*SpArKLeS!!!*

Jan. 6, 2014

I hope you guys had a happy New Year! Sister Hall and I certainly did. We actually ended up going to bed early... but it was nice to be able to catch up on some sleep. We didn't have a celebration for New Years, in fact, we didn't have a lot going on at all New years. No one really wanted to talk to us. We ended up going tracting New years Eve. We talked to a few people, but no one was interested. The one who was most promising was a man named Mike. He is a born again Christian. He was really nice, he said that he liked to do comparative religion studies, so we are going to get a Book of Mormon to him. We actually talked to him for quite a bit. He has little kids and we were excited to be able to talk to him about how families are forever. he didn't believe that, I don't know how much he really liked the thought of it honestly... he went off telling us that we are sinners and that we can't go to heaven because we haven't been born again... He believes that all you have to do is be born again and then you're good. But we know that we can't just stop once we have accepted God into our lives, we keep going and endure to the end! It made me really sad to hear that from him... Sister Hall doesn't want to go back and teach him, I want to at least get him a BoM, he's actually been on my mind all week, so I'm thinking that we really need to get him a copy of the BoM.

New Years Day was a little rough... we got even less of a response. Everyone was sleeping or drunk and passed out. No one answered their doors or answered their phones... but we had a lot of success on facebook! funny how that works huh? We ended up going in early to put names in Sister Hall's GPS.

Thursday was the day of the "Big Storm." we did get a couple of inches of snow. President asked all of us to be in by 6 because of the storm, which honestly if people out here actually knew how to drive there really wouldn't be a problem... but we are obedient missionaries and so we went in. This is actually the night that we had our New Years celebration! We did our makeup with sparkles! It was so much fun! We looked ridiculous! But it was so much fun! We even got a frozen pizza from walmart and baked it! It was that good of a night :) haha!

So, funny story. President Anderson has assigned the senior companions to be the designated driver (so sister Hall drives all the time now) and the 2nd day that she was assigned as the designated driver, she got us stuck in a snow bank... we have a Subaru... all wheel drive... It was a little ridiculous that she got us stuck... but luckily, some nice guys who were on their way home to Jersey stopped and helped us get out of the snow. One of them is super interested in the church! I had this prompting to give him a Mormon.org pass along card and he got super excited! so who ever works in that area in Jersey got themselves a new investigator! haha!

Church yesterday was really empty. It had rained and then if froze overnight. You don't see this kind of stuff in Utah. It's like it rains and once it hits the ground it is instantly ice. Luckily we prayed for safety and were able to make it to church safely. And guess who came? Sonny! Yay! he finally made it to church! The thing is that he had to come to church on the day that no one else was... so fellowshipping is going to be a little more difficult...

I had no clue Matt was going to BYU-Hawaii! That is so cool! he is going to have so much fun! Tell him good luck for me! And tell Pogs congrats for me too when you get the chance.

I love you all so much and think about you all the time! I look forward to the day when I can come home and go to the temple with you all, that is one thing that I miss so much!

Love,

Sister Jess Cox