7 November, 2016 - A great Week!

Us with Vicky!

Zone Picture. When I first got here our zone was 10 missionaries... now it's 17!

Us at the baptism with the Little Lake sisters who originally found her.

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been amazing! Lots of good happened and many things learned and new things experienced as well as miracles witnessed. Anyways...

TUESDAY- was a great DDM! The amazing thing happened afterwards. So flashback to when Elder Briggs arrived. That night we were to drop off a car for the Little Lake Sisters and the other Elders drove the truck with everyone's bikes home and we were to meet up afterwards. During that time while the other Elders were unloading a companionship, Elder Brigg's bike was stolen . Some guy cut the tie-down used to keep the bikes and only took his. Anyway, today we saw someone riding a bike that looked a lot like his, so we followed him and called the cops and long story short, it was his bike!!! He also had a receipt so that we can prove it and went home with his bike! Miracles!!! Then later that day we found a new investigator, Joyce, and had a good night of work. The other miracle of the day because we didn't get out until 5pm that day.

WEDNESDAY- we had a luncheon with the stake president and went seeking until it was time to fill the font for Vicky's baptism! It was a super amazing experience! That was basically the day.

THURSDAY- we did our weekly planning and then we did service at the Historic Hemet Theatre again. I spent 2 hours vacuuming seats. Not the funnest thing we did. Then we went out and about and had a slow leak so the night was cut a little short but that's ok,it was still a good day.

FRIDAY- us DL's had a DL training in Riverside so we were there for most of the day, but afterwards we had dinner at Jack-in-the-Box and went out with our ward mission leader for the rest of the night.

SATURDAY- we had service putting up 1,776 flags at Gibbons Park for Veteran's day Week. Then we finalized Vicky's record to send in on Monday. The bad part was that we had to drop an investigator because he got hung up on super deep doctrine that he didn't agree with, which is always frustrating. He knows the Book of Mormon is true but he's afraid to act on it. Then we had dinner at a High Priest Group Activity...I wasn't the youngest one there, Elder Briggs was. Then we got another flat so we got a ride home.

SUNDAY- was great! Vicky got confirmed, her non-member husband was there. I think he enjoyed the classes. Kiah and Jaime were also there. Kiah is so close to baptism, just one more lesson and an interview and he'll be baptized in a week or two! Then we went seeking and had Jumbaliah for the first time. It was good! So was the shrimp. The only problem was that Bro. Herterich shared a story of how he got food poisoning from bad shrimp then he fed us shrimp. Didn't get sick so that was good.

TODAY- we played soccer at a park and played a 10-person game of Uno or two or seven. Now we are going to E-mail and eat lunch and play more games until dinner. 

This week was amazing! I love you all!

Until Next Time,

Elder Jewkes

Yummy Cookies!

Historic Hemet Theater is the Business of the year...and it's being renovated...

2 November, 2016 - Christmas package letter

2 November 2016

Dear Brother and Sister Jewkes,

The year is passing quickly and the Christmas season will soon be here. This is a wonderful time to do missionary work.  People’s hearts are turned to the Savior. They are thinking of others and their hearts are softened. A new video will soon be released by the Church, giving members and missionaries alike an opportunity to share with others thoughts about the Savior. Many people are looking for guidance in their lives and your missionary has light to bring to them.

Thank you for supporting Elder Jewkes through emails, letters and your prayers. Your love and support mean so much to him. We will write about Christmas phone calls in a future email, but it is time to share some guidelines about sending Christmas gifts to your missionary. Will you please share these with family members and friends who may also be mailing gifts?

Please remember that a mission is a time of consecration for missionaries. Gifts that do not distract them from the work are best: clothing, restaurant gift cards, pens, scripture marking items, personal grooming items, appropriate music or art (that which draws their thoughts to the Savior), family pictures. Two items available through store.lds.org would also make good gifts: “The Life of Jesus Christ Bible Videos, 50 scenes from the Gospels,” and “Gospel Art Book” ($5 and $3.50 respectively. These are also available at Distribution Centers). Please do not send: books not in the approved missionary library, dart boards, bow and arrow sets, etc. (think apartment damage), knives (not allowed for missionaries), games that take more than a half hour to play (they can only use them on preparation day), things that will disturb other apartment dwellers (think noise).

 Please mail packages to the mission office:  5900 Grand Ave., Riverside, CA 92504

 * This prevents packages being stolen from beneath apartment mailboxes.

* It also prevents packages from getting lost when missionaries must move.

Important:  All packages will be delivered to missionaries as they arrive.  (This is a change from last year!)

Please mark Christmas packages DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRSITMAS so that your missionary will know which ones to save for Christmas day.

 Packages that arrive after December 20th CANNOT be delivered until after Christmas.

We understand that missions are expensive and that a family’s circumstances can change quickly. It would be our joy to help your missionary receive Christmas gifts if you are unable to send them. Let Sister Just know by calling 951-788-9690.

With love,

President John Mullen and Sister Jana Mullen