Mission Life...In the Beginning...

As you know, Eric is on a mission!  Here are some pictures of his first few months and some excerpts from a few of his letters....

 

Elder Jones and Elder Benedict in front of the Provo Temple

 

 

 Elder Nielson, his companion Elder Millerberg, and Elder Jones

(June 17, 2013)  "I went to the temple this morning with my district, it was great. Today is our P-Day, so I get to relax for a lot of the day. Did you hear that I'm District Leader, btw?? Ya, that pretty much just means I pick up everyone's mail for them from the mailing room...hahaha, jk. But really, I don't do a whole lot, but it's kind of a cool leadership opportunity."

 

The elders of our MTC district... 



 

Elder Jones, Elder Nielson, and Elder Benedict

 



 





 

Elder Jones' and Elder Benedicts' TRC investigator in the MTC!

 



 

 

MTC district, including two of our teachers, Brother Reeves and Sister Pack

 



(June 26, 2013)  "I'm in California!!!!!  Well, everything's been well so far! I'm exhausted..so so tired, but everything is well. I'm a little nervous to begin; with the meeting of my new companion, starting teaching, and whatnot. But I am very excited to start. I finally got to fly on a plane! It was very exciting... My mission president and his wife are awesome!! They're both so nice and I should be having my first "get to know you" interview within the next half-hour. Everyone here is very nice as well, and they all seem to be as nervous and exhausted as I am!"

 

This picture was taken the first night Elder Jones arrived in Roseville, CA.  All the new missionaries stayed at the AP's apartment.

 

Elder Jones, Elder Benedict, Elder Nielsen, and Elder Maiwiriwiri

 



The sweet mattress stack!

 



 

Elder Nielson, Elder Maiwiriwiri, and Elder Jones before they all go their separate ways...

 



 

 

(July 1, 2013)  "Why hello there! I am doing well, my first area is in Weaverville; clear at the top of California! It's a small town but a HUGE area and we even go up into the mountainous spaces. It's GORGEOUS!!! Definitely the most beautiful spot in the mission. Pictures don't come close in comparison to how it really looks. And the smell of the red pines is indescribable. It's just such a great area to be in. And the people here are wonderful!! ....The bishop here is so awesome! And everybody in the ward is just taking such good care of us. We're actually reopening this area, my companion and I, because it's been closed since September; they haven't had missionaries here in a long time. They're overjoyed to finally have some because there are so many members that have gone less active. We'll be doing our best to work with the people here.....My new companion was a District Leader in one of his areas and everyone tells me he's a good worker so I'm excited to work with him."

 

Elder Jones and his new trainer, Elder Waldon

 



 

(August 12, 2013)  "Things are going well! I actually had an amazing experience the other day (Saturday). We did exchanges with our Zone Leaders and I went down to Redding to exchange with Elder McMurray for a day. He is awesome! He plays guitar and he's from Canada! He's an awesome Zone Leader and it was a really spiritual experience. Before we left to proselyte, we prayed that we would see miracles. And we most certainly did! We witnessed a man get baptized, even though he had told the ward and bishop so many times that he would never join the church, but here he was! It was really cool. We also ended up finding two or three new potential investigators on the way to our planned appointments (which they all ended up bailing), but that just goes to show what faith can do, right? Even though our scheduled appointments backed out on us, we found these new investigators on the street because we had faith that we would see miracles and that we would find those that the Lord had prepared for us to teach. Neat, huh?? And McMurray gave me three new ties after our exchange was over :) He was way awesome!"

 

(August 19, 2013)  "So I've got one last story to tell you that came out of this week. We met a guy a couple weeks ago that told us we could come back and discuss religion with him, so we were finally able to meet with him this week. His name is Orville and he's a former biker. He's so funny! And awkward at the same time...He came to the door in only his boxer shorts when we went over, but he is very kind and open to what we have to say. He said that a friend of his told him to be scared of us, but when we came over he was like, "I don't see why I gotta be scared of you guys, I mean, y'all talk about God and I talk about God! God's good! I love God! Man, let's talk about God! You guys can come over and talk about God with me anytime!" Haha, he's quite the character! We love him! We shared with him the Book of Mormon, but that's about all we got to get to. But we're planning on going back and he's planning on having us! :)"

 

Elder Jones in front of the Falls (he and his district went on a hike on P-day a few weeks ago)...Beautiful!

 



 

 

Elder Jones doing the "Nacho Libre" dive...pose!

 



 

 

Elder Jones and his district on the hike...

 



(August 26, 2013)  "A typical day for me is waking up at 6:30 am and exercising until 7, then showering and eating breakfast until 8, and then study until 11. Then we go proselyte for an hour and take a lunch hour at 12. At 1 we proselyte again until 6 when we take our dinner hour. Then we proselyte from 6 until 9 and then go home and plan for our day tomorrow. Then we go to bed at 10:30. There ya go! That's my every day! Except when we have weekly meetings and church on Sunday and stuff. Then proselyting time is replaced by those things, but other than that, this is a regular day for me....So, not much happened this week, but I did have a funny dream the other night. I had a dream that I was a missionary, but Brandon was my companion and we were going to go visit Robert Downey Jr. So we went over to his house and his mom answered the door, but said that he was very busy and wouldn't be able to meet with us today. At that moment, Robert Downey Jr. came downstairs and walked past us with only a towel around his waste (like he'd just gotten out of the shower) and told us sorry that he couldn't meet with us, and bolted out the door. Interesting, huh? I thought so."

 

Ward Mission Leader, Brother Houston, and Elder Jones...do you notice this is his first ugly tie?  :)

 



 

(September 2, 2013)  "Everything's going wonderfully! We had a very eventful week this week! I went to my first Zone Conference and went on an exchange with my Zone Leader, Elder Payne. I took over my area for the first time! It was crazy! But the Lord blessed us with a spectacular day!...Well, this week has been seriously eventful! Too much to even explain, we've had a lot of lessons. But with one of our investigators, we watched the Testaments. Has the family seen that movie? It's really good. Maybe you guys could watch that for family home evening some time. But anyways, I'd better be off! Love you! And I'll be writing again next week!"

 

These next two pictures are funny...Eric just took them because he liked them...



 

(September 2, 2013)  " Lately I've just been loving the scriptures! If I could just sit home and read the Book of Mormon all day, I would. I read Jacob 5,6,and 7 this morning and I just love his words. The parable of the olive-tree is just amazing and I love it. And I dove a little deeper into his famous "O be wise; what can I say more?" comment. I wondered what the word "wise" actually entailed. So I cross-referenced it to Mormon 9: 28, which says:

'Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.'"

 

(September 9, 2013)  "We've had a great week this week! We had four investigators at church yesterday and three less active members! It was so hard to keep track of them all!! We also set two baptismal dates this week! One was with a kid named Dakota (he's 21) and another with a man named David. Both of them are great! Dakota was with us at church yesterday, he's awesome. He's really progressing and we've only been teaching him for a couple of weeks now, but his date is October 12th. I really hope I'm around to see it...And David's just as awesome as well! He's so excited to read the Book of Mormon and I think the thought of baptism for him also got him excited, which in turn gets ME excited!! It's all just so exciting! So I guess, I'll keep you posted on all of that." :)

 

Well, there was an update, which took me a lot longer than I thought it would!  But as you can see, Elder Jones is doing great and we are so proud of him!  I just can't wait to hear from him every Monday!  :)  Have a super day!