I didn't think they were married.. I thought they were friends

This was about Mary and Joseph, a little family we are teaching said that. I maybe laughed a lot! 

This week was pretty 'ight! We worked a lot with less active members and we are trying to help them to come back to the path. I know that these people have a testimony the spark is still there they just need help and that is where we come in! We are hoping to get a couple of them towards the temple so that will be exciting!

We got to go over to a couple of members home for lessons and it was so nice. We got to have  breakfast for dinner, like cinnamon rolls and casserole and bacon and it was so good. They had just had a baby and it was so hard not to try and hold that little one! I just love seeing how everyone has had a different experience but they all help to strengthen their testimonies! That is something I am so grateful for is being able to hear all these amazing stories about their faith and how they have lived the gospel! 

I have been studying a lot about grace and personal revelation a lot recently and I would encourage all y'all to read the talk by President Nelson called "Revelation For the Church, Revelation For Our Lives". It is so powerful and we need to have that personal revelation in order to survive in the last days! 

Well I love y'all so much and I hope you have a blessed week! 

Love, 
Sister Jensen 

 

                               

Happy New Year

I am sorry that I am the worst and didn't email y'all last week but I hope 2019 so far is treating you really good! 

We had stake conference and Elder Stanfill of the 70 came and talked to us and he is so cool! One of his quotes that he said that I loved was " don't sweat the little things"  and I think you can use that a lot with life. Whenever things get crazy don't focus on the little things driving you crazy look for the good in life! 

We also got to have zone conference and Elder Stanfill spoke to us as missionaries. He had the first vision read and played if you could hide to Kolob and it was so powerful. Just listening and reflecting helped you to see how true the restoration is! When we did that you just felt like you were in the moment and that it was something to be happy about. 

Here is the office moment of the week: 

We went to this less actives home and we knocked on the door and asked "Is Robert here" and he said no he doesn't know who Robert was. We apologized and walked away. We met the dad in the garage and asked " hey do you know if Robert still lives here" and the dad responded with " yeah Robert was the one who answered the door." I just walked away laughing at the camera. 

Here is an amazing thing that you should read! It is called His grace is Sufficient. I LOVE THIS TALK! It is so powerful and has changed my thoughts. 

Hopefully y'all are doing Come, Follow Me because that is inspired and it really does bring the Spirit into your home! 

I love y'all so so much and I hope you have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen  

You only live once...false. You live everyday. You only die once.

Bailee emailed me (her mama) early and then went to the Ammers (I assume they are members in the area) to do ceramics and they were making them breakfast. She told me that she would send the weekly email afterwards but the next email was super short and it said that they went shopping (looks like she purchased some dress slacks!!) instead and they ran out of time…so, I am going to just put a few things down from her email that she sent to me. 

I LOVE The office! It is still my favorite show and I quote it everyday!
In the South, for New Years they do Black Eyed Peas (they represent coins) and Collared Greens (they represent money) to bless this new year. I can tell you right now that I HATE black eyed peas and collared greens are only good if they are covered in salt! 

We found 3 new people to teach and I am super excited. Hunter is reading the Book of Mormon so we are hopefully going to pass him over to the YSA sisters since he is 18. 

A good talk to read is Choose the Light by Elder Vern P. Stanfill. He came and spoke to our stake for Stake conference and we will get to talk to him tomorrow for ZONE CONFERENCE.

I love y'all and have a blessed week!
Love,
Sister Jensen

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

HOLY MOLY I CANNOT BELIEVE IT IS ALMOST 2019! Time is flying and I have a lot more to become in 2019. 

This week was so good! Christmas was so good and it was amazing to talk to my family! We spent a lot of our day out and being with members. We decided to do "He is the reason for the season" candy bars and give them to people working and it was so cute to see their reaction. This year I could really feel the Light of Christ as I focused on others needs and not mine own! It was a great feeling! 

This week was all about teaching everyone and really helping them to progress more and more in the Gospel. We had such a good lesson with Hunter. We went to Chick-fil-a and just talked and it made it such a relaxed environment that it was easy to relate what he was saying and his questions to the Restoration. The Restoration really is what makes us different from all other churches and the Spirit even in a Chick-fil-a will testify of the truth! 

We are starting to teach a lady named Evelina. She is so cool! She had missionaries come and teach her in 2008 while she lived in Florida. She moved here and lost the Book of Mormon and Bible so she wanted to order another one. So we went and delivered that to her and she just asked us a whole lot of questions and we almost taught her the whole Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. We are going back soon so hopefully it will be good! 

On a mission (and just in life) you have a lot of what I would call "office moments". These are moments where you just look up as if a camera was there watching you and just make a face. Hopefully that makes sense but this week I had one of those experiences and I just have to share it. 

We went to teach Dot and she is so cute. We are teaching the Restoration and it is going so well. She is just accepting it and really seems to be grasping it. We get to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and she kinda shuts off. She goes, " Let me be honest with you, I love what y'all are doing for the Lord but I am not going to change." We tried to explain that we weren't trying to make her change but just wanted to add some light. She just would not accept it. Sister Beckstrom asked her " What if all this is true? What if what we are teaching is true?"  and she said " it probably is true but I don't want to change". 

It was in that moment that I looked to a non-existent camera and shook my head. We all have our agency and I know that one day she will accept the gospel! 

If you want a good read this week here is my testimony! 

I know without a shadow of a doubt that we have a loving Heavenly Father, He cares for us and He wants to hear from us. I know that the Book of Mormon is "the most correct of any book of earth and the keystone of our religion and a man can get nearer to God by abiding by its precept than by any other book." We quote that every morning it is what Jospeh Smith said about the Book of Mormon. I know that we have a prophet on the earth today and that because we have a prophet we have the priesthood. That priesthood is the power that seals us to our families for eternity. I love that I am out serving and I love this gospel. 

I love y'all so much and I hope y'all have a blessed week! 

Love,

Sister Jensen 

Have a Lice Christmas???

We had quite the scare this week. We got a call from a family we are working with in the ward saying they got sent home due to lice. We had seen them the day before so we were on lice hunt for a couple of days. The Christmas miracle is that we don't have lice! 

We were able to teach the McNeil's about Light the World and we showed them Light your Family. We had them make a card for someone in their family and give it to them. Everyone loved it. When we went back on Thursday they told us that they were getting in a fight and their parents weren't happy about it, so they gathered all of them into the living room and they all went down the line and said why they were grateful for them. They told us they did that because they wanted to Light their Family. Honestly, they are the sweetest family ever! 

We were also able to teach Dot this week and she fully accepted the Plan of Salvation. We were a little scared because of her religious background but when we were talking the Spirit was so strong and she kept saying how it made so much sense! It was the best thing ever! We are really excited to start working with her more! 

If you want a good read got to Ether 12 it is so amazing probably one of my favorite chapters. 

Also if you want to watch a good video click this link https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2018-11-0170-far-away?lang=eng&_r=1

Bonus: if you can guess who is singing with out looking you will be my favorite! 

I love y'all and have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen

6 months and a transfer later...

Hey Y'all! 

This week I hit 6 months which is crazy to think about but it is so cool! I love being on my mission and if anyone ever thinks about going on a mission but they don't know for sure, I say go for it! You will never be happier and you will grow so much closer to our Lord! 

Transfers are tomorrow and Sister Beckstrom and I are staying in Congaree and sadly, Sister Crave is leaving us and going to Surfside!  

This week was a lot of service for a foundation called Ella Stocking Stuffers. This is a foundation put on by our bishop after he lost his daughter in a drunk driver accident. They go through the school and the school notices kids in need and complete and application type form. The foundation chooses kids and provides them with Christmas gifts. This year they helped over 160 kids and that Uhaul was totally full of bags that were filled of wrapped presents. They honestly got such good gifts like bikes, shoes, clothes, headphones, toys.. legit everything. It was so amazing to be apart of because we got to give the gifts to the families and they were so appreciative of all that they were getting and it made them smile so much and it was just amazing! 

Read the talk The Challenge to Become By Dallin H.Oaks this week! It is a good one! 

Well I love y'all so much and I hope you have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

                         
                            

I only pray when I'm shower scared

Cute little Terry said this to us during our lesson so I thought I would use it. 

This week was really good it was a lot of working with members and planning what to do for Light the World! I really hope y'all have taken the time to think of things that you can do to help those in need around you. When you serve others it really does help bring the light of Christ and the true Christmas spirit into your life! 

We taught the McNeils again and Jalaya is so funny! She rally thinks of ways to connect the lesson to her own life. So here is one of her many metaphors she uses: 

Us: ( we are talking about Jesus and His life and how they killed Him) So the people were wicked and killed Him. 

Jordan: Why would they do that? 

Us: Well the people were jealous of Him? 

Jordan: Why is that? 

Jalaya: Think of it this way Jesus had those nice Jordan's, you know those nice red and black ones! 

Jordan: Oh those are nice.. 

Jayalya: The whole rest of the city had them sketchers and they got jealous of His Jordan's so they killed Him so no one could have those nice Jordan's. 

I LOVE TEACHING THESE KIDS! It might seem silly but they really are getting what we are teaching and they get so excited to have us over and learn more about what Jesus wants from us!

We got the amazing opportunity to go and listen to Brother Brough speak to our zone. Brother Brough is in the General Young Men's Presidency. He talked a lot about how our body language tells a lot about what is going on in our minds. It was super interesting to learn and see in action. I really want to take what was taught and put it in action. 

 If you want a good read Brother Brough 2018 general conference talk! I love y'all so much and I hope y'all have a blessed week!

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

I'm not looking at you because I think you're cute I am looking at you because you need Jesus

My week was so SO good (except that I was sick but I just had to down some DayQuill and get back to work! It was tough but it felt really good to do)! 

I was able to go on splits with Sister Innes (the mission presidents wife) which was, I’m not gonna lie, a little scary at first but then it was really good. We went and visited ward members and then we talked. She even talked about when my transfer to go home may be and she was saying that it will probably be next January, so that is something new. 

All the members here in Congaree are really amazing and they love us and feed us! We were able to clean the church as part of service day and we also got to help people set up for Christmas. We were going to help someone with yard work but it was raining here so we couldn't but we were able to still go over to their house and they had their grandkids over. We taught them and they were crawling all over us and begging us not to leave. It was really sweet we are going to go back and hopefully get the parents involved and want us back as much as the kids. 

We got to teach the McNeil family again and they are so SO sweet. The oldest kids had read what we had asked them to and had so many questions. We are going to go back on Tuesday and teach them about the restoration. We gave them a Book of Mormon and the 2nd oldest kissed it and she just said she was so happy to get the book. She prayed at the end of the lesson and I almost started to cry! We had just taught them about The Plan of Salvation and in her prayer she prayed about one day being with God and Jesus. I was so happy. Y'all she is 10 and has never been taught this and just loved this and knew it to be true!

Miracle of the week is meeting Hunter. We were supposed to be going to a missionary referral and but no one lived there. Hunter was around there and he talked to us and wanted to learn more. We offered to come clean trailers and he said he would like that and that he would be expecting to hear a lesson as well. This kid is 19 and knows our purpose better than some adults do :) 

This week was overall really good and I am really happy to be here! I LOVE Sister Beckstrom and Sister Crave and we are doing a lot of good and we are working really hard. 

I guess I would ask y'all to read "What Lack I yet" and just do what it says. That has really changed my outlook on my mission and I know it will bless your lives as well. 

Well I love y 'all and hope y'all have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

  

Welp...

Man naming weekly emails is getting hard...

On that note, this week was great! Thanksgiving was so good and we got to go to 3 homes. To say we were stuffed was an understatement. The South does it a little different for dinner they had mac & cheese as a big part and they really didn't have potatoes. Which I am not complaining about because mashed potatoes aren't really my thing. The turkey bowl was good. It was kinda weird because we were the only girls there so we played kickball with the youth and it was as intense as football would've been! 

The McNeil's are a cute little family that we found. They have a ton of kids and so many showed interest so I am excited to see where that goes. It is so SO cool to see how the Plan of Salvation can really touch people's lives and how it really helps them to see Heavenly Fathers love for us. 

The big news for the week was ZACH GOT BAPTIZED AND RECEIVED THE PRIESTHOOD. That was the coolest thing ever and he was so happy. The gospel really does change people's life and I am so grateful to be able to help people find the happiness of the gospel!

A good talk for the week is The Character of Christ! 

Well I love y'all and have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen

How do you catch a squirrel?

This week was a little stressful in the beginning with white washing out. I was really sad to leave Florence because there were a lot of good people and I was so sad to leave them. 

Congaree is a real happening place. There are so many souls ready and open to hear us and our message. We were walking around and met a girl named Vicky and she was so appreciative for us to stop by and is excited for our next visit! Then we met Mike and offered service to him and he was so grateful for that and he even referred us to his neighbor. So on Saturday, we are going and giving them service and hopefully start teaching them!

ZACH IS SO COOL! I am so grateful that I get to teach him for a minute and that I get to be here for when he is baptized! It is so neat to see how happy he is and how he is so ready to make this commitment. I am so excited for that. 

I have not seen a gator yet but maybe I will. 

Answer to the joke: climb up a tree and act like a nut!

This week say grateful prayers and see if anything changes about your day. 

I love y'all and I hope y'all have a blessed week!

Love, 

Sister Jensen