Dear
Family,
We've had a wonderful week full of teaching. I am learning more
and more why this part of the mission is called the promised land. The members
just aren't afraid to share the gospel with their friends and it is so
incredibly refreshing. Hopefully the rest of the church can catch up with
eastern Oregon when it comes to member missionary work.
The next day, we had a lesson with a couple that have been meeting
with the missionaries. When we went to teach them we got a new
investigator in the process! When we got to their house, there was a man and a
woman standing outside the door with a crying girl. We just kind of walked past
them and knocked on the door and started to visit with J & K. We learned
that the man was J.'s nephew and M. came and listened to the lesson. We read a
talk about commitments. They all liked
the talk, and then M. started asking us a bunch of questions. We gave him a
Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet, and are going back tomorrow to
teach all of them. Pray that it goes well! M. really needs this gospel in his
life, and I pray that he really is interested.
That same day we taught the W. family the restoration! In case I
haven't already said it enough, they are AMAZING. T., the mom, is just so
prepared. She is really sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit, and is
willing to follow them. We weren't with her in Relief Society on Sunday,
but a member told us later that she stood up and told them how she had a
prompting 15 years or so ago that she should go to her husband’s church, but had
ignored it. Then, a year ago, when a member invited her to church as she was
picking up her boys from scouts, she remembered her prompting and knew she had
to go. She then admonished the sisters in Relief Society to never ignore that
first prompting. Anyway, we taught them the restoration and they loved it! They
had lots of questions but they were always very satisfied with our answers. We
pulled up the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie on their TV for
them and asked them to watch it. They watched it that night and told us how
much they loved it when we met with them the next day. They said that once it
was over they wished there was a part two, like about Brigham Young or
something. One of the family members
said to us the other day, "Can I just tell you something?" We were
like, "Of course!" He then went on to explain to us that a year ago,
when he was drinking all of these really caffeinated beverages, he felt really
dark and depressed. He knew he had to quit, so he did, and he told us how he
didn't feel that way anymore and that he felt like all of this light entered
into his life. He told us how he feels like all of these things have fallen
into place in his life for this to happen. We showed them the baptismal font in
the church building and he just thanked us because we had "changed his
life." It was just the sweetest thing!
I will write about one more teaching experience that we had,
though there are more. Yesterday, we taught J. and his mom. J. has been meeting
with the missionaries for a couple of months and wants to be baptized. We talked about families, priesthood, and the
temple. As we were talking about priesthood and how that will be the next step
for J. after his baptism, his mom said, "So that means J. could baptize
me? Wouldn't that be so cool for him to baptize his own mother? I mean, I am
already baptized, but wouldn't that just be so cool?" Then she started
crying. It is cool to see how her heart is opening to our message, and
hopefully we can continue teaching her so that she can be baptized by J. I just
love missionary work.
Fun side note, one day we were eating our lunch in the park
under this tree. About ten feet away from us a ton of branches broke off the
tree and showered down to the ground. I just started laughing really hard,
imagining if we had been in that spot and were rained on by branches while
Sister Moa-Sam Fong was like, "Why are you laughing we almost died?!"
It was fun.
Also, we were teaching another investigator and she was telling
us how she has been really feeling strongly about how our bodies are temples
and we need to take care of them. She said she is going to try to eat better
and exercise. Sister Moa-Sam Fong and I have been talking about that as well,
since recently we have been snacking on junk food all day. So we committed to
her that we would be healthier as well. It’s been a struggle but it has also
been good. It has made me see how addicted I am to sugar since I have been
suffering withdrawals.
So yeah, life is good. I got to take a two hour nap this morning
so I am pretty happy. Mission life is great, I think I'll do it forever.
Love,
Sister Jensen
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