Elder Jones got surprise visitors :) :)

Reflections about personal growth

This week was not easy, but like Elder Holland once said missionary work was never meant to be easy, since it was never easy for Him. But, I have grown quite a bit . I got punched by the Spirit and learned the valuable lesson of completely forgetting yourself and focusing on others.

 I thought about my personal growth like you said and a lot of things came to mind. I read my patriarcal blessing and that shed some light on how I've grown and how my mission has helped like it my blessing said it would..that was amazing to read and understand it more now that I'm on my mission. I feel my maturity and reverence toward the gospel has grown immensely. The living reality of the restored gospel has become a part of me. I know it's true. There is no way I can deny it. I know I have a lot to learn still, but I trust in God that He will help me become who I need to be more and more each day.  It amazes me how before my mission, the way I viewed things, but now, I see it completely different, I see it from an eternal perspective. I have grown to love the scriptures. I have grown to need to pray every day. I have grown to see others differently than I did before, to see them as children of God...I know after my mission to see them as such will be slightly more difficult but I will always love them. I have grown to listen and heed to church leaders, the prophet, those in stewardship over me. I have come to learn from the Spirit. It's hard sometimes but it's real. I have come to know with certainty that this is the Lord's work. That He truly lives. I have not seen Him, I do not have a mathematical formula or picture, but I have felt His influence. I know He lives. I know that the Scriptures are true and so very real. I know that the heavens are open today and that God has called a prophet and speaks today through one. Jesus Christ leads His church…. I have grown. :) 

Begining of May

This weekend was Stake Conference for us and that was amazing. We have a new stake presidency. Elder Ragsdale and I translated the talks for the two General Authorities that came to visit! :) What a challenge that was! They used big words!! ;) Haha..

 I received another confirmation of my testimony that our Heavenly Father truly prepares people. It amazes me how much He is involved. Elder Ragsdale and I were walking down the street the other day and as we were we passed by a family unloading some things out of their van. We walked passed them...the Spirit tugged at me, I looked at Elder Ragsdale and we both looked at each other the same time and we said, "We need to go back." We did and met a family. Turns out they're members and they invited us to come back last night. Turns out they are going through some CRAZY things...they want to come back to church but a lot of feelings of regret and guilt are impeding them from going. We had a powerful lesson with them last night. The Spirit was so strong. Elder Ragsdale and I both knew that God placed us in their lives to help them right now. Amazing isn't it? They felt the Spirit and said, "You know, maybe god placed you here so that you can help us go back to church." I know He did.

 I want you to know that I know that God lives. I know He helps us through our trials, through our weaknesses and is ever ready to assist us as we draw closer to Him. I know the Scriptures are true. I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ along with His church have been restored to the earth. We live in marvelous times. I know that Heavenly Father knows and loves all of us. He has a marvelous plan of happiness for us. I love the feeling of growth that I feel as I study it and understand it more.

Past 2 weeks :)

To start off the storms were awesome!!! Nothing too crazy happened year although tornadoes seem to hit parts of the zone, all is well and nothing was damaged severely. We did have a sweet lightning storm! :) We sat out on our back porch and watched it. I love storms.

 I'm so grateful for my mission. It has taught me soooo much. Ask any missionary it's impossible to describe how much it impacts or how helpful a mission is. I believe the reason why it's impact and helpful is because it's literally two years of consecration which allows the Lord to teach and mold me to become His disciple. It's not a vacation, it's not a prison of rules. It's a training ground of discipleship, it's the Lord's vineyard, it's His work. I am grateful for everyday of my mission

 Elder Meza and I were walking in a trailer park about 8:35 at night.  Anyways to describe the scene imagine a street and on both sides of the streets are beat up trailers, now it's very dark with the exception of the two or three street lamps in the whole trailer park. We're walking down the street and there is a good size dog it appeared to be a ST. Bernard sized with a black lab and pit. I mean big dog, it's pure black with a silver chain around its neck. As we walk closer we whistle at it and say hey buddy! Apparently this dog is just MEAN. It was no Chihuahua.It growled and it's hair stood up with its ears back. Elder Meza and I paused and took severe caution. The dog slowly walked toward us and we slowly started walking back. Two guys saw the dog and whistled at it and it walked away. We told them thanks for the help and continued walking. At this point that same dog was on the left side of the street and we are on the opposite side. the dog was doing some business on the trailer and looked over at us. We were parallel from the dog. The dog once again growled at us but this time BOOKED at us Barking and Snarling, I mean the works!! Elder Meza and recently had gotten into the habit of carrying our Spanish book of Mormons the ones we hand out to people, in our hands. Elder Meza was the dog's target Elder Meza flung his book of Mormon with pamphlets at it and missed!! The dog stopped for a second and booked it even faster at Elder Meza, It was maybe a foot or less away from him when I wound up my arm and baseball pitch my BOM at the dog... It nailed it dead it in the face. POWWW!! The dog yiped!! and Booked it!!! People came out and wondered what had happened due to the noise. They saw me pick up my BOM and the pamphlets. Elder Meza and I were pumped with adrenaline. Haha :) It's was awesome!!! The BOM had tooth marks and saliva on it. I'm keeping it to show you when I come home!

That's the power of the BOM :)

Easter Week

       I'm so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Be diligent in searching for those scriptures that teach about the Atonement. That will enlighten not only your understanding of the Atonement but you will come to know how real it is.  I love the Book of Mormon, I haven't finished marking the scriptures that talk about the Atonement, but each prophet teaches us so much about it. I mean there are numerous and more examples of ways we can apply the Atonement. I mean it is full of teachings about the Atonement, " For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."

  "Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engrave these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow..."

  "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

      I love the Book of Mormon...it has helped me to understand Christ's role, and also His Atonement. It is so valuable, it would be a shame not to read them.

Truly being a missionary and serving the Lord as His servant, has helped me have a greater love for all of Father's children. I never knew I could love people and feel the way I do about them. When they are having a really hard time...you feel so much for them, I cannot imagine completely how Father or Jesus feel about us. There are only few evidences that show that but, I felt so badly for this one person..I loved him and was so happy for him to see how the Gospel has changed his life. I was so sad to see him so depressed and so overwhelmed with the loss of his brother...he was drinking and just so depressed. My heart longed for him and I wanted to just take it all right off of him.
       He has his agency..and thinking of it now, that's how Father see us. We go through trials that overwhelm us, He wants to take those off our backs, if He were to completely take them off, that would rob our progression our experience, if He were take away all the opposition in the world, that would rob our agency. I know everything will turn out okay with him, but I just felt for him. Those struggles are swallowed up in the Atonement. All that is unfair about life will be rectified or made up through the Atonement. All of our loses will be made up.

     Oh I received a great gift this week. I finally was able to go to the temple this last Friday. Good Friday. It had been 18 months since I went to the temple. I love the Spirit that is felt there. :) It truly fills the soul. Temples are awesome! :)

Conference weekend

   This past weekend has been just awesome, and quite amazing. Conference was such a huge spiritual feast for me. I can't begin to describe the many things that I felt and wrote down. Elder Meza and I had quite a few spiritual experiences outside of conference today, yesterday, the day before, and well the day before that. ;)

 Boy the Saturday Sessions were intense! :) I loved them! I was so excited for Conference. I could not wait to be taught by Prophets and Apostles, even the Spirit. I wish I understood the importance of General Conference before my mission. I love hearing the Prophets voice, as well as the Spirit's telling me that what I'm hearing is from God, and that everything I know to be true is true.

I went to Conference with a lot of thoughts directed toward the next six months of my mission, what I want to do, what should my focus be, things like that. However a lot of what I learned was for my future family. Haha, I was dumbfounded.

     I have to say my favorite part of conference was the Priesthood Session. I learned about how understanding the covenants of the Priesthood will enable me to serve the Lord better and in the way he wants. I learned that the Priesthood is Active, not Passive. You must use it. Doing Nothing is breaking that covenant. I mean just power instruction! :) I wrote down a lot of the promises from the Prophet and Apostles.

 I had that same impression recently at conference.

 I loved what you said, "The world has gotten so far away from even mentioning God .. its like the world is in limbo .. just living day to day and not really enjoying happiness.. Then people like you come along and rock their world." It's true. lol  I am so grateful for the Gospel Mom. We would be lost without it.

       To think that we have a living prophet. Wow! So many people I have met say things like “we don't need any more revelation in our days. We have the Bible. It's perfect. God doesn't call prophets.” How wrong they are. We need Prophets, we need revelations, we need all that the Gospel has for us.  

 How grateful I am for the blessing of living in days where there is a living prophet. God did not leave us with the Bible and say Good Luck! He always called prophets. Even people back then said the same things! We don't need revelation..we have the writings of Moses, we keep the law, the Lord doesn't call prophets. Heavenly Father is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He speaks to us today through a living prophet. The heavens are forever open as we listen to His servants. I love the words to the familiar primary song, "Follow the Prophet, Follow the Prophet, Follow the Prophet, He knows the way." I know we have a living prophet on the earth today. Thomas S. Monson is His prophet today.  

Another week in the mission

          Things are going well in the Zone. It's a tough zone with some tough areas, but we have some great missionaries! I love them all. lol. Even though I don't know them all personally I still love them. I want the best for them and I want them to have success. Transfers went well. Although we were busy as all get out that day. We make a lot of arrangements so that transfers go smoothly and on time. It's a ton of fun ;) 

       I just started doing, this writing things down in sacrament meeting .  I got a lot more out of the talk and I received my own littler revelation. It's neat when you go into a meeting and take notes. The Lord reveals to us things He wants us to do or change. One thing we often fail to do is bind ourselves to act and change afterward. President once said, "Never leave a meeting the same missionary you were when you entered in!  It's amazes me how the Lord has blessed us with certain qualities to be able to help others.  Things are going great! :) I love my mission, pretty soon I'll be hitting 18 months. I know time is thinning down, but I'm going to keep sprinting and working harder. You can't be casual about this work, it's Eternal, it's His. I know the work we do impacts not only our lives but the lives of others. I am grateful to be a part of this work and to help families become eternal. To help those that are lonely to know that God lives and is mindful of them. I know this church is true and that Jesus is the Christ. I know He lives. The Branch is doing well. We have a few less-actives return back to church and are now teaching the Sunday School class! Woohoo! I was really excited to see that. The Branch is getting back up on its feet. Slowly but surely. I keep praying for the Branch. I want to see it grow. Step by Step we're making a great effort to help. I am really excited for General Conference. 4 days after the conference will mark my 6 months left in the mission. I'm going to be praying a lot before the conference to prepare. I'm planning on writing some inspired questions about the next 6 months. I want to know what more I need to do here in the mission.

       Have you ever thought of the words in the phrase on the front cover of the Book of Mormon? "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" Think of the first two words: Another Testament. We have the Old Testament which testifies of the Messiah-Jesus Christ. We have the New Testament, which testifies of the life and ministry of Him. And now today, we have Another Testament of Jesus Christ, another Witness that He is who the Bible says He is. It amazes me how so many people say they have a Faith in Christ, but don't know Him or believe Him. Our Heavenly Father in His love brought to light the Book of Mormon so that we can know that Jesus Christ truly is His Son, and that today He has restored His church. I know it's true! I feel its truthfulness as I read its pages every day.