It's been a good week.  I had my check up at the hospital and I’m doing well :)  Then after that we went to Sister Lily’s to visit her.  Her son broke his hand last week and we gave him a blessing.  He was in great condition and his hand was doing much better. That was cool! Then we did some proselyting at BTM and had no luck! BTM is like a mall and market, similar to downtown Rocky Point.

We went to Sister Indries house which is 2 hours and 2 angkots away and she wasn’t home, so we just came back.  We were supposed to play basketball with a bunch of members but that also fell thru.  Missionaries have to be very flexible!

 

 

 

 

 

 It only rained one day this week and I just took some random pictures.  We are in the dry season right now.  I can't say I know what the drought in AZ is feeling like, but being dry season now until November it only rains once a week which makes it unbelievably hot.   I deal with the heat well because of living in Arizona my whole life.  I KNOW what hot is!

 





 



 

  I forgot to tell you all this month Is RAMADAHN where the Muslims fast for 30 days (they can only eat after 6pm)  so no food is sold on the street until 6pm which is hard!  So I'm taking matters into my own hands and picking my food from trees!

 

 

 

We went to Sister Yuli's house and had a lesson and lunch :)  It’s my favorite food here!!

The recipe is for a spicy sauce and sautéed meat and veggies it's good.

 

 

This country is a Muslim melting pot from everywhere.   Here and Malaysia are the only 2 countries with missionaries that are on the terrorist watch list! cool huh?! I’ve only had a few scary experiences so I’m doing okay! ha ha

The Mission President came to Bogor to interview our investigator from Afghanistan which went great!  He brought me 2 packages from Jakarta!

 

Thank you so much Gretta for the tie and candies! I wore the tie on Sunday and the candy is awesome! Just what I love :) Thank you! And thank you Hancock family I LOVED the pistachios. I ate one whole bag throughout that day!! Also, I love the custom bracelet with Indonesia on it! Thank you all for it :)  

 

I got your letter mom.  Thank you it was nice to get that and read it :)

 

I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week. Thank you for everything!

 

Love  - Elder Jones

 

 

 

 

 

Week 23 - Bogor

Well, it's been an interesting week!  Here's what's been going on.

 

 Monday

 Was in Jakarta while Elder McCleary renewed his kitas (Visa), then we went to Chilies in down town Jakarta! It was amazing.  So nice to have familiar food!  I got a real burger and CHIPS AND SALSA!!! It was the most expensive, but awesome day ever. 

This is turkey bacon.  Real bacon in Indonesia is about $50 (American) a pound!

 

I miss Mexican food so bad!

 

Tuesday

 We had a solid lesson during the day, then did what we could then came home that evening and I made us dinner.   I went to bed for a few hours....THEN at 12am I woke up in the worst pain ever in my side and I could barely move.   I literally thought I was going to die it hurt so bad, so I asked Elder McCleary to give me a blessing and the second after he finished, the pain went down so quickly and so fast that I was able to walk again and get in the taxi.  All I could think is "there is no denying the power of God is real".

 We went to the hospital and they thought my appendix had burst, but they decided to do a urine test and then noticed that  my urine was more that 50 percent blood,  so then they were like okay no surgery it’s something different... anyways.   They wouldn’t give me any pain meds this whole time?!?!  It was horrible.   I had an x-ray and it turned out I had 4 kidney stones and had to pee them out and it was horrible.   I passed one and there are 3 more that I have medicine for.  That’s what I did Tuesday through Friday... It really wasn’t fun.   Indonesia is really putting a beating on me!  

I have a follow up tomorrow at 10 am.  I feel okay but I’m really, really tired.  This year 5 missionaries have had their appendix removed.  It’s common here, so pray I don’t get that with my luck...  Surgery isn’t pretty here.  I’m sad I keep getting sick.   We are so lucky to live in America.  Thank you for the prayers! 

Here’s a picture of my newest adventure in an Indonesian hospital, after I was feeling a little better.

My companion, Elder Sadiyono from Indonesia

Almost outta here!

 

 

  Friday

Friday night I got out and just went home and went to bed because I didn’t feel too good.  Not a lot of fun when I can’t be a missionary.

 Saturday

 Saturday was good. My companion played in a futsol tournament of all the religions in Bogor! We were there from 11am till 7pm it was a long day.We lost a few games but we didn't come back on Sunday because we were following the commandments.  Got to keep the Sabbath day holy!

 Sunday

 Our investigator from Afghanistan quit smoking! We really helped him out and now he has quit!  We have a baptismal date the 6th of July! After church we came home then just did normal missionary things.  Make contacts, visit investigators, etc.

Questions:

Can you speak Bahas?  Bahas means wet :) But I can speak Bahasa and I know a little Javanese.   

How do you teach your Afghan investigator since he doesn’t speak Indonesian or English?  We teach him by typing it into Google translates and he just types back.   He speaks broken English.    I understood the Indonesian email that dad sent me that's why it was funny. 

 How do you like Indonesia?  It’s a hard place to be a missionary,  but I’ll be one tough guy when I come back that’s for sure :)

What season is it in Indonesia right now?  Dry season.  They have some crazy wind storms here too! In rainy season this place is insane.

Tell me more about your companion?  He’s been a member his whole life yeah.  He’s from Tangarang and his family lives 20 miles away from our house, crazy huh?
All the rules are the same but if he sees his family no big deal.   Sometimes parents come to pick the missionary up. But I don’t want that :) I’m planning on missing my flight in China for a day now that I’ll be an Asian :)

What are you doing for P-day today?   We are going to hang out with a member.   Idk what we’re going to do.  

Thanks to everyone who has been emailing me.  I try and reply to everyone.  It’s nice to know I have some mail coming too!

I love you guys I gtg now talk to you soon!

Love Elder Jones

 

 

 

 

Week 22 - Bogor

Happy Father’s Day Dad!  

Thank you for everything that you’ve done for me and everything that you’ve taught me.  I’m very lucky to have a dad like you!  People here would give anything to have a dad like you. Thank you for your help in everything and all the life lessons you have taught me even though 90 percent of the time I was a punk about it all.  Thank you for caring for me and being there for me and helping me through life. I love you dad J

Some answers to your questions:  Today I’m on splits with Elder Collett while the other guys go to immigration. Collett’s from Utah.  I would love to see the new Phoenix Temple and go check it out! I've got a few years left!  5 months has gone by quickly!  It's crazy!  I’m adjusted but I’m also home sick at least once a day like everyone else! Our p-day ends at 6pm we can tract or go teach lessons !   All the new guys show up 11th of August from the MTC.

Work wise the week went really good! We taught a total of 9 lessons which is killer! We have 2 progressive investigators so that’s way cool! I think I’ll baptize my buddy from Afghanistan!  No great contacts this week. This is a really hard mission. It’s even harder to contact because 97 percent of the population is Muslim. 

Everything is going good.  My health is doing okay!  My new companion is a really cool guy, I like him a lot. I’m happy Logan Z. is still working out! Every time you see him tell him he’s not lifting enough!  Have fun at girl’s camp. You hit a home run over the fence Dad? That’s awesome! That would have been fun to see.  I would love to play softball right now! I have been praying it would rain in Wickenburg! I’m just hanging out at the mission home today.  I'll give you a re-cap of my week. 

Monday 

For P day last Monday the Indonesian Elders went to Jakarta and Elder McCleary and I stayed at home chilled took a nap, watched a church movie and that summed it up!

Wednesday

We had a good lesson with our investigator from Afghanistan! He's really progressing and is a total golden investigator.  We had an appointment fall through that evening so we proselyted.

Thursday 

Bought 3 mangos off the street for a dollar and had a fried banana as a snack! Then it rained so freaking hard that evening that we could barely go home.  I’d make fun of myself if I was reading this in Arizona "ha-ha rain?  You couldn’t go outside because it’s raining? You’re a girl!" but NO this rain is like buckets of water gushing out of the skies ha-ha... It’s like getting into a shower Legit!

 Friday

I GOT MY BIRTHDAY PACKAGE :DD I was so happy when the guy outside yells "packet" and all the missionaries just bolt it to the door! And today it was mine!!!! Thank you so much! I pretty much wanted to cry because I was so happy! It made my day! I love everything in there! And all the other Elders are happy too because I’m nice and always share :) I know my actual b day isn’t for a month but I just had to open it!! :)

Then we had a lesson with our investigator from Afghanistan! We teach him with Google translate at the church on the computer!! I type and it translates into Persian! He speaks only broken English but still I’m proud! He’s such a great guy! He will tell us stories about the Taliban doing crazy things like car bombs and shootings and what not. I’m thankful I’m here.

Saturday

We had our appointments fall through so were meeting with the other Elders investigator to teach him a few lessons, then after that we had a dinner appt with sister Youlie and she’s getting baptized on the 6th of July! (Hopefully)

Here are some pictures of the market.

Sunday

Sunday was normal! Nobody celebrates Father’s Day here! After church we came home and I went with McCleary to Jakarta to renew his kitas ( a visa thing) so we stayed the night at the mission home! It was nice! 

Questions we asked Tyler:

Did you like all of the things in your box? Yeah I loved them all thank you!!
Did you share treats with your companion? Yes I did :) but I can’t eat them all at once I have to make sure they last till my next package ... Christmas ha-ha
Did you need your retainers? No those are from years ago. I have my retainers and wear them each night :)
Did your razor fit the blades? No but I’ll just hold the razor.What about the Mormon in the house T-shirt? My comp loved it :)

Did the pigeon socks fit? I love my socks so much they are great!
Now that you opened your box what are you going to open on your birthday? The Book of Mormon of course!

I have to go now! I’ll talk to you guys next week!  Thank you :) I miss you all. 

Love you guys!!

Elder Jones 

 

 

 

Week 21 - Bogor

Had a great week!  Here's what I've been up to.

Monday 

Our P day was awesome!  We went to the Taman Safari zoo and we got to feed a lot of the animals! You name it I fed it! We drove through the zoo and all the animals will come up to your car and stick their heads into the windows so you can feed them carrots! That was about 5 miles long! Then we went into the zoo! It was great.  I got to take a picture with a lion and then hold a baby orangutan! That was my favorite! After I set him down I put my hands to him to get double high fives! And he totally did it twice, then he jumps back onto me! It was so funny! Made my day!  Then we went and played bumper cars at the zoo and ate lunch and then fed and hung out with elephants.  The whole day was just awesome!

 

Tuesday 

Went into Jakarta to snag some medicine with Elder McCleary and we got to hang out with Elder Lisk! He is a great guy! I’m sad he and his wife are going home so soon.  We left  by 2 pm but the bus was 2 hours late and then an hour and a half to get home.

Wednesday 

My comp had a gnarly weird rash break out over his whole body so we took him to the hospital and he got all these creams and pills. He is going to make it and everything will be ok!  Don’t know what it was.

We had a lesson with our investigator from Afghan. That went well too! Then we went to Sister Lily’s house and taught one of her friends and she wants to be baptized so we have the date on July 6th! What a great birthday present!

Thursday

We went and taught Pak and that was a good lesson.  A slow day 22 contacts though! That’s a lot for here, so that’s good!

Friday

It rained so dang hard so we spent a lot of the day under things to stay dry. We got one lesson in.  My comps goal and mine is to get at least one a day! Then we had dinner on the street and we were coming home a bit early at 8 cause we were out of options and we realized we forgot the keys so we had to wait outside till 9:30 for the other Elders to come back.  They had an appointment that night.

Saturday and Sunday

No printer at the war-net so I can’t print out emails I get.   

The guy from Afghanistan came to church, so I had to translate 2 hours of ward conference into English!  Indonesians talk so fast.   That was hard!   He’s progressing big time!  I think he will want to be baptized and that makes me really happy to see how knowing Christ can change people’s lives.

Teaching :)

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Jones

 

Week 20 - Bogor

 

Hi Everyone,

So Monday we had a few lessons. We had one with Pak Gunawan and it went pretty well! But he has these crazy spiders by his house! They are the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen. It was horrible the traffic was so bad coming back that it took us 3 hours to get home on the angkots, and it was raining.  

Tuesday

Tuesday was  awesome!!  We left at 7 am to go to Mount Salak. The big volcano I was talking about! It took 2 hours to get to the base and the closer we were to it the less people were around! It was great ha-ha! It was all jungle and there was a trail up to some waterfalls at the top! The first one we went to was cool but not that big.T he next water fall was the coolest it was a 2 mile hike through the jungle at the top!! It was so freaking cool! It was a kind of hard hike though and while we were walking we saw some monkeys jumping through the trees! So awesome!! One had a little baby monkey on its back too!

 

We finally made it to the waterfall and it was just huge!!! It was like in the Crater of the mountain!  And there was a little guy at the bottom selling Mie (noodles)! Ha-ha so we ate noodles at the bottom! And it was around 60 degrees in there because of the mist from the water fall and because we were covered by so many trees and stuff!! I wanted to go swimming in it so bad ha-ha!

 So then on the back Me and Elder McCleary basically ran the whole way back to get a work out for the day ;) and while I was running up the Jungle canyon (the trail is carves out of the mountain with mud and rocks so it’s steep) anyways I was running up and A freaking snake jumps out of the jungle on like face level with me because it’s so steep!! I thought the snake was coming for us ha-ha and McCleary almost fell off the trail when I yelled snake ha-ha! Intense day!!  I also found a 2 week old puppy on the trail that had been lost for 3 days so I rescued the little guy and cleaned him up and took him home with us and fed him! And then gave him to some friends to have!

Wednesday 

Wednesday was a long day.   I woke up and felt like crud. I had my first dream with no English!  I was talking to Gustavo at work and He would talk to me in Spanish and I'd understand but when I would talk back to him I could only speak Indonesian, and then Dad got really mad because we didn’t wash any of the dealerships cars that day and I got fired...

Anyways me and Elder Sadiyono went to go teach a guy named David and he lives way far away almost in Tangarang.  So we get all the way to his house and as we get off he calls us and says he is in Jakarta.  Darn, we came so far.  Not to mention this guy he lives in the SAME neighborhood as my companion! Ha-ha so We walked like 10 houses down and saw his house from across the road. It was weird! But we didn't see his family.  Then we hitch hiked to the bus stop, that was funny!  

We finally made it back home and then we had a lesson with a non active member and that went pretty good!

Thursday

We had 2 Appointments! One with Erwin which went good! We had the appointment at the church! And then we taught him the second lesson! Then we went to Jimmy Simon’s house! 

(He is from the Philippians and we meet him a while back. Elder Hobbs and I were talking about how I’m not scared to contact people so he said okay contact that guy right now. So I did and it was Jimmy and Jimmy met the missionaries in the Philippians but moved and couldn't find the missionaries here in Indonesia! Well he found them now!)  After that we went to the ATM to see if we got our monthly cash yet! I’ve been eating Rice and Eggs every day for breakfast and lunch hasn’t been that bad honestly.  Tell the chickens I like eggs now...

Friday

Had a lesson with Saud and that went alright. Then we had a 2 hour district meeting then we taught English which was fun! You better believe they are getting an Elder Jones vocabulary!

Random goat in a tree house

Saturday 

Saturday was pretty good! We had a free motorcycle wash at the church which we got lots of contacts from! And we had lunch there too. Fish and Pork and after that we went to go buy a new bunk bed.  Things are going pretty smooth this week which is nice.

Sunday 

Church! Then we went and taught English and then taught an investigator which went great!  Then we went to members house. And we ate fried rice and then she gave us Chocolate from Italy.  Oh my gosh it was so great! I love going to her house! She’s the best! She said the missionaries are like her kids so that made us feel really good :) 

 

 

Love you all!

Elder Jones