Tuesday: On the weeks when we have the car, we drive to Ogden (Yes... our mission touches Utah. Kidding!) and we get to do service at an Assisted Living place there. Today we played Kickball. With a GIANT exercise ball. I got way to into it. When you start hitting old people in the face, ya know you need to calm down. After that we visited a less active member in Pilot Mound and then had lunch and emailed. We got to teach Alison at the Ballard's house tonight! The lesson went really amazing. The Ballard's had just put their kids to bed so the Spirit was really able to fill the room. At the end of the lesson, they fed us some cake of course and Brother Ballard went into the basement to look for something in his mission box. He came up with a laminated leaf from the Sacred Grove. He said he had been saving it all these years for someone. He didn't know who though... he gave it to Alison. It was just a really tender moment and it took me back to my experience in the Sacred Grove. :)
Wednesday: Just lots of visiting today... I think the craziest part of day came after coordination. Haha so us and the Elders decided to stay for mutual... bad choice #1. Well the activity was carving pumpkins. So all four of us were just standing around looking at the pumpkins. Then all the sudden I hear my name. It was Brother Johnson telling me to catch the pumpkin. So he proceeded to throw one at me. Well, he wanted me to throw it to one of the kids sitting across the room. My inner softball player came out at that moment. Pumpkin= launched. Bad choice #2. SMACK!!! Hit a 12 year old young women right in the head. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! Haha luckily it was a pretty small pumpkin but still. I shall forever be known as Sister Pumpkin Thrower in the Boone ward. It's fine.
Thursday: We got to spend most of the morning doing service for Sister Lauritsen. I love that Woman! She is definitely one person that I was specifically sent to Boone to meet. I feel like she is like my literal Sister already. Plus she let us make snacks and goodie bags for her daughter's school party. CRAFT OVERLOAD. I loved it. I felt like I was Pinterest-ing again. :) In Iowa, they have something called Beggars night, so we had to be in by 6 tonight unless we were with a member. So we ended up spending the night at the Wards with the Elders and Joshua (recent convert) eating Pizza and watching "Prophet of the Restoration." It was awesome. :)
Friday: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! It was such a good day. We had a Zone training meeting today which was super amazing! We got a training from the STLs, APs, and ZLs. It was awesome! I really love my zone. :) Plus, to celebrate Halloween we all went to lunch at Texas Roadhouse. I WAS IN HEAVEN!!! Seriously though. Want to know the hot topic at the Table? Pumpkin throwing. Perfect. When we got back to Boone, we spent the night at the Higgs carving pumpkins, scaring kids, eating way too much candy, and just laughing. It was the perfect night. :)
Saturday: Because of all the time we lost with Halloween, we worked our butts off today! Which is always good. :) We did some service and just saw a lot of people. We also topped the day off with Jambalaya at the Ward's with the Elders.
Sunday: I was strugglin today... I was so exhausted. Haha...good thing I guess. Church was awesome! We met with Alison again and we have some big news... her baptism will now be on the 19th! It actually works way better because the ward was planning a big Thanksgiving pot luck that night so she can get baptized and then we can all celebrate. That means her baptism is 16 days away!! SO CRAZY!!! We are so excited. :)
It was a really great week!
I want to share with you a little bit of what we learned about at our zone training meeting. The Assistants gave a very powerful training that really touched me... They talked about how as missionaries sometimes we get caught up in trying to convince people to join the church. Kind of like a "our church is better than yours" kind of thing. I think the same goes for most members of the church. But they reminded us to really think about the Doctrine of Christ.
Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to end.
These are the ONLY way to return to our Heavenly Father. Every person who walks by you on the street WILL not live in the Celestial Kingdom unless they accept the Doctrine of Christ. We are the ONLY church on the earth who has the complete doctrine of Christ. I am not explaining it very well, but this hit me really hard. I think this video helps in what I am trying to explain...
https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng
2 Nephi 9:23
23 And he commandeth all men that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God.'
I love you all and am so grateful for each of you. Thank you for all you love and support.
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."
*Tag line is officially back. :)
 |
| This is what mutual activities the teens of Boone like to do. "Pin the scar on Harry" anyone? |
 |
| This is how real missionaries do their hair...so people can recognize us from the front AND the back. |
 |
| It was a good Halloween! Thank you Mom and Mandy and Gavin! :) |
 |
| I got really into it.... |
 |
| Killer Missionary? I think yes. |
 |
| Halloween with the Higgs. :) These people are incredible! Sister Higgs reminds me so much of my Grandma Cookie so I love spending time with her. She is the Relief Society president and also does our laundry for us every week! |
