April 30, 2013

Hey Family,

April Fools… Again… haha just kidding, on Saturday it was Sierra Leon’s Independence day so Monday was still a holiday so they pushed our emailing back to today. Sorry yeah.

Well, it is good to hear from you all. Things are going good here. Wow shiree said that Danna Stuart got her call to Berlin Germany!? Wow wow wow. That is so awesome. If you see her tell her congrats for me. Wow. The work is true.  Hey mom, you said to write a note for Mrs. Farnes. I will get that in next week’s email so that I can think of what to say and make it meaningful. I just got your letters the other day and didn’t have much time to write her a meaningful note.

My companion would like you to send that picture of us hiding from the bread lady to his mother. I’m sure she would enjoy it and then I’m sure you two would love to chat about us on mission as companions.

The bread lady that usually comes to sell bread to us has been very
awkward lately and different things. So we saw her coming this morning
so we hid under the desk to do our studies. we were there for a while
because she just keeps hanging around the compound. haha

You asked a question about everybody’s reading level. Well… it really isn’t that high. Sometime you can get somebody who reads really well like this young man Edmond, I’ll tell more about him soon. But a lot of the people struggle to really read well and don’t always understand. For those who can’t read we just teach them words like Lord, God, and Jesus Christ and have them go through and find those words, highlight them and then whenever they look at the pages they can see how much the Book of Mormon talks about our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Going back to Edmond, he is a 21 year old male who is probably one of my favorite people that I’ve been teaching on mission. Our very first lesson with him was a little rocky because there was tons of little kids running around and noise and what not. But when we went back later everything just was perfect. The guy is Amazing! He reads every assignment at least two or three times and understands the first time.  Last Saturday, the 20^th we had a small program in the branch that we missionaries put on and we just did scripture trivia. The last question we asked was, what happened to Korihor after he asked Alma for a sign. Well… It took everybody like 10 plus min to find the answer. The next day we went to go see him and he had just opened randomly to read the night before and he read the story of Korihor and could tell us it all perfectly. It was so awesome and we wished he had been there to answer the question.  But this Saturday we went back to him and it was probably on Thursday we had given him the assignment to just start from the beginning and read. We got there Saturday morning and he had read till 1 Nephi 12. Wow! Not many people get that far. Even members who have been in the church for some time can’t get that far. And the best part was that he understood it all. When he was explaining about Lehi’s dream he had kind of forgotten how to call the Iron Rod and we showed the picture to him and his face light up and pointed exclaiming That’s it! He’s never seen the picture before but just from reading he knew it when he saw it. How awesome.

Edmond will be baptizing this Saturday with one other young man named Charles. Charles was supposed to baptize on the 27^th, just barely but when we showed up to the church somebody had pulled the plug and emptied all the water from the font……. You mean to say that I toted water on my head from the well to the font for like three plus hours last week just to have an empty font! What? Some members here just don’t understand. It was very frustrating but all in going to be okay because it will go through this Saturday.

Things are going good here. We’ve got some solid investigators and they are doing well. We are always just trying to find more to make sure the work doesn’t slow down at all. O, we got transfer news finally. No change for my companionship which is nice. We only had one change in the district which was very shocking and nobody expected it. But all will be well as the new elder comes to work.

Hey, I need all of the measurements for Mom, Shiree, I guess Brooke (we might have to wait on that one for some small time) and Katie. I’m going to make you some Africana Dresses and so I will need all measurements for each so I can give them to the tailor. Can you collect them all and give them to me so I can get started on them because it might take a while and I want to do it while I know I’ll be in the area for a while longer.

Well, that is about it. I feel like I had something else to say but I forgot. There is always next week which should be Monday and not Tuesday.  O ya. Mom you forgot to say where Trever Fry is going. You can’t just keep telling me people are going on mission and not saying where they are going then you get me all side tracked for the week. Haha.

Love you tons. Sorry for the delay.

Love Elder Jones.

E-mail To Dad:

Hey Dad,

Hope all is going well at work for you this morning. Things are going good for us out here. We are having success and fun. The investigators are doing well and we've got a good bunch of them progressing which always makes things nice.
I'm excited to hear about Braedon getting ready to go. That'll be exciting. Wow, that took me a little bit too long to realize who katie was... I was thinking, which cousin is named katie or which neighbor and different things. Sometimes i still forget that she is joining the family. You can't blame me though I've never met her. :)

As yesterday we weren't able to come and email and shop my companion and i spent the entire day rearranging the room and cleaning. Our desks have been at the window and all of the little kids come and stand there saying gimmie gimmie gimmie and being very loud and distracting. As of this last week they have been very out of control and so we had the last of it and made the change. Last night and this morning were so peaceful and we were able to have a full study time which was amazing.

The week was good. My companion and I are still together for this transfer which is going to be nice. we've got some big goals that we feel we can really accomplish which will be very sweet. Some of those goals we have are to become more like the Savior. Trying to boost our Christ like Attributes. Each day we are trying to find something that will help us increase our faith. It is a lot harder than we thought it would be to think of something physical and attempt or do that for the day to build or establish faith. But we know that as we continue to work our hardest and just do everything possible that we will be able to have that faith as like unto Nephi, Ammon, the Strippling Warriors and all the others. Especially like the brother of Jared and how he saw the Lord. That is our main goal. Yes, it is a lofty goal. But we figure why not make our goal the best goal if we are going to have one. :) Even if we can't achieve that goal now, here, it sure will take us a lot farther than not having a goal like that.

Well, I have to go. I love you tons.
Hope you have a great week.

Love your son,
Elder Jones

Letter From Skyler:

Hey spencer,

 it is me skyler and I had a cool experience this Sunday, we were learning about the book of mormon and how it is the keystone to our religion and without it we would fall apart. we were given a challenge by Brother Grant and it was to give a book of mormon to someone who doesn't go to church, and he said if you don't accept the challenge he will take the book of mormon back, and we all stood up and he started to cry, I have a perfect person to give it to and I have talked to him and he will take it but first I will invite him to a scout activity first before I give him the book. I wanted to let you know this experience and how I thought of you because this is a challenge to become a better missionary in the future. I love you a lot and hope you write back.

   Spencer's Reply:

         Hey Sky,
             That is awesome. I'm so proud of you. Keep up the good work and the Lord will bless you in your missionary experiences. As you continue to look for people to invite the Lord will provide as long as you are willing to do your part. That is something I have learned as I have asked Heavenly Father to hep me find people to teach it isn't until I have the courage to open my mouth and talk to them when he blesses my companion and I with people to teach and invite to church. I'm happy you've accepted the challenge and I encourage you to continue. Love you buddy.
Love Elder Jones