Happy Easter to you all!!

This week was a busy one! 

Happy Easter! 

Last Monday we emailed and then we napped. All day.

In the evening, Sister Smith came and picked us up to go out to dinner. 

I love Sister Smith! (Mom if you still have that picture that she sent you, you should post it because I haven't taken I picture with her yet. 

We went to Antigua's. It seems like we end up going there almost every week. I am okay with it though because I love chips and salsa! 

After dinner we went and picked up the Elders, and thus started a whole bunch of driving. 

We went all the way down to Ruston! 

Sister Conder and I had a sleepover at the Ruston Sister's apartment. 

We woke up really early in the morning and hopped back in the car for some more driving. 

 

We had Zone Conference in Shreveport! It was so much fun! I got to meet my mission "sister" Sister Marble and I got to see Elders Hingano, Harvey, and Hansen, and Sister Greenhalgh!

It was super fun! 

Sister Marble, Sister Conder, and ME!

These fools! Elder Hansen, Elder Harvey, Elder Hingano, ME, and Sister Greenhalgh. (I don't know where Elder Hunter was but he was there.)

They installed the dreaded TiWis into our cars. DUH DUH DUH!

No more speeding for anyone in the mission.

After Zone Conf. us and the Elders went to the Louisiana Broadwalk! It was super fun! 

On the way home we stopped at Cheddar's and we had Monte Cristos. Oh my goodness those things are sooo good. 

We stayed there for a little bit and we played the odds game. Elder Blair was determined to get me to eat something gross, but I won every time! :)

We had exchanges this week and I was with Sister Dobbins again. 

I made German pancakes in the morning, some of you may know them as Hootenannies.

Sister Dobbins found a flat in her bike tire so we had to walk. and walk. and walk. 

We walked pretty much all across town. It was kind of the worst. 

We had lunch with Sister Lou at Old Fashion and then she drove us to Olivia's house. SWEET MERCY!

We taught Olivia all about the Spirit world and the lesson went really well.

I was extra excited because Olivia quit her job! 

She hated that job and it sucked because we could never visit her because of it, but NOW! 

Things are definitely going somewhere with her!

Then we walked some more to Sherry's. 

Things went well with her too! 

She really opened up with us and told us what was really bothering her. 

After that lesson, Sister Conder and Sister Harrison came and picked us up from Sherry's house so we didn't have to walk some more. 

I came home to a package from my family. 

It was a Easter package!! There was lots of candy and a bunny that smelled like chocolate. I have been smelling that bunny ever since...

For dinner I made Beef Stroganoff. It was very good for my first time away from home.

After dinner the other sister's left, but they came right back because they felt like they should stay one more night and just leave in the morning.

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early, and the Novacheks came and picked us up and drove us down to Monroe to do some service. 

Mormon Helping Hands has been doing a lot down there because of all the flooding and we have wanted to go for so long. 

It was so much fun!! and gross. 

Sister Conder and I only had time to do one house but that is okay we will get down there again soon!

So what we did. We got to this lady's house that flooded during and storms and we helped her get everything out. Then we got to work!

We cut sheet rock from 4ft and down and pulled it all out, and two of the rooms had paneling so we had to rip those entire walls out. 

I helped Elder Hill, he is a Zone Leader in Monroe, take all the installation out of the walls. It was super gross but Elder Hill and I had fun with that! Wet installation is the grossest thing ever, and it gets EVERYWHERE! Dad probably already knows that. 

After the walls were all taken out and the work for that house was done we ate our sack lunches.

Sadly Sister Conder and I had to leave after that. :(

But it was okay because we had to go to Women's Conference!

And I am glad we did because it was a good one!

I got another package from the little Randalls! Thanks! Sister Conder and I about died from how stinkin' cute the sippy cup is! 

Me and all my Easter things!

For Easter we had fast Sunday because of General Conference. We trained because I am still a newbie. After that we went to Olivia's house. 

Man, that girl bombarded us with questions! They were all super good questions too! 

She has started keeping her commitments and she started reading the Book of Mormon! 

We had dinner over at the Singleton's house, and there were 2 other families from our ward there. The Loggins and the Redfords. Plus the Elders were there too. 

Silly members always bending the rules. ;) It was fun though. 

We played Catchphrase after eating. We ate lots of food and then we went outside and hid eggs for the little kids to find. 

While the children were looking for the eggs I threw a football back and forth with one of the Elders. Then I ditched that, I get bored of things too quickly, and climbed up a little thing they have in their backyard that is like the Pyramid, I don't know what those things are called. Right before we left I sat on their little swing set and talked to the youngest boy, Gray. He told me ALL about monster trucks. 

Then one of the families, the Redfords took us out to meet with a less-active family.

That was my Easter! 

Now for pictures!!

Me and the gators!

'GATORS

Sister Conder and I in front of the Mississippi

Easter surprise!

I received two messages today from sweet members in the El Dorado, Arkansas ward with pictures of my cute Markee. Is she on a mission or on vacation because she sure is having fun! The first is from Sister Loggins who has texted me before and the others are from Sister Singleton whose boys Markee is always talking about. What a happy Easter surprise!

Surprise pictures!

What a wonderful surprise I received the other day.  These are from the Sister Smith (ward member) that Markee has mentioned several times.  How comforting to know my girl is well taken care of!

The cute missionaries with Sister Lauren Smith.

Markee LOVES her companion, Sister Conder!

Sopapillas!

Catfish, rain for days, service, and much more!

And thus ended the thirteenth week of the reign of Markee in the south.

Mabel and Wallace found out that Sister Conder had never tried catfish and that I only had a bite, so they decided that they would take it upon themselves to fry us up some catfish. 

They are so sweet! They went all out for this occasion. They set up a little table with a tablecloth and everything. They had a salad and fries as well as the catfish. It was so sweet.

And catfish isn't that bad. Especially down here where they have catfish farms and feed them better things than trash. 

That day was when the heavens opened up and rain poured out of the clouds for days!

It really poured for 5 days! It doesn't help that the ground is so full of clay so all the water just kind of chills for awhile until it...I don't really know what happens to it. I am sure you heard all about the flooding. El Dorado didn't get much flooding but there was just enough to keep us from doing anything. We also didn't have the car that week and we didn't want to get soaked. 

We started a Book of Mormon class and that has been going pretty well. A lot of people we tract into always ask about Bible study classes so we made a BoM study class. We have had an investigator coming to that.

His name is Jessie Baker. We found him through and request for a free bible and then we taught him once. We didn't see him for awhile but I guess he saw the Elders riding their bikes once and he waved them over so now the Elders are teaching him. He is a pretty cool guy. He is so sincere and he really has a desire to change. 

We found a good place for service while it was raining. It is called the Agape house. It is basically a house where foster kids stay in between foster families. We have been there a couple times, the first time we cleaned the house that they live in there, and the second day we went to their warehouse and sorted clothes.

Little kid clothes are the cutest! 

Mom would pretty much die in that warehouse!

We saw a frog outside of our apartment and Sister Conder tried to catch it. We also saw some turtles in a little pond. Those were the pictures from last week. 

Last Monday it had stopped the downpour, and we played Monopoly with the Elders. Elder Blair wanted to play so we played. I didn't know how to play and Elder Bingham didn't want to play so he helped me. I won!

Probably because I had Elder Bingham's help but oh well I won and that is all that matters.

On Tuesday I mowed lawns all morning! It was SO MUCH FUN! Get ready North Ranch because when I get home I want to mow all the lawns! Mowing lawns is so fun!

We went to lunch with Sister Smith and her friend Sister Platt. Sister Platt is from New Boston and so Sister Conder was super excited because she knows here. They both are super awesome and I love them!

Billboards in front of churches here are SO FUNNY! 

My favorite right now is; "Silly rabbit, Easter is about Jesus!" 

I laughed harder than I should have....

We are getting super close to Conference! Have you all thought up some questions yet? 

You should if you haven't already. 

I love you all! (I don't say ya'll) 

Sista J

P.s I didn't take a lot of pictures this week. Sorry about that, I will do better this week though!

Sista Conder and Elder Blair played basketball.

Sista Conder with Samuel Singleton(front seat) and Gray Singleton(back seat)

Soggy

Not sure if anyone watches the national weather, but it has been raining for weeks down south and there has been a lot of flooding.  While I have received FB posts and texts letting me know that all the missionaries are fine, I'm assuming that they are also busy helping with clean up.  Markee didn't have time to send a newsy email this week but here is a snippet and pictures (she didn't caption the pictures this time either.  And she is absolutely loving the rain and wishes it would continue but knows that the natives probably don't feel the same. ;)

We have a wonderful stake presidency who all came to our tiny little ward here. President Hiem who is the President is awesome! Pres Olson was also there, it was his first time in El Dorado. 

Everything was on missionary work! It was funny because they would be saying "you have the be going to teach with the missionaries" or "Help the missionaries find people to teach" and I would be listening and then I would remember that they were talking about me! I'm the missionary! 

I felt so loved and important. :) It was stupendous!

There's a frog in this picture - camouflaged. 

I believe there is a turtle on the rock in the middle of the stream.

I'm a goofy goober yeah!

We match on the daily. We do not plan it, we are awesome.

I forgot my journal so I am sorry in advanced.

Last Monday after emailing we just chilled in our apartment and stuff until 6. At 6 we went with the Singleton's to their home to have dinner. 

Per my request we had some true Southern food. I can't remember what it is called or what exactly was in it but it was good whatever it was. :) 

Oh the Singleton's are members. They have two of the cutest little boys that have ever walked the face of the earth! They are so funny and full of energy! They are also very respectful too, which is good. 

On Tuesday it was Dad's and Sister Conder's birthday! Happy Birthday! It was also my 2nd month mark. 

It was pouring rain that day and it was our last day of biking. 

Biking in the pouring rain is super exciting! 

It was actually really fun! The rain here is really thin, it is more like mist, but there is a whole lot of it! So we were drenched after riding like 2 seconds, but it was warm too so we really didn't mind. 

The only part that wasn't fun was that we couldn't see very well.

I should've worn goggles...

For dinner that night we went to the Smiths, and Sister Smith went all out for Sister Conder's birthday. We had Lasagna and garlic bread, and red velvet cake. 

On Wednesday we went to Magnolia for District Meeting. It was our first there since the new sisters arrived in Magnolia. 

Elder Blair, Sister Conder and I were super excited about that.

Why? 

Well during our first DM in Magnolia the Tornado sirens started to go off as we were singing the closing hymn and the Mag Elders told us that that happens every Wednesday.

(I was super bummed. I wanted there to be a tornado. :( )

Anyway now the sisters know about it and now they are very glad that it only happens on Wednesdays while they are in El Dorado or when a tornado comes.

The siren is very loud and super obnoxious. 

After DM when we got back to El Dorado which is a half hour away, we went to see Deon. Deon was excited to see us. He invited us in and told us that he was done with his church and then he told us that he was going to come to Sacrament Meeting!

SOO we set up an appointment where we could give him a church tour and then left to go to the church for our lesson with Kelsey.

WE SET A DATE FOR KELSEY! She will be getting baptized on April 9th. Her mom wants both of us there so we are working hard on getting her ready.

On Thursday we pretty much visited 2 people.

First we visited with Donna Carle, she is a less active recent convert who lives in an assisted living home. She talks our ears off, but we love her. She is so sweet. 

Second we visited with Lou Craig, she is a funny old lady. You know the quadruplets that were a really big thing on the news awhile ago. Well she is related to them, I think they are her sister's great grandchildren or something like that. 

Then that night we went to the Relief Society activity because we got an investigator to go. 

Her name is Cristy Kyle. She would probably be baptized already if her husband would come to church. 

I think I have already told you about Jason and Cristy and their situation....

Review: Jason has severe anxiety and Cristy doesn't want to leave him alone. Basically she won't be baptized until Jason will. 

Anyways, Cristy and Sister Smith are now like the best of friends! SUCCESS!

The only thing a remember about Friday is that we had pizza at a member's house and that it was super good. It was also weekly planning so that is probably why I don't remember much because weekly planning takes up most of the day and we do the same things for the most part.

On Saturday Sister Conder didn't feel very well so we didn't get to do most of our plans....

We did go out and tract for a little bit and that helped Sister Conder feel better so we went to the Chinese Buffet for dinner. That place is so good, but it's super weird because I always have to ask for chop sticks... 

On Sunday after church we went to visit the Spencer's and you should all feel proud of me.

They were watching [Lord of the Rings] The Two Towers and I only watched it a little tiny bit. I stayed focused on the lesson.  GO ME!

We had a lesson with Kelsey after that, and that went really well. Kelsey is so cute and so smart. She is retaining everything we teach her. We are super excited about her. 

Then we went to BYD, which is pretty much a fireside. We talked about the 2nd coming with the youth. 

And to close the night off we had a lesson with Dakota. 

This time Sister Lightsy wasn't there was we just had Dakota and the Lightsy&Freeman children.

Dakota is Jazmayne Lightsy's boyfriend and he is the investigator.

Mason and Ella Freeman are Jazmayne's half siblings. They are so awesome! 

Ella is only 15 but she is so sure of herself. She knows that Heavenly Father loves her and she doesn't really care if anyone else loves her or not. She won't change herself to be loved by anyone other then Heavenly Father.

Mason is also so great. He is 14 and is probably taller than the entire Randall family! He wants to join the Marines just like Dakota, Dakota and Mason are Bros.

Anyway that was my week. 

With love and rainbows and butterflies 

Sister Jones.

ps was that good enough mom? ;) [I gave her a hard time about not signing off on her emails :)]

Me with my blankey. :)