4.29.11 letter

Hey all!

Hope everything is going well back home! How was the Easter party? How's life? :)

Everything is going good here. Elder Wenzel is an interesting fellow! He is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Everyone here calls him a 'Canuck!' He is pretty chill but way tall! He's been out about 11 months, so if I stay with him for one more transfer, I'll be with him at his year mark, which is cool.

Right now I'm being follow-up trained. So that basically means I'm not a 'greenie' anymore, and I'm not my trainer's slave - but I still gotta do what my senior comp tells me. So it's nice. :)

We taught 22 lessons this week, which is cool. We only saw two investigators, because the rest either cancelled or went home. Bummer! Next week is gonna be better, tho. It's all good.

So, how is the challenge I gave you going? The 'Be the family that missionaries love' one? Hope you guys are taking it to heart! Not much really happened in the way of interesting things... There is always different funny things that are said if you wanna hear any of those - just let me know!

Here are a couple things I figure you guys might like! And the MTC map is for Brett - have him study it up so he doesn't feel stupid and look lost like I did! Haha!

I love you guys and miss ya. I'll actually be calling you guys here in under two weeks! Work up & write down questions now! :D

Hope to hear from you all soon!

With love,

Elder Jones

PS - This is our phone number at the bottom of the temple card. Please DO NOT CALL OR TEXT this number. I'm just sending it so when I call in a couple weeks you don't ignore it. :P

PPS - Tonight we helped give a blessing... and Brother Yoshihiko Shimokowa, or 'Yoshi' for short, sealed the blessing and gave the blessing all in Japanese. I couldn't understand anything he said, but the Spirit was amazingly strong and I knew that he was saying what the Lord wanted him to say. I feel honored to have stood in. :)

PPPS - Here is a talk that has helped me tremendously. If you guys could read it as a family, that would be awesome. :)

[you can find the talk here]

As for what he included that he thought we might like...

4.24.11 emails

General email:

"Hey all!

Everything is going good here in the Hand-State! Taught 22 lessons which was cool. This next week is gonna be super busy! But I'm looking forward to it!

Happy belated Easter eveyone!! Tell me how it was for all of you! I had an awesome Easter! We had 3 dinner appointments last night. I'm not gonna be hungry for the next stinkin' week!!! Haha... but it was all amazing!

Not too many exciting things happening here! I'm learning more "city talk" but I don't quite know how to say or spell it through an email! But it's fun!

I have a new companion and his name is Elder Wenzle. He is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is pretty chill and super tall. I'm excited to be with and work with him over this next transfer! I'm no longer considered a "greenie" anymore, which is cool :).

Well that's about it! If you guys want the letter longer, you "gotsta axe the questions"! Haha.

Peace out - Elder Jones"

and to me, answering a few of my questions:

"Everything is going good with the comp, he is pretty chill for the most part. He is senior comp because he is my follow up trainer. But that's in the letter I'm sending today ;). We do get dinner with the members sometimes and I have stuff back at the apartment for food from the weekly allowance, so if you plan on spending any money for food to send me... you could just send the cash so I can use it for other things :) like b-days and such. And the pictures would be better if you just got them printed as regular pics and sent them. I can't look at 'em through the week if they're on the computer, and it's easier to store 'em if they are regular pics :) Thanks though :) love you! E"

4.22.11 letter

Letter we received today (written Monday the 18th, I think).

Hello all!

How goes it? :D

Everything's going good here! I'm stoked & bummed at the same time. Stoked because right now I have 3 inches of flippin' snow and it's gonna snow more! And I'm bummed because we got transfer calls on Saturday, and Elder Adair is leaving, and I'll be staying.

Did you guys get the pictures I sent home?

I am starting to really love the people here. I was worried because everyone was kind of stand-off-ish at first, but all the kids have got to be friends with me, and their parents have warmed up. So that's cool. I've only been here a few weeks and I have favorite members! You guys should have the missionaries over more. I challenge you to be one of the missionaries' favorite members!

Brett - I want you to be that kid that I love out here and wished I could have been. If you are already, then fantastic - but I want you to go with the missionaries at least once a week. It will not only help them, but it will teach you so much!

Mom - Thank you sooooo much for the blanket & sweatshirt. I use 'em both daily! Haha. And thank you for everything else! I thought I did OK budgeting-wise, but it's hard when you only get $133 a month! I'm trying to figure out how to A) rebuild the $100 emergency fund B) get a new backpack and C) get both suits dry cleaned (they both need it bad!). I'll get-r-done, though - I'll figure it out!

Dad! Congrats on the job! I seriously am SO HAPPY for you! Just keep pushing forward & I know you'll make it through those hard first few months!

Ben - Wassup bud! I hope you're listening & behaving well! I have a picture of you and the picture you sent me on the wall. Don't forget to say your prayers!

Emily - Hey there! Thank you SO much for the candy and the card. :) It made me smile! :D I still haven't heard about your birthday yet, though!

OK! So! Umm... I don't know, not much else has happened this last week. Oh well. LOL

It'd be cool if you could send me like two of Jenni's books? One for me, and one for President Holmes. I'll give that one to him to see if he'll approve it or not.

And that's cool about General Conference! I'm glad you guys took such great notes! I took like 15 or something around that number.

Oh and do you think you could send a list of the birthdays in the family & how old they're gonna be?

Oh and Brett, how'd missionary week go???

Well, I think that's about it for now.

Love ya guys!

Elder Jones

4.19.11 email: Transfer!

So today was transfer meeting! I got a new companion and his name is Elder Wenzel; he is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. But when he goes home he will call Utah home. He is stinkin' tall at 6' 5" so I feel short around him! Peace out! Elder Jones

4.18.11 email

>Hey there all! Everything is going good here. We taught 23 lessons and found a couple new investigators! I'm pretty stoked about it. On Saturday we got transfer calls and Elder Adair will be leaving, and I will be staying here in Howell for another 6 weeks! I almost got hit by a stinking car in in the crosswalk hahaha it was pretty funny! And we were tracting down an old dirt road and got flipped off by like 4 people in 3 cars... or something like that! It just makes me laugh! The weather here was super nice till this morning! I woke up with 3 stinking inches of snow all over! It quit about an hour ago which is good. Looks like I won't be playing baseball on this p-day! haha Well that's about it, I think. Hope to hear from you guys soon! Peace out. Love, Elder Jones

4.15.11

Received a letter today! I think it was written on Monday the 11th.

Hey there!!

I feel bad because I don't really have much to say, because I sent a letter last Thursday!

The only things that have happened were: I went on my first exchanges with the zone leaders and in doing that, we got two sweet potentials and a new investigator! His name is Peter Sicheneder, I don't know how to pronounce it - haha! But he said he'd read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

We have another sweet investigator named Gerardo Luna. He should be getting close to baptism, which is awesome!

Oh! And later today and pretty much this whole next week I'll be on exchanges with the Brighton Elders! That should be fun!

Well, I gotta get going. Love you guys, you're in my prayers!

With love,

Elder Jones

He sent quite a few photos I will post as soon as I can get to the scanner. :)

Now with photos, including the captions he wrote on the backs of the photos. :)

Elder Adair @ CVS

Evan jumping over Bro. Lara

Elder Adair & I at the temple

Elder Adair & I at the temple

Elder Adair in the car

Just thought Dad & Brett would like this!

Longhorn steers - in Michigan!

Bison - in Michigan!?

More bison - in Michigan!

A YAK in Michigan!

A CAMEL in Michigan!!

So, in this one picture, you can literally see a yak, a camel, bison AND longhorn steer out in some guy's field in Howell, MI.

4.11.11

Double the fun today. :)

Shortest email yet, I think:

Hey there. Everything's goin' good over here! It was stayin' chilly till yesterday! It got up to like 82! I HATE humidity! Anyways, had a busy week! Umm.... not much to write about haha. Hit me up! Peace out! - Elder Jones

But luckily, we also got a good letter today, written last Thursday:

Family!

Hey all! This last week and a half has gone by in the blink of an eye!

The weather is looking up and literally, if you wait 5 minutes, the weather will change.

Hopefully, this next week we'll be on bikes more. They cut our mileage down from 1275 a month to 1170, so that stinks.

We have only one really sweet investigator that is actually progressing - his name is Gerardo L. He can't be baptized because he works on Sunday, and investigators have to come to church at least 3 times before we can dunk 'em, haha, but he said he'd try to get his schedule changed around for this month. We'll see!

Today I went to the Detroit Temple for the first time! It was sweeeeeeeet! It was my 2nd time ever doing an endowment and I learned a lot more. We can only go once a transfer (or 6 weeks) so I won't be going for a while.

How's everything back home? I know that's a really broad question, but I wanna know everything! Haha.

Well, I hope all is well & fair back home. I love you guys and I hope to hear from ya soon! Peace out.

Love, Elder Ethan "Nye-Nye" Jones

PS! - What the heck is up with the MERIDIAN TEMPLE?!?!?!

Do you know where it's gonna be??????

Oh, and me & Elder Adair were wondering if you could send me the CD we have by Sons of Provo, and any other Christian songs or bands. They don't have to be LDS, just songs about Jesus would be nice! Thanks! Love ya!

Also tucked in with the letter was a page ripped off a "You might be a redneck if..." page-a-day calendar. He wrote on the back, "I thought you might like this!" It reads: "You might be a redneck if... You recycle for the income, not the environment." Sooo true! Although I prefer to call it 'utilizing our available resources.' LOL

4.7.11

P-day was moved to Thursday this week, so this week's email was delayed a bit. :) Not that waiting the few extra days meant he had more to say...

Hello all! Hope everything is goin' good back home, it's all goin' good here. Nothing really exciting for the most part. The weather is looking up which is nice! We've been way busy, which is cool. Hmm... I think that's about it, ha. I'll hit y'all up on Monday! Hope to hear from ya! Peace out - Elder Jones

I happened to be at the computer when the email came in, and I sent back this quick note:

You *do* realize you're killing me with these 3-sentence "letters", right?

:D

Mom

Luckily, he was still at the computer, and he wrote back:

What do ya mean? It's an e-mail, not a letter :P

No one asks questions, so I have nothing to say! lol

So.... how about we all send him lots of questions so he has lots of things to tell us, ok? :)

A few minutes later he sent a family email, which is a tad bit longer:

Thank you for all of the pictures! :) I used one to make a mormon.org profile. I went to the temple for the first time out here today, which was cool. It was different, but really nifty. Nothing really too much going on here. We have an investigator coming along nicely! And I did new missionary orientation yesterday, or 2 days ago, I think, and we did the math - I won't be able to drive till December hahahaha so that's fun! I keep waiting for the package with my sweatshirt and blanket to get here but it's not :( Hope it comes soon though!!! I don't know how much letter time I will have today, but I will for sure get one off to you and Gramma. If I don't have the time, I'll throw it in my letter that you need to tell Tammi that she won't be getting one this week. Well, that's about it, I think! love ya!