Feb 17th, 2014. Candle light dinner, Baptisms, and love sick zone leaders......

Hola!!!

So We are in the family history center because the libraries are closed and there are about 20 missionaries here....lets just say I am super distracted as I am emailing today. Especially because Elder Horman, who is on the computer next to me keeps telling me that I am going to marry the First african american apostle and I am going to have 15 children. Elders are so weird.....Anyways thank you for your emails!!! Thanks for getting my loan extended for me. I can't print the tax return here for me to sign it. So I will try to do it next week. 

Well we had a fantastic week. Sister Tew and I didn't have a dinner appointment on valentines day and we found out that Mcdonalds was having candlelight dinners if we made a reservation. Hahah We didn't make a reservation but we showed up and they squeezed us in. It was hilariously awesome!!! Sister Tew told me that I was her first valentines dinner date! I feel so honored haha. Something hilarious that also happened on valentines day was that our zone leaders and our district leader all got sick. haha We kept teasing them all day about how they were all love sick. They didn't appreciate that, but we thought it was pretty funny!

Ok I have to tell you about the absolute best part about my week this week. so there were 3 baptisms this weekend. Rick and Shirley in the 6th ward. They are such miracle investigators. The elders found them by knocking on their door. The first started teaching Shirley but rick joined soon after. Every time they visited after that Rick had invited friends over to hear the message. One appointment they had 6 new people their to hear the message. He also quit smoking cold turkey so he could get baptized!!!! So amazing!! Shirley (his daughter) is just as incredible. She has such a powerful testimony! Elder Whiteley just told me that rick went up to the bishop and said that he needs to get the priesthood as soon as possible so he could baptize his wife! AWWWWW THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!

The next baptism that day was just as powerful. The 7th ward sisters live with some members and it was their son in law getting baptized. When he got baptized his wife was just crying the whole time. Then after the baptism when the bishop is welcoming him into the ward, he has him stand up next to him in front of everyone. He points out into the congregation and says "Chuck i want you to look at these elders. They have the priesthood. That is your next step in the gospel. I want you to work towards getting the priesthood." Then he pointed to the married couples and said, "See these couples in this room. They are sealed for time and all eternity. She that blonde lady in the back, she is mine. I get to be with her forever." Then he pointed to Chuck's wife chloe and said, "Chuck i want you to picture chloe all dressed in white, you all dressed in white at the temple..." Right when he said this Chuck looks at his wife and gets teary eyed. then the bishop says. "That is the next step I want you to work towards, the temple." The spirit was so strong. I was, of coarse, crying. It just hit me so strongly that this is what this is ALL about. Eternal families. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! It is so true. It brings sooooo much happiness!!!! AH i just love all of you. I hope you are having a fantastic day!! 

Love sister Jones

Family!!! 2/10/14

So mom had ten million questions for me so I will try to anwser them all for this email entry

 How has the weather been- Super good! it snowed about 6 inches last week but it is all melting and now we just have slush and it rains a little bit. But I don't mind it because #1 it reminds me of home and #2 it's not freezing cold (THANK GOODNESS!!)

How are you feeling-I feel SOOOOO much better. I have been having a lot better morning work outs and that has been giving me a lot more energy. (thanks for my energy drinks that you and dad sent me!!) I just feel a new sense of determination to work super hard and to do my best. So that is a huge blessing

  How is your new companion- I Love her!!!! She is so good for me. She gets super stressed out and struggles with self confidence so we kind of are able to help each other stress out less and talk about our feelings. We work really really well together. I feel like I trust her already and we are realy good friends. Thank heavens!! I have such good companions.

 Have you recovered and are feeling like you are doing better with your stress level? I do feel like I have recovered. Any time I am stressed I think "is this within my control or out of my control." I also try to remember why I am here if I get discouraged or feel exhausted. That helps a lot. 

 Have you started to eat better? WELL.....Since my chocolate fast is over everyone is congratulating me by giving me chocolate. I have been not eating to much but i could work on that hahaha. 

 Did you get your box? YES!!! Thank you times a million!!! I love all of the things you sent me!!!!! Your the best!!!

 

Did you get our note about your student loan?  Yes, please let me know if they said I could get an extension or not. I can ask my mission president if i can call them to get things sorted out. 

And in response to your passport question mom, I already got my passport before I left on my mission. It is all good to go :) I was hoping you could do me a favor and look up on ilp.orgto see what times of the year they are going to china or mexico or what ever other countries  they have listed. Could you forward to me what it says?? I would appreciate it a ton!!!

Well it sounds like you all are doing great! Sorry I couldn't email you individually. I will try to write you all a letter hopefully this week or next week. know that I love you all!! Hope you are having the best day ever!!!

Love sister Jones

Oh p.s. Mom we go on exchanges with the sisters and i feel like the biggest struggle they have is self confidence. SOOO  many sisters (including my companion) don't have self esteem. They think they are worthless. It seriously breaks my heart and I can't really understand it because I feel like you always taught us to have good self esteem. You really taught us how to love our selves even in our weaknesses and even when things aren't going the way we think it should. Could you email me on how you taught us that and what you did to over come that. I really don't know what to say to these sisters to help them understand they all have self worth. I would appreciate it a ton!! Thank you!! Love you 

Oh p.s.s. I found out that president murdock's wife, sister murdock, has a blog and I thought you would enjoy reading it. It is calledcoloradodenversouthmission.blogspot.com orcdsm.blogspot.com So you should look it up :) 

Sorry I didn't have time to write a mass email. I will be better next week. 

Well, I lived through the burrito challenge and my chocolate fast....barely feb 3rd

As you probably already know, participating in the burrito challenge was one of the worst mistakes I have ever made in my life.....it.was.horrible. AND It was painful! The only experience I have had in my life that comes close to how painful it was, was when I belly flopping off the high dive at my dad's work party. Luckily the burrito challenge wasn't as embarrassing as that experience. But instead of the pain being all over my body it was centralized on my mouth and it lasted for 30 minutes!!!!!!

I seriously considered quiting after the first two bites. There was literally a fire in my mouth! and about 10 minutes into it my face went numb and I went deaf for a period of time. (I COULDN'T HEAR!)  I really honestly think i could have chowed down the whole 2 1/2 pounds of burrito but the spiciness was TO MUCH! Just to give you an idea of how hot it was, I ate a jalapeno to cool down my mouth....yeah....im being serious! You will all be proud of me, i ate pretty much half of the burrito and I didn't quit for the whole 30 minutes. AND I didn't puke until after it was all done.  You will also be proud to hear that my companion DOMINATED that challenge. She ate the entire thing in 8 minutes! I blame her mexican blood. She beat everyone there. There was about 8 of us doing the challenge. We were the only sisters participating the rest were elders and one investigator. She was the champion! I was so proud of her. She didn't even puke after the ordeal was over. I am still trying to figure out how that's possible, but we will just blame her spanish heritage. It was a pretty fun bonding experience for our whole zone. Elder Whiteley even made me a sign on the back of a proclamation to the family that said. "Ghost chili peppers=nothing for sister jones" I emailed the picture to my mom if you want to see it. Everyone was cheering and making a commotion. Especially when elder White had two bites to go and he upchucked everything back on to his plate! Super disgusting. I was super close to throwing up when I saw it. I am so glad that it is all over. Never have to do anything like that ever again! Don't even think about asking me cause i will say NO!

SO besides having a gigantic stomach ache the first couple of days this week, it has been a pretty fabulous week. I have a new companion. her name is Sister Tew! She is from Hawaii!! She is the oldest of 5 adopted kids! Her dad works at byu-hawaii. She is pretty amazing and I'm so glad to have her as a companion. She will be a sister training leader with me. We have been out the same amount of time. We are now over 22 sisters. That is 10 companionships! Oh i forgot to tell you!!! Sister Sheppard is now with sister Robinson! The first sister I trained. ahaha how crazy is that. AND the other sister I trained is now in my district! Sister Gregerson!!! Aw man she is seriously the best! I love being able to see her! 

Well i better get going the computer is going to kick me off!

I love you all soooooo much!!!

have a great week

here are some pics from the buritto challenge