Week One in Olmstead: Success:)

I thought moving from the Bronx to the Bronx would be super similar...
Nope! I forget I'm in he Bronx sometimes:) There are a lot more houses
and lawns than I was expecting haha!:)

We had a really cool experience the other day! We were going to visit
one of our members and we got to the area a little earlier than we
were expecting. So we decided to tract a couple doors. We stopped to
talk to a man who was playing guitar outside his house, and he wasn't
super interested. So we started to walk down the street. But I felt
really strongly that we needed to go back and knock on a door a few
doors down from his, so we did! A little boy peeked his head above the
window in the door and asked who we were, so we tried to tell him. He
couldn't hear us though haha, and eventually his mom came to help him
out! She answered the door and she was the sweetest person ever! We
found out that she is married with two little boys and that they go to
their church every week. We talked to her for a few minutes and I
honestly started questioning whether they were already members... I
just felt the Spirit so strongly around that home! We don't know if
anything is going to come of it, but I love feeling the Spirit that
strongly! And I know Heavenly Father doesn't guide us somewhere
without a purpose:)

We also had a lot of good lessons this week:) One that stands out was
with this woman named Rene. We were talking about the Book of Mormon
and how it can make clear a lot of the truths lost in the Bible. And
Rene just got very sincere and she asked us how she could know what is
true in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We were able to testify
about prayer and how Heavenly Father won't lead us astray. Her
situation is so very similar to Joseph Smith's, I'm so grateful that
Joseph Smith had such sincere questions and that he had the faith to
ask our Heavenly Father in prayer! We told Rene we had an amazing
story to tell her the next time we come to visit;)

Anyway, I am loving my new area! The people here are wonderful and I
feel very strongly that this is where Heavenly Father needs me right
now:) It's a wonderful feeling!

Love you all, have a good week!

Sister Jones

"Here is a slice of pizza

twice the size of my face! " :)

We love giving people 

a heart attack! :)

Across Boston Road

So transfers were this week....

And I'm in Olmstead! It's still in the Bronx:) Boston Road is the
border between the 2 areas, so I just went one stop over! Sister
Spendlove and I were NOT expecting for me to leave! But I'm excited
for this next cycle with Sister Gardner:) This is her last cycle, so
I'll be saying bye to her soon too!

Anyway, like I said, I was not expecting to leave. So it's been a
stressful couple of days trying to say bye to everyone I love here!
And I love everyone here... So I was trying to say bye to half the
Bronx haha!:) It's been a short 3 months, but I'm so grateful for it:)
Now for new adventures in the Bronx haha!

Anyway, miracles for this week:

We got to go to another baptism in the Ward this Saturday! And there
weren't a lot of people there, so I was worried that this man getting
baptized was going to feel rejected because so few people were able to
make it. He showed me wrong! The smile on his face through the whole
service showed me that he didn't care who was there, or who wasn't
there, he was just excited to be following his Savior and being
baptized! I love being able to attend the baptisms of convert's, they
are always such a sweet experience and it's just another testimony to
me that this work is true!

We had to be pretty bold in a lot of the lessons we had this week, and
I was so nervous going into each one. I didn't want to upset anyone,
and I didn't want to turn them away from the church. But each time we
came out of one of those lessons, my jaw just dropped because of how
amazing it was! Whether we had to commit them to live the law of
chastity, or the word of wisdom, or we just had to tell them how
important it is that we be at church each week- they all accepted our
message and none of them were upset. I'm so grateful for the Spirit,
especially when He takes over in lessons, because those are the best
lessons we have. When we can't even remember what we said in the
lesson, we just remember how we felt and how our investigators and
members were sure to feel too.

And, my last Sunday in Kingsbridge, so many people were able to come
to church! A lot of our less actives came, and one of our
investigators! Not much to say about that except for the fact that I
wanted to cry I was so happy! That might be one of my favorite things
about a mission, to see these people we have been working with come to
church, and see them loving it and feeling what we have taught them
they would feel when they come to church. Sister Spendlove and I also
taught Relief Society, and the lesson was about taking the Gospel to
all the world (perfect, right?:)) And I loved studying about that, and
being able to teach it! This work is moving forward very quickly, how
wonderful it is that all of us get to be a part of something so big!

Love, Sister Jones

Saying goodbye!  

Our zone... I still don't know... 

Momma Ferguson!!:)

                                                          "Bottom left is Sister Gardner:) 

                                                     And guess who my new roommate is!?
                                        Sister Payne, small world:) and her companion Sister Coen!"

                                             (Sister Payne was also a young childhood friend.  

                                                     They played together at the ball park 

                                                 when their older brothers played baseball. :)

Heaven Is Cheering You On

"If we give our heart to God, if we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if we
do the best we can to live the gospel, then tomorrow--and every other
day--is ultimately going to be magnificent, even if we don’t always
recognize it as such. Why? Because our Heavenly Father wants it to be!
He wants to bless us. A rewarding, abundant, and eternal life is the
very object of His merciful plan for His children! It is a plan
predicated on the truth “that all things work together for good to
them that love God.” So keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep
believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow,
and forever." (Jeffrey R. Holland)

This is one of my favorite quotes from Conference:) And I feel like I
have seen it in my life this week! We were able to see so many
miracles and I'm so grateful for it, I know that if we keep trying to
do what Heavenly Father wants from us, He will see our effort and He
will bless us more than we know!

On Monday we were having a pretty good day, until one of our
appointments cancelled. We had a backup plan that we were going to go
do, but we realized that we didn't have the address with us so we
couldn't go do that. It would've been easy to go home and just call a
bunch of people to see if they were interested in learning more. And
that is what we decided to do, but we only got about 5 steps before we
both realized that isn't what we should be doing. So we decided to go
do a few lookups. And that led us to one of the coolest lessons I've
had on my mission! We knocked on this woman's door and she answered
and let us right in. She said it was a miracle, that she is never home
at that time, and even if she is she usually doesn't go check who is
at the door! So we started talking about how she had met with
missionaries before and how they had challenged her to pray about
Joseph Smith. And she told us that she knew that he was a prophet,
that she had prayed about it and had heard a voice tell her that
Joseph Smith was a prophet. I felt the Spirit so strongly, I know that
God speaks to all of us in the way that we need to hear. A testimony
of the prophet Joseph Smith is such an important step in our
conversion and it was amazing to see how someone we had never met had
already taken that first step! Because of that experience she wants to
meet with us again and come visit the church!

I was so scared to go into one of the lessons we taught this week to
one of our investigators. We were teaching something that I thought
might create problems. So we go into the lesson and I am still really
nervous, but then we start teaching... And she is accepting everything
we say! And a couple of the things she said in the lesson gave me the
greatest sense of joy! She said that she couldn't wait to go to the
temple someday, and that she really hoped her son would be able to
receive the priesthood someday. It made me so happy to see her look
past baptism, baptism is not the end of our journey- it is a wonderful
beginning! And she was really able to recognize that! I am so grateful
that this Gospel is a lifetime pursuit, that we get to live everyday
trying to become more like our Heavenly Father:)

There are so many more miracles where that came from, but I feel like
they all take so long to explain haha! I just really love the
opportunity I have to be a missionary and to see all of these
miracles! God is in this work! I see it and feel it everyday:)

Love you all! Make tomorrow magnificent:)

Love, Sister Jones

"Bronx Zoo!!  I found Zoboomafoo!"  :) 

"I love finding these all over the city!"

I went on a split with Sister Spencer :)  

And we got ice cream... 

It isn't a split without ice cream! :)

Conference Miracles!

Hey Y'all:) This week was so good! I grow to love my mission more and
more every week!

Conference miracle: So we got to watch all of the conference sessions
at the church (but really, weren't they amazing!?) and we invited a
lot of our investigators and less actives and no one replied to us:(
So we were a bit bummed and though no one was going to come. But as we
are sitting and watching the Sunday morning session, we see 2 of our
less actives walk in (one of them with their boyfriend who has never
been to church!), I almost peed I was so excited! And I gained the
strongest testimony of General Conference during that session!
Everything that was said addressed everything that they were going
through. It was so perfectly tailored for them that I had no doubt the
speakers were inspired:) And I know Conference can be like that for
all of us! Heavenly Father is so aware of what we are going through,
and He is able to inspire those speakers to say something that will
help every single one of us!

Random other miracle: One of our investigators went MIA for awhile and
we were getting super worried about her! So we decided that we were
going to stop by at a time when she had been home before. So we were
waiting for our bus and I look up and see someone familiar. And I
realize that it is her! She was waiting for the same bus! And when we
go say hi she said she was just thinking about how she needed to go to
church, and then here we come:) And she said we caught her at the
perfect time, she was going to go home before but had decided to stop
at one more store. And she was going to head out again after making it
back home, so if she hadn't stopped at at store, we wouldn't have
caught her! Miracles!:) But the biggest miracle was the lesson we had
with her! We decided to go back to basics and teach about the
Restoration again, and when we got to the first vision I felt the
Spirit SO STRONG, and I know that she did too! The first vision is the
one of the things I always feel the Spirit during when I hear it.
Other things tend to get routine, even though we try not to let them,
but I always get the pleasure of having the Spirit whisper, "yes" to
me when I hear the first vision. It's near and dear to my heart and I
know it is true:)

I love you all and I hope you had an AMAZING Conference weekend! I'm
excited to read them all and study them again! Conference is the gift
that keeps on giving!

Love, Sister Jones

We got hotdogs from a hotdog stand! 

Happy Baseballin!;)

It got a little cold and windy here... 

This is right outside our apartment haha!

Another Nerf War! They are my favorite:) 

Oh and it's Red Nose Day this month haha!