Dear
Family,
It is just incomprehensible to me how fast these weeks go by.
Here I am, writing another email when I feel like I just did this.
This week was relatively normal, things seem to have calmed down
with the open house being over. We have been spending our time either teaching,
visiting members, or finding people to teach by tracting.
On Friday we had a lesson with one of our investigators and one
of her family members joined us. We read
the talk called "To Friends and Investigators of the Church" by Elder
Costa with her. The family member that
joined us read the talk with us and he read the last paragraph in this passage
when it came around to his turn:
"The final experience I’d like to share is about
repentance. After I had finished taking all the missionary lessons, I was still
not convinced I needed to change anything in my life. It was Elder Cutler, a
young, confident missionary with limited Spanish, who one day said, “Joaquin,
let’s read together Alma 42, and we will include your name as we read it.”
I thought it was silly, but I did as Elder Cutler asked and read
in verse 1: “And now, my son [Joaquin], I perceive there is somewhat more which
doth worry your mind, which ye cannot understand.” Oh! The book was speaking to
me.
And we read in verse 2: “Now behold, my son [Joaquin], I will
explain this thing unto thee,” and then the Fall of Adam was described.
And then in verse 4: “And thus we see, that there was a time
granted unto [Joaquin] to repent.”
We continued reading slowly, verse by verse, until we reached
the last three verses. Then I was struck by a powerful force. The book spoke
directly to me, and I started to cry as I read, “And now, [Joaquin,] my son, I
desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more, and only let your
sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you … unto repentance”
(verse 29).
As he read the last paragraph his voice started to shake and
tears came down his cheeks. His father, Gene, is really sick and sleeps in a
hospital bed in the living room where we do our lessons. It was so sweet to
watch Gene, who is rather frail and weak, reach over to grab a tissue from his
table and reach over to the other side to give it to his son. It was good to
see his heart touched by the Spirit.
Thanksgiving was a nice day. We stayed in the apartment until
about 4. We did our weekly planning session, which takes a couple of hours. I
have become pretty discontent with just sitting around, so I kept myself busy
by organizing our area books and then organizing all of my stuff. I will most
likely have to pack everything up next week, so I was glad for the time to get
organized. I also worked on a talk we gave yesterday in 9th ward. I spoke on
President Nelson's talk about the Book of Mormon. Anyway, at 4 we went to the
Dawley's home for dinner. We have family home evening every week with the
Dawley's, so we are pretty close with their family, I was so happy when Sister
Dawley volunteered to have us. We came and hung out with the kids until dinner
was ready. It was a good, traditional Thanksgiving meal. After dinner, we came
home again and Sister Blocker got a haircut from Sister Abbott, another sister
in our apartment who is a licensed cosmetologist. Then, we ended the day by
going to a different member's house in the elder's ward. We played ping pong
and cards and just had a nice time.
The highlights from tracting were talking to a man that was in
the second house we knocked on. I recognized him because he would come into the
library sometimes while we are emailing and do odd jobs. He opened the door and
just started to tell us literally his whole life story. His wife died from
cancer about 3 years ago, and he told us about their adventures in Ireland and
Scotland. They have both it in their ancestry, so we got to talk a little about
family history. He talked for over an hour, and at the end he let us give him a
Book of Mormon. Definitely not an experience I was expecting to have. T. was my
other favorite person we talked to. He was outside on his porch and he was
immediately very friendly. I think he is one of those people who just likes
people. He went to the temple open house and was really impressed by it. He is
a practicing Catholic, but told us that he likes to learn about different
things. When we were first talking he told us that he had already met at
Ridley's, and said that he thought that one of us was from Arizona, which is
when we realized that he had met the other sisters just that previous Monday.
He took a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets and even tried to offer us a
donation, which we refused, of course. But he told us that we could come back
in a month :)
Another, one of our investigators, has been babysitting a couple
of children, almost 24/7 for the last couple of months. So we see them a lot
too. One of the kids loves it when we
come over. She was thrilled when we gave her a Book of Mormon and asks to read
from it when we are there. They came to
church for the first time yesterday. I loved looking down the row to see our
investigator and these children. It was
just one of those moments where you pause and just feel a burst of gratitude
for the blessing it is to be a missionary. One of the children didn't know much
about Jesus Christ, so I had the opportunity during the Sacrament to simply
teach her about what the Savior did for us. When the bread and the water came
around, it was just a little more meaningful to me. I am grateful for this time
that we have had and I hope that the opportunity to learn about the gospel will
come again in this child’s life, and she will remember how she felt when she
was with us and at church. I will just have to keep her in my prayers :)
Last night we got a small Christmas tree and some decorations
from a member, so we cranked up the Christmas music after getting home. It made
me so happy! I am so excited for the coming Christmas season and the many
opportunities I will have to serve. Look up the new Light the World video if
you haven't, it is wonderful!
Love,
Sister Jensen
