Monday: Definitely an interesting day... I got some news from home that made me sad. My testimony of the
Priesthood grew immensely though... I realized, again, that I can have comfort and gain strength from my Heavenly Father through Priesthood blessings. Boy, did he give it to me. The Elder who have me the blessing had no idea what had happened, but his words comforted me like he had. SO powerful! THE PRIESTHOOD IS REAL! That night, we went home cause we had gotten grounded and Sister Price could tell that something was wrong, so I kind of talked it out with her and she just gave me a big mamma hug. Holy moly I love that woman. She is truly an angel!
Tuesday: ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! Ahhhh. So needed. The trainings that were given and testimonies shared were exactly what I needed. Have I ever told you how much I love my mission? Cause I do. A lot. I am privileged to serve with a lot of amazing people. That night, we had dinner with the Trimbles at a cute little Mexican restaurant in Winterset! About half of the relief society came too! :) They were doing book club after so they all met up to eat. I really felt like I was living "Bugs Life".... "They come. They eat. They leave." :) It was great though.
Wednesday: Because of the cold today, we weren't allowed to do any walking. Not being able to walk makes doing missionary work pretty dang hard. We are blessed though because we have a car so we were able to still go out, we just had to drive to each place. We did crafts for service of course, and then just drove around to see different people. We decided to go to Mutual cause we hadn't been in a while and it would be a good use of our time. It is always so fun to bond with the youth in the ward. They are amazing kids! Today, we had set a goal for ourselves to pass out 5 Mormon.org cards, but because of the no walking rule we weren't really able to do that. So, on our way home we decided to stop by a couple gas stations and offer salvation to those working. It was great! :) Hey, we passed out 4 out of the 5. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Thursday: Wooooo. Again... no walking. Because we had Zone conference this week we didn't have district meeting so it was just a normal day. We had some extra miles so we decided to visit some people who we normally don't get to cause they live far. Apparently it was just one of those days where everyone decided to not be home.
Friday: Usually we do weekly planning today but since it was the last day of the month, we had like 200 miles left over. We first went to visit Sister Costello who is a single sister. She has had a lot of health problems recently and hasn't been able to clean her house, so we decided to be the girls that we are and we helped her clean. A lot. Hahaha I don't think I have ever mopped so much in my life. It was great though and she was so thankful so it made it all worth it. After that, we tried to go see Tammy, the lady that Sister Wolfgramm and I taught. She wasn't home but we were able to leave a note on her door so hopefully she calls us. After that we stopped by the Erdmans house cause Tyler's little sister Tabitha was turning 12. I made my "famous" cookies and we took them over to tell her happy birthday. :) We ended our night with the Tunneys. That family.... SO COOL! Their youngest son Gavin was turning 6 so we just celebrated with them. It was weird coming home because the Prices had left town that afternoon to go to South Dakota. Lets just say that I do not like it when the Prices are gone. Haha I felt like my family was going on vacation and they were leaving me behind. I might be a little attached to these people.
Saturday: Weekly planning! We did that until about 3 and then headed to the Stake Center for a baptism! Her name is Martha and she was taught by a set of Elders in our ward. She is so amazing! She is now the only member of the church in her family and she is just so solid! Seeing her enter the waters of baptism was such a tender mercy for me. Also....it was Sister Coles 1 MONTH CLICK DAY!!!! So weird... haha it took me back.... that night we got grounded again so we went home at about 6 and just did our thing. Took weird pictures of course. :)
Sunday: We did the normal studies in the morning and then headed to church, which was just fantastic! Martha was confirmed and that was just amazing! I got to sit by her in sacrament and after she was confirmed she came and sat down and just bawled and then turned to me and said, "I felt it," with all the sincerity of her heart! I love that woman! After church, since it was fast Sunday we just went straight to work. We weren't allowed to walk again so we just had to drive everywhere. So we decided to go see Joey. He is 15 years old and was baptized about 2 weeks before I got here. He basically told us to stop coming by cause he didn't believe it and he never did. Woah. Dagger to the heart... Sometimes agency just really makes me mad. And sad. We just got in the car and sat there for a couple minutes and then just prayed for him. I guess that's all you can do. After that we headed into Winterset for an appt. with the Greens and they totally bailed on us. So we went to check up on a referral and the address didn't exist. So we went and knocked an apartment building. On the first door we knocked the guy basically told us that God doesn't give a crap about the universe. After all these slaps in the face, we decided to go see the Allens. Haha they won't reject us... we just talked with them for a little bit and then headed home for dinner and training. And chocolate... lots of chocolate. And tears. Then we got a text reminding us that we were supposed to be grounded today, so we found out that we were obediently disobedient. It was kind of a hard day... but those happen. I am just grateful that today is a new day. :)
Well, that was my week. Pretty crazy huh? I never expected missionary work to be so up and down. But, I definitely draw strength in knowing that God is aware of me and that he loves me. He knows that these
trials and struggles will make me stronger. I am grateful for the trust he has put in me to take on these challenges. So something that I wanted to share with all of you is something that I learned at Zone Conference. Some of the Sister Training Leaders in our mission talked about the Light of Christ and they said something that really hit me. They said, "The light of Christ within people draws them to the Holy Ghost." I have thought about that a lot lately, and I have realized even more so than before that everything happens for a reason. There is a reason that person was your cashier, there is a reason that person sat by you at that sports game, there is a reason you talked to that person on the phone. All of those people were there at that specific time because they were hearkening to the light of Christ within them. That is why reaching out to everyone is so critical. There is a reason that they are with you in that very moment... they are drawn to the Holy Ghost that you have been given. I KNOW that God has a hand in everything. There are no coincidences people. Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I pray for your safety and happiness daily. Know that I love you and I am grateful for you all. God bless! I LOVE YOU!!!
-Sister Jensen
'Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."
P.S.- This poem describes last week pretty perfectly. Thought I would share. :)
It's winter in Iowa
and the gentle breezes blow
seventy miles an hour
at 35 below
oh, how I love Iowa
when the snows up to your butt
you take a breath of winter
and your nose gets frozen shut
yes, the weather here is wonderful
so I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave Iowa
I'm frozen to the ground
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| 1/3 of the Iowa Des Moines Mission. :) |
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| We take craft time very seriously. Haha the little elderly ladies just kept tellin us we looked so beautiful. I just love them! |
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| You know you have become a true, hard workin missionary when you have "tacos" in -10 degree weather... I am so proud. :) |
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| This is what results from being grounded 4 times in 7 days |
