Merry Christmas Part 2

Hey everyone! 

Merry Christmas for reals! Also here, they celebrate Christmas on January 7th, so get ready for a LOT more emails about Christmas and New Years, haha!

This week was a really good week! It was really fun to celebrate Christmas in the mission field. Christmas this year was a perfect example of how I think Christmas should be celebrated. We first when to a mental hospital on Christmas Eve to participate in their little Christmas music program with Rita and some other members. We sang them Christmas songs and it was really great to see how we were bringing them the Christmas spirit! We went caroling that night and the next day as well. We also went to a few people who were feeling a little bit lonely on Christmas. We visited a woman in our branch named Lubov who's husband died about a year ago. She lives alone, and still seems to be struggling with her husband being gone. You could see it in her face how much it meant to her that we were there and were willing to talk to her and listened to her. We also went over to visit Marina, the one with a young daughter. Her husband was out of town (I think?) and as we were talking, it seemed like she was a little bit sad that they weren't all together. Even though it wasn't "Russian" Christmas, I think it reminded her that her husband isn't a member, and she desperately wants him to join the church. But, we watched the Christmas video with her and discussed Christ, and she seemed considerably happier after that! Sometimes, I think people just need your time and attention. This Christmas, I felt like I was doing what the Savior would do, and it gave me the best feeling inside.

We also had splits this week with the sisters in Omsk. They came here, and I went with Sister Steinagal and Sister Richardson was with Sister Wooley. Sister Steinagal and I went to see Baba Nastya, our recent convert, who is really just a delight! We talked with her about the Christmas story and the attributes of Mary and Joseph in the story, which was really interesting to discuss. We also had a meeting with Alina, and it was wonderful! We went through the baptismal interview questions, and she's almost ready!! She is such a wonderful girl. While sister Richardson was on splits, she visited Valentina in our branch. Her husband is not a member, but Sister Richardson and Sister Wooley challenged him to come to church and he did! I went over to him last transfer and we saw that he had a lot of potential so I am so glad he came! We are visiting them again this Tuesday! Woohoo!!

We also had our Christmas zone conference!! We sang lots of Christmas songs and ate good food together and talked about Christ. It was a really wonderful day! Sister Richardson and I gave a presentation about focusing our lives on Christ. When we look for good (Christlike) attributes in those around us, we are seeing people as Christ sees them. We had everyone turn to their companions and discuss the Christlike attributes they see in one another, and I think doing that strengthened a lot of relationships. When we strive to see people as Christ sees us (see their potential instead of their flaws), it allows us to work better with people and appreciate them more. It makes us happier:))

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Sister Jones

Pictures:

1. Sister Richardson and I in our Christmas (Hogwarts) pajamas

2. Our little Christmas tree we made out of branches:)))

3. Snowy Russia!!

Christmas Christmas Christmas ! ! !

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! С РОЖДЕСТВОМ!!!

This week was a wonderful week in the great country of Russia:))) We got to go on two exchanges this week! Exchanges are just when we (as Sister Training Leaders) switch companions for a day with Sister's in other areas to assess their needs there and see how they're doing. It was really fun! This week, we got to go to Barnaul, a city south of Novosibirsk. Barnaul is a beautiful city, and it was even more beautiful because there were Christmas lights everywhere! Here, the big holiday around this time is actually New Years, and then they celebrate Christmas on January 7th, so all of the decorations were actually for New Year's, but they look about the same so it was fine:) I served for the day with Sister Kofford in Barnaul which was way fun! We made banana bread with a member and she gave US a spiritual thought which was really cool! She talked about love and how we need to show love for others more and show people we really care about them. She was a really funny person, but way cute.

The other exchange we had this week was with the other Novo sisters on Left Bank. I got to stay in my area and Sister Scott came to me;) We had a really fun time going to babooshki (grandma's) and we had a really good activity that night! We had our friends over at the church and played games together. Our last activity was kinda awkward, but this one was really fun! 

We had our branch Christmas party this week! Sasha, a newer member, wrote the cutest little play about the birth of Jesus and the nativity story! Pretty much the whole branch participated and it was super cool to see them all work really hard to make the play happen. We had a few friends that came and they really enjoyed it! We also had a really less active member come and help a ton with the refreshments, so that was also really fun to see.

This week was a really great time, and I am so excited for next week and for CHRISTMAS! It is so fun to be here at this time of year, as a volunteer, because it really helps you focus on the real meaning of Christmas. I am very, very grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. It is because of Him and His sacrifice that we can choose to be better every day. We can be forgiven of our sins. We can find happiness and be free from guilt! Jesus Christ and His Atonement are the greatest gifts that God has given us. Please use them! It is sometimes hard to do what we know is right, but it is ALWAYS worth it. God can bless us so much more than anything of the world can. No money, no job, no possessions can bless us as much and give us as much happiness as the Lord can. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!! I love you all:))))

Sister Jones

Pictures:

Ice sculptures and lights in Novo!

Me and Sister Richardson:)))

Sick Yet Again

привет!!

Hey everyone, so this week was really uneventful. Like, REALLY. I got hit with the flu bug pretty badly and just pretty much spent the week in bed. So, one of the things I wanted to talk about was how my perspective has changed since coming on my mission.

A few weeks ago in Sunday School, we were talking about how God gives us trials not FOR something but for something. Ok, that doesn't make sense in English, but basically it means that He doesn't give us trials because we did bad things or in consequence of something (ok well sometimes He does but that's not the point) but He gives them to us FOR US. For our benefit and for our growth and learning. So, as I was laying in bed and dying all week, I thought a lot about God and what He wants me to learn from this. Not just from this week, but I have been getting sick quite a bit on my mission, and it is helpful to think of it in terms of what I can learn from it rather than why it's happening to me. I know that God loves us. He gives us trials and hard things to strengthen us and help us in our lives. I know He is there for us, as a loving parent always is.

I love you all:))

Sister Jones

I'm Training?

Hello everyone!!

So, I'm not actually training ahha, but it's something my new comp and I have been joking about this week) Sister Richardson (my new comp) is wonderful, and she came into country with all my companions that just left. She had torn her ACL in May, and had to go home for surgery, and now she's back in country! It's funny because it's like training again, because she got into country like a week ago, but it's not because she already knows everything... she came pre-trained! Also, she's from Virginia and so yay East Coast!!

This week was a pretty good week, but not super eventful. I am now a Sister Training Leader, so we went to the orientation for all the new people coming in and things like that this week. They are all so energetic, and it's was exciting to meet all the new volunteers! 

We also had a good activity on Friday night. Anton (the one who was baptized last week) loved it! We watched the new Christ Child video (for those of you who haven't seen it, PLEASE WATCH IT!! Here's the link : https://www.comeuntochrist.org/light-the-world/the-christ-child ), and Anton felt the spirit really strongly. He bore his testimony afterwards about how he knows that Jesus is our Savior. I have watched that video 4 or 5 times now, and it makes me want to cry every time. Jesus is the Christ!

I'm sorry for the short letter this week, but I hope all is going well back home! I love you all:)

Sister Jones

Pictures:

1. Me and Sister Richardson with Lenin (our pal;))

2. Some pretty Novo sights that don't actually look that pretty in pictures but I swear they were in real life.

Sister Krumperman Made Me Cry

Heyyyy everyone!!

So I know I keep saying I'm cold (I'm sorry for that btw it just happens because I AM always cold), but this week, my nose hairs froze and I burned my hand on a frozen door... so I think "cold" has taken on a whole new meaning for me and I'm not quite sure how to feel about it. It's really pretty and snowy, though!

First of all, we had zone conference this week. It was wonderful! We talked a lot just about how to work: how to connect to people, how to make friends, how to study Russian, how to study the gospel, etc and I am really inspired right now:) I also cried though... yikes. So what happened was it is Sister Krumperman's last zone conference. She was my very first companion. Sister Nielson, my STL (sister training leader) right now is also going home. And that's not all! All of my companions except my current trainee, Sister Sorenson, came in to the field with Sister Krumperman and Sister Nielson and they are ALL going home in 2 weeks. It kinda hit me at the end and I got really, really sad. But, it's ok, because I have made some of the best friends that I have ever had out here, and I have had some amazing experiences with them and learned so much from each of them. Sister Krumperman likes to write songs, and my favorite song of her originals is one that she wrote as she was leaving college and her roommates. The chorus goes "Fools call it luck, but I know God gave me my friends." 

Ok, enough with all the sad stuff. This week was still an amazing week! We had the best meeting with Anton. Well, every meeting is the best with Anton. We talked about prophets, the ten commandments, and the word of wisdom, which for those of you who don't know, is like a code of health that our church has. We don't drink alcohol, green or black tea, coffee, and we don't smoke tobacco or any type of drugs. It also talks about how to eat a balanced diet. For those who live the Word of Wisdom, great blessings are promised, of health and always being able to feel the Holy Ghost with us. Anton is a little worried about the Word of Wisdom, particularly the coffee part because he is a barista and coffee is literally his life. But, he has such a strong testimony already of the church and of the Book of Mormon. He is such a feeling person. He feels the Holy Ghost really strongly, and he also feels the absence of the Holy Ghost very strongly. He is willing to live the Word of Wisdom, even though it is really hard for him, because he knows that it will bless him and he wants to feel the Spirit with him constantly. It was actually kinda funny, this week he kinda freaked out because he got upset about something and he didn't feel the Spirit anymore. He texted us frantically, and we told him to read his scriptures and pray and we'd talk about it later that night at our meeting. At the meeting, we asked him how it was going, and he said "Good! I figured it out. I read my scriptures and prayed, and I felt better." Bless him.

I know that prayer and scripture study really does help people. In the church, we have something called the "tripod", and it has three legs. Prayer, Scripture study, and going to church. Once we receive a testimony of things that we know to be true, we must keep doing these three steps, and if we do them faithfully and with full heart, we will not forget the things we know. I know 100% that this is true and I have seen it in the strong members here and in my own home. The times that I have really known that God is there and that He loves me is when I show Him that I love Him. How do we do this? Study His word. Seek to have experiences with Him. Pray. How can He reach out to us if we refuse to listen?

I am so sorry that there are no pictures, I took a ton this week and then I left my camera at home:( But I love you all! I hope everything is well wherever you are and that it is not as cold as it is in Siberia!

Sister Jones

Very Very Thankful:)

Hello friends!!

Happy Thanksgiving! This week was a blast! Also lowkey the worst but everything's fine now!

I'll start with the really bad part of the week because it was also the beginning of the week. Monday, I wasn't feeling too hot. All day I was kinda under the weather, but sometimes I just feel like that so I just kept going. Well, that was a mistake. We started out to a meeting and I threw up in a Russian trashcan (on the side of the road. in the middle of nowhere:)) , so that was fun! Needless to say, we went home and I was also out on Tuesday, but I got a lot of paperwork stuff done so all is well!

Sadly, I was a little bit sick for Thanksgiving and could only eat mashed potatoes but it was so fun! We went to the senior couples house and had dinner and talked. Our ballerina friend, Emily, also came! As we were going around saying what we were thankful for, it really hit me how grateful I am for my mission. I am so grateful for the time that I have spent here, the happiness I have felt, the people I have met, and the person I have become. My mission has been the best experience of my life, and I am excited to see what else is in store for the rest of it!

Now for the high of the week, ANTON GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was the most amazing day and the spirit was so strong. I gave a talk at his baptism about baptism, and he just beamed the whole time:)

I reflected a lot on my own baptism this week and what it has meant to me. Baptism is very important in our church because it is a covenant (two way promise) we make with God. We promise to take His name upon us (the name of Jesus Christ), keep His commandments, and always remember Him and in return He sends us His spirit to comfort, guide and protect us. I am so grateful for the decision I made to get baptized and the blessings I have seen from it. I am so grateful for the Spirit I feel in my life and the chance I have to help others feel the same. I love this gospel! I love my Savior! I love my God!

Love, 

Sister Jones

Pictures:

1. Me (I got sick on Monday and died in a random mall)

2. Me and Sister Krumperman!

3. Beautiful Novo<3