Hey Mom and Family! Sounds like this week was quite the fun week for you all. It seems like we just had Creative Escape? haha I can’t believe it has been a year since creative escape that I helped with. Time flies. I think at this time last year I was about to get my mission papers and fill them out. Mission is flying by really fast. Well, It sounds like Creative Escape went really well for you all. Less people but more success. That is great! The Lord is blessing our family so much. I can see it. Gees, I bet the syncro swimming was pretty funny. Especially that Jose was in it. I wish I could see it but I don’t know of a way where I could see it. We can’t wear head phones out here and I am always at a public library so there is no possible way for me to hear it. Plus I am not sure if that is allowed anyways? I wish I could have been a part of it. Who brought up the idea? I actually really enjoyed helping out at Creative Escape. We got to play golf and work through the night. I like sleeping after a hard nights work. Especially out here. I seriously hit the pillow and I am out of it. And then two seconds later your alarm is going off. Every day this happens. It is pretty tiring but so much happens in the day that it is all worth it. So I am glad Creative Escape went really well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SYDNEY!!! Sounds like she had a golden birthday where she got all the princess stuff she wanted. haha. I wish I could have been there to see that too. Same with Nixon and Stella. Sounds like everyone is growing up. Who is next? Is Hillary expecting? haha just kidding. Well family, it sounds like you had a busy week but a good week.

Well out here things are going good. We have transfers this week. Who knows what will happen. I still have Elder Gerratt as my companion. He nor anyone else has recieved their visas. Mexico is having problems. I think I am going to stay another transfer because I still have Elder Gerratt as my companion. I think all of us in our apartment will stay just because of the visa situation. Its ok because I want to stay. I am having a blast training. Its becoming more and more fun because I seriously can see a difference in my spanish. I am talking probably 80% of the time and it seems like all the investigators we have right now speak spanish better than english. Its gotten to the point where random people that we are talking to on the street are asking me where I learned my spanish. So, that is a huge compliment to me because people can actually understand me. I am still working on my comprehension. Some people are just really difficult to understand. I have found that if you are the leader of the conversation that you understand easier because you know what the subject is that your talking about. Its when people tell random stories or jokes that I can’t understand a thing. But all in all I understand and speak a lot better since Elder Romrell left. So I hope I stay so that I can have more opportunity to practice my spanish. I don’t want to get switched to English. Right now I am learning about 15 to 25 new words a week. So that also is helping out my spanish. Its really fun. Hopefully I stay speaking spanish and continue to train. Elder Gerratt is a really good working missionary and is out here for the right reasons. He is just a little nervous about speaking spanish. Thats his only hang up. Just like it was mine and still kind of is. But he is working hard. We are doing good.

So this week, we got the verdict with Jesus and Elisa finally. They had an interview with the bishop yesterday and the only possible situation is that they can get baptized after they get married which is in two months. I probably won’t be here for sure by then but I will still be able to go to the baptism because our mission is so small that it isn’t a problem to go to the baptisms of our old investigators. Plus, I feel like I have been a huge part for them. So, that is good news. They are still sleeping in seperate beds which is a really good thing. So, We will teach them 2 times a week still so that they can be ready for their baptism. I don’t know if I told you this but Jesus works at American Apparel and makes shirts. So he has made me a tye dye sweatshirt and a tye dye shirt that has a picture of Me, Jesus, and Elder Romrell. Haha its awesome and it makes me feel good. So that is their situation so that is good. They came to churchas well.

Also, this week we tracted into another old Peruvian lady kind of like Ana Maria. She came to church yesterday and we have an appointment with her tonight and we are bringing Ana Maria to fellowship her.haha so the situation is perfect. Her name is Cristina and she liked church yesterday. She doesn’t speak English but she is doing well. She likes what she has learned so far and still wants us to come by. I don’t know what it is but I think I am supposed to find all the Peruvians out here. Haha, Ana Maria, Elisa, and now Cristina are all Peruvian. So, I think that is part of the reason why I am serving here in Gardena.

Other people we are teaching are Angel and Ana Brunetta, and a whole bunch of people we met tracting. We tracted 10 hours this week basically just knocking doors and all of that. It is fun and good practice for Elder Gerratt. We meet lots of strange people out here. It is so dense and populated that you meet everyone out here from everywhere. I am loving this place. Los Angeles is really fun.

I like having 4 elders in the apartment. They always have a funny story. It makes things a little more relaxed and a lot more fun. Supposively they were ending a less active appointment with a prayer. Elder McRae said that he was pouring out his soul for this family when all of a sudden they hear gagging noises from the daughter. So Elders’ McRae and Jensen look up in the middle of the prayer to the daughter puking her guts out right in front of them. They didn’t finish the prayer and they jumped out of the way. They helped clean it up and went home because it was 9 oclock at night. This is just one of the bizarre funny experiences that they have had this last week.

Well family, sorry to leave you on that note but this week has been going great. I am feeling more and more confident with my spanish as time goes on. I know this church is true. I have seen the Lords hand in my life and in the lives of who I am teaching. It has been real good. I love you mom and family and maybe I will be somewhere else next week.
Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey Mom and Family! It is always so nice to get your letters every week. I love email time just to see what has happened. Yes, I got the package two weeks ago I think. Everything in it has been devoured. The cookies were good but some were in the box because the tup o ware wasn’t shut all the way. Other than that everything showed up. Thanks for the new tooth brush, I was planning on buying a complete new one. So, that was really nice. I enjoyed the package very much. Congratulations to Ryan McClure! That mission call fits him to the T. He looks like someone that would go to Peru. He just has that look. Too bad that he isn’t leaving until January. I will be out almost a year before he leaves. I am excited to hear where James is going as well. Mission calls are really really fun to hear about. If you hear anymore let me know. Jordan Hakes turns 19 in December so he should be turning his papers in in the next couple of months. That is pretty funny that he is the choristor for sacrament meeting haha. The temple is definately not in biking distance from where I am at. It is about a half hour away without traffic. An hour and a half away with traffic. And yes it is really cool to go there with investigators. The visitors center teaches for you and the spirit is strong. It is quite a beautiful thing with it being opened. More attraction from the outside world. Which by the way we are hearing a lot about prop 8’s overthrow? I dont know the exact details but there are people that just hate us missionaries because of Prop 8. We dont get that much discrimination over where I am at but the Elders near and around the temple get quite a bit. So, it must have been great to see Lexie and her family again. Yeah, I think I only remember seeing her like 2 or 3 times my whole life. haha. I am praying for Aunt Louise always. I hope she gets better….. I think it is funny that Haley has Coach Markley as her teacher and that she is the favorite student. I didn’t know he went over to work at Campos Verdes. That is pretty funny.

So, this week was a little different then normal for me. It is weird being the one that makes the decisions in the companionship. I still feel like I don’t know everything. But nonetheless the week was still good. I don’t know if President really knows me that well because we only had one 8 minute interview. I kind of think I was the luck of the draw to train. Haha, who knows? It was kind of nice making the decisions though in a way. It is just different. I feel like I talk all the time now which is different. Elder Romrell usually did the majority of the talking because he understood everything. Now its me, and I understand about half of it. Haha. I think I understood better when Elder Romrell was with me because I could understand him so that meant I could understand the conversations. So, now basically I am being forced to understand what people are saying. It is tough I must admit. This past week has been tough for me. I know I am going to learn a whole lot though by speaking more. So this should improve my spanish. We got a lot done this week so its great.

The apartment is the real tough part because we have 4 in our living quarters. Showers are quicker, planning at night is different, food disappears quicker. It is definately an adjustment having four in your apartment and in the same working area. We have been attacking the area basically. We split the investigators up and have just attacked the rest of the area together. No one knows when these elders will get their visas. It could be tomorrow or two months from now. So basically when transfers come next week, I will be staying in Gardena for another transfer. It is cool to say that I know our area inside and out now. I know exactly where I am going. It is nice.

So, as for investigators. We hit big news with Jesus and his girlfriend Elisa. We went over last Thursday or something to really buckle down on the Law of Chastity situation. Well, before we could even say anything, Jesus tells me that he was looking through the Gospel Principles manual and he just happens to open to the page all about The Law Of Chastity. He said that both him and her have felt extremely guilty about the Law Of Chastity for the last two weeks and that he wants to know if there was an easier way to live it than getting married or seperating completely. With his circumstance, marriage is impossible for at least three months because he needs to get some papers from Mexico to divorce his ex wife. And Elisa’s divorce would only take a month. And seperating is not much of an option either. So, to make him feel better, for the time being he would need to sleep in a seperate bed, so now he sleeps on the top bunk and she sleeps on the bottom bunk. haha. It is a very good sign, because this means that they have really developed a testimony and have felt the Holy Ghost in their lives. We set up an appointment with the bishop for them so that they can develop a resolve to get baptized before they get married. So either they will be baptized in three months or sooner depending how the situation works out. It is very confusing. They came to church yesterday so they are doing good.

We had one other lady that came to church, and her name is Clara. We met her like 5 or 6 weeks ago but never really could teach her until this past Saturday. So we taught her and she came to church. So she is doing good as well. In fact, I ran into her about thirty minutes ago here at the Library which was really strange. As for other investigators, we are teaching Angel and Anna. Angel is a less active of about 25 years and his wife is not a member. He served a mission in Italy and was like the all star missionary and everything but has since gone inactive. It is extremely sad but he has his testimony still and everything, he just feels like he is sucked out of the loop of church and has some commandment issues. She basically won’t go to church unless he goes to church. So we are working on them, him especially so that he could go to church. He didn’t come yesterday so that was kind of disappointing but we still are going to work with them. They live out in Redondo Beach so it is a huge long bike ride to go over there and teach them.

Anyways, That is the majority of who we are teaching. The work is fun and very interesting. Lots of weird things and miracles happen out here all the time. I have never noticed how much the Lord is in our lives until I came out here on the mission. His hand is watching over us constantly. Well family, I love you all so much. Thanks mom for your letters. I enjoy them dearly. I hope everyone else is doing great as well. I will write you next week.

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey family! How are you all doing? It sounds like things are going ok. I will definately pray for Aunt Louise. That is too bad. She has been so good to me while I have been out here on my mission. She writes me all the time. I will always pray for her…. So, Wes left huh? That is so good. 25 minutes is a long time to talk at the pulpit. He will be a good missionary especially now that his hair is way short. Yes, Seth has written me back and I wrote him back again. He is doing really really well. I did not know he was district leader. That is pretty darn quick. Well let me tell you my big news. I am now training a new missionary. haha. Let me explain. So, we got a phone call in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday from Elder Lovelace, Assistant to the President, and he told us our lives are about to change. He said that Elder Romrell will be going up to the mission home on Monday, today, and that we would be accompaning him. Then they said that they are splitting Elder McRae and I up and giving us two new missionaries to train. What happened is that no missionaries can get into Mexico right now. So, the Mtc president called President Baker and said we have 92 missionaries waiting for visas, how many can you take? So, President Baker took 8 missionaries that are waiting for their visas. So basically, I have a new companion. His name is Elder Gerratt, and he is from American Fork, Utah. He is pretty cool from what I know of him these last three hours. He wrestled in high school and he is white so he knows the spanish he learned from the Mtc. So I am going to have to step up and talk more because I know more. haha. It is kind of scary but what can I do? This should be a real good growing experience. Also, Elder McRae and his new companion and then me and my companion are all sharing our apartment and our area. So, I think what we are going to do is split up the investigators that we have and attack the rest of the area. This is interesting. I am very nervous to take the lead but I am excited also. I feel like I just left the MTC as well. Haha. So we have these companions until they get their visas which could be 2 weeks or 2 months. We wont know until it happens. So my life has changed drastically. haha. I am excited. Nobody trains in their third transfer so this is quite new. I should learn alot these next few weeks. Elder Gerratt is cool. The other missionary that is with Elder McRae is named Elder Jensen. So, four in one apartment and I am training. So this is the biggest news this week. It is basically the same situation that happened with Nathan when he went to New Jersey.

So Elder Romrell is gone. It is kind of sad. I learned a ton from him. We helped him pack up last night and this morning. He is ready to go home. He served a very obedient hard working two years. He will be awesome through his next life. It is kind of weird not having him around anymore. Today he gets to visit his recent converts all over LA and tomorrow he is going to the temple with President and Sister Baker, have his last interview, and eat his last meal and then he goes home on Wednesday. The last few days on the mission are really cool. He spoke in church yesterday about his mission. It was really good. He has really changed a lot through his mission and has learned a ton about life itself. Im going to miss him. He was a good missionary.

Other news this week, The Los Angeles Calfornia Visitors Center finally opened! So we took Jesus and his girlfriend Elisa to the Visitor’s Center to check it out. It is an amazing missionary tool. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and the Spirit was there so strong. Jesus is really progressing and so is Elisa. In fact, Jesus says that Elisa is going to get the divorce papers this week to divorce her husband that she payed 20 grand to. Which is tons of Faith. We aren’t sure if she is really going to do it but it sounds like it can happen. Jesus got some tatoos this past week, so we told him that the prophet has told us not to do it. So, he felt really guilty, which is a good thing. He didn’t know it was bad until he got them so he will be fine. He and Elisa came to church this Sunday which is great. They are progressing, they just need to get married or seperate so that they can get baptized. I think Elder Gerratt and I will keep Jesus. I really want to stay and teach him.

As for other investigators, we are a little low right now. We contacted a referral that recieved from headquarters and he seems really promising. His name is Julio. He is from Peru. He is very intelligent and we taught him the Restoration twice this week and he is very interested. He seems really promising. He has a lot of potential. As for others….. not many. We visited Elliott again before Elder Romrell went home. Elliott was the 16 year old that almost got baptized but didnt. He has been gone for the last month but we are going to try again with him. He had a ton of potential but he has been away for the last month and forgot a lot. So we will try.

This week will be a little different because they made some new Preach My Gospel dvds and from 9 to 3 this Tuesday to Friday we will have kind of a zone training and will be watching the dvds. Supposively the teaching style is changing so they want us to adapt to the new dvds way of teaching. It should be interesting. I am excited to get some new ideas on teaching more effectively.

So family, that is it. It has been pretty exciting the last couple of days. I can’t believe I am already training. The mission now has 210 missionaries. We have so many here right now. It is very populated. So things are hectic adding 8 more to the bunch. So, hopefully next week, I will have good news about Jesus. He has been one of my favorite investigators. He actually made us some tye dye hoodie sweatshirts. They are awesome. He loves us. We are like his best friends. We actually made tamales and had dinner with him and Ana Maria yesterday. It was very fun and Jesus is doing really good. He just needs to get baptized…. Anyways, pray for my spanish. I am going to be the talker now. This is a good oppurtunity for me. I think this will really help me learn to speak spanish. Im telling you, I want to come home fluent. It is a good skill to have…. Well I know this church is true. There is a reason why I am here in LA right now in my situation. The Lord has a lot in store for me and I know that we have church leaders inspired by God. I am excited to train and grow from this experience. I love you family. I love you mom, thanks for writing me such good letters every week.

Love Elder Kevin Jones

Hey family! How are things going? Sounds like things are getting back into regular full swing. Haley is starting school. Work is picking up, and no more vacations. I can’t believe the summer is already ending. I can’t believe I have been out for almost six months either. Time flies. But it has been a blast. I think you guys have had a blast as well. That is really good. They finally got my plaque on the wall? Thats good. Sometimes I still can’t believe im on a mission. I never thought I would be on the wall in the foyer, but here I am. Wait, so did Dad have his surgery already? I forgot about his knee. Sounds like its getting better so maybe he did have surgery… Well things sounds normal over there which is good because I’m not missing too much. Before I forget, here is Elder Romrell’s address, 5395 Spirt Cove, Idaho Falls, ID, 83404. That is nice of you. Oh and the less active family I am teaching emailed you I think? There name is the Vinh family.

So things were a little slow this week out here in the field. We had one come to church yesterday. Jesus Hernandez, the guy who has the cool dreams which by the way he had another dream. He was beating up a guy in his house and all of sudden he turns around and sees Elder Romrell, Elder Mcrae, and I just standing in his room shaking our heads no. Then I supposively took him off the guy he was beating up and Elder Romrell and Mcrae helped out the guy. Then I guess I walked him to church, just me and him, and when we entered the church Elder Romrell and Mcrae were with the beat up guy waiting for us. Then the beat up guy goes and gives Jesus a hug and tells him that he was glad he was here because all of us here are Brothers and Sisters. and then he woke up. So, I think its crazy that someone has so many cool dreams. The bad news is that we are going to have to drop him because he told us that he can’t move out right now and that he will get baptized when his girlfriend gets her papers. We still think he has hope so we will be working with him this week trying to get him ready to make the commitment to move out of the house of his girlfriend. So pray for Jesus.

Good News! Do you remember Junior? He was the 12 year old kid that we almost finished teaching and then he moved to San Diego so we couldn’t teach him anymore. Well, anyways, He got baptized yesterday and he gave us a call. It was awesome. Even though I couldn’t be there when he got baptized, I still feel like I was a part of his conversion because we taught him a lot. So that is good news. I thought I would mention that. He sounds great and excited. Now he is taking his mom to church with him so that would be another convert coming soon if she decides to stick to it. However…. His brother Emmanuel keeps coming back into the picture. He now calls us all the time leaving us messages about how he wants to get baptized and stuff. We dropped him and as soon as he starts going to church we will start teaching him. He is an interesting kid. He says he reads numbers and birds and that the demons are always attacking him. He quit weed a week ago so he is showing some promising signs but he is still drinking and not coming to church so we are leaving him until he goes to church. He is a bit difficult.

So, when I was at church yesterday, Elder Romrell asked the bishop if he could give a talk this upcoming Sunday because he is leaving the following Wednesday. As he was talking to Elder Romrell and I and Elder McRae he was saying that he had an interview with San Vinh, the Less Active Vietnamese man who is married to a latin, Sunday morning, and said that San has a date to go through the temple with his family in January. It really made me feel good to hear that. We have been working with him the last 14 weeks and he is 4 weeks clean from smoking and has a testimony now. He is so excited about the gospel. The bishop also said that San said if it wasn’t for the consistency of the missionaries coming over to my house to teach me, I wouldn’t be here and not be this happy. That really really made me feel good. He should be getting the Priesthood in a month or so, so I hope I am still here when that happens. That would be awesome.

Well family, this week wasn’t as eventful as others but it still was good. Spanish is getting a lot better. I am feeling more and more comfortable as I am going along. I definately need a lot of work still but it has been good. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that my derailer and hanger on my bike broke. So I have to pay like 100 bucks to get it fixed. This happened because I kinda crashed and my chain came off. Don’t worry, miraculously I didn’t fall and I just ran off without getting hurt. So I put the chain back on and it was a gear off for some reason. Like it said gear 7 but really I was riding on gear 6. It still was working beautifully so I didn’t worry about it. The next day I was riding up that monster hill that I took a picture off of and I was lowering my gears so I could make it up the hill and when I got to gear 2 the derailer and hanger just smashed into my rim for some reason. I dont know why but it did. Anyways, It is being fixed as we speak and I am borrowing another Elder’s bike for the time being. It stinks because I like my bike a lot better than everyone else’s bike. Right now I am riding a fixed gear bike which is really weird. But anyways, that is my week family. Nothing new really happened but it was good.

I know the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. I seriously see so many miracles everyday and I wouldn’t trade these last six months for anything. Right now I am reading the New Testament and it is awesome. I am in Luke chapter 8 or something and it is seriously super cool. My testimony on Jesus Christ’s Atonement has grown like crazy because of it. It is truly amazing. Anyways family have a good week and I will write next week.

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey Family! So you are probably wondering why I didn’t write on Monday or Tuesday… Well today was Temple Pday so I got to go to the temple again. So, I have been to the Los Angeles Temple three times since being here. It was good as usual. The spirit is always there inside the temple. I enjoyed it much. So thats why I am writing today. For future references, if I dont write on Monday than that means it is a holiday or temple pday that week…. Sounds like your all back and resting from the many vacations you took this summer. Sounds like a lot. Too much. haha but I am sure it is fun. I don’t know who Madison is. I am going to need an update on who that is. A buster is the missionary that kind of finishes off training you for a transfer or two. So, Elder McRae is someone that makes sure that Elder Romrell did his job at training. Which I think Elder Romrell did plenty to train me. And, I don’t have his address right now but I will get it for you next week. That sneaky guy….. I really don’t have that much time to write honestly. I can maybe get two more letters in a week. Sometimes I am lazy and don’t write any and sometimes I will write just one. My thinking on writing is if someone really spends a lot of time writing me then they deserve a letter back, even if it takes a while to write back…. Anywho, sounds like Nixon is turning into a little bully or something. haha. I can’t believe he is walking and talking. Same with Stella, I can’t believe she is running around too.

So, this week was a little slow in progress with investigators. No one came to church. Thats kind of a bummer as a missionary. You try so hard all week to get someone to church and then they don’t show up. With our baptismal dates…. we ran into a problem with Jesus the one with the dream and stuff. He is living with his girlfriend and isn’t married. We have taught the Law of Chastity like 2 or 3 times and he still doesn’t think it is a sin. He keeps justifying it. So, he is still progressing because we are teaching his girlfriend now too, straight from the basics. She believes in the Plan of Salvation and we are taking them over to the Vinh’s (Less Active husband) for a lesson tonight. Which should turn out good. Jesus will get baptized no worries. We will probably just have to move back his date again. Oh and they don’t want to get married because his girlfriend payed some guy 20,000 dollars to marry her so that she can get her citizenship. She can’t get it until march so she isn’t willing to divorce the man she is married to quite yet because it will take her another 2 or 3 years to get her citizenship. So that is the main predicament with them. We fasted for them on Sunday and have been praying for them like crazy. He knows the church is true. He quit smoking and drinking for it already. This is the only thing holding them back. Situations like this are tough to leave because it takes a lot of faith. I know though that if they got married and baptized now that they would be given mounds of blessings for the faith they have. That is how Heavenly Father works. If we sacrifice something in our loves to attain something greater, than He will give it to you. In this case a chance at Eternal Life. So please pray for Jesus and his girlfriend Elisa.

Maria is lost. We haven’t talked to her since Saturday. We don’t know what has happened with her. She is supposed to get baptized this Sunday but we have been unable to find her. We called her and stopped by her house and still no luck. It is so wierd. Its tough because she was on fire in the Gospel. So please pray for her as well.

We dropped Emmanuel because he didn’t come to church again. Going to church shows that people are progressing. He hasn’t been coming to church so we dropped him…. Chris, the 15 year old kid I talked about last week was dropped as well. Not because he wasn’t interested but his mom told us to stop teaching him. We had a good conversation with her for about an hour but she still didn’t budge. So we are going to continue to try softening her heart and try teaching Chris again and hopefully her. Other than that, no one is popping up in our baptismal date pool. We have lots of potential investigators but no one is catching on. We met and taught a couple of cool families yesterday so we will see what happens with them. I think they will turn out good.

We met an English guy named Thomas Guest in a trailor park that we were tracting that is a less active for quite some time. He is like 52 or so. He is single and is a die hard Beatles fan. It was really cool talking to him about that for a little bit. He has like a 100 concert tickets to different bands on his walls. He is a very weird guy. He has some interesting questions about the church that has caused him to stop going to church. Like one of the commandments is “thou shalt not kill.” He thinks it applies to animals just as much as it applies to humans, so he doesnt like that. Also he thinks that Mary concieving Jesus is breaking the “thou shalt not commit adultery” commandment. So very funny guy but we are giving him to the English speaking elders to try to fix his concerns. Haha

The three headed monster is still doing good. Elder McRae brings a lot of humbleness and a lot of testifying to the companionship so of course that is good. Elder Romrell is still going very strong his last couple weeks. He is savoring the mission as much as he can before he goes. I have really learned a lot from him. I think I can take a lot from th last 2 and half transfers with him.

Well family that is my week. Everything is going good. Mom, you dont need to send me anything. I am doing perfectly fine. My clothes are still looking good. Elder Romrell has shown me some good tips on keeping your shirts white. Being on bike causes a lot of wear and tear on your clothes. So I am doing good in that department. Everything else is just dandy. I love you mom and family. Thanks for your letters and support. I will write next week!

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey family! First off, I am sorry about Grandpa Bazzill. He was old though and he is in a better place. That is pretty cool about how he said the Mormons have things right. haha I thought that was funny. Well its ok, I liked Grandpa Bazzill… But anyways let me tell you about transfers. So, basically it is the same. I am in the same place with Elder Romrell still while he finishes off his last 4 weeks. But, I got another companion. His name is Elder McRae. So we are a threesome. I have been calling us the three headed monster like Nathan called his threesome. Haha I kind of like being in a threesome at the moment. Everything is funnier and there is a lot more things to talk about on down time. It mellows out everything. Teaching is different. Sometimes you feel like your saying nothing and other times you feel like your leaving one companion out while teaching. So we have to work on that, but nonetheless everything is good. Elder McRae is from Portland, Oregon. He is about six foot and is very humble and mellow but pretty funny. He has a strong testimony and he has been out for just barely over a year. He served in Palos Verdes for 5 transfers and before that he was right next store to us in Compton. Those are the only two areas he has been in his whole mission. Haha but he fits right in. I am in a real rare situation right now. I have my trainer and my buster at the same time. They call the companion after your trainer your buster. So thats pretty cool. His spanish is as about as equal as mine. He has been in pure english areas his whole mission. So when Elder Romrell leaves, we will have to step up our Spanish. Haha I am excited. So that is all that happened with transfers. They will probably leave me here another transfer too. In this mission they like to keep new missionaries in their first area for 4 transfers before moving them. So I will most likely stay after this transfer as well. Which is not a bad thing. I have the oppurtunity to continue to learn spanish.

So, Ana Maria was confirmed a member yesterday. And guess who did it…. I got the oppurtunity to confirm Ana Maria. I was so nervous because it was in Spanish but nonetheless it was done and I didn’t mess up. So it was a special oppurtunity for me. She is doing good too. Supposively she was crying right after her confirmation. She is a funny old lady. I am glad that she found the gospel now and accepted it. She is doing good.

I don’t know if I told you about Jesus yet but I am going to talk about him. Jesus is a 38 year old man that lives in the same house as Ana Maria and Emmanuel and all those people. We have been teaching him like crazy. He has a baptismal date for the 8th of August. Anyways he was acting all cool and joking around a little bit when we first started teaching him but has since quit smoking and drinking. It has been about two weeks since we started teaching him and he has escalated. He has had three witnesses that this Gospel is true. The first instance was that he had a dream the night after we first taught him about being dressed in completely white in a group of people entering in a big white beautiful building. He was the last one to enter and the lady at the door stopped him and told him he wasn’t ready and shut the doors. So holy cow! He basically had a dream about the entering the temple. The second witness he had that this church was true was that the next morning after the day we taught him he found a job that pays pretty good. He had prayed to find work the night before. And the last witness was he was talking to his 15 year old son who lives in Mexico over the phone. His son told him he was studying religion and Jesus told him he was studying religion too. The son then said that he was going to be baptized in the Mormon church the first week of August. And Jesus’ reaction was surprised. His jaw dropped and he told him that he was learning from the Mormon church too. So all these things have testified to Jesus that this church is true. So he has quit smoking and drinking and is going to be baptized the first week of August.

Another cool person we met was last P-day in the Laundromat. He is a 15 year old kid and we have taught him three times since last monday. He loves the church and he is going to be baptized on the 15th of August. He has only one conflict with him being baptized. His mom is a die hard Catholic and is mad at him for listening to us. But somehow he showed up at church yesterday so he is pretty serious. He is very promising. He told us he loved church and that he knows it is true. He just has to talk his mom into letting him be baptized. Oh and his aunt is a less active member of the church as well. So he already had connections to the church. It is so much easier to teach someone that has already had a connection with the church. They already have a basis of knowledge of what it is all about. So that has been our week with Chris. It was good.

As for Maria, she didn’t show up to church. She is a dj and she dj’d on Saturday night and woke up late so she didnt come. So we are moving her back to the 8th of August as well. She has a testimony still she just was being lazy. So we are going to teach her tonight about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and kind of condemn her and really show the importance of keeping the Sabbath day Holy. She is still very promising and very receptive……. As for Emmanuel, things are weird again. He is the hardest person in the world to get in contact with. We finally found him on Saturday. Good thing is he got a cell phone so we can find him a lot easier. Hopefully he comes back to the teaching pool this week.

So that is my week. No one else showed up to church. We have some pretty good potentials so we will see how it goes with them. We should have a lot of baptisms this transfer. We have some really good investigators. I can see a solid three coming this transfer at least. We keep on praying for more people to teach and for us to find the elect so I see the Lord just blessing us with these awesome people. I am excited for this transfer. It should be a good one.

Sounds like everything is going good at home other than the funeral. Almost done with vacations. I can’t beleive it is almost August! It has flown by so fast. Gees. I am glad you got the pictures. That gives me a relief. I tried taping it in the envelope in the center so no one would steal it. An Elder got his stolen out here by sending it the same way so I was a little worried. I love hearing about the little ones in the family. It is nice to hear about Sydney, Nixon, and Stella. I am glad everything is going well. I will write you all next week. Love You!

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey family! How are things going? Happy birthday Dad! You are the Big 50 now. It seems like my whole life you have been in your 40’s so that seems kind of weird. Anyways, I hope your birthday is going good for you. I hope your work party is going good today as well…. Quick, before I forget, I sent pictures from my sim card home through the regular mail service in an envelope. I don’t know if that was a bad idea or not but you should have gotten it last Thursday so please let me know if you got it. I am a little worried if it actually got there or not. Seth’s exact mission is the South Carolina Columbia mission. So yeah that would be great if you could send that off. Yeah, I have recieved a package and a letter from Brother Shreeve like every month if not more it seems like. I am so thankful for him. He is an awesome home teacher and really is just going the extra mile for me. I really appreciate him doing that. Yeah there are a couple other regulars who write me. Landon Larson is second to you mom. He has written me like 7 times since I have been here in Los Angeles. And that has only been 12 weeks. He takes the cake for who writes me the most besides you mom. Aunt Louise is really good at writing as well. Other than that just people that write me I usually try and write them back. I really like getting mail. It is exciting to get letters from people you don’t expect anything from.

So the week went by really well. Ana Maria was baptized yesterday by Elder Romrell. It went really well other than it took 4 times for her to go completely under the water. I think she just was afraid to go under the water and that is why it was so difficult. Other than that, we had an investigator come and the baptism went really well. It is a beautiful thing seeing ordinary people who were living a normal wordly life a month ago and now being baptized into the church today. It truly is a miracle. So our next date is the 1 of August with Maria. She is on track and is truly prepared by the Lord. We are teaching her tomorrow night right before we find out what is going to happen with transfers. Seriously, I like transfers. I think they are really exciting. No one knows if your packing your bags and leaving or if your going to stay. I truly have no idea what is going to happen with Elder Romrell and I. He leaves early in 4 weeks so we don’t know. Either way I will be getting a new companion. Whether I leave or stay, I will be getting a new companion. Or Elder Romrell and I will both stay and they will add a third companion to the companionship until Elder Romrell leaves. Who knows? But I am excited. I would like to stay because there are people I really enjoy teaching but if I get moved, I would still be fine going.

So, Ana Maria and Maria came to church yesterday. Then also one more person came…….. EMMANUEL! Yeah! He is back on the teaching block. He came up to us while we were teaching Ana Maria last week and wants to get baptized. He found a job and is starting to take the discussions again. He was the one that the Elder’s Quorum loved last time because he just bore testimony in the class and took up the last 15 minutes. Anyways, He came to church and is scheduled to be baptized the 8th of August. So, we should be having a pretty good August coming up. Something cool about this mission is if you get transfered and one of the people you were teaching is getting baptized in the next couple weeks, you can still attend the baptism. The mission is small enough that it doesn’t take hardly any time out of your day. So, if I were to leave, I could still attend the baptism of Maria and Emmanuel. Which I think is really cool. So, these are still our main peopl. As for Sanchez, who I mentioned last week, we haven’t been able to find him. He is never home and doesn’t have a cell phone. Its tough because he got such an amazing answer to prayer. We still plan on finding him.

Something that happened yesterday was really cool. It seems like all the really cool inspired things happen on Sundays. Which is funny because we are at a the church a lot of the day. But anyways, we were going to visit someone we met a couple days ago when this guy yells at us and flags us down to come talk to him. So, we pulled over and went to talk to him. He started off complimenting us big time for what we were doing and then it turns out that he is looking for some light in his life. Before we rode by he was praying for some guidance and help and then 5 seconds later we ride by. It was awesome. We taught him about repentance and the restoration a little bit and how he needs this church in his life because Jesus Christ started it himself. He was teary eyed most of the way through it and was just emotional. He is from Puerto Rico but looks African American and speaks English and Spanish, but english better. We have an appointment with him tonight. I am excited because he seemed really golden. Just completely ready for the gospel in his life. He said that he was completely off the right path and lost. So, I am excited to go over to his house and show him something special that he needs in his life.

We had to drop Tomas Ponce, the 73 year old guy, because he is still studying with the Jehovah’s Witnesses while studying with us and he isn’t progressing. I don’t know if I told you about one of the appointments we had with him a couple weeks ago, but we brought a recent convert member to teach with us. It turned out not the way we had planned. As we were leaving he ended up giving our recent convert a Jehovah’s Witness pamphlet and told him to study with him. haha. It was really funny. Anyways, we thought he had made a 180 turn after one of our lessons but we realized that he still isnt progressing so we had to drop him. We took a picture with him though because he was an awesome funny guy that I enjoyed teaching him. He kept telling us he wasn’t looking for a church so maybe in the future he will be baptized.

Well family, that was the week for you. Nothing much. We had an awesome baptism though! So we know the work is still moving. I know the church is true and that it is meant to be preached to all the world. Spanish is still coming along. I am still working on it. I feel progression though so I think I will have it down by the end of the mission. Hopefully… We still teach a lot in English so we will see. Mom, I gave a less active family your email address to write you so dont delete it. It is the Vinh family. We have taught them every week for these last two transfers and the husband has been clean from smoking for 9 days straight now. I love that family, they are one of the reasons I want to stay. But anyways, I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all a lot. Especially Sydney, Nixon, and Stella! haha I will write you next week.

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey family!!! How is everything going??? Sounds like Dad had fun at Scout camp. Those campouts were the best. I always loved going on those campouts. Moab, and to Greer and Camp Helaman were all fun. That is cool about Brother Gillette talking to dad. Yeah I don’t remember a little kid all over me. So much happens out here that you forget a lot of things. I know I was sitting by Elliot when he came to church but he is 16. Well that is all still cool. I appreciated hearing about that though. Thanks!…. So you are going to Rhode Island? I am going to guess the weather out there is going to be a lot worse than Arizona. I hear its in the 100’s with a crazy amount of humidity. Its weird that I still hear stuff like that while I am on my mission. Oh well it should be fun:) It is a good thing that there are good people working at Bazzill. Dad is the boss but he has a good crew there. Its ok though because Dad can just write emails on vacation if he wants to. haha I am just kidding dad.

So, this week went by pretty fast for me. Actually this whole transfer has gone by super fast. Next Wednesday is the day that things will probably change. Most likely they will send Elder Romrell somewhere else for four weeks before he goes home. He is going home a couple weeks early because of school. They will probably open up an area for him and someone else going home early until he actually goes home. That is what most likely will happen. I will probably stay here and get a new companion next week and show him the area. Usually they keep new missionaries in the same area for 2 to 4 transfers. But who knows? I am probably guessing way off because we have a new President so we will see. In fact we are having our first interviews with him on Wednesday of this week to get to know him. I am excited to really meet him and get to know him. It will be pretty interesting.

So, the main people we are teaching are Anamaria and Maria. Funny how they are both named Maria just like all the girls at work. Ana Maria is the 73 year old woman that is going to be baptized this Sunday. She has her interview tomorrow with Elder Hetchler my district leader. She is a funny old woman but we think something is a little fishy with her. She seemed almost too easy to teach and it has felt really quick. We keep asking her if she really knows that certain things are true and she says they are. So, she is going to be baptized on Sunday so we are very excited….. Maria is scheduled to be baptized on the 25 of July and it looks like that it is going to happen. She is on fire and for sure is going to be baptized. She is the person who has a recent convert best friend and a less active boy friend. The boyfriend wants to move in but she isn’t letting him which is good because we still haven’t taught her the Law of Chastity yet. Once she learns that, there is now way she will let him move in. He is struggling a little bit because he was on drugs. He has been out of the church for like 15 years but wants to come back. I just think he is having a hard time getting over it all. Nonetheless, Maria is doing good and she will be baptized.

Those are our main investigators for the week so we are excited. Junior, the 12 year old, finally called us on Saturday and he permantly lives in San Diego so we reffered the missionaries over to him. Elliott got cold feet so he didn’t get baptized or come to church yesterday. He is in Las Vegas with his family right now so he is on the backburner. He is afraid of life after getting baptized. He thinks he is going to break commandments after baptism so that is why he doesn’t want to get baptized. We have basically done all that we could do. Hopefully he comes around.

We had another really cool experience happen yesterday. We went to visit a old potential investigator that we found in our area book and found that she doesn’t live there anymore but this long haired spanish kid answered the door. His name is Sanchez. He let us in and we taught him the restoration. He was amazed because the night before he got in a little feud with his parents about there religion, Jehovah’s Witness, and went to his room and prayed to know what direction he should take in his life. Then we came knocking on his door the next day, taught him, and he felt the Spirit. He was astounded and so were we. Its amazing. Time and time again I have seen the Lord answer people’s prayers including mine. I know we have a two way conversation with God because of all these miracles. To anyone reading this letter that is not a member of this church, your answer is right in front of your face. This church is the only true church. It has blessed my life so much and it will bless yours. Please kneel down and pray to ask God if you should join the Mormon church. He will tell you that you need to be baptized in this church…. Anyways, we are coming back to teach him tomorrow. He sounds so promising and he knows that God answered his prayer. I know God answered his prayer.

Something else that happened last night was cool to me. We were in a trailor park talking to a girl and a guy my age that were white. Kind of rare talking to white people because we are working in a spanish area but we were teaching them. They were really interested and engaged. All of a sudden a lady comes from no where to the front porch where we were talking to them and starts talking bad about the Mormon church. Telling us that we have been decieved since we were young. We just bore a simple testimony and she left. The two people we were talking to thought that she was psycho, which was true. They didn’t believe what she said but believed us. I think two 20 year old kids in a white shirt and tie riding their tails off on bikes show who we are. We could be at school or working or being with our families at home but instead we are out here testifying of this church because we know that it is true. I wouldn’t be out here if I didnt know the church was true. Satan knew that those two people we were talking to were coming closer to Christ so he sent a crazy lady to try to scare them away. haha but it doesn’t work. Sorry, but I am becoming very passionate about the gospel which I think is a good thing. haha.

Anyways, that was my week. I am sending my sd card home with a note about each picture so you can know whats going on. Yes, no worries, I am taking pictures. Thanks mom for hand delivering those letters out. You are the best. I loe you family and I will write you next week.

Love Elder Kevin Jones

Hey family! Sounds like you all had an awesome time at the beach. I am still a little jealous but its ok. It was a little bit colder this week I could tell. Almost everyday was cloudy and cold in the morning and night. But you still got to go to the beach which is the most exciting thing. Lots of fun things you did it sounds like. I miss playing card games with the whole family at the beach house. It makes down time really fun on vacation. Ugh, I wish I could have been there. Oh and sorry I couldnt write yesterday because it was hangover day from The 4th of July. All the libraries were closed so it was impossible for me to write.

Ok, so first thing I need to tell you about is the problems I had with my ear this whole week. I woke up last monday, so 8 days ago not being able to hear out of my left ear. I just figured I was a little bit congested or something so I put it off and didn’t worry about it. Well then about two days later, I still couldn’t hear out of my left ear. So, I was sick of it and I called Sister Baker, our new mission mom on her first night of the job. She told me to take a decongestant and that she was going to call the mission doctor to see what I should further do. Well she called me the next afternoon, thursday, and said that the Doctor figures I have an earwax impaction or something and that I need to go to the local pharmacy and buy some mineral oil and a sirynge to blast out the wax. We went and bought some earwax removal and I had to put drops of this stuff in my ear twice a day for 3 or 4 days and then take the sirynge and blast it out. So, I followed the directions and it came to be Sunday and I tried blasting it out. Nothing happened. I was upset because I was almost deaf in my left ear still. So I called Sister Baker again and she called Dr. Lyman, our mission doctor, and reported everything. So, I got a call from Dr. Lyman last night and he told me he was coming to my apartment the next morning to come blast it out himself. He is a very funny guy. So, this morning right before I came here to write you he did just that. It took 6 or 7 blasts to get all the stuff out…. It was a ton of wax. The whole time Doctor Lyman was just having a blast. So he did my other ear as well and now I can hear everything. It is a miracle. I am so thankful I can hear. Dr. Lyman was the same doctor that treated my bike injury as well. He covers all the missions in the whole state of california and Hawaii. He just so happens to live behind the LA temple so it was real easy for him to come to our apartment. His wife came to and says that he is basically just on the phone all day telling missionaries how they should treat their sicknesses and how he wishes he could get out more and do hands on work. So, he loved coming out and cleaning out my ears. So that is my big story of the week!

As for investigators, I think Junior and Emmanuel are out of the picture. Junior went back to San Diego and is not coming back. He was a strong baptismal candidate so it is kind of a bummer we don’t get to work with him anymore. Emmanuel we just haven’t heard from him in a while. We cannot find him anywhere. So, we are praying for those two. Elliott just told us on Friday that he doesn’t want to get baptized because he is afraid of breaking the commandments in the future so we are still working with him. Tomas, the old guy, was interesting this week. We brought a recent convert to come teach him with us and our lesson plan totally changed. He still had doubts about the Book of Mormon. So Elder Romrell and I just testified and showed him everything he needs to know to see if the Book of Mormon is true. He still wasn’t sure but I think we impacted him. At the end of it all he just ends up giving our recent convert that we brought with a us a Jehovah’s Witness pamphlet. Haha so we aren’t too sure about Tomas anymore because he is studying with the Jehovah’s Witnesses too. We also feel bad about the recent convert because we didnt have a real good lesson with him like we were hoping to have and last time we took him out, we had a similar experience. So we will see if he comes out with us again. So, none of these people came to church yesterday.

We did however have great success with AnnaMaria the old woman this week. She came to church and everything and is going strong for her baptism on the 18th of July. It is really funny because she has her little friends in the relief society that she sits with every week. She just makes Elder Romrell and I laugh a ton. So she is promising and I am so thankful to have the oppurtunity to teach her. We had a miraculous experience happen this past week with someone else. So, we got this referral from another missionary to check out. We went and found out that there was no apartment number for the referral, so we just decided to knock the doors to see if we could find him. On the second door, this lady answers. Her name is Maria and she is 28 with two kids and was instantly interested in what we had to say. It turns out that her boyfriend is a less active member and that one of her High School best friends was just baptized into the Hermosa Liahona ward three months ago. So we set up an appointment the next day with her high school friend and her less active boyfriend. It went amazing. Having a strong testimony from her friend and less active boyfriend brought the Spirit so strong that all three of them just started crying. She excepted the baptismal commitment and is scheduled to be baptized on the 25th of July. We taught her one more time and she came to church on Sunday. The Lord works many miracles for us missionaries that it is hard to comprehend. It just amazes me to stop and think about the miracles that I have already seen as a missionary and I am only 4 and half months into the mission. Her boyfriend doesnt speak spanish but looks super strong into coming back in the church. I know she will get baptized because of all the support she already has.

We have been working with this less active family, the Vinhs. I have talked about them in past letters I think but Brother Vinh is the inactive one and he is Vietnamese and smokes. So its hard for him to fit in the spanish ward but his wife is Mexican. He knows a little bit of spanish though so it works out ok. So, after teaching them for the past 7 or 8 weeks we finally got another member there. Oh my word was the Spirit strong. This was this past Wednesday and Brother Vinh was so impacted by the Spirit that he hasn’t smoked since. We are praying that he won’t smoke again. They are doing so well and they are high on our priority list because we want the whole family to be sealed in the temple. Him, her, and their two daughters. They are 21 and 24.

So that is how the work is going here for me. It is going well and I am so excited. I can’t believe its already July too. It is going by way fast. Now to answer your questions mom. My spanish is improving. I found myself understanding the lesson in Priesthood very well on Sunday. I seriously think I am progressing. It feels good to finally understand someone for once. I still am missing a lot of things people say but it is a lot better than three weeks ago. I think if I were to come home now, I could communicate with girls at work ok. Its getting better so thats good. Yes, Elder Romrell and I teach pretty equally. He does a little bit more because he knows and understands more but I still contribute a lot. Surprisingly a we teach in English and Spanish pretty equally still. We teach more in spanish but we still teach a lot in English. A lot of the people prefer to speak in English because they know it better than spanish but they want to go to the spanish ward because they feel like they fit in better. So, its ok. Its coming along well though.

I cant believe Jessica is getting married. That is really exciting. I cant believe it but that is so good. Good for her.

Well I will send home my pictures so you can see everything. I took pictures of the wax so enjoy that one:) Oh I sent a letter to Seth home so if you could somehow find Micol Davies and give it to her that would be great. I want to communicate with my friends, especially Seth. And did you find Mitch’s mom and give her my letter?…. Well everything is going well and I don’t need anything really. I am just enjoying the work. I Love you all and will write to you next week.

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey family! nice to hear that you are 45 minutes away from where I live… haha. You are so lucky to be on that trip. I wish I could be there with you but I am here in a better place. In fact the best place. I love Los Angeles. Some of the best memories are at the beach house. I get to miss two trips to the beach house while being out here on the mission. Oh well…. I do have to tell you something though, we make 1 trip a week to Redondo Beach in our area because there are a couple of members that live out there. There are also some referrals we try visiting out there as well and one of the referrals is right next to the beach. So, I have a picture of me next to a door we knocked in an apartment building where you can see the ocean. It is pretty sweet! Don’t worry, it took two seconds to take the picture and I had to take a picture because it felt unreal to be that close to the ocean. Anyways, I hope it is super fun while you are out there.

So, something really weird happened yesterday that I was hoping would never happen the whole time while I was on my mission. I sat next to Brother and Sister Gillette in the Hermosa Liahona ward. It was so weird. Bro. Gillette’s brother is a high councelor in the stake, so he came and spoke in the Hermosa Liahona ward. It just so happens that Brother and Sister Gillette are on vacation here visiting him so they decided to come see him speak. I was in the second row sitting next to our investigator, Elliott, and all of a sudden I get a surprise with Bro. Gillette saying, “Is this seat saved?” haha, so he and Sister Gillette sat next to me during sacrament meeting. It was weird, I was hoping I wouldn’t see anyone I know the whole time I was out here but what can you do? Plus, I got an update on how the Gillette twins are doing. Sounds like they are doing pretty well. So, that was the weird experience of the week for me.

So like I said, we had some investigators come to church again this week. We had a total of three investigators come yesterday. Elliott, Anna Maria, and Tomas came to church. You all know that Elliott is the 16 year old that we had been trying to get to church for forever. Well he has now come to church two weeks in a row. He is promising. He is scheduled to be baptized the 11 of July. Anna Maria is a 73 year old woman who we have been teaching this whole past week. She lives with Junior and Emmanual who I talked about last week. She attended a mormon church 23 years ago and used to be a missionary for the catholic church. She has strong faith in Christ and is scheduled to be baptized on the 18 of July. She is super funny. Old Latin ladies are just the funniest people. Tomas was a surprise at church but now has jumped into our pool of investigators. We taught him the Restoration and Plan of Salvation but figured he wouldn’t come to church because he likes to workout at the gym in the mornings. Well he came and it was awesome! He too is around 73 years old. So yes, we have baptismal dates that are on both ends of the spectrum. He reads a scripture like the three times so that he can clearly understand it. It is awesome! He is pretty intelligent and knows a lot about religion and is soaking everything up that we teach him. It was another good Sunday. The work is really blooming.

So what happened to Junior and Emmanual from last week? Well, Junior is 12 years old and was forced to go to San Diego with his family for a week so he couldn’t come to our ward. He said he was going to find a mormon church in San Diego and try to go there. We doubted he would go. Anyways, he calls us last night to tell us he is coming back on Thursday and that he went to church. We were so shocked! It was awesome. He said it was like last week and he felt the same as last week. He is excited to learn more this week, so we have an appointment on Thursday with him. As for Emmanual, he had a rough week this week. He is going through some hard times and didn’t feel comfortable with himself to go to church again yesterday. He said he wanted to start learning again this week and go to church next week so we will see. He would make in an excellent member. He has such a strong testimony already. He just needs to get through these hard times.

Well, that is our top prospects in our teaching pool. We are excited because almost all of them are solid and we could be having a pretty good transfer. Elder Romrell and I are just praying and praying for 5 baptisms this summer. The Lord has continued to bless us by helping us find some solid people. We are super excited. The Zone Goal is to increase in the number of baptismal dates each week. The winning companionship will have a dinner with the new mission president and his wife. Which would be pretty cool.

So, we had zone conference on Friday and it was the last talk that President and Sister Blackburn would give as mission president and wife. It was good and pretty emotional for them. They are just exceptional people that made excellent mission presidents. The average amount of baptisms a month doubled from 30 a month to 60 a month since they took over. They have seriously turned the mission around greatly. Supposively the mission was pretty apostate before they came in and now hardly any missionaries are apostate. The mission is just really obedient now. They did an awesome job and I am thankful I got to serve with them for a transfer and a half. The new mission president comes in tomorrow and takes over. It will be an interesting adjustment but I am excited to meet them and to be serving with them.

So, I have a funny story. Elder Romrell and I were just riding to our next appointment last Wednesday when this big black guy yells at us to go over and talk to him. So we did, and we awkwardly shook his hand. He told us he was meeting with the missionaries and wanted to know why they stopped coming by. We told him we didn’t know. He then puts his hand on Elder Romrell’s shoulder and asks him if he has a dollar. Elder Romrell told him, “You know what, I don’t, but I have a water bottle you can have?” The guy said ok I’ll take it. Then he just begins to just chug it in front of us with water just dripping all over him! Elder Romrell and I were just laughing in front of him. We told him that we needed to go after taking down his information and he said ok. So, we started to leave and he called me back over real quick and put out his left hand for me to shake it, so I shook his hand, but then he squeezed a little harder and wouldn’t let go while asking me if I had a quarter. To be honest, I feared for my life for a second and then he let go after I told him I didn’t have a quarter. haha, and as we rode away he yelled, “Don’t fall off your bike! hahahahaha.” Elder Romrell and I could not stop laughing because it was so strange. We think he had some mental issues or something because he didn’t act normal. Oh and his name was Vincent. Since then Elder Romrell and I always bring up Vincent randomly in our conversations and just laugh about it. It was funny.

Well family it has been a good week for me in Los Angeles. I am glad Haley had fun meeting some COWs at efy and I am excited for her new room. I think it is pretty cool the new Iphone came out also. All these things happening while I am gone and I won’t know anything about them when I get home. haha. Congrats on the pig Hillary and Mitchell. haha, so so weird. Oh and mom, the mission needs the new information on our stake president, President Layton, so that they can update it. They are hasseling me about it and I keep forgetting to mention it in my letters. Anyways, the church is true and I love you all. Have fun at the beach and I will write you next week!

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones