Half Way

Well I'll just kind of start at the beginning of the week because there's so much to write about. I'm just kind of picking and choosing from my journal. First I'll share the most shocking news. I love Nauvoo. Ok, whew. I'm glad that's over. We had transfers this week! ... I was already mentally prepared to get a new companion, and then President Ludwig said, Sister Jones and Sister McKay. I was like who's Sister McKay? Oh, duh. My companion. We were the only two who didn't get transferred! Weird. We still don't know exactly why, but we're trying to figure out what the Lord has in store for us by keeping us as companions. So far we've figured we need to get to know each other better, and become more consistant in our companion study. It was weird trying to get used to the idea that we would be the only ones this summer that didn't get a new companion. If neither of us go on a full time mission then she'll be my only mission companion ever! :)

The Nauvoo Pageant is here!...setting up in our backyard. The pageant stage is literally 100 yards away from our back door. There are cars and people everywhere! We started pageant dance rehearsals yesterday, and for pretty much the rest of July we'll have dance rehearsals at 7:45 in the morning teaching all the new families that come in every week the dances. Pageant will be such a neat experience! It'll be our 6th show a day...bring it on!

Oh, exciting news! Our amazing mission president and his wife have been asked to extend their call another year! This is their second year extension! Their call was originally for two years, and then extended to three, and now they'll be here for four! They were supposed to go home in January. Sister Ludwig just said, "This way we don't have to pack up.We were just going to go home for a year, and then put our papers in again in a year." She's great! Both of them are the most incredible people I've ever met!

This week has been great! I saw a lady and her husband that used to live in our home ward. She was a YPM in 2004! How great is that?! I got to hear some of her YPM stories. (Mom, do you remember Jessica Whitehead? Yeah, it was them. She has two beautiful boys now, and they live in Michigan.) I also saw a family that from my home ward. The Larsen's! As I was working at John Taylor's house I looked and the window and saw them walking up the sidewalk! It was so exciting. I got to give them a tour and everything. The Gudmundson's from Cedar City are also here for all of July! He was one of my institute teachers, and he's in charge of the bagpipe band they're doing before the pageant.

My favorite story of the week is a family from Wisconsin. I fell in love with them. (It was a lady and her husband, and their five children. Her parents were also traveling with them.) There was something so special about them. I met them after Anna Amanda on Thursday, and talked to them for a while there. They had been to Sunset the night before, and the grandpa said he loved the fiddling so much it made him cry. Well, I saw them again Thursday night at Sunset, and just chatted with their cute girls and everything. So I'm at John Taylor's on Friday morning, and this same family comes for a tour. I get to give it to them. I had finished giving the tour, and I bore more testimony, but I was prompted to say more than what I usually do. Things about how blessed we are to be able to be with our families forever, etc. When they were leaving, the mom, Amy, stayed behind and told me how much that meant to her because her parents aren't members. (She was baptized when she was 19.) It was such a neat experience. Well, they went to Sunset again Friday night, and I talked a little more to them. Amy said that it was a miracle that her parents even came with them to Nauvoo, but now they have a positive view of the church, instead of a negative/neutral view. They came to High Hopes yesterday, and it just happened to be to the show that I was singing No Ordinary Brothers. I got to sing my testimony to them about Joseph and Hyrum. Her parents said that High Hopes was their favorite show in Nauvoo. As I was talking to Amy after that show she told me she was talking to her husband the night before, and she said that she feels like we've known each other before this. I truly believe that. I really feel like I was friends with her, and her family in the life before. Ah. I don't know. It was just so great. It makes me really think about serving a full time mission. Even if I just plant little seeds in the hearts of others. I just felt so connected to this family.

Today is our exact halfway point. How depressing. Time is just going to go by faster. Oh, random story. The oxen broke out of the fence last night, and we found them running around the Pioneer Pastime site. haha I'm sure it's the kind of entertainment the pioneers had on a Saturday night. Chasing the oxen, and trying to fix the fence. We all had a good laugh. (oh wow, I just really thought about what I said. We all had a good laugh about oxen? Maybe I've been in Nauvoo a little too long...Just kidding.:) )

Today is a special day. It marks the 166th year since the martydom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. We have been studying all week the events that led up to this day. This morning we sang Praise to the Man in sacrament meeting, and we just finished singing at the Community of Christ commemoration, and we're about to head to Carthage to sing. Carthage is going to be such a neat experience. To sing in the exact time, and place that they were killed. whew. Good thing I have waterproof mascara. I encourage everyone to read D&C 135 today. "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it." "The lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward. From age to age shall their names go down to poserity as gems for the sanctified." I know Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. He sealed his testimony with his blood on this day, June 27th, 1844. I will live my life in a way that I can share what the Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum died for. I will live a more purified, and Christ like life, and share the gospel to those around me.

Love,

Sister Jones

P.S. "Never let your attitude override your gratitude." I learned that today in sacrament meeting. :)