Give All My Life to Him

Dear Friends and Family,

I don't know if I have mentioned this, but Sister Bogle and I have been teaching her dad over video chat for a few weeks now. He is not a member, and the Elders in North Carolina lead the lessons and we provide supplemental questions and testimonies. He has been going to church for years with his family but has never been baptized. Yesterday we had a lesson and it went really well! We finally feel like we got to the core of his concern with being baptized, so now we can help him overcome it. He is progressing! Teaching Brother Bogle feels different from anyone else I've taught. Maybe it's because I have had the blessing of training his daughter and I love her a lot, but I have such a desire to help him accept the fullness of the truth so that the Bogle family can be sealed in the temple. 

Mason passed his baptism interview yesterday! He will be baptized this coming Saturday!

This week went by so fast, and honestly I don't know what else to write about. I am doing well!  We had zone conference this week and also stake conference. The best part was standing to sing the intermediate hymn, I Feel My Savior's Love. As we all stood and sang, the lyrics "give all my life to Him" stood out, maybe because I've been thinking about how I want to be a lifelong disciple of Christ, even when I return home. Joan was at stake conference! We had the opportunity to meet Elder Murray, the visiting general authority. We gave out lots of copies of the Book of Mormon this week, so hopefully we will have some new people to teach soon. 

Love,Sister Jensen

Some pictures! I couldn't get permission to go to Dia's baptism, but I am super happy for her! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dearest Friends and Family,

We had another incredible week. We were able to do a temple tour with Mason, his brother Blake, and all the Orcutt kids! It was awesome, and different from other temple tours I've done because of all the little kids. As we walked around the temple, I couldn't help but smile thinking how happy Heavenly Father was to have his children at his house. Even if some of them were a little crazy and kept running all around. We also had a temple tour with Joan on Valentine's Day. We were able to sit in the waiting room of the temple, and the Spirit was strong!

Speaking of Valentine's Day--we made some valentines and we doorbell ditched them at people's homes (mostly lonely people's homes). It was so fun to see people open their doors and change from being upset that someone knocked to smiling or laughing and taking pictures of their door. It was a sweet way to spend the Holiday.

Okay-- the biggest news this week is Emily. She accepted a date for baptism!! March 14th-- pie day! We are so excited for her.

I hope you all have a good week. Don't forget how much the Lord loves you! Trust Him. 

Love,
Sister Jensen

Full-time Clergy Means Free Haircuts

Dearest Friends and Family,
Yesterday afternoon in the middle of sacrament meeting Bishop Merrill randomly asked me to come up and speak for a few minutes. It was totally unexpected, but as I made my way to the front (from the veeeeerry back of the chapel where we were sitting with Mason) I couldn't help but be humbled and extremely grateful for the opportunity to share with the ward how much I love being a missionary. I also got to help teach a stake mission prep class this week, which was pretty sweet. I have officially been on my mission for a year, and I feel like I "leveled up" this week. Never in my life have I felt so exhausted, and so joyful, and so much love for random strangers! I'm suddenly so aware of how temporary my time as a missionary really is, and this week went by much to fast. I love being a missionary! I cherish the time that I have left here in Washington, and I will serve in whatever capacity the Lord has in store for me for the rest of my life. When he asked me to leave my nets and feed His sheep, it was forever, not just for 18 months.

DANIEL
Sister Bogle and I had been thinking a lot about who we could bring to fellowship Daniel. One night we were both saying our personal prayers, and I felt impressed to interrupt Sister Bogle and tell her I had thought of someone. I didn't know his name, but i tried to describe a man in the ward. To my surprise, she said she had also had a face come to her head, and her description was pretty similar to mine (brown hair, brown eyes, three kids...maybe four? Relatively tall ish?). Neither of us could think of a name. We called our Elders Quorum president, gave that terribly vague description, and he gave us a couple names. We started looking through member's pictures and both stopped on the same one-- Brother Brady! We called him, and he happens to have half days of work the one day of the week that Daniel doesn't have work and we can actually teach him. It was an incredible miracle, and a tender reminder of the Lord's hand in the work.
Daniel's been living the word of wisdom!! Which is huge, since he is the one who brought it up himself after googling the beliefs of our church. He's incredible. To be honest, theres a lot of ways that I want to be more like him.

ZAYNE
We had a break through lesson where we taught about repentance and Zayne, a 14 year old boy, called repentance beautiful! We read the story of Alma the younger and for the first time he really connected with the scriptures. He saw himself in the pages of the Book of Mormon!

MASON
When we showed up to our lesson, Mason was playing minecraft, and so naturally he wanted to show us what he had built. It was the tree of life!! It was adorable. There are so many miracles happening in  his family right now. We brought the Orcutts and after our lesson with Mason and Blake (the two boys) we were able to talk with Mason's mom who isn't a member. And for the first time she opened up about some ways that she has been really hurt by members of our church. Brother Orcutt was inspired to speak with her and the Spirit was so strong. She casually mentioned that the most genuine member of our religion she had ever met was "L Tom" (yep, the apostle), one of her relatives. There are people on both sides of the veil helping this sweet family. After the lesson we rushed over to Brother Almond's house (the ward mission leader) and we shared our incredible miracle with him and his wife. The Ward has been praying to find people to teach, to find a family. And this family has been prepared! They just need to be loved. Mason is going to be baptized on February 29th, and his mom said she will be there!! We all kneeled down together and offered a prayer of gratitude. It was a beautiful moment.

I got a haircut today and it was free because I am a "fulltime clergy". So add "free haircuts" to the list of benefits to being a missionary. :)

Love,
Sister Jensen

Alpaca Appointments and Baptism Dates

Dearest Friends and Family,

This week we had the opportunity to bring a new sister out for her first night in the field. We took Sister Windward, who is now in our apartment being trained by sister Langford! She is a great missionary. 

ZAYNE came to a baptism! He is doing well. We have started reading the Book of Mormon with him and watching the videos. He is reading on his own now, which is a huge step forward!

DANIEL
I said a prayer pleading with the Lord to be able to set a day with him for baptism, and the Lord in His mercy made it happen. Daniel is on date for the 22nd! He has so many questions about the Book of Mormon and he is seeking truth. When we invited him to act on Moroni's promise, he said he already knew the book was true. And when we committed him to read 1 Nephi 1 he said he would, but that there was a good chance he wouldn't stop there. We said not to worry, we could work with that.

We had a lesson with MASON and it was awesome! We brought some members, and they were able to meet the rest of Mason's family, who we have never met before. Their hearts are being softened! After working out some details, it looks like Mason will be baptized here in Washington. We couldn't be more excited for him! 

I had the opportunity to attend several meetings this week, and to teach a training with the zone leaders to our stake presidency as well as the Kennewick zone and President and Sister Rassmussen. It went really well. I love being able to present truth and provide my own personal witness that it is true.

Other things I did this week:
We taught a lesson to a member of the area 70 who lives in our area (he taught us more than we taught him).

We set up a lesson with this lady, but we showed up and she was in her farm clothes...she was like, "you don't look dressed for work, but we'll just feed the alpacas today and you can do that in a skirt." So we fed some alpacas! It was actually really fun, even if we didn't get to teach the lesson we were planning on. 

JAYNE came to church this week and loved it! I bore my testimony (mostly for her) and she started to cry a bit. She loved seeing the young deacons pass the sacrament. She said that she could tell that our religion goes deeper than just worship on Sundays. She loved it!

I hope you all have a good week!

Love,
Sister Jensen

Pictures! 

Mason is in the storm trooper pajamas

Zane has the earrings