Monday: Usually for p-days we go to the church and play games with our zone, but today we sat at home. We had no miles left so we literally could not drive anywhere. It was kind of a nice chill day though! That night we had dinner with the Penners, two of my most favorite people.
Tuesday: Today was definitely a crazy day! Luckily, we didn't get any April fools jokes played on us. :) We started off the day with Bingo like normal, and then went and saw the Greens. We had an awesome lesson on General Conference with them, and they were super excited to watch it. Afterwards we went to visit a less-active member whose wife isn't a member. She was going through some really hard trials and asked us to come over and just share a message. It was amazing to see the Spirit truly touch her as we talked about having faith through trials. By the end of the lesson, she was just sobbing. Okay okay... I was too. :) It was just a good lesson! Then we went and saw the McCalls and had a great lesson with them! It was a big faith building lesson for me... sometimes I feel like as a missionary I have to come up with these grand lessons and teach amazing doctrine, but through this lesson my faith was strengthened in the fact that truly, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." We just went in and read the Book of Mormon with them. It was probably one of the most powerful lessons I have ever had with the McCall family. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!! Great end to a good day.
Wednesday: Well... the day started out good... We got to go do crafts with "the ladies" and that was fun! Then we did some Mormon.org time. After that we went and saw Alissa and taught her the Word of Wisdom. That is always so fun to teach. :) Then we met up with the Turner family (most hilarious family ever). Then we got the text.... our ONE solid investigator Lisa dropped us. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! You better believe quite a few tears were shed in that moment. We asked her if we could stop by and just talk with her and she let us. She wasn't movin though. It is just so sad to see the adversary working on people... she knows it true she just won't put in the work. To get our frustration out though and to show her that we still loved her... we did her week old dishes. Haha
Thursday: Today I was reminded of how grateful I am to have a loving Heavenly Father who knows me personally. We had a little bit of time in the morning, so we did some knocking and ran into this guy. He was so nice! Then the bomb dropped... he was an atheist. That always just makes me so sad. After that we met up with our zone at the mall and got some lunch. Then we all headed to the church for some Zone training. HOLY MOLY! It was so inspired. The Hermanas trained on finding, and the zone leaders trained on charity. Just what I needed. :) After training we headed to the Johnsons for dinner. They are the cutest! Brother Johnson is in med school here in Iowa and they have a little 1 year old boy names Jameson. Haha he reminds me so much of my little Zaine... I JUST WANNA SQUEEZE HIM!!! But I cant. (Hardest rule ever.) On our way home we had a little bit of time so we stopped by the Allens! It was totally worth it cause they sent us home with bacon. :)
Friday: Well, today we did weekly planning. We were so excited though because we were supposed to have a lesson with a sweet potential at 3:30. No joke... 3:20... "Hey girls, I need to cancel." We literally just sat there in shock. Sometimes it is hard to see the good during the bad... we literally just sat there and prayed for help. It is really hard being in an area where you feel like nothing is happening. Heavenly Father really helps you realize though that there are prepared people everywhere... you just have to work to find them. We went out that night and did some of the best finding I have ever done on my mission so far! We were just so excited to find, and we were just real with people. Lots of miracles to end a pretty hard day. :) This is why I love Heavenly Father.
Saturday: GENERAL CONFERENCE. That is pretty much all I need to say! We are SO blessed to have a living prophet today who guides and directs this church. My love for general conference has grown so much since being on my mission. We decided to go to the stake center to watch it which was fun cause a lot of other missionaries in the area go too. Can I just take a second to talk about Elder Hollands talk? Whew. If that doesn't slap ya around a little I don't know what will. After the sessions, we went to Walmart to pick up something and we ran into FOUR members of the church. Haha that never happens! One guy saw us and started talking about his kids serving their missions 10 years ago, and just started crying because of the pride and joy he felt in his kids serving. Haha of course Sister Cole and I just sat there and bawled. He was so sweet. :)
Sunday: We decided that since the Prices do so much for us, we could do a little something for them. I finally put the waffle iron I got for Christmas to use! :) We made them waffles, homemade syrup, eggs, and bacon. Haha I know what you"re thinking mom... why did I never do that at home... one day I will. :) Then we watched the first session with them. SO GOOD! After that we headed to town and watched the second session with Karissa at the Tunneys house. We were sad Alissa couldn't come, we were happy Karissa could. I was so proud of her! I could never sit through 2 hours of conference as a 10 year old. She is a trooper. :)
Well, that's my week! It was a hard week, but a good week. I honestly just feel very blessed to even be on my mission. This is the best thing I have ever done. I have grown a lot in my 8 months here in Winterset. I guess that is what a mission will do for ya. :)
I wanted to share with you one of my favorite talks from General Conference. This one really just hit me very hard, and I know that it has a message that is very real for each of us.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/04?lang=eng&vid=3438304099001&cid=6
I hope and pray that each of you have a very wonderful week. I encourage each of you to seek for the Spirit as you go about your days so that you may know how the Lord wants to use you as His instrument that day. I promise you that he will, if you let him. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."
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| Hahaha. Our relationship in a picture. :) |
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| Oh my heavens, I am obsessed with Iowa. |
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| My "little sis" Ashton. She's growin up! :) |
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| This is what happens when Elders ask Sisters to decorate their planners. :) |
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| Luckily, my comp gave me permission to share this... because it truly sums up our week. |
