Tricks and Treats

What a crazy crazy week! It absolutely flew by! Weeks like that are wonderful but at the same time stressful. There is so much we have to do as missionaries and before we know it, the week is over and we didn't do anything we planned to. Haha  oh the life of a missionary. :) Before I get started, I just have to give a shout out to my wonderful Pops. It was his birthday on Thursday and I just have to take a sec to tell you all how amazing he is. He is one of the most kind, gentle, loving, funny, Christ like men I have ever met. I feel like he and I have always had a special relationship. He helped me realize my potential as a blinds cleaner. ;) He is absolutely wonderful and I am so grateful for him in my life. I love you Pops!!!

Alrighty... here is the low down:

Monday: We decided today would be our "touristy" day. After our email time and grocery shopping, we walked around Winterset to all the little shops and just looked around. This town really is wonderful! It is basically the little town you see in all the movies with all the vintage shops. That night, we had dinner with the 4 other missionaries in our ward at our Bishop's house. It was so fun. :) Our Bishop is a character. I will get a pic with him sometime and you will understand!

Tuesday: A pretty productive day! We had lunch with some less-active members who have been going through some pretty crazy trials... They lost their 10 year old son in an accident a couple weeks ago. He was building a fire with some friends and somehow a spark got to him and engulfed him. 98% of his body was burned. He died shortly after the accident. It was wonderful to meet with them and to testify to them about the plan of happiness. We met with some other people that day, good experiences.

Wednesday: Such a frustrating day! We have not seen one of our investigators in a couple weeks, but we were able to make an appt. to see her today. So we showed up and knocked. All the sudden we see the curtains pull back a little bit and we see her peeking out the window. I don't think she knew we saw her...  but we did. She never answered the door so we just left her a note and walked away. She is going to be the death of me. That night, we had dinner with a wonderful family! Halfway through dinner though, the mom had to go to the emergency room cause she had a way high fever. We didn't quite know what to do... so we just kind of sat there. Crazy...

Thursday: DISTRICT MEETING! Seriously, always the best. My district is so wonderful and we always have so much fun together! We talked a lot about dealing with stress and obedience. Kind of ironic... :) It was just a great meeting! That night we had dinner with a less-active sister and she took us to Pizza Ranch. Basically that is like the "cool" place to go.... it's like Pizza Pie Cafe.  Made me a little homesick.Haha

Friday: Weekly planning always takes up so much of our day that we aren't able to do a whole lot. We were able to visit this one lady though who is interesting... we met her walking one day and off the bat just started bashing the Book of Mormon. We told her to give us a problem with the Book of Mormon and our religion and we would find the answer to the problem in the Bible. So she wanted proof of modern day prophets in the New Testament. Challenge accepted. Friday, we visited with her and showed her the proof we found. Haha that stumped her. It was fantastic so see her whole thinking change... of course she hit us with more problems, but she did it not so confidently this time. :) We told her to give us another specific question, so she did and we will find the answer to that as well. Missionary work is great. That night, we visited with a member family that lives in the boonies. Literally, they lived soooooo far. They live in a GORGEOUS cabin! They are such a fun family! The dad was just hilarious.. he is a big time hunter and taught us how to kill a buffalo. So, if you ever need to know how, I'm your girl. :)

Saturday: Fun day! We were able to be girls for a little bit and bake some cookies. :) Then we headed out for a bit and found 2 NEW INVESTIGATORS! Seriously, Heavenly Father is way too good to us! It is a single mom who has 3 kids. They are 15, 12, and 10. The older ones didn't listen that well but the little one did. We invited her and her mom to be baptized and they both accepted! We are thrilled! It is just amazing to think about the impact the Gospel will have in their lives. That night, our ward had their annual Trunk or Treat. They had a chili contest and they let all us missionaries be the judges. Haha I have never eaten so much chili in my life... it was good though. :) It was fun to see all the kids so excited to get candy! That included us as well... ;)  Fun night!

Sunday: AMAZING day! We had the primary program during sacrament and I don' think I have ever been touched so deeply as I was today. The children were absolutely amazing and did such a wonderful job.  After church, we went to the Barbers again which is always great.:) That night, we went to see one of our investigators, Deloris. We were teaching her about faith and wanted to watch a movie with her. So we went to plug in her DVD player and her TV totally fell of the stand and broke!  It was the scariest moment of my life! It just kept sparking! Dang Satan... we got the spirit back eventually though and it turned into a great lesson. :)

I'm sorry this is all so jumbled!! Email time is definitely not long enough! Just know that I love you all and I pray for each of you daily! Have a great Halloween week and don't eat too much candy!! I LOVE YOU!!! :)

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

Thank you for the scarf Aunt Noelle!! I love it!! :)

The "perfect" tree we found. :)

I liked this winter hat cause it matched my badge. :) Don't worry mom, I didn't buy it.

The beautiful Winterset Courthouse.

The fun cookies we made for the ward Trunk or Treat! Thank you mom for all the stuff!

Our really clever costumes. We dressed up as each other. Haha it's the craziest we could get. We felt like pretty big rebels switching name tags. :)

My Rollercoaster Week!

Well, as you can guess by the title of this post, my week was constantly up and down, heartache and pure joy, laughter and tears. Just everything good and bad that could have happened this week, did happen. That's missionary life I guess. :) Here we go:

Monday: Monday was just...Monday. Haha One exciting thing that happened though was that it was the 14th of October, which means it was my "click day." My official 2 month mark. Seriously so crazy! It feels like I have been here forever, but no time at all. So to celebrate, I took a 2 hour nap. It was wonderful. :)

Tuesday:  Just a chill day. We did some finding and some walking. Our dinner appointment was awesome though! We had it with some members at their brothers house. Coolest house I have ever seen! It was like dome shaped and apparently is supposed to be tornado proof. I know where I'm goin if a tornado hits! ;) Anyways, we watched the cheesiest movie. Haha we aren't quite sure if it was mission approved, but they insisted and it was about the pioneers so we just went with it. Wonderful night! And they lived in the boonies so that literally took up our entire night so that was that.

Wednesday: DAY OF MIRACLES! Literally... miracle after miracle after miracle. Hands down one of the best days of my mission. It started out wonderful with our service at the Assisted Living home. We painted milk jugs! Haha it sounds lame I know, but it was so fun! We painted them like pumpkins, and ghosts, and witches, etc.  As missionaries, we really don't get a lot of time to have a creative outlet so it was wonderful. We probably liked it a little too much but we have no shame. After service, we had to make about 5,000 calls so we took some time to do that. In that hour that we made calls, we had appointments set up for the rest of our week. We literally had like no time left in our week! That was wonderful! When I first got here, we had a lot of time to walk. We are seeing the fruits our labors people and it is so great! We also were able to contact people that we have been trying to for weeks but who never called us back. Wednesday every single one of them answered and set appointments. Literally a miracle. We are blessed! We also got a couple referrals and that really doesn't happen a lot.  Let's just say that tears of joy were shed that day. :) We also had dinner with the Canovas again and they are just a darling family. And, it was potato soup and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. My favorite. :)

Thursday:  We had zone training and as always, it was fantastic. Our leaders always know what to say! They focused a lot on member-missionary work again, and also on just making sure that we aren't too hard on ourselves. It made me realize that I am! Most of the time, I think I am just the worst missionary ever. When we don't have a lot of work or when things aren't going good, I blame myself. Well the training really helped me realize that I am a good missionary. By being here and staying, I am a good missionary. It helped me realize that if I don't believe in myself, I can't believe in the people I am trying to help. Something to work on for sure. After training, we all went to lunch at the mall and that is always fun. The best part is probably the stares that we get. Haha we always seem to smile a little bigger when we notice people staring. :) After lunch, we headed back into Winterset for our doctors appointments. SHOTS!! I literally wanted to cry I was so scared. I hate shots all together but I just wanted my mom to be there with me. Haha luckily, I survived and I am still here. That's a real shocker I know. I also have to give a big shout out to my whole Jensen Family! I came home to the greatest letter that night from a bunch of my family members. Words of encouragement are the greatest thing you can get as a missionary, especially on a semi traumatizing day. Haha so it came at the perfect time. Thank you to you all!!!

Friday: Friday was kind of a rough day. We did our weekly planning, and then headed into Winterset to see one of investigators, and it was quite the lesson. It started out wonderful! We read the Book of Mormon with her and she was really into it. We were just so excited for her because she had accepted a baptismal date and was progressing so much! Well, at the end of the lesson we asked her how she was feeling about her baptism. She had absolutely no recollection of us asking her about accepting a date. Heart=shattered. Literally wanted to cry. She was our one super super solid investigator and she can't remember a thing. We have prayed a lot about her these last couple days and will see how this week goes. Friday night was fun though. We had dinner with all the missionaries in our ward at our mission leaders house. That is always fun, and it was nice to kind of get my mind off of things. We did find out though that one of the new missionaries we had gotten in our ward decided to go home Thursday, so we welcomed Elder Tappen as the newest Raccoon River missionary! We are glad he is in our ward now, but we are so sad for the Elder who decided to go home. This is hard, but it is worth it. To top the whole day off, I got a package from my mom. Haha seriously guys, my mom is the greatest. THANK YOU MOM!!! :)

Saturday: Saturday was supposed to be the greatest day. We had all of these appointments lined up and we had so many potential investigators to see and it should have been wonderful. Well, we also have this wonderful thing called agency. People were cancelling on us left and right. It was so crazy to just see all of our plans fade away. Luckily though, because Heavenly Father loves us, he let us keep some of our appointments which was good. :) We officially have a new investigator. His name is Cameron and he is a 14 year old boy who is so prepared to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a referral from one of our ward members who is his friend. We had a wonderful lesson with him and when we invited him to be baptized, he didn't even have to think before he said yes. Haha that is probably one of the greatest feelings ever. Inviting my brothers and Sisters to enter the waters of baptism and to make that covenant with their Heavenly Father. A feeling I would not trade for the world. So although Saturday was hard, our night made it a great day. God is good people. God is good. 

Sunday: It is so funny how fast things change on the mission! Just 7 short weeks ago, Sunday was the hardest day for me. It was the day I missed my family the most so I even kind of dreaded it. Now, it is the best part of the week! I look forward to Sunday more than any other day! The Raccoon River ward is absolutely amazing and getting to see every member once a week is wonderful! After church, all of us missionaries went to the Barber's house and had lunch with them and their 2 children and their families who live in our ward as well. We may or may not have stayed for 4 hours... haha. It was so fun! It did make me miss all of my Sunday night family dinners though. Those are one of the things I look forward to most about coming home. It reminded me about how blessed I am to be part of a family who is so close. That night, we went to the stake youth standards night with the Prices. It was so great! It was so funny because the family we sat by asked me where I was from so I told them, and they actually have a nephew who goes to Lone Peak who I worked with in my peer tutor class. How funny is that?? What are the chances right?? That was kind of cool. :)

Well, that was my week. Crazy right?? Oh, the life of a missionary. Haha really though... it is so crazy. I never would have thought. One thing that has really stuck with me though from my zone training on Thursday was the scripture 2 Timothy 4:7- "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." What a wonderful scripture. It goes along with a talk by President Monson called, "Be a finisher." What a wonderful talk. I invite all of you to read it. When I look at this scripture I think of my mission. I think of enduring to the end and being a finisher of my mission. But, I think that it can be applied on a larger scale... what is our end goal as members of this glorious church? The Celestial Kingdom. We can only do that if we endure to the end, and become "Finishers" as President Monson said. So I invite all of you to evaluate your life right now. Are you fighting a good fight? Are you finishing your course? Are you keeping the Faith? My dear family, as you cling to the scriptures and prayer, as you attend church EVERY Sunday, and as you come unto Christ in all that you do, you will be a finisher. You will be able to endure to the end with all of your might. I am grateful for the opportunity my Heavenly Father has given me to do this as a missionary. I WILL fight the good fight, I WILL keep the faith, and I WILL be a finisher. I owe my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ all that I have and all that I am. This is the least I could do for them.

I love you all and I am grateful for each of you every day. Never forget that I love you and that I miss you dearly. Keep the faith and endure to the end! I LOVE YOU!! :)

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

A picture of the Des Moines Stake missionaries at the Mormon Helping Hands project last Saturday. :)

My first shots without my Mom. Haha it was a little traumatizing, but luckily I have a companion who was willing to hold my hand like my mom always would. I am blessed! :)

As Sister Missionaries, we don't have pockets to carry around all of our stuff so we decorate our planners to make little pockets. Well, decorating a planner is kind of a milestone. That means that you made it through 6 weeks of being a missionary! WOOO! This planner will mark the end of my training and the next 5 weeks. Crazy right??

The Raccoon River Ward missionaries. :) L-R: Elder Hodges, Elder Tappen (Brazil visa waiter), Elder Kay, Elder Mealy AKA Demon eyes(Brazil visa waiter), me, and Sister Barker. Basically the best set of missionaries you have ever seen. Just sayin. :)

Me and Sister Barker with our ward Mission leader, Brother Jackson. He is wonderful! He has been a member for about 2 and a half years now.  We love him. :)

 

Marching Forward...and Cupcakes

Hello to you all again! It feels like I haven't emailed home in weeks, and at the same time it feels like no time at all. Haha mission time... so weird. This week was was transfers so the whole week was kind of weird and off, but still a good week! I am very happy that I am still serving in Raccoon River. WOOOO! Haha not a shocker, but still exciting. :) Although, they did rename the area. I am now serving in the Winterset, Iowa area. So cool! Alrighty, on with my day to day synopsis:

Monday: Because of transfers, our real p-day was Wednesday, but they still allowed us to come and email on Monday. So, Monday was a work day. We visited some of our investigators and some members and it was kind of just chill. We did a lot of walking that's for sure. 

Tuesday: Tuesday was a fantastic day! The Elders serving in the ward with us had met a lady last week who lived in our area so they referred her to us. So we met with her this day. No joke, 5 minutes into our lesson she was asking when she could be baptized. Can you believe that?? We were jumping for joy!  She is so prepared. The work is definitely being hastened! That night, us and the Elders went to a less active's apartment building to help her paint. Oh Elders... haha bless their hearts. We just laughed the entire time. It was quite fun. :)

Wednesday: P-DAY!!! WOOO! I love p-days. Especially today. Our "momma" Sister Price took us into West Des Moines for the day so that I could get all my winter stuff! It was so weird to go shopping in Kohl's and the mall... haha I just felt like I was back in Utah doin some shopping. It was great. :) She took us out to lunch after (Chipotle again. I am a little addicted), and then to Costco, and then to the most darling cupcake shop ever. Can you say spoiled?? Seriously though, Sister Price is the best! She really is like my mom away from my mom... haha. I don't quite know what I will do when I am transferred. I just have to put this in here for my mom cause I know that she will be soooo proud... for dinner that night we ate with a member and she made stuffed tomatoes. That's right.. stuffed tomatoes. If you know me, you know that I absolutely despise tomatoes. But, I ate every last bit. Haha it wasn't too bad. Wouldn't eat it again probably, but I am pretty proud of my self. :)

Thursday: Today was just emotionally draining... haha but in a good way. We had set up a church tour with one of our investigators and it went great! Seriously could not have gone better... she accepted a baptismal date and we are just thrilled. Once again, the Lord is hastening his work. And I get to be a part of it. How lucky am I?? We decided to have our traditional celebration at Frostees.  We walked up to the window and started to order and they literally stopped us and said, "We got this." Haha they know our orders! That was our goal and it happened. Success. :) One crazy thing that happened though was as we were eating, Sister Price called and told me that a woman named Becky was in their house to see me.  I freaked! Becky is an amazing Sister from my home ward in Utah. The company she works for has an office in Urbandale so she is here this week and came and stopped by!  Telling Sister Price that I couldn't come see her was really hard, but obedience brings blessings. :) She did however leave me the cutest box of cupcakes I have ever seen! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Becky! They were absolutely delicious. :)

Friday: Today was weird... we had weekly planning but ended up staying inside to do that allllll day. Literally we didn't leave the house till 5:30. NOT GOOD! We got some good planning done though... haha We had to head out to get to our appointment with the Scotts. Seriously, I love them.  On our way home, we decided to stop and see one of our investigators. Well who knew that would take a year to get there! Every year in Winterset, they do this thing called the Covered Bridge festival. Google it. It is massive. So basically, like every road in Winterset was shut down because they were setting up.  It was so fun to see, but definitely not fun to drive through. haha

Saturday: Today we spent most of the day in Des Moines installing fire alarms in peoples homes. Haha let me explain... the red cross approached the Mormon helping hands to help them launch this project of installing the detectors in peoples home. Hundreds of members from around our area showed up to help. It was wonderful! We are convinced we will be in the ensign or Mormon newsroom or something. Keep and eye out for me. :) Then we had district meeting. It was so fun to meet at the new Elders in our district! They are awesome! And now, I'm not the youngest. WOO! :) Because they were new, we played a get to know you game where we basically got to throw wadded up socks at each other. Haha it was great. :) 

Sunday: I was so excited for today. I definitely needed church... I just needed to be spiritually uplifted! And I was!! Church was absolutely amazing! They whole focus for the day was missionary work. Could it have been a better topic?? Our Bishop spoke in sacrament and it was just incredible. In relief society, the lesson was on missionary work as well and the teacher asked me and Sister Barker to each get up and tell the Sisters what things we sacrificed to be here, how we decided to come, and what blessings we have seen because we are here. What an amazing experience. Testifying to those Sisters was an amazing experience and one I will never forget. And something crazy happened this last transfer too... we got ANOTHER set of Elders in our ward! Can you believe that?? 6 Missionaries!!! It is crazy! There is a lot of work to be done in the Raccoon River ward. :) They are awesome Elders! Elder Kay has been out 3 months and Elder Van Leeuwen is fresh out of the MTC. They are hilarious. They fit into our missionary group perfectly. It was fun meeting them and kind of giving them the low down of the area. :) That night, the ward members invited us to attend Young Women in Excellence. That was so special for me cause it has been years since I have been to one of those. The young women in our ward are just amazing and it was fun to see the progress they have made through out the year. It was just a wonderful night.

Well, there is my week! It was good! :) I still just can't believe I am on a mission.Haha Sometimes, it just hits me and I freak out a little. But, I am so glad I am here. This truly is so hard. Being away from my family is still something I struggle with daily, but I am growing. I am being molded into the instrument that My Heavenly Father needs me to be so that I can find the people here in Iowa that I promised to find. It is a wonderful feeling to know that I will go home better than when I got here.

I say this every week, but I love you all and I miss you sooooooo much! I am constantly praying for all of you. Everyday I feel so blessed to be part of such and amazing family. You are all wonderful and I love you!!!

Until next week,

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

My new winter coat. Haha I kind of love it. :)

The aftermath of our awesome painting party part 2. :) Haha like 2 seconds after I got there I leaned up against the wall and painted my bum. No shame.

My yummy "Nutella" cupcake. This one is for you Mom! :)

Iowas "mommy and me" toilets. Haha makes me laugh so hard...

First Baptism!!!

This week, on Wednesday to be exact, will be my official "I have been away from home for 2 months" mark. Can you believe that?? I am literally shocked. Haha There have been a couple times I didn't think I would make it. I have though and it is because I have amazing family who supports me and an AMAZING Heavenly Father who loves me so much so he blesses me daily with a reason to stay.

I just have to start with the most important thing. I have to tell my big brother Taylor how proud I am of him. He received his mission call this week to Argentina. What an example! Taylor, you truly are a blessing in my life and I KNOW that you have been called to Argentina for a reason. There are people there who need to hear YOUR testimony of the restored gospel. Know that I love you and that you are always in my prayers. Everyone, make sure you give him a big hug for me when you see him!

Alright, because of a lack of time, I am just going to tell you a couple cool experiences from the week.

Monday: Kind of funny experience tonight. We were scheduled to have dinner with a member and they decided to just take us out. So we pull up to the restaurant and it is a bar. A legit bar.  It sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke... it was quite the experience. Haha...

Tuesday: We walked into a gas station for some drinks and the guy at the register started talking to us and we asked him if he knew who we were and he said, "Well yea, your missionaries. You're hittin the pavement for Jesus." Haha greatest thing I heard all day.

Wednesday: We found a new investigator! Her name is Linda and she is darling. She accepted the invitation to be baptized and we know that she will. She is quite the smoker though, but I know that if she will let it, the gospel will help her with that. I'll keep you updated!

Thursday: This day was kind of hard for me. We had district meeting and found out that an Elder I had come in with decided to go home. He was on a plane during district meeting. That was kind of hard for me. I couldn't quite decide if it was making me homesick or giving me a desire to work harder. Haha I still haven't decided... Thursday night was when our exchanges started with the STL's! So fun!

Friday: I got the most amazing Halloween package from my mom! Give her a giant hug for me when you see her. :)   Just a good day of planning and working. Friday night was super fun though! Most of you know that I have a secret cookie recipe, and on Friday I made "my cookies." They were bomb! The Price family loved them and they were a perfect treat to make for conference. :)

Saturday: What a great day! All the missionaries in our area (about 50) went to the stake center to watch conference. What a powerful experience! One of my favorite things said was from President Uchtdorf. "Doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith." What amazing counsel, especially for missionaries! Between the sessions, I, Sister Jensen, had my first baptism. Tyler was finally baptized and was confirmed the newest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What an amazing experience. To watch this 13 year old boy in white descend into the waters of baptism and be made clean... Wow. That is why I am here. I am here to help my brothers and sisters know how special the Gospel is. What a wonderful gift from my Heavenly Father. And to make the day even better, I went home to a package from my amazing sister with 17 PICTURES of my boys! Can you imagine?? Lets just say I was a happy camper. Haha BEST DAY EVER!!

Sunday: We had been invited by a member over to their house to watch general conference with a less active member of the ward. She fed us the most amazing breakfast! WAY better than the cereal we eat every day. ;) Sunday conference was awesome! I was hoping President Monson would announce some new Temples or something cause he didn't on Saturday, I guess that will have to wait till April. :) After the first session, we came back home and watched the second session with the Price Family. They are like our mission family so it was so fun to watch it with them!

Well, that is my crazy, amazing week! So much more happened, but because of time I couldn't share it all dang it! Just know though that I love you all! I truly am incredibly blessed to be part of such an amazing family who loves and supports me! You all are such great examples to me and I thank my Heavenly Father for you every day. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

One of the things I will miss most about Iowa. The amazing sunsets.

My district! Transfers happen this week so we just had to take a pic. :) Alright top row: Elder Leishman, Elder Leavitt (District Leader), Elder Mealy (Elder serving in my ward, Brazil Visa waiter), Elder Hodges (Also serving in my ward, us sisters  Elders Kneeling: Elder Payne, Elder Tappen(Brazil Visa waiter as well). Basically this is the greatest district ever!

Exchanges with our awesome Sister Training Leaders! Left to right: Hermana Collazos was with me, and then Hermana Stroud was with Sister Barker! We learned so much and it was a great experience

My sweet cookie making skills. :)

Tyler and his mom Ruth. :)

A picture I will cherish for the rest of my life. :)

The only other Sisters on our zone. Left to right: Sister Cannon, me, Sister Nye, Sister Barker. We are pretty tight. :)

In my 12 week training period, I get to be senior companion for a week 2 times. This week coming up is my week which means, I get to drive. Haha I haven't driven in 8 weeks so keep us in your prayers. :)

Settling In

Well. I would just like to start out by saying this was the longest week of my mission so far. SOOOO LONG! Sister Barker said it was for her as well. It just seemed to go on forever! I felt like I haven't emailed home in weeks! Time is so crazy on the mission...

I have just one shout out this week, but it's a pretty important one. This one goes out to my amazing brother Taylor. He submitted his mission papers and should be getting his call this week or next I think. How awesome is that?? My mom wrote that in her letter, and my heart just rejoiced! A little selfish thought came to mind too... I get to serve a mission at the same time as my brother. How blessed are we Tay?? :) He is an amazing example to me and Tay, I know that this will be one of the greatest things you will ever do. I always say this... but a mission is hard. really hard, but it is worth it. Make sure you all give him a hug for me when you see him and tell him I am proud of him!

Time for my usual week in a nutshell:

Monday: Monday is always good. I get to talk to my family, do my wash, take a nap, and play air hockey. So, life is usually pretty sweet. We switched it up a little this week though and got haircuts! Our sweet Bishop's wife has a salon in her house and does free missionary haircuts. Haha it was awesome. She even washed it and mom, you know how much I love that. :)

Tuesday: If I had to pick a day on my mission where there were so many ups and downs.. today would be that day. It started out fantastic with a trainers meeting with President and Sister Jensen and the AP's. They gave some awesome instruction and really just got us pumped up to get out and work. Afterwards we went to lunch and of course, it was Chipotle again. Haha I have an addiction people. No shame. That was when my homesickness hit me. I have been feeling so much better these last couple weeks and this week for some reason was just hard. Especially Tuesday. Of course though, we still had to go out and work. Well, because I have a loving Heavenly Father who loves to humble me, we found a new investigator. Our first one in 3 weeks! We are blessed here in Iowa! I also got a package from my mom that night. I just have to say that all moms are great, but I am pretty sure mine is the best. She always seems to know when to send letters and packages so they arrive just at the right time. :) There was one thing I heard on Tuesday that really stuck out to me, and something I really want to apply to everyday. YOMO. You're only a missionary once. YOMO!

Wednesday:  Very slow day. Nothing too exciting. But, I heard a quote that I wanted to share. "We don't know who is on the other side of that door, but the Lord does." Cool right??

Thursday: Every Thursday is district meeting which is always great! For reals, the best Elders are in my district. We can laugh hysterically together and then also have some amazing spiritual experiences together. Since I was still feeling homesick, I asked my district leader Elder Leavitt for a blessing. It was awesome because one of my zone leaders Elder Maughn, and then Elder Van Woerkam (AP) particaipated in it. How cool is that?? Definitely a blessing I will never forget. On fun thing was that this week it is homecoming at the high school in Winterset. Well, this is such a small town that everyone and their dog gets involved in high school stuff. So Thursday night literally everyone in town got toilet papered by somebody....including us! Haha the house was destroyed by toilet paper! Even our car! It was so fun, even though we had to maintain the dignity of our calling and not participate. Haha it took some restraint people. I just remembered my glory days of toilet papering the Burr family... life was good. :)

Friday: Slow day... again. The town was just dead cause people were getting ready for the big game that night! Our dinner appointment fell through so a sister in our ward was so darling and took us out to eat at Panda Express. Aren't our ward members awesome?!? When we got back to town, the game had started so there was literally NO ONE around. Haha we kind of just walked around aimlessly. We could hear the drums from miles away. So sweet! I also got a letter from my Uncle Kyle that night. Thank you so much Kyle for the amazing talk! I read it and just love it.

Saturday: Lots of ups and downs today. One of our investigators who we thought was doing so well, asked us to not contact her for a while. My heart was literally crushed. She said she just needed some time to figure out if this was what she wanted. Missionary work is so great and at times so heart breaking at others. Gotta find a balance I guess. Because it was kind of a rough morning, Frostees for lunch again. Haha I am pretty sure they know us by name there. Once again, no shame. :) That night we got to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast meeting. How amazing was that?!?! The messages that were shared inspired me so deeply. And just seeing the choir full of missionaries was overwhelming. Every once in a while it just hits me that I am a missionary. It's cool. :) If you didn't watch the broadcast.. DO! So uplifting and inspiring! This was also the day I received the letter from my mom telling me Taylor had submitted his papers. Lets just say, it was a great night. :)

Sunday: Fast Sundays are always fantastic! Especially in my ward! The testimonies that people share are just incredible! I used quite a couple tissues during that sacrament meeting. Shocker, I know. We also were asked to work in the nursery for second hour. What a hard thing to do when you can't hold children! Haha Sister Barker and I didn't quite know what to do. Quite the experience. Since it is the end of the month, we were running a little low on miles so we ended up doing our studies at the pavilion by our church. Haha we got some weird looks for sure. We always just seem to laugh a little louder and smile a little bigger when people who are not members walk by... I wonder why... ;) We had dinner a little early since we were starving. The family who had us join them is just darling! They are an older couple who are taking care of their 5 year old granddaughter. Dinner was exceptionally good! I guess though on fast Sunday, it usually is. Haha! On our way home, we stopped at our neighbors house. They are a wonderful family! They are not members of the church but we stop by about once a week to just say hi. They aren't quite ready to hear our lessons yet, so we are just going to love and friendship them into the church. Great plan I know!

Well, exciting week right?? We have better plans for this week so hopefully I will have more to tell you next Monday. Man, I miss all of you! I am so blessed to have a family that loves and supports me in all that I do. Heavenly Father must love me a lot because he sent me to be apart of the best family ever! Just know that I am constantly praying for you all! Remember to always thank your Father in Heaven for the things that you are privileged to have. Remember to thank him for the hard times as well. That sounds weird I know, but he is giving you the chance to draw nearer to him and to your Savior. What a blessing! I love you all and am so grateful for each and every one of you! 

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

First day wearin the rain coat. I absolutely love the rain so it was awesome! Luckily, we had a store in town that had a good sale. That is the court house behind me. Gorgeous right??

How I like to do weekly planning. I like to keep things fresh here in Iowa. :)

Our pet bird Oscar came and stayed with us again this week. We love him. :) Haha there is a couple in our ward and whenever they go out of town, the Price family birdsits for them. We love it.

The wise words from our panda excursion. They are taped to our car dashboard so we never forget them. :)

Me and Sister Barker with the AP's (assistants to the President) Elder Saunders (right) and Elder Van Woerkam (left). Elder Van Woerkam actually goes home in 2 weeks which is super weird. They are both just amazing people and missionaries!