New stuff haha

 

New companion plus Elder Barnes for exchanges

どうもジョーンズ長老です！

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope the celebration was fun all of you. It's gonna be a good ol' year.

I've got a new companion! His name is Elder Cottrell, he's a good guy. A very diligent missionary indeed. I was sad to only have Elder Richardson for 1, I've never had a companion that loves the Gospel more than him. But alas, it was his time to go...

This week was pretty wild though. Adjusting to a new companion is always fun! We have been working really hard though, so many awesome miracles. It just feels good to be at the right place at the right time. We've been visiting lots of people! Sadly a lot of our people have been out of town or sick so we haven't been able to teach them lately. Lots of Covid worries with missionaries, so hopefully we won't be getting locked down again haha

I'm excited for all this new stuff happening, and hope you are too! Read the section on setting goals in PMG if you need some inspiration on things to work on :)

愛している、またね！

The Chouroutachi

Bunch of evil birds

Merry Christmas movie house!!

 

どうもジョーンズ長老です！

Wow what a week! I hope you guys had a good Christmas :)

We had some great lessons this week, and quite possibly the worst lesson I've ever taught haha! I guess that happens when you go in with a plan, then end up having to teach about the word of wisdom and law of chastity... but y'know, we got it done! Our friends are all doing really well, 5 of them came to church, including an old guy who's married to a member that hasn't really shown much interest!

We had a really neat experience with a guy Elder Richardson and his last companion taught too! He had accepted a baptismal invitation, then ghosted them. But we reached back out and he asked to meet with us! We did and he wants to be baptized on the 22nd. Let's goo!

Christmas was a great time, we just visited some members and delivered cookies to some other missionaries. 

Transfer news night was crazy! We were so excited for all the news haha. Elder Richardson is heading down to Odessa! So he'll still be super close.

Heres a super poem I got from a missionary a while back :)

"By grace ye are saved, the preacher said

Believe and be saved and rise from the dead

By grace ye are saved from sin and from hell

Believe and be saved and all will be well.

The preacher returned to his new spacious home

With his brand new Mercedes and everything chrome.

He went to his study, his thoughts running deep

Dozed for a minute and died in his sleep.

He sat with Saint Peter and said with a grin

'I believe in the Savior, so please let me in'

Saint Peter said with a sigh

'The devils working hard and the tolls running high

To believe in the savior, you must do what he says

For faith without works is nothing but dead

Satan knows Jesus and believes in him too,

So what's the difference between Satan and you?'"

またね！

Playing Pacman on Christmas Eve

Puzzle time!

Sunrise

Tortoise boi

Santa's coming to town!

 

Hola!

(That's right I'm changing it up haha)

This week was pretty good! We had to send off an Elder that's going to Mozambique, so that was kinda sad, he's so sick! In the words of his companion he is "among the noble and great ones"

We had some great lessons this week too! Unfortunately the two kids can't get baptized yet due to some stuff with the adoption, but eventually they will! The member that owns Crumbl here gave us a bomb referral and she is praying about baptism right now! She's flying through the Book of Mormon, and she's been coming to church!

Hmm... what else happened this week?

Oh! We had a Christmas program for church, which was... interesting. 

I also got a sweet shirt from some service! What a blessing haha

Well anyway, hope you all have a very merry Christmas! Watch the Christ Child if you haven't already ;)

Oh also, thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!

メリークリスマス！！

Zone donuts!

Swing set

Tacobell nativity?

Cake from a member!

Redneck jousting??

"Mummy my tummy hurts"

 

Sick glasses Iwaasa 長老 gave me

どうもジョーンズ長老です！

This week was pretty darn wild. Things started off normal, but pretty quickly went off the rails haha.

We had a lot of good member lessons, and got some solid referrals that we're looking forward to working with, but we'll see how it goes!

On Thursday we had zone conference, which was super fun! We got to go down to Odessa again hehe.

Now... the problem... so they served enchiladas at zone conference right? I ate some of course, and then went on exchanges out to a small town called Big Spring.

I got food poisoning.

It was the worst haha. I was up all night and wasn't able to eat anything real for a day and a half! It was so wild, I stayed with another Elder that got sick and we slept while my companion did the Lord's work haha. But I'm back to tip-top shape!

"Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth." (Hark the Herald Angels sing)

愛しているよ

Some throwback pictures I found

Dodgeball that ripped really bad...

C'mooonnn, where's the snow??

On exchanges

メリークリスマス皆さん！

This week was super busy, and next week is already lined up to probably be the most hectic week of my mission. Lots and lots to do...

I can't really remember anything too wild going on this week honestly. We started Light the World which has been really fun! Christmas time rules, I can't believe it's already December though! We got invited to a couple other wards' Christmas parties which were both really fun. One was the Spanish ward so I faked my way through some conversations haha. 

OH! I started to learn how to play the ukelele, so that's cool

Anyway, I hope you all had a good first week of December! Remember to do Light the World! Oh hey, maybe read your patriarchal blessing this week, I dunno, I'm sure it'll help ya somehow!

またね！

Elders we live next to enjoying the sun

Spanish Christmas party

More Christmas party

New Truck

 

Us and the new truck

こんにちは皆さん！

This week was a blast for sure. We got a new truck and it's pretty sweet. It's a 2022 Nissan Frontier haha

Anyway, we got to go on exchanges which was pretty fun, I stayed here in Midland, and Elder Richardson went up to Lubbock.

But yeah, I already kinda told you guys about my week on Thanksgiving Haha. We had some awesome lessons with our people, and a couple kids that a family adopted want to be baptized! That was pretty exciting. It was a grand old week.

I hope Light the World goes well for you guys. I love and appreciate you guys!

またね！

Walking around the inner city

Hot chocolate facebook finding

Me and some random elder

Meeting with some missionaries

Bye Lubbock. Hi Lubbock. Bye again Lubbock

 

Midland sky... that's the only pic I got

どうもジョーンズ長老です！

Wow this week was crazy!

Midland has been awesome so far, we've had so much going on this week. Elder Richardson is so fun, he loves talking about the Gospel so we've had lots of fun discussions. We have tons of people that are just a few steps away from baptism. I'm just praying they're able to take those steps.

Baptism has probably been one of the top things on my mind since I got here. As a mission we've been talking about what baptism means to each of us, and why we want people to do it. I can't wait for all the people we'll meet here in Midland :)

One of the first days here we actually had to go back up to Lubbock for a meeting, so it was nice to see that again haha, best part of that day was going back to good ol' Odessa again! Got to see Iwaasa Chourou again which was wonderful haha

Anyway, this is going to be an awesome transfer and hopefully I'll have more news for ya on these people we're working with!

愛している

またね