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

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??