Sept 9- The Work Is Moving Right Along

Hey Everyone!

How are you all doing?! Surviving the AZ heat? Its starting to cool off here and get a little chilly at night (its super nice!). It makes riding bikes around that much better! No crashes to report this week. So thats sweet. But there also wasnt too much else interesting that happened this week (other than normal mission life, which is ALWAYS awesome =]) so I'll make a little bullet list of the highlights.

-Saturday Elder Collins and I had 4 meals all two hours apart. WAY too much food for one day. One of them was a BBQ with some of our investigators and I grilled all of the food! My first batch of hamburgers was pretty dry because I was a afraid of under-cooking them, but the second batch was pretty dang good. Also, at the BBQ they didnt have a cooler to keep the drinks cold so they pulled out an old beat up washing machine from the side of their house, filled it with Ice, and put the drinks in. I got a good laugh out of that.

-I finally got my Missionary Satchel! Haha really not that big of a deal, but all missionaries are supposed to use satchels now instead of back packs. They dont want us to look like students. Its kinda annoying because it gets in the way when I ride on my bike, but im getting used to it. Hopefully it doesnt lead to more crashes. (You know its been an exciting week when I start reporting on my bag hahaha but really, even "unexciting" weeks are great when you are a missionary =])

-Cool story: earlier this week we were walking down the street in front of this body shop and we heard a man inside trying to get our attention: "Misioneros! Misioneros!" We stopped, and when he came out he told us that he had investigated the church 15 years ago and that he wanted to come to church on Sunday. We gave him the time and address of church and he said he would see us on Sunday. Sadly, he didnt come, but we are going to stop by the shop sometime to go see him and see if he is still interested.

Well, thats really about it for this week. Im going to send some fun pictures in a second, so keep an eye out for those =] Love you all tons! Have an AMAZING week!

Love,

Elder Stones

This is Jeffrey, one of the young men from our ward that goes out with us every once in a while! He is a stud! Fun fact: Providence (where im serving) was originally supposed to be the capital of the USA and the building behind us was supposed to be the capital building. Atleast, thats what they tell me haha

 

Us on the bike path.

 

Cool forestry path from a couple of weeks ago.

 

 Sweet Little Lake

Same day we found the bike trail, we found this lake! It was a dammed up lake and we rode right next to the dam so I bet you can guess our conversation:

Me: *we are riding our bikes* "Elder Collins hold on!! I want to take a dam picture!"

Elder Collins: "NO. I dont want to take a dam picture"

Hahaha I love my companion

 

Sept 3- Another Week Flies By

Hey Everyone!

Wow. This past week flew by! A ton has happened! First, a fun little thing, this past week I met some brand new missionaries that just got to the field. Its weird that I'm not the little guy in the field anymore (not that 6 weeks really means much haha) because I feel like I just got out here! I still have SO much to learn and so many areas in which I need to grow before I feel like I could do this without my trainer. Good thing I have another 6 weeks with him. He is awesome! We get along super well and plan awesome lessons together and I just cant imagine what the field would be like without him. He is a stud!

 

Yesterday was Labor Day (libraries were closed, sorry I didnt write!) and we had the coolest Pday ever! Elder Collins, Richardson, Berthelson, and I all went to a Red Sox game!! One of the members in a ward that Elder Richardson used to serve in was kind enough to buy us all tickets. So, yesterday morning we took the train into Boston and walked to Fenway Park for the game! It was so awesome and I had the best time ever. Elder Berthelson made it especially fun because, although he is from AZ, he LOVES Boston and the Red Sox. When the second inning hit he was like, "hey Elder Stones lets go walk around and soak this up!!" The whole time we were walking around the stadium he had the biggest smile on his face and just kept giggling like a little kid in a candy shop. Super funny! Then, before I knew it he led us to some way nice empty seats right next to 3rd base where we watched about 4 innings and got some sweet pictures. He just sat awestruck. His eyes were so big, and he was like 8 years old all over again. Haha I couldnt stop laughing at him. After a bit we decided to head back to our normal seats, but he just couldn't get enough and instead took another beeline to even nicer seats right behind homeplate!! He was crazy. We only stayed in those seats for like 6 pitches ( they were super nice and I got some good pictures =] ) and then we finally headed back to our seats. The Red Sox lost the game, but it was quite the adventure. Too fun.

The missionary work is as great as ever! The ward is super involved and so nice, my companion rocks, and our investigators are such amazing people - I absolutely love teaching them! Nothing super big to report on, just that it is amazing to see people change as they let Christ touch their lives =]

Alright, I guess thats it for this week! I love you all tons and hope life is treating you as well as it is treating me!

Love,

Elder Stones

 

Fenway Park

3rd Base Seats with Elder Berto

Home Plate

View from behind the plate

Last One: Fenway Park

Aug 18- Made it Through The First Transfer Out In The Field

How's everyone doing?!

Life is still great out here in Providence! I didn't write on Monday because its transfer week and Pdays move to Wednesday on transfer week. So yeah, I made it through my first transfer. Thats pretty sweet! I'm still staying in Providence, of course, because I have another transfer with my trainer, Elder Collins. This is his last transfer in the mission and then he goes home. Its hard to imagine not having him as my companion, but we try not to think about it haha We are just focusing on making this the best transfer of his mission!

Good news! I didnt crash on my bike this week! But that shouldn't be a surprise... I'm a pro. In other bike news we found the COOLEST bike trail this week. One of Elder Collin's former companions came back to visit and we decided to meet at a member's house for dinner. The only problem was that the member lived like 15 miles away from where we normal ride. So we got on Google maps, looked up the fastest route, and it told us to take this bike trail to save time. On the map, it showed the trail weaving between two rivers, and from that I suspected it was going to be awesome, but it blew my expectations out of the water! We were riding in a small town and then when we hit the trail it was like going into an awesome forest! The trail was perfectly paved, with lanes and a nice wooden fence on each side. There was a river on each side of the path and along each river there were beautiful trees and brush and it was just super pretty! Like something out of a movie. That happens quite frequently out here when we are riding in a car: we will be driving on a freeway in the city and then all of the sudden there are just trees and lakes everywhere. Anyway, it was just cool to have that happen while we were on our bikes. We were riding and all of the sudden 'bam' we were in nature. I took some pictures because my lame description doesn't do it justice, but I forgot my camera when I came to email so you guys will just have to wait until next week to see.

Our investigators are great! We are still teaching Fernando (15 year old). He already has so much understand and maturity when it comes to life, its kinda crazy. He understands that committing to live a religion for the rest of his life isnt a small decision and he wants to make sure he is ready. Great kid. Love him. We are also still teaching Anny and her sister, Grisauris (younger women from the Dominican Republic). Our lessons with them are always so great because they already have a strong belief and faith in God, and they really have a desire to learn of God and get closer to him. Its great to find people in this crazy, busy world that still have strong beliefs in God and make faith a priority. Oh, something cool happened with them this week! Their house/apartment thing is always full of different people going around doing different things inside and out. One time during one of our lessons, one of the men that is usually busy working came and sat and listened to one of our lessons. At the end he said he would like to listen to more in the future. Pretty cool!

Spanish is coming slowly but surely, like always =] I have real testimony of the Gift of Tongues. When I am feeling the spirit and really relying on it, I can usually speak pretty fluidly. But when I try to do it alone... not too good. Haha so, moral of the story: rely on the Lord and he can lift you even higher than the best that you can do on your own. I have actually experienced that many times, so I know its true! =]

Well, I feel like theres not much meat to this email, and I was going to make up for it by sending pictures (we took quite a few this week), but I forgot my camera. So, I will make up for it next week with even more pictures =] I love you all tons! Thank you for all of your prayers and support! You are all the best!

Love,
Elder Stones

Aug 19- Simple Week Serving on the East Coast

How's everyone doing?! I dont have a ton to update on because I just wrote a few days ago, so, this isn't going to be as long as my other emails, but I'll still try to make it good =]

This weekend (Saturday) was the broadcast of the groundbreaking of the new temple they are going to build in Hartford Connecticut. Of course by the time all of the talks were broadcasted to us in our chapel they was translated into Spanish, but I could understand most of it and it was just really cool. Also, it was especially special because normally one of the 12 apostles goes to the groundbreaking ceremonies, but we were blessed enough to have President Monson come and speak. He gave a great, simple talk. He is looking pretty frail and his voice was Hoarse so keep him in your prayers =] He is an amazing man and I love the spirit that he carries with him as he teaches and loves the church.

Okay, I was trying to figure out a cool way to tell all of you this so that it doesnt sound so lame, but I'm just going to throw it out there: I crashed on my stupid bike.... again!! Haha first, I promise I know how to ride a bike. Second, I dont need a score board that says "Elder Stones:0 Bike:3" haha. And third, I've only crashed so many times because I'm on a bike way more than a normal person should be; therefore, the likelihood of me crashing is much higher. The dumb thing is that I almost made it through the week without crashing!! It just happened last night! We were going down this huge hill (probably going a little too fast haha), got to the bottom, crossed through a dark parking (still going pretty fast), and all of the sudden there is a BLACK curb in my way.... who the heck puts a black curb in a parking lot?! I almost turned out of the way, but my front wheel hit it side ways and the next thing I knew I was on the asphalt. Hardest hit yet, tore up my knee and hand pretty good, but I'm still good to work =] The Lord is definitely protecting me... I should make it easier for him haha.

Well, thats it for this week! The work is progressing here and life is great! Remember that Christ and God love us and are always there to wrap us in a big hug if we need it!

"But behold, the Lord hath ^aredeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his ^bglory, and I am encircled about eternally in the ^carmsof his ^dlove." 2 Nephi 1:15

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Love,

Elder Stones

 

Hacer Caras

All of the Providence Spanish Elders at a Members home for dinner. Tacos. Super Good.

 

Aug 14- Wednesday Email

Hello Family and Friends!

So, I didn't email on Monday because Rhode Island has this holiday called "Victory Day"? or something like that and all of the libraries were closed. Its a celebration of the day World War 2 ended, but I have never heard of it. Anyway, It has been another solid week! First, I have something embarrassing to report ... I crashed on my stupid bike again!! I was just riding down the street, not really paying attention to the road, and I hit a pot hole that turned my handlebars side ways and I flew off. Thats twice in 2 weeks... embarrassing. At this rate Ill catch up to Michelle's crashes in no time (love you Michelle =) haha) This time I hit a little harder, but most of the force was on my helmet, so thank goodness I was wearing one. I also landed on the same arm as last time and reopened the previous road rash, which ruined my shirt, and made for a good picture (I'll send it later.) But the good thing is that I didn't get hurt and we could just keep going with our night. Well, thats a lie. My pride was really hurt! [2 crashes in 2 weeks?! Cmon ;)...] but pride is a bad thing so maybe its good that mine got hurt a little haha =]

On Monday we got to do a really cool Pday activity: We went to a Patriots practice that was open to the public! We had to get a ride with a member which wasnt a problem because Everyone here LOVES the Patriots and Tom Brady. We called a member and told them about it and they were like "Heck yeah I'll take you guys!! I had a family lake trip planned, but Im cancelling it so I can go see my team!!" Hahaha the loyalty out here is crazy. Anyway, the practice was super fun and I got a nice tan.... on only half of my face, but hey, a tan is a tan. Right?

The work is going great! This past week we started teaching a young woman in her 20's, Anny, who just moved here 4 months ago from the Dominican repubilic to study medicine and English. She is super nice, she believes in and loves god, and she came to church after only one lesson! She is awesome. The second time we went to her house to teach her, she had 4 other friends over to listen. We were just like, "Whoa, okay!" Her friends were just visiting her here in RI, but they loved the lesson and the idea that God still talks to people on the earth today. Also, Anny's sister listened in on the lesson with all of the friends and since then has been sitting in our lessons. She really likes the values that the church has, and is going to come to church with Anny this next Sunday to see what its like!

Quick story: Anny and her sister wanted to make us dinner when we came back to teach them the next time. They were like, "what do you want?" Elder Collins says, "Mondongo" and they start freaking out because Mondongo is a classic dominican dish and they were so happy that Elder Collins knew what it was. I asked Elder Collins what Mondongo was, but he just told me not to worry and that I would like it... so naturally I worried just a little bit because he was being pretty hush hush about what this Mondongo stuff was. Anyway, we came back the next time, taught them, and then they brought out the mondongo: a soup with chunks of veggies and other stuff in it that you pour over rice. Anyway, I take my first helping, start eating, and it tasted pretty good. It had potatoes, carrots, and other veggies, but it also had these smaller chunks of really chewy stuff, and I couldn't quite tell what it was. I finished my first helping and went back for seconds, which had a much bigger chunk of the chewy stuff in it. I looked closer and found out... it was INTESTINE. Even though it tasted pretty good, the thought of eating intestine made the second helping a little harder to swallow, but I'm happy to say that I finished it all; Even the huge chunk of intestine that I couldn't cut or chew into smaller pieces, so I just had to shove it in my mouth and muscle it down. It was chewy like fat. Anyway, that was a fun first time for me!

Alright, I dont have much time left, but I have to correct something from my last email. Im really dumb and kinda left out the apartment number on the mailing address that I gave you in my last email. I got all of the packages (Thank you!! =] ), but if you sent mail, you will probably get it back this next week. So here it is again:

Elder Stones

60 Valley Street #11

Providence, RI 02909

I got to read everyone's emails, Loved them all =], but I dont have time to write back and send pictures, so Ill be sure to write back next week. Love you all and Hope that you all have amazing weeks! Talk to you again in 5 days =]

Love,

Elder Stones

 

1. Bike Crash. So dumb. Bike:2 Elder Stones:0

2. My componion is in a 90's workout suit. He is hilarious.

3. First zone conference my MTC comp and my Companions MTC comp are now companions.:)

 

 

 

Aug 5- Mission Life

The missionary life is so awesome! I can't believe that it is already Monday again. SO much has happened in the week when I stop and look at it, but it all just flies by! Alright, where to start? Oh, I had my first bike crash this week but it was so lame! I didn't hit anything, or get hit by anything, or anything cool like that... I wasn't even going to mention it, but since I gave Michelle a hard time for crashing, I decided I should tell haha Well, I was just cruising down this street and Elder Collins was infront of me and I wanted to catch up. So, I put all of my weight on my right pedal to speed up RIGHT when my chain came off and I my bike just flipped to the side and I ate it. I didn't even know what happened! I just crashed to my shoulder, my bike was on top of me, and a car stopped next to me and asked me if I was alright. I looked like a fool! haha but its alright, literally less than 3 minutes later, Elder Collins took a sharp turn on a sandy road and his bike slid out from underneath him and he wrecked too. But atleast he rolled out of it and looked cool... I just ate it. haha but we are all good! Just scraped up hands and a few other scratches. So, Bike:1 Elder Stones:0. (Wait, how am I supposed to get points against my bike?) Also, I think mine and Elder Collin's misfortunes are connected. Not only did we crash like 3 minutes apart, but 2 days later we were flying down this hill and I went up a curb too hard and popped my back tire. He rode back, we started walking our bikes, and his back tire caught a sharp pole and it popped. So we walked our 2 broken bikes back home together. We got some pretty funny looks!

The work here is progressing really well! There were 4 companionships of missionaries in our ward, but this week 1 companionship got their visas and headed out to Argentina. That leaves us with 3 companionships and LOTS of work. Quick little summary of whats happening with out investigators =]

- Tuti and Editza accepted a baptismal date! They really didn't know much about religion or even who Jesus Christ was when we first started teaching them, but they have been learning everything really well. They really like everything and loved learning about the Plan of Salvation. They said it all makes sense! (Which is good because the Plan of Salvation could be confusing!)

- Alberto. We were walking down the street one day after eating dinner at one of the ward member's homes and this random guy that was washing his van in the street called us over and started asking us questions. When we got closer we found out that he was completely drunk, probably high, and pretty out of it, but he was asking questions and wanted to learn more about what religion could offer him. We sat on his porch for a while, talked with him, and found out that he had had a pretty rough life. (We also found out that he had met with the missionaries like 2 years before! In one lesson we pulled out one of the paper back Book of Mormons and he was like "Hey I think I have one of those", went inside, and, sure enough, he walked out holding a Book of Mormon.) Long story short, we told him that we would come back and talk more, but that he had to do something for us: No drinking or smoking until the next day when we came back. The next day when we came back he was more coherent and we were actually able to teach him about Christ, but since then he has been drinking more and its hard to even have a conversation when he cant think straight. So, we are working on that haha Oh that brings me to someone else we met this week:

- Mikey. We went over to teach Alberto on Saturday night and his grandson, Mikey, was over for the weekend visiting. Alberto was out of it, but Mikey loved talking about God. He is 10 , asks lots of questions, and he shared an awesome experience about how he knows God loves him. He said he used to go to church a lot and loved it, but his parents got busy, so they stopped going. We found out that he visits grandpa every weekend, told him we that we would come back and talk to him more next weekend, and asked him to say a little prayer to God every night before he went to bed this next week. He is awesome and we are hoping that we can get a hold of his parents this next weekend and see if they wouldn't mind us talking to Mikey more and see if they would want to join us.

Well, thats about it for this week! The Spanish is coming along slowly but surely. Its hard when I am surrounded by so much English, but its all good! I know I will be able to speak it soon if I keep working hard and rely on the Lord =] I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Talk to ya in a week!

Love,

Elder Stones

 

I didn't take any pictures this week, so I sent some old ones:

1. MTC branch President. Such an awesome guy!

2. This is Elder Curtis Stone, pretty crazy huh?! He is one of the Assistants to the Pres. in the mission

 

July 29- Life in Providence!

Whats up everyone?!

Hope life is treating every one well! I sure know mine is! Being a missionary really is an incredible thing. You get to completely forget about yourself and just go serve, teach,and try to improve lives in any way you can. Its awesome. The ward here in Providence is great! I told you a little bit about it last week, but I ran out of time before I could say much. The ward is all hispanic and they all speak spanish (some speak English which is a relief since I'm not very good at expressing all of my ideas or feelings in Spanish yet, but I do try to only use Spanish with the Members... its cheating if I dont haha oh and I could understand a lot more of what was said during church this Sunday, which was a HUGE relief! My ears are finally able to distinguish where words start and end when the native spanish speakers are speaking. The Dominicans are still hard to understand because they don't say their S's!). The ward also LOVES the missionaries. They want to have the missionaries over as much as possible to feed them and visit. We have a HUGE dinner of rice, beans, and some type of meat almost every night... sometimes we have two. Its a really good thing we are on bikes otherwise I would be getting FAT. We ride anywhere from 10 - 20 miles per day and its real good exercise because there are hills EVERYWHERE. The great thing about hills is that when you ride up.... you eventually have to ride back down and then you just fly haha its great. One other bad thing about bikes: when it rains, you get really wet. This past week we got caught in the rain like 4 times! One time we were supposed to go to a members house for lunch, but they forgot and weren't home when we got there. Then it started to rain but we had no where to go because we were in the middle of a big neighborhood... so we hid under a tree. I bet it was a pretty pathetic/funny sight to see two guys in white shirts and ties hiding under a tree from the rain. We had a pretty good laugh about it! Another time it was raining and we had 30 min to get to an appointment so we got smart and wore rain jackets... too bad rain jackets don't cover pants. So we showed up at an investigators house with pants completely soaked... we knocked on the door and she says, "Wait I thought you guys were coming tomorrow." Apparently she called the number on her phone titled "the missionaries" to cancel the appointment because she knew we would have to ride on bikes through the rain, but the number she had in here phone was a different companionship. She told them to come to her house tomorrow and those missionaries were just like "uh, okay". hahaha so we rode in the rain for like 5 miles to get to a cancelled appointment, but it sure was fun!

Alright, so right now we are teaching the missionary lessons to 4 people and they are all awesome!
-A man named Andres in his late 50's who should be getting baptized this month! (he has been coming to church for 2 years! Pretty crazy huh?)
-A 15 year old named Fernando whos Dad got baptized recently! He really liked the kindness and friendship in the church, and that made him want to learn more. He is the nicest kid ever, and he looks like he is at least 18! He's a stud =]

-2 teenage girls named Tuti and Editza. My companion actually baptized their grandma when he was here like a year ago and they have a cousin who just got back from a spanish speaking mission in North Colorado. We were over at their house for dinner one night and they had tons of questions about life and we were just like "want us to come teach you?" and they were like "Sure!" Tuti is really funny and has MILLIONS of questions! Its entertaining and very fun to teach them

Also, this next week we are meeting a couple more people for the first time who are interested in learning more about the church, so that will be fun! I love meeting new people and just talking to them about our lives and theirs and its just great. Oh I just remembered something! Last week I told you 4 of us Elders played catch with a football across 3 lanes of traffic with 2 guys last week, Well one of them decided to hear the lessons from Elder Richardson and Elder Berthelson (two missionaries from AZ) and he decided to get baptized at the end of the month! Crazy right?

Well I think thats it for this week! I love you all so much and I'm so happy to be out on a mission right now! Its different than anything I have ever done before and its sweet. Oh my, address here in Providence for the next 3 months is:

Elder Jonathan Stones
60 Valley Street
Providence, RI 02909

But if you send it to the Email that I put on Facebook, it will get to me too! Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Stones

 

1. Rain!

2.After hiding under the tree, we eventually got smart and hid under a porch instead

3. The kitchen is off to the right. There is a lot more room back and to the left. Its a pretty sweet pad haha

4. This picture is a little dumb haha but this is where we were trying to hide before we got smart.