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.

Fw: Three Musketeers

 

 

Hey, Everyone!

 

Guess what!

 

I'm in a tri-panionship now! That's right! There's three of us now! My two companions are Sister Cope and Sister Hancock. It's been a new and interesting experience, but it's also been fun!

 

I got moved about fifteen minutes away from my previous area. I'm now serving in the Grand Junction 7th ward, so I'm in city area now. It actually feels a lot more like Lacey than anywhere else on my mission has so far since it's kind of a sprawling city with lots of neighborhoods and such. There are also more trees here than in Fruita and Eagle, so that's another thing that makes me think of home. Except all the trees are dead. And brown. And it snowed again. And we're still on the border of a desert. Ok, so it's completely different from home still, but it's a little closer than my last two areas! But we get some new views of Mt. Garfield, the giant rock covered in snow at the edge of Grand Junction. It's pretty great. I like it. This ward is smaller than the Fruita 4th ward, but bigger than the Eagle Valley ward. And most of the members are older people who are super cute and sweet. :)

 

So, yeah. I've been spending the week trying to adjust to the new area, as well as adjusting to the trio gig. Fun stuff!

 

There aren't really any fun or interesting stories to share with you for the week. Except for the one where we almost had the elders cast out a devil for us. But that's not important.

 

Ohhh I'm sorry, did you want to hear that story? Well, ok. One of the people we're teaching called us because she wanted some help. Her sister was walking to her house, and she wanted a ride cuz it's really cold outside. We called one of the members and asked them if they'd be willing to give this person a ride, and they agreed. So we went on splits for a little bit and had Sister Cope go with the member while Sister Hancock and I continued with our normal missionary work. When we picked up Sister Cope after she told us that they were done, she was a little shaken. They had picked up the person who had called us, then drove down to where her sister was, but Sister Cope said that the moment the sister stepped in the car, the spirit just left. Then all the way back, the sister kept talking to herself and swearing and stuff and really wasn't all there. It freaked Sister Cope out a bit, and so she told them that we would be by later to pray with them. After she got back with us and told us the story, she called the Elders and asked if they'd be willing to give a priesthood blessing. They, of course, asked why, and so Sister Cope started explaining the situation, and Elder Rogers was like, "Wait. You want us to cast out a devil?" ".... Well, sorta I guess. But I don't know." "You want me to cast out a devil." "Yeah..."

 

Well, we got over there and the sister had gone to sleep, so instead the Elders just gave the person we're teaching a blessing of comfort. So it wasn't nearly as exciting as it sounded. But, yeah. Nearly cast out a devil. That's my interesting story for the week. :P

 

I love you all! Don't get possessed by any devils! Have fun!

 

~Sister Richelle Jones