29 February, 2016 - Finally!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I finally get to e-mail on a Monday!!!!Thank you, thank you. I'll be here for another 16 months from Thursday. It is crazy to think that I am almost 1/3 of the way done with my mission. Crazy.

Wednesday was a slow day in the office. Things are starting to wind down until the end of the transfer. We were able to see Yvonne(I) and the Pacillas (LA) after dinner. Yvonne is looking pretty solid. She accepted to get baptized on March 13th and has gone to church twice out of the required 3 as of today. I am starting to see the fruits of our labors. The Pacillas are super cool and they signed up to feed us the next day...all 6 of us. 

Thursday was our weekly planning session. Afterward, we started preparing for the Cook's arrival. The Cook's are a Senior Couple who will replace the Puskas' later in March. After that we were able to meet with the Guyers, Dena (mother) and Josh (son). They have been having missionary discussions for a while and still struggle in understanding certain truths, but they really want to learn and understand so it is a slower process with them. That's ok though. After we had dinner with the Pacillas who I was talking about earlier. Having 6 missionaries there telling them that scripture study will bless their lives will really help them out.

Friday Elder Just, one of the Senior office missionaries, is helping us spending less time in the office and more time proselyting. So basically instead of mandatory 10-3 office work, we are on call from 10-3 instead. That will help us do more missionary work. Other than that,  nothing really happened.

Saturday we had a blitz in the Mt. Rubidoux ward for the sisters. It was also the day that the Cook's arrived so we got to meet them. After that, we had some emergency bunk bed assembly to do and then afterward, we contacted Yvonne who was busy at the time. We learned that one of the Elders in the ward, Elder Smith, had to be transferred early. He has Reactive Airway Disease (RAD) which is like asthma but not really so he can't be on bike. 

Sunday was great. We got Yvonne to church since she can't drive. Also, the Chinese Elders had a baptism and since we are the ones with a car, we took them there. It was great. It was mostly English minus the actual baptism, that was in Chinese. Afterward, we were able to meet with the Sandoval's (LA) real quick before dinner. After dinner, all 6 of us ran into a guy who was both drugged and drunk at the same time. Luckily, nothing serious happened. The member followed us to save our backs. 

Today we played basketball, hang out with Elder Smith before he leaves, and E-mail. Later we will shop, eat dinner and try some people afterward. Elder Smith hasn't left yet and the plan is that his replacement, Elder Walker, will come sometime soon and the member he is bringing will take Elder Smith back since they are just swapping places.

It has been a crazy week with every thing that has happened and this week looks just as busy if not busier. Have a great week and will talk to ya next week. Love you all!

Elder Jewkes



 I know this week looks busy as well. There is a Mission Leadership Council (MLC) meeting I have to prepare and run smoothly on Thursday, another meeting on Friday and a training on the new Easter Video that same day. Also, since the Puskas' are going home in a few weeks we have been busy preparing for the Cook's (replacements) arrival this past week. For some reason Senior Couple Missionary dressers and beds are bigger and heavier than regular missionaries. So I may be still grunting but not as a thrower like I did in track!