With these hands and a spoon.....

I don't really remember most things that happened this week because it was a really strange week. 

But I will try my best!

Monday: We did P-day stuff with the Ocean Springs sisters. Basically we just walked around the mall.....

We had dinner with the Davis family but not the ward mission leader Davis. They live on the 23rd floor of this very nice apartment thing. I don't know but they are cool! Sister Davis served a mission in Minnesota, so she is all about the missionary work.

Tuesday: We saw the Rels, who are a less active family, and we talked about Harry Potter and stuff like that.

Wednesday: Basically we tracted.....a lot. We were asked where Cain's wife come from....but this guy believed that Adam and Eve only had 2 kids. Cain and Abel. He was crazy. A crazy child of God. We also found Desiree who is going to be a mom soon so we taught about the Plan of Salvation and she wants to be taught now. Cool!

Thursday: We weekly planned and cleaned the car for Zone Conference. Also the ZLs and the STLs had us all go to a random place in our areas and talk to everyone about the gospel. It was cool. The whole zone did it!

Friday: ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! It was a really good one, too!

 I am getting really antsy right now so this is going to be a really short email. 

Saturday: We tracted a street called Trafalgar, which I think would be a great name for a centaur warrior. We also talked to a guy for like an hour and he told me that I was going to meet and marry someone very special....then he told Sister Rose that it was going to be awhile before she met her man. He was awesome and a little weird, but that is normal for people in the South.

 

Also my spine exploded....not really...but let's just say that the whiplash is not gone yet.... 

And there was talk of going to the ER....I didn't but they talked about it....

Pray for me, guys.

Sunday: After church we had a linger-longer. Then we tried people and then a member invited us to their home to have dinner and we made a lot of bad decisions and ate lots of food.....my tummy is still not happy.

Love you all! Keep being awesome, my friends!

CHALK N TALK!!

Hipster pic!

We made Elder Bledsoe a tall card! It's a punch card and whenever someone mentions his height he punches it. Once he fills it up he gets an inch. we are funny. He loved it!

I have to show off my Ravenclaw pride!

I am the Hero of Time

The ground from the Davis' apartment. AHHHHHHHH!!!

Creepy bugs that are everywhere. I don't even know what it is.....

I make a lot of cat friends. . .

. . . and a lot of dog friends.

Sweet surprise!

My first texted surprise since Markee has been in the Biloxi area!  So excited to see my sweet Markee!

That was awkward let's never do that again.....

12 September 2016
Last time we talked I talked about stuff I don't remember....

Here is what happened in the Life of Sister Jones and Sister Rose.

Monday after emailing, we went to the mall and walked around there. Actually we were looking for black pencil skirts because apparently those are hard to come by. 

But we found one so yippee!

After that we went straight to the Mylers. 

I don't know if I have said anything about the Mylers....

Bro Myler is in the Air force, of course. He served his mission in Canada. He is very intelligent; most of the things he says goes over my head.....WAY over my head.

Sis Myler just had a baby. Now they have 3 kids. She served her mission in temple square. She is also very smart, but she can usually explain things so that I understand.

We had dinner with them again because they love us and I don't think they feed any of the elders, just us because we are awesome.

On Tuesday we visited Sister Cotton, a recent-ish convert in the ward.

We read Alma 5 with her and she told us her testimony and a little bit about her background and it was so beautiful! Sister Cotton has such a beautiful and strong testimony. She is also working towards the temple and will have nothing get in her way of that. She is also hilarious!

After that we went to Tilly's and watched Legacy. That movie is cheesy!! But this time watching it instead of laughing at the cheesiness, I focused on the story. I felt a closeness with those brave pioneers who traveled across the plains and the people chased out of the houses, going from town to town and starting over new in each place. I think that it was truly amazing what they did. They certainly made our lives a whole lot easier. I am grateful for my pioneer heritage (if I have any) 

After Tilly's we went to the Elliot's (I don't know much about them - just that they speak Spanish and that Bro Elliot served his mission in Venezuela). We had Empanadas. They were so goood! Also, I noticed that people from other countries make all food from scratch. I would like that talent.

Then we went to Lisa's and read Jacob 4 with her. 

On Wednesday we went to Mary's and helped her clean her house....and we played with her dogs because they were cute and I love them. One of them hopped into our car because she wanted to go with us to DM. 

DM was really good. We each shared our favorite scriptures and why they were our favorites then were challenged to read them to someone during the day. 

That was easy, breezy.....beautiful covergirl. [note from Leslie - we used to be faithful watchers of America's Next Top Model and this is a line that was a constant in every episode]

Also we are full car until the end of the transfer because the elders decided that we should have the car until I am fully recovered.

Aww, that was nice!

Because of miles we parked the car and walked to Melanie's house to see how she was doing. She is a lady we tracted into. Her husband is dying of cancer and they are just trying to get him as comfortable as possible. She told us that they were doing alright, just getting loose ends tied up before he passes. 

It's really sad but she seems fine about it. She loves her husband and knows that she will see him again.

When we got home we still had an hour before we had to leave to go to the church for mutual that night, so we decided we were going to tract. 

As we were walking down the street this girl called out her car window asking us if we were alright. We told her we were all good. 

Then she pulled over and we both thought she was turning around....we were both wrong. She got out of her car and asked us if we were LDS missionaries. She asked if she could start meeting with us! 

And get this! She lives in the same apartment complex as us!

She also wanted us to meet right then!

Saved by Grace! (that was her name)

We talked to her for a long time and taught why Mormons are called Mormons and answered questions.

Then her mom came in, told Grace that she was catholic, and then went into the other room.

Grace doesn't care, she does what she wants!

Her mom was nice enough though. She actually talked to us and was pleasant. 

After we quietly set up a return appointment - while her mom was in the other room - we left and went to church. We got to take the only laurel in the ward tracting with us. 

Thursday, we got base passes and also had my last physical therapy session. 

Then all of our appointments fell through, but we did get to see Sister CC who is moving soon and will be in Ocean Springs. :(

Friday, we saw Sister Cotton and finished Alma 5 with her and laughed. We talked about most embarrassing moments for some reason and that was hilarious!

We tried some potentials and none of those worked out. 

But we had dinner with the Dickens and she taught us how to do a double croquet. [I believe Markee meant double crochet - I know someone is teaching her to crochet]

Yay! 

Then we went to Lisa's and had a GREAT lesson. We read Alma 5 with her. She also told us that Sydney is coming back to visit, and also she wants to be baptized with Sydney!!!! Yay!!

Saturday was a special day! We went to an all faith women's conference put on by our church. It was called Women in Christ. We had three women speakers from different faiths who spoke about gifts and stuff. Then we went to different classes all about how to improve ourselves and stuff. Then we had dinner and did service projects. THEN we heard from some really special speakers. Sister Bonnie Cordon, Sister Neill F Marriott, and Sister Linda Reeves and Elder Bluth. We also got to meet them and took pictures with 2 out of 4 but those pictures are on Sister Conder's camera and she hasn't sent them to me yet.....sorry 'bout that. 

That was an amazing spiritual conference! I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

On Sunday we went to church and were spiritually fed! 

That's really it.....

NOW FOR PICTURES. 

(I literally took all of these on the way to the church to email because I forgot to take pictures) ooops....

This kitty loved me and didn't like it when I walked away.

 Sister Rose took this grouping of pictures of Markee with the kitty -

the bay

satan aka TiWi

Water tower

lunch VEGGIE WRAPS

Well that was awkward....

If I had to describe this week in one word, that word would be awkward.

Awkward would be my word to describe a lot of things, my mission for one. 

I have become a pro at awkward situations. 

On Monday the awkward moment was dinner with the Peines. The Peines are awesome and I love them. Dinner was really good. People here like to make us home cooked dinners and I realized how much I love home cooked meals. Some areas the members just take you out to eat and some actually cook and it is wonderful!!!

Then we went to FHE at the military branch because we were already on base. 

We still haven't been to the military branch because we still don't have base passes.....-_- 

We played Outburst and that was super fun! Only 4 airmen were there and the D-ville elders and the Robinsons were there, so we got to know everyone and it was fun.

Tuesday was the worst. 

I woke up with a migraine.

Around noon we went to the clinic and had my physical therapy evaluation. 

I still had a migraine after that so we went home and I crashed on the couch. 

Tuesday was also the day we planned for exchanges so Sister Rose went to Orange Grove with Sister Conder and Sister Bennett stayed with me as I slept.....the whole day. 

I woke up around 7pm and still had a headache.

It was a great way to celebrate my 8th month mark.....

On Wednesday we tried to find less actives. We found the Rels. We talked to them for awhile and it was awkward.....

We also saw Tilly and got her pumped up about Family history!

Thursday, I had another pt appointment and that went well. My back and neck feel fine now. 

Still a little stiff but getting better. 

Then we went to Mary Rodriguz's house and talked with her and Laura (one of Woolmarket's investigator).

That was awkward....

But still good and Laura still came to church on Sunday so that was awesome. 

For dinner we went to the Davis' 

That was hectic....

There were a TON of children there running around being children.

I like the Davis'.

Friday, we decided to try people on our roster in the morning and so we went into the off base housing and tried people there. 

We found the Gishs. 

The Gishs, I like them! They are awkward and don't care. I love it!

Then we tried to weekly plan.....we tried so hard but only got half done before a member called and asked us if we wanted to have dinner with them!

So we went to the Wilcox's for dinner!

Saturday, we finished weekly planning, which is amazing for us. 

Then we visited Mary again and talked to her and her boyfriend, Lester. 

That was an awkward moment...

You can assume that 99.99% of the things I do are awkward.

 

Sunday we only had 1 hour of church again because a lot of people went to the final clean up in Baton Rouge. 

After Sacrament meeting we helped Tilly with her family history in the tiny family history center.

Today we are taking our P-day because we scheduled a lot of things to do on Tuesday!

Love you all! Sorry no pictures this week because I suck! 

Some good drugs . . .

Hello Y'all! 

I LIVE!

Well, how 'bout I just jump right into it, shall I....

Monday, we went to the church to hang out with the elders, but all they wanted to do was play basketball. 

I wasn't up for that..... 

Also met a guy that is translating the bible from Hebrew.

Ah Mississippi, you never fail to give us awkward moments

Tuesday, we went to visit Beth, but once we got there she said that she didn't feel up to a lesson that day. 

But it's Beth.

So we stayed and talked with her for awhile. 

After almost an hour we finally left and started walking home, but instead of walking on the busy main street we decided to walk by the beach! It was awesome at first.....but that ended pretty quickly.

Guys, humidity is not fun.

We called Lisa and she came and picked us up.

Guys, Lisa is awesome! 

She also abhors it when we walk. 

Wednesday, in the morning, we went with Sister Peine and did some service at Sister Dominey's apartment. I've never met Sister Dominey because she has been in the hospital....

After that Sis Conder and Sister Bennett came and drove us to my doctor's appointment. 

Okay, now I know that y'all probs already know what is happening because of my mom, but in case you don't this is what is happening....

So we got x-rays and they showed that instead of having a slight curve (which is normal) my cervical vertebrae (neck) is straight, causing the muscles to spasm because it is having a hard time healing AND holding up my head. SO the Doctor (Dr Karpitskaya) prescribed me some drugs and told me to schedule a physical therapy evaluation. (so that's tomorrow)

Oh and we also got the car!!! 

Thursday, we drove to Brandon. It took 3 HOURS!!! We had to get Satan....I mean a TiWi installed into a car. ;)

If you don't know what a TiWi is. A Tiwi is a box that sits in our car and monitors our speed and how we drive and stuff like that. They are actually a really good thing and I may consider putting one in my kids' cars....

to prepare them for their mission, but they could possibly have transporters or something by then which would make it worthless. 

Anyway we spent most of our day driving to Brandon, hanging out at the mission office, and driving back from Brandon. 

IT TOOK ALL DAY!!! but it was fun! I love road trippin'

just so you know Mississippi is the best place to have a zombie apocalypse.

Mission Office! I haven't been here for a LONG time!

Friday, we got the other car back and gave it to the Woolmarket Elders because we already had a car. 

We saw Lisa that morning and read Mosiah 2 with her and talked about serving everyone. 

Then we weekly planned....and I may have fallen asleep during that....the drugs make me way tired!

But I woke up eventually and went to visit one of our touch and go investigators. 

His name is Shane. Shane is ..........different.....

He also has a lot of questions about the priesthood that we answer, but he doesn't accept them. I don't know why; probs because we aren't men and don't hold the priesthood. 

So yeah.....we decided to hand him over to the Elders.

Saturday, we took pictures! (you're welcome, mom) 

Traditional Olympics anklet! Probs not going to loose this one in the ocean....

Then we went to the Ocean Springs library and we helped people with their family history. 

That was fun but I had no idea what I was doing. 

Oh well! What else is new?!

Fake it 'til you make it!

Sunday, we did the usual. We sang in Ocean Spring's sacrament meeting for a mission farewell they were having. 

After church we tried a couple of less actives and then we had dinner with the Gedges and the Davis'. 

That's all!! 

Keep being awesome my friends and remember don't take the shortest route....or Buffalo Hole Rd happens. Don't let Buffalo Hole Rd. happen.

The tiniest lizard in the world

Rose is a creep....

Our emailing closet at the church. aka Family history center.

22 August 2016

You're all gunna hate me.....

I don't remember what even happened this week...and I spaced and forgot my journal....not like that would have helped because I have been spacing that too. 

My posterity are going to hate me. 

Well on Monday we hung out at the church with the Elders and the Ocean Springs district and they played volleyball. 

I did not join; I am pretty sure that would have killed me and probably injured me more. (You're welcome, mother)

Oh, we also went to Books a million but you can just assume we always go there.

and Hot Topic to see Vinny!

On Tuesday we went to the Coliseum for some service. That had a food something....? They had a whole bunch of food on display and stuff and then grocery people come in and choose what they want or something like that. 

Well, we were in charge of tearing it down! It was fun! 

(Don't worry Mom I didn't do anything stupid that would make me hurt worse)

On Wednesday we had district meeting and we met the new people! First off, we merged districts with the Ocean Springs district so now we have two more sets of missionaries in our district. 

Goodness....

Top row left to right: Elder Hunt, Elder Ahanonu, Elder Scoresby (THE GREENIE), Elder Houston, Elder Roberts, Elder Bledsoe (Zone Leader), Elder Hughes, Elder Bennett (zone leader)

Bottom row left to right: Sister Steadman, Sister Lindburg, Elder Bingham, Elder Tenifa, ME, and Sister Rose!

We have a huge district!

Thursday was Peter's Birthday! I celebrated by going tracting and preaching the Word of God. 

Happy Birthday Peter! 

On Friday we weekly planned for a long time and then we went tracting, and funny story we found a back and neck care center on one of the streets we had planned to tract....if only we had found it earlier....

Saturday we went to try a recent convert who hasn't been to church for awhile. Her name is Christina and that's......about all I know about her.

She was't there.

She also lives FOREVER away and we still don't have a car so we walked there and back and so we rested after because I felt like I was going to keel over.

Sunday was weird..... 

But we did have cool things happen! I think on Friday the Zone Leaders called us and told us that someone named Rosemary and Michael called them that day and told them that they wanted to go to church! They told them that they live in Biloxi which means we get them!! 

Oh, and apparently Rosemary's mom is a recent convert in California and she had been to church before. 

Also they were in a really bad car accident that should have been fatal but wasn't and are now on a search for God. 

So they came to church!

Also Lisa came to church. She has been going through a hard time right now but she seemed to be a little lighter after Sacrament meeting. 

Because of all the flooding in Baton Rouge a lot of our members went to help clean up there so we only had Sacrament meeting on Sunday. 

We went to Bro Davis' house afterwards for correlation meeting, which we haven't been to in a long time because of the car situation, that was good though. Bro Davis is a good Ward Mission Leader. 

Yep that was my week!

 I wouldn't be surprised if I got Zika here..... (don't worry I invested in bug spray!) (Also all of those bites are gone)

Me and the Robinsons at the service project! (I love them!) 

Service selfie

my planner cover ;) front

back

Us and the Zonies!

we are besties with the zls :)

This is the Utah tomato.

The Jonesasaur in her natural habitat. photo cred Sister Rose

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