Christi's Single Life...ain't it great?

Winter 2010 Recital

2010-03-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

So Teri and Vicki came to visit me in Rexburg. They drove up 3.5 hrs from Utah just to hear me sing and then they drove right back down!! Aren't they so awesome?? They are some of my biggest fans...no mom, they haven't replaced you yet. :o) I'm actually happy with how I did this time. The sound on the recording is still not as good as when you watch it live, but it will work for now...until you all come and see me for real in July!! Enjoy!

Du bist die Ruh
It's a bit blurry, but just close your eyes if it bothers you!! :o)

Ebben? Ne Andro' Lontana From La Wally

I made that dress in my sewing class by the way!! :o)

The OPERA

2010-03-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

Well this weekend was very busy for me, but so much fun. We did our opera performance for my opera class and we had so many people show up that we actually had to turn many away because of the lack of space. My roommates and some friends came on Friday night, which was nice. I love when people support my singing.

I didn't get to sing a solo this semester, but I was in the chorus of 2 scenes. The first one was the Elixir of Love. We were cute village girls in this one. We had to wear SO much make-up...even lipstick...I hate lipstick. It always gets on my teeth or makes my mouth taste funny after awhile. It was still fun though to get all fancy looking.

The other one was Macbeth and as you can see we are not very pretty anymore. We were ugly scary witches. It was a little challenging to go from pretty to ugly in 10min, but as you can see we pulled it off. This was my favorite scene. There were about 40 girls and we sang and danced around a cauldron. We even scared many of the audience members. I snifted some lady in the audience at the beginning and it was priceless to see the look on her face. She was so freaked out. :o) If anyone ever wants to be a witch for Halloween just call me and I can do the make-up for it!!

I can't wait to do it again next semester. Here's hoping for a solo!! :o)

I'm Famous!!

2010-03-03T15:46:00.001-08:00

Well I have a friend that is involved with the school newspaper, "The Scroll", and since I am part of the Opera performance this weekend she had someone interview me. It was more like they sent me and email with questions and I emailed her back. :o) It is still pretty exciting to be put in the paper. I think the comment I made is pretty funny.

Sadly it was just a small artical beside some bigger and more important events/articals. Hey Opera deserves just as much space as the opinion page about "Why couples shouldn't put off having kids." :o) At least in my opinion.

My Recital

2010-02-24T14:49:00.000-08:00

So this is my first recital since I have been home. I won't comment on how I think I did because I never think that I do as well as I can, but I will say how grateful I am to my Father in Heaven for helping me get my voice back after my mission. I hope you all enjoy. The song is called Marietta's Lied from die tote Stadt (Marietta's song from the dead city). Of course it is in German, that has always been my favorite language to sing in and now I can understand what I sing, which is even better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKBqtYgYPlU

My NEW Hair

2010-02-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

Well here it is. I dyed my hair darker. I did it once on my mission and decided that I like it a lot better when it is dark brown, so I did it again. I don't know what you all think, but I love it. I also cut my bangs shorter, but I did that the next day so they are not in this pic. I'll post another one later.

Life at BYU-Idaho

2010-02-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

So these are some pics from when I was in Utah before school.

My sister Teri and nephew Dallin

Isn't he the cutest?? Little Dallin...except he is not so little anymore.

This is Keith and I...my little bro. Except he is also not so little anymore!!

Ok well I'm so not good at this whole blogging thing...I think I started my last entry like that as well!! lol. I just don't have much going on except for school work and more school work. I do try to have fun in my spare time.

I got to see my best friend Andrea again after about 2 years. We went to the temple and had a great time together. She is just as fun and funny as I remember.

PARTIES!!

It's Sushi time!! My friend Mitchell just got back from his mission to Japan and so he made us some sushi. I'm normally not a huge fan, but I ate some anyway...it wasn't so bad!!

Mitchell (in the front), his roommate Brent and all my roommates: Jodi, Kaylea, Sydney and Amelia. They are so much fun.

Whitney, Jake and I excited for some sushi!!

Some other parties I have had was a Anti-Superbowl Party, Karaoke Parties
and this Friday will be our Olympics party.

Mexican Food

Mitchell and Brent playing with their food. That is like the biggest burrito I have ever seen.

Kaylea (we share a room) and I being super cute!!

(Is it just me or do I have a long face???)

Yep, I'm sick and I have been caught blowing my nose for the hundreth time. How is it that you can blow and blow and it always seems to have something in there?? So gross!!

Ramire's is this super good mexi-restaurant in Rexburg...or maybe it is just way good because it's the best we have. Either way, we go there a lot. Horchata is so good....mmmmm. Maybe I'll have one today. :o)

Karaoke

one of my new favorite pass times.

This is me at this 25 and older singles dance/karaoke party. (It's an association on campus) It was fun, but sometimes this group feels more like a support group than anything else!! lol I'm just trying to be involved with something on campus and this is the group I chose.

(Question for my sisters...do you approve of the outfit? I even wore cute non-boot like shoes!! I know, I know...I'm growing up!! lol

Ignore the hat...someone put that on me just for the song!!)

There are some more pics and videos on my facebook that Mitchell took of another night of Karaoke fun. It was a Karaoke Party (more like a competition) with the American Idol Karaoke video game thing. (Not sure what system it is on) It gives you points for how on pitch you are and everything. It's pretty intense. And no, I did not win...although I did sing My heart will go on (the video is on facebook) and got 100%...ignore the annoying guy voice in the background. Brent tried to sing off pitch to mess me up...I sure showed him!! :o) We have too much fun!!

Well, I need to take more pics of things that I have been doing. My weekends are always full of fun, but I just never photograph it. I will do better so I have more to show for my life here. This semester if almost half over...I'm almost 1/4 of the way done with my last year of school!! WAHOOO!!

School...it's that time again!!

2010-01-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

Well, now it is my (Christi's) turn to do this whole blog thing. I don't know how exciting it will be or how much time I will have, but I will try and do my best.
I have been back from my mission for about 2 months now. I worked at the Picture People while I was home and enjoyed being with my family. For the first time in my whole life I got to live at home with just my mom. It was great, but short lived. Now I'm back at BYU-Idaho for my last 2 semesters. It's colder and snowyer (is that a word?) then I remember, but it will only last like 4 or 5 months and then warm up. Before I came back to school I got to visit some family in Utah. My sister Teri and her fabulously cute son Dallin live just south of Salt Lake and my brother Keith loves in Orem. It was so great to see them all. I have missed them. It is amazing how fast kids grow up. I mean 18 months is a long time for a 1 year old. Dallin is now 2 almost 3, and is walking, talking and being a person and stuff. It is crazy to me, but it was fun to play with him and help him remember who I am.
So, here I am at work after having finished my first day back, which consisted of one class. I am already overwhelmed with how much time this class is going to take up. I'm going to be in class/work on Mon, Wed, and Fri from 7:45am-7:45pm....bleh!! That is a long day. Tues and thurs are not as bad, but I will have to use my time on those days to do all the work for my other days!! So my plan is to work hard on Monday thru Friday and then play on Saturday...it's like the mission all over again. Saturday will just be my P-day and I will be crazy busy the rest of the week. Although, unlike the mission, I will probably just sleep as much as I can on Sundays!! Wish me luck. I will try to post some pictures soon of some of the activities I am involved in.

She hasn't lost it...

2009-11-25T22:33:00.000-08:00

She's finally home....

2009-10-24T21:32:00.001-07:00

She may have missed her nephew a little bit...

For her first meal home she chose Azteca...guess there aren't many mexican restaurants in Germany!

We are SO glad she is back!

Travel Plans....

2009-10-12T19:28:00.001-07:00

Christi is reporting to the mission home this Thursday, October 15th. Our mom and step-dad will be picking her up that day in Germany. They are going to travel around Germany for the next 10 days....sightseeing and allowing Christi to say a few more goodbyes! They all fly home...into Seattle....on October 24th!

On a personal note...I cannot believe that 18 months have already passed...for me, it has gone incredibly quick. I have had such a fun time keeping up this blog and reading all of your comments. I will definitely be posting pictures of her coming home....so don't stop checking the blog yet!

Maybe I can convince Christi to take over the blog and turn it into one about her final year at BYU-ID...we shall see!

Thanks again for following our blog these past 18 months,

Teri

Week #72 (10-12-09)

2009-10-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Wow...I only have 3 days and then I will be in the mission home!! Weird!!

I don´t have much time to email but I just wanted to say that last week was great. I got to go back to Bremen and see all the people that I love!! On friday I get to see 2 of them again, but it was so great to say a final goodbye to people that I came to love and serve and laugh with!! I loved that ward so much!! We also got 2 new investigators last week...one of them can´t really speak German, but that´s not that important!! :o) We are trying to find a Russian translator...do you think Mikey would have time? JK!! Our next appointment is in 3 weeks so we have a little bit of time to find someone.

It´s really strange to be here at the end, but I think that I explained a lot of my feelings last week. I´m still working till the end and trying to stay focused. I´m so grateful that I got to come here to Germany on my mission and to be able to learn to love another culture and people. I can´t really see how much I have changed, but I hope that the Lord will show me. I have worked so hard, but also can´t wait to take a little break when I get home before I jump right back into school in January. I love you and can´t wait to see you!! Have a great couple weeks before I actually get home!!

Sister Jones

Pictures

2009-10-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

"Sister Folsom and I at Handball"

"Zone Conference Sister Folsom, me, Sister Hurst and Sister Psota"

"ZC with Pres and His wife and me"

Week #71 (10-5-09

2009-10-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

This last week was pretty eventful. We still don´t have any investigators...going on many weeks now...but we got to have zone conference and also a music night.

The music night was pretty good. It went smoothly and the music was beautiful. We had a power point that had pictures and power statements of the principles of the gospel. There were quite a few people there and even 2 non members. Both really enjoyed it and said that there was a really good feeling there. Other members also commented on the wonderful Spirit they felt. To me that made it a success. I wish that more member would have invited friends (because the 2 people that came were invited by us), but I really felt like the Lord was happy with what we had done. Plus, the people who were involved were way helpful with set-up and practicing and stuff. It was great.

This was probably one of the best ZC from my whole mission. The Spirit was just really strong and it was really inspiring. Sister Folsom and I were asked to sing and that went pretty well. We also wore all black to morn my death!! :o) I will have to show you some funny pics when I get back!! hehe!! I had to give my finishers testimony and that was pretty unreal. I couldn´t believe that it was my turn. When I walked up to the front I felt kind of like I had an out of body experience. I obviously cried because that is a gift of the Spirit the Lord has given me...I didn´t realize it was a gift till I came out here. I´m glad that I didn´t lose that. I then spoke about me opening my mission call and how excited I was to come to Germany...the one place I wanted to go!! During ZC we watched a talk from Elder Holland given in the MTC and so I referred to something that he said in his talk. He talked about how missions are supposed to be hard. If they are hard then we did them right. So I told them that my mission was so HARD, so I hope that that means that I did it right. I then bore my testimony in German and went and sat down. It was a weird experience. I just never imagined that day to come. for 11 zone conferences I have seen people get older, bear their testimony and then leave, but I never really believed that it would happen to me. (Stupid I know). Well, it happened and I was so nervous, but I think it went well. Sister Psota thanked me for being honest and talking about how hard my mission was because every mission is hard, but people just don´t talk about that much. No one warned her how hard it would be and she was also surprised how hard it is. I think it´s not that no one told her, but just that it is too hard to express how hard it is. It is good and worth it as well, but for me it was mostly hard, but I know that I needed to experience this because these are the last days and god is preparing His children for the hardest times in the history of the world. I know that I am better prepared. Missions are great, but hard....all things that are great are hard. Look at Christ´s life...I don´t think that he had one easy day in his whole life, but in the end...once it was all said and done...it was worth it. My mission is very personal to me. All the struggles and hard times are too hard to put into words to help others understand. I´m afraid that when I come home that people are just going to be like...So, how was your mission? I don´t really know what I´m going to say. It is all so personal...the struggles, the heartache, the rejection, the happiness, spiritual experiences...are all so personal that I don´t know if anyone will every really understand how many tears of sorrow and happiness I shed to get to this point. But it´s ok, because I didn´t do it for them...I did it for Christ, my Lord. The Man that came and died for me. The Man that was rejected more then me,was spit upon and cast out and yelled at more then me. The Man who was beaten and hit and hung on a cross for me. He understands how hard a mission is...way more then me. I did it for him because he did something for me. He gave his life for me so that I can live, so that I can have hope and joy and eternal life. He is the reason I didn´t give up, He is the reason I woke up every morning. He is the reason I live my life the way I do. For Him I would do anything...even serve a mission, which is the hardest thing I have ever chosen to do, but it was worth it just to see the light of Christ come into the eyes of others. I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know He lives and loves each of us and that if we just believe and follow him we will not have any empty chairs in the kingdom of our father!!

Love,

Sister Jones

Week #70 (9-28-09) "three weeks"

2009-09-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

Well tomorrow is my last zone conference. When someone is brand new they have to get up and give their testimony in German at their first zone conference. Then the last one before they get sent home...they also have to get up and bear their testimony. Well...they also seem to also talk a little bit about their mission too. Well I´m really nervous for it. This is not real!! I just had my 18 month birthday on the mission last Saturday and it still has not hit me!! (That is probably a good thing though) I´m not going home, am I?? Weird. I just feel like I´m getting transferred, which I am, but I´m nervous for what comes this time. Before I had a little plan. ( I mean I was only transferred twice) But my plan was to go into the new city and meet the members and the investigators and just kind of jump into the city with both feet. I made goals on how I could do that and did my best to stick with the goals. Like sitting by a different member in church each Sunday so that I could get to know the ward....and things like that. Well now I don´t know what it is going to be like getting transferred home. I have forgotten how it is not having someone with me constantly, or how it is being able to sleep in past 6:30 when I wanted, or never really having my whole day planned out to the minute!! What is that like?? I have no clue!! :o) I have tried to work hard my whole mission and I still am working. I don´t want to give up when I am so close to the end!! I just don´t think about what it is going to be like....the transition will be weird, but I don´t have to worry about that till it comes!! We still have a ton to do here in kiel before I leave!!

This last week was busy. We still only have one investigator and we met with her on Friday. It was pretty good. The rest of the week we spent finding, planning English class and the music night. The fliers for English didn´t get done till Sat. so we FINALLY have fliers and posters to hand out and put up. I hope one week is enough time to get people to come. They want an English class and then don´t do anything to help us get it started. The music night is coming along, but I´m totally stressed out. We have a power point with pics and "power statements" about the principles of the gospel and also songs to go along with them. I just hope that music turns out good. We already have a nonmember that is coming. She is the friend of a member and just loves me...I don´t know why, but she does and she wants to come and hear me sing. She is so cool and I wish I had more time so I could teach her, but she is not interested in the gospel yet. I will be friends with her on facebook though and get her somehow!! :o) I hope that some other people come. Just pray that it will go good!!

We also sang last week at the Woman´s Day in Neumünster. The topic was "what am I worth" and we sang the YW song for the value individual worth. It went pretty well and the speaker did amazing!! We got to do it twice because she taught the class twice. Then we went to a Handball game. We did that as our district activity and took time out of our P-day today to do that for a few hours on Saturday. It was a lot different then I thought it would be. The Soccer fans in Germany are CRAZY...loud and drunk, but this crowd was a lot calmer. Once I started understanding the game it was better, but the little rules still confuse me. I would never watch it on TV, but it was still worth it to go. Kiel is the best team in the league of Handball teams...and they sure were good.

Well I will let you know next week all about the music night and zone conference.

Sister Jones

Week #69 (9-21-09) "Four Weeks"

2009-09-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well, something cool happened this last week. I got a call from one of the members of the bishopric in Bremen and they are opening their new ward building in a few weeks. They are going to be having a bunch of cool stuff to get people from the community to come and see what we are all about. I got to see the building when I was in Bremen, but it was still a contruction site...I had a hard time envisioníng what it would look like finished. Well, this guy called and asked if I would come back on the 8th of okt to sing for a music night they will be having. He had asked my pres. ahead of time and had gotten permission for me to go. I will be singing a song by myself and probably one with my comp. I feel so honored to have been asked. I´m aslo eycited because I get to see my wonderful ward members of Bremen again and also see some of the people that I taught. WAHOO!! I can´t wait!!

Other than that the work is going kind of slow still, but we are trying our best to find people. We taught this russian lady last week, but it was hard because she doen´t speak much German and I can´t speak any Russian. Sometimes she would say a russian word in her sentence and I could guess what she was trying to say!! :o) She is so cool and she wants to read the BofM, which we gave her in Russian. We also left her with a DVD of Joseph Smith, which she can also watch in Russian. I have seen that movie in so many languages and no matter the language I can always feel the Spirit.

I love this gospel and I´m so grateful that I´m able to serve a mission for the Lord. What a great time this is in my life to be able to sleep, dring and eat the Gospel. This is a really hard thing to do and I think that the hardest thing is just the weight of responsibility that we carry. God didn´t call me here to do an easy thing, he called me here to do the hardest thing I will ever do. I´m grateful that I am here and that I´m able to serve the Lord and the wonderful People of Germany.

Love ya,

Sister Jones

Week #68 (9-14-09) "5 weeks"

2009-09-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well the days are just flying by and I can´t believe that it is Monday again. We got to see Präsident last week at Zone Meeting. It was great to see him and talk to him a bit. He is so wonderful and inspired. He is also so encouraging and has so much faith in me. I wish I could see in me what he sees in me. I´m so grateful that I´m able to serve with such a great leader.

We still had a lot of finding time this last week, but I think it is paying off. We found a few people who agreed to meet with us this next week. I hope and pray that they go through. We want to see miracles and know that they happen. This is a Gospel of Miracles and I know that God gives us them when we have faith.

We are planing a music night for the beginning of Oct. It was supposed to be on the 11th, but now it is one the 2nd. It should be cool...we have a lot of talented people here. I just hope that non members come. We found some cool music for it and I´m getting excited!!

We also had an Eis Party with the ward (Icecream party) and it was so great. I love this ward.

Well, I hope that you have a great week and enjoy the best state ever!! :o)

Love you,

Sister Jones

Week #67 (9-7-09) "6 weeks"

2009-09-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

This week was a lot better, but still a struggle. We went by on a few old investigators...to try and get more people to teach. Suprisingly 2 of them let us in and we got to talk to them for a little bit. Neither of them wanted to meet with us again, but we got to leave a spiritual thought and even sing for one of them. I hope that they felt the Spirit and will one day remember what it felt like to have the missionaries in their home.

We sadly had to say goodbye to Matthew...our wonderful American investigator. I got to call America a few time this last week to talk to the Elders in MN about him. I had forgoten what the phone ring sounds like when you call an American number...yes that is weird, but they sound different here and I have forgotten that sound. Anyway, we taught Matthew about the Spirit and getting answers and we had the coolest experience with him. Our goal before we came to the appointment was to get him to feel of the Spirit while we were there. That has been a hard thing for us because he has a lot of questions and wants to discuse something till it makes sense to him. So we decided to talk about the Atonement and also the 3rd lesson (faith, repent, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure) and we were also going to sing him a hymn. Well, we got there and followed up on the Word of Wisdom and found out that he had not given up coffee yet. So we talked more about that and then we asked him how he feels when he reads in the Bof M or when he prays and he says normal...he doesn´t feel anything. So we talked a bit more and then I got the feeling that we should sing. So I told him that we were going to sing a song for him and then after the song we were going to kneel down together and he was going to pray and that we would not get up until he felt something!! So Sister Folsom and I sang How Great Thou Art and then we all knelt down and he prayed. It was the most honest and open prayer ever!! He even cried a bit...well, more got choked up and got watery eyes. We then sat down again and I asked him what he felt. He thought for a moment and then said that he felt like a burning in his chest and a tingling in his fingers and also like a feeling of assurance. I got to then bear my testimony that that was the Spirit of God that just bore witness that God is there and loves him. We finished up with a few scriptures and then we said goodbye. I don´t know if I will ever see him again, but if I do I hope that I see him a member of the church. As I walked away from the door I yelled back to him not to forget what he felt tonight. The Lord loves him so much, he just has a hard time trusting Him and having faith. He is so cool and the Elders in America said that when he comes back to Germany in a month and a half...he will come back a member...I hope and pray that they are right!!

We have interviews this next week so it will be nice to see and talk to Präsident. I will let you know how it goes.

I love you.

Sister Jones

Week 66 (8-31-09) "I lied last week...I am counting and now it is 7"

2009-09-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well this letter is not going to be any good because I don´t have much time. I have a lot of feelings right now...mixed feelings and just wrote a huge letter to my mission Pres about what is going on inside of me and what my feelings and thoughts are....and now I don´t have much time left.

Our amazing American investigator, Matthew, is sadly going back to the US on Friday and will be there until after I go home. The good news is that he came to church again yesterday and he agreed to meet with the missionaries when he is in the US!! He is so great!! I really hope that he gets baptized. We are meeting with him again on Thursday night before he leaves!!

Frau Plagmann, who came to church last week, called us this last week and told us that she doesn´t want to leave her church and that she doesn´t want to meet with us either. She was very nice about it, but still has no interest in learning more. Welcome to my mission...I find great people who are not crazy and they read, come to church and/or keep commitments, but then they eventually say they have no interest!! I´m not bitter, just tired of not being able to see success here in Germany...man are these people so awesome, but SO hard!!

Other then that the week was ok. We did some service with an old member and she is so funny. Her family hardly comes to visit, so she is always excited when we come. She loves the missionaries.

Well I´m sorry for the crappy email. I will try to be more possitive and happy next week, but I´m afraid that if I keep writing I will be too negative

Sister Jones

Week #65 (8-24-09) "7 weeks and I'm not counting"...

2009-08-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

This last week feels like a lifetime, but in a good way. On Wednesday we had an Ausstellung(street display) in Rendsburg, which is about a half hour train ride from Kiel. I had been starting to get sick last week with a sore throat, but felt good enough to stand in the choir of missionaries and sing for a few hours. BAD idea. Near the end I couldn´t sing anymore because it hurt to bad. Well Wednesday came and I had lost a lot of my voice. Having the strong vocal chords that I have, I have never fully lost my voice, but I pretty much sound like a man and if I try to talk normal or higher then normal my voice cracks and squeaks!! It was pretty funny at first, but now it is Monday and it is still not back...maybe a bit better or maybe I´m just getting used to speaking low and manly!! :o) The street display was fun, but we didn´t get any contacts or anything. We had about 12 missionaries there from our zone and we talked to a lot of people, but no one was interested. It was good though just to get our church´s name out there and our information out there.

So there is this nonmember guy named Claus who comes to the RIZ (the outreach center) quite a bit and we have become better and better friends every time. He is super funny and very nice. We got to do a little bit of service for him this week...we moved some boxes into his apartment. We also got to do this theatre activity with him a few weeks ago...I have a video of it that you will have to see later...it is super funny!! I really hope that we can become good enough friends with him to get him to meet with the missionaries again. He already did once and isn´t really interested in the Gospel, but loves hanging out with people with high standards..."like the Mormons"...he said.

We got to meet with Matthew again this week...our amazing investigator from America!! It was a great appointment and we committed him to spend this time that he is in Germany to really find out whether this is true or not. He agreed to read and pray everyday and come to church!! Well, Americans rock...he came to church!! It was SO great. We watched the Restoration and the Spirit was so strong as we bore testimony to him about Joseph Smith and the book of Mormon. He is totally going to get baptized...if not here then in America and then I can fly there and see it!! WAHOO!! :o)

We also got in contact with this contact from a few weeks ago and she totally let us in and we taught her and made out another appointment for this week. She is our new investigator...she is super cool!! She also came to church!! Yeah that´s right...we had 2 investigators at church!! YEAH!! That´s all thanks to my wonderful elders in Neumünster...we decided to have one companionship fast every sat-sun for the whole district and they did it and we got SO many blessings!! I really have gained a testimony of fasting since I have been on my mission!! It totally works!! This last week was amazing and I´m excited for the new investigators that we have!! They are normal people, not crazies and will be great new additions to the ward when they get baptized!! Thanks for your prayers of faith and keep it up...I want to go out with a bang...not finish my mission with only finding time!! :o)

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

Sister Jones

Week #64 (8-17-09)

2009-08-17T09:14:00.001-07:00

This last week was great.We had zone conference in Neumünster which is only a 25 minute train ride from Kiel. It was super cool. I love being able to learn from Präsident and his wife!! They are so awesome!! The AP´s also talked about the importance of planning out your lessons really well and being on the same page as your comp before the lesson. It was probably the best zone conference for me yet.I can´t believe that I only have one more. So unfair...!! I love getting to be spiritually uplifted so often...I actually wish that it was more often. :o)

After zone conference I got to go to Schwerin with sister Hurst for an exchange. That was my first time in the old East Germany. It obviously doesn´t look so depressing as before because they have rebuilt a lot...well most of the cities, but you can still tell that there are differences. The people are a lot less friendly which isn´t saying much because they aren´t too friendly to strangers in the west anyway...but especially about the gospel. We would start to talk to people and they wouldn´t even look at us. In the west they usually talk to us for a second before they walk away. The people are just so atheist. So sad!! A lot of the buildings also look a lot the same. My comp said that the ones that look the same were all built during communism...I´m talking about the apartment buildings...when you get a higher look at the city it looks so boring because all the high buildings are pretty much the same...cold and gray. There is a super cool castle there. It is like gold colored!! The sisters live like across a lake from it!! WOW!! I loved it there but was grateful to come back to the west...I know it is all one Germany now, but there is still a difference. One of my MTC comps is serving in the Berlin mission and she said that one city she served in almost everyone had rainbow colored hair, tattoos all over and also piercings everywhere. They have gone so extreme because they weren´t aloud to do anything like that before. There is a huge difference between the look of this side and the other. It is so interesting!!

We also got to teach quite a few more lessons this week. The lord is blessing us with success as we continue to show our patience and diligence!!

Sister Jones

Christi and the castle in Schwerin

Water tower they found while out knocking on doors...Sister Hurst.

"Me after a hard day of work....all I want is water!"

Week #63 (8-10-09)

2009-08-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well well...another week of finding. It is really hard, but can also be rewarding. We found a few more contacts this week, but naturally they are going on vacation till September!! :o) That is just how it has been for us!! But we are trying to stay positive. I had my birthday and I was not excited for it...funny this happened though (well not funny...more ironic). My comp woke up on my birthday and told me that she had thrown up in the night and she was super weak and tired from that....she slept almost all day. We didn´t even go outside. The missionary couple came over and gave her a blessing and gave me a birthday cake and the Elders stopped by to give me a card...don´t worry, they didn´t come in!! :o) So I pretty much read and listened to music on my birthday. Wow...I was not expecting that. The Elders made fun of me and said that I prayed her sick so I wouldn´t have to do anything on my birthday. I laughed...but it was SO not true!! That would just be mean.

We saw a really cool miracle yesterday. We just had 2 appointments fall out and we were not excited to keep working. My wonderful little golden though decided that we should get on a random bus and then get off at a random stop and try to find someone. So we get on and then got off and walked....there was NO ONE around!! It was Sunday...there is never anyone around on Sunday. Well, we walked for about 15 minutes or more and were about 10 minutes from our home when we saw a guy. We approached him and I started to talk to him like I normally do when he said..."Uh...Sprechen Sie Englisch?" (Do you speak English) and I was so excited because he had a total American accent. We talked for a really long time about the gospel and then we also set up an appointment to meet with him this week. He is super cool...from Minnesota and will be here till December...and guess what?? He is not going on vacation...so we can start teaching him now!! WAHOOO!! We are totally going to baptise him!! :o)

Well I have to go and play!! :o) Have a great week!!

Sister Jones

Week #62 (8-3-09)

2009-08-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well this last week was really long. In 7 days we only taught 2 lessons!! We had SO much finding time...we almost died!! Don´t get me wrong I love missionary work, but hour after hour and day after day of doors and street contacting in Germany really wears on a person. We are still alive and excited for a new week. We did find 7 contacts last week. Many of them were pretty good, but they will be busy for the next few weeks. I think I forgot how it was last summer...When Europeans go on vacation it is for usually at least 10 days. Did you know that Germans get between 24-30 PAID vacation days a year?? Could you imagine that?? WOW.!! So everyone is on vacation or going on vacation and that makes it hard, but that is haw it was last year as well. This time is almost harder then Christmas. Well, it will be fine because they have to come back at sometime and then that is when we will get them!! hehe!!

Well, I´m sorry if this letter is not very exciting. We experienced a lot last week, but I´m so exhausted that I don´t really feel like typing any of it. We are going to watch a movie today so that we can relax before another long week of walking, talking and being told no!! We will be praying for some serious miracles this week. I know that there are people out there that are prepared, but the hard thing is trying to find where they are and still keep a positive attitude among the NO!! I love the work and know that the miracles are there for us...we just have to prove that we are faithful even when it is hard!!

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

Sister Jones

Christi's new companion...

2009-08-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

Sister Folsom and Christi

Our little German girl!

Week #61 (7-27-09)

2009-07-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Well I got my golden, Sister Folsom...let´s just say my mission has changed a lot in the last few days. I always told people that Sister Sayson (my first golden) was not really like a golden. She could speak the language already and I just had to show her around a bit and show her how I approach people and pretty much just how to do missionary work. People always told me that she was a real golden, but I didn´t agree. To me, a golden is someone who has no idea what is going on (cause they can´t understand the language or what people say to them), and who can´t say much except bear their memorized MTC testimony. Sister Sayson could say anything she wanted to, but my poor comp can´t. I feel so bad for her...I have completely forgotten what it was like to be new. I have come so far and I didn´t even give myself credit for it. I was always so critical of myself and the slow useless progress that I was making...I wanted it to be now and immediate. Well...now that the tables are turned and I see her at the point I was at, I have realized that I really have changed and progressed. It was just so slow that I couldn´t see it. I´m so grateful to the Lord for the blessings that he has given to me. I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn in the next 3 months, but I´m excited to learn what the Lord has in store for me. It will be hard, but totally worth it.

I don´t have too much to say because we did a lot of traveling this week and a lot of finding time. We had a few lessons and found a new investigator. This guy came up to us on the street a few weeks ago and asked for the address of our church then ran off. He then came to church last week. Then, through the persuasion of me and a member, he decided to meet with us this last week. Now we have another appointment for this coming week as well. The Lord blesses us every where we go. We also got a new missionary couple..they just got to Kiel yesterday. We met them and they are SUPER nice. They don´t speak any German, but will for sure work good with the young people. I´m excited to work with them.

love,

Sister Jones

Week #60 (7-20-09) 100th POST!

2009-07-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Well you know how I said last week was the best one ever?? Well I lied because this week tops all!! :o)

Well first to start off with the not so great part of the week. We had transfer calls again on Saturday morning and Sister Psota is being transfered and my new comp is a GOLDEN!! That means fresh from the Provo, MTC!! AHHHHHH!!! I know that I was already a trainer, but she was German...this is completely different!! I´m really nervous, but I know it will be fine!! I kind of wanted a Golden for my last couple transfers because I think that will help me keep going...she will have that new missionary excitement and I want to experience that again!! I will let you know more next week after I meet her and everything.

Well, so much happened this week and I don´t have time to tell all of the experiences, but the best experience I had this week was when we did a power hour with one of the members in the ward. (We did 4 this last week and saw a miracle each time.) We went to the members house and chatted for a few minutes and then we gave them a Spiritual thought about having the faith to find and the power of praying specifically. The Spirit was SO strong and then the member prayed before we left. That is when it happened. I was closing my eyes when she prayed...obviously...and I saw many streets in my head...it is hard to explain what it looked like, but it´s like I was driving through the city super fast and just saw a whole bunch of streets, but didn´t recognize anything. Then I saw this street really clearly. There were apartments on one side and grass on the other side of the street. I saw it so clearly and knew that we had to find that street. We then left the house I felt such a pumping and hurrying feeling in my heart. My heart was beating so fast and I knew that there was a woman who was waiting for us to give her the Book of Mormon with the testimony from this member in it. I told my comp what happened and she said that the same thing happened to her, but she didn´t see a specific street. I was explaining to her what it looked like and she told me the name of what she thought it was. Well we went there and when I walked around the corner it looked just like what I saw when the member prayed. During this hour we prayed like 4 times to know where this person was at. Right at the end of the hour we found her. We rang the bell and walked up the stairs and right when we saw her we both got the feeling that she was the one. We talked to her for a while and then gave her the book. She isn´t interested in meeting with us right now, but we are going to go back in a few weeks to see how she likes the book. Even though she wasn´t interested in meeting with us I know that we were lead to her. She needed that book and the Lord knew it. I have never had such an experience my whole mission. I have never had such a strong impression and urgency to find someone before. Man, the Lord really cares about His children...why can´t they see that?? Why can´t we remember that as members. We are so easy to forget what the Lord does for us. He loves us and I know that He is always there for us. I know He lives and that Christ is his son. This Gospel is true and will lead us to Eternal Life.

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

Sister Jones

Even from Germany...

2009-07-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

Teri,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

I just wanted to send you a quick note to say hi and wish you all the best for your birthday!!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!!

Love,

Sister Jones

(***sorry family...but she beat you all! Thanks Chris!)

***And everyone better not forget...her birthday is quickly approaching...AUGUST 8th!

#59 (7-13-09)

2009-07-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

This week was so full of MIRACLES!! We did this really cool thing with the RS sisters...well 6 of them. We got up last Sunday and said that we wanted to try something new for the week. I think I might have mentioned it last week, but anyway...we asked for one sister to pray for Sister Psota and I by name on a specific day. We got 6 people to volunteer and then they chose the day. We asked them to pray for us through out the day and then we would call them that night and tell them what happened!! Well last week we found 2 new investigators (a husband and wife) and a bunch of good contacts. We also had an appointment with Herr Wiese (a new investigator from 2 weeks ago) and he had already read 100 pages in the book of Mormon. He even told us the story about Nephi and Lehi and how great and righteous they are...he is 79 years old!! :o) We have another appt. this week. Then we also met with this other guy, Daniel, who was pretty contentious the first time we met with him...this last week he was completely different. He had read in the Book of Mormon and he really expressed a desire to find out the truth. He even prayed at the end of the lesson. It was a miracle. We also had little miracles along the way...it was so great!! I really have gained a testimony of how important it is to pray specifically for things. The Lord already knows our thoughts, but he wants us to ASK for what we need and want!! This week we are trying something else with the RS, but I will talk about it next week!!
Well, I hate to talk about the weather, but it kind of sucks up here in the north. It was really hot and sunny when I first got here and now for the last week or 2 it has rained EVERYDAY!! It will be sunny, cloudy, then rainy...then sunny, cloudy, then rainy...repeated the whole day!! It is hard to dress yourself when the temp changes so much!! Naja...it´s still beautiful here and I will just be praying for a little bit more stability!! :o)

Love,
Sister Jones

Week #58 (7-6-09)

2009-07-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

This week we saw a lot of miracles. President called us on Thursday and told us that he was going to be praying for us specifically that day by name. He told us that we would see a lot of miracles that day. We were really excited and knew that that was true. So we only had 2 appts. planned for that day and ended up getting 2 more appts. with contacts and both of them became our new investigators. WAHOO!!! 2 new investigators!! We were so excited to call president that night and tell him our miracles. He was so excited for us. We then got another new investigator on Friday!! 3 in one week!! It was so amazing. We then decided that we would try something with the RS in our ward. On Sunday we asked specific people to pray for us by name this week. One Sister for each day of the week. We told them that we would also call them at the end of the day and tell them what happened. I´m so excited to see what happens this week!! I know we will see many miracles. We then decided that we would pray for the specific sisters as well on the days that they are praying for us. This ward is super cool and I´m excited to continue to get to know them and build friendships with them.

We also had a BBQ on Saturday for the fourth!! GO AMERICA!! It was totally American and we had a blast!! Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, watermelon, potato salad....and a football...we had everything except for fireworks...but we are not allowed to have those anyways!! It was so great!! I love the fourth of July...that is my favorite holiday.

Well those are the highlights from my week. Sister Psota and I are having a ton of fun together. We understand each other really well and laugh a lot. She is really great to work with!!

Have a great week!!
Sister Jones

Week #57 (6-29-09)

2009-06-30T12:46:00.001-07:00

My comp and I and the Elders at the Schweiz Night that we had!!

This week was another hard week, but we saw miracles and we didn´t have as many appointments fall out...well, also because we didn´t have as many scheduled!

Last Sunday we had found a guy on the street who was Muslim and he told us we could bring him a book of Mormon. So we set up an appointment to meet at his house and got his address and phone number. Well, on Tuesday we went to the appointment and his name was not on any of the doors bells. (He told us it would be). So we decided there had to be a reason why we were sent here to this place at this time and we were determined to find someone. So we started doing doors. We did the building that this guy told us..where he was supposed to be living and didn´t find anyone interested...so we went on to the building next to it. We rang the bells and the third one let us in the building. We walked up so many stairs and then there he was...the guy we were supposed to have an appointment with. I thought that we had written down the wrong number or something when we first talked to him. Well, he let us in and we prayed and started talking. He told us the whole appointment that he was Muslim and that he doesn´t want to change, but he was excited when we gave him a book of Mormon in his language!! He said that he would be interested in reading it. We didn´t set up another appointment because he didn´t want to, but he did agree to let us come back in a few weeks and see how he likes the book. Ok, now comes the funny part. Right at the end of the appointment he asked us how we found him...we looked at him a little strange and reminded him that we had met him on the street and we had set up an appointment, then he asked us again, but how did you find me. He knew that he had given us the wrong number (the phone number was also wrong that he gave us) and thought that since he gave us a different name then was on the doorbell and the wrong building that we wouldn´t be able to find him...he didn´t say that, but it was clear from how the appointment went and how he asked that question that he didn´t want us to come in the first place. Well...the Lord really wanted us to meet with him and to find him..again!! We did and did our best to bring him the truth..isn´t that a funny story??

On Friday we had our Schweizer Abend (Swizerland night) put on by my very own Sister Psota. She was super stressed out, but it went great. The games and info was fun and the food was great as well!! We have such cool YSA´s in this ward!! I love having activities with them..and they also are SO willing to come on Joint Teaches. I really like it here in Kiel. I know that as I get used to being here that I will love it just as much at Bremen and Bielefeld. I really enjoyed church on Sunday as well and we had a cool eating appointment with a family after who has 6 kids!! That is REALLY rare for Germany...even Germans in the church normally only have 3-4 kids!! They are a cool family, but it really helped me be thankful that I´m here on a mission and not married at home with a bunch of little boys running around and beating each other up!! They were cute, but NO thank you!! lol!!

We did some more street contacting with Anna on Sunday night and it was SO wonderful. The people we talked to were pretty nice and we had some great conversations. She wants to do a mini mission with us for a week, but we still have to get permission from pres. I think it would be good for all of us. She knows the city really well and has some great ideas of where we can work. She also has a new member excitement for missionary work and that would help us too. Her family are non members and I think that would also help her to know how to talk to them about the gospel...practice makes perfect!!
Sorry if this letter sucks!! I really am doing fine, but I feel my energy and excitement being pulled out of me...the end is coming and I hate that feeling!! I want to work really hard till the end....something needs to change so that I can keep going. I´m so tired that I almost fell asleep in church on Sunday...I´ve never done that on my mission...not even at the beginning when I had jet lag!! Just pray for me and I will be fine!! I really do love it here and there is nothing I would rather be doing with my life!! I´m in the right place and I´m with the right person and we can find the people who are ready...they are there just waiting for us!! Thanks for your love and support. Have a great week!!

I love you,
Sister Jones

Week #56 (6-22-09)

2009-06-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well I hope that you had a great week last week!! My week was hard. I love my comp and my area, the ward and the members, but starting the transfer with a new comp in a new area always brings the same thing....NOTHING!! We had 8 appointments fall out and 2 people told us that they don´t want to meet with us anymore. Every time I have gotten a new comp everything that you had spent so much time building up falls down, but you want to know a miracle that happened?? We didn´t get discouraged. Even though everything was falling out and we have really only 1 investigator now...we still kept going and were still really cheerful!! Cool huh?? The Lord LOVES us and wants us to succeed, but people have free agency and if they choose not to listen or meet with us then the Lord will bless us in other ways.

We had District meeting last week and my comp and I had a part of it. We decided to talk about miracles. So we sang them a song about miracles and and then talked about how miracles only come when we have faith and believe that they are possible. We then commited them to look for miracles everyday and to write them in their planners (inspired by Elder Turvey like 2 transfers ago and yes I have written one down everyday for 2 transfers and will continue to the end of my mission!!) and then also to fast once a week this transfer to show the Lord that we will sacrafice for Him to find those who are prepared and then we even made them glasses..."Miracle Glasses" and told them that if they are having a hard time finding miracles then they just need to put on their miracle glasses and they will find them!! It was super cool and they all agreed to our commitments!! It will be a great transfer, but it will also be really hard. The biggest miracles I have seen on my mission came after MUCH trial and tribulation!!

We got to go back to Bremen this last week. I had planned a music night and President let me go back for it!! It was SO wonderful to see the members that I love!! Serously...I noticed something really cool. The new Elder in Bremen told me that he didn´t like one of the members in the ward already and asked if anyone liked him. I raised my hand proud and said that I don´t only like him, but I love him. I struggled with this member as well at the beginning, but I really tried to understand him and I truly came to love him. It was the greatest feeling really...to know that I really did something in that ward...I made a difference. Maybe just a small one, but I learned to love every single member and I showed that love. This member even told me that when my mom comes to pick me up that if we need a place to stay I could stay with him and his wife!! It just felt so good to be back in my ward...so many members told me that they missed me and that it was great to see me again!! I miss them SO much...maybe even more then Bielefeld and Bielefeld was my favorite place for so long!! Any way...The concert went well and we had fun together. There weren´t that many people there, but it was still great!!

Well I think that is all the new stuff!!
Have a great week!!
Sister Jones

Week #55 (6-15-09)

2009-06-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well...So much has happened this week...I really feel like this one week has been 2 weeks. Especially since I didn´t write much last week.

Before I went to Kiel we had to visit a lot mission people before I left! On Monday we visited Olga and I was SO sad!! She kind of "tschüß"ed us. She still wants to meet with the sisters, but she is struggling with depression and needs a little break!! I have met SO many people that have depression...it is so crazy!! When we finally said goodbye she hugged me forever and told me a bunch of stuff. Then right before she let go she thanked me for all that I taught her. I was immediately humbled. Me?? I taught someone something?? I try to teach through the Spirit when I'm at a lesson, but sometimes I´m not sure if they have fully understood because of the language barrier, but she understood me...or I should say she understood the spirit and learned from me through the spirit!! SO COOL!! I can be an effective teacher in German!! I was so thankful for all of my experiences with her. As I rode away on my bike I started to cry a bit. This has happened so much on my mission. I want to baptize, but it is SO hard because most of the people here choose not to. I mean I know that we are not working in vain. No effort is wasted...maybe they will join later. But I want to be there. I want to see them in white walking into the baptismal font. I want to see them make a sacred covenant with God and change their life not only here, but eternally!! It just hurts my little heart sometimes. I want to see the success of my labors, but sometimes that is just not how it is and I understand that. It doesn´t matter if I see her get baptized or if someone else does. The most important thing is that she does it someday. I just want to keep in contact with her and others so that I know when it happens!! I will miss her so much...I already do!!!

I also visited Rosa Barufe, Sch. Lütjen, Familie Rust and Familie Uhlenberg. I´m going to miss them all. The ward was also hard to say goodbye too. OOOHHHH.....I want to go back!! It is so hard to leave a place where you know everyone and feel so comfortable with the people...I have really learned to love them. I will remember so many people in that ward. I also had to say goodbye to Barbara...the one that was on baptismal date. We ate breakfast with her and chatted a bit, but lately I have just had a different feeling by her. She gave us a letter before we left and I was really nervous what it said. We went home, grabbed our bags and read it in the train to Hamburg. She pretty much told us that we are going in different directions and that she believes different then us and that she is not going to change. The weird thing is that she even made out an appointment with sister Sayson before we left. I just think she is scared. She doesn´t read in the book of mormon any more and when she prays she doesn´t want to pray to god..she has issues with guys!! I was so sure that she was the one...that she was ready. We even reminded her a few weeks ago how we found her and what a miracle that was and she even agreed, but she chose a different path!! I really hope that the sisters can get her to come back onto our path, but we shall see. It just hurt my heart to say goodbye and then to read that letter.

Well anyway...we rode up to Hamburg with an Elder who was going to be in Kiel with me. So it was just sister Sayson and an Elder...he was our comp!! That was interesting. I remember when that happened to me when I went to get sister Sayson at the mission home...it was such a weird feeling. So we all met in Hamburg and then I had to say goodbye to My daughter Sister Sayson. 3 transfers is a LONG time, but it was so wonderful I love her SO much and miss her. We worked good together and had a lot of fun too!! My new comp is SO great!! She is a lot like me...which could cause problems, but we know that already so we are prepared. So far we are having a great time!! She is loud like me, but I still beat her and she is pretty out going and really funny!! I just hope that we don´t have too much fun!! I never thought that having too much fun with a comp could be a bad thing, but if it gets distracting then yeah!! We work good together already...we found a new investigator on Friday already!! I also got to meet a new member...she just got baptized last week and she is so cool. We are friends already!! I also got to meet the ward and that was hard for me. I had forgotten how hard it is to be the new one. The Elder that came up from Bremen with me (he was in oldenburg) is my district leader and in my ward, so I wasn´t the only new one, but it is just hard not knowing anyone. It will get better as I make friends. I tried to learn a few names, but they have some WEIRD last names in this ward...every time someone said there name I had to ask to repeat it!! lol!! It was funny!! The ward is a lot smaller then Bremen...a lot!! They seem really cool though and I´m still excited to work here. The city is a lot smaller too. I mean...it is still big, but they only have busses and not bahns...I have always had bahns!! So weird. We use bikes a lot more here then in Bremen, but the city is a lot more hilly then Bremen, so that is hard. Bremen was like the flattest city every...except for Bremerhaven (where my old district leader lives). This city has more hills, but is not as pretty as Bremen, but still beautiful. I mean, I´m in Germany!! Pretty much every city is beautiful.

Well I better go.

Love you,

Sister Jones

Week #54 (6-8-09)

2009-06-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday morning was transfer calls and guess what?? I´m going to Kiel. It´s far north by the water. I have heard it is very pretty, but very cold!! I´m glad that I will be there for the summer and not the winter. My comp´s name is Sister Psota and she is from Swizerland!! I´ve seen her at the train station in amburg before and she is really small...short and skinny!! I´m going to feel like a giant!! :o) She sounds really nice and I´m pretty sure that we will have a good time together. I will miss sister Sayson...I love her so much!! We have done so much together, but I´m excited to move on and see another city, meet a new ward, and have a new comp. I´m pretty sure I will die in Kiel. (that´s mission talk for ending your mission). I´m excited to go!!

I had to say goodbye to my ward yesterday and I was so sad. So many people came up to me to say goodbye. It made me feel so good. I have made so many friends in this ward. I love them and will miss them!!

I don´t have much time to write today because it is my last pday in Bremen and I want to see some sights!! I love you!

Sister Jones

Streets of Germany...

2009-06-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

Week #53 (6-1-09)

2009-06-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

We have transfer calls this week so we will see what happens. I´m pretty sure that Sister sayson and I are not going to be together next transfer. I mean it is possible, but 3 transfers is a lot of time together...4 would be really long!! I love her so much, but I think we are both looking forward to something new!!

We visited Olga this week. She is not doing very good. She has going back into depression and does not feel stable enough to continue meeting with us. She said that she wants to again someday soon, but she is afraid that we will be gone. She likes us a lot. We offered to help her this week in her Garden. Sis Sayson and I both think that serving her will help her feel the love of the Lord. It was cool though because even though she told us she doesn´t want to meet with us any more she still said that we could read in the scriptures together. So we followed the Spirit and read about prayer and then bore really good testimony about the power of prayer and how she can always gain strength through prayer. It was a good lesson with her. I love her so much and will really miss teaching her!!

We also had Zone Conference this last week. They talked a lot about having joy and sharing that joy with the members and investigators. Some´General Authority said about Germany, "the church here will grow when the members become more happy." We need to share that joy and happiness with them and be a "torch bearer". Like in the olympics when they pass the torch around the world. We need to pass our joy our torch to the members so that their torch can also shine bright so that other people can see it!! It was so powerful!! I loved it and am excited to continue to hold my torch high and share it with others!!

Barbara is about the same. She read and prayed like we had asked her, but she was then lead to this weird book. She has some weird beliefs sometimes and she is not progressing spiritually any more. We have an appointment this week with a convert member and hopefully that will help her!! Please pray for her. She needs to recognize the truth. We even reminded her of the miracle of how we met and then at the end of the appointment she said that she is not sure if she needs a church!! She is confused still!!

Well my time is up...we have to run off to an eating appointment!!

Love you!!
Sister Jones

Week #52 (5-25-09)

2009-05-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

Guess what I am eating right now?? A Poptart!! WAHOO!! In Bremerhaven (where my district leader is) there is a store with American food in it!! They only take American money!! I have been asking for poptarts for the last few weeks and he gave them to us on Sat. We actually only got one pack (so with 2 poptarts) but I haven´t had a chance to eat it till now!! MMMmmmm...man is it tasty!!

This week was a good week...well ever week is a good week, but some are more exciting then others!!

On Tuesday we had district meeting and then went all the way to Delmenhorst (15min train ride) to an appointment, but she wasn´t there...she had forgotten to call and cancel with us...so e headed back to Bremen and ended up getting a contact!! It was meant to be I guess. Then we went to an appointment with Stella and Ucha (one of the African couples...the ones we found a few weeks ago) and we brought a joint teach with us. It was pretty good, but we spend 45 min. talking about prophets...he thinks he is a prophet!! We invited them again to come to church, but they have there church at the same time. They invited us to come to this thing tonight at there church...we normally go to FHE with the YSA´s, but we are going to show them that we are interested in what they believe so that hopefully they will come to church with us some time!! We then went and visited a less active member Sch. Barufe. We have been meeting with her for a really long time. Her husband is not a member, but he is warming up to us. He is really learning to trust us and talk openly with us. We ended up going to the play ground with Sch. Barufe and her daughter because she REALLY wanted to go. We had a lot of fun. We went on this slide and totally got some air..not a lot, but a little!! then we played on some of the other toys and stuff in this sandy area. Note to self...it is not fun to have sand in your shoes on a mission!! :o)

On Wednesday was a little hard...nothing went as planned. We had weekly planning (which we normally do on Thursday or later, but we had no time) and then went to an eating appointment with a member...she wasn´t home!! :o( We were starving so we went and grabbed some food. We then went to the church for English/German class and we had 2 students for German (both members) and then we were planning on doing some doors, but the woman who makes dinner for the YSA´s on Wednesday night needed our help getting things prepared...so we stayed and helped!! She doesn´t normally need our help so it was nice to be able to do something for her. She does a lot for the YSA´s. We then stayed and ate with the YSA´s like normal and then headed home.

On Thursday we had an appointment in the morning with Barbara. She has been kind of falling off the map a bit, but it was a great lesson. We brought Sch. Ganser who lives by us and that was perfect. We all found out a little bit more of where Barbara is...spiritually. She has stopped reading and is still searching for the truth. I thought that she had found it!! We talked about the first lesson and also talked about the importance of woman...she thinks that God is not a woman or a man because she doesn´t like that she has to pray to a man. We talked about our mother in heaven...a little deep I know, but it helped her understand it better. We pray to God because he has the priesthood, so he is the partiarch, but he is no more important then his wife...just like in a marriage the man is no better the the woman...there is no men with out woman and visa versa!! It was really good for her to hear. We then really committed her to read and pray...she promised to do it by next week (this week now)!! I think this week we will have to remind her of how we met and that it was no coincidence. We then went to Sch. Mathieu another Less active we have been working with for a while and did made thank you cards with her. She is kind of a lonely person. When I asked her a few weeks ago what her hobbies were she said that she doesn´t have any. I then asked her what she does in her free time and she said watch TV...and that is the truth. That is almost all she does after work. So we thought it would be good to have her do something nice for someone else...so we all made a card for someone we wanted to thank!! We had a good time. Then we rode our bikes from her house to our appointment with Olga....I had seen on the phone that she had called, but she didn´t leave a message and when I tried to call back she didn´t answer...I was really hoping that she would be there because we had a joint teach coming and it was starting to rain really hard and we didn´t have jackets. (It had been really sunny and warm the whole day) Well we rode there and the rain wasn´t too bad, but then we had to wait for our JT and that is when the rain really started to come down. I then pulled out my umbrella and we stood under that for about 5 min and then decided to just go in. Well we rang the bell and her little song answered and said that she wasn´t home. But then her husband came out from shed let us in. We were still pretty wet and her made us some tea and we talked to him for a while. Our Joint teach showed up looking like a wet cat and we had to tell her that Olga was not home. She took it really well. She just lives a 5 min. bike ride from Olga, but I still felt bad, but the member was all smiles!! She is so wonderful!! We ended up getting to know the husband better. That was a really big blessing because he was there for the first couple lessons and then he stopped coming in to sit with us!! He was really nice and we had a good time laughing and talking together. It was a blessing that we saw. It had even stopped raining when we left!! We were really cold though.

So I forgot...this week was Christi Himmelfahrt (Christ´s ascent into heaven) and every year Germany has something called Kirchentag (church day...which is more like half a week) and it is a little confusing, but I hope it makes sense how I explain it. They have it every year, but every 2 years it switches religions...2 years catholic and then 2 years Protestant...it also switches cities every year. This year is the first time it has ever been in Bremen. They were expecting 300,000 people and I really think that that was a right guess....it was SO full!! It started on Thursday, but people started coming on Wednesday night...The train station was SO packed!! I couldn´t believe it!!

So we decided that we would do some street contacts and try and talk to some of these people who came from all over Germany for Jesus Christ. We didn´t see much success, but we ended up finding this guy who was really nice and we talked to him for a while. He said that he already had the book of Mormon and that he has no interest in learning more, but we had a good conversation with him.

On Friday we went and delived a few book of Mormons to people that our president had found when he was in Bremen with his wife and family. She doesn´t want to meet with us, but she said we could call in a few weeks and see how she likes it. Then we had an eating appointment with the Uhlenberg family. They are one of my favs. The Husband is really flirty withe me, but it is just in fun...but he did do something that I won´t say now, but maybe I will when I get home....remind me and I will tell you!! It was really embarrassing!! Then is started to rain again...and again we didn´t have jackets...the weather here is so weird. It is so sunny and warm in the morning and then we leave and a few hours later it is really cloudy, cold and rainy. Well we had planned to work in a members garden again, but we weren´t sure what to do. So we went there without changing and by the time we got there the rain left and she still wanted us to work. So we changed, worked for our 2 hours and then it started to rain again. She must have a really good relationship with Heavenly Father because he always answers her prayers right away. It is so cool to see her faith at work!! We then went to an appointment with a contact that we had found. Antoine is his name and he is also from Africa. He became our new investigator. He is super cool and really interested in what we had to say about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

The on Saturday we planned to have a District activity for Kirchentag. We met at the train station and one of the Eldersa had prepared a game where we had to talk to certain people or do certain things to get points. So he gave a list of the things and the point totals and then we spit up in our companionships and worked for 2 hours. Sister Sayson and I had a lot of fun and guess what...we found 5 contacts!! The Elders didn´t end up finding any...it was still a great activity and sister Sayson and I are so grateful for the success that we saw. 3 of the people don´t live here in Bremen, but the other 2 do. There was SO many people that it was kind of hard to talk to people, but we did it and had a lot of fun going out of our comfort zone and the Lord really blessed us for that!! We then came back together and counted up our points and we WON!! Well not really...the prize was to get free lunch and so I added them up, but everyone was hurrying me...so I thought that I had added it right. So we all went to Subway and the Elders all paid for us!! WAHOOO...free food, but then later that night I readded it and found out that when I had added up the final totals that I had accidentally wrote 215 and not 115 when I added and I thought we had 455 points but we only had 355....ooops!! I still haven´t told the Elders. I might get around to it, but maybe not!! :o) We then went to the Rust Family and had a BBQ with them. It was pretty good. I´m not a big fan of pork...I like it, but it is pretty fatty....I really miss chicken BBQ!! We also got to play a game with the kids!! It was a good visit. When we got back to Bremen we went to go catch our bus and then I heard it...an opera voice. I was enchanted and had to listen for a few minutes. She was singing Rejoice from Handel´s Messiah and it was beautiful. I got a little on tape. Man do I miss that stuff. It was part of this Kirchentag thing.

Then on Sunday I had to give a talk in Church...well I was able too!! :o) I talked about from planting the seeds to harvesting. I had been thinking about it and studying it for days and I was really nervous. I even fasted to get more help from the Lord. When I got u there I told them that I was nervous because that was only my second talk in Germany...my first was my second Sunday in Germany and everyone laughed/gasped...I told them that I could speak German a little better but that I hoped that they could learn something through the Spirit. Well I gave my talk and I really felt like I had talked through the Spirit. I talked about how they need to be good examples and people who don´t only believe the gospel, but live it and also that they need to open their mouths. I really felt the Spirit really strong as I spoke. When I sat down the 2nd counselor told me that I did a good job and that my German was really good. A lot of people complimented me on my talk and on my German. One woman even told me that she was really touched and moved by what I said!! I really hope that they now have a bigger desire to do missionary work. There are not enough missionaries in Germany to find the people who are prepared...we need the members to help us so that we have not only 4 missionaries in Bremen, but 154!! That would be ideal!! :o) We then got to on a tour of the new ward building here in Bremen. It will open in October. It looks really good from the outside, but the inside still looks like a construction site!! The ward members are SO excited!! Then we ate with a member and I was destroyed for the rest of the day. I don´t know what was in the food, but during the Spiritual thought it sounded like I´d eaten a live animal and that it was trying to get out!! It was not very fun!! I love eating appointments, but not when they ruin the day!! We got things done at home with our area book and stuff....it was still effective!!

So now all of the people have gone home and the city will be back to normal. It ws so cool to see so many people come together for Christ, but they just had to bring the cigarettes and the alcohol too!! Drunk people and church don´t mix in my opinion, but it´s Germany!!

It was a busy week!! I love when it is busy. This week we have zone conference and then next week we have transfer calls and then transfers the week after...only 2.5 weeks in the transfer left and then I will know if I will be staying here for 5 transfers or not!! Don´t ask me what I want because I don´t get to decide...I just try not to think about it!! :o) Some people get really into transfer predictions, but that is not really my thing!! I would rather spend my time thinking of something else!

Well I love you and I hope that you have a great week!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Week #51 (5-18-09)

2009-05-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

This week was better then last week. We had a joint teach on Tuesday with a couple from Africa. Our JT was Alex...a JSA in our ward who is half American and half German. It was pretty good, but I felt like the whole time we were talking about the same things, but we would just say them different. But they wanted us to say them a certain way or they would argue a little with us. I tried to commit them to read the book of Mormon, but they said that they want to meet with us so that we can go through EVERY SINGLE PAGE together in the Book of Mormon!! Uhhh...I think that they pretty much told me that they wanted to be eternal investigators. Hey, at least they were honest. I told them that as missionaries we are here to help people find out our church is true and then baptize them. They didn´t seem to understand that. I don´t know how long we will be meeting with them...if it continues to be a bible study rival then we might have to give them the boot!! We will see....

We got to eat at another African couple this week...they are also investigators. The food was SO amazing!! I loved it. They made us a variety of food so that we could try some of the main things in Africa. I´m totally going to go to Africa some day...wow!!

Besides that we had some lessons with some inactives and also got to have institute with a bunch of JSA´s from a couple different wards!! It was really fun!!

We are planning a music night in this ward for the 19th of June!! Sadly that is the week after transfers...I´m going to ask pres if I can stay or if I get transferred if I can come back for it. The ward will be mad if I help plan it and then don´t end up singing in it!! I don´t know if I want stay here for 5 transfers, but if I did in Bielefeld I could do it here...although that would give me only 2 transfers in my last city!! Oh well...it is all up to the Lord!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Week #50 (5-11-09)

2009-05-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

This week has been strange. We were really busy, but then Sister Sayson got sick..she has really been struggling with her health. So we had to stay in for a day. I was so bored that I cleaned the WHOLE apartment...and when I say cleaned I mean cleaned. I even took all of the food out of the fridge and chipped the ice off that was on the back of the fridge!! I had fun!! My comp literally slept the whole day. She would wake up for like a half hour and then go back to sleep. She is doing better now!!

We are struggling with our investigators a bit. We are really trying to get them progressing, but it has been hard for the last few weeks. They were doing so good, but now they seem to have taken a few steps backward. We were talking about it last night. We thought that Barbara was doing so good, but the last few weeks she has been moving backwards not forwards. We are working on it!! Pray for her please. She needs to give up smoking and it will be hard, but she can totally do it. We are planning to have her come to a member's house with us this week and so the member and his wife can get to know her better and she can feel of the spirit in their home. The father also had to give up smoking, so hopefully that will help her to again move forward.

We are excited for this week because we already have a lot to do. This woman in the ward who is in charge of the missionaries eating calendar gave the RS a big lecture about how empty the calendar has been for the last few weeks...let's just say that the women felt a little guilty because we have an eating appt. almost everyday this week and next week and the week after. I love eating appointments with members, but sometimes it is hard because they want us to stay for a long time. Not everyone, but a lot of the older people who are used to the old rules about eating appts....there were none!! :o) We have to remind them that they are only supposed to be an hour. Most people are super good about it. I hope they don´t feed us to much!! :o)

That´s about all to report for this week!! I will try to have a better email for next week!!

Love you!!
Sister Jones

Week #49 (5-4-09)

2009-05-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

We saw some cool miracles this week. We met some guy on the street and made an appointment out with him to bring him the book of mormon and talk more about our church. Well we went to the appointment and he wasn´t there (when I told this story to the RS on Sunday some lady in the congregation made a loud angry grunt at this part of the story!! :o)) when we got there. So we decided to do doors in his building and we talked to this guy from Spain who had lived in America for a while. He let us in and we talked to him for an hour!! It was SO good. He actually had met with missionaries when he was younger, but now he had become muslim. He didn´t have any interest to meet with us again, but I know that we knocked on his door for a reason. God is trying to tell him something, but he is just not ready to listen...again. Maybe another time!! It was cool because that was only my 3rd or 4th time in a year of missionary work of actually being let in. I have gotten a lot of contacts that way, but they usually tell us to just come back later because they have no time. It was a good experience for Sister Sayson...that was her first time being let in!! :o)

We also rode bikes for about 2.5hrs in one day. There was a holiday on Friday and so the buses don´t come very often and the bus to one of our appt. doesn´t come at all on Sundays and holidays. So we rode all the way there. We were pretty sore, but not as bad as when we first started riding bikes!!

Oh, I also started a competition with one of my ZL to see who can lose the most weight in the next 3 transfers (so by the time he goes home) He has already lost a lot of weight on his mission so I hope that that will give me the advantage!! hehe!! Don´t worry, missionary work is still important, but when you feel like a big fat sister Missionary it´s harder to do missionary work!!

We were also sitting on the bahn the other day and 2 people started talking to us. We talked to them about the gospel and niether of them were interested, but it was cool to see that they were curious enough to talk to us. They were cool.

Barbara and Olga didn´t have time to meet with us this week, but Barbara did come to church again on Sunday. That is 4 Sundays in a row!! We even had a member pick her up this time because they live close to each other. So many people already know her in the church. It was SO cool to see them remember her name and invite her to the ward activity on Saturday and to tell her...see you next week!! It was wonderful. I also got to see some people from Bielefeld because there was a baby blessing and the mother comes originally from Bielefeld and her family came. I told them how much I missed them and the ward and they told me that they all missed me to. I also told them that I will be back to visit them in Oct. before I go home and they are excited!! WHOOO!! I love Bielefeld. I mean I love Bremen too, but Bielefeld just has a special place in my heart!!

So on Saturday we had a street preach in Osnabrück. That is where we stand on the street and sing hymns and talk to people and also someone steps forward and starts teaching the gospel with a loud voice so everyone can here....kind of like Dan Jones. I told the Elders that I was NOT going to do that part, but I would gladly sing and also talk to the people in the area. I didn´t like the idea of talking to the whole city...a few people at a time is ok, but not all of downtown. Well we started and a few of the Elders went and then I gave in and did it!! I was really nervous, but it went ok. It would be like standing in Downtown seattle and talking to all of the busy shoppers on the street....that is how many people where there. I also sang a solo. I think a street preach would be cool in America...don´t know if they do it. Here is was pretty good, but once the Germans see that we are from a church they run away. We did have a few people stop and listen and then we would come out of the choir and talk to them, but then they would walk away from the word church or christ...we also had missionaries roaming around the area talking to people....half were in the choir and the other half were the street contactors. We did at one point have a group of 3 little kids watching us and listening to us sing and preach the gospel with the sound of a trump...well my was a trump...lol!! But the kids were sadly younger then 8!! :o) It was still a good day!!

We are really busy again this week. I´m excited. I love when it is busy...appt. service, and other activities get me excited for the coming week!!

Love,
Sister Jones

week #48 (4-27-09)

2009-04-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

This week has been great....lots of ups and downs.

I´m Staying in Bremen for my 4th transfer here!! And Sister Sayson is still my comp!! WAHOOO!!

On Tuesday we had an appointment with Barbara (our batisimal date) but she wasn´t there...that is when we freaked out!! AHHHH....but she just forgot. Then we had another appointment with her on Friday and again she wasn´t there, but her boyfriend was there and let us in. We called her and she had again forgot, but got there in a few minutes. We went to the park and read in the book of mormon with her and then played a little soccer with her son...yes, in skirts!! lol!! It was fun!! She is super cool, but I just think she is really stressed right now. She also came to church again on Sunday and had a great time there.

Olga (Frau Frizler) is doing great. We answered a lot of her questions about the Book of Mormon. She is reading it all the way through and had a lot of questions. We also gave her the stop smoking workshop to read through and this week we will be making goals on when to start and how we are going to do it!! She is amazing and she loves us so much!!

The ward is really starting to trust us. When they have been asking us to do things we got them done and then report back to these people and they are really relying on us. I love it because most of the time the Elders get asked to do everything, but now a lot of people are coming to us. A woman in the ward just had her 4th baby and the RS Pres. asked us if we would offer to help her clean and what not this week, not just ask, but really get her to let us help her...most women would just say no. So we found her about a minute later and cornered her (literally) and said that we wanted to help her this week and set up an appointment and the the RS Pres. walked by us about 2 or 3 minutes after that and I told her that we made an appointment with this other woman and she was totally surprised and very happy that we already did it and that we were pushy enough to get an appointment. :o) It made me feel really good to be able to accomplish the things that the wards asks from us!!
Sorry my email isn´t as exciting as last week, but not that much new stuff happened. We taught the YSA on Sunday about Missionary work and one of the guys came up after the class and told me that it stirred something in him...that is what we were going for!! I think it went pretty good.

Well I hope you have a great week!!

Sister Jones

Week #47 (4-20-09)

2009-04-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

I just LOVE the spring in Germany!! It is so beautiful!! The flowers are blooming, the trees are turning green and the Lord is sending us baptisms!! Yep that is right...WE HAVE A BAPTISM DATE HERE IN BREMEN!! So Barbara....the girl we met in the park who´s aunt had been praying that she will meet the missionaries...she came to church last sunday and had a great time. We then had an appointment on Friday and we had planned to extend a baptism date to her. We were really nervous...I was the one that was going to be commiting her and I was nervous because last time I did that was with sister Jones and the girls said no and then I didn´t know what to say. On the way to the appointment I just imagined her saying yes. I wanted to be really positive. So Sister Sayson taught about baptism and then I taught about the holy Ghost and then asked her if she would follow Jesus Christ and get baptized on the 17th of May and she said YES!! AHHHHH!!! I was so excited. She needs to work on quitting smoking, but she has a strong desire to stop smoking so we can totally get over that hump!! She is AMAZING!! I then invited her to come to Hamburg for stake conference on Sunday and she said yes even though she would have to leave at 7am and be in the train for 1.5 hrs there and 1.5 hrs back and she would have to bring her 8month old baby!! She came and really enjoyed it and it was cool because quite a few members were on the train and she got to meet a lot of cool people!! When the members said bye to her they said...see you next sunday!! :o) It was perfect! We have 2 appointments this week and will be going through the lessons again and teaching her more of the commandments!! It is cool because she was a drug addict and has already overcome a lot and changed a lot and she really relys on God for everything and follows her inner voice (the Holy Ghost). We are just here to help her finish making the progress she needs to return to God in Eternal Life. I called pres. and he didn´t answer and so I left him a message and even screamed a little...really quiet though...I think it was something like..."Präsident, we have a baptismal date in Bremen AHHHHH!!!" When he called me back later he told me that he had never gotten a message before where a missionary sounded so excited about something!! Well I was excited!! That was probably one of the best days of my mission so far!!

We had Zone conference this week and so we went to Hannover the night before to stay with the sisters and also so I could get to the church early to practice a song with an elder. Elder Nabratskie (sp?) is serving in my zone and asked if we could sing together sometime. So we planned it and then the only time we could get together and practice was the day of conference!! Well It was interesting. He did fine, but I just couldn´t get this one part...it changed keys and I was having issues getting my first note. I was frustrated with myself because I didn´t have problems like that before my mission, but I just prayed and trusted in the Lord to help my talent that I´m not able to practice and develop at this time in my life. Well it came time for us to sing and we did fine. I really miss singing with people, so it was fun...and guess what?? I got my note and had no problem!! YEAH!!

We did splits this week, as well, with the sisters in Hamburg. It was fun. Sister Heiner came here and Sister Sayson got to go to Hamburg. We had a good time together and I learned a lot from her. It is weird to think that I am one of the "experienced" sisters. I really feel like I just got here, but in 2 weeks I will only have 4 transfers left!! I mean that is still a lot of time, but for people who have only been out 3 or 4 transfers....they think I am almost done!! I really do feel new and am not ready to go home. I stil have way to much to do here and too much to learn. I´m excited to see what will happen these last 4 transfers.

Well, Frau Frizler is also doing great!! We met with her and she has started reading the book of Mormon from the beginning. She wants to read it all the way through. :o) She also smokes and wants to quit so we are going to do the workshop with her as well. I´m so grateful for people in my life before my mission that have had experiences similar with the lives of my investigators because I can use those success stories to encourage and strengthen my investigators. It is so wonderful!! She loves meeting with us and is so excited everytime we come. I love Bremen!! :o)

This week was one of the best weeks ever!! I love the Lord and I´m so grateful for his blessings on me and all the other missionaries in the world!!!! I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that we have a living prophet today. I know that we have all the knowledge and authority to do the things we need to do in this life to return and live with God for eternity. It has all been restored through Joseph Smith and has been passed down to every prophet after him. I love this Gospel and I´m happy to be a part of this great work...to bring others unto Christ.

Sister Jones

Week #46 (4-13-09)

2009-04-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

This week was SO beautiful!! I loved it...the sun was shinning...I didn´t have to wear a big coat...and it´s getting lighter in the morning and at night!!

On Tuesday we had a joint teach for a new member. We wanted to teach about the priesthood and thought it would be a good idea to bring her home teacher. So we decided to take the train and then ride our bikes to her house. The train ride is about 25 minutes and then about 15 min with bikes. Well the weather had been SO beautiful all day, but once we got off the train it started to sprinkle a bit, but it held off till we got to her house. As we were teaching her it started to pour and there was even thunder and lightning. Then when we left it was sunny again!! It was SO amazing. The member we took is a return missionary and when we were in the train we thanked him for coming with us and he just said that he just loves going out with the missionaries. It was such a compliment to me, but a lot of people think of sister missionaries as being different then the elders...almost like we aren´t REAL missionaries. Well I can tell you that we work just as hard as the Elders...we may not be able to move as many heavy things as them, but we can still help with service and other things for the ward!! :o)

On Wednesday we had District meeting and we watched "The Testiments" movie!! It is one of my favorites. The Elders were a little silly at the beginning with the love story in it, but it was interesting to hear them become more and more serious as the movie went on and told more and more about Christ. At the end of the movie the spirit was so strong. We sat in silence for a few moments to ponder, but after only about 5 minutes or less the Spirit was pulling at me from inside to stand up and bear my testimony. I resisted at first, but the Spirit almost just pulled me out of my seat and I just stood up and bore my testmony about Jesus Christ. It was such a great experience. I love feeling the Spirit...it is so great to think that one day we will be able to have the Spirit that strong all the time!! The Celestial Kingdom is going to be so amazing!! :o)

On Thursday one of our best Investigators, Frau Frizler, called and had to change our appointment to next week. She had family coming in for Easter and was not able to meet with us. She was a little disappointed. She said that she was really looking forward to meeting with us. We had commited her to read in the book of mormon and to pray about Joseph Smith and the book of mormon and she had only read in the book of mormon, which is still good, but she needs to pray as well. We recommited her and on the phone she told me that she had been really diligent and that she is really excited to meet with us next week!! I was so happy!! WAHOO!! I really hope that means that she read and prayed!! She is so amazing. Her brother is a member in Russia and talked her into meeting with the missionaries to learn really what we believe...so she referred herself!! She is going to get baptized someday I just know it!! We are meeting with her tomorrow.

We ate with my favorite member today. Sch. Hofmann...she is so cool. We played this game that I will have to play with you and the family when I get home. The hair fight!! I played it with her for the second day of Christmas. It´s so cool!! We also met with Sch. Meister, an inactive sister. She is making good progress and I really like meeting with her. She is really loving and really easy to have a conversation with. She also loves to meet with us..she asks us when we are coming back before we can ask!!

On Saturday we got to help Sch. Müller in her garden again!! I love it and the weather was so beautiful. we then went to the church and got ready for the baptisms of 2 8 year olds in our ward. I got to sing at it too. I got to sing 2 songs and one of the elders made a recording of it, but I will have to get it from him and then past it on. I was pretty nervous, but the Lord is really helping me to be confident when I sing and to sound decent because I am out of practice I can notice the difference in my voice, but no one else can. I got some great compliments after...someone even asked me where they could buy a CD of me!! I just laughed...it wasn´t THAT good!! One of our investigators came to the baptism...she really enjoyed it. She is Catholic and said that she had never seem a baptism like that before. She looks forward when she could come to our church on Sunday. The Spirit was really strong and I think that she felt it too.

Sunday....my favorite day of the week. Normally we have a meeting, but we needed to pick up an investigator instead. Barbara...one of my other favorite investigators, was going to come to church with us. She lives only a few streets away from us. She has 5 kids, but only 2 live with her and they were going to stay home with her boyfriend, but when we got there with our bikes she came down with the kids. One is 8 months and the other is 5. I was a little worried how we were going to all ride bikes to church together, but the Lord works in Mysterious ways!! Her 5 yr old can already ride a bike, but the 8 month old can´t even sit up. Well she has one of those kids things that you attatch to the back of a bike and it rolls on the ground and kids can sit in it, well at first when she tried to attatch it she thought it was broken, but I said a silent prayer and in a few minutes she had it attatched. So we were all off...on bikes to church. We were a few minutes late, but it turned out great. We were also planning on teachíng primary so I had paper and markers to keep the 5 year old busy...miracles!! I tell ya!! She really enjoyed it. The elders taught her sunday school class and they just think that she is amazing. Her son even made friends with one of the American boys in the ward. The American boy said bye to him and started to run away and then turned back to him and yelled..."Sind wir Freunde?" ..."Are we Friends?" It was the cutest thing ever!! It was Sister Sayson´s first investigator to come to church!!

This last week was amazing and this coming week will also be very exciting!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Week #45 (4-6-09)

2009-04-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

I really really enjoyed conference this last weekend. I only got to watch 3 sessions, but it was still really good. For me I really learned that I need to have more faith and less fear because fear and faith cannot exsist together. I also really noticed quite a few talks that will be great for investigators....the one by Elder Holland about Jesus Christ (man can he bear great testimony of Jesus Christ) and also Elder Cook about the plan of Salvation. I also really lived all of the talks that talked about how to overcome sadness from the death of a loved one. I meet a lot of people who have lost their faith because of the death of a loved one and I think that a lot of things that were said could help them. WOW. I love when they teach us...you can just see the authority with which they teach. The Priesthood is amazing!!!

So, this week was an interesting week. We had a lot of ups and downs..well emotionally I did.!! :o) Wednesday the Elders called and said that Tobias Berzbach (who sis Sayson and I found...the man who always said Gerne when we asked to meet together) he called them and told them that he doesn´t have anymore interest and he doesn´t want to meet with the Elders any more. I was so shocked. He came and heard me sing in church and said that he really enjoyed my singing, but also that he really enjoyed the meeting. He was so prepared and ready for the Gospel and I was really upset and confused. I started to cry a little because I was so sure that he was going to get baptized. Well, I was sitting on the bus a little bit later praying to my Father in Heaven for understanding and comfort. Well, He gave me the comfort that I needed and I cheered up a bit by the time we got to our appointment with a less active. As sister Sayson taught her part she said something that really touched me. She said that in our lives we need to have pain and sorrow to know what it´s like to be really happy. I already knew that, because I have also taught that many times to others, but this time it really hit me...if I didn´t know what it felt like to lose an investigator and feel really sad and depressed from it then how could I know how much joy I could feel when one of them chooses to step into the waters of baptism. It was an eye opener for me. It really helped me to be ok with his decision...although Sister Sayson and I are still trying to get a hold of him to see if we can do anything for him or answer any questions!! :o)

Some other personal things happened this week, but I won´t bore you with the sadness I feel when I am so hard on myself. I need to let up, but it is really hard for me. I expect perfection and if I can´t do it perfectly then I either don´t want to do it at all or I beat myself up for not doing it without flaw!! I´m hoping in the next 6 months to learn that I can´t live my life that way. :o)

We also got to help in Sch. Müller´s Garden this week. That was a lot of fun, but I decided that I don´t want to have a garden when I am older. Here in Germany they have such small homes...mostly apartments...so they don´t have room for a garden. Well, they have these places that are just gardens. It´s hard to explain so I will just have to send a picture next week. So anyway she owns this plot of land with a bunch of other gardens in the area and it is pretty big. Bigger then I think she can handle alone...that is why we were there!! We are also helping her this week again I really like to help her and to work in HER garden, but I could never have my own that bit...too much work...and it hurts the back!! lol!!

Well until next week!!

Love you, Sister Jones

Week #44 (3-30-09)

2009-03-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I decided to change bags that I was carrying around and use my side bag, but when I carry my side bag I can´t carry as much stuff. Well I had put my German scriptures in my bag, but then had a little thought that I should carry an extra Book of Mormon instead. So I took mine out and put in one to give away. Well we had a little time before Sister Sayson´s Doctor appointment and we had planned on doing doors in this one specific area. Well the first door no one was home, but then the second door a man answered. We talked to him for a bit and he knows a lot about religions...well long story short he really wanted a Book of Mormon...he was not interested in meeting with us, but he wanted to read the book...well guess what...yep that´s right...I had one with me!! It was a miracle because I don´t normally carry an extra one. We normally just bring it by to our first appointment, but I had the feeling and I followed it!! It was amazing!!

We saw a cool miracle on Wednesday. We had just finished an eating appointment and we were walking to the bus when we stopped this lady and started talking to her. She was interested in what we were saying and gave us her contact info. Then we continued walking a few steps when all of a sudden we realize that we have totally walked WAY too far...a block or 2. So we turned around and walked back, but if we would have noticed that earlier we would not have met this lady. It was cool to be lead by the Spirit and not even know it!!

On Saturday morning we got to eat breakfast with the Elders and this really cool family in the ward. They live kind of far away (30 minute train ride and then 15mins in the car) but it was cool. We got to help them make it and we had so much fun together. The family is really funny!!

We also met with Sch. Lütjen again this week. She has been sick for the last few weeks, but she is finally better. She is the inactive member that we have been meeting with weekly with the Relief Society President. She has come to church once so far, but then she got really sick!! Well we met with her and had a really good time...Sch. Lütjen and Sch. Fritzsch (RS Pres) like to talk a lot, but it turned out really good. Sch. Fritzsch is really honest with her and that is really good!! They get a long good and Sch. Fritzsch really encouraged her to come to church with her...well Sunday came and there they were...sitting next to each other in church!! SO COOL!!

We had an appointment with a man and his wife from Africa on Saturday...sadly the wife was not there. We taught him more about Joseph Smith and then we invited him to come to a baptism the following day of a 8 year old girl. We then talked about children baptisms and why we don´t baptize kids under 8. I committed him to read in Moroni 8 about child baptisms, but he still had a lot of questions...we couldn´t answer them all because we had to go to another appointment. Well when we were at church the next day (he was not there) we got a lot of answers to questions about baptism and child baptism!! It was amazing!! We learned a lot about it and know where to look now to learn more!! We are excited to teach him again!!

I have learned a lot about the Spirit this week and how to follow it. It is still not perfect and I don´t always listen, but I have been really trying to pay attention to what he is saying to me. We have an investigator that call the Holy Ghost her "inner voice" and that is exactly what he is!! He speaks to us and if we listen we will be blessed and we will be able to be an instrument in the Hands of God!! I know that the Holy Ghost really is there and that when we listen hard enough he will tell us what we need to do!!

I love you!!
Sister Jones

Week #43 (3-23-09)

2009-03-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

This past week was good. The miracle woman we found last week didn´t end up coming to church, but we met with her a total of 2 times and we have an appointment for this week as well!! She is super cool and the man she lives with is totally ok with us meeting with her.

We found quite a few contacts this week...6 total, but 5 were men and so we passed them off to the Elders!! Some of them were really good contacts...a lot of potential!!

We also got our Bikes fixed this week by a nice member in the ward. So we were so excited that the next day we rode everywhere on our bikes....everywhere...bad idea. By the end of the day my butt hurt so bad and my comps legs hurt so bad that we decided to walk our bikes to the train. Well, we were so tired that we walked slower then normal and then had to get back on our bikes to catch the train. I thought I was going to die. It hurt SO bad to sit down!! I tried to peddle standing up, but that didn´t work so well. I ended up gritting my teeth and riding through the pain. I prayed the whole time that I wouldn´t die and that we would make our train!! Well He answered my prayers!! :o) We didn´t ride bikes for a few days after that...and I had some issues sitting. My comp could barely walk because her legs hurt so bad!! Man are we fat and out of shape!!

We talked to a lot of people this week on the street that don´t believe that there is a God because of all the horrible things that happen in our lives and in the world. It was really hard to hear over and over and over, but it was a great time to bear my testimony that I know God lives and loves us. He wants us to be happy, but doesn´t protect us from sorrow and hurt so that we know what it´s like to be happy. When we don´t know what it feels like to be sad we will never know what it is like to be happy. They still didn´t listen to what we have to say, but they heard my testimony and I know that they felt what I felt as we spoke!!

I love this work and KNOW that we can find those that are prepared. There is a member in my ward that told me that the people that we talk to on the street are not prepared for the Gospel...we are preparing them for later. I told her no, they are ready...we just have to find them!! When the members don´t have faith that we can find...how are we supposed to find them!! We ALL need the faith to find and need the support from the members and their faith!!

Love Sister Jones

Week #42 (3-16-09)

2009-03-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

Last Monday we got to do some service for a woman in the ward. She has just moved into a new apartment and needed some help cleaning some stuff. I love doing service and being able to see other people happy because of it. We are planning on helping her paint her kitchen this week...that should be fun.

Tuesday we had an appointment with the inactive woman that came to church last week, but sadly she was relly sick. She babysits her grandchild a lot and he was supposed to be picked up last saturday (the 8th) but he was still there when we came. She was so sick that she wasn´t able to carry him down the stairs and go to the doctor...she lives on the 6th floor without an elevator. So we took her (my comp, me and schwester Fritzsch) to the doctor and then got her some meds. We then called her home teacher and they came over on thursday to give her a blessing...her grandson was still there. She didn´t come to church, but we are going to call her today and see if she is doing better.

Wednesday we had zone conference and it was so wonderful. I love being so uplifted and spiritually strengthened. We talked about member missionary work and how we can do that better. That is a really hard thing to do, but I do my best to work with members. They gave us some really good ideas and I´m hoping this next transfer to be able to try them out.

Thursday we went to the Pugmires so I could practice my song for sunday. They are a family from america, but they have lived here for a really long time. The husband was the bishop at some point, but is now completely inactive...there are a lot of those in this ward. We also met with our main investigators in Delmenhorst. We haven´t met with them for a few weeks because Herr Frizler´s sister died. She was actually killed by her exhusband. It was really sad. We taught them the plan of salvation and they had a lot of questions. Frau Frizler accepted it really well, but Herr Frizler is having a hard time believing in God. I used my talent to teach them though...my comp and I sang them a hymn before we started the lesson. It really invited the spirit. I think I will try that more often. We commited them to pray about the plan and to read in the book of mormon. Frau Frizler agreed, but herr Frizler didn´t. It is a little chalenging to teach to people when they are on different levels, but it will work out. They are really cool. We have a really good feeling about them.

Friday was amazing. We went out to talk to people in the morning before we did weekly planning and we met this woman in the park. She looked really rocker...red hair, lots and lots of piercing in her ears and smoking. She had a baby carriage with her and so we started to talk to her about families. I only got to say 2 sentences and then she asked us if we were mormons. We said yes and she started to get teary eyed. She said that her great Aunt is a member of our church and has been praying that she would meet the missionaries. She then wiped tears out of her eyes. I asked if she wanted to meet with us so we could teach her about eternal families. She said yes and we made an appointment. She lives right by us in our new place. It was such a miracle. God does answer prayers!! WOW!! We also had an appointment with the Meister Family again. We taught them about prayer and then played hide and seek with the kids (8 and 12). It was so funny. It was just in the living room with the lights off and there was not many places to hide. At one point I just layed on the couch and put the pillows on top of me. He then climbed up on me and taged sister Sayson who was behind the couch. I started laughing and then he started laughing and appologizing, pretending that he didn´t know that I was there...oh, he knew!! :o) Then I was really out of places to hide and he only gave us 10 seconds this time...well he opened the door and I still wasn´t hidden. I was right by the back glass door and saw the curtain, so I grabed it to hide behind it, but realized that it was shear....well I was out of time. I jumped behind it and tried to move as far away from the light of the glass door as possible. Well...he could not find me. :o) He looked everywhere. I was laughing so hard that I was shaking trying to keep the sound in. Even my comp saw me. I mean the room was a little dark, but I was pretty obvious...too obvious I guess. He finally found me and I just let out the biggest laugh...well lets just say he didn´t want to play anymore. I guess my spot was too good. :o) It was fun. We then left with a prayer and invited the kids to join us. The little 12 year old said that he doesn´t believe in God. He prayed with us anyway, but I thought that that was so sad. The mom and dad were offended and now their kids don´t have a faith. It´s really sad what parents teach their kids these days...or what they don´t teach them.

Saturday was transfer calls and was the last day to fix up our old appartment. Sister Sayson and I are still together and are so happy. We were praying that we would stay together. We are really excited for this next transfer and all the wonderful things to come in the area!! Then the appartment thing...We have lived in the new one for a little over a week, but we had to finish moving stuff out and painting the old one. Well last sunday they asked in priesthood who could come and help and NO ONE raised their hand. NO ONE!! I couldn´t believe it. We would do anything for the ward...we are always there to help them. I was a little sad because that is one of their priesthood responsibilities...to help and strengthen the ward members. Maybe they all just happened to be busy on that day!! Anyway, our GML (who is only 19yrs old) was there, the Elders from Bremen, Elders Robb and Brink (senior missionaries serving in Hamburg) and Katharina (a girl who has been a member for only a year.) Oh and her 3 kids (all under the age of 8)!! We had a lot of people, but all but 2 (not including the kids) were all missionaries. We thought it would only take a few hours, but we were actually there for almost 8 hours!! It looks good though and we had fun. Our GML is cool and will be a great missionary. He would do anything to help us!!

Sunday was also wonderful and funny!! First of all Tobias (the man we gave to the elders) came to church!! WAHOO!! He is so wonderful!! I sang my song and it went ok...I´m just glad that I can still sound decent even though I can´t practice everyday. What a blessing. The last speaker was a member of the stake presidency and he talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It was very simple, but very very good. It was perfect and clear for Tobias. After the meeting he said I did a great job singing and that he really enjoyed the meeting. He wasn´t able to stay for the rest of church, but I´m just glad that he came!! I really wish I could teach him, but the Elders will take good care of him!! Later that day we went and met with Barbara (the woman we met in the park) She was still not able to talk to her aunt, but she was really excited to have us there. We taught her the plan of salvation, but it was hard because her son is 6 and kept making a lot of noise. The Spirit was not as strong as we had hoped, but she agreed to meet with us 3 times a week for 30 minutes and she committed to read in the book of mormon. Sister Sayson and I talked a lot after about why the Spirit had left and we both felt that it was for 2 reasons. Her son started playing some really loud music in another room and also...we had planned to talk about Families, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but she asked us what we believe come after this life. Well we just jumped into the 2.Lektion and then commited he to read. When we left we both left knowing that the Spirit wasn´t there. I think that we should have stuck to our plan....answered her question really quick, but then get back to the lesson. We plan through the Spirit to know what to teach and sometimes he tells us to change our plan, but when we don´t have a feeling or know what to do we should just stick to the plan. Let the Spirit lead the lesson and the not investigator. It was still a good lesson, but we have learned a lot from this experience and are going to make the next lesson really spiritual. :o)

Ok...so this day was funny because of this next story. So we had to go to our landlord's house to give her our keys and let her know what we left behind. In Gemany they usually take everything with them...including the kitchen sink!! So we walked up the stairs to their door and rang the bell. Well she opened the door to the cellar and called us to come down there. So we turned around and walked down the stairs. Well it had been raining the last couple days here and was really wet. We walked down the first few steps and then turned to walk down to the cellar...well, I'm a clutz and slipped down the stairs. I slipped right past my comp and ended up at the bottom with my foot behind me on the stairs. I couldn´t believe it. I tried to stand up and couldn´t for a few seconds and then when I tried to walk that hurt really bad. I hoped into her kitchen and she gave me some ice. I tried to tell her I was fine, but it hurt so bad that if I opened my mouth to talked I would have cried. I finally got control of my emotions and told her I was fine. My ankle hurt, but with the ice it was better. My tights got 2 holes in them, but I was still alive and had no broken bones. We talked about the appartment for a little bit and then left...and I was walking fine by then. Miracles are all around us. I think I will get a little blue, but so far today it is still flesh colored...just a little tender when I touch it. It was so funny. I was so embarressed, but we are still laughing about it today!! :o)

It was a good week!! I´m excited to start this new transfer...we have already started making goals for how we can do better and work harder. It will be great! I love this work and I love seeing miracles everyday. I think that I can really say that now...that I love this work. Not everyday...but I love seeing the light come into the eyes of the people I teach. We have some great investigators and we are going to do all we can to get them baptized. The Lord is really blessing us!!

My new address is Augsburgerstr 55 28215 Bremen.

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

Week #41 (3-9-09)

2009-03-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

This week was great!! We saw some serious miracles. We met this man on the street last week (well 2 weeks ago) and talked to him about families and the purpose of life. We asked him if we could meet with him to talk more about this message and he said `gerne` (Gladly)...no one ever says gerne...we were so excited!! So we made an appointment with him to meet us in the church this last Tuesday...well miracles are everywhere because I have made a ton of appointments with men (well and woman too) to meet us in the church and they have NEVER shown up...well he did!! He was there!! We gave him a tour of our building and he asked a lot of good questions. We then gave him a book of mormon and talked to him about what we have to do in this life to return and live with God. He was really interested and really nice. He is divorced and has 4 kids. We asked him if we could meet with him again and he said `yeah, gerne!!` He said it again!! WOW!! :o) So we made an appointment for Sunday and after thinking a lot about it decided to pass him over to the Elders. Our Mission President likes it better when the women teach the women and the men teach the men...well only when there are Elders and Sisters in the same City...so we called the Elders and invited them to come. Well we went to the church and again he was there. We asked him if he had read in the book of mormon and he did. The Elders and us started to then teach the 2. Lektion...about the plan of salvation. It was so good. He had a lot of questions, but really thinks that it is possible for this to be god's plan. The Elders committed him to pray about it to god and he said that he would. He said that he has a desire to pray to god and to learn more. He is SO prepared. The Elders then set up an appointment to teach him. (He again said gerne when the Elders asked for another appointment!!) I then invited him to come to church to hear me sing next Sunday and he said he would love too!! Well as we were leaving the Elders asked him what he does for work...he then looked at me and said that he is a singer!! WOW!! I can´t believe that we didn´t ask what he does. He sings for parties and weddings and such and sings 1920´s music. I then told him that I was really nervous for next week...he just laughed and told me not to be!! He totally looks like a musician too!! When he left the Elders and us talked about the lesson and he is totally going to be baptized!! I really really want to teach him, but I just had a feeling and know it was right to pass him off!!

Another miracle that we saw was with an inactive woman. She said that she would come to church last week, but she wasn´t there. We asked her at our appointment last week (well actiually the member we brought asked her) why she didn´t come. She said that she was in Hamburg picking up her grandson who she watches pretty often. We again invited her to church, but she said that if her grandson is stil there she can´t come because her son doesn´t want his child in our church. (Her son is also inactive) Well I sat down in sacrament meeting on Sunday next to this cute old lady in the front and after the meeting I turned around and my comp got my attention and pointed to the back of the room...she was there...with her grandson. My comp had talked to her and she said that she had called her son the night before and told him that she was going to bring him to church. I think it was because her son was supposed to pick the little guy up on friday or saturday...the dad is really not very responsible. Since he was still there she just brought him. She stayed for all three meetings. I got to talk to her too and I also met her neice who is a little less active as well!! It was a miracle. The member that comes with us everyweek was so excited when she found out she was there!! I love being able to see the fruit of my labor!! We are still going to work with her because we need to get her into the church every Sunday...and get her to stay there!! :o)

It was a great week. I love being able to see the miracles that the Lord sends to us!! I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he works through ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I have also learned and am still learning that through Him and His Atonement we can change who we are and become perfect. I have a lot of things to change, but I know that it is possible only in and through Christ my Savior!!

Have a great week!!
Love,
Sister Jones

Week #40 (3-2-09)

2009-03-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

Well my week was good. I don´t have as much time to write this week, but I will try to sum up the many miracles that we saw this week.

So we had another appointment with the interesting investigator that we got last week and it was still really weird. She won´t really talk to my comp or let her teach because she likes me better. I don´t say that to brag at all because I don´t want her to like me. I just told her the Joseph Smith first vision story and the Spirit was really strong. (that was last week) so she thinks that I am something really special, but really my comp is better then me!! But she doen´t really talk to my comp. In German there are a couple forms of "you"...formal, informal, and informal with more then one person. Well...lets just say that we were both there and she was just using the informal...not the one for more then one person. Since she is German she notices that she is only speaking to me!! Wow...it was kind of mean. But something cool happened. This woman's daughter was there and left with us...she lives with her dad...and she ended up walking with us all the way to Bahnhof...she lived in the other direction. She was super cute and nice and is pretty religious, but she said that her mom is a little extreme. She said that she can´t even talk to her mom about taking out the garbage without her mom relating it to something religious. She told us a lot about her mom and her mom´s past and it really explained why she is the way she is. We didn´t even ask for the information...she just started talking. People really trust us as missionaries, but sometimes I wish they wouldn´t tell me all that they do!! I really hope that we can see her again. She is only 14, but I really think that she would join the church and make a great member!! The other frustrating thing about the appointment was the fact that she was teaching us. She didn´t do her reading assignment, so we read with her and when we would stop to talk about the verse she would tell US what it meant and how to interpret it. We are going to try and go this week, but mostly just to see if her daughter is home.

I got to eat Peru food with an inactive member. It was SO good!! She even committed to come to church on Sunday!! And guess what...she did!! I was so excited to see her!! WAHOO!!! Now we just have to get her to church every Sunday from now on!! :o)

We had a baptism on Sunday for a 9 year old boy. The Elders and us have been switching off teaching him!! He is so wonderful and very happy!! His family are members, but have been inactive for the 9 or 10 months because they were offended from their last ward!! All who read this....NEVER let some stupid offence keep you from gaining Eternal Salvation in the Celestial Kingdom....it´s not worth it!! Luckily the Elders visited them a few weeks ago and they came to our ward and really like it here!! She makes a lot of comments about her last ward and it is really sad. Not everyone is perfect and not every ward is the dream ward!! We need to live where we stand...even if the ward is not friendly. Be friendly and help them learn how to be more friendly...people can change...you just have to give them the chance!!

This week was a hard, busy week!! It was still great though!! This work is hard, but worth it. Just trust in the Lord and you can get through anything!! He really is the way, the truth and the life!!

Love Sister Jones

Email from Mission President

2009-02-23T06:45:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-02-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-02-16T06:34:00.000-08:00

"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

Week #37 (2-9-09)

2009-02-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-02-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

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

Week #36 (2-2-09)

2009-02-03T13:31:00.002-08:00

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

2009-02-03T13:31:00.001-08:00

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

Yeah...some pictures

2009-01-26T13:58:00.000-08:00

Christi and her district

Christi and Sister Fowkes

Christi, Sister Fowkes and Sister Hofman (from the ward).

Christi and Sister Fowkes, enjoying a rootbeer float!

Christi and her new little greenie...Sister Sayson

Week #35 (1-26-09)

2009-01-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

This week...wow!! What can I say?? To start off...Monday and Tuesday was spent visiting people for Sister Fowkes and saying goodbye. She was really sad to leave. It was her first city and she was only there for about 3 transfers...not quite though because she left 2 weeks early!! She is doing well though in Dortmund. On Wednesday morning we rode the train up to Hamburg and I said goodbye to my comp of 5 weeks and headed with the AP´s to the mission home. That was my first time being alone with elders (well, guys of any kind) in 10 months!! It was a little weird!! :o) Then we headed to the airport and waited...and waited!! They lost the 3 missionaries' luggage on the way over from England (Which isn´t that far...how they lost it I´m not sure) and so that delayed it a bit. We ended up leaving the airport without bags and headed out with the AP´s to do some street contacting with the new missionaries. I told Sister Sayson that I was going to be her first comp and that we were going to be serving in Bremen. She then asked me if I remembered her. I was a little confused because She is from Frankfurt and I have never been there and she has never been to America. She then asked if I ever went to Paderborn. I told her yes, because I served in Bielefeld and Paderborn is were my District leader served. She then asked if I was there for a street display last summer and then I remembered. She was there and I met her. I talked with her a little and found out she wanted to go on a mission. I asked her were she wanted to go and stuff and told her "wouldn´t it be cool if you came to our mission??" Well here she is as my little golden!! I can´t believe it!! So funny. Anyway....we went out and talked to people and she did really well. It helped that she could speak German, but she was just as scared as I was at first and she had a hard time knowing exactly what to say. It took me back to my first couple days on my mission (which were like yesterday) and I felt and looked just like her...deer in the headlights type of thing. She did wonderful and then we hopped on a ferry and boated a little around the harbour in Hamburg. It was so beautiful...except for all of the ice in the water...yeah...it´s cold here!! :o) We then went to this rock thing that I went to on my first day and president told us a story about it and we took pictures. When we were heading back we were walking up this HUGE hill and we saw unicyclers coming down the hill. I was a little worried for them, but they looked like professionals with tight spandex and sporty looking unicycles. They stopped to talk to some of their friends in front of us and then stopped us...probably because we look funny in what we walk around in. I was talking to one of them and he kept trying to get me to ride his cycle. I kept telling him that is was too steep of a hill and that I would die. I started talking about who we were and tried to give him a card, but he told me that if I would ride on it he would take my card. I told him again that the hill was too big and that I would die and he told me that if God was there He would save me. I turned the subject back to the church, but he didn´t want my card unless I rode it. I really really thought about it and if it wasn´t on a hill I totally would have done it...but I thought that that would be a stupid and deadly way to give away a pass along card. He started showing off and rode up and down the hill and even started to bounce up and down...crazy man!! It was really cool though and they were really nice. Then we went to the mission home and ate dinner and called for the luggage and did some training...called again for the luggage and then went to bed. The training was pretty cool. I was there with 2 of the Elders that I came out with...one of which was in my district when I was in the MTC!! They are really really good elders!! The AP`s committed us to some things and I got really excited to recommit myself to work harder then I ever have before!! I love being on a mission and even though it is hard being a representative for Christ...for HIS church. I love being able to wear HIS name everyday and be able to bear testimony of HIM everyday. He is why I am here and why I wake up every morning no matter how tired I am. He is why I talk to complete strangers on the street, door to door and in the bus and bahn. He is why I am so happy everyday.

On Thursday morning we woke up and ate breakfast and then did some comp study. We finally figured out the luggage thing and they came at 11:00am sharp (they were supposed to be there at 5pm the day before) So we headed to the train station and headed down to Bremen to start her first day on her mission...well in the field. She was in the Preston MTC for 19 days!! She is such a hard worker and I love her already. Her english is ok, but I think that my German is better then her English...so we have decided to speak only German outside of the apartment and then only English in the apartment. It is working out ok!! Sometimes we have a hard time understanding each other...I can´t fully explain myself in German and she doesn´t fully understand sometimes what I mean in English. It is fine though because we both understand that we are going to have to have patience to understand each other. Mostly it is fine and I can explain myself in German. I love working with her. On Saturday we went to the RS president's house and talked to her about the ward list. We have a 17 page ward list...about 300 members or so...less then 100 are active. She knows the whole ward so we went through and found out who was active and who was not. We are going to find out what is going on with the inactives and see if we can reactivate them. We have a lot of work to do!! I´m very excited...we get to get to know the ward together and that makes it easier!!

On Sunday she was a little nervous to meet her first mission ward, but she did so wonderful. I don´t sit by my comps because I sit by the members, so she was a little nervous of who to sit by, but that is how you get to know the members is by sitting by them and reaching out. She gave her testimony and did wonderful of course with her perfect German!! :o) President and his Wife were there and they both spoke. Pres. talked about the importance of being one...missionaries and the ward...unity is important. He also told them that by the end of the year we will have 25% less missionaries in our mission. Probably so that those missionaries will be sent to Africa and South America. He talked about how having only one set of missionaries per ward will help get more baptism because it will be more up to the members to find people. Members are the finders and missionaries are the teachers. I can´t wait for the day that that really happens because I can tell you that finding people on our own is not as effective. It works and we find people, but it is not as effective as when it come from a friend of a member. Sister Thompson gave her testimony and she did so great. She doesn´t speak German, but she bore her testimony in German and did so wonderful.
Life is good here...we are still looking for an apartment...the search is slow, but we will find one!!

Well I think that is all the news from the great City of Bremen. Have a great week. I love you!!
Sister Jones

Week #34 (1-19-09)...She's a trainer!

2009-01-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

Oh, my gosh!! You won´t believe what has happened to me this past week. I will tell you the crazy news before I tell you everything else that is normal!!

Ok...you ready?? We were just studying like normal missionaries do in the morning when our mission president called us about 5 minutes before companionship study. When he calls you know something is up. Well, he told us that there is going to be a mini transfer this week. There is an MTC in Preston, England and there are 3 German speaking missionaries that are coming this week. (2 weeks before the transfer really ends) We knew that they were coming, but what does that have to do with us?? We just got put together...he wouldn´t split us up yet would he?? Well, he told us that we were both going to be effected by this transfer. He then told me that I was going to be a GOLDEN TRAINER for the sister that is coming. Tears immediately started running down my face. He then asked me if I would accept and through the tears I said yes. He then told my companion that she was being transferred to reopen Dortmund for sisters. (there are Elders there, but there haven´t been sisters there for about 4 transfers) There is a 3 some in Hamburg right now, so she will be comps with one of those sisters there. AHHHHHHH....can you believe that I´m training?? It is unbelievable to me. I´m just glad that she can speak German!! I have really wanted a German speaking comp, but didn´t think I would be training one. Weird!! So that s the BIG news.

This last week I also went to Missionsrat (mission counsel) and it was really cool. All the zone leaders go every transfer up to the mission home to talk about different things and find out what they can do to help their zone and the mission be stronger and better. Every transfer they also invite a companionship of sisters. Everyone has already gone except the sisters in Bielefeld...so they invited us this time. It was mostly in German, but I surprise myself that I can understand.

Well I have to go now!! I love you so much and will write more next week!!

Sister Jones

Letter #33 (1-12-09)

2009-01-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

So this week was really interesting!! We had p-day on Monday and then we had interviews with president on Tuesday. Then Wednesday came and I taught English class BY MYSELF!! AHHHH!!! The only reason I just screamed is because I have to do it in German!! We had a class in Bielefeld, but my comp was always there with me, but here there is a beginner class and an advaced class. Since I´m the senior comp I get to teach the beginner class. There was just one girl there and I had no clue how good her English was. So I told her that today I was going to talk about a lot of different things to see what she understood and what she doesn´t. It actually went really good. She said that she finally understood the whole "ing" thing. (ex. I am singing. I am going) That made me happy. It actually helped my German a lot too because I did the whole thing in German and learned some new words!! I love this language!!

Then on thursday I started to feel a little sick. We tried to do some weekly planning, but my comp told me to go and sleep....I guess I didn´t look so well. So I slept for a few hours and then we went back outside to some appointments and an eating appointment. Then I woke up Friday morning at 6:30 and felt like crap. Sinus pressure, cough (my voice was almost gone), nausea, and I kind of felt like dying. So I hopped in the shower and then after I just couldn´t take it so I laid down again. I ended up sleeping till 10am and then my comp woke me up and asked me if I wanted to stay in for the day. Well we didn´t have any appointments except for 2 eating appts. with members. So I decided to take my temperature and it was 101.7 and my comp laughed and then told me we were staying home. We called Pres. Wife and then the area mission doctor. The Elders came over and gave me a blessing and then I went back to bed!! The Elders picked up my meds for me as well. The doctor said that I had to stay home atleast for fri. and sat!! WHAT?? You can´t tell a missionary that!! Well...He also said I had Bronchitis and that it could turn into pneumnia if I´m not careful....uh yeah, so we listened to him!! Well, my poor comp was so bored, but got a lot of German study in. I still had a fever on Saturday for about half the day so the pres. wife said that I needed to stay in on Sunday as well. We missed the Elder's baptism and the ward lunch, but I´m feeling loads better. Just a little weak and nauseous today, but I will be fine. I also can´t really sleep at night because I wake up coughing. That has got to be the worst part of a sickness...coughing in the middle of the night!! This week should be better...I just want to be careful because in the blessing I got from the Elders he said to be careful and not to run faster then I have strength. So we are easing ourselves out. I don´t want to thank Heavenly Father for healing me so fast by all of a sudden running a muck outside all day in the cold!!
That is about all the exciting things that happened this week!! We did play some skipbo, which is my new favorite game...I am also the Skipbo master of our apartment!! :o) Wahoo!!

Well I hope that your week was more exciting then mine!!
Love,
Sister Jones

Letter #32 (1-5-09)

2009-01-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

This week was crazy!! Germans REALLY know how to celebrate!!

On Monday we had an eating appointment with the Missionary couple here and this old German lady that lives in their building. The couple doesn´t speak German so we were there to translate. I never realized how hard translating was. I never had to do it in Bielefeld because we don´t have a couple and at church we had ward members who would do it for the investigators. It is really good to practice though!! She was super cool and I got to learn about her past. Her husband, who is now dead, was a prisoner of war in WW2. He got taken to the US for about a year or so. She also helped in the hospitals and stuff during the war. What a hard time. I asked her what she did for fun when she was young and she said that she didn´t have time for that. Wow...I could not imagine not being able to have a childhood. She was super cool.

Wednesday was Silwester (New Years Eve) and we had to be home by 6pm for safety reasons. We thought that our area would be dangerous so we spent the night at Elder and Sister Robb´s apartment. The Elders were a little mad and jealous, but we got permission from President...they got over it by the next day. :o) It was fun. We played games and then went to bed at 10:30pm like normal. I had a hard time falling asleep because of the party upstairs, but then I finally did. Although it didn´t last long because of the really loud noise outside just after midnight. See in Germany almost everything is loud. Earlier that day we went and visited some people and these little punk kids threw a firework at us...well at our feet. I grabbed my comp and pulled her back and then for the first time on my mission....I yelled at someone in German. Ok, I didn´t really yell, but I definitely didn´t use my nice person voice. They weren´t very scared of me because they just laughed, but I could have taken them....Lol. I was just surprised that someone would do that....I should work on my scary German voice...I´m not very intimidating with my American accent!! :o) Anyway...so German´s are crazy with fireworks. So I woke up at about 12:10 and the noises and lights were so loud and bright I have no clue how I slept through that. It was so cool...I got up and watched them with Sister Robb. I LOVE fireworks. Everywhere I looked in the sky...near and far...there were fireworks. People were down in the street below us lighting them off too. It was so amazing. Like Disney fireworks, but all over the sky in every direction. The next day there was so much trash on the ground from it that it was crazy!! I love it!! I had a hard time getting back to sleep because the party above us ragged on.

The next day we had breakfast at the Robb´s with the Elders and then went to another eating appointment with my favorite member here. Her name is Sister Hofmann. She is from the Philippians and we speak English together which makes me happy. We played this super cool game together that we will have to play when I get home. It´s called Hair Fight. So cool and fun!! She is awesome. Oh...we also got our new fridge this week...it is so small, but it works!! YEAH!!
On Sunday we ate at the Fritzsch´s and they helped us look for a new apartment. Did I tell you have we have to move?? We have to be out by the 1st of march. We are looking at one tomorrow. It should be interesting. I´m glad to be moving because this apartment it really old and junky!! It´s in the basement which doesn´t help!!

Well be have to run and catch a train to go to Bremerhaven today!! Have a great week!!

Deine Sister Jones

Letter #31 (12-29-08)

2008-12-29T07:36:00.000-08:00

Good thing we had a lot of eating appointments this last week because our fridge is broken. Ever since my 2nd day here it has slowly gotten warmer....now the freezer won´t freeze our food!! I love missionary life!! We put our milk outside, but had to throw everything else away. We get a new one on Wednesday!! The Bremen apartment is just so great....just peachy...hope you can hear the sarcasm in my voice!!! :o) I will try to send pics next week!!

Christmas was so great!! I got to enjoy 3 days of it!! Germans are so cool...they find any excuse to have a holiday. So this is Christmas in Germany...

Heiliger Abend (Christmas Eve) The stores are still open till about 1pm and then it is family time. There isn´t much missionary work that you can do on the 3 days of Christmas because it is dangerous...don´t get between a German and their holidays!! lol. At about 5pm the kids are kicked out of the living room and sent to another room in the house or out for a stroll so that the Parents can light the Christmas tree. In the olden days the German´s would put real candles on the tree and then light them and put decorations on the trees. The Santa comes to at that time and then the kids come into the room and open up presents and get to see the tree and stuff. It was interesting because in America they start selling Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving, but here I didn´t really see Christmas Trees for sale till about 1.5 - 2 weeks before Christmas. The traditions are changing a bit and conforming to more what America does, but a lot of people still do it this way. I didn´t get to see it myself, but I got to hear stories.

We went to the Fritzsch´s house and enjoyed a wonderful German Meal...Rotkohl (red cabbage), Roladen (Rolled Beef and bacon), Knödeln (potatoes pellets and seasoning boiled in a little plastic bag), and for Nachtisch (dessert) we had Quark (the most tasty yogurty thing ever...not aloud in America because it is too alive!!) We then sang songs and opened some presents together...we got toilet paper and laundry soap. It was a good time.

Weihnachten oder Der Ersten Weihnachtstag (Christmas or the First day of Christmas) So this day is our normal Christmas. They just eat and hang out with family. We went to the Bishop´s house and had dinner with his family. We ate Puten (Turkey...somehow she bought a turkey that was 17Kilo...that´s like a little less then 40lbs...ooops), Kartoffeln (Potatoes), Kartoffelnpuree´ (Mashed Potatoes), Rotkohl (red Cabbage), und Preiselbeeresause (Cranberry Sauce...not normal. German´s don´t normally eat cranberry´s. I think it was for our sake!! :o)) We also had Scottisch Firecrackers...these things are hard to explain, but there is a paper crown inside that we had to wear, jokes and also a little prize!! It was cool. We also went on a walk and played a little bit outside....I also took a nap....only for 20 minutes or so, but it was nice!!

Der Zweiten Weihnachtstag (Second day of Christmas) I actually don´t know the traditions for these days...it really is just an excuse to party, but I don´t really mind!! We went to a member from the Philippines and that was fun. Her house was SO cold. I almost wanted to be outside more then in her house. She is the funniest lady though. We got to speak English which was nice. It was so fun. We ate some food from her home country and watched a few Christmas church movies. It was a good time.

I have a poem in German about the 4 candles that they light on the 4 Sundays before Christmas, but my comp is giving me the eye because I´m taking so long to email!! lol :o) I will have to translate it another time!! It´s really cool though. Well we did get to visit a lot of people this last week and that was good. It will be great to get back to a normal week, but this week is New years and Fireworks are not illegal to light alone...like in safe old Washington. So our president has asked us to be in on Silwester (New Years Eve) at 6pm sharp!! We will find something to do though...like sleep!! YEAH!!! I love to sleep!! Well I love you but have to go!! Have a great week and a happy new year!!

Deine Sister Jones

Letter #30 (12-22-08)

2008-12-29T07:32:00.000-08:00

(Christi forgot to email this letter to me last week...so here it is, a bit late...)

So...I have arrived in the beautiful city of Bremen. It really is beautiful here. It was really hard to leave Bielefeld and to say goodbye, but I did it because the Lord wants me else where. I really like it here though. My Companion is Sister Fowkes and she is from Arizona. She is 24 and has been on her mission for 2 transfers. I´m still a little nervous about our German, but we are getting through it. The Lord did not send me to Bremen to fail. She can understand a lot and we are working on her speaking more. She already has to speak more because I don´t know the investigators or the ward and so she gets to practice her German by introducing me. She is doing great and she has already seen a difference in her ability to speak. I have also seen a difference. I can´t understand as much as I want to yet, but I understand a lot more then I give myself credit for!! It´s really weird to have someone ask me German grammer questions and ask me what the person was talking about!! I can´t believe that I can actually answer. I speak different German then she is used to. Every Missionary learns different words and it also depends on where you serve. I speak Bielefeld German and so she questions me a lot about what I say, for example...I´ve NEVER heard that word before...I don´t think they use that word here...they pronouce that different here. I just smile and try to explain that she hasn´t heard all the German words yet and that they also speak different in Bielefeld. She really loved her trainer and she liked the way her trainer spoke and did missionary work. I´m different then her trainer, but have also had a lot of experiences and we can learn a lot from each other. I think things are going better now...she is getting used to having a different person around and we get along fine!! She is really fun and it will be a great 7 week transfer! I have a lot to learn and can´t wait to find out what I can do to change Bremen for the better.

Sister Jones

Merry Christmas...

2008-12-25T16:28:00.001-08:00

Today was the day we got to hear her voice...Christi is doing great and sounds fantastic. She got to her new area a week ago and says that Bremen is a much bigger city. It's still new to her, so the coming weeks will most likely bring a lot of new investigators and stories. She told us that the German people really love their holidays...and Christmas is 3 days long. They celebrate on Christmas Eve...then Christmas day is Christmas #1 and the 26th is Christmas #2. Christi was able to spend Christmas day with a missionary couple and the Bishop's family in her new ward. She said she had a great day! During her conversation with her family, she bore her testimony in German...

They also convinced her to sing "O Holy Night" (for those of you who aren't aware, Christi is a bit of a singer...okay really she has the most beautiful voice, and this song is the one we expect to hear every Christmas)...of course after much stalling on the phone she gave them about 10 seconds...

It was great to hear her voice and to know that she is happy and doing well! We are all excited to hear from her next week via email and hear more about her new area and the people she will be serving there. Thanks to all of you who continue to support her and pray for her!

Happy Holidays to you all!

See what happens when you are awake at the crack of dawn...

2008-12-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

So I won't try to explain why I was up at 4:30 this morning...but I was...and on the computer. So I decided to keep my eye out to see if I could catch Christi on the email. At around 5am, I got a quick little weekly email from her (just a response to my email and not much else since we get to talk in 4 days). I sent the following email right back and then the rest was a funny few minutes:

(from Teri):
are you reading and responding to emails right now....if you are...hi....if your email is just arriving 'cause it takes for ever for emails to come through from Germany...then you probably won't understand this email...I couldn't sleep so I am awake (5am).

(from Christi):
hi!! I´m still here...are you there??

(From Teri):
yes...of course we catch each other the week we get to talk on the phone

(from Christi):
Yeah figures!! Well I´m on a computer in a library and it shuts off every 15 minutes...I only have 4 mintues left!! I love you and can´t wait to talk on thursday!! Now I have 3 minutes!! :o)

(from Teri):
If you get this...I love too! ...and mom will be so jealous!

(from Christi):
Yeah..and I give you permission to rub it in her face!!

***Note: the emails took like 5 minutes for me to get from her...I'm not sure what the lag time was on her end...but it made for a difficult normal conversation, but kinda fun all the same! Christi didn't send a family/friends letter this week, but we get to talk to her on Christmas, so I will give an update after that! Merry Christmas!!!

Q&A...

2008-12-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

Here are a few excerpts from an email to Christi's mom, answering some questions...

"Yeah I just saw the Christmas Broadcast last night. It was cool because of what President Uchtdorf talked about. He explained my Christmas experience here. And just so you know...Stollen (the Christmas cake he talked about) is really dry and ussually doesn´t taste very good!! I have had some that is good, but that is rare. I don´t like it too much, but I eat it!! :o)

How cold is it here?? Well I only know in Celcius. Usually it is right around 0 degrees...which I know is 32 degrees F. It´s only gotten down to -2 degrees, but it is colder in Bremen because of the water!! Bbrrrrrr!!! It´s not that bad when you just walk outside...I mean I lived in Rexberg of all places. It was like -20 F sometimes in the winter, but even when it is only 32F here in Germany...it seems colder because we are out in it for so long!! It´s only beginning...January and February are usually the coldest months of the year, but I only have to live through it once...that is what keeps me going. Next year I will be warm inside...all bundled up with my family!! :o)"

Week #29 (12-15-08)

2008-12-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

So, the time has come....I have been TRANSFERRED!!! AHHHHHHH!!!! I´m going to Bremen and I will be comps with a sister only on her 3rd transfer....she has only been here for 3 months!! That is nothing...well it is something, but I am considered her follow up trainer or as the missionaries here call it...her step-mom!! Her trainer is her mom. I´m leaving my place of birth and I´m a little sad. It was hard to say goodbye to the members and over the next few days I will be saying goodbye to the investigators. I know that this is what the Lord wants for me, I just hope that I did what I was supposed to do while I was here. 7 months is a long time, but not quite long enough. I´m excited for Bremen though. The other Sister Jones served there for about 7 months and she loved it!! I hope it is as good as she made it sound!! It´s all what you make it though.

This is my new address:
Sister Christi Jones
Bismarckstrasse 92
28203 Bremen
Deutschland

Zone Conference was really good. We had a few talks from the AP´s and then broke up into zones and our zone leaders then talked to us. I have the BEST zone leaders. They are the nicest and most charitable people I have met. Who ever new that there where people like them in the world!! I will miss serving with them. Now I have the highest standards for my future zone leaders...they have a lot to live up too!! lol.

After that we ate lunch...which is my least favorite part. I´m not the type of sister to sit down with the Elders and chat. If I have served with them then I feel more comfortable doing that because we have things we can talk about...old investigators, members, experiences as a district and so on. But Elders that I don´t know yet...I have absolutely no desire to talk to them... I don´t know what to say. I don´t want to talk to them about before their mission or after their mission...that´s just to personal for me as a sister. I´m not snobby or anything. I say hi and ask them how their area is doing. I wish them good luck and so on. That is about the extent of my conversations at lunch. The Elders I do know I will talk to more, but as I said it usually has more to do with the work...which is good. Maybe I have lost my social skills, but I´m sure that they will come back when I need them. :o) I left lunch early because I was bored so I went and practiced the songs that Sister Cha and I were going to sing. We ended up doing a Christmas medley. It turned out pretty good I think...even though I can´t sing as well as before. All the time I spent to cover up my nerves when I sing have gone down the drain...but it was fine because I felt the Spirit and that is what is important. We had a music and spoken word type thing and then President and Sister Thompson talked to us. I really got more into the Christmas Spirit from this Conference and realized how cool it is that I get to be here at this time preaching the Gospel and talking of Christ. Even if the people don´t seem to listen.

A lot of our appointments fell out this last week, but I finally got to see O again. She has been really sick for the past couple weeks, but I called her and invited her to come to my last Sunday. She just stayed for the first hour, but I got to see her and say goodbye. I will miss her so much as well. She was my dream baptism because Sister Jones and I found her on the street and I really wanted to see her get baptised. Find, teach and baptise is every missionaries goal!! I just hope she continues to come. I also said goodbye to Frau A today and my heart hurt so bad!! I can´t explain the feeling except that it was like someone had ripped it out of my body, stepped on it, poured salt on it and then stuck it back in my body!! I was so sad and don´t know when I will ever see her again...maybe never. I have never experienced that in my life. When ever I say goodbye to family and friends I know that I will be able to see them again. The states are not that far apart, but Germany is really far...and she is from Sri Lanke...who knows how long she will stay here in Germany!! Man...this is hard. I will really miss everyone I have met here!! I love Bielefeld...I was born here, but now it is time to move on and to try and change another place!! I just hope that I accomplished all that I was meant to here in the beautiful City of Bielefeld!!

Sister Jones

Week #28 (12-9-08)

2008-12-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

Well we moved our P-day again. We had so many people who could meet with us yesterday that we moved it to today. It is really funny because we normally meet with Frau A on Monday (which we still did) but every time we move our P-day we still seem to have Frau A in the morning. I don´t think I have had a P-day with out Frau A for many weeks!! I love it though because she is so cool!!

This last week was so great!!
Tuesday:
We had an appointment Frau O, which was a referral from a member. She is from Africa and speaks English. She is a strong believer in the Bible and very religious...just like most Africans from Gauna and Nigeria. She has a 4 year old daughter here in Germany and 2 sons back in Africa with her mom. We made another appointment with her for later this week and so she became a new investigator.

Then we stopped by an old contact O and we set up an appointment with her. We had already taught her, but since she didn´t have time to meet with us before we never had a time to make out a new appointment with her. So since we made out a new appointment she became a new investigator.

Then we went to an Enrichment Activity with Frau S. We took Marzipan and molded it into animal shapes...I´m not to good at that!! Marzipan is this sugar stuff with Almonds ground as small as it will go. They put it in almost EVERYTHING here. I didn´t really like it at first, but it is growing on me!! We had a lot of fun though. And because Frau S came she also became a new investigator.

We got 3 new investigators in one day!! WOW...it was so cool.

Wednesday:
Today we went to visit another old contact...actually she was a referral from a member who didn´t have time to meet with us before. Her name is Frau S and she is an Artist. She is SO cool and she ended up letting us in again and we taught her and set up a new appointment....NEW INVESTIGATOR!! That was the 4th in 2 days!!

We then ate at the Schneider Family...they have the missionaries over EVERY week on Wednesday. They have been doing it for like 20 years or something. I don´t mind it...except when she makes us play games with her for an hour or 2. It´s getting better though. Our president has really stressed only 1 hour eating appointments..so we are trying our best!!

Thursday:

We had District Meeting in the morning and then made Pancakes afterwards. I have four Elders in my district and only 1 of them helped and the rest just sat around laughing at pictures on people cameras. I´m so glad that there are guys out there that help without being asked. I could never marry a guy that just sat around as I cooked dinner...I´m just not going to be that kind of wife. I was really grateful to see that I have a chance of finding a guy like that some day, my chances are just really slim!! :o) Anyway...We then went to Kerstin´s...a member who was baptised in Jan and had a talk with her. We meet with her every week, but I haven´t been seeing much progress. I think I told you about her. She works on Sunday so she cannot come to church. She has not been for a while even though she was supposed to come once a month. She told us today that she feels different. She feels like some things have left. She used to have a strong good feeling a lot of the time, but she said that that has gone away. I asked her if she thinks that that is because she doesn´t go to church and she said yes. She seems to finally be catching on to what me and my comps have been trying to teach her. You cannot progress very far if you don´t go to church on Sunday. I NEVER realized before my mission how important it was to be in Church EVERY Sunday. No matter where you are...you should be taking the sacrament on Sunday. There is nothing more important then that...except for the temple!! She is finally catching on, but says that she can´t come to church till Jan. She is moving in March to where her mom lives and plans to get a job where she doesn´t have to work on Sunday. I hope that she doen´t lose to much of her testimony before then!!

Friday:
We met with Frau O again today and it was pretty good. She is really knowledgeable about the Bible...I´m not so much!! I love the Bible, but I have spent more time in the Book of Mormon then in the Bible because it is easier for me to understand. We tried to commit her to pray about the Book of Mormon, but she doesn´t think that she has to because she thinks that it is a good book just like a lot of other Christian books. She said that nothing is as good as the Bible. She finally committed to pray about it, but it took some convincing.

Saturday:

We met with Frau S today. It was pretty good, but she likes to talk. We all talk a little slow in German because it is not our first language, but she likes to talk a lot and will interrupt you if you don´t talk fast enough. During the lesson Sister Cha asked her about what she remembers about Joseph Smith...well she started to talk and within a few minutes was talking about how many days are in February. I was so confused how we got there. Later when I was talking I was talking in like spurts because I would say a sentence and then be in the middle of another sentence and then I would pause for just a second to think of a word or how I should say something and I would see her mouth open to start to talk, so I would quickly finish my thought before she could change the subject by talking. That was how my whole part was...I would talk and then have to speed up to finish my thought...and so on!! It was really hard for me because I didn´t feel like she was listening to us. She just wanted to hear herself talk it seemed like!! She is super nice, but needs a lot of help. I try to be a good listener, but she goes off on these random tangents and I have a hard time concentrating. We will see how it goes!!

Sunday:
Well Frau S came to church and it was really good for her I think. It was Fast and Testimony meeting and I think it went well!!

Monday:
We met with Frau A today, but her daughter is in the hospital for a few days. I´m not sure exactly what happened, but she is doing better. We made a plan to go tomorrow to the hospital to visit her and her daughter and to have the Elders give her daughter a blessing. We talked to her about her husband and what he thinks and she said that they watched the Restoration film together and that he really liked it. I really hope that now he will take to time to meet with the Elders. Frau A also wants us to go shopping with her. That is going to be hard to say no to, but we cannot be her friend. She will not take us seriously and keep her commitments if we become to good of friends!! She is so cool though...!!

We then met with Frau O and she is getting a little more stubborn. She said that she could never put another book equal to the bible and that she will not pray about it because she knows that it is true and good, but nothing is as complete as the bible. But then at the end of the lesson we were talking about how the bible is missing verses and books and has been translated so many times...she totally agreed and even told us the amount of verses missing...doesn´t sound so complete to me!! :o) It will just take time. She is reading in the book and that is what is important now!!

We met with Frau Sauer again and brought the member that referred her!! That hadn´t seen each other for 3 years, but the member had continued to send her church material. I wish I had time to type everything that she said, but I don´t. She is so cool though and the member is perfect for her. They get along great and Frau Sauer has great respect for her. She said that if the Bible is true then the Book of Mormon has to be true. She is really religious and reads everything that we give her to read!! She is GREAT!!!

Tuesday:

We met with Frau A and her daughter in the hospital. The Elders came and gave her a blessing. It was really cool. Then the sisters taught her and answered her questions as I played with her cute daughter. We had a good time and are going to go back tomorrow as well.

Well...I have to run now!! Our Christmas Zone Conference is on Thursday and transfer calls are on Saturday!! Sister Cha and I will sing at zone conference...I love singing with her. She is a professional!!

hope you have a great week!!
Sister Jones

Week #27 (12-1-08)

2008-12-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

This past week was fun, but slow. A lot of our appointments fell out, which was sad, but we had fun anyway!! We moved our p-day to Thanksgiving last week so Monday we went out and worked. We had 2 eating appointments, one with an active family and the other with a part member family. The part member family is from Italy and the mother has been a member for almost a year!! It was really hard for her to join the church because of her extended family. They are Catholic and very much against breaking that tradition!! She is so strong and has learned so much over the past year. I think that her husband would be more open to the church if he spoke better German. They come to church as a family once a month and they sit right in the front row, but he finds it boring....well I do too when I don´t understand what the heck they are talking about!! Hopefully he will allow us to start working with him, but he had a hard time understanding us...if only I spoke Italian!! JK. It would help our German because we would have to speak so simply!! We will see what happens.

On Tuesday we met with a inactive woman named P M. We have been meeting with her for the last couple of weeks. She has now given up smoking...going on 7 or 8 days!! But she thinks that our religion is too strict. She is bugged by little things...like that we need to wear a skirt to church. I told her that that is not a commandment, but she still finds it dumb that it is requested. She said that she would wear a skirt anyway, but just because they tell her to, she doesn´t want to. (Kind of sounds like how I was...when I was like 14!!!) She is a super cool lady and just needs to get a Testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She still agrees to meet with us, so she must like something about our church!!

On Wednesday we met with Frau H. She is a lady that we met through doing doors. She is kind of old and is leaving for the Month of December with her family for Christmas. The appointment was super good though. We taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and she agreed to read and pray. She even said that she would take the Book on Vacation with her!! Cool huh??

On Thursday we had Frau A, but she was not home. We waited for a little bit, but not long enough. She called later and said that she got home 15min past. She had another appointment and tried to get home as fast as she could. Normally we wait 15 minutes, but we didn´t this time!! To bad...oh well, we made an appointment for Friday. We then went to our District Thanksgiving Party!! It was kind of a bummer because 2 of our Elders went to play soccer with some other missionaries...so they came a few hours late!! Our Zone leaders were also invited, but they told them no because they already had plans with the district!! To me that shows what kind of people they are...they really are the nicest Elders ever!! I wish I had friends back home to hook them up with, but they are all getting married now!! Oh well!! We ended up having so much fun anyways. As the other Elders were playing Soccer in Minden (about 30min train ride north) we were making the food. I was in charge of the Jello salad...you know the kind with the cool whip and fruit cocktail and jello powder stuff!! Well I had to improvise...they don´t have cool whip here. The Elders had Extreme Green Apple Jello from America so I used that and also made my own cool whip. It was ok, but I´m not a fan of Extreme Green Apple!! Pistachios is so much better. The Elders were nice though and told me it was good...good thing guys eat everything!! Sister Cha made the Turkey...well they were turkey breasts with this super good sauce!! It wasn´t like a normal thanksgiving, but it was SOOO good anyways...a little Germanized!! We then just played cards and then went out to work! It was a Memorable Thanksgiving...the only one I will have in Germany!!

Friday was Sister Buynak´s Birthday so we went out to eat and then had weekly planning. Frau A called us and cancelled our appointment and changed it to Monday!! I think I´m going to buy her a daily planner for Christmas. She never remembers her appointments!! lol

Saturday we did splits. We went over to a members house and made a bunch of cookies and then we went out and delivered the cookies and advent calendars that we made to the less actives and new members. I went with the Member. Her name is Carolin Adler and she is 24...so we are the same age!! She is pretty cool and we had a good time together. Not to many people were home and they live SO far away from one another that it is hard to visit too many, but it was still effective. We left notes and calendars for a lot of people though. It was weird to not be with my comps. I have not been away from them in so many months...it was weird to have it just be me and a member!! :o) The Adler family actually have relatives right around where mom lives in Federal Way. They are not members, but I will visit them when I get home and tell them that I met their family in Germany!! It will be so cool!!

Then Sunday we went to church and then there was a baptism of a little girl in the ward after church. We then had our Christmas dinner (lunch). It was super fun. I taught some of the girls there this cool cup game that I learned at girls camp. We had fun doing that. It is really weird because before my mission I was super loud and what I would call crazy fun. I loved to just be me and not care what others thought around me, but now on a mission I have to be a little more serious...only a little though. I try not to be as loud and I´m a lot more serious then I thought possible. Sometimes I miss having my silly fun, but I can be that way when I get home. I still have fun with people, but it is not the same because I need to be more professional...plus the German´s are a little bit more of a serious people. I love being more serious though because I notice more people around me and am learning how to help and recognize other people's needs!! It is good for me to settle down and grow up...but that is sometimes hard!! I´m working on a good balance of both.

Sunday night we were visiting some more inactives and we stopped this lady on the street. She said that she used to go to church with the Mormons and that she would like to start coming back. We were right by where she lived so we went in and talked to her for a while. Her name is Frau S and she is an older lady. She hasn´t been to church for a long time, but wants to slowly make her way back. We invited her to come to a RS activity tomorrow. She said she would come!! Oh...funny story. Ok, so there were some chocolates on the table and she said that we could eat some. Well we didn´t take dinner that night so I decided to eat one. Well I unwrapped it and took a bite and juice went everywhere. I made a noise and she looked over and asked me if I didn´t like it and I told her (while holding the juice and chocolate in my mouth) that it just went everywhere. She then asked me if I didn´t like alcohol and told me that there was alcohol in them...she said that while she was getting me a paper towel. I looked at her with big eyes and she said that it was just vodka. I then took the paper towel and spit it out. She then asked if we don´t drink it and I said no...we don´t drink alcohol. I only ended up swallowing a little bit because I held most of it in my mouth. When I had unwrapped the chocolate and took a bite I thought that maybe it was one of the chocolates that had a cherry with juicy stuff in it, but no...it was vodka!! You got to be careful here in Germany. They put alcohol in everything...chocolate, bakery foods, ice cream!! They sure love their alcohol!! I think that that is the second time I have broken the work of Wisdom while on my mission!! Hopefully the last!! :o) Man...it was so funny...I felt kind of sick the rest of the night. It was either my guilt or the fact that I had drunk a little bit of alcohol for the first time...I think it was my guilt!! :o)

This morning we had an appointment with Frau A, but we did splits again and so Sister Cha and I didn´t go. We thought it would be better with only a few people. So Sister Buynak and Schwester Wächter went. She said it was good and that Frau A is just really confused!! She even prayed that she wouldn´t be so confused. I hope that the Lord answers her prayer!!
I love this Gospel and the fact that I get to talk about it everyday!! I really know that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that what we do everyday is so important. Everyday we are one day closer to meeting our God and I can´t wait for that day to stand before Him and be able to kiss his feet!! I love Him and all that He has done for me. He gave up His life so that I can live and I have given Him this time to try and pay Him back. I know that that is impossible to fully pay Him back, but I will do what I can to make Him proud of me and to help His children here in the wonderful country of Germany!!

Deine,
Sister Jones

Week #26 (11-24-08)

2008-11-24T19:54:00.000-08:00

I´m dreaming of a white Thanksgiving....just like the ones I never knew!! lol!! Ok, well they don´t celebrate Thanksgiving here, but that doesn´t mean that we can´t!! We moved our P-day to Thursday so that we could have a thanksgiving party as a district. We are not going to have a turkey, but we are going to try our best to make it normal!! I love Thanksgiving...It´s one of my favorite holidays. Plus, guess what?? It SNOWED!!! Yup that´s right...snow!! It´s pretty to look at, but kind of miserable to walk around in!! Lol. Funny story....so I bought boots to keep my legs warm for the winter and was so excited to have them. Then it snowed and it was really wet melty snow and I found out that my boots are NOT water proof!! That was a fun day. We went to the church to prepare for a music night thing that we were putting on and I took my boots and socks off. We were in the kitchen making cookies for the people at the music night and so I put my socks on the heater in the kitchen to help them dry faster!! I think I grossed out some of the Germans!! LOL!! It was so funny!!

The music night was a success. We had a few members bring friends to it so we got to talk to them. We didn´t get any referals or appointments from it, but one older lady I talked to said that she would come to church!!! That will be cool. It was so cute because I was in the bathroom washing my hands and this little old German lady came up to me and told me how she had invited her friend to come and that she came. It was so cool to see the excitement in her eyes and voice as she told me about it. I told her how cool that was and what a good job she was doing. She is such an old member, but so cool. She is excited to bring her friend to church on Sunday!! I got to sing a few songs which was so great!! I sang "Wishing You were Somehow Here Again" because that is one of my favorites and I also sang "If thou had been here" from the Woman at the Well CD!! My comp...the opera singer...can play the piano really well and made me sing it. Before I sang it at the Music night I explained to them what it was about because it was in English. It was funny because at the end of the night some people came up to me to tell me I did a nice job and some of them even complimented my German!! I was so excited!! I think my German is horrible, but if the German´s say nice job then I must be making progress. Especially since they NEVER compliment anyone!! I love Bielefeld and will be sad when I have to leave!!

This last week has been good!! It has been hard...it´s really hard to get anything done with 3 people. We talk 3 times as much, we are 3 times as slow and we are 3 times more PMSy!! lol!! It is so funny!! Normally it takes us 10 minutes to walk to the church because we normally walk fast...well now it takes about 20 minutes!! Geduld Sister Jones, Geduld!! (Geduld-Patience) I´m learning just to laugh at things and not take it so seriously!! Sometimes it is harder then others, but i´m getting better!! I love this time of my life and I´m so grateful that I chose to serve a mission. It is hard, but SO worth it!!

O is not doing too well. A friend of hers died and so she will be gone for a few days. Please pray for her and her friend's family. I´m just afraid that when people die that the families will become mad at God. It happens way more then I ever knew. I don´t think that she will get mad, but please pray for her anyway.

I don´t have much an update with Frau A because we are not meeting with her till Thursday morning. How is it that even when we move our P-day to another day we still teach her on P-day...naja, so ist das!!

I want you to know how much I love this Gospel. This really is Christ´s Church and we really do have His Authority to baptise and to seal families together forever. I love this mission thing and I´m so glad that I have plenty of time left to spread this happy news with others!!

Alles Gute,
Sister Jones

Week #25 (11-17-08)

2008-11-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

So this last week was interesting. You know how they say that 3 is a crowd?? Well I don´t know about it being a crowd, but it sure is crowded!! One more person is a lot more then I thought. When we go to appointments we always try to have a member with us. It helps the investigators have friends in the ward and also see that there are people in our Church that have normal lives....the life of a missionary is not normal. So normally there are 3 of us and the investigator...which is the perfect number. Well we went to an appointment the other day and there was the 3 of us, the member and the investigator around a tiny little table. It actually worked out fine, but it was just crowded. We teach pretty well together, so that is really good. It´s hard, but is also fun....for now!! :o)

Frau A is confused. We meet with her every Monday morning and it is always really good. We have the Spirit when we teach her and everything. When we commit her to do something or keep a commandment she always agrees and I can see that she feels the Spirit....I can see it in her eyes. Last week we committed her to coming to our church on Sundays and she agreed. Then I called her on Saturday and she said that she was confused about what to do and she wasn´t going to come. Well...she doesn´t just meet with us she also meets with the JW´s. We found out today that she meets with them on Saturday mornings...that is why she is confused!! They are confusing her. Our goal this week is to have more contact with her during the week so she won´t forget the Spirit that we bring when we meet with her!! The Elders also have contact with her during the week because they teach her kids English. Please pray for her to understand what is important and that she will recognize a difference from when we are there and when we are gone!!

O is doing good as well, but also confused. The ward is pressuring her to get baptized...they are not meaning it that way, but they keep asking when she is getting baptized and that they are excited for when she gets baptized. She is so wonderful and I think that one day she will get baptized, but she is not ready yet. She won´t pray about the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith yet because she is nervous for an answer!! She is praying now for the courage to pray!! Please pray that she will get that courage!!

I love our investigators in Bielefeld and the new members...well and the other members as well!! It is so great here and the work is moving forward!! We found a new investigator last week who comes from Gana, Africa. She is cool and I hope it goes well with her!!

Thanks for your prayers and for the support!! I hope you have a great week!!
Love,
Sister Jones

Week #24 (11-10-08)

2008-11-10T13:40:00.000-08:00

So guess what?? I´m still in Bielefeld!! I was so sure I was going to be transferred because I have been here for 4 transfers now, but the Lord has other plans for me....it´s called 2 companions. Yep...Sister Buynak and I are still together and we have another companion coming this week. Sister Cha is her name and she is from Korea. She is 32-yrs old and is on her last transfer...so she will be dying here in Bielefeld. (That´s what we call it when someone goes home). I´m pretty sure I will be transferred the week before Christmas...which is pretty dumb. It is possible for me to stay for Christmas, but that would be 6 transfers in the same city....that´s half of my mission in my Golden City!! 5 transfers is already 7 MONTHS!! WOW!! I´m excited though!! It will be a good change and this transfer is only 5 weeks (starting Thursday) so it will go by really fast!! I love Bielefeld, but it is hard to know what to do with the same contacts, investigators and families after so many months!! I will just continue to work hard and see if I can find out why the Lord still wants me here!! :o)

This past week was good....they seem to go by so fast!! Nothing really new happened. It´s still hard to get O to meet with us. She came to church which was good...but she has still not read in the Book of Mormon. She has a total social conversion, but we are trying to work on her spiritual conversion!! She has to have the Spiritual to get baptized and the Social to stay active. Normally the Spiritual is first and we have to fight to get the Social.

We contacted a referral from a member this week...well actually 2!! The first one was super cool because we just said the name of her friend and she invited us in. We had a great talk, but she is too busy making Christmas cards to meet with us now, but she said maybe after Christmas...lol. The other didn´t have any interests, but she was really nice and we gave her our card and said she could call us if she changed her mind. I think that if I could give any advice to members of the church it would be to pray about their friends and then give the missionaries referrals. Not everyone that is referred will get baptised, but just saying the name of a member that the referral knows gives us a way better chance of getting in and teaching the lessons. The first referral kept telling us that her friend (the member) is super smart and if she thinks that this book is true then there must be something right about it. She is just too smart to be fooled into something like that. It was just cool to hear her rave about her friend and the difference that she sees in her compared to other people. I hope that it works out and even if it doesn´t this non-member has more knowledge about the church and knows she can always go to her friend with questions!! So...moral of the story....be a good example and give referrals to the missionaries. :o) We LOVE referrals!!

Frau A is good....I think. We were supposed to have an appointment with her this morning, but she changed it to tomorrow morning!! We have quite a bit to do before our new companion comes, so it will be an exciting week!!

Oh...I do have a funny story (Sorry, I´m sitting here racking my brain to know what to write. Some weeks it is a whole bunch and others not so much!!) So we were sitting on the Bahn and this drunk old man walks on....well stumbles on. He walks towards us to sit in the seat right in front of us and was about to sit down when the Bahn started to move. Well, when the Bahn moves and your still standing up most people almost fall till they grab onto a poll or something...but when someone is drunk there is no control. He fells right on top of me!! I mean full on...all weight on my body for a few seconds before my companion and I pushed him off into the seat across from us!! Then all he said was "Oh Entschuldigung"....Oh Excuse me!! It was so funny, but also really gross. Most people here in Germany smell especially the bums, but when a person is drunk and kind of bumish together....that is pretty disgusting. I wish I could bottle it up and send it to you for Christmas...just so you could smell it!! lol

Well that is all the exciting stories!!

Have a great week,
Sister Jones

Letter #23 (11-3-08)

2008-11-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

This last week has been so fun. We kind of went on a mini vacation/trip!! lol...not really, but really!! :o)

On Tuesday we went and visited a contact and we taught her a lesson. She is from Russia and her German is not very good...her daughter had to translate a lot of what we said. She was a JW, but she doesn´t go to their church anymore. We taught her about the plan of salvation and also showed her a short Joseph Smith film in Russian. We started out with Joseph Smith, but as with all JW´s they care more about the millennium and the after life...so we switched gears and laid out this super cute plan of salvation puzzle. I think that she really started to understand. The problem is really the language barrier. If she comes to church we have no members that can speak Russian...except for O our other Russian investigator. She might be able to translate for her...we will see. She didn´t know when she had time this week so we have to call her and set up and appointment. She is super cool!!

O didn´t show up for our appointment on Wednesday night, but she called us on Thursday morning and apologized...she was at the University and couldn´t get out of what she was doing. Normally she is really good about calling us...she is not flaky. I told her it wasn´t a problem and reminded her about Stake conference in Hanover on Sunday. She said she would be there!!

We didn´t get to meet with Frau A last week because she was sick!! But we met with her today and she is doing so good...she had a few word of Wisdom problems, but we can work through them. She was reading in Acts 3 in the Bible and she was thinking that the Scripture (vs. 21-24) was talking about Joseph Smith...we turned there together and OH MY GOSH!!! She is SO spiritual and understands WAY more then me. I had written a note in my English scriptures about this scripture...that it was about the restoration of the Gospel. (We teach her in English...did I tell you that??) And so it was totally about Joseph Smith....I know that the Spirit was speaking to her and helping her to understand that the prophets of old really have foretold of Joseph Smith!! We had a really good lesson and at the end I asked her if she would get baptised when she found out that this church was true and she said yes....but she will only do it if her Husband joins as well!! She has hope for him and she wants the elders to teach him (we actually set up an appointment for them). He is a little stuck in the Catholic church, but that doesn´t matter. I think her example will help him. She is so ready, but she will only come if her whole family comes....that is one of the only excuses that I except. I don´t think God wants us to break up families!!! I just hope that he will meet with the Elders and try to find out if it´s true or not!!

On Wednesday night we carved pumpkins with the JAE´s (YSA). It was so much fun....they don´t really have good pumpkins here, but we did the best we could with what we found. They sell them, but they are REALLY small...I will try to send pics next week!! We had fun though. The young people here are SO cool!! I love them.

Then on Thursday we had Zone Conference. It was so good and I learned so much....almost tooo much...it´s sometimes hard to know what to work on, but I have a small list of things that I want to do better with!! After Zone Conference Sister Buynak and I rode to Hamburg with the President and his wife. Sister Buynak had tooth problems a few transfers ago and so she had to have her last check up. She was serving in Hamburg when it all happened. It was just easier to go there and not to have to explain everything to a new dentist. So we got to spend the night in the Mission home!!! WAHOOO!!! That doesn´t ever happen...unless you pick up a new missionary of course!! It was cool!!

Then on Friday we took our p-day and went to the dentist and then went shopping with Sister Thompson. She even took us to lunch. Then she had to leave so we toured around Hamburg for a few hours. I was kind of grumpy because we had to pull our suitcase around everywhere and it was kind of big and heavy, but I sucked it up and had fun anyway!! Then we traveled down to Hanover that night and did an exchange with the sisters there. So we spent Saturday with the Hanover Sisters and then on Sunday went to conference at the church with the whole stake!! Then we took a bus back down with the ward. O came!! She is so wonderful!! I love that girl...I´m just sad that she is so busy!! She is practically a member, but she has to meet with us to get baptised!! Hopefully she has time this week!!

I love doing exchanges because I learn so much. I learned so much about myself and what I want to change to make my comps life easier and also to help us work more in unity!! That is so important. Sister Jones and I taught the same way so it was easier, but now we teach a little bit different and we just need to figure out how we can teach together a little better. It is not bad, but it could be better. I have learned so much this last week and I hope that I can take that and do something to change and be better.

So that was my exciting week!! We were kind of all over the place so our numbers weren´t very good, but we learned a lot to help our numbers and our missionary skills. I´m excited for this week!!

Love Sister Jones

Week #22 (10-27-08)

2008-10-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

I can´t believe how fast the time flies when I am here!! I feel like every few days is Monday. So Last Monday we had an appointment with a nice older couple. We brought a man from our ward, Bruder Wächter, that was about there age. The investigators just asked him question after question. It was pretty good because Bruder Wächter served a few missions with his wife over the last 5 years, so he did a great job. We kept trying to get into the conversation, but it didn´t really work....good thing the Tea tasted good...only kidding!! They ended up saying that they weren´t really interested in meeting with us again. The man said that he didn´t really believe in God and he wouldn´t even let us pray. You can´t find out that God is there if you don´t pray, but he is just not ready to accept an answer even if he got one. They are a really friendly couple and maybe one day they will accept our message. Then we went to FA (FHE) with the JAE´s (YSA) and we played a board game...in German of course. You pick a card that has a word on it, then you have to either draw a picture, act it out, or explain it in words. They let us use our dictionaries, but otherwise they weren´t very easy on us. It was really fun and we did pretty well...we actually won!! I didn´t like it at first because I feel so bumb auf Deutsch, but I sucked up my pride and played and actually didn´t do that bad!!

We took our P-day on Tuesday last week and Sister Buynak and I went to Detmold. It´s about 30min on the train and it is the cutest city!! It is very German. We saw so many cute buildings and even took a tour of the castle there!! We had so much fun...it is so amazing here!! The Castle was so HUGE and amazing. We didn´t get to take any pictures on the tour, but it was cool. They had HUGE portraits on the walls of people who had lived there and also family members....I didn´t get all the details because it was in German, but I understood enough to know what she was talking about. There was this one room with animal heads and antlers all over the walls!! It was so dark and scary...she said that it was the men's room, which was obvious compared to the other rooms that are so open and bright. There was this one room that looked like a ballroom and it had red walls with nudie angels on the celling. I took a design class at BYU-I and it was cool because as I was looking at the furniture and the designs on the walls I remember learning all about it and the time periods and what they mean, but I have forgotten it all now...I just remember learning about it!! I also forgot the word for my pitch pipe the other day....4 years of college are escaping my head. Oh well...life goes on. I just hope it comes back quick when I need it!! :o)

On Wednesday we met with O!! She is SOOOO amazing. We found out that she is married and that her Husband lives in another city because of work and she lives here because of school. She said that they see each other usually once a week!! WOW...I wouldn´t be able to do that. We brought Schwester Adler along as our Joint Teach and it went well. It was a really long appointment...like an hour and a half or more, but we taught her a lot and answered a lot of her questions. Normally we meet 3 times a week for only 30-40 minutes...so since we are only meeting once a week then if it´s longer it´s ok. She agreed to read in the Book of Mormon and pray and she is really excited to meet with us again this week. She didn´t come to church on Sunday, because she was out of town, but she is coming to Stake Conference in Hannover on Sunday!!

On Thursday we went and visited a Russian girl named N. She normally comes to our English class on Wednesday, but hasn´t been there for the last 3 weeks. I´m so glad that we stopped by because her mother-in-law is in a coma and she was really fragile. We sat and talked with her for a while and I really had a gift of tongues experience. I have a hard time knowing what to say to console people in English let alone in another language, but the Lord really helped us to know what to say and what to ask. I didn´t understand all the specifics, because I don´t know German medical terms, but through asking questions I found out that her mother-in-law has blood in her brain and she is only living because a machine is keeping her alive. It was really sad, but we bore our testimonies about God and His love for us and a little bit about the next life. We even prayed at the end and the Spirit was really strong and I know that she felt the Spirit while we were there. It was a really cool experience. We are going to go back this week and see how her mother is doing.

So there is this new member in our ward, K. She was baptized in Jan of this year. Her daughter was just baptized in August. We went and visited her this week and we were a little nervous. Kerstin works on Sunday so she can only come to church one time a month. She has a really strong testimony, but the ward and us as well are worried that if she keeps this up that she won´t be able to progress anymore. She can´t go to the temple unless she comes to church on Sunday...it is one of the 10 commandments to keep the Sabbath day holy and that includes going to church. She knows all this, but we want her to understand that if she puts her trust in the Lord that everything will work out. Her fear is that when she finds another job that she will have less time with her kids...she has a 2 year old and a 10 year old. She only works 2 or 3 times a week...here in Germany if someone works on Sunday then they get paid double...they do that because it is really hard to find people to work on Sunday. All the stores are closed and most resturants as well...it´s like a Ghost town in the city on Sunday. She works on Sunday so that she gets more money and doesn´t have to work so many days. I can totally understand that, but if she keeps the commandments the Lord will make it up to her somehow. My comp and I both have personal experience...we lived with single mom´s who never worked on Sunday. We didn´t see them much during the week, but they were always there on Sunday in Church. We bore testimony to her about how much our families were blessed and the wonderful example that our mothers set for us. I also told her that God has blessings for us, but he waits for us to keep the commandments and then he gives them to us. When we don´t do what he has asked then he can´t give us the blessings that he wants to give us. She knows what is right, but the sad thing is, is that she won´t do anything about it. We told her that we love her and that her family will be SO blessed if she will set a goal of going to the temple in January. The temple blesses familes so much, but she said that she couldn´t do that because she had to work on Sunday. She understood what we talked about, but she is just not ready to trust the Lord completely. It was really sad.

This week has been a hard week because we have talked to so many people and no one really listened to us. We don´t have very many investigators and we aren't finding people either....but the thing that I am excited about is that we only have 2 investigators, but they are both progressing and that is amazing!!! I love this work and I know that the Lord is in it. It is his work and this is his Church! It is true and I know it. I am here in Germany because there are people who need my testimony and I will shout it from the mountian tops to make sure that they all hear it!!

Ich liebe dich!

Deine Sister Jones

Week #21 Letter (10-20-08)

2008-10-20T14:57:00.001-07:00

Here it is definitely winter...ok well I guess just fall because I heard it gets a lot colder. It is still really beautiful. The leaves are all over the ground and are all kinds of colors. The sun is still shinning and so that makes the cold wind and weather not seem so bad. It gets dark really early here...earlier then I remember at home. It´s dark by about 6:30pm and when we change times this upcoming weekend then it will be 5:30pm when it is dark. It is really hard to do missionary work in the dark. We will just have to try and have more appointments at night, so we can do street contacting during the day when it is light. We shall see.
So this week was a challenge, only because our Präsident has asked us to teach 15 lessons a week and if we can do that we will receive many blessings...more happiness in our lives, better teachers, see more success and a bunch of others. So we plan and we plan and we plan and then we go to our appointments and the person is not home. We had so many appointments that fell out this week, but that is just the way it is. We are still trying to work hard to get our 15 lessons...we are doing our part and it is up to the people to be there!! :o)

We had an appointment with an older couple this week, Herr and Frau E. They are pretty courious about our church. They were an investigator in our area book, so sister Jones and I went by and made an appointment with them and then Sister Buynak and I taught them last Monday. The Man refused to let us pray and he said that he was very sceptical about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We told him that if he would pray and ask God, then he would find out it is true. He told us that he doesn´t really believe that he would receive an answer if he prayed. They are one of the nicest couples. It was never an argument...it was just a conversation. We have another appointment today and we are bringing a member with us...Bruder Wächter. He is about their age and him and his wife just got back from their 3rd mission..or something like that!! We wanted to bring them both, but we thought that maybe 2 members, 2 missionaries and 2 investigators would be to many people!! :o) We then went to Family Home Evening with the YSA and O came with us!! It was pretty good. They didn´t have a game or activity or anything...it was just us sitting around talking. Which is fine, but I think it would be more exciting if we did something. We can sit around and talk anytime (well not sister Buynak and me), but we get together on Monday to have fun!! We then had a lesson and that was good. O asked a lot of good questions and the YSA did a good job answering and explaining it. All in all it was a good night!! O was too busy again this week to meet with us!! She did come to church again though and she even stayed for and brought something for our ward lunch. She loves coming to church...she even takes notes. She has a lot of friends there already. It is so good to watch!! I love O, she makes me so happy. I really want to get her baptized so that she can have the fullness of joy that only the Gospel brings!! We have an appointment this week and I really hope that she will commit to be baptized!! She is so ready!! We shall see!!

We had interviews this week...which feels like so long ago!! lol!! They were really good. We had a zone meeting and then we had our distrikt meeting and then we had interviews. I love seeing Sister Thompson because she is always so happy!! It really boosts my spirits!!

We met with S this week and she is doing so amazing. She is reading every morning and evening in the Scriptures and praying as well. She is really excited for her new calling as well. She is so wonderful. She just needs more friends in the church. That makes it a little hard, but I think it will come with time. She is not like O...she is a little more quiet and reserved, but when you get to know her she is really fun and funny!!

So we were at the Wächter´s for dinner on Friday and Schwester Wächter said something really nice to me. The Elders and Sister Buynak were talking about all the cities that they have served in and when it came to my turn I said that this is my first. One of the Elders said...Oh yeah, I forgot that you are still in your Golden City. I was like, yeah...I think that some people in the ward have forgotten that too because they talk to me like I understand everything that they say. Schwester Wächter then told me that they probably think that because I talk like I understand everything. That my German is good enough that people wouldn´t think that I have just learned it. She said that ever since I got here she has thought that my German was good. That was a surprise to me because I think my German is bad. I mean it´s way better then when I first got here, but it is still not very good, but I was really flattered when she said that. A German thinks that my German is pretty good!! I still don´t have a very big vocab and I still struggle understanding people, but it´s coming. I love the German language...it´s a lot harder then what I thought it would be because I always heard how hard English is, but then again learning a second language is never easy!!

We had a street preach in Paderborn on Saturday and it was pretty good. Sister Buynak and I were only there for about an hour and a half because we had 2 appointments...which fell through...but it was still fun even for a short time. Paderborn is where the other 2 Elders in our Distrikt are. It´s about an hour train ride southish. It was pretty fun, although most people said that they didn´t have time. I really want to know what Germans do during the day because they always say that they don´t have time. I don´t know what Americans say, but I would be interested to know if it is the same thing or if it is just the German´s who never have time!! It just makes me laugh inside...mostly because I don´t want it to bother me.

We met with Frau A this morning. She left on vacation after S´s baptism and she just got back last week. She said that she only has time to meet with us one time a week...which is better then none. She said the Spirit was so strong. She asked us why Joseph Smith had so many wives. (a friend told her that) So we spent the first little bit explaining that. It´s hard to explain because I don´t full understand why. It went really well and I even told her that I don´t fully understand, but that God doesn´t do anything without a purpose. I think it went well. Our Joint Teach also really helped because she was a convert and also wondered the same thing before she got baptized. Then we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she commited to live it. She said that ever since Sister Jones and I told her that we don´t drink coffee, she stopped as well. Funny story. So we went and visited her before Sister Jones left and she brought us Coffee. We told her sorry, but we don´t drink coffee and I swear that we told her that we also don´t drink green and black tea. She then made us tea, but I guess she didn´t hear that, because I just found out today that she had given us black tea!! Oooppss!! Tea is huge here in Germany and we can drink fruit tea and herbal tea, but not green or black tea!! So she commited to stop drinking that as well!! She is still a little confused with there only being one true church on the earth, but we will hopefully clear that us next week!!

Sister Jones

Week #20 (10-13-08)

2008-10-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

Sister Jones and Sister Jones with really "useful" umbrellas, in the rain (good thing Christi is from Seattle and use to this weather).

Hey mom...I think a new pair of slippers may be on Christi's Christmas list.

Crepes...

Sister Buynak (her new/current companion)

Smores....are all German women this short, or is Christi just extremely tall!

S...at her baptism

Couple questions mom asked and Christi answered:

Do you get to speak English? We ALWAYS speak German to each other. This transfer is an only German transfer. We speak German day and night. Sometimes a few English words come out when we don't know them, but not too often during the day. We are aloud to speak English, but our Mission President has encouraged us to speak German from 9 am-9 pm...so we took it one step further and just speak it non-stop!! It's fun.

How was the ICE train? IT WAS SO COOL!!! Ok, so normally it takes about 1.5 hrs on the train to Hannover, but with the ice train we were there in like 30 minutes!! Although it was a long day. Our first train was 20 min. late which made us miss our train in Hannover. Although, we ended up catching another and were only about 30 min later coming into Hamburg. I then picked up Sister Buynak and got back on a train 30 min later, but this time it was a slow/normal train. We left Hamburg at about 3 pm and didn't get home until 8:30 pm. We ended up missing one of our trains and we had to change trains about 3 times!! It was fine though....we were just really hungry!! :o)

Letter #20 (10-13-08)

2008-10-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

This week was great. We are trying to get in contact with the inactive members of the ward and get to know them. We spend a lot of time visiting them and calling them this week. We didn´t really see any success until Sunday when a lady came up to us and told us that she was Schwester Grasshof...a lady that we went to go visit and she just talked to us through this little box...she said she was too busy to let us in. Then she called us the next day and left a message and then she came to church. She even got up and bore her testimony in testimony meeting. We have an appointment with her this week. Our goal this transfer is to try and strengthen the ward by helping the inactives.

We have been speaking German all day everyday since Sister Buynak got here...it is an only German transfer. It is helping us a lot. I feel a lot more confident in my German...we even speak only German to the elders to, which was not the case before...it helps us help each other with our German!!

So Sunday was Fast Sunday and the ward Counsel and missionaries were fasting for specific investigators and members together. It was cool because we even broke our fast together. The ward here has a goal of 10 baptisms for the year. We have only had 4 so far so we have a lot of work to do. In Ward Counsel on Wednesday the ward asked us what they can do to help. It´s hard to think of what to ask them for. They come on Joint teaches and they pray for us, they talk to our investigators when they come to church. The problem is just finding people to teach. Sister Buynak and I were walking through the city for 2 straight hours talking to people one after another and we didn´t get any contact info. No one wanted to listen to what we have to say. So our Ward Mission Leader asked every organization to come with a referal for us next month. They all agreed!! I love referrals!! The ward also wants to plan a music thing for Christmas and they turned and asked me if I could do it...I told them I would but I don´t know if I will be here. That would mean I would be here in my Golden City for 7 transfers...that is not very likely. That is over half of my time in the mission field!! although I do love it here....by that time I think I would need a little bit of a change!! :o)

S received the Holy Ghost yesterday!! Wow the Spirit was so strong and she even got a calling. She is on the ward activities commitee!! That will be really good for her!!

I bore my testimony in church Yesterday (our mission pres has asked us to do that every month) and I totally cried....you know me!! lol!! I just felt the spirit really strong when S recieved the Holy Ghost and I was telling the ward about our experience on the street and I just cried when I bore my testimony about my Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ. When I first started to cry I told them that it´s ok for me to cry because I´m from America...they all laughed!! lol...I can´t believe that I was funny in German!! It was a great Sunday!!

Well I think that is all for this week...by the time Monday comes I have forgotten most of what happens...I will try and remember more for next week!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Letter #19 (10-6-08)

2008-10-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Conference for me was SO great!! Man...it should really be more then just 2 times a year. Maybe like every other weekend!! We had an investigator (O) at conference, which was SO cool and to make it better...she brought a friend(Am). O stayed for all the sessions and the women's conference and Am watched all but the one on Sunday night (so women's and the 2 Saturday sessions). The way conference is done here is confusing, but it works. They tape Women's conference and then we watch it on Saturday at 4pm and then the Saturday morning session of conference Saturday night at 6pm. Then the Priesthood session is taped and they watch it at 11am Sunday and then we watch the tape for the Saturday afternoon session on Sunday afternoon 2pm and then we have waffles in the church because it is too far for most people to travel home and then back. Then we watch Sunday morning session live on Sunday night 6pm. We never get to see the last session unless we watch it really late (10pm-12am)...but I can just read it in the Liahona!! I need my beauty sleep!! lol

There were so many talks that talked about trials, depression, discouragement, and all of those painful things we experience in this life and how we can get rid of that. From what I got out of it, is that it is a choice. Elder Worthlin said that we need to laugh more about things that happen and not take it so seriously. Präsident Uchtdorf talked about hope and how when we have hope all of those feelings go away....we cannot let ourselves give into the temptation to lose hope. Präsident Monson talked about how if we don´t do something today we will just have a bunch of empty yesterdays. There were so many talks that I liked and I don´t have my notes with me, but I can´t wait to be able to read them again!! Wow...every single one just grabbed my attention!!

The Baptism for S was so great!! I can´t believe that she got baptized!! AHHHH!! The talks were so great and we even had an investigator (Frau A) and her 3 kids there and a girl in our English class as well!! It was a pretty good turn out from the ward as well. The best thing was how strong the Spirit was!! I just love baptisms because of how well everyone can feel the Spirit.

Sister Jones is now home..tear!! And now I have a new comp. Transfer day was a bit long!! We traveled up to Hamburg on the ICE train...the fast train. Normally it is 4.5 hrs from Bielefeld to Hamburg, but with the ICE it is only 2-2.5hrs!! But the ride back we had to take the slow train...I mean normal train!! :o) We didn´t get home till 8:30pm because we missed a train and had to change trains 3 times!! There is no direct train from Hamburg to Bielefeld...you know, they should really do something about that!! It was a long day, but good!!

Our German is not very good...she knows more words and my grammar is better, so we are able to help each other!! We are pretty much on the same page German wise!! She is great and we will help each other grow. This transfer is a non English transfer for us!! Only German...even with the Elders!! It will help us a lot...so far we have done really good!! I´m excited!!

Well she is waiting for me because I´m taking to long....

Love,
Sister Jones

Letter #18 (9-29-08)

2008-09-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so transfers came...can I get a drum roll please?? I´m staying in Bielefeld for my 4th transfer and Sister Buynak is my new companion!! (Buynak like Buy-nah-k). Sister Jones has served with her and said that I will like her!! I´m excited. She has been out for 5 transfers, that´s about 9.5 months on the mission and about 7.5 months in the field!! She is pretty young still...only 2 transfers older then me...so I´m a little nervous. I´ve always been able to rely on my comp if I don´t understand or if I don´t know what to say. Sister Jones says her German is good, so I shouldn´t worry. But she also tells me that my German is good and it totally isn´t!! :o) It will be fine, because it is what the Lord wants!! It will be a growing experience. I´m excited because I remember how much I grew when Sister Jones first came. She pushed me a lot harder then my trainer and I learned a lot. It will be good!! I will tell you all about her next week!! Sister Jones and I are heading up to Hamburg on Thursday morning and guess what?? We get to take an ICE train...don´t know what it stands for, but it is FAST!! It only takes about an hour to get to Hamburg and on a normal train it takes about 4 hours or more and you have to change trains 2 times!! We get to do that because Sister Jones has to be to the mission home early and my new comp will be in Hamburg with her old comp because her old comp is going to pick up a new missionary. I don´t know if that makes sense at all, but we are going to be meeting in Hamburg and then riding back on the train together. Not many missionaries get to ride the ICE train, so it will be cool!!

Ok...so enough about me!! Now it is on to the really exciting stuff!!

S - We met with her 3 times last week, she came to English class, and also FHE at a member's home. She is doing SO good and is very excited for her baptism. She invited us over for dinner tomorrow night and also one of the YSA in the ward as well!! She is also coming to FHE again at Sch. Poplinz house!! The one wrinkle in the perfect picture is that she didn´t come to church yesterday. We went by and visited her and she wasn´t home. I really hope that she comes today...her baptism interview is at the church at 5pm!! I really hope that she is there and that she is still going to get baptized!! I just hope that she didn´t get scared!!

Frau A - She is also doing good. We only got to meet with her once this past week because she is really busy, but we taught about Child Baptism because she had so many questions about it!! We taught her from Moroni 8 and she found it really clear and really seemed to understand that it is not necessary. Her concern was that she didn´t want her children to be sent to hell. She wants her children to always be with her!! She has a lot of good questions and sometimes has a hard time staying on the lesson topic. I think it might just take her time to understand everything. She is Catholic and they have a lot of strong beliefs that are wrong and it is hard for them to understand what is right. They say that they follow the Bible, but yet in many ways they don´t...like the way they baptise. Jesus Christ was NOT sprinkled with water. She also has a hard time that we don´t pray to Mary...Mary was a great woman, but God has asked us to pray only to him. Frau A is wonderful and is really searching for the truth!! She came to sacrament meeting yesterday and even brought her 3 beautiful daughters!! They are the most beautiful girls I have ever seen!! I will try to get a picture!! We are meeting with her again tomorrow!!

O - I don´t know if you remember her. We met her on the street and invited her to church and she came!! We tried to set up an appointment, but she was too busy that week. She said she would come the next week and we could set up an appointment then, but then she sent us a text and said that she had a visitor and that she couldn´t come. Then we lost contact with her. We tried to call and tried to text her, but nothing. That was a really long time ago...probably almost 1.5-2 months ago!! Guess what?? She came to church yesterday. I was so happy to see her and she us!! It was so wonderful. She told us that she was so sorry that we didn´t have contact. She had lost her old cell phone and didn´t have our number. She said that she missed us and knew that if she came to church that she would find us again!! And of course she did!! She stayed for all of church and just like last time, even took notes...she is better then I am because I (a member) don´t even take notes!! :o) She says that she has so many questions and wants to meet with us. We have an appointment tomorrow and I can´t wait!! She is so awesome! It was an absolute miracle that she came to church!!

B- She is a new investigator of ours!! She is meeting with the Jehova Witnesses and she doesn´t believe in God. We tried to get her to pray, but she said that she didn´t see the point because she doesn´t believe that there is anyone there listening. The Spirit was so strong as we met with her. She didn´t have time to meet with us this week, but she gave us her number and said that we could call and set up another appointment for next week. I know it is possible for people to believe in God...it will just take a lot of faith on her part to just and find out for herself!! She is a cool girl and open to new ideas...that must be why she meets with the JW´s!! lol (Sorry that was not nice at all!! They are good people just walking in the wrong direction!! I apologize!!)

Well I think that is all we have going on right now. Sister Jones and I have been planning a music night for the ward which is on the 17th of October. Our mission Präsident also challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days...in English or German. I have chosen to do it in German because I really need to improve my German and I think that this will be a great help!! He has asked us to highlight every time Christ´s name is mentioned (including pronouns and other names He has), to highlight every time He speaks including when a prophet says "Thus saith the Lord", and also to highlight all of Christ´s attributes. So far I am on track, but I have been reading everywhere possible. I was even reading on the Bahn and this cute old lady asked me if I was studying and I got to tell her about the Book of Mormon. It was really cool.

I want you to know that I know this church is true!! I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet and that he restored this church to the earth!! This church is the same church that Jesus Christ organized when he was on the earth. He calls prophets to lead His church...always has and always will. Christ is real...he loves each of us...and will come again!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Letter #17 (9-22-08)

2008-09-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it has been 6 months already?? CRAZY!!

Well I don´t have much time to write this week because we have district activity today. We are going to Minden (about 30 min north) to see the big monument thing!! IT should be cool!!

S is doing great. She didn´t end up going on vacation so we get to teach her this week and then she will be baptized next wednesday!!

I´m doing good to!! Just plugging along, trying to be a good missionary!!
I love you all and will write more next week!!

Sister Jones

Yeah...more pictures!!!

2008-09-17T07:38:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures that Christi has sent....

everything in quotes is what she said about the pics.

Germany....

"So Germany has the funniest signs!! Miteinander geht mehr...directly translated doesn’t make much sense (directly "together goes more"), but it means (as you can see from the pic) Together works better."

"Not a very useful Umbrella...the wind must have done it!!"

(look in the garbage)

"Riding bikes in the pouring rain...can you see where the line of wetness is?"

"Alicia at her baptism"

"S, who is getting baptized October 1st!"

"This is Svetlana that I think I told you about..if not, let me know!!

She has gone back to France!! Sad!"

"Gemeinde Essen (Ward lunch)

We made an American Sister Jones cake.

The YW loved the fact it was cake mix from America...

they LOVED it!! lol!!"

Christi's b-day was August 8th and her mom sent her a cake mix to make her own cake. Pretty sure it is a yellow cake with chocolate frosting...Amen little YW that is delicious!

Olaf Wessely and me....he accidentally dropped this noodle thing in my apple juice at lunch...it was so funny. He turned red and we all laughed..with him of course. Sister Jones and I were almost crying we were laughing so hard!!

Letter #16 take 2...

2008-09-16T13:03:00.001-07:00

Here are Christi's answers to questions asked by her mom:

"I still love the country, which looks more and more beautiful everyday. The people are growing on me...I think when I know more of what they say I will need to try really hard not to be offended!! They are very blunt!

P-days are fun...we don't do much, but sometimes it is really nice just to not have much planned. Today we went and bought groceries and now we are doing emails. Then we will go to some stores so sister Jones can buy some stuff before she leaves!! Next week I think we are going to this really cool place that is supposed to be VERY German. I hope we do because even the Germans talk about how cool it is!!

My favorite food?? I don't think I have been talking much about the food lately. Ok, so the main meal for Germans is Lunch. Almost all of our eating appointments are at 1:00 pm. The main thing we eat are potatoes (pealed and boiled) with some type of meat and sauce. Sometimes a vegetable as well. I don't like gravy, but I love the different sauces they use for their meat and potatoes!! We also always have Nachtisch (dessert), which is ice-cream or fruit (like fruit cocktail) or Quark (pronounced Qvark). Quark is SO good!! It is like yogurt, but so much better. It is illegal in America because of the amount of live bacteria in it!!! Weird but true!! It is so tasty!! MMMmmmm....Oh, sorry I got distracted with Quark....back to my favorite food. I had this thing at this members house about a week ago and I almost died because it was so good. It was this meat stuff rolled in thin slices of ham and then cooked in this delicious cream sauce, served with potatoes (of course). I only let myself have one helping because I was already full...there aren't many members that let you do that. Most of them tell you to eat more...2 helpings is required at most houses. I just need to learn to take smaller helpings. The food here is really good though....I LOVE it!!

The weather here is so strange. When I first got here it was hot and then it was freezing for a week and then it was warm again. Lately it has been so beautiful...perfect temperature without much rain. But about 2 days ago fall came and now it is cold again. I don't think it would be as bad if we weren't out in it all day long. I'm going to look for a fleece jacket and see if I can find a cute one that I can wear under my jacket. The leaves are falling to the ground, but they don't have maple trees here that I have seen, with the HUGE leaves that turn all sorts of beautiful autumn colors!! It is still beautiful...they have such beautiful countryside that it makes up for it!!"

Letter #16 (9-15-08)

2008-09-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

This week has been cool!! We started teaching this woman named Frau Angelas. She is from Sri lanke (don´t know how to spell it in English) and she speaks English and German, but she prefers to be taught in English. We had 3 appointments with her this last week and she prayed about the book of Mormon and said that she had a feeling that she had never felt before in her life. It was so cool!! We are meeting with her again this week and hope to put her on baptismal date this week or next week!!

Speaking of Baptismal date....S is doing so well. We taught her about temples and she really liked that we do work for those who have passed on...she has some family members who have died. She is progressing...although she will be gone for 10 days on vacation, but we planned her baptism with her and so everything is pretty much set when she gets back!! WAHOOOO!! :o)

We had a very interesting Sunday. There was this Stake Woman´s Conference in Hanover that we got to go to...well S said she was going to go...that´s why we got to go, but then she ended up not showing up at the train station. We had already bought a ticket for all of us and a ward member, so we just went anyways. It´s a little over an hour of a train ride to Hanover. It was a really good meeting...from what I could understand. Diana, the ward member who came with us, went back with another ward member in her car...because it is faster and she had to get up early. Well it´s a good thing because we had an interesting ride home!! I guess there was a Fußball game (Soccer) that night and there were SO many people waiting for the train. There was another train coming in about 25 minutes...so we decided to wait....bad idea. It was even more packed and there were a ton of drunk boys...yes boys..between the ages of 16-25. There were drunk people sitting on both sides and we were crammed in the middle of the 2 sides of the train car with a bunch of normal people. Things were fine at first because it was so packed that no one noticed how we were dressed or our name tags. Then the train started to empty out and I was sick of standing against the doors that kept opening to let people in and out. So I moved out into the middle of that area and just balanced myself as the train moved along...wrong choice. I immediately felt about 8 people just staring at me on one side through this glass door. I refused to look because I knew that they were drunk and crazy. They were all looking at me for SO long as I just stared right ahead. I finally looked the opposite direction of the staring boys and this guy waves at me from the other group on the other side. I looked right at sister Jones and we both thought the same thing..."Oh no, they´ve noticed us!!" I moved back against the door by Sister Jones and we were then bombarded by 5 or 6 of them. They came right up to us and we were just stuck against the wall. They were asking us who we were and why we were dressed like that. They kept asking if we were nuns and we said no about a million times. They said that only nuns wear shoes like ours!! I think my shoes are cute, but whatever!! :o) They kept mocking us and asking why we didn´t have a cap on our heads. One of them got right up in my face and pointed at my name tag with his beer bottle. I thought it was going to spill all over me. They ended up offering us a beer and asked us to party with them...we of course said no. It was a little scary because they were pretty drunk and unaware of what they were really doing and so we kept trying to find a way out as they stood around and talked to us, but the only way out was to get off the train because we would have had to walk by all of their friends to move to another car. Soon it cleared out a bit and only 3 of them hung around. One of them was speaking English to us and kept swearing, which I hadn´t heard in a long time...German swear words just don´t pierce my heart as much as the English ones. One of them kept asking me what we do for fun...why we don´t party. I told him that I have fun doing what I´m doing and he kept asking why we don´t party...I don´t really think he was understanding that we don´t party like him!! It was a LONG train ride..about an hour and then it was finally over. We ended up missing our connecting train because the train was so slow, so we didn´t get home till 10:00pm. An hour later then planned!! Lesson learned? ALWAYS take the first train!! lol

It was an exciting week!! I love missionary work and all the excitement it brings!! I know this is the work of the Lord and that He is watching over me!!

Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Jones

Letter #15 (9-08-08)

2008-09-08T07:07:00.000-07:00

This week was a pretty good week. The language is coming better...not perfect, but better!! :o)
We spent a lot of time working in our area with our family, but have seen no success at all. Every contact that we get ends up not being interested any more. Strange, but thats the way things are. This is our last week with them and then next Sunday we should have someone that they can bring to church!! We have a lot of work this week to get that accomplished, but it is possible!! We will do it!! The Lord is on our side and was with us when we chose this family and this area and also when we set our goals with this family...this is what the Lord wanted and now we just need to find this person/family!!
S is doing well!! We taught her about Tithing and she agreed to live it when she gets baptized!! She is doing so well. The only problem...because there is always a problem...is that her ex-husband got kicked out of his girlfriends place and is staying with her temporarily till he finds his own place. He needs to move out before she can get baptized!! We are trying to work that out...S knows and she is trying to get him out faster. She is so wonderful.
Well that´s about all for this week!! I will write next week and tell you what happens in this area with the members we are working with!! It will be something cool, I just know it!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Letter #14 (9-1-08)

2008-09-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

So this week we started working officially with our family in the Gemeinde for our Tag-Team Missionary Work!! (we were asked to choose a family in the ward that we could work with for 3 weeks and work together to do missionary work.) We were in their Gebiet (area) EVERYDAY for at least an hour...if not 2 hours. We did doors, talked to people in the near by park and did SK (street contacting) on the streets by their house. They are so wonderful and SO excited about it. The wife even came with us to a contacts house, but sadly he was not at home. She started asking us questions like...how we approuch people on the street and what we say when we go Tür zu Tür.(door to door) Mostly she just wanted to know how we started talking to people about the Gospel. We told her and she was really surprised that we were so bold. The nice thing about being a missionary is that we can be bold...we have a name tag and wear funny clothes and that is our calling, to talk to everyone and be bold. I thought it was cool that she was asking us questions about it because I can really see the desire in her to want to learn how to do missionary work. So I hope that as we meet with her and her husband, work in their area, and take her with us more that she will be able to see what she can do as a member missionary. We had an out of our bubble week this week with them and she totally took it to heart. She tried to talk to a co-worker about the Gospel, it didn´t work out the way she wanted to, but she put forth a great effort and I know that she learned from that and what she can do differently next time!! They are the perfect family to work with and I really am glad that we are doing this. Sister Jones and I both really like the area...when we are there we just feel so happy and good inside. Their goal at the end of the 3 weeks is to find someone that we can teach in their home and that they can bring to church.

Sonja is doing so great and is so excited to get baptized!! Her date is now officially the first of October...the day before Sister Jones goes home!! She is so ready and I wish she wasn´t going on vacation, but we will just pray really hard that nothing changes while she is gone. We actually met Sonja´s sister on Sunday and taught her the first lesson and set up 2 more appointments this week. She was already taught by missionaries a few times, but it was 2 years ago!! She commited to reading in the book of Mormon and praying about it!!

So our family (the one we are working with) told us that it might be good to go to the park on Wed and Thursday because it is supposed to be nice, so we of course listened to them. We found a family that was sitting on one of the benches and talked to them and both the mom and the dad were interested in what we had to say. They gave us their contact info and we are going to visit them today. How cool would that be to teach a whole family...a mom, dad and 2 kids!! It´s like a missionaries dream. I hope that it works out.

I love this work and I´m trying everyday to do better and be happier. I love the Lord and I´m so greatful for what He has done for me. This mission is just a small thing I can do to try and repay him...I will never be able to repay him, but I will do all that I can to bring others to the knowledge of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!! This church is true and it is lead by Jesus Christ Himself, through the living Prophet Thomas S. Monson.

Love,
Sister Jones

Letter #13 continued....(8-25-08)

2008-08-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry about last week. I sent the emails and then when I checked this week they were all sent back to me!! I hope that this works and I resent the one from last week!!

(Parts of last weeks letter to mom):
I know that the Lord is in this work and that He loves me. Sometimes it is so hard to see the things that he has blessed me with. Especially during my trials, but when I step back and look at the big picture I can more easily see what he has given me!! Sister Jones and I were talking this week about how interesting it is to be on a mission and how differently you see the world and the people in it. I related it to a snow globe. I feel like I´m holding a snow globe in my hands and that I am watching all these people go to and from work, the store, visiting family and just living their lives. I just see the world from a far distance and am learning to understand what people think, how people think and why people think the way they do. People say things to us on the streets and it just makes it so evident that these truly are the last days and that their truly was a falling away and that we truly have the Gospel again. It's hard to explain, but I just see everything so different and more clear then I ever have before. Missions really can solidify your testimony for life...it definitely has for me.

We met this woman on the street this week from Africa. She told us that she felt like the Spirit was telling her to go for a walk and she followed that feeling and met us. We brought her a Book of Mormon a few day later and taught her about Joseph Smith. She is a strong believer in Christ, but she didn't understand why we talked about Joseph Smith instead of Christ. We tried to explain to her that it is through prophets that we learn more about Christ. For prophets are here to testify of Jesus Christ and bring us closer to him. Through Joseph Smith we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ again. She still didn't really like that we talked about him, but we set up another appointment. She said that she is always at her church because her husband is one of the pastors so it would be best to meet there. We agreed and a few days later headed to this church. It's more like just a building then a church, but we went in and talked to another woman for awhile and then the other pastor came out of his office and we taught them the First Vision. He also said that he didn't want us to talk about Joseph Smith because if we teach about him we will forget about Jesus Christ. They are such strong believers in Christ, but they don't understand how His church works. The church of Christ is looked over by prophets and apostles when teach about Christ and serve His people. Their goal is to bring others unto Christ. They know the Bible really well, but they don't understand what His church really is. It was a really cool experience...thankfully it was in English. The woman we met on the street finally came, but by the time she got there we had to leave to another appointment. The Pastor was so nice though and told us that we are always welcome in their church. They are so close to the truth, but yet so far. They are so close that they don't even recognize the real truth...even when it walks into their church. I will let you know if more happens!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Letter #12/#13 (8-25-08)

2008-08-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

I don´t have much time to write this week!! So I´m attaching the letter that I wrote to my president this week!! I hope things are great for you!!

Love Sister Jones

Hallo Präsident Thompson,

This week went by so fast. We met with Svetlana again and she said that she prayed about the Book of Mormon and that she felt something good, but she wasn´t sure what it was. We bore testimony to her that it was the Holy Ghost telling her that the Book was true. She believes that it´s true!! It was so cool. Then we watched the Joseph Smith movie together in Russian and then asked her what she though about it. She said that it could be possible for that to happen and that if the Book of Mormon is true then Joseph Smith is a prophet. She has made so much progress in the last 2 weeks!! Although....Satan works really fast. She didn´t come to church on Sunday. Olaf (one of the family members she is staying with) said that she seems to be a little overwhelmed with it all and that maybe it is just to much too fast. She also cancelled our appointment for Sunday night. I called her to see how she was and she asked if she could do something with us today (P-day). I think it will be good for her to see that we are normal people and that you can be a member of our church and still live a normal life. I really hope that we can meet with her this week!! She is just so wonderful!!

Everything else is great. I kind of had a break down this week because I´m still really overwhelmed with the language. I still can only understand a little bit...more then when I first got here, but not enough to always know what people are saying. I thought I was doing fine because Sister Jones is always saying how proud she is of me and how much I can understand, but then the Elders keep saying..."You still don´t understand yet?" Well thanks Elders...I don´t think they mean it exacly in the way that I took it, but I was still frustrated and then got down on myself. But I got a blessing yesterday and I feel a lot better now!! I still don´t fully understand, but I know it will come when the Lord wants it to!! I´m trying to do my part!!

Thanks for everything and I´m excited to see you and your wife this week!!

Sister Jones

No letter this week...(8-18-08)

2008-08-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

For you faithful followers/readers...you may have been wondering "why no post?"....well, if you can believe it, there was not email from Christi this past Monday. We thought maybe she had a weird P-day and we would hear from her on Tuesday...but now the week is over and we still haven't gotten anything. I know this is shocking to all of you who know our Christi....but yes, she didn't even get an email off to her mom...she better have a real good excuse! I guess we will find out in a few days! Stay tuned...hopefully it will be a long email!

...her Utah sister

Letter #11 (August 11, 2008)

2008-08-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

This week was great..although I think I say that about every week!! ;o)

We had Zone Conference this week. Normally it is 2 zones together, but this time it was a half zone conference, which is 3 zones. It was really cool because I got to see my old companion and the sister that I came out in the field with. It was so Spiritual and SO good. So they have this thing called Pin and Patch in my mission. It is something that missionaries can earn. For the Pin you have to memorize 20 scriptures in German and also do outlines for lessons 1-3. The Patch is 20 more scriptures memorized (you have to be able to recite all 40) and outlines for lessons 4-5. For my first zone conference my mission president commited all the new missionaries to get their Pin by the next zone conference. Well I started it, but then got lost in doing other missionary things. Well, my wonderful comp encouraged me to do it and told me that it was still possible. So I started memorizing like a crazy person and managed to get it done. So the morning of Zone Conference I passed off my scriptures to my district leader and also had my outlines done....so during the meeting I got to go up and get my Pin, which looks super cool and I also got to go up and get sung to for my birthday!! The meeting was mostly centered on Jesus Christ and the atonement. It was so good. My comp and I are excited to spend one more transfer together. She goes home at the end of this transfer, which is sad because I wish I could spend my whole mission with her. We get along so well and have SO much fun. This last transfer was only 5 weeks because of a missions presidents conference this next week that our pres is going to, so we still have 7 weeks left together. The transfer ends in the beginning of October and I will be getting a new companion and hopefully staying here.

We had a baptism on Saturday for a 10 year old named Alicia. Her mom was recently baptized and Sister Welch and her old comp, then sister Welch and I and now Sister Jones and I have been teaching her. She is so cute, but very much 10 years old!! I think that she will be great though because she has her mom´s support. She is way more prepared for baptism then I was!! ;o) The whole thing was crazy because people kept calling and saying that they couldn´t come. Normally we have it after church on Sunday, but her mom wanted it on Saturday. We still had a pretty good turn out for a saturday. I ended up singing with the Elders because our Musikalischerdarbeitung (yeah...that is musical number) fell through. I also sang again on Sunday for church and have realized how excited I will be when I am able to practice everyday again. I have lost a lot of the control of my voice...meaning now you can hear in my voice that I am nervous, but that is ok!! One day I will get it back, for now I will just do what I can with what I have left!!

Sonja is doing well, but she keeps promising to come to church and then she doesn´t show up...we are working on figuring out why. She is always at our appt., but never at church. She just needs to understand how important it is!! It will be fine!! This week we have a lot planned already and I´m very excited!!

Thanks again for all the support and the emails with words of wisdom....it really does mean a lot to me!! There are many things that I want to change about myself and how I do missionary work, but it won´t happen in one day. I just need to do a little better every day and the Lord will help me!!

Sister Jones

Letter #10 (August 4, 2008)

2008-08-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

This week have been really good. We had an appointment with Sonja on Friday and it was so great!! She keeps saying that she is waiting for an answer, but yet she says that she feels good when she reading in the book of Mormon. I told her that that is her answer. I told her that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a Prophet and that this church is true and she agreed, but she is waiting for an answer. So I told her that when I got my answer I didn´t see an angel, have a huge spiritual experience, or have a dream/vision....I only had a good feeling in my heart. I told her that that was her answer. When she reads and gets a good feeling that is the Spirit telling her that it is true. We didn´t plan on talking about that, but I´m so glad that I did. The Spirit was so strong and I felt such a huge love and excitement for her as we talked. It was the best appointment that I have had since I got here. I was SO happy for the rest of the day!! I have been striving to remain that happy everyday...it is a struggle to always be positive and happy, but it is something that I am working on because I love it here.

Then Sunday came and I was still pretty happy. Then a member came up and said hi to me and gave me a huge. She is a very old lady who has always loved the missionaries. She is a convert and has had the missionaries over at her house for FHA (FHE) for the last 20 years or something...at least that is what she says. Well last transfer the Bishop and the GML (Ward Mission Leader) told us that we needed to be more involved with the JAE (JSA) by going to their activities...mostly FHA on Monday nights. So Sister Welch and I went and told this Lady that we were unable to go to her house anymore for FHA because we needed to be with the JAE. She took it pretty well at that time, but asked us to come for Sister Welch´s last Monday before she got transferred. So we went with the JAE for a few Mondays and then went to this lady´s house for Sister Welch´s last one. Then Sister Jones came and we have been super busy and every Sunday this Lady comes up and asks us if we are going to her house for FHA. We always have to say no because we either have an appointment or we are going with the JAE and an investigator. She has been getting more sad and more sad every Sunday that we say no. Last Sunday she even said that we are ruining her FHA. So back to Sunday (yesterday). She hugged me and then asked me if we were coming tomorrow to FHA. I said, "Nein..." and before I could say another word she made an angry sound, waved her hand at me to brush me aside and then walked away. I think that I had my mouth hanging open as she walked away because I was so shocked at her childishness. She finally came back and talked to me later and I got to explain to her that we have an appointment and our investigator is coming to the JAE FHA with us. I told her sorry, but she looked devastated. The thing is, is that the missionaries are not the only ones that go to her FHA. She was more people that she invites, but she cancels it if we cannot come. The other thing is that the bishop has talked to her and told her that if we have appointments or have an investigator that is going with the JAE then we can not go with her...she knows that because she has been told that many times. I love spending time with the members, but spending 2.5 hours at her place every Monday night is a waste of time. If it was every once in a while then that would be fine. When we used to go it was bad because we would have p-day then go straight to her place at 6pm (when p-day ends) and then leave her place at 8:30pm and go straight home to be home by 9pm!! That is a whole day with no missionary work. I felt so horrible on Sunday because she was mad at me and I couldn´t fully explain to her in German that I was sorry. It was really hard. I´m understanding more and able to say more, but I can´t fully express how I feel. It is hard in situations like this when all you know how to say is sorry. I have to be blunt because I don´t know how to sugar coat things in German!! The day got better though because we went and ate at one of my favorite families house. Schwester Perschk is SOOO cool. She reminds me of an American mom. She lived in Australia for 4 years and kind of adopted a more English/American way of living. She is so cool, but still very German!!

This week was so wonderful...with all the ups and downs I just LOVE missionary work!! It is only Monday and our schedules are already almost full for the week!! We are working on daily contact with our investigators, so with that and all the appointments that we have we have barely any time left. It will be a great week!!
I love this work, I know that it is true and that this is the Lord´s Church!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Finally...some pictures!

2008-07-29T16:11:00.001-07:00

Christi with her 1st district and 1st companion (Sister Welch)

On the bahn

Christi says, "Schwester Poplinz...I´m so BIG!! She calls me her große Sister Jones (groß means big or tall) Thanks Schwester Poplinz...way to give me more confidence. But hey the woman speaks the truth, just look at her!! :o)"

A day spent in Dortmund with Sister Denton.

Helping move a family...for all you Washingtonians this probably looks familiar.

Sister Jones meet Sister Jones

comp #2

Christi says, "District Activity at the church. "Missionary Olympics"
It was so fun. We did all kinds of activities to demonstrate "missionary skills" like unmaking and making a bed blind folded, baby toss (we are not supposed to hold children...this was to practice keeping them away!! lol), 3 legged race (always stay with and work together with your comp), tie tying contest, water balloon contest, eating contest...Germans feed you so much and MAKE you eat it all. I didn´t believe that till I tried and they give you more even when you said you were full!!"

District Olympics...game 1: strip the bed and remake it...

Don't forget the nurses corners, like your momma taught you.

Game #2: tie tying

Game #3: 3-legged race

Game #4: baby toss

What you ask? Baby toss...yep, that would be a cabbage patch kid being tossed...what must the locals think.