Spencer Made it to Sierra Leone :)

Well Spencer made it to the mission home in Sierra Leone!

What a relief! I spent all of  Tuesday waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. He is only 6hr ahead of us and so I kept checking and hoping for conformation that he left or that he made it. I had my mom check her e-mail a few times and I kept checking his mission blog to see if they posted a picture. Well finally about 4:30 our time there was proof that he made it and I could relax. :)

I just love the kid so much and worry because he is such a 3rd world country and we know nothing about it. ( we were told not to look into it much or we would be scared.) I know that the Lord is protecting him and My faith is very Strong on that  but I am a worry wort.

For those who would like to see and find out what is happening in Spencer's mission their blog is http://www.sierraleonefreetownmission.blogspot.com/

Here are the pictures that were posted.

Yeah for Missionaries!

Love ya Spencer!

Spencer In the MTC

Yeah! He made it and is Alive!

Here is his first letter to let us know he made it.

Hello Mother. I have made it here to Ghana Safely. All is going well. They gave us a few short minutes to send a quick email saying that we made it ok. The plane ride was good. Long, but good. I was able to sleep most of the way. We all made it through customs ok. when they picked us up the stuffed all of our luggage into one van and all of us elders into another van. It was super packed and VERY hot in there. it was a cool to see all of the people on the street trying to sell stuff to the cars that went by. It made traffic pretty slow though. but we made it. The MTC doesn't have a lot of AC. only in the Chapel. That is now my new favorite room. :)  I was still a little tired when we got to the MTC but after a nights rest I'm doing well.

 

 It is super hot here! I don't think i have ever sweat so much in my life while just sitting down, or even sleeping for that matter. The meals haven't been too bad so far. This morning we had a hot dog for breakfast with some onions and some sauce on it. I guess that is pretty common here.  And i guess you could have called it a hot dog bun. but it surely wasn't. it was just a big piece of bread that had a slice in it to place the hot dog.

 

My companion is Elder Ihejirika. He is from Nigeria and will be serving there after our stay at the MTC. We all got paired up with elders from Nigeria or Ghana. There is about 5 or 6 of us that will be heading to Sierra Leone together. All American except one, i think. They are all so awesome. They are all so willing to wait on us and serve us. They are really nice and awesome. I felt bad because when we were unpacking our things I have like triple the amount of stuff as my companion.

 

It isn't as sunny as I thought it would be, but that is because of how humid it is. It covers the sky. They said that it isn't always like this. So hopefully I will get to see some blue sky in a little bit. They said it might rain in the next day or so. so i guess we will see how bad it really is.

 

Well, my time is up and we have to go back to class now. I love you all a lot! I'll talk to you soon.

 

Love Elder Jones

Then we got another E-Mail :) (we were told the he would not be able to e-mail us so we are grateful that he can) 

 He told us that he is getting used to the heat. That he got to go to the Temple. and is just doing well. He sent some pictures and I am just so excited for him. I miss him tons and cried when I saw these just cause I knew that he is doing what he is suppose to and is actually there.

LOVE YOU SPENCER! 

 

Elder Spencer Jones

Wednesday the 21st was spent with Me, Mom and Spencer finishing all the last minute things to get Spencer packed and ready to go. We made 2-3 trips to Wal-Mart (we found out that Spencer had a secret love with Wal-Mart or that he was just going to miss having one). They covered Mom’s bed with all of his stuff and his suit cases. Mom worked her packing magic and got everything in. We sent him with 2 things of peanut butter, toothpaste, shampoo, and a lot of other things that we did not have to send DJ with. :)

We got ready and then Went to dinner at Red Robin for Spencer’s “Last Meal” then we went to President Richins office and Spencer got set apart. I had been holding the teas in all day but by the end of the night I just could not hold it in anymore. President Richins did a great job and gave Spencer a wonderful blessing. Mom got to put his tags on him and then we went home.

When I got home I changed into jammies and lost it! Complete sobs as I lay in my bed. So I just pray and prayed and prayed until I felt better. I know that Heavenly Father is going to watch over Spencer as he is in such a 3rd world country and that he will watch over me and my family when he is gone.

I woke up the next morning with my eyes super puffy but ready for the day as much as I could be. I was hoping I could be all cried out. :)  I got ready and then asked Spencer what he wanted for breakfast. He wanted his favorite French toast and some sausage. I headed to the store to get the sausage when I saw an accident. It was the car in front of me so I stopped and made sure they were OK, called the cops and waited until they arrived. In the meantime friends and neighbors saw that I was there and call to make sure I was OK. I told them it was not me but I was grateful they thought of me and offered to help. After that I continued on my trip to Bowman’s for sausage and then returned home. We had breakfast finished a few last minuet things (Spencer took another trip to Wal-Mart) and packed up the car and went to the airport.

We got there and went down to the ticket counter and got him all checked in. A very nice man helped us and gave Spencer some advice on his transfer and how to do some other things. We were doing good on the crying font until Mom started and then we all kind of lost it for a second. We pulled it together and went over to the side to wait for Brooke and Logan to come. When they came Brooke started crying and then Spencer and then it was a cry fest.

We finished taking pictures and then we went up to the security line. We gave our final hugs and Lost it again. We followed him through the line and until he made it through security. There were a couple of other missionaries in line with him so it was great that he had someone with him.

Even though I am going to miss him terribly Spencer is going to be a GREAT missionary! He is going to help so many people and touch the lives of so many more. He will face tons of new challenges and experience’s but he is young and brave and will accomplish a lot.

It is going to be weird not to have him around and I am going to miss his since of humor and a great friend and brother.