Jacob 3:1

Hello hello!

This week was pretty great! On Sunday I had the random opportunity to say hello to a guy named Shawn Cudsworth, who served his mission in Oregon. I remembered him from a youth conference, where he and his companion taught us about the spirit. It was pretty random and I was surprised he remembered me, but it was neat to be reminded of the impact he made as a missionary, and realize a bit of the opportunity I have to make the same impact on people with the gospel.

Monday evening we were able to meet a new investigator! Her name is Thelma and she has so many questions! She's gone to church a ton, but hasn't ever understood some key principles so she's pretty confused by it all, but wants to understand. It's pretty crazy, our area feels like it's gaining momentum and we seem to find a new investigator each week.

Lets see, we made banana bread with one of our relief society presidents and then delivered it out to people, we also got to have our first interviews with president this week, that was great(: Actually the next evening Sister Wilson and I were invited over to the Southward's home again or dinner and a lesson with an investigator they've been working on! His name is Griffin and he won't be around too much longer, he's on a sales crew for Vivant. He is incredibly interested in the gospel, and although he is a salesman, I believe it is sincere. He's really searching for the truth and has been reading the Book of Mormon. He was set to come to church on Sunday, but got pulled into a work trip to Twin Falls. Hopefully we get to meet with him again this week before he's off to the next city.

Saturday was our busiest day, we started off by hauling topsoil for a guy some family ward sisters found. He's doing a raised flower bed in his yard and the sisters offered to help. Seeing as he is ysa, they thought we would show up with them to invite him out. He was super nice and went and got us water and chips. I think he saw us all sweating buckets and felt bad hahax) That was great though, we plan to keep in contact with him and continue showing him what the ysa is all about.

That afternoon we got to have a lesson with Gabriel, and I think he really did need us to start all over. We focused on God and discussed his confusion and  clarified a lot on things we didn't know he was missing.

Probably the coolest thing from Saturday- we met with Kylie and her brother Craig again. Craig actually seemed determined to avoid us, he left to go to the store like 15 minutes before we came. (he knew what time we were coming) Well we read the first 2 chapters of Jacob with Kylie, and then walked in the door! I was actually as little glad he wasn't there for the first 2 chapters, they got pretty harsh, I'm not sure how he would have responded. But the 3 chapter of Jacob is only 14 verses long and we had a bout 15 minutes till our next appointment, so we invited him to join us for one more chapter. He came and the first verse was perfect, it basically simply stated that so long as we do the little things to keep close to the lord, we will be protected from Satan and be able to withstand temptation. We encouraged him to be reading more and praying and to start coming to church again. It was all so perfect(:

Kinda out of order now, but i also just remembered, Michael almost dropped us again. We met with him on Sunday and had an awesome discussion, but then on Thursday he was so incredibly close to dropping us. We saved it though and will be meeting with him on Tuesday. Basically he fell back into old habits and Satan is working hard. I think he knows it's all true though and is scared to commit himself. He'll get there though. I have faith(:

Well, I hope you all had a great week, I love you all!!

Love ya,
Sister Jensen

FERNANDO IS FOUND!

First, no, I am not being disobedient! We changed our pday to today so that we could go to Star Valley and attend the temple, as well as attend a baptism! Story time-

Back in Star Valley, Sister Stott and I found a guy named Tim. You may remember hearing his name, he was AWESOME. I never got to officially do the first discussion with him, but got to know him and his wife well. I got transferred and wasn't able to say goodbye or be there for the start of the lessons. Sister Wilson then replaced me and got to be present for all his lessons up until him setting a baptismal date. She got transferred and now Sister Wilson, Sister Stott, and I are all out of Star Valley.

WELL. In Zone Conference we were talking with a sister serving there now (Sister Boreham) and she was saying how it would be so cool for us to be able to go and we were like "yeahhhh it would.." She said we should ask President Southward, and that maybe if we flipped our pday for it, he'd let us....and he did!!!!!:D So we're back in Star Valley for a day:D It's me, Sister Wilson, Sister Stott, and Sister Stott's greenie- Sister Worth. We already went to the temple this morning and now we're sending off some quick emails before going out to visit some people(:
Star Valley aside, we saw some pretty amazing miracles this week. Honestly, if you're looking for it, God blesses us all so incredibly much and works so many miracles in our lives. (If you don't believe me, go read Mormon 9. It's a little chastising, but it's my favorite.) On Tuesday we found Fernando!! We had a lesson set with a guy named Caleb up at an apartment complex we cover. We knocked, and totally heard someone mess with the door, but no answer. So we decided to continue knocking doors in the apartment area. We knocked on Fernando's door, not knowing who lived there or anything, and after moving to the next door, he answered! We chatted with him a bit on the doorstep and then he invited us in! It was perfect because we had a member with us so we were able to go in and talk with him for a while! It was amazing, he was so open and ready for the gospel. He said at the end, he knew our visit wasn't a coincidence. He had prayed for the first time in a while, because he was feeling lonely and needed more positivity in his life. He also recognized the peace he could feel while meeting with us. It was really neat to see how much Heavenly Father prepares people and the different ways he works.

On Friday we got to go on exchanges! Sister Worth joined me in Pocatello for her first exchange! Again so many miracles(: We had district meeting that morning and talked about basically everything she expressed she was struggling with. Also, in district meeting, an elder shared a scripture that really struck me- Helaman 5:45-47. The verses describe how we feel the spirit, which is something I think we can all improve on. The last verse really struck me, mostly because it reminded me of Fernando and how he noticed the peace he felt as we met with him.

Later that afternoon, Sister Worth and I went out to try and find some people to talk too. We were trying to contact this one member and see if he still lived in the house listed when we ran across a guy out washing his giant turquoise monster truck. We started talking to him and I asked about the words on his truck and what they meant exactly. He had the word "FROSTBITE" across the windshield and "WOLF" across the sides. That's when he told us he's a professional cage fighter. He's been cage fighting since 9 years old, which I think is low-key child abuse but I mean he enjoys it I guess. (He's 26 now) Anyways, he explained that his cage name is "wolf" and his truck's name is "Frostbite". (Apparently he enters his truck into some  big truck competition idk, we didn't talk about that part too long) Pretty interesting guy! Another miracle though because he explained that all the houses around him are super sketchy and deal drugs. And that the a biker gang used to live in the house we were knocking prior to talking to him. No one lives there now, but Heavenly Father lead us to the safest house on the street to get us into contact with this guy. Pretty cool dude, oh he also owns wolves and keeps them in his backyard. Like real timber wolves, the things you see in movies and if you met one in the woods you'd be dead. He just casually has them in his backyard. And in his house he has a mama wolf that has pups but couldn't show us because we didn't have another sister with us. I took pics of the wolves though.

Yeah so i thought it was nuts, but then talking to our relief society president, she goes "okay so he's a cage fighter, we have a lot of those in Pocatello" Which made me go "Who the heck comes to hide in Pocatello????" Weird stuff. We also got to have our first lesson with Fernando that evening! It was really good. He definitely recognizes the spirit as we meet and he is incredibly open and accepting. The only hard thing will be getting him to church, he plays in a Soccer League that has games on Sundays:\ We'll get past that eventually though.

To end, I'd just like to testify that Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives. He knows each of us and what we're going through and what we need. I know he is aware of each of us. I love you all, as he does too. I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

Love,
Sister Jensen

Travelling MoTab

Hello hello all!!

This week we got to meet with Michael again which was GREAT! We met with him in the hospital again and discussed his whole experience and what he's learned from it all. He also said he knows the church is true and we plan to continue meeting with him(: He's out of the hospital finally, but didn't get out until Thursday night..poor guy didn't get out for almost 2 weeks. I think he needed the experience to soften his heart a little though. I'm excited!

Cool experience with one of our semi/less actives! We meet with a girl named Kylie and her birthday was this week! We planned to go over and read with her actually on her birthday, but then she got called into work. We made her cookies and dropped them off anyway and guess who answered the door- her (also less active) brother Craig!! We talked with him briefly and then left. We had been told he was extremely anti, but he seemed nice enough to us. Then the next afternoon when we went in to read with Kylie he walked through the kitchen, so we invited him to read with us, and he did!! He knows what he should be doing and recognizes he needs to be better at the little things. He'll be joining us for lessons now!:D

On Thursday we ate with the Southward family and got to teach this random guy named Griffin! He was honestly golden and was so open to the gospel. I don't know how much longer we'll see him around though, he's on a sales crew and they only spend a few weeks in an area before moving on to another. (Lol kinda like transfers) President Southward seems to enjoy putting Sister Wilson and I on the spot though. As we were driving to the appointment he calls, tells us we'll be teaching someone we hadn't been planning for and informs us that we'll be singing something. The conversation literally went something like this:

"...Yeah, and then you sisters will hit him with a musical number and it'll be great!"

"Oh, haha can we ask what we'll be singing?"

"Yeah you gals choose and do either of you play the ukulele?"

Me- "Hah..yeah, I do..just any song? Do you have a simplified hymn book?"

"Of course!! Awesome Sisters!..."

So we sang. We did "There is a Green Hill Far Away. President wants to record us and do something with it for the mission. I'm not sure what that all entails or if it will happen. We'll see I guess.

This Friday we had ZONE CONFERENCE!! That was pretty spectacular. President Southward has that fire to him and he was really motivational. He talked all about being fishers of men and how we can find success through relying on Christ. He also talked about how long our line is actually in the water (ie how long we're actually out talking to people) and if we're putting out enough effort. We also had some visitors! Jess, a girl I saw starting to learn about the gospel back in Star Valley came! She's recently been baptized since and she bore her testimony and gave us feedback on what a recent convert/investigator needs. We also had a family from Cokeville join us, the husband of which was in the Cokeville Miracle. (Cokeville school lockdown/bomb threat/hostage situation that happened a while ago...crazy stuff) They gave good insight as to what to ask members to do to help fellowship those we teach and find people for us to teach. Lastly, the Alcantar Family joined us! They are travelling around the states right now visiting all the temples in the US! They've also been to some in Mexico and I believe some in Canada. (Maybe not Canada yet, I'm behind the times lol) They were coming through the area, bumped into President Southward and joined us for Zone Conference! It was awesome to hear from them and hear the temple emphasized more. It really is the "end" goal for us...although this gospel never really ends. It was great though(:

President also had us do an on the fly musical number yet again. He slides over to us as we're finishing up the conference and asks us to sing a song for the closing hymn. I think he realizes sometimes you do better with no preparation because you don't have time to worry about it. (Jk, at the beginning of the conference he said we'd hear some special musical numbers...plural...so I actually wondered if he'd be asking us.) We sang "I Stand All Amazed" and it went well haha. He calls us the Travelling MoTab. Just likes to keep us on our toes I guess.

To finish up the weekend though, we met with Alma again, who is preparing for a mission. He finally finished his papers!!!:D He just has to interview with the Bishop and Stake President and they'll be done!!! So that was fantastic. Haha, we did some role-plays with him and he realized teaching isn't as easy as he thought lol. He'll get it though. We also met with Gabriel again and got to really discuss what he isn't understanding. I think he's starting to really care about getting his questions answered so he's making progress.

This week was great though, I know God loves us and is so incredibly mindful of us. If we hand our fears to him he will help us overcome them because he loves us and wants us to be better. I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love ya,
Sister Jensen

Even In the Details Of Our Lives

Hello hello all!

Happy Fourth of July!! (a little late, but that's okay) I hope everyone had a great holiday!!

This week we had a really neat experience after Mission Leadership Council on Friday. We scheduled to do an institute building tour with the AP's later that afternoon. They started teaching a YSA guy named Drake and they wanted to do a tour to hand him off to us and get him going to the YSA wards.

We got there for the tour, turned on all the lights in the building, planned the route we wanted to walk, and then waited... and waited... the elders arrived, the member we had asked to come came... but Drake didn't show. The AP's were determined to have someone to give a tour though because they walked outside and contacted a random girl walking by! They invited her to get some cool AC and take a quick tour, so she came!

Her name is Rebecca and although Drake never showed, I think she was the one we were meant to talk to that day! She is less-active and when we talked with her about the YSA she seemed excited and even said she would be more comfortable there than at a family ward. We plan to see her later in the week and keep her updated on activities(:

I feel like this experience just goes on to further show how God is in the details of our lives. Even though she was just some random girl walking by, she lives only a few blocks from the institute and is in our area. She had been inside the building before, but never seen all of it, and had nowhere she needed to be soon. My testimony of how God is in the details of our lives has grown, and I feel like I've seen so many miracles since I've been out!

Another neat experience, Michael has agreed to take the lessons again! He's had a ton of visits this week from Sister Wilson and I, as well as President Southward and President Packer. (the YSA Stake President/Director of the Institute in Poky) I am SO EXCITED to start teaching him again and cannot wait to see where it goes.

A few explanations for my pictures this week! On the fourth of July we went to a parade in Inkom where some nice members took pictures of us. We also got to see Kevin Andrus in the parade, who is the Elders Quorum President in the Marsh Valley YSA ward, as well as the State Rep so that was pretty cool. We got some mozzarella sticks because they sounded fantastic and Poky was absolutely dead. (all the YSA's left Poky for the holiday) We got to do some sparklers when we got home because our neighbors were lighting fireworks and playing with sparklers, which was Sister Wilson's dream for the day.

We also moved into our new apartment! This one isn't temporary, but I might end up moving in 6 weeks anyways depending on transfers. We'll see, you can never get too comfortable as a missionary.

I love you all and I hope you all had a great week!!

Love ya,
Sister Jensen

Lord, I Would Follow Thee

Hello everyone!!!

Wow this week was a crazy one. To start I had a grand total of 5 companions this week and was definitely stressing out a bit. I dropped Sister Ziegler off to the mission home Monday afternoon, after which I received Sister Whitmer for the remainder of the day. Sister Whitmer and I were together for all of Tuesday as well. Transfers were Wednesday, for which I was in a trio with Sister Stott and her new greenie, Sister Worth! I was with them until about 3:30 or 4pm, when Sister Wilson finally arrived from Star Valley!! It's been great to get to hear how everyone is doing and I definitely miss it out there.

I want to share an experience we had Saturday, and since it's pretty packed, that'll about summarize my week. On Saturday we had the opportunity to meet President and Sister Southward! While I miss the Hancock's, the Southwards are going to be great to work with(: We had a special meet and greet in Soda Springs, during which we each got to have a minute to chat with President, his wife, and their kids. Just a reminder that is pretty key to this whole entire day- when Sister Ziegler and I were first in the area, President Southward skyped into a lesson we had with Michael. Michael seemed solid and set for baptism, but backed out right before his baptismal date, and dropped us.

When I got to speak with President Southward, Michael was the first thing he asked about, and I had to tell him that we still haven't had any further contact with him. I heard him talking with a few Elders about Michael as well, but I didn't think too much about it. Later during the conference President Southward was talking to us about hastening the work and reads us a text he received from Michael, just 10 minutes ago, out of the blue. Michael told him he was in the hospital and that prayers would be appreciated, to which President Southward responded, asking if he could visit him.

That evening we went with President Southward to visit Michael in the hospital. On the way up President asked Sister Wilson and I if we would sing for Michael as we visited him. The hymn "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" came to mind and we decided on that. When we got in the room Michael was laying there in the hospital bed with an IV sticking out of his arm and a giant ice pack on his head. He basically overheated and it opened the way for a virus to hit him. He is recovering, but will be in the hospital for a bit longer. President Southward talked and caught up with him a bit and then he and President McNabb (President's first counselor) gave him a blessing. After they finished the blessing, Sister Wilson and I sang and I bore my testimony to him. The spirit was so strong in that room and I know he felt it by the end of everything. Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. My hope is this experience reminds him of the spirit he felt as he was learning about the church and helps him realize what's really important in this life.

I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week. I know if you're looking, you will see God's hand in your life. He loves each and every one of us and is aware of our situations.

Love you,
Sister Jensen