Dec 15, 2014

So last night we were informed at like 10:20 pm that we are having an Emergency Transfer. What does that mean? Well it means that they closed an area somewhere near us. However, it turns out that our area, MY area got closed. Elders Marin and Tirado have left our district and now there are only 4 missionaries left. Plus we are too small to even be a district anymore. Elder Woolf is not a district leader anymore. We have to move houses, back to the old house where he once was. We are going to be moving continually this week so we don't do it all in one day and interrupt our teaching. It will probably only take about two days to move everything. We are part of a different district now and our area has grown to twice the size as before. Our area is now, and I am just guessing, about 2 miles across and 2 to 3 miles long or more I don't even know. We have to move houses and find new investigators, meet new members in the new area and work even harder. I am so excited. I can't wait to get started this week.   Short note cause I spent time downloading pictures for you to all see.  Thanks for the pictures the house and Christmas tree look amazing.  This is my trainer Elder Woolf, a pig I rode around and the new place I am moving too.  This is our Christmas tree taped to the wall we had fun putting it up.  Love Elder Jones

Elder Woolf

riding a pig

2nd apartment

2nd bathroom 

xmas tree on wall 

2nd kitchen 

Dec 8, 2014

This week at transfers I stayed with Elder Woolf in the same place. He is finishing my training. I am his first Niño that he has actually finished training with. I am starting to get the language a bit more fluidly and understand more clearly. Everything feels a little bit like a routine now.

We do have phones and we can call the Mission Home. We are about 30 minutes away from the Mission home by taxi. When they get packages they give them to our Zone Leaders who then give them to us.

We get to use computers at member’s homes for our Skype calls. I think I get to email you guys saying that I am going to be calling at a certain time and then we set a time to test the Skype and then we will do the real call.

They do fireworks for Christmas and New Year's here and a lot of drinking.

Our church building is similar to the Stake center in Tijuana, Mexico we stayed at. The whole building is about the size of our Chapel in our building.  The numbers for attendance each week is about 140-170 ish people. We are also only trying to teach families but it's hard to find those here. Almost every man works every single day of the week and when he's home he is drinking. It's so sad here to see broken families.

A cool teaching experience I had this week was with a family. They are members but have a hard time coming to church.  The dad has been drinking for the past ten years.  With our help he has been doing better and better.  We taught yesterday about fasting and giving an offering. I felt the spirit really strongly and they had a lot of questions that they asked to help themselves understand. They said they are going to fast this coming Saturday. It's amazing to see the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ work in people's lives. I love being here everyday and I can't wait for more to come. There are so many more experiences but I don't have all day to email. I know the Gospel is true. No matter what anybody says.

Elder Kalen Indiana Jones

Dec 1, 2014

My Thanksgiving was good. No we didn't celebrate anything here because Thanksgiving is all about when the Pilgrims came to America. The people here know nothing about Thanksgiving Day. I did not have a big dinner. I only preached the gospel on the holiday. I am grateful for my family, my blessings, for my body that God has given me to be able to walk 6 miles a day and preach the Gospel. I am grateful for all the people here and for this opportunity to serve God for a little while.  Everything in my life I have because God has blessed me and I am thankful for everything.  This is my first district.  We have transfers on Dec 3rd. I love having photos of everyone and the people here love seeing you guys too. 

Funny thing this week on 15 different occasions or more, I lost count, I have been told that I look like the guy from Rocky, the Russian. One guy even pulled up a photo of him on his phone and everybody looked at it and then me during the visit. Everybody says that. It's pretty funny.Today I woke up and I was freezing. It rained last night.  It was just freezing, cold wind and rain this morning. I miss basketball so much but I love playing soccer.
We had a great week and had 5 investigators come to church. 

Nov 24, 2014

First off, I am learning some Imata and Cetchua words with my Spanish. All of the women here are Tracee`s height and the older women are Ally`s height. We have transfers on the 3rd of December. I write in my journal every single day. I haven’t missed a day. I feel very safe as long as we are following the mission rules and I listen to my senior comp. Drunk people bug us but it’s only to say hello because they are really drunk. 6 of us eat together. Elder Levi (Peru), Elder Marin (Colombia), Elder Tirado (Peru), Elder Mori (Peru), me and Elder Woolf (Arizona).  We are going to play soccer today. I love playing soccer now. The chicken heart scared me when I saw it. But it was really good you should try one. Me and Elder Woolf live in a different houde than the other 4.   Happy Thanksgiving

I want to share a poem with all of you

 ``He´s been there before´´

The alarm rings at 6:30, I stumble to my feet

I grab my companion’s bedding, and pull off his sheets

A groan fills the room, is it already time to arise?

It seems like just a second ago I was able to shut my eyes,

The morning activities follow, Study, Prayer and such

When its time to leave the apartment, we feel like we haven’t accomplished much

We have super day planned, my comp says with a grin

I lowly utter a faithless breath, Yeah if anyone lets us in

With the word of God and my faithful Schwin, we ride off in the street

prepared to face another day of humidity and heat,

Its 9:30 in the evening, the day is almost through

my companion and I are riding home not accomplishing what we thought to do

We ride up to the mailbox hoping to receive a lot

only to hear my echo reverberate in the Box

We go up to our apartment, the day is now complete

The only thing we have to show for our work is a case of blistery feet

Its past 10:30, my companion is fast asleep

Silence engulfs me all about and I begin to weep

On the midst of sadness I kneel down to pray

I need to talk to Father, but I’m not sure what to say

Oh Father, I begin, what happened to us today?

I thought we’d teach someone but everyone was away

My hands, my aching hands-worn, hurt and beat

If our area was any smaller we’d have knocked every street

Why on missions are the days so much a like?

The only difference about today was the flat tire on my bike.

Will you send some cooler weather, the heat is killing me

I sweat so bad it gets in my eyes, it’s very hard to see

Why do I have to wear a helmet, isn’t your protection enough?

People always laugh at me and call me stupid stuff

Please send us some investigators; I want to give them what they lack

I want to give them Books of Mormon; the weight of them hurts my back

And what about my family, they don’t have much to say

I’m sick of not hearing from them day after day after day

Oh Father why am I here, am I just wasting my time

Sometimes I just want to go home, I’m sorry but that’s on my mind

My companion Heavenly Father, what have you given me?

The way he rides his bike, I don’t think he can see

Now you have it, I can’t go on, I don’t know what to do

That my Father in Heaven is the prayer I have for you.

My prayer now finished I stand up then jump into bed

I need my rest for tomorrow; we have another long day ahead

Sleep starts to overtake me, I seem to drift away

Then it seems a vision takes me to another time in another day.

I’m standing alone on a hill, the view is very nice

Then a man walks toward me and says, ´´My name is Jesus Christ´´

Tears of joy well up inside, I fall down to his feet

Arise, he states, Follow me to the shade, you and I need to speak

My attention is to my Savior, total and complete

He says, your mission is similar to what happened to me

I understand how you feel, I know what you’re going through

In fact it would be fair to say I have felt the same as you

I even know how you felt when no one would listen to you

At times I felt not quite sure what else that I could do

I know you don’t like to ride a bicycle, for you a car would be sweet

Just remember that the donkey I rode wasn’t equipped with 21 speeds

I understand you don’t like sweating, in fact its something you hate

I remember when I sweat blood from every pore, oh the agony was great!

I see you don’t like your companion; you’d rather have someone else

I once had a companion named Judas, who sold my life for wealth

It’s hard to wear a helmet and have people make fun of you

I remember when they put thorns on my head and called me King of the Jews

So you feel burdened down by the weight of your pack

I recall how heavy the cross was when they slammed it on my back

Your hands hurt from tracking and knocking on doors all day

I guess when they pounded nails into mine; I ached in a similar way

It’s hard to not hear from home when your family is not there to see

I lost communication on the cross and cried, Father why hast thou forsaken me?

We have a lot in common but there’s a difference between us you see

I endured to the end and finished my mission, now follow and do like me

He embraces me with his arms, and his light filled me with his love

With tears in my eyes I watched as he went back to the Father above

I stood there with awe and wonder when I heard a beep ring in my head

I listened and heard the alarm, and realized I was in my bed

My companion lets out a groan, 6:30 am already.  NO WAY!

I sat up and said, Come on I’ll even carry your scriptures today! 

No matter what we go through, when we feel we can’t take more

Just stop and think about Jesus Christ, He’s been there before.

I am working hard everyday, but my first two weeks I felt this way. I cried during my prayers every night. But now I know that I am never alone even in the darkest of times. I love you guys and hope that you are working just as hard as me at home. You guys have each other so never have hate towards your siblings or parents or children. We are all in the same spiritual race together and if we don’t help one another we can’t be together in Heaven. I want to be in the Celestial Kingdom with you guys forever. I love you all. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Nov 17, 2014

I have some pretty cool news this week. Last Thursday at lunch, we were eating soup like normal before the main course. I was stirring the chicken and rice and meat. While I was eating I came across this dark piece of meat and didn't know what it was. I looked at it closely and saw it. I was about to say to Elder Woolf when Elder Levi confirmed my fear. ´´Oh wow, el corazon del pollo, muy rico´´. Yep it was a CHICKEN HEART. I didn't know what I was going to do with it. So I popped it in my mouth. GROSS. JK It was really good actualy. A little tough because its a muscle that is always working, but I liked it. AWESOME huh?

I also have some other news. Last Saturday I baptized my first person! It was so great. Funny thing though. I haven't been teaching her. I was on an intercambio last Thursday with Elder Levi and she was his investigator, but while I was with him and we taught a lesson, she asked if I would baptize her on Saturday.

Here is a miracle from my past week.

We are teaching a Menos Activo named Heleman. His wife has been really sick and staying at her mother´s house for the past month so we haven´t been able to meet her until yesterday. We knocked on the door and Heleman came out with a big smile and said he couldn´t go to church yesterday because of a big surprise. His wife had come home and we were able to teach a lesson to both of them for the first time. It was probably the best lesson, and most spiritual that I´ve had since being here. Carolina is the shyest person I have ever met. She was so nervous just sitting there. We taught about the Restoration. We taught about prayer and being able to receive an answer to your prayers and questions. We taught that the Gospel is the way back to Heavenly Father and will bless her family. We both testified by the power of the Spirit and I felt that we spoke with absolute power and conviction. I know she felt the Spirit but her wall is probably tighter and thicker than Fort Knox. However, I know we at least cracked a hole through it. We then asked Heleman to offer the closing prayer and then if we asked to just sit in meditation and feel the Spirit answer our questions. Wow what a feeling that was! I don´t know if I´ve ever felt the Spirit more strongly than when we were meditating. I am so excited to continue to work with her and see this through to the end and when she gets baptized.

So a few quick tips. Any box that you send, make sure it is not too big. They will rip open big packages. I also think that you have to write what is in it on the outside of the box for customs. DON’T WRITE EVERyTHING THAT’S IN THERE ON THE OUTSIDE. Other than that, just refer to my last tips for packages.

The work is progressing here as quickly as it can. I am working like a fool. Sweating everyday and walking at least 5 miles a day just to get to the edge of my area. Its been great. I have never been happier. Thanks for all of you love and support. God bless you all. Love Always, Elder Kalen Indiana Jones

Nov 10, 2014

Como estan ustedes? So yesterday was Sunday the 9^th of November. That means that it was my 2-month anniversary of being away from home. Wow, it feels like a year. I'm having a lot of fun so far. We've had two baptismal services so far but I haven't done the baptism yet. I have given quite a few priesthood blessings though. It's been great being here. I know more Spanish than I ever have before. But I'm not very good still. Haha. It's coming along though. I am half way through my first transfer. That was quick. It felt like just yesterday I arrived in Bolivia and didn't know any Spanish.

Mom-I am crying in a public internet place while reading your email so be happy. I'm so glad that blessings are coming to the family.  I have included some pictures.  This is my kitchen with no microwave, dishwasher, toaster, oven or anything. I love it. We live on the second floor. Our house is actually 6 different rooms with keys for every room. It's pretty fun.  These two other guys Misael and Darwin are about to send in their mission papers. 

There are 6 Elders in my district. Elder Woolf, my comp, is our District Leader. There are 14 Elders and 4 Sisters in my Zone.  For breakfast I eat a healthy Ice Cream shake every morning. Milk, frozen bananas, wheat bread and oatmeal. The frozen bananas make it thick like Ice Cream.

If you want to send me packages find stickers of the virgin Mary and stickers of Jesus, that helps. Put them everywhere. Especially across the seams where you open the boxes. Colored duct tape helps too because they can't really cut it open and then make it look like it hasn't been touched. Then you gotta pray that I get it. The mission home is where you should send the package as well as letters.

I want to share a story this week. Power comes from emotion. I was on an intercambio this last Thursday with my Zone Leader. We taught two lessons on tithing and I hadn't taught a tithing lesson until then. I didn't know what to say or apply. Then some thoughts came to mind. One lesson I learned after we left, that the son was needing an operation this coming week. He has an infection in his throat and it's affecting his bones somehow. While in the lesson I was given the opportunity to talk or bear testimony. I bore testimony of when we were struggling financially, we couldn't do all of the things that we used to do and we were in debt. I said that I remembered that my parents were paying tithing. I thought, "Why are you giving money away when we need it?" I started crying while bearing testimony. But then our family was able to get back on track with money. I bore testimony that I knew that paying tithing saved us. They all readily accepted to pay their tithing. The lady never mentioned her son's upcoming operation. I found that out afterwards. That night at planning with my Zone Leader Elder Wilkinson he told me, "I know they accepted to pay their tithing because of your testimony." Personal experiences are the biggest conversion factors even if it's for members. We all need to be converted on a daily basis.

I love all of you and I have prayed for every single one of you in every single prayer that I have said since being here. I'm always thinking of you guys. May God bless you in all you do.

November 3 2014

First off I´m in the city of Santa Cruz but I am about 20 or 30 minutes out from the center. Our area is really just like Tijuana. Houses thrown together with a lot of barbed wire and pieces of plywood. The streets are just dirt except the main roads, those are concrete. We ride in Micros. That´s a small bus that everyone takes. Micro is pronounced Me-crow. I can´t stand up straight in most of them. I am really tall here. I think it´s the elevation. haha
 We talk to people in the streets and get references but no knocking doors, mostly because there are no doors. People have houses with some area around it like our yard and then a fence that´s thrown together with barbed wire, sticks to keep it upright, and a plywood gate.
Something that suprised me was that I thought I would be walking a lot more. By that I mean, maybe I´m just strong enough and prepared enough that walking all day doesn´t hurt.
We have a Pensionista, who is a lady from the ward who cooks lunch for us everyday. Big one too. We have breakfast every morning but sometimes not dinner. We workout every morning and I am staying in shape.
If people ask about how I´m doing just say, He´s being the best missionary in all of Santa Cruz. I am working hard everyday and I come home tired every single day. I talk in lessons, bear testimony and get baptisimal dates. I am being a Missionary.  You´re probably crying by now so  that´s good. I don´t have my camera today and it´s hard to send pics on this slow internet but I will try next week. Till then I love you and all of the family. 
Love 
Always, Elder Kalen Indiana

Oct 27, 2014 1st week in field

So just an update, I`m not dead after living in the jungle for a week. I`m doing great so far. Waking up every morning and exercising with a track star is really hard just to let you know. My first companion in the field and my trainer is....... Elder Woolf from Gilbert, Arizona!!!!! I lucked out in getting an American who speaks great Spanish!!!!! He`s amazing. Super chill, calm, knows what to do and the area we`re in, he opened it about six weeks ago. He had five different companions in his first five transfers and they were all Latinos. How awful would that have been no English to speak. He`s awesome. We just had a baptismal service this last Saturday and will probably be doing another this Saturday.  At this moment I can`t upload pictures because the Internet in this place is worse than what the old Blackberry phones used to get. JK I don`t know how well those things used to work. But anyways this place is not good with internet. I was asked to bear my testimony in Sacrament meeting yesterday and I was so afraid. I have no idea still how the words that came out at all. Elder Woolf is an amazing worker and keeps me going. The heat is unbelievable here. About 90ish in the middle of the day, and oh yeah, 100% humidity all day long!!!! I have not been dry in 6 days!!!!!  Well ok we are out of time so until next Monday which is now my P day. Bye. love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New pictures from the Mission president today

President and his wife with Kalen

This may be his new companion and trainer?  I don't know just got pictures with no note from the president.  posted by mom

Oct 21, 2014 Arrived in Bolivia!!!!

Today I have hit the mission field for real and I can’t believe my eyes or my ears. Every Elder here speaks really good Spanish and despite being white and knowing English they choose to speak Spanish. I have met President Willard and he is amazing. Every Elder is super friendly so I am in good hands, no need to worry.  I can’t wait to get started and go teaching. I am so scared, nervous, happy, excited and worried. I’m not that great at the language but I feel that I will be speaking it really well in about two months and then fluently in three months. I might even throw in a little bit of Spanish in my letters either by accident or on purpose I don’t know which. I already know one Elder down here. I went to school with him his name is Elder Alec Garcia. He is a really good guy. I have a meeting with President Willard now so gotta go. I’m ok and the Lord is with me and everyone of you. God bless! 

October 17, 2014

Dear Family,

This will be a short message I want to send some pictures and I only get an hour on the computer. I leave next Tuesday at 1 am.  We will fly to Peru first and then into Bolivia. I have been to the temple 6 times down here.  I have most everything memorized in Spanish.  I am sending a picture of the temple sign.   I love you mom I miss you guys so much.  I love the pictures you sent of KaLani’s party.  Tracee is such a diva and Ally is adorable.  Kelly’s hair isn’t so bad.  I personally like grandma’s hair purple.  I’ll be sure to include you in my 20 prayers a day.  I say so many and they almost always have to be in Spanish so I’ll do my best.   There have been two groups of missionaries here so far here is the second picture.

To Tracee: I love soccer and am glad you are doing good with your team, but it is banned in the CCM because the Latinos get too rough. I bought a Messi soccer jersey. Kelly is going to freak out when he sees the picture of it.   My comp gave me a real madrid jersey too. I am having a lot of fun. But I miss you guys. I love you all.

To Ally: Of course I’m having fun and I miss you more. I love you little thing. I’ll send you pictures later cause right now in the MTC it’s a little hard to do. Well you need to listen to your mom alright. Everything she asks you must obey and do without asking why. Ok? Can you do that? Our parents are probably the smartest people I have ever met and they know what is best for you and your siblings. I wish that I had taken more advantage of their advice and counsel. They really have experienced it all and they pray everyday to be better parents and be good leaders to you. They pray that Heavenly Father will help them lead their children right. So I tell you, FOLLOW WHAT THEY SAY WITHOUT QUESTION.  They know what’s up. Will you do that for me? 

Love always, 

Elder Jones

Oct 7, 2014

So to start off I have some bad news.  I have broke 170 pounds. I am so fat. No wonder everybody says they fatten you up in the MTC.

I could understand some of the words of the Spanish speakers during conference but not all. I thought that was amazing that they could speak their native tongues. I listen to the sessions at the temple in Spanish, and I speak in Spanish too. It is so cool and hard. 

Now I don't have much time because they are real time/email Nazis here. So far it has been a great time. I have met a lot of new people and made a lot of new friends. I went on a tour of the city today with my district and we bought soccer jerseys because you can't live in South America without one. I went with a Messi red and blue Barcelona jersey. If you would like one, they are about $24 bucks or so in American dollars. In Bolivia though they will probably be a little less because it is the poorest country in South America. The weather is always overcast but never rains. We have had one or two bad days but that is it. There is too much to describe about the food. Like in the Book of Mormon how that have too many words that won't fit on the plates of Nephi, same here. It is pretty good though. I can't wait, however, to get in the field and do my own laundry and make my own food. That is the report for now and I will be sending pictures once I'm in the field because it’s just easier out there. I love you mom. I take notes on everything. Every devotional, Conference talk, and meeting. I feel the spirit in the words and I write what is important to me. I will try at least a couple of times to give you guys my testimony. Until next Friday the 17th. 

Love always, 

Elder Jones

October 2, 2014

Dear family, loved ones and friends.

Wow! A month has gone by and it only feels like I left a week ago. I sure miss everyone but I have come to realize that I am right where I am supposed to be here in the CCM, I receive the equivalent of about five mission prep classes in one day. Not to mention all of the language study piled on top of that. I have the opportunity to watch a lot of talks by church leaders and have taken some pretty amazing notes that I didn't even know I was capable of. 

My favorite one was a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar. The talk was given on Christmas Day in 2011 in the Provo MTC. The talk is "The Character of Christ". Elder Bednar quoted Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "There would have been no Atonement or atoning sacrifice, without the character of Christ". From that day on, Elder Bednar decided to understand what Elder Maxwell had meant by "character". The dictionary reference says, character = moral qualities, strongly developed and thorouhly lived. What does this mean? What does the Bible always tell us about Christ and others? What does Christ always do when in the midst of a trial? He turns outward! He turns outward when most of us would turn inward. After the Savior had just finished fasting for forty days the devil comes to tempt Him. The devil then proceeds to tempt Christ three times. On the final attempt the devil again failed and angels came to minister unto Him. However, if you check the footnote next to word Him. The word Him does not refer to Christ, the word Him refers to John the Baptist. John had just been imprisoned and in the midst of His trial, His hunger, his temptations from the devil. Christ sends angels to console and comfort John in prison. Amazing don't you think? 

Elder Bednar also stated that we must not have a testimony of Christ, rather we must become converted unto Christ. Many people have testimonies and some even have really strong testimonies. But still those people can fall away. In the Book of Mormon when Jesus comes to the Americas the people of God (the church of God, the Nephites) have fallen away because they didn't have testimonies. But the Lamanites, those that heard His word, were converted unto the Lord. It says converted not received a testimony because they had seen the Savior they were converted! 

The final story Elder Bednar gave was when he was serving as a Stake President. A woman called him and said, President there has been a terrible accident three girls have gotten into a car crash. We don't know much but we do know that one of the girls has died. We need you to go to the hospital and identify which girl has passed away." Elder Bednar then realized that she had him on one phone and the hospital on another phone in her hand. He overheard the hospital telling her, "I am so sorry to inform you ma'am, but your daughter is the girl that was killed."  She then told Elder Bednar, "President, we need you to call the other two mothers and tell them that their daughters are alright." Elder Bednar was shocked!  Elder Bednar then added that this was this single mother's only child. That is the Character of Christ. 

On the day of the funeral she invited Elder Bednar to come see her daughter with an open casket because the because she didn't want the last image of her daughter in his mind to of her mangled face. She was thinking of Elder Bednar and how she didn't want him to have that lasting image.  Elder Bednar also noted that a sister in the ward called the this mother to inform her that no one had brought her in a meal and she was sick. This grieving mother then made her ward sister a meal and took it to her on her way to her own daughters funeral.

 I give a challenge to everyone who reads this become CONVERTED unto Christ. When the natural man would turn inward, think of others and turn outward. That is my challenge to you and close in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Love Elder Kalen Jones