When You Believe!

THERE CAN BE MIRACLES, WHEN YOU BELIEVE!! (Sorry I just went a little "Prince of Egypt" on ya... had to do it.) Kay. Seriously though. What a week. Whew.
Monday: Kind of a crazy day! We had some fun plans for the night, so we decided to go out and work a little in the morning. We did some tracting and then went and stopped by to see Sister Penner. That lady. Goodness gracious I love her. Sister Cole had never been to her house before so of course she had to give us a tour, and then we just sat and talked for a little bit. She was able to tell us some things that she was struggling with in her scripture reading, and we were able to help her. Then it was p-day time. We just did the normal thing of email time, games at the church, and then groceries. Great p-day! That night, we hung out  with the Allens! The Prices non-member neighbors. Haha I love them. We ate dinner and then just sat and played games. They are so chill. :)
Tuesday: We did a lot of finding today! I am pretty sure though that the potentials page in my planner filled up, so that was great. :) Heavenly Father is putting a lot of people in our path. We also had the opportunity to go and see the Green family and share with them "Reflections of Christ." Dang, I love that movie!! It invited the spirit so strong and we were able to just bear our testimony of the realness of Jesus Christ. Great lesson! Oh and I can't forget... bingo was today. :)
Wednesday: Well the day started off pretty great with teaching Karma the word of wisdom. Being bold is the best. :) After that, we went to service again and got to get down and dirty... planting flowers. Inside. Haha my Grandmas would be so proud... :) When they start growing, I will have to send a picture. After that we went and visited this referral that we had gotten from a former investigator. Well, Lisa is now our newest investigator!! WOO HOO! She is soooo prepared! We invited her to be baptized and she could hardly contain her excitement. I am pretty sure we didn't even finish the sentence before she blurted out a yes. :) We are so excited and happy for her!
Thursday: Such a great day! We had the opportunity to do some Zone training today and it was just completely inspired. The Hermanas trained on how we can be focused on our purpose even after the excitedness wears off from the MTC (totally true), and then the Zone Leaders trained on having effective studies. Seriously those trainings were so INCREDIBLE!!! Have a I ever told you that I have like the best Zone ever? Haha We all went to lunch at the mall afterwards which is always just fun. We pretty much take up about half the food court. No shame. :) After that, we had a dinner appt. in Van Meter but they ended up cancelling on us so we just did some tracting for about 3 hours. I am just glad I wore my mountain boots. Mud for days!
Friday: Shocker shocker... we did weekly planning today! It was actually really good! Probably one of the most productive ones I have ever had. Must be cause we actually have people to plan for now. :) Haha kidding. We didn't have a dinner appt. that night so we decided to go a little crazy and drive to Earlham. MIRACLES!!! We had this former investigator that we were going to try and find so when we got into town we walked to the address it said on the paper. The lady who answered said that nobody by that name lived there. Old Sister Jensen would have been like, "Oh darn. Better luck next time." But trainer Sister Jensen was like, "Oh heck yeah. PRIME OPPORTUNITY." I pulled out the best card I could think of... "Well, Ashley was interested in the message we have to share, would you be interested?" We now have an appt. with Kim on Thursday. Haha YES! The spirit is the best. :) It was a good day in Earlham. That night, the Prices left for a week cause it is spring break. Please excuse me while I sit in fetal position and cry. I am so spoiled... I am going to miss them a little too much.
Saturday: I think that it is pretty safe to say that I am spoiled AGAIN.  President McConkie of the Sunday School Presidency came to Des Moines yesterday to do a training for all the Sunday school, primary, and all the other teachers on the stake. All the missionaries were so sad cause we were not allowed to go. Well, we got a text on Thursday saying that President McConkie wanted to met with us before the actual meeting. They only had 3 zones out of the whole mission go and ours was one that was chosen. SUCH A GOOD TRAINING!!! That man is probably one of the most humble men I have ever met. He just smiled at you, and you instantly felt his love for you. What an experience! I encourage you all to go back and read his talk from this last conference. It is so inspired! So after that whole experience, we decided to all go to lunch so we headed to the mall... again. Well, traumatizing experience. On the way... I killed my first squirrel. I didn't have time to maneuver the car and I just squished him. Dead. Gono. That killed the spirit real quick. Then to make it all worse, Sister Cole told me it was probably a mom going to feed her little squirrellings. Tears for days. You better believe I prayed for the squirrels family.  We went to Winterset and had another lesson with Lisa. It was so gooood!!! We invited her to be baptized on May 10, which I am so excited for! Chances are I will probably be gone by then, but hey. Is cool. Still a great lesson! After that we went and checked up on another referral. Holy moly. What an experience. This lady basically just scared the crap out of us. Basically told us she has been risen from the dead, she has risen people from the dead, she saw the Devil, etc. Only in Iowa people... only in Iowa. Probably one of the scariest things of my life... it is crazy how lonely you feel when you don't have the spirit with you... It was just one of those experiences where you are SOOO grateful for the gospel in your life. We are so blessed!
Sunday: LISA CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!! She had such a great experience and the ward just embraced her so much. What a blessing it is to have a ward that is so aware and so involved. After church, the Barbers had invited us over so we went there and just had a great time. That family... so great. After that we had a little bit of time so we decided to go see the Erdman family! They were actually home. MIRACLE! We were able to talk to Tyler for a second and just kind of ask him what is going on. I miss that kid... One day though. One day he will get it.
Well, I think the jist of this week is that God lives. HE IS SO AWARE OF US!!! If any of you ever doubt that please understand that he KNOWS you. He LOVES you. He is HELPING you! I don't think I can say that enough. Heavenly Father is so aware! The video I want to share this week really just shows us his love for each of us.
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001
I am pretty sure I have sent this before, but I just love it. I am so grateful to know that I am the daughter of a loving Heavenly Father. He knows me perfectly, and he still loves me. I am grateful to be one of his missionaries. God is so good!
I love each of you and pray that you will recognize the hand of God in you life each day. Have a great week!
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

Oh ya know... I'm just a big dog riding Sister Missionary. :)

When there is a puppy that is this cute... ya better believe I need a pic or two.

Semana Encantadora!

Such a great week! Pretty much the opposite of last week, so that is good. :) Here is the run-down:
Monday: Just your normal p-day. Email, laundry, groceries, violent games at the church with the Elders. All that good stuff. :) The Bishop and his wife fed all 6 of the missionaries in our ward, so that was fun to go to their house. After dinner we had some extra time so we went and saw Linda and Ann so that Sister Cole could meet them. Those 2 are just the sweetest! After that we came home and just had a chill night.
Tuesday: CRAZIEST DAY EVER. Who would have thought that today I would be in Des Moines all day speaking Spanish. Yep. Exchanges are the greatest! :) Usually when we do exchanges, the Hermanas just come to our area and we all take different towns. This time they decided I needed some time away from Winterset so I went to Des Moines with Hermana Phelps.  It was so great... except that I only know about 10 words in Spanish. Haha pretty much all day I just nodded at everything they said and just passed out Mormon.org cards like candy. :) I am very proud of myself though... that night we had dinner with an Hermana in their branch and she fed us a big ole' plate of spaghetti with a GIANT heaping mound of shrimp on top. I choked down about ten pieces of shrimp and was havin a hard time so I distracted Hermana Apaio while Hermana Phelps ate the shrimp off my plate. Haha it was pretty stealthy. That night we had a really amazing experience! We weren't quite sure where to go so we sat in the car for a couple minutes while Hermana Phelps looked through the people on her GPS. I looked over for a second and told her we should visit one of the Former Investigators she had on a list. She said that she had never seen that name before and didn't even know it was on the list. So we prayed about it and decided it was a good place to go. Went and knocked on the door, and an investigator they haven't been able to find for about 2 months answered the door. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?! Heavenly Father is so good. We were able to get her contact info and make an appt. Such a cool experience! Just goes to show that the Spirit can help you no matter what the situation is. :) A lot of the people we were suppose to see ditched us today .:( 
Wednesday: It was so weird being back in my area! Haha I felt like I had been away for about a week! And I will admit... the English was nice. :) We just did a lot of finding today! We did that for a couple hours and then headed to the Greens. We planned on teaching Karma but they weren't home so we ended up teaching Karissa the Plan of Salvation. Haha that girl is so cute. She just loves Jesus so much, it's inspiring. :) Towards the end of our lesson, Karma came in just bawling. She is going through some really rough things right now, so we invited her to just listen to the end of the lesson so that she could feel the spirit. Then Shadae came in and pulled out her computer. A couple weeks ago, we had showed her the church's youth website and she came and sat down and said, "We should listen to a song." Why yes, we should. Totally inspired! I pulled up this song and the spirit was undeniable. We testified to all of them of Father in Heaven and Jesus Christs love for them. It was a very powerful moment. I absolutely love this song...
https://www.lds.org/youth/music?lang=eng
That night, we had dinner with the Turners. They are such a fun family! They have 7 kids and 4 are adopted from China. All 4 of them have some kind of disability, and they are just the cutest. They had us laughin all night!
Thursday: Kind of a crazy day! We had to be in Des Moines at 10 for our new trainers meeting which was just fantastic. President and Sister Jensen, and the Assistants all gave wonderful trainings! After that we did our studies and then headed to district meeting. We had a little bit of time after that so we decided to do some finding in Van Meter. It was weird... haha it felt like a ghost town. Out of the 50 doors we knocked, 1 answered. Haha very productive day.
Friday: Weekly planning session! We did that for a while and then headed to the Jackson's for dinner with all the Elders.  Pretty interesting... they have a 5 year old son named Jaden who is so cute and just so crazy! So we we were all just sitting in the living room waiting for dinner to finish cooking and Jaden just comes over and lifts up the skirt. Just lifts it up. Those poor Elders... haha. Luckily, I wore leggings instead of tights today. Tender mercy. Oh, the life of a Sister Missionary. :) That night we experienced a miracle!!!!! We had some time before going home so we decided to find this less active who I have never met... I had left my GPS at home and our map was lost, so we went purely by the spirit to find this guys house. No joke, within 5 minutes we were knocking on his door. Such a blessing!
Saturday: Probably one of the busiest days of my mission. We were just running around everywhere today! We got a lot done though, so that is good. We were in Winterset today and started out tracting in one of the trailer courts. We were there for about 1 hour and found 4 potentials, and set up 4 appts. for next week. That never happens. We were literally in shock the whole time. Trailer park miracles people. That's not somethin ya hear everyday. One of the people we found was Binky. Binky was very skeptical at first, but eventually let us sit down and we just listened as she told us her life story and some really hard trials she has had these last couple years. It was such an amazing experience to testify to her that we were sent to her for a reason, and that this is what she is looking for. We left her with a Restoration pamphlet, and we will see this week what she thought about it! After that we did some Mormon.org time, and then headed to see Beverly, the 86 year old recent convert. We went and painted her nails again and read her an amazing talk from President Eyring. (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/05/mountains-to-climb) Before we headed home we went to our appt. at the McCalls. I love that family! In these 7 months I have been here (oh p.s. I turn 7 months on Friday. Holy moly. Freaks me out. Had a crying attack about it last night. No shame. ) Anyways, I have seen the McCall family grow a lot in these 7 months I have been here. They are such a great family! Can't wait for the day when they will be sealed as a family.
Sunday: Great Sunday as always. :) Church was amazing, and the talks and lessons given were truly inspired. We had an apptWest Des Moines that night so we decided to do our studies at the church to save in miles. I never realized how loud the church was until then... haha goodness gracious. Once we finished those, we headed to the Elgs and had dinner with them. Then we headed home and did some training. Woooo. This week seriously was FULL of so many miracles and tender mercies. Wouldn't ya know they have a mormon message which portrays this perfectly... :)
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911029453001
I love this video. As a missionary, I have learned to become more aware of the tender mercies in my life. I have noticed just how much Heavenly Father is aware of me, and how much he blesses me. That is probably one of the greatest things I have learned in my 7 months here in Iowa... if we take the time, we will notice all the Tender Mercies the Lord gives to us. We just have to look. One thing that I have started doing is every night I write down just a couple tender mercies from the day, and truly it has changed the way I approach each day. I am excited to get up and get going, so that I can look for more. I invite and encourage you all to try this for a week, and I promise you will begin to be more aware of the many blessings around you that you Father is Heaven has blessed you with.
I love you all so very much. I am grateful for the examples in my life who have helped me get to where I am. I am especially grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. He has held me through a lot of tough times and even the good times. I feel very blessed to be counted among one of His missionaries. I love this work. I love this Gospel. I love my Savior and Father in Heaven. God bless!

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

My companion is a champ. Sometimes when you have been finding all day you have to get creative... as in knocking on the window of a car with two people inside makin out hard core and asking them if they want to learn about Jesus Christ. But hey, when you make an appt. with them for the next week I would say it is a success. :)

Raccoon River Valentines dinner from February. One of my favorite
people ever... Kathy  :)

"I thought I was serving in Raccoon River. No one told me it was
Raccoon Road... kill." :)

Break-ups, Chocolate and Poetry

Hmmmmm.... well. This week was probably the weirdest week on my mission.... Between getting grounded 4 times, the Prices being out of town, and getting "broken up with" by too many people to count... it made for a pretty interesting week. Let me tell ya about it.
Monday: Definitely an interesting day... I got some news from home that made me sad. My testimony of the
Priesthood grew immensely though... I realized, again, that I can have comfort and gain strength from my Heavenly Father through Priesthood blessings.  Boy, did he give it to me. The Elder who have me the blessing had no idea what had happened, but his words comforted me like he had. SO powerful! THE PRIESTHOOD IS REAL! That night, we went home cause we had gotten grounded and Sister Price could tell that something was wrong, so I kind of talked it out with her and she just gave me a big mamma hug. Holy moly I love that woman. She is truly an angel!
Tuesday: ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! Ahhhh. So needed. The trainings that were given and testimonies shared were exactly what I needed. Have I ever told you how much I love my mission? Cause I do. A lot. I am privileged to serve with a lot of amazing people. That night, we had dinner with the Trimbles at a cute little Mexican restaurant in Winterset! About half of the relief society came too! :) They were doing book club after so they all met up to eat. I really felt like I was living "Bugs Life".... "They come. They eat. They leave." :) It was great though.
Wednesday: Because of the cold today, we weren't allowed to do any walking. Not being able to walk makes doing missionary work pretty dang hard. We are blessed though because we have a car so we were able to still go out, we just had to drive to each place. We did crafts for service of course, and then just drove around to see different people. We decided to go to Mutual cause we hadn't been in a while and it would be a good use of our time. It is always so fun to bond with the youth in the ward. They are amazing kids! Today, we had set a goal for ourselves to pass out 5 Mormon.org cards, but because of the no walking rule we weren't really able to do that. So, on our way home we decided to stop by a couple gas stations and offer salvation to those working. It was great! :) Hey, we passed out 4 out of the 5. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Thursday: Wooooo. Again... no walking. Because we had Zone conference this week we didn't have district meeting so it was just a normal day. We had some extra miles so we decided to visit some people who we normally don't get to cause they live far. Apparently it was just one of those days where everyone decided to not be home.
Friday: Usually we do weekly planning today but since it was the last day of the month, we had like 200 miles left over. We first went to visit Sister Costello who is a single sister. She has had a lot of health problems recently and hasn't been able to clean her house, so we decided to be the girls that we are and we helped her clean. A lot. Hahaha I don't think I have ever mopped so much in my life. It was great though and she was so thankful so it made it all worth it. After that, we tried to go see Tammy, the lady that Sister Wolfgramm and I taught. She wasn't home but we were able to leave a note on her door so hopefully she calls us. After that we stopped by the Erdmans house cause Tyler's little sister Tabitha was turning 12. I made my "famous" cookies and we took them over to tell her happy birthday. :)  We ended our night with the Tunneys. That family.... SO COOL! Their youngest son Gavin was turning 6 so we just celebrated with them. It was weird coming home because the Prices had left town that afternoon to go to South Dakota. Lets just say that I do not like it when the Prices are gone. Haha I felt like my family was going on vacation and they were leaving me behind. I might be a little attached to these people.
Saturday: Weekly planning! We did that until about 3 and then headed to the Stake Center for a baptism! Her name is Martha and she was taught by a set of Elders in our ward. She is so amazing! She is now the only member of the church in her family and she is just so solid! Seeing her enter the waters of baptism was such a tender mercy for me. Also....it was Sister Coles 1 MONTH CLICK DAY!!!! So weird... haha it took me back.... that night we got grounded again so we went home at about 6 and just did our thing. Took weird pictures of course. :)
Sunday: We did the normal studies in the morning and then headed to church, which was just fantastic! Martha was confirmed and that was just amazing! I got to sit by her in sacrament and after she was confirmed she came and sat down and just bawled and then turned to me and said, "I felt it," with all the sincerity of her heart! I love that woman! After church, since it was fast Sunday we just went straight to work. We weren't allowed to walk again so we just had to drive everywhere. So we decided to go see Joey. He is 15 years old and was baptized about 2 weeks before I got here. He basically told us to stop coming by cause he didn't believe it and he never did. Woah. Dagger to the heart... Sometimes agency just really makes me mad. And sad. We just got in the car and sat there for a couple minutes and then just prayed for him. I guess that's all you can do. After that we headed into Winterset for an appt. with the Greens and they totally bailed on us. So we went to check up on a referral and the address didn't exist. So we went and knocked an apartment building.  On the first door we knocked the guy basically told us that God doesn't give a crap about the universe. After all these slaps in the face, we decided to go see the Allens. Haha they won't reject us... we just talked with them for a little bit and then headed home for dinner and training. And chocolate... lots of chocolate. And tears. Then we got a text reminding us that we were supposed to be grounded today, so we found out that we were obediently disobedient. It was kind of a hard day... but those happen. I am just grateful that today is a new day. :)
Well, that was my week. Pretty crazy huh? I never expected missionary work to be so up and down. But, I definitely draw strength in knowing that God is aware of me and that he loves me. He knows that these
trials and struggles will make me stronger. I am grateful for the trust he has put in me to take on these challenges. So something that I wanted to share with all of you is something that I learned at Zone Conference. Some of the Sister Training Leaders in our mission talked about the Light of Christ and they said something that really hit me. They said, "The light of Christ within people draws them to the Holy Ghost." I have thought about that a lot lately, and I have realized even more so than before that everything happens for a reason. There is a reason that person was your cashier, there is a reason that person sat by you at that sports game, there is a reason you talked to that person on the phone. All of those people were there at that specific time because they were hearkening to the light of Christ within them. That is why reaching out to everyone is so critical. There is a reason that they are with you in that very moment... they are drawn to the Holy Ghost that you have been given. I KNOW that God has a hand in everything. There are no coincidences people. Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I pray for your safety and happiness daily. Know that I love you and I am grateful for you all. God bless! I LOVE YOU!!!
-Sister Jensen
'Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

P.S.- This poem describes last week pretty perfectly. Thought I would share. :)
It's winter in Iowa
and the gentle breezes blow
seventy miles an hour
at 35 below

oh, how I love Iowa
when the snows up to your butt
you take a breath of winter
and your nose gets frozen shut

yes, the weather here is wonderful
so I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave Iowa
I'm frozen to the ground

1/3 of the Iowa Des Moines Mission. :)

We take craft time very seriously. Haha the little elderly ladies just kept
tellin us we looked so beautiful. I just love them!

You know you have become a true, hard workin missionary when you have "tacos" in
-10 degree weather... I am so proud. :)

This is what results from being grounded 4 times in 7 days

Chuggin Right Along

Well, just another week in paradise. And by paradise I mean Winterset, Iowa. :) This week was just a normal missionary week. Nothing too exciting, but a good one none the less. I just have to start by giving a shout out to my cousin Chloe! She received her mission call this week to.... CHILE!!! AHHHHHH! So great. :) Chile will be getting one amazing girl! I am so proud of her and all that she has done. Love you Chlo!
Tuesday: So, after we emailed we went and did our normal Tuesday thang and played bingo with "the girls." Holy moly I love them! Hahaha every time they see me with a new Sister they just tease me, but I love it. After that we were able to see the Greens. They are doing so good! They are all progressing nicely and I have no doubt that they will all be baptized soon. We were able to teach them the restoration of the gospel, and it was a good lesson. Every time I have the opportunity to teach and testify of the restoration, I just get a stronger affirmation that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that truly, God loves us! We had a little bit of time left after the Greens so we went and visited Beverly. That lady is such an example to me. She is about 86 years old, been a member for almost 2 years, has had so many trials and hardships since her baptism, but is still a very faithful member of the Church.  
Wednesday: Kind of a crazy packed day! We had an awesome zone training meeting. It was so fun getting to see our zone, our Sister Training Leaders, and the Assistants to the President. That trainings shared were so inspired, and exactly what we all needed. Crazy how Heavenly Father works. ;) After wards we all went to lunch together and just had a blast. All of us sat together and decided to play the "would you rather" game. Haha best get to know you game I have ever played. :) We pretty much all just laughed to the point of tears.  We stopped to see Joey so that Sister Cole could meet him and also to just check up on him. It is always so sad to see people who were baptized and given the priesthood who fall away. Especially so young... I am grateful though for the opportunity we have to help Joey. I know that Heavenly Father will help us know what he needs. That night, we had dinner with the Bishop's Sister Dianne. She is so great! She lives with Bishop, but is not a member (yet.) :) She somehow found out that some members had fed the Elders steak and felt bad for us, so we basically just devoured a cow that night. :)
Thursday: The morning started out so beautiful... and then came the rain. And then the ice. And then the hail. And then the Tornado. Kidding Mom! NO tornado, but there was a CRAZY blizzard! You know what that means... ga-rounded. I basically just read a lot of the Book of Mormon and then we watched all the movies that we had cause Sister Cole had never seen any of them. That night Heavenly Father threw us a curve ball and un-grounded us around 7:45ish. We decided to be obedient and go out so we knocked doors for about 20 minutes. Haha it was great. And cold. :)
Friday: Weekly planning! Woo! Sister Cole is doing so marvelous! She was able to contribute a lot to our weekly planning, which was nice. :) When we finished that we headed into De Soto and knocked some doors, slipped on some ice, laughed till we peed. Ya know... just the normal. Then we headed to the Jacksons for dinner with the Elders!  We must have liked to "would you rather" game a lot cause we played it again tonight. :) The Jacksons are just hilarious and gave the GREATEST answers. :)
Saturday: Jam packed day! You know it's a good day when all the plans that you made got changed to something better. :) We were able to do some Mormon.org time, which was cool cause Sister Cole had never really been on the websites so it was awesome to show her around. After that we were able to do some service for this lady in Winterset. Joan. Sweet Joan. :) She is a lady that Sister Barker and I met back in September but conflicting schedules always made it hard for us to get together. Finally, we were able to find a time and we ended staying at her house doing service for about 2 hours. She is starting to like us now. :) We have another appt. with her on Wednesday so prayers would be appreciated! Then we had unexpected dinner plans with the Tunneys! That family. Holy moly. I love them with all my heart. Brother Tunney is a master chef and made the most amazing orange chicken and we ate on the floor. Haha doesn't get better than that! We had to kind of hurry there though cause we needed to go see the Greens. We stopped by and poor Karissa had fallen on the ice and smacked her head. So we weren't able to stay very long, but she is so sweet and still wanted to read some of the Book of Mormon so we did. On our way out of town, we stopped by the McCalls house and taught them about patriarchal blessings with Brother Tunney. What a powerful lesson! Rhonda was confused on the difference between a regular priesthood blessing and a patriarchal blessing so we got to explain that to her, and the Spirit was just so strong. It makes me so grateful to have my blessing to refer to literally daily. What a gift!
Sunday: This was an amazing Sunday for me... full of a lot of revelation and just love. My Heavenly Father helped me out a lot today! I have been stressed lately with training Sister Cole. I can tell that this is all pretty overwhelming for her, and I am trying to adjust and it has just been a big week. Heavenly Father really blessed me with a lot of inspiration on how to help not only myself but her as well. God is so good! He knew that I needed help and he was mindful. That night, we decided to go and see the Allens! We just laughed with them and made plans for a future family night. We are excited! :)
Today: So far today we have just done a lot of cleaning.  After letter writing, we are headed to the church to play some rad games with our zone. Such a great p-day! :) Well, that has been my week here in Winterset. I don't think I will ever get tired of this place! I am convinced it is the greatest area in the Iowa Des Moines Mission. :) The talks that were given this week in Church were so inspired! They were about being a light to others. Being an example of your values. Really exemplifying Jesus Christ in your countenance. What a beautiful topic! I decided to leave you with a talk AND a video this week because they both touched me very deeply. I encourage all of you to watch and to read these links, and then to kneel down and ask your Heavenly Father what you can do to hasten the work.
http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=2004
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1211362956001#.Uwj6dkq9nuQ.email
I am grateful for all of you reading this right now. You have all been amazing lights in my life, and I know that whether you know it or not, you are lights to someone else. Shine like you KNOW how to shine! Shine like a child of God. I pray that you will all have a great and safe week. God bless! :)
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

My study buddy, Oscar.

Only in Iowa can it be 58 degrees one minute and a hail storm the next.

I have gotten quite used to never knowing if its mud or poo...

The good ole' family tradition. :)

New Mama

This was probably one of the craziest weeks on my mission so far. Goodness gracious. I went through 3 companions, a transfer meeting, meeting my baby, and a holiday. Woah. CARAZY! Anyways, it was a good
week though. :)
Monday: Since transfers were this week, Monday was just a regular day. Sister Wolfgramm left so Hermana Howell spent a couple days with me. We get along so so great so we just laughed all day long. And did some work. :) We had a great lesson with the Greens! We read 3 Nephi 11 with them and they were so interested in reading about Jesus Christ in the Americas. Haha man, I love that family!
Tuesday: Hermana Howell and I pretty much spent all day delivering invitations to the wards Valentines party. We got to see a lot of people we normally don't so it was a total tender mercy! That night we had dinner with the Scotts. They are just so sweet! After that we went to the Tunneys and just had fun with them and laughed and ate chocolate. Doesn't get better than that.
Wednesday: A full packed p-day!! We literally spent the entire day runnin around! Hermana Howell had to go to Costco, I had to go to Walmart, we went to the church to see my district, we went to the stake center to see her district. Haha it was just crazy! It was a good p-day though.
Thursday: Woah. Transfers. Since I was training, we had to be in Iowa City by 8:45 for a meeting I got to go to. Which meant leaving Des Moines around 6 am. It was a long morning. The meeting was for all the people training, and President Jensen basically just makes you feel better about yourself. Haha I walked in though and everybody was pretty much already there and there was only on other sister. Well, President walks in and starts and the first thing he does is look to us Sisters and says, "Well Sisters, there is one English speaking Sister and one Spanish speaking Sister coming in this transfer. Out of all the English and Spanish speaking Sisters throughout the mission, Heavenly Father chose you to train them." Holy. Moly. NO pressure... at all. I think he meant for it to pump us up, haha but it pretty much freaked me out! So of course, the whole meeting I was just sweatin bullets, but it's fine. It lasted about 2 hours and then we all went into the chapel and started transfers. President Jensen and his 2 counselors, President Johnson and President Jeppsen, all gave wonderful trainings. I love this mission! Then the moment of truth... transfer doctrine. Luckily, President always does our zone first so I didn't have to wait to long to know... "Sister Jensen will continue to serve in Winterset and she will be training a new Sister... Sister Cole!" Yay! Sister Cole!!! She is so great. :) She is 20 years old and is from St. George, UT. She is just hilarious! We have a very similar background story so we have a lot in common. We get along great! We just laugh... a lot. :) That night she experienced her first lesson when we went and taught the McCall family about the Family Proclamation. She was a little dazed but she did great!
Friday: MY official 6 month mark. Um... what? Where the  heck has 6 months gone?!?!?!?! Legit, it freaks me out.  We spent the day inside! We basically just went over a lot of stuff that Sister Cole would need to know to survive the next 12 weeks. Lets just say that she knows the Area Book inside and out. :) That night, we got to get out for a little bit. The ward had their Valentines Day party! It was fun to introduce Sister Cole to all the ward members. It was just a great night!
Saturday: District meeting day! Woot woot! We all went to lunch at the mall and then headed to the church. It was a great get to know you district meeting! This may shock you but.... we laughed. A lot. :) The weather got pretty bad during our meeting so the Zone leaders ended up grounding us so we had to go home after that! We did weekly planning and hung out with the Prices.:)
Sunday: I LOVE CHURCH!!!! The talks and the lessons were just wonderful!  We went to the Barbers for dinner! That family... ah. I love them. We had an AMAZING lesson with them!. On our way home we had a little bit of time so we decided to stop by the Allens so that Sister Cole could meet them.  We walked out and Sister Cole was like, "Why the heck are they not members???" I ask myself that every day. They are just so great!!!!
Monday: Good p-day! It was a weird p-day cause we didn't get to email, but it was still fun! We cleaned like maniacs and then went and had some fun at the church with our zone! The floor in the gym had just gotten waxed so basically we all just sat around for 2 hours and watched people slip. Hahahahaha  :) That night we had dinner with our Elders at Bishops house.We had the lesson with them tonight and we decided to show them reflections of Christ and talk about how relying on Christ will help us overcome any trial. The spirit was so strong and it was just a good lesson. This week has been an eye opening week. Training a brand new missionary has made me realize just how far I have come! IT is such a humbling and exciting feeling so know that my mission has already changed me so much and will continue to. Having the responsibility to train a new Sister is really hard. I feel like I have never had to rely on the Spirit so much! I know that Heavenly Father needs her trained a certain way so I really have to rely on Him to help me. I am
so grateful for the opportunity though! I am so blessed! The video that I want to share this week is about something I have learned a lot about this week. Realizing that Heavenly chose me to train one of his precious daughters has really given me the opportunity to become humble and as a little child. I have a very strong testimony that as we will all rely on the Savior, he will give us strength to do anything.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-10-065-jesus-teaches-that-we-must-become-as-little-children?lang=eng
I know that Jesus Christ lives. That what he taught in his ministry here on this earth is as applicable today as it was then. I testify that he is the light and life of the world. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is his restored kingdom once again on the earth. How grateful I am to be counted as one of his missionaries and as one of his sheep. I have been truly humbled by my experiences these last 6 months. I feel very blessed to be able to devote all that I am and all that I have to my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ for this next year.
I love you all and I pray that you may have a an amazing week. God bless!
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

On our way to transfers!!!

MA BABY!!!!! We realized we hadn't gotten a picture together yet so we
had to hurry and get one before email time. :)

Haha my poor companion... she isn't used to all this cold.

A New Chapter

OH. MY. GOODNESS. I'm pretty sure words cant describe the week that I have had...It has definitely been an unorthodox week seeing as how my companion was leaving the country... We spent a lot of time trying to get her ready, so we weren't able to do a ton. But, here is the low down:
Monday: It was Sister Wolfgramm's last p-day in the states so we decided to live it up a little. Haha kidding. We are missionaries. :) We just went to the church and played games with all the Elders. We even played basketball... in our skirts. Pros.
Tuesday: Well, another day inside. All the mission vehicles were grounded today and since we live 8 miles from Winterset we were stuck inside... all day. So Sister Wolfgramm packed and I read a couple hundred pages of Jesus the Christ. It was great. Haha having all these grounded days has really just made my love for the work grow. All I wanted to do on Tuesday was just go out and WORK! Heavenly Father had a different plan for us I guess. :)
Wednesday: The weather was still pretty bad today, so they told all the missionaries we could drive we just couldn't walk or go tracting. Basically if you had an appt. you could go, if not you stayed home. Luckily, we had one so we got to go out! Dang it was cold, but it was worth it. We decided we needed to stay out a little longer after our appt. so we did some Mormon.org time. :) Great day!
Thursday: Such a great district meeting!  I am glad I have had this district. I learned a lot from the Elders I have served with, and I know I was put in this district for a reason. AHHH! Gonna make me cry... seriously though. I just love my district. Anyways, after that we came into Winterset and we just went around to a couple peoples houses so that Sister Wolfgramm could say bye.
Friday: Kind of another day at home because I did weekly planning (by myself... so weird) and Sister Wolfgramm got some last minute things together. That night, the entire ward council and all the missionariesmet up at the Saxtons for dinner and also to discuss the ward. I love this ward so much! And I love the ward council! They are on fire! It is so nice to be able to work with them, and learn from them.
Saturday: Definitely a strange but marvelous day! Sister Wolfgramm's first investigator in her first area got baptized and we got permission from President Jensen to go! SO we drove the 3 hours to Iowa city, and stayed for about 5. The baptism was beautiful! It is always such and amazing experience watching a child of our Father in Heaven enter the waters of baptism. It just gives me chills. It was a beautiful day!
Sunday: Sunday was kind of an emotional day for me... and my companion. Our last day together... it is just different cause with Sister Barker, I know that I will eventually see her again at a transfer meeting or serve in the same zone or something, but with Sister Wolfgramm... she is going to BRAZIL. I won't see her for at least a year. It kind of makes my heart hurt... The opening song in Sacrament was "Come Come Ye Saints" and that is the song we always sang together, so 2 notes in Sister Wolfgramm looks at me and I am just sobbing. Haha it's fine... Whew. It was hard. But, it makes me very grateful for the 6 weeks we had together. I learned a lot form her and I know that she has changed my life. Since we were both pretty distressed, we asked Bishop Arzani if he would give us blessings. What beautiful blessings they were. It is always a wonderful thing to hear from your Heavenly Father through one of his worthy sons. After church, we headed to the Barber's for lunch with them and the Watsons. Well, technically it was a birthday party for Sister Wolfgramm and for the Watson's daughter. Oh yea... Sister Wolfgramm turned 21!!!! SO crazy! I always get the old companions. ;) Kidding. So that was fun to just hang out with them and relax for a little bit. Then we headed home! Sister Wolfgramm still had some wash to do so we were speedy! Since Sister Wolfgramm's plane left at 6 and the Assistants were picking her up at 4:40 in the morning, we decided to sleep in the Hermana's apartment with them so it would be easier. So we had to leave the Prices' around 9 to get there in time for lights out. So Sister Wolfgramm basically just threw all her stuff in her bags and said bye to the Prices' and we headed out. When we got to the apartment, of course we all sat and talked for like an hour about life. Haha Sister Wolfgramm was leaving and Hermana Stroud is going home on Friday so we had a lot to talk about. :) So, by that time it was like 11:30. Well, eventually we convinced the Hermanas to go to bed and Sister Wolfgramm and I stayed up to finish all her stuff. Lets just say we both got about an hour of sleep. :)
Today: So this morning we both got up around 4 to get her ready and the Assistants came and she was gone. I had served with this girl for 6 weeks and we had truly become so close. "Sister" definitely took on a whole new meaning... But, there is an upside. We can now email since she isn't in this mission any more. WOOOOO! :) So it was definitely a weird morning... and then when we all woke up we realized that the water pipes had frozen so we had to go to the gas station down the street to brush our teeth. That was new. :) Haha I think the craziest part of my week happened at about 8 this morning... transfer calls. Of course I knew I was staying in Winterset, but I definitely wasn't prepared for this one.... "Sister Jensen, you will be staying in Winterset and we would like to call you as a trainer." Um... what? I still feel like I need to be trained and now Heavenly Father wants me to train a new Sister??? GAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! After the phone call ended, I just prayed, and I knew that I was ready. I knew that Heavenly Father recognized all that I have learned in the last 6 months, and he knew that I could take on this calling. Thinking about it now, I feel honored. I am excited for this new journey and also the next probably 3 months in Winterset (9 months total. Holy moly.) It will be good though. I have always wanted to be a momma. :) This week during Mormon.org time, this video really stuck out to me. Since being on my mission, I have started to grasp my relationship with my Heavenly Father. This video is from a Fathers view, but I love it. Especially the end... He is so mighty and powerful and all knowing, yet he asks us to call him Father. That is very powerful and very significant.
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001
This week has been a testimony builder for me of how much my Heavenly Father is aware of me, and how much he loves me. I have truly come to FEEL that I am his daughter. I am grateful for my mission so far, and
all that it has taught me, and I am grateful for the chance I have to share that with a new Sister. I am sorry this email is all over the place, but so is my brain. :) I pray that you may all have a wonderful week! God bless!
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

Oh ya know, just havin a party on a snow bank in the middle of the
road. Oh Winterset... :)

Ma district. L to R: Elder Jones, Elder Deering(ZL), Elder Kay, Elder
Dragon, Elder Horn(DL), Elder Sellers, Elder Aston, Elder Whiting,
Elder Hollan, Elder Dickson, the Sisters! :)

BEST PICTURES EVER! Haha...I love my district!

What to do when your General Authority talks binder is almost the same size as your head...

Sweetest glasses ever that my mom sent us!

Holy Moly :)

What a week!! Now that Sister Wolfgramm knows she is going to Brazil in a week, and I know I am getting a new companion in a week... time is pretty much flyin! So, this week was kind of a blur, but we did have some highlights. :) -
Monday: We decided to do some "missionary" shopping today so we headed to our nearest Goodwill. :) Haha after that we did some shopping at Walmart and then headed home. That night, a member had invited us to teach their family a FHE lesson. That was so fun! Of course, we did it on missionary work. My favorite. :) Pretty low-key p-day.
Tuesday: Today we had interviews with President Jensen pretty much all day! I love him and Sister Jensen so much!  They are just so cute. :) After interviews, our entire district had lunch together. Then we headed to the church and did our studies, and then to the Trimbles for dinner. Kassi, who is 16, had to teach a lesson for seminary. Oh boy. It is nice being taught and not teaching every once in a while. Haha kidding kidding... :) It was a fun day!
Wednesday: Exchanges! Wooo! Hermana Howell came to Winterset with me and we definitely saw some miracles!! Since it was Wednesday though, of course we had to go do some crafts first. :) After crafts, we
decided to check up on some formers and the one we decided to see was actually home! SO we met her and set up a time to go this week. After that we were looking through the formers list, and I received inspiration to go and see this referral we have been trying to contact. What a lesson! She is so prepared!!!! We talked about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the Gospel. So powerful! We are going to go back this week with the member who referred her and extend a baptismal invite! :) After that, we went and saw a less active 13 year old girl and we just read the Book of Mormon with her. I love doing that. :) There is so much power in the Book and it is amazing to see when these people catch just a glimpse of that! After that we drove to Earlham to see a less active and we were able to watch "Reflections of Christ" with her, and it was very powerful! HOLY MOLY I LOVE THE SPIRIT!!!!!!!
Thursday: That morning, Hermana Howell and I did studies together and then we met up with the other Hermanas and Sister Wolfgramm at the stake center to discuss the exchanges. Miracles happen on exchanges people!! We left there eventually and headed to the mall to eat lunch with our district before district meeting. District meeting was awesome as always! :) Afterwards, we came back to Winterset and did some Mormon.org time.That night was probably one of the weirdest best nights of my mission... haha  So the Saxtons are in my ward here in Raccoon River and a couple weeks ago I sent a picture home with them
in it from Christmas. Well, we found out that they are very good friends with my Nana and Pops from Utah! Brother Saxton used to work with my Pops before he retired! Haha so crazy! So we were at their house eating dinner, and he comes running up the stairs just laughing. He had a video... so we put it in and watched it. It was a video he had put together of my Pops for his retirement party! So crazy! It was a bunch of pics of him, and even a video of him selling, and pics of our family. I was even in it... haha it got to the pic and I
pointed myself out and the Saxtons about freaked! LOVE MY POPS! Haha so that was my crazy Thursday night. So great. :)
Friday: Miracle. Day. It was the last day of the month so we had tons of extra miles so we got to do tons of driving to see people we normally can't. Of course none of them were home.. We enjoyed the scenery though. :) When we had visited most of them, we headed into Winterset to see sweet Beverly Clark! We decided to do some service for her so we painted her nails and read her the story of Jesus blessing the children in 3 Nephi. Haha are we girls or what?? :) She was grateful though. Then, we had a lesson with the Greens! Walked in with 3 investigators and walked out with 5 investigators and 5 baptismal dates set. Um... what just happened. Haha Holy Moly it was so crazy!!! I have loved the "Come Unto Christ" youth video since the moment I saw it, but I think I love it even more now. We shared it in the lesson and the Spirit that came was indescribable. Wow. I love being a missionary! If you could all keep Karma, Ambey, Shadae, Keno, and Larry in your prayers I would really appreciate it!
Saturday: We decided to do weekly planning today so that we could use our miles yesterday. So we were inside most the day, and left around 4:30 to get to our dinner appt. So we get about 1/2 mile down the hill, and I realize that the car just doesn't feel right. So I pull over and get out... tire=flat. COMPLETELY FLAT! Uh... anybody know how to change a tire?? haha So we called our Mission vehicle coordinator and he told us that we needed to go home immediately and park it until we could get it fixed... on Monday. Since we were on a hill, we decided it would be best to back up the hill so as to save the front tire... haha can I just say backing up a hill for 1/2 is pretty dang scary. Woah. But, we made it alive. :) So after that, we were pretty much home bound for the rest of the night.
Sunday: Brother Price was so sweet and went out with us Sunday morning to teach us how to put a spare on. We didn't want to drive on it too much cause it was just a donut, so we decided to hitch a ride to church with the Prices! Testimony meeting was fantastic! Every thing that was shared touched me and was exactly what I needed to hear. During the 3rd hour, they needed extra teachers for primary so we got to teach the 7-8 year olds. Haha so fun! Kids just love the missionaries! :) After church, we still couldn't go anywhere so we just spent the night at home doing all the stuff we needed too. It was great! Well, as you can see it was another great week here in Winterset! Since this video had a big impact on the week we had, I am going to
invite you to watch it again:
https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-unto-christ-2014-theme-song?lang=eng
I have found that every time I watch it, something new sticks out. The power of revelation is so real! Coming unto Christ is something we can do every day. He is always there, we just need to go to him. Well, I hope you all have a great week, and I pray that you may take the time to seek those out who need your help. Who need your service and your love. I love you all and I am grateful for each of you! God bless!
-Sister Jensen
"Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa."

You know you are true companions when you realize you are matching
half way through the day... and you didn't even try

Our AMAZING Sister Training Leaders! L to R: Hermana Howell, Sister
Wolfgramm, Hermana Phelps, me, Hermana Stroud

Just one of those weeks...

We got to visit the mission office! SO COOL! :)

What happens when you are home-bound 2 nights in a row.

When you find a tree with a giant hole in it, of course you have to
stop the car, get out, and take a gazillion pics. :)

You know it is a good day when you go to dinner at the Relief Society
President's house and you end up watching a DVD about your Grandpa....
which you are in. SO GREAT!