Monday, August 7, 2017

Good-bye to Sister Shurtleff




Dear Family,

I said goodbye to my trainer yesterday, Sister Shurtleff. She will be going home tomorrow morning. It was one of those moments where you just really stop and realize how quickly time really does go by. I love and admire Sister Shurtleff so much, and it will be strange to not see her anymore. Thankfully, she will just be living in Utah, so I will get to see her after the mission. This area that we are serving in is her first area, so yesterday she came and we all had dinner with a family in the ward. It was so fun, and we took many pictures. Super sad to see her go, but super excited for all the possibilities ahead of her!





It was a great week; we have a lot of good things happening. The highlight is that we have some people that are ready to be taught by the missionaries! It is a mom and her son.  The son has some really good friends in the ward.  We haven’t met with them yet, but we are tomorrow at the Bishop’s house. We are really excited!

I get to attend a baptism this Saturday in Nampa! Sister Shurtleff called me earlier this week to tell me that someone we taught together accepted to be baptized and that she really wants us to be there. I remember she answered the door and just welcomed us in. That first visit was really good, she expressed a sincere interest in taking the lessons. I loved her right away, she is literally the sweetest. We got to teach them about the Restoration, and she received it really well. Then, all the crazy winter stuff happened, they got busy, and then both Sister Shurtleff and I got transferred. Thankfully, the elders were able to continue teaching her. Elder Wheeler, who came out with me from the MTC, got transferred there a couple of months ago and really connected with them. They got married a couple of weeks ago and now her baptism is on Saturday! I think one of the most rewarding parts of the mission has been seeing how those little seeds that I have helped sow have grown and been harvested by other missionaries. It is a really humbling experience in which you can really see the hand of the Lord. And you feel so thankful that you were able to play a small part in it.


Also, we went on exchanges this week. Our Sister Training Leader, Sister Sellar, is training a new missionary in addition to being the STL. Usually we have companionships in which both sisters are STLs but with the large amount of sisters that have been coming in, they are having the STLs train. Sister Tukumoeatu stayed in our area with Sister Sellar and I went to be with Sister Abbott, who came out the same time as Sister Tukumoeatu. It was really great, we got to teach a recent convert in a park. I love teaching in parks, it is my favorite. At this particular park there is just this random tank, so we took a picture on it. Then we got to teach their new investigator. This guy just showed up at church with a friend and asked the sisters if he could take the lessons. Sister Abbott and Sister Sellar were telling us about him earlier in the week and told us about how he has a friend serving a mission in Japan. Well, I didn’t connect the dots until I was there teaching him the Plan of Salvation with Sister Abbott and he told us that his friend’s name was Elder Yeakley, who served in our branch in Okinawa! That was a fun connection.

We got our transfer calls on Saturday and Sister Tukumoeatu and officially get to stay together here in Middleton for another transfer! Not really a surprise and it’s what I wanted to happen. I feel like I might stay in this area for longer than three months this time. At least I am hoping. But I am very, very, very, excited for the temple open house, which is happening next transfer! I have just been thinking lately about how inspired mission calls really are, because this is the perfect mission for me, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the 
world.

Love,
Sister Jensen  




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