Break Out the Winter Coats. It's Freezing Here!

Dearest friends and family,

We had a good week! President Rassmussen did a mission-wide meeting over video call, and it was awesome. This transfer is going to be one of many miracles! Our new goal is for every area of the mission to baptize every transfer, and with the Lord's help, we are going to do it. 

While we were at volleyball, we were talking with some members about how we were looking for new people to teach. They told us that the next day, we were going to find three new people, and they were going to all pray for it. And, surprise! We did! I know that God answers our prayers of faith. The new people we found are Cynthia (yay!), Jose, and Carlos. We aren't sure if they are all YSAs, so we hope to figure that out soon and refer some people. 

Happy general conference weekend! The next episode of the Book of Mormon videos came out, and I hope you all have seen it because it's amazing. 

Also, it was 35 degrees yesterday, so I guess fall has been discontinued and we are skipping straight to winter!

Love,
Sister Jensen

P.S. Rick (the man who taught us to paint) received permission from Salt Lake and is now ready to be baptized! 

The New Book of Mormon Videos Are Game-Changing!

Dearest Friends and Family,

What a good week! It has been confirmed--I will, in fact, be stuck in the YSA forever! Well, at least for another transfer. And I couldn't be happier! We were talking with our branch presidency about how we have recently had to drop many of the people we were teaching, and they brought us renewed motivation and determination to push forwards. In our branch council meeting they asked everyone to think of ways that the branch can help us, and how we can help the branch. This is a joint-effort, and us full time missionaries rely so much on the help of all you members!

This week we found a new person to teach named Leticia! We role-played giving away a Book of Mormon on Saturday morning, then later that day used the exact same approach on Leticia and it worked! She was happy to take a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we will be teaching her again next week. We also did lots of service this week, including some at the KOA and 2nd harvest. 

Edgar update: He wore a white shirt AND a tie to church!! For the first time! He is doing really well. He came with us to a baptism (where we actually met another YSA person we will be teaching!! Her name is Leah.) and said that he has been able to receive lots of answers from God. The knowledge that we can each receive personal revelation, instruction directly from God, is a unique part of our message. And it's so cool!

Pasco is still Pasco. Have a good week everyone!

Love,

Sister Jensen

P.S. If you haven't seen the new Book of Mormon video that came out, please go watch it! It is incredible, and everything in it has been approved by the Prophet. It really makes you think about the scriptures in a new way!

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-episode-book-of-mormon-videos-series

P.P. S. Do you remember? On the 21st night of September? Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith!! Good answer. :) 

Happy September!

Dearest Friends and Family,

Miracle of the week! On Saturday we planned to attend a baptism with Cyrill and Omar, but they showed up late and missed it. So we were trying to decide what to do, when some Hermanas showed up and asked for help carrying things in for...another baptism! Luckily for us Omar and Cyrill understand Spanish, so we stayed. Cyrill really liked it! He has loved everything we have taught, so the hardest part has been getting him to come to church since he works on Sundays. 

This week we had a cool contact with some guys at a park! We were debating whether they were high schoolers or YSAs so we went up to find out, and they gave us their information. Super cool guys, so hopefully you we will be hearing more about them soon! They committed to come play some volleyball, sooooo... 

Over half our branch left this week for school, which has been a bit hard. And we dropped a lot of the people we have been teaching. But we are excited to find some new potential people this coming week! We have confidence knowing that this is the Lord's work, and it will happen in His time, not ours!

Love,

Sister Jensen

Creative Finding

Dearest friends and family,

There are many ways to find new people to teach, and this week we got pretty creative. It was a week of adventures, and miracles!

Remember Michael? He's the one who we helped move a (dissembled) car for last week. Anyways, we were supposed to go back to help Michael's family finishing moving this week but we got a message saying that we couldn't come back to the house--that no one could go back to the house--because of some "ghosts". We offered to dedicate the home, and the family immediately accepted. Not wanting to go to the house by ourselves, we got a couple members from the Elders quorum to assist us in the blessing. What a crazy experience! The feeling in the room after blessing the home was completely different from the feeling when we first walked in. None of Michael's family are members of the church, and we left them feeling safe and comfortable in their home, and they seemed very grateful. Michael's brother Christian accepted a copy of Book of Mormon and said that he would read it!

This week we also had the opportunity to serve our branch president and his wife, the Eppich's , who own some apple orchards. It's harvest right now, and they mentioned that a large portion of their workers failed to show up to work last week. Naturally we volunteered our services. It was a lot of fun, even though we spent hours on the same half of a row while the real pickers caught up to our row and then passed us. They were having a lot of fun, and although I couldn't understand enough Spanish to know what they were saying, there was one man with an incredible voice singing what sounded like a telenovela while we picked, and another who had this uncanny skill of barking like all sorts of types dogs (and very angry cats). They had us all laughing up a storm while also trying to be good pickers. It's harder than it looks, okay? Also, I might have picked that Washington-grown apple you're eating. Yep.

As we were walking back to our apartment after church, I felt inspired to ask some people if they needed help moving. They accepted, with tears in their eyes, and apologetically informed us that they were trying to move in to an apartment on the third floor. (And THIS is why missionaries are supposed to exercise every morning!) Once we had emptied their UHaul, they thanked us profusely. The parents of three little girls, this couple had just begun to think that they were in over their heads when we "luckily" stopped and offered help! And then (here's the real miracle) they asked us what church we were from and said that they were looking for a church to attend. It was amazing. They said that they would love if missionaries would come in to their home and teach their family about God and Jesus Christ. God is so good! (even though it wasn't a family of YSAs...)

Also, Cyrill is on date to be baptized on September 27th! When we mentioned baptism, he immediately looked at Omar and said, "Yeah, Omar is going to baptize me!" We have taught him the first two lessons, and he is loving it. Omar (the recent convert who referred him to us) is loving it as well. Here are some funny quotes from Omar this week:

We asked Cyrill if he had ever read anything from the Book of Mormon and when he said no, Omar was like, "What?? What do you mean no? I totally planted a Book of Mormon in your car!"
"That was my brother's car..."
"Well...I guess your brother is becoming converted!"

When Cyrill said he wanted to be a dentist, Omar said, "Perfect. You're becoming a member already!" (There are lot's and I mean LOTS of members who are dentists here for some reason...)

In regards to tithing: "10% is a small price to pay for salvation".

Omar is an awesome member missionary! He works nights, and every night he reads from his Book of Mormon, and as he does he is becoming truly converted. He is such an inspiration to me. He receives very little support from his family and friends to live his faith, but he chooses to live it anyways. Rather than allowing negative influences to bring him down, he is letting his light shine, and he is seeing miracles because of it!

I pray that each of us will humbly and prayerfully approach the Lord to know who we can serve this week. Opportunities to share the gospel will appear before you as you first seek to love and serve those around you! What a blessing it is to love and serve the people around us!

Love,
Sister Jensen

Johnny before his baptism

Johnny after his baptism

Shucking Corn and Moving Cars

Dearest Friends and Family,

It was another good week in Pasco! 

Edgar update! Yesterday he fasted for the first time, and despite being "soooooo hungry" at church he also admitted to feeling the spiritual strength that comes from fasting. Edgar also shared his testimony in sacrament meeting which was awesome. He said that throughout his fast he was able to see the Lord's hand undeniably in his life. I love being able to fast and receive answers to questions and strength from the Lord, and I love that Edgar now knows that for himself! We had a lesson at his house out in Basin City this past weekend and ALL of his extended family was there, which turned out to be super cool! They all were so kind, and although they mostly spoke Spanish they kept telling Edgar things in Spanish like "offer these ladies a coke" and then he would in English haha. They were all making uchepos which are like tamales but just the corn stuff with cheese and sour cream on top, and so the whole family was out shucking and husking corn, and they let us help out- wahoo! They didn't seem to mind at all when a couple of missionaries came and crashed their family uchepos making event. They may not be members of our church, but they exemplified Christ-like love very well!

This week we helped move an inactive member and his family. We helped unload a shed, and we will be returning to finish the job. Michael also has a "car project" he's been working on, and he let us help figure out how to get the wheels back on so it could be moved. It was pretty fun, although my eyes were opened to how little I know about cars...

Omar, a recent convert, always brings tons of his friends to volleyball, and this past week he we like, "Hey sisters! This is my friend Cyrill and he wants to be baptized!" It was pretty awesome, and we're excited to start teaching him. Cyrill came with Omar to our missionary fireside yesterday!

It has been a busy week! I am so grateful to be a missionary! :)

Love,
S. Jensen