4 April, 2016 - General Conference weekend

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a great week here in Riverside. General Conference, missionary work, it couldn't get much better.

Tuesday- was the whole incoming missionary orientation and we needed to help run that all day. We were able to try to see some people in our free time but no luck. We also managed to squeeze in our DDM meeting. After the orientation, President Mullen asked us to take some bikes to the missionaries' new areas and take a missionary back to Lake Elsinore. One was in Hemet and two were in Moreno Valley: both places I have served before. Good times. The one in Hemet was going to the very ward I had started my mission in. We left the mission home at around 5 and we didn't get back until 9:40pm. I hate California traffic and drivers!

Wednesday- We were able to see our golden investigator, Yvonne who will get baptized as soon as she quits smoking and drinking Coffee. She is doing great and loves the church. Everyone loves her too. We also worked with a Part Member Family, the Pacillas'. The 9 year old son hasn't been baptized yet but our bishop wants us to fully make sure the familiy is re-activated before that can happen. All for good reasons. Also tried by some potentials with no luck. We need to find more solid potentials.

Thursday- was a DL meeting that we helped run as well. Isn't office elder life great? We also had to run to Moreno Valley to pick up a bike and grab an extra bed in Jurupa. All fun stuff. Then we were able to see the Guyers. They are progressing slowly but surely. They are totally ready but they don't know it yet.

Friday- we were able to finally do our weekly planning. Other than that, nothing really happened. We were in the office for longer than we planned, then we weekly planned, then had dinner then tried some people and were able to talk with a few of them.

Saturday- was General Conference! Sooooo good. We had to watch it at the stake center which is 20 minutes away from our area so there wasn't really any time to do work until after dinner which is for some reason hard to do in this area after 8 for some reason.

Sunday- was the rest of General Conference. Afterwards, we visited some people and had dinner with our home-share owner since our dinner cancelled last minute. She fed all 6 missionaries in the ward. She is the Best!!! After dinner, we were able to talk with Hoy, an investigator who is hard to meet with because he is getting a PhD in Psychology... not an easy thing to do.

Today- we played basketball for hours like usual. We now have some really good players in Riverside, and even an investigator that the YSA elders brought. He is like 6' 5" and has a killer shot. After we ate lunch, went to Ross to get stuff like watches and shoes and now currently E-mailing. After, we will do our grocery shopping, eat dinner and meet with the Pacillas again along with some other potentials.

My favorite talks were the ones from Elder Oaks, Elder Stevenson and Elder Holland. I desire that you all read them or listen to them again. They have touched my heart in particular. Love you all!!!!

Until next time...

Elder Jewkes


 It sounds like tons of fun stuff happened back home. I am jealous of the snow. I try to crank the  A/C to get as close as possible but my California-native Companion is not a huge fan of that. I tried to find Trevor during conference, but I couldn't see him. A blurry projector screen didn't really help. I did manage to get new shoes. I also needed a new watch since mine broke yesterday. All is well though. So today Elder Merriman and I were reminiscing of the good ol' track days and then I realized that I have a rubber disc at home and since we are serving around 2 campuses and one of them have an open field, do you think that you can send my rubber disc to me please? That would be great.