Solo Sister Training Leader?

Dearest friends and family,

This week has been awesome and full of miracles! Transfer news came this morning. Surprise, Sister Bogle and I are staying. I have been assigned to be the sister training leader for the zone so that will be fun! And we are getting a new sister in our apartment straight from the MTC, too.

ZAYNE- We met with him on Tuesday to teach him about the plan of salvation and to commit him to do a temple tour. He said yes and scheduled it for next week. Later that night we got a text from him saying "can we do it tomorrow?? I really want to go and am so excited" (YAY). So on Wednesday we went to the temple with Sister Tano and her son Aaron. We walked around the outside and Zayne was like, "I used to ask my dad when we would drive by the temple if we could go and he said yeah this weekend but the weekend never came. I just have wanted to know how to get in since 5th grade!" We told him "that weekend is actually today and we can teach you how to enter the temple!" After being outside we went to the temple waiting room to answer his questions. The Spirit was so strong! Zayne walked out beaming.

MASON- He agreed to be baptized and chose the date of February 29th (Leap day)! They are planning a trip to Utah so a family member can baptize him. 

Sister Hofheins and I got to go on exchanges this week and we saw some incredible miracles! There are some new apartments being built in our area, and every person we contact up there seems to be interested in hearing more. We were knocking on some doors and we met the coolest part member family! Macadia (who agreed to come to activities!) is thirteen years old and was so excited we were there. She wanted to introduce us to all her neighbors. We were like...okay!! She introduced us to a lady named Jayne who has recently done some family history and discovered that Porter Rockwell (Joseph Smith's body guard) is her ancestor! She is interested in learning more about what her ancestors believed.

Have a great week everyone!

I  almost forgot the coolest thing! This week we had the opportunity to teach Sister Bogle's dad, and it went super well! The Elders in North Carolina seem great. I just had to add this in because it was super a special spiritual experience. 

Love,
Sister Jensen

Finally some snow!

Dearest Friends and Family,

Wow what a week. It is finally snowy here. Our Corolla is surviving so far. We had zone conference this week! It was really good and always helps me feel more excited and motivated about the work.

ZAYNE is progressing so well. We taught him at the Davis family's home and explained more about the Book of Mormon. Zayne had so many good questions! He was so excited to read and ended up reading half the chapter before the rest of us could get some verses in. He is on date for March 7th! 

Emily and Courtney (her mom) had us over for dinner, but they wanted to do a "mystery dinner" so we brought random ingredients and they cooked it to make dinner. It was surprising how good they did! We taught Emily more about her divine nature and invited her to use her talents to create something about Christ. It was the first lessons we've had where she has been completely engaged. It was great!

KAREN texted us out of the blue and said she wanted to meet with us! The morning of our lesson she didn't answer our texts or calls, and we have 3 different Karens in our area book. So we prayed and picked one to visit...and we picked right! Karen is going through a lot right now. She said she wanted to come to church, but the morning of she (again) wasn't answering us. So we stopped by her house and woke her up! We waited for her to get ready then walked to the church with her. She was able to receive a much needed Priesthood blessing following the meeting. It was a cool experience! We are going back tomorrow!

DANIEL is awesome. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and he said that he had always thought he should be able to make the choice of baptism at an age that he could really choose for himself. He has two adorable little kids. He read Enos 1!! He was going to come to church but was called in to work. We are hopeful for next week!

Thank you for the prayers! I know that all things are possible through Him. 

Love,
Sister Jensen

After the Trial Cometh the Blessings!

This week was amazing. On Saturday we got to go do baptisms for the dead with Naio, and it was absolutely incredible. The Spirit was so strong! Edgar was also there, and he baptized me in the temple. How cool is that?! He seems to be doing really well. Naio loved the temple, and Jacob's family is still being taught and is progressing, so all good news from Pasco! 

While we were stuck inside sick we decided to call everyone in the area book to set up teaching appointments. This week we met . . . 

VALERIE who's a mom of two with another on the way! She is so open to coming to church and just learning what we believe. She's awesome.

ZANE is a 14 year old boy who we met while he was out shooting hoops. (He let us shoot a couple with him and was really nice) He's had a super hard life and his mom only speaks Arabic so it's hard to communicate with her. We reassured him that the gospel of Jesus Christ could bring true happiness! He said he has always wanted to be baptized and so we told him we could work towards that, but there's a lot that has to happen before then. Lots of opposition. Brother Davis and his son gave him a ride to church on Sunday (he came to church!!!) and then had him come over and hangout afterwards. We went over for a lesson and taught the word of wisdom and law of chastity (and also had brownies). It was awesome!! He is so prepared to learn and he is so willing to act on the truths we teach him. He even asked us if he can have piercings and said if we told him he needed to, he would take them out. We are going to meet with him some more this week and hopefully set a baptismal date.

EMILY! so Emily's mom Courtney is a member of about a year and Emily's brother even served a mission in Australia. So she knows a lot about the church but the missionaries have never sat down and taught her. When we ask her gospel questions she tends to get shy but we basically told her last week that we are here for her! She said she wants to continue being taught and building her relationship with God. She even came to church with her mom on Sunday. 

JOAN! Joan is neighbors with Sister Cornia. We did lots of "how to begin teaching" and basically figured out why she likes meeting with us. She said she wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon! We left her with a copy and invited her to church. She actually came!! She sat with Sister Cornia and stayed and asked questions after. She told us she read about five chapters in the Book of Mormon and we only asked her to read one! She is so cool and her heart is being softened every time we meet. She has tons of potential.

We met MASON for the first time last night. He is 8 and wants to be baptized. His dad used to be a member and is trying to come back, so he wants Mason to get baptized in Utah so a family member can do the baptism. He is so ready to be baptized though! We will probably offer a baptismal date next week. He came to church with his dad too! 

With great blessings and miracles comes great opposition. Just so you get a taste of the opposition we've been facing, I'll include this story. We went to meet with this women and we had been warned that she might be a bit hard to teach so we decided we would share our testimonies because she can't deny what we believe is true.... or so we hoped. She invited us into her home and was so "nice" and then we started talking about why we were on missions. She was intrigued that Sister Bogle is a convert and wanted to know why she joined. So she shared her testimony of Jesus Christ and the feelings she had when learning the gospel...but got immediately shut down. She said she wants historical facts and that feelings are not the way to know if something is true. We left as quick as we could and kind of laughed it off. The Spirit had warned us as soon as we walked in the house that we needed to leave, so next time I will be more quick to listen. 

I know that this is the work of the Lord! The fact that we face opposition testifies to me the importance of what we're doing. Why else would someone be trying to stop us? We worked hard this week, and we saw miracles. Please keep Zane, Joan, Emily, Valorie and Mason in your prayers! :)

Love,

Sister Jensen

Zane is in the blue Jersey; that's the picture we took at the members house after church. 

The temple pictures you can kind of see how crazy windy it was! Notice the elder's tie.

Aprons from Mom

 The Zone

Hello 2020!

Dearest Friends and Family,

We are finally recovering! I went on sick exchanges a couple times which was good since I was going crazy being stuck inside. Sister Langford has the mall in her area, so we did some contacting there which was fun. This week we met a cool guy named Steve! We talked to him out on his porch and we taught him the restoration right there. The spirit was so strong and he was happy to give us all his information and to have us back. It turns out he is an inactive member, and he has just been waiting to be invited back.

Clarence is so cool. We went back and he invited us in, but there was no other woman there so we taught him on his porch. He liked Helaman 5:12 and agreed that we have to focus our lives on the Savior to find lasting peace. He already knows about Joseph Smith and 1820 and started teaching US the restoration! He has been prepared, and we are so excited to teach him more.

Someone cooked us Walleye, fresh from the Columbia. It was amazing so I had to add that in here. 

I started doing Come Follow Me for the Book of Mormon and it is so good! Before I begin reading each chapter I write down a question that I have in the margin, and as I read the chapter I look for answers to the question and I mark them. It has been a super spiritual experience! Each time I've done it the chapter has perfectly answered my question, even if it hasn't been exactly in the words I read. One day my question was about finding fellowship for someone we were teaching, and as I studied someone texted us and said they could come to the lesson! I know that the Book of Mormon answers the questions of our soul, as well as our tiny little questions that we have every single day. The Book of Mormon is for us! It can always bring us peace and hope.

Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Jensen