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.

Sept. 9th 2013 letter. 19 new investigators, fellow mosea lakians and 2 investigators came to church.

This week was AWESOME!!! We found out that we have been counting lessons wrong and new investigator's wrong. (there is like a certain criteria for it to count as a lesson or for a person to count as a new investigator) So we actually have 19 new investigators since we got here and 24 lessons this week. Yeah no big deal! We ROCK SO MUCH! It's so funny cause I thought we were struggling and now we are actually leading the zone in finding new investigators and they want us to do a training on how to find people at zone meeting. hahaha We were so pumped! We even have about 2 more potential families and 2 Young single adult potential investigators we can teach next week. When I first got here the assistants kept joking around with us telling us we can't be to awesome or else they will look bad and now they are telling every one that because they inspired us so much that we found 19 new investigators haha. Oh brother. they are pretty funny.

  

Also this week we had dinner at the Harmon's house and I found out that Brother Jeff Harmon went to high school in MOSES LAKE!!!! He knows SOOO many people I know. He knows Brother Leon Baker super well and his wife knows Sister Baker super well. He also went to high school with Randy Bruce! He knows all the Roylances, Bergesons, Lybberts, Goodrichs, and Palmers. Oh he also knows Terri Pyle really well too. Oh man it was sooo fun talking to him. He even pulled out his old Moses lake high school year book and I got to see Randy rocking the homecoming king picture and Billy Brice's dad with his afro! To funny! You will never guess who was his football coach back then. Yup you guessed it Coach Wagner! I knew he has been around FOREVER! He asked me to tell everyone he says hi!! He loved moses lake just as much as I do. I love finding fellow moses lakians!!!

 

Another best part about our week is that we had 2 investigators come to church!!! One of them we have only taught once! So cool. Sometimes I feel like getting people to church is like trying to persuade my brother to ask a girl out on a date. ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE!! But it happened! It's just proof that they Lord is seriously blessing us.

 

Well I have to cut this week short cause we need to go teach to investigators that we have been trying to teach FOREVER! So I've got to run. Just know that I love all of you to death and thank you so much for all of your support and love!! Keep being amazing and look for those missionary opportunities! They are right around the corner if you are praying for them!!

 

Love you

 

Love Sister Jones!!!

Sept 3rd 2013 letter. 10,000 mosquito bites.

Howdy!!!

Oh wait, they don't say that in Denver. They say "What do you want?" haha Just kidding,...but not really. Ya Got to love the city folk haha.

I am LOVING my new area. I'll be honest, it's not craig. But I seriously am enjoying myself so much back here on the other side. Sister Gregerson is BETTER! Yeah!! We now have been working our little tushes off here and we are definitely starting to see the fruits of our labors. We have 4 POTENTIAL FAMILIES to teach!! We are sooo pumped about that. We taught this guy named mike (he looks exactly like Robin Williams haha) who use to be anti-religion until he went to county jail for 30 days and that is when he found God. He now goes to the catholic church because that is where his parents took  him when he was a kid. He was kind of tough to teach because he was so intelligent and he had a really hard time believing that the priesthood was lost from the earth after Christ and the Apostles died. But we got through it and the spirit was really strong. One of the members we brought with us bore a POWERFUL testimony about the book of Mormon and Mike said he would read it. During this lesson we were teaching in a park by a creek. There seriously was a cloud of mosquitos around us the entire time. I didn't count all of my mosquito bites but I'm pretty sure it was between 50 to 10,000 bites. I still itch just thinking about it haha.  

Another awesome story that happened this week was when we went to a former investigator's house. We knocked on the door and we found out that the lady actually passed away. We were sad about that. We decided to go and check some other former investigator's houses. But when we were walking back to the car I noticed there was a little boy (probably around 6 or 7) who was holding what looked like a gigantic piece of chocolate. It seemed kind of funny so I asked him, "Hey, how's that piece of chocolate?" he turned around and I realized that it was a poptart and I said, "Oh it's a poptart! How you liking that poptart?" he said it was good and then I asked him what his name was. He said Albert. Haha such a cute name. I then asked him if he lived around here? He said yeah and pointed to his house. I then asked if his parents would be ok with us coming over to pray with them. He said, oh we pray a lot! and I asked him again if he thought his parents would like us to pray with him and he said sure. so he started walking to his house showing us where he lived. I didn't realize how extremely creepy that conversation was until we started following him to his house. haha I looked at my companion and she had this look of worry on her face and asked, "Is this creepy?!" I thought in my head "uh yeah!" haha But it told her um, just don't touch him or get close to him hahaha. So we walked like 10 feet behind him and before we got to the house he ran inside to get his mom. I was dying. I had no idea what this little boy was saying to his mom and I was pretty sure no matter what he said it was going to sound super suspicious. But much to our surprise the mom came out and was SUPER nice. She invited us in and made her entire family of 5 come and kneel down and pray with us. She said that they went through the Nebraska temple open house and they loved it. She also said we could come back!!! We were so pumped! I am also super glad I didn't get beaten by some broom by a mom who thought we were psyco's.

The last story I wanted to tell was about the other night around 8:30pm. It was dark and we didn't have any set appointments. That's always a hard time to know what to do cause some people get really mad if we knock at their door after dark. But I felt like we should go and knock on this door of girl who said we could come back. The mom answered this time and she said it was ok for us to say a prayer with her. Sister gregerson said it and then I testified of god's love for her and her children and that he has a plan for them. She started tearing up and said she really needed that prayer. She said it was a miracle that we caught her at a good time because she is never ever home. As she was saying that she got a phone call from her ex-husband saying she needed to come right away to come pick up one of the kids. We seriously went at such perfect timing. She said we could come back and that she would love to hear our message. She hugged us and told us we were her little darlings! Wow that was so amazing. I love how the lord leads us and guides us everyday to the people who need us. I.love.being.a.missionary. Nothing beats this feeling. Well I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! know that I love you and I think you are all the best!!!

 

Love Sister Jones!!