Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Niiiiiiiice! With a Touch of Kangaroo.

I just want you to picture this.... a kangaroo holding a baby dingo while eating spicy cheese Doritos. Yea... our week was about that weird. SUPER good though... just weird. :) I lost my mind a little bit this week and forgot to keep a little card with what I wanted to share, so I'll just give you some highlights.
1. Our car got grounded once this week, and we got "door-to-door" grounded this week. NEGATIVE DEGREES ARE THE BEST!!!! 2 tender mercies pertaining to weather though...
   a. It is supposed to be in the 40's this weekend
   b. Everyone has been asking us how we are surviving the cold and Sister Romero and I always say it's not that bad. Missionaries can't lie people! The Lord really blesses our minds and bodies to adapt to the cold quickly because we are serving Him. :)
2. It was Sister Romero's senior comp week for training so I got to chillax in the passenger seat. It was niiiiiiiiiiiiice.
3. We had exchanges this week and it was so awesome. We drove over to Ames on Thursday night and had a sweet sleepover (insert face masks here) and then I got to come back to Boone with Sister Barney on Friday. I came out with her and we have always wanted to serve with each other so it was a fantastic day. :) Lots of laughter and freak outs about going home in 6 weeks.
4. Go ahead and ask me if we got to do any proselyting on Saturday? The answer is a whopping no. Our mission and stake apartment coordinators came over and literally spent about 4 hours steaming our entire apartment to get rid of the bed bugs. (And they totally left us the steamer so that we can steam some other things. We are having way too much fun with it.) Then we had to take our clothes to Ames and dry them all. Luckily, we have amazing Zone Leaders who sneaked us into their apartment complex to use their dryers so we wouldn't have to pay as much. No worries... we wrote them a sweet rap to say thank you. :) We also dealt with our overwhelming stress by eating Coldstone and Chipotle and drinking Dr. Pepper. The whole "5 months of no caffeine" thing wasn't workin for me anymore.
5. So.... we officially have two people on date now to be baptized. :) Tessa (our little 11 year old) for February 21 and Matt for May 23. SO MANY MIRACLES!!! Matt came to church with 4 of his 5 kids this week... progress! He is doing so good... when we asked him to be baptized on May 23 he thought for what felt like forever and finally said, "I don't think we have anything going on that day." Haha I love that family so much. I think I might just bring them back to Utah with me! :)
Well. Those are the highlights. It really was a great week. I have just been very grateful for my mission lately. I will hit 17 months in 2 days and that really just makes me so grateful that the Lord qualified me to have served this long. I seriously NEVER thought that I would make it to this point. And the fact that I only have 6 weeks left.... I am just grateful. My mission has changed me in ways I never thought possible. There is a video that explains my feelings and missions exactly....
*PARENTS! SHOW THIS TO YOUR CHILDREN!!
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-06-19-value-of-a-full-time-mission?category=topics/missionary-work&lang=eng
I have gone through a refiners fire for the last 17 months and I will continue to until the day that I stand with my Savior at my side before our Father. The Gospel gives me so much hope and confidence for that day and that is something very invaluable to me. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that He IS our advocate with the Father. He WILL one day stand with us and plead our cause before the Father. Not just him though... All the people whose lives we changed by sharing the Gospel with them will also stand and plead our cause before the Father. What a glorious day that will be. I invite, remind, exhort, and encourage us all to continue or to start preparing for that day. DO you want to stand confidently before your maker? Then make that choice now and stick to it. "Stick to your task till it sticks to you. Beginners are many but enders are few. Glory, honor, love and praise will always come to the one who stays." This IS Gods church.
I love you all and pray you have a very wonderful week!
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."  Reply Forward
The "pampering night" was finally shared with our STL's. BEST. EXCHANGE. EVER.
L to r: Barney, Me, Sumpsion, Romero
Welcome to Iowa in January. ITS DA BEST!
It's a pretty awkward moment when you really want some black beans and then realize you have no can opener... what is Sister Jensens solution? Cutting the can in half. Works every time.
The good ole Carroll district. :)
L to R: Kinikini, Raymond, Coalwell, Hooser, me, Romero

Our ENTIRE bed bug family tree. We added some new additions to our bed bug family tree this week...