My tales as a Sister Missionary serving in Iowa.: 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."