sunshine

Blog:

There is no where else in the world i would want to be right now than here in this gorgeous country! The weather has been unbelievable this past week and every one is happy because of it! Today we wrote letters on a blanket in the grass surrounded by water.. is this my life?? haha i love this place. 

This week was full of fun activities and great appointments! We had a sisters health pday last week at the presidents home and i loved being with all 15 sisters and the presidents wife! I love her! we cooked some veggie meals, had a skin care lesson and did facials (i taught that part) and learned some stretches. It was a great day followed by exchanges! It was fun getting to know a new sister and learning from each other. i started feeling more comfortable here this week than ever and more confident in my teaching and language skills.  ive got a long way to go but I look forward to the learning/studying process too! Friday I got to go to Brussels for legality.  Now I can say that i have been to belgium too.. even though we only drove through and stopped for an hour.. dont worry though I went to a grocery store and bought some waffles and chocolate :) 

Our 2 baptismal dates are progressing well and becoming good friends with member of the church here so it was fun hearing all their stories this week! I love this work, i love these people, i love the sunshine and I wish i had more time to write :)

Till next week!

Zuster Jones

 

 

Blog: What an incredible week, I dont even know where to begin. Actually I dont even know if I can remember everything that took place because yesterday was so amazing it took place of everthing else! We enjoyed 2 church services yesterday with 3 investigators in our ward and 1 at the young adult service! Our earnest prayers and desires were answered toget these people to church and we soaked it in! Every few mins I would look around or in the eyes of our investigators and thought to myself "this is why I am on a mission". We even had a guy at the ward that we had just spoken with on the street a few days earlier and he stayed all 3 hours, loved it and set up an appointment to learn more! That morning I had told sister Gardner how crazy it would be if one of the people we invited on the street came to church and there he was! So awesome! One good laugh, Ive been having ankle problems and finally a physical therapist told me that i have whiplash in my calf muslces.. who does that?! then he told me that I needed to wear a heel to take the pressure off my calf. so i have been limping around the netherlands for probably 7 weeks now and all I had to do was buy a pair of heels to fix the problem.. the swelling and pain has gone down so much! still not perfect but with exercises and the heels i should be good in a few week.. so silly! Looking forward to a wonderful week in the newly warmed up netherlands! The bugs have come out in full force though! in my hair, in my nose, my throat, all over my clothes.. too bad i left my bug spray at the MTC because I didnt think it was needed.. Have a great week!

Blog: ok this week! was supposed to be one of the busiest weeks weve had.. but of course things dont always work out the way that we expect.. so we had quite a few disappointments but such is missionary life sometimes. We do have a new girl commited to baptism though that is also 24 (did i just admit that i am 24..ahh still weird being old) and she is doing so great! love her! There are always enough positives to keep me happy :) Transfers are this week but sister gardner and i are both staying here. i am so happy to stay but it also means i will spend at least 1/4 or more of my mission here. kind of crazy how fast time is flying by. i wish i could say i knew what i was doing by now, but im trying to be patient with myself :) I took our lunch break on my bday to celebrate myself for a little and bought some cake and had a green smoothie! i came home for lunch and had fun bday letters (including one that i am sooo thankful for!) so i felt loved and selfishly enjoyed time for me. then we had a healthy dinner at the bishops where they sang me the dutch bday song and made me some of my fav healthy curry pasta! the other members we ate with that week also made special meals and got me small gifts! i love the people here! sunday we had a beautiful testimony meeting and i was so humbled by these amazing people. they have so many trials in their lives that i would never wish on anyone and they still just think about other people. I love this place. Happy mothers day to all my favorite moms! <3<3 Zuster Jones

Blog: Great week here in Gouda! We have wonderful investigators that are loving having the gospel brought into their lives and I love seeing the changes in them! I promise ill have time to write more details about that one day.. We also had lots success with finding this week and tons of member support! Since i cant run right now (an ankle story maybe i will tell one day), ive adapted my work outs to a 6 week 6 pack program (thanks to a visit from an amazing daughter from one of the sr couples). so in 6 short weeks I will be a fit woman! sorry, cant show before and after pictures on here :). oh and the best part of the week, i got to skype with my family! that left me motivated for the coming transfer which starts today! Sister Gardner and I are determined to make this the best transfer Gouda has ever seen so we will keep you updated!

heres this week Today is queens day in the netherlands and we are all decked out in our orange and got to go enjoy the frij markt or flea markets that everyone sets up! I love holidays in european countries, so much pride everywhere! We had a district pday today to celebrate some bdays and queens day all together. and the best part.. it was supposed to rain today but somehow it is sunny and so warm! i went outside with no tights at all today! that is a first! and everyone is super white so it doesnt even matter that im ghostly! :) Ok on to this weeks news! this was the week of MIRACLES! our prayers were answered everyday and all the new investigators we found last week turned into progressing investigators this week and we found more new ones! next week we already have 3 or more appointments set up almost every single day and with the amount that we have to travel between each place we are going to be busy busy! you all know how much i love to be busy so i am super excited for this week and for the people we get to teach. Hopefully pictures will be put up with this! enjoy! love you all! Zuster Jones

It was an incredible week here! wednesday was our zone conference with a trip to the temple, conference, then an afternoon at keukenhof (tulip gardens). The temple was soo wonderful. it was so awesome to be in the session with just our mission, I dont think I will ever forget that experience! Keukenhof was beautiful! Ill try to get pictures to you in the next couple of weeks. Because of having wednesday totally dedicated to zone conference we had to make up for missionary work the rest of the week and what miracles we saw! We found 6 new investigators this week (2x the norm) and they were experiences like 'i just moved here and have been looking for a church and i was meeting with the mormon missionaries before' and service opportunities that turned into book of mormon reading and return appointments. i really loved the work this week! One funny story. saturday we had plans to be in 2 different cities and gone for about 3 hours each. the weather here has been very up and down but saturday we saw something different. we left the house on our bikes and 2 mins later it starts pouring. we were drenched. then half way to the city it started clearing up and was dry for most of our stay in that city. so we get on our bikes almost dry to go home and here comes another dark cloud. the wind picked up and it starting down pouring twice as hard as before. i have never been so wet in my life. it was hilarious and cold. we had to go home and change everything. my underwear was even wet underneath at least 4 layers. the next city we went to everything went perfectly until we met a new investigator and missed the bus.. so we got to try to find dinner in the area. in the netherlands there is no such thing as a jamba juice or rubios. the only options are turkish pizza places or these nasty cafeteria things that have the most random mixture of fried foods ever. so we got nasty food and sat under the bus stop in the rain laughing at our pathetic situation. But dont worry, we met the most awesome hopefully future investigator ever because of this. oh missionary work. things i never thought id do in my life are now just fun and funny. thanks for your support! love you! Zuster Jones