Happy Easter!

Good day mates! This week flew by for some reason! We were going a million miles per hour every day! We had so many lessons and so much fun this week! Elder Butler and I are like the perfect duo….we work hard and have fun working hard together! It makes my heart happy!

Fun Australian things:

-There are no garbage disposals in any kitchens.

-All the kitchens have these weird drying rack places…

-The water fluctuates between freezing and scalding so we have to be very careful which way we turn the nozzle. 

-All the houses have a screen door!! It is soooo annoying! Screen doors keep bugs out, but it also makes it so we can't see who is behind the screen door. When I door knock, it feels like I am talking to a screen door that can talk and has different personalities all day long. 

Weekly Highlights:

-Ok so last Saturday I found a new Chinese friend who said he would come and meet with us this week. Then on Monday we got a text from one of our newly baptized Chinese members with a screenshot. It turns out that this Chinese man decided to describe in detail the conversation we had together on the street and post it asking if we were dangerous and if he should go learn more from us. He then posted what we had texted him…it was crazy the detail he had put in.  The next day I asked our friend to pull up the post so I could read the comments made by everyone. I was so curious to see what all the Chinese people would say. All the comments are in Chinese….I am reading through and most of the comments are negative telling him not to come meet with us. Then I come across a comment that says “Yes, the tall one is named Jones and he has taken Chinese for 12 year. He has invited me to come to activities, but I haven't gone.” I was like wow and yikes! I have been here so long that other Chinese people know who I am haha. It was crazy how many people knew who I was or at least had a contact with us.

-Tuesday was great because Dean brought burritos for our lesson together! We also visited the hospital again and gave a zone training at 8:30 at night…we laid down the law haha. And we have been having some beast dinners that taste so good! The best chicken and rice I will ever have! 

-I had a fun, but long exchange with Elder Tufuga from Samoa! We didn't have much time to go street contacting so I was sad. On the bus ride home something crazy happened. I was just sitting minding my own business. Most of the seats were filled and there was an empty seat next to me…I was hoping someone would sit next to me so I could share the gospel with them! Then a Chinese man gets on the bus. I use my arm to cover my tag in hopes that he will sit down next to me without seeing my tag and reading the Chinese…he does! He then gives me a strange look and then pulls out his phone. He then looks up at me and says in English is this you? And he turns his phone and it is my facebook profile! I was like ummmmm….he said “You look very similar and have the same last name, but different first names…are you brothers to this guy?” I couldn't believe that this man had my facebook profile pulled up on his phone 20 seconds after he sat down next to me. I said, “Well I am that guy on your phone.” He said ohhh then he said that I had met him 6 months ago in Chinatown and asked if he wanted to go get dinner together and talk about something, but that he left for China 2 weeks later. I was like oh ya thats right haha. (I honestly had no recollection of this man). I then found his facebook and then remembered who this man was…it turns out that he had just returned from China and moved here to a house that is really close to my flat! It was crazy.

………..2 days later we went out to dinner with him.  He takes us to a really nice Korean BBQ restaurant and buys us a lot of good food. Then after a long discussion about his beliefs that God is an alien we were struggling to relate something from his crazy beliefs to the gospel. I asked him a question. I asked why he had moved from China. He then said it was his little secret, but that he could tell us. He then told us that he was gay. Then all the pieces clicked in Elder Butler and my head and we realized he was treating this whole thing like a date. The bus ride home with him was very uncomfortable to say the least haha…

-Thursday was the best day of the week! We were in lessons from 10am to 7pm! It was incredible! We showed the Ask of God video three times! Two of the times were in Chinese! We taught with the spirit and the power and authority that comes from this calling! It was a picture perfect day in terms of missionary work! It was incredible and warmed my soul! I love teaching the gospel sooo much! It truly all flows together in one seamless tapestry! 

-Friday was Good Friday and the city was empty because of the public holiday! Thankfully we had some lessons and the APs took us out to lunch and we got to discuss our zone with them for 2 hours! It was really epic plus I got to eat the best burger in Adelaide, and free food always tastes better haha. We had to sing for Easter Sunday….we practiced the song 3 times.  All the Elders were asking me for advice on singing because they thought that if I could play the piano I could help them sing haha. Sadly 2 of the Elders are tone deaf and sing very loudly.  I didn’t know what to do about that so I made the executive decision that we would sing the song 3 times for practice and then call it good enough. I will let you imagine how it turned out on Sunday haha.

-Saturday we had a ton of lessons again and we gave the bible bashers the silent treatment. I also have some exciting news! We put Cloud on date for baptism for may 4th!!! I am so excited! 

-Elder Butler and I were chosen to create these facebook video ads that the church is going to blast all over social media in Australia.  I am going to get a fresh haircut on Monday so I look good haha. 

-Many people say that I look European instead of American when I meet them….

So ya lots happened this week! There has yet to be a week that is not uneventful! The mission life is the best life! 

Spiritual thought: 

Happy Easter! I hope everyone is celebrating our Lord and Savior and his miraculous Atonement and resurrection that brings us so much hope and peace in this life!

I want to start out with a poem about Jesus Christ I came across.

The title of this poem is “O sings my soul…hallelujah”. It is written like a chiasmus.  

O sings my soul...hallelujah 

My master, messiah, and miracle maker

He is the Lord of Lords; King of Kings

Yet His only crown was made of thorns

Despised, rejected, cast out, and hated 

His body and soul weighted with my load

He prayed and aligned His will with God's will

No turning back He pressed forward with His all

Battered, bruised, bombarded, and broken

Afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and pains

My punishments, consequences, and death

Yet He overcame it all

He won the victories that no one else could

O sings my soul...hallelujah

He is, was, and will be the greatest conqueror 

The power of the Atonement and Resurrection

O sings my soul...hallelujah

He overcame our first parents fall

Death was overcome so we may have breath

His blood cleanses us like snow without stains

His mission, atonement, and resurrection a token

A token of His infinite love and an answer to a call

A call to lead me up the long life road

To obtain an eternal crown free of thorns

And to keep celestial doors ungated

O how my soul sings

That He became my ultimate sin taker

O sings my soul...hallelujah

2 Nephi 10:25 

Wherefore, may God raise you from death by the power of the resurrection, and also from everlasting death by the power of the atonement, that ye may be received into the eternal kingdom of God, that ye may praise him through grace divine. Amen

HE IS RISEN 

He is risen! He is risen! Tell it out with joyful voice. He has burst his three days’ prison; Let the whole wide earth rejoice. Death is conquered; man is free. Christ has won the victory.

Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. 

And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ bring us HOPE!! 

Easter is the holiday that has the most significance and impact on the world! No other celebration should be greater than celebrating Jesus Christ and His Atonement and Resurrection!! 

Mosiah 16:

7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. 

8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. 

9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death. 

10 Even this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption, and shall be brought to stand before the bar of God, to be judged of him according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil— 

11 If they be good, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who hath subjected them, which is damnation

Alma 40

23 The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles referred to the comfort brought by knowing that defects will be corrected in the Resurrection: “What a comfort to know that all who have been disadvantaged in life from birth defects, from mortal injuries, from disease, or from the natural deterioration of old age will be resurrected in ‘proper and perfect frame.’ … “The assurance of resurrection gives us the strength and perspective to endure the mortal challenges faced by each of us and by those we love, such things as the physical, mental, or emotional deficiencies we bring with us at birth or acquire during mortal life. Because of the resurrection, we know that these mortal deficiencies are only temporary!”   

President Joseph F. Smith had the following to say in relation to deformities in the Resurrection: “Deformity will be removed; defects will be eliminated, and men and women shall attain to the perfection of their spirits, to the perfection that God designed in the beginning. It is his purpose that men and women, his children, born to become heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, shall be made perfect, physically as well as spiritually, through obedience to the law by which he has provided the means that perfection shall come to all his children” 

Alma 42:23. “The Atonement Bringeth to Pass the Resurrection”    

President Gordon B. Hinckley bore the following witness of the magnificence of the atoning sacrifice which made the Resurrection possible: “The magnificent expression of His love came in His death, when He gave His life as a sacrifice for all men. That Atonement, wrought in unspeakable pain, became the greatest event of history, an act of grace for which men gave nothing but which brought the assurance of the Resurrection to all who have or would walk the earth. “No other act in all of human history compares with it. Nothing that has ever happened can match it. Totally unselfish and with unbounded love for all mankind, it became an unparalleled act of mercy for the whole human race. 

“Then with the Resurrection that first Easter morn came the triumphal declaration of immortality. Well was Paul able to declare, ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Corinthians 15:22). He not only granted the blessing of the Resurrection to all, but opened the way to eternal life to those who observe His teachings and commandments.”

Take the time to think of what Christ has done for you, but also the source of strength we can draw on as followers of Christ! 

14 And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.

Jesus Christ is everything! He is our all! Please let these eternal truths sink into your soul! Reconcile your soul with Christ!

Let me finish with this last scripture:

24 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved.

I love you all! I miss you all! 

Thanks for all the prayers!

Have a wonderful week! Enjoy general conference this week!!

Cheers,

-Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)