Jones, Wendy & Brandon

Dearest friends and family, There is no way to sufficiently catch up on the last ten weeks, so we won't even try. But we will share some of the highlights and the reality of mission leadership in Brazil. But may we first say, we are learning to love it here and we are amazed at the miracles that we've already witnessed. What it feels like coming in as new mission leaders: running on a treadmill that someone has just poured a bottle of cooking oil onto, trying to get out of quicksand, or as a previous mission leader said, "drowning in an ocean with only a straw to breath". What we do frequently: host mission leadership councils, put together slideshow presentations, prepare mission stats and track progress, do transfers every 6 weeks, speak at multiple stake conferences, host zone conferences every six weeks, track and manage all 85 houses or apartments and get hired help for repair work, field texts from all sick missionaries and local doctors, interviews of all 180 m...

We announced our call in front of family and friends in our home. It had been announced in Church News earlier that morning, so we had to wait to tell people about our assignment.

Brandon S. Jones, 47, and Wendy Jones, four children, Grove 1st Ward, Chandler Arizona South Stake: Brazil Porto Alegre South Mission, succeeding President Sandro Alex Silva and Sister Ana Rita Silva. Brother Jones is a stake presidency counselor and former stake Young Men president, bishop, ward Young Men president, elders quorum president, ward mission leader and missionary in the Brazil Belém Mission. He was born in Provo, Utah, to Robert Bruce Jones and Joy Diane Jones. Sister Jones is a ward missionary and former stake Young Women camp director, ward Relief Society presidency counselor, ward Young Women presidency counselor, Relief Society teacher, Sunday School teacher and missionary in the Russia Yekaterinburg Mission. She was born in Salt Lake City to Mark Wendell Hurst and Jill Hurst.  

We opened our mission call with our children, including Elder Jones who was on the phone with us from Seattle. It was about 11:00 at night when we finally opened it.

These are pictures from when we told Elder Jones that we'd received a call from President Eyring extending us a mission call.