Family!!! It is so good to hear from you! Mom, I'm sorry about the
watermelon...they were my pride and joy...but I guess they just felt that my
presence wasn't there any more and just died out of pure sorrow.
I'm so happy about Bre! Yah...haha I did take my sweet time getting a
letter back to her, but in my defense I'm opening a new area so I've been a
little busy.
That's right, I'm opening a new area with my lovely and short companion
Sister Seaman. She is truly an incredible missionary. I do remember talking to
Heavenly Father and telling him that it would be nice to have a tall
companion...but that was not the plan that he had in mind. He sent me beautiful,
talented, creative, 5'2" Sister Seaman. I remember laughing out loud when I
found out she was my companion. In my mind I was just kind of like "Good one,
Father. Very good." I know that Heavenly Father has a sense of humor, and he's
probably laughing at the stupid things I do all the time. She's from Sacramento
California, is 22 and has been out for about 9 months. She is certainly a
blessing in my life and after the first few awkward days we've gotten along
quite well and speak in British accents almost constantly while we're in our
apartment.
I am in Greenville. More specifically I am in the Seneca, South Carolina
ward. It is so beautiful up here. We live right on the mountains (or at least
their idea of mountains) and are surrounded by green everywhere we go. The
humidity is bearable, I came at a pretty good time and it's starting to cool
down. We cover Central (that's where we live, almost 20 minutes away from the
church!) Pendleton, a little bit of Liberty, and Clemson, which is a crazy
college town. Dad, I'm sure you've heard of the Clemson Tigers. Apparently
they're 4th best in the nation right now. I'll have to send you some pictures of
all the Clemson spirit. There are paw prints, literally everywhere. Sister
Seaman and I are pretty sure that there is a committee in Clemson that makes
sure that orange paw prints are visible at all times no matter where you are in
Clemson. We were talking to an investigator, and he told us that if you have a
Clemson sticker on the back of your car, you really don't get pulled over or get
tickets. We've decided that we might just proselyte in bright orange Clemson
shirts, so that people will let us talk to them.
Oh, my mailing address is
Sister Alexis Jones
South Carolina Columbia Mission
110 Oak Park Dr, Ste B
Irmo, SC 29063
It is important that every time you write me you put my full name, because
there are three or so other Sister missionaries named Jones. Also, when sending
packages, you have to send them priority or else I can't get them. I'm not
supposed to give you my apartment address and just try to keep you updated on
where I'm living, so they would just like for you to always send my letters to
the address above. Sorry if that's inconvenient!
Bugs...they are everywhere. Cicadas, mosquitos, cockroaches...nasty nasty
things everywhere. The cockroaches are so big here, that we actually call them
Palmetto bugs, like the Palmetto beatles...so so gross. Luckily, because Seneca
is at a higher altitude we don't encounter that many cockroaches, but I did have
a fight to the death with one of them who crawled on my foot when I got out of
bed. Since I'm writing this, I'm guessing you know who died. I sprayed that
little guy with Raid with no mercy...I felt kind of bad afterwards, but he
started it.
Mom! That is so cool that you won tickets to the Utah Game! I've always
wanted to win something on the radio, so good work! Amanda, I'm so glad that you
got asked to Homecoming and that Baxter was SUPER helpful in the clean up. :)
He's such an annoying little tike isn't he? But I miss animals a lot here.
Apparently you aren't supposed to even pet animals...no less pick them up and
love the dickens out of them...so it's kind of a bummer. I do have my stuffed
animal to snuggle with though when I get sad.
So...I have a baptism on the 28th! His name is Dominique and he is in his
mid 20's. We found him knocking doors next to a less actives house. He said that
he couldn't talk right then so we asked if we could come back the next day. We
came back, and we talked to him about Jesus Christ and how we need to follow his
example and be baptized. I extended the invitation and asked if he would like to
be baptized. He said yes!!! It was the most amazing thing! We had only taught
him that one time and he said yes! Heavenly Father truly has softened the heart
of his children so that they may be receptive to our message.
Oh, and that's not all, when we were practice tracting last Tuesday (This
was when I was still in Columbia with the Mission President and the incoming
Disctrict and when I didn't know that Sister Seaman would be my permanent
companion) we committed another man to baptism. It was so amazing. I remember
that we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and about prayer. I said a prayer
and I remember seeing Marquis open his eyes after the prayer. There was such a
joy and such an amazed look of discovery there, I knew that he would be baptized
and that he felt the Spirit. Sister Seaman extended the baptism invite and he
said yes.
So we've had some success but it's been really hard as well. When we first
arrived, we arrived a day late. Since we were opening a new area, you get a
car, your apartment keys, a phone, and all of the documentation that you need in
a box. When we went to get our box, it was gone, and was on it's way to Seneca
without us. The Elder's going to Seneca thought it was for them, and they took
it. So we were trapped in Columbia for a day, but I met some amazing people
because we still had to work! So we went tracting and went to some members
houses and taught a Book of Mormon class. But, because we weren't in Seneca
Wednesday night, we missed the ward coordination meeting. We missed all of the
planning and didn't get a ward roster or any of the information that we needed.
The first few days were really hard because of that, and we just kind of had to
find people on our own, but we went to church yesterday and were able to get
most of the information that we needed. Things are starting to pick up.
So I'm pretty sure that I left the phone cord at home, so could you send it
to me? I would love some more pictures because my walls are quite barren. I
promise to take more pictures this next week.
I think that that's all. Please write letters throughout the week. I want
to hear from you throughout the week.
Oh, there is the tallest man in my ward. He's like 7 feet tall no joke! I
look like a tiny person next to him, it's the coolest thing ever! Oh, and he has
a daughter who's 6'5"! There are so many tall people in my ward! Finally I'm the
short one!
I love you all so so much and I miss you everyday...but I know that
Heavenly Father is watching over us. Tlly, The Lord Loves you.
See you soon,
Sister Jones
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