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!!!!

Peace and Blessings!

It's the Final Countdown!! (da na na na! da na nana na na)(I can't imagine anyone not knowing a rocky reference but just in case..that's from rocky) In approximately 2 hours and 12 minutes I will be set apart as a Servant of the Lord, I will be an actual Sister Missionary. Can you Believe it?! I know, me neither!

My Mother will be in charge of keeping this blog up to date with my letters and photos while I am gone. So if  you see that it has been 6 months since I have last posted feel free to give her a stern talking to. Nothing really more than that though. She does do a lot for me already. I guess if she slacks on posting for me I guess I will forgive her. But don't tell her I told you that. I want her to think I mean serious business that I will be upset if she forgets to keep this up to date. 

Anyways, thank you everyone who has shown me so much love and support! I am so excited to track down those Denverites and try to make their lives better through the gospel. Wish me luck and I will be thinking of all of you when I need a little confidence boost. You all believe in me so faithful, at least i think you do. Hopefully your not taking bets on how long I will last, but no matter. I will try not to let any of you or My Savior down as I strive to be the very best Missionary I can possibly be. 

Love you all, I wish you many peace and blessings!!!

Love Sister Jones

Goodbye Cache Valley Bank, you have been so good to me.

Because of Cache Valley Bank I...

• Am the master of the ten key. I can calculate addition equations like nobody's business

• Now have a phobia of talking to old people on the phone. Don't know why, but it gives me the hebi gebies...sorry no offense. 

• Think it should be against the law to have sloppy handwriting when writing a check. 

• Have to face all of my cash correctly

• Get grossed out by money. I now have an idea of how many (and what kind of) people touch money. Plus it turns my fingers black when I count it. My fingers turn BLACK!

• Now have almost every radio station commercials memorized

• Realized that you DO look like an idiot if you never have your account number on you every.single.time you come into the bank. (I use to do that so i can't judge)

• Love federal holidays

• Learned that hot flashes ARE real! 

• Now know what it feels like when someone is completely and irrationally rude to a customer service representative. We are just trying to help...geesh.

• Now know that if you don't balance your check book and reconcile your statement at the end of each month, bad things can happen...

• Am addicted to Dr. Pepper

• Almost answer my cell phone as follows..."Thank you for calling cache valley bank, this is book keeping, how may I help you..."

• Learned that you always, always, always answer your work phone professionally or else...bad things can happen. 

• Also learned that some people have absolutely no idea what they are doing when they get a loan. That is a scary thought.

• Learned that eating a twinkie in one bite because of a dare is NEVER a good idea.

• Observed that old people swearing is slightly totally hilarious.

• Found that company softball games are one of my favorite summer highlights

• Learned that company parties are the bomb dot com!

• Now have the ability to memorize 6 different passwords at a time

• Found that an unbalanced till can ruin your day. 

• Will never forget Lauren's face when she tripped in slow motion over the printer. SOOOOOOOOO funny!!!!

Tomorrow is my very last day at this wonderful place. I am really excited for my new chapter in life, but I feel sad about leaving so many memories and wonderful people at the bank. But I know this is not the last time they will hear from me. I will be back before they know it. Thanks for all the lessons and memories!!

Love Kelcey

Say Whaaat?!

Yes, It is true ladies and gentleman. Yours truly has been called to serve a MISSION! I know what your thinking...Kelcey, the girl who can't make up her mind about anything (except what her favorite brand of popcorn is) has actually made a life changing decision and is actually going to stick to it?! What is this world coming to?!

Trust me guys, I pinkie promise I am telling the truth. I know my past has defiantly proved that i have anxiety emotional and mental instability when it comes to making any life decisions. But this one time, I swear, is the only time I have ever felt so sure about what I am suppose to be doing. 

It's like everything in my life has lead up to this point.

The past year I felt like I have been wandering up and down a street with lots of turn offs and I couldn't decide which one I should take. I cried alot, stamped my foot, bit my nails, got lost, sprinted back and forth to the streets I thought I should take, and then said screw all of the streets and just walked forward with out making any decisions at all.

Back then it seemed like a HUGE deal. I felt like I was going nowhere with my life if i didn't make a decision soon. I had my life planned up to December of 2012 then I had no idea what to do after that.

When conference came around I was excited. I could just feel that the speakers were going to tell me something inspired and I would know exactly what to do. At least I prayed they would...This is the first conference I feel like I remember Every single talk. They all were really inspirational and I could really feel the spirit. But it wasn't until Elder Utchdorf and Elder Holland's talks that I connected the dots of what the Lord was trying to tell me.

Basically He just came out and told me, "You are going on a mission young lady." 

Whaaat?! At first I couldn't believe it. I mean I have been thinking about a mission, but not too seriously. I was pretty much in denial for a 3 days.

The more I thought about it the more I started realizing I couldn't see any other streets to choose from any more. All I could see was the mission road. There was only one thing to do really... and that was to accept it. Once I did I felt Complete peace and total happiness. 

So it doesn't matter all the confusion I felt before because everything feels perfectly fit together right now. This is the happiest, bestest feeling in the world! I wish I made the right life decisions more often ;) 

I will be reporting to the MTC in 29 days and I'll be hitting up Denver Colorado South for the adventure of a life time!! 

Highlights and Lessons of 2012

Well, I'm a little late on posting this but I wanted to pay tribute to the lovely year of 2012. This post is dedicated to the highlights and lessons I learned during this year.

January

Highlight: Celebrating that 2011 was OVER!

Lesson: In case you didn't know 2011 was a REALLY rough, miserable, and hard year for me. I finally figured out in this month it was mostly because of my bad attitude. This is the month I tried my very best to see the light in every situation. So glad I made this decision because it totally changed my entire year. 

February

Highlight:If you can't tell from the picture we are trying to spell Moab with our hands, bless our hearts haha. Our random road trip to Moab was hands down the funnest trip EVER!!!

Lesson: I am a sucker for a man with a tucked in, button up shirt with flowers. Oh and likes to do laundry, I'll basically marry them on the spot.

 March
Highlight:Spring Break!!! Went back up to good ol'moses lake. It's always a party when I visit.
Lesson: I am capable of making enormously stupid decisions. And that our choices DO effect those around us.

April
Highlight: My BIRTHDAY! Of course ;)
Lesson: I heart being 21

May 
Highlight: Mother's day weekend. Went back to Moses Lake! 
Lesson: This was the month that tried my patience. 

June
Highlight: One of my very best friend's boyfriend called me up to help him with a secret mission...putting a ring on Andrea's finger. Haha it was hilarious and super successful.
Lesson: This month I tested the power of prayer and was pretty dependent on the Lord to help me through this month. 

July
Highlight: Our annual Yellowstone trip with the Jones family. This year we hit up Sun valley too. It was a blast like always :)
Lesson: Still learning more patience. 

August
Highlight: Our kick off Safari Saturday weekend. Who knew we could cram so many fun things to do in 3 total days! Seriously had so much fun. Except when Rachel almost died on Big Kahuna. Gave me a heart attack!!
Lesson: I learned that everybody has problems and I should stop worrying about what people thought of me because of mine. 

September
Highlight: Our Safari Saturday weekend down in Park City at Joe's house. We swam, ate pizza, golfed, shopped, hiked, took pictures, watched two movies, went to church, sat around the fire, tried to teach rachel how to "sink", laughed, four wheeled, hot tubed,  played chicken, tried to sit in a sauna, got matching tiger shirts, embarrassed Joe  laughed some more all in about 2 and a half days. It was a fantastic weekend. 
Lesson: This month I realized that you can laugh or cry about your troubles. The choice is yours. 

October
Highlight: Conference weekend. Spent almost the entire weekend with Marc. We basically goofed off, listened to the sessions, shopped at city creek, ate, and made fun of each other. It was such an uplifting and fun weekend.
Lesson: Heart break is the worst pain. 

November
Highlight: Thanksgiving at the Jones' house in Malad, Id. Hung out with the fam, ate, ate, and ate some more. Then we sloshed our full bellies around by playing some football and some soccer up at Malad high school. Fun times
Lesson: You can't rush recovery from heartbreak, it takes time. Just let it run it's course. 

December
Highlight: Being home for Christmas and getting my mission call. I seriously cherish, so much, the time I get to spend with my family. Since we live so far away from them it seems like the time apart is always way too much. This Christmas was very much needed family time together. Also getting my call and knowing where I am going with my life (serving the Lord) for the next 18 months brings joy I can not describe. 
Lesson: Family and the Gospel are really all that matter in life. 

Looking back on this year I can definitely say that it has been THE BEST year of my life. This year I started off by trying really hard to focus on the good. I tried taking every day and lived it to the fullest. I wanted to do this because I realized that life is such a blessing and shouldn't be taken for granted. Very shortly after I made this effort it wasn't hard to see the good at all. It was hard NOT to see the million reasons why we should be happy. This year was the happiest I have ever been. Happiness seemed like it was going to explode out of me. 

But I'll admit that this year definitely wasn't completely filled with butterflies and sunshine. I don't know if you could tell from the lesson's I learned this year. But this year was, by far, THE HARDEST year of my life! Ask my mom, she will tell you haha. There were countless nights I called her in tears. Many nights I spent praying/begging for help to make it through my trials. The Lord and I became close because I literally was counting on him to help me make it through some days. I don't really want to elaborate on the trials I went through to learn these lessons I did. Because, above all else the hugest, biggest lesson I learned this year is that I can only focus on the highlights/happy times in my life and what I learn from my trials. Then everything will be ok. Actually, everything will be more than ok, I can't help be anything but happy and absolutely nothing can get me down.  

 I read a quote this year, "The best year of your life should be the last one you lived, if you are doing things right." I want to make this the center goal of every year I live.

So Thank you 2012. I'm not sure I would like to live you all over again. But thanks for the good times, thanks for the bad times, and above all thanks for everything you taught me.