Fw: Tough Decisions

 

 

 

Hellooo, everyone!

 

So as most of you could probably tell, I've been struggling here recently on my mission. I was pretty certain, though, that all I wanted to do was tough it out and serve the entirety of my mission. I was just going to grit my teeth and trudge on through. I felt like doing otherwise would be considered weak, so I wasn't even considering any other options.

 

My companions are really supportive, and Sister Joslin mentioned to me that I'm really not at peace as I am. I was pushing through at the cost of my own health, and even then, I still felt like all I was doing was dragging my companions down. It didn't feel like I was actually contributing anything to the mission, if anything, I was holding it back, so it wasn't like I was actually accomplishing any sort of great feat out here. Maybe that's just the adversary talking, but that's how I've been feeling. Sister Joslin mentioned to me that I shouldn't just not consider the option of going home. It wasn't giving up, really. And then my companions brought up the option of serving a service mission. I was thinking about it, but I still just couldn't seem to allow myself to accept that option.

 

Well, this last Sunday was fast Sunday, so I was fasting and praying. Then on Wednesday, I went to the temple. And I was praying about what I should do. And you know what? I felt peace. Peace that what I've given so far has been a sacrifice that is acceptable in the sight of the Lord. Peace that I've learned what I came here to learn. And peace that it's ok for me to go home now.

 

All I ask is for your support. I don't want you to be disappointed in me. I don't want you to convince me that I should stay on my mission, because I assure you that I've thought through all the worries, all the possibilities, and all the implications of the decision. This isn't an easy way out. If anything, choosing to go home is harder because I have to very suddenly figure out what I'm going to do with my life, and I really have no clue what to do.

 

The important part is I'm not giving up. No. I'm not just copping out because things got too hard. On the contrary, I love my companions. I love my area. This has been my best time I've had on my mission. And yet I still continue to struggle. As President Uchtdorf said, there are no endings. Only interruptions and new beginnings. I don't plan to end my mission just because I'm going home to Washington.

 

I also compare this experience to Abraham and Isaac, or to Zion's Camp. With Abraham, he was asked to sacrifice his only son. I'm sure Abraham was thinking the whole way up the mountain, "Do I really have to do this, Lord? Are you really going to make me follow through with this?" But the important part was that even though it was hard, he was still willing to do it. And the Lord didn't stop him until he was about to swing the knife. With me, I kept thinking, "Do I really have to serve my whole mission? Is this really what you want me to do?" and the answer I got was, "Yes, it is," and so I was pushing myself to do so and had committed myself to follow through, but now I've received the answer that it's not necessary, God was just seeing if I was willing to follow through.

 

And then I brought up Zion's Camp. Early on in the church, the saints in Missouri were going through strong oppression, so Joseph Smith received the revelation that they needed to go to Missouri and "Redeem Zion." So they organized a large group of men in Ohio and started to march towards Missouri, and on the way, they had a miserable journey filled with contention and problems. But they also saw many miracles. Then, when they were almost at their destination, Joseph Smith received the revelation that they needed to turn around and go home. A lot of people questioned why they had to go on the journey when they didn't even finish what they came to do, but they learned that the journey was there to refine them. I started my mission, I had problems, I saw miracles, and I'm now choosing to turn around and go home. But I would never take back the experiences I've had, because they refined me and allowed me to grow.

 

Anyway, I've been thinking long and hard about this. And I am at peace with my decision. I'm going to see my mission president later this week and talk to him. I'm not sure exactly when I'm going home. It could be next week, it could be three weeks from now. That's part of what I'm going to discuss with President Murdock. Thank you all for being supportive and understanding and for helping me on this journey. Thank you. I love you.

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: Life, the Universe, and Everything

 

 

 

Hey, everyone.

 

I don't actually have much of anything to talk about this week. No miracles or cool stories or anything. :/ Sorry. I actually have no idea what to write about for this week.

 

I've been sick but in a different way. But to be fair, so have my companions. We still went out almost every day this week and actually had quite a bit of success, but we didn't find anyone who was too horribly interested this week, and our teaching pool has gotten kind of thin, so while we are teaching quite a number of people, most of them are people we see on the streets or through knocking door-to-door and usually they let us talk for a little, maybe take a Book of Mormon, but aren't really interested in having us come back. Either that or the schedule a time for us to come back and they're no-shows. So. Yeah. It was one of those weeks I guess.

 

I don't really know what to say other than that. Um. Happy Cinco De Mayo. Yeah.

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

 I forgot to mention... On Monday for P-Day, we ended up going hiking up Deer Creek which was really pretty, so I got some cool pictures. Also, random story, while hiking, there was this Elder who was being a punk and had decided to climb some rocks just to show how cool he was. So I decided to show him up and climb the rocks, too. I succeeded. It was awesome. Maybe I was being a bit of a punk, too, but it was fun.

Fw: Truckin'

 

 

 

 

Greetings to everyone,

 

This week has been a bit of a tough week. I've been feeling sick through most of it. I'm kind of sick of feeling sick, so I pushed myself to do work anyway every day of the week except for Sunday. Yup. It felt like there was a knot in my throat that was constricting my breathing and was making me feel sick to my stomach. I went to Urgent Care on Saturday and they told me that my throat was swelling a little. Not much, and it wasn't causing any serious problems, but it was obnoxious. The swelling hasn't gone down all the way, but it's better than it was Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. >.>

 

It was cool, though, since on one of the days where I wasn't feeling good, we were doing some finding, and it was really a struggle to keep going, but I didn't want to hold my companions back from doing actual missionary work. So I kept going, and the next door, this lady answered who was really prepared to hear our message. It really shows that the Lord truly sees our efforts.

 

We also did some service painting someone's apartment, which was fun. I love doing service.

 

Also, we ended up talking to this crazy guy. He looked a little sketchy and we weren't sure we wanted to talk to him, but we talked to him anyway, and he talked to us for like an hour straight about how the stories in the bible were fairy tales made up to teach children how to watch for the seasons and know when to plant crops. o.O It was possibly the strangest thing I've ever heard. He was like, "Yeah, the story of the three wise men following the star to find the Christ child is actually talking about the three stars that make up Orion's belt and how on December 25th, they line up with the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, and they together point to the location in the sky where the sun is at it's lowest point when it rises, so the Christ child is actually representing the sun. He isn't the son of God, but he's the sun." Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Fascinating. But crazy.

 

Anyhoo, I think that does it for stories this week. I'm just Truckin' along. Yup. :)

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: Easter!

 

 

 

Dear everyone,

 

This week has been a good week. I'm enjoying my area and loving my two companions. I got a little sick near the end of the week, but I'm sure I'll get over it. I was still able to go out and do missionary work, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

 

For Easter, there weren't a whole lot of people who wanted us to randomly show up at their house, so we weren't able to see many people. I did enjoy the sacrament meeting we had, though. We had this beautiful musical program offered by the choir and soloists in the ward. It's a very musically talented ward.

 

After our dinner appointment, we ended up taking a walk around Clement Park, the park that our area is named after. That's where the Columbine memorial is, and yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the Columbine shooting. That combined with a gorgeous sunset and warm evening weather made for a beautiful walk with lots of pictures. :D

 

We dyed Easter eggs Saturday night during our dinner hour since our dinner appointment had canceled that day. I forgot to take pictures of that, though. :( But then I turned them into deviled eggs for my companions. My stomach wasn't feeling good that day, so I may have eaten one or two deviled eggs since I seemed to be sick anyway. They were tasty, but then my stomach was even less happy, but I didn't throw up, which was good.

 

Yup. That was pretty much this week. :)

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

 

P.S. I would send more pictures, but my computer is being slow and it's already blue-screen-of-death'd once on me. I think this is all you'll be getting this week. Sorry.

Fw: Settled at last

 

 

 

Hello, everyone!

 

So it would figure that the last week of the transfer, I finally get to where I'm going to be for a while. I am now in Clement Park with Sister Joslin and Sister Allen. And they are both awesome. I've only been with them for two days, but I already feel really good about how this next transfer will be. It's really an answer to my prayers, being able to settle here.

 

A few interesting facts about this area. One is that it's one of the few areas that actually goes into the city of Denver. Most of the metro areas are in cities around Denver like Lakewood and stuff like that. So half of this area covers a portion of Littleton, and the other half goes into Denver a little. Also, I live right down the street from the Columbine High School. Yup. The infamous school of the Columbine shooting is in my area. ;) It's a new experience being in this area. I find myself liking it, though. It's going to be a fun transfer.

 

Oh, also, the day after I arrived, it snowed again. Despite the fact that we had 80 degree weather earlier this week. The weather here is truly bipolar.

 

It's interesting looking at the horizon at night and seeing a sea of lights as far as the eye can see. Since we're kinda on a hill over-looking downtown Denver and the plains beyond, there is just city that goes on for miles. It's pretty awesome.

 

So, yeah. I'm happy that I've finally found a place to really dig in my roots and settle.

 

~Sister Jones

 

P.S. I made a teddy bear for Sister Pfeifer in the two an a half weeks I was with her again. I realized I've made something for all my other companions, so I figured I'd make her something, too. And she used to have a bear back in Eagle, but it disappeared one day while she was on exchanges, so I made her a new bear. :3 And I STILL have leftover yarn from when Grandma Bair gave me an entire bag of yarn back in Eagle. It's pretty great.

 

whoops, almost forgot to send my new address.

 

6627 S Newland Circle

Littleton, CO 80123

Fw: Purgatory

 

 

From: Richelle Jones

Sent: Monday, April 07, 2014 10:50 AM

To: Lisa Jones

Subject: Purgatory

 

Dear family and friends,

 

I seem to be in a very in-between stage of my life. On Tuesday, I went with another companionship for the day, but then we got a text that I would be going back with Sister Pfeifer and Sister Pearson. But it's still only temporary, only now I don't have a deadline in it. So I'm in a stage of, "You'll be leaving, but we don't know when," which is kind of worse.

 

So, yeah.

 

Shout out to Grandma Nancy, I got the letter you sent me the day before I knew I would be emergency transferred. I already informed my previous companion to forward any mail to me.

 

GAKMYCOMPUTERSAYSITWILLSHUTDOWNINTHREEMINUTES sorry, I have to go very suddenly. Ahum, I'm going to go reserve another computer. SORRY!!!

 

Sorry about that. These computers don't work like the ones at the Fruita library where they automatically tack on extra minutes if there aren't any reservations made on your computer, so the computer was like, "SHUTTING DOWN NOW!" -_-

 

Anyway, I don't really have a whole lot to say for this week. General Conference was good for me since most of the talks were about enduring to the end and whatnot.

 

We spent most of the time trying to get one of the people we were teaching to actually come to General Conference. At the last session, we FINALLY got someone to come. So that was good.

 

Oh, and it snowed randomly this week. Then it melted. Then it snowed again. Then it melted. It's April already! Make up your mind! The saying here is that if you don't like the weather outside, wait for about five minutes. We tend to get some pretty bipolar weather here, especially in the springtime, apparently.

 

So, yeah. That's about it. I'm basically awaiting a call from President that might come tomorrow, or it could not come at all. Who knows. But in the meantime, I'm just chilling in Green Mountain with Sister Pfeifer and Sister Pearson. Yup.

 

OH and I went to the temple this week for the first time since I started my mission some nine months or so ago. Which was neat. Yeah.

 

~Sister Jones

Fw: Emergency Transfer!!!

 

 

 

Dun Dun Duuuuuuunnn!!!!

 

So last Monday, I get this call from President that informs me that I've been emergency transferred and headed to Denver. Tuesday, they sent in the new Sister that took my place serving in the Grand Junction 7th ward, and Wednesday morning, I left to go to Denver.

 

The Assistants to the President picked me up at about 6:00 a.m. which was weird being alone in a car with a couple of Elders. I asked them, "So where am I going and who will be my new companion?" Their answer? "We don't know. Nobody tells us anything." "You'll just show up at the mission office, President will open his transfer board that shows all the missionaries and where they're serving, say a prayer, blindfold himself, and throw a dart. If it hits an Elder, he'll re-throw." Goofballs.

 

Then we showed up in Glenwood Springs and the AP's left me with the Sisters serving there and took off with all my stuff. Apparently, the AP's had some meeting to go to, and with no stuff, I twiddled my thumbs until noon. Then I got handed to the Sister Training Leaders who were there. Then they took me to a meeting between them and the AP's and I got brought along for some reason. So it was odd sitting in a leadership meeting having no clue what was going on as they discussed what they're going to do for next zone conference.

 

Then the other set of AP's (we have two sets. One in Denver and one in Grand Junction) took me in to Denver. The only thing they knew about where I was going was that I would be staying with the Sister Training Leaders in Denver until this Tuesday, so basically for almost a week. It was really quite odd because the answer of where I'm going is, "We have no idea so we're just sticking you with people until we figure it out." Well. The Sister Training Leaders have to go to a special leadership meeting tomorrow morning that I'm not allowed to go to, so I'll be going with yet another set of missionaries tonight, and THEN hopefully they will figure out what to do with me.

 

It's been a very odd week.

 

I would not suggest writing me any letters or sending anything to me until I actually get settled. If you do send anything, send it to the mission home.

 

999 East Tufts Ave.

Cherry Hills Village, CO

 

It also occurred to me that tomorrow is April Fools day, which made me think that this would be an excellent April Fools joke. Except for the fact that it actually happened. So kicks and giggles, I'm in Denver now!

 

Oh, yeah, and the Sister Training Leaders here that I've been staying with since last Wednesday are Sister Pearson and Sister Pfeifer, so I was companions with Sister Pfeifer again, if only temporarily.

 

It's been a fun week.

 

Anyway, that's about all I have for you all. Hopefully I'll be more situated by next week. :P

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: Truly Grand

 

 

 

 

Helloooo!!!

 

So this week has been quite successful missionary-wise. We've been working hard and have reaped the rewards.

 

There's one old lady who's like 80 that we've been teaching who has been ratherly stubborn in the past, but this week, not only did she say that she thinks the Book of Mormon is true, but she also came on a church tour with us! :D She's a funny old lady. There was one time that we were trying to encourage her to pray, and when she finally did, she first started by saying the Lord's prayer. Then, when she was actually serious about it, part of her prayer was, "I pray that these girls will stop being so stubborn..." She's funny.

 

Our Relief Society President has also been excellent and makes sure to set aside a few hours every week to go with us to see Less-active sisters in the ward. And that's in addition to her volunteering to come with us to lessons throughout the week. She's been awesome!

 

It's been good. I love this area a lot. It is certainly blooming right along with all the trees and flowers coming in for spring. :)

 

I've been struggling a bit emotionally-wise, though. But I think that's just a part of being a missionary. They never said it would be easy. They just said it would be worth it.

 

The people we live with got baby chickens. They are adorable.

 

Aaaaand I've been spending my free time (The time between planning every night and bedtime) painting a picture for my companion. You know me. Always busy with some sort of craft project. :D I finished it last night.

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: The color green

 

 

 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone!

 

I'm wearin' my green! Are you?

 

It's been really cute seeing everyone's decorations they have put up. It inspires me to one day put up some amazingly awesome decorations! Yeah!

 

So this week was the first week of being with just Sister Hancock. It was different. It took so long getting used to a trio, and now it's taking a while to get used to there just being two of us.

 

We had a couple of more miracles this week where members and less-actives brought their friends for us to teach. It's been so nice, especially since we've been spending a great deal of time on fruitless finding. God blesses our efforts, even if it's not in the way we might think. And for you members at home, remember that if you bring friends to meet the missionaries, that is so much better than having the missionary spend hours going door to door in the hopes that someone will actually listen to them.

 

We had one really cool miracle this week. Near the beginning of last transfer, we talked to this guy walking down the street who was interested in learning more, but he went to the single's ward elders. Earlier this week, we got a call from the elders who had taught him, had a great lesson, but then lost contact with him. They were asking if we had any more information like a phone number to try to call. We didn't so we sadly hung up. Just then, this guy walked by. It was the same guy! Not five minutes after we had just hung up the phone! So we got out and talked to him, and he wanted to meet with the elders again but had no phone and his mom had posted a note on the door asking the elders to not come back. So we called up the elders and set up an appointment for him! I thought it was super neat!

 

Anyhoo, that's about it for the week.

 

Have a great green day!

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: Climbing Mountains

 

Helloooooo!

 

So last P-Day, we had a zone activity where we hiked Mt. Garfield. I need to clarify my previous description of Mt. Garfield. I mentioned it's a big pile of rocks before. In reality, it's a big pile of rocks covered in sand. The trail was INSANE. It was nearly vertical at times, and it's covered in sand and small rock that slides down the mountain when you step on it, and on either side of you is a giant rock-slide of doom. That combined with me having asthma problems every 15 steps or so made me finally give up and climb back down the mountain with three other girls who were also struggling. But I did get a few pretty pictures when I was up there.

 

This week wasn't much to talk about. I was struggling a bit this week, but that's not unusual in missionary work. Just climbing the mountains of life.

 

For transfer news, Sister Cope is leaving, but Sister Hancock and I will be staying in Grand Junction 7th ward for another transfer. So cool.

 

Aaaaaand that's about it for this week. :/ No real stories or miracles at all. Just sort of blah.

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: Little Miracles

 

 

 

 

Greetings, everyone!

 

So this week we came across a few miracles that pretty well made up for all of the dropped investigators from last week. There were three times this week where we showed up to teach some less-active members and they had friends over for us to teach! It was really a miracle, and it really shows how God really does make up for times of trials. You should all look up the Mormon Message titled "Good things to Come." That's really what's been pushing me forward is the knowledge that in the end, God WANTS us to succeed, so he will always prepare a way for that to happen. It's interesting the way the Lord works, too, because the happen-stances behind the situations proves that it was not our doing that brought this new success, but it was the Lord.

 

I think it's kinda sad any time we meet atheists. Coming out on my mission, I can see God's hand in a very real sense. If I had any doubts about the existence of God before, they're most certainly eradicated now. Sometimes God works in a very subtle way, and sometimes he smacks people upside the face. The only problem is that it's REALLY hard to explain that to a person who is set on denying the existence of any greater being.

 

Anyway, it's been a week of miracles. I don't really know what else to say. Transfers are coming up this upcoming week, so we've all been playing the guessing game of who's leaving and who's staying. And every member keeps asking us what we think is going to happen, closely followed by, "We hope that none of you are leaving!" Sister Cope thinks she's leaving. I honestly have no clue what's going to happen to me since sometimes it feels like I'll be leaving while other times it feels like I'm staying. It's not like last transfer where I knew that I would be the one leaving Fruita a full week before it happened. I think it's an either/or kind of situation right now. We're all fairly certain that Sister Hancock will remain here in 7th ward. But all in all, no one really knows until the transfer calls come this weekend.

 

It's kind of an adventure, not knowing what's going to happen. But that's really what missionary life is like all the time. You never know what's for dinner, you never know if someone's going to be golden or mean, you never know where you're going, who you're going to see next, what you're going to say, everything. We really have to rely on the spirit and let you know what's going to happen. It's really like walking blind-folded with someone whispering directions to you, and sometimes it's really hard to hear what the person is saying.

 

Funny story of the week, Sunday morning at 1:00 a.m. I woke up to what I initially thought was someone trying to start a lawnmower in our room. Come to quickly realize that it was one of my companions snoring. Having nothing to throw at her, I climbed down from the bunk bed and poked her foot. No response. I poked her several more times. At last, her breathing softened and I climbed back into bed. No sooner had I hit the pillow when she started snoring again. So I climbed back down and poked her arm. Still no result. After repeating the same thing as last time, she finally stopped snoring. I reached the top of the bunk bed and it started back up again. I just started laughing at the futility of it all, and my laughter woke her up so she stopped snoring. :P We laughed about it for a good couple of minutes before settling back to sleep. That morning, the alarm clock went off, and the same companion shot up straight in bed and exclaimed, "IS THIS REAL LIFE?!" "Yes, yes it is," and then she flopped back down in bed and instantly went back to sleep. It was highly entertaining and we made fun of her for the rest of the day.

 

Oh, yeah. I wanted to mention one last thing. Earlier this week, we had a meeting between all the missionaries and all the auxiliary leaders of all the wards in our stake. One of the seventy came to speak to us. What he was saying was basically that our job as missionaries is to work for the ward, and not the ward to work for us. What that means is that a lot of times, we as missionaries are having to call the leaders and members of the ward to try to set up appointments, beg for referrals, ask people to come out with us, and we're having to plead with the members to get them to help us. But it's supposed to be opposite. The members are supposed to be the ones calling us to try to get into our schedule. They're supposed to be the ones who call us and say, "I would love to come out with you one of these days. Are you available at..." or "I'm having troubles seeing one of the people on my visiting teaching/home teaching list. Do you think you could help me get in contact with them?" or even "I really want to teach my friend the gospel but I have no idea how to go about doing so. Could you help us?" Really, our job is to help the members, but when the members refuse to take the initiative, that's when we have to pester the members. But it's not our ward. It's the members' ward. We're trying to help the members. Not the other way around. Anyway, it was a great training, and I wanted to shoot you the information in this email. To all you members, the missionaries are at your disposal. Take advantage of that! It's really stressful when all the responsibility for taking care of the ward is on the missionaries, the two young kids who could be leaving in a month or so. It's your responsibility as members to take care of your ward, and if you need help, that's where we come in. That's our job. So, yeah. Always remember that.

 

I don't really have anything else to talk about for this week. I love you all! Have a great week!!

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw:

 

 

Dear Family and Friends

 

This week beats a record! Most amount of dropped investigators in one week!

 

Ok, so it wasn't a very happy week. But that's ok! It just means that there are blessings coming right around the corner!

 

We've been doing an awful lot of finding this week, knocking on doors, talking to random strangers, just trying to find people who are interested. So far, almost all of our finding has turned up with a lot of nothing, and the few people we do find who are interested have been either in other areas or are Spanish or are young single adults and so we keep having to give them to other missionaries. It's been a little on the frustrating side, but so it goes. As I said before, that just means that there are blessings just waiting to shower down upon us!

 

So I don't really have any fun stories to tell this week. >.> sorry. We've been having beautiful weather most of this week, though! All the snow is melted and gone. There was one day that the wind was blowing really hard and it blew in a bunch of storm clouds and it got really cold, but the rest of the week has been sunshiny and whatnot. Yesterday especially was beautiful.

 

Anyhoo, that's pretty much it. Sorry. I also don't have any pictures this week cuz my camera ran out of batteries and I had to wait till P-Day to purchase some more. Hopefully I'll have more pictures and stories for you next week.

 

I love you all!

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

 These are pictures of all the snow we got. Most of it is actually melted now. It's been really warm this past week, up in the 50's!!! It's been balmy! Ohhhhhh yessss. It's been great. But the snow provided very pretty pictures.

 This one person we visited had this super friendly bird, and since I didn't successfully get a picture with Gus back in Eagle, I wanted to get a picture with this little bird.

Also, my two companions find great joy in doing my makeup and dolling me up. Not sure why. :P

Fw: Landmarks

 

 

 

Hello, everyone!

 

There were a few monumental moments that happened this week. First of all, this is the first Valentines day that I got a rose! Granted, it was from the members who fed us dinner that night, but it still made me feel special and happy inside. :P

 

The second thing was a bit more of a spiritual landmark. Saturday morning, during personal study, I turned the last page of the bible. That's right. I have read the bible cover to cover from Genesis all the way to Revelations. Back in July when I was first starting my mission, I had a lot of people say, "You don't even read your bible," and of course I explained that we use the bible as well as the Book of Mormon and they go together side by side and such, but I hadn't actually read all of the bible before. So back in my first transfer, I started reading the bible while also reading the Book of Mormon. I finished the BoM partway through Psalms, so I started reading the Doctrine and covenants. I finished the Doctrine and Covenants partway through Lamentations, so I devoted all of my efforts to reading the bible, and I finally finished it this week. I think that's quite the accomplishment, so I feel all proud and happy with myself. :P Today I started the 42 day challenge for the Book of Mormon that the mission president set for us, finish the Book of Mormon in one transfer. So we'll see how that goes. I think I can make it. After all, I read the entire bible, the Book of Mormon, AND the Doctrine and covenants/Pearl of Great Price in seven months.

 

Other than that, this week was actually pretty uneventful. We seem to be continually having poor luck with appointments falling through, and our one progressing investigator keeps skipping church and she will no longer be able to make her baptismal date this transfer. So that's continually frustrating. It just means that there are greater blessings right around the corner.

 

I loff you all, and keep being awesome!!!

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

Fw: Every Day I'm Shovelin'

 

 

 

Helloooo and Happy Valentines, everyone!

 

Also, Happy Birthday, Dad!!! You thought I'd forget, didn't you? :P

 

Aaand before I'm a silly-face and forget to send you my address again, here it is!

 

Sister Richelle Jones

630 31 Rd.

Grand Junction, CO 81504

 

Alrighty then. On to the emailing part. So it snowed again early in the week. We got a ton of snow, this really heavy stuff that packed like crazy. We were fortunate, though, since the temperature didn't drop too low like when it snowed in December. It's actually stayed decently above zero degrees, and has averaged closer to 30, which is sweet relief compared to the cold wave we got earlier this year. But it did mean that we got a ton of snow. We got in some wonderful service activities of seeing people shoveling snow, getting out, and helping them shovel. It was quite the workout since we did five or more driveways in only a few hours.

 

The snow hasn't been that bad since then, mostly we've been getting sleet and some rain. But the workout didn't end there. We ran plum out of miles in our car! We are allotted a certain number of miles every week, and last week we went over our mileage limit, so we got docked some this week. Then, to avoid going over again, we walked. A lot. And at the end of the week, we were only 3 miles away from our limit. So the first day we walked, we were out walking for about five hours, and I was in my snow boots which aren't really broken in just yet. When we stopped by home to grab the car, I took off my boots and found that the heel of my left sock was soaked in blood. >.< ow. The next day, we had to walk in the rain. I loved it, it reminded me a lot of home, and I was just grinning the whole time soaking in the beautiful rain. My companions, however, were not nearly as happy. Sister Hancock is from Texas, and she's not used to cold rain. It was kind of amusing to watch, actually. It's reassurance that I am a true Washingtonian, no umbrella, no hood, walking in the cold rain with a big smile on my face.

 

Other than that, this week was ratherly uneventful. We had a ton of appointments every day this week, and all but two of them fell through. That's the life of a missionary, I guess, but it was still quite frustrating.

 

So last Monday, Sister Cope was checking the phone to see if anyone had texted us when suddenly she gasps and starts saying, "OHMYGOODNESS," again and again. So we were super worried, wondering what had happened, it was like 8:50 pm so we had gone home already, and suddenly she's like, "We have to get in the car NOW. Someone bought us In-N-Out!" XD We thought it was this big deal, but someone had been to Utah and knew that Sister Cope's favorite restaurant is In-N-Out, so they grabbed us some burgers while they were in Utah. Sister Cope considered it an emergency and rushed over to grab it before it hit 9:00. It was pretty funny, especially since she insisted on taking pictures with her burger and the In-N-Out bag.

 

Another funny story: one of the dreaded lessons to teach is the Chastity lesson since that one tends to get really awkward really fast. So we have one person who should be getting baptized by the end of this transfer who was on the chastity lesson. We went in, and she had brought a friend with her to the lesson. I was supposed to be starting the lesson off, so I was like, "Uhhhhhh...." but felt that I needed to just move forward with the lesson anyway. And get this! The spirit was there so strongly that even with the chastity lesson, the friend started crying and set up a return appointment for us to come back! I was SHOCKED! So that's the miracle of the week. I just thought it was also highly amusing.

 

Anyhoo, I think that covers this week. I'm still really sore from all that shoveling and walking, but it means I'll be all strong and buff and stuff later. :P

 

~Sister Richelle Jones

:D Here's some pictures from Fruita. I made matching bags for all the Sisters in Fruita. This was before Sister Hilton left. Then there's a few pics from stuff in downtown Fruita like the Mike the Headless Chicken statue. :)

Before I left Fruita, we stopped by the dinosaur museum there. So I got a few pics from that. The last pic needs rotated, but it's a picture of just one of the legs of a dinosaur. It's huge.

These are some pictures of people I got to know in Fruita. I wish I had more of these, but I ran out of time to get pictures with everyone I wanted pictures with. :( I got a picture with the Great Dane because we had to watch that dog while they were away on vacation, and that dog is HUGE, so I had to get a picture for memories sake. The last picture is a little dark since the flash didn't fire, but so it goes. :/

It snowed the day after I got to my new area, so the dark picture is me dancing in the snow. And then the superbowl was yesterday and someone brought this cardboard cutout of some Broncos quarterback or something, so of course we had to take pictures in front of it. And then the Broncos lost. Eheheh.