Rubbish Fiasco!

Heyo everyone I hope you are doing well! I am headed into my final week of the mission. I can't believe it. 2 years pass and I've learned so much. I'm excited to be home but also going to miss the time I've had in England. Its going to be a great final week I can feel it. 

This past week went well. We had a few lessons cancel, but had some great opportunities to serve, teach, and find. We also had a few meetings. We had a great lesson with our friend Jasmine and we taught her the restoration. She told us at the end that that lesson she understood the most. Now with her we are focusing on her gaining a faith in Jesus Christ and gaining a witness that the Book of Mormon is true. Spiritual things take time and its sad that I won't see her progress in person, but I have a good hope that she will gain her witness of the truth and have a desire to be baptised.

We also had a crazy experience this week. We got a response from a service ad a while back and they needed some help with clearing some rubbish from their back garden. They weren't going to be home, but they told us where to put it. We were a bit confused because there was wasn't a place to put all the rubbish. We noticed a small pile of rubbish so we decided to start piling it up by that one. Then all of a sudden these 2 women put up and a guy in the house next door come out. They start to scream at us and curse at us for stacking a pile of rubbish by the house. We told them we were sorry and would remove it. We also told them we were from around here and we were doing service for a lady who told us to remove the rubbish. They got louder and louder and we were removing the rubbish apologizing. Then the short little guy who came out of his house grabbed Elder Menzel's tag and threw it. They also started to film us saying they were going to report us to the police. We were so confused and really felt bad for how angry they were. They seemed so miserable. We eventually got out of there and left. All of us are fine it was just chaotic and intense. 

We got to go to a couple YSA meetings this week. We went to institute which was fun. A couple months ago we recieved Elder and Sister Williams who are assigned to serve over the Leeds YSA institute so having them close by has been a great blessing! We had another activity on Saturday with some of the YSA. We enjoyed lunch together and played some volleyball it was really fun. The weather held up which was a miracle! We also got to play football with another member, some of his mates(friends), and the office elders were there as well. It was a fun time despite my awful skills in football. 

On Sunday Bernard (councilor in the bishopric) had asked elder Dupré and I to give our "farewell" talks for the Leeds 1st ward because we will both be leaving. We shared things we learned on our missions. If you want to hear about my mission experience stay tuned, I'll be giving my homecoming talk on the 8th of August.

Spiritual thought: 

There is a quote that I came across by President Ezra Taft Benson that I loved: 

“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."

Be in the world but not of it. Let Christ change you and mold you to the best version of yourself. You will be ever so grateful that you did when you look back at your life and see the many blessings and joy the Lord has given you. A mission as shown me what is truly important in this life and I'm so grateful that I've had this opportunity to serve. 

Anyways that is all for this week. I will send one more email next week to conclude this chapter in my life. More to come and I'm grateful for the support and love!

Keep being great!

Elder Jones

1. Hike with the YM

2. How many transfers we have left

3. P-day fun

4. Service