December 30th. HAPPY NEW YEAR ALMOST!

Hello family and friends,

 

We had a fantastic week! Besides getting evicted......we couldn't have asked for a better week. hahaha We don't have much time to email this week so I will have to catch you up on the details of eviction next week haha.

On christmas day we (our zone) baked some cookies and decorated them and put them on 7 lovely plates. We then had a caravan of cars and we delivered them to families and sang them christmas carols. We ended our little caravan adventure at the palisade living center and sang to some senior citizens. It was so sweet. I loved every minute of it. We ended our christmas by going to the senior couples house with some other missionaries and put a puzzle together and played scrabble. So fun. We have a super busy week scheduled for us next week. Should be full of adventures. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and has a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 

 

i LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

 

Love sister Jones

Dec 23rd. Merry almost Christmas!

Dear Everyone,

 

I felt like all week I should be freaking out that my sister is getting married, but I have such a great sense of peace and happiness for her. It has been really cool because I have been teaching the Plan of Salvation to people and when I hold up a picture of the temple to talk about eternal families I say, "My sister is getting married in a temple and she is making a covenant with God that she will be true and faithful to her husband and keep the commandments and in return God promises her that she can be with her husband for time and all eternity." The investigators think that is super awesome. It is really fun to be able to teach that way. Isn't Heavenly Father wonderful. He loves us so much to provide a way to be SO HAPPY. Happier than words can even describe.

I have been thinking a lot about the Savior and how much he loves us. It is overwhelming. It feels so wonderful to be on a mission and being able to completely dedicate my time and service to the Savior. It feels like I am able to show my love and gratitude for Him, by bringing others unto him. I am really excited that this Christmas our mission president has invited us to have a Christmas like Christ would. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day all we will be doing is teaching the gospel and doing service. I am.so.excited!

Sooooooo many people have been giving us cookies, caramel popcorn, homemade bread, banana nut bread, turkey (yeah we got a bag of turkey yesterday haha), gift cards, and cash. If we piled everything in one stack it would reach the ceiling. Don't tell anyone but we have given away every single thing we have received from the ward and investigators. (except for one plate of caramel popcorn....it was just so good!) We REALLY don't need any more sweets. It just feels so good to give to people who need it more than we do.

We really really appreciate all the gifts that we have received, but every time someone hands us something I can think of someone who needs it more.

For example, one of our investigators lost her job a couple weeks ago and her roommate moved out, leaving her hanging on the rent payment. So, she got evicted from her apartment this week. She sold or gave away everything. She gave me a pretty necklace.

All she had left was a bag that she put her Book of Mormon, Gospel Principles Book, and Bible that we gave her and her wallet. We went to go visit her and gave her a loaf of homemade bread that one of the members made for us. She was SO excited. Dipping that bread into spaghetti sauce was her dinner.....She was sooooo happy though. She was really really excited to tell us a story about how she went to Walmart to put a bike on lay away for her 3 year old son. When she got to the front of the line the lady told her that they didn't have lay away any more that season. She said she only had 50 dollars and couldn't pay for the rest. She was about to start crying when a lady behind her tapped on her shoulder and said that she felt prompted to come to Walmart and be someone's secret Santa. she was in the lay away line to see if she could buy a gift card so the cashier lady could give it to someone. So she paid for Nakya's bike......That story touched my heart so much. I am SO grateful for that woman's kindness. I love Nakya more than words can describe. She is going to Denver to try and find work.  She told us it didn't matter what happened to her because she has found faith. She said we were the first people to ever get her to go to church in 13 years. (she is 27) She said we were the first people to ever get her to pray out loud. She said she knows that God loves her and there is now a way for her to be clean. She is so excited to start on her path to follow the savor. She want's to get baptized the next full moon. haha aw man, I love that girl. I hope everyone will have a christmas like christ would. Give a little more love, share a little more kindness, and just bare your testimony of God's love to someone. Cause that's what really matters this holiday season.

 

I love you all and have a very Merry Christmas!

 

Love Sister Jones

 

An Email from an Elder sitting by Sister Jones

Hey Sister Lisa Jones!!

This is Elder Horman in the Colorado Denver South Mission.  I am currently sitting next to your daughter who happens to be serving in not only the same mission as me but the same ward.  Can you believe that!?  She is such a great missionary and example to me and to many other missionaries in this mission.  Thanks for raising a great daughter.  She is a hard worker and constantly striving to improve and to lift others around her.  Have a wonderful Christmas and I know that Christ lives.  What a blessing to have such a loving brother to sacrifice His life for us so that we may have the opportunity to return to our home in Heaven.  Merry Christmas!

Elder Horman

THis is my lovely new companion Sister Sheppard! She is from indepence, Missouri but originally from SHELLY,IDAHO!!! Yes she knows Mckenzie haha isn't that crazy!! I love her to death already. She is amazing!! I'm super excited for this transfer with her!!!!

Dec 16th. So I think my mission President is trying to Kill me!!

So we got transfer calls and just when I didn't think I could be stretched or be challenged any more, The lord (through my mission president) throws me ANOTHER curve ball!!! Sigh...So I am staying her in the beautiful grand Junction 9th ward and my mission president would like me, this next transfer, to Train a new missionary ( a little greenie) AND be a sister training leader all by.my.self.....If ANYONE has any spare tissues or Chocolate, please donate generously. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love training new missionaries, and I absolutely love being a sister training leader over 16 sisters. But it honestly feels like (this is the only thing I think I can relate it to in normal Mormon life) being called as a new relief society president the same day I have a child. Granted I do get a lot more sleep than newborn mothers get and my new missionary is potty trained...hopefully....AND I don't have 60 sister's im over like a relief societ president AND I am grateful the Lord and my mission president trust me so much. BUT oh boy, it's going to be an adventurous transfer this next 6 weeks. Being a sister training leader, like I said, is fun, but exhausting. I really feel like a mom/relief society president. We go on exchanges with the sisters, make them cards, plan activities. We do all of these trainings, we call our dear sisters to see how they are doing. Run to their house if one is having a nervous break down, help them decide to stay on their missions if they want to leave. Encourage them, make them feel loved and at the same time take care of our area and our investigators. It was manageable when my companion was a sister training leader with me too. She knew what she was doing and shared the load. But now I will have a newbie and I'll will be showing her the ropes and taking care of the sisters. Bless this dear sister's soul. She isn't going to know what's in store for her this transfer hahaha. I hope I don't sound like I am complaining. I am just a tiny bit nervous. If you could throw some prayers my way it would be much appreciated.  I'm just not sure how I feel about all of this, but as times before I KNOW the Lord will take care of me. He always does.

 

Ok, ok I'm done freaking out. HOW IN THE WORLD IS EVERYONE ELSE DOING?? Are you just so excited for Christmas?! I am! Oh man I feel bad for complaining earlier because I am about to tell you how incredible our week was last week. The lord blesses me so much I can't even handle it sometimes.

WE FOUND 8 NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK AND WE TAUGHT 28 LESSONS!!!!!! Aw man it was the best. Such a good week to end with sister quist. Aw she is the best. I have to tell you the best miracle that happened EVER!!!!!  Brace yourselves!!

 

So Sister Quist and I got to an appointment for an investigator but the member that was coming with us was running a little late so we decided to talk to some people in the neighborhood while we were waiting. We spotted this lady who was getting her broken car towed. So we chatted with her for a minute but let's just say she was having a pretty bad day. But the guy towing her car was nice and took our card. When they left I suggested that we knock on a blue house that was across the street. So we walked over there. There was a guy outside the house and Sister Quist started talking to him. He said we could come in to pray with his family so he invited us in. He had a wife and 3 girls. We prayed with them and it was a very sweet experience. We asked them if we could come back to teach them the next day and he said that would be fine. 
The next day we went to visit them and we found out how much of a huge miracle it was we found them. Their name is the Sanchez family and when we taught them we found out that they were taught by missionaries before! They were on date for baptism when they lived in Cortez, CO. One transfer those missionaries were whitewashed and the Sanchez family didn't see missionaries again. They were lost in the transition. Then they moved here to Clifton. They told us that they had been praying that some missionaries would find them so they could be baptized!!!! It was so cool because the day we found them he told us that he heard the screen door slam and so he went outside to check it out and that's when we talked to him. 
Oh my goodness God has been blessing us so much. Their entire family came to the Christmas party. We gave them all book of Mormons and they are on date for January. The Dad has read all the way to 2 Nephi since we gave him the book of Mormon on Monday!! Wow, it is so cool. I love this area.I love the gospel! It is so true!!

 

And you know what else! I love you guys! I hope you have the best week ever.

 

 Oh ok, one more thing. My dear lovely wonderful friend sister Flannery (who I started my mission with but is in the new mission now) I got a letter from her this week and she told me that her mother, is passing away from cancer....She might have already passed away this week. I'm not sure. Sister Flannery talked to her mom for the last time this week on face time. She decided to stay on her mission and she has the same amount of time I do left on the mission. If you would like to send her something in the mail that would be the best thing in the whole world. I forgot to get her address but let me know next week and I will give it to you. If you want to mail it to me I can redirect it to her. ugh so heartbreaking. 

 

I guess that is just a little reminder to count our blessings and to tell our love ones how much we love them. Sister Flanery is the best and strongest person I know.

 

I love you all. I mean it. SO much!

 

Love sister jones

 

 

Dec. 9th

Soooo, Here is the scoop...I will tell you in a day to day outline so you will understand how it all happened;

 

Wednesday: I went on an exchange with a rather new sister missionary and we visited a lady who had the stomach flu. She told us not to come in but she is getting baptized this next weekend so it was pretty important that we saw her. We had a great discussion and finalized some things for her to get baptized. The rest of the day we went on our merry little way and everything was fine.

 

Thursday (When all the drama happened!): So I was fine that morning and we went to district meeting and had a lovely time throwing snow at the elders and then we ate lunch. I was kind of feeling queasy so I decided to eat a little slice of Cornbread. (Yeah the paramedics didn't think that was smart) Then we went to Habitat for Humanity. It's just like Goodwill. We did some service there by decorating the Christmas section. (which I love to do) I started to feel really really weird. I couldn't think straight because I felt so queasy and then I kept having to go the bathroom. (which isn't usually that unusual for me, but I had to go #2. But it was more like #1 1/2 cause I had diarrhea. Sorry for the gross details.) So instead of doing 2 hours of service we just did one. Then we high tailed it out of there. Once we got home I changed into some pj's and layed down and I was out. I woke up like 3 hours later and I walk into talk to my companion and I get super queasy and go to the bathroom and I puke a TON! I haven't puked that much since after cross country practice. (when mom made me go! and dad laughed at me and said "holy cow that's a lot of throw up!") Do you remember that?! Cause I DO! That was about 8 years ago. So I figured I got the stomach flu that lady had. I was super sad about that because that lady was sick for almost 2 weeks. I felt better after puking but I decided to go back to bed. I woke up about 2 hours later. The elders came to bring me Pepto-Bismol and gave sister quist some chocolate. (so nice!) A lady in the ward who was suppose to feed us that night came and gave us some chicken noodle soup and some herbal tea. (also super nice) I asked them if they could give me a blessing and they said sure. They gave me a really nice blessing promising me that I would heal quickly and I would be back to 100% in no time. I thanked them and they all left.

 

about 30 minutes later........

 

I went into the bathroom again because I felt like I was going to puke again. I was kneeling by the toilet and all the sudden I felt like I was going to black out. My hands started going numb. That freaked me out a little bit and I started breathing fast. I knew that I just needed to catch my breath. So I started doing some breathing exercises that my cross country coach taught me. But for some reason I couldn't get my breathing under control. My hands started cramping up and that's when I yelled for sister Quist. She called 9/11because at that point I had gone into a full panic attack. It.was.horrible. Luckily they got to our apartment really fast. They were really really nice and helped calm me down really quickly. I was fine in no time. They checked all my vitals and hooked me up to a little heart monitor. I was fine and they explained what happened to my body. They said it was because my heart rate was super low and because I was dehydrated from being sick and not drinking enough fluids. They said the panic attack happened because I freaked out a little when I was blacking out. They told me how to come out of it. If that where to happen again. I was super grateful they were there. After they left everyone and their dog freaked out because they thought I Died. But we explained to everyone that I was completely fine. I was just tired and felt like I had just ran another half marathon....without training for it

 

Friday:

I don't really remember Friday because my companion informed me that I slept a total of 20 hrs....whoops.

 

Saturday: I slept in but we actually were able to teach three lessons that day. We came in early and I went to bed early.

 

Sunday: I was completely healthy as a horse. Like nothing even happened. I did have to rip off the heart monitor things that they stuck to me and that wasn't fun. But before I did I took a little picture of my tag attached to my heart monitor sticky thing. hahah that was pretty funny.

 

 

So that was my crazy story of almost/but not really dying. I am so much better now and we kind of joke about it now. haha. I'm sorry if I cause much stress in your neck of the woods but I hope you can feel better to know that it was just because I was dumb and didn't stay away from that sick lady when I should have. Thank you so much for your emails of love and concern. I Love you all and I hope you have a GREAT WEEK!!!!!

 

 

LOVE YOU

 

lOVE SISTER JONES

 

P.s. I now have an even stronger testimony of the priesthood and priesthood blessings!

 

picture is of my tag and heart monitor thing haha

 

 

Dec 2nd, Quote of the week-"Will you stop singing that music, it is making me too jolly."

So we found out that we can only listen to hymns this christmas season. Our mission president told us that Christmas music does make us feel jolly but it doesn't direct our thoughts to the savior :) I agree.

 But it is very hard to avoid the christmas music when we are around shopping on pday. AND when a member gives us a singing christmas tree with eyes and mouth and everything. So this morning I plugged in our beautifully creepy christmas tree that we named Charles, and he started singing "Santa Claus is coming to town." So naturally it got in my head and I was singing it about 30 minutes later and sister Quist, my obediant companion stated the lovely quote of the week haha. She is so hilarious, and so obediant. I'm glad I have her in my life to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Sister Quist and I have had such a good week. I already broke the news to my mom, so I'm not to nervous about sharing this with everyone. But....I ATE 3 THANKSGIVNG DINNERS! PLUS HAD DESSERT AT ANOTHER MEMBERS HOUSE. Holy smokes that was a lot of food. Don't worry, i didn't puke but i was pretty darn stuffed by the end of the day. Wow, we had such a fantastic thanksgiving. The best part was kicking trash in our zone soccer game. Pretty sure the elders didn't see that one coming bahaha. The only bad part was when people asked me what i was thankful for I always teared up when I talked about my family and now everyone thinks I'm home sick. I love my family, but for some reason I really like having this time away because it really helps me focus on the true spirit of the season. I am so excited to really get to learn the true meaning of christmas this year. Our relief society lesson was on a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland called, "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store." Oh it was so good and I would encourage everyone to read it because it really helped me appreciate the nativity story. It touched me heart so much.

I am however, a little relieved this week is over because we had this sister confrence that my companion and I were in charge of. I was SO stressed out about it, because we wanted it to be perfect. We invited all the sisters in the two zones we are in charge of and all the sisters from the two zones sister bennett and her companion are in charge of. So we had about 50 people there. We (sister Quist, Sister Bennett, Sister Betts and I) did some trainings and president murdock and his wife came to do some trainings too. It was so awesome! We basically talked about how sisters are the best and they rock the mission. Trying to chastise them to do better, modivate and inspire them. All that good stuff.  haha We had to have the zone leaders come, because president wanted them to learn from us too. I felt bad for them I think they felt really weird being out numbered by the sisters haha. I think they liked it though. I shared a family history story and bawled my eyes out in front of everyone. it was great haha. We have gotten some really good feedback from the sisters. They said they loved. it. :) I'm super glad it went well and that it is now over. We have been stressing about it forever.

Well I hope everyone is having a magical week and is enjoying the holday spirit.

 

I love you all!!!

 

Love sister Jones

Nov 25th, Quote of the week-"Did you know your parked on their lawn?" -Me

Yeah, Sister Quist parked on somebody's yard a couple days ago. She had no idea...bahahah. It was super dark and we were late to an appointment. We were in a trailer park and it seemed like a parking spot, but it was their grass.....hahah oh man to funny! The happenings of a missionary.

Life as a missionary is too funny. I can't figure out why. I thought college life was funny, but for some reason missionary life is ten times funnier on a daily basis than college ever was.

Maybe perhaps it's because the Lord stick 200 teenagers in one specific area, He hands them the keys to bringing people to eternal salvation and only gives them 2 weeks of training.....It's pretty hilarious if you think about it.

For example we went to the ward breakfast this saturday and the elders were talking to our ward mission leader. They were discussing the baptism that was happening that evening and about how the little 10 year old boy was getting baptized picked the closing song and he chose....."God be with you till we meet again." I could hear them talking and this conversation ensued.

 

Brother Beynon."What's wrong with that song?"

Elder McGee"Well we are going to see him and eveyone else tomorrow when he gets confirmed."

Elder Horman"Do you think they would notice if we changed it?"

Brother Beynon "God be with you to we see you tomorrow!"

Elder Mcgee"Yeah we should change it."

Elder Horman"But we just talked to him about what song he wanted yesterday."

 

This is when I chimed in

 

Sister Jones, "I think it's fine, we had an investigator who wanted 'Follow the prophet' as their closing song for baptism"

Brother Beynon "Adam was a prophet! first one that we know..."

Elder Mcgee "I think we should change it to 'If you could high to Kolob'"

Elder Horman "What about Jesus Wants me for a sun BEAM?" (jumping in the air as he said Beam)

Sister Jones "What about Scatter sunshine?"

Elder Mcgee" That song creaps me out for some reason...."

Brother Beynon "Well I have all day to do the program so how about you call me and tell me what you decided?"

Elder Horman "Yeah I need to pray about it."

Elder Mcgee "Yeah me too!"

 

later at the baptism.......

 

I turned to my companion and sang our closing song

"God, be with you till we meet again...tomorrow"

 

Bahaha, I don't know if that is funny to you but I find this so hilarious. You know what else is hilarious? When your companion parks on your investigator's lawn. Ah man I love my life. Hope everyone is having a fantastic week

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

 

lOVE SISTER JONES

 

 

 

Nov 18th ELDER BALLARD, yeah we are best friends now :)

You will never beleive what I am about to tell you! Brace yourselves!

Elder Ballard came to a stake confrence and invited us to meet with him afterwards!!! What the?! I know. It was so incredible. We found out last week that he was coming to stake confrence, but it wasn't in our stake......We were so bummed that we weren't going to be able to attend. We talked all last week about how we wish we could go and how cool it would have been for our investigators to hear him speak. THEN! on saturday morning we found out from our mission president that we were invited to hear him speak to the missionaries. Aw man I was dying with excitement.

There was only about 50 missionaries that were invited to this. He was incredible. We all were seated in the relief society room, reading our scriptures and listening to our 1st counsler in the mission presidency play the piano. Then he walked in.....It was like a wall of the spirit hit us. I just wanted to cry the whole time. He talked to us about how to be good missionaires, the importance of our calling, and how we can help the ward members do their missionary work. It was amazing. I am still in shock that it even happened. But the absolute craziest thing that happend is yet to come. If you didn't pass out from shock of the previous news this just might do the trick.

We found out that in the adult session of Stake confrence Elder Ballard mentioned how great our area (like the area that I'm serving in, like the one I do missionary work it....Yeah i'm being serious) did last week. Yes.that.really.happened!!!! Between the elders and us we had 50 lessons. 27 of which were member presents! He (Like elder ballard, like an apostle of the Lord) told the people there that our ward gets it. That this is how missionary work should be done. We have the most incredible ward ever! We had 9 investigators at church. We brought 3 and the elders brought 3 so that means the ward memebers brought 3 investigators to church. Aw man it was so wonderful. Why does god bless us so much? I have no idea! Wow we are so lucky.

Well I'm about to get kicked off. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and remember throughout your days that I got a shout out from elder Ballard. We are like best friends now. No big deal. Well I love you all!! Have a wonderful day

 

Love you!!

 

Love sister jones and elder ballard

(we sign our names together on everything now ;) )

 

Nov 12th. Quote of the Week-"I can't meet with you tonight, I have girl scout cookie training..."

Is that even a real thing? My companion and I beg to differ.

Anyways I have to tell you all about how my companion and I HAD THE BEST WEEK EVER!!! I'm not even exagurating this time! I don't know how it happened but we were one lesson short of 30 lessons! 15 of which were member presents and we found 9 new investigators! Yeah, i'm still shocked at how that even happened! Golden investigators were dropping from the sky!

Ok coolest thing that happened this week, we were driving to get to an appointment. But I completely forgot where the house was. We turned down a wrong street and we spotted two young men outside of their car smoking. We pulled over our car and went over to talk to them. Their names were Austin and Walker. We started to ask them if we could sing them a song, but they said they had to go to work. So we gave them our card and told them that we as missionaries come and share with people a message and invite them to pray and ask god if it is true. Austin said, "Oh that's cool. We were just talking about finding a church to go to the other day. Can you come over to my house and teach me and my girlfriend and my girlfriend's mom?" we were like, "OF COARSE!" So we set up a time to go see them. We got to teach him and his friend but his girlfriend was still in school so we came back later to teach her. They all were super receptive and wanted us to come back! We taught them the restoration. We came back and just had a lesson with Austin we invited him to read and pray the time before and when we went back he said that he feels really happy when he prays about it. We asked him if he would be baptized and he said YES!!!  Aw man it was so cool. Heavenly father just placed them at the perfect time into our lives. SO coool. We also found 2 more families that we are going to teach this week and I am super pumped about it! They are also super awesome.

I am just blown away with how much god is blessing us. Wow, we are so lucky to be in this area. The zone leaders that we share the area with also had a super good week and they said on their zone leader confrence call President Murdock commented on how awesome we did. That just really makes us feel good. I don't know how in the world we are going to beat this week, but I hope and pray we can continue having amazing weeks.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! My new companion is sister quist! She is from California, san jose area. She has been on her mission for 14 months. I love her to death already. She is super funny and keeps me laughing all the time. I do miss sister Bennett a ton, but I have a feeling this transfer is going to be an amazing one too. I hope all of you are doing well and are sharing the gospel with your friends! Now is the time! Romans 13:11-12. I love you all!!! Have a great and blessed day!!

 

Love Sister Jones!!!!

Nov 12th 2013 Quote of the Week-"I can't meet with you tonight, I have girl scout cookie training..."

Is that even a real thing? My companion and I beg to differ.

Anyways I have to tell you all about how my companion and I HAD THE BEST WEEK EVER!!! I'm not even exaggerating this time! I don't know how it happened but we were one lesson short of 30 lessons! 15 of which were member presents and we found 9 new investigators! Yeah, i'm still shocked at how that even happened! Golden investigators were dropping from the sky!

Ok coolest thing that happened this week, we were driving to get to an appointment. But I completely forgot where the house was. We turned down a wrong street and we spotted two young men outside of their car smoking. We pulled over our car and went over to talk to them. Their names were Austin and Walker. We started to ask them if we could sing them a song, but they said they had to go to work. So we gave them our card and told them that we as missionaries come and share with people a message and invite them to pray and ask god if it is true. Austin said, "Oh that's cool. We were just talking about finding a church to go to the other day. Can you come over to my house and teach me and my girlfriend and my girlfriend's mom?" we were like, "OF COURSE!" So we set up a time to go see them. We got to teach him and his friend but his girlfriend was still in school so we came back later to teach her. They all were super receptive and wanted us to come back! We taught them the restoration. We came back and just had a lesson with Austin we invited him to read and pray the time before and when we went back he said that he feels really happy when he prays about it. We asked him if he would be baptized and he said YES!!!  Aw man it was so cool. Heavenly father just placed them at the perfect time into our lives. SO coool. We also found 2 more families that we are going to teach this week and I am super pumped about it! They are also super awesome.

I am just blown away with how much god is blessing us. Wow, we are so lucky to be in this area. The zone leaders that we share the area with also had a super good week and they said on their zone leader confrence call President Murdock commented on how awesome we did. That just really makes us feel good. I don't know how in the world we are going to beat this week, but I hope and pray we can continue having amazing weeks.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! My new companion is sister quist! She is from California, san jose area. She has been on her mission for 14 months. I love her to death already. She is super funny and keeps me laughing all the time. I do miss sister Bennett a ton, but I have a feeling this transfer is going to be an amazing one too. I hope all of you are doing well and are sharing the gospel with your friends! Now is the time! Romans 13:11-12. I love you all!!! Have a great and blessed day!!

 

Love Sister Jones!!!!

Nov 4th letter

TRANSFER NEWS!!!!!

 

I am having mixed feelings about this transfers transfer news.....I am staying here. And sister bennett is leaving me :(. I am super happy that I get to be here and stay in beautiful grand junction but my heart is breaking because I don't think I'm ready to be away from Sister Bennett. I love her so much. We have had the best/fastest transfer EVER!!!! I think it is because we had too much fun. Aw man, it is heart breaking. But I do love my area SO much. I love the people we teach SO much and I'm glad i don't have to be separated from them yet.

We had the absolute BEST week ever!! We had a baptism!!! Jaden Jensen, age 12 got baptized this saturday. It was so beautiful. The spirit was so strong and you will never guess what I did........I sang in the musical number!! What the?! I know I know, sister jones sings??? I made sister bennett practise with me THE ENTIRE week because I was soooo nervous! The elders, sister bennett and I sang "I know my redeemer lives" to the tune of "A poor wayfaring man of grief." We sang it acapela! It sounded so good! Wow, I was super impressed. That was seriously the first time ever, I have sang with less than 20 people for a musical number. Sister Bennett and I recorded ourselves singing it this morning. So if you are lucky (and if it works on the computer) I might send it to you guys haha.

Halloween was pretty awesome! We were able to do quite a bit of service. We organized the christmas decorations at Habitat for Humanity (it's like a goodwill) and we sang for people at the nursing home. It was SO great!!!

We also were able to get 25 lessons with 12 member presents this week!!!!! Member present is when we have a lesson with a member there. Some times it is really hard to cordinate having a member there, but we had awesome sucess with that this week!

I'm sorry that this email is pretty short this week. But I hope each of you had a wonderful halloween and are having an awesome day today. i love you all!!! have a wonderful day!!!

 

 

Love you!

love sister jones 

 

Picture=the coolest notebook I have ever seen at walmart!!

Oct 28th. An extra letter to us that I thought you all would love!! Ok, I got more time to email

So the library kicks us off every 30 minutes if there are a lot of people in the library. So it is super busy today and I am now just borrowing my companion's computer time. I felt bad for not saying any thing about my week. So I thought I would hurry and let you guys know how my week went.

We had the BEST week ever!!! We went on our last exchanges this week so this week we are going to power it out and get as much done as possible. I'm sad that this is probally my last week with sister Bennett because it's the last week of the transfer! Our mission president told us that he was going to call more sister leader trainers so that means sister bennett and I are probablly going to be separated because we need to train the new sister leader trainers. CAN YOU BELEIVE HOW FAST THE TRANSFER WENT??? I feel like this has been the fastest transfer I have had! It's crazy!

Oh before I forget I wanted to tell you the super amazing experiance I had at zone confrence! So we had Elder and sister Baxter come! Elder Baxter is in the 1st quorm of the seventy. Elder Baxter is from scotland and sister baxter is from england! They were SO AWESOME!! They gave us trainings and they were super bold and straight forward with us. Which is what we need! So elder BAxter was doing role plays with us. Where us missionaries pretend to teach him something or invite him to do something. Yeah, you will never guess who he called up to invite him to read the book of mormon in front of our mission president and all 100 missionaires there at the confrence?? Yup.....he asked me..... Holy moly I was shaking in my boots!!!!! I'm pretty sure everyone could tell how nervous I was, but I didn't care. I put my heart and soul into that role play. I poured my heart out to elder baxter and invited him to read the book of mormon. Crazily enough he said Yes, he would read the book of mormon right away. I was a little taken back because I thought he would have me resolve a concern he has about the book of mormon. but he said yes right away. So then I bore my testimony of the book of mormon and promised him all of the blessings he would receive by reading it. Then when he stopped me he asked everyone there, "Why did I say yes?" Man I was dying inside because I didn't know for sure how elder Baxter felt about how I did. Two elders raised their hands and said that he basically said yes because he felt bad for me and didn't really have a desire to read it. I wanted to cry when they said that, but then elder baxter said, " I was compelled to say yes. Why is that?" Then a bunch of other missionaires raised their hands and all said that it was because of the spirit i brought and the humble testimony I bore. I was sweating bullets but elder BAxter agreed with them and he told me I did a perfect job! Wow, That was the craziest/best exeriance of my life! I really really needed that little boost of confidence because I have been really struggling to know if I have been teaching by the spirit or not. I know elder baxter was inspired to call me up because that experiance really helped me out with that alot!! Whew I'm glad it was over though and that I passed. Ok the time is REALLY running out this time. So just know that I love you all!! Keep being the best people ever!! Have a wonderful week!!

 

Love sister Jones 

Oct 28th. QotW -"That's my favorite thing to do in the whole world....cutting chicken's heads off." (my companion) Sister Bennett (she is a crazy farmer!)

What a week! So I have about zero time to email this week so it's going to be super short. Actually I just realized that I have two mintues to type this email before they kick me off. So I am just going to say my testimony! I love this church with all of my heart. Nothing brings more happiness, peace, and joy than living our lives like Christ would. I love that every day has a purpose and a meaning behind it. Every day has a miracle I feel so privilaged to live it. I love you all!!! Keep being wonderful examples of what you beleive. and I say these things in the name of jesus christ amen :)

 

Love sister Jones

Oct 21st. QotW-"If it weren't for chocolate, there would be no need for a control top pantyhose."

Funny things always happen every week, but this week was more of a spiritual and growing week for me. In a good way though. So today I will share with you what I learned.

We have been going on tons of exchanges as you all know. Sister Bennett and I will go with a 4 different set of sisters twice a week and we spend 24 hours with them and help them be the very best they can be. As I have been going on these exchanges I have been learning that we have a lot of really really good missionaries. However, each one have struggles and fears that hold them back from being the very best they can be. The biggest thing missionaries have been struggling with is being BOLD. I use to be this way, I use to be scared of offending people or making them feel weird and awkward. I didn't realize how bad it is to be this way until I got into this position. I didn't realize how much sister Bennett and the Lord has helped me overcome so many of my fears. I use to be terrified to put people on date or to pull over a car and sing a person a song who is walking down the side walk. I would have had a really hard time asking someone if they have a minute to talk to us even if they were on the phone. But something happened.....All OF MY FEARS ARE GONE! I'm not sure when this moment happened, but when I go on these exchanges I have no fear yelling and waving at a guy to hold on a moment so we could ask him a question. We pull our car over to ask an old man walking on the side walk if he wants a card. I learned this week that there is no other way to be.

We have the GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST! The ONE and ONLY true church with the fullness of CHRIST'S DOCTRINE. Holy moly why aren't we more excited about this?? Why aren't we shouting it from the roof tops?? Why aren't we sharing it with our neighbors, friends, and complete strangers?? I'll tell you why..... It's because of fear....excuses....and satan. Somehow satan has slipped in and convinced us that it's ok to keep our religion to ourselves, to just be a good example, and only share when people ask about it. and for missionaries he has convinced us it's ok to not talk to that person cause they are busy, or to not ask that question because it might offend them. It scares me to death that I use to be that way and I never want to go back.

A couple weeks ago I was on an exchange with the fruita sisters and we were teaching a man who has been inactive for a really long time is trying to bet back to the temple. He didn't understand why it was harder to get back to the temple than it was the first time he went through. He wasn't keeping his commitments of coming to church and reading the book of mormon because his work only allowed him to have one sunday off a month and he worked long hours and was to tired to read. We went into that lesson and basically told him to get a new job. He freaked out a little because he didn't think that he could get another job. I told him that he needs to make a choice to follow and trust God or not. After the lesson I felt a little bad because he did not take it very well. We ended on a good note but at one point he threatened to leave the church for good and we had to calm the situation back down. I walked away wondering if I did the right thing?? Was it ok to basically chastise this man for choosing the things of the world over returning to God's house? The spirit confirmed to me that we absolutely did the right thing. We did it out of love and concern for this man's salvation. He needs to know that he broke his covenant with God and he needs to make the sacrifices nessasary to get back. If we walk away and he doesn't know, then we didn't do our job.

I've had a couple more experiances since then, not nessasarly people threatening to leave the church because of what I said, but they get very upset at me for being so bold. Of coarse I do it out of love and I know they feel that, but they still get upset a little.

Yesterday and the night before we had Stake confrence and two members of the 70 came. In the Adult session i have never felt so much love and heard such bold, chastisment in my life. haha It made me feel so much better. I really appreciated everything they said because you really could feel the spirit as they told us how to be better, how to push harder. I made my companion come with me to shake their hands and say something to them. All the other sisters in our zone followed us. So all six of us stood in line to say hi to him. One of them, Elder Nash walked up to us and he just gushed over how much he LOVES sister missionaries. He said if he could hug sister missionaries he would. He shook our hands with both of his hands and he said, this is my hug to you. He talked about when he goes on mission tours there is a different/better spirit there and he said it is because of us sisters. Then he looked into each one of our eyes and he said, "Before this life, each one of you prepared for this moment, you were BORN to be a missionary." Oh my gosh. The spirit hit me so strongly that I got pretty emotional. Wow, it is so true. We prepared for this WAY before we got here. We would never feel complete unless we fulfilled this mission. I feel so honored and privilaged to be apart of this work. I hope each of us can work on being a little bit better, being a little bit more bold, and fulfill the mission God has called us to do. I love you all

 

Love Sister Jones

Oct 14th letter. Stuck!!!

Another lovely week, in lovely Grand Junction :)

You will never believe an experience we had this week. On the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Luckily I got a picture to prove to you all that I'm not pulling your leg. Actually I could have taken the picture and made up the story, but you all know I could never make up something this good.

S,o Sister Bennett and I ventured up to a beautiful city named Collbran. The people up here pronounce it Coleburn. It is the prettiest place I have ever seen in my entire life! Especially with all of the changing colors!! It's a tiny town placed in the middle of the mountains. I might just live there someday.

Any ways, the reason why we were out there was because we were on our way to track down the relief society president's house because we needed to get to know her better and figure out what people she would like us to visit in Collburn. Little did we know that the GPS had other plans for us. The gps lead us to this narrow dirt road headed directly straight up a mountain. The gps told us to turn on this sketchy, muddy, rocky road and Sister Bennett assured me that the gps was wrong and it was further up the mountain. So we kept trudging straight on up the road we were originally on. As we drove further up the mountain we passed some hunters trucks and trailers. Ironically deer were just chilling by these trucks and the poor hunters were nowhere to be found ha-ha we got a good kick out of that. We kept driving and driving until we ended up at this tiny little shack that said. Absolutely NO TRESPASSING. It looked more like Sasquatch would live there than the relief society president. So we concluded that it actually was the road we passed earlier. So we drove back to it and assessed the situation. The mud wasn't TOO deep and the rocks didn't seem TOO big. And if the relief society president can make it up here....we better be able to! So we decided to go for it.......yeah we made it twenty feet and then we got high centered on a lovely little, evil rock. Yeah I was driving.....but hey my little Geo Prism made up Smithfield Canyon on a road that seemed WAY worse than this one. I just didn't realize that not all cars are as amazing as Leo the Geo. You would either need Leo or a monster truck to get up that crazy road.

Sister Bennett, the Canadian farm girl, switched me seats to see if she could get the car off it. But that little rock was bound and determined to keep us there until Sasquatch really DID come around. We both got out and assessed the situation. I knelt in the mud to see if I could possibly dig under the rock to get it out. But with no avail. When I got up Sister Bennett said, "Let's say a prayer," Right when she said that another hunter in his truck drove passed the road we were stuck on. I waved my arms in the air kind of jokingly because I didn't think he would see us, but thanks to heaven he DID!! He pulled over and started walking up to us. We sheepishly walked to him and he asked, "How are you ladies doing?" I said, "kind of embarrassed" he laughed and said "Are you stuck??" sister Bennett said "NO, ok yes!" This guy was super nice he walked up to the car to see what was going on and we decided the best option was to get a 4 X 4 and drive the car backwards over the 4 X 4 to get over the rock.  So, he went back to his trailer and we followed. We had this guy laughing tons because of how weird the situation looked. He was like, "What in the world are you even doing out here?" And we were like "we are trying to visit this lady but we aren't even sure she lives up this road." He was amazed that we served for 18 months. (Probably because we looked like idiots ha-ha) He asked me how long we had been there and I told him 2 weeks ( thought he referred to how long we had been serving in grand junction) and he laughed and was like, "No, how long have you been stuck here?" Feeling silly and wanting to redeem myself I said, "Oh ha-ha well we have been stuck for......2 weeks, just kidding only about 5 minutes." We found out this guy is married and lives in Parker, CO but he works in the hunting business and loves to hunt. He said his high school use to be across the street from a Mormon church so he knew quite a few Mormons. He actually is from WASHINGTON!!! He asked us a couple more questions about our missionary work. When the car was unstuck and we got out of that mess our shoes and nylons were covered in mud. But we didn't care at all as long as we got out of there. At the very end, Brett, the guy, gave us a huge unexpected hug and made us take a picture with him because he said his buddies would never believe this story. So, I got my camera out too and we snapped a picture together. After that we told Brett about the Book of Mormon and about how it has changed our lives and it is the main reason why we were out here getting ourselves stuck on dirt/mud roads. We told him how desperately we want everyone to hear about the gospel and asked him if he wanted a copy. He said SURE! He told us that he would have tons of time by himself and he would love to read it. I pulled on out of my purse and marked 3 Nephi 11 and bore my testimony about how I knew the book of Mormon is true. It was the most amazing experience EVER. Everything was such perfect timing that I knew that it was all meant to be. And the best part is, if Brett does get baptized one day. He will have the hands down, best conversion story ever!!!! So hopefully right now as we speak/email Brett is in the mountains somewhere reading the Book of Mormon and the spirit is testifying to him that it is true. Just goes to show that Heavenly Father (or our GPS) has a pretty good sense of humor and you never know what next adventure he is preparing you for. I love you guys so much and I hope you are having a wonderful week. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving by the way ha-ha. I'M THANKFUL FOR YOU ALL!!!! Love you!!

Love Sister Jones

P.s. The relief society president didn't even live up that road! She lived 100 yards back from the road the gps took us to.

Oct 7th. Letter

HELLLOOOOOO!!!

So I don't have any time this week to email because I had to write a talk to my mission president about the doctrine of Christ. I thought since it is one of my better talks I am going to email it to you all too :) Just know that I had a fabulously insane week this week ha-ha. We went on two 24 hour exchanges and drove an hour and a half to a 7 hour meeting and we still taught 20 lessons!!! Whew it was madness!!! I will save some good stories to tell you next week. This week you can enjoy a little spiritual message. I love you all and have a wonderful week!!!! Love Sister Jones!!

My Talk on the Doctrine of Christ

My companion and I recently visited a young struggling single mother. We sat on her couch and listened to her broken voice and watched her tear stricken face as she told us of the struggles she was going through. My heart ached for her. So much pain and sadness engulfed her life. The hardest thing to witness was that it was affecting her 6 children too. I sat there feeling completely helpless and wished I could take the pain away. I wondered how everything in her life could go so wrong for her. 
As we were driving to our apartment, her appointment being the last one of a busy day, I pondered on what I had just heard and seen. I realized that yet again I have witnessed a direct result of a life without the gospel. Yet again I realized that it is truly better to "Prepare and prevent, than it is to repair and repent." This is a quote I heard quite often in Young Women lessons. 
This woman we visited carried the burdens of sin and consequences that followed for years. She had no idea that she could lay down these burdens and be free. She had no idea that the Savior has already carried that burden for her. 
The Savior paid the price for every sin that will ever commit. Through him we can be free of the guilt, the shame, the heartache, and the yoke that comes upon us from the mistakes we make and the mistakes of those around us. What precious knowledge this is. This truly is good news that we are blessed to share. 
All the Savior asks is that we come follow Him and be perfect even as He is perfect. We do these things by first having faith in Him. Faith is believing in things we cannot see. It is putting trust in someone or something enough to do something about it. Having faith in the Savior means we believe that He is the son of God. Trusting that he truly did die for his sins. How do you exercise this faith? By doing what he has asked us to do. Pray, go to church, read his scriptures, love your neighbor, keeping his commandments. When we do these things it strengthens our faith and it shows Christ the evidence of your faith. 
The second thing we must do to apply this gospel into our lives is Repent. Repentance is to change. Change for the better. We repent by recognizing what we have done wrong, making it better, asking for forgiveness, and refraining from ever doing it again. A companion once explained to me that, "repentance is gaining a fresh view of God, and yourself." Repentance is a lifelong process and will help us to be worthy of living in Christ's presence after this life. What a precious gift it is!
After we have gained faith in Jesus Christ and we have repented of our sins it prepares us to take the next step in our pathway to follow him. We are ready to make covenants or promises with Christ. We are baptized in his name and we promise to stand as a witness of him, always remember him, and to keep his commandments. Christ showed us an example of how to be baptized and his life shows us an example of how to live. 
Luckily Christ gives us a comforter and guide to help us along the way. After we are baptized we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost. He will be our constant companion. He is the connection we have to following the savior for the rest of our lives. Which leads me to the last step. 
The last thing Christ has asked us to do is to endure to the end. This is the hardest step because it is the longest step. Constantly remembering our baptisms covenants and being perfect is impossible without the guidance and direction Christ has given us through his church. As we consistently attend our church meetings, partake of the sacrament, read the scriptures and pray we will find the strength and knowledge it takes to receive eternal life. 
This is the path everyone is required to take. Without this structure and guidance we are lost. Like the woman above we wander a lost and broken path of sorrow. Christ is the shining light that everyone needs. We are his servants to gather in the lost sheep to point them to eternal life. I know these things are true. I have witnessed it on a daily basis. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. 

Amen

LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Love sister Jones

P.s. my quote of the week was my favorite quote from conference. So wonderful!

Sept. 30th. The Land of the Peaches, The Land of the Saints and the Land of the Crazy People

Yup you guessed it! I am now in GRAND JUNCTION!!!!!

       Aw man it is awesome. I'll admit I love the city and the people in it, but it feels so great to be in the country again. Oh it is blessed land! I love it already. I have heard that the craziest missionary stories told in the mission are from when they were serving in grand junction.The assistants told me this hilarious story about when two drunk girls attacked them. I almost peed my pants/skirt it was the funniest story ever. I love teaching crazy people. It reminds me of Moses Lake.

       Oh I met a lady who's family was taught by Shane Palmer (who's from Moses Lake). They said that he was instrumental in getting them back to church. how crazy is that! She said that he baptized her Grandson. I had no idea he even served here. So that's fun.

If Shane Palmer gets to read this, the Franklin's family say hi and that they love you!

       This week has been so crazy and so fun! I am now with Sister/Hermana Bennett. She has been on her mission for 15 months (don't tell her I told you, she gets sad when she remembers she only has two transfers left.) She is a spanish speaking missionary but we are serving in an english area. She is from Canada and she is a HOOT! Oh man she makes me laugh all day long. I'm pretty sure she is the absolute perfect missionary. She takes missionary work to a whole new level. When we are going to appointments she will pull over the car and talk to people who are walking on the side of the road and she invites them to be baptized! haha I'm not even kidding. We taught this girl on her door step. (the first time we meet her) she invited her to be baptized! The girl said YES! and we set her on Date for october 29th.Woah it was unreal!! We also found 8 new investigators this week!! Seriously it has been so awesome learing sister Bennett's ways. She is amazing. She makes me sing to every single person we talk to. hahaha I am getting lots of practise singing so maybe i might able to carry a tune when I come home haha. Some people don't really know how to react to an invitation to be sung to, so most people say yes, even if they don't want a song. The other day we sang, "count your many blessings," to this mom and her teenage son. I kid you not, they laughed uncontrolably during the entire song. They kept trying so hard to stop laughing, but couldn't help it. I won't let sister bennett sing that song any more, because that one was torture. But most people are really appreciative. It's actually pretty funny to see peoples reaction to our singing. I think it should turn into some psycology project on human nature. Or be one of those youtube videos where the guy tries to hold hands with random people and he records their reactions. I seriously am loving my time with her so much! Next week we start exchanges and I'm sad I won't be with her as much as we have been.

We are the Sister Leader Trainers in this area and I am learning more and more each day how much responsibility I am going to have in the near future. I'm getting a little nervous but I'm sure it will be fine.

Basically we are Zone leaders but we are over alot more missionaries than regular zone leaders have. We are in charge of the sisters and this entire transfer we will be going on exchanges with them and help them become better missionaries. Which means that I need to be on my very best behavior and be as perfect as possible. I'm really happy that I am blessed to have an amazing companion to learn from.

     Ok I have to tell you this story about sister Bennett that made me die! So the other night we called a member and she didn't anwser and sister bennett left this super long voice mail about how she would like this sister to come to a lesson with us and then we realized that we might have called the wrong number so at the end sister bennett said, " And if you are not sister Yeates we would like to invite you to visitmormon.org! Have a great day byyyye!!" We didn't really think anything of it and went on our day. Then the next morning this man calles us and sister bennett anwsered it saying, "HELLO sister yeates!!!!" Deep man voice anwsers and says, "Hello?" 
Sister Bennett, "Oh......is this the Yeates family??"

Man, "No, this is the man you prank called last night....."

Sister Bennett, "uhhhh..........Oh your the person we invited to check out moron.org!!"

Man, "Yeah, it was some prank call about sister missionaries."

Sister B "But we really are sister missionaries."

Man, "RRiiight....."

Sister Bennett," We really are! Did you check out the website?!"

hung up.......

Hahaha!!!!!! OH man i was in the other room doing my hair and I heard the whole conversation and I died laughing! Man it was to funny.That is just a normal day with sister bennett! I'm really excited to see what the future holds. I hope everyone is doing ok and is loving life. Know that I love you, the lord loves you and Life is GOOD!!!!

 

 

Talk to you all soon!!!!!

 

 

Love sister Jones

Sept 23rd. Quote of the week = "My hair is getting long and homeless"-sister gregerson

This week has been the very best week ever! We went to go see Harry Larry again. He cracked us up sooooo much! He said the closing prayer and he said, "Father in Heaven I love you above all. I thank you for sending these sister missionaries to visit me. Father......I think I'm in love with them!" Bahahah oh man, it was so hard not to laugh when he said that in his old British accent. He also admitted to us that he thinks Obama's wife is very attractive too! We tried to teach him the plan of salvation but he basically had it memorized and taught it to us haha. That just shows how many times he has been taught haha.

We also found ANOTHER 92 year old who's name is jim. We told the people in the ward if we sound like we are yelling at them it's because all we do is teach old and deaf people. They personally are my very favorite people to teach. Plus Jim CAME TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY!! He is also a hoot. The first time we meet him he asked us, "what do you do all day besides bug people?" and I said, "Jim that's what we do all day every day." and he replied, "Oh good, you can come over any time then." haha When I went over to say hi to him at church I asked him. "So jim how has your day been?" he replied, "Well I don't know, I haven't looked at it yet." haha I am always taken back by how witty and quick he is for being a 92 year old. We took him to sunday school and I held out the manual for him to look at while the lesson was being taught and he said, " I can't read it, I'm blind." and I was like "What?!" he said, "I'm blind in one eye and I can't see out the other..." hahaha I had no idea how to respond to that. Then 10 minutes later he pats my arm and said "gosh you sure are pretty." I leaned over and said, "I thought you were blind..." and then he just bust up laughing. I don't know what to think of jim except that he keeps us on our toes that's for sure haha. The elders took jim to priesthood and when they came back they told us they HAD to tell us a hilarious story and I was like oh man this is going to be good. So when jim was gone they ran over to tell us. While they were in priesthood they leaned over and asked jim what us sisters have taught him. he said "Nothing!" and elder Searle was like, "what do you mean?! what do they talk about when they come over?" and Jim was like "all they talk about is theirselves."

WE HAVE TAUGHT HIM THE RESTORATION AND THE PLAN OF SALVATION, thank you very much!!! He just pretends that he is blind and deaf when he wants to be.

I'm super sad I don't get to see these old hoots because i'm being TRANSFERED!!! Yup it's true. I found out Friday.

President Murdock called and told sister gregerson that she was going to be a trainer!!! and then He told me I am going to be "Way transferred!" what ever that means haha and he also told me that I had a new calling but he was going to have to call me the next day to  tell me. We TOTALLY tricked the assistants in telling me that I was a sister trainer leader and they got me back by having president never calling me to tell me officially it was true. Haha good times.

well I will let you all know where i'm at next week and who my new companion is. I love you all!! have a wonderful week!

 

Love sister jones

So blessed to be on higher ground !! Sept. 16th, 2013

Ok ok, my life really wasn't in any danger this week. My area is on a hill so we didn't experience any flooding at all. But we did experience the rain....oh the rain. I now know what it feels like to be serving in Seattle or England. The rain doesn't stop. If it's not pouring, it is misting. Fortunately it is suppose to stop this week. Actually it is quite sunny outside right now. It has been a super hilarious experience tracting in the rain.  Especially with Sister Gregerson. She loves being in the rain! She didn't buy a rain coat for the mission she also didn't buy a jacket with a hood. (Crazy Californians) So she basically looks like a drowning little mouse and people feel so bad for us they actually let us in!!! No joke.

So Speaking of serving in England, I know I mentioned that earlier in the email but I am referring back to it now, we met a man who was born and raised in England! He is 92 years old and served in the 2nd WORLD WAR!!! His name is Harry or Larry. He said we could pick which one we call him. (???? I know haha) He told us his whole life story and said that since he is lonely he demands that we come back every week and visit him. haha We found out that he has been taught by the missionaries before. He had 3 book of Mormons in his house and a whole stack of commissary. All of the old cheesy Mormon video's he has, the pamphlets, drawings of the plan of salvation. You name it, he has it. I guess if we ever run low on our supplies we can make a quick trip to his house. It's really interesting because he has read the entire book of Mormon and he loves it. He knows it is true and he actually likes it better than the bible. But he doesn't feel the need to be baptized. haha We will have to work on that.

He had the COOLEST stories. He talked about how he use to fly airplanes for the British air force. He talked about this time where Heavenly Father protected him from Areal bombs when he was on the ground. He talked about Flying around in France to help them fight off the Germans. He did all of this until his plane crashed and he messed up his leg super bad. All under the age of 19!! He said he spent 7 months in the Hospital and every single Sunday for 7 months his girlfriend (who later became his wife) would take a 4 hour trip to visit him. He said he would beg her every week not to make the trip because every day, all day long England was getting bombed by the Germans. She could have easily died every time she made that trip. But nothing stopped her. She never missed one Sunday. It was so precious! After that story he said, (imagine this in an old man's British accent.) "Aw she loved me, and I loved her....still do. I keep asking the good lord if he will give me the key to pass on from this life so I can be reunited with my sweetheart, but it is not my time to go." SO cute. I wanted to cry. Wow, that really was true love right there. It was like a movie.

When we got up to leave he said he wanted to show us a picture of his wife. We were super excited to see it so we said sure! Unfortunately we didn't know that agreeing to see one picture meant we signed up to see every.single.picture.in.his.entire.house. So for the next 30 minutes we followed this little old British man behind his walker to see every child, grandchild, and great grandchild, friend and neighbor's picture haha. He even took us to a room that didn't have very good lighting and he pulled out a flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on and shined it on each picture and explained who was in it. The look on sister gregerson's face was PRICELESS!! It was so hard to control our laughter. The situation was so funny I couldn't even handle it. He also showed us a picture of George Bush, he said (yet again in his Brithish accent) "AW, this of coarse is George Bush and his very attractive wife!" I lost it at that point. I couldn't stop laughing through out the entire day because of that experience. Especially when we said a prayer in our car (we always try to pray and thank heavenly father when we find new people to visit.) I said in the prayer. "Thank you for letting us met Harry....or Larry." and that's as far as I got because Sister Gregerson and I both started laughing again. He made my week. I'm super excited to go visit him again. It breaks my heart that these amazing, and hilarious older generation of people are left alone. When I get home from my mission I'm only going to hang out with old people haha.  

That's basically how our week has been. Super full of laughter. I'm super nervous about transfers because I don't think I am ready to be parted from Sister Gregerson. She seriously is the best! I will keep you all posted on the news of transfers!!! Hope everyone is having a good week and I challenge you all to find and old person and become their friend!!!

 

Love you

 

Love Sister Jones 

 

Pictures:  Here is a picture of the dog we live with and Sister Gregerson and the crazy black sky with the sun still shining. Yeah I don't get it either.