Aprendì Español Esta Semana!

¡Hola!

We had splits this week and I went into the Spanish area so I have been in a very Spanish mood lately! (If there was an emoji of a man with a mustache and a sombrero, it would go here.) 'Twas a fun split, Sister Coen taught me Spanish! Well, basically the only thing I can say is, "Here, this pamphlet is for you. Come to church. Can I have your phone number?" Haha, slightly more expressive- but that is the gist:) Splits shenanigans include: a fancy bakery with DELICIOUS cake, inviting the Hermana's investigator to be baptized (she said yes!), being allowed in to literally every house we went to (seriously, even the people who weren't interested! Such the hospitality!). I'd call it a success:)

A couple miracles from this week! 

We have an investigator who the Spanish Elders referred to us a few months ago. We had lost contact for awhile because we thought she wasn't interested. But a few weeks ago she reached out to us because her daughter was in the hospital, and the Elders were able to go and give her a blessing. And ever since then we have been in contact again, able to serve her in a lot of ways (even helped her paint her kitchen:)). And just this last week we were able to find out that our Relief Society President's daughter, and our investigator's daughter actually go to the same school- and that our RS President and our investigator are friends through their daughters! SO, our RS President invited her to come to church and she came! She even asked us about baptism on Sunday! Seriously, service combined with friendship, the best way to love anyone into the Gospel:)

And Shawna. Shawna is a lady we met on the bus the other day. We sat down next to her and all I could think was how familiar she looked! I started talking to her and mentioned how I thought we had spoken to her before, and she remembered that we had! (She remembered 2 girls wearing skirts talking about Jesus Christ... shocker;)) Anyway, we were able to teach her about living prophets and invited her to come to General Conference (loved the sneak peek we got at Women's Conference:)) and she said she would love to! I know Heavenly Father put her in our path twice for a reason, because that doesn't happen here without divine intervention!:) His hand is in the work!

I love you all and I hope you have an AMAZING Conference weekend! Don't forget to bring your questions to Conference, I promise that they will always be answered!

Love, Sister Jones

Yay, I found it! ;)

I have been looking for a long time!

Splits! :)

and fancy baked goods! ;)

An Answer to Her Prayers🙏

We have a wonderful investigator named Sister Marshall that we have been working with for awhile (in fact, the first time missionaries met her was on my birthday:)). We have taught her everything she needs to know, and she has been praying to know when Heavenly Father wants her to be baptized. On Sunday she came to church, and she didn't seem to be in the happiest of moods:( When we asked what was wrong she said she would tell us later- so we went to visit that evening... and a miracle happened (of course:)) She told us that she had run into the Elders while she was walking home from church, and they had told her that they knew she was prepared for baptism! It was a miracle because that day she was going to tell us that she just couldn't be baptized because she wasn't getting an answer to her prayers. But when she heard that from the Elders, the Spirit touched her- and she recognized her answer:) She decided that she is going to be baptized on October 9th, and I couldn't be happier! The Elders told us their side of the story, and they had no idea that what they were telling her would have such a big effect. I know that happens more often than we realize, you are all such powerful tools in the Lord's hands- He answers prayers through us all. If we only listen to the quiet promptings from the Spirit.

Sorry my email is so short! Rest assured that I love you all and there will always be more stories I will tell you:) Missions are the GREATEST!

Love, Sister Jones

Are they..

are the pedestrians really that way?

We get asked if we are twins on the daily.

Do you see it? ;)

And last..

We are so Bronx! :)

9/11

We had a miracle yesterday! There never seems to be a shortage of
those! But it all started when we went to go visit a less active, we
came out of her building after visiting with her and we stopped to
talk to a woman sitting outside. We stayed talking to her for a lot
longer than anticipated- long enough to see our bus come... And go. It
was a little stressful thinking we may not make it to our next
appointment on time, especially after we found out the next bus was
more than 5 miles away still! But what happened next was definitely
nothing short of a miracle! When the bus came Sister Hess and I split
up to talk to more than one person- and on that one bus alone we were
able to find and teach a lesson to 3 people who were interested in
learning more about the gospel! Normally we can have 1 maybe 2 lessons
on a bus ride, but it was amazing to see such success! One of them
even started the conversation with Sister Hess! And all because we
missed our bus. There is no need to be stressed when things aren't
working out according to plan- Heavenly Father's plan is a lot better
than our own! Plus, we still made it to our appointment on time:)

I want to tell you a little story about Ray. We met Ray a little while
ago while we were walking along the street, we said hi to him and he
started talking to us. He was a little breathless but he seemed so
happy, we asked him what he was doing around here. And he said he has
lung cancer but he was taking a stroll around his old neighborhood
that he hasn't been to visit in a really long time. Ray told us about
how he was a part of the rescue efforts during 9/11 and as a result of
all the things he inhaled, he developed cancer. He made sure that we
knew that he would do it all over again if he was asked to. I have
never met someone so selfless, to give so much of himself to help
others and not hesitating to say that he would do it again. I'm so
grateful for the hardships that we are asked to endure in this life, I
know they are hard and at times we feel it is too much. But I know
that God has a purpose in it, I know that He doesn't leave us alone.
If we keep enduring these trials with hope, we will become who He
knows we can become! That is why I have loved being here for this time
of year, such terrible experience that happened 15 years ago has had
such a strong effect on so many- giving them hope and shaping them
into who they are today:) I'm also grateful I got to meet Ray- he is
one of a kind.

Love you all! Have a fun week!

Love, Sister Jones

Bonus quote from one of our investigators (an older woman)- "I'M A
NUT! Well, not like big nut, just a small nut- like a pea-nut! Ya, I'm
a peanut!"

Tried to get a picture of the magic!

To the right is a lighter line that is 

the spotlights for the Twin Towers!

It was the coolest thing of my life

to see that!

Memorial!

Like an Ox in Olmstead

Hey all:) A fantastic week as always! A few of my favorite moments:

Joy came to church- One of my favorite people in the world was able to
come to church Sunday! She had let us know the night before that
she would only be able to stay for an hour, but circumstances changed
and she was even able to stay for all 3 hours! I cannot explain the
joy I felt!

Jason came to Sister Marshall- The Elders investigator was just
recently baptized and we had the opportunity to have him join us in a
lesson this week! He reminds me of the verse in the New Testament,
"and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." (Luke 22:32)
He has such a fire about sharing the gospel and it is infectious! The
same day that we had him come with us, he went to lessons with 2 other
sets of missionaries as well. He is a full time missionary minus the
tag! I hope to be like that always. I know that life gets busy, I know
we have other responsibilities. But I know the blessings that come
into our lives and others lives as we share the gospel, and they are
too good to pass up:) There is always a little bit of time that we can
take out of our busy schedules to bring others to Christ:)

AND

We are working like an Ox in Olmstead- blessings keep coming from the
hard work we are putting in:) Every time we push ourselves to do
something that it hard, or that we don't necessarily want to do we get
to see the miracles that come! I love Matthew 11:28-30 and I have
gotten a better understanding of it for myself lately. As we put our
trust in the Lord, He doesn't necessarily make our problems go away or
even make them less difficult always. He just lets us see that it is
worth it, and help us to keep going when we feel like we can't
anymore.

I love you all lots and hope you have a stupendous week!

Love, Sister Jones

Temple Selfie!! :)

This is how we eat 

watermelon! :)

Happy Conference Countdown:)

There is officially one month until we get to hear from our dear
prophet and apostles! I am so excited, it's like Christmas! Hope you
all have your countdowns up and running;)

We had another week full of miracles and testimony builders. I know
this work is true and that obedience to God's commandments truly
brings blessings. I heard a quote once that said, "obedience brings
blessings, exact obedience brings miracles" and I know that if we try
to live by that we will see that it is true.

Miracles of the week:

* Natasha- we were walking towards the church and we were walking
alongside a woman and her 2 daughters so we started talking to them.
She said she had seen the church before and was curious about it but
had never been inside. We were able to teach her about how Heavenly
Father's true church has been restored to the earth and that she can
know it, and she can see how it will truly bless her family. We
invited her to come to our BBQ for the primary kids and she said that
she would try to make it! Miracles like this are my favorite, when
Heavenly Father puts someone in our path when we least expect it:)
* Splits! Splits with other sisters always seem to turn on the
heavenly faucet of blessings:) We had splits on Monday and I got to
spend the day with Sister Anderson. Every moment was a miracle but my
favorite were the 2 men we were able to speak to throughout the day.
Both of these men, Monty and Jeremiah, approached us while we were
walking down the street. Monty asked us about the elders he always
sees walking down the street, and Jeremiah stopped to help us after I
accidentally dropped the 10 Book of Mormons we were carrying home from
the church! Both experiences showed me that people DO notice us, they
see the light the gospel brings and they want to see what it is! We
were able to teach both of them about the restoration and we are going
to have the elders teach them more!:) (Added testimony, Jeremiah was
able to see how service brings blessings!;) He picked up a Book of
Mormon to hand back to us and we told him to just keep that one. He
was pleasantly surprised by that! Serving others=a chance to hear the
restored gospel!)
* One last miracle happened just yesterday when we were going to visit
a less active sister in the Ward. I love her! She is very patient with
us, because every time we go visit her there seems to be a miracle
that happens right before that ends up making us late! We had just a
couple minutes before out appointment with her so we decided to stop
by a referral (a woman named Maria) we had received a few days ago to
hopefully set up an appointment with her. But instead of just setting
up an appointment we were able to share a message with her and leave
her with a prayer since she is struggling with a lot right now! My
favorite part is that her mom asked missionaries to stop by Maria's
house. So we did, and Maria was really confused at first but when she
found out her mother had asked us to stop by her face lit up and she
opened right up to us! I know the gospel means so much more coming
from those we care about. Things that mean a lot to us will mean a lot
to them!

I hope you have a spectacular week and that you will be able to stand
the countdown to conference!:)

Love, Sister Jones

We liked this picture...

We thought we would try to look like him.

This is the view of one of our less actives! 

The shiny thing is the freedom tower:)