Dear Family,
I got a Christmas package! I love
having a present to open each day this month, and yesterday's was a real tender
mercy. So...I haven't been feeling too hot the past couple of days. I have a
cold or a sinus infection or something. But I was really feeling it yesterday
morning as I groggily opened my present for the day. And my present was nothing
other than tissues. I laughed and thanked Heavenly Father for inspired parents,
as I was running out of tissues.
I am sure you are all dying to know
that J. did get baptized on Tuesday! It was incredible, a day filled with
the Spirit. She was having a really tough day. She called us and broke down in
tears. And she wasn't worried that she was making the wrong choice or anything
like that. She told us so was so afraid that she would let the church down, and
we wouldn't want her anymore. We did our best to reassure her that that would
never happen, and as long as she tried her best she couldn't fail. I had the
prompting that we should invite her to our dinner that night, which was with
some of my favorite ladies, Sister P. and Sister D. They are the two older,
single sisters that we ate with the first week here, and they really lifted my
spirits during that rough transition. We texted her the address and invited
her, but she didn't show up for the first half hour. But she called while we
were eating and assured us that she was on her way but couldn't find the
address on her phone. We gave her directions and she made it! And it was the
best thing that could have happened before her baptism. Sister P. is a convert,
she joined the church in Chile when she was 17. She was able to bear her
testimony that being baptized was without a doubt the best decision that she
had ever made. She told her how much the restored gospel of Jesus Christ had
blessed her life, especially in the hard times. Sister D. as well was able to
bear her strong testimony of the the truthfulness of the church. I was so
grateful for the opportunity to be in that Spirit-filled home and hear these
amazing women bear their testimonies to J. We soon realized that it was time to
get to the church. When we got there we learned that we actually had plenty of
time because the font was barely filled. That was a little stressful, because
there were a lot of people there, but it was alright because J. got to talk to
all of the missionaries that had taught her the past year. We eventually
started with the font still filling, which was a little noisy, but could there
be a better sound? Well, the font filled in time and J. was baptized by the bishop.
Her face was just glowing when it came out of the water and we could hear her
squeal with happiness as she walked out of the water. She told us a couple of
days later that she felt so light after her baptism, like she had been carrying
a ton of weight and it had taken away. We met with her the day after the
baptism and it was amazing to see how full of hope she was. She just kept
telling us that she knew everything would work out and that she was very
content with her current situation, however tough it is. She was confirmed yesterday
and she showed up with her daughter! We hadn't met D. yet, so we were very
excited. We had a lovely baby blessing and then J. was confirmed by the bishop,
and the Spirit was of course very strong as she received the gift of the Holy
Ghost. It was testimony meeting, so she got to stand up and bear her testimony
last. It was incredible because she addressed most of it to her daughter,
testifying that this is the true church and that everyone wouldn't be working
so hard against it if it wasn't. She asked us in her testimony to pray for her
daughter. After the meeting, they were
both swarmed by ward members who wanted to talk to them. D. met the Young
Women's president and some of the girls, and was able to go to the youth
classes with her mom. We had invited them to come to our dinner yesterday. It
was with a super sweet older couple, but then another family with a girl D.'s
age invited them, so there was bit of a tug of war between the dinner invites,
all in good fun of course. They ended up going to eat at the other family's
house, which is a huge blessing and answer to our prayers for D. I can't wait to see how she continues to
progress in the gospel and I am so thankful that I got to have a small part in
the process.
We taught the B.’s again this week. I often think of the missionaries that taught
Sister B., a set of sister missionaries and a set of elders, and the joy they
would have if they only knew that she has come back to her loving Heavenly
Father's arms. We may never know on this earth the full impact of our
influence, especially when it comes to missionary service. Our numbers can
never measure the lives that we can touch with the beauty of Christ's atonement
and gospel. I am so thankful for this short time I have to fully commit myself
to this work.
I love you all so much and thank you
for all the emails, letters and packages! I am so lucky to have so many loving
and supportive people in my life. I know Heavenly Father loves you all so much!
Love,
Sister Jensen
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