Miracles

Time is FLYING! Literally, I have no idea where this week went. It was such a good week though so I'm not complaining. :)

Monday: Just a normal p-day. Laundry. Eat. Write. Eat. Sleep. And, we may or may not have watched "17 miracles" again. Haha we love that movie. That night, we had dinner at our Bishop's house again with our Elders. So fun! After that, we just had a chill night walkin.:)

Tuesday: Such a great day! We did our usual morning routine, and then headed into Winterset for our weekly bingo fun. After bingo, we headed over to see 2 of our investigators Karma and Karissa. We met the relief society president there so that she could join in on the lesson. Karma's other daughter Alyssa was there with her friend Keyera and we ended up teaching them as well. Biggest miracle... they accepted the invitation to be baptized and they all accepted a date of December 14!!! We are so crazy happy!! We just see how much it will bless this family. They are wonderful! That night we had dinner with the Penners.  We loved it. :) That night we saw our other investigator Deloris and committed her to come to church again, and she said yes! WOO!

Wednesday: Another great day! Haha we had a lot of those this week... We had to come into Winterset again cause we had crafts with the oldies. So we did that, and then had mormon.org time. Seriously the best ever! If you are ever bored, go onto Mormon.org and just watch the videos. You will be hooked. That night we had dinner with the Christensen's and they are just amazing! Such a great member missionary family. They also have 2 little boys that I just love. :) Makes me not so homesick for my own boys.

Thursday: Earlham day! WOOO! Earlham is one of the towns in our area but we don't get there a lot cause it takes a lot of our miles. We decided though that it was time. Heavenly Father knew we needed to be there! We were able to see so many less active members who we have never been able to see before. We also did a little bit of exploring and realized that Earlham is actually quite amazing. We though it was just some run down little town. Well, it is. On one side. On the other side of town, it is gorgeous! It reminded me of Cedar Hills. Haha it was sweet. Just very new and clean. That night we were supposed to have dinner with a member but they ended up cancelling on us so we decided to go see Sister Costello instead. She is a single member and she is a little bit older. She has some health issues so we go check on her every once in a while. She also had some food she wanted us to pick up, so we decided that was a perfect time to go see her. So we get there and ask her if we can share a message with her. Of course she says yes so we all go into the living room and we sit on the couches and she sits in her recliner. Sister Barker starts saying the prayer and says amen and we both realize that Sister Costello didn't say it. We both look up... she is gone.. snoring and all. We both of course burst out in uncontrollable laughter. We kept trying to wake her up and she would for a sec and mumble something and then she would fall asleep again. Eventually, it got the point that I was YELLING my testimony of prayer at her to keep her awake. Haha it was probably one of the funniest moments on my mission. We felt bad cause we were laughing so hard, but we figured she couldn't hear us anyway. :) Haha we headed home after that and the member who we were supposed to have dinner with actually dropped dinner off. The Barbers are the best.:)

Friday: Today was fun cause we got to do something different than our usual. Normally, we have weekly planning on Friday but today we had Zone training instead. BEST TRAINING OF MY LIFE! They talked about helping our investigators and not hoping. They also emphasized the importance of our investigators, reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and attending church. That was exactly what we needed to hear! They also showed us an amazing video. They put together all the pics of the baptisms the mission has had this year to a song. Bawling. It was amazing to see my Brothers and Sisters who have been found and to think of the many more who will be. Such an amazing feeling. That night we were able to meet with a less active member who has been dodging us for a while. We had an AMAZING lesson on the Temple and on the Endowment and the spirit was super strong. That night, we didn't have a dinner appt., and we figured that since it was closing this weekend, Frostees was the only clear choice. I am going to miss that place... Coming home that night just topped the day off. A letter from Pops (my grandpa), and a letter from my sister with pics of my boys. I was in letter heaven people. Just sat and cried... and laughed... and cried some more. Saturday: Since we didn't do weekly planning yesterday, we got to do it today. Every weekly planning session we have about an hour set apart to do companion inventory. Basically, we just evaluate our companionship and fix our problems. We have never really had a comp inventory cause we have never had problems. This week, Sister Barker and I actually took the time to look deep and see if we had any. We concluded that we are competitive little buggers! Haha we wrote down a list of all the things we are competitive about and decided to be better. It is working so far! :) After that, we were able to see Tyler our recent convert. We taught him about the priesthood and I had found a really cool video about the priesthood during my Mormon.org time that we showed him. It is a Mormon message called. "Power of God." You should all go watch it cause it is wonderful! So we had a good lesson with him and then headed into Winterset to see our investigators and remind them about church. Good night!

Sunday: Miracle day!! Church was just amazing. I was able to give a talk in sacrament. Elder Kay and Elder Tappen also spoke and their talks were amazing! Best part though was that our investigators Deloris and Karissa came! I cant even begin to tell you how happy that made me.  And the ward literally just took them under their wing. Karissa was swept off to primary and Deloris was taken to gospel principles class. We didn't have to do anything..it was awesome!  After church, we talked to Deloris about it and she said it was a lot easier for her today. She said she actually knew what to expect and everybody was so nice and she had a great time! Karissa loved it as well. :) YAY! After church, we just sat outside and talked to our Elders for a little bit and ate Vanilla Wafers. Haha  We went home after that and did our studies and then headed out. We went to Winterset first to see a potential and it was good. We just talked and got to know her a little bit better. I will keep you updated. That night was the best though! We had dinner with the Hancocks. 10 Children. no joke. Ages 14 to 7 months. And they are all adopted! They are such a fun family! We love the kids and the kids loved us! Haha it was a great night! Although I wasn't able to hold any of the kids, we still just played and laughed. And, we named all 47 of their fishes. Playing with their 7 month old baby was nice cause my Zander boy turned 6 months old today so at least I got to play with A baby. :)

Today before we came to the library we did some exploring. We went to City Park and saw Clarks Tower and a covered bridge! It was so fun! It is absolutely gorgeous up there! Cold...but pretty none the less.

Well folks, that was my week. It was a fantastic week for sure! The Lord is blessing us here in the Winterset area. We are finding the people who are being prepared and it is amazing. Since I am a missionary and all we do is invite, I want to leave an invitation with all of you today! Go onto LDS.org and go to the Mormon Messages channel. Watch "Mountains to Climb." It is an amazing video that reminds us that Heavenly Father is always there for us. No matter what our circumstance, he is there to protect and guide us. He loves us. We are His children. He will never leave us. There is also an amazing quote by President Eyring that goes along with that video and I invite you to read that as well. Just always remember that YOU, are loved. He knows you individually.

Well guys, I hope you all had a wonderful week full of good things. I love you all and I will continue to pray for each of you! Also, I have to give a shout out to my cousin Stephanie and her husband Kevan. They are expecting a little girl soon and I have a feeling it might be this week... so in case it is... CONGRATS!  I love you guys and I know you will be wonderful parents. Don't forget to take lots of pics! :)
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

Covered Bridge. Obviously we had to go see it cause that's one thing Iowa is famous for! :)

With Frostees closing, of course we had to get a pic with the sign. :)

Clarks Tower. Soo COOL!

November Already?!?

Hello again family! This week literally flew by! It feels like just a couple days ago I was sitting here writing you all an email. I also cannot believe it is November! Where the heck did October go?? I gotta admit, I am a little happy time is flying, but at the same time so sad.  I am not sure how I am going to survive this winter season. I am a little scared... it will be good though. Haha well I have a couple shout outs this week. First one goes to my nephew, Zander. My little guy will be 6 MONTHS OLD this upcoming Sunday. Can you believe that?? He is the sweetest boy ever. The 3 months I got to spend with him, getting to know him, were my favorite. Make sure you all give him an extra squeeze from his favorite Auntie Gabby! My second shout out goes to my best friend, my mom. Her birthday is on Saturday and I just have to take a sec to tell you all how great she is. She truly is one of the most amazing, selfless, caring, hilarious, tender, awesome people I have met. We are like the same person so for many years, we butted heads. Haha but in the last couple years, our relationship has grown to something amazing. She truly is my biggest supporter and my greatest example. I am thankful for her every day and for the amazing mom that she is to me. So again, when you see her give her an extra hug from her missionary. :) Also, I just have to share one "fun" fact I learned this week. In Winterset (one of the towns I serve in, which has a population of about 10,000 people), there are 17 different churches here. Can you believe that?? So crazy. Anyways, here is the weekly lowdown:

Monday: Since it was the end of the month almost, we had TONS of miles leftover on our car so we decided to go a little crazy this p-day. We drove into West Des Moines and went to the mall. It was soooo great! It just felt like a day at the mall with one of my friends. Things did get a bit crazy though cause Sister Barkers birthday was yesterday, so while we were at the mall she decided to do something crazy. We were just joking around and I said, "Hey. You should get your ears pierced." (She has never had them pierced!) 10 minutes later, her ears were pierced. Haha being spontaneous is pretty fun. :) So we spent the day there and then had dinner that night at our Bishop's house with all the other missionaries. It was pretty fun. We ended up just staying to whole night talking. We seem to do that a lot... :)

Tuesday: Most of our day Tuesday was taken up by interviews with President Jensen. He seriously is so great! We also got to do interviews with Sister Jensen and she reminds me of my Nana so that is always fun. :) After interviews, we came home to do our studies. Pretty low key day.

Wednesday: Such a fun day! We had service today of course and we painted pumpkins which was so fun! Me and Sister Barker decided we have to stop making our crafts look so good cause the residents are getting mad when theirs doesn't look like ours. Haha  We did some walking for the rest of the day and had to head home early cause we were grounded at 6. Here in Iowa, they have something called Beggars night. It is where the kids go trick or treating on a night other than Halloween so then on actual Halloween the adults can go out and party.  Classy right? ;) Anyways, Wednesday was beggars night so President Jensen grounded all the missionaries at 6 so that we wouldn't be tempted to trick or treat. It turned out great though cause we ended up playing apples to apples with the Prices all night. :)

Thursday: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope you all had a wonderful day. If you have cute pics of your costumes, I would love to see em. Since today was Thursday, we had district meeting which is always great. Kind of weird though... the Elders serving in our ward had ZERO miles left on their car for the month so we had to give em a ride to the church. Haha we were all kinda weirded out. Of course though, we just cranked MoTab and sang our little hearts out. :) Because it was Halloween, we also had to be in by 6 tonight. We  watched "17 Miracles" with the Prices. If you haven't seen that movie, seriously watch it. So good! I feel so blessed too, that I am serving my mission in the place where these pioneers traveled. I feel almost spoiled actually. It is quite wonderful. Sister Price is awesome too and made homemade frosted sugar cookies for us while we watched. She is so great!

Friday: Weekly planning. Woo. It is just crazy cause that takes up almost all of our day! We did however get one lesson in with Deloris who is one of our investigators. We had a member who was just baptized about 4 months ago come with us and it was a total blessing cause they actually already knew each other! Revelation is real people! The lesson went pretty good. We committed her to come to Church and she said yes. Progress. That night, we had dinner with the Elders at our ward mission leader, Brother Jackson's house.  We were able to talk to Brother Jackson and just update him on who we are seeing which is always good and then the Elders gave a sweet lesson. Great night!

Saturday: A day of blessings. We were really stuck on what to do on Saturday cause we had no appts. and we didn't know where we wanted to go. Well, it all worked out of course and Heavenly Father blessed us with amazing plans. We headed into Van Meter first to see a potential we met a couple weeks ago. His name is Steve and he is so awesome! So prepared! We got there though, and he was home alone so we weren't able to teach him! So frustrating! Luckily though, we made an appt. for Tuesday and we are really excited! After that, we headed into Winterset to go to the library to print out some stuff. The weather has been great here, so we are trying to do all our walking now before it gets super cold! So we went and saw a less-active sister and had an amazing lesson with her. Then we walked over to the other side of Winterset to see some of our investigators. It is nice cause 4 of our 7 all live in the same neighborhood so it makes our life a little easier. We didn't have time to teach them so we just said hi and reminded them all about church the next day. When we came home, Sister Barker had gotten a bunch of packages for her birthday so we decided to open them all. :) Sister Barker got a bunch of balloons in hers so we blew em all up and played balloon soccer with Ash. It was great. :)
Sunday: Today was awesome, and tiring. It was Sister Barker's birthday today so we partied all morning while we got ready for church. We were both so excited for church cause testimony meeting in the Raccoon River ward is seriously the best! So we walk in and sit down, and church starts. We look around and not one of our investigators was there. We were so sad!  Then, all the sudden Deloris walks in! We wanted to jump for joy! We waved her over to us and she came and sat down and just looked overwhelmed but so happy. We were so glad she made it in time for the sacrament so that she could see that. Amazingly, she stayed all 3 hours! It was wonderful! I never thought though how hard it would be to have an investigator at church. Haha you are constantly worried about how they are taking it all in, making sure the ward is introducing themselves, making sure they get where they need to be. It is exhausting, but so worth it. :) After church, we came home and had a birthday lunch with the Prices. They made Sister Barkers favorite... fettuccine alfredo. It was pretty dang good! Then of course, we played an intense game of UNO. Man are the Prices competitive. Haha I fit right in. We only did that for a little bit cause then we had to get back to work. We did our studies, then headed into Winterset to see Deloris. We just talked through church with her and answered her questions and she committed to come again next week! Wooo! After we saw her, the Tunney family wanted us to come over for some dessert. Brother Tunney is a chef so anything he makes is glorious. We shared a lesson with them about the plan of salvation and then headed home.

Well family, that was my week! It was a really good one! I hope that you all had a good week too. I just want to leave my testimony with you before I end my letter.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he is my savior. I know that Joseph Smith was the first Prophet of this dispensation and that he miraculously translated the Book of Mormon with the power of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is the truest book on the earth today, and that what Joseph Smith said about it is true. A man CAN draw nearer to God by reading this book than by any other book on the Earth today. What an amazing promise that is! I know that Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet today and that he holds all of the Priesthood keys and directs this Church by revelation. This truly is the most amazing and the only true church on the Earth. Dear family and friends, we have a wonderful gift. We have been given the knowledge of this Gospel and we have the Holy Ghost. With this gift comes the responsibility of sharing what we know with those around us. Our dear Prophet in his opening remarks in General Conference, urged the members and the missionaries to come together. There are people around you, who are waiting to hear you testimony. Never be afraid or ashamed to share it. It is a glorious thing. The invitation that I want to leave with you all this week, is that you will take 15 minutes and create a mormon.org profile. What a great way to share what you know! Who knows, maybe someone will read your profile and they will be uplifted in some way. It is a beautiful tool our Heavenly Father has given us to share the gift that we have.

I love you all so much. The examples that you are to me mean more than you know. I miss you all dearly, but I know that at this time, I need to be in Iowa giving my all to my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. This is my time to prove my faith to them, and I am so grateful that I am able to wear my Saviors name on my chest every day. I truly feel His love for me every day and I know that you will feel it too. If you will let him in.

Have a great week and stay safe! I LOVE YOU!!

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa." 

The Price family! Left to right: Brooklyn, Sister B., Ashton, Sister Price, and Brother Price!

Of course, we had to take a funny pic with our celebration birthday hats. :)

Pumpkin decorating...Happy Halloween! :)

The Price family is so cool, they burn their own trash.

Tricks and Treats

What a crazy crazy week! It absolutely flew by! Weeks like that are wonderful but at the same time stressful. There is so much we have to do as missionaries and before we know it, the week is over and we didn't do anything we planned to. Haha  oh the life of a missionary. :) Before I get started, I just have to give a shout out to my wonderful Pops. It was his birthday on Thursday and I just have to take a sec to tell you all how amazing he is. He is one of the most kind, gentle, loving, funny, Christ like men I have ever met. I feel like he and I have always had a special relationship. He helped me realize my potential as a blinds cleaner. ;) He is absolutely wonderful and I am so grateful for him in my life. I love you Pops!!!

Alrighty... here is the low down:

Monday: We decided today would be our "touristy" day. After our email time and grocery shopping, we walked around Winterset to all the little shops and just looked around. This town really is wonderful! It is basically the little town you see in all the movies with all the vintage shops. That night, we had dinner with the 4 other missionaries in our ward at our Bishop's house. It was so fun. :) Our Bishop is a character. I will get a pic with him sometime and you will understand!

Tuesday: A pretty productive day! We had lunch with some less-active members who have been going through some pretty crazy trials... They lost their 10 year old son in an accident a couple weeks ago. He was building a fire with some friends and somehow a spark got to him and engulfed him. 98% of his body was burned. He died shortly after the accident. It was wonderful to meet with them and to testify to them about the plan of happiness. We met with some other people that day, good experiences.

Wednesday: Such a frustrating day! We have not seen one of our investigators in a couple weeks, but we were able to make an appt. to see her today. So we showed up and knocked. All the sudden we see the curtains pull back a little bit and we see her peeking out the window. I don't think she knew we saw her...  but we did. She never answered the door so we just left her a note and walked away. She is going to be the death of me. That night, we had dinner with a wonderful family! Halfway through dinner though, the mom had to go to the emergency room cause she had a way high fever. We didn't quite know what to do... so we just kind of sat there. Crazy...

Thursday: DISTRICT MEETING! Seriously, always the best. My district is so wonderful and we always have so much fun together! We talked a lot about dealing with stress and obedience. Kind of ironic... :) It was just a great meeting! That night we had dinner with a less-active sister and she took us to Pizza Ranch. Basically that is like the "cool" place to go.... it's like Pizza Pie Cafe.  Made me a little homesick.Haha

Friday: Weekly planning always takes up so much of our day that we aren't able to do a whole lot. We were able to visit this one lady though who is interesting... we met her walking one day and off the bat just started bashing the Book of Mormon. We told her to give us a problem with the Book of Mormon and our religion and we would find the answer to the problem in the Bible. So she wanted proof of modern day prophets in the New Testament. Challenge accepted. Friday, we visited with her and showed her the proof we found. Haha that stumped her. It was fantastic so see her whole thinking change... of course she hit us with more problems, but she did it not so confidently this time. :) We told her to give us another specific question, so she did and we will find the answer to that as well. Missionary work is great. That night, we visited with a member family that lives in the boonies. Literally, they lived soooooo far. They live in a GORGEOUS cabin! They are such a fun family! The dad was just hilarious.. he is a big time hunter and taught us how to kill a buffalo. So, if you ever need to know how, I'm your girl. :)

Saturday: Fun day! We were able to be girls for a little bit and bake some cookies. :) Then we headed out for a bit and found 2 NEW INVESTIGATORS! Seriously, Heavenly Father is way too good to us! It is a single mom who has 3 kids. They are 15, 12, and 10. The older ones didn't listen that well but the little one did. We invited her and her mom to be baptized and they both accepted! We are thrilled! It is just amazing to think about the impact the Gospel will have in their lives. That night, our ward had their annual Trunk or Treat. They had a chili contest and they let all us missionaries be the judges. Haha I have never eaten so much chili in my life... it was good though. :) It was fun to see all the kids so excited to get candy! That included us as well... ;)  Fun night!

Sunday: AMAZING day! We had the primary program during sacrament and I don' think I have ever been touched so deeply as I was today. The children were absolutely amazing and did such a wonderful job.  After church, we went to the Barbers again which is always great.:) That night, we went to see one of our investigators, Deloris. We were teaching her about faith and wanted to watch a movie with her. So we went to plug in her DVD player and her TV totally fell of the stand and broke!  It was the scariest moment of my life! It just kept sparking! Dang Satan... we got the spirit back eventually though and it turned into a great lesson. :)

I'm sorry this is all so jumbled!! Email time is definitely not long enough! Just know that I love you all and I pray for each of you daily! Have a great Halloween week and don't eat too much candy!! I LOVE YOU!!! :)

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

Thank you for the scarf Aunt Noelle!! I love it!! :)

The "perfect" tree we found. :)

I liked this winter hat cause it matched my badge. :) Don't worry mom, I didn't buy it.

The beautiful Winterset Courthouse.

The fun cookies we made for the ward Trunk or Treat! Thank you mom for all the stuff!

Our really clever costumes. We dressed up as each other. Haha it's the craziest we could get. We felt like pretty big rebels switching name tags. :)

My Rollercoaster Week!

Well, as you can guess by the title of this post, my week was constantly up and down, heartache and pure joy, laughter and tears. Just everything good and bad that could have happened this week, did happen. That's missionary life I guess. :) Here we go:

Monday: Monday was just...Monday. Haha One exciting thing that happened though was that it was the 14th of October, which means it was my "click day." My official 2 month mark. Seriously so crazy! It feels like I have been here forever, but no time at all. So to celebrate, I took a 2 hour nap. It was wonderful. :)

Tuesday:  Just a chill day. We did some finding and some walking. Our dinner appointment was awesome though! We had it with some members at their brothers house. Coolest house I have ever seen! It was like dome shaped and apparently is supposed to be tornado proof. I know where I'm goin if a tornado hits! ;) Anyways, we watched the cheesiest movie. Haha we aren't quite sure if it was mission approved, but they insisted and it was about the pioneers so we just went with it. Wonderful night! And they lived in the boonies so that literally took up our entire night so that was that.

Wednesday: DAY OF MIRACLES! Literally... miracle after miracle after miracle. Hands down one of the best days of my mission. It started out wonderful with our service at the Assisted Living home. We painted milk jugs! Haha it sounds lame I know, but it was so fun! We painted them like pumpkins, and ghosts, and witches, etc.  As missionaries, we really don't get a lot of time to have a creative outlet so it was wonderful. We probably liked it a little too much but we have no shame. After service, we had to make about 5,000 calls so we took some time to do that. In that hour that we made calls, we had appointments set up for the rest of our week. We literally had like no time left in our week! That was wonderful! When I first got here, we had a lot of time to walk. We are seeing the fruits our labors people and it is so great! We also were able to contact people that we have been trying to for weeks but who never called us back. Wednesday every single one of them answered and set appointments. Literally a miracle. We are blessed! We also got a couple referrals and that really doesn't happen a lot.  Let's just say that tears of joy were shed that day. :) We also had dinner with the Canovas again and they are just a darling family. And, it was potato soup and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. My favorite. :)

Thursday:  We had zone training and as always, it was fantastic. Our leaders always know what to say! They focused a lot on member-missionary work again, and also on just making sure that we aren't too hard on ourselves. It made me realize that I am! Most of the time, I think I am just the worst missionary ever. When we don't have a lot of work or when things aren't going good, I blame myself. Well the training really helped me realize that I am a good missionary. By being here and staying, I am a good missionary. It helped me realize that if I don't believe in myself, I can't believe in the people I am trying to help. Something to work on for sure. After training, we all went to lunch at the mall and that is always fun. The best part is probably the stares that we get. Haha we always seem to smile a little bigger when we notice people staring. :) After lunch, we headed back into Winterset for our doctors appointments. SHOTS!! I literally wanted to cry I was so scared. I hate shots all together but I just wanted my mom to be there with me. Haha luckily, I survived and I am still here. That's a real shocker I know. I also have to give a big shout out to my whole Jensen Family! I came home to the greatest letter that night from a bunch of my family members. Words of encouragement are the greatest thing you can get as a missionary, especially on a semi traumatizing day. Haha so it came at the perfect time. Thank you to you all!!!

Friday: Friday was kind of a rough day. We did our weekly planning, and then headed into Winterset to see one of investigators, and it was quite the lesson. It started out wonderful! We read the Book of Mormon with her and she was really into it. We were just so excited for her because she had accepted a baptismal date and was progressing so much! Well, at the end of the lesson we asked her how she was feeling about her baptism. She had absolutely no recollection of us asking her about accepting a date. Heart=shattered. Literally wanted to cry. She was our one super super solid investigator and she can't remember a thing. We have prayed a lot about her these last couple days and will see how this week goes. Friday night was fun though. We had dinner with all the missionaries in our ward at our mission leaders house. That is always fun, and it was nice to kind of get my mind off of things. We did find out though that one of the new missionaries we had gotten in our ward decided to go home Thursday, so we welcomed Elder Tappen as the newest Raccoon River missionary! We are glad he is in our ward now, but we are so sad for the Elder who decided to go home. This is hard, but it is worth it. To top the whole day off, I got a package from my mom. Haha seriously guys, my mom is the greatest. THANK YOU MOM!!! :)

Saturday: Saturday was supposed to be the greatest day. We had all of these appointments lined up and we had so many potential investigators to see and it should have been wonderful. Well, we also have this wonderful thing called agency. People were cancelling on us left and right. It was so crazy to just see all of our plans fade away. Luckily though, because Heavenly Father loves us, he let us keep some of our appointments which was good. :) We officially have a new investigator. His name is Cameron and he is a 14 year old boy who is so prepared to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a referral from one of our ward members who is his friend. We had a wonderful lesson with him and when we invited him to be baptized, he didn't even have to think before he said yes. Haha that is probably one of the greatest feelings ever. Inviting my brothers and Sisters to enter the waters of baptism and to make that covenant with their Heavenly Father. A feeling I would not trade for the world. So although Saturday was hard, our night made it a great day. God is good people. God is good. 

Sunday: It is so funny how fast things change on the mission! Just 7 short weeks ago, Sunday was the hardest day for me. It was the day I missed my family the most so I even kind of dreaded it. Now, it is the best part of the week! I look forward to Sunday more than any other day! The Raccoon River ward is absolutely amazing and getting to see every member once a week is wonderful! After church, all of us missionaries went to the Barber's house and had lunch with them and their 2 children and their families who live in our ward as well. We may or may not have stayed for 4 hours... haha. It was so fun! It did make me miss all of my Sunday night family dinners though. Those are one of the things I look forward to most about coming home. It reminded me about how blessed I am to be part of a family who is so close. That night, we went to the stake youth standards night with the Prices. It was so great! It was so funny because the family we sat by asked me where I was from so I told them, and they actually have a nephew who goes to Lone Peak who I worked with in my peer tutor class. How funny is that?? What are the chances right?? That was kind of cool. :)

Well, that was my week. Crazy right?? Oh, the life of a missionary. Haha really though... it is so crazy. I never would have thought. One thing that has really stuck with me though from my zone training on Thursday was the scripture 2 Timothy 4:7- "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." What a wonderful scripture. It goes along with a talk by President Monson called, "Be a finisher." What a wonderful talk. I invite all of you to read it. When I look at this scripture I think of my mission. I think of enduring to the end and being a finisher of my mission. But, I think that it can be applied on a larger scale... what is our end goal as members of this glorious church? The Celestial Kingdom. We can only do that if we endure to the end, and become "Finishers" as President Monson said. So I invite all of you to evaluate your life right now. Are you fighting a good fight? Are you finishing your course? Are you keeping the Faith? My dear family, as you cling to the scriptures and prayer, as you attend church EVERY Sunday, and as you come unto Christ in all that you do, you will be a finisher. You will be able to endure to the end with all of your might. I am grateful for the opportunity my Heavenly Father has given me to do this as a missionary. I WILL fight the good fight, I WILL keep the faith, and I WILL be a finisher. I owe my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ all that I have and all that I am. This is the least I could do for them.

I love you all and I am grateful for each of you every day. Never forget that I love you and that I miss you dearly. Keep the faith and endure to the end! I LOVE YOU!! :)

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

A picture of the Des Moines Stake missionaries at the Mormon Helping Hands project last Saturday. :)

My first shots without my Mom. Haha it was a little traumatizing, but luckily I have a companion who was willing to hold my hand like my mom always would. I am blessed! :)

As Sister Missionaries, we don't have pockets to carry around all of our stuff so we decorate our planners to make little pockets. Well, decorating a planner is kind of a milestone. That means that you made it through 6 weeks of being a missionary! WOOO! This planner will mark the end of my training and the next 5 weeks. Crazy right??

The Raccoon River Ward missionaries. :) L-R: Elder Hodges, Elder Tappen (Brazil visa waiter), Elder Kay, Elder Mealy AKA Demon eyes(Brazil visa waiter), me, and Sister Barker. Basically the best set of missionaries you have ever seen. Just sayin. :)

Me and Sister Barker with our ward Mission leader, Brother Jackson. He is wonderful! He has been a member for about 2 and a half years now.  We love him. :)

 

Marching Forward...and Cupcakes

Hello to you all again! It feels like I haven't emailed home in weeks, and at the same time it feels like no time at all. Haha mission time... so weird. This week was was transfers so the whole week was kind of weird and off, but still a good week! I am very happy that I am still serving in Raccoon River. WOOOO! Haha not a shocker, but still exciting. :) Although, they did rename the area. I am now serving in the Winterset, Iowa area. So cool! Alrighty, on with my day to day synopsis:

Monday: Because of transfers, our real p-day was Wednesday, but they still allowed us to come and email on Monday. So, Monday was a work day. We visited some of our investigators and some members and it was kind of just chill. We did a lot of walking that's for sure. 

Tuesday: Tuesday was a fantastic day! The Elders serving in the ward with us had met a lady last week who lived in our area so they referred her to us. So we met with her this day. No joke, 5 minutes into our lesson she was asking when she could be baptized. Can you believe that?? We were jumping for joy!  She is so prepared. The work is definitely being hastened! That night, us and the Elders went to a less active's apartment building to help her paint. Oh Elders... haha bless their hearts. We just laughed the entire time. It was quite fun. :)

Wednesday: P-DAY!!! WOOO! I love p-days. Especially today. Our "momma" Sister Price took us into West Des Moines for the day so that I could get all my winter stuff! It was so weird to go shopping in Kohl's and the mall... haha I just felt like I was back in Utah doin some shopping. It was great. :) She took us out to lunch after (Chipotle again. I am a little addicted), and then to Costco, and then to the most darling cupcake shop ever. Can you say spoiled?? Seriously though, Sister Price is the best! She really is like my mom away from my mom... haha. I don't quite know what I will do when I am transferred. I just have to put this in here for my mom cause I know that she will be soooo proud... for dinner that night we ate with a member and she made stuffed tomatoes. That's right.. stuffed tomatoes. If you know me, you know that I absolutely despise tomatoes. But, I ate every last bit. Haha it wasn't too bad. Wouldn't eat it again probably, but I am pretty proud of my self. :)

Thursday: Today was just emotionally draining... haha but in a good way. We had set up a church tour with one of our investigators and it went great! Seriously could not have gone better... she accepted a baptismal date and we are just thrilled. Once again, the Lord is hastening his work. And I get to be a part of it. How lucky am I?? We decided to have our traditional celebration at Frostees.  We walked up to the window and started to order and they literally stopped us and said, "We got this." Haha they know our orders! That was our goal and it happened. Success. :) One crazy thing that happened though was as we were eating, Sister Price called and told me that a woman named Becky was in their house to see me.  I freaked! Becky is an amazing Sister from my home ward in Utah. The company she works for has an office in Urbandale so she is here this week and came and stopped by!  Telling Sister Price that I couldn't come see her was really hard, but obedience brings blessings. :) She did however leave me the cutest box of cupcakes I have ever seen! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Becky! They were absolutely delicious. :)

Friday: Today was weird... we had weekly planning but ended up staying inside to do that allllll day. Literally we didn't leave the house till 5:30. NOT GOOD! We got some good planning done though... haha We had to head out to get to our appointment with the Scotts. Seriously, I love them.  On our way home, we decided to stop and see one of our investigators. Well who knew that would take a year to get there! Every year in Winterset, they do this thing called the Covered Bridge festival. Google it. It is massive. So basically, like every road in Winterset was shut down because they were setting up.  It was so fun to see, but definitely not fun to drive through. haha

Saturday: Today we spent most of the day in Des Moines installing fire alarms in peoples homes. Haha let me explain... the red cross approached the Mormon helping hands to help them launch this project of installing the detectors in peoples home. Hundreds of members from around our area showed up to help. It was wonderful! We are convinced we will be in the ensign or Mormon newsroom or something. Keep and eye out for me. :) Then we had district meeting. It was so fun to meet at the new Elders in our district! They are awesome! And now, I'm not the youngest. WOO! :) Because they were new, we played a get to know you game where we basically got to throw wadded up socks at each other. Haha it was great. :) 

Sunday: I was so excited for today. I definitely needed church... I just needed to be spiritually uplifted! And I was!! Church was absolutely amazing! They whole focus for the day was missionary work. Could it have been a better topic?? Our Bishop spoke in sacrament and it was just incredible. In relief society, the lesson was on missionary work as well and the teacher asked me and Sister Barker to each get up and tell the Sisters what things we sacrificed to be here, how we decided to come, and what blessings we have seen because we are here. What an amazing experience. Testifying to those Sisters was an amazing experience and one I will never forget. And something crazy happened this last transfer too... we got ANOTHER set of Elders in our ward! Can you believe that?? 6 Missionaries!!! It is crazy! There is a lot of work to be done in the Raccoon River ward. :) They are awesome Elders! Elder Kay has been out 3 months and Elder Van Leeuwen is fresh out of the MTC. They are hilarious. They fit into our missionary group perfectly. It was fun meeting them and kind of giving them the low down of the area. :) That night, the ward members invited us to attend Young Women in Excellence. That was so special for me cause it has been years since I have been to one of those. The young women in our ward are just amazing and it was fun to see the progress they have made through out the year. It was just a wonderful night.

Well, there is my week! It was good! :) I still just can't believe I am on a mission.Haha Sometimes, it just hits me and I freak out a little. But, I am so glad I am here. This truly is so hard. Being away from my family is still something I struggle with daily, but I am growing. I am being molded into the instrument that My Heavenly Father needs me to be so that I can find the people here in Iowa that I promised to find. It is a wonderful feeling to know that I will go home better than when I got here.

I say this every week, but I love you all and I miss you sooooooo much! I am constantly praying for all of you. Everyday I feel so blessed to be part of such and amazing family. You are all wonderful and I love you!!!

Until next week,

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

My new winter coat. Haha I kind of love it. :)

The aftermath of our awesome painting party part 2. :) Haha like 2 seconds after I got there I leaned up against the wall and painted my bum. No shame.

My yummy "Nutella" cupcake. This one is for you Mom! :)

Iowas "mommy and me" toilets. Haha makes me laugh so hard...

First Baptism!!!

This week, on Wednesday to be exact, will be my official "I have been away from home for 2 months" mark. Can you believe that?? I am literally shocked. Haha There have been a couple times I didn't think I would make it. I have though and it is because I have amazing family who supports me and an AMAZING Heavenly Father who loves me so much so he blesses me daily with a reason to stay.

I just have to start with the most important thing. I have to tell my big brother Taylor how proud I am of him. He received his mission call this week to Argentina. What an example! Taylor, you truly are a blessing in my life and I KNOW that you have been called to Argentina for a reason. There are people there who need to hear YOUR testimony of the restored gospel. Know that I love you and that you are always in my prayers. Everyone, make sure you give him a big hug for me when you see him!

Alright, because of a lack of time, I am just going to tell you a couple cool experiences from the week.

Monday: Kind of funny experience tonight. We were scheduled to have dinner with a member and they decided to just take us out. So we pull up to the restaurant and it is a bar. A legit bar.  It sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke... it was quite the experience. Haha...

Tuesday: We walked into a gas station for some drinks and the guy at the register started talking to us and we asked him if he knew who we were and he said, "Well yea, your missionaries. You're hittin the pavement for Jesus." Haha greatest thing I heard all day.

Wednesday: We found a new investigator! Her name is Linda and she is darling. She accepted the invitation to be baptized and we know that she will. She is quite the smoker though, but I know that if she will let it, the gospel will help her with that. I'll keep you updated!

Thursday: This day was kind of hard for me. We had district meeting and found out that an Elder I had come in with decided to go home. He was on a plane during district meeting. That was kind of hard for me. I couldn't quite decide if it was making me homesick or giving me a desire to work harder. Haha I still haven't decided... Thursday night was when our exchanges started with the STL's! So fun!

Friday: I got the most amazing Halloween package from my mom! Give her a giant hug for me when you see her. :)   Just a good day of planning and working. Friday night was super fun though! Most of you know that I have a secret cookie recipe, and on Friday I made "my cookies." They were bomb! The Price family loved them and they were a perfect treat to make for conference. :)

Saturday: What a great day! All the missionaries in our area (about 50) went to the stake center to watch conference. What a powerful experience! One of my favorite things said was from President Uchtdorf. "Doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith." What amazing counsel, especially for missionaries! Between the sessions, I, Sister Jensen, had my first baptism. Tyler was finally baptized and was confirmed the newest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What an amazing experience. To watch this 13 year old boy in white descend into the waters of baptism and be made clean... Wow. That is why I am here. I am here to help my brothers and sisters know how special the Gospel is. What a wonderful gift from my Heavenly Father. And to make the day even better, I went home to a package from my amazing sister with 17 PICTURES of my boys! Can you imagine?? Lets just say I was a happy camper. Haha BEST DAY EVER!!

Sunday: We had been invited by a member over to their house to watch general conference with a less active member of the ward. She fed us the most amazing breakfast! WAY better than the cereal we eat every day. ;) Sunday conference was awesome! I was hoping President Monson would announce some new Temples or something cause he didn't on Saturday, I guess that will have to wait till April. :) After the first session, we came back home and watched the second session with the Price Family. They are like our mission family so it was so fun to watch it with them!

Well, that is my crazy, amazing week! So much more happened, but because of time I couldn't share it all dang it! Just know though that I love you all! I truly am incredibly blessed to be part of such an amazing family who loves and supports me! You all are such great examples to me and I thank my Heavenly Father for you every day. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

One of the things I will miss most about Iowa. The amazing sunsets.

My district! Transfers happen this week so we just had to take a pic. :) Alright top row: Elder Leishman, Elder Leavitt (District Leader), Elder Mealy (Elder serving in my ward, Brazil Visa waiter), Elder Hodges (Also serving in my ward, us sisters  Elders Kneeling: Elder Payne, Elder Tappen(Brazil Visa waiter as well). Basically this is the greatest district ever!

Exchanges with our awesome Sister Training Leaders! Left to right: Hermana Collazos was with me, and then Hermana Stroud was with Sister Barker! We learned so much and it was a great experience

My sweet cookie making skills. :)

Tyler and his mom Ruth. :)

A picture I will cherish for the rest of my life. :)

The only other Sisters on our zone. Left to right: Sister Cannon, me, Sister Nye, Sister Barker. We are pretty tight. :)

In my 12 week training period, I get to be senior companion for a week 2 times. This week coming up is my week which means, I get to drive. Haha I haven't driven in 8 weeks so keep us in your prayers. :)

Settling In

Well. I would just like to start out by saying this was the longest week of my mission so far. SOOOO LONG! Sister Barker said it was for her as well. It just seemed to go on forever! I felt like I haven't emailed home in weeks! Time is so crazy on the mission...

I have just one shout out this week, but it's a pretty important one. This one goes out to my amazing brother Taylor. He submitted his mission papers and should be getting his call this week or next I think. How awesome is that?? My mom wrote that in her letter, and my heart just rejoiced! A little selfish thought came to mind too... I get to serve a mission at the same time as my brother. How blessed are we Tay?? :) He is an amazing example to me and Tay, I know that this will be one of the greatest things you will ever do. I always say this... but a mission is hard. really hard, but it is worth it. Make sure you all give him a hug for me when you see him and tell him I am proud of him!

Time for my usual week in a nutshell:

Monday: Monday is always good. I get to talk to my family, do my wash, take a nap, and play air hockey. So, life is usually pretty sweet. We switched it up a little this week though and got haircuts! Our sweet Bishop's wife has a salon in her house and does free missionary haircuts. Haha it was awesome. She even washed it and mom, you know how much I love that. :)

Tuesday: If I had to pick a day on my mission where there were so many ups and downs.. today would be that day. It started out fantastic with a trainers meeting with President and Sister Jensen and the AP's. They gave some awesome instruction and really just got us pumped up to get out and work. Afterwards we went to lunch and of course, it was Chipotle again. Haha I have an addiction people. No shame. That was when my homesickness hit me. I have been feeling so much better these last couple weeks and this week for some reason was just hard. Especially Tuesday. Of course though, we still had to go out and work. Well, because I have a loving Heavenly Father who loves to humble me, we found a new investigator. Our first one in 3 weeks! We are blessed here in Iowa! I also got a package from my mom that night. I just have to say that all moms are great, but I am pretty sure mine is the best. She always seems to know when to send letters and packages so they arrive just at the right time. :) There was one thing I heard on Tuesday that really stuck out to me, and something I really want to apply to everyday. YOMO. You're only a missionary once. YOMO!

Wednesday:  Very slow day. Nothing too exciting. But, I heard a quote that I wanted to share. "We don't know who is on the other side of that door, but the Lord does." Cool right??

Thursday: Every Thursday is district meeting which is always great! For reals, the best Elders are in my district. We can laugh hysterically together and then also have some amazing spiritual experiences together. Since I was still feeling homesick, I asked my district leader Elder Leavitt for a blessing. It was awesome because one of my zone leaders Elder Maughn, and then Elder Van Woerkam (AP) particaipated in it. How cool is that?? Definitely a blessing I will never forget. On fun thing was that this week it is homecoming at the high school in Winterset. Well, this is such a small town that everyone and their dog gets involved in high school stuff. So Thursday night literally everyone in town got toilet papered by somebody....including us! Haha the house was destroyed by toilet paper! Even our car! It was so fun, even though we had to maintain the dignity of our calling and not participate. Haha it took some restraint people. I just remembered my glory days of toilet papering the Burr family... life was good. :)

Friday: Slow day... again. The town was just dead cause people were getting ready for the big game that night! Our dinner appointment fell through so a sister in our ward was so darling and took us out to eat at Panda Express. Aren't our ward members awesome?!? When we got back to town, the game had started so there was literally NO ONE around. Haha we kind of just walked around aimlessly. We could hear the drums from miles away. So sweet! I also got a letter from my Uncle Kyle that night. Thank you so much Kyle for the amazing talk! I read it and just love it.

Saturday: Lots of ups and downs today. One of our investigators who we thought was doing so well, asked us to not contact her for a while. My heart was literally crushed. She said she just needed some time to figure out if this was what she wanted. Missionary work is so great and at times so heart breaking at others. Gotta find a balance I guess. Because it was kind of a rough morning, Frostees for lunch again. Haha I am pretty sure they know us by name there. Once again, no shame. :) That night we got to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast meeting. How amazing was that?!?! The messages that were shared inspired me so deeply. And just seeing the choir full of missionaries was overwhelming. Every once in a while it just hits me that I am a missionary. It's cool. :) If you didn't watch the broadcast.. DO! So uplifting and inspiring! This was also the day I received the letter from my mom telling me Taylor had submitted his papers. Lets just say, it was a great night. :)

Sunday: Fast Sundays are always fantastic! Especially in my ward! The testimonies that people share are just incredible! I used quite a couple tissues during that sacrament meeting. Shocker, I know. We also were asked to work in the nursery for second hour. What a hard thing to do when you can't hold children! Haha Sister Barker and I didn't quite know what to do. Quite the experience. Since it is the end of the month, we were running a little low on miles so we ended up doing our studies at the pavilion by our church. Haha we got some weird looks for sure. We always just seem to laugh a little louder and smile a little bigger when people who are not members walk by... I wonder why... ;) We had dinner a little early since we were starving. The family who had us join them is just darling! They are an older couple who are taking care of their 5 year old granddaughter. Dinner was exceptionally good! I guess though on fast Sunday, it usually is. Haha! On our way home, we stopped at our neighbors house. They are a wonderful family! They are not members of the church but we stop by about once a week to just say hi. They aren't quite ready to hear our lessons yet, so we are just going to love and friendship them into the church. Great plan I know!

Well, exciting week right?? We have better plans for this week so hopefully I will have more to tell you next Monday. Man, I miss all of you! I am so blessed to have a family that loves and supports me in all that I do. Heavenly Father must love me a lot because he sent me to be apart of the best family ever! Just know that I am constantly praying for you all! Remember to always thank your Father in Heaven for the things that you are privileged to have. Remember to thank him for the hard times as well. That sounds weird I know, but he is giving you the chance to draw nearer to him and to your Savior. What a blessing! I love you all and am so grateful for each and every one of you! 

-Sister Jensen

"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

First day wearin the rain coat. I absolutely love the rain so it was awesome! Luckily, we had a store in town that had a good sale. That is the court house behind me. Gorgeous right??

How I like to do weekly planning. I like to keep things fresh here in Iowa. :)

Our pet bird Oscar came and stayed with us again this week. We love him. :) Haha there is a couple in our ward and whenever they go out of town, the Price family birdsits for them. We love it.

The wise words from our panda excursion. They are taped to our car dashboard so we never forget them. :)

Me and Sister Barker with the AP's (assistants to the President) Elder Saunders (right) and Elder Van Woerkam (left). Elder Van Woerkam actually goes home in 2 weeks which is super weird. They are both just amazing people and missionaries!