MY DISTRICT GETS TO GO CLEAN THE TEMPLE TODAY! I AM SO PUMPED, I HAVEN'T WORKED IN THE TEMPLE FOR SO LONG!

Heia!

 

I haven't had a chance to go pick up that dear elder yet!  Today is a busy day!  My district gets to go clean the Provo temple today!  I am so pumped, I haven't worked in the temple for so long!

 

About the boots, I tried my ecco's on that I have now with a pair of big socks and they seem to work fine. They are size 45's.

 

Nothing super cool has happened since Tuesday, but I still love every day here!  We have gotten a lot of snow here, it was so fun to have a white Christmas!  I have continued to study and work hard over the past couple days. 

 

I have been working hard to learn more about the Spirit and how to use it and recognize it.  The thing that I think has helped most is sincere prayer.  It is funny but since I have gotten here prayer has become such an amazing tool to seek guidance and direction.  As we pray more sincerely we gain the influence and compansionship more closely in our lives.  We are telling Heavenly Father that we are ready and willing to do what He wants and we will listen when He tells us to do stuff.  It really is a wonderful thing.

 

Other than that we got to teach the law of Chastity for the first time to our investigators.  That was a fun experience.  It is funny how two 20 year old kids can come as representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ and ask people to do such hard things.  When you think about it this whole concept of missionary work probably doesn't make any sense.  I know that the authority of our Savior Jesus Christ is with us and because of the faith that we have missionaries have the power to do anything that the Lord requires.  This includes asking people to do hard things.  I know that as we do them the people that we teach will be blessed and we will be.  It says that the windows of heaven will open and there will not be room enough to recieve it.  I know this is true of any of God's commandments.

 

I have to go get lunch before going to the temple. 

 

Jeg elsker deg!

 

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones

BONUS EMAIL FROM CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!

Hei sann! God Jul! (Merry Christmas, pronouced gu yul)

 

Thank you so much for the Packages and all the stuff you got me!  It made my day so awesome!  I love the pajamas and the sweaters and I am wearing one of the new ties right now!  

 

The mtc president is giving all the missionaries some time to email home today! I am so happy that I could send something on Christmas.

We just had a wonderful message from Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles. He spoke about a lot of different things. Mostly it was just counsel for us when we get to the field. I love every time I hear an apostle of the lord speak to me; one can feel the power of there testimony every time.

I have been learning and growing everyday here in the MTC and it seems that the last two weeks have been the best. This week we got two of our current investigators to commit to baptism! I cannot tell you the Joy that fills your soul when a person decides to come unto Christ.

I am so thankful for the blessing it has been to learn more of the Savior here. I love Him so much. He did in reality give His life for each and everyone of us. During this Christmas day think of that. Think of Jesus Christ. Take some time to read out of third Nephi and try to understand the Lord more intimately. I know that he did come to the Americas and that he came so that we would have the Book of Mormon- Another Testament of Jesus Christ. We come closer to him everytime we read it, there is no Book that can do it in the same manner. I have learned of it's divinity through sincere prayer. As promised throughout the Book of Mormon we can know the truth of all things through the power of the holy ghost.

Sincere prayer to invite the Holy Ghost is not easy, nor should it be. The atonement of Jesus Christ was not easy, nor should Salvation be. I ask you to kneel in sincere prayer to the Lord and thank him for what you have in this life. Let the spirit guide you in prayer and let the Lord tell you what to ask for. I have discovered that my prayers are so much more meaningful when I allow the spirit direct them.

 

Choose to share this with others that they might feel the Joy that we have.  Missionary work can only be sucessful if we have members helping.  The investigator, missionary, and member must all want the conversion process to work before it can. 

 

This has been a wonderful Christmas day.  I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and I hope you can tell everyone hei for me!  I love every letter I get from you so thanks for them!  They are the best.  Let me know how your Christmas goes!

 

Jeg elsker deg mama min!  Jeg hoper at dere skal ha en bra jul! 

 

Vi ses!

 

Din sonn,

Eldste jones

GOD JUL! (MERRY CHRISTMAS)

Hei Hei!  God Jul! (Merry Christmas)

 

I love all of the gifts that you have sent me!  They are awesome... and somewhat of a distraction haha.  Haha thanks so much for the ties!  Me and Eldste E love them! 

 

I talked to my teachers and they said that the ecco high tops with Gortex would be perfect for boots.  I can't  think of anything that I need at the moment.  Everything is perfect!  the jackets are great and both work super well.  We have had a lot of snow here the past week, I love it.

 

Language is coming great, everyone is really starting to pick up on it.  I am starting to feel wierd saying prayers in english and what not, so there is definitely some progress haha.  Investigators are coming well.  We got two more, Remi and Mikal. They are both awesome.  No commitments yet but they all love the Book of Mormon and just have some stuff that they need to work on and we have a lot of work to do to get them commited to baptism.

 

Here are some of the stories from this week. It has been such a good one!

 

This week had been full of ups and downs. We will start with the downs cause the ups are so freaking awesome! Anyways, so the tri-panionship of the the Norskies has been struggling. So Eldste E, Sister S, and me all teach together since we are the only Norwegian speakers here right now. We have really been struggling to teach the people and not teach lessons. It is a real abstract idea but it really makes you focus on the spirit during planning, studying, and teaching. We haven't really made any real headway with the people we have taught in the light of moving them toward baptism but we have definitely suceeded in bringing them closer to God and Jesus Christ. So this week after a particularily bad lesson we came together with our teachers and focused on solving the problem. I am proud to say that we are doing much better now and have had several great lessons. I love learning and growning, it really is a cool thing.

Now for my coolest story of the MTC yet. Over the past two weeks Eldste E, Aldste A, Aldste M, and I have been studying together how to become like Dan Jones, Wilford Woodruff, Alma, Amulek, and other very successful missionaries (Aldste A and Aldste M are our zone leaders that are going to Sweden). We have beeen pouring over the Book of Mormon looking for things to help us understand that better. This intially started when we read the Sweden mission dedicatory prayer and heard that the European dedicatory prayer as well as the Norwegian dedicatory prayer all have promised blessings of a second harvest. With the hastening of the work we decided now might be the time. When Elder Holland came on Thanksgiving he also said that our group of missionaries would be the ones to "hit it out of the park." Needless to say all of these things made us really excited. Two sundays ago we came together to meet after we were challenged by our district president in the MTC to be the missionaries that would baptize thousands. We began to read the scriptures, trying to understand what makes great missionaries. Each of us finding a piece of the puzzle that would help make us better. These scriptures include Ether 12, Moroni 7 and 10, and Alma 26:22, the stories of the stripling warriors and much more. At the end of these study sessions we would pray for the things that we would think would make us better, and I cannot describe the level of the spirit that would fill our souls. The Lord was telling us to continue.

We did continue, we have had several more meetings together and countless more witnesses to move forward with the challenge to baptize thousands. I believe that I can.

On tuesday Night we had a devotional. It was Elder C. Scott Grow of the Seventy. He began by saying that  when he was preparing for his talk he started out with basing his remarks on Christmas, but the spirit prompted him to change his remarks. I know that this prompting was for me and for the other three elders that were studying with me. He then began his talk with a story of a missionary who changed his mission in which he was presiding by obtaining a baptismal number of 23 where the previous highest number was 11. The mission became alive and had soon baptized nearly quadrupled the previous mission statisics. He then described and used every single scripture that we had studied for the two weeks prior to that. He described how we need 4 things: faith, obedience, sacrifice, revelation. Each one of these topics used one of the scriptures above.  The spirit remained with me the entire night. I knew that everything he said had personal importance to me. I know that I have a mission that will influence thousands. I know that through my sacrifice and obedience I can obtain the faith and revelation necessary to baptize thousands. When I met him after he looked me in the eye and said "people are going to tell you that baptisms do not happen in Norway. Do not believe them."

 

I love this witness that I have been blessed with.  I know that the Lord has something that he is preparing me for.  I believe that I can influence thousands and be the missionary the Lord would have me be.  I know that we are blessed and we submit to the Lord and give him our will. It is really the only thing that we have to give to him.  We give all that we have he will give us all that he has.  This is our promise.

 

Jeg elsker deg!  Jeg sier alt i Jesu Krist navn, amen.

 

Eldste Jones

 

THE FIRST PICTURES FROM MY MISSIONARY

Hey there!

 

So I just finished lunch and I am writing you before I got to the temple.

 

To answer your question about gym, everything is going great.   I play basketball everyday.  I have noticed that my knees are sore but its nothing bad.  It is not nearly as bad as it was during football.  Other than that I haven't really been sick, but I have had a runny nose for like the past week or so.

 

We had an elder that had to go home last week from one of the english districts in our branch.  He had problems from anxiety and what not though.  Other than that we are all holding up pretty well.  We are all loving the work and growing really close.  It has been a real blessing to be with the swedish elders and sisters as well, they were the other people in those pictures I sent you.  We might as well be one district here.

 

Visa's as it turns out, are no longer required for norway, just a work permit.  We went in today actually and signed it and they are sending them over to Norway soon.  So that is a big relief.  Still don't know about travel plans or anything like that.

 

Our teachers are portraying people that they had to teach in Norway.  So yes they are typical investigators.  However, it seems like Brother D really likes choosing the hardest investigators he had... haha.  It makes for interesting experiences.  We had to go "contacting" the other day.  Basically we walked oround the MTC and our teachers pretended to be people on the street.  We had to stop them and talk them and try to set up appointments.  Definitely made for a fun time!  I can't wait to actually do that in Norway.

 

Other than that I have just really focusing on being focused haha.  The MTC is a distracting place, but when you are focused you just learn so much!  I have also really studied charity and faith.  I believe that if I can have these two qualities I can really do something great in Norway, and I expect to.  The Lord has not sent us to fail, if I am a representative of Jesus Christ I should have the same affect as if Christ himself was serving in Norway for 2 years. This is what I am called to do, this is what I should expect.  If I humbly submit my will to the Lord's I will do the things he would do.

 

I know that my savior lives, that he died for me.  I know that this is his Gospel and through the atonement I can do everything.  It really makes sense that through the atonement we are everything and without it we are nothing.  Just some food for thought.

 

Jeg elsker deg!

 

Eldste Jones

Dallin sent these pictures with no explanation or information. From what I can tell the Sister in the orange shirt and the yellow sweater in the picture right below this is the  sister in his tri-panionship, also going to Norway.  The other sister must be one of the sisters going to Sweden.  The bottom picture is of the 12 Days of Christmas bags that my mom and I sent to Dallin (and his companions).  I was hoping that they would arrive in time for Day 1 which is today!  I'm so glad he took this picture for me!!!

WE ARE BEING SENT TO BRING PEOPLE TO CHRIST! ITS THE BEST WORK OUT THERE!

Well I am just finishing up laundry here on p-day.  We go to the temple at 2:20. 

The lessons have been really hard.  Both of our investigators have a strained relationship with god and are not sure they even believe. They haven't even prayed with us yet after 3 lessons each.  Keep in mind that these "investigators" are actually our teachers.  We have three teachers; Brother S, Brother B, and Brother D.  They are all awesome.  We have two classsroom periods a day so we usually see 2 of them a day.  Brother S has been sick the last week or so so we haven't seen him in a while. 

I am still DL.  I will be the whole time. It is really interesting because it is just me and my companion.  We usually combine with the swedish elders and sisters when ever we have to do something though.  So it is like there are two DL's for the 13 of us.  I had to teach the district meeting on Sunday.  I did it on the Christlike attribute of diligence.  It went really well.  It is amazing just how influential diligence is in our lives.  It affects every other Christlike attribute and is the means by which we bring change. 

Eldste E and I don't have any new roommates.  It is so nice having our own room! During gym I usually play 4 square for like 10 minutes and then basketball for 40.  There is a pretty good group of guys that play so the games are fun.

Other than that not a whole lot is going on.  Just the same old stuff, learning teaching and growing.  I have really been focusing on how to listen to the spirit more and follow promptings.  I think before I thought through things to much.  I realize now that any good thought that enters my mind is from good and I should be acting up[on it.  Elder Bednar gave a great devotional on that topic that really got me thinking. 

I love the devotionals and talks that we hear here.  We had Elder Holland on Thanksgiving and we have had a bunch of 70's come through for tuesday night devotionals.  Elder Holland mainly talked about how every prophet up to this dispensation knew they were going to fail, but now in our dispensation we are going to succeed gloriously. 

We are being sent to bring people to Christ!  Its the best work out there!

Laundry is done, so I got to go.  I love you so much! The lord loves you as well!  He will bless you!

Jeg vet at Jesus Kristus er min fresler. 

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones