She's not in "UTAH" anymore...

She has flown away...on to Chicago...then Paris...and finally to Germany! She is very excited to go...but nervous as well! As much as she LOVED the MTC...she was ready to go (and by the way, she is sick of her clothes already)! The mission home address is listed to the right...so please feel free to drop her a line. We will try to keep the address updated as she moves from place to place...but the mission home will always be a permanent place to send letters and packages (hint, hint).

Also, Christi has told us that she is very excited to read this blog once she gets home...16 months from now...and we feel that it would be great if anyone who visits the site and reads her letters, leaves her a comment that she can read when she returns. At the bottom of each blog there is the word "comment", click on that and a pop up window will appear. Type a message in the box with your name..if you don't have an account with google then just click the anonymous button so your comment can be posted. Feel free to leave as many comments as you want...I know she will be delighted to read them!

Thanks for caring enough about our little sister missionary to continually check-in on her. We are so proud of her and so excited for her as she is on her way to the "mission field". We know she is going to be a great missionary!

She's headed to Germany

Well...it is official, Christi leaves for Germany on Tuesday, May 27th. She is very excited to be going, but nervous as well. Here is part of an email to our mom about her flight plans:

I leave the SLC Airport at 10:25am (may 27) and arrive in Chicago at 2:35pm...eastern time!! I don't leave till 5:30pm chicago time, so I will call when I can get to a phone there!! I then head to Paris and arrive there 8:50am (May 28) and then leave at 10:35am for hamburg...I finally arrive at my destination at 12:10pm!! Then I have orientation, meetings with the mission pres. and then dinner and bed at 10:30pm!! It will be a very long exhausting day, but I'm so excited. A little nervous, but excited. My German is still not very good but I know it ill come!!

The mission home address in Germany is listed on a previous post...if you haven't written her yet..now would be a great time, so she has some mail waiting for her when she arrives!

Also...she is sending her memory card with her pics from the MTC to mom so I am hoping to get some pics posted in the next week or so!

Guten Tag! (letter from Christi May 22, 2008)

Ok...I don't have much time today, but I just wanted to tell everyone
about a super cool experience I had this week. Well actually 2...I was
in the TRC on Tuesday teaching a couple fake investigators and it was so
cool. It was a mother and a daughter and we were teaching in German.
Well the mom didn't speak german at all. So the daughter kind of
translated a little as we taught. Then at the end Sister Pelo asked the mother
to pray in German to close and it was so great. The spirit was so
strong as we were teaching and then when the mother prayed the spirit was
even stronger. She prayed for sister Pelo and I since we are leaving
soon and then she began to cry. I know that she had felt the spirit as we
had taught her even though she couldn't understand our words. She
could still feel our testimonies. It was the best TRC experience I have had
since I have been here!!

Then in the RC the next day I was having bad luck calling people. No
one was answering. FINALLY this girl answered and we ended up talking for
an HOUR!!! It was so cool. She had a lot of questions and a lot of
them were asked almost to dig me in a hole, but I did better then I
thought I could when explaining the beliefs of the church. We talked about
everything. Prayer, personal revelation, prophets, pre-earth life, life
after death, the kingdoms of glory, missionaries, the god head, Joseph
Smith, the restoration, the B of M. and many others that I can't
remember. I finally had to just end the call by inviting her to meet with
the missionaries, but she is not ready for that. A lot of her questions
were ones she didn't really want answered she just wanted to stump me!! I
had fun though and it was a really good experience!! I love you all!!

Hallo! (Letter from Christi May 15, 2008)

So I only have 11 days in the MTC left!! AHHHHH!!! I get my flight plan
tomorrow which is a big deal among the Missionaries in the MTC!! It
makes it a lot more real.

This week has been so great!! I really have felt the blessings of the
Lord in my life. I thought the second lesson in German for the first
time this last Tuesday and it went pretty well. My comp is VERY good at
German, so I have to use all the strength I have not to compare myself to
her. She told me that everything has always come really easy to her.
She has always gotten straight A's in school and has never really
studied or anything. She thinks that that is her trial in life...seems like a
pretty easy trial. I on the other hand have never been really good at
much of anything. Even when I spend forever studying, school has just
always been hard for me. So we are quite different. I feel like I work
my butt off and she tells me that she isn't even trying very hard, but
yet she speaks and understands better then amost anyone in the branch.
She is really blessed. It bothered me a lot at first, but the last couple
weeks I have realized that I wouldn't want that. I want to get what I
have worked for and I know that the Lord will bless me to learn this
language. Even if it is the last day of my mission, I know He will bless
me. I have seen those blessings this week as I have been trying to
speak my language as much as I can. On Tuesday I spoke so much German that
my brain was hurting. It was a good feeling.

The Spirit of the Lord is with me and can see the blessings he is
giving me and the missionaries around me!! I love this Gospel and I love the
MTC!! I'm So excited to go to Germany!! It is so close that I can feel
it!!

There is this sister who is going to be flying out with me. She just
came in last week, but she can already speak German so they are sending
her with me. She is even going to Hamburg!! I'm very excited!! I love
you all and hope you have a wonderful week!! Thank you for the prayers!!
Love,
Sister Jones

Germany Address

Christi will be heading to Germany in about 2 weeks and if you would like to have a letter waiting her arrival....here is the address:

Sister Constance Christine Jones
Germany Hamburg Mission Office
Rugenbarg 7A
22549 Hamburg
Germany

Guten Tag meine Familie (letter from Christi May 8, 2008)

This week again has been great. The Lord really blessed me with a good attitude. I love all of the devotionals and firesides and Large Group Meetings that we have. They are so uplifting and inspiring!! The TRC was very humbling this week. I know that my German is not very good, but I had prepared a lot for it trying to learn the vocab that I needed. Then I went there and I couldn't remember hardly anything I had learned. I was really frustrated because I thought that I would at least remember what I had learned. I cried afterward of course because I was just really disapointed in myself. My comp, sister Pelo, and I talked about it later and she told me that I may not have spoken perfect German, but she said that when I taught that the Spirit was really strong and that when I bore my testimony that the Spirit was really there. I was comforted a lot, because it is not someone's German that will convert people it is the Spirit. Even the best most persuasive teachers can not convert without the Spirit. I learned a lot from that experience. The Lord may not give me all the words, but if I prepare He will give me the Spirit. I
just need to work on concentrating on feeling the Spirit and then I will be comforted about my horrible German.

The RC was amazing this week. I went in with the attitude that I was going to teach and testify to EVERYONE and not hang up until I did so. Because of that attitude that Lord really blesses me. I talked to one lady about the book of Mormon. She had met with the Missionaries once, but her minister told her it wasn't a good idea and if she had anyquestions or problems that she should go to him. So I told her about the book of mormon and testified about the power that it had and I committed her
over the phone to read it and pray about it. She committed and also might meet with the missionaries again. I want to call her back next week to see how she is doing with her reading. Since she doesn't have the Gift of the Holy Ghost she might forget the feelings that she felt over the phone. So I want to call her and have her call the missionaries for sure. I will let you know it I can get ahold of her. I also talked to this other lady and I told her about the book of mormon and I quoted the first vision and the story of Joseph Smith and about our prophet today. The spirit was so strong and I talked to her about having the missionaries come teach her more and she accepted them. It is so a great feeling. Even when people hang up on me I don't even care, I just think that they are just not ready to receive the Gospel. So I just move on to another call. I LOVE the RC!!!

I can't believe that in 2 1/5 weeks I will be heading to Germany!! It is so exciting. I don't think I will understand what they are saying to me, but it will come!! I can't wait to get there.

I hope everyone is doing well!! The Church is true. God lives and loves us. Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the World. Joseph Smith was a prophet and Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today!! I love this work and I want to go out and kick
butt!! I love you all. Have a great week!!

26 days till I leave for Germany!! WAHOOO!! (letter from Christi May 1, 2008)

This week has been great. I don't know if I told you about my new
companion. Her name is Sister Fourtina and she is from France. She is so
great. She is actually a solo sister because she is the only sister in her
district, but our branch pres. paired her up with sister Pelo and I.
So now I have 2 companions. We have a lot of fun together.
I was called as the coordinating sister for my zone, which is pretty
much the sister that is in charge of all the sisters...especially the new
ones that should be coming next week. I have to make sure that the
sisters are following the rules, especially when we are in our rooms at
night. (What a perfect calling for Christi....)
On Sunday in church Sister Fourtina and I sang for the special musical
number. Sister Pelo played the piano for us. We sang I know that My
redeemer lives and we did it in an awesome way. She sang the first verse
in french and then we did the chorus together in German. Then I sang the
second verse in English and then we did the chorus in German. Then the
third verse she sang in french and I sang in English at the same time,
then we sang the chorus again in German. Then the whole congregation
sang together in German on the last verse. It was so awesome!!
In Relief Society the YW President Sister Dalton came and spoke to us.
She is so amazing. I want to be just like her. She shared an experience
of when she was visiting with some YW in Africa and she asked them what
trials they had. No one said anything and she asked again. Finally
someone in the back stood up and said, "Sister Dalton, We have the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. What else do we need?" It touched me so much!!I
started to bawl. It is so true!! What else do we need?? Nothing!! I love this
Gospel and I know that only in and through Jesus Christ can we be
saved and return and live with our Father in Heaven!!
So I taught in German for the first time this past Tuesday and it was
interesting to say the least. Sister Pelo is really great at speaking
German, but I'm a little slow. The spirit was there and that is all that
matters. It is just really hard for me to think of what to say in
German and then translate that into German and then spit it out and have it
make sense...it's quite the process!! ;o) I know it will come, but it
is really hard right now!!
We have a devotional every week on Tuesday night and I have been
waiting and waiting for an apostle to come...and I will still have to wait
because it wasn't an apostle yet. Although every time I get even the
slightest bit disappointed about not having an apostle I am always so
impressed with the 70s that come. This week it was Elder Zwick and he was
amazing and so was his wife!! The thing that I really liked the most was
when he told about his son. His son is mentally disabled and is just
like a child in how he thinks and talks. One time in the car his son asked
him, "Dad, Do you know Jesus?" I loved that question, because it is so
exciting for me to be able to answer, yes. I know Jesus Christ. He is
my brother, my friend, my master, my king, and most important my
Savior. He gave up his life so I can live forever with my God. I can't wait
for the day that I can thank him face to face.

Love Sister Jones