You Have to Have the Spirit 3.16.15

Dear Family,

I am pleased to inform you that I have not worn tights or leggings in two days. My legs are freaking out a little bit from being so exposed but mentally I feel on top of the world. That is all.

Well, it's Monday again!! It's been a LONG week with so many things happening but we made it! Last Wednesday we had Zone Training which meant that the Zone Leaders and us, the Sister Training Leaders, had to conduct a training session. It went pretty well I think. I felt the Spirit and I know that the Spirit guided those who taught. Sister Morrison and I trained on "Obtaining and Teaching by the Spirit" and I have been doing my best to implement it into my missionary work. 

According to Joseph  Smith, “No man can preach the Gospel without the Holy Ghost” and for anyone who has been on a mission, that is one of the quickest lessons you learn. I am grateful for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and I hope that it's each one of our greatest desires to be worthy of that gift. :)

Since the Ludington sisters were at the Grand Rapids stake center for ZT we decided to go on tradeoffs with them then and then switch back Thursday evening. I got to go to Ludington with Sister Brockbank (my baby!! who's half way done with her mission......) and getting to Ludington was an adventure. Ludington is 2 hours away from Grand Rapids and so the sisters hopped from car to car to make it to training and we got to do the same thing going back. We went from car to car to car to area. It was great though. Ludington has been a struggling area and the sisters just "pink-washed" the area this transfer so they're starting from nothing. But we saw a couple of finding miracles.

When we got to the area, we checked up on a less active member but she wasn't home so we decided to knock the street. We weren't having much success but when we prayed in our car, we prayed that as we knocked we would be able to teach someone about the Restoration and gain a new investigator so I was determined to help that come true. We were walking down the street and there was a person walking toward us. I said to Sister Brockbank, "Let's go talk to that dude." We walked over and turns out the dude was a woman. Ha. Well we talked to her and ended up walking back to her home and doing her dishes and teaching her about the Restoration! And when we were done she asked for our phone number so we could come back! MIRACLES! It felt SO GOOD! And she gave me a bracelet and a pair of earrings that she made that I'll probably treasure forever. So it was a pretty cool door knocking experience. :) Miracles do happen but they happen according to our faith and faith means action most of the time, not just passive belief.

Grandville/Wyoming is going alright. We are having some trouble getting in contact with some of our investigators which is a little sad but I think this week will turn out pretty good. Ian is still doing really well. I've learned from teaching Ian that the Book of Mormon is a powerful teacher. I've learned that when you let the scriptures be bold for you, people take things a lot easier haha. We moved Ian's date to May 2nd now because he should be "retiring" from the bike club soon and he could possible be prepared by then to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Ian has changed SO MUCH since we've taught him and he told us that the greatest changes he's made in his life in the seven months he's met with the missionaries has been while Sister Morrison and I have been teaching him. That makes you feel good. :) The Gospel truly changes people.

I love you family. Isn't it great that we can be together forever? I hope you're as excited as I am to be an Eternal Family. I love you all for your uniqueness and the way you help me become a better person. I especially appreciate how you show me through your examples and faith how to become a more devoted and faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. I am so blessed to have you all in my life. :)

Well, that's it for me. I'm including a picture of Sister Morrison and me at Old Country Buffet to celebrate Chris's birthday. It had the most food options for Sister Morrison (like french fries and Jell-O! YUM!). Thanks for letting us celebrate! And the other picture is Sister Brockbank and I trying "Bacon Pop". I'm pretty sure it was left in the apartment by the previous elders. One taste was enough.

Love always,

The Michiganry :)

Bacon Popcorn

OH THERE'S SUUUUUNSHINE, BLESSED SUUUUUUUNSHINE! 3.9.15

If I could make the subject of this email bigger and bolder I would.....

Dear Family,

I am so so so happy to announce that we have broken the 40's!!!!! YAAAAAYYYY!!! I do not think you can comprehend how extremely happy I am about this!!!! This is the first time in probably three months that I haven't worn my snow coat or snow boots outside. Saturday was the first day that things got warm and I was so happy I almost grabbed my hairdryer and ran outside to encourage the melting process. However with all the melting it makes the roads pretty slick in the morning after it drops below freezing at night....

Random occurrence:  found a forged dollar bill!

Life just keeps getting better and better and I do not mean that sarcastically. Sister Morrison and I  taught the most lessons we have taught as a companionship since we've been together this past week and that's even with missing a day due to MLC. Heavenly Father is so good to us. Brian is determined to meet his date next week which means we get to meet with him every day until he gets baptized! He's doing very well and I can't believe how much this Gospel can change people in such a short time. It's amazing. Ian is making progress slowly, but it's progress. We are doing our best to help him gain a church family because if he's going to quit his club he needs a family that will love him. Elizabeth has been struggling with some things that are happening in her life but she received a priesthood blessing this week. The priesthood is such a blessing!! And the great thing is that it's here to bless ALL of God's children. :)

We had some really cool "finding miracles" last week. In our mission have Mormon.org cards that we hand out to people with our number on it. We usually give them to people who are don't have a lot of interest or said that they would be interested in doing their own research. In the whole 13 and a half months of my mission, no one has EVER called us back. Until last Wednesday. Someone ACTUALLY called us ON PURPOSE because he was interested in learning more about the Gospel!! We have an appointment with him this Wednesday!!! Our other "finding miracle" was pretty much all of Saturday. Heavenly Father put us in the right places and we got four potential investigators from it, three of them with specific return appointments! I am just filled with gratitude. It feels so good to be a tool in His hands! He is so good!!

I'll share a little highlight with you from one of our lessons this past week. We were teaching Brian and we asked him why he should read the Book of Mormon. I was thinking he'd say something along the lines of "to know that it's true" or something like that. But no. He said, "I should read the Book of Mormon to help me endure to the end." BOOM. It kind of blew my mind a little bit. Did you know that the Book of Mormon would help you successfully endure to the end?? I did but didn't at the same time. But seriously, the Book of Mormon is all about enduring to the end and keep our covenants and preparing to meet Heavenly Father again. Read that book, people. You need it. I need it. Everyone needs it.

I love my mission so much. I understand why it has to be hard, because if it wasn't it wouldn't be so worth it. I am so grateful to be serving the Lord. I love this Gospel and I know that it is true. It just is. It's so simple and wonderful and beautiful and it just makes sense. Don't ever forget it. :)

Love, Sister Jensen

The Push 3.2.15

Dear Family, 

Having been out for 13 months gives you an interesting perspective on the mission. I've been thinking a lot about last March and how hard that was. And now it's March again and I am trying to stay mentally sane. Thankfully it's working so far. March is hard because it's a long month after a short month and Spring isn't for another two months instead of three weeks. Sitting at my computer I can see out the window and stare at the piles of snow..... I just keep reminding myself that it will be worth it when the Spring comes because the Spring cannot be beat! It is the BEST!!!! Everything gets so green, people are a lot happier when you knock on their door, and the sun stays out longer! All good things to look forward to! :) And I'm looking forward to NOT wearing my winter coat. I don't even take it off anymore when I go into people's homes, mostly because I forget I'm wearing it. It's just apart of me now......

Hopefully that doesn't sound too whiny and depressing. I'm actually doing pretty well. :) I really feel charged spiritually from my temple trip a week and a half ago and I am really hoping that I can maintain that. We're seeing a lot of success from the work. 

I think I told you a little bit about Brian so let me recap and give you an update: We met Brian on Valentine's Day. He was the only person we talked to in the 15 minutes we were knocking doors before we received word to get out of the cold because it was too dangerous. We committed him to coming to church when we talked to him and he came the next day! We taught him that week and he told us in one of the lessons that the night before he met us he prayed to that God would help him find a new church. And then we showed up! We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon on Wednesday and on Friday he told us that he finished it. Awesome, right? We invited him to a baptism of another lady that first week were teaching him and he thought we were inviting him to be baptized on Saturday. We cleared that up and he came. Sister Morrison and I were helping the elders and our ward mission leader clean up the baptism when we got a text from Brian that said, "So maybe we can talk tomorrow about me getting baptized as well" We were BLOWN AWAY. WHAT?? This never happens! So now, Brian is on date to be baptized March 21st. :) He is so receptive and he understands so much. Every lesson we have with him I am just blown away. We're praying that we can help him be ready on the 21st. It's only three weeks away so we'll see what happens. Please keep him in your prayers!

Ian gave us a heart attack last week. Ian is part of a motorcycle club (Hell's Angels status. Not the hobby kind) and the club been a challenge for us in teaching him. It is not a good influence and they don't like how the gospel has changed him (we LOVE how the gospel has changed Ian). Well last week, we didn't have contact with him for a couple days and his fellowshipper texted us and asked us if we had had contact with him because she hadn't had contact with him either for days and they talk pretty much every day. I was pretty sure Ian was dead in a dumpster somewhere or in jail. I was freaking out. And then he called us randomly one day and I just about choked on my pancake. IAN IS ALIVE!!! He was sick with the flu and had some complications which was why didn't hear for him for a couple days. He came to church yesterday which was good. There's still a lot of things that need to change before he can get baptized but I have faith that if Alma can do it, anyone can do it. The Atonement can handle the nitty-gritty. :)

I had a crazy "small world experience" yesterday. So we had dinner with the F. family. We were probably halfway through dinner and I asked Brother F. where he was from. He said Northern Califronia, Sunnyvale. I was like oh! I know where that is. We talked about the Bay Area and as we were talking my brain started turning. I had a roommate named Kelli F. from Sunnyvale, California. He's older so maybe they're cousins or something. So I asked Brother F. if he had relatives in Sunnyvale because I had a roommate my freshman year that was from Sunnyvale and her last name was F. He asked me what her name was. I said Kelli F

. He said, "I know Kelli. Kelli is my younger sister." NO. WAY!!!! I know missionaries are supposed to be professional but my freak out probably wouldn't qualify as professional. How small is the Mormon world??? I was having dinner with my roommate's older brother!!!!! It was so great!!! We had a great time swapping stories and talking about Kelli. It was so much fun haha. I am so grateful for those small world moments. :)

Oh look, the sun came out. That's nice....

I love the Gospel so much. I am so grateful for it. It is the way to last peace and a full measure of the Atonement. Remember to doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. :)

Love, Sister Jensen