Field of Heroes

Hello everyone!! We had a pretty packed week, so prepare yourselves...

Tuesday was kind of crazy, our schedule got thrown out the window as it often does as a missionary. It's a little hard to plan for people's agency, but you learn to adjust. We got to help with a service project out at Century High school. They'll be holding a memorial service this weekend to commemorate veterans. They call it "Field of Heroes" and they transform the school fields into a memorial. We helped place crosses all over the field to mark loved ones lost in battle. Each one had a name and this code you could scan on the back to find a biography about the individual. It was pretty neat and we cut their set up time back from 4 days to 2.

Later that evening we got to meet with our bomb investigator Gabriel!! He is so great and doing so well! We had two members come with us, and I think his eyes are opening more to the people in the church. He had been creating a barrier between himself and the members. But he seems to start to see that Mormons are normal people too. He is progressing really well and we're talking about baptism a lot. He honestly brings it up a lot. This week we challenged him to identify what it is that's holding him back from baptism, so we'll see what happens!!

On Wednesday...MIRACLES! A member from the Marsh Valley YSA offered to drive us out to visit some people in Downey. Downey is one of the furthest stretches of our area, the farthest we cover is Swan Lake. It sounds nuts, and looks ridiculous when you get out a map, but the Marsh Valley YSA ward covers from Inkom to Swan Lake Idaho. It overlaps with all the family wards and goes in the YSA 2nd Stake our other Pocatello wards fall in. Geography aside, it's been too many miles to drive ourselves out for the two referrals we had in Downey. (We have limited miles)

The Relief Society President in Marsh Valley offered to take us, so we headed out. Well as we were heading to one girl in Downey, Sierra (the RSP) says "I've tried contacting this girl so many times but she's never home and I honestly haven'tmade contact with her in almost a year. She's always working." Heavenly Father appreciated our efforts to go see her because this time, she was home!!! She agreed to come to church(: Then we also caught a girl in Arimo home, we agreed to come to institute with us that night! She came and had a great time and said she plans to come more(: It was awesome and testified to me that Heavenly Father appreciates our efforts and will work miracles if we just have a bit of Faith in him and take a step forward.

Thursday was transfer day! Even though Sister Ziegler and I weren't getting transferred, President still had us come to the Transfer site throughout the Day to make sure no Sisters we stranded and without a companion. Sister Pehrson ended up being by herself after the second switch, so we took her in with us for a bit as a trio. Sister Pehrson was a 2 transfer missionary, so she was actually going home that transfer. A 2 transfer missionary is, for lack of better terms, a trial missionary. Basically the missionary has those two transfers in a mission close to home (in case of any issues)  to see if they want to serve a full mission, or can. Often times it's because of health issues, so they are assigned somewhere for 3 months (2 transfers) to see if they can do it or if their health issues will prohibit them.

Anyways, so Sister Pehrson finished her 2 transfers and was basically waiting to be picked up by her family at the mission office. She hadn't eaten anything yet, and we left some things at the house so we ran back quick to get her sone food and grab our stuff. Well. I locked the keys in the house. We got home and basically, I just switched back to driving so I'm not used to having the keys and as I walked out the door I locked it, and closed it behind me. Of course, the car and house keys were sitting on my desk. We called our housing coordinator and had to wait for them to come and bring the spare set. In the meantime, Sister Pehrson's family got to the mission office. It was pretty funny actually, she was totally chill with it all and when the mission office called to let us know they were there, she was like "They can suck it up. We'll be there soon." She's hilarious, and fortunately has decided to serve a full mission once her health issues get manageable and has already been assigned  back to this mission(: So I'll get to see her again in a few months! We eventually got the keys and her family was chill with our lateness, they thought it was quite funny actually. So no hard feelings lol.

Friday we got to meet our new district! With transfers our district got switched a bit. Elder Hassell is still our District Leader, (this will be my fourth transfer serving around this Elder. I swear he's following me.) But instead of the Inkom sisters being in our district, the Spanish Elders joined us! Elder Rodriguez, and Elder Cepeda! This is pretty cool because both of these elders served in my last area in Star Valley!! So I've heard about them from members, and now I'll actually get to know them,  so that was neat(:

On Saturday we went out to McCammon to teach a guy preparing for a mission.  His name is Alma, (so he best be goin on a mission) and in the past he was set to serve, but then hit a rough patch and wasn't sure about going. He has since resolved to serve, but we're walking through Preach My Gospel with him to make sure he gets there. It was a great lesson, he's really taking what we have to say in and seems to appreciate going through PMG with someone. It was confusing for me at first so I hope we're being helpful.

After that we made a stop in Inkom so i could do a few run throughs of the National Anthem, and then we headed out to Century High School so I could perform it! This goes back to the Field of Heroes event we helped prepare, I sang the National Anthem to open Saturdays activities. It was a little stressful because I sang it completely A Capella, but it went well. I did have my ukulele tuner to use as a pitch pipe so blessings!x)

Miracles upon miracles...GABRIEL CAME TO CHURCH!! We texted Gabriel Sunday morning and asked if we could come to church. He said he was headed to Idaho Falls so we didn't think he'd be making it, but when we said it was at 11:30 he said he could probably come...and he did!! He stayed for Sunday School even and seemed to enjoy it all(: It was great to have him there, hopefully he'll come to Family Home Evening tonight!!

I love you all, I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Love,
Sister Jensen