Goodbye to one more companion and on to a new one.

Our letter to missionary got lost in Internet land so now he has answered the inquires we made.
Last week's questions:
1. How would you feel if you had to come home two months early from your mission?
1. I would feel very sad.

2. Do you get the Ensign? I would like to send you a few inspirational stories if that is ok to take up the email room if you can print them off tell me if not then I will not take up the space.
2. We get the Ensign. Just point out the ones you would like me to read.

3. Do we fill you with enough news or do you wish you got more news from home?
3.Well it depends on what you mean by news. If it's like world happenings, i really don't care to much. If it's family happenings i like to hear it. And i really like getting pictures from home Alot alot alot!

4. How is Clyde doing now after our many prayers for your investigators?
4. Well it's sad to say but, Clyde has kind of fallen out of the teaching pool. It's like there is a brick wall set up against us now so we don't know what to do.

5.Are there many earth quakes there?
5.Not that I've noticed

6. What kinds of calamities do occur in that land. I know hail is one because of the Mutupa story you told us about the hail ruining that mans home. What about fires???? bush fires or smoke we kind of have heard about.
6. I'm not really sure, we don't hear about alot of those things and if we do it's because someone mentioned it to us, like a member or and investigator or we experienced it which hasn't happened much. We don't read newspapers or watch television or even surf the Internet so yeah.

7. So how is the driving now that you have lived there for over a year?
7. It's going to be weird adjusting back because even when i think of driving at home my brain sees on the left side of the road.

8.Tell us one faithful moment you had this week.
8.Well we had a very nice lesson with a recent convert and a member family. There has been a couple of hectic weeks that the Recent convert has had and it's been rough for her. So we talked about how testimonies can not be taken from us unless it's of our own doing. Then we had a small testimony meeting and everyone was in tears by the end (except me because I'm getting better at not crying during those kind of things.)

9. Have you been told when you would be coming home. We understand that your companion was told a date like 4 months before the time came????????
9. I'm not really told the date, but a transfer cycle happens every six weeks exactly so it's not hard to figure out. There is this thing called a trunky call where Sister Henrichsen calls you and asks questions about who's going to pick you up at the airport and what what so she can get you plane tickets but that's about it.

10. What is the one food you miss and can't wait to eat when you come home?
10. I honestly can't answer that question because i haven't thought about that much.

March 28 2011
From Elder Tyrell Jones
Well this week has been good. We had quite a hectic week We had exchanges Wed-Saturday every day, so Elder Seastrand and i were only together in the morning and at night. But it's totally worth it because we were doing interviews and we had 9 baptisms in the zone yesterday! It's nice to see people receiving the gospel. We are going to have 3 baptisms next Sunday of Benee and his wife Maria and their daughter Irene. It is the first White Father led family i will have baptized on my mission, not that that really matters, but usually White people are alot more stubborn. That's really how the week went and it's gone by so fast that i cant really give any finer details. My health is good and Elder Seastrand and I go running every morning and i plan on doing so every morning for the rest of my mission so watch out Mom. I'm eating well because members always send food for us and it's pretty healthy. Love you all to much and I'll talk to you next week.
Elder T. Jones

March 29 2011
From the Mom
Another week over and I am sure I had barley anytime to breath. Dad said he is taking time off just so he can get farm work done because everyday after school there is someplace to have to be to. Mon we did stay home and just got to bed early, Tue he had to pick up C and then went to go to young men but they did not show up at the shooting range. Then Wed K had the Pinewood Derby, Thur Jer's head start had a pinewood derby. If I get the pic uploaded then I will send them. Fri the parents finally get to stay home one evening but Mc is going to hike in the Delta desert for scouts. C finally received his On my honor award for doing it at timberline and its a very nice one too. Jo and Trav on Sat and Mon. put new ball joints on her car and changed the oil. She said in order to get to do some of it she would have to take the tools away from him so she could have a chance because he would get to into doing it. But ya pretty much she has redone the under structure of the wheel base on that car with either taking it to a shop or doing a do over with Trav. To the tune of about 6 hundred now. Sadly though the poor car is looking worse and worse. The boys got it stuck in the mud and then didn't step on the break fast enough and ran it into the side of the truck bed so it scratched the back side of the car. Then Dad made a speed rut at the top of the hill to run water off the road the other way and it hits as we cross poor car i hope it makes it. But at least its more alive then the sub which we think it truly blew the engine the other day. I was trying to get up the hill to the bus and it would not drive out of the yard at all it just putted. Trav thinks the engine blew also by the described sound Jo said it made. Well Katie Mills came home this last week and she gave her homecoming talk today. It was really neat to see here growth. Her mission was really hard for her and as she said humbled her alot. Levi will be home sometime next month. Papa hopes that he will have a chance to return to Japan to help the people there. He has an idea an is praying that the door opens that he can serve there in some way again. This week must have been very interesting for you and we are excited to hear what has happened it should be eye opening to hear the changes that are going on. I am going to be going to the Missionary Moms get together so maybe I will get to see a Mom or two for some of your companions, I guess we will just have to see. Have an amazing week and I sure hope this letter gets to you this time.

Love the family.
I wont ask to many ? today since you already have to catch up on the letter that got lost last week sorry not sure what happened.

1. What are the different church pictures about that you sent us?
1. Well to answer your Questions, that big building is not a church. Its the union building which is the equivalent of the White house. The picture with the spire is of the temple and the picture of the church with a spire is our chapel here. The picture of Elder Seastrand and i with the two others is the Young man we helped to set apart for his mission.(center right) and the other is his brother (center left)

2. Who are the two elders that you and Elder Seastrand are with in the foyer?
2.(see answer to question 1)

4. What is the service project about that you have the bags and orange warn shirts on about?
4. Its' called helping hands, i think the church does it all over the world but i could be wrong. We were cleaning up a school that the Mamelodi ward meets in.

5.You should start looking at preparing to ship your gift crate that you said you had accumulating. We will not open it when it arrives alright.
5.Yeah i was even thinking about that today, i just have been trying to save a few bucks. but if i could ship it it might make things easier on me.

6.So did your companion survive and keep from getting truncky?
6.Well he's doing good. but he's definably aware that he's going home in a week.

Missinary reaches his 18th month timeline!!!!!

Union Park and Union building in Pretoria South Africa

Elder Seastrand, Brother of Missionary, Missionary going to Tyrells Fathers mission area of Miniapolis Minnasota, then Elder Tyrell J. Jones

Missionary work is always about serving in and out of suits. Service of Helping hands, cleaning up the scvhool where the Mamelodi ward meets.

These are items that people should avoid at all costs as they are not healthy for the body or the mind and soul. As the face of our missionary shows defiantly something to avoid!

Well i thought i would just highlight the week and send some pics. The rest of the Monday we had was really nice. We got to go see the union building and it has a nice. It has a really nice park area where we actually sat and talked with our mission president about the zone over the phone. It was really nice because we got some good advice from him and it helped to relive some stress. Tuesday we had Zone leader and Leadership council that was also edifying and it has helped us to be effective this week in getting ideas of helping the zone. Some really great things to note is that our zone achieved the highest of all the zones in the mission this last week. And a lot of areas really improved. Wed. we had a normal day with good appointments, and then Thursday we were on exchange. I was with Elder Lechner and it was ironic because that was the day we both turned 18 months on mission. Elder Lechner pointed that out to me. Friday we didn't actually spend anytime in our area because we were on splits with one of the districts in the zone in order to help them to improve a little bit. It was nice and i think it helped because we've seen a spike in that district. Saturday was a normal day and then Sunday I had the opportunity to stand in the circle of setting apart a missionary who is now going to serve in the Minnesota Minneapolis mission. I thought Dad would think that is really cool. As for anything really unusually, not much happened. We didn't yet find out who our new bishop is because it hasn't been decided. Well, i love you lots hope to here from you soon.

Elder T. Jones
P.s. I don't know if you e-mailed this week or not, but i didn't get it if you did.

P.s. Just a reminder i hope your saving my e-mails.

New Stake in Johannesburg South Africa and our missionary saw the change.

Elder Tyrell standing at the doorway of the Johannesburg Temple

March 13, 2011
To the family
Boy am I tired today. This week has been full of cool news. First of all our stake was re-organized and there is now a brand new stake in South Africa. Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the 70 was here to officially organize the new stakes. So our current Stake president was released after many years of faithful service. And our Bishop was also released as a Bishop and called as the new stake president. So now we are working with a new Bishop whom we know not until Sunday. It's quite a monumental event and at the end of this transfer, our zone will be changed to fit the stake, and a new zone will be formed to fit the new stake. I've never experienced this before, but I'm sure it is going to mean alot of readjusting, especially since I'm also going to have a new companion when it happens. So that's the biggest news since last week. We had the opportunity to attend a fireside today with Elder Clayton and it was in the form of a question and answer type thing. There was a lot of funny questions asked, as well as some good ones. I Asked if the uproar in the middle east was going to effect the possibility of missionary work there and he said that the lord will open doors in his own time. :) So i guess that's really just the way it is. Elder Seastrand and i feel like the zone is struggling a little bit, but were not quite sure what to do anymore. Maybe were just getting a little to overwhelmed. We implemented the 5 talent challenge which is a challenge that whoever is able to increase their Father Led Family lessons as well as double the amount of people they have on date for baptism by the end of the transfer then they will get to through a pie in the Zone leaders faces. the only thing is that it isn't having the effect that we thought it might have. So we have to revamp in some way or another. Anyway.
To answer your questions.

1. So tell us about the 5 talent challenge what is that?

1. Look up ^

2.What are some of the guide lines of teaching about how Fathers should treat their families. Is that something you have ever had to focus on or teach because people did not realize they should not do say something like not have incest or in appropriate sexual activities with their daughters. I know that in some areas that has been a problem there but not sure if you directly have to teach out about it.
2.Well we really just teach about the law of Chastity. I've never come across an instance of incest. I'm sure that if that happened, a lot more then the full time missionaries would be involved.

3.Well I'm sure that a lot of what we paid had to do with it, but i never handed over cash for it.
3.Did you have to buy your own bedding and pillows when you got there?

4.Your guess is as good as mine really. The only thing i know is that we have to look out for Rent signs and then tell the senior couples over housing so they can contact them. We've told the bishop\stake president to keep an eye out for us so that's really all i know.
4.So how do you go about finding a new flat? Do you two just take the time to look while trying to teach or does the older couples look also with you that are serving there too? We will pray that the doors will open to a place that you can put your head at night.

5.I finished that book along time ago.
5. How much have you read of the church history book that we sent with you?

sorry I'm not writing much today I'm really tiered because we had to wake up early to get to the fireside this morning and we were late with our call ins last night, but i love you all and am willing to answer questions next week.
Love Elder Jones

Chapel where Tyrell attends at the moment in Pretoria.

On Sun, Mar 13, 2011
Dear Elder Tyrell Jones
I went and listened to the granddaughter of Joseph Smith tell of her conversion story. She is the 3rd to be baptised in his family since his death. The 1st was his son that he baptized at 8 but after Joseph Smiths death he did not progress in the church. The second was one of daughters of a son who joined but then later went to the RLDS church and denounced her baptism in the LDS church. Gracia told that on the day they celebrated the organization of the Relief Society that was made by her own great grandmother Emma Smith she was being baptised and no one in her little branch knew that she was Joseph Smiths great granddaughter and she did not know about this special occasion that was also taking place on the same day. So now I have written a blog about it with some links to lots of LDS info sites and even a rare photo that was found of Joseph Smith and when blown up it shows many of his facial scars from the beatings that he took for the sake of the gospel.
You have actually met Gracia because she is married to your Dads cousin Ivor Jones and they would come visit Grandma and Grandpa at their house through the years.
She stated that many of Joseph Smiths Descendants were scattered all over the world and the majority are in Australia. They have traveled everywhere trying to meet with those families to help them know about their ancestor and his bringing the gospel to the earth.

Japan has suffered a huge 8.9 earth quake with Tsunami's its crazy all the footage that we have seen. And that came after there was one in New Zealand a few weeks ago. But all the missionaries are all safe in those places. You have such a great protection upon you when you are being obedient in serving him.  I have a cousin who facebooked that was there in Hawaii and he said that they were sitting on a very high hill waiting to see how far up the waves were going to come on the shores in about I think it was six hours later after the earthquake had hit Japan. Papa said he admits he is glad he was here.

Marcus Rose just returned home from his mission. Did he really leave before you cause it seems that he left after wow has time flew and my memory mixed up on time frames.

C has been playing on JV and varsity soccer and he says he feels like jello when he is done.
Sondra and her kids came to visit for a bit today they are waiting for Chad to finish the last of his school and then he will most likely start flight school. The kids are all so grown up now and they only left last Sept.

Well I went to take that CDL test and missed it by one point the buggy thing is that the next time it will be a whole different set of questions and they don't tell you what you did wrong so you can't fix your mistakes or relearn stuff.

Dad took Jo,C and Mc skiing Sat. he tried to to go on the mogul hills like when he was young and spent alot of time sitting on the slope and banged up. He complained about being old more then I have ever heard before. Make sure and send a note to Jo since it is her 17th birthday soon. ok. Yes Will went back to school last week I guess he jumped in in the middle I think is how it worked out. he hasn't said to much more on his facebook since the address was sent he is most likely trying to get back into the swing of non missionary life.

And sat night C went with Jo Trav, Tay, and Cod to the movies. Jo said she loves how respectful Tay can be and the fact that she never feels like she will get in trouble nor that Tay pushes her to do dumb stuff. It makes her really like her alot. She is a very respectful young lady.

I wonder if you have read much in Alma. I started to and my thoughts are along the lines of how well our world can really match or fit some of the things that are happening at that time if you put words in that replace to our words today. The very first chapter how he the man is being so lying and deceitful to get what he wants. This seems to be happening to so many people especially adults doing this to little people so that they can not sort out what would be right or not as they grow older and it causes them great confusion. Now in our own house it would sure be nice if a few of the 3 teens would listen just a bit better to the things the parents are trying to teach so that the influence on the little peoples would change. But I guess that's life in the learning stage right now.
Well this is a first I am writing this and getting it sent off really early Sunday morning because we have not made it to church today. Jo and Jer are both running fevers, the dang water did not get hot so no one had a bath, Dad can hardly move from his ski adventure try to be young again.The worst is that the time changed and I fixed the clocks and it went off like at 4 am so I fixed it again and then it went off late and then I became aware of the sick kids and the unmovable Dad. What a morning so I am reading my scriptures and seeing what the day brings with it. I hope yours had a baptism and some wonderful full filling spiritual input for you.

We love you alot and hope that you find a home(hehehe) I am sure the Lord will guide you if you make that a matter of prayer too which I am sure you do.

Love Mom

Joseph Smith Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints and Gracia his Great Great Granddaughters story.

Today we can see a picture on the left side that is an daguerreotype photograph of Joseph Smith jr. In the middle is the one that is used by the RLDS Church. This middle picture is the oil painting Josephs face has been painted to look perfect with a nice straight nose and no scars to his face from the many blows that he received in his life while standing for the truth of the gospel that he spoke out about.

It is said by Joseph Smith that, "the artist made me to look like a Pretty Boy" "because he has no facial blemishes that are visible in it, Gracia told us".

In the last photo to the right it has been blown up and you can see the slight indention above his left eye that indicates a scar and his eye is slightly pushed in or slanted to the inside where a heavy blow was placed. There is a break in the hair lay of his brow showing that the lay of the skin has been cut and marred in his lifetime. His nose is not such a straight line in this one either.

Please go to Kim Marshall's blog site HERE to see her side of this amazing story with her 2nd generation contact print taken from a negative in about 1879.

Joseph Smith never backed down from speaking his truth of the Gospel (link to the gospel and what that means to LDS church) and the fact that he knew that the Lord met with him and asked him to do many things to bring the light of that truth to the world even in the face of many beatings that hurt his physical body he stood faithful.

This is me Brooke B. Jones  with Ivor Jones and Gracia N. Jones the great great granddaughter of Joseph Smith Jr. the first Prophet of this dispensation of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She happens to be my cousin through the marriage of my husband and her husbands being first cousins.

If you would like to hear some of Gracia's story of how she came to know about the church that her grandfather helped to bring to restoration here on the earth please click on this link to read her conversion story Here. This is a link to the info of her fathers families history Here.

This is a photo showing Gracia Jones family photo link to Joseph Smith and Emma as a great great granddaughter. The top couple show Emma and Joseph Smith then the young man Alexander is their son. He had a daughter Coral who had a daughter Lorena and then Gracia. She is said to be the first ancestor of his to become a member of the Church. She says she is actually the third but the first to be actively pursuing and continuing to reach out to many others that are in Joseph Smiths family today. Here is another story of the conversion of one of their cousins to the Gospel Robert W. Smith just click on his name and it will take you there. Its an amazing story of how Emma Smith spoke to him so that he could go ahead and join the LDS Church.

Gracia's deep felt mission is to try and reach as many of her relatives as she can because as she said "we were not allowed to speak about him and or even know anything about Joseph". This seems to be the same thing that many say as they come to learn of there relative once Gracia has met with them. We can see this plea in this photos caption above the children's heads. Pray that they may come to know about their own ancestors.

 It can be realized that the great grief that Emma Smith suffered because of the brutal death of her husband and the very realization that her and her own children's lives could be in the same great danger instigated that there was no longer communication about their father that they loved so much along with the fact that they were very young children and taking time to talk about the past was just frivolous time spent when a living must be made. Emma was left with a great burden in many little children and the majority of the church members left to a safer land for them so the contact with the congregations of the church were now gone thus the children did not learn of the truths he translated for the Lord on the earth from the sources that he may have wanted them to know it from. Emma's very old Mother in law Lucy 

Mack Smith stayed with her after her sons deaths and she cared for her even feeding her by hand every meal because she could not raise her arms in her old age. Emma was a saint to those she cared and loved but she could no longer speak about her Joseph Smith after he passed away. Thus her children and grandchildren grew not knowing much about their father and grandfather. Only that there was great fear in talking about him was created.

This is a cast of the death mask of Joseph Smith that Gracia Jones shows as she speaks about her Great Great Grandfather Joseph Smith.

A board showing many photos of the history of her ancestors and the connections that make up Josephs historical life. Also photos of her family and the links that are so important and visible when viewed through a photo. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all view history by photos. 

Gracia spoke about the great prejudice that seemed to be between Emma Smith and Brigham Young and there has now been an official letter made stating that this should be set aside and not be recognized in our life times. I sat listening to this and of course was very surprised. My Great Great Great Uncle is Brigham Young and I never knew there was a rife in the friendship. Now I was curious and went searching here to find a link to the story of how an apology came to be asked for HERE. You will see after reading this article that I must be of that 4th generation and I would much rather see a friendship then separations of our families.  This is a wonderful scripture to read D&C 109:70,  and it confirms this action as quoted by Robert Smith in his story "that the  prejudices of Joseph’s posterity" “may be broken up and swept away as with a flood that they may be converted." This is a link site to the story of the man who asked for the apology as he could see that prejudices was a stumbling block for many of his loved ones and needed to be put to rest so to speak. Please read Michael A. Kennedy's story HERE or the more complete story from the Meridian Magazine HERE (which by the way to a person who is a member is quiet a funny renadition).

I really loved Gracia's words of advice "make a paper trail for your family to be able to see and find the links that make you connected".  My personal advice is write your stories so that your children can read them add the photos to the story so that they can see the fun that is in your family and yes include the struggles because those are what shape a family into the survivors and those who endured to the end, kind of people that we are if we but follow the Saviors plan here on the earth.

Volcano hair for Jer.

Jer went on a field trip with his preschool.

He met me at my sisters door where he gets off the bus saying do you like my freaky hair?

"It's red like a volcano cause I didn't want it cut like the others, just scary freaky"! He would not let us wash it out for two days and many people said is his hair just red like that? He loved it and would like to have it stick up and be red again but the Mom isn't to into that at such a young age. Now I just have to talk him into getting his hair cut for real and not have a scream fit about it.

Missionary answers questions time marches on.

Letter #1
1. What is the technology like in South Africa, like the cell phones you get to
use I am assuming they are basic and there are areas that still don't get
service   
1. Well the Cell phone system is about the same. They have smart phones and what what. It's pretty much the same as home. The only thing that is different, is that they are all run on Prepaid service. You get a top up on Air time each month, and if you run out you have to by more from your own pocket.
2. Are you haveing another transfer soon? You said something about that a few
notes back.
2. The transfer ends on April 5th. We are just starting a new transfere now.
4. What is it that makes you like Elder Lechner so much, is he a bit crazy like
you?

4. I just get a long well with Elder Lechner. Our personalities aren't exactly the same, he's actually really serious most of the time.

Well our day has been really shortened so I'll just answer the questions. Sorry

Letter #2

1. Is Centurion the poor area that is in the middle of the rich area that Elder
Seastrands mother told us about?

1.I'm not really sure what you mean. Centurion is about middle class I'd say. I think maybe you are thinking of Eastlynn.

2. "Our next Hurtle is coming up soon, and seems serious, but we'll talk about
that as it comes"  ???????????? so what the heck is that about Dad says.

2.That just means that we recently had to help a missionary overcome some serious disobediance issues. It got cleared up alot quicker than I thought though. He had an interview with President, and now he's back on track. But on that note. Our landlord just sold her property so we have to find a new place to rent, by April 30th :( 

3. This is all that I have from Will. "I still don't have a snow address he says".

3.Thanks for the adress, Has will already started school?

Love you lots, this week was a really great week. We had 4 father led families come to church. making about 11 investigators at church, which is a record since I've been here.

Things to ask about next week, so I can inform you is

The five talent Challenge

Love Elder T Jones

March 13th
So I had this great letter written that I started back on Tue and somehow got
deleted. By the end of Tue it felt like a really long week even though it was
hardly a week started.
On Mon Jo got asked to the prom by T. On Sunday she had been teary eyed
and whining about me wanting her to go get signed up to for college. She
just couldn't go alone she said and I was trying to get her to go on a road that
T Uncle could pick her up because most likely she would speed on it ya know
the college road, the only road that Dad ever has gotten a ticket on. Well after
being all teary Dad finally told her to knock it off because all Mom was trying
to do was to get her to go somewhere so T could ask her out. She felt dumb
and went to her room and was still all teary and finally I consented to go with
her to the college. We were pulled over just as she turned in to park and was it
ever funny she just kept insisting that she had not done anything wrong and yet
she did not have her insurance card which I guess is law now and she really was
only going like 30 for about 3 min maybe. He gave her a hard time and then said he would not give her
a ticket if she would go to prom with T. She sat stunned for a sec and then
started to cry, whacked me with the back of her hand and just kept saying over
and over thats so mean thats so mean. I grabbed her hands and said just
don't smack him ok because then you will be in trouble. He was laughing so hard
and saying how is that mean its a good compromise, so go call him now. Every
time she talked to anyone about it thats what she would say. She even called
T and said the same thing and even texted it to him it was pretty funny to
watch her. Then we went over and did a Mcdonalds fundraiser for 4H. She had to
go be behind the counter and said she never wants to do that again in her life
either.
Tue I wished I could just talk to your face email and texting is nice but some
days a back and forth exchange would be so much less stressful in
the exchange of info but thank goodness at least the news is only a week old not
months old by the time we get to hear what you have been up to.
Both boys meaning Mc and C are full force into soccer now. C is playing
striker on he thinks the varsity team but things keep changeling. Mc is a
new team that they are just getting going for the Jr.High school  team.  Jo
is getting antsy and wanting 4H to start. I wish we could afford a new fast
horse for her to do High-school rodeo but the gas prices are so crazy we could
barley even drive her to the matches. The price has now hit 3.50 and it jumped
like in 4 days to that.
Thur night I drove up to take Jer to those NICU follow up clinics and wow it was
so horrible. The snow was making whiteout I could barely see the lines on the
sides of the road. I was so glad when we finally got to J and J house.
It took us and hour to get from Nephi to Payson which usually is like 15 min or
so. Jer passed off lots of mile markers but he is nearsighted and when he is 8
it will start showing up which they said is most likely from genetic of our
family. They also said the he is right on target for the adjusted age that they
go by so he is doing well that way other then he has attention issues but they
said that that was to be expected. Today he shocked me by not only writing his J
which I knew he could but he wrote an e for his name it was so dang cute. He is
a left hander boy like Mc thats for sure.  After all
the Dr visits we went shopping with Jo and her friend Tay to find shoes
for the Prom. headed home and then back to Salina after changing our clothing
and leaving Jer with Dad to go watch K's prom. They had a really fun dance
that they did. Sat Dad and the boys cleaned outside and Jo and I cleaned
inside of course tonight it looks like we did not do a thing to the inside ugh
what a day. Sunday was sweet the oldest Campbell son is finally going to take
his wife and new son and go through the temple to be sealed. It made a very
spiritual sacrament meeting as he bore his testimony along with Sp Gay
saying he hated to cry and then breaking down and crying as he bore his
testimony. Jo fasted today for her friend. I asked her for what in
particular and she said just everything. Well I guess thats all the news I can
think of.
I really loved your letter and the insight to what your week was like sorry
about our letter not getting to you.

Often even outside of being a missionary a
person can feel overwhelmed  but the most important thing to always remember is
to listen to his prompting and directions always in your job, with your
children, your church calling, because he gives you a responsible area that you
should also represent the Lord in all through your life. And most important is
to obtain his direction to carry out the day in his name being prepared to bless
all the you come in contact with each and every day. I love that you are
learning this it will help you to be a much better father then if you had not
that truth and growth of understanding in your life to pull from. So now for a
few little questions for this week.

Well thats all for tonight I love you son with all my heart may this week bring
you lots of great joy and many sweet spirits to help come closer to a sweet
life.
Love Mom

Genealogy you know FAMILY

May I please announce a very special blog spot with stories of my children ancestors go there read have fun check back there is bound to be more as time goes on.

THE FAMILY OF ANDREW AND SIDDIE BUNN SMITH

There is a link spot if you ever need to find it again on the bottom of my family list. Love my family lots. 

I promise there really is cool stuff going on!

I always forget the camera when it seems mundane, but there has been cool stuff going on on our farm. 

We have laughed and cleaned and cleaned again.

 Then taken to cleaning the yard of the winter blowing's and tree branches on the ground.

 The garden spot is getting prepared and oh ya I better remember to make my seed starts get into those little peet pots. 

The boys Momma chickens are now laying in overdrive again.

The cows are starting to be born, our first one came the other morning and yippee its a heifer too.

Will there be another baby foal in the field I guess we will see pretty soon as spring comes ever near.

17 robins we saw through the window yesterday and we always measure spring because the geese come from far away.

 Now if I could just remember to recored all the things that we see and we do by a photo, you would see that there really is cool stuff going on over here on the JONES family farm. 

Missionary news go view the Family Proclamation.

Well this week has been really great. Monday was like it always is, with some bonus Appointments that kept. One being a Father led family that we also saw last night.

Tuesday was transfers so we now have some new missionaries in our zone, most of which are new district leaders and their full of missionary fire. Elder Seastrand and i couldn't go to the transfer meeting because neither of us were being transferred, so we had a pretty full day. It started with teaching one of our recent converts about doing missionary work and it paid off because hes now helping us do some fellowship of some of our investigators. We were also doing service that day but we were struggling to be in all of the places we needed to be so we went on splits with some of the ward missionaries. I think it was inspired. It did bring alot of fruit, but we did get accomplished, what we needed to accomplish.

Wednesday we Had our Zone leader Council. All of the Zone leaders in the mission came together to talk about the progress of the mission, and what needs to happen. I felt really good, because i got allot of thoughts off of my chest about all of the things that we are asked to do as missionaries in this mission. Our mission has discussed lots and lots of ways to do missionary work effectively, and lots and lots of ways to help us improve. Well with all of thees inspired ideas, I've felt that many of the missionaries just feel overwhelmed at times, because they can't incorporate all of thees tools that we have. Some incorporate almost everything, but they do it out of a sense of obligation rather than for the purpose they are intended. I have felt that way at times, and so after talking about it, President Poulsen gave some inspired advice. He referred all of us the pg 5 of the white handbook bottom paragraph which says: "you and your companion are assigned to a specific proselyting area. you represent the lord in that area and are responsible for obtaining His direction in carrying out your assignment and blessing the people there." i felt like it really helped me gain purpose and understanding about all of the tools, and so later on in the week we talked about it as a zone.

Thursday was actually a bit hectic, mostly due to crazy planning. We cover two areas and to get to the other (Centurion) it's about 25 minutes to drive. well we usually spend our night on Thursdays proselyting in centurion, but that day we had an early appointment and then had appointments in our main area Pretoria. Well because it's kind of a waste to got to Centurion if no one will be there, we were trying to call our investigator but no one answered. The next dilemma is that if they don't answer you still have to go there because maybe their home, but their phone isn't working or something. Well basically the worst happened and we went and they weren't around. Now the dilemma was we were faced with time on our hands, and we only go to centurion by referral, therefore we try not to do finding there. So we had to go back to Pretoria do some tracting then hit our next appointment. The appointment we had was at a house that we tracted into. He felt like he didn't really want us to share because he already had Jesus in his life. We explained that we are unique and the only way for him to know that is to listen to us. so he agreed, but we had to stand outside his gate, while we talked. After teaching he Reluctantly agreed to have us come back, but never the less did invite us to come and check on him.(unfortunately that fell through) Anyway, then we went to see our Bishop to correlate the mission work, then went back to Centurion. We had 1 great appointment, and then the last cancelled, fortunately the time worked out that we could have correlation right after, then we hit the road home. it was a hectic day but our smiles stayed on our faces.

Friday was FANTASTIC. Throughout the week Elder Seastrand and i Had been planning to have an uplifting, motivating Zone Meeting and we held it on Friday. We really incorporated the things we learned at Zone leader Council. I started by talking about the mission tools that we had and how we can find purpose in using them. Each missionary admitted to feeling the way i did about the tools. so we talked about it and we talked about what it says on pg 3 of the white hand book (our purpose as missionaries) and pg 5 of the white handbook. I feel like each missionary had a better understanding of how, when, and why to use the mission tools and each of them committed to search more diligently for how to use the tools in their own areas. After talking about the tools, we did a 5 Talent report. We read the parable of the five talents and then asked our misisonaries 2 questions. 1) in this last transfer, what have you done with what the Lord has given you. and 2) what do you plan to do, to double the talents you have now. Each missionary shared their thoughts and impressions. And the last of all we gave a report on where we are as a zone right now, and where we need to be. I think that we all went away edified and ready for a new transfer.

Saturday was just a day packed with stuff to do and quite a few cancelled appointments. We also broke a fast that we started Friday after the zone meeting. In which we were doing with an investigator to help him find strength to overcome word of wisdom challenges, and later that night he called us, very drunk, confessing that he was unable to fight temptation. All i could do was feel bad for the guy. Elder Seastrand and i are doing our best, but he's really struggling. He could use your prayers. I've written about him before, His name is Clyde, his wife is also going in for surgery so she could use some prayers as well.

Sunday we Had Three General Authorities in our ward 1 Elder Koeliker 2 Elder Renlund 3. and an area 70 Elder Bricknell. They are talking about splitting our stake and making another stake. So i think they came to do interviews for new stake leadership. After church I Talked with Elder Koeliker and i didn't have to remind him who i was, he already remembered. He said that he's going to be coming there around July and he'll say hi to everybody for me.

When church was finished, we actually ate lunch at the church because we didn't have time to go back to the flat, then after lunch we went to work. One of the highlights was that our investigator families, the Vandak (Faan-day-k) family had us over to celebrate their anniversary. The served us some cake, and we talked about The Family Proclamation to the World and gave them their own copy. It was a short visit, but it was a nice purposeful visit. As the day moved on eventually we picked up The recent Convert i was talking about (Devon) and took him teaching with us. He added allot to the lesson and i think it helped with inviting the spirit.

On our way home, we got a phone call from an Elder in the zone, telling us that he wasn't going to be able to sleep until he could talk to us, because something was disturbing him. So after dropping off Devon we went to his flat and he said that him and his companion weren't getting along. we offered to do a split so we could take care of our call ins and also resolve the issue, but they said they needed to stay together. So we got in the car and drove to our flat so that we could do both the call ins and the companionship inventory. Elder Seastrand did the Companionship inventory and i did the call ins. It was quite a long night, but things were resolved and everybody is happy now. Our next Hurtle is coming up soon, and seems serious, but we'll talk about that s it comes.

I hope everybody is doing well, i can't wait to hear from you, good look and keep on keeping on

Elder Jones