#birthdaymiracles

well well well not much to say besides WE HAVE INVESTIGATORS!!!  yeah.  it only took about 2 months...hahah God works in mysterious ways.  

there were so many miracles this week it's not even funny.  here we go:

we started teaching Sandra!  Except she's YSA so we're passing her over to the YSA missionaries this week.  She's super solid and it went really well! :)  

we had interviews with president Manion and oh man I just love that guy.  If anyone is inspired of God, it's him.  

we also helped out with the food drive this week for Edmonton's food bank!  It was a lot of fun delivering flyers and getting to talk to people that way.  

also something super cool. Heavenly Father just gave me so many wonderful miracles for my birthday!!!  

First one was Wednesday night: we were trying to figure out what to do with our last half hour of the night because people HATE us if we knock on their door when it's night time.  We felt like we should go try this potential that we have tried a million times.  we weren't too sure but we went anyway.  We get out of the car, and this girl is walking with her dog so naturally we start petting it so we can talk with her.  And guess what, SHE ASKED US HOW WE'RE DOING!  yeah nobody else does that most people just run away from us lol.  But yeah she was SO nice and we talked to her for a while and turns out she's trying to figure out what she believes so we were like....well guess what we do!  :)  We have a lesson set up to teach her tonight!  Her name is Tina and she's 16, such a gem.  We're so excited.  

birthday miracle numero dos: we went to teach our returning less active's kids like we do every week, and guess who was there!  Dawuta's kids!!! We started teaching them and now we're teaching them with their mom tonight!!!  :)  They're adorable.  they're form Nigeria and they just love Jesus so much it's great.  their names are Denise, Darren, and Dansel.  Pray for them!

yet ANOTHER birthday miracle: at one point in the day, we had about 20 minutes until our next scheduled thing, so we decided to just go park somewhere and walk around to talk to people.  We talked to a few uninterested souls, and then this man drove by on his bike.  We yelled hello to him and he stopped and read our nametags and asks, "so you teach about Jesus?  How long will it take you to teach me?" we were just like....uhhhh and he gave us his number and wants us to come this week to teach his family!  His name is George and he's Lebanese.  so cool.  Literally God just placed him in our path!  what a wonderful gospel.  

My favourite cake️️

ready for another crazy happening?  We went to our supper appointment with Sister Crawford, the sweetest little old lady, and it comes time for dessert and she pulls out a...wait for it.....SKORE CAKE!  Whhat??? yes like the one I would have mom make me for my birthday!  (i mean we have a different name for it in the jones fam but i'm a missionary soooooo..i won't say it on here) yeah.  And she had no idea it was even my birthday.  Heavenly Father is so aware of us it's crazy.  I couldn't believe it!  so inspired to make that cake :) hahah.  

Sister Crawford, the angel who made the cake

another cool event: we went to Panago to get our favourite pizza and talked to the cashier for a bit about life and all that good stuff.  Then it got busy and we couldn't talk to him anymore.  We got our pizza and left and as we're about to drive away, we see Greg (the cashier) running out of the store to us to give us free water bottles!  It was so nice!  We gave him our card real quick so hopefully he'll call.  It was just really cool to see someone being so Christlike.  gotta love it.  

we had a supper appointment with this member and literally i have never been so full in my life.  she wouldn't let us stop eating til all the food was gone.  THANK GOODNESS FOR SKIRTS WITH POCKETS because we actually had to put food in there so we wouldn't barf.  

This transfer, I have been dealing with a lot of things that I actually haven't dealt with before, and it has been very overwhelming and stressful.  I have been trying and trying to fix things and have had to come to the realization that I can't do everything.  I can't fix everything on my own.  I finally humbled myself and asked for a priesthood blessing, and that was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made.  I feel like sharing the experience in detail would down play the sacredness of it all, but it sufficeth me to say that God is real.  God can speak to each of us on a personal level that we may not even know.  He is SO available to each of us and He knows us inside and out.  He can give us direct and specific instruction and guidance.  I know without a doubt that my Heavenly Father lives.  And He loves me.  The power of His priesthood is real.  

God is good.  

Onward, ever onward.  

Sister Jones 

Our beautiful Drayton sisters!

  

So many comp selfies...

Running out of clever subject lines...

greetings from the land of River Valley where we are still lacking in new gators, but definitely not lacking in miracles and the spirit so all is well.

first of all we had a CRAZY manifestation of the power of the priesthood!!  like i said last week, Sister Holbrook had lost her voice completely and she was feeling pretty sick and we were supposed to exchange with Drayton Valley, but we weren't sure what the heck we were supposed to do and we were stressed.  We called the Tagalog elders and got her a blessing, and in the blessing, he said that she would have a quick recovery!  We weren't sure how quick Heavenly Father was meaning...but we just went forward in faith and left for the exchange.  We got on the Henday and i told Sister Holbrook which exit she would need to get off on and she repeated it back to me and her voice was ALL THERE.  And the rest is history and she was miraculously healed of her illness and the exchange was prime and it was wonderful.  pretty sweet, hey? 

 

I got to see the Kinniburgh's and Chaise and it was so wonderful.  i love my drayton family.  

I went with Sister Priestley who is a new missionary and it was a lot of fun.  We had some fun/awkward experiences while talking with those good souls of DV and it was all around a great exchange.  

SISTER MCKEON IS AMAZING

We also exchanged with Greenfield/Rutherford and I got to go with Sister Mckeon who is INCREDIBLE.  seriously i felt like she should be my sister training leader.  Anyway, she's such a boss and we saw lots of miracles!  We didn't have any appointments, so we just went crazy and gave away so many Book of Mormons.  It reminded me of Forest Heights it was so much fun.  We went to this certain traffic circle where there are lots of people outside, and we were just running around talking to everyone and they all probably thought we were crazy.  We saw this guy named Edward and talked with him and gave him a book of mormon, he wasn't too excited or overly interested, but he said he would read, just didn't want us to come teach him.  And later that day, we had about 20 minutes until our supper appointment, and we weren't sure where we needed to go.  so Sister Mckeon just opened the book of mormon and it said something about elders...so we were like, the elders live near here so let's just go on their street and talk with people! Soooo we did and we were talking to this old man, and we look over to the next house, and THERE IS EDWARD OUTSIDE HIS HOME!  it was crazy.  We got to talk to him a little more but he was leaving.  Yeah so now we can go back in a while to see how he is liking the Book of Mormon.  :)  #revelationfromthebookofmormon  

We also found a few solid potentials for other missionaries, and one for hopefully ourselves.. fingers crossed!  We're not sure if she's ysa aged.  But we'll see.  

moral of the story, exchanges are cool.  

uhm...also other cool things....we sanded and painted a deck!  

OH OH OH I ALMOST FORGOT!  Before i got here, there was a less active named Megan that the sister were working with along with her two daughters, Morgan and Mila, who are ADORABLE.  When I got here, a bunch of things came up and Megan wouldn't meet with us and we lost contact.  BUT we all of a sudden got a text from her on Friday and she wanted us to help her pack up the girls rooms before they moved! (thankfully they're still in the ward) and we got to go and help and meet them and it was just a huge miracle.  We finally met her and the girls are amazing and we're going to start teaching them again.  

also, remember Riley? We found him when i first got here?  Yeah we lost contact for a bit, but we're now teaching him again!  We read the Book of Mormon with him to get him started and it was so spiritual and so wonderful and we get to teach him again on thursday. :)  

I fasted on sunday, and let me tell you it was glorious.  We were in sacrament meeting and I was feeling a little inadequate and bummed about still not having new people to teach, and lo and behold the intermediate hymn.....266 The Time is Far Spent.  (my fave)

The 4th verse especially hit me (as it does every time) 

 

Be fixed in your purpose, for Satan will try you;

The weight of your calling he perfectly knows.

Your path may be thorny, but Jesus is nigh you;

His arm is sufficient, tho demons oppose.

His arm is sufficient, tho demons oppose.

BE FIXED IN YOUR PURPOSE, SISTER JONES!  STOP LETTING SATAN GET TO YOU!  that's basically what I heard and boy did I need that!  This life is a time of testing and trial, we must accept it as that and strive to be the best we can be and keep our heart set on Christ.  There is no other way to live this life that will bring the happiness we all yearn for, he is the way.  

 Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life. [3 Nephi 15:9]

No matter what we have to face in this life, Christ's arm IS sufficient.  His GRACE is sufficient.  

Onward, ever onward.  

Sister Jones

Mission tour (half the mission)

Change your heart and you'll change the world.

This past week was a crazy one!

Elder Golden from the seventy came to our mission and gave us a
spiritual smack down and rebuking, it was chill.  Ha but really it was
amazing.  President also asked Sister Holbrook and I to demonstrate in
front of everyone at mission conference introducing the Book of Mormon
this certain way, and he asked us like right before the meeting
started.  ha it was an adventure.
Elder Golden was super funny and super inspired, he basically told us
that we don't have enough faith and gave us a whole list of things we
need to change so here we are applying those teachings and hoping to
let the atonement change us even more.  Gotta love it.

we knocked like a thousand doors this week and still no gators but we
found a really cool potential named Dawuta!  she's from Nigeria and
has been here for about 5 months, born again Christian, genuinely
interested in learning about the gospel!  Wanna know the coolest part
about meeting her?  Okay well there are lots of cool things, but we
found her as we were doing service at this old folks home (she's
another volunteer) and she was at the same table as Sister Holbrook,
and she said that she knows Jody, one of our returning less actives!!!
 WHHAT??  and that since she moved here, Jody has helped her in so
many ways.  #prepared  yeah super cool, we're hoping to start teaching
her in Jody's home this week. Pray for her pls!!!

We also talked to this man on his porch for quite some time, he has
investigated before and has a TON of questions, so we attempted to
help him understand.  Then he just says, "oh I see...you're teaching
me like Jesus taught...you're asking me questions!"  YES.  ha that's
the goal!

Also, we didn't get to go on exchanges because Sister Holbrook got
this killer migraine so she needed to just sleep.  So I called like a
million potentials and formers, not much came of it, but it was all I
could do not to go insane being inside.

uhmmm we also met this less active member, Evelyn, who lives at a
nursing home.  She was super awesome and she LOVED the message we
shared, and we gave her some pamphlets she could read when she was
bored. She saw the picture of Christ and was like, "my friend
downstairs, Bill, would really love this!" So we gave her some she
could give to him, we were just like, SWEET SHE'S DOING MISSIONARY
WORK then she wanted to introduce us to Bill, so we were like, okay
yeah, and we went downstairs with her and she walks over to this plant
that has a pass along picture of Jesus in it and she starts talking to
it and showing the pamphlet to the plant.....BILL IS A PLANT OH MY
WORD we were dying.  So funny.  So she stuck the pamphlet in Bill, the
plant.  lol.

another funny story: we were sharing a message with this really cute
member family, and their 5 year old, Josh said the cutest thing.  We
were talking about how he can be a missionary now by being a good
example and telling his friends about Jesus and he was like..."well
what do we do when the bad guys come?..........teach them about the
gospel?" hahahah so cute.  then he was showing us his book of mormon
and this kid is a book of mormon master! and he's 5!  he told us about
enos and how "he prayed ALLLLL DAYYYY."  it was precious.  The kid
already knows more than me. lol.

Sister Holbrook is sick again, and this time her voice is completely
gone.. like it's non existent.  So at first, we were like, okay what
do we do??  and we tried all our plans that fell through, and all we
could do was...wait for it....TRACT.  soooooo we did and I did all the
talking and it was pretty hard!  when you finally have a companion
you're equally yoked with and then you can't be, it's a hard
adjustment.  But we talked to this really sweet old indian lady about
the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong and it was just
amazing.  You could see in her eyes that our testimony of Christ touched her.  Super cool.




hahahah so on Saturday, we went back to Anu's (that potential we have offered service for) and we knock on her door to see how she's doing, she answers and says, "oh you're here to help, okay meet me around back." so we do and she has this whole strip of yard that needs weeding.  so we did it and it took us like 3 hours and guess what, i was in my pencil skirt the whole time!  yep.  who says you can't wear pros clothes to do yard work?  #winning  And there were spiders everywhere and guess what, dad! I didn't freak out too bad...ish  :) the mission has changed me lol.

sooooo things are good.  life is great because the gospel is real and the atonement is real.  Something Elder Golden said that I LOVED "change your heart and you'll change the world." uhhh YES.  enough said. I just love this gospel with all my being and I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father.  I'm grateful for a Saviour that knows me and knows exactly where I am and where I've been.  And He knows all those around me and how I can help them.  Just reach out and do something for someone else today.  :)  you'll see more joy from that than anything else.

the church is true, my friends.

Onward, ever onward.

Sister Jones

Hello September

The leaves are changing and the streetlights come on well before we
get in for the night which is super weird.  And it's cold here. Already.

I also just barely chopped 6 inches off my hair. (Midlife crisis
much?) ...this will be brief. (I know I say that every week but for
real this time because I need a nap)

We had exchanges and I got to go to the other area which is
walking/busing and it was like I went back to the glory days for 24
hours!  It was wonderful. I got to talk to this guy on the LRT that I
actually talked to back downtown on a bus at one point. That was a
cool tender mercy.

MLC

We had MLC and it was AMAZING and super revelatory. Gotta love it.

We talked to some awesome Russian kids named Gleb and Roman this week
who asked us so many questions and like...all their questions could be
answered in the first three lessons. It was pretty cool. We really
hope we can teach them this week.

Heart attacking!

It has been raining like crazy for the past couple days nonstop until today.  And we haven't had hardly any appointments, so we have been out in the cold rain and soaking wet all day :) it's super fun.

We literally have tried EVERYTHING and still no new
investigators....so yesterday we went and "heart attacked" a bunch of members we work with. Hopefully we were able to at least uplift someone and help them feel God's love.

After some really hard things this week, and having to call 911 for the first time in my life after seeing some scary things (don't worry mom I'm fine) ....This week has been one of the most trying of my mission, I don't think I have been stretched or tried so much in my life. But I have really felt my Saviour's love through it all. And I know that you can feel that, too. Although things are hard, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I am so grateful for this gospel and for the atonement.

The church is true!

Onward, ever onward.

Sister Jones

#panagopizzaislyfe

#missionsarecool

Sister Holbrook and I ️️

Well well well it has been a week of miracles and some pretty SWEET experiences with the spirit.

First of all, Sister Holbrook is AMAZING!  For real I am so grateful she is my companion, we have been going hard and seeing some pretty neat things happen. She goes home in a couple transfers and she's from Virginia. I just love her.

#3generations ️️

 

 

 

Sister Whiting and I ️️

Transfer meeting was crazy!  I am now a grandma, my Sister Moser is training and I got to meet my granddaughter. :). It was precious.
Aaand I saw sister whiting so my life was complete.







 As for the week I'm sure you're all dying to hear of the miracles so I won't make you wait any longer.

We still haven't gotten any new investigators, but no worries, all is well.  Life couldn't get much better because I get to wear the Saviour's name all the time.







Once upon a Saturday, we tried like....everyone we could and NOBODY
answered or was interested...we finally decided to just pray and ask
God what on earth we needed to do and where we needed to be. The
thought came to me to try a potential we found a few weeks ago, and
the thought came to Sister Holbrook to keep an eye out for people
moving. So we started driving to the potentials house and we look to
the right down this street and lo and behold a MOVING TRUCK half
unloaded just sitting there before our eyes!!!! We flipped around real
fast and parked so we could go help them. Usually when we ask if we
can help people, they just say no, but these people said YES!!!  They
just came from Calgary and had nobody there to help them. So we
unloaded their whole truck and talked with them a bit.  Sarah and
Shane. We invited them to church and to the chili cook off our Ward
is having next week and they said they would come!  It was just so
cool to see how God took us right where we needed to be to do his will
and to help those who would receive us. The gospel is pretty cool, I
guess.

"Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently
and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall
be opened unto you." D&C 88:63
I just love this. When we ask with real intent, God will ALWAYS answer
us. Always. I know that to be true.

Also, we were able to start working with our eternigator (someone who
has been investigating for a really long time) grandma Vera who is the
greatest. She comes to church every week and all that, but won't be
baptized.  We had a couple lessons with her and she really opened up
after some inspired questions from sister Holbrook and now we know how
to help her!!!  That was a miracle for sure. We also got to help her
count over 4,000 buttons.....it was fun :)

We also received 3 referrals on Sunday from non members and contacted
a couple yesterday who are pretty promising!  Then we knocked on Anu's
door who we had talked to a while back about doing service. She let us
in to vacuum her living room, and while we did that, she started
asking all these crazy questions about how we're not Christian and all
that, so we basically taught her a brief restoration and then she said
she wanted to come to church, but would have to talk her husband into
it. Heavenly Father was just pouring the blessings onto us!!! Then we
were walking and started talking to a lady who isn't interested, but
asked if we sing. So we said yes and she wants us to volunteer at the
place she works at that takes care of disabled kids. she wants us to
sing to them!  We're super excited. :) #servicesoftenshearts #yes

So yeah. Life is good in the hood. Except I'm actually not in the hood
but I'll go back there one day. Anywho, I just learned a whole lot
this week about why I am really here and what this whole thing is
really about. My heart is just so full and I know without a doubt that
God answers prayers. He hears me and I know he hears you.  GOD IS
GOOD.

Onward, ever onward.

Sister Jones