Dear Family,
Thank you to everyone who has sent me
emails and letters! Being on a mission has helped me realize that I have been
so blessed to have the family and friends that I do. I am so grateful to have
each of you in my life, thank you for your love and support!
The most exciting news from this week
is that A. got baptized! We got everything worked out for her to be confirmed right
after the baptism due to stake conference, and it was so wonderful! It was very
stressful leading up Saturday, everything just seemed to be thrown at us at
once. But Sister S. told me that it is always like that before a baptism.
Everything worked out and the sweet spirit that was felt there made it all
worth it. I loved hearing the talks and testimonies from her friends, and
feeling their perfect happiness to have their dear friend enter the waters of
baptism. We watched Mormon Messages about Christ (including my favorite-Because
of Him) which was probably my favorite part. All of this is because of Christ,
it is all about bringing people to Him so that they can have full access to His
atonement. Also, side note, but I played the piano at the baptism! I was so
nervous and didn't have much time to practice, but it actually went off
alright. Of course, it wasn't actually me, being an answer to prayer and
everything.
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Secretly took a picture of Sister S. while we were tracting.
We have been so blessed to continue
teaching J.. I really love teaching her because she asks hard questions that
make us think. I am continually pondering over my own testimony, remembering my
past experiences with the Spirit when I first learned or relearned these
things. It has helped me see that we have to work for our testimonies
sometimes, and we have to be continually growing it or else it will die. We have
had many moments with J. where the Spirit was so strong. In one of our lessons
earlier this week, after our closing prayer, I did my best to express to her
how much I love her, which can be a challenge for me sometimes. But with help
from the Spirit, I hope that she understood just how much we love her and
desire her eternal happiness. She has been reading through gospel principles (I
know, she's incredible), and there were a couple of doctrines that were
bothering her so we set up a time for us to all meet with the bishop yesterday.
I wish I could convey what happened in that meeting, but I won't be able to.
But the most important thing is that the Spirit was there as the bishop
testified to J. about Heavenly Father's love for her and the plan that He has
in place for her. After we went 30 minutes over the time, bishop boldly
suggested that she pick a date and she did! We are so incredibly excited for
her, I know that she has so much in store for her. But pray hard for her, she
will need the support and protection from Heavenly Father!
In the middle of the week we received
a self-referral from the office for A.. They told us that English is her second
language, so we were worried that we would have to turn her over to the Spanish
missionaries. But we met with her on Thursday and found out she is Hungarian!
And no missionaries speak Hungarian here, so we get to keep her! But her story
is really cool. She was actually baptized by missionaries in Hungary over 20
years ago, but her family did not support her at all so she stopped going to
church. She married her husband, who is also Hungarian, a couple of years ago and
he already lived here for a long time, so she left Hungary to live with him.
She told us that she always hoped that she would find missionaries on her
street or that they would knock on her door, but they never did. Well, not too
long ago, she and her husband were taking a walk and they walked by our
building, and she recognized that it was the church. So she referred herself
and finally found the missionaries! It was amazing to hear her story and think
of those missionaries who found her years ago in Hungary, and how their service
as missionaries impacted her life so much at the time, even if it wasn't the
right time. We taught her about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon.
During one point in the lesson, she told us that she believed that she couldn't
be forgiven for something she did years ago. We testified that she can have
forgiveness because of Christ's atonement, and the Spirit was there confirming
what we were telling her. She started to cry and we could clearly see the
relief in her face. It made me so grateful for Christ's atonement, and really
brought home the fact that His suffering can make us clean again. She came to
church on Sunday with her husband, J., who isn't a member but is super awesome!
He made some great comments in Sunday school and we are hoping to teach him as
well.
Speaking of church, we are really
starting to get to know the wards and enjoy the love and support of the
members.
I just love my mission! I love this
area and the wards and the people and everything! I hope that I get to stay
here in Nampa for a while, there is so much work here that I am so excited to
do. There are ups and downs of course, but it is so worth it.
Love,
Sister Jensen
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