On the Lord's Errand

Dearest friends and family,

Edgar update! He is on date to be baptized!! Last Monday, following family home evening, we taught an impromptu lesson. Edgar told us he had questions about Joseph Smith, and those doubts were stopping him from being able to read the Book of Mormon with an open heart. So, we taught him the restoration! I have taught the restoration a time or two, but this time was especially awesome. The spirit was so strong! As I spoke the words of the first vision, I felt as if there were angels surrounding our little group, bearing witness of the truth of what I said. It was incredible, and afterwards we were all a bit speechless, Edgar included. So we set up a temple tour the next day! We walked him around the grounds and told him a little about what we do in temples, then we all went in to the coat room of the temple and pondered for about twenty minutes. We were a little worried at first, because Edgar walked out of there a bit discouraged and sad, but when we talked more about it the next day we were able to help him understand that sometimes we feel that way when there are changes that we need to make in our lives. That seemed to make sense to him, and he put himself on date for baptism (August 27th, although he mentioned yesterday at church that he was thinking of maybe moving it up)! It was awesome. 

Yesterday our church service was a YSA multi-stake meeting in Benton City which was awesome because my Walla Walla people were there! It was so fun to see some of them again. We also saw some crazy airplanes this weekend doing some very scary tricks in honor of the boat races. We didn't see any of the races, but the planes were cool enough for us. 

This week will be crazy for us, as we are officially in charge of planning the baptism for Johnny! It's scheduled for next Saturday, so we have some work to do. We are also in charge of the FHE tonight, so I'll let you know how that goes.

I hope you are all still doing your Come Follow Me! Sometimes I feel that it was written especially for missionaries. This weeks lesson (finishing Acts) was so applicable. This week we had some really hard days. But just because things get hard doesn't mean we aren't doing the Lord's work. And He has been with us through it all!

Love,
S. Jensen

The Parable of the Weenie Roller

Dearest friends and family, 

EDGAR update! First of all, Edgar shaved his head, so he is no longer recognizable by his Afro. But we made some good progress with him this week! He says that he now knows that God exists, and he knows that God loves him! He has been coming to everything-- home evening group, lessons, institute, another lesson, a baptism, missionary fireside, and church-- and his sacrifice of time for the gospel has been helping to build his faith. He still has a lot of concerns, but once he knows this is true, he will be a strong member!

RICK- Rick, or the "truly amazing Rick" as he always introduces himself, is being taught by the Snake River sisters (they cover Burbank). He is waiting to be baptized (he has a shady past and is waiting for first presidency approval) and is also a professional painter, and has been helping one of the couples in the branch to paint their trailer house. So we got to go out and help paint! Rick had fun teaching us his "brush holding techniques" and how to do "the painter's beauty stroke". It was fun, and led to the creation of "The Parable of the Weenie Roller". Rick had us paint a series of posts in front of the trailer with brushes. The next day we were there for a lesson with Joe, and Rick mentioned that he had repainted all the posts with a roller. When we asked why he had us paint all the posts with brushes (and spent hours doing it) when we could have just used rollers (and been done in 10 minutes) he just smiled and said that he wanted us to learn something, not just get the job done. We then told Rick that Heavenly Father feels the same way about us, and our lives. Maybe sometimes we have to do things the hard way, the way that forces us to practice patience, because He knows that we will learn from it. Rick has been having a really hard time with waiting to be baptized (he frequently tells us to let our president know that Rick is still waiting to be baptized, and that if baptisms are down in the area, maybe they should finally let Rick be baptized), and the analogy seemed to help him understand his situation a bit better.

This week we had interviews with our mission president! He is awesome, and it was really nice to be able to talk with him. We taught Omar this week (recent convert from March) about the Word of Wisdom. He had just come from a wedding, and his friends had given him a bottle of Apple Cider because they know he doesn't drink anymore. The moment we saw him, he yelled, "Don't worry sisters, it's just apple cider, just cider!!!" with his arms raised in surrender. It was a proud moment for us missionaries, and we had a great lesson. Isacc has been too busy with his new job to meet with us, but we will continue to work with him (His baptism date will have to be pushed back though). We also found out that we will be planning a baptism soon! Johnny is a YSA but has been taught by the Elders from the family ward. He's a little bit of a punk. But he is excited to be baptized, and the branch is excited to welcome him in!

This week I studied about the enabling power of the Atonement. Through Christ, we not only overcome sin, but we can be given the strength to endure- every single day, despite adversity! I am so grateful that through Christ, I can be given strength beyond my own. 

Love,

Sister Jensen

 

Just Another Couple-Three Days in Pasco

Dearest friends and family,

What an incredible week! We were blessed to be able to teach a lot this week, and it was amazing. I love being able to sit down with someone and just teach them the plain and precious truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ! It's a nice change of pace from being out tracting. 

EDGAR- So last Sunday (not yesterday but a week ago) someone showed up at fast and testimony meeting. He sat in the very front, and seemed to enjoy the meeting, but he left before we could talk to him, which was a bummer. But then on Monday we were contacting some people with potential out of Areabook, and we ended up contacting someone named Edgar. He agreed to a lesson the next night, and so we made the trek to Basin City and taught him (and also his whole family, actually). He was the same person who had showed up at church (he has a very recognizable afro...)!! It was amazing. We taught him twice this past week and resolved a lot of his concerns. He came to church again yesterday!

ISACC- Isacc is on date to be baptized on August 3rd!! We have had contact with him every day this past week (which is always the goal, but almost never actually happens). We have had some awesome lessons with him, and did a tour of the church with him and the spirit was really strong. We hope to get him to church next week despite his new job at a blueberry factory...

MARK- We received a referral from the Spanish Elders (actually the same Elders that we directed to the park last week) and he is awesome! Mark works as an agronomist (he analyzes nutrient deficiencies in farmer's crops or something) which is pretty cool. He said he's been looking for a church to join, and jumped at the chance to have lessons with us! We have taught him a couple times already, and he is beginning to read the Book of Mormon. His roommate has a very cute puppy who always tries to bite our skirts and shoes while we teach, but the lessons have been pretty good regardless. 

JOE- Joe is someone we have been teaching for a long time, but this week we had an incredible lesson with him at a member's home. We also were able to eat dinner with the members since Joe was there, which was a miracle in and of itself since we had some of our food unexpectedly go bad and we didn't know what we were going to eat for the next few days. They gave us some of their home-grown cucumbers, tomatoes, and potatoes (and some bacon) which was an answer to prayer. Also, Joe showed up at church in a suit, which was so cool! We are still not entirely sure where he got the suit from, but it was still awesome.

It has been a great, busy, week. We also met a hilarious Mexican man who called Pasco "little Mexico" and told us he wanted to take us out to tacos to "eat and talk about God" after we said we didn't know which taco trucks around here were any good. 

We had an incredible experience with the spirit where we were able to call the police on a man we saw while out tracting. (Speaking of, shout out to all of the police officers in my life. I am so grateful for the men and women willing to put their own lives at risk for the safety of our communities!!) We also played a LOT of volleyball this week (because that's what YSA do) so maybe after doing my time in the YSA I'll be able to perfect my serve. We sorted onions this week for our zone service at "2nd Harvest".This week I was studying the differences between weakness and sin. We are all subject to weakness, as humans. But while satan uses our weaknesses to entice us to sin, God uses our weaknesses to help us be more like Christ (Ether 12:27). Whenever I am overwhelmed by my imperfections, and by how weak I am, I try to remember that as I humble myself before God, I can become strong not just despite those imperfections, but because of them. 

Love,
Sister Jensen

Fires and Fireworks and Firesides

Dearest friends and family, 

We had a great week! We had lots of interesting experiences, and talked to lots of people. We started teaching someone named Isacc (yep, it's spelled like that) who is really awesome! AND he has three other brothers who are all YSA aged, which super cool (and that almost never happens, so we're excited). Last night we were in charge of a fireside at someone in the branch's house, and we had lots of YSA come, and 2 people who are learning more about the church! We taught about the character of Christ, and how choosing to turn outward instead of inwards brings us joy and heals our souls (we watched a message by the church called "Lift" if you want to watch it)! It went well, and as we testified of Christ there was a very special spirit there. There was also homemade ice cream there, which made it extra sweet.  

We met our new mission president and his wife! They are awesome, and have come with a lot of energy, fire, and excitement about the work. They have a love for the mission already, and it is wonderful. I still don't really know what I'm doing as far as training, but we just work hard the best way we know how, and so it's been good. 

Some interesting things that happened this week:
-we saw three or maybe four fires this week! Two of them were just on the side of the highway, but luckily there were firetrucks already there. 
-we had to be in by 6pm on the 4th of July, but we were able to see a few fireworks from our window! We made corn on the cob, BBQ chicken, and potatoes for dinner, and it was delicious. 

I almost forgot the coolest story of the week!!

We were out working and felt prompted to talk to a guy sitting in a park. It quickly became clear that he spoke zero English, and so after some very bad attempts at communicating and some hand signals, we ran to our car for some Espanol proselyting supplies. We gave him a Book of Mormon and pointed to Moroni's promise so he would read it. He did, but since we couldn't say much else so we said adios and went on our way. Now, MIRACLE- we drove a few blocks and passed the Spanish elders out walking! We quickly pulled over and sent them over to the park to talk to our friend. We just found out from the elders that they were able to speak with him, and he came to CHURCH yesterday!!! I am so grateful we were able to follow the promptings we felt and that we could be part of that miracle, even though we don't speak Spanish.:)

This area is 80% Hispanic and Spanish speaking people, so it's time to crack down and learn some Spanish so I can communicate with the people here. I think every single door we've knocked this past week was a native-spanish speaker. Luckily some speak English, but not most. It has been fun!

Have an incredible week! S. Carver and I are planning a home evening activity for the branch centered around missionary work, so if you have any ideas of how to get the branch excited about the work, let me know! 

Love,
S. Jensen

Pasco, the Promised Land

Dearest Friends and Family,

Pasco is awesome! Every night I have been here so far has had an incredible sunset. Sister Carver is from Logan Utah, and she is great! Even though this is only her second transfer, she has been leading the area like a pro. Now that I am the senior companion, I am also the designated driver, so I have had fun driving around Pasco, and East Pasco, and Burbank, etc. Our area is actually bigger than it was in Walla (the YSA branch covers 2 stakes), which is crazy. We drive on the freeway a lot, basically all day, so I guess I am going to become a really good freeway driver throughout this transfer. This week we did some service at a place called "2nd Harvest", where we sorted through some old potatoes (at least this week it was potatoes) at a warehouse out in the middle of nowhere. Our whole zone was there, so it was pretty fun.

The YSA branch just had a baptism a couple days before I got to the area (his name is Brandon, and he's awesome! He was found, taught, baptized, and through the temple in three weeks!), so our teaching pool is really small since they were kept busy teaching Brandon. We are going to be doing a lot of finding these next few weeks, so that will be fun! Coming to a new area has felt like restarting my mission. It has been very humbling trying to train while also not knowing anything about the area, so I am very grateful to have the Lord on my side. Also, if anyone knows what exactly I'm supposed to be doing as a trainer, please let me know! No one has told me, and I feel very under-prepared...

Pasco is beautiful! I'm out by the river now, and it is really nice. It has been a lot of fun working with the institute here. Unlike Walla, there is an actual institute building for the Columbia Basin College where we have church and we can teach lessons. The institute teachers are both awesome, and they gave us some bananas, so that was really nice. I think we're going to make some banana bread for the 4th of July.

I love you! I am grateful that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can change, and become better. Let people change! Also, let yourself change! Change may be hard, but choosing to progress and to become more like our Savior is major purpose of our lives.

Love,
Sister Jensen