SISTER JENSEN: Week 1 of Middleton

Dear Family,

This was one of those weeks that seemed to stretch on forever. Being at the new trainers meeting on Monday night seems like years ago. On Tuesday, all of the new missionaries came in. Their flight was delayed so we waited at the church for a couple of hours for the 18 new missionaries to come in. Of course, I got to see Elder Ashby come in and shake hands with him. Later that day we got to catch up on Okinawa and talk about our families. We had lunch and some training then went out to tract. I went out with Sister Smith, who is from D.C. We did talk to one lady who said that missionaries used to come to her house before they moved and lost contact. She told us she would love for the missionaries to come back :) After that we had dinner, and found out who we were training. I was called to train Sister Tukumoeatu, who is from Samoa! She moved away from Samoa when she was 10 and lived in Hawaii, Washington, California, Arizona, and then settled with her family in Layton, Utah. English is her second language, but she talks like it is her first language. And she is amazing! She is so fearless about doing missionary work, I love it. She helps me to get over my fears and just do it. I think she will be the one that ends up training me :)

Middleton is great! The first couple of days were a little bumpy. We have three investigators. We have many other potential people as well. I know that there many people here who are waiting and prepared to receive the gospel.

The first night we were here together we got to teach a lesson to one of our investigators. She had lots of questions about the gospel. My last companion, Sister Soelberg, was actually trained here in this area and was the one that started teaching her.

Our first Sunday was great. Both Sister Tukumoeatu and I bore our testimonies in all three wards. I had been praying a lot this week for help from Heavenly Father in our labors here. My prayers were definitely answered yesterday. 3 members told us about people that they want us to teach, it was awesome! That night we went to go contact one of the referrals. We parked a little down from their house so we could park in some shade, walked down, knocked, and didn't get an answer. We were walking back to our car and checking our lists to see if anyone else lived close by that we could contact. We were just looking in our car when this man came out of his house that we were parked in front of. He just kind of stood there and stared at us. So we got out and started to talk to him. We ended up teaching him a little bit about the restoration, reciting the First Vision to him. I could tell he really felt the Spirit when we did that. When we talked about the Book of Mormon he told us that we had already given him one, that he has it by his bed, has read some it, and thinks that it is good. We told him that he must have talked to some other missionaries but that we were so happy that he had read some of it. He wouldn't really schedule an appointment with us, but said we could come back. After we finished talking to him, we started to drive away, and we drove by the first house we had gone to only see someone outside. Sister Tukumoeatu was like, "Let's go back!" So we turned around and jumped out to talk to her. She had been working in her garden when we knocked, but she talked to us for about 30 minutes on her driveway. She is super excited and willing to have us in her home, so pray that all goes well!

We had some real miracles this week, and I am so thankful for that. I am very excited to be here in Middleton for the next 3 months and am excited for the challenges that lie ahead. I know that if I trust in Heavenly Father, everything will turn out for the best.

Love,
Sister Jensen