Stoked

Elder Stokes is so chill. He is from Spanish fork Utah and he is pretty quiet but he is amazing at piano and music in general. He is everything I wish I was to be completely honest. Anyways that's my new companion. He and Beardall used to write songs when they were in Niagara Falls. We are pumped to write music.

I'm trying to learn how to harmonize which is super fun. We didn't have any music this whole week and we spend a lot of time driving, so we were stuck listening to a cd that their district made in Niagara Falls called Niagara has fallen. it's been a blast lol.

We have had an interesting week. We are wondering what happened because we only meet nice people now. One day we went tracting and we parked the car in front of this house and when we knocked on it the guy let us in and we talked for like and hour and a half. After we left we had to go somewhere else so it was as if we had an appointment with him. We have meet with him twice now already in one week. He reminds me a lot of my dad actually.

Last night we met with a guy who has come to church for a few years now. He has a calling and he comes every Sunday but he isn't a member. He has struggled with smoking for a long time. He invited us over and he is finally 6 weeks without smoking. He is planning on getting baptized with his son who is almost 6 now. This seems like a long time but he is solid. He wants to be sealed in the temple and wants his son to go on a mission. He is already talking about a couples mission with his wife too. He is a super cool guy and he has some really profound experiences with being prompted to do things. We shared the video of how we receive revelation by Elder Bednar. Afterwards Elder Beardall said he thought during it to bring up baptism and the words came into his mind "my children will enter the fold in my time" or something along those lines.

I hope everything is going great for everyone else. Just remember every day is a great day if it's all about the experience.

Sums up our new companionship pretty well....... lol

My last district - They are all so awesome and we had a blast together.

 Elder Holmes with Elder Peters his old companion who is now his new companion as Assistants to the president. (These pictures were taken on an exchange before Elder Holmes knew that they would be companions again)

From whence we came

Happy mothers day

This week Elder Holmes got sick and so me and Elder Beardall had a lot of time to call people and clean up our area book. We had a lot of time to think which I enjoyed. I feel like I don't have much to say this week so I'm sorry if it's a little short.

We haven't had many new people to talk to recently so we had been doing a lot of knocking doors and passing out invitations to our stake conference because an apostle is coming. The people we are teaching are really awesome though. We are teaching Maddie and Kayla who are Zach and Alisha's friends. They are both really interested and excited to learn more.

This Sunday was pretty stellar. We baked homemade oreos for some mothers in the ward. Especially our mission mom sister Thompson. She is awesome. They have us over every Monday night. We got to talk to our families and say happy mothers day to our moms which was good. 

I don't have anything special or exciting to share. I'm a pretty chill guy so not much happens to me I guess. 

Zach went tracting with us lol what a guy

The Triple Threat

So we started off this week blitzing our district leaders area in West Seneca for a day. All three companionships in our zone are trios now because of a emergency transfer the Wednesday previous. So there were six of us. Elder Dorsey our district leader, Elder Beardall, and I were together all that day. We got our tire replaced because it popped last P-day in the torrential rain. 

So we got back to Lancaster Tuesday evening and then Wednesday my companions had stake correlation in the afternoon. I went on splits with the Amherst Elders for a few hours. Two weeks ago when my companions were in a meeting I was on splits with the Buffalo YSA Elders and I met a girl named Charlie. She is investigating the church. I talked to her for about an hour after their church meetings while I was waiting for my companions. Anyways that day I found out she wants to get baptized which is super awesome.

Thursday we had weekly planning since MLC was on Friday.

Then Friday they had MLC so I was with the pittsford Elders all day. We knocked doors for a straight 6 hours.

Saturday was our only normal day this week because this Sunday there was a broadcast for all the North and Northeast stakes. Elder Oaks spoke which was cool. It was basically like a mini conference. 

Change is normal and consistent. That's why we feel like saying my week was normal when in actuality everyday is full of change it just usually has a pattern. This is the beat of your life. This week had a different pattern to it which added a melody to my beat. It is like music, some patterns are more pleasing to us and that is when people say they had an awesome week or they are doing great. It can't just be an ascending key pattern or the music has no color to it. And then when you add different sounds that is when you can make something with depth. If you ever feel like your life is boring or to plain, change the melody or beat of your life.

All is well in the promised lands and I wish the same on the lands to the West or to the south it mattereth not for my wishes are the same to all.

-Elder Erik Jones

The land of the Nephites

I must say I knew I would like the East. I really like all climates but I love the rain and the green. The grass everywhere is amazing, but it's far to flat. I wish there were taller hills. The people here are much like everywhere else. Most are nice but don't want to talk, Some are kind but not interested, and even fewer are comfortable talking about religion and what role it plays in their life. 

I've often thought about the cycle of sadness people find themselves in. When you are wishing you had more in life and enjoyed life, you tend to try not to talk to people. How can you ever get help if you won't talk to anyone though. It's hard to believe anyone out there would be not only willing but actively trying to help. It's hard to fathom that someone cares about helping you when you don't even help yourself. Thus most people shy away from talking with anyone. But nothing grows in sterile dirt. You must find outside sources of information to grow anything new and change.

It's interesting how many people use the excuse of being religious to get out of talking about religion. I knew it would be like this, obviously, but I truly worry about the state that most people find themselves in. Some people are happy where they are at, some people are not yet they don't have a desire to seek out change, and others are not but they have a desire and are willing to seek out changes and find the change that they want. I believe it is this desire that dictates who is the Lord's "elect". Not personality, not how agreeable they are, not even how trusting and faithful they are. When someone desires change and is willing to find it, it qualifies them as the elect for God's kingdom.

We baptized someone like that this weekend. His name is Zachary. He is from a Jewish family but they weren't practicing much. He is dating a girl in our ward and so he was always over for the dinner appointments they had. The missionaries started scheduling lessons with him last year and he soaked it up. They took him to the sacred Grove where he had a amazing experience. He was going to be baptized but asked his father and he refused. Since he was 17 he had to wait after he turned 18 I got to new York and we met with him in some Mexican fast food restaurant. We gave him a lesson and invited him to be baptized and he said of course and he was so excited. He asked his father and he said fine and long story short he got baptized. We found out at the baptism that he had just got suspended because he took the blame for a friend at school and so he wasn't supposed to leave the house so he had his boss call his house and say he had to go to work... My companions and I sang I need thee every hour at his baptism which was amazing. He is really an awesome kid and he has already started asking about going on splits with us.

So that was my week I guess. I'm doing fine and hope you are as well. 

I have a journal that says on the cover, "write something worth reading, or do something worth writing." I like to live my life doing both.

-Elder Erik Jones

Just some cool weather and then my zone here in Buffalo.