Prayer = More Happiness :)

Ok first off, the Bible Videos that the church makes: watch them. They
will change your life! Well, that is kind of a bold statement... But I
really love them, they help me to understand so much more about
Jesus's life on earth! And you just feel the Spirit so strong when you
watch them! They are just so powerful, I love them!:)

And now, I want to give you all an update about Angie! The power that
family prayer can have is real. We invited her and her kids to have
family prayer every night and we put the kids in charge of it (if you
want something like that to get done, putting the kids in charge is
the way to go!!), and they have. And it has only been a few weeks but
the change is already so easy to see. They love each other more, the
Spirit is stronger in the home, when they pray with us their prayers
are so simple and heartfelt and it is so easy to feel the Spirit in
those times, and the praise Angie gives them after they pray is
awesome because you can see how much it means to them in their faces
and they will always be excited to pray now because of that, they are
all around happier, and the house is even cleaner! The change was so
immediate and I was not expecting it! But it helped me to realize just
how powerful it is to pray as a family! 3 Nephi 18:21- enough said!:)
But really, try to make more of an effort to pray as a family every
night, the effects may not be as immediate or as visible as with Angie
but you will be able to see and feel the difference that it makes!

Anyway, I am sorry my update is so short this week! But we are going
out to dinner with some members and we are getting Himalayan food! I
have no idea what that means since my knowledge of the Himalayas comes
from Monsters Inc... But it sounds fun!:)

I love it here so much! I am so grateful to be a missionary for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I know it is true and I
gain a greater testimony of it every time I get to share it with
someone! I love you all and I hope you have a WONDERFUL week!

Love, Sister Jones

P.S. A couple of leaves are starting to change color here... :)

Here is our cute little District :)

with our moose antler...

Everyone signs it when they 

visit our apartment :)

Awkward since I spit 

on the sidewalk walking 

up to the house...haha

just kidding, I don't do that :)

Skunks and Eggplants

So last P-Day we got to go to the city! And we went to the Met, and I wish I was more of an art person! I wish I could thrill you all about the amazing paintings I saw... But I can't tell Van Gogh from a 3-year-old finger painting! But what was really cool was thinking how old some of these things were, I was standing next to paintings that are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old and it was really cool to think about! But the Met is MASSIVE! We were there for like 3 hours and got through less than 1/16 of it! But we also went to Times Square and that is all that I wanted it to be! So I'd say it was a successful first time in New York City:)

Anyway...

This week was back to tracting for a lot of the time! But Sister Kovac and I know how to make it fun!:) we take pictures with random things on people's porches and it makes for some good fun! We also found a skunk just walking along the road, that made me nervous!:) And today we experimented with an eggplant! It's a very versatile vegetable we decided... We fried it, baked it, boiled it, ate it raw, and we even pureed it, mixed it with milk and cinnamon and drank it (apparently it is really yummy with zucchini squash and we thought we would try it, would I be judged if I said it's actually kind of good? Haha:))

One thing about this week though was that a lot of people we talked to seemed to be having some really hard struggles, things that I have never been asked to deal with as a 19-year-old girl! But they are coming to us for help and it has been hard for me because I don't know how to help them, like I said I have never been asked to deal with problems like these before! But then I had a realization... As I usually do when I start feeling bad for myself! They are coming to me because they trust me, and they trust me because I am a representative of Jesus Christ and all of a sudden I didn't feel bad for myself anymore, I felt really lucky that God trusts me enough to help His children. And I don't need to know how to help them because God knows how to help them and all He asks is that I am there so He can help them through me! And it also made me feel so grateful for the things that I do have! I may be having a lot asked of me, but I have my health, I have food and shelter, I have my family, and I have the knowledge that God loves me!

I also know that God loves all of you!:) and I have a challenge for all of you! Think of 100 things you are grateful right now... It's kind of hard isn't it? Now think of 10 physical abilities you are grateful for, 10 material possessions you are grateful for, 10 living people you are grateful for, 10 deceased people you are grateful for, 10 things about nature you are grateful for, 10 things about today you are grateful for, 10 places on earth you are grateful for, 10 modern inventions you are grateful for, 10 foods you are grateful for, and 10 things about the gospel you are grateful for. This is in the December 2011 Ensign and it is amazing! All of a sudden 100 things is not even close to enough!

I know that God has blessed us with so much more than we even know and we should all try to be more aware of those blessings!:) 

Love ya!

Sister Jones:)

Here's the little guy we ran into! :)

Lovin Life!:)

Hi!

I'm still lovin it here so no worries about that!:)

We had a lot of fun this week!

We...

-Contacted a referral in a prison (it was actually a really cool experience). We all need the Gospel and it's very clear in places like this. It felt so good to help someone feel of Heavenly Father's love for them in a place like that.

-Helped 3 families move... In 1 day (also a really cool experience)! We don't have a lot of opportunities for service in our area so it was so fun to have so many opportunities in one day!

-Discovered that we have a bit of a worm infestation... (Not such a cool experience) But on a mission you just gotta love it because one day it's going to be over and you'd give a lot to be back in your worm infested apartment and preaching the Gospel everyday!

-Hit my 2 month mark, WOO HOO!:)

-My personal favorite, we ate at this restaurant:) I bet y'all didn't know I have a middle eastern restaurant in Connecticut;)

-And most importantly, got to share the Gospel! Have you ever had an opinion, not a really strong opinion just a normal one, and then you start talking about it and you start to realize how passionate you are about this stupid little opinion?! I'm not calling the Gospel a stupid little opinion... But it's exactly like that. I know this church is true, I have for a long time. But when I get to tell people that I know it is true and how I came to know that it is true, it strengthens my own testimony so much! I realize more how passionate I am about this Gospel and I can see how much it has done for me and how strongly I want everyone to experience that for themselves!

So, I have been focusing a lot about miracles in my updates the past couple of weeks, and there really are so many! But I know that I could be working so much harder and doing so much more to help those miracles happen. There is always more that we can do, and we should always strive to do it. But something I say to Sister Kovac all the time is that it's done, there's nothing we can do about it now except do better next time. And I need to internalize that more! 

YES, keep trying to improve. YES, do more to be better. But when you fall short remember that Christ is there to CATCH you! It doesn't do anyone any good to dwell on things that already happened. It's a hard little concept to grasp and I'm writing it to you all partly because I need to grasp it better myself!

I'm sorry this week's update is so short but today we went to....THE CITY!! We went to Times Square and the Met... And it's nuts!:) 

I love you! I am so grateful for all the support you guys give me, it really does make the experience mean so much more to me. I am sorry that I'm not able to get back to all of you all the time but just know that I read everything that is sent to me, and it means SO MUCH!

Love,

Sister Jones

Yoo-Hoo!

Yoo-hoo, hi family!

Transfers are today but Sister Kovac and I are staying in Yorktown! I'm excited for another 6 weeks here, to see how this area is going to grow and change! It's something I have seen a lot of in the past 2 weeks especially and I just know it is going to change even more this next transfer:)

Some miracles God allowed me to witness this past week...

~Frenchy: Frenchy has been investigating the church for a few years now and we weren't able to meet with her for a long time. So we went over to her house and we had a drop lesson planned because she wasn't progressing... But for some reason we couldn't do it, we set up another lesson with her and a couple nights ago we committed her to baptism! Holy cow I was floating! 

~Brother Salinas: His son is getting baptized in November and yesterday we committed him to set a goal to be baptized with his son! It really is just so exciting to see people committing to follow Jesus Christ, I think we forget sometimes how much baptism really means. But it's something I have been trying to understand and something else that happened this week showed me how special it really is...

~Cambria: She is a little girl in our ward and her baptism was this past week and Sister Kovac and I were lucky enough to be able to go. I don't know if being on a mission makes spiritual things stronger or what but that was one of the most spiritual moments on my mission so far! It is unexplainable! But I'm so glad that I got to see it and have the Spirit testify to me again that this really is the true church. How lucky we are to be a part of it!

~Karen: We got a referral a few weeks ago and we stopped by but she wasn't interested, but she said her neighbor might be- so we got really excited and we stopped by. But she wasn't home and we didn't have a name. So we have just been referring to this woman as our "unknown referral" and we have stopped by every time we are in the area. So on Sunday we tried to stop by again and both Sister Kovac and I just felt that this was going to be the day that we would finally get ahold of our unknown referral! So we were kind of disappointed when she didn't answer the door, but we were driving out of the parking lot just as a car was driving in and we just kind of knew that it had to be her. So we hurried and parked on the next street and made our way back and she answered the door... As we talked all she could say was that we had knocked on the right door and that we were just what she needed. I felt so happy that I got to be a part of that, she said we were just what she needed but I feel like she was just what we needed as well!

~Kieran-- We were tracting in an area we don't get to spend a lot of time in since it is so far away and we had picked a street and this first door we knocked was a lady whose uncle had just passed away and she had a son that passed away. So we were able to testify to her that her and her family could be together forever, and it was such a neat experience! Especially after we left her house we both felt like we had done what we needed to do on that street and that it was time to tract a different street... It was a weird feeling but it was really cool to think that we had done what the Lord had wanted us to do there!

Some fun things I was able to do...

*New York pizza-- 1 slice is bigger than my head!! But August 1st is like the Swiss 4th of July and I so conveniently have a Swiss companion... So we got to celebrate!:) 

*Had another lunch appointment in Spanish-- This one was fun! Haha, we went over there and I said one sentence in Spanish that I had been practicing... And then they kind of assumed I was fluent! So they went off speaking Spanish and I just did a lot of nodding and laughing, I really hope I reacted correctly!:)

*Put peppermint oil on my head-- I didn't know that this stuff worked on headaches, but holy goodness it feels magical! Don't know why I felt the need to mention that, it just feels really good!

*Tracted around this bad boy...

(The mailbox in the background). It's kind of hilarious because the bottom one says their name and then the rest say junk mail, taxes, bills, and airmail... Again, I don't know why I needed to mention it, it's just funny:)

*I saw a vulture eating some roadkill, that one wasn't very pleasant:P

*We had our transfer meeting today and it was so fun to see all the new missionaries that are where I just was! But sad because my STL Sister Groberg is going home!:( 

And some random thoughts I had...

> My hair is getting increasingly bushier every day I spend in this humidity!!!

> I've already been gone almost 2 months... I don't get how that happens!

> A mission is kind of like life-- we are leaving behind everything we knew and we knew that this was going to be HARD! But we wanted to learn and grow and help bring people back to our Heavenly Father, and so we came. And here we are, and it seems like such a long time until you you look at the big picture! And then we get to go home, but everything that we experience here is OURS, we don't forget the things that we did or the experiences we had! So always remember that you did make the choice to come to earth, you knew it was going to be hard! But it's worth it, I promise you that it is worth it. God promises us that it is worth it! And one day when we are done here, we get to go home and we will remember how much we learned and how much we loved our time here. 

I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve a mission. I love it and I love who God is helping me to become.

I love you! Have a righteous week!;)

Love, Sister Jones

It Was Miraculous!

This was a week of miracles! Or rather a week that we were able to SEE the miracles and success that come from our work. :)

We had been praying for a less active named Angie, and I hadn't been able to meet her yet. But we had been praying that when we got to meet with her that she would be prepared to receive our message. We thought we meant that she would be in the right mind set, that she would be happy and willing to meet with us, but the Lord took it many steps further! We finally got to meet with her on Thursday night and we were about to start a lesson when she told us of a plan that she had. She had a plan to set aside 15 minutes every morning to read her scriptures and pray to Heavenly Father, and she asked us to remind her every morning and to keep her accountable... What!? God not only put her in the right mind set but he taught her the lesson before we were able to get to it! That morning during my personal studies  I was reading 2 Nephi 2 and I came across the verse that says, "And my father dwelt in a tent" and I have always just connected that verse in my head with another very short verse of scripture in John. So I decided I would turn to John 11 and read the story of Lazarus. And I remembered once that I was talking to someone about this chapter and the significance of verse 35. Why was Jesus weeping? He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus, He knew he wasn't really gone. But He saw Mary and Martha crying and HE was upset because THEY were upset. And I thought of Angie, I hadn't even met her yet but I thought that she needed to hear this. And so we came up with a lesson plan to teach her about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for her and invite her to read her scriptures and pray so that she could show them her love in return. Looks like God had the same lesson plan in mind! I love that God has a plan for His children and I am just so grateful that I get to go along for the ride!

In our area we are extremely lucky if we get 1 lesson in a day. But on Saturday we got 6! I still don't have an explanation for it besides the Spirit! I tried my hardest to have the courage just to open my mouth, and people listened! 

We were sitting in Relief Society on Sunday and one of the sign language interpreters had left, and the other was in charge of conducting. She was about to try speaking and signing at the same time... And suddenly I was sitting in a chair that I don't remember walking to, and I was interpreting the announcements in Relief Society. I suppose it was the Spirit that got me to stand up and do this, because I know that it was not a decision my brain made! And I was thinking about it afterwards and I'm happy I was able to do that, for so many reasons, and I'm happy that I didn't have time to think about it beforehand because I know myself too well and I know I wouldn't have done it!

We are a Facebook mission (I'm not yet but Sister Kovac is) and so we post every few days and we really struggle with our posts because we try to make them too perfect! But he other day it just worked. It clicked what we needed to say and we said it! And this is what it turned out to be:)...

​

We were supposed to have a dinner appointment on Friday, so we went over to their house and they weren't home... So we decided that we were already in the area and we could go look up some people around there. And we found Faith! (And her husband David) Faith had met with missionaries before but they hadn't been by in a long time, when we arrived at the door they welcomed us in almost like they had been expecting us. We started talking and everything Sister Kovac and I had learned or thought throughout that day applied! And... They fed us (not nearly as cool as knowing that the Lord had been preparing us all day to teach this woman, but still cool to know that God is looking out for us. Dinner appointment cancelled? No problem;))

These are cool stories and all but they are kind of "you had to be there" moments. To act on a thought and later to recognize that it was guidance from the Spirit is one of the best feelings ever! There is a quote by Elder Andersen from General Conference a couple years ago that says! "We are witnessing the miracles of the Lord as His gospel is spreading across the world." And that was made very clear to me this past week.

I love you all!

Sister Jones

Connecticut!

Hola! (And there is the extent of my Spanish skills;))

This week was a good week! But I am convinced that weeks are not really weeks on a mission! It is just Sundays and Wednesdays and we pretend the rest of the day's somehow fit in there somewhere!

Anyway, we had splits this week and so I got to serve a day in Danbury, Connecticut with Sister Tanner! It was so different than our area! We taught a lot of lessons and I got to see something I was starting to think I wouldn't see on a mission! I got to see someone commit to baptism! It was a man named Jay who moved here from the Philippines and the Spirit was just so strong! It is one of the coolest things to witness someone making that commitment to follow Christ like that! I just love splits, you get to learn so much about how other people work and then you get to use it in your own area! It's miraculous haha:) And now if I never get to serve in Connecticut again, at least I can say that I did for one day:)

This week was also filled with more tracting! Yay:) I wish there were more stories to go along with that! We do meet a lot of nice people, and that is what makes it easier to keep going! Especially because it is HOT over here and it can be uncomfortable being out in the sun that long! But I love it!

On Sunday I tried to interpret Relief Society... 'Twas somewhat of a train wreck! I thought I knew sign language pretty well, and I still feel like I do, but interpreting is a different ball park! But at least now I know what I need to improve upon haha!:)

I want you all to do something for me if possible! I want you to invite the missionaries over for dinner, I didn't know how much it meant to the missionaries until I was one! I know that it makes me feel at home when someone invites me into theirs!

I love you all and I hope you have a good week!:)

God loves you:)

Love, Sister Jones

The Worst Secret Keeper

Hello!

Another week has flashed by in the blink of an eye and I have amassed a huge collection of thoughts that I want to share with all of you! And again, they have all disappeared as I sit down to write them!:) 

Cool Happenings

* I saw fireflies for the first time! They are seriously magical!:)

* I got to go to Sleepy Hollow today, and walk around the cemetery and took a tour of the Philipsberg Manor there! It was really fun:)

* Sister Kovac and I created an... Interesting video diary about our adventures around Sleepy Hollow, 'twas very fun!

* We got to church on Sunday and found out we were supposed to be teaching Gospel Principles, so we had to do a little impromptu lesson!

* We helped a lady in our ward prepare her talk for Sacrament meeting and I really loved that because she gets really nervous (just like me!:)) and I loved feeling like I might have helped her feel less nervous!

* I'm driving! The keys have been handed to me and I'm learning to be a real New York driver;)

* I ate bird eggs, not like chicken eggs but like little birdy eggs!

* I also ate a tentacle... I'm not sure what animal it came from but now I get to say that I did it!

Spiritual Highs

* Sister Goss, I think I wrote about her last week but she continues to be a wonderful example to me! Next week is her last week before moving to live with her daughter. She struggles knowing that she can't be independent anymore, but she is putting all her trust in God and I love it!

* A young woman in our wars named Liz came out to a lesson with us the other day and we taught the Restoration. Liz blew me out of the water with how amazing her testimony of the Restoration is! 

* We met with a less active family a few nights ago and we were teaching a lesson about who our Heavenly Father is and what he wants for us (look up the Heavenly Father, Earthly Father Mormon message, it is amazing) and their little son Joaquin went a little off topic but he said something that hit me really hard. He said that we all need to be the worst secret keepers when it comes to the gospel! We are MEANT to share this message with others! 

Me emails home seem to be getting shorter and shorter as I start loving it more! I love all of you and I wanted to say thanks for the emails and letters I got, they are the highlight of my week!:) 

Keep building your beautiful testimonies and sharing them with others! BE THE WORST SECRET KEEPERS OF THE GOSPEL!

Love,

Sister Jones

Sleepy Hollow

Sister Goss

The little birdy eggs we ate...