Week 2 in YSA

Hello all! My week-

Monday! After emails we had quite the pday. We went off to get the car washed and took my first trip through a legit fancy car wash. One that pulls your car through and has all the random brushes and things that supposedly clean your car. Sister Ziegler thought it was hilarious watching me, but mind you folks, I've only gone through the small one in Afton before where you pull your car in, stop, and it sprays and rinses your car. I thought that was fancy, but nope this was craziness and i can see it freaking little kids out. An Elder later heard it was my first time through a car wash like that and was like "they don't have car washes in Oregon??" To which I responded- "Uh they do, but it rains 9 months out of the year so why the heck would I use them?" He got my point.

After the carwash we went and did groceries. First time I've been in a Walmart for 6 months!!! CRAZY. After we came back to the car...we noticed a chunk was missing. At the bottom of the passenger door, a part of the door was no longer there. Funny enough, during the car wash I thought I had heard something scrape, so we went back to see if the wash had eaten part of our car. The attendant went in and casually came back out with it, saying "yeah this happens a lot". Another reason to wash your car at home. He popped it back on for us, but It didn't lie completely flat, nor do I ever think it will. (A lot more happened, but I can really only include the highlights or this will be like a 10 page essay)

Tuesday! ZONE CONFERENCE! Whoohoo!! Zone Conference was held in the Paris Tabernacle this time. Sister Ziegler and I had to pick up the Soda Springs sisters because they are lacking a car, and then drive about an hour and a half to Paris. Fun time. Zone Conference was really good though and really centered all on sacrifice. It made me think about what I'm putting into my mission and how focused I am. I walked away feeling like there were things I need to work on for sure, but more determined to improve on them. Zone Conference is fantastic because it's like the motivational boost you need to help you through the transfer.

About 10 minutes into heading home from Paris we get a call from the Zone Leaders saying we need to check and see if another set of keys were left in our car because some elders didn't have theirs. So we pull off and start looking, and as we were on the side of the road, some elders from Afton go by and immediately pull off too. They jump out of their car and start running towards us, just as another car pulls off, the AP's! (Assistants to the President) I swear, if a missionary is down the whole road is gonna go on lock down until a bandaid is administered. It was really funny because nothing was wrong, but also really sweet to see the immediate concern and compassion of our Elders. (The keys weren't in our car, I really hope they found them, but we were never told)

Wednesday! We had the opportunity to meet with President Packer today, the Stake President over the Young Single Adult wards. He gave us some much needed advice and council on how to work with YSA wards and hopefully we'll start to see success! We also had an interesting little miracle in the evening.

We cover 3 YSA wards, 2 of which are in Pocatello, (6th & 7th wards) and one called Marsh Valley that extends from Inkom Idaho down to Swan Lake Idaho. It's huge and we spend 30 miles getting to the middle of that area alone. (We have limited miles) So since Sister Ziegler and I have hardly been in a week we wanted to go make a visit so we could meet some people out there. They have Institute Wednesday evenings, followed by an activity. We planned to go, heard it was possibly going to be some sport for the activity, but forgot our exercise clothes. We wear skirts/dresses almost 24/7 mind you. On the way we realized this and didn't know what to do. So we kinda just kept driving. As we were going there was a sign for a "Jensen Rd" so I immediately was like "look Sister, it's a sign! Literally!" Obviously we were meant to go to this activity.

We arrive at the church building and as we're walking up to the sidewalk the window of a car rolls down and we hear "Sisters! Are you ladies the Sisters serving here?" We head over and as we start talking with this older couple and girl our age rolls down her window and is like "Wait!! You're the Sisters here??! I just got off my mission! Like released today! This makes me so happy, can I come out with you to lessons??!" She had just been released and the advice she had been given before leaving was "stay close to the missionaries" and there we were! I think it was an answer to her prayers. (Spoiler, she came out with us to a lesson already on Saturday(: )

As we continued into the building some members gave us bread while we waited for the YSA's to arrive. (Sister Ziegler earlier that morning- "home-made bread sounds really good right now") When the YSA's came I was so glad to see it was a small group of about 10 people, so we weren't overwhelmed with new names and faces. They weren't particularly dressed for sports either so we played kickball, which I was quite comfortable playing. It was super fun and honestly felt like home because they were so welcoming and comfortable with each other. So it turned out to be a great and inspired night(:

Thursday! We went to an institute class with one our investigators which was really good. This is Michael, the one set to be baptized May 12th. He is so solid and goes to like all the institute classes there are. The class was very poignant, it was about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. Very touching and thought provoking class. That evening we ate with some super fun members who made us Curry and...ha ha... Peach Cobbler. I laugh because I really don't like Peach Cobbler due to some not so great cobblers in the past, but this one was actually good and I enjoyed it haha. After dinner we went to ANOTHER class with Michael, the mission prep class. Michael is 26 and still wants to serve. He sees how important the gospel is and hopes to serve so he can help spread it to others. It was a pretty great day(:

Friday! Friday morning we went to another class with Michael, but had to leave early in order to get some study time in. We went to a room and began studying for our lesson we were going to have with Michael haha. We were both a little nervous for this lesson... So he went to general conference right? Well while there he met Stephen Southward, who is our soon-to-be mission president come July. Since meeting him, Brother Southward has kept in weekly contact with Michael. And skyped into our lesson with him this week. So many much stress but it went really well. Lol Michael just casually asked "Stephen would like to FaceTime and join the lesson too if that's alright?" THE PRESSURE THIS KIDS DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HE HAS PLACED UPON US. Oh my heck. It went really well though and Brother, (soon to be President) Southward was awesome. Haha, his camera got all misplaced so we mostly chatted with the right side of his face and his nose. It was pretty funny.

Saturday! We got to take the fresh RM Danielle out with us to a lesson and It was great. The girl we were meeting with really opened up and Danielle seemed really glad to be out with us. We had a lesson before that with a Recent Convert, to which he brought a nonmember! Random but awesome! He's helping us with the work haha. It was a good lesson and we were able to connect with her and answer her questions.

Sunday, I was sick so not fantastic. I'm still kinda sick today, but it's all good. I hope you all have a great week though, I love you all!

Love,
Sister Jensen