Priesthood Healing

Hello hello everyone!!! I'm finally back to my novel writing habits, so prepare yourselves. 

Monday night we started out strong with a blessing. Sister Fitzpatrick got some sort of virus throat thing in the MTC and passed it off to me when she arrived. So my throat was acting up and it was making me super nervous because this is like her 3rd week with it and I was scheduled to sing on Sunday (yesterday) and in a few weeks at a special zone conference at which, President Ballard will be present!! (Holy cow!!!!!!) So lots of stuff happening vocally and I really did not have time to get sick! So Elder Allen & Elder Crowther gave me a blessing. In the blessing Elder Allen promised I would be healed because I was needed to use my talents. It was probably one of the coolest blessings I've been given, because it made me feel like Heavenly Father felt like my ability to sing was important, even necessary to the point that I needed to be healed. He also mentioned how people can feel the spirit more than I imagine/realize when I sing so that was really touching.

Tuesday I tried to keep a little quiet because we gotta do our part to be healed too right? (You know me, I can only stay quiet for so long haha) That night our dinner appointment made us some AWESOME wings, and I was so glad to finally have a bomb meal in Chubby. (Everything has been a little eh I guess, or just a few parts of the meal have made me go "yum!" While the rest was like "I'd like to pass but i won't...yay" So this was refreshing.) I appreciate good food hahaha.

That evening we joined the Young Women of the 9th ward for a "mission prep" night! It was awesome! They had the bishop talk a little about the interview questions, some sisters from the ward who served talk about their missions, and at the end, we spoke about our decisions to serve a mission! (Sister Fitz and I) We both actually got really emotional sharing our stories and it was really amazing to testify to the young women about setting their fears aside and following the Lord's will. I talked about how one of the "fears" I had before going out was missing out on Breanna's life and the possibility of her getting married while I was out...and how that happened. It was so amazing to bear my testimony of how the gospel helped me through even that. I'm, not saying this to make anyone sad, it really was a neat experience. I was able to tell them how everything was still alright and though it was hard to miss, I was able to visit my first area that same day and go to the temple. The temple holds healing powers and it made me so incredibly happy to see so many people I had grown to love. It was just so cool to get to testify to them of how the Lord is aware of us and will help us through our fears.

Wednesday evening we had dinner with one of our ward mission leaders and his family. We had a nice dinner, and were about to share a message when their son (recent RM) walked in....wearing the ugliest shirt I have ever seen in my life. Literally the room went silent as everyone simply stared at this kid's shirt. Let me describe it- Imagine a dark blue button down. Not bad, but now add metallic gold swirls, flowers, and music notes cascading down the chest and one of the sleeves. It look incredibly tacky, and he hadn't even ironed it. His dad goes "where'd you get that shirt son?" And he's like "online, where I get everything else." Like he wore that thing to work. Nobody really said anything. It was so awkward.

Thursday my voice felt like it was almost there. So that was encouraging. We had a suuuper long session of weekly planning and oh my heck I was dying but it's fine. We had dinner with the Johnsons that evening and they were so fun! Again, got some good meat so I was happy. After that we had a stake ward mission leader meeting, which was really helpful. The Stake President is super motivated to get the work going, and he just called a lot of new ward mission leaders, so the training was necessary and I think it'll help them start out with a good outlook. That evening one of our ward mission leaders gave us a huge sack of apples which made me super happy!!

Friday my throat was pretty much healed woot woot!! We had the opportunity to help with the food bank out in Tyhee and that was a mix of sad & happy & humbling. It's just sad to me to see some of the circumstances people are living in. It's even sadder to be able to see the effect of substance abuse on so many of their faces. It was saddening to see where they had gotten themselves, or situations they were put in through other's choices. It was a good experience though. That evening we had dinner with a newer sister to the ward. She moved in recently and her husband has passed away. She was super funny and sweet, I think she gets pretty lonely because a lot of the members don't know her yet. It was good to have the opportunity to spend dinner with her though.

Saturday we had breakfast with all the other missionaries in our stake! There's a member in one of the Elder's wards who is set on carrying out the tradition his grandfather instilled, to feed the missionaries in the stake once a month. It was so great, they fed us pancakes and it was really fun!! He was less active growing up and never served a mission, and his wife is from the Philippines and served a mission. They are so sweet and it was so cool to see the impact his grandfather had on him.

After breakfast we had a lesson with the Manteca family. They are a family that was sealed in the temple and are now getting back to activity. We had a really good lesson with them and discussed the first part of the Plan of Salvation. We were able to talk about our "turning points" and when the gospel became real to us. Brother Manteca shared some powerful experiences and I think he showed his wife that he really does have a testimony. After we got out, Sister Fitzpatrick was super excited because it felt like we really balanced each other well in the lesson. It was really good it went so well. Because of the breakfast we had very little study time so Sister Fitz was super nervous. But all went well and I think she was able to see the way Heavenly Father helped us.

After that we practiced "Brightly Beams" with Sister Wilson, and it was a lil rough. So that made me nervous, but I was like "well, it'll be okay, Heavenly Father said it would be.." That evening we ate with a super sweet family, the Halls. We had met brother Hall briefly the day prior and he told us after dinner that when he met us, he talked to his wife and was like "yeah, we got cool sisters!" Apparently the only set of sisters this area remembers weren't super talkative, so we're pretty neat hahaha. We shared the "Because of Him" video and basically had a family testimony meeting with them, it was so neat. We later saw the mom and 2 kids get up to bear their testimonies yesterday, it was really special(:

Sunday! What a day! We went to 2 full wards so that the wards could have time to get to know us a little and we could meet most of the relief society sisters. That evening we met at President's house and Sister Wilson and I sent out daughters off with each other for a brief exchange. My lil baby was already leaving the nest!! *sniff sniff* The fireside went really well, I think that was actually the best we've sung "Brightly Beams." I could feel the spirit very strongly and I think lots of members were able to feel it too. It was also amazing to see that Heavenly Father did in fact heal me and not only was I able to perform, but it was the best performance we've done of that song. The power of the priesthood is real and I was definitely able to see that this week.

I hope you all are doing well!

Love you all!!!
<3 Sister Jensen