Dear Family,
It has been a great
week! I feel like we are finally seeing some fruit from our labors, as well as
the labors of past missionaries. I love how in the work of the Lord, we never
do this alone. We have our companion, we have other missionaries, and most importantly,
we have the Lord Himself laboring right beside us.
During the week one of our teaching appointments was cancelled. So it was kind of like, now what? I read this article on the lds.org blog last week about prayer and how we should pray. The blogger talked about how sometimes we pray for righteous things and Heavenly Father doesn't give them to us because He has something better for us. Does that mean we should stop praying for our righteous desires? Well, ideally our desires should be the Lord's desires, and those are the things we should be praying for. But I know I am definitely not to that point yet. The article went on to explain that it is fine if we pray for those things, but doing something simple in addition to asking for those things will help our prayers significantly. After asking, we can add "but if not" then ask for something we KNOW He wants for us.. Anyway, I put that into practice on Thursday. In one my prayers earlier in the day, I asked that everything would work out with the our appointment and that we would be able to teach them. But, being used to cancellations as all missionaries are, I asked that if that didn't work out, we would be able to make best us of that time by finding that son or daughter of God who needed us then. Well, we tried a person or two then decided to text the A.’s and see if the were available for a lesson. To our great surprise, they were! We were able to go and teach M. the first half of the restoration! It was awesome, though we had a lesson scheduled right after that so we couldn't finish. We are planning on going back tomorrow :)
During the week one of our teaching appointments was cancelled. So it was kind of like, now what? I read this article on the lds.org blog last week about prayer and how we should pray. The blogger talked about how sometimes we pray for righteous things and Heavenly Father doesn't give them to us because He has something better for us. Does that mean we should stop praying for our righteous desires? Well, ideally our desires should be the Lord's desires, and those are the things we should be praying for. But I know I am definitely not to that point yet. The article went on to explain that it is fine if we pray for those things, but doing something simple in addition to asking for those things will help our prayers significantly. After asking, we can add "but if not" then ask for something we KNOW He wants for us.. Anyway, I put that into practice on Thursday. In one my prayers earlier in the day, I asked that everything would work out with the our appointment and that we would be able to teach them. But, being used to cancellations as all missionaries are, I asked that if that didn't work out, we would be able to make best us of that time by finding that son or daughter of God who needed us then. Well, we tried a person or two then decided to text the A.’s and see if the were available for a lesson. To our great surprise, they were! We were able to go and teach M. the first half of the restoration! It was awesome, though we had a lesson scheduled right after that so we couldn't finish. We are planning on going back tomorrow :)
Our lesson right after
the A.s was with the R. We taught about House of Israel in that lesson. We
explained how it was established, how it was scattered, and how it is now being
gathered. It was really cool because how R. had always been taught never really
made sense to him. It seemed to him that there were just random tribes in the
Old Testament and then they weren't talked about at all in the New Testament.
But we were able to teach about how God made an everlasting covenant with
Abraham and his seed which is still in effect today. I love how, all around the
world, there are many coming to the knowledge of this covenant and most
importantly of their Savior, Jesus Christ. Also, a super cool side note, R.
taught our gospel principles class on Sunday! It was on the Holy Ghost and it was amazing! I am super
thankful for a ward mission leader who has inspired ideas on how to help and
strengthen those who are new in the gospel.
I think my favorite
part from this past week is teaching I. again! We last minute met with her on
Saturday night, which was
another time when we had a lesson fall through and we were blessed to be able
to teach someone else instead. We taught her most of the Restoration, and I
don't know if I have ever felt the Spirit that strong when teaching that
lesson. When I. feels the Spirit, she gets goose bumps, so every couple of
minutes she was like, "I have goose bumps! Can't you see them!" Then,
when Sister Eckery recited the First Vision, you could almost see it. I. looked
up from reading it in the pamphlet and you could just tell that she knew it was
true. It was indescribable. She said she would come to church, and we were
really excited to see her there until she texted us the morning of saying that
she was thinking about taking her daughter to the hospital. My hopes weren't
too high after that, but I was proven wrong because she came anyway! She stayed
through sacrament then we went with her to bishop's office to get a blessing.
Another cool experience right there.
It was a great week,
and I am so thankful for every minute. I decided this morning that I am going
to be a greenie for the rest of my mission. I don't want to lose the sense of
enthusiasm I have, I just want it to grow. I want to do my absolute best out
here, to completely rely on the Savior's atonement to carry me.
Love,
Sister Jensen
