Week 20

January 3, 2012

Hi family!!

The library was closed yesterday so that is why I have to email you on a Tuesday again. Sorry if that confuses you. It will be back to Monday next week!

Did everyone have a good New Years? From a couple of the emails I got it sounds like you guys had a fun time. That's fun the family got to hang out in Vegas for a while!

New Years on the mission is very different. It's just like every other day to us. We still were working till 9pm, had to plan for the next day, go to bed at 10:30pm, and woke up at 6:20am. So we slept peacefully right on through the new year! :) It still doesn't even feel like 2012! That is so unreal to me. It feels like it just barely turned 2011! I remember last New Years like it was last week! Crazy! Then on New Years I had the realization that I only have 1 year left on my mission! OH MY GOODNESS!!! That still just blows my mind how fast the first 1/3 of my mission went. Is time going fast for everyone else or is it just me? Normally I am on the ball with New Years resolutions but I haven't had too much time to sit down and write them out. I have so many weekly goals that I don't know if I really even need goals for the entire year. I'm sure I'll come up with some though. Overall I just want to be a better missionary and be closer to Heavenly Father. That about sums up the majority of my goals for now.

So this past week we found a few new investigators. Everybody else is either slowly progressing or we have dropped. We're at a weird stage right now where we just need to focus on finding new people to teach because we have been weeding the people out who want us to visit but don't want to put any effort into reading or praying. Some of these people will be great to see in a month or so but they just need a break for now to decide if this is important to them. We are really seeing the effects of past missionaries not keeping any records of those they taught or contacted in the past. It stinks but at least the missionaries after us will have plenty to work with and will have a much easier time.

Last night we set a woman named Beverly for baptism! That was exciting! She said she's been looking for a church to go to for a while and knows she needs to go but has been holding it off. That's just what we like to hear and we have what she's looking for! We pray that she will continue to learn and prepare herself for baptism. :)

So Nancy and Braden came to church this week! YAY! They come up with 1 million exuses why they can't come normally but this Sunday they surprised us and came! Braden, who is 11, said he was on mormon.org that morning and was chatting with the missionaries on the website and they suggested that he should go to church that day. (I love teamwork among missionaries!!) So Braden told his grandma that they should go to church because the missionaries online told him to. haha! I thought that was hilarious but so awesome! They showed up an hour and a half late but I'm glad they came. (That would be so cool if Braden was talking to some of the sister missionaries at the Mormon Trail Center.)

Want to hear something really funny/ potentially embarasssing??

So yesterday (preparation day) we did our laundry and shopping and then went to play volleyball at the church with some other missionaries. Before we went to the churrch to meet up with them we dropped off our laundry at our apartment- bad idea! So we get to the church and me and Sister Ashby are changing into our sport clothes and I realize I forgot my sweatpants with the rest of my laundry, that was now at the apartment! At first I thought I was dreaming... this couldn't really happen to me! But unfortunately I was not dreaming and the harsh reality was that I didn't have sweatpants to wear to play. But of course that didn't stop me, I played volleyball in my skirt, normal sport shirt, and tennis shoes! hahaha! (I had leggings under my skirt so it wasn't a big deal) It was the most hideous and ridiculous looking thing I have ever worn in my life. Me and SIster Ashby were cracking up laughing in the bathroom at my outfit. I even had tears in my eyes because it was so funny. The elders got a good laugh in and said I looked Omish. lol! Luckily I was able to pull it off and make it funny and not awkward. By the end of our volleyball game they all wish they had skirts on as well. Let's just say my team won and I was still better than pretty much everyone. I'm not trying to brag or anything. This is a more musical group compared to athletic. There was only 6 of us there so it wasn't like I had to face a whole group of people. It was so funny though.

Overall life is great and we are happily working and finding people to teach! I love you all!

-Sister Jones