Monday: Definitely a p-day that flew too fast! It was fun though. We got together with all the Sisters in my zone and then in the Des Moines zone and kind of had a day at the mall. We just walked, and talked, and laughed. Doesn't get better than that right?? That night, we had dinner with a member and her daughter and they took us to a buffet. So yummy. Sister Barker wasn't feeling well after that so we headed home.
Tuesday: The day kind of started off weird with a trip to the doctor. Sister Barker was diagnosed with kidney stones a couple months ago and they have really been bothering her so she went in for a check up. We were there all morning and made it back to Winterset in time for bingo. WOOO! Hands down best part of the day. We also were able to do some mormon.org time that definitely wasn't long enough. Heavenly
Father blessed us with a miracle today and we were able to make contact with one of our investigators we haven't seen in about a month! She actually scheduled and appt. with us which is great!
Wednesday: We went to the doctors again today so that Sister Barker could get some x-rays done. That took up most of our morning. Since we were already on the freeway, we decided to go to Earlham for the day. We were able to do some tracting which felt great and also see some less active families. Sister Barker wasn't feeling well again so we went home early.
Thursday: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! Mine was absolutely amazing! The only thing that would have made it better was having my family there, but that's okay. :)
Since it was Thursday, we still had district meeting and of course that was just awesome. I absolutely love my district so anytime we all get together it is just great. We have Zone Conference next week and
President has asked all the districts to make up a skit portraying a story from the Book of Mormon so we got to practice that. I'll let ya in on a little secret... me and Sister Barker are totally rapping. Haha it is going to be so legit. It is funny what skills you find out you have while on your mission. :) After that, Brother Spackman who is a counselor in the bishopric came and picked up us and the Elders in our ward cause they invited us all over for Thanksgiving. So fun! Their house was absolutely gorgeous! Basically all us missionaries and their 3 boys played downstairs on their ping pong, their air hockey, and Foosball tables. Then, someone had the brilliant idea to have a nerf gun war. I don't remember the bullets being that hard.. but boy was it fun. When the food was all finished they called us upstairs and let me tell you... it was nothing short of a full on Transtrum Thanksgiving dinner. There was so much food we could have fed the entire neighborhood! Sister Spackman is a wonderful cook! They wouldn't let us help clean up so we all retreated downstairs again and laid on the couchs. Haha no worries... Sisters on one couch Elders on the other... ;) We just took a little post thanksgiving nap. Eventually, they called us up for pies. No joke.... 27 pies. There were only 15 people there and Sister Spackman made 27 pies. She reminds me of my mom... haha kidding but kind of. We all ate pie until we wanted to die but it was so good. Then of course, they let us rest again and then we all decided we wanted to play some games. Apples to apples and taboo had the highest votes! It was so fun! We ended up staying there almost the whole day. When we were leaving, Sister Spackman reminded us that she had asked each of us what our favorite pies were and then proceeded to bring in 6 extra pies from the garage that she had baked especially for us. Of course, I chose pecan. Yum. Isn't she the best?? I just love the Spackmans!
Friday: Weekly planning. Kind of hard to bounce back after a day like Thursday but we tried our hardest! It was definitely a slow day. Sister Barker wasn't feeling well again so we ended up not getting out till about dinner time. We had dinner at the Jacksons (ward mission leader) and then headed into Winterset. Every year the day after Thanksgiving, they have a parade through the square and Santa rides on the fire truck and they turn on all the lights. Soo fun! We did some tracting and it was great to get back to work. That night was the best though because I came home to the greatest package from my Nana. She included a talk that my Papa wrote and a picture of him as well. My papa died about a month before I was born so having a talk from him about being a successful missionary as well as a picture meant the world. I have never felt him so near... I truly am blessed.
Saturday: A very chill day since Sister Barker was still not feeling well. We did get out and we went to see Joey. Everyone in the house was sick so we didn't stay but we were able to say hi which was good. That night I came home to the best letter from my mom! She is the greatest!
Sunday: Quite the day... we had to go to the church a little bit early to meet up with the Elders. We are planning a sweet fireside for the youth in our ward later this month. So that was pretty fun! Can I just say that I absolutely LOVE fast Sundays in the Raccoon River ward! I love all fast Sundays but there is just something special about this ward. Most the people in it are converts so they are able to testify of how much this gospel means to them because they know what it is like without it. I just love the ward members here! After church, we got home and I realized that I had left my scriptures at the church... I officially have "missionary" brain people... We didn't have enough miles to go back and get them so I just had to live without my scriptures for a little bit. I didn't like that... That night, we were able to go into Winterset and have a pretty good lesson with Deloris. She is slowly but surely getting there. I can see her faith building every time we meet with her. I just love looking back at the first time I met Deloris and how much she has grown. The gospel is amazing people, and it truly changes lives.
Monday: Crazy day! Sister Barker decided that she wanted to have surgery to remove her kidney stone so today was the day. We went in at about 9:30 and didn't get home till about 5. They did a sweet procedure where they actually lasered her stone and blasted it. Cool right?? Luckily, our Sister Training Leaders have a third companion who is a visa waiter so she came and sat with me so I wouldn't be alone. The surgery went great! The whole thing was definitely kind of weird though cause this isn't something you expect to do while on your mission... sit in a waiting room worrying while your comp gets surgery. After the surgery we went to pick up her meds and we finally made it home. She went straight to bed and slept for a couple hours and I just did my thing... ya know... read my scriptures, wrote some letters, organized the fridge. That kind of stuff. She eventually woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so we watched our favorite movie again... 17 Miracles. SOOOO good. Just a very chill day. Yesterday and today have just been crazy. I have had the chance to play "mom" and I never quite realized how hard it was... keeping track of meds, waking up through the night to give Sister Barker meds, making sure she eats every 2 hours, ... it's exhausting. It's funny because as I have been on my mission, I have just wanted so badly a day where I could just stay home in my pajamas all day and watch movies. Well, that has pretty much been my life yesterday and today and it actually isn't that fun... you never quite realize how much you love the work until you can't do it anymore. Tonight, we got to go out... even if it was to the ER. :/ It has just been a very crazy past couple of days. Well, I hope you have all had a better week than me. Haha I just have one favor to ask.. that you would add Sister Barker to your prayers for the next couple of days. I know she would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for being so amazing. You all are such great examples to me. I truly love each and every one of you. I hope you have a marvelous week!
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."
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| The Winterset Courthouse all pretty. :) |
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| Thanksgiving Clan! from left to right: Elder Mealy, Nick, Sister Spackman, Sam, Max, Brother Spackman, Conchi, The Scotts in the back, Kate, Elder May, Elder Kay, Sister Barker, Elder Whiting, Me |
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| No P-day at the mall would be complete without a little orange chicken. :) |
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| My best bud Rexy :) |
