Thank you for the news! I'm glad my package made it back, but I'm sorry yours was so expensive... I was told it was significantly less than that... Thank you all the more! I gave the other missionary money for shipping so I think it was OK, but extra cost may have explained the delay. I think that group left today for Korea, so it may be that way.
I'm sorry to hear about Holly and hope everything goes well in her recovery. She will be in our thoughts and prayers. Please tell her that. I am really glad she got a good job, though. That has been a while coming.
It's great to hear Jason got in, and I heard Dallin was going back out, too! Tell them congratulations for me! Things are going well over there.
I'm glad Maddie is having a great time! I will try to get a picture, but, as yet, I still don't have a connection to transfer pictures from a camera...
I understood a bit of the French, but I am really glad Elder South was there. And he doesn't know how he got into Yale, so we'll see how much help that is...
I wish you the best luck with the Legal Shield stuff and you will be in my prayers. Just remember that the worst thing that can happen is that the people won't like you, and if that is the case, they probably wouldn't have liked you anyway. Always be yourself and be genuine about a desire to help. Know your stuff and market it, don't sell it. These are all basically things for proselyting, but the principles are the same. Have fun with it! If you rare not enjoying it, they will not want to talk to you. That's just the way people are sometimes.
Thank you for the email and I look forward to hearing from you again next week!
Press forward with steadfast faith in Christ.
Best wishes,
Elder Jones
Monday, March 3, 2014
Week 12 (from Mom)
Dearest, darling Jordan,
What fun to be able to use your Francais! Est-ce-que vous comprendez plus que [understand]? What a treat. So your companion speaks French, Mandarin, and Korean? Yowee. Any chance he can help get you into Yale? :) Do you still get to interact with your MTC companion? Have you gotten the BoM yet? It was ~$70 to ship it, so next time I'm going to just go to Amazon... :)
Just yesterday we got the package with your boots, Dr. S., and bag. Missionary Mall called to see if these (more expensive) boots worked for you, or if we should just go in and switch them for the (cheaper) ones we bought. Did you try them on? I'll plan to keep them unless you let me know. FYI, the MM box was 15 lbs. Your BoM box was 3. Crazy! Did your "trustworthy" Elder have to pay the shipping? It looked like it came straight from the MTC, but if we owe the kid $$$ just let me know.
Your cousin Jason just got accepted to the Y, but is planning to defer during his mission.
Madi has been in Ecuador for almost 2 weeks. Neither her plaque nor yours are up on the wall yet. Have you had someone take a "head and shoulders" shot of you? Smiling would be great.
On the back of the front door, I have about 10 completely different pictures of you so I get to stop and grin every time I go out. It's been a fun way to keep you in my thoughts.
Holly's got Stage 2 slow-growing breast cancer in the lymph nodes. They will do surgery in a couple of weeks in hopes of getting it all out, but then they will do chemo to (try to) kill all of the pre-cancerous cells. It totally creeps me out. I've been taking her to the different appointments (mamo, ultrasound, MRI, genetics advising, surgical and oncologist) and have tried to stay upbeat. We try to watch funny movies, eat lots of popcorn, and laugh as much as possible. We're working on the Dr. S. strategy, but I'm worried that she hasn't bought into the system fully...so...we're working on the laughing at least! Her hubby had his heart attack 2 years ago, and his heart transplant 1 year ago. Serious struggles at their house. She did get a job she enjoys. She's a grant writer for UTA.
I'm going to try [no, not try--just do] to get into LegalShield and ID Protection sales again. In the last couple of months, Target, Nieman Marcus, IHC, and the U have all had their systems hacked...all kinds of personal information having been stolen. People need the coverage we have; I just need to get over my anxiety about calling, making appointments, and then following through. Please pray for me to have courage as I work to overcome my paralyzing anxiety!
Finally, keeping your letters on the blog has been very successful. You've had 1500+ views so far. :)
Thanks for being such a great kid. Try to give yourself a break and have some fun every now and again. Don't let your fabulous sense of humor get rusty, K?
I love your gutz,
Mom
What fun to be able to use your Francais! Est-ce-que vous comprendez plus que [understand]? What a treat. So your companion speaks French, Mandarin, and Korean? Yowee. Any chance he can help get you into Yale? :) Do you still get to interact with your MTC companion? Have you gotten the BoM yet? It was ~$70 to ship it, so next time I'm going to just go to Amazon... :)
Just yesterday we got the package with your boots, Dr. S., and bag. Missionary Mall called to see if these (more expensive) boots worked for you, or if we should just go in and switch them for the (cheaper) ones we bought. Did you try them on? I'll plan to keep them unless you let me know. FYI, the MM box was 15 lbs. Your BoM box was 3. Crazy! Did your "trustworthy" Elder have to pay the shipping? It looked like it came straight from the MTC, but if we owe the kid $$$ just let me know.
Your cousin Jason just got accepted to the Y, but is planning to defer during his mission.
Madi has been in Ecuador for almost 2 weeks. Neither her plaque nor yours are up on the wall yet. Have you had someone take a "head and shoulders" shot of you? Smiling would be great.
On the back of the front door, I have about 10 completely different pictures of you so I get to stop and grin every time I go out. It's been a fun way to keep you in my thoughts.
Holly's got Stage 2 slow-growing breast cancer in the lymph nodes. They will do surgery in a couple of weeks in hopes of getting it all out, but then they will do chemo to (try to) kill all of the pre-cancerous cells. It totally creeps me out. I've been taking her to the different appointments (mamo, ultrasound, MRI, genetics advising, surgical and oncologist) and have tried to stay upbeat. We try to watch funny movies, eat lots of popcorn, and laugh as much as possible. We're working on the Dr. S. strategy, but I'm worried that she hasn't bought into the system fully...so...we're working on the laughing at least! Her hubby had his heart attack 2 years ago, and his heart transplant 1 year ago. Serious struggles at their house. She did get a job she enjoys. She's a grant writer for UTA.
I'm going to try [no, not try--just do] to get into LegalShield and ID Protection sales again. In the last couple of months, Target, Nieman Marcus, IHC, and the U have all had their systems hacked...all kinds of personal information having been stolen. People need the coverage we have; I just need to get over my anxiety about calling, making appointments, and then following through. Please pray for me to have courage as I work to overcome my paralyzing anxiety!
Finally, keeping your letters on the blog has been very successful. You've had 1500+ views so far. :)
Thanks for being such a great kid. Try to give yourself a break and have some fun every now and again. Don't let your fabulous sense of humor get rusty, K?
I love your gutz,
Mom
Week 12 response from Jordan (to Dad)
Thank you for the advice and motivation. I wasn't expecting to read a Christmas carol parody in March. It was good, though!
I'm glad my emails are read; I hope they help someone sometime.
I am really glad I have been able to use all my languages, too! It really is true that we are called to missions for reasons. I doubt my meager language skills are the entire reason I'm here, but it is really great to be able to help in a way that others might not be able to do.
I believe there are about 200 missionaries, 6 zones, 6 missionaries in my district, 2 sisters, and we do have weekly district meetings. The discussions are going well. There are a lot of people who really want to learn about the gospel. The challenge is finding those who also want to change. The first couple weeks here, most of the time was spent teaching, but recently, we've been doing a lot of finding. This next week, we are planning on doing a mixture of both, with an emphasis on teaching. We have a few people who could be baptized really soon, but we need to help them make it to church and really understand the commitment baptism is. It's all really great, though, and I look forward to doing it for a while ;)
It sounds like you're doing a great job on missionary work back home! Keep up the good work, and tell them I look forward to meeting them in 21 months. Tell them that life really is better with the gospel than without it. There is nothing as sweet as the peace the gospel blesses us with. It is incredible to see the difference.
You have no idea how excited I was to see the sentence, "Amazing Race started again and it has returning teams including the cowboys." How old are they?!? If they do not win this one, I will be disappointed beyond belief. I hope they do. I would say I'll pray for them, but I feel that would be less than effective...
Tell Dallin congratulations on going back out and that he will not regret it. He knows that better than I do ;)
Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. I pray for all of you and think of you daily. I love hearing how all of you are doing and look forward to hearing more as the weeks go along.
Press forward with steadfast faith in Christ.
Best wishes,
Elder Jones
I'm glad my emails are read; I hope they help someone sometime.
I am really glad I have been able to use all my languages, too! It really is true that we are called to missions for reasons. I doubt my meager language skills are the entire reason I'm here, but it is really great to be able to help in a way that others might not be able to do.
I believe there are about 200 missionaries, 6 zones, 6 missionaries in my district, 2 sisters, and we do have weekly district meetings. The discussions are going well. There are a lot of people who really want to learn about the gospel. The challenge is finding those who also want to change. The first couple weeks here, most of the time was spent teaching, but recently, we've been doing a lot of finding. This next week, we are planning on doing a mixture of both, with an emphasis on teaching. We have a few people who could be baptized really soon, but we need to help them make it to church and really understand the commitment baptism is. It's all really great, though, and I look forward to doing it for a while ;)
It sounds like you're doing a great job on missionary work back home! Keep up the good work, and tell them I look forward to meeting them in 21 months. Tell them that life really is better with the gospel than without it. There is nothing as sweet as the peace the gospel blesses us with. It is incredible to see the difference.
You have no idea how excited I was to see the sentence, "Amazing Race started again and it has returning teams including the cowboys." How old are they?!? If they do not win this one, I will be disappointed beyond belief. I hope they do. I would say I'll pray for them, but I feel that would be less than effective...
Tell Dallin congratulations on going back out and that he will not regret it. He knows that better than I do ;)
Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. I pray for all of you and think of you daily. I love hearing how all of you are doing and look forward to hearing more as the weeks go along.
Press forward with steadfast faith in Christ.
Best wishes,
Elder Jones
Week 12 - The twelve Yea's of Christ's Math (from Dad)
Dear Jordan,
Sorry the title is off this time. I was hoping something better would come to mind. So here it goes.
1 - Be one with the Spirit and no matter what happens you will be successful
2 - You have a companion for many reasons (e.g. Protection, guidance, etc) so that you can rely on him
3 - The Godhead is three distinct individuals but one in purpose. As you become one with the Spirit, you become more like God
4 - The first four principles of the gospel opens the Celestial kingdom to us
5 - The number of fingers and toes on our hands and feet that remind us that we are to be Heavenly Father's hands to serve others and to quickly go as the Spirit dictates
6 - The number of days/periods that it took to form the earth. If the world can come together and be so beautiful, think what is possible for each of our spiritual brothers and sisters
7 - The seventh day is a day of rest. Don't walk faster than you are able but remember that the Lord qualifies those that He calls. Ammon said that as to the strength of man he was week but knew that he could accomplish anything that God asked of him
8 - There are eight quorums of the Seventies. They, like you, have been called of God and carry the title of Elder. Your district, zone, and mission now is your quorum and as a quorum, you can accomplish anything
9 - Can't think of anything, so kimchi. Nine or nein or no!!!!
10 - Moroni 10: 3-5 Moroni's promise to know the truth is sure
11 - The number of witnesses to the Book of Mormon and the percent of time you have already been on your mission. The time is flying by quickly when you are in the service of the Lord
12 - The Twelve Apostles are special witnesses of Jesus Christ and you have the opportunity to testify of Him every day
We have enjoyed your emails. They show your enthusiasm for your mission. Thank you for sharing what you are experiencing. We haven't received your boots yet from the missionary. Have you received your Chinese Book of Mormon? Everyone keeps asking how you are doing and I respond that you are doing great, especially since you get to use all of the different languages that you have learned.
How many missionaries in your mission? How many zones? How many missionaries in you district? Do you have weekly district meetings? I did in Ecuador. Are there many sister missionaries or senior missionaries? How are the discussions going? Do you spend most of your time finding or teaching?
I heard on Sunday that Dallin Colgrove is planning on finishing the last six months of his mission. The cyst was removed and he is going through therapy. Also Jason Colgrove is planning on serving a mission this summer.
Last night I helped clean the temple so if my thoughts are a little scattered, that is why. On Monday we had a quick Family Home Evening so that Hannah could see "Fiddler on the roof" at Jordan High School. I then went with the missionaries to teach a family on Sego Lily. It is a mixed family as far as religion. The father is Hindu and the mother is protestant. It was interesting to hear about the Hindu teachings and how many of the philosophies align with ours. They are a great family. If they pray about the Book of Mormon I know they will learn that it is true.
Amazing Race started again and it has returning teams including the cowboys. They won the first leg of the race.
We are doing well. Thank you for your prayers. When you went through the temple, was it in Korean or English? I still get nervous at the end when it is in Spanish. I am fine in English though.
Keep up the great work. I put your name on the prayer roll in the temple.
We love you.
Rachel, Bekah, dad, Mom, Sarah, Hannah
P.S. The attachment was in the news this week. It shows the lights on the Korean Peninsula. I bet you are near the Seoul lights. You can clearly see the DMZ.
Sorry the title is off this time. I was hoping something better would come to mind. So here it goes.
1 - Be one with the Spirit and no matter what happens you will be successful
2 - You have a companion for many reasons (e.g. Protection, guidance, etc) so that you can rely on him
3 - The Godhead is three distinct individuals but one in purpose. As you become one with the Spirit, you become more like God
4 - The first four principles of the gospel opens the Celestial kingdom to us
5 - The number of fingers and toes on our hands and feet that remind us that we are to be Heavenly Father's hands to serve others and to quickly go as the Spirit dictates
6 - The number of days/periods that it took to form the earth. If the world can come together and be so beautiful, think what is possible for each of our spiritual brothers and sisters
7 - The seventh day is a day of rest. Don't walk faster than you are able but remember that the Lord qualifies those that He calls. Ammon said that as to the strength of man he was week but knew that he could accomplish anything that God asked of him
8 - There are eight quorums of the Seventies. They, like you, have been called of God and carry the title of Elder. Your district, zone, and mission now is your quorum and as a quorum, you can accomplish anything
9 - Can't think of anything, so kimchi. Nine or nein or no!!!!
10 - Moroni 10: 3-5 Moroni's promise to know the truth is sure
11 - The number of witnesses to the Book of Mormon and the percent of time you have already been on your mission. The time is flying by quickly when you are in the service of the Lord
12 - The Twelve Apostles are special witnesses of Jesus Christ and you have the opportunity to testify of Him every day
We have enjoyed your emails. They show your enthusiasm for your mission. Thank you for sharing what you are experiencing. We haven't received your boots yet from the missionary. Have you received your Chinese Book of Mormon? Everyone keeps asking how you are doing and I respond that you are doing great, especially since you get to use all of the different languages that you have learned.
How many missionaries in your mission? How many zones? How many missionaries in you district? Do you have weekly district meetings? I did in Ecuador. Are there many sister missionaries or senior missionaries? How are the discussions going? Do you spend most of your time finding or teaching?
I heard on Sunday that Dallin Colgrove is planning on finishing the last six months of his mission. The cyst was removed and he is going through therapy. Also Jason Colgrove is planning on serving a mission this summer.
Last night I helped clean the temple so if my thoughts are a little scattered, that is why. On Monday we had a quick Family Home Evening so that Hannah could see "Fiddler on the roof" at Jordan High School. I then went with the missionaries to teach a family on Sego Lily. It is a mixed family as far as religion. The father is Hindu and the mother is protestant. It was interesting to hear about the Hindu teachings and how many of the philosophies align with ours. They are a great family. If they pray about the Book of Mormon I know they will learn that it is true.
Amazing Race started again and it has returning teams including the cowboys. They won the first leg of the race.
We are doing well. Thank you for your prayers. When you went through the temple, was it in Korean or English? I still get nervous at the end when it is in Spanish. I am fine in English though.
Keep up the great work. I put your name on the prayer roll in the temple.
We love you.
Rachel, Bekah, dad, Mom, Sarah, Hannah
P.S. The attachment was in the news this week. It shows the lights on the Korean Peninsula. I bet you are near the Seoul lights. You can clearly see the DMZ.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Jordan's Week 11 response!
From: Jordan Stamps Jones <jsjones@myldsmail.net>
Date: February 23, 2014 at 8:43:27 PM MST
To: Steven Jones <sajmba2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Week 11 - Elevenses is a meal eaten by Hobbits between second breakfast and luncheon
Date: February 23, 2014 at 8:43:27 PM MST
To: Steven Jones <sajmba2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Week 11 - Elevenses is a meal eaten by Hobbits between second breakfast and luncheon
Hey everybody!
Sorry about the lateness of last week's letter. We had a
temple day last week which meant P-day was on Tuesday instead of Monday. It was
good, but a bit disorienting... and we ran out of food for a bit...
Tell Hannah she did a good job on translating. As I
understand, it is "one door" and "Eastern big door". I
don't blame Google for messing it up a bit. Those words are from Chinese and
can have identical sounds for different meanings... I think the river is out of
my area, but in my zone. I imagine most of the greenery is on the grounds of
the three massive colleges in our area. There are a few parks here and there,
but they are usually pretty small. There are not many members in our area, but
it is also the smallest area in the mission. We work with a branch that
ocassionaly will help us with food. The Branch President says we need to ask
for food more becasue it builds relationships fast. The only really permanent
members of the branch are fairly old. Most of the branch consists of students
(thus it's a branch, not a ward). We haven't been able to do much work with the
members, unfortunately because the member is busy or the appointment falls
through at the last moment. We are making that more of a focus, but it may take
some time to take hold.We have a washing machine in the house and buy some
cleanign supplies when necessary, The clothes just air dry in a miniature
greenhouse made for that purpose. It's not quite as good as the machines back
home, but it works out alright :)
I hope that Holly gets better quickly! That is not something
she needs. Sorry about your legs, but thank you for doing that. I hope I'm able
to help the next time something big like that needs work. I am staying in
pretty good shape (my cardio has definitely improved. Once I get to clean air
again I think I'll be able to run faster than ever before). We try to do
service as much as possible, but it seems like a cultural thing to not ask for
or accept help :S We'll see what other service we can do. We will be helping
the members clean the church in a few weeks. It is difficult to pick up trash
around here. There are no public garbage cans. If we pick up trash, we could
end up carrying it for the rest of the day... We'll see.
I'm glad you got to enjoy Robert's tacos and dad's taco
beef. It's always good. So is Galaxy Quest. I'll miss that. Keep up the FHEs
and I look forward to hearing about the investigators that come next month.
Tell Bekah she'll have a great time in young women's. I look forward to hearing
about how she likes it.
Thank you for the prayers. They are helping every day. I
pray for all of you and I always look forward to hearing about how your lives
are going.
Press forward with steadfast faith in Christ.
Best wishes,
Elder Jones
P.S. Thank you for the Book of Mormon. That will help a lot.
We currently only have a Taiwanese language learning program that we copied
from another missionary. I look forward to the Book of Mormon.
Elevenses is a meal eaten by Hobbits between second breakfast and luncheon Week 11 from Dad
Dear Jordan,
It was great to receive you last email. I received it at 4 am, so I guess it either took a while to process the email by the servers or you sent it later in your P-Day. To me it sounded like you were excited and happy which is wonderful. The additional information for the top 10 was great. It really helped us share a part of your mission.
Hannah did a google translate for the locations and she was able to find the areas on google maps. When she put in the first set of characters, it translated it to "This Document" with the pronunciation of imun. The second set of characters translated to "East demun" with pronunciation of dongdemun. It then asked if we meant 동대문 or Dongdaemun instead of 동데문, just a slight difference in the second set of characters. Obviously I don't know the difference. When we looked up Imun, it found it on the map and then there were a couple of other areas nearby with Imun (e.g. Imun-1, Imun-2, Imun-ro, etc.).
Are you by the river that we could see on the map? There are some vegetation areas as well. Are they parks or just undeveloped areas? Some of it looked like a university or large high school by the vegetation.
Are there many members in the area? Are you associated with a stake, ward, branch, or district? Are the members feeding you or are you eating out or cooking for yourselves? Have you gone on any splits with the members? How are you contacting investigators? Are the members helping you? If you can find an energetic member to help you, you will be successful with a build in friend for the new members. I know that sometimes that kind of member is hard to find. Do you wash your own laundry or does someone get paid to do it? Are you seeing lots of new and funky electronics?
Mom has been helping Holly through a tough time with her health. On Saturday I went to Alpine and installed the base board in Grandma's downstairs area. It took several hours and on Sunday and Monday, I had very sore leg muscles. Ah the fun of getting old and being out of shape. Hopefully you are staying healthy and eating well. I am sure you are getting plenty of exercise with walking around and helping people. I am sure you are already doing this but I would recommend that you continue to follow the Scout Slogan "Do a good turn daily". Since you are out and about with people, find simple ways to help. Open doors, pick up trash, offer to sweep areas in front of stores and houses, offer to wash windows, etc. Your neighbors will get to know you, trust you, and love you.
On Monday, we went to Robert's house and made tacos and then watched Galaxy Quest. In the evening we had the ward Family Home Evening at the Lynch's house. We had our family, the Lynchs, the Urtons, the Heckers, Sister Christensen (by Bruce Mecham's house), Sister Clark, and the missionaries. The lesson was on Doing Good as one of the Young Women's Values. It was enjoyable. On Tuesday, all of the girls had New Beginnings as a welcome to Bekah to YW and also to receive some of their awards.
I know that mom forwarded the email from Sister (Maddie) Hill. It brought back a lot of memories from my mission because I could remember seeing and doing many of the same things. I hope you are enjoying all of the experiences, both happy and sad, easy and hard. Mom sent you Chinese/English Book of Mormon so you should receive it sometime from the mission home. We were thrilled to hear that you are using your Chinese as well as Korean. You will be multi-lingual which will help you with all of your endeavors.
We love you very much. We miss you. We pray for you. You are wonderful.
Love,
Hannah, Rachel, Bekah, dad, Mom, and Sarah
It was great to receive you last email. I received it at 4 am, so I guess it either took a while to process the email by the servers or you sent it later in your P-Day. To me it sounded like you were excited and happy which is wonderful. The additional information for the top 10 was great. It really helped us share a part of your mission.
Hannah did a google translate for the locations and she was able to find the areas on google maps. When she put in the first set of characters, it translated it to "This Document" with the pronunciation of imun. The second set of characters translated to "East demun" with pronunciation of dongdemun. It then asked if we meant 동대문 or Dongdaemun instead of 동데문, just a slight difference in the second set of characters. Obviously I don't know the difference. When we looked up Imun, it found it on the map and then there were a couple of other areas nearby with Imun (e.g. Imun-1, Imun-2, Imun-ro, etc.).
Are you by the river that we could see on the map? There are some vegetation areas as well. Are they parks or just undeveloped areas? Some of it looked like a university or large high school by the vegetation.
Are there many members in the area? Are you associated with a stake, ward, branch, or district? Are the members feeding you or are you eating out or cooking for yourselves? Have you gone on any splits with the members? How are you contacting investigators? Are the members helping you? If you can find an energetic member to help you, you will be successful with a build in friend for the new members. I know that sometimes that kind of member is hard to find. Do you wash your own laundry or does someone get paid to do it? Are you seeing lots of new and funky electronics?
Mom has been helping Holly through a tough time with her health. On Saturday I went to Alpine and installed the base board in Grandma's downstairs area. It took several hours and on Sunday and Monday, I had very sore leg muscles. Ah the fun of getting old and being out of shape. Hopefully you are staying healthy and eating well. I am sure you are getting plenty of exercise with walking around and helping people. I am sure you are already doing this but I would recommend that you continue to follow the Scout Slogan "Do a good turn daily". Since you are out and about with people, find simple ways to help. Open doors, pick up trash, offer to sweep areas in front of stores and houses, offer to wash windows, etc. Your neighbors will get to know you, trust you, and love you.
On Monday, we went to Robert's house and made tacos and then watched Galaxy Quest. In the evening we had the ward Family Home Evening at the Lynch's house. We had our family, the Lynchs, the Urtons, the Heckers, Sister Christensen (by Bruce Mecham's house), Sister Clark, and the missionaries. The lesson was on Doing Good as one of the Young Women's Values. It was enjoyable. On Tuesday, all of the girls had New Beginnings as a welcome to Bekah to YW and also to receive some of their awards.
I know that mom forwarded the email from Sister (Maddie) Hill. It brought back a lot of memories from my mission because I could remember seeing and doing many of the same things. I hope you are enjoying all of the experiences, both happy and sad, easy and hard. Mom sent you Chinese/English Book of Mormon so you should receive it sometime from the mission home. We were thrilled to hear that you are using your Chinese as well as Korean. You will be multi-lingual which will help you with all of your endeavors.
We love you very much. We miss you. We pray for you. You are wonderful.
Love,
Hannah, Rachel, Bekah, dad, Mom, and Sarah
Monday, February 17, 2014
Jordan's "10" reply
From: Jordan Stamps Jones <jsjones@myldsmail.net>
Date: February 17, 2014 at 4:24:43 AM MST
To: Steven Jones <sajmba2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Week 10 - Top 10 things about the Korea Seoul Mission
Dear Family!
Thank you for the note and for the thoughts. I'm glad the girls are finally showing interest in your mission! I always loved hearing stories from your travels in the belt buckle of the world.
Here is a list of the top 10 things you wanted to know about my mission.
10 - Location. I am in 이문 which is in 동데문. Hopefully that helps... I don't know much more than that myself.
9 - Kimchi. I haven't had as much exposure to kimchi as you may think. We eat at our home a lot and don't have very much kimchi there. The flavor is good, but the burn is somewhat lasting. It is much better here than in the states, though. I haven't seen much variation, but there are very subtle differences.
8 - Study Time. I was even more surprised to use Chinese that soon! We did get Chinese study approved, so that will help out. If it would not be too much trouble, I would love to have my language study Book of Mormon. It is somewhat bulky, so I don't expect it anytime soon and would not blame you if you didn't send it at all. We have been able to get Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets, but I am not sure what they have as far as study materials.
7 - Weather. The weather has apparently been warmer than usual. My clothes are working very well and I believe everything is going to be great until the summer when I will definitely need a lighter wardrobe. I believe I will be fine so please do not worry about that.
6 - Currency. I think the exchange rate is fairly constant, but we don't look at that very often. I will bring some money home afterwards. It is pretty cool.
5 - Traveling Around The Mission. The subway system is much cleaner and less crowded than New York's, though not as empty as TRAX on a normal day. We walk basically everywhere in our area. It is apparently one of the smallest in the Seoul mission. I am not losing inches because of the food or the exercise. I am losing weight because we run or speed walk everywhere.
4 - People. The people are really great. All of them are really well-educated, not only secularly, but religiously. Almost everyone out of college has a religion to claim, and the atheist teenagers and students are all very well read about many theologies. It was really interesting just a few hours ago, we had a really polite bible bashing with a kid who just comes in sometimes and points out incongruities between the bible and the D&C. It was really entertaining. :)
3 - Companions. He was born in Connecticut. His family moved to Utah. He went to college at Yale. He spent a few months in Beijing as an exchange student. He is really good at Chinese and Korean and has only been in the field for four transfers. He's a hard worker, though easily distracted according to his own words. He's really a great all around guy.
2 - Miscellaneous. Kimchi. We email at an Internet cafe near our apartment that smells like smoke and has air which feels like grease. A normal breakfast for us is cereal, rice, and eggs. A regular lunch is rice, vegetables, and some sort of snack food. Dinner is usually a type of meat, rice, vegetables, and more snack foods. It's a buch of young adults shopping. There weren't vegetable until I came.
1 - The Stamps Jones family. The Sego Lily Ward. The best places for preparing me for this work. Thank you for everything. I love you all and I pray for you always.
Press forward with steadfast faith in Christ.
Best wishes,
Elder Jones
Date: February 17, 2014 at 4:24:43 AM MST
To: Steven Jones <sajmba2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Week 10 - Top 10 things about the Korea Seoul Mission
Dear Family!
Thank you for the note and for the thoughts. I'm glad the girls are finally showing interest in your mission! I always loved hearing stories from your travels in the belt buckle of the world.
Here is a list of the top 10 things you wanted to know about my mission.
10 - Location. I am in 이문 which is in 동데문. Hopefully that helps... I don't know much more than that myself.
9 - Kimchi. I haven't had as much exposure to kimchi as you may think. We eat at our home a lot and don't have very much kimchi there. The flavor is good, but the burn is somewhat lasting. It is much better here than in the states, though. I haven't seen much variation, but there are very subtle differences.
8 - Study Time. I was even more surprised to use Chinese that soon! We did get Chinese study approved, so that will help out. If it would not be too much trouble, I would love to have my language study Book of Mormon. It is somewhat bulky, so I don't expect it anytime soon and would not blame you if you didn't send it at all. We have been able to get Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets, but I am not sure what they have as far as study materials.
7 - Weather. The weather has apparently been warmer than usual. My clothes are working very well and I believe everything is going to be great until the summer when I will definitely need a lighter wardrobe. I believe I will be fine so please do not worry about that.
6 - Currency. I think the exchange rate is fairly constant, but we don't look at that very often. I will bring some money home afterwards. It is pretty cool.
5 - Traveling Around The Mission. The subway system is much cleaner and less crowded than New York's, though not as empty as TRAX on a normal day. We walk basically everywhere in our area. It is apparently one of the smallest in the Seoul mission. I am not losing inches because of the food or the exercise. I am losing weight because we run or speed walk everywhere.
4 - People. The people are really great. All of them are really well-educated, not only secularly, but religiously. Almost everyone out of college has a religion to claim, and the atheist teenagers and students are all very well read about many theologies. It was really interesting just a few hours ago, we had a really polite bible bashing with a kid who just comes in sometimes and points out incongruities between the bible and the D&C. It was really entertaining. :)
3 - Companions. He was born in Connecticut. His family moved to Utah. He went to college at Yale. He spent a few months in Beijing as an exchange student. He is really good at Chinese and Korean and has only been in the field for four transfers. He's a hard worker, though easily distracted according to his own words. He's really a great all around guy.
2 - Miscellaneous. Kimchi. We email at an Internet cafe near our apartment that smells like smoke and has air which feels like grease. A normal breakfast for us is cereal, rice, and eggs. A regular lunch is rice, vegetables, and some sort of snack food. Dinner is usually a type of meat, rice, vegetables, and more snack foods. It's a buch of young adults shopping. There weren't vegetable until I came.
1 - The Stamps Jones family. The Sego Lily Ward. The best places for preparing me for this work. Thank you for everything. I love you all and I pray for you always.
Press forward with steadfast faith in Christ.
Best wishes,
Elder Jones
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