Texas Ice storms don't get us down!

Hey y'all!

This is a day late because we were not allowed to go outside yesterday, the roads were all iced over! There was no snow, it was all solid ice covering everything. It is melting today though. Since Monday is the day we usually shop, we were running low on food, but a couple in our ward had the prompting on Sunday before the ice storm to bring us extra food that they had and we were so grateful the Lord was looking out for us because he knew we wouldn't be shopping. We didn't let being stuck inside get us down though, we taught a few lessons over the phone and we stayed busy all day studying and calling people. 

We got to see the Nashville Tribute band on Saturday night! They invited the missionaries into a separate room of the stake center with them to say an opening prayer and I got to say it! We also told them about Josh (who we had brought with us). They invited the missionaries on stage to sing with them for two songs from their albums "the work" and "called to serve" it was super fun! Josh loved the concert! 

Josh is progressing really well. We taught him the word of wisdom over the phone yesterday and he committed to quit smoking. He called it the "tele-lesson"

Sister Rebecca Jones has been coming to church now every week and she is super solid. She is understanding the lessons a lot better now that her heart is open and she has a desire to know. 

Debbie and Ben are now called as ward missionaries! They have come to a few lessons with us already! They are meeting with the bishop to get limited use temple recommends! 

We tracted into a less active lady the other day who claims to now be Islamic, yet she was so concerned and wanted her son (who has passed away) to have his proxy baptism done. 

I have been studying humility and pondering on it a lot this week. Towards the beginning of this week we were called salespeople and solicitors and marketers several times. It kept stinging at first because the Gospel is my life and I feel like it deserves more respect than that. It doesn't bother me anymore when people say that because I realize that though my purpose is not to sell the gospel it is to invite others to accept it, it is all God's work. My pride should not get in the way, it is not about me. I am sad for those people, but as long as I know I am doing God's work it does not bother me to be called a salesperson.  Studying the lives of my ancestors has also helped me be more humble as I learn to love and respect them for their good works and sacrifice. I am so grateful that Grandma Rice was able to send me stories about herself and Grandpa Rice as well as Grandma Jennings and her mother. 

Love 

Sister Jones

Matching shirts, Nashville Tribute's lead singer, ice!

Perfect love casteth out all fear

Hey y'all!

This week was crazy, but great! Sister Terry and I called all of the auxiliaries of the Frisco 3rd ward letting them know that we had been double transferred in replacing the Elders and set up appointments to meet with all of them and with the investigators when on Thursday we got a call that Frisco 3rd was being given back to the Elders! Right when we started to get excited about it, it is taken back! Apparently the bishop, ward mission leader and stake president called the mission president and told him that The Colony needed its own set of missionaries because we have more work here than any other ward in the stake. We think that maybe the Lord was testing us to see if Sister Terry and I would be willing to take on another ward when He actually didn't want us to, who knows! 

We have seen many miracles this week! We tracted into Josh about two weeks ago and taught the restoration while he was going outside his house for a smoke. We met with him again Tuesday and taught about the Book of Mormon.  His whole countenance had changed between the two meetings. He had read the intro to the Book of Mormon and was super interested in learning more! We visited him at his work (The Colony Donut) on Friday and he insisted on buying us donuts! We shared a scripture with him and he wrote it down so he could study it later. He has been reading a chapter of the Book of Mormon a day. It will be interesting to see how the word of wisdom lesson goes with him.

Sister Rebecca Jones is still looking forward to her baptismal date, but she had another family member die yesterday which will make three in one month! She is definitely being hit hard by the adversary right now! 

Daniel is still taking time off for discovery and finding answers, we hope he reaches out to us soon! =/ 

Some of our other investigators are also going through rough patches. 

We got a call from a woman who found a pass-a-long card tucked into a book with our phone number on it. She called us wanting to go to church and learn more about family history! This was a miracle especially since right now our transfer focus is on church and family history invites! 

Our progress record from this week overflowed onto another page! We are so blessed in the Colony with all of the people we are privileged to work with! 

On Valentines day I took Sister Terry out on a companion date to get Chinese food. =) 

Hope y'all had a great valentines day and a great mid-winter break!

Love,

Sister Jones

Companion Valentine's Day Date at The Wok

The Colony + Frisco 3 = Trust in the Lord REQUIRED

Hey y'all!

So we got a call late last night from the assistants telling us that we are now doubling-in to Frisco 3 as well as keeping The Colony. I am not going to lie, we were a little overwhelmed a first because the work in The Colony is on fire! We teach anywhere from 21 to 28 lessons a week and we have had lessons during our preparation day the last two weeks. We work with a ton of less actives and we have plenty of investigators. It will be tough to add another area to it. My prayer is that the work in The Colony will not slow down even though we will have to split our time into another ward. Plenty of missionaries have two wards, but usually that is because they are both slower wards...But I am so grateful that the Lord trusts me with another ward and I know that it is His will for us and it is His work and He qualifies his servants. Our ward mission leader in The Colony is upset, but we are determined to prove to him that the work does not need to slow down even though we have another ward. We will excel the Colony work and excel Frisco 3 (we hear it is a slower work). 

The Texas Dallas mission is doing a family history initiative! We are teaching a Sunday Evening discussion with the youth in The Colony and we are going to talk about family history! We aren't sure yet how we are going to implement it into Frisco 3 because as of right now we know nothing about the area, but I am sure we will figure out some good creative ways to excited the ward about the initiative =) I am so grateful for the timing of this initiative because in The Colony we are preparing a few recent converts and a few people that are returning to activity for the temple. 

Sister Terry and I are doing great, we had an embarrassingly funny experience on Saturday. We offered service to the members that we live with and they asked us to weed their backyard, so Saturday morning after studies we dressed in pants and t-shirts to go and get dirty in our own backyard. Since it was the house we live at we left our phone and keys inside. We weeded for about 20 minutes when we heard Sister Warner say: "oh we forgot to lock the back door." I looked at sister Terry for a second and then jumped up and ran to the door to stop her but they were already driving away and we were locked into the backyard. The fence is super high and was locked as well. We weren't sure when they would be back home so we finished weeding and they still weren't there. We waited for another 30 minutes, playing on their play-set =) thinking they might have just gone to run a quick errand. We wanted to go out to work and got impatient so we pulled a chair up to the fence and I still wasn't tall enough so Sister Terry boosted me and I got over and then she is taller so she was able to get over with just the chair. We walked to a different members house a few blocks away so we could call Brother Warner to get the garage code. We definitely learned a lesson there! We will always have our phone and keys on our persons! =) We enjoyed a good laugh about it though! 

Daniel is taking a week or so off of our lessons to have some time to experiment and try out the gospel and work through his problems on his own, so we are praying for a miracle!

 Sister Jones is progressing right toward her baptismal date! =) 

Our other investigators are doing well. We had five less actives back at church for their first time in years on Sunday! 

Debbie and Ben are preparing to do proxy baptisms! Ben was ordained a priest on Sunday. 

Sister Terry and I sang in sacrament meeting this week, a missionary medley. It was fun! It is easier to get people to church when you tell them they need to take the sacrament AND we are singing ;)

Happy Valentines Day!!! <3

Love,

Sister Jones

A Roller-coaster Week!

Hey y'all!

So this week was crazy! We had so many lessons fall through, but yet we saw so many miracles!

Tuesday I gave a training on the Holy Ghost. I talked about how the Holy ghost is the vehicle that drives your words into the investigator's heart. We need to keep that vehicle fueled up and running well, through study, listening, loving, and obedience. 

Last night Sister Terry and I were tracting and just felt like we needed to be somewhere else. We gave our investigator, Sister Rebecca Jones, a call and asked her if we could visit her. We ended up staying and listening to her for about an hour talk about her rough week. She was very lonely that night and really needed a friend, so we were so glad we decided to follow the spirit and go there. She has a less active member husband and she has been investigating the church for over a year. She then went on to tell us that she was thinking about baptism a lot that day and praying to know if that is what she should do and then we called her on the phone asking to stop by! She now has a baptismal date set for March 21st on her wedding anniversary! 

Apparently I now sleep talk, Sister Terry heard me talking about the Book of Mormon at 1am. I just told her well, I could always use more role playing, may as well use my time more effectively while I sleep!

We weren't able to see Daniel at all the last two weeks until this morning! We took some time out of our preparation day to teach him. He isn't getting answers and we told him he needs to put in the effort and work to get the answers. He needs to pray and then read with real intent and pray again. We challenged him to put in that effort this week everyday and promised him that if he did he would get an answer. So my prayers and fasting this week will be for him!

Three of our less actives came to church this week and bore their testimonies! 

Best part of the week for last! Elder Nelson and Elder Robbins came to speak to us on Friday! We each were able to shake their hands and hear them speak to us. Russel M. Nelson talked about overcoming "the gap" or feeling unworthy or like you aren't living up to your calling. He said we can overcome that with enthusiasm. En: in Theos: the spirit of the Lord to enthusiasm means working in the spirit of the Lord. He also gave us an apostolic priesthood blessing, which was so amazing! He blessed us to live as true disciples, to feast upon Christ's words and apply them, to be an attraction to all contacts, with health and safety, loyal and faithful, and exactly and totally obedient to qualify for miracles.

Love,

Sister Jones

 Conference with Elder Nelson & Elder Robbins

Sis. Jones & Sis. Warren (high school friend)