September 28, 2011
Hi family!!
This week has been pretty great! We cleaned the temple with our district, had a few good lessons, Aaron visited me at the trail center, had exchanges with another Sister, and found out that Sister Hawkes and I are staying together in the same area this next transfer!!
For our district service project we cleaned the temple and it was such a neat experience. Everybody was jealous that we got to do something so unique and special. I took a picture of the district after cleaning with the temple in the background that I'll send you.
This week we had a couple first lessons with people. Right now we are almost starting fresh as far as the people we are teaching. There was a few people we had been continually teaching that weren't keeping commitments to read or pray about the Book of Mormon and weren't progressing so we are going to give them a rest for a little bit. This past week we have found a good amount of people who could have potential, so that's exciting! I'm starting to like street contacting better. Yesterday we had a cool experience... There was a younger couple standing outside of somebody's house and we walked up to them, introduced ourselves, then basically said we had a message of hope for them. The man was like, "Alright, that sounds like a good message to me!" Then we talked a bit about trials and how the Lord knows what we're going through. At one point in the conversation I said something like, "Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each of you so much and know you personally. They know the different trials you face and are always there for you." (Something to that affect.) Just a plain and simple truth, yet powerful. He said, "Wow, I felt that." And rubs his arms as if he got the chills. It's amazing how the Spirit can touch people! It definitely wasn't me that made him "feel" that, it's the Holy Ghost telling him that what was said is true. We got his phone number and hopefully we'll be able to get in contact with them to teach the couple. They were super nice. The other day when we were knocking on a random lady's door she opened and was in the middle of something so we asked if we could come back later and she gave me a dead stare as she was thinking for a long 5 or more seconds. It was just a silent, sole searching stare and then she was like, "Yea, please come back later." That was an intense moment, but I think shew as able to tell we were there for good intentions and had a good message to share with her.
The other day Sister Atkin, a fellow missionary here, told me that a woman in her ward was working at the zoo reading the Book of Mormon on a bench and that some random woman, who isn't a member of the church approached her. The lady came up to her and told her she was just at the Mormon Trail Center and asked if she was mormon. The Zoo lady and other woman got into a conversation and the nommember woman asked her if she knows Sister Jones. Zoo lady said she didn't. Then the other woman said that Sister Jones gave her a really great tour that really touched her and so she was curious to learn more about the church. (Sooo coool!!!) So the zoo lady gave her a mormon.org card (that she happened to have on her while at work! yay!) and told her to check it out and to ask for missionaries to come visit her if she wanted to learn more. (Hopefully that story made sense with how I referred to them. haha) I was happy that story came back to me! It's nice to know that we are making a difference and planting seeds in people's hearts. I was also really excited to hear that the member was prepared and ready to share mormon.org with that woman so she can learn more and act on her desire to learn more about the church.
Have you all made your mormon.org profiles?? If you have send me your link! :)
Here's mine: http://mormon.org/me/2RBH/
So guess what! Aaron Brown came to the trail center on Friday and I was able to give him a tour! I was so surprised!! His sister had called the trail center that morning to see if I was working so they asked me if that was alright to let them know. Of course I said yes. But I assumed just her and her family were stopping by. It was really fun/ funny to see Aaron standing in the front of the center when I casually walked out of the back room. Crazy! I guess it would be slightly weird/ different to see anybody I knew from back home in a totally different setting. I had a good time taking him around on tour though. It was nice of him to stop by since he was in the area because his other sister got married in Iowa. He said it was kinda weird calling me "Sister Jones" haha!
On Monday we had exchanges! That's when we trade companions and areas for 24 hours. I was with Sister Vanderdoes in the Bellvue area of Omaha. She is awesome and it was fun seeing other teaching styles. Their area of town is also really pretty. I think it has bigger trees than our area... BUT we came upon a street that looked exactly like what we imagined in our heads before coming to Nebraska!! It was so perfect that we had to take a few pictures of it during our lunch time. It had the essentials... farm land, corn, barns, and the works! The rest of the area doesn't look like the stereotypical Nebraska image so this was exciting for us! I'll send pictures for you!
So overall, life is great and I am living it up! I love teaching people about the Book of Mormon and about prophets! I am SO EXCITED for General Conference this weekend!! EVERYBODY should watch it! It will also be on lds.org so go ahead and check it out! I promise it will be great!
Picture explanations: We had a blast going apple picking last week for preparation day! Picture of my district: after zone conference and after cleaning the temple. Picture of all of the Sister in our mission (minus 2 who are full proselyting right now) after our Saturday morning training. Always a good time! Then the pictures of me and Sister Vanderdoes during our exchanges in stereotypical Nebraska area.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!!!! (I'm sorry this is a little late.) I love you and I hope you had a fabulous day! You are amazing!!
Well I will talk to you all later!! Bye!!
Love,
Sister Jones
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