Hey family!

How are things going this week? I hope things are going well for you all this week. First off, congratulations to Paul on completing his Master’s Degree. That is awesome that all of those loans are paid off by ASU. That is super awesome. I wish I had that done so I wouldn’t have to worry about school when I go home. So that was some good news to hear. I am glad that is all going well.

It is funny that Brett has hopped back so quickly into the dating life. I can’t believe it. I don’t know if I will be the same way at all. I think I will need time to adjust. haha. He probably will be engaged by the time I get home. I can see that… Congratulations to Amanda Johnson. Everyone is just getting married right and left. I think that is pretty funny. I won’t have any friends by the time I get home.

Sydney got a haircut? That is awesome. It is funny how she likes to do all the girly things that Nathan and Lacy don’t like to do. It is super funny. I am excited to see that video of her singing when I go home. I miss dinner like usual every Sunday. I can’t wait to hop back into the family for Sunday dinner. That is one of the things I miss the most.

I am glad that you and dad are on a diet. I need to eat healthier as well. All I have eaten my whole mission is junk. Just a bunch of chicken, rice and beans and tortillas. That has been my most popular meal in my mission. I am excited to have chicken crescent rolls, and Cafe Rio’s pork salad, and the Fast Sunday roast and potatoes meals again. Well keep going strong with the diet mom and dad!

This week was all right. A lot of good things happened but nobody came to church still. I am glad that you laughed at my confirmation experience. That tells you how good my Spanish is Nathan. I actually got up and bore my testimony in testimony meeting yesterday. I got nervous of course but once I got up there everything felt fine. I felt like I needed to go up and bare my testimony. In Latin wards, just about everybody is a convert so they all love missionaries. Especially when they bare their testimonies on Fast Sunday. I felt like I needed to go up because missionaries never go up and plus the ward needed some missionary work encouragement because all 5 companionships in the ward are struggling to teach people right now. So I got up and I told everyone who I was and where I was from and then right after that I told everybody that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not my friend. I said that because that is the first thing that people ask me right after I tell them that I am from Arizona. So everyone thought that was funny. Then I talked about missionary work and how all of us can share the gospel. So I told them about Maria and her family’s conversion because of just sharing the gospel at work. I mentioned to everybody that all they need to say is one sentence about the Church and you have done a lot in missionary work. So that was the basis of my testimony at church. It was good for me to get the nerves and go up there. I was scared to do it but I felt good afterwards. But like I was saying we didn’t have anybody come to church.

So on Friday last week, President Baker came out and worked with Elder Ferrin and I. It was a good experience. Of course we got all nervous about it but I like it that President takes his time to go work with missionaries. We contacted people in the street with him. We contacted a few former investigators with him and we had a couple sit down lessons with him. It went well. The Spirit was there and I think President enjoyed coming out with us. It is funny to hear his Spanish too. He speaks it pretty well but he has a gringo accent. It is funny but its cool at the same time.

Well the main people that we are teaching right now are E and M, and a girl named I. E and M have a lot of strong influence from their family not to do anything right. They didn’t come to church yesterday because E had his birthday party the night before. But of course, they can’t come to church unless somebody in their family will take them. Usually it’s their grandma who is a member but she slacks off a little bit and doesn’t go. So it is kind of frustrating. We are planning on going over their tonight to chastise them and to teach them. They are doing ok other than not going to church. I is a part member that I think I talked about yesterday. She has the same problem with her family. They are less active and won’t go to church with her. So we need to chastise them as well. We want to go over today as well. So they are the main people we are working with right now.

Right now in the mission, we are focusing on making something called a mobile area book which helps us use our time more wisely. So in the mobile area book, we separated our area into 6 areas, and we wrote down all of the members, formers, and potential investigators that live in each area to help us out when our plans fall through. So yesterday, we tried to contact somebody but they weren’t home so we opened up our mobile area book and went to go contact a member that lived close by to the person that we wanted to contact. So we knocked on the door and it was this 22-year-old kid who had been baptized 4 or 5 years ago that was wanting to come back to church. The even better thing is that he got married 6 months ago and his wife is not a member. So we are going to begin teaching them. This mobile area book is really effective. It helped us out last night.

We also started using this referral sheet that helps us get referrals from members. An elder in the mission made it up. We translated it into Spanish and we used last night with 4 members and these 4 members ended up giving us 4 referrals. It worked out really well. It worked out so well that I want to use it for every member that we are visiting. Right now we need more solid investigators and the members are the better source to find more people.

So I don’t have much more to write but there was something crazy that happened on Saturday. We were by the 110 in my area and we were going to an appointment when all of a sudden on the right hand side of the road there was these four African American chicks chasing another African American chick. One of the four was wearing this leopard printed leotard thing. It looked weird but they chased down this girl and then grabbed her hair and started pulling her down to the ground. And they threw her down and they just starting punching and kicking the snot out of her on the side of the road. She almost was curb stomped. While this was happening we were sitting at a red stop light. When the light went green we just pulled to the side of the road to keep watching this. It was like 50 feet behind our car. So after they beat the snot out of her they left and the girl just got up and walked away smiling. We were in shock. After that beating we thought she would of just laid there but she got up and walked away like nothing happened. It was nuts! So that was my crazy adventure of the week.

Anyways, I love you family. Thanks for writing me. The church is true. Keep believing in it. I will write you next week.

Love,

Elder Kevin Jones

Happy New Year!!! Sorry about my typing if I have errors. This keyboard is a retarded keyboard. It took us forever to find one of these little computer shacks that were actually open. I don’t know why everything is closed today. I guess the government just needs more days off. The post office was closed too. Sometimes Monday is the worst day to have a preparation day just because of all of the holidays. Anyways, How is everything going? How was the New Years for all of you? It was awesome to talk to you all on Christmas. I enjoyed it very much. I didn’t realize that I went over my time alotment by that much. It went by really quick. I was disappointed to find that I was out of time.

Anyways, I am glad that Granddad is doing well. I didn’t know that he had had that nerve problem. I am glad that he is able to walk now. He sent me a Christmas card. Before I forget thanks to everyone who sent me a Christmas card or package. They have been well used.

I am glad that Brett has grown a ton. He is a good guy. I am excited to see him when I get home. Happy Birthday Aunt Rosemary. I hope those three movies were really good. Thanks for your support while I have been out here.

So right now I am emailing in this little shack like I said and there is this guy right next to me who is playing some kind of video game and he is getting angry and yelling at the people that he is playing with and it is really distracting. On top of that there is an argument going on with two Latin guys in here as well and it is really loud. So sorry if I lose my train of thought or something I say doesn’t make any sense. Well I hope everything went well on New Years. We just went to bed at 10:30 and woke up at 6:30. I don’t know how we slept through all of that hardcore party music all night. I think it is something that happens when you just get really old in the mission. You just become a super tired missionary and sleep perfectly. It is really nice to sleep well every night. Thanks for the letter mom. Your letters are never dull. Don’t worry about that.

Well, the confirmation of M happened yesterday and I had the opportunity of doing it. I think I messed up a couple of times. It is confusing going into blessing language in Spanish because you think that it would be just like a prayer but it is the exact opposite. So I messed up once saying that it was M’s church instead of God’s church. Hopefully people got what I meant. That was the only thing I messed up on. So her confirmation went well. She felt like she was going to pass out in front of everyone but it went ok. She survived. Church was confusing because we all thought that there was only one hour of church again but really there was classes. So that was weird. So we stayed for the whole three hours. We only had one investigator come to church and that was one of the kids, M. E his brother couldn’t get up because of the new years celebration. So that was a bummer. We are bringing them both brownies tonight for our lesson because it is E’s birthday tomorrow. We are still working on trying to get a good conversation with their parents to see if its ok that they get baptized. Hopefully they decide to let them. So he was the only one that came to church. We are setting a goal to have 6 people at church next Sunday.

During church on Sunday there was a family of three that randomly came in. They all had been going to church in Bell, California which is still in the mission, and they liked it. They haven’t been baptized so we are hoping to start teaching them. They gave is a bad address because they just moved in and they couldn’t remember it. She gave us her name and we are hoping to contact her today or tomorrow. Her name just happens to be M as well. I cannot remember her two sons names as well. They all speak perfect English. So hopefully it turns out.

After church on Sunday we went and tried a few former investigators and less actives toward one side of our area that we hardly ever go to. We went to meet a less active family and found them and they are a family of 6. They are all members but one of the sons who is 20 years old has his girlfriend that is living with him and she is 19 and her name is I. She is not a member and she is very interested in what we believe. So we are excited about that. Even though there is a Law of Chastity problem that we are going to have to face. haha. Hopefully that goes well.

On New Years Eve we had to be in at 6 so we had a zone activity at the HP building. We bought a bunch of practice tennis balls and we played dodge ball as a zone for 2 hours. It was really fun. But… I am extremely sore and it feels like I threw out my arm. But it was worth it. The zone had a lot of fun……….. Tomorrow we have Zone leader Council. I am excited for that again. It has been a couple months since I have been to one of those. President Baker usually talks about the Atonement and they are always really good discussions. I am really excited for that.

Well that is it that I can say. Sorry mom that my letters are super dull and boring. haha. I love you all and I will hear from you next week.

Love Elder Jones

Dear family,
Hey how are things going this week? A lot seemed to have happened. I don’t know what to start commenting on. Well I am glad that you got my package. I was worried it wouldn’t get there in tip top shape. I paid the cheapest amount to get it there in a week. haha. Well I hope everyone got something. I sent a total of 9 things for everyone in the family. If Haley took both the shirt and pants then not everyone got something. I am glad you liked the pictures. I am not the best at taking pictures. So, sorry for the bad quality. I sent home some random stuff too that I had for some reason. Sorry that a twisty straw was in there. I didn’t have anything for the kids so I decided to throw some random stuff in there that maybe might catch their attention. The shirts will probably shrink.

Anyways, about the time to call home…. We have church at 10:30 here our time and 11:30 your time. We also have a baptism right after church at 12:00 our time and 1:00 your time. That will probably be about an hour long. So the best time I can give you is somewhere between 1 and 1:30 my time and between 2 and 2:30 your time. That will probably interrupt a little bit of granddads time but that is the best time I can think of to make the call. So expect a phone call probably around 2:15 your time. I still have your numbers memorized so there won’t be any problem with that. I am really excited although it does feel like I just called you guys, but that was 7 months ago. It will be nice to talk to you again.

So Derek is home from his mission now. Brett is coming home today and Jace is most likely coming home today as well. Jace left in the middle of December two years ago and everyone gets an extra 4 or 5 days on their two years so that probably means he is coming home today. The Gillettes come home towards the beginning of January and then the rest is downhill from that. Everyone will be coming home in the following two or three months.

I am sorry about Nixon and Sydney being sick. That sounds terrible. Maybe it will be the last time that Sydney throws up. The last time that I threw up was when Haley was born and that was all over dad. I think I had strep throat too. That is a fun fact for all of you. haha. I hope they get better before Christmas.

My companion goes home in May so he most likely will be my “killer”. I think that is the right lingo mom. haha. But you never know because President Baker is full of tricks up his sleeve. He seems to make transfers very unexpected. I still like my companion. We get along very well. He reminds me a lot of Douglas. He is very similar to Douglas. It is only us two in my apartment. I hope you didn’t get me too much in my package. I am grateful for it though. Thanks. Thank you to the Shreeve family as well. They have been really awesome to me. Sorry I am not the best at writing back to everyone but I really do appreciate everything that you have done for me.

So, yes we have a baptism on Christmas. We have been working with these two sisters for a very long time. M and K. They are 18 and 20 and K got baptized like 5 weeks ago and finally M made the decision to be baptized. She chose her baptismal date because she has already been taught everything. Her problem is that she has trouble doing things in front of people. So she was really nervous about being baptized in front of people and even more nervous about being confirmed in front of everybody. But now she has gotten the courage to do it so we are very excited. I have already taught them like 6 or 7 times. I feel like I had a part in teaching her. Elder Ferrin will be baptizing her and I will be confirming her in front of everybody at church the following Sunday. Hopefully I don’t mess up because it is in Spanish. So M is doing well and she will be baptized on Sunday after church.

This week we also found a couple of really cool kids. Their names are E and M. They are brothers. E is 11 almost 12 and M is 10 years old. They are extremely smart. We found them because they are the grandchildren of a less active lady in the ward that wants to be active again. We have taught them the whole restoration and the plan of salvation. They are very understanding. Their mom actually is a member of the Church but she doesn’t go because her husband is Catholic and from the sound of it he is really die hard Catholic. So that is our only concern with them. The father of them may stop them from being baptized. They came to church on Sunday though and they liked it. They have liked everything we have taught them a lot. So they are both very solid.

The other investigators we have are not progressing very well. We are teaching a guy named C who is out of town until after Christmas. Then we are teaching a couple other families that aren’t showing much progression as well. We do have a lot of potential floating around in our area so we are excited about this upcoming week.

This Saturday we have a Christmas devotional as a mission and that is when everyone gets their packages and letters and things. I volunteered to sing in the choir this year just to mix things up. It should be good. It was good last year. I am excited about it.

Other than this I don’t know what else to write. I hope you all have questions and stuff on Sunday. I am excited to talk to everyone of you. It will be exciting.

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hello family once again. How are things going this week? Well I will comment on your letter mom but first I want to tell you what happened at transfers. I got a phone call from President Baker right after exercise on Tuesday morning of last week and he told me what was happening with me. He asked me if I liked my area, and I told him of course I like my area. After that he said, “Well like is now a past tensed verb, you liked your area now because we are going to transfer you.” In my head I was thinking really? I am being transferred again. I was sick of moving around every transfer. Then he said don’t worry, we are just moving you to the area next door to the one you are at and we are going to make you a zone leader again. I was very surprised. The zone leader that was there went home on transfers because it was the end of his mission so that spot was open. He said you will still be in the same ward and Spanish speaking but we need you to work with Elder Ferrin who is now my new companion. So now I am a zone leader and I am in the area that is called HP Central and my boundaries are Slauson on the north, Florence on the south, Santa Fe on the east, and the 110 on the west. So it basically is a giant rectangle. So I only moved one area to the west. Elder Castaneda stayed because President wanted to finally make him a senior companion. He got a pretty new missionary named Elder Jenson, So that was transfers.

I had to move apartments and everything. Elder Ferrin and I gutted out our apartment because it was a pig sty. It was so dirty. Now it looks good. Elder Ferrin is way cool. He is from Plain City, Utah, which is an hour north of Salt Lake City. He loves basketball and golf and he is really good at both. He is 5’10, which is pretty short but he still can play basketball pretty good. We already knew each other before so we were pretty excited to be companions. I hope he is my last companion. I am done with change. So I am pretty excited about this transfer. We have a little bit of work from the looks of it so I hope that we can find some baptisms.

Anyways, thanks for your letter mom. It sounds like you had a fun time at a Rodeo smelling cows. haha. It’s pretty funny that you and dad were dating for a weekend. I can’t believe you never have slept in separate twin beds since you have been married and in separate rooms. I thought that was really funny. I am glad that you had fun and I am happy that dad bought a new cowboy hat. Yes, I remember Mao.

It sounds like I missed a good stake conference. I don’t remember that family from the Glenview ward. I feel like I have forgotten everyone’s name in the Allen Ranch ward and from work. I can’t remember anybody’s name from back home now. President Layton sounds like a really good stake president. He was cool when he reffed my Young Men’s basketball games. It’s sad that I missed that stake conference.

It is sad to hear that Sydney’s front two teeth are dying. Ouch, that’s too bad. Sorry I wasn’t home to help set up Christmas stuff this year. So now I have 20 ornaments on the tree. Mom, I am getting old. Your youngest son is in his twenties now. haha Its ok. I can’t wait to talk to everyone on Christmas. What time would be best to call? Nighttime? Afternoon? Give me a specific time that would work out best for all of you. It will be fun. I am going to send off a package for you all today so you should be getting it sometime this week. You can open it whenever. Before I forget next week is temple Pday so I will write on Wednesday the 21st.

Well we had a rough Sunday. Everyone from my old area came to church but this area nobody came to church. They had two baptisms a couple weeks ago in this area so they are kind of in finding mode but there are plenty of investigators that they are teaching as well that could progress. From my old area, A came to church except he has relapsed like three times this past week and he came to church on drugs so it was kind of scary to talk to him. He left right after sacrament. E came to church and a couple others of theirs came to church. Here in this area we are teaching two people. An 18- year-old girl named M who has been taught everything but she is scared of doing things in public. So she is scared of being baptized in front of people and scared of being confirmed in front of the whole congregation. She could be baptized any week this transfer.

We are also teaching this guy named C who is from Honduras who is 31 years old. He hasn’t been taught that much but he is eager to learn. We are going to go to the Visitor Center this Thursday with him. He is depressed because his girlfriend and his 5-year-old son just left him so he is trying to fill in that hole that he has right now. He didn’t come to church because he was depressed. So we will be working with him on that. We think going to the Visitor Center will help him out a lot. Other than that we are looking for people that will start progressing. It will be fun.

I am excited to be here and excited to work with Elder Ferrin. Well I don’t know what else to say. I know this church is true. I have no doubt that it is true. I love being out here on the mission. I wish I could stay longer. I am having fun sharing the gospel. I hope and pray for more people to except the truth. I love you family and I hope you all have a good week. Love, Elder Kevin Jones

Hello family once again. It is hard writing a weekly letter these days. I don’t know anything new I could say to you all. It’s hard. It’s as hard as putting on zit ointment. I just don’t have time to put that stuff on. haha. How are things going this week? Weeks are flying by.

I can’t believe dad was here to play golf and he didn’t invite me. I have never heard of that course. The traffic is always bad like you said. There are good times during the day where it isn’t busy and then there are lots of times during the day where it feels like you don’t move at all. I wouldn’t recommend living here for that reason only. I am glad it was worth it for him.

I am happy that Haley had fun at her dance. Its funny that you thought that all the boys looked like they were 12 years old. Did I look like I was 12 when I was 16? I am glad that Haley had fun though.

So you’re going to a rodeo this week with? Sounds like a blast. That is interesting. I didn’t know that they did that every year. I hope you two have fun. I am sure Nellie and Haley will be just fine while you are gone…

Its getting that cold there. 31 degrees. Right now its cold here. It is freezing in the mornings. We play soccer at the church every morning. It is cold. Its nice to have the church just down the street. It works out really well. It’s also nice to have the key to the church.

Happy Anniversary Hillary and Mitchell. 2 years already. Only another 60 more to go on earth. haha. I remember your wedding and it was cold. I remember also that Derek brought his girlfriend to it as well. Derek should be coming home soon right? When does he come home? Did he recover from his Mono on his mission? Thanks for the letter mom. I like your letters.

Yes we have transfers this week on Wednesday. I think Elder Castaneda is leaving for sure. There has been some strong signs that he will be leaving. It’s good. I still hope I get to train or have a newer missionary so I can practice my Spanish more. It’s easier to not listen intently when your companion is already fluent. He has helped me a lot though. I feel like I am at the point of where I left off at from Hermosa Liahona. I feel like I have regained all of that back. I just have 12 weeks to speak and listen the best I can. Learning is not that easy. It’s hard. I hope I can speak it well when I come home. I will let you know how transfers go next week.

Last night was the departing missionary fireside. We went with some members and our investigator’s car broke down on the way to the building. So we kind of were illegally there but we couldn’t leave so we stayed. It was good to see the testimonies of two of my past companions. Elder Stenquist and Elder Judd are going home. It’s sad to see the missionaries you got along well with go home. I will definitely stay in touch with those two elders. They were two of my favorite companions in the mission. It was also cool to see some past investigators and members from my previous areas. I saw the Hoeft family again. It felt good to see them. They acted like the missed me. It makes you feel good when people miss you. I saw a lot of other investigators there as well. Sister Hoeft is going to get baptized in January with her son. I think they are waiting on Brother Hoeft to become worthy to baptize them. So hopefully I will be able to go to that baptism.

Yesterday at church was an ok day. The people that we wanted to see there didn’t come for reasons of their own. So we only had E R and J. I don’t know if I told you about J but he is the one that has been coming to church every week for the last two months. He is good friends with a family in the ward. You can tell that he is feeling the spirit. He is wanting to make changes in his life. He works his own hours and so he used to work every day of the week. Now he understands the Sabbath Day and he is giving up work on Sundays to come to church. He is making these changes on his own. We have only taught him once because of his busy work schedule so we might be lucky to only teach him on Sundays. So he may take a little bit longer to help enter into the waters of baptism but he is doing really well.

E is doing excellent right now as well. She comes to church every week. The only problem is the Law of Chastity, which is the problem with everyone these days. You are right mom being married and having kids under wedlock is the minority these days. It doesn’t work that way these days. People don’t understand the law of chastity and the family proclamation. Hopefully more and more people can learn that.

A and A didn’t come to church because they fixed the brakes on their car instead. He is still doing good not doing drugs. He has made it two weeks now. So he is making strides right now. The teaching process is going slow because he talks so much in lessons. He dominates the time. So we are going to try to quicken the process of the lessons. They will get baptized. Although we found out that they aren’t married. We thought they were but they weren’t. So they have to do that before they get baptized.

D and J didn’t come to church. They were lazy too. Laziness is a big excuse for not coming to church here as well. So we are going to work with them as well. Other than that we don’t have anybody really that solid. We are still looking.

Thanks for your prayers and support! I love you and I hope you all have a good week.

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey mom and family! How are things going this week? It sounds like last week was a lot of fun. I wish I was there to be with the family for Thanksgiving. Also, to play football with everyone in the ward. Also, to play golf with Dad, Colton, and Jason Willett. Also, to see everyone. I feel like I missed out on some stuff.

Thanks for answering my questions mom. It was good to hear that Aunt Louise is doing a lot better. I want to see the new changes in their house as well. It sounds really new. I missed out on Uncle Geoff’s turkey as well. Darn. Did he make two turkeys or just one? Latins here don’t like turkey for some reason so I didn’t get to eat turkey for thanksgiving. I only ate chicken and ham. I think they don’t like the hassle of making it. It takes too long for people to make a good turkey.

I can’t wait to see Dad’s car. It sounds really nice. I think I would be excited to show it off at car shows as well if I had that car…. Sorry to hear about the stores lack of success with the Santa this year. I could make a better Santa. Dad would make a really good Santa. You should just have dad do it next year…. I can’t wait to be at Sunday night dinner again. I don’t think you will be able to fit me when Heidi’s new baby comes. How is Heidi doing? Is she really big right now? Its good that Heidi is married and having a baby and that she is over the age of 18 years old. Too often I see 14, 15, and 16 year-old girls that are pregnant or that already have a kid here in HP. It is insane. So, thank you Heidi for obeying the commandments.

Well mom, you know me when it comes to Christmas. I am almost home and I really don’t need anything. I just want to see more pictures of the family. The ones you gave me last year for Christmas are outdated now. You all probably look completely different again. I think that is all I really want. Maybe another tie? I really don’t know what I would need for my last two months here… I am sending home a Christmas package. I know you are probably wanting to see some pictures as well so I am going to send home all the pictures that I have printed off in my mission in a package here soon. I will also throw some other stuff in there as well that I got for everyone. So that’s all I think I want mom.

Thanksgiving we cleaned the whole church building for a service project. It looks so much better. It went from really dirty to just dirty. It got to the point where it was presentable. The building needs to be torn down but the city has made it a historical landmark and it can’t be torn down. It is a pretty classic looking building from the outside but the inside still needs help. They need to redo a lot of it. Thanksgiving we visited people. We weren’t allowed to tract after 6 o’clock.

Well, this week we had 5 at church! We keep increasing one more person every Sunday. It was good. We had D and J that came to church like usual and you already know their story. They are still in the same position. She needs to get a divorce and they need to get married. They were the ones who we had Thanksgiving dinner with. We are planning on helping them start saving money for the divorce and to really hit the importance of living the law of chastity so that they get started on fixing their Law of Chastity problem…. E R came to church as well. She is still very solid. She came without her member boyfriend,which shows that she wants to learn and that she wants to get baptized. Her boyfriend that she is living with talked with the Bishop and the Bishop gave him some numbers that he can call that can help out with finding out if he is divorced or not so that they can get married. So they are progressing. Hopefully she can get baptized here really soon…

Then we had two new people that came to church. A and A. They are 24 years old with a three-year-old son and they are married. Armando doesn’t speak English but A does. A was a referral from a bishop in a ward near by us. He wanted help to get over an addiction with Crystal Meth. So we went over to teach him and he has a sincere desire to change. He has been addicted to Meth for over 6 years now. The longest that he has ever quit for was for 2 weeks. He is ready for some help. Anyways, he likes what we teach him. The first lesson we just listened to his problems that he was having and we invited him to pray and to read the Restoration pamphlet. The next time we came over he felt like he received and answer to his prayer. His uncle that he hated called him and apologized and they fixed their issues and his step mom called him as well and he hated her too and she apologized and they fixed their issues. This all happened in one day. So he promised us that we were allowed to come over whenever we wanted. He said that we will always be welcomed at his house forever. Anyways, they came to church only for the first hour because they hired a babysitter to take care of their 3-year-old son for only an hour. We didn’t explain well enough that their was a class to take care of their son while they went to class. They said that they will take their son next week. I am really excited about these people. We still need to set a baptismal date with them, but they are solid.

C ended up dropping us. She didn’t want to learn anymore and she didn’t want to come to church. So we were surprised but that was just a sign that she wasn’t ready.

There is a guy that we are going to start teaching that has been coming to church for the last month and half. He lives outside of the ward boundaries and he only comes to our church because he is always working in HP and he also knows a family that lives in our ward. He is pretty solid. We had dinner with the family that he knows last night and he told them that he is very appreciative for being welcomed to the church and for having us over to teach him more about what we believe. So we got permission to teach him so he should be pretty solid. His name is Jose. haha. Pretty classic name.

This week not much new is going on in the mission. Next week we have transfers. I have a feeling that Elder Castaneda is going to be transferred. I hope I get to train one more time before I go. I liked training and I think having a new missionary would help me focus really well.

Well family, I love you and thanks for being the best family. I will write to you next week!

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hello mom and family! How are things going this week? I am glad that all is going well from this past week with you guys. I didn’t know dad was going to do car shows with his car. What is wrong with the interior? How did he change it? Why is the interior such a big deal anyways? As long as its not pink or yellow it should look just fine. That is cool though. Does dad drive his car around everywhere? Would I be able to fit in it. I don’t think I would. I couldn’t fit in it before my mission so I definitely won’t be able to fit in it now.

It sounds like you had a great time sewing some pillows mom and Heidi. I am glad that you both did pretty well. I can’t believe Haley is going on dates and going to dances. That is just so weird to me. I feel like I just barely went through that phase of my life. When is the winter formal? Nathan and Lacy are going to Missouri? That is weird. That is an interesting place to move to. I hope they have fun.

Colton, Adrienne, and Aunt Rosemary are coming for Thanksgiving? That is awesome. I wish I could be there. How is Colton doing? How old is he now? He should be within a year of leaving for his mission right? It should be fun to do Thanksgiving at Aunt Louise’s. How is Aunt Louise doing? I haven’t heard about her in a while.

Jordan Hakes is back from his mission for medical purposes? Well I feel bad for him. I feel bad for those missionaries who have to go home for those purposes. That would stink. Rachel Robinson is leaving right before I get home huh? Where is she going again for her mission?

I actually had the exact same sickness as you mom. I didn’t lose my voice though and I have had it since last Monday. It stinks Dad, I saw your profile last week. It was cool to read your profile. Yours is one of the best on there because you actually took the time to write out your story. Nice!

Well, everything is going fine here. My Spanish is coming along pretty well. From when I first got here, I went from not understanding hardly anything to understanding mostly everything. It is coming along quickly. I need more practice. Elder Castaneda and I are only going to talk in Spanish for the last week of this transfer so I can become more fluent and speak it better. I think I can get it down. Yes, I still love it here. The area is pretty good. It is pure Spanish. It is the best possible place for me to be at so I can learn Spanish. No worries, I have a dinner on Thanksgiving with the members. We get fed every night here. Spanish people find any excuse to celebrate so yes, they celebrate Thanksgiving here. At least here in America. I don’t think they understand why we celebrate it.

So this week we had 4 people come to church. We keep increasing one more person every week. It was the same people as last week, D and J, C, and the new one for this week was E. E and her less active husband just showed up to church last Sunday. We thought some of the other Elders were teaching them because they both looked like investigators at church for the first time so we didn’t talk to them. Then on Monday, we had a family home evening and they showed up there too. I began to question if they were being taught by anybody. Well it just so happens that he has been less active for about 7 years and his “wife” who really isn’t his wife is not a member. Yes, he is living with her in their apartment and they aren’t married. He is married in the temple with another woman and they separated 7 years ago. He isn’t sure if they are divorced but he feels really guilty for breaking the law of chastity. Anyways, they both are super solid and super active at the church. Hopefully they can resolve their law of chastity issue. He has a long pony tail its pretty funny to look at but he is a super nice guy. C is doing well as well. She has a baptismal date for the 11th of December and this was her second time coming to church. She seems pretty solid. Hopefully she makes the commitments to be baptized. She is a little nervous about committing to something like baptism but I think she just needs that spiritual confirmation and she will make that change. She is doing well too. D and J came to church like usual and they are the ones that we have dinner with on Thanksgiving. Remember they can’t get baptized because she still needs to get a divorce from her previous husband. So that will be at least 6 months from now.

Those are the main people we are teaching. We are still teaching S and we will probably give her one more chance to come to church this weekend and if she doesn’t come to church than we will probably stop teaching her. She missed church yesterday because she had to take her future brothers-in-law to see their brother in prison 4 hours away from here. So that was her excuse this week. She is way cool, she just needs to come to church. Other than that all the other people that we were teaching we have stopped teaching because they have either dropped us or we dropped them. We are still working hard though. We are working really hard.

Yesterday was my two-year anniversary of receiving my mission call. Do you remember that day? I was shaking so bad when I was opening my call. Anyways, I have to say since that day, I have enjoyed every second of being a missionary and preparing to a missionary. I can’t believe it has been that long already. I love it out here. I don’t want to go home. In fact, I talked to President Baker and he is extending my mission 6 months!!!!… I am so excited………………………………………………………………….. No I am just kidding. haha. I will still be going home on my release date. I bet you that didn’t fool you at all. haha. Oh well.

Well thanks family, I love you and I will write you next week!

love,
elder kevin jones

Hello family once again. Time is flying way too fast. I feel like I am here at the computer all of the time. It sounds like everyone just makes craft stuff at home. I am glad that everyone is having a fun time doing all of that stuff. I will stick to missionary work haha.

It sounds like my nieces and nephew are the cutest kids in the world. I don’t think I will recognize them when I go home. The last time you sent pictures I didn’t recognize them. Haha

Braden Tilley is home? It is weird hearing about everyone going home. Yeah, everyone calls me old out here. After this transfer I only have two transfers left. That means I am old. The time is going to fly by. Its good to hear that people are coming home and looking good. Tell Braden I say hi as well. Melanie is also home? I was in the MTC with her at the very end. Good luck to Hunter! I am glad he is serving. He will do well in Mexico.

Keep being busy Haley. That is how life is…. Paul is going camping? I can’t picture that. haha. Good for him. Way to magnify your calling Paul!

Our car is fixed but it is still a piece of junk. They need to sell it. The heater still doesn’t work and the trunk is broken so you have to hold it up instead of it just staying up. My bike is with another missionary at the moment. I had to borrow a bike to ride. Supposedly its a good bike still. I want to sell it though. I don’t think I will ever ride it when I go home. I am a runner not a bobsledder…. bike rider. My face continues to have good days and bad days. I am doing all I can to dominate the acne. Its better than when I left on my mission. So that’s a plus. I hope it’s gone before I go home. What happened to it going away half way through my mission? I don’t know if you will recognize me. I am old looking now.

Thanks for the package! I got it today. You spoil me too much. The moisturizer couldn’t have come at a better time. I have been squeezing out as much as I can out of my old one for the last 2 or 3 weeks. I don’t think it could of lasted another squeeze. So thanks. Thanks dad for the letter. I am excited to play golf with you once again. Keep practicing bouncing the ball on the end of the club. It doesn’t take that long to get it down. I don’t have a mormon.org profile. We aren’t allowed to make one out here in my mission. I have to make it when I go home. So you won’t find me. I will keep looking for you though dad.

Well this week we had 3 people at church! One more than last week. We are teaching a lot more people than before. We have found a couple of people that we think can be baptized before the end of this transfer. The three that came to church were C, D, and J. D and J can’t get baptized for a while. She still needs to get a divorce with someone and she doesn’t have the money to do it right now. So they won’t be baptized for at least another 6 months. They come just about every week. They almost don’t even count because they have been coming for the last 6 months. C is this Peruvian woman who is about 35 years old. She lives next door to a member and she came for all three hours of church. She has her arm in a sling right now because she works at a clothing factory and they have a machine that is similar to a paper cutting machine and the machine sliced her arm pretty deeply. She has nerve damage to her hands. She can barely move half of her fingers. But, she loved church and she could get baptized by next month. She doesn’t have any law of chastity problems that we know of, so that is a huge bonus. Elder Castaneda is excited because she is from Peru. She doesn’t talk as fast as he does though. So those are the three people that came to church.

Other investigators that we have that should of came to church but didn’t but still have strong potential include S N, M M, and V, J, and E. S is the girl that all of her in-laws are members and her boyfriend is in jail. She is 18 years old and her interest level is low at the moment. She doesn’t have much of a religious background and she is 18. She just needs to feel the spirit and come to church and she will have a lot of interest.

M is a 65 year old woman that was a referral that we received from headquarters. She is solid. She is Baptist but she is completely open to learning more. She gave us a maybe to come to church on Sunday so she didn’t come but we think that she will come this next Sunday. We are going to give her a baptismal date on Tuesday. That is when we have our next appointment with her. Bringing members to lessons are golden. That’s what we did with her.

V, J, and E all live in the same house on the gangster street of our area. This past Saturday we made tobacco tea and V drank it until she threw up. This is a way to help people quit smoking. You take the tobacco out of three cigarettes and you boil it in a small pot of water. Let it cool and then you have to drink it until you throw up. Its not very good for you but it helps people quit smoking. The taste of it stays in your throat and it’s a really gross taste, so when you go to smoke the taste of tobacco makes you want to gag and not smoke. Its not 100 percent full proof but it works for a lot of people. I recorded all of it on my camera. They still didn’t come to church though. We may stop teaching them if they don’t come to church.

That is it for the investigators. Today we had our annual turkey bowl. We played two other zones and we dominated. Lakewood, and Athens zone came and played us. It was really fun. We had to play early this year because there are so many zones in the mission that we had to separate the games three p days apart so that President could come watch all of them. It was really fun.

Thanks for everything mom and family. I love you and have a good week!!!

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hey family! Thanks for your letter Mom. I appreciate it like usual. It sounds like your Halloween experience was good with Nathan and his family. It sounds like the kids had a fun time. I am happy that they did. Nixon didn’t want to wear his costume still? haha. That is funny. He always asked for more too? I think they are the cutest kids. I haven’t seen Douglas’ son Linken. How old is he now? Is he almost two already? Wow. That’s crazy. Yeah it rained over here too. It rained on Friday night and Sunday morning but nothing more. Right now its sunny skies. It is kind of chilly over here. Our car is getting fixed so I had to ride the bike again the last two days. I have to be honest, I am not a big fan of bikes. I would rather walk or be in the car. The bike is fine because a lot of people see us and there is a lot more benefits to it but the car is so much quicker and more productive and we can use it on P-days to get everything done quick so we can play sports. But I will usually always be in a car as soon as its done getting fixed.

The area is ghetto and there are some shady parts of it but it never feels dangerous. As a missionary you usually feel invisible. haha. I know that’s not true but it feels that way. My Spanish is coming along nicely actually. When I am on splits with other missionaries I feel like my Spanish is good because I can understand white missionaries better than my own companion. My companion speaks a mile a minute. It’s coming along great.

It is a lot better with two more missionaries in the apartment. More people to talk to and more stories to tell. The only hard part is showering all of us in one hour. We are doing pretty well at that but that would be the only downside to having two other missionaries in our apartment with us. I am happy to be here in HP though to close off my mission. It is fun here.

Everyone is getting married these days. Eileen Hill, Amy Webb, Heidi Pang, and Alex Spencer’s sister Lauren is getting married. Alex, I hear isn’t too far behind her either. I am not hearing too many returned missionaries getting married. I haven’t heard about any actually. All the girls that I ever knew are now married or getting married. My friend Landon Larson got his mission call to Bahia Blanca Argentina. Congratulations to him! I am so stoked for him. He gets to learn Spanish.

So this week was another finding week. I went on two splits out of my area so I was only in my area for 5 of those days. We had a couple of eternigators come to church this past Sunday. In Spanish work its harder to get people to come to church for some reason. They all promise us that they will come to church the night before and then they don’t come the next day. The excuse this past Sunday was that it was “raining”. Isn’t that a lame excuse? People bring up the craziest excuses for not coming to church. It’s unbelievable. We are working with a few people. We found this less active family that wants to come back to church and they have a sister-in-law that is always there with them that is not a member and is interested in the church. Her name is S. She speaks English and she is about 18 years old. We have only taught her once and she seems really interested. We think that she could be baptized here soon hopefully. She had a kid with the less active member who is in jail who is the brother of the family that lives there. So we will see how that goes.

We picked up a former investigator who’s name is R. He was supposed to come to church on Sunday but his excuse was that it was raining. I haven’t met him yet. I was on splits out of my area. Then the two that came to church were D and J. They can’t get baptized because they need to get married. But she isn’t divorced from someone that lives in Mexico. So they are at least 6 months away from being baptized. We have a lot of good potential people that I hopefully can write about next week.

I am excited for our zone conference this upcoming Wednesday. It will be cool because the two zones that we will be with have a lot of the people that I came out with and other friends in the mission. I have to write a three-minute talk about why the partaking the sacrament is important to me. We will probably hear more stuff on that. We will also probably receive a book of Mormon challenge to finish the year off. I like those kinds of challenges. I am excited about that.

Well I don’t have much else to write about. It is hard to think of things to write about. I am just moving along like you are mom. I am enjoying every minute out here. I love being a missionary. I know that the church is true. My testimony of it has strengthened a ton. I have such a deeper understanding of the Atonement and the necessity of a Restoration of Christ’s true church back on the earth. It is so obvious that that was needed and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I have watched Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration like a billion times on my mission and the things that Joseph Smith went through were so terrible. And for him to go through all of that and not deny the church alone has to make him a prophet. I am so blessed to be a part of God’s true church today. I love God and I am so grateful for all of the blessings I have received from him. Prayer is real. I love prayer. I have built a stronger relationship with God since being on my mission. It has blessed my life so much. The Book of Mormon is true as well. It is awesome. It makes sense and you always feel good after reading it. I love this Gospel. I am so happy to be a part of it. I am grateful to you mom and the rest of the family. I have the best family in the world. I can honestly say that you are all my best friends.

By the way, I think I have grown on mission. I also weighed in at 210 a couple of days a go. That makes +25 on my mission. haha. So I might look different.

Love you family,
Elder Kevin Jones

Hello family once again. Weeks fly by here in the mission. I couldn’t believe half of the stuff in your letter mom. Heidi Pang is getting married to Tanner Flaherty? I knew Heidi was getting married but I didn’t know it was Tanner that she was marrying. That is a crazy coincidence. That was weird to read that but congratulations to them. Amy Webb is engaged? Congratulations to her as well. That is too bad that Brett has to come home in December. That stinks. At least he will be home for Christmas.

I heard from Nathan that Lacy is pregnant! Wow congratulations! Now it is Hillary’s turn. haha. Awesome awesome. That is way cool. Lacy also is the 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency? She will do so well at that. That is perfect for her. It sounds like everything went well with Heidi’s primary program. Congratulations. I saw one in Lawndale and it was funny seeing Samoan kids sing.

Nixon doesn’t sound anything like me. I can’t believe he didn’t want to wear his costume. He probably doesn’t want to be girly like Sydney and Stella and dress up with them. I can’t wait to see the pictures of Sydney and Stella as witches.

Wow, Haley going on all of these dates. That is impressive. Don’t worry about the dances though. When I was in high school, I really didn’t want to go to the dances so there was probably kids who were like me and didn’t want to go so they didn’t go. It is just as cool not to go. haha. I hope you have fun though at winter formal.

Dad scored an 81? That is really good. He also scored 18 points? I miss church basketball. I miss basketball completely. We play sometimes out here but not that regularly. There is every restaurant in my area. If not in my area, then in my district. I even have an In n Out burger in my area. I love southern California. There is good food here.

So let me give you the details on my area. My area name is Florence and not whatever I told you last week. This area is the ghetto mom. Lawndale was nothing compared to this area. People don’t speak English here in lots of parts. haha. Like right now, I am looking outside the window of this internet cafe that I am in and the stores across the street are Spanish titled and not English titled. The store’s names are Progreso Financiero, and Masaje and Especial de Apertura, Ropa, A Mitad de Precio. haha. I love it. It has been a blast so far. My companion basically corrects me on all of my Spanish haha. It is terrible. He talks so flipping fast. I am beginning to understand him now. Hopefully I am with him for two transfers but I have a feeling I will only be with him for one transfer. I have a lot to learn and a long way to go. Hopefully in four months I can speak it. My companion’s name is Elder Castaneda with a squiggly over the n. So it’s pronounced Castanyeda. He has been on his mission for a year. He is really outgoing so it has been pretty fun. He is from Lima and nobody in his family are members. He lived in Texas for year before his mission so he learned English there. His Uncle is a stake president in Texas. Elder Castaneda was baptized when he was 8 by another uncle that was a member in Lima. He is a good missionary. We will do well together. He didn’t get along with his last companion so he is excited to work really hard.
The area is suffering right now. We have 0 investigators. Elder Castaneda had a baptism two weeks ago and since then, nobody has been in the teaching pool. We have a lot of people who have good potential but nobody that sticks out yet. Everyone speaks Spanish here. There should be tons of baptisms here. Church was cool. There were a lot of cool members there. The church building is really ghetto. There isn’t a heater or air conditioning in it and the font is in the middle of the floor in the middle of a room. It is so ghetto. I guess a couple months ago the font filled up with dirty brown water because the pipes were screwed up so somebody got baptized in the dirty brown water. haha. This place is awesome. I am so excited to get to work and learn Spanish. My district meeting on Friday was in Spanish so I trained them in Spanish. It went all right. I need a lot of practice. There are two gringos in my district who have the thickest gringo accents I have ever heard in my life. It was pretty funny. I am excited to be able to serve them and the rest of the district. I am excited to be a district leader. Elder Castaneda and I try to speak Spanish all the time. It works out pretty well. We speak Spanish probably 50 percent of the time. I could do better at that because that is how I am going to learn it. I don’t know what else to say about the area. There are always police sirens here. Oh and I live with another companionship that work our area in English. Elder Powell and Elder Ralpho. Remember Elder Ralpho? He is from the Marshall Islands. He is still learning English. I love that kid.

We have a few people that we have appointments with. The C family. They are a part member family. There are a couple of eternigators because they still haven’t gotten married. Not much else. We have been doing a lot of work from the area book and we have a list of less actives that we are visiting. We are also doing a lot of tracting. Tracting is successful in Spanish areas. I am excited. We have about 60% of the members in our area. There are five companionships in the ward and for some reason we have all of the members. It is awesome. We get fed every night. The members help me out with my Spanish. It is a lot of fun here.

How is the mormon.org campaign going in Phoenix? How is everything else going? Do you all have your mormon.org profiles up. I look for yours every week and its never there. I am excited to see my family on there.

Well I love you family. Congratulations to everybody who has had something big happened to them lately. I will write to you next week. The church is true!!!

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones