Dearest Friends and Family,
Talofa! This past week has been great! It hailed not just once but twice this week, although apparently hail at the end of May isn't too unusual around here. My new companion is Sister Tateoka (like tapioca, but with a t)(yes, she has to explain that to literally everyone), from Burly Idaho. She is an awesome missionary, and I love her a lot already.
This week we were able to make some good progress with Johnson! I don't know if I have mentioned him before, but Johnson is our very own Samoan neighbor (just picture Maui and that's what he looks like, man bun and everything). He literally lives next door, and he is always keeping a weary eye out to make sure the "sistahs" are safe. He is (now) a returning member and has been praying and reading his Book of Mormon again! It has been fun to visit with him since he's from Hawaii. He thinks that this "Hilo girl" needs to be practicing her pidgin in case I ever run into any other locals (his words, not mine), so he basically just speaks pidgin to us. It's awesome. He also insisted that I play his ukulele (luckily I know a handful of chords haha) and then sang us a song that he wrote about missionaries when he was first converted. He's great.
The YSA will be changing a lot in the next few weeks as the High School kids graduate and come to the branch, and as the college kids graduate and leave the branch. Sister Tateoka and I are excited to see the branch grow as we work diligently and with faith!
Love,
Sister Jensen
Dearest Friends and Family,
This week was transfers! I am going to be staying in beautiful Walla Walla for at least 6 more weeks, although Sister McNeil is leaving! My new companion will be coming on Wednesday, and so I'll be taking the lead in our area. We also found out that the other sisters will be moving out of our house, so it will be back to just two of us, sadly.
Our area here is really growing! We found several new people to teach this week, so we will pray that they all show up to their follow-up lessons.
Sorry for the short email, Sister Jensen forgot that Monday was preparation day and totally scheduled us a lesson for today, so it's off to work we go!!
Love,
Sister Jensen
Dearest Friends and Family,
Another week has come and gone! We have been keeping busy teaching lessons, finding new people to teach, contacting people who've formerly been taught, etc etc etc. We taught another religion class at Walla Walla University! The students and teachers are always very respectful, although you never know what's going to happen when you open it up for a "question and answer" session in a class full of very religious Seventh Day Adventists. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father was able to fill our mouths so that we knew what to say. Just yesterday we knocked on a door and the girl answering was very excited to say that she was in the class we taught! It made the contact easier, since she knew why we were knocking on her door.
For our preparation day we had the opportunity to go out to the Blues! It was beautiful, and it looked much more like "Oregon", with pine trees and lakes, than Milton-Freewater. Transfers are on the 22nd, so we will see if I get to stay in this beautiful area!
Love,
Sister Jensen
Dearest Friends and Family,
I don't know what to write about this week...we have been so busy, and busy (and obedient) missionaries are happy missionaries. The week started off pretty chilly (which was not so good since our boiler system is off already...so it just felt like we were camping out in our house, it was awesome) but has warmed up nicely, and today could even be considered "hot". We taught two lessons to Madilyn! She is on date to be baptized on May 25th! We will be praying A LOT for her to be able to make that date.
In Doctrine and Covenants 127:2 it says "...Deep water is what I am wont to swim in. It all has become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and will deliver me from henceforth..." I pray that we will each become better and better at "glorying in our tribulation" as we each go through things that are hard. We can not choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we react to them. We can choose to turn to God.
Love,
Sister Jensen
