The Chuch Blog

2008-09-17T15:52:00.004-06:00

Well, Lance has officially completed his training at the MTC and has left for Florida. As of today he's been there three days. We haven't heard from him since he's been in FL. However, we have two e-mails that he sent from the MTC. I thought I'd post them for your enjoyment:

Week 1:

Hey Family this is lance i hope that you get this message, because im not 100 % sure that this is your email address, but i hope that it is. So the first week at the MTC has been good, i have been learning a lot, and learning how to teach a lot. I found a battery for spencers phone in my backpack and i sent it to him it should come in the mail in a couple of days. anyways my district is pretty cool, i like most of the guys in it they are funny and have a good attitude about it. My companion is elder Grant he is from sandy, he just graduated this last year from highschool, but he is a cool guy, he is a pretty laid back guy and we get along well. I saw justin one time, so he can probably tell you about my district. but one guy in my district is a guy named elder bradford he is a funny guy, he is way hyper and he always sings a song that he made up called elder jones, which is just the song "mrs. Jones" but he replaces Mrs. Jones [with] Elder jones its kind of funny, [except] he does it always so its kind of wierd. well any ways we got new teachers yesterday one of them is a woman whose name is sister lucas, and another guy who i cant rememeber his name. Yesterday elder Quinton L. Cook from the [Quorum] of the 12 apostles spoke at the devotional and he gave a very good talk on missionary work and on teaching with the spirit and stuff. so any ways yesterday we had a teaching evaluation but before hand our district was in the room studying, but people were just talking about stuff and arguing about doctrine so i couldn't concentrate, so e. grant and i went to another class room one door down, but when we came back they had left because the time for our evaluation changed, but they didn't tell us, so by the time that we got there we had already missed it so the guy was just like prepare a 10 minute lesson on the restoration, so we did. and then we gave it to this fake investigator and it was amazing. we taught by the spirit, normally i give the lesson and it doesnt really flow, but yesterday it just came to me, it wasnt even what we planned, but we did it well and the spirit was so strong it was good. i wasnt sure if i could do this mission stuff, but after that it made me feel more confident it was good. so anyways ive seen joe a few times, he works in the morning and he comes by our table and then we talk its nice to see him. so any ways ive been eating a lot of food, about twice as much as i normally eat, and i have just been sitting around, and the combinantion of these this have resulted in 10 lbs of fat in one week. which is crazy because normally i cant gain weight, but this food is so unhealthy that i have been gaining more than a lb a day, i want to gain another ten by the end of the mtc so i will tell you how it goes. well any ways i am out of time, so i will see you later. Love. Lance jones

Week 2:

Dear Family,

It took me seven minutes to rememeber my email address and password, and then a few to check my emails so i only have 18 minutes to write today so it might have a lot of errors and be shorter than last time, but thats just how it is. Life at the mtc is pretty good, the guys in my district are cool, and we all have a fun time together. Every tuesday someone comes here and speaks to the missionaries for a devotional, and some times it is some one from the quorum of the seventy, and some times it is some one from the quorum of the twelve, and this week it was Uchtdorf. It was awsome he gave a great talk about missionary work, and his wife spoke and she cant speak english very well so it was pretty entertaining, it was a good talk also though. It seems like time is moving a little bit faster now, it is still moving much slower than when i was at home, but it does not seem like it is moving as slow as it did the first week. this friday we started teaching the second lesson which was on the plan of salvation, it is a difficult lesson to teach, because there are so many little things that you have to explain to have it make sense. Elder grant and i taught it yesterday to an old lady in the trc who was pretending to be catholic, and we did pretty well. It was weird to teach an old lady, because she was so old and boaring, but i bet we will be teaching a lot of old people when we get out there.

I think that we will be able to call from the airport, but i am not sure i have not heard any thing about it here. but maybe you will probabably be home at five in the morning if i do call so just keep the phone by your bed in case. i am kind of getting sick of the food here, i cant eat nearly as much as i did the first week, now after i eat one reagular sized entree i feel full, but last week i ate two or three entrees every meal. so i dont think i have gained any more weight.

I printed off some pictures this week from my camera and i will send them home. elder grant and i got a light saber picutre that you must see. they have a computerthing here where you can print off your picutres and it is only like 9 cents a print for a 4x6 picture so i printed some off, i will send my camera card home later.

so spencer you are doing some guitar huh? that is cool, How is that? and what are you up to mallory? and i will just talk to you here at the mtc justin. and mom thank you for all of the packages you make all my district jealous, and now i have so much food that i could not eat it all. I love you all and will write again next week but now i am out of time bye.

lance jones

10 seconds left oh no!

2008-08-31T21:52:00.003-06:00

Last wednesday we dropped my brother Lance off at the Missionary Training Center here in Provo, Utah. He is going to serve in Tampa, Florida. The Missionary Training Center (MTC) is an interesting place. When young men or young women become missionaries and enter the MTC they are no longer allowed to contact their family or friends except through e-mail or letters. They begin living missionary rules as well. It is a pretty tough change of lifestyle but it is also very amazing. The spirit of the Lord is very strong there, which helps their learning process. The missionaries often comment that they learn more in three weeks at the MTC than the four years they spent taking a class about the church called seminary. We are so proud of him! And I work at the MTC so hopefully I'll get to see him soon.

Back in Action

2008-07-31T13:31:00.004-06:00

I feel the need to introduce myself, even though this blog is about me and has been up and running for almost three years. As you will notice, the last post was made more than a year ago and is in third person (I didn't write it). The truth is, I've only seen this blog a couple of times. While I was serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints my father made and maintained this blog to help keep my friends and family informed about my whereabouts. During my service I knew about the blog but never got to see it since missionaries are only allowed to visit certain websites. I served for two years in Houston, Texas and I loved it to death! I consider myself a Texan now. I still use the word, "y'all" from time to time instead of the less flattering "you guys." I think that Bluebell ice cream is the best ice cream in the world. Talk to any Texan and they'll tell you the same thing!

So, funny story. The other day felt like starting a blog (i had completely forgotten about this one). I ran the idea by my father (who is a computer guru) and he reminded me that i already had one. So today I officially become a blogger; I join the world wide electronic conversation. I fully intend to update this blog regularly. I will try to keep it fresh and fulfilling. I hope that y'all will find my life and psyche interesting and will keep coming back for more.

More Jasper Photos

2006-11-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some more Jasper photos. Once again, Elder Jones provides the commentary (with exceptions in italics). Click on each photo to enlarge.

In the country.

Elder Jones did the "Outlaw Challenge" recently. If you eat this gigantic burger (and the fries) you get your name on the wall. And a t-shirt? He was up to the challenge.

A close-up of the Outlaw Burger.

My NEW TIE!

District meeting picture. left to right, top: E. Hall, Setterberg, Barnett, Jensen. Bottom: Yours Truly, E. Skeen.

Elder Hall and me. My second-born in the wilderness of my mission. (i.e., Justin's second "greenie" companion)

One-year mark festivities (taken on 9/7/06 - "hump day").

ditto

Paul & Tara (recent converts). They are doing well.

Me in my sweet cowboy suit I got from the thrift store.

Some members gave us some Double-Stuff Oreos and we decided to have some fun with them.

Picture of the font. This was on October 8th when we were filling the font for Trisha's baptism.

Us and Trisha, the newest member of the Jasper Branch.

The Golden Period

2006-10-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

Elder Chuch is experiencing a "golden period" for his mission. He and his companion have been blessed with great success in Jasper. Here are some excerpts from recent e-mails:

8/9/06

Last monday was my 11 month mark, I can't believe it. It is amazing. It can't be that far along. Time really flies. I don't want it to be that far along, i want to have as much time out here as i can, but the only thing i can do is make the best of what i've got left.

Lets see... we taught P the word of Wisdom. She said she's been smoking and drinking coffee for the last 40 years and so it seemed like an unpassable hurdle for her at first but as she thought about it she knew she could do it. That was last wednesday. Yesterday we visited her again and she said that it has been hard but she has been trying and reading and praying. She said she felt like giving up a few times but she's still pressing on. We gave her a priesthood blessing and she was really touched by that.

Mrs. H, she is doing well. She said that eventually she wanted to get baptised but she just didn't feel ready yet. She said some other things too that showed her interest so we'll keep going with her.

We haven't been able to get back in contact with B. yet, she and the F. family have been really busy lately. We are still trying to get back with her.

T, we taught T a lesson on friday. We taught her the third lesson about baptism and confirmation. we invited her to be baptised and she accepted! She's been reading and praying and says that she KNOWS that the book of mormon is true. We don't have an actual date, however because she and her husband, P, need to get married. That should be no problem, though, because P really wants to get back into church, too. He's a member, just less active.

8/16/06

It's kind of depressing to know that i've been out a year already, but i like the fact that i no longer will be a teenager in a week. It's kind of snuck up on me.

Transfers are coming up, a lot of people say that i'll probably be training again next transfer. I would love that, i really enjoyed training Elder Sosa. But Elder Decker doesn't want to leave Jasper. He loves it here, especially since the work is picking up.

P came to church again and loved it. She had a struggle on monday, however, Yesterday and today we are on exchanges so elder decker and skeen are in jasper. They went and visited her last night. She said on monday she felt like giving up again and smoked a whole pack of cigarettes and drank a bottle of vodka. But then on tuesday morning she woke up and thought, I can't give up, I've got to keep going. So supposedly she's in good spirits today. We are going to go and visit her again tonight and we are going to try to get more member support for her.

Not much to report for P and T. They are doing well. They came to churhc with their kids this time and enjoyed it. We taught her a few commandments last week. She is doing great. We've just gotta make sure she's ready for baptism.

8/23/06

Thank you so much for all the birthday favors and presents. So, it doesn't feel any different yet to be twenty. I actually had to remind myself that it was my birthday. It's kind of hard to believe that the teens are over but that is exciting. On to bigger and better things.

On monday we had a great day. We actually took our official preparation day on monday so we only have a couple of hours today. First of all we drove down to silsbee to drop elder Decker and his stuff off. Some crazy things have happened for transfers. First of all, Elder Sosa is staying in sunnyside again! At the end of this new transfer that will make seven and a half months in sunnyside! I'm not sure how he feels about it but if anyone can do it i'm sure that he can.

Also, Elder VAZ is the new ASSISTANT to the President!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! I never would have thought that he would become assistant and now he's in the hot seat. I bet he's way stressed out. But he'll do a great job.

Anyway, after they had come and taken elder decker away we went to a restraunt called "Cowboy Red's" in Lumberton and did THE OUTLAW CHALLENGE. The challenge is to eat the outlaw burger and a side of fries. The outlaw burger has three patties, each an inch and a half thick and about five or six centimeters in diameter. That thing stood about ten inches tall. We had to take one of the patties out and eat it as a steak. That morning i had prepared and on the way there and while they were picking him up i drank a gallon and a half of water to stretch my stomach. There were four of us who took the challenge and WE ALL FINISHED IT. It amazed me because i couldn't even finish the two foot sub at sensuous sandwich. Needless to say, i was sick afterwards, we all were (elder Barnett threw it all back up) but we got a free t-shirt and we all had our pride and bragging rights secured.

That's about the most exciting thing that's happened since monday. Right now, as i type, P is at the Family History Lab doing some genealogy. She is having a blast and i hope she will build some friendships with the people there with the members who are working there.

Tonight we are going to visit a couple up in Hemphill called the M's. Brother Packard found them on his medical records up there (he's a doctor). And found out that Bro. M is LDS. He told Pres. May and now they are being fellowshipped a lot. They are great people. They are probably in their late twenties (wow, that's weird, i'm in the same decade of life, scary) , early thirties and they have four kids under the age of eight. Sis. M has been reading the book of mormon and we haven't even taught them a lesson before. Her mother in law is also reading the Book of Mormon and they both watch BYU TV and then discuss what they see. Brother M is taking me to pick up my new missionary on Thursday. We hope all will go well with them. I'm pretty sure it will but i don't want to count my chickens before they hatch.

Besides that, this next week will be a pretty big week. P and T are getting married on Friday. Saturday and Sunday are stake conference so we'll have to hitch a ride with someone because one of the sessions is in Beaumont and the other is in Port Arthur. Should be fun!

8/30/06

This past week has been AWESOME! It has probably been one of the best weeks of my mission. First of all i'll answer some questions from last week.

The wedding went well, we did go. The branch pitched in and it looked professional. There were a lot of gifts for them, too.

So, last wednesday, we took most of preparation day on monday so we only had a few hours. We were also coming back from Woodville and working the rest of the day in Jasper. I picked up my packages, (all of them, thank you very much) and they are AWESOME. Thanks especially for the "picture book" with the accompaning tape. it was really fun to hear from all of those folks and from y'all. It's so funny that all of my friends are just barely heading out on missions, and i've almost been out a year.

Later that night we drove all the way up to hemphill in hopes that we would be teaching Sis. M. Sis. M is the nonmember wife of a member guy that lives in hemphill. He has been inactive for a while and now he wants to get back into church and his wife is really interested. She's the one who has been reading the book of mormon and watching BYU television. The members have been fellowshipping her for the past few weeks and so she is ready for the lessons. It turns out they were caught up buying a new van and so we couldn't teach them. But we had dinner with the Johnny Ratcliff family and he gave us the background for the M's, which was a good thing, and so now we know them better.

The next day, thursday, Brother M drove me down to houston to pick up my new missionary. It was an overall good experience for him too. I wasn't as nervous to train this time but i was still pretty nervous. His name is Elder Hall, from Orem Utah. He is twenty four years old and he did a little college at UVSC before he came out. We are already getting along really well. He is an awesome guy. He is the youngest of nine. He is out here to work and has a great testimony. He kind of reminds me of me when i came out because he worries about a lot of things, like whether he'll be a good teacher or not. but he's doing fine. He loves the work. He does anything i ask him to do.

I'm really glad that there's a lot going for Elder Hall to jump into. The first full day we were together we went to P. She has completely quit smoking and coffee and so now she is online to be baptised on the sixteenth of September. She is excited. We are praying to know who would be the best fellowshipper.

That same day we received news that a couple in the ward, the Mills (there are two families of mills, the older ones, not the one who was going to make my birthday dinner.) had just died in a car accident. They also had their two grandkids with them so we rushed to the hospital to give them a blessing. The grandson had been life flighted to Beaumont but we were able to give the granddaughter a blessing. She had a broken collar bone. It turned out that the boy was alright too, thank goodness. It's so sad that this happened. Just last sunday he was joking around in Ward Council meeting. It goes to show you never know when you're going to go. They're going to have the funeral this saturday.

One the brighter side of things the wedding was that night and everything went beautifully. Family from both sides were there and there were many branch members. Elder Hall had a crazy first day but he loved it.

oh, one more thing. Elder Hall loves to SING and he has an incredible voice so now we are singing all of the time.

The big news is that T is scheduled to get baptised this Saturday and confirmed on sunday. We are so excited. WE are going over tonight to teach her more and prepare her for the interview. It's going to be at six o clock, even though it's the same day as the funeral. We are going to call a lot of people to tell them about it so that we have a good crowd.

Thanks for sending me Bryce's letter. It's really good to see that he's doing well. He still has that unconquerable spirit. That's great!

As for Preach my Gospel it is all about working and recognizing the spirit. Which is something we always need to work on. Thanks for the low down on the Education week talk. That is really inspiring to hear about it's being put together. One of the secrets is to study. If you don't study you don't have much to draw on. The morning studies will make or break your mission. Then you have to speak the feelings of your heart, like the Lord told Samuel the Lamanite.

There's so much more i wish i could tell you. I love it out here. I've felt some of that joy that Pres. Hinckley talked about in my call letter and that it talks about in Alma 26. I love it out here!

I love you all very much. Thank you for all you do. God be with you.

9/7/06

Sorry about the missed day. Zone conference. that went well, Elder Hall and skeen and Graff and I sang. Elder Hall has a concert voice. It sounds very professional.

Last year at this time do you know what i was doing? I was eating my last meal in Provo--homeade curry chicken wraps! Then we had the presentation of the bands. Then we drove down the street to the MTC. Then I dropped my luggage off while Mallory was hanging on to me. Then i got my new name-tag. oh, the memories i will never forget!

I can't believe it's been a year already! It seems like just yesterday that we sang called to serve, said goodbye and then we walked out of separate doors. Yet the growth i've gone through has been priceless and the things i have learned have been many. My testimony has been strengthened one hundred fold, my knowledge of the gospel has expanded, and my ocd is very very close to being totally under control. And it is all because of the goodness and love of my Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for Him and His patience and longsuffering and love. I feel like ammon who said "I do not glory in myself, as to my strength i know that i am weak, but i will glory in my God, for i know in His strength that i can do all things." Alma 26

I also want to thank you. You have all been the means by which Heavenly Father has sent blessings, love and support. Thanks for always helping me to have a better day and be more inspired.

This week was also a great week. The baptism went wonderfully. She passed the interview with flying colors. You can just tell that she has a testimony. We had pretty good support from the branch, too. Brother Bill McDaniel, her Uncle in law, performed the baptism. We had some pretty good talks as well. After the baptism we all went and ate at Elijah's Grill, a sweet southern place. The confirmation went well on sunday. There were so many people there that they had to open the back again.

P is on line to be baptised of the 22nd of September. She is doing great and her testimony is growing daily. We are trying to get a family in the branch to specifically help us out with fellowshipping. It truly is a miracle for her to give up smoking and coffee. I don't think there are many things besides the gospel that she'd give it up for.

We are also teaching a family up in Hemphill called the M's. They are doing really well. I think i've told you about them. the husband is a less active member and wants to get back into church. His wife is T. Her mother in law, mrs. K, is also interested. The M's have four kids from 7 years to about 10 months. They've had us over twice and both times they've fed us dinner before the lesson. It's ended up going a long time because mrs K asks a lot of questions.

We have been witnessing miracles daily, little miracles. There are so many people who are interested. The members say that Hemphill is exploding. It seems like there is something new up there every day. We are trying to see if we can get more miles so that we can head up there more often.

Elder Hall is doing great. He is a fun guy, we have a lot of fun together. But he is also spiritual, so we get a lot of work done. He is kind of lacking in his self confidence skills so i need to be more sensitive to that. He thinks i am a great teacher, not to brag, he's always making comments about how great of a job i do. I hope i'm helping him to relax. He has so much potential. I think his dad is a scientist, but he's retired, he worked for Novotec for a while.

right now, a year a go, we were probably unloading my luggage at the MTC.

right now we were probably standing out front, just basking in the moment, before we went in and got my name tag.

9/13/06

This past week has been great. Possibly another one of the best ones on my mission. On sunday we had four of our investigators at sacrament meeting.

P is still on line for baptism. She has a strong testimony and is growing every week. She hasn't had a word of wisdom problem for a few weeks now. We will plan the service more this week.

Sis. H is doing really well, too. I think that the baptism of T really inspired her. She is determined to quit smoking. Yesterday she went to see her doctor for help in quitting. We will probably try to organize a special fast for her. She practically bore her testimony on sunday. It was great.

Sis. M and K are both doing well. Sis. M is Sis. K's daughter. We weren't able to visit them this past week because of a football game but they are both doing really well. On sunday we had a special lesson about the spirit world taught by our stake missionary person, kelly Carter, and if you've ever heard him teach then you know it was good. They really liked it. We hear that T is ready to be baptised. It seems like her mom is a little more hesitant but she is really coming along too. The place where they both live, Hemphill, is exploding. We had another part-member family move in last week. The members have been trying to get in touch with them. The members are having tons of missionary experiences up there. Some of them have asked me if we could get another set of missionaries up there to help out with the work. That would be great for us because between working in Jasper, Kirbyville, and Hemphill we don't have the miles or the time to work the other parts of our area. I don't mean to complain, i'm actually ecstatic that we have this problem, but i don't know how easily Pres. can just get two extra missionaries up here.

We have been experiencing miracles daily, and i hope we are showing enough gratitude. It is a testimony of what the Lord can do with two willing, hard working missionaries. It is also a testimony to me of the power of gratitude. As we show our gratitude the Lord will continue to bless us. The Lord doesn't need our gratitude to survive. He commands us to be grateful because of what it does for us! If we are grateful then we will be humble and happy and we will continually submit to his will.

I have also been overcome with a feeling of gratitude for the past year on my mission. I can't believe it's over but even more, i can't believe how much i've grown. I made sure to thank the Lord and i will be sure to continue to thank Him. Sometimes i feel like i'm being selfish. I hope i made some difference in the lives of others.

HempHill with two H's...is about forty miles away from Jasper. It's probably fifteen or so miles out of our mission but president told us to work it like it's our area. That makes it a little hard on miles but the members are good to help out and we just put elder halls' bike together so now we can save even more.

Austin and SEan will now both be in the mtc, i'm going to write them both today. I need to do some catchup.

The fellowshipping of T and P is going great. this monday the Drue ratcliff family had them over for Family Home Evening. She is still on fire. They want to get family home evening started in their home.

I am really thankful for a loving family who helped to bring me where i am today!

9/20/06

We have had a crazy week of mixed emotions and many miracles.

Last Thursday we headed up to Hemphill again and visited with T and K. We were suprised to see K's husband there. He has had a bad experience in the Pentecostal church and has been wary of any kind of organized religion. We had dinner and a wonderful third lesson. They all accepted it heartily, P had a lot of questions. T and K have been praying about the Book of Mormon, they both have a testimony of it. We talked about baptism but they wouldn't commit. We'll try to commit them again when we go up there again tomorrow. P said if he prayed and came to know that these things are true then he will be baptised. It is really amazing. This sunday all three of them came to church. They all enjoyed it and the members were very accomodating.

Speaking of action up in Hemphill, there's a member named Johnny Ratcliff. He just barely moved up there and he said that he has a small, one bedroom building behind his house that rents out for $150 a month. He's not the one who rents it out but he gets to approve who lives there since it's behind his house. He suggested that we use it as a satellite house and come up there and stay a day or two during the week and then drive down to Jasper. It would solve the mileage problem and we would be able to be where a lot of the action is up there in hemphill. Johnny has a referral for us that we are teaching tomorrow, hopefully and all the other members have been doing a bunch of missionary work. Even the high school kids are handing out a few book of mormons each week.

We have some bitter-sweet news about P. On friday morning we called her during our planning session and she said that she had started smoking and drinking coffee again. No baptism this week, drats. We went over there that afternoon adn she invited us in. She told us that going without coffee and cigarettes is turning her into a different person and that she's taking back her life and not living up to someone else's standards any more. During this time Elder Hall and i were really quite distressed. We didn't know what to do. We both silently prayed for help and direction. With the help of the Holy Ghost we were able to find out that her real concern is that she can't be as good as all of these members, that she's not good enough. She loves the spirit she feels and the things she's learning but she said, for now, she needs her coffee and cigarettes. We agreed that she could go with her coffee and cigarettes again but that she would keep coming to church and taking the lessons and reading the Book of Mormon. The next day we committed a family in our branch, the Grindstaffs, to fellowship her. They invited her over to Family Home Evening the next monday and that was lovely. Sis. Grindstaff taught a lesson on pioneers and talked about how we're supposed to be modern day pioneers. Then we played a game and had cookies and ice cream.

Last friday night we witnessed another miracle. We went over to visit mrs H and she had stopped smoking!!! She had been smoke free for four days, when she came to church that sunday she was still smoke free. It truly is a miracle. When we first found her she was puffing one right after another. She is so much more chipper and delightful. We tried to set a baptismal date but she told us not to push her. She told us she did want to be baptised but that she wanted to talk to her kids about it first and see if they'll come. She still left out all of her ash trays (clean now) and said that it's part of the test to see if she won't light up. She said that tuesday morning, a week from yesterday, she didn't have the first cigarette when she woke up. She went to the doctor's to talk about something to help her stop. The told her about a program that would cost at least $117 per week and she said that was two much. But she didn't even need to spend a penny because she didn't pick one up since the day before. It was WONDERFUL. Her daughter is still smoking but the spirit is working on her and she'll come around eventually.

Elder Hall and i are having a marvelous time together. Out of all my companions i've had he's the one with a personality most like mine. He worries a lot about teaching and being good enough. He's also hilarious, there have been many times when we are both busting a gut. And then if you throw Elder Barnett in the mix then we are rolling on the floor all day. Not only all of this but he's also a hard worker and really dedicated to the work. He has amazing faith and says amazing prayers and it is a blessing to work with him. His mom is the media librarian at the Orem public library. She's the one who checks out the videos.

I wish i could be there to see my friends off but that's okay. I hope Austin and joe and sean will all meet up somewhere in the mtc. That would be exciting. I'm glad y'all were able to go and see him off.

Next time we head to the temple is next month. That is exciting!!!! I love the temple, too. And guess what, i hate to admit it but this will be the second to last time i have a temple zone conference on my mission. After that there's only one more. Boy, how time flies. I am constantly amazed at what has happened in one year. Last year at this time i was in the mtc, worrying my brains out, and the hurricane was going right through our mission.

I hope Lance can see how much a mission has changed my life, and just in one year!!! Not to mention the incomprehensible joy that we feel out here. There's nothing to compare to it. I don't feel it all the time, especially when i was going through the hard times, but it is definitely worth it. Good practice is to bear your testimony often. We do it daily as missionaries, and members should also, it would really help to strengthen their testimonies. At least do it from time to time. It's like a muscle, if you don't use it, it will get weaker. You exercise it by studying the scriptures, going to church, having family home evening, and bearing your testimony. It is usually the best way to bring the spirit into a teaching situation out here.

9/27/06

I can't believe how fast time is going. It's already the sixth week of this transfer, the last week!!! that means i might write you this monday. This transfer just barely started!, or so it seems. Anyway.

We visited T and P last Wednesday night and they are on fire. They are doing wonderfully. They had family home evening on their own and they paid tithing last sunday. They already have a testimony of tithing too because they were looking for some money to buy something for the baby and they found fifteen extra dollars that they didn't know they had.

Good news with Mrs. H! We set a baptism date! the 21st of october. She is going to call all of her family and invite them up to see it. It will be a great missionary opportunity. It has been marvelous to see the change in her that the spirit has brought. These are the things i'll never forget. She's still smoke free, too.

We were going to teach the M's on Thursday but Kelly Carter, the stake high councilman over missionary work, who goes to our branch, went up there and spent a couple hours explaining the church and the restoration to them. He is really a great teacher and a great missionary. He knows the bible like the back of his hand. So we ended up going this sunday. Our new branch mission leader, Michael Packard came along, and gave us a ride to save on miles. (the satellite house is a no go, by the way, we just have to work with what we've got) Sis. M committed to be baptised on the 7th of october. All she has to do is give up coffee and she only drinks a cup of decaf in the morning, so it shouldn't be too hard. Her mother is also considering joining her on that date. Her father is still trying to decide. They all have a testimony, you can tell, they are just taking some time. We committed bro. K to ask specifically if the book of mormon is true. We are going back up there tomorrow. We are probably going to have to go through the commandments pretty quickly so that she will be ready for baptism.

Yesterday we had new missionary training in kingwood. It was great to see everyone. i feel like a hermit way up here in the north forty of the mission. Anyway, Pres. Lake shared a lot of inspiring talks. He is really a great man. I am so grateful for him. He said that they had a conference with Elder Eyring and he told them about how each individual missionary call is issued. He said that sometimes the missionary isn't sent to a certain mission, per se, but to a mission president. I'm really grateful for Pres. Lake. Last weekend our mission had 17 baptisms! We've had thirty this month. We are truly being blessed!

P is going to be going to the Grindstaff's (branch fellowshipping family) for conference, at least for as many sessions as she can attend. We are going to be with P and T for at least one of the sessions.

Tell mr. Larsen thank you for everything that he has done. He has helped my testimony to grow by showing me a love of music and now i can share that with others. He is touching thousands of kids through teaching and hundreds of thousands more by the effect that it has on them. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. I love him and thank him for all he's done for us. I hope that helps him get through the times when his class is driving him nuts, like we did sometimes.

10/4/06

Don't worry! I'm still here in Jasper! There was only a small chance that i'd be moved. so, here's the weekly:

Last thursday we went up to teach Sis. M some more commandments. We also had an appointment to teach some friends of Johnny Ratcliff. They were both set up at the same time so elder hall went with Pres. May to teach sis. M and the K's and I went to johnny's with johnny. He had two friends over from work. The first one, H, is probably in her forties. Johnny gave her a book of mormon and she has been reading for a while. The other one is M, H's neice. she is probably in her thirties. They were both very attentive. H had to leave after an hour but promised to come back next week. We talked with M for a little while longer. The spirit was really strong there and she accepted when we asked her to be baptised if she came to know that these things are true. I LOVE this work.

I'm sorry to say it but Mrs. H started smoking again. We still kept her baptism date because it was still more than three weeks away but now i think we'll have to reschedule because she hasn't quit again. She was sort of let down with herself but she is determined to do it again. She actually came to general conference this weekend with her daughter for the sunday morning session. Her daughter, Mrs. W is really starting to warm up to us and we are going to try to take advantage of that.

Two of our other investigators came to conference at the chappel, too. P, and S showed up for the Sat. afternoon session. P is in her 50's and S is in her 70's. They only stayed for that session. We just met with them two days ago. P is really torn, she is trying to decide between our church and a non-denominational church down the street. She has already gone to that one once and they told her she can't keep switching around churches. We told her to pray about it and we are going to see her again this week before sunday.

On Sat. morning we watched the first session with P and T. It was perfect for T because of the talk about first generation members. and also most of the first session seemed to apply to her.

I'd just like to tell you that i think i got more out of this general conference than probably any other session. It was wonderful. I was just so inspired afterwards. I really like the theme that a few people talked about which was that we need to always live worthy of the blessings of the Lord. And if we're worthy, the Lord is "bound," if you will (D&C 82:10), and it helped to strengthen my testimony and my resolve to be a bold, efficient messenger of the Lord. I'm glad y'all enjoyed it.

I'm so sorry about Jani. She was a sweet girl. I didn't know she was into drugs. Send my apologies to Bro. Merrill. He was an awesome teacher. He was so full of love. That sounds like brother merril, though. Go and get the source of the problem. That's good news. I'm really sorry.

T's baptism is set for this sunday, that is the day when her husband's parents are going to be in town. We are going to do it right after church. We are really excited. Her husband is a member. He is a structural engineer. he works out of his home on some really complicated software. He really is a great guy. He was less active but he is a total family guy. They are an awesome family. They are going to be so helped by the gospel, and have been already. Yesterday we went over and taught the rest of the commandments. We also taught about baptism and confirmation and the spirit was really strong there. The interview is set up for this thursday and the zone leaders are coming up. The K's, (T's parents) were there too. Sis. K was talking about possibly getting baptised this weekend too. She said that she's going to talk to P, her husband, about it and get back with us. Hopefully she tells us by thursday so we could have the interview then. That would be wonderful.

Elder Hall is doing great. He is excited for the work and his testimony is growing, as is mine. This transfer i'm going to give him more chances to lead out and be senior companion because it's going to come sooner than he expects and i want him to be ready for it.

Thanks for talking about when i first got here to Jasper. It did seem pretty depressing when i got here, but i had just come from sunnyside so i didn't know the difference. If there's anything that Jasper has taught me it's that if you trust in the Lord and work hard, He will open opportunities for you and the work can flourish, if it's His will.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement!

10/11/06

We had an awesome week, probably another one of the best. The highlight was most definitely the baptism of Sis. M. It was held on a sunday because that's the only day that her mother in law could come into town. Since it was right after church there were a lot of people who stayed and so there was a big crowd. The spirit was so strong there, and it was wonderful for everyone, especially for her mother and father, Brother and Sister K. Elder Hall had to baptise her twice because he got the wording wrong; he said, "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost". There are supposed to be "and of"'s in there. They had testimonies from the family planned in at the end and Sister K got up and tearfully told about how grateful she was for her daughter and how proud she was. M, her husband told the whole story about how she got into the church and about how he was reactivated. Sis. Milam sobbed through her testimony, it was so strong and so powerful! She talked about how they all loved Elder Hall and me. It was so touching. Seriously, that day qualifies for the part in my mission call that says, "More happiness and greater joy than you have ever experienced await you as you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord." It was indescribable. It was wonderful for her parents to see. Then Brother K got up and in front of all of the people that were there he bore his testimony for the first time about the book of mormon! We have been asking him for weeks to ask Heavenly Father, "is the book of mormon true." He said he finally did and now he knows it's truth. We were all blown away! We told them that if they want to get baptised this saturday they can be confirmed the same sunday as their daughter.

Thing in hemphill are still booming. We now have three investigators from Johnny Ratcliff's work that are coming for the missionary lessons, H, M, and J. We meet with them again this thursday. Last time we were up there we stopped by to see two hispanic families. One of them lost a daughter not too long ago and the mother gets really anxious any time any of the kids get sick because she is so paranoid that she is going to lose them. I tried to use my spanish skills and Michael Packard, our branch mission leader, helped me out. He went on his mission to Peru so he's fluent. Together we taught the Plan of Salvation. Elder hall went with Stan Packard to see a referral that just moved up here from beaumont. His adopted brothers were just killed a week ago and one of them wanted to get baptised. They talked about baptism for the dead and he has now agreed to take the lessons. There are many more referrals up there that they haven't been able to introduce us to because of the limited time.

Sis. H is still smoking but still determined to quit. She is a great woman. She even has a boyfriend in the branch. A 70 year old man that is blind. He's the one that went after her and held her hand but now they call each other on the phone.

Her daughter, Mrs. W, is interested but not really commited. We talked to her about Jesus and she believes that he was a great prophet, but not the Son of God. We asked her to pray about it and she said "no." So we're kind of holding off right now. We're still good friends with her, and she still wants to read the book of mormon every time we come over.

Not too much progress on P. She knows what she needs to do, and now she's reading her scriptures daily, its just that she isn't that motivated. she didn't come to church, anyway. We're working on her.

P and G didn't come to church, either. We are still trying to focus on them. They love us to death and we dropped a card off at their house on sunday because it's pat's birthday. They're still going to a non-denominational church that tells her that it's "church adultery" to keep switching around churches. Anyway, she's pretty close, we're trying hard on her.

We taught T again about Baptisms for the dead. She loved conference. She loves the gospel. They are really being blessed and tried at the same time.

I promise i will send the pictures today or tomorrow. I've got some great ones.

Thank you for the packages, i will be looking for them. I just realized how much y'all have already spent to send me all that you have. I just want to let you know that I am really grateful, I'm sure i'm not grateful enough, but thank you. I thought the other night about how much y'all love me and care about me and i felt a strong feeling of Love. I'm sorry i don't have enough time to send you lots of letters or anything but I want to know that i do care. I have pictures of each of you in my wallet.

10/18/06

This was definitely one of the best weeks of my mission. I am loving it up here in Jasper. I know that my requests won't really determine what happens and that whenever you get comfortable and really start to like a place you usually get moved but i really want to stay in Jasper and i hope that the Lord keeps me here. But if he needs me somewhere else i will go. Since i feel this way I'll probably be transferred next transfer but i'll keep my hopes up.

So, on sunday Brother and sister K came up to us and told us that they wanted to set a date to be baptised. So we're going to baptise them this next sunday. They are really excited. They have such strong testimonies already. That same day Brother K practically bore his testimony about temples, saying that they were such a "Beautiful doctrine" and feeling bad only because he's had to wait until now to know this.

On monday we went up to Pentleton Harbor to do the interview. That is a subdivision up by Toledo Bend Resivoir. It had been raining since sunday night, and i mean raining. Some places were starting to flood. The family we were supposed to have dinner with, the fischers, had to cancel because the entrance to their subdivision was flooded. Some guy even died while trying to round up his cattle and they couldn't find him for a couple hours on account of all of the water.

So we didn't know if we could make it. We went over to Charlie Ratcliff's house and he called around. We got the okay that all of the roads were open so he said he would take us, cause he didn't want us driving in this mess. His wife didn't want him to go. I didn't want him to go, i had a bad feeling about it but he has an unconquerable spirit and we ended up going. Elder Jensen, the Zone Leader was with us, he was going to give the interview. There was about ten or fifteen minutes of straight downpour on the way up there. It was coming down so much that we could only see for twenty or thirty feet. Charlie acted like it was no problem and was talking to us the whole time as if we were going on a nice spring stroll.
To make a long story short we made it up there and they both passed the interview. When Brother K prayed he thanked Heavenly Father for helping him to find the true church. It was touching. This whole situation brings such joy to my heart! It is overwhelming! I feel like ammon, "I cannot say the smallest part which i feel" (alma 26).

Another miracle is Mrs. H. She stopped smoking again on the tenth! So we set her baptism date for the 28th. She is excited, and the branch members are really latching onto her. Last night she went up to Bernie Packard's house on lake Rayburn and had, what she called, "an old hen's party." She said that's where a bunch of old ladies get together and have a party. She wants elder Decker to baptise her and so we are trying to see if he can get up here for that. We will keep praying that she will be able to stay off the cigarettes.

H, J, & M, and possibly others--We have already taught H, J, and M a first lesson. Tomorrow we are headed up there again to teach them the plan of salvation. They were talking about bringing two more people with them so we may have an audience of five.

C family--The C's are a hispanic family and they all speak spanish. Michael Packard, our branch mission leader went on his mission to Peru and he comes along and helps us teach. I also know a little spanish so I help with what i can. The mother lost a daughter a few years back in a rollover car accident and ever since she has been paranoid every time one of her kids gets sick. Every time one of them even starts to cough too much she takes them into the emergency room. Dr. Stan packard, who also speaks spanish referred her to us. When we taught the plan of salvation she had tears in her eyes. We are going to visit her tomorrow night as well.

KR--K is not a member but his wife, M is. They moved up here from beaumont. Elders carter and Wilson have been teaching them for a while. K was originally turned off to the church by a bad experience in Louisiana but he warmed up to it in Beaumont and he is falling in love with it here in Jasper. He came on sunday and liked it so much he got a ride to the priesthood session. He loved that as well and says he is very interested in learning more about the church. Michael Packard talked with him about it on the way home and he developed a good friendship with Michael. We are really excited for him. He wont be at churhc this week because he is part of the national guard and they are having an airshow in houston this week and he has to go and police for it.

PM--I think i've told y'all about her. She is probably in her late fifties and she lives with her mom, "G." Pat came to church last week, and that is a really big step for her since the church she started going to lately said that church hopping is "church adultery." G used to go to the churhc in montana but that was a loooooong time ago. But she remembers the Doctrine and Covenants and wants a copy. She calls it the Book of Covenants.

Yesterday we woke up early and boarded a bus and went over to Houston to go through the temple! It was good, i enjoyed it. I really enjoyed paying attention to those covenants we made. It helped to strengthen my testimony.

So, i think that might be it. Actually, i feel like Mormon, while abridging the book of mormon, "and now, i cannot record even a hundredth part" of my history.

10/25/06

This past week was probably another one of the best weeks of my mission. Even though on thursday we lost one of our investigators. Remember P? On thursday when we went over to teach her she told us that she wanted to go back to her baptist church and see how she likes it. We tried to reason with her and to explain it to her but there was no changing her mind. She was very nice about it, and she still has a testimony; it's just all gone down hill since she started smoking again. We asked her if she wanted us to come back again and she very tactfully said no. I felt like i could have been more bold with her, (and that, in itself, was a good lesson learned), but there was no changing her mind.

Things brightened up as the day went on and we went to visit P & G. P liked church so much that she said she wants to join our church. We set a baptism date for the 11th of november. She is very studious and always takes notes when we are over there. She said that she has learned more in the short time talking to us than she has learned her whole life going to church. That's the same sort of thing that Bettie Wilson said, back in sunnyside. Needless to say we're happy about that. She didn't come to church this week because she had to go to beaumont with her daughter.

The baptism was WONDERFUL. Most of the branch stayed for the baptism and Elder Hall and i sang right before it. Brother K had said before that he wanted me to baptise him because i am the smaller of the two and if he goes down he is going to take me with him. I'm proud to say that he didn't take me down with him. The baptisms were both great. Brother K gave me a hug after he came back out of the water. Pres. Lake and sister lake even came down to check out the action. The branch members loved them to death and asked them if elder Hall and i could stay here for the rest of our missions. I felt very honored. The confirmation will be this suday.

This saturday is Sis. H's baptism. She was still drinking coffee and tea last friday but we committed her to stop. She said she would, and she hasnt' had a cigarette since the tenth. She is excited for her baptism and is inviting all of her family. When we checked with her on sunday she said that she was drinking postum instead of coffee and i think she has stopped the tea, too. So she is on line. We only have to teach her a few more commandments tonight and her interview is tomorrow and then Elder Decker is coming up for the baptism on saturday. We are really being blessed, that will be four baptisms this month, five within the past two!

We saw the C family again, and we went over the pattern for prayer, again. We are trying to get them all in communication with God. It was a really cool experience. We had them all say their own prayers right there and the spirit was really strong. We had them take turns. We have some spanish books of mormon so we will be able to teach them about the restoration now and we will be able to ask them to read and pray about the book of mormon.

Yesterday we went on exchanges. I went with elder skeen to woodville and elder hall and barnett stayed in jasper. I want elder hall to get used to running an area because i may get transferred this next transfer, which is the twelfth of November, i think. He is a little bit nervous about the idea but i'm sure he'll do great. I remember when i went on exchanges for the first time when i was in control of my area i just about pooped my pants. Anyway, he'll get used to it.

Pres. said that we might be able to bring some more missionaries in to help out with the hemphill stuff. We have to talk to the branch and see if they'd be willing to help out the missionaries even more, with rides and things, because we wouldn;'t be able to get another car in there right away. They wouldn't be able to stay in hemphill because Hemphill isn't in our mission or stake, officially, and the other stake that it is in is thinking about making a branch there and making it part of their stake again. Anyway, complicated stuff. The other stake actually sent down a representitive to check out the situation in our branch, sort of a "spy." It doesn't matter what stake or mission they are in as long as someone takes care of them.

This weekend, after the baptism, the branch is having a "Fall Fest." They are going to have dinner and a hay ride and a bunch of other fall/halloween things going on. If it's a halloween party we'll probably come dressed up as insurance salesmen. I have already put up the pumpkin lites and they don't work. I'll try working on the cord again. I'm waiting for Elder Hall's comedic genious to come up with what we should carve into the pumpkin. On Halloween we are eating with the grindstaffs, the family from ephriam, ut. I'm sure that will be fun.

So, i've got a funny story this week. We were at Johnny Ratcliff's house on saturday night, up in hemphill and they had fed us dinner. We were going to help Honey build her house, but it was raining so they were'n't working on it. After dinner, while we were sitting around the coffee table, Johnny's wife, Jill noticed a big, black, furry caterpiller crawling across their floor. She said, "It looks like someone dropped their mustache." Her kids, who are all under seven, were grossed out at it. It had black spines and when i pushed it on it's side it rolled into a ball. I picked it up. The spines were really hard and quite sharp but it didn't hurt just sitting in my hand. Then i thought it would be funny if i made it look like a mustache so i tried to hold it between my upper lip and my nose but it wouldn't work. I tried a few more times but eventually had to stop because it hurt too much. The ratcliffs and Elder hall were all laughing. After the pain subsided from my lip I noticed something in my mouth. A quick examination in the mirror confirmed my fears, i had caterpillar barbs stuck in my tongue and gums! Well that was too much for them, they just lost it, they were laughing hysterically. They got me some tweezers and i was able to pull them out. There were only two that i could see. The one on my tongue actually pulled a little bit.
Well, now the whole branch knows about the story and i am getting questions from everyone we talk to. I actually think it's really funny. I'm glad that i'm going to be remembered for being, "the elder that got caterpillar barbs stuck in his tongue!"

Jasper Photos

2006-09-10T18:23:00.000-06:00

Here are some recent photos from Jasper. Explanations are in Elder Chuch's own words.

Me and Beppy, Sister Lewis's Chinese Pug.

My sweet ride and my Walmart glasses.

Fine missionary art.

A REALLY hot day. I don't think pictures do it justice.

One of our members has a bunch of medieval weapons. This is the Braveheart sword. It is heavy.

Chihuahas at Mrs. H's. I tried to get a picture of as many as I could.

AWESOME clouds. There are two layers, one way up high and one lower. Texas kind of compensates for having no mountains by having really cool cloud formations.

Beautiful.

Country roads.

Dinky B. is our new apartment dog. Ha! (Justin later admitted that the dog belonged to someone else)

Life in Jasper

2006-08-06T20:37:00.000-06:00

Here is a set of excerpts from recent e-mails from Elder Chuch:

6/15/06

Sorry this is a day late but we had zone conference yesterday and so we didn't have preparation day until today. Zone conference was great. Pres. and Sis. Lake both talked a whole lot about attitude. It reminded me of you, mom. I've made a goal to improve my attitude and focus on the important things.

Your attitude is SO important when relating to how things go. And it's all related to agency. The more we actually come to understand the concept of agency the more our lives will improve because we realize that we have the power to act and not to be acted upon and using that power is one of the purposes of our existence.

I'm so excited about austin's mission calll. That made my day. He's reporting on the thirteenth and if he heads out into the field by thanksgiving then we will be able to see each other. Do you remember how elder Ballard came last november and spoke to us. I heard that that's a yearly occurance, and when he comes all three houston missions get together. I sure hope that there's not a hurricane so he's not delayed coming out so that we can see eachother. I e-mailed him already and told him he's going to be a great missionary. He really is.

So, no golden investigators yet. We do have an investigator, though. His name is F. We tracted into him one day. He speaks english but he has a pretty thick accent. We just brought him a spanish book of mormon yesterday. He said that he'd read it and pray about it. He seems to understand our message really well. He still doesn't understand authority completely, but that will come in time. I was able to show him my line of authority. But he still thinks that the founder of his church has the authority too.

Dinner appointments around here are gooooood. They're going to make me fat. I've already had steak twice, and barbeque many more times. But that's been mostly at restraunts. They have two really good restraunts called Charlie's barbeque and billy's barbeque. They are both really good. Sometimes we even get lunch appointments so we don't have to buy very many groceries at all. We get fed almost every night.

Last night we went over to the ward mission leader's house and showed him what we think needs to be done to get the branch missionary work going. I drew a picture of a team of sled dogs pulling a sled, but only the front two dogs are working, the rest of them are sitting down. It's symbolic of our branch missionary work. Elder Decker and i are working our tails off. We are doing the best that we can, but tracting is really less effective. Unless the other dogs start pulling their load we are not going to get this sled very far. Another thing we need is a leader. Someone to stand on the sled and direct the dogs. This needs to be the branch president, so we decided that the best thing to do would be to present this to the branch president and get his approval to show it to the ward council. I am really excited to get the missionary work going here.

I am proud of the CF guys. i am going to try to write Josh a letter today. I will try to get one to sean, too.

6/21/06

We had an investigator at church this last sunday. Her name is mrs. H. I think i told y'all about her. She is in her seventies or something and she smokes a lot but she really enjoyed our service and she said that she'd like to come next week. Yesterday we taught her the plan of salvation and committed her to pray about the book of mormon. She can't read because she is almost blind. She said that she feels like she was left here on the earth for a reason. I took the time to testify that i felt like it had something to do with us knocking on our door a few weeks ago. Things are going pretty well with her.

We haven't been able to get back with F. yet. We are going over to see him tonight. Last time he stood us up, i don't know if it was intentional or unintentional. Tonight we are going to teach him about prophets.

So, i'm excited for Sean, he finally got his call. Tampico, mexico. That's pretty amazing that it's the same mission as Philip. Hopefully they'll get to serve together. I also think it's awesome that all of the CF senior members are now on their missions or mission bound.

I just remembered, last monday we had Family Home Evening with the B.'s, a less active family. They were married in the temple, but the husband supposedly has a problem with tithing. We stopped by one time and visited them and asked them if they were doing family home evening. She said that they were, but then a few moments later her five year old daughter came up to her and asked her, "Mom, why don't we ever do family home evening." It was pretty funny. It was a good turn out. Her active sister was there and their aunt was there too. Her sister taught the lesson about king benjamin and then we had seafood gumbo and chicken and sausage gumbo. They were both good. The sausage was really spicy, though. They gave us some to take home. After dinner we talked with Brother B. for a long time and he warmed up to us a lot. He showed us his hunting bow that he'd bought. It was the second fastest model last year. It was pretty sweet. We're going to try to focus our efforts on them.

We are trying to gain the trust of the members. We have been doing a lot of service and its paying off with this one lady. We are also trying to meet with the Branch President so that we can get his advice on getting the member work going. We have sort of a lesson plan that we want to present to him. Elder Decker has a good refferal lesson that he wants to present to some of the members.

6/28/06

Surprise surprise, but it hasn't gotten too bad yet. They say that a cold front must be coming through. That's the only explanation for the weather. It's not like it's cool, but it's not that humid. It has been in the nineties, but not too bad yet. They keep warning me of what's to come but i haven't seen it yet.

Mrs. H. came to church again this last sunday and sat through the entire thing. She liked it all. She commented on how it is especailly family oriented. We are going to teach her at a member's home this week. We are probably going to read from the book of Mormon to her.

F. isn't really going anywhere. We watched the restoration with him and explained the priesthood authority and how it was restored with all the truth in the original gospel. He then told us about how he feels like his church doesn't have all the truth but feels like they are looking for it. We told him that our church had all the truth but he just doesn't seem to get it. We commited him to read the book of mormon and to pray about it.

We haven't been able to get back with the B.'s recently but she was at church last sunday with all of her three kids. Her grandparents go to that ward so she has no excuse.

Yesterday we visited some people who were waaaaaay out in the sticks. They were really cuntry bumpkin's too. The father was a bigger man with his wavy, gray hair combed back, a button up short sleeve shirt, shorts, and boots. He had a confederate flag up on his barn that said, "redneck." He said that next time we came out they'd feed us some goat.

7/5/06

I have a lot to tell you. I'm sorry, Dad, but your suspicions were wrong about what we did on the fourth. We did track most of the day. I was on exchanges with Elder Jensen, one of the Zone Leaders and we only had two appointments and so we tracted out the neighborhood by the church. We pretty much "shook the dust from our feet" on that neighborhood, no one was really interested, but we did have an interesting experience. One door we tracted on invited us in. We could tell, or more like Elder Jensen could tell, that they were pentecostals because the wife had long hair, no makeup, and she and her daughter were wearing dresses. They also didn't have a TV. They actually listened to a good three quarters of a first lesson, up to the point where we said that Joseph Smith saw God the Father AND Jesus Christ, and then they started telling us about how the bible says that they're one. From that they started telling us about their prophet. Some guy that died a long time ago, but they said that he was God's "vindicated prophet" for this time. They were nicer than i thought about it. They didn't try to shove it down our throats.

After that we headed up to Sam Rayburn Resivoir for a lunch cookout at the Packards. Brother Packard is a (retired, i think) lawyer. He has a picture perfect house with a backyard that leads down to the lakeside. A good chunk of the branch was there. The food was awesome. We had burgers and links and chips and dip and watermelon. Then we had homemade ice-cream for dessert. It was AWESOME. I gorged myself. Elder Jensen and i both had a few trunkie moments as we watched the boats pass by on the lake.

After that we tried to visit a few people on the way back. For dinner we went over to the A's and taught their friend, K., again. I can't remember if I’ve told you about K. He is 26 or so and is going through some tough times in life. He looks like he's tired all the time. We've taught him a first and a second and challenged him to read and pray to know if the book of Mormon is true. He didn't read or pray so we read with him and offered to pray. The spirit was there and he said that he would read and pray this next week. I sure hope he does.

Mrs. H. did come to church again this week. The members all recognized her and one even sat by her without us even asking her to. We were also able to get her the Book of Mormon on tape from the Church library. We are having a lesson over at a member's house tomorrow.

We've pretty much dropped F. Everything was going fine until we brought up the spirit world. He just couldn't understand it and he wanted us to show him where it was in the bible. We explained that's why we need modern revelation and the book of Mormon but he just wanted us to prove it to him. We'll check by another day, but i think he's gone now, oh well.

Other than that we are hoping that members will give us referrals. Elder Ballard, through the stake has set a goal for all of the wards in the stake. It is for every family to have a referral for the missionaries by the end of July. I have noticed that the members are starting to gain our trust more. Yesterday, when we were about to leave the Packards one of the members told me, “I can tell you’re really focused and dedicated, thanks for that.” Or something like that. I was so happy.

Most of the locals around here talk about the hurricane a lot. It’s not uncommon to hear, since the hurricane this and since the hurricane that. I think they’re going to start measuring time from the hurricane. “I was born in one A.H.” (after the hurricane). So that means that I came on my mission just before one A.H.

I didn’t get to travel back to sunnyside for the baptism but I heard everything went well. President told me that Elder Sosa baptized her by himself! That’s my boy! The first time she forgot to bend her knees and she started freaking out because she was deathly afraid of water. It took a few minutes for her to calm down and for president to talk to her. The second time president said that she was BARELY baptized, she barely went under, and she wasn’t going under again, she was done, and she WAS baptized.

We live in some drug-infested apartments in Jasper. There is literally a bunch of crack heads living next door to us. There are strangers coming over all of the time. We taught two ladies over there once but we’ve never seen them again. It’s not too bad of a place.

7/10/06

Good news, I got to talk to B. yesterday, for the first time since she's been baptized. She sounded so good. She asked me when i was coming back to houston to visit her. She hasn't missed a sunday since she was baptized and she is bringing her daughter, who is interested in joining the church. She is on fire, when she meets other people and tells them her religion she defends it and tells people not to judge it without considering it. It was true joy that i felt when talking to her. I thought back to all of the disappointments, all of the fall throughs, all of the times it seemed like she fell off the face of the earth, all of the times she didn't keep her commitments, all of the work we did and it made it all worth it. It was an awesome lesson on diligence and patience for me. Where some people would have given up we just kept going back. I can't take the credit, of course, the spirit did the converting; I'm just glad that i could take part in it. I think she'll stay strong, too, because she's already gone through some hard times to get into the church. I thank the Lord that i could be a part of her conversion, an instrument in His hand.

I heard T. is doing better as well, she is coming to church and keeping all of her commitments, she just needs to get married now. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Remember how she was concerned that becoming a mormon was turning her back on the baptists? That's not a problem any more. Elder Sosa said that she now claims that she's a mormon.

7/12/06

We visited with K. again last night and taught him a third lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He still hasn't read or prayed. He's waiting for the "right feeling." We reminded him that Satan's going to make it seem like there's never a right feeling or a right time and there never really is a "right" or "wrong" time to pray.

We also visited with Sis. S. yesterday. She has been reading and praying about the book of mormon; how intensly, i don't know, but she has been reading and praying. The Southern Baptist traditions are so entrenched in her mind that she is having a hard time laying them aside. We read with her and then talked with her. She said that it bothers her that things have been taken out of the bible. We told her to read 1 Nephi 13, because it talks about things being taken out of the bible. She seemed really interested. We are going to try to get a member who is a convert over there.

Speaking of preaching the Gospel we are working on getting the members more involved in missionary work. There has been a lack of excitement in the Branch probably for the last few months because of various reasons, but we are trying to turn this around. Remember that you are member missionaries, too. That was a new concept to me when i came out. I never really thought of myself as a member missionary the same way people have to out here because everyone was a member. I knew i had to be an example and that i have take Christ's name upon me but i never really thought about it like the members have to out here.

7/19/06

I hope all y'all really have a great time in Lake Powell. Remember, though, Lake Powell is a different kind of hot. Last week they said, on one of the days, that with the "Humid Factor" that it felt like it was 104 degrees!!!! And i'll tell you what. We've definitely had the hottest days so far this week. It's really stuffy and suffocating. I don't know how they made it here before air conditioning.

Everyday life, huh? Well we have a washer and dryer in our apartment and so we pretty much do that any time we see the need. And i'll tell you what, that is much better than trucking it down to the washateria on wednesdays, much better. I have found that the Shout stain remover works better than the Spray 'n Wash stain remover. I usually use the dirt cheap laundry soap but i am tempted to get some Tide next time because it makes my clothes smell better. It's not a matter of not having enough money, but i'm just too stingy.

A member here just brought us a watermelon the other day, grown in his own garden and so we've been feasting on that. It is uber good and it helps to make summer feel like summer.

Mrs. H. is doing well, both she and her daughter stayed the whole time last week. I think that they both liked it. I don't know if i've told you or not but we challenged her to baptism. She said that she doesn't feel like she's ready yet. So we told her to listen to the book of mormon on tape and to pray about it. Yesterday we went over to read with them and to see how they're doing. Mrs. H.'s daughter was depressed and moody about a few things but she was fine. She's tough as grits. She says it how it is and doesn't care what people think. I'm really hopeful that she'll get baptised some day. Maybe not when we're here, but eventually. We helped her fix her stereo so that she can listen to the tapes and we also read a chapter with them. She is getting where she really likes us. We're trying to get the members more involved in fellowshipping them so that she falls in love with them, and not only us.

We didn't get to see K. again this week. The arriagas had something else going on. I will keep you updated.

We did get a new investigator, though. There's a family in our branch named the F.'s who fed us on monday. They have a fifteen year old daughter named L., who has a nonmember friend named B. We had met L. and B. before and elder decker asked brandy when we could teach her. That night they set it up and B. came over. We were able to teach her a really good first lesson and we are going to see her again next week on tuesday. It's exciting because she already has friends in the ward and a really good fellowshipper, (she and L. are practically best friends). So we'll have to let you know how that goes.

We met with Mrs. S. yesterday, too and we read out of 1 Nephi 13 with her and taught her about the plain and precious things that were removed out of the bible, and that those plain and precious parts are in the book of mormon. She was interested and is currently reading on in the next chapter.

7/27/06

On thursday we started teaching a member referral, it's his nephew's wife. She was raised a pentecostal but now she is interested in the church. His nephew, P., is a less active, and he is really large, overly overbese, bless his little heart. On the other hand, she, T., is a tiny little thing. It all started when the member who referred her, brother M., picked them up from Houston and drove them back to Kirbyville (just south of Jasper). On the way she was asking a bunch of questions and he answered them the best that he could. He said that she was quite aggressive during the car ride, as most pentecostals are, but when we taught her she was a lot more laid back. She was the least abrasive pentecostal i've ever talked to. It was great. She even said that she had been praying to have an open mind while talking to us about this. We taught her a first and then left her with a book of mormon. Today we are going back to teach her. I'm excited.

Not much progress with Mrs. H. We went and read with her one day last week and we need to go again this week. She still loves church. We just need to get her to pray about baptism.

We had exchanges on monday. Elder Skeen came down here and we worked Jasper and Elder Decker went up to Woodville. We ended up tracting a whole bunch and we prayed about where we went tracting and we found three new investigators through the course of the day. It was awesome. It was a testimony of personal revelation to me.

We read the 3 Ne 15 and 14 with Sis. S. She said she is still praying about the Book of Mormon. I've got a cool lesson on Prophets that i want to teach her. We're trying to get a member to come with us.

That night, tuesday night, we taught B. again. She hadn't read or prayed but we taught her the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome. The spirit was really strong there and we left a strong commitment for her to pray about these things. I felt the spirit so strongly as i bore testimony of how we knew about the Plan of Salvation before we were born. I just hope and pray that she'll take the time to ask Heavenly Father if these things are true. This week she went to youth conference with her best friend L. That should be good for her. They're going to have a testimony meeting where she will be able to feel the spirit again.

Zone conference was very good. President said that the numbers in the mission have practically doubled since December. Not the number of missionaries, but of progressing investigators, and baptisms. It's awesome! Things are really picking up from the past. More and more spiritually mature missionaries are coming out and that's definitely what we need.

8/2/06

Choir should be tons of fun (for Lance). Just don't get on Mr. Larsen's bad side. And enjoy the concerts. That's what you take the class for is the concerts, they're really great. I still savor my moments on stage. I'll send a letter for you to bring to Mr. Larsen if you don't mind. I want to thank him again for all he's taught me. Last week at Zone Conference we sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" It sounded really great. It was me, e. Barnett, skeen and graff. Graff was from a different zone but he was a great bass.

We had a great week this last week. I already told you about all of the new investigators; most of them didn't work out, or weren't home when we came back but we did find a golden one.

Her name is P. Last monday we taught her a first; then on friday we went back to check up on her. She had read 3 nephi 11 and said that she had prayed to have an open mind about what she was teaching. She even brought up the scripture in Revelation that says that you're not supposed to add to or take away from "this book of prophecy" which the major christian world thinks means the bible. But she said that the LDS church can't be doing anything wrong, with the book of mormon and all, because they are so big. She said she felt like Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon was true and so we challenged her to baptism and she accepted! It was awesome! She was excited too. We set up a date when she will be baptized for august 19th but we will have to move that back because they have to come to church a few more times and she will have to quit smoking. That sunday she didn't come to church because she was babysitting. That afternoon we went and visited her and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She is really into genealogy and the spirit bore strong witness as we taught her about baptisms for the dead. Tonight we are going over again to teach her about the Word of Wisdom and commit her to do it. My impression is that she will have no problem with it. She is one of the most open and accepting people that i've met. She pretty much agrees with everything we say. its' marvelous.

I think it was last friday or maybe saturday but we went out to this place called Bon Wier and met a member referral. This was a referral from a guy in colorado to go and visit his daughter. Her name is L. The branch President drove us out there. She lives in a little trailer with another family so it is quite crowded. She has a medical condition called Lupis and so she has seizures quite frequently, but none while we were there. She can't work so her friend, K., is in town watching her. K. was dressed in black and looked like a gothic but she was really interested in the gospel. She agreed with us that each church, besides ours, only has a piece of the truth. So K., L. and another guy named G. all listened intently. They were all very interested and we left them all with a book of mormon. We are trying to schedule a time that we can get back with them and work with them some more. L. is having some family problems but wants to have us back over. They are all probably in their late twenties, early thirties.

We haven't been able to get back with B. yet. The next day after we taught her the plan of salvation she went to youth conference with L. We heard that she had a good time and that she was touched by the testimony meeting. We are currently trying to get back with her.

They go all out for youth conference down here. They had a three day youth conference and three stakes were involved (which is a big thing down here since the stakes aren't just across the street). They all met in a town called Vidor and the kids stayed at members' homes! How would you like that?! The next day they went up to a lake and had boating and canoeing and water sports and a dance and it sounded like quite the party. I think they had at least one more dance besides that. They also had a few firesides and some workshops and a testimony meeting at the end.

We haven't been back to the A's for two weeks. They haven't called us for dinner. Some time we're going to drop in to see how K is doing.

S, i think i've explained, has been southern baptist all her life. This week we asked the branch president's wife, sis. may, to come with us to teach her because she is a convert from southern baptist. She has a great story, too, about how she didn't want to upset her parents by joining the church because she was an only child and she didn't want to do anything to affect her relationship with her parents. However, through some prompting, she eventually joined and, surprisingly, her parents had a great attitude toward it. they told her that as long as she was worshiping God they wouldn't get into her religious life. That's a one in a million case, right there. Mrs. S. really enjoyed it, i could tell. sis. may was perfect for her, and she was really friendly too. Mrs. S's husband is always sitting in a chair in the same room as us when we come. He has had several strokes and blood clots and isnt' all there some of the time. She said that since he's been in this condition for the past six years no one has come to visit them from their baptist church that they used to go to but that we come and visit her every week. We commited her to continue to read and pray about it, (she has been reading and praying) and we invited her to church this week. She might be able to so we'll check up on her later this week.

We taught T, the pentecostal again. Brother McDaniel drove us down there and we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. On the way down brother McDaniel said that today we'd find out if she was serious about this at all. And boy, did we find out. She was still as open as ever, if not more open. She shared some info about her life and she really had a rough childhood. She mentioned about how she gets angry really easily because that was all she ever saw. We talked about how anger is part of our human nature and she saw, when her relatives visited this week, that anger really does change the spirit that's in a room. This was all brought up because she read the 3 nephi 11:29 which talks about how the spirit of contention is of the devil. It turns out that she had read through 3 Nephi 11 twice! It was awesome! She also recognized the priesthood authority it was talking about in that chapter as we were trying to explain it to her. We have another appoitment with her this Friday. Brother McDaniel won't be able to come but we're going to teach her by ourselves.

As you've seen the Lord has really been blessing us lately with people to teach. It is awesome. I have to acknowledge the Lord's hand in all of this because without him none of this would have been possible. There have been many nights when i have pleaded to Him for help, and now He has sent it. It is a testimony that He does hear and answer our prayers and that He knows the end from the beginning. If we trust in Him and have faith in Him then we can be sure that he will take care of things.

June Photos

2006-07-07T20:22:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos that Elder Jones sent in June. Comments are all his (except for italics, which are mine). Click on each photo to enlarge.

HELLO!

My new ghetto apparel. Check out my toof.

A dead lizzard we found in our apartment.

Ceremonial passing of the ties, father to son. Since the birthright tie goes to his firstborn son, I gave him a tie that he could always keep to remind him of me. (Note: Elder Chuch was about to be transferred at this point. Elder Sosa was his first companion, i.e., "firstborn son".)

This is a sweet doormat we found in Jasper.

My gangsta pose.

Elder Decker crocheting my beenie. He crochets snowboard beenies that look really sweet. (Note: This is Elder Chuch's new companion in Jasper).

This was a pretty neat little cafe' thing we saw, "Muh Dears". How country can you get?

A nasty, roadkill, spawn of Satan possum. I've never seen a live one here in Sunnyside.

This is the mother of all cockroaches we found while tracting.

This was a pretty sweet sign. A few of the neighbors' apartments had them too, but we knocked on them anyway.

This is B. She has come a long way since we first met her. She is going to be baptized on the 17th of June. (Note: B. was indeed baptized by Elder Sosa.)

Hello Jasper

2006-06-11T16:13:00.000-06:00

Here some excerpts from Elder Jones's e-mail for the past month.

5/10/06

It was kind of a slow week this week. Not too much happened. We did find a less active who wanted to start coming back to church. Her name is K and she is 18 years old. She seems pretty sincere. She used to go to church in Louisiana with her Grandpa.

The story of the week would have to be about how we talked to a guy on the street while he was smoking marijuana right in front of us. It was quite interesting. Needless to say, we just gave him a pass-along card and left.

5/24/06

Our investigators both had a down week. They were both scheduled to come to church but neither of them were able to make it. B. wasn't feeling good because she was bitten by a spider and T. just wasn't ready on sunday because she stayed up late the night before. We met with T. again yesterday and taught her that this isn't just some little thing, baptism isn't something to be taken lightly. This is entrance into the gate to the path to eternal life. This is the only church that can do that. She asked us, "if I get baptised into your church, does that mean that i become mormon?" She was concerned that she would no longer become baptist because her parents (or someone else) told her that it was a sin to go against your religion, or in other words, to leave the baptist church. We explained to her again that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only one with the fulness of truth and the only one with authority to baptise and that it would be a sin not to join now that she's been answered whether or not the book of Mormon is true. She said that she understood all of that but that she wants to pray about it. We told her that she's already been answered but she didn't seem to be satisfied. We commited her to decide if she's going to take this seriously or not. We hope things go well.

5/31/06

On saturday morning i got a call from president and he said that I would be leaving the ghetto. I am now in Jasper, Texas. Jasper is a uber small town in east texas. It´s also pretty much the most north that our mission goes. It´s a po dunk town, and it actually has hills too, so that kind of reminds me of mountains. They´re not as cool but they´ll do. So, i´ve also been called to be district leader out here. President told me that it was going to be a hard assignment because there hasn´t been much activity out here lately. My new companion is Elder Decker. He has been out about seven and a half months. Last transfer he killed off Elder Beauxis (Elder Beauxis went home after that).

So, last sunday in the ghetto B. came to church. She is still on line to get baptised on the 10th of June. Hopefully i can somehow go on exchanges and see her get baptised. Elder Ayoso is taking my place in the ghetto. I´m excited for him and Elder Sosa, they will do well together. They aren´t white either, so they shouldn´t have too many problems with the Black Panthers.

I love you all very much and thank you so much for the encouragement, there is nothing more important than this work that i could be doing. I can tell that there are people here that the Lord has prepared, now it´s up to us to find them.

sorry for the messed up typing, I´m using a spanish keyboard because the only one open is a spanish computer and it´s really weird because when i try to do a semi colon i get ¨. and when i try to do quotation marks I get Ç. It´s kind of messed up, and i can´t figure out how to do a number symbol, y´know, the tic tac toe grid. but i can do some pretty sweet things like: <¿donde están los pantelones?> <¡Qué lástima!>

Our official address is:
407 W. Gibson #59
Jasper, TX 75951

So, there are four Elders, including us, in our district. It´s pretty small. I´ve already planned the first district mtg. The Zone leaders are going to be there too so that gives me more people to choose from for speakers.

I´m still in a branch except this branch could become a ward soon. There are about 100 people who are active but about 300 on the role, i think. We actually have a ward mission leader and a high priest group and an Elders quorum. There are a lot of my brothers, black folk, out here but i guess they are country style. But i hear that there aren´t any in the branch. That´s going to have to change. We got a new investigator yesterday named N. We´re going to see her again today. she´s a sister. She belongs to the church of Christ.

I´m not in kansas any more. I´ve moved from du rags to cowboy hats, from Jordans to boots, from grills to chaw, from pimped out rides with twenties and a sounds system to shake the world to pick up trucks and logging trucks. From police sirens to birds chirping. From "whazzup" to "howdy". From baptist churches to...wait...there are still baptist churches. From a good ole´bike (which i just got back, by the way) to a Mazda 3. It´s pretty sweet lookin but it´s just a little four banger. It´s no longer my dream car. I sure like it a lot better than the mercury sable, though. The good old days of talking to over forty people a day are over. With them go the days of your voice hurting because you have been teaching so much. Yesterday, my first full day, we didn´t talk to anyone on the street, because there wasn´t anyone, and tracting we got three contacts, meaning we tried to teach the gospel to three people. In sunnyside we would never usually get less than fifteen or twenty on a full day. It was pretty lame. Last transfer in sunnyside we contacted 715 people. It is by far the most that i´ve ever done in a transfer. It was awesome. Those days are now part of yesterday and i will always remember them. They were awesome. I love the ghetto and i feel like a brother. It was nice, yesterday, to talk to a few black people and hear what i used to hear. Oh well, we´ll find the elect with the help of the Lord.

(NOTE FROM NORM: THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH WAS ADDRESSED TO AUSTIN BECAUSE HE WAS WITH OUR FAMILY ON A TRIP IN ENGLAND. IRONICALLY, AUSTIN GOT HIS MISSION CALL A FEW DAYS LATER TO THE TEXAS, HOUSTON MISSION.)

Austin, I love you and i hope you come to the TEXAS HOUSTON EAST MISSION with me so that we can harvest together. that would be wonderful. ¿¿¿¿Are you excited to get your call???? I actually think you are going to go somewhere over on your side of the world. Call those apostate europeans (or asians) to repentance in a different tongue. Let me know!

Yesterday we went and painted one of the members´ houses. Elder Decker and i want to gain the confidence of the members. Then we visited another member family that just moved in from georgia. The father used to be a bishop so he should be a good asset to the ward. They had a boy named aaron that reminded me of spencer, he was going into 9th grade, too. They also had a little girl that was going into seventh grade, but she still reminded me of Mallory, especially when she and aaron would fight. hehe They also had two older chilluns, one that just graduated from high school and the other one was about to be a junior or something. The other six are off and married in the world. They are originally from Ephraim, Utah. They knew Jon Ammons´s family. I can´t remember what their last name was. They haven´t lived there since about 5 years, though. They let us have dinner over there, spaghetti and biscuits and salad. Brownies and ice cream for desert. It was good. They are going to be a strenghth to the ward.

6/7/06

So, not much happening here in the country. I've just been reminded more and more of how it's different from the city. Back in sunnyside it seemed like there was always something to do, sometimes there were so many things to do that we had to put the less important ones of the back burner. Out here we've done a lot of tracting and contacting but satan hath greater hold on the hearts of the people here than back in the city. They don't even listen to us here but they just tell us they're not interested and close the door.

But that's okay, it's a test of faith and that's what we're having our next district meeting on, faith, and increasing our faith, to find people, more especially. Speaking of district meetings, the first one went quite well. The Zone leaders were there and they gave talks too.

B. is still on line to get baptised, in sunnyside. I'm going to try to see if there's a way that i can get a over there and see it. I might even participate if i can get over there. Elder Sosa says she's doing really well and that she said she is getting a lot of blessings. He said that she will be moving soon and that she is getting a car and that she bore her testimony on sunday. She is on FIRE!

So, our branch is pretty much made up of three families, the carters, the packards, and the ratcliffs. There is more than one family unit but those are the three most prominent last names. There were about 100 people at sacrament meeting. It was fast and testimony meeting and so i missed being in sunnyside and hearing sister Helton's testimony. I called over there and E. sosa told me all about it. She used a jar of honey and said that it doesn't matter what's on the outside, it's what's on the inside that counts. Anyway, there are tons of little'uns in the branch and so they have a pretty large primary and nursery, for a branch. The ward council and the ward mission leader are all gung ho and excited about missionary work so we are excited to get things going.

You wanted me to describe Jasper a little bit. Well, it's only a town. Most of the houses we go to are sitting on land that looks like somewhere i've camped before. It's kind of like eternally camping. The town is only about 5 miles in each direction. Not too big. The people are really friendly when they want to listen. But usually we get, "well that's great but i'm already a (protestant breakoff)." One change is that there is more of a variety of religions around here. In sunnyside there were just different versions of baptist. Here there are baptist, pentecostal, church of christ, catholic, presbyterian.

My new companion is from new mexico and he's the spittin image of lance. Same sense of humor, same love for snowboarding, same personality, same metabolism (he's really skinny), same hair style (except shorter).

The Sosa Era

2006-05-07T18:43:00.000-06:00

More photos from Elder Chuch. Spanning March and April of 2006. Descriptions are in his words. My comments are in italic. Click on each photo to enlarge.

My first picture with my first son (his first junior companion - Elder Sosa - fresh from the MTC)

A picture of Clem. She's not a member but she's loaded. She knows all the missionaries. This is just a picture she gives each one.

The Vaz lineage three generation picture. Jones, Vaz, Sosa, Southworth.

A roadkill cat in the third ward. If you look really close you can see its eye popped out. We see roadkill often and no one ever cleans it up. they just let it rot and get run over again and again and again until it just becomes a black smudge on the pavement.

Oh yeah, Bluebell (awesome ice cream brand in Texas).

Chorizo (this is a dish that Elder Sosa introduced to Elder Jones)

The sign over the bathroom door in our apartment.

The voodoo ghetto action figure (made by Lance)

Temple zone conference. The Houston West zone.

Me with Lance's bling (he sent this buckle to Lance for his birthday)

April in Sunnyside

2006-05-07T18:18:00.000-06:00

Here some excerpts from Justin's recent letters:

3/39/06

On thursday Elder Sosa got partially inducted into sunnyside. That morning we had a few extra hours to do laundry and other stuff because the day before we had president interviews, and Elder Sosa wanted to get a haircut. He called president to ask him about how short he could have it and he said as long as it is long enough to part it's okay. So we went to Texas Southern University's student center and found a barber shop. It was a small place with two barbers going at it on people's hair so we took a seat and waited our turn. When it was Elder Sosa's turn he got in the chair and the guy asked him how long he wanted it. He said he wanted it really short on the sides and about an in long, or finger length, on the top. So he went to work. He did the sides fine, but when he cut the top he buzzed it! Elder sosa couldn't see any of this either because he was facing away from the mirror. When he finished he turned him around to see himself. Elder sosa got a worried look on his face and said, "uhh, i don't think that's one inch." and then the guy seriously said, "yeah it is, actually, that's about three inches. When elder sosa tried to deny that he said "If we got a ruler out right now and measured it, it would be three of them little notches." Elder sosa was about to lose it in this guys face, and i was ready to bust a gut. But elder sosa controlled himself well and the guy only charged him five bucks because of the misunderstanding. What had happened is that he used a #3 attachment on the top, not knowing that that was millimeters, not inches. And he said that he'd been cutting hair for 16 years. I was busting up most of the way home, elder sosa is a good sport, too, so he's over it. Go figure, only in sunnyside.

R. came to church this sunday and basically bore her testimony about how she knows this church is true. She is coming to general conference this next week. It's hard to get back with her during the week because she has to take care of her godmother and she has school, but she has read from 3nephi 11 to 27.

We got back with E. again. It was amazing, one night we just decided to go over there. We knocked on the door and when he answered, i'll never forget this, he had a book of mormon in one hand and a pen in the other and you could see that the page was all marked up. Anyway, he is still reading and praying and he wants to get baptised now. The Lord really is blessing us.

4/5/06

Conference was great! We watched it over at the broadway building since that is our stake center. It's sad, but none of our investigators showed up. I think that i may have gotten more out of this conference than out of any other conference. I have definitely grown to recognize the promptings of the spirit. And now i will do my best to prayerfully follow them.

I went on exchanges the other day to broadway and i realized three things.

1) How much i hate car areas. I felt less effective all day, driving around and not talking to everyone, like in sunnyside. I longed for my bike again.

2) How much i missed sunnyside. The culture is different over there and so the way that you teach is different too, even though they are right next door. I missed chillin back in the crib.

3) How much i missed Elder sosa. He is a really great guy, and maybe one of the purposes of exchanges was to help me to realize that for myself.

4/13/06

When you said that so many different churches have so many different types of worship service, you werent' kidding! There's this church over in Broadway, not in my old area but the north area, and they are advertising a "live crucifixion" on this saturday and sunday. I think both the north and the south broadway elders are going to see it. It should be quite interesting. I just hope they can get it on tape, or maybe that we can go. I wonder who the lucky person is who is going to be playing the role of Jesus. I wonder how real it will be. I will let you know if i have the privilage of going.

We finally found out where R. is. We went to her godmother's house on sunday and found out that she has moved to the south west side of houston with her boyfriend. That was disappointing, but at least we know what's going on now. I really hope that she acts on what she knows inside.

Our most promising investigator right now is T. We met T. on the street. She is 19 years old and has two little kids. We talked about the book of mormon with her and her eyes lit up and she asked us to come over. We have been able to teach a few lessons to her where she has felt the spirit. We just need her to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet.
Actually something pretty darn sweet happened one day while we were there. She live in a pretty ghetto apartment complex where all of the buildings are pretty close together. Right next to her apartment, however, there is an open space which is all paved, where there were a lot of "gangstas" hanging around. She lives on the second story, right next to this open place. As we taught these thugs (actually, most of them were probably just teenagers) were walking back and forth, and eyeing us. One of them actually stole the light off my bike right from under us. We taught our lesson to her outside of the apartment on a table. When we were done we went downstairs and a lot of these thugs were still all congregated by the courtyard. We unlocked our bikes and as we got on them one of the thugs, on the opposite side of us said, "can i ask you a question?"

Elder Sosa and i said "Sure."

But T. looked down from the second story at us and said "you can leave now."

I said, "we just need to answer a question for this guy"

but she cut me off and said, "leave, now," with some worry in her voice this time

We could both take a hint so we shoved off. No sooner had we started than we started seeing eggs splat to the left and right of us, and the thugs started laughing. You could probably imagine that this made us pedal a LOT faster. They continued to throw eggs at us untill we were out of the exit gate. We all know the story of Samuel the Lamanite, though, and none of the eggs hit us. It was AWESOME. We were both a little shaken but it was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to us. I was reminded of the card you sent me on the first day in the MTC where it has the picture of the guy who served in england and had the eggs thrown at him. I kept thinking, "It really does happen." T. and her family were disgusted with the actions of their neighbors and called the police, they told us the nesxt time. T. was tipped off by her sister.

4/26/06

We've got some awesome news this week. Some great things have been happening. We visited T. on thursday and asked her to read 2nephi 31-32 and to pray about the book of mormon and everything. She said that she would. The next day we went over and she said that she did and she got an answer! It was awesome. She said that she would get baptized and make a lifelong commitment. Then we taught the law of chastity. This posed a problem because she is living with her boyfriend. But they both want to get married and they've even talked about it. We're going to talk about setting a date to get married and hopefully we'll get to talk to the boyfriend.

We also have great news with E. At the beginning of the week we asked E. to start reading from the beginning of the Book of Mormon. We had Exchanges with the branch presidency on Thursday night and so Elder Sosa and President Poll went over to check on him that night. He had already read from 1 nephi 1 to chapter 5. It was amazing. But on saturday, when we went to check up on him he had read all the way to 2nd nephi 4!!!!!!! We were both floored, it was a miracle. There was something different about him, as well. He seemed happier, and more energetic. That's the power of the book of mormon, and i'm grateful for it.

We also had a lady pass out this sunday. A bunch of people tried to help her out but we ended up calling the ambulance. It was pretty eventful. We'll have to let you know how she ends up. Yeah, so this lady is a member who just moved into our area. She's the sweetest lady in the world. We had just delivered her a large print book of mormon this past week and i thought she was going to die of excitement.

5/4/06

We have a new investigator, his name is F. He is a college student who wants to change his life. He has tattoos all over his body and last week he told us a story about how he got shot. By the way he looks, you wouldn't think he's that kind of person, he dresses well and he wears glasses. We have taught him the first lesson and part of the second. We are going back tonight to teach him some more along with his friend. He is catching on really well, last week he explained to his friend about how all the preachers today are false prophets.

Last Friday we had a zone conference where we got to hear from a general authority. His name was Elder Colicker. He told us many things, among which was that we need to get our investigators to pray more. It was a good experience.

No one fainted this sunday.

We are going to try to get a FHE group started in the branch becasue there are a lot of single ladies and not enough families.

The sunnyside story of the week came on tuesday when i was on exchanges with Elder Connel. We stopped to talk to an old lady and this guy came over, who had a beer bottle in his hand (he was also the lady's son) and started to preach to us, basically. He also gave us 75 cents for us to get a soda, he wouldn't be turned down. After all this he had us hold hands and end in prayer. during the prayer he called us wolves in sheep's clothing, but i dont' know if he meant that, cause he was drunk. Then he sent us off, but soon after called us back. When we came up to him he started SINGING, "Jesus is the answer, for this world today..ayay, above Him there's no other, Jesus is the way" then he asked us to join in. Pretty soon his mother joined in and it seemed like i was in some crazy musical. After we finished he said thank you and sent us off.

The Chuch Gallery

2006-03-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent photos. Text explanations by Elder Chuch himself.

At the temple with G.

Two kids in our ward with their Mexican wrestling masks.

The Bernetto Family

Brother and Sister Terrence and me.

Me and my papa for one last hug.

Me after mountain biking.

My tire, wrecked by the root.

After Elder Verstoppen chopped my hair off.

Lance's masking tape creations, "Voodoo Ghetto Action Figure". That's awesome!

The T.H.E. mission vision. It's truly inspired.

Me and my nutritionous self.

Our place.

Elder Pearson.

Me again.

Me, in this sweet "Phat farm" beanie I bought. Phat farm is a brand name around here. It's pretty sweet.

Mr. Trainer Man

2006-03-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

More e-mail excerpts from Justin. These messages span February and the First half of March.

2/1/06

This week has been really long. It's going to take me a while to get used to the ghetto. Yes, my address is Julius. It's a totally different world out here, much different than broadway.

Let me give you a run down of a typical day. First, in the morning, we have our studies and then we leave at ten o clock. Usually at that time there aren't too many people on the streets because these ghetto folks don't get up and moving until halfway through the day. So, we'll usually try to visit some less actives or someone in the morning since tracting is less effective (no one would answer the door). On the way there may be some people on the street, and we'll talk to them. Then we come in for lunch and i eat ramen noodles and celery with peanut butter. When we leave in the afternoon we either go tracting, follow up on street contacts, or visit investigators. Then we come in at about seven o clock, when it gets dark, because we don't have a car and we're kind of addicted to breathing.

For dinner we usually get fed by the singles ward. The sunnyside south elders, Wilson and Rees, cover some of the singles ward too so we get fed by them as well. The first night i was here they took us to papa's bar b que. That was goooooood. It's nice to get some home cookin and to talk to some normal people.

That's one thing that's going to be hard to adjust to. the people. You were so right when you said in your last letter that these people are in the ghetto for a reason. A lot of them that we talk to on the streets just aren't capable of understanding. It's sad and frustrating, but sometimes we just have to give them a pass along card and leave them, even though we could probably sit there and talk to them for hours. That's something that i'm going to have to get used to. We have to be really plain and blunt sometimes too. We'll explain prophets and apostles and how Christ's church had them and then we'll say, "So, it's pretty important to have apostles and prophets in the true church, right? Do you know of any church that has apostles and prophets? The only Church on the face of the earth that has apostles and prophets is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints." Stuff like that. It can be discouraging sometimes.

We have met some crazy people, though. I think it was last friday that we went down to a corner where we were supposed to meet a street contact that we had given a book of mormon to. She wasn't there so we waited for a while and during the time that we waited there all sanity flew out the window and we found ourselves in the twilight zone. First of all, this old guy walks up to us and recognizes us as mormons and starts to talk to us. He tells us that he's "The Comforter," from Colorado. You know, Jesus said, "I will send you the comforter and he will bring all things to your rememberance." That was the comfortor, in the flesh. He told us that he's seen God and Jesus a couple of times, that he's received his own version of the ten commandments, and that the reason that 9/11 happened was because america was allowing abortions. We talked to him for a long time, but that was only part of the experience. While we were talking to him a lady passed us, cussing up a storm, another guy, that was probably drunk, pulled over and had a short conversation with us, during which he offered to baptize the comforter with his "holy water" in his water bottle, and two bums passed us by, one was sitting knee to chest in a shopping cart and the other was pushing him. It was CRAZY. I think that was my official initiation into sunnyside.

So, the first two days that i was here we didn't have my bike so we walked in between 30 - 35 miles that day. Needless to say, our feet hurt by the end of the day. But now i have my bike, but it got two flat tires so i'm using a different bike.

My companion, Elder Pearson, is from West Valley, Utah. He's a good missionary and a hard worker. He's really good at reading people. He likes to have fun, work hard, and play hard. It will be interesting.

2/8/06

I had a crazy dream last night. I dreamed that somehow i was back at home in provo and i had been out for two years but i didn't remember any of my mission except what i've already experienced. It was terrible, i was going through a bunch of letters trying to remember my other areas but i just couldn't remeber anything. Then i woke up and i'm still here.

So, this week has been pretty slow. We have been talking to a lot of people and getting a lot of referrals, but not a lot in our area. Sometimes it gets frustrating because we teach "plain as day" lessons and they don't get it. oh, well. We need to keep up our spirits. If you don't have your heart in the work then you really aren't very effective. I saw that this week. One of the days i really didn't have my heart into it when we were contacting people and i felt bad about it and determined to have my heart into it the next time. The next time we talked to a lady at a bus stop named R. My companion ended up talking to another person so i was talking to her one on one. It was a really heart felt lesson and she said she felt chills when i showed her the joseph smith picture. She was really interested and i was able to get her address before the bus came and i gave her a joseph smith pamphlet. It was really neat.

We have this investigator named B, she has a baptism date. She had already committed to be active in the church for the rest of her life but she still wanted more. On sunday we went over to her house and taught her about fasting and tithing. We also brought the newly baptised B. Both were inspired. We ended up telling her that none of our "preachers" got paid and that just floored her, along with the fact that we dont' pass the plate or collect donations at the door or anything. She said that this was her sign. She was rededicated to be baptised this month.

oh, yeah, i almost forgot. We had zone conference yesterday and they introduced brand new pamphlets that go right along with the preach my gospel lessons. They are AWESOME. They are going to be a breakthrough here in sunnyside. I will let you know how they are. I also have to give a talk on sunday in the branch on how a Christlike lifestyle is a healthy lifestyle.

2/15/06

Nothing too exciting is happening. On thursday i went on exchanges with Elder Rees, one of the zone leaders. It was the first time in a while that i had planned a whole day so it was kind of shaky. We ended up visiting a less active lady who hadn't been coming to church because she was offended about tithing. Elder Rees bore his testimony to her and she was in tears. She ended up going to church on sunday and we have another appointment with her tomorrow. Elder pearson saw her at church and said she seemed pretty solid now.

I am becoming ghetto-ized. I sometimes say "fixin" and when i agree with someone i say "fo sho" or "i'm down." I'm also thinking about getting a grill and a tatoo that says "Jesus."

B has been out of town, or sick or something because she didn't come to church and we haven't been able to get back with her. We have been trying but we can't get back in touch with her. I will keep y'all posted.

Saturday was walk and talk day. Wow, that was quite the day. We had an appointment about four or five miles away and so it was about ten miles, round trip. It was also really cold; a cold front came through. And our faces were red by the time we came in.

The talk went well on sunday. Elder Pearson spoke on the word of wisdom too. The sacrament was only about five minutes long so we had forty five minutes to fill. We were only able to fill about thirty five so the stake counselor who was there got up and played the accordian...speaking that is. We also had a guy come late to church that we met on the street. We hadn't talked to him much, just gave him the address of our church. About half way through the gospel principles class, when the teacher was talking about the book of mormon he perked up and said, "Is this the mormon church?" It was kind of funny, but we hadn't ever explained it to him.

Yesterday we had exchanges. Elder Vaz came here with Elder Pearson and i went back to my old stomping grounds with Elder Southworth. It was AWESOME. It was like coming home. The smells were even familiar! Elder southworth has only been out for three weeks but i was instructed to let him be in charge. We had a blast! He is from Lehi. We had an awesome time. I would love to serve with that kid. We are brothers. Both born of a brazilian in the wilderness of Broadway.

We went and stopped in at N's house. SHE IS AWESOME. She has cut down from a pack and a half a day to about four a day and from eight pots of coffee to 3/4 cup of coffee. She is also a missionary. She is going to visit her boyfriend this next week (she committed to live the law of chastity) and is determined to convert them. Her family is starting to warm up too.

2/22/06

how are y'all? It's good to hear from y'all. First of all, we haven't really been having lots of weather in the eighties. This past week was SOOOO cold. I didn't know it got this cold in Houston. It got down in the low forties and maybe even into the thirties. It didn't freeze but it felt like freezing! Especially when the wind would blow. It felt colder than below freezing because of the dang humidity. It was pretty warm today but it is supposed to get cold at least one more time before suit season is over (1st of march).

We went and rode some mountain biking trails at a place called Memorial Park. You might be thinking, "mountain biking in houston?" but it's true. There wasn't ton's of ups and downs but there were dips and turns. I pretty much got worked by mother earth. Elder Pearson has been many times and he just started speeding off. I tried to keep up but my senses and abilities aren't as keen and i crashed a bunch. He also ended up having to wait for me to catch up a lot. At one spot that was really steep i didn't make a turn fast enough and i my front tire got stuck in a root and got bent. Luckily our land lord, who drove us there, passed by right about when it happened and he walked my bike back and i was able to continue on with elder pearson. As the time went on and as i crashed more and more i became more reluctant. It would have been better if i had been able to learn how to walk before i ran, but it was a good experience. I replaced my bent wheel with a spare one tonight and now i'm good to go. By the way, we ride bikes more than we walk, except when it's bitter cold.

There's not much to update y'all on. Elliot is our only investigator at the time. He actually came to church on sunday but i think it was a little too much for him. The talks were on missionary work and "celestializing." After sacrament meeting was over he said that he needed to go home and "collect himself." Maybe next week the talks will be a little more "investigator oriented." He has been reading a little and the other day we taught him the lesson of the plan of salvation. He said that he'd pray about it. I cant' remeber when we're going to check up on him next, but i'll keep y'all updated.

3/1/06

I think you are all right about how i will soon be longing for the cold weather. The past two days we have had bee-you-tee-ful days. It has been awesome! Except they feel me with dread for the days to come. I am going to DIE in the summer.

Speaking of learning, I have learned a TON from elder pearson. I don't know if you've ever heard of missionaries that become less, passive...sensitive...by being on their mission, but i have learned to be more bold, which is a good thing. I love being out here!

Things are starting to pick up in our area. Last week we had eight new investigators. This week we have three. A lot of those will probably fall through but that's part of the process.

So, this is the last week of the transfer. You might be getting an e-mail on monday, so keep posted. This has been a good transfer; hard, but good. We went on exchanges last night with one of the branch councelors and we visited some less actives and had some awesome visits. I am excited to see the growth that the Lord has in store for this area.

I wonder what the Lord has in store for me. He may just leave me with pearson, which could stretch me. I think it's either that or I'm training. I would love to train. I think that would be awesome unless i got some less effective missionary who didn't want to be out in the field. I hope that doesn't happen. I'm not too worried, either way. I know that it will be what the Lord wants done.

Weekly Update time:

E - he might be fading into the distance. Last time we visited he hadn't read anything. We have another meeting with him today. Hopefully we can turn him around.

We've talked to a bunch of people who agree with everything we're saying and, yet, have no clue as to what we are saying. They are "seeing yet they do not perceive, hearing, yet they do not understand." That's not a direct quote. It's kind of frustrating, but it happens a lot.

From Friday to saturday i was on exchanges with elder Vaz. It was nice to be back with my papa and to have a chance to lead. On Friday night, as we were heading back, we got caught in the rain and got DRENCHED! It was pretty cold too, but that was because we were riding pretty fast. We also had mud splattered all over our shirts.

This last sunday the branch was pretty full. We had more than i've ever seen there. It was nice to see, even though none of them were our investigators.

On Monday-tuesday i went on exchanges with elder Klc and we walked until my feet were sore.

3/6/06

On friday night i got a call from president and he said that i am called to be a TRAINER!!!!!!! I'm so excited! I finally get to lead out and to show someone how it's done! Elder Pearson and i had a good time but i'm ready to have a go of my own. So, that's the news. I pick him up on tuesday night. Today we are going to king's best market to pick up some ghetto bling, and then we are going over to walmart. Anyway, I'M EXCITED!!!! Not much news other than that. Elder Vaz is the district leader now. And that's about it.

3/15/06

So, last tuesday I went to the chappel in atascocita, the exact same one where i got picked up, to pick up my new missionary, or to bear my first child. It just so happens to be that the date was March 7th, exactly six months from the day that i entered the mtc. Wow!! I can't believe it. I'm no longer a greenie!!!! Anyway, three other elders from my district are training. Elders bills, johnson, and ayoso. Elder Ayoso has gained thirty something pounds and is bursting at the seems. It looks like he is storing something in his cheeks. Elder bills has gained 38 pounds but has found some way to hide it. Eventually they had the new elders come in and bear their testimonies and then we were paired up. They all are about my height, give or take, and they all looked pretty frazzled. I remember that night...

Anyway, I got paired up with...Elder Sosa!!!! Elder Sosa is originally from Sacramento California, actually just out side of sacramento, in woodland. But for the past four years he has been living in Idaho. He is about my height and is really skinny, but he eats like a bottomless pit. He is kind of like lance. He is really gung ho and has that greenie fire. He was totally ready to get out working the first day. It is nice to be in charge. I had kind of lost some of my contacting ability but now i have sure gained it back! It was hard at first but i have learned a lot. I thought that it might be hard for him to have his first area be the ghetto, too, but he seems to be handling it really well. He likes to talk a lot and has a great attitude. He has reminded me of the power of our testimonies. He remindes me of that scripture in alma 4 where it talks about alma seeing "no other way to reclaim them except bearing down in pure testimony against them." He's going to be a great missionary. We have a lot of literature that the mission president wants us to go over so our companion study time is full. I sometimes worry about whether or not i'm teaching him enough or talking to him about missionary work enough.

I'll tell you, we've had quite the first week! We've worked our tails off! We are booked for the rest of the week with follow up appointments with people we've talked to and taught on the street! It's pretty amazing, the Lord is really blessing us. We are finding more and more promising people. Right now we are trying to get back with a guy named Juan. Juan is a latino guy, we've taught him twice already and committed him to read and pray. At the end of the lesson he asked us about a question that he had about not being able to see your family aftrer you die. We were able to explain a little bit about the plan of Salvation.

3/22/06

Elder Sosa is doing very well. I thought it would be hard for him to adjust to a mission and to the ghetto but he is already complaining about how fast the time is going. I remember my first week seemed to creep by.

Most of all of those return appointments fell through but some we have follow up appointments with. We are still being blessed and are booked for the next few days with appointments.

I think, about a month ago, that i wrote home about an awesome street contact that i made witha lady named R. Anyway, last thursday we received a referral in the mail that said that she moved to our area and that she wanted the missionaries to visit. On Friday night we went on exchanges with the branch presidency. I went with brother poll and we went and visited her. She was so excited to get the book of mormon. We talked with her about it for a while and then we watched the Restoration DVD. She really felt the spirit and read and prayed about it that night and got answered and she knows its true. We just barely took her to stake conference last sunday and she loved it. I loved it too! It was awesome. And we had Brenda, a recent conver, pick her up. She talked to her about all of the blessings that she's received from the gospel. It was really awesome! We're trying to get back with her now and we're going to commit her to baptism. She's been busy taking care of her grandmother who got in a car wreck.

Other than that we have been teaching good lessons and leaving good committments but we haven't seen much progress, but we're hanging in there. We have crazy experiences every day and we laugh at them. The other day we met a guy who was high on cocaine. Our first hint was that it was raining and he actually stopped and talked to us. The next hint was that his veins were bulging and his mood was changing right before our eyes. It was crazy!

Elder Sosa has made Chorizo for the past few days for breakfast and it is Delectable! It's a bunch of cow parts (salivary gland, tongue, cheek) and some spices. You brown it and then cook it into egg and eat it in tortillas. It really is good. Its' much better than sausage egg. But it has about 70% of your daily value of saturated fat in each serving.

Updated Mailing Address

2006-02-17T11:20:00.000-07:00

Justin has asked that everyone send packages & letters to the mission home address rather than directly to his apartment. That way everything gets to him OK whenever he transfers. Here is the mission home address:

Elder Justin Jones
2815 W. Lake Houston Pkwy #109
Kingwood, TX 77339

New Mailing Address

2006-02-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

Here is Justin's mailing address for his new Sunnyside apartment:

Elder Justin Jones
3822 Julius Lane
Houston, TX 77021

Chuch in the Ghetto

2006-02-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some more excerpts from Justin's e-mail to home:

1/4/06

Since Christmas it has been unseasonably warm, even for Texas. I am loving this weather! it has been in the seventies! I am going to die in the summer but for now i'm going to enjoy it. A few days it has even been too hot to wear our suit coats.
We worked on new years here. We went in around six o'clock and had dinner. Ram had a bunch of his family over again, (those hispanic parties seem to go on forever), and so we got to mooch off of them a bit. We were really tired because earlier that day we biked all of the way down to the south of our area. It took about forty five minutes each way. We met with a less active member named GG. The bishop has told us to get back in touch with him. Brother GG told us that he used grew up with the bishop in this ward. He told us that he wants to come back to church and he wants to set up an appointment with the bishop. He also said that his wife would be interested in learning the lessons. We're pretty excited about him and his family.
On Thursday we had a really awesome zone meeting. At President Lake's request it was all about committments. I realized something really important. The whole reason that we teach is to give people committments. Our lessons should be centered around committments. It was a really neat meeting. I gave a talk on promising blessings.
On friday we met with G again, at Brother Griffin's house. I can't say enough about brother Griffin. He is the bomb. He is perfect for G. Anyway, we started off talking about Joseph smith and priesthood and the restoration but he kept going off on other subjects. Eventually he got to the subject of "types of worship," and how our church doesn't really have that type of worship. Then brother Griffin asked him why he wasn't at that church. He said that it was that there's something different with us. There's something about us. We eventually found out that he also had a lot of concerns about our church. like about a bunch of anti mormon literature that he has heard and seen, polygamy, and a bunch of other garbage. But the awesome part was that brother griffin had heard everything that he threw at him. Brother Griffin had spent a few years looking into the church and during that time he looked up anti mormon stuff and all sorts of stuff so he is PERFECT for G. That night they set up a time that they could meet that next sunday evening when they could talk about all of the Anti stuff. Both Gand Brother Griffin want us to focus on teaching the doctrine.
So that sunday he met with brother griffin again, at brother griffin's house and they talked for SIX HOURS!!!! It doesn't surprise me too much because that man can TALK! It's crazy. They also got side tracked because they found out that G knows Brother Griffin's Dad. G works at a church called Sagemont, and Brother Griffin's Dad is a minister there. It just turns out that G is really good friends with brother Griffin's dad too. The bad thing is that brother griffin's dad is really anti mormon. But he doesn't even want to learn about the mormon church so i think that that's a turn off for G. They also talked about lots of anti stuff and Gsaid that he's more ready to learn the doctrine now and focus on the lessons. He wanted to get all of his fears out of the way so that he could focus more. So hopefully we'll have fewer distractions when we meet with him tonight. Elder Vaz talked to him last night on the phone. G said that he mentioned to brother Griffin's dad that he's learning about the mormon church. He said that minister Griffin got mad and told him that he'd get him some anti literature right away. It's going to be really interesting how this all plays out.
We have been blessed with a lot of possible investigators, sometimes i wonder when we'll have time to see them all.
We also have another baptism date. Her name is J, her brother O got baptised a few months ago and her parents were sort of against his baptism. But now they are excited for her baptism. She has been to church ever since O has joined and investigated and she is excited to be baptised. Her baptism date is the 22nd of January. The north elders have a baptism date for another lady around the same time. The lord is really blessing us.

1/11/06

WOW!!!! Each day i am amazed when i look down at my watch and see how big the little number is that tells me what day it is. Time is going by SO fast. Transfers are in a week and a half again! I can't believe it! But i have grown so much and i am learning so much, and we are being so blessed.

I can't believe that Austin is finally leaving! It seemed so far away! Well, austin, i wish you the best and i love you. Be sure not to let the italian babes distract you from preparing for your mission. God's speed, brother!

Tell joe to hang in there with his grades. Is he still working in the cadaver labs? What's going on there? I love joe

Tell josh to memorize the scripture that i sent him. I think it's in Isaiah 57. You'd recognize that it's for him if you read the chapter. I wish i was there to see him play his game. I love josh

How's Ryan doing? i haven't gotten a letter from him yet. Could you send me his address, please? He's going to be there for a while. I love Ryan.

What's the news on Sean? Who am i? I dont' know. I guess i've got a lot of pondering to do. I love sean too!

Okay, time for the weekly update. We had district meeting on thursday, and i realized that i should be using my scriptures more when teaching.

I think i've told you about B.G. and his family. If not, he's an eternal investigator that they've had for at least half a year. He works like a dog and we're trying to work with all of his family. His wife is a less active member with whom we are also working. Last friday, out of the blue, he told us that he needs to come to church this week. He told us about a certain feeling that he was looking for. He said that when he was in jail a long time ago he was making all these promises to God that if he got out he'd change his life and he said that he felt this peaceful feeling that he's been searching for. Of course, after he got out he went back to his old habits, but today he really is a changed man. He used to deal drugs and drink, and now he's totally changed his life around and he doesn't even drink. Now we can hopefully help him and his family get back to church.
J's baptism date IS on your birthday, which is also transfers. We have taught her one of the lessons so far. I think we need to pick it up if we're going to get her baptised on the 22nd.
On Saturday we had a baptism for a Vietnamese lady who barely spoke any english. Her husband, who has the same language barrier, and who is a member of the church gave a forty minute baptism talk that covered everything from baptism to the law of consecration and the second coming. it was interesting. But they were verry very nice people.
Last saturday we committed JN to baptism! We set a date for her to be baptised by the end of February. There are going to be some problems that we have to work through, though. the first one is even meeting with her every now and then. She works like none other, and even on sundays so we're trying to get back with her but she's gung ho about it! I'll keep you posted.
Okay, G time, on sunday we went to the temple with G. He felt the spirit there and we were able to talk about endowments and sealings and baptisms for the dead, which he gets now. We also told him that we don't just have church in there. He liked all that but he really just wanted to go there to inspect the architecture. He heard that we have, "pentagrams" or satan stars on the temple. Supposedly they are on the salt lake temple. But he didn't see any. I think that it ended up being a good thing. It's easy to get frustrated with him but we have to take it little by little with him.
We met with him yesterday and talked about prophets and about the gospel. The spirit was there and we really clicked with him. He said that a light bulb went on and that he understood more. He reiterated that he wants us to be patient with him and that he want to learn and he doesn't want to waste our time. He also realizes that the only way that he'll know if this is true or not is if he reads it and prays but he tells us that he's really busy. He says that some day he wants to go to the library and just sit down and read. He also said that it's his personal mission to make Brother Griffin's Dad sit down with Brother Griffin and at least talk about their differences. I think a lot of good will come of him. He's taking forever and investigating everything because he's been used a lot and he wants to make sure that this is "100% the truth."

1/18/06

I'm glad you enjoyed all of the photos. All of those bikes were pretty amazing, huh? There were 12,000+ bikes in there. They had 20,000+ in there last year but didn't get enough donations for that many this year.

By the way, my landlord is named Ramiro Aguilera, or Ram for short. He really is an awesome guy. And a really good cook too. We all thanked him last night when we had dinner with him.

That's nice of you to hire Calvin! Tell Steve that i think he'd make a great priests quorum president. Tell him to keep up the good work and make sure you serve people more than i did.

Alright, time for the weekly update:

J - We met with J last saturday to teach her about the plan of Salvation. When we brought up her baptism she said that she has a whole bunch of school projects that she has to do and that she's not going to have enough time. We're going to have to reschedule with her.

JN - We have been trying to get back in contact with her again but she is never home so we can never speak with her. We'll have to call every night if we have to.

We also met this AWESOME guy named K. He is from Louisiana and he really wants to change his life. He says that he never "feels it" in other churches and that a lot of the times the preachers are hypocrites. We taught him a first lesson and it was awesome because he kept saying how he felt the chills and agreeing with us. We left him with a copy of the book of Mormon. He is going out of town until the thirtieth.

The BG's are doing well. We met with them a couple days ago and we taught B's daughter, about baptism. She is about 12 years old and she accepted to be baptised. We might baptise her on the same day that we baptise Jasmine because everyone in the ward knows J but not a lot of people know the BG's. Ben sat in for the lesson so the wheels in his head have to be turning now that his daughter is going to be baptised.

Tuesday, yesterday, was by far the most awesome day of the week. The first thing in the morning on Tuesday we went to a return appointment that we'd received while tracting. The lady's name is R. When we were traveling over there we thought we'd just be meeting with her but it turns out that she had her whole family waiting there for us. She's divorced but she had her two daughter and her son, the youngest is 17, waiting there for us. Each of them was a member of a different religion. One of the girls, A, told us that she wasn't feeling it in her religion and she wanted to check ours out. We taught an awesome lesson, gave them all of the copies of the book of mormon that we had left, committed them to read and pray about it, and scheduled a return appointment for thursday. It was AWESOME!!!! I love that Heavenly Father is guiding us to all of these prepared people. They looked excited to read and pray about it too. We're both really excited. We need to find someone to befriend them, though, like we have Brother Griffin with G.

Later that night we had a meeting with G. Last sunday he went to the spanish sunday service and liked their sunday school class more because the teacher wasn't as confusing. But he said that he still wants to meet with Elder Vaz and I. Sometimes it seems like he isn't learning anything at all because he asks questions liek, "okay, now who is this Joseph smith guy." It's trying to our patience but we are learning to deal with it. We don't have to TOTALLY explain everything again but i think that when we tell him something new it sort of shakes his prior knowledge of things so he has to fit everything back into place again. Overall he is making wonderful progress. He's gone from believing all of this anti mormon stuff to actually, probably defending the church if someone were to put it down. We're meeting back with him on sunday again.

1/23/06

Today is transfers day. Yesterday i found out where i was going. It's pretty much the only place i didn't think i would go. I still can't believe it. It's an old tradition that i'm carrying on. Many before me have followed the same pattern. Elder earl followed this pattern. i got transferred to..................SUNNYSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't believe it...sunnyside. I can't be mad because this is where the Lord wants me to be. It's just going to be quite the test.
So, Elder Pearson is my new companion. We are already friends so that is a plus. He's a good guy. He trained Elder Jacobsen from my district in the MTC. oh, Elder Verstoppen took Elder Beach's place with Elder Klc. Those two will be interesting together. They are two different personalities. Elder Klc is more laid back and Elder Verstoppen is more "go get em." That will be interesting. Another good thing is that i will be close to elder vaz and i will see him at least once a week at district meeting. That way i can keep tabs on our investigators and maybe even go on exchanges once in a while to make sure that his new missionary isn't messing everything up. J/k.
Anyway, we live in the back of a guy's house named "warren." He's not a member and he has a rule that the missionaries can't try to convert him. He's a nice guy, though. It's a pretty neat little place. It's a whole different neighborhood. Elder Pearson told me that we have about 20 to 25 members that come to church every sunday, so it's the sunny side branch. And i thought Broadway was small! Anyway, I'm grateful for this learning experience and for this time to serve my Heavenly Father. I have learned and grown so much.

1/25/06

I'm certainly not in Broadway anymore! and away from all of the comforts of that place. We didn't have room for my bike the other day for transfers and so we will just be walking until i get my bike back tomorrow for district meeting. Yesterday we walked about 10 to 15 miles. That's more than we walk in...a long time in broadway. I'm actually excited about that, besides the fact that my feet already hurt, and we have about an equal or greater distance to go today. But i will get a lot of exercise and be able to slim down a little bit. Maybe my blue suit will fit properly again.

Thanks for the advice about the ghetto, dad. That's good to remember. Some of the people are pretty slow. The two people that we talked to this morning just started rambling off on their life stories. Those we just end up giving a card and telling them to call it. I will put your advice into action. I need to also learn when I'm going nowhere with someone. Elder Pearson is good at reading people so maybe i can learn something from him.

Yeah, the branch does really need some sunshine. Elder Pearson said that a lot of them really need strengthening in their testimonies and knowledge of the gospel. I also feel like we need to remind them that they are very important to the ward, and more importantly to the Lord and furthering His work. My first sunday will probably be interesting.

Hey, I've already got a little taste of eubonics (sp?). Today we were talking to a guy about prophets and I asked him "what to you think Moses would do if he were here?" Then he said, "I can't call it." I didn't know what he was talking about and i was kind of lost and the point was never really effectively made about a prophet. Elder Pearson later explained to me that "I can't call it" means, "I don't know." I've gone from learning texan to learning eubonics. I'll be trilengual when i get back.

It's true about what Jim said. Elder Earl, the last elder in this area said that it was his favorite area. They have also seen a lot of improvement. They have been fasting a lot and really working it. They just had a baptism last saturday, and she's one of the strongest members of the branch now. This should be exciting.

2/1/06

It's so good to hear from y'all. This week has been really long. It's going to take me a while to get used to the ghetto. It's a totally different world out here, much different than broadway.
Let me give you a run down of a typical day. First, in the morning, we have our studies and then we leave at ten o clock. Usually at that time there aren't too many people on the streets because these ghetto folks don't get up and moving until halfway through the day. So, we'll usually try to visit some less actives or someone in the morning since tracting is less effective (no one would answer the door). On the way there may be some people on the street, and we'll talk to them. Then we come in for lunch and i eat ramen noodles and celery with peanut butter. When we leave in the afternoon we either go tracting, follow up on street contacts, or visit investigators. Then we come in at about seven o clock, when it gets dark, because we don't have a car and we're kind of addicted to breathing.
For dinner we usually get fed by the singles ward. The sunnyside south elders, Wilson and Rees, cover some of the singles ward too so we get fed by them as well. The first night i was here they took us to papa's bar b que. That was goooooood. It's nice to get some home cookin and to talk to some normal people.
That's one thing that's going to be hard to adjust to. the people. You were so right when you said in your last letter that these people are in the ghetto for a reason. A lot of them that we talk to on the streets just aren't capable of understanding. It's sad and frustrating, but sometimes we just have to give them a pass along card and leave them, even though we could probably sit there and talk to them for hours. That's something that i'm going to have to get used to. We have to be really plain and blunt sometimes too. We'll explain prophets and apostles and how Christ's church had them and then we'll say, "So, it's pretty important to have apostles and prophets in the true church, right? Do you know of any church that has apostles and prophets? The only Church on the face of the earth that has apostles and prophets is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints." Stuff like that. It can be discouraging sometimes.

We have met some crazy people, though. I think it was last friday that we went down to a corner where we were supposed to meet a street contact that we had given a book of mormon to. She wasn't there so we waited for a while and during the time that we waited there all sanity flew out the window and we found ourselves in the twilight zone. First of all, this old guy walks up to us and recognizes us as mormons and starts to talk to us. He tells us that he's "The Comforter," from Colorado. You know, Jesus said, "I will send you the comforter and he will bring all things to your rememberance." That was the comfortor, in the flesh. He told us that he's seen God and Jesus a couple of times, that he's received his own version of the ten commandments, and that the reason that 9/11 happened was because america was allowing abortions. We talked to him for a long time, but that was only part of the experience. While we were talking to him a lady passed us, cussing up a storm, another guy, that was probably drunk, pulled over and had a short conversation with us, during which he offered to baptize the comforter with his "holy water" in his water bottle, and two bums passed us by, one was sitting knee to chest in a shopping cart and the other was pushing him. It was CRAZY. I think that was my official initiation into sunnyside.

So, the first two days that i was here we didn't have my bike so we walked in between 30 - 35 miles that day. Needless to say, our feet hurt by the end of the day. But now i have my bike, but it got two flat tires so i'm using a different bike.

My companion, Elder Pearson, is from West Valley, Utah. He's a good missionary and a hard worker.

December Photos

2006-02-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some more photos from Elder Chuch. All were taken in December 2006.

Once again, the photo descriptions below are mostly in his own words. Any comments by me are shown in italics. Norm.

(click on each photo to enlarge)

Posing. Vain jangeling.

The day of J. & J.'s baptism.

A. dressed up in the 'Armor of God". For one family home evening we made the armor of God out of cardboard and talked about it and dressed A. up in it and threw socks at him. He was loving it. After the lesson they all played around in it and threw socks at each other. I ended up losing a pair of socks, but I got one for Christmas & bought one at the dollar store where we found G.

E. (another little girl at FHE) in the armor.

Elder Vaz and me in our raingear.

A tie trade with Elder Klc. I traded these two dog ugly ties for his nice silver tie. I don't know what he was thinking.

Santa taking orders good little boys & girls & elders. (at the ward Christmas party)

Elder Vaz and his guitar. He was taught how to play one song out here, which he always plays. It's by Shania Twain or one of those country bumpkins. It's called "You say it best when you say nothing at all".

Elder Vaz and Elder Jones by the Christmas tree. Note the Angel Moroni on top.

The city of Houston on our way to Christmas zone conference.

Me and good old Elder Verstoppen during the gift exchange.

How often do you get to read the BOM in a limo? The elders were invited to participate in an annual event called "Elves & More". They helped give out thousands of new bikes to disadvantaged kids. One of the members in the area helped sponsor the activity and got the elders involved. They were transported to the event in a limo.

Also, how often do you get to see this? We thought using the limo would be a lot more effective in getting less actives to church.

An aerial view of the bikes at the Elves and More event.

The loot on Christmas Eve.

Opening gifts from home.

E-mail highlights

2005-12-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

While I have posted quite a few photos from Elder Chuch, I haven't done a very good job with his letters. Now that I have a little spare time, I have gone back through his e-mails and pulled out excepts that I think would be interesting to his friends and family. Here are some snippets from Justin's e-mails over the past few months:

BTW: I have changed the names of the investigators.

Norm

10/19/05

so, you want more of the nitty gritty eh? Well, I have heard about the astros. Boy have i heard about the astros. Did you hear about that game that went into eighteen innings? Well we had a dinner appointment that night and the father of the household would go outside and cook the chicken only when the game wasn't on. It was kind of funny. We ended up staying there longer than we were supposed to. Then about three nights ago we went over to another dinner appointment that was during an astros game and the people there didn't even stand up to greet us, they just said, the food's over there, help yourself. Then two nights ago our neighbors had a huge crowd over to watch the last game, the one they lost in the ninth. and they were partying and shouting and clapping and carrying on until they lost or something...we didn't know that they lost until the next day. All we knew is that there partying kept us up for a while. But that's okay.

We have a lot of inactives in our ward and we have tried to visit a lot of them but many aren't home. That's kind of discouraging, you drive all the way out there just to find that they're not home, you feel like you're wasting your time. But as long as we're working hard. There's one inactive lady that has a sign on her front gate that says, "No Trespassing" then below it she has written in, "especially mormons/lds" it is HILARIOUS. We will have to get a picture with it sometime.

We are in a car share area, which means that Elder Vaz and myself share a car with the other companionship in the area. We always end up going over our alloted amount of miles so we might have to take a few extra bike days before the transfer is over.

Yesterday we had a combined district meeting and we talked about sacrifice. We all went around and told about something that we sacrificed. I remembered that before my mission i was so pumped up and didn't consider it a sacrifice at all...and i took strength in that. I know that the Lord can make so much more out of me than i ever could out of myself. My mission is finally here, and as I give it my all, and move forward with faith, the Lord will make more out of me than i ever could of myself. I want to be the BEST i can be.

10/26/05

Today we went and played football at a field at the University of Houston. It was a nice break. It was nice weather too! Guess what! It actually was COLD here the other day! It was crazy. We hopped on our bikes to deliver a media referral and we were chilled to the bone. But today was really nice.

I think if the astros lose i will tell everyone that they are being called to repentance, but i don't know how well that will go over. Things are still pretty slow around here.

We have been helping a member in our ward fix up one of his houses that he is going to be renting out. We have been cutting tree limbs and loading them in his truck. We did that last thursday, friday, and maybe saturday.

We still only have two investigators. We taught our first second lesson to JOHN on monday. He took it pretty well, but he had a lot of questions. He told us he is a democrat and asked what our position was on gay rights and all that stuff. We're teaching him again on saturday or something.

Our other investigator is a woman whose sister joined the church. She actually asked us to come and teach her. We're teaching her again on Thursday.

10/31/05

On thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Earl and Dontrell, a member.. We had a really cool experience at a family's door. Later that afternoon i went around with elder Chaney. This was all in Sunnyside, the "ghetto." Twice we got asked if we were selling anything. I'm getting better at talking to random people. I'm getting better at not just telling them something but actually talking to them.
On friday we taught JOHN, who had read up through second Nephi and said that he thought the Book of Mormon was true and that he's strengthened his relationship with God. We showed him the restoration DVD, and invited him to church. He didn't make it though, but tomorrow we might teach him a third lesson, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and commit him to baptism. The only downside to this story is that he's leaving in a week for the marines.
On saturday we biked a lot and went down to help out a member in our ward who is going through a lot right now. We helped him clean up from the hurricane. For dinner we ate at PAPA'S BAR-B-Q, voted houston's best barbeque. That place always has a line for the drive through. I had the pork rib sandwich and it was HEAVENLY. but not as good as your ribs, Dad. I still know where the real Papa's bar b q is located!
The quote for this week comes from brother Moore from the sunnyside ward. This was at a baptism for three kids, he was giving a talk on the Holy Ghost: "The Holy Ghost is like your Mom standing behind you, giving you all the answers." and later on in the program, "If the Holy Spirit is with you, then, umm...you got it going on!"

11/2/05

I'll tell you about that experience that we had on the doorstep of that lady. It was me, Elder Earl, and Dontrell. A hispanic lady answered the door and, when she heard all the english she went and got her son, or someone, who spoke more english. Elder earl introduced the Book of Mormon and then he turned it over to me to talk about Joseph Smith. I talked about Joseph smith and as i was doing this i felt like i should ask Dontrell, the member that came with us, to bear his testimony. But before i did Elder Earl took over again. The amazing thing is that he asked Dontrell to bear his testimony! The spirit was with us. I think we gave them a book of mormon and then we scheduled a time that the spanish missionaries could come by and teach them.
Yesterday i was kind of feeling down and i decided to ask Heavenly Father to let me know that he was over this work. As the day went on i kind of forgot about what i asked. Later that day we went to visit some members. We went to an apartment complex that looked really empty. We didn't see very many people. We did see a woman and her son walking by with a bunch of trash that they were going to dump. They were not too far away but none of us got up the courage to go talk to them. (Elder beach was with us because Elder Rich got transferred) We looked around for the apartment number that we were supposed to knock on and it took so long that the lady and her son started walking back. this time i started talking to them and telling them about the book of mormon. The lady said that it was too small for her to read so we told her that we could get a copy in large print. She gave us her number because she said that she was moving. I think we gave her son a book of mormon. As we stood there I remembered what i asked and i know that he had prepared us to go here to talk with this woman. I am so grateful that he answered my prayer. And what more, when we knocked on the door of the member the lady across the hall opened the door and we were able to tell her about joseph smith and the book of mormon. She wasn't too interested but she was glad that we were out serving Christ. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding."
On Halloween we went to the Terrence's house. Brother Terrence is Jewish and doesn't sit in but Sis. Terrence is a member. They also invite some of their friends that live around and their kids. They have a lot of birds, and we got a Halloween trick. All of a sudden brother terrence and his friend come running through and head to the bird cage. Sis rodriguez, one of the friends, had told them that there was a snake in the bird cage. They grabbed it with salad tongs and regular tongs, and took it out to show everyone. It was a skinny snake except for a couple of lumps in it's stomach. We found out that it ate about three baby birds! The rest of the birds were going crazy and flying around. How's that for a trick?

I almost forgot. Yesterday we taught JOHN the third lesson, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you know, faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure to the end. I wanted to commit him to baptism. Even though he's going to join the marines i wanted him to say that he would, maybe he can get baptised down there. Anyway, when we got to baptism i taught him a little about it and then asked him. He said that he'd alreaddy been baptised. I was totally taken by surprise. I talked a little bit about the priesthood and then asked him again. He was kind of confused and said that he'd been baptised again. I was totally dumbfounded and the other elders took over from there. They explained about the priesthood being restored and challenged him to pray and think about it. At first i thought i failed but i think that was good for him because now he's actually thinking about it seriously when i don't think he really was too into what we were saying before.

11/9/05

On Friday we visited JOHN for the last time. We gave him a lesson on prophets and the priesthood. Then we showed him the prophet's testimony on "Special Witnesses of Christ." We asked him about how he felt about all that we taught him. He said that it was very different from what he'd ever heard. We asked him if he prayed about it and got an answer that it was true if he would get baptised, by the proper authority. He said that he would. He leaves to the marines on monday. I sure hope he askes in faith. He seems to have "real intent." Elder Vaz and i might stop by his house and ask his parents how he's doing and then offer to teach them.
We taught the GRAHAM boys about the plan of salvation. They even came to church this sunday with their dad. We are going to teach them again tomorrow. If things go as scheduled and they continue to come to church and prepare themselves then they could be baptised on the 26th.

On saturday we did service again. this time in a little town by lake charles called Iowa, except it's pronounced Iway. I sent you a rippin sweet postcard. We just cut and hauled limbs. I think i drank ten bottles of water. I also got bit by fire ants, at least i think they were fire ants. they left big ole itch marks, that look kindof like mosquito bites except bigger. They got on me when i carried a log out to the street. They just all of a sudden started biting me.

On sunday we tried to visit some less actives and media referrals. At one house we knocked and they weren't home so we went across the street and tried to talk to some strangers. We started talking to the Father and then the wife came out and told us all about how the book of mormon is false and that we need to burn our book of mormon and leave the mormons because our souls are at stake. I felt so good while she was saying that stuff to know that the Book of Mormon is TRUE! We spent a little time talking to eachother, more like arguing sometimes. I tried to wrap things up in a caring way, and we left.

Tuesday, we were trying to find this guy that gave us his address. He lived in some apartments, and we were looking for his door. He said he lived in 1906 but there were two 1906's 1906A and 1906C. We knocked on both and on the second one we didn't find the guy but we found a lady who was really interested. We gave her a book of mormon and we said that we are teaching her more tomorrow.

11/16/05

Last thursday elder Chaney and i went on exchanges. It actually went much better than i thought it would. Nothing interesting happened until we went tracting and ran into a guy who had a copy of the Book of Mormon. He said that he agreed with everything in it except for the fact that it didn't mention anything about what happens after you die, if you are judge right then, or what. The amazing thing is that earlier that morning i had read Alma 39-41 which talks about just that! I was able to share some thoughts with him about that and then I left him with a card telling him the chapters that he should read. We got his number so we might go talk to him later on.

Later we went tracting again when we had more time. At the second house that we knocked on we met a real interesting guy. When he answered the door we introduced who we were and he said, "mormons." Then he invited us to sit down on his porch and he proceeded to tell us everything that was wrong with our religion. He told us all kinds of things, like how none of the churches are true on the earth, and about all of the stuff you might here in an anti mormon literature pamphlet. I wanted to be nice and let him get his word in but whenever i would start to say something he would cut me off with something else that he wanted to say. Eventually we ran out of time and when we left he prophesied, in the name of the Lord, that we would each have two dreams, and we'd forget the first one. We then told him about moroni's promise and left. He told us to come back sometime. It was a weird experience but i learned a few things from it. First of all i learned that i need to testify more. I need to bear testimony more often. I don't know if i even said, "I know" once while we were there. I also learned that i need to be more bold. I should have told him that we'd been nice and listened to him and now he needed to listen to us.
Next we had an appointment with SHAWNA. She is a really open minded person. I think she might accept the gospel. But she won't read the Book of Mormon yet. She has read through the entire old testament, which is quite a feat, and is currently in the book of John in the New Testament. She said that she didn't want to start reading the Book of Mormon until she finishes the Bible. I think that's probably alright since she's so openminded.
Oh yeah, thank you about your advice to warm before you warn. I have taken that to heart more and i have looked for ways that i can do that more. Also, as i have been praying for more courage to open my mouth it is happening. I am getting more excited about talking to people and i'm not so afraid. I'm glad I have Elder Vaz here, though to take over when i stumble.
After SHAWNA we went to the GRAHAM's house. The GRAHAM's moved in last month or so from the north side of Houston. They are an african american family. The parents are both member and the dad is a priest. Their two boys are 12 and 9. The two boys haven't been baptised. So far we have taught them about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ (which is what elder Chaney and i taught them that night), and about some commandments. Their baptism date is scheduled for the 3rd of December. They have to come to church at least 3 times and we have a few more lessons that we need to teach them. Last time that we visited them we set up the baptism date and we asked the dad is he wanted to baptise them and he said that he didn't. He said that he'd let us do it! So we have our first baptisms in this area coming up!!!! We also want to work toward getting the father ordained to the office of an elder and get them on the path to the temple. I'll keep you posted on what's going on.
Tonight we are going to visit a less active lady who is having a birthday. We are going to make a cake and bring it over with some of the ward members. She has been a member for a year and sort of fell away for a while. We are hoping to get here back to church so that she can go to the temple.

11/23/05

I was able to tell someone about the plan of salvation yesterday, and it was really cool. I was there to witness the lightbulb going off in her head. Elder Vaz and Chaney found her while they were on exchanges. She is a young woman, from about 18 to twenty something, we aren't sure what. We met with her yesterday and we are meeting with her again today. She asked what are the rules in our church and i explained to her that they can be seen as rules or guidelines, it depends on how you look at them. We then taught her a little bit about the plan of salvation and about how our father in heaven wants us to come back and live with him so he sent us here. While we are here we have to walk by faith because we have the veil placed over our minds. Then, the light clicked on, she got why we need to have faith. She wasn't really sure before, why her uncle would always tell her to have faith. We also taught her about the apostasy and about why there are so many churches and that made sense to her too. We taught all of this outside because her uncle is a minister for some church. i don't think he'll have too much sway on her but you never know.

Yesterday we went to deliver a media referral, the lady wanted a finding faith in christ DVD, and she wasn't home. So we decided to tract around the area because Preach My Gospel says that sometimes the Lord is preparing others in the area. We ended up giving away two copies of the Book of Mormon! It was pretty sweet!

11/30/05

On thursday brother potter took us to his family's Thanksgiving day celebration. Brother potter is awesome. He is a really funny guy. He likes to talk a lot, with a cool texan accent, and he has a lot of funny stories and views on life. Anyway, most of the people there weren't members and we got offered coffee more than once. It was a pot luck style dinner and we ate until it hurt. They had a lot of food and on top of that they had tons of desserts. Later they got out a guitar and we all sang songs. it was pretty fun. They had some hymn books from some other churches and i looked through them. They were interesting. I didn't know that there are that many "other hymns."
On friday all of the Houston missions gathered together at a central chapel and we all got to listen to elder Ballard talk to us. It was great! I took lots of notes. He spoke about why we aren't baptizing more people. He said a lot of good things, some of them were, talk to everyone, get members more involved, and have companionship study. Companionship study was one thing that he really stressed. He stressed having it every day. It's hard because on sundays we have to be at church early, so he said to have it after church. Some of these guys don't take it very seriously, and i probably haven't been either, but we need to do better at that. It was kind of unreal to see him up there. with us, the normal people. Before he closed the talk he left a blessing on us and there was a really neat feeling in the room. He has family down here and supposedly he speaks to the missionaries down here every thanksgiving.
The GRAHAMs are still getting baptized this saturday and then confirmed this sunday. Elder vaz said that i could do both baptisms since it was too much hassle to get all four of us wet. Elder beach interviewed them yesterday. They are sweet boys. Very quiet and very nice. I will tell you how the baptism goes.
I'll tell you about this sweet investigator that we have right now. Her name is JANE. We have been trying to contact her for a long time but she has been busy and probably pretty worn out because she was really pregnant. She just had her baby about two weeks ago. So about a week or so ago we visited her and we talked with her about the book of mormon and basically gave her a first lesson. i think she already had a book of mormon from the previous time the missionaries visited her a while ago.
It was a week before we visited her again. We asked her if she had done her reading and she said that she hadn't. We then watched the Restoration DVD. It was cool because earlier that morning, at district meeting, we talked about the importance of stressing the importance of the book of mormon. Jeffrey R Holland says that the first thing that you should do if the investigator has not read and prayed about the book of mormon is be devastated! So i really tried to stress to her the importance of reading the book of mormon. The other guys talked too and she even said that she wanted to get baptised. The spirit was really strong in the room and she pointed out that we bring the spirit with us. It was awesome! We are checking up on her again today.

12/7/2005

It's funny, i've gone from worrying about doorstep scenes to door approaches. I had the WORST door approach in the world the other day. We were tracting on monday morning, which is less effective anyway because no one is home, but we ran into a house where someone was home. The lady answered the door and I started talking to her about the book of mormon and how it is a record of prophets, just like the bible. I wasn't feeling it as i was talking and i really didn't know where I was going to go next so i stopped and said, "you know what, I don't know where i'm going with this." And then i turned to elder Vaz and let him take over. Fortunately, Elder Vaz was on his toes and he went right into explaining the Book of Mormon. After a little while I got my feet back under me and was able to explain a little more. It's funny now, pretty pathetic, but funny. Anyway, we were able to give a Book of mormon to this lady. We asked her to read and pray about it and she told us, "okay, give me...two weeks," then Elder Vaz explained to her that she didn't have to read the whole thing before she prayed about it. He said that she only needed to read chapter 11 of third nephi, and then she said that she needed a week. So we scheduled a return appointment for a week from now but i think that we should have just had her read the whole book of mormon.
On thursday we visited SHAWNA again. She had been gone a week for thanksgiving. We taught her for the last time before she goes up to live with her husband for the holidays. She still won't read the book of mormon because she still hasn't finished the bible. She did watch "Special Witnesses of Christ" although when she prayed about our message after she watched it she didn't feel like she received an answer yet. She had a bunch of questions, like why her sister can't drink her tea with caffeine when other church members can drink coca cola. She also asked about wearing gaments. She said that she wants to know everything that she has to do to become a mormon before she decides to because she doesn't want to commit to something she can't do. We explained that once you get that answer and you're committed to follow the example of Christ that there's nothing that can stand in your way with His help, of living the "mormon" life. We gave her a "Joy to the world" DVD to watch over the holidays. I hope her husband doesn't tell her to stop taking the lessons. we will check back with her on Jan 8th because that's when she gets back.
The big news is the baptism this last saturday. It went well. There were only about twenty people who showed up to the baptism. We got a picture with the boys and the family and then the program started. Pretty soon it was time for the baptisms. On the first one, JIMMY, i kind of just lowered him into the water and he opened his mouth and was coughing when he came up. It was by immersion, however, and after we established that he was okay, i baptised JAKE. I pulled the plug to the font and everyone left to go back to the relief society room. As i was just about to get dressed one of the members came running in and said that i needed to put the plug back in, that JIMMY needed to be baptised again. As it turns out his middle name is Lee, not leon, like i said, so we did it again. This time his hand came up out of the water and so, as you can imagine, he didn't really want to do it again. But we talked him into it and the third time was a charm, according to the witnesses. It's pretty funny, i've messed up every time i've done a baptism. I had to baptise mallory twice and now this. I think it's funny. The awesome thing is that every time i said the baptismal prayer i felt a peaceful strength inside. it was great.

12/12/05

Last wednesday, after e-mail, while we were shopping at a dollar store we ran into this guy who had been taught by the missionaries about three or four years ago. He said that when they left, however, that no other missionaries came to see him and they took his Book of mormon. We set up an appointment to see him next Friday. His name is GARY. He lives in a really nice apartment south of where we live.
When we got there he wanted to tell us what he remembered about Joseph Smith. We said okay and then listened to him tell us the joseph smith story in detail. He even knew the little details, such as the fact that he was born in Sharon, Vermont, in 1805, and about the angel moroni. Needless to say, we were amazed. Then he turned the discussion to us and asked how we knew that this was true. We both shared how we knew that the church was true but he wasn't satisfied. He said that many years ago he was part of a few different churches, such as the United Pentecostal Church, and he didn't like them because he felt like they were giving praise more to man than to God and that they didn't really accept or love him. So he left them and now he just sort of practices religion on his own. He is really big on unconditional love and that is good. He tells us that he is "hungry and thirsty."
He told us that he wants to talk to someone who has been in the "bondage" of another religion, and who left that church and then joined ours and found out it was true. Neither of us had that experience so that's why he wasn't satisfied with our explanations. The spirit was really there, though, and so that was awesome. We told him that we had someone at our church that had been a baptist all of his life and that he could talk to him at church on sunday.
Amazingly, he came to church on sunday! We were elated. We tried to explain things to him and he liked the sacrament meeting. The new investigator class wasn't as great though because the teacher was passing out a really complex drawing of the plan of salvation and explaining it to us. He was lost, and when the teacher asked if anyone had questions he told him that he was lost. The teacher then said that he'd leave it up to us to explain things to him.
After church we met with the baptism guy, whose name is brother Griffin. He's in his late twenties and he teaches seminary. He was great for GARY. They really connected on a few things. He really wants to learn more and really wants to know for himself if the church is true before he joins. We told him that he is exactly right and that we can have as many "bible study" sessions (as he calls them) as he wants. He was kind of afraid because he said that the last elders came and taught him the lessons, not discussed them so he could understand them, but taught them, and then they asked if he wanted to be baptised and asked him about how he's living and everything. Then they eventually left. I guess he just didn't want that to happen to him.
We are going to meet with him on tuesday night at Brother Griffin's house to have another "bible study" He is a great guy and i am excited for him.

12/14/05

I tell you what! I am enjoying my warm weather! It is Nice! But it is pretty cold in the mornings. But then it usually is a nice temperature. It hasn't ever gotten down to the forties like it did that one day.

So, I need to tell you about the ghetto. As I may have explained in past letters i live on the border of the ghetto. Elder Earl and Chaney (who got transfered to Louisiana and replaced by elder pearson) serve in the ghetto, which is called sunnyside. A common occurrance in the ghetto, so i hear, is a run down house, or trailer, with a huge screen T.V. in it. There are some interesting people in the ghetto too. Elder Klc went on exchanges over there and met a guy who spoke in tounges to him.
Anyway, on monday, after i e-mailed we went over to Kings Best Market, an indoor flea martket of anything that you could ever want in the ghetto, suits, grills (for your teeth), belt buckles, bling, sweatsuits made out of money patterns. It was quite the cultural experience. There were a few halls that we couldn't walk down because of the revealing posters. Anyway, i didn't get anything there, but we went to the HEB in sunny side and i got something for lance for christmas, some bling bling that you'd only find in sunnyside. It's pretty sweet, I'll send it as soon as i can.
I forgot to tell you but a week or so ago our landlord cooked for us. However we were at a teaching appointment so we didn't have time to eat with him before we left. When we got there it was just sitting there. It was some meat in a sauce to pour over some mexican rice. We ate it but the meat tasted kind of weird, we guessed it was pork. When our land lord got home he asked us, "how did you like the dinner?" We said it was good and then he said, "that was tongue." Elder Vaz just about died. I was excited but it was kind of weird knowing that little pieces of cow tongue were floating around inside of me.
Anyway, nothing too new is happening since monday. Last night we taught GARY again. We met at a members house, the one he talked to on sunday. At about 8:15 we met there and started explaining the plan of salvation to him. We should have started earlier because he really likes to talk. We didn't even get through earth life, but we did figure out that he didn't understand everything about Joseph Smith. We hope he comes to the Ward Christmas party on Friday.

12/21/05

There were two major things that happened this week. The first is the ward Christmas Party. That was awesome. It helped to make it feel more like Christmas. I have really grown to love this ward. GARY came too! That was cool because he could probably feel the spirit and he got to meet a few more of the ward members. He's a great guy but we won't be able to get back in touch with him for a while because he is spending a few weeks exclusively with his brother. That is what it is like with a lot of our investigators, because of the Christmas holidays.
The next cool thing that happened was Christmas Zone Conference. We had a gift exchange and sister lake read the "right left" stories, you know the one where you pass it to the right when you say "right" and vice versa. I got a "don't mess with texas" mug and some hot cocoa. We also got a tee shirt with the mission logo on it and a dvd with pictures from hurricane cleanup. I'm only in one of them but that's okay. Elder Willson, an elder who served during Christmas last year, in sunnyside, stood up with the rest of the elders in his area this year, and sang, "have yourself a very ghetto christmas." It was pretty hilarious! it even had a rap section. And then, before the gift exchange Elder Smith came in dressed up as "Matt Foley" the motivational speaker from saturday night live. It was a great zone conference, and there was a chocolate fountain, too.

12/28/05

I had a really good study on faith yesterday in Ether 12. In that chapter it talks about a lot of people in the Book of Mormon who did many things by faith. The key point to all of this, however lies in verse six, which says, they received a witness after the trial of our faith. For all of those people the witnesses and help came after the trial of our faith. I think that if we all remember that this earth is a probational period and that we are here to be tested, that everything will not be easy, then we will remember that we will receive help, after the trial of our faith. Even during the trial of our faith. But all of these amazing things that these people did were done after the trial of their faith.

We got back in touch with GARY and we are planning to meet with him again on Friday. We scheduled two hours for him because he really likes to talk.

Another round of photos

2005-12-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

OK folks. Here is another round of photos from Elder Chuch. He is still in the same place with the same companion and is doing well. They have quite a few investigators and he is having lots of adventures. He got to experience his first baptism last week (two young men).

Once again, the photo descriptions below are mostly in his own words. Any comments by me are shown in italics. Norm.

(click on each photo to enlarge)

A snake we found in Brother Terrence's cage. It ate about three little baby birds. One of the people in the house grabbed it with salad tongs and regular tongs. Justin said this happened on Halloween night. They were sitting there talking and they heard the birds going crazy. They went over to the bird cage and this snake was in the cage eating the baby birds.

This is funny. There is a less active lady who has had one too many visits from the hoem teachers or something. We've never actually seen her but every missionary that serves here has a picture by this sign.

All of us. (L to R) Elder Klc, Beach, Chuch, Vaz. This is on another service project in Louisiana cleaning up hurricane damage.

A cockroach on the wall one morning. I was less hungry after that.

My arm. While in Louisiana I was picking up a log and it was filled with fire ants. Those are all fire ant bites. They are almost all gone now but they were big and ugly before and they itched like nothing else!

Me in my rain proselyting attire. It was humid like a SAUNA! Behind me is some of Ram's Coke stuff. He collects it.

Me 'n Elder Vaz (in front of the Houston Temple)

The Zone.

Me 'n Earl.

What I do on Weds. E-mail.

Brother Potter and myself. Justin spent Thanks- giving day with Brother Potter.

On Thanks- giving day at Brother Potter's sister's house.

Stuffing myself with Thanks- giving dinner.

All the food. Actually, it was just part of the food. There were two more tables of food. I couldn't fit all of the photos.

Eating the cockroach clusters. Don't worry. This was a piece of candy sent by his little brother, Spencer.

Onward Christian soldiers!

Helping out at the Methodist kitchen.

Me waving goodbye.

First Photos from Houston

2005-11-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. Things have been crazy. Elder Chuch sent us a bunch of photos. He also sent us a written description for the photos. Each of the comments below are his words. Norm.

In the mission home

Our place.

Some of the hurricane damage in Lousiana.

This guy's house was hit by a tornado as well as a hurricane. We were cleaning up all of the stuff from his car port and putting it in piles. It was sad, there were trophies, video tapes, clothes, the family's life in there.

Elders Vaz, Beach, Chuch, Rich.

This picture was taken at a member family's house, the Davises. They had a rat in their attic and so they let the dogs loose up there and they caught it and brought it down. I haven't seen much game besides that. I've seen TONS of squirrels! They're scamperin' around everywhere! I even saw one squished flat on the road but I didn't have my camera with me. I haven't seen any armadillos. I did see a possum in the church parking lot the other day but it was pretty far away.

Dontrell, Elders Jones & Vaz. Dontrell lives somewhere around here. He is working on his mission papers and he helps A LOT of the missionaries. He knows TONS of them. He might know all of them. He is an AWESOME guy. He is very friendly, we are good friends already. Down here your trainer is called your "Dad" and so Dontrell explained how I'm related to all of the other elders. For example, Elder Webb is Elder Vaz's "brother" and so Elder Webb is my "uncle" and the missionary that he trained is my "cousin". One day I was telling him how much I like Bluebell ice cream and the next day when we were by a store he bought me three half gallon containers of banana pudding, chocolate chip cookie dough, and strawberry. He's very generous and is driving missionaries everywhere. I'm going to be fat because of him.

All of the elders in my zone = standing up (L to R): Elder Rich, Elder Abel, Elder Beach, Elder Setterberg, Elder Chaney, Elder Pirente, Elder Tanzie, Sister Maycock, Elder Huish, Elder Maycock, Elder Earl. Kneeling (L to R): Elders Jones, Vaz, & Webb (my uncle).

Elder Pirente - going back to BYU-I.

Thanks for the pumpkin. It adds to the halloween decor.

A tradition around here is to trade ties with your companion. This is how many ties I had before we traded.

My one missionary mall tie on the left. Elder Vaz said this is what he'd trade for it (on the right, 15 ties). He said that that's what he'd remember Elder Jones by. I really liked that tie, but I couldn't pass it up for 15 ties. So now.....

... I have about 19 ties.

My first Texas rainstorm!

October 26 Update

2005-10-27T08:51:00.000-06:00

Here are excerpts from Justin's latest letter:

"Today we went and played football at a field at the University of Houston. It was a nice break. It was nice weather too! Guess what! It actually was COLD here the other day! It was crazy. We hopped on our bikes to deliver a media referral and we were chilled to the bone. But today was really nice."

"I think if the astros lose i will tell everyone that they are being called to repentance, but i don't know how well that will go over."

Ummm..... No, I don't think that would be such a good idea. Trust me on this one.

"We have been helping a member in our ward fix up one of his houses that he is going to be renting out. We have been cutting tree limbs and loading them in his truck. We did that last thursday, friday, and maybe saturday. We had the adult session of Stake conference on Saturday for the Houston East stake. It was REALLY good. It was about being spiritually and temporally prepared. Thank you all for helping me to become spiritually prepared. It really is what we should all focus on. We still only have two investigators. We taught our first second lesson to ____ on monday. He took it pretty well, but he had a lot of questions. He told us he is a democrat and asked what our position was on gay rights and all that stuff. We're teaching him again on saturday or something.
Our other investigator is a woman whose sister joined the church. She actually asked us to come and teach her. We're teaching her again on Thursday."

"By the way, I cleaned the bathroom today. It was DISGUSTING!!!!! I took pictures so you could see the difference."

Woohoo!

Chuch in Astro-Land

2005-10-20T10:11:00.000-06:00

Justin sent us a new message on 10/19/05. He now has an official e-mail address:

texas_mc@myldsmail.net (mc-mother chuch...get it?)

Please use this from now on. Also, it appears that anyone can send him e-mail, but he can only send e-mail to his family. However, I believe he is allowed to send regular mail to anyone. If he includes a shout-out to any of you in one of his e-mails, I will forward it to you. I will also post excerpts from his letters on this blog.

Here are some excerpts from this week's letter:

"Anyway, this past week has been great! I have been doing pretty well at adjusting. Thanks again for all of the letters and the e-mails and the love. I will try to get letters out but i don't have too much time."

"So, you want more of the nitty gritty eh? Well, I have heard about the astros. Boy have i heard about the astros. Did you hear about that game that went into eighteen innings? Well we had a dinner appointment that night and the father of the household would go outside and cook the chicken only when the game wasn't on. It was kind of funny. We ended up staying there longer than we were supposed to. Then about three nights ago we went over to another dinner appointment that was during an astros game and the people there didn't even stand up to greet us, they just said, the food's over there, help yourself. Then two nights ago our neighbors had a huge crowd over to watch the last game, the one they lost in the ninth. and they were partying and shouting and clapping and carrying on until they lost or something...we didn't know that they lost until the next day. All we knew is that there partying kept us up for a while. But that's okay."

"We have a lot of inactives in our ward and we have tried to visit a lot of them but many aren't home. That's kind of discouraging, you drive all the way out there just to find that they're not home, you feel like you're wasting your time. But as long as we're working hard. There's one inactive lady that has a sign on her front gate that says, "No Trespassing" then below it she has written in, "especially mormons/lds" it is HILARIOUS. We will have to get a picture with it sometime."

"We are in a car share area, which means that Elder Vaz and myself share a car with the other companionship in the area. We always end up going over our alloted amount of miles so we might have to take a few extra bike days before the transfer is over."

"Yesterday we had a combined district meeting and we talked about sacrifice. We all went around and told about something that we sacrificed. I remembered that before my mission i was so pumped up and didn't consider it a sacrifice at all...and i took strength in that. I know that the Lord can make so much more out of me than i ever could out of myself. My mission is finally here, and as I give it my all, and move forward with faith, the Lord will make more out of me than i ever could of myself. I want to be the BEST i can be."

First Letter from Texas

2005-10-12T12:13:00.000-06:00

We just got our first "letter" from Elder Jones in the form of an e-mail message. Here are some excerpts:

"President and Sister Lake are AWESOME. ... Then we went to the mission home and we had some briskett sandwiches that were really good and some BLUEBELL ICE CREAM!!! Oh man, that stuff really is the best! I've had it about twice now and i LOVE it."

"Anyway, then we went to a nearby chappel and we were assigned to our new companions. My companion/trainer is Elder Vaz. He has been out for ten months. He is from brazil and can speak portuguese. Since spanish and portuguese are very similar he usually takes care of our spanish contacts. ... He's a really nice, easygoing guy."

"The first day we placed four copies of the Book of Mormon and those four people told us to come back and teach them. When we came back to two homes they weren't at home, we haven't visited the other two yet. When we're tracting people mostly just say, 'thank you but i'm not interested,' or 'thank you but i'm baptist.' But i know that i can't let it get me discouraged. I have to be like moroni and mormon who knew that the people wouldn't accept the gospel but they preached it because God commanded them to. It just seems like the field is not so white down here. It's more like the song, 'Ye elders of israel', 'We'll gather the wheat from the midst of the tares...'"

"Yesterday we went and volunteered at a soup kitchen like the food and care coalition except it was at the Methodist Church. I've already seen a few cockroaches, one or two big ones in our house. I even took a picture of one that my companion stepped on."

Also, Justin's new address is as follows:

Elder Justin Jones
8423 Glencrest
Houston TX, 77061

He is still waiting on his lds.org e-mail account. For the time being, he is using his gmail account (bluesteel86@gmail.com).

Norm

Mormon Boot Camp

2005-10-09T16:42:00.000-06:00

Justin was scheduled to leave the MTC for Houston on September 27th. However, on the previous weekend, Hurricane Rita went ripping right up the heart of Justin's mission. Beaumont, Lake Charles, Port Arthur and all of the other cities you hear about on the news are all in Justin's mission. As a result, the entire mission relocated to Austin for a few days and Justin and his fellow Houston-bound missionaries had to cool their heels in the MTC for one extra week. He finally left on Tuesday, October 4th. At the time of this writing, we still have not heard where he ended up. We will make a post as soon as we hear something.

Here are some photos he sent us from the MTC:

Striking the pose

Honing those grinding skills

The ever-popular map photo

Singing around the "tree of life"

Hmmm.... How did they do that?

Self-portrait

Justin's MTC companion, Elder Bills

Justin's MTC district

The Sendoff

2005-10-09T16:19:00.000-06:00

Justin entered the MTC on September 7, 2005. It was a bittersweet day. We were happy and proud of Justin for making this choice and preparing himself. But it sure was tough to say goodbye. Here are some photos from the fateful day:

Justin's homeboys giving him a fond farewell on the night before.

Packing the bags with the family.

The obligatory photo in front of the MTC entrance.

Just before the final departure.

Elder Chuch with his brand new nametag.

Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where...

2005-10-09T14:20:00.000-06:00

This is Justin's dad, Norm Jones. Justin is currently serving a two-year mission for the LDS Church in the Texas Houston East Mission. I have decided that the best way to keep everyone up to date on Justin's mission is to create a blog for him. I will use this blog to post excerpts from his letters and e-mails and to post photos. I may even throw in a few tidbits about the Jones Family in general. If you have any comments or suggestions, please drop me a note at njones61@gmail.com.