Saludos

Dearest Family,

How`s everything going in The Valley of the Sun? Is it nice and hot? I guess a lot of stuff is happening over there. Cameron was in the newspaper. Tiffany is getting married. rysten is coming home. Prestoon is coming home. Lots of stuff going on. All is well here. Presidente and Hermana Peterson have about three weeks left. We had our final interviews last week. After our interview with Presidente Peterson, we had an interview with Hermana Peterson. She wanted to know about our family and what our plans are after the mission. She also ased me if I knew the Cooleys. I told her yes. She was happy. Apparently Sister Cooley was in her Hermana Peterson`s wedding line. The two of them were very good friends in school. Hermana Peterson hasn`t heard from her in years. She was happy when I told I was good friends with Mar Cooley. I`m going to give her their address so she can write a letter to Sister Cooley. It`s a small world. Presidente and Sister Heaton get here on July 1. Presidente Heaton served his mission here so he`s really excited to come back. I`m sad that Presidente and Hermana Peterson are almost done. They are awesome. I`ve learned a lot from Presidente Peterson. I`m also excited for Presidente and Hermana Heaton to get here.

I`m pretty sure last week was the hardest week of my mission, so far. We just kept getting rejected. No one was listening to us. It was worse than usual. On top of that, we lost four investigators in two days. One of them is a girl named Maria Rivero. We have been woring with her for a while. We had a lesson set up on Saturday. When we got there, her step-dad came out and talked to us. He told us to not come back. He told us that we can`t teach her anymore and that she can`t go to church anymore. He was mad at us because he said we come by at any hour of the day. We only went by their house when Maria told us to, and if we were walking down the street and saw her outside, we would stop and say hi. He was also mad because he said someone from the church keeps calling their house late at night. When he showed us the number that keeps calling. it was our number. We told him that it`s not us because we`re in bed at that time. It was probably someone else calling him, but he wants to blame it on us. So we`re not aloud there anymore. We went home and prayed to now what we should do. Right now we`ve decided that we`re going to send over a couple of members to tal with the step-dad because he doesn`t like the missionaries. The other three investigators that we lost was the family that we found two wees ago. We were teaching the two sons and the wife of one of the sons. We went there yesterday and the mom told us that they want to eep going to their church. That was a huge bummer because they seemed so interested. We`re going by their house again tonight to see if they let us in. We just had a hard week. I was pretty depressed when we got home last night. I opened up my scriptures to find some comfort. I was reading in Alma 26. In verse 27, the Lord gives Ammon and his brethen comfort. They weren`t having success preaching to the Lamanites. They wanted to give up but the Lord told them to go back and he would give them success. He told them to be patient and long-suffering. That made me happy. I just have to try my hardest and trust in the Lord, and he will give me success. He will lead to those people who I am supposed to teach. It`s times like this when we really grow. It was a good lesson for me.

Now about the rain suit. I`ll be wearing my white shirt and sweater under it. I guess a medium for the jacket. My waist size is 30. It`s alright if there are logos on them. It doesn`t have to be plain blac either. There can a little color in it. That will probably make it easier to find a good one. They just can`t be huge. I do have a few pairs of thermals right now. That`s about it there.

I guess that`s about it for this week. Thanks for everything. Until next week...


Les quiero,

Elder Ethan Jones