New companion!

Us and a guy we're teaching

 どうもジョーンズ長老です！

Hey there everyone! Sorry my pday got switched to Wednesday because we have mission temple trip today! 

This week was pretty crazy though. We had an exchange and it went really good, but other than that we were doing our normal missionary thing! We also got news that an elder was gonna join our companionship! We picked him up on Sunday and he's a hoot. His name is Elder Johnson and he was serving in Utah before this.

Anyway, here's some stories from this week!

-Played billiards with a less active member and her friend

-Had a meeting with the stake leadership and President Kinjo, which was pretty cool. One of my favorite parts of my mission has been getting to see how involved ward leadership is with missionaries

-we sang Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam... in sacrament meeting! So that was fun

-Met my mission president's daughter who lives in Saratoga Springs! It was cool to get to hear how things have changed there

-We had a YSA activity at a member's apartment and it was so much fun!! Even played some Werewolf

That's some of what I've been doing lately, but honestly it's just been so fun here! I love the people here, and the missionaries are all such good examples. The Gospel is all about who we are becoming! I think it's beneficial to keep that in mind. But the key part of it is "becoming" not "become", we should enjoy the process, not just look forward to the joy of the results.

愛しています～

バイバイ！！

my kanji name Kobyashi chourou made

The YSA activity

ゾーン大会

 

どうもジョーンズ長老です！

Hello everyone, sorry for the double email today haha, definitely forgot to hit send last week.

This week went by way fast, because we were busy again. We had our zone conference on Wednesday which was really good. The temple president and his wife came and shared some cool stuff

Some other stuff that happened this week...

-Told my mission president's wife that I want to be a rice farmer, and she highly encouraged me haha

-Had a phone call with a drunk grandpa that randomly called us, and it was the hardest phone call I've ever had. I still have no idea why he called haha

-there were some super rainy days here. It was great!

-I'm buying a suit right now, and how there's some sick stuff at this store... I want to buy it all

-we had lunch at a member's house, so that was fun!

-Our english class was bussing this week. Lots of new people!

-This is kind of random, but I feel like it's important for any of my last companions to know. Japan doesn't have many American cereal brands, but I found their version of Honey Bunches of Oats ;) I used to buy it almost every week in America, but now I've switched to this japanese version and it is so good. Japanese milk tastes different too! So tasty!

As far as a spiritual thought goes, we've been watching that "Hope from God's light" video a lot, and it's really good. I highly recommend it!

忙しい～

 ヤッホー皆さん！sorry, this is Last week's email that I forgot to send haha

Wow this week was busy busy. We had so much going on, but it was a lot of fun!

-We had a meeting at the Mission home, which is right next to the temple, so we ate a conbini breakfast by the temple which was sweet!

-Convenience store food is actually delicious here!

-We had our friend that was on baptismal date ghost us... so pray for him please

-Met some of the funniest people ever while housing and streeting this week. One lady we just asked what the purpose of life was and then stood at her doorstep laughing for like 10 minutes. She was hilarious

-some guy that me and my last companions met online with once a few weeks ago just randomly came to church with his daughters! His daughters were so adorable. They were kind of scared when we sat by them, but when they were leaving they kept coming back and saying "bye bye"

-there's this random guy that plays the saxophone under a bridge here in our area, so we went and talked with him this week. He was the sickest old dude. He knew everything about the church because he decided to research it himself! He's not interested, but he even knew the name of the Hill Cummorah haha

Anyway, those were some of my adventures last week. Hopefully this week will be just as exciting... or maybe more exciting.

Have you ever studied early christianity and the history of the bible? It's so interesting and helps to understand our theology so much! Give it a shot!

Ok bye bye!

New Calling of Elder Jones

 Dear Brother and Sister Jones,

 

 

It is our great pleasure to send you this important announcement letter of a new calling extended to your son.  I am certain that you will be delighted as you read a letter written by President Kinjo included in an attachment file.  May the Lord bless you and your family so abundantly!

 

 

日本札幌伝道本部

Japan Sapporo Mission

011-890-8140

 

Sister Fujita

June 21, 2022

Jared and Leslie Jones

1765 Hidden Hills Road 

Eagle Mountain, UT 84005 

United States of America 

Dear Brother and Sister Jones, 

It is my pleasure to inform you that your son, Elder Jones, has been called to serve as a Zone Leader. Elder Jones will have the opportunity to serve the missionaries in his zone and be available to give guidance and support. He will take a big role in zone conferences, where Elder Jones and his companion will be teaching other missionaries creative ways to find new investigators by using the Spirit as their guide. He will also train and teach missionaries how to teach repentance and baptize true converts. Your son has been called because of his obedience and his ability to lead. He has been a powerful example of missionary spirit. I feel that he is ready to accept this opportunity and am confident that he will faithfully fulfill this significant responsibility. Elder Jones’s knowledge of the gospel and his testimony have continued to grow as a missionary. I have strong confidence in his character as a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will have many new and exciting experiences as he carries out this assignment. It has been a blessing to have Elder Jones in our mission. We love him and are grateful for the service he willingly gives. Please continue to encourage his efforts with supportive letters from home. 

Faithfully yours, 

President Hiroshi Kinjo 

Japan Sapporo Mission

 

Surprise transfers!

Wow this week was pretty hectic! We had transfers, but I wasn't really expecting anything to change. Then Tuesday night we got calls! Both Elder Davis and Elder Oshima got transferred!! So that's been fun haha. My new companion is Elder Kobayashi and wow he's a blast haha.

Here are some highlights from the week!

-We went to the Otaru aquarium last pday which was really fun

-We had our first in person Eikaiwa which was really fun! Just a bunch of old dudes

-Taught this mom and her little 5 year old kid and it was so much fun! 

-Went to a hospital for Oshima Chourou to get a vaccine, and I think I've already talked about this, but most stores have a theme they play here and it's great. The hospital music was just so relaxing haha

-I got a haircut today and wow it was incredible! For $16 I got a cut, shave, massage, shampoo, everything. It was just great.

We testified a lot about the love of God this week and who God really is to us, and the spirit is so strong when someone learns about that for the first time. holy cow.

Anyway, またね！

First Japanese member meal!

 

こんにちは！

This week was so good! We had lots of lessons and good finding experiences.

I'll give you a little rundown!

-Japanese babies and children are the cutest

-Old guys are the hardest to understand all the time

-we eat KFC while we teach this old lady every week and it's so fun

-Housing/tracting is really fun actually! You hear "Kekkou desu!" A lot which is a polite way of saying "shut up" haha. They say through the doorbell speaker which everyone has here!

-There are crows everywhere and they're kinda spooky

-English class is so much fun! We've got some jokesters in the class haha

We saw some cool success this week too! We met a guy while we were walking to fix Elder Oshima's bike and he is actually pretty interested. Also a lady we recently started teaching came to church with her 5yo son. He started explaining his favorite pokemon to me so that was fun. Honestly kids are the scariest ones to talk to... haha

Well that's all for this week! Have a good one :) またね

Bikin' time babyyy

 

Sapporo

こんにちは皆さん！

Well I can't believe it's been a week since I got here! This week really was incredible though. The weeks are so interesting here, since everything is so new, so I have a lot more to say, but I don't want big paragraphs haha. So sentences is all you get!

-I've biked more than ever have in my life probably.

-The members are so great here! (Especially the old ladies haha) I can't speak japanese much at all, but they all pretend like I can :)

-It rained lots and was cloudy most of the week

-today we went to the main part of Sapporo and saw some cool stuff (pics attached)

-I finally met President and Sister Kinjo. They're so nice!

-Japanese cars are so small and super fun to ride in!

-the members gave us a ton of food on Sunday and they do it every month!

Ok miracle time!

We were out streeting, and there weren't many people out to talk to, but this one lady was biking passed us, and my companion stopped her. She was the nicest person ever! and she met with missionaries a long time ago. She even used to feed them!! Now we get to meet with her :)

One thing I've seen is that even though japanese culture is so different, the members seem a little bit more "western" than the rest of Japan. It makes me wonder if a lot of "western culture" just comes from a belief in Christ. I don't know it's just interesting how a belief in Christ changes you. Even so, Japanese people are the most Christlike people who don't believe in Christ ever.

また来週ね！