Dog bite, Birthday and Charity

What's up y'all!

It was a good week out here in texas if you couldn't tell from the title. So from Monday-tueday we had a "zonesplotion" and everyone's companionships got switched up throughout the zone! It was kind of a cool concept, it turned out really interesting for us. Since we're on bikes and have to bike 30 minutes to our area, we were hustling hard Monday night to make it to an appointment we had. So we got a ride to the other elders area because they're closer than our house is, then me and the elder I'm exchanging with hop on the bikes. I'm ready to take off super fast because the worst feeling is being late, and then I start peddling, and realize the elder I'm with isn't following me. I look back, and it then hits me. He doesn't know how to ride a bike. To be fair, the last time he did it was 10 years ago apparently, but I guess you CAN forget how to ride a bike. Needless to say, he learned, but we did show up 20 minutes late to our lesson... he did pick biking up again pretty fast.

That being said, our area is the worst area in the mission to relearn how to bike. I was so worried that a dog would start chasing us the whole time. We had the protection of God for a good while, and then... we didn't. We're going around the corner and there's some Hispanic guy burning something, and his dog sees us and just starts booking it, and I'm worried that the elder I'm with is gonna fall off his bike because of it so I'm like drawing the dogs attention away, and I don't think the dog liked it too much. So he goes up for the bite, I'm too busy looking at the other elder and peddling, and the dog owner is just looking at this whole thing play out saying "párate" with 0 urgency. Needless to say, I look down just in time to see him bite and rip my pants, dumb dog, and he's still going for more, so right in front of this owner I'm kicking the dog in the face (had to do it like 5 times as hard as I could) just to get it to stop chasing us hahahaa. It was an eventful evening. Luckily the bite didn't break skin, but it left a pretty gross bruise, and it made me have to sew up my pants when we got home.

My district was way sweet on Thursday and so they threw me a birthday party! The zone leaders came down too so it was sweet seeing my old comp Elder Muhlestein. There were donuts and chocolate milk hahahah, if I'm being honest it felt exactly like what my dad would buy if it was my birthday at home, it was pretty cool.

Then on thursday I got to teach district council on divine potential. It was super cool! I love district councils because the discussions are always way spirit filled and have a bunch of awesome insights. One cool thing we did as part of the dc was I had every companionship go around and say one spiritual gift their companion exemplifies the most and how they notice it. It was the coolest feeling. The spirit of charity is really so powerful! If you guys haven't felt it before, I would encourage you to pray for it and to think and act in a manner full of love for other people, focused on their strengths rather than the weaknesses. The spirit that comes from charity really is the most powerful feeling on earth! Choose to love.

Love y'all hope everything going well for you guys.

Peace,

Elder Jones