Way out West! 1.19.15

With the WMU Bronco

Dear Family,

"The purpose and central blessing of life is change." (Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge). I've had to remind myself of this quote A LOT this week. Change! And a lot of it!

Wyoming is wonderful. It's almost a 180 degree difference from Kalamazoo.Yesterday we had over 200 people at church! I think the past couple weeks at the KUB we had an average of 20 people. Everyone is extremely nice and there's definitely a warm and inviting Spirit in the Wyoming Ward. I had forgotten how loud family wards are and also how wonderful it is to hear the Primary sing. Hearing the primary sing brought tears to my eyes, mostly because I was laughing so hard. The children were singing "A Child's Prayer" and the girls were singing the first verse while the boys sang the second. You can tell who felt comfortable up there because the girls were strung out in a row along the front of the wall while the boys all clumped together for strength and support. Hearing the boys sing was like listening to a bag pipe warming up. It was THE BEST. I love that song and I tried to be reverent but my thoughts were making me laugh so hard. Hopefully it came across as the new sister being overcome with emotion. I had to wipe away some tears that were leaking out so that may have convinced some people. I know that I will love this ward.

Wyoming is also a door knocking area which has been a pretty big adjustment. I felt lost for the first couple of days. I had totally forgotten how to talk to people with families! Sister Morrison has been so patient with me and I really appreciate it because it's been a bumpy ride on the struggle bus. Heavenly Father has so graciously reminded me of how weak I am and how much more I need to rely on Him. He's definitely not letting me get comfortable haha. I've been praying more earnestly for charity and love for these people as well. It's so hard not to get frustrated with people when you've been as clear with them as you can be and they still choose to reject the truth. Sometimes I ponder the quote by Elder Holland as I door knock:

 "Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it 

go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church?... I am 

convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was 

easy. We are The Church of JesusChrist, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we 

believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy forHim? It seems to me that missionaries and 

mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries andmission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary." I have tried to do as the apostles did and "[rejoice] that [I am] counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." It is a special experience to represent the Savior.

Sis. Jensen and Sis. Carter

Although finding has been rough, there are a lot of things to be happy for: we have someone on date!! His name is Ian and he's pretty awesome. He has had a pretty rough life but ran into the Spanish Branch elders back in August and has been learning ever since. Ian is on date to be baptized on the 21st of February and we're doing all we can to prepare him!

Also, the BEST NEWS EVER came last Saturday: BIN IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!! Sister Carter and Sister Chatman called me on Saturday to tell me that two of the people we were teaching at WMU are on date!! It was the happiest moment of my mission probably. I was bouncing up and down in the slush squealling. Yup, squealing. Bin asked the sisters what more he needed to do to be baptized and their mouths just about dropped open. I am so so so so so happy!!!!! Also, Taylor set her date!!! We felt really impressed that she needed to set her own date so we invited her to pray about it and she told them that she wanted to be baptized on February 21st! Looks like I'll be making a couple trips to Kalamazoo this transfer!! Seriously, I could not be more happy. It's one of the greatest feelings/experiences to watch people grow and progress in the Gospel. :)

But that's about that. Funny experience real quick. My first dinner appointment in Wyoming was probably the best one ever. Sister Morrison is allergic to almost every food except meat, rice and potatoes, so we had "Meat Treat" for dinner: Chicken wrapped in bacon and covered in gobs of barbeque sauce. My arteries exploded just looking at it. It was so good though and I don't regret eating it. About halfway through the dinner the nine year old boy gets a serious look on his face and asks us, "Do you ever wonder how Mexicans get to Africa?" Why yes, I've been contemplating that very thing. I just about died laughing. I know I'm going to love it here. ;)

Trailblazing

The Church is true and Christ is at its head. Remember that.

Love you!

Sister Jensen

Cold But Bold 1.5.15

Dear Family,

Winter has finally set in. The week of Christmas we enjoyed a pretty cozy 50 degree week. I was starting to wonder if Jack Frost had shoved our whole winter into a week last November and we were enjoying and early spring. Haha so much for that thought. Our car told us this morning that it was 9 degrees outside. It snowed all day yesterday to make sure we knew that it was really winter and not an early spring. Too bad it was a week and a half late. Everything looks so much prettier when it's flocked in snow. It makes me want to celebrate Christmas again.

And you read the last paragraph correctly, we got a car!!!! Well, for like all of last week and the rest of this week. With the "mini transfer" happening last Tuesday, it left two extra cars in Kalamazoo to collect snow on them so we asked if we could take one of them. They took pity on us and let us drive one haha. We have been in heaven all week! And it came right in time! We got our car and it decided to drop 30 degrees. Plus with campus still not living, we've been having to walk farther and farther to our door knocking areas. Having a car has been the biggest blessing and I hate to say it but we've seen a lot of tender mercies this week (more like miracles to me at least).

                                                    (Sister Carter brushing off our car.) 

We picked up two new investigators this week, Taylor and Tang. Taylor is seriously amazing. She showed up at church one day a couple months ago because the missionaries knocked on her sister's door. We called her the past couple weeks to invite her and she has always been busy (which most of the time translates into "not interested") so I hadn't thought too much about it until she showed up at church a week ago! We picked her up as a new investigator and we've taught her a couple times and I don't want to jinx anything but she's pretty much GOLD. She's asked us what she can to do be forgiven and she's had a lot of questions about baptism. When we explained that the upcoming Sunday was Fast Sunday she told us that she was going to fast without us even explaining it. Taylor is seriously awesome. Please keep her in your prayers!

Tang  (sounds more like "wrong" with a long A sound) is our new Chinese investigator. She has been in American for about a month and she doesn't know anything about God or Christianity. She wanted to read the Bible (I think Chinese people look at the Bible like we read Greek Mythology) but after reading to her from the Book of Mormon she said, "Perhaps I read this one first, yes?" She's great! We've had to start our really basic with her on who Jesus Christ is so we began with Luke 2 and His birth. When we read about the angels appearing to the shepherd she said, "It's magical." Definitely never used that word to describe it but it totally works! We love Tang and I know that she has felt the Spirit as we've talked to her. It will be interesting to see how she progresses once the school year starts.

So to explain more of the title of the email, something that we were trained on at our Half-Mission training was effective finding. Elder Green, one of the assistants, gave us a list of ways to be an effective finder and it was been working MIRACLES in our area and in our mission. This was his list of qualities of an effective finder: great attitude toward finding, eliminates half truths and approaches that don't create a need, works to eliminate weak words, limits the use of the Mormon.org card, and works to limit how much we talk by asking effective follow up questions. I've really been working on eliminating half truths because that is something that weakens the power of the Spirit. The Spirit can testify when we are bold. Sister Carter and I went out door knocking and tried to implement these into our finding. It was INCREDIBLE, we were on fire!!! We got three return appointments in just that little span that we knocked! We felt so much better about our use of time when we were bold and we didn't hold back. We felt so much better when we let people know exactly what we were offering. It's been SUPER cold (thank you SO MUCH for the hand warmers!!) but we're being bold. :) You will love missionary work when you put everything into it!

                                                                       (Smile! God loves you!)

I've learned a lot about my testimony this week and the importance of turning to God for answers to our questions, especially questions about doctrine. We will never be happy if we turn to man for the answer. God is our loving Heavenly Father and He knows what is best for us. I know that as we seek Him, He will answer and "the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto [you], by the power of the Holy Ghost" (1 Nephi 10:19). God does hear and answer prayers but it's up to us to "open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view." (Mosiah 2:9)

I know that this is Jesus Christ's church on the earth. I love the Lord with all my heart. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Jensen

PS Signs of a true Michigander: pumpkins from Halloween still on your door step. 

PPS I just heard the librarian say that it's supposed to be a high of 12 today

Merry Christmas to All! 12.29.14

Dear Family,

First off, I need to apologize for my awkwardness on the phone!! I feel so bad!! I blame being a missionary haha. I've forgotten how to talk to people about not gospel related things. Second, I need to apologize for my lame stories!! As I was telling you about things I realized something: I have been a missionary waaaay too long if I find playing with cats underneath doors the funniest thing to happen to me. Sorry I don't have any cool stories about ax-murders. And I think I just get on the phone and forget EVERYTHING I was going to tell you about. So I apologize for a less than par phone call. (Editor's note:  We had a GREAT phone call with our Michiganary.  The "guard cat" would swipe at anything near the front door. :-)

This week was great! We had Half Mission Training on Tuesday at the Grand Rapids Stake Center and I was going bonkers being back in my old area. I LOVE GRAND RAPIDS!! There's something about your first area that always stays in your heart. There are now elders serving in Rockford and I asked them about everyone and everything. It was so nice to hear about the ward and people they're seeing.

Sis. Jensen with Sis. Baham and the "miracle violin."

 I loved training from the Assistants and President and we had a blast making gingerbread houses. The missionaries only had ten minutes to make a "house" so we got a wide variety of dwellings. It felt like a Food Network Challenge as they concluded building their hovels and then we told them that they needed to take their house from the table to the display table. The anxiety in moving their houses was almost palpable at times. I think they all had fun though. 

 

Christmas Eve was an evening to remember. The Williamsen's went all out to make sure we had the best Christmas ever. To begin our tale you need to picture nine missionaries and six civilians in a two bedroom apartment. We had a full Christmas dinner with oven roasted turkey, homemade stuffing (from homemade bread even), green beans, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, creamed spinach and dinner rolls. Half of us sat at the table and half of us sat on the floor haha. We watched a skit called "Six to Eight Black Men" which we were told was approved last year but I have my doubts haha. Now I know more about Christmas in the Netherlands..... Then we had a Nativity. I don't know if Luke would approve of the changes we made to the original casting but it was definitely memorable. We watched "Mr. Krooger's Christmas", sang songs, and had a visit from Santa. It even snowed a little bit to make the evening more magical.

Christmas morning we woke up at 6am to open presents. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the gifts that all of you gave to me! I can't express enough of my gratitude! I think the thing I loved most about opening presents was not the presents themselves but the feeling I had as I opened them. I felt so much love which I wasn't expecting to feel. I am SO appreciative for everything that I got but I mostly just love that feeling that I had. I think that's what made this Christmas so wonderful to me, the feeling of love that I had all day. I felt so much love for all of you and I felt your love in return. After opening presents, we had a "heart stopper breakfast" all thanks to Chasity who the day before gave us bags of more than just toast to eat for breakfast. After breakfast, we had a very powerful testimony meeting between the three of us. I will remember that forever I think. Then we spent the day at the Rock's and the Griswold's homes, eating ourselves silly and playing games. You don't know how much more exciting spoons gets when you replace the spoons with Duplo blocks and put those on a smooth surface. This was one of the best Christmases I've had in my life. I feel so blessed to have had this experience.

Yesterday, we had twelve people total at church. Stephen can probably relate to how that feels haha. Even though it was small, it was still a great block of meetings. Church is always great because we get to partake of the sacrament and fellowship with others, even if there's only a few of them. We even had an investigator at church! That was a miracle. Let me just say though, I am really looking forward to the end of break. I miss my amazing branch. They are some of the most incredible people. 

Something I am making as a goal for the upcoming year is to better recognize the Spirit. I just watched "On the Lord's Errand" and hearing about President Monson's experiences makes me want to be a better tool in Heavenly Father's hands. Why can't Heavenly Father use me to help others? I think the Spirit is always speaking but I'm don't pay attention like I should. So I want to work on that. How have you been able to notice the Spirit in your life? What has helped you recognize and follow His promptings?

I hope you are all recovering well from Christmas. Thank you again for being patient with me on the phone. I love you all so much!! It was such a blessing to talk to you last week! The Lord loves you and I do too!

Peace and Blessin's,

Sister Jensen      

                                              L to R:  Sis. Carter, Sis. Jensen, Sis. Fehlman

Christmas Just Three Days Away! 12.22.14

SO Family,

ARE YOU EXCITED?? Because I AM EXCITED!!!! My companions and I were talking about the concept of time yesterday and I said to Sister Fehlman, "Remember when I said that Christmas was only 95 days away? Doesn't that feel like I said that three weeks ago??" I can't believe how much time has flown! 

I have been looking forward to Christmas for awhile but I have been doing my best not to think about it. But you can't really help this week when you're doing weekly planning and every day has something to do with Christmas! Today was a crazy day of sending off packages (I paid for two day shipping, sorry if it doesn't get there in time!) and running to different stores for last minute things. Tomorrow is our Half-Mission Christmas Training and guess who's making 25 bags of gingerbread house frosting? The correct answers are the STLs. Helloooo, 12 pounds of powder sugar.... Tomorrow is also our branch Christmas Open House at the church (and we're in charge of that...) and the day after that is a Christmas Eve lunch with a member of the branch and an awesome evening with members in one of the family wards. AND THEN it's CHRISTMAS!! We're going to have brunch with another family in the family ward, call our families, and then have dinner at another member's house. It's going to be a wonderful week, that's quite certain.

But let's focus for a second on this past week. We found a new investigator!!! His name is John and he's from India. And the coolest thing about John is that he's already Christian!! I have talked to so many Indians on campus and they're usually Hindu. But John is Christian and he already has a firm faith in Jesus Christ. We invited him to read 3 Nephi 11 and he read that PLUS a good portion of it, including 2 Nephi 2. He texted us and said that he had some doubts about the Book of Mormon which naturally is a little worrisome to us. The next day we felt prompted to stop by his apartment and we were able to resolve his concerns. We invited him to pray about the Book of Mormon and he says that he hasn't received an answer yet but he will keep praying about it. We're trying to meet with him before he leaves for a vacation. I think John has some great potential and I am extremely hopeful that he will accept a baptismal date soon!

Campus has been pretty dead which is both good and bad. Good, in that we pounce on anyone we see, and bad, because we don't have a lot of people to talk to. It's hard to find effective finding activities because at the moment nothing is not very effective. And with the elders working the same area, the members that are here have probably been asked a hundred times by now if we can teach their roommates who are home or if they know of anyone we can share a message with. But we go out and we talk to everyone we can. :) Last week as we were knocking some doors, it was really cold and windy and for a second I saw myself almost a year ago knocking in Rockford. It was a bittersweet moment.

I got the packages from "the CA Relations" and "Jayden, Kylie, and the Stephs". :) We found a three foot tree in our coat closet and we've been putting our gifts around it. It's looking really homey about now. I think we're all looking forward to Christmas morning. :)

So real fast, I want to tell you the COOLEST experience last week that taught me a couple lessons. For our Half-Mission Training, they're putting together a Christmas talent show and because of a couple very strong hints in my patriarchal blessing, I felt like I needed to sign up for a talent. Well, I'm a selfish person (remember last week?) and I like instrumental Christmas music (I was spoiled to have a musical mother who plays beautiful Christmas music) so I started praying that Heavenly Father would help me find a violinist that I could accompany. I prayed, and thought, and felt prompted to call a companionship in our zone. I called, no such luck. I was kind of bummed. But then a day later, the zone leaders called and asked me what I was playing for my piano solo.  And then Elder Schmutz throws out, "Just so you know, I've been telling people in the zone to call you if they need an accompanist. Sister Baham is looking for someone to accompany her on the violin...." I almost dropped the phone. I totally forgot that Sister Baham played the violin!! Answer to prayer!! So I immediately called her and rearranged our tradeoff with them so she could come here and practice with me for a bit at the end of our tradeoff. But Sister Baham didn't have a violin and the one person she thought had a violin hadn't called her back. I thought we could borrow one from a member here but she was leaving for BYU so that was out. Well, we traded off and came back home with Sister Baham and no violin. We were sitting down for nightly planning when a member of the branch called us back. I had left him a message the day before asking if he had any Christmas music that I could borrow for a musical number. This is how the conversation went:

S. Fehlman: Well, that would be great if we could borrow some music, thanks. 

Matthew: No problem, is there anything else I can do for you?

S. Fehlman (jokingly): Well, if you happen to know anyone with a violin hahaha.....

Matthew: I have a violin.

WHAT. Sister Jensen falls out of chair and does a happy dance.

S. Fehlman: WHAT?? No way!!!

Matthew: Yeah, I played for eight years. When do you need it?

I had NO IDEA when I called Matthew a day earlier that he even played the violin!! And here he was in our hour of need, calling us back (at exactly the right time) to not only let us borrow his Christmas music but his violin as well! I may have started crying or something. I was BLOWN. AWAY. The timing was way too perfect. Every need was met. Heavenly Father is just TOO. GOOD. He is always answering my silly prayers (like the time I prayed for something interesting to write about in my journal) and He can make the seemingly impossible possible.

We are so blessed to have the gospel. I am really grateful for all the good that has come into my life because of the birth of our Savior. It is truly because of Him that I can have hope and peace in this life. He makes me strong no matter how weak I am. I have hope through His Atonement and healing in times of sorrow and pain. Because of Him, I will be with my family forever. It truly is a miracle and the greatest act of love that Heavenly Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to live, atone, die, and be resurrected so that we can live again. I love my Savior with all of my heart and I will always be indebted to Him.  

Wow, this email turned out long. Hope you don't mind. I figure most of you are on break and would have time to read it. ;)

I look forward to talking to you this Thursday! I'll probably call around 11 am your time (give or take) and I will be able to talk for 35-40 minutes. I am really looking forward to the best Christmas ever!

Wishin' y'all a blessed Christmas,

Sister Jensen

Yay December! Oh, wait. I'm a musician! 12.15.14

Dear Family,

I echo your statements: "Where has all the time gone??" I can't believe that we're already halfway through the month and almost halfway through the transfer! Christmas is NEXT WEEK and I hit a year NEXT MONTH. When did all the craziness happen???

This week was an adventure like always. We didn't have a ton of time to do a lot of proselyting this week because our Monday night was our branch Christmas party, Tuesday was MLC in East Lansing, and Wednesday was interviews with President. We had tradeoffs with the Kalamazoo 2nd Ward sisters on Friday and we stacked as many appointments as we could on that day. Heavenly Father thankfully gave us a couple of people to teach despite finals and people leaving for Winter Break. It's crazy to see how Heavenly Father helps you reach goals that halfway through the week looked impossible. I always feel indebted to Heavenly Father. He's just too good to me. We also had two people come to church yesterday which was awesome! We've really been working on getting people to church and it was nice the fruits of our labors. :)

I got your amazing Christmas package!! It was like experiencing the joy of 5 Christmases in one, it was pretty epic. My companions laughed when they saw the stocking sewn up haha. It's nice to have a couple of presents under the tree and a Nativity on my desk to look at. I LOVE the Christmas earrings and my companions were extremely lucky that I felt generous and gave them some of that scrumptious peppermint bark. I just feel so incredibly blessed. You guys are too generous to me. I am SO so so grateful and I am looking forward to Christmas Day! Speaking of which, when would be a good time for me to call? I can call pretty much whenever. Just let me know! :)

Yesterday was our Christmas Sacrament program and it was pretty memorable. Maybe it's my fantastic upbringing but it is not Christmas without a rockin', music-packed Christmas program! So being the person I am, I volunteered people for musical numbers! :D I offered people an accompanist (this sistah) and told them what song they should sing, haha. It turned out great. We had four musical numbers (I accompanied three of them....) and the meeting turned out pretty great. Thank you, Sally DeFord! She came in handy. The last song that I played was a Sally DeFord arrangement of "Silent Night" for a medium voice sung by the fabulous Aimee Lopez who is a vocal performance major at WMU. It was breath taking. The congregation joined in on the third verse and the Spirit just filled the chapel. It was hard to concentrate on playing because I was feeling the Spirit so strongly. Music always brings the Spirit and I don't think it's any coincidence that we sang when the Savior was born! What better way to praise the Lord than to sing? :)

You are all super and fantabulous. I can't wait to talk to you next week. I have some great stories to relay to you when we talk MWHAHAHA. Also, look in the mail this week for things from me! Hopefully they make it there!

Love, the Michiganary :)

Balance to the Force 12.8.14

Dear Family,

It is always so good to get on the computer and see emails from all of you wonderful people. You're the best. I hope you know that. 

I am SO GRATEFUL for Sister Carter! She is an angel!! We really needed her haha. Sister Carter is from Boise, Idaho. She's the youngest of three and has been on her mission two transfers longer than I have. She is super awesome and I am so grateful to be in a tri-panionship. Honestly I was kind of dreading being in a tri-panionship again but it's actually working out great! We've been doing splits with the members and that has been great. :) She brings much balance to the force. ;)  

Sis. Fehlman, Sis. Jensen and Sis. Carter

Fun fact: Since I've been at WMU, I have dropped 15+ investigators. I tallied it up as we did our weekly planning last week and it made me super depressed. I  turned through each of the teaching records and just couldn't help but feel loss as I looked at them. I remember how I met each one of them and how excited I was to teach them. Such wonderful people who had that light in their eyes but somehow lost it. It was eye opening to see how Satan works, he is good at his craft. We have dropped all of our investigators except for Bin (he's still on date to be baptized January 17th!) which has been rough. But it's given me the opportunity to pray and plead for God's Will, something I don't do as much as I should. Sister Fehlman, Sister Carter and I put our nose to the grind stone and contacted all day, every day this past week. By the end of the week, we had four times the amount of contacts we usually have at the end of a week! We are doing everything we can think of to find those people that God has prepared. We got about 200 "He is the Gift" cards and that has been a great way to start talking to people. We've also been carrying around a whiteboard with a sentence on it that says, "My gift to Christ is...." and we ask student to finish it and then we post it on Facebook and add them as our friends so we can tag them Then start talking to them..... I know we're creepy.... We've been doing a lot more door knocking and we're making some sweet plans to contact more members/LARCs to help us find people to teach. It's rough but I have a lot more faith now that Heavenly Father is preparing people than I did 11 months ago when I started my mission. 

When President Hess was here he told us a story from his mission. He served in the Northeast States Mission (or something like that) with President Packer as his mission president. Pres. Hess told us that he called President Packer one week to ask him about the lack of success they were having. President Packer said, "Are you studying every morning?" President Hess said, "Yes." "Are you praying several times a day?" "Yes." "Are you going out and working every day?" "Yes." President Packer asked more questions and then finally said, "Elder, you are doing all the right things, you just haven't been doing them long enough." I've contemplated the story a lot on my mission. When I feel like I'm not seeing any success I have to remind myself that I will not always have instantaneous results. Sometimes things require sustained action (sound like something called "faith"?) before the blessings come. I am CONFIDENT that there is someone here who will receive the Gospel, I just need to do all I can a little bit longer. :)

Today was fun! We got cleared by President Jacobsen to go ice skating! The Brethren are noticing that P-Day is really stressful for missionaries and not really helping missionaries unwind. So President Jacobsen has been highly encouraging us to do fun things, one of them being ice skating! We got a couple of girls from the branch to come with us and for $2, we got skates and time on the ice. Right as I was putting on my skates I remembered that I have a broken foot.... haha It was a BLAST! It was so nice to be doing something out of the normal routine. I will admit, the really embarrassing part about it all was getting lapped by 70 year old men skating backwards. I mean, I'm not BAD at skating, definitely not the best, but really? Really?? I have to remind myself constantly that hockey is a big deal out here (or as they say in Michigan "hackey") so it shouldn't shock me that 70 year old couples need their time on the skating rink. I would love to see a retired couple in the West do that.... After skating we went to "Shwarma King" where I got a shawafel. SO. GOOD. Getting the international experience in Michigan! ;)

Well that about sums up me! This is the last week of school so it will be interesting to see what happens for the next four weeks after this week. As I've learned from reading the Nativity Story about a hundred times, Heavenly Father gets a lot of pleasure in blowing our minds and doing great things with less than ideal circumstances or producing miracles in the most surprising places (Micah 5:2). I know that some cool things can happen this transfer. :)

Have a wonderful week!! Love you all so much!

Love, Sister Jensen :)

White Thanksgiving 12.1.14

Dear Family! 

The Holidays are here!! I love it!! I love this time of the year we have to remember our Savior and to express our gratitude. This time of the year is truly magical. :)

We had a "White Thanksgiving"! It snowed all day which added a bit of charm. Sister Fehlman, Chasity Hambright (the BEST member ever) and I decided a month ago that we were going to cook Thanksgiving dinner for all those left behind in Kalamazoo over the holiday. Last year they had a dinner at the KUB and Chasity told us that it had a great turnout and it was a wonderful missionary opportunity. So at 8 am on Thanksgiving Day, we headed to the church to put Henry Phillip Gobbleworth III in the oven and get our Thanksgiving Feast prepared. 

The elders came at 11:30 am to help us peel 15 pounds of potatoes and get the tables up. Everything came together really smoothly and at 2pm we had it all laid out: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams, green bean casserole, stuffing, green salad, dinner rolls and six pies. I'll admit it, I was pretty impressed with how is came together and it was really cool to see all of the work and worry manifest itself in a delicious feast. What made it even better was that three of our investigators were there! Sister Fehlman and I felt like it all paid off. We showed them the "He is the Gift" video which was the whipped cream on the pie. It topped our feast off so well. That video is so peaceful and it really brought the Spirit in. I had the privilege of sharing my testimony of the Savior after we showed the video which I think I needed. The Spirit testified to me of the Savior and I felt so much love from Him. I love my Savior so much!

When we planned for Thanksgiving, we planned for 20 people. We figured between the elders and us and those who wouldn't be leaving for the holiday, we could get a good turn out. Turns out that only 12 people came and because none of us have hosted many parties in the 20 years of life we've lived we REALLY over estimated. So guess who ate Thanksgiving leftovers for the next three days? But really, who can complain about Thanksgiving leftovers? I mean, if everything I made magically turned into Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge, I would be really happy. And probably really fat. We also didn't get around to eating ANY of the pies because we gorged ourselves at dinner, so Sister Fehlman got to take home five pies. Thankfully, we gave two away yesterday, finished the pie I made (it's not Thanksgiving without Libby), and we're working on the last two. Sister Fehlman and I are really debating buying another turkey. It was so good the first time, why not a second? ;)

Transfer calls came! I am staying in Kalamazoo for another transfer with Sister Fehlman and we are getting another sister, Sister Carter. Sister Fehlman and I are excited to add another friend to the party. :) Sister Fehlman is going home on the 31st so I will be in a trio until the fifth week of the transfer. I'm looking forward to working with Sister Carter. Sister Carter is an STL in Wyoming so we're looking forward to her fresh perspective on the area. We have set some high transfer goals this transfer and we have a lot of hope that we can accomplish them. 

I go back to the doctor's office this week to get my foot x-rayed again. I'm pretty sure it's been healing. I still can't run on it or bump it too hard but it's definitely getting better. Thanks for all of your prayers!

The Work is going great. We've dropped almost all of our investigators from this transfer which is really heartbreaking but we know that there are miracles coming this week! I have to remind myself that we want to find "the wheat" and dropping people just means were sifting "the wheat from the tares". Heavenly Father will bless us with some great sheaves this week!

I love you all so much! Thank you for your happy faces and the memories you included me in! You are the best family! 

Love, Sister Jensen