Book of Mormon, FreeStyle

Dear Family & Friends,

We have been very successful in teaching lessons this week. We have been trying our hardest to improve ourselves and our area. We have started to take more and more people out to lessons with us. 

One member came out with us for three hours and we had a miracle

experience.  This member noticed a woman had waved to her whilesitting in her truck in the driveway and was like "let's go and talkto her!" So we did and this woman was so stand-off-ish at first andthen this member starts to bare her testimony and the atmospherechanged. This woman started to cry. She just needed to know that she was a daughter of God and that He was watching out for her. 

I have realized the past few weeks that love is the only way to increase everything. Love increases the good and pride increases the bad. So realizing that I have tried implementing that in the way I carry myself. I have seen a dramatic difference in myself as well as how situations turn out and people we talk to. I have to continually watch myself to make sure that that love is always there. And I have noticed the spirit constantly surrounding me. I know that a mission is difficult but it's a lot less difficult when I endeavor to love. 

So love is always the answer because Jesus Christ always was. was like my journey had been accomplished and I had to look and say "Now what?" 

I know the Book of Mormon is true and that unlike a random novel I would read and finish at home, the Book of Mormon is a book of revelation (no not the book of revelation), and that we can continually find more and more to apply to ourselves. 

That is why God commands us to always study the scriptures. I have been ponderizing Mosiah 3:7 which describes the pains the savior went through for us. And I have been thinking about why He did it and what the magnitude it was on Him. Incredible.


Anyway so this week went well, I exchanged with Sister Bancroft this week and it was so fun! We talked every second! Looking back on memories of the MTC, talking to people around us and teaching! By the end of the exchange I didn't want to talk anymore ha ha :) my mouth was tired! But she was a very profound example to be of an exactly obedient missionary! 

We got to teach a man and woman the Plan of Salvation. They have to get married and don't really see the need to. Well in order for one of them to get baptized, they have to get married. We told them at and they said a few reply to dodge the marriage conversation. And then we asked them if they loved one another and then also asked if they loved God and would follow His commandments. They replied with a yes and we said at marriage has and always will be a commandment from God because families are ordained of God. Then we committed them to pray about it. Sister Bancroft was so
bold but loving! I was amazed listening to her teach! She is awesome!

I got to finish the Book of Mormon yesterday and it was amazing! It

This week really didn't have much to report on but we have been working even harder each day to improve ourselves and that has meant a lot!

Well I hope you all have a great week and don't forget to work hard!

Love y'all!

~ Sister Jones

What people do in Kentucky for Halloween!

We planned a lesson at one of our investigators, Angelee's house, and we asked Sister Vicki to come. We played a video and eventually all of her kids sat in to listen to the lesson of the plan of salvation! It was a miracle because Angelee hits a hyper moment in between the lesson and talks for a long time. But this time she didn't she just listened and was so excited to hear that we lived with God before coming here. It was so cool! Then she said she free-styles and so we got excited and asked her to free- style and let us record her, so here it is!:

Had Hawaiian hay stacks with Sister Gosnell and her family! It was so good!

Also this last week we had the fireside for our areas and not many people showed up but we gladly went to it and brought Sister Scire with us. She decided later on to go up and bare her testimony! 

It was incredible and of course I cried! Ha ha, then there was an elder that bore powerful testimony about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and I swear the air was so full with the Spirit! There must have been some person in that room that very badly needed to hear that. I know I was one of them! I know that when we bare our testimonies we invite the Spirit to enter, testify and comfort.

Member Referrals & tiwi

Dear Family & Friends,

We have had a very eventful week! 

I came to zone conference wondering how I could be a better representative of Christ and also how our area could improve. I received my answers and know what I need to do now! 

One year ago, PROVO MTC with Sister Resendez

We came out of the training ready to apply them and we have miracles. We frequently have meal appointments from members and we went to a member’s home to test it all out. 

So we started teaching the restoration and it was all flowing nice and well and then at the end of the lesson we asked if they had anyone pop into their heads. They looked at us blankly and said "Nope." 

Member Referrals

Sincerely awkward... So we asked again and they kind of bickered with us saying that there wasn't anyone and then the thought to me to bear testimony of a promise for them. I started to do so and in the middle of the promise Sister Workman (the member) looks up and says "I got it." "You need to go visit [so and so]!" And she leaped for joy and then suddenly her mom perks up and says, "I just thought of someone else too!" Sister Jensen and I looked at each other and smiled and came out of there so excited! 

We looked up the referral and they are unfortunately out of our area. But the member plans to have us over for dinner with her friend! And since then every single member that we have talked to has given us a referral and has made plans for us to contact them! It has been incredible! We also have received several referrals from head quarts that we have made the effort to contacts and that has taken most of our time! We have seen miracles in every direction we turn! So cool!

Driving Privileges

So now that I have driving privileges back! ;) Hallelujah :) my companion has been having me drive! And for good reason too! We now have tiwi!  [Note from mom:  I looked up tiwi, pretty awesome idea, follow the link for some education.  http://www.gizmag.com/tiwi-monitors-and-mentors-teen-drivers/17610/]

It monitors driving and mostly speeding and reckless driving! Ha ha, no it was not just me that it but the entire mission! Crazy! So I was the very first one to drive with tiwi in the car and have made mental notice to be obedient to the speed limit and what not and the very first day while being on exchanges with Sister Resendez there was an unusual event.

 So we were driving home and I had been driving 35 most of the way home because obviously that was the limit. There was a car behind us that wasn't okay with that so they were tailgating me. At a stop light the woman pulls into the turning lane and rolls down her window and shouts "Your going to slow!"  I was very confused but when the light turned green I stayed at the usual speed. We started to go around a curve and we concluded to just pull over because she was still tailgating. We did and the woman pulls over right along with us and she is side by side us and she is still on the main road with other cars stopped behind her as she yells "You are going too slow!" Then yells profanities as the cars behind her persistently trying to get her to move and while she starts to drive away, still yelling, she flips us the bird... 

Sister Resendez and I laughed because this woman was obviously drunk and we just thought it was he funniest thing! 

I concluded in my head that following the rules/ commandments are not always going to be what others like to do but DO IT anyway and Heavenly Father will help us along the way.

Sorry ya'll accidentally clicked send! Well I guess there wasn't much to be said but that I have been out on my mission a year and I can't believe it!  Also Halloween is just around the corner! We want to dress up at something fun but we have now idea what we could do! So here is just a picture of what other people have done to their houses and I will just accept any costume requests from everyone!

Well I am so grateful to Heavenly Father that the mission is going well! I have learned a lot this week about being loving towards my companion and also serve God with all of my hear might mind and soul. I really feel like I have come to know more fully who my savior is this week. I know He loves each of us and recognizes our faults as well as our triumphs and successes! I know that He has seen and felt it all and that all we need to do is show Him we love Him back by keeping His commandments and work hard to use the Atonement. I love you all and hope your week is bright and happy and successful!

~Sister Jones

Sister Mish Conference!

Dear Family & Friends,

We had MLC on Tuesday and an opportunity to do a blitz with Sister Wagner and Hermana Magalei! 

They were so fun and so cute and definitely the best teachers of doing the will of the Lord. I was grateful for Hermana Magalei's advice and kindness that she gave me, I will continually cherish it the rest of my life :)  

We had a wonderful Sisters Conference as well! It was put on by Sister Brough and the sisters of this mission! Sister Jensen and I had the opportunity to give a training on smart goals and how they pertained to preparing now in our mission for the rest of our life. We had the training all ready for the conference and quite literally the assistants that were called to give a training as well, gave the exact training we were going to give! It was awesome! We figured we just had to get up there and train with the words of the spirit on our hearts.  It went well and we hope it was received through the spirit well too.  

Our district leader gave a training on talking with everyone and I will admit we have been slacking in our work. And we have now talked to a lot more people that have been in our pathway! We have seen blessings from it too! 

We went to contact a referral and a woman was on her porch and I had a thought to go talk with her. We did and she said she was not in the best sports to talk to. We offered to pray with her and lift her spirits. We did and she was much better. She had lost her dog and that dog meant everything to her. She said that our prayer helped and we started to share more about who we were and our message. She wasn't comfortable with us coming by so we ended up leaving a Book of Mormon with her and going to our appointment. 

Even though this didn't end in a baptism or anything like that I know that because we were willing God led us to this woman so He could send her comfort if she was willing to accept it.  Sunday was good because we were able to have our investigator there and he came to two hours of church! He is slowly progressing but we are making sure that he will make his baptismal date!

Love,

Sister Jones

(Sister Hannah’s comment from her blog about seeing her BFF)

So Wednesday we got up before the crack of dawn, 5 am, and were out the door by 6 to make it to Lexington with the Corbin sisters (Patterson and Nicholas) by 8. Sacrifices! We met up with 6 more sisters and the assistants to the president picked us up in a huge van and drove us all to Louisville! I'm sure we all looked like polygamists. Two men at the Mormon church picking up 10 women. HAHAHA, and a member pulled up right as we were about to leave. Elder Waite
commented "this doesn't look bad at all, two elders getting in a car with 10 sisters." We trekked to Louisville and met up with all of the sisters in the mission for the Sisters Conference! It was awesome. There is nothing like being with all of the best missionaries in the GKLM! We were trained by the assistants, Sister Jones and Jensen, president and Sister Brough and a few other sets of sisters. Yep, that's right, I got to see my SistaJones!! Oh what a glorious reunion! Sister Brough was so incredible to get the whole thing lined up as well. She is so talented and organized! We were uplifted spiritually and taught how to be better women of God! A lovely time spent in Louisville! 

Love,

Sister Hannah

The Lord's timing, Plan B

10/5/2015

**Questions for our Kizzer**

How are you doing?  Did Bishop Trost get with you yet?  He was going through the proper authority, your Mish Prez for okay's to call you. drop by and take you guys out for dinner or something.

Hey mom! I am doing very well! This week has been a little rough but worth it!

I haven't heard from bishop trust yet. Has he asked my mission president about visiting me? I wonder if I should ask President Brough about it or something. Anywho, it will all work out to God's timing. I am excited and a little nervous to see him but we will see what happens.

***WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE MESSAGE FROM CONFERENCE? ***

My favorite conference talk was elder Russell m. Nelson's talk about being the woman God needs us to be and I also. Loved the talk about about the potter's clay--> completely right up my alley! :) 

Dear Family and friends,

Well this week was kinda of out of control!

Well I dyed my hair! That was fun! Poor Sister Guffy was nervous to even do it! I told her I wanted red and she warned me on the phone that we needed to get hair dye that said honey or something of that nature. Well we forgot to look for the name and got a color that looked like what we wanted! She wasn't happy thinking that we made a horrible mistake but it all worked out well! :)

That Monday night was a great night of rest until about 12:49 in the morning when we heard loud knocking on the front door. Then there was knocking on the sliding glass door! We were grateful to have the door locked but the people were walking back and forth between knocking on our front door and our sliding door! Over and over. We obviously held knives in our hand and called the police in our bathroom. Then we called our mission president and told him what was happening. Right when we were about to hang up the police knocked on the door! We were very excited about that and we were told by President Brough not to open it up right away. We didn't but he shouted through the door the reason why someone was knocking so much, he said, "Your neighbor was knocking on the door and window because you all left your car lights on in your car!" We were slightly confused though as to why our neighbor would repeatedly freak out over that by knocking frantically on both our front door and our sliding glass door! President heard it over speaker on the phone and said that that was a little extreme but that we must have a neighbor who really cares for us! He said a prayer over the phone to call our nerves, we turned off the lights and then we went to bed...what a nice neighbor haha!

All week we have been trying to strengthen and clean up our area with investigators and making. The area more excellent for Heavenly Father. We had many great experiences and talked to a lot of people wanting to hear about the Gospel! But however it was still rough with all of the rain this week!

We had a great general conference weekend! We saw a miracle! We have been working with Shield Bailey for 5 months now and she has had a hard time excepting the things we have been teaching her. 

Now she is reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it! Yay! She promised to come to general conference at the church and it was amazing. She came to the third session of general conference and the spirit was so strong! The talks were exactly what she needed to hear and to top it all off on one of songs that all of the congregation was asked to stand on, they showed a glimpse of sign language interpreters signing the song! She saw it and yelled "how cool!" then gasped! We gasped too because we knew it was not a coincidence that God inspired he camera man to show that part! When the session ended we asked her what she thought. She said that it was incredible and that she had every single question answered! She said she also had never seen any other church be so knee deep in appreciating the deaf community that she wanted to cry when she saw that( her daughter and granddaughter are deaf). We are going to invite her tonight to be baptized! We hope all goes well! 

The Lord's Plan B

Also while watching conference we were confused as to why we hadn't seen Sister Scire or Adam there! And boy does Satan like to trap people!

We felt impressed after the third session to drive over to Sister Scire's house and the first thing her son says if "she sprained her ankle" and we were so bumbled out because we walked in and his testimony was confirmed! She was laid up in her bed with her foot rapped! But Satan deserved his lips ripped and wasn't gonna get away with that trial standing in her way. So we called around trying to figure out which channel conference would be on. Unfortunately she didn't have cable but! She had a daughter with Internet on her phone! We set her up and got everything ready to be broadcast for the very last session and left!   

Heavenly Father is so amazing that He just always has a Plan B. everything! It reminds me in 1 Nephi 3:7 "I will go and do the things which the Lord has commanded. For I know the Lord give the no commandment saver he shall prepare a way for it to be accomplished." TRUTH!

Well this week was great because Sister Jensen and I have gotten a lot close and a lot better friends! She is awesome and has so much light and truth in her! I love her a lot!
I hope that you all have a wonderful week and that you all found answers to your questions at conference! Let us all strive to be a little better and try a little harder to follow God's commandments and trust in Heavenly Father!
~Sister Jones
Sent from my iPad

9/28/2015

(This was a very light email week.  In fact, I was the lucky one to at least get a response to my email, anything from her is awesome!)

***Questions for our Kizzer**

Are you getting transferred on next week’s transfers?

No I am not getting transferred. I believe I will be here for this one and the get transferred. This transfer will be interesting because we got some good looking baptisms coming up :)

Oh I bet you were bawling! I was so busy all week that I stopped on Saturday morning during exercises and realized Syd had her endowments out! Crazy! I felt so bad for forgetting! I am really proud of her! I think looking back and now thinking about how your and i's conversation went about how we were unsure if she would serve a mission and now she is?! Plus her endowments are now out?! Wow I can't comprehend it! But I know God has His hand in it!

And yes that is an incredible scripture! I am loving the bible more and more that I read it. But I am not sure how much I would love it if I never had the book or Mormon, doctrine and covenants and a living prophet for further direction! I feel like if I read the bible without that further instruction I would either be agnostic or build my own church! Crazy how the world works!

God has a perfect plan!

Yes dad is amazing! You and dad are both my favorite parents! ;) of course no one will take the place of my Heavenly Father (daddy in heaven) but I love all of my family members haha :)

Well I love you mom. Thank you for accepting the call to be my mom. I know that it was probably rough a few times but you handled me with grace and love!

Have and a wonderful conference week! I hope work and school play out for the benefit of your spiritual needs! :)

- Sister Jones

Sent from my iPad