Dear Family,
How are you?! I hope everything is going well and that you are all healthy, happy and pumped for the month of love (or the lack thereof). Things are going great here! This week I had a couple of surreal "That was my past life" moments. First we went to visit our young men's president and the BYU-Gonzaga game was on. The next day we were eating lunch at this hot dog place (that shall remain nameless until I get a picture in the t-shirt I bought) and all of the sudden I hear this song playing and I knew it was Kelly singing...I also knew that I had never heard the song before. It was really weird. Then the next day our dinner cancelled so we went to eat at Costa Vida and the UNC-State game was on. I sat with my back to it...remembering Daddy's theory on us helping the Heels by not watching games on Sunday. I figured the same principle applied. I did notice they made a nice comeback while I was there but I'm sorry to hear it didn't last. Haha life as a missionary is surreal. A lot of times I just randomly think "I'm a real missionary..how did this happen?" But I know I'm in the right place!
Well, I'll just dive right into the lesson...This week we had been tracting one day and we weren't having much luck. We had been knocking for about an hour on and off. We kept going to different areas and it just didn't feel right. We said a couple of prayers and after the second one we decided we just needed to get out of the car again. So we knocked a few more doors with little to no luck and then we knocked on a door and a lady answered. She was english speaking and her first words were "Who sent you here? How did you find us?" Then this guy came up with tattoos all over his body and jet black died hair. He said "No really who sent you here." Hermana Alard told them God did but other than that no one else had. They immediately sat down and wanted to be taught. It turns out Michael has been being taught by missionaries in a neighboring city, has a baptismal date and has been telling Kristy (the lady who opened the door) and Brittany (her 22 year old niece who Michael is dating) that they should listen to the missionaries. Kristy and Michael are both recently out of jail but are amazing people who are trying to make positive changes in their life. Brittany has also had a hard life but is awesome. We taught them the restoration and as we taught about the Book of Mormon Kristy started crying. You could tell she just "got it." She and Brittany both prayed and read after our first visit and were so excited to tell us that they both felt they received answers to their prayers. Brittany described hers as having tingles all over and Kristy found a pass-along card about the Book of Mormon while she was doing community service hours. Michael is awesome too. Kristy said that she didn't feel super comfortable the one time she had come to an LDS church in the past because she didn't have church clothes. Michael said "Look at me! I have not-Sunday-best written all over me...literally." It was hilarious. At another point Hermana Alard said "Joseph Smith was a prophet just like Moses and Noah." And Michael was like "With all due respect Sister Alard, I think the other prophets were great but Joseph Smith is not just any prophet." And he went on and on about everything Joseph went through to restore the church. It was awesome. We were worried we wouldn't be able to teach them because they are english speaking but our mission president gave us special permission so we are super excited! Kristy came to Stake Conference and really felt the spirit. It was so neat and we are so pumped!
Paraphrasing an Elder Bednar talk we watched in the MTC he said, "Don't worry about whether the spirit is guiding you...follow the spirit and trust that if you are trying to be a good girl or good boy you will end up where you're supposed to be and many times you will have no idea how you got there." This week I tried to follow President Monson's council and "consider the blessings" that I have received in my life. I realized as I wrote a lot of my blessings that I have seen what Elder Bednar was talking about on a very broad scale in my life and as well as in small ways like being led to Kristy and Brittany's door on my mission. I'm grateful for the spirit's guidance.
We are also teaching a lady named Jaqueline whose daughter joined the church about a month ago. Jaqueline has been one of the most fun experiences on my mission. The first time we went to visit her (because she requested that sisters teach her rather than elders) she had a very quick temper and to be honest was a little scary. She still has a very quick temper and is still a little scary (only because she is extremely animated and dramatic) but we have been able to see how every time we come to visit her she changes a little bit more. Last week in a lesson she noticed my bag that I use to carry about my scriptures and asked me where I got it from. I told her staples and when she didn't seem familiar with the store I told her it is an office supply store. This week she comes out for our lesson and has this bag with all of her scriptures, manuals from church (Daughters in My Kingdom is her favorite), highlighters, etc. We complimented her and she told us she got it from Office Max. It was the cutest thing ever.
Paraphrasing an Elder Bednar talk we watched in the MTC he said, "Don't worry about whether the spirit is guiding you...follow the spirit and trust that if you are trying to be a good girl or good boy you will end up where you're supposed to be and many times you will have no idea how you got there." This week I tried to follow President Monson's council and "consider the blessings" that I have received in my life. I realized as I wrote a lot of my blessings that I have seen what Elder Bednar was talking about on a very broad scale in my life and as well as in small ways like being led to Kristy and Brittany's door on my mission. I'm grateful for the spirit's guidance.
We are also teaching a lady named Jaqueline whose daughter joined the church about a month ago. Jaqueline has been one of the most fun experiences on my mission. The first time we went to visit her (because she requested that sisters teach her rather than elders) she had a very quick temper and to be honest was a little scary. She still has a very quick temper and is still a little scary (only because she is extremely animated and dramatic) but we have been able to see how every time we come to visit her she changes a little bit more. Last week in a lesson she noticed my bag that I use to carry about my scriptures and asked me where I got it from. I told her staples and when she didn't seem familiar with the store I told her it is an office supply store. This week she comes out for our lesson and has this bag with all of her scriptures, manuals from church (Daughters in My Kingdom is her favorite), highlighters, etc. We complimented her and she told us she got it from Office Max. It was the cutest thing ever.
Anyway I love you all. I know that this church is true without a doubt. It is beautiful. It gives people hope and gives them purpose in life. I love seeing the changes that it makes in people's lives. One effect that cracks me up is they always clean their house. Haha! Cleanliness really is next to Godliness!
Well have a great week! Be safe!
Love,
Hermana Jones
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