Washington Haystacks

Dearest Friends and Family,

Naio, Dia, and Quirino are on date to be baptized! You can imagine how excited Sister Gibson and I are, and also how exhausted. It has been quite a week!

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to work with the LDSSA, a club for the church at CBC. We handed out free hot chocolate and talked with some people about the club, and the church! It turned out to be pretty successful. Naio and Dia stopped in on their way to class, and as we were talking their class got cancelled! So we ended up having a brief lesson and inviting them to be baptized. They both accepted despite being nervous. We taught them the Plan of Salvation on Saturday and they were in awe. I was reminded of how amazing it is to know where we are going and where we are from. Dia in particular said that the spirit world answered a lot of the questions she had. They both came to church on Sunday and loved relief society! Quirino was also at church. He is doing so well. At our lesson he said that he has been coming to church and activities to prepare himself for baptism, and that he thinks December 6th or 7th would be a good day! We are planning to solidify a day with him tonight. 

We had two surprise guests at church this week--Jacob's mom and her fiance! Erica came to relief society with us and accepted a return appointment for this Friday. We will have to refer them off, but we are so proud of Jacob's missionary efforts!

We met the coolest guy this week named Francisco. A few months ago the Pasco 8 sisters told us they thought they saw a young adult walk into a certain house. We tried by but got no response. We happened to drive past it again this week and felt inspired to stop. The dog in the yard got pretty mad at us as we were approaching the door, and a young guy came out to get the dog-- Francisco! He didn't speak any English, so I whipped out what little Spanish I know and it was awesome. He asked when missionaries could come before I could even ask him if they could! It was so cool. We also made contact with Elizabeth this week! We have been teaching her for a while but she has been super busy. She has been praying and reading the Book of Mormon! 

This week we helped someone's family move as a district. The lady who was moving is a professional quilter, so we moved boxes and boxes of fabric and quilting supplies. It was fun, but we were left with some pretty sore arms! We also did service at second harvest this week (sorting and bagging onions) and at the end one of the volunteer coordinators prayed with us, so that was a win. 

Also, we were blessed with three member dinners this week! All three were Hawaiian haystacks :)

I hope you all have a good week! I am so grateful to be here in Pasco, and I'm grateful for the support and love I feel from all of you. Thank you!

Love,

Sister Jensen

Lots of People I Love

Dearest Friends and Family,

We had a pretty awesome week! We were able to do a temple tour with Omar, Jesus (a less active), and four of Omar's nonmember friends (Miggie, Sharky, Louis, and Cyrill). As we talked to them outside the celestial room, the spirit was so strong. Louis commented that he felt peace, and the others agreed. Even if we are all from different social, economic and religious backgrounds, I'm so grateful that they were so respectful of our Holy place. They asked lots of good questions and it was a night I will never forget!

We also had the opportunity to go to the temple with Jacob and do baptisms for the dead. Jacob was able to baptize! Afterwards he told us that it was one of the greatest things he's done in his entire life, and wanted to know how often he was allowed to go. He also brought us tacos from his taco truck for lunch, so we've been feeling incredibly blessed.

Naio and Dia came to institute this week and seemed to enjoy it! Naio works 12 hour shifts on Sundays, but happens to have a break right when the Senior Living Center has a mini sacrament meeting-- so she went! We can't wait until she is able to come to the branch, but were grateful that she at least was able to take the sacrament. Q also came to institute as well as church. He even brought an entire box of pan dolce from Vierras bakery to the linger longer! We have a lesson on Wednesday, so we plan to talk about baptism with him then. 

Love,

Sister Jensen

Lots of Sheep

Dearest friends and family,

We had an awesome week! It has been super foggy here, so it feels like I'm living in a cloud. It now gets dark around 4:30, so it has been a bit hard figuring out how to work in the dark. 

Jacob was able to receive the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday, which was so cool. We are hoping to go to the temple to do baptisms this week!

Omar (recent convert) and his friends-- We had a lesson with Cyrill this week and it went particularly well. Aurelio also came along, and although he might not admit it he seemed to be really listening to what we were saying. We introduced them to the temple, and on Wednesday we will be doing a temple tour for Omar, Cyrill, Aurelio, Miggie, and hopefully Kili and Fernando. They are really excited about it, and we know it will be the perfect opportunity to help them feel the spirit and realize why we are different then other branches of Christianity. 

Dia and Naio-- On Saturday we were teaching a lesson when we got a call from the elders. The woman they just helped baptize lives in a nursing home, and they have been talking a lot with a girl who works there named Naio. They finally set up a lesson with her but when they saw her address they realized she lives out of their area. So they needed us to go teach her! Luckily we had just had to cancel our own lesson and we were able to go. Naio and her cousin Dia were so excited for us to come! They are from Pompeii, an island in micronesia, and they were excited to receive their own copies of the Book of Mormon. As we were preparing to leave, they were like "wait! We made you some snacks!" so we turned around and their kitchen table was covered in treats- cinnamon rolls, cookies, Rice Krispie Treats, brownies...we ate what we could. They are adorable and we are so excited to be teaching some girls for once! 

Quirino-- He came to church again! We had a good lesson with him and now we have a better understanding of why he stopped taking the lessons about a year ago. We have a lot of hope for him! We have been getting Jesus (a returning member we are working with) involved in his lessons, and it has been just as good for him as it has been for Q.

We had the opportunity to work with the LDSSA at Columbia Basin College this week! It was weird to be back on a college campus. We will be helping them do a service project handing out hot chocolate, so we're excited about that.

It has been a good week! Pasco is such a good place to be.

I love you!
--sister Jensen

Pay Day!

Dearest Friends and Family,

Happy Halloween! Jacob is now officially the newest member of the Pasco YSA!! He was baptized on Saturday with the young couple who was married last weekend. The service was wonderful. Everything went so smoothly, and the spirit was powerful! We had a lot of support from the branch, and even Jacob's family came! We couldn't have asked for a better day. He was confirmed yesterday, and he definitely made us sweat a bit. He works on Sunday mornings, so he was planning to arrive at church a few minutes before buuuut didn't show up. So we were out panicking in the hallway, praying our hearts out that he hadn't moved to Canada. And he showed up! He was still able to be confirmed (just after the sacrament) and it was great. I am excited to help him work towards going to the temple!

Which brings me to my next news-- transfer calls came today and I'm staying in Pasco! I absolutely love this area, and I am really excited about the direction the work is taking here. We have a lot to do, and I'm ready to get busy doing it. If anything, at least now I have some more time to perfect my volleyball serve. 

We found a cool new person to teach this week! His name is Quirino and although we just talked to his mom at the door, she told us that she would convince her son to come to church with us (even though their family is of another faith). And--you won't believe this--he actually showed up!! He came all by himself to church, and introduced himself to us right away. It was amazing, and we set up a follow up appointment with him for Wednesday. We are so excited!

I am so grateful that I get to share with people something so precious to me--and something that makes me so happy! In the end, the gospel is simple, and it is meant to bring us greater joy. It allows us to change--to overcome past mistakes and human weakness and exchange those things for happiness. 

Love,
Sister Jensen

 Brother and Sister Montierth came to Jacob's baptism! These are my Uncle Jacob's parents. Yup, two Jacobs.

Montierth's Backyard

My Zone

 YSA Halloween Party