Fw: On and Off

 

 

 

 

Hellooooo everyone!!!

 

I got all of your Christmas wishes and all that jazz, got to talk to family on Skype, and it was an awesome Christmas!

 

Christmas day we got invited to three different homes, so we spent a little bit of time at each place. I not only got stuff from home, but some of the members got us stuff, too, so it's going to be real fun to figure out how to pack everything eventually. :P

 

Yes, I had a very lovely Christmas, and this whole week has been good. Well, mostly.

 

I was sick again this week. Same symptoms as the sickness I got last week where it started with a sore throat and then I got a feverish headache and had to sleep all day. It's really irritating since it's like I just got the same illness twice. So it's sort of been on and off sick for a while. Almost like I got better just in time for Christmas, then got sick again. -_-

 

It's kind of weird that Christmas was only this week. It feels like that happened forever ago. And now we're straight on to the New Year!

 

Being on a mission has made me question the point of staying up till midnight and screaming at the top of your lungs banging on a pot to start off every new year, but I don't have to do that this year, so cool. It just means it might be difficult to sleep through it.

 

Anyway, I don't actually have a lot to say for this week. Most people were out of town for the holidays. We did get a new investigator who's pretty solid, but that's about it for the week. Many thanks to all of you who sent Christmas cards and holiday wishes! You are all awesome and amazing! I'll try to send return letters if I can, but that may or may not happen. But again, thank you to all, and I hope that all of you had wonderful holiday times!!!

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: And then it was Christmas

 

 

Ho!

 

It's Christmas time!!! You know what that means?! I've been on my mission for six months now! Crazy! This time next year, I'll be home. Aaaaaand I get to skype you all!!! YAAAAYYYY!!!

 

So I got your Christmas package on Saturday. There were four packages inside and four days until Christmas, so I decided to open one present a day. On Sunday, when I opened the first gift with the earrings Mom made, one of them was broken. :( Must've rattled around in the box too much on the way here. So I super-glued it back together and all is well. :) This morning I opened the pretty blue scarf you sent. Thank you!! :D

 

Also, Grandma Nancy, I got your package you sent with the warm skirt in it. So again. THANK YOU!!!

 

I feel kinda bad since my companion hasn't gotten anything for Christmas from her family. I'll probably get her something nice later today.

 

So I'll skype you guys Christmas Eve since it sounds like Christmas day is a little on the busy side for you. That means I get to see you tomorrow night! Exciting, huh? We have to keep the call under 40 minutes, though, and I won't be able to see Pip and Tess unless you bring them with you to Grandma's place, but so it goes.

 

So this week went by rather quickly. Mostly because I was out of it for a good three days. Wednesday morning, I got up, did my normal studies, then my body told me to go back to bed, so I did. Thursday, I was doing better until the evening and I had to go home early. Friday, I woke up with a fever and I couldn't eat anything, and that lasted all day. Then in the evening, one of the members wanted us to come with her to bring gifts to less active families, so since she was driving, I sort of tagged along behind blearily. Saturday I was feeling a lot better, though, and was able to get back to work.

 

Last night, the members who lent us their old farmhouse, the Hillyer family, went Christmas carroling, so they took us with them, and that was a lot of fun. I was the only person in the whole group who could actually carry a tune, so they had me sort of lead and everybody else sort of followed along.

 

Aaaaand that was the gist of this week. Merry Merry Christmas to you all, and I'll see you tomorrow and such!

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: Old Maid

 

 

 

 

Dear everyone,

 

As many of you know, my birthday just happened! I'm now old enough to drink, not that I would ever want to. I spent my birthday doing an excellent thing. Missionary work! Yay! I didn't get any cake, but I did get some chocolate silk pie, so that makes up for it. :D The farmhouse has this giant "Happy Birthday" banner strung up on one of the walls that's been there for ages, so I took pictures in front of it for my birthday. That was pretty much the extent of my celebration. Yup.

 

I got the music note scarf you guys sent in the mail, plus it's twin. I got two of them. Not sure why. I'm probably going to give the extra to Sister Moa. It's really pretty and I like it. :)

 

This week was a little bit warmer. It only got below zero a few times and stayed around 15 degrees on the warmer days and actually got up to 20 at one point. The weather forcast says it will be warmer still this week and might actually get above freezing! :D Looking forward to it!

 

So Lizzie got baptized this Saturday which was super exciting. There were actually 7 baptisms that happened in our stake this Saturday, one of them was the person who Sister Moa and I taught and put her on date but then she moved. So we got to go to two baptisms on Saturday. It was pretty awesome. That was pretty much my birthday gift right there.

 

This week was transfers, but both Sister Moa and I will be staying in the Fruita 4th ward. I'm really happy about that.

 

Earlier this week, Sister Moa and I were doing our regular studies in the morning when suddenly we get this phone call from the housing department saying that they're around the area and checking all the missionaries' apartments. We then panicked, ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, and speed cleaned the apartment. Gotta love those days. Then when they came, they walked in, glanced around, proclaimed it good, and left. :P

 

Speaking of chickens with their heads chopped off, wikipedia Mike the Headless Chicken. I think you will find it amusing.

 

I think that's all I have for you this week. :/ sorry, it was pretty uneventful. I love you all, and I hope you have a good rest of the week!

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

 

P.S. we should probably arrange a time that I'll skype you on Christmas since that's coming up soon. I think we'll probably skype you towards the evening. Sister Moa is also checking with her family a time to skype. Just whatever works. I dunno. I'll check with you more about it as we get closer to that day. :) Looking forward to it!

The brown scarf is one that I made. I finished it this week, so I had to get a picture of it. :)

These were all taken before the snow. Oh, and the one picture that shows a bunch of blobs on the ground. Yeah, that's our basement. We might have a LITTLE bit of a wasp infestation, and those just MIGHT be all the dead wasps that are down there from when the basement got sprayed with wasp killer. :P No harm done. The wasps seem to have disappeared with the snow, though occasionally they show up in the kitchen. I've washed a few down the sink already. Muahaha.

 

Fw: Snow Angels

 

 

Greetings!

 

Winter seems to have settled in to stay. We got a bad snow storm on Wednesday (The schools canceled which doesn't happen very often down here apparently) but the missionary work trudged on. It was a good thing I got those boots when I did, but even with them, my feet have been freezing. The below-zero temperatures don't really help. (It's currently -3 degrees outside right now...) The Fruita and Grand Junction area is supposedly the warmest place in the mission with the least amount of snow. And certainly, it held out longer than Eagle did. But even still, it's really really cold.

 

It's only been a week and I'm already quite sick of it. It's apparently one of the coldest winters they've had since Fruita usually doesn't get snow this early in the year, but the snow we have isn't supposed to melt till late February, so I'm just going to have to get used to it. It's funny, after the snow storm, they were pretty good about plowing most of the streets, but then it snowed again Friday night and they never bothered to plow any of the roads from that. The roads are pretty slick and it's been an interesting experience driving in it, but I think I'm getting used to slipping and sliding on the ice. Definitely all those times that Dad forced me to go out and drive in the snow to get the experience has helped, otherwise I might have freaked out by now.

 

I have discovered that one of the most amusing things to do is break off the gigantic icicles that are almost big enough to create spears out of and javelin throw it against the ground and watch it shatter into a thousand pieces. SO much fun.

 

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the cold. I never have been. I suppose it was a tender mercy that I was removed from the mountains before the winter or else I would probably refuse to go outside. It's COLD. I kinda feel sorry for all the cows that have to stay outside in the freezing cold.

 

So this morning, one of the members took us up to the Grand Junction Monument, which is the giant Grand-Canyon-like rock formation on the south side of Fruita, so I got lots of pretty neat pictures.

 

Also, I got to sing in the Ward Christmas Party last Friday. I'm getting more confident standing up in front of a bunch of people and singing. It's still not my forte by any means, but my voice doesn't shake so bad anymore.

 

Anyhoo, I think that's pretty much it for this week. It's cold. Really cold.

 

~Sister Jones

Fw: Holiday Schniffles

 

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

 

This week was kind of a slow week since most people were out of town for the holidays. We were asked to take care of two people's animals while they were away which has been fun. Chasing down chickens. That keep escaping. Five minutes after you round them up into their cage. Curse you, chickens.....

 

We're really excited for Lizzie who is getting baptized in a few weeks. I think I mentioned that last time. It's weird, I turn 21 soon... How odd. Yeah, Lizzie agreed to be baptized the day before my birthday, and she's doing really well and will be making it to that date. She will be the fourth person I've helped bring to baptism. I've been able to help Jess, Susanna, Ricardo, and now Lizzie. The promise given in the Doctrine and Covenants is really true when it says that when you reap with your might, your back will be laden with sheaths. I love all the blessings the Lord is able to give to his children, and it's been my priveledge to not only witness it, but be a part of it.

 

Thanksgiving was fun. We got a day to hang out and relax until dinnertime, where we went to a member's house and hung out and relaxed. It was great! A rare occurance indeed!

 

Then on Black Friday, I caught a cold. We tried to go see people anyway, but nobody was home, so when we got to the point where the only thing left to do is tracting, I gave up and we went home. I've been sick ever since, but we got some spray stuff that helps with sinus problems, and that's been helping. Hopefully it will be completely gone by tomorrow.

 

There was a cool thing that happened, I went on exchanges the week before with one of the Sister Training Leaders, Sister Jones. (We confused the heck out of people. It was fun.) But while we were out tracting, we ran into this guy who was from our area in Fruita who was looking for some help moving. So we got to help him. That was pretty neat.

 

I also got your package! I am enjoying it. :) The white chocolate Reese's are really good since it's all just basically peanutbutter and sugar. DAAAAVIIIIID!!!! Thank you for the music CD. Hearing you play piano brings back good memories and I love you. I think it's funny that in most of the recordings, you can hear Tess in the background walking on the wooden floor in the front entry room. Some of the recordings got a little maxed out in the sound in places, but it still makes me really happy. I laugh at the parts where you mess up. Bahahaha!

 

Yeah, so today we went to the mall and I got myself a pair of boots that will keep my feet dry. I have no idea how I'm going to pack said boots, but I'll figure it out when that time comes. All of the snow we had last week it completely gone except for the melting snowmen in front of people's houses, but I'm sure that we'll be getting a lot more this winter. I'm lucky to be in Fruita where they don't get as much snow as up in the mountains.

 

While at the mall, I also decided that my hair needs a trim since the ends were pretty dead. The person there told me that to get rid of all the dead ends, I would have to cut six inches off my hair. I wasn't willing to do that, but I still had to chop off three inches. :( That's basically all that I grew while on my mission so it's the same length as when I left. I also decided to try out some bangs. I figured, hey, if I don't like them, they will be grown out by the end of my mission. I cut them to be chin-length, so they're not too horribly short and I can still pull them back if I so desire, and the rest of my hair is still nice and long. I'll send you pictures eventually.

 

I kind of wanted to get a picture of me all decked out in black with my sunglasses on and carrying a book of mormon and posing all matrix just because I mentioned it last week, but I never got the opportunity to do so. Too bad. Then I could have sent the picture to you and you could put in the caption of "Bringing Souls to Zion" or "Are you the One" or something amusing like that. Maybe I'll get the picture... Maybe.

 

Well, I think that's all for this week! Happy holidays everyone! December is here! Whip out all your Christmas trees, santa outfits, and credit cards! Yeah! :P

 

~Sister Richelle Jones