As a side note to the reader: Sister Hannah is AWESOME. She includes me on her email letter list, so I get to 'fill in the blanks' of what is going on from what Katelyn partly told us. I will include parts of her letter through out (in a distinctive font) when it helps explain parts of what Katelyn was relaying part of their weekly experience. -Susan
***Questions for our Missionary***
How is Sister Hannah and you doing on your bikes? Rain, mud, etc?
Ha ha we have hit every single weather here but if its raining or snowing we don't bike!
*Do you still have a car at all that you can use when the weather is bad?
NOPE. :) I have the nicest legs now from walking! :)
**Do you have a toaster and microwave in your house? (I dunno, daddy was wondering about that yesterday - weird question!)
YES! we have just about every little thing we need-the ward tries to provide for us too, its AWESOME :)
*How many Young Women are in your new ward?
active-8? less active-7? but there is probably way more than that than I already know about
*Tell us about your Sunday yesterday - do you bike to church too, or get rides?
We get rides- the members are so willing to drive us anywhere. Half of the ward are Utah-ins that moved out here for work so they know the blessings very well from helping missionaries and they love to FEED us! :)
**Do you go to more than one church on a Sunday? I wonder how long of a day is Sunday for you if its full of meetings!
Nope we don't. Just our 3 hours of Sunday meetings and every other week is ward council so that is an extra hour.
***(very important question) What dessert, or home cooked food do you miss? Do you get enough home cooked meals from families in the area?
Yes we get fed a ton! I have had a variety of foods but I miss your APPLE CRISP the most :) ha ha and your random meal creations that you can always whip together!
*Do you want me to send out some spring clothes yet? (I can send a big box or just a smaller one with some stuff if your ready for them).
no send them all out! it is supposed to be in the 70's here and get warmer by the week! and I will just keep a few warmer things and send all the winter stuff home!
*I Google-Earthed your house number and it keeps showing me a yellow house - is that yours?
No it is behind the yellow house and it is white. Its 202 A Langford so it is this little house right behind all of these other ones with a cute fence that leads to it. It will probably look like the yellow house backyard but its not its our house :)
Thank you mom for all that you do! I love you so much!!!
-SISTER KATELYN JONES ;)
Finally a sunny day!
I cannot say more about what has happened this week! and I will testify straight up that it was all because the Lord guided us as we were obedient and faithful:
So this week started off with A LOT! of rain! but that didn't stop us! We will either be biking everywhere or walking everywhere! So we got drenched on Monday walking in the rain!
Also On Tuesday we made our way through the city teaching and talking to people and we were dumb enough to wear only flats when it was cloudy and we were soaked!! A member picked us up for the relief society birthday party and my shoes were so soaked we put toilet paper all in our shoes to get them dry! plus we forgot our umbrellas so that got wet too! Ha ha, gotta love that Kentucky-eastern weather! Also we were walking down main street and I lost my name tag- it was my last one.... not really happy about it but now I use Sister Hannah's name tag and that is kind of cool because we are already considering each other as twins :)
(Sister Hannah) Tuesday: POURING RAIN. Like pouring so hard and wind blowing so strong an umbrella does NOTHING. We were SOAKED. (pictures should be on my blog) Sister Jones lost her only name tag and we went on the hunt to find it. There is no miracle story with finding it sadly, she is currently playing sister Hannah 2.0. It was a rough day because it was pouring, then it wasn't so we shed layers and then it started to pour again and we were NOT prepared. LOL. We looked like we had just jumped out of a pool. It was lovely. That night we had the Richmond Ward Relief Society Birthday Party. The RS Party was exactly what we needed to unwind a little bit. We ate good food, chatted with our awesome sisters and then heard touching stories from fours sisters who each had different backgrounds with the relief society. So special. We also were sent home with a ton of food. The Richmond Ward takes such good care of us!
(Failed object lesson @ the Bryners video link) https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153106058429976&pnref=story
Wednesday we went to our zone meeting in Lexington and it was awesome! Our Zone is crazy cool and we learned so much as a companionship what we want to do and what we do not want to do and bonded so much more! Anyways while we made our way to go to another room Elder and Sister Benson (they are leaving for home today) came up and asked Sister Hannah if she could play the piano for the music at their ward's baptism on Saturday-I agreed for her! he-he and they were so excited and started to walk away when I felt the distinct impression to ask if I could sing at their baptism..... Now this was a really weird impression and I rarely never invite myself to do something like that. But I walked up to them, telling Sister Hannah this and she knows that I can be quite hesitant at times, she said "Sister Jones has something to ask"---She is an awesome companion ha ha and then I figured oh well its a good thing and if its a good thing that is being impressed upon me, its from God! So I tried to ask in the most non-boasting or self-inviting manner if I could sing at the baptism because for some reason (I didn't know why) I felt sorely impressed to do so. They leaped for joy and said "Of Course" ha ha and then I turned to Sister Hannah and thought" What did I just do?" and then she confirmed that it's from God and to "Hearken To It, Then Do It!" (Our companionship Motto). I shrugged my shoulders and went on!
--Then after this meeting we went on an exchange with the Sister Training leaders and so I brought all of my stuff with me (in a duffle bag) and we loaded up and went our separate ways! I got to exchange with Sister Wu and Sister Hannah exchanged with Sister Ward and I went to Jessimine! It was a great night! first we had their ward coordination and went out to jimmy johns for dinner and then found a few people to teach and went to bed! The next morning we woke up and worked out hard! I was able-since my goal has been to strengthen my legs and my arms-to do PUSH UPS! hahaha, I know it sounds super silly but I was able to go all the way down and back up and did that ten times! Silly goal but worth it!
As we went through our day we tried so many people and one person we had the opportunity to teach. She is a less active member named Sister Rhoade's and she has many psychological complication (So her doctor says) and is an alcoholic. WE started to talk to her and she humbly and sweetly admitted all that she had done wrong with her life and explained that she knows that cannot ever be forgiven for any of it but that she got a job at McDonald's and now has her own apartment and is doing so much better! We stopped her after she said that she thought she could never be forgiven and asked her why she thought that. She explained her reason and then we both felt impressed to talk about the atonement and the enabling and strengthening power. We read to her Alma chapter 36, which is Alma the younger's conversion story and how he went from the pain of hell to the pleasure of joy after he repented of his sins. She expressed that same pain earlier and we knew this would help her.She LOVED it! She has this child-like meekness about her and when she heard that it touched her heart and gave that exact hope that she needed to feel empowered by her situation, rather than weakened! The spirit was incredibly strong and I started to tear up because of the light that shown in her eyes as we told her that she has the capability of being happy! I don't know what is going on with Sister Rhoades now but I know that that exchange was a miracle and that she changed me more than we changed her! I will forever remember Sister Rhoades as a dear friend of mine!
Okay this will get even longer from here!
So we all came back together on Thursday and having learned so much from our exchanged we felt so empowered! we told each other what we wanted to change and Sister Hannah told me that on their exchange that they talked to 47 people that day! That never happens in any area unless you are literally around more that 60 people at a time! our usual weekly goal is about 140 people and we maybe talk to 50 people each week and drumroll please!.....WE talked to 102 people this week!!!!! We made it our goal to get passed talking to 100 peopleand we did it! It was so cool! and we got a new investigator this week named Ma'Kayla! She is 16 and works at taco bell and is the sweetest and most hard working girl ever! We met her with he friends and invited her to read to Book Of Mormon and she excepted that and also a return appointment!
We walked over to her house and knocked on her door three times and no answer! WE were so bummed but we both thought to call her haha and right when we did she opened the door and said she didn't hear us before! The Lord knows how to get his elect where he wants them to be! So we weren't able to go in her house because an adult wasn't home but she knew a recent convert that lives across the street and we were able to teach her there! We started to teach her about what our purpose as missionaries are and about the Book Of Mormon and told her about Thomas S. Monson and how he is our living day prophet--- she stopped us and said "Wait a prophet you have a prophet?" and we exclaimed "Yes!" She said "But wait how do you know he is a prophet?" We explained that through prayer we can know that for ourselves and she said she would like to hear from this man and we told her about general conference and how we hear them all speak and the excitement in her eyes as she said "Can I watch that?!?" was so cool! and we told her to come with us to the church in a couple weeks and that we would see it happen! After we left she told us that she said she would start reading tonight in the Book Of Mormon!now she is on chapter 7 and is probably farther along since then! :D
Than we got home that night and we got a text, from a random number, that said "I got your card the other day and I was wondering how I could become a mormon?" We Flipped! We had seen miracles all day long and knew this was another one! We talked to her and she said she grew up baptist but was looking elsewhere for other things and when she got our card wanted to know more! WE are gonna meet with her this week!
(Sister Hannah) This week in my studies I came across something I thought would be of worth to you all. I was studying in 1 Nephi 5. It is the story of Sariah and Lehi waiting for their sons to return from the land of Jerusalem. At first, I though Sariah was this weak woman who was lacking in faith. What I realized as I read it was that she started off lacking in faith, but then she was put through a trial. She was taken out of her home and followed her prophet husband into the wilderness. I too am following the prophet and was taken from my home. She then goes through this huge trial of faith waiting on her sons to return. She needed this experience in her life to make her rely on the Lord more and to trust more in His prophets and teachings. Just like Sariah, I am in a trial of my faith. I am being tried every single day. If I remain faithful, I will recieve those blessings He has in store for me, as He continually blesses me through my trials. I love relating the scriptures to myself and learning more from them. Apply yourself to the scriptures and the world will be opened up!!
The work is incredible in Richmond. I LOVE IT HERE. The sunny days are always better than the dreary days, but that is just because more people are outside. More people to share the gospel with!
Lastly (Trying to make this short) The night before the baptism we were so tired and frustrated and we realized that nothing had been practiced for the baptism the we committed to ourselves the next day-I hadn't even chosen a song. As we prayed we thought to call a woman in our ward that is new that plays the organ and piano. We did and she was willing to play for us! Now for the song- sister Hannah found a book of song music and accompanist music and as we were looking the next morning we found "Savior, Redeemer of my soul" I screamed for joy when I saw it because it was the same song Sister Clark and I sang for Carolyn's baptism back in December! It was another miracle from Heavenly Father and as we practiced and then I sung it for total strangers the spirit was so strong!
(Sister Hannah) Saturday: The most incredible day. We were invited to attend a baptism and it was so inspired. We were able to get a last minute accompanist for Sister Jones and I played the opening and closing hymns. This baptism was so spiritual. A husband and wife were getting baptized together. The whole time I was reminded of my mom's baptism and the feelings of peace and comfort I felt at hers. I know she did the right thing that day in June 2013. I know she knows that too. I know that her decision has blessed my life and I am grateful I had this sweet reminder at the Hurst's baptism. I shed a few tears of gratitude. Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need. It was a miracle I was there at the baptism and that I was able to feel those sacred feelings again. That day we also biked everywhere, tried to plan but it didn't happen and then called it a night.
I learned from this that no matter what I am asked to do by the Lord that it is meant to influence someone else- I don't know if this simple act influence someone that I didn't know but it helped me to act on the impressions God gives me no matter my personal human thoughts on the circumstances. I love my Heavenly Father and I know He is there watching out for my companion and I! I know that obedience brings blessing and Exact Obedience brings absolute miracles! I know this to be true.
Hearken to it - and DO it!
Love, Sister Jones :)
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