A letter from March 25th. Cutie pie sister jones!

Hola!!!

WE HAD A BAPTISM! ok well, not really. He is 8, his family members are all members, and we only taught him once. But it was so awesome to go to a baptismal service. He is the cutest little boy ever, he looks exactly like the boy off of Stuart Little. His parents had him take all of the missionary discussions before he had his baptismal interview so he knew what baptism was all about. He impressed me with the knowledge he already had before we taught him. Ok cute story. So we decided to randomly go visit the Rogers (his family) one day. When they answered the door and we walked in, we found out that the Mom was on the phone with the elders and they were apologizing because they weren't going to be able to make it that night to teach Elias. (the little 8 year old) Elias was so excited that we were there to teach him because the Sunday before he told his mom he wanted to take a lesson from the sister missionaries. It was so sweet to see that we were an answer to this little boys prayers that week. It was so awesome.
His baptismal service was yesterday. His grandparents flew all the way from Kent, England to come to his little baptism. It was so precious! He said the opening pray and he was like, "Please bless me to have a good time and to feel good." He let us take a picture with him and I attached it at the bottom.

So this week has been another successful week. We met with a TON of people and were able to reach a lot of our goals. We set one of our investigators on date for baptism! His name is Ed and he is awesome. Him and His wife have been married for 30 years and they have two kids, Jonathan and Megan. His wife Linda was a member when she was younger but kind of fell away when she got older. She married Ed, a non-member, and have lived in Colorado for 15 years. Linda and Ed have been taking the discussions because they really want to know what the church is about and if it is true. They are amazing. I have already seen a few times how the spirit has touched their hearts and they come to church almost every Sunday. Jonathan is also very curious about the church too and he will sit in on a few discussions. He is a History major and he is very interested in the history of the Native Americans (the lamanites). Ed works in the car business, and sells cars. He said, since he has been meeting with us he feels more relaxed at work and feels that everything is going to be ok. He even said the closing prayer in our last lesson after we talked about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong and I wanted to burst out crying I was so happy. I can't wait for his baptism.

We also did exchanges this week and Sister Hatch left us...We had Sister Griffiths but she was very quiet so basically sister southern and I were on our own. It was pretty nerve-wracking but we survived. I'm pretty sure/I hope we didn't teach any blasphemy. Haha just kidding. Our lessons went really well actually. We taught Jenny, a friend of the bishop and another one of our new investigators. She is in her 30's and has two really cute kids. She is going through a divorce right now and she really feels she needs the Savior in her life. She has tons of friends and family members who are Mormon, and has had a lot of good experiences with the church. She has been friends with the Bishop's wife for years. We taught her the plan of salvation last time so we taught her the restoration this time. We asked her if she had any questions about the plan of salvation. She said, "nope, it is very beautiful and I love the concept of it." We were like Ok haha. Then we asked her what she thought about Joseph Smith. She said that is the one thing she had a really hard time with in the church. She didn't really buy it. Especially since Joseph was so young. She was like, "Heavenly Father came to a 9 year old or 11 year old boy...really...really?" Haha we were like, well he was 14, and yeah it is pretty hard to swallow and to believe, but let us teach you a little bit of the background of the church so you will understand the importance of Joseph Smith and what he did. She was like ok, and she said that she has really wanted to know about all of that stuff.

So we taught her about prophets and the priesthood and how Christ established His church on the earth when He was here. We then explained the apostasy and how we needed the priesthood keys restored on this earth again so the true fullness of the gospel could be taught. When we got done talking about what Joseph went through and how much he did for the church, Jenny turned to the Bishop's wife and said, "You should have named your son Joseph. I'm serious." It was so amazing to see how the spirit had touched her heart and how her opinion changed so quickly when she understood. We watched the movie, The Restoration, with her and then we bore our testimonies of Joseph. The spirit was so strong. We invited her to pray about it to know if it is true and we will see her again this tuesday. I am so excited to see where this gospel takes Jenny because I know it will bless her life.

Well time is running up, but I just wanted to say that, I love being a missionary. I know I say this every week. But I know this is exactly where I am suppose to be and these people are the ones I need to help teach. The more I teach of this Gospel, the more my testimony grows. I know it is true with all of my heart. I know it and I can't deny it. Love you all!! Keep safe and thanks again for all of your love and support!

Love Sister Jones


P.s. Picture one is of all the dang snow we got the past couple days! 8 inches!!! In your prayers will you please pray that it melts away quickly!!!
Picture two is of WASHINGTON street!! yeah represent!
Picture three is of Elias, my companions and I at his baptism!! He is such a cutie.

Love you!!!!!

And a letter from the MTC!

Well, I'm all caught up. We all hope you enjoy kelcey's letters. She is one amazing missionary. I could be biased though. Lol! Cannot wait to hear again from her Monday!!

My experiance in the MTC has been amazing so far! I absolutely love it here. I feel like if I am not crying because the spirit is so strong that I am laughing my tush off because the people here are HILARIOUS! Something super funny happens every single day. For example I grabbed an Orange sickle from the freezer the other day and I noticed that my lips and tongue kind of stuck to it because it was so cold. I was joking and laughing about it with the sisters and one of the sisters. (sister Southern) said, "I dare you to take a HUGE lick!!" So I did and yup you guessed it, my tongue froze to it like a cold pole. It took me almost 5 minutes to get that stupid thing off and it caused quite a commotion. The sisters couldn't breathe because they were laughing so hard. But don't worry my tongue and pride have recovered since then. We are always having a good time. There are 6 sisters and 6 elders in our district and we all are going to the same mission. We all get along super well and probably have too much fun. We all are from a different state except one elder is from washington too. My companion is Sister Cowan, she is 21 and is from Southern California. She wants to be a lawyer when she grows up and we are getting along great, considering we spend every waking, sleeping, and pooping second together. (sorry if that is inappropriate haha) The sisters in our group have had our differences but we all have worked through it and become very united. I absolutely love my teachers. We have Sister Petts and Brother Green. They are Amazing!! They have taught us so much and I feel alot more prepared to share the gospel than I did 8 days ago. We basically spend about 16 hours a day trying to become better missionaries and representatives of the Lord. I am super glad we have such a fantastic district because they are huge examples to me and have helped me build my testimony so much. I have run into pretty much every single person I know who is here in the MTC. I ran into Rhy a few times and met his companion. I have seen Sister Lucy Peterson (the sister who spoke in stake confrence) I ran into Sister Haylee Lund and Brother Grey Lund. I also ran into Elder Devon (jacob's old roommate). The girl who spoke at Elder Rhy Lund's farewell. My old home teacher, and the girl I use to visit teach. The craziest person I ran into is an Elder Kellen Sudweeks. He is from Texas and is in Rhy's district. After I got talking to him I found out that he basically knows every single person I went to high school with because he came up to moses lake to visit the Fredricksons for Warp Tour and he hung out with all of the singles who live in moses lake right now. It kind of blew my mind because he was there when Dylan gave his homecoming talk. So crazy. We talked for awhile while we were in the health clinic because both of our companions weren't feeling well. Ne ways, I am doing so good. I am growing and stretching more in my spirituality than I ever thought possible. I am kind of sad that I will be leaving in 4 days. Time is going by too fast. Know that I love you, I miss you but I know without a doubt that this is where I am suppose to be and what I am suppose to be doing. Tell everyone thanks for the letters and tell grandma jones thanks for the cookies you guys are amazing.

Love Sister Jones

Her first letter after arriving in Denver

Hello EVERYONE!!!

Can you believe I am in Denver already!? This week has been so fantastic, and we have been so busy it is weird to think that we flew here only 7 days ago!

So just to tell you a little about my week. We had to get up at 3:50 last monday morning so we could get ready and packed to get on the bus at 5. The plane ride went great, there were 25 of us missionaries all going to the same mission on the same plane. It was the most social plane ride I have ever been on. You know how most plane rides are like an awkward plane silence and there are like 2 or 3 people talking? Well our plane ride was the opposite. Every body was joking, laughing, getting to know people, preaching and teaching the whole way there. It was fun. When we touched down in the denver airport all twenty five of us walked toward the tram to get our baggage. When the door opened we ran in. We thought we got everyone in but we turned around we saw that doors shut before elder Beus could get in. He just looked at us with a scared but laughing face on haha. HAha poor guy. He is an 18 year old little shy guy. We all waved and laughed and sang 'God be with you till we meet again' haha. Luckily he came in right after us on the next tram so he wasn't lost for too long. We then met President Maynes and his wife and the Assistant to the Presidents. They were super sweet and greeted us all. We grabbed our luggage and crammed into vans and trucks and drove to the mission office. The first day with orentation and going over mission rules was pretty long. Considering we had been up for 12 hours by 4 o clock. But we ate yummy food, took pictures of all of us and then headed to the mission home.

The next day we went to transfers meeting and were assigned our new companions and areas. I am with Sister Hatch and we are opening a new area called the University Hills East area. It was bitter sweet to be parted from all the sisters and elders in our district but I knew they were in for some great work so I wasn't to sad to see them leave. We socialized for a little bit with the people who knew my companion that were leaving to go home and everyone told me that I have a fantastic companion, and she is. I have learned alot from her already. Sister Drake (one of the senior couples in charge of housing) came up to us and told us that we are going to live in the basement of a single lady's house. She kept saying "Well we haven't been there yet and we heard she has cats, but don't worry, I'm sure its fine. Oh and she is kind of a hoarder, but the ward cleared out your space....(look down thinking) yeah I'm sure it's fine" Um yeah...My companion and I were pretty worried. I immediately imagined that show animal hoarders that I watched with my parents and I pictured us waking up every morning with cat liter in our beds and cat hair in our teeth. As you can imagine I was pretty terrified at the thought and I had this pit of worry in my stomach when we pulled up to the place. But don't you worry. I absolutely love our little basement apartment. It is perfect! It is totally retro and has a 70's kind of feel to it. I can't wait to send you pictures. It is super clean and I have only seen the cats like once or twice. I love the lady we live with she is a sweet heart. The lord definately is looking out for us, sister drake just tried to make us worry a little haha.

After we got settled in we got straight to work. We meet up with the elders, the relief society president and the bishop through out the day, got our area book, talked about people we could visit and set off. My companion and I have been crazy busy teaching and visiting people. Since we are opening a new area the work in this place is endless and we have been working every minute. I love it so much. The people in our ward are amazing. They all are super young. Everybody including the bishop is in their early 30s and don't have kids over the age of 5. They are so nice to us and have welcomed us with open arms. The people we have taught are equally amazing.

One quick story about a less active we visited that is so funny! It was our last visit of the day and we went to see this guy Gabrielle. We walked up to the apartment complex and he was walking out. We introduced ourselves and got to know him a little. He was cracking us up so much with all his stories. Basically he use to sell drugs to support his family and went to jail when he got caught. Since then he has turned his life around and has a huge testimony of the gospel. But he has just been slacking in the going to church part. He was telling us about how he use to be catholic but kind of fell away from that. Later down the road when he got out of jail he made friends with the muslim man. His friend asked him to go to mass (church) with him one day and he agreed. He said during the service they were doing alot of kneeling and praying and at the end they asked him to go to the front, so he did. Then this man dressed in white said some thing in arabic to him and did some other stuff and then it was over. He had no idea what happened. But he just went on his merry way and 9 years later he ran into another muslim and asked the guy what that service was all about. The muslim man laughed and said "They baptized you man." HAHAHA He had no idea for 9 years that he was baptized muslim. Oh man that story made me laugh. At the end of the story Garbrielle was like, "So now, I have been baptized catholic, Muslim, and Mormon." that made my day. I hope we can get Gabrielle to be more active. He is such a funny guy.

Any ways, things are going super good and I have already seen a lot of blessings and miracles happen since I have been here. I love you all. Thank you for all your support and love. Take care of yourselves!!!!

Love Sister Jones


My new address is

Sister Kelcey Jones
C/O Ms. Pratt
1831 S. Forest St.
Denver, CO 80222

Make sure you put C/O Ms. Pratt or else it might not get here.

Here it is!!!

Ok. So here is Kelcey's letter from last Monday. She cracks us all up. We laugh, cry and smile all day after reading her letters. Such a wonderful experience for her. Toodles again.

YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED!?

So my dearest, lovelyiest, adorable southern soulmate is my new companion!!!! Sister Southern!!!! She was transferred over to be sister Hatch and I's third companion!! (I'll send her a picture of her) I love her so much. We served together in the MTC and basically are the most best friends in the whole world. Every since she got here I have not stopped smiling and laughing. Not that I wasn't having a good time before, but she is just so hilarious she just makes my day. She got here Friday. Oh man it has been the best.

This week has been all around a fantastic week. We have some amazing people we teach and like I said last week, I keep seeing miracle after Miracle happen.

I don't remember if I told you but something awesome that happened the other day was when, Sister hatch and I, were going to see a less active lady and her daughter. When we got out of the car an older gentleman passed by and we said hi and talked about the nice weather and then he kept walking down the street and we visited the lady. Then 45 minutes later we were walking back to our car the same guy was walking back down the street with a grocery bag. I thought to myself, that was too perfect of timing we need to talk to that guy. But I was a little nervous. I wasn't sure Sister Hatch felt the same way. He kept walking while I was still debating. I looked to Sister Hatch and she saw that I was staring down that guy so we both turned and I said, "Excuse me sir, can I ask you a question?" He didn't hear me cause he was looking at his phone and kept walking. I looked at sister hatch again and she started speed walking after him. By this time he was like 10 feet in front of us. She said a little louder, "Excuse me sir. Can we ask you a question?!" He still doesn't hear and then we start basically running after him and I yell, "EXCUSE ME SIR! CAN WE ASK YOU A QUESTION?!" He finally hears and he turns around to see us sprinting after him. Haha I thought he was going to think we were psyco crazy people but he acted like it was the most normal thing ever haha. We had a lovely conversation with him and he agreed to meet with us later on. I could not believe that he was so cool with us practically tackling him down in the street to talk to him about Jesus Christ haha. We visited with him this week and taught him about the Book of Mormon. He is a reborn again christian or something like that and he didn't really buy what we were saying but we explained the reason for having the book of mormon and talked about the priesthood. He kept saying, "Oh that makes sense, but I'm not sure I beleive that." Then sister hatch talked about the need for a restoration and then she turns to me and says would you like to tell him what happened? I was super nervous but I explained how Joseph Smith was curious about what church to join and prayed to know. When I got to the first vision. I read it out of the pamphlet and I got super emotional. The spirit was so strong I could barely finish. I know he felt the spirit too. It was amazing. He still has alot of concerns about our beliefs but we left him a book of mormon and a restoration pamphlet and he is really interested in reading both. We are meeting him again this week. I know Heavenly Father has an amazing plan for him in store. I can't wait to see what happens.

Another awesome thing that happened was we (sister hatch, southern, and I) were trying to contact this lady Debra and she lives in a apartment complex that you have to be buzzed in to get in. We usually wait for someone who lives there walk down the sidewalk and we grab all our stuff, sprint to the door and casually walk in with them. haha. It is sneaky but works haha. But yesterday nobody was around. Probably cause it is cold and snow is everywhere. We decided to check another apartment complex and then came back to see if we could get in. Still nobody around. So THEN we decided to try and get in through the back door. We drove around to check but that door was locked too. We decide to give up before someone thought we were stalkers and put a restraining order on us. haha But then an Old, Hairy, Shirtless man with earrings walks out on his little balcony on the third floor and says, "HEEYY, look at all these pretty ladies out here today!" We say hi but my first impression was to hurry and get in the car and drive away cause a creepy man is hitting on us. But then he was like "Oh my gosh you girls are missionaries!" and we are like yeah haha and he is like, "I'm a member of the church too!" haha So we got the code to get in and we climbed up the stairs and meet him. He was the most hilarious, funny, sweet man I have ever met. We found out that he is trying to clean up his life and get his act together so he can make it to the temple to be sealed to his wife who passed away a few years ago. I Just wanted to hug the crap out of him after we heard his story. He even gave us his pot pipe to go smash in the parking lot. Seriously the funniest thing I have done on my mission. So we are going to meet regularly with him to help him with his goal.

So far the craziest thing I have found on my mission so far is my change of heart towards the people I meet. When we first walk into some houses I Think they are crazy, unsanitary people. But by the time we leave and hear what they have gone through I have tears in my eyes and my heart aches for them. I can feel Heavenly Father's love for them and how special they are to Him. I have never been around so much cigarettes, weed, and dog hair in my life (everyone has these three things) but my heart has changed and I absolutely love these people and I love to see how the gospel really brings a light into peoples lives. I absolutely love being a missionary and I am already having some fantastic experiences. I hope everyone is doing good at home.I love you all, thanks for helping me get to where I am at today. And the Gospel is TRue!!!!! I'll attach some pictures of the crazy shinanigains we have been doing haha.

Love you!!!!

Sister Jones!!

Picture #1 Sister Southern isn't use to the dry weather and keeps getting bloody noses haha bless her heart haha
Picture #2 This is Micheal, one of our less actives. He is the one that let us smash his weed pipe haha We love him. He came to church with us sunday and It was the Best!!!
Picture #3 There are sign spinners all over the place and I took a picture of this really enthusiastic one and he spotted me taking his picture it's pretty funny haha.



Love you! I hope you enjoyed the pictures!!!!

Oops

Kelcey I know would be a tad bit annoyed with me for not getting her letters here. But I have a good excuse. - couldn't read her password to get into this blog. So, finally got it.
Here is her most recent letter and some cute pictures. Toodles

Hola!!!

This week has been another great week. We are in the middle of transfers so in three weeks from now I will know if I am being transferred or not. Can you believe I have been out longer than a month now?! Yes they are splitting our mission. We will find out May 22nd which mission we will be in. SO there is a possibility that I might be changing missions. I will keep you posted!!
We had a really awesome week this week. One of my favorite parts of this week was zone conference. It was a hilarious adventure trying to get there. We have to clean and wash our car before then because it gets inspected at zone conference. The problem was though that it snowed like three inches the night before. We had to wash it before then so in the morning we ran to the car wash and vacuumed out the inside and went through the automatic washer. Vacuuming was ridiculous cause the hose was super dirty and covered in snow so the more we vacuumed the dirtier it got haha. We did the best we could and then moved on to washing the outside. We didn't really do a good job of scrapping off the snow and sister hatch said not to worry because the water in the car wash would just melt the snow right off. I was a little nervous about us turning into a frozen moving Popsicle but really there is now arguing with sister hatch some times lol. As we were sitting there and the car was getting washed, it sprayed a soap on us that was a pepto-bismal pink and turned all three inches of the snow that color haha then the next soap layer was a mustard yellowish/brown. Oh man it looked hideous and I could not stop laughing. The water kind of melted most of the snow but there wasn't very much water pressure cause we picked a cheep car wash. We basically looked like a pink slushee that fell into yellow curb water. We got out and scrapped as much as possible off but we were didn't want to be late so we just drove there. Luckily most of it melted off by the time we got inspected but man it was pretty hilarious. People driving down the street probably thought we were so dumb haha oh well. We passed.

haha Anyways this zone conference was my first one and it was so spiritually uplifting. The theme was faith. President Maynes is an amazing teacher because he spent so many years being an institute teacher. My favorite quote he quoted was "Faith is not just a feeling it is a decision, we need to choose faith." I love that! Because just like we have to decide to be happy and to decide to keep going. We need to choose to be faithful. My favorite thing he applied it to was, our prayers. When we pray we need to actually have faith that Heavenly Father will help us receive those things we pray for. Like if I am praying that someone will be home so we can teach them, I need to have faith that it will actually happen. Also if I am praying for help to have more energy during the day, I need to have faith that Heavenly Father will give me the energy before I will even pray about it. I have been really working on that this week and it is amazing how much my prayers are answered when I have faith that they will be. I don't know if it is because I am noticing the answers to my prayers more or because of my faith they are being answered. But it is incredible the difference I have noticed this week. This is a principle I am going to apply for the rest of my life.

Something else I have learned this week is the importance of church attendance. We have been visiting a lot of less actives this week. All of them have different reasons for not coming like, they were offended, they got to busy, and they feel their own spirituality is enough for them to make it back to heaven. But all of them don't feel like they need church. They don't see the point when they already feel spiritual and are happy right now.

It is true that people can be happy if they don't go to church but I have seen for a fact that your life will slowly take a straying path. I have seen now how much it will seriously impact yourself and your families lives if you do not go to church. It's kind of like my farewell talk. Church is the place where we can continue our conversion. We can never slack on our conversion. Sister Hatch told me that "Conversion will never plateau, it is either an uphill climb or and downward slope." I now know that is true. Even the strongest most amazing members can slowly stray away if they are not constantly working on their conversion. There testimonies can be strong, but conversion is what will carry us to the last days. Church is part of the plan to keep us on the path. Not going can be seriously detrimental to ours and our families salvation. I now know why in one of Elder Holland's talks he says to return missionaries. "You have no right to become inactive after your mission." It's true! How could I ever look my investigators and less actives in the face if I ever stopped going to church. Anyways, I have learned so many valuable lessons already on my mission so far. And I want to tell you these stories so you can hold me accountable some day. I shutter to think if I ever became in active after my mission. But if I ever did. This email holds me accountable.

Well, I love you all. Thanks so much for your emails, letters, and support. I am so happy to be on my mission. I love the work, I witness the truth of this gospel every single day. Don't let excuses, distractions, and pride get in the way of your salvation. Always remember what is important. Have an Amazing week!!!!