See You Later New York!

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all the support you have all given
me over the last 18 months. I have had so many experiences that have
changed me and shaped me into who I am now and I am forever grateful
for the time I have been able to spend here in New York serving the
Lord! I know that our Savior lives, and know that He loves each of us
with a perfect love- and it is SO PERSONAL! I have felt the love He
has for me, and I have felt the love He has for everyone around me as
I have been able to meet and teach so many of His children. I wouldn't
give this up for the world!

I have one last miracle I want to share with you guys:) It was
Christmas Eve and we had a service opportunity at a soup kitchen! And
when we showed up there were 2 men there trying to cook a meal for
hundreds! They were so grateful that we were able to come because
their whole team decided they couldn't come. So we were able to help
out the whole night and it turned out well:) I got to learn how to
carve a turkey and a ham! It was wonderful to see the hand of the Lord
in that though, we showed up when we needed to to be able to help
them!

I am going to miss New York so much, but I know it's not goodbye, it's
just see you later. I will forever love this place, where I got to
serve the Lord with all my "heart, might, mind, and strength":)

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that you were able to make it
one to remember! I'll see you tomorrow!

Love, Sister Jones

We made cookies to give to people!

Service! :)

Temple trip!

Goodbye New York!

Love ya!!

Surprise!

Surprise everybody, our P-Day has been changed to Monday from now on! It feels like I just wrote yesterday:) We have had a really good week so far, seeing miracles and doing service! 

We are really excited for Christmas out here though:) I know that our Savior lives and that He loves us! I love this time of year when we get to celebrate His birth, especially this year as we are celebrating His birth by celebrating the way He lived! Giving service to all:)

Here is one of my favorite Christmas stories from President Monson and I think it goes so well with the #LIGHTtheWORLD challenge:)

"When I was a very young bishop, in 1950, there was a tap at my door and a good   German brother from Ogden, Utah, announced himself as Karl Guertler.

He said, “Are you Bishop Monson?”

I answered in the affirmative.

He said, “My brother and his wife and their family are coming from Germany.  They are going to live in your ward.  Will you come with me to see the apartment we have rented for them?”  On the way to that apartment, he told me he had not seen his brother for something like 30 years.  Yet all through the holocaust of World War II, his brother, Hans Guertler, had been faithful to the Church—an officer in the Hamburg branch.

I looked at the apartment.  It was cold; it was dreary; the paint was peeling from the walls; the cupboards were bare.  What an uninviting home for the Christmas season of the year!  I worried about it and I prayed about it, and then in our ward welfare committee meeting, we did something about it.

The group leader of the high priests said, “I am an electrician.  Let’s put good appliances in that apartment.”

The group leader of the seventies said, “I am in the floor covering business.  Let’s install new floor coverings.”

The elders quorum president said, “I am a painter.  Let’s paint that apartment.”

The Relief Society representative spoke up, “Did you say those cupboards were bare?”  (They were not bare very long, with the Relief Society in action.)

Then the young people, represented through the Aaronic Priesthood general secretary said, “Let’s put a Christmas tree in the home and let’s go among our young people and gather gifts to place under the tree.”

You should have seen that Christmas scene, when the Guertler family arrived from Germany in clothing which was tattered and with faces which were drawn by the rigors of war and deprivation!  As they went into their apartment they saw what had been in actual fact a transformation—a beautiful home.  We spontaneously began singing, “Silent night!  Holy night!  All is calm; all is bright.”  We sang in English; they sang in German.  At the conclusion of that hymn, Hans Guertler threw his arms around my neck, buried his face in my shoulder, and repeated over and over again those words which I shall never forget:  “Mein brudder, mein brudder, mein brudder.”

As we walked down the stairs that night, all of us who had participated in making Christmas come alive in the lives of this German family, we reflected upon the words of the Master:

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”  (Matthew 25:40)"

Keep lighting the world, and make sure to look for your Christmas miracle!:)

Love you all! Make it a Christmas to remember through your service to others:)

Love, Sister Jones

Goodbye Sister Bain!

I sure love her a lot!! :)

The north mission border!

Joy got me the best 

Christmas present I have ever received!

Love this family!

Lighting Kingston✨

We have had so much fun serving this week! It's a miracle in and of itself that Heavenly Father blesses us with so many opportunities to serve as we seek for them.

We have served at a soup kitchen run by a church of another faith couple times this week and I have never enjoyed mincing fruit salad for someone who doesn't have teeth or being up to my elbows in mayo so much!:) It's so fun to be around people of other faiths who have the same purpose as us- to serve as Christ served. The love in that place is real!️

We had an appointment with a less active member in the congregation and we showed up just in time to help her shovel her driveway. Inspired timing haha! The best part was when it turned into a minor snowball fight;)

We also have a couple of members who are in hospitals or rehabilitation centers that we have been able to visit a few times this past week to lift their spirits!

I love being able to see how others are serving too! One of our members texted us and said, "Mormon Dilemma: Does it count as a Light The World if I buy coffee for a homeless person?" Haha, maybe just substitute it for a hot chocolate next time;) We took another member to a lesson with us on Mondaywhen the #LIGHTtheWORLD theme was about teaching others! We had a miracle last night when we got out of an appointment we decided that we should knock a couple doors in the area- the first couple that we knocked weren't very interested so we were wondering if there was another area we should be, but we decided to knock one more door. A lady named Mary answered and she was so sweet, she watched the video and said she wanted to share it with her kids because they are always looking for ways that they can help out in the community! Miracles. Ah! The world is being brightened one act of service at a time, its beautiful:)

I'm so excited for this next week as well, we have our Ward Christmas party and we have set up a clothing and food donation to deliver to those in need. We are also going to set up a stand to wrap people's Christmas gifts for them and show them #LIGHTtheWORLD!:) And caroling, lots of caroling!

Keep up the good work lighting the world my lovelies! I love you all and I hope you have been able to see the effect your service has had on so many:)

Have a spectacular week!

Love, Sister Jones

Splits! 

And one of my favorite members, 

Mary:)

Love my little friend!

These men drive around town 

on their motorcycles 

wearing Christmas costumes:) 

We have seen them a 

couple of times, 

they are the greatest!

"I am the light which ye shall hold up"

I hope you have all had a successful week lighting the world! Keep holding up that light:) 

"Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up--that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed." 3 Nephi 18:24

Here are a few bright moments in our week:)

We have an investigator who has been struggling with a lot lately, so we haven't been able to meet with her for a few weeks. But we were able to meet with her yesterday! We really felt that we needed to share the message of the Restoration with her again, so we went in there and didn't waste a second! The Spirit flooded the room as we started teaching. The words flowed and I was amazed by how each principle that we taught was able to apply so specifically and personally to her. Heavenly Father is so aware of us, He knows what is going to help us in our times of need, and He sends those to us that can help us through it:) I know that I have been sent to help people, but even more so I know that I have been sent here so that they can help me. That lesson yesterday helped me a lot- and I know she was able to feel it too. "Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." D&C 50:22

We also had a relief society activity yesterday! And we had a really fun activity, we each had a paper with #LIGHTtheWORLD on it and we got to write one way that we are going to serve, and then we all took a picture holding our signs. I just thought it was so cool to be able to read some of the ideas that people came up with- writing a letter to someone, greeting everyone with a hug, praying for someone in need- simple things that make a big difference:) I've just been thinking about all the little things like that that people have done for me that have helped me so much when I needed it! Thanks to all you who have done that for me, keep it up!

On Sunday we went to go deliver cookies to people! The best part was to see how their faces lit up when we gave them the cookies, you could just see how much they appreciated it. Seriously, I am stepping up on my soap box really bad right now! But service is something that is SO easy, and you can make someone's day just by bringing them cookies! I call that a miracle if I ever saw one haha!

I have loved, loved, loved this initiative and stretching to think of more ways that we can help people throughout this month. Heavenly Father always blesses us with more ideas in our minds as we act on them! 

Have a wonderful week, and enjoy making this the BRIGHTEST Christmas season ever!:) 

⭐️️⚡️

Love, Sister Jones

Wonderful Relief Society Sisters :)

Everyone participate! 

Our Zone! :)

#LIGHTtheWORLD ✨

Happy almost December everyone! I hope you have all had a chance to watch the church's new Christmas initiative!!! If not, go watch it right now, then you are allowed to finish reading this:) 

We have had a really awesome week since the last time I wrote, and we got to kick it off with THANKSGIVING! We had a really cool experience that day: the night was winding down and we decided that for the last little bit of time we had we would go visit our member who is in a rehabilitation center because she has Huntington's disease, we visit her once a week but felt that we should go again. We sang Christmas carols with her and just lifted her spirits. She started to tear up as we were singing to her and you could tell that she really appreciated the visit, I'm so grateful we were able to do that! It was definitely the most memorable part of Thanksgiving this year!

Some other AWESOME miracles:

Referrals: We got another referral this week from a man who wanted a bible, we gave him a call on Saturday to set up an appointment and he was like, "SURE, how about today!?" So we were like, oh ok! So we got to meet with him at the church and he had such good questions. We talked about the Book of Mormon and he said nothing we said made him feel like he was going against his own beliefs so he would like to learn more! He was so genuine and you could really tell that he LIVES what he believes, I'm so grateful for all the genuinely good people in the world "who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it" and I'm grateful for Heavenly Father for directing them to us!

Less Actives: Such a cool experience last night, we had a few things cancel and we had done our backup plans and still had a few extra minutes so we prayed about it and we ended up going to do a couple less active lookups. One of them was someone I had never stopped by before and her sister answered and said she would pass the message on to her sister- we weren't expecting much out of it but in the middle of planning last night we got a text from her saying how excited she was that we had stopped by and she was sorry she had missed us! She said she didn't think it was a coincidence because she has been thinking about us a lot lately- miracle #1! Then the second less active we stopped by was a less active that we have been trying to get ahold of for months, multiple notes and lookups and we had never gotten a response, until just about 15 minutes ago when she called us and left a voicemail saying it was probably a good idea for us to come by and visit! Both of them were such a miracle and a really cool change of heart. And I'm really glad we decided to pray and ask what Heavenly Father would have us do with those last few minutes of our night!

I hope you all will decide to take the #LIGHTtheWORLD challenge! I'm so excited to be able to spend this month of celebrating our Savior's birth by serving others as He served. And tomorrow is the WORLDWIDE DAY OF SERVICE, everyone get pumped:) I challenge you all to do an act of service tomorrow, doesn't need to be anything big- just from the heart:) Please write me and let me know how it goes! Love you all! Make it a SERVICE-Y week:)

Love, Sister Jones

Merry Christmas! :)

   This was the baptism Hanna missed by a few days 

when she got transferred from the Bronx.

                                                      "Joy sent me this picture of her baptism! 

                                                      It filled me to the brim with happiness! :) " 

 "It was Sister Heiner's birthday! 

We crashed a little girl's birthday party ;) 

Haha, actually our Investigator invited us to 

her daughter's birthday party- it was so sweet! :)  

Also, excuse my face- 

I get a little excited over tres leches cake! :) "

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all, I'm grateful for my companion! She is living and we are finally together haha!:) She was able to make it here to Kingston on Thursday. Her name is Sister Heiner and she is from Ogden, Utah. We have a lot of fun together!:)

This week has been especially miraculous! Transfers tend to bring miracles with them, it's fun to see how we are all called to the area we are in for a reason!

A couple of my favorites:

District Meeting- We had Zone Conference on Monday and that is usually when we have District Meeting, so Sister Heiner and I thought there wasn't District Meeting this week because that is what we have seen in the past (Zone Conference replaces District Meeting). However, somehow word didn't get around to us and we missed District Meeting, which had apparently been moved to Tuesday... but the miracle in the story is the lesson we were able to have when we should've been in New Paltz for District Meeting! We met with one of our investigators who has been through a lot lately, and she really needed us that morning. We were able to testify to her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and I truly could feel the Spirit speaking through us as our Father in Heaven comforted His daughter. I'm in awe at the many different ways Heavenly Father brings His purposes about, even things as silly as 2 Sister Missionaries not getting the memo about District Meeting.

Referral- We received a referral for someone who had ordered a copy of the Bible and the Book of Mormon, SO EXCITING! And so we called and set up an appointment and we got to meet with him! I think we may have been talking to the 14-year-old Joseph Smith himself! All the same questions, all the same concerns. I have never felt so confident in telling someone that the message of the Restoration would answer their questions and bless their life. And both Sister Heiner and I could see this man and his family as members of the church, passing the sacrament, sealed in the temple, all of it. It was an amazing feeling! But I think it's a miracle to be able to witness firsthand how Heavenly Father is preparing His children to accept this Gospel! I LOVE being a missionary!!!

I love you all! Make it a marvelous Thanksgiving week!:)

Love, Sister Jones 

Random car selfie! :)

#becausewecan

Happy 9 months

Sister Heiner! :)

Transfer Week!

What an eventful week! On Monday morning we found out that Sister Lin was going to Harlem! And then Tuesday was transfer day! We had expected to stay together so that was a shock, and everything happened so fast and now she is gone! Haha, it left me with my head spinning for sure:) Now, the fun part- my new companion! Her name is a Sister Heiner, however, I haven't met her yet! She is sick and in the city:( SO, in the meantime I am in Poughkeepsie with a Sister Coffee and Sister Leavitt until tomorrow!  So all of the happenings of the last couple of days have chased most of my memories of the last week away! Let's see what I can fish out though!

At church this week we had 2 investigators and 3 less actives we are working with come to church- it was so wonderful- my heart was full:)

We also had a member come to a lesson with us! He is a YSA who is preparing to leave on his mission in just a few weeks! It was a cool experience:) So, I want to step up on my soap box for just a quick second and tell you all to go find some teaching opportunities with the missionaries! Especially if you are preparing or planning on a mission- there is no greater feeling than the Spirit working through you and testifying to others that this message is true, I have never gained a greater testimony than I have doing just that. I know the church is true, and I know this work is real! My heart is full of gratitude that I get to be a missionary at this time, there is no place I would rather be than among the wonderful people of New York sharing the greatest message of all time.

Love you all, talk to you next week! Make it a magnificent 

Love, Sister Jones 

Goodbye Sister Lin! ;(

My new companions, Haha! :)

Isn't he cute?! :)