Hey mom and family once again. Weeks just fly by here in the mission. I feel like I was just here writing last weeks letter to you all. I sometimes feel like I have nothing to say. I haven’t read my patriarchal blessing lately. I should. I see it just about every day especially during my studies. Sounds like everyone had a pretty relaxed new years break. We went in early on New years eve and new years day at 6 oclock because USC had a lot of parties. It was bad. Lots of skany women just walking around USC at 4 or 5 oclock on their way to a huge party in my area. So we left that part of town to complete our last two hours of work that day. It was nuts! You all get to have fun on the newest technology. That dance game sounds pretty fun. Oh well, I will see it in a year. So like over there in Arizona, here is getting rain and its freezing. When I first got to LA, Sister Blackburn told our group that she could count on one hand how many times it had rained during her three years in the mission. It has rained a billion times since I have been here. Rain is not a missionaries friend just so you all know. Well it sounds like New Years was good for all of you, especially Haley at the New Years stake dance. Sounds like a lot of fun.

So yes we have a car as well. Just like the tempe mission, we have a certain amount of miles we get a month and we basically have to budget them. We use the car on days we really actually need it, like pdays, and when it rains, and fridays for our district meetings. It would be nice if we got an unlimited amount of miles per month but its not like that. I love having a car. It makes things so much easier. Instead of being the one that begs for someone to pick us up on pdays, everyone else asks us if we can take them around on pdays. Its a good thing. The people in my district are the zone leaders, Elder Billat and Elder Chambers, us, Elder Patten and Elder Persinger, Elder Gilbert and Elder Muse, and Elder Romney and Elder Carter. My district is way cool. Almost all of us play basketball so its going to be fun. So far as a district leader I have had a billion meetings it seems like. I had a meeting for all the new district leaders who were called which by the way I was 1 of 10 new district leaders. There are only 21 district leaders in the mission and they just put in 10 new district leaders. Thats a lot. I had a meeting with the zone leaders and the other district leaders in the zone to discuss the new zone goal. Which we all came up with. That was a long meeting. The zone goal is a goal for the whole zone that focuses on one key indicator like progressing investigators, new investigators, member present lessons, other lessons, less active work, and referrals. They are monthly goals. This month we are focusing on how to keep our investigators progressing. We made it super bowl themed so it turned out pretty good. Anyways, meetings are not that fun. I am required to go on splits with every elder in my district which is a lot of days out of my area. I have to track in a lot of numbers as a district. I also train/teach the missionaries in my district. Its a lot of work but it has its perks.

Anyways, this past week was good for us. Lamarr and Princilla came to church. Lamarr is still making his decision but we have faith that he will progress. He was talking to us yesterday during priesthood that Princilla was having doubts about being baptized. Supposively he keeps pep talking her telling her that this is the best decision she can make. He just is taking her with him which is a good thing. Lamarr is so solid. He knows the church is true. He loves going. You need to come to Adams ward one time and you will see how wierd and diverse it is. It is evenly seperated by race all the way through. There are tons of blacks, mexicans, koreans, and white people. Just about every culture goes to the adams ward. I think that is one reason why lamarr likes it so much. Its a good ward, its just really diverse haha. I love it. There is a guy named Brother Dumayas who acts just like Senor Chang off of the tv show Community who is the Sunday School President. He asks us missionaries to teach classes every week. So basically just about every week, Elder Lee or I go and teach a class whether it be Gospel Doctrine or the 14 year old class. Its fun. He talks, looks, and acts just like Senor Chang. It is hilarious. Anyways, Lamarr and Princilla were the only ones who came to church yesterday.

This Sunday will be Elder Lee’s and mines first time going to the USC ward. We now cover two wards. So we took what Elder Richins and Elder Judd (the old district leader and his companion) left us and also the sisters who used to cover part of the USC ward. The sisters got booted to Hawethorne and Elders took their spot. So we are the only companionship that will be covering the USC ward. So we have a lot more work. We are still working on meeting all of their investigators and teaching them. This week should be really busy for us.

Every Tuesday and Friday for the rest of this transfer we are having those new trainings taught to us again. So as a zone we go meet up and get trained on the new style of teaching which is asking inspired questions, listening to the investigator and just teaching to their needs. So it will be pretty long. It goes from 10 to 3 every Tuesday and Friday of this transfer. I think I am going to have to teach some of it because now I am a district leader. So I am going to be very busy this transfer.

The work is going good here. I feel like I am learning a lot as a missionary. Especially having a huge variety of different people to work with. I get to work with African Americans and Mexicans every day. It is way fun. I love the work. I love being a missionary. I finished the Book of Mormon again. Its been really fun. I finished the day after Christmas. Anyways family, I hope you all have a good week and I will continue trying my best out here. I love you family.

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones