Hey family! I am so pumped for you to get a new dog. I wish I was there to see Nelly. That is a pretty good name for a dog. It is like the rap artist. I got the picture and it definitely is a cute dog. Thats awesome. Are you training her or is she already being trained? I am jealous. She will be a year old when I get home. Which by the way, if I already haven’t told you. I come home on leap day of leap year next year. Feb. 29th. I just thought I would let you know. That was terrible news. Poor Big H. That is sad. I cannot believe it. I was shocked. I hope he does ok. I will keep him in my prayers for sure. Same with Paul’s dad. That is a shocker as well. I hope that he is doing good. It sounds like he is recovering all right. He will be in my prayers as well. Good job Jamey. I am happy for him. Its funny that he found his wife in Ohio rather than the flocking mormon women in Utah. Good for him…. I am going to miss Goran Dragic. He was good but Aaron Brooks can score so that should help out the suns…. Well there was lots of scary/ bad news in that letter, but lots of good news. I hope everything is going well their.

Well, I don’t know what I can write this week. Nothing different happened. It was a really basic week. We had the normal three at church this week. Rosa and Claudia came to Adams ward and Kevin came to the USC ward. All of them are doing really well. They are still on track for baptism.

Rosa and Claudia: So with Rosa, it is impossible for her to be baptized because of her marriage situation but we had a lesson with Claudia only because Rosa was feeling sick. As we were talking she was reading in the Book of Mormon and found an answer to her question. She felt that the Book of Mormon was talking bad about her ancestors (The Lamanites) and so she wasn’t fully believing in it because she thought the book was kind of racist. So our last reading assignment we gave her was 3 Nephi 11 which talks about the appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas. We thought it would be a good chapter for her to read because we wanted her to gain a testimony of Jesus Christ through the Book of Mormon so that she could figure out that the Book of Mormon is true. Anyways, she read 3 Nephi 10 and 11 instead. In 3 Nephi 10 towards the end of the chapter it talks about how the spared people, both the Nephites and Lamanites, were blessed because of their obedience to God’s commandments. So, this showed no racism on the Lamanites and she now believes fully that the Book of Mormon is true and she made her own baptismal date for the 20th of March. Which is awesome! She is solid. We bring the King of the Blacks over with us and Rosa and Claudia love him. haha. So we are really excited for them.

Kevin Tillett: Kevin is doing really good. He came to church on time and enjoyed the whole service. He is really progressing. He was telling me at church that he was invited to go to a party on Saturday night and he just told them no and stayed at home. He said it was so hard but he did it. He is a partier that is turning into a mature adult. He is 22 years old and he is from Belize. I found out yesterday that he played high school basketball. So we talked a lot about that. He is so cool too. This week we brought over a USC player to one of our lessons and finished the plan of salvation. It went really well and he understood it and believed it. He is a sponge. He absorbs everything that we teach him. He is sollid. On Thursday we took him to the Visitors Center and he loved it. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and it really opens peoples eyes. It is so good. He loved the trip and loved the big statue of Christ. Oh yeah, he also broke up with his girlfriend on Saturday to reduce the temptation. So that is another blessing in disguise right there. Kevin also is scheduled to get baptised on the 20th of March.

Sister Chu is still doing really good. We taught her about missionary work this past week and she is already sharing the gospel. She got her temple recommend and is going to do baptisms for the dead sometime in the next week I think. So she is still doing really well…..We still haven’t found Lamarr. We quit trying on like Wednesday. We are going to wait a couple weeks and then visit him again to see how he his doing. It is sad but oh well…. Other than that we have been in finding mode again. All of our old investigators have been put aside for a little bit because they aren’t progressing very well. So we have been knocking doors a lot this week. It is fun. I don’t mind doing it anymore. I kind of like it to be honest. haha

We had zone conference on Thursday all the way down in Palos Verdes. It was really good. The mission is struggling on baptisms so far this year. We have a missionwide goal of 850 baptisms for the year and we had 41 in January and only 17 so far in February. If you do the math, we are way behind. We ended up with 751 baptisms last year and so far we aren’t even projected to hit that mark. So we looked at the numbers and all of our numbers are really really good except baptisms and confirmations. So the zone conference was really focused on having more faith and obedience. President Baker is a really good guy. I love him. He is pretty funny and knows what hes doing. He definitely is an inspired man and is doing whats best for the mission. He talked on Faith and Obedience. He basically put it as when we are disobedient, we are showing/telling God that we hate him. That hit me hard. So, of course, I felt I needed to smooth out some rough edges with the way I was working. Elder Lee and I are working on exact obedience with everything. Even rolling down my back right window when I back out the car. haha. So, we are expecting some great blessings for our obedience.

Sorry, I never sent my sd card from my camera. I will do so today hopefully. Writing takes a lot of tim so I might just send a note with the camera card. I will try writing info for each picture. Anyways, that is all that happened this week. If you have any questions than please ask. I feel like my letters sound the same every week. But anyways, I love you mom and family and I am grateful for your letters. Thanks Aunt Rosemary for the Subway giftcard. Thanks Shreeve family for the birthday goodies and stuff. Thanks everyone else for everything else. haha. I love you family and I will write you next week.

Love,
Elder Kevin Jones