Sister Training's and Birthdays:)

Hello everybody!:) This week was not one of our crazier weeks, for
which I am grateful:) But awesome things still happened!

First, I turned 20! Party;) Haha just kidding! It was really cool
though, a birthday on a mission is something different! Sister
Quackenbush and I had fun, we made a giant cookie with a mountain of
ice cream on it for breakfast (we thought we would have something
healthy for a change;))! And we also got to go to a member's house for
dinner and they made me a cake! It was a good day! Plus, what better
day to have a birthday than a Sunday?:)

And we also had a training just for the Sisters in the mission on
Tuesday! It was so spiritual! I loved hearing from Sister Smith and
the other women that came to speak to us! Something that really stood
out to me was something that Sister Smith said. She read Moses 1:3-4,
13, & 16 and I loved it! God is talking to Moses and He says, "look at
me, I have created all these amazing things, I am all powerful and
amazing! And look at you! You are my son!" And then after this amazing
experience, Moses is tempted by Satan, but because he knew who his
father was he was able to escape it! We know that we are children of
God! Think about how amazing that is! Read Moses 1:3-4 and really
think about what it means to be the child of someone so amazing! And
because we know this, we can tell Satan, "Who do you think you are!?
Because I am a child of God, He told me so! And you don't have any
power over me!" We learned a lot more yesterday, but that really stood
out to me as true. I am so grateful to know I am a child of God:)

And, speaking of children, one last thing! Congratulations to my best
friend for having her baby on the 20th! What a special experience!
That baby was just with her Heavenly Father, it is so amazing to think
about!:) So, congratulations Meriken and Austin! And Happy Birthday
Emma:)

God loves you! And I do too!:)

Love, Sister Jones

Hanna got to go to the 9/11 memorial for p-day yesterday.  She wrote her update before they went & then sent pictures later.  So, I don't know if she will talk about it next week or not.  I thought I would include some of what she shared. She said of the experience:  

"The most beautiful and haunting thing I have ever been to. I'm in awe."

9/11 Memorial

Sister's training :)

Happy Birthday packages! :)

❤️Happy Valentine's Day!❤️

Spiritual Highlights 🏻

*We are still delivering A LOT of bibles:) And we were going to
deliver one the other day and the woman said she wasn't going to be
home, but that her aunt would so we could just drop it off to her. So
we went and her aunt answered, and we gave her the bible and were
about to walk away when we decided to ask her name. She told us and
then asked us ours and what church we were from, so we said the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the Mormons. And she asked
why... And that is our favorite question to answer:) She invited us in
and we talked for like 45 minutes about the church and she was so
excited to read the Book of Mormon, she thought it made so much sense
to have more scripture! And she has been trying out a lot of different
churches lately but hasn't found one that she feels the Spirit in yet,
so we invited her to ours! And it was such an amazing lesson, and I'm
so grateful that we followed the prompting to ask her name, and then
to refer to ourselves as Mormons!:)

*Another experience delivering a bible! We got to one of them when we
realized we didn't have an apartment number... And she didn't answer
her phone, so we were about to leave, but I felt that we shouldn't- so
we decided to tract the building. And the first door we knocked on
this man answers, and we start talking about the church and he is kind
of laughing at us but we keep going. And we talk for about a half an
hour and he is just getting more and more sincere. So we left him with
a Book of Mormon and an address to the church and he said he would
read it, and that we might see him at church sometime. The Spirit
really does soften hearts! And when he shut the door, we felt we had
done our job and didn't need to finish tracting the building, so we
left:)

*Adriane is amazing:) She is a recent convert that we visit once a
week, and this week we decided to talk about Esther's courage. And
after the lesson Adriane said she didn't know how we did it, how we
always talk about the right thing. She said every time we come over
she has been thinkin and studying about someone all week and that is
what we come over to talk about! And we got to testify to her of the
Spirit's guidance:) And I am SO grateful for the Spirit, He is guiding
us even when we don't know it sometimes, I know that isn't us teaching
Adriane exactly what she needs to hear every week, it is God telling
us what to do! Because He knows her perfectly, and He loves her! And I
love that I get to be a part of that!

*We had an amazing lesson with Quiahni and Mathew, I'm not sure if
I've talked about them yet? But it was an accident that we found them,
we were delivering a bible for their mom and she sent it to their
address instead of her own! Anyway, we set up another appointment with
them and we got their and we started talking. And Mathew said that he
had had plans for the day but he had canceled them because he knew our
visit was more important. It makes me so happy to see people
sacrificing in order to hear the gospel- it gives me hope for the
world! I know that this gospel is true and that Mathew was right, the
message He has for us IS more important! They are so awesome, and God
has prepared them for His word!!:)

*I finally got to go to the temple on Saturday! Woohoo:) It was a Ward
baptisms for the dead trip and President gave us permission to go, it
was the best thing walking through those doors, going from the crazy
busy streets to silence- the Spirit hits you like a rock when you walk
in! We weren't able to do the baptisms ourselves but we got to be
there for Delight, a recent convert, and it was her first time in the
temple! It was such an amazing experience!:)

*Sunday was amazing! It was Valentine's Day, so we bought little
valentines and gave them to everyone in the Ward and it was really fun
to see them smile, it's little things that make people smile that make
me the happiest! And it was also amazing because both Delight and
Adriane spoke in Sacrament Meeting! Their testimonies are so rock
solid it blows my mind:) They have such a pure knowledge of the truth
of this gospel and it was so clear as they were speaking. Their words
made it easy for the Spirit to testify to the rest of us that what
they were saying was true!:)


Funnies 

This week was more of a spiritual week I suppose! But I've got one for you:)

~So, Monday was Wyatt's birthday! And, for some reason, I always have
the birthday song stuck in my head- just don't ask why, Sister
Quackenbush will attest to the fact that one of two songs will always
be stuck in my head, the birthday song, or the Klondike Bar jingle...
 ??   So I was really happy that I actually had someone to sing the
birthday song too, FINALLY! Happy Birthday Wyatthan:)

So, that's all for my week!:) I love you all and I'm so grateful for
this gospel and how happy I know it makes people! Have a good week!

Love, Sister Jones

Us and Delight at the temple!:)

She got Wyatt some birthday candy from here. 

  "This is the coolest candy place:) "

                                                                    This is from last weeks p-day.

                                                                             "Trinity Church!"

Another Week in the Bronx:)

Spiritual Highlights of this week:

We had an amazing lesson with a less active family Wednesday night! It
is a mom and her 2 little boys and one of the little boys is deaf! And
their mom wanted us to teach them how to pray, so we went through the
steps of how to pray with them- and the Spirit was so strong when we
finished and asked them to repeat the steps back to us! And I know I
was being helped in that lesson, I never had to think how to sign
something, it just came to me. The gift of tongues (the gifts of
hands?) is real!:)

Planning day! Planning takes up most of our day, but it is so worth
it! But the spiritual highlight Thursday was the conversation
Sister Quackenbush and I had during our dinner break. It was all
focused on Joseph Smith and the early days of the church, and my
testimony of Joseph Smith was strengthened so much in that
conversation! I know he was a true prophet and I know he restored the
true church back on the earth and because of that, I get to have it in
my life and I get to share it with everyone in New York!:) We are
lucky people to have this gospel!

We had a miracle on Saturday! We were on our way to a lesson when we
realized we were a lot further away than we thought and we weren't
going to make it there on time... So Sister Quackenbush called the
woman we were going to visit and told her we would be about 15 minutes
late, and I looked at her like she was crazy because there was no way
we would get there in 15-20 minutes. But she said she just felt like
she should tell her that, so we started on our way. And we had to take
2 buses and 2 trains to get there and each time we got off one, the
next was waiting right where we needed it! On one of the buses we
even missed our stop so we had to take a different train that was
closer to where we got off, but that one was there waiting too! So
what would have normally taken us 45 minutes to travel, somehow took
us only 20 and we were able to have an amazing lesson. This is God's
work, He is guiding it, and He will make things happen if they need
to!

Conference is 7 weeks people! And Sister Quackenbush and I realized
that in a lesson with a less active on Sunday because we were talking
about following the prophet and we shared a conference talk from
President Monson. And we kind of got a little excited about it... And
the cool part about it was that our excitement rubbed off on them and
they are really excited to watch conference:) This gospel is a happy
thing and if we show that to people, show our excitement for the
gospel, THEY get excited about it too! We don't need to sit and bear a
formal testimony to everyone we see, just letting how much we love the
gospel show in our actions is bearing testimony to those around us:)

Funnies:

One of our recent convert's daughters is hilarious! She is 4 and she
is quite the diva:) We had a lesson with them and she took my iPad and
I now have about 80 selfies of her haha! She also is a performer/model
and she entertained us with a rendition of One Direction's "Gotta Be
You"- it was the best:)

Sister Quackenbush and I have decided to run the stairs in our
apartment building every Saturday for our workout in the morning...
And we got to the top floor and were running up the last set of stairs
up to the fire escape. Did you know there are motion sensor fire
alarms? Neither did I.

I went on a split with Hermana Tesch yesterday and we wanted to do
something nice for our companions, so we decided to get them their
favorite treats! So we went to 2 different stores looking for birthday
cake ice cream and a small package of sour patch kids, and neither had
them! But we walked past the register and realized they had birthday
cake gum... And sour patch kids gum... So we got close enough! (Just
for future reference, birthday cake gum doesn't taste the best haha:))

Have a great week!

Hanna sent these pictures later that day.  She got to go out and do "touristy" things for the day! :)

The Brooklyn Bridge!

"Broadway and Wall Street- sound familiar?

 (hint: it's from my favorite movie "

"and BLOOMINGDALES!!"

Zone Conference!

This week was a pretty uneventful week. Well, uneventful for the city!

We are running around all day and trying to find people to teach- and
we are still trying to deliver all the bibles people have ordered!:)
But the most exciting thing this week was the Zone Conference we had:)

It's only once every 3 months that we have a Zone Conference and I
love them. I love hearing from President Smith and having him tell us
how we can be better missionaries! This time he really focused on how
we can work with members in our Wards to help with the work, and it
got me really excited to be able to be a missionary when I get home
haha! I'm excited now to work with members and all, but I'm just glad
I can keep teaching people about the gospel even when my time here is
done:)

I love everything about my mission, I love the people, I love the
places, I love the Spirit. My testimony has grown so much! I know that
this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that
he translated the Book of Mormon so that we can have it! And don't get
me started on the Book of Mormon haha, all missionaries claim the Book
of Mormon is their favorite book- and now I understand why:) I don't
know how to explain how a book can make life so much better, how is a
book going to help me have the energy I need to get out of bed
everyday? How is a book going to keep me safe, or help me feel God's
love? I can't explain it, it just does. And I'm so grateful I get to
carry it with me wherever I go and share it with everyone I meet:)
People don't know what they are missing out on! They really don't, so
it's my job and your job to tell 'em about it:)

The Bronx is crazy and I love it:)

And I love you guys!

Love, Sister Jones

Hanna went to Cloisters for p-day & sent these pictures later in the day.  Cloisters is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It houses their European medieval artifacts. 

"These are from The Cloisters that we got to go to today:) It was so cool! "

This is a tomb in Cloisters

This one is a stinkin NARWHAL HORN!!

It was the best!! :)

 Hermana Tesch, Hermana

                                                              Pressley, me, and Sister Quackenbush:)