Horse is probably one of the best meats I've eaten!  It gave me lots of horse power...hahaha



Hi Everyone,

 

 



Nothing too interesting happened this week, actually it was pretty hard. We just have had people not wanting to learn left and right. So right now were just proselyting.  Because we have no one :( 

 

Here are a few pictures of Semarang and the horse kabobs that we ate.  Hopefully I'll have more to report next week!

 

Love,  Elder Jones

 

 



 

 

 

Week 40 - Big News!

Hello Family and Friends,

Exciting news, but I'll get to that a little later on...

Tuesday I went on a split with Elder Chou and we had 5 appts scheduled! We left the house at 12:00 and by 12:22 every one of the 5 appts had called or already texted me telling me that they had to cancel so that was a bummer. It was a hard day of proselyting.  Later that night we taught English class.

Out working with Elder Chou

Wednesday 

PLD (Zone Conference) so I had my interview with the Mission President, and the news is I’m moving to North Jakarta and I’m opening a new area next to the ocean!  I get to open and start it, which means it's an area that hasn't had missionaries before.  I'll be with my new comp who I’m training! They don’t have a house for us yet so we will live at the mission home for 2 weeks and once they get a house my comp and I will move out there.

It’s the area that floods the most in that part of the island! It rains so much that they use boats! I’m sure you’ll get some good pics once rainy season starts! How cool huh?

President Donald riding back to his hotel at Zone Conference

 

The bus ride to Solo

Thursday 

We had the zone meeting all day today.   Elder Chou asked me what the chances of him having to speak were.  I said, " well the chance of you speaking, being so new, is probably about the same chance as it raining today. "  (it hasn’t rained since I’ve gotten here)  An hour later it started raining and then President Picked Chou to give a talk! That was so funny!

I got all my trainer stuff from the mission president and then when we were taking a break, I walked down stairs at the church in Solo and there was a young guy waiting outside the Bishops' door and I started talking to him ... turns out HE IS  GOING TO BE MY NEW COMP! He’s from Solo and he was at the church then for an interview.  He goes to the MTC (in the Philippines) in a week.  He'll be there 2 weeks and then comes back to Indonesia!  Such a crazy coincidence!

Friday 

We added a couple of Kitab Mormons to the book shelf :)

Today I was offered a man’s daughter (to marry) in one of the villages he just kept trying to get me to take her ... ha-ha (this happens often with the white elders) ahh this mission always has funny stuff!!  

Hello family...can you hear me?

The water is usually really blue but it was stormy that day

 

Elder Lister's birthday this week

Thanks for all the emails this week.  I appreciate all of them!  Everyone be safe and I'll talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Jones

 

 

 

 

 

Week 39 - Grosser than eating dog...

Hi Everyone,

This week was great and a lot of fun.  For P-day we went to Lawung Sewu and it was awesome.   The place has 1000 doors and is haunted.  We went there with the English class then after that we went to Wendy’s at the big nice mall and everyone tried frosty's for the first time ! :)

 

 

I've eaten some gnarly stuff this week.  We went to an investigators house and I had innards soup. I ate soup with goat and cow intestines and artery’s. I didn’t even know those were edible. As well as the liver, and testicles.  I can't believe the things I'm willing to eat now!

We have had a big rat running around and eating our trash. Elder Martoyo and I caught it with a bucket one night and were going to kill it!  So we had bug spray in an aerosol can and sprayed it into the bucket then when we went to light it on fire the bucket EXPLODED!   The rat didn’t die it just ran off!! Freaking crazy... then right at 10:30pm that night the  power went out until 12 am so we couldn’t sleep cause it was so dang hot so we sat outside and saw the stupid rat again!

On Sunday we watched all the sessions of conference and they were great! I loved them all!! I know the church is true and I can feel the spirit so strong when I hear the Prophet and Apostles speak by the power of God.

I also ate the spiciest nasi goreng (fried rice) ever with ghost chilies.  I couldn’t finish it.

Questions:

 

The picture you sent of your drink looked nasty!  What exactly was that?! 

green bean soup /drink

 

Did you get a letter from me this week? No :( only Annie! Thank you Annie, I love the letters.

What do you having coming up this week? A big meeting in Solo for 2 days! 

Any new investigators? No :(

Coolest thing that happened? Tuesdays lunch menu lol :)

I got a call from president yesterday.  I will be a Trainer and will be moving to a new area, that’s all I know.  I’ll know more after PLD (Zone meeting).

Love you all!  Have a great week!

Elder Jones

 

 

 

Week 38 - The sacrificial cow

Hi Everyone,

Monday (Pday)

I made salsa which was pretty good, and everyone liked it!  That night we had an appointment 8 miles out of town.  We rode bikes to it at 7:30 p.m.  and once we got to his house he CANCELLED -_- so that was a bummer!

Tuesday 

I contacted a nice catholic man at the bus stop we talked for about 2 hours waiting for the bus that never came - ohhh Indonesia!  I gave him a Book of Mormon and he was really interested!   We then went to Brother Bon Bon’s house and had a great lesson on how God answers prayers.  At the end it was so funny he said ... “I prayed to God to know when I would die  ... and God answered my prayer.  He said that God said... "Bon Bon you won’t ever die because we lost our paper work in Heaven so you’re not on the roll call any more,”  he was totally serious!   It was a great story.  He really reminds me of Grandma Leen and I like him a lot. 

Wednesday 

Time is flying by.  We picked up our new “greeny” Elder Chou he’s a good guy. He is from Arizona too!   Later that night we interviewed him with a whole bunch of funny questions.   We went to bed early that night because we left to Jogja the next morning at 4am.

Thursday 

On our way to Zone Conference

We went to ZTM and left at 4am.  We got there at 10 a.m.  long, long ride.   We took a really old bus to get there.  It was a different way thru the jungle it was awesome!  This is our nicer bus that we rode on the way home.

Friday

Taught 3 lessons today!  They all went really well!   English class was good.  It’s so much fun to teach English because they are all about college age and already know the basics!

Sunday 

It was the day where all the Muslims sacrifice cows and goats and it is gruesome.  There is blood everywhere in the streets next to all the mosques.  The night before, they pray on the loud speakers until the next morning at 4am and its so loud cause we live under a mas jid (mosque).  They believe in the Mosaic law of sacrifice.

This is the unlucky cow

They sacrifice the cow right over this drain.  As we were taking pictures of it, they were taking pictures of us!  I have many more pictures of the cow being sacrificed but I will spare you those!

I bore my testimony today at church.   I really like Semarang except the heat!

I’m so happy and grateful to be a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and to teach and preach in the beautiful country of Indonesia.  I have learned so much about myself, about the world and other people.  My knowledge of the gospel has grown immensely.  My testimony of this church grows stronger each time I share it with others and because I can see the change in their lives when they receive it.

I can promise you that the Book of Mormon is the word of God as well as the Bible.  I’m often asked, “how can you live there, in such a remote place with all those different customs? Why don’t you just come home when it’s so hard? How are you possibly making it through? " The answers are simply because I believe God is on my side and helping me thru all these things.  The more I pray the more my prayers are answered and the more I testify of the love of Jesus Christ and His atonement for our sins and the truth of the teachings of Christ the more my testimony grows. 
I know Christ lives! I believe that Thomas S. Monson is a true Prophet of God.  I believe that God loves all his children equally. 

I can promise that if we pray with a true and humble intent and seek to inquire something from God, and we have the faith sufficient to receive it ... he WILL answer our prayers. 

Love you all have a great week!

Elder Jones