Sister Barnes Got On The Bus!

We had Stake Conference on Sunday and it was at the Kingsbridge
chapel! I've only been gone for a month but it feels like so much more
and I loved being able to see my old Ward:) I love the people in he
Bronx so much!

Anyway, we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Perkins of the
Quorum of the 70 at Stake Conference. so we have been letting everyone
and their dog know how special that is! But the chapel is slightly
farther away from our investigators than the one here in Olmstead. So
we were nervous that not many people would show up. But while we were
on the bus ride over there we saw a very familiar face step onto the
bus! Our investigator, Sister Barnes, was on her way to Stake
Conference! It was such a sweet moment:) And we also had 2 other
investigators come to Stake Conference as well! I was ecstatic!:)

And another miracle really quick:) We had a few minutes at the end of
the night and saw that a potential lived almost right next door to us,
so we decided to give her a call to see if we could visit, and she
said she couldn't right then but we set up another appointment to go
visit. And we had that appointment this week, and it went really well!
She let us right into her home (which is a miracle in and of itself, a
lot of people don't) and we were able to teach the restoration to her
and her daughter. And the Spirit is always so strong when we teach the
restoration! This woman was added to the Area book last summer because
missionaries walked past every once in awhile and talked to her a
little bit. And now, a year later, she is beginning to accept the
gospel:) We never know the good we do!

I love you all and I am loving every moment I get to spend in this
WONDERFUL place!:)

Love, Sister Jones

"This was after Stake Conference on Sunday

 #Kingsbridge"

"Another P-Day split, excuse my awkward face:) 

I am with Sister Derzon again while our companions

 are at the temple. This bakery is the BEST!"

 "Olmstead Avenue! I love the Bronx!"

A Week of Miracles!

Wednesday: All of our plans fell through for the night, and we had
something we needed to drop off to our Relief Society President, so we
decided to go do that and ask if there was anyone she knew that could
use a visit. She told us about a less active that she runs into in the
street a lot, so we decided to stop by! And she was there and we were
able to share a short message with her! And the best part was that we
had no idea what to share... So I literally just pulled out my IPad,
tapped the screen a few times without looking, and came up with Alma
7:11-12, and that was EXACTLY what she needed! I would not recommend
doing that every time haha, but what a MIRACLE!

Thursday: Small miracle, we finished our weekly planning in record
time;) And it made for an amazing week!

Friday: We went on a split Fridayy and I was with Sister Payne!:) We
have a Family History class we teach every Fridayy night and we had a
MIRACLE there:) Sister Payne hasn't done a whole lot of family history
and... Neither have I really! But I was teaching her what I knew along
with the others in the class, and she found 2 of her ancestors and it
opened up 2 huge lines! It was so cool to be able to see someone
actually finding their ancestors:) FAMILY HISTORY IS COOL!


Saturday: We were still on a split and Sister Payne is just really
good at contacting people on the bus! And we had a lesson with a lady
who had a cute little baby boy! We taught about how our families can
be together forever and invited her to our family history class! And
Sister Payne was able to share her amazing experience from the night
before! She gave us her contact information and she seemed
interested:) We will see where it goes!

Sunday: One of our investigators that we have been trying to get to
church for a long time came! Her and her 2 sons came and they had a
really good experience! It is my favorite when people come to church!
It takes sacrifice to come to church, and like on of my favorite songs
says, "sacrifice brings forth the blessing of heaven" and I have seen
how that is true, for myself and for those we teach:)

Monday: We had a lesson with another one of our investigators who has
a baptismal date for June 26, and she actually forgot the last
baptismal date we set with her. But this time we asked her how she was
feeling about her baptism and she said something that made me jump
with joy:) She said, "I really think I want to go through with it!" It
was a bit awkward when she forgot the last one, but this time she
remembers it, AND she wants to go through with it! I am SO excited for
her!:)

Tuesday: We brought a member out with us to a lesson, but the person
we were supposed to teach wasn't home:( So we did some lookups and
nothing came from that, so we were all kind of bummed. And it was the
end of the night so we started heading for the bus stop when a man
pulls over to the side of the road and calls us over to ask if we were
missionaries for a different religion. We told him we were from the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and he said he had never
heard of it and asked us to explain some of our beliefs, and we had
such a miracle lesson pulled over to the side of the road! You could
tell that he has been searching for peace and how perfect that
everything in our plans cancelled so we would be there to teach him.
We got all of his information, and the Elders should be contacting him
soon:)

Miracles are my favorite:) Have a WONDERFUL week!

Love, Sister Jones

Split selfie:) We were about to go out into the rain!

Barbara Jean:) The member I wrote about last week!

It's out of a dirty bus window... 

But here is a view of Manhattan:) What a beautiful place!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

What a crazy week! I found a quote that really rings true to me,
especially the past couple of weeks as I have been learning this
lesson for myself! It is by Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge.

"The Lord’s way is not hard. Life is hard, not the gospel. “There is
an opposition in all things,” everywhere, for everyone. Life is hard
for all of us, but life is also simple. We have only two choices. We
can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have
peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we
can go some other way, any other way, whatever other way, and go it
alone--without His support, without His power, without guidance, in
darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I ask, which way is
easier?"

Sometimes it is hard to choose the Lord's way! But I really have
noticed that as we choose the Lord's way, especially when it is the
hardest, that is when things will always go well for us!

Last Wednesday I was on a split with another sister, Sister Derzon,
and we were sitting in the Lincoln Square church building when one of
the security guards comes up to us and tells us there is a man wanting
a tour of the building. She asked us if we could do it, so we said
yes! My first thought was kind of disappointed, it was P-Day and we
had other things to do, and I was kind of tired, and a string of other
excuses. But I knew where those thoughts were coming from. I tried to
choose to be happy about the opportunity we had to talk to this man!
And it ended up being one of the coolest experiences, we were able to
testify to him about the Restoration. He had a lot of questions about
what sets us apart as a church and we testified of the Priesthood
Authority. We made our way up to the chapel and the Spirit was so
strong in that room. We testified to him about the power of the
Atonement and how we can be made clean each week as we repent and
partake of the Sacrament. We taught him that he can know these things
for himself, that he can read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We
read Moroni 10:3-5 with him and had him insert his name into the
scripture, it was SO powerful! He asked how he should pray to know, so
we read in the pamphlet how we can pray and we asked him to pray. He
was a little hesitant but Sister Derzon offered a prayer to show
him how. That made him more comfortable and then he offered his own
prayer, it was such a simple and wonderful prayer. He gave us his
contact information, and he lives in a different mission but he said
he would be willing to have missionaries come over. And those same
thoughts kept coming back to me throughout the lesson, but I found
them easier and easier to push out as I saw this man feeling the
Spirit! And everything worked out a lot better than I could've made it
work out! And it was such a miracle!:)

And I noticed this so many other times this week, that when I put the
Lord first, when I do what He has asked me to do, He takes care of
what I need too. And I know He does that for all of us! The Lord's way
really is the easier way, it leads us to happiness! When we go it
alone, we may get our way... But it will be our way without the
happiness. If we follow the Lord's way, we will still get our way, but
with more happiness than we can want for ourselves! It just. Works.
Better.

And, I got to talk to my wonderful family this week! I love 'em:) And
I get to be stuck with them forever, WOOHOO!:)

I'm still so grateful for my mission, and I am more grateful for all
of you everyday! Thank you for everything you do for me!:)

Love, Sister Jones

Sister Gardner took this for me

when she went to the statue :)

Battery Park!! :)

This is from George's, a diner close

to our apartment.  It's kinda my

favorite thing ever & super cheap!

We have to share when we go there ! :)

"Don't Get Fat Ok?"

Oh some of the things people we meet say. We had a lesson with one of
our investigators and she gave us a cookie as we were leaving, so we
were eating it and walking down the street, and we walk past this man
who says, "don't get fat ok?" And he said it in the friendliest way!
There is just a different way of talking to people in the Bronx, very
open haha! It's really nice in missionary work because people expect
us to be bold, and they accept it!

This week we had a lot of success! Sister Gardner is just a little
worker bee, so she makes sure that we do everything we can to succeed!
It's awesome!:) Mostly I just want to talk about yesterday though! It
was one of my favorite days on my mission!

We visited an active member in our Ward and she is one of the funniest
people I have met! She is really into the "nose goes" game when it
comes to praying! So we get in the elevator and Sister Gardner puts
her finger on her nose, and I look at her really funny, and she was
like trust me just do it! So I do, and we walk out of the elevator and
this sister is peeking her head out of her door with her finger on her
nose, and she is just this cute little old lady with a bunch of
sass!:) HAHA, funniest thing! We got her to say the prayer though;)

The lesson I talked about at the beginning of my email, where she gave
us cookies, was amazing! In the lesson I felt that we should invite
her to be baptized, and she said yes but she wouldn't commit to a
date. So I was a little bummed about that, but the Spirit was really
strong and I really felt that it was ok that she didn't commit to a
date. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father is in charge of this work,
He has the plan, He knows how He wants it to go:)

Speaking of that. He really does know how He wants it to go! We were
in our way to our next appointment when we realized we were supposed
to bring a family a Hindi Book of Mormon, and we had extra time so we
were about to go back and get it, but something stopped us. So we
didn't go back for it. So we got to where we needed to be a little
early, and we were able to do a quick lookup before our dinner
appointment. And it was a miracle! This sister had ordered a bible
just the day before, we didn't have a bible with us but we felt that
we should stop by anyway. She answered when we rang the doorbell and
we were able to tell her about the Book of Mormon and set up another
time to meet with her to bring her bible and to talk more about the
Book of Mormon! If we would've went back to get our Hindi Book of
Mormon we wouldn't have met this sister when we did. But because we
felt that it was ok not to bring the Book of Mormon this time we were
able to get a new investigator and testify to her about the Book of
Mormon!

Our dinner appointment was a member present lesson too! The sister we
are teaching is special needs and I love her to death:) I know the
gospel is for the blessing of lives, no matter what! I'm so grateful
to be able to teach such a sweet soul:) But I love having members at
lessons, it blesses their lives just as much as the investigators! We
also invited them to introduce someone to the gospel, and the Spirit
brought someone to mind to our member! I know He is preparing hearts,
both the hearts of those who need to be taught, and the hearts of
those teaching!

Then... the appointment we needed the Hindi Book of Mormon for! They
were only a little bummed we didn't have the Book of Mormon, but they
totally understood (God is good!)! And... They fed us too. Haha,
that's always fun coming from a dinner appointment to another dinner
appointment:) No, I really do appreciate it though! I am so grateful
for the sacrifices the members make to serve! Haha, sorry about that
side note! But this was a really good lesson! It was the family of an
active member, her husband is a less active and he hasn't been super
receptive to the gospel for a long time! So to see him sit down to eat
with us, and to see him listen to our message, and even try to keep
the family listening to our message instead of getting distracted with
other things was so amazing! The Atonement is real, it is working in
the hearts of all of our brothers and sisters, even if it isn't
evident yet. Because one day, all of a sudden, they will be able to
recognize all Heavenly Father has done for them and we will be able to
see it in them as well!

Really though, this was a day of miracles! We reached so many of the
goals we felt we should set for ourselves! And we went to bed grateful
for it! I love being a missionary! Sorry about the long email! I
haven't gotten around to writing all this in my journal yet, so the
first time I write things down it tends to resemble word vomit...

I love you all and I know Heavenly Father does too! Make it a spectacular week!

Love, Sister Jones

Hanna got to go to Chinatown for p-day.  

"Not many pictures from Chinatown! That place is nuts!!:) Both of these
are part of Chinatown though:) plus, we got sketchy Chinese food, my
favorite:) "

Manhattan bridge!

Little Italy! :)