Best week

This week was pretty good. Of course, Kelli got baptized on Saturday.
It was not an easy process getting her there, but she finally made it.
She was very ready to be baptized which was great. There is a big
difference in her now. It's really awesome. I just hope the ward is
willing to help her out.

The whole week leading up to her baptism was crazy. Every single day
there was something crazy that happened to her. But she made it
through!

We also went to Minister Valrie Price's musical church this Sunday. It
was crazy weird. It was the perfect stereotypical southern baptist
church. Pretty fun, but it gives you a headache after awhile.


Elder Jones

Kelli at her baptism

 Here's a pic of their pastor

Craziest week ever.

This week was by far the craziest week of my entire mission.

On Thursday we had a lunch with some elders in our district. It was
pretty fun. We had to pickup the Spanish elders because they don't
have a car. On our way back to their apartment, we saw a truck stopped
in the middle of a busy intersection with its hazard lights on. We
pulled into a parking lot and got out and pushed this guys truck into
another parking lot. He thanked us and said he was "in a bind right
now". Elder Penrod and I went to get a Book of Mormon from our car to
give to him. We went up to his window and introduced ourselves. He
then turned extremely angry. He told us that he hates God, because God
took his son away from him. He said that some black guy had killed his
son. He was swearing and yelling at us and just freaking out. He then
got out of his car and started pushing us away from his truck. We
walked back to our car, and that's when he saw Elder Nabo. Elder Nabo
is a big black dude from Africa, and this guy started swearing and
yelling all sorts of racist stuff towards him. Then the guy said to
elder Nabo "I've got something in the back of my truck for you" he
then went back to his truck and got a big club and started walking
towards us. He never hit us or elder Nabo, but I honestly believe that
if he had a gun on him he would have shot elder Nabo and probably all
of us.
Crazy junk.

We also had another crazy experience. Kelli came back! She had been in
the hospital for 9 days. We went over to her house and she told us all
what had happened. She said that she hasn't smoked in 9 days, and she
has been reading her Book of Mormon a lot. She also ended up teaching
the restoration to someone in the hospital. She said she wants to find
out how she can share her testimony with others. It's very cool to see
the change in her. She also wanted some Book of Mormons and pass along
cards so she could pass them out. Pretty dope.
However... Satan wasn't too happy with the change that occurred in
Kelli. Kelli's mom Amy came out during our catch up lesson with her.
She told us that she doesn't want Kelli to be baptized. (Just remember
that Amy is a member of the church) when we asked her why, she said
that she hated us personally, that our ward mission leader and mission
President are (a very bad word) and that she didn't want us to come
over any more. All of this is because during those 9 days Kelli was
gone, Amy expected us to come visit her ever single day like we had
for Kelli. We came by twice, and we explained to her that we wouldn't
be able to come by every day because she was a member, and it's not
our job to teach members.

 Anyways, she was so mad she ended up kicking kelli out of the house.
Kelli at that point was homeless. Not an hour after that happened,
Kelli found out that her little sister back in Houston is in critical
condition at the hospital, and that her organs were failing. She told
Amy about that, but that wasn't a good enough reason to let Kelli come
back home, so she was still homeless. That night Kelli ended up
sneaking back home.

The next morning her mom left to go to Houston, and left Kelli two
boxes of cigarettes and a note that said "I hope you smoke both of
these so you don't get baptized" Kelli didn't smoke them which was
good.

Yesterday, Amy actually ended up apologizing to us. We've heard rumors
she has multiple personality disorder, and now I completely believe
it. It's so weird.

Anyways, that was a long email. This week was actually our best week
yet. We found 9 new investigators which is awesome.

-Elder Jones

Ribs

 

Hey everyone,

This week was pretty good. However, I should mention that Kelli didn't
get baptized. In fact, I haven't seen her almost all week. She ended
up getting locked up in a hospital somewhere, and will be in rehab for
the next 6 months. So yeah.

Two weeks ago, we had 6 people on date for baptism. Now we have none
:( but that's alright because now we'll find people who are actually
ready for baptism.

We have been teaching this on guy named Todd Gillette. He is awesome.
His wife is a member, and really wants to get him baptized. He has
already taken the lessons before, but he hasn't been baptized yet
because he doesn't know for sure if Joseph smith is a prophet or not.
He basically just needs to read the Book of Mormon. He's what you
would call a "dry Mormon" because he's basically Mormon, but he's just
not baptized yet. I hope I can be here when he gets baptized.

We also ate some ribs at his house yesterday. They were the best ribs
I have ever had.

That's all for this week,

-Elder Jones

 

 

Here's a picture of Elder Anderson, Elder Wood, Me, And Elder Penrod
 with a guy named pastor Jordan.

 

 

Update from Tyler

This week was pretty good. We had two exchanges which were really fun. Kelli is doing really well. She is on date to be baptized on the 4th, and she is very ready. There is a totally different spirit about her. It's super cool.

We met a crazy guy in the hood the other day. He told us that Jesus didn't fulfill the law of Moses, he only fulfilled the law of sacrifice, so he still practiced the law of Moses, but he said he didn't sacrifice any sheep. Weird thing was though, that he still considered himself Christian. He was black too, but he didn't consider himself black. He considered himself an etamite. Whatever that is...

Last Wednesday we had about 30 cop cars in our apartment complex and dozens lining the street. This was while I was on my exchange with Elder Anderson. It was about 10:15am or so and we were just about to leave the apartment, when we heard some sirens and screeching tires (pretty typical for Beaumont) we didn't think much of it, but then we heard more sirens and I looked out the window and saw that there was a car that had crashed into our complex with two officers behind it. Then the cops got out and they were fully geared up with their vests and ARs and what not. Then more cops showed up, and more cops, and more and more and more. Then about 4 K-9 units showed up followed by a bunch of cops. At the most there were about 50 cop cars all around our complex.

We found out later from our cop friend Todd Gillette that they were a band of bank robbers from Houston who had been in a high speed chase all the way over to Beaumont. They had just killed three people too. They ended up crashing into our complex and they broke into someone's apartment and were hiding in there. Pretty crazy stuff. I'm glad the Lord protects His missionaries.

I'll have to get some pics from elder Anderson to send next week.

We helped our ward mission leader repair his washing machine too. The bearing in it had almost completely worn out. The ball bearings were supposed to be about 1/2 inch thick, but there were some that were worn down to 1/4 inches thick, and some that were worn down to about 1/32 inches thick. We replaced them and it runs like new again.

We got a lot of service done this week too which was great.

Probably the best experience I had was going to the south east Texas Mardi Gras. We didn't actually go in, but there were miles and miles of parked cars. It was crazy. Lots of crazy drunk people too. It was fun to see though.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. It really helps!

Elder Jones

 

 

Service day

Hello everyone.

This week was pretty good. We were able to teach a lot of people and
find some new investigators. First off, let me mention that Kelli has
moved away to Houston. Which is sad for us, but not so sad for the
missionaries there because they basically just got a free baptism. We
also had a very solid investigator move to Ohio. He was very prepared
for baptism and he will be a free baptism for the missionaries up
there.

However, this Friday we got a call from someone named Donny who lives
about an hour away who said that "his friends son's wife's parents are
moving and need some help". So we went over Saturday morning at 9:00. They had a lot of stuff to move. It took us about an hour and a half
to load up the trailer they had with some of their stuff. We then
drove it 20 miles away and unloaded it. Then we came back and did that
again. Basically there were 4 missionaries there and 1 other guy who
was able bodied and able to really help. It was tons of work, but it
was pretty fun. We also got to teach a lot of lessons because only one
other person there was a member. We also got 3 new investigators which
was awesome!

Just last night we got a chance to go to the hospital and give a super
nice old lady a blessing. It was way awesome! We also met a lady who
was praying for a miracle, and when she did we walked by and we prayed
with her, it was way cool.

This week has been pretty sweet!

-Elder Jones

 Here's this cool woodpile that was slowly burning that we found

Elder Penrod

Hey everyone. Transfers came in last Monday and I got a new companion here in Beaumont. This transfer is going to be 7 weeks long instead of 6 weeks because we needed to get back on sync with salt lakes schedule or something. Anyways my new companions name is Elder Penrod. He is from Morgan Utah. He's pretty cool. He is a hard worker too, which is good.

This week we had a few different things happen... some of which are kind of annoying, but I guess that's missionary life.

First of all, we got back in contact with Rita. She had for some reason sworn us off about two months ago. But she seems to be doing better now, and she told us she is ready for baptism which is way cool.

We also met a guy named randy cooper. This guy is straight thug. He was showing us all his bullet wounds from his shootouts which was crazy. But he is at least a little interested in our message, so good on him.

We also got back in contact with Calvin. Kind of. We met with him earlier in the week, and he seemed really excited about baptism. When we came back for our next set appointment however, he was inside his house and didn't want to talk to us. Yeah... it's been going on like that for months now, so I'm not sure what to do.

Also we got back with Kelli. Turns out being arrested and taken to a mental hospital is quite routine for her, so she was able to make it back quite quickly. We also made her drink something called tobacco tea. What it is is just steeped tobacco leaves. I guess farmers used to give it to cows to make them throw up. I heard it can help you quit smoking, so we made some with his cigarettes and had her drink it. We then destroyed the rest of her cigarettes which was kinda fun. Kelli then threw up 3 times, which was hilarious. And for the next 3 days she didn't smoke!

Until she did again. 

Just last night her mom had to go to the ER for about the 3rd time this week. Kelli had already been there that morning because she hit her knee on a tree stump... but yeah Kelli was kinda freaking out because she was on hydrocodone. She basically couldn't stop scratching her face. So, we taught her (again) about prayer. I had her read the words to the hymn Did You Think to Pray? 

So she read it and when she was done I asked her what the name of the hymn was, she said "do you know how to pray?" Basically she read the whole thing and comprehended none of it. She then started scratching her face again, and I asked her what the song meant to her. She said "if we ever need help from God, just pray" she then had another little panic attack and started scratching her face. I then reminded her of what she just said and I told her you don't need to be at your lowest point to pray, you can pray always and even pray to get help with things like your anxiety and feeling like you have to scratch your face for no reason. I guess she still didn't get the hint because she still was scratching her face and freaking out, so I straight up asked her if she thought to pray. And she got kinda mad at me and she closed her eyes and said a prayer in her head. 

She then proceeded to keep scratching her face. And check herself into the ER because her face was turning red... geez 

I'm really not sure how else we can help her. Wish us luck!

But yeah this week was pretty good. Things should start falling into place here soon!

-Elder Jones

Well, this was an interesting week.

We got our car back on Tuesday. That was a super great blessing. It
has been running great and it seems like it's got a lot more power
now, although with Elder Kohler driving it might not be too long until
it's back in the shop.

This week consisted of a few interesting events.

First off, we just barely started living a new mission schedule. It
gives us a lot more flexibility and agency. It's going to be very
nice.

Second, we watched a certain investigator get arrested. Probably
because of all the threats she made to the cops as she was getting
arrested. It was pretty insane. I'm very glad for the gospel to keep
me away for consequences like this.

Third, we probably won't be teaching Kelli for awhile.

And finally, we just got our car towed.

So Elder Kohler (not to throw him under the bus or anything) parked
about 3 inches on this red line that is right next to our parking
space. Looks like Satan (K&K Towing) really wanted to ruin our day
today, especially considering its transfers in a couple hours and we
need to somehow give some other elders some rides, and haul their
bikes around. But it's OK. The church is still true. If anything this
has just strengthen my testimony. There is actual proof Satan is real.
That proof is the K&K Towing company.

Anyways, I am going to stay in Beaumont for 7 more weeks. Usually
transfers are 6 weeks, but this one is 7. I don't know who my new comp
will be yet. Maybe if I can get some WiFi later today I can send some
pictures of him.

Anyways, it's been an interesting week. Love you all

-Elder Jones

Update from Tyler

This week was full of mixed emotion.

First of all, we met with Kelli and found out that she has not quit smoking, so she wasn't baptized yesterday. It's really sad to see someone get so close, but not go that last step and not be able to be baptized. Also the fact that her mom is a huge smoker doesn't help her trying to quit. With that, and along with some other mental issues, Kelli might not be baptized for a while until she can get the help she needs overcoming it. However, Kelli has changed remarkably since I've met her. We taught her about charity yesterday and she really understood it well. We read her the scripture that says that "charity preventeth a multitude of sins". It was really good for her to understand.

We've also had a lot of car issues....

Last Monday we took the car into the shop to replace the wheel bearings and also fix an overheating issue that just sprang up. We were supposed to get the car back on Thursday, but they found that a head gasket 'might' have blown, and they will have to take it to the heavy engine department to fix it. Basically we are now a biking area again. However, on our way to get the car on Thursday, elder Kohler's bike broke. So we are now actually a walking area :)

Thursday was a pretty awesome day though since it was my 19th birthday! It was very different from the past 18 birthdays that I've had, but it was good. It's also weird to think that I only have one more birthday on my mission. Time is flying by so fast it's crazy! On Friday I received a package in the mail from my Mom and Dad that was full of candy! There was also a homemade cake in it and some candles. I really didn't expect that at all. I wonder how they got the idea of sending me a whole cooked cake. It was pretty fun.

On Saturday we had exchanges. I was in a different area and we had to give the Spanish elders a ride to their dinner because they are a bike area. After we picked them up, they mentioned to us they just had the most disgusting dinner ever. So we all went to McDonalds and had some real food.

Sunday was pretty cool. Kelli came to church again which was really good. After church we got a text saying that there was a lady from Dayton in the hospital who needed a blessing. So Elder Kohler, the Beaumont South Elders and I went to give her a blessing. She was SUPER old, and she had super bad Alzheimer's. She was almost completely unresponsive as we walked in, and she couldn't reply to our questions or anything. We went ahead with the blessing. After the blessing she seemed really normal. She thanked us and said that God loves us and how God is more interested in us than we are in Him at times. After she said that the Alzheimer's came back and she wasn't really able to talk. It was a pretty cool little miracle.

Also in church, we got there a little early, so we didn't know what to do. We went to the empty primary room and I started practicing piano. After about 10 minutes a lady walked in the door and said that us being there was a miracle. She said she had to setup all the chairs for primary in the whole building herself, and how this morning she
had prayed to God and asked him to send missionaries there that morning to help her. It was a pretty cool experience.

Anyways, it's been a pretty cool week. There's been a lot of miracles happen.

-Elder Jones

 

 

Here is elder Kohler when he got locked behind this gate at the church

 

Exciting week garbage car

This week was pretty cool. There were a couple fun things that happened.
First of all, our car (Chevy Cruze) is total garbage. We started
hearing a loud noise in the front wheel last week, and last week we
took the car into a firestone and they told us that our wheel bearing
is going out. They said it might still be under warranty since it only
had 36000 miles on it. This week we took it into the chevy dealership
and it took them 2 days for their techs to find out that the wheel
bearing was going out, even though we had already told them that is
what was wrong with it. But they didn't even have the parts, so we
have to go back tomorrow to have them fix it.
Oh well 😔 life goes on. Just without a car 😔

But on the bright side we have been working hard with Kelli. She is
super close to being baptized it's crazy. We were a little concerned
that she wasn't really converted to the gospel, so we went over there
a few days ago and taught her how to really study the Book of Mormon,
not just read it. We told her to take some notes from what she
learned, and when we came back the next day, she had written two full
pages of notes on only 3 verses in the Book of Mormon. It was really
cool to see her progress more and to really apply the Book of Mormon
to her life. She should be baptized now on the 29th which is actually
her 18th birthday. She is super excited to be baptized on her birthday
too.

This week has been pretty great. I'm glad we are working with Kelli so
much because it's keeping Elder Kohler from getting too trunky 😂

Love you all,
-Elder Jones

Theology Majors

This week was pretty great. Elder Kohler and I taught a lot of
lessons. We met with these two people named Alex and Joseph, they are
really cool people. They are however, theology majors, and they know
the Bible front and back. We were teaching them the restoration and
they kept asking us super hard questions. Even Elder Kohler, who has
been out almost 24 months couldn't answer their questions. Hopefully
they read the Book of Mormon so they can know it's true. Some prayers
would be good.

We have been meeting with Kelli a lot. She came to church Sunday and
she is still progressing very well. I had an interesting experience at
her house last night. So we were standing on the grass in front of her
porch and we were starting to teach her. Her mom came out and started
to talk to us. Then her mom said to me "you know what your standing
in, right?" And I said no, and she said "I threw up right where you're
standing this morning" that was super gross to hear, but we had a good
lesson regardless. Some prayers for Kelli (and my shoes) would be
great!

Anyways, this week has gone pretty good. We have been focusing on
finding new people to teach, and we have found a couple people who are
pretty promising. We'll see where they go in the future! That's all
for this week

- Elder Jones

This is Elder Nabo, Elder Fraley and me in Vidor Texas. We had to
drive them over here because Elder Nabo (the African) hurt his arm and
had to get it looked at by a doctor. Vidor is the KKK capital of the
world, and it's where the KKK started. Elder Nabo was very proud of
himself for "Surviving Vidor Texas"

First week of 2017

This week has been pretty good. We have had a lot of fun, and there
have been a few big changes in the mission.

We have been I guess in a way sifting out the noncommittal
investigators. It sounds kinda harsh and sad, because there are quite
a few people we won't be visiting very often any more, but it's good
because it makes way for investigators who are prepared and ready for
the gospel. We also have a new investigator named Kelli. She is the
daughter of a member, and she is going to be baptized on the 28th. It
seems like all of the other investigators we have had on date for
baptism seem to become less committed to meeting with us once we set
some expectations from them, but Kelli is really excited to get
baptized, and she has been praying and reading her Book of Mormon a
lot. It's really exciting.

We have also had some fun this week. We were driving to an appointment
and we saw a Christmas tree on the side of the road. When we were
driving home, we put the tree in the trunk of our car and took it over
to the other Elders apartment here in Beaumont. We have a key to their
apartment, so we went in and put the tree in their living room.
Needles got everywhere and made a huge mess. It was really funny.
They took the tree and put it outside when they found it, so the next
day we picked it up and we put it back in their apartment in a closet
that they hardly ever use. We vacuumed up all the needles and left no
trace. It took them a couple days, but eventually they needed
something from their closet and they opened it up to find the
Christmas tree there. Haha it was pretty funny (at least for us) :)

We also had a zone meeting this week and we got some crazy news. So
our mission standard for 2016 has been to get 5 lessons with a member
present, get 5 investigators progressing towards baptism and 5 new
investigators each week. We also have to invite 14 people to baptism
each week. This year we raised the bar again (since it used to be
3-3-3 for 2015). Now we need to do a 7-7-7 so 7 member present
lessons, 7 progressing investigators, and 7 new investigators. It's
pretty tough to get the 5-5-5 so it will be crazy to get the 7-7-7,
but it's come from inspiration, so we know it's possible. We also have
been promised that we can baptize 2 people each month. This was raised
from 1 person a month. Our goal for 2017 is to baptize 888 people this
year. Last year we baptized 435 people, which is the highest yet. But
if every companionship baptizes only 1 person each month, we will
reach 888 baptisms this year, so we know it's possible.

Things are looking to be pretty good this year in the mission!

A new companion

So transfers was last Tuesday. Elder Saunders left and went over to a
place called Onalaska. I got a new companion Elder Kohler. He is from
Midway. He's really cool too and we have been having a lot of fun
together. The other night we were spinning credit cards at each other
and we would spin them so fast that they would chip the paint on the
walls if they hit the walls. Then we started throwing CDs at each
other, and they really hurt. Then Elder Kohler threw a CD at me and it
missed and hit our window and shattered it. It was really funny.

We have also been teaching a lot of people. There is a man named
Fredrico that we are teaching. I actually met him about 3 months ago
when he came up to me and Elder Saunders and asked if we could visit
him. We had stopped by his house maybe 5 times and he had never been
there. But when Elder Kohler stopped by a few nights ago, he was home
and we taught him. He is really interested. The only problem is that
his wife is super anti and doesn't want us coming over, so it's a
really tough situation.

Things are going good here in Beaumont. It will be interesting to see
how this month goes.

Christmas week

This Christmas was very different compared to all my other christmases
I've had. It was almost 80 degrees the whole day, but I guess that's
what you'd expect from Texas weather. Christmas is a great time to
contact people. Everyone is willing to listen to our message about
Christ. But it's pretty hard to get appointments with people, since
they're busy with the holidays. But Elder Saunders and I met a lot of
neat people that we have return appointments for in January.
Unfortunately, Elder Saunders will be leaving Beaumont. We just got
our transfer calls on Saturday, and we found out the He'll be leaving,
but we don't know where he is going yet. I'll be staying here for at
least 6 more weeks, but at most 12 more weeks. This also means that
I'm done with training. I'm still technically called a greenie until
I've been out for 6 months, but I'm at least not a brand new greenie.

We have been meeting with one of our investigators Pear a lot. We
actually got her on date for baptism. She should be baptized on the
14th of January. She does smoke, but we have a program which if she
follows, she'll be off of the nicotine addiction in a week.

Things are definitely going to change here in the week. And we'll have
to see what happens, but things are looking pretty good!

Merry Christmas from Texas

Well, this email will have to be a bit short, but it's almost
Christmas and that's way fun!

It's actually pretty cold right now in Texas. It's only about 45
degrees, but with the wind chill and the humidity, it feels a lot
colder. Not cold enough for snow unfortunately, but I'm still hoping.

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Rita should be baptized on
the 23rd, and be confirmed on Christmas, which is way cool. We also
met a man named Calvin. He just lost his wife to a kidney disease, and
so he's been looking to get closer to God. He's really nice and he is
progressing very well.

We also had our Christmas conference this week. We got to see a slide
show of pictures missionaries have sent in throughout the year. It was
way fun. We also got to watch a movie. We watched the new Transformers
movie. Just kidding, we watched 17 miracles. It was pretty cool.

It's really different to be away from home for Christmas, but it's all good.

Elder Jones