Joy B Jones

This week we had the honor of having Sister Joy B. Jones come to Armenia and give a meeting 

with the Armenian people and this was one of the stories that she told us. 

One day a farmer's donkey fell into an abandoned well. The animal cried piteously for hours as 

the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old and the well 

needed to be covered up anyway; so it just wasn't worth it to him to try to retrieve the donkey.

“He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They each grabbed a shovel and began 

to shovel dirt into the well. Realizing what was happening, the donkey at first cried and wailed 

horribly. Then, a few shovelfuls later, he quieted down completely.

“The farmer peered down into the well, and was astounded by what he saw. With every shovelful 

of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing some thing amazing. He would shake it off and 

take a step up on the new layer of dirt. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on 

top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

“Pretty soon, the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off, to the shock and 

astonishment of all the neighbors. 

“Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to not 

let it bury you, but to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. 

“We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up!”

The reason that I shared this is that we all have burdens in life that are hard to get out of, but if we 

can stand up and keep going we can get through everything. 

This week we have been meeting with an Indian family and it was really nice to meet with them. It 

is really cool to talk to someone that does not know the gospel or anything about Jesus Christ. 

They are kind of like babies. They are very accepting and do not really know a lot. So not it is just 

our job to teach them and help them understand. Some other things that have happened this week 

is that we want to change the people that we are teaching. We just do not have anyone that is 

progressing so we want to drop people that are not progressing so that can find some people 

that are progressing. So that was basically our week. 

Always read your Book of Mormon and pray to the lord and he will be there for you. 

Elder Sproul