Hello hello!
So to start off the week we had Zone Conference!! Sister Stott and I drove out to Montpelier, and didn't slide the whole way!x) The roads weren't bad at all actually, so we were fine haha. Zone Conference was great! President Hancock had a discussion with us about all the problems we see with our areas, and what we could do to fix it. We focused primarily on Faith and recognizing all the attributes we as missionaries need to strive for. We then talked about examples of Faith from the scriptures. I've thought a lot about the story of Ammon lately, as well as the story of Alma and Amulek. These three missionaries are huge examples to me of faith, diligence, and perseverance.
Their stories remind me to keep following what the Lord has asked me to do, even if it seems tough and daunting. Zone Conference was definitely a good pick me up and reminder to be diligent and work hard. Fun fact- some elders attempt to steal our car after Zone Conference.
Not really, but as we were walking out of the tabernacle we saw four elders piling into our car and were hecka confused. Sister Stott has stopped for a bathroom break before leaving and missed all the craziness of getting our keys back from the vehicle coordinators. The elders had grabbed our key, and everyone else had left. They couldn't find their, so Pres thought we had it and told them to take our car over. Well then we walked out and were like "wait...isn't that our car..?" we got it sorted out, the vehicle coordinator actually found their key in his pocket lol.
Something exciting that happened this week- WE HAVE A NEW INVESTIGATOR! Her name is Amanda and she is so sweet! The first time we met with her she just kept repeating over and over how she could feel the spirit and how it was weird because she's not used to it, but in a good way haha. She's living with some members who have been encouraging her to pray and read her scriptures and she's just in such a good environment. She's been baptized three times already in three different churches, and is really looking to find the truth now and make her own decision. So Sister Stott and I are really excited(:
We'll also be attending a Stake baptism this Saturday for a little girl named Cameron, whose family we've been teaching for the past month. Her parents are less active, but we got them to actually come to church with her both this Sunday and last Sunday!! I'll let you know how the baptism goes next week! I love you all, have a good week!
Love,
Sister Jensen
Monday, January 29, 2018
Monday, January 22, 2018
Sister Stott in Star Valley!
So this week was pretty busy!
To start, I'd like to skip the announcement of the new prophet and leave that till the end because that's pretty spiritual. So next in line is...TRANSFERS!! Sister Thomas new she'd be heading to Blackfoot, so throughout Tuesday and Wednesday we went around to some folks houses who would be mad if she didn't say goodbye. My favorite was the reaction of an incredibly sweet lady in the ward when we told her Sister Thomas was getting transferred- "NO! No. That is stupid! Oh those idiots no! Why do they do this?! They always do this, no!!" Sister Thomas is pretty loved here haha, probably the reason she had to be transferred. Can't let people get too attached! On Thursday we packed up her stuff into the car and holy cow I should have taken a picture, she had the car FILLED. She's got a lot of stuffx) We met at the transfer site and the AP's were a little impressed with how much stuff she's already accumulated. It was sad and hard to have her leave, and I drove off with Sister Stott in tow. (yes, I know i'm driving...scary thought)
Sister Stott is great though(: She's from New Mexico, she's been out about six months now, (the same amount of time as Sister Thomas). She started out in Pocatello, so Star Valley is her second area. Her favorite color is blue and she likes fettuccine alfredo or grilled cheese with tomato soup. Lol, she's really sweet and we get along really well(: Fun fact- on the way home a random cow decided to hold us up by standing in the middle of the road. we took pictures. I'll include them into my January folder.
Another fun fact- Sister Stott and I got terribly stuck my second day of driving in the snow. We were able to shovel ourselves out though, and didn't need to call anyone. It was actually pretty interesting, God was mindful of my impending stupidity. We got stuck, of all places, next to this warming shelter with a gardening shed that has shovels and rakes in it, which we used to push the snow out of our way. Heavenly Father prepared us a way to get out of our situation if we were willing to work for it, or wait in warmth while help came. Are you seeing the gospel analogies forming? I sure am(;
Back up a bit, (this whole email is going to be terribly out of order) we ate dinner with a family who has a less active son, who is also dating a non-member (Amanda), and they were all there! Even better, I got to talk and get to know Amanda a bit, and asked her if we could teach her lessons...AND SHE SAID YES!!! WHOOHOOO!! We plan to meet with her this Wednesday and I'm pumped!! Another fun fact, my first baptism in the mission field is coming up (although it'll actually be a stake baptism but oh well i'm counting it) on February 3rd. We've been teaching a less active family and preparing their 8 year old daughter for baptism. She'll be in the the stake baptisms, so we can't actually count her as our baptism, but I could care less, I'm excited for her to be baptized(:
Now I'll talk about the announcement of the next prophet. First, I'd like to note how calm and easy the whole process was. You can tell God is a God of order when a change like this occurs because the whole ordeal is made peaceful and comforting with no campaigning or jockeying for position. The Lord has been preparing President Nelson for a long time, and he humbly assumed his position. I was a little surprised when his counselors were announced, but that was immediately replaced by admiration for the Lord. What better counselors? I feel as though the whole first presidency is now primed and prepared for what's to come with the church and with the world growing more and more wicked. There is so much intelligence and expertise in both knowledge of the church, and ability to navigate what the world may throw at those three men. Thinking about how perfect these men seemed for their roles in the church caused me to reflect on myself and what I'm doing to prepare myself for who God wants me to be.
After the broadcast I pulled out my patriarchal blessing and thought quite a bit on what the Lord has promised me, and the goals he has set for me to achieve. I thought a lot about who I am, how I've lived my life so far, and how I've been either striving to develop, or neglecting my relationship with my Savior. I resolved to keep these goals the Lord has set for me in mind constantly, and to strive to be a more obedient and diligent missionary. I'd like to invite each of you to honestly look at yourselves and reflect on who the Lord would have you be. Ask yourself what you're doing in your lives that is keeping you from becoming who God wants you to be, and start to change. I know Heavenly Father has a specific and joy filled plan for each of you, and wants to help you achieve your divine potential. Let him help you and bring yourself into closer harmony with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love you all, have a good week(:
Love,
Sister Jensen
To start, I'd like to skip the announcement of the new prophet and leave that till the end because that's pretty spiritual. So next in line is...TRANSFERS!! Sister Thomas new she'd be heading to Blackfoot, so throughout Tuesday and Wednesday we went around to some folks houses who would be mad if she didn't say goodbye. My favorite was the reaction of an incredibly sweet lady in the ward when we told her Sister Thomas was getting transferred- "NO! No. That is stupid! Oh those idiots no! Why do they do this?! They always do this, no!!" Sister Thomas is pretty loved here haha, probably the reason she had to be transferred. Can't let people get too attached! On Thursday we packed up her stuff into the car and holy cow I should have taken a picture, she had the car FILLED. She's got a lot of stuffx) We met at the transfer site and the AP's were a little impressed with how much stuff she's already accumulated. It was sad and hard to have her leave, and I drove off with Sister Stott in tow. (yes, I know i'm driving...scary thought)
Sister Stott is great though(: She's from New Mexico, she's been out about six months now, (the same amount of time as Sister Thomas). She started out in Pocatello, so Star Valley is her second area. Her favorite color is blue and she likes fettuccine alfredo or grilled cheese with tomato soup. Lol, she's really sweet and we get along really well(: Fun fact- on the way home a random cow decided to hold us up by standing in the middle of the road. we took pictures. I'll include them into my January folder.
Another fun fact- Sister Stott and I got terribly stuck my second day of driving in the snow. We were able to shovel ourselves out though, and didn't need to call anyone. It was actually pretty interesting, God was mindful of my impending stupidity. We got stuck, of all places, next to this warming shelter with a gardening shed that has shovels and rakes in it, which we used to push the snow out of our way. Heavenly Father prepared us a way to get out of our situation if we were willing to work for it, or wait in warmth while help came. Are you seeing the gospel analogies forming? I sure am(;
Back up a bit, (this whole email is going to be terribly out of order) we ate dinner with a family who has a less active son, who is also dating a non-member (Amanda), and they were all there! Even better, I got to talk and get to know Amanda a bit, and asked her if we could teach her lessons...AND SHE SAID YES!!! WHOOHOOO!! We plan to meet with her this Wednesday and I'm pumped!! Another fun fact, my first baptism in the mission field is coming up (although it'll actually be a stake baptism but oh well i'm counting it) on February 3rd. We've been teaching a less active family and preparing their 8 year old daughter for baptism. She'll be in the the stake baptisms, so we can't actually count her as our baptism, but I could care less, I'm excited for her to be baptized(:
Now I'll talk about the announcement of the next prophet. First, I'd like to note how calm and easy the whole process was. You can tell God is a God of order when a change like this occurs because the whole ordeal is made peaceful and comforting with no campaigning or jockeying for position. The Lord has been preparing President Nelson for a long time, and he humbly assumed his position. I was a little surprised when his counselors were announced, but that was immediately replaced by admiration for the Lord. What better counselors? I feel as though the whole first presidency is now primed and prepared for what's to come with the church and with the world growing more and more wicked. There is so much intelligence and expertise in both knowledge of the church, and ability to navigate what the world may throw at those three men. Thinking about how perfect these men seemed for their roles in the church caused me to reflect on myself and what I'm doing to prepare myself for who God wants me to be.
After the broadcast I pulled out my patriarchal blessing and thought quite a bit on what the Lord has promised me, and the goals he has set for me to achieve. I thought a lot about who I am, how I've lived my life so far, and how I've been either striving to develop, or neglecting my relationship with my Savior. I resolved to keep these goals the Lord has set for me in mind constantly, and to strive to be a more obedient and diligent missionary. I'd like to invite each of you to honestly look at yourselves and reflect on who the Lord would have you be. Ask yourself what you're doing in your lives that is keeping you from becoming who God wants you to be, and start to change. I know Heavenly Father has a specific and joy filled plan for each of you, and wants to help you achieve your divine potential. Let him help you and bring yourself into closer harmony with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love you all, have a good week(:
Love,
Sister Jensen
Monday, January 15, 2018
Missionaries On Ice
Hola!
Lets see, so last pday zone activity didn't happen and Sister Thomas and I went home to chill. Well while we were home our ZL's texted us, asking if we knew of any good sledding hills. The Reinharts have what we thought looked like a pretty good hill, but then we tried it...and well...I'll send videos. We found another place that we'll be sledding today(;
On Tuesday we had an interesting day.. There's a less active we visit who works at an airplane place, (like where they build little husky airplanes) and she told us to come in for a tour with her sometime. She seemed really super excited about it so we went, and then realized this was probably have been a better activity for pday because she wasn't even able to give us the tour. It was unfortunate. But a cool place to see. We felt bad though because it turned out to be much more of a recreational activity than we thought.
We also got the mail and accidentally followed this nice old guy home. We seem him every so often at the post office (it's a hoppin place) and he talked to us for like 45 minutes haha. Well after that we had planned to go to the trailer court...which as we found out is coincidentally where he lives. We just looked creepy for a bit but it's finex) He's a nice guy though, we plan to try and set up lessons.
Also. I forgot to mention. We went on this awesome sleigh ride on Tuesday!! The youth in one of our wards did a sleigh ride and then had a bonfire afterwards with a testimony meeting. It was a really neat activity and I felt prompted to share my testimony, so I got up. I wanted the youth to realize that we aren't that much older than them, and for them to see that the cares in high school really don't matter at all. I wish I could have understood how silly high school cares are, and focused more on my relationship with others and Christ. I don't know how much I got through to them, but I hope I helped someone. It was a good activity though(:
On Wednesday we had an interesting event with our car. The snow had melted all the day before and turned to mostly slush, but then as evening came it froze. The first time we went down the Reinharts driveway we definitely slid a lot, but made it down alright. The second time...well that's another story. We started down the hill and took off like a roller coaster. You could feel the car's weight suddenly come off the wheels and just slide. Our momentum took us turning counterclockwise till we did a whole 360 and then straightened back out. I don't know how we didn't tip, and or hit anything. There were definitely angels helping us down. Nothing bad happened, so looking back on it, it was kinda fun. But i also wouldn't choose to do that again. We parked at the bottom and walked up that night haha.
The next day we got an interesting phone call and I almost had a heart attack. President was calling us. I thought he was going to say something about me being a trainer, but instead, he asked us if he needed to close our area. We were floored and immediately were like NO!!!!! We told him how we meet with a ton of less actives, most of which are single women, and how the area needed to stay open and we were making progress with them. He said he was glad he called and got to hear our side of things. Made the rest of the day sort of odd because we were just sort of thinking like "Should he be keeping the area open? Are we actually doing good here?" It made us reflect a lot on what we could be doing better as missionaries and the faith we felt we lacked. It was a good eye opener though. (transfer calls were this week so he was still deciding. he said he needed to close 2 areas because of a shortage of missionaries)
On Friday we were able to have district meeting and then watch the funeral of Thomas S. Monson. During district meeting we didn't have a self-playing piano so I used my rusty right hand piano skills and butchered 2 hymns for us to sing along too. Fun time. The funeral was really good though. I loved the legacy that President Monson was able to leave of loving and caring for others. It made me think even more about how I could be improving and what I want people to remember me for. It was a good time to reflect on President Monson's life, and my own.
On Saturday, we got transfer calls. I'm relieved to say I will not be training. Sister Thomas will be headed to Blackfoot, and I will be staying in Star Valley. (which is interesting because I thought covering my Aunt's ward would get me booted out asap but I guess not lol) I will be the senior companion-so yes now I'll be driving and it'll be weird because the Sister I'm getting has been out a transfer longer than me. I think her name is Sister Staut...but it also could be Scott...It was a little hard to tell over the phone. I'm not looking forward to having Sister Thomas leave, but I know this is part of a mission so I'll get used to it and get to know this new sister(:
Those were the highlights, I hope you all have a good week!!
Love,
Sister Jensen
Lets see, so last pday zone activity didn't happen and Sister Thomas and I went home to chill. Well while we were home our ZL's texted us, asking if we knew of any good sledding hills. The Reinharts have what we thought looked like a pretty good hill, but then we tried it...and well...I'll send videos. We found another place that we'll be sledding today(;
On Tuesday we had an interesting day.. There's a less active we visit who works at an airplane place, (like where they build little husky airplanes) and she told us to come in for a tour with her sometime. She seemed really super excited about it so we went, and then realized this was probably have been a better activity for pday because she wasn't even able to give us the tour. It was unfortunate. But a cool place to see. We felt bad though because it turned out to be much more of a recreational activity than we thought.
We also got the mail and accidentally followed this nice old guy home. We seem him every so often at the post office (it's a hoppin place) and he talked to us for like 45 minutes haha. Well after that we had planned to go to the trailer court...which as we found out is coincidentally where he lives. We just looked creepy for a bit but it's finex) He's a nice guy though, we plan to try and set up lessons.
Also. I forgot to mention. We went on this awesome sleigh ride on Tuesday!! The youth in one of our wards did a sleigh ride and then had a bonfire afterwards with a testimony meeting. It was a really neat activity and I felt prompted to share my testimony, so I got up. I wanted the youth to realize that we aren't that much older than them, and for them to see that the cares in high school really don't matter at all. I wish I could have understood how silly high school cares are, and focused more on my relationship with others and Christ. I don't know how much I got through to them, but I hope I helped someone. It was a good activity though(:
On Wednesday we had an interesting event with our car. The snow had melted all the day before and turned to mostly slush, but then as evening came it froze. The first time we went down the Reinharts driveway we definitely slid a lot, but made it down alright. The second time...well that's another story. We started down the hill and took off like a roller coaster. You could feel the car's weight suddenly come off the wheels and just slide. Our momentum took us turning counterclockwise till we did a whole 360 and then straightened back out. I don't know how we didn't tip, and or hit anything. There were definitely angels helping us down. Nothing bad happened, so looking back on it, it was kinda fun. But i also wouldn't choose to do that again. We parked at the bottom and walked up that night haha.
The next day we got an interesting phone call and I almost had a heart attack. President was calling us. I thought he was going to say something about me being a trainer, but instead, he asked us if he needed to close our area. We were floored and immediately were like NO!!!!! We told him how we meet with a ton of less actives, most of which are single women, and how the area needed to stay open and we were making progress with them. He said he was glad he called and got to hear our side of things. Made the rest of the day sort of odd because we were just sort of thinking like "Should he be keeping the area open? Are we actually doing good here?" It made us reflect a lot on what we could be doing better as missionaries and the faith we felt we lacked. It was a good eye opener though. (transfer calls were this week so he was still deciding. he said he needed to close 2 areas because of a shortage of missionaries)
On Friday we were able to have district meeting and then watch the funeral of Thomas S. Monson. During district meeting we didn't have a self-playing piano so I used my rusty right hand piano skills and butchered 2 hymns for us to sing along too. Fun time. The funeral was really good though. I loved the legacy that President Monson was able to leave of loving and caring for others. It made me think even more about how I could be improving and what I want people to remember me for. It was a good time to reflect on President Monson's life, and my own.
On Saturday, we got transfer calls. I'm relieved to say I will not be training. Sister Thomas will be headed to Blackfoot, and I will be staying in Star Valley. (which is interesting because I thought covering my Aunt's ward would get me booted out asap but I guess not lol) I will be the senior companion-so yes now I'll be driving and it'll be weird because the Sister I'm getting has been out a transfer longer than me. I think her name is Sister Staut...but it also could be Scott...It was a little hard to tell over the phone. I'm not looking forward to having Sister Thomas leave, but I know this is part of a mission so I'll get used to it and get to know this new sister(:
Those were the highlights, I hope you all have a good week!!
Love,
Sister Jensen
Monday, January 8, 2018
Faith and Miracles
Hello hello!
I'll start with our last pday, which was actually pretty fun. Usually the zl's don't really have an activity planned, but want everyone to go to zone activity..? Doesn't make sense because it's felt like a waste of time, but this time was fun! We played gator ball, which I could not wrap my head around. It's basically soccer mixed with basketball. I just couldn't get myself to catch the ball instead of kick it. Fun tho. After that we all sorta did our own things, some people played basketball and I played soccer with an elder and a sister. Eventually Sister Loring tapped out and Elder De Olivera and I passed and juggled the ball. Which i also suck at....(juggling i mean) but I got better!
On Wednesday we found out about President Monson passing, which I was sad about, but also a little glad for him. I'm sure there was a level of relief involved because of his medical problems. I wrote an entry in my journal about what I remember his key teachings being. I feel like he talked a lot about charity and love, as well as refraining from judging others. One of his most memorable talks for me was his "Dare to Stand alone" conference address, where he spoke about standing up for your testimony, even if you may stand alone. He was a wonderful prophet and he will be missed.
That night we had a sweet experience with the members around here. Our dinner appointment had forgotten she was feeding us and is going through a crazy family/friend time and ended up dropping off a pizza hut gift card to us instead. (it was adorable, her little boy hopped out of the car to hand Sister Thomas the gift card and took off his cowboy hat and everythingxD So cute!!) Anyways well we ate at pizza hut and when we finished, the waitress brings our "check", which was actually a piece of paper that said someone had already paid for us! It was pretty sweet and we had no idea who to thank because the whole place was filled with members. The members here love us though and definitely take care of us.
We also taught a Book of Mormon class that night, (we have 2 a week) and I can testify that the Book of Mormon will make an impact on your life. It's been amazing to see the changes in some of the less-actives that come to our class! One has decided to quit smoking and another, after almost 12 years of no headway from members in the area, mentioned coming to church next week. We don't know if she'll actually show, but the change in her has been amazing to see. She wouldn't keep commitments before, but now faithfully comes to our Wednesday night class each week. The Book of Mormon will change your life and bring you closer to God if you let it.
In his last email, President Hancock (our mission president) spoke about lacking faith, and thus not seeing miracles. So Sister Thomas and I decided to work on having faith. On Saturday we set out to see a ton of people and it was a little discouraging, because most were busy and the ones that weren't aren't necessarily new investigators/less actives. It was almost time for dinner and we had gone through all of our names and back-ups, but still had a half hour. We went by a house we've been wondering about and decided to stop and knock. Well a non member lives there! (this is a miracle in and of itself.) And what's more, she was friendly to us and is looking for answers!!! She asked a pretty hard question, she's had 10 pregnancies and all of them failed. She can't keep babies to term so she was basically asking why. Why God would let that happen to her. Not just 3, but 10 times. Unfortunately, there isn't really a straight answer, and she was a little belittling to us (19 yr olds..."i mean you guys are cute"..) but I felt like Pahoran when he gets torn into by Captain Moroni. I was just happy to find her and discover that she is looking for answers and the is open to us. So we'll see where that goes!! (and to semi answer the question, God lets things like this happen to us to build our faith in him, humble us to turn our hearts to him, or because he knows we can handle it and we'll become a stronger and a better person from it. I also know that If she lives righteously and follows the gospel of Jesus Christ by being baptized and doing the necessary ordinances for salvation, she'll have the opportunity to raise those children in the life to come)
The fact that God is helping us to find those who are interested and ready for the gospel was only further shown to me, when we taught one of our less-actives last night. Holy cow! We taught the commandments and how we are blessed when we keep them. Well he ended up sharing the spiritual experiences that got him wanting to become active again, that he hadn't told us before! Heavenly Father was preparing him with these experiences, and then we showed up and asked to teach him. What was even more interesting to hear was that multiple sets of missionaries had stopped by before, but none had actually asked to teach him the lessons and because we were bold and asked him that straight up, he agreed! He said he wouldn't have been opposed to it before, but none of them asked him. Lessons learned- God is helping us to find people if we act with faith, and be bold because sometimes that's what it takes.
I hope you all had a good week, I miss you and I love you(:
Sister Jensen
I'll start with our last pday, which was actually pretty fun. Usually the zl's don't really have an activity planned, but want everyone to go to zone activity..? Doesn't make sense because it's felt like a waste of time, but this time was fun! We played gator ball, which I could not wrap my head around. It's basically soccer mixed with basketball. I just couldn't get myself to catch the ball instead of kick it. Fun tho. After that we all sorta did our own things, some people played basketball and I played soccer with an elder and a sister. Eventually Sister Loring tapped out and Elder De Olivera and I passed and juggled the ball. Which i also suck at....(juggling i mean) but I got better!
On Wednesday we found out about President Monson passing, which I was sad about, but also a little glad for him. I'm sure there was a level of relief involved because of his medical problems. I wrote an entry in my journal about what I remember his key teachings being. I feel like he talked a lot about charity and love, as well as refraining from judging others. One of his most memorable talks for me was his "Dare to Stand alone" conference address, where he spoke about standing up for your testimony, even if you may stand alone. He was a wonderful prophet and he will be missed.
That night we had a sweet experience with the members around here. Our dinner appointment had forgotten she was feeding us and is going through a crazy family/friend time and ended up dropping off a pizza hut gift card to us instead. (it was adorable, her little boy hopped out of the car to hand Sister Thomas the gift card and took off his cowboy hat and everythingxD So cute!!) Anyways well we ate at pizza hut and when we finished, the waitress brings our "check", which was actually a piece of paper that said someone had already paid for us! It was pretty sweet and we had no idea who to thank because the whole place was filled with members. The members here love us though and definitely take care of us.
We also taught a Book of Mormon class that night, (we have 2 a week) and I can testify that the Book of Mormon will make an impact on your life. It's been amazing to see the changes in some of the less-actives that come to our class! One has decided to quit smoking and another, after almost 12 years of no headway from members in the area, mentioned coming to church next week. We don't know if she'll actually show, but the change in her has been amazing to see. She wouldn't keep commitments before, but now faithfully comes to our Wednesday night class each week. The Book of Mormon will change your life and bring you closer to God if you let it.
In his last email, President Hancock (our mission president) spoke about lacking faith, and thus not seeing miracles. So Sister Thomas and I decided to work on having faith. On Saturday we set out to see a ton of people and it was a little discouraging, because most were busy and the ones that weren't aren't necessarily new investigators/less actives. It was almost time for dinner and we had gone through all of our names and back-ups, but still had a half hour. We went by a house we've been wondering about and decided to stop and knock. Well a non member lives there! (this is a miracle in and of itself.) And what's more, she was friendly to us and is looking for answers!!! She asked a pretty hard question, she's had 10 pregnancies and all of them failed. She can't keep babies to term so she was basically asking why. Why God would let that happen to her. Not just 3, but 10 times. Unfortunately, there isn't really a straight answer, and she was a little belittling to us (19 yr olds..."i mean you guys are cute"..) but I felt like Pahoran when he gets torn into by Captain Moroni. I was just happy to find her and discover that she is looking for answers and the is open to us. So we'll see where that goes!! (and to semi answer the question, God lets things like this happen to us to build our faith in him, humble us to turn our hearts to him, or because he knows we can handle it and we'll become a stronger and a better person from it. I also know that If she lives righteously and follows the gospel of Jesus Christ by being baptized and doing the necessary ordinances for salvation, she'll have the opportunity to raise those children in the life to come)
The fact that God is helping us to find those who are interested and ready for the gospel was only further shown to me, when we taught one of our less-actives last night. Holy cow! We taught the commandments and how we are blessed when we keep them. Well he ended up sharing the spiritual experiences that got him wanting to become active again, that he hadn't told us before! Heavenly Father was preparing him with these experiences, and then we showed up and asked to teach him. What was even more interesting to hear was that multiple sets of missionaries had stopped by before, but none had actually asked to teach him the lessons and because we were bold and asked him that straight up, he agreed! He said he wouldn't have been opposed to it before, but none of them asked him. Lessons learned- God is helping us to find people if we act with faith, and be bold because sometimes that's what it takes.
I hope you all had a good week, I miss you and I love you(:
Sister Jensen
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Hello from Iceland, WY
Hola!
So this week wasn't too eventful. Sister Thomas became ill the day after pday and we didn't get to leave the apartment until Sunday evening. There's a pretty bad strand of the flu going around, and it just knocked her out for a few days.We have some very loving members who stopped by and were worried out of their minds for us so they'd pop in every so often. Sister Thomas was sick through Saturday and I basically just found ways to keep busy by journaling/studying/doing chores and etc. We went through every church video we had and at one point the elders even brought by the bible videos for us which was AWESOME!
I never caught it, and hopefully won't get it later from anyone. I feel like it was really beneficial for me to have those few days all couped up because I definitely learned more about the savior and understood the life of the apostles better. My testimony of his love for us strengthened, as well as my desire to really know the scriptures and understand his teachings. I highly recommend watching the bible videos as they helped me learn more about the savior and understand better the apostles.
Since not much happened this week and I missed last week I'll catch you all up:
At the beginning of the week we helped set up for a ward's Christmas party and ended up helping for MUCH longer than anticipated. The poor woman put in charge had hardly any help and it was all very last minute so we did as much as we could to help. The Christmas party turned out to be a success and we actually got to see a few less-actives there and talk with them! A few we hadn't been able to get into contact with, so it was an awesome opportunity.
Later that week we had our last ward party to attend, and for the program we watched "The Little Drummer Boy". Mid way through I realized that we might not actually be supposed to be watching it as missionaries, (not put out by the church) but it was also the whole ward party program so we didn't really know what to do. Cute story thoughx)
On Saturday (the 23rd) we got a TON of snow. (It didn't snow much after that little dumping, but this morning it was -5 when we went to go exercise at the Schwab's gym.) One of the videos you saw in the "Christmas!" folder-Sister Thomas daring me to jump into the now much deeper snow. It was pretty soft and powdery...but also cold. Although it was a bit late, we finally decorated our 2ft tall Christmas tree so you also got some pictures of that.
Then Christmas Eve. So. Many. Much. Christmas. Programs. It was actually really nice though because each ward had a very different approach to their Christmas programs and it was neat to see them all. Meadows had the whole ward council speak on different points about the Savior. Each had a question to talk about and my favorite was "what does it mean to me to serve the Savior?" I thought about that a lot and about what I am doing as a missionary to truly take upon myself the name of Christ. Each calling we hold in the church, regardless of how unimportant it may seem, is a calling to serve the Savior, Jesus Christ. We should be treating it as such and diligently giving our very best. Likewise, when we are serving others around us, we should think about how we are helping them feel the love of the Savior, and how our service is not just a service to them, but to God. I hope you all make a new years resolution to keep up a daily act of service- it'll bring you and those you serve closer to Christ.
That brings me to....(drumroll)...CHRISTMAS! We spent Christmas morning with the members we live with and Brother Reinhart made us breakfast. I'm sure you saw the pictures of the floor after we opened gifts- the members did not leave us wanting. It seemed like leading up to Christmas, every house we stopped at had gifts for us. Craziness. Obviously we got to call our families, which was a good time(: After that we dropped off the ipads we borrowed and saw my aunt's familyx) We visited with them a bit and Eric challenged me at ping-pong, (which I'm a lot better at than I thought!), which I won(; Sister Thomas and I also played doubles against Adam and Eric and we won that round too. Adam was pretty devastated(; After that we went home to have a little Christmas dinner....I had Crab and Sister Thomas had steak😏 Again, some members have become our adoptive parents, thus the fantastic leftovers. After that we visited a few more people and I brought my uke along and sang them each "Away in a Manger". Fun day(:
That about sums up the past few weeks, another fun fact, we stopped by a members house last night to ask about lessons they're going to set up for us and got roped into joining them for a second dinner and prime rib. Not all that mad about it, it was pretty goodx)
Anyways, so that was my week. I love you all!!
Love,
Sister Jensen
So this week wasn't too eventful. Sister Thomas became ill the day after pday and we didn't get to leave the apartment until Sunday evening. There's a pretty bad strand of the flu going around, and it just knocked her out for a few days.We have some very loving members who stopped by and were worried out of their minds for us so they'd pop in every so often. Sister Thomas was sick through Saturday and I basically just found ways to keep busy by journaling/studying/doing chores and etc. We went through every church video we had and at one point the elders even brought by the bible videos for us which was AWESOME!
I never caught it, and hopefully won't get it later from anyone. I feel like it was really beneficial for me to have those few days all couped up because I definitely learned more about the savior and understood the life of the apostles better. My testimony of his love for us strengthened, as well as my desire to really know the scriptures and understand his teachings. I highly recommend watching the bible videos as they helped me learn more about the savior and understand better the apostles.
Since not much happened this week and I missed last week I'll catch you all up:
At the beginning of the week we helped set up for a ward's Christmas party and ended up helping for MUCH longer than anticipated. The poor woman put in charge had hardly any help and it was all very last minute so we did as much as we could to help. The Christmas party turned out to be a success and we actually got to see a few less-actives there and talk with them! A few we hadn't been able to get into contact with, so it was an awesome opportunity.
Later that week we had our last ward party to attend, and for the program we watched "The Little Drummer Boy". Mid way through I realized that we might not actually be supposed to be watching it as missionaries, (not put out by the church) but it was also the whole ward party program so we didn't really know what to do. Cute story thoughx)
On Saturday (the 23rd) we got a TON of snow. (It didn't snow much after that little dumping, but this morning it was -5 when we went to go exercise at the Schwab's gym.) One of the videos you saw in the "Christmas!" folder-Sister Thomas daring me to jump into the now much deeper snow. It was pretty soft and powdery...but also cold. Although it was a bit late, we finally decorated our 2ft tall Christmas tree so you also got some pictures of that.
Then Christmas Eve. So. Many. Much. Christmas. Programs. It was actually really nice though because each ward had a very different approach to their Christmas programs and it was neat to see them all. Meadows had the whole ward council speak on different points about the Savior. Each had a question to talk about and my favorite was "what does it mean to me to serve the Savior?" I thought about that a lot and about what I am doing as a missionary to truly take upon myself the name of Christ. Each calling we hold in the church, regardless of how unimportant it may seem, is a calling to serve the Savior, Jesus Christ. We should be treating it as such and diligently giving our very best. Likewise, when we are serving others around us, we should think about how we are helping them feel the love of the Savior, and how our service is not just a service to them, but to God. I hope you all make a new years resolution to keep up a daily act of service- it'll bring you and those you serve closer to Christ.
That brings me to....(drumroll)...CHRISTMAS! We spent Christmas morning with the members we live with and Brother Reinhart made us breakfast. I'm sure you saw the pictures of the floor after we opened gifts- the members did not leave us wanting. It seemed like leading up to Christmas, every house we stopped at had gifts for us. Craziness. Obviously we got to call our families, which was a good time(: After that we dropped off the ipads we borrowed and saw my aunt's familyx) We visited with them a bit and Eric challenged me at ping-pong, (which I'm a lot better at than I thought!), which I won(; Sister Thomas and I also played doubles against Adam and Eric and we won that round too. Adam was pretty devastated(; After that we went home to have a little Christmas dinner....I had Crab and Sister Thomas had steak😏 Again, some members have become our adoptive parents, thus the fantastic leftovers. After that we visited a few more people and I brought my uke along and sang them each "Away in a Manger". Fun day(:
That about sums up the past few weeks, another fun fact, we stopped by a members house last night to ask about lessons they're going to set up for us and got roped into joining them for a second dinner and prime rib. Not all that mad about it, it was pretty goodx)
Anyways, so that was my week. I love you all!!
Love,
Sister Jensen
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