We have more funerals than baptisms in our ward

 

A Chourou eating a churro... but it just looks like ice cream

どうもジョーンズ長老です！

Wow so much happened this week... it was nuts.

Our friend Breanna accepted a baptismal date and she was so excited! She is a single mother of 4 kids, ages 5,4,3, and 3! Plus she's doing college right now. Golly she's one busy lady, but she's awesome.

Elder Cottrell got food poisoning on Tuesday, so we were doing a bunch of mini exchanges to keep working, while letting him rest. We had to go pick up an Elder that was returning to this mission from Russia, because of everything happening over there.

Then one morning we went to help out an old couple in our ward. We were cleaning up their backyard so that it would be ready for a wedding of one of their kids... but he was feeling really bad and he couldn't remember anything, so we gave him a blessing and pretty soon before we left the ambulance came and picked him up. He's the second member to pass away in this ward since I got here! We visited their family on Sunday and got to talk to them.

Someone got baptized on Saturday and we were able to invite a lot of our friends to that which was awesome! And after the baptism we went to watch some baseball!!

Just kidding... kind of. One of our friends is a former pitcher for the Pirates and he coaches youth baseball here, so he invited us to watch the tournament. He was real excited to see us haha

Anyway yeah it was a super busy, but good week. Way too much happened haha

Bye!

Many a meeting

 

Japanese snacks my family sent

こんにちは皆さん！

Lots of good meetings this week! We had transfers on Tuesday and I got to see some old faces, so that was way fun

We also had a meeting up in Lubbock again, so that was a nice long, tiring drive, but I saw a bunch of people I've missed a lot. Good old Burton Chourou was there!

We taught some really cool people. It's cool to talk to people who really care about what you're teaching. We're teaching someone who has probably been my favorite person to teach on my mission. Her name is Kacie, she was referred to us a while ago by a member in another ward. She has some questions and doubts, but it doesn't stop her from seeking answers. She even goes to different wards in the city if she can't make it to our time! The gospel really changes lives.

A little girl Elder Richardson and I found a while back got baptized this weekend too! She the cutest little thing, she was so excited. I'm glad I got to play a part, even though we passed her off to some other elders here

I've been learning a lot this week, listening to a SUPER intelligent guy who discusses the Gospel with people who attack the church. Even if we remove ourselves from our preset positions and look at things objectively, the Gospel just makes sense

Here's poem from a talk by Elder Cook

"O, one might reach heroic heights 

 By one strong burst of power.

 He might endure the whitest lights

 Of heaven for an hour;—.

 But harder is the daily drag,

 To smile at trials which fret and fag,

 And not to murmur—nor to lag.

 The test of greatness is the way

 One meets the eternal Everyday"

またね

Happy early birthday Iwaasa Chourou!

Skatin boi

 どうもジョーンズ長老です！

This was a pretty good week here in Midland, lots and lots of teaching!

We have some really cool people that we're teaching now, so hopefully this next transfer we'll be able to see them progress toward baptism. We have so many people that are like 1 step away haha.

We got to go on Exchanges with some Elders here which was really fun, I got to bike again! It's been a while since I've done that so uh... it was a tad rough at first

Hmm... what else happened... I skated on P-day, so that was fun. I got a little cut up though haha

We were really busy this week but I seriously can't think of anything else to write hahaha. We're staying together down here for another transfer so that's great! 

OH YEAH! I forgot it snowed this week! That was exciting

"If you want a thing bad enough

To go out and fight for it, 

Work day and night for it, 

Give up your peace, and your sleep and your time for it; 

If only your desire, 

Makes your aim higher

Never to tire of it, 

If life seems all empty and useless without it

And all that you dream and you scheme is about it, 

If gladly you’ll sweat for it, 

Fret for it, 

Pray with all your strength for it, 

If you’ll only go after the thing that you want, 

With all your capacity, 

Strength and sagacity, 

Faith, hope, and confidence; stern pertinacity, 

If neither poverty, nor pain, or famished and gaunt, 

Nor sickness or pain, 

to body or brain, 

Can turn you away from the Aim that you want, 

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it, 

You’ll get it."

Heres another poem from Vaughn J. Featherstone for ya

またね！

Elder Joseph Hyrum Smith on a tricycle

It snowed!

Visiting the shrine of Mary once again

Catholic Shrine

Me and Elder Schofield at the Catholic shrine (sorry it's so blurry, it was chilly)

 どうもジョーンズ長老です！

I'm freeeee! We got out of quarantine last Tuesday, and man was it nice.

We had a couple exchanges that we missed so we basically crammed them in for most of the week. I had Elder Schofield with me, and that was a blast. He's a funny old chap. He's pretty dang smart too. We got to infiltrate a catholic shrine during our exchange, so that was neat! Lots of cool statues of Christ.

The next day I went out to Big Spring and that was an interesting time. Last time I was out there I was puking my guts out, so it was nice to just enjoy my time there y'know?

We met a lot of really cool people this week, and taught some really good lessons. We met this lady that took a bunch of classes on the Book of Mormon and stuff in prison, and she knows it's all true! She knows so much and she loves that she got to get in contact with us. There are some sweet people here.

Hmm... I can't think of many specific things that happened this week... 

"The average runner runs until

The breath in him is gone, 

But the champion has the iron will

That makes him carry on. 

For rest the average runner begs

When limp his muscles grow, 

But the champion runs on leaden legs. 

His courage makes him go. 

The average man’s complacent when 

He’s done his best to score, 

But the champion does his best and then

He does a little more."

-Vaughn J. Featherstone 

またね！

Me and my companion at a park

Execute Order 66?

Quarantine

 おはよう皆さん！

Good golly this was a long week haha. Quarantine as a missionary is uh... not my thing. I think once you're set apart, there's just this innate desire to work, so when you're not doing that you get anxious and stuff. I dunno, but whatever it is, I don't like it haha.

This sickness wasn't too bad I guess, so that's good! And we still saw success through teaching over zoom and finding people online.

Oh and wowee I forgot what watching church is like, that was kinda crazy doing that again!

Anyway, yeah it was quite the week. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures though :( my bad.

Hope you all had a great week, and have another good one after this! 

"Supposing today were your last day on earth,

The last mile of the journey you’ve trod;

After all of your struggles, how much are you worth?

How much can you take home to God?"

—Anonymous

Covids

 

Shooting pool with some Elders in our apartment complex

どうもジョーンズ長老です

Well I've gone 2 years since this all started and I finally caught it... just kidding, I just woke up with a sore throat haha. There is a good chance it is though

We had some of missionaries in the zone get sick, and we had to help them out with a bunch of stuff, plus a lot of members and people in our area got it... yeah it's been wild.

We had a good week though! We taught so much, it was great. This one guy is from Venezuela and he is so cool, man was prepared to pay us for a Book of Mormon haha. He wants us to meet his family too. (Also he used to pitch for the Pirates) pretty cool stuff. The story of how we found him is so sick. We were looking through our area book about 3 weeks ago at people who've been taught in the past. He was one from a looong time ago, so his record was about to expire. And I don't know why, but I screenshotted his information. We visited once and he wasn't home, but his wife said to come back in a few days. Well, before we went back, his record got deleted! So we forgot about it for a while. Until this week, when we realized that the record I screenshotted was in fact that guy we were supposed to go back to! Crazy

The elders who got sick had their car get towed so we had to go pick that up but uh... there were some complications haha. It all got figured out though.

Anyway, it was a really good week! Lots of great people we've met. My companion is quite the hard worker, it's awesome!

Heres a cool little excerpt from a missionary letter we've been studying. Do with it what you will ;)

“'Elder Humphrey, what is bold today, will not be bold tomorrow.' He meant that what was 

uncomfortable for me to declare today, over time will become second nature, and not be seen as 'rude,' but 

rather would be seen by others as 'conviction.' He further stated that The Lord tells us in Alma 38:12 to be bold,

but not overbearing. Ricciardi defined overbearance as 'boldness without love.' When people know and feel your 

love, you can never be too bold!” 

愛している！

Bird date

EMU!

Temple sheet we found while cleaning the church

Classic texas sky

Another puzzle ;)

きんじょ会長！(President Kinjo)

 

Some other elders' fun with Legos

こんにちは皆さん！

Hope things are going well for ya!

This week was pretty busy over here. We had zone conference, and stake conference (I don't remember stake conferences being as cool as they are now) 

Anyway, we had some awesome lessons and are just trying to get in contact with our most progressing people

Probably the best part of the week was going on exchanges with Elder Anderson after zone conference. He's also originally assigned to Sapporo, so we talked about that a lot, and did some super fun language studies. We're gonna go farm rice together once we're able to go to Japan after our missions

Oh! We also sent a picture and a message to our mission president in Japan, that was pretty fun. He responded with "Great! See you soon!" Haha

We also had to take an Elder to the airport because he was heading home! That was pretty sad, he's an incredible missionary, but alas, it happens

Family is so important! Make time for your family this week!

またね！

Evil birds