Dear Family,
We had a week filled with little
miracles. I am so grateful for this life that I get to live. I am thankful for
this special opportunity that I have to consecrate all I have to serving the
Lord by sharing the gospel.
One of the biggest miracles has been
teaching a mother and son. We have taught them twice now and set a baptismal
date for September 9th! We taught the Restoration on Tuesday,
and the son told us that he has already prayed to know I f the Book of Mormon
is true, if Joseph Smith was a prophet, and if the church is true. And he told
us that he received his answer that it is all true. We taught them the Plan of
Salvation on Friday and that went great as well. We have been extra
careful to involve members of the congregation in the teaching process,
especially the young men. It has been really cool to see these teenage boys
rise to the challenge of teaching their friend the gospel. When they go on
their missions, they will truly be prepared, they will already love the work of
the Lord.
The other big highlight from this
week was hearing from Elder Rasband and Elder Wakolo. The whole mission got
together in Eagle, which is where Elder Rasband was attending Stake Conference
this weekend. First we heard from Elder Wakolo, who had quite the story. His is
from Fiji and joined the church when he was 27. He married a member but never
let her even have a copy of the Book of Mormon in his home. He took the
missionary lessons 4 times in 8 years and had 24 sets of missionaries. It was a
question that the last set asked that really changed his heart. They asked him
what his family would call their grocery store if they happened to own a
grocery store. He said that they would call it after their family since they
owned it. They then related that to Christ’s church, and that if it was really
Christ’s church it would be called after his name. This pierced his heart, he
felt the Spirit, and he agreed to be baptized. Within a year he was called to
be the branch president. And now he is a new seventy and this was his first
assignment, because he just finished up being a mission president in Little
Rock, Arkansas.
After Elder Wakolo, Elder Rasband
spoke to us. He spoke to us about a lot of things, and I won’t try to relate
them all. He gave us the assignment beforehand to study his talk, “Let the Holy
Spirit Guide”, and the Spirit was our main discussion. There is one cool story
that he told us from when we was a mission president in New York. At the end of
their missions, Elder Rasband had the missionaries come to his home and have a
testimony meeting, like we do here and in many other missions. They were having
a testimony meeting and this one elder was bearing his testimony about how
wonderful his mission was, except the end. He was sent to the Spanish branch in
Stanford, Connecticut and said that all he did was hand out copies of the Book
of Mormon on a street corner, and nothing else. Elder Rasband said this just
broke his heart. Well, 18 months later, they were having another testimony
meeting. This one elder stood up and said that he has the most wonderful mission,
especially the end when he went to the Spanish branch in Stanford. He then told
this story. One night, the received a telephone call from a woman crying. She
told them how she was a single mom with many kids. One night, she was sitting
alone in her living room when she looking up at her book shelf and saw this
book that just seemed to shine at her. She looked to see what it was and saw
that it was a Book of Mormon. She started to read it, and read it every night
until she finished it, and she knew that it was true. At the very end of the
Book of Mormon there was stamp, with the name of two elders and their number.
She was then baptized along with many, if not all, of her children. Elder
Rasband asked the missionary bearing his testimony what the names of those two
elders are, and one of them was that same elder who bore his testimony 18
months before. Elder Rasband then bore his testimony of how we do not know the
future consequences of our actions today, we do not know the lives that we will
affect.
And the final tender mercy that I
want talk about is the application of that very principle in my own mission.
Right after hearing from Elder Rasband, we went to Nampa for the baptism of C.,
who I had taught just the first lesson to back in December. It was a beautiful
baptism. C. has many of extended family members who are faithful members. I got
to see these grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who were so excited for
C. to take this step. She was just glowing, so ready to be brought closer to
her Heavenly Father.
I also got to see many people that I love from the Nampa
12th ward. One of them was Sister S., my ward mission leader’s
wife. She told me that I just had to go see A. She was baptized 20 years ago in
Hungary, went inactive shortly after that because of her family, but is now
very active. We aren’t really supposed to be going around and visiting people
in our areas because we need to be back in our current areas. But, thankfully,
the assistants were at this baptism because they brought an investigator. So I
asked them for permission to see this one person and they said that I could. So
I got to see A.! I don’t think I have ever met a more righteous, sweet, and
humble person. Her daughter has been here for the summer from Hungary and has
actually been taking the missionary lessons! We got to meet her, and she is
just like A.
I was thankful for these experiences because they have helped me
to see my mission on a larger scope, rather than just focusing on the day to
day. And I am trying extra hard to see the little miracles that Heavenly Father
places in our path every day here in Middleton.
Love,
Sister Jensen
