Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The Lord Is My Light

Not going to lie... this has been a rough week for me here in Boone. SATAN SUCKS. Seriously though. Now with that being said... no one worry. I am not having a "end of mission" crisis. Sometimes... you just have some bad weeks. It happens. I have learned to be grateful for those though because those are the times I feel the Saviors love and grace the most. I look back on last week and wonder how I got through it because each day felt like 10000 years long. I think the only way to describe how I am still smiling today comes through a hymn... "The Lord is my Light." (https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/the-lord-is-my-light?lang=eng) He is my strength. It's as simple as that.
Monday: Pretty chill p-day... We did some goodwill shopping and some service and then had dinner with the Lauritsens and walked home. Super exciting stuff!
Tuesday: We were able to pick up some extra weekly service last week so this morning we got to go to the Assisted Living place her in Boone and paint nails and play Dice Bowling. Totally fun! We get to work in the memory care unit so I got to hear a lot of repeated stories. My favorite. :) The rest of the day was pretty slow... There were two highlights though... 1. WE GOT A NEW INVESTIGATOR!!! Her name is Pam. She is awesome. She was all ready to be baptized last year (had her interview and everything) and then her husband changed his mind and wouldn't let her. She already knows the church is true and just needs some encouragement to keep going. We promised her that if she would prepare for baptism again and stop smoking, that the Lord would do his part in softening her husbands heart. Pretty cool promise! 2. I received pretty clear revelation last week that I am here in Boone specifically for Sister Samford. So we got to talk about that today... I told her about why I felt I was here and she agreed so we spent the next 2 hours talking about how we are going to please the Lord in our companionship. Super cool experience! She opened up to me more than she has in the last 3 weeks combined, and we were able to set some goals for the rest of the transfer. I LOVE THE SPIRIT! I am just so grateful that the Lord trusts me to be her companion, especially her "Polisher." :)
Wednesday: Every Wednesday, we get to go to the Birthplace of Mamie Eisenhower (that is Boone's claim to fame) and do service for a couple hours. The girl has been out of town, so I got to do it for the first time. It was way fun! The rest of the day was pretty slow.... With the cold weather coming, the town is really just dying down. We had coordination and then helped with a ward project for a kid in the ward who is doing his eagle scout project.
Thursday: I think that I experienced the MOST awkward District Meeting in the history of District Meetings today. Haha with only three companionships in our district, it gets pretty quiet sometimes. It felt like all of us were having an off day cause we were just silent. The Spirit was there though, so that is all that matters. :) Totally awesome things happened today though... ALISON PASSED HER BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW TODAY!!!!! I am so excited and happy for her. She is doing so well. She is getting pretty pumped... especially cause her baptism is in 2 weeks. I feel very blessed to be a part of this journey with her. We got to have dinner with the Tall Johnsons tonight. THEY ARE AWESOME! They are a super cute newlywed couple and absolutely hilarious. They made us laugh the whole time and gave us WAY more marriage advice than we could ever want. Hahah yep.
Friday: We just did weekly planning today and then some finding. We got to have a girls night with a different Sister Johnson and Sister Peterson. They took us to the Mexican restaurant here in town and it was just really fun. Sister Johnson served a mission in New Zealand and Sister Peterson has a son serving in Provo so we got to talk all about missions. My favorite topic. :) After that we stopped by Joshua's and just read the Book of Mormon with him. And prank called the Elders. Sometimes you just need to act like a teenager again. :)
Saturday: Pretty long day today... Sister Samford and I really came to understand the pioneer children song first hand. We walked... and walked... and walked. And then walked some more. And we even tried to sing... The highlight of today was that I got a package from my Mom that totally made me smile. I don't know how she does it, but she always seem to send me mail and it gets to me on hard days. I love the Spirit.
Sunday: We had the MOST INCREDIBLE lesson with Alison and the tall Johnsons after church today. very neat experience... she is so ready to be baptized it's insane. 10 more days! :):) I have to give a shout out to one of my favorite people on the earth. My Mom. Today was her birthday. :) Folks... in case you didn't know.... I have the best Mom in the world. Seriously... this lady is incredible. She is funny, smart, totally adorable, and full of so much love. I am so blessed.... Mom, I LOVE YOU. :)
Well. There is my week.... The video I want to share this week is one I absolutely love. Even the title touches me... "Hope ya know... we had a hard time." I have prayed so much this last week, and it is something that helped me more than anything. I have learned to not just expect help. We are commanded to call upon God for the things that we need. When we pray to our Father In Heaven in humility, understanding that we CANNOT make it through this life with joy without Him and His son Jesus Christ, we are blessed. I know that to be true. PLEASE watch this video and then kneel down before your Father and plead for his help... for whatever you may need at this time. He WILL listen, and He WILL respond.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-05-21-hope-ya-know-we-had-a-hard-time?lang=eng
I love each of you very much. Thank you for being such great examples in my life. I pray that each of you has a wonderful, grace-filled week!
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

"Lets get down to business... to defeat... the cold... (and Satan.)"
Its hard to tell but my right (left in the pic) pinky swelled up to about 3x the size of my left. Spider- 1 Sister Jensen- 0
So... my camera broke at transfers 3 weeks ago and my awesome brother Taylor donated his to my cause.  REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!
So the Elders called us this afternoon and asked if we could help them with something... Yes. They found a couch on the side of the road and wanted to keep it. And yes... Elder Baxter is creepin in the background. And yes... we like to ride in style here in Boone. :)
Thank you for the heads up Open Bible Church.