Crazy women!

Hey y'all!!

Jessica is getting baptized in Nac this Saturday at
1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be skyping in for it!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a great week! Probably the calmest week this transfer
will have seeing as we will start exchanges next week! I got to train
in our Zone meeting with the Zone Leaders about the mission goals,
that was fun! I love that our mission is so goal oriented!

On Saturday morning we met with our investigators, Seth and Lillian
and Lillian's sister, Samantha! They are all from Kenya! They are so
sweet and have such real intent! They really want to know if our
message is true. Seth is going to Kenya for a month for a funeral so I
probably won't see him again! But Lillian and Samantha still want to
meet and Seth wants to meet missionaries in Kenya until he gets back!

Courtney came to church again with her husband Christian! She is
making friends with a lot of the members and is progressing well!!!

We had 10 people from our focus 20 list at church yesterday!!! And in
addition to that 2 members brought friends to church that they
introduced to us and want us to teach!!! In the 6th Ward our gospel
principles class was so full of investigators, less actives, and their
fellow-shippers so we had to find a bigger room!!! It was a miracle!
The best problem to have! We are getting member referrals left and
right! Members are texting us with their friends that they want us to
meet! It's truly amazing! Allen has never had so many referrals!

We visited sister Lively this week again and she pulled out her boxes
of pictures, she was so excited to show us a picture of baptism! We
kept looking at it and something seemed wrong. Maybe it was the robes
they were wearing or even just the fact that there was a picture taken
of an ordinance. We kept questioning it and found out it was her
baptist baptism from a few years before her LDS baptism! She is so
cute and funny! Her memory is going a little! But she came to church
this week! And she wants to prepare for the temple!

On Tuesday it was raining hard! We really wanted to see a less active
that we had never been able to contact and finally a member was able
to invite her over for lunch and she invited us to come meet her! We
really wanted to get there, but it was really raining and sister
Johnson got a flat tire, but we kept going. We eventually got there
soaked and looking like crazy women! Who goes out on a bike in a dress
and in the downpour of rain?! That would be us! :) it was totally
worth it! We had a great lesson with Sister Snyder!

We are about to get crazy busy! We have exchanges with 10 sisters and
I get to spend time with each one. One of the exchanges needs to be
two days because one of them is a new missionary and I am supposed to
do new missionary follow up with her as well as my trainee. On
exchanges we are also having to double plan our area because we have
been instructed to double work the leaders area as our area is
supposed to be an example. I am so excited to have this chance to
sprint to the end! It will feel so good to finish up working hard! I
love getting to know all of these sisters and seeing their examples!

I am still ponderizing my patriarchal blessing for this week and for
the rest of the transfer probably! I am excited as it helps me to
understand what goals I need to set and helps to form the vision I
need for the rest of my mission and beyond.

Love,
Sister Jones

Crazy women (or maybe just dorky!)

Sliced Bread

Hey y'all!

My new companion is Sister Johnson! She is brand new from the Provo
MTC! She is such a sweetheart! She has the cutest sweetest
personality, she reminds me of the general primary/YW/RS presidents of
the church, with her cute Utah accent and sweet innocence! She is from
Kaysville Utah. She enjoys reading and singing and being kind! I love
her! The sweet sister has been working and biking hard! She has been
falling asleep at the randomest times, the poor girl!

I am still an STL. President released a lot of the leaders in the
mission because he enlarged the zones. Each city zone was combined
with another to double the size. There are only three city STLs.
Sister Taylor and Stringfellow are companions and then there is me, a
loner. I am over Allen, McKinney, and Frisco. I have nine sisters,
including sister Cooper, Terry, and Bushman! I love seeing all of
these sisters from East Texas now back in the city! I still really
miss Nac!

Speaking of Nac, Jessica is getting baptized on March
6th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As for Allen:
Jake and Jodie came to church! Jacob Black is LA (not a werewolf) and
Jodie is his fiancé and an investigator. We were able to teach them in
gospel principles class! They had just gone to the super cross the
night before, they would get along well with my family!

We also taught Christy Dixon's neighbor on his doorstep and invited
him to be baptized. He said he would if he finds it to be true! His
name is Blake and he is around 17 years old.

We keep meeting with Courtney Larsen, she is doing well! Still trying
to find if she wants to make the gospel her way of life, before she
commits to a date.

We had dinner with an elderly couple who just about read my mind when he said:
"Missions are the greatest thing since sliced bread" -Brother Troxell

Love,
Sister Jones

Allen Zone VISIT WITH Elder Zwick

Hess family welcomed us for dinner!

Sister Cowper saying goodbye to the Spangler family

C4, G3, C3PO?

Hey y'all!

 Sister Cowper is getting transferred tomorrow and I will get a new
companion! We won't find out where she is going or who my companion is
until tonight. I am sad she is leaving! I know she is going to be a
great leader for this mission and I am so jealous that she still has
most of her mission ahead of her! After being companions with sister
Bramall and then sister Cowper, I feel like I was privileged to train
the future leadership of this mission! They are both so mighty and
consecrated! I learned so much from their energy and examples! I am so
proud of both of them!

We had a member of the 70 visit this week with his wife! Elder Zwick
came to another MLC this week, and zone conference the next day, and
then a meeting with the Ward councils and the zone leaders and STLs
that night. It is such a privilege to be a part of this work! I feel
like our mission is taking off flying with member missionary work! The
measures we have taken to unify with the Ward councils and members has
produced miracles, I know that this is the way Heavenly Father wants
his work done. And I am ALL IN. This is the most urgent work there is!

During Zone conference I was able to talk to the elders that are now
serving in The Colony! I found out that brother Earhart (came to
church for the first time in YEARS my last week in The Colony) is now
receiving the priesthood and has been back every week! Previously, he
wouldn't even let us in his house, but little by little he let us in
and now he is getting the priesthood!!!!! I also found out that the
less active family, the Mannings, who came to the Warners to say good
bye to me and stayed for an hour at our house not wanting to go, are
now active!!!  It was so good to hear about others who are also doing
to well in The Colony, it is comforting to know the work never stops!

During zone conference I was sitting in between sister Terry and
sister Cowper, both of whom I have back up trained, I just wanted to
throw my arms around them and never let go! Sister Terry called it
"the evil step mother sandwich" :) I just needed sister Vail, and
sister Bramall, and sister Golding to be there so I could have my rich
posterity! I feel sooo blessed to have seen the strength of these
sisters! I swear each new round of missionaries coming out are
stronger than the last!! The younger generations have been saved for
this special time! I think of my 17 year old brother Trevor, and am
amazed. He is so strong! He does tons of family history work, he
studies PMG, and he serves everyone around him , he helps the
missionaries out, he is just so amazing, I can't wait to see his
mission and even better yet, my future children's missions.

We also got to go on exchanges this week with sister Cooper and Yates
again! We double worked Allen for a day! Sister Yates and I even found
a church in an outlet mall! Only in Texas!

We met with Courtney Larsen again this week, and had a super powerful
lesson! She is still praying about baptism. She came to church this
week with her LA member husband and her son Christian the fourth or
C4!!!! He is a cute little 5 year old!

We also met with a new family, the Burns. They are less active and
have a ten year old son that we just set a baptismal date for! They
want to come back, but they struggle getting to church! The sons name
is Gary the third aka G3!!!! So we have a C4 and a G3! :)

We got to take a recent convert, Christy, to the temple for her first
time doing proxy baptisms! She is so cute! We love teaching her! She
just came to our Ward from the Allen 3rd Ward where she was baptized.

Sister Ricks came to see one of the people she knew in Allen go
through the temple and she came up and hugged me in church!!!!! It was
super weird to see her again, she is living in a different world! I
love her though!!!!!!

Funny story of the week: I decided last minute to turn a corner on my
bike so in order to keep my balance and not fall over, after my sharp
turn, I had to ride in a straight path for a good 15 seconds before I
could regain complete control and turn wherever else I wanted.
Unfortunately that straight path involved the direct shot of a
sprinkler at 8 in the evening. I was soaked. :)

My ponderizing scripture is still JS history 1:15-20, I'm on the last
verse now!

Love,
Sister Jones

Sister Yates and the outlet mall church!

Christy's first temple trip!

Sister Lively (LA we do service for)

A member somehow (probably LDS tools) found out our first names and
made us beautiful cookies!

Pic texted by a member

"Girl, we takin these braids and we goin undah!!!!!"

Hey y'all!

JESSICA WAS APPROVED FOR BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!
On Tuesday I got a call from President Taylor telling me that the
first presidency approved for Jessica to get baptized! He then gave me
permission to call the Nacogdoches sisters and Jessica herself to
break the news. President told me that he wanted me to be the first to
know! I called Sister Bramall and we did a happy dance together over
the phone! Then I called Jessica and told her that we received some
news about her baptism… She seemed a little worried and asked what I
heard. I told her she was approved for baptism and she was screaming
and crying and so happy, she could hardly talk! I have never seen
anyone work so hard in order to be baptized, and I have never seen
anyone so overjoyed and grateful to be able to be baptized in my
entire life! So probably in a couple of weeks she will be baptized!
Unfortunately, I likely won't be able to go since it is so far away,
but I will try to skype in! I am so happy for her! That was the best
phone call of my life! Sister Ricks and I broke our hearts with her
and went through so much trial and set back with her, she holds my
heart! I was so happy to hear her voice say "giiiirl, we takin these
braids and we goin undah!!!!!!!"

Another miracle of the week: we visited with a LA couple, the Empeys,
and they really opened up to us! Sister Empey told us, "you must be
special because he never talks like this" about her husband! The
spirit was so strong and softened up his heart. They both came to
church Sunday for the first time in years!

So I have a new "weirdest food on the mission" since everyone always
asks return missionaries...Saturday we ate cow tongue tacos! I know
the next question everyone is asking, so I'll answer right now: it
just tasted like normal meat until I actually started thinking too
much about what it was...

It has been a fiesta week! Sunday: enchiladas, Tuesday:  tacos,
Wednesday: enchiladas, Thursday: tacos, Friday: tacos, Saturday:
enchiladas and tacos!...but wait...Sunday we are mixing it up!!!! We
had taco salad!!!!!! Let's just pull out our passports and go down to
Mexico! :)

This week I am ponderizing Joseph Smith history 1:15-20
I find it interesting that in verse 15 the devil tries to bind Joseph
Smith's tongue, I think he does that to missionaries as much as he
can. He may say "that person looks like they are in a hurry, don't
talk to them" or "you are running so late don't stop to talk to that
person" or "don't invite him to be baptized, it might scare him" or
"don't invite her to be baptized, she isn't ready yet" those are all
tricks of the Devil to try to bind our tongues, he does it to members
when they try to bring up the gospel to their friends as well! The
only way to over come is to open our mouths and testify with all our
might as we pray for strength and the spirit to confirm our words.

I am so thankful to be a missionary who can testify everyday of the
love our Savior has for us!
Love,
Sister Jones

Lead Kindly Light

Hey y'all!

So this email will be short because we are having an extra MLC today.
We had one on Wednesday and didn't finish. We are setting some mission
goals so today I was At the meeting most the day. It's exciting to be
a part of some great mission goals!

We got to go on exchanges on Saturday with the crossroads and Aubrey
sisters, sister Cooper and sister Yates. Sister Cooper was in Tyler
when I was in Nac so we both understand the challenge of coming back
into the city from out east! The exchange was great!

Sister Cowper and I were asked to sing in sacrament meeting in the 4th
Ward, but we were so busy that we didn't practice at all! We just went
up there and sang lead kindly light with harmonies and everything on
the spot! I love the words of this hymn, I believe it is one of the
greatest lessons I am learning over and over again.

We have been getting a lot of really good member referrals lately! We
are so impressed with the members willingness to share the gospel!

Brother Warren and James were asked to bear testimony in sacrament
meeting and they also received the priesthood!

Ponderizing D&C 88:123-124 "123 See that ye love one another; cease to
be covetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.
124 Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one
with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed
early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and
your minds may be invigorated.
125 And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity,
as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace."
I will be learning these lessons all my life! My mission and my family
has helped me with these things more than anything else. I could spend
the entire email dissecting this scripture, but I don't have time!

You know you are doing something right when you're iPad tries to
correct the word "much" to "Uchtdorf"

Love,
Sister Jones

Exchanges