May 13th letter

Happy 3 months!!!!!

Ladies and Gentleman, it's official. I am no longer a greeny! Wa-hoo!!! Enjoy my little list of things I have learned up to this point to graduate from the title greeny. 

You know your not a greeny any more when...

1. Praying in the middle of the street holding hands with a complete stranger isn't weird any more.

2. Having dog hair in your pantyhose is normal. 

3. When you hum "Come Thou Fount" and "How great thou art" all day instead of One Direction and Katie Perry. 

4. When you accidentally say a scripture reference instead of an apartment number (some how I said Ether 2:12 instead of E212)

5. You have an experience where don't recognize your investigators in church because their dentures are in and they aren't in their pajamas. 

6. You have perfected the speed walk. 

7. You can tell who is a member from the first word that comes out of their mouth when you run into them at a random place like Wal-mart. (it's cause they say hi to us first, everybody else avoids eye contact.)

8. Waking up in the middle of the night teaching a discussion is a nightly occurance. 

9. Weed doesn't really smell that bad any more. haha just kidding it always will stink. 

10. 2 hours of studying goes by super fast. 

11. You can guess the age, how many kids they have, and some times the religion they practice just by walking up to a persons door. 

12. A prayer never leaves your heart. 

13. Your companion's bowel movements are way more hilarious than awkward. 

14. You can get into every buzzer apartment your potential investigators live in. 

15. Talking to people who only open their door an inch doesn't phase you. 

16. You have accepted the fact that missionary work is just 18 months of awkward and spiritual experiences. 

17. When being able to sleep in until 6:30 is exciting. 

18. When you stop wanting to murder someone cause your skirt is staticy. You just get over it. 

19. When it is sunny outside you want to cry you are so happy. 

20. You love ALL the people in the whole world!

Welp it has been an incredible 3 months and I look forward to all the wonderful things I am going to learn in these upcoming months. 

I love you all! I am doing wonderful. Have a great week!!!

Love sister Jones

Picture one: Nerds!!!! 

Picture two: Sister Flanery, Sister Waters, and Sister Hoynacki

 

Sister jones.

Again, I'm a little behind. I think it is not a good thing! But at least I'm posting!

HOOOOOOOOOOOOWDY!!!

Don't worry everyone! I survived another week with an Idaho driver. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew because that in itself is pretty notable for this weeks accomplishments. ;)

We had a crazy week this week. The title of this email basically sums up the lovely experiences we had haha.

Subject 1: Fiber Bars

I'd first like to start off by saying that I learned this week that Fiber bars are of the devil. No missionary in their right mind should ever come in contact with them...EVER! I'm serious stay away. I will bear my testimony on it if you need me to. I'm sure your imagination will testify to you what happened to me this week because of them.

Subject 2: Obese Cat with an anxiety disorder

I know this subject sounds crazy but we did actually run into someone who owned this very cat. Here's the story...This week we didn't get as many lessons because we spent a TON of time trying to find people. I think I told you last week that we are preparing to find as many people as possible for the new missionaries that are coming in soon for this summer. The main way we have been spending our time finding is by doing the prayer approach. We have been doing it a lot! At least for an hour every day. In doing the prayer approach I have found that it brings many more hilarious, awkward, and memorable experiences. I mean knocking on someones door and asking them if we can kneel and pray with them is awkward in itself haha. So we have plenty of funny experiences this week haha. This one was my favorite.
Saturday afternoon we were looking through our area book and saw that a potential investigator lived pretty close by. We decided to stop by and pray with her and see how she is doing. We drove up to the sketchiest apartment building I have ever set foot on in my life. It was tall, white, with chucks of stucco broken off and graffiti scattered here and there. (I've learned not to look to closely to what the graffiti says because it is usually inappropriate). We looked up the four creaky,rusty, flights of stairs, said a little prayer in our hearts, and climbed up. They kind of reminded me of an apartment building stairs that you see on a Borne Ultimatum movie. Where Jason Borne is doing sweet par core moves with bullets flying as he jumps/flips from stair case to stair case. I could even smell the weed that I'm sure was in the movie too. haha
We got to the top floor and knocked on her door. This short plump lady with chicken legs and no teeth answered the door. Turns out she was the right lady, but she has joined the catholic church and has no intention of ever coming back to our church. We asked if we could pray with her still and she said sure and invited us in. We walked into her dark, cluttered apartment and saw that she owned two cats. One probably weighed as much as our spare tire in the trunk. He was HUGE! Biggest/fattest cat I have ever seen in my life. For a second I thought it was pregnant or something but the lady said "Oh this is Leo (or something I can't remember it's name) she was like "He is a little obese but he has an anxiety disorder..." You could tell she loved this cat with all her heart. He kept trying to escape or eat sister waters for a snack i'm not sure which one but she kept saying "Don't you do that, you big Baby." She called him her little baby like five times. haha I don't think little is the correct word. I think I could feel the floor creak and rumble under its every footstep. The funniest part was when sister waters was praying it was all over her trying to get her to pet it while she was praying. She really really really doesn't like cats so she kept pushing him away with her leg while she prayed. Then.....He bit her!! I felt really bad for her because it must have hurt but sister waters did the last thing i expected her too. She kicked the cat! I could not believe she just kicked this lady's pride and joy! Thankfully it didn't cause to much ca-motion and the potential investigator didn't notice because then she probably would have sicked the cat on us and we really would have been eaten and she never would come back to the church. It took me ten minutes to compose myself after that hilarious experience. Oh man too funny!! K I better get to my last subject because time is running out.

Subject 3: Baptism

ED LUSSIER IS GOING TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh!! He is the most amazing man ever. He has been taking the discussions for 3 months and we challenged him to think about being baptized and he told us this week that he got his answer and he is going to be baptized on june 1st. We all were so happy we couldn't speak for like 5 minutes. The spirit was sooo strong. Wow, that was the best feeling in the world. It makes everything worth it. The fiber bar experiances, getting bite by cats, and working extremely long days. It's all worth it when people gain that testimony of the Savior and know of the truthfulness of the gospel. Wow. So happy.

Well I have got to go. Sorry It was pretty all over the place today. But know that I love you and I am having an extremely good and rewarding time here on my mission. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Love sister Jones

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

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