At Transfer meeting in Louisville, got to see some MTC friends and my first companion, Sister Smith
***Questions for our Missionary***
- How was church today in your new ward?
- It was good but weird-I miss Olney a lot- feels weird because Sister Heiner the sister right before me) was here 7 months so we are both new but I feel like the weird bug in this ward but oh well we will all grow to love each other!
- Did Elder Polson get moved to your area as well?
- not in my area but I think he is in my zone!
- How much snow (what's the weather like - the air - does it 'feel' humid even in the winter)?
- not too much (like two feet maybe) and it depends on the day but all around it just is perfect here but I hear the heat will continue to rise and get worse but Ill live.
- Are you in a house again, or in an apartment now?
- a house! I will send pictures! it is the cutest little nook!! :)
- Are you close to the campus? (I looked on MapQuest and it said there are 6 McDonald's, 2 subways, Red Lobster, a Mall, etc etc their
- Yeah we are but right after the campus its not our area anymore
- Who is your senior couple watching over you now that the Thaxton's are hanging out in Olney still?
- we don't have any! :( I miss them sooooo much!!!!!!
- Tell us all about your companion, Sister Hannah :)
- She is absolutely my best friend! I kid you not that we work so well together that we are in sync and inseparable! She is from Orange County California and grew up most of her life inactive in the church and a few years ago her friend got her back into the church and they even got her mom to get baptized! and then get this she went to school up at BYU-I! Her and I want to room together and we laugh all the time and we are so close! ----literally her and I prayed for each other as companions because we were comparing journal writings and Heavenly Father answered our prayers! Now we have talked to so many people and learned so many things that I have never been so happy in my entire mission! It helps when you love your companion! :)
- Have you had a chance to be the trainer - what is different about being the trainer? Do you take the lead on study, making appointments decisions, etc?
- Not really because whoever trained Sister Hannah trained her VERY WELL- I believe she is a better missionary than I will ever become but she has learned many things from me as I have from her. Mainly I just have to pay attention to what she is doing (correct her if needs be), set up training lessons in the morning from PMG and protect (you should do that even if you are not training) but we are practically learning more from each other than I am training! :)
I am loving every minute of my mission thank you so much mom!
-Sister Jones
Sister Katelyn Grace Jones
Sister Madeline Brook Hannah
(Katelyn responding to how she likes Richmond and being on a bike now) It is truly a difference and we work 95% harder. My body is stronger from biking and walking all in one week! so cool! I l have you so much more Momma! and also the woman in the ward here want to keep in contact with you all the time-so Sister Bryner (on missionary moms) saw you on that FaceBook page and that you posted about me and they knew who I was before Sister Hannah and I were assigned! Sister Bryner also picked me up and drove us here and is the cutest thing ever! She is another aunt out here! :)
Its okay for you to keep in contact all the time with them here, they love to help and feed us because most want to do it for their own missionaries but cant because they are in foreign areas!
-I love you lots more! tell me more of whats going on!
-Sister Jones
Well it has been a super crazy and awesome week! But because of transfers, I got to see my beautiful MTC buds and also I got to see my mission mom-Sister Clark! She is so amazing! I absolutely adore her! it was so hard to leave Olney and the Thaxtons! but I will forever have a place setting in Olney for my heart and I am grateful to be here in Richmond!
Anywho! Sister Madelyn Brook Hannah is my new companion and I am follow-up training her! If anything she is training me because her previous trainer did a stupendous job at training her + she is an incredible human being so I don't have to worry to much! At transfers they called our names and once she heard my name she stood straight up without hearing her own name first! She and I knew we were going to get paired up together because of wonderful information from people on FaceBook (Mom) and also Sister Bryner was FaceBook stalking me ;) even on a mission it happens!
We got to Richmond after a long drive and we live in a HOUSE! Wooo Hooo! We live in this cute little nook with a washer and dryer, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms all to ourselves! way cool!
Well since Richmond is a bike area we get to strengthen and solidify our leg muscles by walking and biking! Richmond is also filled with hills galore! the best part about serving in a bike area is we have millions of opportunities to find God's Elect children! We have so many chances to stop and talk and chat- most people are nice and some just politely ignore but Sister Hannah has been a force of nature with talking to people! She knows exactly what to say and how to show love to everyone around her! She has trained me in the ways of contacting for sure! I can't say enough about her!
Making the Helmets look good
Anyway this week on my first day on a bike was awesome! and we were contacting and knocking in a neighborhood on one side of town and made plans to eat on the other side of town and nothing was working out with the neighborhood and we bowed our heads to pray and both felt the prompting to get on our bikes and go eat! WE did and as we biked through a neighborhood nearby we were going up this steep hill and a black kid named Kionta was walking his dog- we stopped him and shared a scripture about the atonement with everyone and he said that we could come back and talk to him more about it! It was so inspired and we didn't even comprehend how cool it was until later because he totally excepted a Book Of Mormon from us and was humble!
Yesterday another incredibly awesome thing happened! WE made plans the night before to go find potential investigators and to hopefully spark something in them. We chose a select few and all of them were not working- we turned around to go to another house of a potential and we knocked and said that we heard that she was contacted by missionaries before and asked to come in and she invited us right in! We started to ask her questions about her religion and and what sparked her interest with the missionaries before and she said that she didn't think being a baptist wasn't for her anymore so she was open to hearing about other things! Right as I started to share about the Book of Mormon her phone rings- she gets up to answer it and we wait until she hangs up without talking- there was no one on the phone!!! Sister Hannah and I knew right off the bat that it was Satan literally trying to stand in the way but apparently it didn't do too much because she shared our testimonies with her and she asked questions about how the American Indians are related to the Nephites and Lamanites and how Joseph smith was called to be a prophet! The spirit was so strong and we had two teenage girls with us that are also planning to serve a mission as well and we came out of their in Awe because they didn't understand how much of a miracle it was that we met this woman! Diana (the woman) said that she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we set up to go back and oh man we are pumped to teach her!
NOW INTRODUCING.....Sister Madeline Hannah!
(mom) I was lucky to be online when Sister Hannah was emailing this morning and she sent me her version of events. She is so awesome - I can already tell!
(Sis. Hannah) This week has been miracle week!!!!!
Here are some highlights:
Tuesday: I said goodbye to Sister Heiner and hello to Sister Jones!! Sister Jones is incredible!! She is from Rigby, Idaho and is my homegirl!! We get along so well and she is just a doll!! I love her so much!! We are going to be best friends and it is going to be a miracle transfer!! We saw a couple of our recent converts and our neighbor, Crystal. It was a great night, we got acquainted and hit the hay.
Wednesday: We helped our wonderful Sister Wright unpack some more and move some stuff at her new house. We were working with Elder Trost and Elder Van Beekum in our ward and the job got done quickly. She fed us really good chicken enchiladas and then we ran back to an appointment with Katie, our golden investigator. Katie is seriously stellar!! She is so prepared to hear the gospel she just struggles with the question if this is truly Christ's church or not. We are working with her to help her realize that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and therefore, the church that he restored IS the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter-days. The chain effect is golden. Pray for Katie :) IT WAS POURING this day and we got DRENCHED. To the point where we had to change before we went back out.
FUNNY STORY OF THE WEEK: The missing meat.
We went shopping on Tuesday after transfers and bought some ground beef. We unloaded everything, said Thank You to Sister Bryner and then put everything in the fridge, expect Sister Jones' new bag from Walmart, which stayed on the ground. OUR HOUSE IS SO COLD. Side note. We have to study upstairs because our house is literally a refrigerator downstairs. ALL the heat rises..... it is COLD. (thank you Momma and Paige for the warm socks). So we come in to make dinner on Wednesday night and needed the meat. The meat is gone. MISSING. not in the fridge, not in the freezer and not in Sister Bryners car.... so we are baffled. So confused. Where the heck did this meat go?!!?!?!?!?! We start looking around to see if it got kicked under the oven or just anything.... well Sister Jones looks under this Walmart bag that had her bag in it and sure enough, there is our ground beef. Here is the best part: IT WAS STILL COLD. YES. STILL COLD FROM 24 HOURS PRIOR!!!!!! OUr house is that cold. But we found the meat and we were able to eat dinner!! :)
Thursday: NO PROSELYTING DAY. Yes, another no pros day. :( It was kinda sad because there are so many people we can be sharing the gospel with, but we also got ANOTHER 8 inches of freaking SNOW. YES.... another 8 inches.... yay for more mud and slush!! hahaha!! It ended up working out perfectly because we were able to hold our weekly planning session which takes 3+ hours (can you believe that?!?!) and bond a lot. Remember how I said she is my homegirl? Well I mean it. We bonded all day. We cried together, laughed together, read scriptures together and just had a blast. We are so similar but yet so different. We have already been learning so much from each other and it has been less than 3 days together. She is truly an answer to my prayers and I needed her as a companion so bad. There is no way I can deny that Heavenly Father played a HUGE part in assigning Sister Jones as my follow up trainer!! :) That night we also had a crazy coordination with our assistant ward mission leader and then a conference ward coordination with our ward mission leader and it was a little bit hectic. My parents were trying to get a pizza delivered but we missed the pizza delivery and it was just crazy. We got the pizza, don't worry. We ate it. IT was DELICIOUS!!!!!
The gospel is so true. yes, I have been struggling the last couple of weeks with various things, but that it just because I am in a growth zone. When you are not in your comfort zone, you are in a growth zone. Growth Zones BLOW. They are hard, they make you cry, but ultimately, they shape you into the person God wants you to be. I am loving my new comfort zone and I look forward to my next growth zone. I know there will be more struggles on my mission- without a doubt I know that. It is how we handle them that matters. We put ALL of our trust in the Lord. We RELY on the atonement. We INCREASE our faith. It will all work out in the end. Heavenly Father knows all. I love this gospel so much. I love the work I am doing. I was born to be a missionary and to share this sweet, sacred gospel with the people of Richmond, Kentucky in the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission. I love it. I love it!! :)
Stay rad.
Stay righteous.
Hearken to it and do it. (This is Sister Jones' and I new catch phrase, because it is so true!!)
EXACT obedience brings blessings and pure joy.
God loves each and every one of you!! :)
MUCH LOVE from the GKLM
Sister Madeline Hannah
Sis. Hannah's (awesome) mom ordered and delivered Pizza!!!
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
(Katelyn) I cannot express enough the gratitude that I have for my Savior Jesus Christ and how He has changed me on my mission! I barely comprehend the full meaning of the Atonement yet I act on it everyday! I know that we all (not just missionaries) are sent to specific places at specific times so that the work of God can move forward swiftly and wonderfully! Thank you all for your prayers and your willingness to serve callings and move in the work of the Temples-Heavenly Father is so pleased with you all!
Love Always,
Sister Jones <3
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