Merry Christmas y'all! 

Can't believe Christmas has already passed. It's really crazy. I remember when I got here and it was Halloween and then Thanksgiving and now Christmas. So insane. It has gone by so fast. 

This week was kinda weird with Christmas and all. It didn't just feel like Christmas since I didn't get to watch It's a Wonderful Life like my family normally does on Christmas Eve. I missed the traditions but that's just what Christmas on a mission is like. 

This week we did a good amount of service. I was on exchanges in a town called Elgin. He and I are both greenies haha and we went around to do some service tracting. We went around asking people if they wanted service and I was surprised that people didn't want it haha. They all just rejected us and didn't want FREE help. Like who doesn't want FREE help? But anyways I guess thats what normal tracting is like. 

But Christmas turned out to be pretty fun. It was my first and probably my last Christmas in the country 😂. We went to our stake president and bishop's house for a little bit. We spent some good time with them and it made Christmas a lot better. We were able to talk to some of his extended family and his son on a mission. But Bishop's son is a senior in high school and so he and I are kinda tight haha. We play basketball together on p days and he calls me Jimmer. So ya it's kinda funny. But then he showed us in his room a signed Jimmer jersey which I thought was pretty cool cause Jimmer is a stud hahaha. 

But not much else happened this week. We got 6 people to sacrament meeting! That was a super big accomplishment since we haven't had anyone come in a long time! It was super cool to see them hop on the zoom link or come in person. So that was a blessing. 

Oh ya I forgot to mention. I spoke in sacrament meeting. All four of the missionaries in the Columbia ward were first asked to sing together and we all didn't really want to haha. We all don't have good voices and so it woulda been bad haha. But we met with bishop on Wednesday and he told us that we were gonna speak rather than sing. I was grateful cause I'd rather speak than sing. All four of us spoke. I had to speak on how Light the World is helping the world for the Second Coming. But it was actually way awesome. I love speaking. 

Here's a quick little spiritual thought for yall this week, its in Matthew 7:24-27

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

We need to be like the wise men. We need to HEAR the word and DO it!! We cannot be like the foolish man that HEARS the word and DOESN’T follow it. The only difference is the ACTION. They both HEAR the word yet only the wise man takes action and DOES what he is asked to do! 

I hope y'all had an amazing Christmas and have a wonderful New Year! Love y'all! 

ELDER JONES 

Merry Christmas

This week has been super good! We have been super busy with service and with teaching opportunities! We have been working with an excommunicated member this week. We went over for service twice for him this week. We have been thinking about getting him back into the church and rebaptized. We talked to the bishop though and he's been excommunicated a couple times in the past. So he said it might be a process for him to actually come back but we're starting the fellowship and service and teaching process. I'm hoping that we can help him get back into following the commandments and such. 

We have been meeting with members more this week and this next week we are meeting with more members. It has been awesome meeting with members and getting to know them better. I've been getting to know the members a lot better and it's fun getting to know them. We are ushers in church and some of the old ladies in the ward told me that I was their favorite hahaha. That's good I guess. 

And I chipped a freaking tooth this week. I can't believe it. The second time as a missionary. I was eating some leftover texas roadhouse that we had. I was eating ribs and I bite down and I hit a tiny bone. Didn't think much of it. Then we were at a member's having dinner and I start feeling the tooth and think something is different with the tooth. I get home and I look and I saw that I fetching chipped a tooth. And it's the front tooth too. It's not too bad but ill have to go to the dentist hopefully this week or early next week and get it fixed. Idk how that happened cause I've never chipped any teeth in my life besides these past 3 months I've chipped two. Gotta be kidding me. 

I just get super excited when our lessons actually go through and we can actually teach them. There's a lot of people that I talk to on Facebook that don't care. They just flat out reject it and I'm like come on! This'll help you! But nope. But I make sure to let them know that they can always reach out. 

I just want to be the best missionary I can be. I am doing my best to learn and grow and teach. I just can't wait to be in Panama. I enjoy being here and getting to know the members and the people here. It has really has been awesome but I'm anxious to get to Panama.

We did have zone conference this week and it was really good. I enjoyed the counsel that we received from President Monson and it was awesome. It was a little tiring and long but it turned out awesome. We did get counsel on what to do better as a zone and I want to be accountable and obedient to his counsel as he is presiding over the mission. But he told us to focus more on members than on Facebook finding. He said that we should have at least 1 member lesson a day and put them before Facebook. So that's one thing that I thought was super important because we have been doing it the other way. 

But I'm doing well and enjoying the mission a lot! I am super tired all of the time but loving the work! 

Love you tons!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

ELDER ABRAM JONES