SIGNING OFF FROM NORWAY!!

Heia!

Wow, I thought this day would never come!   It is still not real yet, I get moments of reality every once and a while, but really not that often.  Mostly when things get quiet and I have a chance to think, which is honestly not that often.

Thank you so much for getting the schedule figured out! That sounds awesome to have the schedule figured out like that! I am seriously so pumped to get into school and start studies and stuff!  It should be awesome!  You are the best!

This past week was pretty memorable.  We had a ton of miracles and a ton of cool experiences.  I saw the most spectacular show of Northern Lights ever!  It was literally one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen!  I was going to bed, looked out my window and was just amazed.  We all ran outside in -15 degree weather and watched it in our pajamas for like 30 minutes.  We were frozen solid, but it was so worth it!  So that alone made Alta a sweet splits.  We got to teach a lot there too though.  It was super cold the whole day too, like I said, -15 degrees.

Then we went to Tromsø and that was quite possibly one of the prettiest places ever.  I loved that place a ton!  We had a ton of miracles happen there too.

Finally we came here to Trondheim and I had my last Sunday here in Norway.  That was super painful. But at the same time awesome, everyone remembered me!  Super nice to get to see everyone again and get to be here with them for my last sunday!

So yep, this week was pretty insane.

This next week I am flying 3 of the 5 days.  We are working in Mo i Rana on Tuesday so we are flying there tonight from Trondheim.  We are flying back to Oslo Wednesday and we are flying home on Friday.  So I think this week will go by super fast.  

Thursday is our "burny day"  That basically means that we get another p-day.  So that should be pretty fun.  

We leave for the airport at like 8 on Friday, it takes an hour to get there and we have to be there 2 hours early.  So that should be an interesting morning.

But anyways, I have a super busy day today.  I have to get a haircut and try and get all of my last minute shopping in.  We have to take a flight at 5, so we have to leave the city at 3. So we have a race today.

I am super excited to see you soon though!

I love you so much!

Elder Jones

A LOT OF QUESTIONS AND THE LAST OF THINGS

Heia!

Well that was a lot of questions... I will try and answer them all haha. I have been thinking a lot about this whole thing and I am sure that I want go to law school afterward but I want to do the undergraduate that will give me the most diversity. I have considered taking things such as business or finance so that I could be more marketable as an attorney afterward. But I think that if I were to choose a major like that I would need to know what my career would be so that I could specialize in that field before hand. So I think that it is best that I stick to English.  That being said I might choose later to have a minor in something like finance or business later on once I have a better idea of what my career is going to be. As far as fun classes I think it would be cool to take a swing dancing class or maybe a tennis class or maybe even a class like lifesaving.  As far as the timing of the schedule goes I think I just want it to be consistent.  Ideal would be classes that start a 9 or so everyday and are over in the early afternoon.  That way I could just do school everyday and then work everyday and have a set time for studies and social time.  I have learned that I like routine on my mission.  I hope that is enough to give you a better idea.  I would like to be able to work out in the mornings before I get to school.  I don't want to have to wake up before 6 though.  So the earliest class could be like 8... If it has to be earlier that's cool.  I am really good for whatever you can get :) you are the best! (Mom note: I was asking him questions because I need to register him for classes tonight.)

The temple would be sweet on Saturday.  It would be way cool to get in a session before I get released... Let's plan on that.

So yep I think that is everything.  Let me know if I missed anything... I hope that I didn't. 

This past week has been super fun.  We had a ton of miracles! We visited Bergen and kristiansund and kristiansand as well as stavanger.  I can't really even describe how fun it has been.  I have been so blessed.  Monday's are becoming really stressful though... I don't have time to think about all this other stuff and then I get in to the office and I have to make a decision right then.  O well, that's just how it is.  

We had a ton of miracles happen in Bergen actually.  It was the coolest place to go on splits to.   I got to see all of the old members there and get to see some of my old investigators.  I actually got to see yelitza while I was there and go to teach her.  It was serious déjà vu. 

Anyways, thanks again for all of the stuff that you are doing for me! You are awesome! I couldn't have done it by myself.  You seriously are the best! I am super excited to see you! 

This next week will be my last full week and we have a packed schedule.  We are going to Trondheim and Tromso and Alta.  We also have zone conference tomorrow where we have to give our last testimony to the mission.  That will be really strange... Not too excited about that.  So this is the week where we start doing the last of things...

Anyways, I love you tons! Let me know know if I can do anything else or if you have other questions.

Jeg elsker deg! 

Eldste Jones 

Mom:   Did you get to see the Berg's while you were in Bergen?  How much do you weigh now? Have you grown any?

Dallin:  yep :) it was super awesome to see them!  I stayed at their house and was at church on sunday. I got to be with J a ton too.  A ton of people remembered me as well, which was a surprise cause i was there as a greenie.

I was late with emails today because I woke up in Bergen, flew to Oslo, debriefed president on all of our travels, spent a whole ton of time on the next transfer with him and then started freaking out about how many emails i had.... haha.   It was quite a day.

We still have to go wash laundry for the next week and throw away all of our stuff we are not taking with us and check out of norway and all of that stuff... so I acutally have to get going here soon too.

You have done a ton for me though!  thank you so much!

I weigh 195.  Still the same height.  No growth spurt unfortunately, haha.  (Mom note: That means a total of 75 pounds lost on his mission!)

I THINK I FELL A LITTLE DEEPER IN LOVE WITH NORWAY! WE ARE LITERALLY DOING THE COOLEST JOB IN THE WORLD!

heia!  

Things have been crazy the past week.  Lots of miracles and lots of cool stories!  Unfortunately we are supposed to get ready for a whole week of flights this week so we have to go and do laundry and stuff, so there is no time for the stories.  But, it will only be a couple weeks, so we can tell the stories then.

We went to Hamar, Fredrikstad, Moss, Porsgrunn, Tønsberg, and Drammen.  It was a week full of driving.  I think I fell a little bit deeper in love with Norway though because of it.

Elder E and I are doing great, we are getting more and more tired as the road goes on so I think we might literally come home on stretchers but thats totally okay!  I would be fine with that.  We are literally doing the coolest job in the world!

Thanks for starting the stuff with College.  I think that English would be good for now.  I have some other ideas floating in my head right now but nothing concrete.  If the schedule could focus on the general education requirements for right now that would give me more time to figure out plans after the first semester.  I am definitely set on getting a law degree though.  Not sure as to what profession I will take that to though...I think if we get housing and schedule figured out that would be a great start. Can you help me with the schedule though? 

Let me know if there is anything I am missing though.  I feel like I have a thousand things to focus on these last couple weeks and I am trying not to lose it all.

You are awesome and I am so excited to see you!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

That was a sweet surprise to get from you on transfer daY!!

Hey there!

 

Well that was a sweet surprise to get from you on Transfer daY!  I came into the office super early to start getting things ready for transfers wednesday morning and you had told me that I got accepted!  That was insane!  I am super pumped! 

 

I think it would be sweet to room with Riley!  I would love that.  I will go online today though and start the registration process and see what the next steps are so that I have a better idea of what needs to be planned for.

 

This past week has been sweet!  I have loved getting to travel and work with the different missionaries.  We had miracles happen in each area!  We found new investigators and commitmented them to baptism and church and everything in between.  So we are definitely going hard! 

 

Travelling with Elder E is probably just a dream come true!  He is a stud and like I said a week ago, we just work well together. Missionary work could not be more fun! We are also living with Elder S and Elder H.  So that makes coming back to Sandvika really awesome.  We are only here like 1 night a week though. So that is really not all that much.

 

We actually travelled down to Sandefjord and then to Oslo and finally had sunday here in Sandvika.  So we were just all over the place.  It was sooooooo cold though.  We got snowed on.  Most of the time is was sleet though, so we were just wet and cold, and the wind was blowing.  Despite all that we worked hard and got stuff done.  The Elders all seemed to be having a good time to, despite the awful conditions.

 

This week we are going to drive all over!  We are driving to Hamar, Fredrikstad, Moss, Tønsberg, Porsgrunn, Drammen.  We are going to see the whole east side of Norway. We also get to take our car across a ferry on the fjord.  It will be sweet!

 

As far as coming home, I am definitely excited.  I am also definitely sad.  I don't think you can really understand it without having served a mission. It is literally like being torn in half.  But the thing is that this has to happen... so I am just running with it :)  I love the mission and I love you guys. I just can't have both at the same time.  So I will enjoy this as much I can before I come home and then love home as much as I can before I have to go to school.  Then I will try to love school... we will see how that goes though haha.

 

I am down for whatever on the whole getting released thing.  I think that I just want to go to the temple on Saturday morning, that is one of the few things that I really really want to do. So whatever is best for that really.

 

Anyways, I have to go get winter tires on my car and then get a new headlight, do some laudry and then do some more chores so that I am ready for a week of travels.  Today is a busy p-day.

 

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

 

Eldste Jones

I KNOW THAT HE HEARS AND ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS AND THAT HE WANTS US TO KNOW THAT!

hey there!

haha I did end up getting your message from last week so you don't have to feel so bad about that!  it came when you resent it!

It was good to hear from you this week too though.  It sounds like a ton of stuff has been happening back at home!  That movie sounds super cool!  I am kind of jealous that I didn't get to see it! Elder H and I saw the preview on lds.org and thought that it looked sick! We are definitely missionaries haha.

Anyways, this past week has been an interesting one.  We got to go to Stavanger and and do splits with the Elders there.  I got to spend and entire day with E!  It was super awesome!  I got super excited to work with him over the next month. He is such an awesome Elder.  We got to do a lot of proselyting and I swear there is no other person that I work better with than with Elder E!  It is just so easy to teach with him and to know what he is thinking.  Seriously, it was just like the perfect day.

Other than that we spent a lot of time getting ready for moves again.  We had to purchase flights and trains and rent out a guest house and all the other odds and ends that come with a big transfer like this.  We also got to work super hard in our area. I totally forgot to tell you guys last week, but we have had the hugest miracle here.

Two weeks ago on Sunday Elder H and I fasted so that we could have a baptism here in Sandvika before I leave.  We had many people that had come to church and were really just waiting on an answer to get baptized.  So we felt like the Lord could totally make it happen.  The Lord blessed us in such a different way though.  I can't give too many details, but the Lord doubled our blessings!!  It was a huge testimony to me that the Lord will always reward us when we are trying to do what is right.  I know that he hears and answers prayers and that he wants us to know that.

Anyways, the rest of the week is hectic. We get new missionaries tomorrow and we  have moves on Wednesday.  We are going to be a taxi service to the 16 coming and 11 going. Once the dust settles Elder E and myself will hit the road. We are going to have a car for 2 weeks while we visit all of the areas in the east and telemark zones and then we will start taking flights, ferries, and busses and all of that kind of stuff for the final two weeks.

It should be pretty exciting!  I will take pictures... this will be well documented.

Anyways, I should be back in the office next monday to write and report to president and stuff like that.  So I am sure that i can even send some pictures home.

I have to get some stuff done here. So i will be talking to you later I guess!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO HAVE DIRECTION AND MEANING IN LIFE. WITHOUT THOSE WE JUST SITTING DUCKS!!

Mom Note:  He's down to 5 ½ weeks and for the first time he didn't get my email.  I sent it to his home email address accidentally.  So when I woke up this morning and checked my e-mail my day was already ruined.  This is what he said.

I never got an email from you this week... I hope you are doing okay!  This past week was awesome. Lots of good stuff happened.  I guess I can just attach the email that I am sending to Dad though.  Let me know if I can do anything for you!  I love you so much!

Your son,

Dallin

letter to Dad....

heia!

This past week was just like all of the other ones on the mission, insane.  We had a lot of stuff to do.  On top of it all it was general conference.  That was sweet!

The week started off great.  We had MLC early in the week and it was Elder H's turn to conduct.  He did a great job and MLC was just a great experience all around. We talked alot about member work and the stuff we need to do to get going on it here in Norway.  It seems that there is always more to do on that front!  Anways, it was a great meeting and a lot came out of it.  I have one more while I am here on the mission.  That should be an interesting to be there for that.

Anyways, after that we had Splits with the missionaries in Oslo.  I got to work with Elder G while I was there.  It was fun to be there and work for a little bit.  I was remembering being there with Elder B what seems like an eternity ago.  Anyways, I found out while I was there that they got a baptismal date with a man that Elder W and I found while we were together.  So it was nice to hear that I am still helping out down there in some small way!

After that Elder H and I had a couple of days in our area.  We unfortunately had to start working moves which will be happening next week.  So that is when I will be starting on road.  We have 16 new missionaries coming in and 11 sisters leaving next week, so we have a lot of work to get ready for them when they arrive.  So this week will be buying flights and trains and organizing plans for all of that.  

The weekend was awesome, as expected!  We got to watch all of conference here in Sandvika.  It was amazing to hear the prophets and apostles speak and get their messages.  I think my favorite was actually President Monson's about the Bismark.  I thought it was great imagery for us to understand why it is so important to have direction and meaning in life.  Without those we are just sitting ducks!  

I thought all of the talks really just helped me to realize how I could be successful in life, in both Spiritual and temporal things. It makes me excited to think about it, but at the same time very anxious to know that I have to leave here.  That is life though haha!

The birthday was awesome.  Elder H treated me to all you can eat pizza and we enjoyed a nice man date haha.  Sister Allen made me Texas Sheet cake and Sister evans made me this bananna cake that was also just amazing!  I loved every second of it.  

Really though I feel like I am coming into my time to shine. I am going full court press and just going for Gold.  I have my last week in my own proselyting area now and I am just prepared to get at it!  I love being a missionary so much!  I really can't imagine doing anything else.

Thanks again for everything you guys do for me! It means a lot! I love you guys and I love this work! 

Anyways, I love you a ton!

Elder Jones

After I realized why he didn't get my email, I forwarded it to him hoping he checks his email during the week at the office.  Just a few minutes ago, I got this from him:

Just got your email!  Thanks a ton!  I love you so much!

Dallin

Also, totally got your package.  It was awesome and everything that I could have wanted.  thanks so much!

I know that if we are diligent and work hard and pray with a sincere heart and real intent he gives us what we need.

Heia!

This week has been just insane!  We have been super busy yet again haha. It sounds like you guys did as well.

I am super bummed to hear about Popo.  I will definitely continue to keep him in my prayers.  I have a testimony that through fasting and prayer we can get what we need.  We actually have a really good story of that from this past week.

We had another week where we would have a lot of time to be working in our area.  We would only have to leave for splits in Trondheim and that was pretty much it.  So we were super excited to get out and kill it.

Unfortunately we got out into our area and things were really slow.  We had trouble finding new investigators and getting other things done.  So we went through the entire week without finding any new investigators, not having any baptismal dates, and struggling to get any sort of progression with the people we did have.

So it was Sunday and Elder Holden decided we would fast.  After church we had 6 hours to make things happen.  We went out for the first hour and half and knocked on doors without any sort of success.  It was just dead.  We came back to the office and pretty much empty cupboards and scrounged for something to break our fast (we had forgotten to buy food the day before for the sabbath).  

We went out after that and the Lord gave us everything that we were praying and fasting for!  We got 4 new investigators, 2 new baptismal dates and people that could actually make some progression.  

So I know that if we are diligent and work hard and pray with a sincere heart and real intent he gives us what we need.  

I received that same testimony several other times this past week as we worked on Splits in Trondheim and with the District Leader in Sandvika.  I know that the Lord will support you if you rely upon him.  

Anyways.  I guess I feel super blessed to have had such great spiritual experiences over the last week.

To answer your questions, No, we did not get to teach Ole and Håkon.  We will try and teach them this week though.  I missed a teach with Alexandre, but Elder Holden taught him and it went really well. We did get to teach Jon axel, and ya he is making some small progression.

As part of our fast we wanted to have a baptism this week, we have people that have been to church enough times and are close enough to baptism that it could happen this week or at any time really.  We are just waiting on the time-table of the Lord.  So yep, there is definitely a baptism waiting in Sandvika.

So yaaa... it was a pretty busy week. Lots of cool experiences.  I look forward to another week ahead.  We get to have MLC again (this time Elder Holden gets to conduct that meeting) and we get to have General Conference.  I am super pumped for both meetings.  We are also going to be doing splits in Oslo.  So that should be pretty fun as well.

Anyways, thanks for being such a great Mom and for the Happy Birthday wishes and for everything you do!  

Jeg elsker deg så mye!  

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones

SUPER SOLID!

Heia!

Well, yep.  I CANT BELIEVE ANOTHER WEEK HAS GONE BY!  It is just absolutely crazy.  It is actually really starting to stress me out that my time is just going.  I really don't like it at all.

I guess that is alright because I am just super preoccupied with all of the amazing things that are going on around me.  We had another week just full of experiences.  

We started our week of in Drammen on splits with the Zone leaders.  Elder S and Elder Ha are just incredible.  They are two of the most dedicated and awesome missionaries I know. Because of that we just had the most unbelievable day.  We spent the majority of the day just teaching people.  We actually taught 10 times! That is more than most people get in a whole week!  It really was just one miracle after another.  I felt super blessed.  I can't wait to hear how it goes with the people that we met!  Anyways, so that was just the best start we have had to a week in a long time.  I just love getting to work as a missionary!

After that Elder H and I came back to our area and had some serious fire.  We just started finding people.  So we had a super solid week in our area as well.  We had a super solid teach with J A and a Member.  The member just bore the most solid testimony that really brought the spirit into the room.  He invited J A in the most sincere way to really consider baptism.  It was really just cool to see how the Gospel actually influenced this man both in that moment and in his life over all.  It might have been one of the most powerful moments on my mission.

So the time spent in our area was super quality.  It has made me jealous of the missionaries that can just focus on pure missionary work.  I really am going to miss just going and sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone.  

Elder H and I usually just turn to each other at random times during the day and say something to the effect of, "I love being a missionary!"  I really do.

Elder H was calling through the phone earlier this week and he got us an appointment with these two Norwegian kids.  Their names were O and H.  They came and met us at the church and we had a super good teach with both of them.  They loved hearing about a living Prophet and got super excited that they could hear him speak in a couple weeks.  I love seeing other people get excited about that, especially for the first time ever hearing about such a thing. So that was another major success this week.

We had dinner with an American family. They had a ton of Root beer lined up for us when we got there.  I haven't had a root beer in two years.  That was just amazing... The experience of being in an American home made me miss home a lot though.  I realized that there really are a lot of differences between an american and norwegian home.  They are super subtle though.  Not sure I can really descibe it, but I really missed america at that point.

Time for questions.  The transfer happens on Oct. 15.  So we have 11 sisters going and 11 sisters coming.  We have 5 elders coming in.  We have lost elders in the past couple of months but haven't gotten any in a while, so those elders where needed.  The only Elders left to leave this year are Elder Ellsworth and me.  So yep.  That is the picture for that transfer.  We will get a couple more Elders to replace Ellsworth and me when we go and a couple more sisters for the replacements for the sisters that come home with us.  So it will be a busy month or two in the mission home.

Anyways, that is about it. We are going to help J A with his house today. We have dinner with Christian tonight!  I will be sure to thank him for you about the article.  He is the one that does the translating for general conference.  He is a boss missionary and just one of the best people I know in Norway.  Straight stud.

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

AM I BECOMING WHO HEAVENLY FATHER WANTS ME TO BECOME? ... ANOTHER WEEK AHEAD WITH LESSONS TO LEARN AND TEACH. HOPEFULLY WE GET BOTH!

Hey there!

Man, you keep dropping the bombs on me!  A homecoming talk, thanksgiving dinner, what else could there be?  Haha, I am just kidding.  It makes me excited but definitely nervous to be leaving Norway.  I wake up each morning and tell Elder H how pumped I am to be on a mission!  We then talk about how sick it is all day and then we come home and we have to face reality that it is coming to an end.  Then a new day comes and the same thing happens!  Wierd how it works...

It is good to hear about the Angels though!  It would be nice to come home to a world series team!  Wierd to hear about all the other news from home to!  Life never stops.

This week has been a little strange for Elder H and I though.  We had a solid amount of time in our area for the first time in many, many weeks.  We kind of had to start from scratch too.  Most of the stuff we had from before had died out and so we had to basically restart our teaching pool.  We still had J A and A and others but none of them are making serious progression anymore.  So that was a challenge for us as we went throughout our week. We had some serious fire from Elder Bednar and then we had to go start from scratch... so yep.  I am learning another lesson on patience again.  I feel like I get that lesson all the time here on the misson.

So yep, this week was a lot of knocking on doors and trying to find people.

I definitely still super pumped because of the conference, but it is frustrating because it is clear that others aren't.  I just want to give them the fire I have each day and help them realize what they have the opportunity to do!  It really is just amazing!

The office is going to be slow though for a couple week in the middle of this transfer. I am pretty confident that we are going to make a huge difference in our area now with all the time we have.  The office couple has been out of the office for a whole week now to because they went to see their son's marriage.  Things might pick up again when they come back.

I ask myself each day if I am really learning what I am supposed to be learning.  Am I becoming who Heavenly Father wants me to become? I am really trying to squeeze out every last bit of what I can here, and that is making all the difference.  I know that time is limited and that is making me love it all the more.  

Anyways, we have another week ahead with lessons to learn and teach.  Hopefully we get both!

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Elder Jones

Mom Note:  Dallin sent the pictures from the photographer of the newspaper article so I have included some of the ones that didn't make it into the article.

Magazine Articles and Apostles

heia!

Well this past week has been a blur!

We had a whole bunch of time to work in our area it seemed like.  we had done a lot of the prepartion for the Bednar conference the week before so we just kind of had a week to work as a missionary.  We got back into the swing of finding super fast and had lots of success getting out on the street and teaching people. That was a huge blessing for us, we needed the vacation from the office work.  

But once the weekend hit that was all over.  We became full-time travel agents.  We ran a taxi service that covered more than half of the mission.  We just drove people all over the place and made sure that things were running smoothly for the conference.  That being said we did a good job with all of that.  Everyone made it to both meetings and got home without missing any flights.  So that was just a miracle in and of itself!  I felt super grateful that it all worked out.

Because of all this preparation though I was able to have an awesome time throughout the meetings.  I was totally dialed in and just loving every second of the experience.

We had a combined stake conference in Oslo where pretty much all of the members in Norway were present.  The area seventy was there and he gave the opening remarks.  I had been given the opportunity to sit down and talk with him several weeks earlier as I was attending a missionary preparation course for the youth to sit down with him and talk while eating dinner. His name is Elder Yotnes and he comes from Finland.  He is a wonderful man I learned a lot from his testimony.

After that we heard from the Stake Presidents.  They both gave very powerful testimonies that struck the heart.  They focused on the first principles and ordinances of the gospel and the need to do missionary work.  

Finally Elder Bednar and his wife finished.  they both gave great talks.  Elder Bednar gave some pretty clear prophecy about the future for norway and closed out his talk with the words, "Welcome to the future!"  That got all of us missionaries super excited of course.

We started heading to the Church then and waited until Elder Bednar had arrived.

That was probably the most spiritual moment for me.  I just got to sit and recognize all the things the Lord had taught me thus far.  It was an amazing experience.  the meeting with the missionaries was special as well.  he gave us time to do answer and question and he asked us a lot of questions.  It was amazing to see an apostle teach in that way and learn better how I could teach.

Because of his schedule he did not have personal time with any of the missionaries or members.  So no pictures or handshake. But I know that he is a Prophet of God and His servant.  That was one of the most special things about the experience.

On top of that we had our article come out into the newspaper! It was super well done and had great photography.  I have emailed the photographer and asked for the pictures, we will have to wait for her response though.

All of Norway saw the Article!  I had members in Trondheim talking to me about it when I saw them there. So it was actually a bigger deal than I had anticipated.  I felt super blessed to be able to bear my testimony in that way to Norway.  It quoted me in the article saying that I knew this was the only right and true church. So that was special for me to, that I could fulfill my call in that way.

I have several copies of the article that I am going to take home with me.

I really can't describe all of the blessing and lessons I have learned.  I don't think I have adequate language to describe it anyway.  But this much I can say, I know that God lives and that this is his church!

I don't have time to write much else.  But this week has been one of my favorites thus far.

I love you so much!

Elder Jones

FINALLY HAVE A FIRM RETURN DATE AND SHOULD HAVE FLIGHT PLANS SOON!!

Hey I don't have a lot of time to answer questions.  So I am just going to go for it.

I hoped you like the picture of me and Elder Ellsworth sitting on the edge.  those were our feet hanging off!

We have been preparing for Bednar for a while, we still have a lot of coordinating to do. We are bringing in all 100 missionaries.  lots of moving parts.  We won't get to spend time with Bednar, he is doing a stake conference here and the missionary meeting is more of a bonus. So I don't think that he will have time for interviews.

i couldn't open that zip file... so none of the pictures of the lake came through.

the paper will run this week. Probably tomorrow!  I am super excited to see it.

The other stuff sounds super good!  I am glad to hear that the vacation was fun.  I am pumped to come next year. Something tells me that I am never going to be quite the wakeboarder as RJ, but thats cool. I am still going to love it!

Things are going so well right now, I am super excited to be working in Norway. I think that coming home is going to be super hard.  But I am super exited for it.  There are going to be really good things and really hard things that come with it.  I dont think I am trunky, but I am super excited to see all of you. I just hope the adjustment goes fast... I don't think it will though, just because I love missionary work so much!

I confirmed with Sister Allen on the 14th.  I will mark that I want to fly into to John Wayne.  

Anyways, I hope I got all of the questions answered.  We had a super busy week with going to Stavanger and Trondheim again.  The hike we did was super sweet and being in Trondheim was magical as always.  So I am glad to say that I have at least 6 more weeks in the office and at least one more trip to Trondheim!  After that I will only have 4 short weeks left... who knows what will happen.

I love you so much!

Dallin

Letter from Elder Dyches, Europe Area, 2nd Counselor

Dear Jones Family,

I had the pleasure to interview your son during the recent mission tour and have enclosed photos of him

with me and also with his companion. Enjoy!

What a cheerful and wonderful young Elder! He is a great influence for

good among the missionaries of the Norway Oslo Mission.

All the Best,

Timothy J. Dyches

"YOU JUST LOOKED LIKE ANGELS AS YOU WERE TALKING TO HIM!"

Heia!

You are going to have to tell everyone there hei for me!  It was super cool to get to hear from them all!  It really won't be that long till I come home and see them all.  that is so wierd for me to say!  I had a dream last night that I walked through security there in the united states and met all of you there at the airport.  It was super, super wierd. I have felt super awkward all morning because of it...

Anyways, about the last week. We had lots of crazy stuff happen again, so I feel like it has been a pretty average week.

One of the more fun things that this week was that Elder H and I got interviewed by one of the biggest newspapers in Norway!  We had like a 1 hour interview with a reporter on tuesday in preparation for Elder Bednar's visit. The writer is going to focus on the exciting things that have been happening in the church with relation to the missionary age change and the growth of the church around the world. After the interview we got to go out with the reporter and proselyte a little bit.  There was a photographer with him too and so they were taking pictures the whole time.  The photographer said they would send the pictures to us later.  (so I will have some really good pictures for you soon!)

While contacting though we had a really good teaching moment.  we found a person sitting on some stairs and so we stopped and started teaching him.  We showed him the book of mormon and read out of it with him.  He accepted the book of mormon and said he would read and pray about it.  The reporters were really impressed with what we did!  The photographer afterwards looked at us and said, "You just looked like angels as you were talking to him!"  So needless to say I think they were touched by the experience.

Other than that we had two more workshops here in the east. Those meetings went really well.  We worked on planning skills pretty much the whole day.  Elder H and I spent the majority of the time teaching the material.  By the end we were just exhausted.  We will be doing that again except this time we are going to be doing it in Stavanger and Trondheim.  So that should be pretty fun.  

In the middle of the workshops we are going to hike preikestolen as well. I am super pumped about that too!

Our proselyting has been kind of put on hold in our area over the past couple of weeks just because of how much stuff we have had to do, but we had some really good moments out on the street this past week that were just amazing.  We got let into houses and we got to teach people.  I don't think that I will miss anything more than that, the feeling of having taught someone the gospel.

I love learning and growing I am super excited to see what the next week has in store for us.  

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones

WE SPENT ABOUT 2 HOURS THERE JUST SITTING AND TALKING WITH PRESIDENT AND SISTER EVANS AND ELDER AND SISTER DYCHES. IT WAS JUST AMAZING TO SIT BACK AND LEARN FROM THESE PEOPLE.

heia!

Well I only have limited time today so I am going to cut to the chase.  Elder Dyches was amazing.

Elder H and I got to spend a ton of time with him on the road and in meetings as well as just being with him during personal time. So I will just try and pick out some of my favorite things to tell you.

We got to have dinner with him at a restaurant in Bergen, it was called Bryggenaften. It was super nice and super old.  The building dates back to the 1600's and is literally right on the water there in bergen.  We had the best food!  We had Moose and whale and steak and caviar and all sorts of stuff.  It really was just amazing.  We spent about 2 hours there just sitting and talking with President and Sister Evans and Elder and Sister Dyches.  So it was just amazing to sit back and learn from these people.

The meetings were great too. We did not need to do anything for them, we just got to be there and listen. So it was awesome to hear that and get to learn from them all that time.

But the whole experience took quite a bit of time.  We were with him all day wednesday, thursday, and most of the day friday.  Then after that we went to Drammen and had a missionary preparation course that we taught to all the youth in Norway.  So that was special.  I got to see a lot of old faces, among the which was Jørgen from Bergen and President Berg!  I loved getting to see both of them!

We got to meet with our investigators.  S had good news about the cancer, she does not have to undergo chemo, it will just be radiation. So she was very happy when we got there. the lesson went great with them as well.  They are quickly becoming some of my favorite people. I got to drink some more Mate with A as well, so it was a nice visit.

We are still working with J.A..  We have one more week to really get him ready.  There have been plenty of challenges and we are going to be working as hard as ever this week to make this happen.  We will see though.

Life is so good, I have never been more happy of tired.  I love it!

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Eldste Jones

PS  Sorry to hear that!  That sounds like no fun!

Grammy sent me an email last week telling me about your back and how you are having problems with it!  I hope that you are feeling better!  I wish I was there to help as well, that is one of the things that is hard about being on the mission, not being able to help at home.

Anyways, right now Elder H and I are just writing home quickly. We are going to the chocolate factory on Wednesday so we are taking most of our p-day then.  I am super excited, I can order a bunch of chocolate there and have it sent home.  So you guys will get some of the best chocolate in the world when i come home!

This past week has been insane.  I have loved every second of it. It really has been such an awesome experience.  

let me know if you are still awake,

I love you!

Elder Jones 

Hey there!  

Well we have quite a week in front of us! We have Elder Dyches arriving on Wednesday and will be here through Friday.  So we get to spend a lot of time with him over the next couple of days. It should be really exciting!  

Anyways, I am super pumped about that but we had some good stuff happen this last week as well.  It seemed to go by super fast.  We had another day at MLC.  That was my 12th one that I have been to on my mission... so I feel like I have been there for quite a while now.  It was super good though.  We decided that we would do another round of workshops like we did in July.  So Elder H and I will be on the road the last two weeks in September.  We are going to Trondheim and Stavanger and then we will do two other meetings here in the east.  So that should be pretty fun.  

Other than that we went to Stavanger after MLC.  So I got to work with Elder E and Elder G again. It was super fun. We just got to work and do the normal stuff, but I absolutely enjoyed it.  We were there all day Thursday and then flew out on Friday morning.  On the way home we some serious trouble though.  We flew into an Airport called Torp. That is about 1.5 hours away from Sandvika.  So we would take a train from Torp to Sandvika once we landed.  Unfortunately we missed our Train when we landed and had to wait there for 2 more hours until we could catch another train. So Friday just turned into a travel day. That sucked... but we eventually got home and got back into the swing of things.

We had some teaches with Jon Axel this week.  He is doing the same as always.  He is not super sure about his date yet.  So we have asked him to pray about it. We hope that he can get an answer soon. We will see though.  We are praying with him still and are still working as hard as we can to get him to make the date.  

I never did get to talk to J, but we did get another Baptismal date! It is with this man named Nathan.  He is from Sri Lanka.  He has lived in Norway for 5 years and has a wife from Sri Lanka as well.  He was a referral from another missionary so we just went and knocked on his door.  We didn't really have anything super happen with him, but he said that if he gets an answer he would be baptized.  So are trying to work with him and his family now.

Other than that we worked really hard in our area this week are are trying to get stuff going.  It is not where we want it to be yet but we are sure hoping to get it going now.  

Pdays have been pretty busy because I am in the office.  I don't really get a pday because we are usually doing work on these days.  But in Oslo we did a lot of sightseeing and stuff. Today we are just going to work again because we have to get ready for Dyches. 

Anyways, I got to get going. 

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

Heia!

Well it has been another crazy week here in Sandvika.

We spent a lot of the week preparing for Elder Dyches who is coming on the 13th.  So we were in the office doing that in our spare time.  But we really got to be out and doing things in our area a lot of the days. So we had some miracles happen and some other cool stuff as a result of that.

Unfortunately though we had some bad stuff happen to.  On Wednesday we got a text from J saying that he was not interested in continuing meeting with us.  That was a huge bummer.  He just said that he found out that Church life was not for him.  He really wouldn't explain more than that.  We committed him to keep reading in the Book of Mormon though, so we hope to call him later this week and see what is going on.  We hope to get him back.

We also lost our date with C. He had a lot of work and was just hard to meet with. We still get to meet with him though.  So we are trying to set up a good lesson for later this week to get him moving.

That was the only bad stuff that happened though.  We had some huge miracles too!  We had a day pretty well planned for Wednesday and then things started falling apart around when J texted us.  But we just kept working and the Lord guided us to where we needed to be.  We were in the car and we just got a pretty clear picture of where we needed to go.  We had one previous referral that we never got in contact with and another tryback that was somewhat positive.  When we got to the area we said a prayer and went to contact the people. They let us in right away and we got to teach them.  It was a pretty good lesson and they invited us back to have dinner with them on Saturday.  It was such a cool experience to be guided by the Lord like that.  On the way back to the car we were able to line up a couple other appointments for later in the week and we suddenly had a lot going on again. 

Other than that, we had a super cool teach with JA.  We took President with us to teach him.  We talked about baptism and how we could prepare for it.  I don't think we said anything special or got any super crazy commitment out of him but we definitely had the spirit there.  And that made it such a good experience.  We are really trying to help him get to his baptismal date but he just struggles so much with self confidence.  So we need some even more powerful lessons up ahead.

We also got some random assignments through the week.  We had to drive a car to Halden one of the days.  So we took a train to Drammen and took their car and drove it under the Fjord in a massive tunnel and got it to Halden.  It was a beautiful drive.  Elder H and I just got to sit and talk the whole time. It was actually way sweet!  Halden was beautiful to.  To get there you drive down into a valley and then at the end of the valley there is a huge hill and on the top of the hill there is a giant fort!  That is where Halden is, on the side of the fort.  I wish I had taken pictures but I didn't have my camera.

After we left Halden we went to Oslo and did splits with Elder S and Elder C.  That was pretty sweet.  Elder C and I worked together all day. We got to do a lot of stuff, and just had a great day to be out and working and teaching.  I loved it!

So yep, there was a lot of just random stuff we did there but it was a sweet week.  We finished it off by going to Drammen for a baptism. Elder H had found and taught the man getting baptized.

Anyways, that is about it for me this past week!

Jeg elsker deg så mye!

Eldste Jones

3 BAPTISMAL DATES IN AUGUST

Hey there!

Well, somehow the past week has flown by.  The mission has changed so much!  We had 10 new missionaries show up and 10 missionaries become RMs.  Needless to say, it was a weird week for many, including me.

It is funny that you ask about the terror threat, because it literally hasn't changed anything that we do here.  We go out and work as usual... there is nothing else we can really do!  It was all the other stuff that interrupted the week.

We didn't really have time to be in our area on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Each of those days was filled with memories.

On Tuesday we got to go pick up the new missionaries from the airport!  That was a day filled with Nostalgia.  We watched them come through the gate, and I just remember coming though the gate myself.  (The only difference was they had all of there bags with them!) We got to drive them into the mission home and help them get settled in.  We spent the night with them and had dinner with President and Sister Evans.  Elder Whetten was getting his last moments of missionary out with them.  The poor guy was hurting.

It was really hard to see Whetten, Badger, and Weaver to leave.  They were the people I felt like I knew the best in the mission at this point.  But I learned a lot from it. I had a great day of studies on Friday when things finally slowed down and I just knew that all I had to do was go as hard as I could till the last day of my mission.  If I could do that, I would be happy, both now and when I would come home.  There was a lot more that I learned with my studies that day... but I don't think I can adequately express that, so I am not going to try.

Anyways, Wednesday came and I was super swamped with moves.  I picked up Elder H (my new companion)  in the morning and then we spent the day with the new missionaries, getting them oriented and shipping them out to their different areas. Three of them took the same flight I did to Bergen more than 1.5 years ago.  Finally after our time was done with them we went back to the mission home and had a "burny dinner" with the departing missionaries.  

We then woke up at 4 the next morning and drove the departing missionaries to the airport and put them on a plane home.  That was interesting.  By the end of that day Elder Holden and I were dead.  We fell asleep at 6 that night (with permission) and didn't wake up till the next morning.

Then we got to work in our area.  And we did a lot.  We met with J.A..  He is still not ready for baptism and is starting to give push back in preparing for the date.  So we need more pray and fasting for him.  Hopefully we can get him in the water.

We saw A in the park on Saturday.  He said that his wife's surgery went as expected and she was recovering.  So things went well for them this week!  We got to give them a blessing earlier this week too.  S loved it.

Other than that we got to eat dinner with J on Sunday.  He is doing well and is just so ready for baptism! He was telling us about the spiritual experiences he has had.  It was actually a really powerful meeting.  I loved it.

We also got another baptismal date with a man named C.  So that makes 3 dates for August 30th.  Things are really starting to roll here in Sandvika!  

Anyways, I am going to get out of the office now for a little bit!

Jeg elsker deg!

Eldste Jones

Hey I have no time to write today!  I will write something tomorrow morning during personal study.  I love you!

Note from Mom:  I was happily surprised when the following email showed up several hours later!!  What a wonderful surprise,  but I have to admit I was kind of looking forward to a letter tomorrow!!

Okay well, we have had some appointments cancel tonight so now I have time to write.  I am sure it won't be a lot though...

But ya this last week was insanely busy.  Yet again.  

I got to go BERGEN.  To be honest I didn't think to much about it till I got into Bergen.  But when we started flying over the fjord there I started to lose it.  I love Bergen!  It was an awesome day to get to be with the missionaries there and help everyone out.  We had an awesome meeting and I got to see a little bit of the town!  It was super cool.  I can't wait to go back for the Dyches conference in a couple weeks!

The conference in Stavanger was pretty sweet to.  But after both meetings Elder Wh and I were both whipped.  So we got back at 10:45 on Thursday night and just died.  We woke up the next day and just had even more to do though so we kept going.

We taught a ton of people throughout the week.  We taught our Brazilian family again.  We found out that the mother has breast cancer.  She was diagnosed 2 weeks ago, right before they went on vacation. But they told us our first lesson when they were back.  It was a super powerful lesson in which the spirit was so strong!  We testified that Jesus Christ was there to help us and that the things that we experience in life are actually gifts from our Heavenly Father.  They loved it.  We were able to go back and give a blessing later in the week.  They loved that to.  She is going to be having surgery on Thursday so we hope that everything goes well.  Keep her in your prayers.

Other than that we had more awesome teaches with J.  He is doing great.  He made us a full Salmon dinner and then we taught him.  It was unbelievable.  We had our new Ward mission leader with us on the teach and things just went super well.  He was sick unfortunately on Sunday so he couldn't come to church, but he was reading and praying.  So things are just progressing super well with him!

We also got to teach Jon Axel!  We got a baptismal date with him to! We have worked so hard with him over the past month while his family has been in the Philippines and the day after they got home we went over to teach and got a date with him.  It was a way intense lesson though.  We asked him to be baptized like 5 times before we realized that we just had to ask him to prepare for a specific date in the future.  He then agreed.  The spirit was definitely guiding us there as well.  It was amazing!

We met with L as well, he is doing good.  His progression is a little bit slower even though he is reading so much.  He has had a lot of bad things happen in his life and it is really hard for him to understand it all.  So we are going to have to be really patient with him.

Other than that we had to plan for moves that is happening this week.  We did that till about 1 last night.  But everything is seeming to work.  So life is good.

So yep that was my week.  I think that is all I have time to write right now, so till next week, when I hopefully have more time.  

Jeg elsker deg!

Din sønn,

Eldste Jones