Week 25 Ireland

Dear Family and Friends!

This week has been pretty slow. But it was a good week. Sister Brand and I had some challenges but through communication and relying completely on the Lord we were able to get through it. Whenever I have a rough week I get a tad bit homesick. But one day I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants and it was honestly an answer to prayer! I always ask Heavenly Father to help me just FEEL BETTER! I came across D&C 31 “Behold verily I say unto you, go from them only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place for them…. Be faithful unto the end, and lo, I am with you. These words are not of man nor of men, but of me, even Jesus Christ, your redeemer, by the will of the Father. Amen.” (D&C 31:6,13) I just loved that so much!! It brought me sooo much comfort! I’ll only be away for a LITTLE TIME and the Lord will BLESS my family!! AHH!!! Love it! Isn’t so awesome how the scriptures can just speak to us?!

Monday we had a pretty good p-day (sorry again about my rubbish email!) We traveled out to Dundrum and met up with some other missionaries. We went to lunch at a place called Nandos! It was all about chicken and it was so yummy!! But because of travel, lunch, and then travel again, we weren’t able to have a very productive p-day… we didn’t even clean our flat! haha but it was still fun!

Tuesday we had district meeting! But then we had to say goodbye to some missionaries! Gosh I HATE goodbyes! Our AP Elder Akebrand has been one of my favorite and luckily he was at our district meeting so I was able to say goodbye to him! (I didn’t even know his time was up! Some Elders are so humble!) That afternoon we had dinner with a recent convert! We went to a place called Boojums. It is EXACTLY like Chipotle! SO GOOD!! I felt right at home! (Sister Brand and I have already had it again since then hahaha)

Wednesday we taught a lady named Aldona! We met her in the city WEEKS ago! She was passing out pamphlets for her church. Born again Christian or something like that. It went really well! She had LOADS of questions and we answered them to the best of our ability! But we had to write some downed and promised to get back to her haha. She told us to give her two weeks to read the BOM! I hope she does and then invites us back!!

Thursday we had lunch with a member named Claire. She is an older woman and she is so much fun! We had a great meal together and then we were able to share a message. We chose Abish! Goodness I LOVE that story! Abish was the lamanitish woman who spread the gospel from house to house! What a remarkable woman! I have learned so much from her… and it’s only a couple of verses! haha (Alma 19:16-17)

Friday we had a neat experience with a recent convert. Her name is Corinna and she is 19. She is so awesome! We talked about prayer and she expressed to us that she was stuggling with it a bit. So we decided to have a little workshop. She was a bit giggly during her prayer so we decided to show her how to focus and invite the spirit. The three of us knelt down and we gave her some ideas on how to let the spirit in her heart. She said a lovely prayer and the spirit was SO STRONG! AH! It was so cool! Afterwords she flipped! She thought it was so neat that she was able to feel that way so quickly! It’s hard to describe but it was really cool 🙂

Saturday Sister Brand got pretty sick so we were in the flat for half of the day. Then when she got around to feeling better we headed out to Balbriggan. It was so beautiful outside! We didn’t have much success there but we were able to try by a few formers and because of that we found a new potential! He is very interested in learning about Jesus Christ… however I kinda think he’s a Baptist minister…. hahaha we’ll find out!!

Sunday was an excellent Sabbath!! To begin with, we had a non-member visitor from KOREA in our ward! I got waaay too excited I think haha. His name is Yo-Young (but of course that’s most likely NOT how you spell it hahaha) I went straight up to him (mostly because I a missionary and whenever we don’t recognize someone at church we ATTACK!) and asked him all sorts of questions. He can BARELY speak English so it was challenging. When I found out he was Korean and said “on-yong-ha-say-o!” (again…. not how it’s spelled) He got so excited! But then I told him that that was all I knew haha. So I took him into the chapel and sat next to him. Then I ran to the storage room and grabbed a Korean BOM! He got excited about that too! Sister Brand gave a talk so she was sitting up on the stand which meant I got to sit with the Korean! 🙂 So during the Sacrament I felt that I needed to SHOW Yo-Young what was really being said. (because he doesn’t understand English) So during the prayers I helped him open up to Moroni 4 and 5. It took a while because our books were so different but he found it and read the verses with the prayers and then he had an “ah-ha” moment and looked at me and just smiled!!! Oh my heart was so warm!!! It felt so good to help him understand the beautiful words of the Sacrament prayer! I just love Koreans! Plus it made me miss dad soooo much!! hahaha We then found out that he lives in the Elders area so we don’t get to teach him 😦 But hopefully he’ll be at church next week!!

Sister Brand did an excellent job on her talk! She spoke about Holy Places that we can create ANYWHERE! It was beautiful.

Sister Brand and I are learning a song in Gaelic!!! It is so fun! We’ll perfect it and record it for all of you! Gaelic is so pretty!

I think I have neglected to tell you all a little bit about Sister Brand! She is 21 (almost 22 in November!) She is from Fairbanks Alaska! She is a convert! She was Luthren before and has been a member for almost 4 years. Is is the youngest of 5 and she goes to BYU-I for OT!

She is so great!! I love her dearly! I’ll sure miss her…..

Yep… we got our moves call last night…..

Sister Brand is moving to Scotland!!! She will be in the Edinburgh Zone. I am staying here in Dublin and my new companion will be Sister Huntsman!! She came out in Sister Brands group so she’s been out almost 5 months.

I’m a bit nervous to lead this area because it is HUGE!! And I don’t feel like I know it all too well yet… but I’m still learning and Sister Huntsman will just have to learn with me! haha I don’t know much about her yet but I have heard many wonderful things about her! She’s from UTAH! 🙂

Sister Robertson will still be in my district so I’ll continue to see her once a week.

Dublin Facts:

There are tons of street performers in the city! My favorite one is a guy who dresses up like Mario and plays Mario Cart songs on his keyboard! hahaha it’s hilarious!

Also, there is a group of about 8 or 10 homeless people that basically live in the city and they write out quotes with chalk on the walk way every single day! (they are so dedicated)

I love you all so much! And I appreciate all your prayers! I can feel the love. Literally!! Thank you for all you do! Love the Lord and never forget to PRAY!!!!

Love Sister Jones

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all you September people!! Don’t party too hard without me!!!

The people from Venezuela! They come to our English class and they are so awesome!! The elders are the elders that serve in our ward. E Andrews and E Roper. E Roper is moving to the Glasgow zone and E Andrews will stay here and train again!

DUBLIN PICS

 

Week 24 Ireland

Dear family and friends,

Well…. I’ve done a bad thing and I took too long to read and respond to emails so now I only have 5 minutes opps! I am so sorry!! I think I’ll start typing this one first from now on…

This past weekend was really hard for me spiritually. I went through a serious trial of my faith! But I know now that Heavenly Father does LOVE all of His children! I have felt His love more than I ever have in just the past couple of days.

Next Sunday is moves call! Can you believe it’s already here?? Sister Brand and I have no idea what will happen. I will most likely stay here in Dublin and we don’t know if she’ll leave or not. You’ll all find out next Monday! 🙂

Thank you to everyone for your prayers! I have really needed them!! The emails I got today were JUST what I needed to begin this next week!

We have a new investigator! She was a church headquarter referral and she is very interested! Our first lesson with her is tonight. She is YSA age and we feel really good about it. The Lord is truly blessing us even in the hardest of times!

I love you all so so much! I am safe here and I miss you all so much! There is much more I wish I could say right now but it’ll just have to wait.

Love Sister Jones

P.S. I’ll take pictures today!! 🙂 And it is FREEZING!! Winter is coming!

 

Week 23 Ireland

Family and Friends,

This week was really great! Sister Brand and I have learned so much individually and as a companionship. We are growing and growing and growing! But sometimes we run out of water and sunlight and our progression comes to a halt. But with a little bit of prayer and lots of faith, Heavenly Father has given us opportunities to remember our Savior and continue in our growth. I am amazed every single day at how much love I feel from God and His son.

We had Zone Conference this week. It was so great to see President Brown and to receive counsel from him as well as the assistants and zone leaders. It was a really great conference! The assistants helped us work on finding approaches…. there are so many ways to go about finding people! I felt the spirit so strongly during the conference and received personal revelation that is too sacred for me to share. Sister Brand and I immediately applied all that we learned that day and because of it we were able to find two new investigators! It actually works!

I am currently reading in Alma and I have noticed things that I have never noticed before! (I love it when that happens) Alma reflects again and again on his experience he had that caused him to have a true conversion. He saw and angel of God and because of that experience he was able to share his testimony with others. Especially his sons. I am so grateful for those chapters. Moroni easily could have left those out. I mean they were basically letters to his sons! Why would God need the WHOLE WORLD to read them? I believe we have them because not only did Alma’s sons need to hear his testimony, but we do as well. Alma was a strong and bold missionary. I want to be just like him! I love when he says he KNOWS. He KNOWS of the truth only through the Holy Ghost. “…I would not that ye should think that I know these things of myself, but it is the Spirit of God which is in me which maketh these things known unto me; for it I had not been born of God I should not have known these things.” (Alma 38:6) That is so powerful to me! I’m not even sure why… but I just really like it.

My testimony has grown so much here on my mission. I feel close to my Savior and I have a whole new love for my family. I thought I loved my family just enough and in just the right way. But now I realize that there is always room for more love.

I truly love each and every one of you! And I know, through the spirit of God, that He loves all of you. It’s a humbling experience to kneel down every night and pray for someone else. I can feel the love my Father in Heaven has for me and I want to share that love with everyone I meet. Now that I’ve said the word “love” 15 times I guess I’ll move on to say that I’m sorry this email isn’t full of cool Dublin stories or awesome investigator conversions…. these are things that have been on my mind and dwelling in my heart. The work is moving along. Sister Brand and I are staying busy and finding new people to teach.

I love you all so much! Have a good week everyone!

Love Sister Jones

 

Week 22 Ireland

Dia Dhuit Family and Friends!!

You may have noticed a new saying at the top there… well that’s Gaelic for hello! But when you translate it it means “God be with you” which is nice 🙂 I’m learning a bunch of phrases! It’s way fun! Dia Dhuit is pronounced: “dia-gwitch” like witch but with a “guh” haha hopefully that made sense!!

Tomorrow I will have been out for five months!! Can you believe it? FIVE!! Where has the time gone?? The mission moves so fast! I was so excited to hear about everyone from the stake that are leaving on missions! The Lord truly IS hastening the work! It’s amazing!

This week has been kind of a slow week. Tuesday night we had dinner at the Zortmans. They are an American family and they’ll only be here for 3 years due to work. They’ve been here for about a year now. Anyway, they are awesome and we had an awesome meal with them. So yummy! They have two sons and the oldest (16) asked us how he should start preparing for his mission haha we had LOTS to say! We gave him a huge list of all the things he needs to start doing now! They’re a great family and very strong members in our ward. It was nice to have a little taste of America for a night 🙂 We also watched the Restoration video with them (I’m pretty sure I’ll have that whole thing memorized by the time my mission is over) and we talked about how the restoration has blessed our lives. So much has come from it!! Brother Zortman works for Kellogs so when we left he gave us a bunch of cereal! YUM!

We taught our investigator Aaron on Thursday with a girl that just got off her mission. Lorna served in St George and she misses it so much! She was a great joint teach. We taught Aaron about the ten commandments and the Sabbath day. It went well and Lorna was a big help! We’re trying to find ways to help Aaron progress. He hasn’t really gained a testimony yet but I have faith that it will soon come as long as we help him recognize the answers to his prayers!

Friday we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders! They are so cool! They’re like Sister AP’s basically. I went to Terenure with Sister Shead and it was so much fun! She is from England and has been out for about a year. They have a car so that was really fun. We got a lot accompished in their area. Sister Shead gave me some really great advise on many different things. As a missionary I am constantly trying to improve myself as I experience new things that help me grow. We are always evaluating ourselves but that only helps us grow stronger! Sister Shead and I had some really wonderful lessons! We stopped by one of their potentials and were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and give him a baptismal date! (Awesome for them right?!) haha anyway, his lady friend was there and we were so blessed to hear her sing some of her favorite gospel songs…. (they’re from Nigeria and Kenya) It was hard not to laugh and her dance moves but I was glad to know that she loves Jesus so much 🙂 It was a great exchange!! Sister Brand stayed in our area with Sister Knab and as far as I know they had a great day too.

Saturday Sister Brand got sooooo sick!!! 😦 Poor thing! We stayed inside alllllllll day! I gave Sister Brand some of my smuggled NyQuil and made her go to bed. She slept all day and I studied all day…. at least I got more time to focus on PMG! That was actually really fun! Plus I got a two hour nap 🙂 I love those.

Sunday we went to church but Sister Brand was still feeling crummy. During church I got horrible stomach pain! Bleh! So after church we went home and passed out for like 3 hours! Then I gave Sister Brand more medicine and she went to bed early. My pains went away during my nap (thank you IBUprofen!!!) Today Sister Brand is feeling a bit better. At least enough to go out and about.

So all in all it was a bit slow. Thankfully I didn’t get too bored the past couple of days. I enjoyed the extra hours of study and sleep and now I’m ready to tackle the world!! I love missionary work and I try my very best to do what the Lord needs me to do!

I love you all!! Good luck to all my beautiful friends who are about to leave for the mission field! Never forget to pray!! The Lord loves each and every one of you!! Take care everyone and have a good week 🙂

Love Sister Jones

P.s. sorry still no pictures I’ll take some this week!

Week 21 Ireland

Hiya Family and Friends,

Well Ireland is an amazing place!! Dublin is a great city and there is so much culture here!

I’m sorry I don’t have much time left and I don’t have many things to report on so I’ll just share the best basics 🙂

My companion Sister Brand and I are a perfect pair! We had some trouble the first week trying to get to know one another and adjusting to our schedule. We have way more in common than we thought we did. We can feel everyones prayers!! Thank you so much!! We have had some poor numbers but we were so blessed this week!

Last night we got a random phone call from an unknown number. It was a woman named Lisa who is YSA age and wants to learn about the church! Her friend told her about it and apparently gave her our number. (Awesome member missionary!) Lisa asked about the WOW and asked if she could start living it now or if she had to wait until we taught her… hahaha things like this don’t just happen! At first we thought it was a prank from the mission home but nope! So cool huh?

Yesterday we got a new investigator! Her name is Kesaobaka! She is from Botswana and she has two beautiful little girls (11 and 3) She found mormon.org and wanted a BOM. We got the referral from church headquarters and gave her a call. She thought we were just going to drop of the book and move on but we stayed and got to know her and taught her a bit about Joseph Smith. She had TONS of questions! She has tried out many different religions and all she wants to do is be like Christ! She knows the spirit and she is really excited to read the Book of Mormon! When we had to leave she said “I wish you could stay forever!” She is so cool! I’m excited to teach her!!

One of the members played a prank on me!! hahaha she is an older lady named Dorrie. Sister Brand and her planned it! Apparently she does it to all of the new missionaries. We had an app with her so while we were on our way Sis B looked at the phone and said “aw man Dorrie canceled! Let’s try by a less active” Sis B then lead us to a flat and told me some “background” of the LA and then we knocked on the door. An old lady answered and she was dressed in an Elvis outfit and was holding a toy guitar and had recording earphones on… my thoughts: ok this lady might have some mental health problems…. hahaha how sad right? So Sis B asked if she was the lady we were looking for…. then the lady starting singing an Elvis song!!! hahahaha CRAZY!!! Right?! hahaha I just stood in shock. Then her and Sis Brand just starting laughing!!!! It was Dorrie!!!! hahahahahahaha! She is an awesome lady! She is so sweet to the missionaries and she is so funny! She is a huge fan of Elvis but she doesn’t record his songs hahaha. I was totally taken back and DID NOT expect that! hahaha her and Sis B totally got me! Dorrie also taught me so Gaelic! It’s the Irish language! Pretty soon I’ll be fluent in it hahaha

Another thing we do here is teach English! It is so much fun!!! We have like 6 people from Venezuela that come each week. The Elders in our ward have even starting teaching them the gospel! So great!

We went to dinner with our recent convert, Sean, in Temple Bar! It’s an old area of Dublin that is so so cute! We went to a mongolian resturuant. So yummy!! Look up Temple Bar! It is soooo Irish! Also google Dublin’s spire…. it’s this HUGE spire right in the middle of the city. It looks alienish… but its cool. We walk by it like every single day! hahah That might give you all a better idea of my area. It’s really neat.

Alright I don’t have much more time but I just want you all to know that I am really loving my mission! I grow each and everyday by learning more and more. This gospel is so real and so true! This gospel can answer every and any question that people have! No other church can provide that confirmation and clarity. I am so grateful for the spirit and the love I feel from Heavenly Father. I am grateful to have this opportunity to serve Him. It is going by so fast!! I hope I can do all that He needs me to!

I hope everyone will cleave to their testimony. Sometimes it’s all that we have.

I love you all so much!!!!!!

Love Sister Jones