it was making things difficult. After a while the humbling part came into place when we received a phone call from a very for lack of better word, Drunken sounding, Bro. Manzini. He told us he wasn't feeling so well and we were the only ones he could contact to come and give him a blessing. We told him we would come and give him a blessing. When we got to the hospital we found a very big man in a very humbled condition. He had tears in his eyes and was struggling to speak. He told us that he was just having a normal old day and then suddenly he was struggling to move his legs and he couldn't speak. He told us that he was having some blood pressure issues and needed a blessing, so we pulled the curtains around his bed and he asked me to do the anointing.

Before I could do the anointing I had to ask a repentant little prayer and ask that I could be worthy to give the blessing. We later found out that Bro Manzini had suffered a stroke. He's out of the hospital now but he has no use of his left arm. Boy was I humbled by that experience, and I hope I'll be a little less judgemental next time. Thursday was a normal day, then Friday I was on exchange in Modjadji for Baptismal interviews. The day was good and the interview went well, other than we found out he had to leave on Sunday before church because his Aunt was forcing him too. It's a long story I'll have to fill you in a little later.

The next day, Saturday, we were finishing up our exchange by doing morning study together when the phone rang. Elder Palmer answered and it was President Poulsen asking Elder Palmer if he would become a District Leader in Botswana. I think he was kind of excited because his ears turned red and he started breathing really fast. I gave him my congratulations and then we continued our study. After study I was gathering my things and ready to exchange back to my regular area when the phone rang again. After a minute Elder Palmer came handing the phone to me so I got on and heard the voice of President Poulsen as well. He said " well Elder Jones this transfer I'll be sending you away from Tzaneen and I'd like to ask if you will be a Zone Leader?" With a little bit of shock I said " I guess so" and he continued to say I would be finding out where I'm going at transfers on Tuesday. So today I'm packing my bags, leaving my son (Elder Rasi) (this means the companion that he has been training) and leaving Tzaneen. I've been really mixed with the way I feel about leaving because I feel like I'll be missing out on alot of cool experiences, but at the same time I'm ready to serve in a functional branch where I don't have to be the clerk. Saturday was a normal day, with some disappointment and excitement and then Sunday I was released and another was called in my place. I spent the time during Sunday school training him on how to be a clerk. I said my good byes after church and then we went to service in Motupa and we had the same kind of go round. We had some good appointments and then we finished the day. It was kinda sad because it was my last day teaching in my area, because tonight I'll be in Lenyenye for some interviews and the we leave tomorrow morning. I've got to say I'm leaving a little piece of my heart here in Tzaneen.

Love Elder T. Jones

Dear Elder Jones

Well I told you this year the kids picked to help give some money towards that little girl who needs a service dog. I thought that it could maybe take at least a few months into the new year to have anything near enough happen for her in the funding. It takes 6000.00 to get the dog trained and acclimated to the little girl, her family and everything so that the dog knows how to sense that she is having trouble. Well this week because of several friends that read the mothers blogs, and many are not members of our faith, they are only 1000.00 away and this could change by the time I send the letter and she might even have the dog.Those caring people made it jump from 700 to only need the last 1000.00 in two and a half days. I made a separate blog for my weight loss support system and several of the people there on my facebook donated also. It is really been an amazing thing to see. The little girls family has really had it tough with the Mom having a mental break down to the little girl being normal and then all of a sudden not normal and now the Dad lost his job and they had to move. All right before Christmas this year. So to see the outpouring to help this little girl get the service dog all from word of mouth and facebook requests was really cool.

I on Thur went and ran laps with the Jr. High wrestling team for 5 min they all made sure I didn't pass them but for one half of a lap I did and then they all started booking it again. Mc and K had bet me that I couldn't do it. I had already ran 2 miles earlier that morning so 3 miles total for me that day.

Dad tried all weekend to go watch C do the 2A duals and every time just before he was supposed to get on the mat Dad would get called in. It happened again today when C was supposed to do the last one against a kid who is the son of one of Dads cousins Fawn from the Jones side of the family. C didn't even know that they were related because it is a different last name. His score was 9 pins and one loss. The team took 5th out of 11 teams. C said that he had about 5 kids that tried to throw punches or elbow him after when he was trying to help them up off the mat. Two got yelled down by the referees really badly. The national ranked kid on Wed. was beating him again by 5 points and then C didn't think and he got himself into a spot that the kid was able to pin him in. Its the first kid this year to have gotten a pin on C he was bummed because it was his goal not not ever get pinned. After that the coach decided to switch him to a kid that was 112 and older to keep C working harder. Mike got C ipod all set up with a focus mental talking thing that he listens to all night before the matches. Like doing a wrestling yoga kinda. It helped because he was much more relaxed and as he said really back to the way he used to wrestle before the rib breaking happened.

J went with Ts family to his little sisters baptism this Sat. then they went snowmobiling. In our little bit of snow compared to all the other areas around us. Its very very cold here and today our area finally got the snow and nowwhere else got it. This year its so cold the kids even have a hard time getting into the mood of sleding but today they finally tried the sleds out with the new snow just before going to do chores. Of course Dad just got down there to start and they had to finish without him because again he got called in. He was really having a rough time of it today with getting called in but he went anyway.

So I had a laugh when you said a bike would be nice. Have you forgotten that it gets dang cold here in this state. Everyday this week it has been -4 at night and maybe 20 degrees pushing it during the day. I left a container of soap in the trunk of the car and it froze its been so cold. So are you sure that a bike is really a very good idea here my son who is sweltering in the African sunshine. Maybe the heat has made you forget the coldness that would seep into you and after getting half way to your destination you would fall over frozen, ya thats how cold it is if you ride bikes here.

Today Jer gave his first talk in primary and he did pretty darn good. At least he repeated everything I told him to say. J gave the lesson in her young women class and she was just glowing and said it felt so good and she would love to do it again. Also she bore her testimony and that doesn't happen often. Her leader came and told me that it was such a great lesson and made her feel tingly all over with the way J taught. In her blessing it tells her hat she will teach often so she just got the greatest taste of it today.

Travis went tracting with the Missionaries the other day and it made J feel really good that he would go and learn that with them. Travis is such a good influence for her.

Tonight I was reminded of what it was like when you put the kids to bed at times. C had them all laying on the beds doing the Ipod thing that Mike made for wrestling. Its all about breathing and focusing on each body relaxing it was so cute.

We also hope you have time to tell us what you have been up to lately too.
Love the Family

When we care we share so please share after reading this here.

Please I have not many followers but even the few I do could help with just a tiny little bit. We were shareful this year with this little girl and now its your turn to share too.

This girl says it so well even with her very colorfulness, but hey it's truthful, so read her plea and see what we can all do if we but work together to help others just a tiny little bit.

My kids you see this year that's what they did is give to her a bit of their Christmas money just so that she could get her a doggy. They understand that if she chokes and her Mommy is not alerted that her lungs can have major damage. They are sensitive to this because of there own little brother Jer's lung issues. They do not like the idea that she could silently cry without anyone knowing but a doggy could make all the difference and alert her parents to her needs. They have three of their own dogs and can not imagine her having to to be without one either, not when it could mean her very life could be saved by its ability to alert someone of her needs.

So please lets get this doggy with your help

Her Mommy is amazing and tells wonderful things about Chickadees story, she is my friend, read the stories here.

See her cute little face here, like her so you can see when she gets her doggy.

Give here so she can get her doggy its a secure site I promise.

If that isn't to your liking well there are other ways to get it too her I promise I can help you just email me please.

We as Heavenly Fathers family all know that sharing is important and we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints know that we should share. Many a Missionary Mom has shared this year with another missionary besides their own. Now we can share with a family who has a future missionary who is learning as he watches his sister be cared for. Lets help this family to get something that they need to make their life a tiny bit easier. My kids see our neighbors service dog at Church and are in awe that they could be helping another little girl feel better at Church too with her service doggy at her side.

We are so close lets get that doggy soon for her!