Recent Pictures of Sister Jones

Winter Quarters Temple in Nebraska

Fun on P-day! 

Fall leaves in Elmwood, NE

Sister Jones at the Trail Center! 

November 26, 2012

Guess what?! It's SNOWING right now here in Nebraska!! It's the first time this season. Pretty crazy! Luckily it's pretty light snow and will probably melt really soon!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I want you to all know how thankful I am for such a loving and supportive family. You are all the best! I am so grateful for the blessings I have in my life.

I had a great Thanksgiving! For lunch we went to a member's house and for dinner we went to the Trail Center and spent it with a lot of the sisters, senior couples and new missionaries! In the picture I am sending you will see part of my table with the new missionaries. It was a lot of fun and then we (the sisters) did a musical presentation for all of the senior couples. It was really nice and felt like we are all one big family. :)

On Thursday morning we found out about transfers... Sister Jasper and I almost forgot about it completely because we thought we would stay together. That wasn't the case unfortunately. Sister Jasper got transferred to Wahoo, Nebraska! (What an awesome name!) She is now full-proselyting, which is what she was originally called to do anyways. I love her so much and we got along great. Let's just say we were crying and laughing at the same time when we got the phone call that she was leaving. It didn't even seem real. I had a slight feeling she could be leaving though since we felt really comfortable working together. No growing in the comfort zone...

Now Sister Pryde is in Elmwood with me. Sister Pryde is really nice and a cowgirl. She is complete opposite of Sister Jasper. lol! Sister Pryde is really quiet and shy. Don't let that fool you though, because she can sure talk. She loves to tell stories. Sometimes it's hard to keep her focussed because I'll mention one thing and it will get her off on a 5+ min story about her farm back home, her family, her dog, a pig, or a goat or something like that. I've learned a lot about farming! :)  She is very loving and kind so I'm grateful to be spending my last transfer with her.

Earlier this week with Sister Jasper we met a woman named Cindy! Her grandma is a member of the church and she said after all this time she has never read the Book of Mormon. She was really grateful when I offered it to her and said she could keep that copy! At first she was like, I'll give it back once I read a little bit. Then I was like, "This is your copy to keep! Happy Thanksgiving!!" haha! She laughed and was grateful. She also is set to be baptized in January!  She goes to the baptist church but is open to learning and experiencing new things.

Remember Chris who was baptized the first week I was in the area? He is doing really great! He comes teaching with us a lot and passes the sacrament and has a calling! Well anyways, his mom was in town for Thanksgiving and he wanted us to go over and teach the restoration with his mom there. It was a powerful lesson. We watched the Restoration DVD (20 min) and then talked about the restoration of Christ's church through the prophet Joseph Smith. Chris was so sincere as he shared his testimony with his mom. He was like, "Mom, I have come to know these things are true and I know that families can be together forever. Because I love you I want you to explore this for yourself. It has brought me so much peace and happiness since Dad has passed away..." It was such a powerful moment and the mom said that she would be willing to sincerely study the Book of Mormon to know if it's  true. I was so proud of Chris for being so brave and sincere to share this with his mom. We're all praying for her!

Oh my goodness!!!!!! We had FOUR investigators at church yesterday!! All seperate people: Octavio, Stephen, Greg, and Luis! They all had a great experience. It's so rare that we have that many investigators at church on the same day. Nothing makes me happier! (Besides when people are baptized.)

The trail center is super busy with the gingerbread festival downstairs. Just yesterday from 12-9 we had over 300 people come in. We went to church and were at the trail center ALL day.. pretty tiring  but so great! I had some really good tours as well. I got 3 new investigators who are all really interested in the Book of Mormon and want to read it! Pretty exciting! It was a mom and her 2 teenage daughters! They are from texas but visiting family here in omaha. The missionaries will be able to visit them there and teach them! Yay! I love being at a visitors center. I get to meet people from all over and share the gospel with them! It's the best!

Well it's time to go! Have a great week!

-Love,

Sister Jones

 

November 12, 2012

Hi family!!

Happy Veterans Day!

Has has everybody been doing? Thanks for your emails this week!

Did anyone get to read the talk I mentioned last week? Converted Unto the Lord, by Elder Bednar. If so, send me your thoughts! :)

Sounds like it was an interesting week with elections... it still doesn't feel like that is real to me. I haven't heard too much as far as what the results were like. On Nov 6th right before we were going to bed we got a text from some sisters saying, "FYI, Obama is our president." I seriously thought they were joking because I didn't know that people could predict the results that fast. Nobody talked about it the next day and finally one of the senior couples confirmed that for us. It's so strange being out of the loop like this during a presidential compaign. Mitt Romney has helped out our missionary efforts though by letting people know what we are all about and setting a good example of someone living the gospel. A lot of people asked questions about our faith because of him. Both on the streets and at the Trail Center.

This week we had zone conference, where we have a big group meeting of probably about 70 missionaries all together. The big focuss of the meeting was having a testimony plus being converted to the gospel. The biggest difference to me of being converted is living what Christ teaches and doing, rather than just saying you believe.

The Papillion stake that I'm in had stake conference this weekend. We had Elder Steven E. Snow from the Quorum of the 70 come and visit. He is from St. George, UT! Do any of you know him? He was great and also has a fun sense of humor. I really enjoyed his comments and overall his very nice nature and good, loving personality.

I love my mission! Just in one day I got to speak English (as normal), speak a little Spanish to one of our buddies that always stops us as we've walking the streets, and then speak Sign-language to a guy named Angelo that we are going to try to start teaching. I am so excited!!! I actually get to use my sign-language from college. As I was signing with him a lot of it was coming back to my memory- thanks to the Holy Ghost! I'm scared for actually teaching him lessons because I don't know church signs besides  the words church, Jesus Christ, Sunday, God, prayer, faith, and other really basic phrases. I need to start practicing! :)

It's getting colder here! The weather is all over the place though. One day it's nice and warm and then the next it's freezing. Yesterday I was frozen but so far today it feels nice!

Larue and Santiago are doing well. Larue is having a hard time quitting smoking though. Santiago is 12 and so nice and cute. He was like, if my mom can't quit by December 1st can I still get baptized? We would prefer for them to get baptized together but we'll have to see. Her husband just passed away and so she's struggling with that. She's not incredibly upset because her husband was cheating on her and got caught by the other ladies husband... yeah, bad news from there. I feel really bad for her but she is so great to  be raising her son on her own anyways and staying faithful to her family. Some people make me sick though.

Luis is doing well. He comes to church pretty regularly now. He's really lonely and likes making friends. He needs to sincerly pray about the Book of Mormon though and not do it for the social perks. He has good intentions though and wants to have greater faith in God. As long as we have team-ups there, members to teach with us, we're good!

Oh goodness, I may as well fill you in with this bit of news just in case I don't survive till next week. I am singing a solo in next weeks singing performance. Luckily it's not a huge deal and it's to kick off the gingerbread house display that's opening up in the basement of the TC this Saturday. So we're doing a performance with about half of the sisters with group songs and solos. I'm not too excited, i'll be honest. They roped me into it. It's just a verse and then the 2 other girls sing the chorus with me. If I pass out in the middle of it and get a concussion I'll have Elder Watson give you a call. :) Jk, I'll survive.

The Trail Center is getting all ready for Christmas... already! It's not even Thanksgiving yet! haha! It seems very unreal to me that I'll be coming home in less than 2 months. I can't even wrap my head around that. I seriously feel like I'll be a full-time missionary my whole life. It makes me sad thinking it will eventually come to an end. I'm giving it my all and making sure I'm "leaving everything on the field," as they say in sports. haha!

I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I LOVE the scriptures!!! My goal in life is to memorize both books. hahaha! I'll keep dreaming... but each week I do strive to memorize a new scripture! So I have a good amount committed to memory. I love it because they pop into my head during lessons and I can share them with others. (Did I mention that I memorize them to my own beats or tunes? Normally I make up a simple tune and memorize it like a song. That makes it so much easier to memorize. Yeah, I'm a little weird like that. lol!)

Have a great week! Love you all!

-Sister Jones

 

November 6, 2012

Hello my darling familiy members!

Hope you all had a great Halloween! Also, happy voting day! (I'm pretty sure that's today... i'm a little out of the loop so hopefully that's right. haha!) I voted earlier this week and sent in my absentee ballot! Pretty exciting!! :)

Well this week has been eventful and fun!

For Halloween we had district meeting, did service for a couple in our ward that is moving- cleaning baseboards (My favorite thanks to mom!) and cleaning the walls, then we had a dinner with all of the sister and senior couples at the Trail Center, and then us sisters did a craft! Good times! All of the missionaries had to stay inside from 6 and on.

Funny story that happened yesterday: The area that I serve in covers a lot of area in Omaha... from Downtown Omaha (10th st.) all the way up to 130th street. Downtown is ghetto and not as nice of homes and the higher up the numbers the nices the places get. So yesterday we were street contacting in downtown omaha, which is tons of fun because there are a lot of people walking around and of all different nationalities. While we were down there we had lunch at an Indian food place- it was really good! When we left we ran into a black man who was like, "Hey! Come here, can i talk to you?" Us, "of course!!" To sum it up he was drunk, just got out of jail that day, was from East Africa and also San Diego, and homeless. He was asking for money. He also said that Jesus Christ was running for President... I know i'm way out of the loop but that was a new one to me. lol! I said I didn't have money to give him but I had something else for him... then I whipped out a Book of Mormon from my purse and gave it to him! Told him it's all about Jesus Christ and that he should read it. He came close to me as I was handing it to him and quickly/ slyly put his arm around my should (giving me a side hug) so I was cringing trying to get out of it but be nice. (I was trying really hard not to laugh.) THen all the sudden he's leaning in and his face was getting closer  to mine. I was turning my head about, cringing trying to hide my face in my scarf and coat, but it didn't work... he kissed me on the cheek!! Yuck!! It was gross, uncomfortable, but really funny. Sister Jasper didn't even know what to do. hahaha! He was trying to hug her with his other arm in that process I removed his arm off of my shoulder and then we said to read and have a great day! Then we escaped across the street. Good times in downtown Omaha! Always a fun adventure. But no worries, we're safe!

We had an awesome lesson with a guy named Chip. His uncle and cousin are less-active members. Chip has made some bad decisions in life but wants to change his lifestyle and have more faith. He opened up to us a lot and we were able to really relate Alma the younger's story with him in Alma 36. This week we will be setting him for baptism and getting all of them to church- hopefully!

If I had more time I would share an awesome story about how we lost our phone this week and prayed really hard to find it- and tu-duh! we found it.. well a man found it on the streets and called us and returned it. He called the apartment complex the same time i was calling sprint to get our number changed over. On the phone to the guy i was talking to I was like, "We have all just witness a miracles! Someone just called and said they found our phone!! Oh man, Heavenly Father definitely hears and answers our prayers!" He was just laughing saying he agrees and how awesome that was. It was too funny but so amazing. The apartment office ladies were so amazed too.

Overall I love being a missionary. We see miracles daily! Heavenly Father is so aware of us and what goes on in our lives... even if it's just loosing a phone. He helps our investigators and gives them spiritual experiences to keep them boosted.

Larue and Santiago are still doing good. Everyone is getting sick though.

We found 5 new investigators this week so that's exciting! We'll see how they progress! :)

Have a great week! Love you all!!

Also, you should all read the talk Converted Unto the Lord by Elder Bednar on LDS.org. I read it today for personal study and it's amazing!! No matter what faith you are you can relate to it. It talks about testimony and being converted. I love it and it really makes us reflect how converted the Lord we are.

Love,

Sister Jones