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