Nov 8th 2010 Finally something with a little meat in it. :)

Ya I know about the elder going to Hawaii from sister Donner. Josh told me about the package and I'm not quite sure when stake conference is. I did know about Kyra and that's good. (Kyra coaches varsity cheer at Thunderbird and her girls just made it to Nationals on Saturday) My goodness you would be surprised how many people are out there who just love to talk. I feel like I'm one of the rudest missionaries alive cause I'm always interrupting and trying to get the conversation back on the gospel. Right now we have 2 people with a baptism date. One her name is Kelsey Bench, she is really nice but she is a major blonde. OMGoodness always worried about makeup and hair-Which she has a bunch of I might add...her hair is the best way to describe her POOFY! I don't think she understands some of the subjects. The next is Angela is Angela Dodson who is 17 so her mom wont sign her baptism papers so we need to wait till the day after her 18th birthday in May :( so I wont be here anymore. Then we have 2 more who are almost there, 1 is Branden Craven who is 19 but his mom does not want him to get baptized and he wants to but he wont cause he wants his mom's support. Then we have Zach Greezley who has been studying the church for a year and is golden, we will set his date today.
Love Elder Jones

Nov 1st

Ya it has got to freezing. I got Brother Cannons message. I know Shanna Wellman, we went to elementary school together. Yes I have heard that song. (High to Colob) Thanks for the prayers. It was a very slow week cause Halloween parties and such. We never went trick or treating (Well that's good to know) but we still have more candy than most people who did go trick or treating.
Love Elder Jones


(my own contributions to the letter)

Oct 25----Add on

O and I have good news...it's supposed to get to freezing temperatures by Thursday this week!!

Oct 25th

No car only bikes. Sleep over was good but we did not play football. I did get my knives and we carve pumpkins today. I did not hear about Brad. I have not heard from Abby or Kelly either. I'm not writing a lot cause I'm tired from my bike ride down here.
Love Elder Jones

Sept 27th

Thanks for the stuff, I needed the jacket cause it's starting to get cold. Today in the hottest part of the day it got to 69* F so it's pretty cold. Nothing is happening much. Transfers are coming so I find out if I'm moving on Sat. Well I'm having fun. Love ya.
Elder Jones

Just an update.

After all the problems with the address Mike did recieve the packages everyone sent.

Sept 13 e-mail home

First off to let you all know where the first part of this e-mail is coming from. About a week ago I sent off a package to Mike from an address he had sent home on a letter. He had the wrong zip so I called the mission home to verify his address and make sure it wasn't an apartment. A sweet lady named sister Thomas verified that he was in Willard Missouri but other than that had no idea where Mike was at. She told me "I'm sorry but I think we've lost your son". Not something a mom of a missionary our for just over a month wants to hear. :)

the address is: 8463 Bird Ln
Willard, MO 65781
I still have not gotten any packages im not sure when you sent them if they were sent back or if they got lost in the mail. Im hopin its not lost cause i do need the stuff. We are on Bird Ln. NOT hues road my companion called in the change like 2 times and they dont write it down or anything. we will get it changed today though. I had to buy my own bike stuff cause with the mail how im not getting anything i did need the stuff and i could not wait. even though i have a car in this area i have to have 5 biking days a month and my companion is the D.L. so he needs to train other people so i am often in another area with bikes. I get $130 a month. I bought a new belt but im so mad cause a week later i was not even pulling on it that hard to put it on and it snapped right through the leather part. I did not have the reciept so i will remember to keep those from now on. The people out here are super nice like i see some people who if i saw them in phoenix they would probably shoot me but here they will sit down with you and offer you a soda so they are nice good people. I saw someone who hates cats pick one up by the head and smach it into the side of his trailer house to kill it. the first baptism that i will help with will be in between conference on the 3 i think it is. im not sure who is baptising him though.
Love elder Jones

Sept 4 2010 to Josh

Hey Josh its Elder Jones. I'm in my first area (Willard, Missouri) and I was just wondering what was going on back home? Did you write my e-mail address on facebook? Can you get on again and get somebody's name and address for me? Look up Lorna Marcott (not sure if thats how you spell her last name) I want her mailing address so I can write her. So far I am out of money and wet cause it rains all day and its not normal rain, its pouring and some places are already flooded and its only 10 AM.
Love, Elder Jones

Sept 4 2010 to mom

Hey mom its me. My p-days are busier than my regular days so I am writing in the car on the way to one of my areas. So far I have had a car and have not been able to ride my bike and we have a lot of miles that we can do on the car so I don't think I will need my bike in this area. This area is kinda a mix between a big city and a small town in the woods. There are some areas that have a lot of houses but around here its a lot like spread out and woodsy. Some people talk a bit southern but not much. I have two wards here so I get dinner at someones house almost every night. There are a lot of cows too. The bishop owns some cows and pigs. Even though they live a farmers life their house is huge and nice and they are kinda rich. They always have a ton of milk too cause they have milking cows. In this area we drive over 50 miles a day cause there are no other missionaries in this area. There are only two or three companionships in the stake. Well I'm busy so I need to go.

Love, Elder Jones

ps. my companion is Elder Sorenson. He has been out for a little over a year.


I didn't get this sent off yet but it is raining super hard. I really really need the jacket so if you have it please hurry up and send it. And my first p-day came around and they wont give me money till the next p-day so I used all my money on food and bike equipment. Need a little bit more. SOON.

First P-day e-mail: August 30 2010

OK you can send the garments and the money and the jacket cause i need them all pretty bad. im in a small town called Willard Missouri and its going to start raining soon. I beat the humidity though. The bike is here but i need to buy a bunch of stuff for it like front and back lights. its a lot of hard work and i need to clean the car and go shopping now so ill talk to you later.
love
Mike

Second letter home: August 25 2010

Dear Mom,
I got here safely after 2 long airplane rides on the smallest airplanes ever. It's fun. We had dinner and a large devotional. We went over a lot of papers and some rules. There's not really to much to tell. I go to my first area tomorrow and Monday is my first P-Day.
love
Elder Jones

First e-mail home: Gotta understand my boy is the strong silent type.

hey nothing new is really going on. dont send anything yet cause it takes like a week to get here and i leave in a week. just tell josh to send cool stuff that i can mess around with i dont care what it is. Mike asked for some stuff from Josh to decorate his room at the MTC with.

Sorry it's taken me so long to get organized: First letter home.

Dear Mom
Hi. The MTC is tough. I hardly have any time to myself. I am studying, eating and sleeping all day. Sundays are one of the best days cause we go to all our meetings but we still get a chance to mess around too. When I talked to Mike on the phone on Wednesday he said they did temple walks on Sunday. They were able to take pictures and enjoy the atmosphere. My companion gets on my nerves and has no sense of humor. Food is really good and I have had a lot of gas but missionaries are fine with it. Thanks for the letters. I do need some vitamin D and if you can get sea salt, our branch president said we need sea salt to stay healthy. When I talked to him on Wednesday he was sick but said he had been for a week and a half and was on the better side so I guess it takes awhile for the salt to work. Or maybe my chef just NEEDED his sea salt! Try to get my address to Abby and Kelly Wood too cause I got no letters from them. Putting it just how my boy put it. Tell the family I love them and will write soon.
Love,
Elder Jones

August 4th 2010

I dropped Elder Jones off at the MTC yesterday. He was so ready to go that we went 15 minutes early. There was a quick hug for me and a fast picture by Dusty and he was walking away with another Elder helping him. It went so fast I didn't cry until I was driving away. I already miss him and can't wait to hear from him. We spent every moment here in Utah visiting family and friends and temples. It was an amazing time together. I'm going to try and figure out how to do a slide show so I can get all the pictures in and not take up so much room. What a wonderful journey our family has started!!

July 28th 2010. Took Mike and Josh to the temple today. What a neat experience it was to have my boys there with me.

Mike Jones at his cousins wedding. July 23rd 2010. Already looking like a missionary...just gotta get that name tag.

Good Morning from the desktop of Elder Jones' mom. Only a week to go before my young man reports to the MTC. We leave Friday the 30th to go up and visit family and friends in Utah. I don't know who is more excited...me or the Elder.
We had a wonderful time with the Donner's last night. BBQ by Cody Donner...thank you Cody it was really good! Games with the entire family...you guys know WAY to much about Disney. Good thing Maria has small hands to keep the girl's team alive. Even though the boys team won us OLD people didn't do to bad. Trampoline fun...thank goodness only bruises and no broken arms. PILLOW FIGHT by Nikki and Bre...I don't care what Cody said I think it was a tie (or maybe the girls were out in front by a bit) What wonderful memories, not only for Mike but for me and Josh too. Thank you Donner Family.
Thank you so much for everyone that came to Mike's farewell talk. It was great to have so many people there to support him. What a wonderful talk...what an outstanding missionary Mike is going to be!