First Baptism!

***Questions for our Missionary!***

**That museum with you pictured with a giraffe -- is that right in Olney?  Is there anything besides squirrels in it?

Its like a cute boutique here in Olney and I havn't been in it yet , so maybe we will go in it today? (maybe I will send home a white squirrel)

**How did the baptism go?**  Please tell me all about it.  I am so excited you get to participate as the part of her conversion**

It was a stress-case beyond compare ( I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have) but I am so glad Carolyn got baptized because she was so ready and we all were ready as well.

**Do you have a CD player?***  We have plans...

yes! but it is being a butt so I am not sure how much it can play in the player but we can steal one from the church or play it in our car :)

***Can you play a video file if sent to your email?  (Jaden wants to make a video on his GoPro and send to you)***

Sure! I would love to see a video :)

***What foods have you tried for the first time on your mission?***

umm...... Persimmons- its a fruit over here that just grow in the woods. Their okay but I like them when they are mashed with sugar and made as persimmon cookies. I haven't ever heard of them but I'm glad I tried something new!

​Hey family and friends! 

Carolyn Elizabeth Fagin is now baptized! And it was an extremely stressful but good experience! Sister Clark and I were worried the entire time about everything. Carolyn had to be dunked twice because she wouldn't bend her knees(do to age) and her dress kept coming up and I guess you could say both of us had our finger nails ground into our skin! But it went great afterwards and Sister Clark and I sang 'Savior redeemer of my soul', which went awesome and then yesterday Carolyn was confirmed a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and was given the gift of the Holy Ghost! and my heart was so full!

    Its kind of funny once the baptism was over we got to relax for the night and then commotion picked up again the next morning! no rest for missionaries!

   We have been teaching this family, the Ray family, and they have come to every church activity we invite them to in the last few weeks. Last night we felt we needed to go by and visit them and just see how they are doing and what we need to work on with them. We sort of told them about the word of wisdom once and they decided two weeks ago to stop drinking coffee and tea and we didn't commit them to it! however, we know that if we want them to get baptized on a certain date that we must pick up the pace and fully commit them to living the word of wisdom. We told them about it and why it is important for them and Phil(the dad) turns to us and says "Okay I will make you a deal- the next time you come over I have a cabinet full of Whiskey and I want you to help me dump it down the drain" We were so excited and fervently excepted! But Sister Clark didn't stop there, she turned to Nikki (the mom) and asked her if we could have her cigarettes! She kind of was unsure about giving them to us but we encouraged her to pray hen she feels the need to smoke and that Heavenly Father would definitely help her with the rest if she is determined to stop.

     We had an amazing lesson with a Less-Active member-who has been coming to church every Sunday the last three weeks and studying her scriptures like crazy!-and we felt prompted to tell her that she could get her patriarchal blessing and go to the temple. She stared at us like we had just slapped her across the face and then she started to cry and was so happy and asked us what she had to do next to get to the temple! I started to tear up as well!

     Random thought but an amazing one! Mom I went and logged onto your family search account (I remember your password, don't freak haha) and did some family history work since you told me that you found more of your family line and I know exactly where your grandpa, Billy Jo White was born! We literally drive through the town every time we drive to New Albany, Indiana for Zone Conference! The Town is called Loogootee, and I remember passing through the town and thinking "Huh, well that's a weird name for a town, I will remember that!" and lo and behold there the name shows up on the family search website! I asked Sister Clark if President Brough would let us walk around that town for a few hours to see if any of our family lives there and who we are tied to and she said that it probably can be allowed because it could be missionary work! :D :D I am so excited about this!!!!

   Yesterday we went caroling and handed out cookies to some of our investigators and random people in the branch-it was fun but I got tired of singing the first Noel! Then we had dinner at the Sasakado's and gave a lesson to Toshii. He is Buddhist and does not believe in God and also believes that his parents are God's but we had him read out of his Japanese Book Of Mormon and the spirit was sooooo strong. Then we read out of it and it wasn't the same feeling as when he translated it from Japanese to English. We love Toshii and Fonda and Fonda repeatedly tells him over and over that she loves him and wants to be sealed to him for time and all eternity and it really has touched my heart and has made me think of the importance of Eternal marriage and how God has given us the blessing of having eternal family but He has also given us the responsibility to progress to the temple and also after we are sealed- I can tell more and more marriage will be no piece of cake but it will be a piece of treasure for Eternity. I know that this Gospel is the ONLY true Gospel here on the Earth and that it brings peace and eternal joy in everyone's life-If we share the glad message of the Gospel throughout this Christmas Season I know that the feeling of Christmas will increase in our hearts. I love you all and can't wait to here from you throughout this Christmas season.

Love Always,

Sister Jones

Well, this week was crazy! 

We have been traveling back and forth from here (Olney, Illinois) to New Albany, Indiana and we travel through these winding roads through woods and its such a long drive but its so fun! however we went down this last Friday to here a conference with a member of the Seventy who came to talk and his name is Elder Kapichska from Germany! WE learned a lot and enjoy all that he had to tell us- but then we  had to leave early because a Christmas party would be going on back in Olney and since we had investigators going to it we had to race back and because there is an hour time difference between us and New Albany we had to leave like a half hour early to make it on time. Well we kept driving through these winding roads and it has been raining all day long and while driving it rained even harder and we hydroplaned a couple time through these woods! It was so crazy and I am glad Sister Clark was driving but we made it back and had fun time doing a white elephant gift exchange and a lot of other fun games-we were pooped.

 

Update on our Branch:

We have gotten around 4 less active members to come to church and prepare for the Temple, Carolyn is getting baptized this Thursday and on top of that we have been teaching the Wray Family and they have been earnestly trying to be at every branch event and they absolutely love everything that we teach them. We haven't even taught them the Word of Wisdom yet and we told them why we don't eat or drink certain things and at church yesterday they came (It was so cool, they have four kids) and after church they invited us out to eat and sister Clark thought they said to go eat and drink coffee and tea and we told them both that we don't go out on Sundays and she re-explained that we don't drink coffee and tea and they said" We know, we just said that we have gone this whole week without drinking coffee or tea!" We were so excited because we hadn't even committed them to those things yet but they did it on their own! We love the Wray family and made it a goal to teach them to baptism! (we know their next ;) Shhhhhh!) Also our branch was bursting so much by how many people showed up to church , we had to bring in more chairs from other classrooms!

-Also we had district pday! and I got to play volleyball! I was so stoked and we went crazy with it all! We ended up eating little Caesars and cookies and playing the guitar! :)

We took Christmas photos this last week! too fun! but cold!

 

Yesterday was a great day because we were fasting and both of us were exhausted and we wanted to stop and go home and sleep but we kept going because we still had three hours until the Christmas devotional-anyway we knocked on one of our appointment's door-they weren't home (as usual). But I turned around after calling to see if this family was home and my feet took me straight to another door across the apartment complex-they didn't want any and then we knocked on the door right across and they said come on in and we did! they are a young couple living together and they said we were more than welcome to come back after we told them about Eternal marriage! It was so inspired!

Saturday was crazy because we had a service appointment and we had a member with us and they didn't answer the door so the member said lets get something to eat and we said sure and we will teach you a lesson, well we sat there eating and outside the window and old lady accidentally rammed her car into the bumper of a truck in front of her and we were the first ones to run out there and help her-called the cops and the guy was in the restaurant with us and he was nice about everything. Anyway we thought it was inspired to talk to this old lady but she dodged us and we turned to the guy with his daughter that owned the truck and knew we needed to find out where he lives and teach him! It was an inspired meal!

 

Last story of the week (haha crazy week)-Saturday night we had time to kill so we went a certain neighborhood and we made it a goal to do a caroling door approach and we went over this weird part of the neighborhood over some train tracks and up a tall hill and we almost turned around when we kept going to see if there was a house-There was! we prayed and knocked on the door- he welcomed us right in! We came in and this older couple let us sing 'Hark the Herald angels sing' and we prayed with them and made an appointment to go back tonight! :) we are excited because we both knew that we needed to teach them and they were so sweet :)

 

Anyway that's all for now folks! Keep on truck-in'! :)

-Love,

Sister Jones

***Questions for our Missionary***

Dad's been sick??? :( Tell him I will send him a hug and kisses to get better soon! Wow! grandpa getting his knee replaced in the hospital!?!? :( I will pray fervently- And we don't really have a Christmas (snow) looking area here either! I cant believe that your dad's family is all around this area! If there ever were some people I need to convert, its our family! :Tell Sydney she is blossoming! I am just so proud of all that she is doing! 

 

What are the top 3 things you wish you had/that you miss having?

I miss knowing what is going on with the world and I do really miss sleeping in, exercising is doing me really good but I just wish I didn't have to get up so early! My companion is a trooper!

Do you still plan on having a baptism on Dec 13th?  (We are so excited for you!!!!)

YES! Carolyn Fagin is her name and the entire branch and also her family is super looking forward to it!

 

Did you ever talk to that lady again that you gave your Liahona necklace to?

Oh yes she is a new convert of our branch-I felt impressed to give it to her and she told me that she is going to find a REAL gold chain to put it on because she is allergic to the fake stuff.

We heard from the mission office that transfers are coming up, do you (or your companion) know if you'll be transferred?

NOT TRANSFERRED! :) I was so happy-I love it here and we are now the ONLY sisters in our district :/ kinda weird but will be fun!

 

Since it is so humid/air is more moist all the time, do you even need lotion?  How has it affected your hair, if it all?

You don't feel it except on a few fluctuation days when it rises to a chilly 50 degrees and it actually feels nice. My skin is fine with it except sometimes my face breaks out especially with makeup on- but we don't feel it get any colder except on really windy days.

 

What are the top 3 things you've learned to love about your mission so far? (could be spiritual, or it could be about the area/people)

I love personal study, I love teaching people and watching their countenance and decisions change and I love the food here! They are so creative with the food here Ha, Ha- but I like the people as well!

 

-sisterjones ;)

Real Mashed Potatoes

Hey family and friends! This will be short but sweet!

Thanksgiving was so fun! We took all sorts of pictures with the fun turkey day package (thanks to mom and Syd) that was sent to us! Whoo-Hoo! We say thank you! Also we had dinner at two separate houses but most of the day we goofed off and it snowed on thanksgiving! It was kinda fun!

We had tons of meetings this week so we traveled a ton and Sister Clark and I decided we would make ties for the Elders in our districts and ask everyone to take a district Christmas photos! Haha and the ties had bells and ornaments on them and it turned out so great!

We had a trainer/trainee meeting this week in New Albony, Kentucky-a.k.a. (Indiana state border) and we learned so much from it however Sister Clark and I had to drive 3 1/2 hours there and 3 1/2 hours back for this meeting! we are the farthest area from our mission! It crazy!

 

One of our instigators is getting ready for Baptism! I have talked about her before but she is this 72 year old lady named Carolynn Fagin and she has been smoking since she was 16 and she has diabetes! She is the most Faith-Installed person I have ever met, after the last month of knowing her she has already read to Mormon in the Book Of Mormon! Holy tomato we were so excited! She is preparing for baptism of December 13th and she is literally itching to be baptized! I just love her and her example so much! :)

   Yesterday we went to a member's grandma's house out in a small town 15 minutes away and she made REAL MASHED POTATOES!(We had Mashed Potatoes with chicken noodle soup on top!) whooo! You just get fakies here and it is so irritating but the Grandma that served us reminded me of what Grandma Grace's house might have been like-and I felt so much at home! I just wanted to stay there forever!

   Here is something I have learned out here-Don't Be Prideful! This morning I read in Alma 38:2-15 and it talks about Shiblon and the His advice for His son. He makes it clear that if we are humble and do not boast of ourselves that we can teach with clarity and with power from Heavenly Father. I know that this is true and that this Gospel is the pure definition on why we must be humble. Our Savior Jesus Christ only asks that of us so that he might turn us into that person that he wants us to become. Repentance means to change our will and action over to God. I know that I am repenting every day and only hope that I can inspire others to do the same.

Lastly, I got pink-eye :/ we got medicine today and it should be better next week!

Anyway friends and Fam. I love you all and have a great week!

***Questions for Katelyn***

Have you run into any RLDS people in your area?

Haha no but we just run into anti's a few times, its not too bad but all people tell us is they have a religion and are good where they are at!

Where in New Hampshire is your companion from? Is she the oldest child in her family too?  Tell us some more about her please.

Sister Clark is from Keene New Hampshire and she is the third youngest child out of like six kids-she loves to swim and run- her family currently lives in Orem UT-she has been to China and Peru- She is super smart and has about 5 months left on her mission

Did you see anything going on with the whole Ferguson Missouri verdict?

nope. we heard something about someone was shot in Missouri of something but that was it

Have you tried your Yoga mat yet? 

yes every morning! :)

Do you have more "stuff" than your companion?  (Daddy just laughed at your companion giving you the other room to put all of your stuff in!)

yes by far I do! but Sister Clark is a fairly simple person in every way so she just doesn't feel like she needs a whole lot!

Who did you get that letter from, that you mentioned last week?  You never said the person's name - we'd like to help figure it out.

I think it was Hidee's parents?! IDK I just have never met them before but I was grateful that they thought of me.