One Last Hurrah!! See You Soon!

Well well well, I am back again for another email! This is my last and final email! I will be returning home this Saturday! Crazy how time flies! I am excited to see and talk to everyone in person soon!

I wanted to thank anyone who has read these emails for the past 2 years! My emails have slowly just become a journal for myself. They have been usually really long, but I hope they have been interesting to read sometimes.

Last Fun Australian things:

Dogs eye= Meat pie

Dead horse=Tomato sauce/ketchup.

(About 20 years ago, it would have been very normal to walk into a convenience store and ask where the dog's eye and dead horse was located. Or at dinner you would say, "Please pass a dogs eye and some dead horse over my way.”)

-Also I will bring back home some authentic Australian vegemite for anyone who wants to try it! It's the famous Australian classic! I promise it is worth the experience of trying it!

Weekly highlights:

-I was able to bear my final testimony at my last zone conference! It was a tender and joyous moment! Everyone, after the testimonies, sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again. They were all crying watching us prepare to leave, but I was feeling the opposite. I felt so fulfilled, so happy, and a knowledge that I have served a 2 year mission with no regrets! I had a big smile on my face! The Lord has helped me accomplish all my goals!

But poor Elder Sun was crying so much watching me leave.

-I went on exchanges and we invited 400 people to church in one day! Rundle mall went crazy haha!

-Went to Shanxi for my last time! So many memories there!

-Had dinner with Brother and Sister Ho! We had our friends Cedric and Sherry come with us and that was great! It is so much fun to be the only white guy at the dinner table, but still be able to understand and contribute to the conversation! Such a fun feeling! My Chinese has improved a lot with Elder Hu!

-Went on a fun exchange with Elder Hansen! But wow it has been raining so much in Adelaide! It is so cold! I forgot how doing missionary work in the winter and rainy weather is a tad bit harder than the summer!

-Have a lot of potential friends who will get baptized soon! We have 3 baptisms in August that I will barely miss! Ahhh I am sad, but looking forward to the pictures!

-Had my last MLC. Since my second transfer and onwards I have been in every MLC! It was sad to have my last one. I have put my heart and soul into this Adelaide Australia Mission! I trust the Lord will continue to sustain the mission and raise it to the next level!

-Had my last stake mcm of the North Stake! I have also been in every stake mcm since my second transfer haha. So I have developed a fun and good relationship with the stake president! He has been teasing me the past couple months by asking when I would go home because it feels like I have been here forever haha. It has been wonderful to serve alongside him!

-Finished the mission by serving in only one teaching area haha. The city! It has been the best place ever! I will miss Rundle Mall! So many memories! It is the battlefield where I have put my blood, sweat, and tears into! It was truly the frontlines of the missionary work!

-Finished with having been companions with 8 incredible missionaries! And 2 of them I got to be companions with twice!

-The work is pressing forward in Marden Ward! They had a goal to get 20 baptisms in 1 year. We got 25 in 6 months! So they are going to set another goal to have an additional 30 or maybe 40 more baptisms by the end of the year! I am excited to see the miracles continue to unfold even after I have left! All the new members are being well taken care of. So many elect friends who will soon join the covenant people of the Lord!

-It is going to be bittersweet coming home! I have grown so many wonderful relationships and connections the past two years here in Adelaide! It truly feels like home! I can walk down the mall and run into so many people I know and have grown to love! So many of the Rundle mall regulars! I am going to miss the members! I am truly so blessed and so loved! It has been a pure joy! At this point, I feel like I have more relationships and connections here in Adelaide than I do back home in Utah haha.

-I am also going to miss being surrounded by so many cultures and languages! Adelaide is a true melting pot of people! It has been the coolest experience to immerse myself in the Chinese culture that I loved, but have grown to love even more on my mission!

-The spirit is incredible! But during lessons it becomes something bigger and better! It is the strangest and coolest phenomenon that I am going to be so sad to lose and miss out on after the mission. When I teach a lesson there comes an increased portion of the spirit. I cant describe it. This phenomenon is what powers me through the tough times as a missionary. On Saturday I was dead. Like just completely drained. The day before, we had 4 lessons fall through. And then Saturday came I wasn't feeling good and it looked like it was going to be a long day. We thought our lessons were going to all fall through again...But then at the last minute they came through!!

I was so tired. But then as soon as the friend showed up and we said the opening prayer there was a familiar unseen power that entered me. I was alert. I was seemingly turned back on. I had ideas and revelation coming to me on how to word my Chinese sentences and what to say and how to explain things.

We then had another lesson right after and that went great. The spirit was present. Everything we said he agreed with. He accepted everything even when I thought he would argue. After the lesson, I realized this is exactly what the scriptures talk about having taught with power and authority. And when the spirit is present it motivates them to accept and keep the invitation we extend!

When we teach a lesson it is like God gives us an increased portion of the spirit! It is truly indescribable! It is energizing! We leave the lessons so happy, so fulfilled, so peaceful, so wonderful....all the fruits of the spirit. And wow feeling the spirit and having words fill my mouth is the most incredible experience! I am really, really going to miss it!

And this has happened my entire mission. From my first transfer to my last. It has been constant and unchanging! Lessons are my favorite part of missionary work! And it's because I feel the spirit the most! I have never felt or seen more fruits of the spirit than when I have taught, testified, invited, and promised blessings during lessons!

Helaman 5:

17 And it came to pass that they did preach with great power, insomuch that they did confound many of those dissenters who had gone over from the Nephites, insomuch that they came forth and did confess their sins and were baptized unto repentance, and immediately returned to the Nephites to endeavor to repair unto them the wrongs which they had done. (This is exactly what is happening in Adelaide!!) 18 And it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi did preach unto the Lamanites with such great power and authority, for they had power and authority given unto them that they might speak, and they also had what they should speak given unto them—

(I am a living witness that this does happen)

19 Therefore they did speak unto the great astonishment of the Lamanites, to the convincing them, insomuch that there were eight thousand of the Lamanites who were in the land of Zarahemla and round about baptized unto repentance, and were convinced of the wickedness of the traditions of their fathers.

(So many of our friends have come and have been convinced by the spirit)

30 And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul

(And oh how sweet is that soul piercing voice of perfect mildness! It is the most wonderful feeling in the world! I feel pure joy and happiness when feeling it! It is more addictive than anything in this world! It is the thing that fills the emptiness in my soul!)

Brothers and Sisters,

I have officially come to the close of my mission! It has been the most wonderful 2 years of my life thus far! I know there is so much more in store for me! I can confidently say that I have served with no regrets! I have given it my all! I wasn't perfect, but I learned to rely on the Lord to turn my weaknesses into strengths! I encourage anyone who has not served a mission to go and serve!

My missionary service to the Lord ends now, but my life mission to the Lord starts now. My purpose is still the same. I have grown a deep, deep love for my Savior and His gospel and I want to continue to help everyone find what I have found! And I have found my Jesus and His gospel!

I will continue to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end! That is truly the most rewarding and joyous work in the world because it is His work!! Life is really so short! We can do many things and achieve many accomplishments, but the most meaningful thing we can do is to help others come unto Christ by faith, repentance, and baptism! It has eternal consequences!!

I can still say and will say for the rest of my life: "Behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I have been called of Him, to declare His word, among His people that they might have everlasting life!"

"...I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles I have wrought in this land, for which I will praise his name forever."

Alma 26:12.

I have truly been able to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me!

Hope of Israel, rise in might

With the sword of truth and right;

Sound the war-cry, “Watch and pray!”

Vanquish ev’ry foe today.

Oh I have enjoyed fighting these past 2 years for my Lord and King, my Savior and Redeemer! I will not let up! I trust in Him with all my heart! I will not lean unto my own understanding! I will continue to acknowledge Him and I know that He will continue to direct my paths to those who are ready to hear the truth and right!

Hurrah for Israel! Oh sings my soul! Hurrah for Israel!

The work will press forward! No unhallowed hand will stop the work from progressing!

I testify that God our Loving Heavenly Father is real! I promise He is very real! He Loves you more than you can even imagine!

I testify that Jesus Christ is truly my Savior and My Redeemer and He is truly your Savior and your Redeemer!

Jesus is the Christ! He is the reason for everything! He makes all things possible! It is really just Jesus!

"I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell" and oh how I love Him! :)

In the sacred name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Here are the last couple pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/z3g51TztvksTWZtH8

Love you all! See you soon!

Cheers,

-Elder Jones (江辰睿)