Exchanges...Again :) And Derby Week!

August 24, 2015

**QUESTIONS FOR OUR MISSIONARY**

Did you get some Bouncy Messages?

(We sent to small bouncy balls that we had family and then everyone at church write a message on them to Sister Jones.)

I did get your package and it brought tears to my eyes! It was exactly what I have been needing to read! Thank you so much for the snacks as well! I have literally been wanting pretzels and Craisons this week! Thank you so much!

Well I have had a hard week, I talked to dad about it, but I would just be complaining to tell ya’ll. I took his advice to get out of my own head, get past my faults and just get to work.  Work as hard as I can when I'm feeling inadequate and my Heavenly Father will bless me.

New Companion

This week was a wonderful week of re adjusting. My new companion is Sister Jensen. Which is so cool because she was one of the sisters we exchanged with this last transfer and now she is my companion! She is a very hard working and devoted sister missionary and I am loving everything about her. 

Goodbye Sister P. :(

Hello, Sister Jensen!

10 Commandments and Sammy

This week we worked hard to see all of our investigators and help them progress. We have been teaching a little 8 year old boy named Sammy! He is Haitian and his mom is a less active member. We taught him the Ten Commandments this week and about following the prophet and obedience to the commandments. He was awesome. We taught this lessons with both his mom and sister and a group of neighborhood kids that were his friends and they LOVED the finger motions for the Ten Commandments. So awesome, we even set a return appointment for a girl that we will see next Sunday! Yay! We invited Sammy to come to church again but this time we made sure to invite his mom and brother thorn went by and picked them up and CAME TO CHURCH! Yay! We were so excited and even Sister Scire came to church and she gets baptized next Saturday! Oh my goodness it sprang up on us so fast. She is already in the book of Mosiah and is following every commandment. We love her to death.

Avoiding the Distractions & Vickie to be Baptized

This week we have been focusing primarily on working with the members and preparing ourselves to see our investigators. So this went well because we had a great lesson with Sister Vickie when we went to visit a new investigator named Angel Jarrett! We were first walking around talking to people and met an Albanian man who is Muslim and ended up reading the intro to the Book of Mormon with him! Sister Vickie was so awesome because any question he had she answered and helped him to understand everything! She is so great! Then she went with us to Angel and we sat down in her house where there was so much distraction from the spirit. We asked them to turn off the tv, and if anyone would like they could stay for the lesson and angel had a brother that kept making inappropriate jokes and we sat there with angel and taught her.
While we were teaching, her brother kept being himself and making a scene, and we were able to diligently teach the restoration. The spirit was so strong as we then invited her to be baptized and she accepted! We found out a little later that when we had first met Angel and gave her the plan of salvation pamphlet that she had read the entire PAMPHLET! So cool! She was quoting word for word part from the pamphlet! She said she was glad to know where we go after we die and she asked her mom to give her rides to church every Sunday until she gets baptized on October 24. We realized though that we will most likely be moving her date closer because it's nine weeks away and we feel she will get baptized sooner than that. So awesome!

Learning some Spanish & the Gift of Tongues

Also Sister Patterson in the past has taught me some Spanish and Friday we ended up speaking to a lot of Hispanic people! I could formally say he churches name and that we were missionaries but then the language barrier got in between us and we had to call the elders to talk to one of them! It was so cool and the gift of tongues is so real because there would be a point when I didn't know how to say a certain word and a memory of Sister Patterson saying it would come back. Way legit!

Sister Jensen's investigator baptized & a Fireside

Exchanges with Rolling Hills Sistas

Sister Jensen's investigator got baptized this last Saturday and so we made our way back there to visit. It was so awesome of Sister Blackwell to drive us half way. We are so grateful we did! There was a talk at the baptism about how we can we receive gifts that continually perish or face way away, but then our gift of the Holy Ghost will never perish. It's eternal! So true! As long as we are doing what is right.

Last night we went to the mission fireside and we were unable to get an investigator there but we went with a recent convert who was just made a ward missionary! It was one of the best Firesides I had ever been to and the meeting was spirit filled the entire time! I absolutely enjoy a woman's testimony that she had transformed from what the world wanted her to be to what God wanted her to be! I loved that!

This week we see so much potential from our efforts that will bring success! We are excited! I know God give us who and what we need and that we are His children no matter what! I love you all and hope you live like Christ lived!

~Love, Sister Jones

August 31, 2015

Hello, hello!

Last Monday we finally went to Churchill Downs! 

And we didn't even realize how short of a distance it was to us! It only took ten minutes to get to! So we stopped and went into the gift shop because that is basically all we had time for and took pictures! There were so many derby hats for sale and pins and other little trinkets for sale and we had a blast walking around the entire stadium that Churchill is surrounded by.  So cool!

 I have learned this week that constantly the adversary is trying to constrain my thoughts and my heart to being doubtful and being selfish and worrying. It has been a battle this week to get out of my own head and focus on outside needs. And the battle was won this week because I saw a complete difference in whom become when I take control of my situation and work hard! :) At the end of the day I was exhausted and satisfied that I did what I was supposed to and that Heavenly Father was glad.

I am to church whether I am baptized or not

We have been trying all week to get sister Scire to church and God once again answered our prayer and sister Scire (Sharri) came to all three hours of church! We were so excited that she could and we also found out that there are many ward function where priesthood and auxiliary leaders are going to be out of town this Saturday so we confirmed with one another that September 12 was a better date and that is set in stone as we will be getting her mor fellowship as the days go by. 

She stated to us "I am coming to church whether or not I am baptized" and while we sat in sacrament meeting and all of us waited for the water to be passed to us she started to cry. After saying her own silent prayer. She later said in our third hour that "the first time I came to church was Mother's Day and the flower I got has been growing and I have been growing as well, thanks to you sisters and all you have done to help me" then she cried and hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. I know she sees the truth of this gospel and I am grateful to have been able to see her change.

Rolling Hills Exchanges

We had exchanges with the lovely sisters in Rolling Hills and I was with Sister Achee this time! She is the cutest thing ever! We biked part of the day and made a goal as we talked to people to get three return appointments! So as we headed over to use the WIFI at Subway we stopped to talk to people and the third person that we talked to set a return appointment! Sister Achee was amazed and we kept going! Then while in Subway and after a while a woman passed us and she said very enthusiastically "Hey!" as though she knew us and we kept talking with her and she invited us to call her and she would feed us missionaries sometime and wanted us to share our message. So cool!

Sure, come on over.  I want to know more about the resurrection!

     We went home for lunch and went back out again and headed over to a referral. We had a bit of trouble trying to find the address, and so we thought maybe they sent the wrong number in so we called this man and asked where he lived and that we were close by --- if we could come and teach him. He said “Sure, come on over!  I want to know more about the resurrection!" 

We obliged and hung up and as we started to walk over we talked about how this man was probably another person trying to get us to answer every question about the Plan of Salvation and about resurrection but that it was important not to answer every question and get off topic. So we sat on his porch with him and talked about the Restoration and he said that he didn't care for the Mormon faith until he heard some preacher say that Mormons didn't believe in the resurrection and since he heard that he had been searching the truth because he knew we did. He had a copy of the Book of Mormon for the last twenty years, never opened it and then asked us where it talks about the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon.  I said 3 Nephi 11 and he opened it up and shouted "Hey look!" And there was a book mark clipped right on the page of the beginning of the chapter started.

     He was so amazed and we challenged him to read it later on and pray about it! He was a nice spunky old guy that reminded me of crazy professors like the professor on back to the future only this guy was a little more sane! So we got a return appointment from him and then got a referral from a woman we talked to and visited her and got another appointment. It was legit! I learned so much from Sister Achee and mostly the pure love and hard work that she is determined to show for God! She knows what her purpose and why she is here and that is such a refreshing quality. I love her!

I am the BOSS

Francis and the Game Changer

This last week was a game changer for most of our investigators as we are trying to clean up our teaching pool and see how we can work with the ward members and less active members more.

We found a less active woman named Francis who had a falling out with the church 16 years ago.  She asked us about ourselves and I shared where I had been that I loved my mission and that I loved the church and Christ and as she listened she opened her mouth and shared all about her worries and her concerns as though she had been dying to say them. She started to cry and we shared the message of the Atonement with her, and promised her that Christ knew her pain and anguish. She was so sweet and we set up times to go back and serve her. We love her so much.

I love my mission and I am proud that I get to serve with so many lovely sisters here in the GKLM! I love them with all my heart!  That's all for now! I hope ya’ll have a great week!

-Sister Jones