This week FLEW by!
Story time!
So... As y'all know I've been quite nervous that I wouldn't get my visa in time. A bunch of missionaries called to Ecuador had received their visas this week, but nothing for me! To shorten the story, I got an email telling me that if I didn't get my visa by Friday night, I would have to wait 6 weeks to go to Ecuador. No thank you!!!! Naturally, the next few hours were hard. To say the least. I couldn't eat!!! You all know that if I couldn't eat, it must have been pretty bad. LITERALLY the LAST MINUTE (ok maybe it was like three hours before the deadline, whatever) I got my VISA!!!!! I'm headed to Ecuador on Monday!
As all great weeks start, on Sunday I went to choir with a bunch of people from my zone. So great! This week, we learned to sing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer." Those of you that know this song, know just how powerful it is. Let me tell ya, when sung with 300 missionaries, I literally have no words! The feeling in that room when we sung was incredible. To those of you that are unfamiliar with this song, it is the story of Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The first verse sets the scene in upstate New York one beautiful morning, where Joseph Smith went in to a grove of trees to pray about which church he should join. As he prayed, he saw "a pillar of light exactly over (his) head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon (him.)" Once the light had rested upon him, he saw "two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description." While praying in a grove of trees next to his house, a young farm boy named Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father spoke to Joseph pointing to his son, saying, "Joseph, this is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!" Guys, I know that this actually happened. If this didn't happen, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be dedicating two years of my life to serve the Lord! Friends, I know that the Savior restored his true church on the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that through the power of God, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. The power in singing this song came from hundreds of missionaries, whose main purpose is to share this message with others, singing about what we each know to be true. What a blessing!The best part of this was that Elder Uchtdorf came to talk to us on Tuesday! To sum up- we had a living apostle come to teach us! It was incredible.
Sorry for the short email this week, I still gotta make time to pack.. Bleh. Can't wait to hear from all of you!
Hasta la vista!
Elder Jones
Pictures: me and Brother Sowards (he's a teddy bear.) And the snowy MTC!
