Musical Me

This week has been muy bueno in many ways. Sister Seaman and I got a call from Sister Ross, the choir director in our ward, and she said that a last minutes musical number had fallen through, and that she heard that we were some talented gals. We have sung in relief society before, so I guess that the news is circulating that there are some seriously skilled savvy sisters (say that five times fast ;)) in their midst. Haha just kidding, but she asked us to think about songs with prayer. We decided on Did you Think to Pray, which I was a little hesitant on, because it is just so repetitive. There isn't a whole lot to the melody and I just didn't like it very much...but I humbled myself and said that I would go with whatever she wanted us to do. We headed over to her house Friday night and as it would turn out, she had an amazingly cool arrangement of Did you think to Pray! I sang alto (weird for me, I'm usually the loud high one :) ) and Sister Seaman and I clicked really well together. We sing a lot together. As part of our companion study in the morning we'll sing a hymn together. I'm really grateful that I have such a great companion, and that we are so alike in many ways. It was a beautiful number, and at the end of the practice, I felt a little unsure about this one weird harmony. I expressed my wish that we had a piano that was closer to us, or one of those roll up electric keyboards that you can take with you practically anywhere, and Sister Ross was like, "OH, I have a keyboard. Do you want it?" I just kind of sat there stunned for a moment, I couldn't believe that she was actually offering me a keyboard. I turned to Sister Seaman and said in a hushed tone "Is this allowed?" Sister Seaman responded in a hushed voice as well. "I think so...Elder Lavulo has an ukelele.". Sister Ross laughed at our little exchange and had me reach up high in the garage (Superpower-- height) to grab it. She said that I could keep/borrow it...not quite sure when the return date is on that baby, but we went home with a keyboard!!!! I was so excited!!!!!!! I practice on it everyday, just hymns or that arrangement of I know that my Redeemer lives, but it is so wonderful. It's very therapeutic, and I hate to admit it, but I definitely missed practicing the piano.

Sister Seaman and I performed on Monday, and there was an issue of height. If I held the music where I could see it fine, it would cover Sister Seaman's face. So, we decided that she would stand on one of those stools that the kiddles stand on when they bear their testimonies. We got a BIG laugh from the congregation. The musical number was great. I never feel the spirit more than when I am performing. It's like it says in my patriarchal blessing. I will experience the most joy when I am serving others and witnessing the joy that my talents bring to others. And the musical number was good for missionary work too! After the sacrament, we had like, 5 people come up and say that they would like for us to teach some of their friends/relatives. This was truly a wonderful blessing from Heavenly Father.

We had Sister's Conference this week! It was really wonderful. President and Sister Holm talked about our worth as women and how the work really can't move forward without us. I got to see Sister Patterson again and the rest of my district! Sister Seaman got to see her past companions and it was wonderful. There was so much love in that room it was palpable. And the food they fed us wasn't half bad either. :)

Brother Reed is doing really well. He has come to church for a month now and came to the Fall Festival this last Saturday! He is really getting involved in the ward. Now, if we could just get him to stay the full three hours it would be bueno. We're assigning Brother Mastellar to fellowship him...and basically not let him skip out on Sunday school and priesthood. He can kidnap him if need be and coerce him, but hopefully there is never a point where there is duck tape and the trunk of a car involved.:) We'll be inviting him to be baptised again this Friday so we'll let you know how that goes. Pray that he'll say yes!!! Tina is in a really sticky situation right now. She's being stalked by her ex-husband/boyfriend. I'm not exactly sure on the logistics, but she's not allowed to leave her home and she has disconnected her phone. We know that she has a testimony of what were telling her, and I love her and her children and niece SSSSOOOOOOO much. Satan is just pulling all of the strings around her and she is very confused and scared. Please pray for Tina. We haven't heard from Rachel, Lisa, or Brenda at all this week. They skipped out on their appointments.The adversary is working incredibly hard on these incredible women. Please pray for all of them.

 

Well I love all of you and I am so grateful for your letters and the prayers that I receive. I was talking to Sister Titus after Sister's Conference. We carpooled with them, and I asked her why she came on a mission. What she said surprised me. She asked "Why I came on a mission or why I stayed on a mission?" I said both. She said that she came because she knew that it was something that she'd always strived for, and she said that she stayed because of her family. I'm paraphrasing greatly but she said something along those lines. I came on a mission because I knew that it was what God wanted me to do. I'm still here because of all of you. Don't get me wrong, there are many wonderful happy times that fill the mission, and I love at least 1 thing about everyday, but anyone who's been knows of the hardships and adversity. I am here because you inspire me to do better and you fill me with your love and you buoy me up when things are hard. So for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'll talk to you soon! There is still many a miracle to happen today, and I'm going to go find them.

TLLY, and in case you forgot, I do to.

XoxxOOxOX

The very grateful Sister Jones

Hit All the Notes

What is up mom and dad?!

Sorry, I have to act very mature most of the time...so you get to see the part of me that reverts back to a teenage...boy I suppose. Ya! :) This week has been a "hit all the notes!" week. Let me explain. Whenever Sister Seaman and I are back in our apartment for lunch or dinner, we always listen to my AWESOME shuffle and speaker. Thank you very much Colton, I truly don't know what I would do without music in the apartment, you are very much so, my favorite cousin. But shhhh!!! Don't tell the others! :) Our mission is pretty strict on music, so I have to skip through the Christian rock, but there is still a really great selection in there. Well, I was making dinner (orange chicken, yum :) ) and I turned on the music. Alex Boye ( I think that's how you spell his name) came on and was singing a rendition of "Be Still my Soul". And sorry, not to offend anyone who likes Alex Boye, but that song was just ridiculous. It reminded me of when pop stars sing the national anthem, and they just have to do all of those slides and trills...just hit the note! is what I'm thinking. I look up from the chicken when he starts doing his thing, gettingi into the groove, and I look at Sister Seaman. She has this look of disbelief on her face...and maybe a little bit of disgust as well. :) I burst out laughing and yell "Hit all the notes!" She busts up laughing too and whenever that song plays, we smile and make sure that he's not just hitting the one note, but all of the notes. Ah the little things we do to entertain ourselves.

So this week has been a "hit all the notes!" week. We hit some very very low notes...and some very good ones as well. One of those lower notes, you know the kind  that only the very large and dignified men can hit, those good old basses, was that on Tuesday we tracted...all day. We literally had nothing else that we could be doing, and that is terrible! We have been trying very hard to work with the ward but so far there has been limited success. We are hoping to get the members more active, but this week, it wasn't so. So for 6 hours, we tracted, and all of the cliche things happened. There was many a door slammed. Many a curt and rude no, and there were many a fake telephone calls to close the door. It was hard...and Sister Seaman and I were like Bon Jovi, livin' on a prayer. We had to have faith that someone...ANYONE would be interested in our message. If nothing else, we had to have faith that future missionaries would come and harvest those seeds that we planted. And man oh man did we plant seeds! The harvest will be bountiful in the future, it just wasn't that day.

But...duh duh du duuuu! The next day was fantastic!!! Heavenly Father was truly blessing us for our diligence and our afflictions because we found 3 amazing investigators and all of them are going to be on date this next week! (We just didn't have calendars for them but they said they'd be baptized. They have to have a calendar in hand to count as "on date") So please pray for Lisa, Brenda, and Rachel. They are all so amazing and deserve the happiness that this gospel brings.

I'm finding, that the people in the South, are in a word, crazy. Crazy, but I love 'em!!! We went to an investigators house for a follow up appointment, and she got to talking about her son who still lives in the house. How he wanted to be independent and make his own choices...but he still wanted her to make him a banana sandwich, or a baloney and egg sandwich. And in my mind I was just like what to the huh?! Baloney and egg? Banana sandwich? Oh, oh! And a banana sandwich isn't just banana...it's banana and MAYO. I've shockingly come to the knowledge, that if you've got two slices of bread, you can put anything in the middle and it's a sandwich. Ah! I miss the normalcy of Utah sometimes, but then again, I never had this much fun in Utah either. Much to many "normal" people in Utah. :) But then again, to these people, I'm the weirdo. I eat fry sauce with my fries, and have a western accent. Go figure! I've been living with an accent my whole life and never knew it!

We had stake conference this weekend and it was amazing! Two members of the 70 came and spoke to us. Elder Parker and Elder Cordbridge. They talked a lot about missionary work and Elder Parker at one point asked all of us full-time missionaries to stand up. It as amazing to look around and see so many of us. An Army of Helaman indeed. I really am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary. I feel like I have grown so much and have had my testimony strengthened so much about the truthfulness of this gospel. I'm also learning that there is much that I don't know...but that's the exciting part isn't it, discovering the new and interesting everyday of our lives.  

I am grateful for this week, I truly am. This week reminds me of a song, any song really, and how the song doesn't reach its full potential for beauty or depth without, you guessed it, all the notes. The sweet wouldn't sound so peaceful, and so kind, if those bass notes didn't have their chance to mess around for a bit. My life as a missionary is like that song, sometimes sharp and disonnent, sometimes flat and sad, but all together, it makes a beautiful melody, and that's what my life is, beautiful. I am so grateful for all of you and how you've been part of my melody and brought so much sweet into my song.

Thank you for your prayers and I am so proud of all of you!!! Keep up the great missionary work

TLLY, and in case you forgot, I do too.

Love, Sister Jones

I'm a Disney Princess!

I am I am! I'm a Disney Princess! Mom, do we have some kind of hidden royal bloodline that we don't know about. Guess I'll have to get on that family history when I get home, because this week I swear I'm a Disney princess. There have been a variety of encounters with lizards, skunks, rabbits, dogs, groundhogs, and cats, (none of which ended badly, didn't actually get to pet the skunk even though I was very tempted...but we don't have the funds for a Sister Jones tomato juice bath, so we stayed away). My favorite encounter, was when I got to hold a bird! We came out of our sanctuary from dinner, heading off to appointments and doing the work, ya know, just being righteous and the like, and there was this little finch, I'd like to say, just chillin' in front of our car. I walked closer and expected it to move, but it stood it's ground. It was the funniest game of chicken I've ever played. I'd walk one more step, and it'd kind of eye me, and I swear it was daring me to walk closer. I took another and another until I crouched down next to the bird, and still, it stayed. Sister Seaman told me to touch it, and being the obedient trainee that I am, I did. I was afraid of being bitten, but this bird was as cool as a cucumber, totally unphased by this giant person (by human standards too) touching it. The next step, naturally, to hold the bird. I placed my hand in front of it, and swooped my hand under it, and the bird walked onto my hand!!! I picked it up and sang it a lullaby, just kidding, I was in too much awe to do much else than stare and replay what Belle did next in Beauty and the Beast. It flew away...into a car. Yah, we're pretty sure that that bird was sick...but I washed my hands afterwards and was careful not to touch my face beforehand! Don't worry mum and dad I'm remembering what you taught me. So cool though! I know that we are all princes and princesses in a way because God, the ruler of the universe is our Father, but maybe I've just been able to send out that monarchy vibe to the creatures because they've been everywhere this week. :) Another cat followed us to our apartment, the word must've been spread around that I offer "treaters!" to any cat willing to come to our front door. Heavenly Father is looking out for me. He knows that I love animals, and that leaving my pets behind was one of the harder things I had to do before I left. He knows that having these encounters strengthens me, and as silly as it sounds, I'm glad that this week I was able to be a Disney princess.

 

This week was hard. I'm not going to lie to y'all, because that would be a sin and I'm trying to live what I teach. :) Nobody was home this week! What with the Clemson game (the streets shut down when there is a Clemson game and nobody opens their doors) and, I don't know, some desire for everyone to leave town not very many people were home. Tina, unfortunately, is no longer our investigator. We stopped by her house one night, trying to see if she was ok and she wouldn't answer the door. We could hear her inside and we even called her...but no answer. We've dropped her for a couple of weeks. Hopefully we can go back in 2 or 3 weeks, and she will recognize that things are much harder when we aren't around and present in her life. Let me rephrase that, when the spirit isn't present in her life. Because that's all that we really are as missionaries, the mouthpiece of the Spirit, or at least that is what I am striving to be. But, at the same time, Sister Seaman and I worked really hard and we contacted a lot of people, and at the end of the week we were able to see the fruits of our labors and meet some wonderful people.

 

If you would, pray for Edward Reed. He is our top investigator at this point. We've have 3 lessons with him, and his family is very supportive. His wife and grandkids have all been baptized and are always present when we teach him. This last week, I invited him to be baptized. He didn't say yes, but he also didn't say no. He just wants to make really sure that he feels secure in this church before making a big decision like that which is common in a lot of investigators. His granddaughter Gracie chimed in and said that she really wanted him to be baptized. If that won't do it I don't know what will! The Spirit was really strong in that room and the love was palpable. I felt like I could cut it in the air and serve it to people on plates. No baptism date for him this week, but he came to church and is keeping commitments! We hope to put him on date when we see him again this Friday.

 

Grandma is 70! My goodness Happy Birthday!!! You certainly don't look 70, maybe I got the good anti-aging gene as well. :) That is so great that Great Grandma is home, that gal is a fighter and I know that she can overcome this trial with grace and pizazz.

 

Sister Seaman and I taught Gospel Principles yesterday and we taught a lesson on developing our talents. I think that the lesson went pretty well. I'm learning more and more that we are supposed to teach people, not lessons, and that even when they don't follow the script ( they kept jumping way ahead in the lesson) that you can still have the spirit there and learn something new. I don't know if you've ever read the talk "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox but it is an amazing talk! When I went on exchanges Sister Williams ( one of the Sister Training leaders) had an audio recording of it. I've never heard grace explained so well and never really had it register so deeply. Christ paid for all of us to return to Heaven, no matter what we do in life. There is no meeting him half-way or a certain number of points that we have to accumulate to get to Heaven. We will all get there. That is Grace. The point of this life is to learn Heaven. To learn how to be comfortable in the presence of our Heavenly parents and Jesus Christ. Our purpose is to grow in this life, and as Brad Wilcox put it, to practice, practice, practice. I highly recommend looking that up, it is very inspiring and I learned a lot from it. Have y'all been reading anything good? How's the missionary work going back home?

Well, I'm going to sign off. 1 transfer down, I can't even believe it! And one planner down for that manner. The fellow missionaries will get that one. I've learned so much and I know that there is so much more to learn. I love you all so much and pray for you daily.

TLLY, and in case you forgot I do to.

Exodus 14:14

"The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."

Love, Sister Jones

I'm Tall This Week

So...I've always been tall, you all know this. I just was kind of born and then I shot up about two weeks later. Well...it might've not have been quite like that but you get the gist. But I swear, it's like this week, everyone is taking notice of it. We went to visit this less active family which actually turned out to be active and then a part member family...basically we just had no idea who they were and we started learning all kinds of stuff about them. The Granddad, or as they call him papa is not a member of the church and he said that he'd be interested in learning more. We set up a return appointment with the Reed family and we stood up to leave. I swear it was like I'd just put on a fireworks show with a mariachi band and a t-shirt cannon because they were just in awe of how tall I was. The little girl, Gracie, pretty much called me a monster and then took off to find a measuring tape to find out how much of a monster I was. I tried to explain that a lot of people in my family are tall...just not the girls...and she wasn't having it. And it was a trend all week. We'd go eat dinner with a member and I'd walk in and it was like I was surrounded by glowing light and they were just enthralled by me. I'm trying to have fun with it though, because then there is the inevitable question of "how tall are you'? I've said "What? I'm tall?! I never knew!" and "5'14", only a few people have caught onto that last one, and then politely nod and pretend like that little girl doesn't think I'm a monster after all...there's a purpose for my height, and perhaps it's to help little shorty Sister Seaman reach her cereal. :)

 

This week we had LTM which is a two day conference in Irmo. President Holm spoke to us, Sister Holm spoke to us, and then we had trainings by pre-selected missionaries as well as the APs. It was really amazing. I got to work the Lexington area with Sister Lewis and we knocked on this potentials door and he comes out a minute later with balloon making stuff. He said "prepare to be amazed" and he asked what my favorite princess was, then he made me a balloon Belle! It was sooo cool. His friend James came out with him and we tried to give him a missionary discussion. It was hard with the balloon construction happening what with all of the screeching and twisting that comes with balloon making. It's amazing though how much you can get through and how open and prepared some people are for the gospel. James said that he was interested and that he wanted us to come back!!! Ah very cool!!! And when it was all said and done, I got to take home a balloon Belle, and Sister Lewis got to take home a balloon Rapunzel. Very fun door. :)

Then,oh oh the fun doesn't end there, we got to sleep over at the Lexington Sister's apartment. Unlike Sister Seaman and myself, there are two companionships in that apartment, and one of those companionships is a triple. And in that triple was Sister Patterson!!!!! It was so great to see my MTC companion and she is LOOOVING the work. It was so wonderful to get to reconnect with her and talk about some of the stresses of our daily routines. I talked about how I was followed home by a drunk man, and she talked about how she was proposed to by a less active they were teaching. Ah the adventures of missionary work. :)

I learned a lot at LTM. I learned lots of things that I can improve on and I learned, that above all, a leader is someone who follows through. Someone who learns how to improve, and then puts that plan in action. This is something that I've really struggled with through out...well...my life so it was good to hear about how I can improve.

 

I loved General Conference!!! Everything was so inspired and I'm really hoping that all of the talks about missionary work get our ward pumped about helping the work along. They aren't...bad ward members...but they also aren't excited about missionary work and about helping us. Sister Seaman and I have tried to have meetings with the Bishop and the Relief Society president on several occasions but we haven't heard back! We are frustrated because the work goes so much better when the members are involved, and no one knows the members better than the auxiliary leaders. We are striving this week to gain their trust and get the work moving along.

 

Please pray for Tina. She is a woman that we put on date two weeks ago and she is so elect and so incredibly wonderful. Satan is working very hard on her though and is making it incredibly difficult to meet with her. Her Uncle is in the hospital and we haven't had contact with her for about a week. So scary when a week ago she was texting us pretty much everyday. Please pray for her and her family in this dark time that they will feel comfort, and that they will be able to meet with us and have us bring the spirit into their home.

 

I love you all so much and miss you every day. Mom, I would love to get my cousins emails over email if you would. That way I can print them all off in the same place and they aren't scattered all over my apartment (which is very clean by the way! I make my bed and clean off my floor everyday. Bout time huh mom and dad. ;) ). Oh, by the way, I'm a cat whisperer. They follow me around everywhere. There is this cat named Sarj in the neighborhood, and he's a big ball of fluff and awesome. I pet him once and now, I can call him from all over the apartment complex and he'll pretty much show up everytime. Oh...and he ran into our apartment. I promise I did not let him in!!! He came to our door and I was petting him (outside) and then he proceeded to run inside. I quickly showed him the door, but I can now no longer say that a male type thing has not been in our apartment. Gah I guess I'm just one of those disobedient missionaries. :) Guess I'll have to confess to President Holm.

 

I love you all very much and can feel your prayers. Follow the counsel of the prophet and of his apostles that we just heard, they know the way. I'll talk to y'all next week and let you know about the many miracles that I see everyday.

 

TLLY, and incase you forgot, I love you too. :)

Sister Jones :)