August 26, 2013

Hello Family and Friends!

I cannot believe how fast this last transfer flew by! I've been out here about 3 months already!?? That does not even seem real. The president called on Friday and has asked Sister Fenn and I to train. I guess this means I'll be white washing or opening an area. God sure knows how to spice things up here and there ;) I will do what he needs me to do though, even if it is hard. In fact, in mission life/real life he doesn't usually ask us to do easy things. He likes us to become true disciples of him. I was just reading in Mosiah today and reading of the afflictions that Alma and his people had but they dealt with them cheerfully and with patience. I don't think I've been able to relate to the scriptures so much in my life as I have as I've been out here on my mission. I love what Elder Wirthlin  said in a talk years ago of what his mother use to tell him, "come what may and love it."

This week has been pretty eventful. Sister Fenn and I went on exchanges with our sister training leaders. Those sisters are so amazing. They serve in the YSA branch on UF campus. We also had zone conference and I got to see three missionaries that came out in the field with me there. That was great to see familiar faces. One of the elders said something there to the effect: If this gospel weren't true, there's no way this work would progress. You take two missionaries, you give them a gas card, an apartment, a debit card with $140 a month and then you just drop them off and say "go share the gospel". It's amazing how involved God is in this work.

This Saturday is not only a big day in Gainesville because it's the first gator's football game, but Georgia Kings is getting baptized!! Georgia had her interviews with Elder Gao and the bishop after church on Sunday. I felt so bad when she was going to them because she was SO nervous! When she came out of both interviews, however, she was just beaming. I can't wait for her to feel that amazing spirit as she finally enters into the waters of baptism and then receives the gift of the Holy Ghost. What a great way to end a transfer for me!

Sister Fenn and I haven't been able to meet with Daniel and Sam for a couple of weeks because they have been soo busy! (the miracle find). We were in their area last night and were talking to one of their neighbors because we had knocked on their door and they weren't there. As we were talking, we saw a few people carry a mattress into Daniel and Sam's apartment so we decided to knock and see if Sam and Daniel were there with them. Sure enough, they were! It was getting close to nine o'clock and we have to be home by nine if we're not in a lesson and nine thirty if we are. Daniel seemed to want us to share some more with them. We decided we would have a quick lesson before we had to go back. The spirit was so strong in that room. Daniel and Sam were asking questions from our last visit. I could see, and have seen in Daniel, how he is just holding so much inside him. That's because of some things his old mentor in their church said or did to them and the fact that he and Sam have lived together. We shared a scripture on repentance and then I felt impressed to share that we have to forgive others of the things that they have done to us if we expect God to forgive us. Daniel couldn't look me in the eyes. I knew he knew what I was saying was true. I asked him if he would pray and ask God to help him forgive those who had offended him. He didn't commit, but we'll help him as we meet with him and Sam again. Sam and Daniel are some of the best people I've ever met. I know that God loves each of them very much. I know that we have to forgive in order to be forgiven of our transgressions as well. I was grateful to truly have the spirit be the teacher in that lesson and am so grateful for the healing that comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Read and pray every day!

Sister Jensen

August 12, 2013

Hello,

What a wonderful week it sounds like you have been having! What a fun trip up to Island Park. Right now a dip in a river sounds like a great idea. Sam, I am so excited for you to get your patriarchal blessing. You are such an amazing kid and I am so grateful to have you as a brother. And of course, I loved that letter the other day. I hope you got mine. 

Sometimes it's really hard being a missionary. I feel like my weaknesses are held under a magnifying glass. It's hard not to get really down with myself when there is so much I could be better at. Before coming out on my mission, I remember worrying about the trainer I would get. I really wanted to get a trainer who was really experienced and had been out a long time. God seems to have different plans many of the time. And now, here I am training someone at six weeks. It's hard not being able to talk about the gospel in the way that I would want, but in spite of all of my many weakness, God seems to pull it all together. 

To fill our time, Sister Fenn and I put down less active members names and knock around them because we haven't received the "ok" yet from the bishop to visit them. This gives us some direction to go during our day. On Tuesday we had a less active written who lived in a complex that I had only been once before with Sister Toledo. I remember her telling me that she and her last companion had knocked around there, so I was searching where we needed to knock. I kept repeating to myself "Heavenly Father, where do we need to go, where should we go." I kept looking around the complex thinking where we could knock. Two apartment hallways caught my attention so I told Sister Fenn that we would knock around there. We headed for one of the hallways that I was thinking of. We walked over and right when we started into the hallway a man was carrying some things down from the upper floor of apartments. We asked him how he was doing and if he needed some help. He was hesitant of taking two nineteen and twenty year old gal's help. He said "oh, no, I'm fine." I've come to learn myself that you need to be a little pushy to know if someone really does want or need help. I said, "no really, we'll help you." He accepted and said how that would actually be really nice. Some of the managers had told him that he needed to be out at 12:00 which he hadn't realized and here it was 1:00. His expression told us what a crazy coincidence that we were helping him. We hardly helped him. He had already moved most everything into the other apartment in the same complex that he was moving into. He genuinely thanked us over and over for our help and we were just like, "no, really we hardly did anything." He went in to further detail that he was so grateful we came. He said that he was really bitter and was talking to God before we came. He said he had been moving since 7:00 am until the time we came and there had been no one around and then all of a sudden we showed up and asked to help him. It turns out he had been a minister and hadn't been to church for two years because of some things that happened. He and his girlfriend were living together and he just was saying how he knew it was wrong and that they were trying to figure it all out. We told him we would come back the next morning when his fiance was there and help them organize their things in their apartment. We ended up coming back the next morning and we started helping them but they wanted to talk more than anything. We shared with them the message of the restoration and a light and understanding of the message showed on their faces. We gave them a Book of Mormon and Sam (the fiance) and Daniel said they would do it. Sam was like, I really will. I don't just say something. They weren't able to come to church with us this Sunday, but Sister Fenn and I stopped by their place in the evening to check on them. Sam didn't have her ring on and she said that they were going to stop living together and get their lives right again. I was thinking, well that makes teaching the law of chastity so much easier. ;) It was such a miracle. They are so elect!!! My heart kind of breaks in the fact that I will most likely be transferred at the beginning of next month, but I hope and pray Sister Fenn will be able to teach them and get to see them baptized. I can't wait to meet with them again. 

We have been given some service opportunities this week. One of them was told to us by our ward mission leader. He is in his pediatric dental residency and told us of one of his fellow classmates who was moving. She had such a terrible experience with her last movers and he told her that he could get some people to help her out. We, as a district, went over and moved her whole apartment out and then moved all of her things into her new one. She was so grateful and was asking us all of these questions about being missionaries and it was such a great opportunity. Her mom lived in upstate New York and just kept saying how impressed she's always been with the mormons and how service oriented they are. I've noticed one thing that many people say. You all are just so happy. Lorielle (the gal moving) told Sister Fenn this as she drove us over to her new apartment. She said every mormon she knew was always just sooo nice and so happy. I just want to be like, "It's because the gospel is true!!" We know how we can be happy in this life. 

Well, family, thanks for all of your love and support. It is definitely needed and appreciated. I pray for you often and hope for your success in all you do. Give Claire some major loving from me and take her on a walk around the block ;) I sure miss that sometimes. Thanks for your wonderful thoughts and great examples! 

xoxoox

Sister Jensen

August 5, 2013

Dear Mom,

 

Sorry for keeping this short and for anyone who wrote me an email and I didn't get back to you, I will try and respond next week. An hour and a half seems like a long time but it goes by so fast when you're trying to respond to everyone. Mitchell, CONGRATULATIONS on just being amazing! I cannot wait to hear where you and Katelyn head to do medical school. You've got a proud sister out here in Florida. Sister Fenn (that's my companion's name, mom) and I had a dinner with a family in our ward yesterday. They're a young family in their anesthesia residency at UF. The mom reminds me so much of your mom Mitch and her little boy reminds me of Lucus. Such a cute family.

 

Well this week has been great. Being a trainer is stressful but it's been good. Sister Fenn and I get along really well. She is very easy going and I can stress out pretty easily, so sometimes she has to slap me back into shape. ;) I'll send pictures next time because my time is running really short.

 

So... highights of the week. We have been teaching Kaylyn who is preparing for baptism on the 17th. With school starting and trying to get all of the lessons covered, we may have to extend that date. We taught a lesson on keeping the sabbath day holy. This was something I felt we needed to bring up to help prepare her for baptism because she works almost all Sundays. The next visit we had with her she expressed her concerns from the previous lesson. She is worried because Sundays are one of the only days she can work with school, etc. We just helped her realize that when we keep the commandments, God will bless us and he will provide a way. And then in church the Sunday school lesson was on the word of wisdom (which we haven't gotten to in the lessons). I was a little apprehensive about this but it turned out well. She was just laughing and telling me how she feels like she's doing great and then there's one more thing she needs to fix. Ha! I'm glad she took it well?

 

Sister Fenn and I were able to stop by and see Georgia the other week. We invited her to church and she said she would come. Saturday came along and she called us telling us that she decided she didn't want to go, but she would attend The Rock Church and then decide if the mormon church was for her. I talked to her that she needed to go to our church to know if it was true, not another church. It was such a miracle to see her come to church yesterday and she even told us we could come over on Tuesday!! I pray she will receive her answer of her heartfelt prayer that this is the path for her.

 

All my love!!

 

Sister Jensen

Comment!

Hey all readers of Sister Jensen's Blog!
Don't be afraid to post uplifting comments on all of these posts! After McCall's mission, she will have this whole Blog printed. If you had any special thoughts come up while reading don't be afraid to share!  Remember to keep sending letters as well! :)

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Hello my dear mother (and everyone else who reads these emails)!!

Thank you for the wonderful email! I'm glad to hear you and dad were able to have such a good date night! That sounds like a blast! Our mission president and wife said they've had a date night every week they've been married and they are required to take one as mission presidents too. Babysitting over the years has made me think I want to go on dates with my husband when I'm married :) I think that's important. So it's good to hear you had a great time! Keep me posted on Mitch and medical schools! An interview with Pittsburgh? Is that one of his top choices? There are a LOT of residency students in our ward. So many young families. It's fun and loud in church ;) The hardest rule for me as a missionary is not holding kids. Especially when our ward is full of them! There are a lot of very educated people around here. When we knock on Haile plantation the stickers on people's cars are all Duke, Stanford, etc. Talking to a lot of these people makes me want to have a good education behind me. 

Well it's Tuesday and transfer calls were last night. It wasn't too much of a surprise for me because I knew I would be staying in the Gainesville 3rd ward training. It turns out that Sister Atkinson (also has been here only 6 weeks) will be training. She's in the second ward and so we do a lot with those sisters. Sister Toledo will be transferred to Normandy which is apparently in Jacksonville. She's opening this area which means sisters have not been there yet. We had a picnic with the zone today for Elder Sutner who is leaving and I got talking to Sister Call. She unfortunately is leaving Gainesville :( I sure love that Sister. She was telling me how shocked they were to hear that Sister Toledo and another sister are opening that particular area. They didn't think they would send sisters into an area like that because it's really ghetto and scary. She said she was talking to an Elder who had served there and he said the other week there was a shooting in a restaurant he had just been in. Yikes. I didn't tell Sister Toledo about that. She'll be great though. 

I'm sorry I keep having you send me more things, however, the mission president has asked all of us to ask our parents to send us a book. It's called The Power of the Everyday Missionary by Elder Clayton Christensen. So if you can send that I would very much appreciate it. Thanks! 

Well it sounds like everything is going well! I hope so anyway. If it wasn't, I would hope you would write and tell me. I don't like being out of the loop. 

Can I just say that I a lot can happen in a week. We went to visit Georgia and she had told us previously how her family was against the idea of her being baptized, but she just said, "it's my life. I can do what I want." Unfortunately, her family worked on her enough for her to tell us she does not want to get baptized. That was pretty devastating. However, on the bright side, we have been teaching a 24 year old gal named Kaylyn. She is married so thankfully we don't have to hand her over to the YSA sisters to teach! YES! ;) She's been reading in the Book of Mormon and I pray that she will continue to progress. We set a baptism date with her for the tenth and she was able to attend church for the first two meetings this last Sunday. It was great to get her there. We'll see how everything works out! 

It's still been rain, rain, rain! Even the locals comment on how much rain we've had. The other day we were talking to three guys outside of their house and then it started pouring rain. I had my umbrella so I got it out. It literally was raining so hard it was raining through my umbrella. When we were driving home it felt like we were in a car wash and that's with the window wipers going at full speed. Thank goodness for Crocs. That's all I've got to say. 

I love you all! Keep the letters coming! I love hearing from all of you! 

Sister Jensen 

Monday, July 8, 2013

Dear family,
 
Hello, hello! Thank you for all of your letters and love!! It really lifts my spirits to hear from all of you, so THANKS! (not that my spirits are low). This week has been hard trying to find people to teach. We knock on doors and try to talk to as many people as we can, but it's a struggle for me to navigate quickly and simply to the gospel like it says in preach my gospel--or at least in a way that is meaningful and invites the spirit. I'm working to be better at that. It's hard though! Missions are hard! But one thing that I've learned is to be patient with myself and I'm working on being more humble. I don't think I've ever noticed so many weaknesses of my own than I have out here in the past weeks. It's the refiners fire I tell you. I am very happy though, despite our lack of progressing investigators. How blessed we have been though! I had my first baptism this last Saturday! James! He is 25ish? I didn't find him but have taught him weekly with Sister Toledo. I think I talked about him in previous emails, but I've never met someone so prepared for the gospel. We gave him the lesson on the word of wisdom and he was telling us how he's used to his cup of coffee in the mornings but he would give it up. He was telling us how he used to drink alcohol pretty often and he would tell himself, "okay, I'm going on a cleanse for a few weeks" or something like that, and then a friend would be in town and any self-restraint that he had was gone and they'd go out for drinks. He had a really good old time friend in town the week before his baptism. He said his mom called him saying, you must have had a really good time with Taylor and went out for some drinks. He was so proud to tell her (and us), that they had a great time but he had the self control not to drink. He takes pages and pages of notes on everything (the lessons we teach him, sacrament meetings, people talking to him, etc)! He wants to be as prepared as he can. He's really amazing. His baptism was wonderful and he asked Sister Toledo and I to sing. I was thinking, uh, James!? Are you SURE!? ha! We dragged the other Sisters from the other ward into it. He was so touched that people from the ward came to support him. He said he didn't think anyone would be there. What a blessing. He also received the priesthood yesterday. 
 
Mom, thanks so much for the package!! We can open packages any day and I actually got it last Monday after emails. It was so great! THANK YOU!! The shirt, the NUTELLA, stickers, my favorite Utah mints, pudding, and everything was amazing. I hope ya'll (let's just embrace the fact that I'm a Southern girl) had a great 4th of July! We.... knocked doors and got POURED on! The rain has been crazy this week. We were tracting in Haile Plantation again--the wealthy area again. It's a really big area. Sometimes the rain is a blessing. A man opened the door and said he was jewish but was sympathetic to two Sisters with umbrellas going from door to door in the rain and invited us in. His wife was there so we accepted the offer. They weren't interested in our message. She was Catholic so we just talked to them. A beautiful house with the view of the golf course right in their backyard. We got to know them and talked about our church. We asked if we could share a thought and they allowed us to after getting to know us. Sister Toledo shared something and then I talked about the pioneers and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I got a little bit emotional talking about Joseph Smith and his sacrifice to restore the gospel. I talked about how I knew the Book of Mormon was true. The spirit was so strong. We knelt down in prayer and prayed at the end. They accepted a Book of Mormon and  we asked them to read and pray about it. They said they would!  The wife even said: "I'm really interested to read this." They weren't really wanting discussions, but I hope they will read it and call us. It was a tender mercy for us.
 
Well, I'm going on too long here, so I'll end, but I just wanted to say what a remarkable time this is for missionary work!! President Craig is fabulous to answer your question mom. We met him at our Zone meeting and he is a really, really hard worker I can tell. I'm thrilled for the future. We will be getting Ipads within a year and tracting will turn to a thing of the past. Anyway, a quote that he shared that is by Elder Perry said this about the huge increase of missionaries: 
 
"This is a most remarkable era of the church. It is rivaled by only three other events in this dispensation; the first vision, coming of the Book of Mormon and the receiving of the priesthood by all worthy males." 
 
What a statement! It is truly incredible. I can't wait to see what the future holds. I was reading the Ensign this month about Modern Pioneers by President Monson. It made me ponder on the words of my patriarchal blessing saying I am basically a pioneer in this day and age. He defined pioneer in the talk as someone preparing the way for someone else to follow. I thought to myself: who am I preparing the way for?The answer came in a flood to my very soul. I (as well as thousand of other missionaries and members sharing the gospel) are preparing the way for the second coming of our savior Jesus Christ. I know with all of my heart this statement is true. This gospel is true. It really, really is. If you just experiment upon the word, The Book of Mormon and pray to know for yourself, the Lord will testify of its truth again and again and again. 
 
Love you all! It sounds like you're having a wonderful summer! Mom, I haven't got the Amazon package yet (it's probably in the mail today or something) but I can take it to the UPS store next Pday or I'll just give it to someone. And to answer your question, the other sisters are in the Gainesville 2nd ward and they live out of our Gainesville 3rd ward area. 
 
xoxoxo
Sister Jensen

Week Four! July 3, 2013

"Hello Mother :),

 

I sure love you! You are so amazing. Thanks for keeping me posted on everything. You may think that I may not be interested in all of the little things, but really that's what I love to hear about! Adam Buck is a DEACON!!? That seriously blows my mind. And that sounds like a lot of fun for their family to go backpacking. Speaking of the Allreds, one of the zone leaders who always comes to my district meetings every week (Elder Sutner) was Nic's companion at one time. When I said I was from Ogden he was like, "do you know Nic Allred?! he's the best!"

 

It sounds like you have a great summer ahead of you! That is some hot heat for June! But, nothing we're not experiencing here! The temperature can easily be in the 100s here. Thank goodness for a car with AC! I feel bad for those on bikes. I think last time I told you Gainesville is the 11th hottest city in the country? It's actually the 7th according to some of the other sisters. Greeeeaaat ;) The humidity doesn't help with the heat much either. Island Park will be such a blast! That is the hard part about being on a mission during the summer time, you miss all of these great activities! BUT it's all good :) Samuel Russell Jensen!!!! You need to write me and at least say hello!! :) After all, I'm not going to see you for three years! Bear Lake sounds like it will be a blast! You'll have to tell me how that goes.

 

Yes, we got a new mission president whom I haven't met yet! Zone conference is this Friday and I think we will meet them there?  President Barry and Sister Barry were so amazing though. Even though I only got to meet them in person a few times, we would do conference calls every Friday with groups of missionaries. They are two amazing people. I know President and Sister Craig will be phenomenal as well. You should attach the picture the Barry's sent you to go on the blog because I never saw it and would love it on the blog.

 

Well, not much happened this week. We are really needing to find some good investigators. I can't believe this is going to be my fourth week! Sister Toledo and I have a bet on if I'll be training or not next transfer. I say I'm not and she says I am. I get Olive Garden and HiChews if I'm not training and I owe her McDonalds and Haagen Daz if I am. The odds are not looking too good for me because there are so many new missionaries coming out. But seriously, I feel so lost. Oh boy... if I'm training!

 

We got a ward mission leader last week (we didn't have one before that). He's going to be really great I can tell. The hard thing is that he is brand new into the ward so he doesn't know anyone. You know how I said we don't really get meals from members that often? He is wanting us to have meals with members every night to get to know them. As great as that is, that scares me that I'm going to gain so much weight.

 

Well, I love you and can't wait to hear back from you! Also, I don't know how much shipping is, but I never brought the missionary library book list. True to the Faith, Our Search For Happiness, etc. in deseret book they have them cheap apparently? And a good story from our ancestors would be great.

 

Love you all!!

 

Sister Jensen"