A Very Busy BiRtHdAy Week!

Dear Family and friends,

Yes again this week was jam packed with two exchanges (luckily we are getting through our last ones), a mini MTC in Elizabethtown and also my birthday.

First we exchanged with the lovely J-town sisters! They are incredible! Sister Bush is so awesome!  She taught me how to teach to the needs of the person we talk to! We got quite a few return appointments and it all went so well! One couple we start to talk even invited us to dinner that we went to yesterday! So cool! We also exchanged with the Glasgow Sisters and I was with Sister Holt again and it went very well! Her and I have grown to be great friends and we were so happy and joyful on our exchange. We ended up receiving quite a few referrals from people a few days before that we went to contact. We walked up to the door of one of them and knocked and as she answered she knew exactly who we were. She was a member of the church from another branch that was moving in there! It was so cool! And as we spoke with her, she seemed to be having trouble with a certain past mistake and was skiing us how the atonement worked according to her situation and we said that the atonement is for every situation she goes through and that it is not only for us to be forgiven but for us to have the ability to forgive. We finally said all that we could and we offered to come back and help her move- some went back yesterday and did that.

After talking to that woman we were walking back home for lunch and we saw a man from around our apartment complex walking to his truck and what I didn't realize was I had met him twice before but started to contact him as though he was still a complete stranger and I had literally just met him the day before. I said how are you, what's your name and he says "It's Brian I just met you yesterday, Remember?" No. So I played dumb and said his change of clothes threw me off and realized later one that it was the same guy- I felt so stupid haha :) but then we asked him more questions about what he believed because when we first talked to him nothing came out of him because he was around other people. He responded at he did t believe in religion and we said okay that's fair, do you believe in God? And he said he was sure because he has never had any signs that he did. Then like lightning, scriptures just fell out of my head and my hands ran through the pages of the Book of Mormon looking for them. We kept simply talking with him and concluded that he was not exercising his faith! It was so cool and this man was so engaged that it seemed as though we had talked to him about his concerns and showed him that we understood his situation. When really we didn't, the spirit did and used us to find the scriptures to help him! So cool! Sister Holt and I walked away and we're sort of freaking out that it happened. We were unable to set up an appointment but we knew he was the maintenance man. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he said very sincerely that he would. So we told him when we saw him that we would follow up with him.
Then we went later that day with a member down to Elizabethtown. The high council put together a mini MTC. So the youth around us in about three stakes all drove down and we got two sisters each missionary as companions. We went through mini meetings like district meetings and zone meetings (where President Brough was invited to come) and they learned with us how to teach the restoration!! The members here in Elizabethtown set up appointments with some of their friends or neighbors who were literally all NONMEMBERS and we taught with two fourteen year olds the restoration! Their testimonies were incredible and I was so proud of them. I went with two sweet sisters. One is name Annette Aiton. She will be an outstanding missionary one day! Loved her! Then we had a testimony meeting after Sister Jensen and I were asked to give a training and then went home! By the time it was my birthday on Sunday, we were whipped.

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!

My birthday was incredible. It was exactly how I wanted it. Not too crazy or extravagant and not boring. We woke up and I opened card wonderful letters and cards from friends and family (by the way thank you all so much for those! I loved them!) And opened the package my family had sent! I love it all! Although this year I felt like it was just getting older and not very too much was special except that I have been doing one of the most amazing things in the whole universe!  There is nothing like focusing on others on the day you were born! :) I got more satisfactory out of that than I did worrying about what {I} want to do. I love this work. I can't wait for my sister to join in, in about 2 months :) 

Well I know this work of God is true. I believe it with my whole soul.
I pray for you all always and hope you are seeing the value in this gospel as much as I am! I love you!
~Sister Jones