Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 15

Hey guys,

Glad to hear that everything is going well in Indiana. Our mailbox is fixed now. Apparently San Jose just has an absurdly bad homeless problem. It seems like there are more here than anywhere else I've seen. 

Sounds like an interesting conference, glad Allison had the opportunity to take that Japanese class. Sound like a lot of fun. That's awesome that dans doing well in Band. People are sort of going crazy over the election here. Someone told me that there's some big bill to legalize marijuana in 24 states and that people were getting agitated about that as well. Anyway, glad you guys are doing well.

This week was really awesome. We had a few really good lessons with investigator. Quite a few are progressing now and Nathan will likely be baptized at the end of the month. We were able to get Juana, the lady we had to confirm in her house, to church yesterday. She brought two of her kids: crystal and Andrew. So that was awesome. 

On Saturday we got to go to the Oakland Temple with Nathan. We went to the Visitors center and walked around the Temple. He seemed to really enjoy it and he liked hearing more about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon in the visitors center. We've taught him everything and he really likes it. He even really wanted to pay tithing so he filled out the form and gave his tithing to the bishop before he's even been baptized.

There's a retired couple in the ward that are really helpful. Whenever we go over they're always asking us to bring our investigators over for lessons. They suggested the temple trip with Nathan and brought him with us there. We went to go help paint their house this week and they made us Lunch. They've been really helpful with Nathan.

This week when I was playing piano for sacrament meeting I got a fun surprise. Every week they will ask me what 3 or 4 hymns I can play during sacrament meeting. I generally just learn a few hymns during the week to have them ready for sacrament meeting. I gave them the 4 hymns I was playing this week to put in the program. Then when the meeting started they announced the hymns and began. Only 1 of the 4 hymns I had chosen they actually used. I didn't know how to play the other three. I don't think they realized that I don't just know all of the hymns. But that was fun.

We took the bus down to Santa Cruz today during P-Day. That was fun, we watched sea lions for a while, they were fighting one with another for the best spots to lie down and sleep. We watched them do that for nearly an hour. That was fun.

I hope you guys have a great week.

Love,

Elder Jones

 

Dan's 6th Grade Band Concert

The Trios

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week 14

Hello,

Glad to hear you guys are doing well in Indiana, they're working on fixing the mailbox, it should be done soon. That's awesome that you guys had a gourd sale. Sounds like a lot of fun. We're getting fed plenty, you don't have to worry about that. Spanish is coming along well. I can basically express what I need to say. It's not by any means perfect yet but I've figured that it's better to just go at it with false confidence, pretending like you know it really well and people are more likely to listen to you.

So this was a crazy week. We got a call Tuesday that we were going to go pick up a new companion on Wednesday. So we're a trio now. His name is Elder Jackson. He's pretty awesome. We had to move in a bed and desk for him on Tuesday as well. It's kind of awesome since there's another trio in our zone we often go on splits turning 2 trios into 3 companionships so that we can get to more lessons.

Nathan came to church again. He stayed for all 3 hours which was awesome. We had 3 investigators in church this week which was awesome. They seemed to really like it. We got a bunch of new investigators this week again. It seems to work better if you're just bringing in a lot of people. A lot will drop off, but then you always get a few that will stay and progress.

One of our investigators, Dario, is doing well. He used to be praying to this Santa Muerte statue. He had a necklace and bracelet with La Santa Muerte on them as well. He started reading the Book of Mormon this week though and he took off his necklace and bracelets and gave away his statue. So he's doing well. 

Oh there's apparently been some big problem with homeless people breaking into the church building that the ward council was trying to deal with. They always ask us to make sure they leave after church and make sure they didn't unlock any Windows. A stake counselor came to tell us about a rule that sisters shouldn't go into the church buildings without a Melchizedek priesthood holder there as well. Apparently they've found people sleeping in the church like 7 times. The sister missionaries weren't very happy about that. They argued with him for like half an hour.

We were talking to the Elders in the English ward and apparently during testimony meeting one of the guys that always breaks into the church got up and apologized to everyone for "vandalizing the church" and "leaving his needles everywhere". So that was interesting. 

Anyway, that was alright. It's been a good week nonetheless. I'm having a great time.

Love you guys,

Elder Jones

Elder Tyler Maxwell Jones Week13

I'm writing a bit earlier today to compensate for the late letter last week. Also, someone smashed up our apartment complex mail box so I won't be able to receive Mail here for a while. Apologies for that.

Sounds like things are keeping on there in Indiana. I always loved fall weather. It's getting a bit colder her in San Jose but its remaining relatively invariant. That's crazy that the election is next month. People here aren't too pleased either. Good to hear Courtney and Hal are still going about being goobers. That's exciting to hear about Allison, that would be super cool. I got dan's letter, that was nice.

It's been a good week. It proved more difficult to get people to general conference than to regular church. We didn't end up getting anyone to conference even though we had devoted so much time to trying to get people to it. Nonetheless, I really liked the conference. We were permitted to watch all of the sessions which was great. A lot of really good talks, my favorite was probably Henry B. Eyring's in priesthood session. 

We got a good bunch of investigators this week. It seems like the pattern is that if we teach a lot of people, many will fall through but the ones that stay will be decently solid. We're teaching a member's sister. It's usually most convenient for them to have us come over on Mondays for family home evening to teach her which has been good. She's come to church a few time and really liked it. However she wasn't able to make it to general conference. It's coming along well though.

We had exchanges this week. I went with Elder along and Elder Brayton in the English program. We got to do bikes again which was a lot of fun. There's a hill right in the center of their area which is really fun to just glide down. They've got bike lanes all over the place here as well. We had a couple lessons. They went alright, the person we were teachings sister was in the room who was relatively hostile to what we were sharing. So it ended up that we were mostly just trying to abate problems with that. It ended up alright anyway. We don't usually have problems like that in Spanish, Latinos are so nice.

We had interviews this week so we had to drive up to the mission office. Everyone was a bit behind on schedule so we sort of just rushed through the interviews. It was just a sort of nice 3 minute check up. While we were waiting we spent time just talking to our vehicle coordinator about an issue this week.

Earlier this week we had parked our car in a parking lot to walk to a lesson. The lesson went well but when we came back there was a giant dent in our back bumper. There wasn't a note or anything. So we had to spend the entire next morning sitting in the police station filling out a report. 

Something kind of fun is that in some neighborhoods whenever we walk through the kids will run out around us, cup their hands together, and blow into their hands trying to imitate bird sounds. That's always fun.

I've learned a good few hymns on the piano now. It's getting easier to learn them now. I really like playing the piano. Last night while my companion and the other zone leader went to go take numbers at the church, I just started playing the piano. Elder Brayton is learning how to sing so I just play the hymns while he enjoys singing along. That's a fun part of the week. Numbers usually take an hour or so.

Oh, as well. Something kind of funny that keeps happening to us. All the members get the biggest kick out of seeing my companion and I eat the hottest peppers they can find. There's a little red one that they commonly use. It basically just stings the second you bite into it. Last night at dinner, the hermano just got the biggest grin and then pulled out a bag full of raw habaneros. So my companion and I each downed a few of those. That was less fun.

Anyway, hope you guys have a good week.

Love,

Elder Jones

 

Hello Dan Dan the mustache man. I'm glad to hear of your efforts in mustache growth. That's funny you were running in the rain. We don't ever get rain here in San Jose. That's awesome that you get to study some cool things and that you got into accel math. 

That cat has a very good looking mustache. I hope your mustache looks as good as that cats.

Hope you have a good time in school and cross country.

Love,

Elder Jones