Learning from Others & Being Humble

BIG Mom Failure, but LOTS OF PICTURES!!!

In response to my letter asking her if she had met Jen Backwell, a Missionary Momma from the Louisville KY mission area.  She met up with Katelyn Sunday night at a missionary fireside.  She is one of those amazing women who has her own missionary out, and chooses to go out of her way, and completely involve herself with the missionaries in her area.  Her service to my missionary, Sister Jones this week reflects the Christ like service and love we all as members can do to help step it up, and take care of those choosing to serve full time missions so far from home.  

Jen was awesome!!  On Monday – She took 4 companionships (8 sister missionaries) to the Louisville Zoo for P-day, and then to Sub-Zero for ice cream.  I was working and had failed to load her debit card this week, as a result – she had to pick up the tab for Kizzer yesterday.  Being unavailable, I 100% failed as a mom, but because of her, Kizzer had a wonderful day AND I have tons of pictures.  A wonderful shout to Sister Blackwell!!!

Sister Blackwell & Sister Jones at Missionary Fireside

Learning from Others

Dear Fam & friends:

Oh I just loved reading your letter! Sorry this is going to be short!
Yes, Jen Blackwell is super cool! I am so excited that you have been talking to her! The world gets smaller and smaller as my mission goes by ha ha! I am so proud of Sydney and her willingness and desire to serve! I personally hope that she doesn't leave until after Christmas break so I can see her before she leaves and I come home! If she goes foreign I hope she goes to Tonga or Puerto Rico.

Baptism for Adam Coming Up

Also Sister Patterson and I taught Adam this week and we taught him about temples! So cool! He absolutely understood everything about them and said that he really wants to be married there but then he asked if his parents and siblings can go in there and we stated that they cannot because they were not members but encouraged him to share the gospel with them and help them make the same steps that he is for them to eventually get there. He said he would try, but wouldn't be sure of how to do it. He also has been talking to his friends about the church. They are his two best friends:  one is Baptist, Adam will be Mormon, and the other is atheist.  It sounds like a bad joke or something, but they are his best friends and they plan to come to his baptism on August 8.  We are so proud of him!

Car finally fixed & Exchanges w/ my MTC Companion!

We also finally got our car back! Hallelujah! We have been dying in the heat and humidity.  This week was another humbling experience. I don't think I will ever write an email from now on that doesn't have these kind of experiences in them! A mission is an experience to prepare us for becoming someone better and trust me Heavenly Father sure made sure for that to happen!
We got to exchange with the Salem sisters this week! And guess who I exchanged with?!? Your right! Sister Resendez! My MTC companion! It was SUPER FUN! Since we have both now been out for 9 months we exchanged the things we have learned and how we have changed! I can tell that she has changed in her drive and desire for the work! She showed me that being obedient is how the work moves along and that I can always change who I am to align myself with God as long as I am willing to do so!

When Sister Resendez and I were on exchanges we were grateful and excited when we got the call from the car shop! Now we have like a thousand extra miles that we haven't used and we feel so blessed!

While getting our Car on exchanges we picked up a new investigator! His name is Jamal and he is 19 (we don't really understand how we are teaching, we come across all these young guys, but we are glad to be bringing more priesthood holders into the fold of God!) and he excited to be baptized! Yay!

We also had the Word of Wisdom with one of our baptismal date Sarah who is set to get baptized in September! Yay!

We got to exchange with the J-town sisters this last week and I was with Sister Bush all day that day a bike.  We talked to the coolest people ever and while we went to contact a referral of theirs we saw someone moving in and offered our help.  The father said "no" and then his daughter turned around and said" I would love some help".  So we grabbed the mattresses and rushed up the apartment stairs.  She ended up being a member of the church! Crazy cool. She said she had been baptized a few years and was going to the YSA ward! They offered a bathroom break for us little bikers and also a bottle of sparkling water. Which Sister Bush guzzled pretty fast.  I learned so much from Sister Bush and she really humbled me and helped me to see that I was being prideful and that I needed to repent.  She, like Sister Resendez has an incredible desire to go forth and do the work of the lord.  She is so cool! I was proud to say that I learned so much from sister Resendez and Sister Bush and that they gave me a desire to do more!

P-day Fun at the Louisville Zoo:

 HA!  So funny.

 Sister Blackwell says, "Throwing a penny in for a wish, and they all had a wish for their investigators".

How do YOU measure Up?

 Everyone of them, absolutely b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l.

 Gators. She is having a ball!

Geez, Now I proof that she can take pictures, how do I get her to send me more?

 I bet she just loved holding this parakeet ( or whatever it was :)

TOTALLY MY FAVORITE PIC!!!

My Testimony & Being Humbled

I know that Heavenly Father calls us to certain purposes in life and asks us to accomplish them in His way. I learned my purpose and the purpose of those around me isn't just one huge one and then we are done.  But that it's a continuous propose of always looking forward and being brave, but, also willing to be humble and learn something new! I love this gospel and all the blessings it gives our way. I love you all and hope you like this video--we found. Random song and thought it was so stinking cute and maybe kind of weird but we couldn't help but laugh!

VIDEO TIME

Hot, HUMID, & Biking!

Well this week was one to remember!

We made the decision that we would need to get our messed up car fixed so we took it to the shop Monday morning and all week we have been car-less.

Relying on Members for Rides & Tracting

It's been a wild ride but I am so grateful for the members because we learned and got the hang of setting up appointments for members to come and get us and drive us to and from appointments.

We had some miracles this week from their help: Sister Rose was kind to drive us around and we had been stressing trying to get a list of less actives contacted all week, plus we have been trying to figure out "formers" and "potentials". 

On our list of less actives there was the name "Stephen Robert Schultz"! I jumped at that name because Schultz is a family name. We went to try and contact him but no one was home so we have yet to figure out that mystery but we will find him. (I promise that mom! :)  *Note to reader:  My Big Brother’s name is Robert Schulz and our maternal father’s family is all Schulz’s, our grandfather the only one that was baptized from his family.  All others live east of Kansas and are prominently Lutheran.

Anyway we also with Sister Rose went to contact a potential that they had said in the past had moved so we knocked on the door. A girl answered and said she was Muslim and didn't want us and then right before she slammed the door her sister said "why would you do that?! You should be nicer!!" It was so cool because the sister (Mikayla) invited us in and we set return appointment and went back later and invited her to be baptized! So cool! 

As we struggled a couple of days ago to find a ride to one appointment we prayed and asked Heavenly Father who we should call that would be willing. Right after we made a decision and were about to leave a text came from this less active woman that said "ARE YOU BOTH DOING OKAY?" And we had seen the answer to our prayers and she came out to teach with us! :D

Service Project & Finding My Inner Artist Again

We got to do a service project for a woman who does little parties for her grand kids and she goes all out! So we offered to help make cut outs for her cowboy party! So I put my creativity to work and painted a cowboy and a Cactus! It turned out so cute! And sit Patterson did a wanted sign that we took pictures with! Then we ate dinner and had grape floats, not root beer floats but grape soda floats! It was yummy! Totally a tradition I will take on!

 I can only imagine Kizzer's pure joy getting to paint and create again.  She probably just loved every second of it!

Suffering with the Humidity  

This entire week has been a HOT and Humid mess! We didn't have any rides yesterday so we went where things were closest to us and we had to bike up a hill.

Now humidity is gross, right when you step outside your skin from your head to your toes is drenched just from the first few seconds of being outside, it's nasty! As we got farther up this hill, we stopped and started walking up the bikes.

I hate humidity because it makes you feel like you’re in a locked car with a wet blanked smothering your face, and we had to stop and try to catch our breath.

Our appointment fell through and we decided to write her a note. As sister Patterson was writing a note I got slightly dizzy and sat down. Sister P. Thought it was funny and I just sat there trying to catch my breath. We kept walking around and decided to tract to try and find someone we knew lived nearby that we had seen often. 

The first door we knock on we about walked away then they opened a door and the man awkwardly looks at us and says "I just took a shower and ya’ll should knock on the other doors, and then knock on ours again."  The door shut and Sister Patterson and I just looked at each other confused and kept knocking. We knocked on the third door and a boy answered and his mom came to the door and ask who we were and we told her we were sharing the Book of Mormon with people. She is African and is from Liberia! Nicest woman ever, we taught her the first lesson and she had a problem with the priesthood but believes that what we say about Joseph Smith is true.  So we asked her to be baptized and she said no, and then we asked to come back and she said yes! So we can't wait to return this next week.

Seeing Potential & New Members Progress

So, remember Adam that we have been teaching? We taught him about the Atonement and in a separate lesson we also taught about tithes and fast offerings. In the lesson of the Atonement, Adam was feeling anxiety still about the law of chastity and we had Timothy (who is now a NEW MEMBER!) there to help. He bore his testimony to Adam and it was so cool.

Then the next day we had our lesson with him about tithes and offerings and he came back saying that he admits that he thought the law of chastity was too strict but he now is willing to commit to living it. Yay! He said that he would be on Instagram and bad pictures would pop up and he would be scrolling faster to get away from them! Ha-ha, we all laughed and were so proud that he has been learning so much. Plus he promised and did pay his tithing yesterday at church. And he is not even a member yet! :D

We couldn't believe it but we were happy it happened! Adam has been progressing so much. We have made a goal to baptize 4 people this transfer together and we have brought it to the Lord and He is willing to work with us! :D Adam will be one of those four! 

Also Timothy and Brother West passed the sacrament for the first time yesterday at church!! The smile on Brother West's face was absolutely priceless! Sister P. and were so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of their transformation and those others as well! 

This Gospel Changes You

I know this gospel changes lives and Heavenly Father has changed me and I will continue to change until I am not longer human.

I know Heavenly Father loves me and all of His children; here is a cool quote from this last week: 

“Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more (see Proverbs 3:11–12). He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain. … This life is an experience in profound trust--trust in Jesus Christ.”  -Richard G. Scott

I love you all and hope your week is hard working and miracle filled!

Love, Sister Jones

Hey Mom!

I have been excited to email y all week! I have been out 9 months! Can you believe it!? I surely can't. It has freaked me out! I feel like I am not even done though. But the. I feel like I go home tomorrow! I have been just thinking about what has happened and what will happen and then I have been having day-mares about coming home and I wanna freak out a little bit! I miss you all so dearly but I love my mission and I remembers about 6 months ago when missionaries going home would say their "words of wisdom" and they would be so sad to go home and I would be sitting there thinking and wishing and praying to be them because I was not enjoying my mission. 

Then Sister Hannah and Sister Patterson jumped into my mission and it made a world of difference!

Receiving a Priesthood Blessing

I have had a trying week this week. It has been just spiritually uneven every single day, I think. But I have felt so inadequate and stressed and anxious about stupid things all week that I finally asked my District Leader and his companion that are the Spanish Elders to give me a priesthood blessing. 

Sister Patterson does this thing that whenever she has someone get a blessing she writes it down for them and gives it to them (kind of like a Patriarch's wife) and so she did that and the blessing was completely exactly what I needed to hear, word for word

Heavenly Father wanted to say all that I needed to hear because Sister Patterson said he was speaking so fast that she couldn't write all of it down. I know Heavenly Father sees our situations.

You guys went on that trek!?! That is so cool! I am at least glad that Sydney and I could at least go on that mini trek my sophomore year and that I could get idea of what would happen for ya’ll!

BIG NEWS: 
1. Sister Clark-my trainer- is engaged!!!!
2. Sister Hannah is now a trainer herself! Yep I'm a grandma! :,)

So how is the family? Is Sydney excited for putting in her papers! Is she working hard? :) I want to know everything! :)

I love you Momma!

-Sister Jones
Sent from my iPad

4th of July, Mosquito bites & a Double Baptism!

**NOTE TO THE READER**
I purposely combined last week's email with this week because of the holiday/super short email - and knowing she would have a lot to tell us concerning the two baptisms that she participated in this past Saturday.  P.S.  Enjoy the video - Susan

July 6,2015

Dear Family & Friends, 

Sorry this will be a short email because not much happened at all this week that is fun and interesting to report on!

So interesting week of struggle but it ended in a fun note! 

All week we have had meetings and training and lessons and we have just been up to our ears in doing everything that we possibly could do! So we have kept up with our investigators and Timothy is awesome! He had his baptismal interview and he PASSED! Yay! We had our last lesson and our district leader interviewed him and said he will be a great missionary someday! :D
Also it was a complicated week with Brother West. We have been trying to teach the last of his lessons and get him ready for baptism but his work schedule has been crazy so trying to set up anything with him is near to impossible. Our ward mission leader decided that he wasn't ready for baptism so he argued with us back and forth all week and even gave a call to our mission president. Than President Brough called and told him that he was wrong and that when he interviews Brother West that he will make the baptismal decision. So he PASSED! Brother West is set to get baptized and is set to get baptized this Thursday with Timothy! So we will have a two baptism day celebration! Whooooo!

American Idol, here we come...
SHORTCUT LINK BELOW IF THIS VIDEO WON'T WORK

Video - Shortcut.lnk (file://BCWKITLT07/Users/Susan/Documents/Video%20-%20Shortcut.lnk)

Also we had an awesome Fourth of July! Our ward didn't start any fun activity or BBQ so we asked the other missionaries if there was anywhere that we could go to and so our entire district went up to New Albany at a members home and played games and ate dinner and dessert. We then watched the fireworks be set off and we all talked and laughed and president gave permission that as long as we were with members that we could be out until 11! What!?! Weird. Now we are thrown off on our sleeping schedule so it feels like we are jet- lagged but that's okay!
Also we spent the day with a few other members and had a sure blast!

Well really that is all for now! I am working hard and I love my area and doing the best that I can. We now get two more sets of sisters that president gave us to lead over and so now we have 7 sets of sisters to exchange and take of and one of the companionship's is three-ship! So this will be sooooo interesting to see how it all works out! Anyway I love you all and hope you have had a great Independence Day celebration! 

Stay safe! Love ya'll!
~Sister Jones

July 13, 2015       (Happy Birthday Uncle Rob!)

How did your double baptism go on Saturday?

It went really well! Surprisingly! Because its felt like our ward has been completely against us baptizing Brother West.  And our ward mission leader was even seemed against us baptizing him, and he even called President Brough and yelled at him telling him that Brother West shouldn't get baptized and all.  Then President Brough had the interview and found Brother West completely worthy of baptism and called our ward mission leader and told him to repent.  It was awesome! Then they both got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday and Timothy met with the bishop to plan and prepare to go on a mission in a year! So amazing! :D it was an awesome Saturday!

Brother West was so excited for baptism that he stood right in the font and with his head erect and ready to be dunked! Afterwards he came up to us and said "thank you so much sisters" and it was so cool that I wanted to cry because of how proud. Of them I was! I know that this church is true and that Heavenly Father guides our foot steps to where He needs us to be!

What are the names of the two converts that were baptized?

His name is Greg West and the other is Timothy Hiser-Hall

The baptism was awesome! Timothy had been fellowshipped by a family from Crestwood (they introduced him to the church) – they came and many more members. We went and got both Timothy and Brother West a tie to wear.  And they wore them on Sunday when they got confirmed and the Aaronic priesthood! So cool! So proud! 

Mosquitos  Galore

This week was a week of little bugs doing was they do best.  EATING ME ALIVE! We had a few biters here or there and then we would be okay and then Sunday we received a referral from a random contact and we had to run through what seemed like the woods just to get to her front door and after we knocked twice we realize that there Mosquitos everywhere! So as we were freaking out and still waiting for the woman to open the door we were swatting our legs and each other's legs and then a little middle aged woman wearing Amish clothing opened the door and asked us to step inside for a second before she was leaving.  So we did.  She was shorter than Sister P. And wearing Amish clothing, had some form of social anxiety and wouldn't look us in the eyes and would talk about anything she could that didn't make sense; with a swamp cooler blowing right behind us and us scratching our legs right in her door way. She denied our invitation to come back and we ran out the door and as I was walking towards Sister P. She starts busting out laughing and says "your legs look terrible!" And I look down and realize I am covered in mosquito bites! Covered!  So we decided to do a bite count and realize that in under a minute 28 little blood suckers massacred me!  Even on my face and neck!

And this is only the one corner of my legs!

Learning to use our iPads/Miracles

We have been trying to enter old records into our iPad area books, and it has been a trial.  But we saw a miracle come from it! So while I was entering a record I noticed that the person had jumped out at me and that I should call her. I did and she said that she would meet us and so I set an appointment with her and we went by later in the week and she wasn't home! We were so bummed but we left a sticky note and then went and talked to a woman we saw. 

This woman was great and asked so many questions about the Book of Mormon and prophets and so we set a return appointment with her and walked towards a less actives house and noticed that the person we left a sticky note with had a car that pulled up in front of her house. 

So we decided to knock again and they were home! She invited us straight in and we shared the restoration with her and she said that she hasn't chosen a church yet because she didn't like that every church she has walked through has made her confused every single time. Then when we shared about a modern day prophet she said it all made sense! She agreed to be baptized and we set a time to come back! 

Please keep her and her family in your prayers because we know they are ready and prepared to receive the restored gospel!

Lesson learned for the week

Well a lesson I have learned this week is what it means to have a positive attitude and that by having a positive one makes the day a whole lot brighter! 

It does us no good to have a dreary face because we are one earth to live and love and learn and that includes finding happiness in the littlest of things. 

Sister Patterson has been a great example of that and I have learned by trial and error and prayer on how to be happy. I know God hears our prayers, whether said or unsaid He knows what we want and as long as we are righteous he will help us to receive what we need!

I love you all and hope your week is as bright as your faith!

~Sister Jones