The Very Last Email

I am so xcited to see you, you have no idea. I have been thinking what its going to be like but I'm not sure. It feels like this has been my whole life, my whole world and the thought of something different doesn't seem possible. That doesn't mean that I'm not happy but it is weird. The true impact of whats happening hasn't hit me yet and I doubt that it will till I get home and see all of you. It feels like I will just wake up and be in Brigham City or Soda Springs. I love you so much and cant wait to see you. My last scripture for you is from 
3 John 1:13-14 

13  I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:

14 But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.

I love you. Have a great day. 

I will see you soon

Staying Focused While Looking Toward the Future

So this last weekend was stake conference. The theme for all stake conferences around the world is "Hastening the Work of Salvation" so that meant the sister missionaries that cover part of the stake, and my companion and myself had the opportunity to speak in stake conference. This meant speaking to over 2000 people. Talk about freaky. But it actually turned out really well. When I got up to speak peace came to me and my fears were gone. This was cool because I was speaking on overcoming our fears of sharing the gospel and how we can keep from having our tongues bound. It was amazing to be able to uplift every member of the stake and encourage them to be a part of missionary work.

Other than that we are working with 2 people for baptism. One already has a date for the 8th but the other does not have a date yet. He wants to be baptized. Its just his mom that has been the biggest setback. She will not even give him the time of day to talk about it. He is a good kid and knows the gospel is true. He wants to do Baptisms for the dead and he wants to serve a mission. He is 12 years old. I am sure that he is at least one that I was meant to meet on my mission. He has strengthened me and has given me a new found sense of hope. I am positive that he will be baptized we just don't know when. I am going to make sure that I can keep in touch with him.

I cant wait to be able to spend time with the kids. They sound like a blast and I got a few things that I want to show them. I don't blame Layla, I love Ponyo and I wouldn't want to have to miss it. Tell her I said a sleep over sounds fun. 

Sooooo 9 days left! I am super excited to see you but I am not letting it distract me from the work. Well maybe a little but not much lol.

I'm not sure what else to write so I will give you another challenge. In 1Nephi 2:16, Nephi describes him self as: And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature. Then in 1Nephi 4:31 he then later describes him self as: And now I, Nephi, being a man large in stature. 

So here is the challenge what happened between those two events that caused him to change his opinion of himself? Why did he switch from thinking of him self as YOUNG and then to being a MAN? 

Ok there you go I have given you my challenge. I love you so much. See you soon. 

Love,

Jonathon Felton 

Idaho Falls Temple

In the Blink of an Eye

I don't have too much stuff. I don't have enough stuff lol! Yes, I am very aware that when I get home I will have to go through all my old junk. I'm glad I still have my old soccer shoes so that I can play in the alumni game when I get there. I cant believe that it will be 4 years total till I see Ben. Everyone is going to be so different. Well that's good I guess. Change may be hard but it is always good. Now I'm not saying I'm a different person. I am still me, just with a deeper love of God and people. I think that's been the biggest blessing to me on my mission is that I have grown a desire to help people instead of hoping someone helps them, if that makes sense. 
How are the kids doing? I am super excited to get to see them and do things with them. It will be fun when they visit, to take them to do whatever and you would be able to relax more when we do. I am also down to go to FREE concerts. The only thing that would turn me away is if I HAD to pay. This last week a few missionaries from the Ogden mission who are going to school now in Rexburg, came down and took me out to lunch. It was so weird seeing them after not having seen them for so long and seeing them in regular clothes on a non p-day day. It was a blast. So I understand what you mean when its hard for missionaries to go away. Its also great if you do get to see them again in like I don't know maybe... 15 DAYS!! But seriously, I'm not sure if anything really exciting will happen in 15 days, it will probably be just another day... just kidding. I love you so much. I also cant wait to see you again. Time is just slipping away and I'm afraid that this last little bit will be gone in a blink of an eye. I know that the people I have met have been forever engraved upon my heart. It will be so hard to leave them knowing that it will be a long time before I will see many of them again. I wish Shaun and Ryan had told me how hard this part was. It seems convenient that they just "happened" to forget that detail as they worked on convincing me to go on a mission. I am grateful for them though. I give them, especially the Findlay family, much credit getting me here. Granna and Grandpa too! Of coarse the main person I give credit to is you. Your love and support through hard times really pushed and motivated me to be a better person than I was and to do something with my life instead of kinda just fartin around life. Here is you scripture challenge. (I know I haven't done this much but oh well) What is the first question asked in the Book of Mormon? Here is your hint. It will be between 1 Nephi chapter 1 and 1 Nephi  Chapter 7.I love you so much.
Love,
Jonathon Felton

Baptisim's and Boxes

Things this week have been going well. We have been working with our investigators that have a baptism date and been helping to set up everything for that day. It has been great seeing them accept the gospel more and more. I have a feeling that this transfer just might be my best yet. In our zone we have over 40 people who have accepted to be baptized. I have never been in such a great area in all my mission. It is great seeing how everyone is working so hard. 

Yesterday, on Sunday I ate with a family that has a missionary in our ward back home. The Chambers family. They told me that he has been in Evansville For a while now. It was so cool to find out that he will still be there or should still be there when I get home. 

I will look into finding out what I need to do in order to send stuff home. I am fairly sure that I wont have to send to much home, but I will probably still need to send something home.

I love you so much Love,Jonathon Felton

Short & Sweet!

Wow you have had a crazy week. I wish my week was that exciting. Well not really lol. This last week we set a baptism. He is super excited to be baptized. His baptism date is set for the 8th of February. He will be my last baptism so we are going to work with him to make sure he is ready. We have been having a great time. Things can be slow at times but we are working on finding more people to teach. I feel bad because I'm not all that sure what to write. I will be sending a card to Emma and a letter to you today. Remind Emma to keep her eyes open there will be a surprise in the card for her. 

I love you so much And pray for you always. Love Jonathon Felton

Holy Poop!

Holy poop! I cant believe that its actually colder there than here. That stinks big time. Things have been going well. We have a person that has a baptism date right now for February the 1st. We are hoping that we might be able to move her baptism up if she stops smoking. She is making great steps too and we believe she will be able to do it. We are also planning on setting up 2 baptism dates this week as well. Work is a little slow in this area but it is starting to pick up. Being in Idaho Falls is awesome. I am happy I get to serve here and with a great companion. His name is Elder Kaye. He has been out for 6 month and is a great missionary. He has been great to help me getting to know the area. Even though he know I'm leaving soon he isn't getting down on that and neither am I. We are super excited to blow this area up! We are working hard and not letting the cold get us down. Oh YEAH! I have a car in this area. NO MORE WALKING lol. We still walk some but our area is very spread out. 

I love you so much!

Jonathon Felton

Happy New Year! 2014!!!

I loved the Christmas letter so much. It was awesome to read Emma's point of view. I hadn't realized how much she really has grown up. It made me also almost tear up when I read what she had said about me. Things are going well for me. I found out that on Wednesday I will be getting transferred to my last area. I will be serving in Idaho Falls in the east stake. I am excited to get to serve there. When I came to the Idaho Pocatello Mission, the two areas that I wanted to serve was Pocatello and Idaho Falls. I will also have a car in this area from what I have been told. No more walking in the cold. I have a feeling that this transfer is going to be one of my most busy and best transfers I have had. We will have to see.

So I'm not really sure what to talk about. The only bad part about calling home is the next email I send I have nothing to talk about. I'm glad your talk went well. If there is one thing I am still freaked out about its talking in sacrament meeting. 

It is weird to think of how little time I have left. I felt when I first came on my mission that this would never come and that was ok. Now that its almost here I would almost love to switch places with the missionaries coming out now, but I am supper excited to come home and be with you and Emma and the kids to. Even though it freaks me out how much time is left I am using this as a motivation tool to work even harder then I have before.
Thank you for all your love and support. I cant wait to see you again.

Love,
Jonathon Felton

Elder Felton's Thoughts on Gratitude For Family Christmas Letter

Recently another missionary taught us on Gratitude. He asked us what gratitude meant. I raised my hand and said. “It is having a grateful attitude.” He hadn't thought of this and neither had I until he asked. For me it really means to be grateful all the time. To show it in how you act.

This year I am truly grateful for family and friends. As I have been on my mission it has been my family that has brought me strength to work as hard as I can. My friends who motivate me to never give up. Both of them have taught me to push through trials and look to the future. I receive blessings daily from that. As it is winter and I am walking, I am also grateful for people that let us come inside to warm up and especially for hot chocolate. What I have come to know is that all these great things come from God and Jesus Christ. I am also grateful for this and to know that I am a child of God. That he loves me and cares for me. That he is always there for me and anyone who lets him into their life.

Christmas!

This past week has been interesting. As you know I am serving with two other missionaries. It has been fun/crazy. Right now we cover the Indian reservation. It is a cool experience. The people we are working with I already feel this huge love for them. The members have been really great to us. We have great people to work with. We are working right now to help a family get married so that they may get baptized. They have lived together for 5 years and they both say its about time. So we are hoping to have a wedding and a baptism soon. 

So here are some funny stories from this week: 

Friday our zone leaders came over so that we got to go get some lunch with them. While we were over, they delivered a couple packages and letters to us as well. In one of the packages there was this spray air freshener that smell weird. One of our zone leaders (Elder Sweeten) started spraying Elder Nettesheim with it. this led to a him wrestling with him to get it. (All this was done in good fun and everyone was laughing) So after that we were tossing a potato around and it accidentally got Elder Sweeten in the eye. Now Elder sweeten has one of the best black eyes i have ever seen. 

This is not all the next day Elder Nettesheim got food poisoning. Later that night we went to our zone leaders house to give him a blessing. While we were there, right when one of the zone leaders is giving him the blessing, Elder Nettesheim throws up on me, and the floor. It took all my will power not to throw up myself till at least I could make it outside where I manged not to throw up. Before the blessing I had taken off my coat so the only thing he got was my pants and a little on my shirt. It took us a while to clean it up because Elder Sweeten and I were doing our best not to "make matters worse" if you know what I mean. The zone leaders also said they don't think they want us to give blessing at "their" house any more but will gladly do it at our place. 

On to Christmas stuff.  We will be calling/skyping/maybe face time at 11 our time here. I believe this is 12 for you. Is that ok? I will be check this email again tomorrow to know if that is good for you. I will not be able to call granna this year. I feel bad but they just want us calling our parents (and siblings don't worry Emma lol) 

Well I love you so much and I cant wait to talk to you. I love you sooo much.

Love,

Jonathon Felton

Travel Plans and a Little Panic On the Side

We are still working with our investigators and they are ready to be baptized. We just need to have an interview and they will be all good to go. It has been great working with them and fun to teach them more about the gospel.

Elder Thorpe was great his last week. Today he goes to the mission home and tomorrow he will fly home to his family. He is excited and sad a little as well. I can't believe I will be doing the same thing next transfer. So a few days ago I got my flight itinerary in the mail. When I saw it, I freaked out a little and dropped it on the ground. A couple of missionaries here have helped me to kinda cope with it and Sister Wagner has given me encouragement in some emails. She goes home today as well.

It is getting cold. We had a few days where it warmed up but today it went right back to being cold. Oh well, I wont have to worry about it to much longer. I am so glad I will get a car for at least about two weeks. I am excited to be serving with Elder Clevenger and Elder Nettesheim (sounds like "net a spy m"). We are going to have a blast but no worries we wont play pranks. (At least not bad ones or big ones.)

I love the package you sent it has been fun trying to guess what is in it by the scripture. Very clever. The only ones that were open were the socks but i think it was because the wrapping popped as it was traveling. Sorry you had a rough class to teach. that would drive me nuts trying to teach someone who is trying to be a pain.

I love you so much I hope the crazy dog doesn't eat more crazy things lol. I am so excited for Christmas when I can talk to you. I love you so much.

Love,
Elder Jonathon Felton

Lesson Learned? Prepare BEFORE Your Mission

Ok, so this is my last week with Elder Thorpe. He has been a great companion. I am so very grateful to have gotten to serve with him. This last week we were finally able to set up some lessons that had been falling through. We might have to move our baptism back but that's ok. We would rather move it back and make sure they are really ready then baptize them when they aren't. We are making preparations for the chaange when it comes, and I am trying to keep my companion form getting trunky. (trunky means thinking about home to much).

It is COLD! It is awesome walking in the snow while it is snowing, but not once it stops. When it stops the temperature drops but the good news is that the weather is supposed to warm up a little this week. Bring on the 1 degree warmer weather! lol. We are going to see some homes today that have a bunch of Christmas lights up and take some pictures. We are also going to play some basketball and Monopoly today for a P-day activity with our district. Tonight we are going to stay the night in Idaho Falls for Elder Thorpe's Departing temple trip tomorrow. I am excited to go to the temple it is so much fun.
Tell Cody he needs to start shrinking. He isn't allowed to be taller then I am. Especially if I ever play basketball with him lol. I am planning on playing in the soccer alumni game. That would be awesome.  I can't believe Ben is going on his mission WOW! I mean I knew he would go on one, but not so soon. I guess he is old enough which makes me feel old. If I could give him advise it would be to get to know "Preach my Gospel" This would have saved me a lot of trouble before I went out, if I had done that.
Tell Brett I would love to take him fishing and play soccer and basket ball with him.
I will obey the rules of the boxes lol. No worries I want surprises.
Things I need, I'm not sure what, if there are things I even need.
I love you so much
Love Jonathon Felton

Fun Video's For Elder Felton

Emma scraping the car windows.

Gypsy Working Hard for a French Fry

The City of Lights!

So things are going well. We had a great Thanksgiving. We got to just kinda chill out for the day. I was able to get some much need rest. We had a lunch with one of our bishops and had a dinner with a member of one of our wards. In between things we hung out at our apartment and listened to so Christmas music. It was a really nice day.
We have two people with a baptism date. It is super exciting. We have worked hard to be able to find someone who would except baptism. It is a mom and a kid. They are really great. They are easy to teach and are really open to the gospel. their baptism date has been set for December 14. I am happy to be able to work with them to be able to help them with this.
As it is getting colder we are trying to limit the time we spend outside to avoid getting sick. I have also started taking vitamin C to boost my immune system. I have been staying well but Elder Thorpe got a cold about a week ago. He is/has gotten better. He is just trying to kick the cough.
I hope you are having an amazing day. I love you so much.
Love,
Jonathon Felton 

 Oh and there are tons of Christmas light up! YES!

Getting Into the Pineapple Spirit!

Missionary Homage to psych!

Elder Felton

I know you know!

PINEAPPLE GOODNESS!

Staying Warm, and Busy

So this was a slowish week for us. We weren't able to teach much however, we did get to work with a lot of members! So it was a good week. Wednesday was a good day. We were able to split up to get a couple things done. Each of us had a member with us as our companion. My companion went to the temple with some one that he had taught and I went to do service with a family that was not active in the church. It was funny because I was with some other elders during this for a part, and then we all went to dinner with 2 other elders. It was a funny dinner. Probably the craziest one I have had in the mission.  Things have been going well So I am staying in Chubbuck for another transfer. Elder Thorpe and I will be together for only half a transfer and then I will be put with the other elders that cover the other half of our stake. The other elders have a car so that means I wont freeze the entire transfer. Yay! We are working hard to get a couple of people ready for baptism. I feel we will be able to get them ready. 

Things are just kinda same old. Nothing to big or exciting happened this week. OH wait I did get a pineapple this week. yummy. I am adding a picture of it in this email.

I love you so much hope you are doing well 

Love,

Jonathon Felton

PS. I hugged a horse  while we were walking down a street this last week.

"Winter Wrap-Up" Part One

Transfers are coming and Elder Thorpe and I are staying together! (at least part of the transfer) Half way through this transfer Elder Thorpe will be going home. Darn him for getting to go home early. Anyway this means that I will be put with the other 2 missionaries that cover the other half of our stake. This will be fun serving with 2 other missionaries. It is going to be... interesting... to figure out how to coordinate all the wards and our two schedules. The other two that I will be serving with is Elder Clevenger and Elder Netasigm. They are so much fun we are excited to be put together. 

Other news this transfer is that this will be my last Zone conference. This means at the end they will have all the missionaries that are going home before the next one share their "departing" testimony, about our mission and what it has meant to us. I am not looking forward to this because 1. I don't have as many experiences in this mission and 2. It freaks me out thinking how close I am to the end. What I do know is that I will miss ALL the people I have met. I am so grateful that I have been able to have this experience. Enough of that...
So this Wednesday we are going with a person to the temple to get his endowments out. He has been really less active most of his life and missionaries have been helping him get back into the swing of things. We are excited to go with him and share that moment with him. I loved the Idaho Falls Temple. It is so beautiful. It was a blast to be able to add that to one of the temples that I have been able to go to.
Things are definitely getting colder as time goes on. We are staying warm by dropping by members homes and giving them spiritual thoughts. This gets us out of the cold and into a nice warm house. That is only when we have an appointment fall through or have a few minutes to spare. The member have been treating us really well. They have helped us a lot more in finding new people to teach. Other than that I think things are just about the same. We are walking around trying to teach as much as we can.
I know that this work is inspired and is a great work. I am so happy that thing are going well for all of you. I thank you all for your love, support, prayers, and letters. They have made the difference for me.
I love you all so much!
Love Elder Felton

Little Successes and Puppy Love

We have had a rather eventful week. Although we didn't teach much this week we were able to get some new investigators. The most promising one is Rick. He grew up catholic and has a basic understanding of Jesus Christ. After we taught him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, he told us how he had met with missionaries before but he never felt they had answered his questions. He said that we had answered all his questions and that he felt what we had taught him was true. He later made a point to let us know that he would read the Book of Mormon to find out if it is true for himself. 

Well I am having a hard time thinking today. We had a fun day filled with dodge-ball and basketball. Our activity we did as a zone was earlier today so that some of the zone could have enough time to get back. However, they didn't show up or tell us. Oh well what are you going to do.

Its time to get that fat puppy on a diet! lol It will be hard to not give here treats all the time when I get home. I am glad that she is healthy. I love playing with the dogs out here because I cant play with her. Good news about the move is that Gypsy doesn't dig anymore. No more worries about that lol.

Soooooo.... Were the sister missionaries cute? lol. I'm just kidding. It seem that every meal we have with someone that has a daughter out on a mission, or a granddaughter, they always seem to say "You would be perfect for my daughter/granddaughter." I think its so funny how that happens out here.

Well I'm not sure so much what to write about. My mind is a little scattered today. I am sending the memory card out this week along with some letters as well. 

I love you so much. I am sorry this email doesn't have much to it but I am hoping to be able to fill in more with some letters.

I love you as big as the ever expanding universe.

Love,

Jonathon Felton

The Shenanigans Were Had!

Ok, so we had a really good week. We had a member invite a nonmember to take a church tour. It was amazing! She had some really great questions and even offered the closing prayer at the end. The spirit was so strong. She told that she was looking for religion in her life. We will be following up to see how she is and if she would like to take lessons from missionaries. We have also found two new people to teach as well. This is great. My fear was that with winter coming that work would slow down. This has not happened  We are really seeing the members "Catch the Wave" of missionary work.
I have not met the Colliers yet. I am more in Tyhee than Chubbuck but I will ask the missionaries that are more in Chubbuck if they know them. 
Halloween was awesome! It was so much fun to watch cartoon movies with our whole zone. It was like watching movies with family. I guess that is because while on the mission that is about as close to having family as you get. We had snacks food and sports. It was a blast! I'm not sure about this Les Miserable business... I'm kidding. I have heard that it is really well done so 'Im down for it.
Well that's about it. I'm not sure what else to type. Oh! We had dinner with one of our office workers and the the wife said she was able to talk to you about your plans for me coming home. Well I love you more then words can say. I hope you all are doing well. This I know, The Lord know each one of us. He loves us. He wants us to be happy and if we let him in we will be happy.
Love,Jonathon Felton

Elder Felton's Favorite Scripture!

Mosiah 4:9

Halloween Shenanigans!

Ok, part 2.

About the family with all the kids that follow us around. Two of the kids got baptized this last Saturday. It was stressful at first because they almost didn't come. So we had to work that out. Then some members got on to us about being at the church because they were having a wedding reception. We then had to tell them that we were having a baptism and they were more accepting of it and were OK with it.
A cool thing is on Halloween we get to be lock inside a church at night. This is to make sure that we are OK and cant be blamed for anything that might happen. But this means that we get two watch 2 movies with our district and or zone. I think this is one of the coolest things about this mission. We will be watching Wreck-it Ralph and Monsters University. Yay for movies!
Other than that not to much is going on. We are slowly getting more work in our area and this is keeping us busy. I will be sending a letter this week and the memory card in 2 weeks. I will try to get you some pictures of what is going on and where I'm at now.
I love you and hope this is better than what I sent yesterday.
Love Jonathon Felton