23 February 2009

Email from Mission President

Last week Christi wrote the following in her letter:

Thursday was Zone Conference and I got to sing for Elder Robert Oaks (the Area President for Europe) I didn´t mess up!! WOW...What a miracle. I also really felt the spirit and didn´t cry. That is also a miracle!! It was pretty good for not having practiced in over a year!! That day was just a miracle because we learned so much through the Spirit!!


This is an email sent to Christi's mom from Sister Thompson, the mission president's wife:

Dear Sister Jones,

We had a most delightful experience at our Mission Tour with Elder Robert Oaks and his wife during the vocal solo of your daughter, Sister Christi Jones. We asked her to perform a special musical number for the afternoon of zone conference and she willingly accepted. Her performance was so moving and sensitive as she sang in her beautiful, clear voice, "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee." We were all in tears at the end of her marvelous solo. Elder Oaks commented that it was one of the most beautiful renditions he had ever heard and thanked her for bringing the Spirit in such abundance.

We just love your daughter and so appreciate the love and support you give her. Her obedience and enthusiasm for the gospel and her missionary work are exemplary and we are so honored to be able to serve with her. Thank you for preparing her so well to serve.

With our love,

President and Sister Thompson

Week #39 (2-23-09)

This week has been even more amazing then last week!! MIRACLES, MIRACLES, AND MORE MIRACLES!!

Monday was P-day of course and then sadly the family that we had an appointment with that night fell out. So we made a plan to visit some inactives and guess what?? Sister Sayson got her first contact. It was so great...She stopped this guy and she started to talk to him. Well, I felt something hit the back of my shoe behind me so I turned around and it was an old lady with this rolly thing. I apologized that I was in the way and took a step forward and then she just started talking to me....that is not normal for Germans. Especially when they are older. Well, while she was talking to me Sister Sayson got this guys info and said that we would bring a book by. It was so cool!! This lady was really crazy though. She kept telling us the same things over and over again!! We ended up helping her with her bags and rolly thing..she had to catch a bus and then went on our way. I think that the lady was really confused, but we got her on the right bus!! But anyway...she got a contact!! WAHOO!! My Golden is so grown-up!! She doesn´t need a trainer!!

Then on Tuesday: We had interviews with the mission president and I talked to him about weekly goals. He has certain goals that we are supposed to reach every week...like a certain amount and I was feeling a little down because we had been setting our goals every week to the Standards of Excellence, but we just weren´t making it!! I wanted to be able to set goals and reach them and then feel good about what we did. Well, I found out that the Standards of Excellence are what we should be striving for and not necessarily what our goals need to be set at every week...it was a big AHHHH moment for me!! My comps and I have always set goals for the week at what was expected for the mission and not what was possible for us!! I was so excited to hear this!! (Later you will find out that the Lord showed me that I need to not doubt Him because it is possible to reach the standards for the mission even with out many investigators!! I was very humbled...but that comes later)
So then we went to visit a really old member that can not leave her bed. We were afraid that no one would be there to let us in, because she cannot let us in...obviously. Thankfully there was a woman there to let us in...she only come 2 times a day. Her son also lives there, but he is not always home!!

Then the Robb´s (the missionary couple in Bremen) called us and told us (well Elder Robb called) that Sister Robb was sick and he needed our help the next day to make food for the YSA. They cook a huge dinner every week for the YSA to eat after institute and sister Robb was too sick to do it. Well, we called and rearranged our schedule to help them....
....that brings us to Wednesday. I had made a mistake by moving 2 appointments to the same time thinking that I could call the other (Katharina) and change it to another day. Well, when I tried to call her I remembered that her phone was broken and so I couldn´t get ahold of her. Well, we were in a pickle!! I had no clue what to do because I really wanted to helped the Robbs because they do so much for us and ward....but I also didn´t want to call and cancel this other appointment because she is really sensitive and would be offended. Well guess what. Katharina called us and canceled because she had to go to the Doctor!! WOW...what a miracle!! I couldn´t believe it!! We still got to go to an appointment and help the Robb´s to buy groceries and cook dinner!! We also got to have our family home evening with that family that I talked about last week. Sister Sayson made this really cool board game for the second lesson for a 9 year old investigators that the Elders have (well we are sharing him) and so we tried out the game with this family!! It was really fun. We had a spiritual thought, played the game and even ate dinner together. We are going to have it again next week...the son has the lesson next week and then I have a memory game for all the commandments in the 4th lesson of preach my gospel!! It should be fun!!

Thursday we had an appointment with a contact that the Elders found...well actually she stopped them. I´m not going to go into details about what happened because I don´t want anyone to think that I am making fun of other religions. The beginning of the lesson was really good. We taught about the book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. The Spirit was particularly strong when I told the first vision in his own words...no matter how many times I say it...the spirit is there!! Then the ending got really weird. I will just leave it like that. We have another appointment this week and we will see how it goes. She is our first investigator that we have gotten together!! WAHOO! We then had an eating appointment and then went to a lesson with Daniel Rust the 9 year old that the Elders teach. The family are already members and since he is older then 8 we get to teach him. We played the game and the kids had so much fun. They want us to come back and play it again. I´m so proud of Sister Sayson!! She is so creative and amazing!! So many people have told her that she should send the idea to Deseret Books and sell it...maybe after the mission!! :o) Our miracle for the day was that our Ward mission leader called us with a re feral from a lady that referred herself!! Wow...I love referrals!!

Friday was one of the best days ever!! That was the miracle that I wrote down because there was too many to write!! First when we were planning the night before we decided to do some doors in the morning before we had to take the bus to an appointment. So we looked at the Bahn that we were going to take and decided that each of us were going to choose 2 bahn stops in our minds and then say them out loud to each other and we will do door in the area that we both choose. So we both looked and thought about it and then said our choices out loud and guess what. One of them was the same!! :o) So we made plans to go there...ok...so we went there and started doing doors and no one was home and if they were they had no interest!! So I had a feeling that we should go to doors on the cross street near by, so we did. We did door after door and nothing. There was this little German lady in the window across the street watching us and I wanted to go and ring her doorbell and talk to her, but we just kept going. Finally I thought to myself..."we will just go to that door and then we will go to the other side of the street" Well we got to that door and the last bell that we rang a little Chinese girls voice came on. We told her who we were and she told us that she was baptized into the protestant church...I told he about the book of Mormon and just finished saying that it was another Testament of Jesus Christ when the door buzzed and we were let in. We walked in and she was standing in her door way waiting for us. We told her a little more about the book and she wanted to come to church on Sunday!! We were so excited!! We were totally led to her!! (She didn´t end up coming to church, but we will go by this week to visit her). We then went to an appointment with an inactive woman and then went to visit the referral because they lived in the area. Well we said who we were and invited us in. We found out that her brother is a member of the church in Russia and even went on a mission. She told him that she would inform herself about the church, but with no promises. Well we taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and asked if we could come back next week and she said yes. She is really willing to learn and find out what we believe. Her husband was there as well and agreed to let us come back. She even said that she would probably invite a friend next time as well!! WAHOO!! We got 2 new investigators in one day and they are a family!! Then we went and had an appointment with Van (she is also the Elders investigator but because she is a YSA our mission Pres. wants us to teach her...so we had an appointment at a member's home and it went so well. We taught the 3rd lesson on chastity. Because she is from Vietnam it is just part of their culture to live chaste and to keep the work of wisdom!! She is so amazing!! (Sadly she called the Elders on Friday and said her mom won´t let her get baptised!! We are fasting for another miracle today!!) The reason the day was so great is because we got to see so much success and really felt lead by the Spirit!! Man, this really is the work of the Lord!!

Saturday was also a great day!! We visited a few inactives and found them home. One lady had been praying that we would come back by. She hadn´t seen the missionaries in a year!! Another lady and her family have lived in Bremen for 4 years and didn´t know that there was a ward here. Well she was so surprised to se us standing at her door. She said that 20 minutes earlier she was telling her friend on the phone that she needed a sign...and there we were on her door step. She was so happy that the Lord had answered her prayers!! She said she would come to church. (She also didn´t come to church) We got to be the answer to 2 people prayers today!! The elders also called and told us to look for a lady at church the next day who would be visiting from another city...she is a nonmember!! (She didn´t come to church)

Sunday: Well as you probably noticed from this week that we saw a lot of miracles. As missionaries we work hard all week to finally see the results of a good week by getting people to come to church. Well we had a lot of people that were supposed to come and none of them came. But I was actually ok with it. I was a little disappointed and surprised, but I was ok with it because I know that we had a great week and did a good job. We did what we could to bring people closer to Christ and this week we will work harder and get those people and more to church next week!! Also as I talked about at the beginning of the email...the lord humbled me this week....our standard of excellence for lessons each week is 15 and we got 13!! The lord proved to me that we can do it!! This week we want to get our 15!! It was such a great week and I know that the Lord is in this work...it is his!! Oh...man....it was a great week!! WOW!!

I hope that your week is full of just as many miracles...we see them everyday...sometimes we just have to look a little harder for them!!
Sister Jones

16 February 2009

Week #38 (2-16-09) The week of love...but no love for me!!

"I think that you might send this email on to people and if you do I want all to know that there was no love in my mail box for Valentine´s day!! I know I´m just a missionary, but Sisters need love too!! :o)" (yep...that is a little sister Jones whining about no Valentines...maybe I will let her know that the only one in my house that got valentines in the mail was the 22 month-old..big waaaa!)

This week has been my week of miracles. Siser Sayson and I decided to write everyday in our planners a miracle that we have seen. Sometimes they are just little things, but they are there as long as we look for them!! So I want to share with you our miracles this week in the wonderful City of Bremen.

Last Monday we went by an inactive family for the second time (first time she was too busy) and she was busy with a birthday party of her son. We just asked if there was a time that we could come back and meet with her. So she got out her calendar and we made an appointment for the first of next month. It´s far away, but hey...she agreed to meet with us.

On Tuesday the very first person we saw because a new contact of ours. She seemed really interested about the Book of Mormon. She wanted us to wait till this week to call her, so I´m excited to see what happens. We also had been praying to find a family in the ward who we could do a family home evening with. We wanted to do it to help find referrals, but also to strengthen the families. Well, we were at an eating appointment and did a spiritual thought about prayer and how God answers prayers. We then asked if there was anything we could do for them and the mom at first said no, but then said yes. She invited us to do a family home evening with her and her slightly inactive son!! We were shocked!! We said yes and then told her how she just answered our prayers!! We were also in a bus and Sister Sayson was asking the driver where we needed to get out to get to a certain street. He told us where and then told us that is was going to be a long little walk. Well, he ended up just driving us straight to the street that we needed. He took his break to drive us there!! How nice is that!! The blessings of the Lord are all around us if we just open our eyes to see them.

Wednesday came and we went to an appointment with an inactive woman in the ward. She has a really long and personal reason why she doesn´t come to church and she trusted us enough to tell us the whole story and even agreed to meet with us to help her get her trust in God back. We also went to another family that night. The wife is active and the husband (the old bishop) is inactive. They are from America and really love music. I had been practicing in the church for about 15 minutes earlier that day to prepare to sing at Zone Conference the next day and I had been wishing that someone could play the piano for me so I could just sing through it once. Well my wonderful companion asked the woman if she would play for me so I could sing and she agreed. So I got out my music and sang for them. I think that the man felt the spirit and I hope that I can get him back into the church through music!!

Thursday was Zone Conference and I got to sing for Elder Robert Oaks (the Area President for Europe) I didn´t mess up!! WOW...What a miracle. I also really felt the spirit and didn´t cry. That is also a miracle!! It was pretty good for not having practiced in over a year!! That day was just a miracle because we learned so much through the Spirit!!

Friday we had an appointment with a contact, but when we got there her sister said that she is too busy right now and that she would call us when she had more time. We went in to use the bathroom and then she offered us tea...fruit tea...which I´m not going to turn down when it is snowing outside. We ended up playing a game and then leaving a Spiritual thought. She requested that it be out of the Bible, which is not a problem because the Bible is the word of God too. So we did and it went pretty good. We asked if we could meet with her again, but she isn´t really interested, but she is very religious and I really think that when she is better prepared to accept more scripture that she would be a great member. We are just preparing her for later missionaries that she will meet. We will probably go by again in a few weeks if we don´t get a call.

On Saturday we were supposed to meet with our Ward Mission Leader, but he didn´t show up (he had to work late) so we went through the ward list with the elders to let them know who is active and who isn´t. I told them that we have been meeting with a lot the last few weeks and I told them how bold we are with them. One of them asked me what we say. I told them that we just ask them why they aren´t coming to church. The Elder asked if that goes over ok and I told him that so far it hasn´t been a problem. I mean...we don´t ask them really mean or anything...we are very nice about it and so far everyone has given us an answer. I told the Elders that for the most part with Inactives you can be a little more bold. They have made covenants with the Lord and know what they are supposed to do for salvation. We are here to gently remind them and bring them back to the path to Salvation. They said that they would try being bold to. I hope it works for them as well as it has worked for us!! We also had an eating appointment with a member and last time we were there Sister Sayson had Asthma issues, but...like the good mom that I am...I made her take her inhaler and the family also cleaned a lot before we came. Success story...she had no problems!! See miracles. Last time she spent more time outside on the balcony then in eating with us!! :o)

Sunday we visited another inactive, but sadly she was not home. So we decided to do doors in that building and guess what?? We got a contact. She didn´t have time, but she asked for a pamphlet and said we could come back!! WAHOO!! It was so wonderful!!

Today we stopped a guy on the street and started talking to him about the purpose of life. He said that he had no clue what the purpose of life is. We asked him what was important in his life and again he couldn´t answer. Sister Sayson asked if he believed in God and he said that he was a realist and didn´t believe in God. I then asked him what he believed happens after this life and sadly he said that he believes that when we die and that is it. I bore testimony to him that we are here for a specific purpose and that we will one day be able to live with God and our families again. He said that he can´t believe that I can believe in something that I can´t see. I told him that I don´t need to see because I believe. I don´t need to see God to know that He is there. I pray to him and I know that He hears me and answers me. He then asked me if I didn´t think it was a little egotistical to think that there was a higher power out there somewhere helping me. He thinks that we are just humans...nothing special. I told him no, I don´t think that that is egotistical. God is our Father and we are His Children and to Him we are very special. He ended up not having any interest in what we were sharing with him, but I know I felt the Spirit and so I know he felt something too. It makes me a little sad when truth and salvation comes and hits people in the face and they just don´t see it. Sister Sayson (earlier in the conversation) told him that she is also a realist, but that she believe´s anyway...to her that is realistic. I thought that that was cool. It is so true...how is believing in God not realistic?? It was a good experience.

Well I´m so grateful for my week of miracles!! It is just amazing!! The Lord is really helping us do this work because it is his!! He wants us to have success!! I love the Lord and know that He is there. We just need to come to him. His arms are open just waiting for us to turn away from our pride and accept His help!!

I love you and hope you have a great week!!
Sister Jones

09 February 2009

Week #37 (2-9-09)

Well...I forgot to tell about a few things last week. Last Saturday we had a Grünkohl essen with the ward. Grünkohl is cooked green cabbage with sausage in it...we don´t have it in America...it is just a weird German tradition!! On Friday we went to the church and helped peal potatoes to prepare for the meal... have never pealed so many potatoes in my life!! It was a lot of fun and now I can say that I am a professional potato pealer...I have learned from the experts!! We pealed almost 50 kilos of potatoes...well not just me and my comp...there were 5 of us pealing and 2 cooking the cabbage/sausage. So then the big day came and my comp and I went to help finish cooking everything. The tradition in Bremen (not just the members of the church) is every year they have a big Grünkohl essen...normally after the first frost of the year. They say the kohl just doesn´t taste good until it has had frost on it...I just don´t think it tastes very good. :o) Well part of the tradition is to go for a LONG walk before they eat...to help you build up your appetite. The Bremer outside of the Church do stuff with beer and alcohol, but the members just do the walk...about 2 hrs at least. So we stayed in the church and helped while the ward went on their walk. So they were cooking the kohl in HUGE tall round cooker things and the power kept going out in the kitchen because we had 3 huge things cooking...so they kept grabbing extension cords and plugging it into other rooms, but it still didn´t work...the lights kept going off and we kept flipping the power back on. Finally as one of the ladies was pulling one of the extension cords into another room one of the HUGE cooker things flipped over completely upside down on the floor and Grünkohl juice started running everywhere...there was no lid on it!! One of the other ladies let out the funniest, loudest, blood curdling scream ever. She then yelled for the other lady to come and they quickly tried to figure out what to do. They were about to just flip it over, but I told them it might be better to put something under it first...so we grabbed a cookie sheet, stuck it under and then flipped it over. We didn´t lose too much Grünkohl and we swore an oath together that we wouldn´t tell anyone till the essen was over. I felt bad for the ladies because they were very stressed out, but to be honest I was laughing inside!! We then put one of the cookers upstairs and that helped to make more room in the kitchen and also to help with the light problem. Sister Sayson and I needed to whip up some whipping cream so we had to go upstairs in the nursery to use the mixers. It was funny. Then everyone came back and we ate so many potatoes, meat, green cabbage and then my favorite dessert...Quark. OHHHH....SOOOOO GOOD!!! MMMmmmmm!! :o) It was a great day, but my stomach hurt because I ate to much!! :o)

So this last week....
Last monday we went bowling and had pizza as a district. That was fun, but my mission body is so pathetic. I have no more energy to do anything except for missionary stuff. I mean I can walk around the city for 4 hours or more, but playing one game of bowling wipes me out. During the second game I started yawning and could have fallen asleep...I was pooped. So sad...I hope that I can get my energy back so I can be more exciting again!! Well that is unimportant now...I have energy enough to do the work of the Lord and that makes me happy.

So we had met this lady on the street awhile ago and had made an appointment out for this last tuesday...we were really excited for it and when the time came, headed down our street to find her house number...she lived on our street. Well we were walking and walking and walking....we live at number 92 and she lived at number 265...so we found number 221 and then walked past a huge clinic for a few blocks and the next house was number 301...yeah....it was not there. We walked back again and then back the other direction. Then we asked in the clinic and the clinic´s address was the cross street and not the main street we were on. So then we walked through the clinics parking lot to see if for some strange reason it was behind the clinic, but no. We spent about 45min. looking for the house and could not find any numbers between 221 and 301...I´m still confused and sad...schade!! That is not the first time on my mission that I could not find a house I was looking for...sometimes the streets are really confusing in Germany!! Hopefully we will find her.

On Wednesday we went to the University and passed out flyers for our Englisch class. We teach an Englisch class in the church every week...it is pretty fun when we have students. This week we had one man and we worked on his pronunciation. It was really funny...he could not say the "th" sound...he is from Turkey...we worked on that for a while. It was really good. I learn so much about how to better my German when I teach English class. Sister Sayson and I have been working on my pronunciation and it has been helpful, but SO hard. I have to change how I say "L"...they don´t have our "L" at all...it is interesting. I was practicing with her one night on the street as we were walking home. We walked up behind this old lady with a dog and she asked me if I was learning german and I told her I was just working on my pronunciation and she wished me luck. It´s coming along!!

Then Friday came...We had just finished studying and I was deciding what shoes to wear...yeah...those are the exciting decisions that I get to make in the morning before I leave. I was about to put on my boots, but before I did I opened the curtains and there it was...the most beautiful, seattle blue sky I have seen in Months. A rush of love and happiness came over me!! I put on just normal shoes and we went outside. I thought that spring had come. As we were in the Bahn I was sitting by the window and I just turned my face toward the sun, closed my eyes and just enjoyed the warm sun on my face. I didn´t realize that I hadn´t seen the sun like that in months. Living in Seattle my whole life you just kind of get used to the cloudy winter and don´t realize you haven´t seen the sun till it appears one day. It was such a great day. We went to an appointment with Katharina today...a new member and she wanted to sit outside in the sun. So we hoped on the bus and headed to a lake that was close by. We found a bench and talked and read in the scriptures together. It was so beautiful and it was so great to sit with her. She was really not doing well a few weeks ago, but now she is a lot better. A lot more positive and happy. We committed her to read the whole Book of Mormon in 6 months. In German that is only 4 pages a day!! She said she would try...that is how she says yes!! :o) We also ate with my favorite family that night. They are both return missionaries and have 3 kids with one on the way. They are just what I want. The dad is such a great dad and you can tell that he loves his kids and his wife. They are so wonderful. We did this super cool spiritual thought about having faith through trials. We took a tea bag...without the tea and opened it up into a tube thing, put it on one of the elders hands and light it on fire. The fire slowly creaped down towards his hand and right before it should have burned him the flaming tube floated up into the air. The family was amazed...it was cool. The Lord will never let us be tempted more the we can handle or have trials more then we can handle. We might get scared and it might get hard to continue to have faith, but He is always there to help us before it is too late. It was cool. Don´t try that at home with out a professional missionary with you!! :o)

The weather then turned back to normal...on Sunday it even started to snow a bit...Uhhgg!! We were in a meeting at the time though and it was gone when we got out. Man...the Lord really loves me...gave us a beautiful sunny day and also made sure the snow was melted by the time we were outside. WOW!! He is so good to us!!

Today I broke down and cut my hair...well not me...I went to a salon. It looked fine after I cut it, but I just did a little bit, then we noticed that I still have split ends on my shorter layers...well I´m not a pro, so I just went and got it cut. I was nervous, but I explained to her what I wanted and she did it. It´s still shorter then I wanted, but it will grow!!

So that was my week!! I´m really excited for this week...we already have 9 appointments scheduled and zone conference...we don´t have much more time this week, but we still have a few people that we need to meet with. It will be a great week. The blessings of the Lord are all around us here in Germany!! I love this work. I know that it is the work of the Lord and that He is the leader of this church. He is my Lord, He is my Savior, He is my Friend. He is my one and only way back to my father in Heaven!! I know that God lives...He is all around us. Everything we see everyday is proof that there is a God. I know Him...because I have made a relationship with him through prayer. I know he hears and answers my prayers...He is there and when we come to Him, He will help us know He is there. This is the best thing I have chosen to do in my life. I love it here and I love the Lord and my Father in Heaven.

Sister Jones

Week #36 (2-2-09)

This week was so great....if you took a look at our numbers you wouldn´t have thought that, but it was. So my district leader is a really possitive person. Sometimes so possitive that it frustrates me!! :o) Well, he calls everynight to make sure we got home safe and also to see how our day was. Well, every night when I ask about his day he says..." Oh my gosh...today was a day full of miracles!!" Then he goes on to tell me all the wonderful things that happen. Well I´m not a negative person....I´m just realistic and he kind of got on me because he says that we see miracles everyday and I just didn´t see it that day. When I don´t get contacts and all my lessons fall out it is hard to see the miracle in that. So I decided to change my additude and try to look for more miracles the next day. Well you won´t believe it, but we saw 2!! We talked to the first person that we saw the next day and set up an appointment to bring her a book of Mormon and talk to her about it...she is a mother with a family!! Then we were heading to our eating appointment and we got on this bus. Well, I sat next to this lady and started talking about the weather...then that turned into me asking about her family. She was really friendly and so we had a great conversation. I asked her if she had any grandchildren and then she started to cry and through the tears said that her daughter is pregnant and the baby will be born in a few months. We talked about that a bit and then she told me that her husband is in the hospital with cancer. They just found out in November and it is getting worst. I didn´t really know what to say to comfort her...in english it would have been easy to just talk, but in German I HAVE TO rely on the Spirit. Prayer came into my head and so I asked her if she prays and then I bore testimony to her about the importance of prayer and how the Lord may not take away our problems, but he will comfort us and give us the strength to overcome!! I then gave her a pamphlet about the Restoration and told her that if she needed anything she could call us...she said that she would!! I really hope that she calls!! She was so wonderful and I know that we got on that bus for a reason because then my comp freaked out and thought we were on the wrong bus...so we got out!! Then we realized that we were on the right bus, but not really...confusing story, but pretty much I thought the bus went a different way, but I just looked at the map wrong...we were on the right bus going the right way, but it was just going to take a lot longer thn we thought!! So we got on another bus and got to our appointment faster...it was a miracle though....we made a mistake and normally I would have gotten frustrated, but I was really happy and grateful because I got to help someone come a little bit closer to Jesus Christ!! Wow...missions are so great!! So that night when my district leader called I proudly announced that we saw 2 miracles that day and he was so excited to hear our success!!

What else happened this week?? Oh, funny story. We were at an eating appointment with members and they have´a bunny!! Well we were just eating and enjoying ourselves when Sister Sayson just started coughing!! She coughed and coughed and coughed. We kept trying to figure out what it was that was making her cough. We had just eaten Indian food (from India) and it was a little spicy and they thought that maybe she couldn´t handle it. Well long story short...she is illergic to bunnies and guinie pigs...small animals with long hair. So she had to stand outside for a while and then the husband in the family got one of those dentist masks and she wore that while we were eating dessert. And then to make the story funnier...she had the Spiritual thought and gave it while wearing this mask!! HAHA!! It was so great...don´t worry she was laughing along with us...well she would, but had to make herself stop because it was harder to breathe when she laughed!! We are going to call the mission doctor about a pill or something she can take, because there is another family in the ward with those animals too!!

I love Sister Sayson. Sometimes it is hard to understand what each other are meaning when we talk, but we are working it out!! We are learning to laugh about it and it makes it so much funner...sometimes I have to use a lot of hand gestures. When I can´t say something in German, but she can´t understand it in English, that is when the had signals come in!! We laugh a lot together and it is really great to have a german comp!! She is so wonderful and a hard worker!!

Oh...I cut my hair this week!! Nothing to extreme don´t worry, just a trim. My comp...being the wonderful bunt German that she is was sitting behind me in a members car. I was wearing my hair down and the sun was shinning on it through the window...she then told me that I had a lot of slit ends in my hair!! lol!! Seriously!! It was so funny...She told me that we could go on P-day and get it cut, but if you saw the hair styles here in Europe you wouldn´t want to get your hair cut here either!! :o) So I did it alone!! Since it´s longer now it look fine!! Forget singing..here I come beauty school world!! JK I would never want to do that..I would ruin people's lives because I would not be good for more then a trim!! :o) It was fun!!

We have been trying to work on the Inactives in our ward, but it has been hard. We have made a few appointments out for this week with a few of them and we have also found some that are completely not interested. That is also good to know so that future missionaries don´t keep going by. It is so sad, but we are doing our best to contact them and meet with them. Some people just hang up and other told us that they didn´t want to be contacted any more!! We did get to meet with a super cool family in another city close by. They are completely active, but live far away so the missionaries never just stop by. They were so excited to see us...Especially the mom. She had been on a mission so she was excited to have us there. It is so cool to go and visit families and people in the ward. I feel like a really special person...like royalty!! Before my mission I would go to someone's house and they would just be like..."hey!" and then we would sit and talk, but on a mission they get huge smiles on their faces, invite us in and to sit down!! Then they offer us tea and something to eat. When they get us tea they get their nice china cups...not the ones for everyday!! They are so good to us and really love having us there!! I love the members here in Germany!! They are so loving and really do mean the best!!

I love you and hope that you have a great week!!
Sister Jones

03 February 2009

Week #36 (2-2-09)

Excerpt from letter to Christi's mom:

"This week was great and I love my new comp!! She is perfect for me...we don´t always understand each other because of the slight language barrier, but we are working it out and usually end up just laughing. I´m really just trying to lighten up and not take things so personal...as you know...I take everything personal. It has gotten better, but it´s still a work in progress!! :o) I wonder sometimes if I have really changed. I feel just like the same Christi, but it will be interesting to see how much I have changed when I get back around people that I know!! Mmmm...I hope that by then I will change a lot because I want to be so much better then I am!!"

Letter from Mission President

Dear Sister Anderson,

It is a great pleasure to inform you that your daughter, Sister Jones, has been called to serve as a Trainer for a new sister missionary in the Germany Hamburg Mission.

As a Trainer, she is given a sacred trust to set the highest example of obedience and effective proselyting and to do everything in her power to help her new companion begin her mission positively. Your daughter has shown through her dedication and Christlike attributes that she is prepared to fulfill this wonderful calling.

We have great confidence in Sister Jones in this vitally important responsibility of training a new missionary. We love your daughter and pray that you will continue to encourage her to reach out for excellence as she serves the Lord in this new capacity.


With warm regards,
Wesley B. Thompson
President
Germany Hamburg Mission