"rain drops are falling on my head.." (sing as the song goes) this has officiallly become the theme song of my mission because its been sung while were tracting more than any other song.. but its just normal for me know. the rain doesnt really bother me anymore at all, i think ill actually miss it when i get home. maybe :)

so lets see.. highlights from this week were thanksgiving, a new baptismal date, and a funny african meal with the elders.

we went out to familie sherlocks home in a small dorpje (town) that is surrounded by farms and green. i love this area, makes me think that i could maybe live here forever. (dont worry, im coming back). but we spent the day cooking, doing service, teaching a part member fam and knocking on some beautiful homes (i found a bed and breakfast to come stay at in the future:)). we then ate a delicious thanksgiving meal with the fam and the elders. i successfully accomplished making declicious sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, glazed carrots and pie without american kitchen things! haha accomplishments! it definitely didnt feel like real thanksgiving but we made it fun and im so grateful that we had  family to celebrate with!

we set a new baptismal date for december with Pepe. he has had a lot of hard times recently but has found all of his strength through the bible. now he is adding the book of mormon to it and while it is difficult for him to accept new things, he is finding that it all supports what he knows is right and is hoping that this is the right path for him :) the bishop and some of the leaders already love him so he will become a great new addition to the ward!

saturday one of the african families in our ward made lunch for us and the elders.  only for us. they led us into a room in the house with a table set up for the sisters and a table for the elders with tonss of food and bowls of water with soap and towels to clean ourselves up. then they left us there for an hour to enjoy the meal. we came out of there soo full it was difficult to work all day haha but it was fun and delicious. 

thanks for you support! start enjoying the holidays for me!

love you all! zuster j

New Pics!

Sorry there wasn't any captions to go along with these ones but enjoy the new pics! (click on each to enlarge or view as a slideshow)

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Hallo! and happy early thanksgiving! i just got back from playing some good ol american football with the zone and eating some pumpkin pie! and mcdonalds... good american day! haha it was so much fun though seeing all the personalities of the elders really come out. and i got to be the secret weapon for my team (since elders cant touch sisters) and scored 3 touchdowns! haha it was a great day.  i will spend thanksgiving cooking at a members house and teaching them how to celebrate an american holiday! were really looking forward to it! 

 

this week was so full i seriously cant even remember what i could tell you.. my comp just reminded be that we went on exchanges wed! i got to go up to haarlem in the netherlands with the greenie and it was so much fun! it was my first time working with someone so new and it was fun to see how everything worked out. it was especially fun to be able to really use my language because i can understand everyone in the netherlands! here in antwerpen is another story.. haha the flemish accent kills me sometimes. we went to a dinner appt friday and my comp and i just looked at each other half way through the dinner and started laughing because we both knew we were only understanding half of what they were saying.  it gets frustrating but the only thing we can do is laugh. 

 

we are starting to find a lot more work in the nicer family areas of our city and our ward is super excited about that! we had a joint teach at every lesson this week which makes everything more fun for us and the investigator.  we even got to go to institute with an investigator this week which is always great!  i really feel like a part of this ward now and that everyone loves us just as much as we love them. i love being a part of this church and knowing that wherever i go i can have a loving family in a matter of a few weeks.  ill probably be transferred in 2 weeks now.. but then the process will just start all over :) 

 

i am so grateful to be here in belgium on a mission right now and so grateful for the support i receive from my family, friends and the lord!  have an amazing thanksgiving!!

love you all!

zuster j

 

ps. PLEASE SEND ALL MAIL TO MY MISSION ADDRESS IN THE NETHERLANDS FOR NOW!

 

Sister Jennifer Lynn Jones

Belgium/Netherlands Mission

Schipholweg 66

2316 XE Leiden

Netherlands

 

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its a girl!

i became an tante (tia or aunt) yesterday morning! sara, our new member from september gave birth to a beautiful baby girl earlier yesterday morning! she was on joint teach with us saturday night till 9pm and since we knew she was going to pop at any moment we kept the phone by our heads and she called at midnight to tell us she was heading to the hospital.  our relief society president picked her up and even got to cut the cord :) yesterday after church we headed to the hospital and got to hold Sam (we got special permission) and enjoy some special time with sara.  as i was holding this tiny thing it really hit me that heavenly father knows what he is doing and that he has a special plan for each one of us.  3 months ago sara had no one, no job, no money to fix her apartment let alone buy food and was praying for help.  then we came into her life and with her incredible faith she now has everything. in the past week we have turned her apartment into a home and she had company with her at the delivery and has visitors often.  she got a job and now has four months of paid time to spend with her daughters.  and this little baby now has a whole ward family to help raise her.  yesterday was a beautiful special day.  we ended the night eating crazy african food with our friends faith and victor and listening to some good african gospel music.  i love it :)

this week was full of all sorts of great things! sunday i got to teach sunday school with i love and saturday we had a stake womans day and we got to teach the woman how to role play giving out book of mormons.  it was a lot of fun and i felt confident in my language which felt fantastic :)  friday we had zone training where of course i was in the kitchen again so i missed some of it but the part of it i was there for was so amazing.  these 20 year old men are so impressive and inspired, i love being around them.  we also had a miracle after training.  sister hinchcliff and i were the last 2 in the church building and the phone at the church rang.  i answered it and a man asked me if this was the mormon church and he wanted to know where he could find a copy of the book of mormon.  he had been reading about the church and had been searching for a book of mormon but couldnt find one.  good thing he was talking to the right people :) so we made an appointment to take one to his house and he came to church on sunday! sunday morning we also received a call from a man we had met on a tram and he told us he was coming to church.  he came, loved it and will be back next week, had already read on his own in the book of mormon and had questions that hes excited to get answered at our next appt where he said hed have a few friends with him.

love you all!

zuster j

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November is here! and its cold! back to 2-3 layers of tights and scarves/hats and gloves.  i love this time of year, just wish it would stop getting colder :)

ok not toomuch time to write tonight because i got my hair done.. those silly girly things i have to do drive me crazy sometimes but i was starting to get comments so i thought i could sacrifice some time and money so i look a little better haha.  it was a great week though! i really dont know what to tell you though.. i felt like there wasnt enough time to get anything done this week but now that i look back it was a successful week. we found some great investigators, did some service, talked with our 90 yr old nazi friend who gave us his father in laws award winning speculoos recipe (belgian cookie), had funny appointments with our very hormonal about to have a baby new member, stocked the wrong mail man because we havent gotten any mail lately (nope still no package), made lots of pumpkin things for members/investigators, had a hilarious dinner appointment with our ward mission leader and his wife where his wife taught us to say things about farting in dutch..(the elders just loved repeating this), and taught an hillarious 95 yr old inactive member who acted like a 1 yr old kid.  sorry for the run on sentence but thats all i really have time for today.

have a good week! dont forget about the addresses for christmas cards!

zuster j