I'm behind again.

My blasted iPhone won't download kelceys letters sometimes. Not that I can get on our laptop and post from there. But, life is much easier when i post from my cell phone.
So here is her current letter as of April 29th. And hopefully I can get her last weeks letter downloaded. Toodles!

Hola!

The first thing I would like to tell you is I set a new "Ripley's believe it or not record."..... I survived an entire week with and Idaho licensed driver..... Seriously, I'm not joking. I really think someone needs to make some phone calls and take my picture so we can get it in there before I have to report next week. Because Who Knows if I can set two records in my life in two consecutively weeks!! I have never seen my life flash before my eyes more in my entire life.I have literally screamed out loud on several occasions. If Sister Waters doesn't kill me from an accident I probably will die of heart failure! I cry a little when I have to get in the car with her each day. It's not that she is a bad driver....she just doesn't exactly follow the speed limit and the slamming on the brakes is her favorite activity besides preaching the gospel.
Ok I might be exaggerating a tiny bit. But really! I have had a lot more anxiety lately from her driving. Maybe since turning 22 and old age is settling in and I am more conscious that I am one year closer to the veil, and take life more seriously than when I was a crazy 21 year old. But either way I hope to live another week.
Besides, being more consciously aware of what seems to be my impending death, we had an awesome week!! We have been working on finding more investigators so we can get ready for the new missionaries that are coming soon. So we have been doing this approach called the prayer approach. Basically what we do is go up to doors and ask them if we could pray with them and ask for a blessing of peace and comfort on them and their home. The perfect prayer approach is where we pray and the spirit is so strong we teach them something after the prayer and then we ask them if they would like to be BAPTIZED! Sounds crazy right?! But we know of several elders who have actually done that exact thing. So that is sister water's and I goal. We want to be able to have that same experience. Our zone leaders said if we do this approach for an hour every day we will see miracles happen.
We have done that every day this week and you will never guess what happened?!?! Ok we don't have a baptism invite yet but we did get three new investigators just from the prayer approach. That in itself is pretty incredible. We know with faith and patience we will have success in that goal so I will keep you posted.
We have a lot of people to teach already, but the emphasis right now is finding so we are doing our darndest to find as many investigators and less actives to teach as possible!!
We had a member missionary work fireside last night and it went super well. Our ward mission leader gave us a presentation from the book/internet sight called everydaymissionaries.org It talks about simple ways to bring up gospel topics and to get to the point where you can invite them to something. There are going to be 400 more missionaries in Colorado by the summer time so that's why there is a huge push to get more investigators. (Plus who doesn't need the gospel?) We are all trying to catch the wave! I hope everyone else is working on being missionaries!! If you need help check out that website or the book "The power of every day missionaries." You can do it!
Well we have got to go and get all our grocery shopping done! I hope everyone is having a good week! I love you all and I will talk to you soon!!!

Love Sister Jones

Picture #1 A picture of last monday
Picture #2 The best breakfast food place IN.THE.WORLD!!!!

And here letter from last week!! Yippee!

I think I should first let you know that I absolutely love my new companion sister waters. She is like my life clone. She loves absolutely everything I love...except for sports. But really, that is the only exception. We.love.all.the.same.stuff!!!! We have worked so well together this week and we have accomplished A LOT! I am so glad to have her here in this area. I do miss Sister Southern and her southern drawl and her hilariousness. But I know she is having a good ol time in Lakewood. Sister Waters is the 9th out of 11 children. 10 daughters and 1 son....Yup you heard me correctly. 10 daughters!! And one bathroom, Everyone almost falls out of their chairs when she tells them. I don't think it is scientifically possible to have 10 daughters and 1 bathroom, but who knows she could be making it up. She is from a tiny little town by twin falls Idaho. She is 21. She is going into art for college. She is so cool and I know we are going to have a really good transfer.
The next order of business I think I should inform you about is that the elders had a baptism this week and I got to go to my first investigator baptism. It wasn't in our ward but it was so amazing to see someone make that covenant and promise with Heavenly Father. The spirit was soooo strong and I felt so overjoyed for this man. His name was Leo (my car's name) Joe. It was awesome. Especially since he was named after my car.
Some other exciting news is that one of our investigators may, possibly, cross your fingers, hopefully, might change his baptismal date to May 4th!! It use to be on May 24th because that is his and his wife's 1st anniversary and they want to go to the temple on their 2nd anniversary. (so cute!) But his wife got accepted to do training for American Airlines for 8 weeks and is leaving on the 5th of May. He feels like it is pretty soon and he wants to pray and make sure he is ready before then. I guess those are valid concerns but we hope and pray that he will decide to be baptized on the sooner date. Either way we are super excited for him. He is soooo awesome and has really good questions to ask us every week.
I'm sad to report we have not had any more Moracan's try to arrange a marriage/kidnap my companion and I this week to tell you about. But one funny thing that happened is when we were door approaching. There was a door that had some really loud rap/modern music playing behind it's hinges so obviously we decided to knock on that door first. I pictured a group of teenagers sitting around doing not illegal things (but illegal things in other states besides Washington hint hint) but when the door opened we were surprised to see a really older gentleman answer the door in a classy 50s outfit. haha He takes a look at us and says "Hey Sistas!!" Turns out he use to take the discussions from missionaries awhile ago and because his "signification other" doesn't agree with our religion he stopped taking the lessons. He said we could come back in a month to teach him again. We don't know if that means he will be disposing of that significant other or not....we just decided to now ask questions haha just kidding. But that really did happen and we are excited to teach him again. So many funny and awesome things happen everyday and I am so glad to be apart of this work!! I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!!!!

Love you all!!!!!!!
Love Sister Jones

P.s. here are some lovely pictures I don't think I have sent you yet.
Picture #1 What I feel like doing on pday
Picture#2 Me on my birthday. The setting makes me look super tan, don't worry I'm still white as the fruit in Lehi's dream. (sister hoynascki came up with that one)

Two weeks in one post.

Ok, so Kelcey replies to Steve's email last week and I kept asking him where the letter was and he said it is here. But, there was nothing on our regular email. We finally figured it out last night after Kelcey resent her email from last week. So, we get to have two letters from Kelcey this week.
Enjoy!

That is weird that my last email didn't send. I tried to re-email it so hopefully it worked this time. Things are going fabulous. Sister Southern woke me up by flashing the lights and sang "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" at the top of her lungs and she recorded the whole thing. If your lucky I might send it but I haven't checked it out yet to see how awful I look at 630 in the morning haha. She got me a cute balloon and all my favorite stuff like my favorite cereal, favorite candies and all that good stuff. I then opened all of your sweet presents that you guys sent. Yes, I was good and waited until my birthday to open them. It was so hard to resist the temptation but I held my ground. I Love everything!!! Thank you so much. I was in serious need of stickers and pens. I don't know if I really need more candy but I love it any ways. haha. Oh and I love the scarf it is adorable!! Everyone has been so good to me already. I feel like today is going to be a great day. We are gonna do all of our chores and stuff and then at 130 we are going to meet at the gym with the other sisters and play some soccer, eat some cake and pizza. I'm excited it should be fun. It doesn't really seem like I am 22. It is SO weird. I am now officially the oldest missionary in our district. haha Oh well it just means I have more years of experience.
This week has been an absolutely crazy week. I am actually getting a new companion today and her name is sister Waters. Sister southern feels she needs more training so she will be going to Lakewood to be with sister hatch. again. I will be staying and continue serving in this area. I am happy that I get to stay because I absolutely love the people we teach and I've heard that Sister Waters is awesome. I'm sure it will be great.
Being on our own this week has caused some absolutely hilarious experiences to happen. One of my favorites is when we visited our good friend Anne Hobgood/Kern. (she is just about to finalize her divorce so we never know what last name to call her) She lives in a community home for people who are a little disabled. She joined the church 5 years ago. She use to be a hard core hippie and later became a pastor of the 7th day Adventist until she met the elders. She makes me laugh so much every time we see her. This time we all sat down and got settled in, and a lady named Mona (who is a Jehovah witness who is super deaf) wheeled herself over to us. She said she wanted to pray with us. We were like Ok, so we all fold our arms and bowed our heads and she told Anne she wanted her to say the prayer. I closed my eyes and then we all hear.... "DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER, PLEASE BLESS US THIS DAY. WE WOULD LIKE THANK YOU FOR SENDING THE SISTERS!" She yelled the ENTIRE prayer. She did it so Mona could hear what she was saying. Oh.my.gosh. Sister southern and I lost it. I could not stop laughing. I could barely breath it was so funny! She kept her voice that same level until she yelled AMEN!" It was soooooo hard to compose myself because I did not expect that to happen at all! haha Bless her heart. That seriously was the highlight of my week.
Another Hilarious thing that happened is when we visited a Muslim family. When met this gentleman named Rachid a couple weeks ago. He was on crutches and stopped to talk to us when we getting in our car last week. He got his number and he said it would be fine if we stopped by some time. So we called him Saturday and set up an appointment for 4 o clock. When we knocked on the door an older lady in muslim attire anwsered the door. She was Rachid's friends mom. (if that makes sense) She invited us in and we found Rachid sitting on the couch. The lady sat next to him and his wife came out to join us. We did a little small talk. When we got settled in they all were staring at us and asked..."Why are you here." haha We explained that we are missionaries and that we go around to teach people of Jesus Christ. They didn't really speak very good english so they didn't really understand what we were trying to say. They said they were muslim and they believed in Muhammed. We tried to teach, pray, read a scripture with them but it was pretty hopeless cause they really couldn't understand us and we could barely understand them. The older lady started saying something about her son who lives in Moraco. She started showing us pictures and kept saying..."Marry, Marry?" we were like "What?" and then the wife said are each of you married? and we were like oh no! Then they were trying to convince us we should marry their friend so he could come to America. haha oh boy that was the most hilarious conversation I have ever had in my life. Sister southern was trying to tell them we had to go but they insisted that we stayed and have some cheesecake. Sister Southern was really persistent in refusing the cheesecake and I didn't really understand why. So I just took some so they would let us leave. I ate it really fast and then we said goodbye and left. When we got out of there sister southern was like "Are you CRAZY!? They could have drugged that cake and kidnapped us and taken us to Moraco!!" hahaha she has a good point cause that didn't even cross my mind. But nothing has happened to me so far so I'm assuming that wasn't the case. They were very sweet people and were really kind. But I don't know if it would be a good idea to go back. haha
Right after that we met a drunk guy named Tito and that was another funny story. haha Just know that things are going so good for me. I am loving everyday. I am gonna miss sister southern but I'm excited to get to know Sister Waters. Wish us luck this week, I'm sure it will be great!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far and working on their member missionary work! Love you all and have a good day!!!

Love Sister Jones!!!



Well this email isn't going to be as long because we are about to head to the zoo!!! I am so excited, but please pray that we don't get any rain. We keep hearing that today and tomorrow it is suppose to rain/snow. I am praying with all of my little heart that it will just rain...not snow! This weeks weather has been amazing! It was even in the 70s close to 80s. I love it. Spring is really my favorite season.
So this week is transfers week and you will never ever guess what is going to happen! Sister Hatch is leaving us!!!!! She is going to be transferred to Lakewood and we (sister southern, and I (the newbies, who have only been in the mission field for 6 weeks!!)) are staying. We are suppose to train each other and stay in the area. That seriously was the last thing I thought was going to happen. I thought for sure that sister hatch and one of us would have stayed and the other person would be getting follow up trained some where else. Super crazy. Sister Southern and I are a little (actually gigantically) nervous but I'm sure the Lord will help us. But I bet I will have some pretty hilarious stories to tell you in the up coming weeks. Please keep us in your prayers haha. It will seriously be the blind leading the blind.
I don't think I told you guys before but awhile back when sister hatch got sick sister southern and I went out by ourselves haha. Oh boy it was an adventure. This was when Sister southern and I had only been out for 2 weeks. We got the most lost I have ever gotten in my entire life!!! We even had gps! The problem was we got on the high way and we missed our exit so we tried to turn around but we got off on an exit that had a lot of construction. The GPS wasn't up to date. Every time we tried to follow it we kept getting on the free way going even further south. I know what your thinking...how is that even possible?! But I really think the GPS was out to get us and thought it was a hilarious joke. Now that I am typing this I bet Sister Hatch programmed it to take us south no matter what address we put in because how in the world can any one get lost with a functional Gps...right haha. We were getting pretty nervous that we would drive out of the Mission Borders. The gas light also came on and we had to pull over in a really sketchy area to fill up on gas. I told sister southern this was going to be one of those moments in the Ensign where the missionaries got lost then mugged and had to walk home!! Luckily we were able to call our lovely friend Rachel and she guided us back home. It was really scary cause it was super dark outside the whole time we were lost.
That was the only time sister southern and I have been on our own, so I have a feeling some more adventures like that will be in the future. Luckily we both feel like we know the area a little better and sister hatch isn't around to mess with our gps. haha.
I hope every one is having a good week. Wasn't conference amazing?! We watched it at the church and it was so good. I really loved President Boyd K. Packer's poem. It was the best. There were so many funny stories told at this conference. I really loved President Monson's of coarse haha. His facial expressions are so hilarious. My favorite story that I took to heart was the guy in the 70 who talked about his really happy roommate. That when he was walking through a snow storm he heard his roommate bruce singing "Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day!! I've got a glorious feeling, everything's going my way!!" I loved that. It reminded me of Jacy, Rachel, Melissa and the gang. I always felt so happy when ever I hung out with them because they took every situation good or bad and made it hilarious! Rain or shine, snow or sunburns we were always joking laughing and appreciating every moment. It was a good reminder of my favorite song. "It's a great day to be alive!" I really want to work on remembering that. I have so much to be grateful for. Especially since having the gospel in my life.
Well we are gonna head to breakfast and then the Zoo! I will try to send you awesome pictures!

Love you all!!!!
Sister Jones!!!

Monday, April 1st letter

Missing our Kelcey bug!

Hola!!

Well it has finally warmed up here in Denver! I am so grateful. It's weird to think that a week ago there was a foot of snow on the ground. It has been in the 50-60s here lately and I love it. I can finally see the green grass. We had another awesome week and taught a lot of people. We were actually able to do quite a bit of service this week too.

Last Monday after we finished emailing and were on our way to go shopping at target (don't tell dad), we passed an older gentleman who was stopped in the middle of a turning lane with his hazard lights on. We rolled down our window and tried to get his attention. We were trying to see if he needed help but he didn't hear us. When we passed him, he looked pretty distraught and kind of frightened. So we pulled over and all 5 of us sisters (All of us were hanging out that p-day) walked back to his car. We asked him if we could help him and he said his car died. So we asked if it was alright if we pushed it. He said sure and then All Five of us sisters (in our skirts) pushed this little car down the stretch of road into a best buy parking lot. I'm pretty sure it was a hilarious sight to see. ha ha We had to push with all of our strength and we were kind of jogging/pushing. A ton of cars passed us and I couldn't stop laughing because we looked super ridiculous, but it was fun. After we got him into a parking space I thought I was going to black out. I was so tired, I think it's because I'm so out of shape but I like to blame it on the altitude.
We found out his name was Jerry and he was from Colorado Springs. He was on his way to a doctor's appointment. He was so grateful and tried to offer us money. We turned it down and after getting permission from the Mission president we gave him a ride to the hospital. It was cool to be able to help someone who really needed it. He said he had been stuck there for about 20 minutes and people kept honking at him because he was in the way. Nobody stopped to help him. The poor guy. He was really sweet and I know the Lord placed us there to help him in that time of need.

We also got to help another person this week. Her name is Erika and is a less active. We have been visiting her for a couple weeks now and we have been trying to teach her more about the gospel to bring her back to church. She is a mom of two young kids and is struggling right now. Her husband works a TON, and is never home. She is doing online school work, while taking care of the house and the children. She has a really hard time asking for help when she really needs it. She usually runs herself into the ground before she will admit she could use some help. This past week she worked herself so hard that she actually had to be hospitalized because she wasn't taking care of herself at all. So we came over and did some chores for her. We cleaned out her shed and back porch. Organized and cleaned her garage and helped her paint some shelves and bookcases for her. Her family is coming into town so she was stressing out about all these projects and it was so nice to be able to help her with those things. It also was awesome to be able to put jeans on too ha ha She is a sweet heart and I hope she won't be afraid to ask for help any more because I could see the weight lifted off her shoulders a little bit when we helped her with those things.

The last person we were able to help was Missie. She also is having an extremely hard time right now too. She recently had neck surgery and her husband has been out of work for a week. Not only is she struggling physically but her family is struggling financially. She actually has had a lot of things happen to her in her past that has given her a ton of health problems. One of the most horrifying things I heard her talk about is that Her ex husband beat her so badly that she went into a coma for a year. He broke 32 bones in her body. That was also after she also use to be in the military and crushed her knee with some heavy equipment and was wounded by a gun shot. She has had one of the hardest lives I have ever heard of. We went over and cleaned her apartment really good. It was in desperate need of some help. She hasn't been able to move much because of how sore her surgery made her and I guess something went wrong during the surgery that effected her brain stem. So we did all we could to help her with some of the chores she needed to be done. Bless her heart. I hope that we can continue to help her with this hard time in her life right now.

I have felt good this week with what we were able to help people with. I have been thinking a lot about the Savior this week since it is Easter. But while we were watching the movie "Finding Faith in Christ." with one of our less actives, I realized that in order to become more like Christ and to understand Him more fully, we need to do the things He came to this Earth to do. We need to truly walk the path that He did. Like helping those in need, bringing the gospel to those who need it and just loving people for who they really are. Being able to serve these people I have felt a lot closer to the Savior. I think it is because I know this is what He would be doing if He was here.
I can feel my heart growing more and more every day for the people we see. It makes me wish that I could just hug all of them 24/7 and tell them that it's going to be ok and they would believe me. The hard thing about it though is that I know I can't be there for all of these people 24/7. I can't truly understand how they are feeling and sometimes I don't know exactly what to do to comfort them. What brings me comfort though is that the Savior does. That is what is so incredible about Him. He asked to take upon our sins and pains so that He could do that for all of us. I am so grateful for Him. He has a huge job of taking care of all of us. But He does it perfectly. Not one person is out of the reach of His love. I am loving my Savior more and more every day of my mission. He is the reason we are out here. He is the reason there is hope in this world and He is the reason we can all have eternal happiness. I'm gonna try a little harder to be a little more like Him every day.

I love you all and I hope you had an Amazing Easter Sunday.


Love Sister Jones

Picture #1 We went to this members house who has dug three stories down in his basement and built these amazing rooms. This picture is of his game/tv room with all his cool animals that he has had stuffed. It reminds me of Cabellas
Picture #2 This is the Mountain Lion and I :)
Picture #3 Sister hatch and Sister Southern with antlers