But if not...

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 :)

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  

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But if not...

Valentine's Day

We heart attacked 14 people on the 14th.

Dear Family,

I am staying in Meridian with Sister Eckery for her last transfer!  It was what we were expecting, so it was nice not to be surprised. I am pretty content about it, I just love this area. The members are so loving and supportive and willing to do missionary work. We have decided to focus more of our efforts on working with the members, mainly by developing family mission plans with them. We are very excited about it, we know that if we work effectively with the members, we will find those who are really prepared to receive this message. I know there are people here that Heavenly Father needs us to touch, and I am determined to find them. 

We finally got to meet with and teach I. again! I was thinking about her one day and was worried because she hadn't responded to our texts. I just prayed that she would reach out to us, and the next day she called us and wanted to meet with us! We talked with her at the church for a while, she has a lot of hard things going on right now, but whenever we testified about God's love for her and the hope that the gospel brings, the Spirit was so strong. She told us that she wished that she would have joined the church when she was younger so that she could have served a mission like us. While I know that would have been a great blessing for her, I also know that God has His timing, and that we are supposed to be teaching her now. 

Last night we also had a really good lesson with J. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. J. has probably been one of my favorite people to teach, just because he ask such good, honest questions, questions that I have had and questions that I still have. We talked so much about the purpose for us coming to this earth, why we would leave God's presence in the first place. And I think it is summed up so perfectly in 2 Nephi 2:25:

“Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”

All of this is about us having joy. Heavenly Father loves us so much, and us being happy makes Him happy. That is why this is a plan of happiness. It is definitely not easy and perfect all of the time, but if it was it wouldn't be worth it. I am so thankful for God's plan for me and this chance that I have to teach others about it. We testified of that quite a bit in J.'s lesson.

Also, side note, we were planning on the morning of Valentine's day and I was feeling a little hopeless because surely no one would want us to visit them on Valentine’s Day. But then this great idea came to us that we could just heart attack all of the people we are working with. So we did that, and it was really fun, many people that we have talked to since were really appreciative. 

Thank you to everyone for you emails/letters/packages! I love being a missionary and I love having so many wonderful people to support me. 

Love,

Sister Jensen  

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Valentine's Day

Nail polish, Cafe Rio and the Meridian Temple

Meridian Temple!

Dear Family,

The weather has been so nice, 50 degrees never felt so good. The warmer weather and melting snow are definitely the highlight of my week, a real tender mercy from the Lord. Just pray that this is the beginning of spring and that we don't get hit with more winter. 

Jump time was super fun last Monday, but goodness was I sore. Everything just hurt, so you can imagine that there was a lot more complaining than there should have been. But Heavenly Father is just so good, because even when I do things grudgingly, He still blesses us, especially when I know that I don't deserve it. It is truly humbling. Another humbling experience that we have weekly is doing service at a retirement home. I don't know if I have mentioned this or not, but every Tuesday morning we get to go to a retirement home and paint the ladies nails. I absolutely love it. I love their sweet spirits and apparent love of their families. They tell me about their children, and more than once some of these women have told me about taking in children that were not their own and raising them. They become their own, and I am happy to offer that little service to women who are beloved to many. 

As I look through my planner to remember who we saw this week, I can see many small blessings from God. We got an appointment scheduled with the B’s, something we have been trying to do for weeks. We got to go to lunch with a couple of girls in the YSA. Someone bought us Cafe Rio (it is out of our mission so this is actually the over arching tender mercy for the week). I got to testify about the power of the atonement and of the sweet spirit we feel when worthily partaking of the sacrament. We met  three or four potential investigators, people who have told us to come back. Our ward mission leaders have been so awesome in supporting us as we have planned together how to work better with the ward members. 

Another highlight happened on Saturday night. We had a change of plans and ended up trying to contact a couple we had only heard about.  When we arrived, A. opened the door and welcomed us right in. We talked with them for a long time, heard a lot about their lives. They are truly humble people who love the Lord. A. told me that she was surprised by how much she opened up to us, and asked if I enjoyed being a missionary and talking to people like this. My answer was yes, absolutely. I love being able to just knock on a stranger's doors and leave their home feeling a little bit of God's love for them. There is just nothing like it. 

As always, thank you to everyone who has written me, you are the best and I love you all! I pray that my missionary service will bless your lives, especially with missionary opportunities! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

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Nail polish, Cafe Rio and the Meridian Temple

I saw grass today!

Dear Family,

The fact that it is 46 and we saw patches of grass has already made this day a really good day. Then of course, I get to read all of the wonderful emails that you send me. We are going to a trampoline place later today with the zone, so basically just another day in missionary paradise. 

This week we met I.! I. is someone that the missionaries have worked with in the past.  She is incredible, and already has a strong desire to be baptized. Her family moved her from Bosnia about 17 years ago. When she was 12 or 13, they were living here and they had some neighbors who are members of the church. Her dad had cancer and they accepted the offer to receive a priesthood blessing for him. I. explained to us how she felt when they were giving the blessing, she described how different she felt and how peaceful and powerful it was. I could feel the Spirit so strong when she was talking about it. Then, a couple months after getting the blessing, her dad's cancer just disappeared. It has come back within the last couple of years. She has had a really hard life, and I think she knows that the gospel will bless her life. We will pray that she will have time to meet with us this week. 

We had our lesson with L. this week! We had a dinner with her at a member’s home. We had a delicious meal and then taught her while all the kids went downstairs to play. We taught her the first half of the restoration lesson, and how the gospel can bless our families. It was just so amazing to me because the church members were able to testify of how the gospel has blessed their family.  To see them testify to L. of the blessings they have received was really special, there was a strong spirit there. It is a blessing to be able to work with L., she has a sincere desire to learn, and is just kind of soaking everything up right now. She told us that she does want her oldest daughter to take the lessons and make the decision on her own whether to be baptized or not. So we were happy to hear about that :)

It was a good week, and I continue to love being a missionary. I love gaining a greater appreciation every day of how real and beautiful the gospel is, and how important it is that we share it. I know that we all have people placed in our lives that we can share this good news with. And while it may be a little scary, you are really just placing it in God's hands when you invite someone to enjoy the blessings of the gospel. We have the responsibility to invite, and after we do that we don't have to worry about it, because God will take care of it. That is a reminder that I need ALL of the time. I love this work, I know this church true and that our Savior, Jesus Christ, lives. 

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

Sister Eckery and I being funny.

Exchanges with Sister Olson!

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I saw grass today!

Doughnuts Make Me Walk

Dear Family,

This week was a little harder for me, I had a difficult day or two. But the redeeming aspect of having bad days, is that Heavenly Father always blesses you with good days after the bad days. This week, we were blessed to know what it was like to be walking missionaries for a few days. We found out on Thursday that we have 100 less miles that we are allowed to drive than we thought, and we don't get more miles until February 1st. So we walked. The next morning we were about to get something out of the car but found that we had lost our keys and couldn't find them. So we were walking indefinitely. But after some heartfelt prayers and even a little fasting, we found them! We had gotten a ride on Thursday from one of the members we live with and they were in her car. I never thought I could feel so much happiness from just seeing a car key. And when we talked to the zone leaders, they said we might actually have the original amount of miles, so our 100% walking days might be coming to a close. And while I really did enjoy walking, I am so happy to have the car back. So that was a huge answer to prayer :)

This week we met L.  She had been meeting with the missionaries before we got here. I love L.! She is great!  During our visit with her, she told us a little bit about her beliefs, which she told us were very similar to our beliefs. She very strongly believes that she is a daughter of her Heavenly Father and that He knows her. Halfway through our visit she pulled out her Bible and was going to ask some questions, but then requested to say a prayer. Of course, we were like, "Absolutely!" Then she asked us some questions about the 12 tribes. She has been reading through the Bible and is in the Old Testament. I was super thankful for the senior year of seminary, learning about the Old Testament. To any youth out there that are reading that are currently in seminary, pay attention! Do the reading! You regret it if you don't and you are on your mission and someone asks you a question about the Levites. But anyway, we then were able to tell her about the scattering of the tribes, and how one of those groups of people was Lehi and his family, and how the Book of Mormon is the record of that group in the Americas. She was seemed really interested in it, and said that she would read the introduction to the Book of Mormon.

We also met with the B. family on Saturday.  We had dinner and a lesson with them. We read Alma 32 with them and talked about faith. They really are amazing people who just do anything for you. 

On Sunday we had another cool experience. We met woman named S. When she came to church another member recognized her because S. had worked with her mom. We were able to set up a time to teach her and her family. We were really excited about that, sometimes Heavenly Father just brings people to us and it is super awesome! 

Another cool experience that I just remembered from this week came from one of our dinner appointments. We had a dinner with a family that doesn’t come to church very often. But one of their daughters, who is all grown up now, met someone at work who is a recent convert. She told us that he just radiated the Spirit, and that she felt very strongly that she should go back to church. She came for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and said she felt guilty just passing our meal calendar without signing up, so she signed up! I just love seeing how Heavenly Father works with His children, it is such a privilege and blessing. 

I kind of failed again this week at getting pictures. But we did go to Krispy Kreme last week and took pictures with our 2 dozen doughnuts, so enjoy those. 

But I just want all of you to know that I am loving my time as a missionary, I am always overcome with so much gratitude when I go before Heavenly Father in prayer and thank Him for this sacred trust that He has given me. 

Love,

Sister Jensen 

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Doughnuts Make Me Walk

Let it Snow!

Dear Family,

It snowed another three inches this morning before we got out the door and it will continue snowing until around 5 tonight. And it will be cold so the snow won't be going anywhere for a while. So that is all really fun. Regardless, it was a really great week, we got to know our wards a little better and start working with some of the amazing leaders here. I am super excited about the time that I have to serve here. I know that the Lord has much for us to do, and there are many opportunities that He will bless us with if we just give our all. 

We have had a lot of little tender mercies this week. On Monday, we went to see a family and they let us in and talked with us for about an hour. Two of the family members have taken the lessons in the past. We hope to continue teaching them. On Tuesday we met a couple that the missionaries have been in contact with for a while, and the missionary that started teaching them actually lives with them now. Their names are J. and S. and they are incredible people. They love having the missionaries over. We had dinner with them on Friday and J. told us that he loved it when the missionaries came over and read the Book of Mormon with them. On Wednesday we met J. L., an Egyptian man who speaks about five languages. I think a friend referred him to the missionaries a while ago. We also met with L. again on Wednesday, and he told me that he would put my face type in the same category as Audrey Hepburn, so I have had to be careful to not let that get to my head. So those are the collection of little tender mercies that made our week so great.  

Our Sunday was crazy!  We went to all three of our wards. We went to the YSA sacrament, which was a little strange to be there as a missionary, but I am excited about it. Then we went to one ward’s sacrament and part of their gospel principles before we went to another ward’s ward counsel, where the area authority, Elder Erekson, was presiding. It was an awesome ward council, definitely a huge learning experience for me. Elder Erekson talked about whenever he goes to the training meetings, that there is always a huge emphasis placed on two things: the youth and ward councils. The church organization is so inspired, and is the Lord's way of giving His children access to the redeeming power of Christ's atonement. I am so thankful for all that I am learning as a missionary that will allow me to serve more effectively in the church. We have been blessed with several awesome leaders to work with here who are super excited about missionary work. Sister Eckery and I are looking forward to these next couple of months and the miracles that we will see in them. I love and miss you all and am so thankful for the support that you give me!

Love,

Sister Jensen 

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Let it Snow!

Loving Meridian!

Dear Family,

Well, I am in Meridian! Delayed transfers did happen on Wednesday and my happy chapter of being trained in Nampa was closed. Hopefully I will get to serve there again, but for now I get to enjoy being here in Meridian! I am really enjoying it already, I can tell that I will love these wards just as much. But, funnily enough, we actually live in Boise. Since it is the Meridian stake, it is part of our mission. We live with some awesome members, I am pretty happy with our living situation here. And I am liking that it is a bigger city, they have some really good shopping centers and restaurants aka Chick-fil-a.

The first day we got here we had a visit with L. L. has had a pretty interesting life, and he likes to tell us all about it. One of his passions is photography, and he told me that I look Egyptian and told me that he thinks either mom or I are adopted. I was like, "Pretty sure neither of us are." But that didn't stop him from telling me that I look like Nefertiti. I love that, as a missionary, I get to visit the elderly. I benefit so much from their stories and experiences. His wife fed us dinner both days we went to see him, and we had mochi ice cream one night so I was in heaven. Meridian is already worth it.   

I should have probably mentioned this first, but I love my new companion! Sister Eckery is super awesome, and I really hope they let us stay together for our last two transfers. She lived in New Zealand until she was 16, and knows a lot of the Lord of the Ring sites, so it is super fun to talk about that with her. She is really artistic, she did jazz and ballet and she is thinking about doing animation. She was in a different area last transfer until her companion went home three weeks before it was over so that she could start school. Then Sister Eckery was put in this area with a sister who went home at the end of the transfer. She is basically new to the area as well, so it is like I am shotgunning again! It will be strange when I get to an area and the companion I am with already knows it. Anyway, we are both excited to get the missionary work moving in these area. 

Though it has been a little slow starting out these first few days, Sunday was a great day. We went to one ward the first two hours, then headed over to another ward (which is in a different building) for all three hours of their church. And we had an investigator in gospel principles! After class, he told us that he wants to talk about Abraham and the 12 tribes and how that all connects to this church. We were like, "Perfect! We can do that!" since that is basically the first lesson, just with a little more background. So I am super excited for that lesson. 

As I have mentioned several times, I am pretty excited about the work here in Meridian. It is going to be hard and Sister Eckery and I are going to have to be really diligent in working hard, but I think that there are a lot of people Heavenly Father has waiting for us. I am so thankful and happy to be a missionary, I absolutely love it! 

Love,

Sister Jensen 

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Loving Meridian!