The Power of the Chapel - Email April 22, 2013

Dear Family,

   We have had quite the week and by that I mean it is has been pretty uneventful but good things are happening here! For one the toe nail polish Kaili sent me has been put to good use and thanks to that and Jergen's Natural Glow lotion I feel somewhat like a girl again. It's a miracle! This newly wedded guy we had an appointment with named Alberto texted us and said "FYI, you three are hott for some mormons..." So despite the fact that Lupe says I was pretty BEFORE my mission (haha Love you Lupe) apparently I'm not completely busted...yet. Hahaha. We are having a blast. I always thought a threesome would be miserable but we are loving ours. I feel like it is really cool preparation for having a family. We call McBride our child...she is hysterical...a complete nut. The other day we accidently knocked on the wrong door for a return appointment and it happened to be this atheist guy we had met the day before. So McBride just says "Hi...we were just coming by to see how you are doing.  You doing okay?" Later we were joking because it was like "You still atheist..oh good...welp see ya later." We literally laugh all the time. Pierce and I seem to have this belief that we are going to be seperated again and because of that we have a hard time going to sleep at night because we can't stop talking. Things are still very slow here but they're good!

I don't know if I mentioned this to you but when we got to Yakima there were two investigators, a family and another lady. This week, within 36 hours, they all dropped us. We have been knocking doors like there is no tomorrow and we are seeing some results.
Last Monday night we met a lady who is very content in her church but her son is having a hard time because he has gotten in with the wrong crowd at school. She told us that she has been praying for him because he doesn't want to go to church with her. We found both of them home together and invited him to be taught. I told her that sometimes Heavenly Father answers our prayers through other people. She agreed to sit in with him and we came back and had a great lesson with them.
Friday night we were knocking in a trailer park and saw a mother and daughter outside. We approached them and they were nice but both said they were really busy and didn't know when they would have time. We walked around the block knocking and as we were walking back to our car we passed a different trailer. Turns out the daughter lives there with her little family and was just pulling up as we walked by. We asked if she needed any help getting a shelf out of her trunk and she said no but then she said, "I actually have a question for you, do you teach on Saturdays?" We told her yes and she asked if we could come back the next day. We had a great lesson with her and think she is a searcher.
Yesterday we decided to drive past where we usually go in Moxee into the hops fields and passed one house that looked promising (there was a hispanic man outside). We pulled over and knocked on their door. The mom let us in (I think because Hermana Pierce was shivering) and we started to teach her. A few minutes later her 17 year old daughter came in. We reintroduced ourselves and starting teaching again. The mom was having a hard time understanding what the Book of Mormon was and so the daughter explained. She said, "Mom, it only makes sense that if there were prophets on the other side of the world there would be prophets on this side too and the Book of Mormon is a record of those prophets." It was like she was bearing her testimony to her mom about a book she had just heard about for the first time. She has a light in her eyes and we are so excited to teach her! Then the dad came in and he was just as cool! Good things are happening here! We are having a hard time containing our joy after we walk out. We always say "Stay calm, stay calm" and then when we know we are where no one can see us we do a little victory dance. It's pretty hilarious. Someone is probably going to catch us one of these days and it will be pretty embarrassing but Pierce does a pretty mean heel click.

    This week we had interviews with President Greer. We had a training meanwhile with the APs and we talked about the importance of the chapels in our churches. I realized as we sat there that so many of the really special experiences in my life have taken place in the chapels of the church. From my baby blessing to my confirmation to my mission farewell to my first testimony in spanish. I'm so grateful for those sacred experiences. Then President Greer got up and he started pointing to an elder who is about to go home. He said Elder, in a couple years you are going to stand up here and bless your baby. Then he pointed at me and he said "In about 14 years Hermana Jones is going to have a little boy and he's going to sit right there and then he's going to pass the Sacrament for the first time. And then Hermana Pierce your son is going to sit right there (pointing to the Sacrament table) and he is going to bless the sacrament."  It was so powerful and I realized what kind of mom I want to be and how much I want to teach my kids. I'm so grateful for the gospel in my life. I can't wait to have a family. But right now this is my season to share the gospel. Please keep praying that we will see miracles here.

    I love you all so much!

-Hermana Jones

Picture 1- McBride begged me to let her straighten my hair yesterday. It is long.

Picture 2- We have encountered a lot of animals here...this is Jack the goat. This is what happens when we tract. If only the people flocked to us like the goats.

Picture 3- Remember how I hate animals? What am I doing here holding a rooster? No one knows.

Trying to Love Again - Email April 15, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

   Hello from Yakima! How are you? I hope this finds all of you doing wonderful! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement in light of the hardest week of my mission so far. I thought leaving home was hard but if I had known how hard it would be to leave one area and go to another on a mission I might have opted out of this whole thing! Just kidding...but seriously. Leaving Kennewick was really really hard. I hadn't cried that much in a long time. Getting to serve with Hermana Pierce again has been a real tender mercy. Our teaching pool is pretty much non-existent so we have laughed a lot to keep from breaking down. Our trainee, Hermana McBride, knows Anders' family because his sister was her nanny. It's a small world after all! It's pretty incredible because her parents are both not active in church but she is here on a mission. I think this week has been a real reality check for her as for what missionary life is like. It is really interesting training with someone else. The other day at breakfast Hermana McBride said "Don't screw me up Moms." I laughed so hard I spit my cereal out.

   When I first got here to the mission field I was listening to a song by Jessie Clark Funk called "Again and Again." The words really helped me when I had no idea what I was doing as a missionary. A couple of days ago it came on again and it helped me again. It says:

 "Again and Again I ask myself why, I don't think that I have any tears left to cry. My soul is so tired, I'm longing for rest. I'm giving my all and I'm doing my best. It hurts to move on from the place I am in but you understand where I've been and you reassure me it's time to start over again."

  I feel like that is literally what I am doing...starting all over again. I feel kind of scared to love the people here like I loved the people in Kennewick. But I know that being scared to say goodbye is no reason not to love. I know that the people that I met there have changed my life for the better. I feel so blessed.

I love you all! Please continue to pray for me!

-Hermana Jones

These pictures are of all the people I left in Kennewick! Sorry I'm wearing the same outfit in all of them.

Email from Sister Anna Walser

Hi Paula,

We had the privilege to drive your daughter to Yakima for transfers and her new missionary(Hermana McBride)  to train.  She is with another Trainer missionary, Hermana Pierce she was with in the MTC.  We met both of them when they first came too.

I took their picture for them to send to their moms.  We are missing her already.  She made a lot of friends and left behind some "life long" acquaintances in the East Kennewick branch.  

Sister Jones' Spanish has blossomed and communicates very well.  She works hard and is busy all the time.  She is a great example to the young women in the branch and influenced them to greater goals of personal worthiness and modesty.  They love her and want to be a missionary like her.  

We wish her the best and know she will have a successful mission.

God bless you, your husband and your family.

Love, Elder and Sister Walser

Part of You Forever - April 8th

Dear Family and Friends,

     Well I've got some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first? I'll go with the bad so we can end on a (really) good note. I'm being transferred. Bummer man...he delivers. I have loved serving in Kennewick so much that when President Greer told me at our baptism last week that I needed to prepare myself to be transferred I was kind of in denial and may or may not have made myself sick over it. Change has never been my strong suit. The good news I will be transferred to Yakima, Washington and will be serving with Hermana Pierce. She and I will be training a new missionary together! I never would've thought that we would have this opportunity but I am so excited! It should be good! A lot of tears have already been shed here (some due to the cruelest april fools joke ever played..I can't even tell you about it I feel so bad). Yesterday I think I made three different people cry..."What are we the Schmultz family, pull yourselves together?" I'm crying right there with them though. On Tuesday I ended up just sobbing in the shower. Sister Doman told us in the MTC to love like we have never loved before and I can honestly say that has happened for me. In short, I'm dreading tomorrow but am excited for Wednesday.

I heard a quote in the MTC by Elder Eyring that said: "We become a part of the place we serve and it becomes part of us forever." I know I will never ever forget the people here. They have changed my life. I have learned so much about how to give of oneself without hope of reward and about humility. I have learned that nothing is more beautiful than seeing the hope come back into someone's eyes. I have learned that the gospel can make bad men good and good men better. I have come to feel a small part of the love that Heavenly Father has for his children and am so thankful for that privilege. 
Last night the elder's recent convert that we have been teaching, Maria Zamora, told Sister Kidd and I: "You know how they say people can be sent somewhere just to help you? You two have been that for me." I think before my mission I thought that a mission was all about investigators and baptisms but I have come to find that it is so much more than that. It is members, families, investigators, companions, recent converts, less actives and last but not least mission presidents. Missions are about people and I think this mission has to have some of the best people in the world. 
Speaking of people...we had 5 investigators come to watch general conference. Cindy Flores and Jacqueline Zamora who are both on date came. They are progressing well and I am excited to see what happens with them in the future. Maria Sanchez, a lady that Hermana Alard and I met in grocery outlet months ago but who hasn't been able to come to church previously came and loved it. She plans to come to church next Sunday and should be on date soon. It's neat because we talked to her in the grocery store because she smiled at us as we walked in and that rarely happens. :) We later found out that she has had a lot of contact with the church, has toured the conference center and works for a member. She loves everything we teach and keeps all of her commitments. She's awesome. All of these women are mothers and I know the gospel could change their families forever. 
I loved conference but I think the biggest thing that I learned was not something that I watched but rather somethings that happened during conference. Maria Sanchez came to watch the first Saturday session. When she got there we took her to the relief society room where it was being shown in spanish. She was the only spanish speaker there. I felt terrible and realized I should've called someone ahead of time to come watch with her. I began to pray that Heavenly Father would send someone. During weekly planning the previous day I had been trying to think of a good fellowshipper for her and thought of Hermana Antonia Sanchez. Sister Sanchez is an incredible member of the church. Ironically they have the same last name. When I prayed that Heavenly Father would send someone I specifically thought of Sister Sanchez and lo and behold twenty minutes into the meeting she showed up. I have a testimony that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. 
Maria Zamora, the elder's recent convert, came to all four sessions of conference and took incredible notes. We had encouraged her to write questions prior to conference in order to receive personal revelation. In the first session she turns to me and says "No way! He just answered my question." Her question, "How do I know when the Lord has accepted my repentance?" I know that Heavenly Father answers our questions and that the talk about how Heavenly Father wants to forgive was an answer for a 16 year old girl who is doing everything she can to be better. 

   I read a quote by President Monson this week that I loved. It says, "Each of us can be true for just one day and then one more and then one more after that- until we've lived a lifetime guided by the spirit, a lifetime close to the Lord, a lifetime of good deads and righteousness." That is what I am trying to do...live life one day at a time, being true every day. I love this work! I love you all! Thanks for all your love and support! 

Sincerely,

Hermana Jones

P.S. Mama I am loving the clothes you sent as evidenced by the pictures. #bestmissionarymomever

Burying Their Swords - E-mail April 1

Dear Family, 

  How are you? This week has been amazing and I am so grateful for the things that I have experienced. Kristy was baptized on Saturday and it was beautiful. She is amazing. I hope you get to meet her someday. Me and Hermana Kidd sang "I know that my Redeemer Lives." It was a cool arrangement. And the words meant more than ever before! 

   We had a really good Easter. I honestly can't think of any better way to spend Easter than to be a missionary and to see people come unto Christ. Lupe hosted an Easter Egg Hunt at her house Saturday morning and invited a lot of women in the branch who probably wouldn't have the opportunity to go to a nice easter egg hunt otherwise and the woman went all out. It was epic. Cindy and Jacqueline both came and LOVED it. 

We have started doing new member lessons with Maria Zamora, Jacqueline's daughter. She is a young woman that Elder Hundley and Elder Davis baptized back in January. She has changed so much since I got here but Hermana Kidd and I recently started teaching her because her mom asked if we could teach her to talk about some things she might not be comfortable talking with the elders about (modesty for example). We started meeting with her and in our second lesson we decided to talk about For The Strength of Youth. We talked about agency, dating and dress and appearance. She told us her whole conversion story and then next thing we knew she took out a piercing she had above her lip that the elders have tried and tried to get her to take out. She then flushed it down the toilet. It wasn't anything we did but the time was right. It was so cool because I kept thinking that this was her "burying her sword" and following the prophet. We also were able to get her to come to the General Young Women's meeting which was incredible. She said afterward that she just felt so happy the whole time. Sister Dalton quoted President Hinckley in the meeting who said "When you save a girl, you save generations." I know that is so true and I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with this incredible young woman.

   Speaking of the General Young Women's meetings...that was one of the coolest meetings I have ever been too. Maybe it was just because I feel a bit spiritually starved going to church in spanish every Sunday but I loved that meeting so much. I am so excited for general conference! I love you all! Sorry this is short! 

-Hermana Jones

Picture #1- We went on a hike this morning with the Mercados, Gutierrez and Vasquez. It was a blast! Beautiful day! 

Picture #2, #3 and #4- Kristy's baptism!

"No Thought For the Morrow" - March 18th email

Dear Family,

   How are you? I hope this note finds you all healthy and happy! Things are going well here. You remember how our family has a knack for getting sick on holidays? Well turns out the luck continues. You see this past Friday was Sisters Training (a training they do for just the sisters in the mission twice a year so it's kind of like Christmas) and we were supposed to sing at it. It was also Lupe's birthday and we were going to make her dinner to thank her for all she has done for us. Well the night before my companion got sick and was throwing up all night. We thought it was food poisoning until I got up the next morning and almost passed out when I got to the bathroom. We got Priesthood blessings and made it to part of the sisters training (we were only 2 and a half hours late) but it was funny to me considering our previous history.

   The good news is that I got to see Hermana Pierce for the first time since I got here and it was pretty much the best thing ever! We walked in just as our mission president's wife was telling all the sisters that we were coming but not to hug us and all the sisters turned around and were like "Awww." I was like Hold your applause please...you're far too kind. Hahaha. Jk. But Hermana Pierce turns around and just starts crying. I had forgotten how much I love that kid. She is so great.

    We have been doing a little activity with families in our branch in preparation for easter. We do a little easter egg hunt with different things to symbolize different parts of Christ's last week in each egg with a scripture to go along with each thing. The families have really enjoyed it I think and it has made me think a lot more about the real meaning of Easter. Did you know that the reason we have Easter Eggs is because they represent Christ breaking the bands of death? I had no idea...mind blown. We have been challenging the families to think of something they can give to Christ this easter. One idea someone had was to pick something we want to be better at and work on that thing. I have thought a lot about that. In our zone meeting this week someone made reference to the doctrine of today which is the idea that we will do things today rather than putting them off for later. Earlier that day I had read in 3 Nephi 13:34 where it says "Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." I realized that I have a tendency not to live for today and that is my goal this easter. That is the gift that I want to give the Savior...to appreciate every day that I have been given. The days are flying by here. I cannot believe I am already over 5 months into my mission.

    We are teaching so many wonderful people here in our area. Please pray for them. The Castillos came to church again yesterday. I was so happy to see them there and they looked so happy to be there. They are such good people. They now have the picture I gave them of us in front of the temple on their coffee table with a dooly under it.  I have seen firsthand how Satan works on those who are trying to do what is right. The amazing thing is that he often uses good things to keep them from doing the essential things. I think that is something else Christ was trying to say in 3 Nephi...if we will but put our trust in Heavenly Father today...he will take care of everything in the future. I know that is true. I know this gospel is the way to true happiness. I know that people are put in our lives for a reason. I'm so grateful for that.

I love you all!

-Hermana Jones

 

Picture #1- Us with Lupe and her kids and her sister Maria and his kids. These are my people! :)

Picture #2- Kennewick is a melting pot. The other day we taught this awesome family from Afrika and fell in love with them instantly. They don't speak spanish so we had to pass them. Haha.

Picture #3- My district out to lunch.

 

Each Life that Touches Ours for Good - February 11 Email

Dear Family,

   I hope that you have had a good week. I was so sorry to hear about Nannie Lou's passing. She was such a sweetheart. I read a quote this week that I though might help Mama in the wake of her passing. Elder Lance B. Wickman said, "Grief is the natural by-product of love. One cannot selflessly love another person and not grieve at his suffering or eventual death. The only way to avoid the grief would be to not experience the love; and it is love that gives life its richness and meaning." I thought that quote was so beautiful and can apply to so many situations in life. I think that is why my first couple weeks here were so tough because everything I loved was so far away. Hermana Pierce was the closest thing I loved and even she was 3 hours across the mission but the good news is that it doesn't take long to come to love people no matter where you are. I have found that there are so many lives that touch ours for good. I have fallen in love with the people here. They are so good to us and try so hard to serve us. I am grateful for the opportunity to love even when that love sometimes brings grief. I know that Nannie Lou is grateful for the love that ya'll showed her. She is in a better place. If she doesn't make it to the Celestial Kingdom, I don't have a shot! :)

   This week we decided to try harder to talk to everyone. We had an appointment Thursday afternoon that we were really excited about but when we got there the man in the house said that we had the wrong house so we decided to try to find the right one. We ended up seeing an english speaking lady and talking to her. She was awesome and said she would love for elders to come share what we believe. We knew we were supposed to talk to her. Then we remembered that the guy we had the appointment with had relatives that lived in another apartment in the same complex. We went and knocked on that door to find out where he really lived. His sister-in-law who is from Columbia answered and said he was not home but immediately invited us in. No sooner had we said "We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" did she say, "I would love to learn more." We started teaching her about the Book of Mormon and she said "I know about this book...it's like the Bible but clearer..the Bible can be confusing." We asked her if she had met with missionaries before and she told us that she had watched The Restoration. When we got home we realized she was taught two years ago. Her sister (the wife of the guy we had the appointment with) ended up coming in as we were about to leave and we made an appointment with her! It was so neat to see how everything happens for a reason!

    We had another experience with the same thing this week. We had an appointment that wasn't home and we debated over whether to go visit a guy that hadn't been home for his appointment the day before or to go eat lunch before Church on Sunday. We decided to go visit the guy and his wife immediately invited us in. They have three kids. She expressed to us that her goal in life is for her family to stay together. It was clear that they have had some struggles with their marriage (probably because they work completely different schedules) and rarely see each other but that they are both good people and want their marriage to work. We were able to share the family proclamation with them and it was such a neat experience to see the hope come in their eyes.
    I hope that you all have had a great week! Sorry this email is a little bit shorter than normal but I hope you are all healthy and happy. I love this gospel. I feel blessed to be a member of the only church on the earth today with the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the very same gospel that He established because he loved us so much...even when it was hard and lonely. I am grateful for the hope that gospel brings to people and for the principles and ordinances of the gospel through which families can be together forever and we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. I'm grateful that Joseph Smith had the faith to pray and ask which church was true and then the courage to restore the gospel to the earth...even when it was hard and lonely. Sometimes our lives are hard and lonely but because of the way those two men lived their lives we can overcome hard times and we can touch others lives for good. That is what I am trying to do here! Thank you for the way that each of you have touched my life. I cannot express how grateful I am and how blessed I feel to know and love you! Your love has given my life its richness and meaning. I miss you but am trying my best to make you proud of me and come home a better person.

    I love you!

-Hermana Jones

P.S. We have three solid women on date for baptism between now and March 9th. Please pray for them! They are incredible.

This picture is of me, Hermana Alard and our relief society president, Sister Mercado. She is amazing and we made a thank you candy gram for her this week because she does stuff for us all the time! Her little girl is Idaly is second only to Natalie in my favorite child category! Haha.