Hello,

 I got my release date of the 16th of December! It’s crazy!!! But now there is a chance that it will be moved to an earlier date in December so we'll see...

 We taught a great lesson on the plan of salvation to a family we are teaching.  They are making progress with the lessons.  It's really nice to be teaching them!

However, that was the only normal part of our week, other than that this week was crazy!  We did service at Brother Tito's house and we were doing lots of moving things around.  We started to hang up a big boat onto the roof and the ladder fell off and nailed my companion in the head. Blood was spurting everywhere.  We rushed him off to the hospital on a motorcycle.  He got cleaned up and got 3 stiches on the head.

Why yes...that is a CAT wandering through the hospital?!

 

The next day I get a call from my Bishop and he told us that there were protests and riots and dangerous stuff going on with Muslim groups attacking Christian groups.  Apparently some missionaries were attacked in Papua last week!  He told us that it was too dangerous to go outside.   I called and reported it to the Mission President and he said yes that it was too dangerous. 
 

We had to stay in and President said, "don’t you dare go out!"  So we were on house arrest lock down Friday morning until Sunday night.  We just spent the time cleaning and reading.  We were a little bored and  though it was funny to do a facial mask.  And yeah that sums up the week idk if anyone was hurt in the attacks?

Hope you all have a great week and stay safe!

Elder Jones

 

Week 79 - Moroni....the cat

Hello,

Whoa the flood pictures in Wickenburg you sent were crazy!!!

This week was eventful, but not work wise. Sunday night Elder Bills sprained his ankle really bad so we had to get it x-rayed and it was all black and blue and he can’t walk so their companionship stayed at our house because President wanted us to rotate out doing splits with him staying home at the house.

Here's a picture of another service project we did this week.  I cut this whole tree down with just and ax. A lot of the missionary work we do in this area is service.

Practicing my roping skills for when I get back to AZ...

We found this cat and named him Moroni because he came to us in the early morning hours.  We gave him some milk and a box with a blanket to sleep in. There are so many cats in Indonesia!

Elder Eyre is the new Elder in the house and he is pretty cool we both like Spiderman.  He's from South Jordan, Utah.

He brought this American flag with him

Then we had something called "idul firti" it's where everyone goes to their villages and the towns have no one in them.  Those days nobody will meet with us! Agghh it was hard it’s like that for 3 days.  The only day to work, we had to do splits because of Elder Bills broken ankle.

Then we had transfers during the whole deal and man it was just a hard week... we got 2 lessons only TWO the whole week crazy huh? That’s what South American missions get in an hour -_- This is a tough mission!!! Next week is going to be a good one though I can feel it!

I love and miss you all!  Be safe!

Elder Jones

 

PS - Thank you for all the cards and packages (Grandpa Jones) that I got for my birthday!!

 

Week 78 - Everything doesn't always go as planned...

Hi Everyone,

I had an interesting week.   So, every Thursday we do service projects.  The one we did last week was crazy!   We were cleaning up at his guy’s house in his backyard.  He said cut the tree down and then he left!   ha-ha  He gave us rope and a hatchet and a machete ... he’s a bit crazy but we cut it down it took ages!  As you can see from the video it didn’t go exactly as planned.  It was Elder Siahann up in the tree.  He is Elder Bills companion.

 

 

This week was kind of hard.  Elder Litster went home because his time was up and so did all of the sisters that I came out on my mission with.  Sisters are only here for 18 months.  Elders are out for 24 months.  Anyway, it is kind of  hard seeing them go.  Now living our house is me, Elder Widigdo, Elder Hetharua and Elder Eyre.

Also, I sliced my thumb open with a knife.  The cut wasn’t wide but it was way deep. 

 

Saying goodbye...

I had a good birthday and Sister Ina got this cake for me!    

Sister Ina, Ezra and Asa

 Love you guys! I hope you have a good one :)

Elder Jones 

 

Week 77 - An Indonesian Birthday

Hello Everyone,  

Thank you to everyone who sent me emails.  I wish I had time to answer them all personally.  Last year for my 19th birthday I was in Bogor.

Sister Ina, Ezra and Asa came to Solo to celebrate our birthdays! Sister Ina and I have the same birthday!  They are legit my family of Indonesia. She brought me birthday presents and took me out to dinner.  I'm just so thankful they are taking care of me.  I wish you could know all they do for me! There is a water fall here in Solo and they are gonna take us for P-day.

We had a really busy week and I don't have very much time to email, but here's a picture of a wedding that we went to on Saturday night, the 4th of July.  I wore my American Flag tie and socks!

This couple met at BYU Hawaii

Happy that I got into USU, I'll "accept" by wearing my shirt Annie and Bob got me.  Well, this week will just be a normal working day on my birthday.  That's the life of a missionary!  Thanks again for all the birthday messages.  Be safe and I'll talk with you next week.

Love - Elder Jones

Week 76 1/2 Better late than never...

Hello Everyone,

My weekly update...better late than never! 

Monday 

As you all can see from my pictures last week Pday was awesome! Huge Hindu temples made out of volcanic stone! They were crazy to see like almost comparable in coolness to the pyramids! We rode the train out there. Elder Bills and I set the trip up all by reading maps and going off locals so it was fun.  After we had got home we went to eat at one of my favorite places called Dapur Sambal (translated to sambal kitchen). The food is tempeh and tofu and it is so good there. On Saturday I finished the Old Testament... it was really good I learned lots!

Tuesday 

Today I went on splits with Elder Litster and that was fun we taught 4 lessons. But just rode our bikes all over Solo. The picture of the computer I sent was when we had to do Facebooking. I just have to watch him make memes and stuff for the page. We came home and ate lots of ice cream and that was always good after a hot day but it meant I broke my diet. (I’m on a diet now lol) I’ve lost 6.4 pounds since Jakarta!

Wednesday 

Today was awesome because I got revelation! How am I supposed to find new people? And the answer was to just walk!!! We taught FIVE new FAMILES in a neighborhood and it was just like an answer to prayers! It was awesome and we have follow up appts with them for the next week too!  So happy :)

Thursday 

Today we went out at 8am and we just worked another place but all on foot and we got 4 new families!!! It was such a great idea and now our next week is full!!!  Then we came home and we did our weekly planning and that took forever. 

Friday 

All our set appts fell thru but that’s okay we found a few more people and we got some really good lessons in :) then we had English class and for some reason not a single person came today so we just left and we went to go eat at this place that has thee hottest sambal ever!!!! Asian spice is way different than Mexican! Ha-ha  

Saturday 

Annie and Grandpa Bob! Thank you so much for the package!! I love it I needed a new USU shirt! And the Dorito’s were well enjoyed :)!  Today I went on a split with Elder Bills and I was in his area because I’m supposed to grade his work, but all the appts fell thru but we did what we needed and put in hard work this day and week! 

Sunday  

Today church was normal but during priesthood quorum there was a visitor from America and he was maybe 55 years old from Tenn.  anyways I had to translate the whole lesson for him and it was going all good were about half way into it and like all priesthood quorums we got off topic and they started talking about the bad island voodoo and black magic and then dead dogs and dog brains and I’m feeling more and more like an idiot after each English word rolls out of my mouth -_- ha-ha it was funny looking back on it though... 

On Monday Elder Bills was not well and was running a fever and feeling really sick. So I took him to my favorite place! (Not really) so we were in the hospital till mid-day Tuesday and it’s hard to sleep on the floor. Ha-ha but he got like typhoid or typhus idk what it was but he is alive! Sorry I missed you all Monday!

Hope everyone is well!  Be safe!

Elder Jones